Category: Foreign

Riots occurred in Mexico City late Friday as hundreds of women took to the streets in the city’s centre to protest violence against women.

The demonstrations came after two young women had separately claimed to have been raped by police in Mexico City over the past two weeks.

Fires broke out in several locations, including a police station and a monument to Mexican independence.

Masked women also destroyed a bus stop and damaged several police cars.

Several people were sprayed with paint.

A man punched a television reporter during a live broadcast.

Seventeen people were injured, including 14 police and two journalists, according to media reports.

The demonstrators were demanding justice for two teens, who were reportedly victims of sexual assault.

On the evening of Aug. 3, a 17-year-old girl was allegedly raped by several police officers when she was on her way home.

In the second case, a 16-year-old said a police officer raped her in a museum where she worked as an intern.

The mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, said six policemen had been suspended.

According to UN data, two-thirds of women over the age of 15 have experienced some form of violence in Mexico and around 35,000 women have been killed as a result of their gender in the past 25 years.

Persistent heat and wind, with more of it arriving over the weekend, spurred the Greek civil protection service to raise the wildfire threat alert to the highest level on Friday.

The potential for fires is particularly high in central Greece, on the Peloponnese and in the Athens area, the service said in announcing it was going to a “red alert.”

Meteorologists have forecast temperatures in excess of 40 degrees Celsius for the coming days.

Greece frequently faces forest and brush fires which rapidly spread through the bone-dry vegetation, while the difficult, mountainous terrain and wind complicates controlling the blaze.

The fires are often started by careless people: a glowing cigarette butt, a spark from a grill or the burning of weeds – which is carried out in the summer in spite of a ban – were enough to start fires in the past.

In July 2018, more than 100 people died and thousands of homes were destroyed and damaged by a fast-spreading fire in the Athens area.

Almost 400 people more died in the Netherlands during Europe’s recent record-breaking heatwave than in a regular summer week, Dutch national statistics agency, CBS, said on Friday.

In total, 2,964 people died in the Netherlands during the week that started on July 22, the CBS said, which was around 15 per cent more than during an average week in the summertime.

Temperature records tumbled across Europe during late July’s heatwave, and for the first time since records began, topped 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in the Netherlands on July 25.

The death toll in the Netherlands during that week was comparable to the rate during two heatwaves in 2006, which were among the longest ever in the country, the researchers said.

About 300 of the additional fatalities were among people aged 80 years and older.

Most of the deaths occurred in the east of the Netherlands, where temperatures were higher and the heatwave lasted longer than in other parts of the country.

The Netherlands has a population of around 17 million.

The heatwave was the second to hit Europe in a month, and climate specialists warn such bursts of heat may become more common as the planet warms up due to greenhouse gas emissions.

Reuters

The south-western city of Nagasaki on Friday urged the Japanese government to be party in a UN treaty banning nuclear weapons.

The call came as Japan paid tribute to the victims of the U.S. atomic bomb attack on the city 74 years ago.

Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue gave the advice in the annual peace declaration at a ceremony marking the anniversary.

“As the only country in the world to have experienced the devastation caused by nuclear weapons, Japan must sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as soon as possible,” he said.

The treaty was adopted by 122 countries in July 2017, but it has yet to be in force as it has not been ratified by the required 50 countries.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the annual event at the city’s Peace Park, which drew around 5,900 people, including survivors, bereaved families and representatives from 66 countries, broadcaster NHK reported.

The anniversary comes just a week after the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between Russia and the U.S. ended.

“The present world situation involving nuclear weapons is extremely dangerous.

”The opinion that nuclear weapons are useful is once again gaining traction,” Taue said.

“The atomic bombs were built by human hands and exploded over human heads. It follows that nuclear weapons can be eliminated by an act of human will.”

The bombing of Nagasaki killed 74,000 people and came three days after the first atomic bomb dropped by a US B-29 bomber was detonated over the western city of Hiroshima.

Twenty-six candidates, including two women, have been cleared run in Tunisia’s early presidential elections, slated for Sept. 15, the country’s electoral commission said on Wednesday.

The 26 were cleared out of 97 aspirants, who submitted applications to run for president, the commission said in a news conference.

