The latest mass protests in Hong Kong turned violent late Sunday, with at least 59 people injured. The protest began peacefully, but thousands of pro-democracy marchers went beyond the designated end point of the demonstration in the Wan Chai district. They threw eggs and spray-painted graffiti at the Liaison Office, China’s government agency in the territory. Police responded with tear gas and deployed thousands of officers to the city center, where at least 14 people sustained injuries. China’s official People’s Daily newspaper called the protesters’ actions “intolerable.”

The U.S. State Department on Thursday in Washington concluded its second annual Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom by announcing plans to create the International Religious Freedom Alliance. The three-day event featured nearly 900 religious leaders and activists from more than 100 countries and focused on joint efforts to end religious persecution. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the alliance will be the first international body to specifically combat religious persecution.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard this week seized a foreign tanker and 12 crew members accused of smuggling oil, Iranian state TV said Thursday. The vessel appears to be the United Arab Emirates–based, Panamanian-flagged MT Riah oil tanker, which went off radar on Sunday night near Qeshm Island, where the Revolutionary Guard runs a base. State TV said the forces intercepted the vessel south of Iran’s Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz and later found it was transporting 1 million liters of fuel from Iranian smugglers to foreign customers.

An attack on a popular animation studio in Kyoto, Japan, early Thursday killed at least 33 people. The 41-year-old suspect, according to local media reports, dumped a liquid accelerant on the floor of the three-story building housing Kyoto Animation and set it on fire, shouting, “You die!” Firefighters found 20 bodies on the building’s third floor and some on the stairs to the roof, where they likely collapsed while trying to escape. At least 36 others sustained injuries, with 10 in critical condition. More than 70 people were in the building at the time, fire officials said.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo an international public health emergency. The disease has infected more than 2,500 people since the outbreak began in August and has killed more than 1,600. The declaration followed the first confirmed case of the disease this week in Goma, a city of about 2 million people on Congo’s border with Rwanda.

Sudan’s military council and the opposition alliance on Wednesday formally signed a power-sharing agreement to lead the country until elections can take place. Leaders from both sides signed their initials on the “political declaration” after overnight talks. Under the deal, both sides agreed to form a joint sovereign council to rule for “three years or a little more,” with five seats for each party and an additional seat for a civilian with a military background.

A group of delegates from the Afghan government and the Taliban last week approved a “roadmap for peace” during a conference on ending the 18-year civil war. The meeting produced one of the most detailed peace plans yet, but uncertainty remains over the absence of a cease-fire agreement and the Taliban’s commitment to the discussions.