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page 32 NIGER Jailed Niger challenger quits run-off election Niger’s opposition coalition said its candidate, Hama Amadou, would not contest a run-off election on March 20, increasing the chances that President Mahamadou Issoufou will win a second term. Amadou has been in prison since November on charges relating to baby-trafficking. He says he is innocent […]

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NIGER

Jailed Niger challenger quits run-off election

Niger’s opposition coalition said its candidate, Hama Amadou, would not contest a run-off election on March 20, increasing the chances that President Mahamadou Issoufou will win a second term.

Amadou has been in prison since November on charges relating to baby-trafficking. He says he is innocent and a victim of political repression. The government denies wrongdoing and says it follows the law.

“The Coalition for an Alternative has decided to suspend its participation in the electoral process and asks its representatives to withdraw from the electoral commission,” it said in a statement.

The coalition denounced Amadou’s detention and justified its decision to withdraw by saying the constitutional court had not followed procedure when it announced definitive first-round results on Tuesday and had also not proven its independence.

The coalition, which unites about 20 political parties including Amadou’s MODEN, also asked its deputies to cease activities at the National Assembly.

Issoufou fell just short of outright victory in the first round on Feb. 21 and was expected to win the run-off as several smaller parties have said they will support him.

YEMEN

Saudi and Yemen rebels agree prisoner swap, border calm

Yemen’s Huthi rebels have agreed to a prisoner swap and an apparent truce along the border following unprecedented talks with Saudi Arabia, the Riyadh-led military coalition intervening in Yemen said Wednesday.

The talks marked the first direct negotiations between the Iran-backed rebels and Saudi Arabia, which a year ago launched an air war in support of Yemen’s government after the Huthis seized large parts of the country.

The coalition said the agreement had been reached with a Yemeni tribal delegation during a visit to Saudi Arabia.

Under the agreement a Saudi soldier, Corporal Jaber al-Kaabi, was handed over in exchange for seven Yemenis detained by Saudi authorities at the border, said the statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The coalition welcomed the “continuing state of calm” following the agreement, and said it would contribute to UN-brokered peace efforts.

US 2016: Trump rebounds in White House race; Sanders surprises Clinton

Republican front-runner Donald Trump racked up primary wins in the big prize of Michigan as well as Mississippi and Hawaii on Tuesday, brushing off a week of blistering attacks from the party’s establishment and expanding his lead in the White House nominating race.

In the Democratic contest, Bernie Sanders stunned front-runner Hillary Clinton in a narrow Michigan primary upset, giving his upstart campaign new energy. Clinton won in Mississippi, but Sanders’ victory is seen as likely to ensure a prolonged fight to pick a candidate for November’s general election.

Trump’s convincing win in Michigan restored his outsider campaign’s momentum and increased the pressure on the party’s anti-Trump forces to find a way to stop the brash billionaire’s march to the nomination ahead of several key contests next week.

INDIA

15-year-old Indian girl dies after being raped, set on fire

A 15-year-old Indian girl who was raped and set on fire this week died Wednesday in the New Delhi hospital where she was being treated for severe burns, police said.

Police have arrested a 20-year-old man and charged him with raping and burning the girl Monday in a village outside New Delhi, one of several recently reported cases of rapes of women or children in India.

Following the attack, the girl was taken to the hospital with burns over 95 percent of her body. She succumbed early Wednesday, said Uttar Pradesh state police constable Yadram Singh.

The girl’s family said the man had been stalking her for several months. Her father had filed a police complaint and police issued a warning to him last year.

The man was charged Tuesday with several offenses, including rape and attempted murder. Since the girl has died, the attempted murder charge will be changed to murder, Singh said.

The man’s family denied the accusation of rape and said the two were having a consensual relationship. They did not comment on the girl’s burns.

IRAN

Iran tests more missiles, says capable of reaching Israel

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) test-fired two ballistic missiles on Wednesday that it said were designed to be able to hit Israel, defying U.S. criticism of similar tests carried out the previous day.

