Corruption trial
continues for Sudan’s ex-President
AP, Cairo
Sudan’s autocratic former President Omar al-Bashir has arrived in court amid tight security for the second week of his trial on corruption and money laundering charges.
Al-Bashir was ousted by the military in April following months of mass protests against his three-decade rule. He’s also wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and genocide linked to the Darfur conflict in the 2000s.
Man sent to prison for threatening to kill Bernie Sanders
Reuters , Vermont
A Florida man was sentenced to 15 months in prison on Friday for threatening to behead US Senator and Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, federal prosecutors said.
The man, 58-year-old Robert Pratersch of Kissimmee, in September 2018 left three voicemail messages at Sanders’ Vermont office where he made anti-Semitic threats and threatened to kill Sanders by beheading him in an “ISIS-style” video.
US, SE Asia to hold first ever joint
maritime drill
AFP, Washington
The US and 10 Southeast Asian states will hold their first-ever joint maritime exercises in September, aimed at preventing “wrongdoing” as Washington and Beijing jostle for influence in the region.
Washington has traditionally been the dominant naval power in Southeast Asia and its re-engagement with the area comes as a deteriorating trade war with China threatens to engulf the global economy.
Zarif praises Macron nuclear crisis suggestions
AFP, Paris
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Friday that suggestions by French President Emmanuel Macron about defusing the crisis over Iran’s nuclear drive went in the right direction, but that more work needed to be done.
“President Macron made some suggestions last week to President (Hassan) Rouhani and we believe they are moving in the right direction, although we are not definitely there yet,” Zarif told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in an interview after meeting Macron for rare talks in Paris.
