KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — A pregnant Sudanese woman who married a Christian man was sentenced to death Thursday after she refused to recant her Christian faith, her lawyer said.

Meriam Ibrahim, whose father was Muslim but mother was an Orthodox Christian from Ethiopia, was convicted of "apostasy" on Sunday and given four days to repent and escape death, said lawyer Al-Shareef Ali al-Shareef Mohammed.

The 26 year old, who is eight months pregnant, was sentenced after that grace period expired, Mohammed said.

Amnesty International immediately condemned the sentence, calling it "abhorrent." The U.S. State Department said it was "deeply disturbed" by the sentencing and called on the government to respect the right to freedom of religion.

Mohammed, the lawyer, called the conviction rushed and legally flawed since the judge refused to hear key defense witnesses and ignored constitutional provisions on freedom of worship and equality among citizens.

Ibrahim and Wani married in a formal church ceremony in 2011 and have a son, 18-month-old Martin, who is with her in jail. The couple runs several businesses, including a farm, south of Khartoum.

Sudan's penal code criminalizes the conversion of Muslims into other religions, which is punishable by death.

As in many Muslim nations, Muslim women in Sudan are prohibited from marrying non-Muslims, though Muslim men can marry outside their faith. By law, children must follow their father's religion.

Sudan introduced Islamic Shariah laws in the early 1980s under the rule of autocrat Jaafar Nimeiri, a move that contributed to the resumption of an insurgency in the mostly animist and Christian south of Sudan. An earlier round of civil war lasted 17 years and ended in 1972. The south seceded in 2011 to become the world's newest nation, South Sudan.

Sudanese President Omar Bashir, an Islamist who seized power in a 1989 military coup, says his country will implement Islam more strictly now that the non-Muslim south is gone.

A number of Sudanese have been convicted of apostasy in recent years, but they all escaped execution by recanting their new faith. Religious thinker and politician Mahmoud Mohammed Taha, a critic of Nimeiri and his interpretation of Shariah, was sentenced to death after his conviction of apostasy. He was executed in 1985 at the age of 76.

Mohammed said he intends to appeal Ibrahim's conviction.

"The judge has exceeded his mandate when he ruled that Meriam's marriage was void because her husband was out of her faith," Mohammed told The Associated Press. "He was thinking more of Islamic Shariah laws than of the country's laws and its constitution."

He said Ibrahim's Muslim father left her mother when she was a child and her mother raised her as a Christian.

The court in the capital, Khartoum, also ordered that Ibrahim be given 100 lashes for having what it considers sexual relations with her husband, Daniel Wani, a Christian from southern Sudan who has U.S. citizenship, according to the lawyer and judicial officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Wani was acquitted of a charge of harboring an apostate, according to another defense lawyer, Eman Abdul-Rahim.

Wani fled to the United States as a child to escape the civil war in southern Sudan but later returned, she said.

Amnesty called the sentence a "flagrant breach of international human rights law."

"The fact that a woman could be sentenced to death for her religious choice, and to flogging for being married to a man of an allegedly different religion, is abhorrent and should never be even considered," Amnesty said in a statement, quoting its Sudan researcher, Manar Idriss.

Ibrahim's case first came to the attention of authorities in August, when members of her father's family complained that she was born a Muslim but married a Christian man.

They claimed that her birth name was "Afdal" and that she changed it to Meriam. Mohammed said the document produced by relatives to show she was given a Muslim name at birth was a fake. Ibrahim refused to answer Judge Abbas Khalifa when he called her "Afdal" during Thursday's hearing. Meriam is a common name for Muslims and Christians alike.

"I was never a Muslim. I was raised a Christian from the start," she said.

Authorities first charged her with having illegitimate sex last year but she remained free pending trial. She was charged with apostasy and jailed in February after she declared in court that Christianity was the only religion she knew.

___

Hendawi reported from Cairo.

