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Karamba Diaby Elected To German Parliament, Becomes 1st Black Member

By goodblacknews on September 23, 2013

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Karamba Diaby, a Senegal-born chemist, has become Germany’s first black federal lawmaker, and a woman of Turkish origin has become the first Muslim elected to Parliament from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party, officials said Monday.
Until now there were no black lawmakers in Parliament, despite more than 500,000 people of recent African origin believed to be living in Germany.  “My election into the German Parliament is of historical importance,” said Karamba Diaby, 51, who moved to the city of Halle in 1986 after receiving a scholarship to study in communist East Germany.
Diaby, who gained German citizenship in 2001, said his priority would be to promote equal opportunities in education. “Every child born in Germany should have the chance to be successful in school regardless of their social background or the income of their parents,” he said.
RELATED POST: Senegal Native Karamba Diaby Poised to Become 1st Black Member of German Parliament
article by Yesha Callahan via clutchmagonline.com

Zimbabwean Author NoViolet Bulawayo Makes Short List For Britain's Booker Prize

By goodblacknews on September 10, 2013
NoViolet Bulawayo is a Zimbabwean author. She is currently a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.
NoViolet Bulawayo is a Zimbabwean author. She is currently a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. (Smeeta Mahanti/Courtesy Reagan Arthur Books)

According to npr.com, the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize, Britain’s most prestigious literary award, was announced today.  Among the short listers was We Need New Names author and Stanford University fellow NoViolet Bulawayo.  Although the Booker Prize is limited to writers from the British Commonwealth and the Republic of Ireland, the list skews international, and includes novelists from Zimbabwe, New Zealand and Canada. The complete shortlist is:
We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo 
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton 
Harvest by Jim Crace 
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri 
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki 
The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín
 article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson

Senegal Names 2nd Female Prime Minister, Human Rights Activist Aminata Touré

By goodblacknews on September 9, 2013
Feminist and human rights activist Aminata Touré is making history in Senegal.  According to reports, the 51-year-old former justice minister was named Prime Minister last Sunday, only the second woman in the country’s history. (Mame Madior Boye served between 2001 and 2002)
Known as Senegal’s Iron Lady, Touré named her cabinet, which includes four other women, just one day of the announcement.

Ms. Touré earned much respect in Senegal in her role as justice minister. It was during her tenure that the judicial process against former Chad dictator Hissène Habré saw great progress, leading up to his arrest in Senegal earlier this year. Also under her leadership, the fight against corruption and illegally-acquired wealth was intensified, seeing millions of francs held by corrupt officials in foreign banks repatriated.

As for her plans in office? Touré says she will “speed up the pace of our public development programs and reforms to enable every person in Senegal to feel the change in their daily livelihood.”
The new Prime Minster holds a Masters in economics and a PhD in international financial management.
article by Myeisha Essex via blackamericaweb.com

Long-Distance Runner Mo Farah Wins World 5,000-Meter Title to Claim Historic Double-Double

By goodblacknews on August 16, 2013
Mo Farah
Mo Farah, right, holds off his rivals to win the 5,000m world title in Moscow. Photograph: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
This was Mo Farah‘s immortal race: the victory he called “the sweetest by far”, the triumph that thrust him deeper into the realm of athletics‘ gods. Under cooling Moscow skies Farah fended off a sustained counterattack from Hagos Gebrhiwet and Isiah Kiplangat Koech to win his fifth global title, two more than any British athlete in history. He also became only the second man, after Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele, to achieve the double-double of 5,000m and 10,000m golds at the Olympics and the following world championships. This is the company Farah now keeps.
But it was harder than last year: Farah admitted so himself. The teeth had to be gritted and clamped with 100m to go as greyhounds from Kenya and Ethiopia sniffed out and scampered after their prey. His battle roar was also delayed until moments before the line, when his lungs demanded release and he finally accepted that victory was safe. Then came the familiar gestures: eyes kindled and hands open in astonished glee before his body flopped on the track, tension escaping like air from a popped balloon after a job well done.
“I never thought in my career I would achieve something like this,” said Farah, who won 5,000m gold in 13min 26.98sec, a step ahead of Gebrhiwet and Koech who took silver and bronze in the same time of 13:27.26sec. “This was very tough – it was all left to the last two laps and I had a lot of pressure. It was hard this year, harder than last year.”

