Kenyan officials say at least 10 police officers are dead after their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device near the Somali border.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to share the information, said those killed Saturday in Wajir County were among 13 officers who were pursuing fighters who had kidnapped police reservists.
Police on Friday said an unknown number of gunmen stormed Konton centre in Wajir East and kidnapped three reservists.
There was no claim of responsibility for the latest attack.
The Somalia-based al-Shabab armed group often targets Kenyan security forces, vowing retribution after Kenya deployed troops to Somalia in 2011 to combat the fighters.
She has been the face of large Hong Kong protests against a controversial extradition bill. But the young woman, who came to be known as "Shield Girl", tells the BBC that she will fight on despite the bill's indefinite suspension.
Darkness had fallen. Crowds were thinning. A lone girl, in a meditative pose, defiantly sat in front of a row of riot police.
It has become an iconic image from the Hong Kong demonstrations.
"Bravery in the face of brutality. Beautiful," wrote an observer on Twitter.
"The innocence of youth and the riot shields of the authority," wrote Hong Kong-based Irish journalist Aaron Mc Nicholas.
Dubbed "Shield Girl", she even inspired this artwork from one of China's leading dissident artists Badiucao.
Her name is Lam Ka Lo. The 26-year-old came to the Admiralty district by herself, where the government headquarters are located, on Tuesday night, hours ahead of a rally organised by Civil Human Rights Front.
There were hundreds of protesters with her at that spot, but more and more police officers in full riot gear arrived.
"No one really dared to stand so close to the line of police officers," she said, adding that she did not fear police but worried that other protesters might be injured.
She started meditating and chanting the Om mantra when tension was running high.
"I just wanted to send my positive vibes," she said. "But protesters also hurled insults at the police. At that moment, I just wanted fellow protesters to sit next to me and not to chide them."
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But the young woman doesn't want to be the face of the protests.
"I don't want attention," Lam said. "But if people think that it was moving to see me sit down in front of the police, I hope more people would be encouraged to be braver, to express themselves."
Meditating and anger
Lam's calmness is largely owed to her practice of meditation.
An avid traveller, Lam has visited more than a dozen countries in Asia, Latin America, North America and Europe. She dabbled in meditation during her trip to Nepal four years ago - when the country was rattled by a deadly earthquake.
The young woman says she's a naturally emotional person, but meditation has helped her be more mindful of her feelings and achieve inner peace.
But Lam, who spent every single day in the streets during the 79-day Umbrella Movement in 2014, was not emotionally prepared by the dramatic showdown between police officers and protesters on Wednesday afternoon.
"I do feel a bit of hatred because some students were injured by police," she said, adding that she was not at the protest site when the violence unfolded on Wednesday. "We are only human to have feelings."
The young woman says, however, the protest movement should not alienate police officers and still believes non-violence is the way to achieve the goal of the protesters.
"Violence doesn't solve anything."
Fight on
On Saturday, the protesters scored what is being seen as a major concession. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said the extradition bill would be shelved, and no timetable for its re-introduction given.
But Lam Ka Lo remains defiant.
"I don't see it as a success."
She wants to see the bill withdrawn, the Wednesday clashes not categorised as riot, and the release of arrested protesters.
She urges her fellow protesters to continue their fight and join the march on Sunday.
"Come with your friends and family. Come in groups. Express yourselves in your own ways. I used meditation, but it doesn't mean it's the only way. Everyone can protest creatively and meaningfully."
While she fell short of fully withdrawing the bill -- or resigning -- as some protesters had demand, the move is nevertheless a major win for the hundreds of thousands who took to the streets on June 9, as well as the tens of thousands of mostly young protesters who shut down parts of the city on Wednesday and prevented lawmakers from beginning a second reading.
Pro-democracy figures said that the bill would lead to the erosion of civil rights in Hong Kong, including freedom of speech and rule of law, and could see residents sent to China to face prosecution in a country with an opaque legal system.
Beijing has yet to officially react to Lam's announcement that she was suspending the bill, though the Chief Executive has emphasized that she had the central government's support.
From all available accounts, it appears that the bill was an initiative of Lam's government -- as she has claimed all along -- rather than an order from on high.
Lam and her ministers appear to have seen in a gruesome Taiwan murder case a way to win an easy public relations victory by extraditing a wanted killer to face justice, and a way to close loopholes and extend the central government's powers to go after fugitives, especially former Chinese officials, in Hong Kong.
