Britain

Demonstrators in London, Paris, Istanbul back Iran protests

Global Edition

Iran rights group warns of 'mass killing', govt calls counter-protests

BY STUART WILLIAMS

  • Rights groups have already drawn attention to the footage from Kahrizak, with IHR saying it "shows a large number of people killed during the nationwide protests in Iran".
  • Iranian authorities have committed a "mass killing" in cracking down on the biggest protests against the Islamic republic in years, a rights group said Sunday, as the government ordered counter-rallies in a bid to regain the initiative.
  • Rights groups have already drawn attention to the footage from Kahrizak, with IHR saying it "shows a large number of people killed during the nationwide protests in Iran".
Iranian authorities have committed a "mass killing" in cracking down on the biggest protests against the Islamic republic in years, a rights group said Sunday, as the government ordered counter-rallies in a bid to regain the initiative.
The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), which has an extensive network of sources in the country, said it had confirmed the killing of at least 192 protesters but warned the actual death toll could already amount to several hundreds, or even more.
The protests, initially sparked by anger over the rising cost of living, have evolved into a movement against the theocratic system in place in Iran since the 1979 revolution, and have already lasted two weeks.
They have become one of the biggest challenges to the rule of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, coming in the wake of Israel's 12-day war against the Islamic republic in June, which was backed by the United States.
Protests have swelled in recent days despite an internet blackout that has lasted more than 72 hours, according to monitor Netblocks, with activists warning that the shutdown was limiting the flow of information and that the actual toll risks being far higher. 
"Unverified reports indicate that at least several hundreds, and according to some sources, more than 2,000 people may have been killed," said IHR, denouncing a "mass killing" and a "major international crime against the people of Iran".
A video whose location was authenticated by AFP on Sunday showed dozens of bodies accumulating outside a morgue south of Tehran.
The footage, geolocated to be from the morgue in Kahrizak just south of the Iranian capital, showed bodies wrapped in black bags on the ground outside, with what appeared to be grieving relatives searching for loved ones.
Rights groups have already drawn attention to the footage from Kahrizak, with IHR saying it "shows a large number of people killed during the nationwide protests in Iran".

'National resistance battle'

President Masoud Pezeshkian accused the arch-foes of Iran of "trying to escalate this unrest" and bringing "terrorists from abroad into the country", in an interview broadcast Sunday. 
"The people (of Iran) should not allow rioters to disrupt society. The people should believe that we (the government) want to establish justice," he told state broadcaster IRIB. 
State TV has aired images of burning buildings, including a mosque, as well as funeral processions for security personnel, with authorities saying members of security forces have been killed. 
The Iranian government on Sunday declared three days of national mourning for "martyrs" including members of the security forces killed, state television said.
The government described the fight against what it has termed "riots" as an "Iranian national resistance battle against America and the Zionist regime", using the clerical leadership's term for Israel, which the Islamic republic does not recognise.
Pezeshkian urged people to take part in a "national resistance march" of nationwide rallies on Monday to denounce the violence, which the government said was committed by "urban terrorist criminals", state television reported.
More than 2,600 protesters have been arrested since the beginning of the demonstrations, according to estimates by IHR. 

Paralysis in Tehran

Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of Iran's ousted shah, who has played a prominent role in calling for the protests, has urged renewed demonstrations on Sunday night. 
Since the protests began, some participants have been heard chanting "long live the shah".
Pahlavi said he was prepared to return to the country and lead a transition to a democratic government. 
"I'm already planning on that," he told Fox News on Sunday. 
Videos of large demonstrations in the capital Tehran and other cities over the past three nights have filtered out despite the internet cut, which has rendered impossible normal communication with the outside world via messaging apps or even phone lines. 
In Tehran, an AFP journalist described a city in a state of near paralysis. 
The price of meat has nearly doubled since the start of the protests, and while some shops are open, many are not.
Those that do open must close at around 4:00 pm or 5:00 pm, when security forces deploy en masse.
US President Donald Trump has voiced support for the protests and threatened military action against Iranian authorities "if they start killing people". 
Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Iran would hit back if the US launched military action, with the US military and shipping "legitimate targets" he said in comments broadcast by state TV. 
sw-sjw/jfx

Britain

Demonstrators in London, Paris, Istanbul back Iran protests

  • In Istanbul, demonstrators voicing support for the Iranian protesters gathered in steady rain.
  • Demonstrators rallied in London, Paris and Istanbul on Sunday in support of protests in Iran that have been countered with a deadly crackdown by the country's security forces.
  • In Istanbul, demonstrators voicing support for the Iranian protesters gathered in steady rain.
Demonstrators rallied in London, Paris and Istanbul on Sunday in support of protests in Iran that have been countered with a deadly crackdown by the country's security forces.
London demonstrations, initially in front of the Iranian embassy and later in front of the British prime minister's residence, grew to several thousand as the day progressed.
"We want revolution, change the regime," Afsi, a 38-year-old Iranian, who declined to give her last name, told AFP at the rally in front of Downing Street.
Afsi has lived in London for seven years, and has not been able to contact her family in Iran because of an internet blackout imposed by authorities since Thursday.
"
It's so frustrating, but it's not the first time," he said. "This time, we have hope ... we feel like we can do it (overthrow the government) this time." 
In Paris, more than 2,000 people waving Iran's flag from before the Islamic Revolution in 1979 demonstrated, to chants of "No to the terrorist Islamic Republic".
Police did not allow them to approach the Iranian embassy.
"Close the mullahs' embassy, the terrorist factory," some demonstrators yelled.
A 20-year-old Iranian student living in Paris, who gave his first name as Arya, said: "In Iran, the people are rising up in the streets, and we Iranians outside Iran are here to show we are with them and they are not alone."
He said he was waiting to hear what the son of Iran's last shah, US-based Reza Pahlavi, "will tell us to do".
Pahlavi has emerged as a potential figurehead for government opponents.
The protests, initially sparked by anger over the rising cost of living, have lasted two weeks and become a movement against the theocratic system in place since the 1979 revolution. Iranian authorities have called the protesters "rioters" who are backed by the United States and Israel.
In Istanbul, demonstrators voicing support for the Iranian protesters gathered in steady rain.
Police cordoned off the area outside the Iranian consulate and the crowd was kept away from the mission.
"It's been 72 hours since we had any news from the country, from our families. No internet or television, we can't reach Iran anymore," said Nina, a young Iranian living in Turkey who had the Iranian flag and red tears painted on her face.
"The regime kills at random -- whether families are on foot or in a car, whether there are children. It spares no one," she added.
The crackdown by Iran's authorities has resulted in at least 192 deaths, according to the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights.
The US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said it had received "credible" accounts of "hundreds of protesters" killed across Iran since the internet clampdown started. 
The leaders of Britain, France and Germany on Friday condemned the "killing of protestors" in Iran, while US President Donald Trump said Saturday his country stood "ready to help" as Iranians protest.
One of the demonstrators in London, Fahimeh Moradi, 52 ans, said she was taking part "to support the Iranian people who are killed and murdered by the Iran regime -- we don't want the Islamic Republic of Iran, we hate them!"
She added: "My son is there, and I don't know if he's alive or not. We just want this murderous regime to leave Iran, that's it!"
bur/rmb/tw

conflict

Venezuelans demand political prisoners' release, Maduro 'doing well'

BY JAVIER TOVAR

  • - 'Trust blindly' - Maduro claimed he was "doing well" in jail in New York, his son Nicolas Maduro Guerra said in a video released Saturday by his party.
  • Venezuelans waited Sunday for more political prisoners to be freed as ousted president Nicolas Maduro defiantly claimed from his US jail cell that he was "doing well" after being seized by US forces a week ago.
  • - 'Trust blindly' - Maduro claimed he was "doing well" in jail in New York, his son Nicolas Maduro Guerra said in a video released Saturday by his party.
Venezuelans waited Sunday for more political prisoners to be freed as ousted president Nicolas Maduro defiantly claimed from his US jail cell that he was "doing well" after being seized by US forces a week ago.
The government of interim president Delcy Rodriguez on Thursday began to release prisoners jailed under Maduro in a gesture of openness after she pledged to cooperate with Washington.
The government said a "large" number would be released in a gesture of appeasement for which President Donald Trump's administration took credit -- but rights groups and the opposition say only about 20 have walked free since, including several prominent opposition figures.
Rodriguez, vice president under Maduro, said Venezuela would take "the diplomatic route" with Washington, with Trump claiming the United States was "in charge" of the South American country.
"Venezuela has started the process, in a BIG WAY, of releasing their political prisoners. Thank you!" Trump said in a post late Saturday on his Truth Social platform.
"I hope those prisoners will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done."
Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were captured in a dramatic January 3 raid that began with overnight air strikes across Caracas. They were taken to New York by US forces to stand trial on drug-trafficking and weapons charges.

