International
Ghana parliament hears testimony on law curbing LGBT+ rights

AFP
Ghana’s parliament began hearing testimony Thursday on a bill that will further curb gay rights in a proposal widely condemned by the international community.
The committee-level hearing of testimony for and against the draft law titled “Promotion of proper human sexual rights and Ghanaian family values” is the initial stage of debate over the bill.
Gay sex is already illegal in the deeply religious West African country, but the law would toughen sentences for same-sex relations and make LGBT+ advocacy a criminal offence.
The committee on constitutional, legal and parliamentary affairs is expected to hold public hearings on the bill for 15 weeks before debate begins in the house.
Apostle Abraham Ofori Kuragu of the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council was among the first to testify on Thursday.
“LGBTQI+ activities pose a great threat to Ghanaian culture and values,” he said.
“The bill seeks to protect children from the dangerous activities of LGBTQI+ community. The bill before us is a proper vehicle to integrate sound cultural values into our body politic.”
While condemned by rights groups, the bill is widely supported in Ghana and by local church organisations which dismiss LGBT+ community as against Ghanaian culture.
“The bill violates virtually all the fundamental human rights of people. It stigmatises the LGBTQ+ community as inhuman,” said Akoto Ampaw, who heads the Concerned Ghanaian Citizens group.
“This is not the republic that Ghanaians fought for,” added the human rights lawyer who has served as the Ghanaian president’s counsel.
Presented by opposition lawmakers, the draft law criminalises LGBT+ advocacy, requires that “suspects” be denounced, advocates for conversion therapy and imposes longer jail sentences.
President Nana Akufo-Addo faces a difficult decision over whether to veto or sign the bill as it is condemned overseas but widely supported at home.
Already the proposed law has caused a rift between Britain’s Bishop of Canterbury and the former British colony’s Anglican Church which strongly supports the bill.
More than half the countries in sub-Saharan Africa have laws against homosexuality, with some carrying the death penalty, although no executions are known to have been carried out in the modern era, according to Human Rights Watch.
International
Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.
“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.
“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.
Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.
International
Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.
Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.
However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.
International
Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.
“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.
The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.
His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”
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