Thousands rally in Mozambique ahead of election results

Thousands rally in Mozambique ahead of election results
Police officers patrol the streets in Maputo a day on Oct. 2, 2024 after a nationwide strike called by Mozambique presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane to protest the provisional results of an October 9 election. (Reuters)
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Updated 23 October 2024
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Thousands rally in Mozambique ahead of election results

Thousands rally in Mozambique ahead of election results
  • Opposition candidate Venancio Mondlane has called for 25 days of protests over the killing of his attorney
  • The government of Mozambique has called for calm as the country awaits official election results

MAPUTO: Thousands of people gathered Wednesday outside Mozambique’s capital to bury the murdered lawyer of an opposition candidate, as tensions grew ahead of the imminent release of election results.
Venancio Mondlane has called for 25 days of protests over the killing of his attorney as results from the October 9 ballot likely on Thursday were expected to show the ruling Frelimo party winning.
Mondlane warned the results would be “false” and said his lawyer Elvino Dias was killed by the security forces alongside another ally, Paulo Guambe, as they were preparing a case to contest the vote.
Before Dias’ burial at Michafutene cemetery outside Maputo, large crowds were seen assembling at a church, according to an AFP reporter present.
In a message on Facebook, Mondlane, who accused security forces of ambushing the duo in the early hours of Saturday and shooting at them 25 times, said he would unleash “25 days of terror” in reprisal.
Police said it had launched an investigation into the killings, while Frelimo party which has been in power for 49 years “vehemently” condemned the “macabre act.”
The government of Mozambique has called for calm as the country awaits official results.
Mondlane was among a group of protesters tear gassed by police on Monday after he had called for a general strike to protest against Dias’ murder as well as perceived electoral fraud.
Election observers from the EU have also raised concern about the legitimacy of the polls, noting “irregularities during counting and unjustified alteration of election results at polling station and district level.”
Initial indications of a low turnout in the coastal country of some 33 million people could further erode the vote’s credibility.
President Filipe Nyusi, 65, is stepping down after his two terms allowed by the constitution but his party’s candidate, 47-year-old Daniel Chapo, was widely expected to win.
Other presidential candidates included Ossufo Momade, 63, of the Renamo party, and Lutero Simango, 64, of the Mozambique Democratic Movement.
While Renamo has traditionally been the main opposition group, the emergence of Mondlane and the Podemos party was a new development in this election.
“Mondlane and Podemos have leveraged social media to connect with Mozambique’s large youth population who are seeking a change to the status quo,” said Emilia Columbo of the DC based Center for Strategic and International Studies.


UK aims to boost home-schooling safety after British-Pakistani girl’s murder

UK aims to boost home-schooling safety after British-Pakistani girl’s murder
Updated 20 sec ago
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UK aims to boost home-schooling safety after British-Pakistani girl’s murder

UK aims to boost home-schooling safety after British-Pakistani girl’s murder
  • Ten-year-old Sara Sharif’s father, step-mother were convicted of murdering her this week
  • Months before death, her father had taken Sharif out of school to be taught at home

LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday called for better safeguards for home-schooled children and said there were “questions that need to be answered” after the brutal murder of a 10-year-old girl.

Sara Sharif’s father and step-mother were convicted of murder on Wednesday in a trial that revealed gruesome details of the abuse inflicted on her, and the failure of child protection services to intervene despite warning signs.

Months before her death, her father Urfan Sharif had taken her out of school to be taught at home, after Sara’s teacher reported her bruises to child services.

At the time, child services had probed the incident but did not take any action.

Starmer said the “awful” case was “about making sure that (there are) protecting safeguards for children, particularly those being home-schooled.”

The Department for Education said it was “already taking action to make sure no child falls through the cracks” and “bringing in greater safeguards for children in home education.”

The government plans to “make sure that schools and teachers are involved in safeguarding decisions,” a Downing Street spokesperson said, adding that details would be included in upcoming legislation.

