Dozens of protesters in Belarus were arrested Sunday during the 10th straight weekend of demonstrations against longtime authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.Since the president claimed victory in a disputed August 9 election, protesters have regularly taken to the streets demanding his resignation and the release of political prisoners.Belarus Protesters Face Physical, Social Repression Activists say those who have come out against Lukashenko’s decades-old grip on power are living physical and social repressionVideos from the latest demonstration show security forces using water cannon and batons to disperse crowds. Minsk police said they detained “several dozen” people.The clashes follow an unusual meeting between Lukashenko and jailed opposition leaders Saturday. “The goal of the president was to hear everyone’s opinion,” his office said of the visit. Lukashenko’s main opposition candidate in the election, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, is now based in Lithuania after fleeing Belarus for her safety.Lukashenko maintains he won the poll in a landslide — garnering 80% of all ballots — despite widespread claims at home and abroad the vote was heavily rigged to keep him in power. He has been in office for 26 years.Public anger has stewed over the crackdown in the wake of the protests that have seen more than 7,500 arrests and police violence against demonstrators.Hundreds have emerged from police custody with bruises and tales of torture at the hands of Lukashenko’s security agents.Lukashenko has said the protests are encouraged and supported by the West and accused NATO of moving forces near Belarusian borders. The alliance has denied the accusations.
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Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal has won his record-extending 13th French Open title, defeating Novak Djokovic of Serbia 6-0,6-2,7-5 on Sunday.With the win at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, the Spaniard notched his 20th Grand Slam title, moving into a tie with Swiss tennis great Roger Federer for most men’s major titles ever.Nadal dominated Sunday’s match from the start, but Djokovic came to life in the third set before his serve was broken at 5-5.”To win here means everything. I don’t think today about the 20th and equal Roger on this great number. Today is just a Roland Garros victory and that means everything to me,” Nadal said after the match. “This love story I have with this city and this court is unforgettable.”Djokovic said, “Today you showed why you are the king of clay. Today was a tough match; I was outplayed by a better player today.”In the women’s draw Saturday, Poland’s Iga Swiatek defeated American Sofia Kenin 6-4,6-1.This year’s French Open was held one month later than normal due to the coronavirus pandemic. 
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Millions of people in northern England are anxiously waiting to hear how much further virus restrictions will be tightened as one of the British government’s leading medical advisers warned Sunday that the country is at a crucial juncture in the second wave of the coronavirus. England’s deputy chief medical officer, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, said the U.K. is at a “tipping point similar to where we were in March” following a sharp increase in new coronavirus cases. “But we can prevent history repeating itself if we all act now,” he said. “Now we know where it is and how to tackle it — let’s grasp this opportunity and prevent history from repeating itself.” FILE – People with and without protective masks walk through the shopping street as the spread of COVID-19 continues in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Oct. 7, 2020.All across Europe including the U.K., the pandemic has found fresh legs over the past few weeks following the reopening of large sectors of the economy, as well as schools and universities. Infection levels — and deaths — in the U.K. are rising at their fastest rates in months. Without quick action, there are fears that U.K. hospitals will be overwhelmed in the coming weeks at a time of year when they are already at their busiest with winter-related afflictions like the flu. So far the U.K. has experienced Europe’s deadliest virus outbreak, with over 42,750 confirmed deaths. A man sells face masks, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, on a street in Manchester, Britain, Oct. 7, 2020.Although new coronavirus infections are rising throughout England, cities in the north — Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle — have seen a disproportionate increase in new cases. While some rural areas in eastern England have less than 20 cases per 100,000 people, major metropolitan areas such as Manchester are recording levels above 500 per 100,000, nearly as bad as Madrid or Brussels. As a result, national restrictions such as a 10 p.m. curfew on pubs and restaurants have been supplemented by local actions, including in some cases banning contacts between households. In Scotland’s two biggest cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh, pubs have already closed for 16 days to suppress the outbreak. FILE – Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits the headquarters of Octopus Energy in London, Oct. 5, 2020.In response to the virus’ resurgence, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to announce a new three-tier local lockdown system Monday, which could temporarily close pubs and restaurants in the virus hotspots. The speculation is that those areas put under the tightest restrictions would forbid all household mixing, indoors or out. Local leaders in northern England have vented their fury at the Conservative government over what they see as an “inadequate” wage support scheme that it announced Friday and for not properly telling them about the upcoming restrictions. The wage plan aims to help employees in companies that are forced to close due to virus restrictions but mayors say it’s not generous enough in paying only two-thirds of employees’ wages and doesn’t compensate those indirectly hit by any business closures, such as drink suppliers to pubs. Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick on Sunday sought to assuage concerns that the government was being overly top-down in its approach. “We are trying to work very closely with mayors, with council leaders, with chief executives to design these measures with them,” he told Sky News. “That does take time.” Separately, Health Secretary Matt Hancock denied claims that he broke the government’s drinking curfew after the Mail on Sunday newspaper claimed he was seen having a drink in a House of Commons bar after 10 p.m. “The proposed timeline of events is false and no rules have been broken,” a spokesman for the health secretary said. 
