At least 14 civilians killed in Ecuador attacks: Police
'We have approximately 12 people dead and three wounded,' Major Oscar Valencia, police chief of the southwestern town of El Empalme, told reporters, adding the attackers fired at another group near the site of the initial massacre, killing two more people.
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Arab News
7 hours ago
- Arab News
A settler accused of killing a Palestinian activist is to be freed, as Israel still holds the body
TEL AVIV: An Israeli settler accused of killing a prominent Palestinian activist during a confrontation captured on video in the occupied West Bank will be released from house arrest, an Israeli court ruled Friday. The video shot by a Palestinian witness shows Yinon Levi brandishing a pistol and tussling with a group of unarmed Palestinians. He can be seen firing two shots, but the video does not show where the bullets hit. Witnesses said one of the shots killed Awdah Hathaleen, an English teacher and father of three, who was uninvolved and was standing nearby. The Israeli military is still holding Hathaleen's body and says it will only be returned if the family agrees to bury him in a nearby city. It said the measure was being taken to 'prevent public disorder.' The confrontation occurred on Monday in the village of Umm Al-Khair, in an area of the West Bank featured in 'No Other Land,' an Oscar-winning documentary about settler violence and life under Israeli military rule. In a court decision obtained by The Associated Press, Judge Havi Toker wrote that there was 'no dispute' that Levi shot his gun in the village that day, but she said he may have been acting in self-defense and that the court could not establish that the shots killed Hathaleen. Israel's military and police did not respond to a request for comment on whether anyone else may have fired shots that day. Multiple calls placed to Levi and his lawyer have not been answered. The judge said Levi did not pose such a danger as to justify his continued house arrest but barred him from contact with the villagers for a month. Levi has been sanctioned by the United States and other Western countries over allegations of past violence toward Palestinians. President Donald Trump lifted the US sanctions on Levi and other radical settlers shortly after returning to office. A total of 18 Palestinians from the village were arrested after the incident. Six remain in detention. Eitay Mack, an Israeli lawyer who has lobbied for sanctions against radical settlers, including Levi, said the court ruling did not come as a surprise. 'Automatically, Palestinian victims are considered suspects, while Jewish suspects are considered victims,' he said. Levi helped establish an settler outpost near Umm Al-Khair that anti-settlement activists say is a bastion for violent settlers who have displaced hundreds since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Palestinians and rights groups have long accused Israeli authorities of turning a blind eye to settler violence, which has surged since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, along with attacks by Palestinians. In a 2024 interview, Levi said he was protecting his own land and denied using violence. Some 70 women in Umm Al-Khair said they were beginning a hunger strike on Friday to call for Hathaleen's body to be returned and for the right of his family to bury him in the village. Israel's military said in a statement to the AP that it would return the body if the family agrees to bury him in the 'nearest authorized cemetery.' Hathaleen, 31, had written and spoke out against settler violence, and had helped produce the Oscar-winning film. Supporters have erected murals in his honor in Rome, held vigils in New York and have held signs bearing his name at anti-war protests in Tel Aviv.
Arab News
7 hours ago
- Arab News
Colombia ex-president sentenced to 12 years of house arrest, document shows
BOGOTA: Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe will be sentenced on Friday to 12 years of house arrest for abuse of process and bribery of a public official, according to a document seen by Reuters and a source with knowledge of the matter. Uribe was convicted of the two charges on Monday by Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia in a witness-tampering case that has run for about 13 years. He has always maintained his innocence. The information, also published by local media, came hours ahead of the hearing where Heredia will read the sentence in court. Uribe will be fined $578,000 in the case, the document showed. The conviction made him the country's first ex-president to ever be found guilty at trial and came less than a year before Colombia's 2026 presidential election, in which several of Uribe's allies and proteges are competing for top office. It could also have implications for Colombia's relationship with the US: Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week Uribe's conviction is a 'weaponization of Colombia's judicial branch by radical judges' and analysts have said there could be cuts to US aid in response. Uribe, 73, and his supporters have always said the process is a persecution, while his detractors have celebrated it as deserved comeuppance for a man who has been accused for decades of close ties with violent right-wing paramilitaries but never convicted of any crime until now.
Arab News
9 hours ago
- Arab News
Angola unrest death toll rises to 30
The police did not say what caused the deaths but civil society groups and opposition parties blamed the security forcesLourenco said 'law enforcement acted within the framework of their obligations and therefore the order was promptly restored'LUANDA: Angolan President Joao Lourenco praised security forces Friday for quelling unrest that claimed 30 lives over two days but rights groups accused them of killing 'defenseless people.'Dozens of shops and warehouses in Luanda were looted and vehicles attacked on Monday and Tuesday when a strike against a fuel price hike descended into some of the worst violence in the oil-rich country in unrest spread to several provinces and police said that by late Thursday they had confirmed 30 deaths, including of a police officer, with more than 270 people injured, among them 10 members of the defense and security police did not say what caused the deaths but civil society groups and opposition parties blamed the security forces, who are regularly accused of using excessive force against his first public comment on the situation, Lourenco said 'law enforcement acted within the framework of their obligations and therefore the order was promptly restored.''We send our thanks to the law enforcement, the justice authorities, the health professionals...,' he than 1,500 people were arrested, 118 businesses vandalized and 24 public buses attacked, according to police.'We strongly condemn such criminal acts, we regret the loss of human lives...,' the president said, announcing the government would help looted businesses to replenish their from the MPLA party in power since independence from Portugal in 1975, made no mention of the July 1 hike in heavily subsidised fuel prices that has led to a series of demonstrations in a country with a high level of poverty despite its vast oil state is 'doing its best' to address Angola's social problems, he said, citing investments in health, education, housing and job and civic groups also condemned the vandalism but accused security forces of using excessive looting reflects 'the hunger and extreme poverty affecting the majority of Angolans,' said the Human Rights Monitoring Working Group of various NGOs late 'legitimate expressions of the population's indignation should not be used as justification to kill defenseless people,' it platform urged Lourenco to order the security forces to 'refrain from killing defenseless people' and create an independent commission to investigate the killings as well as compensation for the families of the of some of the people killed in the unrest have circulated on social media, with the case of Silvia Mubiala, a mother of six children allegedly shot and killed by police while trying to protect her son in Luanda, causing particular outrage.
