Nigerian police have freed 259 people from an Islamic rehabilitation center in the southwestern city of Ibadan, police said on Tuesday, taking the number rescued from abusive institutions since September to nearly 1,500.

Images from local TV station TVC taken after the captives were released showed a group of mostly young men and teenage boys. Many were emaciated. An infant was also among the group.

“We eat one meal a day,” freed captive Olalekan Ayoola, told TVC, saying the food wasn’t fit for a dog to eat.

Nigeria launched a crackdown on informal Islamic schools and rehabilitation centers in late September after a man was refused permission to see his nephews at one institution and complained
to police.

Many captives have said they were physically and sexually abused and chained up to prevent them escaping. Other sites raided in major police operations have been in the mostly Muslim north of the country. Ibadan is in the southwestern state of Oyo, which is predominantly Christian. Oyo state police spokesman Fadeyi Olugbenga said the facility was raided on Monday at about 2 p.m. (1300 GMT).

“Yesterday, 259 persons were released. We had women, men and teenagers,” Olugbenga said. Some people were locked inside a building and some were chained.

Olugbenga said nine people, including the owner of the center, had been arrested and were under investigation. Oyo’s commissioner of police, Shina Olukolu, told reporters on Monday that anyone found culpable would be prosecuted to “serve as a warning to others who may want to operate such houses that serve as illegal detention centers.”

Spokesmen for President Muhammadu Buhari, who ordered the crackdown, and the vice president both declined to comment. The president’s office issued a statement in October that said: “No responsible democratic government would tolerate the existence of the torture chambers and physical abuses of inmates in the name of rehabilitation of the victims.”

Islamic schools, known as Almajiris, are common across the north of the West African country. Such schools have been dogged by allegations of abuse and accusations that some children have
been forced to beg on the streets.

At other raided facilities, some parents thought their children were there to be educated and even paid tuition fees. Others sent misbehaving relatives to Islamic institutions to
instill discipline.

Muftau Adamu told TVC his parents came to collect him from the center in Ibadan but were told they must pay 1 million naira ($3,270) first – and never came back.

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Egypt’s president lavished praise on President Donald Trump via social media, calling him a “man with unique power to confront crises.”

Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi’s comments were the latest public example of the two leaders’ closeness.

Sissi thanked Trump for his “generous concern” for helping revive Egypt’s deadlocked dispute with Ethiopia.

The two countries are at odds over Ethiopia’s construction of a massive upstream Nile dam, which Egypt claims threatens its water supply.

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Egypt Says Washington to Host Nov. 6 Meeting on Ethiopia Dam Dispute

Egypt is worried that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, under construction near Ethiopia’s border with Sudan, will restrict supplies of already scarce Nile waters

The U.S. is to host talks on Wednesday between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to discuss the dam, Cairo announced last week.

General-turned-president Sissi came to power after a military coup he led in 2013, toppling Egypt’s first freely elected civilian president Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. Since then, Sissi has carried out a widespread crackdown on dissent, silencing critics and jailing thousands.

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How Egypt’s President Tightened his Grip

Behind the scenes, President Abdel Fatah el-Sissi’s closest advisers reworked the constitution to prolong his presidency and tighten his grip on Egypt. Not since the decades-long rule of Hosni Mubarak has so much power been concentrated in the hands of one man

Trump has avoided censuring Sissi for his repression, instead admiring his efforts to combat terrorism.

Trump has drawn criticism for his relationships with autocratic leaders such as North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The most recent round of talks between the three Nile nations collapsed last month.

Pro-government media in Egypt have cast the dam as a national security threat that could warrant military action.

The White House said in October that it supports talks to reach a sustainable agreement while “respecting each other’s Nile water equities.”

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Two youths were shot dead and several other people were wounded in clashes between Guinean police and protesters at a funeral march for those killed in recent anti-government demonstrations, the authorities and the family of one of the victims said.

Violence erupted as hundreds marched in the capital Conakry carrying coffins of people killed in unrest since mid-October that has shaken the poor West African country.  

Demonstrators have taken to the streets over suspicions that President Alpha Conde is seeking to prolong his rule. 

According to an opposition toll, around 15 protesters have been killed during the weeks of bloody clashes with security forces, with dozens injured. The government has said one police officer was killed, but have not given an updated number of casualties. 

At Monday’s march, hundreds of people including relatives and opposition figures marched on foot or by motorbike through the Bambeto neighbourhood, bearing aloft the coffins of 11 of those killed since Oct. 24 draped in the national flag.

The marchers chanted “Justice for the dead” and “Alpha, killer” as they made their way from the hospital where victims’ remains had been held and a mosque where pre-burial prayers were planned.

Clashes broke out on the route, with youths hurling stones at riot police who responded with tear gas. Witnesses said they also fired live rounds into the crowd. 

Abdourahim Diallo, 17, was shot in the stomach at “point-blank” range when he went to attend the funeral of a friend who was killed two weeks ago, his sister Diariana told AFP. She said he died of his injuries in hospital. 

