conflict

Russian strikes cut heat to Kyiv, mayor calls for temporary evacuation

agriculture

EU countries override France to greenlight Mercosur trade deal

BY UMBERTO BACCHI

  • There is a lot of anger," Judy Peeters, a representative for a Belgian young farmers group told AFP at a protest on a motorway south of Brussels.
  • The EU gave Friday a long-delayed go ahead to a huge trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur championed by business groups but loathed by many European farmers -- overriding opposition led by France.
  • There is a lot of anger," Judy Peeters, a representative for a Belgian young farmers group told AFP at a protest on a motorway south of Brussels.
The EU gave Friday a long-delayed go ahead to a huge trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur championed by business groups but loathed by many European farmers -- overriding opposition led by France.
A majority of the European Union's 27 nations backed the pact at an ambassadors' meeting in Brussels, diplomatic sources told AFP, paving the way for it to be inked in Paraguay next week. 
More than 25 years in the making, the European Commission sees the deal as crucial to boost exports, support the continent's ailing economy and foster diplomatic ties at a time of global uncertainty.
"It's an essential deal, economically, politically, strategically, diplomatically, for the European Union," commission spokesman Olof Gill said on Thursday.
But Brussels failed to win over all of the bloc's member states.
Key power France, where politicians across the divide are up in arms against a deal attacked as an assault on the country's influential farming sector, led an ultimately unsuccessful push to sink it.
Ireland, Poland and Hungary also voted against the accord. 
But that was not enough to block it, after Italy, which had demanded and obtained a last-minute delay in December, threw its weight behind the pact.  
The deal will create a vast market of more than 700 million people, making it one of the world's largest free trade areas. 
Part of a broader push to diversify trade in the face of US tariffs, it will bring the 27-nation EU closer together with Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay, removing import tariffs on more than 90 percent of products. 
This will save EU businesses four billion euros ($4.6 billion) worth of duties per year and help exports of vehicles, machinery, wines and spirits to Latin America, according to the EU.
"This is the biggest free trade agreement we have negotiated," EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said Wednesday after 11th-hour talks to allay the concerns of some member states, describing it as a "landmark" pact.

'Important message'

Germany, Spain and others were strongly in favour, believing the deal will provide a welcome boost to their industries hampered by Chinese competition and tariffs in the United States.
"We have in our hands the opportunity to send the world an important message in defence of multilateralism, and to reinforce our strategic position in a global environment that is more and more competitive," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in December.
But France and other critics opposed it over concerns that their farmers would be undercut by a flow of cheaper goods, including meat, sugar, rice, honey and soybean, from agricultural giant Brazil and its neighbours.
Failure to sign off on the deal could have spelt the end of it: Brazil last month threatened to walk if the EU kicked the can down the road.

'Parmesao' no more

Over the past months, the commission has been at pains to reassure farmers and their backers that pros outweigh cons.
It has made a series of concessions, including plans to set up a 6.3 billion euro crisis fund and safeguards allowing for the suspension of preferential tariffs on agricultural products in case of a damaging surge in imports.
Sefcovic has stressed the accord is expected to boost EU agri-food exports to South America by 50 percent, in part by protecting more than 340 iconic European products -- from Greek feta to French champagne -- from local imitations.
"We will no longer have 'Parmesao' competing with Parmesan cheese," Italian agriculture minister Francesco Lollobrigida said this week.
Still, French farmers rolled into Paris on tractors and their Belgian colleagues blocked major roads across the country in a show of anger ahead of the text's approval. 
"There is a lot of pain. There is a lot of anger," Judy Peeters, a representative for a Belgian young farmers group told AFP at a protest on a motorway south of Brussels.
Ignacio Garcia Bercero, a former top EU trade negotiator now with Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, said the deal's advantages were self-evident "at a time of US protectionism and Chinese mercantilism".
ub-adc/ec/cw

Iran

Russia joins Chinese, Iran warships for drills off S.Africa

  • The South African navy said it would confirm details of the vessels present later Friday.
  • A Russian warship arrived off South Africa's main naval base Friday to join Chinese and Iranian vessels in military exercises that risk further damaging Pretoria's relations with Washington.
  • The South African navy said it would confirm details of the vessels present later Friday.
A Russian warship arrived off South Africa's main naval base Friday to join Chinese and Iranian vessels in military exercises that risk further damaging Pretoria's relations with Washington.
The exercises draw together several nations feuding with the US administration and come at a time of heightened tensions following Washington's raid on Venezuela.
A Chinese destroyer and replenishment ship, and an Iranian forward base ship sailed into South African waters earlier this week ahead of the week-long manoeuvres due to kick off with an opening ceremony Saturday.
AFP journalists near the Simon's Town base saw the Russian-flagged corvette vessel pull into False Bay. 
China is the lead nation in the "Will for Peace 2026" drill involving navies from the 11-nation BRICS group of emerging nations which US President Donald Trump has labelled "anti-American".
The South African navy said it would confirm details of the vessels present later Friday.
The United Arab Emirates was also expected to send ships, Deputy Defence Minister Bantu Holomisa told Newzroom Afrika television late Thursday.
Other BRICS nations Indonesia, Ethiopia and Brazil will send observers, he said. The remaining members of the grouping are India, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. 
The drills will allow the navies "to exchange best practices and improve joint operational capabilities, which contributes to the safety of shipping routes and overall regional maritime stability," South Africa's defence force said.

Global tensions

Washington this week seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker it said was part of a shadow fleet that carried oil for countries such as Venezuela, Russia and Iran. 
It has also threatened action against Iran should protesters be killed in mounting demonstrations sparked by anger over the rising cost of living.
Asked about the timing of the navy exercises, Holomisa said: "This exercise was planned long before these tensions we are witnessing today." 
"Let us not press panic buttons because the USA has got a problem with countries," he said. "Those are not our enemies," he said. 
The joint drills were initially scheduled for November 2025 but were postponed due to a clash with the G20 summit in Johannesburg.
Washington boycotted the summit amid a row with Pretoria that includes anger over its ties with Russia and Iran.
"Washington has clearly been attempting to put Pretoria in its bad book since the beginning of the current Trump administration," Priyal Singh, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, told AFP.
"The optics surrounding the upcoming naval exercise will likely be used by policymakers in Washington as another prime example of why its bilateral relations with South Africa should be reviewed," he said.
bur-br/ho/kjm

rights

'All are in the streets': Iranians defiant as protests grow

BY AFP BUREAUS

  • "Police are targeting people with pellets, tear gas and shotguns," Majid said.
  • Tear gas burning his eyes, his voice hoarse from shouting anti-government slogans as cars honked around him, Majid joined crowds of Iranians taking to the streets in defiance of a crackdown on a swelling protest movement. 
  • "Police are targeting people with pellets, tear gas and shotguns," Majid said.
Tear gas burning his eyes, his voice hoarse from shouting anti-government slogans as cars honked around him, Majid joined crowds of Iranians taking to the streets in defiance of a crackdown on a swelling protest movement. 
He used a pseudonym for security reasons and like all those who spoke about the protests was reached by AFP journalists outside Iran.
Majid described how he rallied with hundreds of others in the streets of eastern Mashhad on Wednesday night, even as police tried to disperse the crowd that nonetheless kept reforming. 
"Police are targeting people with pellets, tear gas and shotguns," Majid said.
"At first, people dispersed, but they gathered again," rallying in the streets until the early hours of the morning. 
"We know that if we go out there, we might not survive, but we are going and we will go out there to have a better future," he said. 
The demonstrations sparked in late December by anger over the rising cost of living and a currency nosedive have spread nationwide, their numbers -- and death toll -- growing.
Protesters filled the streets of the capital Tehran and other cities on Thursday night, despite a crackdown leaving dozens killed by security, according to the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights. 
Local media and official statements have reported at least 21 people, including security forces, killed since the unrest began, according to an AFP tally.
Violent crackdowns accompanied the last mass protests to sweep Iran in 2022-2023 sparked by the custody death of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women. 

