Month: October 2019

Cape Town (AFP) – South African police on Wednesday arrested around 100 foreign nationals occupying an office building in Cape Town as part of a sit-in protest against xenophobia. Hundreds of asylum-seekers have been camping at UN refugee agency offices in South Africa’s capital Pretoria and the coastal city of Cape Town since October 8.…

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Around 100 people were arrested on Wednesday as part of an operation to disperse a group of refugees and asylum seekers who had staged a prolonged sit-in near the United Nations refugee agency in Cape Town, South African police said. The refugees and asylum seekers have been camping outside the offices of…

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Police in the South African city of Cape Town used water cannons Wednesday while dispersing and arresting hundreds of foreigners, including children, who have camped for weeks outside the U.N. refugee agency’s office. Some of the refugees and asylum-seekers told local media they are seeking to be relocated outside the country after…

The Kincade Fire ignited in Sonoma County, California, on October 23 and has burned 75,415 acres. It was 15% contained as of Tuesday morning. The fire forced nearly 200,000 people to evacuate their homes as powerful winds enabled it to spread quickly over the weekend. The blaze has destroyed 124 structures, including 57 homes, and…

North Carolina’s congressional map can’t be used in 2020 because it’s so severely gerrymandered, a panel of three state judges ruled on Monday. The judges said the gerrymandering, which benefits Republicans in the state, was so severe that it ran afoul of the state’s constitution. Click Here: Cardiff Blues Store The ruling, a preliminary injunction, is a…

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina judges on Monday blocked the state’s congressional map from being used in the 2020 elections, ruling that voters had a strong likelihood of winning a lawsuit that argued Republicans unlawfully manipulated district lines for partisan gain. The panel of three Superior Court judges issued a preliminary injunction preventing elections…

By Joseph Ax (Reuters) – A North Carolina court on Monday temporarily blocked the state from using its congressional map in next year’s elections and strongly suggested it would eventually rule the districts were illegally gerrymandered to favor Republicans. The decision was a victory for Democrats, who have struggled to gain a foothold in both…

Nearly 200,000 people have been displaced in California by 17 raging fires that have already burned more than 94,000 acres of land across the state, as winds were expected to pick up throughout the week. Hurricane-force winds strengthened the Kincade fire in Northern California that began 23 October and spread rapidly, reportedly burning over 74,000…

Respirator masks, yes. Surgical and dust masks, no. Wildfires fueled by drought conditions and high winds are blazing through swaths of real estate around San Francisco and Los Angeles, fouling air quality for residents miles from the flames. Wildfire-driven air quality issues are nothing new to California, and the state Department of Public Health provides advice…

Hasakeh (Syria) (AFP) – Just months ago, the most hardcore among them were still bent on defending the last sliver of the Islamic State group’s “caliphate” in Baghouz, Syria. Today, they’re crammed together: 5,000 presumed jihadists in an overcrowded Kurdish prison in the country’s northeast. AFP correspondents obtained exclusive access to the site in Hasakeh…