Ramallah: Nearly all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails will go on hunger strike for one day today in solidarity with administrative detainees who have been on strike for nearly two weeks, an official said. Undersecretary of the Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs Ziad Abu Ein told (Ma’an) news agency that some 5,100 Palestinians in Israeli jails would be going on hunger strike the following day. Some 50 convicted prisoners will be starting an open hunger strike today in solidarity with administrative detainees, who are held without charge or trial. Over 800,000 Palestinians have been detained since 1967, with 5,224 currently being held in Israeli prisons, according to the PLO.
Killer of Frenchman shot dead in Yemen
SANA’A: Yemeni security forces yesterday shot dead the head of the “terror cell” behind the killing of a Frenchman here earlier this week, the country’s supreme security committee said. Wael Abdullah Masood Al Waeli, “who supervised the killing of the French citizen,” was killed in a clash with security forces in the capital, the committee said. Another member of the cell was also shot dead while a third was arrested, it said, according to Saba state news agency. The Frenchman was killed on Monday and another was wounded when gunmen opened fire at their car in the diplomatic district of Sana’a. Both worked for a private security firm that officials said was guarding the EU delegation in Yemen. Yemen’s top security body said police had traced Waeli and other gunmen on Tuesday to a house in Sana’a, but they refrained from storming the hideout “because there were women and children”.
Rowhani vetoes WhatsApp ban plan
TEHRAN: Iran’s President Hassan Rowhani has vetoed a plan to ban WhatsApp, following a row over censorship of the popular messaging application, media reports said yesterday. Access to social networks, including Twitter and Facebook, are routinely blocked by Iranian authorities, as are other websites considered un-Islamic or detrimental to the regime. The policy is contentious and the move to filter WhatsApp has caused a rupture between Rouhani’s administration and a 13-member committee responsible for Internet censorship. The reformist Sharq daily reported that Rouhani has ordered the WhatsApp ban, proposed shortly after Facebook bought the messaging service for $19bn in February, be stopped.
Agencies
