World

British cartoonist and illustrator Raymond Briggs, whose creation “The Snowman” became a Christmas staple for generations of children, has died aged 88, his publisher Penguin Random House said Wednesday.

The 1978 picture book about a young, ginger-haired boy who builds a snowman that magically comes to life has sold more than 5.5 million copies globally and was transformed into an animated film in 1982.

First shown on British TV, with an introduction by David Bowie in some later versions, the film and its memorable musical score has become synonymous with Christmas ever since, being shown every year.

“Raymond’s books are picture masterpieces that address some of the fundamental questions of what it is to be human, speaking to both adults and children,” said Francesca Dow, managing director of Penguin Random House Children’s. 

Reflecting his own curmudgeonly nature, Brigg’s first major success came in 1973 with “Father Christmas”, in which Santa Claus is an irascible old man who hates the cold and snow, and finds delivering presents a chore.

In 1977’s “Fungus the Bogeyman”, the eponymous hero of the slimy underworld scares vicars, wakes human babies and makes things go bump in the night.

Briggs later admitted that it was based on himself — a “miserable, disillusioned, depressed middle-aged man”.

Kenyans waited anxiously on Wednesday for the results of the country’s presidential election after a largely peaceful poll, with low turnout pointing to growing frustration with the political elite.

Preliminary results broadcast by Kenyan television suggest a tight race for the presidency between Deputy President William Ruto and Raila Odinga, the veteran opposition leader now backed by the ruling party.

Both men have vowed to maintain calm following Tuesday’s poll, but the memory of past election-related violence remains fresh for many Kenyans, who have urged political parties to accept the results.

With pressure building on the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), which has to declare the results by August 16, officials worked overnight to count votes and dispel rigging fears, as observers watched.

By 10:00 am (0700 GMT) on Wednesday, the national tallying centre had received nearly 95 percent of the presidential results forms transmitted from thousands of polling stations.

“We call for patience among Kenyans as we undertake this rigorous exercise and also endeavour to complete this exercise as soon as possible,” IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati said in a late-night briefing.

Kenyans, some of whom lined up before dawn to cast their ballot, voted in six elections on Tuesday, choosing a new president as well as senators, governors, lawmakers, woman representatives and some 1,500 county officials.

Despite the early show of enthusiasm however, turnout was markedly lower than previous years, suggesting that for some Kenyans at least, patience with years of unfulfilled promises was running out.

According to latest IECB figures, turnout at 4:00 pm Tuesday, 10 hours after polling began, was just over 56 percent of the 22 million registered voters.

That compares with a final turnout in the disputed August 2017 election of 78 percent.

Some Kenyans said they just wanted the election cycle to end so they could focus on putting food on the table in a country hit by skyrocketing inflation and an unemployment crisis. 

“The election was done yesterday, I am not interested in wasting more time on it,” Celestine Muoki, a 28-year-old IT specialist, told AFP.

“Let us move on,” she said, echoing the exhaustion felt by many in Kenya.

– ‘Lack of faith in politicians’ –

But few Kenyans expect either Ruto or Odinga to accept the result without a fight, reflecting earlier polls in the East African nation where no presidential election outcome has gone uncontested since 2002.

Once the heir-apparent, Ruto, 55, found himself banished to the sidelines after two-term President Uhuru Kenyatta — who cannot run a third time — joined hands with his former foe Odinga, 77, in a move that stunned the country.

Since then, the wealthy businessman has cast himself as the champion of “hustlers” trying to survive in a country ruled by “dynasties” — the Kenyatta and Odinga families that have dominated Kenyan politics since independence from Britain in 1963.

With a third of Kenya’s population living in poverty, economic pressures weighed on voters even before the war in Ukraine sent the prices of essential goods soaring.

Prior to the election, some observers surmised that the economy could surpass tribal affiliations as a key factor driving voter behaviour, while others said politicians’ failure to tackle the crisis could keep people away from the ballot all together.

