90 killed as Bangladesh protesters insist Hasina must quit – Newstrends
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90 killed as Bangladesh protesters insist Hasina must quit

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90 killed as Bangladesh protesters insist Hasina must quit

At least 91 people have been killed, including 13 police officers, and dozens more injured in a new round of violence in Bangladesh as police fired tear gas and lobbed stun grenades to disperse tens of thousands of protesters who returned to the streets to ask Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign.

The deaths were reported by the police and doctors on Sunday in the capital Dhaka and the northern districts of Bogura, Pabna and Rangpur, as well as in Magura in the west, Comilla in the east, and Barisal and Feni in the south.

The attack on the police took place at the Enayetpur police station in the northwest city of Sirajganj, according to Additional Deputy Inspector General Vijay Basak of the Bangladesh police. The identity of the attackers is unknown.

The demonstrators are demanding Hasina’s resignation after earlier protests in July that began with students calling for an end to a quota system for government jobs and escalated into violence that killed 200 people.

Hasina said those who were engaging in the “sabotage” and the destruction in the name of protests were no longer students, but criminals, and said the people should deal with them with iron hands.

Authorities have blocked internet access and imposed a shoot-on-sight curfew. At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks.

‘Volatile and dangerous’

Deaths were reported from at least 11 districts including Bogura, Magura, Rangpur and Sirajganj districts, where the protesters backed by the main opposition party Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) clashed with police and the activists of the ruling Awami League party and its associated bodies.

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Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from Dhaka, described the situation as “volatile and dangerous”. “The protesters are saying that they are not going to move, until their government steps down,” he said.

“People are extremely worried [about] what’s going to happen,” Chowdhury said, adding that the crowd of protesters is growing. He also reported clashes between the protesters and supporters of the Awami League.

Prapti Taposhi, a student activist who witnessed clashes with police, told Al Jazeera the police were engaged in running battles with the demonstrators.

“I am on the street right now, and I can see so many people here. This is not just a student protest or a ‘quota protest’,” she said.

The government has now imposed an indefinite curfew that began at 6pm local time (1200 GMT), although protesters have continued to gather at the Shaheed Minar monument in central Dhaka.

Protesters called for “noncooperation”, urging people not to pay taxes and utility bills and not show up for work on Sunday, a working day in Bangladesh. Offices, banks and factories opened, but commuters in Dhaka and other cities faced challenges getting to work.

A ‘March to Dhaka’ protest has also been moved from Tuesday to Monday, a coordinator for the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement (ASD) told Al Jazeera.

“This means we are urging students and the public nationwide to start their journey to Dhaka tomorrow to lay siege to the city,” the coordinator, Asif Mahmud, said.

The government, meanwhile, announced a holiday from Monday to Wednesday. Courts will remain closed for an indefinite period. Authorities also closed schools and universities across the country.

Mobile internet service was off on Sunday, while Facebook and messaging apps including WhatsApp were inaccessible even on broadband internet. Junior Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat said mobile internet and messaging services were off to help prevent violence.

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Arafat added to Al Jazeera that the government was acting “in a defensive position, not an offensive one”.

“These miscreants attacked our activists and leaders and unleashed violence,” Arafat said, adding that the government has “always opted for a peaceful solution” and “never wanted violence”.

The deadly protests began last month as students demanded an end to a quota system that reserved 30 percent of government jobs for the families of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence against Pakistan in 1971.

As violence intensified, the country’s Supreme Court scaled back the quota system to 5 percent of jobs, with 3 percent for relatives of veterans.

But protests have continued demanding accountability for violence the demonstrators blame on the government’s use of excessive force.

The unrest, which spurred the government to shut down internet services, is its biggest test since January when deadly protests erupted after Hasina’s Awami League won a fourth straight term in elections boycotted by the BNP.

The protests have now grown into a wider antigovernment movement across the South Asian nation of some 170 million people. At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks.

Critics of Hasina, along with several rights groups, have accused her government of using excessive force to stamp out the movement, a charge it denies.

“We want the government to resign,” Jahirul Islam, a restaurant worker in Dhaka, told Al Jazeera.

Dhaka-based political analyst Zahed Ur Rahman said that the government would be unlikely to resign “without bloodshed”.

“For the past two days, peaceful gatherings and demonstrations have taken place across the country demanding the government’s resignation,” Rahman said, explaining that the protests were peaceful because of the absence of Awami League activists on the streets.

However, once ruling party’s activists went to confront the protesters “they use gun[s] and violence to quell a popular uprising in front of the whole world”, Rahman said.

Additional reporting by Faisal Mahmud in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

90 killed as Bangladesh protesters insist Hasina must quit

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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Woman’s dog digs up infant body reportedly buried alive by 22-year-old granddaughter in garden

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Chiara Petrolini and the garden

Woman’s dog digs up infant body reportedly buried alive by 22-year-old granddaughter in garden

A local babysitter had two newborn babies buried in her garden, an investigation into infanticide revealed.

Chiara Petrolini, 22, was arrested after DNA tests allegedly confirmed she was the mother of one of the infants, a boy, found buried in her garden.

Petrolini, who lived with her parents, was described as a “model university student” and was holidaying in New York when the grim discovery was made by authorities. The investigation into the garden in the quiet commune of Vignale di Traversetolo near Parmer in Italy began last month, August, when Petrolini’s grandmother’s dog unearthed a body.

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The baby had been buried alive, as indicated by “soil found in the lungs” according to a leaked autopsy report.

Last week, a second body was discovered, but no details about that infant’s de@th have been disclosed yet.

The autopsy of the first baby revealed that the father was Petrolini’s 22 year old boyfriend, named locally as Emanuele.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that the second body was found after Petrolini confessed to the police.

