Amnesty condemns Spain, Morocco over Melilla border tragedy
Story by By Joan Faus • 

The border fence between Morocco and Spain's north African enclave Melilla is seen along a road

© Thomson Reuters

MADRID (Reuters) - Moroccan and Spanish authorities used "unlawful and lethal force" during a mass border crossing by migrants in June in which at least 23 people died, and their response "smacks of a cover-up," Amnesty International said on Tuesday in a report based on eyewitness testimony, video footage and satellite imagery.

The handling of the mass border crossing attempt on June 24 between Morocco and Spain's North African enclave of Melilla remains a high-stakes political headache for the Spanish government. It has been heavily criticised by Spain's ombudsman and U.N. human rights experts. The country's interior minister has been repeatedly grilled in parliament and has faced calls to resign from opposition parties.

Morocco has said that 23 people died in the incident, while Spanish authorities have argued that no deaths occurred in their territory. Amnesty said at least 37 people died and 77 others remain missing.

Related video: Migration crisis in the Sahara: Algerian police accused of violence at Niger border (France 24)   Duration 4:49  View on Watch

Moment migrant paraglides into Spain across border with Morocco

The report said that "many of the injured continued to be beaten and kicked as they lay on the ground, semi-conscious, unresponsive or struggling for breath."

It also decried the lack of information concerning the identity of the deceased and the fate of the missing.

Asked about those allegations, Spain's Interior Ministry reiterated that police acted "lawfully and proportionally with an absolute respect for human rights," and said that accusations Spain had failed in its duty to assist were false.

Moroccan authorities declined to comment.

"Moroccan and Spanish authorities failed to provide prompt and adequate medical assistance to the injured, including by denying a Red Cross ambulance team access to the area, while dozens were left unattended in the full glare of the sun for at least eight hours," Amnesty said.

One interviewee said that Spanish police forced injured people back across the border to Morocco. A 17-year-old Sudanese citizen said people arrested by Moroccan police were "beaten by hammers in their head until they passed away" in jail.

(Reporting by Joan Faus; Editing by David Latona, Aislinn Laing and Mark Porter)

Hawaii's 'last princess', 96, dies with her wife, 69, by her side



 Joe Pacheco / Bishop Museum

An elderly Hawaiian heiress who was the islands' so-called final princess has died at the age of 96. Abigail Kinoiki Kekaulike Kawānanakoa (pictured) died Sunday at her Honolulu home with her wife Veronica Gail Kawānanakoa, 69, at her side. She was worth an estimated $215 million. The late royal's lineage included the royal family that once ruled the islands and an Irish businessman who became one of Hawaii's largest landowners.



'Abigail will be remembered for her love of Hawaii and its people,' her 69-year-old wife (pictured left) said in a statement, 'and I will miss her with all of my heart.'

IMAGINE HOW MUCH IT WOULD SAVE AB

Sticking with RCMP would save Surrey, B.C., $235 million: report

SURREY, B.C. — City council in Surrey, B.C., has voted to send a plan to the province to keep the RCMP as its police force, saying it would save $235 million over five years.


Sticking with RCMP would save Surrey, B.C., $235 million: report© Provided by The Canadian Press

Mayor Brenda Locke, who campaigned on a promise to retain the RCMP, says that saving for Surrey taxpayers is enormous and the city must stick with the Mounties because it can't afford to continue with the change to a municipal force.

The report says the cost of 734 officers with the Surrey Police Service would be $249,460 per officer, while each Mountie would be $205,990.

A statement from the service, which is well into its transition, says the report overestimates how many of its officers would join the Surrey RCMP and doesn't consider $100 million in costs that have already been incurred.

The city says the plan will be sent to Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth by Dec. 15 for his final review and approval, with Locke saying a prompt decision is essential to prevent any further unnecessary spending.

A statement from Farnworth says it's his responsibility to ensure the city's plan meets the requirements of the Police Act and public safety continues to be the "core driving principle" for all decisions about policing in Surrey.