Parents will also need local authority consent for home-schooling at-risk children under the proposed changes, and a register of children who are not in school will be drawn up.

Sara was found dead in her home in August 2023, with extensive injuries including broken bones, burns and even bite marks after being subjected to years of abuse.

She had also been in and out of foster care after Sharif separated from her mother, Olga Sharif, to marry the step-mother Beinash Batool.

Despite previous allegations of abusive behavior against the father made by Olga, Sharif won custody of Sara in 2019, just four years before she was killed.

Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza said Sara’s death highlighted “profound weaknesses in our child protection system.”

De Souza said it was “madness” that an at-risk child could be taken out of school, calling for a ban on home-schooling of suspected abuse victims.

According to a child safeguarding report published on Thursday, 485 children in England died or were seriously harmed by abuse or neglect in the year to April 2024.

Urfan Sharif, Beinash Batool and Sara’s uncle Faisal Malik, who was cleared of murder but convicted of causing or allowing her death, are due to be sentenced on Tuesday.


Finland to host EU leaders for defense, immigration talks

Finland to host EU leaders for defense, immigration talks
Updated 19 min 8 sec ago
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Finland to host EU leaders for defense, immigration talks

Finland to host EU leaders for defense, immigration talks
  • Discussions will focus on “key issues facing Europe in a tense geopolitical climate,” the government said
  • Finland has accused Russia of orchestrating a surge of migrants

HELSINKI: Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo will host four high-ranking EU counterparts in late December for talks on security and immigration, the Finnish government said on Thursday.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will join the summit, which will take place in Saariselka in Finland’s far north on December 21 and 22.
Discussions will focus on “key issues facing Europe in a tense geopolitical climate,” the government said in a statement.
Topics like “European security, defense and preparedness, as well as migration, instrumentalization of migration and border security” will be on the agenda.
“The summit will provide an opportunity to discuss issues confidentially and come up with ideas for new initiatives,” the statement said.
Finland has accused Russia of orchestrating a surge of migrants after nearly 1,000 migrants without visas arrived at its 1,340-kilometer-long (830-mile) eastern border with Russia in the autumn of 2023.
Helsinki dubbed it a “hybrid attack,” but the Kremlin has denied the accusation.
“Europe has to take greater responsibility for its own security,” Orpo was quoted saying in the statement.
“This means that European countries have to be strong leaders, both in the EU and in NATO. Our greatest threat is Russia, which is trying to consolidate power and sow discord in Europe.”


Tusk says no plans to send Polish troops to Ukraine in event of ceasefire

Tusk says no plans to send Polish troops to Ukraine in event of ceasefire
Updated 44 min 43 sec ago
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Tusk says no plans to send Polish troops to Ukraine in event of ceasefire

Tusk says no plans to send Polish troops to Ukraine in event of ceasefire
  • Tusk was speaking alongside French President Emmanuel Macron who was visiting Warsaw
  • Diplomats said the idea of sending European troops to Ukraine if there is a ceasefire and peace accord between Ukraine and Russia would be on their agenda.

WARSAW/PARIS: Poland has no plans to send troops to Ukraine, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday, amid speculation that Western powers could put boots on the ground if a ceasefire is reached.
Tusk was speaking alongside French President Emmanuel Macron who was visiting Warsaw. Diplomats said the idea of sending European troops to Ukraine if there is a ceasefire and peace accord between Ukraine and Russia would be on their agenda.
“To cut off speculation about the potential presence of this or that country in Ukraine after reaching a ceasefire... decisions concerning Poland will be made in Warsaw and only in Warsaw,” Tusk said. “For now, we do not plan such actions.”
Macron said it was up to Ukraine to decide what concessions it wanted to make for peace, but for Europe to be secure the people of the continent as a whole must take responsibility.
“(We have) the same desire to say to the Ukrainians that... nobody can discuss for the Ukrainians in their name the concessions to be made, the points to be raised, it is up to the Ukrainians to do it, but there is no security in Europe without the Europeans,” Macron told a news conference.
European powers are keen to demonstrate to Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated as US president on Jan. 20, that they are willing to assume their share of the burden to end the almost three-year war in Ukraine.
Finance and foreign ministers from France, Germany and Poland are also meeting on Thursday in Warsaw and in Berlin, just weeks before Poland takes over the rotating EU presidency from Hungary.
The talks in Poland and Berlin will look at how to strengthen financial and military support for Ukraine in the immediate term and how Europe can boost defense financing, including through common debt.