Anxiety over prisoners

A detained police officer accused of "treason" against Venezuela died in state custody, the opposition and rights groups said on Saturday.
"We directly hold the regime of Delcy Rodriguez responsible for this death," Primero Justicia (Justice First), which is part of the Venezuelan opposition alliance, said on X.
Families held candlelight vigils outside El Rodeo prison east of Caracas and El Helicoide, a notorious jail run by the intelligence services, holding signs with the names of their imprisoned relatives.
"I am tired and angry," Nebraska Rivas, 57, told AFP as she waited for her son to be released from El Rodeo.
"But I have faith that they will hand him over to us soon," she said after sleeping on the pavement outside the prison for two nights.

'Trust blindly'

Maduro claimed he was "doing well" in jail in New York, his son Nicolas Maduro Guerra said in a video released Saturday by his party.
Around 1,000 protesters, waving flags and placards with the face of the mustachioed ex-leader and his wife Cilia Flores, rallied on Saturday in the west of Caracas and a few hundred in the eastern Petare district. 
"I'll march as often as I have to until Nicolas and Cilia come back," said demonstrator Soledad Rodriguez, 69. 
The demonstrations were far smaller than Maduro's camp had mustered in the past, and top figures from his government were notably absent.
The caretaker president has moved to placate the powerful pro-Maduro base by insisting Venezuela is not "subordinate" to Washington.

Pressure on Cuba

Trump vowed to secure US access to Venezuela's vast oil reserves following Maduro's capture, and Delcy Rodriguez has pledged to cooperate.
Trump pressed top oil executives at a White House meeting on Friday to invest in Venezuela's reserves, but was met with a cautious reception.
Experts say Venezuela's oil infrastructure is creaky after years of mismanagement and sanctions.
Washington has also confirmed that US envoys visited Caracas on Friday to discuss reopening their embassy there.
Trump on Sunday pressured Caracas's leftist ally Cuba, which has survived in recent years under a US embargo thanks to cheap Venezuelan oil imports.
He urged Cuba to "make a deal" or face unspecified consequences, warning that the flow of Venezuelan oil and money to Havana would now stop.
Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel retorted on X that the Caribbean island was "ready to defend the homeland to the last drop of blood."
"Cuba is a free, independent and sovereign nation," he said. "No one tells us what to do."
bur-rlp/mlm

vote

Ugandan opposition turns national flag into protest symbol

BY ROSE TROUP BUCHANAN AND SOPHIE NEIMAN

  • Winnie Byanyima, wife of imprisoned opposition leader Kiiza Besigye, said Wine and his supporters were using the flag as a symbol for national unity. 
  • Hundreds screamed with excitement as Uganda's opposition leader passed by a rally where the crowd waved a sea of national flags that have become a dangerously politicised symbol ahead of a presidential election this week.
  • Winnie Byanyima, wife of imprisoned opposition leader Kiiza Besigye, said Wine and his supporters were using the flag as a symbol for national unity. 
Hundreds screamed with excitement as Uganda's opposition leader passed by a rally where the crowd waved a sea of national flags that have become a dangerously politicised symbol ahead of a presidential election this week.
Analysts say it is almost a foregone conclusion that President Yoweri Museveni, 81, will win a seventh term in Thursday's vote, given his near-total control over the state apparatus in the east African country.
But his opponent, 43-year-old Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine, has framed the election as a protest vote and cannily turned the national flag into a symbol of resistance. 
Police last month warned against using the flag "casually and inappropriately".
Wine's supporters have faced frequent intimidation by security forces during the campaign, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office and other observers.
But the flag is "the only weapon we have," said woodworker Conrad Olwenyi, 31, at the Wine rally just outside Kampala this week where the national symbol was brandished. 
"We cannot fight the security, because they have a gun. We only have the flag," he said. But "if they shoot you when you have the flag, they are shooting the country."
Winnie Byanyima, wife of imprisoned opposition leader Kiiza Besigye, said Wine and his supporters were using the flag as a symbol for national unity. 
"And guess what? The reaction of President Museveni has been to say, you may not use the flag," she told AFP. 
"So in fact, in doing that, they have completely delegitimised President Museveni, that he now is trying to use force to stop people carrying the national flag. Who does that?"

'Reclaiming patriotism'

Uganda's flag -- created when the country achieved independence from Britain in 1962 -- has stripes of black to represent Africa, yellow for its sunshine, and red to represent African brotherhood, with a grey crowned crane overlaid.
In the 2021 elections, Wine's National Unity Platform (NUP) adopted red berets as a symbol, but the government ruled that was illegal since they were part of the military uniform, and used that ruling to justify raids on the party's offices.
The flag is a clever alternative and a way of "reclaiming patriotism," said Uganda expert Kristof Titeca.
"It's kind of taken the government by surprise, and so that's why they started this clampdown," he told AFP.
Like many countries in east Africa, there are laws governing how the national flag may be used, though these were rarely enforced in Uganda in the past. 
"It shows the panic," prominent cartoonist Jimmy Spire Ssentongo told AFP.
"I don't think they are threatened by misuse of the flag. They are threatened by the visibility of the support towards NUP," said Ssentongo, adding that as Museveni ages and nears 40 years in power, "the space for freedom of expression also shrinks".
"Everyone has a right to use the national flag, but it depends on in what context they're using it for. I believe the opposition is politicising it," said Israel Kyarisiima, a national youth co-ordinator for Museveni's National Resistance Movement party.
Security services have repeatedly been accused by Wine's supporters of targeting those carrying the flag at rallies. Wine urged followers in his Christmas address to "come to the defence of anyone assaulted for carrying the flag".
And the threats from police have not stopped Wine's supporters waving the flag at rallies. 
"Now we've got something that can really show our unity as Ugandans, and they are trying to make it criminal," said Ruth Excellent Mirembe, 25, waving a flag this week's rally.
Trying to stop its use is "oppression in the highest form," she told AFP. "This represents us as Ugandans."
str-rbu/er/tw

film

'One Battle After Another' heads into Golden Globes as favorite

BY ROMAIN FONSEGRIVES

  • "Sinners," Ryan Coogler's period horror film about the segregated South of the 1930s, is expected to be the toughest competition for "One Battle" at the Oscars. 
  • Hollywood's A-listers are set to hit the red carpet on Sunday for the Golden Globes, with the politically charged "One Battle After Another" expected to solidify its status as the film to beat this awards season.
  • "Sinners," Ryan Coogler's period horror film about the segregated South of the 1930s, is expected to be the toughest competition for "One Battle" at the Oscars. 
Hollywood's A-listers are set to hit the red carpet on Sunday for the Golden Globes, with the politically charged "One Battle After Another" expected to solidify its status as the film to beat this awards season.
With nine nominations, "One Battle" appears a lock to take home the prize for best comedy/musical film.
"We're seeing a real sweep and a juggernaut in that movie," Deadline's awards columnist and chief critic Pete Hammond told AFP, two months ahead of the Oscars.
Paul Thomas Anderson's screwball thriller, which centers on an aging revolutionary (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his teenage daughter (Chase Infiniti), is a rollicking ride featuring violent leftist radicals, immigration raids and white supremacists.
At a time when the United States is deeply polarized, many critics and pundits have hailed the film as capturing the moment.
DiCaprio will vie for best actor at the Globes -- a sometimes eccentric bellwether for the Academy Awards -- with Timothee Chalamet, who stars in "Marty Supreme" as an ambitious 1950s table tennis player.
"Leonardo DiCaprio would be tremendously helped by actually winning at the Globes. That's the ideal moment to stop Timothee Chalamet's momentum before the Oscars," Hammond said.
Teyana Taylor, who plays an unapologetically bold leftist revolutionary, could fuel a sweep for "One Battle" if she can pick up the prize for best supporting actress.
But in her way are Amy Madigan for her wacky villainous turn in "Weapons" and Ariana Grande for her portrayal of Glinda in the blockbuster "Wicked: For Good."

'Sinners' versus 'Hamnet'

The Golden Globes offer separate awards for dramas and comedies/musicals -- widening the field of stars in attendance, and fueling the suspense. 
"Sinners," Ryan Coogler's period horror film about the segregated South of the 1930s, is expected to be the toughest competition for "One Battle" at the Oscars. 
But at the Globes, they are in separate categories.
"Sinners" surprised moviegoers with its eclectic mix of vampires, politics, race relations and blues music.
It is the frontrunner for the best drama film Globe, against rival "Hamnet," which stars Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley as his grief-stricken wife, as the two cope with the death of their young son.
"Sentimental Value," the Norwegian family dramedy starring Stellan Skarsgard, earned a strong eight nominations and is also in the running.
A "Sinners" victory "would be an indication of a real change," Hammond says, noting that in the past, voters "were never actually that drawn to Black stories."
Buckley is the favorite for best drama actress honors.
The Golden Globes went through a crisis period, following a Los Angeles Times expose in 2021 that showed that the awards' voting body -- the Hollywood Foreign Press Association -- had no Black members.
Now under new ownership, and with the HFPA disbanded, a wider net of overseas critics has been brought in to pick the winners.
"These new voters are less keen on movies that make a lot of money at the box office, and more interested in international movies that are highly praised in Cannes and Venice," Hammond explained.

