KENYA TO RELEASE SHAKAHOLA CULT VICTIMS’ BODIES FOR BURIAL.

The Kenyan government says it will release some of the bodies belonging to victims of the Shakahola starvation cult next week.

At least 34 bodies have been identified and linked to their families, out of the hundreds that were exhumed last year.

The bodies of 429 people, including children, were dug up from graves in Shakahola, a remote forest outside the coastal town of Malindi.

Most showed signs of starvation and assault.

Survivors and victims’ families said self-proclaimed pastor Paul Mackenzie encouraged members of his Good News International Church to move there and prepare for the end of the world.

Survivors say he instructed them to fast so that they could “get to heaven”.

The government will counsel victims’ families but will not assist them to transport the bodies for burial, said chief government pathologist Dr Johansen Oduor.

Mackenzie has denied responsibility for the deaths. He and several of his followers are currently on trial for several charges, including terrorism, murder and torture.

New exhumations are scheduled to be done in one to two weeks, Dr Oduor said, adding that 35 more grave sites have been identified.

The planned fresh exhumations could drive up the death toll further.
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SENEGAL HOLDS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ON SUNDAY.

Senegal will hold its delayed presidential election on Sunday amid an unusually tense political mood after President Macky Sall failed to postpone the vote and two key opponents were released from prison, handing momentum to the opposition.

Support for Sall in Senegal, usually one of coup-prone West Africa’s most stable democracies, has dropped during his second term in office, which will be his last. For the first time in the country’s history, the incumbent will not be on the ballot.

The ruling coalition has picked Amadou Ba, 62, a former prime minister and finance minister as its candidate, who is likely to pursue Senegal’s investor-friendly policies as it readies to become an oil and gas producer by the end of 2024.

But Ba faces a crowded opposition field of 18 candidates, the most prominent being 43-year-old former tax inspector Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who has been propelled to the frontline by support from firebrand opposition leader Ousmane Sonko.

Sonko, who is popular among urban youth frustrated with a lack of jobs and economic hardship, came third in the 2019 presidential race but was disqualified this time due to a defamation conviction.

Both Sonko and Faye were released from jail on March 14 due to an amnesty proposed by Sall after months in detention, and have since drawn thousands to their rallies.
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PORTUGAL’S CENTRE-RIGHT LEADER INVITED TO FORM MINORITY GOVERNMENT.

Luís Montenegro has repeatedly insisted he will not work with the far-right Chega party

Portugal’s president has invited centre-right politician Luís Montenegro to form a minority government.

The Democratic Alliance, AD, won snap elections this month but fell short of winning a majority in parliament.

The party rejected working with the far-right Chega party, which won a record number of seats.

Portugal, governed by the Socialists since 2015, now has its most fragmented parliament since the end of its dictatorship half a century ago.

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa invited Montenegro to become prime minister shortly after midnight on Thursday after consulting with party leaders.

“With the Democratic Alliance winning the elections in terms of mandates and votes, and having the Secretary General of the Socialist Party confirming that he would be leader of the opposition, the President of the Republic decided to nominate Dr Luís Montenegro as prime minister,” a statement issued by the presidential administration said.

The AD won 80 seats, well short of the 116 needed for a majority.

The party will require the support of either the Socialists, who hold 78 seats or Chega (Enough), which won 50, to pass legislation.
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COURT SENTENCES FORMER MISSISSIPPI POLICE OFFICER TO FORTY YEARS.

A former Mississippi police officer has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for torturing two black men in a house.

Christian Dedmon, 29, is one of six officers convicted over the 24 January 2023 assault.

Three other former officers have been sentenced to a total of more than 54 years in prison for the attack.

Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker were beaten, shocked with stun guns and sexually assaulted by the officers.

In court, Jenkins said Dedmon was the “most wicked” of his assailants, in a statement read by his lawyer.

“Deputy Dedmon is the worst example of a police officer in the United States,” Jenkins said. Dedmon had planted drugs on Jenkins in a bid to frame him.

He still has trouble speaking after being shot in the mouth as part of a mock execution during the ordeal.

The officers were responding to a call in the Rankin County town of Braxton in which a neighbour reported seeing suspicious behaviour and black men staying at a white woman’s home.

The policemen entered the house without a warrant.

Jenkins and Parker were handcuffed, beaten and mocked with racial slurs during an attack that lasted an hour-and-a-half.
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PALACE FURNITURE ROW BETWEEN BOLSONARO, LULA TAKES NEW TURN IN BRAZIL.

The Brazilian government says it has found dozens of furniture items that were reported missing from the official presidential residence when President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office in January last year.

At the time, he accused his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, of taking the 261 pieces with him.

Lula then spent $40,000 (£31,000) of public funds refurnishing the palace.

All the items have now been found at an undisclosed location on the estate.

Bolsonaro said Lula should answer for falsely reporting a crime.

The former first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro, said the accusations of theft from the modernist Alvorada Palace had been a smokescreen to justify spending thousands of dollars on new luxury furniture items.

Left-winger Lula beat the far-right Bolsonaro in a close-fought election in October 2022.

Following the election, thousands who refused to accept Bolsonaro’s loss stormed the government district in the capital Brasilia in protest. Buildings including the presidential palace and supreme court were ransacked.

Supporters of Lula said the riots were an attempted coup.

Bolsonaro says he has been a victim of political persecution since leaving office just over a year ago.

At a rally in São Paulo last month, he told tens of thousands of supporters that coup allegations against him were a “lie”.

Bolsonaro is barred from running for office for eight years for undermining the electoral system in Brazil and claiming the last election was fraudulent, despite there being no evidence of electoral fraud.