Farnworth says he expects to receive the city's plan this week and he'll review it with B.C.'s director of police services.

Locke says she expects an answer from the government by early in the new year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 13, 2022.

The Canadian Press

At least 100 killed as sinkhole opens swallowing roads and entire neighbourhoods in Congo

Story by Barney Davis 

Devastating floods in Congo have killed at least 100 people with roads struck by landslides and neighbourhoods swallowed up by sinkholes.

Dozens more were injured on Tuesday after heavy rains sparked devastation across Congo’s capital, Kinshasa.

Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde said officials were still searching for more bodies.

“We came to assess the damage and the primary damage we see is human,” Lukonde said on state television Tuesday.

Some 12 million people live in the 24 neighbourhoods of Kinshasa hit by the floods, according to three local officials who told The Associated Press that people were killed, houses submerged and roads ruined.


People stand watch after heavy rains caused floods and landslides (REUTERS)© Provided by Evening Standard

In the Ngaliema area more than three dozen people died and bodies are still being counted, said the area’s mayor, Alid’or Tshibanda. In another part of town five members from one family were killed, some by electrocution.

Related video: DR Congo town set to 'disappear' as Chinese mine swallows it up (AFP)
View on Watch


“It is a just calamity,” said Pierrot Mantuela. The 30-year-old lost his mother, nine-year-old daughter and three brothers. “It’s sad to lose all the members of my family,” he said. He was spared because he was working Monday night when the rains began, he said.



Residents clean up following torrential rains (AP)© Provided by Evening Standard

Images shared online showed entire neighbourhoods flooded with muddy water and roads ripped apart by sinkholes.

One video appeared to show a major highway cut in half by a giant hole that had swallowed several vehicles in Mont-Ngafula district. Onlookers in raincoats crept to the edge to peer into the chasm.

Once fishing villages on the banks of the Congo river, Kinshasa has grown into one of Africa’s largest megacities with a population of around 15 million.

Poorly regulated rapid urbanization has made Kinshasa increasingly vulnerable to flash floods after intense rains, which have become more frequent due to climate change.

At least 39 people died in Kinshasa in 2019 when torrential rain flooded low-lying districts and some buildings and roads collapsed.

In addition to damaged infrastructure, each day of flooding in Kinshasa costs households a combined $1.2 million due to the large-scale transport disruption, according to a 2020 World Bank paper.

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WHY HAVE AN ELECTION?!

Danish Social Democrats agree new government with right-wing opposition

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Denmark's Social Democratic leader Mette Frederiksen said on Tuesday she had agreed to form a rare bipartisan government with the main opposition party, the Liberal Party, and the Moderates to form a government with her as prime minister.


General election in Denmark© Thomson Reuters

"We have set high ambitions, both in terms of ensuring higher employment, more people getting work, high climate ambitions and a fairly comprehensive reform program," said Frederiksen.

The three party leaders, Frederiksen, Jacob Elleman-Jensen of the Liberal Party and Lars Lokke Rasmussen of the Moderates, will host a press briefing on Wednesday, where they will outline the broad political ideas behind the next government.

The Moderates is a new party, established in June, and is led by Rasmussen, the previous prime minister. It became Denmark's third biggest party after a trailblazing election campaign.

The three parties have a combined 89 seats in the 179-seat parliament, which also includes four seats to lawmakers from Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

This means the new government will in practice have a majority as the North Atlantic mandates traditionally don't intervene in Danish domestic politics.

Frederiksen, 45, will start her second term as premier of the Nordic nation once the new government has been formally announced on Thursday.

Since her centre-left Social Democratic Party won more than a quarter of the votes in a Nov. 1 general election, making it the biggest in parliament, Frederiksen has dropped negotiations with traditional left-wing allies.

Instead, the new coalition, which was formed after record-long talks of more than a month, she has negotiated with opposition parties to form a government across the traditional left-right divide for the first time in more than four decades.

