- France vows to step up drugs fight after police vehicles torched
- Air France says jet flew over Iraq during Iran attack on Israel
- Activists target Picasso work to protest Israel arms sales
- Let 'Emily in Paris' remain in Paris, Macron says
- Global stocks diverge as Chinese shares tumble
- Time runs out in Florida to flee Hurricane Milton
- Chad issues warning ahead of more devastating floods
- Record-breaking Root helps England dominate Pakistan in first Test
- German govt sees economy shrinking again in 2024
- Ex-UK soldier denies passing secrets to Iran intelligence
- Creator's death no bar to new 'Dragon Ball' products
- Three Kosovo Serbs on trial over 'secession plot' attack
- Van Gogh museum to launch Impressionism show
- French minister ups ante in Eiffel Tower Olympic rings row
- Japan PM calls snap election to 'create a new Japan'
- German police shut pro-Palestinian camp over Thunberg invite
- Chinese stocks tumble on lack of fresh stimulus
- Trio wins chemistry Nobel for protein design, prediction
- SE Asian summit urges end to Myanmar violence but struggles for solutions
- Wimbledon replaces line judges with electronic system
- Record-breaking Root hits hundred as England power to 351-3
- Record-breaking Root hits hundred as England's power to 351-3
- Sabalenka relishes 'much-needed' tennis rivalry with Swiatek
- Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson set for six weeks out
- Taylor Swift got police escort to London gigs after Austria terror plot
- Cook tips Root to break Tendulkar's all-time runs record
- British skull auction sparks Indian demand for return
- Joe Root: England's elegant Test record-breaker
- Braving war: Lebanon's 'badass' airline defies odds
- Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
- Hezbollah strikes Israel, says it foiled Israeli incursions
- Jurgen Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
- Sinner to face Medvedev in Shanghai Masters quarter-finals
- US weighs Google breakup in landmark trial
- Record-breaking Root guides England to 232-2 in reply to Pakistan's 556
- Japan PM dissolves parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- Chinese stocks tumble on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- 7-Eleven owner confirms new takeover offer from Couche-Tard
- Goodbye Tito? Tomb at risk as Serbs argue over Yugoslav legacy
- Restoration experts piece together silent Sherlock Holmes mystery
- Sinner avoids Shanghai deja vu with assured Shelton win
- Pyongyang to 'permanently' shut border with South Korea
- Trumpet star Marsalis says jazz creates 'balance' in divided world
- No children left on Greece's famed but emptying island
- Nepali becomes youngest to climb world's 8,000m peaks
- Climate change made deadly Hurricane Helene more intense: study
- A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand
- Padres edge Dodgers, Mets on the brink
- Can carbon credits help close coal plants?
- With EU funding, Tunisian farmer revives parched village
GSK | -0.03% | 38.01 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.17% | 24.81 | $ | |
SCS | 2.14% | 13.06 | $ | |
NGG | -0.43% | 65.62 | $ | |
BTI | 0.28% | 35.32 | $ | |
AZN | -0.16% | 76.75 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.28% | 24.64 | $ | |
RIO | -1.26% | 65.83 | $ | |
RYCEF | -1.01% | 6.9 | $ | |
JRI | 0.45% | 13.22 | $ | |
BCC | 0.87% | 143.27 | $ | |
BCE | 0.27% | 33.6 | $ | |
RELX | -0.18% | 46.555 | $ | |
BP | -0.69% | 31.81 | $ | |
RBGPF | -2.48% | 59.33 | $ | |
VOD | 0.26% | 9.685 | $ |
Thousands rally in Georgia as 'foreign influence' bill advances
Thousands of Georgians protested again Wednesday, as parliament advanced a controversial "foreign influence" bill, despite weeks of demonstrations and warnings from Brussels that it would damage Tbilisi's European aspirations.
The EU also condemned police action the previous night, when they fired tear gas and rubber bullets at thousands of protesters against the measure.
Lawmakers voted 83 to 23 to adopt the bill in a second reading. The ruling Georgian Dream party has said it wants to sign it into law by mid-May, arguing it only serves to boost transparency of NGOs' foreign funding.
But its critics say the proposed law resembles a repressive Russian law used to silence dissent.
Waving Georgian and EU flags, thousands of demonstrators once again gathered outside parliament, Wednesday evening, trying to block the building's entrances, said an AFP reporter.
The turmoil came ahead of parliamentary elections in October, seen as a key test of democracy in the EU-aspirant Black Sea nation.
President Salome Zurabishvili -- who is at loggerheads with the ruling party -- is expected to veto the measure, but the party has enough votes to override that measure.
If adopted, the law would require that any independent NGO and media organisation receiving more than 20 percent of its funding from abroad to register as an "organisation pursuing the interests of a foreign power".
Last year, mass street protests forced Georgian Dream to drop plans for similar measures.
Georgia has sought for years to deepen relations with the West, but Georgian Dream has been accused of attempting to steer the former Soviet republic closer to Russia.
EU chief Charles Michel has said the bill "is not consistent with Georgia's bid for EU membership" and that it "will bring Georgia further away from the EU and not closer."
In December, the EU granted Georgia official candidate status but said Tbilisi would have to reform its judicial and electoral systems, reduce political polarisation, improve press freedom and curtail the power of oligarchs before membership talks are formally launched.
L.Harper--AMWN