The former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for corruption in a verdict likely to influence the general election due to be held on 25 July. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Pakistan’s anti-graft court, ruled that Sharif and his family laundered money in the 1990s to pay for four luxury apartments in Park Lane in London, drawing on allegations that resurfaced in the Panama Papers leak, published by the Guardian and others in 2016.

The court also sentenced Sharif’s daughter and presumed political heir, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, to seven years’ imprisonment, fined the family £10m and ordered the seizure of the Avenfield properties. “The Pakistani nation and the PML-N [Pakistani Muslim League (Nawaz), Sharif’s party] reject this decision,” Sharif’s brother, Shahbaz Sharif, told reporters. “This is a dark chapter in the history of this country. There was no solid legal evidence in the entire case.” Sharif, who has been at the sickbed of his wife, Kulsoom Nawaz, in London, did not attend the hearing. The court earlier denied his request for a week-long delay to the verdict while she is on a respirator following treatment for throat cancer.(theguardian)…[+]

The EU is prepared to change its Brexit position if Theresa May softens her negotiating red lines, Michel Barnier has said. The offer from the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator could be seen as a strategic olive branch coming just as the prime minister tries to strike a deal between the warring sides of her cabinet at Chequers.

“I am ready to adapt our offer should the UK red lines change,” Barnier said in a speech to the Institute of International and European Affairs in Brussels. “Our objective has always been to find an agreement with the UK, not against.” He called on all sides to stop arguing over the Irish border, imploring everyone to “de-dramatise” the issue.

However, he said the EU would not shift its own red line on the single market, which he said was “not and never should be seen as a big supermarket; it is economic, cultural and social life, it should be developed in all its dimensions”. He added: “The single market is our main economic public good. We will not damage it. We will not unravel what we achieved with the UK. We must find solutions that respect the integrity of the single market.”(theguardian)…[+]

The Pan-Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP), with funding from the CARIFORUM 10th European Development Fund (EDF) Programme of Support for Wider Caribbean Cooperation, will host the Barbados National Faith Leaders Consultation in Saint Michael Parish Barbados from 6 – 7 July 2018.

The Consultation forms part of a series of engagements with faith leaders in Barbados under the PANCAP Justice for All programme. It will facilitate the development of an action plan for advancing faith leaders’ implementation of key elements of the Justice for All programme. Participants will include 40 faith leaders representing national faith leaders’ networks from across Barbados.

The action plan will include but not limited to the establishment of the main goals for an inter-religious faith leaders network in Barbados with emphasis on contributing toward the end of AIDS; identification of the lessons learned for ending AIDS from faith leaders’ engagements with People Living with HIV and with other groups such as parliamentarians, youth leaders, civil society and members of church communities; challenges for developing a viable Faith Leaders Network and proposals for overcoming them; specific recommendations to achieve the goals of the inter-religious/faith leaders network and priorities and timelines for achieving the goals of the Network.

In an invited comment, coordinator of the consultation, Dr. Nigel Taylor, Chair, Barbados Evangelical Association, stated, “The many challenges faced by faith-based organizations (FBOs) necessitates a strategic partnership framework of cooperation with all stakeholders in the HIV prevention and response. As such, there must be a concerted effort to increase the partnership and collaboration between all the major stakeholders as we seek to put all systems in place to end AIDS by 2030”…[+]