Monday, May 29th
Last update05:20:13 AM GMT
International Glance
Almost three years of pre-trial detention and uncertainty came to an abrupt end for Aya Hijazi and her codefendants on Sunday morning, with one word: “acquittal”.
The US citizen and her six codefendants had waited 1.079 days in detention to learn their fate, accused of child sex trafficking in a case whose outcome appeared heavily influenced by Egypt’s newfound warm relations with the US.
North Korea has failed to launch a missile on its east coast, South Korean and US military officials say, a day after Pyongyang warned the US amid rising tension in the region.
The US said a ballistic missile exploded within seconds of the launch.
Hours earlier, North Korea paraded what appeared to be long-range ballistic missiles at a major military display. It has already conducted five nuclear tests and a series of missile launches in contravention of UN resolutions.
North Korea showed off a series of new and technologically advanced missiles and launchers during a military parade on Saturday.
North Korea displayed its submarine-launched ballistic missile and the land-based version it launched last month as well as two new intercontinental ballistic missile-sized canisters as the military paraded down Kim Il Sung Square, analysts said.
No nuclear test or ballistic missile launch was conducted during the celebration of the 105th birthday of Kim Il Sung, the country's former supreme leader who died in 1994. He was the grandfather of the current leader, Kim Jong Un.
A large blast has killed dozens of people in an attack near buses carrying Syrians evacuated from two besieged government-held towns.
The blast on Saturday in Rashidin, west of Aleppo, targeted residents who were evacuated from the rebel-besieged towns of Fouaa and Kefraya in Idlib province under a deal reached between the Syrian government and rebels.
A Palestinian man fatally stabbed a young British woman visiting Jerusalem, police said, as the city was packed with tourists, many of whom were celebrating Passover and Good Friday.
The Syrian regime and rebel groups have begun busing thousands of people out of four besieged towns as part of an evacuation agreement between warring sides.
More than 30,000 people are expected to be moved in the efforts that began Thursday. In the first phase of the deal, about 8,000 people under siege in the government-held northwestern towns of Foah and Kefraya will be bused out, while about 3,400 people living in two rebel-held towns near Damascus, Madaya and Zabadani, will also be given safe passage.
Syrian President Bashar Assad said an alleged chemical weapons attack that killed at least 86 people last week was a "fabrication" to justify a U.S. military strike.
Assad said his army “gave up” all chemical weapons and that the attack was “100% fabrication” in an interview Wednesday with Agence France-Presse. However, the U.S. military said it intercepted communications between Syrian military officers and chemical experts discussing preparations for the attack, CNN reported Thursday.
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