Sudan's rulers agreed to hand over ex-President Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to face genocide and war crimes charges. Bashir is accused of serious crimes in a conflict that broke out in Darfur in 2003 and led to the deaths of 300,000. Authorities said the former president, and others charged by the ICC, should appear at The Hague to face a tribunal.

The commitment came at peace talks between Sudan's government and rebel groups from the Darfur region. "Justice cannot be achieved if we don't heal the wounds," said Mohammed Hassan al-Taishi, a spokesman for the Sudanese government. Bashir, who refused to recognise the authority of the court when he was charged for crimes in the region in 2009, was ousted as president in April last year. One of his lawyers told Reuters news agency that Bashir would continue to refuse to deal with the ICC, describing it as a "political court".

London police started using facial recognition cameras to automatically scan for wanted people, as authorities adopt the controversial technology that has raised concerns about increased surveillance and erosion of privacy. Surveillance cameras mounted on a blue police van monitored people coming out of a shopping center in Stratford, in east London. Signs warned that police were using the technology to find people "wanted for serious crimes." Officers stood nearby, explaining to passers-by how the system works.

It's the first time London's Metropolitan Police Service has used live facial recognition cameras in an operational deployment since carrying out a series of trials that ended last year. London police are using the technology despite warnings from rights groups, lawmakers and independent experts about a lack of accuracy and bias in the system and the erosion of privacy. Activists fear it's just the start of expanded surveillance.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has secured another term in office after his party won a resounding victory in elections in the capital. Voters overwhelmingly backed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in an election which pitted them against India's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It's a setback for the BJP after last year's general election landslide. The party won five more seats in Delhi but still holds just eight out of 70. The AAP won all the rest.

"This is a win for Mother India," a grinning Mr Kejriwal told his supporters at the AAP office earlier in the day. He waved and blew them kisses, and said he "loved the people of Delhi". The 51-year-old former bureaucrat first became chief minister in 2013 and was then re-elected in 2015 with a landslide. He has been credited with turning around Delhi's government-run schools, establishing affordable neighbourhood clinics and providing cheap water and electricity.

A new species of tyrannosaur that stalked North America around 80 million years ago has been discovered by scientists in Canada. The dinosaur lived in the late Cretaceous Period, making it the oldest known tyrannosaur from North America. Another species of tyrannosaur, a Daspletosaurus, was found in Canada in 1970, a study says. Researchers say the new discovery has given them insights into the evolution of tyrannosaurs.

Standing roughly 8ft (2.4m) tall, the predator would have cut an intimidating figure. Like its tyrannosaur relatives, the carnivorous dinosaur had a long, deep snout, bumps on its skull and large steak-knife-like teeth measuring more than 7cm (2.7in) long. The predator's name - Thanatotheristes degrootorum - translates to "Reaper of Death" from the Greek. Fragments of Thanatos's fossilised skull were found by John De Groot, a farmer and palaeontology enthusiast. He stumbled across the fossils in 2010 while hiking near Hays, a hamlet in southern Alberta.

Leave a Comment

Recent Posts