Qatar sentences the country's Baha'i leader to 5 years for social media posts
A three-judge panel of Qatar's Supreme Judiciary Council issued the verdict against Remy Rowhani, 71, who has been detained since April, according to documentation provided to The Associated Press by the Baha'i International Community office in Geneva, Switzerland.
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Winnipeg Free Press
17 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Blocked from Bolivia's election, ex-leader Morales not sure how to respond to threats of arrest
LAUCA Ñ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivia's charismatic, long-serving ex-President Evo Morales told The Associated Press on Saturday that he didn't know what to do about threats by the right-wing presidential candidates to arrest him if they came to power. From his stronghold in Bolivia's tropics of Chapare, where he has been holed up for months under the protection of die-hard supporters, he repeated his call for voters to deface their ballots in Sunday's high-stakes elections in defiance of the race from which he is barred due to a contentious constitutional court ruling. 'What are we going to do? Not even I know,' he said in response to questions about how he would respond if either of the right-wing front-runners, multimillionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina and former president Jorge 'Tuto' Quiroga, wins the presidential election and fulfills their threats to arrest him. 'I am in the crosshairs of of the right-wing empire.' Morales, 65, was charged last year with human trafficking and accused of impregnating a 15-year-old girl when he was president. While he has not outright denied having sexual relations with the underage girl, he has described the charges as politically motivated. A judge issued the arrest order as he and his former finance minister, President Luis Arce, bickered over the control of their long-dominant Movement Toward Socialism Party. As a result of their bitter power struggle, the party splintered. With the Bolivian economy undergoing its worst crisis in around four decades, the implosion of the MAS party has given the right-wing opposition its best shot at winning at the ballot box since Morales first came to power in 2006. 'Look, it's an election without legality, without legitimacy …. without the Indigenous movement, without the popular movement,' Morales, Bolivia's first Indigenous president, contended in his interview with the AP at his political organization's headquarters, where he broadcasts a weekly radio show. The null-and-void vote, he said, 'isn't just a vote for our political movement.' 'It's a protest vote, a vote of anger.' He insulted Doria Medina and Quiroga, who have both run for president three times before, losing at least twice to Morales, as 'eternal losers.' Citing widespread voter disillusionment with the options, he expressed confidence that the election outcome would reveal an unusually high proportion of invalid votes. 'No one is going to win. It will be the spoiled vote, which is Evo's vote,' he said, speaking in third person.
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Putin emerges from the Alaska summit with increased stature and Trump echoing a Kremlin position
In Alaska, President Vladimir Putin walked on a red carpet, shook hands and exchanged smiles with his American counterpart. Donald Trump ended summit praising their relationship and calling Russia 'a big power … No. 2 in the world,' albeit admitting they didn't reach a deal on ending the war in Ukraine. By Saturday morning Moscow time, Trump appeared to have abandoned the idea of a ceasefire as a step toward peace -– something he and Ukraine had pushed for months -– in favor of pursuing a full-fledged 'Peace Agreement' to end the war, echoing a long-held Kremlin position. The 'severe consequences' he threatened against Moscow for continuing hostilities were nowhere in sight. On Ukraine's battlefields, Russian troops slowly grinded on, with time on their side. The hastily arranged Alaska summit 'produced nothing for Mr. Trump and gave Mr. Putin most of what he was looking for,' said Laurie Bristow, a former British ambassador to Russia. The summit spectacle Putin's visit to Alaska was his first to the United States in 10 years and his first to a Western country since invading Ukraine in 2022 and plunging U.S.-Russia relations to the lowest point since the Cold War. Crippling sanctions followed, along with efforts to shun Russia on the global stage. In another major blow, the International Criminal Court in 2023 issued an arrest warrant against Putin on accusations of war crimes, casting a shadow on his foreign trips and contacts with other world leaders. Trump's return to the White House appeared to upend all that. He warmly greeted Putin, even clapping for him, on a red carpet as U.S. warplanes flew overhead as the world watched. The overflight was both 'a show of power' and a gesture of welcome from the U.S. president to the Kremlin leader, 'shown off to a friend,' said retired Col. Peer de Jong, a former aide to two French presidents and author of 'Putin, Lord of War.' Russian officials and media reveled in the images of the 'pomp-filled reception' and 'utmost respect' that Putin received in Alaska. Putin has 'broken out of international isolation,' returning to the world stage as one of two global leaders and 'wasn't in the least challenged' by Trump, who ignored the arrest warrant for Putin from the ICC, Bristow told The Associated Press. For Putin, 'mission accomplished' Putin 'came to the Alaska summit with the principal goal of stalling any pressure on Russia to end the war,' said Neil Melvin, director of international security at the London-based Royal United Services Institute. 