Six In The Morning Friday 19 February 2021

 

Allegations of shackled students and gang rape inside China's detention camps

By Ivan Watson and Rebecca Wright, CNN

Updated 1514 GMT (2314 HKT) February 19, 2021

On the first day of her new teaching job at a Chinese government-run detention center in Xinjiang, Qelbinur Sidik said she saw two soldiers carry a young Uyghur woman out of the building on a stretcher.

"There was no spark of life in her face. Her cheeks were drained of color, she was not breathing," said Sidik, a former elementary school teacher who says she was forced to spend several months teaching at two detention centers in Xinjiang in 2017.

A policewoman who worked at the camp later told her the woman had died from heavy bleeding, though she didn't say what caused it. It was the first of many stories the policewoman would tell Sidik during the teacher's three-month assignment at the heavily-fortified building that housed female detainees.

United Nations asks UAE for proof that Princess Latifa is alive

Request for information on Dubai ruler’s missing daughter follows release of secretly recorded messages

Michael Safi

@safimichael

Fri 19 Feb 2021 14.59 GMT

The UN has asked the United Arab Emirates for proof that the Dubai ruler’s daughter is still alive, after the release of secret messages she recorded this week claiming she was being held in captivity after the failure of a 2018 attempt to escape the emirate.

A spokesperson for Michelle Bachelet, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said on Friday that the UN had “expressed our concerns regarding the situation, in light of the disturbing videos which have surfaced this week. We have requested more information and clarification on the current situation.”

She added: “We asked for proof of life.”

UK COVID-19 infections falling as govt mulls easing lockdown

Clear evidence has emerged that the rate of coronavirus infections across the U.K. is falling sharply just days before British Prime Minister Boris Johnson outlines a roadmap for potentially easing lockdown restrictions in England

Via AP news wire

Clear evidence emerged Friday that the rate of coronavirus infections across the U.K. is falling sharply, just days before British Prime Minister Boris Johnson outlines a roadmap for potentially easing lockdown restrictions in England following the rapid rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.

The Office for National Statistics said in its weekly infection survey that one in 115 people tested positive for COVID-19 in England in the week to Feb. 12. In the previous week, the rate stood at one in 80. A similar picture emerged in the other three nations of the U.K. — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Warner demands licence fees for 'Jerusalema' videos

The "Jerusalema" dance challenge created a feel-good sense of community around the world. But now Warner Music is demanding license fees for using the song.

There haven't been many opportunities to create a sense of community in the past few months, with lockdowns and strict social distancing rules in place. In the coronavirus pandemic, the internet has become a place of refuge to stay connected.

The "Jerusalema Challenge" has been one way in which people have built a sense of togetherness in 2020. People around the world shot videos of them dancing to the song by the South African singer Master KG, which was released at the end of 2019.

Colombian military accused of 6,400 extrajudicial killings

Colombia's military carried out at least 6,400 extrajudicial killings and presented them as combat deaths between 2002 and 2008, a number significantly higher than previously estimated, a special court said Thursday. 

The court, called the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, is investigating crimes and atrocities committed during half a century of armed conflict between government troops and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Marxist rebels who laid down their weapons following a historic 2016 peace accord.

The tribunal, set up under the peace deal, described the killings as "illegitimate deaths presented as combat fatalities," which are known in military circles as "false positives."

In new defense, dozens of Capitol rioters say law enforcement 'let us in' to building

ALEXANDER MALLIN, ALEX HOSENBALL and OLIVIA RUBIN

Fri, February 19, 2021, 2:00 AM

As authorities continue to pursue individuals who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol, a growing number of those charged are employing a new defense: blaming the police for letting them in.

At least 29 people arrested for their role in the Jan. 6 events have claimed they thought they were free to enter the Capitol because law enforcement authorities either didn't stop them from coming in or never told them they were not allowed to be there, according to affidavits and court filings reviewed by ABC News.

"He was not at the front of the lines, he didn't see barricades being knocked down, he didn't see officers getting assaulted, he didn't see anything other than large crowds at the Capitol," Thomas Mayr, the lawyer for Christopher Grider, one of the people accused of participating in the riot, told ABC News. "He went through an open door."