Portugal welcomes China investments in Azores

                           

Portugal is welcoming non-military Chinese engagement in the Azores to help develop the logistical and research potential of the mid-Atlantic island chain.

The growing Chinese influence on the archipelago is worrying Washington as the U.S. reduces its military presence at the Lajes Field air base on the island of Terceira. A series of senior Chinese officials -- including President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang -- have used the island as a stop-over on trips to Latin America, as China seeks to expand its footprint overseas and safeguard economic interests.

In a Bloomberg Television interview in Macau on Tuesday, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said that while his nation -- a NATO member -- would continue to honor its defense pact with the U.S., he also wants to see better use of the Azores. The islands are "very important both logistically in the Atlantic Ocean but also in terms of technology and research, in the field of climate change and deep water research," he said.

"The military use of the American base at this moment is not on the table, what is on the table is for EU institutes, American institutes and Chinese institutes to reuse infrastructure for scientific research purposes," said Costa, 55. "It'd be a huge waste not to use that infrastructure. We need to reuse that infrastructure, and if you are not going to use it for the military purpose, why not scientific research?"

Lajes Field -- located 2,290 miles east of New York and about 1,000 miles west of Lisbon -- had served as a key link between the U.S. and its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Middle East. During the Cold War, the base played a crucial role in tracking Soviet guided missiles and ballistic missile submarines in the region. It also supported U.S. airlift missions to Israel in the 1970s.

The U.S. planned to cut its military presence at Lajes to under 170 active duty personnel after the global economic crisis, in a move that is hurting the local economy. The down-scaling is also seen by Pentagon hawks as strategically precarious.

Nigerian Doctors at UCH suspend strike

                                       
Members of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, have suspended their five-day warning strike. The doctors had on Wednesday commenced the strike to protest what they called insensitivity of the management to their plight and payment of half salaries to members.
The doctors are demanding that the hospital management must respect agreements reached over full lateral implementation of skipping and payment of outstanding salaries. A NAN correspondent, who visited the hospital on Friday, however, observed that full medical services were ongoing and resident doctors were sighted attending to patients. Dr Mashor Mbwas, the Public Relations Officer of the association, confirmed the suspension of the strike. According to him, the industrial action was suspended following the intervention of some prominent Nigerians who prevailed on the management to make some commitments as regards the demands of the doctors. He said that his members had since resumed at their respective duty posts in the hope that the management would honour its own part of the agreement.
Also speaking, the Public Relations Officer of UCH, Mr Deji Bobade, said that the management would continue to explore all avenues to ensure peaceful co-existence in the hospital.

Source: Vanguard Ngr

Nigerian Senate passes Jamb Amendment Bill

                             

The Nigerian Senate yesterday passed the amendment to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board’s Act JAMB Bill SB. 245 into law. In the amendment passed, the Senate strengthened the Board to allow the results of students in the annual examination be valid beyond for Three Years.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Education and TETFund, Senator Jibrin Barau while presenting the report of his committee on the JAMB Bill explained that the amendments will further strengthen the Admissions Board in its responsibilities.

Senate President Bukola Saraki, in appreciating his distinguished colleagues for their work towards the passage of the bill commented that the new amendments will indeed bring financial relief to students as well as parents and reduce bottlenecks and corruption in the admission process.

16,000 Illegal Migrants Enter Bulgaria -Info

                               

About 16,000 foreigners have entered Bulgaria illegally since the beginning of the year, showed data of the State Agency for Refugees, reported BGNES.

7,000 come from Afghanistan and less than 2,000 are from Syria.

Most migrants are from Iraq and Pakistan.

The data shows that 57% of the persons seeking protection are men, 32% are children and the rest are women.

Only 4% of the migrants have higher education.

A few days ago, Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova said that two years is a sufficient period of time for migrants to integrate in society and find a job. She added that statements to the effect that “a change of the ethnic composition of the nation is imminent” are mere speculation.

The European Commission granted EUR 108 M to Bulgaria in the beginning of October so that the country may deal with migrant pressure at the borders.

Germany Strengthen Patrols on Border

                                       

Germany and Switzerland have strengthened border patrols on their common border in order to prevent migrants from travelling north and violating EU rules on asylum, reported BTA.

Switzerland, although not a part of the EU, has become an important transit country for migrants who cross the Mediterranean, arrive in Italy and wish to move on into Germany and Scandinavian countries.

The German Interior Ministry announced that the police have registered about 4,500 illegal crossings of the border from Switzerland between January and August 2016.

The Interior Ministry stated that the two countries will co-operate more closely in order to prevent the illegal entry of people in Germany and return the persons who have entered already.

Slovakia chargees five with smuggling migrants to Germany

                              
Five Slovaks are facing charges of smuggling at least 300 illegal migrants last year from Hungary to western Europe, mostly to Germany and Italy, Slovakian police said on Friday.
The five men were arrested in a series of house raids by Slovak police on Tuesday morning and face up to 10 years in prison.
Police said they hid migrants from Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan in customized cars from Slovak and Czech rental companies and charged each of them 500-1,000 euros ($550-$1,100).
Slovakia has not been a principal route for the hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa who have sought to reach richer parts of the EU via the Balkans and Hungary over the past two years. Last year, 71 refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan were found dead in an abandoned truck on an Austrian highway near the Slovak and Hungarian borders.

Pence denies Trump about WikiLeaks

                                    

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said on Friday that despite rumors and suggestions to the contrary, the Republican presidential ticket has absolutely nothing to do with the avalanche of Hillary Clinton campaign emails released in recent days by WikiLeaks.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Pence said when asked by Fox News anchor Steve Doocy if Donald Trump’s campaign is “in cahoots” with the website releasing the emails. “I think all of us have, you know, have had concerns about WikiLeaks over the years and it's just a reality of American life today, and of life in the wider world.”

Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, whose allegedly hacked emails have been released in batches this week by WikiLeaks, said earlier this week that it would be a “reasonable conclusion” that Roger Stone, an ally of Trump’s campaign had “advance warning” of the email releases. That the email hackers have largely targeted Clinton’s campaign and not Trump’s, along with the U.S. government’s assertion the Russian government is behind at least some of the hacking, has stoked rumors that such attacks are politically motivated to aid the Manhattan billionaire.

Stone has denied any connection to WikiLeaks, and neither Podesta nor anyone else from Clinton’s campaign has confirmed the authenticity of the released emails.

UK military troops arrives Iraq

                                  

An expanded contingent of British training troops will remain inside their bases in Iraq and not carry out mentoring tasks in combat zones alongside government or Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

Some 300 troops of the 4th Battalion, The Rifles (4 Rifles), as well as all their vehicles and equipment, started being airlifted into Al-Assad Air Base in Iraq's Al-Anbar province by Royal Air Force (RAF) Boeing C-17 Globemaster and chartered Antonov An-124 transport aircraft at the beginning of October.

The additional deployment, which is now almost complete, will see 4 Rifles working in Iraq for six months with the battalion also taking over responsibility for providing existing smaller UK training teams at Arbil in the Kurdistan Regional Government, Al-Taji near Baghdad and Al-Bismayah, a senior UK Ministry of Defence official told IHS Jane's on 12 October.