As rioters fill overcrowded prisons, UK turns to police cells

As rioters fill overcrowded prisons, UK turns to police cells
British police have arrested hundreds over widespread racist rioting this month. (AFP)
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Updated 19 August 2024
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As rioters fill overcrowded prisons, UK turns to police cells

As rioters fill overcrowded prisons, UK turns to police cells
  • The arrests of more than 1,100 suspects over the racist violence had worsened a prison capacity crisis
  • Britain has western Europe’s highest rate of incarceration and prisoner numbers have risen sharply since the pandemic

LONDON: Britain will use an emergency measure to detain suspected criminals in police station cells until it can find space for them in its overcrowded prisons after police arrested hundreds over widespread rioting this month.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government said on Monday the arrests of more than 1,100 suspects over the racist violence aimed at migrants and Muslims had worsened a prison capacity crisis, which has already forced ministers to say they will allow jails to release more prisoners early.
The new, temporary measure will mean suspects will be summoned to court only when it is confirmed that a cell is available in one of the more than 100 prisons across the country. Until then they will be held in a police station.
“We inherited a justice system in crisis and exposed to shocks,” prisons minister James Timpson said in a statement. “As a result, we have been forced into making difficult but necessary decisions to keep it operating.”
Overcrowded prisons have presented Starmer, who took office last month, with an early crisis, leaving his government with unpalatable and costly choices.
Britain has western Europe’s highest rate of incarceration and prisoner numbers have risen sharply since the pandemic, due to longer sentences, court delays and a requirement for serious offenders to serve at least 65 percent of their sentences behind bars.
Under plans announced by Starmer last month, most prisoners will become eligible for release after serving 40 percent of their sentences behind bars, down from 50 percent previously.
Monday’s measures are expected to tackle lower prison capacity in the north of England, a region affected by the recent rioting, which followed misinformation that the suspect in the murder of three young girls was an Islamist migrant.


184 killed in Haiti capital violence over weekend: UN

184 killed in Haiti capital violence over weekend: UN
Updated 22 sec ago
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184 killed in Haiti capital violence over weekend: UN

184 killed in Haiti capital violence over weekend: UN
GENEVA: Close to 200 people were killed in brutal weekend violence in Haiti’s capital, the United Nations said on Monday, with reports that a gang boss orchestrated the slaughter of voodoo practitioners.
The killings were overseen by a “powerful gang leader” convinced that his son’s illness was caused by followers of the religion, according to civil organization the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD).
“He decided to cruelly punish all elderly people and voodoo practitioners who, in his imagination, would be capable of sending a bad spell on his son,” a statement from the Haiti-based group said.
“The gang’s soldiers were responsible for identifying victims in their homes to take them to the chief’s stronghold to be executed,” it added.
UN rights commissioner Volker Turk said over the weekend that “at least 184 people were killed in violence orchestrated by the leader of a powerful gang in the Haitian capital.”
“These latest killings bring the death toll just this year in Haiti to a staggering 5,000 people,” he told reporters in Geneva.
Both the CPD and UN said that the massacre took place in the capital’s western coastal neighborhood of Cite Soleil.
Haiti has suffered from decades of instability but the situation escalated in February when armed groups launched coordinated attacks in the capital Port-au-Prince to overthrow then-prime minister Ariel Henry.
Gangs now control 80 percent of the city and despite a Kenyan-led police support mission, backed by the US and UN, violence has continued to soar.
The CPD said that most most of the victims of violence waged on Friday and Saturday were over 60, but that some young people who tried to rescue others were also among the casualties.
“Reliable sources within the community report that more than a hundred people were massacred, their bodies mutilated and burned in the street,” a statement said.
More than 700,000 people are internally displaced in Haiti, half of them children, according to October figures from the UN’s International Organization for Migration.
Voodoo was brought to Haiti by African slaves and is a mainstay of the country’s culture. It was banned during French colonial rule and only recognized as an official religion by the government in 2003.
While it incorporates elements of other religious beliefs, including Catholicism, voodoo has been historically attacked by other religions.

Bangladesh, India hold talks aimed at defusing tensions over alleged attacks

Bangladesh, India hold talks aimed at defusing tensions over alleged attacks
Updated 09 December 2024
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Bangladesh, India hold talks aimed at defusing tensions over alleged attacks

Bangladesh, India hold talks aimed at defusing tensions over alleged attacks
  • Tensions have grown over the recent arrest in Bangladesh of a Hindu spiritual leader under the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus
  • Alleged attacks on minority Hindus in Bangladesh and on a Bangladesh diplomatic mission in India were expected to feature prominently in the talks

DHAKA: The foreign secretaries of Bangladesh and India met Monday in Bangladesh’s capital to discuss relations between the neighbors, including growing tensions since the fall of former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled into exile in India in August.
The tensions have grown over the recent arrest in Bangladesh of a Hindu spiritual leader under the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. Alleged attacks on minority Hindus in Bangladesh and on a Bangladesh diplomatic mission in India were expected to feature prominently in the talks. India stopped issuing visas for Bangladeshis except emergency medical visas after Hasina’s ouster.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misra was holding the daylong talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart, Mohammad Jashim Uddin, in the first high-level visit by an Indian official since massive protests ended Hasina’s 15-year rule.
Hasina is thought to be a trusted friend of Hindu-majority India, which has raised concerns over allegation of attacks on religious minorities, especially Hindus, in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, since Hasina’s ouster. Most Bangladeshi Hindus are thought to be supporters of Hasina’s secular Awami League party.
Hindus recently attacked a Bangladeshi diplomatic office in Agartala, the capital of the northeastern Indian state of Tripura, in reaction to the arrest of Hindu leader Chinmoy Das Prabhu, who had led large rallies in recent months demanding better security for Hindus. Late last month, Hindu protesters also burned Bangladeshi flags in Kolkata, the capital of India’s eastern state of West Bengal, triggering protests by the Yunus-led government.
Other political parties including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party headed by Khaleda Zia, Hasina’s main political foe, and Islamist groups have protested against the attacks in Tripura.
Hindus also protested in parts of India against alleged attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh and the jailing of Prabhu.
Misri is to pay courtesy calls on Yunus and Foreign Adviser Touhid Hossain before leaving for New Delhi later Monday.


India envoy in Bangladesh to smooth months of tensions

India envoy in Bangladesh to smooth months of tensions
Updated 14 min 49 sec ago
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India envoy in Bangladesh to smooth months of tensions

India envoy in Bangladesh to smooth months of tensions
  • Hasina’s iron-fisted rule was strongly backed by India and the 77-year-old remains in New Delhi where she took refuge after her ouster

Dhaka: India’s top career diplomat was in Bangladesh on Monday to defuse tensions between the two neighbors arising from the August overthrow of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina in a student-led revolution.
Hasina’s iron-fisted rule was strongly backed by India and the 77-year-old remains in New Delhi where she took refuge after her ouster, despite Bangladesh announcing it would seek her extradition.
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, leader of an interim government tasked with implementing democratic reforms, has condemned acts of “Indian aggression” that he alleged were intended to destabilize his administration.
Vikram Misra, the secretary of India’s foreign ministry, arrived in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on Monday for the first in-person meeting between top officials of both countries since Hasina’s ouster.
“It needs to be recognized that there has been a qualitative shift in the relationship between the two countries,” Bangladesh’s de facto foreign minister Touhid Hossain said Sunday, ahead of Misra’s visit.
“Acknowledging this reality, the relationship must be carried forward.”
Misra was slated to meet with Touhid and Yunus while in Dhaka.
Yunus, 84, faced numerous criminal proceedings during Hasina’s regime that her critics say were concocted to sideline one of her most high-profile potential rivals.
He has been a vocal critic of India for backing Hasina’s rule to the hilt despite the mounting rights abuses seen over her 15-year tenure.
India, for its part, has accused Muslim-majority Bangladesh of failing to adequately protect its minority Hindu community from reprisal attacks after Hasina’s toppling.
The arrest of a prominent Hindu priest in Bangladesh on sedition charges last month further added to tensions, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing supporters urging his government to take a more hard-line stance on Dhaka.
Yunus’s administration has repeatedly acknowledged and condemned attacks on Hindus, but also insists that in many cases they were motivated by politics rather than religion.
Yunus has accused India of exaggerating the scale of the violence and running a “propaganda campaign” against his government.
Numerous anti-India street demonstrations have been staged in Bangladesh since Hasina’s ouster.
On Sunday hundreds of activists from the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) marched to the Indian High Commission (embassy) in Dhaka but dispersed peacefully after their route was blocked by police.
They were protesting against the attempted storming of a Bangladeshi consulate in India by Hindu activists some days earlier, which prompted Dhaka to lodge a formal protest and recall two of its diplomats.


