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page 37 SUDAN Khartoum sentences 22 S/Sudanese to death An anti-terrorism court in Khartoum has sentenced 22 South Sudanese nationals to death and three others to life in prison for belonging to a militant group in Darfur. “The judge sentenced them to death by hanging on charges of terrorism, fighting the state, bearing arms against […]

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SUDAN

Khartoum sentences 22 S/Sudanese to death

An anti-terrorism court in Khartoum has sentenced 22 South Sudanese nationals to death and three others to life in prison for belonging to a militant group in Darfur.

“The judge sentenced them to death by hanging on charges of terrorism, fighting the state, bearing arms against the state and undermining the constitutional order,” Mahjoub Dawoud, defense attorney, said.

The defendants belong to the Justice and Equality Movement, a rebel group based in Darfur that took up arms against the Sudanese government in 2003, complaining that their region was being marginalized.

The group, led by Bakhit Abdul Karim (Dabjo), signed a peace agreement with the Khartoum government in 2013.

Shortly after the agreement, the group handed in its weapons to the government and in return the Sudanese president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, pardoned members of the group.

However, the presidential pardon did not include the 25 South Sudanese nationals. The government considered them foreign fighters and brought them to trial for bearing arms against Sudan.

Lawyers of the defendants said they will appeal the court decision next week, calling the Sudanese authorities to treat their clients as prisoners of war.

S/AFRICA

Mandela’s ex-wife loses inheritance bid

Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife has lost her legal bid for ownership of the former president’s rural home in South Africa.

A High Court dismissed Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s application and ordered her to pay all legal costs.

She argued that the house in Qunu village belonged to her under customary law.

Mr Mandela, who became South Africa’s first black president in 1994, bequeathed the property to his family when he died in 2013 aged 95.

The government opposed Ms Madikizela-Mandela’s bid to inherit the home after she launched court action in 2014.

Mr Mandela divorced Ms Madikizela-Mandela in 1996 after a 38-year marriage, and left her out of his will.

They were South Africa’s most celebrated political couple until their marriage collapsed unexpectedly, some six years after his release from 27 years in prison for fighting apartheid, which legalised discrimination against black people in the country.

SYRIA

IS abducts 300 factory workers in Syria

Islamic State fighters have kidnapped 300 cement workers in an area northeast of Damascus where the militants launched an assault against government forces this week, Syrian state television said on Thursday.

The workers and contractors of Al Badia Cement company were taken from near the town of Dumeir and their employer had lost all contact with them, state TV quoted the industry ministry as saying.

Fierce fighting broke out around Dumeir and the Dumeir military airport, 50 km (30 miles) northeast of the capital, late on Tuesday night after Islamic State militants launched attacks on government areas northeast of the capital.

Opposition sources in the rural eastern suburbs of Damascus said large parts of the town of Dumeir, which was already in the hands of squabbling rebel groups, were also captured by the militants who had fired at civilians protesting against their presence.

The attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday included detonation of bomb-laden cars around the Dumeir military airport and an assault on the nearby Tishrin power station.

FRANCE

France bans paying for sex

French MPs have passed a law that makes it illegal to pay for sex and imposes fines of up to €3,750 (£3,027, $4,274) for those buying sexual acts.

Those convicted would also have to attend classes to learn about the conditions faced by prostitutes.

It has taken more than two years to pass the controversial legislation because of differences between the two houses of parliament over the issue.

Some sex workers protested against the law during the final debate. The demonstrators outside parliament in Paris, numbering about 60, carried banners and placards one of which read: “Don’t liberate me, I’ll take care of myself”.

Members of the Strass sex workers’ union say the law will affect the livelihoods of France’s sex workers, estimated to number between 30,000 and 40,000.

Sweden was the first country to criminalise those who pay for sex rather than the prostitutes, introducing the law in 1999.