'Last fight'

Majid, a mobile shopkeeper in his thirties, said this time felt different.
"During these protests, even those people or those classes that had never felt the pressure before are now under pressure," he said.
"You can see 50-year-old women, I saw someone who used to collect garbage on the streets chanting slogans along with shopkeepers. Young, old, men, women, all are in the streets." 
This wave of protests has hit as the clerical authorities under the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are already battling an economic crisis after years of sanctions and recovering from the June war against Israel.
"This is going to be the last fight against the government," Majid said, though he's uncertain of what would take the Islamic republic's place. 
"Right now, we just want to get rid of this bloody government because no matter who comes to rule, it won't be as bloody as them."
Another shop owner in Kermanshah in western Iran, which has seen intense protest activity, shuttered his store as part of a strike called in protest on Thursday.
The 43-year-old said he had taken part in every protest since 2009, when mass demonstrations flooded the streets after disputed elections. 
But this one felt different from previous movements, because "people's economic situation is heading towards complete collapse and life is no longer as it once was".
"No matter how hard we work, we cannot keep up with the inflation for which the regime is responsible," he told AFP via messaging app, saying protesters wanted "radical change in Iran". 
"Although I have a relatively good job, our lives have been severely affected this year by these economic conditions. We want a free and democratic Iran, and a free Kurdistan." 
Another merchant in Saqqez in Kurdistan province said he expected "more intense and widespread waves of protests in the coming days in Kurdish cities", echoing other Iranians.

'We stay alive'

One Tehran resident said she and neighbours had been shouting slogans from their windows at night -- something she did for months during the "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests in 2022. 
But, she said, now the "level of dissatisfaction is higher than ever". 
And while President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for "restraint" and announced measures to try to address grievances, "the issue for us is the end of the regime, and nothing else is satisfactory", she said. 
"Living and continuing our daily lives has been one of our major struggles for the past 47 years after revolution" that brought the Islamic republic to power, she said. 
"But we stay alive and fight until (we) get freedom." 
Another Tehran resident, a mother of two, sent a message to a relative abroad saying she was safe but warning her connection was becoming unreliable, not long before the internet went dark across the country ahead of protests on Thursday night.
She said it was becoming difficult to get groceries after days of demonstrations as stores restricted opening hours and that bigger protests were looming.  
"Hoping for better days for all of us," she said.
burs-sw/sjw/ser

Kurds

Kurdish fighters refuse to leave Syria's Aleppo after truce

  • Since Tuesday, government forces had been fighting the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Aleppo, the country's second city.
  • Kurdish fighters rejected a call to leave Syria's Aleppo on Friday after the government announced a truce in deadly fighting that forced thousands of civilians to flee.
  • Since Tuesday, government forces had been fighting the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Aleppo, the country's second city.
Kurdish fighters rejected a call to leave Syria's Aleppo on Friday after the government announced a truce in deadly fighting that forced thousands of civilians to flee.
Since Tuesday, government forces had been fighting the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Aleppo, the country's second city.
The violence killed 21 people and was the latest challenge for a country still struggling to forge a new path after Islamist authorities ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad just over a year ago.
It also forced around 30,000 families to flee their homes, according to the UN.
Both sides traded blame over who started the fighting, which came as they struggled to implement a deal to merge the Kurds' administration and military into the country's new government.
On Friday, the defence ministry announced a ceasefire in the fighting with the SDF, which controls swathes of Syria's oil-rich north and northeast, and was key to the defeat of the Islamic State group in 2019.
"To prevent any slide towards a new military escalation within residential neighbourhoods, the Ministry of Defence announces ... a ceasefire in the vicinity of the Sheikh Maqsud, Ashrafiyeh and Bani Zeid neighbourhoods of Aleppo, effective from 3:00 am," the ministry wrote in a statement. 
Kurdish fighters were given until 9:00 am Friday (0600 GMT) to leave the three neighbourhoods, while the Aleppo governorate said the fighters would be sent, along with their light weapons, to Kurdish areas further east.
Hours later, the local councils of Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh said the Kurdish fighters would not leave.
"We have decided to remain in our districts and defend them," the statement said, rejecting any "surrender".
An AFP photographer located on the edge of Ashrafiyeh saw members of the security forces enter the area, as well as vehicles that appeared to be preparing to evacuate Kurdish fighters.
The United States welcomed the ceasefire in a post on X by its envoy Tom Barrack.
He said Washington hoped for "a more enduring calm and deeper dialogue" and was "working intensively to extend this ceasefire and spirit of understanding".

'Children were terrified'

An AFP correspondent reported fierce fighting across Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsud districts into Thursday night. On Friday morning, the truce appeared to be holding.
Syria's military had instructed civilians in those neighbourhoods to leave through humanitarian corridors ahead of launching the operation.
State television reported that around 16,000 people had fled on Thursday alone.
"We've gone through very difficult times... my children were terrified," said Rana Issa, 43, whose family left Ashrafiyeh on Thursday.
"Many people want to leave", but are afraid of the snipers, she told AFP.
Mazloum Abdi, who leads the SDF, said attacks on Kurdish areas "undermine the chances of reaching understandings", days after he visited Damascus for talks on the March integration deal.
The agreement was meant to be implemented last year, but differences, including Kurdish demands for decentralised rule, have stymied progress.
Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh have remained under the control of Kurdish units linked to the SDF, despite Kurdish fighters agreeing to withdraw from the areas in April.
Turkey, which shares a 900-kilometre (550-mile) border with Syria, has launched successive offensives to push Kurdish forces from the frontier.
Aron Lund, a fellow at the Century International research centre, told AFP that "Aleppo is the SDF's most vulnerable area".
"Both sides are still trying to put pressure on each other and rally international support," he said.
He warned that if the hostilities spiral, "a full Damascus-SDF conflict across northern Syria, potentially with Turkish and Israeli involvement, could be devastating for Syria's stability".
Israel and Turkey have been vying for influence in Syria since Assad was toppled in December 2024.
In Qamishli in the Kurdish-held northeast, hundreds of people have protested the Aleppo violence. 
"We call on the international community to intervene," said protester Salaheddin Sheikhmous, 61, while others held banners reading "no to war" and "no to ethnic cleansing".
burs-ser/yad

Grok

Grok turns off AI image generation for non-payers after nudes backlash

  • Some users reportedly used Grok to generate pictures of women and children undressed, sometimes putting them in sexualized positions. 
  • Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok has turned off its image creation feature for non-paying users following backlash over its use to create sexualized deepfakes of women and children.
  • Some users reportedly used Grok to generate pictures of women and children undressed, sometimes putting them in sexualized positions. 
Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok has turned off its image creation feature for non-paying users following backlash over its use to create sexualized deepfakes of women and children.
Musk has been threatened with fines, and several countries have recently pushed back publicly against the tool over its creation of the sexually explicit imagery.
Some users reportedly used Grok to generate pictures of women and children undressed, sometimes putting them in sexualized positions. 
Replying to users Friday on Musk’s social media platform X, Grok posted: "Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers. You can subscribe to unlock these features."
The change means many of the tool’s users can no longer generate or edit images using the AI. Paying customers must give the platform their credit card information and personal details. 
The European Commission this week said the photos of undressed women and children were unlawful and on Thursday ordered X to retain all internal documents and data related to Grok until the end of 2026.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said X has "got to get a grip of this" and noted he asked communications regulator Ofcom "for all options to be on the table," according to media reports. He called the images "unlawful" and said Britain was "not going to tolerate it." 
France, Malaysia and India have also criticized Musk's platform over the issue. 
"Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content," Musk wrote on X last week in response to a post about the explicit images.
X's official "Safety" account subsequently said it addresses illegal content on X "by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary."
bur-lga/fox

rights

Defiant Khamenei insists 'won't back down' in face of Iran protests

BY STUART WILLIAMS

  • "Everyone knows the Islamic republic came to power with the blood of hundreds of thousands of honourable people, it will not back down in the face of saboteurs," he added.
  • Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday insisted that the Islamic republic would "not back down" in the face of protests after the biggest rallies yet in an almost two week movement sparked by anger over the rising cost of living.
  • "Everyone knows the Islamic republic came to power with the blood of hundreds of thousands of honourable people, it will not back down in the face of saboteurs," he added.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday insisted that the Islamic republic would "not back down" in the face of protests after the biggest rallies yet in an almost two week movement sparked by anger over the rising cost of living.
Chanting slogans including "death to the dictator" and setting fire to official buildings, crowds of people opposed to the clerical establishment marched through major cities late Thursday.
Internet monitor Netblocks said authorities had imposed a total connectivity blackout late Thursday and added early Friday that the country has "now been offline for 12 hours... in an attempt to suppress sweeping protests".
The demonstrations represent one of the biggest challenges yet to the Islamic republic in its over four-and-a half decades of existence, with protesters openly calling for an end to its theocratic rule. 
But Khamenei struck a defiant tone in his first comments on the protests that have been escalating since January 3, calling the demonstrators "vandals" and "saboteurs", in a speech broadcast on state TV. 
Khamenei said US President Donald Trump's hands "are stained with the blood of more than a thousand Iranians", in apparent reference to Israel's June war against the Islamic republic which the US supported and joined with strikes of its own.
He predicted the "arrogant" US leader would be "overthrown" like the imperial dynasty that ruled Iran up to the 1979 revolution.
"Last night in Tehran, a bunch of vandals came and destroyed a building that belongs to them to please the US president," he said in an address to supporters, as men and women in the audience chanted the mantra of "death to America".
"Everyone knows the Islamic republic came to power with the blood of hundreds of thousands of honourable people, it will not back down in the face of saboteurs," he added.
Trump said late Thursday that "enthusiasm to overturn that regime is incredible" and warned that if the Iranian authorities responded by killing protesters, "we're going to hit them very hard. We're ready to do it."

