1. Death toll from S. Sudan fighting climbs

    At least 272 people have died in fighting between South Sudan’s rival factions* in the capital Juba, including 33 civilians, a government source said on Sunday, as heavy gunfire erupted again in parts of the city.

    U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the fighting was “a new betrayal* of the people of South Sudan, who have suffered from unfathomable* atrocities* since December 2013.”

    Heavy gunfire broke out on Friday between soldiers loyal to President Salva Kiir and those supporting Vice President Riek Machar.

    2. Dallas shooting suspect expresses anger

    Former U.S. Army reservist* Micah Xavier Johnson posted an angry rant* against white people on the Facebook page of a group called Black Panther Party Mississippi last July 2, denouncing* lynching* and the brutalizing of black people.

    Five days later, the Afghan war veteran took part in a sniper*-style ambush of police officers in Dallas, killing five and wounding seven others before dying in a police-initiated explosion.

    “Why do so many whites (not all) enjoy killing and participating in the death of innocent beings,” Johnson wrote.

    3. US sanctions Kim Jong Un for 1st time

    The U.S. Government has imposed sanctions for the first time on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accusing him of being directly responsible for a long list of human rights abuses in his country.

    In announcing the sanctions on July 6, the U.S. Treasury Department said Kim and 10 other top officials were behind killings and torture of political prisoners.

    “Under Kim Jong Un, North Korea continues to inflict* intolerable cruelty and hardship on millions of its own people, including extrajudicial* killings, forced labor, and torture,” said Adam Szubin, acting treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

    4. French court jails Rwanda mayors

    In a landmark ruling, a Paris court jailed for life on July 6 two former Rwandan mayors accused of orchestrating* the massacre of hundreds of Tutsis during the country’s 1994 genocide*.

    The court said Octavien Ngenzi, 58, and his predecessor Tito Barahira, 64, were guilty of “crimes against humanity,” “massive and systematic summary executions” and “genocide” in their village of Kabarondo, where some 2,000 people seeking refuge in a church were bludgeoned* and hacked to death.

    5. May leads three-horse PM race

    Interior Minister Theresa May opened up a strong lead on July 5 in what is now a three-horse race to become Britain’s next prime minister, but the first stage of voting was overshadowed by post-Brexit carnage for property investors and the pound.

    In symptoms of market concern about the economic impact of leaving the European Union, sterling hit new 31-year lows and three funds investing in British property said they were suspending trading because too many people were rushing to withdraw their money at once.

    May won 165 votes in a first ballot of Conservative members of parliament and Andrea Leadsom, a junior energy minister, won 66, increasing the likelihood that Britain will get only its second woman prime minister after Margaret Thatcher.

    6. Pistorius sentenced to six years in prison

    Paralympian Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to six years in prison on July 6 for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp three years ago.

    Pistorius had been freed from prison in the South African capital Pretoria last October after serving one year of a five-year term for culpable* homicide*. But an appeals court upgraded the conviction to murder.

    Pistorius, 29, shot Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine’s Day in 2013, claiming he mistook her for a burglar. (SD-Agencies)