BRATISLAVA (AFP) – Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico remains in serious condition and still faces risks of complications but has stabilized, officials said on Saturday, following Wednesday’s assassination attempt. The prime minister, 59, was shot at five times at point-blank range in an attack that sent shockwaves through Europe and raised concerns over the polarized state of politics in Slovakia, a central European country of 5.4 million people. “We have not won yet, that is important to say,” Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kaliniak said, giving an update on Fico’s condition in front of the hospital in the town of Banka Bystrica where the prime minister is being treated. The Slovak Specialised Criminal Court ruled on Saturday that the suspect, identified by prosecutors as Juraj C., would remain in custody after being charged with attempted murder.

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MOSCOW (Anadolu) – Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili said on Saturday that she vetoed the Bill On Transparency of Foreign Influence passed by the parliament earlier this week.  “Today I vetoed the law. It contradicts our constitution and all European standards, therefore it represents an obstacle to our European path,” Zurabishvili said at a press briefing in Tbilisi. She noted that the vetoed document will be transferred to the parliament today. “This law is not subject to any changes or improvements, so the veto is very simple. This law has to be revoked,” Zurabishvili stressed. According to the Georgian legislation, the presidential veto can be overcome if the majority in the parliament votes for lifting it. The Georgian parliament on Tuesday passed the bill in the third and final reading, introducing control over foreign financing of non-governmental organizations in the Caucasian state. Despite escalated tensions that even led to a physical confrontation between supporters and opponents of the proposed legislation, the bill was passed with 84 votes for and 30 against.
 
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HOUSTON (Xinhua) – The death toll from destructive storms battering Houston on Thursday night has risen to at least seven, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office confirmed on Friday evening. An EF-1 tornado was confirmed near Cypress in the northwest of the fourth largest U.S. city with 100 mph (160 kph) straight-line winds and tore over the downtown, causing widespread damage, the U.S. National Weather Service said on Friday. In east Houston, a 60-year-old man who lost power in the storm went out to his truck to plug in his oxygen tank. He was found dead on Friday morning, said Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez on social media. The county includes most of Houston. In northwest Houston, a 57-year-old man died trying to move an electrical pole in the storm while an 85-year-old woman and her pet were killed in a mobile home fire caused by lightning. The fourth, a man, was working on a construction project and sitting in a cement truck when a portable crane fell during high winds. 

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PORT SUDAN (AFP) – Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have announced their willingness to open “safe passages” out of the former haven city of El-Fasher in Darfur, which has been gripped by fighting for weeks. The RSF, battling the regular army for more than a year, affirmed in a post on X late Friday “the readiness of its forces to help citizens by opening safe passages to voluntarily leave to other areas of their choosing and to provide protection for them.” El-Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur and once a key hub for humanitarian aid where many had gathered for shelter, has been in the grips of fighting as the RSF seeks to control it. The paramilitaries called on residents of El-Fasher to “avoid conflict areas and areas likely to be targeted by air forces and not to respond to malicious calls to mobilize residents and drag them into the fires of war.” Sudan has been in the throes of conflict for over a year between the regular army led by de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the RSF led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

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MOSCOW (Anadolu) – At least 29 people were injured in a clash that occurred Friday night in Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek, the country’s health ministry said on Saturday.  “On the night of May 17-18, 29 people turned to ambulance crews for medical help. 15 people were taken to the emergency and the national hospitals, the rest were treated on the spot,” a ministry statement said. The ministry said that one of the victims is a Pakistani citizen who is diagnosed with a fractured jaw and is prepared for surgery. Tensions have been brewing between local and international students in the capital after a brawl earlier this week. Things turned ugly on Friday night when dozens of people gathered outside student hostels in Bishkek. Police squads arrived at the scene and detained about 10 people, including three foreigners. A criminal case was also opened. The Kyrgyz government condemned what it called “attempts to provoke violence and riots on interethnic grounds due to the dissemination of untrue information on social networks, and also refutes false reports by the international press about alleged murders and violence against foreign students.”

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TUNIS (Reuters) – About 23 migrants were missing after setting off in a boat from Tunisia towards Italy, the country’s national guard said on Saturday. Tunisia is facing a migration crisis and has replaced Libya as a main departure point for people fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East in the hope of a better life in Europe. The national guard said it had deployed floating units and had informed the navy to help in the search for the missing people.