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A30 world news
Dialuna 5 OctOber 2020

Over 100,000 march in Belarus against authoritarian leader

approaching a water cannon The government has since Association of Journalists, 11
vehicle, opening a hatch on scaled down on the violence, Belarusian reporters were de-
its side and removing pieces but kept the pressure on, tained Sunday in several cit-
from inside the vehicle. Me- detaining hundreds of pro- ies. Last week, Belarus' For-
dia reports say the water can- testers and prosecuting top eign Ministry rescinded the
non malfunctioned after that activists. Many prominent accreditation of all journal-
and drove away. members of the Coordina- ists working for foreign news
The Viasna human rights tion Council, formed by the outlets and said they must
center said that about 120,000 opposition to push for a tran- apply for new credentials.
took part in a rally on Sunday. sition of power, have been Tsikhanouskaya, who en-
Mass protests have rocked either arrested of forced to tered the presidential race to
Belarus for almost two leave the country. run instead of her husband
months, with the largest ral- More than 10,000 people Siarhei, a popular opposition
lies taking place on Sundays have been detained since blogger jailed in May, issued
and drawing up to 200,000 the election and at least 244 a statement Sunday support-
people. The unprecedented people have been implicated ing the protest and demands
wave of unrest was triggered in criminal cases on various to free political prisoners.
by the results of the Aug. charges related to the pro- She herself was forced to
9 presidential election that tests, Viasna human rights leave Belarus in fear for her
handed Lukashenko, who center leader Ales Bialiatski safety and that of her chil-
has run Belarus with an iron told The Associated Press. dren and is currently in exile
fist for 26 years, a crushing Over 70 people have been in Lithuania.
victory with 80% of the vote. declared political prisoners. "These are the people who,
His main challenger, Svi- On Sunday, dozens of people like Siarhei Tsikhanouski,
atlana Tsikhanouskaya, got were detained in Minsk and haven't seen their family and
only 10%. She and her sup- other cities. Viasna released children for several months.
porters refused to recognize a list of detained protesters These are the people who
the results as valid, saying the on its website that by Sunday suffered for their convic-
outcome of the vote was ma- evening had over 160 names tions, and are still suffering.
(AP) — More than 100,000 dent Alexander Lukashenko, nipulated. on it. Our goal is to free them. So
people marched in Belarus' and freedom for political In the first days after the "A campaign of intimidation I support everyone who takes
capital on Sunday to protest prisoners. Police used wa- vote, Belarusian authorities and persecution, unprece- to the streets in their city to-
against the country's authori- ter cannons in an attempt to cracked down brutally on the dented for Europe, has been day," Tsikhanouskaya said.
tarian leader, who won his disperse the crowds, but the protesters, with police de- launched in Belarus against "Let the whole world see:
sixth term in office in an elec- protesters remained unde- taining thousands and injur- peaceful citizens who want Belarusians want to live in
tion widely seen as rigged. terred. ing scores with truncheons, one thing — free elections," freedom, not in prison," she
The demonstrators demand- One video from the rally rubber bullets and stun gre- Bialiatski said. added.
ed the resignation of Presi- showed a group of protesters nades. According to the Belarusian

Man assaulted, wounded outside synagogue in German city

(AP) — A man was assaulted then taken to a hospital with tioning him was difficult. nearby kebab stall after fail- "This is not an isolated case
and wounded outside a syna- injuries that were described News agency dpa reported, ing to force his way into the — this is repugnant anti-
gogue in Hamburg on Sun- as "significant" but not life- without citing sources, that building. Semitism and we must all
day, police said. The suspect- threatening. the suspected assailant had a Security has since been in- stand up against it," Ger-
ed perpetrator was arrested, Officers who were on hand piece of paper with a swastika creased at Jewish institutions man Foreign Minister Heiko
and Germany's foreign min- to protect the synagogue ar- in his pocket. across the country. Maas tweeted.
ister denounced the assault as rested the suspect, a police The assault, which occurred
"repugnant anti-Semitism." statement said. It added that during the Jewish holiday of
The 26-year-old victim, who the background to the assault Sukkot, comes amid height-
was apparently about to enter is under investigation. ened concern in Germany
the synagogue grounds, was The Sueddeutsche Zeitung over anti-Semitism and far-
hit in the head with what ap- newspaper, which first re- right extremism.
peared to be a folding spade, ported on the assault, said that Nearly a year ago, a heav-
police said. The suspect, a the victim is a Jewish student ily armed white supremacist
29-year-old German man, who was wearing a skullcap. targeted a synagogue in the
was wearing military-style Police later said that the sus- eastern German city of Halle
clothing. pect, a German with Kazakh on Yom Kippur, the holiest
The victim was given first roots, left an "extremely con- day in Judaism. He killed
aid at the scene by passers-by, fused impression" and ques- a passer-by and a man at a

US, Russia to hold latest nuclear arms talks in Finland

(AP) — The United States and Russia will hold office of the Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said would meet both representatives after the talks.
a round of nuclear arms control talks in the Fin- in a brief statement late Sunday. The talks are aimed at producing a new agree-
land's capital, Helsinki, on Monday to follow up The office said nuclear arms negotiators from ment to replace the New START treaty that ex-
on negotiations in Austria this summer, the Finn- Washington and Moscow met a previous time in pires in February — the last remaining pact con-
ish president's office said. Finland in 2017. straining the arsenals of the world's two major
"The round of discussions on strategic stability "Finland welcomes the negotiators, this time nuclear powers.
and nuclear weapons between the United States (U.S.) Ambassador (Marshall) Billingslea and According to Russian news agency TASS, the pre-
and Russia, which began in Vienna in the sum- (Russian) Deputy Foreign Minister (Sergei) Ry- vious round of consultations between Billingslea
mer, will continue in Helsinki on Monday," the abkov," the statement said, adding that Niinisto and Ryabkov were held in Vienna on Aug. 17-18.