The Sudanese government and nine rebel groups on Saturday signed an agreement on a roadmap towards ending the bloody conflict in the Darfur region.

The deal outlines different issues the parties will need to negotiate during the latest round of talks in Juba.

“We believe this is an important step,” said Ahmed Mohamed, the chief negotiator on Darfur matters from the Sudan Revolutionary Front or SRF, a coalition of nine rebel groups involved in talks with the Sudanese government.

“This step no doubt will help the process to achieve a lasting peace in Darfur and also it will enable the transitional process in Sudan to move smoothly without hindrances,” Mohamed told AFP.

Among the issues they agreed need to be tackled are the root causes of the conflict, the return of refugees and internally displaced people, power sharing and the integration of rebel forces into the national army.

The deal also states that the Sudanese government will address land issues, such as the destruction of property during the conflict.

Khartoum has been negotiating with different rebel groups in the capital of South Sudan for two weeks, in the latest round of efforts to end conflicts in Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

Rebels in these areas fought bloody campaigns against marginaliZation by Khartoum under ousted president Omar al-Bashir.

The Darfur fighting broke out in 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against Bashir’s Arab-dominated government.

Human rights groups say Khartoum targeted suspected pro-rebel ethnic groups with a scorched earth policy, raping, killing, looting and burning villages.

Bashir, who is behind bars for corruption and awaiting trial on other charges, is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for his role in the conflict that left around 300,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced, according to the United Nations.

However, there is fresh hope for peace after Sudan’s transitional government, led by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, made peace in these areas a priority.

“We failed to achieve a lasting peace for Darfur simply because the previous government was not ready to take strategic decisions to resolve the conflict in Darfur,” said Mohamed who has been involved in previous failed peace talks.

General Samsedine Kabashi, the top Sudanese government representative at the talks said: “We are committed to ending all the problems in Darfur and ensuring that we restore peace and stability not only in Darfur but across all parts of the country.”

The peace process began in August and mediators aim to reach a final deal by February 2020.

…

Thousands of protesters opposed to the French government’s plan to revamp the retirement system marched through Paris on Saturday, the 24th day of crippling strikes.

In an unusual gesture, unions organizing the march asked yellow vest protesters to join them. The march coincided with the 59th consecutive Saturday of marches by the yellow vest movement that seeks social and economic justice.

Brief scuffles marred the union march as individuals, some wearing masks, burned construction materials along the route. The march went from the Gare du Nord train station to Chatelet in central Paris.

“Whatever the color of the vest, we must stick together,” the leader of the hard-left CGT union Philippe Martinez said on BFMTV, referring to the several hundred yellow vests who joined the march.

President Emmanuel Macron wants to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 and rid the complex system of 42 special categories, notably railway and bus and Metro employees, with their own rules.

The strikes have disrupted transport across France and beyond, hobbling Paris Metros and trains across the country as well as businesses. The strikes have been especially felt over the holiday season.

On Saturday, the SNCF train authority said only six of 10 high-speed trains were running. The Eurostar from Paris to London had four of five trains running. Paris Metro service was improving, with partial service on several lines that had been shut down from the start. Only two lines, both automatic, ran without problem.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe plans to continue talks with unions after a holiday break. The unions plan a major day of action on Jan. 9.

…

Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country have agreed to swap dozens of prisoners on Sunday, the self-declared rebel republic of Donetsk said.

Both sides had said earlier this month they would carry out a prisoner exchange by the end of the year, following high-profile peace talks in Paris aimed at de-escalating Europe’s only active war.

“Kiev and the Donbass (a term used to refer to rebel-held eastern Ukraine) have reached an accord on an exchange of prisoners… this Sunday December 29,” Donetsk government spokeswoman Daria Morozova said in a statement.

She said two separatist territories Donetsk and Lugansk will get 87 prisoners, while 55 others will be handed over to Kiev, without giving details on the identity of those involved.

The prisoner exchange is expected to take place near the town of Gorlivka in the separatist-held Donetsk region.

Russian media reported that the operation will take place on the front line.

Ukrainian authorities refused to confirm or deny the exchange.

“We are not commenting on this,” Olena Guitlianska, spokesman for the SBU, the Ukrainian security services, told AFP.

Officials at the Ukrainian presidency could not immediately be reached for comment.

