AP, Harare
Zimbabwean senior opposition official Tendai Biti was arrested while trying to cross into Zambia, a lawyer said Wednesday, as concerns rose over a government crackdown after last week’s disputed presidential election.
The arrest, after scenes of the military opening fire in the streets of the capital and growing opposition claims of harassment, further challenges the Zimbabwe president’s assertions of a “flowering” of democracy in the months after longtime leader Robert Mugabe stepped down under military pressure.
Georgia marks 10th anniv of Russia war
AFP, Tbilisi
Georgia on Wednesday marked the tenth anniversary of its war with Russia which has left the country dismembered with its separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia remaining under Moscow’s control.
Georgia’s five-cross red-and-white national flags were flying at half-mast outside government buildings as the tiny Black Sea nation mourned the victims of the bloody war.
Iran impeaches Labour Minister
AFP, Tehran
Iran’s Labour Minister Ali Rabiei was impeached on Wednesday after months of mounting anger over the government’s handling of an economic crisis which has deepened with the return of US sanctions.
Rabiei lost a confidence motion in parliament by 129 votes to 111, giving President Hassan Rouhani three months to replace him.
Lankan Buddhist monk sentenced to 6 years
AP, Colombo
A Sri Lankan court on Wednesday sentenced a hard-line Buddhist monk to six years in prison for contempt of court.
Galagoda Atte Gnanasara was found guilty of interrupting a court hearing in 2016 for military personnel accused of involvement in the disappearance of journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda. The monk is the leader of a Buddhist group accused of instigating attacks on minority Muslims. The group has denied the allegation.
9 die due to heatwave in Spain
AFP, Madrid
Spain’s death toll from a particularly virulent heatwave rose to nine in just one week, authorities said Tuesday, as the country suffers sky-high temperatures.
A 66-year-old man who died on Thursday in the southwestern region of Extremadura near Portugal was found to have died of heat stroke, a spokesman for the regional health department told AFP.
North Korea frees
S Korean detainee
AFP, Seoul
Pyongyang on Tuesday released a South Korean detainee “arrested for entering the North illegally” last month, Seoul’s unification ministry said, as ties improve between the two countries following a summit between their leaders in April.
“Our side received a South Korean national surnamed Seo, born in 1984, through Panmunjom from the North at 11:00 am (0200 GMT)” on Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement, referring to the truce village in the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two countries.