State television showed footage of two Qadr missiles being launched from northern Iran which the IRGC said hit targets 1,400 km (870 miles) away. Tests on Tuesday drew a threat of new sanctions from the United States.

“The reason we designed our missiles with a range of 2,000 km is to be able to hit our enemy the Zionist regime from a safe distance,” Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh was quoted as saying by the ISNA agency. The nearest point in Iran is around 1,000 km from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Iranian agencies said the missiles tested on Wednesday were stamped with the words “Israel should be wiped from the pages of history” in Hebrew, though the inscription could not be seen on any photographs.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon told Israel Radio the tests showed Iran’s hostility had not changed since implementing a nuclear deal with world powers in January, despite President Hassan Rouhani’s overtures to the West.

N/KOREA

N/Korea ‘has miniature nuclear warhead’, says Kim

Kim Jong-un says North Korean scientists have developed nuclear warheads small enough to fit on ballistic missiles.

State media published images showing the North’s leader standing next to what it said was a miniaturised weapon.

The claim is impossible to verify from the images alone and experts have long cast doubt on such assertions.

The North has stepped up its bellicose rhetoric in response to the UN imposing some of its toughest sanctions.

The move by the Security Council came after the North conducted its fourth nuclear test and launched a satellite, both of which broke existing sanctions.

In recent days, Pyongyang has threatened to launch an “indiscriminate” nuclear strike on the US and South Korea, as they began their largest ever round of annual military exercises.

The drills, known as Foal Eagle and Key Resolve, routinely generate tension.

FRANCE

France unions and youths protest against labour reforms

Protests have been held around France as unions and young people joined forces to show their opposition to proposed labour reforms.

Youth organisations and unions were demonstrating on the same day as a rail strike over a wage dispute.

The proposed law would remove some of the protection workers enjoy against being laid off, in a bid to encourage businesses to hire more people. But many on the left see it as a betrayal of their values.

In pushing the reform, Prime Minister Manuel Valls has united a formidable array of leftist forces against him, says the BBC’s Hugh Schofield.

That includes not just the unions but much of his own Socialist party – plus the students, who were leading Wednesday’s protests.

Teenagers and students were among thousands marching in Paris chanting slogans such as “El Khomri, you’re beat, the youth are in the street”, in reference to Labour Minister Myriam el Khomri.

Dozens of schools around the country were barricaded by students.

ZIMBABWE

Zimbabwe policeman charged for calling Mugabe ‘ too old to rule’

A Zimbabwean policeman has appeared in court after calling 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe “too old to rule” and accusing his wife of being a prostitute, local media reported Wednesday.

Thompson Joseph Mloyi, 44, did not enter a plea at a magistrate’s court in Harare over remarks he allegedly made at a camp shared by police and army, the privately-owned newspaper NewsDay said.

He was granted $100 bail at the hearing on Tuesday and is expected to appear for trial on March 15 for “insulting the office of the president”.

Cases of people arrested for insulting Mugabe are common in Zimbabwe and those convicted are often fined.

MACEDONIA

Migrant crisis: Macedonia shuts Balkans route

Macedonia has said it will no longer let any migrants through its border with Greece, effectively blocking the Balkan route north.

The decision came after Slovenia barred access to migrants transiting the country. Croatia and Serbia then said they would follow suit. Some 13,000 migrants are now stranded at the Macedonia-Greece border.

The moves come after the EU and Turkey set out a plan to ease Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since World War Two.

Under the plan, still to be finalised, all migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey would be sent back. For each Syrian returned, a Syrian in Turkey would be resettled in the EU.

UKRAINE

Ukraine pilot mocks Russian judges

A Ukrainian pilot on trial in Russia over the killing of two journalists has addressed the court and says she will continue a hunger strike she has been on for five days.

Nadia Savchenko was making her closing statement in the trial. She denies directing artillery fire at the Russian journalists in June 2014.

She is reported to have refused all food and drink since 4 March when the hearing was adjourned before she could make her final statement.

She mocked the judges in Ukrainian, saying they were proving that Russians were “fascists”.

A translator read out her formal, final statement in which she proclaims her innocence and describes her trial as a “farce”.