Black Panther faces third trial

UNITED STATES: Angola Three inmate Albert Woodfox could face a third trial after an appeals court overturned a decision to free him.

Mr Woodfox has spent 43 years in solitary confinement — a form of torture.

He was convicted in 1973 of the murder of a prison guard on dodgy testimony. He believes he was framed because of his membership of the Black Panther Party. That conviction and another from 1993 were overturned last year.

Oil on the agenda of Aspa summit

SAUDI ARABIA: The fourth Arab-South American Summit (Aspa) began yesterday in the capital Riyadh.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said he would push for a deal to stabilise the price of oil. Venezuela has been badly hurt by falling prices since 2014.

“It cannot be that we produce the oil and financial speculators set the price,” Mr Maduro said.

Aspa meetings take place every three years and include the 12 South American nations of Unasur and the 22 Arab League members.

WFDY mark 70th year in Havana

CUBA: Young people meeting in Havana for the World Federation of Democratic Youth general assembly marked the 70th anniversary of its founding yesterday.

Cuban youth leader Jose Angel Maury said there would be a meeting of the International Committee of the Cuban Young Communist League and guests would discuss developments on the socialist island.

The meeting includes representatives of 70 youth organisations from 35 countries.

First UNHCR aid in three months sent

UKRAINE: The UN refugee agency UNHCR has delivered its first shipment of aid to the rebel-held east for three months.

Vital winter supplies for 12,000 people began to be dished out on Monday. Local UNHCR head Jean-Noel Wetterwald admitted it was “a small drop in the ocean” but said more would come before the cold takes hold.

Beijing hits back at US allegations

CHINA: Beijing yesterday refuted allegations by US Defence Secretary Ash Carter that the country posed a threat to the “international order.”

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the international order was based on the UN Charter and could not be redefined by states for their own purposes.

The US has repeatedly violated the UN charter by launching illegal wars, been condemned by the UN general assembly and in the 1980s was ruled to be an international terrorist.

First Muslim-majority council elected

UNITED STATES: Voters in Hamtramck, Michigan, have elected the first Muslim-majority council in US history.

Community leader Bill Meyer said the election “was far from close,” with the three newly elected councillors receiving more than 1,000 votes and their opponents getting less than 700 each.

Once largely Polish, Hamtramck is now one-quarter Arab (most from Yemen), 19 per cent African-American and 15 per cent Bangladeshi.

Farc stops buying weapons

COLOMBIA: Guerilla movement Farc has stopped buying weapons and ammunition as part of its full commitment to peace talks taking place in Havana, its leader Timochenko said yesterday.

His announcement of the decision, made on September 30, follows the Farc’s call for the government to agree to a truce.

Green activist out of jail after over a year

RUSSIA: Environmental activist Evgeniy Vitishko has been released from prison after more than a year and a half behind bars on trumped-up charges.

Mr Vitishko had warned against deforestation caused by construction for the Sochi winter Olympics, held in 2014.

He was sentenced to three years in jail at a penal colony more than 600 miles from his home for supposedly damaging a fence that was concealing illegal building work in a protected forest area.