French President Emmanuel Macron presides over an emergency crisis meeting at the Interior Ministry in Paris, France, late 16 March 2019. // EPA-EFE PHOTO

President Emmanuel Macron cut short a skiing trip in the Pyrenees to return to Paris for a crisis meeting, as hooded protesters went on the rampage in Paris, leaving a trail of destruction in the touristic heart of the city.

    He vowed to take “strong decisions” to prevent further violence, following the emergency talks held at the interior ministry late Saturday.

“There are people today who try by all means… to damage the Republic by breaking, by destroying things at the risk of killing someone,” Macron said.

“All those who were there were complicit in” the havoc spread across the Champs-Elysees, he added.

The police appeared overrun as protesters swarmed the Champs-Elysees, vandalising and later setting fire to Fouquet’s brasserie, a favourite hangout of the rich and famous for the past century — as well as luxury handbag store Longchamp, a bank, another restaurant and several news stands.

The rioters also looted several clothing stores and set fire to barricades in scenes reminiscent of the worst yellow-vest riots in Paris in December.

A tourist poses for a picture next to a damaged window of a restaurant on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on March 17, 2019. // AFP PHOTO

“Like the vast majority of French people, I feel very angry today,” tweeted French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who visited the scene.

“Today’s actions are not the work of protesters, but of looters, arsonists and criminals. No cause justifies this violence,” he added.

In a statement, the national police denounced the “mindless violence, cowardly attacks” and stressed their determination to guarantee public order against “provocateurs and vandals”.

– Bank blaze –

Saturday’s turnout was seen a test of the ongoing strength of the movement, which began in November over fuel tax hikes and quickly ballooned into a rebellion against Macron’s policies, seen by the protesters as geared towards the rich.

In recent weeks, the protests have dwindled in size. But the interior ministry estimated the turnout in Paris Saturday at 10,000, out of around 32,300 nationwide.

Policemen stand guard outside a burnt bank agency at the corner of Rue du Colisee and boulevard Roosevelt, near the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on March 17, 2019. // AFP PHOTO

That is a fraction of the 282,000 people they said took part in the inaugural demonstrations across France on November 17, but more than the previous weekend.

Saturday’s protests were markedly more violent than in recent weeks. Police said close to 240 people were arrested, while prosecutors said more than 100 had been taken into custody.

The bank set alight was on the ground floor of an apartment building, and fire firefighters had to quickly evacuate the residents, including a nine-month-old baby.

Eleven people suffered minor injuries in the bank blaze, the fire service told AFP.

The violence left 17 members of the police injured, and 42 protesters, said police.

– ‘Ultra-violent’ minority –

The rally coincides with the end of the public debates called by the president to try take the heat out of the protests and give voters a forum to propose policy changes.

Around half a million people turned out at town hall-style meetings held around the country over the past two months.

But many “yellow vests” dismissed the consultation exercise as a smoke-screen.

On Saturday, the police used tear gas, stun grenades and water cannon to try repel protesters who gathered at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe war memorial, which was sacked by protesters on December 1.

But for seven hours they continued to be pelted with paving stones by mostly black-clad demonstrators.

“There are a number of people who have come just to smash things,” Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said, estimating that some 1,500 “ultra-violent” activists had infiltrated the crowd.

“We have been too nice, that’s why it’s violent today. I’m not in favour (of violence) but we are ruled by corrupt people who dare to lecture us,” Jean-Francois Bernard, a landscape gardener who was among the protesters, told AFP.

The presidency later announced that Macron was returning home from La Mongie ski resort where he and his wife Brigitte arrived Thursday to spend the weekend.

– ‘We want results’ –

Protesters streamed into the capital by train and car for a rally they called an “ultimatum” to the president. Over 5,000 police were deployed, along with several armoured police vehicles.

A Yellow Vest protester throws a flag of Europe towards a barricade burning in front of a shop on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on March 16, 2019. // AFP PHOTO

Macron was caught off guard when grassroots protesters began occupying traffic roundabouts in November over fuel taxes. He has loosened the state’s purse strings to the tune of 10 billion euros ($11.2 billion) to try defuse the protests.

But the measures failed to quell the anger of the demonstrators, who accuse the former investment banker of being elitist and favouring the rich.

The Paris protest was one of several in the capital on Saturday, where tens of thousands of climate campaigners also held a demonstration to demand that the French government uphold its commitments on reducing emissions.