They do not, however, seem to have expected the overwhelmingly negative response to the bill and the deep, widespread distrust for the Chinese legal system. Pro-democracy activists, NGOs and business groups came together in calling for the bill's withdrawal, and it also served to unify the previously fractured political opposition.
Protests this month -- with the June 9 march the largest since Hong Kong was handed over to Chinese control, and Wednesday's protests among some of the most violent scenes ever seen in the city -- left Lam unwilling to push forward with a bill so clearly unpopular and potentially dangerous.
However, while the climbdown is certainly embarrassing to both the Hong Kong and Beijing governments, it only maintains the status quo, as did a mass movement against an anti-sedition law in 2003, previously the largest protests Hong Kong had seen under Chinese rule.
Hong Kong residents have proven more willing to come to the streets to fight back against a loss of political freedoms than to push for extra ones, and both the local and central governments appear to have a greater degree of flexibility or patience on these issues as well.
The situation in 2014, when demands for the direct election of the chief executive spiraled into the Umbrella Movement, was very different. Those protests did not attract such a broad swath of society, and they were also greeted with a much more forceful reaction by Beijing, and a subsequent crackdown and numerous prosecutions and disqualifications of lawmakers.
Does the bill have a future?
While Lam emphasized that the bill has been suspended rather than completely withdrawn, it is likely that the effect will be the same, at least in the near term.
As opposition to the bill grew, Taipei said it would not request the murder suspect's extradition from Hong Kong, as it said the bill would put Taiwanese citizens in danger. With this off the table, Lam admitted there was "less urgency to pass the bill this year."
Going forward, she said she wanted to focus on "economic and livelihood" issues, particularly those such as housing, a consistent major issue in Hong Kong, particularly for young people of the sort out protesting Wednesday.
That language is similar to what she has used in the past when discussing whether her government would seek to introduce Article 23, the anti-sedition law which was shelved after mass protests against it in 2003. Lam has said she would only do so were the conditions in society correct, and on Saturday she said she regretted that controversies over the extradition bill had spoiled the "period of calm" Hong Kong had enjoyed since she took office in 2017.
While the government could reintroduce the bill next year, it is unlikely as 2020 is an election year for the legislative council.
The newly reinvigorated and unified pro-democratic camp will be targeting marginal seats in an attempt to wrest back veto power in the legislature, and pro-Beijing lawmakers have already warned that the controversies over the bill could cost them seats.
So though some protesters and opposition figures may complain that Lam has only suspended rather than withdrawn the bill, the effect may end up being the same.
HONG KONG — Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Saturday announced the government would suspend debate on a controversial extradition bill that had prompted massive protests in the former British colony.
"We decided that it was important to return society to peace," Lam told reporters, referring to the huge demonstrations.
Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam speaks on Saturday.Kin Cheung / AP
The announcement represented a major victory for protesters in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. Organizers have said they would not back down until the bill was withdrawn altogether, and on Saturday renewed calls for a planned march on Sunday.
The climb down followed formal warnings from U.S. and European officials, with international business and human rights groups saying the changes would hurt the rule of law in Hong Kong, which was handed back to Chinese rule in 1997 amid guarantees of autonomy.
Hong Kong enjoys greater freedoms than mainland China under a "one country, two systems" framework. Residents can freely surf the internet and participate in public protests, unlike in the mainland.
The measure was not definitively cancelled, however, and Lam did not say when debate would resume.
"The council will halt its work in relation to the bill until our work in communication, explanation and listening to opinions is completed," she said, adding that the government also had other priorities, including an expected economic downturn.
The controversial bill had been introduced in response to a murder case in Taiwan where the suspect fled back to Hong Kong, revealing what Lam described as a "loophole in our regime with respect to mutual legal assistance on criminal matters."
Lawmakers said it was designed to simplify case-by-case arrangements to allow extradition of wanted suspects to jurisdictions including mainland China, Macau and Taiwan.
But opponents said the bill would severely compromise their freedoms and erode Hong Kong's legal independence, with fears over the fairness and transparency of the Chinese court system and worries over Chinese security forces contriving charges.
Lam has maintained the legislation was needed and would have safeguards to ensure human rights were protected.
