Port Harcourt (Nigeria) (AFP) - An overnight curfew was imposed in Nigeria's southern Rivers state as tensions ran high over local results of the country's general election, the state government said on Monday.

Information commissioner Ibim Semenitari said the lock-down, from 7:00 pm (1800 GMT) to 6:00 am was "to prevent the breakdown of law and order because of the tense political situation".

Rivers state in the oil-producing Delta is considered a key battleground for the presidential election, which is seen as the closest in the country's history.

The national main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) has alleged vote-rigging by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and election officials at the weekend vote.

Some 2,000 female APC supporters attempted to register their complaints with electoral officials in the state capital, Port Harcourt, but were teargassed by police, AFP reporters said.

Armed police and soldiers prevented the women, who were all dressed in black, from entering the offices, forcing them to disperse and reassemble at the government headquarters.

"What happened today was unprecedented," said APC women leader Victoria Nyeche, a local lawmaker.

"The police teargassed and injured some of us during a peaceful protest at INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission).

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APC party supporters sit on the floor during a march towards the Independent National Electoral Comm …

"All we want is a fresh election because what happened on Saturday was a fraud."

A South African non-governmental organisation, Pan African Women Projects, which observed the elections in the state, expressed anger at the teargassing of the protesters.

"We saw the women being teargassed and we don't think it was a right thing to do because under the 1995 Beijing conference, women have the right to peaceful protests without any form of molestation or violence," said Eno Ben-Udensi, from the group.

"We are going to write what happened in our final report on the conduct of the election."

The PDP has dismissed the APC's allegations of electoral fraud and its calls for the election to be rescheduled in the state, saying it was "the behaviour of bad losers".

Elections chief Attahiru Jega confirmed having received a letter from the opposition calling for a re-run and promised a "thorough investigation".

"There are many alleged cases of malpractice and we certainly pay a lot of attention to... it and if any of our staff are involved, we will apply appropriate sanctions," he said on Sunday.

At the last election in 2011, the state was won by the PDP but governor Rotimi Amaechi switched to the APC two years later and has since become a key government critic.

A separate protest by the PDP was held in Port Harcourt on Monday but they, too, were blocked by police.

Local PDP leader Bright Amewhule said: "This demonstration is to tell Jega not to listen to (the) APC that the results of the election in Rivers state should be cancelled.

"Rivers belongs to PDP and the people have demonstrated their choice through the ballot."

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Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - The Palestinians formally gain membership of the International Criminal Court on Wednesday with the aim of pursuing Israelis for war crimes, despite uncertainty over the move's wider ramifications.

The accession is another step in the Palestinian diplomatic and legal international campaign, which gained steam in 2014.

It has uncertain consequences, not only because it is highly unlikely Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israelis will find themselves being tried at the ICC, but also because it constitutes a new deterioration in the strained relationship.

But the Palestinians are beyond caring.

Exasperated after decades of failed negotiations with Israel, with no perspective for the state they have been yearning, they have decided to take their case to the international arena.

On January 2, the Palestinians moved to join The Hague-based court in a process that will be finalised on April 1, setting the scene for potential legal action against Israeli officials for alleged war crimes.

"Palestine has and will continue to use all legitimate tools within its means in order to defend itself against Israeli colonisation and other violations of international law," said senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat.

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The ICC, general view seen here in The Hauge, Netherlands, has long been brandished as one of the Pa …

- 'ICC train left' -

The ICC has long been brandished as one of the Palestinians' doomsday measures, along with threatening to end vital West Bank security coordination with Israel.

The notion of ICC investigations is outrageous to Israel, and Netanyahu has accused the Palestinian unity government -- including Hamas which the Jewish state considers "terrorist" -- of "manipulating" the court.

Israel retaliated swiftly and cut off millions of dollars in monthly tax payments it collects on behalf of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.

The notion of forming a Palestinian state by negotiations was buried during this month's election campaign by Netanyahu, who pledged one would not be established on his watch, were he to retain the premiership.

