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AFP

  • Australia will recognise Palestinian state: PM

    Australia will recognise Palestinian state: PM

    SYDNEY, Australia: Australia will recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Monday.

    “Until Israeli and Palestinian statehood is permanent, peace can only be temporary,” he told reporters.

    “Australia will recognise the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own.”

    Several countries, including France, Britian and Canada, have announced plans to recognise statehood for Palestinians since Israel launched a bombardment of Gaza nearly two years ago in response to the Hamas attacks.

    Albanese added that he had received assurances from the Palestinian Authority that there would be “no role for the terrorists of Hamas in any future Palestinian state”.

    “There is a moment of opportunity here, and Australia will work with the international community to seize it,” he said.

  • European ministers slam Israel’s Gaza control plan

    European ministers slam Israel’s Gaza control plan

    Madrid: Spain and seven other European nations on Sunday condemned Israel’s plan to occupy Gaza City, warning it would kill large numbers of civilians and force nearly a million Palestinians from their homes.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet on Friday greenlighted plans for a major operation to seize Gaza City, triggering a wave of domestic and international criticism.

    In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the eight nations said the decision “will only aggravate the humanitarian crisis and further endanger the lives of the remaining hostages”.

    Besides Spain, the statement was signed by the foreign ministers of Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal and Slovenia.

    They estimated the operation could lead to an “unacceptably high number of fatalities and the forced displacement of nearly one million Palestinian civilians”, according to a copy of the statement released by Spain’s foreign ministry.

    They also warned that the planned offensive and occupation of Gaza City would be “a major obstacle to implementing the two-state solution, the only path towards a comprehensive, just and lasting peace”.

    Foreign powers, including some of Israel’s allies, have been pushing for a negotiated ceasefire to secure the hostages’ return and help alleviate a humanitarian crisis in the strip.

    Despite the backlash and rumours of dissent from Israeli military top brass, Netanyahu has remained defiant over the decision to seize Gaza City.

  • 6.1-magnitude quake hits western Turkey: disaster agency

    6.1-magnitude quake hits western Turkey: disaster agency

    A 6.1-magnitude quake struck Sindirgi in western Turkey on Sunday, the Turkish disaster management agency (AFAD) reported.

    The quake was felt across several cities in the west of the country, including Istanbul and the tourist hotspot of Izmir. No deaths were reported.

    About 10 buildings collapsed in Sindirgi, the epicentre of the earthquake, including a three-storey building in the city centre, Mayor Serkan Sak announced on Turkish private channel NTV.

    “Six people lived in this three-storey building. Four were rescued from the rubble,” he said, adding that efforts to extract the other two were underway.

    “Buildings and mosques were destroyed, but we have no reports of loss of life,” he added.

    The quake hit at 7:53 pm (1653 GMT), with aftershocks ranging from 3.5 to 4.6 magnitude, according to AFAD.

    Turkey is crisscrossed by several geological fault lines which have previously caused catastrophes in the country.

    A quake in February 2023 in the southwest killed at least 53,000 people and devastated Antakya, site of the ancient city of Antioch.

    At the beginning of July, a 5.8-magnitude tremor in the same region resulted in one death and injured 69 people.

  • Over 600 pilgrims hospitalised due to chlorine gas leak in Iraq

    Over 600 pilgrims hospitalised due to chlorine gas leak in Iraq

    KARBALA, Iraq: More than 600 pilgrims in Iraq were briefly hospitalised with respiratory problems after inhaling chlorine as the result of a leak at a water treatment station, authorities said Sunday.

    The incident took place overnight on the route between the two holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, located in the centre and south of Iraq respectively.

    This year, several million Shiite Muslim pilgrims are expected to make their way to Karbala, which houses the shrines of Imam Hussein and his brother Hazrat Abbas.

    There, they will mark the Arbaeen — the 40-day period of mourning during which Shiites commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).

    In a brief statement, Iraq’s health ministry said “621 cases of asphyxia have been recorded following a chlorine gas leak in Karbala”.

    “All have received the necessary care and left hospital in good health,” it said.

    Security forces charged with protecting pilgrims meanwhile said the incident had been caused by “a chlorine leak from a water station on the Karbala-Najaf road”.

    Much of Iraq’s infrastructure is in disrepair due to decades of conflict and corruption, with adherence to safety standards often lax.

    In July, a massive fire at a shopping mall in the eastern city of Kut killed more than 60 people, many of whom suffocated in the toilets, according to authorities.