Organizers say over a million people marched through the streets of Hong Kong last Sunday, amid a series of protests that turned violent and saw both police and demonstrators injured.
"Clearly, this is no longer a peaceful assembly but a blatant, organized riot, and in no way an act of loving Hong Kong," Lam said earlier in the week.
Lam condemned the protests again on Saturday, but said the bill was no longer necessary.
"The original urgency to pass this bill in the current legislative year is perhaps no longer there," she said.
Lam did not apologize, and dodged reporters' questions about whether she planned to resign as demonstrators have demanded. Instead, she said she had been acting in Hong Kong's best interests.
Laurel Chor reported from Hong Kong, Linda Givetash from London.
HONG KONG — Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Saturday announced the government would suspend debate on a controversial extradition bill that had prompted massive protests in the former British colony.
"We decided that it was important to return society to peace," Lam told reporters, referring to the huge demonstrations.
Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam speaks on Saturday.Kin Cheung / AP
The announcement represented a huge victory for protesters in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. Organizers have said they would not back down until the bill was withdrawn altogether, and on Saturday renewed calls for a planned march for Sunday.
The climb down followed formal warnings from U.S. and European officials, with international business and human rights groups saying that the changes would hurt the rule of law in Hong Kong, which was handed back to Chinese rule in 1997 amid guarantees of autonomy.
Hong Kong enjoys greater freedoms than mainland China under a "one country, two systems" framework. Residents can freely surf the internet and participate in public protests, unlike in the mainland.
The measure was not definitively cancelled, however, and Lam did not say when debate would resume.
"The council will halt its work in relation to the bill until our work in communication, explanation and listening to opinions is completed," she said, adding that the government also had other priorities, including an expected economic downturn.
The controversial bill had been introduced in response to a murder case in Taiwan where the suspect fled back to Hong Kong, revealing what Lam described as a "loophole in our regime with respect to mutual legal assistance on criminal matters."
Lawmakers said it was designed to simplify case-by-case arrangements to allow extradition of wanted suspects to jurisdictions including mainland China, Macau and Taiwan.
But opponents said the bill would severely compromise their freedoms and erode Hong Kong's legal independence, with fears over the fairness and transparency of the Chinese court system and worry about Chinese security forces contriving charges.
Lam maintained the legislation was necessary and would have safeguards to ensure human rights are protected.
Organizers say over a million people marched through the streets of Hong Kong last Sunday, amid a series of protests that turned violent and saw both police and demonstrators injured.
"Clearly, this is no longer a peaceful assembly but a blatant, organised riot, and in no way an act of loving Hong Kong," Lam said earlier in the week.
On Saturday, Lam again condemned the protests, but said the bill was no longer necessary for the moment.
"The original urgency to pass this bill in the current legislative year is perhaps no longer there," she said.
Lam did not apologize, and dodged reporters' questions about whether she planned to resign as demonstrators have demanded. Instead, she said she had been acting in Hong Kong's best interests.
Laurel Chor reported from Hong Kong, Linda Givetash from London.
HONG KONG — Backing down after days of huge street protests, Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, said on Saturday that she would indefinitely suspend a bill that would allow extraditions to mainland China.
It was a remarkable reversal for Mrs. Lam, the leader installed by Beijing in 2017, who had vowed to ensure the bill’s approval and tried to get it passed on an unusually short timetable, even as hundreds of thousands demonstrated against it this week. But she made it clear that the bill was being delayed, not withdrawn outright, as protesters have demanded.
“I believe that we cannot withdraw this bill, or else society will say that this bill was groundless,” Mrs. Lam said at a news conference. She said she felt “sorrow and regret” that she had failed to convince the public that it was needed.
City leaders hope that delaying the legislation will cool public anger and avoid more violence in the streets, said people with detailed knowledge of the government’s plans, including advisers to Mrs. Lam.
Image
Mothers of young protesters gathered in Hong Kong on Friday night to oppose the proposed extradition law. Some of the signs read, “If we lose the young generation, what’s left of Hong Kong?”CreditVincent Yu/Associated Press
But before Mrs. Lam’s announcement, leading opposition figures said a mere postponement of the bill would not satisfy the protesters, who had been planning another large demonstration for Sunday. As reports emerged Saturday that the bill would be delayed, not withdrawn, organizers of the Sunday protest confirmed that it was still on.
