Elizabeth Polanco de los Santos, a New York college student, arrived in Dubai in July meaning to take only an hours-long layover during an international trip. But because she allegedly touched an airport security officer’s arm, she was detained there for more than two months and endured the threat of spending more than a year in prison before she was cleared to return home Tuesday, according to an advocacy group which supported her.

Polanco’s nightmare stay in Dubai began as she traveled back to New York City from Istanbul with a friend on 14 July when her ordeal began. The 21-year-old, a business arts major at Lehman College in the Bronx, had stopped there for a connecting flight when airport customs officers told her to take off a waist compression device she was wearing after having surgery.

Tunisia arrests opposition figure as crackdown escalates

Abir Moussi is the latest prominent opponent of President Kais Saied to have been detained or imprisoned. Her party alleges she was forced into a car and taken to a security center.

Tunisian police detained the leader of an opposition party Tuesday night outside the presidential palace, her party said.

Abir Moussi, the head of the Free Destourian Party (FDL) and an outspoken critic of President Kais Saied, wanted to file an appeal over local elections expected at the end of the year.

Instead, her party said she was forced into a car and taken to a security center in a Tunisian suburb. Her lawyers were denied access to her, the party added.

“What happened was a kidnapping in front of the presidency, and she is being held at the police station,”  lawyer Nafaa Laribi said.

There have been no comments from Tunisian authorities.

Moussi is a supporter of late president Zine El Abidine ben Ali, the dictator who was ousted after mass protests in 2011.

Pope warns world ‘is collapsing’ due to climate change, urges action at COP28

Pope Francis warned Wednesday the world “is collapsing” due to global warming, urging participants of the upcoming COP28 climate talks to agree to binding policies on phasing out fossil fuels.

Eight years after his landmark thesis outlined the devastation of manmade climate change, the 86-year-old pontiff published a follow-up that warned that some damage was “already irreversible”.

“With the passage of time, I have realised that our responses have not been adequate, while the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point,” he wrote in the 12-page letter.

But he said the next round of UN climate talks opening in Dubai on November 30 “can represent a change of direction”, if participants make binding agreements on moving from fossil fuels to clean energy sources such as wind and solar.

Only a real commitment to change “can enable international politics to recover its credibility”, wrote the pope.

After 2 years in office, Kishida may call snap election soon

There is speculation among Japanese lawmakers that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida may call a snap election in the near future to regain his political footing, as two years have passed since he took office in October 2021.

Both the ruling coalition and opposition parties are wary of the prospect that Kishida may dissolve the House of Representatives for a general election during the extraordinary parliamentary session due to kick off on Oct 20, though he has repeatedly denied the possibility.

As approval ratings for his cabinet have dropped to the lowest levels since he became the premier two years ago, Kishida’s decision on whether to go ahead with the move may hinge on the outcome of two upcoming national by-elections later this month, observers said.

China censored this photo of two athletes. Was it for a perceived Tiananmen massacre reference?

 

China appears to have censored a photograph of two Chinese hurdlers embracing after a race because their lane numbers formed an accidental reference to the Tiananmen massacre in 1989.

The image captures Lin Yuwei, from lane 6, and Wu Yanni, in lane 4, hugging following the women’s 100-meter hurdles final at the Asian Games in Hangzhou.

As they stood together, stickers showing their lane numbers formed “6 4”, a pairing widely seen as a reference to June 4, 1989.

That day Chinese military tanks rolled into the capital Beijing during a bloody crackdown to clear students protesting for democracy in Tiananmen Square.