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About 40 unidentified people armed with metal bars and using fireworks as projectiles tried to storm a police station in the Paris suburbs on Saturday night, officials said.   “Violent attack last night on the police station of Champigny with mortar shots and various projectiles. No police officer was injured,” the Paris police headquarters said on Twitter on Sunday.   The police posted a video showing a barrage of fireworks going off in the direction of the police station in Champigny-sur-Marne, about 15 km (nine miles) southeast of central Paris. The assailants tried to force entry into the station but failed to do so.   Nobody was arrested, but images showed smashed windows at the station and damaged cars.   The motive for the attack, the third on this police station in two years, was not immediately clear. The station is in a housing estate area known for drug trafficking and deemed by authorities as a high priority district for order to be restored.   Champigny Mayor Laurent Jeanne said the attack may have been triggered after a scooter accident that local residents blamed on the police.   “It was an organized attack of about 40 people who wanted to do battle. For a few days it has been tense with people who have a certain willingness to do battle with the police,” he told BFM TV.   “Little gang leaders don’t impress anyone, and they will not deter our work fighting drug trafficking,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Twitter. “Full support for our police officers who are doing a difficult job.”   A spate of criminal incidents across France since the end of the COVID-19 lockdown in mid-May has put President Emmanuel Macron’s government on heightened alert for increases in crime amid the economic fallout from the pandemic.  
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Azerbaijan said Sunday that Armenian forces had shelled the city of Ganja overnight.The Azerbaijani Foreign Affairs Ministry said on Twitter a new “On the night of October 11, #Ganja, the second largest city in #Azerbaijan and far beyond the frontline, came under rocket fire by the Armenian armed forces. The attack killed seven civilians and injured 39 others, including minors.”On the night of October 11, #Ganja, the second largest city in #Azerbaijan and far beyond the frontline, came under rocket fire by the Armenian armed forces. The attack killed seven civilians and injured 39 others, including minors.MFA’s Statement https://t.co/ilzMzdlwhg— MFA Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 (@AzerbaijanMFA) October 11, 2020The defense ministry in Nagorno-Karabakh said that the charge of Armenian forces “shelling Ganja is an absolute lie.”The incident has not been independently confirmed.A cease-fire between Armenian and Azerbaijani went into effect Saturday at noon local time (0800 UTC), at least temporarily halting deadly hostilities over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, which each country claims.Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to the cease-fire in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region after 10 hours of talks in Moscow. The truce is intended to allow both sides to exchange prisoners and recover the dead.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who mediated the talks, said the cease-fire should pave the way for further talks on the settlement of the conflict.The talks between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan were held at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin after nearly two weeks of fighting.The United Nations human rights office said that it had received unconfirmed reports that more than 50 civilians, including children, have been killed since the fighting erupted on Sept. 27.The fighting also claimed the lives of about 400 soldiers and forced thousands of people to flee their homes.The predominantly ethnic Armenian territory declared its independence from Azerbaijan in 1991 during the collapse of the Soviet Union, sparking a war that claimed the lives of as many as 30,000 people before a 1994 cease-fire.   However, that independence is not internationally recognized.
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The world marks the International Day of the Girl Child on Sunday, during a year in which a global pandemic and subsequent economic downturn has created further challenges for girls.The United Nations, which created the day in 2011 to promote girls’ rights, says difficulties already faced by girls have been exacerbated by the coronavirus health crisis, including in the areas of education, child marriage, domestic violence and economic opportunity.A U.N. website for the observance says by next year, an estimated 435 million women and girls will be living on less than $1.90 a day – including 47 million “pushed into poverty as a result of COVID-19.”It notes that the loss of economic prosperity and education for girls fueled by the crisis is also linked to increased levels of violence.The U.N. says even before the pandemic, one in three women worldwide had experienced physical or sexual violence. “Emerging data shows that since the outbreak of COVID-19, violence against women and girls and particularly domestic violence, has intensified.”Child marriageDuring humanitarian crises, “time and again, we see other things getting prioritized” – including food and shelter, said Lyric Thompson, a policy expert for the Washington-based International Center for Research on Women.Thompson, who also co-chairs with Aria Grabowski, Girls Not Brides USA, part of the global coalition trying to halt child marriage, said during such times of crisis, the planning to counter “gendered forms of violence, including child marriage, falls by the wayside.”Child marriages have been on the rise during the pandemic as COVID-related lockdowns have kept youngsters out of school and, in some cases, confined them in close quarters with sexual predators. The pandemic has also led to families trying to place daughters in more economically stable households to ease their own financial burdens.An estimated 500,000 more girls around the world are at risk of being forced into child marriage in 2020 as a result of the effects of COVID-19, according to an October report by Save the Children.The surge in child marriages frustrates but does not surprise Grabowski, who recommended dedicating funding and programing early on in the pandemic to combat child marriage and gender-based violence.