A pregnant woman who married a Christian man is condemned to death after she refuses to recant her faith.
International outrage

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City minister who was the subject of an Associated Press investigation about misspent 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina charity funds has agreed to repay $1.2 million that he took from his congregation to buy an 18th-century farmhouse on seven acres in rural New Jersey.

The Rev. Carl Keyes and his wife, the Rev. Donna Keyes, who jointly led the Glad Tidings Tabernacle in Manhattan, signed a legal judgment Wednesday settling a probe by the New York attorney general into a series of questionable church financial transactions.

Those deals included an illegal loan the couple took from the church in 2008 to buy a house in Stockton, New Jersey, near the Delaware River, and $500,000 the church lent an anti-poverty charity controlled by Carl Keyes, called Aid for the World.

Some of that money, the attorney general's office said, was used to buy the minister and his wife a BMW. According to the settlement, which was scheduled to be officially announced Thursday, other funds were used to finance family trips to California, West Virginia, Africa and Florida, where the couple's sons went to college.

Glad Tidings former executive director, Mark Costantin, agreed to repay $482,000 he still owed Glad Tidings on $1.2 million in loans he'd taken from the church, some of which were used to pay off the mortgage on his house in Chester, New York.

"Carl and Donna Keyes and Mark Costantin abused the trust of their congregants and used Glad Tidings Tabernacle as their personal bank," said Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. He said the law forbids officers and directors, including ministers, from taking any such loans — "much less loans to finance personal expenses and lifestyle choices."

Three former members of the Glad Tidings' board agreed to pay $50,000 in penalties for neglecting their oversight duties.

The attorney general's office began its investigation after the AP raised numerous questions about Carl Keyes and two charities he controlled, including one that had received $4.8 million in donations intended to help victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina.

View gallery

In this Jan. 21, 2009 photo provided by the New York Stock Exchange, Rev. Carl Keyes, founder …

The AP reported in articles in 2011 and 2012 that Keyes had diverted some of that money into his cash-starved church, then used funds from the church and the nonprofit groups to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal credit card bills and other debts. Keyes used one big donation, meant for his disaster-relief charity, Urban Life Ministries, to clear a mortgage on another New Jersey home.

The AP also found that Keyes had embellished stories about relief work he performed in New York in the months after the 9/11 attacks. In some cases, he took credit for things that other people had done.

Using a combination of internal documents and public records, the AP also chronicled how the church disposed of $31 million it made by selling off its historic Manhattan church in 2007. That report included detail on some of the loan transactions that were the subject of Wednesday's settlement. After the AP began asking questions, Keyes filed eight years of tax returns for Urban Life Ministries and three years for Aid for the World.

State investigators said Costantin helped arrange for the church to lend nearly $1 million to the Keyes couple for their farmhouse purchase. The investigators added that Costantin signed paperwork in which the church gave up its right to claim ownership of the property if the loan wasn't repaid. No payments were made, the state said, and when the Keyes sold the house last year, they kept all the proceeds.

A similar arrangement, approved by Keyes, took away the church's ability to collect on the loans to Costantin, the state said.

New York law bars the officers and directors of nonprofit and religious organizations from taking any loans from their organizations.

As a result of the legal settlement, Glad Tidings Tabernacle, now located in Harlem, has been placed under the temporary stewardship of a board appointed by an Assemblies of God umbrella organization.

New York Assemblies of God District Superintendent Dr. Duane Durst said the organization planned to examine the church's finances carefully.

The legal judgment requires the Keyes to pay $1,231,105 in restitution to Glad Tidings, which includes borrowed money plus interest.

The Keyes couple and Costantin have been permanently barred from acting as fiduciaries of any New York nonprofit or religious corporation. The agreement allows Donna Keyes to continue to serve as senior pastor at Glad Tidings.

The attorney who represented the ministers and Costantin, Maurice Heller, declined to comment. He said the settlement doesn't require his clients to admit guilt, but forbids them from making public statements contesting the allegations.