  • Four astronauts’ home from space station after splashdown

    Four astronauts’ home from space station after splashdown

    WASHINGTON: An international crew of four astronauts is back home on Earth Saturday after nearly five months aboard the International Space Station, returning safely in a SpaceX capsule.

    The spacecraft carrying US astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov splashed down off California’s coast at 8:44 am local time (1534 GMT).

    Their return marks the end of the 10th crew rotation mission to the space station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which was created to succeed the Space Shuttle era by partnering with private industry.

    The Dragon capsule of billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX company detached from the International Space Station (ISS) at 2215 GMT on Friday.

    When these capsules reenter Earth’s atmosphere, they heat up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,925 Celsius), according to NASA.

    Atmospheric reentry — then the deployment of huge parachutes when the capsule gets closer to Earth — slows its speed from 17,500 miles (28,100 kilometers) per hour to just 16 miles per hour.

    After the capsule splashed down, it was recovered by a SpaceX ship and hoisted aboard. Only then were the astronauts able to breathe Earth’s air again, for the first time in months.

    The crew will now fly to Houston to be reunited with their families.

    They conducted numerous scientific experiments during their time on the space station, including studying plant growth, how cells react to gravity, and the effect of microgravity on human eyes.

    ‘Bittersweet’ return

    NASA acting Administrator Sean Duffy praised the successful mission.

    “Our crew missions are the building blocks for long-duration, human exploration pushing the boundaries of what’s possible,” he said in a NASA statement.

    McClain said her farewell to the ISS was “bittersweet” because she may never return.

    “Every day, this mission depends on people from all over the world,” she wrote on X.

    “It depends on government and commercial entities, it depends on all political parties, and it depends on commitment to an unchanged goal over many years and decades.”

    NASA said last month it would lose about 20 percent of its workforce — around 3,900 employees — under cuts from the US President Donald Trump’s sweeping effort to trim the federal workforce.

    Trump has meanwhile prioritized crewed missions to the Moon and Mars.

    The Crew-10’s launch into space in March allowed two US astronauts to return home after being unexpectedly stuck aboard the space station for nine months.

    When they launched in June 2024, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were only supposed to spend eight days in space on a test of the Boeing Starliner’s first crewed flight.

    However, the spaceship developed propulsion problems and was deemed unfit to fly back, leaving them in space for an indefinite period.

    NASA announced this week that Wilmore has decided to retire after 25 years of service at the US space agency.

    Last week, US astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov boarded the ISS for a six-month mission.

  • Terrorists kill one policeman in southeast Iran: media

    Terrorists kill one policeman in southeast Iran: media

    TEHRAN: Terrorists killed one policeman in Iran’s restive southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, Iranian media reported Sunday, adding that three assailants also died.

    “A policeman from Saravan was killed while terrorists were trying to enter the police station” in that area of Sistan-Baluchistan, the Tasnim news agency said.

    The attackers were members of the Sunni jihadist group Jaish al-Adl (“Army of Justice” in Arabic) active in Iran’s southeast, the agency said.

    “Three terrorists were killed and two were arrested,” Tasnim said.

    Sistan-Baluchistan, which shares a long border with Pakistan and Afghanistan, has been the site of frequent clashes between security forces and insurgents or smugglers.

    The province hosts a significant population from the Baloch ethnic minority, which practises Sunni Islam in Shiite-majority Iran.

    On July 26, gunmen stormed a courthouse in the province’s capital Zahedan, killing at least six people, in an attack that was later claimed by Jaish al-Adl.

    In one of the deadliest attacks in the province, 10 police officers were killed in October.

  • UK police arrest hundreds for backing banned pro-Palestine group

    UK police arrest hundreds for backing banned pro-Palestine group

    LONDON: Police in London arrested 466 people Saturday for supporting Palestine Action at the latest and largest protest backing the group since the government banned it last month under anti-terror laws.

    The Metropolitan Police said it had made the arrests, thought to be one of the highest number ever at a single protest in the UK capital, for “supporting a proscribed organisation”.

    It also arrested eight people for other offences including five for alleged assaults on officers, though none were seriously injured, it added.

    The government outlawed Palestine Action in early July, days after it took responsibility for a break-in at an air force base in southern England that caused an estimated £7 million ($9.3 million) of damage to two aircraft.

    The group said its activists were responding to Britain’s indirect military support for Israel amid the war in Gaza.

