The death toll from powerful thunderstorms in Canada’s two most populous provinces this weekend rose to at least eight, authorities said on Sunday, as emergency crews continued a massive clean-up to restore power to half a million people.

The storms, which lasted more than two hours Saturday afternoon and packed the power of a tornado, left a trail of destruction in parts of Ontario and Quebec. Wind gusts as strong as 132km per hour felled trees, uprooted electric poles and toppled many metal transmission towers, utility companies said.

Electricity companies were scrambling on Sunday to restore transmission lines. Most of the deaths from the storms occurred when people were hit by falling trees, authorities said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the federal government was ready to help those in need. “We’re thinking of everyone affected, and thanking the crews who are working to restore power,” Trudeau tweeted on Sunday.

Hydro One, Ontario’s biggest electricity distribution company, said in a tweet on Sunday that crews are responding to significant damage. Environment Canada had issued mobile alerts warning of the severe thunderstorms.

Hydro One crews have restored power to more than 360,000 customers, with over 226,000 customers remaining without power, the company said in a statement late on Sunday.

Restoration efforts are likely to continue for several days before power is restored to all customers, the company said./agencies

 The UN human rights chief was on Monday (May 23) due to begin a six-day trip to China that takes in the remote Xinjiang region, stirring fears over access and the propaganda value the visit offers to the Chinese Communist Party.

The tour by Michelle Bachelet marks the first by the UN's top rights official in nearly two decades and comes as Beijing stands accused of widespread abuses of Muslims in far-western Xinjiang.

The ruling Communist Party is alleged to have detained more than 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities there under a years-long security crackdown the United States calls a "genocide".

China vociferously denies the accusations, calling them "the lie of the century".

Bachelet is due to virtually meet with the heads of about 70 diplomatic missions in China on Monday, according to a diplomatic source in Beijing.

Later in the week she is due to travel to the Xinjiang cities of Urumqi and Kashgar as well as the southern city of Guangzhou.

The former president of Chile will meet "a number of high-level officials" as well as "civil society organisations, business representatives (and) academics", her office said before the trip.

UN officials have been locked in negotiations with the Chinese government since 2018 in a bid to secure "unfettered, meaningful access" to Xinjiang.

But fears have swirled of a whitewash offering a tightly-controlled glimpse into life in the province, which China says it has pacified with "re-education centres" and uplifted with an economic rejuvenation drive.

ACCESS OR COVER UP?

The United States led the criticism ahead of her trip, saying it was "deeply concerned" Bachelet had failed to secure guarantees on what she can see.

"We have no expectation that the PRC will grant the necessary access required to conduct a complete, unmanipulated assessment of the human rights environment in Xinjiang," State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters, using the acronym for the People's Republic of China.

Instead of a thorough probe into alleged abuses, rights advocates also fear Bachelet is in store for a stage-managed tour.

Her visit will be "a running battle against Chinese government efforts to cover up the truth", said Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International.

"The UN must take steps to mitigate against this and resist being used to support blatant propaganda."

The last such visit, in 2005, came when Beijing was keen to soften its global image as it prepared to host the 2008 Olympic Games - but much has changed since then.

President Xi Jinping has become the most authoritarian Chinese leader in a generation and is working on securing an unprecedented third term at the end of this year.

In addition to mass detentions, Chinese authorities have waged a campaign of forced labour, coerced sterilisation and the destruction of Uyghur cultural heritage in Xinjiang, researchers and campaigners says.

Chinese state media has given muted coverage of the visit so far.

But an article on Sunday by state news agency Xinhua lauded the country's "remarkable achievements in respecting and protecting human rights".

A more combative article on CGTN - the English-language arm of China's state broadcaster - blasted what it called the West's "false Xinjiang narrative" and questioned the basis of the allegations./ AFP

 Beijing authorities extended work-from-home guidance for many of its 22 million residents to stem a persistent COVID-19 outbreak, while Shanghai deployed more testing and curbs to hold on to its hard-won "zero COVID" status after two months of lockdown.

On Monday (May 23), the Chinese capital reported 99 new cases were detected on May 22, up from 61 the previous day - the largest daily tally so far during a month-old outbreak that has consistently seen dozens of new infections every day.

In Shanghai fewer than 600 daily cases were reported for May 22, with none outside quarantined areas, as there has been the case for much of the past week.

Analysts at Gavekal Dragonomics estimated last week that fewer than 5 per cent of Chinese cities were reporting infections, down from a quarter in late March, in a COVID-19 outbreak that has cast a pall over growth in the world's no 2 economy. But vigilance, and concern, remains acute in Shanghai and the capital.

While there were no new announcements of areas being closed in Beijing, five of the city's 16 districts advised residents to work from home and avoid gatherings. Those who have to go to work should have a negative result on a PCR test taken within 48 hours, and must not deviate from their home-to-work commute.

"The city's epidemic prevention and control is at a critical moment," Beijing's Tongzhou district posted on its WeChat account late on Sunday, asking residents who work in five other districts to do their jobs from home this week.

"One step forward and victory is in sight. One step back, and previous efforts would be wasted."

"MASSIVELY HIT"

Beijing had already curtailed public transport, asked some shopping malls and other stores and venues to close and sealed buildings where new cases were detected.

In one large residential compound not under isolation orders, shelves have been set up for deliveries at the entrance, according to residents, fuelling concern that preparation was in place for tougher controls on movement.

The curbs in Beijing, Shanghai and elsewhere in China are leaving behind significant economic damage and disruption to global supply chains and international trade.

The highly-transmissible Omicron variant of the virus first discovered in the city of Wuhan in late 2019 has proven hard to defeat even with strict measures that starkly contrast the resumption of normal life elsewhere in the world.

"We've been massively hit," said a convenience store owner surnamed Sun, whose shop in Beijing has only been allowed to operate during daytime rather than its usual 24/7 hours.

"Even during the Wuhan outbreak we could stay open the whole time."

In Shanghai, which reopened more than 250 bus routes and a small part of its sprawling subway system on Sunday, many towns and districts announced more mass testing for the coming days and asked residents not to leave their compounds.

The commercial hub of 25 million has allowed more people to leave their homes for brief periods over the past week, but it generally plans to keep most restrictions in place this month, before a lifting its two-month-old lockdown from Jun 1.

NEW CURBS

However, while more people are being allowed outside, several residents in various areas of Shanghai said they had been told of new infections in their vicinity that required new curbs on movement.

One resident in Hongkou district, which has not reported any new community-level cases since May 7, said he was told last week not to leave his flat, having been allowed to move within his compound previously.

Hongkou was among six districts which have announced some tightening of curbs in recent days to "consolidate" the results of their efforts so far.

But such moves made some people fear the virus was making a comeback.

The top comment on a post by state agency Xinhua on China's Twitter-like Weibo post on Shanghai's latest numbers read: "This can't be accurate, zero COVID cases at community level? Our compound had one new case yesterday."

Asked to comment, the Shanghai government said that all cases found in recent days were in "sealed" high-risk areas or quarantine centres, and that any community transmission cases would be announced on official channels./agencies

Governments need to take urgent action to tackle rising inequality which emerged over the COVID-19 crisis with a surge in energy and food prices ramping up pressures on millions of people around the world, Oxfam said on Monday (May 23).

The report, released by the Nairobi-based charity as top policy makers and industry chiefs arrive in the Swiss town of Davos for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), found the number of billionaires had risen by 573 to just under 2,700 from 2020.

Their cumulative wealth had risen by nearly US$3.8 trillion to US$12.7 trillion, the charity found, analysing data from Forbes. Those in the food and energy sector enjoyed a windfall in revenues from soaring commodity prices.

Meanwhile, the combination of COVID-19, rising inequality, and rising food prices could push as many as 263 million people into extreme poverty in 2022, Oxfam said, adding this reversed decades of progress.

"Millions of people around the world are facing a cost-of-living crisis due to the continuing effects of the pandemic and the rapidly rising costs of essentials, including food and energy," the authors of the report said.

"Inequality, already extreme before COVID-19, has reached new levels."

Food prices, which have already been pushing higher during the pandemic due to COVID-19 disruptions and weather woes, took another jump higher when Russia's invasion of Ukraine roiled supplies of grains and oils.

The World Bank defines the extreme poor as those living on less than US$1.90 a day.

"The single most urgent and structural action that governments must take now is to implement highly progressive taxation measures that in turn must be used to invest in powerful and proven measures that reduce inequality, such as universal social protection and universal healthcare," the report said.

Geneva-based WEF says the meeting, which is happening for the first time in over two years due to COVID-19, will bring together more than 2,000 leaders and experts from around the world, somewhat smaller than some past meetings./Reuters

A 48-year-old man was fatally shot in the chest while riding on a New York City subway car on Sunday in the latest in a series of random attacks in the city’s transit system.

The unidentified gunman fled when the train pulled into the next station, in Manhattan, and remained at large on Sunday night, Kenneth Corey, NYPD’s chief of department, said at a news briefing.