'Even larger'

AFP has verified videos showing crowds of people, as well as vehicles honking in support, filling a part of the vast Ayatollah Kashani Boulevard late on Thursday.
The crowd could be heard chanting "death to the dictator" in reference to Khamenei, 86, who has ruled the Islamic republic since 1989.
Other videos showed significant protests in other cities, including Tabriz in the north and the holy city of Mashhad in the east, as well as the Kurdish-populated west of the country, including the regional hub Kermanshah.
Several videos showed protesters setting fire to the entrance to the regional branch of state television in the central city of Isfahan. It was not immediately possible to verify the images.
Flames were also seen in the governor's building in Shazand, the capital of Markazi province in central Iran, after protesters gathered outside, other videos showed.
The protests late Thursday were the biggest in Iran since 2022-2023 rallies nationwide sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic republic's strict dress code.
Rights groups have accused authorities of firing on protesters in the current demonstrations, killing dozens. However, the latest videos from Tehran did not show intervention by security forces.
The son of the shah of Iran ousted by the 1979 Islamic Revolution, US-based Reza Pahlavi, who had called for major protests Thursday, urged a new show of force in the streets on Friday.
Pahlavi, in a new video message early Friday, said Thursday's rallies showed how "a massive crowd forces the repressive forces to retreat".
He called for bigger protests Friday "to make the crowd even larger so that the regime's repressive power becomes even weaker".
sjw-sw/axn

conflict

Russian strikes cut heat to Kyiv, mayor calls for temporary evacuation

BY DARIA ANDRIIEVSKA

  • He called on "residents of the capital who have the opportunity to temporarily leave the city for places with alternative sources of power and heat to do so."
  • Russian strikes cut heating to half of the Ukrainian capital on Friday, triggering the mayor to issue an exceptional call for residents to temporarily leave the city with temperatures at -8C and set to drop further.
  • He called on "residents of the capital who have the opportunity to temporarily leave the city for places with alternative sources of power and heat to do so."
Russian strikes cut heating to half of the Ukrainian capital on Friday, triggering the mayor to issue an exceptional call for residents to temporarily leave the city with temperatures at -8C and set to drop further.
Four people were killed in the capital in a massive missile and drone attack that ripped open apartment blocks and also saw Moscow fire its feared Oreshnik ballistic missile at a gas facility in western Ukraine.
The barrage came hours after Moscow rejected a plan by Kyiv and its Western allies to deploy peacekeeping forces to Ukraine in the event of any ceasefire in the war nearing its four-year mark.
AFP journalists in Kyiv saw residents running for shelter as the air raid siren echoed and heard Russian drones exploding into residential buildings and missiles whistling over the capital.
"A clear reaction from the world is needed. Above all from the United States, whose signals Russia truly pays attention to," President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media as rescuers sifted through the rubble of widespread damage in the capital.
"Russia must receive signals that it is its obligation to focus on diplomacy, and must feel consequences every time it again focuses on killings and the destruction of infrastructure," he added.
Zelensky said 20 residential buildings in Kyiv had been damaged, adding that a Russian drone had damaged the Qatari embassy building.
Around half of all apartment blocks in the capital were left without heat due to "due to damage to the capital's critical infrastructure caused by a massive enemy attack," Klitschko said.
He called on "residents of the capital who have the opportunity to temporarily leave the city for places with alternative sources of power and heat to do so."

Russia fires rarely-used missile

Authorities in Kyiv announced four people were killed -- including a medic who died at a building that was struck in a repeat attack -- and that 24 people were wounded.
The barrage is just the latest to batter Ukraine as diplomats wrangle for a breakthrough in what has been Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II. 
Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, has pressed forward with its assault, bombarding Ukraine daily.
Moscow's defence ministry said it had used the Oreshnik ballistic missile on "strategic targets" -- only the second time the new weapon, which the Kremlin says is impossible to stop, is known to have been used.
Ukrainian authorities said a ballistic missile travelling "at about 13,000 kilometres (8,000 miles) per hour" had struck an "infrastructure facility" near the western city of Lviv.
Zelensky later confirmed Russia had fired the Oreshnik missile.
Unverified videos on social media showed loud blasts and a series of bright bursts of light at the purported site of the attack shortly before midnight.
The regional military administration said afterwards that radiation levels were within normal range.
Sybiga said the attack so near the border with EU and NATO member Poland posed a threat to Europe and was a "test" for Ukraine's allies.
Kyiv's air force said Russian forces had launched 36 missiles and 242 drones of various types, adding that its air defence systems had downed 226 drones and 18 missiles.
Across the border in Russia's Belgorod, the governor said more than half a million people were without power or heating after a Ukrainian attack targeted the region's utilities. 

' Quite far' from any deal

While Zelensky has said an agreement between Kyiv and Washington for US security guarantees was "essentially ready for finalisation", German Chancellor Friedrich Merz acknowledged a ceasefire deal was still "quite far" given Russia's position.
Moscow baulked after European leaders and US envoys announced this week that post-war guarantees for Ukraine would include a US-led monitoring mechanism and a multinational force.
In its first response after a summit in Paris, Russia called the plan "dangerous" and "destructive".
Key territorial issues also appear unresolved.
Russia, which occupies around 20 percent of Ukraine, has insisted on full control of the Donbas region as part of any settlement, a term Kyiv rejects.
bur-lb-jbr/jc/ach 

Global Edition

Switzerland holds day of mourning after deadly New Year fire

BY NINA LARSON WITH AGNèS PEDRERO IN SION

  • They will need to answer numerous questions about why so many minors were in the bar, and whether fire safety standards were adhered to.
  • Switzerland was to hold a national day of mourning Friday for the 40 people killed, mostly teenagers, when fire ravaged a ski resort bar filled with New Year partygoers.
  • They will need to answer numerous questions about why so many minors were in the bar, and whether fire safety standards were adhered to.
Switzerland was to hold a national day of mourning Friday for the 40 people killed, mostly teenagers, when fire ravaged a ski resort bar filled with New Year partygoers.
Days after the tragedy at the Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, which left 116 injured, the establishment's owners Jacques and Jessica Moretti -- who are facing charges of manslaughter -- were questioned by public prosecutors.
Later Friday, Switzerland will come to a standstill for a minute of silence at 2:00 pm (1300 GMT). A chorus of church bells will then ring throughout the Alpine nation.
A memorial ceremony for the victims will be held in Martigny, a town about 50 kilometres (30 miles) down the Rhone valley from Crans-Montana, which had been rendered all but inaccessible by a large snowstorm.
Swiss President Guy Parmelin, who has declared the fire one of the country's worst tragedies, will be joined for Friday's ceremony by his French and Italian counterparts, whose countries lost nine and six nationals respectively.
Top officials from Belgium, Luxembourg, Serbia and the European Union were also due to participate.
Most of those impacted by the inferno at Le Constellation were Swiss, but a total of 19 nationalities were among the dead and injured.
People in Crans-Montana will be able to watch the ceremony on giant screens, including at the congress centre that for days after the blaze accommodated families seeking news of missing loved ones.

Among 'worst tragedies'

The memorial that has sprung up in front of the bar, filled with flowers, candles, toys and pictures of the victims, has been covered in a white igloo-like tarpaulin to protect it from heavy snowfall, as small snow ploughs worked to keep the area clear.
Inside, a woman broke down sobbing as she tried to light a candle late Thursday, as another woman laid a consoling arm around her. 
On a nearby table, a thick memorial book brims with messages.
"A great national loss forever etched in our minds. May they rest in peace," one reads. "My heart is heavy," reads another.
"Everything is different now," said a French woman in her 30s who works seasonally in Crans-Montana and who did not want to give her name.
"Before, this place was all smiles. Now, there are no more smiles here," she told AFP Friday.

