Venezuela crisis: Deadly clashes as millions join strike
Millions of Venezuelans have joined a general strike called by the opposition as pressure mounts on President Nicolás Maduro to cancel elections for a new constituent assembly.
Clashes between police and protesters killed at least three people. More than 300 others were reportedly arrested.
Mr Maduro said the strike was minimal and that its leaders would be arrested.
Since April, when opposition protests intensified, almost 100 people have died across the country.
Protesters barricaded roads in the capital, Caracas, and other cities with rubbish and furniture. The opposition said that 85% of the country joined the strike.
The long-running family rivalries behind the Qatar crisis
Diplomats in Middle East say issues cannot easily be resolved partly because they are personal as well as political
It is a row that is roiling the Middle East, pitting the wealthiest and most influential Arab sheikhdoms against each other, and sparking weeks of shuttle diplomacy. However, behind the Saudi Arabia-led blockade of Qatar’s air, land and sea ports lies a long-running family feud.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic ties last month with the uber-rich Gulf state of Qatar, which shares the world’s largest reservoir of gas with Iran, Riyadh’s hated rival. The bloc accuses Qatar of supporting terrorism, a charge it denies.
The blockade attempts to cut Qatar off from the rest of the world: the land border has been sealed, Qatari overflights banned and shipping lanes closed. The Saudi-led coalition issued 13 demands to lift the blockade, which included shutting al-Jazeera, the TV voice of the Arab spring, and dropping support for the Muslim Brotherhood. Despite US intervention, little has been resolved.
Thousands protest in Poland after controversial Supreme Court bill passed
Tens of thousands of Poles have protested after lawmakers in the lower house passed a law handing control of the country's Supreme Court to politicians. The bill still has to pass the upper house.
Crowds of demonstrators took to the streets of the Polish capital, Warsaw, on Thursday evening after lawmakers in the lower house of parliament voted through a controversial reform of the Supreme Court proposed by the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS).
Organizers said some 50,000 people participated in protests outside the presidential palace, although police spoke of 14,000. The demonstrators called on President Andrzej Duda to veto the legislation, which gives the government more influence on the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court.
Turkey leaks secret locations of US, French troops in Syria
Turkey’s state news agency on Tuesday published the locations of secret US military bases in Syria as well as details on the numbers of US and French troops stationed there, sparking the ire of fellow NATO member states.
In the latest display of tensions between Turkey and other NATO member nations, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency earlier this week published a detailed report of the secret locations of US military bases, operational posts and military posts inside Syria. The 620-word news report also included the numbers of US soldiers and French special forces stationed at these locations.
The unprecedented leaking of sensitive battlefield information by the state-run news agency obviously had official Turkish backing, according to Jasper Mortimer, FRANCE 24’s Turkey correspondent.
CAMEROONIAN TROOPS TORTURED AND KILLED PRISONERS AT BASE USED FOR U.S. DRONE SURVEILLANCE
TROOPS IN THE West African nation of Cameroon have tortured prisoners at a remote military base that is also used by U.S. personnel and private contractors for drone surveillance and training missions.
As the U.S. military has fortified the Cameroonian site, known as Salak, and supported the elite local troops based there, the outpost has become the scene of illegal imprisonment, brutal torture, and even killings, according to a new investigation by The Intercept and the Goldsmiths, University of London-based research firm Forensic Architecture, based on extensive research by Amnesty International. Nearly 60 victims held at Salak described to Amnesty International how they were subjected to water torture, beaten with electric cables and boards, or tied and suspended with ropes, among other abuses.
Olympic stadium worker's suicide was 'death by overwork,' say parents
Today 03:56 pm JSTBy Elaine Lies
The parents of a worker on Japan's Olympic stadium who committed suicide have petitioned the government to recognise it as "death by overwork", an official said, with media saying he worked 200 hours of overtime a month before his death.
Construction work on Tokyo's new National Stadium, the centerpiece of the 2020 Summer Olympics, began in December 2016 after a delay of nearly a year over the rejection of the original design in a cost-cutting move.
It is set to be completed in November 2019.
"We can confirm that the parents of a 23-year-old man who committed suicide have applied for workers' accident compensation," said an official of a Tokyo branch of the Labor Standards Inspection office, declining to give details because of privacy concerns.
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