“Preliminary investigation reveals the suspect was walking back and forth in the same train car and, without provocation, pulled out a gun and fired it at the victim at close range as the train was crossing the Manhattan Bridge,” Corey said.

The gunman, described only as a heavy-set, “dark-skinned” man with a beard who was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, gray sweat pants and white sneakers, fled when the train pulled into the Canal Street station.

The suspect and the victim were not acquainted and had not interacted prior to the gunfire, police said. The victim, who was not identified by police, was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital shortly after the 11:40 a.m. shooting.

“My heart breaks for the victim’s family. Everyone deserves to feel safe on our subways. I’ll keep fighting to make that a reality,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said on Twitter.

New York City has seen a sharp rise in violence and a series of random attacks on subway riders.

The transit violence has included passengers pushed onto the tracks from platforms, including a Manhattan woman whose murder was seen as part of a surge in hate crimes against Asian Americans.

On April 12, a gunman set off smoke bombs and opened fire in a subway car, wounding more than 20 people. A suspect was taken into custody the following day.

“It’s pretty harrowing stuff,” rider Arsenault Rivera told the New York Times. “If I’d gotten on at a different point, I would have been right there.”/Reuters

Palestinians have condemned a US decision to remove radical Jewish group Kach from the list of terror organizations.

On Friday, the US Department of State removed five extremist groups from its list of foreign terrorist organizations, including Kach movement.

In a statement, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) termed the US decision as a “reward for the operatives of this terrorist organization.”

“The actions of the US administration contradict with its words and don’t fit with its commitments to peace and stability,” the statement said.

The PA went on to call on the US administration to reverse the move and take a "historic decision to remove the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) from its list of terrorist organizations."

Hamas group, which rules the Gaza Strip, said the Kach group was responsible for dozens of terrorist attacks against Palestinians.

The US decision “reflects its double-standard policy and the US inadequacy to be a fair mediator in the Palestinian-“Israeli” conflict,” Hamas leader Basem Naim said in a statement.

The Kach movement is classified as a terrorist group by the European Union and “Israel” itself, where its founder Meir Kahane was banned from participating in the elections in 1988./aa

A campaign by the Hindu right-wing groups to claim Mughal era monuments and historic mosques has raised a wave of concern among minorities, historians, and archaeologists across India.

Recently a functionary of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajneesh Singh approached a court requesting a directive to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to open 22 rooms inside the world famous UNESCO heritage monument Taj Mahal to ascertain if the claims that the mausoleum houses Hindu idols were true.

Built in the city of Agra, 240 kilometers (149 miles) south of the capital New Delhi, by order of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in 1648 in memory of his favorite wife, the monument is considered the jewel of Muslim art in India.

The court, however, dismissed the petition. Singh’s plea was based on a conspiracy theory supported by right-wing historians, that the 17th-century marvel was an old Hindu temple called "Tejo Mahal."

Coinciding this controversy, the country's top court also overturned a lower court order banning mass prayers at 17th century Gyanvapi Mosque in the ancient city of Varanasi in northern Uttar Pradesh state. Right-wing elements claim that the mosque adjacent to the famous Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s electoral constituency is built on a Hindu house of worship.

They even claimed that a court-appointed team in a survey has found relics of the Hindu god Shiva inside the pond in the courtyard of the mosque meant for ablutions before the prayers.

The Muslim groups had opposed the survey, saying it was against the Places of Worship Act of 1991, which maintains the religious status of any place of worship as of Aug. 15, 1947.

The lower court had ordered the sealing of the mosque. The Supreme Court, however, allowed Muslims to pray at the mosque while ordering protection of the area, where the alleged Shiva relic was found.

Mathura mosque petition

In another case in the same state, a court entertained a lawsuit seeking ownership of the land of 17th century Shahi Idgah Masjid in Mathura, 57 km (35 mi) north of Agra city. The mosque is adjacent to a temple, where Hindus believe that the deity Lord Krishna was born.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Niranjan Sahoo, senior fellow at the New Delhi-based think tank Observer Research Foundation, said the recent electoral victory of the BJP in the provincial polls has emboldened the right-wing elements.

"This greatly helps the governing party deflect from real issues of inflation, price rise, and rising unemployment. Thus, it is like killing two birds with one stone,” he said.

Sahoo said such controversies create religious polarization, which helps the ruling party shift the goal post from the Ayodhya-Babri Mosque episode. Babri Mosque built by Mughal Emperor Babur in the 16th century was demolished by a frenzied mob in 1992 as they believed it was the birthplace of the Hindu deity Rama.

After a protracted legal battle, five judges from Supreme Court bench 2019, who heard the title dispute handed over the land to the Hindu party to build the Hindu temple. It also ordered the government to give an alternative five-acre plot to the Muslims to construct the mosque.

Political analysts in India link BJP’s rise in India’s political landscape to the movement to build the grand Ram Tempe at the place of Babri Mosque in the city of Ayodhya.

Sahoo said that the main motive behind raking up such issues is to "reopen the historical wounds and keep the communal pot boiling" for the vote bank.

"The BJP's rise from mere two seats in Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) in 1984 to 120 seats in 1996 was facilitated by religious polarization on the back of the Ayodhya movement," he said.

Qutub complex in capital city of Delhi

Raking up another controversy, another Hindu radical outfit claimed that Qutb Minar, a famous minaret built in the early 13th century by Turk ruler Qutbudin Aibak, was a Vishnu Temple. The minaret is a part of the larger Qutb complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the south of the capital city of Delhi.

Vinod Bansal, spokesperson for the hardline Hindu organization Vishwa Hindu Parishad claimed that the structure was built with materials obtained after demolishing 27 Hindu-Jain temples, and that had been done to “tease” the Hindu community.

Renowned historian Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi, an expert on Mughal history, said these controversies have been going from a long time now.

"I believe not only since the year 2014 when Prime Minister Modi came into power, but it was long back in 1992, the first vandalism was done (Babri demolition)," he said.

"What has happened over the last few years that now attempts are being made to do away this discipline of history and replace it with mythology. No one is paying attention to the available historical facts. They are not being considered,” he said.

He said that courts shouldn't have admitted cases regarding temples at Varanasi.

"The 1991 Act assured us that it won't be repeated, but now lower, the higher court admitted cases regarding temples at Varanasi. They have overlooked the act which was made by the Indian government. The court should not have entertained such pleas," he said.

"There is no need for any new rules. If they (the government) follow the constitution of the country, nothing would have happened. 70 years, we survived as a nation and we were quite proud," he added.

Design to polarize voters

Zafar Ul Islam Khan, a Muslim leader and former chief of the Delhi Minorities Commission, told Anadolu Agency that attention has been turned to historic mosques with an eye on the next general elections scheduled in 2024.

"The current onslaught on mosques in many parts of the country is part of an old Hindutva agenda. Now that they have secured Babri and a grand temple is being built there, they have turned their attention to some other mosques to grab them before the next general elections in 2024," he said.

He added that all developments are taking place in blatant violation of earlier law.

"Since the 1991 law protecting mosques, with the exception of Babri, at their status as prevailed at the time of independence in 1947, is still on the statute though they may abrogate it using their brute majority in Parliament," he said.

Niyaz Farooqui, secretary of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, India's largest socio-religious Muslim organization, blamed the communal forces for trying to divide the Hindus and Muslims in the country.

"They are trying to spread the hatred of the country," he said, adding that whatsoever controversies are happening, there should be a solution to it.

All India Muslim Personal Law Board, an umbrella body of scholars in India, after a meeting earlier this week said Muslims cannot tolerate the desecration of mosques and that "sectarian forces are hell-bent on lawlessness and courts are also disappointing the oppressed."

Experts say the only solution to the ongoing developments is government at the federal level that follows the rules and regulations.

Indian Muslim leader and member of parliament, Asaduddin Owaisi, said it is high time that Prime Minister Narendra Modi "puts an end to all this" and respects the 1991 law, which prohibits a change in the status quo of religious places as it existed at the time of India’s independence on Aug. 15, 1947./aa

An officer from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was shot dead by unknown assailants in Tehran on Sunday, the IRGC's public relations division said.

Colonel Sayyad Khodayari was attacked by two motorcycle-borne assailants in his car outside his home in eastern Tehran, close to the Iranian parliament complex.

The incident took place at around 4 pm local time on Sunday, state media said, adding that he was hit with at least five bullets in neck and arms.

The assailants were being pursued by intelligence and security agencies, it said.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

The slain officer was reportedly associated with IRGC's Quds Force and had spent years in Syria.

IRGC in a statement said the attack was carried out by "counter-revolutionary forces and elements related to global arrogance", in an indirect reference to Iran's arch-foe Israel.

Iran has blamed Israel for assassination of several top military officials and scientists in recent years, even though Tel Aviv has never officially claimed responsibility for them.

Soon after the attack, IRGC announced the arrest of a "network of thugs" which it said was guided by Israeli spy agency and intended to carry out kidnappings./aa