The swap would come three months after Ukraine carried out a long-awaited exchange with Russia of 35 prisoners each.

More than 13,000 people have been killed since pro-Russia militias in eastern Ukraine launched a bid for independence in 2014 – kicking off a conflict that deepened Russia’s estrangement from the West.

International pressure

Details of Sunday’s exchange were scarce, with officials saying that lists of prisoners were still being agreed.

OSCE Special Representative Martin Sajdik confirmed that preparations for the swap were under way.

At the Paris summit this month, the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine agreed to implement a full ceasefire and proceed with a new withdrawal of forces from conflict zones by March 2020.

The latest swap also comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky held their first face-to-face talks and agreed measures to de-escalate the conflict.

The December 9 summit was the first of its kind in three years.

Since coming to power in May, comedian-turned-president Zelensky, 41, has sought to revive a peace process to end the separatist conflict.

The Kremlin has sent signals that it is ready to work with Zelensky, whom Putin has described as “likeable” and “sincere”.

Ahead of the summit, Kiev and separatists completed a partial troop pullback.

French President Emmanuel Macron said at the time of the Paris meeting a new summit would be held in four months to take stock of progress on ending the conflict.

Countries have sought to revive accords signed in Minsk in 2015 that call for the withdrawal of heavy weapons, the restoration of Kiev’s control over its borders, wider autonomy for Donetsk and Lugansk, and the holding of local elections.

But there was no sign of warmth between the Ukraine and Russian leaders in Paris and many doubt whether Putin genuinely wants to settle the conflict.

Speaking in Moscow this month, Putin said that if Kiev gets back control of the border in the east pro-Russian residents of separatist-held territories could be targeted.

Zelensky’s peace plan has also been strongly criticised by war veterans and nationalists.

Various nationalist organisations even deployed their own troops to the frontline in an effort to prevent a troop pullback in line with peace agreements.

Critics say the proposals favour Russia but Zelensky has pledged not to betray Ukraine’s interests.

Ties between Ukraine and Russia were shredded after a bloody uprising ousted a Kremlin-backed regime in 2014. Moscow went on to annex Crimea and support insurgents in eastern Ukraine.

…

The director of an Algerian internet radio station has been placed in pretrial detention after a new charges were pressed against him, a prisoner rights group said Friday. 
 
Sarbacane chief Abdelkrim Zeghileche was put in pretrial detention on Thursday after the governor of Constantine, 430 kilometers (260 miles) east of Algiers, lodged a defamation complaint against him, said Kaci Tansaout, head of the CNLD prisoner rights group. 
 
The journalist was immediately brought before a judge who ordered his detention, Tansaout told AFP, adding that the trial was scheduled for December 31. 
 
In another case against Zeghileche, the court will rule on January 7 on a charge of “insulting the head of state.” 
 
That case is based on a complaint lodged while former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was still in power. 
 
The veteran leader stepped down after a 20-year rule in April in the face of an unprecedented popular movement that broke out in February and has continued since, demanding the removal of the entire regime. 
 
The prosecutor requested one year’s imprisonment in that case, said the CNLD, which tracks people detained in connection with the protest movement. 
 
According to the CNLD, nearly 180 protesters, activists and journalists have been placed in pretrial detention since June for links to the protests. 
 
Most have been held on charges of subverting the state, insulting the army and disturbing the peace. 

…

Disc jockey Don Imus, whose career was made and then undone by his acid tongue during a decades-long rise to radio stardom and an abrupt public plunge after a nationally broadcast racial slur, has died . He was 79. 

Imus died Friday morning at Baylor Scott and White Medical Center in College Station, Texas, after being hospitalized since Christmas Eve, according to a statement issued by his family. Deirdre, his wife of 25 years, and his son Wyatt, 21, were at his side, and his son Lieutenant Zachary Don Cates was returning from military service overseas. 

Imus survived drug and alcohol woes, a raunchy appearance before President Bill Clinton and several firings during his long career behind the microphone. But he was vilified and eventually fired after describing a women’s college basketball team as “nappy-headed hos.“ 

His April 2007 racist and misogynist crack about the mostly black Rutgers squad, an oft-replayed 10-second snippet, crossed a line that Imus had long straddled as his rants catapulted him to prominence. The remark was heard coast to coast on 60 radio stations and the MSNBC cable network. 

