Supremo Tribunal de Justiça da Guiné-Bissau deixa tudo como está

STJ diz que não pode fiscalizar inconstitucionalidade das decisões judiciais.

O Supremo Tribunal de Justiça (STJ) da Guiné-Bissau recusou nesta quarta-feira, 23, deliberar sobre os pedidos de nulidade dos despachos do Tribunal de Relação de Bissau acerca da decisão da mesa da Assembleia Nacional Popular (ANP) de expulsar 15 deputados do PAIGC.

Os 11 juízes do STJ indeferiram um pedido de inconstitucionalidade por considerarem que a lei guineense não permite ao Supremo fiscalizar "decisões judiciais eventualmente inconstitucionais".

A decisão do STJ mantém o impasse actual marcado por duas decisões diferentes de dois juízes do Tribunal de Relação de Bissau.

A 27 de Janeiro, um juiz aceitou a decisão da mesa da ANP de expulsar os 15 deputados afastados do PAICG por terem votado contra o programa do Governo de Carlos Correia a 23 de Dezembro e outro magistrado, a 8 de Fevereiro, anulou a liminar anterior e ordenou que os parlamentares assumissem o seu mandato.

Desde então, a mesa da ANP decidiu suspender os trabalhos do Parlamento até que o STJ decidisse os recursos, o que agora foi rejeitado.

Até agora não houve reacções à decisão do STJ.

Com esta decisão, a crise política guineense encerra mais um capítulo, mas continua sem solução.

O Presidente da República tem mantido contactos com as partes em conflito, mas enquanto o PAIGC e a mesa da ANP defendem que a expulsão dos 15 deputados é legal, o PRS e os 15 alinham com José Mário Vaz que, recentemente, propôs um acordo político, rejeitado também pelo partido maioritário.

Nas últimas semanas, o Conselho de Segurança da ONU, a Cedeao, a CPLP e a União Africana enviaram representantes a Bissau, mas essas iniciativas não resultaram em avanço.

VOA.

Crise política: JOSÉ MÁRIO VAZ AUSCULTA PARTIDOS POLÍTICOS

O Chefe de Estado da Guiné-Bissau recebeu hoje, 26 de Janeiro, em audiência separada, os líderes das diferentes formações políticas com assento no parlamento, para abordar a situação da crise política vigente no país.

PGR da Guiné-Bissau ouve dois ministros por indícios de corrupção

Chefe de Operações da Autoridade de Fiscalização Marítima Pedro Gomes acusado de obstruir a investigação em curso na Secretaria de Estado das Pescas foi detido.

O ministro da Economia e das Finanças, Geraldo Martins, e a ministra da Solidariedade e de Luta contra Pobreza e antiga responsável da Saúde, Valentina Mendes, da Guiné-Bissau estão a ser ouvidos neste terça-feira pela Procuradoria Geral da República (PGR) sobre um alegado caso de corrupção.

Os conteúdos destas audiências ainda não são do domínio público, mas a VOA apurou que o Ministério Publico  investigar os dois governantes por alegados indicios de actos de corrupção.

Entretanto, uma fonte do Governo que pediu o anonimato diz que  tudo não passa de perseguições políticas orquestradas pelo Presidente da República, José Mário Vaz.

Na base desta acusação, a mesma fonte apresenta o facto de Geraldo Martins e Valentina Mendes serem figuras muito próximas de Domingos Simões Pereira, presidente do PAIGC.

Este caso antecede a prisão  ontem do Chefe de Operações da Autoridade de Fiscalização Marítima (FISCAP), Pedro Gomes, acusado de obstruir a investigação em curso na Secretaria de Estado das Pescas, sob tutela de Idelfonso Barros, outra figura próxima de Simões Pereira.

O Ministério Público é dirigido por Antônio Sedja Man, que já foi Procurador-Geral da República e Secretário Executivo da Comissão Nacional de Eleições.

Ele foi nomeado há alguns meses depois de o Presidente José Mário Vaz ter demitido o então PGR  Hermenegildo Pereira, por considerar que não estava à altura das exigências do cargo.

VOA

Indira Cabral lamenta divisão do PAIGC

Filha de Amílcar Cabral participou em duas cerimónias, em Bissau, por ocasião do 43o. aniversário do assassinato do fundador e líder do PAICG.