“So much of the health response is focused on infection prevention and control,” she said.Few optionsRohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh are one place where child marriages have risen since the onset of the pandemic.A refugee camp resident told VOA Bangladesh on condition of anonymity, “In some cases, families must live together in overcrowded tents in the camp. To make room, their daughters were married off before they reached adulthood.””No parent wants to give their daughter into the hands of others, but they have to marry because of circumstances,” he added.Wai Wai Nu, co-founder and director of the Women’s Peace Network, told VOA that the increase of child marriages in the camps is alarming.She said parents allow their child daughters to get married not because they are poor or uneducated, but because they believe that marriage can bring security for their daughters’ lives.“Parents believe that if their daughters are married off, their husbands can protect them better than the parents could,” she said.Domestic and sexual violenceOther forms of violence against girls are also on the rise during the pandemic, including in online spaces where more people are communicating as a result of increased social distancing.A recent survey by Plan International found 32% of Indonesian girls have experienced violence on social media, while 56% have witnessed violence on social media. The organization surveyed 500 Indonesian girls between the ages of 15 and 20.“Here (in Indonesia), girls do not only experience one type of gender-based online violence. Out of 500 girls, 395 said they experienced multiple instances (of violence), said Nazla Marisa, influencing director of Plan International Indonesia.No country is immune to the abuse. In the United States, minors accounted for half the calls made in March to the National Sexual Assault Hotline operated by the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). Of those claiming coronavirus concerns, “67% identified their perpetrator as a family member,” according to Harvard Medical School’s Center for Primary Care.U.N. Women has described the gender-based violence during the global coronavirus outbreak as a “shadow pandemic.” It says since the outbreak of COVID-19, all types of violence against women and girls, particularly domestic violence, have intensified.EducationEducation is another area in which girls are suffering because of the coronavirus health crisis. Research by the Malala Fund estimates that 20 million secondary school-aged girls may never return to the classroom after the crisis is over.The Malala fund was started by activist Malala Yousafzai, who survived a shot in the head after being targeted for campaigning for girls’ education in Pakistan.Malala, who won the Noble Peace Prize for her efforts in 2014, spoke about the pandemic’s effect on girls education with Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, in a video set to be released Sunday to mark the International Day of the Girl Child.The schooling of girls is critical to advancing gender equality, according to a new, related UNESCO report. The report said that despite an increase across all levels of education, girls are still more likely to suffer exclusion than boys, an outcome it said is exacerbated by the current pandemic.Around the world, 132 million girls are out of school, according to U.N. figures, with 1 in 3 adolescent girls from the poorest households having never been to school.Sasmito Madrim of the Indonesian Service, Ingyin Naing of the Burmese Service, Carol Guensburg of the Africa Division, and the Bangla Service contributed to this report.  
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Minutes after suddenly becoming a Grand Slam champion at age 19, while ranked just 54th in the world, Iga Swiatek held a microphone during the French Open trophy presentation and was hesitant for pretty much the only time over the past two weeks.”First of all, I’m not very good at speeches,” Swiatek began, haltingly, “so, sorry, because I won my last tournament like two years ago, and I really don’t know who to thank.”When she has a racket in her hand, it’s a whole different story. With the poise of a veteran and the shots of a champion, Swiatek wrapped up a dominating run at Roland Garros, grabbing the last six games to beat Sofia Kenin 6-4, 6-1 in Saturday’s final.”Two years ago, I won a junior Grand Slam, and right now I’m here. It feels like such a short time,” Swiatek said, her voice cracking. “I’m just overwhelmed.”Swiatek is the first Polish tennis player to win a major singles trophy and said, “I know it’s pretty crazy back home” — where one newspaper’s front page was splashed with the headline “Poland Garros” ahead of the final.The way she played these two weeks — with those great groundstrokes, the occasional drop shot, terrific returning and impressive court coverage — made this outcome less of a surprise.Kenin said Swiatek’s “spinny forehand up the line” bounces high enough to make things difficult for opponents.Swiatek lost 28 games across seven matches and is the first woman to triumph in Paris without ceding a set since Justine Henin in 2007. She’s the first teen to win the women’s title there since Iva Majoli in 1997.”She’s, like, really hot right now,” said Kenin, who was hampered by an injury to her upper left leg, an issue that first cropped up during a practice session last weekend.Swiatek beat both 2018 champion Simona Halep and 2019 runner-up Marketa Vondrousova 6-1, 6-2.So it made sense that Swiatek would handle the fourth-seeded Kenin, even if the 21-year-old from Florida won the Australian Open in February and entered Saturday 16-1 in Grand Slam play this year.This weekend is the culmination of an unusual two weeks, to say the least. The tournament was postponed from May-June to September-October because of the coronavirus pandemic; the recently rising number of COVID-19 cases in France led the government to limit the number of spectators allowed on the grounds to 1,000 each day.Some top women, including 2019 major champions Ash Barty, Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu, didn’t enter the event at all; 23-time Slam winner Serena Williams withdrew before the second round with an injury.
