French auction house tells of build-up to bidding war that led to an expert losing his job and a seller being left ‘traumatised’
In the 41 years of wielding the gavel at his auction house a stone’s throw from the royal chateau at Fontainebleau, Jean-Pierre Osenat has never seen anything like it.
“This is a crazy story,” he said. “Quite extraordinary.”
Continue reading...Jailed campaigner Ales Bialiatski, Memorial and Center for Civil Liberties win award that will be seen as condemnation of Putin
The jailed Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russian human rights organisation Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties have won the 2022 Nobel peace prize, in an award the committee said was to honour champions of “peaceful coexistence” during the most tumultuous period in Europe since the second world war.
“The peace prize laureates represent civil society in their home countries,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee. “They have for many years promoted the right to criticise power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens.”
Continue reading...Munib al-Masri has 300-page dossier of allegations including killings and torture between 1917 and 1948
A Palestinian businessman and former politician is to petition the UK government for an apology for abuses in the region during the period of British rule in the first half of the 20th century.
Munib al-Masri, 88, a close friend and supporter of the late Palestinian political leader Yasser Arafat, has with two international lawyers drawn up a 300-page dossier of evidence alleging abuses by the British between 1917 and 1948, the BBC reported.
Continue reading...Reliance on desalination comes with a big environmental cost for the region’s marine environment
As the World Cup approaches, Qatar is going to need at least 10,000 litres of water every day for each of its stadium pitches. Based in a region with virtually no access to fresh water, it is going to rely on desalination – the practice of debrining saltwater so it is drinkable.
It seems like an elegant solution – but the problem is that desalination, which is projected to boom by 37% across the Gulf region in the next five years, has huge environmental costs, in terms of the fossils fuels used to carry out the process, and the marine environment. But without it, how can the arid region possibly quench its thirst?
Continue reading...Case of Peter Ellis marks first time a court in the country has overturned a conviction posthumously
New Zealand’s supreme court has quashed the convictions of Peter Ellis, a Christchurch creche worker convicted of child sexual abuse in 1993 in a highly controversial case that included allegations of large-scale ritual abuse.
On Friday, the court found a “substantial miscarriage of justice” had occurred. It is the first time in New Zealand’s history that a conviction has been quashed posthumously – Ellis died from cancer in late 2019.
Continue reading...A heatwave that began in March led to the country receiving almost triple its average rainfall from June to August
Traditionally, the Asian monsoon is a time to celebrate. But after devastating floods in Pakistan, people in the country may feel differently. At their greatest extent in September, floods covered one-third of Pakistan’s surface. About 15% of the population have been displaced or otherwise affected, and an estimated 1,700 have died.
This year’s monsoon was the wettest on record. The numbers are mind-boggling. Between June and August, Pakistan received almost triple its average rainfall. The province of Sindh received more than eight times the usual amount. However, the situation is far more complicated than just extreme downpours.
Continue reading...Williamson Pink Star is second largest ‘fancy vivid pink’ diamond to ever appear at auction
The second largest, internally flawless “fancy vivid pink” diamond ever to appear at auction is expected to sell for more than £20m when it goes under the hammer at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong on Friday.
The 11.15-carat, cushion-shaped diamond, known as the Williamson Pink Star, is named after two other huge pink diamonds: the 59.60-carat, mixed-cut, oval Pink Star diamond that sold for a record $71.2m at auction in 2017, and the Williamson stone, a 23.60-carat diamond given to the late Queen Elizabeth II as a wedding gift by the Canadian geologist and ardent royalist John Thorburn Williamson in 1947.
Continue reading...MSF calls situation ‘very serious’ as east African country grapples with outbreak of Sudan strain of virus, for which no vaccine exists
It seems like a normal day in Mubende, central Uganda. Shops remain open, children are at school and public gatherings are allowed, provided people remain socially distant.
The ambulances that whisk past every few hours and the health workers who wash themselves meticulously before they return home are the only indications that it is not business as usual in the densely populated mining district, which is struggling to contain an outbreak of Ebola.
Continue reading...Forest fire that swept through more than 100 hectares of national park, with some moai ‘totally charred’
A forest fire that tore through part of Easter Island has charred some of its monumental carved stone figures, known as moai, authorities have said.
The blaze reportedly swept through the Rapa Nui national park, 3,500km (2,175 miles) off the west coast of Chile, causing “irreparable” damage to the archaeological site.
Continue reading...Myles Sanderson, who died in RCMP custody, was responsible for deaths of all 11 victims, including that of his brother Damien
Canadian police have concluded that Myles Sanderson, who led officers on a multi-day manhunt after a mass stabbing last month, was responsible for all 11 deaths – including that of his brother.
