16 Ugandan LGBT activists given forced anal exams: rights group

KAMPALA, Uganda - Sixteen Ugandan LGBT activists were subjected to forced anal examinations after being arrested, the country's leading gay rights organization said Thursday.

The 16 men were taken into police custody late Monday to protect them from a homophobic mob which had surrounded the house where they were staying, but were then arrested and charged under a colonial-era anti-gay law.

"Last night (Wednesday) the police subjected them to forced anal exams," the Executive Director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) Frank Mugisha, told AFP.

Mugisha described the practice as "degrading and inhumane."

Police spokesman Patrick Onyango told AFP by WhatsApp that "following new developments based on the medical examination report it was established that the suspects were involved in sexual acts punishable under the penal code." 

The men -- members of an LGBT activist group called Let's Walk Together -- have been held beyond the constitutionally mandated 48 hours without a court hearing.

There have been no prosecutions for consensual same-sex acts in Uganda in recent years, where acts deemed "against the order of nature" can lead to life imprisonment.

According to Human Rights Watch forced anal examinations are a long-discredited technique which aim to determine whether someone has engaged in anal intercourse in order to seek evidence for prosecution.

According to SMUG, attacks against LGBT people have soared in recent weeks since reported comments by Ugandan Ethics Minister Simon Lokodo that he wanted to see the return of legislation thrown out by the courts on procedural grounds in 2014 that would tighten already strict anti-gay legislation.

The government has since clarified it has no intention to introduce new laws.

"I strongly believe that the government of Uganda is not behind any anti-gay law coming up and I also think that they don't want the pressure to continue," Mugisha said. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Thousands join Moscow opposition rally after crackdown

MOSCOW - Thousands of opposition supporters rallied in Moscow on Saturday after mass police detentions at recent protests that have been among the largest since President Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin in 2012.

On a rainy afternoon, protesters huddled under umbrellas on the central Prospekt Andreya Sakharova street, where city authorities had given permission for the rally to take place.

The White Counter, an NGO that tracks participants in rallies, counted 7,200 people, while the massive police presence included officers in riot gear.

In recent weeks, thousands have attended street protests calling for free and fair elections after the exclusion of several opposition figures, including allies of top Putin critic Alexei Navalny, from local Moscow polls next month.

Riot police and the national guard detained more than 2,000 at the previous two rallies, which were not authorized by city officials.

On Saturday, some protesters carried placards with slogans such as "Give us the right to vote!" and "You've lied to us enough" while others held up pictures of activists arrested at earlier demonstrations. 

Most opposition candidates who have been banned from participating in the vote have been jailed for violating protest laws. 

A dozen protesters including university students face criminal charges of "mass disorder" that risk lengthy prison terms, despite their supporters insisting protests were peaceful.

Saturday's rally was authorized, meaning participants should not face detention. But Navalny, who is currently in jail, urged supporters to walk peacefully through the city afterwards when they will risk detention for illegal protests.

"After the demonstration, we're going for a walk round Moscow," his team wrote on social media on Saturday.

Moscow police and the powerful Investigative Committee issued a warning against participating in unsanctioned protests which it said would be "immediately halted."

"They need blood," pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda wrote of the opposition Saturday, quoting several celebrities warning against taking part in unauthorized protests. 

Showing the movement's appeal to young Russians, popular electronic and rap musicians were set to play at the rally and mainstream celebrities attended.

One of Russia's most famous rappers, Oxxxymiron, posed at the rally wearing a T-shirt with a photo of one of jailed students, Yegor Zhukov.

'Attempt to gag us'

The latest demonstration came as the authorities this week mounted their harshest attack yet on Navalny's team, focusing on his anti-corruption foundation which publishes investigations of officials close to Putin.

On Thursday investigators raided the foundation's office as part of a probe into alleged acceptance of donations of laundered money and a court froze the foundation's accounts.

"This is the most aggressive attempt yet to gag us," Navalny wrote in a blog entry he issued through lawyers while serving a 30-day sentence.

One of the foundation's lawyers, Lyubov Sobol, has been on hunger strike for weeks after being refused as a candidate in Moscow. 

"These are all acts of political intimidation, political repression," she told journalists on Friday, condemning the criminal cases launched against activists as "fabricated and politically motivated".

