Doodle-covered truck becomes symbol of Canada's Covid protests


sProtesters and supporters line up to sign their names and scribble messages of support for protests against Covid-19 health measures on a truck parked outside parliament (AFP/Ed JONES)More

Anne-Sophie THILL
Mon, February 14, 2022,

A white truck parked outside Canada's parliament -- covered in protesters' signatures and scribbled slogans to mark their struggle against Covid restrictions -- has become a must-see for the truckers and supporters hoping their stand goes down in history.

Gaëtan, Derek, Ariana, Marc-André, Jessyca -- hundreds of signatures are scrawled in black marker all over the vehicle.

Alongside the names are messages such as "God bless the trucker," "Thank you cowboy" and "People read about history, you are making it."

Nearby, retired nurse Nancy Lauzon gushes with pride over her compatriots -- who are mostly seen abroad as "so polite" -- raising hell over public health rules they say went too far and are strangling their democratic freedoms.

"I put my name on this truck because I want to be part of history, and this is history in the making," Lauzon, 64, told AFP.

"Hopefully my grandchildren will remember that their nanny tried to fight for freedom," she said, her voice choking up.

At the front of the truck, a little girl in a pink ski jacket and pants, barely taller than the semi's tire, draws a heart under the tender gaze of Cathy Stevens, who is waiting her turn.

The black felt freezes in bone-chilling temperatures, however, leaving people scrambling for another.

For her partner, Gilles Desbiens, the truck covered in doodles symbolizes "a coming together of Canadians showing that they care about the future." It should be kept as a "memorial of the people," he said.

- For posterity -

Sitting behind the wheel of his big rig, Spencer Bautz, sporting a goatee and black cowboy hat, is constantly interrupted by curious demonstrators.

They stop to extend congratulations, compliments and words of encouragement through his open window, as well as offer him cigarettes and letters from supporters. Sometimes they ask to snap a selfie with him.

The 24-year-old trucker is very chatty, happy to regale passers-by with stories of his more than two weeks parked in the Canadian capital to protest vaccine mandates and other pandemic restrictions, and to listen to their own tales.

It will be a "constant reminder" of the importance of the event, he said. "Every time I walk by or look out at it, I'm gonna be reminded of how special this was."

Bautz added: "I've never been so hopeful and proud to be a Canadian."

Explaining his motivations for protesting, he said: "Watching people who had their careers taken away or seeing kids having to wear masks, and just seeing people treated so unfairly... it just really, really bothered me."

Bautz drove almost 3,000 kilometers (1,800 miles) from Humboldt, Saskatchewan to Ottawa three weeks ago for the protest.

He said he will add his signature on the truck if there's any space left at the end of the demonstrations -- which, with Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoking emergency powers Monday to quell the protests, could come sooner than many demonstrators had hoped.

Eventually, Bautz said, he will return to driving his rig daily. But before that he intends to add a clear coat of paint or varnish, to preserve the signatures and comments for posterity.

ast/tib/amc/mlm

Israelis mount their own COVID 'Freedom Convoy'



Israeli "Freedom Convoy" protesters demonstrate in Jerusalem

Mon, February 14, 2022,

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Hundreds of vehicles drove along the main highway from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on Monday and converged on parliament to protest against COVID-19 curbs in a convoy inspired by demonstrations in Canada.

Other protesters stood on overpasses and at junctions as the so-called "Freedom Convoy" passed by, with banners and Israeli and Canadian flags flying from the vehicles.

"Freedom doesn't look like this," read one sign, showing a picture of a girl in a mask.

Outside parliament, protesters sounded horns and beat drums, and called for pandemic restrictions to be lifted.

"We are all gathered here for freedom. Because for two years already, all this world is going mad because of all the mandates and all the things that don't let us live as free as we are born," Jonathan Deporto, 39, said.

In recent weeks, Israel has rolled back requirements to show proof of vaccination at restaurants, cinemas, gyms and hotels to coincide with a slowdown in daily infections from the highly contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19.

But masks are still mandatory in public indoor spaces, including schools, shops and medical institutions.

