FRANCE: Paris terror attack suspect Salah Abdeslam and an accomplice were found guilty of attempted murder yesterday for shooting at police in a Brussels suburb.
The court sentenced Mr Abdelslam and Sofiane Ayari to the maximum 20 years in prison. The pair refused to attend the reading of the verdict and the sentencing.
Mr Abdelslam is in a French prison awaiting trial for the November 2015 Paris attacks, which killed 130 people.
The Belgian court said the “terror character” of the Brussels shooting was clear as the men were trying to avoid arrest.
PARAGUAY: Ruling Colorado Party candidate Mario Abdo Benitez was declared the winner of the country’s presidential election yesterday.
He took just over 49 per cent of the vote, ahead of his closest rival Efrain Alegre of the left-wing Ganar Alliance, who received almost 43 per cent.
The pro-business leader is the son of Mario Abdo, the personal secretary to dictator Alfredo Stroessner, who ruled Paraguay from 1954 to 1989.
He will take up the presidency on August 15. Parliamentary election results will be announced in the coming days.
BOSNIA: Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic started an appeal against a 40-year prison sentence for genocide and war crimes in The Hague yesterday.
He was convicted at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in March 2016, though his lawyers claim that he did not receive a fair trial.
Prosecutors are seeking to increase his 40-year jail term to life. Mr Karadzic has branded the sentence “political.”