Most of West Africa ready to join standby force in Niger: ECOWAS
ECOWAS commissioner says all member states will join the force except those under military rule and Cape Verde.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has said most of its member states are ready to participate in a standby force that could intervene in Niger following a coup there late last month.
Defence chiefs from the 15-member regional bloc met in Accra on Thursday as part of the latest efforts to overturn the removal of Mohamed Bazoum, Niger’s president who was deposed in a July 26 coup.
All member states except those under military rule and Cape Verde are ready to participate in the standby force, ECOWAS commissioner Abdel-Fatau Musah said on Thursday.
Sweden raises terrorist threat level after Qur’an burnings
Threat raised to second-highest level as prime minister says country has thwarted planned attacks
Sweden has raised its terrorist threat level to the second-highest number possible, as the prime minister warned the country had thwarted planned attacks.
The move comes amid heightened security fears following a string of Qur’an burnings that have caused outrage around the world.
Raising the threat level from three, meaning “heightened threat”, to four, “high threat”, on the five-point scale, the Swedish security service (Säpo) said that in recent months Sweden had shifted from a “legitimate” to a “prioritised” target for acts of terror.
It is the first time since 2016 that the country has changed its threat level to four.
Pakistan troops quell riots amid claims of Quran desecration
Pakistan has deployed paramilitary troops to restore order in Jaranwala, in eastern Punjab, after a rampaging mob set alight several churches and ransacked homes over claims that two men desecrated the Quran.
Troops cordoned off the predominantly Christian area blocking all entry and exit points with barbed wire.
More than 120 people suspected of being involved in the rioting had been arrested and the situation was under control, Rizwan Khan, the regional police chief, said.
Schools and offices have been closed, and local authorities have banned rallies for a week.
Russia opens criminal probe into leader of independent election watchdog
The Russian authorities have opened a criminal investigation into one of the leaders of a prominent independent election monitoring group, his lawyer said Thursday.
The case against Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Russia‘s leading election watchdog Golos, is the latest step in the months-long crackdown on Kremlin critics and rights activists that the government ratcheted up after sending troops into Ukraine.
Melkonyants’ lawyer Mikhail Biryukov told The Associated Press that his client is facing charges of “organizing activities” of an “undesirable” group, a criminal offense punishable by up to six years in prison.
Golos has not been labeled “undesirable” — a label that under a 2015 law makes involvement with such organizations a criminal offense. But it was once a member of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, a group that was declared “undesirable” in Russia in 2021.
Purported names, photos and addresses of Fulton County grand jurors circulate on far-right internet
Names, photographs, social media profiles and even the home addresses purportedly belonging to members of the Fulton County grand jury that this week voted to indict former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants are circulating on social media – with experts saying that some anonymous users are calling for violence against them.
CNN cannot independently verify if the photographs, social media accounts and the homes addresses being posted actually belong to the grand jurors.
However, the names being circulated on these sites appear to match the names of at least 13 of the 26 grand jurors that served on the panel in Fulton County. It’s unclear if those names are the actual grand jurors or just people with the same name. Some addresses appear to be wrong.
Canada wildfire: Race to evacuate city as blaze approaches
One of the largest cities in Canada’s far north is being evacuated amid warnings that a wildfire could reach it by the weekend.
The 20,000 residents of Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, have been given until noon Friday (18:00 GMT) to leave.
As of late Wednesday, the fire was within 16km (10 miles) of the city.
Another fire is threatening the community of Hay River.
One evacuee told the CBC her car began melting as she and her family drove through embers while fleeing the town.
The Northwest Territories declared a state of emergency late on Tuesday as it battles nearly 240 wildfires.
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