OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — A Burkina Faso military tribunal has sentenced ex-president Blaise Compaore to life imprisonment for complicity in the murder of his predecessor Thomas Sankara in 1987 and for undermining state security. Compaore was tried in absentia as he has been in exile in Ivory Coast since he was toppled from power in 2014. Compaore’s right-hand man Gilbert Diendere and former spy chief Tousma Yacinthe Kafando were also given life sentences. Diendere is already serving a prison sentence for an attempted coup in 2015 and Kafando is at large.

 

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BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A car carrying containers of flammable materials crashed into the gate of the Russian Embassy in the Romanian capital early Wednesday, bursting into flames and killing the driver, police said. The sedan rammed into the gate at about 6 a.m. Wednesday but did not enter the Bucharest embassy compound. Video of the aftermath showed the car engulfed in flames as security personnel ran through the area. According to police, firefighters who arrived at the scene were able to put the fire out but the driver died on the spot.

 

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PARIS/SPEZET, France (Reuters) - - French President Emmanuel Macron would beat Marine Le Pen in the country’s presidential election later this month, though Le Pen has gained ground in recent weeks, showed an Ipsos Sopra Steria Cevipof poll for Le Monde newspaper. The poll showed Macron would lead in the first round of votes on April 10, with 26.5 percent versus 21.5 percent for Le Pen in second place. Those figures compared to 28 percent for Macron and 17.5 percent for Le Pen in the last poll conducted March 21-24, said Ipsos Sopra Steria Cevipof. Macron would then beat Le Pen in the second round run-off vote on April 24 by 54 percent to 46 percent.

 

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PARIS (AFP) - Chileans will vote in a mandatory referendum on September 4 to approve or reject a new constitution to replace the one enacted in 1980 by the regime of dictator Augusto Pinochet, the government said Tuesday. The country, which elected a leftist president in December after a polarizing race, is going through profound change since an anti-inequality social uprising in 2019 that left dozens dead, rocking the economy and political establishment. Those protests had the backing of former student leader Gabriel Boric, elected president over a far-right candidate on promises of installing a “welfare state.”

 

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ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Two leading human rights groups on Wednesday accused armed forces from Ethiopia’s Amhara region of waging a campaign of ethnic cleansing against ethnic Tigrayans during a war that has killed thousands of civilians and displaced more than a million. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a joint report that abuses by Amhara officials and regional special forces and militias during fighting in western Tigray amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity. They also accused Ethiopia’s military of complicity in those acts.