grab

Public prosecutor vows to appeal the verdict saying the government wants the maximum penalty.

Ousted Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to 21 years in prison in separate corruption cases related to allocations of land in a government project, dealing another legal blow to the country’s former exiled leader.

In a decision issued on Thursday, a court found Hasina guilty of illegally securing plots of land in a suburb of capital Dhaka for herself and her family despite their ineligibility.

Last week, Hasina was sentenced to death by hanging, after she was found guilty for crimes against humanity for ordering a deadly crackdown against a student-led uprising last year that eventually ousted her.

Hasina fled Bangladesh by helicopter on August 5, 2024, after weeks of student-led protests against her autocratic rule.

The 78-year-old former leader is currently residing in India and has defied court orders that she return to Bangladesh. New Delhi is said to be studying Dhaka’s extradition request.

Shaina Begum, the mother of a 20-year old student Sajjat Hosen Sojal, who was shot and his body burned by the police hours before the student-led uprising forced Hasina to resign and flee the country, told Al Jazeera after the verdict, “I cannot be calm until she [Hasina] is brought back and hanged in this country,”

Hundreds of families who lost loved ones in the protests wonder if the deposed prime minister will actually face justice.

The three corruption cases were brought against her by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) over land grabs of lucrative plots in the Purbachal New Town project .

Hasina’s conduct “demonstrates a persistent corruption mindset rooted in entitlement, unchecked power, and a greedy eye for public property”, ruled judge Abdullah Al Mamun.

“Treating public land as a private asset, she directed her greedy eye toward state resources and manipulated official procedures to benefit herself and her close relatives.”

Each sentence was seven years in prison, and Mamun ruled that Hasina would need to serve them consecutively.

Her son Sajeeb Wazed and daughter Saima Wazed were each sentenced to five years in prison in one of the three cases.

Other details of the verdict were not available immediately.

Public prosecutor Khan Moinul Hasan said he would appeal, telling AFP news agency that he was “not satisfied” with the verdict and wanted the maximum sentence.

Hasina and her former ruling Awami League party have denounced the trials against her.

She did not appoint a defence lawyer, and some global human rights groups have questioned the credibility and fairness of the trial process against Hasina.

Other cases also involving alleged land grabbing are still pending, and a separate verdict is expected December 1.

Bangladesh has been going through a difficult political transition under an interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, and new elections are planned in February 2026.

The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina tried to cling to power.

On the drive up to the Rose Bowl’s front door, underneath the legendary glowing sign, toward the picturesque purple mountains, there stands the most impactful symbol of the school that plays there.

It is a statue of Jackie Robinson in a UCLA football uniform.

He is cradling the ball in his left hand and warding off impending tacklers with his right, a striking bronze symbol of a university’s resilience and strength. The most formidable figure in American sports history is standing where he grew up, where his team lives and where he forever will embody the epitome of the gutty Bruin.

Nobody represents the mission of UCLA more than Jackie Robinson.

UCLA fans cheer during the game against Penn State at the Rose Bowl on Oct. 4.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Nothing is more disgusting than the thought of UCLA leaving him in the dust.

The Bruins are trying to flee the Rose Bowl, did you hear? They’re trying to break a long-term lease and leave Pasadena on the next thing smokin’. Oh yeah, they’re all but gone, it’s all there in lawsuits and court filings and mounds of legal stuff that mask the real message.

UCLA values a quick buck over enduring integrity, fast cash over deep tradition and dollars over die-hards.

The Bruins want to leave the most storied stadium in America, a place where they have played for 43 years, a living monument to Bruins icons, a tailgating paradise with a postcard backdrop … for the shiny toy that is SoFi Stadium, an amazing professional football palace that has no business being the permanent home of a college football team.

This is no knock on SoFi. It’s Super Bowl cool. But it’s an NFL stadium with NFL vibes. It doesn’t work for a struggling university program that would be a third tenant viewed as a last resort.

The Bruins don’t want to move there for tradition. When it comes to college football, SoFi has none. UCLA played there once in a bowl game that drew what appeared to be a handful of fans, the quaint gathering dwarfed by the space-age surroundings.

They don’t want to go there for the increased convenience. There is none. You can’t sell me that 14 fewer miles going south on the 405 on a Saturday afternoon would be noticeably quicker than a longer trek going east on the 134. Especially if there also are events happening at the SoFi-adjacent Forum and Intuit Dome.

