News in Brief

Date: 27 October 2021 - 21:45

News ID: ۹۵۹۰۰

LONDON (Al-Jazeera) - The African Union said it suspended Sudan from all its activities after the country’s military overthrew the civilian-led transitional government in a coup. In a communique dated Tuesday, the pan-African body said the suspension would be in place until “the effective restoration” of the transitional authority steering the country towards elections. The AU’s move comes as Sudan is in the midst of a national disobedience movement and strike invoked by the country’s main opposition coalition, The Forces of Freedom and Change alliance, which is demanding the military to step down after it seize power. State oil company workers and doctors joined the call on Wednesday.

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BRASILIA (Reuters) - A Brazilian Senate investigative committee approved a report on Tuesday that calls for President Jair Bolsonaro to be indicted for nine crimes related to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, including crimes against humanity. The report, which is more than 1,300 pages long and took the opposition-controlled committee about six months to prepare, also alleges that 77 additional people and two companies committed crimes. A draft report released last week had called for Bolsonaro to be indicted for genocide and murder, but senators later decided to drop those particular charges due to what lawmakers described as technical reasons. They also decided to add 10 people to the list of individuals who should be indicted.

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BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union’s top court has ordered Poland to pay 1 million euros a day ($1.2bn) over the country’s longstanding dispute with the bloc over judicial independence. The Wednesday ruling by the Court of Justice came after the EU’s executive commission asked for “financial penalties” to ensure compliance with a ruling from July. Poland has been embroiled in a long-running dispute with Brussels over judicial reforms it says undermine the independence of courts. The row heated up in July when the Court of Justice ordered the country to suspend the controversial disciplinary chamber of its top court.

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PARIS (Express Tribune) - French prosecutors have opened an investigation into the alleged abuse by a priest of minor scouts after receiving letters by the victims. The incidents which took place from 1996-99 in the northeastern province of Reims became known after two of the victims reached out to Public Prosecutor Matthieu Bourette last week, news outlet Francebleu reported. Bourette said the letters claim multiple boy scouts were abused by the priest. More victims are ready to give testimony of the incidents, he added. The Reims Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation for “sexual assault on a minor over 15 years of age” against the accused priest who is reportedly in his 90s now.

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HUIXTLA, Mexico (Reuters) - Hundreds of migrants from Central America and the Caribbean trekked across Mexico on Wednesday, the latest in a series of caravans that have sought to reach the U.S. border in recent months. The United States has registered record levels of migration this year, with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents apprehending or expelling more than 1.7 million migrants over the last 12 months. The majority of the latest caravan members were families with young children, according to a Reuters witness, who estimated that about 2,000 migrants were gathered on Tuesday in Huixtla in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas to rest and receive medical attention before resuming their journey north.