In Canada, the "Freedom Convoy" https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-protesters-police-deadlocked-tensions-simmer-blocked-border-bridge-2022-02-13 protests started in the capital Ottawa last month led by truckers opposing a vaccinate-or-quarantine mandate for cross-border drivers. Similar protests took place in France over the weekend.

(Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Andrew Heavens)

Freedom convoy: Israelis protest Covid rules in Canada-style convoy
AFP
February 14, 2022 

Source: Flickr

Thousands of Israelis streamed into Jerusalem from across the country Monday in a “freedom convoy” against coronavirus restrictions that mirrored similar traffic-blocking protests in Canada and around the world.

The demonstrators blared their car horns and waved Canadian and Israeli flags as they made their way towards the seat of Israel’s government. Protesters held signs against wearing masks and other coronavirus restrictions. Other activists stopped traffic at junctions and bridges nationwide.

The Jerusalem convoy snarled traffic in a demonstration similar to a massive show of protest in Canada that caused a major US-Canada crossing to be shut for days.

Similar movements have sprung up in France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand.

Shany Shlomo, 51, an administrator, said she attended the protest in Jerusalem to speak up against coronavirus vaccines.

“Nobody can tell us what to put into our body,” she said.

Israel was one of the first nations to roll out a national vaccine campaign, with third and fourth booster shots available to offset the vaccine’s gradual decline in efficacy.

Authorities in Israel have loosened restrictions in recent weeks, shortening the list of places where a vaccine pass is required. This comes as runaway infections fuelled by the highly transmissible Omicron strain seem to be slowing down.

Last month, some days saw more than 80,000 new Covid cases. Since then, the infection rate has declined, with about 30,000 new cases registered Monday.

Tzvi Shori, 30, a business and law student, said he wanted “to fight for my rights” amid coronavirus restrictions.

“You’re taking and controling and holding us by a very short leash and basically saying ‘no’, now you do what we say,” he said.

In France, Canada, New Zealand... What is the 'Freedom Convoy'?

Belgian authorities said Monday they had intercepted 30 vehicles as police scrambled to stop a Canada-style protest convoy against Covid regulations from reaching Brussels. The self-proclaimed "freedom convoy" is one of several worldwide inspired by a truckers' standoff with authorities in Canada.

Video by:Luke SHRAGO

 

Belgium: 'Freedom Convoy' protest reaches Brussels

Hundreds of protesters in cars, vans and trucks have headed to the Belgian capital to demand an end to COVID-19 restrictions, despite a ban preventing them from entering the city.



Protesters in a so-called "freedom convoy" have managed to make their way into Brussels on foot after police stopped vehicles from entering the city


A group of "freedom convoy" protesters reached Brussels Monday, with police in the Belgian capital partially blocking the main access routes into the city and redirecting vehicles to a car park on the outskirts.

Brussels mayor Philippe Close told local RTBF radio that a total of 400-500 cars and vans had been spotted en route to Brussels. Most of the vehicles came from France, where a similar protest took place over the weekend.

"It is a matter of not allowing the Belgian capital to be taken hostage," Close said.

He said protesters might be allowed to enter Brussels on foot, although authorities have banned vehicles in the Canada-style protest convoy from entering the city.


Some of the protesters have traveled from France following weekend protests in Paris
Protesters make it into Brussels despite counter measures

Reuters news agency reported seeing around 150 to 200 protesters in the city center.

A French protester called Philippe, who traveled from the weekend's protest in Paris, told members of the media that he was protesting for his children.

"I came particularly for our children's future. I don't see how my children can live in the world as it is now. Freedom is swept aside, there's more and more poverty. Even when you work,when the 15th of the month comes round, you haven't got enough to live on," Philippe said.

A similar ban did not prevent protesters from converging on Paris in neighboring France over the weekend.

They blocked roads and caused traffic jams around the Arc de Triomphe in the city's center.

The "Freedom Convoy" protests began in Canada, with Canadian truckers opposing a vaccine mandate for cross-border transport. However, the movement has sparked similar protests in Europe.

lo/wmr (AFP, Reuters)

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Erin Jackson wins gold in 500-meter speedskating; U.S. first in 28 years

She also was the first Black woman to win a gold medal in speedskating for the U.S.

