The World Bank has postponed a $90m (£54m) loan to Uganda over its tough new anti-gay law that has drawn criticism from around the world.
World Bank officials said they wanted to guarantee the projects the loan was destined to support were not going to be adversely affected by the new law.
The loan was intended to boost Uganda's health services.
The new law, enacted on Monday, strengthens already strict legislation relating to homosexuals in the country.
It allows life imprisonment as the penalty for acts of "aggravated homosexuality" and also criminalises the "promotion" of homosexuality".
Elimination of discrimination
The law has been sharply criticised by the West, with donors such as Denmark and Norway saying they would redirect aid away from the government to aid agencies.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has called the law "atrocious". Both he and South African Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu compared it to anti-Semitic laws in Nazi Germany or apartheid South Africa.
A spokesman for the World Bank said: "We have postponed the project for further review to ensure that the development objectives would not be adversely affected by the enactment of this new law."
Anti-gay supporters in Uganda rejoiced when the law was passed on Monday
The loan was supposed to be approved on Thursday to supplement a 2010 loan that focused on maternal health, newborn care and family planning.
The World Bank's action is the largest financial penalty incurred on the Ugandan authorities since the law went into force on Monday.
In an editorial for the Washington Post, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim warned that legislation restricting sexual rights "can hurt a country's competitiveness by discouraging multinational companies from investing or locating their activities in those nations".
He said the World Bank would discuss how such discrimination "would affect our projects and our gay and lesbian staff members".
In his view, he adds, fighting "to eliminate all institutionalized discrimination is an urgent task".
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed the anti-gay bill earlier this week, despite international criticism.
Ugandan authorities have defended the decision, saying President Museveni wanted "to demonstrate Uganda's independence in the face of Western pressure and provocation".
Uganda is a very conservative society, where many people oppose homosexuality.
Zuckerberg appears to be willing to pay large amounts of money to purchase hot messaging technologies, which typically attract younger people than Facebook does.
Facebook announced Wednesday that it would pay at least $16 billion to buy WhatsApp, a text messaging application with 450 million users around the world.
But the cost of the deal could go beyond that, US media reports. It could rise to $19 billion, with the application’s employees and founders receiving an additional $3 billion in restricted stock units over the next four years, according to the New York Times.
The users of WhatsApp pay little or no money to use the application.
Facebook, in Menlo Park, Calif., will pay $4 billion in cash and $12 billion worth of shares for WhatsApp, the Times said.
The decision shows that Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and chief executive of Facebook, is determined to keep his company a dominant social network on the Web.
Critics say the proposed price is too steep as the WhatsApp is less known in the United States, and it does not even sell advertising and has very litter revenue.
Facebook paid $1 billion in a 2012 deal for Instagram, the photo-sharing service. Critics at the time assailed the company for overpaying.
Late last year, Facebook unsuccessfully offered to pay $3 billion to buy Snapchat, another messaging service.
Zuckerberg appears to be willing to pay large amounts of money to purchase hot messaging technologies, which typically attract younger people than Facebook does.
“Facebook is constantly working to not lose anybody,” said Nate Elliott, an analyst with Forrester Research, as cited by the Times. “Sometimes that is them innovating on their own, sometimes that’s them mimicking competitors, and sometimes that’s them buying competitors.”
Facebook is now a 10-year-old social network with 1.2 billion users around the world. However, the company may lose some of its users, according to tech experts.
Buying WhatsApp could help Facebook gain access to younger customers who prefer communicating one-on-one or with very small groups rather than sharing information more widely.
A grisly video has emerged showing Takfiri terrorists operating in Syria strangulating a young girl in public.
In the video, a Takfiri hooded executioner strangulates the young girl to death using a piece of metal wire in an unidentified location.
The girl has been put to death because of her refusal to recognize the rigid-minded beliefs promoted by Takfiri groups in Syria.
Earlier this month, a disturbing video emerged showing al-Qaeda-linked militants in Syria’s central province of Homs beheading a man believed to have been a Shia supporter of the government.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which posted the video, said the beheading was conducted by militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Since the beginning of the crisis in Syria in March 2011, many similar videos have emerged, depicting horrendous crimes, including decapitation and cannibalism, committed by the foreign-backed Takfiri militants against the people in Syria.
