ISRAEL APPROVES PARTIAL MARIJUANA DECRIMINALISATION

JERUSALEM, Israel (AFP) – The Israeli government yesterday approved a plan to partially decriminalise marijuana use in public in favour of fines and treatment, officials said.

First-time users who confess will be fined 1,000 shekels (US$270, 255 euros). The fine will be doubled on the second offence, with the third time forcing a probation period on the user.

Police will refer a user to criminal procedures only on the fourth time they catch someone in possession of or using cannabis in public.

The plan, based on recommendations from a committee set up to study the issue, applies only to instances of personal use. Producing, selling and buying cannabis remain illegal in Israel.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan called the approval “an important step on the way to implementing a new policy that will emphasise education and treatment instead of criminal enforcement”.

Erdan had formed the committee in July when tasking his director general with examining Israel’s enforcement policy on the personal use of cannabis.

MUGABE BACK HOME AFTER MEDICAL REVIEW IN SINGAPORE

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AFP) – Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe returned home yesterday from Singapore where he had flown earlier this week for a medical review, his spokesman said.

Mugabe returned “this morning”, spokesman George Charamba told AFP.

He had travelled to Singapore on Wednesday, just days after he celebrated his 93rd birthday, for what his spokesman had described as a “scheduled medical review”.

“As for the review, well he resumes work tomorrow,” Charamba said.

The veteran leader who has been in power since 1980, appeared frail at his birthday party on February 25.

Two journalists were arrested Friday over a report that claimed Mugabe was “in bad shape”.

They were charged with undermining and insulting the office of the president, and released hours after their arrest. They have not yet been brought before a court.

Mugabe’s health has been the subject of increased speculation in recent years, and he regularly flies to Singapore for medical attention.

Despite his advanced age, Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party last year endorsed him as its candidate for the 2018 general election.

PABLO ESCOBAR’S SON SLAMS TV SERIES FOR ‘GLORIFYING’ CRIMINALS

MADRID, Spain (AFP) – The son of infamous Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar slammed depictions of his father’s life like those in the hit Netflix series Narcos, saying they “glorify” criminals, in an interview published yesterday.

“I am not against telling stories, but I am against glorifying criminals and showing drug trafficking as glamorous. This confuses youths,” Sebastian Marroquin, who changed his name from Juan Pablo Escobar after his father’s death, told the Spanish newspaper El Periodico.

“I receive tonnes of messages from youths asking for help to be like my dad. They want to be that criminal, they send me photos dressed up like him, with his moustache, his hairstyle,” Marroquin added.

“Series about narcos have turned my father into a hero and given young people the idea that it is cool to be a drug trafficker.”

Marroquin, 39, made headlines last year when he took to Facebook to list 28 inaccuracies in Netflix’s popular series about his father and called the show “insulting”.

He told El Periodico that he offered the producers of the series access to his family’s personal archives, including letters written by his father and never before released videos, but they said they were not interested,

“They preferred inventions by some scriptwriters in California to the truth from those who suffered this story in the flesh,” Marroquin told the newspaper.

INDIAN POLICE HUNT NUNS ACCUSED OF AIDING RAPIST PRIEST

NEW DELHI, India (AFP) – Five nuns and a doctor are on the run, in India after being accused of concealing the birth of a baby to a teenager who alleges that a priest raped her, police said yesterday.

Arrest warrants have been issued for the six and for two hospital staff. They are accused of concealing the 16-year-old’s delivery from authorities and hiding the baby in a Catholic orphanage at Kunnur in the southern state of Kerala.

“They deliberately hid the incident from officials,” Prajish Thottathil, a senior police officer, told AFP, adding some of the accused likely also knew about the alleged assault.

Three of the accused work at a private hospital while the rest were associated with the orphanage where the baby was left.

The accused priest Robin Vadakkumchery was arrested last week after the victim gave birth in February, prompting an investigation.

Under Indian law doctors and hospitals must report all teenage pregnancies and deliveries to authorities.

Sex — consensual or otherwise — with a person aged under 18 is considered rape in India.

The victim told investigators the accused priest raped her at a church-run school last year.

She and her family said they were unaware of the pregnancy until she complained of stomach pain and was taken to hospital, where she gave birth.

SOUTH AFRICA WEIGHS SOCIAL MEDIA MEASURES TO FIGHT FAKE NEWS

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) – South Africa’s state security minister said yesterday the government is considering a move to regulate social media in an effort to curb the proliferation of what he described as “false” information.

“The false narrative in the social media, it’s one of the challenges that South Africa faces,” David Mahlobo said at a press conference in Pretoria.

Mahlobo acknowledged that such a move would likely draw a wave of criticism and fears of stifling human rights, but added that “even the best democracies … regulate” social media.

“Regulation is the way to go,” the 45-year-old minister said, adding that the planned measures would also go after misleading photoshopped images. “We will actually be discussing how we regulate it.”

South Africa’s move to curb the spread of misinformation comes amid efforts by Facebook, Google, and a group of international media to stymie the spread of fake news.

Facebook announced in mid-January it was introducing new measures to take down “unambiguously wrong reports” being shared on the social media platform.

Google said in late January it took down 1.7 billion ads last year as part of its fight against “bad ads, sites, and scammers” that tricked people, and Google, by pretending to offer real news instead took people to promotional pages.