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Anti-government Protests
Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina said he fled the country in fear for his life following a military rebellion but did not announce his resignation in a speech broadcast on national television late Monday from an undisclosed location. Rajoelina has faced weeks of Gen Z-led anti-government protests, which reached a pivotal point on Saturday when an elite military unit joined the protests and called for the president and other government ministers to step down. That prompted Rajoelina to say that an illegal attempt to seize power was underway in the Indian Ocean island and to leave the country. "I was forced to find a safe place to protect my life," Rajoelina said in his late-night speech, which was delayed for hours after soldiers attempted to take control of the state broadcaster buildings, the president's office said. They were Rajoelina's first public comments since the CAPSAT military unit turned against his government in an apparent coup and joined thousands of protesters ...
Dozens of anti-government protesters were arrested during clashes with riot police in Serbia's capital on Saturday after a massive rally against populist President Aleksandar Vucic demanding an early parliamentary election. The protest by tens of thousands of demonstrators was held after nearly eight months of persistent dissent led by Serbia's university students that have rattled Vucic's firm grip on power in the Balkan country. The huge crowd chanted: We want elections! as they filled the capital's central Slavija Square and several blocks around it, with many unable to reach the venue. Dozens of detained protesters handcuffed Police handcuffed detained protesters, and an officer was seen injured on the ground during street battles in central Belgrade that lasted several hours. Six police officers and an unknown number of citizens were injured, police said. Serbia always wins in the end, President Vucic said in an Instagram post. Vucic, a former extreme nationalist, has become
Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was arrested Thursday when her motorcycle convoy was fired upon by security forces as it departed an anti-government protest in Caracas, according to aides. Machado emerged from months of hiding earlier Thursday to reappear in public as part of a last-ditch attempt to block President Nicols Maduro from clinging to power. Machado's press team said in a social media post that security forces violently intercepted the convoy as it was leaving eastern Caracas. There were no immediate details on her whereabouts and Maduro's government has yet to comment. They wanted us to fight each other, but Venezuela is united, we are not afraid, Machado shouted to a few hundred protesters from atop a truck in the capital moments before her arrest. The protests are taking place a day before the ruling party-controlled National Assembly is scheduled to swear in Maduro to a third six-year term despite credible evidence that he lost the presidential ...