Despite repeated apologies, Imus — just 10 years earlier named one of Time Magazine’s 25 most influential Americans — became a pariah for a remark that he acknowledged was “completely inappropriate … thoughtless and stupid.“ 

Lost show, but won settlement

His radio show, once home to presidential hopefuls, political pundits and platinum-selling musicians, was yanked eight days later by CBS Radio. But the shock jock enjoyed the last financial laugh when he collected a reported multimillion-dollar settlement of his five-year contract with the company. 

Imus’ unsparing on-air persona was tempered by his off-air philanthropy, raising more than $40 million for groups including the CJ Foundation for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. He ran a New Mexico ranch for dying children, and often used his radio show to “solicit“ guests for donations. 

A pediatric medical center bearing Imus’ name was opened at the Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. 

Imus, born on a Riverside, California, cattle ranch, was the older of two boys — his brother Fred later became an Imus in the Morning show regular. The family moved to Flagstaff, Arizona, where Imus joined the Marines before taking jobs as a freight train brakeman and uranium miner. 

Only at age 28 did he appear on the airwaves. His caustic persona, though it would later serve him well, was initially a problem: Imus was canned by a small station in Stockton, California, for uttering the word “hell.“ 

The controversy only enhanced his career, a pattern that continued throughout the decades. 

More awards

Imus, moving to larger California stations, earned Billboard’s “Disc Jockey of the Year“ award for medium-sized markets after a stunt where he ordered 1,200 hamburgers to go from a local McDonald’s. 

His next stop was Cleveland, where he won DJ-of-the-year honors for large markets. By 1971, he was doing the morning drive-time show on WNBC-AM in New York, the nation’s largest and most competitive radio market. Imus brought along a destructive taste for vodka, along with a growing reputation for irascibility. 

In 1977, Imus was ignominiously dismissed by WNBC and dispatched to the relative anonymity of Cleveland. Within two years, though, he turned disaster into triumph, returning to New York and adding a new vice: cocaine. While his career turned around, his first marriage, which produced four daughters, fell apart. 

Imus struggled with addiction until a 1987 stint at a Florida alcohol rehabilitation center, coming out just as WNBC became the fledgling all-sports station WFAN — which retained Imus’ non-sports show as its morning anchor. 

Imus’ career again soared. Time Magazine named Imus one of the 25 Most Influential People in America, and he was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. His show began simulcasting on cable’s MSNBC in September 1996. 

In the decade before his slur debacle, Imus redefined his show by mixing his comedy segments with A-list guests: politicians (Senators John Kerry and John McCain), journalists (NBC-TV’s Tim Russert and The New York Times’ Frank Rich) and musicians (Harry Connick Jr. and John Mellencamp). 

A book plug on Imus’ show guaranteed sales, and authors were soon queuing up for a slot on the show. 

Feud with Stern

But he rarely missed a chance to get in trouble, even in the good times. He engaged in a long-running feud with shock jock Howard Stern, who usurped Imus’ position as the No. 1 morning host in New York City. 

And he outraged guests at the annual Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner in 1996, cracking wise about Clinton’s extramarital activities as the first lady sat stone-faced nearby. “We all know you’re a pot-smoking weasel,“ Imus said at another point about the president. 

A White House spokesman called Imus’ bit “fairly tasteless.“ 

One year later, he was sued by a Manhattan judge after ripping the jurist on air as a “creep“ and “a senile old dirtbag.“  

A February 2006 profile in Vanity Fair contained the quote that might best serve as Imus’ epitaph. 

“I talk to millions of people every day,“ he said while riding home in a limousine after one show. “I just like it when they can’t talk back.“ 

…

Mexican authorities have arrested a municipal police chief for his suspected links to the killing of three women and six children of U.S.-Mexican origin in northern Mexico last month, local media and an official said Friday. 
 
Suspected drug cartel hitmen shot dead the nine women and children from families of Mormon origin in Sonora state on November 4, sparking outrage in Mexico and the United States. 
 
Several Mexican media outlets reported that law enforcement agents arrested Fidel Alejandro Villegas, police chief of the municipality of Janos, which lies in the neighboring state of Chihuahua, on suspicion of involvement in the crime. The reports said he was suspected of having ties to organized crime, but details of his alleged role were not clear. 
 