Prize for Iran's Panahi?

One of those movies is Brazilian thriller "The Secret Agent," and lead actor Wagner Moura is favored to win best drama actor honors over "Sinners" star Michael B. Jordan, according to awards prediction site Gold Derby. 
Skarsgard, a Hollywood stalwart, is poised to take home the award for best supporting actor. 
"The Secret Agent" and "Sentimental Value" will vie for the Globe for best non-English language film with "It Was Just An Accident" from Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi. 
"The Globes may want to make a statement and give him this prize," Hammond said of Panahi.
The Globes also honor the best in television, with HBO's black comedy anthology "The White Lotus," sci-fi office thriller "Severance" and searing teen murder saga "Adolescence" leading the contenders.
Comedian Nikki Glaser, who is returning as host of the gala in Beverly Hills, says she will not hold back on the jokes.
"Everyone is fair game," she told People magazine.
bur-rfo/sst

Venezuela

Trump tells Cuba to 'make a deal, before it is too late'

  • "I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE." Trump provided no details about what potential deal he referred to, or what such an arrangement would achieve.
  • US President Donald Trump urged Cuba on Sunday to "make a deal" or face unspecified consequences, drawing an angry retort from its leader who said "no one" tells the communist-ruled country what to do.
  • "I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE." Trump provided no details about what potential deal he referred to, or what such an arrangement would achieve.
US President Donald Trump urged Cuba on Sunday to "make a deal" or face unspecified consequences, drawing an angry retort from its leader who said "no one" tells the communist-ruled country what to do.
The island nation near Florida has been a US foe and ally of Caracas for decades, but Trump has ramped up his threatening language in recent days -- particularly after Washington toppled Venezuela's leftist leader Nicolas Maduro.
"THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA - ZERO!" Trump said on his Truth Social platform. "I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE."
Trump provided no details about what potential deal he referred to, or what such an arrangement would achieve.
His remarks come a week after US forces seized Venezuela's authoritarian leader Maduro in a nighttime operation in Caracas that killed dozens of Venezuelan and Cuban security forces.
A week ago, Trump stated that "Cuba is ready to fall," noting that the island's economic crisis was worsening and that it would be difficult for Havana to "hold out" without receiving heavily subsidized Venezuelan oil.
Earlier on Sunday the president reposted a message suggesting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio -- a child of Cuban immigrants -- could become the president of Cuba.
Trump shared that post with the comment: "Sounds good to me!"
In a separate message soon afterwards, Trump said that "Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided 'Security Services' for the last two Venezuelan dictators, BUT NOT ANYMORE!"
"Most of those Cubans are DEAD from last week's U.S.A. attack, and Venezuela doesn't need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years."
Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel rebuffed Trump's threatening language, saying the Caribbean island's residents were "ready to defend the homeland to the last drop of blood."
"Cuba is a free, independent and sovereign nation. No one tells us what to do," Diaz-Canel wrote on X.
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez also weighed in to stress that Cuba is within its rights to import fuel from any willing exporter, "without interference or subordination to the unilateral coercive measures of the United States."

'Beginning of the end'

Under a US trade embargo, Havana since 2000 has increasingly relied on Venezuelan oil provided as part of a deal struck with Maduro's predecessor, the firebrand leftist Hugo Chavez.
Trump's provocative language on Cuba comes as the emboldened American leader has hinted he has other countries in his sights after capturing Maduro.
Trump, who had openly sought last year's Nobel Peace Prize, has recently threatened Colombia, Mexico, Iran and Greenland.
Some Republican US lawmakers on Sunday lauded Trump for his aggressive comments on Cuba, including Mario Diaz-Balart, a US congressman from Florida.
"We are witnessing what I am convinced will be the beginning of the end of the regime in Havana," Diaz-Balart posted in Spanish on X. 
"The tyranny in Cuba will not survive the second term of President Trump, and Cuba will finally be free after decades of misery, tragedy, and pain."
bur-mlm/md

Kurds

Syria govt forces take control of Aleppo's Kurdish neighbourhoods

BY BAKR ALKASEM

  • A Syrian security official told AFP on condition of anonymity that 419 Kurdish fighters, including 59 wounded and an unspecified number of dead, were transferred from the Sheikh Maqsud neighbourhood -- the second area to come under army control -- to the Kurdish-controlled zone in the northeast.
  • Syria's government was in full control of Aleppo on Sunday after taking over the city's Kurdish neighbourhoods and evacuating fighters there to Kurdish autonomous areas following days of deadly clashes.
  • A Syrian security official told AFP on condition of anonymity that 419 Kurdish fighters, including 59 wounded and an unspecified number of dead, were transferred from the Sheikh Maqsud neighbourhood -- the second area to come under army control -- to the Kurdish-controlled zone in the northeast.
Syria's government was in full control of Aleppo on Sunday after taking over the city's Kurdish neighbourhoods and evacuating fighters there to Kurdish autonomous areas following days of deadly clashes.
Residents of the Ashrafiyeh neighbourhood, the first of two areas to fall to the Syrian army, began returning to their homes to inspect the damage, finding shrapnel and broken glass littering the streets.
The violence started earlier this week after negotiations stalled on integrating the Kurds' de facto autonomous administration and forces into the country's new government.
A Syrian security official told AFP on condition of anonymity that 419 Kurdish fighters, including 59 wounded and an unspecified number of dead, were transferred from the Sheikh Maqsud neighbourhood -- the second area to come under army control -- to the Kurdish-controlled zone in the northeast.
The arriving fighters were met with tears and vows of vengeance from hundreds of people who gathered to greet them in the northeastern Kurdish city of Qamishli, according to AFP correspondents at the scene.
"We will avenge Sheikh Maqsud... we will avenge our fighters, we will avenge our martyrs," Umm Dalil, 55, said.
A correspondent saw crossed-out images of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and US envoy Tom Barrack, as people chanted against Sharaa.
Kurdish leader Mazlum Abdi said on X that the combatants were evacuated "through the mediation of international parties to stop the attacks and violations against our people in Aleppo".
The Syrian official said that 300 other Kurds, including fighters and members of the domestic security forces, had been arrested.
Britain-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP that 300 "young Kurds" had been arrested, stating that they were "civilians, not fighters".

Damaged walls, looted homes

On Sunday in Ashrafiyeh, an AFP correspondent saw people carrying bags and blankets return to their homes after being searched by security forces.
Yahya al-Sufi, a 49-year-old clothing seller, told AFP he had fled during the violence.
"When we returned, we found holes in the walls and our homes had been looted... Now that things have calmed down, we're back to repair the walls and restore the water and electricity," he said.
Some had hoped calm would prevail between the government in Damascus and the Kurdish fighters.
"We didn't want things to get this bad. I wish the Kurdish leadership had responded to the Syrian state. We've had enough bloodshed," said Mohammed Bitar, 39, who stayed in the Ashrafieh neighbourhood.
"There's no Arab, no Kurd, we're all Syrians."
Sheikh Maqsud, however, remained off limits on Sunday, with residents barred from returning, an interior ministry source told AFP.
An AFP correspondent in the area saw burnt armoured vehicles, cars loaded with ammunition and many landmines authorities took during their combing operation.
Syrian authorities said on Sunday that the toll from the fighting had reached "24 dead and 129 wounded since last Tuesday", while the Observatory reported 45 civilians and 60 soldiers and fighters were killed from both sides.
The Observatory reported "field executions" and the burning of fighters' bodies in Sheikh Maqsud by government forces, along with other "violations", but AFP was unable to independently verify the claims.

