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Alleged coup plotters in Nigeria plead not guilty to treason and terrorism

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Six people accused of plotting to overthrow Nigerian President Bola Tinubu were arraigned in court on Wednesday on charges of treason and terrorism.

All six pleaded not guilty to all 13 charges, which were announced on Tuesday. The suspects have been in the custody of the secret police for months.

The six included a retired major general and a serving police inspector. A seventh suspect, former Bayelsa state Gov. Timipre Sylva, is accused of helping to conceal the plot and is still at large.

The court adjourned the case until April 27, when it will hear bail applications.

In the charge sheet, authorities said the suspects “conspired with one another to levy war against the state to overawe the president of the Federal Republic.”

The Nigerian government first said it had foiled a coup attempt in January, when it announced that several military officers would stand trial.

The coup would have ended nearly three decades of democratic rule in Africa’s most populous country, which returned to democracy in 1999.

Iran attacks Bahrain and Kuwait following US strikes, threatens to end talks to end the war

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched drone and missile attacks Sunday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to U.S. airstrikes that hit the Islamic Republic, and threatened a “complete halt” could come to negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks. Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf that once carried a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas, without Iran's direct oversight sparked the crossfire now gripping the region. A multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Saturday that it would expand a route near Oman in the Strait of Hormuz to allow for both inbound and outbound traffic — setting up a new flashpoint with Tehran. Iran insists it alone must govern the strait after the war, upending decades of the world considering that the strait was international waters free for all, despite its sitting in Iran and Oman's territorial waters. Tehran has twice attacked vessels going through the Oman route, backed by a United Nations agency, in recent days. Early Sunday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said it struck Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” following an attack on a ship at sea early Saturday morning. That ship, the Panamanian-flagged tanker Kiku, carried crude oil for the state-run energy company of Qatar, a key negotiator between Iran and the United States.
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