A video footage posted online on January 26, showed several mutilated bodies in the western suburb of Aleppo that reportedly belong to the civilians who were executed by ISIL militants.
Another video posted online on May 12, 2013, showed Takfiri militant, Khalid al Hamad, known by his nom de guerre, Abu Sakkar, eating an organ of a dead Syrian soldier.
In an interview with the state-run BBC in July 2013, Abu Sakkar threatened to commit more gruesome murders if foreign-backed terrorists in Syria do not receive more military aid from abroad.
Reports show that the Western powers and their regional allies - especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey - are supporting the militants operating inside Syria.
“China is deeply implicated in the wave of killing of elephants owing to its million dollar trade in ivory products. A recent report affirmed that at the current rate of 30 elephants killed every day and 850 elephants shot every month, there is an unprecedented risk of the country’s elephant population perishing in the next seven years.”
— Tanzania Elephant Protection Society
Elephants slaughter in Tanzania a daily occurrence / EIA (p)
At a time when poaching has tremendously scaled up in Tanzania, about 706 pieces of ivory, representing more than 200 tuskers killed, were found last week in Dar es Salam Mikocheni area at a residence of Chinese nationals.
The incredulous catch was hidden in a manner that needed informed intelligence to uncover as shells of snails mixed with garlic to fool any suspicious minds sniffing about the ivory. Even the minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Khamis Kagasheki, and police officers at the scene were so stunned with the ingenuity of the residents, evidently agents of Far East ivory traders.
A detailed report made available to The Guardian on Sunday in past months says China is deeply implicated in the wave of killing of elephants owing to its million dollar trade in ivory products. The report authored by the Tanzania Elephant Protection Society (TEPS) said rising economic relations between China and Tanzania fuel elephant killings in the country, calling for proper government intervention.
The document underlined that though the Chinese investments were important in the country's economy and development, this shouldn't compromise the country's natural wildlife conservation efforts.
The report affirmed that at the current rate of 30 elephants killed every day and 850 elephants shot every month, there is an unprecedented risk of the country's elephant population perishing in the next seven years.
"China is the number one investor in Tanzania... but the majority of tusks exported illegally from Tanzania end up in China due to the huge demand for ivory in China," it said, noting that Tanzania's partnership with China risks being at the expense of Tanzania's vital natural resources and the tourist industry.
This requires political will and strong leadership to resolve, it said, recommending that the Tanzania government "should make investment from China and other countries strictly conditional on China tackling its demand for ivory at home, and stronger law enforcement collaboration to halt the flow of ivory from Tanzania to China."
Three Chinese, Che Jinzhan, Xu Fujie and Huang Qin, are said to use a special Noah microbus with registration number T713 BXG to transport the ivory pieces to the house.
Until this paper left the house more than 1800 kilogram of ivory pieces were found, although the police were not yet finished with counting.
Inside the house police found a weighing unit that the Chinese used in their illegal business, a number of fresh garlic onions and sacks of shells which were mixed with the ivory during transportation.
Interviewed, the Chinese said that the ivory business is owned by their friends and what they were doing was only the garlic business.
Huang Qin explaining that his friends are the one who used to bring the ivory in their home. He admitted that it is illegal business and if it was in their country they would be executed.
The bus that was used to bring the product to the house used different numbers; during the day it used the plate number is T713 BXG but at night the number was twisted with plate number T 317 BXG.
According to the information released from the ivory storehouse, the minibus was used to conduct the operation at midnight, specifically from 1:00 am.
Briefing the media at the event, minister Kagasheki said they managed to find the ivory as a follow up to Operation Tokomeza against gangs hunting elephants with automatic rifles, all over the country.
Ambassador Kagasheki said the fight against poachers would not be achieved by suspending public officials but by joining efforts with all stakeholders, including MPs to fight the scourge.
The ivory pieces found last week represent a large amount as elephants are steadily diminished, he said, underlining that stopping Operation Tokomeza as MPs are proposing, would see elephants cleared out from game parks in a few years.
The Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya on Saturday, Sept. 21 2013, after gunmen threw grenades and opened fire on the centre when it was full of shoppers.
Some of the videos on WestGate Shooting on 2013.09.21
Local security officials said the violence broke out after gunmen threw hand grenades inside the Westgate Mall in Nairobi on Saturday.
Witnesses say gunfire broke out inside the mall and spread outside after police arrived to confront the assailants. Some witnesses who fled the mall say the attack may have been a failed bank robbery attempt.
However, Nairobi police chief, Benson Kibue, said the attackers had been trying to rob a shop within the mall when the shooting began.
Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government said in a statement that security forces and law enforcement agencies were trying to ensure safety of those people who still remained trapped in the mall.
"We're doing our job to ensure that everyone is evacuated to safety. This is a scene of crime." the statement added.
The Westgate Mall is located in Nairobi’s wealthy Westlands area and is frequently visited by rich Kenyans and expatriates.
Some Picture
A gun battle inside a shopping centre in the Kenyan capital Nairobi has left at least 20 people dead, the Kenyan Red Cross says.
The gunmen attacked the Westgate centre - one of the city's most exclusive. Dozens of shoppers fled; many are still feared trapped inside.
A senior police officer originally said it was an attempted robbery but later called it a possible terrorist attack.
The Somali militant group al-Shabab had threatened to strike the centre.
It is opposed to Kenya sending troops to fight in Somalia. No group has said it carried out Saturday's attack.
Officers have now surrounded the building in an attempt to evacuate remaining shoppers. A military helicopter has landed nearby.
Police told AFP news agency that gunmen had taken at least seven people hostage. Eyewitnesses have also said there are hostages, but there is no official confirmation.
Dozens of people are reported to have been injured.
Eyewitnesses say masked attackers threw grenades into the building at about midday local time (09:00 GMT).
Nairobi police chief Benson Kibue initially said the gunmen had been trying to rob a shop, but later called it "a terrorist attack".
At about 15:30 GMT, more than six hours after the attack began, the Kenyan Secretary for the Interior Joseph ole Lenku said the security situation was "under control".
He urged the public "not to speculate" about the nature of the attack, and said most people had been evacuated.
The BBC's Anne Soy, who is at the scene, said there are reports one of the gunmen has been shot dead.
Some of the attackers were reportedly dressed in hijabs, and it is unclear whether they were men or women, our correspondent says.
One man who escaped had been hiding in a supermarket but told our correspondent his friends were still trapped inside the building.
Witnesses told news agencies the gunmen ordered Muslims to leave and that non-Muslims would be targeted.
The Kenyan authorities have asked media outlets to stop broadcasting from the scene, as the information may be aiding the attackers.
Arjen Westra, who was drinking coffee at the time of the attack, told the BBC he thought the cafe he was in was being targeted by the gunmen.
"I could hear the gunfire moving towards the main entrance of the shopping mall, so some people ran out of our cafe in a kind of panic, and quite a number just fell down as flat as possible on the ground."
Security guards used shopping trolleys to wheel out several wounded children and at least one man, AP reports.
"The gunmen tried to fire at my head but missed. There are definitely many casualties," Sudjar Singh, who works at the shopping centre, told AFP.
"I saw three of the attackers dressed in black and with covered faces and they were carrying heavy rifles," said another witness.
AFP quoted witnesses as saying the gunmen were speaking Arabic or Somali and executed shoppers.
One Nairobi resident, Anupa, who lives near the scene, told the BBC: "I heard the exchange of fire when it happened, and I heard what I thought was a grenade, but I didn't go outside. The whole area is cordoned off."
Armed police took cover behind vehicles outside. "We have officers at the scene trying to get out the group shooting inside," a police official told AFP news agency.
"Officers are approaching the situation with caution because there are innocent civilians inside," he said.
The Westgate centre is often frequented by wealthy Kenyans and expatriates. Police have urged residents to stay away from the area and told media outlets to stop live transmissions from the scene.
Source: BBC, PRESSTV, CNN, THE TELEGRAPH, METRO, YOUTUBE
