33 rescued lions flown from Peru to S. Africa

Yahoo – AFP, Moises Avila, April 30, 2016

The lions, with names such as Zeus and Shakira, were freed after the use of
wild animals in circuses was outlawed in Peru in 2011 and Colombia in 2013
(AFP Photo/Cris Bouroncle)

Lima (AFP) - More than 30 lions rescued from abuse in Peruvian and Colombian circuses were flown Friday to South Africa, in what campaigners called the largest-ever airlift of big cats.

The 33 lions, with names such as Zeus and Shakira, were freed after the use of wild animals in circuses was outlawed in Peru in 2011 and Colombia in 2013.

The Colombian circuses gave up the

 lions voluntarily but police had to launch

 raids to free the lions in Peru (AFP

Photo/Cris Bouroncle)

Saved from the lion tamer's whip, they have been rounded up with the help of authorities by Animal Defenders International (ADI), an animal rights charity.

"It's truly wonderful that these lions, after a lifetime of suffering and abuse in circuses, are going home to Africa," said the president of ADI, Jan Creamer.

"All of the lions when they arrive from the circuses have health problems, parasites, disease," she added.

"All of their lives they haven't had enough food, so they have long-term malnutrition problems."

Recent months have been spent in straw-lined cages in a refuge north of Lima, however, they have been well fed and are in generally good health, Creamer said.

Twenty-four lions rescued in Peru were driven from their temporary rescue center to Lima airport to be picked up by a cargo plane that brought another nine over from Colombia.

Late Friday, the airlift took off, transporting the big cats to their new life.

"We are on our way!" read a post on the ADI website.

"The 33 lions are on board the ADI Spirit Of Freedom Flight, on route to their wonderful new lives at Emoya Big Cat Sanctuary, South Africa."

Graphic, including map, illustrating how lions from circuses in Peru and

 Colombia are to be released into a game park in South Africa (AFP Photo/

Tamara Hoha)

The contingent of big cats includes Shakira, named after the Colombian pop singer. Her minders say she likes to play with a tire and eat watermelons.

From one of 10 Peruvian circuses comes "Ricardo, the one-eyed lion" and from another "Joseph, the almost-blind lion."

'Heading home to paradise'

Together, the 33 were to take a 15-hour flight to South Africa in travel cages inside the plane chartered by ADI.

They will arrive on Saturday in Johannesburg and be taken on to the Emoya Big Cat Sanctuary in the north of the country.

"The lions will be in their natural habitat for the first time in their lives," Creamer said. "They should fit right into that habitat. It's the best environment for them."

ADI says it is the biggest transfer of such large captive animals ever.

Workers carry a cage containing a former circus lion at the El Dorado Airport

 in Bogota, Colombia, April 29, 2016. Nine former circus lions will be taken to the

 Emoya Big Cat Sanctuary in South Africa where ADI (Animal Defenders 

International) officials said they will enjoy natural enclosures with drinking

pools, platforms and toys. Reuters/John Vizcaino

In the circuses the lions were poorly fed and trucked around in cages, the group said. The Colombian circuses gave up the nine lions voluntarily but police had to launch raids to free the lions in Peru.

The rescuers say that one of the Peru contingent, Smith, attacked a teacher from a school party when she was invited into his cage by a lion tamer.

"Almost all of the rescued lions have been mutilated to remove their claws, one has lost an eye, another is almost blind, and many have smashed and broken teeth so would not survive in the wild," ADI said in a statement.

At their new home, "the lions will enjoy large natural enclosures situated in pristine African bush, complete with drinking pools, platforms and toys," it added.

"The lion habitats will be steadily expanded over the coming months as the lions become familiar with their new life and are introduced to each other."

The cost of the transfer is $10,000 per cat, ADI said.

"These lions have endured hell on earth," Creamer said.

"Now they are heading home to paradise."

