Author: AFP
The German government said Monday that Israel’s decision to halt aid deliveries and cut off the electricity supply to Gaza could prompt a fresh humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory. Referring to the decision to stop aid, foreign ministry spokeswoman Kathrin Deschauer told a regular press conference Gaza was “again threatened with a food shortage”. “We note with great concern the cutting off of electricity and the discussion about stopping the water supply,” she said. “Such steps are or would be unacceptable and incompatible with (Israel’s) obligations under international law,” Deschauer added. She said that Germany “calls on the Israeli…
Russia on Sunday claimed the capture of a village in Ukraine’s Sumy region after mounting a cross-border offensive while battling Ukrainian troops in its Kursk region. The defence ministry said in a briefing that its forces had “liberated” the small village of Novenke in Sumy region near the border with Kursk region.
An apparently drunken man somehow survived after being struck Saturday by a cargo train while sleeping along train tracks in Peru, local authorities said. “The train knocked him over but through some miracle did not kill him,” General Javier Avalos, a security official for the town of Ate in Lima province, told AFP. “He apparently was in a state of intoxication, fell asleep along the train tracks and did not feel the train coming,” Avalos said. The train was on a regular run toward the Peruvian Andes when it struck 28-year-old Juan Carlos Tello, he said, adding that it stopped…
International support grew on Saturday for an Arab counterproposal to US President Donald Trump’s plan to take over Gaza and displace its residents, with Muslim nations endorsing it and European governments giving their backing. Unlike the Trump plan, the Arab proposal aims to rebuild Gaza without displacing the territory’s 2.4 million inhabitants, who endured more than 15 months of devastating conflict before a fragile ceasefire took effect on January 19. The 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation formally adopted the counterproposal at an emergency meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, three days after the Arab League ratified it at a summit in…
A Pakistani man has been charged with murder after allegedly shooting the administrator of a community WhatsApp group who removed him from the chat, police said Saturday. Mushtaq Ahmed was shot dead on Thursday evening in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province that borders Afghanistan, which has a history of bloody sectarian violence. A man named only as Ashfaq has been charged with his murder, according to police documents seen by AFP and a local police official. Mushtaq allegedly kicked Ashfaq out of the WhatsApp group following an argument, according to a statement by Mushtaq’s brother seen by…
Russia on Saturday said its troops had retaken three villages seized by Ukraine in the Kursk border region, where Kyiv’s forces have been losing ground recently. The Russian defence ministry announced the recapture of Viktorovka, Nikolayevka and Staraya Sorochina. Ukrainian soldiers launched an offensive in Kursk last summer but Russia has wrested back control of more than two-thirds of the territory captured by Ukraine. According to DeepState, an online military tracker linked to the Ukrainian army, the Russian move followed a “breach” in Ukrainian defence lines near the town of Sudzha which is under Kyiv’s control. “One of our units…
Greece’s parliament on Friday rejected a no-confidence motion brought against Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s government over its handling of the country’s worst rail disaster in 2023. Following two days of acrimonious debates and mass protests, the chamber’s deputies voted against the motion, brought by the main opposition socialist Pasok party, by 157 to 136 lawmakers.
More than 50 freed Israeli hostages urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fully implement the Gaza ceasefire deal and secure the release of those still held in the Palestinian territory. “We who have experienced the inferno know that a return to war is life-threatening for those still left behind,” a group of 56 freed hostages said in a letter posted on the social media platform Instagram on Friday evening. “Implement the agreement in full, in one single manoeuvre.” Among those to sign the letter was Yarden Bibas, whose wife and two young sons died while held captive in Gaza. Their…
Syria’s leader Ahmed al-Sharaa late on Friday urged insurgents from toppled president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority to lay down their arms “before it’s too late” after clashes in the west of the country killed more than 220 people. In a speech broadcast on Telegram, the interim president also vowed to “continue to work towards monopolising weapons in the hands of the state, and there will be no more unregulated weapons”.
Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman died of natural causes, probably around a week after his wife passed away, the chief medical investigator in the US state of New Mexico said Friday. The findings end more than a week of mystery that have surrounded the death of one of Hollywood’s most beloved stars, whose everyman persona belied a powerful presence and rare acting skill. “The cause of death for Mr. Gene Hackman, aged 95 years, is hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, with Alzheimer’s disease as a significant contributory factor,” Heather Jarrell, the chief medical examiner for the New Mexico Office of the…