Several people were killed in a shooting on Wednesday in the Montenegrin city of Cetinje, police and local media said. The shooter is on the run.

Police dispatched special troops to search for the armed shooter in Cetinje, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) northwest of the capital Podgorica.

A statement said the man opened fire in a bar and fled the scene armed. Police identified the shooter only by his initials A.M. and said he was 45 years old.

Police gave no other details. The state RTCG television said seven people were killed in the shooting that followed a bar brawl.

“Armed, he (shooter) left the object and fled,” the statement said.

The RTCG report identified the man as Aco Martinovic, saying he was known for erratic behavior and had been detained in the past for illegal possession of weapons. The TV published the reported suspect’s photo on its website.

The report said he went home to get his gun and came back to the bar where he opened fire and killed and wounded several people. He then went to another site where he killed the bar owner’s children and a woman, the report added.

Authorities did not immediately provide a number of fatalities.

Police appealed on the residents to remain calm and stay indoors, ruling out a clash between criminal gangs.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

A judge in Ecuador has ordered the detention of 16 air force members accused of involvement in the disappearance of four children, whose charred remains were discovered weeks after they were seen being forced into a military patrol car against their will.

The case has shocked the nation and sparked protests against the military, which has been spearheading President Daniel Noboa’s crackdown on violent criminal groups.

On Tuesday, moments after a judge in Guayaquil ordered the detentions, prosecutors announced that forensic tests showed four charred corpses found last week belonged to the children. The bodies were found near to where the children were last seen.

The children, Saúl Arboleda, Steven Medina, and brothers Josué and Ismael Arroyo, were reported missing on December 8 after playing soccer and being detained by soldiers in Guayas province.

Video released last week by the National Assembly showed they had been coerced into getting into a patrol car against their will.

The defense ministry acknowledged that the children, aged from 11 to 15, had been detained but insisted they were later released. It also claimed that the children had been involved in a robbery, but the Prosecutor’s Office said there was no evidence to support that.

News of the forensic identifications was received with frustration and heartbreak.

“What pain to close the year with this tragedy that mourns the country. It is unacceptable that the lives of our children end in this way. Let fear not silence us, and let solidarity become the voice that demands justice so that something like this never happens again,” the prefect of Guayas Marcela Aguiñaga wrote on X.

Guayaquil Mayor Aquiles Álvarez said, “Nothing will calm the pain of the parents, just as nothing will erase the mark of murderers from all those involved, directly or indirectly. The truth is that this country has hit rock bottom. Paradigms have been broken, but to make things worse. It makes you want nothing, everything hurts.”

During the hearing, the Prosecutor’s Office had presented testimonies and video recordings that it said supported “the alleged participation of the defendants in the crime investigated.”

Outside the hearing, dozens of people, including the children’s relatives and friends, gathered en masse to demand truth and transparency.

Some carried photos of the children. Others held banners and shouted slogans such as, “They took them alive, we want them alive!” and “Sir, madam, do not be indifferent, they take children in front of people!”

The National Assembly and the Mayor’s Office of Quito have declared three days of mourning.

Last week, President Noboa said there would be no impunity in this case and asked law enforcement institutions to work with the Attorney General’s Office during the investigations.

The defense ministry and armed forces said on Tuesday that they would collaborate “without reservations or conditions” in the investigations.

The Palestinian Authority has suspended Al Jazeera from broadcasting and operating in the occupied West Bank.

It accused the network of broadcasting “inciting materials” and “misleading reports” that “provoke strife and interfere in Palestinian internal affairs,” Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, said Wednesday.

“The decision also includes the temporary suspension of all journalists and staff associated with it, as well as the channels under its umbrella, until its legal status is rectified, due to Al Jazeera’s violation of the laws and regulations in force in Palestine,” the Palestinian news agency said.

Al Jazeera condemned the decision, calling it “in line with the practices of the occupation against its crews.”