A federal official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the arrest of Villegas, which followed the detention of other suspects earlier in the investigation. 
 
Mexican officials believe the women and children were killed after becoming caught up in a dispute between local drug cartels battling for control of the area. 
 
Under pressure from the Trump administration, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador sought U.S. cooperation in the case, inviting the FBI to help in the investigation. 

…

The wreckage of a helicopter carrying seven people to one of the most rugged and remote coastlines in Hawaii was found Friday in a mountainous area on the island of Kauai, authorities said. 
 
Officials said in a news release that they were sending additional resources and searching for possible survivors of the crash. 
 
Searchers began looking for the helicopter carrying a pilot and six passengers after it was reported overdue from a tour of Kauai’s Na Pali Coast on Thursday evening. Two passengers were believed to be minors, the Coast Guard said. 

Steep terrain, low visibility, choppy seas and rain had complicated the search, the agency said. 
 
The helicopter company, identified as Safari Helicopters, contacted the Coast Guard about 6 p.m. Thursday to say the aircraft was about 30 minutes overdue, authorities said. 
 
According to a preliminary report, the pilot relayed that the tour was leaving the Waimea Canyon area, known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, about 4:40 p.m., which was the last contact with the helicopter, Kauai police said. 
 
A person who answered the phone at a number listed for Safari Helicopters declined to comment and hung up. 

Liftoff reported
 
The Eurocopter AS350 had lifted off from the town of Lihue, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said in an email to The Associated Press. 
 
The helicopter has an emergency electronic locator transmitter, but no signals were received. Gregor said the locator devices are designed to activate when an aircraft crashes. 
 
The FAA requires the locators to be able to withstand impact. However, it is possible for the device to become inoperable from an extreme crash and a signal can be shrouded if an aircraft is in a deep canyon or gorge, Gregor said. 
 
He said the agency was looking at the company’s safety record but likely wouldn’t have a full report until Monday. It was investigating along with the National Transportation Safety Board. 

The helicopter was found in a mountainous region inland from the Na Pali Coast, which is one of the most dramatic and sought-after destinations in Hawaii and was featured in the film Jurassic Park. Towering mountains with deep ravines and huge waterfalls make up the interior of the uninhabited state park. Red rock cliffs with thick jungle canopies rise from the Pacific Ocean to over 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) high. 

Rough winter weather
 
Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources spokesman Dan Dennison, who has spent years visiting and photographing the area, said winter brings more rain and turbulent seas. 
 
“During the winter, flash floods frequently close the trail out of safety concerns,” he said. “It has numerous streams that can rise very fast.” 
 
The weather is the primary challenge to any search-and-rescue operation in the area, Dennison said. 
 
“You can have very low ceilings. You can have fog and cloud banks that move in very quickly. You can have heavy rain and strong winds that make flying difficult if not impossible at times,” he said. 
 
The shoreline has beaches that could potentially serve as emergency landing zones, but they are “few and far between,” Dennison said. 
 
And even the beaches that are there would be a tight spot to land a helicopter. 
 
Finding a safe place to land in the interior wilderness would be much more difficult, Dennison said, and searching those areas from the air is also a challenge. 
 
“It’s such a vast area with so many ins and outs and pockets of vegetation,” he said. “It’s just really hard to see from the air through the heavy canopy.” 

…

A Turkish criminal court Friday convicted and handed prison sentences to six journalists and another staffer from nationalist newspaper Sozcu following charges they supported a U.S.-based cleric whom President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses of masterminding a failed 2016 coup against him. 
 
The Istanbul Court of Justice sentenced the journalists, including veteran columnist Emin Colasan, to prison terms ranging from two to 3½ years for backing what state media called the FETO secretive religious brotherhood. FETO is the Fethulah Gulen Organization, named after the cleric who denies involvement in the coup attempt. He lives in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The Turkish government considers the organization a terrorist group. 
 
Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, Sozcu attorney Celal Ulgen said all the defendants had rejected the charges, which he described as politically motivated. 
 
“The judges are afraid of their own future and their children’s future,” he said. “They want to throw the ball to the next court by condemning them for fear. … The judiciary is not independent in Turkey.” 