'Staggering'

This week Crans-Montana authorities acknowledged that no fire safety inspections had been conducted at Le Constellation since 2019, prompting outrage.
The investigation will seek to shed light on the responsibilities of the authorities, but also of the bar's owners.
The Morettis, facing charges of manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence, arrived Friday for questioning by prosecutors in the nearby city of Sion.
The French pair, who have not been detained, said this week they were "overwhelmed with grief", and pledged their "full cooperation" with investigators.
They will need to answer numerous questions about why so many minors were in the bar, and whether fire safety standards were adhered to.
"We expect our clients, the families, to receive answers... and for all responsibilities from A to Z to be established," said lawyer Romain Jordan, who was expected to attend the hearing.
The families, he said, want to know "why this tragedy... was able to occur here in Switzerland, despite all the legal, legislative, and surveillance measures in place."

'They were kids'

Half of those killed in the blaze were under 18, including two as young as 14.
Johan Verthoogen, a 31-year-old tourist from Belgium, told AFP he had been nearby on the night of the disaster, and had seen numerous fatalities laid out under blankets.
"It was really tough... to see those bodies," he said. "They were kids."
Of those injured, 83 were still in hospital as of Monday, with the most severely burned airlifted to specialist centres across Switzerland and abroad.
Prosecutors believe the blaze started when champagne bottles with sparklers attached were raised too close to sound insulation foam on the ceiling in the bar's basement section.
Video footage which has emerged from the tragedy shows young people desperately trying to flee the scene, some breaking windows to try to force their way out.
ag-apo-nl/rjm/st

oil

Trump says US oil pledged $100 bn for Venezuela ahead of White House meeting

BY AURéLIA END

  • "At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House," Trump wrote on his social media platform ahead of the gathering, where he was expected to convince the oil heads to support his plans in Venezuela.
  • US President Donald Trump said Friday the world’s biggest oil companies pledged to invest $100 billion to revive Venezuela's oil sector as he prepared for a meeting with top industry executives.
  • "At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House," Trump wrote on his social media platform ahead of the gathering, where he was expected to convince the oil heads to support his plans in Venezuela.
US President Donald Trump said Friday the world’s biggest oil companies pledged to invest $100 billion to revive Venezuela's oil sector as he prepared for a meeting with top industry executives.
US forces seized Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in a sweeping military operation on January 3, with Trump making no secret that control of Venezuela's oil was at the heart of his actions.
"At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House," Trump wrote on his social media platform ahead of the gathering, where he was expected to convince the oil heads to support his plans in Venezuela.
The Trump administration has repeatedly said that it is running Venezuela, with Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Wednesday asserting that Washington will control the country's oil industry "indefinitely."
Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who was Maduro's deputy, has said that her government remains in charge, with the state-run oil firm saying only that it was in negotiations with the United States on oil sales. 
In his social media post, Trump said he cancelled a second wave of strikes on Venezuela due to what he called "cooperation" from the country.
He noted Venezuela began releasing political prisoners this week and said the countries are "working well together, especially as it pertains to rebuilding... their oil and gas infrastructure."
US outlet NBC News reported that the heads of Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips are expected at the White House meeting.
"It's just a meeting to discuss, obviously, the immense opportunity that is before these oil companies right now," Trump's spokesperson Leavitt told reporters Wednesday.
Chevron is the only US company that currently has a license to operate in Venezuela. Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips left the country in 2007, after refusing then-president Hugo Chavez's demand that they give up a majority stake in local operations to the government.

Suffering under sanctions

Sanctioned by Washington since 2019, Venezuela sits on about a fifth of the world's oil reserves and was once a major crude supplier to the United States.
But it produced only around one percent of the world's total crude output in 2024, according to OPEC, having been hampered by years of underinvestment, sanctions, and embargoes.
Trump sees the country's massive oil reserves as a windfall in his fight to further lower US domestic fuel prices, a major political issue. 
But he could face an uphill task convincing the major US oil companies to invest in Venezuela due to uncertainty about governance post-Maduro, security and the massive expense of restoring production facilities. 

'Controlled by me'

On Tuesday, Trump said that Venezuela's interim government would deliver up to 50 million barrels of oil to the United States, and that the proceeds "will be controlled by me."
"The Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. 
"This oil will be sold at its market price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States."
He later added that the proceeds spent by Venezuela would be used solely to purchase US products. 
US Energy Secretary Wright has downplayed concerns about the investments required to ramp up Venezuelan production, saying it should be possible to increase output by several hundred thousand barrels a day in the short- to medium-term.
He admitted, however, that it would require "tens of billions of dollars and significant time" to bring production back to historic highs of more than three million barrels per day.
In his first term, Trump imposed an oil embargo aimed at economically suffocating Venezuela, which heavily depends on exports of the commodity.
When he returned for his second term, he also ended most of the licenses allowing oil and gas multinationals to operate in the country, with the exception of Chevron. 
Washington now says it is "selectively rolling back sanctions" to enable the sale and transport of Venezuelan crude oil on global markets. 
Wright said that the Trump administration would also help major US oil companies to establish a long-term presence.
Venezuelan crude is known to be viscous and difficult to refine. 
The US Department of Energy is already planning to ship light oil to be mixed with Venezuelan crude in order to make that process easier. 
It also plans to authorize the shipment of equipment and experts to the country to upgrade infrastructure. 
aue-aha/jgc/sla/lga/fox

storm

Hundreds of thousands without power as storms pummel Europe

  • In France, Storm Goretti cut power to some 380,000 homes, most of them in the northern Normandy region, the Enedis power provider said, while Britain's National Grid said 42,000 homes lost electricity in southwest England and thousands more elsewhere.
  • Fierce winds battered France and Britain on Friday as storms barrelled through northern Europe, snarling train travel, shutting schools and cutting power to hundreds of thousands of homes in plunging winter temperatures.
  • In France, Storm Goretti cut power to some 380,000 homes, most of them in the northern Normandy region, the Enedis power provider said, while Britain's National Grid said 42,000 homes lost electricity in southwest England and thousands more elsewhere.
Fierce winds battered France and Britain on Friday as storms barrelled through northern Europe, snarling train travel, shutting schools and cutting power to hundreds of thousands of homes in plunging winter temperatures.
Forecasters from Britain to Germany urged people to stay inside as they issued weather warnings, including the rare, highest-level red wind alert for the British Isles of Scilly and Cornwall in southwestern England.
In France, Storm Goretti cut power to some 380,000 homes, most of them in the northern Normandy region, the Enedis power provider said, while Britain's National Grid said 42,000 homes lost electricity in southwest England and thousands more elsewhere.
Overnight, gusts of up to 216 kilometres per hour (134 miles per hour) were registered in France's northwestern Manche region, authorities said.
The winds felled trees in several regions, with at least one crashing on residential buildings in France's Seine-Maritime region, without injuries, authorities said.
Gusts of up to 160 kph lashed England and Wales with the Met Office forecasting agency warning "very large waves will bring dangerous conditions to coastal areas".
It also issued an amber snow warning in Wales, central England and parts of northern England, predicting snow of up to 30 centimetres (11 inches) in some areas.
The UK's National Rail has said train services will be affected over the next two days, and called on people to avoid travel unless necessary.
At least eight people have died in weather-related accidents this week across Europe, the latest being a man whose body was pulled from floodwater in the Albanian city of Durres on Thursday following days of heavy snow and torrential rain across the Balkans.