Jamaican Sprinter Usain Bolt Wins 100-Meter World Title as Lightning Strikes

By goodblacknews on August 12, 2013

A bolt of lightning strikes just after Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt wins the 100-meter title at the IAAF world championships in Moscow. (Olivier Morin / AFP/Getty Images / August 11, 2013)
A bolt of lightning strikes just after Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt wins the 100-meter title at the IAAF world championships in Moscow. (Olivier Morin / AFP/Getty Images / August 11, 2013)

Usain Bolt actually needed encouragement from the crowd to strike his famous “lightning bolt” pose after reclaiming the 100-meter world title on Sunday.  Maybe that’s because the usually ebullient Jamaican runner has found a new gimmick.  An incredible photo has surfaced, showing a bolt of lightning striking overhead at the IAAF world championships in Moscow just after Bolt crossed the finish line in 9.77 seconds, well ahead of American runner-up Justin Gatlin (9.85).

The race took place in a heavy downpour, which led to a slow start by Bolt, the two-time reigning Olympic champion and world record holder in the event.  But he quickly overtook Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist who upset Bolt during a meet in Rome earlier this year.  Bolt, who lost the world title two years ago due to a false start, did nothing flashy as he crossed the finish line or afterward, straying from the usual antics his fans have become accustomed to.
But, then again, Mother Nature seems to have taken care of that for him.
article by Chuck Schilken via latimes.com

Obama: Russia Has "Big Stake in Making Sure" Olympics Work for LGBT Community

By goodblacknews on August 8, 2013

1375839549000-AFP-521918111-1308062140_4_3In an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, President Barack Obama on Tuesday night said that he expected Russia to welcome gay and lesbian athletes to the 2014 Sochi Olympics because the country has “a big stake in making sure the Olympics work.”  The conversation stemmed from a question Leno asked about the treatment of the LGBT community in Russia, which Leno characterized as a place where “homosexuality is against the law.”
A top Russian government official recently stated that, even during the Olympics, the country would enforce a new law that prohibits “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations around minors.” The law, signed by Russian president Vladimir Putin in June, also bans public events that promote gay rights and public displays of affection by same-sex couples.
The International Olympic Committee has stated publicly that athletes and visitors attending the 2014 Sochi Games in Russia will not be affected by the anti-gay legislation.  “I mean, this seems like Germany,” Leno said. “Let’s round up the Jews, let’s round up the gays, let’s round up the blacks. I mean, it starts with that. You round up people who you don’t — I mean, why is not more of the world outraged at this?”
President Obama responded that he had “no patience for countries that try to treat gays or lesbians or transgender persons in ways that intimidate them or are harmful to them.”

EU presses Malta to Accept African Migrants at Sea

By goodblacknews on August 6, 2013

Migrants freshly arrived in at Delimara, Malta, 4 August
More than 100 migrants arrived in Malta on a dinghy on Sunday

The European Commission has urged Malta to allow 102 African migrants rescued from the sea by a tanker to enter its territory.  It said the EU state had a humanitarian duty to take in the migrants, who were rescued off the coast of Libya.
Among those rescued are an injured woman, four pregnant women and a five-month-old baby.  The Italian navy had asked the ship to take the migrants to Libya, the nearest land, but it disregarded the request.  The tiny island state receives thousands of illegal migrants heading to Europe each year.
Hours before the latest incident, 111 mainly African migrants arrived in a rubber dinghy at Delimara, on the south-east coast.  In the latest incident, the European Commission said that since the ship was now closest to Malta, the island must allow the migrants to disembark as soon as possible.
Any dispute over which country should legally take them should be resolved later, it argued. The immediate concern was to save lives.  The master of the tanker M/V Salamis is credited with saving the migrants’ lives but the Maltese authorities are refusing to let the ship dock.

