World

More than 75 people have died in Iran’s crackdown on 11 nights of unrest sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a rights group said, as Western nations pile pressure on the Islamic republic to end the violence.

The Iranian authorities’ official death toll has remained at 41 since Saturday, including several members of the security forces, as the country is rocked by its biggest wave of protests in almost three years.

Demonstrators took to the streets again on Monday night — as they have every night since Amini’s death on September 16 following her arrest for allegedly breaching the country’s strict rules on hijab headscarves and modest clothing — witnesses told AFP. 

In Sanandaj, the capital of Amini’s western home province of Kurdistan, women climbed onto the roofs of cars to tear off their headscarves in front of cheering crowds, images published by Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) showed, with police nowhere to be seen.

Tehran crowds have shouted “death to the dictator”, calling for the end of the more than three-decade rule of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 83.

Video shot from several floors above street level, purportedly in the city of Tabriz, showed people protesting to the sound of tear gas canisters being fired by security forces. 

IHR said at least 76 people have been killed in the crackdown that has seen sweeping restrictions imposed on the internet, including blocks on Instagram and WhatsApp.

Officials said Monday they had made more than 1,200 arrests. Those taken into custody have included activists, lawyers and journalists as well as protesters.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said it was “very concerned by the continued violent response by security forces to protests in Iran”.

It was “extremely concerned by comments by some leaders vilifying protesters, and by the apparent unnecessary and disproportionate use of force against protesters,” spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a Tuesday briefing. 

– Tensions with West –

Tensions with Western powers grew as France on Monday issued its “strongest condemnation” over the “violent repression” by security forces, Germany summoned the Iranian ambassador and Canada announced sanctions.

A day earlier, the European Union had deplored the crackdown and Tehran said it had called in the British and Norwegian envoys.

“We call on the international community to decisively and unitedly take practical steps to stop the killing and torture of protesters,” said IHR’s director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.

Video footage and death certificates obtained by IHR showed that “live ammunition is being directly fired at protesters,” he charged.  

Riot police in black body armour have beaten protesters with truncheons in running street battles, and students have torn down large pictures of the supreme leader and his predecessor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in recent video footage published by AFP.

At least 20 journalists have been arrested, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. 

– ‘Demands of the people’ –

The Iranian judiciary chief, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, has stressed “the need for decisive action without leniency” against the protest instigators.

But a powerful Shiite cleric long aligned with the country’s ultra-conservative establishment has urged authorities to take a softer line. 

“The leaders must listen to the demands of the people, resolve their problems and show sensitivity to their rights,” said Grand Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamedani.

The bloody crackdown has drawn condemnation from Western government, clouding diplomatic efforts to revive a nuclear deal between Iran and major powers that was abandoned by then US president Donald Trump in 2018.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who has led those efforts, on Sunday slammed Iran for its “widespread and disproportionate use of force against nonviolent protesters”. 

The United States last week imposed sanctions against the Iranian morality police, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that his own country would follow suit as part of a sanctions package “on dozens of individuals and entities”.

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Japanese and foreign dignitaries paid tribute to assassinated former prime minister Shinzo Abe at a state funeral on Tuesday that drew both mourners and protesters to central Tokyo.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida described the former leader as a “person of courage” in a eulogy, listing his achievements, including efforts to strengthen Japan’s diplomatic ties.

“I feel heart-breaking grief,” Kishida said as he faced a photograph of Abe that was hung above a grand floral structure used to display his ashes, medals and the Japanese flag.

The decorative box of ashes had been carried by his widow Akie into Tokyo’s storied Budokan venue, where a 19-gun salute sounded in honour of the slain politician.

Abe was Japan’s longest-serving prime minister and one of the country’s most recognisable political figures, known for cultivating international alliances and his “Abenomics” economic strategy.

He resigned in 2020 over recurring health problems, but remained a key political voice and was campaigning for his ruling party when a lone gunman killed him with a homemade weapon on July 8.

The shooting sent shock waves through a country with famously low gun crime and prompted international condemnation.

But the decision to give him a state funeral — only the second for a former premier in the post-war period — has provoked opposition, with around 60 percent of Japanese against the event in recent polls.

– ‘So much opposition’ –

US Vice-President Kamala Harris and world leaders including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian premier Anthony Albanese were among those in attendance at the Budokan.

Outside, thousands of people stood in line as the ashes arrived, waiting to deliver flowers and say a prayer in two mourning tents.

Koji Takamori came all the way from northern Hokkaido with his nine-year-old son.

“I wanted to thank him. He has done so much for Japan,” the 46-year-old told AFP.

“The way he died was so shocking. To be honest, I also came because there has been so much opposition. It’s almost like I’m here to oppose those who are opposing this (funeral),” he added.

Those opponents were also out, marching near the tents before a larger demonstration in front of the parliament.

“There are people struggling financially who suffered particularly under the ‘Abenomics’ policies. We must not forget this,” Ryo Machida, a 19-year-old student, said outside the Budokan.

“He may have been a strong leader, but in hindsight, he was iron-fisted and anti-democratic.”

– Divisive tenure –

Abe’s accused killer targeted the former leader believing he had ties to the Unification Church, which the attacker resented over massive donations his mother had made to the sect.

The assassination prompted fresh scrutiny of the church and its fundraising — and uncomfortable questions for Japan’s political establishment, with the ruling party admitting around half its lawmakers had links to the religious organisation.

Kishida has pledged the party will sever all ties with the church, but the scandal helped fuel discontent over the state funeral.

Thousands have protested in the run-up to the ceremony and a man set himself on fire last week near the prime minister’s office, leaving notes reportedly expressing his objection to the event.

Some lawmakers from opposition parties are also boycotting the funeral.

The controversy has several roots, with some accusing Kishida of unilaterally approving the funeral instead of consulting parliament, and others resentful of a nearly $12 million price tag.

It is also the legacy of Abe’s divisive tenure, marked by persistent allegations of cronyism, and opposition to his nationalism and plans to reform the pacifist constitution.

Kishida’s government may have hoped the solemnity of the event, attended by an estimated 4,300 people including 700 foreign invitees, would drown out the controversy.

Abe worked to cultivate close ties with Washington to bolster the key US-Japan alliance, and also courted a stronger “Quad” grouping of Japan, the United States, India and Australia.

Japan’s emperor and empress are not attending, as neutral national figures, but Crown Prince Akishino and his wife led mourners in offering flowers at the end of the service.

Hurricane Ian made landfall in western Cuba early Tuesday, with the Caribbean nation and the US state of Florida ramping up preparations for high winds and potential flooding.

About 50,000 people in Cuba’s western Pinar del Rio province moved to safer locations, 6,000 of them to state-run shelters and the rest to the homes of relatives and friends, local authorities said.

“Ian is already over Cuban territory,” said a meteorologist from the institute in a special broadcast on state television. “The outer wall of the storm is on the coast of the province of Pinar del Rio.”

The US National Hurricane Center had warned in an advisory issued early Tuesday that Ian had strengthened into a major Category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

“The maximum winds are now estimated to be 115 miles (185 kilometers) per hour with higher gusts,” it said.

– ‘Storm surge’ –

In Florida, the city of Tampa was under a hurricane watch, and Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in all 67 counties as officials scrambled to prepare for the storm’s forecast landing on Wednesday or Thursday.

Ian “will bring heavy rains, strong winds, flash flooding, storm surge, along with isolated tornado activity along Florida’s Gulf Coast,” DeSantis said at a press conference in Tallahassee on Monday.

He warned people to prepare for power cuts.

“Even if the eye of the storm doesn’t hit your region, you’re going to have really significant winds, it’s going to knock over trees, it’s going to cause interruptions,” DeSantis said, warning of likely flooding.

The governor urged residents to stock up on food, water, medicine and fuel, and he called up 7,000 National Guard members to help with the effort.

Authorities in several Florida municipalities, including Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa, started distributing free sandbags to residents to help protect their homes from the risk of flooding.

Tampa International Airport said it would suspend operations on Tuesday at 5:00 pm local time (2100 GMT).

US President Joe Biden approved emergency aid to 24 counties in Florida through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

NASA said it was rolling back its massive Moon rocket into its storage hangar at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida due to the hurricane.

– Fiona’s wake –

The Caribbean and parts of eastern Canada are still counting the cost of powerful storm Fiona, which tore through last week, claiming several lives.

When it arrived in Canada, the storm packed intense winds of 80 miles per hour, bringing torrential rain and waves of up to 40 feet (12 meters).

Three people are believed to have died when Fiona barreled into Canada’s Atlantic provinces as a post-tropical cyclone early Saturday.