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Pope Francis on Saturday urged people to pull investments from companies that are not committed to protecting the environment, adding his voice to calls for the economic model that emerges from the coronavirus pandemic to be a sustainable one.Francis spoke in a video message for an online event called “Countdown Global Launch, a Call to Action on Climate Change.””Science tells us, every day with more precision, that we need to act urgently … if we are to have any hope of avoiding radical and catastrophic climate change,” he said.The pope listed three action points: better education about the environment, sustainable agriculture and access to clean water, and a transition away from fossil fuels.”One way to encourage this change is to lead companies towards the urgent need to commit to the integral care of our common home, excluding from investments companies that do not meet [these] parameters … and rewarding those that [do],” he said.He said the pandemic had made the need to address the climate crisis and related social problems even more pressing.”The current economic system is unsustainable. We are faced with a moral imperative … to rethink many things,” he said, listing means of production, consumerism, waste, indifference to the poor and harmful energy sources.In June, a Vatican document urged Catholics to disinvest from the armaments and fossil fuel industries and to monitor companies in sectors such as mining for possible damage to the environment.Other speakers and activists at the online event included actress Jane Fonda, Britain’s Prince William, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
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Chileans took to the streets of the capital, Santiago, for a third consecutive Friday, demonstrating against the government, inequality and police brutality as a postponed referendum on constitutional changes nears.Protesters threw rocks at police, who responded with water cannons and tear gas.A few hundred people gathered in the city’s iconic Plaza Italia, a considerably smaller crowd than those at last year’s gatherings and those earlier this year before the coronavirus pandemic.The protests started last October because of increased transport costs.The protesters’ main demand is the change of the constitution. Chileans will be voting Oct. 25 on whether they want a new constitution and whether it should be drafted by the current Congress or a new constituent assembly.
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A cease-fire between Armenian and Azerbaijani went into effect Saturday at noon local time (0800 UTC), at least temporarily halting deadly hostilities over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, which each country claims.Official sources on both sides accused each other of firing missiles and rockets on civilian areas on Saturday, in the hours before the cease-fire.Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to the cease-fire in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region after 10 hours of talks in Moscow. The truce will allow both sides to exchange prisoners and recover the dead.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who mediated the talks, said the cease-fire should pave the way for further talks on the settlement of the conflict.The talks between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan were held at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin after nearly two weeks of fighting.On Friday, United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet called for an “urgent cease-fire” in Nagorno-Karabakh, citing a heavy toll on civilians.“It is deeply worrying that in recent days we have seen populated areas reportedly targeted and shelled with heavy weaponry in and around the conflict area,” Bachelet said in a statement.Bachelet’s office said it has received unconfirmed reports that more than 50 civilians, including children, have been killed since the fighting erupted on Sept. 27.The fighting also claimed the lives of about 400 soldiers and forced thousands of people to flee their homes.The predominantly ethnic Armenian territory declared its independence from Azerbaijan in 1991 during the collapse of the Soviet Union, sparking a war that claimed the lives of as many as 30,000 people before a 1994 cease-fire. However, that independence is not internationally recognized.
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Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to a cease-fire in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region beginning at noon Saturday.Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made the announcement in Moscow in the early hours Saturday after mediating 10 hours of talks between the two sides.The agreement stated the truce would allow both sides to exchange prisoners and recover the dead. Lavrov said the cease-fire should pave the way for further talks on the settlement of the conflict.The talks between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan were held following an invitation by Russian President Vladimir Putin after nearly two weeks of fighting.On Friday, United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet called for an “urgent cease-fire” in Nagorno-Karabakh, citing a heavy toll on civilians.“It is deeply worrying that in recent days we have seen populated areas reportedly targeted and shelled with heavy weaponry in and around the conflict area,” Bachelet said in a statement.Bachelet’s office said it has received unconfirmed reports that more than 50 civilians, including children, have been killed since the fighting erupted on Sept. 27.The fighting has also claimed the lives of about 400 soldiers and forced thousands of people to flee their homes.Armenian and Azerbaijani forces had previously ignored calls in the past two weeks by the United States, France and Russia for an immediate cease-fire, as fighting escalated to levels not seen since the 1990s.The three countries co-chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Minsk Group, which is trying to find a peaceful solution.The predominantly ethnic Armenian territory declared its independence from Azerbaijan in 1991 during the collapse of the Soviet Union, sparking a war that claimed the lives of as many as 30,000 people before a 1994 cease-fire.Peace efforts in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, mediated by the Minsk Group, collapsed in 2010. 
