New electric charging points for vehicles are being installed in Shropshire.
Six went live in Whitchurch and Oswestry on Friday, with more going online in Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth this week.
A total of 24 others will be installed in Ellesmere, Market Drayton, Ludlow and Bishop’s Castle next year.
Shropshire County Council said the “affordable” service would open up cost-effective charging for motorists.
The county is one of four local authority areas in the UK taking part in the Agile Streets initiative, allowing people without driveways to charge their cars at off-peak rates.
“Providing equal access to affordable EVs charging across the country is a key part of our plan to become carbon net-neutral by 2030,” said Ian Nellins, the council’s cabinet member for climate change.
A Tunisian court sentenced in absentia exiled former president Moncef Marzouki, a fierce critic of the power grab by current leader Kais Saied, to four years in prison, a judicial source said Wednesday.
The source was not able to clarify on what charge Marzouki, 76, was convicted by the court of first instance in the capital Tunis.
His lawyer, Lamia Khemiri, told AFP that Marzouki had not received any summons to court and she also did not know why he was convicted.
Local media said he was found guilty of “undermining the security of the state from abroad” and of having caused “diplomatic harm”.
Saied has said Marzouki is among the “enemies of Tunisia”, and asked the courts to investigate statements he had made, as well as to withdraw his diplomatic passport.
A Tunisian judge last month issued an arrest warrant for the former president.
During an early October demonstration in Paris, Marzouki, in a reference to Saied, called on the French government to “reject all support for this regime and this man who plotted against the revolution and abolished the constitution”.
On July 25 Tunisia’s Saied sacked the government and began to seize sweeping powers after months of political and economic crisis.
Since then, Marzouki has used regular television appearances and social media to launch withering broadsides against Saied, whom he has called a “dictator”.
Tunisia was the birthplace of the Arab Spring revolts a decade ago and became the only democracy to emerge from that movement.
A human rights activist who was imprisoned then exiled under Tunisia’s former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Marzouki returned home and was elected president for three years following the 2011 revolution.
He shared power with the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, a move which drew criticism.
Ennahdha was also the largest party in the parliament suspended by Saied.
The president last week extended the months-long suspension until new elections in December 2022, while calling for a July referendum on constitutional reforms.
A famous statue at the University of Hong Kong marking the Tiananmen Square massacre was removed late on Wednesday.
The statue showed piled-up corpses to commemorate pro-democracy protesters killed by Chinese authorities in 1989.
It was one of the few remaining public memorials in Hong Kong commemorating the incident, which is a highly sensitive topic in China.
Its removal comes as Beijing has increasingly been cracking down on political dissent in Hong Kong.
The city used to be one of few places in China that allowed public commemoration of the Tiananmen protests.
“The decision on the aged statue was based on external legal advice and risk assessment for the best interest of the university,” it said in a statement on Thursday.
“The university is also very concerned about the potential safety issues resulting from the fragile statue.”
The first sign the statue was being taken down came late on Wednesday, when university officials fenced off the area with plastic sheeting.
Construction workers worked overnight behind plastic barriers to dismantle the 8m (26ft) copper statue. Security guards blocked reporters from approaching and tried to stop them from filming.
For decades, Hong Kong prided itself on being the “conscience of China” – the only place in Chinese territory that had not forgotten the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
Beijing had allowed the annual candlelight vigil commemorating the bloody incident, which also become part of Hong Kong’s collective memory.
But under the national security law, the vigil organiser – the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China – was forced to disband, and many protest leaders were jailed. It is clear that Beijing will no longer tolerate any public display of defiance.
The monument had been standing on campus for more than two decades. Now, even it had to be dismantled and removed – in the dead of night.
There was the sound of cracking and drilling as the statue came down, but no one could see what was happening. To many, the abrupt removal felt like another affront to the city’s identity.
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The removed statue depicts a column of dozens of torn and twisted bodies with anguished faces, “to remind us of a shameful event which must never recur”, according to its sculptor, Jens Galschiot.
The university said it would put the statue, which has been on display at the university’s campus for 24 years, into storage.
Galschiot called the removal “really brutal” and that he would consider suing the authorities and demand compensation.
“This is a sculpture about dead people and [to] remember the dead people in Beijing in ’89. So when you destroy that in this way then it’s like going to a graveyard and destroying all the gravestones,” he disclosed.
A student at the University of Hong Kong, 22-year-old Billy Kwok, told Reuters news agency the statue’s removal was “really sad”.
“It’s really ironic… I don’t think people would expect this [to] happen in the university,” he said, adding that the building was supposed to be a place that supported “so-called freedom of expression or freedom of speech”.
The northern Chinese city of Xi’an on Wednesday ordered all 13 million residents to stay home in a strict lockdown, as concern grows over a fresh outbreak of Covid-19.
All households may only ‘send one household member outside once every two days to purchase necessities,’ with all others ordered to remain indoors except for emergencies, the city government said in a statement on its official Weibo social media account.
With Beijing preparing to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in February, China is on high alert as it fights local outbreaks in several cities.
Xi’an reported 52 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, bringing the total to 143 since December 9.
From midnight on Thursday, all households may only ‘send one household member outside once every two days to purchase necessities,’ with all others ordered to remain indoors except for emergencies, the city government said the statement.
Housebound patients across Norfolk and Waveney waiting for a booster jab will get it before Christmas, clinicians say.
Norfolk and Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) says 95% of eligible housebound patients have already received a booster dose.
Additional nurses and GPs have helped with the vaccination effort.
Lone workers can only vaccinate 12 people a day but the CCG is confident all boosters will be administered.
IMAGE SOURCE,ALEX DUNLOP/BBC
Image caption,
Nurse Laura Button visits up to 12 patients a day to reach people who can’t get to appointments
Nurse Laura Button, who is helping deliver booster vaccines to patients at home, said: “We’ve pulled in a lot of extra teams, extra nurses and we have our GP and CCG colleagues that have helped us reach the 1,700 household patients in Norwich alone that require a booster.
“I know some people might say 12 people doesn’t sound like very many; however, that does include the travel, the safety checks and waiting times.
“And making sure we’re delivering the vaccines as safely as possible especially if people live alone they don’t have someone with them all the time to monitor them after they have had their jabs.”
Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, now called Moïse Dadis Camara who is an ex-officer of the Guinean army who served as the President of Guinea from 23 December 2008 to January 2010 has returned from exile.
Moïse Dadis Camara became head of state after his National council for Democracy and Development seized power in a military coup d’etat on 23 December 2008 shortly after the death of long-time president Lansana Conte.
After nearly 11 years in exile, Moïse Dadis appeared at the Conakry airport on his knees on December 22,2021 with a Bible and a Q’uran asking for forgiveness from the Guinean people. Moïse Dadis Camara returned as a Catholic, advocating peace and reconciliation.
Before fleeing the country in 2010, Guineans staged a protest , demanding his step down on 28 September 2009 in the capital Conakry. Dozens died and many others were displaced after the military responded. The former president Cámara was reportedly shot in the head on 03 December 2009 during an assassination attempt and later left the country to Morocco for medical treatment. He has since been in exile in Burkina Faso where he converted from Islam to Catholicism.
Meanwhile, many are questioning his new persona, saying has Moïse Dadis Camara really changed?
A veteran former Minnesota police officer has been found guilty of manslaughter for the fatal shooting of a black motorist in April.
Kim Potter, 49, has claimed she mistakenly drew her gun instead of a Taser and killed 20-year old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop.
The highly publicised shooting on 11 April 2021 led to days of demonstrations against police.
Her sentencing will take place in February.
Over the course of four days, the 12 jurors deliberated for approximately 27 hours before reaching a decision.
The first charge against Ms Potter, first-degree manslaughter, is applied to cases in which the defendant causes someone’s death while attempting to commit a lesser crime.
In Ms Potter’s case, prosecutors accused Ms Potter of killing Mr Wright as a result of her “reckless” handling of a firearm.
The second charge, second-degree manslaughter, is used in cases in which a death is caused by negligence and the taking of unreasonable risk.
The first charge carries a maximum penalty of 15 years and a fine of up to $30,000 (£22,000). The second charge is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment and a $20,000 fine.
As the verdict was read, Ms Potter kept her head down and looked at the jury briefly, as her two lawyers placed their hands on her shoulders.
Following the verdict, Judge Regina Chu ordered that Ms Potter be taken into custody and held without bail until the sentencing.
Her lawyer, Earl Gray, had objected, saying that “she’s not going to commit a crime, she’s not going anywhere”.
One of her relatives could be heard shouting “love you Kim” as she was handcuffed, to which she replied “love you” as she was being handcuffed, according to court reporters.
Outside the courthouse, a crowd of demonstrators applauded as news of the verdict came, with some chanting Mr Wright’s name and “the people can never be defeated”.
Mr Wright’s killing took place as another former police officer, Derek Chauvin, was standing trial in nearby Minneapolis for the murder of George Floyd.
