Over 500 people evacuated in need of medical aid from besieged Syria towns

Here is a round-up of global news developments:

• UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura says relief agencies have evacuated as many as 515 people in need of medical aid from four besieged towns in Syria. The evacuation was made under an agreement between the Syrian government and militants to facilitate UN access to the besieged towns.
• Amnesty International says Nigeria’s military deliberately and indiscriminately shot dead over 350 Muslims in the town of Zaria last year and buried them in mass graves. Amnesty said the army meticulously destroyed the crime evidence. It also rejected as baseless claims that Muslims had tried to assassinate the army chief.
• A group of Japanese politicians have visited Tokyo’s Yasukuni war shrine, seen by critics as the symbol of Japan's past militarism. Earlier, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to the country’s victims during the Second World War. Abe’s visit to the shrine has drawn condemnation from China.
• Thousands of people have once again taken to the streets in the Macedonian capital to protest against a controversial decision by the president to block the prosecution of 56 officials. The demonstrators tried to march from the State prosecutor’s office in Skopje to the parliament building but were blocked by riot police.
• A new earthquake measuring six on the Richter scale has struck Ecuador. This comes as Ecuador is still reeling from a massive seven-point-eight magnitude earthquake which shook the country on Saturday. The death toll from the quake has crossed the 580 mark. It also left over 2500 people injured.
• In Greece, protests continue against the government’s proposed labor reforms as hundreds of teachers gather outside the Ministry of Education in Athens. The protesters say the working system introduced by the EU makes the lives of teachers stressful. They demanded the implementation of a new permanent recruitment system for teachers.
• Human Rights Watch has accused the Egyptian police of quote-systematic rights abuses, including torture. The group mentioned the case of 20 people, including children, who were detained in Alexandria earlier this year. Human Rights Watch also said the detainees were tortured with electric shocks and were repeatedly beaten.
• The European Union's anti-terrorism coordinator says there are major gaps in intelligence sharing on Daesh terrorists returning to Europe. Gilles de Kerchove says Daesh could carry out more terror attacks in Europe. De Kerchove says the recent terrorist attacks in Europe showed that most of the attackers were known to the police.

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