XMPP (Jabber) instant messaging protocol encrypted TLS connection wiretapping (Man-in-the-Middle attack) of jabber.ru (aka xmpp.ru) service’s servers on Hetzner and Linode hosting providers in Germany. The attacker has issued several new TLS certificates using Let’s Encrypt service which were used to hijack encrypted STARTTLS connections on port 5222 using transparent MiTM proxy. The attack was discovered due to expiration of one of the MiTM certificates, which haven’t been reissued.

In a fiery speech to members of the German parliament, Chancellor Scholz championed repatriation deals with third countries as a potential game-changer in addressing the migration challenges faced by EU member states.

DR Congo's electoral commission confirmed on Friday a provisional list of 24 candidates who have registered for the presidential elections on December 20.

Japan's government has asked a court to revoke the legal status of the Japan branch of the Unification Church, the controversial group founded in South Korea.

Brazilian congressional panel on Wednesday accused former President Jair Bolsonaro of instigating the country’s Jan. 8 riots and recommended that he be charged with attempting to stage a coup.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt took control of the nation’s finances a year ago on Saturday, amid political chaos and turmoil in the financial markets caused by former prime minister Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget.

Israeli planes bombed the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Tuesday, even as an Israeli military spokesman encouraged Palestinians to use the border post to flee to safety.

Independent Egyptian news outlet Mada Masr, citing an employee at the border checkpoint, reported that Egypt had closed the crossing gate after a warning that Israel would bomb it.

Israeli planes bombed the crossing Monday evening and again on Tuesday after the damage was repaired, Mada Masr and Palestinian media reported.

An estimated 700 Palestinians have been killed in reprisal bombings in Gaza after Hamas gunmen launched a stunning attack on Israel on Saturday, massacring an estimated 900 Israelis.

More than 127,000 Palestinians have been displaced by the ongoing bombing, the U.N. said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman, suggested that Palestinians seeking refuge from the bombing could "get out" of Gaza through the Rafah crossing.

Hecht’s office later issued a statement: "Clarification: The Rafah crossing was open yesterday, but now it is closed." The clarification didn’t mention a bombing.

Gaza’s Hamas-controlled interior ministry said in a statement that Egypt had warned staff on the Gaza side of the border crossing to evacuate due to an imminent bombing. Two Palestinian employees were injured, the ministry said.

The U.N. and humanitarian organizations are working to establish a humanitarian corridor through the Rafah crossing to bring medical supplies to Gaza. Israel on Monday declared a "total siege" of the territory.

Restaurant asks not to work with Dallas cops who laughed about disabled vet denied toilet Story by Kelli Smith, The Dallas Morning News • 20h

ADallas restaurant asked to no longer work with two police officers caught on video laughing about a disabled veteran who urinated on himself after he was denied restroom access.

A spokesperson for Serious Pizza, which is owned by the restaurant company Milkshake Concepts, released a statement Thursday saying the establishment was “disappointed by the conduct of the officers involved” and was not aware of the extent of the incident until body-camera footage was released this week.

“We have requested that the contracted off-duty officers who were on duty that night not be assigned to our restaurant moving forward, as their actions were not representative of how we treat our guests and the general public,” the company’s statement said.

The Dallas Morning News first reported the veteran’s story Wednesday after he addressed the Community Police Oversight Board at its monthly meeting earlier this month. Dynell Lane, who said he was wounded while deployed with the Army, told the board he was denied access to the restroom while a customer at Serious Pizza in Deep Ellum on June 10, a Saturday.

Lane appealed to two off-duty uniformed officers working security there, who he said refused to review his medical documents. He called 911 for help, but before the on-duty officers arrived, he said he had a urine and bowel leak issue and left the restaurant.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/restaurant-asks-not-to-work-with-dallas-cops-who-laughed-about-disabled-vet-denied-toilet/ar-AA1fpOOB

!

WEST HARTFORD, CT — State investigators released dramatic footage Friday of when a West Hartford police officer shot and killed a car theft suspect outside of Town Fair Tire on Tuesday.

The Connecticut Officer of the Inspector General released five different angles of the incident late Friday morning, the most dramatic being of the officer involved in the shooting.

In addition, state investigators also released the identities of the suspect killed and the WHPD officer involved in the incident.