As the final lion boarded, we were ready to fly! https://t.co/saoaOdVjMh #lionsbacktoAfrica pic.twitter.com/2ZStgRJnEn

— ADI (@AnimalDefenders) April 29, 2016

Related Article:

Abused circus lions flown to new home in South African bush

#SpiritOfFreedomFlight is cleared for takeoff and we're off! Simba is taking a nap! https://t.co/saoaOdVjMh pic.twitter.com/eVrUB9Yq6Q

— ADI (@AnimalDefenders) April 29, 2016

Gabon president says giving inheritance to country's youth

Yahoo – AFP, 18 Aug 2015

President of Gabon, Ali Bongo Ondimba, attends a cycling event in Libreville,

in February 2015 (AFP Photo/Xavier Bourgois)

Libreville (AFP) - Gabon President Ali Bongo Ondimba said late Monday he would give "all his share of the inheritance" from his long-ruling father Omar Bongo Ondimba to "the Gabonese youth" in a speech marking the 55th anniversary of independence.

"I've decided with the full agreement of my wife Sylvia Bongo Ondimba and my children that my share of the inheritance will be shared with all Gabonese youth because in my eyes we are all heirs of Omar Bongo Ondimba," he said, after saying "no Gabonese must be left by the side of the road".

"All income from my part of the inheritance will be donated to a foundation for the youth and education," he said.

Gabonese President Omar Bongo 

Ondimba and his wife Josephine Bongo, 

pictured at Libreville airport, in 1983

(AFP Photo)

The president then announced that "on behalf of the children" of Omar Bongo, a property in Libreville near Camp de Gaulle would be transferred to the state for the establishment of a university.

He added that Bongo's children would give two properties in Paris that had belonged to the late president to the state for "a symbolic franc".

"These properties, which will become part of the heritage of the Gabonese state, will be assigned for diplomatic and cultural use," the president said.

"Those who were fortunate enough to have the support of their parents or the state must in turn be generous, in solidarity, especially in hard times," he said.

"I know my father, from where he is now, watches us and hears us. I also know that he approves this decision and gives us his blessing."

Ali Bongo assumed the presidency following the 2009 death of his father Omar Bongo, who had presided over the equatorial African nation and its oil and mineral wealth since 1967.

The of Omar Bongo's inheritance, which is to be split between 53 declared heirs, has not been settled.

The extent of his legacy has not been fully figured out but the assets identified so far are worth several hundred million euros (dollars).

Two French judges have been probing the source of money spent in France on luxury homes and mansions by Omar Bongo, Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema and Congo-Brazzaville's President Denis Sassou Nguesso.

The charges were brought by Transparency International, an anti-corruption campaign group, which alleges several African leaders and their relatives spent state funds from their countries on lavish purchases in France.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal answers questions during a 2011 press

conference in Riyadh (AFP Photo/Fayez Nureldine)

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"The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Text-Version)

" .... Africa

Let me tell you where else it's happening that you are unaware - that which is the beginning of the unity of the African states. Soon the continent will have what they never had before, and when that continent is healed and there is no AIDS and no major disease, they're going to want what you have. They're going to want houses and schools and an economy that works without corruption. They will be done with small-minded leaders who kill their populations for power in what has been called for generations "The History of Africa." Soon it will be the end of history in Africa, and a new continent will emerge.

Be aware that the strength may not come from the expected areas, for new leadership is brewing. There is so much land there and the population is so ready there, it will be one of the strongest economies on the planet within two generations plus 20 years. And it's going to happen because of a unifying idea put together by a few. These are the potentials of the planet, and the end of history as you know it.

In approximately 70 years, there will be a black man who leads this African continent into affluence and peace. He won't be a president, but rather a planner and a revolutionary economic thinker. He, and a strong woman with him, will implement the plan continent-wide. They will unite. This is the potential and this is the plan. Africa will arise out the ashes of centuries of disease and despair and create a viable economic force with workers who can create good products for the day. You think China is economically strong? China must do what it does, hobbled by the secrecy and bias of the old ways of its own history. As large as it is, it will have to eventually compete with Africa, a land of free thinkers and fast change. China will have a major competitor, one that doesn't have any cultural barriers to the advancement of the free Human spirit.. ...."