Yellow vest protests also took place several other French cities. At Bordeaux, in the southwest, police clashed with protesters and a bank was damaged.

Coroners said they hoped to release at least one body late Sunday, allowing pious families — anxious to fulfil Muslim burial customs — to begin their sacred rites.

The dead span generations, aged between three and 77, according to a sombre list circulated among relatives.

Some victims came from the neighbourhood, others from as far afield as Egypt or Fiji. At least two of the dead — a father and son — came from the same family.

    “It’s a massacre, what else do they need to know?,” said school principal Sheikh Amjad Ali, expressing frustration with the wait for loved ones’ remains.

Islamic custom dictates that the dead should be buried within 24 hours, but strained authorities, desperate to make sure no mistakes are made or the complex investigation harmed, said a quick process was difficult.

“All of the deceased have had a CT scan, their fingerprints are taken, the property they were wearing or had with them is removed,” said Chief Coroner Deborah Marshall, adding that dental impressions were taken and post-mortems performed.

Prime Minster Jacinda Ardern said: “The bodies of those who have died are beginning to be returned to their families from this evening.” She added that all were expected to be released by Wednesday.

Residents pay their respects by placing flowers for the victims of the mosques attacks in Christchurch at the Masjid Umar mosque in Auckland on March 17, 2019. // AFP PHOTO

As New Zealanders flocked to memorial sites to lay flowers and mourn the victims, testimony emerged of epic heroism, harrowing suffering and incredible grace.

Farid Ahmad, whose 44-year-old wife Husna was killed as she rushed back into a mosque to rescue him, refused to harbour hatred toward the gunman, Australian-born, self-avowed white nationalist, Brenton Tarrant.

“I would say to him ‘I love him as a person’,” Ahmad told AFP.

Asked if he forgave the 28-year-old suspect, he said: “Of course. The best thing is forgiveness, generosity, loving and caring, positivity.”

Husna Ahmad was among four women believed to have been killed by Tarrant, who documented his radicalisation and two years of preparations in a lengthy, meandering and conspiracy-filled far-right “manifesto”.

Ardern said on Sunday that her office and some 30 other officials had received the document by email about nine minutes before the attack.

“It did not include a location, it did not include specific details,” she said, adding that it was sent to security services within two minutes of receipt.

– Burial rituals –

Authorities said 34 people remained in hospital.

Among those fighting for their lives is four-year-old Alin Alsati. The pre-schooler was praying alongside her father Waseeim at the Al Noor mosque when she was shot at least three times.

Her father, who was also shot, recently emigrated to New Zealand from Jordan.

“Please pray for me and my daughter,” he pleaded in a Facebook video message from his hospital bed before undergoing surgery.

The number of dead and injured could have been higher, were it not for people like Afghan refugee Abdul Aziz.

Aziz was at the Linwood mosque with his four sons when he rushed the attacker armed with the only weapon he could find — a hand-held credit card machine.

When Aziz heard one of his four sons cry “Daddy, please come back inside!” he picked up an empty shotgun discarded by the gunman and shouted “come on here” repeatedly in an effort to draw him away from his sons and the other worshippers.

“I just wanted to save as much lives as I could, even if I lose my life,” he told AFP.

 – Gun policy on agenda –

The mosque attacks have shaken this usually peaceful country, which prides itself on welcoming refugees fleeing violence or persecution.

On Monday Ardern will gather her cabinet to discuss changing the country’s gun laws — possibly including a ban on semi-automatic weapons of the type used by Tarrant, hoping that the politics have evolved after a series of failed reform attempts in recent years.

The cabinet will also hear from intelligence agencies about how a self-avowed fascist legally purchased and trained to use two semi-automatic weapons, reportedly AR-15s, two shotguns and a lever-action gun without drawing the attention of the authorities.

It has also has emerged that a former soldier raised concerns about extremism at Tarrant’s gun club in Dunedin, a city 4.5 hours drive south of Christchurch where the Australian had been living.

Meanwhile after days of lockdowns, security warnings and fear, police have urged Kiwis to go back to their normal business.

When they return to work, school and hobbies on Monday however, they will find a high police presence, said commissioner Mike Bush.

“This is for everyone’s safety, to reassure the public.”

A new round of technological competition in maglev trains is going on globally, and a number of countries are speeding up the development of maglev train technologies, said Wu Guanghui, a deputy to the National People’s Congress and vice-president of State-owned and Shanghai-based aerospace manufacturer Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, on the sidelines of the ongoing annual session of the national legislature in Beijing.

