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page 39 CHAD Ex-dictator jailed for life Chad’s ex-ruler Hissene Habre has been convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison at a landmark trial in Senegal. The judge convicted him of rape, sexual slavery and ordering killings during his rule from 1982 to 1990. Victims and families of those killed cheered […]

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CHAD

Ex-dictator jailed for life

Chad’s ex-ruler Hissene Habre has been convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison at a landmark trial in Senegal.

The judge convicted him of rape, sexual slavery and ordering killings during his rule from 1982 to 1990.

Victims and families of those killed cheered and embraced each other in the courtroom after the verdict was given.

It was the first time an African Union-backed court had tried a former ruler for human rights abuses.

Habre has been given 15 days to appeal.

Throughout the trial, Habre refused to recognise the court’s legitimacy, frequently disrupting proceedings.

The ex-president denied accusations that he ordered the killing of 40,000 people during his rule from 1982 to 1990.

UGANDA

Gov’t to stop security ties with N/Korea

Uganda is cutting military ties with North Korea to comply with U.N. sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear program, a Ugandan official said Monday following a meeting between President Yoweri Museveni and South Korea’s visiting president.

Uganda’s government is simply “disengaging from military co-operation” and not cutting diplomatic ties with the North Koreans, said Col. Shaban Bantariza, a spokesman for the Ugandan government.

The policy shift came as South Korean President Park Geun-hye visited Uganda. She later flew to neighboring Kenya for a three-day visit, the last leg of her three-nation African tour in which she has pressed for the isolation of North Korea and has offered trade and development agreements.

JAPAN

Military on alert for possible N/Korea missile launch

Japan put its military on alert on Monday for a possible North Korean ballistic missile firing, while South Korea also said it had detected evidence of launch preparations, officials from Japan and South Korea said.

Tension in the region has been high since North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and followed that with a satellite launch and test launches of various missiles.

Japan ordered naval destroyers and anti-ballistic missile Patriot batteries to be ready to shoot down any projectile heading for Japan, Japan’s NHK state broadcaster said.

A Japanese official, who declined to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed the order. A spokesmen for Japan’s defense ministry declined to comment.

A Patriot missile battery on the grounds of Japan’s Ministry of Defense had its missile tubes elevated to a firing position.

EGYPT

Court sentences Badie, 35 others to life in prison

An Egyptian court has sentenced the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and 35 other members of the outlawed movement to life in prison over their alleged role in protests following the 2013 ouster of the country’s first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi.

Egyptian judicial officials said on Monday that Mohamed Badie and the 35 defendants in the trial were found guilty of participating in clashes in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia that left three people dead in July 2013.

The Brotherhood leader had already received prison terms, including a death sentence, in other trials.

The court also convicted and sentenced 48 other members to jail terms ranging from three to 15 years. It also exonerated 20 people involved in the case.

Egypt’s military courts have been under fire by rights groups for their harsh verdicts.

IRAQ

Army Begins Assault on ISIS Stronghold Falluja

The Iraqi army says it has begun an operation to storm Falluja, a bastion of so-called Islamic State (IS). It comes a week after the government launched a concerted effort to retake the city, which has been held by the jihadists since 2014.

An estimated 50,000 civilians are trapped inside, with only a few hundred families escaping so far.

Meanwhile IS militants launched a wave of bombings in and around the capital, Baghdad, killing at least 20 people.

State forces including members of an elite counter-terrorism unit are moving into Falluja on several fronts, an official statement said.

IS fighters are reportedly putting up resistance with suicide and car bombings. The group is thought to have about 1,200 fighters, the majority from the city itself.

TURKEY

Migrant deal off if no visa-free travel, Turkey warns EU

Ankara will abandon a deal with the European Union to reduce migrant flows if its citizens are not granted visa-free travel to most of the bloc, Turkey’s foreign minister has warned.

With the two sides locked in an increasingly-bitter standoff, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said it was “impossible” for Ankara to change anti-terror laws that Brussels wants to see narrowed in exchange for the visa-free travel to the Schengen zone.

“We have told them ‘we are not threatening you’ but there’s a reality. We have signed two deals with you (the EU) and both are interlinked,” Cavusoglu told a small group of journalists at the southern holiday resort of Antalya.

“This is not a threat but what is required from an agreement,” he said.

Building on a threat by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week, Cavusoglu said Turkey would use “administrative” measures to block the deal if needed.

UK

David Cameron hails ‘proud Muslim’ Sadiq Khan

David Cameron has hailed Labour’s Sadiq Khan as “a proud Muslim” and “a proud Brit” as he shared a platform with the London Mayor at an EU Remain rally.

They were launching a Britain Stronger in Europe battle bus and pledge card.

But Vote Leave said the PM’s criticisms of Mr Khan during the mayoral contest less than a month ago showed he could not be trusted.

Mr Cameron repeatedly attacked Mr Khan for having a history of sharing platforms with extremists – a claim firmly rejected by Mr Khan – as part of the Conservatives’ failed campaign to get Zac Goldsmith elected to City Hall.

At the Remain campaign event in London, Mr Cameron appeared to bury the hatchet.

He shook hands with Mr Khan and congratulated him on his victory in the mayoral contest, telling the crowd: “I’m proud to be here with the mayor of London – with the Labour mayor of London – on this vital, vital issue.”

SYRIA

Top negotiator quits over failed peace talks

The chief negotiator of Syria’s main opposition umbrella group, Mohammed Alloush, has resigned over what he called the failure of peace talks.

Mr Alloush, from the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), said the talks had not brought a political deal or eased the plight of Syrians in besieged areas.

The HNC suspended its involvement in the UN-brokered “proximity” negotiations with a Syrian government delegation in Geneva in April.

“The three rounds of talks were unsuccessful because of the stubbornness of the regime and its continued bombardments and aggressions against the Syrian people,” Mr Alloush said.

SOMALIA

Life sentences for plane blast

A military court in Somalia has sentenced two men to life in prison for masterminding a bomb attack on a Daallo Airlines passenger plane in February.

Eight other people, including a woman, were sentenced to between six months and four years in prison.

The blast, shortly after take-off from Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, killed the bomber and left a hole in the plane’s fuselage.

The verdicts were the first in connection with the blast.

An employee at the main airport in Mogadishu, Abdiwali Mahmud Maow, was given the life sentence, along with Arais Hashi Abdi, who was tried in absentia as he had evaded arrest.

Philippine

Army says 54 ‘ISIL-style’ rebels killed

Intense fighting between Philippine troops and a little-known group apparently inspired by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has killed 54 fighters in the country’s south, officials said.

Regional military spokesman Major Filemon Tan said on Monday that the operations against the Maute rebel group began last Thursday in southern Lanao del Sur province’s Butig town and were still continuing.

He said two soldiers were killed and nine others wounded in the clashes.

The military fired artillery and launched air strikes “to get the criminals” behind the beheading last month of two sawmill workers, Tan said.

UKRAINE

Five troops killed by rebels near Donetsk

The Ukrainian military says five of its soldiers have died in fighting just north of Donetsk – the second-highest death toll in one day this year.

Pro-Russian separatist rebels killed four in an ambush at Verkhnetoretskoye, near Avdiivka. The fifth died when his vehicle hit a landmine.

Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk confirmed the death toll. Early on Monday rebel mortars targeted Ukrainian troops in the same area.

Reports say two rebels were killed. A spokesman for the self-styled “Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR)”, Eduard Basurin, said the two died during Ukrainian shelling of DPR positions.