The security ministry subsequently said that a second youth had died.

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The main candidates to become Spain’s next prime minister clashed Monday over how to handle Catalonia’s independence drive, ahead of a repeat election that opinion polls show could be as inconclusive as the one in April.

Opinion polls suggest a third of voters are still unsure who they will vote for Sunday, meaning Monday’s televised debate could be decisive. At this stage, polls point to a stalemate, with no party or bloc of parties having a majority.

Catalonia’s regional capital, Barcelona, has been rocked by weeks of sometimes violent protests since nine separatist leaders were sentenced to jail in mid-October for their role in a failed independence bid.

“You don’t believe in the Spanish nation,” the leader of the conservative People’s Party (PP), Pablo Casado, told acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, accusing him of being too soft on the Catalan separatists.

Sanchez, a Socialist, is leading in opinion polls but has lost support, while right-wing parties have grown more popular since last month’s rallies in Catalonia saw some protesters wreak havoc and throw Molotov cocktails at police.

Right-wing parties are now competing on which would take a harder line on the restive region, hoping to attract more votes Sunday.

“There’s a permanent coup d’etat in Catalonia,” said the leader of the far-right Vox party, Santiago Abascal, saying PP and the Socialists, which have dominated Spanish politics for decades, were both to blame.

Vox won its first parliamentary seats in April and opinion polls show that, boosted by anger over Catalonia protests, it can now hope to win more than 40 seats, up from 24 in the previous ballot. There are 350 seats up for grabs.

Poll results

Sunday’s parliamentary election will be the fourth in four years for Spain. New parties have emerged after the financial crisis, fragmenting the political landscape and making it much harder to form governments with stable majorities.

Polls carried out by GAD3, Sigma Dos and NC Report and published Monday pointed to the Socialists winning but falling short of a majority, with their numbers dropping to about 120 seats from the 123 they won in April. Vox was projected to become the third-biggest party.

PP would get more seats than in April, while the liberal Ciudadanos would be the most damaged by the repeat election.

All possible scenarios for deals to form a government are fraught with difficulties. Sanchez on Friday ruled out forming a “grand coalition” with PP.

Debating Catalonia

Challenged by his rivals on Catalonia, Sanchez said he had tackled the protests with a firm and proportional response. He added that, if elected prime minister, he would amend the country’s laws to make clear that organizing an illegal independence referendum, like Catalonia’s regional leaders did in 2017, is a crime.

Sanchez, who became prime minister in June last year after parliament ousted the conservatives in a corruption scandal, has been acting prime minister since the April election.

He also hit back at Casado and at Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera, saying they were “the two representative of the cowardly right in front of an aggressive far-right,” condemning their deals at local and regional levels with Vox.

The leader of far-left Unidas Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, with whom Sanchez failed to strike a deal to form a government after the April ballot, told Sanchez he “was wrong” if he thought the right would help solve the Catalan problem, saying dialogue with the separatists was the only solution.

While all agreed that a slowing down of Spain’s economic growth will be a major issue for who becomes prime minister, the candidates also clashed on economic policies, and in particular on taxation, with Casado saying: “In order for the Spaniards not to lose their jobs, Sanchez must lose his.”

Vox’s Abascal had not focused much on immigration in the April ballot — unlike many far-right party leaders facing elections in Europe — but took a harder line Monday, accusing Sanchez of not controlling who enters Spain.
 

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More than 400 inmates across the state of Oklahoma were released from prison Monday in accordance to reforms approved by voters in 2016 to downgrade many crimes from felonies to misdemeanors.

The reforms were signed into law earlier this year and retroactively made simple drug possession a misdemeanor. It also made any theft, vandalism, shoplifting and robbery worth less than $1,000 a misdemeanor rather than a felony.

Under the changes, Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board approved the commutation of 462 inmates unanimously and it was made official by the Republican Governor Kevin Stitt, who has made reducing Oklahoma’s highest-in-the-nation incarceration rate one of his top priorities

According to Stitt’s office, releasing the prisoners will save the state an estimated $11.9 million annually.

…

Protesters in Lebanon rallied Sunday to call for President Michel Aoun’s ouster as part of a push for sweeping changes that have already brought the resignation of the country’s prime minister.

The protests in Beirut came hours after supporters of Aoun turned out to show their support for the president.

Aoun gave an address near the presidential palace in southeastern Beirut in which he said his supporters and the anti-government protesters should work together on anti-corruption efforts.

But in their later demonstration, the protesters rejected Aoun as a leader to deliver reforms, saying all of Lebanon’s political establishment needs to go.

The protests began last month in support of a complete overhaul of Lebanon’s sectarian-based politics. Under the current system, the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the parliament speaker a Shi’ite Muslim.

The demonstrators have also blamed the political establishment for rampant corruption and poor public services.

…

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said Sunday that “the worst is yet to come” with an oil spill that has affected more than 200 beaches on the country’s coast.

“What came so far and what was collected is a small amount of what was spilled,” Bolsonaro said in an interview with Record television.