Japan is constructing a maglev train line between Tokyo and Nagoya, which is scheduled to become operational in 2021 and the journey will take only 40 minutes, said Wu, who is also an academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE).

“Many foreign technology suppliers are focusing on maglev trains and some are trying to offer new maglev plans for Shanghai,” he said.

Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk has shown great interest in providing a plan for an underground maglev route in Shanghai when the company signed a cooperation memorandum on the Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory with the Shanghai government last year, Wu said.

“He claimed that the technology is being experimented in Los Angeles and Seattle,” Wu said

Shanghai has been operating a maglev train line based on Sino-German technical cooperation between a metro station in Pudong new area and Pudong International Airport since 2006. The 30-km journey takes roughly eight minutes with the train running at a maximum speed of 430 km an hour.

Wu suggested a maglev route from downtown area of one city in the Yangtze River Delta region to that of another, for example, from downtown Shanghai to downtown Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province.

“Shanghai-based Tongji University has mastered the technology to design maglev trains that can run at the maximum speed of 550 km an hour,” Wu said.

“This means that a maglev ride will only take half an hour to run from downtown Shanghai to downtown Hangzhou, which will significantly promote the national strategy of the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region,” he said.

Shanghai can also consider an underground maglev line from the downtown area to Pudong’s Lingang area, the city’s smart manufacturing base, to accelerate the development of the area, Wu suggested.

A report on the website of the CAE showed that a meeting attended by 90 domestic experts to launch a research project on a new generation of maglev technology was held in Beijing in December.

CAE Vice-President He Huawu said that the project would organize advantageous resources in the country to carry out strategic, comprehensive and forward-looking research on a transportation model combining maglev technology and a low-pressure vacuum environment.

This modern-day solution at the venerable compound comes thanks to an agreement signed on Friday by the museum and Huawei Co, the telecommunication giant, to build a “smart network” using 5G technology, the fifth generation of mobile network communications.

Under the agreement, 5G Wi-Fi signals will cover the 720,000-square-meter compound, China’s imperial palace from 1420 to 1911 and also known as the Forbidden City, and the branch museum of the institution under construction in northwestern Beijing.

But visitor comfort is not the only benefit of a 5G smart network.

Huawei will also provide the museum with cutting-edge technologies for the internet of things－devices or objects linked in a network－cloud computing and artificial intelligence to facilitate such functions as management, security and preservation of cultural relics.

“It’s essential to always stay close to the latest technology to better serve the public,” said Shan Jixiang, director of the Palace Museum.

Shan said there is still much room for improvement in the handling of a huge number of cultural relics, such as when the priceless painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival is exhibited again next year.

The Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) landscape painting is considered the best-known ancient Chinese work of art. When it was last exhibited in 2015, visitors stood in long lines until 3 am to get a glimpse. The museum ended up preparing instant noodles to serve the hungry visitors.

“I don’t want that scenario to recur,” Shan said. “Our operation can be done in a more scientific way.”

The new system will make use of the more than 3,000 closed-circuit television cameras that are installed all over the Palace Museum. Shan said facial-recognition technology will determine which areas are most popular with frequent visitors in order to analyze their preferences.

“We can later, accordingly, provide useful information on our exhibitions,” he said.

The CCTV cameras also are used to safeguard the museum’s precious relics. More than 1.86 million of them are housed at the museum, which logged 17.5 million visits from the public in 2018, topping all museums worldwide.

“How can we make sure no single visitor who might have evil ideas threatens these treasures?” Shan said. “After adopting the internet of things, we can instantly detect any motion involving the artifacts to prevent such threats.”

Such a networked system also will be used to facilitate management of inventory and closely supervise transportation and exhibition of cultural relics.

New technologies can assist the museum staff in other ways, too, said Wang Tao, a member of Huawei’s board of directors.

The company will use algorithms to more efficiently draft tailored plans for restoring cultural relics after information on similar pieces and files on each collection are included in a database.

“We can thus combine old craftsmen’s experience and artificial intelligence,” Wang said.

The 5G network also will be used to improve remote consultation through webcams, which will facilitate conversations with overseas scholars to jointly find the best answers for restoration and preservation issues, he said.

The worshippers and their families caught up in the attacks in the normally peaceful city of Christchurch came from around the world.