'Return to dialogue'

US envoy Tom Barrack met Saturday with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, and afterwards issued a call for a "return to dialogue" with the Kurds in accordance with an integration agreement sealed last year.
Abdi in his statement called on "the mediators to abide by their promises to stop the violations".
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which Abdi heads, control swathes of the country's oil-rich north and northeast, much of which they captured during Syria's civil war and the fight against the Islamic State group. 
Neighbouring Turkey, a close ally of Syria's new leaders, views the SDF's main component as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which agreed last year to end its four-decade armed struggle against Ankara.
Turkey has launched successive offensives to push Kurdish forces from the frontier.
The March integration agreement between Damascus and the Kurds was meant to be implemented last year, but differences, including Kurdish demands for decentralised rule, stymied progress.
The Aleppo fighting recalled a chapter in Syria's civil war when fierce fighting pitted the city's rebel-held east against the west, then controlled by the forces of ousted leader Bashar al-Assad.
Assad's forces seized control of the entire city in December 2016, forcing the opposition and their families to evacuate to what was then the rebel stronghold of Idlib in the northwest.
str-mam/nad/jfx

Kurds

Syrians in Kurdish area of Aleppo pick up pieces after clashes

BY OMAR HAJ KADOUR

  • Syria's government has since taken full control of the two areas as of Sunday, after agreeing the transfer of Kurdish fighters from the districts to Kurdish autonomous areas in the country's northeast.
  • Residents of a Kurdish neighbourhood in Syria's second city of Aleppo passed through government checkpoints Sunday to find blackened walls, destroyed vehicles and debris-littered streets as they returned home after days of deadly clashes.
  • Syria's government has since taken full control of the two areas as of Sunday, after agreeing the transfer of Kurdish fighters from the districts to Kurdish autonomous areas in the country's northeast.
Residents of a Kurdish neighbourhood in Syria's second city of Aleppo passed through government checkpoints Sunday to find blackened walls, destroyed vehicles and debris-littered streets as they returned home after days of deadly clashes.
While they picked up the pieces in the city's Ashrafiyeh neighbourhood, the city's only other Kurdish-majority district Sheikh Maqsud still remained off limits after suffering the worst of the fighting.
Many locals like wheelchair-bound Abdul Qader Satar returned to Ashrafiyeh on Sunday to inspect their homes after days of violence.
"I left on the first day and took refuge in one of the mosques," the 34-year-old told AFP while loading belongings onto his wheelchair.
"We left quickly with only the clothes on our backs... and now we are back to check on the house."
Others said they remained in their homes despite the violence, hoping calm would prevail between the government in Damascus and the Kurdish fighters.
"We didn't want things to get this bad. I wish the Kurdish leadership had responded to the Syrian state. We've had enough bloodshed," said Mohammed Bitar, 39, who stayed in the Ashrafieh neighbourhood.
"There's no Arab, no Kurd, we're all Syrians."
But the deadly clashes that erupted in the Kurdish-majority neighbourhoods on Tuesday left dozens dead and displaced around 155,000 people, according to Syrian authorities. 
Syria's government has since taken full control of the two areas as of Sunday, after agreeing the transfer of Kurdish fighters from the districts to Kurdish autonomous areas in the country's northeast.

'Closed military zone'

In the streets of Ashrafiyeh, crumbled walls had turned black from explosions while families and children carried blankets and bags home to inspect damage to their homes under a heavy security presence.
"We were sitting safely in our homes... suddenly, heavy gunfire erupted. We left our homes under the bullets and fled," clothing seller Yahya al-Sufi, 49, told AFP in Ashrafiyeh.
"When we returned, we found holes in the walls and our homes had been looted... Now that things have calmed down, we're back to repair the walls and restore the water and electricity," he added, while supervising workers repairing the holes in his wall.
While many left the neighbourhood, Ammar Abdel Qader chose to stay with his family. 
Standing in front of the pharmacy where he works, the 48-year-old said "there was fear of the bombing, and most people left, but my family and I stayed and took refuge in the inner rooms".
"Now normal life has returned to Ashrafiyeh, things are good, and people are returning to their homes."
The last area to fall to the Syria army, the Sheikh Maqsud neighbourhood near Ashrafiyeh, was still closed off to those who wanted to return.
Kurdish fighters had entrenched themselves in a hospital in the area until Syrian authorities announced their transfer on Sunday.
An interior ministry source told AFP the neighbourhood was still considered a "closed military zone" despite the departures.
Ambulances later entered Sheikh Maqsud as authorities combed the area after the last Kurdish fighters had left.

'We will fight'

Syrian authorities and the Observatory both said the violence in the districts killed dozens.
In Qamishli city in the Kurdish-controlled northeast, the evacuated fighters were met with tears and pledges of vengeance from hundreds of people who gathered to greet them.
Upon his arrival, one fighter vowed "revenge" after embracing his mother as they both wept.
An AFP correspondent saw crossed-out images of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and US envoy Tom Barrack, as people chanted against the Syrian leader.
"We will avenge Sheikh Maqsud... we will avenge our fighters, we will avenge our martyrs," Umm Dalil, 55, said.
"The Kurdish people will not fall, the Kurdish people will triumph, we will fight until the end and victory will be ours."
strs/mam-lk/nad/jfx

conflict

Kyiv shivers without heat, but battles on

BY VIKTOR LEVCHUK

  • Massive Russian strikes on the capital Friday killed at least four people and left half the city's residential buildings without heat, at a time when temperatures are around -10C and expected to drop further.
  • Braving sub-zero temperatures, her heat cut off by Russian strikes on Kyiv, Natalia has to go to special tents set up in the Ukrainian capital to get warm -- but has no plans of leaving.
  • Massive Russian strikes on the capital Friday killed at least four people and left half the city's residential buildings without heat, at a time when temperatures are around -10C and expected to drop further.
Braving sub-zero temperatures, her heat cut off by Russian strikes on Kyiv, Natalia has to go to special tents set up in the Ukrainian capital to get warm -- but has no plans of leaving.
Nearly four years into Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukrainians are enduring another gruelling winter of heat and electricity cuts.
Massive Russian strikes on the capital Friday killed at least four people and left half the city's residential buildings without heat, at a time when temperatures are around -10C and expected to drop further.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko, the former world heavyweight boxing champion, warned that the situation was "very difficult" and urged residents to temporarily evacuate.
But Natalia, who responded to Russia's February 2022 invasion by making Molotov cocktails to defend her city from Moscow's approaching army, said she was staying put, despite the hardships.
"I haven't left Kyiv a single second since the full-scale invasion," she told AFP.
"What did we do then? We made Molotov cocktails. I won't leave... I have my house here, I have my job and I love my city," said the 45-year-old manager, who declined to give her last name.
"We've had no electricity, heat or water for the past 42 hours," she said Saturday.
But "we're surviving, as you can see."
Her one concession to the upheaval of war: early in the invasion, she moved to a flat on a lower floor.
"It's less scary when the missiles fly overhead," she said.
Klitschko said Sunday morning that 1,000 buildings in Kyiv were still without heat -- down from an initial figure of 6,000 after the strikes.
Many residents' main heat source is electric, and Ukraine's power grid has been battered by Russian strikes since the start of the war.

Surpassing World War II

In the capital's Desnyansky district, AFP visited one of the tents set up by emergency services for residents to get warm, eat, connect to the internet and charge their devices.
Olena, a 50-year-old English teacher, said she was forcing herself to be optimistic in order to hang on.
Emergency tents and neighbourly solidarity help "a lot", she said.
"We support each other, dress warm, smile and wait."
One piece of clothing in particular sustains her, she said: a scarf that belonged to her grandmother, a World War II survivor.
"You put it on and you remember all that our people have endured. We will endure, too. We can't give up," she said.
Sunday marked the 1,418th day of Russia’s war on Ukraine, matching the length of what is known here as the "Great Patriotic War", when the Soviet Union fought off Nazi Germany's World War II onslaught, from 1941 to 1945.
video-rco/cn/jhb/rh

Global Edition

Myanmar votes in second phase of junta-run election

  • Polls opened on Sunday morning in dozens of constituencies, including Suu Kyi's former seat of Kawhmu south of commercial hub Yangon.
  • Myanmar's junta held the second phase of elections on Sunday that democracy watchdogs warn will let the military prolong its rule, opening polling in the constituency of deposed democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
  • Polls opened on Sunday morning in dozens of constituencies, including Suu Kyi's former seat of Kawhmu south of commercial hub Yangon.
Myanmar's junta held the second phase of elections on Sunday that democracy watchdogs warn will let the military prolong its rule, opening polling in the constituency of deposed democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The armed forces have ruled Myanmar for most of its post-independence history, snatching back power in a 2021 coup after a decade-long democratic thaw, nullifying the previous poll, detaining Suu Kyi and plunging the country into civil war.
With Suu Kyi sidelined and her massively popular party dissolved, democracy advocates say the vote has been rigged by a crackdown on dissent and a ballot stacked with military allies.
Polls opened on Sunday morning in dozens of constituencies, including Suu Kyi's former seat of Kawhmu south of commercial hub Yangon.
Farmer Than Than Sint acknowledged Myanmar's "many problems" but told AFP she voted in pursuit of peace.
"We know it will not come right away. But we need to go step-by-step for our future generations," the 54-year-old said after voting.
The junta has pledged the three-phase election will return power to the people after it ends on January 25.
The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), described by many analysts as the military's prime proxy, won nearly 90 percent of lower house seats in the first phase late last month.
"I think the results lie only in the mouth of the military," a 50-year-old resident of Yangon, where voting also took place, told AFP.
"This election has absolutely nothing to do with escaping this suffering," said the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