A video from Al Jazeera shows three Palestinian law enforcement personnel entering a hotel room in Ramallah, in the central West Bank, and handing a letter to journalist Najwan Simri, who then signs it. The letter signed by the Palestinian Authority’s attorney general Akram Al-Khateeb, orders the “banning and freezing of all operations of Al Jazeera Satellite channel and its office in Palestine and freezing the work of all journalists working with the station, crews and affiliate channels temporarily until its situation is corrected due to [Al Jazeera’s] violation of the provisions of the laws and regulations.”

This marks the first time the network has faced such restrictions from Palestinian officials, including the Palestinian Authority which governs parts of the occupied West Bank.

However, Israeli officials have repeatedly attempted to stifle the news network, shutting down its operations in May, seizing equipment, and stopping broadcasts.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has long complained about Al Jazeera’s operations, alleging anti-Israeli bias and accusing the network of being a “mouthpiece for Hamas.” Al Jazeera has rejected the claims as “unfounded allegations.”

Months after shutting down the network’s Jerusalem office, Israeli forces raided and shut down its Ramallah office in the occupied West Bank in September. Al Jazeera said it would “continue reporting on the war on Gaza and the ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories and the regional escalation.” Since then, employees from Al Jazeera have used the title of “journalist” rather than “network correspondent” when reporting from the West Bank.

Following Monday’s announcement by the Palestinian Authority, Al Jazeera reiterated its “commitment to continue covering events and developments in the West Bank with full professionalism.”

The decision came from the Palestinian Authority’s specialized ministerial committee, which includes the Ministries of Culture, Interior, and Communications, according to Wafa. Lawyers like Muhannad Karajah from Lawyers for Justice – an independent Ramallah-based Palestinian group of lawyers – have challenged the legality of the order which did not come from a judicial ruling.

A controversial operation

In its statement on Monday, Al Jazeera said it “views the Palestinian Authority’s decision as an attempt to deter it from covering the escalating events taking place in the occupied territories.”

“The closure decision comes in the wake of a continuous campaign of incitement and intimidation from entities sponsored by the Palestinian Authority against our journalists,” the news network said. It called the decision “an attempt to conceal the truth of events in the occupied territories, especially in Jenin and its camp.”

The Qatari-based news network, which has produced dogged, on-the-ground reporting of Israel’s war in Gaza, has also extensively covered an operation by Palestinian security forces that began in December, in the occupied West Bank to combat what they describe as extremist “outlaws” in Jenin. The fighting between the Palestinian Authority’s security forces and Palestinian militant groups aligned with Hamas – who accuse the authority of selling out to Israel – has been highly controversial.

Al Jazeera was also criticized by the Palestinian Authority following the network’s coverage of the killing of Palestinian journalist Shatha Sabbagh, whose family accused Palestinian security forces of shooting her in the head on Saturday during their Jenin operation.

In a virtual interview on Sunday with Al Jazeera anchor Ahmed Taha, alongside Sabbagh’s mother, the spokesperson for the Palestinian security forces Anwar Rajab said he was not notified he would be on air with the mother. After listening to her for about three and a half minutes, in which she accused the security forces of killing her daughter, Rajab offered his condolences and then accused Al Jazeera of being “unprofessional” and “taking advantage of people’s suffering and pain.”

After an apology from the anchor for not notifying the spokesperson beforehand, Rajab said the security forces were not responsible for the killing of Shatha Sabbagh and said investigations were ongoing. Following a further heated exchange with the anchor, Rajab accused Al Jazeera of “inciting and leading sedition” before leaving the interview.

Widespread condemnation

Al Jazeera said it was “astonished” by the Palestinian Authority’s decision and said the authority is “fully responsible” for the safety of the network’s staff in the West Bank. The network demanded the authority revoke their decision and allow teams to continue their coverage in the area “without intimidation.”

Others across the Palestinian territories echoed Al Jazeera’s calls for rescinding the decision.

Independent Palestinian politician and head of the Palestinian National Initiative Mostafa Al Barghouti said the network’s Palestinian reporters “face continuous assaults from the occupation” and said the order against it “does not benefit the Palestinian people or their just cause, nor does it benefit those who made this decision.”

The order also drew condemnation from the Palestinian Journalists’ Protection Center, a Ramallah-based NGO that called the decision a “shameful assault on press freedom.”

Hamas condemned the decision as “illegal and unjustified.”