Officers initially named Sanderson’s brother Damien as a suspect in the stabbings in James Smith Cree Nation and the nearby town of Weldon, Saskatchewan.
Continue reading...US ambassador to the UN said Wagner Group are trafficking natural resources from African nations
The United States has accused Russian mercenaries of exploiting natural resources in Central African Republic, Mali, Sudan and elsewhere to help fund Moscow’s war in Ukraine, a charge Russia rejected as “anti-Russian rage”.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said the Wagner Group of mercenaries are exploiting natural resources and “these ill-gotten gains are used to fund Moscow’s war machine in Africa, the Middle East and Ukraine”.
Continue reading...Prime minister hints at setting up new governing body after major firms pull support for Hockey Canada over handling of allegations
Justin Trudeau has warned Canada’s ice hockey governing body that it has “lost the confidence” of Canadians and could be easily replaced by a new organization, amid growing outcry about its handling of a string of sexual assault allegations.
The prime minister’s comments come as a wave of major companies publicly pulled support for the embattled organization on Thursday.
Continue reading...Nika Shahkarami, 16, disappeared on her way to anti-hijab protests sparked by death of Mahsa Amini
The mother of an Iranian teenager who died after joining protests over Mahsa Amini’s death has accused the authorities of murdering her daughter and pressuring her into saying that her death was a suicide, caused by jumping from the roof of a building.
In a video sent on Thursday to Radio Farda, a US-funded media outlet, Nasrin Shahkarami said she was under pressure to give a false statement about the death of 16-year-old Nika, who went missing on 20 September after leaving to join an anti-hijab protest in Tehran.
Continue reading...Ukraine’s president makes comments during address to other European leaders
Two people have been killed after an alleged Russian missile attack hit Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Regional governor, Oleksandr Starukh, said one woman was confirmed to have died in the attack while another person died in an ambulance.
Continue reading...Daniel Prude died from ‘complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint’ in Rochester, New York, in March 2020
City officials agreed to pay $12m to the children of Daniel Prude, a Black man who died when police who encountered him running naked through the snowy streets of Rochester, New York, put him in a hood and held him down until he stopped breathing.
A federal judge approved the settlement in a court document filed on Thursday. The Rochester mayor, Malik D Evans, said in a statement the agreement was “the best decision” for the city.
Continue reading...Eight-month-old baby found dead with her mother, father and uncle in an orchard in Merced county
A family who were kidnapped at gunpoint from their central California business two days ago have been found dead.
A farm worker found the bodies of the baby girl, her parents and her uncle at an orchard in a remote area of Merced county, according to the local sheriff.
Continue reading...37 people, most young children, killed by former police officer at preschool centre in north-east of country
Thirty-seven people have been killed, most of them young children, in an unprecedented gun and knife attack at a preschool centre in north-east Thailand that has horrified the country.
The attacker, a former police officer, opened fire as children were sleeping at the centre in Na Klang district in Nong Bua Lamphu province at about noon on Thursday, police and witnesses said.
Continue reading...At least 22 people dead, with many more missing, in two separate incidents hundreds of miles apart
Search and rescue operations are under way in the west and east of Greece after refugees desperate to reach Europe were involved in two separate maritime disasters in less than a day, the country’s coastguard said.
Almost 12 hours after two vessels sank in the Aegean sea, rescue workers hampered by inclement weather were in a race against the clock on Thursday to find survivors as authorities reported that at least 16 women and a boy had died when an overloaded boat capsized east of the island of Lesbos.
Continue reading...Ministers rebuke ‘shameful’ failure to meet funding promises for poorer countries to cope with climate crisis ahead of Cop27 summit
Ministers and high-ranking officials of African nations have urged rich countries to do more to combat the climate crisis, and called the failure to meet a funding promise from 2009 “shameful”.
At a conference in Giza, Egypt, on Wednesday in the run-up to next month’s UN climate summit, Wael Aboulmagd, Egypt’s special representative for Cop27, attacked wealthier nations for not honouring an agreement to provide $100bn (£87.5bn) a year to developing countries by 2020.
Continue reading...Result not to debate its own damning report shows many states are unwilling take sides in power struggle between China and west
In a display of raw Chinese political power, the UN has voted to turn its back on a report written by its own human rights commissioner that accused Beijing of serious human rights abuses and possible crimes against humanity in Xinjiang province.
The 47-strong UN human rights council meeting in Geneva voted on Thursday by 19 to 17 to reject an American-led call for a debate on the report at the next human rights council in spring. Eleven countries abstained. A simple majority was required.
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