'Engineered' polls

The first phase had a turnout of around 50 percent, far below the roughly 70 percent of the 2020 election when most voters backed Suu Kyi's party.
A truck blasted loudspeaker messages along the main road in Kawhmu, urging voters to come out.
Kyaw Than, a 72-year-old farmer, said it was better to vote. "It would be weird to sit by and do nothing," he said.
There is no polling in large enclaves carved out by rebel factions, who the military accused of staging drone, rocket and bomb attacks during the first phase of voting that killed five people.
Analysts say the junta is attempting to launder its image, aiming to improve diplomatic relations, increase foreign investment and sap momentum from rebels.
"The junta engineered the polls to ensure victory for its proxy, entrench military domination in Myanmar, and manufacture a facade of legitimacy while violence and repression continue unabated," UN rights expert Tom Andrews said in a statement on Thursday.
The military justified its coup by alleging that Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide over pro-military parties in 2020 through massive voter fraud.
Election monitors say those claims were unfounded.
Parties that won 90 percent of seats in 2020 -- including the NLD -- have been dissolved, according to the Asian Network for Free Elections.
Regardless of the vote, a quarter of parliamentary seats will be reserved for the armed forces under a constitution drafted during a previous period of military rule.

 Limited electorate

More than 330 people are being pursued under junta-enacted laws, including clauses that punish protest or criticism of the poll with up to 10 years in prison.
There are more than 22,000 political prisoners in junta jails, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group.
Security forces put down pro-democracy protests since the coup but activists formed ragtag guerrilla units, often fighting alongside ethnic minority armies long opposed to central rule.
Voting has been cancelled in dozens of constituencies, many of them battlegrounds or regions where rebels run parallel administrations beyond the junta's reach.
The military waged offensives, which witnesses said included air strikes targeting civilian sites, in an attempt to claw back ground before the voting.
There is no official toll for Myanmar's civil war but monitoring group ACLED, which tallies media reports of violence, estimates that 90,000 people have been killed on all sides.
bur-jts/sco/pbt

conflict

In Gaza hospital, patients cling to MSF as Israel orders it out

  • - 'We will continue working' - AFP spoke with patients and relatives at Nasser Hospital, all of whom expressed the same fear: that without MSF, there would be nowhere left to turn.
  • At a hospital in Gaza, wards are filled with patients fearing they will be left without care if Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is forced out under an Israeli ban due to take effect in March.
  • - 'We will continue working' - AFP spoke with patients and relatives at Nasser Hospital, all of whom expressed the same fear: that without MSF, there would be nowhere left to turn.
At a hospital in Gaza, wards are filled with patients fearing they will be left without care if Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is forced out under an Israeli ban due to take effect in March.
Last month, Israel announced it would prevent 37 aid organisations, including MSF, from operating in Gaza from March 1 for failing to provide detailed information on their Palestinian staff.
"They stood by us throughout the war," said 10-year-old Adam Asfour, his left arm pinned with metal rods after he was wounded by shrapnel in a bombing in September.
"When I heard it was possible they would stop providing services, it made me very sad," he added from his bed at Gaza's Nasser Hospital.
Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, which oversees NGO registrations, has accused two MSF employees of links to Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, allegations MSF vehemently denies.
The ministry's decision triggered international condemnation, with aid groups warning it would severely disrupt food and medical supplies to Gaza, where relief items are already scarce after more than two years of war.
Inside the packed Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, one of the few medical facilities still functioning in the territory, MSF staff were still tending to children with burns, shrapnel wounds and chronic illnesses, an AFP journalist reported.
But their presence may end soon.
The prospect was unthinkable for Fayrouz Barhoum, whose grandson is being treated at the facility.
"Say bye to the lady, blow her a kiss," she told her 18-month-old grandson, Joud, as MSF official Claire Nicolet left the room.
Joud's head was wrapped in bandages covering burns on his cheek after boiling water spilled on him when strong winds battered the family's makeshift shelter.
"At first his condition was very serious, but then it improved considerably," Barhoum said.
"The scarring on his face has largely diminished. We need continuity of care," she said.

'We will continue working'

AFP spoke with patients and relatives at Nasser Hospital, all of whom expressed the same fear: that without MSF, there would be nowhere left to turn.
MSF says it currently provides at least 20 percent of hospital beds in Gaza and operates around 20 health centres.
In 2025 alone, it carried out more than 800,000 medical consultations and over 10,000 deliveries.
"It's almost impossible to find an organisation that will come here and be able to replace all what we are doing currently in Gaza," Nicolet told AFP, noting that MSF not only provides medical care but also distributes drinking water to a population worn down by a prolonged war.
"So this is not really realistic."
Since the start of the war in October 2023, triggered by Hamas's deadly attack on southern Israel, Israeli officials and the military have repeatedly accused Hamas of using Gaza's medical facilities as command centres.
Many have been damaged by two years of bombardments or overcrowded by casualties, while electricity, water and fuel supplies remain unreliable.
Aid groups warn that without international support, critical services such as emergency care, maternal health, and paediatric treatment could collapse entirely, leaving hundreds of thousands of residents without basic medical care.
Humanitarian sources say at least three international NGO employees whose files were rejected by Israeli authorities have already been prevented from entering Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
"For now, we will continue working as long as we can," said Kelsie Meaden, an MSF logistics manager at Nasser Hospital, adding that constraints were already mounting.
"We can't have any more international staff enter into Gaza, as well as supplies... we will run into shortages."
vid-crb-jd/dcp/amj

weather

Scores of homes razed, one dead in Australian bushfires

  • A day earlier, authorities had declared a state of disaster.
  • Bushfires have razed hundreds of buildings across southeast Australia, authorities said Sunday, as they confirmed the first death from the disaster. 
  • A day earlier, authorities had declared a state of disaster.
Bushfires have razed hundreds of buildings across southeast Australia, authorities said Sunday, as they confirmed the first death from the disaster. 
Temperatures soared past 40C as a heatwave blanketed the state of Victoria, sparking dozens of blazes that ripped through more than 300,000 hectares (740,000 acres) combined. 
Fire crews tallied the damage as conditions eased on Sunday. A day earlier, authorities had declared a state of disaster.
Emergency Management Commissioner Tim Wiebusch said over 300 buildings had burned to the ground, a figure that includes sheds and other structures on rural properties.
More than 70 houses had been destroyed, he said, alongside huge swathes of farming land and native forest.  
"We're starting to see some of our conditions ease," he told reporters. 
"And that means firefighters are able to start getting on top of some of the fires that we still have in our landscape."
Police said one person had died in a bushfire near the town of Longwood, about two hours' drive north of state capital Melbourne. 
"This really takes all the wind out of our sails," said Chris Hardman from Forest Fire Management Victoria.
"We really feel for the local community there and the family, friends and loved ones of the person that is deceased," he told national broadcaster ABC.  
Photos taken this week showed the night sky glowing orange as the fire near Longwood tore through bushland. 
"There were embers falling everywhere. It was terrifying," cattle farmer Scott Purcell told ABC. 
Another bushfire near the small town of Walwa crackled with lightning as it radiated enough heat to form a localised thunderstorm.
Hundreds of firefighters from across Australia have been called in to help. 
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was talking with Canada and the United States for possible extra assistance.
Millions have this week sweltered through a heatwave blanketing much of Australia. 
High temperatures and dry winds combined to form some of the most dangerous bushfire conditions since the "Black Summer" blazes. 
The Black Summer bushfires raged across Australia's eastern seaboard from late 2019 to early 2020, razing millions of hectares, destroying thousands of homes and blanketing cities in noxious smoke. 
Australia's climate has warmed by an average of 1.51C since 1910, researchers have found, fuelling increasingly frequent extreme weather patterns over both land and sea. 
Australia remains one of the world's largest producers and exporters of gas and coal, two key fossil fuels blamed for global heating.
sft/abs

