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page 30 ZIMBABWE Zimbabwe to ban child marriages Zimbabwe will make it an offence for parents to reach a customary marriage arrangement on behalf of children below the age of 18 years, Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said, the state-owned Herald newspaper reports. Parents would also be banned from agreeing to a bride price before their […]

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ZIMBABWE

Zimbabwe to ban child marriages

Zimbabwe will make it an offence for parents to reach a customary marriage arrangement on behalf of children below the age of 18 years, Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said, the state-owned Herald newspaper reports.

Parents would also be banned from agreeing to a bride price before their children turn 18, he added.

The government would not wait for a Constitutional Court ruling outlawing child marriages, and had already identified legislation which needed to be changed, Mr Mnangagwa is quoted as saying.

A clause in the Marriage Act, allowing for the marriage of minors with the consent of their guardians or a court, would be repealed, he said.

The Customary Act, which was silent on child marriages, would be amended to include a clause prohibiting it, the vice-president added.

MOROCCO

Western Sahara: Morocco threat over UN peacekeepers

Morocco has threatened to pull its soldiers out of UN global peacekeeping missions in a row over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

It is furious with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon after he used the term “occupation” about the territory, which was annexed by Morocco in 1975.

The foreign ministry also said it would immediately cut funding and personnel for the UN Mission in Western Sahara.

A statement from the foreign ministry said it was “examining the ways and means of withdrawing Moroccan contingents engaged in peacekeeping operations”.

Mr Ban has criticised Morocco for its angry response to his comments and said that the protests had shown disrespect to both him and the UN.

FRANCE

Four held amid France attack plot fears

Four people have been arrested in the Paris area as part of a wider investigation into a possible plot against French targets, officials say.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said they had information to suggest one of those arrested “could undertake violent actions in France”.

But he played down French media reports that an attack was imminent.

France remains on high alert after the jihadist attacks in Paris in November that killed 130 people.

More than 100 people were wounded in a series of shootings and suicide bombings that targeted a concert hall, major stadium, restaurants and bars over the course of a Friday evening.

UNITED STATES

Obama picks Garland as Supreme Court nominee

President Barack Obama has nominated veteran appeals court judge Merrick Garland to be the next US Supreme Court Justice.

The Supreme Court vacancy follows the death of Antonin Scalia last month.

Judge Garland, 63, is viewed as a moderate and has won praise from senior Republican figures.

The appointment has to be ratified by the Senate, but its Republican majority earlier vowed to block a vote on any Supreme Court nominee from Mr Obama.

Republicans have called on the president to leave the nomination to his successor, who will be elected in November.

The death of Justice Scalia, a staunch conservative, left the nine-member Supreme Court evenly divided between conservatives and liberals.

SYRIA

Syria Kurds expected to declare federal system

Kurdish-led parties meeting in northern Syria are expected to declare a new federal system in areas under their control, Kurdish officials said on Wednesday.

The move, which would expand an already existing system of self-administration, is likely to anger Turkey which is wary of any bid by Syrian Kurds to solidify their autonomy and their control of territory.

Kurdish groups, which hold large stretches of northern Syria, have been excluded from ongoing peace talks in Geneva aimed at ending the country’s five-year conflict.

More than 150 delegates from Kurdish, Arab, Assyrian and other parties met Wednesday in the town of Rmeilan, in Syria’s northeastern Hasakeh province.

S/AFRICA

Zuma friends offered ministerial job

South Africa’s deputy finance minister has confirmed reports alleging that he was offered the position of finance minister by a member of the wealthy and controversial Gupta family.

Mcebisi Jonas says he rejected the offer, calling it “a mockery of our hard-earned democracy”.

The opposition has long accused President Jacob Zuma of letting the Guptas wield excessive influence.

The Indian-born family dismissed the allegations as political game-playing.

In 2013, there was a scandal after a private jet carrying guests to the wedding of a Gupta family member was allowed to land at a South African military air force base in Pretoria.

BRAZIL

Brazil president names predecessor Lula chief of staff

Brazil President Dilma Rousseff has appointed her predecessor Luiz Inacio ‘Lula’ da Silva as chief of staff, according to a senior Congress official.

It is a move that could help Lula avoid possible detention in expanding corruption investigation that have now touched the top of Brazil’s political leadership.

The head of the government coalition in the lower house of Congress, Jose Guimaraes, confirmed the appointment on Twitter after a meeting of Rousseff, Lula and senior ministers on Wednesday morning.

The move offers Lula short-term protection from prosecutors who have charged him with money laundering and fraud.

NORTH KOREA

U.S. student sentenced to 15 years hard labour in North Korea

North Korea’s Supreme Court sentenced American student Otto Warmbier, who was arrested while visiting the country, to 15 years of hard labour on Wednesday for crimes against the state.

Warmbier, a 21-year-old University of Virginia student, was detained in January for trying to steal an item bearing a propaganda slogan from his hotel in Pyongyang, North Korean media said previously.

“The accused confessed to the serious offense against the DPRK he had committed, pursuant to the U.S. government’s hostile policy toward it, in a bid to impair the unity of its people after entering it as a tourist,” the state-controlled KCNA news agency reported.

BOTSWANA

Botswana’s top court rejects gov’t bid to ban gay rights group

Botswana’s highest court on Wednesday rejected an attempt by the government to ban a gay rights lobby group, providing a rare victory for African gay rights campaigners on a continent where homosexuality remains highly contentious.

The president of the Court of Appeals, Judge Ian Kirby, upheld a 2014 lower court judgment that the Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana should be allowed to register and campaign for changes in anti-gay legislation.

“It is clear that the government’s decision (to seek the ban) interferes in the most fundamental way with the respondents’ right to form an association to protect and promote their interest,” Kirby said.

PAKISTAN

Bus Bombing Kills 15 in Pakistan

A bomb ripped through a packed bus in northwestern Pakistan Wednesday, killing at least 15 people and wounding at least 30 others.

The victims were mostly government employees, according to provincial officials in the city of Peshawar, the site of the deadly blast.

An initial police investigation concluded the explosive material was hidden under a seat in the bus and a timer device was used to detonate it.

Television footage showed the powerful blast destroyed the bus.

No one has claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing, but authorities suspect the Pakistani Taliban are behind the violence.