Georgia court slaps fresh 4.5-year prison term on jailed ex-leader Saakashvili: lawyer

Georgia court slaps fresh 4.5-year prison term on jailed ex-leader Saakashvili: lawyer
Saakashvili and rights groups have denounced his prosecution as politically motivated. (FILE/AFP)
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Georgia court slaps fresh 4.5-year prison term on jailed ex-leader Saakashvili: lawyer

Georgia court slaps fresh 4.5-year prison term on jailed ex-leader Saakashvili: lawyer
  • Saakashvili and rights groups have denounced his prosecution as politically motivated

Tbilisi: A Georgian court on Monday sentenced ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili to four and a half years behind bars for illegally crossing the border, bringing the pro-Western politician’s total sentence to 12.5 years.
Saakashvili, 57, was sentenced in absentia in 2018 to six years in prison for abuse of office and, last week, he received a nine-year sentence for misspending public funds.
He began serving the term in 2021, when he returned to the country from exile.
On Monday, Saakashvili was sentenced to “four years and six months in prison for illegally crossing Georgia’s border” when he covertly returned from exile in Ukraine, lawyer Dito Sadzaglishvili told AFP.
“Taking into account the combination of sentences, Mikheil Saakashvili’s overall prison term is set at 12 years and six months,” said Judge Mikheil Jinjolia.
Saakashvili and rights groups have denounced his prosecution as politically motivated.
He is being held in a civilian hospital, where he was transferred in 2022 after staging a 50-day hunger strike to protest over his detention.
The European Parliament has called for his immediate release, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has demanded that Saakashvili, a Ukrainian national since 2019, be transferred to Kyiv.
Zelensky — who appointed Saakashvili as his top adviser to oversee reforms — accused Russia of “killing” Saakashvili “at the hands of the Georgian authorities.”
The European Union and the United States have urged Georgia to ensure that Saakashvili is provided medical treatment and that his rights are protected.
Council of Europe rights watchdog has branded him a “political prisoner,” while Amnesty International has called his treatment an “apparent political revenge.”


Mount Fuji hikers to be charged $27 on all trails

Mount Fuji hikers to be charged $27 on all trails
Updated 3 sec ago
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Mount Fuji hikers to be charged $27 on all trails

Mount Fuji hikers to be charged $27 on all trails
  • A record influx of foreign tourists to Japan has sparked alarm about overcrowding on the nation’s highest mountain
  • Thanks in part to the new restrictions, the number of climbers who tackled Mount Fuji declined to 204,316 last year, from 221,322 in 2023
TOKYO: Hikers attempting any of Mount Fuji’s four main trails will be charged an entry fee of 4,000 yen ($27) from this summer, after local authorities passed a bill on Monday.
A record influx of foreign tourists to Japan has sparked alarm about overcrowding on the nation’s highest mountain, a once-peaceful pilgrimage site.
Last year, Yamanashi region – home to Mount Fuji – introduced a 2,000 yen ($14) entry fee plus an optional donation for the active volcano’s most popular hiking route, the Yoshida Trail.
A cap on daily entries and online reservations were also brought in on that trail by officials concerned about safety and environmental damage on Fuji’s majestic slopes.
The Yoshida Trail fee will be doubled for this year’s July-September climbing season, while neighboring Shizuoka region passed a bill on Monday to also charge 4,000 yen for its three trails, which were previously free.
Thanks in part to the new restrictions, the number of climbers who tackled Mount Fuji declined to 204,316 last year, from 221,322 in 2023, environment ministry data shows.
Although climber numbers continue to be eclipsed by pre-pandemic levels, “200,000 hikers is still huge,” Natsuko Sodeyama, a Shizuoka prefecture official, told AFP.
“There is no other mountain in Japan that attracts that many people in the span of just over two months. So some restrictions are necessary to ensure their safety.”
Mount Fuji is covered in snow for most of the year, but during the summer hiking season many trudge up its steep, rocky slopes through the night to see the sunrise.
The symmetrical mountain has been immortalized in countless artworks, including Hokusai’s “Great Wave.” It last erupted around 300 years ago.

