World Tour: Former Sudanese president arrested, first service held in Notre Dame

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour with WORLD Africa correspondent Onize Ohikere.

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Former Sudanese president arrested—We start today here in Africa. Protest leaders in Sudan are calling for continued strikes. They are trying to force the country’s ruling military council to hand power to civilians.

Military leaders have so far refused. They also deny any involvement in the June 3rd attack on peaceful protesters.

Nearly 130 people died in the crackdown, according to protest leaders. The military puts the number of casualties at about half that.

AUDIO: [Sudan protest]

At a rally of the military’s supporters, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo vowed to punish those responsible for attacking the protesters.

DAGALO: [Man speaking Arabic]

But protest leaders want an international commission to investigate. U.S. and European envoys have urged both sides to resume talks and find a peaceful solution.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in Khartoum questioned former President Omar al-Bashir on Sunday. It was his first public appearance since the military removed him from office in April. He faces charges of corruption and money laundering.

Search for source of power outage—Next we go to South America.

AUDIO: [Argentina’s Energy secretary]

Argentina’s Energy secretary called Sunday’s massive power outage extraordinary. The country’s leaders promised a thorough investigation into the 14-hour blackout. It left almost all of Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay without power.

The problem started at a transmission point between two power stations. But systems designed to isolate the local failure didn’t work. That caused the problem to spread through the entire power grid. Officials dismissed the likelihood of a cyber attack.

Protest leader free in Hong Kong—Next we go to Hong Kong.

Democracy activist Joshua Wong rejoined the protest movement there less than 24 hours after getting out of prison. He was serving a sentence for his role in the 2014 “Umbrella Movement.”

Wong said protesters would continue to rally against a bill that would allow criminal defendants to be extradited to China.

WONG: What we realized is, no matter how President Xi Jinping or Carrie Lam try to ignore the request from people or silence the voice from Hong Kong citizens, more and more rally, action or protests will happen soon.

Carrie Lam is Hong Kong’s top political leader. She put the extradition bill on hold after weekend protests. But on Monday, she suggested it would not come back for debate any time soon.

LAM: I will not, this is an undertaking, I will not proceed again with this legislative exercise if these fears and anxieties could not be adequately addressed.

Protest leaders estimate 2 million people joined Sunday’s rallies against the bill. That’s nearly one-quarter of Hong Kong’s population.

First service held in Notre Dame—And finally, we end today in France.

AUDIO: [Archbishop of Paris]

The Archbishop of Paris held mass in Notre Dame Cathedral for the first time since a fire destroyed the building’s roof in April.

AUDIO: [Notre Dame chanting]

About 30 people attended the service. Half were clergy. All wore white hard hats to protect from falling debris.

Nets hung overhead and rubble still covered parts of the floor. But rector Patrick Chauvet said the service offered proof that the building would eventually recover.

That’s this week’s World Tour. For WORLD Radio, I’m Onize Ohikere reporting from Abuja, Nigeria.

(Photo/Associated Press) Sudanese demonstrators outside army headquarters in Khartoum on Saturday.

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