Prince Edward Island authorities confirmed the death of one person, while officials in Newfoundland said they found the body of a 73-year-old woman believed to have been swept from her home. She was apparently sheltering in her basement when waves broke through.

A third person has been reported missing in Nova Scotia — one of the hardest-hit provinces — and is presumed dead.

“The devastation is immense,” Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston told reporters. “The magnitude of the storm is incredible.”

Storm surges swept at least 20 homes into the sea in the town of Channel-Port aux Basques, on the southwestern tip of Newfoundland.

Around 200 residents had been evacuated before the storm hit.

“Some people have lost everything, and I mean everything,” Mayor Brian Button told CBC News.

The leader of Britain’s main opposition Labour party will make the case Tuesday that his once-fractured party is ready to lead the UK out of economic crisis as the country grapples soaring inflation and imminent recession.

Keir Starmer will tell Labour’s annual conference, just days after the pound crashed to unprecedented lows against the dollar, that new Prime Minister Liz Truss and the ruling Conservatives have “lost control of the British economy”.

His keynote speech will also insist that Labour — out of power for 12 years and dogged in recent times by ideological infighting — is now “the party of the centre ground” and of “sound money”, according to his office.

The pound’s plunge has been blamed on a mini-budget unveiled on Friday by Britain’s new finance minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, which cut a host of taxes — including for the highest earners — and raised government borrowing.

“What we’ve seen from the government in the past few days has no precedent,” Starmer will say. “They’ve lost control of the British economy — and for what? For tax cuts for the richest one per cent in our society.”

Despite the gloomy economic outlook, Labour’s rank-and-file are gathering in an upbeat mood in England’s northwest city of Liverpool. The party appears more unified than at any point in recent years and has a comfortable lead in the polls.

“When it’s been said in the past that Labour’s back, it’s felt a little hollow sometimes, but the atmosphere here is really good,” conference attendee Ceri Powe, 31, told AFP. “It’s quite exciting.”

Starmer, 60, took over the Labour leadership in April 2020 from the radical Jeremy Corbyn.

– ‘Got to get back in’ –

He struggled to break through with the British public during the Covid pandemic. But the financial crisis and the Tories’ problems under their previous scandal-plagued prime minister Boris Johnson, have revived Labour. 

The latest poll by YouGov showed Labour with a 17-point lead, its biggest since the era of Tony Blair, who won an unprecedented three general elections from 1997.

The next election, however, is not due until January 2025 at the latest, when the party will try to overturn the majority of 80 that Johnson won against Corbyn in 2019.

Starmer has taken Labour back to centre ground after gaping divides between its left and right flanks under Corbyn.

In an unusual move, attendees at this year’s conference on Sunday sang the national anthem “God Save the King”, beneath images of the late queen Elizabeth II.

Fears the rendition would be marred by boos or heckles from the Corbyn-leaning left proved unfounded.

Starmer will on Tuesday hail that Labour is once again “the political wing of the British people”, in a clear nod to Blair who previously deployed the same phrase. 

“We know we can do it,” Mary Stiles, 75, a former councillor from central England, told AFP of retaking power. “We’ve got to do what Tony Blair did in 1997: we’ve got to get back in and change things.”

– ‘Grown-ups’ –

Starmer has vowed not to reverse the Conservatives’ “hard Brexit” deal, which took Britain out of the European Union’s single market and customs union.

He has also tried to steer clear of culture war issues, revolving around gender and racial politics, instead sticking to core themes around the economy, health care and crime.

On Tuesday, he will promise a new “green prosperity plan” that prioritises economic growth alongside tackling climate change.

But there is disquiet from the party’s traditional union backers about support for workers on strike over pay.

Starmer has barred his top team from appearing on picket lines and been less supportive of the walkouts than some on the party’s left.

The moves have prompted criticism from some unions and predictions they could now cut some of the millions of pounds they give the party annually.

But an uneasy truce appears to have prevailed during the conference and some party members argue Starmer’s position is necessary to show Labour is ready to govern again.

“The grown-ups are back in town,” declared Angela Briggs, 69, a retired head teacher.

Nepali police have sought help from Interpol to locate the country’s fugitive suspended national cricket captain, they said Tuesday.

A Nepali court issued an arrest warrant for Sandeep Lamichhane earlier this month following an allegation of rape by a 17-year-old girl.

But the leg-spinner is thought to have remained in the Caribbean where he was playing in a tournament.

