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page 24 UGANDA Uganda: Opposition candidate briefly arrested after voting The main opposition candidate for president in Uganda was briefly arrested late Thursday, his aide said, as vote counting started in presidential and parliamentary polls marred by the late arrival of voting materials. Kizza Besigye was arrested in the Kampala suburb of Naguru, where he […]

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UGANDA

Uganda: Opposition candidate briefly arrested after voting

The main opposition candidate for president in Uganda was briefly arrested late Thursday, his aide said, as vote counting started in presidential and parliamentary polls marred by the late arrival of voting materials.

Kizza Besigye was arrested in the Kampala suburb of Naguru, where he had gone to investigate alleged ballot-stuffing in a house run by the intelligence agencies, said Shawn Mubiru, who is in charge of communications for Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change party.

Besigye is Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s main challenger in the polls, in which six other opposition candidates are also standing.

Besigye’s supporters said the delays were deliberate and were aimed at favouring Museveni, whose rival is popular in Kampala.

The head of the Commonwealth Observer Group, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, called the long delays “absolutely inexcusable.”

Several dozen polling stations never opened on Thursday, and the election commission late Thursday said they would be open on Friday

The government also shut down access to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.

IRAQ

IS Camp Speicher massacre: Iraq sentences 40 to death

Iraq has sentenced 40 men to death over the killing of up to 1,700 military recruits at a former US base in 2014.

The Camp Speicher massacre was carried out by fighters from the so-called Islamic State (IS) group as they seized territory across northern Iraq.

Outrage over the massacre of the mostly Shia cadets helped mobilise Iraq’s Shia militias in the fight against IS.

Many of those sentenced were appealing against earlier rulings. Rights groups have criticised the trials. IS released photos and video documenting the massacre in 2014.

Mass graves were discovered when Iraqi government forces recaptured the area, including the nearby town of Tikrit, in 2015.

UNITED STATES

U.S. adds visa restrictions to Yemen, Somalia, Libya travellers

The United States has added Yemen, Somalia and Libya as “countries of concern” under its visa waiver program, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday, in a move that will make U.S. visa procedures more stringent for individuals who have visited those nations during the past five years.

The new restrictions were imposed under a law passed after the November attacks in Paris attributed to Islamic State. Citizens of U.S. allies who previously had been able to travel to the United States without first obtaining a visa now will have to apply to U.S. consulates for such visas if they have traveled to those designated countries in the past five years.

The Homeland Security Department said the new requirements will not automatically affect nationals from visa-waiver countries who also are dual nationals of Yemen, Somalia and Libya.

The department said that under the new procedures, the Homeland Security secretary can waive the more stringent visa requirements on a case-by-case basis. Such waivers would primarily be available to journalists or individuals traveling on behalf of international organizations or humanitarian groups, the department said.

RUSSIA

Russia warns Assad not to snub Syria ceasefire plan

President Bashar al-Assad was out of step with the views of his main ally, Russia, when he said he planned to fight on until he re-established control over all of Syria, Russia’s envoy to the United Nations was quoted as saying on Thursday.

In the first public sign of cracks in the alliance between Moscow and Damascus, the envoy, Vitaly Churkin, said Russia had helped Assad turn the tide of the war so it was now incumbent on him to follow Russia’s line and commit to peace talks.

Churkin said Russia was working toward a peaceful settlement for Syria, and that attempting to take back control over the whole country would be a futile exercise which would allow the conflict to drag on indefinitely.

Reacting to Assad’s comments that he would keep fighting until all rebels were defeated, Churkin said: “Russia has invested very seriously in this crisis, politically, diplomatically, and now also in the military sense. Therefore we of course would like that Bashar al Assad should take account of that.”

SYRIA

U.N. to air drop food to IS-besieged city in eastern Syria

The United Nations plans to make its first air drops of food and other aid in Syria, to Deir al-Zor, an eastern city of 200,000 besieged by Islamic State militants, the chair of a U.N. humanitarian task force said on Thursday.

