Author: chicagoinquirer

By Jeff Mason PITTSBURGH -Former President Barack Obama made a passionate case against Donald Trump on Thursday during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in which he appealed directly to men to reject Trump’s bravado and back Vice President Kamala Harris. Obama has been a vocal supporter of Harris since she ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket after President Joe Biden stepped aside in July following a poor debate performance against Trump, the Republican former president. Obama, whose White House term ended in 2017, is still popular with his party’s base. The rally he headlined at the University of…

by Jasper Ward WASHINGTON -The U.S. Department of Justice said on Friday it sued the state of Virginia for violating the federal prohibition on systematic efforts to remove voters within 90 days of an election. On Aug. 7, the state’s governor, Glenn Youngkin, signed an executive order requiring the commissioner of Department of Elections to certify that the department was conducting “daily updates to the voter list” to remove, among other groups, people who are unable to verify that they are citizens to the Department of Motor Vehicles. U.S. citizens who were identified and notified, and did not affirm their…

ABUJA – Nigerian police said on Friday they had rescued a media crew that was kidnapped in the southeast while travelling to cover an Africa Cup of Nations match between Nigeria and Libya in Akwa Ibom state. Nigeria’s southeast is embroiled in violence, which the government blames on a separatist group which campaigns for the secession of a part of southeastern Nigeria where the majority belong to the Igbo ethnic group. Tochukwu Ikenga, police spokesperson for Anambra state said that the crew, which works for South African broadcaster Supersport, was abducted by armed men on Wednesday when they were travelling…

by Camillus Eboh ABUJA – Binance’s head of financial compliance was denied bail for a second time on Friday as his trial on money laundering charges started in Nigeria, with a judge ruling that the prison in which he is being held is capable of meeting his medical needs. Tigran Gambaryan, an American citizen, has been in detention in Nigeria since the end of February. He and Binance deny the charges against him. He had asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to free him on medical grounds, arguing that he needed to undergo surgery outside prison and that his…

By Amindeh Blaise Atabong YAOUNDE – Cameroon has outlawed any discussion about the health of 91-year-old President Paul Biya, a letter shared by the interior ministry said, after Biya’s prolonged absence fuelled widespread speculation he was unwell. Earlier this week, the authorities put out statements saying the president was on a private visit to Geneva and in good health, dismissing reports he had fallen ill as “pure fantasy”. In the letter to regional governors dated Oct. 9, Interior Minister Paul Atanga Nji said discussing the president’s health was a matter of national security. From now on, “any debate in the…

By Ange Aboa ABIDJAN – Ivory Coast could sell a further stake in its Transcao cocoa processor to Malaysian cocoa group Guan Chong Berhad, the industry’s regulator told Reuters, as it pushes for more expertise and investment to grow the sector. On Wednesday, Guan Chong Berhad (GCB) said its Singaporean subsidiary had agreed to acquire a 25% stake in Transcao from Ivory Coast’s Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC). The head of the West African nation’s cocoa regulator told Reuters it wants to boost its interests in the growing Asian market and was open to the GCB subsidiary further increasing its…

By Camillus Eboh ABUJA – Nigeria took a major step in its quest to earn revenue from its vast gas reserves, signing a deal with joint venture partners to supply gas to a proposed $3.5 billion Brass fertilizer and petrochemical plant, an official said on Friday. Under the agreement, joint venture partners including Shell, TotalEnergies and Eni will deliver an estimated 270 million standard cubic feet of gas per day to the plant in Brass, in Nigeria’s coastal Bayelsa state. Petroleum Ministry Permanent Secretary Nicholas Agbo Ella said the Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement is a part of the Brass…

ERIE, Pennsylvania – The command center for Donald Trump’s campaign in one of the most hotly contested counties in America’s most important election battleground sits in a small room of a strip-mall office. The room in an office rented by Erie County’s Republican Party comes to life a couple times a week when the two-person staff hosts the volunteer network the campaign calls Trump Force 47. A few miles away in a bustling office in downtown Erie, paid staff and volunteers on Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign make phone calls, press new campaign buttons and organize watch parties and phone…

By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON – In 1940, the Nazis seized a Claude Monet pastel and seven other works of art from Adalbert “Bela” and Hilda Parlagi, a Jewish couple forced to flee their Vienna home after Austria was annexed into Adolf Hitler’s Germany. After the war, Bela Parlagi searched for his art to no avail until his death in 1981. His son continued the search without success until he died in 2012. But on Wednesday, more than 80 years later, Parlagi’s granddaughters Helen Lowe and Francoise Parlagi were reunited with the missing Monet after the FBI and a Britain-based…

by David Shepardson WASHINGTON -The Federal Aviation Administration said on Tuesday it issued a safety alert to airlines warning of the potential for limited or jammed rudder movement on certain Boeing 737 airplanes after a safety official urged the agency to take action. The National Transportation Safety Board on Sept. 26 issued urgent safety recommendations to Boeing and the FAA after investigating the potential for rudder issues in some 737 planes, which prompted the FAA to convene a corrective action review board. The NTSB recommendation came as they investigate a February incident involving a United Airlines flight. The safety alert…