Dominican Republic bans guns during holiday season. In the Dominican Republic, violence and murders skyrocket during the Christmas season. For this reason, the government has banned citizens from carrying guns, even if they are legal, for the whole month of December. The unpopular measure has some unlikely critics. Leaders of churches and human rights groups are against the ban, claiming that it is counter productive.
Rwandan singer arrested for encouraging genocide. A United Nations tribunal sentenced popular Rwandan singer, Simon Bikindi, to 15 years in prison for encouraging killing during the genocide in 1994, reports the BBC. According to the judgment by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Bikindi made a public speech urging Hutus to kill Tutsis. “Simon Bikindi used a public address system to state that the majority population, the Hutu, should rise up to exterminate the minority, the Tutsi,” it read. “On his way back, Bikindi used the same system to ask if people had been killing Tutsi, who he referred to as snakes.” Some of his songs also promoted animosity and hatred towards Tutsis, but the court found no evidence to suggest they had a role in the 1994 genocide. During the genocide, about 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus were killed in 100 days. Prosecutors wanted him to be given a life sentence. Bikindi’s lawyers are thinking about appealing the sentence. Bikindi, who served as a sports ministry official in Rwanda, was arrested seven years ago in the Netherlands. The ICTR has convicted 29 and acquitted five people brought before the court since 1997.

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