The world in brief

Supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif react upon hearing about his prison sentence Friday in Islamabad.
Supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif react upon hearing about his prison sentence Friday in Islamabad.

Pakistan sentences ex-leader for graft

ISLAMABAD -- A Pakistani anti-graft tribunal on Friday announced a much-awaited ruling in a corruption case against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, sentencing him to 10 years in prison over purchases of luxury apartments in London.

Sharif, who is in London with his ailing wife, was not in the courtroom for the verdict and was sentenced in absentia. It's unlikely that Pakistan will seek his extradition and the former premier hours after the ruling said he was returning home, without specifying a date.

"I am coming back to Pakistan," he said at a news conference aired on Pakistani TV. "I am not afraid of jail."

Sharif said his wife was on a respirator at a London hospital and that he was waiting for her to regain consciousness, so he could talk to her before returning home.

He asked Pakistanis to back his party's candidates in the upcoming parliament elections and called Friday's ruling against him "strange," claiming none of his family members misappropriated government funds.

It was the latest blow to Sharif, just weeks ahead of the elections later this month, and the first verdict against the embattled former premier who has faced a string of trials since he was ousted from office by the Supreme Court last year for concealing assets abroad.

Drug lord extradited to U.S. as witness

Sinaloa cartel drug lord Damaso Lopez was extradited Friday from the border city of Ciudad Juarez to the United States, Mexico's federal attorney general's office said.

Known by his alias "El Licenciado," which is a title for college graduates, Lopez was the right-hand man of drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and helped him escape from a Mexican prison in 2001. After Guzman's arrest in 2016, Lopez started a bloody battle with Guzman's sons for control of the Sinaloa cartel.

Acting Attorney General Alberto Elias Beltran said Lopez "is potentially a key witness" against Guzman, who is facing trial in the United States.

Lopez himself faces U.S. charges of conspiring to distribute cocaine and commit money laundering and could face life imprisonment if convicted.

Mexican officials blame him for violence in the Pacific coast states of Sinaloa and Baja California, especially a string of killings in the twin resorts of Los Cabos. Lopez apparently sought to ally himself with the Jalisco cartel, Mexico's fastest-growing drug gang, to help in his battle with Guzman's sons.

Lopez was arrested at an apartment building in Mexico City in 2017.

Israeli court halts Bedouin site's razing

JERUSALEM -- Israeli media said the country's Supreme Court has suspended the planned demolition of a Bedouin hamlet in the West Bank amid international opposition to the move.

The Haaretz newspaper and other media reported that the court issued a temporary injunction late Thursday, giving the state until Wednesday to respond to an appeal against razing the site. The court approved demolishing it in May.

Israel claims the Khan al-Ahmar encampment of corrugated shacks was illegally built and has offered to resettle residents 7 miles away.

But critics say it's nearly impossible to get a building permit from Israel and that the site's demolition and removal of its 180 or so residents is a ploy to clear the way for Israeli settlements.

33 bodies found after Thai boat sinks

PHUKET, Thailand -- Thai authorities on Friday evening suspended the search for missing tourists who were on a boat that sank during a storm off the southern resort island of Phuket, as the death toll rose to 33, all of them Chinese nationals.

The search for another 23 people still missing will resume today, said Prapan Khanprasang, chief of the Phuket Provincial Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office.

The accident drew sharp attention from the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok. Visitors to Thailand from China totaled more than 9.8 million people in 2017, constituting the largest share by country of a record 35.38 million foreign tourists in all.

The death toll jumped after the navy sent divers to enter the wreck of the tour boat, which capsized and sank Thursday evening when it was hit by 16-foot-high waves. It was carrying 105 people, including 93 tourists, 11 crew and one tour guide. At least 12 of the injured were hospitalized.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the leader of Thailand's military government, expressed his "sympathies and deepest condolences" to the families of the dead.

The government will "exert all efforts to find those still missing and provide support to all survivors of this tragic event," he said in a statement.

photo

AP

Rescuers search the water Friday off Phuket, Thailand, where a tourist boat sank late Thursday.

-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports

A Section on 07/07/2018

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