By Adam Schrader


Erin Jackson of the USA takes a victory lap with her national flag after winning the gold medal in the women's 500-meter speedskating final at the Beijing Winter Olympics on February 13, 2022. Photo by Paul Hanna/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Erin Jackson of Team USA won a gold medal Sunday for her first-place finish in the women's 500-meter long-track speedskating event at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

It was the first time the United States has won the event since 1994 when Bonnie Blair won her third gold medal for the event at the Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway. 

She also was the first Black woman to win a gold medal in speedskating for the U.S.

"I wish I could describe how I feel. It is amazing. This medal means so much," Jackson told CNN after the race. "It has been a tough couple of years and a tough beginning for this year. For this to come around like this, I am so happy."

Jackson, 29, is from Ocala, Fla., where is doesn't snow, and she didn't start skating until five years ago.

Jackson finished the race with a time of 37.04 seconds while Miho Takagi of Japan took the silver medal with a time of 37.12 seconds and Angelina Golikova of the Russian Olympic Committee took the bronze with a time of 37.21 seconds.

"Speedy looking extra speedy," Team USA tweeted after her race, in reference to the athlete's nickname.

Jackson, who finished the event in 24th place during the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchange, South Korea, threw her arms in air and wore a look of surprised victory after realizing she had won the race.

"ERIN JACKSON IS OLYMPIC CHAMPION‼️‼️ REPEAT: ERIN JACKSON IS OLYMPIC CHAMPION," the Twitter account for the U.S. speedskating team posted.

Jackson recounted to CNN how her teammate Brittany Bowe had offered her spot on Team USA after Jackson had slipped during qualifying trials and was almost unable to compete. The U.S. later received a third spot,w hich allowed Bowe back into the competition.

"It was just amazing having her out there on the ice. We could just be happy together after the race. She hugged me, said she is really proud of me, and I just said a lot of thank yous," Jackson said.

"At the time when she gave up her spot, she didn't know we were getting a third one, so she made a really big sacrifice for me, and I will be grateful to her forever."

Jackson's win came after the U.S. men's team placed second during the team pursuit speedskating event quarterfinals, progressing to the semifinals.

Ethan Cepuran, Casey Dawson and Emery Lehman of Team USA finished the long-track race just 0.04 seconds behind Norway.

The Russian Olympic Committee finished the course in third place with a time of 3:38.67 while the Netherlands finished the course in fourth place with a time of 3:38.90. Both teams will also move on to the semi-finals and finals on Tuesday.

Eight teams competed for the chance to advance during the quarterfinals Sunday, with only the top four teams progressing to the semi-finals for a chance at a medal.

The semifinals will feature the U.S. facing off against the ROC while the Netherlands will race against Norway for a chance to advance to the finals.

The U.S. currently holds the world record of 3:34.47 in the men's team pursuit event for a race in Salt Lake City in December. Norway holds the Olympic Record for its gold medal finish in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in 2018.

RIP
CANADIAN Ivan Reitman: Ghostbusters director dies aged 75

Mon., February 14, 2022, 

Reitman at the premiere of Ghostbusters: Afterlife in 2021

Film-maker Ivan Reitman, who directed blockbuster comedies including the original Ghostbusters, has died at the age of 75.

After his family fled Communist oppression in post-war Czechoslovakia, Reitman grew up in Canada, where he trained in film-making.

His big break came when he produced the 1978 frat-house comedy National Lampoon's Animal House.

His other films as director included Twins, Kindergarten Cop and Junior.

He died peacefully in his sleep at his home in California, his family said.

"Our family is grieving the unexpected loss of a husband, father and grandfather who taught us to always seek the magic in life," his children said in a statement.

"We take comfort that his work as a film-maker brought laughter and happiness to countless others around the world."

Reitman on the set of Animal House in 1978

Film industry figures have paid tribute to Reitman's achievements.

Paul Feig, who directed the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot, wrote on Twitter: "He directed some of my favorite comedies of all time. All of us in comedy owe him so very much."

Knocked Up and The 40 Year-Old Virgin writer and director Judd Apatow said Reitman was "a true legend" who "influenced everything we all love about film comedy".

The Big Sick actor and writer Kumail Nanjiani agreed that he was "a legend" and added: "The number of great movies he made is absurd."