Netanyahu meanwhile released the held funds, which constitute two-thirds of the PA's income, excluding foreign aid.

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Palestinians inspect the remains of a building destroyed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on Au …

Some Israeli media reported that in exchange for unfreezing the money the Palestinians agreed to refrain from filing complaints to the ICC on April 1.

"It's a huge lie. Taxes have nothing to do with our ICC approach. The ICC train already departed," said Xavier Abu Eid, a spokesman for Palestine Liberation Organisation.

- 'Absurd' measures -

April 1, however, will be primarily ceremonial, with Palestinian foreign minister Riad Malki receiving a copy of the Rome Statute, the ICC's founding treaty.

While some Palestinian officials announced the date as the day they would file complaints against Israelis, in reality it is more likely they will wait, as state members are only able to draw the court's attention to specific cases.

In addition, they will be holding on to see the outcomes of a preliminary probe launched by ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on January 16.

At the same time that Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas sought ICC accession, he also sent the court documents authorising the prosecutor to investigate alleged crimes that took place in Palestinian territories since June 13, 2014.

The unrest in June escalated to the summer war between Israel and Gaza militants, which left dead 2,200 Palestinians and 73 on the Israeli side.

So far, no ICC investigation of Israeli officials has been launched and no time framework has been set for one.

But the Palestinians are confident they will happen sooner rather than later, considering "all the attention to Palestine" at the ICC.

The Palestinians reject the argument the Israeli officials cannot be tried at the ICC, because Israel is not a signatory of the Rome Statute, maintaining the court can also investigate crimes committed on the territory of member states.

"It's absurd for the ICC to ignore international law and agreements, under which the Palestinians don't have a state and can only get one through direct negotiations with Israel," Netanyahu said in January following the announcement of the preliminary probe.

Among the forms of Israeli retaliation is legal assistance for victims of Palestinian attacks.

In February, a US jury found the PA and PLO responsible for six attacks which killed dozens and ordered them to pay the victims' families more than $650 million in damages.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Four journalists arrested during last summer's Ferguson protests over the shooting death of Michael Brown filed a federal lawsuit Monday against St. Louis County police and 20 of its officers, accusing them of violating the reporters' civil rights and unjustifiably detaining them.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in St. Louis, alleges the arrests for the journalists' failure to disperse as demanded by police on Aug. 18 and Aug. 19 were "undertaken with the intention of obstructing, chilling, deterring, and retaliating against (the) plaintiffs for engaging in constitutionally protected speech, newsgathering and recording of police activities."

The plaintiffs include Ryan Devereaux of The Intercept online investigative publication, as well as Ansgar Graw — a correspondent with the conservative German daily Die Welt — and reporter Frank Herrmann, who writes for German regional papers. The other plaintiff is freelance journalist Lukas Hermsmeier.

The lawsuit, which identifies the journalists as U.S. citizens and says they spent hours in custody, seeks unspecified damages and a court order barring county police from future alleged infringements of media access "to policing activities."

Peter Krane, the county counselor, said Monday he had not seen the lawsuit and deferred discussing it publicly until he had an opportunity to do so.

The journalists' arrests on charges that as of Monday remained unresolved took place during often-violent protests that followed the Aug. 9 death of Brown, a black, unarmed 18-year-old shot and killed by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who is white, during a confrontation.

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A police officer runs from a burning squad car after it was set on fire by demonstrators during a pr …

A St. Louis County grand jury and the U.S. Department of Justice later cleared Wilson of wrongdoing, though he resigned from the department in November.

The four journalists pressing Monday's lawsuit were among at least 10 arrested or detained while covering Ferguson protests in the immediate aftermath of Brown's death. Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, while heading security in Ferguson, said at the time that law enforcers had difficulty discerning journalist from activist.

"In the midst of chaos, when officers are running around, we're not sure who's a journalist and who's not," Johnson said at the time, when The Associated Press and dozens of other American media organizations sent a letter to law enforcement officials in Ferguson, criticizing the treatment of reporters.

