China running 380 detention centres in Xinjiang: Researchers
Australian study finds camps have expanded, despite claims that Uighurs were being released.
China’s network of detention centres in the northwest Xinjiang region is much bigger than previously thought and is being expanded, even as Beijing says it is winding down a “re-education” programme for ethnic Uighurs that has been condemned internationally, new research released by an Australian think-tank showed on Thursday.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) said it had identified more than 380 “suspected detention facilities” in the region, where the United Nations says more than one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking residents have been held in recent years.
Chad halts lake's world heritage status request over oil exploration
Exclusive: African state says it has agreements with oil companies in Lake Chad area
Chad has asked to suspend an application for world heritage site status for Lake Chad to explore oil and mining opportunities in the region, it can be revealed.
In a letter leaked to the Guardian, Chad’s tourism and culture minister wrote to Unesco, the body which awards the world heritage designation, asking to “postpone the process of registering Lake Chad on the world heritage list”.
The letter says the government “has signed production-sharing agreements with certain oil companies whose allocated blocks affect the area of the nominated property”.
Nothing says world heritage like drilling for oil and mining.
Joshua Wong: Hong Kong police release activist on bail
Pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong was held for attending an unauthorized rally and violating an anti-mask ban during protests last year. Wong was released after just three hours in detention.
Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong was arrested Thursday for "unlawful assembly" related to a 2019 protest against a government ban on face masks, according to a post on his official Twitter account. He was later released after three hours in detention.
The post said that Wong was also being held for violating the anti-mask law — a ban on wearing face masks in public places, which has since been ruled unconstitutional.
French Open takes a hit amid tight Covid-19 rules and new crowd limit
A Bosnian competitor of this year’s French Open has threatened to sue organisers of the claycourt major following his forced withdrawal over what he claims was a “false positive Covid test”. The backlash comes as Roland Garros chiefs prepared to drastically cut crowd capacity to 1,000 fans a day.
Having been pushed back four months to September to avoid the worst of the Covid pandemic, the French Open at Roland Garros faces a potential lawsuit from a disgruntled Bosnian competitor and a fresh tightening of its health safety rules.
The French Open was bracing Thursday to cut its crowd capacity once again to as low as 1,000 a day after the French Health minister Olivier Véran announced new measures against the deadly pandemic. French tennis officials had already reduced the maximum number of fans to 5,000 ten days ago, down from the 11,500 limit set during summer. Before Covid, the French Open venue was able to host as many as 50,000 fans per day.
Will Europe's second wave of Covid-19 cases mean a second huge death toll?
Updated 1022 GMT (1822 HKT) September 24, 2020
At first glance, the outlook doesn't seem too grim. While reported coronavirus cases are reaching record highs as Europe endures a "second wave," deaths are still well below their peak in April.
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