She is currently in custody on suspicion of infanticide and has reportedly claimed that she acted alone without anyone else’s knowledge.

Woman’s dog digs up infant body reportedly buried alive by 22-year-old granddaughter in garden

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UK invests £1.9m in West African economies

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UK Minister for Africa, Lord Collins

UK invests £1.9m in West African economies

The UK government’s West Africa Research and Innovation Hub (WARIH) has launched ‘Sankore’ to support economic growth by strengthening technology and innovation across West Africa, in close partnership with country governments.

UK Minister for Africa, Lord Collins, announced the call for creative proposals for the project from non-profit organisations (including UN Agencies) at a press conference on Tuesday in Accra.

The Sankore call for proposals will support the UK government’s partnership with the Government in Nigeria and Ghana on science, technology and innovation, facilitate commercialisation of innovative solutions, improve innovation policy and enhance government digital service delivery.

Named after a West African medieval center of learning, Sankore will establish new partnerships worth up to £1.9 Million with non-profit organisations (including UN agencies) in Ghana or Nigeria.

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At the launch of the call for proposals, the UK Minister for Africa said: “This initiative is all about how we can work together to strengthen the global technology sector, creating opportunities for rapidly growing economies with lots of potential to compete on the world stage.

“The Sankore grant fosters partnerships at its heart, with a strong message that we go far when we go together.”

Nigeria’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, said: “Sankore project is a pivotal opportunity for Nigeria to enhance its innovation landscape, by strengthening industry-science linkages and developing an enabling policy environment.

“This partnership underscores our shared commitment to developing practical solutions that lead to sustainable and inclusive growth.”

Also commenting, the British Deputy High Commissioner in Lagos, Jonny Baxter, said: “Sankore exemplifies the UK’s commitment to driving innovation and sustainable development in Nigeria.

“The project will strengthen partnerships between businesses and innovators as well as drive the development of innovative solutions that address critical gaps in priority economic sectors.

UK invests £1.9m in West African economies

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Hamas chief says they’re ready for ‘long war’ in Gaza

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Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar

Hamas chief says they’re ready for ‘long war’ in Gaza

Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories: Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar said Monday the Palestinian group had the resources to sustain its fight against Israel, with support from Iran-backed regional allies, nearly a year into the Gaza war.
Sinwar, who last month replaced slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, said in a letter to the group’s Yemeni allies that “we have prepared ourselves to fight a long war of attrition.”
Deadly fighting raged on in the besieged Gaza Strip, where medics and rescuers said Monday that Israeli strikes — which the military has not commented on — killed at least two dozen people.
The latest strikes came as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that prospects for a halt in fighting with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon were dimming, yet again raising fears of a wider regional conflagration.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP at the weekend the group “has a high ability to continue” fighting despite losses, noting “the recruitment of new generations” to replace killed militants.
Gallant last week said Hamas, whose October 7 attack triggered the war, “no longer exists” as a military formation in Gaza.
Sinwar, in his letter to Yemen’s Houthis, threatened that Iran-aligned groups in Gaza and elsewhere in the region including Lebanon and Iraq would “break the enemy’s political will” after more than 11 months of war.
“Our combined efforts with you” and with groups in Lebanon and Iraq “will break this enemy and inflict defeat on it,” Sinwar said.
Independent UN rights experts meanwhile warned that Israel risked international isolation over its actions in Gaza and called on Western countries to ensure accountability.
Spain, which recently joined several European countries in formally recognizing the State of Palestine, is due to host Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Tuesday, an official in his office told AFP.
Abbas, who is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and holds little sway in Gaza, is set to meet Spanish King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, before heading to New York for the UN General Assembly.

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The October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,226 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
Tensions have surged along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, amid fears the violence could explode into an all-out war.
“The possibility for an agreement is running out as Hezbollah continues to tie itself to Hamas and refuses to end the conflict,” Gallant told visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein, a defense ministry statement said.
Israeli media outlets said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was considering firing Gallant, one of several officials who have been at odds with the veteran leader on war policy. Netanyahu’s office denied the reports.
Netanyahu told Hochstein later Monday he seeks a “fundamental change” in the security situation on Israel’s northern border.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces since October in stated support of ally Hamas.
Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said Saturday his group has “no intention of going to war,” but if Israel does “unleash” one “there will be large losses on both sides.”
The violence has killed hundreds of mostly fighters in Lebanon, and dozens of civilians and soldiers on the Israeli side.

In central Gaza, survivors scoured debris Monday after a strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Ten people were killed and 15 were wounded when an air strike hit the Al-Qassas family home in Nuseirat in the morning, said a medic at Al-Awda Hospital, where the bodies were taken.
“My house was hit while we were sleeping without any prior warning,” said survivor Rashed Al-Qassas.
Gaza’s civil defense said six Palestinians were killed in a similar strike at night on a house belonging to the Bassal family in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighborhood.
Emergency services later reported six more deaths, with Al-Awda Hospital saying it received the bodies of three people killed in Israeli strikes on Nuseirat.
The Gaza war has drawn in Iran-backed Hamas allies across the Middle East, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis, whose maritime attacks have disrupted global shipping through vital waterways off Yemen.
On Sunday the rebels claimed a rare missile attack on central Israel which caused no casualties, prompting Netanyahu to warn that they would pay “a heavy price for any attempt to harm us.”
In a televised speech, the Houthis’ leader said the rebels and their regional allies were “preparing to do even more.”
“Our operations will continue as long as the aggression and siege on Gaza continue,” Abdul Malik Al-Houthi said.

 

Hamas chief says they’re ready for ‘long war’ in Gaza

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