Tibetan residents demanded compensation for land illegally seized by authorities, sources say. Police have arrested and detained four Tibetans who protested Chinese authorities’ seizure of pasture land owned by Tibetans in the Tibet Autonomous Region, three sources inside Tibet told Radio Free Asia. On April 10, residents of Taktsa village in Luonixiang rural township in Markham county in Chamdo, or Changdu in Chinese, clashed with authorities after they appealed against the land grab and demanded compensation, said the sources, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal. In 2023, a Chinese county official illegally sold the pasture land to businessmen without the knowledge of locals and without providing them any compensation, the sources said.  The Tibetans had no knowledge that their land had been seized illegally until this April when the businessmen sent people to clear it. The Tibetans then confronted authorities, demanding payment. Police arrested and detained four of the Tibetans, and slapped and beat many others at the scene, said one of the sources.  There were no immediate details about the status of the four or the charges against them, and it is not clear for what purpose the seized land will be used.  Despite repeated attempts, RFA did not receive any immediate response to calls to Markham county authorities and the local police station.  Chinese authorities in the Tibet Autonomous Region and in Tibetan-populated areas of nearby Chinese provinces often ignore residents’ concerns about mining and land grabs by local officials, who routinely rely on force to subdue those who complain or protest, according to human rights groups. Over the past few years, there have been several reports of similar land grabs that have taken place in Chamdo, a resource-rich area in eastern Tibet.  Most of the land grabs have been related to mining, including copper, gold and lithium, and development projects that China has undertaken in the areas. In some cases, Tibetans have been forced from their homes. The gesture was also seen being made by Buddhist monks and Tibetans residents during February protests in Dege county, southwestern China’s Sichuan province, in an appeal to Chinese officials to stop a planned dam project on the Drichu River. In the videos from Markham county, young and elderly Tibetans kneel before police clad in black, and wail, while others pull and tug at the authorities to heed their pleas. The land in question is used by about 25 Tibetan families to graze their animals and for recreation purposes, the sources said.  Chinese authorities have arrested the official who had colluded with the businessmen to illegally seize the land without compensating the Tibetans, charging him with corruption, said one of the sources.  Now, the residents are demanding compensation for the land that had been occupied, he added. Chinese police have forbidden the Tibetans from sharing information about the incident with people outside China, the sources said.   Source: rfa

Residents launched a protest against the local administration in the Skardu district of Gilgit Baltistan over the arrest of Shabbir Mayyar, a prominent activist who was demanding the opening of Skardu-Kargil Road. The occupied region has long been grappling with severe crises such as high inflation and shortage of commodities, and people have been demanding the resumption of trade with India. The protesters blamed the security forces for misusing the Anti-Terrorism Act against the activists and the residents. The protesters said they believed that the Islamabad-backed local administration in Gilgit Baltistan is against their reasonable demand for the opening of the Skardu-Kargil road and have been arresting those who speak up in their favour. A local leader from the Awami Action Committee addressed a public gathering, demanding the immediate release of Shabbir Mayyar. "He (Shabbir Mayyar) is the voice of Gilgit-Baltistan. He should be released immediately. The only crime Shabbir Mayar committed was that he raised a slogan, 'Aar par Jod do, Kargil border khol do' (Remove barricades from the Kargil border and let the people commute). Whoever speaks of the Kargil border is threatened and punished by them," he said. The arrest of Shabbir Mayyar and many other activists has triggered widespread unrest among locals. Another local activist said, "Our community is not afraid of anyone. Rather than listening to the public, they (the administration) are arresting the poor. They think that by arresting poor people, they can scare us. No, we aren't afraid. We are here to prove them wrong. Through this platform, I announce that we are all with Shabbir Mayar. Unless they are released, we will stand by them." It is believed that the Anti-Terrorism Act, which was introduced to expeditiously bring the perpetrators of terror to justice, has gradually become a tool of extrajudicial killing and repression in Gilgit Baltistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. 

