Tue, Sep 05, 2023 page5

• World News Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  FRANCE

  Afghan women evacuated

  Five Afghan women who had been “threatened by the Taliban” had been flown to Paris, where they were due to arrive yesterday, French Office for Immigration and Integration Director-General Didier Leschi said. By presidential order, “special attention is being paid to women who are primarily threatened by the Taliban, because they have held important positions in Afghan society ... or have close contacts with Westerners,” Leschi said. The women include a former university director, a former non-governmental organization consultant, a former television presenter and a teacher at a secret school in Kabul. One of the women was accompanied by three children. The women had been unable to leave Afghanistan on airlifts to Western countries when the Taliban returned to power in 2021. They fled to Pakistan where they sought temporary refuge. From there, the French authorities organized their evacuation, Leschi said.

  JAPAN

  Fukushima fishers to sue

  About 100 fishers and locals living near Fukushima are to file a lawsuit on Friday seeking to stop the release of wastewater from the stricken Fukishima Da-ichi nuclear power plant, they said yesterday. The government on Aug. 24 began releasing treated cooling water from the facility into the Pacific Ocean. Many Japanese fishers have been against the release, fearing that it would undo years of efforts to improve the industry’s image in the wake of the 2011 catastrophe. More than 100 plaintiffs, including fishers in Fukushima and neighboring prefectures, are to file the lawsuit in the Fukushima District Court, said Sugie Tanji, a member of the group’s secretariat.

  PAKISTAN

  Mob attack had phony start

  Last month’s mob attacks on churches and homes of Christians in the city of Jaranwala erupted after three Christians threw pages of the Koran outside the house of two others to falsely implicate them in a blasphemy case due to a personal dispute, police said yesterday. The three detained suspects confessed to conspiring and throwing the pages outside Raja Amir’s house on Aug. 16, three police officials said. Amir and his brother had been arrested after they were accused by Muslims of desecrating the Koran. The suspected mastermind was Pervez Kodu, who thought Amir had an affair with his wife and knew Muslims would target Amir if they thought he had desecrated the holy book, three police officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. The three now face charges of causing violence and falsely implicating Amir and his brother in a blasphemy case.

  SWEDEN

  Clashes erupt over Koran

  Clashes erupted in an immigrant neighborhood in the nation’s third-largest city after an anti-Muslim protester set fire to the Koran, police in Malmo said yesterday. Officers said they were pelted with rocks and dozens of cars were set on fire, including in an underground garage, describing the events that started on Sunday and lasted overnight as “a violent riot.” The clashes started after anti-Islam activist Salwan Momika burned a copy of the Koran and an angry mob tried to stop him while police, some of them helmeted, detained several people. At least three people have been detained, police said. Early yesterday, an angry crowd of mainly young people also set fire to tires and debris, and some were seen throwing electric scooters, bikes and barriers in Malmo’s Rosengard neighborhood, which has seen similar clashes in the past.
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