Mahsa Amini: Top Iran official urges security forces to deal with protesters harshly as videos emerge of people running while gunshots fire - Sky News

A top Iranian official has urged security forces to deal with protesters harshly as videos emerged of people running down a street while gunfire rang out.

Some of the most serious protests in the country for years have been taking place over the past two weeks following the death of Mahsa Amini.

The 22-year-old woman died after being detained by morality police for allegedly not adhering to the country's strict Islamic dress code, with her family claiming she was "tortured".

On Sunday, Iran's parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf warned that protests over her death could destabilise the country.

He told politicians that unlike the current protests, which he said aimed to topple the government, previous demonstrations by teachers and retirees over pay were aimed at reforms.

"The important point of the (past) protests was that they were reform-seeking and not aimed at overthrowing" the system, Mr Qalibaf said.

"I ask all who have any (reasons to) protest not to allow their protest to turn into destabilising and toppling" of institutions, he added.

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During the parliamentary session, politicians chanted "thank you police" in a show of support for a crackdown on the widespread demonstrations.

Image: Mahsa Amini. Pic: Center for Human Rights in Iran

Gunfire, tear gas and at least '133 people killed'

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His comments came as Iranian security forces clashed with students who were protesting at a prominent university in the country's capital, Tehran.

Several videos have emerged of people running as gunfire rang out near Sharif University.

One clip showed security forces firing tear gas to drive the students off the campus, and the sound of what appeared to be shooting in the distance could be heard.

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0:53

Violent protests continue in Iran

Students had been protesting at numerous universities on Sunday and demonstrations were held in several cities such as Tehran, Yazd, Kermanshah, Sanandaj, Shiraz and Mashhad, with participants chanting "independence, freedom, death to Khamenei", earlier social media posts showed.

Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based group, said that "so far 133 people had been killed across Iran", including more than 40 people it said died in clashes last week in Zahedan, capital of the southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province.

A 23-year-old TikTok star named Hadis Najafi was among those shot dead during the demonstrations.

Iranian authorities have not provided specific details of the number of people killed, but have said many members of the security forces have been killed by "rioters and thugs backed by foreign foes".

Around the world, waves of women have been protesting and cutting off their hair in solidarity with Iranian women.

Image: A protester in Istanbul, Turkey, cuts her hair during a demonstration following the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran

What happened to Mahsa Amini?

Ms Amini was arrested on 13 September for wearing her hijab too loosely, which is deemed as "unsuitable attire" under Iran's Islamic dress code.

She died three dates later in hospital after falling into a coma.

While details of her post-mortem have not been released, her family have said she was "tortured" and claims a report from the hospital shows she "suffered a concussion from a blow to the head".

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Iranian police claim Ms Amini died of a heart attack and deny she was beaten to death in custody.

Independent experts affiliated with the United Nations say reports suggested she was severely beaten by the morality police, without offering evidence.

The country's hardline President Ebrahim Raisi has ordered an investigation into her death.

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2022-10-03 04:02:32Z
1580844971

Lula frontrunner as Brazil votes in bitter presidential election - Financial Times

Brazilians on Sunday began voting for a new president after a long and bitter campaign, with polls showing Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with a more than 10 percentage point advantage over incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.

The campaign has at times been marred by violence, including the murder of three supporters of Lula’s leftwing Workers’ party and one backer of the rightwing Bolsonaro.

“For me, this election is about the hope for change,” said Valéria Conte Deldem, a 48-year-old from São Paulo who voted for Lula. “We had four years of horror, humiliation, the loss of rights for indigenous peoples and the burning of the [Amazon] forest. For me, it’s the hope of having a government that thinks about the working class.”

Two opinion polls released on Saturday night suggested the former president would receive 50 to 51 per cent of valid votes, versus 36 to 37 per cent for Bolsonaro.

If no candidate today receives more than 50 per cent of valid votes — those excluding blank and spoilt votes — the race will go to a runoff at the end of October.

“This is the most important election. We don’t want more discord. We want a country that lives in peace,” Lula said after voting on Sunday.

