BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s embassy in the United States has warned its citizens in the country to pay close attention to their personal safety, citing a “worrying” security situation there. There is much “hatred” against China in the United States and many Asians face “malicious” attacks, seriously compromising the safety of Chinese nationals, the embassy said in Tuesday’s statement on its website. It mentioned international students and employees of Chinese-funded institutions among those at risk.

 

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Thick black smoke billowed across the grounds of New Zealand’s Parliament and sirens blared on Wednesday as retreating protesters against coronavirus vaccine mandates set fire to tents, mattresses and chairs. It appeared to be a final act of defiance as police broke up the camp that protesters first set up more than three weeks ago. Police retook control of the Parliament grounds although dozens of protesters remained in nearby streets, some hurling objects at officers. Parliament’s once carefully manicured grounds were left scarred, a children’s slide in ruins.

 

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PARIS (Reuters) - A man armed with a knife and a club attacked and wounded four university students in the French town of Le Mans on Wednesday, police said. Police said that a suspect has been arrested and that the attack did not appear to have been terrorism-related. Newspaper Ouest France reported that the attack took place at the university’s literature faculty.

 

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MADRID (Al- Jazeera) - About 2,500 migrants and refugees from countries in sub-Saharan Africa have tried cross the border fence separating the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco, with about 500 managing to do so, in one of the largest influxes in recent years. The people on Wednesday used “hooks” to scale the high fence that separates the tiny territory from Morocco and threw rocks at police, the Spanish government’s local delegation said in a statement. “The great violence used by the migrants … overwhelmed the Moroccan security forces who were trying to prevent them from reaching the fence,” it said.

 

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ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The UN Human Rights Council has picked the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to lead a panel investigating violations of human rights in the conflict in northern Ethiopia, the council said on Wednesday. Ethiopian federal troops went to war with rebellious Tigrayan forces in November 2020. Since the war erupted, Reuters has reported atrocities by all sides, which the parties to the fighting have denied. The council voted in December to establish an independent investigative commission, to look into alleged violations by all sides and to identify perpetrators with a view to accountability. Fatou Bensouda, a Gambian national who was chief prosecutor at the ICC between 2012 and 2021, will lead the panel of three, the council said in a statement.