“Many Kenyans… have cited their lack of faith in politicians to improve their current economic circumstances as the main reason for not participating in the August polls,” Oxford Economics said in a note last week.

– ‘Calm and peaceful’ –

If neither Ruto nor Odinga wins more than 50 percent of the vote, Kenya will stage a run-off for the first time in its history.

Kenya’s international partners are closely watching the election in a country deemed a beacon of regional stability.

Local polls were suspended in several areas on Tuesday, triggering a protest in one case, but police said the electoral process had largely “remained calm and peaceful with no major incidents to report”.

Security is tight nationwide, with a view to preventing a repeat of the post-election violence that has hit Kenya in the past, and schools have been ordered to remain closed until Monday.

The 2007 poll was followed by politically motivated ethnic clashes that killed more than 1,100 people, while Odinga’s challenge to the 2017 election result was met with a heavy-handed police response that left dozens dead.

A landmark sexual harassment case in China returned to court Wednesday after an earlier ruling dealt a blow to the country’s fledgling #MeToo movement.

Zhou Xiaoxuan stepped forward in 2018 to accuse state TV host Zhu Jun of forcibly kissing and groping her during her 2014 internship at the broadcaster.

While the case of Zhou, now 29, inspired many others to share their experiences of sexual assault publicly and sparked a social media storm, a court ruled last year there was insufficient evidence to back her allegation.

Zhou appealed, and returned to court for another hearing on Wednesday in Beijing.

“I still feel a little scared and dejected,” she told AFP ahead of the hearing. 

“The process of the first trial was a deep secondary injury.”

Police cordoned off long stretches of pavement outside the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court ahead of her arrival, with officers logging the details of passers-by.

Zhou told AFP her legal team would focus on getting access to more evidence, such as the police transcripts of interviews with her parents after she reported the incident — which were not included in the earlier trial.

They are also requesting access to surveillance video footage.

Zhou said Zhu was absent from earlier proceedings, and that while he had sued her for defamation, she was not aware of further developments in that case.

A small group of supporters came to wish Zhou luck on Wednesday, holding up signs that said “#MeToo” and balloons spelling out “All the best” in Chinese.

“Four years have passed, and the most important thing is that we have raised this question: When a woman encounters sexual harassment in a closed space, is her pain worth paying attention to?” Zhou said to supporters.

“There may be no answer today, but the most important thing is that we put this question here.”

– ‘Too difficult’ –

Zhou, also known by the pseudonym Xianzi, originally sued for a public apology from Zhu and 50,000 yuan ($7,400) in damages.

Her first hearing in December 2020 drew a large crowd and a significant police presence in Beijing.

Reporters from foreign media outlets including AFP were dragged away by police while filming the scene.

“The process for my case has truly been too difficult,” Zhou told AFP.

“I worry that other victims fear standing up for their rights after seeing what I’ve experienced.”

But she added that with her case, “perhaps the next victim that walks into court can receive more trust”.

Her case against Zhu was originally filed under the “personality rights” law — covering rights relating to an individual’s health and body.

But her lawyers later asked for it to be considered under a new sexual harassment law that was passed in 2020.

Despite that law, many women in China are still reluctant to come forward with harassment charges, and it is rare for cases to make it to court in a legal system that places a heavy burden on the claimant.

The country’s #MeToo movement has stumbled since 2018, when a wave of women published allegations of sexual harassment against university professors.

Threatened at the time by the prospect of an uncontrolled mass movement, internet censors quickly began blocking social media hashtags and keywords.

A Pakistan zoo has called off plans to auction 12 lions from its ever-growing pride to private buyers, saying it would instead create new enclosures for the big cats.

The auction planned for Thursday had drawn condemnation from the WWF, which urged authorities at Lahore Safari Zoo to instead rehome them with other government wildlife facilities.

“The main reason behind the auction was the lack of space,” deputy director Tanvir Ahmed Janjua told AFP, adding officials had decided to speed up work building two new enclosures.

