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More than 1,000 Arrested Following UK Riots

An anti-immigration protester is detained by police officers, in Newcastle, Britain August 10, 2024. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
An anti-immigration protester is detained by police officers, in Newcastle, Britain August 10, 2024. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
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More than 1,000 Arrested Following UK Riots

An anti-immigration protester is detained by police officers, in Newcastle, Britain August 10, 2024. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
An anti-immigration protester is detained by police officers, in Newcastle, Britain August 10, 2024. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

British authorities have now arrested more than 1,000 people following days of rioting involving violence, arson and looting as well as racist attacks targeting Muslims and migrants, a national policing body said on Tuesday.
The riots, which followed the killings of three young girls in the northern English town of Southport, began after the July 29 attack was wrongly blamed on a migrant based on online misinformation.
Violence broke out in cities across England and also in Northern Ireland, but there have been fewer instances of unrest since last week after efforts to identify those involved were ramped up, Reuters said.
Many have been swiftly jailed, with some receiving long sentences
The National Police Chiefs' Council said in its latest update that 1,024 had been arrested and 575 charged across the UK.
Those arrested include a 69-year-old accused of vandalism in Liverpool.
A 13-year-old girl pleaded guilty to violent disorder at Basingstoke Magistrates' Court, prosecutors said, having been seen on July 31 punching and kicking the entrance to a hotel for asylum seekers.
"This alarming incident will have caused genuine fear amongst people who were being targeted by these thugs – and it is particularly distressing to learn that such a young girl participated in this violent disorder," prosecutor Thomas Power said.
The last time Britain witnessed widespread rioting was in 2011, when the fatal shooting of a Black man by police triggered several days of street violence.
Fast and tough judicial action was viewed as helping quell the unrest in 2011, when around 4,000 people were arrested over several weeks.

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UN Expert Panel Sent to Venezuela Blasts Lack of Transparency in Presidential Elections

Lawmaker Diosdado Cabello stands next to an image of late President Hugo Chavez in Congress as the National Assembly debates a bill that controls and regulates NGOs, in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Lawmaker Diosdado Cabello stands next to an image of late President Hugo Chavez in Congress as the National Assembly debates a bill that controls and regulates NGOs, in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
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UN Expert Panel Sent to Venezuela Blasts Lack of Transparency in Presidential Elections

Lawmaker Diosdado Cabello stands next to an image of late President Hugo Chavez in Congress as the National Assembly debates a bill that controls and regulates NGOs, in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Lawmaker Diosdado Cabello stands next to an image of late President Hugo Chavez in Congress as the National Assembly debates a bill that controls and regulates NGOs, in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A panel of experts from the United Nations said Venezuela's recent presidential elections lacked “basic transparency and integrity,” adding an important voice to those who have cast doubt on President Nicolás Maduro's claim he won the contest, The AP reported.

A four-member team sent by UN Secretary General António Guterres was in Caracas for over a month in the run up to the July 28 election, one of the few independent outside observers invited by Maduro's government.

While the UN group praised the logistic organization of the voting, it harshly criticized the National Electoral Council, or CNE, for flouting local rules and announcing Maduro the winner without tabulated results from each of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide, something it said “had no precedent in contemporary democratic elections.”

“This had a negative impact on confidence in the outcome announced by the CNE among a large part of the Venezuelan electorate,” the UN experts said in a statement late Tuesday.

The UN statement follows criticism by another invited observer, the Atlanta-based Carter Center, which said it could not verify the CNE's results. Venezuela's foreign minister has blasted the Carter Center, accusing it of lying and servings as a tool of US “imperialism.”

While the UN team stopped short of validating claims by the opposition that its candidate, former diplomat Edmundo González, trounced Maduro by a more than 2-to-1 margin, it said that the voting records the anti-Maduro coalition published online appeared to exhibit all of the original security features.

“This suggests a key transparency safeguard may be available, as intended, with respect to any officially released results,” the experts added, noting that electoral authorities failed to meet with the group prior to the mission's departure from Venezuela five days after voting.

Since the election, security forces have arrested more than 2,000 people for demonstrating against Maduro or casting doubt on his claims that he won a third term.