Thai police detain 124 people in ‘drug party’ bust

Thai police detain 124 people in ‘drug party’ bust
Updated 09 December 2024
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Thai police detain 124 people in ‘drug party’ bust

Thai police detain 124 people in ‘drug party’ bust
  • Police are seeking the courts’ permission to hold those suspected of drug possession for questioning beyond the 48-hour window
  • Possession of category one drugs, which include ecstasy and methamphetamine, can bring jail sentences of up to 10 years

BANGKOK: Police in Thailand detained more than 120 people found in their underwear at a drug-fueled party in Bangkok, officers said Monday.
Police Col. Pansa Amarapitak said that they were tipped off about a “drug party” in a room at a hotel in central Bangkok early on Sunday morning.
Police photos showed a room full of mostly male suspects in handcuffs and wearing nothing but underpants as officers searched them for drugs.
They found 31 of the 124 people arrested were in possession of illegal narcotics such as crystal methamphetamine, ecstasy and ketamine, Pansa said.
He added that all of them tested for the substances and 66 were found with traces in their system.
He said all except two were men, and around five were foreigners.
Police are seeking the courts’ permission to hold those suspected of drug possession for questioning beyond the 48-hour window, Pansa said Monday.
The rest have been released, Pansa said.
Thailand is a major hub for illegal drug trafficking in Southeast Asia, and police raids and seizures of hard narcotics like heroin and methamphetamine are common.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said a record 190 tons of methamphetamine were seized in East and Southeast Asia last year.
Thailand has tough anti-drugs laws.
Possession of category one drugs, which include ecstasy and methamphetamine, can bring jail sentences of up to 10 years.


Pressure grows on France’s Macron to name new prime minister

Pressure grows on France’s Macron to name new prime minister
Updated 09 December 2024
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Pressure grows on France’s Macron to name new prime minister

Pressure grows on France’s Macron to name new prime minister
  • Far-right and hard-left lawmakers joined efforts to oust the minority government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier last week
  • The successful parliamentary no-confidence vote deepened a political crisis and sparked calls for Macron to step down

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron was on Monday set to hold a series of consultations with party bosses as pressure grew on him to name a new prime minister and defuse a political crisis.
Last week far-right and hard-left lawmakers joined efforts to oust the minority government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier in a historic no-confidence vote following a standoff over an austerity budget.
Macron was on Monday morning to receive independent MPs from the centrist Liot group, Green party bosses led by Marine Tondelier and the Communists.
Parliamentary speaker Yael Braun-Pivet said a new head of government should be appointed “within the next few hours.”
She urged the president’s centrist camp to join forces with the right-wing Republicans (LR), independent MPs and the Socialists.
“You would have a majority, so there is no longer any possibility of censure,” she said on Sunday.
The successful parliamentary no-confidence vote, a first in more than six decades, deepened a political crisis and sparked calls for Macron, 46, to step down and call early elections.
A defiant Macron said last week he planned to serve out the remainder of his term, vowing “30 months of useful action” and promising to name a new prime minister in the “coming days.”
At the weekend he had a brief respite from the domestic political upheaval, hosting world leaders including US president-elect Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the re-opening of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris after a devastating fire in 2019.
Macron is now under huge pressure to form a government that can survive a no-confidence vote and pass a budget for next year in a bid to limit political and economic turmoil.
It took the French president more than 50 days to choose Barnier, from the Republican party, following inconclusive legislative elections in the summer that resulted in a hung parliament.
Allies have urged Macron to move quickly this time.
“We can’t go on like this,” Macron’s centrist ally Francois Bayrou said on Sunday, warning the French did not want uncertainty to continue.
Bayrou heads the MoDem party, which is allied to, but not part of, Macron’s centrist force.
He has been tipped as a possible contender for prime minister. “If I can help us get through this, I will,” he said.
However many do not support his candidacy.
“Mr Bayrou’s political line did not win the legislative elections,” Tondelier told broadcaster RTL ahead of Monday’s meeting with Macron.
“We need a personality who is compatible with the left,” added Raphael Glucksmann, founder of progressive left-wing movement Place Publique, adding he was hoping to bring on board Communist and Green MPs.
The left-wing New Popular Front (NFP), which was put together to prevent the far-right from coming to power, emerged as the largest bloc in the National Assembly after the summer elections.
The broad alliance includes the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), the Socialists, Communists and Greens.
Its leaders have long insisted Macron should appoint a prime minister from their ranks. The president earlier ruled that out.
Macron — who has hoped to prise the Socialists away from their pact with the LFI — received a boost when Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure said he was ready to negotiate with the president’s centrists and the right.
LFI’s veteran leader Jean-Luc Melenchon said his party had given the Socialists “no mandate” to negotiate a deal with Macron.
On Friday, Macron met leaders of the parliamentary factions of his own centrist forces, the Socialist Party and the Republicans.
The far-right National Rally (RN) has not so far been invited to talks.
Nevertheless RN head Jordan Bardella has already demanded a meeting with the future prime minister.
“You can’t pretend we’re not here,” he said.
Barnier, prime minister for only three months, remains in charge on a caretaker basis until a new government is appointed.