He said he did not know if additional oil would impact his country’s coastline, but that “everything indicates that the currents went to the coast of Brazil.”

Oil slicks have been appearing for three months off the coast of northeast Brazil and fouling beaches along a 2,000 kilometer (1,250 mile) area of Brazil’s most celebrated shoreline.

Crews and volunteers have cleaned up tons of oil on the beaches.

Officials say it not yet possible to quantify the environmental and economic damage from the oil slicks.

The government on Friday named a Greek-flagged tanker as the prime suspect behind the oil slicks.

The ship Bouboulina took on oil in Venezuela and was headed for Singapore, it said.

The space agency Inpe said Friday there might still be oil at sea being pushed by currents and it could reach the states of Espiritu Santo and Rio de Janeiro in southeast Brazil.

…

Under Armour Inc. is being investigated by federal authorities over its accounting practices.

The athletic gear company said Sunday that it has been cooperating with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice on their investigations for two years.

The company said it firmly believes its accounting practices and disclosures were appropriate.

Under Armour reports earnings for the third quarter Monday.

The investigation was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, which said the probe involves whether the retailer shifted sales from quarter to quarter to make results appear stronger.

Under Armour founder Kevin Plank stepped down as CEO last month. The company has struggled since its explosive sales growth petered out in 2017. Last year it announced job cuts as part of a restructuring effort.

…

Iran will not lift its ban on talks with the United States, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday, describing the two countries as implacable foes on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

“One way to block America’s political infiltration is to ban any talks with America. It means Iran will not yield to America’s pressure,” Khamenei, who is Iran’s top authority, was quoted by state TV as saying.

“Those who believe that negotiations with the enemy will solve our problems are 100% wrong.”

Relations between the two foes have reached a crisis over the past year after U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned a 2015 pact between Iran and world powers under which Tehran accepted curbs to its nuclear program in return for lifting sanctions.

Washington has reimposed sanctions aimed at halting all Iranian oil exports, saying it seeks to force Iran to negotiate to reach a wider deal. Khamenei has banned Iranian officials from holding such talks unless the United States returns to the nuclear deal and lifts all sanctions.

The anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. Embassy shortly after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution is marked in Iran with annual demonstrations of crowds chanting “Death to America” across the country.

The embassy capture cemented the hostility between the two countries which has remained a central fact in Middle East geopolitics and an important part of Iran’s national ideology.

Iran, which accused the United States of supporting brutal policies of its ousted Shah, held 52 Americans for 444 days at the embassy, which it called the Den of Spies.

“The U.S. has not changed since decades ago … it continues the same aggressive, vicious behavior and the same international dictatorship,” Khamenei said. “Iran has a firm, iron will. It will not let America return to Iran.”

Washington’s European allies have opposed the Trump administration’s decision to abandon the nuclear pact. Iran responded to U.S. sanctions by gradually scaling back its commitments under the nuclear agreement and has said it could take further steps in November.

Khamenei poured scorn on French President Emmanuel Macron for trying to promote talks between the foes. Macron tried to arrange a failed meeting between Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September.

“The French president, who says a meeting will end all the problems between Tehran and America, is either naive or complicit with America,” Khamenei said in remarks reported by state television.

…

Bangladesh said Sunday plans to relocate thousands of Rohingya living in overcrowded refugee camps to a remote island were “uncertain” after authorities failed to gain support from U.N. agencies.

Dhaka had wanted to begin its long-held plan this month to move 100,000 people to the mud-silt island of Bhashan Char, amid growing frustration with the presence of the squalid tent settlements in its southeastern border towns.

Bangladesh has said thousands of Rohingya families have volunteered to relocate, with some 3,500 of the Muslim minority due to be moved between mid-November to February during calm seas.

But the plan was in doubt as the U.N. has not supported the relocation so far, Bangladesh disaster management and relief minister Enamur Rahman told AFP.

“This has become uncertain,” Rahman said of the relocation to the island, which takes around three hours to reach by boat.

“They [U.N. agencies] still haven’t agreed to the relocation plan.”

Aid agencies including the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the World Food Program (WFP), which held meetings with the government, told him the island was “isolated” and “flood-prone.”

The agencies set out a list of conditions that had to be met, including a regular shipping service between the islet in the Bay of Bengal and the mainland, Rahman added.

The organizations provide humanitarian aid to the nearly one million Rohingya in the vast camps, including 740,000 who fled a military crackdown in Myanmar in August 2017.

“We won’t do anything forcefully,” he said, adding that at least two ships were set to ply the waters between the site and the mainland.

A U.N. official told AFP on Sunday that “U.N. agencies cannot support a move for which [they] have no technical information.”

Dhaka is due to hold another round of talks with the agencies on Wednesday, Rahman said.

Global activist group Fortify Rights said last month it interviewed 14 Rohingya at three camps, including some who appeared on lists of refugees allegedly willing to go, and found none had been consulted “and all opposed it.”

Other groups have also expressed misgivings about moving people to the island, which is regularly hit by devastating cyclones.

…