U.N. aid agencies do not have direct access to areas held by Islamic State, including the city, where civilians face severe food shortages and sharply deteriorating conditions.

Speaking a day after U.N. road convoys reached five areas, some besieged by government forces and others by rebels, Jan Egeland said the organization’s World Food Programme (WFP) had a “concrete plan” for carrying out the Deir al-Zor drop in coming days.

“It’s a complicated operation and would be in many ways the first of its kind,” he told reporters in Geneva.

Egeland, who is head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said: “It is either airdrops or nothing. Airdrops are a desperate measure in desperate times.”

UK

EU referendum: David Cameron ‘battling for Britain’ at summit

David Cameron said he was “battling for Britain” as he arrived in Brussels for a crucial EU summit.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has said he is “quite confident” European leaders can reach a deal with Britain over its future membership of the EU.

Mr Cameron aims to return with a reform package he can put to the British people in a referendum in June.

But he faces resistance to some of his key demands from other EU leaders.

Mr Cameron said: “We’ve got some important work to do today and tomorrow and it’s going to be hard.

“I’ll be battling for Britain. If we can get a good deal I’ll take that deal. But I will not take a deal that doesn’t meet what we need. I think it’s much more important to get this right than to do anything in a rush. But with goodwill, with hard work, we can get a better deal for Britain.”

MEXICO

Pope Francis questions Donald Trump’s Christianity

The Pope has questioned US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s Christianity over his call to build a border wall with Mexico.

Pope Francis made the comments at the end of a trip to Mexico. “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not of building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the gospel,” he said.

The New York businessman supports deporting nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants.

Calling himself a “proud Christian”, Mr Trump blamed Mexico for the Pope’s remarks, calling them “disgraceful”. Mr Trump has alleged that Mexico sends “rapists” and criminals to the US.

INDIA

India protest march against ‘sedition’ arrest of student leader

Thousands of supporters of a student leader from a top Indian university have marched to protest against his arrest on sedition charges.

The rallies against Mr Kumar’s arrest took place in cities across India. Organisers said about 10,000 people gathered in the capital Delhi.

Kanhaiya Kumar has been remanded in custody until 2 March. Anger is running high after Mr Kumar was beaten up by lawyers when he was brought to court on Wednesday.

Mr Kumar was arrested after organising a rally against the 2013 hanging of Mohammed Afzal Guru at which anti-India slogans were allegedly raised.

Afzal Guru was convicted over a 2001 plot to attack India’s parliament – charges he always denied. The attack was carried out by Kashmiri militants and left 14 people dead.

TURKEY

Ankara blast: Turkey accuses Syria Kurds of deadly attack

Turkey’s president says there is evidence to prove the Kurdish YPG militia based in Syria were behind Wednesday’s deadly bombing in Ankara.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said they had been supported by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey. Both groups deny involvement.

He also said there had been 14 arrests over the attack on the military convoy.

Earlier on Thursday, another convoy in south-east Turkey was hit by a bomb, killing at least six troops.

Wednesday’s bombing in Ankara targeted the convoy as it passed close to key government buildings. Twenty-eight people – at least 20 of them military personnel- were killed and 61 injured.

EGYPT

Egypt to shut prominent centre that documents torture

Egypt has ordered the closure of the country’s last remaining centre for the treatment and documentation of alleged torture victims.

Officials have said the prominent El Nadeem centre had breached unspecified health ministry regulations.

But the centre’s director said the decision was “politically motivated”.

Rights groups have criticised Egypt’s government for its crackdown on dissent, and there has been a surge in allegations of torture by officials.

The Cairo-based El Nadeem centre has operated since 1993, providing support and counselling to victims of torture.

Aida Seif al-Dawla, the organisation’s director, said the group had been given until Monday to close but had vowed to defy the order.