Mindy Kaling, who apprared in Reitman's 2011 film No Strings Attached, said he "was old school in the best way, and kind", adding: "I loved working with him."



Born in Komarno in what is now Slovakia in 1946, Reitman's mother had survived the Auschwitz concentration camp and his father was the owner of the country's biggest vinegar factory.

The family later settled in Toronto. Reitman went to McMaster University in Hamilton, where he made short films and encountered the likes of future Ghostbusters star Rick Moranis.

After producing two of director David Cronenberg's early horror films, his work on National Lampoon's Animal House launched a career that would see him create some of the biggest comedies of the 80s and 90s.

He directed Bill Murray in his first starring role in the 1979 firm Meatballs. He also made Arnold Schwarzenegger a comedy star with Twins (1988). They worked together again on Kindergarten Cop (1990) and Junior (1994).

But Reitman's was best known for 1984's Ghostbusters. The supernatural comedy hit grossed over $200m worldwide and earned two Oscar nominations.

It also spawned a franchise that included a 1989 sequel and two new instalments. Reitman produced last year's Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which was directed by his son Jason.

On the continuing appeal of the film, he told AP: "I always had a sort of sincere approach to the comedy. I took it seriously, even though it was a horror movie and a comedy, I felt you had to sort of deal with it in a kind of realistic and honest way."

FEMICIDE IS LEGAL IN PAKISTAN

Brother who strangled 'Pakistan's Kim Kardashian' to death in honour killing is FREED following just six years after their mother pardons him

Qandeel Baloch shot to fame for her provocative selfies and videos in Pakistan

She was strangled in July 2016 and brother Muhammad Waseem was arrested

He later said 'of course' he murdered her because of her 'intolerable' behaviour

Waseem was pardoned by his mother on Monday and released, his lawyer said

By LAUREN LEWIS FOR MAILONLINE and WIRES
PUBLISHED: 14 February 2022 |

The brother who strangled a Pakistani social media star dubbed the country's 'Kim Kardashian' to death in an honour killing was today freed following just six years behind bars after he was pardoned by his mother.

Qandeel Baloch, 26, became famous for her suggestive and defiant posts which flew in the face of the nation's deeply patriarchal mores before her death in 2016.

Her brother Muhammad Waseem was arrested and later sentenced to life in prison for strangling her, brazenly telling the press he had no remorse for the slaying because her behaviour was 'intolerable'

He appealed against the 2019 murder verdict and life sentence and today a court in the central city of Multan struck down the conviction after major witnesses retracted their testimony.

Waseem's mother Anwar Mai had also submitted a statement in the court that she had pardoned him, his lawyer Sardar Mehboob said, though it was not clear whether the court considered the mother's statement in its decision.


Muhammad Waseem, the brother who strangled a Pakistani social media star dubbed the country's 'Kim Kardashian' to death in an honour killing was today freed following just six years behind bars after he was pardoned by his mother


Qandeel Baloch, 26, became famous for her suggestive and defiant posts which flew in the face of the nation's deeply patriarchal mores before her death in 2016




Baloch's brother Waseem was arrested and later sentenced to life in prison for strangling her, brazenly telling the press he had no remorse for the slaying because her behaviour was 'intolerable'

Waseem's mother Anwar Mai (left) had also submitted a statement in the court that she had pardoned him, his lawyer Sardar Mehboob said, though it was not clear whether the court considered the mother's statement in its decision

Mehboob said Waseem 'has been fully acquitted' by a court in the eastern city of Multan today, without giving further details.

The court order has yet to be made public but a government prosecutor confirmed the acquittal.

The case became the most high profile 'honour killing' of recent years - where women are dealt lethal punishment by male relatives for purportedly bringing 'shame' to the reputation of a family.

Under a recent Pakistani law change, perpetrators are no longer able to seek forgiveness from the victim's family - sometimes their own family - and to have their sentences commuted.

However, whether or not a murder is defined as a crime of honour is left to the judge's discretion, meaning killers can theoretically claim a different motive and still be pardoned.

Waseem had admitted in a 2016 media conference organised by police that he strangled his 26-year-old sister due to her social media activities.