    Britain’s interior ministry reiterated ahead of Saturday’s protests that Palestine Action was also suspected of other “serious attacks” that involved “violence, significant injuries and extensive criminal damage”.

    But critics, including the United Nations and groups such as Amnesty International and Greenpeace, have condemned the move as legal overreach and a threat to free speech.

    ‘Unprecedented’

    A group called Defend Our Juries, which organised Saturday’s protests and previous demonstrations against the ban, said “unprecedented numbers” had risked “arrest and possible imprisonment” to “defend this country’s ancient liberties”.

    “We will keep going. Our numbers are already growing for the next wave of action in September,” it added.

    Attendees began massing near parliament at lunchtime bearing signs saying “oppose genocide, support Palestine Action” and other slogans, and waving Palestinian flags.

    Psychotherapist Craig Bell, 39, was among those holding a placard. For him, the ban was “absolutely ridiculous”.

    “When you compare Palestine Action with an actual terrorist group who are killing civilians and taking lives, it’s just a joke that they’re being prescribed a terrorist group,” he told AFP.

    As police moved in on the demonstrators, who nearly all appeared to offer no resistance, attendees applauded those being arrested and shouted “shame on you” at officers.

    “Let them arrest us all,” said Richard Bull, 42, a wheelchair-user in attendance.

    “This government has gone too far. I have nothing to feel ashamed of.”

    However, interior minister Yvette Cooper insisted late Saturday Palestine Action had been outlawed “based on strong security advice” and following “an assessment from the Joint Terrorism Assessment Centre that the group prepares for terrorism”.

    “Many people may not yet know the reality of this organisation,” she said, adding it “is not non-violent”.

    “The right to protest is one we protect fiercely but this is very different from displaying support for this one specific and narrow, proscribed organisation.”

    NGOs opposed

    Police forces across the UK have made scores of similar arrests since the government outlawed Palestine Action on July 5, making being a member or supporting the group a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

    Police announced this week that the first three people had been charged in the English and Welsh criminal justice system with supporting Palestine Action following their arrests at a July 5 demo.

    Seven people have so far been charged in Scotland, which has a separate legal system.

    Amnesty International UK Chief Executive Sacha Deshmukh wrote to Met Police chief Mark Rowley this week urging restraint be exercised when policing people holding placards expressing support for Palestine Action.

    “The arrest of otherwise peaceful protesters is a violation of the UK’s international obligations to protect the rights of freedom of expression and assembly,” Amnesty said Saturday on X.

    A UK court challenge against the decision to proscribe Palestine Action will be heard in November.

  • Thousands protest in Tel Aviv against Israel’s Gaza take over plan

    Thousands protest in Tel Aviv against Israel’s Gaza take over plan

    Tel Aviv: Thousands took to the streets in Israel’s Tel Aviv on Saturday to call for an end to the war in Gaza, a day after the government vowed to expand the conflict and capture Gaza City.

    Demonstrators waved signs and held up pictures of hostages still held captive in the Palestinian territory as they called on the government to secure their release.

    Speakers urge soldiers to refuse to serve in Gaza

    According to the Times of Israel, during that protest, speakers urged soldiers to refuse to serve in Gaza and called on opposition heads as well as business, labor and academic leaders to bring the country to a standstill.

    The mother of a combat officer said that soldiers are wasting away physically and mentally and are deprived of proper defensive equipment.

    She says the Gaza City takeover plan “puts Israel on the sure path to a forever war that will cause the death of the hostages, the deaths of hundreds of soldiers, the destruction of Israel’s image.”

    “Don’t agree to enter Gaza,” she says. “Refuse to participate in an overtly illegal war.”

    Russia condemns Israel’s Gaza City occupation plan

    Russia’s foreign ministry on Saturday condemned Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City, saying it risked worsening the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

    Implementing such plans “risks worsening the already dramatic situation in the Palestinian enclave, which shows all the signs of a humanitarian disaster”, said a ministry statement.

    Gaza civil defence says 34 killed by Israeli fire

    Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 34 people were killed by Israeli fire on Saturday, including more than a dozen civilians who were waiting to collect aid.

    Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP nine people were killed and 181 wounded when Israeli forces opened fire on them as they gathered near a border crossing in northern Gaza that has been used for aid deliveries.

    Six more people were killed and 30 wounded after Israeli troops targeted civilians assembling near an aid point in central Gaza, he said.

    Strikes in central Gaza also resulted in multiple casualties, according to Bassal, while a drone attack near the southern city of Khan Yunis killed at least three people and wounded several others.

