In brief: Mugabe, 91, fetes birthday with speech

VICTORIA FALLS, Zimbabwe – President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe marked his 91st birthday by speaking for more than an hour on his feet Saturday, delivering a characteristically defiant speech in which he threatened to take over land and animal sanctuaries still in the hands of whites.

Mugabe’s robust performance during a lavish party in the resort town of Victoria Falls seemed designed to dispel any speculation that old age was slowing him down following a recent fall at Harare’s main airport. Mugabe’s birthday was on Feb. 21.

Thousands of people packed the grounds of a hotel to praise the man who has led Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, and youth officials who organized the event encouraged Mugabe to rule until he dies. Mugabe won disputed elections in 2013; he would be 94 during the next elections in 2018.

Robbers in $92 million holdup sentenced

PARIS – Eight people have been convicted in connection with a spectacular 2008 holdup at a Harry Winston jewelry shop in Paris, in which three cross-dressing gunmen stole about $92 million in loot, a defense lawyer said Saturday.

Lawyer Philippe Stepniewski said sentences ranged from nine months to 15 years in prison – with the heaviest penalty handed to Douadi Yahiaoui, a 50-year-old repeat offender and alleged ringleader of the heist.

In the robbery, the gunmen wore silky wigs, skirts, stockings and high heels, and took less than 20 minutes to steal hundreds of jewelry pieces and watches.

The eight were convicted late Friday on charges including armed robbery in an organized gang, criminal association, and receiving stolen goods in the 2008 heist, and another a year earlier at the same store. In that one, thieves dressed as building painters slipped in through the store’s service entrance. All told, authorities estimated the two heists netted over $110 million in luxury watches, necklaces, earrings and other valuables.

Stepniewski’s client, Mouloud Djennad, was a security guard at the Harry Winston store and an inside accomplice who tipped off the thieves to the amount of the bounty inside, according to court documents.