PAIGC expulsa 14 deputados

O PAIGC, partido no poder da Guiné-Bissau, expulsou nesta Quinta-feira, 14 deputados por "violação da disciplina partidária" durante a votação do Programa de Governo realizada a 23 de Dezembro.

Nigerian to unveil 'biggest' statue of Jesus in Africa

   

Nigeria, Africa's largest country with 170 million people, is split between a more prosperous Christian south and a poor Muslim north -- an uneasy balance that is sometimes a source of tension (AFP Photo/Marco Longari)

Lagos (AFP) - A Nigerian businessman is set to unveil what he says is Africa's largest statue of Jesus, describing it as a symbol of peace in a country wracked by Islamist insurgency.

Obinna Onuoha commissioned the 8.53 metre (28 foot) tall "Jesus de Greatest" statue in 2013, hiring a Chinese company to carve it out of white marble.

Standing barefoot with arms outstretched, the 40 ton statue will tower over St. Aloysius Catholic Church in the mainly Christian village of Abajah in Nigeria's southeastern state of Imo.

"It's going to be the biggest statue of Jesus on the continent," said Onuoha, the 43-year-old chief executive officer of an oil and gas distribution company.

"Definitely pilgrims will come."

Around 1,000 people are expected to attend the statue's unveiling on New Year's Day.

Onuoha said he has contacted the police just to be sure that it is not attacked or vandalised.

Nigeria, Africa's largest country with 170 million people, is split between a more prosperous Christian south and a poor Muslim north -- an uneasy balance that is sometimes a source of tension.

More than 17,000 people have been killed in Islamist group Boko Haram's six-year quest to create an independent state but the violence has been mainly confined to Nigeria's Muslim-majority north.

"We think religions can exist side by side," Onuoha said. "We hope that people can live in harmony."

Onuoha says he had a dream in 1997 to build a giant statue of Jesus.

When his 68-year-old mother fell seriously ill a few years ago, she made him promise that he would build a church if she survived.

He built it in Abajah, some 500 kilometres southeast of Lagos, and it is here that the "Jesus de Greatest" statue is located.

Reactions to the statue are mixed.

"It is clearly wrong," Emmanuel Lashiolola, a Catholic and former student in a seminary school, said.

"You do not unveil Jesus Christ. I hope somebody is not trying to use the ceremony to raise money."

But priest Paul Awowole said: "Liturgically, I do not think there is anything is wrong in unveiling the statue of Jesus Christ. It is to venerate and honour Jesus Christ."

Onuoha is just counting down the days until the statue makes its official public debut.

"The scaffolding is coming off as we speak," Onuoha said. "People driving by are already stopping to have a look."

The greatest degree of inner tranquility comes from the development of love and compassion.
The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being.

Contestatários "dão 24 horas" ao líder do maior partido da Guiné-Bissau para abandonar o cargo

Um grupo de dirigentes contestatários ao líder do PAIGC, principal partido da Guiné-Bissau, deram hoje 24 horas a Domingos Simões Pereira para abandonar o cargo, sob pena de acionarem mecanismos estatutários para o fazerem.

Em nome dos contestatários a Domingos Simões Pereira, José Saico Baldé, que se apresentou como dirigente do Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (PAIGC), acusou Simões Pereira de "desvio de fundos, delapidação do erário público e desrespeito aos estatutos" do partido.

Baldé falava aos jornalistas à margem de uma conferência de imprensa promovida pelos dirigentes do PAIGC que contestam a liderança de Domingos Simões Pereira, entre os quais os deputados do partido que no passado dia 23 deste mês se abstiveram no momento dos debates do Programa do Governo no Parlamento.

"Somos dirigentes, militantes e simpatizantes do PAIGC preocupados com o mau comportamento do líder do partido que enganou toda gente em como era capaz de organizar o PAIGC", afirmou José Saico Baldé.

O grupo entende que o partido, que venceu as últimas eleições legislativas no país, com uma maioria absoluta, mas afetado por disputas internas, tem apenas 36 meses para se preparar para um novo embate eleitoral.

"Se Domingos Simões Pereira não se retirar (da liderança do PAIGC), vamos mostrar-lhe que não é ninguém", avisou José Saico Baldé.

Fonte da direção do PAIGC disse à Lusa que o partido não pretende reagir "por enquanto", remetendo qualquer posicionamento para depois das reuniões do ´bureau´ político, que hoje decorre, e do Comité Central, previsto para terça-feira.