The suspect has been identified as Mike Alexander-Garcia, 34, who was described as a Hispanic male, according to a preliminary state report released Friday.

State officials identified the WHPD police officer involved in the shooting as being K-9 officer Andrew Teeter.

Find out what's happening in West Hartfordwith free, real-time updates from Patch. Your email address Subscribe While the investigation is ongoing, state officials in their report released a detailed chronology of Tuesday afternoon's events at a busy commercial district in town.

According to the three-page report, at about 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 8, West Hartford police were attempting to stop a stolen Hyundai Elentra traveling east on New Britain Avenue.

At the New Britain Avenue/South Street intersection, the stolen Hyundai hit a silver BMW and a blue Honda Pilot, disabling the Hyundai, state officials wrote in the report.

According to investigators, the two occupants of the stolen vehicle, Lyle Solsbury, 46, and Alexander-Garcia, exited the Hyundai and fled.

Solsbury was immediately apprehended by police, with Alexander-Garcia fleeing east on New Britain Avenue, authorities wrote.

In the report, the state alleges Alexander-Garcia unsuccessfully tried to carjack two vehicles, eventually making his way to a Town Fair Tire at 980 New Britain Ave.

State authorities said Alexander-Garcia entered the Town Fair Tire garage and then entered the driver's side of a Toyota Rav4 vehicle being serviced there.

Shortly after, Teeter and his police dog entered the garage and the passenger side of the vehicle and attempted to subdue Alexander-Garcia, according to state officials.

"Despite the K-9 and Officer Teeter being in the vehicle struggling with Alexander-Garcia, he backed out of the garage and drove out of the Town Fair Tire parking lot striking two vehicles. One of those vehicles was the K-9 police vehicle," wrote the state Office of the Inspector General. "As Alexander-Garcia continued to drive, Officer Teeter discharged his weapon multiple times, striking Alexander-Garcia in the torso."

The Toyota ended up crashing across the street into a utility pole, near the intersection of New Britain Avenue and Shield Street, officials said.

Authorities said Teeter sustained a broken rib and multiple head lacerations and was taken to the hospital. The police dog was unharmed.

Alexander-Garcia was taken to Hartford Hospital and pronounced dead at 5:53 p.m. that afternoon, reads the report.

Authorities said the investigation into the incident is continuing.

West Hartford town and police officials weighed in on the situation, expressing hope for a thorough state probe into the matter.

“Any loss of life is tragic in such a difficult situation. The videos that have been released are undeniably hard to watch. Thankfully, Connecticut has been a national leader in developing a fair, independent and transparent system for investigating police-involved shootings. I am confident that our police department will work together with state authorities to ensure that a comprehensive and thorough investigation is conducted into this incident,” said Democratic West Hartford Mayor Shari G. Cantor in a statement.

The town's top WHPD official said the release of the footage was necessary and the department believes "strongly" in transparency of the facts.

Joan Meyer, the 98-year-old co-owner of a small Kansas newspaper, collapsed and died at her home on Saturday, a day after police raided her home and the Marion County Record's office, the newspaper said. Meyer had been "stressed beyond her limits and overwhelmed by hours of shock and grief," the Record said, calling the raids illegal.

Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody on Saturday defended the raid and said that once all the information is available, "the judicial system that is being questioned will be vindicated." Police have not shared an update since Meyer's death was announced.

Police took Meyer's computer and a router used by an Alexa smart speaker during the raid at her home, according to the paper. Officers at the Record's office seized personal cellphones, computers, the newspaper's file server and other equipment. Cody also allegedly forcibly grabbed reporter Deb Gruver's cellphone, injuring a finger that had previously been dislocated.

"Our first priority is to be able to publish next week," publisher Eric Meyer said. "But we also want to make sure no other news organization is ever exposed to the Gestapo tactics we witnessed today. We will be seeking the maximum sanctions possible under law."

The federal Privacy Protection Act protects journalists and newsrooms from most searches by law enforcement, requiring police usually to issue subpoenas rather than search warrants.

"It is true that in most cases, it requires police to use subpoenas, rather than search warrants, to search the premises of journalists unless they themselves are suspects in the offense that is the subject of the search," Cody said.

