Israelis put hunger-strikers under watch
RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Several dozen hunger-striking Palestinians have been transferred from their cells to special wings in Israeli prisons for additional medical supervision, a spokesman for the Israel Prison Service said Wednesday.
After 31 days, 843 prisoners are still on a hunger strike, said the spokesman, Assaf Librati.
The prisoners, jailed for offenses linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, seek better conditions, including more family visits. Israel refuses to negotiate.
Librati refused to provide details about strike organizer Marwan Barghouti, the best-known prisoner, who is considered a possible future Palestinian leader.
After a prison visit earlier this week, Barghouti's lawyer said that his client would soon refuse water. It remains unclear if Barghouti, who has been held in isolation since the April 17 start of the strike, has stopped drinking.
Librati said Barghouti, a leader in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, remains in his cell.
The spokesman said that since last week, several dozen hunger strikers have been transferred to special prison wings with medical staff -- a setup he said is a step between a regular cell and an Israeli hospital.
Swedes fear fires targeting refugees
STOCKHOLM -- Three fires in southern Sweden apparently aimed at refugees are being investigated as arson, Swedish authorities said Wednesday.
No injuries have been reported and no arrests have been made. But police said in separate statements Wednesday that more than 300 asylum seekers have been evacuated after overnight fires in Vaxjo, Borrby and Malilla.
One of the fires destroyed a cafe and dance hall in a wooden building in Vaxjo adjacent to a hotel being used to house refugees. Swedish Radio said firefighters were able to stop the blaze from spreading to the nearby Hotel Butapalats, but some 200 asylum seekers were protectively relocated to a nursing home.
The affected buildings in Borrby and Malilla were used as temporary homes for refugees while their cases are being processed.
The causes of the three fires have not been established.
Sweden, which had a record 163,000 asylum applications in 2015, saw an increase in anti-migrant attitudes last year with a number of arson fires targeting refugee centers.
In Indonesia, 2 gay men face 85 lashes
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia -- An Islamic Shariah court in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province has sentenced two gay men to public caning for the first time, further undermining the country's moderate image after a top Christian politician was imprisoned for blasphemy.
The court, whose sentencing Wednesday coincided with International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, said the men, aged 20 and 23, would each receive 85 lashes for having sexual relations. One of the men wept as his sentence was read out and pleaded for leniency.
The chief prosecutor, Gulmaini, who goes by one name, said the two will be caned next week, before the holy Muslim month of Ramadan starts around May 25.
The couple were arrested in late March after neighborhood vigilantes in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, suspected them of being gay and broke into their rented room to catch them having sex.
The lead judge, Khairil Jamal, said the three-judge panel decided against imposing the maximum sentence of 100 lashes because the men were polite in court, cooperated with authorities and had no previous convictions.
"As Muslims, the defendants should uphold the Shariah law that prevails in Aceh," Jamal said.
3 Somalia bomb dismantlers die in blast
MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Three bomb disposal experts were killed in a car bomb blast west of Somalia's capital on Wednesday, police said.
The bomb detonated as the experts were trying to dismantle a car laden with explosives that security forces seized in Wadajir district, Capt. Mohamed Hussein said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast. The Somalia-based al-Shabab extremist group often claims responsibility for such attacks.
Al-Shabab has vowed to step up attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere after President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed announced a new offensive against the group. Targets in recent months have included hotels, military facilities and checkpoints and areas around the presidential palace.
Somalia's military is under growing pressure to assume responsibility for the country's security as a 22,000-strong multinational African Union force prepares to start withdrawing in 2018. The force, which has been supporting the fragile central government, plans to leave by the end of 2020.
A Section on 05/18/2017