African Union vows Ebola fund as Oxfam calls for 'Marshall Plan'

Yahoo - AFP, 28 Jan 2015

Medical workers spray their protective gear at an Ebola treatment centre in

Monrovia on December 19, 2014 (AFP Photo/Evan Schneider)

Addis Ababa (AFP) - The African Union plans to launch an Ebola fund and disease control centre, officials said Wednesday, as aid agency Oxfam warned leaders needed to keep their promises to boost healthcare systems on the continent.

Oxfam called for a "massive post-Ebola Marshall Plan", referring to the United States aid package to rebuild Europe after World War II.

"This disaster might have been avoided if African governments had made free public health care and spent more on their health systems, under the commitment they made 14 years ago in the Abuja Declaration," Oxfam said in a statement.

"It's clear that Africa's existing architecture for early disease detection, response and control is wholly inadequate," the aid agency added.

AU Commissioner for Social Affairs Mustapha Sidiki Kaloko on Wednesday said an African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention would be set up by mid-2015.

"It is a reality, it is going to happen," Kaloko said, with the first phase concentrating on setting up "an early warning system" for the detection of epidemics. "We should be ready the next time. We shouldn't be caught unprepared."

However, its exact location remains undecided.

"We will start with a coordination centre within the AU and then set up up to eight regional centres," Kaloko added.

The AU Ebola Solidarity fund will be launched on Friday during a summit meeting for leaders of the 54-member bloc, which has already sent hundreds of health workers as part of its mission to tackle the outbreak in west Africa.

In November, the AU, African Development Bank and regional business leaders set up a crisis fund to help areas hit by the Ebola outbreak, with some $28 million pledged.

"It is time for Africa to mobilise its own resources in support of its development and take charge of its own destiny," AU chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said Wednesday.

The worst outbreak of the virus in history has seen nearly 9,000 deaths in a year -- almost all in the three west African countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone -- and sparked a major health scare worldwide.

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"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“… PHASE THREE

The years 2013 to 2025 are the final phase. I tell you now that these things are going to sound too grand. What I give you now are only potentials and you may hear them and say, "Well, those are just potentials. They're too grand. Those things can't happen." Go back with me 20 years. All the potentials I gave you in 1989 took place. They took place because that was what was within the potentials. It was a reading of humanity within your consciousness. So I do it again, now. These are the potentials for the final phase of the Great Shift.

The first one is the adjustment of actual Human societal thinking. It represents the energies in the way you work and think. These are the kind of things a sociologist would study. Let me give it another name: It's an actual shift to a higher vibration of Human nature. "Kryon, that's impossible. Human nature is Human nature. We can't change it." Well, you've already begun it. You're starting to clean up your financial institutions worldwide. Did you notice? Dear ones, if anyone had ever told you 30 years ago that you were going to clean up your financial institutions, they would have laughed. For don't you know the way society works? Those who have the money win. Banks hold all the cards, and they are run by the those in high places. They are untouchable, since the government is often the same people! Well, why don't you tell them that today. Look around you, because something just happened. It's not working that way, is it? What would make the difference? Consciousness. A new paradigm. You can see it in the news.

Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013. They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader. Remember where you heard it... in a strange, esoteric meeting with a guy in a chair pretending to channel. [Kryon being factious... Kryon humor] Then when you hear it, you'll know better, won't you? "Maybe there was something really there," you'll say. "Maybe it was real," you'll say. Perhaps you can skip all the drama of the years to come and consider that now? [Kryon humor again]

These leaders are going to fall over. You'll have a slow developing leadership coming to you all over the earth where there is a new energy of caring about the public. "That's just too much to ask for in politics, Kryon." Watch for it. That's just the beginning of this last phase. So many things are coming. The next one is related to this, for a country in survival with sickness cannot sustain a leadership of high consciousness. There is just too much opportunity for power and greed. But when a continent is healed, everything changes.

