World

Pakistani Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai praised the Group of Seven industrialized nations after they pledged nearly $3 billion to help vulnerable women and girls get educations.

The 20-year-old on June 9 said the move would "give more girls hope that they can build a brighter future for themselves."

The pledge came at the end of the G7 summit near Quebec, Canada.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who hosted the event, called it "the single largest investment in education for women and girls in crisis and conflict situations."

Canada will contribute $300 million of the total, he said.

Malala was shot in the head on her school bus by Taliban gunmen in 2012 because she campaigned for the education of girls, which the militant extremist group opposes.

She wrote on Twitteron June 9 that the funds give "young women in developing countries the opportunity to pursue careers instead of early marriage and child labor."

Officials said the funds will be spent over the next three to five years and used to train teachers and improve curriculums, collect educational data, support new education methods, and raise the graduation rates for women and girls in developing countries.

With reporting by AFP

An asylum seeker who claims to be from Afghanistan was sentenced by a German court on March 22 to life in prison for the rape and murder of a woman.

Hussein Khavari, who arrived in Germany without identification in 2015, had admitted to attacking 19-year-old Maria Ladenburger in the southwestern city of Freiburg in October 2016.

Prosecutors said Khavari pushed the woman off her bicycle, then bit, choked, and raped her. She was left alive on the bank of a river, where she subsequently drowned.

Khavari was arrested seven weeks later after a manhunt.

Khavari had previously received a 10-year sentence for attempted murder in Greece, only to be freed in 2015 because of overcrowded prisons.

German authorities have not been able to confirm Khavari’s age and nation of origin. He originally claimed to be a teenager, but after examining dental records and X-rays, experts said they believe him to be 22 to 29 years old.

The case triggered protests in Germany against Chancellor Angela Merkel’s immigration policies.

Under German law, a life sentence means 15 years in prison with no chance of parole and the possibility of "security detention" after release.

Based on reporting by AFP and the BBC