'He will consider the summit outcome as mission accomplished.' In recent months, Trump has pressed for a ceasefire, something Ukraine and its allies supported and insisted was a prerequisite for any peace talks. The Kremlin has pushed back, however, arguing it's not interested in a temporary truce -– only in a long-term peace agreement. Moscow's official demands for peace so far have remained nonstarter for Kyiv: It wants Ukraine to cede four regions that Russia only partially occupies, along with the Crimean Peninsula, illegally annexed in 2014. Ukraine also must renounce its bid to join NATO and shrink its military, the Kremlin says. After Alaska, Trump appeared to echo the Kremlin's position on a ceasefire, posting on social media that after he spoke to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders, 'it was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.' In a statement after the Trump call, the European leaders did not address whether a peace deal was preferable to a ceasefire. The pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda described it as a 'huge diplomatic victory' for Putin, whose forces will have time to make more territorial gains. The summit took place a week after a deadline Trump gave the Kremlin to stop the war or face additional sanctions on its exports of oil in the form of secondary tariffs on countries buying it. Trump already imposed those tariffs on India, and if applied to others, Russian revenues 'would probably be impacted very badly and very quickly,' said Chris Weafer, CEO of Macro-Advisory Ltd. consultancy. In the days before Alaska, Trump also threatened unspecified 'very severe consequences' if Putin does not agree to stop the war. But whether those consequences will materialize remains unclear. Asked about it in a post-summit interview with Fox News Channel, Trump said he doesn't need 'to think about that right now,' and suggested he might revisit the idea in 'two weeks or three weeks or something.' Alexandra Prokopenko of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center and a former adviser at the Russian Central Bank, posted on X that it was 'an important tactical victory for Putin' that gives Moscow 'an opportunity to build alternatives and be prepared.' More pressure on Ukraine In a statement after the summit, Putin claimed the two leaders had hammered out an 'understanding' on Ukraine and warned Europe not to 'torpedo the nascent progress.' But Trump said 'there's no deal until there's a deal.' In his Fox interview, Trump insisted the onus going forward might be on Zelenskyy 'to get it done,' but said there would also be some involvement from European nations. Zelenskyy will meet Trump at the White House on Monday. Both raised the possibility of a trilateral summit with Putin, but Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said it wasn't discussed in Alaska. The Kremlin has long maintained that Putin would only meet Zelenskyy in the final stages of peace talks. 'Trump now appears to be shifting responsibility towards Kyiv and Europe, while still keeping a role for himself,' Tatiana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Russia and Eurasia Center wrote on X. Fiona Hill, a senior adviser on Russia in his first administration, told AP that Trump has met his match because 'Putin is a much bigger bully.' Trump wants to be the negotiator of 'a big real estate deal between Russia and Ukraine,' she said, but in his mind he can 'apply real pressure' only to one said — Kyiv. Hill said she expects Trump to tell Zelenskyy that 'you're really going to have to make a deal' with Putin because Trump wants the conflict off his plate and is not prepared to put pressure on the Russian president. Far from the summit venue and its backdrop saying 'Pursuing Peace,' Russia continued to bombard Ukraine and make incremental advances on the over 600-mile (1,000-kilometer) front. Russia fired a ballistic missile and 85 drones overnight. Ukraine shot down or intercepted 61 drones, its air force said. Front-line areas of Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Chernihiv were attacked. Russia's Defense Ministry said it had taken control of the village of Kolodyazi in the Donetsk region, along with Vorone in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Ukraine did not comment on the claims. Russian forces are closing in on the strongholds of Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2022 but still only partially controls. 'Unless Mr. Putin is absolutely convinced that he cannot win militarily, the fighting is not going to stop,' said Bristow, the former ambassador. 'That's the big takeaway from the Anchorage summit.' —— Associated Press writers John Leicester in Paris and Elise Morton and Pan Pylas in London contributed.
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Suspected Islamist rebels kill 30 in Congo's North Kivu province
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Suspected Islamist rebels have killed at least 30 people in a series of attacks in Congo's North Kivu province in recent days, a Congolese military official said Saturday. The killings took place in Bapere village between Wednesday and Friday, according to Col. Alain Kiwawa, the military administrator of Lubero territory where the village is located. 'We have more than 30 people dead, and at least a hundred who are being held hostage,' Kiwawa told The Associated Press. A civil society leader, Samuel Kaheni, the president of the Bapere civil society organization, added that several houses were burned and victims were mostly killed with knives. The attacks are the latest in a string of recent attacks by Islamic State-aligned Allied Democratic Force (ADF) after its members killed nearly 40 people last month in an attack on a Catholic church in Ituri. Most of the victims were killed with machetes. The ADF, with roots in neighboring Uganda, operates in the border villages between Uganda and Congo. Both countries have launched a joint armed operation against the group, but the group has only increased its attacks in recent months. The incidence of ADF attacks adds to the complicated security challenges in the eastern region of Congo, where dozens of other armed groups are fighting, and the central government is battling the M23 rebels, which have taken control of Goma and other key cities. Lubero's military administrator called on the residents to be on guard against further violence. 'I ask the population to speak out and remain vigilant,' he said.
