Bangladesh’s ousted leader Sheikh Hasina sentenced to death

A Bangladesh court sentenced ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina to be hanged for crimes against humanity on Monday, with cheers breaking out in the packed court as the judge read out the verdict. Hasina, 78, defied court orders that she return from India to attend her trial about whether she ordered a deadly crackdown against a student-led uprising last year that eventually ousted her. The highly anticipated ruling, which was broadcast live on national television, came less than three months before the first polls in the South Asian country of 170 million people since her overthrow in August 2024. “All the… elements constituting crimes against humanity have been fulfilled,” judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder read to the court in Dhaka. The former leader was found guilty on three counts: incitement, order to kill, and inaction to prevent the atrocities, the judge said. “We have decided to inflict her with only one sentence — that is, sentence of death.” Crowds waved the national fl...

Colombia suspends ceasefire with FARC guerrilla faction

The Colombian government will suspend a ceasefire with a faction of what was once the armed Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group, it said on Thursday, though it said the decision did not imply the end of peace talks with the group.

The ceasefire between the government and the FARC-EP group expired earlier this week. An extension was expected to be agreed upon, but failed to be settled in time.

The ceasefire had been in effect since December 2023 and had been extended several times. Now, both parties have 72 hours to move to locations where they will take up their own security and protection measures, as agreed on.

The peace talks with this branch of the FARC, with around 1,500 members, are part of President Gustavo Petro’s efforts to end a six-decade-long armed conflict that has left more than 450,000 people dead.

Still, his government has made little progress since he took office in 2022.

There was no immediate reaction to the ceasefire’s end from the FARC-EP or its leader, Alexander Diaz Mendoza, who goes under the pseudonym Calarca Cordoba.

Peace talks now hang in a fragile balance, security analysts say.

The other group which splintered off from the FARC is not currently involved in peace talks with the government, which has doubled down on a military offensive against militants hiding in the jungles and mountains.

Leftist guerrillas, as well as members of former far-right paramilitary groups which have now turned into gangs, lead Colombia’s cocaine trafficking and illegal gold mining.

SOURCE: Reuters and agencies



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