    Thousands of Palestinians congregate daily near food distribution points in Gaza, including four managed by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

    Since launching in late May, its operations have been marred by almost-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on those waiting to collect aid.

    Israeli restrictions on the entry of supplies into Gaza since the start of the war nearly two years ago have led to shortages of food and essential supplies, including medicine and fuel, which hospitals require to power their generators.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces mounting pressure to agree to a ceasefire to bring the territory’s more than two million people back from the brink of famine and free the hostages held by Palestinian militants.

  • UK police arrests 365 protestors in London for supporting Palestine Action

    UK police arrests 365 protestors in London for supporting Palestine Action

    London: Police in London arrested at least 365 people Saturday for supporting Palestine Action, at the latest and largest protest backing the group since the government banned it last month under anti-terror laws.

    The Metropolitan Police said it made the hundreds of arrests, thought to be one of the highest ever at a single protest in the UK capital, for “supporting a proscribed organisation”.

    It also arrested seven for other offences including assaults on officers, though none were seriously injured, it added.

    The government outlawed Palestine Action in early July days after it took responsibility for a break-in at an air force base in southern England that caused an estimated £7 million ($9.3 million) of damage to two aircraft.

    The group said its activists were responding to Britain’s indirect military support for Israel amid the war in Gaza.

    Britain’s interior ministry reiterated ahead of Saturday’s protests that Palestine Action is also suspected of other “serious attacks” that involved “violence, significant injuries and extensive criminal damage”.

    But critics, including the United Nations and NGOs like Amnesty International and Greenpeace, have lambasted the move as legal overreach and a threat to free speech.

    – ‘Unprecedented’ –

    A group called Defend Our Juries, which organised Saturday’s protests and previous demonstrations against the ban, said “unprecedented numbers” had risked “arrest and possible imprisonment” to “defend this country’s ancient liberties”.

    “We will keep going. Our numbers are already growing for the next wave of action in September,” it added.

    Attendees began massing near parliament at lunchtime bearing signs saying “oppose genocide, support Palestine Action” and other slogans, and waving Palestinian flags.

    Psychotherapist Craig Bell, 39, was among those holding a placard.

    He branded the ban “absolutely ridiculous”.

    “When you compare Palestine Action with an actual terrorist group who are killing civilians and taking lives, it’s just a joke that they’re being prescribed a terrorist group,” he told AFP.

  • Damascus backs out of Paris talks with Kurds: official

    Damascus backs out of Paris talks with Kurds: official

    DAMASCUS, Syria: A Syrian government official said Saturday that authorities would not participate in planned talks in Paris on integrating the Kurdish semi-autonomous administration into the Syrian state and demanded future negotiations be held in Damascus.

    The move came a day after the Kurdish administration, which controls swathes of the north and northeast, held a conference involving several Syrian minority communities, the first such event since Islamists overthrew longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December.

    Participants included the head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Mazloum Abdi, who on March 10 signed a deal with President Ahmed al-Sharaa to integrate the Kurds’ civil and military institutions into the state.

    The conference’s final statement called for “a democratic constitution that… establishes a decentralised state”, guaranteeing the participation of all components of Syrian society.

    Damascus has previously rejected calls for decentralisation.

    “This conference was a blow to current negotiating efforts, and based on this, (the government) will not participate in any meetings scheduled in Paris,” state news agency SANA quoted an unidentified government official as saying.

    The government “calls on international mediators to move all negotiations to Damascus, as this is the legitimate, national location for dialogue among Syrians”, the official said.

    Late last month, Syria, France and the United States said they agreed to convene talks in Paris “as soon as possible” on implementing the March 10 agreement.

    Recent sectarian clashes in south Syria’s Druze-majority Sweida province and massacres of the Alawite community on Syria’s coast in March have deepened Kurdish concerns as progress on negotiations with Damascus has largely stalled.

    The event also saw video addresses from an influential spiritual leader of Syria’s Druze community in the country’s south, Hikmat al-Hijri, and from prominent Alawite spiritual leader Ghazal Ghazal.

    Damascus has strongly criticised Hijri after he called last month for international protection for the Druze and appealed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for assistance during the sectarian clashes.

    The government will not “sit at the negotiating table with any party that seeks to revive the era of the former regime under any cover”, the official told SANA, condemning the hosting of “separatist figures involved in hostile acts”.

    “The government sees the conference as an attempt to internationalise Syrian affairs” and invite foreign interference, the official added.