Zelensky visits south Ukraine front line

Zelensky visits south Ukraine front line
Updated 51 min 29 sec ago
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Zelensky visits south Ukraine front line

Zelensky visits south Ukraine front line
  • “Let the HIMARS not fail, let them hit enemy targets,” Zelensky said
  • In a video published on his Telegram channel, he was filmed addressing soldiers in a bunker

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited troops fighting on the southern front line in the Zaporizhzhia region, he said Thursday in a post on Telegram.
Zelensky said he had visited soldiers from the 27th Rocket Artillery Brigade, dubbed Ukraine’s “HIMARS division” for its use of the US-supplied rockets.
“Thank you for your service and defense of our country and people. Let the HIMARS not fail, let them hit enemy targets,” Zelensky said.
In a video published on his Telegram channel, he was filmed addressing soldiers in a bunker and awarding some state awards.
Russia has occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region since the first days of its 2022 invasion, and claims to have annexed the full region.
The regional capital, also called Zaporizhzhia, has been pounded with Russian aerial strikes in recent weeks.
Ukraine’s interior ministry said earlier on Thursday that 11 people had been killed in a missile strike on Tuesday, after rescue workers spent more than 46 hours sifting through rubble for bodies.
Another 22 were wounded in the strike, including a girl aged five.


Russia backs Orban’s efforts for Christmas ceasefire in Ukraine

Russia backs Orban’s efforts for Christmas ceasefire in Ukraine
Updated 12 December 2024
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Russia backs Orban’s efforts for Christmas ceasefire in Ukraine

Russia backs Orban’s efforts for Christmas ceasefire in Ukraine
  • Orban made the proposals in a call to Putin on Wednesday, the Kremlin and Hungary said
  • “The Russian side fully supports Orban’s efforts aimed at finding a peaceful settlement,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said

MOSCOW/BUDAPEST: Russian President Vladimir Putin backs Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s efforts to achieve a Christmas ceasefire in Ukraine and a major exchange of prisoners of war, the Kremlin said on Thursday, even though Kyiv has scoffed at the idea.
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has left tens of thousands of dead, displaced millions and triggered the biggest crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Orban made the proposals in a call to Putin on Wednesday, the Kremlin and Hungary said, without giving more details.
“The Russian side fully supports Orban’s efforts aimed at finding a peaceful settlement and resolving humanitarian issues related to the prisoner exchange,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) fleshed out details on a potential prisoner exchange to the Hungarian embassy, Peskov said.
Shortly after the Orban-Putin call, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized the Turkish leader for undermining Western unity and appeared to mock Hungary’s peace efforts.
Orban said it was sad that Zelensky clearly rejected the proposals.

UKRAINE CEASEFIRE?
US President-elect Donald Trump, a self-styled master of brokering agreements and author of the 1987 book “Trump: the Art of the Deal,” has vowed to swiftly end the conflict but has given no details on how he might achieve that.
On June 14, Putin set out his opening terms for an immediate end to the war: Ukraine must drop ambition to join military alliance NATO and withdraw troops from four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.
“Russia has never refused peace talks and has repeatedly stated its readiness to resume them on the basis of the Istanbul Agreements of 2022,” Peskov said.
Kyiv has insisted that it also needs security guarantees, namely membership in the NATO military alliance that would prevent Russia using a ceasefire to prepare another invasion.
Russia has said it would never accept Ukraine joining NATO — or the deployment of NATO troops on Ukrainian territory.