Malta says the migrants are in no danger or distress though the ship’s master has issued an urgent medical request saying one injured woman needs to be taken immediately to hospital.
The Maltese government said a patrolling Italian navy ship had ordered the Salamis to take the migrants to the nearest available port, in this case in Libya.
“The government told the ship’s captain that since he had ignored the instructions given him [by the Italian navy], he had been forbidden to enter Maltese waters,” a statement said on Monday.  On Sunday the Italian navy rescued a group of at least 90 migrants trying to reach Europe from North Africa by boat, and brought them to the island of Lampedusa.  Last month, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy that the burden of immigration to the EU should not fall on its smallest member.
While Malta would do its compassionate duty, he added, it would not leave its doors open wide and “welcome boats from Libya and elsewhere as if nothing happened”.  “Call us harsh, call us heartless, but we are not pushovers,” the Maltese prime minister said.
article via bbc.co.uk

18 Year-Old Gabrielle Turnquest Becomes Youngest Ever to Pass Britain's Bar Exams

By goodblacknews on July 31, 2013
Teenager becomes youngest person to be called to the Bar
Gabrielle Turnquest

According to The Telegraph, American student Gabrielle Turnquest was called to the Bar of England and Wales after passing her exams at just 18, qualifying her as a barrister in those countries.  Turnquest is a native of Windermere, Florida who made news when she graduated from Liberty University of Virginia at 16, which made her that college’s youngest-ever graduate with a degree in psychology.   She most recently took courses at Britain’s University of Law along with her sister Kandi, who also passed her bar exams (she is 22).  The average lawyer in Britain undertakes the Bar Professional Training Course when they are 27.

The teenager hopes eventually to be a fashion law specialist and will also take the American Bar exam so she can practice law in the U.S.  But as her parents are originally from the Bahamas and the British exams cover that country as well, she may practice there for a time.  She said: “I am honored to be the youngest person to pass the Bar exams but, really, I was not aware at the time what the average age was.  I didn’t fully realize the impact of it.”
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson

Apple Acquires HopStop From Nigerian Entrepreneur Chinedu Echeruo

By goodblacknews on July 24, 2013

Chinedu EcheruoIn a bid to shore up its mobile and Web mapping infrastructure, Apple has confirmed a purchase of Nigerian entrepreneur Chinedu Echeruo‘s (pictured) HopStop.com application. With Google buying the Israel-based Waze map application for a reported $1.1 billion, it has been rumored that HopStop’s acquisition was worth a similar amount. But thus far, Apple has not revealed the terms of the deal.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal’s “All Things Digital” blog, HopStop empowers Apple’s map program by providing access to a portion of the mapping landscape it had yet to cover: mass transit directions. The move has been seen by many analysts as the tech-giant’s largest push to compete with the industry-leading Google Maps service. In fact, Google has been providing map data to Apple since 2007.
As an entrepreneur, Echeruo has founded both HopStop and Tripology, after stints working as an analyst for J.P. Morgan Chase. Echeruo also made his mark in the hedge fund world, working for AM Investment Partners for a time. Echeruo grew up in Eastern Nigeria and was a student at Kings College in Lagos. He later came to the States to attend Syracuse University and Harvard Business School before founding his businesses.

Serena Williams Defeats Johanna Larsson to Win Swedish Open

By goodblacknews on July 22, 2013
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Serena Williams reacts during her victory over Johanna Larsson, 6-4, 6-1, in the final of the Swedish Open on Sunday.(Bjorn Larsson Rosvall / Getty Images / July 21, 2013)
Serena Williams won her 53rd WTA title by beating Johanna Larsson, 6-4, 6-1, in the final of the Swedish Open on Sunday at Bastad. The 24-year-old Swede broke to lead 3-1 in the first set before Williams fought back to 3-3. Larsson advanced to 4-3 before caving in to the American’s strong serve and losing the next three games.  Williams dominated the second set, breaking Larsson’s serve twice.  Williams also defeated 76th-ranked Larsson in their only previous match in the Fed Cup earlier this year.
article via latimes.com