__

The AP National Investigative Team can be reached at investigate@ap.org

Minister to repay $1.2M meant for charity

A probe found that the Rev. Carl Keyes used 9/11 and Katrina relief funds to buy houses, a BMW, and more.
'Abused the trust'

An aide to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sparked outrage in Turkey after he was seen assaulting a protester while visiting the site of the Soma coal mine disaster.

Yusuf Yerkel, an adviser to Erdogan, can be seen on video and in several wire service photographs kicking a man while he was being held down by two paramilitary police officers.

According to the Telegraph, the unidentified man was thought to be a grieving relative of one of the mine victims. Yerkel told the BBC that he would make a statement about the incident on Thursday.

The death toll from Tuesday's mine explosion stands at 282, making it the worst industrial accident in Turkish history. Government officials told the Associated Press that 787 people were inside the coal mine at the time of the explosion; 383 were rescued, many with injuries. More than 100 people are still missing.

In his initial remarks Wednesday, Erdogan downplayed the disaster, calling mining accidents "ordinary things" that happen in other countries. Not surprisingly, the comments drew an angry reaction from the crowd, and Erdogan was whisked away from the scene, taking refuge inside a supermarket.

It wasn't the first time the prime minister has drawn outrage with comments about the mining industry, the Telegraph noted. In 2010, when 30 people died in a mining accident, Erdogan said, 'Unfortunately, this profession has this in its destiny.”

According to Turkey's Mine Workers Union, there were more 25,000 accidents in the country's mines between 2000 and 2009, resulting in 63 deaths.

Thousands of miners participated in a series of demonstrations across Turkey on Thursday protesting the Soma disaster.

"Soma's coal will burn the government," some protesters chanted, according to the Guardian. Others were heard shouting, “Tayyip, the murderer.”

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Political aide sparks outrage in disaster's wake

As hundreds of families mourn victims from the Turkish mine explosion, an adviser's move adds to the anger.
Growing pushback

MUNSHIGANJ, Bangladesh (AP) — Rescuers have recovered at least 26 bodies after a ferry capsized during a storm in a river in central Bangladesh, officials said Friday.

Police estimated at least 100 people were still missing, but there was no clear picture about exactly how many people were on board because the ferry operators did not maintain a passenger list, said a local administrator, Saiful Hasan.

Sabuj, a passenger who jumped overboard when the ship began to sink, said he was among some 25 people who managed to swim to safety.

He said the captain of the double-decker ferry ignored the passengers' calls to stay close to the shore as the storm started brewing.

"But he continued to steer the ship" out into the water, said Sabuj, who uses one name.

Relatives of the missing and the dead were gathering near the Meghna River, near where the boat capsized Thursday afternoon in Munshiganj district. Several recovered bodies, covered in cloth, were on the banks of the river, according to television footage.

Ferry accidents are common in Bangladesh, a low-lying delta nation, because of overcrowding, faulty vessels and lax rules.

Bangladesh ferry capsizes, killing at least 26

Police estimate at least 100 people are still missing after the double-decker vessel sank during a storm in a river.
No passenger list

The top U.S. and U.K. diplomats vowed to punish Russia with industrywide sanctions if this month's Ukrainian presidential election is undermined as the Kiev government's forces moved to flush out separatists in the east.

"If Russia or its proxies disrupt the elections," the U.S. and its allies "will impose sectoral economic sanctions as a result," Secretary of State John Kerrysaid in London yesterday after meeting his counterparts from Britain, Italy, France and Germany. Pro-Russian separatists "are literally sowing mayhem," seeking to "speak for everyone through the barrel of a gun."

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Discord over the election risks another round of escalation as the Kiev government and its U.S. and European allies blame Russia for the unrest in Ukraine's easternmost regions. Russian calls to include rebels in national unity talks that began May 14 were rejected as the meetings opened without separatist leaders' participation.

In eastern Ukraine, government troops eliminated two rebel bases near the towns of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said yesterday. Militants vowed to expel the military from the region.