Polls indicate the third and fourth-placed candidates — leftwinger Ciro Gomes and centrist Simone Tebet — only have about 10 per cent support between them.

“There is a chance that Lula will win in the first round. It is a viable scenario. Lula entered the final stretch of the campaign with a level of votes historically above that of candidates in first place,” said Rafael Cortez, an analyst at consultancy Tendências.

“What will determine things is the voter turnout rate. Lower-income individuals tend to go to the polls less but Lula tends to have more support among this part of the electorate.”

Jair Bolsonaro arrives to vote in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. © Joedson Alves/Getty Images

Many Brazilians are voting for who they dislike least. Lula, who was president between 2003 and 2010 and left office with an approval rating above 80 per cent, has a rejection rate of about 40 per cent.

In the eyes of conservative voters, his involvement in the Lava Jato corruption scandal makes him unfit for the presidency. The former labour organiser served almost two years in prison for graft before his convictions were annulled by the Supreme Court. Other criminal cases were shelved or expired because of time limits.

Fabricio Farias arrived at the polls with his wife, both clad in the yellow and green of the Brazilian flag.

“This election will define the future of our country for the next 10 years. I want Bolsonaro to be re-elected because he defends God, country and family,” he said, adding he was confident the incumbent leader would win in the first round.

“It is easy to manipulate polling numbers for the masses. I prefer to follow my intuition and the data from the people. And the Bolsonaro rallies this year were large and cohesive.”

Yet Bolsonaro is scorned by much of the population and suffers from a rejection rate above 50 per cent. His at times authoritarian rhetoric and misogynistic language have irked many Brazilians. His government has also been involved in multiple controversies, notably its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which killed almost 700,000 Brazilians.

Beyond this, the president has unnerved voters by refusing to say whether he would unconditionally accept the result of the election.

The former army captain has repeatedly questioned the integrity of the country’s electronic voting machines, claiming they are vulnerable to fraud without providing evidence.

After voting on Sunday, the president again hinted at this, saying: “I am sure that in a clean election, we will win with at least 60 per cent of the vote.”

Critics fear Bolsonaro is trying to create a pretext to reject defeat. Opposition figures and political analysts are bracing for the possibility that Bolsonaro’s more radical base could take to the streets in protest if Lula wins.

Video: Brazil: a nation divided | FT Film

“I expect we will have a second-round runoff and that Bolsonaro will use whatever it takes to keep himself in power, including contesting the results and trying a January 6 kind of riot,” said Thomas Traumann, a political analyst, referring to the attack on the US Capitol last year by supporters of Donald Trump, the defeated former president.

On Sunday morning there was a large police presence on the main avenues of São Paulo, but the city remained calm.

The presidential vote coincides with congressional and gubernatorial races. In addition to electing governors for the 27 states, Brazilians will vote for candidates for all 513 seats in the lower house of Congress and one-third of Senate seats.

Political analysts expect the left to make gains, but that Congress will continue to be dominated by centre and centre-right parties.

In particular, the Centrão, a loose bloc of lawmakers known for trading political support for budgetary resources to plough into their home constituencies, is expected to win big.

“For the most part, the Centrão will prevail. This is because they have such an unbelievable presence all over the country,” said Mario Marconini, managing director at Teneo. “But the Centrão will just attach itself to whoever has the power.”

A Bolsonaro supporter waits to cast his vote at a polling station in Brasília © REUTERS

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2022-10-02 15:39:21Z
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Scores killed in Indonesia football stadium crush - BBC News - BBC News

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2022-10-02 13:21:13Z
1588892378

Ukraine war: Russian troops forced out of eastern town Lyman - BBC

Reuters

Russia has withdrawn its troops from the strategic Ukrainian town of Lyman, in a move seen as a significant setback for its campaign in the east.

The retreat came amid fears thousands of soldiers would be encircled in the town, Russia's defence ministry said.

Recapturing Lyman could let Ukrainian soldiers reach more contested territory in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenky said on Sunday the town had been "completely cleared" of Russian troops.