Frederiksen argued during her campaign that a broad government across the left-right divide was needed at a time of international uncertainty.

The new government will begin work as high energy prices and the highest inflation in four decades eat into household economies, and only two months after the sabotage of two pipelines carrying gas from Russia to Germany through Danish waters.

Some pundits have warned that forming a coalition of the traditional mainstream parties might backfire, because it could eventually strengthen the more radical parties as seen in other European countries, including France.

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Nikolaj Skydsgaard, editing by Stine Jacobsen, Tomasz Janowski and Sandra Maler)

UCP MORALITY POLICE

Edmonton social issue task force unveiled by UCP, but Sohi says city was shut out

Story by Matthew Black •

Municipal Affairs Minister Rebecca Schulz speaks as Homeward Trust CEO Susan McGee, Public Safety and Emergency Services Minister Mike Ellis, Mental Health and Addiction Minister Nicholas Milliken and Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jeremy Nixon listen on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022. They are part of a cabinet task force to tackle Edmonton social issues including addiction, homelessness and public safety in Edmonton.© Provided by Edmonton Journal

The Alberta government is promising action on homelessness, addiction and public safety in Edmonton through the creation of a new task force, though skeptics remain unconvinced it will deliver as promised.

Four provincial cabinet ministers were among those to announce the creation of the Edmonton Public Safety and Community Response Task Force on Monday.

The task force aims to build on the province’s recovery-oriented system of addiction and mental health care using resources from provincial and municipal governments as well as local partner agencies.

“This is not about studying the issue. This is about actually taking action,” said committee chairman and Public Safety and Emergency Services Minister Mike Ellis.

“This is a co-ordinated approach. We will be taking action.”

That action includes a series of initiatives including increasing addiction treatment capacity, providing addiction and mental health treatment programs in correctional centres, creating a hybrid health and police hub, expanding medical detox services, building harm reduction and recovery outreach teams and expanding access to emergency shelter space.

In introducing the task force, Municipal Affairs Minister Rebecca Schulz said it would address “the most urgent social issues” facing Edmontonians.

“We have heard loud and clear from municipalities across Alberta about the need for a collaborative approach and we are committing to that starting right here in Edmonton.”

Funding for Tuesday’s announcement comes in part from $187 million in funding towards fighting homelessness the province announced at the start of October.

The province is spending $63 million over the next two years towards increasing access to addiction services as well as $19 million towards combating homelessness.

“These initiatives are the start,” said Mental Health and Addiction Minister Nicholas Milliken.

“We are going to move quickly and we will not stop until these initiatives are operationalized.”

Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jeremy Nixon said he is “very optimistic” the task force would make progress on long-term solutions to issues around homelessness and addiction.

‘We need action’

The 12-person task force met for the first time Tuesday afternoon.

It is composed of ministers Nixon, Ellis, Milliken and Schulz as well as Chief Billy Morin of the Enoch Cree Nation and Chief Isaac Laboucan-Avirom of the Woodland Cree First Nation.

They are joined by two representatives from Alberta Health Services and the CEO of Homeward Trust, an organization that provides support for those experiencing homelessness in Edmonton.

Edmonton police Chief Dale McFee is also on board as are Edmonton city councillors Sarah Hamilton and Tim Cartmell.

City manager Andre Corbould and Fire Chief Joe Zatylny have also been invited, pending city council’s approval.

Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said while he welcomed the new efforts to battle long-standing issues, the city was not made a part of the process.

“I was not made aware of it. We were not in any way included in the creation of the task force. It is a decision that the province has made,” he said.

He said Hamilton and Cartmell were “hand-picked by the UCP government,” noting their participation was not approved by councillors, something he said would have to happen if Corbould was to be part of the task force.

Hamilton currently serves on the Edmonton Police Commission. She and Cartmell were involved in city council’s budget meetings Tuesday afternoon and were unavailable to immediately comment.