Friday's raid was conducted on the basis of a search warrant. The search warrant, posted online by the Kansas Reflector, indicates police were investigating identity theft and unlawful acts concerning computers. It also indicated police were looking for documents and records pertaining to local restauranteur Kari Newell.

According to the Record, Newell had accused the newspaper of illegally obtaining drunk driving information about Newell and supplying it to Marion Councilwoman Ruth Herbel.

"The Record did not seek out the information," the newspaper wrote. "Rather, it was provided by a source who sent it to the newspaper via social media and also sent it to Herbel."

The Record verified the information about Newell through public records but did not plan to publish it, believing that the information had "been intentionally leaked to the newspaper as part of legal sparring between Newell and her estranged husband," the paper wrote.

"The victim asks that we do all the law allows to ensure justice is served," Cody said. "The Marion Kansas Police Department will [do] nothing less."

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation assisted in the investigation "into allegations of illegal access and dissemination of confidential criminal justice information," the bureau said in a statement.

"Director Mattivi believes very strongly that freedom of the press is a vanguard of American democracy... But another principle of our free society is equal application of the law," the bureau said, adding, "No one is above the law, whether a public official or a representative of the media."

Police have fallen under scrutiny due to the search, with free speech advocates expressing concern about its implications.

Dozens of news organizations, including CBS News, on Sunday condemned the raid in a letter sent by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to Cody.

"Your department's seizure of this equipment has substantially interfered with the Record's First Amendment-protected newsgathering in this instance, and the department's actions risk chilling the free flow of information in the public interest more broadly, including by dissuading sources from speaking to the Record and other Kansas news media in the future," the letter said.

The raid appears to have violated federal law and the First Amendment, according to Seth Stern, advocacy director of Freedom of the Press Foundation.

"This looks like the latest example of American law enforcement officers treating the press in a manner previously associated with authoritarian regimes," Stern said Friday. "The anti-press rhetoric that's become so pervasive in this country has become more than just talk and is creating a dangerous environment for journalists trying to do their jobs."

PEN America on Saturday said law enforcement should be held accountable for violating the Record's rights.

"Journalists rely on confidential sources to report on matters of vital public concern," Shannon Jankowski, PEN America's journalism and disinformation program director, said in a statement. "Law enforcement's sweeping raid on The Marion County Record and confiscation of its equipment almost certainly violates federal law and puts the paper's very ability to publish the news in jeopardy."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kansas-newspaper-police-raid-marion-county-record-joan-meyer-dies/

Two separatist militants were killed Sunday when they attacked a convoy carrying Chinese workers to a Beijing-financed port project in Pakistan's Balochistan province, officials said.

A spokesman for China's consulate in Karachi said none of its nationals were killed or wounded in the attack, and urged Chinese citizens to heighten their vigilance.

Various Baloch separatist groups have claimed attacks on projects linked to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project in the past, with thousands of security personnel deployed to counter threats against Beijing's interests.

The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) said Sunday two of its fighters died in a "self-sacrificing" attack on a convoy going to Gwadar port in Pakistan's southwest.

"The operation has concluded with the elimination of two assailants," a senior police official told AFP, adding that three Pakistani soldiers were wounded.

China's consulate in Karachi said it had asked Pakistan to "severely punish the perpetrators and take concrete and effective measures to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens, institutions and projects".

"A Chinese convoy from the Gwadar port project was hit by roadside bombs and gunfire on its way back to the port area from the Gwadar Airport," it said in a statement.

"No Chinese citizens were killed or injured."

The BLA, which frequently exaggerates its successes, claimed in a statement that four Chinese workers and nine Pakistani soldiers had died in the attack.

• 'No fair share' -

The CPEC project is the cornerstone of Beijing's massive Belt and Road Initiative and seeks to link China's western Xinjiang province to Gwadar port in Balochistan -- Pakistan's least populous province but rich in mineral resources.

Baloch people have long complained they do not get a fair share of the province's profits, giving rise to more than a dozen separatist groups.

Three Chinese academics and their Pakistani driver were killed when a woman suicide bomber detonated her device as they were driving into the University of Karachi's Confucius Institute in April 2022.

The BLA claimed responsibility for that attack.

A year earlier, five people were killed in an attack claimed by Pakistan's Taliban at a luxury hotel hosting the Chinese ambassador in Quetta.