Schools out

Schools remained shut in parts of northern France, where weather alerts have been issued in 30 other regions.
"Take shelter and do not use your vehicle," the Manche police warned on X on Thursday, urging residents to prepare emergency supplies.
Giant waves crashed over harbour walls across France's far northwest overnight, and as the storm moved eastwards it brought flooding and forced the closure of roads and ports including Dieppe.
In Scotland, hundreds of schools remained shut for the fifth day, with many pupils not yet returning to the classroom after their Christmas holidays.
Northern Germany was facing severe disruption from heavy snow and high winds brought by another storm called Elli, with schools ordered closed in the cities of Hamburg and Bremen and long-distance rail services cancelled across the north.
Up to 15 centimetres of snow (six inches) could fall in the north, and there was a risk of icy conditions in the south, according to the German Weather Service (DWD).
The DWD said the storm was expected to last until Saturday, with snowfall stopping on Monday.
DWD meteorologist Andreas Walter told AFP the storm was exceptional in the context of the last few years of milder winters, which were a "consequence of climate change".
"It's still possible to have a cold month with snow, even as temperatures rise due to climate change, but such events will become rarer in the future," he said.
Transport in Russia was also hit by wintry weather, with some 300 flights in the Moscow region cancelled as workers battled to clear runways and de-ice planes.
burs-jxb/yad

rights

Iran rocked by night of protests despite internet blackout: videos

  • The crowd could be heard chanting "death to the dictator" in reference to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has ruled the Islamic republic since 1989.
  • Iranians staged their biggest protests yet of an almost two week movement sparked by anger over the rising cost of living, chanting slogans including "death to the dictator" and setting fire to official buildings, videos showed Friday.
  • The crowd could be heard chanting "death to the dictator" in reference to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has ruled the Islamic republic since 1989.
Iranians staged their biggest protests yet of an almost two week movement sparked by anger over the rising cost of living, chanting slogans including "death to the dictator" and setting fire to official buildings, videos showed Friday.
Internet monitor Netblocks said authorities had imposed a total connectivity blackout late Thursday and added early Friday that the country has "now been offline for 12 hours... in an attempt to suppress sweeping protests".
The son of the shah of Iran ousted by the 1979 Islamic Revolution, US-based Reza Pahlavi, who had called for major protests Thursday, meanwhile urged a new show of force in the streets on Friday.
AFP verified videos of crowds of people, as well as vehicles honking in support, filling a part of the vast Ayatollah Kashani Boulevard late on Thursday.
The crowd could be heard chanting "death to the dictator" in reference to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has ruled the Islamic republic since 1989.
Other videos showed significant protests in other cities, including Tabriz in the north and the holy city of Mashhad in the east as well as the Kurdish-populated west of the country, including the regional hub Kermanshah.
Several videos said protesters had set fire to the entrance to the regional branch of state television in the central city of Isfahan. It was not immediately possible to verify the images.
Flames were also seen in the governor's building in Shazand, the capital of the Markazi province in central Iran, after protesters gathered outside, other videos showed.
The protests late Thursday were the biggest in Iran since 2022-2023 rallies nationwide sparked by the custody death of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic republic's strict dress code.
Rights groups have accused authorities of firing on protesters in the current demonstrations, killing dozens. However the latest videos from Tehran did not show intervention by security forces.
Pahlavi, in a new video message early Friday, said Thursday's rallies showed how "a massive crowd forces the repressive forces to retreat".
He called for new protests later Friday "to make the crowd even larger so that the regime's repressive power becomes even weaker".
sjw/sw/ser/axn

diplomacy

Fresh from China, South Korea president to visit Japan

BY HIEUN SHIN

  • Lee met with President Xi this week, in the first visit to China by a South Korean leader in six years.
  • South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung will travel to Japan next week for talks with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Seoul said Friday, days after meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing.
  • Lee met with President Xi this week, in the first visit to China by a South Korean leader in six years.
South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung will travel to Japan next week for talks with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Seoul said Friday, days after meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing.
The visit to Takaichi's picturesque hometown of Nara on Tuesday and Wednesday follows major Chinese military drills around Taiwan, and North Korea firing ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan.
Tokyo and Beijing are also embroiled in a diplomatic spat triggered by Takaichi's suggestion in November that Japan could intervene militarily if China attacks Taiwan.
Lee and Takaichi, who both took office in 2025, last met in October on the sidelines of the APEC summit in the South Korean city of Gyeongju.
This will be Lee's second visit to Japan since last August, when he met Takaichi's predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba.
The South Korean leader will hold a summit meeting and dinner with Takaichi in Nara on Tuesday, where the two will discuss "regional and global issues", Lee's office said.
They will also explore ways to "strengthen practical cooperation across a wide range of areas directly affecting people's livelihoods, including the economy, society and culture," it added.
"The visit is expected to help cement a future-oriented and stable trajectory for South Korea-Japan relations" through an "early bilateral visit following Takaichi's inauguration," his office added.

Dark past

Relations have long suffered over issues related to Japan's brutal 1910-45 occupation of the Korean peninsula, and there have been concerns that ties could worsen under the conservative Takaichi.
Lee's conservative predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol -- before declaring martial law in December 2024 and being removed from office -- sought to improve relations with Japan.
Lee takes a relatively more dovish approach than Yoon towards North Korea, and has said South Korea and Japan are like "neighbours sharing a front yard".
Lee met with President Xi this week, in the first visit to China by a South Korean leader in six years. Lee took the opportunity to snap a selfie together.
Lee's Beijing trip came less than a week after China's massive military drills around Taiwan, which it claims as part of its territory.
The exercise, featuring missiles, fighter jets, navy ships and coastguard vessels, drew a chorus of international condemnation, including from Tokyo but notably not from Seoul.
The South Korean leader has also stayed on the sidelines of Japan and China's current dispute.
This has seen Beijing warn its nationals to avoid Japan, impose trade restrictions and summon home Japan's last two pandas one month early.
On Wednesday, Lee told reporters "relations with Japan are just as important as relations with China".
"There was a prevailing tone of appreciation (from Japanese media) that South Korea refrained from raising sensitive issues (with Xi)," presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said in a briefing on Friday.
"President Lee, in fact, did not discuss any sensitive issues with the Chinese side," she added.
Yee Kuang Heng, a professor in international security at the University of Tokyo, said he did not expect Lee to bring any particular message from Xi to Takaichi.
"However, the two leaders may discuss the fallout from China's economic coercion that both ROK (South Korea) and Japan have experienced over the years," Heng told AFP.
"Takaichi will be wary of China's wedge strategy designed to drive divisions between ROK and Japan and will want to re-emphasise common ground shared between Seoul and Tokyo," he added.
hs-stu/fox

bar

Switzerland mourns Crans-Montana fire tragedy

BY NINA LARSON WITH ALEXANDRE GROSBOIS IN GENEVA

  • Inhabitants of the plush ski resort town will meanwhile be able to watch the ceremony as it is livestreamed to large screens, including at the congress centre that for days after the tragedy accommodated families seeking news of missing loved ones.
  • All of Switzerland will mark a national day of mourning Friday for the dozens of mostly teenagers killed when fire ravaged a ski resort bar crammed with New Year revellers.
  • Inhabitants of the plush ski resort town will meanwhile be able to watch the ceremony as it is livestreamed to large screens, including at the congress centre that for days after the tragedy accommodated families seeking news of missing loved ones.
All of Switzerland will mark a national day of mourning Friday for the dozens of mostly teenagers killed when fire ravaged a ski resort bar crammed with New Year revellers.
Just over a week after the tragedy at the Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, which left 40 dead and 116 injured, the wealthy Alpine nation will come to a standstill for a minute of silence at 2:00 pm (1300 GMT).
A chorus of church bells will then ring throughout the country.
The moment of silence will stand as a "testament to the shared grief felt by the entire nation with all the families and friends directly affected", the Swiss government said in a statement.
At the same time, a memorial ceremony for the victims will be held in Martigny, a town about 50 kilometres (31 miles) down the valley from Crans-Montana, which had been rendered all but inaccessible by a large snowstorm.
Inhabitants of the plush ski resort town will meanwhile be able to watch the ceremony as it is livestreamed to large screens, including at the congress centre that for days after the tragedy accommodated families seeking news of missing loved ones.

Among 'worst tragedies'

A memorial that has sprung up in front of the bar, loaded with flowers, candles and messages of grief and support, was covered in an igloo-like tarp Thursday to protect it from the heavy snowfall.
Swiss President Guy Parmelin, who has declared the fire "one of the worst tragedies that our country has experienced", will be joined for the ceremony by his French and Italian counterparts, whose countries lost nine and six nationals respectively in the fire.
Top officials from Belgium, Luxembourg, Serbia and the European Union were also due to participate in the ceremony.
Most of those impacted by the inferno at Le Constellation were Swiss, but a total of 19 nationalities were among the fatalities and the wounded.
Half of those killed in the blaze were under 18, including some as young as 14.
Of those injured, 83 remain in hospital, with the most severely burned airlifted to specialist centres across Switzerland and abroad.
Prosecutors believe the blaze started when champagne bottles with sparklers attached were raised too close to sound insulation foam on the ceiling in the bar's basement section.
Experts have suggested that what appeared to be highly flammable foam may have caused a so-called flashover -- a near-simultaneous ignition of everything in an enclosed space, trapping many of the young patrons.
Video footage which has emerged from the tragedy shows young people desperately trying to flee the scene, some breaking windows to try to force their way out.
On Tuesday, municipal authorities acknowledged that no fire safety inspections had been conducted at Le Constellation since 2019, prompting outrage.