Video footage shared online on Saturday - before the Russian retreat was announced - showed Ukrainian soldiers waving their national flag on the outskirts of the town.

Lyman had been used as a logistics hub by Russia, making its recapture all the more significant to Ukrainian forces.

The battlefield setback prompted the Chechen leader and hardline Moscow ally, Ramzan Kadyrov, to comment that Russia should consider using low-yield nuclear weapons in the face of such defeats.

Lyman is in Donetsk - one of four partially-occupied Ukrainian regions which Russia declared it was annexing on Friday. Ukraine and its Western allies have dismissed the move as an illegal land-grab.

• What Russian annexation means for Ukraine's regions
• Putin raises stakes in speech full of anti-Western bile
• Zaporizhzhia locals flee Russia annexation

An adviser to Ukraine's defence minister earlier told the BBC that recent gains around Lyman - following days of intense fighting - represented a "considerable success".

Russian fighters had been given the chance to surrender, Yurik Sak said, and would face better treatment as prisoners of war than from the Russian military leadership.

Shortly afterwards, the Kremlin said it was withdrawing its forces from the town, using its Soviet-era name of Krasnyi (Red) Lyman, acknowledging that the Ukrainians had "significant superiority in forces" in the area.

Military analysts say that Kyiv currently has momentum in the war, and it has vowed to forge ahead with a counter-offensive to reclaim all territory under occupation.

In a speech on Friday, Mr Zelensky said efforts to "liberate our entire land" would act as proof that international law could not be violated.

In other developments:

• Details have emerged of another deadly attack on a convoy of civilians - the second announced in as many days - this time in the north-eastern Kharkiv region. The shelling on 25 September killed 24 people, including 13 children and a pregnant woman, regional head Oleg Sinegubov posted on the Telegram messaging app. Russia has not yet commented
• The UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, has confirmed with Moscow that Russian forces detained the chief of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant - a giant facility controlled by Russian troops. The Russians were trying to force Murashov to let the nuclear power plant be handed over to Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom, according to Ukrainian officials
• Russian firefighters are tackling a blaze at the Belbek military airbase in Crimea, where officials say a plane skidded off a runway and caught fire. In August explosions rocked Russia's Saky military base in Crimea and Ukraine later said that it had hit the base with an air strike.

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2022-10-02 11:15:56Z
1584186483

Burkina Faso coup: Gunshots in capital and roads blocked - BBC

EPA

Burkina Faso's self-declared leader says the man he ousted a day ago in a coup is plotting a counter-attack.

Col Ibrahim Traoré also accused the French army of harbouring Lt Col Paul-Henri Damiba at one of its bases - but France denies any involvement.

Gunshots were heard in Burkina Faso's capital city Ouagadougou on Saturday and helicopters have circled overhead.

Protesters started a fire outside the French embassy - an attack condemned "with the greatest firmness" by Paris.

The French foreign ministry told AFP news agency that the security of its compatriots was the greatest priority, adding that a crisis centre had been opened in Ouagadougou.

Earlier, witnesses said troops blocked main roads around the city and shops that had been open were later shut.

In the country's second city, Bobo-Dioulasso, the gate of the French Institute was also reportedly set ablaze by protesters.

Friday's apparent takeover had been announced on national TV and was the second time this year that the country's army had seized power.

On both occasions the coup leaders said they had to step in because national security was so dire.

Burkina Faso controls as little as 60% of its territory, experts say, and Islamist violence is worsening. Since 2020 more than a million people have been displaced in the country due to the violence.

The African Union has demanded the return of constitutional order by July 2023 at the latest, agreeing with the regional group Ecowas that the ousting of leader Lt Col Damiba was "unconstitutional".

Ecowas earlier said it was "inappropriate" for army rebels to seize power when the country was working towards civilian rule.

The latest international criticism has come from the UN, whose chief António Guterres says he "strongly condemns" the coup.

For the second time in under 24 hours the coup leaders have issued a statement on national TV, signed by their leader Col Ibrahim Traoré.

