UTRECHT, Netherlands (AP) — Almost the entire Dutch railway network was shut down Tuesday as workers affected by soaring inflation and staff shortages went on strike to demand better pay and working conditions. Staff at the railway company NS stopped work for the day in the central Netherlands region that acts as a hub for almost all train lines, halting trains across the country. An exception was the line linking Amsterdam with the busy Schiphol Airport that returned to service after a strike shut it down on Monday. Utrecht Central station, the country’s biggest rail hub and normally packed with travelers, was eerily deserted Tuesday morning. Screens showing train timetables were lit up with the word “canceled” in red letters and a station announcer explained in Dutch and English that services were being hit by the strike. Labor unions have called a series of strikes on the Dutch rail network after negotiations on a new collective labor agreement broke down. Commuters in the Netherlands are not alone in enduring rail strikes. The United Kingdom has been hit by a number of work stoppages over the summer on railway lines and London’s subway system.

 

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BEIJING (AP) — China says a key congress of the ruling Communist Party at which leader Xi Jinping is expected to be granted a third five-year term will open on Oct. 16. Such congresses are held every five years and usually bring in a new slate of leaders, particularly on the party’s all-powerful seven-member Politburo Standing Committee. The official Xinhua News Agency said the date of the congress was announced Tuesday at a meeting of the party’s Politburo. The congress is “of great significance to be convened at a crucial moment, as the whole Party and the entire nation embark on a new journey toward building a modern socialist country in all respects, and advance toward the Second Centenary Goal,” Xinhua said, referring to a long-standing economic development target. “The congress will thoroughly review the international and domestic situations, comprehensively grasp the new requirements for the development of the cause of the Party and the country on the new journey in the new era, as well as the new expectations of the people,” it said. 

 

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ANTANANARIVO (AFP) -- Madagascar police confirmed Tuesday that officers killed 19 people and injured 21 others after opening fire on what was described as a lynch mob angered over the kidnapping of an albino child. Around 500 protesters armed with blades and machetes allegedly attempted to force their way into a police station, an office speaking under the condition of anonymity told AFP. Residents of the town of Ikongo, 350 kilometers (about 220 miles) from the capital Antananarivo, had calmed by Tuesday, police said. Additional officers were also deployed “in order to keep the peace”. National police chief Andry Rakotondrazaka defended officers at a press conference Monday, saying they had done everything they could to avoid confrontation but had no choice to resort to self-defence. Some sub-Saharan African countries have suffered a wave of assaults against people with albinism, whose body parts are sought for witchcraft practices in the mistaken belief that they bring luck and wealth. 

 

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JUBA (AFP) – More than 50,000 fighters including former rebels from rival camps in South Sudan’s civil war were set to be integrated into the country’s army in a long-overdue graduation ceremony on Tuesday. The unification of forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his rival, Vice President Riek Machar, was a key condition of the 2018 peace deal that ended the brutal five-year conflict in which nearly 40,000 people died. Since achieving independence in 2011 from Sudan, the world’s youngest nation has lurched from crisis to crisis, battling flooding, hunger, ethnic violence and political turmoil. The ceremony in the capital Juba, held under tight security, comes against a backdrop of growing frustration in the international community over delays in implementing the peace deal, as explosions of violence threaten to undo even fragile gains. The addition of tens of thousands of former rebels to the government’s payroll will add to already crushing economic challenges -- civil servants have been unpaid for months.

 

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DHAKA (AFP) -- Bangladesh’s government is in “denial” about systematic abductions carried out by security forces, families of missing relatives said Tuesday, during a protest demanding a United Nations probe into enforced disappearances. Rights groups accuse security forces of unlawfully killing around 2,500 people since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came to power in 2009, many of whom were prominent opposition figures. Hundreds more have been declared missing, with Sweden-based news portal Netra News this month reporting that some have been secretly detained for years in a previously unknown prison near a military base. Outgoing UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet visited Bangladesh this month and urged the government to create an independent agency to investigate claims of enforced disappearances. The government denies the allegations of disappearances and extrajudicial killings, with one minister saying that some of those who went missing in fact fled Bangladesh.