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page 24 S/AFRICA Opposition MPs ejected from parliament for heckling Zuma A brawl broke out in the South African parliament on Wednesday after security officers were ordered to forcibly remove opposition MPs from the chamber. Several punches were thrown as members of the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) were expelled for heckling President Jacob Zuma. […]
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S/AFRICA
Opposition MPs ejected from parliament for heckling Zuma
A brawl broke out in the South African parliament on Wednesday after security officers were ordered to forcibly remove opposition MPs from the chamber.
Several punches were thrown as members of the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) were expelled for heckling President Jacob Zuma.
It was Mr Zuma’s first appearance in parliament since two damning court rulings against him.
Mmusi Maimane, leader of the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), was forced to withdraw his description in parliament of Mr Zuma as the “looter-in-chief”, following objections from the governing African National Congress (ANC) benches.
ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu said Mr Zuma had “not been found to have looted anything anywhere, by any court of law”.
EFF MPs had earlier denounced Mr Zuma as an “illegitimate” ruler who should step down.
EU
EU plans penalties for refusing asylum seekers
The European Commission has proposed reforms to EU asylum rules that would see stiff financial penalties imposed on countries refusing to take their share of asylum seekers.
The bloc’s executive body is planning a sanction of €250,000 (£200,000; $290,000) per person.
The Commission wants changes made to an asylum system which has buckled amid an influx of migrants. The plans would require support from most member states as well as MEPs.
EU officials hope that, twinned with a deal with Turkey that has already reduced migrant numbers, tensions over migration within the bloc can be reduced.
The basic Dublin regulation would be kept, requiring refugees to claim asylum in the member state in which they arrive.
However, there would be several changes, including plans to help countries receiving “disproportionate numbers” of asylum claims.
BRAZIL
Senate report recommends Rousseff impeachment trial
The senator charged with studying President Rousseff’s impeachment recommended on Wednesday that she be put on trial for breaking budget laws, bringing the embattled leftist leader one step closer to suspension from office.
Senator Antonio Anastasia presented his findings to a 21-member Senate impeachment committee, which is expected to vote overwhelmingly on Friday to send his recommendation to the full chamber.
The Senate is due to vote on May 11 to try Rousseff, at which point she will be automatically suspended pending a trial that could last up to 180 days. Vice President Michel Temer will take over as acting president and, if Rousseff is convicted, he would serve out the remainder of her term through 2018.
SYRIA
U.S., Russia agree to extend ceasefire to Aleppo
The United States and Russia have agreed to extend a cessation of hostilities in Syria to include Aleppo province and will coordinate to strengthen monitoring of the new arrangement, the State Department said on Wednesday.
It is critical that Russia redoubles efforts to press Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to comply with the new arrangement while Washington does its part with Syrian opposition forces, department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement.
“Our objective remains, and has always been, a single nationwide cessation of hostilities covering all of Syria – not a series of local truces,” Toner said.
Since the cessation of hostilities went into effect at midnight in Syria, “we have seen an overall decrease in violence in these areas, even though there have been reports of continued fighting in some locations,” Toner said.
Aleppo has been the scene of the worst surge in fighting in recent days, wrecking the first major ceasefire of the five-year-old civil war, sponsored by the United States and Russia, which had held since February.
YEMEN
Warring parties resume peace talks in Kuwait
Yemen’s warring parties have resumed face-to-face peace talks three days after a walkout by the government delegation, according to the United Nations.
It is only the second round of face-to-face talks in the hard-won negotiations to end a conflict that has killed more than 6,400 people and forced 2.8 million from their homes since March last year.
“The joint work session has started to follow up with the agreed agenda,” Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, UN Special Envoy for Yemen, said on Twitter on Wednesday.
The negotiations, which began on April 21, broke up on Sunday after the government delegation quit in protest at the apparent surrender of one of the few loyalist bases in the northern mountains to Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the two sides had agreed that a monitoring committee supervising a ceasefire would launch a fact-finding mission into the takeover of the al-Amaliqa base in Amran province.
UNITED STATES
US 2016: Last Republican Trump rival, ‘quits race’
Ohio Governor John Kasich has dropped out of the presidential race after struggling to gain traction against Republican front-runner Donald Trump, US media report.
Mr Kasich did not have a path to secure the nomination outright, but pledged to lobby for his candidacy during the Republican convention in July.
Mr Trump holds a commanding lead and is closing in on the nomination.
Despite being a popular governor, Kasich only won his home state.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz dropped out of the race on Tuesday after losing to Mr Trump in the Indiana primary.
Mr Kasich cancelled events in Washington and announced an evening event in his home state on Wednesday.
Earlier on Wednesday, he released a Star-Wars themed advert describing himself as the “only hope” against Donald Trump.
PHILIPPINES
Abu Sayyaf hostages in Philippines make video plea
Three hostages being held by militants in the Philippines have appeared in a video pleading for their governments to meet the captors’ demands.
The Canadian, Norwegian and Filipino men are being held by Abu Sayyaf, the Islamist militant separatists who last week beheaded Canadian John Ridsdel.
In the video, the hostages say if the demands are not met “we will be executed like our friend John”.
Abu Sayyaf has previously demanded a multi-million dollar ransom.
The Philippines and Canadian government have said they will not give in to ransom demands. The Philippines has also launched a military operation against the militant group.
Mr Ridsdel was kidnapped from a marina near the city of Davao last September along with another Canadian, Robert Hall, his Filipina partner Marites Flor, and Kjartan Sekkingstad, a Norwegian.
They were taken to an Abu Sayyaf stronghold of the remote island of Jolo where Mr Ridsdel was killed on 25 April after a ransom deadline passed.
CANADA
1,600 Fort McMurray buildings wrecked in wildfire
A wildfire has brought “significant destruction” to the Canadian city of Fort McMurray, with 1,600 structures affected, the premier of the province of Alberta says.
Rachel Notley said the fire was still on the move, with more communities, including the airport area, in danger.
Fire services said the high winds and hot temperatures would make Wednesday an “even worse day” than Tuesday.
Some 80,000 residents have been evacuated, with no injuries reported.
Ms Notley said that the fire had moved north and east across the city and that if the winds behaved as predicted, the blaze would move into the Thickwood and Timberlea communities, as well as the area around the airport.
KENYA
Court to hear case against alleged gay anal examinations
Two men are seeking a Kenyan court ruling declaring enforced anal examinations unconstitutional after they were subjected to such tests last year to see if they had been involved in gay sex, the men’s lawyer said.
Rights activists have condemned the examinations as inhuman and humiliating.
Kenya, like many African nations, outlaws homosexuality. The law calls for jailing those involved in homosexual acts, but violations are rarely prosecuted.
In court papers filed in September, the two men, whose names have not been made public, alleged they were coerced into undergoing anal examination by security personnel and a public hospital in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa in February 2015.
EGYPT
Journalists’ union cordoned off in crackdown
Egyptian riot police have cordoned off the headquarters of the journalists’ union and limited access to the building in an escalating standoff following a raid on the premises and the arrest of two journalists.
Hundreds of journalists rallied on the steps outside the union headquarters on Wednesday, chanting “Journalism is not a crime!” and demanding the dismissal of the country’s Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar.
The protests are the latest in a series of demonstrations against the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, which has banned virtually all protests and carried out a wide-ranging crackdown on dissent.