Já numa nota lida à imprensa, o grupo de contestatários a Domingos Simões Pereira pediu ao Presidente guineense, José Mário Vaz, para que demita o atual executivo se no dia 05 de janeiro o primeiro-ministro, Carlos Correia, não voltar ao parlamento com o novo Programa do Governo.

A direção do PAIGC considera que o Programa do Governo foi aprovado na votação do passado dia 23 deste mês, porque 45 deputados votaram a favor do documento, nenhum votou contra e houve 56 abstenções.

Para o PAIGC, o regimento do Parlamento guineense diz que as abstenções não contam para o apuramento da maioria, posição rejeitada pelos contestatários para quem a "votação foi clara".

O Programa do Governo foi rejeitado pelo Parlamento, dizem os contestatários à direção do PAIGC pelo que, avisam, o primeiro-ministro, Carlos Correia, tem até dia 05 de janeiro para voltar a apresentar novo documento aos deputados, sob pena de ser demitido.

Lusa

Mais......

Contestatários de Domingos Simões Pereira dão ultimato de 24 horas

Parlamento da Guiné-Bissau “chumba” programa do Governo

BOOKS: Why Africa Isn't Rising

In one of Africa's most celebrated surprises this year, Nigerian voters unseated President Goodluck Jonathan. The election of Muhammadu Buhari defied expectations of electoral fraud and violence, and his anticorruption platform sparked hopes for reform and economic growth.

Yet progress on both fronts has been slow and uneven. To understand why, pick up Tom Burgis's "The Looting Machine," a bracing look at why a continent blessed with one-third of the world's hydrocarbon and mineral wealth remains mired in poverty and dysfunction.

A former Africa correspondent for the Financial Times, Burgis goes beyond the tales of spectacular venality among Africa's "Big Men" -- the world's four longest-serving rulers are in African countries bursting with oil or minerals -- to explain how the continent's "resource curse" is sapping its development.

Nigeria is a case in point. Africa's biggest oil producer gets more than 90 percent of its foreign earnings and two-thirds of its tax revenue from oil exports. Yet there are many reasons why that hydrocarbon bounty is a mixed blessing.

For starters, it can drive up the value of a nation's currency, making other exports less competitive and imports more attractive. As Burgis points out, textiles used to be Nigeria's most important manufacturing industry. But cheaper Chinese imports smuggled in by Nigerian gangs (an illicit trade worth more than $2 billion a year) have devastated the industry -- one example of why Africa produces just 1.5 percent of global manufacturing output, despite its abundance of cheap labor.

Billions of dollars in oil revenues are also a tempting pot of money for bent politicians. One 2012 report said corruption had swallowed up $37 billion worth of Nigeria’s oil money over the last decade. That surpasses the annual economic output of more than half the nations in Africa as well as Nigeria’s annual federal budget.

Such corruption has other toxic effects. Dirty money from bribes and kickbacks has to be laundered, and because those doing the cleaning don't care so much about profit or productive investment, their infusions of cash distort the value of assets.

Nigeria’s reliance on oil for tax revenues also creates a perverse political dynamic: As Burgis puts it, "the ability of rulers of Africa's resource state to govern without recourse to popular consent." Instead of having to do right by taxpayers to win their votes, politicians focus on controlling and dispensing mineral wealth to bolster their patronage networks.

“Politics becomes a game of mobilizing one's ethnic brethren," Burgis notes -- a contest with dangerous destabilizing effects in Nigeria's fractious polity. In fact, as one Nigerian governor explains, if he failed to share the wealth, ill-gotten or otherwise, "I've got a big political enemy."

Nigeria is far from the exception. At least 20 African countries are what the International Monetary Fund calls “resource-rich”: that is, their natural resources account for more than one-quarter of exports. Risking limb if not life, Burgis gamely takes readers around some of them, from the coltan mines of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guinea's rich bauxite and iron ore deposits to the diamond fields of Zimbabwe.

Even as the names and histories of the different predatory leaders blur, one thing is clear: Their looting depends on an all-too-willing cast of outside partners, whether Western mining and oil companies that plunked down bribes and abetted massacres, shady Israeli middlemen or shell companies in the British Virgin Islands.

Particularly disquieting is Burgis's description of the unsavory role played by the World Bank's International Finance Corporation, which backed visibly corrupt, environmentally destructive, or just plain inequitable oil and mining ventures in Chad, Guinea and Ghana -- all countries it was supposed to be helping.