Sohi also called for more measures to ensure safe supply and harm reduction, elements not included in the task force’s initiatives.

He added the task force lacked people with “lived experience” including racialized Edmontonians and urban Indigenous leaders, a feeling echoed by Opposition addictions and mental health critic Lori Sigurdson.

“This is just another opportunity to review and we already know what needs to be done,” she said.

“We don’t need another task force. We need action.”

‘Something new we don’t have’

The new task force follows longstanding complaints about public safety Downtown, including on public transit.

The Downtown Recovery Coalition (DRC) — a group of business leaders advocating for a safer Downtown — welcomed the new task force.

“Provincial collaboration is key in solving the problems our community organizations, businesses and residents are facing throughout our Downtown core,” stated coalition chairman Alex Hryciw.

McFee said that collaborative approach would be key to the task force’s success.

“What I see here is bringing coordination to something new that we don’t have, and using all those resources … to say, ‘We’re going to tackle this differently.’”

Schulz said a similar approach could be rolled out in other centres across the province.

“There will be other communities that we’re going to do this work in,” she said.

“And we want to be nimble and willing partners at the table to address those challenges across ministries and different levels of government and community.”

mblack@postmedia.com

Twitter @ ByMatthewBlack

Privacy-first, ads-free search engine Neeva launches in Canada

TORONTO — Around 16 years into Sridhar Ramaswamy’s career at Google, he realized he was having difficulty reconciling the actions of advertisers with the needs of consumers, and their differences were often creating a negative online experience.


Privacy-first, ads-free search engine Neeva launches in Canada© Provided by The Canadian Press

It was a turning point for the senior vice-president of ads and commerce, who later left to co-found Neeva, a search engine that is making its Canadian debut Tuesday and is set on bucking the ad-hungry nature of its peers.

“Over the past 20, 25 years we have sort of fallen in love with a suite of free services … and what has happened is that slowly but surely these services have turned against us. They've become more and more exploitative,” Ramaswamy said.

“We pay for it with our attention. We pay for it with our dollars. The hundreds of billions of dollars in advertising revenue that companies like Google and Facebook and Amazon make, they're actually coming from you and me. There was never a free lunch.”

While these major tech companies earn the bulk of their profits from serving users ads and compiling data, Neeva intends to be different. It bills itself as “privacy-first” and “ads-free.”

That means it doesn’t remember your search history and is designed to keep trackers from keeping tabs on you.

“What you do with the search engine or even the browser should be between you and the party that you're interacting with,” said Ramaswamy.

“You rest easy knowing that this data is not going to be used to monetize you either by showing ads or affiliate links.”

Without ads to generate revenue, Neeva relies on a paid tier that charges users for a trio of services Ramaswamy thinks everyone needs “to be private, safe and sane on the internet”: a virtual private network to mask your location and online activities, a password manager and an ad blocker.

Canadian users who opt in to the tier will pay $7.99 a month or $64.99 a year.

Related video: Measures to secure Canadians' personal information in cloud were 'applied and monitored inconsistently': AG (cbc.ca)   Duration 1:14  View on Watch

Both paying and free users will notice that when searching for a product using Neeva, they will be more likely to see reviews for the product appear rather than just the first place to buy it. If they look for health care information, credible and authoritative resources like government websites or the Mayo Clinic will pop up instead of “a whole set of people that figured out how to be on top of Google's results," said Ramaswamy.

The company has also committed to sharing 20 per cent of its topline revenue with content creators such as news sites and publications “because we felt that it was important to have a model where we supported publishers, especially when we use their content," he said.

News seekers will find they can customize which publishers they want to appear most prominently.

Whether tech companies should share revenues with publishers has been a hot topic in Canada as federal Bill C-18 — the Online News Act — winds its way through Parliament. The bill completed its second reading in the House of Commons in May, before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage finished considering it last week. It will soon head to the Senate for three readings and approval.