Tunisia’s first democratically-elected president, Beji Essebsi, died on July 25, five months before the end of his term.

Presidential elections were pushed forward to Sept. 15.

Essebsi was elected in December 2014 and subsequently steered Tunisia through its democratic transition in the wake of the 2011 revolt that toppled long-time autocrat Zine Ben-Ali.

The North African country is widely seen as the sole democratic success story of the 2010-11 Arab Spring revolts, but has struggled with an economic slowdown and social unrest.

German authorities in Berlin have launched a hate crime investigation after a Jewish man was pushed to the ground from behind by two men, police said on Wednesday.

The 55-year-old victim told police he was wearing clothing that identified him as a Jew when the incident occurred on Tuesday in the western neighbourhood of Charlottenburg.

He returned home before contacting emergency services to report head and leg pain.

Concerns about anti-Jewish sentiments have been on the rise in Germany.

Last month, a rabbi was walking home with his son after conducting a service at a Berlin synagogue when two Arabic-speaking men swore and spat at him.

Germany’s anti-Semitism commissioner made headlines in May when he warned Jews not to wear kippahs – traditional Jewish skullcaps – in public spaces.

The comments were prompted by statistics showing a rise in anti-Semitic crimes in Germany.

According to official figures, the number of anti-Semitic crimes committed in Germany increased from 1,504 in 2017 to 1,646 in 2018, a 10-per-cent rise.

The number of cases considered violent increased from 37 to 62 over the same period.

Statistics on hate crimes compiled by Germany’s Interior Ministry demonstrate that an average of four anti-semitic incidents have been reported every day for nearly 20 years, a prominent news outlet has revealed.

“Since 2001, the Federal Ministry of the Interior publishes annually police statistics for crimes motivated by anti-Semitism.

“According to the ministry, there were a total of 1799 anti-Semitic offenses in 2018. In 2014, there were just under 1,600 cases, in 2006, more than 1,800.

“On average, there have been about four offenses every day since 2001,” the Dusseldorf-based Rheinische Post reported.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday is expected to address the U.S. troops stationed in Poland during his visit to the country, according to Polish Defence Minister, Mariusz Blaszczak.

Blaszczak said the address, coming after a deal in June to increase the U.S. troop presence in Poland, would take place in one of six locations where U.S. troops were to be stationed.

He said the increased U.S. military presence was a success for Poland and the U.S.

However, Trump was expected to visit Poland from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2. He was also expected to participate in commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, Sept. 1.

Trump and Polish President, Andrzej Duda, in June, signed an agreement to increase the U.S. military presence in Poland from 4,500 to at least 5,500 and place the leadership of a U.S. army division in Poland.

He said the military personnel in Poland would be taken from Germany or another location, as the U.S. did not want to send any additional troops to Europe.

Trump said Poland should be rewarded for hitting a NATO defence spending target of 2 per cent of GDP and criticised Germany for not reaching the goal.

Cambodia’s nearly full month of public holidays will be cut to 22 days next year, with International Human Rights Day, a Buddhist festival and four others set to be axed, local media reported on Wednesday.

The South-East Asian nation, however, will remain near the top of the list of countries with the most government-granted time off.

Sri Lanka has 25 public holidays, while India and Kazakhstan have 21, according to World Atlas’s website.

Cambodia will reduce its holidays following complaints from international investors that it had more vacation time than other nations, government spokesman Ek Tha told the Phnom Penh Post.

The newspaper cited a sub-decree on public holidays for workers and civil servants signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen and seen by the Post on Tuesday.

Hun Sen said in March that the number of holidays would be reduced to encourage investment and drive continued growth.

Cambodia has sustained about 7 per cent annual growth since 2011, but business leaders have called for fewer holidays to better compete and improve efficiency.

The holidays to be axed include Human Rights Day (December 10), Children’s Day (June 1) and Paris Peace Agreements Day (October 23), which marks the signing of the 1991 peace accords that ended the conflict between Cambodia and Vietnam following the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge.

Other holidays to be cut, according to the Khmer Times, are the Meak Bochea Buddhist festival, King Norodom Sihamoni’s birthday and the National Day of Remembrance, which is one of multiple days commemorating Khmer Rouge victims. (dpa/NAN)