Almost a decade ago, 43 students went missing in southern Mexico while traveling by bus to the capital. The government alleges that a criminal gang killed them. So far, the remains of only three victims have been found. Mexican police have arrested a group of soldiers suspected of being involved in the suspected kidnapping of 43 students who went missing in the country's south in 2014. Assistant Interior Secretary Alejandro Encinas tweeted on Monday that eight soldiers had been taken into custody. Four other soldiers are already in pre-trial detention, including a commander who allegedly ordered the murder of six of the men. What has happened in the case so far? The eight soldiers were arrested last week after the Mexican attorney general's office reactivated 16 arrest warrants that were issued against members of the armyin September 2020 but later annulled. The Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), an independent commission investigating the 2014 disappearance, accused the Mexican armed forces of deliberately withholding information about the case. In August 2022, a commission classified the incident as a state crime due to the alleged involvement of state authorities. The commission's mandate expires on July 31. What happened in the kidnapping of the students? The students from a rural teacher training college in Ayotzinapa, southern Mexico,  disappeared in September 2014 when they were traveling by bus to participate in a demonstration in the capital, Mexico City. The soldiers are alleged to have cooperated with corrupt police in kidnapping the 43 students before handing them over to the crime syndicate Guerreros Unidos for reasons that are not yet known. The government's official version of events states that the cartel members killed the students and incinerated their remains. However, what exactly happened to them remains hotly debated. So far, bone fragments from only three victims have been found and identified.

The protest organizer, Extinction Rebellion, said thousands joined the demonstration in the Hague. Police said 40 of those arrested would be prosecuted for "vandalism." Dutch police arrested over 1500 climate protesters after a climate protest garnered thousands of participants in the Hague, the Netherlands' seat of government. The protest was called for by Extinction Rebellion, a group that originated in the UK which uses non-violent albeit disruptive protest methods to raise climate awareness. Protesters blocked a section of a motorway, near the base of both the Dutch parliament and the prime minister's offices. Extinction Rebellion said some 7,000 took part. Police said 40 of the 1579 people arrested would be prosecuted for "vandalism." They added that security had called on protesters to leave, before using water cannons to disperse them. Some protesters came donning bathing suits, in anticipation of the cannons. Why are the protesters demonstrating? The protests were primarily against fossil fuel subsidies. "Climate change is an unfolding crisis and we know the cause and it's still being subsidized by our government and it needs to stop," protester Anne Kerevers told the French AFP news agency. Saturday's protest was joined by some Dutch celebrities, including actor Carice van Houten. She is best known for her role as Melisandre in the hit TV series Game of Thrones. Van Houten was reportedly among the thousands arrested. Aaron Pereira, a spokesman for Extinction Rebellion, told AFP that the numbers of protesters keeps doubling. The group has organized six other protests blocking the same motorway. "There is broad popular support for real climate action and people are waking up to the fact that the government is actively going against this by subsidizing the fossil fuel industry," Pereira was quoted as saying.

The Hague-based ICC accused Russian President Putin of responsibility for war crimes committed in Ukraine. How to successfully extradite the Russian leader to face trial could prove a far greater challenge. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, over responsibility for war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine during the war ongoing for over a year. The court's accusation centered around the alleged deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia. Moscow said the warrant had no legal bearing on the Russian president.  What do we know about the warrant? ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said his office identified incidents of deporting "at least hundreds of children" taken from Ukrainian orphanages and children's care homes. Many of the children are alleged to have been offered for adoption in Russia since. Khan referred to a legal amendment, based on presidential decrees, which essentially facilitated the adoption of the children by Russian families. "My office alleges that these acts, amongst others, demonstrate an intention to permanently remove these children from their own country," Khan said. "We cannot allow children to be treated as if they are the spoils of war." The Hague-based court said there were reasonable grounds to believe that Putin "committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others," or that he failed to properly control "civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed for their commission, and who were under his effective authority and control, pursuant to superior responsibility." The court did not elaborate on how it intended to carry out the warrant. Russia tends not to cooperate with international extraditions, is not a full member of the ICC, and does not accept its jurisdiction.  The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights, on the same charges Putin was facing.  Russia says warrant 'has no meaning' Russia's Foreign Ministry quickly undermined the significance of the warrant. Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the decision had "no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view." "Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it," she said in a statement on the messaging app Telegram. The Kremlin said it did not recognize the ICC's authority, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying that any of the court's decisions regarding Russia were "null and void."  Peskov added that Russia found the questions raised by the warrant "outrageous and unacceptable." Former president and Putin-confidante Dmitry Medvedev also ridiculed the impact of the arrest warrant. "No need to explain WHERE this paper should be used," Medvedev wrote, using the toilet paper emoji on Twitter. Though it initially signed the Rome Statute in 2000, Moscow never ratified it to become an ICC member. In 2016, under pressure due to its illegal annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and airstrikes in Syria, Russia withdrew its ICC signature.  Ukraine also has not ratified the Rome Statute. However, Kyiv has twice accepted the court's jurisdiction over alleged crimes on its territory regarding Russia's 2014 Crimea annexation and the events both leading up to it and resulting from it. Ukraine welcomes the warrant Ukrainian officials were quick to welcome the news. President Volodymr Zelenskyy hailed it as a "historic decision from which historic responsibility will begin."  "To part children from their families, to prevent them from contacting their relatives, to hide children on the territory of Russia, to disseminate them around far-flung regions is clearly state policy of Russia, state decisions and state evil, which starts precisely with the top official of this state." Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine's presidential office, described the warrant as "just the beginning." Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also applauded the ICC decision.  "International criminals will be held accountable for stealing children and other international crimes," he wrote on Twitter in response. West hails 'important signal' from ICC Western leaders were quick to praise the bid to put Putin on trial.  US President Joe Biden called the arrest warrant "justified," adding that the move "makes a very strong point."  A US State Department spokesperson endorsed the charges. "There is no doubt that Russia is committing war crimes and atrocities [in] Ukraine, and we have been clear that those responsible must be held accountable," the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. Like Russia, the United States is also not an ICC member state. German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann described it as an "important signal of determination," in an interview with the RND network of newspapers. "Anyone who has instigated a bloody war like Putin should have to answer for it in court," Buschmann said. The French Foreign Ministry wrote on Twitter that "no-one responsible for crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine, regardless of their status, should escape justice," in a Tweet. Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly also echoed similar sentiments, stressing firm support for the people of Ukraine. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the warrant is "the start of the process of accountability." Latest international attempt to prosecute a head of state The ICC's Friday warrant makes Putin the third sitting president to be issued an arrest warrant after Sudan's Omar al-Bashir and Libya's Moammar Gadhafi Both Arab autocrats were never arrested as a result of the warrant. Gadhafi was killed in a NATO-backed 2011 uprising, and Bashir was toppled in 2019 protests then tried in Sudan, nearly a decade after his ICC warrant. Other former heads of state like Charles Taylor of Liberia, Slobodan Milosevic of the former Yugoslavia, or Radovan Karadzic of Republika Srpska faced either trial or conviction at special courts in The Hague, but not at the ICC.  The warrant means, however, that Putin would potentially avoid visiting any ICC member states, as he would risk getting arrested.

