The World in Brief

WikiLeaks founder denied French haven

PARIS — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has failed in a bid to win asylum in France.

Assange wrote a letter to French President Francois Hollande published Friday in the newspaper Le Monde appealing to France’s history as a beacon for the repressed. He noted that WikiLeaks recently revealed that the U.S. National Security Agency spied on Hollande and his two predecessors and leading French companies.

Hollande quickly said no. In a statement, his office noted that Assange is under a European arrest warrant and his life is not in imminent danger.

The exchange came after prominent French voices appealed for France to grant haven to Assange and to NSA leaker Edward Snowden. French Justice Minister Christine Taubira suggested in a televised interview last week that she would be open to the idea.

But Hollande’s statement Friday made it clear that won’t happen. “A deep examination found that given the judicial elements and the material situation of Mr. Assange, France cannot follow through on his request,” he said.

Assange has spent three years in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning in a sexual-assault case. He denies the allegations and believes extradition to Sweden would be the first step in efforts to send him for prosecution in the U.S.

He and his group angered the U.S. government by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret military and diplomatic documents.

Called Boko Haram ‘traitors,’ 11 slain

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Boko Haram militants slit the throats of 11 they called “traitors” Friday, witnesses said in the first news of desertions from the Nigerian Islamic extremist group.

The militants arrived before dawn and went door-todoor in northeastern Miringa town, resident Muhammad Kimba said. They dragged 11 people outside the town “and slaughtered all of them,” Kimba said.

It is the fifth attack in a week during which 173 people were left dead.

Boko Haram took over a large area of northeastern Nigeria last year and stepped up cross-border raids. A multinational army from Nigeria and its neighbors forced the militants out of towns, but bombings and village attacks have increased recently.

The Islamic State extremist group ordered its followers to step up attacks in the holy month of Ramadan.

Bid to clear Lockerbie bomber rejected

LONDON — Judges at a Scottish court ruled Friday that relatives of people killed in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, cannot appeal on behalf of the only man convicted of the attack.

The appeal was sought on behalf of the late Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer.

Some of the victims’ families believe that al-Megrahi was not responsible for the bomb that exploded aboard a New York-bound Boeing 747 in 1988, killing 259 people on the plane and 11 on the ground. Many of the victims were American college students flying home for Christmas.

Al-Megrahi was convicted of the bombing in 2001 and released from prison in 2009 on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with cancer. He died in Libya in 2012, still protesting his innocence.

Murder charges target S. Africa’s No. 2

JOHANNESBURG — An opposition party filed criminal charges Friday against South Africa’s deputy president and other officials accused of involvement in the police shooting deaths of 34 miners during labor unrest.

The Economic Freedom Fighters filed charges of murder, attempted murder and the conspiracy to commit murder against Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa for the miners’ deaths during a violent 2012 strike in Marikana, in North West province.

The party also laid charges against the national police commissioner, the former police and mining ministers, and the directors of the Lonmin platinum mine.

The strike over wages lasted about six weeks, and saw thousands of miners assemble on a nearby hill, refusing to return to the mine. An operation to move the gathered miners led to police shooting 112 miners, killing 34 on Aug. 16 2012. Violence in the weeks before the shooting led to the deaths of 12 more people throughout the strike, including policemen.

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