Devereaux and Hermsmeier claim in the lawsuit they were wrongly arrested and hit by police-fired rubber bullets after showing officers their media credentials. Graw and Herrmann claim they were taken into custody while wearing press badges around their necks and carrying still cameras.

Monday's lawsuit came four days after county police, their St. Louis city counterparts and the Missouri State Highway Patrol settled a federal lawsuit pressed by six Ferguson protesters, agreeing to restrict law enforcement use of tear gas and other chemical agents on crowds.

Journalists arrested during Ferguson protests sue

The four plaintiffs say the arrests were an infringement on their protected right of freedom of the press.
20 officers named

Ottawa (AFP) - Canadian lawmakers voted Monday to extend a campaign of airstrikes against the Islamic State group and for the first time strike at them in Syria as well as in Iraq.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives, wielding a majority in the House of Commons, pushed through a motion on enlarging the mission in a vote 142 to 129, despite opposition parties' vigorous objections.

“Our Government believes that we must act to protect Canadians against the threat of terrorism at home and abroad," he said.

Canada first joined the US-led airstrikes on the IS group in November.

Its expanded air campaign was authorized until March 30, 2016.

Harper has defended the need for sorties into Syria, saying the IS group "must cease to have any safe haven in Syria."

He pointed to its movement of heavy equipment across the Iraqi border into Syria.

The prime minister also noted that IS fighters have threatened Canada in propaganda videos.

“As a result of ISIL’s specific threats against Canada and Canadians, our Government has worked closely for the past six months as part of a broad international Coalition, including our closest allies, to help degrade and disrupt ISIL’s ability to inflict harm.

At least six Canadians have died over the last two years fighting alongside extremists in Syria and Iraq.

In the aftermath of two jihadist-inspired attacks in Ottawa and rural Quebec last October, a majority of Canadians have told pollsters they support the military mission against the IS group.

Opposition parties, however, warned that airstrikes against the IS group in Syria may implicitly aid Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and embroil Canada in a regional conflict that could drag on for decades.

New Democratic Party Leader Thomas Mulcair decried the move "expanding a misguided war in Iraq to a dangerous new phase in Syria."

"This is simply not Canada's war to fight," he said.

Canadian airstrikes in Syria are not authorized by the United Nations, nor is it a NATO mission.

Canada has also deployed about 70 special forces soldiers to train Kurds in northern Iraq.

They came under mortar and machine gun fire while training Iraqi troops near the frontlines in mid-January, and a Canadian soldier was killed by friendly fire on March 6.

Harper said that militarily, the “mission will remain focused on targeting ISIL from the air and advising and assisting Iraqi Forces to fight ISIL more effectively on the ground."

Damascus (AFP) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says he shares the same goals as Iran and Russia when it comes to the brutal war tearing apart his country.

Assad, speaking on PBS television in excerpts of an interview airing Monday, insisted that close allies Russia and Iran "want to have balance in the world."

"It's not only about Syria. I'm (a) small country. It's not about having a huge interest in Syria. They could have it anywhere else," he told the US public television network.

"So, it's about the future of the world. They want to be a great power that has their own say in the future of this world."

In Syria, he said, "they want stability, and a political solution."

"Syria and Iran and Russia see eye to eye regarding this conflict," Assad added.

The interview with talk show host Charlie Rose also aired last week on CBS television's "60 Minutes" program.

Iran-backed Shiite militias are fighting the Islamic State group, which has seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq, declaring an Islamic "caliphate" and committing widespread atrocities.

Russia operates a naval base in Tartus along Syria's western shores that includes warships, barracks and warehouses.

Set up under a 1971 security agreement, Moscow has called its Tartus presence "a supply and technical point for the Russian navy."

Last week, Assad told Russian news channels that he would welcome an increased Russian military presence at Syria's seaports.

More than 215,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began, and half the country's population has been displaced.