“We can’t accept it will just be suspended,” Minnie Li, a lecturer with the Education University of Hong Kong who joined a hunger strike this week, said on Saturday morning, as word of Mrs. Lam’s plan to suspend the bill was emerging. “We demand it to be withdrawn. The amendment itself is unreasonable. Suspension just means having a break and will continue later. What we want is for it to be withdrawn. We can’t accept it.”
Mrs. Lam and her superiors in Beijing were reluctant to kill the bill outright, said the people familiar with city officials’ thinking. They insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on behalf of the government.
A full withdrawal of the legislation would recall the Hong Kong government’s reversals in the face of public objections to other contentious bills that were seen as infringing on the city’s liberties — national security legislation, in 2003, and compulsory patriotic education legislation, in 2012.
A team of senior Chinese officials and experts met on Friday with Mrs. Lam in Shenzhen, a mainland Chinese city bordering Hong Kong, to review the situation, one of the people with knowledge of the government’s policymaking said.
Image
The police used tear gas and rubber bullets against demonstrators on Wednesday.CreditLam Yik Fei for The New York Times
The bill would make it easier for Hong Kong to send people suspected of crimes to jurisdictions with which it has no extradition treaty, including mainland China. Many people in Hong Kong, a semiautonomous territory with far more civil liberties than the mainland has, fear that the legislation would put anyone in the city at risk of being detained and sent to China for trial by the country’s Communist Party-controlled courts.
The bill had been moving through the legislative process with unusual speed, and legal experts who raised concerns about that said it would have to be withdrawn in order to address those worries. Otherwise, voting on the bill could restart at any time, at the discretion of the head of the legislature, which is controlled by pro-Beijing lawmakers, these experts said.
More than a million people marched against the bill last Sunday, according to protest leaders, the vast majority of them peacefully. That was followed by street clashes on Wednesday, as the police used tear gas and rubber bullets on demonstrators.
Officials believe that delaying the bill will reduce the risk of a young protester being seriously hurt or even killed in clashes with police, then becoming a martyr in the eyes of the public. Dozens of protesters have already been injured, and video footage of riot police apparently using excessive force against unarmed demonstrators has deepened public anger in the city.
The government has been dismayed by early signs that mothers of young protesters, who held a candlelight vigil on Friday night, were starting to organize themselves. It is strongly averse to seeing the emergence of a group like the mothers of victims of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing in 1989, who have been active for decades.
Image
Protesters’ messages near the Hong Kong Legislative Council building this week.CreditLam Yik Fei for The New York Times
City officials hope that delaying the bill will weaken the opposition by draining it of its momentum, without giving the appearance that the government was backing down entirely, according to the people familiar with leaders’ thinking.
Asked several times by reporters at the Saturday news conference whether she would resign, as protesters have demanded, Mrs. Lam indicated that she had no plans to do so, saying she would continue her work and improve efforts to communicate with the public. The people familiar with the government’s thinking said officials in both Beijing and Hong Kong had dismissed the calls for Mrs. Lam’s resignation.
Underlying opposition to the extradition bill is a growing fear that the freedoms that people in Hong Kong enjoy under the “one country, two systems” policy, put in place when the former British colony was returned to China in 1997, are rapidly shrinking.
Responding to local media reports on Saturday about a possible delay of the bill, Emily Lau, a former lawmaker and chairwoman of the city’s Democratic Party, said that she doubted the public would be quelled by such a move.
“People are asking for the bill to be withdrawn, if you just delay it that means they can just resume the second reading whenever they like,” Ms. Lau said. She added that a delay would simply result in another big turnout for the march on Sunday.
“There is always a sword hanging over our heads and I don’t think the public will accept it,” she said.
HONG KONG — Backing down after days of huge street protests, Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, said on Saturday that she would indefinitely suspend a bill that would allow extraditions to mainland China.
It was a remarkable reversal for Mrs. Lam, the leader installed by Beijing in 2017, who had vowed to ensure the bill’s approval and tried to get it passed on an unusually short timetable, even as hundreds of thousands demonstrated against it this week. But she made it clear that the bill was being delayed, not withdrawn outright, as protesters have demanded.
“I believe that we cannot withdraw this bill, or else society will say that this bill was groundless,” Mrs. Lam said at a news conference. She said she felt “sorrow and regret” that she had failed to convince the public that it was needed.