The ruling means Khan can now travel to Islamabad without being detained to face corruption charges. The former cricketer-turned-politician has been holed up in Lahore as his supporters clashed with police. An arrest warrant for Pakistan's ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan was lifted Friday, allowing him to travel to Islamabad without being held to face charges in a corruption case. One of the country's top courts suspended an arrest warrant issued against the politician after he failed to show up for a hearing on Tuesday. Khan has been holed up at his home in the eastern city of Lahore after his supporters hurled stones and clashed with police for two days to protect the former prime minister from being detained. The court ruling was expected to ease the political standoff. The cricket star turned politican is due in court on Saturday. Khan was told he could face contempt proceedings if he again failed to show up before the judge. Maryam Sharif, a leader in Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's ruling Pakistan Muslim League party, criticized the former PM for resisting arrest and lauded the security forces for their restraint. "The state can arrest him in five minutes, but it exercised restraint to avoid bloodshed," she said. Legal cases against Khan mount Khan is accused of selling gifts given to him by foreign dignitaries when he was prime minister and concealing assets, which he denies. The Election Commission of Pakistan found him guilty and barred him from holding public office for one parliamentary term. The case is one of a string of legal woes facing Khan since his ouster last April. Most of the other charges against him involve incitement to violence. Khan, who was in office from 2018 to 2022, was ousted in a no-confidence vote that he claims was part of a conspiracy by his successor, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and the United States. Both Washington and Sharif's government have denied the allegations. Khan demands early elections Since then, the 70-year-old has been demanding a snap election and holding protests across the country. Khan has avoided several court appearances since November when he was wounded in a gun attack at a protest rally in the eastern Punjab province. Khan says he fears for his life if detained, and has accused authorities of wanting him in jail to stop him from contesting the election, which must be held by October this year. After the warrant was lifted on Friday, Khan left his home for the first time in days to appear in court in Lahore in a case related to this week's clashes. He still enjoys a huge grassroots following and a large crowd of supporters mobbed his convoy as it slowly exited the compound, cheering and waving party flags. Judges later granted Khan reprieves from possible arrest until March 24 in nine other court cases. The political wrangling comes as Pakistan remains mired in an economic crisis, awaiting a bailout package of $1.1 billion (€1.03 billion) from the International Monetary Fund. The security situation is also deteriorating with a spate of deadly attacks on police, allegedly linked to the Pakistan Taliban.

Supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan confronted police outside his home in Lahore. Authorities have tried to arrest Khan, who has been entangled in a string of legal cases. Several people were injured on Wednesday amid clashes between Pakistan's ex-Prime Minister Khan's supporters and police officials outside his Lahore residence. The situation unfolded as the officials came to arrest Khan a day earlier over his non-appearance in court. The court had summoned Khan over accusations of selling state gifts during his office term. What's the latest we know? Police officials have been ordered by the Lahore High Court to postpone their attempts to arrest Khan until Thursday. The former premier's followers hurled rocks and stones at the police and paramilitary personnel who used tear gas and sieged his residence starting on Tuesday. The security later withdrew on Wednesday afternoon, putting a halt to the riots. Supporters of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party also clashed with police in several other cities of Pakistan, including Islamabad, Karachi, Quetta, and Rawalpindi. Early Wednesday morning, Khan also released a video saying that the officials have "no justification" to use tear gas. "Water canons, teargas... they shelled inside the house where there were servants and women," Khan said. Khan also tweeted that he had signed a "surety bond" that ensured that he would appear in court by March 18 but the police officials did not take it into consideration. He also alleged that the officials were using live ammunition. The allegations were denied by the Punjab provincial government which said that more than 100 police officers were injured in the disputes with the PTI supporters in a statement on Wednesday. Failure to appear in court This was the second attempt by the officials to detain Khan, who failed to appear in court to defend charges against him. He has been accused of selling state gifts given to him by foreign dignitaries while he held office from 2018 to 2022, and failing to declare the revenues,   before being ousted in a no-confidence vote. Since November, Khan has avoided his court appearances, afterhe was shot and wounded in a protest, claiming that he is not able to travel between Lahore and Islamabad due to medical issues. He has accused the current government of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif of plotting the cases against him. Sharif's government, however, has denied these accusations. Marriyum Aurangzeb, the country's information minister said in a statement on Tuesday that "instead of cooperating with law enforcement officials, Imran Khan is breaking the law, defying court orders and using his party workers... as human shields to evade arrest and stoke unrest."

Many commentators in Pakistan believe that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry's arrest is the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government's tactic to distract people from the real issues plaguing the country, Inside Over reported. For the PTI, the leader's detention is a good excuse to play the 'victim' card and garner public support. In all this, Pakistan is facing more political unrest amidst a failing economy. The arrest followed Chaudhry's public criticism of the PDM government for allegedly planning to arrest former prime minister and PTI chief, Imran Khan. Chaudhry's arrest has strongly signalled that Pakistan's powerful military establishment may not support Imran Khan and his party in the upcoming provincial elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to Inside Over. Imran Khan, following Chaudhry's arrest on January 25, called on Pakistan's judiciary to protect the fundamental rights of his party leaders. He made it clear that he would continue challenging the people behind his controversial ouster from power. Meanwhile, Geo-politik reported that Pakistan is currently at the beginning of the worst economic crisis since the country's formation in 1947. Pakistan may face a disaster like never before unless China or Saudi Arabia bail out the country. The Pakistani rupee has plummeted to PKR 250 against the dollar, and the currency had to forego 12 per cent of its value. The country's government has raised the price of petrol and diesel by Pak Rs 35 per litre.  Source: ANI

Yuesheng Wang, whose work at public utility Hydro-Quebec related to battery materials, is accused of allegedly trying to steal trade secrets to benefit Beijing. Canadian authorities arrested an employee of public utility firm Hydro-Quebec on Monday and charged him with espionage for allegedly trying to steal trade secrets and sending them to China. Yuesheng Wang, 35, was an employee and researcher for the firm whose work related to battery materials, said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Wang was taken into custody at his home in Candiac, a suburb of Montreal, and due to appear in court on Tuesday. He is accused of obtaining trade secrets, using a computer without authorization, deception to gain trade secrets, and breach of trust by public officer. The public utility company Hydro-Quebec oversees the production, transmission, and distribution of electricity within the Canadian province as well as its export to parts of the northeastern United States. How was the crime committed? According to the RCMP, its national security enforcement team started investigating Wang after a complaint from Hydro-Quebec. Wang worked in a facility that developed technologies for energy storage and electric automobiles. He had been recently fired citing "serious breaches of the company's code of ethics." The researcher is accused of allegedly using his position to carry out research for a Chinese university and other Chinese research institutions while working for Hydro-Quebec, according to RCMP Inspector David Beaudoin. "He obtained this information to benefit the Peoples Republic of China to the detriment of Canada's economic interest," Beaudoin said. Wang allegedly submitted patent applications and published scientific publications in "association with this foreign actor rather than with Hydro Quebec," according to the RCMP inspector, using Hydro-Quebec data without permission or knowledge. Referring to the espionage charge under the Security of Information Act, Beaudoin said it was "the first time this charge has been laid in Canada." According to the police, Wang committed the crimes between February 2018 and October 2022. The race for EV dominance China is now the world's largest supplier of materials for batteries used in electric vehicles, while Canada is attempting to increase local manufacturing of EV batteries and battery components. "The fact that this alleged espionage was with respect to the battery ecosystem just reminds me how careful we'll need to be," Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said. Invoking national security, Canada recently demanded that three Chinese corporations sell their holdings in crucial Canadian resources. Since the detention of Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou in 2018 and Beijing's subsequent arrest of two Canadians on spying charges, diplomatic relations between Canada and China have been frayed. The tensions have since eased following the release of all three people last year.

