News of the day from across the globe, Sept. 2
Lawyer detained: A Chinese lawyer who has opposed a government campaign to tear down churches and church crosses faces up to six months in secretive detention after the police detained him and accused him of threatening state security, said Yang Xingquan, a colleague from the Xinqiao Law Firm in Beijing.
The lawyer, Zhang Kai, disappeared into custody a week ago while in Wenzhou, a commercial city on the coast of Zhejiang province, where many members of the large and prosperous Christian community have fought the government’s efforts to reduce the presence of churches.
Lebanese protesters marched into the Environment Ministry in downtown Beirut on Tuesday, staging a sit-in outside the minister’s office and demanding his resignation over the country’s snowballing trash crisis.
3 Mali attack: A security official in Mali says that suspected Islamic extremists have attacked an army checkpoint in Timbuktu, killing at least two soldiers by slashing their throats.
Guatemala’s Congress lifted President Otto Perez Molina’s immunity of office on Tuesday, opening him up to possible prosecution in a widening customs corruption scandal that has rocked his administration and the country’s political system.
With all 132 lawmakers present in the 158-seat assembly voting to approve the historic measure, prosecutors are now free to file criminal charges against Perez Molina, and a judge would be able to order his detention.