This time they claimed Lt Damiba was planning a counter-attack because of their own willingness to work with new partners in their fight against the Islamists. The statement did not name these potential new partners, but rights groups say troops in neighbouring Mali have been working closely with Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group - although both nations deny this.

On Friday evening flanked by rebel soldiers in fatigues and black facemasks, an officer had read an announcement on national TV stating that they were kicking out Lt Damiba, dissolving the government and suspending the constitution.

That statement was also read on behalf of an army captain called Col Traoré, who said Lt Col Damiba's inability to deal with an Islamist insurgency was to blame.

"Our people have suffered enough, and are still suffering", he said.

Little is known about Col Traoré, the 34-year-old soldier who led an anti-jihadist unit in the north called Cobra.

His statement effectively declared himself the interim leader of Burkina Faso. But in Friday's announcement came the promise that the "driving forces of the nation" would in time be brought together to appoint a new civilian or military president and a new "transitional charter".

• Who is Lt-Col Damiba?

Lt Col Damiba's junta overthrew an elected government in January citing a failure to halt Islamist attacks, and he himself told citizens "we have more than what it takes to win this war."

But his administration has also not been able to quell the jihadist violence. Analysts told the BBC recently that Islamist insurgents were encroaching on territory, and military leaders had failed in their attempts to bring the military under a single unit of command.

On Monday, 11 soldiers were killed when they were escorting a convoy of civilian vehicles in Djibo in the north of the country.

The African Union has urged the military to "immediately and totally refrain from any acts of violence or threats to the civilian population, civil liberties, human rights".

The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) earlier condemned the move too, stating it "reaffirms its unreserved opposition to any taking or maintaining of the power by unconstitutional means".

The United States said it was "deeply concerned" by events in Burkina Faso and encouraged its citizens to limit movements in the country. France issued a similar warning to its more than 4,000 citizens living in the capital city Ouagadougou.

"We call for a return to calm and restraint by all actors," a US State Department spokesperson said.

AFP

In January, Lt Col Damiba ousted President Roch Kaboré, saying that he had failed to deal with growing militant Islamist violence.

But many citizens do not feel any safer and there have been protests in different parts of the country this week.

On Friday afternoon, some protesters took to the capital's streets calling for the removal of Lt Col Damiba.

The Islamist insurgency broke out in Burkina Faso in 2015, leaving thousands dead and forcing an estimated two million people from their homes.

The country has experienced eight successful coups since independence in 1960.

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2022-10-01 20:05:35Z
1587077053

Ukraine war: Russian troops forced out of eastern town Lyman - BBC

Reuters

Russia has withdrawn its troops from the strategic Ukrainian town of Lyman, in a move seen as a significant setback for its campaign in the east.

The retreat came amid fears thousands of soldiers would be encircled in the town, Russia's defence ministry said.

Recapturing Lyman is of strategic significance for Ukraine.

The town had been used as a logistics hub by Russia, and could give Ukrainian troops access to more territory in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Video footage shared online showed Ukrainian soldiers waving their national flag on the outskirts of the town.

Although the blue and yellow colours were flying in Lyman again, fighting was "still going on" there, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening video address.

However, he gave no further details.

The battlefield setback prompted the Chechen leader and hardline Moscow ally, Ramzan Kadyrov, to comment that Russia should consider using low-yield nuclear weapons in the face of such defeats.

Lyman is in Donetsk - one of four partially-occupied Ukrainian regions which Russia declared it was annexing on Friday. Ukraine and its Western allies have dismissed the move as an illegal land-grab.

• What Russian annexation means for Ukraine's regions
• Putin raises stakes in speech full of anti-Western bile
• Zaporizhzhia locals flee Russia annexation

An adviser to Ukraine's defence minister earlier told the BBC that recent gains around Lyman - following days of intense fighting - represented a "considerable success".

Russian fighters had been given the chance to surrender, Yurik Sak said, and would face better treatment as prisoners of war than from the Russian military leadership.