The bill aims to make tech giants such as Google and Facebook parent company Meta pay for sharing journalism produced by Canadian news organizations. The goal is to level the playing field between news agencies and social media companies, which have eaten up ad revenues while publishers have struggled to remain profitable.

But the tech giants have vehemently fought the bill. Google argued it would give regulators “unprecedented influence over news” and complained the bill doesn't require the news outlets receiving payments to follow basic journalistic standards, “creating a regime that allows bad actors and those peddling misinformation to thrive and profit.”

The opposition doesn’t surprise Ramaswamy. “There's no happy answer to how do you divide existing money or existing revenue that someone has taken for granted?” he said.

“Giving up something is not really something that comes easy to any company and you will see them fight furiously.”

Facebook has already threatened to block news in Canada if it doesn’t get its way with the bill. The company made that move after similar legislation passed in Australia last year, but a few days later it restored news content on the site when the government tweaked its legislation.

So what does Ramaswamy think will happen in Canada?

“This sort of redistribution of wealth by the government rarely goes well,” he said.

“The likely outcome is that ... Google and Facebook and others will cut some sort of backroom deal to give a small amount of money and that's the end.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 13, 2022.

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press

SOMETHING ABOUT PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE

Kaili feels betrayed over European Parliament stance in Qatar graft scandal -lawyer

ATHENS (Reuters) - Eva Kaili feels betrayed by European Parliament colleagues who decided to strip the Greek MEP of her role as vice president of the assembly on Tuesday after she was accused of accepting bribes from Qatar, her lawyer in Athens told Reuters.


European Parliament vice president, Greek socialist Eva Kaili, is seen at the European Parliament in Strasbourg© Thomson Reuters

The case, in which Kaili has denied any wrongdoing, is evolving into one of the biggest corruption scandals to hit the European Union.

Kaili, who is in Belgian police detention, was one of 14 vice presidents in the parliament. Belgian prosecutors have charged her and three Italians at the weekend with participating in a criminal organisation, money laundering and corruption.

European lawmakers acted rapidly to isolate her, concerned that the Belgian investigation could mar the assembly's efforts to present itself as a sound moral compass in a troubled world.

"I spoke to Mrs Kaili today and she broke her silence. She has expressed her complaints over the stance of her European Parliament colleagues," lawyer Michalis Dimitrakopoulos told Reuters.

"She says she feels betrayed when they make her appear as if she had a personal agenda with Qatar and when they hint that she was taking bribes."

Related video: Qatar 'corruption scandal' rocks European parliament, Vice President Eva Kaili arrested (WION)
Duration 3:39
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MEP Eva Kaili stripped of vice president role as Qatar corruption probe widens


In a parliamentary session on Nov. 21 to discuss the human rights situation in Qatar, Kaili defended it against intense criticism from human rights groups over its treatment of migrant workers during preparations for the World Cup.

The Socialist lawmaker visited Kuwait and Qatar at the end of October and start of November and cited the International Labour Office saying Qatar had been "introducing labour rights ... and introducing minimum wage despite the challenges."

Dimitrakopoulos reiterated that Kaili has denied the accusations and added that her visit to Qatar had been approved by the European Parliament and that she was nothing more but a "recipient of European Union orders".

"Her position is that she was not accepting bribes, she is innocent, Qatar did not have a need for her, it did not need to bribe her, she had nothing to offer to Qatar," he said.

"Her decision to visit Qatar was not her personal decision, it was a European parliament decision, with the agreement" of the European Commission and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Dimitrakopoulos added.

Asked by Reuters to comment on the case, the European Parliament press service said that as a vice president Kaili was tasked with representing the assembly in the Middle East. It added: "The clear and standing instruction to all vice presidents is to represent the Parliament’s position. Nothing else."

