Dozens of anti-government activists were arrested in the Maldivian capital, Male, the opposition said yesterday as the government accused it of whipping up religious extremism.
Opposition parties said police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of activists on Friday night and that dozens were detained, raising to 82 the number of arrests over the past four days.
“The police detain people and release them after a few hours,” opposition spokesman Mohamed Shareef said, adding that a total of 82 had been arrested during the past four days.
Maldivian authorities said the protesters had attacked government facilities, including two police vehicles and vandalized the home of a government minister during the protests.
The government said six journalists and staff of the state-run national television broadcaster had been attacked by anti-government protesters while private media organizations accused the government of intimidation.
Anti-government activists have been keeping up pressure on Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed, who ordered the arrest on Monday of the head of the country’s criminal court on charges of misconduct and favoring opposition figures.
A senior figure in the opposition Dhivehi Qaumee Party, Mohamed Jameel, was also re-arrested on Wednesday as police investigate him and the party for allegedly spreading hate-speech.
The government has accused Jameel, a former Maldivian minister of justice, of publicly declaring that Nasheed was working under the influence of “Jews” and “Christian priests” to weaken Islam in the Maldives.
The government on Wednesday raised fears of Islamic extremism taking hold in the Indian Ocean atoll nation, which is best known for its upmarket tourism and as a destination for honeymooners.
The Maldivian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was “extremely concerned” by an increase in extremist rhetoric used by the government’s rivals that could lead to “stigmatization, stereotyping and incitement to religious violence and hatred.”
There have been anti-Semitic protests recently about the Maldivian Ministry of Transport and Communication’s decision to allow direct flights from Israel.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS