AFP, Ramallah
The Palestinian Authority has recalled its envoys to Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria after their ambassadors attended an Israeli reception marking the US embassy’s move to Jerusalem, it said Wednesday.
The statement from the PA’s foreign ministry said the EU nations’ ambassadors had attended the reception on Sunday, a day before the US opened its Israel embassy in Jerusalem.The embassy move and Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has deeply angered Palestinians, who see the Israeli-annexed eastern sector of the city as the capital of their future state.
New confirmation of chlorine use
in Syria
AFP, The Hague
Global arms experts Wednesday confirmed chlorine was used in a Syrian town in February leaving residents fighting for breath, as the world awaits the results of a probe into last month’s alleged poison gas attack on Douma.
A fact-finding mission by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons determined that “chlorine was released from cylinders by mechanical impact in the Al Talil neighbourhood of Saraqeb” on February 4, an OPCW statement said.
US sanctions Hezbollah leaders Nasrallah, Qassem
Reuters, Washington
The United States and Gulf partners imposed additional sanctions on Lebanon’s Hezbollah leadership on Wednesday, targeting its top two officials, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Naim Qassem. The U.S. Treasury Department said four other individuals were also sanctioned, as was the group ISIS in the Greater Sahara, which was designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
Zuckerberg to appear at EU Parliament
Reuters, Brussels
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will appear before members of the European Parliament to answer questions about the improper use of data of 87 million Facebook users by a political consultancy, the speaker of the legislature said on Wednesday. “The founder and CEO of Facebook has accepted our invitation and will be in Brussels as soon as possible, hopefully already next week,” Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament, said in a statement.
Ebola spreading in Congo
AP, Kinshasa
Congo’s health minister says Ebola has spread to a city, the capital of Equateur province, a worrying shift in the new outbreak in the northwest. Health Minister Oly Ilunga late Wednesday said two suspected cases of hemorrhagic fever were reported in the Wangata health zones, which includes Mbandaka city, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Bikoro, the rural area where the outbreak began.