Bangladesh’s Yunus to visit China this month

Bangladesh’s Yunus to visit China this month
Updated 27 min 33 sec ago
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Bangladesh’s Yunus to visit China this month

Bangladesh’s Yunus to visit China this month
  • The Nobel Peace laureate took charge of Bangladesh last August after the ouster of premier Sheikh Hasina
  • Yunus is slated to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the March 26-29 visit

DHAKA: Bangladeshi leader Muhammad Yunus will travel to Beijing on a diplomatic goodwill visit this month as frosty relations with neighboring India spur his caretaker administration to court new friends.
The Nobel Peace laureate took charge of Bangladesh last August after the ouster of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India after a student-led uprising.
India was the biggest benefactor of Hasina’s government and her ouster sent cross-border relations into a tailspin.
That has prompted the caretaker government helmed by Yunus to seek greater ties with Beijing, New Delhi’s chief rival for power and influence in the Asian subcontinent.
“Bangladesh aims to elevate this bilateral relationship to new heights,” Yunus’s media secretary Shafiqul Alam told reporters on Sunday in a briefing on next week’s visit.
“They will discuss a wide range of issues concerning both countries.”
Yunus is slated to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the March 26-29 visit.
He will also receive an honorary doctorate from Peking University and meet several Chinese firms to explore investment opportunities.
“Bangladesh aspires to become a manufacturing hub and is keen to partner with China in this endeavor,” Alam said.
Diplomatic talks are also expected to touch on Bangladesh’s immense population of Rohingya refugees, most of whom fled a violent military crackdown in neighboring Myanmar in 2017.
China has acted as mediator between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the past to broker the repatriation of the persecuted minority, although efforts stalled because of Myanmar’s unwillingness to have them returned.
Interim Bangladeshi foreign minister Touhid Hossain visited China in January in what was his first official trip abroad.
China’s ambassador in Dhaka, Yao Wen, said last month that Beijing “firmly supports Bangladesh in upholding its national independence, sovereignty, and dignity.”


Deadly nightclub blaze leaves North Macedonia in grief and desperate for accountability

Deadly nightclub blaze leaves North Macedonia in grief and desperate for accountability
Updated 58 min 18 sec ago
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Deadly nightclub blaze leaves North Macedonia in grief and desperate for accountability

Deadly nightclub blaze leaves North Macedonia in grief and desperate for accountability
  • The massive fire tore through the overcrowded nightclub early Sunday leaving 59 people dead and 155 injured
  • People as young as 16 were among the casualties, and the nation declared seven days of mourning

