Author: AFP
Syria’s leader Ahmed al-Sharaa told Al Arabiya TV on Sunday his country and Russia shared “deep strategic interests”, expressing his desire to rebuild ties with the close ally of deposed leader Bashar al-Assad. “Russia is an important country and is considered the second most powerful country in the world,” Sharaa said in an interview with Saudi-owned Al Arabiya, noting the “deep strategic interests between Russia and Syria” and adding: “all Syria’s arms are of Russian origin, and many power plants are managed by Russian experts… We do not want Russia to leave Syria in the way that some wish.”
A Jeju Air plane carrying 181 people from Thailand to South Korea crashed on arrival Sunday, smashing into a barrier and bursting into flames, killing everyone aboard except for two flight attendants plucked from the wreckage. A bird strike was cited by authorities as the likely cause of the crash — the worst ever aviation disaster on South Korean soil — which flung passengers out of the plane and left it “almost completely destroyed”, according to fire officials. Video showed the Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 landing on its belly at Muan International Airport, skidding off the runway as smoke streamed…
Law enforcement in the US state of New York on Friday released “devastating” footage of prison guards beating a Black inmate shortly before he died. The body-worn camera footage, recorded the night of December 9, shows Robert Brooks, 43, brutalized by multiple prison guards, with his face bloodied and neck held. Brooks, an inmate at a northern New York prison serving a 12-year sentence for assault, was pronounced dead later that night. Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, said the video was released to provide “transparency and accountability.” In a statement, Brooks’ relatives said they found “watching the…
France has sent Indonesia an official request to transfer a French death row inmate imprisoned on drug charges for nearly 20 years, a senior Indonesian minister told AFP on Saturday. Serge Atlaoui, a 61-year-old welder, was arrested in 2005 in a drugs factory outside Jakarta where authorities accused him of being a “chemist”. Indonesia has some of the world’s toughest drug laws, including the death penalty for traffickers and has executed foreigners in the past. In recent weeks, the Indonesian government has agreed to transfer a series of high-profile foreign detainees on death row, including a Filipina mom and the…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Friday for a “thorough investigation” into the Azerbaijan Airlines crash and pointed to “clear visual evidence” of Russian involvement. “Every loss of life deserves a thorough investigation to establish the truth. We can see how the clear visual evidence at the crash site points to Russia’s responsibility for the tragedy,” Zelensky said in a social media post, addressing reports the plane was hit by a Russian air defence missile.
Tens of thousands of people in Bosnia were still without electricity Friday due to a snowstorm, as rescuers found the body of a weather station employee dead on a mountain. The storm, which started on Sunday night, initally left more than 170,000 people without electricity and cut off parts of the Balkan nation. Although the weather has improved across the country, local officials and power firms said thousands of people were still cut off by blocked roads and tens of thousands of households were without electricity, notably in northern Bosnia. Meanwhile, a weather station employee was found dead in the…
Huge crowds demonstrated in Yemen’s capital on Friday, a day after Israeli jets pounded Huthi rebel targets in response to missile and drone attacks by the Iran-backed group. Tens of thousands of people gathered in rebel-held Sanaa, chanting and brandishing Kalashnikovs, placards and pistols as they listened to fiery anti-Israel speeches. Large-scale demonstrations are a regular occurrence in Sanaa under the Iran-backed Huthis but Friday’s protest followed a surge in hostilities with Israel, which struck multiple sites on Thursday. Six people were killed, including four at Sanaa’s international airport where World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was waiting for…
Mexican authorities have discovered 12 bodies buried in clandestine graves in Mexico’s northern Chihuahua state, officials said Thursday. Authorities discovered 11 graves containing 12 skeletons in Ascension municipality near the US border, the state prosecutor’s office said in a statement. “The discovery was made during tracking operations that took place on December 18, 19 and 20,” it said. “The unidentified skeletons and evidence were transferred to the laboratories of the Forensic Medical Service” to the city of Ciudad Juarez, it said. Chihuahua has been hit for years by violence linked to organized crime as a route for drug trafficking and…
NATO is ready to help Finland and Estonia as Finnish authorities probe an oil tanker that sailed from a Russian port over the possible “sabotage” of a power cable linking the two member countries, alliance chief Mark Rutte said Thursday. “Spoke with (Estonian Prime Minister) Kristen Michal about reported possible sabotage of Baltic Sea cables. NATO stands in solidarity with Allies and condemns any attacks on critical infrastructure. We are following investigations by Estonia and Finland, and we stand ready to provide further support,” Rutte said on X.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that his country’s strikes on Yemen’s Huthi rebels would continue “until the job is done”. “We are determined to cut this branch of terrorism from the Iranian axis of evil. We will continue until the job is done,” he said in a video statement released after Israel struck multiple sites in Yemen.