'Staggering'

The investigation underway will seek to shed light on the responsibilities of the authorities, but also of bar owners Jacques and Jessica Moretti.
The French couple, facing charges of manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence, have been called in for questioning on Friday, sources close to the investigation told AFP.
The pair, who have not been detained, said in a statement Tuesday that they were "devastated and overwhelmed with grief", and pledged their "full cooperation" with investigators.
They will need to answer numerous questions about why so many minors were in the bar, and whether fire safety standards were adhered to.
There has been much focus on the soundproofing foam, which, according to photos taken by the owners, had been added during renovations in 2015.
A video filmed by a member of the public, screened Monday by Swiss broadcaster RTS, showed that the danger was known years ago.
"Watch out for the foam!", a bar employee said during 2019 New Year's Eve celebrations, as champagne bottles with sparklers were brought out.
"This video is staggering," Romain Jordan, a lawyer representing several affected families, told AFP, saying it showed "there was an awareness of this risk -- and that possibly this risk was accepted".
ag/nl/cc/lb

shooting

US immigration agent's fatal shooting of woman leaves Minneapolis in shock

BY ELODIE SOINARD

  • The street where Good was killed, Portland Avenue, runs from downtown Minneapolis to its southern neighborhoods. 
  • The snow-lined street in the midwestern city of Minneapolis where Renee Nicole Good was gunned down by an immigration agent Wednesday lies less than a mile from the site of another slaying that shook Americans.
  • The street where Good was killed, Portland Avenue, runs from downtown Minneapolis to its southern neighborhoods. 
The snow-lined street in the midwestern city of Minneapolis where Renee Nicole Good was gunned down by an immigration agent Wednesday lies less than a mile from the site of another slaying that shook Americans.
In 2020, George Floyd was killed by a police officer in the same neighborhood, sparking a wave of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests here and across the country, as the United States examined bias in law enforcement and generations of fractured race relations.
But some now fear the act of protest itself, saying it has grown more dangerous under the Trump administration.
"I'd like to, but it's scary, you don't want to get shot in the face," 26-year-old Grace told AFP, adding: "I'm not surprised that they shot and killed someone here."
"I went to a protest before Christmas, and I was very scared about even going to that, even before anyone was shot."
Grace said she joined BLM protests in the past and feared being tracked by the government then, but those concerns have grown "under this administration, where Trump just relentlessly pursues anyone in contrast to him." 
What's worse, some comments online "are horrific, people saying she deserved it," Grace said.
"I don't know how we're going to come back from this as a country."

'People are tired'

Like many Minneapolis natives, 36-year-old Anthony Emanuel was deeply shaken when George Floyd, a Black man, was murdered by a white police officer who knelt on his neck.
Floyd's dying words -- "I can't breathe" -- were chanted at protests across the country, and Emanuel took part. 
But Emanuel, who works as a ride-share driver, is uncertain about protesting this time.
"I think people are just tired. And I think people are tired and still figuring it out, still going to work... still behind on bills," Emanuel said, citing political and financial pressures that only grow in hard economic times.
"We're still exhausted from George Floyd. We've still been rebuilding. And now another wave has come, and some people who had the energy don't anymore." 
The street where Good was killed, Portland Avenue, runs from downtown Minneapolis to its southern neighborhoods. 
It's a road driven daily by Jessica Dreischmeier, 39, who works in children's mental health care.
Despite the biting cold Thursday, she stopped to pay her respects at the makeshift memorial for Good, where dozens of bouquets and candles have been laid in the snow.
With wet eyes she confides she has mixed feelings: the awe of seeing those gathered to share her community's grief "in such a kind of profound and respectful way" and the harsh contrast of knowing outsiders can "come and create havoc."
From a distance, US President Donald Trump and his Vice President JD Vance were quick to defend the federal agent's actions as self-defense, while local Democratic leaders strongly refuted that version of events.
"I don't think that is a helpful approach for the leader of our country, to take that stance really recklessly. I think makes people feel a lot of deep rage," Dreischmeier said.
Meanwhile, Minneapolis City Council member Jason Chavez on Thursday called for the immediate arrest and firing of the ICE agents who "were complicit in the act," adding: "They need to be held accountable for their atrocities. And we will take nothing less than that."
es/sla/abs

Global Edition

After fire tragedy, small Swiss town mourns 'decimated generation'

BY AGNèS PEDRERO

  • "These are young people they've known since they were four years old," Sophie Bise said.
  • A tiny Swiss village is reeling from the "unimaginable" loss of numerous young people in the New Year inferno at a ski resort bar, including seven players on the same football team. 
  • "These are young people they've known since they were four years old," Sophie Bise said.
A tiny Swiss village is reeling from the "unimaginable" loss of numerous young people in the New Year inferno at a ski resort bar, including seven players on the same football team. 
The fire that ripped through Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana as it was packed with revellers ringing in 2026 killed 40 people, most of them teenagers, and injured 116.
Seven of those who perished in the blaze were members of the local football club in Lutry, an idyllic town of around 10,500 people on the shores of Lake Geneva.
"We have a generation here that has been decimated," FC Lutry president Stephane Bise told AFP at the club.
"It will be very, very difficult for those who remain to recover." 
In a nearby church, dozens of people turned out on Thursday evening to say a final goodbye to 16-year-old Arthur, a junior and a coach at the club.
Dozens of candles and flowers were placed on the steps, along with small footballs decorated with hearts. 
On the other side of the entrance, a giant poster displayed a drawing of Arthur with his little brother, smiling and embracing him from behind, flanked by the words: "Your little brother and your family will never forget you."
Arthur was about to turn 17. 
His mother, Laetitia Brodard-Sitre, herself a coach at FC Lutry, spoke out in the days following the tragedy to describe her desperate quest to find her son.
Six young people carried Arthur's light-wooden coffin out of the church, with his younger brother bringing up the rear.
Paramedics and police officers stood at attention as the hearse passed.

Entire community affected

"It was very important that the young people be there" and that they could speak and "share their affection for Arthur", pastor Alain Brouze told AFP after the ceremony.
"They are the ones on the front lines." 
This was not the first church service these young people had attended this week -- and it likely would not be the last.
In addition to the seven football players, several other members of the small community died in the fire.
Others are among the injured and some "helped rescue people from Crans-Montana", the pastor said.
"They witnessed truly harrowing scenes. It's really an entire community that has been affected."
Shortly after the tragedy, parishioners mobilised to set up a memorial so people could leave messages of support or prayers on the wall behind the alter.
One message read: "May you rest in peace, little angels," while another said: "Thinking of you. You're my favourite coach".

'Fly free to paradise'

Five other FC Lutry players were still in hospital, and the girlfriend of one of the players has died.
Nearby private international school Champittet has also reported deaths among its students and four among its alumni, some of whom played for FC Lutry, according to Swiss media. 
"We are experiencing an unimaginable tragedy," the FC Lutry president said.
The club has created a hotline and is providing ribbons cut from the sail of a legendary ship in Lutry port for people to write messages and attach to the fence around the pitch.
"You are children, fly free to paradise," reads one message, accompanied by a drawing of a peace dove and two hearts.
"This initiative came from members of our community who indicated that they needed to be useful, that they also needed to come together, to talk, to hug each other, to share their feelings about this horrific tragedy," Bise said.
His wife, Sophie Bise, and their son, who knew all of the young people who died, were also attending the funeral.
"These are young people they've known since they were four years old," Sophie Bise said.
"They all crossed paths at school more or less, and then on the soccer fields, and now at parties."
apo/nl/phz/lb