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Haitian University students protested Friday in the streets of Port-au-Prince, expressing rage over the killing of fellow student Gregory Saint-Hillaire, 29, who was allegedly killed Oct. 2 by police on university grounds while demanding the teaching job he was promised after graduating.The protesters said they wanted revenge and justice, as they chanted a song harkening back to the time of the slave revolution to gain independence from France. “We’re not protesting because we believe we will get justice,” Oldenson Saint Pierre, a medical student at the State University, told VOA Creole. “We’re out here because we know this government only responds to violence. They only understand burning tires, damage to cars, so if that is what they understand, we are ready to use those means to make sure our message is heard.” Saint Pierre described victim Saint-Hilaire as an honest man who was fighting for a just cause. He said they were simply asking the National Police director general to identify the officer who allegedly shot Saint-Hilaire, arrest him and bring him to justice. Friday was the fifth day of student protests this month, during which they have set fire to cars, vandalized buildings and blocked roads. Their tactics are similar to those successfully used in September by the rebel national police protesters, who call themselves Fantom 509, to force officials to grant their demands to release fellow officers who were “unjustly imprisoned” in their view.  Jean Ronald Olicier (in black t-shirt) is a friend of Gregory Saint-Hillaire and witnessed the events that led to his death. (Photo: Matiado Vilme / VOA)Eyewitness account of Gregory Saint-Hilaire’s killing  Gregory Saint-Hillaire lived in the Village de Dieu (Village of God) slum of the Haitian capital, notorious for gang violence. He graduated in 2018 from the Ecole Normale Superieure, a state university a stone’s throw from the national palace, where he majored in social sciences, and then went on to study law at the state university.  According to eyewitness Jean Ronald Olicier, who was with Saint-Hilaire at the time of his death, they were at the school on the afternoon of Oct. 2, discussing job placement with university officials. The national ministry of education signed an agreement with the Ecole Normale Superieure offering internships and teaching jobs to graduates. That didn’t happen, angering students, who accused them of playing politics. Saint-Hilaire should have gotten a job last year, Olicier said.”So it’s during our fight [with school officials] to get him a job that the USPGN [Unite de Securite Generale du Palais National] police arrived and fired tear gas at us,” Olicier said.The specialized police unit protects the president and is under his command.”Another group of agents were waiting for us at the gate,” he told VOA. “While we were exiting, they shot Gregory in the back. After the bullet hit his spine, they kept shooting and firing tear gas, preventing us from taking him to the hospital.”  The eyewitness told VOA the injured and bleeding Saint-Hilaire spent nearly three hours inside the school without receiving medical care. Finally, they decided to put him on a table and took him to the general hospital. “When we got there, we couldn’t find a doctor, but luckily a journalist from Radio Quisqueya offered to put Gregory in his car and took us to the Bernard Mevs hospital. When we got to Bernard Mevs, he died,” Olicier said.  Gregory Saint-Hilaire’s father says his son’s body was treated like a ‘John Doe’. (Photo: Matiado Vilme / VOA)Saint-Hilaire’s parents were inconsolable after learning of their son’s death. His mother told VOA she’d made sacrifices and struggled to make sure her son had a good life and promising future. She made him lunch every day and took it to the school.  “I have not heard from any law enforcement officials. They have treated my son like a John Doe,” his father told VOA, alleging “this was a planned attack. We want reparations, justice.”  President Jovenel Moise commented on the student’s death in a tweet on Oct. 4. La mort de l’étudiant Grégory Saint-Hilaire soulève l’indignation de tous. Je réaffirme ma foi au principe du droit à la vie pour chaque citoyen. Mes sympathies à la famille du très regretté. Une enquête est en cours pour faire la lumière sur ce décès qui en est un de trop.— Président Jovenel Moïse (@moisejovenel) This Med student told VOA he was shot by police in the elbow while on his way home from class as they tried to disperse the protest. (Photo: Matiado Vilme / VOA)”The students are fighting for a just cause and look at what happened. I was not part of the protest, but I’m a victim anyway,” he said. “They are not just fighting for themselves, they are fighting for all of us.”  Some protesters, angered by police aggression, retaliated by setting fire to a nearby courthouse, according to two witnesses. This Port-au-Prince courthouse was set on fire by angry protesters demanding justice for their friend allegedly killed by police. (Photo: Matiado Vilme / VOA)”All of a sudden, rocks started landing inside the courthouse,” Frankel, a lawyer who was participating in a trial, told VOA. “When we looked outside, we saw a group of young men, with face masks on so we could not identify them, throwing rocks at us.” The trial continued, the lawyer said, until the building was set on fire and everyone ran out, including the person on trial. “We were unable to save any documents,” he said, adding that security guards were on duty.  Lawyer Frankel was in court when protesters set fire to the courthouse. (Photo: Matiado Vilme / VOA) “We shouldn’t have to pay for things we are not responsible for,” he said, pointing to the endangerment of innocent bystanders’ lives. “What outraged people inside the courthouse even more is that the police didn’t even respond to calls for help.” Lawyer James Turaine, who also witnessed the courthouse attack, said he understood what motivated the protesters.  “We can understand these frustrations, and it’s not just the students, the entire country is sick and tired of this situation,” he said. “As a lawyer I believe the government has an obligation to make things better on all levels.”   Professor and activist Josue Merilien says the student protest is historic. (Photo: Matiado Vilme / VOA )University professor and activist Josue Merilien, who joined the protesters, noted the importance of the event. “I think this is a legitimate movement. This movement is important to the entire nation. This has never happened in history. This is the first time a student has been killed by law enforcement inside a school. This is what angers us,” he told VOA.
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Spain’s government declared a state of emergency in Madrid Friday, taking control of efforts to fight the spread of COVID-19 from local authorities after a regional court struck down restrictions as the region faces one of the most significant outbreaks in Europe.
 
