QUICK READ

Israel

DOZENS of people were crushed to death in a crowd at a religious bonfire festival in Israel on Friday, medics said, in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a “heavy disaster”.

The crush occurred as tens of thousands of ultra-orthodox Jews thronged to the Galilee tomb of 2ndcentury sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai for annual Lag B’omer commemorations.

Witnesses said people were asphyxiated or trampled in a tightly packed passageway as crowds packed the Mount Meron slope in defiance of Covid-19 warnings. | Reuters

Libya

THE UN Security Council held its first meeting this week on the risk of mercenaries in Libya dispersing to other countries such as Chad. The session was requested by members Kenya, Niger and Tunisia.

According to diplomats, there are estimated to be “more than 20 000 foreign mercenaries” in Libya, whom Libyan authorities, UN officials and world powers have demanded leave.

However dispersal of the mercenaries -- who diplomats say include 13 000 Syrian and 11 000 Sudanese fighters -could represent a new risk for the region. | AFP

Portugal

HUGO Xavier became one of the first people to cross the world’s longest pedestrian suspension bridge when it opened on Thursday near his tiny hometown of Arouca in northern Portugal.

“Oh... here we go!,” the 42-year-old said anxiously as he gathered enough courage to step onto the see-through metal grid pathway of the 516m-long bridge alongside his equally jittery partner and a tour guide.

Hidden between rock-strewn mountains covered with lush greenery and yellow flowers inside the Unescorecognised Arouca Geopark, the bridge hangs 175m above the fast-flowing River Paiva.

Russia

RUSSIA’S financial monitoring agency said on Friday it had added jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s network of regional campaign offices to a list of organisations involved in “terrorism and extremism”.

Also on Friday, Russian security forces also detained Ivan Pavlov, a lawyer who is defending Navalny’s Anti-corruption Foundation (FBK) in an “extremism” case.

“Ivan Pavlov has been detained, searches are under way. The FSB (Federal Security Service) is working,” Evgeny Smirnov, a lawyer from Pavlov’s team, said on Facebook. | Reuters