diplomacy

Pope Leo XIV calls for 'hope' before 100,000 faithful in Angola

US

Iran not planning to attend talks with US in Pakistan

BY AFP TEAMS IN WASHINGTON, TEHRAN AND ISLAMABAD

  • Iran and the United States, along with Israel, are just three days away from the end of the two-week ceasefire that halted the Middle East war, ignited by surprise US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
  • Iran is not currently planning to attend talks with the United States, state media said, after President Donald Trump ordered US negotiators to travel to Pakistan on Monday, just days before a ceasefire in the Middle East expires.
  • Iran and the United States, along with Israel, are just three days away from the end of the two-week ceasefire that halted the Middle East war, ignited by surprise US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
Iran is not currently planning to attend talks with the United States, state media said, after President Donald Trump ordered US negotiators to travel to Pakistan on Monday, just days before a ceasefire in the Middle East expires.
The ongoing US blockade of Iranian ports has been a significant sticking point, an issue further complicated by an American destroyer on Sunday firing on and seizing an Iranian ship that tried to evade it. Tehran warned it would retaliate.
State broadcaster IRIB on Sunday cited Iranian sources as saying "there are currently no plans to participate in the next round of Iran-US talks".
The Fars and Tasnim news agencies had earlier cited anonymous sources as saying "the overall atmosphere cannot be assessed as very positive", adding that lifting the US blockade was a precondition for negotiations.
State-run IRNA meanwhile pointed to the blockade and Washington's "unreasonable and unrealistic demands", saying that "in these circumstances, there is no clear prospect of fruitful negotiations".
Iran and the United States, along with Israel, are just three days away from the end of the two-week ceasefire that halted the Middle East war, ignited by surprise US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
There has so far been only a single, 21-hour negotiating session held in Islamabad on April 11 that ended inconclusively, though groundwork for fresh talks continued afterwards.
"We're offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it," Trump said in a post on Sunday, while also renewing his threats against Iran's infrastructure if a deal is not made.

US fires on Iranian ship

Trump has been under pressure to find an off-ramp since Tehran moved early in the war to choke off the Strait of Hormuz.
The vital waterway is a conduit for a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas in peacetime, and its closure has hammered the global economy and roiled markets.
Having failed to force it open again, Trump countered with a US naval blockade on Iranian ports in an attempt to cut off Tehran's oil revenues.
On Sunday, he announced that a massive Iranian-flagged cargo ship "tried to get past our Naval Blockade, and it did not go well for them."
A US destroyer warned the ship to stop and then forced it to by "by blowing a hole in the engineroom", Trump said, adding: "Right now, U.S. Marines have custody of the vessel."
Trump said the Iranian-flagged ship, Touska, is under US Treasury sanctions "because of prior history of illegal activity."
The ISNA news agency later cited a spokesperson for Iran's central command centre as warning that "the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will soon respond and retaliate against this armed piracy and the US military".
Iran had briefly reopened the strait on Friday in recognition of an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire in Lebanon, but closed it again the following day in response to the United States maintaining its blockade. 
Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned that any attempt to pass through the strait without permission "will be considered cooperation with the enemy, and the offending vessel will be targeted".
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei on Sunday said the blockade was "a violation" of the ceasefire and illegal collective punishment of the Iranian people.
A handful of oil and gas tankers had crossed the strait early on Saturday during the brief reopening, but by early Sunday morning tracking data showed the waterway empty of shipping.
The afternoon before, a trio of incidents involving Iranian fire and threats towards commercial vessels demonstrated the danger of any attempted crossing.

Heightened security

In spite of the uncertainty surrounding the talks in Pakistan, security was visibly stepped up in Islamabad on Sunday in anticipation of the negotiations.
Authorities announced road closures and traffic restrictions across the city, as well as in neighbouring Rawalpindi.
The US president said his negotiators, whom he did not name, would arrive in the Pakistani capital on Monday evening.
A White House official said the delegation would be led by Vice President JD Vance and include Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
A major issue in the negotiations has been Iran's stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium.
Trump said on Friday that Iran had agreed to hand over its roughly 440 kilogrammes of enriched uranium. "We're going to get it by going in with Iran, with lots of excavators," he said.
But Iran's foreign ministry has said the stockpile, thought to be buried deep under rubble from US bombing in last June's 12-day war, was "not going to be transferred anywhere", and surrendering it "to the US has never been raised in negotiations". 
On Sunday, President Masoud Pezeshkian questioned why Iran should give up its "legal right" to a nuclear programme.
bur-wd/msp

military

North Korea conducts ballistic missile tests: KCNA

BY KANG JIN-KYU

  • "Our military detected several short-range ballistic missiles fired into the East Sea from the Sinpo area of North Korea at around 6:10 am (2110 GMT)," South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said, referring to a body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.
  • North Korea has test-fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles, the government news agency reported Monday, the latest in a recent flurry of launches by the nuclear-armed state.
  • "Our military detected several short-range ballistic missiles fired into the East Sea from the Sinpo area of North Korea at around 6:10 am (2110 GMT)," South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said, referring to a body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.
North Korea has test-fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles, the government news agency reported Monday, the latest in a recent flurry of launches by the nuclear-armed state.
The Sunday launches, which were supervised by leader Kim Jong Un, follow other tests in recent weeks of weaponry including ballistic missiles, anti-warship cruise missiles and cluster munitions.
"Five tactical ballistic missiles, launched towards the target area around an island about 136 km away, struck the area of 12.5-13 hectares with the very high density, fully displaying their combat might," the Korean Central News Agency reported.
The test was meant "to evaluate the power of warhead of the improved surface-to-surface tactical ballistic missile Hwasongpho-11 Ra," it added.
Kim "expressed great satisfaction over the test results," according to KCNA, and noted that "the development and introduction of different cluster bomb warheads can...boost the high-density striking capability to quell a specific target area as well as the high-precision striking capability."

