World news in brief
AT&T agrees $86bn purchase of Time Warner
AT&T last night agreed an $85.4 billion deal to buy Time Warner, giving the telecom company control of cable TV channels HBO and CNN, film studio Warner Bros and other coveted media assets. The deal is the biggest merger in the world this year and one of the largest in the sector in recent years.
Telecommunications companies have been looking for quality content to stream over their high-speed networks, hoping to attract a growing group of viewers who want to ditch traditional pay-TV packages in favour of streamlined offerings or watching online. AT&T will pay $107.50 per Time Warner share, half in cash and half in stock. It will need to line up financing to pay for the deal, as it only has $7.2 billion in cash availiable. This could put pressure on its credit rating as it already had $120 billion in net debt as of 30 June, according to Moody’s.
The deal represents a victory for Time Warner chief executive Jeff Bewkes, 64, who was criticised by investors for rebuffing a takeover bid from 21st Century Fox two years ago at $85 a share. However, the acquisition will likely face intense scrutiny by US antitrust regulators. The government may well be concerned that other cable and internet companies will be denied access to Time Warner content,
antitrust lawyer Andre Barlow of Doyle, Barlow & Mazard said.
Libyan forces free 13 foreign prisoners from Isis
Forces loyal to Libya’s unity government yesterday freed 13 foreigners held by Isis in the terror group’s former coastal bastion of Sirte, they said in a statement. The loyalists freed a Turkish and an Egyptian detainee as well as 11 Eritrean women “thought to have been held hostage by Daesh [Isis]”. Progovernment forces are fighting the last jihadists holed up in Sirte after launching an offensive to retake the city in May.
Libya has been in chaos with rival administrations and militia vying for power of the oil-rich country since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Isis overran the former president’s home town in June 2015, flying their black flags above public buildings and imprisoning, crucifying or beheading dozens of people.
Forces allied with Libya's UN-backed Government of National Unity (GNA) began an offensive on 12 May aimed at ousting the jihadists from the city and surrounding areas. Backed by US air strikes since 1 August, they have gradually tightened the noose on the few remaining fighters inside the city some 280 miles east of the capital Tripoli. Pro-government forces said yesterday that they had seized a group of buildings in a northeastern district of Sirte after three days of fighting against Isis.
Egyptian court upholds former president’s 20-year jail sentence
An Egyptian court has upheld a 20-year jail sentence given to ousted President Mohammed Morsi for his role in the killing of protesters outside the presidential palace in Cairo in December 2012.
Yesterday’s ruling by the Court of Cessation is the first final verdict against Morsi since his removal from power and subsequent detention in July 2013. He has been convicted and sentenced to death and life imprisonment in three separate cases, but these rulings are under appeal.
Freely elected in June 2012, the Islamist leader was overthrown a year later by the military, then led by his successor, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who was elected with a landslide in June 2014.
Nine refugees drown during rescue operation off Libya
At least nine refugees drowned and 10 others, including four children, are missing after a series of rescues in the Mediterranean Sea yesterday that saved over 1,000 people, rescuers said. Survivors saved by medical charity Medicins sans Frontieres (MSF) from a sinking rubber boat before dawn said six adults and four children were missing.
An MSF spokeswoman said 120 people were taken to safety, but there were fears that more may be missing at sea. Nine bodies were found later in the day on another vessel, though their cause of death was unclear. They were transferred to the Norwegian Siem Pilot rescue ship, part of the Frontex European border security agency’s mission in the Mediterranean, along with the bodies of five migrants who died on Friday.
The Italian coastguard, which coordinates rescues in the area, said at least 1,000 migrants had been saved yesterday, adding that the number may rise.
Man accused of plotting to bomb Somali immigrants planned ‘cataclysmic’ attack
Three men accused of plotting to bomb Somali immigrants living in western Kansas were preparing to defend themselves in the event of “massive social upheaval” as they accumulated firearms and ammunition, a lawyer has said. The arguments were the first glimpse into the unfolding defence strategy for three men who prosecutors say were plotting to detonate truck bombs at an apartment complex where 120 Somali immigrants live in the town of Garden City.
The arguments came during a detention hearing for Patrick Stein, who pleaded not guilty to conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. During the hearing, assistant US attorney, Anthony Mattivi, accused Stein of preparing for “a substantial cataclysmic attack”. Prosecutors say Stein was the leader of a militia group called The Crusaders, but his lawyer, Ed Robinson, denies his client even knew of such a group. Mr Robinson also said the ammonia nitrate that the government claims was to be used to make bombs was really for farming.
US magistrate Judge Gwynne Birzer remanded Stein in custody until his trial, citing the “sense of hate” exhibited in prosecutors’ evidence and noting “the grave danger you pose to the community if you are released”. Prosecutors say Stein, 47, Gavin Wright, 51, and Curtis Allen, 49, planned to attack the apartment complex, which contained a mosque in one of the units, the day after the US presidential election on 8 November. Wright waived his detention hearing on Friday and pleaded not guilty. Allen’s hearing is scheduled for tomorrow.
Hundreds march to protest return of bullfighting to Barcelona
Hundreds of people took part in a march in Barcelona yesterday to protest the return of bullfighting to the city. Spain’s Constitutional Court overruled Catalonia’s regional ban on bullfighting last week, saying the prohibition violated a national law protecting the controversial spectacle.
Spain’s Pacma animal rights political party called the protest as part of its “Mission Abolition.” The party has said it will continue to fight to end bull-related events at a national level.
Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia, which outlawed bullfighting in 2010. The ban reflected a growing movement against bullfighting, but also was seen as a step in the Catalan government’s push to break away from Spain. Pacma has called for more protests to be held in Madrid and other Spanish cities.