rights

Fresh protests in Iran as internet blackout persists

BY STUART WILLIAMS

  • On Friday in Tehran's Saadatabad district, protesters chanted anti-government slogans including "death to Khamenei" as cars honked in support, a video verified by AFP showed. 
  • Anti-government chants filled the streets of Iran's capital on Saturday night, as protesters pressed the biggest movement against the Islamic republic in more than three years despite a deadly crackdown under cover of an internet blackout.
  • On Friday in Tehran's Saadatabad district, protesters chanted anti-government slogans including "death to Khamenei" as cars honked in support, a video verified by AFP showed. 
Anti-government chants filled the streets of Iran's capital on Saturday night, as protesters pressed the biggest movement against the Islamic republic in more than three years
despite a deadly crackdown under cover of an internet blackout.
Iran has blamed the United States for the demonstrations, which ignited in Tehran two weeks ago over economic hardship and have since fanned nationwide with calls for ousting the clerical authorities. 
Rights groups have reported dozens of deaths and expressed alarm on Saturday that authorities were intensifying the crackdown.
Little information is filtering out after an internet shutdown, with monitor NetBlocks showing virtually no connectivity since Thursday.
US President Donald Trump said his country was "ready to help" the movement, after warning Iran was in "big trouble" over its efforts to suppress the protests. 
"Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!" Trump posted on Truth Social Saturday. 
According to the New York Times, Trump was recently briefed on options for possible military strikes.
US officials, speaking to the Times anonymously, said Trump has not yet made a final decision about another intervention, after Washington joined Israel's 12-day war against the Islamic republic in June. 
Crowds gathered again on Saturday in the north of the Iranian capital, setting off fireworks and banging pots as they shouted slogans in support of the ousted monarchy, according to video verified by AFP. 
Other videos, that AFP could not immediately verify, showed demonstrations in other parts of the capital where protesters shouted anti-government slogans.
Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of Iran's deposed shah, urged Iranians to stage more targeted protests over the weekend.
"Our goal is no longer just to take to the streets. The goal is to prepare to seize and hold city centres," Pahlavi said in a video on social media.
The demonstrations have posed one of the biggest challenges to the theocratic authorities who have ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
After initially calling for "restraint" and acknowledging economic grievances, they have since hardened their stance. 
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a defiant speech on Friday, lashed out at "vandals" doing Trump's bidding.

'Not safe'

Amnesty International said it was analysing "distressing reports that security forces have intensified their unlawful use of lethal force against protesters" since Thursday.
Norway-based Iran Human Rights group has said at least 51 people have been killed in the crackdown so far, warning the actual toll could be higher.
It posted images it said were of bodies of people shot dead in the protests on the floor of Alghadir hospital in eastern Tehran. 
"These images provide further evidence of the excessive and lethal use of force against protesters," IHR said. 
On Friday in Tehran's Saadatabad district, protesters chanted anti-government slogans including "death to Khamenei" as cars honked in support, a video verified by AFP showed. 
Other images disseminated on social media and by Persian-language television channels outside Iran showed similarly large protests elsewhere in the capital, as well as in the eastern city of Mashhad, Tabriz in the north and the holy city of Qom.
In the western city of Hamedan, a man was shown waving a shah-era Iranian flag featuring the lion and the sun. 
The same flag briefly flew over the country's embassy in London after protesters reached the building's balcony, witnesses told AFP. 
On Thursday and Friday, an AFP journalist in Tehran saw streets deserted and plunged into darkness. 
"The area is not safe," said a cafe manager as he prepared to close the shop around 4:00 pm. 

'Price to pay'

Authorities say several members of the security forces have been killed, and state television aired images on Saturday of funerals for several members of the security forces killed in the protests, including a large gathering in the southern city of Shiraz.
It also aired images of buildings, including a mosque, on fire.
Iran's army said in a statement that it would "vigorously protect and safeguard national interests" against an "enemy seeking to disrupt order and peace".
Global leaders have urged restraint from Iranian authorities, with European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen saying Europe backed Iranians' mass protests and condemned the "violent repression" against the demonstrators.
On Saturday, the start of the working week in Iran, one man in Tehran said he was unable to check his work email.
"This is the price to pay before the victory of the people," he said.
sjw-sw/lb/tc

music

Grateful Dead co-founder and guitarist Bob Weir dies aged 78

  • In 2024, the final year of Joe Biden's presidency, Weir and other living Grateful Dead members were given Kennedy Center Honors, among the highest American arts awards.
  • American guitarist and songwriter Bob Weir, a founding member of the revolutionary, psychedelic jam band Grateful Dead, has died aged 78, his family announced Saturday.
  • In 2024, the final year of Joe Biden's presidency, Weir and other living Grateful Dead members were given Kennedy Center Honors, among the highest American arts awards.
American guitarist and songwriter Bob Weir, a founding member of the revolutionary, psychedelic jam band Grateful Dead, has died aged 78, his family announced Saturday.
Weir was diagnosed with cancer in July and had beaten the disease, but "succumbed to underlying lung issues," his family said in a statement on his personal website, without specifying where or when he died.
"For over sixty years, Bobby took to the road," the statement said. "Bobby will forever be a guiding force whose unique artistry reshaped American music."
"His work did more than fill rooms with music; it was warm sunlight that filled the soul, building a community, a language, and a feeling of family that generations of fans carry with them."
Founded in San Francisco by Weir, Jerry Garcia, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, Phil Lesh, and Bill Kreutzmann, the Grateful Dead became one of the leading music groups to emerge from the 1960s counterculture movement.
With its trademark improvisational, genre-blending style, the band became known for never performing the same show twice, winning an avid and diverse legion of fans, and selling millions of records.
The group revolutionized fan engagement, as followers -- famously known as "Deadheads" -- recorded and swapped bootleg tapes of the concerts in a communal, drug-addled camp environment that traveled from stadium to stadium, a trend later copied by other bands' fandoms.
The rockers disbanded in 1995, a few months after lead guitarist Garcia's death at the age of 53, and a year after the group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Weir would however continue to perform intermittently with other living bandmembers, more recently in the group Dead & Company, which also included guitarist and singer John Mayer.
"As we remember Bobby, it's hard not to feel the echo of the way he lived," the family said.
"A man driftin' and dreamin', never worrying if the road would lead him home. A child of countless trees. A child of boundless seas," the family said, quoting the songs "Cassidy" and "Lost Sailor," written by Weir and the late John Perry Barlow.
Following Weir's death, 79-year-old drummer Kreutzmann became the last living co-founder of the Grateful Dead.
Bassist Lesh died in October 2024 at the age of 84, while keyboardist McKernan died aged 27 in 1973.
Drummer Mickey Hart, 82, joined the group in 1967.
In 2024, the final year of Joe Biden's presidency, Weir and other living Grateful Dead members were given Kennedy Center Honors, among the highest American arts awards.
"The Grateful Dead has always been about community, creativity, and exploration in music and presentation," Weir, Hart, Lesh and Kreutzmann said at the time.
"Our music belongs as much to our fans, the Dead Heads, as it does to us. This honor, then, is as much theirs as ours."
bur-des/abs

trade

India eyes new markets with US trade deal limbo

BY ANUJ SRIVAS

  • And while a free trade agreement (FTA) with New Zealand added little to Indian export growth, it secured $20 billion in foreign investment, increased visa access and showed Washington that New Delhi is willing to compromise.
  • India is aggressively seeking trade deals to open markets for exporters and soften the blow of steep US tariffs, as efforts to secure an agreement with Washington remain elusive.
  • And while a free trade agreement (FTA) with New Zealand added little to Indian export growth, it secured $20 billion in foreign investment, increased visa access and showed Washington that New Delhi is willing to compromise.
India is aggressively seeking trade deals to open markets for exporters and soften the blow of steep US tariffs, as efforts to secure an agreement with Washington remain elusive.
Relations between Washington and New Delhi plummeted in August after President Donald Trump raised tariffs to 50 percent, a blow that threatens job losses and hurts India's ambition of becoming a manufacturing and export powerhouse.
That pressure, experts say, has pushed New Delhi into a rapid diversification drive beyond its biggest market.
India signed or operationalised four trade agreements last year, including a major pact with Britain -- the fastest pace of dealmaking it has seen in years -- and is now eyeing fresh deals.
Negotiations are underway with the European Union, the Eurasian Economic Union, Mexico, Chile and the South American Mercosur trade bloc, either for new deals or to expand existing agreements.
If successful, India would have trade arrangements with "almost every major economy", said Ajay Srivastava, from the New Delhi-based Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI).
Srivastava said 2025 was "one of the most active years" for trade agreements, which he said aimed to "spread risk" rather than to pivot from Washington.