According to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency, columnist Necati Dogru was sentenced to 3½ years in prison, as was Colasan, while Sozcu’s chief editor Metin Yilmaz and its online edition’s managing editor, Mustafa Cetin, each received a sentence of just over three years. Online news editor Yucel Ari, reporter Gokmen Ulu and financial manager Yonca Yucelan were each sentenced to prison terms of two years and one month. 
 
The court acquitted former Sozcu news director Mediha Olgun, who was first detained in May 2017 and held for 120 days. 
 
A case against the paper’s owner, Burak Akbay, who is living abroad and being tried in absentia, is to continue separately, Anadolu reported. 
 
Ongoing crackdown 
 
Sozcu has long been known for its critical coverage of Erdogan’s ruling party. It is the second opposition daily to be targeted after Turkey’s Cumhuriyet newspaper saw 13 of its reporters convicted in 2018.
 
Sometimes described as vehemently anti-government, Sozcu’s staff are the latest in a long line of reporters, pundits, scholars and activists to stand accused of supporting Gulen, a onetime Erdogan ally-turned-political nemesis. 
 
Erdogan and his supporters blame Gulen for the attempted coup and have long pressed U.S. officials for his extradition. 
 
Ulgen says Sozcu denies any links with the Gulen network, and officials representing the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, say the paper is being singled out for refusing to be a mouthpiece for Ankara. 
 
“When the court started this case, we assumed there would be a conviction,” said Sezgin Tanrıkulu, a Turkish human rights lawyer and CHP parliamentarian, largely echoing the opinion of most defendants. “We foresaw this punishment.” 
 
“It is an empty case against us. There are no documents or witnesses against us,” columnist Colasan said. “I want my acquittal without further ado.” 

Next step
 
Ulgen said a higher court was expected to decide whether to uphold the sentencing, adding that the journalists were currently free. 
 
“There is neither judicial control nor any measure that restricts their freedom right now,” the attorney said. 
 
The case against Sozcu has intensified concerns about a crackdown on news coverage critical of Erdogan’s administration. 
 
The Committee to Protect Journalists said Turkey was ranked the highest jailer of journalists in the world after China. 
 
The Turkish Journalists Syndicate said at least 108 journalists or other employees in the media sector were currently imprisoned in the country. 
 
The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report. 

…

Australian authorities said Friday they are focused on protecting water plants, pumping stations, pipes and other infrastructure from intense bushfires surrounding Sydney, the country’s largest city.

Firefighters battling the blazes for weeks received a reprieve of slightly cooler, damper conditions over Christmas, but the respite is not expected to last long.

Temperatures in New South Wales (NSW) state are forecast to head back toward 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) early next week, fueling fires near Warragamba Dam, which provides water to about 80% of Sydney’s 5 million residents.

“In recent days up to the cool change, the fires had been a potential threat to supply and assets, particularly in Warragamba and in the Blue Mountains,” a spokesman for the state’s water authority, WaterNSW, told Reuters. “With the coming very hot conditions the fire situation may escalate in both those fronts and possibly elsewhere.”

Warragamba Dam is 65km (40 miles) west of Sydney, catching water flowing from the mountains.

It is at 44.8% capacity, down from almost being full less than three years ago, as a prolonged drought ravages the continent’s east.

40 New South Wales dams

Despite the widespread destruction, the state’s water infrastructure network has not been damaged, the spokesman said.

With more than 40 dams across the state, WaterNSW supplies two-thirds of untreated water to the state’s water utilities, which then treat and clean the resource to provide drinking water to cities and regional towns.

Large quantities of ash and burned material could pose a threat to the quality of water in the dams if the fires are followed by heavy rain.

However, there is no significant rain forecast for NSW in the short-term and WaterNSW has put containment barriers to catch potential debris run-off, the water authority said.

Volunteer firefighters

Australia’s reliance on a large volunteer firefighting force has been tested during this fire season that potentially has months to run through the southern hemisphere summer.

While conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison previously said compensation for volunteers was not a priority, he said Tuesday that government workers could receive additional paid leave for volunteering.

A senior government minister said Friday the government was now looking into providing wider relief.

“The prime minister is looking at this issue further on how we can provide targeted support in these extreme circumstances so that our volunteers get the support they need to keep volunteering,” Defense Minister Linda Reynolds told media in Perth.

While there are different rules across Australia’s states, volunteers tend to negotiate time off directly with their employer.