Brother on Qandeel Baloch killing says 'I have no regrets' in 2016


A selfie of Baloch with the Muslim cleric Mufti Qavi taken a month before her murder resulted in the religious leader being sacked

In Baloch's (pictured) case, her parents initially insisted their son would be given no absolution. But they later changed their minds and said they wanted him to be forgiven

In Baloch's case, her parents initially insisted their son would be given no absolution. But they later changed their minds and said they wanted him to be forgiven.

A lawyer for the siblings' mother said she had given 'her consent' to pardon him, according to her lawyer Safdar Shah.

He is expected to be released later this week.

'Waseem may now walk free while Qandeel was condemned for stepping outside the bounds of what is deemed 'acceptable' behaviour for women in Pakistan,' biographer Sanam Maher told AFP.

'After today's verdict, we may ask, who killed her?' she added.

Baloch had posted Facebook posts in which she spoke of trying to change 'the typical orthodox mindset' of people in Pakistan.

She faced frequent abuse and death threats but continued to post pictures and videos seen as provocative.

She had built a modelling career on the back of her social media fame, but drew ire from many Pakistanis.

Her killing sent shockwaves across Pakistan and triggered an outpouring of grief on social media, spurring the government to tighten laws dealing with men who would kill a close relative in the name of family honour.

Three months after Baloch's murder Pakistan's parliament passed new legislation mandating life imprisonment for honour killings.

Hundreds of women are killed each year in Pakistan by family members over perceived offences to honour, including elopement, fraternization with men outside marriage or other infractions against conservative Muslim values on female modesty.


Baloch attracted criticism and threats but was perceived by many, including young people, as breaking new ground

Three months after Baloch's murder, parliament passed new legislation mandating life imprisonment for honour killings

Pakistani celebrity Qandeel Baloch shares raunchy videos

UN climate chief says stakes ‘never been higher’ in fight against global warming


Tourists walk on the Perito Moreno Glacier at Los Glaciares National Park, near El Calafate, Argentina, on November 2, 2021. Experts say the amount of energy unleashed by planetary warming could melt much of the planet's ice, raise global sea levels and increase extreme weather events. © Natacha Pisarenko, AP

Text by: NEWS WIRES|

Video by: FRANCE 24Follow

Issued on: 14/02/2022 

The stakes in the fight against global warming are higher than ever, the UN’s climate science chief said Monday as nearly 200 nations met to finalise what is sure to be a harrowing report on climate impacts.

“The need for the Working Group 2 report has never been greater because the stakes have never been higher,” Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Chair Hoesung Lee said in a live videocast.

Species extinction, ecosystem collapse, mosquito-borne disease, deadly heat, water shortages and reduced crop yields are already measurably worse due to rising temperatures.

Just in the last year, the world has seen a cascade of unprecedented floods, heatwaves and wildfires across four continents.

All these impacts will accelerate in the coming decades even if the carbon pollution driving climate change is rapidly brought to heel, the IPCC report is likely to warn.

A crucial, 40-page Summary for Policymakers – distilling underlying chapters totalling thousands of pages, and reviewed line-by-line – is to be made public on February 28.

“This is a real moment of reckoning,” said Rachel Cleetus, climate and energy policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“This not just more scientific projections about the future,” she told AFP ahead the two-week plenary. “This is about extreme events and slow-onset disasters that people are experiencing right now.”

The report will also underscore the urgent need for “adaptation” – climate-speak which means preparing for devastating consequences that can no longer be avoided, according to an early draft seen by AFP in 2021.

In some cases this means that adapting to intolerably hot days, flash flooding and storm surges has become a matter of life and death.
‘Doping the atmosphere’

“The growth in climate impacts is far outpacing our efforts to adapt to them,” said Inger Andersen, head of the UN Environment Programme, noting that climate change threatens to become a major driver of species loss.

IPCC assessments – this will be the sixth since 1990 – are divided into three sections, each with its own volunteer “working group” of hundreds of scientists.

In August 2021, the first instalment on physical science found that global heating is virtually certain to pass 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), probably within a decade.

Earth’s surface has warmed 1.1C since the 19th century.