The next one: You're going to heal a continent. Watch for it. It begins. Watch for major shift in Africa. We have said this before, even within the meetings I spoke in what you call the United Nations. Africa has never even been a potential player in the economic field, because it has been sick. What happens when you heal a continent? I'm going to tell you. Suddenly, the people on that continent also want what you have - government that works, peace, their own homes, schools, hospitals, and even banks where they can borrow from. They don't have any of those now, not really. Everything with substance is from somewhere else. That means you're going to have a continent that's going to arise that will become a major player on the stage of Earth's finances and political influence - an entire continent with all the resources on it, with even the potential for unification of common purpose, much like what you have now in your EU. I'm giving you information, and when it happens, again, I say you'll remember where you heard it.

Many years ago, the prevailing thought was that nobody should consider China as a viable player on the economic stage. They were backward, filled with a system that would never be westernized, and had no wish to become joined with the rest of the world's economic systems. Look what has happened in only 30 years. Now, look at Africa differently.   …”

"The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Text-Version)

" .... Africa

Let me tell you where else it's happening that you are unaware - that which is the beginning of the unity of the African states. Soon the continent will have what they never had before, and when that continent is healed and there is no AIDS and no major disease, they're going to want what you have. They're going to want houses and schools and an economy that works without corruption. They will be done with small-minded leaders who kill their populations for power in what has been called for generations "The History of Africa." Soon it will be the end of history in Africa, and a new continent will emerge.

Be aware that the strength may not come from the expected areas, for new leadership is brewing. There is so much land there and the population is so ready there, it will be one of the strongest economies on the planet within two generations plus 20 years. And it's going to happen because of a unifying idea put together by a few. These are the potentials of the planet, and the end of history as you know it.

In approximately 70 years, there will be a black man who leads this African continent into affluence and peace. He won't be a president, but rather a planner and a revolutionary economic thinker. He, and a strong woman with him, will implement the plan continent-wide. They will unite. This is the potential and this is the plan. Africa will arise out the ashes of centuries of disease and despair and create a viable economic force with workers who can create good products for the day. You think China is economically strong? China must do what it does, hobbled by the secrecy and bias of the old ways of its own history. As large as it is, it will have to eventually compete with Africa, a land of free thinkers and fast change. China will have a major competitor, one that doesn't have any cultural barriers to the advancement of the free Human spirit.. ...."

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version) 

“… The Future of the Illuminati

Now, I want to tell you something that you didn't expect and something I've reported only one other time. What about all of the money that the Illuminati has? There are trillions and trillions of euro in banks, under their control, waiting. What are they going to do with it and where are they going to use it? It's still here. They're waiting.

This group is waiting for something to happen that they know is going to happen, for they see it coming as much as I do. However, I would like to tell you something that they don't expect. With awareness comes generational shift. Those in charge of this money will not always be elders. The indigos eventually will have it.

They are waiting for something to happen in Africa - the building of a new civilization, a continent that has nothing to unlearn. Once Africa is cured, once it's ready, a new civilization can be created from the ground up. Africans will be ready to learn everything about building a foundation for the most advanced civilization ever and will do it with the most modern and inventive systems available. Eventually, this new continent will even beat the economics of China.

This is the prediction and always has been, and the Illuminati's money will fund it. Did I say the Illuminati will fund it? [Kryon laugh] The Illuminati's money will fund it, but there is a difference from the past, dear ones. The ones who inherit the positions in the Illuminati will be a different consciousness. Listen, they are not suddenly going to be the ones who have the good of everyone in their hearts - hardly. They want to make money, but what they will see instead is a way to make a great deal of money through this investment. In the process, it will automatically help hundreds of thousands, and they will be at the beginning, the foundation, that builds the new Africa. The new African states of unification eventually will create a continent stronger than any of the others, and it will have one currency. The resources alone will dwarf anything in the world. ...”

