In brief: Mohammed Morsi held in Egyptian high-security prison
CAIRO – Deep in the desert and far from his former base of power, ousted President Mohammed Morsi is being held in a sprawling penitentiary that is notorious as one of Egypt’s highest-security prisons.
The move appears aimed not only at isolating him from other Muslim Brotherhood leaders jailed in Cairo but also to prevent his supporters from staging protests, or even trying to engineer a prison break, like those that occurred during the Arab Spring uprising of 2011.
Morsi spent his first night at the Borg el-Arab prison in a hospital room at the facility, complaining of high blood pressure and high blood sugar after a dramatic court appearance earlier Monday, the start of his trial on charges of inciting the killing of protesters in December 2012. The trial was adjourned by the judge for two months.
Morsi, 62, has been reported to have a number of ailments, including diabetes and a peptic ulcer. His room in the prison hospital has a TV set and a private bathroom, security officials said.
Canadian wants to crowd-fund hunt
KAMPALA, Uganda – Can you crowd-fund the hunt for a war criminal on the run deep in Africa’s jungles? A Canadian adventurer with experiences in Afghanistan and Somalia wants to do just that: raise funds and take a small band of former soldiers to find Joseph Kony.
Robert Young Pelton, whose plan has already drawn criticism from experts on Africa, is the latest to join a line of private individuals and aid groups who are trying to corner the alleged mass murderer and members of his Lord’s Resistance Army. Kony remains elusive despite the deployment by President Barack Obama in late 2011 of 100 U.S. special operations forces to aid the hunt – which is mostly carried out by Ugandan troops – and the efforts by myriad private groups.
Napoleon document will be auctioned
PARIS – The frail Napoleon knew he was near his end as he penned his will, a document that requested his ashes be scattered along the Seine river’s banks.
The only known copy of this testament will be sold today by Paris’ Drouot auction house.
Pierre Gheno, an expert on the French emperor and military legend, said the will’s copy is “very special in the great mass of documents produced in Napoleon’s era.”
The 51-year-old Napoleon died in 1821 in exile on Saint Helena island, 19 days after penning the will.
The original is in France’s national archives. The copy, written by a close adviser, is expected to fetch $162,000.
The fallen emperor’s ashes weren’t exactly scattered along the Seine, but rather transferred to Paris’ Invalides monument in 1840.