Hong Kong activist stabbed as protesters gird for march
Hong Kong: A man distributing leaflets near a wall with pro-democracy messages was stabbed and wounded, as Hong Kong anti-government protesters prepared to hold an unauthorized march Sunday to press their demands.
Police said they arrested a 22-year-old man Saturday in connection with the knife attack that wounded a 19-year-old.
On Wednesday, a leader of the nearly 5-month-old pro-democracy movement, Jimmy Sham, was attacked by assailants wielding hammers and knives as the unrest rocking semi-autonomous Hong Kong turns increasingly violent.
Later Saturday, supporters waving U.S. and British flags held a prayer rally to call for outside help for their cause. The protest march is planned for Sunday, with organizers vowing to hold the event even though it failed to win approval from police, who cited risks to public order.
Protesters are trying to keep the pressure on the government to respond to their demands, including full democracy and an independent inquiry into alleged police brutality. They're also using Sunday's rally to raise a more recent demand for the government to scrap a ban installed this month on face masks at public gatherings.
Organisers said demonstrators would defy the police because Hong Kong's constitution guarantees the right to protest.
"We don't think that because police haven't given their approval we shouldn't demonstrate," Figo Chan, vice-convener of the Civil Human Rights Front, told reporters. "Even though they have rejected our appeal, there will surely be many residents taking to the streets."
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers including Republican Sen Ted Cruz and Democratic Rep Alexandra Ocasio Cortez wrote to tech company Apple and video game studio Activision Blizzard to condemn what they called protest-related censorship on behalf of China.
The group urged Apple to reverse its decision to remove from its app store the crowdsourced mapping app HKMaplive that was used to report police locations so that they could be avoided.
They also wrote separately to Activision to reconsider its decision to suspend a Hong Kong gamer after he voiced support for the protesters during an interview.
"Cases like these raise real concerns about whether Apple and other large US entities will bow to growing Chinese demands rather than lose access to more than a billion Chinese consumers," said the letter sent Friday and co-signed by Sens. Marco Rubio and Ron Wyden and Reps. Mike Gallagher and Tom Malinowski.
The lawmakers also cited China's pressure on the NBA after Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey's tweet in support of the protesters. On Friday night, some basketball fans held signs, wore shirts and chanted support for Hong Kong at a Brooklyn Nets preseason game.
One sign called out LeBron James and Nets owner Joe Tsai, co-founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, who were critical of Morey's tweet. Tsai wrote a Facebook post explaining why the since-deleted tweet upset China.
Also Saturday, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said the murder suspect whose case inadvertently helped ignite the city's protest movement wants to surrender to authorities in Taiwan after he's released from prison later this week for a different offense.
Lam said on a radio show that Chan Tong-Kai's decision to surrender has led to a "relatively relieving" conclusion to the case.
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Bengaluru drug bust: 8 people arrested, total seizures valued at 27.42 cr
Bengaluru (PTI): Eight people, including a foreign national, were arrested for illegally selling drugs in the city, police said on Tuesday.
They seized drugs, vehicles and other items worth Rs 27.42 crores.
According to police, based on credible information received from informants on various dates, officers and staff learned that prohibited narcotic substances such as MDMA, Ganja, and Cocaine were being sold within the limits of Hebbagodi, Yelahanka New Town, Mico Layout, Parappana Agrahara, Bagalur, and Banaswadi Police Stations.
Acting on this information, cases were registered under the NDPS Act in the respective police stations, and raids were conducted at the locations identified by the informants.
"During these operations, a total of 8 accused persons were apprehended on different dates, including one foreign national, and four interstate offenders," Bengaluru Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh told reporters here.
Upon interrogation, the accused confessed that, with the intention of making quick money, they procured narcotic substances such as MDMA, Cocaine, and Ganja at lower prices from unknown foreign and local suppliers and sold them to the public, including college students, he said.
"A total of Rs 13.71 Crores worth drugs and other items have been seized. These include 12 kg 91 grams of MDMA, 275 grams of Cocaine, 34 kg 802 grams of Ganja, 40 grams of gold ornaments (purchased from proceeds of drug sales), 02 two-wheelers used for the offence. The total estimated market value of all these is Rs 27.42 Crores," he added.
The Commissioner further said efforts are on to trace the unknown individuals who supplied the narcotic substances to the accused.
Investigation is underway.
"There is information about the involvement of other foreign nationals, and through FRRO we learned one person has already left the country... interrogations and investigations will continue," he said.
All eight accused have been produced before the court on different dates and have been remanded to judicial custody, officials said.
Noting that in the case under the Electric City division, raids were conducted at five different houses and different quantities of drugs were seized, Singh said, "This is a serious matter as the house was taken for rent and they supplied from there. The information came from the arrest of the foreigner. Total value of seizure in Hebbagodi alone is Rs 27 crore (market value)."
