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LONDON: More than 50 people protesting against Britain’s decision to ban the Palestine Action group were arrested outside parliament on Saturday, London’s Metropolitan Police said.
Officers made arrests after crowds, waving placards expressing support for the group, gathered in Parliament Square, the force said on X.
In July, British lawmakers banned Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest against Britain’s support for Israel.
The ban makes it a crime to be a member of the group, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
The co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, last week won a bid to bring a legal challenge against the ban.

DURBAN-CORBIERES, France: French firefighters said Saturday that the country’s biggest wildfire in at least half a century was contained but would not be brought under control before Sunday evening.

The fire near the Mediterranean coast has ravaged a vast area of the southern Aude department at the peak of the summer tourist season, killing one person and injuring several others.

“The fire is contained but ... until Sunday evening the fire will not be under control,” said Christophe Magny, chief of the region’s firefighter unit.

Authorities warned that Sunday’s forecasted hot, dry winds – similar to those when the fire began – and a heatwave alert with temperatures around 40 degrees Celsius would keep the some 1,400 firefighters mobilized on high alert.

“The firefighters will do their utmost before the return of the tramontane” this weekend, the president of the Aude departmental council, Helene Sandragne, said, referring to a northerly wind that regularly blows through the area.

The blaze – the largest in at least 50 years – tore through 16,000 hectares of vegetation, disaster officials said, revising an earlier estimate of 17,000 hectares.

About 2,000 people were evacuated, though local authorities allowed them to return home on Friday evening.

In Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, a 65-year-old woman was found dead Wednesday in her home, which was devastated by flames.

Authorities said one resident suffered serious burns and four others were slightly injured, while 19 firefighters were hurt, including one with a head injury.

Experts say European countries are becoming ever more vulnerable to such disasters due to intensifying summer heatwaves linked to global warming.