If Burgis's book were to be made into a movie, though, the star villain would have to be Samuel Pa, the bespectacled, bearded Zelig behind some of the continent’s most dubious recent resource deals. Over the course of several decades, Pa parlayed the connections he made as a Chinese intelligence operative and arms merchant into a sprawling, secretive consortium based in Hong Kong known as the 88 Queensway Group, not to mention a spot on the U.S. Treasury’s sanctions list.

Western criticism of China's growing presence in Africa, Burgis writes, nonetheless carries a "distinct whiff of hypocrisy" that might make even King Leopold blush. Moreover, ordinary Africans stand to gain much from the $1 trillion or so that Chinese entities will reportedly plow into their continent by 2025.

That said, the tale of Pa and Queensway, which has its tentacles wrapped around oil holdings in Angola and Nigeria, diamond mines in Zimbabwe, and agriculture in Mozambique (to name just a few of its ventures), reeks of sulfur and brimstone. As several seasoned African mining executives told Burgis, the Queensway Group reminded them of Cecil John Rhodes, the forerunner of those who "use the conquest of natural resources to advance political power and vice versa."

One of the best hopes for curbing this rapacity and corruption may be to impose greater transparency on Africa’s outside business partners. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, for instance, recently proposed a rule requiring U.S.-listed oil, gas and mining companies to publish details of their payments to governments.

Even China may see the writing on the wall. A few months after Burgis's book came out this year, he reported that Pa had been detained in one of China's deepening anti-corruption probes. Guess that scotches the prospect of any Pa Scholarships in the future.

 Bloomberg LP

FELIZ NATAL

Bairros de Bissau sem água devido a obras de novo furo

Vários bairros de Bissau estão sem água devido às obras de construção de um novo furo de água com capacidade para 250 mil litros.

António Saraiva, director adjunto da Empresa de Electricidade de Águas da Guiné-Bissau, revelou à Agência de Notícias da Guiné (ANG) que houve uma queda na capacidade de produção do actual furo, que passou dos 100 m3 para os 75 m3.

O responsável adianta que, no entanto, foi já adoptado um plano de racionalização no fornecimento de água aos bairros afectados, nomeadamente Quelelé, Missira, Belém, Cuntum Madina e Alto Bandim.

António Saraiva explica ainda que o novo furo vai ajudar na resolução do problema de abastecimento de águas na capital e apela à compreensão dos consumidores pelos constrangimentos provocados pela situação.

Muslims love Jesus, too: 6 things you didn’t know about Jesus in Islam

"Madonna with the Book (Conestabile Madonna)" 

Christmas, as everyone knows, commemorates the birth of Jesus and is a major religious celebration for Christians around the world.

But what many people don't know is that Jesus is an important figure in Islam, too, even though most Muslims don't celebrate Christmas (though some of us, especially American Muslims, do).

In honor of the holiday, here are six things you may not know about the role of Jesus — and his mother, Mary — in Islam:
1. Jesus, Mary, and the angel Gabriel are all in the Quran (as are Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and a bunch of other Bible characters).
2. Muslims believe that Jesus (called "Isa" in Arabic) was a prophet of God, was born to a virgin (Mary), and will return to Earth before the Day of Judgment to restore justice and to defeat al-Masih ad-Dajjal ("the false messiah"), also known as the Antichrist. All of which may sound pretty familiar to many Christians.
3. Mary (called "Maryam" in Arabic) has an entire chapter in the Quran named for her — the only chapter in the Quran named for a female figure. In fact, Mary is the only woman to be mentioned by name in the entire Quran: As noted in the new Study Quran, "other female figures are identified only by their relation to others, such as the wife of Adam and the mother of Moses, or by their title, such as the Queen of Sheba." Mary is mentioned more times in the Quran than in the entire New Testament.
4. Just as with all the other prophets, including Mohammed, Muslims recite, "Peace be upon him" every time we refer to Jesus.
 
بلال الدويك
The name "Jesus, son of Mary" written in Arabic calligraphy, followed by "peace be upon him."
5. Muslims believe that Jesus performed miracles: The Quran discusses several of Jesus's miracles, including giving sight to the blind, healing lepers, raising the dead, and breathing life into clay birds.
6. The story of Jesus's birth as told in the Quran is also the story of his first miracle, when he spoke as an infant in the cradle and declared himself to be a prophet of God. Here's the story:

And remember Mary in the Book, when she withdrew from her family to an eastern place. And she veiled herself from them. Then We [God] sent unto her Our Spirit [the angel Gabriel], and it assumed for her the likeness of a perfect man. She said, "I seek refuge from thee in the Compassionate [i.e., God], if you are reverent!" He said, "I am but a messenger of thy Lord, to bestow upon thee a pure boy."