shooting

Protesters, US law enforcers clash after immigration agent kills woman

BY ELODIE SOINARD, WITH DANNY KEMP AT THE WHITE HOUSE

  • Wednesday's incident came during protests over immigration enforcement in southern Minneapolis, where locals are expressing widespread anger over Trump's vow to arrest and deport "millions" of undocumented people.
  • Protesters clashed with law enforcement in Minneapolis Thursday after the fatal shooting of a US woman further deepened the divide over President Donald Trump's deployment of federal forces to crack down on illegal immigration.
  • Wednesday's incident came during protests over immigration enforcement in southern Minneapolis, where locals are expressing widespread anger over Trump's vow to arrest and deport "millions" of undocumented people.
Protesters clashed with law enforcement in Minneapolis Thursday after the fatal shooting of a US woman further deepened the divide over President Donald Trump's deployment of federal forces to crack down on illegal immigration.
Renee Nicole Good, 37, was shot in the head on Wednesday as she apparently tried to drive away from agents in the northern US city as they approached her car, which they said blocked their way.
Vice President JD Vance said, without providing evidence, Good was part of a "broader left-wing network" opposed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and insisted the officer acted in "self-defense."
The White House asserted that US law enforcement was under "organized attack" and presented a version of the shooting disputed by officials in Minnesota, who contend that federal forces are making the streets more dangerous.
Large, noisy crowds gathered around Minneapolis in protest on Thursday, chanting slogans against ICE. Federal immigration officers armed with pepperball guns and tear gas wrestled several protesters to the ground.
In a separate incident Thursday afternoon, US federal agents shot and wounded two individuals in the western city of Portland, Oregon, local police said.
"Two people are in the hospital following a shooting involving federal agents," a statement from Portland Police said, adding a man and a woman were wounded by "apparent gunshot wounds."
Speaking at a news conference late Thursday, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek voiced concern about the use of force by federal agents in Portland and called for a full investigation into the shooting. 

'Smoke and mirrors'

Trump and senior officials have claimed that in the Minneapolis incident, Good was trying to kill the ICE agents.
"I want to see nobody get shot. I want to see nobody screaming and trying to run over policemen either," the president told The New York Times.
Footage from Wednesday shows an agent attempting to open Good's car door before another officer, standing near the front bumper, fires three times into the moving Honda SUV.
The vehicle veers into parked cars, as horrified onlookers hurl abuse at the federal officers before her bloodied body appears slumped at the wheel. 
Good leaves behind a wife and a six-year-old, officials said. More than $800,000 has been fundraised for her family.
A US citizen, Good was not the target of immigration enforcement action and was only suspected of blocking traffic, police said.
Vance alleged Thursday that Good was part of a broader effort "to attack, to doxx, to assault and to make it impossible for our ICE officers to do their job."
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said "law enforcement are under organized attack."

Immigrant deportations

Protests in Minneapolis grew after Minnesota's Democratic Governor Tim Walz called it a "patriotic duty" to demonstrate.
"Watching that woman get murdered yesterday -- no more. This can't continue to happen. And I can't sit home and just watch it," 62-year-old Shanda Copeland told AFP at a protest in the city on Thursday. 
"I feel like at least I'm here and I'll raise my voice as loud as I can."
Minneapolis schools were closed Thursday and Friday in anticipation of unrest.
Walz said Minnesota must participate in the shooting probe alongside federal investigators -- otherwise Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem "is judge, jury and basically executioner."
But Vance suggested the officer would be cleared by a federal probe that would exclude state-level officials.
"The idea that this was not justified is absurd," he said.
Wednesday's incident came during protests over immigration enforcement in southern Minneapolis, where locals are expressing widespread anger over Trump's vow to arrest and deport "millions" of undocumented people.
The victim's mother, Donna Ganger, told the Minnesota Star Tribune her daughter "was probably terrified" and "not part" of anti-ICE activity.
Religious leaders addressed crowds at the scene of Good's death, where a memorial of flowers and candles was growing.
Nearby, Abdinasir Abdullahi, 38, a naturalized US citizen originally from Ethiopia, told AFP he goes nowhere without his passport for fear of ICE.
"They don't trust if I say I'm a citizen, they don't want to trust you," he said.
es-gw/sla/msp/jgc

cybercrime

'Sever the chain': scam tycoons in China's crosshairs

BY SALLY JENSEN

  • Some analysts pointed to limitations in China's justice system that might prevent the full extent of the cyberscam schemes from being brought to light.
  • China is moving against the cyberscam tycoons making fortunes in Southeast Asia, driven by mounting public pressure and Beijing's desire to keep control of judicial processes, analysts say.
  • Some analysts pointed to limitations in China's justice system that might prevent the full extent of the cyberscam schemes from being brought to light.
China is moving against the cyberscam tycoons making fortunes in Southeast Asia, driven by mounting public pressure and Beijing's desire to keep control of judicial processes, analysts say.
Across Southeast Asia, scammers lure internet users globally into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments.
Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers -- from whom they have extracted billions, prompting rising public anger -- the scammers have expanded their operations into multiple languages to steal vast sums from victims around the world.
Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing volunteers, sometimes trafficked foreign nationals who have been trapped and forced to work under threat of torture.
Last year, a series of crackdowns largely driven by Beijing -- which wields significant economic and diplomatic influence in the region -- saw thousands of workers released from scam centres in Myanmar and Cambodia and repatriated to their home countries, many of them to China.
Now Beijing has turned its focus to the bosses at the apex of the criminal pyramids, netting its biggest player so far with the arrest and extradition of Chen Zhi from Cambodia this week.
The arrests were "almost certainly a result of Chinese pressure... coordinated behind closed doors", according to Jason Tower, senior expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
Chen, a Chinese-born businessman, was indicted in October by US authorities, who said his Prince Group conglomerate was a cover for a "sprawling cyber-fraud empire".
Phnom Penh said it detained him following a request from Beijing, and after "several months of joint investigative cooperation" with Chinese authorities.
Analysts say Phnom Penh's inaction became intolerable to Beijing, which also wanted to avoid the embarrassment of Chen going on trial in the US.
Jacob Sims, a transnational crime expert and visiting fellow at Harvard University's Asia Center, added that Chen "has a number of reported ties to Chinese government officials".
"China acted in order to prevent him from being extradited to the US given the political sensitivities," he told AFP.

'Cut off the flow'

Beijing made a show of the tycoon's extradition, with video released by China's public security ministry on Thursday showing the 38-year-old in handcuffs with a black bag over his head being escorted off a plane with black-clad armed security forces waiting on the runway.
The sudden extradition of Chen from Cambodia –- where he had close ties to political elites before his naturalised citizenship was revoked by the Southeast Asian nation last month –- follows China scooping up other wanted fugitives abroad to mete out justice on its own soil.
In November, She Zhijiang -- the Chinese-born founder of Yatai Group, which allegedly built a notorious scam hub on the Thai-Myanmar border –- boarded a flight to China in handcuffs after spending three years behind bars in Bangkok.
The same month Beijing held talks with law enforcement agencies from Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam agreeing to "intensify joint efforts against transnational telecom and online fraud".
China earlier publicly handed down death sentences to over a dozen members of powerful gang families with fraud operations in northern Myanmar, with their confessions of grisly crimes broadcast on national television.
There could be more high-profile arrests to come: weeks ago the public security ministry issued arrest warrants for 100 more fugitives seen as the scam industry's key financial backers, pledging Thursday to "cut off the flow", "pull out the nails", and "sever the chain".
But while the alleged leaders of some major scam groups have been arrested, Sims said the status quo for the wider industry was unlikely to change without sustained and "extremely high" pressure from the international community.
"The vast majority of Cambodia's hundreds of scam compounds are operating with strong support from the Cambodian government," he said.
Cambodian officials deny allegations of government involvement and say authorities are cracking down. Authorities had said in July that the tally of arrests had already reached 2,000. 
While in prison, She Zhijiang claimed to have previously acted as a spy for Beijing's intelligence agency before he and his Myanmar urban development project were "betrayed" by the Chinese Communist Party.
His lawyer told AFP that he had been pleading for Thai authorities to allow him to face trial in the US and said he feared "he will be deprived of due process" and "ultimately disappeared".
Some analysts pointed to limitations in China's justice system that might prevent the full extent of the cyberscam schemes from being brought to light.
"China is not an open society where investigation will reveal the true nature of things," said Cambodian academic and former ambassador Pou Sothirak.
burs-sjc/slb/sco/ceg/abs

