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Thousands Protest in Brussels Demanding Release of Belgian Aid Worker in Iran

Demonstrators hold a banner with the portrait of detained Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, as they take part in a solidarity rally organized by Human rights group Amnesty International and a support committee to ask for his liberation, in Brussels on January 22, 2023. (AFP)
Demonstrators hold a banner with the portrait of detained Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, as they take part in a solidarity rally organized by Human rights group Amnesty International and a support committee to ask for his liberation, in Brussels on January 22, 2023. (AFP)
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Thousands Protest in Brussels Demanding Release of Belgian Aid Worker in Iran

Demonstrators hold a banner with the portrait of detained Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, as they take part in a solidarity rally organized by Human rights group Amnesty International and a support committee to ask for his liberation, in Brussels on January 22, 2023. (AFP)
Demonstrators hold a banner with the portrait of detained Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, as they take part in a solidarity rally organized by Human rights group Amnesty International and a support committee to ask for his liberation, in Brussels on January 22, 2023. (AFP)

Thousands of people took to the streets of Brussels on Sunday to protest against the detention in Iran of Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, who was sentenced to 40 years in prison on charges including spying.

The Belgian government has said the charges are fake.

"His life is in danger, contribute to his freedom," "#Free Olivier Vandecasteele," read banners held by protesters who included Vandecasteele's family, friends and colleagues.

After Vandecasteele was sentenced last month, Belgium's justice minister said the Belgian had been imprisoned "for a fabricated series of crimes" and had been sentenced as retribution for a 20-year jail term Belgian courts imposed on an Iranian diplomat in 2021.

Belgium's constitutional court will next month hold a hearing on the legality of a Belgian prisoner exchange treaty with Iran.

Belgian media has suggested this could lead to a prisoner swap between the two countries involving the Iranian diplomat, convicted of planning a bomb plot against an exiled opposition group, and Vandecasteele.

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China Discovers Cluster of New Mpox Strain

A woman walks on the Youyi Bridge at the Liangmahe river in Beijing, China on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
A woman walks on the Youyi Bridge at the Liangmahe river in Beijing, China on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
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China Discovers Cluster of New Mpox Strain

A woman walks on the Youyi Bridge at the Liangmahe river in Beijing, China on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
A woman walks on the Youyi Bridge at the Liangmahe river in Beijing, China on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Chinese health authorities said on Thursday they had detected the new mutated mpox strain clade Ib as the viral infection spreads to more countries after the World Health Organization declared a global public health emergency last year.
China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention said it had found a cluster outbreak of the Ib subclade that started with the infection a foreigner who has a history of travel and residence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Reuters reported.
Four further cases have been found in people infected after close contact with the foreigner. The patients' symptoms are mild and include skin rash and blisters.
Mpox spreads through close contact and causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body. Although usually mild, it can be fatal in rare cases.
WHO last August declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years, following an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that spread to neighboring countries.
The outbreak in DRC began with the spread of an endemic strain, known as clade I. But the clade Ib variant appears to spread more easily through routine close contact, including sexual contact.
The variant has spread from DRC to neighboring countries, including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, triggering the emergency declaration from the WHO.
China said in August last year it would monitor people and goods entering the country for mpox.
The country's National Health Commission said mpox would be managed as a Category B infectious disease, enabling officials to take emergency measures such as restricting gatherings, suspending work and school, and sealing off areas when there is an outbreak of a disease.