'Firm' defence posture in Seoul

Seoul had earlier reported the test.
"Our military detected several short-range ballistic missiles fired into the East Sea from the Sinpo area of North Korea at around 6:10 am (2110 GMT)," South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said, referring to a body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.
"The missiles flew approximately 140 kilometres (87 miles), and South Korean and US intelligence authorities are conducting a detailed analysis of their exact specifications," it added.
Seoul was maintaining a "firm combined defence posture" with its security ally the United States -- which stations about 28,000 troops in the South to help it defend against military threats from the North -- and will "respond overwhelmingly to any provocation", it said.
South Korea's presidential office said it held an emergency security meeting over the launches.
Analysts said the tests signalled Pyongyang's latest rejection of attempts by Seoul to repair strained ties.
Among them was an expression of regret from Seoul over civilian drone incursions into the North in January, a gesture initially described as "very fortunate and wise behaviour" by Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader.
But this month, a senior North Korean official described the South as "the enemy state most hostile" to Pyongyang, reviving a label previously used by leader Kim Jong Un.
North Korea is subject to multiple United Nations sanctions banning its nuclear weapons development and use of ballistic missile technology, restrictions it has repeatedly flouted.
"Pyongyang must immediately halt its successive missile provocations that are heightening tensions," Seoul's defence ministry said in a statement Sunday.
The North should "actively engage in the South Korean government's efforts to establish peace", it added.
- Two more destroyers – 
Earlier in April, Kim Jong Un oversaw tests of strategic cruise missiles launched from a naval warship, with official photos showing him watching the firings flanked by military officials.
Those tests were carried out from the Choe Hyon, one of two 5,000-ton destroyers in the North's arsenal, both launched last year as Kim seeks to ramp up the country's naval capabilities.
The North is also building two more 5,000-ton class destroyers to add to its fleet.
A South Korean lawmaker said this month that North Korea appeared to be speeding up construction of a destroyer at the western port city of Nampo.
Citing satellite imagery from a US-based intelligence firm, Yoo Yong-won of the opposition People Power Party said North Korea was "accelerating the naval forces' modernisation on the back of military assistance from Russia".
North Korea has sent ground troops and artillery shells to support Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and observers say Pyongyang is receiving military technology assistance from Moscow in return.
kjk/mtp/md/msp

US

War in the Middle East: latest developments

  • Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Sunday he had spoken by phone with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian -- which he described as "a warm and constructive conversation" -- and reaffirmed his government's readiness to mediate the conflict.
  • The latest developments in the Middle East war: - US seizes Iranian ship - President Donald Trump said Sunday that USS Spruance, a guided missile destroyer, fired on and seized Touska, an Iranian-flagged cargo ship, in the Gulf of Oman and US Marines were "seeing what's on board!"
  • Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Sunday he had spoken by phone with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian -- which he described as "a warm and constructive conversation" -- and reaffirmed his government's readiness to mediate the conflict.
The latest developments in the Middle East war:

US seizes Iranian ship

President Donald Trump said Sunday that USS Spruance, a guided missile destroyer, fired on and seized Touska, an Iranian-flagged cargo ship, in the Gulf of Oman and US Marines were "seeing what's on board!"
The incident comes as the US and Iran vie for control of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital conduit for the world's oil and liquefied natural gas, which was virtually closed for weeks under pressure from the Islamic republic. 
Tehran briefly reopened the strait Friday in recognition of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire in Lebanon, but closed it again Saturday in response to the ongoing US blockade on ships traveling to and from Iranian ports.

Peace talks in limbo

Iranian state media reported Sunday that Tehran was not planning to take part in talks with the United States, hours after Trump said he was dispatching negotiators to Islamabad. 
"There are currently no plans to participate in the next round of Iran-US talks," state broadcaster IRIB said, citing Iranian sources. 
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Sunday he had spoken by phone with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian -- which he described as "a warm and constructive conversation" -- and reaffirmed his government's readiness to mediate the conflict.

Syria foiled Hezbollah attack

Syria's interior ministry said Sunday that security forces had thwarted a cross-border attack in the southern Quneitra province by a cell linked to Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group, which denied the accusation.
In a statement, Syrian officials said they foiled a "sabotage plot" with hidden rocket launching equipment in a civilian vehicle, which was linked to Hezbollah and "aimed to destabilise the region".
The area borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

US negotiators going to Pakistan

Trump said US negotiators will be in Pakistan Monday to resume talks on ending the war with Iran, as he again threatened to destroy its power plants and bridges if no deal is reached.
Trump did not say who would lead the delegation, but a White House official said it was Vice President JD Vance, who led the last set of talks that failed to reach an accord.
Trump said in a social media post he was offering Iran "a reasonable deal" but if Tehran refuses, "the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!"

Lebanon PM to Paris

French President Emmanuel Macron will on Tuesday meet with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam in Paris, his office announced, a day after a French peacekeeper was killed in Lebanon and amid a fragile 10-day truce between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Israel warns 'full force'

Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said his military will use "full force" in Lebanon -- even during the ongoing ceasefire -- should Israeli troops face any threat from Hezbollah.
Lebanon's military said meanwhile it has reopened a road and bridge between the city of Nabatieh and Khardali that was damaged by Israeli strikes in the south.

Iranian airport reopens

Iran will resume international flights on Monday from Mashhad airport in the country's northeast, its civil aviation authority said.

Turkey hopes for extension

Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Sunday he was "optimistic" that a two-week ceasefire between Iran and the United States that expires on Wednesday, would be extended, allowing more time for talks between the sides.
burs-gv/rh/sla/msp

diplomacy

Pope Leo XIV draws 100,000 to Angola Mass, condemns corruption

BY FRANCOIS AUSSEILL AND CLEMENT MELKI

  • "We too can and want to build a country where old divisions will definitively be overcome, where hatred and violence will disappear, where the scourge of corruption will be healed by a new culture of justice and sharing," he said.
  • Pope Leo XIV spoke out against the "scourge of corruption" at a giant open-air Mass attended by 100,000 worshippers near Angola's capital Sunday, before visiting a venerated historic shrine in the country scarred by poverty and inequality.
  • "We too can and want to build a country where old divisions will definitively be overcome, where hatred and violence will disappear, where the scourge of corruption will be healed by a new culture of justice and sharing," he said.
Pope Leo XIV spoke out against the "scourge of corruption" at a giant open-air Mass attended by 100,000 worshippers near Angola's capital Sunday, before visiting a venerated historic shrine in the country scarred by poverty and inequality.
Leo arrived in resource-rich Angola on Saturday on the third leg of a whirlwind four-nation African tour on which he condemned the plunder of the continent's resources -- and had a high-profile spat with US President Donald Trump.
Authorities said 100,000 people turned out for the Mass at Kilamba, around 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the capital, some sleeping on the ground overnight in anticipation.
After pushing through the crowds in his popemobile, Leo delivered a message of hope for the country still marked by a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002.
"We too can and want to build a country where old divisions will definitively be overcome, where hatred and violence will disappear, where the scourge of corruption will be healed by a new culture of justice and sharing," he said.

'Call leaders to account'

On arriving Saturday from Cameroon, Leo went straight into an event with Angolan President Joao Lourenco and other officials where he spoke out against the "suffering" caused by poverty and the rampant exploitation of natural resources.
Angola is one of Africa's top oil and diamond producers but around a third of the population of 36.6 million people live in poverty, according to the World Bank.
"We are very rich in natural resources but there is a glaring inequality between those who live well and the others," said Patricio Musanga, 32, before the Kilamba Mass.
"The pope must call our leaders to account. I believe that at least he will be listened to by the authorities," he told journalists.
Father Pedro Chingandu, a Catholic priest who had come from the eastern province of Moxico, told AFP: "We need real democracy and the redistribution of wealth and justice."

A world without war, misery

At Muxima, home to a major shrine some 110 kilometres from Luanda, hundreds of people spent the night in multicoloured tents ahead of Leo's arrival.
Around 50,000 worshippers attended his prayers, where he reiterated a call for a world "where there are no more wars, no injustices, no misery, no dishonesty".
Meraldo Amon Daniel, a 21-year-old nursing student, said she believed the pope's visit to the town's 16th-century Mama Muxima shrine "can strengthen the faith, not only of the faithful, but also of the country's authorities." 
According to religious officials, the church on the Kwanza River was built to baptise enslaved people before their Atlantic crossing to the Americas. 
"The presence of so many pilgrims here, despite the painful page of history that took place here, has great significance for many of us," Matias Chitandula, a 24-year-old philosophy student, told AFP. 
On Monday, Leo will travel 800 kilometres east of Luanda to Saurimo, the capital of a marginalised region that is home to the country's largest diamond mine. 
He leaves Angola on Tuesday for Equatorial Guinea, the final stop of an 18,000-kilometre journey that began in Algeria.

Not debating Trump

The early part of Leo's trip to the continent was overshadowed by a war of words with Trump, who labelled him "weak" and said he "was not a fan".
The first American pontiff told journalists on Saturday that he regretted that some of his remarks had been interpreted as a response to criticism from Trump.
It was "not in my interest at all" to debate the US leader, said Leo, who has displayed an assertive style on the Africa tour, his first major international trip since becoming pontiff last year.
fal-cmk-br/gv

diplomacy

UK's Starmer to face grilling from MPs over Mandelson scandal

BY PETER HUTCHISON

  • UK police are investigating allegations of misconduct in office by Mandelson when he was a Labour minister more than 15 years ago.
  • Embattled UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will face lawmakers in parliament on Monday as he tries to quell anger over an unrelenting scandal involving long-time Jeffrey Epstein associate Peter Mandelson.
  • UK police are investigating allegations of misconduct in office by Mandelson when he was a Labour minister more than 15 years ago.
Embattled UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will face lawmakers in parliament on Monday as he tries to quell anger over an unrelenting scandal involving long-time Jeffrey Epstein associate Peter Mandelson.
Starmer, already widely unpopular amongst the British public and many Labour MPs, is struggling to put a lid on the controversy, which has dogged his premiership for months.
It flared again on Thursday when it was revealed that Mandelson was named as Britain's ambassador to the United States in late 2024 despite failing to pass security checks, sparking fresh calls for Starmer to quit.
The beleagured leader insisted Friday that he and other ministers were not told Mandelson had failed the vetting process, calling the omission "unforgivable".
He is to give further details in a statement to the House of Commons on Monday, before being quizzed by MPs.
Starmer has blamed foreign office officials for allowing the appointment against the advice of security officials. He sacked the department's top civil servant Olly Robins on Thursday.
Ex-civil servants have accused Starmer of scapegoating Robbins, who is to give his own account to a parliamentary committee on Tuesday, in what could be a crunch week for Starmer's almost two-year-old premiership.
Opposition leaders have called for Starmer to step down, with accusations ranging from incompetence to wilful misleading of parliamentarians and the public.
Starmer told parliament in February that "full due process" was followed when Mandelson was vetted and cleared for the key role.
Downing Street insists that remains true because government rules meant the foreign office had the power to overrule vetting concerns, unbeknownst to Starmer and his top team.
On Friday, Starmer's office took the unusual step of releasing a memo which insisted that he only found out about the vetting failure on Tuesday last week. 
Ministers have rallied around him over the weekend, with Technology Secretary Liz Kendall and deputy prime minister David Lammy insisting Starmer would not have appointed Mandelson had he known that he had not received the appropriate clearance.
"I think he is an honest man and a man of integrity who says it was a mistake to appoint him (Mandelson)," Kendall told Sky News.

Police probe

Kendall said Starmer should remain in his job because he had "made the right call" on big issues, such as building closer relations with the European Union and limiting Britain's involvement in the Iran war.
Polls suggest Starmer is one of Britain's most unpopular prime ministers ever, in part because of several policy mis-steps.
He has endured repeated questions about his judgement for selecting Mandelson whose friendship with Epstein was well known, and faced down calls from Labour's leader in Scotland to resign over the issue earlier this year.
Starmer sacked Mandelson in September 2025 after new details emerged about the depth of the ex-envoy's ties to Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while facing sex-trafficking charges.
UK police are investigating allegations of misconduct in office by Mandelson when he was a Labour minister more than 15 years ago. He was arrested and released in February.
Mandelson, 72, has not been charged and denies criminal wrongdoing.
Starmer and his Labour party are bracing for a chastening set of local elections next month, including in the devolved Scottish and Welsh parliaments.
The results are likely to renew questions about Starmer's future, although there appears to be little appetite within Labour to a launch leadership challenge right now, with no obvious successor available and war raging in the Middle East.
pdh/tw 

US

Pakistan tightens security in Islamabad ahead of US-Iran talks

  • President Donald Trump said US negotiators will be in Pakistan on Monday to resume talks on ending the war with Iran, little more than a week after face-to-face talks in Islamabad on April 11 ended without agreement.
  • Security in Pakistan's capital Islamabad was stepped up visibly on Sunday ahead of peace talks between the United States and Iran in the coming days.
  • President Donald Trump said US negotiators will be in Pakistan on Monday to resume talks on ending the war with Iran, little more than a week after face-to-face talks in Islamabad on April 11 ended without agreement.
Security in Pakistan's capital Islamabad was stepped up visibly on Sunday ahead of peace talks between the United States and Iran in the coming days.
President Donald Trump said US negotiators will be in Pakistan on Monday to resume talks on ending the war with Iran, little more than a week after face-to-face talks in Islamabad on April 11 ended without agreement.
"My Representatives are going to Islamabad, Pakistan — They will be there tomorrow evening, for Negotiations," he wrote on Truth Social.
Authorities earlier announced road closures and traffic restrictions across the city, as well as in neighbouring Rawalpindi.
AFP journalists saw armed guards and checkpoints near Islamabad's most secure hotels, including the Marriott and the Serena, where the last round of talks between US and Iranian delegations took place.
Most streets leading to the Serena Hotel were closed on Sunday, with barbed wire, barricades, heavy security and traffic diversions.
"Citizens are earnestly requested to cooperate with the security agencies," a city official posted on X.
bur-je/pbt

US

Turkey 'optimistic' Middle East ceasefire will be extended

BY FULYA OZERKAN

  • "No one wants to see a new war break out when the ceasefire expires next week.
  • Turkey said on Sunday it remained "optimistic" that a two-week ceasefire between Iran and the United States that expires on Wednesday, would be extended, allowing more time for talks between the sides.
  • "No one wants to see a new war break out when the ceasefire expires next week.
Turkey said on Sunday it remained "optimistic" that a two-week ceasefire between Iran and the United States that expires on Wednesday, would be extended, allowing more time for talks between the sides.
Pakistan is leading preparations for more high-level US-Iran peace talks after a first round ended without agreement last weekend, 
Turkey, alongside Egypt, has expressed strong support for the Pakistan-led initiative on prolonging negotiations and preventing a return to hostilities.
"No one wants to see a new war break out when the ceasefire expires next week. We hope ... the parties will extend the ceasefire," Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said at the closing of a three-day diplomacy forum in the southern Antalya province.
"I hope there'll be an extension. I am optimistic," he said.
Fidan said he spoke with Pakistani officials on Sunday but would not give a date when new talks could be held. 
"The continuation of negotiations is something the entire international community wants. There is significant pressure in this regard," he said. 
"Under this level of pressure, I believe the parties should not see any obstacle to extending the ceasefire in order to continue peace negotiations," added the minister. 
Fidan said unless the sides chose to pursue more confrontational measures, there was "a strong possibility that the ceasefire will be extended and negotiations will continue".
"Hopefully, a more positive scenario will emerge. With some luck, by that time, the key issues in the negotiations may already have been resolved," he added.
Despite the optimism and movement in negotiations, Iran said on Sunday a final peace deal was "far" off. 
"It is clear that the negotiations have reached a critical stage. Both sides are continuing the talks with a genuine sense of sincerity. They also have the will to keep the process going," Fidan said. 
Turkey's top diplomat also accused Israel of seeking to create a "fait accompli" in Lebanon, despite an agreed ceasefire, denouncing what he said "Israeli expansionism". 
"The ongoing Iran–United States negotiations seem to be overshadowing this situation (in Lebanon). Israel appears to be trying to take advantage of this distraction to create a fait accompli," Fidan also said.  
On Saturday, Fidan said Israel was attempting to occupy new territories using security concerns as a pretext.  
"We are talking about a fundamntalist government. We are talking abot a security problem that troubles the world," he said.
fo/tw

US

Iran entrepreneurs angered by months-long internet blackout

  • During the war and since anti-government protests in January, during which the internet was also shut down, "the situation has remained unstable," said the woman, who now only has one employee.
  • Mahla, an interior designer in Tehran, says she has been forced to sell her valuables and gold to pay employees as Iran's internet shutdown, imposed at the start of the Middle East war, tanks her business.
  • During the war and since anti-government protests in January, during which the internet was also shut down, "the situation has remained unstable," said the woman, who now only has one employee.
Mahla, an interior designer in Tehran, says she has been forced to sell her valuables and gold to pay employees as Iran's internet shutdown, imposed at the start of the Middle East war, tanks her business.
The internet blackout, which was put in place soon after the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, was already the longest nationwide shutdown on record as of April 5, according to NetBlocks, which says it has now lasted more than 50 days.
Iran's highly restricted local intranet has been working throughout the war, allowing people to connect to domestic websites, but it's insufficient for normal businesses in a country already crippled by international sanctions.
Entrepreneurs like Mahla, 55, have been deprived of "proper access to artificial intelligence tools, Google or even emails", she said.
During the war and since anti-government protests in January, during which the internet was also shut down, "the situation has remained unstable," said the woman, who now only has one employee.
The restrictions are taking a toll on business owners' morale.
"Many people can no longer work. They feel exhausted, overwhelmed and hopeless," she said, angry at those "taking advantage of the situation to sell fake VPNs and scam people".
Even before the blackout, access in Iran was heavily filtered, with many social media platforms blocked, requiring the use of VPN software to bypass restrictions.
Mahdi, a 49-year-old accountant in Tehran, said the job situation that was already bad had only gotten worse.
"To find work, you need internet access, but it's not working. And the job postings on websites aren't being updated," he said.

Millions a day

Key economic indicators are not always available in a country where all communication is tightly controlled.
But the internet shutdown has clearly "inflicted considerable damage on the digital economy", the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said this week on X.
Telecommunications Minister Sattar Hashemi estimated the losses at $35 million per day.
These figures were backed up by fact-checking website Fact Nameh, which published excerpts from an April 13 speech by Afshin Kolahi, head of IT and energy company Rahnama.
The chief executive estimated a direct impact of $30 to $40 million per day from the blackout.
"We are losing the equivalent of two medium-sized power plants per day, and it's our fault," he said.
Entrepreneurs abroad who have staff in Iran are also feeling the impact. 
Maryam, 38, owner of a Paris-based online company that employs three people in Tehran, said her orders have fallen.
"In the last two months, we've only received 10 orders, just four of which came after the ceasefire," she said, adding the business would usually get three or four orders a day.
"We have a .com website as well as Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram, and none of these services are easily accessible," she added.
"I can't even communicate with my employees because I don't want to use Iranian internal applications for security reasons. I've practically lost contact with the people I work with since the first week of the war."
From time to time, rumours circulate about a partial, or even complete, return of the internet.
But even after the wave of protests in January, it was only partially restored before being completely cut off again with the outbreak of the war.
Hope is fading that the internet will be restored, even as diplomatic efforts between Washington and Tehran carry on. 
Amir, 40, said he didn't believe the internet would ever return to the country, his anger at the Islamic republic's leaders growing by the day.
"Even today, they announced that conditions were not favourable for restoring the connection," he told AFP on Friday.
But "they never say it's our right, only that (the outage) is bad for the economy!"
bur/dla/anb/jfx/dcp

diplomacy

Pope Leo XIV calls for 'hope' before 100,000 faithful in Angola

BY CLéMENT MELKI

  • Patricio Musanga, 32, said he attended the mass looking for encouragement for young people, with a lack of work making many seek better opportunities in Western countries.
  • Tens of thousands of people attended a giant open-air mass by Pope Leo XIV outside the Angolan capital Sunday, where he delivered a message of hope to the resource-rich country marked by poverty and inequality.
  • Patricio Musanga, 32, said he attended the mass looking for encouragement for young people, with a lack of work making many seek better opportunities in Western countries.
Tens of thousands of people attended a giant open-air mass by Pope Leo XIV outside the Angolan capital Sunday, where he delivered a message of hope to the resource-rich country marked by poverty and inequality.
Leo flew to Portuguese-speaking Angola on Saturday, the third leg of a whirlwind four-nation African tour on which he has condemned corruption and the plunder of the continent's resources -- and had a high-profile spat with US President Donald Trump.
Around 100,000 people attended the pontiff's first mass in Angola at Kilamba, around 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Luanda, the Vatican said, citing local authorities.
The pope encouraged the crowd "to look to the future with hope" in a "new beginning" for the nation still scarred by a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002.
It was possible "to build a country where old divisions are overcome forever, where hatred and violence disappear, where the wound of corruption is healed by a new culture of justice and sharing", Leo said.
After arriving on Saturday from Cameroon, Leo went straight into an event with Angolan President Joao Lourenco and other officials, where he spoke out against the "suffering" caused by poverty and the rampant exploitation of natural resources -- continuing the assertive tone of his 11-day tour.

'Call leaders to account'

Angola is one of Africa's top oil producers and is rich in resources such as diamonds.
However, economic disparities in the country are stark, and around a third of the population of 36.6 million people live in poverty, according to the World Bank.
The population is largely young, with an average age of 23, according to official statistics.
Patricio Musanga, 32, said he attended the mass looking for encouragement for young people, with a lack of work making many seek better opportunities in Western countries.
"We are very rich in natural resources but... there is a glaring inequality between those who live well and the others," said Musanga, wearing a white cap and a T-shirt showing the pope's image.
"The pope must call our leaders to account... I believe that at least he will be listened to by the authorities," he said, also calling for "national reconciliation".
"There's a concentration of wealth in the hands of very few, and of course the war just aggravated the situation," said Father Pedro Chingandu, a Catholic priest who had come from the eastern province of Moxico.
"We need real democracy and the redistribution of wealth and justice," Chingandu told AFP.

Slave-route shrine

After Kilamba, the pope is to travel 110 kilometres by helicopter to the town of Muxima, Angola's most venerated pilgrimage site, where a 300-year-old church overlooks a river that was once a major slave trading route.
The church, with a statue of the Virgin Mary known affectionately as "Mama Muxima", draws roughly two million pilgrims a year.
It was built by Angola's Portuguese colonial settlers to baptise slaves before they were transported down the Kwanza River to the Atlantic and on to the Americas, according to religious leaders.
The government has embarked on a massive multi-million-euro project to build a basilica in the town, which has drawn some criticism about the government's spending priorities.
Poverty was partly blamed for a three-day looting spree in Luanda and other centres in July last year, when around 30 people were killed in what critics said was a heavy-handed police response.
Analysts said the unrest signalled dissatisfaction with Lourenco's socialist MPLA party, which has held power since independence in 1975.

Regrets Trump spat

Leo started his African tour in Algeria on Monday, then headed to Cameroon.
He told journalists on the flight to Angola he regretted that a war of words with Trump -- who labelled him "weak" after he called for an end to the Middle East war -- had overshadowed some of the trip.
It is "not in my interest at all" to debate the US leader, said the first American pontiff.
From Angola, Leo will travel to Equatorial Guinea, the final stop of an 18,000-kilometre journey across the continent.
cmk-fal-br/jhb

conflict

Zelensky slams oil sanctions relief for Russia

  • "Every dollar paid for Russian oil is money for the war" and the billions of dollars involved are used for devastating strikes on Ukraine, Zelensky said in a post on X. He did not mention the United States, but President Donald Trump's administration on Friday issued a month-long sanctions waiver allowing the sale of Russian oil and petroleum products that are at sea.
  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday condemned the easing of sanctions on Russian oil after the United States extended a waiver meant to soften surging energy prices driven by the Middle East war.
  • "Every dollar paid for Russian oil is money for the war" and the billions of dollars involved are used for devastating strikes on Ukraine, Zelensky said in a post on X. He did not mention the United States, but President Donald Trump's administration on Friday issued a month-long sanctions waiver allowing the sale of Russian oil and petroleum products that are at sea.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday condemned the easing of sanctions on Russian oil after the United States extended a waiver meant to soften surging energy prices driven by the Middle East war.
"Every dollar paid for Russian oil is money for the war" and the billions of dollars involved are used for devastating strikes on Ukraine, Zelensky said in a post on X.
He did not mention the United States, but President Donald Trump's administration on Friday issued a month-long sanctions waiver allowing the sale of Russian oil and petroleum products that are at sea.
The action was intended to bring down soaring energy prices. But the US Treasury Department extension came two days after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Washington would not renew the waiver.
Zelensky said there were more than 110 tankers carrying Russian oil in breach of international sanctions currently at sea, carrying more than 12 million tonnes of crude "which, due to the easing of sanctions, can once again be sold without consequences.
"That is $10 billion -- a resource that is directly converted into new strikes against Ukraine," Zelensky said.
The Ukraine leader said that in the past week alone, Russia had launched more than 2,360 attack drones, more than 1,320 guided aerial bombs "and nearly 60 missiles of various types at our cities and communities".
A 16-year-old boy was killed and four people wounded in one overnight attack on the northern city of Chernihiv, the head of the local administration said Sunday.
Zelensky said: "It is important that Russian tankers are stopped, not allowed to deliver oil to ports. The aggressor’s oil exports must decrease, and Ukraine’s long-range sanctions continue to work toward that goal."

