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
Updated 19 August 2024
Reuters
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.
Five die after boat carrying Pakistanis, other migrants capsizes off Greek island
So far 39 men, most of them from Pakistan, have been rescued by cargo vessels
They have been transferred to the island of Crete, the Greek coast guard said
Updated 14 December 2024
Reuters
ATHENS: At least five migrants drowned after their wooden boat capsized off Greece’s southern island of Gavdos, the coast guard said on Saturday, and witnesses said many were still missing as search operations continued.
So far 39 men — most of them from Pakistan — have been rescued by cargo vessels sailing in the area. They have been transferred to the island of Crete, the coast guard said, adding that the number of those missing had not yet been confirmed.
Coast Guard boats, merchant vessels, an Italian frigate and naval aircraft have been searching the area since Greek authorities were alerted about the incident on Friday night.
In separate incidents on Saturday, a Malta-flagged cargo vessel rescued 47 migrants from a boat sailing about 40 nautical miles off Gavdos, while a tanker rescued another 88 migrants some 28 nautical miles off the tiny island in Greece’s south.
According to initial information, coast guard officials believe the boats left together from Libya.
Greece was a favored gateway to the European Union for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia in 2015-2016, when nearly 1 million people landed on its islands, mostly via inflatable dinghies.
Incidents with migrant boats and shipwrecks off Crete and its tiny neighbor Gavdos, which are relatively isolated in the central Mediterranean, have increased over the past year.
In 2023, hundreds of migrants drowned when an overcrowded vessel capsized and sank in international waters off the southwestern Greek coastal town of Pylos. It was one of the deadliest boat disasters ever in the Mediterranean Sea.
Habitat loss stokes rabid jackal attacks in Bangladesh
Urbanisation, logging have led to major human encroachment on habitats where much of Bangladesh's jackal population resides
According to monitoring group Global Forest Watch, Bangladesh last year lost 17,800 hectares (44,000 acres) of forest cover
Updated 14 December 2024
AFP
DHAKA: Few in the Jahan family's remote Bangladeshi village had seen a jackal up close before the morning one stalked Musqan through the paddy fields, pounced on her, and maimed the four-year-old for life.
Violent and unprovoked attacks by rabid canines are rising around the South Asian nation due to rampant deforestation and habitat loss -- a trend experts say has been worsened by climate change.
Musqan is still recovering from the horrific injuries she sustained in the mauling last month by the rabid jackal. While she is rabies-free thanks to prompt treatment, her face is disfigured by bite wounds and one of her eyes remains swollen shut.
"It happened in broad daylight," her aunt Ishrat Jahan told AFP.
"A jackal pushed her to the ground and blindly bit her. Other villagers later killed it, but they are still traumatised by what happened."
In this photograph taken on November 24, 2024, Musqan (C) rests at the infectious diseases hospital in Dhaka, after she was bitten by a jackal. (AFP)
Golden jackals like the one that maimed Musqan are slender, wolf-like creatures found across Bangladesh, about the same size as a greyhound but lighter in weight.
What made the attack on Musqan unusual was its timing -- she was bitten in the daytime, but golden jackals are a nocturnal species.
Animal researcher Zoheb Mahmud of Independent University in Dhaka told AFP that his studies of golden jackals over eight years showed that the "gradual erosion of habitats" had altered their behaviour.
"I found the once-shy creatures had begun staring at us," he said. "They are supposed to come out in the evening or at night, but we saw them during the day."
Urbanisation and logging have led to major human encroachment on the habitats where much of Bangladesh's jackal population resides.
According to monitoring group Global Forest Watch, Bangladesh last year lost 17,800 hectares (44,000 acres) of forest cover -- an area roughly three times the size of Manhattan.
Mahmud warned that jackal attacks on humans "would not stop" if the habitat loss continued.
Bangladesh is one the countries ranked most vulnerable to climate change, and there are signs that more extreme weather is making attacks more likely.
The country saw widespread flooding in September that displaced millions of people in the worst-hit areas for the second year running, with floodwaters coursing through forests and driving out their canine inhabitants.
"Due to the flood, the jackals lost their dwellings and food," jackal bite victim Obaidul Islam told AFP from Nilphamari in the country's north.
"So they came and bit more than a dozen people in our village."
A jackal rests at the zoo in Dhaka on December 12, 2024. (AFP)
Rakibul Hasan Mukul, executive director of civil society wildlife group Arannayk, told AFP that climate change was driving more extreme and frequent flooding in Bangladesh.