“Now that this issue is to be resolved soon, there is no need for the auction to take place.”

Set over 200 acres, Lahore Safari Zoo is considered one of the best in the country — where zoos are known for disregarding animal welfare. 

The Lahore facility is currently home to 29 lions, six resident tigers and two jaguars.

Zoo officials had set a reserve of 150,000 Pakistan rupees ($700) per cat — about the same price as a cow — but hoped each would fetch around two million rupees at auction.

Keeping lions, tigers and other exotic wildlife as pets is not uncommon in Pakistan, and is seen as a status symbol.

Wealthy owners post images and video clips of their big cats on social media, and rent them out as props for movies and photoshoots.

Janjua denied opposition from animal rights activists had led to the decision to cancel the auction.

“Should the lions breed more, and we see we are running out of space once again, then we can easily hold another auction,” he said.

A beluga whale stranded in the Seine river in northern France for more than a week was removed from the water early Wednesday in a risky rescue operation, but officials warned it was in poor health.

After nearly six hours of work by dozens of divers and rescuers, the 800-kilogram (1,800-pound) cetacean was lifted from the river by a net and crane at around 4:00 am (0200 GMT) and placed on a barge under the immediate care of a dozen veterinarians.

The beluga, a protected species usually found in cold Arctic waters, was then given a health check and driven in a refrigerated truck toward the coastal town of Ouistreham.

Upon arrival, the beluga will be installed in a seawater lock where it will be held for observation for several days before being released into the open sea.

But officials in Eure, where the beluga was stranded, said the whale was worryingly thin.

“It bodes, according to veterinarians, for a poor vital prognosis,” the Eure prefecture said in a statement after the rescue operation, which it said was “particularly complex”. 

The four-metre (13-foot) whale was spotted more than a week ago heading towards Paris and was stranded about 130 kilometres (81 miles) inland from the Channel at Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne in Normandy.

Since Friday, the animal’s movement inland had been blocked by a lock at Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne, 70 kilometres (44 miles) northwest of Paris, and its health deteriorated after it refused to eat.

Isabelle Dorliat-Pouzet, secretary general of the Eure prefecture, said earlier that medical tests would be carried out before transporting the whale. 

“He is a male, that he is very underweight and that he has a few sores,” she said. 

– ‘A great day’ –

The animal’s rescue was hailed online after a nail-biting few days.  

“Today is a great day for this beluga whale and for everyone involved in its rescue,” conservation group Sea Shepherd said on its website.

But the operation to return it to the sea is not without risk, said Isabelle Brasseur of the Marineland sea animal park in southern France, part of a Marineland team sent to assist with the rescue.

“It could be that he dies now, during the handling, during the journey or at point B,” in Ouistreham, she told AFP Tuesday.

The 24 divers involved in the operation and the rescuers handling the ropes had to try several times between 10:00 pm and 4:00 am to lure the animal into the nets to be lifted out of the water.

As preparations for the operation got under way, people gathered along the banks of the river to observe.

“I’m hopeful that he will reach the sea and that he will not end up like the orca,” said Isabelle Rainsart, referring to a killer whale that was spotted in the Seine in May but later died. 

“We will wait to see how the transport goes, but we may have already succeeded in the hard part,” added Rainsart, who first filmed the beluga on August 2 from her garden overlooking the river.

Interest in the beluga’s fate has spread far beyond France, generating a large influx of financial donations and other aid from conservation groups as well as individuals, officials said.

While belugas migrate south in the autumn to feed as ice forms in their native Arctic waters, they rarely venture so far.

According to France’s Pelagis Observatory, which specialises in sea mammals, the nearest beluga population is off the Svalbard archipelago, north of Norway, 3,000 kilometres from the Seine.

The trapped whale is only the second beluga ever sighted in France. The first was pulled out of the Loire estuary in a fisherman’s net in 1948.