Also in 2021, 12 people -- including nine Chinese workers -- were killed by a blast aboard a bus carrying staff to the Dasu dam site.

Islamabad blamed that explosion on a gas leak but Beijing insisted it was a bomb attack.

Since its initiation, CPEC has seen tens of billions of dollars funnelled into massive transport, energy and infrastructure projects.

Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng was in the Pakistani capital last month to mark the 10th anniversary of the project's start.

The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was detained by Iran's so-called morality police has sparked angry protests, with women burning their headscarves in a defiant act of resistance against the Islamic Republic's strict dress code and those enforcing it.

The Gasht-e Ershad (Guidance Patrols) are special police units tasked with ensuring the respect of Islamic morals and detaining people who are perceived to be "improperly" dressed.

Under Iranian law, which is based on the country's interpretation of Sharia, women are obliged to cover their hair with a hijab (headscarf) and wear long, loose-fitting clothing to disguise their figures.

Ms Amini allegedly had some hair visible under her headscarf when she was arrested by morality police in Tehran on 13 September. She fell into a coma shortly after collapsing at a detention centre and died three days later in hospital. The force denied reports that officers beat her head with a baton and banged it against one of their vehicles.

"They told us the reason we are working for the morality police units is to protect women," he said. "Because if they do not dress properly, then men could get provoked and harm them."

He said they worked in teams of six, comprising four men and two women, and focused on areas with high foot traffic and where crowds gather.

"It's weird, because if we are just going to guide people why do we need to pick somewhere busy that potentially means we could arrest more people?"

"It's like we are going out for a hunt."

The officer added that his commander would tell him off or say he was not working properly if he did not identify enough people violating the dress code, and that he found it particularly difficult when people resisted arrest.

"They expect us to force them inside the van. Do you know how many times I was in tears while doing it?"

"I want to tell them I am not one of them. Most of us are ordinary soldiers going through our mandatory military service. I feel so bad."

Post-revolutionary decree The Iranian authorities' fight against "bad hijab" - wearing a headscarf or other mandatory clothing incorrectly - began soon after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, a major aim of which was to make women dress modestly.

While many women were doing so at the time, miniskirts and uncovered hair were not uncommon sights on the streets of Tehran before the pro-Western Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown. His wife Farah, who often wore Western clothing, was held up as an example of a modern woman.

Saudi Arabia will extend its voluntary oil production cut of 1 million barrels per day into September, the state-owned Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said on Thursday. This is the third month in a row that the kingdom has implemented the cut.

The SPA said that the cut will reduce Saudi Arabia's production to approximately 9 million barrels per day in September. The cut can be extended or deepened, the SPA said.

The decision to extend the cut comes as global oil prices have been under pressure in recent months. The price of Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, is currently trading around $105 per barrel.

The cut is likely to support oil prices in the short term. However, it could also lead to higher gasoline prices for consumers in the United States and other countries.

Background

Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil exporter. The kingdom's decision to cut production is a significant move that could have a ripple effect on global oil markets.

The cut is part of Saudi Arabia's efforts to support oil prices. The kingdom has been under pressure from the United States and other countries to increase production in order to lower prices. However, Saudi Arabia has resisted these calls, arguing that it needs to protect its market share.

Impact

The extension of the oil production cut is likely to support oil prices in the short term. However, it could also lead to higher gasoline prices for consumers in the United States and other countries.

The cut could also have a negative impact on the global economy. Higher oil prices could lead to slower economic growth and higher inflation.

Conclusion

Saudi Arabia's decision to extend the oil production cut is a significant move that could have a ripple effect on global oil markets and the global economy. The cut is likely to support oil prices in the short term, but it could also lead to higher gasoline prices and slower economic growth.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Moscow promised retaliation Saturday after Ukrainian drones hit a Russian tanker in the Black Sea near Crimea late Friday, the second sea attack involving drones in one day.

Ukraine struck a major Russian port earlier on Friday.

Moscow strongly condemned what it sees as a Ukrainian “terrorist attack” on a civilian vessel in the Kerch Strait, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

“There can be no justification for such barbaric actions, they will not go unanswered and their authors and perpetrators will inevitably be punished,” she wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

For the past 18 months, orcas have been attacking boats and yachts in the Mediterranean Sea near the Strait of Gibraltar. A new report of an orca boat attack in the North Sea near Scotland is a surprising development.

