South Korean police yesterday formally arrested 10 anti-US activists and released 27 others in the wake of violent protests last week against plans to relocate US military bases, officials said.
The demonstrations on Thursday and Friday saw protesters battling police with bamboo sticks and authorities responding with batons to evict them from a new US military base site in Pyeongtaek, about 65km south of Seoul.
The violence left more than 200 protesters and police injured.
Prosecutors secured arrest warrants for 10 of 37 protesters detained on Thursday, but were forced to release the rest after the Suwon District Court's Pyeongtaek division turned down warrants for the other 27, said a court official who requested anonymity.
"Most of them are young students and while it is true they wielded bamboo sticks, they didn't have an intention for violence or previous records of taking part in protests," the official said.
Prosecutors were awaiting word from the court on whether they can press charges against 23 others detained on Friday, and whether they can seek the rearrest of those already released, prosecution spokesman Kang Chan-woo said.
For months, villagers and anti-US activists have impeded work to expand US base Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek following a 2004 agreement between Seoul and Washington to move the US military command there from its current headquarters in central Seoul.
On Thursday, authorities sent more than 10,000 riot police to the site, evicting protesters and destroying a school used as a base for the protesters. Army engineers also set up wire fences around the site to keep outsiders away.
But activists returned on Friday to stage more protests. TV footage showed stick-brandishing demonstrators cutting fences and beating unarmed troops guarding the site.
Several villages on the outskirts of Pyeongtaek, a city of 360,000 people, must be razed for the base construction.
The government has offered residents financial compensation to move out, but some 70 households continue to resist, according to the Defense Ministry.
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
At first, Francis Ari Sture thought a human was trying to shove him down the steep Norwegian mountainside. Then he saw the golden eagle land. “We are staring at each other for, maybe, a whole minute,” Sture said on Monday. “I’m trying to think what’s in its mind.” The bird then attacked Sture five more times on Thursday last week, scratching and clawing the 31-year-old bicycle courier’s face and arms over 10 to 15 minutes as he sprinted down the mountain. The same eagle is believed to be responsible for attacks on three other people across a vast mountainous area of southern Norway
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
RSS