Journalist organizations across Pakistan on Wednesday strongly condemned the arrest of ARY News head Ammad Yousaf and demanded his immediate release. The journalists’ bodies and press clubs termed the arrest of ARY News senior Vice President an act of victimization and said that journalists will call for a nationwide protest if Ammad Yousaf is not released immediately, ARY News reported. Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) in its statement said that the government should come to its senses. PFUJ leader, Lala Asad Pathan said, “The government’s action is very shameful. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif should take immediate action into the matter.” PFUJ Dastoor Secretary General AH Khanzada said that if Ammad Yousaf is not released immediately, journalists will call for a nationwide protest. “Restrictions on freedom of expression will not be tolerated in any way, Lahore Press Club has also demanded the immediate release of the ARY News head,” said the Secretary of Karachi Press Club, Rizwan Bhatti. Yousuf’s arrest comes after the channel, which is the country’s biggest private broadcaster, was served a show cause notice by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) on Monday. Meanwhile, the founder and CEO of the network Salman Iqbal along with two other anchors have been booked for sedition. On the complaint of the Station House Officer (SHO), a First Information Report (FIR) has been registered at Karachi’s Memon Goth police station. According to the channel, the FIR was registered just an hour before the arrest of ARY News head Ammad Yousaf. Anchorpersons, Arshad Sharif and Khawar Ghuman have been booked under the ‘sedition’ charges. The FIR has been registered under sections 120, 124A, 131, and 153A in which sedition and charges of plotting alleged conspiracy have been included. A day after the transmission of Pakistani television station ARY News was taken off air by the country’s regulatory authorities, the outlet’s senior Vice President Ammad Yousaf was arrested from Karachi in the early hours of Wednesday, the channel said. ARY News said that its journalist was arrested by Karachi Police and a raiding team broke into his house from the main gate in the middle of the night. It has termed Yousaf’s arrest as retaliation by the government against the channel and noted that police officers in plain clothes forcibly entered the journalist’s house. Regulatory watchdog PEMRA has alleged that the channel was airing “false, hateful and seditious” content based on “absolute disinformation with a clear and present threat to national security by instigating rebellion within the armed forces”, Dawn reported. In its notice to the news outlet, the regulatory watchdog also termed the news anchor who delivered the news as “biased.” PEMRA has also directed the channel’s CEO to appear in person for a hearing today (August 10). The entire episode was perpetuated due to a news piece aired by the channel on how the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) has reportedly activated its strategic media cell to malign Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman and the country’s former prime minister Imran Khan. The PEMRA notice to ARY News alleged that PTI leader Shehbaz Gill had made “highly hateful and seditious” remarks tantamount to “incite armed forces towards revolt,” Dawn reported. Shortly after ARY News was taken off the air, PTI leader and close aide of Imran Khan, Shahbaz Gill was arrested in Islamabad on Tuesday. An Islamabad police spokesperson said that Gill has been taken into custody for inciting the public against the state institutions, Geo News reported. “After the ban on ARY yesterday, they’ve today arrested @SHABAZGIL. Pakistan is living under a fascist imported government, that doesn’t care about the human rights of the people of Pakistan. We strongly demand the immediate release of Dr Gill,” Imran Khan’s PTI tweeted yesterday. PTI leader and former federal minister Fawad Chaudhry said that Gill was picked up from Banigala Chowk by unidentified personnel in cars with missing number plates. Meanwhile, the former prime minister slammed the arrest, asking “can such shameful acts take place in any democracy?” “This is abduction, not an arrest. Can such shameful acts take place in any democracy? Political workers treated as enemies. And all to make us accept a foreign-backed government of crooks,” Imran Khan tweeted. After the arrest of Gill, the country’s Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said that the current government has not broken the law and that the arrest was legal. In another key development, Pakistan Muslim League Quaid (PML-Q) leader Moonis Elahi said that he is sending Punjab Police for the protection of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan’s residence Banigala. Former interior minister of Pakistan and Awami Muslim League chief, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed has warned the Shehbaz Sharif-led Pakistan government saying that if anyone tries to arrest Imran Khan that would trigger instability and bloody politics in the country. Source: ANI