It's possible that the orcas are displaying “cultural evolution” and other pods are learning behaviors from one another Scientists long assumed that humans were the only animals capable of “cultural evolution”—that is, learned behaviors developed beyond the innate skills gifted to us by genetic evolution. But for a few decades now, the animal kingdom has been providing evidence to the contrary.

Monkeys and whales have shown a particular gift for cultural evolution, and other animals outside the class Mammalia have shown simpler forms of collective learning and adaptation.

Now, the majestic orca (Orcinus orca) is under scrutiny for the same kind of behavior, as boats in the Mediterranean near the Strait of Gibraltar—and surprisingly, off the coast of Scotland in the North Sea—appear to be specifically targeting boats. Although this behavior was well-known in the Iberian orca population, it’s a shocking development that orcas seemingly unaffiliated with the Mediterranean pod are exhibiting similar behaviors.

“I’d be reluctant to say it cannot be learned from [the southern population],” Conor Ryan, a scientist who’s studied orca pods off the Scottish coast, told The Guardian. “It’s possible that this ‘fad’ is leapfrogging through the various pods/communities.”

Despite being known as “killer whales,” orcas are actually members of the dolphin family and are highly sociable, using complex vocalizations to communicate with one another. The learn matrilineally, meaning “grandmother” orcas (which can live for 80 years or more) become matriarchs of their pods and pass on vital hunting skills.

With three boats sunk and upwards of 100 others damaged in Iberia, scientists think that this behavior may come from one such “grandmother” orca named White Gladis. The thought is that she may have survived a traumatic event earlier in life involving a boat, and has since taught her pod how to attack them. It’s also possible that these attacks are timed with Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) migrations, and the orcas perceive boats as competition for food.

Of course, humans are not necessarily innocent victims in these orca hit-and-runs, as boats cause noise pollution and other hazards for the creatures and other marine life. But, regardless, how exactly did an orca in the North Sea learn this seemingly isolated behavior from 2,000 miles away? Some scientists think that highly mobile pods could be capable of teaching these boat-destroying tricks to individuals in other pods.

So, will orcas always be on the hunt for boats and yachts of all shapes and sizes? Well, not necessarily. As seemingly easy as it was for the orcas to pick up this hunting trick, it’s possible that this “cultural evolution” will disappear just as rapidly. Similars shifts have happened before. For example, the website Salon reports that, a few years back, bottlenose dolphins were carrying sea sponges on their noses of the coast of Australia. But as quickly as this “fad” appeared, it became scarce, and soon disappeared entirely.

Scientists don’t know how long this particular “cultural evolution” will stick around. But considering our bang-up job protecting the planet, it almost feels like there’s a measure of justified cosmic karma at play here.

HONG KONG—At dawn, officers from Hong Kong’s national-security police burst into the apartment of Derek Yuen and Eunice Yung, the son and daughter-in-law of a high-profile pro-democracy campaigner who criticizes China’s Communist Party from perches abroad.

The police seized a laptop and mobile phone in the raid last Monday and took Yuen and Yung, who is a pro-Beijing politician in the city’s legislature, to a police station for hours of questioning about the activities of their dissident relative before releasing them without charges, according to Yung.

Elmer Yuen, the 74-year-old U.S.-based activist who is the focus of the authorities’ ire, is one of eight overseas critics of China who are facing arrest warrants in Hong Kong after being accused of national-security crimes. He appeared at a news briefing in Washington last month and another in London on Tuesday, discussing his plans to form an unofficial government in exile.

Elmer Yuen, who shares his political commentary in lengthy videos posted online, said the authorities’ actions against his family members were intended to pressure him to speak out less and to halt his political efforts.

“Of course I worry about my safety and that of my family, but our work has a goal, and a price must be paid,” he told The Wall Street Journal. He said he wouldn’t be deterred “even if they arrest my entire family.”

The family and the widely diverging politics of its members have been the subject of public discussion in Hong Kong in recent years. They appeared in a 2020 documentary aired by the city’s public broadcaster RTHK, and their story has resonated with many Hong Kongers in politically divided homes.