Morrison has been under intense political pressure after it was revealed he was holidaying in Hawaii shortly before Christmas while the country grappled with an emergency and two volunteers near the fire frontlines had been killed. Eight deaths, including the two volunteer firefighters, have been linked to the blazes since they flared in spring.

Fires destroy millions of hectares

Fires are traveling immense distances through bushland before hitting towns and containment lines where volunteer firefighters concentrate their resources.

The bushfires have destroyed more than 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres) across the country, dwarfing the terrain burnt by fierce fires in California during 2019.

…

 Zaheer Ahmed had just returned home from work in northern India last Friday afternoon and stepped out for a smoke before lunch.

Minutes later, he was dead, shot in the head.

His death, and the killing by gunfire of four other Muslim men the same afternoon in the mainly Muslim neighborhood, made it the most intense burst of violence in two weeks of protests.

India has been convulsed by the broadest unrest in at least seven years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government brought in a law that many see as discriminatory against Muslims, who make up 14% of the population.

All of the families of the five dead men say they were shot and killed by police as a protest flared against the new law.

Reuters could not independently verify those accounts, and none of the more than 20 individuals Reuters interviewed saw police open fire.

Police say they used baton charges and teargas, and opened fire to control the crowd but did not kill anyone.

Police add that the men must have been killed by violent armed protesters whose shots went astray. An investigation into the violence is under way.

In the aftermath, distrust and anger between the Muslim community in the area where the deaths happened and security forces has deepened, as protests to the law enter their third week.

The clashes on Dec. 20 erupted around Lisari Gate after Friday afternoon’s Muslim prayers.

Residents say police broke several CCTV cameras in the area before the violence began.

Reuters was unable to independently verify those accounts, but did review CCTV footage from two cameras on shops in the area. In both cases, the footage ends abruptly after a policeman waving a baton is seen trying to hit the cameras.

Akhilesh Singh, the police superintendent of the Meerut City zone, said police had not destroyed any cameras and that all of the victims were involved in what he called rioting.

“Obviously they must be in the midst of the violence. That’s why they must have been killed,” Singh told Reuters.

Police have cracked down on the demonstrations that have spread across India, but Uttar Pradesh state, where Meerut is located, has seen the worst violence. At least 19 of 25 deaths have taken place there.

Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state with roughly 200 million people, is ruled by a Hindu priest and has a history of deadly Hindu-Muslim clashes.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said in a televised statement last week that he would take “revenge” against those behind the violence and make them pay for the public damage.

How Zaheer died

Zaheer Ahmed’s home lies in a jumble of lanes that make up the crowded Lisari Gate area. The 45-year-old, who sold cattle fodder for a living, had coloured his hair that day for a family wedding, said his 22-year-old niece Shaheen.

When Zaheer returned from work, he told Shaheen that he wanted to smoke and stepped out to go to a small stall in the next lane that sold beedis, the small Indian cigarette.

Zaheer’s friend Naseem Ahmed was standing in the lane across the beedi stall at the time, Naseem said. He described seeing Zaheer buy the beedi and sit down on a ledge next to the shop.

Around that time, there was chaos on the main road beyond the lanes, Shaheen and several other residents said. They said they could hear the sound of people screaming and saw teargas clouds. Many men ran into the lanes, some followed by police.

“I suddenly saw Zaheer fall down,” said Naseem, adding that he had seen some policemen rushing into the lane just before. “I thought he fell unconscious. It all happened within minutes.”

Through the clouds of teargas, Shaheen said she heard someone scream that Zaheer had been shot.

Neighbors brought his body home.

“I don’t know who engaged in the violence, but my husband didn’t,” said his wife Shahajahan. “Why did they kill my innocent husband? How can they kill innocent people?”

The families of the other four men who died that day said the men were either out for work or prayers when they were hit by gunfire. None of them have received post-mortem reports.

According to their families, Mohammed Mohsin was buying fodder for cattle. Asif, a tyre mechanic, had stepped out to fix tyres at someone’s home. Another man called Asif, a rickshaw-driver, was returning home after prayers. Aleem Ansari had gone to the restaurant where he worked making rotis, the Indian bread.

Many people in the impoverished area use just one name.

