Abkhazian opponents protesting against an agreement with Moscow that allows Russian companies to invest in Abkhazia, today took the seat of Parliament of that Georgian separatist region recognized by Russia as an independent state.

Police officers and other security services who were inside the Legislature were forced to leave the building, the official Russian agency TASS reported from Sujumi, the Abhazian capital.

The incidents, which have left at least eight injured according to the authorities, occurred after the Legislature canceled its session today in which the ratification of the agreement with Russia was scheduled, signed on October 30, and refused, as the opposition demanded, to remove the bill from the agenda.

In September it was reported that Russia had suspended its huge subsidies to Abkhazia, so opponents denounced that the investment agreement with Moscow was the product of pressures.

Incidents since Monday

Last week the Abkhazian opposition created a committee against the ratification of the agreement with Russia, considering it harmful to regional economic sovereignty.

On Monday, the Abjaz Police arrested five opposition activists protesting against the agreement with Russia next to the headquarters of the Abjazian Parliament, whose independence was recognized by the Kremlin in 2008 after the war with Georgia for the control of the also separatist South Ossetia.

According to the Abhasian attorney general, Adgur Agrba, opponents and relatives of the detainees tried to break into the headquarters of the State Security Service in order to free them, but they were rejected by the police.

The next day the opponents blocked three bridges next to Sujumi, the Abchazian capital, and managed to release the detainees

The Israeli Army bombed Dahye on Friday, a suburb in southern Beirut considered a stronghold of the Shiite group Hezbula, after ordering residents to evacuate the area and among a wave of attacks in Lebanon that have caused at least 43 deaths in recent hours.

The bombings took place on Friday morning, according to the Lebanese media Al-Mayadeen, and for the moment it is clear whether they caused deaths or injuries.

Shortly before, the Arabic spokesman of the Israeli Army, Avichay Adraee, urged the neighbors of several buildings located in the Ghobeiry area to evacuate “immediately and stay away from them at a distance of no less than 500 meters.”

Air planes against Hezbulá command centers

The Israeli Army already bombed the Dahye, including two Civil Defense centers, last Wednesday and Thursday, also after requesting the evacuation of several buildings in the area.

The armed forces then claimed in a statement that they had destroyed nine weapons warehouses and command centers of the Shiite group “embedded” in civilian areas, an argument that Israel repeats to justify its attacks on civilian infrastructure in Gaza and Lebanon.

This Friday, their fighter jets attacked the command centers of the elite force of the Shiite group Hizbulá (Radwan) in the Nabatieh area, in southern Lebanon.

Among the targets attacked is a terrorist infrastructure site used by the elite force of Hezbullah “to carry out terrorist attacks against the State of Israel and our troops,” according to a military statement.

He also said that yesterday the troops attacked more than “120 terrorist targets” throughout the neighboring country, including weapons storage facilities, command centers and a large number of launchers, including some from which Hezbulah fired rockets towards Haifa and the area of Upper Galilee, in northern Israel.

Early this Friday, the Army also bombed south of Beirut, a bastion of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbula known as the Dahye, after a wave of attacks in Lebanon that have left at least 43 dead in recent hours.

Shortly before the attacks, the Arabic spokesman for the Israeli Army, Avichay Adraee, urged the neighbors of several buildings located in the Ghobeiry area to “evacuately and stay away from them at a distance of no less than 500 meters.”

According to a military statement, these attacks against the capital were targeted at weapons warehouses, a command center and other unspecified infrastructures of Hizbulá.

On the other hand, the Army also detected about five projectiles fired from Lebanon towards the district of Haifa and Alta Galilee, which were intercepted or fell in the open air.

Likewise, the military note assured that last night Israeli planes attacked “several smuggling routes of the Syrian regime” on the Syrian-Lebanese border, allegedly used for the illegal introduction of weapons to Hezbulah.

Negotiations for a ceasefire

This crossfire is maintained while in recent hours reports have continued to arrive disseminated by Israeli and American media indicating that the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon could be closer.

