Ex-Malawi President’s Stepson Arrested over Mass Grave

Police in Malawi have arrested the stepson of former President Peter Mutharika in connection with the discovery of a mass grave last month. Police say Tadikira Mafubza turned himself in to police Wednesday. The grave found in a forest contained 30 bodies believed to be those of illegal Ethiopian immigrants.

Tadikira Mafubza is a son of former President Peter Mutharika’s wife, Gertrude, whom he married in 2014.

Police say the arrest, the first since the discovery of the mass grave, is a result of the investigation they are conducting.

Peter Kalaya is the spokesperson for the Malawi Police Service.

“We have arrested him because we have evidence that he is connected to the case that we are investigating, which is to do with a mass grave that was found in Mzimba district, where 30 bodies of suspected victims of human trafficking, suspected to be Ethiopians, were exhumed.”

Some local media reports indicate police also impounded a vehicle used to transport suspected Ethiopian immigrants being trafficked to South Africa.

Earlier in November, Mutharika told a press conference at his residence in Mangochi district that he was shocked at the government’s silence on the cause of death of the migrants.

Footballer Arrested for Insulting Iran’s World Cup Team, Protests Crackdown

Iran arrested a prominent former member of its national soccer team on Thursday over his criticism of the government as authorities grapple with nationwide protests that have cast a shadow over its competition at the World Cup.

The semi-official Fars and Tasnim news agencies reported that Voria Ghafouri was arrested for “insulting the national soccer team and propagandising against the government.”

Ghafouri, who was not chosen to go to the World Cup, has been an outspoken critic of Iranian authorities throughout his career. He objected to a longstanding ban on women spectators at men’s soccer matches and Iran’s confrontational foreign policy, which has led to crippling Western sanctions.

More recently, he expressed sympathy for the family of a 22-year-old woman whose death while in the custody of Iran’s morality police ignited the latest protests. Recently, he also called for an end to a violent crackdown on protests in Iran’s western Kurdistan region.

The reports of his arrest came ahead of Friday’s World Cup match between Iran and Wales. At Iran’s opening match, a 6-2 loss to England, the members of the Iranian national team declined to sing along to their national anthem, and some fans expressed support for the protests.

Meta: US Military Using Fake Facebook Accounts Against Asia, Middle East

People associated with the U.S. military created fake accounts on more than seven internet services as part of a “coordinated inauthentic” influence operation targeting people in Central Asia and the Middle East, according to Meta, the parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, in its report out this week.

Although the people behind the operation “attempted to conceal their identities and coordination,” Meta said, its investigation “found links to individuals associated with the US military.”

A spokesperson with the US Department of Defense said Thursday that it “is aware of the report published by Meta. At this time, we do not have any further comments on the report or potential actions that may be taken by the Department as a result of the report.”

Meta’s report adds more credence to the theory that the US military was behind the operation, first reported in August by researchers at Graphika and the Stanford Internet Observatory.

The August report shed light on what was believed to be the first time Facebook and Twitter reported a pro-US operation using methods — including fake personas and coordinated memes — that countries such as Russia and Iran employ to sow disinformation in the US and elsewhere.

Namibia Removes Statue of German Colonial ‘Founder’ of Windhoek

Namibian authorities have removed a controversial statue of a German colonial officer erected to mark the anniversary of the founding of Windhoek, now the capital. Critics petitioned for the monument’s removal to a man who led German troops in a massacre of native people, and they disputed the idea that Germans founded the city.

Scores of Namibians celebrated as the statue of German colonial officer Curt von Francois was removed Wednesday from a pedestal in front of Windhoek’s city buildings, where it stood for more than half a century.

The monument was erected in 1965 to honour the 75th anniversary of the city’s founding, which was credited to von Francois.

Von Francois was governor of the area, then known as German South West Africa, from 1891 to 1894.

But historians and activists dispute the idea that Germans, who colonised Namibia from 1884 to 1915, founded the city.

Former Windhoek mayor Job Amupanda told VOA it is well known that native people lived in the area decades before the Germans arrived.

Foxconn Apologises for Pay Dispute at China Factory

The company that assembles Apple Inc.’s iPhones apologised Thursday for a pay dispute that triggered employee protests at a factory where anti-virus controls have slowed production.

Employees complained Foxconn Technology Group changed the terms of wages offered to attract them to the factory in the central city of Zhengzhou. Foxconn is trying to rebuild the workforce after employees walked out last month over complaints about unsafe conditions.

Videos on social media showed police in white protective suits kicking and clubbing workers during the protest that erupted Tuesday and lasted into the next day.

Foxconn, the biggest contract assembler of smartphones and other electronics for Apple and other global brands, blamed a “technical error” in adding new employees and said they would be paid what they were promised.

“We apologise for an input error in the computer system and guarantee that the actual pay is the same as agreed and the official recruitment posters,” said a company statement.

Pakistan Names New Army Chief Amid Political Turmoil

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Thursday nominated the former head of the Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, the country’s main intelligence agency, as head of the powerful military amid deepening political turmoil.

Officials said Sharif chaired a meeting of his Cabinet to pick General Asim Munir from a list of six senior generals to replace General Qamar Jawed Bajwa, set to retire next week, as the new chief of army staff.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif announced the decision in a post-meeting statement, saying it has already been sent to President Arif Alvi for his mandatory approval. Asif later confirmed to state-run radio that the president had approved the appointment.

Munir will take command of Pakistan’s nuclear-armed military from Bajwa next Tuesday at a ceremony at the general headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, adjacent to Islamabad.

US Slams Taliban for Flogging Afghan Men, Women

The US special envoy for women, girls and human rights in Afghanistan has sharply criticised the ruling Islamist Taliban for organising public floggings of people, including women, accused of “moral crimes” such as theft and adultery.

“This is both appalling and a dangerous sign that the Taliban are becoming more defiant in showing the world that they are embracing the policies of the past,” Rina Amiri said on Twitter.

Her reaction came a day after the Taliban Supreme Court said that 11 men and three women had been flogged “for different sins, including adultery, robbery and other forms of corruption,” in a football stadium in the country’s east.

The announcement noted that the punishment was administered Wednesday morning “in the presence of respected scholars, security forces, tribal elders and local residents.”

It was the latest sign of the Taliban’s application of their strict interpretation of Islamic law, known as Shariah, to criminal justice and restoring policies of their rule from 1996 to 2001, when flogging took place in much of Afghanistan.

“It didn’t end up well before, and it will once again take the country on a perilous path,” Amiri warned.

Ukraine Works to Restore Power, Water to Cities After Russian Attacks

Ukrainian authorities are working to restore electricity and water to key cities, including Kyiv, a day after Russia launched more airstrikes targeting civilian infrastructure.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said about 70 per cent of the Ukrainian capital remained without power early Thursday.

“Energy engineers and specialists worked all night” to restore electricity and water supplies, he wrote on Telegram.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted Thursday that Russia “wages the most cowardly and barbaric type of war against unarmed civilians.”

His comments followed President Volodymyr Zelensky’s appearance by video before the UN Security Council, during which Zelensky said Russian missiles hit hospitals, schools, transportation targets and residential areas. Zelensky said Ukraine was awaiting a “very firm reaction” from the world.

Russia’s UN ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, rejected what he called “reckless threats and ultimatums” by Ukraine and its Western supporters.

Russian airstrikes Wednesday knocked out power in multiple Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, where authorities said an airstrike killed three people.

Brazil Rejects Bolsonaro Push to Nullify Presidential Election

The head of Brazil’s electoral authority has rejected the request from President Jair Bolsonaro’s political party to annul ballots cast on most electronic voting machines, which would have overturned the October 30 election.

Alexandre de Moraes had issued a prior ruling that implicitly raised the possibility that Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party could suffer from such a challenge. He conditioned analysis of the request on the presentation of an amended report to include results from the first electoral round, on October 2, in which the party won more seats in both congressional houses than any other, and he established a 24-hour deadline.

Earlier Wednesday, party president Valdemar Costa and lawyer Marcelo de Bessa held a press conference and said there would be no amended report.

He also ordered the suspension of government funds for the Liberal Party’s coalition until a fine of 23 million reais ($4.3 million) for bad faith litigation is paid.

On Tuesday, de Bessa filed a 33-page request on behalf of Bolsonaro and Costa, citing a software bug in the majority of Brazil’s machines — they lack individual identification numbers in their internal logs — to argue all votes they recorded should be nullified.

China’s Daily COVID-19 Cases Highest Since Pandemic Began

China’s daily COVID-19 cases have climbed to the highest since the pandemic began, official data showed Thursday, despite the government persisting with a zero-tolerance approach involving gruelling lockdowns and travel restrictions.

The numbers are relatively small when compared with China’s vast population of 1.4 billion and the caseloads seen in Western countries at the height of the pandemic.

But under Beijing’s strict zero-COVID-19 policy, even small outbreaks can shut down entire cities and place contacts of infected patients into strict quarantine.

The country recorded 31,454 domestic cases, 27,517 without symptoms, on Wednesday, the National Health Bureau said.

On Wednesday, violent protests erupted at Foxconn’s vast iPhone factory in central China, with a video showing dozens of hazmat-clad personnel wielding batons and chasing employees.

The latest figures exceed the 29,390 infections recorded in mid-April when the megacity Shanghai was under lockdown, with residents struggling to buy food and access medical care.

Several cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing, have tightened COVID-19 restrictions as cases surge.