She said, "How shall I have a boy when no man has touched me, nor have I been unchaste?" He said, "Thus shall it be. Thy Lord says, ‘It is easy for Me.’" And [it is thus] that We might make him a sign unto mankind, and a mercy from Us. And it is a matter decreed.

So she conceived him and withdrew with him to a place far off. And the pangs of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a date palm. She said, "Would that I had died before this and was a thing forgotten, utterly forgotten!" So he called out to her from below her, "Grieve not! Thy Lord has placed a rivulet beneath thee. And shake toward thyself the trunk of the date palm; fresh, ripe dates shall fall upon thee. So eat and drink and cool thine eye. And if thou seest any human being, say, ‘Verily I have vowed a fast unto the Compassionate, so I shall not speak this day to any man.’"

Then she came with him [the infant Jesus] unto her people, carrying him. They said, "O Mary! Thou hast brought an amazing thing! O sister of Aaron! Thy father was not an evil man, nor was thy mother unchaste." Then she pointed to him [Jesus]. They said, "How shall we speak to one who is yet a child in the cradle?"

He [Jesus] said, "Truly I am a servant of God. He has given me the Book and made me a prophet. He has made me blessed wheresoever I may be, and has enjoined upon me prayer and almsgiving so long as I live, and [has made me] dutiful toward my mother. And He has not made me domineering, wretched. Peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am raised alive!"

That is Jesus son of Mary— a statement of the truth, which they doubt.

Merry Christmas!
VOX
Updated by Jennifer Williams on December 23, 2015, 4:40 p.m. ET @jenn_ruth jennifer@vox.com

Parlamento da Guiné-Bissau “chumba” programa do Governo

O programa do Governo da Guiné-Bissau foi chumbado nesta quarta-feira na Assembleia Nacional Popular, com a abstenção de 56 deputados.

O Executivo do PAIGC liderado por Carlos Correia teve apenas 45 votos a favor num universo de 101 deputados que votaram, quando necessitava de 52 votos para ter o programa aprovado.

Apesar de ter a maioria no Parlamento, o PAIGC não conseguiu reunir o apoio de todos os seus parlamentares, muitos deles próximos do Presidente da República.

Os 41 deputados do principal partido da oposição abstiveram-se.

O programa do Governo regressa a votos a partir de 5 de Janeiro, 2016, dia em que a sessão parlamentar será recomeçada.

Caso o programa for chumbado pela segunda vez, cai o Governo e o Presidente poderá convidar outra personalidade a formar um novo Executivo ou convocar eleições legislativas antecipadas.

GUINÉ BISSAU, Quarta-feira, 23 de dezembro de 2015.

PROGRAMA DO GOVERNO DE CARLOS CORREIA CHUMBAR.

The Secret Trick to Getting Pregnant—Now in a Bottle

When it comes to getting pregnant, there are so many old wives' tales that people advise: put your legs up after having sex, lie in bed for a half an hour, eat pineapple five days after sex (or embryo transfer) etc. etc. etc. Some have scientific merit, others are superstitions and methods handed down from older generations and different cultures.

But there's one easy and inexpensive method that many parents and even some doctors stand by (although by the time you reach fertility clinics they're more likely to move you into treatment rather than share this secret): Read More...

SUSPENSA A SESSÃO NA ANP ATÉ AO DIA DE AMANHÃ, TERÇA FEIRA 22 DE DEZEMBRO, 2015.

GUINÉ-BISSAU: Segunda-feira, 21 de dezembro de 2015.

PROGRAMA DO GOVERNO

VAI PASSAR?...........

VAI CHUMBAR? ...........

PSYCHOLOGY OF LIFE

At the beginning of any relationship every girl treats her boyfriend as "GOD"
But later on somehow the alphabets get reversed to "DOG".

REALLY???

PORQUE RAZÃO NINGUÉM NOTICIOU ISTO??? 

A CONSPIRAÇÃO TAMBÉM VEM DO EXTERIOR PARTINDO DE DENTRO???

JOMAV PRESIDENTE, DEUS ESTA CONSIGO E LHE PROTEGERÁ