SUDAN
Opposition leader jailed
An emergency court on Sunday sentenced opposition leader Mariam al-Mahdi to a week in jail, while police detained several people intent on marching on parliament to protest a state of emergency. Al-Mahdi said she will spend a total of three weeks in jail after refusing to pay a fine of 2,000 Sudanese pounds (US$42). Deputy chief of the opposition Umma Party, led by her father and former prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi, she and her sister Rabah were among those arrested earlier on Sunday. Protest organizers had called for a march to challenge the state of emergency, imposed nationwide by President Omar al-Bashir on Feb. 22. “As some of our leaders came out of the party office to lead the march, security agents arrested them,” said Mohamed al-Mahdi, a party leader who is not related to the former prime minister’s family. Riot police fired tear gas at those who had gathered outside the party offices, witnesses said, prompting the crowd to disperse before the march could begin.
MALAWI
Floods kill 30 people
Floods in the nation’s south have killed 30 people and left more than 230,000 people without shelter, Homeland Security Minister Nicholas Dausi said on Sunday. Dausi visited people affected by the deluges in two of the 14 southern districts affected. He said his ministry — which is also responsible for disaster management affairs — had received reports of 30 deaths and about 238,000 villagers losing their homes since the start of the incessant downpours last week. “Their immediate needs are food, tents, blankets and chlorine to treat drinking water and anti-malaria medication,” he said.
UNITED STATES
Gentile sentence nears end
A reputed Connecticut mobster who authorities believe is the last surviving person of interest in the largest art heist in history is nearing the end of a four-year prison sentence in an unrelated weapons case. Eighty-two-year-old Robert Gentile is scheduled to be released from the Fort Dix federal prison in New Jersey on Sunday. Federal prosecutors have said they believe Gentile has information about the still-unsolved 1990 heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Thieves stole an estimated US$500 million worth of art, including works by Rembrandt and Johannes Vermeer. Gentile has denied knowing anything about it. He pleaded guilty in the weapons case stemming from federal agents’ seizure of firearms and ammunition from his Manchester home. He cannot possess firearms as a convicted felon.
UNITED STATES
‘Marvel’ soars in theaters
Captain Marvel has soared in North American theaters with weekend ticket sales of US$153 million, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported. Added to the US$302 million taken in internationally, the film’s estimated total of US$455 million for the three-day weekend would give it the sixth-highest global debut ever and the best domestic start for a superhero film since Disney and Marvel’s Black Panther opened last year with US$202 million, Variety magazine reported. The film stars Brie Larson, winner of a 2016 Best Actress Oscar for Room, as Carol Danvers, a former fighter pilot who gains superhuman powers in an accident and finds herself in the middle of a galactic conflict. Also starring are Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou, Annette Bening and Jude Law.
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
‘NO INTEGRITY’: The chief judge expressed concern over how the sentence would be perceived given that military detention is believed to be easier than civilian prison A military court yesterday sentenced a New Zealand soldier to two years’ detention for attempting to spy for a foreign power. The soldier, whose name has been suppressed, admitted to attempted espionage, accessing a computer system for a dishonest purpose and knowingly possessing an objectionable publication. He was ordered into military detention at Burnham Military Camp near Christchurch and would be dismissed from the New Zealand Defence Force at the end of his sentence. His admission and its acceptance by the court marked the first spying conviction in New Zealand’s history. The soldier would be paid at half his previous rate until his dismissal
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