Kazakh police yesterday forcibly broke up a protest against housing problems in the commercial capital Almaty and detained 67 activists, an opposition alliance and rights defenders said.
The protest involved more than 1,000 people, according to participants. It was the latest in a series of demonstrations against city authorities' alleged failure to address low-income housing problems.
Marzhan Aspandiyarova, leader of the Let's Protect Our Home movement, said the protesters had begun to gather on Wednesday afternoon at a major intersection in the Talgar district, seeking a meeting with authorities to lodge their complaints.
She said that after their movement was blocked by police officers they set up two yurts, or felt tents, and camped there until morning.
At around 6:30am, police raided the yurts, beating up protesters and dragging them into buses, Aspandiyarova said. She said some were bruised and required medical aid.
Land and property prices have soared in recent years in Almaty, which is the oil-rich Central Asian state's wealthiest city, making them unaffordable for people with average and low incomes.
Kazakh authorities have become increasingly intolerant of public protests in the run-up to the former Soviet republic's December elections in which long-ruling President Nursultan Nazarbayev will seek re-election for a new seven-year term.
Last month, about 1,000 people attempted to march from their impoverished district in the outskirts of Almaty to the city's main square, but were dispersed by club-wielding riot police. Earlier, police broke up a similar protest outside the city administration building.
The protesters are mainly from the impoverished Shanyrak district in the outskirts of Almaty, where houses are shared by several families. Their repeated requests to city authorities to provide them with land plots have been ignored for years.
The opposition For a Fair Kazakhstan alliance said in a statement, citing the protest participants, that they intended to continue their protests despite pressure.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not