Hundreds of students from a New Delhi university faced off Monday with police, who stopped their march toward Parliament to protest increased student housing fees.
The students from Jawaharlal Nehru University chanted slogans and attempted to cross police barricades. Police detained several students during the march.
The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union said in a statement that the students were attacked by the police during the protest.
“The police used brutal force to disrupt our peaceful march and several students have been injured,” the statement said.
The students wanted to appeal to lawmakers to intervene in their university’s decision to hike the fees, which they have been protesting for more than two weeks. Last week, hundreds of protesting students clashed with the police during the university’s graduation ceremony.
Rent for a single-bedroom was increased to the equivalent of more than $8 per month from less than $1 per month. The security deposit more than doubled to more than $160.
Many students said they fear the fee structure would make education inaccessible to underprivileged students.
“I am the first from my family to study at a university. By raising housing fees, the university administration is putting a price on affordable education,” said Jyoti Sharma, a student at the march.
Students held signs at the march reading “Save public education” and “Ensure affordable hostels for all.”
Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury offered his support to the protesting students.
“A peaceful protest march to Parliament against the unprecedented fee hikes is being forcibly stopped by the police. Strongly condemn this denial of basic democratic right to protest,” he tweeted.
The students marched despite the university saying it would partially roll back the fees.
“The students will not pay the increased fee,” said Ashutosh Verma, a student.
China on Monday called on the U.S. military to stop flexing its muscles in the South China Sea
and to avoid adding “new uncertainties” over Taiwan, during high-level talks that underscored tension between the world’s two largest economies.
The remarks by Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe to U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, recounted by a Chinese spokesman, came just two weeks after a top White House official denounced Chinese “intimidation” in the busy waterway.
It also came a day after Esper publicly accused Beijing of “increasingly resorting to coercion and intimidation to advance its strategic objectives” in the region.
During closed-door talks on the sidelines of a gathering of defense ministers in Bangkok, Wei urged Esper to “stop flexing muscles in the South China Sea and to not provoke and escalate
tensions in the South China Sea”, the spokesman, Wu Qian, said.
China claims almost all the energy-rich waters of the South China Sea, where it has established military outposts on artificial islands. However, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to parts of the sea.
The United States accuses China of militarizing the South China Sea and trying to intimidate Asian neighbors who might want to exploit its extensive oil and gas reserves.
The U.S. Navy regularly vexes China by conducting what it calls “freedom of navigation” operations by ships close to some of the islands China occupies, asserting freedom of access to international waterways.
Asked specifically what Wei sought for the United States to do differently, and whether that included halting such freedom of navigation operations, Wu said: “We (call on) the U.S. side
to stop intervening in the South China Sea and stop military provocation in the South China Sea.”
In a statement, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said Esper, in his meeting with Wei, noted China’s “perpetual reluctance” to adhere to international norms.
“Secretary Esper pointedly reiterated that the United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows – and we will encourage and protect the rights of other sovereign nations to do the same,” Hoffman said.
Chinese carrier transit
Despite warm words exchanged in front of reporters, Wei and Esper also discussed thorny issues, including Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, which has seen months of anti-government protests.
They also talked about democratic Taiwan, which is claimed by China as a wayward province and is the Communist Party’s most sensitive and important territorial issue.
Fenghe underscored to Esper China’s position that it would “not tolerate any Taiwan independence incident”, Wu said, adding that it opposed any official or military contact with Taiwan. China has in the past threatened to attack if Taiwan, set to hold a presidential election next year, moves towards independence.
“The Chinese side also requires the U.S. side to carefully handle the Taiwan related-issue and to not add new uncertainties to the Strait,” Wu said.
The exchange came a day after news that China sailed a carrier group into the sensitive Taiwan Strait, led by its first domestically built aircraft carrier.
Nigeria’s Oscar Committee is urging the country’s filmmakers to use more native languages in their productions. This, after the U.S. Academy Awards disqualified a Nigerian entry in the International Feature Film category because the movie used too much English. While some in Nigeria’s Hollywood – known as Nollywood – support the idea of more native languages in films, others argue that non-English films limit their audience reach.
Nollywood filmmaker Desmond Utomwen is aiming for a U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Award, popularly known as an Oscar, by producing a film in a native Nigerian language.
“It’s actually a Hausa-based film, so it’s a language film, it’s not English. I’ve done a couple of them in English but, that’s actually my first film in Hausa,’ he says.
Most Nigerian filmmakers make English-language movies to reach a larger audience globally but also inside Nigeria, where the former British colony made English the official language.
Filmmaker Darlington Abuda has been in the industry for years.
“In Nigeria, if I do a purely language film, I have made my film a regional film,” Abuda says. “It will not get the appeal and audience traction that it needs in the other parts of the country.”
But that tide may be slowly turning after the Academy Awards this month disqualified Nigeria’s first entry in the International Feature Film category.
Only 11 minutes of Genevieve Nnaji’s “Lion Heart” – the first Nollywood film by Netflix – was in the native Igbo language. To qualify for the international feature award, at least 50 percent of a film’s dialogue must be in a language other than English.
While the rejection was roundly criticized in Nigeria, C.J. Obasi, a member of a Nigerian Oscar committee which was set up five years ago, is optimistic.
“If you look at the bigger picture you realize that it’s a victory in that we made a submission for the first time ever,” Obasi says. “What that does is that it re-positions the hearts and minds of filmmakers as to how we are going to tell our stories moving forward.”
Nigeria’s Oscar Selection Committee says the rejection should motivate Nollywood filmmakers to create more movies in the country’s over 500 native languages.
But convincing Nigerian filmmakers to turn away from English – the language that ties the country together and with the world – will remain a challenge.
And, for some Nollywood filmmakers like Jim Iyke, the language used is not the point.
“If someone sits in their living room and decide where my movie should be, and what platform or what awards I should get, that is on them,” Iyke says. ” I’ve done my job. I’ve fed the artist in me.”
While Lion Heart won’t make the February Academy Awards, being rejected and having the backing of Netflix are already drawing more international attention to Nollywood — and what Nigerian filmmakers will produce next.
Four people were killed and six more wounded when “unknown suspects” sneaked into a backyard filled with people at a party in central California and fired into the crowd, police said.
The shooting took place about 6 p.m. on the Fresno’s southeast side, where people were gathered to watch a football game, Fresno Police Lt. Bill Dooley said.
Deputy Chief Michael Reid told the Fresno Bee and the KSEE/KGPE TV stations that a total of 10 people were shot, with three found dead in the backyard. A fourth person died at the hospital. Six others are expected to survive and are recovering at the hospital.
All the victims were Asian men ranging from ages 25 to 35, Reid said.
“What we do know is that this was a gathering, a family and friend gathering in the backyard,” Dooley said. “Everyone was watching football this evening when unknown suspects approached the residence, snuck into the backyard and opened fire.”
The victims were taken to Community Regional Medical Center in critical condition, and some are now stable, the TV stations reported.
About 35 people were at the party when the shooting began, Reid said.
“Thank God that no kids were hurt,” he said.
No one is in custody in connection with the shooting. Police said there was no immediate indication that the victims knew the shooter or shooters.
Police were going door-to-door in search of surveillance video that might help them track down the suspects. The shooting took place about a half-mile from the city’s airport.
Agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives field office in San Francisco were responding to the shooting, the Bee reported.
It was at least the second fatal gun attack Sunday in southeast Fresno, the Bee reported. A man in his 20s was shot to death early Sunday at a home in another part of the city. Police have not said whether the incidents could be connected.
Sunday’s shootings in Fresno also come on the heels of at least two mass shootings in California. On Thursday, a 16-year-old student at a Southern California high school shot and killed two classmates and wounded three other teens before shooting himself in the head. He died the next day. And on Saturday, police in San Diego said a husband shot and killed his wife and three of their sons before killing himself. A fourth son wounded in the shooting was on life support Sunday, family members said.
Українські катери «Нікополь», «Бердянськ» і буксир «Яни Капу», які Росія захопила в районі Керченської протоки у листопаді минулого року і 18 листопада передала Україні, прямують додому, повідомляє пресцентр командування Військово-морських сил Збройних сил України.
«Сьогодні, 18 листопада в акваторії Чорного моря розпочато процес, щодо повернення українських катерів «Нікополь», «Бердянськ» і буксиру «Яни Капу». Наразі українські буксири «Титан», «Гайдамаки» і пошуково-рятувальне судно «Сапфір» разом з катерами і буксиром розпочали рух в напрямку материкової України», – йдеться в повідомленні ВМС у фейсбуці.