City leaders hope that delaying the legislation will cool public anger and avoid more violence in the streets, said people with detailed knowledge of the government’s plans, including advisers to Mrs. Lam.
Image
Mothers of young protesters gathered in Hong Kong on Friday night to oppose the proposed extradition law. Some of the signs read, “If we lose the young generation, what’s left of Hong Kong?”CreditVincent Yu/Associated Press
But before Mrs. Lam’s announcement, leading opposition figures said a mere postponement of the bill would not satisfy the protesters, who had been planning another large demonstration for Sunday. As reports emerged Saturday that the bill would be delayed, not withdrawn, organizers of the Sunday protest confirmed that it was still on.
“We can’t accept it will just be suspended,” Minnie Li, a lecturer with the Education University of Hong Kong who joined a hunger strike this week, said on Saturday morning, as word of Mrs. Lam’s plan to suspend the bill was emerging. “We demand it to be withdrawn. The amendment itself is unreasonable. Suspension just means having a break and will continue later. What we want is for it to be withdrawn. We can’t accept it.”
Mrs. Lam and her superiors in Beijing were reluctant to kill the bill outright, said the people familiar with city officials’ thinking. They insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on behalf of the government.
A full withdrawal of the legislation would recall the Hong Kong government’s reversals in the face of public objections to other contentious bills that were seen as infringing on the city’s liberties — national security legislation, in 2003, and compulsory patriotic education legislation, in 2012.
A team of senior Chinese officials and experts met on Friday with Mrs. Lam in Shenzhen, a mainland Chinese city bordering Hong Kong, to review the situation, one of the people with knowledge of the government’s policymaking said.
Image
The police used tear gas and rubber bullets against demonstrators on Wednesday.CreditLam Yik Fei for The New York Times
The bill would make it easier for Hong Kong to send people suspected of crimes to jurisdictions with which it has no extradition treaty, including mainland China. Many people in Hong Kong, a semiautonomous territory with far more civil liberties than the mainland has, fear that the legislation would put anyone in the city at risk of being detained and sent to China for trial by the country’s Communist Party-controlled courts.
The bill had been moving through the legislative process with unusual speed, and legal experts who raised concerns about that said it would have to be withdrawn in order to address those worries. Otherwise, voting on the bill could restart at any time, at the discretion of the head of the legislature, which is controlled by pro-Beijing lawmakers, these experts said.
More than a million people marched against the bill last Sunday, according to protest leaders, the vast majority of them peacefully. That was followed by street clashes on Wednesday, as the police used tear gas and rubber bullets on demonstrators.
Officials believe that delaying the bill will reduce the risk of a young protester being seriously hurt or even killed in clashes with police, then becoming a martyr in the eyes of the public. Dozens of protesters have already been injured, and video footage of riot police apparently using excessive force against unarmed demonstrators has deepened public anger in the city.
The government has been dismayed by early signs that mothers of young protesters, who held a candlelight vigil on Friday night, were starting to organize themselves. It is strongly averse to seeing the emergence of a group like the mothers of victims of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing in 1989, who have been active for decades.
Image
Protesters’ messages near the Hong Kong Legislative Council building this week.CreditLam Yik Fei for The New York Times
City officials hope that delaying the bill will weaken the opposition by draining it of its momentum, without giving the appearance that the government was backing down entirely, according to the people familiar with leaders’ thinking.
Asked several times by reporters at the Saturday news conference whether she would resign, as protesters have demanded, Mrs. Lam indicated that she had no plans to do so, saying she would continue her work and improve efforts to communicate with the public. The people familiar with the government’s thinking said officials in both Beijing and Hong Kong had dismissed the calls for Mrs. Lam’s resignation.
Underlying opposition to the extradition bill is a growing fear that the freedoms that people in Hong Kong enjoy under the “one country, two systems” policy, put in place when the former British colony was returned to China in 1997, are rapidly shrinking.
Responding to local media reports on Saturday about a possible delay of the bill, Emily Lau, a former lawmaker and chairwoman of the city’s Democratic Party, said that she doubted the public would be quelled by such a move.
“People are asking for the bill to be withdrawn, if you just delay it that means they can just resume the second reading whenever they like,” Ms. Lau said. She added that a delay would simply result in another big turnout for the march on Sunday.
“There is always a sword hanging over our heads and I don’t think the public will accept it,” she said.