Here are some of their stories:

The Afghan who ran into gunfire

An Afghan man, thought to be in his 60s or 70s, died after he reportedly ran into the line of fire to save fellow worshippers at the Al Noor mosque in central Christchurch.

Daoud Nabi had lived in New Zealand for more than 40 years after fleeing Afghanistan as a refugee in the late 1970s, and believed his adopted home to be a “slice of paradise”, his son Omar told AFP.

Omar learnt his father had died after trying to shield someone else from a bullet.

“I got told by my best friend’s father… that he leaped on somebody else to save their life,” he told Stuff.co.nz. “He jumped in the firing line to save somebody else’s life and he has passed away.”

Another of Daoud’s sons, Yama, was on the way to the mosque — to make up with his father after a small falling out — when he bumped into a friend outside who told him “your father saved my life. Your father saved my life”, according to Australian newspaper The Age.

It wasn’t until Yama rewatched the gunman’s video of the rampage — which he streamed on Facebook Live — and saw his father lying dead on his back that he realised his father did not escape.

“I never thought it would happen in New Zealand. It’s a peaceful country,” Yama Nabi told AFP, tears welling up in his eyes.

There were reports on social media that Daoud Nabi had opened the door to the terrorist, greeting him with the words “hello brother”.

The 14-year-old ‘brave little soldier’

Sayyad Milne, 14, died at the Al Noor mosque which he attended with his mother and friends every Friday, the New Zealand Herald reported.

His father John Milne said his death hadn’t been officially confirmed but he’d been told the teenager had been seen lying on the floor of the mosque, bleeding.

“I’ve lost my little boy, he’s just turned 14,” he told the paper, adding that his son had been a keen footballer.

“A brave little soldier. It’s so hard… to see him just gunned down by someone who didn’t care about anyone or anything.”

The three-year-old still missing

The last time Mucad Ibrahim, aged three, was seen alive was at the Al Noor mosque with his brother and father.

His brother Abdi managed to flee the carnage while his father pretended he was dead after he was shot and managed to escape, The Age said.

Mucad has not been seen since the shooting.

Abdi said his family — who had been to Christchurch Hospital and looked through the list of people there — thought his brother had most likely died at the mosque.

The father and daughter in hospital

Jordanian barber Wasseim Alsati and his daughter Alin, four, are both in hospital with serious injuries after being shot at the Al Noor mosque.

In a video filmed from his hospital bed Alsati asked people to “please pray for me and my daughter”, who has been flown to Auckland for treatment.

A friend of Wasseim’s, Carolyne Phillips, who was at the hospital with him, said he had undergone surgery for a perforated bowel, an injury to his pelvis and to get shrapnel and bone out of his hip socket.

Alsati reportedly moved to New Zealand from Jordan in 2014.

Milan prosecutor Francesco Greco said an investigation had been opened following the death on March 1 of Moroccan-born Imane Fadil at one of the city’s hospitals.

The 33-year-old had been brought to the hospital on January 29 with unexplained stomach pains.

Fadil was one of the witnesses who testified at the trial of the former Italian premier and media mogul on charges of having sex with an underage prostitute at one of his notoriously hedonistic bunga-bunga parties.

According to Italy’s Corriere della Sera daily, the hospital had run a battery of tests to determine the cause of her failing health, but finding nothing, had sent off samples to a specialised laboratory in the northern town of Pavia.

The results came back on March 6, five days after her death, suggesting the presence of “a mixture of radioactive substances which are not normally available for purchase”, the paper said, citing unnamed sources.

Fadil’s lawyer, Paolo Sevesi, said she had spoken to him about “her fear of having been poisoned,” the AGI news agency reported.

The former model first hit the headlines in 2012 when she gave detailed testimony about the goings on at Berlusconi’s orgiastic parties at his villa in Arcore near Milan.

She testified that the first time she went to a party, she saw two young women in nun costumes stripping in front of the then prime minister. Later, she said he himself handed her 2,000 euros ($2,600) in cash, telling her: “Don’t be offended.”

Berlusconi has faced a string of charges over the so-called Rubygate scandal linked to his parties and the underaged prostitute Karima El-Mahroug, also known as “Ruby the heart-stealer”.

Now 82, the billionaire businessman is currently on trial for paying a witness to give false testimony about his parties.

Berlusconi is already being investigated or prosecuted for witness tampering in Milan, Sienna, Rome and Turin, each time for allegedly paying people to keep quiet about his bunga-bunga parties.