Foreign News
Massive night protests in Kolkata after doctor’s rape and murder
Tens of thousands of women in West Bengal marched through the streets on Wednesday night in protest against the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at a state-run hospital in Kolkata last week.
The Reclaim the Night march was the culmination of nearly a week of frenzied protests ignited by the brutal rape and murder of a 31-year-old female trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College last Friday.
Responding to calls on social media, women from all walks of life marched across Kolkata city and throughout West Bengal state on a rainy Wednesday night.
Though protests were largely peaceful, they were marred by clashes between the police and a small group of unidentified men who barged into the RG Kar Hospital, the site of the doctor’s murder, and ransacked the emergency department.
Police fired tear gas to disperse the unruly crowd. Some police vehicles were also damaged.
Smaller protests were also held in many other Indian cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune.
Elsewhere in the city, women marched resolutely, holding placards of protest, their faces illuminated by the glow of mobile phones, candlelight, and flaming torches. Some carried national flags. They were joined by men, both young and elderly.
During the marches and at many gatherings near a university, theatre hall and bus terminus, they stood united, holding hands as the humid air echoed with loud and powerful chants of “we want justice”. Protesters blew conch shells – the sound is considered auspicious.
At the stroke of midnight, as India completed 77 years of Independence, the soundscape of protest changed.
The air filled with a spontaneous chorus of the national anthem. Then it began raining, but the protesters walked in the rain, or holding umbrellas over their head.
“We have never seen anything like before in the city, such a huge gathering of women marching at night,” a reporter belonging to a news network said.
It was a night of barely concealed rage and frustration.
A woman, who joined the march well after midnight with her 13-year-old daughter said: “Let her see whether a mass protest can set things right. Let her become aware of her rights”.
“Women have no respect!” said another. “Our worth is less than cows and goats.”
“When do we get our independence? How long do we have to wait to work without fear? Another 50 years?” asked a student.
Sanchari Mukherjee said she marched with thousands of others from a bus terminus in Jadavpur, undeterred by the rain.
She met “people of all ages, from all classes, the well-to-do, the middle class and the poor”.
“I saw an elderly couple, the husband helping the woman to walk,” she said.
“One family brought their little girl along, perhaps so the memory of this event would be etched in her mind – how her parents stood up against injustice, and how she, too, can protest one day.”
Ms Mukherjee said the entire city seemed awake as the marchers passed by illuminated homes, with people peering out of windows and crowding verandahs to watch.
“They may not have participated but they were with us in spirit,” she said.
“‘We want justice’ had become the anthem of the march, and it didn’t feel like just a slogan,” Ms Mukherjee said.
“It felt like every young woman was deeply hurt and determined, frustrated that they still face these issues in 2024.”
Ms Mukherjee added that she had to walk a few miles to join the march because the streets were gridlocked late at night.
“I was instantly swept up in a sea of people heading to the protest site. There was no excitement, just a stoic determination to create an event which would become a symbol for the times to come.”
The protests have been fuelled by anger over local authorities’ handling of the young trainee doctor’s rape and murder.
She had fallen asleep in a seminar room after a 36-hour shift last Thursday, as there was no designated rest area for her to sleep in.
The next morning, her colleagues discovered her half-naked body on the podium, bearing extensive injuries.
Police later arrested a hospital volunteer worker in connection with what they said was a case of rape and murder.
But there have been accusations of cover-up and negligence. The case has since been transferred from local police to the federal Central Bureau of Investigation.
Despite scant resources, Kolkata’s Reclaim the Night march appeared to have been meticulously organised. In an advisory, organisers welcomed women and people from marginalised sexual and gender identities to the march.
“Men are welcome as allies and observers,” the advisory added.
They also emphasised that politicians were not welcome and requested that no party flags be brought to the protest.
It was not the first time that a Reclaim the Night march has been staged in India.
Inspired by similar marches elsewhere in the world by women to assert their rights to walk in public areas without fear, a march was held in 1978 in Bombay (now Mumbai) in protest against the rape of a woman on the street.
Blank Noise, a community-based art project and activist collective, has organised several midnight walks in Delhi to encourage women to assert their right to walk freely at night.
But in terms of scale, the Kolkata march, echoed by smaller ones across other cities, stands as the largest yet.
“We seized the night. We’ve never seen anything like this in the city. This is unprecedented. I hope it wakes up the authorities,” said Chaitali Sen, a protester.
[BBC]
At least 76 people have been killed in a fire that engulfed a popular Turkish ski resort hotel, leaving some to jump out of windows.
The fire broke out at the wooden-clad 12-storey Grand Kartal Hotel in Bolu at 03:27 local time (00:27 GMT) during a busy holiday period when 234 people were staying there.
An initial toll of 10 dead was raised significantly in the hours after the fire by Turkey’s interior ministry. At least two people died after trying to jump to safety.
It took 12 hours for the fire to be put out. Nine people have been arrested, including the owner, the justice minister says.
The identities of all 76 are yet to be confirmed, but among those released so far are Vedia Nil Apak, a 10-year-old swimmer with Fenerbahce Sports Club in Istanbul, and her mother Ferda. The club said it had learned of the news with “deep sorrow” in an Instagram post on Tuesday.
Eslem Uyanik, a young chef at the hotel, died along with Ceren Yaman Dogan, the daughter of a well-known local businessman, and her 17-year-old daughter Lalin.
Nedim Turkmen, a writer for Sozcu newspaper, his wife Ayse Neva, and their two children aged 18 and 22 were also named, along with Prof Atakan Yalcin, who was dean of Ozyegin University Business School.