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government took the step at a special cabinet meeting as he imposed his authority on regional officials, who have resisted his calls for restrictions on travel in the region.
 
The move gives Sanchez extraordinary powers to order new constraints on life in the capital, where efforts to control a surge in infections have been complicated by the standoff. The step forced Madrid authorities to restore restrictions they had ignored following the court ruling.
 
At a news conference Friday, Health Minister Salvador Illa said the measures, which prohibit residents from leaving the area, including nine nearby towns, without a valid reason, among other measures, would be effective immediately and remain in place for 15 days.
 
The Madrid region’s 14-day infection rate of more than 560 coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents is more than twice Spain’s national average of 256 and five times the European average rate of 113 for the week ending September 27.
 
The Interior Ministry said an extra 7,000 policemen and security personnel would be deployed for enforcement of the measures “at various exit and access points of the region under state of emergency.”  
 
The partial lockdown comes as the nation begins a three-day holiday weekend, and initial reports from Madrid said cars continued to pour out of the city and its neighboring towns on Friday. 
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The effort to unseat autocratic Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko may be heading for a new phase.
 
Belarusian activists, impressed by the success of protests in Kyrgyzstan, where protesters managed to pull off a “revolution in one day,” are now debating whether to copy the Kyrgyz tactics and storm key government buildings in Minsk.
 
On Telegram, the messaging app used by Belarusian protesters to share uncensored information and discuss strategy, Kyrgyzstan is being cited as a possible model of how to proceed in their weeks-long bid to oust the country’s president, following a disputed August election in which he claims to have won a sixth term in power.
 
Some analysts worry that an escalation in protest tactics in Belarus will fan Kremlin alarm about a new wave of “color revolutions,” in turn prompting Russian leader Vladimir Putin to dispatch Russian forces to Belarus.
 
