LONDON – The capital was largely quiet on the eve of 9 August with some 16,000 police sent onto the streets in a show of force in districts where gangs had looted shops, burned cars and buildings had been virtually unchecked since Saturday 6 August when the riots behgan.
Last night in Manchester, groups of youths fought running battles with police smashing windows, looting and setting fire to shops.
A murder investigation into the deaths of three Birmingham men, following a night of violence that spread to West Bromwich, Wolverhampton and Salford where thugs torched a BBC radio truck and set fire to a housing office, was launched.
Prime Minister David Cameron cut short a family holiday to deal with the crisis.
Links to: The Telegraph, The Sun News
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The spread of London’s riots to more parts of the city and to other cities is the headline news Tuesday 9 August, not just in the UK but in most English-speaking countries, overtaking news of stock markets diving and the continuing fall of the dollar and the euro in currency markets. London’s Met Police are reported to be delivering people who are arrested to jails outside the city because it’s own are filled.
Stock markets:Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, is calculated by Bloomberg to have lost $6.7 billion in the past week as markets dived amidst gloomy debt and credit rating news in the US and Europe. Wall Street fell more than 6 percent in trading Monday, the first day of trading post-Moody’s credit downgrading, and Asian markets continued their downward spiral Tuesday before easing, with the Swiss franc holding strong ($1.32 and euro.93) in what Reuters describes as “a global rout triggered by fears that political leaders are failing to tackle debt crises in Europe and the United States.” Bloomberg notes that Asian markets responded positively to talk of the US Federal Reserve intervening.
Links to other sites: BBC, Bloomberg, The Globe & Mail, Guardian, Irish Times, Sydney Morning Herald
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Tottenham’s night of violence in the north of London, sparked by the death of a man shot by police, spread Sunday to several other London suburbs: Enfield, Walthamstow and Waltham Forest in north London, Brixton to the south, according to the BBC. Police have been the target of much of what the BBC calls the “disorder”, with 35 police officers reported to be wounded, police vehicles overturned and large gangs of youths looting shops, especially mobile phone stores. Some 100 people were arrested.
Links to other sites: BBC, Met Police statement, Sky News, Telegraph
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Vancouver’s mayor called it “embarrassing and shameful” after frenzied ice hockey fans angry over the 4-0 loss of the Vancouver Canucks to the Boston Bruins in the finals of the Stanley Cup 15 June trashed the city centre Wednesday. Police struggled with the mob element in the crowd of 100,000 gathered to watch the game, using tear gas and pepper spray as well as non-lethal stun grenades.Two police cars were totalled and a number of people were treated in hospital, most for tear gas inhalation, but there were also a handful of more serious injuries. The scale of the damage is being assessed Thursday.
Links to other sites: Globe & Mail, Guardian, UK, Vancouver Sun
Police in London have brought charges against 149 of 201 people arrested Sunday 27 March part of a violent group that spun off from a massive, peaceful rally in the British capital. At least 250,000 people took part in a march organized by the TUC, trade unions organization, to protest government spending cuts.
Police have told UK media that while there were advance indications on the Internet that violence was planned, virtually the entire city was targeted, making it difficult for the 4,450 police officers on duty to protect property. A luxury shop in Piccadilly, where a sit-in was staged, was one of the more visible targets.
The UK government says it is pushing ahead with its plans to make £81 billion in budget cuts.
Links to other sites: BBC, Guardian, Telegraph
Guardian video, March for the Alternative, Fortnum & Mason occupied
Al Jazeera TV signal cut, told to shut down, while China blocks “Egypt” Twitter searches
President Hos Mubarak, facing what Reuters refers to as “unprecedented pressure” on his regime, is holding closely watched meetings with military officials in the country, as Egypt has its sixth day of protests against Mubarak’s 30-year-old presidency. Saturday 29 January Al Jazeera TV, which operates out of Qatar, was told it could no longer work in the country, cancelling accreditation for journalists and Nilesat, an Egyptian satellite, cut its signal. The shutdown affected the network’s operations in some other countries as well, but Al Jazeera says it is able to offer viewers its new from other signals. It claims to have some 400 reporters worldwide, and its Arab world coverage is some of the most thorough among news agencies.
