Greta Thunberg arrested at pro-Palestinian demo in Denmark

Greta Thunberg arrested at pro-Palestinian demo in Denmark
Danish police on Wednesday apprehended activist Greta Thunberg at a Copenhagen protest against the war in Gaza, a spokesperson for the student group organizing the demonstration said. (Thomson Reuters)
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Updated 04 September 2024
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Greta Thunberg arrested at pro-Palestinian demo in Denmark

Greta Thunberg arrested at pro-Palestinian demo in Denmark
  • Climate activist occupied a University of Copenhagen building to call for an academic boycott of Israeli universities

COPENHAGEN: Climate activist Greta Thunberg and several others were arrested Wednesday after occupying a University of Copenhagen building to call for an academic boycott of Israeli universities, Danish media reported.
Images on the daily Ekstra Bladet website showed the 21-year-old activist, wearing a black-and-white keffiyeh shawl draped over her shoulders, being escorted out of a campus building by police.
Thunberg herself shared images on Instagram of riot police entering a building where the group “Students against the Occupation” were staging a protest.
“I can’t confirm the names of those arrested, but six people have been arrested in connection with the demonstration,” a Copenhagen police spokesman told AFP.
Three of them “are suspected of forcing their way into the building and blocking the entrance,” he said.
The six were released several hours later, the spokesman told AFP, and video footage published by Ekstra Bladet showed Thunberg walking out of the police station.
Students against the Occupation said in an Instagram statement that “while the situation in Palestine only gets worse, the University of Copenhagen continues cooperation with academic institutions in Israel.”
“We are occupying” the university’s “central administration with one demand: academic boycott now.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters have set up encampments at universities around the United States and Europe since last spring to protest against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and occupation of Palestinian territories.


Two dead and 500 arrested in France during PSG win celebrations

Two dead and 500 arrested in France during PSG win celebrations
Updated 6 min 31 sec ago
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Two dead and 500 arrested in France during PSG win celebrations

Two dead and 500 arrested in France during PSG win celebrations

PARIS: More than 500 people were arrested by police during the Champions League final celebrations in France, and two people were reported dead and 192 injured, the interior ministry said on Sunday.
Wild celebrations erupted across the French capital and beyond on Saturday night after Paris St Germain crushed Italian opponents Inter Milan to win the Champions League for the first time, although skirmishes with police later threatened to spoil the party.
The interior ministry's provisional assessment as of Sunday morning was that 559 people had been arrested, including 491 in Paris, which led to 320 people being placed in police custody, 254 of them in Paris.
On the Champs Elysees, bus shelters were smashed and projectiles hurled at riot police, who fired tear gas and water cannon to push back surging crowds as thousands of supporters descended on the boutique-lined boulevard.
The interior ministry on Sunday reported hundreds of fires, including more than 200 vehicles burned. Some 22 members of the security forces and seven firefighters were harmed.


Nearly 200 migrants in small boats rescued in Channel

Nearly 200 migrants in small boats rescued in Channel
Updated 01 June 2025
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Nearly 200 migrants in small boats rescued in Channel

Nearly 200 migrants in small boats rescued in Channel

Lille: Nearly 200 migrants trying to cross the Channel from France to Britain in small boats were rescued between late Friday and late Saturday, French coastal authorities said.
A total 184 people were picked up in four different rescue operations, the maritime prefecture for France’s Channel and northern region said in a statement on Sunday.
In one instance, the motor died on a boat carrying 61 people. In another, nine people on a boat called for assistance.
According to an AFP tally of official figures, 15 people have died so far this year trying to cross the Channel, one of the busiest areas in the world for shipping.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in May announced tougher new policies to tackle high levels of regular and irregular migration, in an attempt to stem a growing loss of support to the hard right.
They include looking at the creation of centers in other countries to take in migrants whose asylum applications have been turned down.
The EU has also unveiled plans to make it easier to send asylum seekers to certain countries outside the bloc, in the latest overhaul aimed at reducing irregular migration.