This Thursday, the Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar, reiterated in a conversation he had with his French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot, that there is “a desire to achieve a ceasefire” in Lebanon to allow the more than 60,000 evacuees from the north to return to their homes, and that “progress” is being made in the negotiations.

Although, Saar also wanted to point out that an agreement is not enough if the international community does not guarantee that Lebanon “is returned to the Lebanese people instead of being controlled by the Iranian regime.”

In more than a year of conflict, at least 3,386 people have died in Lebanon and another 14,417 have been injured, including 220 minors and 658 women, according to the latest update from the Lebanese government, prior to these latest attacks.

Lebanon: “The US truce proposal is not acceptable”

The President of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri, confirmed on Friday that he has received a proposal from the United States for a truce between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbulá, but indicated that “it is not acceptable” in its current terms.

“The US proposal includes a text that is not acceptable to Lebanon, which is the question of the formation of a committee to oversee the implementation of Resolution 1701 (which ended the war between Israel and Hezbula in 2006), which includes several Western countries,” he said in a written interview with the London-based Arab newspaper Al Sharq al Awsat.

Likewise, Berri – the main mediator figure in the truce, being the one in whom Hizbulá trusts for the negotiations – said that “the proposed alternative mechanism is currently being debated,” and that “the work is progressing, in an environment that is positive.”

“Americans and others know that it is unacceptable, and that it cannot even be discussed in principle, and that we cannot accept any violation of our sovereignty,” he said in reference to the “freedom of movement” of the Israeli Army in Lebanon.

He also denied that the proposal includes “the deployment of NATO or other forces” in the country.

Regarding the possible arrival of the envoy of the administration of US President Joe Biden, Amos Hochstein, pointed out that his visit to Beirut “depends on the development and progress of the negotiations,” without giving further details.

A French blue helmet dies in a traffic accident

A French blue helmet died this Friday in a traffic accident while traveling in a convoy to the headquarters of the UN mission in Lebanon (UNFIN) in Naqoura, in the south of the country.

According to a brief statement from the FINUL, which does not give details about the circumstances of the accident, three other Gallic members of the peacekeeping forces “suffered minor injuries.”

“This morning, a FINUL convoy heading to the FINUL headquarters in Naqoura was involved in a traffic accident on the coastal road, near the village of Shama,” the note says.

The victims were cared for by the staff of the peace mission and the Red Cross at the scene, according to the FINUL, who conveyed their condolences to the family of the deceased blue helmet and expressed their wishes that the injured recover soon.

An Australian government scientific agency asked the population of the oceanic country on Friday to make an exhaustive record of their flatulence, in order to better understand how the excessive expulsion of gases impacts intestinal health.

‘Chart your fart’ campaign (Register your fart)

Through the ‘Chart your fart’ campaign, researchers from the Australian scientific and industrial government agency (CSIRO) invited people over the age of 14 to keep track of their winds in a free cell phone app for at least three days.

These data, which include the amount and quality of flatulence, including attributes such as smell, volume, duration, persistence and detectability, will help create a graph of what can be a ‘normal’ wind in the different groups of Australians, according to a statement from CSIRO.

“The expulsion of gases is a natural fact and a sign that our digestive system is functioning as it should to expel the excess gas that is produced by breaking down and processing the food we eat,” explained Megan Rebuli, a nutrition expert who participates in CISRO’s research.

Excessive flatulence, according to 60%

The characteristics of the winds vary by the intake of “different foods, medical conditions or even the way we chew or swallow can influence the way our body processes excess gases, which translates into odors, frequencies or even different volumes,” said Rabuli.

For her part, the project director and CISRO scientist, Emily Brindal, explained that this citizen research will be “as good as the data we obtain,” by trusting that the population will contribute to this study on the health and well-being of citizens, despite the fact that some people feel embarrassed or uncomfortable by this body function.

According to a study on CSIRO’s intestinal health in 2021, more than 60% of Australians reported experiencing what they identified as excessive flatulence, and up to 43% said they experienced it most days.