In Cairo, thousands of people have continued to gather despite curfews and a ban on crowds, with looting reported and gangs reportedly freeing prisoners from jails. Numbers of people reported to have died in protests vary, but it appears that more than 100 have been killed, and the government claims that it has arrested hundreds of looters.
China, according to Reuters, began blocking “Egypt” as a search term on micro-blogs, the Chinese equivalents of Twitter, in what it says appears to be a sign “aimed at preventing events in Egypt from setting an example of political opposition at home.”
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, Jerusalem Post, Reuters, Xinhua
Official reports are not being provided by the government in Tunisia detailing the number of protestors, dead and injured, but eyewitnesses are increasingly supplying reports of violent confrontations Wedneday evening 12 January. A curfew, the first since 1987, was not enough to keep people off suburban streets in Ettadhamen and Intilaka, 15 km from the centre of Tunis, according to AFP/Nouvel Observateur, although the city of Tunis itself is reported to have been quiet during the 20:00-05:30 curfew.
A Swiss-Tunisian woman from Lausanne was killed Wednesday night in the north of the country while watching riots from the window of her family’s home.
Tunisia has been torn by violence for the past month, over the scarcity of jobs and the cost of living.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The riots in Tunisia drew closer to home in Switzerland Thursday with the death Wednesday evening 12 January of a Swiss-Tunisian woman who was a nurse for 30 years in Switzerland, employed by Chuv (university hospitals) in Lausanne. She was visiting the family home in Dar Chaabane, in the north of the country, her brother told RSR public radio. She was watching protestors in the street below, from a second story window, when a police bullet appears to have hit her in the neck, just below the ear.
The woman, whose name has not been released, was scheduled to fly home to Switzerland today.
President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia has announced a programme to create 300,000 new jobs between 2011 and 2012 in an effort to forestall continued unrest in his country, which he attributes to terrorist acts. The government also ordered schools and universities to close until further notice.
The government has allocated $5b to create jobs in various areas, Communications Minister Samir al-Obaidy told Al-Jazeera. But an opposition politician, Ahmed Najib Chebbi, leader of the Democratic Progressive Party, dismissed the announcement, saying they were “promises”. Even qualified people do not find work and many have to pay to get a job, according to Euronews.
Violent demonstrations that began 17 December have rocked the country ever since a young man killed himself by setting himself alight in protest at the police confiscating his vegetable stand because he did not have a permit. Official figures put the number of dead this past weekend at 20, while union sources say 27 died Sunday 9 January and another 12 on Monday.
Links to other sites: Financial Times, New York Times
Twenty-two people, including 10 police officers, were injured in scattered incidents of violence in India’s Kashmir valley Sunday 12 September, as authorities extended the 24-hour curfew to various other towns in the valley.
Saturday’s riots in Srinagar, the capital of the troubled territory, came as people celebrated Eid, the end to the holy month of Ramadan. Protests quickly ran out of control, with a mob attacking the house of a government minister and setting fire to government buildings, and the authorities sent thousands of police into the streets to restore order.
Links to other sites: CNN, Hindustan Times, Times of India
The price of bread in Mozambique will go back to where it was last week, the government announced 8 Septemebr, after 13 people died and 200were injured in riots to protest the government price hikes. The price of bread returns to 5 meticais, about $0.14. The Planning Minister also announced that the rise in the price of water would be revoked.
Mozambique imports 98 percent of the wheat used to make bread. The international price of wheat has soared in recent months due to adverse conditions in Russia and Pakistan. The government hopes to use other, locally produced, types of flour to make bread.
Links to other sites: AllAfrica, AP, Christian Science Monitor, Noticias (Por)
The shooting death of a member of parliament in the southern city of Karachi, in Pakistan, set off rioting that has resulted in the deaths of at least 37 others. More than 100 people were injured in the riots. Raza Haider, of the MQM party was shot at a funeral, at a mosque. The BBC cites human rights groups as saying that “more than 300 people have been killed in political killings in Karachi this year.” The streets are reported to be deserted and quiet, with police keeping order in the tense hours leading up to the funeral for Haider.
