GREECE: A cruise ship carrying Israeli tourists left the island of Syros today without its passengers disembarking, after more than 150 protesters gathered at the port, unfurling Palestinian flags and calling for an end to the war in Gaza.

Carrying banners that read: “Stop the Genocide” and “No a/c in hell,” the protesters demonstrated on the dock near where the cruise ship, the Crown Iris, was docked, local media said. There were no reports of violence.

RUSSIA: Politicians approved legislation today to punish online searches for information deemed “extremist,” in the latest government crackdown on dissent.

The Bill passed by the lower house State Duma now goes to its all but certain endorsement by the upper house and then to President Vladimir Putin to be signed into law.

Under the legislation on “deliberately searching for and accessing extremist materials” online, first-time offenders face a fine of up to the equivalent of £47.

FRANCE: Interpol is to remove anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson from its most-wanted list, the international policing agency said today.

Mr Watson, 74, is sought by Japan over an encounter with a whaling ship in 2001 and was jailed for several months in Greenland last year.

He is a former head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, whose high seas confrontations with whaling vessels have drawn support from environmentalists worldwide.

TURKEY: Foreign Minister Hakan Fida warned Kurdish and other groups in Syria today against pursuing autonomy.

At news conference in Ankara, Mr Fidan criticised Israel’s recent intervention in Syria and urged factions not to exploit the unrest that unfolded in Syria’s south, calling on them to integrate while preserving their cultural and religious identity.

“If you go beyond that and use violence to divide and destabilise, we will perceive it as a direct threat to our national security and intervene,” he warned.