As he enters his third decade in power, Putin's approval ratings have dropped significantly in recent months and critics say the authorities fear any outlet calling for wider political change.

"The repressive scenario that the authorities are relying on can probably dampen down open discontent but is hardly likely to reach the root of the problem," Vedomosti daily wrote in an editorial.

"A large section of society is not represented in power."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Hong Kong police fire tear gas during another weekend of protests

HONG KONG—Hong Kong police fired volleys of tear gas to disperse anti-government protesters on Saturday, and demonstrators swiftly gathered elsewhere during another tense and restive weekend.

Weeks of increasingly violent protests have plunged Hong Kong into its most serious political crisis for decades, posing a serious challenge to the central government in Beijing.

On Saturday activists rallied across the city - with thousands thronging the airport arrivals hall for a second day - while elsewhere police displayed a new willingness to quickly and forcibly clear them from the streets.

Tear gas was used with little warning not long after several hundred activists who had marched through Tai Po in the north of the territory had barricaded an intersection in the Tai Wai neighborhood.

They dispersed, as noxious smoke also filled the underground station there, bringing train passengers to tears.

"If the government thinks we'll give up and not come out anymore they're wrong," said student Chris Wong, 20, at Tai Po.

"Carrie Lam is now spreading lies and blaming us for destroying Hong Kong's economy. But she's the one who is destroying Hong Kong," he said. "We'll continue to fight...but we're also going to be smart and wear them down."

Lam, Hong Kong's leader, said on Friday the economy was being undermined by the protests, which began in June.

China, meanwhile, demanded that the city's flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways suspend staff involved in the demonstrations. One of its pilots was arrested last week.

Lam's warning about the economy and China's targeting of a key Hong Kong business mark a toughening stance by authorities as they grapple with the crisis.

'WE ARE VERY ANGRY'

It did not deter thousands of demonstrators.

Leung Wai Man, a housewife in her 60s, said she had been motivated to march in Tai Po because she was angry about what she saw as the violent response by police at some protests.

"We are very angry about the police over arresting our teenagers," she said. She said she was worried about escalating violence, but added that "the protesters were just trying to protect themselves against police violence."

Young people have been at the forefront of the protests, worried about the erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong by China but also concerned with issues such as wealth disparities in the city. However, older people have also been appearing.

Earlier on Saturday, in two separate protests, small groups of elderly Hong Kongers and families marched near the financial center's business district. Both marches were peaceful.

"There are clashes in the recent protests and many parents are worried," said Fion Yim, 35, representative of the organizing committee for what was billed as the family protest.

"The freedom to protect our children is very important. We hope to provide a safer place for parents and their kids to participate in rallies, and to voice their concerns."

Thousands of activists also filled the airport's arrivals hall for a second day, some sitting and shouting slogans, while others drew protest posters and greeted arriving passengers.

There were no reports of flight disruptions.

The protests began after Hong Kong's government tried introducing an extradition bill that would have allowed defendants to be sent to mainland China for trial.

The bill has been suspended, but protesters have stepped up their demands and are now calling for greater democracy and Lam's resignation.

The protests have been condemned by the central government in Beijing. China has also accused foreign powers of fueling the unrest.

Hong Kong was guaranteed freedoms not granted in mainland China, including an independent judiciary, under a "one country, two systems" formula, when Britain handed it back to China in 1997.

On Friday, the U.S. State department spokeswoman, Morgan Ortagus, said that Chinese media reports about a U.S. diplomat who met with Hong Kong pro-democracy leaders "have gone from irresponsible to dangerous" and must stop.

Ortagus earlier called China a "thuggish regime" for disclosing photographs and personal details of the diplomat.

More protests are planned for Sunday, including one in Sham Shui Po, a working class neighbourhood that has been the scene of violent confrontations between activists and police. The government announced that public buildings there such as pools and libraries would be shut on Sunday afternoon. (Reporting by Julie Zhu, Yoyo Chow, Kevin Liu and Clare Jim and Twinnie Siu; Writing by Philip McClellan and Tom Westbrook; Editing by Joseph Radford, Kim Coghill and Peter Graff)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Face off while top off

Policemen detain topless activists of women's rights group Femen, who staged a performance during a protest against Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the government while marking the Day of Dignity and Freedom near the presidential administration headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine on Tuesday.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Topless activists parade through New York

NEW YORK - Activists paraded shirtless through the streets of New York on Saturday, flashing their chests to celebrate the 10th annual GoTopless Day Parade.