A small town of less than 4,000 people, Saint-Aignan in the Loire Valley, was the scene Sunday of a clash between travelling people and local police and gendarmes (highway patrol). A traveller identified by French media and police only as Luigi was shot and killed after running through police checkpoints. It’s unclear why he refused to stop but a few hundred fellow travellers then converged on the local police station, a bakery and other areas, armed with hatchets and chopping down trees. The town is now reportedly being patrolled by some 300 police officers and gendarmes.
Violence that broke out Sunday 17 January in Jos, Nigeria flared up again Tuesday and the government has declared a 24-hour curfew. “Scores” have died and as many as 600 people may have been injured, reports CNN, but reliable numbers are not available. According to allAfrica, the violence began when two neighbours, both of whom had had their houses burned down, began to rebuild them, but fell out over a misunderstanding. “Garba allegedly encroached on the plot of his Christian neighbour, a development that resulted into a hot argument and then a fight. The entire quarters re-grouped along religious lines and began a riot that spread to other parts of the city.”
Links to other sites: allAfrica, CNN, Reuters AlertNet
Protest marches involving what several Western media are calling “thousands” of people turned ugly in Iran Sunday 27 December, as at least four people were killed when police opened fire. One of them was reportedly the nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, but Al Jazeera notes that the report cannot be independently verified, as foreign media are banned from covering street protests. The government told media that police were not carrying weapons. The marches took place in Teheran, but there appear to also have been protests in Isfahan and Najafabad. Government supporters criticized the protesters for taking political action on Ashoura, a religious event marked by Shia Muslims that commemorates the 7th century death of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson.
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, BBC, Jerusalem Post
The Greek government Tuesday added new economic problems to the social ones it has faced since rioting over the 6-7 December weekend. Major financial ratings groups downgraded the country’s economy, with Fitch putting it at “negative”, raising concerns about possible insolvency. Over the weekend riot forces confronted large crowds who marched in commemoration of a 15-year-old student killed in December 2008 by police. Ireland faces nervous citizens and investors today with the publication of its new budget, expected to show massive cuts of €4 billion in social services and other sensitive areas.
Links to other sites: DigitalLook/Yahoo, Irish Times, RTE, Ireland, Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
The US, which has in the past been outspoken about human rights violations in China, has made no official comment on the 15 October death sentences handed out in China. The sentences were given to people convicted of murder following the riots in Urumqi, Xinjiang province, in July 2009. Nearly 200 people died and an estimated 1,600 were injured in the ethnic riots that gripped the city for several days. RiaNovosti, US State Department, Xinhua
Scores of people were left dead in rioting that spread across four northern and north-eastern states in Nigeria, as police and government troops battled young Islamist militants. The violence started on Sunday 26 July when several members of an extreme Islamist group, Boko Haram, were arrested. Police stations were attacked and civilians were pulled from cars at random and slain, and churches were set ablaze. In the town of Maiduguri, Borno state, the BBC reported a hundred corpses piled up in front of the police station.
Mainly Islamic northern Nigeria is governed by sharia law, but Boko Haram, which means education prohibited, opposes all Western influence. Allegedly led by Sheikh Mohammed Yusuf, the group recruits mainly young men. It has no known affiliation to Al-Qaeda. CNN, Reuters
Riots in South African townships have been spreading, and police 22 July arrested some 100 people, after protests broke out over the lack of basic services in the poverty-riddled sprawling urban areas. A government report published 23 July that shows a 20 percent increase in maternal deaths, many of them preventable, is likely to trigger more anger over inadequate services. The health report indicates that 43 percent of the maternal deaths were due to HIV/Aids. Only 60 percent of the women who died had been tested for this, but 80 percent of those women tested positive. ABC Australia, AllAfrica
Oscar Arias, former president of Costa Rica and Nobel prize winner, will lead talks with rival Honduran political forces in an effort to find a settlement to the crisis that has swept the Central American nation following the ouster of its president 28 June. The meetings were announced in Washington following talks between ousted president Manuel Zelaya and US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton.
