Peter Greste and fellow journalists to finally appear in Egyptian court
The three al-Jazeera staffers, who have been held for 46 days, are locked in a cell next to the country’s former prime minister
Three al-Jazeera English journalists seized last December from their Cairo hotel rooms are due to appear in court on Thursday for the first time since their arrest on December 29 after spending the past fortnight locked up next-door to Egypt’s former prime minister and a few cells away from the leader of Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Australian ex-BBC reporter Peter Greste, Canadian-Egyptian ex-CNN journalist Mohamed Fahmy and local producer Baher Mohamed are among 20 people accused of conspiring with the Brotherhood to tarnish Egypt’s international reputation. Egyptian authorities have presented the Brotherhood a terrorist group since Morsi’s overthrow last July and condemned journalists who give its members a voice.
Several defendants, including British reporters Sue Turton and Dominic Kane, left Egypt before the charges were laid. The case mainly targets al-Jazeera but some of the accused, including Dutch freelance broadcast journalist Rena Netjes, have no connection to the channel.Peugeot buys time with Dongfeng tie-up
Peugeot board approve €3bn capital increase that will see French state and Chinese carmaker take stakes in group
PSA Peugeot Citroën and China's Dongfeng motor company have agreed a €3 billion (£2.4 billion) capital tie-up that buys the French carmaker more time to turn its business around, brings in new management and ends two centuries of family control.
Peugeot's chief executive, Philippe Varin, and former Renault executive Carlos Tavares, who will replace Varin when the deal is finalised, must now explain how the fresh capital can be used to improve the bottom line, analysts said.
"Expectations are running high," London-based ISI Group analyst Erich Hauser said in a note. "PSA (Peugeot) needs to show a new equity story to keep investors interested."
500 Indian workers killed building World Cup infrastructure
Indian embassy confirms scale of Qatar fatalities since January 2012
Owen Gibson
More than 500 Indian migrant workers have died in Qatar since January 2012, revealing for the first time the shocking scale of fatalities among those building the infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup.
Official figures confirmed by the Indian embassy in Doha reveal that 237 Indians working in Qatar died in 2012 and 241 in 2013. A further 24 Indians died in January 2014.
These come after it was revealed last month that 185 Nepalese workers had died in Qatar in 2013, taking the total from that country to at least 382 over two years.
Human rights groups and politicians said the figures meant soccer body Fifa could not “look the other way”, and should be leading demands for Qatar to improve conditions for the estimated 1.2 million migrant workers fuelling the construction boom.
Latin America calls for calm after Venezuelan government arrests Lopez
Latin American leaders have called for calm after Venezuela’s government arrested an opposition leader. Before surrendering to authorities Tuesday, Leopoldo Lopez had told supporters he didn't fear serving jail time.
Late Tuesday, Human Rights Watch criticized Lopez's detention and called for international assistance in securing his release from the government of President Nicolas Maduro. HRW Americas Director Jose Miguel Vivanco said Maduro's government had made no valid case against Lopez and merely justified his imprisonment through "insults and conspiracy theories."
"The arrest of Leopoldo Lopez constitutes a scandalous violation of one of the most basic principles of due process, which is that you cannot imprison a person without proof linking him to a crime," Vivanco said. He added that he and many believed that Lopez was arrested because he "is a political opponent of the president."
On Tuesday, Venezuela's government arrested Lopez, 42, on charges of inciting violence in anti-government demonstrations. He had vowed to face the charges against him.
Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra to face anti-corruption commission next week
February 19, 2014 - 1:44PM
Lindsay Murdoch
South-East Asia correspondent for Fairfax Media
Bangkok: The immediate fate of Thailand’s beleaguered prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra will be decided on Thursday next week when judges of the country’s anti-corruption commission summon her to answer a charge of negligence over a controversial rice subsidy scheme.
If the judges find her guilty she will be suspended from office and face impeachment proceedings in Thailand’s Senate, bringing an abrupt end to the two and half year-rule of Thailand’s first woman prime minister, and plunging Thailand deeper into political crisis.
As renewed violence erupted on Bangkok’s streets, Ms Yingluck lashed out at her political enemies, accusing them of obstructing the implementation of the rice scheme she insisted had benefitted farmers and underpinned the economy.
In Zimbabwe, political crisis turns violent
A senior opposition official was assaulted by members of his own party, further fraying the only group capable of challenging President Mugabe. Meanwhile, a former US congressman was arrested in Harare on suspicion of possessing pornography.
Factionalism within Zimbabwe’s ailing opposition party has taken a violent turn with an assault on a senior official who is challenging the leadership of Morgan Tsvangirai, the party founder.
The attack came at a meeting of provincial party chiefs in Harare.
Opposition members described as youths loyal to Mr. Tsvangirai, the long-time face of Zimbabwe’s opposition who was prime minister until last summer, apparently assaulted party deputy treasurer Elton Mangoma for allegedly trying to replace Tsvangirai at a meeting first called to address the problem of emotional divides in the party.
Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change has been known more for tolerance and for enduring physical attacks by various forces of Zimbabwe's autocratic President Robert Mugabe. Yet since Mr. Mugabe trounced the opposition last July, the MDC has been riven by factionalism and discontent.
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