International News Release

The UN Security Council has condemned the killing of veteran Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Aqla and called for an immediate probe into her death. The move followed outcry on Friday after Israeli police hit mourners at Abu Aqla's funeral. Police said they acted after being pelted with stones. Abu Aqla, 51, was shot dead while covering an Israeli military raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday. Her death has caused a surge of anger. In a statement released on Friday, the Security Council said its members called for "an immediate, thorough, transparent, and fair and impartial investigation into the killing, and stressed the need to ensure accountability." Though the statement showed a rare case of Security Council unity on an issue related to Israel, reports quoting diplomatic sources said there were difficult negotiations over the text's contents. China succeeded in pushing the US to get rid of paragraphs denouncing abuses committed against the media gl...

A high-profile Paraguayan prosecutor  https://www.youonline.online/?link1=timeline&u=u_1652269345_98637 who fought against organised crime in his home country has been shot dead during his honeymoon in Colombia. Marcelo Pecci was on a beach on the idyllic tourist island of Baru when he was killed by two gunmen.  https://www.geeb.xyz/selfpraag Hours before the shooting, Mr Pecci's wife had announced on Instagram that she was pregnant. Paraguayan President  https://bumppy.com/tm/read-blog/52745_deep-relaxing-sleep-music-relaxing-music-sleep-youtube-relaxing-and-music-sleep.html Mario Abdo Benitez described the shooting as a "cowardly murder". Mr Pecci's wife, journalist Claudia Aguilera, said that they were approached by two men on a private beach before her  https://respeak.net/read-blog/38043_deep-relaxing-sleep-music-relaxing-music-sleep-youtube-relaxing-and-music-sleep.html husband was shot. She said he had not received any threats. "Two men attacked Ma...

A curfew is in force across  https://hemoroclear-krema-cijena.jimdosite.com/ Sri Lanka after mobs burned down homes belonging to the ruling Rajapaksa family amid mounting anger at the economic crisis. The overnight violence capped a day of unrest that saw PM Mahinda Rajapaksa quit, but this failed to bring calm.  https://hemoroclearkrema.blogspot.com/2022/05/hemoroclear-krema-cijena_9.html Crowds besieged his  https://bumppy.com/tm/read-blog/51608_hemoroclear-krema-cijena-100-effective-product.html residence and he was evacuated in a pre-dawn operation amid tear gas and warning shots. Protests are continuing  https://wakelet.com/wake/YoC-7XqMVfflSgYh0nf2O despite the curfew. Seven people have died and 200 have been injured since Monday. The island-wide curfew  https://groups.google.com/g/hemoroclear-krema-cijena/c/QUdtZ1f6Vms has been extended to Wednesday morning as authorities seek to quell the violence. The streets of the capital are empty  https://s...

Russia is already under unprecedented sanctions and now the EU could target Alina Kabaeva, a politician, media boss, former Olympic gymnast, and - if the rumours are true - Vladimir Putin's girlfriend and mother to some of his children. The sanctions imposed by the EU and others are designed to punish those closest to Mr Putin - the oligarchs, politicians and other officials said to have benefited from their proximity to the president. Last month, the US and UK imposed sanctions on his daughters Maria Vorontsova, 36, and Katerina Tikhonova, 35. They are his children with ex-wife Lyudmila. Until now, Ms Kabaeva has escaped, despite her reported status. She might have felt something was coming: an online petition in March demanded her expulsion from her residence in Switzerland. Sources have confirmed to the BBC that she is on the latest list of individuals to be sanctioned by the EU. According to AFP, she will be targeted for her part in disseminating Kremlin propaganda and for bein...

Israel's foreign minister has denounced as "unforgivable" remarks by his Russian counterpart that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler "had Jewish blood". Russian FM Sergei Lavrov made the comments to try to justify Russia's portrayal of Ukraine as "Nazi" despite the fact that its president is Jewish. Israel's foreign ministry summoned Russia's ambassador for "clarification" and demanded an apology. Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews in the Holocaust in World War Two. Mr Lavrov made the remarks in an interview on Italian TV programme Zona Bianca on Sunday, days after Israel marked Holocaust Remembrance Day, one of the most solemn occasions in the Israeli calendar. When asked how Russia can claim that it is fighting to "de-Nazify" Ukraine when President Volodymyr Zelensky is himself Jewish, Mr Lavrov said: "So what if Zelensky is Jewish." "The fact does not negate the Nazi elements in Ukraine. I believe that Hitler...

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has said he hopes Russian losses in Ukraine will deter its leadership from repeating its actions. He added that Ukraine can still win the war if given the right support and praised the efforts of its military. "We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can't do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine," the US military chief said. Mr Austin was speaking after meeting President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. Accompanied by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the visit marked the highest level trip to Ukraine by US officials since the invasion began over two months ago. The meeting between the US and Ukrainian parties, which ran for over three hours, comes as Russia escalates its military campaign in the south and east of the country. At a news conference in Poland after the visit, Mr Austin told reporters that US officials still believe Ukraine can win the conflict "if they have the right equipment" and ...

One of the last Ukrainian defenders in Mariupol has told the BBC that the besieged steelworks where they are holed up is largely destroyed above ground and civilians are trapped under collapsed buildings. Speaking from the Azovstal plant - the last part of Mariupol not under Russian control - Svyatoslav Palamar from the controversial Azov regiment said defenders had repelled waves of Russian attacks. "I always say that as long as we are here, Mariupol remains under control of Ukraine," he said. Earlier President Vladimir Putin called off a planned Russian assault on the steelworks - a maze of tunnels and workshops - and ordered his troops to seal it off instead. "Block off this industrial area so that a fly cannot pass through," he said. Much of Mariupol has been destroyed in weeks of heavy Russian bombardment and intense street fighting. Taking the Sea of Azov port is a key Russian war aim and would release more troops to join a Russian offensive in the eastern Don...