Interpol issued a “diffusion” notice against him on Sunday asking member countries for their co-operation locating him, Nepali police spokesperson Tek Prasad Rai told AFP.

“We hope this will help the arrest of Lamichhane for the investigation of a rape complaint case against him,” he said. 

Lamichhane had pledged on social media Sunday to return home “as soon as possible” to fight the accusation.

Without revealing his whereabouts, the 22-year-old posted on Facebook that he was in “isolation” due to his mental and physical condition, saying the arrest warrant had “made me mentally disturbed”.

Lamichhane had been a poster boy for the rise of cricket in mountainous Nepal, which gained one-day international status in 2018. 

His big break came when he was snapped up by the Delhi Capitals for the money-spinning Indian Premier League in 2018, and he has since been Nepal’s most sought-after cricketer.

After the arrest warrant was issued he was suspended as captain of the national team and he pulled out of the Caribbean Premier League, where he was playing for the Jamaica Tallawahs. 

About 2,300 rape cases were reported in Nepal in the last fiscal year, according to police, but rights workers say many more assaults go unreported. 

Only a handful of women in Nepal spoke out during the #MeToo movement, and those accused have faced little or no repercussions over the allegations.

Japanese and foreign dignitaries paid tribute to assassinated former prime minister Shinzo Abe at a controversial state funeral on Tuesday, as long lines of people gathered to offer flowers and prayers.

Abe’s ashes, carried by his widow Akie, arrived at the storied Budokan venue in Tokyo, where a 19-gun salute sounded in honour of the slain former leader.

In a eulogy, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida described the politician as a “person of courage”, listing his achievements, including efforts to strengthen Japan’s diplomatic ties.

“I feel heart-breaking grief,” Kishida said as he faced a photograph of Abe that was hung above a grand floral structure used to display his ashes, medals and the Japanese flag.

Abe was Japan’s longest-serving prime minister and one of the country’s most recognisable political figures, known for cultivating international alliances and his “Abenomics” economic strategy.

He resigned in 2020 over recurring health problems, but remained a key political voice and was campaigning for his ruling party when a lone gunman killed him with a homemade weapon on July 8.

The shooting sent shock waves through a country with famously low gun crime and prompted international condemnation.

But the decision to give him a state funeral — only the second for a former premier in the post-war period — has provoked opposition, with around 60 percent of Japanese against the event in recent polls.

– ‘So much opposition’ –

US Vice-President Kamala Harris and world leaders including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian premier Anthony Albanese were among those in attendance at the Budokan.

Outside, thousands of people stood in line as the ashes arrived, waiting to deliver flowers and say a prayer in two mourning tents.

Koji Takamori came all the way from northern Hokkaido with his nine-year-old son. “I wanted to thank him. He has done so much for Japan,” the 46-year-old told AFP.

“The way he died was so shocking. To be honest, I also came because there has been so much opposition. It’s almost like I’m here to oppose those who are opposing this (funeral),” he added.

Those opponents were also out, marching near the tents before a demonstration in front of the parliament.

– Discontent over state funeral –

Abe’s accused killer targeted the former leader believing he had ties to the Unification Church, which the attacker resented over massive donations his mother had made to the sect.

The assassination prompted fresh scrutiny of the church and its fundraising, and uncomfortable questions for Japan’s political establishment, with the ruling party admitting around half its lawmakers had links to the religious organisation.

Kishida has pledged the party will sever all ties with the church, but the scandal helped fuel discontent over the state funeral.

Thousands have protested the ceremony and a man set himself on fire last week near the prime minister’s office, leaving notes reportedly expressing his objection to the event.

Some lawmakers from opposition parties are also boycotting the funeral.

The controversy has several causes, with some accusing Kishida of unilaterally approving the funeral instead of consulting parliament, and others resentful of a nearly $12 million price tag.

It is also the legacy of Abe’s divisive tenure, marked by persistent allegations of cronyism, and opposition to his nationalism and plans to reform the pacifist constitution.

Kishida’s government may be hoping the solemnity of the event, attended by an estimated 4,300 people including 700 foreign invitees, will drown out the controversy.

Abe worked to cultivate close ties with Washington to bolster the key US-Japan alliance, and also courted a stronger “Quad” grouping of Japan, the United States, India and Australia.

Japan’s emperor and empress are not attending, as neutral national figures, but Crown Prince Akishino and his wife led mourners in offering flowers at the end of the 90-minute service.