conflict

Venezuela frees ex-presidential candidate in 'large' prisoner release

BY ANDREA TOSTA WITH DANNY KEMP IN WASHINGTON

  • Former Venezuelan opposition candidate Enrique Marquez -- who opposed Nicolas Maduro in the contested 2024 presidential election -- was among those released Thursday. 
  • Venezuela on Thursday began releasing a "large number" of political prisoners, including several foreigners, in an apparent concession to the United States after its ouster of ruler Nicolas Maduro.
  • Former Venezuelan opposition candidate Enrique Marquez -- who opposed Nicolas Maduro in the contested 2024 presidential election -- was among those released Thursday. 
Venezuela on Thursday began releasing a "large number" of political prisoners, including several foreigners, in an apparent concession to the United States after its ouster of ruler Nicolas Maduro.
The releases are the first since Maduro's former deputy Delcy Rodriguez took over, with the backing of President Donald Trump, who says he is content to let her govern as long as she gives Washington access to oil.
Former Venezuelan opposition candidate Enrique Marquez -- who opposed Nicolas Maduro in the contested 2024 presidential election -- was among those released Thursday. 
"It's all over now," Marquez said in a video taken by a local journalist of him and his wife, accompanied by another released opposition member Biagio Pilieri.
The White House credited Trump with securing the prisoners' freedom.
"This is one example of how the president is using maximum leverage to do right by the American and Venezuelan people," Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to AFP.
Trump broadened his threat to drug traffickers in a Fox News interview that aired Thursday night, saying he would target cartels in land strikes -- the US military has already destroyed at least 31 vessels in maritime attacks in the Eastern Pacific and the Caribbean, killing at least 107 people.
"We are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico," Trump told broadcaster Sean Hannity.
Interim leader Rodriguez's brother, parliament speaker Jorge Rodriguez, said "a large number of Venezuelan and foreign nationals" were being immediately freed for the sake of "peaceful coexistence."
He did not say which prisoners would be released, nor how many or from where.
Venezuela's opposition leader Maria Corina Machado hailed the announcement, saying in an audio message on social media: "Injustice will not last forever and... truth, although it be wounded, ends up finding its way."
Trump told Fox he plans to meet with the Nobel Peace Prize winner "next week."

Relatives await prisoners 

Renowned Spanish-Venezuelan activist Rocio San Miguel was among five Spanish citizens freed, according to Spain's foreign ministry.
She was imprisoned since February 2024 over a purported plot to assassinate Maduro, which she denied.
Security was stepped up Thursday afternoon outside the notorious El Helicoide detention center in Caracas, used by the intelligence services to jail political and other prisoners.
Families gathered outside on Thursday for news of their loved ones.
"I'm nervous. Please God let it be real," the mother of a detained activist from Machado's party told AFP.
On Tuesday, Trump had told Republican lawmakers that Rodriguez's administration was closing a "torture chamber" in Caracas but gave no further details.
His remarks had sparked speculation that Venezuelan authorities had agreed to close El Helicoide.
Venezuelan rights NGO Foro Penal estimates over 800 political prisoners are in the country's jails.

Venezuela denies being 'subjugated'

Maduro was seized in a special forces raid accompanied by airstrikes, operations that left 100 people dead, according to Caracas.
US forces took Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores to New York to face trial on drugs charges.
Trump said the US would "run" the Caribbean country for a transitional period and tap into its oil reserves for years.
Delcy Rodriguez insisted Thursday her country was "not subordinate or subjugated."
"Nobody surrendered. There was fighting for the homeland" when the US forces attacked, she said during a ceremony for the Venezuelans killed.
Thousands of Maduro's supporters waving red flags rallied in Caracas on Thursday, demanding his release.
Meanwhile, the US Senate on Thursday took a major step toward passing a resolution to rein in military actions against Venezuela, but it is expected to face resistance in the Republican-dominated House.

Millions of oil barrels

Oil has emerged as the key to US control over Venezuela, which has the world's largest proven reserves.
Trump announced a plan earlier this week for the United States to sell between 30 million and 50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude, with Caracas then using the money to buy US-made products.
Delcy Rodriguez defended the planned oil sales to Washington, saying on Wednesday they were not "unusual."
On the streets of Caracas, opinions were mixed.
"I feel we'll have more opportunities if the oil is in the hands of the United States than in the hands of the government," said Jose Antonio Blanco, 26.
Trump is scheduled to meet oil executives on Friday.
Trump has warned Rodriguez she will pay "a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro" if she does not comply with his agenda.
"Her power comes from Washington," Venezuela's former information minister Andres Izarra told AFP in an email.
"If Trump decides she's no longer useful, she'll go like Maduro."
bur-rlp/jgc/msp

ISS

International Space Station crew to return early after astronaut medical issue

  • NASA had previously said it was postponing a spacewalk planned for Thursday due to the medical issue.
  • NASA crewmembers at the International Space Station will return to Earth within days after an astronaut suffered a health issue, the US space agency said Thursday, the first such medical evacuation in the orbital lab's history.
  • NASA had previously said it was postponing a spacewalk planned for Thursday due to the medical issue.
NASA crewmembers at the International Space Station will return to Earth within days after an astronaut suffered a health issue, the US space agency said Thursday, the first such medical evacuation in the orbital lab's history.
Officials did not provide details of the medical event but said the unidentified crewmember is stable. They said it did not result from any kind of injury onboard or from ISS operations.
NASA chief medical officer James Polk said "lingering risk" and a "lingering question as to what that diagnosis is" led to the decision to return early. Officials insisted it was not an emergency evacuation.
The four astronauts on NASA-SpaceX Crew 11 -- US members Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman along with Japan's Kimiya Yui and Russia's Oleg Platonov -- would return within the coming days to one of the routine splashdown sites.
Amit Kshatriya, a NASA associate administrator, said it was the "first time we've done a controlled medical evacuation from the vehicle. So that is unusual."
He said the crew deployed their "onboarding training" to "manage unexpected medical situations."
"Yesterday was a textbook example of that training in action. Once the situation on the station stabilized, careful deliberations led us to the decision to return Crew 11... while ensuring minimal operational impact to ongoing work aboard."

'Trained professionals'

The four astronauts set to return have been on their mission since August 1. Such journeys generally last approximately six months, and this crew was already due to return in the coming weeks.
Officials indicated it was possible the next US mission could depart to the ISS earlier than scheduled, but did not provide specifics.
Chris Williams, who launched on a Russian mission to the station, will stay onboard to maintain US presence.
Russians Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev are also there.
NASA had previously said it was postponing a spacewalk planned for Thursday due to the medical issue.
Astronauts Fincke and Cardman were to carry out the approximately 6.5-hour spacewalk to perform power upgrade work.
Continuously inhabited since 2000, the ISS functions as a testbed for research that supports deeper space exploration -- including eventual missions to Mars.
The ISS is set to be decommissioned after 2030, with its orbit gradually lowered until it breaks up in the atmosphere over a remote part of the Pacific Ocean called Point Nemo, a spacecraft graveyard.
mdo/aha

environment

Rare gorilla twins born in conflict-hit DR Congo nature park

  • Eight other mountain gorilla births were registered in Virunga in 2025, according to park spokesman Bienvenu Bwende. mbb-cld/sbk/jhb
  • An endangered mountain gorilla has given birth to twins in the Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, whose remarkable biodiversity has long been threatened by the region's litany of conflicts.
  • Eight other mountain gorilla births were registered in Virunga in 2025, according to park spokesman Bienvenu Bwende. mbb-cld/sbk/jhb
An endangered mountain gorilla has given birth to twins in the Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, whose remarkable biodiversity has long been threatened by the region's litany of conflicts.
Fewer than one percent of mountain gorilla pregnancies result in twins, according to scientists, with the DRC recording a previous case in 2020, also in the UNESCO-listed Virunga reserve.
"The two newborns are both male," park official Methode Uhoze told AFP by phone on Thursday.
"Despite the challenges, life triumphs," the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature, which manages the DRC's national parks, said on social media, posting a photo of the mother with the two minuscule babies in her arms.
According to wardens, a team of trackers spotted the twins on Saturday, with monitoring and protection measures in force to increase their chances of survival.
The Virunga park, which was inaugurated in 1925, holds the distinction of being Africa's oldest nature reserve.
Stretching across 7,800 square kilometres (around 3,000 square miles) near the borders with Rwanda and Uganda, the reserve includes territory controlled by the M23 militia.
The M23 has seized swathes of the Congolese east with Rwanda's backing, and has expanded its influence in the region in recent months.
Virunga's forests are also believed to have been used as a hideout by fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State jihadist group.
Just over 1,000 mountain gorillas are estimated to live in the wild.
According to the reserve's authorities, the Virunga park was home to 350 of the great apes in 2021.
Eight other mountain gorilla births were registered in Virunga in 2025, according to park spokesman Bienvenu Bwende.
mbb-cld/sbk/jhb