DJERBA (AFP) – Facing calls to do more to resolve global crises, the world’s French-speaking leaders met in Tunisia Sunday to discuss growing instability and popular discontent in Francophone Africa. But tensions crept into the International Organisation of Francophonie (IOF) conference itself when the Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde, refused to pose for a photo next to Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda. The DRC accuses Rwanda of supporting M23 rebels who have seized swathes of territory in its eastern region, displacing tens of thousands of people and igniting regional tensions. The head of the 88-member IOF bloc, Louise Mushikiwabo, said Saturday it should strive to be a “link that can be used to prevent tensions from degenerating into conflicts”. But Senegalese civil society figure Alioune Tine said the IOF has shown itself to be “totally powerless in the face of fraudulent elections, third mandates (of African leaders) and military coups” in Mali, Guinea, Chad and Burkina Faso. Delegates at the conference on the island of Djerba were to also attend workshops on the youth and women’s entrepreneurship before an economic forum starts.

 

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ALMATY (Dispatches) – Polling stations for voting in the early presidential election in Kazakhstan opened throughout Kazakhstan on Sunday, Mukhtar Yerman, Secretary of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan, said. “According to the latest data provided by the regional commissions of the cities of Almaty, Shymkent and Astana, voting has started at all 10,033 polling stations across the country and 17 polling stations at the representative offices of the Republic of Kazakhstan in foreign countries,” Yerman said at a press briefing on Sunday morning. He said that 51 polling stations abroad will open taking into account the difference in time zones. As of 7:00 a.m. Astana time (01:00 GMT), polling stations were open in most of Kazakhstan’s regions. Voting ended at 20:00 Astana time on Sunday. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev voted on Sunday morning at one of the polling stations in the capital city, Astana. Asked by a reporter whether the government will be dismissed after the election and whether a “political reset” will take place, Tokayev said that there will be some changes in government, but the law does not require the government to resign after the presidential election, unlike parliamentary elections. “As for the timing of the parliamentary elections, I will make a special statement about this at the end of the year,” the president said. As of 04:00 GMT on Sunday, the turnout in the presidential election was 23.37%, according to the Central Election Commission. During the 2019 presidential election in Kazakhstan, the turnout at the same point in the election was 12.8%.

 

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MOSCOW (AP) – Towering clouds of ash and glowing lava were spewing from two volcanoes on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on Sunday and scientists say major eruptions could be on the way. The peninsula, which extends into the Pacific Ocean about 6,600 kilometers (4,000 miles) east of Moscow, is one of the world’s most concentrated areas of geothermal activity, with about 30 active volcanoes. The sudden new activity followed a strong earthquake on Saturday, news reports said. The Russian Academy of Sciences’ vulcanology institute said that at Klyuchevskaya Sopka, which at 4,754 meters (nearly 16,000 feet) is Eurasia’s tallest active volcano, as many as 10 explosions an hour were being recorded. Lava flows and ash emissions also are coming from the Shiveluch volcano, the institute said.

 

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WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has met briefly with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of an Asian summit, claiming that Washington does not seek confrontation with China but welcomes competition. Harris and Xi exchanged remarks while heading into a closed-door meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum’s summit in Bangkok, Thailand. “We welcome competition but we do not see conflict, we do not seek confrontation,” Harris told a news conference at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Bangkok. “I greeted President Xi before the APEC Leaders Retreat,” Harris wrote on Twitter. “We must maintain open lines of communication to responsibly manage the competition between our countries,” she added. “Under our administration, the United States is a strong partner for the economies and companies of the Indo-Pacific, and we are working to strengthen our economic relationships throughout the region, including by increasing two-way trade flows and the free flow of capital,” Harris said in a business conference on APEC’s sidelines.

 

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LONDON (Middle East Eye) – Rights groups have hit out at the UK government after a man died at a migrant processing center in southeast England. The man, who has not been identified, reportedly became ill while at the Manston migrant detention site in Kent and later died after being taken to hospital. The Guardian reported that he had arrived on a small boat on 12 November and was taken ill on Friday evening. “We can confirm a person staying at Manston has died this morning [Saturday] in hospital after becoming unwell,” a Home Office spokesperson told the newspaper. Campaigners said the death was indicative of the poor conditions that migrants have been kept in at the center. Deborah Coles, director of Inquest, a charity that provides expertise on state-related deaths, called for an independent inquiry.