Putin has already said he has created a police reserve for Lukashenko to use, if events get “out of control” in Belarus.
 
So far the Russian leader has held back from ordering a military intervention, but Russian security advisers and senior Kremlin personnel are suspected by Western diplomats of helping to coordinate the suppression of the pro-democracy opposition in Belarus.
 
Putin and Lukashenko discussed developments in Kyrgyzstan in a phone call midweek, according to the beleaguered Belarusian leader. Midweek, Russia acknowledged it had issued an arrest warrant for Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who left Belarus for Lithuania after the election, following threats to her family.
 
Kyrgyz protesters, outraged by what they saw as rigged parliamentary elections on October 4, overran the parliament and ransacked the office of President Sooronbai Jeenbekov. The action forced election officials to annul the results of the vote and to announce plans for re-running the poll.
 
But political chaos has now unfolded. Jeenbekov declared a state of emergency Friday in the capital, Bishkek, ordering troops to deploy, as supporters of rival political groups took to the streets after days of unrest following the overturned election.
 
Video of the Kyrgyz protests has been reposted on Nexta, a Telegram channel that’s served as a key communication platform for the anti-Lukashenko protesters. Nexta praised the way their Kyrgyz counterparts achieved “revolution in one day,” according to George Barros, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based research group.FILE – People protest during a rally on the central square in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 7, 2020. Officials in Kyrgyzstan have nullified the results of parliamentary elections after mass protests erupted in Bishkek and other cities.“Nexta has not issued explicit directions for Belarusian protesters to replicate Kyrgyz protest tactics yet,” he said, noting the channel has in the past advocated adoption of more radical options.
 
“Nexta’s favorable coverage of Kyrgyz protesters may embolden Belarusian protesters to adopt more radical tactics,” Barros added.
 
Lukashenko has overseen a brutal crackdown on his opponents, but so far has failed to stem the demonstrations against his rule. Protests have been raging in Belarus for eight weeks. Thousands of protesters have been arrested and most of the main opposition leaders have been imprisoned, deported or forced into exile.
 
“In one day, they managed to change the political leadership in Kyrgyzstan,” Paval Latushka, a member of the Belarusian opposition Coordination Council, told Current Time, the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. “I think that many Belarusians look at this — they are probably surprised by this and are thinking about it.”
 
Other Nexta contributors urge caution, saying peaceful protest is the best option to ensure change is sustainable and long term. They point out that Kyrgyzstan is struggling now to come up with ways to facilitate a transfer of power and that the euphoria felt after opposition groups seized the parliament building has quickly turned into dangerous uncertainty.
 
Other Belarusian activists worry taking a more violent step will only prompt a Russian backlash.
 
Already worried that may happen, Belarus opposition figures have been urging Western governments to collectively make it clear to the Kremlin that Russia must avoid any direct military intervention to save Lukashenko. They want Western nations to announce their readiness to stand by the Budapest Memorandum, an international protocol signed in 1994 guaranteeing the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Belarus.
 
Valery Tsepkalo, a former diplomat, and one of Lukashenko’s main political rivals until forced into exile, says a formal re-commitment by all Western states to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum would send a “strong message” to Russia.
 
The protocol refers to three identical political agreements signed at a conference in Budapest overseen by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The agreements provide security assurances to Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine against threats or use of force against their territorial integrity or political independence. In return, Belarus and the other two states gave up their stockpiles of Soviet-era nuclear weapons.
 
Analysts say the political explosions in Belarus and Kyrgyzstan, along with the outbreak of war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, has placed the Kremlin in a dilemma. Military intervention risks a public backlash and Western sanctions, while doing nothing and allowing political developments to play out risks emboldening opposition groups in Russia.
 