KOCANI, North Macedonia: After North Macedonia’s deadliest tragedy in recent memory, with dozens dying in a nightclub inferno, the Balkan nation is struggling to grapple with so many young lives lost while trying to hold those responsible to account and prevent another calamity.
The massive fire tore through the overcrowded nightclub early Sunday in the eastern town of Kocani leaving 59 people dead and 155 injured from burns, smoke inhalation and being trampled in the panicked escape toward the building’s single exit.
People as young as 16 were among the casualties, and the nation declared seven days of mourning.
“We are all in shock, and I am shocked myself: as a mother, as a person, as a president,” North Macedonia’s President Gordana Davkova Siljanovska said in an address to the nation Sunday night.
“I still cannot believe that the terrible tragedy in Kocani is a reality. I do not know with what words to express my condolences to the parents and loved ones of the deceased,” she said. “No one responsible should escape the law, justice and punishment! Let us not allow anyone to endanger the lives of innocent people anymore.”
The fire that shook the nation of 2 million – where close-knit extended family bonds made the disaster personal to many – was the latest in a slew of deadly nightclub fires around the world.
Allegation of bribery surrounding nightclub
Authorities say they are investigating allegations of bribery surrounding the nightclub that was crammed with young revelers and at double capacity. And North Macedonia’s government ordered a sweeping three-day inspection to be carried out at all nightclubs and cabarets across the country, starting Monday.
The country was in mourning as people watched harrowing scenes in the town of 25,000 people, where rescuers for hours carried out their grim task of removing the charred bodies of clubgoers. The fire caused the roof of the single-story building to partially collapse, revealing the charred remains of wooden beams and debris.
Anxious parents gathered outside hospitals in Kocani and capital Skopje, some 115 kilometers (72 miles) west, eager for updates about the injured. Many of the most seriously injured were receiving treatment in Greece and other neighboring countries.
Waiting outside the hospital in Kocani, Dragi Stojanov was among those who received the dreaded news that his 21-year-old son Tomce had perished.
“He was my only child. I don’t need my life anymore. ... 150 families have been devastated,” he told reporters. “Children burnt beyond recognition. There are corpses, just corpses inside (the club). ... And the bosses (of organized crime), just putting money into their pockets.”
The death toll may rise further
Flags around the country have been lowered to half-staff, and the death toll may rise further, with 20 of the injured in critical condition, Health Minister Arben Taravari said Sunday.
Although the investigation into the fire’s cause is ongoing, videos showed sparkling pyrotechnics on the stage hitting Club Pulse’s ceiling and igniting the blaze as a band played.
“We even tried to get out through the bathroom, only to find bars (on the windows),” 19-year-old Marija Taseva told The Associated Press. “I somehow managed to get out. I fell down the stairs and they ran over me, trampled me. ... I barely stayed alive and could hardly breathe.” She suffered an injury to her face.
Interior Minister Panche Toshkovski said 15 people had been detained for questioning after a preliminary inspection revealed the club was operating without a proper license. He said the number of people inside the club was at least double its official capacity of 250.
“We have grounds for suspicion that there is bribery and corruption in this case,” he told reporters without elaborating.
Condolences poured in from leaders around Europe as well as from the office of Pope Francis, who has been hospitalized for a month for double pneumonia.
“I have had many difficult moments and challenges in my life but today is by far the most difficult day of my life,” Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said in a televised address. “My heart is breaking, and I have no strength to speak today. I am broken and my spirit is broken.”
Late Sunday, Kocani’s residents held a candlelight vigil in support for mourning families, waiting in long lines to light church candles.
Beti Delovska, an economist from Skopje, said North Macedonia has never experienced a tragedy like this, with dozens of young people vanishing in minutes. And she noted that many young people with bright futures had already left the nation, in search of opportunities elsewhere.
“(North) Macedonia is on its death bed,” Delovska, 64, said. “We have no more credible institutions, the health system is completely dismantled, education is poor, judiciary is partisan and corrupted to the bone … I do believe now that only God can save (North) Macedonia.”


Closing arguments set to begin in pipeline company’s lawsuit against Greenpeace

Closing arguments set to begin in pipeline company’s lawsuit against Greenpeace
Updated 17 March 2025
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Closing arguments set to begin in pipeline company’s lawsuit against Greenpeace

Closing arguments set to begin in pipeline company’s lawsuit against Greenpeace
  • Dallas-based Energy Transfer and its subsidiary Dakota Access alleged defamation, trespass, nuisance and other offenses by Netherlands-based Greenpeace International
  • The pipeline company is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars. Greenpeace has denied the allegations and says there is no evidence to support them

MANDAN:Closing arguments are scheduled to begin on Monday in a pipeline company’s lawsuit against Greenpeace, a case the environmental advocacy group said could have consequences for free speech and protest rights and threaten the organization’s future.
The jury will deliberate after the closing arguments and jury instructions. Nine jurors and two alternates have heard the case.
North Dakota District Court Judge James Gion told the jury last month when the trial began, “You are the judges of all questions of fact in this case,” and to “base your verdict on the evidence.”
Dallas-based Energy Transfer and its subsidiary Dakota Access alleged defamation, trespass, nuisance and other offenses by Netherlands-based Greenpeace International, its American branch Greenpeace USA, and funding arm Greenpeace Fund Inc. The pipeline company is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
The lawsuit stems from protests in 2016 and 2017 of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline and its Missouri River crossing upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation. The tribe for years has opposed the pipeline as a risk to its water supply. The pipeline has transported oil since mid-2017.
Trey Cox, an attorney for the pipeline company, previously said Greenpeace “planned, organized and funded a game plan to stop construction” of the pipeline, “whatever the cost.”
Cox also alleged Greenpeace paid outsiders to come into the area to protest, sent blockade supplies, organized or led protester trainings, passed “critical intel” to the protesters and told untrue statements to stop the line from being built.
He said a letter signed by leaders of Greenpeace International and Greenpeace USA and sent to Energy Transfer’s banks contained an allegedly defamatory statement that the company desecrated burial grounds and culturally important sites during construction.
Greenpeace’s “deceptive narrative scared off lenders” and the company lost half its banks, Cox said.
Attorneys for the Greenpeace entities denied the allegations, saying there is no evidence, they had little or no involvement with the protests and the letter was signed by hundreds of organizations from dozens of countries, with no financial institution to testify the organization received, read or was influenced by the letter.
Greenpeace representatives have said the lawsuit is an example of corporations abusing the legal system to go after critics and is a critical test of free speech and protest rights. An Energy Transfer spokesperson said the case is about Greenpeace not following the law, not free speech.