Yung is the vice chair of a major pro-Beijing political party. Her husband once joked that their daughters’ crayons at home were missing a yellow one—the color of the city’s pro-democracy movement—because his wife had removed it.

After Yung was questioned, she said she was cooperating fully with investigators and hoped her father-in-law and the other dissidents would be arrested soon. “If I know about his whereabouts, I will without a doubt disclose it,” she said.

Yung and her husband didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Hong Kong’s chief executive, John Lee, has encouraged friends and relatives of the wanted dissidents to share tips and said they were eligible, along with other members of the public, for a reward of about $128,000 for capture of each activist.

1. Deadline is extended One option is for the Ecowas leaders to extend the deadline.

This has the danger of being seen as a climbdown, but the heads of state could save face by saying that diplomatic efforts have made progress and they want to give them more time.

The problem at the moment is that Ecowas mediation efforts have not borne fruit. A delegation sent to Niger on Thursday returned within a few hours with apparently little to show for it.

Meanwhile, the junta stepped up its rhetoric against both the West and Ecowas. It announced that it was cutting diplomatic ties with Nigeria, Togo, the US and France, and said it was cancelling the military agreements with France which allows the former colonial power to base some 1,500 soldiers there.

And President Bazoum, who is being held by the military, used stark language in an article in the Washington Post. He described himself as a "hostage" and called on the US and the entire international community to help restore constitutional order.

On Friday, the US said it will pause some of its aid to Niger's government, but will continue to provide humanitarian and food assistance.

2. They agree on a timetable for a transition To try and cool things down and find middle ground, the junta and Ecowas could agree on a timetable for a return to democratic rule.

This could include the release of President Bazoum, as well as other political detainees, in order to keep talks going and possibly buy more time. This has been a key demand of those who have condemned the coup in Africa and elsewhere.

The West African bloc has already approved democratic transitions in Niger's neighbours in the Sahel region, Mali and Burkina Faso, which were both taken over by the military in recent years.

But the negotiations were fraught with problems, with deadlines for elections continually pushed back and it is still not guaranteed that the handovers of power will actually happen.

Sudan, which created a mixed civilian-military government in 2019 that was supposed to pave the way to democracy after a coup there, provides another model. But the collapse of that country into a bitter conflict between rival military leaders offers a cautionary tale.

3. Military intervention The West African leaders did not say that force would definitely be used if President Bazoum was not reinstated but left it open as a possibility.

Nigerian officials have described it as a "last resort". President Tinubu said there could be a military intervention "to enforce compliance of the military junta in Niger should they remain recalcitrant".

Ecowas has used military force to restore constitutional order in the past, for example in The Gambia in 2017 when Yahya Jammeh refused to step down after losing an election.

But the calculation about whether to go ahead this time would be far more difficult.

Firstly, Niger is geographically the largest country in West Africa, while The Gambia is a tiny sliver of land surrounded by Senegal and the Atlantic Ocean, so sending troops in would be a whole different prospect.

Secondly, regional power Nigeria, which is leading the charge to restore President Bazoum, is facing a host of security challenges at home, so sending a significant portion of the army to Niger would be something of a gamble.

Thirdly, both Mali and Burkina Faso have said that military intervention in Niger would be seen as a "declaration of war" and they would go to defend their fellow coup leaders.

So it risks snowballing into a full-scale regional war, especially if the Niger population resists foreign intervention. Although it is impossible to know how they would react.

Nigeria and Niger share many historical and ethnic ties, with people on both sides speaking the same language so this could make some Nigerian troops reluctant to fight if it came to that.

Countries like Algeria, Niger's neighbour to the north, China and Russia have asked for restraint and the continued use of dialogue to douse tension.

However, after a three-day meeting in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, Ecowas defence chiefs say they have drawn up a detailed plan for military intervention for the regional leaders to consider.

Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Benin have all said they are willing to send troops into Niger if Ecowas decided to do so.

Nigeria alone has about 135,000 active troops, according to the Global Fire Power index, while Niger has about 10,000 but that certainly doesn't mean an invasion would be easy.

A peaceful solution is no doubt preferable for all sides but Ecowas is keen to show its resolve as it has failed to prevent a spate of coups in the region in the last three years.