Shortly afterwards, the Kremlin said it was withdrawing its forces from the town, using its Soviet-era name of Krasnyi (Red) Lyman, acknowledging that the Ukrainians had "significant superiority in forces" in the area.

Military analysts say that Kyiv currently has momentum in the war, and it has vowed to forge ahead with a counter-offensive to reclaim all territory under occupation.

In a speech on Friday, Mr Zelensky said efforts to "liberate our entire land" would act as proof that international law could not be violated.

In other developments:

• Details have emerged of another deadly attack on a convoy of civilians - the second announced in as many days - this time in the north-eastern Kharkiv region. The shelling on 25 September killed 24 people, including 13 children and a pregnant woman, regional head Oleg Sinegubov posted on the Telegram messaging app. Russia has not yet commented
• The UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, has confirmed with Moscow that Russian forces detained the chief of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant - a giant facility controlled by Russian troops. The Russians were trying to force Murashov to let the nuclear power plant be handed over to Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom, according to Ukrainian officials
• Russian firefighters are tackling a blaze at the Belbek military airbase in Crimea, where officials say a plane skidded off a runway and caught fire. In August explosions rocked Russia's Saky military base in Crimea and Ukraine later said that it had hit the base with an air strike.

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2022-10-01 18:43:03Z
1584186483

Ukraine war: Russian troops forced out of eastern town Lyman - BBC

Reuters

Russia has withdrawn its troops from the strategic Ukrainian town of Lyman, in a move seen as a significant setback for its campaign in the east.

The retreat came amid fears thousands of soldiers would be encircled in the town, Russia's defence ministry said.

Recapturing Lyman is of strategic significance for Ukraine.

The town had been used as a logistics hub by Russia, and could give Ukrainian troops access to more territory in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Video footage shared online showed Ukrainian soldiers waving their national flag on the outskirts of the town.

Although the blue and yellow colours were flying in Lyman again, fighting was "still going on" there, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening video address.

However, he gave no further details.

The battlefield setback prompted the Chechen leader and hardline Moscow ally, Ramzan Kadyrov, to comment that Russia should consider using low-yield nuclear weapons in the face of such defeats.

Lyman is in Donetsk - one of four partially-occupied Ukrainian regions which Russia declared it was annexing on Friday. Ukraine and its Western allies have dismissed the move as an illegal land-grab.

• What Russian annexation means for Ukraine's regions
• Putin raises stakes in speech full of anti-Western bile
• Zaporizhzhia locals flee Russia annexation

An adviser to Ukraine's defence minister earlier told the BBC that recent gains around Lyman - following days of intense fighting - represented a "considerable success".

Russian fighters had been given the chance to surrender, Yurik Sak said, and would face better treatment as prisoners of war than from the Russian military leadership.

Shortly afterwards, the Kremlin said it was withdrawing its forces from the town, using its Soviet-era name of Krasnyi (Red) Lyman, acknowledging that the Ukrainians had "significant superiority in forces" in the area.

Military analysts say that Kyiv currently has momentum in the war, and it has vowed to forge ahead with a counter-offensive to reclaim all territory under occupation.

In a speech on Friday, Mr Zelensky said efforts to "liberate our entire land" would act as proof that international law could not be violated.

In other developments:

• Details have emerged of another deadly attack on a convoy of civilians - the second announced in as many days - this time in the north-eastern Kharkiv region. The shelling on 25 September killed 24 people, including 13 children and a pregnant woman, regional head Oleg Sinegubov posted on the Telegram messaging app. Russia has not yet commented
• The UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, has confirmed with Moscow that Russian forces detained the chief of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant - a giant facility controlled by Russian troops. The Russians were trying to force Murashov to let the nuclear power plant be handed over to Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom, according to Ukrainian officials
• Russian firefighters are tackling a blaze at the Belbek military airbase in Crimea, where officials say a plane skidded off a runway and caught fire. In August explosions rocked Russia's Saky military base in Crimea and Ukraine later said that it had hit the base with an air strike.

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2022-10-01 16:02:42Z
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