“We have been doping the atmosphere with fossil fuels,” World Meteorological Organization chief Petteri Taalas said Monday, comparing the result to the “enhanced performance” of Olympic athletes who used banned substances.

The 2015 Paris deal calls for capping global warming at “well below” 2C, and ideally 1.5C.

This report is sure to reinforce this more ambitious goal.

It will likewise underscore that vulnerability to extreme weather events – even when they are made worse by global warming – can be reduced by better planning and preparation, according to the draft seen by AFP.

This is not only true in the developing world, noted Imperial College professor Friederike Otto, pointing to massive flooding in Germany last year that killed scores and caused billions in damage.
Tipping points

“Even without global warming there would have been a huge rainfall event in a densely populated geography where the rivers flood very easily,” said Otto, a pioneer in the science of quantifying the extent to which climate change makes extreme weather events more likely or intense.

The report will zero in on how climate change is widening already yawning gaps in inequality, both between regions and within nations.

The simple fact is that the people least responsible for climate change are the ones suffering the most from its impacts.

The report is also likely to highlight dangerous “tipping points”, invisible temperature trip wires in the climate system for irreversible and potentially catastrophic change.

Some of them – such as the melting of permafrost housing twice as much carbon as in the atmosphere – could fuel global warming all on their own.

“There is a finite set of choices we can make that would move us productively into the future,” said Clark University professor Edward Carr, a lead author of one of the report’s chapters.

“Every day we wait and delay, some of those choices get harder or go away.”

(AFP)

Ancient mummies of children who were likely sacrificed found in Peru



Archaeologists discover Incan tomb in Peru
The mummified children were unearthed in the grave of a supposed nobleman, believed to have likely been "sacrificed to accompany the figure to the underworld".

The head of the dig said the mummies were about 1,000 to 1,200 years old. (AFP)

Six mummified children thought to have been sacrificed hundreds of years ago, apparently to accompany a dead nobleman to the afterlife, have been unearthed in a tomb near Lima, archaeologists reported.

The tiny skeletons, wrapped tightly in cloth, were found on Sunday in the grave of an important man, possibly a political figure, discovered last November at the dig site of Cajamarquilla about 24 kilometers (15 miles) east of Lima

"The children could be close relatives and were placed…in different parts of the entrance of the tomb of the (nobleman's) mummy, one on top of the other," archaeologist Pieter Van Dalen, in charge of the dig, said.

"The children, according to our working hypothesis, would have been sacrificed to accompany the mummy to the underworld," says Van Dalen.

Van Dalen said the mummies were about 1,000 to 1,200 years old.

READ MORE: Sleep well, oh king: pharaoh remains undisturbed by CT scan technology

The pre-Inca period

Cajamarquilla was a city built out of mud in about 200 BC, in the pre-Inca period and occupied until about 1500.

It could have been home to 10,000-20,000 people.

Nearby the dig site of Cajamarquilla, the team also found the bones of seven adults who had not been mummified as well as the remains of llama-like animals and earthen ware.

The remains of the supposed nobleman were found last year in a tomb some three meters (9.8 feet) long and 1.4 meters deep in Cajamarquilla, one of the largest archaeological complexes near Lima.

He had been about 20 when he died and was entombed with his hands covering his face and tied up with rope.

READ MORE: Mummies in Anatolia: Expect the unexpected

YOUTH AND WOMEN LEAD THE PROTESTS
Sudan: Two protesters killed in crackdown on anti-coup rallies
Thousands demonstrate in Sudan against military rule and arrest of several former government officials

Thousands rallied in the capital Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman on Monday

 (AFP) By MEE and agencies
Published date: 14 February 2022 

Sudanese security forces fatally shot two protesters on Monday as they cracked down on thousands marching against last year's military coup and the arrest of several former government officials.

According to the independent Central Committee of Sudan Doctors, one protester was killed after being shot in the neck and chest by security forces while another was killed by a bullet to the left shoulder, elevating the total death toll to 81 since last October's military coup.

The Sudanese police meanwhile said one protestor was killed, while 102 policemen were severely injured, according to the police’s media office on Facebook.

The police did not explain how the protestor died, but said the demonstrations went awry with protesters encroaching on important strategic buildings and institutions, smashing glass windows and buildings' fronts.