They don’t want to go for the game-day experience. There is none. They would be sacrificing lush Brookside tailgating for scarce parking lot tailgating, robbing UCLA fans of their one guaranteed victory every game.

Yes, SoFi has much better seats and bathrooms and amenities but, no, the Bruins want to go for one reason only, and we’ve known what that is from the moment they admitted their athletic department was in financial ruin.

UCLA offensive coordinator Jerry Neuheisel walks back to the sidelines after a timeout during a game against Nebraska at the Rose Bowl on Nov. 8.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

This is all about the money. UCLA long ago agreed to a lousy deal with the Rose Bowl from the outset — the school apparently sign leases like it hires football coaches — and thus the Bruins don’t receive any cut of suite or sponsorship deals, and get just a fraction of merchandise and parking. Some estimate they can make a few multiples of their current revenue by moving to SoFi, and that’s certainly a legitimate motivation, but it’s also the easy way out.

You know how else they could make more money? Win more football games! Did anybody think of that?

Since Terry Donahue retired in 1995, the UCLA football program frequently has dumped a steaming pile of garbage on Pasadena’s prettiest doorstep, and the poor decisions by the athletic department finally are catching up to it.

They’ve had losing records in seven of the last 10 years. They’ve gone through five coaches and endured countless disappointments. Not surprisingly, increasingly fewer fans want to devote their Saturdays to cheering for a team that too often finds itself plopping into a Brookside bunker.

The Bruins’ five worst attendance figures have come in the last five seasons not interrupted by COVID-19. They’ve ranked around the bottom of Big Ten attendance, and the hole just keeps getting deeper.

They’re averaging 37,099 this season entering the Saturday night’s home finale against Washington, a pace which would set the record for the lowest UCLA season attendance at the Rose Bowl.

And all this is the Rose Bowl’s fault? Not since Roy “Wrong Way” Riegels has someone in the Arroyo Seco been so misguided.

The City of Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Operating Co. have lived up to their part of the lease, which still has 19 years remaining on it. Pasadena officials say taxpayers have invested more than $150 million in stadium renovations and they’re ready to write a check on an additional $130 million for improvements.

It shows. The Terry Donahue Pavilion is magnificent. The grounds are pristine. There are plans for a cool field club beyond the south end zone.

The Rose Bowl folks have done everything they agreed to do. That UCLA still is trying to walk out the front door smacks of an entitled, oafish spouse who demands their significant other improve themselves, then leaves anyway.

I’ve been covering UCLA games at the Rose Bowl for nearly 40 years, and I can confirm there’s no better place to watch college football in this country. It’s the Augusta National of football stadiums, a place where they should hold the national championship every year, with its breathtaking skyline and deep green surroundings and that crisp fall breeze that sneaks through the Arroyo Seco like an old friend reminding you of home.

UCLA tailback Derrick Williams celebrates with a cheerleader’s megaphone after defeating the USC 13-9 at the Rose Bowl on Dec. 2, 2006.

(Stephen Dunn / Getty Images)

No, it’s not on UCLA’s campus, but there’s no more room, that ship has sailed. And, no, UCLA doesn’t make an appropriate amount of money in the deal, but the school signed the lease, and those lost dollars can appear in other ways.

By playing at the Rose Bowl, the Bruins are paid in majestic beauty, timeless tradition and a sense of family that their alumni and fans can’t get anywhere else.

I was on the sidelines in the final seconds on that first Saturday in December 2006 for quite possibly UCLA’s greatest Rose Bowl moment. You remember. How could you forget?

The John David Booty drive, the Eric McNeal interception, the stunning 13-9 UCLA victory that denied USC a spot in the national championship game while giving the Bruins their only win over the Trojans in a 13-year span.

What stays with me from that afternoon is the deafening noise that seemed to fill every corner of Pasadena before morphing into arguably the loudest Eight Clap in Bruins history.

“U-C-L-A! Fight! Fight! Fight!”

The Rose Bowl was magical that day. Shame on UCLA for not believing it still can be.

The British street artist has created several versions of the iconic painting across London, as well as in Palestine.

