233Prime

Hassan Hanafi, once a respected broadcaster, was sentenced to death last month by a military court in the capital, Mogadishu.

He assisted the Islamist militant group by identifying possible targets amongst journalists between 2007 and 2011.

He joined its armed wing after working for Radio Andalus, al-Shabab’s mouthpiece in Somalia.

More than 25 journalists have been murdered in Somalia since 2007, the Committee to Protect Journalists says.

While he was working for al-Shabab, Hanafi would call up journalists and threaten them with death if they refused to join the militant group, the BBC Somali’s Mohammud Ali says.

Al-Shabab frequently stages attacks in Mogadishu and other cities, and still controls many rural areas in southern Somalia.

Source BBC

The 65-member committee will decide whether to recommend impeachment over allegations she manipulated government accounts to hide a growing deficit.

Police in Brazil are preparing for protests in the capital, Brasilia.

A two-metre-high (6.5ft) metal barricade is being built to keep anti- and pro-government protesters apart.

The committee began its deliberations at about 11:00 local time (14:00 GMT), O Globo reported.

Attorney General Jose Eduardo Cordozo, speaking for the president at a bad-tempered meeting, condemned the “flawed” process.

“It is absurd to dismiss a president who has not committed crimes, nor stolen a penny. And such a process without crime or fraud, would be a coup,” he said.

But the committee’s head, Jovair Arantes, who last week said there were grounds for the impeachment process to continue, on Monday defended that decision, saying it had been backed by lawyers, economists and the media.

The committee’s vote is largely symbolic, as no matter what the outcome of it is, the full lower house of Congress will vote on the impeachment later this week or at the beginning of next.

But analysts say it will serve as an indicator of how key members of the lower house feel about impeaching the president, and media suggest the committee’s vote could be close.

Divided nation

Brazilian media are reporting that more than 100 members of the 513-strong lower house are still undecided.

If Ms Rousseff, who strongly denies the allegations against her, can get 172 members to oppose the impeachment, the proceedings will be shelved.

If, however, 342 vote in favour of the impeachment, the matter will go to the Senate.

The Senate will then have to decide whether to proceed with the impeachment. A simple majority would suffice for that.

If that happens, Ms Rousseff will be suspended for 180 days while the impeachment trial continues in the Senate.

For her to be removed from office permanently, two-thirds of the Senate will have to vote in favour.

The security forces said they were expecting mass protests to coincide with the vote in the lower house with smaller demonstrations in the days preceding it.

Prisoners helped the security forces build an 80m-long metal barricade on the esplanade in front of the congressional building to keep supporters and opponents of the government apart.

Protesters have also been told to refrain from bringing inflatable dolls to the demonstrations and from wearing masks or otherwise obscuring their faces.

Dolls of former President Lula wearing prison clothing are a common sight at anti-government protests.

Brazilians are divided into those who support the government and who say the impeachment process is a coup d’etat against Ms Rousseff and those who allege that she and her predecessor in office, Lula, are corrupt.

The latest Datafolha opinion poll suggests 61% favour impeachment, down from 68% in March.

Lula is under investigation for alleged money laundering, which he denies.

Brazil’s Supreme Court is expected to rule this week on whether Lula can take up the post of chief of staff to Ms Rousseff.

Lula was sworn in to the post last month but was suspended almost immediately by a judge because of the allegations against him.

Source: BBC

He earned £46,899 in rent on the London family home, the first such papers released by a UK prime minister reveal.

They show he inherited £300,000 when his father died, and the next year was given two payments of £100,000 by his mother to balance out the legacy.

Mr Cameron announced a new task force to investigate tax-dodging allegations.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the matter highlighted “a whole ethos” and how the very wealthy handled their tax affairs, adding he would publish his own tax return “very, very soon”.

On Saturday, the prime minister admitted he could have better handled the row over his financial affairs.

“Don’t blame Number 10 Downing Street or nameless advisers, blame me,” he said.

‘Not a great week’

This followed a week of questions and successive statements over whether Mr Cameron had owned and sold units in an offshore fund run by his late father, Ian Cameron.

Details of the Blairmore Holdings fund had been contained in a leak of 11 million documents, known as the Panama Papers.

The figures released by the prime minister show:

• He and his wife Samantha made a £19,000 profit from the sale in 2010 of their shares in the Blairmore Holdings fund

• Mr Cameron declared a £9,501 share of that profit, below the then £10,100 capital gains tax threshold

• Mr Cameron inherited £300,000 when his father died in 2010

• He was later given two payments of £100,000 by his mother in May and July 2011 in an attempt to balance out the legacy between Mr Cameron and his siblings

• In 2014-15, David Cameron paid £75,898 in tax on £200,307 earnings

• On top of his prime ministerial income, and the London rent, he last year received £9,834 in taxable expenses from the Tory party and £3,052 in interest on savings at a High Street bank

• He earned enough to benefit from the 2013 cut in the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p (for people earning more than £150,000)

• In 2010 when he first entered Downing Street, he took the prime ministerial expenses deduction – a £20,000 tax-free allowance – as part of his £142,500 salary

• But he voluntarily cancelled out the allowance by declaring the equivalent amount as taxable income from 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14, before waiving it from 2014-15

The PM said he was publishing the information to be “completely open and transparent” about his financial affairs.

Solicitor Robert Levy, who specialises in tax affairs, told the BBC there was nothing in the tax returns that made him “raise his eyebrows”.

On the matter of the two £100,000 gifts from Mr Cameron’s mother, Mr Levy said: “It’s not unusual for parents to make gifts to children. It’s just the figures here are larger than they might otherwise be.”

Mr Cameron’s inheritance of £300,000 from his father had been just below the inheritance tax threshold (£325,000) so people “put two and two together and often make five”, he said.

It was hard to know if they were in any way connected without more information, he added, “but it didn’t look to me when I looked at it that it was something that looked wrong.”

Addressing the Tories’ spring forum on Saturday, Mr Cameron had said he was to blame for the handling of revelations about his investment in the Bahamas-based Blairmore Holdings fund.

“It has not been a great week. I know that I should have handled this better. I know there are lessons to learn and I will learn them,” he said.

“Don’t blame Number 10 Downing Street or nameless advisers, blame me.”

As he was speaking, hundreds of protesters marched through Whitehall calling on Mr Cameron to “close tax loopholes or resign”.

Furore

The fund was named in the leak of documents belonging to Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. They revealed Ian Cameron had been a client of Mossack Fonseca when establishing the fund for investors.

The prime minister first promised his tax return data in 2012 but details for the past seven years have now been made public in the wake of the furore over the documents.

Source BBC