World Digest: Aug. 13, 2015
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Version 0 of 1. Burma’s military-backed ruling party announced the ouster of its politically popular chairman on Thursday, hours after security forces seized the party headquarters, preventing some members from leaving. Tensions have been building for months between President Thein Sein and Shwe Mann, who until Wednesday’s headquarters seizure and midnight reshuffle headed the Union Solidarity and Development Party. Both men, retired army generals, have expressed interest in leading the country, also known as Myanmar. By Thursday afternoon, only a few police officers were still deployed outside the headquarters. Candidates for upcoming elections were announced Wednesday at an internal party meeting in the capital, Naypyidaw. Members also were told that Shwe Mann, who has lost the support of the military in recent months, had been dismissed as party chairman, sparking an outcry by some. It was unclear whether he will remain parliament speaker. The Nov. 8 general election will be the first since a nominally civilian government was installed in 2011. But with the military still firmly in control, there has been widespread speculation as to whether it will be free and fair. Shwe Mann, considered a reformist and an ally of opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, was seen as a leading candidate for president. — Associated Press A secret military court in Pakistan sentenced six men to death after convicting them of involvement in the Taliban massacre of 134 children at an army-run school in Peshawar, the military said Thursday. The sentences are the first known convictions for the December massacre in the northwestern city after Parliament in January approved military courts to try accused militants. The government argued that civilians were afraid to convict them. The six defendants — civilians convicted of aiding six gunmen who attacked the army school — confessed before the court, according to a statement from the military’s press wing. — Reuters A Croatian hostage reportedly slain in Egypt was kidnapped by an unidentified group that demanded a ransom from his employer before turning him over to the Islamic State, a Croatian official said Thursday. Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic said the original captors requested money from the French geoscience company that employed Tomislav Salopek, 30. The company says it received a ransom demand eight days after Salopek was kidnapped July 22, but it included no phone number and multiple e-mails to the address it came from went unreturned. On Aug. 5, a video emerged showing Salopek as a hostage of the Islamic State branch in Egypt. His captors demanded the release of unspecified Muslim women from Egyptian jails. The Islamic State radio station announced Thursday that its Egyptian affiliate had killed Salopek, a day after a gruesome image of his beheading was circulated. — Associated Press Paraguayan, 11, gives birth: An 11-year-old Paraguayan gave birth to a baby girl via Caesarean section Thursday in a Red Cross hospital in Asuncion, Paraguay’s capital, said Elizabeth Torales, a lawyer for the girl’s mother. Torales said doctors told her there were no complications. The girl was allegedly raped and impregnated by her stepfather when she was 10. The stepfather is awaiting trial, and the girl’s mother has been charged with negligence. The mother requested an abortion for her daughter, but the government refused, drawing praise from religious groups but criticism from human rights organizations, including U.N. officials. Swedes drop some allegations against Assange: Swedish prosecutors dropped cases of lesser sexual misconduct against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange but said they still want to question him on rape accusations made after his visit to Stockholm five years ago. The Swedish Prosecution Authority said it has been unable to charge the 44-year-old Australian, who took refuge in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London in 2012, because it has not been possible to question him. The agency said it has stopped investigating a case of sexual molestation and one of unlawful coercion that expired Thursday, and a case of sexual molestation set to expire next week. It said Assange is still wanted for questioning on allegations of rape that expire in 2020. Retired Chilean general dead in apparent suicide: A retired Chilean general died of a gunshot wound to the head in an apparent suicide days after a court sentenced him to 20 years in prison for planning the murder of a chemist who worked for former dictator Augusto Pinochet. Hernán Ramírez Rurange, 76, was sentenced along with 13 other ex-army officers Tuesday for planning the murder of Eugenio Berríos, whose body was found on a Uruguayan beach in 1995. Berríos’s death was part of a plot by Pinochet operatives to obstruct human rights investigations into the dictator’s 1973-1990 regime, according to the court. Al-Qaeda leader apparently vows allegiance to Taliban chief: Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri purportedly pledged his group’s allegiance to the new leader of the Taliban, following the death of Mohammad Omar, in an audio recording that surfaced Thursday. The pledge came in a 10-minute recording that was circulatedon social media and was later carried by the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group. The recording eulogizes Omar, who sheltered al-Qaeda in the years leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Zawahiri urged Akhtar Mohammad Mansour to follow in his predecessor’s footsteps. Reputed Mexican drug boss killed: Five gunmen burst into a bar early Thursday and killed a reputed drug gang boss, a reporter and four other people in Mexico’s gulf coast state of Veracruz, authorities said. The Veracruz state prosecutors’ office said those killed included the local boss of the Zetas drug gang, José Márquez Balderas. It said reporter Juan Santos Carrera was among those sitting with him. Police chased the assailants, but there were no immediate arrests. — From news services |