Gunmen kill ex-Afghan TV personality
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Gunmen killed a former Afghan TV presenter Thursday as he was traveling in the southern city of Kandahar, a provincial official said, adding to fears for press freedom in the war-wrecked country.
Nimat Rawan was shot at noon by two assailants who escaped with his mobile phone, provincial spokesman Baheer Ahmadi said. Security officials have told several other journalists in the area that extremists are targeting them, he added.
The killing heightens worries over the fate of Afghan journalists as U.S. troops pull out. Many fear violence will spike and reprisals will be taken out against those who worked with foreign forces.
Rawan was a former presenter for the well-known local channel Tolonews. He had been working in the Finance Ministry's media office, media watchdog Nia said in a statement.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but it came a day after the Taliban issued a threat to Afghan journalists who it considered too close to U.S.-backed security agencies.
In a statement, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid warned Afghan journalists against giving "one-sided news in support of Afghanistan's intelligence," or otherwise "face the consequences."
Brutal Ugandan rebel leader sentenced
THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The International Criminal Court sentenced a Ugandan former child soldier who turned into a brutal rebel commander to 25 years' imprisonment Thursday, with judges saying that his own abduction as a schoolboy and history as a child soldier prevented him being sentenced to life.
Dominic Ongwen was convicted in February of a total of 61 war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, rape, forced marriage, forced pregnancy and using child soldiers as a commander in the shadowy Lord's Resistance Army. His lawyers have said they will appeal the conviction.
Presiding Judge Bertram Schmitt said that when deciding on a sentence judges had to weigh Ongwen's brutality and victims' wishes for justice against his own tortured past.
"The chamber is confronted in the present case with a unique situation. It is confronted with a perpetrator who willfully brought tremendous suffering upon his victims," Schmitt said.
"However, it is also confronted with a perpetrator who himself had previously endured extreme suffering himself at the hands of the group of which he later became a prominent member and leader."
Ongwen, wearing a mask and headphones, showed no emotion as he heard that the three-judge panel had given him a sentence five years longer than the 20 years prosecutors requested.
Noted Maldives politician hurt in blast
MALE, Maldives -- Maldives' first democratically elected president and current Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed was injured in a blast near his home Thursday and was being treated in a hospital in the capital, police said.
The police media unit text message did not give details but said it has started investigations and urged the public to refrain from going to the blast area in the capital, Male.
Maldives Home Minister Imran Abdulla told a local television station that Nasheed's injuries were not life-threatening and that the government will get the assistance of foreign agencies in the investigations.
Nasheed, now 53, became the first democratically elected leader of the archipelago state after a 30-year autocratic rule. He was president from 2008 until 2012, when he resigned amid public protests. He was defeated in the following election and was ineligible to run in 2018 election because of a prison sentence. His party colleague Ibrahim Mohamed Solih won that vote.
In 2019, Nasheed was elected Parliament speaker and has remained an influential political figure in the country.
Nasheed is known as a champion against global warming and an outspoken critic of religious extremism in the predominantly Sunni Muslim nation.
Alcohol-tied U.K. deaths highest in years
LONDON -- Alcohol-related deaths in England and Wales jumped by a fifth last year to reach their highest level in two decades, new government figures showed Thursday.
[CORONAVIRUS: Click here for our complete coverage » arkansasonline.com/coronavirus]
The Office for National Statistics said there were 7,423 deaths attributed to alcohol misuse in 2020, a 19.6% increase from the year before. It said the majority were linked to chronic conditions, such as alcohol-related liver disease.
The rise began in March 2020, when the U.K. began its first coronavirus lockdown, and the rate for the rest of the year remained significantly higher than in previous years.
The provisional data showed that alcohol-specific deaths among men were 4.2 times higher in the poorest areas of Wales and England than in the most affluent areas.
The statistics office said complex factors contributed to the rise in deaths and that it may be some time before the causes are fully understood. It said, however, that it was clear that high-risk drinkers increased their alcohol consumption during the pandemic.