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"The anti-terrorist operation can stop after weapons are surrendered and hostages released," Turchynov said in parliament in Kiev. "We're conducting dialogue with those who're prepared for conversation and cooperation. We're working on changes to the constitution to expand powers to local self-government. At the same time, those who conduct war will receive an adequate answer."

Russia's benchmark Micex Index of stocks was up 0.1 percent at 1:03 p.m. in Moscow. It's dropped 4.3 percent since the start of President Vladimir Putin's intervention in Crimea on March 1. The ruble lost 0.1 percent to 34.7980 versus the dollar. Ukraine's hryvnia, which has lost 31 percent against the U.S. currency in 2014, declined 1 percent today, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

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The United Nations high commissioner for refugees, Navi Pillay, said today a report produced by her 34-strong monitoring team in Ukraine shows "an alarming deterioration in the human rights situation in the east of the country."

The monitors criticized "repeated acts of violence against peaceful participants of rallies, mainly those in support of Ukraine's unity" as well as "targeted killings, torture and beatings, abductions, intimidation and some cases of sexual harassment –- mostly carried out by well-organized and well-armed anti-government groups in the east."

Russia's Foreign Ministry said on its website the report wasn't objective and used double standards.

Even as the U.S. and the European Union threaten more sanctions after the May 25 election, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said it's "ridiculous" to hold his country's government responsible.

While Lavrov said May 14 that Ukraine's slide into a civil war is making legitimate voting impossible, Kerry appealed yesterday to separatists to take part in the ballot and engage in national dialogue as "the best way to de-escalate the situation."

Dozens of people have been killed and more than 100 kidnapped in eastern Ukraine since separatist unrest flared after Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula in March.

The situation in the Donetsk region is worsening, with the sound of gunfire constant in Slovyansk and the surrounding district, television service knocked out and public transport not functioning, the governor's office said in a statement yesterday. Tensions have engulfed 15 towns and cities in the region, according to the statement.

Ukraine's security service announced today a group of rebels had been detained on the way to Slovyansk for organizing unrest in the southwestern port city of Odessa. The group acted on Russian orders, it said on its website.

Ukrainian Social Policy Minister Lyudmyla Denisova said in parliament the government would no longer be able to provide welfare payments to residents in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where unofficial ballots last weekend backed a breakaway from Kiev, because of the security situation.

Separatists in Luhansk and Donetsk have agreed to join forces to confront the central government. Rebels fighting for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said yesterday that they'll "burn and wipe out" Ukrainian forces unless they withdraw from the region.

"When Ukrainians kill Ukrainians, I believe it's as close to civil war as you can get," Lavrov told Bloomberg Television May 14. "In the east and south of Ukraine, there is a war, a real war, with heavy weaponry used."

Even so, in the eastern port city of Mariupol, rebels and police agreed to end fighting under an agreement brokered by Metinvest Holding LLC, the company said on its website. Metinvest, controlled by Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, runs iron and steel plants in Mariupol.

At the roundtable talks in Kiev, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said ending the crisis requires an international conference in Geneva, which Ukraine, Russia, the EU and the U.S. should attend.

While Putin promised last week to move soldiers back from Ukraine's border, NATO says this hasn't happened. Russia has no intention to send troops to eastern Ukraine, Lavrov said.

The U.S. and the EU have already penalized 98 people and 20 companies over Russia's actions in Ukraine. Should it interfere in the planned election, Russia will face punitive measures targeting entire industries, which may include energy, banking, defense and mining, according to a U.S. official who asked not to be identified following diplomatic protocol.

The U.S. and its European allies agreed that industrywide sanctions would come next, the official said.

"Russia's attitude and behavior toward those elections will be the determining factor in whether we need to apply widening sanctions," U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters in London yesterday. "We can't give and wouldn't want to give an exact definition" of what would trigger those measures, he said. "If we set a red line, Russia knows it can go up to that red line."

To contact the reporters on this story: Indira A.R. Lakshmanan in London atilakshmanan@bloomberg.net; Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net; Kateryna Choursina in Kiev at kchoursina@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net Eddie Buckle, Andrew Langley