Ten people were arrested overnight on Tuesday during a second night of protests in Paris over the killing by police of a Chinese father of five, an incident that has caused tensions with Beijing.
About 400 members of the Asian community and supporters of anti-racism groups gathered outside a police station in the northeast of the capital to again denounce the fatal shooting of Liu Shaoyo (劉少堯), 56, in his home two days earlier.
Those who were arrested had thrown projectiles, police said, bringing to 45 the number of protesters detained since the killing which led the Chinese government to file an official complaint.
Photo: AFP
The police say three officers were called to the man’s home in the multiethnic 19th district of Paris on Sunday evening after reports of a domestic dispute.
They say the man attacked a policeman with a knife, causing injuries, and that another officer then opened fire in self-defense, killing the man.
The dead man’s family were present at the time of the shooting and dispute the police version of events, denying there was a domestic row.
“He didn’t injure anyone,” said Calvin Job, the family’s lawyer, adding that the man was “trimming fish with a pair of scissors” when the police burst down his door and “fired without warning.”
The incident has prompted a heated exchange between the Chinese and French governments.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday called on France to protect its citizens and said Beijing had filed the complaint.
Newly appointed French Minister of the Interior Matthias Fekl condemned the violence that occurred during Monday’s protest, where clashes broke out between the police and demonstrators who chanted: “Police murderers.”
Fekl said the officers had his “full support” and he appealed for calm while a police oversight body investigates the killing.
Estimates put the size of the Chinese community in Paris at between 200,000 and 300,000. Many of the first-generation Chinese nationals who live in the French capital arrived in the 1980s and work in the textile industry.
French police have repeatedly come under fire for alleged brutality during operations in deprived neighborhoods.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique