Reuters, Caracas
Venezuela’s opposition holds an unofficial referendum on Sunday to increase pressure on President Nicolas Maduro as he seeks to create a legislative superbody that his adversaries call the consolidation of a dictatorship.
The symbolic poll, which will also ask voters if they want early elections, is intended to further dent Maduro’s legitimacy amid a crippling economic crisis and three months of anti-government protests that have led to nearly 100 deaths.
Fire in eastern China kills 22
Reuters, Beijing
At least 22 people were killed when a house in China’s eastern Jiangsu province caught fire on Sunday, the official Xinhua news agency cited local authorities as saying.
The fire broke out before dawn at a two-storey residential house in Yushan town in Changshu city, Xinhua said.
Three were injured. The blaze has been put out, and investigation into the cause is under way, it said.
Israel to reopen Jerusalem holy site
AP, Jerusalem
Israel will gradually reopen a Jerusalem holy site Sunday after taking the rare step of shutting it down following a deadly assault there that sparked concerns of a fresh round of violence.
For the first time in decades, Israel closed the site – known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount – on Friday after an attack by three Arab citizens of Israel who opened fire from the sacred site with automatic weapons and killed two police officers before being shot dead inside the compound.
Palestinian shot dead in West Bank
AFP, Jerusalem
Israeli soldiers and police on an arrest mission in the town of Nabi Salah in the occupied West Bank shot dead a Palestinian who attempted to open fire at them early Sunday, the army said.
“The forces encountered the suspect, who attempted to open fire at them,” a statement from the Israeli army read. “In response to the immediate threat forces fired towards the attacker resulting in his death.”
Palestinian security forces identified the suspect as 34-year-old Amar Dagharah from Kafr Ein, a town near Nabi Salah in the central West Bank.