Walking to the beat of drums in a carnival-style atmosphere, dozens of men and women embarked on one-mile (1.6-kilometer) march from Columbus Circle to Bryant Park for the event, which this year falls on Women's Equality Day.

Participants of all shapes and sizes held up placards proclaiming "Equal Topless Rights For All" and "War Is Obscene Not My Nipples, Meditate 4 Peace Topless."

"I wouldn't miss this for the world," said Rebecca Barwick, 35, who traveled up from Virginia and works in the federal government.

"It's important to send a message. These are our bodies. They should not be policed any other way than men's. Men walk around like this all the time, so why is it such a big deal?"

Many inked "Go Topless" across their chests and wore hair bands with breasts popping up from the scalp on springs. One woman wore a blue Wonder Woman cape, and a couple of men wore bras.

Heavily out-numbered by spectators, the march was organized by US-based rights group GoTopless, which has spent 10 years campaigning for women to be able to go shirtless.

It is already legal for women to bare their breasts in public in New York, America's fourth most populous state.

Parallel events were scheduled in other US cities, which this year fell on the 97th anniversary of Women's Equality Day, when American women were given the vote.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Ferguson activists press ahead, undeterred by latest shooting

FERGUSON, Mo. - As the hunt for suspects in the shooting of two police officers in Ferguson, Missouri, extended into a third day, activists took the first steps on Saturday to force the mayor out of office while residents awaited signs of progress in the investigation.

A group called Organization for Black Struggle (OBS) said it is starting a petition to recall Mayor James Knowles. He is one of the few senior city officials still on the job after the police chief, a municipal judge and others resigned following a U.S. Department of Justice report March 4 depicting a Ferguson police force mired in racial bias.

An uneasy quiet prevailed in the St. Louis suburb, in contrast with the mayhem that erupted near midnight on Thursday when gunshot rang out during a protest rally, wounding a pair of officers.

The shooting sent a fresh jolt of tension through a city that has become a symbol of racial conflict since a black teenager was killed by a white police officer last August and a grand jury returned no criminal charges.

"There has been a lot of outrage here over the past seven months," Montague Simmons, executive director of OBS, explaining why activists were determined to press ahead with their demands. "We feel this could be a moment of transformation where people go from being outraged to being involved."

Antonio French, an alderman in nearby St. Louis, said the investigation would not distract from the issues exposed by the Department of Justice.

"Folks that were responsible for the culture that was described in the DoJ report, that allowed that culture to fester, they need to go," French told CNN.

Knowles, a Republican who was 31 when he was first elected in 2011 in a non-partisan election, said on Friday that it would be up to voters to remove him from the part-time job.

Residents will have 60 days to gather signatures from 15 percent of registered voters in the last mayoral election to prompt a special election, OBS said in the statement.

Steve Moore, owner of the Celebrity Soul Food Restaurant, said that when he moved to his current location, Knowles was one of his first customers, asking if there was anything the city could do to help.

"He's continuing to make changes and if people get behind him and hold him accountable he's a good leader for the city," said Moore. He added that he had lost about 80 percent of his business since the unrest began in August.

Some Ferguson residents said they were growing weary, especially after the latest spasm of violence, despite sympathy for protesters who have been out in force since the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

"It's been emotional here. We all want justice for Mike Brown, but we also have to heal," said Jerome Parker, 26, who lives in the area and works in a store. "I support the protests, but I need to make a living."

Parker also worries about the impact the shooting of the officers will have on the push for reforms in Ferguson.

Authorities had nothing new to add to the scant information disclosed about the manhunt for suspects in the police shootings.

A day earlier, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said investigators had dozens of leads and authorities had "a pretty good idea" where the gunshots had originated, but said no arrests were imminent. He had nothing to say about the kind of gun used, the shooter's motivation and any connection to the protesters.

In Thursday's shooting, a 41-year-old county police officer suffered a shoulder wound and a 32-year-old colleague from a nearby police department sustained a facial wound that left a bullet lodged near his ear. Both were treated and released from hospital.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com