Kigamboni bridge ready in July 2015 - Works PS

Expectations that the much awaited Kigamboni Bridge in Dar es Salaam would be ready for use by January next year have been dashed after the government granted a six-month extension to the firm executing the project.

The government said it granted the extension after the firm encountered technical hurdles in installing pillars to support the bridge.

The firm was supposed to complete the bridge in January 2015 but with the extension it means the bridge shall be ready in July 2015.

Works Permanent Secretary Mussa Iyombe, granted the extension after inspecting the project whose implementation officially started in February 2013.

“Due to the challenges the construction firm has faced - which I regard as genuine - the government has thought it wise to grant a six months extension. This is a big project which thousands of people depend on, but it cannot materialise unless the pillars to support the bridge are installed,” he explained.

RIP Run Run Shaw, godfather of kung-fu film

The man who brought kung-fu to mainstream cinema and co-produced the iconic sci-fi classic Blade Runner, has died aged 107.

A media mogul and renowned philanthropist, Sir Run Run Shaw passed away at home on Tuesday morning.

In his lifetime he co-founded a television company, ran the prolific and influential Shaw Brothers company that dominated Chinese and south east Asian cinema, and went on to become one of mainland China's most loved philanthropists, donating $774m to education and schools.

Shaw's studio produced over 1,000 titles and pioneered the kung-fu films that helped to redefine and popularise the genre in the west.

He influenced Ang Lee's Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Quentin Tarantino has credited Shaw Brothers films as a major influence, especially on Kill Bill.

In 2003, he told the Los Angeles Daily News: "For a year, I'd watch one old Shaw Brothers movie a day – if not three."

Turkey Dismisses More Than 350 Police Officers In Ankara Amid Corruption Probe

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's state-run news agency says some 350 police officers have been removed from posts in the capital Ankara, as the government continues to battle a corruption scandal that has ensnared former Cabinet ministers.

Claiming that it is the target of a conspiracy, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has dismissed hundreds of police chiefs and officers since police launched raids targeting close Erdogan allies on Dec. 17. He has alleged that followers of an Islamic movement led by U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen have infiltrated the judiciary and police and are using their powers to attack the government.

The Anadolu Agency said the 350 were removed from posts Tuesday.

The private Dogan news agency said they were reassigned to traffic departments or police stations outside the city.

Princess Cristina of Spain receives court summons

Princess Cristina of Spain was named as a formal suspect in long-running corruption investigation on Tuesday in the latest blow to the reputation of the royal family.

The 48-year-old was summoned to testify in court in Palma de Mallorca on March 8 on allegations of tax evasion and money laundering offences by a judge investigation a far reaching embezzlement case centering on her husband Inaki Urdangarin.

It will be the first time that a royal-born member of Spain’s ruling Bourbons is called to testify in court and promises further strife for a monarchy struggling against a tide of unpopularity.

King Juan Carlos, who has been weakened by ill heath and appeared in public for the first time on Monday since undergoing hip surgery two months ago, has seen his popularity plummet in the polls.

A survey published at the weekend by El Mundo showed 62 per cent of respondents thought the monarch, who turned 76 on Sunday, should abdicate in favour of his son, Crown Price Felipe.

Princess Cristina’s husband is a former Olympic handball champion who was given the title of the Duke of Palma upon his marriage to the King’s youngest daughter in 1997.

Afghanistan says 88 prisoners to be freed, despite U.S. concern

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan will release 88 prisoners as planned even though the United States considers them dangerous and wants them to remain in detention, the board reviewing their cases told Reuters.

The prisoners are being held at a jail at the Bagram air base north of Kabul. The United States only recently transferred the prison to Afghan control after it had become a serious source of tension with the Afghan government.

President Hamid Karzai instructed Afghan intelligence officials to provide the review board with more evidence against the prisoners, after the United States said there was proof of their involvement in the killing of foreign troops and they posed a serious threat to security.

Ex-Rwandan spy chief killing alights allegations

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — The killing of Rwanda's former spy chief in South Africa has critics revisiting serious allegations against Western-backed President Paul Kagame that go back to the Central African nation's 1994 genocide.

Former Col. Patrick Karegeya, a wartime ally from Kagame's days as a rebel leader, was found dead last week in a bed in Johannesburg's prestigious Michelangelo Towers hotel. Police said he was possibly strangled.

Karegeya's friends and fellow dissidents accused Kagame of ordering the assassination, pointing to a pattern of alleged killings of his opponents at home and abroad. Karegeya fled to South Africa in 2007.

Officials in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, have not responded to requests for comment. But the Rwandan high commissioner in South Africa, Vincent Karega, told local broadcaster eNCA that talk of assassination is an "emotional reaction and opportunistic way of playing politics."

South African police say they are investigating the case but no arrests have been made.

The killing comes five months after Karegeya claimed to have incriminating evidence that would prove Kagame, who is lauded by Western leaders for ending Rwanda's genocide, actually provided the catalyst for the mass killings.

In a July interview with Radio France International, Karegeya charged that Kagame ordered the downing of a jet that killed the Hutu presidents of Rwanda and neighboring Burundi, the event that triggered the genocide in which some 800,000 Tutsis and some moderate Hutus were killed over three months.

African asylum seekers in Israel lobby foreign embassies

 

The migrants, primarily from Eritrea and Sudan, marched from downtown Tel Aviv to the embassies, calling for help in the face of Israel's refusal to give them refugee status and its detention without trial of hundreds of asylum seekers.

A police spokesman said the march by some 10,000 migrants was coordinated with police and there were no disturbances.

Under legislation passed on December 10, authorities can detain illegal immigrants entering Israel for up to a year without trial.

A sprawling detention facility has been opened in the Negev desert to house both them and immigrants already in the country deemed to have disturbed public order.