A man has been sentenced to 13 months in prison by a British court for stealing a print of street artist Banksy’s iconic Girl with Balloon from a London gallery in September last year.

Larry Fraser, 49, was jailed on Friday by a judge in southwest London after he pleaded guilty to the smash-and-grab burglary of the elusive artist’s painting, valued at 270,000 pounds ($355,200).

Despite trying to conceal his identity with a mask, Fraser was caught on camera, and police tracked him down two days after the theft. The artwork was recovered shortly afterwards, according to London’s Metropolitan Police.

“This is a brazen and serious non-domestic burglary,” said Judge Anne Brown, passing the sentence at Kingston Crown Court.

The Girl with Balloon first appeared on the streets of London’s Shoreditch neighbourhood in 2002, with Banksy creating versions of the painting on London’s South Bank in 2004 and in the occupied West Bank in 2005.

One version of the painting shredded itself into pieces the moment after it was sold for more than one million British pounds ($1.3m) by London auction house Sotheby’s in 2018.

Detective Chief Inspector Scott Mather said: “Banksy’s ‘Girl with Balloon’ is known across the world – and we reacted immediately to not just bring Fraser to justice but also reunite the artwork with the gallery.”

Banksy’s paintings in Palestine

The secretive British street artist has returned to Palestine on multiple occasions to create artworks, including a version of the girl with the red balloon.

In 2005, he sprayed nine stencilled images at different locations along the illegal, eight-metre-high (26-foot) separation wall that Israel has constructed in the occupied West Bank.

They included a ladder reaching over the wall, a young girl being carried over it by balloons and a window on the grey concrete showing beautiful mountains in the background.

In 2007, he painted a number of artworks in Bethlehem, including a young girl frisking an Israeli soldier pinned up against a wall.

In February 2015, he allegedly sneaked into the Gaza Strip through a smuggling tunnel and painted three works on the walls of Gaza homes destroyed in Israeli air strikes during the previous year’s conflict.

In 2017, he opened the Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, just four metres from Israel’s separation wall.

Earlier this year, authorities attempted to scrub a Banksy painting on a London court wall that depicted a judge hitting a protester and was believed to refer to the country’s crackdown on the Palestine Action protest group.

Banksy rose to fame for sharply ironic outdoor graffiti with political themes. Once a small-time graffiti artist from the English city of Bristol, his artwork has become hugely popular worldwide and valuable.

Nov. 14 (UPI) — The Justice Department is suing California over its recently voter-approved congressional maps, alleging they are an unconstitutional “power grab.”

Earlier this month, Californians approved Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s redistricting initiative, introduced in direct response to Texas’ effort to create new congressional maps that favor Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

While Texas Republican lawmakers pursued an unprecedented mid-cycle redraw without voter approval, President Donald Trump and his allies have been critical of the California move. Democrats counter that they are trying to protect the state’s representation in Congress, accusing Trump — who pressured Texas to pursue the new maps — of undermining democratic norms.

Federal prosecutors on Thursday filed the lawsuit against Newsom over California’s redistricting plan, alleging that it racially gerrymandered congressional districts in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

“California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “Gov. Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand.”

According to the lawsuit, federal prosecutors accuse California’s Democratic leaders of manipulating congressional maps to bolster “the voting power of Hispanic Californians because of their race.”

“Our Constitution does not tolerate this racial gerrymander,” the 17-page court document states.

“No one, let alone California, contends that its pre-existing map unlawfully discriminated on the basis of Race. Because the Proposition 50 map does, the United States respectfully requests this court enjoin defendants from using it in the 2026 election and future elections.”

Texas’ GOP-controlled legislature in August passed its new maps that are projected to give Republicans as many as five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in next year’s midterm elections.

Democrats have criticized this move as Trump trying to create more red seats to keep control of the House, which the GOP now narrowly holds.

Texas has 38 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, 25 of which are filled by Republicans.

California, which has 52 House districts — 43 of them held by Democrats — responded with Proposition 50.

Republicans hold a 219-214 majority of the U.S. House of Representatives, with two seats vacant.

Several states — led by both Republicans and Democrats — have since announced efforts to redraw their maps, setting off a gerrymandering arms race ahead of 2026.

“These losers lost at the ballot box, and soon they will also lose in court,” Newsom’s office said in a statement in response to the Trump administration lawsuit.