NEW DELHI (AP) – Hundreds of people on Saturday held demonstrations in several parts of India to protest a recent government decision to free 11 men who had been jailed for life for gang raping a Muslim woman during India’s devastating 2002 religious riots. The protesters in the country’s capital, New Delhi, chanted slogans and demanded the government in the western state of Gujarat rescind the decision. They also sang songs in solidarity with the victim. Similar protests were also held in several other states. The 11 men, released on suspended sentences on Aug. 15 when India celebrated 75 years of independence, were convicted in 2008 of rape, murder and unlawful assembly. The victim, who is now in her 40s, recently said the decision by the Gujarat state government has left her numb and shaken her faith in justice. The Associated Press generally doesn’t identify victims of sexual assault. The victim was pregnant when she was brutally gang raped in communal violence in 2002 in Gujarat, which saw over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, killed in some of the worst religious riots India has experienced since its independence from Britain in 1947. Seven members of the woman’s family, including her three-year-old daughter, were also killed in the violence. “The whole country should demand an answer directly from the prime minister of this country,” said Kavita Krishnan, a prominent activist.

 

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ISLAMABAD (AFP) – Thousands of people living near flood-swollen rivers in Pakistan’s north were ordered to evacuate Saturday as the death toll from devastating monsoon rains neared 1,000 with no end in sight. Many rivers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — a picturesque province of rugged mountains and valleys — have burst their banks, demolishing scores of buildings including a 150-room hotel that crumbled into a raging torrent. “The house which we built with years of hard work started sinking in front of our eyes,” said Junaid Khan, 23, the owner of two fish farms in Chrasadda. “We sat on the side of the road and watched our dream house sinking.” The annual monsoon is essential for irrigating crops and replenishing lakes and dams across the Indian subcontinent, but each year it also brings a wave of destruction. Officials say this year’s monsoon flooding has affected more than 33 million people — one in seven Pakistanis — destroying or badly damaging nearly a million homes. On Saturday, authorities ordered thousands of residents in threatened areas to evacuate their homes as rivers had still not reached maximum capacity. “Initially some people refused to leave, but when the water level increased they agreed,” Bilal Faizi, spokesman for the Rescue 1122 emergency service, told AFP.

 

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TUNIS (AFP) – Tunisia said Saturday it would recall its ambassador from Morocco for consultations, a day after the kingdom did the same in response to Tunisia’s president hosting the Polisario movement’s head. The Polisario wants an independent state in the Western Sahara, a vast stretch of mineral-rich desert which Morocco sees as a sovereign part of its own territory. Tunisian President Kais Saied had on Friday hosted Polisario chief Brahim Ghali who arrived to attend the Japanese-African investment conference TICAD. In response to what it called a “hostile” and “unnecessarily provocative” act, Morocco immediately withdrew its Tunis ambassador for consultations and cancelled its own participation in the high-profile conference. On Saturday the Tunisian Foreign Ministry voiced its “surprise” at Morocco’s reaction. “Tunisia has maintained its total neutrality on the Western Sahara issue in line with international law,” it said in a statement. “This position will not change until the concerned parties find a peaceful solution acceptable to all.”

 

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NEW YORK (AFP) – The UN children’s agency UNICEF on Saturday condemned an Ethiopian air strike that “hit a kindergarten” in the rebel-held Tigray region, killing at least four people including two children. The government denied targeting civilian areas in Friday’s air raid and accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) of staging deaths. “UNICEF strongly condemns the air strike ...  (that) hit a kindergarten, killing several children, and injuring others,” the agency’s executive director Catherine Russell said on Twitter. “Yet again, an escalation of violence in northern Ethiopia has caused children to pay the heaviest price. For almost two years, children and their families in the region have endured the agony of this conflict. It must end.” The bombardment came just days after fighting erupted on Tigray’s southern border between government forces and TPLF rebels, ending a five-month truce and dashing hopes of peace talks. The TPLF said the air strike, the first in many months on Tigray, demolished a kindergarten and hit a civilian residential area. The government said only military sites were targeted and accused the TPLF of “dumping fake body bags in civilian areas” to maximize outrage.

 

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LONDON (RT) – Julian Assange’s legal team has filed an appeal to stop the WikiLeaks co-founder’s extradition to the U.S., where he faces espionage charges that carry a prison sentence of up to 175 years. According to WikiLeaks, Assange’s lawyers filed “perfected grounds of appeal” before the UK High Court of Justice against the U.S. government and UK Home Secretary Priti Patel, who approved the extradition of the Australian-born editor in mid-June, reported. The appeal argues that “Julian Assange is being prosecuted and punished for his political opinions”, while the U.S. government “misrepresented the core facts” of the case to the UK judiciary. It adds that the request to extradite the WikiLeaks co-founder violates the relevant treaty between the U.S. and the UK, as well as international law. The document also reportedly contains some new evidence that has been compiled since the UK court ruled on Assange’s extradition in early 2021. The editor’s wife, Stella Assange, said, “Overwhelming evidence has emerged proving that the U.S. prosecution against my husband is a criminal abuse”, adding that the high court will now decide whether her husband is given the opportunity to make his case against the U.S. before open court at the appeal.