“Deadly force”

Thousands of people have taken to streets across India to demand the government rescind the Citizenship Amendment Act enacted by parliament on Dec. 11.

It gives minorities who migrated from three neighboring countries a path to citizenship, except for Muslims. Critics say it is an attack on India’s secular foundations.

“He was shot dead by police. They shot him in the head and killed him,” said Ansari’s mother Saira. “I swear if I find that policeman I will not spare him.”

Reuters reviewed a copy of a case report of the violence that day that police registered at the Lisari Gate police station.

The report dated Dec. 20 includes a police officer’s statement that a crowd of about 1,000 protesters armed with sticks charged down the main road at around 2:30 p.m.

Police asked them to disperse, saying the large gathering was not permitted, according to the police report. The officer who filed it, Ajay Kumar Sharma, did not immediately respond to calls for comment.

“Suddenly there was chaos when the crowd started pelting stones at us and firing at us,” the report says. In response, police used batons and fired tear gas and rubber bullets, the statement says.

Singh, the Meerut police superintendent, said the police and paramilitary personnel around Lisari Gate that day were armed with AK-47 rifles, pistols and chilli bombs.

Human Rights Watch has said Indian police have used “unnecessary, deadly force” in controlling the protests.

At a hospital in Meerut, two paramilitary policemen being treated said they were injured when fired at by protesters last Friday. A doctor said they had been treated for bullet injuries on the leg and forearm.

When asked about civilians who had been shot and killed, one of them, Vidya Dhar Shukla, sat up on his bed. “There was so much chaos, who knows where the damned people died?”

“If I had a gun I would fire at them that day,” he said. “India shouldn’t harbor such snakes.”

…

A Bek Air plane with 95 passengers and five crew members on board crashed near the city of Almaty in Kazakhstan on Friday, killing at least 14 people and injuring at least 35, authorities in Almaty said.

The plane was heading for the capital, Nur-Sultan, the country’s capital formerly known as Astana, and “lost altitude during takeoff and broke through a concrete fence” before hitting a two-story building, Kazakhstan’s Civil Aviation Committee said in a statement.

According to the Emergencies Committee, at least nine people were killed. In a statement on its Facebook page, the airport said there was no fire and a rescue operation got underway immediately following the crash. 

A Reuters reporter travelling to the airport said there was thick fog in the area.

The plane belonged to Kazakh carrier Bek Air, which operates a fleet of Fokker 100 jets. The aviation committee said it was suspending all flights of that type of aircraft pending an investigation.

A Fokker-100 is a medium-sized, twin-turbofan jet airliner. The company manufacturing the aircraft went bankrupt in 1996 and the production of the Fokker-100 stopped the following year.

“Those responsible will face tough punishment in accordance with the law,” Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev tweeted, expressing condolences to the victims and their families.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

…

Japanese public broadcaster NHK Friday sent a news bulletin that incorrectly reported North Korea had launched a missile that fell into waters east of the Japanese archipelago, issuing an apology hours later explaining it was a media training alert.

The news alert came as the United States and its East Asian allies have been on tenterhooks after Pyongyang’s warning this month of a possible “Christmas gift” for Washington in what experts took to mean a possible long-range missile test.

The NHK bulletin, sent out 22 minutes after midnight on its website, read: “North Korean missile seen as having fallen into seas about 2,000 km east of Hokkaido’s Cape Erimo,” suggesting a flight path over Japanese territory.

At 2:28 a.m., NHK issued an apology on its website, explaining that the text was meant for training purposes and was “not true.”

“We apologize to our viewers and the public,” NHK said.

Warning citizens about disasters and security threats is one of the mandates for the publicly funded broadcaster, whose newscasters regularly and frequently hold drills for earthquakes and other disaster coverage.

When North Korea did launch missiles that flew over Cape Erimo in Japan’s far north in 2017, warnings spread through sirens and government-issued “J-alerts” on millions of cell phones throughout Japan, jolting some out of sleep.

NHK had also sent an erroneous news alert about a North Korean missile in January of last year. 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had given the United States until the end of the year to propose new concessions in talks over his country’s nuclear arsenal and reducing tensions between the adversaries.

Its last test of an intercontinental ballistic missile was in November 2017 when it fired a Hwasong-15, the largest missile it has ever tested. Pyongyang said the missile was capable of reaching all of the United States.

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