'Expand its destinations'

Washington's punishing tariffs aimed at stopping India's purchases of Russian oil -- which it says finances Moscow's invasion of Ukraine -- have driven New Delhi's desire to grow other markets.
"The strategy was a reaction, as I read it, to what Trump did," trade economist Biswajit Dhar told AFP. "This has now become an imperative for India to actually expand its destinations."
Major deals will help labour-intensive sectors hurt by tariffs.
India's apparel export promotion council projects that the UK trade deal could help double garment exports to Britain over the next three years.
The gains from a potential EU agreement could be even bigger.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, expected to visit New Delhi later in January, has said it would be the "largest deal of this kind anywhere in the world".
Although the two sides missed a deadline to conclude talks by the end of 2025 -- reportedly over disputes related to steel and auto exports -- Indian negotiators remain optimistic.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will visit India and meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, holding talks on "intensifying cooperation in trade and investment", Modi's office said in a statement.
Smaller agreements also matter.
Trade between Oman and India totalled less than $11 billion last financial year, but a December deal with Muscat offers "a gateway to the broader Middle East and Africa markets", and a template for a wider "Gulf engagement strategy", analysts at Nomura suggested.
And while a free trade agreement (FTA) with New Zealand added little to Indian export growth, it secured $20 billion in foreign investment, increased visa access and showed Washington that New Delhi is willing to compromise.
"The New Zealand FTA makes concessions on agricultural produce like apples, even though farmers here may have concerns," said an Indian commerce ministry official, who declined to be identified. 
"Who says we can't be flexible?" 

'Eggs in one basket'

India's goods exports rose a surprising 19 percent in November 2025, reversing an October decline.
While the surge was helped by electronics shipments -- still exempt from US tariffs -- marine product exports also posted gains.
"Diversification has certainly happened," KN Raghavan, of the Seafood Exporter Association of India said.
"We have increased exports to the EU and China," he said, adding they were the top markets after the United States.
But exporters caution that alternative markets cannot fully replace the United States, with Raghavan saying a US deal is "paramount".
That remains in limbo.
India's imports of Russian oil fell sharply in December to 1.2 million barrels per day from 1.8 million per day in November, according to Kpler trade data.
It is unclear if that will be enough for Trump.
Pankaj Chadha, chairman of the Engineering Export Promotion Council, said diversification had become a necessity to lessen dependence on the "biggest and the most lucrative" market.
"It's better not to put all your eggs in one basket," he said.
asv/pjm/ceg/abs

Kurds

Syria's Kurdish fighters agree to leave Aleppo after deadly clashes

BY OMAR HAJ KADOUR

  • Kurdish forces had controlled pockets of Syria's second city Aleppo and operate a de facto autonomous administration across swathes of the north and northeast, much of it captured during the 14-year civil war.
  • Syria's Kurdish fighters said Sunday that they agreed under a ceasefire to withdraw from Aleppo after days of fighting government forces in the city. 
  • Kurdish forces had controlled pockets of Syria's second city Aleppo and operate a de facto autonomous administration across swathes of the north and northeast, much of it captured during the 14-year civil war.
Syria's Kurdish fighters said Sunday that they agreed under a ceasefire to withdraw from Aleppo after days of fighting government forces in the city. 
Hours earlier, Syria's military said it had finished operations in the Kurdish-held Sheikh Maqsud neighbourhood with state television reporting that Kurdish fighters who surrendered were being bused to the north. 
The military had already announced its seizure of Aleppo's other Kurdish-held neighbourhood, Ashrafiyeh.
Kurdish forces had controlled pockets of Syria's second city Aleppo and operate a de facto autonomous administration across swathes of the north and northeast, much of it captured during the 14-year civil war.
The latest clashes erupted after negotiations to integrate the Kurds into the country's new government stalled.
"We reached an understanding that led to a ceasefire and secured the evacuation of the martyrs, the wounded, the trapped civilians and the fighters from Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsud neighbourhoods to northern and eastern Syria," the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) wrote in a statement.
Syria's official SANA news agency reported that "buses carrying the last batch of members of the SDF organisation have left the Sheikh Maqsud neighbourhood in Aleppo, heading towards northeastern Syria".
The SDF initially denied its fighters were leaving, describing the bus transfers as forced displacement of civilians. 
An AFP correspondent saw at least five buses on Saturday carrying men out of Sheikh Maqsud, but could not independently verify their identities.
According to the SDF statement, the ceasefire was reached "through the mediation of international parties to stop the attacks and violations against our people in Aleppo". 
The United States and European Union both called for the Syrian government and Kurdish authorities to return to political dialogue.
The fighting, some of the most intense since the ousting of long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, has killed at least 21 civilians, according to figures from both sides, while Aleppo's governor said 155,000 people fled their homes.
Both sides blamed the other for starting the clashes on Tuesday.

Children 'still inside'

On the outskirts of Sheikh Maqsud, families who had been trapped by the fighting were leaving, accompanied by Syrian security forces.
An AFP correspondent saw men carrying children on their backs board buses headed to shelters.
Dozens of young men in civilian clothing were separated from the crowd, with security forces making them sit on the ground before transporting them to an unknown destination, according to the correspondent.
A Syrian security official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the young men were "fighters" being "transferred to Syrian detention centres".
At the entrance to the district, 60-year-old Imad al-Ahmad was heading in the opposite direction, trying to seek permission to return home.
"I left four days ago...I took refuge at my sister's house," he told AFP. "I don't know if we'll be able to return today."
Nahed Mohammad Qassab, a 40-year-old widow also waiting to return, said she left before the fighting to attend a funeral.
"My three children are still inside, at my neighbour's house. I want to get them out," she said. 
A flight suspension at Aleppo airport was extended until further notice.

'Return to dialogue'

US envoy Tom Barrack met Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Saturday, and afterwards called for a "return to dialogue" with the Kurds in accordance with the integration framework agreed in March. 
The deal was meant to be implemented last year, but differences, including Kurdish demands for decentralised rule, stymied progress as Damascus repeatedly rejected the idea.
The fighting in Aleppo raised fears of a regional escalation, with neighbouring Turkey, a close ally of Syria's new Islamist authorities, saying it was ready to intervene. Israel has sided with the Kurdish forces. 
The clashes have also tested the Syrian authorities' ability to reunify the country after the brutal civil war and commitment to protecting minorities, after sectarian bloodshed rocked the country's Alawite and Druze communities last year.
bur-lb/tc

music

Grateful Dead co-founder and guitarist Bob Weir dies aged 78

  • Lesh died in October 2024 at the age of 84, while McKernan died aged 27 in 1973.
  • American guitarist and songwriter Bob Weir, a founding member of the revolutionary, psychedelic jam band Grateful Dead, has died aged 78, his family announced Saturday.
  • Lesh died in October 2024 at the age of 84, while McKernan died aged 27 in 1973.
American guitarist and songwriter Bob Weir, a founding member of the revolutionary, psychedelic jam band Grateful Dead, has died aged 78, his family announced Saturday.
Weir was diagnosed with cancer in July and had beaten the disease, but "succumbed to underlying lung issues," his family said in a statement on his personal website, without specifying where or when he died.
"For over sixty years, Bobby took to the road," the statement said. "Bobby will forever be a guiding force whose unique artistry reshaped American music." 
"His work did more than fill rooms with music; it was warm sunlight that filled the soul, building a community, a language, and a feeling of family that generations of fans carry with them."
Founded in San Francisco by Weir, Jerry Garcia, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, Phil Lesh, and Bill Kreutzmann, the Grateful Dead was one of the leading music groups to emerge from the 1960s counterculture movement.
Known for never performing the same show twice, the group revolutionized fan engagement, as followers -- known as "Deadheads" -- recorded and swapped bootleg tapes of the concerts in a communal, drug-addled camp environment.
The rockers disbanded in 1995, a few months after Garcia's death, but Weir went on to perform in recent years with the group Dead & Company.
Following Weir's death, 79-year-old Kreutzmann became the last living member of the Grateful Dead founders.
Lesh died in October 2024 at the age of 84, while McKernan died aged 27 in 1973.
Weir was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Hame in 1994 as part of the Grateful Dead, and received Kennedy Center Honors with the group in 2024, in the final year of Joe Biden's presidency.
"As we remember Bobby, it's hard not to feel the echo of the way he lived," the family said.
"A man driftin' and dreamin', never worrying if the road would lead him home. A child of countless trees. A child of boundless seas," the family said, quoting the songs "Cassidy" and "Lost Sailor," written by Weir and the late John Perry Barlow.
bur-des/acb

Greenland

'American? No!' says Greenland after latest Trump threat

BY CAMILLE BAS-WOHLERT

  • "We don't want to be Americans, we don't want to be Danish, we want to be Greenlanders," the leaders of five parties in Greenland's parliament said in a joint statement.
  • Greenland's political parties said they did not want to be under Washington as US President Donald Trump again suggested using force to seize the mineral-rich Danish autonomous territory, raising concern worldwide.
  • "We don't want to be Americans, we don't want to be Danish, we want to be Greenlanders," the leaders of five parties in Greenland's parliament said in a joint statement.
Greenland's political parties said they did not want to be under Washington as US President Donald Trump again suggested using force to seize the mineral-rich Danish autonomous territory, raising concern worldwide.
The statement late Friday came after Trump repeated that Washington was "going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not".
European capitals have been scrambling to come up with a coordinated response after the White House said this week that Trump wanted to buy Greenland and refused to rule out military action.
"We don't want to be Americans, we don't want to be Danish, we want to be Greenlanders," the leaders of five parties in Greenland's parliament said in a joint statement.
"The future of Greenland must be decided by Greenlanders," they added.
"No other country can meddle in this. We must decide our country's future ourselves -- without pressure to make a hasty decision, without procrastination, and without interference from other countries."
France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in an interview published Saturday that Trump's "blackmail must stop".
But he also said he did not believe a US military intervention would happen.
"Greenland is a European territory, placed under the protection of NATO. I would add that the Europeans have very powerful means to defend their interests," he said.

Fears of invasion

According to a poll published Saturday by Danish agency Ritzau, more than 38 percent of Danes think the United States will launch an invasion of Greenland under the Trump administration. 
A Danish colony until 1953, Greenland gained home rule 26 years later and is contemplating eventually loosening its ties with Denmark.
Many Greenlanders remain cautious about making this a reality.
Julius Nielsen, a 48-year-old fisherman in the capital Nuuk, told AFP: "American? No! We were a colony for so many years. We're not ready to be a colony again, to be colonised".
"I really like the idea of us being independent, but I think we should wait. Not for now. Not today," Pitsi Mari, who works in telecoms, told AFP.
"I feel like the United States' interference disrupts all relationships and trust" between Denmark and Greenland, said Inaluk Pedersen, a 21-year-old shop assistant. 
The coalition currently in power is not in favour of a hasty independence.
The only opposition party, Naleraq, which won 24.5 percent of the vote in the 2025 legislative elections, wants to cut ties as quickly as possible but it is also a signatory of the joint declaration.
"It's time for us to start preparing for the independence we have fought for over so many years," said MP Juno Berthelsen in a Facebook post.

Vast natural resources

Denmark and other European allies have voiced shock at Trump's threats on Greenland, a strategic island between North America and the Arctic where the United States has had a military base since World War II.
Trump says controlling the island is crucial for US national security given the rising military activity of Russia and China in the Arctic.
"We're not going to have Russia or China occupy Greenland. That's what they're going to do if we don't," the US president said Friday.
"So we're going to be doing something with Greenland, either the nice way or the more difficult way," he added.
Both Russia and China have increased military activity in the region in recent years, but neither has laid any claim to the vast icy island.
Greenland has also attracted international attention in recent years for its vast natural resources including rare earth minerals and estimates that it could possess huge oil and gas reserves.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that an invasion of Greenland would end "everything", meaning the transatlantic NATO defence pact and the post-World War II security structure.

Flurry of diplomacy

"I'm a fan of Denmark, too, I have to tell you. And you know, they've been very nice to me," Trump said.
"But you know, the fact that they had a boat land there 500 years ago doesn't mean that they own the land."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is due to meet next week with Denmark's foreign minister and representatives from Greenland.
A flurry of diplomacy is under way as Europeans try to head off a crisis while at the same time avoiding the wrath of Trump, who is nearing the end of his first year back in power.
Trump had offered to buy Greenland in 2019 during his first presidential term but was rebuffed.
burs-gv/jj

Global Edition

Argentina wildfire burns over 5,500 hectares: governor

  • The governor of the surrounding Chubut province, Ignacio Torres, said on social media that 5,500 hectares had already burned and warned the next 48 hours would be critical due to adverse weather.
  • A major forest fire in southern Argentina has burned more than 5,500 hectares, authorities said Saturday, as hundreds of firefighters and volunteers battled to contain the blaze threatening small communities.
  • The governor of the surrounding Chubut province, Ignacio Torres, said on social media that 5,500 hectares had already burned and warned the next 48 hours would be critical due to adverse weather.
A major forest fire in southern Argentina has burned more than 5,500 hectares, authorities said Saturday, as hundreds of firefighters and volunteers battled to contain the blaze threatening small communities.
The fire broke out Monday at Puerto Patriada, about 1,700 km (1,050 miles) southwest of Buenos Aires in the Patagonia region, and has since surrounded Epuyen, a town of 2,000 residents.
"There's no way to describe what we're living through. Every five minutes a new fire starts. It's hell," said local resident Flavia Broffoni on Instagram.
The governor of the surrounding Chubut province, Ignacio Torres, said on social media that 5,500 hectares had already burned and warned the next 48 hours would be critical due to adverse weather.
About 3,000 tourists and 15 families have been evacuated and more than 10 homes destroyed.
Nearly 500 personnel are deployed, with reinforcements expected from Cordoba and Chile.
Firefighters in Argentina face growing challenges from climate change, which brings higher temperatures and lower humidity, while having to accept low wages following government spending cuts.
Fires are active in other Patagonian provinces, including Neuquen, Rio Negro and Santa Cruz. The region lost 32,000 hectares to wildfires in early 2025.
nb/rlp/acb

conflict

Venezuelan prisoners smile to hear of Maduro's fall

BY PAULA RAMON

  • "I discreetly told him: 'The one who had to be jailed is now in jail,'" she said, referring to Maduro, who was captured in a deadly US raid a week ago and taken to New York to face trial on drug-trafficking and weapons charges.
  • The prisoner's face lit up when his wife visited and told him that the man responsible for his detention was himself behind bars: Venezuela's deposed leader Nicolas Maduro.
  • "I discreetly told him: 'The one who had to be jailed is now in jail,'" she said, referring to Maduro, who was captured in a deadly US raid a week ago and taken to New York to face trial on drug-trafficking and weapons charges.
The prisoner's face lit up when his wife visited and told him that the man responsible for his detention was himself behind bars: Venezuela's deposed leader Nicolas Maduro.
Like scores of other prisoners' relatives, the wife -- who asked to be identified only as M. out of fear for her husband's safety -- had slept on the ground near the Rodeo I prison, after the interim government promised to release jailed opponents following Maduro's capture by US forces.
Since that announcement on Thursday, fewer than 20 have been freed -- but Friday was a regular visiting day, so M. was able to get inside to see her husband.
"I discreetly told him: 'The one who had to be jailed is now in jail,'" she said, referring to Maduro, who was captured in a deadly US raid a week ago and taken to New York to face trial on drug-trafficking and weapons charges.
On the other side of the glass that separates inmates from visitors, M. said, her husband "smiled happily."
"Don't be afraid, my love, the worst is over," he dared to tell her, despite armed guards looking on.
M. was more cautious -- Venezuela's authoritarian leftist leadership has reneged on prisoner releases in the past.
"I told him to stay calm because you never know," she said.
"We're so close, yet so far."

Joy at Maduro's fall

For years, political detainees and their families avoided discussing the news during the brief weekly visits, strictly monitored by armed guards.
That code was broken this weekend after the government announced it would release "a large number" of prisoners in an apparent gesture to placate Washington.
On Friday, the first visiting day since Maduro's removal, families shared the news as best they could -- some using coded language and metaphors -- about the ousted leader's departure and the promise of prisoner releases.
Prisoners rejoiced upon hearing the news, but outside their relatives were tense on Saturday morning, fearing guards might punish inmates for celebrating.
"You never know if they were beaten or thrown into the time machine," said the sister of another detainee, referring to a punishment cell used in the jail.
"There they lock them up naked, handcuffed, hooded for days or weeks, with very little food, in darkness and without ventilation," she said.
Like other relatives outside the jail, she asked not to be identified out of fear.
A man whose brother-in-law has been jailed for more than five years cautioned: "You have to stay calm and patient" while waiting for the prisoners to be released.
"They will get out, but not like people think. It's not as if they're going to fling the doors open like a bull run."

Hostile reception 

On Saturday, family visits also proceeded as usual, but in smaller groups.
At 7:00 am, relatives brought packages: deodorant, toothpaste, soap and shampoo in labeled plastic bags, plus disinfectant and bleach -- provisions essential for maintaining hygiene in the latrines of tiny cells.
Visiting relatives, who are required to wear white, took turns to walk to the entrance of the prison complex in Guatire, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Caracas.
"They hooded us as always and searched us," said the mother of two detainees.
"I felt they were more hostile today. They must be angry," added the wife of another prisoner.
Some inmates told visitors they could hear the national anthem and hymns sung by families who have held vigils nearby for the past two nights.
"We have to keep going. It gives them strength," said a young woman who arrived Thursday afternoon.
Another woman said her husband looked emaciated when she saw him inside. 
"He had diarrhea for two days. We think they're putting something in the food," she said.
"Who knows? They could poison them."
Another relative interrupted her. "You have to have faith," she said. "It is only a matter of hours."
pr/rlp/msp