PAKISTAN: Cops used water cannons and arrested dozens of activists in an overnight crackdown to stop protesters from entering the capital to denounce the forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in the militancy-ravaged south-west, the organisers said today.

About 200 protesters began their nearly 1,000-mile convoy around November 28, heading toward Islamabad from the town of Turbat. 

They planned to rally in the capital to draw attention to the death of Balaach Mola Bakhsh who died in police custody in Baluchistan province.

MYANMAR: Amnesty International today accused the Myanmar military of indiscriminate killings, detaining civilians, and using air-dropped cluster munitions in response to an insurgency in the north-east and west, and demanded an investigation into war crimes.

Among the examples cited In its report, the charity said it had documented a night-time air strike by the military on Namhkam township in Shan in early December, most likely using cluster munitions that are internationally banned. 

CYPRUS: Cyprus is the first European Union member country to repatriate more migrants whose asylum applications have been rejected than have arrived in a single year, the east Mediterranean island nation’s interior minister said today.

Constantinos Ioannou told the state broadcaster that more than 11,000 migrants have been repatriated so far this year, more than double the number from 2022. 

ALBANIA: Parliament voted on Thursday to lift the legal immunity of former prime minister Sali Berisha, who leads the opposition Democratic Party and is accused of corruption.

Opposition lawmakers inside the hall boycotted the vote and tried to disrupt the session by collecting chairs and flares, but security guards stopped them.