(Reporting by Renee Maltezou, Deborah Kyvrikosaios and Stamos Prousalis, editing by Mark Heinrich)

Rupen Pandya: Indigenous people key to Saskatchewan's energy future

Opinion by Rupen Pandya 

Rupen Pandya, SaskPower President and CEO speaks at a SaskPower press conference on Tuesday, September 20, 2022 in Regina.© Provided by Leader Post

2022 has been a big year. Since commissioning the Awasis and Pesâkâstêw Solar Facilities, these Indigenous-owned installations have been providing up to 20 megawatts (10 MW per facility) of clean, renewable power to Saskatchewan’s grid.

Both facilities were constructed through partnerships with First Nations owners, and these utility-scale projects are lighting a path forward on our journey of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

The First Nations Power Authority (FNPA) has played an important role in bringing these projects forward and has an agreement with SaskPower regarding opportunities for future flare-gas options.

At the grand opening of the Pesâkâstêw Solar Facility, the speakers emphasized “respect for Mother Earth” as core to traditional knowledge and Indigenous stewardship of the environment.

SaskPower believes that Indigenous partners can play a vital role in supporting the profound energy transition now underway in Saskatchewan and North America, as we move toward cleaner energy.

We need to reach a 50 per cent reduction in our carbon emissions by 2030 from 2005 levels, achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

This represents a tremendous opportunity for First Nations and Métis communities to help develop the plan, not just as consumers, but as producers of clean energy — sharing in the economic and social benefits of working together.

To get to that clean-energy future, we need to look at all the options available and make wise choices, mindful of future generations in Saskatchewan.

Wind, solar, natural gas, nuclear power and other technologies must all be considered, to ensure reliable and affordable electricity continues to flow, both day and night and in all seasons, to our homes and businesses.

SaskPower recently identified the Elbow and Estevan areas as study areas for a potential future small modular reactor. Identifying study regions early in the process — many years ahead of any decision to proceed — gives us time to consult Indigenous Rights holders in these areas.

We will seek meaningful engagement and dialogue concerning economic benefits, employment, procurement and other forms of project participation.

We recently hosted two virtual open houses on planning for nuclear power with more than 600 people registered.

Those attending heard a number of different perspectives from the municipality of Pickering, Ontario, (which is close to a nuclear plant in that province), the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, nuclear developer GE Hitachi, and much more.

I encourage everyone to go to engage.saskpower.com and sign up for a virtual session, take a short survey, ask a question and so much more.

This energy transition will require all of us to learn from each other in order to succeed.

It inspires us to see what walking together can look like — listening to each other, learning from each other and seeking mutually beneficial partnerships to protect people and the environment, while securing our energy future.

Working together, we can be confident that our future is bright.

Rupen Pandya is the president and CEO of SaskPower.

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Colombian Congress approves creation of Ministry of Equality

The Colombian Congress has approved, after several favorable votes in the House of Representatives and the Senate, the creation of the Ministry of Equality, which will be headed by the country's vice-president, Francia Márquez.


Vice President of Colombia, Francia Márquez. - CHEPA BELTRAN / ZUMA PRESS / CONTACTOPHOTO© Provided by News 360

The new portfolio of the Executive of the president, Gustavo Petro, has counted with 139 votes in favor and eight against in the House of Representatives, by the 61 who have said 'yes' and the six of 'no' in the Senate, details the radio station RCN.

"What we are building is a path of material, real equality, this ministry was clearly missing in the public administration scenario", stressed the Minister of the Interior, Alfonso Prada, who thanked Márquez for his important participation in order for this campaign promise to go ahead.

Casa Nariño has bet on the creation of this new Ministry to implement public policies to achieve, among other things, wage equality between men and women, the recognition of work in the home as a work history, a minimum vital income for mothers who are heads of household, and benefits and property and credit rights within the agrarian reform.

The Alianza Verde representative Katherine Miranda has welcomed the creation of this portfolio as it comes to try to combat problems as "undeniable" as the wage gap that exists between men and women, or femicides.

However, for some in the opposition, the Ministry of Equality "represents more bureaucracy". This is the opinion of Uribism, which accuses the Government of not having published the costs that this new portfolio will entail for the public treasury.