Protests in Georgia: riots continue in Tbilisi
Police fired tear gas, water cannons and stun grenades at protesters in the Georgian capital Tbilisi late on Wednesday.
Police fired tear gas, water cannons and stun grenades at protesters in the Georgian capital Tbilisi late on Wednesday.
A firebrand Israeli minister claimed there’s “no such thing” as a Palestinian people as Israel's new coalition government, its most hard-line ever, plowed ahead on Monday with a part of its plan to overhaul the judiciary. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition said it was pushing a key part of the overhaul — which would give the coalition control over who becomes a justice or a judge — before the parliament takes a monthlong holiday break next week. The development came a day after an Israeli and Palestinian delegation at a meeting in Egypt, mediated by Egyptian, Jordanian and U.S. officials, pledged to take steps to lower tensions roiling the region ahead of a sensitive holiday season.
BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Gunmen stormed a Chinese-operated gold mining site that had recently been launched in Central African Republic, killing nine Chinese nationals and wounding two others Sunday, authorities said. However, the rebel coalition initially blamed by some for the attack put out a statement later in the day. Without providing evidence, it accused Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group of being behind the violence. The attack early Sunday came just days after gunm
Protests by Israel’s reserve forces took an unusual turn over the weekend as navy veterans donned wetsuits and tried to reach Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private seaside villa by rowing.
A commander in the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad was killed in Syria on Sunday in what it described as an assassination by Israeli agents. The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad group, said in a statement that Ali Ramzi al-Aswad, 31, was killed Sunday morning in the Damascus countryside in a “cowardly assassination with bullets bearing the fingerprints of the Zionist enemy,” referring to Israel. There was no immediate statement from Israel on Sunday’s alleged assassination.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority agreed on Sunday to establish a mechanism to curb violence during a meeting aimed at preventing already surging violence from escalating further when the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins later this week. In a statement issued at the end of a meeting in Egypt that was also attended by U.S., Egyptian and Jordanian officials, the parties also emphasized the necessity of both Israelis and Palestinians preventing any actions that would disrupt the sanctity of Holy Sites in Jerusalem during Ramadan.
The Israeli military said Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket toward southern Israel Saturday evening. The rocket fell and exploded in an open area, triggering warning sirens in the Nahal Oz community to the east of Gaza City. The Israeli military usually responds to such rocket fire with airstrikes in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, raising the possibility of further violence just ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
A group of Israelis describing themselves as reservists in elite military and intelligence units said they would not turn up for some duties from Sunday, escalating protests at the hard-right government's planned judicial overhaul. Members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, which wields a Knesset majority, say they want bills that would limit the authority of the Supreme Court to be written into law by April 2. The plan has stirred concern for Israel's democratic health at home and abroad.
A decorated veteran of the Australian Army’s secretive special forces has been charged with a war crime after footage emerged of an Afghan farmer being mauled by a dog then executed in a field.
An Israeli minister with responsibility for the administration of the occupied West Bank drew condemnation on Monday after he said there was no Palestinian history or culture and no such thing as a Palestinian people. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who triggered global outrage earlier this month when he called for a Palestinian town to be "erased", made the remarks on Sunday in a conference speech during a visit to France. "There is no such thing as a Palestinian people."
A Palestinian gunman opened fire on Sunday on an Israeli couple in their car, wounding the man, in a West Bank town where a similar shooting last month prompted Israeli settlers to go on a violent rampage. The incident occurred as Israeli and Palestinian officials held U.S.-backed talks in Egypt aimed at calming months of violence. It took place in Huwara, where last month a gunman from the Hamas Islamist militant group opened fire on a car killing two Israeli settlers, also coinciding with a day when Israeli and Palestinian officials held de-escalation talks.
Windows at India’s High Commission in London were smashed and two security guards were slightly injured during a demonstration by Sikh protesters, police said Monday. London’s Metropolitan Police force said a man was arrested on suspicion of violent disorder outside the diplomatic mission on Sunday afternoon. Footage posted on social media showed a man detach the Indian flag from a balcony of the building while a crowd of people below waving bright yellow “Khalistan” banners appeared to encourage him.
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarus has stepped up security along its border with Poland after security forces killed a foreigner in the region who allegedly was planning a terrorist attack, the Belarusian human rights group Viasna said Monday. The Belarusian KGB security agency said the alleged terrorist was killed in a shootout on Sunday in the city of Grodno, just east of the Polish border. It did not identify the suspect's nationality or give other details, but said its officers along with polic
OHRID, North Macedonia (AP) — The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo have tentatively agreed on how to implement a European Union-sponsored plan to normalize their relations after decades of tensions between the two Balkan wartime foes, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Saturday after chairing talks between them. Speaking at a news conference after nearly 12 hours of talks in the North Macedonian lakeside resort of Ohrid, Borrell told reporters that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Koso
Police in the Pakistani capital filed charges Sunday against former Prime Minister Imran Khan, 17 of his aides and scores of supporters, accusing them of terrorism and several other offenses after the ousted premier's followers clashed with security forces in Islamabad the previous day. For hours on Saturday, Khan's followers clashed with police outside a court where the former prime minister was to appear in a graft case. Riot police wielded batons and fired tear gas while Khan's supporters threw fire bombs and hurled rocks at the officers.
Pakistan: Police storm home of Imran Khan amid clashes with protesters outside
Thousands of troops have been deployed to protect roads and businesses in South Africa, while scores of people were arrested as a Marxist opposition party tried to bring the country to a halt.
Iraq and Iran signed a border security agreement on Sunday, a move Iraqi officials said aimed primarily at tightening the frontier with Iraq's Kurdish region, where Tehran says armed Kurdish dissidents pose a threat to its security. The joint security agreement includes coordination in "protecting the common borders between the two countries and consolidating cooperation in several security fields", a statement from the Iraqi prime minister's office said. Iran's Supreme National Security Council secretary Ali Shamkhani signed the deal with Iraq's National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji, in the presence of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, the prime minister office said.
President Joe Biden spoke Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express "concern” over his government’s planned overhaul of the country’s judicial system that has sparked widespread protests across Israel and to encourage compromise. The White House said Biden reiterated U.S. concerns about the measure to roll back the judiciary’s insulation from the country’s political system, in a call a senior administration official described as “candid and constructive.” There was no immediate indication that Netanyahu was shying away from the action, after rejecting a compromise last week offered by the country’s figurehead president.
Emmanuel Macron “regrets nothing” after short-circuiting parliament to ram through a deeply unpopular pension reform, say aides, as fresh protests on Saturday raised fears of a new “yellow vest” protest movement. Demonstrations took place in cities including Bordeaux in the southwest, Compiegne in the north, Nantes in the west and Saint-Etienne in central France.
A 20-year-old man stood in the center of a Russian park on Sunday, March 19, with a sign inviting people to hug him if they opposed the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.Nikita Gorbunov, an entrepreneur from Izhevsk, told Storyful that he stood in the city’s Kirov Park for a little more than an hour on Sunday with a poster opposing the conflict.“Hug [me] if you’re against the war,” the poster read, with a Ukrainian flag painted beneath the letters.Gorbunov said people who came up to him were happy and expressed their gratitude, but one couple “came up and started swearing.”They later denounced him to police, he said, and would now be witnesses to any case against him. Police can be seen approaching Gorbunov in the footage.“I don’t seem to be in trouble, but there is a fear,” he said. “I’ll pay a fine but [the authorities] can continue, and there are some worries about this.”He told Storyful it was “better to go to prison than go to war” in Ukraine.“I decided to do this because I’m tired of living in fear,” he said. Credit: Nikita Gorbunov/@gor.nik_ via Storyful