World

Police in the Belgian capital said Sunday they have detained scores of people in a bid to prevent two banned demonstrations against measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus.BRUSSELS: Police in the Belgian capital said Sunday they have detained scores of people. Photo/BRECORDER“We are above 200 arrested at the moment,” mainly around the rail stations in Brussels, a police spokesman said around midday. Police evacuated one square in front of the main railway station, where some of the protesters were football supporters from Belgian clubs. Dozens of people, responding to calls on social media for protests against measures to…

Algerian demonstrators chant slogans during a demonstration in the capital Algiers on February 28, 2020. © Ryad Kramdi, AFP (file photo)An activist with Algeria’s Hirak protest movement had a three-year prison sentence for publishing online memes mocking authorities and religion reduced to one year on appeal, his lawyer said Sunday. With time already served, Walid Kechida, 25, was set to leave custody later in the day. Kechida was sentenced on January 4 to three years’ prison for insulting President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and “offending the precepts” of Islam in memes published on Facebook and in other online posts. Having appealed the…

South Africa has secured 20 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, the health minister told a Sunday newspaper. Africa’s worst virus-hit country has yet to begin vaccinating its population against Covid-19, stirring criticism over slow procurement and lack of strategy. A first shipment of AstraZeneca/Oxford jabs produced in India is due to arrive on Monday, with injections expected to start two weeks later. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told The Sunday Times that 20 million additional vaccines had been ordered from US drugmaker Pfizer.Workers unload coffins from a delivery truck for sale at AVBOB’s funeral parlour in Bellville, Cape Town,…

(FILES) US President Joe Biden. PHOTO: MANDEL NGAN / AFP When President Joe Biden unveiled a $1.9 trillion stimulus proposal earlier this month, few were surprised by the plan’s hefty price tag or sweeping scope. More striking was Biden’s inclusion of a measure to more than double the federal minimum wage to $15. The move, backed by leading Democrats including left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders, establishes the fight for higher wages as a top priority for the new administration, potentially leading to one of Washington’s boldest adjustments in US social and labor policy in decades. The fate of the initiative —…

A Tibetan activist sentenced to five years in prison by Chinese authorities for “inciting separatism” after appearing in a New York Times documentary has been released from jail, his lawyer said Friday. Tashi Wangchuk was sentenced in 2018 after prosecutors cited a short documentary about his work protecting his culture as evidence of his alleged incitement. He had been taken into custody two years earlier. The documentary followed Tashi as he travelled to Beijing where he attempted to get Chinese state media and courts to address what he describes as the diminishing use of the Tibetan language. His lawyer Liang…

President Joe Biden will impose costs on China but also work to repair democracy at home in a bid to win the emerging rivalry between the world's top two economies, a top aide said Friday. Jake Sullivan, the national security advisor, said that the new administration's strategy included renewing alliances and robust investment in technology to ensure the United States retains a critical edge. In a veiled reference to defeated president Donald Trump, whose baseless allegations of election fraud culminated in a mob attack on the US Capitol, Sullivan said that China was becoming more explicit in contending that it…

(FILES) In this file photo taken on November 16, 2020, Tunisian President Kais Saied gives a talk on constitutional law during a state visit to Qatar at an event hosted by Lusail University. – Tunisian authorities opened an investigation after a suspicious letter intended for Tunisian President Kais Saied was intercepted, sources close to the presidency said. (Photo by Karim JAAFAR / AFP)A suspicious letter addressed to Tunisian President Kais Saied did not contain any dangerous material, a senior official said Friday, after the presidency had suggested an attempted poisoning. Saied’s chief of staff Nadia Akacha, who opened the envelope,…