Thousands rallied in the capital Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman on Monday, while protests also took place in the eastern city of Port Sudan and in the western Darfur region.

Sudan: Two prominent critics of ruling military arrested

Read More »

In the capital, demonstrations began with crowds waving national flags and carrying red balloons, while some protesters shouted slogans demanding the authorities release activists and former government officials who have been arrested in recent weeks.

"We are demanding the release of resistance committee members and politicians who were unjustly arrested, and some of whom are facing fabricated charges," Khaled Mohammed, one of the protesters, told AFP.

On Sunday, Sudan's military authorities arrested Mohammed al-Faki Suliman, a former member of Sudan's ruling Sovereign Council, who was the deputy head of a government-run agency tasked with dismantling the legacy of former autocratic president Omar al-Bashir.

Authorities also arrested two former members of the agency, a security official told the Associated Press.

Suliman was detained in the coup and released a month later as part of a deal between the military and then-prime minister Abdalla Hamdok.

General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who in October 2021 derailed a power-sharing transition established in the wake of the overthrow of longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir, appointed Lieutenant-General Yassin Ibrahim Yassin as acting defence minister, a statement by the Transitional Sovereign Council said late on Monday.

'Arbitrary detentions'

Regular mass protests have rocked the country since a 25 October military takeover led by Burhan.

The power grab derailed a fragile power-sharing agreement between the army and civilians that was negotiated after the 2019 removal of Bashir during mass protests.

In addition to the military cracking down on demonstrations, security forces have also arrested a series of former government officials and activists in recent weeks, as military rulers stepped up their campaign against anti-coup groups.

Last week, authorities also rearrested Khalid Omar Youssef, a minister in the ousted transitional government, and Wagdi Saleh, another committee member.

Saleh and Youssef were previously involved in a task force that seized property and fired bureaucrats linked to Bashir's regime.

The detentions have intensified in recent weeks as Sudan plunged into further turmoil, with near-daily street protests since the coup.

"The number of people detained arbitrarily and without criminal charges has exceeded 100," the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) said on Monday.

The SPA, which also calls for anti-coup protests, said the detainees are aged between 16 and 60.

Meanwhile, in Khartoum's Soba prison, detainees launched a hunger strike to protest against prison conditions, the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors said.

"Some have been detained without facing charges, and others still await investigations," the medics said in a statement.

The crackdown by Sudan's military authorities has been condemned by countries including the US, which warned that it would result in "consequences".

Earlier this month, US lawmakers pressed President Joe Biden to impose personal sanctions on the military leaders of the 25 October coup, MEE reported.

"Security forces continue to attack civilians, arrest civil society actors and engage in sexual violence with impunity," Senator Robert Menendez, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said during a hearing.

Refugees protest in Tunisia, demanding evacuation

African migrants are pictured at a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) camp in the southern Tunisian port of Zarzis, near the Libyan border, during a protest demanding their resettlement, on February 14, 2022 

- FATHI NASRI Agence France-Presse

February 14, 2022 — Zarzis (Tunisia) (AFP)

Dozens of refugees from Sudan and sub-Saharan African countries protested in Tunisia on Monday, complaining of "marginalisation" and demanding their evacuation from the country, an AFP correspondent said.

The refugees, many of whom were rescued during attempts to cross the Mediterranean, held a sit-in in front of the headquarters of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in the southern port town of Zarzis.

"We have refugee status but this organisation (UNHCR) does not care about us," one Sudanese protester told AFP.

"We are marginalised. Our conditions are inhumane," he added.

Demonstrators, including women and children, demanded "immediate evacuation" and chanted "we do not want to stay in Tunisia".

Some of them held up placards reading: "We are in danger" and "Stop the violence against us".

Tunisia hosts a large number of migrants, predominantly sub-Saharan Africans, many of whom have repeatedly complained of ill treatment in the economically troubled North African country.

Tunisia is to hold talks with the International Monetary Fund this week over a rescue package, as its tourism dependent economy has been battered by restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

Both Tunisia and neighbouring Libya have served as launchpads for migrants making desperate bids to reach Europe.

The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights says that over the first three quarters of last year, the coastguard intercepted 19,500 migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean.