funeral

Two dead in stampede at Kenya funeral for opposition leader Odinga

conflict

Hamas to give Israel another hostage body, vows to return rest

  • Under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas spearheaded by US President Donald Trump, Hamas returned 20 surviving hostages and the remains of nine of 28 known deceased ones -- along with another body which Israel has said was not that of a former hostage.
  • Hamas promised to hand over to Israel the remains of one more hostage on Friday night, after insisting it was committed to returning all the dead captives still unaccounted for under Gaza's ruins.
  • Under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas spearheaded by US President Donald Trump, Hamas returned 20 surviving hostages and the remains of nine of 28 known deceased ones -- along with another body which Israel has said was not that of a former hostage.
Hamas promised to hand over to Israel the remains of one more hostage on Friday night, after insisting it was committed to returning all the dead captives still unaccounted for under Gaza's ruins.
Turkey, responding to a Hamas call for help in finding the remaining hostage bodies, has dispatched a team of specialists to help retrieve remains buried under the rubble, but the group was still waiting Friday for Israeli permission to enter the territory.
The 81-member team from Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) is equipped with specialised search-and-rescue tools, including life-detection devices and trained search dogs.
"It remains unclear when Israel will allow the Turkish team to enter Gaza," a Turkish official told AFP, noting the team's mission included locating both Palestinian and hostage remains
A Hamas source told AFP the Turkish delegation was expected to enter by Sunday.
Under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas spearheaded by US President Donald Trump, Hamas returned 20 surviving hostages and the remains of nine of 28 known deceased ones -- along with another body which Israel has said was not that of a former hostage.
In exchange, Israel freed nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners from its jails and halted the military campaign it launched in Gaza after Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack.
Hamas said Friday that as part of the deal, its armed wing "will hand over the body of one of the Israeli captives, which was recovered today in the Gaza Strip, at 11:00 pm Gaza time (2000 GMT)".

'May require some time'

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed on Thursday his determination to "secure the return of all hostages", and his defence minister has warned that the military will restart the war if Hamas fails to do so.
Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad on Friday called those threats "unacceptable pressure tactics".
"The issue of the bodies is complex and requires time, especially after the occupation changed the landscape of Gaza," Hamad said in a statement.
"We will return the bodies and adhere to the agreement as we promised."
The ceasefire deal has so far seen the war grind to a halt after two years of agony for the hostages' families, and constant bombardment and hunger for Gazans.
The UN's World Food Programme said on Friday it had been able to move close to 3,000 tonnes of food supplies into Gaza since the ceasefire took hold.
But it cautioned it would take time to reverse the famine in the Strip, saying all crossings needed to be opened to "flood Gaza with food".
Trump's 20-point plan for Gaza calls for renewed aid provision, with international organisations eagerly awaiting the reopening of southern Gaza's strategic Rafah crossing.
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher entered Gaza on Friday, where he watched a convoy of aid head to Rafah from Israel's Kerem Shalom crossing and later visited a bakery making pita bread. 
"We've begged for this access for months and finally we're seeing goods moving at scale: food, medicine, tents, fuel, a lot of fuel got in today," he said, in a video message posted to social media.
The next phases of the truce should also include the disarmament of Hamas, the offer of amnesty to Hamas leaders who decommission their weapons and establishing the governance of post-war Gaza.

'Better than living on street'

The families of the surviving hostages have been able to rejoice in their return after two long years. Others have had to endure the agony of burying the returned remains of their loved ones.
"We've been waiting for this for so long, two years that we've been fighting for him every single day," said 30-year-old Gal Gilboa Dalal, the older brother of Guy Gilboa Dalal, who was released after two years in Hamas captivity.
Gal told AFP that Hamas had intentionally starved his brother and another prisoner for three-and-a-half months to use him as a prop in a propaganda video about hunger.
"Their bones hurt, their muscles hurt. Their recovery will be very long."
At the Nasser Hospital in Gaza, meanwhile, families gathered in front of a screen, hoping to find their loved ones among the bodies of Palestinians returned by Israel.
One, Akram Khalid al-Manasra, told AFP he identified his son "thanks to the birthmark on his nose and his teeth".
Others were clearing the rubble from their destroyed homes, undercutting their relief that the bombing had stopped.
"I'm right under the threat of death. It could collapse at any moment," said Ahmad Saleh Sbeih, a Gaza City resident. "But there is no choice."
The war has killed at least 67,967 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory -- figures the United Nations considers credible.
The data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.
Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
bur-dcp-acc/sbk/smw

conflict

Trump says too soon for Tomahawks in talks with Zelensky

BY DANNY KEMP

  • Ukraine has been lobbying Washington for Tomahawks for weeks, arguing that the missiles could help put pressure on Russia to end its brutal three-and-a-half year invasion.
  • US President Donald Trump suggested Friday it would be premature to give Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, saying as he hosted Volodymyr Zelensky that the war with Russia could probably be ended without them.
  • Ukraine has been lobbying Washington for Tomahawks for weeks, arguing that the missiles could help put pressure on Russia to end its brutal three-and-a-half year invasion.
US President Donald Trump suggested Friday it would be premature to give Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, saying as he hosted Volodymyr Zelensky that the war with Russia could probably be ended without them.
Zelensky, who came to the White House to push for the long-range US-made weapons, said however that he would be ready to swap "thousands" of Ukrainian drones in exchange for Tomahawks.
The US president's reluctant stance came a day after he and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in a call to hold a new summit in the Hungarian capital Budapest.
"Hopefully we'll be able to get the war over with without thinking about Tomahawks," Trump told journalists including an AFP reporter as the two leaders met at the White House.
Supplying Ukraine with the powerful missiles despite Putin's warnings against doing so "could mean big escalation. It could mean a lot of bad things can happen."
Trump added that he believed Putin, whom he met in Alaska in August in a summit that failed to produce a breakthrough, "wants to end the war."

Drones for Tomahawks?

Zelensky congratulated Trump on his recent Middle East peace deal in Gaza and said he hoped he would do the same for Ukraine. "I hope that President Trump can manage it," he said.
Ukraine has been lobbying Washington for Tomahawks for weeks, arguing that the missiles could help put pressure on Russia to end its brutal three-and-a-half year invasion.
Zelensky, meeting Trump in Washington for the third time since the US president's return to power, suggested that "the United States has Tomahawks and other missiles, very strong missiles, but they can have our 1,000s of drones."
Kyiv has made extensive use of drones since Russia invaded in February 2022.
On the eve of Zelensky's visit, Putin warned Trump in their call against delivering the weapons, saying it could escalate the war and jeopardize peace talks.
Trump said the United States had to be careful to not "deplete" its own supplies of Tomahawks, which have a range of over 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles).
Diplomatic talks on ending Russia's invasion have stalled since the Alaska summit.
The Kremlin said Friday that "many questions" needed resolving before Putin and Trump could meet, including who would be on each negotiating team.
But it brushed off suggestions Putin would have difficulty flying over European airspace.
Hungary said it would ensure Putin could enter and "hold successful talks" with the US despite an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against him for alleged war crimes.

Trump frustrations

Since the start of his second term, Trump's position on the Ukraine war has shifted dramatically back and forth.
Initially Trump and Putin reached out to each other as the US leader derided Zelensky as a "dictator without elections."
Tensions came to a head in February, when Trump accused his Ukrainian counterpart of "not having the cards" in a rancorous televised meeting at the Oval Office.
Relations between the two have since warmed as Trump has expressed growing frustration with Putin.
But Trump has kept a channel of dialogue open with Putin, saying that they "get along."
The US leader has repeatedly changed his position on sanctions and other steps against Russia following calls with the Russian president.
Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, describing it as a "special military operation" to demilitarize the country and prevent the expansion of NATO.
Kyiv and its European allies say the war is an illegal land grab that has resulted in tens of thousands of civilian and military casualties and widespread destruction.
Russia now occupies around a fifth of Ukrainian territory -- much of it ravaged by fighting. On Friday the Russian defense ministry announced it had captured three villages in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions.
dk/bgs

conflict

Kabul accuses Pakistan of resuming air strikes, killing 10

BY WITH ZAIN ZAMAN JANJUA IN ISLAMABAD

  • When the truce began at 1300 GMT on Wednesday, Islamabad said that it was to last 48 hours, but Kabul said the ceasefire would remain in effect until Pakistan violated it.
  • Pakistan launched strikes on Afghan soil late Friday, killing at least 10 people and breaking a ceasefire that had brought two days of calm to the border, officials told AFP. The 48-hour truce had paused nearly a week of bloody border clashes that killed dozens of troops and civilians on both sides.
  • When the truce began at 1300 GMT on Wednesday, Islamabad said that it was to last 48 hours, but Kabul said the ceasefire would remain in effect until Pakistan violated it.
Pakistan launched strikes on Afghan soil late Friday, killing at least 10 people and breaking a ceasefire that had brought two days of calm to the border, officials told AFP.
The 48-hour truce had paused nearly a week of bloody border clashes that killed dozens of troops and civilians on both sides.
"Pakistan has broken the ceasefire and bombed three locations in Paktika" province, a senior Taliban official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Afghanistan will retaliate."
Ten civilians were killed and 12 others wounded in the Pakistani strikes, a provincial hospital official told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that two children were among the dead.
The Afghanistan Cricket Board told AFP that eight players who were in the region for a tournament were killed.
The cross-border violence had escalated dramatically from Saturday, days after explosions rocked the Afghan capital Kabul, just as the Taliban's foreign minister began an unprecedented visit to India, Pakistan's longtime rival.
The Taliban then launched an offensive along parts of its southern border with Pakistan, prompting Islamabad to vow a strong response of its own.
When the truce began at 1300 GMT on Wednesday, Islamabad said that it was to last 48 hours, but Kabul said the ceasefire would remain in effect until Pakistan violated it.
Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif accused Kabul of acting as "a proxy of India" and "plotting" against Pakistan.
"From now on, demarches will no longer be framed as appeals for peace, and delegations will not be sent to Kabul," Asif wrote in a post on X, before news of the fresh strikes emerged. 
"Wherever the source of terrorism is, it will have to pay a heavy price."
Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said its forces had been ordered not to attack unless Pakistani forces fired first.
"'If they do, then you have every right to defend your country'", he said in an interview with the Afghan television channel Ariana, relaying the message sent to the troops.

'Concrete and verifiable'

Security issues are at the heart of the tensions, with Pakistan accusing Afghanistan of harbouring militant groups led by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) -- the Pakistani Taliban -- on its soil, a claim Kabul denies.
"Pakistan has repeatedly shared its concerns" related to the presence of militant groups operating from Afghan soil, Pakistani foreign office spokesman Shafqat Ali Khan said in a weekly press briefing Friday.
"Pakistan expects concrete and verifiable actions against these terrorist elements by the Taliban regime."
Just before the truce ended, seven Pakistani paramilitary troops were killed in a suicide bombing and gun attack at a military camp in the North Waziristan district that borders Afghanistan, an administration official told AFP.
A faction of the TTP claimed responsibility for the attack.
Earlier on Friday, Afghans in the frontier town of Spin Boldak -- where the fighting had been particularly intense -- described scenes of normalcy.
"Everything is fine, everything is open," Nani, 35, told AFP.
"I'm not afraid, but everyone sees things differently. Some say they're going to send their children elsewhere as the situation isn't good, but I don't think anything will happen," said Nani, who did not give a surname.

'Mixed feelings'

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said 37 people were killed and 425 wounded on the Afghan side of the border, calling on both sides to bring a lasting end to hostilities.
An AFP correspondent in Spin Boldak said they saw hundreds of people attending funerals on Thursday, including for children whose bodies were wrapped in white shrouds.
"People have mixed feelings," Nematullah, 42, told AFP. "They fear that the fighting will resume, but they still leave their homes and go about their business."
Calm had also returned to Kabul, where new explosions rang out shortly before the ceasefire announcement on Wednesday.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the blasts, but Pakistani security sources said they had undertaken "precision strikes" against an armed group in the Afghan capital.
Sources in Afghanistan suggested that Pakistan was behind at least one of the blasts and that they were air strikes, but the government has not formally accused Islamabad.
cgo-jma-zz/iv/sst

Andrew

UK's Prince Andrew says giving up royal title

  • Andrew, who stepped back from public life in 2019, will remain a prince, as he is the second son of the late queen Elizabeth II. But he will no longer hold the title of Duke of York that she had conferred on him.
  • Prince Andrew of Britain on Friday renounced his title of Duke of York and other honours after being increasingly embroiled in scandals around his ties to US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
  • Andrew, who stepped back from public life in 2019, will remain a prince, as he is the second son of the late queen Elizabeth II. But he will no longer hold the title of Duke of York that she had conferred on him.
Prince Andrew of Britain on Friday renounced his title of Duke of York and other honours after being increasingly embroiled in scandals around his ties to US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
"I will... no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me," Andrew, 65, said in a statement.
He said his decision came after discussions with his brother, King Charles III, and his own "immediate and wider family".
"I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first," he said.
He again denied all allegations, but said "we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family".
Andrew, who stepped back from public life in 2019, will remain a prince, as he is the second son of the late queen Elizabeth II.
But he will no longer hold the title of Duke of York that she had conferred on him.
His ex-wife Sarah Ferguson will also no longer use the title of Duchess of York, though his daughters Beatrice and Eugenie remain princesses.
The bombshell announcement came after new allegations emerged this week in the posthumous memoir of Virginia Giuffre, the woman at the centre of the Epstein scandal.
She wrote that Andrew had behaved as if having sex with her was his "birthright".
In "Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice", Giuffre said she had sex with Andrew on three separate occasions including when she was under 18.
Giuffre rose to public prominence after alleging the disgraced US financier Epstein used her as a sex slave and that Andrew had assaulted her.
Andrew has repeatedly denied Giuffre's accusations and avoided trial by paying a multimillion-dollar settlement.
In extracts published by The Guardian this week, Giuffre describes meeting the prince in London in March 2001 when she was 17.
Andrew was allegedly challenged to guess her age, which he did correctly, adding by way of explanation: "My daughters are just a little younger than you."

'Entitled'

Giuffre and Andrew later went to the Tramp nightclub in London, where she said he was "sort of a bumbling dancer, and I remember he sweated profusely".
They later returned to the London house of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's associate and former girlfriend, where they had sex, she alleged.
"He was friendly enough, but still entitled -- as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright," Giuffre wrote.
Giuffre, a US and Australian citizen, took her own life at her farm in Western Australia on April 25.
Andrew's association with Epstein has left his reputation in tatters and made him a source of embarrassment to the king.
In a devastating 2019 television interview, Andrew -- once feted as a handsome war hero who served as a helicopter pilot in the Falklands War -- denied ever meeting Giuffre and defended his friendship with Epstein.
jkb/js

politics

France tries Algerian woman for rape and murder of 12-year-old girl

BY NICOLAS GAUDICHET

  • Conservative and far-right politicians seized on the case to call for better immigration law enforcement, after Benkired was found to have overstayed a student visa and failed to comply with a notice to leave France.
  • An Algerian woman apologised for her "horrible" actions Friday as she went on trial accused of raping and murdering a 12-year-old girl in Paris, in a case that sparked horror in France and was seized by the far right.
  • Conservative and far-right politicians seized on the case to call for better immigration law enforcement, after Benkired was found to have overstayed a student visa and failed to comply with a notice to leave France.
An Algerian woman apologised for her "horrible" actions Friday as she went on trial accused of raping and murdering a 12-year-old girl in Paris, in a case that sparked horror in France and was seized by the far right.
Dahbia Benkired, now aged 27, was detained after Lola Daviet went missing in the northeast of the French capital three years ago. The girl's body was then found in a trunk in the lobby of the building where her father and mother worked as caretakers. 
Conservative and far-right politicians seized on the case to call for better immigration law enforcement, after Benkired was found to have overstayed a student visa and failed to comply with a notice to leave France.
The victim's mother has urged politicians to stop exploiting her daughter's death.
On Friday, the girl's family sat in court, wearing white T-shirts with a picture of a smiling child and the words: "You were the sun of our life, you will be the star of our nights." 
"I am waiting for justice to be done," said Lola's mother Delphine Daviet.
One woman in her fifties broke down in tears when the defendant entered the dock.
"I apologise to the whole family," Benkired said in a monotone. "It's horrible what I did. I regret it."
She was found competent to stand trial.

'Selling a kidney'

Although experts who evaluated Benkired's mental health noted her "manipulative behaviour" they said she did not suffer from any "major psychiatric disorder".
One of the victim's brothers, Thibaut Daviet, urged the accused to tell "all the truth and nothing but the truth".
Building residents saw Benkired in the lobby of the apartment block in the 19th district on October 14, 2022, carrying suitcases and a heavy trunk covered in a blanket, the investigation showed.
An hour and a half earlier, security footage showed Benkired approaching the girl as she returned from school, then leading her into the flat her sister occupied in the building.
Benkired raped and hit the schoolgirl with scissors and a box cutter, then bound her up in duct tape, including around her face, leading to her death by asphyxia.  
She placed the body in a trunk and exited the building, pausing outside a cafe, where she told a client who suspected something strange in her luggage that she was "selling a kidney", investigators said. 
She then convinced a friend to drive her and the bags to his home, before taking a taxi with the trunk back to the building where her sister lived. She fled when she saw police deployed in the area, but was arrested the next day.

'Twenty joints a day'

When images of the child's mutilated body were shown during the hearing, Lola's mother left the courtroom while Benkired remained impassive.
Benkired described growing up in a dysfunctional family, a childhood spent between Algeria and France, unloving aunts and a violent father. 
She mentioned sexual abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of a neighbour when she was 14, or "men who came to her aunts' house" in Algeria.
She settled in France in 2013 but had no stable job or residence.
Encouraged by her drug dealer boyfriend, she turned to prostitution and smoked cannabis, she said.
"Twenty joints a day, it made me feel good," she said.
An investigator said however that no evidence was found to support the claim that Benkired had been engaged in sex work.
The investigator recalled his astonishment at Benkired's composure after her arrest.
He said she had been found to lie frequently, describing her as "very arrogant" and "aggressive."
According to a personality assessment seen by AFP, the death of her mother in 2020 had been a "turning point", with her life beginning to unravel.
She told investigators she had been angry with the girl's mother, who had refused to give her an entry badge for the building, after her sister had given her a key to her flat.
The probe showed she had conducted searches online into witchcraft days before the murder.
Benkired, whose trial is to last until next Friday, faces a maximum sentence of life in jail.
Ahead of the trial, anti-immigration activists unfurled a banner in front of the courthouse reading "I don't want to be next."
pab-abo-ng-ah-as/giv

investigation

Sign of internal shakeup as Georgia raids home of ex-PM, others

  • Garibashvili, 43, served two stints as Georgia's prime minister and was widely seen as the closest lieutenant of powerful oligarch and ruling Georgian Dream party chief Bidzina Ivanishvili.
  • Georgian prosecutors raided the homes of some of the country's most powerful former officials on Friday, including ex–prime minister Irakli Garibashvili, signalling what may be a shakeup within the country's ruling elite.
  • Garibashvili, 43, served two stints as Georgia's prime minister and was widely seen as the closest lieutenant of powerful oligarch and ruling Georgian Dream party chief Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Georgian prosecutors raided the homes of some of the country's most powerful former officials on Friday, including ex–prime minister Irakli Garibashvili, signalling what may be a shakeup within the country's ruling elite.
The searches targeted figures long associated with the governing Georgian Dream party and the country's security establishment.
It was not immediately clear why prosecutors conducted the raids and the ruling party did not immediately comment.
Authorities in the Black Sea nation have for months waged a crackdown on the opposition, jailing prominent pro-EU figures, but had until now not targeted people close to the ruling party.
The ex-Soviet republic bordering Russia has been mired in political crisis since last October, when Georgian Dream claimed victory in parliamentary elections that the opposition decried as stolen.
Anti-corruption prosecutors and security agents carried out the raids simultaneously at 22 locations, Chief Prosecutor Giorgi Gvarakidze told reporters at a briefing in Tbilisi.
Homes and offices linked to Garibashvili, former spy chief Grigol Liluashvili, ex–prosecutor general and Russia-linked businessman Otar Partskhaladze, and eight other individuals were searched, Gvarakidze said.
"A large amount of cash, documents, and various electronic devices had been seized," he added.
He said the move was part of several ongoing criminal investigations but did not disclose the nature of the alleged offences or whether any arrests had been made.
Garibashvili, 43, served two stints as Georgia's prime minister and was widely seen as the closest lieutenant of powerful oligarch and ruling Georgian Dream party chief Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Georgian Dream has faced accusations of democratic backsliding, drifting towards Russia and derailing Georgia's EU-membership bid enshrined in the country's constitution -- allegations the party rejects.
im/cad/rh/giv

military

Venezuela deploys troops, reports of new US boat strike

  • AFP journalists saw troops deployed on Thursday in Tachira, where the three main bridges connecting Venezuela with Colombia are located.
  • Venezuela deployed thousands of troops near the Colombian border on Thursday in response to the US military buildup in the Caribbean, where US media reported a new strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat.
  • AFP journalists saw troops deployed on Thursday in Tachira, where the three main bridges connecting Venezuela with Colombia are located.
Venezuela deployed thousands of troops near the Colombian border on Thursday in response to the US military buildup in the Caribbean, where US media reported a new strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat.
The United States has sent several military vessels to the Caribbean Sea and launched a series of deadly naval strikes on boats in recent weeks, a campaign that experts say is illegal.
At least 27 people have been killed in the US strikes so far, with the military buildup sparking fears in Caracas that the ultimate goal is a change of government in Venezuela. 
Caracas has launched military drills, including the deployment of 17,000 troops in Tachira state, which borders Colombia, according to the commander there, General Michell Valladares.
While President Donald Trump weighs whether to expand US military action from the sea onto land, the admiral overseeing the naval strikes announced he will step down. 
The latest boat attack on Thursday left survivors among those on board, media outlets including CBS, CNN and NBC reported, citing unidentified US officials.
The Pentagon did not respond immediately to an AFP request for information about the number of survivors or their condition.
In a significant escalation, Trump indicated on Wednesday he had authorized covert CIA action against Venezuela and was considering further action against the alleged drug cartels.
"We are certainly looking at land now, because we've got the sea very well under control," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
A day later, Admiral Alvin Holsey announced he would leave his position as head of US forces operating in Central and South America.
The head of US Southern Command gave no reason for retiring just a year into his tenure, which follows multiple top US military officers being dismissed in recent months.

Venezuela military exercises

Venezuela's leftist leader Nicolas Maduro has decried any attempt by Washington at "regime change" and criticized "coups d'etat orchestrated by the CIA."
Its vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, also denied a report that she had negotiated with the United States to oust Maduro.
Under Maduro's direction, the Venezuelan military carried out exercises in the country's biggest shantytowns this week after another US strike.
AFP journalists saw troops deployed on Thursday in Tachira, where the three main bridges connecting Venezuela with Colombia are located.
Venezuelan forces were also stationed in southern Amazonas state, which borders Colombia and Brazil, and multiple coastal areas. 
Trinidad and Tobago, located off the coast of Venezuela, is investigating whether two of those killed in US strikes at sea were its citizens, officials said on Wednesday.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro recently called on the United Nations to open a "criminal process" against Trump for the attacks, which he believes have also killed Colombians.
Washington has not released evidence to support its assertion that the targets of its strikes are drug smugglers, and experts say the summary killings are illegal even if they hit confirmed narcotics traffickers.
bur-rsc/pbt

conflict

Gazans return to damaged mosques for first post-truce Friday prayers

  • "When I hear the prayer call echoing on loudspeakers from recordings, I feel like a part of our lives was broken."
  • Thousands of worshippers returned on Friday to the Gaza Strip's few intact and many damaged mosques, where for the first time in months loudspeakers blared the Islamic call to prayer.
  • "When I hear the prayer call echoing on loudspeakers from recordings, I feel like a part of our lives was broken."
Thousands of worshippers returned on Friday to the Gaza Strip's few intact and many damaged mosques, where for the first time in months loudspeakers blared the Islamic call to prayer.
"God is the greatest, glory to God, Lord of worlds," echoed through mosques at roughly the same time Friday, one week after a ceasefire took place in the devoutly Muslim coastal Palestinian territory.
To be united for prayer again "is an indescribable feeling after two years of privation", Ghalid al-Nimra told AFP at Gaza City's Sayed Hachem mosque.
Sayed Hachem, one of the oldest mosques in Gaza's largest city, was miraculously mostly spared during two years of air strikes and fighting between Israel and Hamas.
As he watched the hundreds of worshippers, Nimra was moved to see "such a large crowd gathered here" for the first time since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack sparked the war.
As the prayer rang out at 12:30 pm (0930 GMT), many hastened as they crossed the building's Ottoman-era door.
Old and young, many of their faces solemn, prayed together inside, where even the minbar, the imam's raised platform, seemed intact.
Out of Gaza's 1,244 mosques, 1,160 were partly or wholly destroyed, according to Hamas's media office in the Palestinian territory.

Dispersed prayer

Several worshippers expressed a state of spiritual confusion.
"I feel like my soul is getting lost amid all this destruction," Abu Mahmud Salha told AFP.
The 52-year-old from northern Gaza still lives in a camp for the displaced in Al-Mawasi, on the other end of the Gaza Strip.
"We pray inside the tent, I miss group prayer and the imam's voice," he said.
"When I hear the prayer call echoing on loudspeakers from recordings, I feel like a part of our lives was broken."
The mosque in his neighbourhood, al-Falluja, was destroyed, forcing him to pray on the street.
On Friday, most residents stuck to the habits they developed over the past few months. Some unfurled prayer mats on the road, on rubble, or in mosques with collapsed walls.
Others bowed near rows of tents housing thousands of displaced Palestinians across Gaza, in living conditions that remain difficult.
"Every Friday, we try to gather on a small patch of land under the sky, to pray," Moataz Abu Sharbi told AFP.
"Sometimes we pray on sand or on pieces of cardboard, which is very difficult psychologically," the 27-year-old added.
"The mosque was a pillar of life in our neighbourhoods and a precious part of our religious traditions," said Abu Sharbi, who was displaced to the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah.
"Losing both one's home and one's spiritual refuge -- that's the hardest part," Abu Sharbi added. 
"We used to find shelter for our worries in the mosque."

Rebuilding

Speaking from Gaza City's Al-Shati camp, Abu Mohammad al-Hattabn said "the mosque near my home was our refuge, not only for prayer, but also to find peace and remember God".
"When it was destroyed, it felt like a piece of my heart flew away," the 54-year-old said.
Hundreds of Palestinians also gathered in a destroyed mosque in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, an AFP photographer reported.
As an imam led prayers through a loudspeaker, the worshippers seemed absorbed in devotion, despite the mosque's gaping walls and exposed frame.
"We hope that everything will be rebuilt in Gaza, including the mosques," 22-year-old Salim al-Farra said.
str/crb/al/lba/dc/sbk

Global Edition

Ex-McLaren boss could take the wheel at Porsche

  • Last month, the maker of the iconic 911 sports car also hit the brakes on its shift to electric vehicles, saying demand had increased more slowly than expected. 
  • The former head of British supercar maker McLaren could take over as CEO of Porsche, the German firm said Friday, as it struggles with weak demand and a troubled shift to electric cars.
  • Last month, the maker of the iconic 911 sports car also hit the brakes on its shift to electric vehicles, saying demand had increased more slowly than expected. 
The former head of British supercar maker McLaren could take over as CEO of Porsche, the German firm said Friday, as it struggles with weak demand and a troubled shift to electric cars.
Michael Leiters, who headed McLaren from 2022 to April this year, "is available as a potential successor" to current chief executive Oliver Blume, and talks will be initiated, Porsche said in a statement. 
Blume has for several years been boss of both Volkswagen and Porsche, one of the German titan's subsidiaries, but has faced pressure to drop the dual role and focus on overhauling the broader VW group.
Leiters previously worked at Porsche for 13 years as well as at Italy's Ferrari.
Blume, meanwhile, will remain CEO of Volkswagen Group, signing a five-year term that begins January 1, the company said Friday. 
"In the last three years, Oliver Blume has impressively demonstrated his ability to advance and develop the Volkswagen Group's strategy and business operations in a challenging environment," VW's board chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch said in a statement. 
Talks will begin with Blume about "a mutually agreed early termination" of his CEO post, Porsche added. German newspaper Bild reported that Blume would give up the CEO role next year.
Like other German carmakers, Porsche has been struggling with weak demand in Europe and fierce competition in China, while tariffs in the United States, its top market, have added to headwinds.
Last month, the maker of the iconic 911 sports car also hit the brakes on its shift to electric vehicles, saying demand had increased more slowly than expected. 
It announced measures including delays in introducing some fully electric cars and extending the lifespan of some combustion engine and hybrid models, with VW warning the changes would deliver a hefty financial hit.
In February, Porsche announced 1,900 job losses and has warned of more cost cuts ahead. And last month it was excluded from Germany's blue-chip DAX stock index after its shares tanked.
The broader VW group, which makes 10 different brands including Audi and Skoda, has been struggling with the same issues afflicting Porsche. It announced last year plans to cut 35,000 jobs in Germany by 2030. 
sr/vbw/lth/js

politics

Trump foe John Bolton pleads not guilty to mishandling classified info

  • Bolton served as Trump's national security advisor in his first term and later angered the administration with the publication of a highly critical book, "The Room Where It Happened."
  • John Bolton, who served as Donald Trump's national security advisor before becoming an outspoken critic of the US president, pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges of mishandling classified information.
  • Bolton served as Trump's national security advisor in his first term and later angered the administration with the publication of a highly critical book, "The Room Where It Happened."
John Bolton, who served as Donald Trump's national security advisor before becoming an outspoken critic of the US president, pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges of mishandling classified information.
The 76-year-old veteran diplomat entered the not guilty plea to 18 counts of transmitting and retaining top secret national defense information at a court hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Bolton was released on his own recognizance by Magistrate Judge Timothy Sullivan, who set the next hearing date for November 21.
Bolton, the third Trump foe to be hit with criminal charges in recent weeks, was indicted on Thursday and accused of sharing classified files by email with two "unauthorized individuals" who are not identified but are believed to be his wife and daughter.
The Justice Department said the documents "revealed intelligence about future attacks, foreign adversaries, and foreign policy relations."
Each of the counts carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Bolton did not speak to reporters at the Greenbelt courthouse on Friday but he rejected the charges in a statement on Thursday, saying he had "become the latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department."
Bolton's indictment follows the filing of criminal charges by the Trump Justice Department against two other prominent critics of the Republican president -- New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey.
James, 66, was indicted in Virginia on October 9 on charges of bank fraud and making false statements related to a property she purchased in 2020 in Norfolk, Virginia.
James, who successfully prosecuted Trump for financial fraud, has rejected the charges as "baseless" and "political retribution."
Comey, 64, pleaded not guilty on October 8 to charges of making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding.
His lawyer has said he will seek to have the case thrown out on the grounds it is a vindictive and selective prosecution.

'Unfit to be president'

Trump recently publicly urged Attorney General Pam Bondi in a social media post to take action against James, Comey and others he sees as enemies, in an escalation of his campaign against political opponents.
Trump did not specifically mention Bolton in the Truth Social post, but he has lashed out at his former aide in the past and withdrew his security detail shortly after returning to the White House in January.
Trump called Bolton a "bad guy" on Thursday.
Bolton served as Trump's national security advisor in his first term and later angered the administration with the publication of a highly critical book, "The Room Where It Happened."
He frequently appears on television news shows and in print to condemn the man he has called "unfit to be president."
Since January, Trump has taken a number of punitive measures against perceived enemies, purging government officials he deemed to be disloyal, targeting law firms involved in past cases against him and pulling federal funding from universities.
The cases against James and Comey were filed by Trump's handpicked US attorney, Lindsey Halligan, after the previous federal prosecutor resigned, saying there was not enough evidence to charge them.
Appointed to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation by then-president Barack Obama in 2013, Comey was fired by Trump in 2017 amid the probe into whether any members of the Trump presidential campaign had colluded with Moscow to sway the 2016 election.
cl

funeral

Two dead in stampede at Kenya funeral for opposition leader Odinga

BY ERIC RANDOLPH

  • Friday's state funeral began calmly at Nairobi's Nyayo stadium, with President William Ruto telling the crowd that Odinga "walked among us as a man but also charged among us as a movement for change, a movement for justice... for a better and greater Kenya."
  • Two people died and dozens were injured in a stampede at the state funeral of Kenya's revered opposition leader Raila Odinga on Friday as crowds rushed to see his coffin, Doctors Without Borders said.  
  • Friday's state funeral began calmly at Nairobi's Nyayo stadium, with President William Ruto telling the crowd that Odinga "walked among us as a man but also charged among us as a movement for change, a movement for justice... for a better and greater Kenya."
Two people died and dozens were injured in a stampede at the state funeral of Kenya's revered opposition leader Raila Odinga on Friday as crowds rushed to see his coffin, Doctors Without Borders said.  
It came a day after at least three people were killed when security forces opened fire to disperse a crowd that had gathered to see Odinga's body in a separate ceremony.
Odinga, 80, died from a suspected heart attack at a health clinic in southern India on Wednesday, triggering a huge outpouring of grief for a man known affectionately as "Baba" (father) by many Kenyans. 
Friday's state funeral began calmly at Nairobi's Nyayo stadium, with President William Ruto telling the crowd that Odinga "walked among us as a man but also charged among us as a movement for change, a movement for justice... for a better and greater Kenya."
Moments later, a surge of mourners trying to reach the coffin on the pitch turned deadly.
AFP journalists saw people trampled underfoot, leaving some with broken bones or difficulty breathing.
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said emergency responders "attended to 163 patients and referred 34 others for further care".
"Most injuries involved blunt trauma and fractures. Tragically, two lives were lost in the stampede," MSF said in a statement. 

'The father'

Arguably the most important political figure of his generation in Kenya, Odinga served as prime minister from 2008 to 2013 but never succeeded in winning the presidency despite five attempts. 
But he outlasted many rivals and is credited as a major player in returning Kenya to multi-party democracy in the 1990s and overseeing the widely praised constitution of 2010. 
"I have freedom of speech because of Raila... I'm here because he is the father," said Paul Oloo, a supporter at the funeral. 
There were also chaotic scenes on Thursday as Odinga's body was repatriated from India and taken to another stadium on the outskirts of Nairobi to be viewed by mourners. 
As huge crowds surged towards a VIP gate, security forces opened fire, killing at least three people, according to prominent rights group VOCAL Africa based on information from the city morgue.
It was not clear if the security forces fired directly into the crowd or used live rounds. Autopsies are due on Tuesday.

'Excessive use of force'

AFP met families of the victims at the city morgue on Friday and saw photos of the bodies that appeared to show bullet wounds. 
"He was not disorderly in any way but he was shot," said the brother-in-law of one victim, Vincent Otieno Ogutu.
Another victim was named as Evans Kiche. The third has yet to be identified.
"The excessive use of force against mourners is totally unwarranted," said Hussein Khalid, head of VOCAL Africa, at the morgue.
"We are calling on the police to exercise utmost restraint... We don't want to see more deaths associated with this funeral," he added.
Odinga's body will next travel to western Kenya, his family's home region, where more huge crowds are expected on Saturday, before a private burial service on Sunday. 
His death leaves a leadership vacuum in the opposition, with no obvious successor as Kenya heads into a potentially volatile election in 2027.  
bur-er/gil

conflict

Turkish experts await Israeli go ahead to help recover bodies in Gaza

BY FULYA OZERKAN

  • A Hamas source told AFP the Turkish delegation is expected to enter Gaza by Sunday. 
  • A team of Turkish disaster response specialists is stationed at the Egyptian border, awaiting Israeli authorisation to enter Gaza and help in search and recovery operations, a Turkish official told AFP on Friday.
  • A Hamas source told AFP the Turkish delegation is expected to enter Gaza by Sunday. 
A team of Turkish disaster response specialists is stationed at the Egyptian border, awaiting Israeli authorisation to enter Gaza and help in search and recovery operations, a Turkish official told AFP on Friday.
The 81-member team from Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) is equipped with specialised search-and-rescue tools, including life-detection devices and trained search dogs.
They "are currently waiting at the border on the Egyptian side," the official said. 
The group is prepared to locate and recover bodies trapped under rubble. 
"It remains unclear when Israel will allow the Turkish team to enter Gaza," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. 
"Initially, Israel preferred to work with a Qatari team, but we are hopeful that our delegation will be granted access soon."
A Hamas source told AFP the Turkish delegation is expected to enter Gaza by Sunday. 
AFAD personnel are experienced in operating under extreme conditions, having responded to numerous natural disasters, including the devastating earthquake in southeastern Turkey in February 2023 which claimed over 53,000 lives.
The Turkish official noted that the team's mission includes locating both Palestinian and Israeli bodies, including hostages believed to be buried or hidden in collapsed structures. 
However, the task is complicated because some Israeli hostages may have been disguised in local clothing to evade detection by Israeli drones during transfers.
"This situation is expected to complicate search operations and delay progress," the official said, adding that Hamas is expected to provide location data related to hostages.
Concerns have been raised by some observers over the potential misuse of the Turkish team's heavy equipment, with fears that it could be repurposed by Hamas to access underground tunnels. 

'Buffer zone'

In Ankara, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the possibility that Israel may use Hamas's limited ability to recover bodies from beneath the rubble as an excuse to resume military operations led to concerns. 
"From time to time we hear certain statements from Israel. That is worrying for us. Will Israel use, as an excuse, Hamas's particular inability to recover bodies trapped under the rubble to break the ceasefire again?" he told a press conference with his German counterpart, Johann Wadephul.
While Hamas is blacklisted by Washington, Brussels and Israel as a terrorist organisation, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has always referred to it as "a liberation movement". He nurtures close ties with it and frequently hosts its leaders.
Turkey was closely involved in the negotiations for Gaza ceasefire and sent a team led by spy chief Ibrahim Kalin to the talks in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh. 
Ankara is now planning to take part in a task force in the Palestinian territory to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire. 
"For Gaza right now, a key question is how a stability force could be formed," Fidan said. 
"We are closely following these discussions: which countries can contribute, and under what rules and agreements would this proceed?" he added.
"But at the end of the day our goal is to create a buffer zone between Israel and the Palestinians so that neither side can harm the other."
fo/giv

politics

Army colonel sworn in as Madagascar president

BY CLéMENT VARANGES

  • Randrianirina led the CAPSAT army unit, which mutinied and joined the anti-government protesters before announcing Tuesday that the military had taken power, after Rajoelina was impeached for desertion of duty.
  • Army colonel Michael Randrianirina was sworn in as Madagascar's president Friday vowing sweeping reforms, just days after the military took power following weeks of anti-government protests that sent ex-president Andry Rajoelina fleeing.
  • Randrianirina led the CAPSAT army unit, which mutinied and joined the anti-government protesters before announcing Tuesday that the military had taken power, after Rajoelina was impeached for desertion of duty.
Army colonel Michael Randrianirina was sworn in as Madagascar's president Friday vowing sweeping reforms, just days after the military took power following weeks of anti-government protests that sent ex-president Andry Rajoelina fleeing.
Randrianirina led the CAPSAT army unit, which mutinied and joined the anti-government protesters before announcing Tuesday that the military had taken power, after Rajoelina was impeached for desertion of duty.
"Today marks a historic turning point for our country," Randrianirina said after his swearing-in ceremony, where the 51-year-old colonel swapped his army uniform for a suit.
He promised change in the poverty-stricken island nation, where anger over chronic power cuts sparked protests last month that swiftly escalated into a mass movement.
"We will work hand in hand with all the driving forces of the nation to draft a fine constitution... and to agree on new electoral laws for the organisation of elections and referendums," Randrianirina said.
"Our main mission is to thoroughly reform the country's administrative, socio-economic and political systems of governance," he said, promising to consult young people before a new government is formed. 
He also thanked the youth for spearheading the protests that ousted Rajoelina and said the army had intervened at the request of the top court to "avoid anarchy and disorder".
The ceremony in the capital Antananarivo was attended by military officers, politicians, representatives of the Gen Z youth-led protest movement and several foreign delegations, including from the United States, the European Union, Russia and former colonial ruler France.
Facing international criticism, Randrianirina has been eager to officialise his new role and insisted the takeover was not a coup, pointing to the constitutional court's backing.
At his swearing-in, the new leader addressed the foreign delegations in French, inviting them to "accompany Madagascar in the process of steering and implementing national renewal".
Local media reported that Randrianirina had already met a Russian delegation Thursday.
The international community's "large presence here shows that they respect national sovereignty", he told journalists.
The European Union said it was closely monitoring events and called for dialogue to foster a return to democracy in the country.
A few dozen people gathered outside the constitutional court Friday in hopes of seeing the new president.
"We're happy to be able to hope for change," said shopkeeper Faniry Randrianaridoa.
"We hope, but we'll see," she told AFP. "It's not a whim to want water and electricity."

Ex-president in hiding

Rajoelina's supporters have condemned the constitutional court's support of the CAPSAT commander as riddled with procedural illegalities that risked destabilising the country.
They insist that Rajoelina remains leader and is working to find solutions to the problems dogging the country.
Rajoelina adviser Lova Rinel Rajaoarinelina told AFP Friday there was no possible recourse for the decisions that led to his impeachment.  
Government forces were accused of a harsh crackdown on the protesters, with many reported dead or wounded, until CAPSAT announced on October 11 that it would refuse orders to shoot on them.
It marked a turning point in the uprising, with the unit hailed by the protest movement which now expects a role in the new set-up.
Rajoelina's office confirmed in a statement late Wednesday that he had fled the country, although he has not revealed his whereabouts.
Media reports said the 51-year-old was evacuated on Sunday aboard a French military plane that took him to the French island of Reunion, from where he travelled to Dubai.
The power grab was the third military transition in Madagascar since independence in 1960, following coups in 1972 and 2009.
It is the latest of several former French colonies in Africa to come under military control since 2020, after coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Gabon and Guinea.
The country, off Mozambique, is one of the poorest in the world, with about 80 percent of its 32 million people living in poverty, despite an abundance of natural resources and rich biodiversity.
The African Union and regional bloc SADC said they would send fact-finding missions to the country and called for constitutional democracy to be upheld.
clv-jcb-ho/kjm

history

Report calls French massacre of WWII African riflemen premeditated, covered up

BY MALICK BA

  • "In the days following the massacre, the French authorities did everything they could to cover up" the killings, the report said.
  • French forces' 1944 massacre of African World War II troops demanding pay in Senegal was "premeditated" and covered up, with previous death tolls vastly underestimated, according to a paper submitted to the Senegalese president, an exclusive copy of which was obtained by AFP. According to French colonial authorities at the time, at least 35 infantrymen were killed during the massacre at the Thiaroye camp, near Dakar.
  • "In the days following the massacre, the French authorities did everything they could to cover up" the killings, the report said.
French forces' 1944 massacre of African World War II troops demanding pay in Senegal was "premeditated" and covered up, with previous death tolls vastly underestimated, according to a paper submitted to the Senegalese president, an exclusive copy of which was obtained by AFP.
According to French colonial authorities at the time, at least 35 infantrymen were killed during the massacre at the Thiaroye camp, near Dakar.
This toll is likely significantly low, according to the committee of researchers who authored the report, who said the "most credible estimates put the figure at 300 to 400" deaths.
The 301-page report, submitted Thursday to President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, additionally calls on France to officially request forgiveness.
Below are the report's main points:

'Premeditated' and underestimated

According to the committee, which was led by historian Mamadou Diouf, the report "restores" facts that were "deliberately hidden or buried in masses of administrative and military archives and released sparingly".
"The true death toll of the tragedy is difficult to determine today, especially regarding the number of dead and injured", the researchers wrote.
But they said previous reports of some 35 or 70 deaths were "contradictory and patently false" and that "more than 400 riflemen vanished as if they had never existed".
The most credible toll, they said, is 300 to 400 deaths.
The massacre "was intended to convince people that the colonial order could not be undermined by the emancipatory effects of the Second World War", the report said.
For this reason "the operation was premeditated, meticulously planned and executed thusly in coordinated actions", the report said.
If the riflemen had been armed "they would have defended themselves", it concluded, adding that "nowhere was the slightest act of resistance mentioned".
The report additionally concluded that the killings were not limited to the Thiaroye camp but that some were likely killed at the train station.

'Wall of smoke and mirrors

Historically, around 1,300 soldiers from several countries in west Africa were sent to the Thiaroye camp in November 1944, after being captured by Germany while fighting for France.
Discontent soon mounted over unpaid backpay and unmet demands that they be treated on a par with white soldiers.
On December 1, French forces opened fire on them.
"In the days following the massacre, the French authorities did everything they could to cover up" the killings, the report said.
This included altering the riflemen's departure records from France and arrival records in Dakar, as well as the number of soldiers present in Thiaroye and other facts.
The report also concluded that "some administrative and military archives are inaccessible or inconsistent, while others have disappeared or been falsified".
Due to the transfer of documents to France, there is a significant absence of source material relating to the massacre in Dakar, where the archives of France's former west African colonies are concentrated, it said.
While the committee reported that its research benefited from collaboration in French archives, it said that "several of our questions and requests encountered a wall of smoke and mirrors".

Burial and graves

The report concluded that the riflemen were buried somewhere in the military camp cemetery or southwest of the Thiaroye camp.
While several theories have been put forward regarding the exact site, the report said that archaeological surveys indicate that the victims are indeed buried in the cemetery.
Seven graves consisting of buried coffins with "generally well-preserved" skeletons were excavated in the Thiaroye military cemetery by archaeologist from the research committee.
One skeleton, with a bullet located on the left side of the chest, lacked a skull and left ribs, while half its spine was missing, the report said.
In another grave, researchers discovered "the remains of iron chains at the bottom of the left and right tibia" (leg bone).

Forgiveness

The researchers recommended requesting that the European Court of Human Rights "declare that the Thiaroye massacre is a massive and clear violation" of the riflemen's human rights.
It also called on France to "officially express a request for forgiveness to the families, communities and populations of the countries from which the riflemen came".
mrb-lp/bfm/giv

vote

In Brazil, Michelle Bolsonaro leaves it to God, and Jair

BY FACUNDO FERNáNDEZ BARRIO

  • Jair "Bolsonaro is and will continue to be the greatest leader of the right in Brazil," she said.
  • Brazil's right is scrambling for a candidate in next year's election after leader Jair Bolsonaro was convicted over a botched coup -- and one of the names that keeps cropping up is that of his wife, Michelle.
  • Jair "Bolsonaro is and will continue to be the greatest leader of the right in Brazil," she said.
Brazil's right is scrambling for a candidate in next year's election after leader Jair Bolsonaro was convicted over a botched coup -- and one of the names that keeps cropping up is that of his wife, Michelle.
Poised and deeply devout, Michelle Bolsonaro has embraced the political spotlight in recent years, going viral on social media, addressing large crowds, and fiercely defending her beleaguered husband.
"Any decision regarding possible candidacies will be based on a thorough debate with my husband...and will be the result of much prayer to discern the mission that God may eventually entrust to me," she said in an interview to AFP.
Jair Bolsonaro is under house arrest and appealing a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup after his 2022 election loss, leaving Brazil's conservatives without a standard-bearer for 2026 general elections.
Other rumored potential candidates include his son, the senator Flavio Bolsonaro, Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas, and the governor of Parana state Carlos Roberto Massa, known as Ratinho ('Little Rat') Junior.
The 43-year-old Michelle Bolsonaro insisted it is "still early" to talk about candidacies, and complained about attempts to "force my husband" to hurry up and name a successor.
Jair "Bolsonaro is and will continue to be the greatest leader of the right in Brazil," she said.

 Appealing to conservative women

Bolsonaro's third wife, Michelle is 27 years younger than her husband and presents herself as a traditional homemaker.
She remained largely behind the scenes for his first electoral campaign, but ventured into the spotlight as Bolsonaro became increasingly unpopular with women and faced accusations of misogyny.
"Michelle is the one who kept the house in order," Bolsonaro said of his one term in office between 2019 and 2022.
Bolsonaro reversed a vasectomy to have a child with Michelle, and once described fathering his daughter Laura as a "moment of weakness" after having sired four sons in previous marriages.
The former first lady is a sign-language interpreter for the deaf, a skill she used to use at mass and later at her husband's inauguration as president.
Her confidence has grown on stage, and her speech at a major rally in Sao Paulo during her husband's trial brought tears to the eyes of women in the crowd.

'The feminine'

Michelle Bolsonaro said she is in favor of "the feminine, and not feminism."
Feminism "has lost its way. It stopped caring about the real needs of women to pursue the dubious objectives of the woke agenda," she told AFP.
The daughter of a bus driver and a housewife, Michelle de Paula Firmo Reinaldo was the eldest of five siblings raised in a poor neighborhood of the capital, Brasilia. 
She met Bolsonaro in 2007, when he was a lawmaker and she was secretary to another parliamentarian. He later hired her and the two quickly married.
It was Michelle who played a key role in introducing the former president to the evangelical churches that have grown in political influence in recent years.
During the 2022 election campaign, she claimed that "communism" would "persecute the Christians of Brazil."
In her interview with AFP, she slammed a "judicial farce" against her husband.
US President Donald Trump imposed steep tariffs on Brazilian products and sanctions top officials over what he termed a "witch hunt" against his far-right ally. 
Michelle said this was a result of Brazilian authorities "who violate human rights." 
ffb/app/fb/bgs

police

Mango founder's son under scrutiny as police probe death

BY DANIEL SILVA

  • Spanish media said police also cited the testimony of Isak Andic's partner, professional golfer Estefania Knuth, who described strained relations between father and son.
  • Spanish police confirmed Friday that their probe into the sudden death last year of Mango clothing empire founder Isak Andic remains open following reports his son has become a suspect.
  • Spanish media said police also cited the testimony of Isak Andic's partner, professional golfer Estefania Knuth, who described strained relations between father and son.
Spanish police confirmed Friday that their probe into the sudden death last year of Mango clothing empire founder Isak Andic remains open following reports his son has become a suspect.
Andic, 71, died in December 2024 after plunging more than 100 metres (300 feet) while hiking with his eldest son Jonathan in the Montserrat mountains near Barcelona. 
Police initially ruled the death accidental, but they are now investigating Jonathan, 44, for a possible homicide, El Pais daily reported late Thursday, citing "different sources with knowledge of the investigation".
Jonathan, who was the only person with his father at the time of the incident, has provided "inconsistent" testimony in two statements that has "fuelled suspicion", it said. 
His version of events did not align with forensic evidence collected at the site, the newspaper said.
Contacted by AFP, Catalan regional police sources confirmed that an investigation is ongoing without giving further details because the case remains under judicial secrecy.
For its part, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia said in a statement the investigation is in the hands of the police and that "procedurally, at this time" it does not target "any specific person".
Barcelona-based daily La Vanguardia, also citing sources with knowledge of the investigation, had said the investigating judge formally changed Jonathan's status from witness to suspect in late September and that police were combing through the contents of his mobile phone.
Spanish media said police also cited the testimony of Isak Andic's partner, professional golfer Estefania Knuth, who described strained relations between father and son.
The trail Isak Andic and his son were walking along links the Salnitre caves in Collbato with the Montserrat monastery and is popular with families on weekends.

'Keep moving forward'

Jonathan began his professional career in Mango in 2005 after studying audiovisual communication in the United States and business in Spain.
He began to manage the Mango Man line two years later and is currently the vice-chairman of Mango's board, according to the company's website.
"If you are clear about where you want to go and keep moving forward, you will end up achieving your goals," he said in a Mango promotional video posted on YouTube two years ago.
The Andic family said in a statement sent to Spanish media that it was "co-operating fully with the authorities" and "is confident that this process will finish as soon as possible and that Jonathan Andic's innocence will be demonstrated".
Contacted by AFP, Mango did not respond to requests for comment.
Istanbul-born Isak Andic was one of Spain's richest people, with Forbes estimating his and his family's fortune at $4.5 billion.
In December 2023, Isak Andic took the unprecedented step of opening up Mango’s ownership, selling a 5.0 percent stake to Toni Ruiz, the current chairman of the board.

Quick growth  

Andic opened his first Mango shop on the Paseo de Gracia, Barcelona's famous shopping street, in 1984 with the help of his older brother Nahman. It was hugely successful.
Spain had just emerged from a decades-long dictatorship that ended with the death of General Francisco Franco in 1975, and consumers were hungry for more modern clothes.
His Mango brand quickly mushroomed across Spain and became one of the world's leading fashion groups.
The company offers both professional and casual styles and boasts a presence in more than 120 markets with more than 16,400 employees worldwide, according to its website.
Like its main domestic rival Inditex, the world's biggest fashion retailer and owner of the popular Zara brand, Mango strives to quickly adjust its production to the latest fashion trends while offering affordable prices.
Mango does not own any factory, outsourcing its production mainly to lower-cost Turkey and Asia.
al-rbj-ds/

conflict

Temporary Afghanistan-Pakistan ceasefire nears end

  • Afghanistan said on Wednesday that the truce would endure unless Pakistan violated it, without confirming that the deal had a 48-hour limit.
  • A 48-hour ceasefire between Afghanistan and Pakistan neared its end Friday evening, following deadly violence between the neighbouring countries.
  • Afghanistan said on Wednesday that the truce would endure unless Pakistan violated it, without confirming that the deal had a 48-hour limit.
A 48-hour ceasefire between Afghanistan and Pakistan neared its end Friday evening, following deadly violence between the neighbouring countries.
Dozens of soldiers and civilians on both sides have been killed since the clashes began nearly a week ago, with explosions also heard in the Afghan capital Kabul.
The truce was announced Wednesday, with Pakistan indicating that it would last until Friday evening.
But officials have not said what will once the ceasefire expires.
Residents near the border early Friday said the ceasefire appeared to be holding.
"Everything is fine, everything is open," said Nani, 35, a resident of the Afghan frontier town of Spin Boldak, where the fighting had been particularly intense.
"I'm not afraid, but everyone sees things differently. Some say they're going to send their children elsewhere as the situation isn't good, but I don't think anything will happen," said Nani, who did not give a surname.
Afghanistan said on Wednesday that the truce would endure unless Pakistan violated it, without confirming that the deal had a 48-hour limit.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Thursday that for the truce to endure, the ball was "in the court" of the Taliban government.
"If in 48 hours they want to resolve the issues and address our genuine demands, then we are ready for them," Sharif told his cabinet.
Pakistan's foreign office described the situation as "delicate".
"We are in a temporary ceasefire, we are trying to work towards a diplomatic track to make it sustainable and to the long-term stability of the relationship -- that is a larger objective to us," spokesman Shafqat Ali Khan  said at a weekly press briefing on Friday.
"But beyond that, I am not in a position to share any information with you."

'Mixed feelings'

Initial explosions, which the Taliban blamed on Pakistan, struck Kabul last week.
Taliban authorities then launched an offensive along the border, prompting a deadly response from Islamabad in the days before the ceasefire.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said 37 people were killed and 425 wounded on the Afghan side of the border, calling on both sides to bring a lasting end to hostilities.
An AFP correspondent in Spin Boldak said they saw hundreds of people attending funerals on Thursday, including for children whose bodies were wrapped in white shrouds.
"People have mixed feelings," Nematullah, 42, told AFP. "They fear that the fighting will resume, but they still leave their homes and go about their business."
Calm has also returned to Kabul, where new explosions rang out shortly before the ceasefire announcement on Wednesday.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the blasts, but Pakistani security sources said they had undertaken "precision strikes" against an armed group in the Afghan capital.
Sources in Afghanistan suggested that Pakistan was behind at least one of the blasts and that they were air strikes, but the government has not formally accused Islamabad.
The initial explosions took place as the Taliban's foreign minister was beginning an unprecedented visit to India, Pakistan's historic foe.
On Thursday, Sharif suggested that New Delhi was involved in the confrontation, without giving details.
Security issues have been at the heart of resurgent tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Pakistan, facing a rise in attacks on its security forces, has accused Afghanistan of harbouring terrorist groups, a claim that Kabul denies.
cgo-jma-zz/abs

water

Water salinity hurting farmers, livestock in Iraq

BY CHRISTY-BELLE GEHA

  • "We haven't seen such high levels of salinity in 89 years," Iraq's water ministry spokesman Khaled Shamal said.
  • Iraqi farmer Umm Ali has watched her poultry die as salinity levels in the country's south hit record highs, rendering already scarce water unfit for human consumption and killing livestock.
  • "We haven't seen such high levels of salinity in 89 years," Iraq's water ministry spokesman Khaled Shamal said.
Iraqi farmer Umm Ali has watched her poultry die as salinity levels in the country's south hit record highs, rendering already scarce water unfit for human consumption and killing livestock.
"We used to drink, wash and cook with water from the river, but now it's hurting us," said Umm Ali, 40, who lives in the once watery Al-Mashab marshes of southern Iraq's Basra province.
This season alone, she said brackish water has killed dozens of her ducks and 15 chickens.
"I cried and grieved, I felt as if all my hard work had been wasted," said the widowed mother of three.
Iraq, a country heavily impacted by climate change, has been ravaged for years by drought and low rainfall.
Declining freshwater flows have raised salt and pollution levels, particularly further south where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers converge before spilling into the Gulf.
"We haven't seen such high levels of salinity in 89 years," Iraq's water ministry spokesman Khaled Shamal said.
Last month, salinity levels recorded in central Basra province soared to around 29,000 parts per million compared to 2,600 ppm last year, according to a report from the ministry.
Freshwater should contain less than 1,000 ppm of dissolved salts, while ocean water salinity levels are around 35,000 ppm, according to the US Geological Survey.

Dead buffalo

The Tigris and Euphrates converge at Basra's Shatt al-Arab waterway "laden with pollutants accumulated along their course", said Hasan al-Khateeb, an expert from Iraq's University of Kufa.
In recent weeks, the Euphrates has seen its lowest water levels in decades, and Iraq's artificial lake reserves are at their lowest in recent history.
Khateeb warned that the Shatt al-Arab's water levels had plummeted and it was failing to hold back the seawater from the Gulf.
Farmer Zulaykha Hashem, 60, said the water in the area had become very brackish this year, adding that she has to wait for the situation to improve in order to irrigate her crop of pomegranate trees, figs and berries.
According to the United Nations, almost a quarter of women in Basra and nearby provinces work in agriculture.
"We cannot even leave. Where would we go?" Hashem said, in a country where farmers facing drought and rising salinity often find themselves trapped in a cycle of water crisis. 
The UN's International Organization for Migration, which documents climate-induced displacement in Iraq, has warned that increased water salinity is destroying palm groves, citrus trees and other crops.
As of October last year, some 170,000 people were displaced in central and southern Iraq due to climate-related factors, according to the agency. 
Water scarcity pushed Maryam Salman, who is in her 30s, to leave nearby Missan province for Basra several years ago, hoping her buffalo could enjoy the Shatt al-Arab.
Near her house, AFP saw three buffalo skeletons on the parched land, with locals saying the animals had died due to lack of water.
Rising salinity is not the only problem now, said Salman, a mother of three children.=
"Water is not available... neither summer nor winter," she said.

Fewer fish

The Tigris and Euphrates originate in Turkey, and Iraqi authorities have repeatedly blamed dams across the border for significantly reducing their flows.
Iraq receives less than 35 percent of its allocated share of water from the two rivers, according to authorities, in a country with inefficient water management systems after decades of war and neglect.
Khateeb from the University of Kufa said that in addition to claiming its share of the rivers, Iraq must pursue desalination projects in the Shatt al-Arab.
In July, the government announced a desalination project in Basra with a capacity of one million cubic meters per day.
Local residents said the brackish water was also impacting fish stocks. 
Hamdiyah Mehdi said her husband, who is a fisherman, returns home empty-handed more frequently.
She blamed the Shatt al-Arab's "murky and salty water" for his short temper after long days without a catch, and for her children's persistent rash.
"It has been tough," said Mehdi, 52, noting the emotional toll on the family as well as on their health and livelihood.
"We take our frustrations out on each other."
cbg/rh/lg/ser

blast

Outrage as bomb destroys Italian investigative journalist's car

BY ELLA IDE

  • The group warned in its last update that journalists who investigate organised crime and corruption are "systematically threatened and sometimes subjected to physical violence".
  • A prominent Italian journalist threatened by the mafia had his parked car blown up by a bomb overnight, causing no injuries but sparking widespread outrage Friday from politicians and press groups.
  • The group warned in its last update that journalists who investigate organised crime and corruption are "systematically threatened and sometimes subjected to physical violence".
A prominent Italian journalist threatened by the mafia had his parked car blown up by a bomb overnight, causing no injuries but sparking widespread outrage Friday from politicians and press groups.
Sigfrido Ranucci's vehicle was destroyed by the explosion in Pomezia, near Rome, which also damaged the family's other car and the house next door, according to his investigative television show.
"The force of the explosion was so strong that it could have killed anyone passing by at that moment," Report, which broadcasts on RAI public television, said in a statement on X.
Anti-mafia prosecutors in Rome are investigating the attack on Ranucci, who has lived under police protection for several years due to death threats.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni strongly condemned what she called a "serious act of intimidation".
"The freedom and independence of information are non-negotiable values of our democracies, which we will continue to defend," she wrote on X.
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio said "an attack on a journalist is an attack on the state", while Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said he had ordered an increase in the journalist's security "to the maximum".
Video footage of the aftermath posted by Report on social media showed twisted metal and shattered car windows.
"At least one kilo of explosives was used," Ranucci told the Corriere della Sera daily.
His son had used his car earlier, while his daughter had walked by 20 minutes before the bomb exploded, he said.

Bullets

Report is known for its in-depth investigative reports and Ranucci has also written a book on the mafia.
In a 2021 television programme, he described how a former prisoner told him that mobsters "had given the order to kill you" after his book was published, but the hit "was stopped".
Ranucci told Corriere he had also received various threats recently, including finding two bullets outside his house.
On Sunday, he revealed the highlights of the upcoming Report series on social media, including investigative reports into the powerful 'Ndrangheta organised crime group in Calabria and the Sicilian Mafia.
According to campaign group Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Italy ranks 49th in the world for press freedom.
Pavol Szalai, RSF's Europe head, told AFP it was "the most serious attack against an Italian reporter in recent years". 
"Press freedom itself is facing an existential threat in Italy."
The group warned in its last update that journalists who investigate organised crime and corruption are "systematically threatened and sometimes subjected to physical violence".
About 20 journalists currently live under permanent police protection after being the targets of intimidation and attacks, it said.
The most high profile is Roberto Saviano, best known for his international mafia bestseller "Gomorrah".
Saviano linked the attack on Ranucci to a political climate in Italy in which journalists are seen as legitimate "targets". 
bur-ar-ide/cw

flood

Mexican national Guard aids towns isolated by flood that killed 70

  • In addition to delivering supplies, the National Guard is also moving injured people to hospitals. 
  • The Mexican National Guard sent supplies on Thursday to flood-hit communities, after heavy rains killed 70 people and left dozens missing.
  • In addition to delivering supplies, the National Guard is also moving injured people to hospitals. 
The Mexican National Guard sent supplies on Thursday to flood-hit communities, after heavy rains killed 70 people and left dozens missing.
The military-run organization carried out several flights from Pachuca, the capital of Hidalgo, to various disconnected areas, including Tianguistengo and Xalacahuantla.
Residents of the Texcaco community in Xochicoatlan lined up near an aircraft after it landed, and several children watched curiously as soldiers unloaded and handed out supplies. 
"We don't have anything left to buy in the stores," Marilyn Cortes, a 37-year-old resident of Xochicoatlan, told AFP.
"Honestly, this will be very helpful for us. We really need it. This is already hope for us."
Provisions included tuna, milk, oatmeal, toilet paper and soap, among other essentials.
In addition to delivering supplies, the National Guard is also moving injured people to hospitals. 
"If there are injured people or someone who needs medication or extra help requiring a hospital, we transport them by air," said Air Force Captain Irak Alejandro Martínez. 
The disaster, which began last week with days of exceptionally intense rainfall, left 160 localities in the center and east of the country isolated after roads and highways were blocked or destroyed. 
Hidalgo, which neighbors Mexico City has 84 disconnected municipalities, many of them located in mountainous regions where access roads were damaged by landslides. 
bur/yug/cr/ane