Threatened by US, Canada hugs France and Britain close

Threatened by US, Canada hugs France and Britain close
Updated 17 March 2025
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Threatened by US, Canada hugs France and Britain close

Threatened by US, Canada hugs France and Britain close
  • Prime Minister Mark Carney expecting warm welcomes on three days of visits to Paris, London and Iqaluit in Canada’s northernmost territory, Nunavut

MONTEAL: With Canada’s economy and even sovereignty under unprecedented threat from its southern neighbor the United States, its new leader has embarked on a trans-Atlantic trip to strengthen ties with traditional friends France and Britain.
Just days into his mandate, Prime Minister Mark Carney faces threats on three fronts: A trade war with the Washington, US President Donald Trump’s threats to annex his country, and looming domestic elections.
But, despite the tension at home, he is expecting warm welcomes on three days of visits to Paris, London and Iqaluit in Canada’s northernmost territory, Nunavut.
“Canada was built upon a union of peoples – indigenous, French, and British,” Carney said, in a statement released before he set off from Ottawa on Sunday, two days after he was sworn in, replacing 10-year veteran prime minister Justin Trudeau as leader of the G7, NATO and Commonwealth power.
“My visit to France and the United Kingdom will strengthen trade, commercial, and defense ties with two of our strongest and most reliable partners, and my visit to Nunavut will be an opportunity to bolster Canada’s Arctic sovereignty and security, and our plan to unlock the North’s full economic potential.”
Carney did not say why Canada might be in need of “reliable partners,” but he didn’t need to – Trump’s imposition of an escalating raft of import tariffs on Canadian goods has threatened to trigger a recession, and his scorn for Canadian sovereignty sent jitters through the former ally.
Opinion polls show a large majority of Canadian voters reject Trump’s argument that their country would be better off as the “51st state of the United States,” but the trade war is a threat to the economy of the vast country of 41 million people, which has long enjoyed a close US partnership.
On Monday, 60-year-old Carney will be in Paris for a working dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron and discuss how to, according to the Canadian leader’s office, “build stronger economic, commercial, and defense ties.”
According to the Elysee, the two leaders “will discuss Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, international crises, and projects at the heart” of the “strategic partnership” between Paris and Ottawa.
Canada, France and Britain are among the NATO members that have maintained strong support for Ukraine’s beleaguered government and military since Russia’s all-out invasion in February 2022, even as Trump’s US administration has bullied Kyiv to make concessions to Moscow.
London and Paris are putting together plans for a coalition security force in Ukraine and looking for allies.
France is Canada’s 11th-largest trading partner and Britain its third at a time when Trump’s tariffs and Canadian retaliatory measures are threatening trade with its huge southern neighbor – destination of three-quarters of Canada’s exports.
But Canada also has a “Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement” with the European Union, which includes France, and is a member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which now also includes Britain.
After Paris, Carney heads for London, where he once worked as governor of the Bank Of England, for talks with Prime Minister Keir Starmer and King Charles III, the monarch who is head of state in both Britain and Canada.
In his first speech as prime minister, Carney said: “Security is a priority for this government, reinforcing our security, as is diversifying our trading and commercial relationships, of course, with both Europe and the United Kingdom.”
On his return leg, Carney will touch down in Iqaluit, in Nunavut, the Canadian territory closest to the Danish autonomous country of Greenland – another Trump target for annexation – to “reaffirm Canada’s Arctic security and sovereignty.”