TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian police fired teargas on Friday to disperse protesters in the town of Zarzis who were trying to reach the island of Djerba, where leaders of French-speaking countries are to hold a summit this weekend, witnesses said. Protests have roiled Zarzis, which is connected to Djerba by a long bridge, for weeks over the Tunisian state’s response to the death of local people in migrant shipwrecks. Tunisian President Kais Saied will welcome French President Emmanuel Macron and other leaders in Djerba on Saturday and Sunday after their foreign ministers meet on the island later on Friday in the showpiece event of the Francophonie group.

***
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Prosecutors in Guatemala said Thursday they have found 1,222 possible archeological artefacts at the home of an American couple accused of smuggling historical relics. The apparently pre-Hispanic pieces found in a 12-hour inspection of the house in the tourist town of Antigua range from large stone carvings to small pottery pieces. The prosecutors office said in a statement that the raid on the home “represents a tough blow to a presumed ring dedicated to illegally trafficking cultural goods.” The special prosecutors office for cultural legacy said the pieces found include stone data-x-items made of jade and basalt, and said the pieces had been turned over to an office of the Culture Ministry for examination.

***
HONG KONG (Reuters) - China and Indonesia will resume their joint exercises and training which were previously suspended due to COVID-19 epidemic, China’s defense ministry said on Friday. The two countries should play a greater role in maintaining regional security and stability as the Asia-Pacific region is facing complex challenges, Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe said during a meeting with his Indonesian counterpart, according to the statement posted on the ministry website.

***
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — A van fell into a water-filled ditch in Pakistan’s flood-hit south, killing 20 passengers — mostly women and children — and injuring 13 others overnight, police said Friday. The incident on a flood-weakened highway took place in Sindh province on Indus Highway. The road had been dredged in several places to drain out floodwater, but has not been repaired months later. Impoverished Pakistan is struggling to recover from record-breaking flooding, which killed more than 1,700 people and damaged roads and bridges.

***
BERLIN (Reuters) -A German investigation into Russian-Uzbek billionaire businessman Alisher Usmanov, who is accused of money-laundering and tax evasion, has strained diplomatic ties between Germany and Uzbekistan, Spiegel news magazine reported on Friday. A series of crisis talks have been held between the countries’ diplomats, Spiegel reported, including the summoning of the German ambassador in Tashkent in late September. This followed searches carried out at properties registered to Usmanov on the shores of Lake Tegernsee in southern Germany on Sept. 21. The following week, German police also searched a motor yacht in northern Germany as part of the probe.