He said changes to the weather were also eroding farmlands, displacing their human inhabitants and prompting them to cut down more forests.
"The loss of land has also resulted in increased conflicts between humans and wildlife," he added.
"People are cutting bushes around wetlands and their homesteads for farming. As a result, small mammals are in crisis, losing their habitats."
While Bangladesh's health ministry does not maintain specific records on jackal bites, reports from hospitals indicate an alarming and possibly unprecedented frequency of attacks this year.
The Munshiganj District Hospital, south of Dhaka, treated 20 people for bites on just a single day in September.
"I have never seen so many people coming in with jackal bites on a single day before," hospital superintendent Dewan Nizam Uddin Ahmed told AFP.
Another hospital administrator in Dinajpur, on the other side of the country, told AFP there had been 12 cases in one day at his facility.
"We are regularly getting bite patients," Dinajpur Hospital superintendent Mohammad Fazlur Rahman said. "The jackals are roaming freely through the farmland."
Golden jackals are by nature shy and usually avoid human contact unless they contract rabies, a disease that quickly turns them bold and aggressive as its symptoms take hold.
Endemic across Bangladesh, rabies spreads quickly among canine species when infected animals bite and draw blood from other creatures.
The disease is almost guaranteed to lead to a prolonged and painful death in humans once symptoms show. Prompt intervention is needed to stop the disease in its tracks.
After Musqan was bitten last month, she received treatment for three days to prevent a rabies infection, followed by a month in hospital for surgeries related to her wounds, and is still deeply traumatised by the attack.
"We can prevent rabies with vaccines," Ariful Bashar, one of the doctors at the hospital treating Musqan, told AFP.
"But most of the time, jackals rip out flesh, deforming their victims. Almost all of them then need reconstructive surgery."
Brazilian police arrest ex-Bolsonaro cabinet member in alleged coup plot investigation
Braga Netto was formally accused in November, along with Bolsonaro and 35 others, of plotting a coup to keep Bolsonaro in office following his failed 2022 reelection bid
Prosecutors have yet to file formal charges against Braga Netto
Updated 14 December 2024
SAO PAULO: Brazil’s Federal Police on Saturday arrested Gen. Walter Braga Netto, a former member of President Jair Bolsonaro’s Cabinet and his 2022 running mate, in connection with investigations into an alleged coup plot, according to a source close to the process.
The source spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
Braga Netto was formally accused in November, along with Bolsonaro and 35 others, of plotting a coup to keep Bolsonaro in office following his failed 2022 reelection bid.
Prosecutors have yet to file formal charges against Braga Netto. The arrest made on Saturday stemmed from allegations of obstructing the collection of evidence, the Federal Police said in a statement.
Local media have reported that Braga Netto sought to discover what a former Bolsonaro aide who was arrested was telling authorities, and whether he had signed a plea bargain.
Authorities also executed two search and seizure warrants.
Braga Netto served as Bolsonaro’s chief of staff from 2020 to 2021 and as defense minister from 2021 to 2022.
His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Previously, his legal team said they would wait to review police documents before making any statements.
NEW DELHI: India marked on Saturday the 100th birth anniversary of Raj Kapoor, remembering the legendary actor and director, whose enduring legacy continues to shape and inspire Indian cinema.
Considered one of India’s greatest and most influential actors and filmmakers, Kapoor is fondly known as the “first showman of Bollywood” and the “greatest showman of Indian cinema.”
He was born on Dec. 14, 1924, in Peshawar, now Pakistan, from where his family later moved to Mumbai.
The son of actor Prithviraj Kapoor, he debuted alongside his father at the age of 10 in “Inquilab,” a Hindi film about an earthquake in Bihar. He went on to star in more than 60 films, directing more than a dozen of them.
Nearly four decades after his death in 1988, Kapoor remains one of India’s most-loved icons. His birthday anniversary is celebrated with a retrospective of 10 of his iconic films screened in 40 cities across India this weekend.
Marking Kapoor’s birthday on Saturday morning, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to the “visionary filmmaker, actor and the eternal showman” in a series of social media posts, saying he “was not just a filmmaker but a cultural ambassador who took Indian cinema to the global stage.”
One of Kapoor’s most famous films, “Awara” (1951), was the first Indian movie to reach the global stage. Known overseas as “The Vagabond,” it became an overnight sensation in South Asia, and soon found box-office success also in East Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
“Even today Awara is a film that is etched in my mind,” fellow film star Amitabh Bachchan wrote on X in celebration of Kapoor’s birthday. “You are amazed by his fantastical imagination.”