17 листопада пресслужба прикордонного управління ФСБ Росії в анексованому Криму повідомила російським ЗМІ, що захоплені Росією три українські військові судна передадуть Україні 18 листопада. Буксир «Яни Капу» і малі броньовані артилерійські катери «Нікополь» і «Бердянськ» відбуксирували з порту Керчі до «погодженого місця».
Росія захопила три кораблі ВМС України і 24 українських військовослужбовців – моряків і працівників СБУ – 25 листопада 2018 року неподалік Керченської протоки з застосуванням зброї в міжнародних водах, що за міжнародним правом визнається як акт агресії.
Москва відмовилася визнавати за захопленими статус військовополонених і намагалася судити їх за кримінальними статтями на кшталт «незаконного перетину російського кордону».
Міжнародний трибунал із морського права наказав Росії негайно звільнити військових і повернути кораблі. Москва відмовилася це зробити.
Моряків урешті передали Україні не за рішенням трибуналу, а в рамках обміну утримуваними. При цьому Росія відпустила моряків формально під «особисте зобов’язання» за першим викликом з’явитися до Росії на суд над ними у справі, яку там так і не закрили.
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21 листопада у Гаазі відбудуться перші слухання Морського трибуналу у справі щодо порушення імунітету трьох українських військово-морських суден та 24 членів їхніх екіпажів (Україна проти Російської Федерації) за Конвенцією ООН з морського права. Про це повідомила заступниця міністра закордонних справ України Олена Зеркаль.
«1 квітня 2018 згідно з вимогами Міжнародної Конвенції ООН з морського права ми повідомили Російську Федерацію про спір за Конвенцією ООН з морського права. Бо захоплення і утримування українських військово-морських кораблів та членів їхніх екіпажів є грубим порушенням Росією імунітетів військових кораблів, гарантованих нормами міжнародного звичаєвого і морського права. Міжнародний трибунал з морського права 25 травня 2019 року на запит України зобов‘язав Росію негайно повернути під контроль України «Нікополь», «Бердянськ» і «Яни Капу» на 24 члени їхніх екіпажів. Проте, Наказ Міжнародного трибуналу не був і не є самоціллю. Наша мета – встановлення порушення права, відновлення його і отримання належної компенсації. Саме це і закладено в позові МЗС від 1 квітня 2019 року», – зазначила Зеркаль.
Як приклад подібного слухання, вона навела справу «Арктік Санрайз» (Нідерланди проти Росії).
«Ми також збираємося пройти цей шлях і довести всьому світу і арбітражному трибуналу, що прохід 25 листопада 2018 року був мирним і законним, а дії Російської Федерації, в тому числі щодо кримінального переслідування наших моряків, є порушенням норм міжнародного права», – сказала дипломат.
Росія захопила три кораблі ВМС України і 24 українських військовослужбовців – моряків і працівників СБУ – 25 листопада 2018 року неподалік Керченської протоки з застосуванням зброї в міжнародних водах, що за міжнародним правом визнається як акт агресії.
Москва відмовилася визнавати за захопленими статус військовополонених і намагалася судити їх за кримінальними статтями на кшталт «незаконного перетину російського кордону».
Міжнародний трибунал із морського права наказав Росії негайно звільнити військових і повернути кораблі. Москва відмовилася це зробити.
Моряків урешті передали Україні не за рішенням трибуналу, а в рамках обміну утримуваними. При цьому Росія відпустила моряків формально під «особисте зобов’язання» за першим викликом з’явитися до Росії на суд над ними у справі, яку там так і не закрили.
18 листопада Міністерство закордонних справ Росії повідомило про передачу Україні затриманих біля Керченської протоки кораблів.
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Такі дії мають на меті «перешкодити Петру Порошенку провести ряд зустрічей з іноземними лідерами» – Ігор Головань
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New research has found that U.S. agriculture uses child workers without proper training and care for their safety. The report published last week in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine says 33 children are injured every day while working on U.S. farms, and more child workers die in agriculture than in any other industry. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports rights groups blame loopholes in U.S. laws for failing to protect child workers in agriculture