Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security has authorized the deployment of the National Public Security Force to safeguard the presidential inauguration of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva slated for Sunday.
The force, an elite group comprising various public safety forces, including military and civilian police, will be deployed until Monday in light of ‘threats from groups opposing the incoming government.’
Organizers of the inauguration ceremony expect some 300,000 people to attend the ceremony at the Ministries Esplanade in the capital Brasilia.
Supporters of outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro have been protesting the results of the Oct. 30 runoff that handed Lula victory.
One man identified as George Washington de Oliveira Sousa, 54, was arrested on Saturday for planting a bomb at the international airport in Brasilia. He told police his plan was to ‘spark chaos…to provoke chaos to prevent the inauguration,’ local media reported.
XINHUA
2 (Istanbul, Dec 29, 2022 (AFP) – A Turkish appellate court on Wednesday upheld the conviction of a leading critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan whose jailing has added to tensions in Ankara’s uneasy ties with the West.
Paris-born activist and philanthropist Osman Kavala was sentenced to life in jail without the possibility of parole in April on the charge of trying to topple the government by financing street protests in 2013.
Seven others were jailed for 18 years each for aiding the attempt to overthrow the government of then-prime minister Erdogan during the so-called Gezi Park rallies in Istanbul.
The Anadolu state news agency said the appellate court ruled that the April verdict ‘complied with the law’.
The defence can still appeal the case in Turkey’s Supreme Court.
AFP
3 (CANBERRA, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) — Australia’s trade deal with India has come into effect, with the nation’s trade minister hailing it as a major boon for both nations’ economies.
The Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) was officially implemented on Thursday, eliminating tariffs on 85 percent of Australian exports to the country of 1.4 billion people, rising to 90 percent within years.
High tariffs on products including Australian wine and almonds will also be reduced.
For premium wine, tariffs were cut from 150 percent to 75 percent on Thursday and will be cut again on Jan. 1 to 70 percent before phasing down to 25 percent within a decade.
The 30 percent tariffs on fresh Australian rock lobsters and lamb and mutton have also been eliminated in a major boost for farmers.
XINHUA
4 (Poipet, Cambodia, Dec 29, 2022 (AFP) – As many as 10 people have died in a fire at a Cambodian hotel-casino on the border of Thailand, with photos showing groups desperately huddled on ledges as fierce flames surround them.
The blaze at the Grand Diamond City hotel-casino in Poipet broke out late Wednesday night at around 11:30 pm local (1630 GMT), Cambodian police said.
A provisional police report seen by AFP said ‘about 10 people died and 30 people injured’, adding that around 400 individuals were believed to be working at the venue.
Images obtained by AFP showed the building consumed by flames, with firefighters struggling to contain the intense blaze and rescuers attempting to pluck people from a burning ledge.
In one clip, an unidentified man is seen sitting on a window ledge as smoke billows from the window behind him. In another, a group of people huddles on a ledge as flames near them.
AFP
5 (ADDIS ABABA, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) — Telecommunication services have restarted in Mekele, the rebel-held capital of northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region, an official said Wednesday.
Frehiwot Tamiru, chief executive officer (CEO) of the state-owned telecoms operator, Ethio-Telecom, said a successful phone call was made Wednesday after more than a year of communication blackout caused by the northern Ethiopia conflict.
‘The restart of telecommunication services in (Mekele) has enabled 61 bank branches to re-enter into service,’ the state-owned Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) reported, quoting Tamiru as saying.
Tamiru also said the state firm has managed to rehabilitate 981 km of telecommunication fiber lines, resulting in 27 cities and towns across the region managing to receive telecommunication services once again.
Earlier on Wednesday, Ethiopia’s flag carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, resumed flights to Mekele two days after a delegation of Ethiopian government officials visited the city, the first time since the conflict erupted in November 2020.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
