HUMAN RIGHTS
ICC calls for al-Bashir arrest
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is urging Chad and Libya to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and extradite him to face trial if he visits over the weekend. The written order issued on Friday is the court’s latest attempt to have al-Bashir detained since he was indicted for crimes including genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region. The court’s prosecutor asked for the order following reports that al-Bashir could travel to Chad and Libya for meetings. Chad is one of several nations al-Bashir has visited without arrested since he was indicted. The Hague-based court issued arrest warrants for al-Bashir in 2009 and 2010, but has no police force of its own.
KENYA
Kenyatta cleared for vote
The High Court on Friday cleared the way for Uhuru Kenyatta to run in next month’s presidential election, dismissing arguments that his looming trial on charges of crimes against humanity made him ineligible. Kenyatta, a former finance minister and the son of the country’s founding president, is one of four accused at the International Criminal Court of orchestrating tribal fighting that killed 1,200 people after the last vote in 2007. He is running a close second to Prime Minister Raila Odinga according to opinion polls ahead of the March 4 election. If Kenyatta wins, his first foreign trip as president could be to appear in the dock at the court in the Hague at a hearing scheduled for April. The High Court also cleared the way for Kenyatta’s running mate, William Ruto, to stand in the vote, as part of their Jubilee coalition. Ruto is also facing charges over the 2007 violence. Both men deny the charges.
UNITED STATES
Suicide likely in ex-cop case
A fugitive former police officer whose charred remains were found in a burned-out California mountain cabin following a standoff with police died from a possibly self-inflicted gunshot wound, a San Bernardino County Sheriff’s spokesman said on Friday. An autopsy determined that Christopher Dorner, 33, was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Captain Kevin Lacy told a news conference. Lacy said that authorities had not yet determined who fired that single round. However, “the information we have seems to indicate that the wound that took Christopher Dorner’s life was self inflicted,” he said. Dorner, who also served as an officer in the US Navy reserves, was accused of killing four people since Feb. 3, including a sheriff’s deputy shot during the gunbattle on Tuesday in the San Bernardino Mountains.
NUCLEAR POWER
Iran sanctions may be eased
Major powers plan to offer to ease sanctions barring trade in gold and other precious metals with Iran in return for Iranian steps to shut down the nation’s newly expanded Fordow uranium enrichment plant, Western officials said on Friday. The officials said the offer is to be presented to Iran at Feb. 26 talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and they acknowledged that it represents a relatively modest update to proposals that the six major powers put forward last year. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials said their decision not to make a dramatically new offer in part reflected skepticism that Iran is ready to make a deal ahead of its June 14 presidential election. The group, which includes Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US — and is known as the “P5+1” — wants Iran to do more to prove that its nuclear program is for only non-military purposes and to permit wider UN inspections.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to “fake” his suicide to scare his partner who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 27-year-old former winner of France’s version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveler camp in Biscarrosse on France’s southwestern coast. Girac told first responders he had accidentally shot himself while tinkering with a Colt .45 automatic pistol he had bought at a junk shop, a source said. On Thursday, regional prosecutor Olivier Janson said, citing the singer, that he wanted to “fake” his suicide
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other