Democrats slam 'shameful' move

Zelensky has a delicate relationship with Trump, who had a memorable blow-up with him in the Oval Office last year.
Ukraine needs US backing to fight off Russia, but has faced pressure from the Trump administration to sign off on a deal to end the more than four-year-old war triggered by Moscow's invasion.
The US sanctions waiver allows for the purchase of Russian oil and petroleum products that have been loaded onto any vessel as of Friday, through 12:01 am (0401 GMT) on May 16.
It extends an earlier easing of sanctions that expired on April 11.
Trump is keen to contain surging petrol prices ahead of key midterm elections this year.
Several top Democrats slammed the new sanctions relief however.
"This decision is shameful and a 180-degree reversal from Secretary Bessent, just two days after he pledged not to extend sanctions relief for Russia," said Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren in a statement.
"Make no mistake, Putin has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of President Trump's war against Iran, as Russia saw oil revenues nearly double in March."
bur-mda/tw/jhb/tw

diplomacy

Thousands gather for Pope Leo's first mass in Angola

BY CLéMENT MELKI

  • Multitudes -- many seeking a message of hope in difficult circumstances -- turned out to join Leo for the Sunday mass at Kilamba on the outskirts of the capital.
  • Tens of thousands gathered outside Angola's capital Luanda for a giant open-air Sunday mass led by Pope Leo XIV on the second day of his visit to the resource-rich country marked by deep poverty.
  • Multitudes -- many seeking a message of hope in difficult circumstances -- turned out to join Leo for the Sunday mass at Kilamba on the outskirts of the capital.
Tens of thousands gathered outside Angola's capital Luanda for a giant open-air Sunday mass led by Pope Leo XIV on the second day of his visit to the resource-rich country marked by deep poverty.
Leo flew to Portuguese-speaking Angola on Saturday to start the third leg of a four-nation African tour.
He went immediately into a meeting with President Joao Lourenco and other officials, where he spoke out against oppression and the "suffering" caused by poverty and the rampant exploitation of natural resources.
The remarks continued a theme of his 11-day tour during which he has delivered pointed warnings against corruption and the plunder of the continent's natural wealth.
Multitudes -- many seeking a message of hope in difficult circumstances -- turned out to join Leo for the Sunday mass at Kilamba on the outskirts of the capital.
Patricio Musanga, 32, said he was looking for encouragement for young people in Angola, where a lack of work made many seek better opportunities in Western countries.
"He needs to give us hope, to help us understand that from here we can live better than abroad," he told journalists.
"We are very rich in natural resources but ... there is a glaring inequality between those who live well and the others," said Musanga, wearing a cap and a T-shirt showing the Pope's image.
Even though Angola is one of Africa's top producers of crude oil and is also rich in resources like diamonds, around a third of its population of 36.6 million people live in poverty, according to the World Bank.
"There's a concentration of wealth in the hands of very few, and of course the war just aggravated the situation," said Father Pedro Chingandu, who had come from the eastern province of Moxico to attend the mass.
Angola is still scarred by a civil war that erupted after independence from Portugal in 1975 and ended in 2002.
"We need real democracy and the redistribution of wealth and justice," Chingandu told AFP.

Slave-route shrine

After Kilamba, the pope is to travel 110 kilometres (70 miles) by helicopter to the town of Muxima, Angola's most venerated pilgrimage site, where a 300-year-old church overlooks a river that was once a major slave trading route.
The church, with a statue of the Virgin Mary known affectionately as "Mama Muxima", draws roughly two million pilgrims a year and large crowds are expected to meet the pope.
Angola's Portuguese colonial settlers built the church to baptise slaves before they were transported down the Kwanza River to the Atlantic and on to the Americas.
The government has embarked on a massive multi-million-euro project to build a basilica, houses and public services in the town, which has drawn some criticism about the government's spending priorities.
Poverty was partly blamed for a three-day looting spree in Luanda and other towns in July last year when around 30 people were killed in what critics said was a heavy-handed police response.
Analysts said the unrest signalled dissatisfaction with Lourenco's socialist MPLA party, which has held power since independence in 1975.

Regrets Trump spat

Leo, who was elected a year ago, started his African tour in Algeria on Monday and then headed to Cameroon.
He told journalists on the flight to Angola he regretted that a war of words with US President Donald Trump -- who has called him "weak" after he called for an end to the Middle East war -- had overshadowed much of the trip.
It is "not in my interest at all" to debate the US leader, Leo said.
From Angola, he will travel to Equatorial Guinea, the final stop of a whirlwind 18,000-kilometre journey across the continent. 
cmk-fal-br/tw

crime

Australian soldier charged with war crimes vows to clear his name

  • Roberts-Smith was granted bail on Friday after a high-profile arrest on five counts of "war crime -- murder".
  • An Australian former soldier charged with committing war crimes in Afghanistan vowed on Sunday to clear his name, saying he had never "run from a fight" in his first public comments since his arrest.
  • Roberts-Smith was granted bail on Friday after a high-profile arrest on five counts of "war crime -- murder".
An Australian former soldier charged with committing war crimes in Afghanistan vowed on Sunday to clear his name, saying he had never "run from a fight" in his first public comments since his arrest.
"For the past 10 years, my family and I have been subject to a campaign to convince Australians that I've acted improperly in my service in Afghanistan," Ben Roberts-Smith told journalists at the Gold Coast.
"I categorically deny all of these allegations, and while I would have preferred these charges not be brought, I will be taking this opportunity to finally clear my name," he said.
Roberts-Smith was granted bail on Friday after a high-profile arrest on five counts of "war crime -- murder". Police alleged he was complicit in a string of unlawful killings between 2009 and 2012.
The Victoria Cross recipient has denied all the charges.
He was released from prison on Friday evening after 10 days behind bars.
"I'm proud of my service in Afghanistan. While I was there, I always acted within my values," he said on Sunday.
Australia's most decorated living soldier met Queen Elizabeth II, had his portrait hung at the Australian War Memorial and was honoured as the nation's "father of the year".
But the war hero's reputation was called into question in 2018, when a series of news reports linked him to the alleged murder of unarmed Afghan prisoners by Australian troops.
Roberts-Smith allegedly kicked an unarmed Afghan civilian off a cliff and ordered subordinates to shoot him, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
He was also said to have taken part in the machine-gunning of a man who had a prosthetic limb, which he later used as a drinking vessel with other soldiers.
Roberts-Smith has staunchly maintained his innocence throughout, launching legal action against the newspapers that carried the allegations.
But his efforts to sue The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald for defamation backfired, with a judge finding in 2023 that many of the journalists' claims were "substantially true".
Such civil trials carry a lower burden of proof than the criminal proceedings Roberts-Smith now faces.
Australia deployed 39,000 troops to Afghanistan over two decades as part of US- and NATO-led operations against the Taliban and other militant groups.
oho/abs/pbt

