IRAN
Journalist’s death ordered
A journalist whose online work helped inspire nationwide economic protests in 2017 was yesterday sentenced to death. Ruhollah Zam had run a Web site called AmadNews that posted embarrassing videos and information about Iranian officials. “The court has considered 13 counts of charges together as instances of ‘corruption on earth’ and therefore passed the death sentence,” judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced the arrest of Zam in October last year, describing him as a “counter-revolutionary” who was “directed by France’s intelligence service.” “Corruption on earth” is one of the most serious offenses under Iranian law.
GERMANY
Pedophile ring may be huge
Authorities on Monday said that they have evidence that tens of thousands of people might have been involved with an online child sex abuse network uncovered last year. Allegations against members of the pedophile ring include possession and distribution of child sex abuse images, and serious abuse, said Peter Biesenbach, minister of justice of North Rhine-Westphalia state. “I didn’t expect, not in the slightest, the extent of child abuse on the net,” Biesenbach told reporters, adding that specialist investigators have so far counted “more than — and I hope you’re sitting down — 30,000 unknown suspected perpetrators.” Officials later added that members of the network might have used several pseudonyms, reducing the actual number of suspects. Seventy-two suspects from across Germany have been identified. Ten people have been arrested and eight people have been indicted.
FRANCE
Ex-PM and wife sentenced
Former prime minister Francois Fillon and his wife, Penelope Fillon, were on Monday found guilty of embezzling more than 1 million euros (US$1.12 million) in a scandal over a fake advisory job that left his ambitions of becoming president in tatters. Francois Fillon was given a five-year jail term, of which three are suspended. His wife got a three-year suspended prison sentence. Francois Fillon “contributed to erosion of the trust that citizens place in those they elect,” presiding judge Nathalie Gavarino said. Investigators have said that Penelope Fillon never set foot in the National Assembly despite being paid as a full-time aide. She had no timetable, no work computer, mobile phone or e-mail address linked to the job, but her salary averaged US$140,000 a year for a time.
UNITED KINGDOM
Leicester in lockdown
A stringent lockdown has been imposed on the city of Leicester after a local flare-up of COVID-19 just as Prime Minister Boris Johnson attempts to nudge the country back to normality. The UK has been one of the world’s worst-hit areas, with more than 54,000 suspected deaths, although infections have been waning in the past few weeks. However, in Leicester, in the eastern Midlands of England, the seven-day infection rate was 135 cases per 100,000 people, three times higher than the next highest city. Leicester accounted for 10 percent of all positive cases in England in the past week, the government said. “We will be bringing forward a legal change very shortly, in the next couple of days, because some of the measures that we’ve unfortunately had to take in Leicester will require a legal underpinning,” British Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock told Sky.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
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