Dilara Ermanoglu, 24, was among the victims, and her father who had gone to Bolu to look for her was treated by health workers for a heart attack.
Health minister Kemal Memisoglu said that of the 51 injured people, one was receiving treatment in intensive care, and 17 people had been discharged.
Footage circulating in Turkey showed linen hanging from windows which was used by those trying to escape the burning building.
Ski instructor Necmi Kepcetutan told the BBC he was on the second floor of the hotel when the fire broke out and managed to get out via the ski room. He then helped with relief efforts.
Eyewitnesses said the family that owned the hotel had been there at the time of the fire and Mr Kepcetutan said he saw some of the family outside.
The cause of the fire has not yet been found, but Bolu governor Abdulaziz Aydin said initial reports suggested it had broken out in the restaurant section of the hotel’s fourth floor and spread to the floors above.
Aydin said the distance between the hotel, in Kartalkaya, and the centre of Bolu, paired with the freezing weather conditions, meant it took more than an hour for fire engines to arrive. Emergency services sent 267 workers to the site.
The hotel was investigating whether guests, including children, were trapped in their rooms as the fire spread.
The hotel had two fire escapes, according to the interior minister, and one hotel worker said they had managed to rescue 30-35 people.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said prosecutors had been allocated to investigate the blaze.
The hotel was last inspected in 2024, and the tourism minister said there had been no concerns regarding the hotel’s fire safety prior to Tuesday’s disaster.
However, the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB) said that according to regulations, an automatic fire extinguisher system is needed.
“In the photos on the hotel’s website, it is seen that the automatic sprinkler system, which was supposed to be installed in 2008, was not installed,” the union said in a statement.
It added that it was unclear if other regulations had been complied with, but based on the statements of survivors, “it is understood that the detection and warning systems did not work and the escape routes could not be determined”.
The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said those responsible for negligence leading to the fire “will be held accountable”.
A day of national mourning has been declared and the Turkish flag will be flown at half-mast until sunset on Wednesday, he added in a statement on X.
The Bolu mountains are popular with skiers from Istanbul and Turkey’s capital Ankara, which is roughly 170km (105 miles) away, and the hotel was operating at high occupancy at the start of two-week school holidays.
Former UK ambassador to Turkey Sir Peter Westmacott told the BBC he had stayed in the area in the past, and that the fire “feels very personal”.
“The fact that so many people have lost their lives is just devastating news for those of us who care about Turkey,” he said.
[BBC]
Donald Trump took an ordinary presidential act – rescinding orders from a previous administration of different party – and turned it into a spectacle.
After giving another winding speech – his third of the day – Trump moved to a small desk on the stage at the downtown sport arena where his indoor inaugural parade had just concluded. Then he went to work freezing new federal regulations and hiring, reversing Biden administration directives, mandating federal workers work in-office full-time and withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accords.
“Can you imagine Joe Biden doing this?” he asked after signing the regulation freeze – but that could have applied to visuals of the moment as much as to the content of the orders.
He also signed more symbolic orders to end the “weaponisation of government” and instruct his administration to address the higher cost of living.
It’s just the start of what promises to be a record number of first-day executive actions, including a promised pardon of many of some who participated in the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.
After the arena ceremony, Trump tossed the pens he used into the crowd – another Trumping flourish.
This is the list of executive orders signed by President Trump in front of his supporters inside the arena in Washington DC [as it was described to the arena]
- The rescission of 78 Biden-era executive actions
- A regulatory freeze preventing bureaucrats from issuing any more regulations until the administration has full control of the government
- A freeze on all federal hiring, excepting the military and a number of other excluded categories until full control of the government is achieved
- A requirement for federal workers return to full-time in-person work immediately
- A directive to every department and agency in the federal government to address the cost-of-living
- Withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement
- A directive to the federal government ordering the restoration of freedom of speech and preventing government censorship of free speech
- A directive to the federal government ending the “weaponisation” of government against the “political adversaries” of the previous administration
[BBC]
China has executed two men who committed deadly attacks that killed dozens in November, raising concerns about a surge in what are called “revenge on society crimes”, state media reported.
Fan Weiqu, 62, who rammed his car into a crowd outside a sports stadium in the southern city of Zhuhai, killing at least 35 people, was executed on Monday.
The attack was the country’s deadliest in more than a decade, according to authorities. Police said Fan was upset over his divorce settlement.
Also in November, 21-year-old Xu Jiajin killed eight people and injured 17 in a stabbing attack at his vocational school in the eastern city of Wuxi.
Police said Wu had failed his examinations and could not graduate, and was dissatisfied about his pay at an internship. He was also executed on Monday, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Chinese President Xi Jinping urged local governments to take measures to prevent such attacks, known as “revenge on society crimes”.
The two men’s death sentences were issued by the intermediate people’s courts in the cities of Zhuhai and Wuxi, respectively, in December, and approved by the Supreme People’s Court, according to state media.
Violent crimes are rarer in China than in many Western countries, but the country has seen a rise in recent years. Stabbings and car attacks have challenged the governing Communist Party’s reputation for strict public security and crime prevention.
They also carried a shock factor that led some to question perceived social ills such as frustration with a slowing economy, high unemployment and diminishing social mobility.
China classifies death penalty statistics as a state secret, but some rights groups believe the country executes thousands every year. Executions are traditionally carried out by gunshot, though lethal injections have also been introduced in recent years.
[Aljazeera]
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