diplomacy

As Iran war strains ties with Trump's US, UK looks to Europe

BY PETER HUTCHISON

  • "When the relationship with the United States is fracturing, it means there's reduced opposition to a closer relationship with the EU among the public," said Aspinall. pdh/jkb/rmb/jhb
  • Britain's government is set to announce legislation next month to move the country closer to the European Union, as the Iran war sours the UK's so-called special relationship with the United States.
  • "When the relationship with the United States is fracturing, it means there's reduced opposition to a closer relationship with the EU among the public," said Aspinall. pdh/jkb/rmb/jhb
Britain's government is set to announce legislation next month to move the country closer to the European Union, as the Iran war sours the UK's so-called special relationship with the United States.
President Donald Trump's unpredictability and stream of insults towards America's historic ally is adding impetus to Prime Minister Keir Starmer's bid to deepen ties with the 27-nation bloc, a decade after Britons narrowly voted to leave the EU.
"We have a government that is already eager to move closer towards the EU, and the events in Iran provide an opportunity to speed up that process," Evie Aspinall, director of the British Foreign Policy Group think-tank, told AFP.
Starmer's administration is preparing an EU "reset" bill that will give ministers powers to align UK standards with EU single market rules as they evolve -- something called "dynamic alignment".
King Charles III will announce the legislation on May 13 when he reads out Starmer's legislative plans for the coming months, a government official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Starmer has repeatedly called for a deeper economic and security relationship with Europe since his Labour party won the 2024 general election, ousting the Conservatives, who had implemented the 2016 Brexit referendum.
He has upped those calls in recent days, telling Dutch leader Rob Jetten on Tuesday that "he believed the partnership between the UK and the bloc needed to be fit for the challenges we were facing today".
The EU is Britain's biggest trading partner, while the International Monetary Fund warned this week that the UK will be the advanced economy hardest hit by the Iran conflict.
"Certainly Iran has made it (the reset) more prescient," said the UK official.
"We need to build economic resilience across the continent," they added.
Starmer refused to involve Britain in the US and Israel's initial strikes on February 28, angering Trump, although he has since allowed American forces to use UK bases for a "limited defensive purpose".
Under pressure at home for his disastrous decision to appoint former Jeffrey Epstein associate Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, Starmer has received plaudits for standing up to Trump in the face of repeated taunts from the US president.
Days ago, Trump threatened in a phone interview with Sky News to scrap a US-UK trade deal that limited the impact on Britain of his tariffs blitz.
"There's no doubt that there is now momentum in the UK-EU relationship partly as a result of Trump's unreliable behaviour," David Henig, an expert on UK's post-Brexit trade policy, told AFP.
"Independent UK trade policy looks much harder, the prospects of working with the EU much brighter."

Brexit regret

Starmer's administration hopes to table the EU legislation in the next few months, meaning it could come around the time of the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum, held in June 2016.
MPs will get to approve whether to provide the government with a mechanism to adopt EU rules -- sometimes without a full parliamentary vote -- in areas where it has already signed deals with the bloc.
They include a trade agreement designed to ease red tape on food and plant exports and plans for an electricity deal that would integrate the UK into the EU's internal electricity market.
Britain and the EU are also aiming to finalise negotiations on a youth mobility scheme in time for a joint summit in Brussels expected in late June or early July.
Starmer has ruled out rejoining the single market or returning to free movement.
The Liberal Democrats, Britain's traditional third party, wants him to cross one of his other red lines by negotiating a customs union with the EU.
"We need to be doubling down on relations with reliable partners who share our interests and values," the Liberal Democrats foreign affairs spokesman Calum Miller told AFP.
But Brexit remains a toxic issue and the hard-right Reform UK party, leading opinion polls and headed by Eurosceptic firebrand Nigel Farage, have branded the legislation "a betrayal" of the referendum's narrow result.
Surveys regularly now show, however, that most Britons regret the vote to leave the EU, something Starmer hopes to capitalise on.
Rising cost-of-living pressures on family households, which UK finance minister Rachel Reeves has blamed on Trump for starting the war "without a clear exit plan", could also influence minds.
"When the relationship with the United States is fracturing, it means there's reduced opposition to a closer relationship with the EU among the public," said Aspinall.
pdh/jkb/rmb/jhb

diplomacy

Pope Leo to hold giant mass for Angola's Catholics

BY FRANCOIS AUSSEILL AND CLEMENT MELKI

  • Leo said on the plane from Cameroon to Angola on Saturday that he regretted that some of his comments during his African visit had been interpreted as a response to Trump's jibes.
  • Pope Leo XIV will hold a giant open-air mass and visit one of southern Africa's holiest Christian sites Sunday on the first full day of a visit to Angola.
  • Leo said on the plane from Cameroon to Angola on Saturday that he regretted that some of his comments during his African visit had been interpreted as a response to Trump's jibes.
Pope Leo XIV will hold a giant open-air mass and visit one of southern Africa's holiest Christian sites Sunday on the first full day of a visit to Angola.
Leo arrived in the Portuguese-speaking nation on Saturday for the third leg of a four-nation tour of the continent.
At a meeting with officials including President Joao Lourenco, he spoke out against the "suffering" and social and environmental "disasters" caused by the rampant exploitation of natural resources.
The remarks continued a theme of his 11-day tour during which he has delivered pointed warnings against corruption and the plunder of the continent's resources.
The trip started in Algeria on Monday, overshadowed by a war of words with President Donald Trump.
The US president criticised the American pope as "weak" last weekend after he called for an end to the conflict in the Middle East.
Leo said on the plane from Cameroon to Angola on Saturday that he regretted that some of his comments during his African visit had been interpreted as a response to Trump's jibes.
He used as an example a reference to "tyrants" during one of his addresses in Cameroon, saying this speech had been written well before Trump's remarks.
It is "not in my interest at all" to debate the US leader, he told journalists.