Recent days have seen a noticeable uptick of state-controlled Russian media blaming Western powers for the political turmoil in what the Kremlin considers its sphere of influence. 
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Police in heavy riot gear Friday cleared squatters from a building in east Berlin known as a center for leftist activists, as a large, loud but mostly peace crowd protested the action.  Police in riot gear could be seen leading – or sometimes carrying – residents down ladder-like steps from an upper level of the Liebig 34 building in the capital’s Friedrichshain neighborhood, named after its address, Liebigstrasse 34.  Police entered the building from there after being refused entry at ground level.The graffiti-covered building has become a symbol for the left-wing scene in the German capital. It has been partially occupied for 30 years by squatters, and the current residents had a 10-year agreement with the property owner who refused to renew it when it expired in 2018. He began a court process that resulted in Friday’s evictions.Police, who feared violent protests from the eviction, called in about 1,500 police which were deployed around the city.  Germany’s Deutsche Welle news service reports protesters threw glass bottles and fireworks at officers within a closed-off zone adjacent to the building.   The police say that overnight, protesters burned tires, garbage dumpsters and set fire to the Tiergarten metro station building. But the spokesman said the protesters were otherwise peaceful as they cleared the building Friday.Occupants of the building say Liebig 34 has offered a place of refuge for women, trans and intersex people since 1999. An autonomously run bar and cultural center allowed the occupants to raise funds to cover rent.A lawyer for the occupants of the building told the French news agency they plan to appeal the eviction, saying the landlord acted unlawfully in limiting his contract to 10 years. He also said it went against human rights to put people on the street in the middle of a pandemic. 
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Norway’s 83-year-old King Harald V on Friday underwent an operation to replace a heart valve at the main hospital in Oslo. The palace said it was successful and his condition was described as good, the palace said.
Following the surgery at Rikshospitalet’s Cardiovascular and Lung Clinic, the monarch was transferred to an intensive care unit for further observation, the king’s doctor, Bjoern Bendz, said in a palace statement,  
Bendz said the intervention was necessary to improve the king’s breathing and added that this kind of operation is regularly performed.
Last month, the king was hospitalized with breathing difficulties. Doctors ruled out COVID-19.  
After Friday’s surgery, the palace said he will be on sick leave through October. His son and heir to the throne, Crown Prince Haakon, has stepped in and taken over his father’s duties.
 
The palace said the operation was not an open heart surgery and that the king was awake during the the operation that was performed via the groin with local anesthesia.  
In 2005, the king’s aortic valve was replaced by an artificial heart valve. Such valves have a lifespan of between 10 and 15 years, the royal household had said.
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The World Food Program (WFP) has won the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to combat the threat of hunger.Berit Reiss-Andersen, chairperson of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the WFP was awarded the prize “for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.”The peace prize is the sixth Nobel given this week. Each comes with a $1.1 million cash award and a gold medal.An American poet won the Nobel Prize in literature for an “unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.”The prize in chemistry was awarded to two scientists for developing a method of gene editing.Three scientists won the physics prize Wednesday for their discoveries related to black holes.Three scientists also shared the medicine prize for the discovery of the hepatitis C virus.The related prize in Economic Sciences will be awarded Monday.
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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is a step closer to wielding new authority that will enable him to circumvent U.S. sanctions.The pro-government National Constituent Assembly approved an anti-blockade bill Thursday allowing Maduro to sign new oil deals with private firms and foreign nations without disclosing them publicly.Maduro created the assembly, a parallel legislative branch, to circumvent the opposition-controlled congress.The Council of State is now expected to request a ruling from the Supreme Court of Justice on the constitutionality of the Anti-Blockade Law. If cleared, it then would allow changes to the ownership of joint ventures between state oil company PDVSA and private companies.With his government facing severe financial straits because of dearth of oil production and restrictions on crude oil exports under the sanctions, Maduro has long sought control over oil operations.
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One of the most popular holiday beach resorts in Argentina is the site of a poignant memorial to the people who have died from the novel coronavirus.People in Mar del Plata planted 504 small Argentine flags on Bristol Beach, as the pandemic continues to spread through the interior of the country.Residents said they chose the popular beach ahead of the start of the summer season to draw attention to the rising toll of people contracting coronavirus and dying from COVID-19.One of the Mar del Plata residents placing the flags on the beach said her sympathy for COVID-19 victims extends beyond her hometown.COVID-19 infections reportedly are down in Buenos Aires and its metropolitan area, but nationwide, Argentina still has one of the highest coronavirus tallies in Latin America and the world.Argentina has reported more than 840,000 cases of the new coronavirus and 22,710 deaths.
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As U.S., French, and Russian officials hold mediation talks in Geneva, fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh region continues, with thousands of people fleeing into both Armenia and Azerbaijan.  While families say they are exhausted from the battles that span more than 30 years, they also say only victory for their side will truly end the conflict.  VOA’s Heather Murdock has this report from Goris, Armenia.
Camera: Yan Boechat
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Turkey’s backing of Azerbaijan in the conflict with Armenia over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave is coming under increasing scrutiny. Despite international pressure, Turkey is rejecting calls to back an unconditional cease-fire, as Ankara steps up its support of Azerbaijan’s military goals. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.Producers: Berke Bas, Rod James. Videographers: Berke Bas, agencies.
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