Other countries have since adopted the so-called “Nordic model”: Norway in 2008, Iceland in 2009, and Northern Ireland in 2014. Earlier this year, the European parliament approved a resolution calling for the law to be adopted throughout the continent.

UGANDA

Museveni says orders military to quell disorder in country’s west

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said on Thursday he had ordered security forces into the Rwenzori region near the border with Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to stem a descent into lawlessness there since February’s elections.

The Rwenzori area overwhelmingly voted for the opposition in the Feb. 18 presidential and parliamentary elections. Museveni won the presidential election with 60 percent of the vote.

His main rivals rejected the results with Kizza Besigye, who came second with 35 percent of the vote. Deadly clashes between locals in the Rwenzori area and security personnel broke out in the days following the announcement of results.

At least 26 people have been killed and 10 others injured in the clashes that officials say are between supporters of rival candidates in the elections.

But the opposition has said the insecurity was likely being stoked by the government to punish the region for shunning Museveni and other ruling party candidates.

PANAMA CITY

Panama Papers: Government vows to boost transparency

Panama’s government is creating an international committee of experts to recommend ways to boost transparency in the Central American country’s offshore financial industry, after the leak of information from a local law firm that has embarrassed a clutch of world leaders.

“The Panamanian government, via our foreign ministry, will create an independent commission of domestic and international experts … to evaluate our current practices and propose the adoption of measures that we will share with other countries of the world to strengthen the transparency of the financial and legal systems,” President Juan Carlos Varela said in a televised address on Wednesday.

Governments across the world have begun investigating possible financial wrongdoing by the rich and powerful after the leak of more than 11.5 million documents, dubbed the Panama Papers, from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

BELGIUM

Belgium issues new appeal in quest for airport attack suspect

Belgian prosecutors have issued a new appeal for help in finding the suspected third attacker in last month’s deadly Brussels airport bombings.

New photos and video of the so-called “man in the hat” show the suspect leaving the airport on foot after the blasts and going into central Brussels. Along the way he is seen discarding a white jacket he was wearing.

An earlier picture released showed the man in the departure hall of the Brussels airport, walking with two other men, Najim Laachraoui and Ibrahim El Bakraoui, who later blew themselves up.

EU officials revealed this week that one of the suicide bombers airport blasts worked as a janitor at the European Parliament in the summer months of 2009 and 2010. News reports said it was Laachraoui.

BANGLADESH

Bangladesh activist Samad hacked to death

A law student who posted pro-atheism comments on social media has been murdered, Bangladeshi police said, in the latest incident in a series of killings of secular activists and bloggers in the country.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Nurul Amin said at least three men riding on a single motorbike carried out the killing on Wednesday night. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

Police suspected that Samad had been targeted for his outspoken atheism in the Muslim-majority country, and for supporting a 2013 movement to demand capital punishment for war crimes involving the country’s independence war against Pakistan in 1971.

ICELAND

Iceland names PM replacement

Iceland’s ruling coalition has named Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson as the new PM, with early elections to be held in the autumn.

Mr Johannsson, 53, is agriculture and fisheries minister and deputy leader of the Progressive Party (PP).

The move comes after PM and PP chairman Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson stepped down in the wake of the leaked Panama Papers.

The leaks, from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca, showed Mr Gunnlaugsson owned an offshore firm with his wife.

It was not declared when he became an MP. Mr Gunnlaugsson says he sold his shares to his wife and denies any wrongdoing. But he is accused of concealing millions of dollars’ worth of family assets.

S/SUDAN

S/Sudan’s Machar to enter Juba April 18

South Sudanese opposition leader Riek Machar says he will return to the capital on April 18 to form a transitional government with President Salva Kiir, more than two years after a feud between the two resulted in war.

Machar announced the date in a letter to officials monitoring implementation of a peace deal signed in August.

He had refused to return to Juba until it was demilitarized and a number of his soldiers were allowed to deploy there for his protection.

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan said Wednesday that it has helped Machar’s rebel group transport 802 military and police officers to Juba.