Hundreds of protesters led by civil rights leaders the Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton rallied on Saturday, saying the city's election plans would disenfranchise voters displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
The system of mail-in voting set up for the April 22 election for mayor and other positions in the city would make it difficult for voters living elsewhere to cast a ballot, Jackson and other activists said. Black people, who made up 70 percent of New Orleans before Katrina hit, form a large majority of those still displaced.
"We want the Voting Rights Act," Jackson said at a news conference before Saturday's rally. Black leaders have argued city elections could violate the landmark 1965 law designed to ensure voter equality.
The city election could have a broad effect nationwide, Sharpton said: "What happens in New Orleans will affect voting rights all over the United States."
Jackson and other activists are demanding satellite polling places for displaced voters in cities outside New Orleans, and even outside Louisiana. Fewer than half of the city's 460,000 residents have returned since the Aug. 29 storm.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
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Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
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