Bangladesh opens fugitive ex-PM’s trial over protest killings

Bangladesh opens fugitive ex-PM’s trial over protest killings
Updated 01 June 2025
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Bangladesh opens fugitive ex-PM’s trial over protest killings

Bangladesh opens fugitive ex-PM’s trial over protest killings
  • Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024 when Hasina’s government launched its crackdown, according to the United Nations

DHAKA: Fugitive former prime minister Sheikh Hasina orchestrated a “systemic attack” to try to crush the uprising against her government, Bangladeshi prosecutors said at the opening of her trial on Sunday.
Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024 when Hasina’s government launched its crackdown, according to the United Nations.
Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter to her old ally India as the student-led uprising ended her 15-year rule, and she has defied an extradition order to return to Dhaka.
The domestic International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) is prosecuting former senior figures connected to Hasina’s ousted government and her now-banned party, the Awami League.
“Upon scrutinizing the evidence, we reached the conclusion that it was a coordinated, widespread and systematic attack,” Mohammad Tajul Islam, ICT chief prosecutor, told the court in his opening speech.
“The accused unleashed all law enforcement agencies and her armed party members to crush the uprising.”
Islam lodged charges against Hasina and two other officials of “abetment, incitement, complicity, facilitation, conspiracy, and failure to prevent mass murder during the July uprising.”


Hasina, who remains in self-imposed exile in India, has rejected the charges as politically motivated.
As well as Hasina, the case includes ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun — who is in custody, but who did not appear in court on Sunday — and former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, who like Hasina, is on the run.
The prosecution of senior figures from Hasina’s government is a key demand of several of the political parties now jostling for power. The interim government has vowed to hold elections before June 2026.
The hearing is being broadcast live on state-owned Bangladesh Television.
Prosecutor Islam vowed the trial would be impartial.
“This is not an act of vendetta, but a commitment to the principle that, in a democratic country, there is no room for crimes against humanity,” he said.
Investigators have collected video footage, audio clips, Hasina’s phone conversations, records of helicopter and drone movements, as well as statements from victims of the crackdown as part of their probe.
The ICT court opened its first trial connected to the previous government on May 25.
In that case, eight police officials face charges of crimes against humanity over the killing of six protesters on August 5, the day Hasina fled the country.
Four of the officers are in custody and four are being tried in absentia.
The ICT was set up by Hasina in 2009 to investigate crimes committed by the Pakistani army during Bangladesh’s war for independence in 1971.
It sentenced numerous prominent political opponents to death and became widely seen as a means for Hasina to eliminate rivals.
Earlier on Sunday, the Supreme Court restored the registration of the largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, allowing it to take part in elections.
Hasina banned Jamaat-e-Islami during her tenure and cracked down on its leaders.
In May, Bangladesh’s interim government banned the Awami League, pending the outcome of her trial, and of other party leaders.


China says Hegseth is touting a Cold War mentality in calling it a threat

China says Hegseth is touting a Cold War mentality in calling it a threat
Updated 01 June 2025
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China says Hegseth is touting a Cold War mentality in calling it a threat

China says Hegseth is touting a Cold War mentality in calling it a threat
  • The Chinese foreign ministry said Hegseth had vilified Beijing with defamatory allegations the previous day before at the Shangri-La Dialogue

BEJING: China on Sunday denounced US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for calling the Asian country a threat, accusing him of touting a Cold War mentality as tensions between Washington and Beijing further escalate.
The foreign ministry said Hegseth had vilified Beijing with defamatory allegations the previous day before at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a global security conference. The statement also accused the United States of inciting conflict and confrontation in the region.
“Hegseth deliberately ignored the call for peace and development by countries in the region, and instead touted the Cold War mentality for bloc confrontation,” it said, referring to the post-World War II rivalry between the US and the former Soviet Union.
“No country in the world deserves to be called a hegemonic power other than the US itself,” it said, alleging that Washington is also undermining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific.
Hegseth said in Singapore on Saturday that Washington will bolster its defenses overseas to counter what the Pentagon sees as rapidly developing threats by Beijing, particularly in its aggressive stance toward Taiwan.
China’s army “is rehearsing for the real deal,” Hegseth said. “We are not going to sugarcoat it — the threat China poses is real. And it could be imminent.”
The Chinese statement stressed that the Taiwan question is entirely China’s internal affair, saying the US must “never play with fire” with it. It also alleged Washington had deployed offensive weaponry in the South China Sea, was “stoking flames and creating tensions in the Asia-Pacific” and “turning the region into a powder keg.”
In a Facebook post on Saturday, China’s Embassy in Singapore said Hegseth’s speech was “steeped in provocations and instigation.”
The US and China had reached a deal last month to cut US President Donald Trump’s tariffs from 145 percent to 30 percent for 90 days, creating time for negotiators from both sides to reach a more substantive agreement. China also reduced its taxes on US goods from 125 percent to 10 percent.
But it’s uncertain if a trade war truce will last. Trump in a social media post on Friday said he would no longer be “nice” with China when it comes to trade and accused Beijing of breaking an unspecified agreement with the US
Tensions escalated anew after the US said on Wednesday it would start revoking visas for Chinese students studying there.
Separately, the Chinese Embassy in Singapore criticized attempts to link the issue of Taiwan with that of the war in Ukraine after French President Emmanuel Macron warned of a dangerous double standard in focusing on a potential conflict with China at the cost of abandoning Ukraine.
The embassy made no mention of Macron in its post on Facebook that included a photo showing the French president at the Singapore forum.
“If one tries to denounce ‘double standards’ through the lens of a double standard, the only result we can get is still double standard,” it said.
China, which usually sends its defense minister to the Shangri-La forum, this time sent a lower-level delegation led by Maj. Gen. Hu Gangfeng, the vice president of the People’s Liberation Army National Defense University.


Bangladesh top court restores Jamaat-e-Islami party

Bangladesh top court restores Jamaat-e-Islami party
Updated 01 June 2025
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Bangladesh top court restores Jamaat-e-Islami party

Bangladesh top court restores Jamaat-e-Islami party
  • Supreme Court’s decision allows Bangladesh’s largest religio-political party to partake in elections
  • Jamaat-e-Islami supported Islamabad during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence against Pakistan

DHAKA: Bangladesh on Sunday restored the registration of the largest Islamist party, allowing it to take part in elections, more than a decade after it was removed under the now-overthrown government.

The Supreme Court overturned a cancelation of Jamaat-e-Islami’s registration, allowing it to be formally listed as a political party with the Election Commission.

“The Election Commission is directed to deal with the registration of that party in accordance with law,” commission lawyer Towhidul Islam told AFP.

Jamaat-e-Islami party lawyer, Shishir Monir, said the Supreme Court’s decision would allow a “democratic, inclusive and multi-party system” in the Muslim-majority country of 170 million people.

“We hope that Bangladeshis, regardless of their ethnicity or religious identity, will vote for Jamaat, and that the parliament will be vibrant with constructive debates,” Monir told journalists.

After Sheikh Hasina was ousted as prime minister in August, the party appealed for a review of the 2013 high court order banning it.

Sunday’s decision comes after the Supreme Court on May 27 overturned a conviction against a key leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, A.T.M. Azharul Islam.

Islam had been sentenced to death in 2014 for rape, murder and genocide during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

Jamaat-e-Islami supported Islamabad during the war, a role that still sparks anger among many Bangladeshis today.

They were rivals of Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of the Awami League, who would become Bangladesh’s founding figure.

Hasina banned Jamaat-e-Islami during her tenure and cracked down on its leaders.

In May, Bangladesh’s interim government banned the Awami League, pending the outcome of a trial over its crackdown on mass protests that prompted her ouster last year.