The film blends social themes with the genres of crime, romantic comedy and musical melodrama, featuring a character based on “the Little Tramp,” a role Kapoor also explored in other films, earning him another nickname: the “Charlie Chaplin of Indian cinema.”
For many Indians, the characters in his films were ones they could relate to.
“What strikes you is how poor people are portrayed there. They are shown as someone who is trying to survive in a world dominated by rich people and industrialists and businessmen. The main character is an outsider in the world of rich people and still manages to make inroads in their lives through his character and innocence. This appeals to me,” said Ghanshyam Datt Varma, a teacher in Chittorgarh who runs a Raj Kapoor fan page on Facebook.
“I started my life as a commoner, someone at the margin of society, and through my hard work I became a schoolteacher, despite all the hurdles. I feel the character in Raj Kapoor’s films, like ‘Sangam,’ ‘Mera Naam Joker,’ and so ... He was really a showman, a film personality who portrayed people of India and their struggle so beautifully.”
The film’s theme song, “Awara Hoon,” is still celebrated globally and has been rated among the greatest Bollywood songs of all time many times.
“I grew up watching his films and singing the songs of his films,” said Rahul Prakash, a lawyer from Patna.
Kapoor is for him a “legend-like hero who taught not one but many generations the ultimate meaning of love. A visionary director who gave birth to characters that were imaginary but also realistic,” he said.
“The way he portrayed the character of a common man on the silver screen — in such a simple and natural way — is immortal.”
Kapoor’s films were commercial successes not only in South Asia but also in the Middle East, the Caribbean, Africa and in the Soviet bloc.
“Raj Kapoor was not only a Bollywood personality but an international personality. He promoted India’s soft power through his films. His films were very popular in Russia because of the theme he chose and the pomp and gaiety he showed,” Rana Siddiqui Zaman, film critic, told Arab News.
“He is also one of the first directors to give roles to Pakistani artists. In the film ‘Heena,’ the main female character is from Pakistan. There is no other filmmaker in the industry who drove international filmmakers to call the Mumbai film industry ‘Bollywood.’”
US Marines start partial transfer from Okinawa in Japan to Guam under plan agreed 12 years ago
Relocation started with 100 members of III Marine Expeditionary Force moving to the Pacific island
Many Okinawans have long complained about the heavy US military presence on the island
Updated 14 December 2024
AP
TOKYO: The partial transfer of US Marines from Okinawa to Guam began on Saturday, 12 years after Japan and the United States agreed on their realignment to reduce the heavy burden of American troop presence on the southern Japanese island, officials said.
The relocation started with 100 members of III Marine Expeditionary Force stationed on Okinawa moving to the Pacific island for the initial logistical work, the US Marine Corps and Japan’s Defense Ministry said in a joint statement.
Under the plan agreed between Tokyo and Washington in April 2012, about 9,000 of the 19,000 Marines currently stationed on Okinawa are to be moved out of Okinawa, including about 4,000 of them to be moved to Guam in phases. Details, including the size and timing of the next transfer, were not immediately released.
The Marine Corps is committed to the defense of Japan and meeting operational requirements to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific, and it will maintain presence in the region “through a combination of stationing and rotating Marines in Japan, Guam and Hawaii,” the joint statement said.
Japan has paid up to $2.8 billion for the building of infrastructure at the US bases on Guam, and the US government will fund the remaining costs. The two governments will continue to cooperate on the development of Camp Blaz, which will serve as the main installation for Marines stationed in Guam.
The Marines and Japan Self Defense Forces will conduct joint training in Guam, the statement said.
Okinawa, which was under US postwar occupation until 1972, is still home to a majority of the more than 50,000 American troops based in Japan under a bilateral security pact, while 70 percent of US military facilities are on Okinawa, which accounts for only 0.6 percent of Japanese land.
Many Okinawans have long complained about the heavy US military presence on the island, and say Okinawa faces noise, pollution, aircraft accidents and crime related to American troops.
The relocation is likely to be welcomed by local residents, but how much improvement they will feel is uncertain because of the rapid Japanese military buildup on Okinawan islands as a deterrence to threats from China.
The start of the Marines relocation comes at a time of growing anti-US military sentiment following a series of sexual assault cases involving American servicemembers.
On Thursday, a senior Air Force servicemember belonging to the Kadena Air Base was convicted of the kidnapping and sexual assault of a teenage girl last year, a case that triggered outrage on the island. The Naha District Court sentenced him to five years in prison.