Star-Gazing Tourists Flock to Africa’s Darkest Place

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Andrew Beatty, Dec 07, 2014

Active regions on the sun combine to look something like a jack-o-lantern's face,
 as pictured in this image provided by NASA on Oct. 8, 2014. In addition to the Namib
 desert, Hawaii and Chile have become renowned as astro-tourism hot spots,
according to AFP. (Reuters Photo/NASA/Handout)

The Namib Desert, Namibia. Not many tourist spots boast of being dark and difficult to get to, but the Namib desert is one of a number of remote “Dark Sky Reserves” drawing in stargazers for a celestial safari.

In the cool night air, an urbane Austrian tourist climbs rocky steps behind a chic hotel lodge and peers into a matte-black metal cylinder containing a spine of mirrors and lenses that reveal the universe.

“My mum wanted to set him on fire yesterday when he said, ‘We are looking ten million years in the past!’” he joked, pointing at the resident astronomer.

Not everyone is ready to face the enormity of the universe laid out so starkly by powerful magnification and the crisp desert sky.

But across the starkly beautiful Namib, hotels and lodges are betting that the stars will lead to more business rather than a spike in Galileo-esque witch hunts.

Many lodges have bought research-grade or “prosumer” telescopes and hired live-in astronomers as they try to lure tourists who want to gaze deeper into space and time.

According to consultancy Euromonitor, astro-tourism holidays are growing in line with increased urbanization, with Africa in particular “taking off”.

“Most people come here for the other activities, visiting the dunes or the nature reserve where you see all the wildlife. This is kind of a bonus,” said Misha Vickas, formerly a guide at a public observatory in Sydney, but now resident at the AndBeyond Sossusvlei Desert Lodge.

“Most people have never looked through a telescope and a lot of them have just never looked up.”

Vickas operates a “go-to” telescope, a device which, once calibrated, pivots on demand to any star or planet with little more than a mechanical hum and whir.

Not that a telescope is really needed in the Namib.

Across as much as 50 percent of the Earth the starry firmament is obscured by an orange glow of man-made light pollution.

During the day, the Namib’s sea of copper red and ecru yellow dunes and mountains glow blindingly, befitting the world’s oldest desert.

But in the inky night sky, the Milky Way seems much closer than Windhoek, a half day’s drive away across dirt track and sun-rippled single-lane carriageway.

Mars’s red glow, Magellanic clouds — dwarf galaxies outside our own — and assorted gaseous nebulae are all visible with the naked eye.

“The sky is particularly good to look at here, because the Milky Way, which is the main part of our galaxy, is usually very high overhead,” meaning light refraction is at a minimum, Vickas said.

“There is a lot to look at.”

Darkest places on earth

In 2012, a sliver of the central Namib the size of Mauritius — the NamibRand — was named Africa’s first “Dark Sky Reserve,” in recognition of the sky’s special allure here.

A handful of similar sites exist across the world, including Aoraki Mackenzie on New Zealand’s South Island and the Iveragh Peninsula on Ireland’s southwest coast.

Hawaii and Chile have also become renowned as astro-tourism hot spots.

“The darkest places are almost inevitably distant from populated places,” said John Barentine of the Arizona-based International Dark-Sky Association, which awards the designation.

“The glow of cities can often be seen several hundred kilometers away under good conditions.”

To rank sky quality, scientists use measurements like the Bortle scale.

An inner city is level nine, meaning you can see very little. Bright constellations like Orion may be faint or even invisible.

At the other end of the scale, in a first-class sky like the Namib, Venus and Jupiter shine bright, a white swathe of zodiacal light smears the sky.

Like parts of Chile, the Namib’s good weather and ultra-dry atmosphere make for clear nights and particularly transparent air all the way to the horizon.

“A visitor to NamibRand has a statistically high probability of experiencing that exceptionally dark sky on any given night,” Barentine said.

Namibia has just over two million people spread over an area roughly the size of Pakistan or Nigeria, making it one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world.

“NamibRand is located in one of the darkest accessible places that remain on Earth,” said Barentine.

“It is as close as you get to the way the world was long ago, before the invention and proliferation of artificial lights.”

That may be the only thing this remote region is close to — thankfully for stargazing tourists.

Agence France-Presse