World news in brief
Venezuelan opposition leader tear-gassed
Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles was tear-gassed during a protest in the capital yesterday. The former presidential candidate was gassed by soldiers who were trying to control an opposition protest that blocked a highway. His bodyguards helped him get out of the scrum of protesters. Mr Capriles says soldiers assaulted members of his team as they tried to move away from the crowd. The demonstrators had been trying to make their way to a government office in the centre of Caracas, but were blocked by hundreds of soldiers in riot gear and armoured cars. Such scenes have played out again and again during two months of near-daily protests by opponents of Venezuela’s socialist government.
New Ecuadorian President says Assange can stay at embassy in London
Ecuador’s new leftist President has called Julian Assange a “hacker”, making his strongest comments to date against the WikiLeaks founder while still stressing he could stay on in the country’s London embassy.
Lenin Moreno, who was sworn in earlier this month, has broken with his predecessor and mentor Rafael Correa, who had said Mr Assange was a “journalist” and granted him asylum in London in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over rape allegations. Mr Assange, who denies the allegations, feared Sweden would hand him over to the United States to face prosecution over WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents in one of the largest information leaks in US history.
Haitian workers launch another protest over wages
Garment workers have taken to the streets of the Haitian capital for the second time in the last two weeks to demand a minimum-wage increase. The workers at factories making T-shirts, trousers and other apparel were also demonstrating yesterday against the sacking of roughly 40 union members at a Port-au-Prince industrial park. They’re demanding 800 Haitian gourdes (£9.90) per eight-hour working day. They currently earn 300 gourdes. Factories are operational at the park that employs some 18,000 people. Yesterday’s protest had nearly 500 participants, a far smaller turnout than a May 19 rally that attracted thousands.