Tens of thousands of people have marched through the Belarusian capital Minsk, calling for a rerun of last week's disputed elections and for President Alexander Lukashenko to step down. Speaking to the BBC, the Belarusian ambassador to Slovakia Igor Leshchenya cast out on the election result. I'm sure that the results are unfair. It does not mean that the incumbent President does not have a more or less solid basis. But looking at this peoples in the street, walk along the streets, It's evident that the level of support at least less then a 50%. The official results gave the President 80% of the vote. Elsewhere in Prague and Warsaw, crowds gathered to show their support for the protesters in Belarus. The French President Emmanuel Macron said the European Union should continue to support peaceful protest there.
The government in Somalia say the five-hour siege at an up market hotel in the capital Mogadishu has been brought to an end by the security forces. Reports say more than 20 people were killed. David Bamford reports. The sound of an exploding car bomb in midafternoon was the first indication that the attack on the beachside elite hotel was underway. Islamist militants belonging to the Al-Shabab group stormed the building, trapping over 200 people, including cabinet ministers and members of parliament. Information Ministry and Defense Ministry personnel are reported to be among the dead. Troops surrounded the area and fought a gun battle, but it took five hours for them to regain control. Al-Shabab said it carried out the attack, the latest in a series of deadly assaults.”
New Zealand's Prime Minister has announced that general elections due to take place in mid-September have been postponed because of a fresh COVID-19 outbreak. Shaimaa Khalil has more. The COVID-19 outbreak in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, has forced the suspension of political campaigning and prompted calls to postpone the general election. The Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said that voters' participation and ensuring a fair election, which was held in a timely manner, were key considerations to postponing it to the 17th of October. The Prime Minister said she accepted a sense of anxiety, including from political parties about the disruption to the start of the campaign period, and added that she would not change the election date again.
The Egyptian parliament has approved a law that will protect the identity of women who come forward to report cases of sexual harassment or assault. Research suggested abuse is widespread in Egypt. But it's believed that women often fear that if they file complaints, they themselves will be blamed. The new law was proposed in July following a rare social media campaign in which male student was accused of raping or harassing multiple women. He was later arrested.
