Protesters have clashed with police across Israel following the funeral of a teenager of Ethiopian descent who was shot dead by an off-duty officer. Thousands took to the streets of several cities on Tuesday, blocking roads with sit-ins and burning tyres.

A police spokesman said 111 officers were wounded during the disturbances and that 136 people were arrested. The prime minister acknowledged the Ethiopian community faced “problems” but told protesters not to block roads. Tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews were brought to Israel in the 1980s and 1990s. They say they have faced systematic discrimination, racism and a lack of empathy for their hardships ever since.

The killing of 18-year-old Solomon Tekah near Haifa on Sunday caused outrage among the Ethiopian community, with one member of the teenager’s family accusing the off-duty police officer of murder. A police statement cited the officer as saying he had tried to intervene in a fight between two groups of youths. After he identified himself, the youths began throwing stones at him and he opened fire after “feeling that his life was in danger”, the statement added. However, Israeli media cited witnesses as saying the officer was not attacked. The officer has been placed under house arrest and questioned by investigators.(BBC)…[+]

BRUSSELS/STRASBOURG– European Union leaders agreed yesterday to name France’s Christine Lagarde as the new head of the European Central Bank and sealed a deal on filling the EU’s other top four jobs after marathon talks that have exposed deep divisions in the bloc.

Three days of summit negotiations that at times looked close to collapse ended with a deal that now must be approved by the European Parliament and was immediately rejected by the socialist and green bloc in the assembly in Strasbourg. “Done!” said Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, who was first to break the news on Twitter that leaders had finally clinched a deal.

Leaders hope the decision to nominate two women, Lagarde and German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen, to the top of EU decision-making for the first time will send a positive message and repair damage wrought by such a fractious summit, diplomats said. The discord echoed a wider fracturing of the EU’s political centre that was evident in May’s European Parliament elections that delivered a more fragmented assembly in which no bloc won a majority and far-right and far-left groups performed strongly.(Reuters)…[+]

A late night rendezvous with a woman in a car parked roadside in Caroni, ended in the death of the driver. Keenan Lutchman was shot and killed by a man who came to steal the vehicle. Police said Lutchman, of Felicity, Chaguanas was sitting in the car with the 32-year-old woman at Laundry Road.

At around 10p.m. a masked gunman walked up to the Nissan AD wagon, and ordered the couple to get out. Lutchman was told to hand over the keys and as he moved to obey, he was shot in the upper body. The gunman left in the station wagon. The woman went looking for help and paramedics were called. Lutchman died at the scene. Sgt Elvis is investigating the case.(Trinidad Express)…[+]