Slave-route shrine

Tens of thousands of people are expected to turn out to meet Leo, who was elected a year ago, for the mass at Kilamba on the outskirts of the capital, Luanda.
From there, he travels 110 kilometres (70 miles) by helicopter to the town of Muxima, Angola's most venerated pilgrimage site, where a 300-year-old church overlooks a river that was once a major slave trading route.
The church, with a statue of the Virgin Mary known affectionately as "Mama Muxima", draws roughly two million pilgrims a year and large crowds are expected to meet the pope there on Sunday.
Angola's Portuguese colonial settlers built the church to baptise slaves before they were transported down the Kwanza River to the Atlantic and on to the Americas.
The government has embarked on a massive multi-million-euro project to build a basilica, houses and public services in the town.
The project has sparked criticism over the government's spending priorities in a country which, though rich in resources like oil and diamonds, is marked by poverty and inequality.
"The pope comes to Angola fully aware of the reality our country is facing, particularly in terms of stark social asymmetries and inequalities, which also stem from the unequal distribution of wealth," Catholic lawyer Domingos das Neves told AFP.
"Naturally, the pope cannot avoid addressing the issue of social justice in his official statements during his pastoral visit to our country," he told AFP.
"Angola is in great need of a guiding light to illuminate our collective efforts -- both within ecclesiastical institutions and the state -- so that we do not forget the poor and the destitute," he said.
Poverty was partly blamed for a three-day looting spree in July last year when around 30 people were killed in what critics said was a heavy-handed police response.
Analysts said the unrest signalled dissatisfaction with Lourenco's socialist MPLA party, which has held power since independence in 1975.
On Monday, Leo is due to travel more than 800 kilometres from the capital to visit a retirement home in Saurimo and celebrate another mass before departing the following morning.
He will then travel on to Equatorial Guinea, the final stop of a whirlwind 18,000-kilometre journey across the continent.
str-br-cmk-fal/sbk/jhb

US

France blames Hezbollah for French peacekeeper's death in Lebanon

  • But Hezbollah -- which is strongly opposed to the planned talks with Israel -- denied involvement in the attack that killed the French peacekeeper, identified as staff sergeant Florian Montorio.
  • A French soldier was killed and three others wounded in an ambush Saturday on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon that French President Emmanuel Macron blamed on Hezbollah, an accusation the group has denied.
  • But Hezbollah -- which is strongly opposed to the planned talks with Israel -- denied involvement in the attack that killed the French peacekeeper, identified as staff sergeant Florian Montorio.
A French soldier was killed and three others wounded in an ambush Saturday on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon that French President Emmanuel Macron blamed on Hezbollah, an accusation the group has denied.
The attack follows an agreement between Israel and Lebanon on Thursday for a 10-day ceasefire to negotiate an end to six weeks of fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed group.
"Everything points to Hezbollah being responsible for this attack," Macron said on X, urging Lebanese authorities to arrest the perpetrators.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack in a statement and said an initial assessment by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) found it was carried out by the Iranian-backed group.
But Hezbollah -- which is strongly opposed to the planned talks with Israel -- denied involvement in the attack that killed the French peacekeeper, identified as staff sergeant Florian Montorio.
"Hezbollah denies any connection to the incident that occurred with UNIFIL forces in the Ghandouriyeh-Bint Jbeil area," it said in a statement.
The group urged "caution in making judgements and assigning responsibilities" pending the results of the Lebanese army's investigation into the incident.
The fighting in Lebanon -- one of the fronts in the Middle East war -- has seen UNIFIL deployed there repeatedly targeted, by both Israeli and Hezbollah forces.
Montorio, was caught in an "ambush" as his unit headed to a UNIFIL outpost cut off by fighting and he died from a "direct gunshot", France's armed forces minister Catherine Vautrin said on X.
He is the second French soldier to die since the start of the war in the Middle East, after an Iranian-designed drone killed Arnaud Frion last month in Iraq's Kurdistan region. 

Possible 'war crimes'

His commanding officer, Colonel Jeremy Akil, paid tribute to "an exceptional soldier" who had served in various conflict zones since enlisting in 2007. 
The 40-year-old father of two daughters was "at the end of his military career" and was due to return to civilian life within months, Akil added.
His death came as Lebanon is eyeing the first direct negotiations with Israel in decades, a move Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun insisted was not a "concession" in an apparent rebuttal of Hezbollah criticism.
But senior Hezbollah official Mahmud Qamati on Saturday said that his group was "not concerned with the negotiations being conducted by the state", saying they were "a failure, weak, defeated... and submissive negotiations".
Aoun condemned the attack and pledged to bring those responsible to justice, while Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he had ordered an investigation.
UNIFIL, in an online statement, said the peacekeepers "came under small-arms fire from non-state-actors" as they were "clearing explosive ordnance along a road in the village of Ghanduriyah" to get to the outpost.
"Tragically, one peacekeeper succumbed to his injuries and three others were injured, two of them seriously," it said, adding that it had launched its own investigation into what "may amount to war crimes".
The force patrols in south Lebanon near the Israeli border, where Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting since last month after the Iran-backed militant group drew Lebanon into the Middle East war with rocket fire at Israel in support of its backer Iran.
Three Indonesian peacekeepers were killed last month, with a preliminary UN investigation finding one was killed by Israeli tank fire, while the two others were killed by an improvised explosive device likely planted by Hezbollah.
Other UNIFIL peacekeepers have also been wounded since the war erupted, and in April, Israeli soldiers destroyed surveillance cameras in UNIFIL's headquarters, the peacekeeping body said.
Last week, an Israeli tank twice rammed peacekeeping vehicles, causing damage but no injuries, according to UNIFIL.
UN peacekeepers have served as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel for decades, but their mandate concludes at the end of this year.
burs/sbk/jxb

shooting

At least 6 killed after gunman opens fire in Ukrainian capital

BY BARBARA WOJAZER

  • "He was holding hostages and, unfortunately, killed one of them.
  • Six people were killed in Kyiv on Saturday after a gunman opened fire and took hostages at a supermarket in the Ukrainian capital before being killed during an arrest attempt, officials said.
  • "He was holding hostages and, unfortunately, killed one of them.
Six people were killed in Kyiv on Saturday after a gunman opened fire and took hostages at a supermarket in the Ukrainian capital before being killed during an arrest attempt, officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that at least 14 people were hospitalised with wounds and trauma after the shooting and hostage-taking, which took place in a residential district in the city's south.
"He was holding hostages and, unfortunately, killed one of them. He killed four people right on the street. Another woman died in the hospital from severe injuries," Zelensky said on social media, adding that four hostages from the supermarket "have been rescued".
"The attacker has been eliminated," he said, offering condolences to the victims' families.
An AFP reporter saw the supermarket -- which had blood stains on its shop window -- cordoned off by a heavy security presence, with officers wearing bulletproof vests and crime investigators arriving at the scene.
An employee of the supermarket, Tetyana, told AFP that she had heard sounds "in the store, like champagne being popped or balloons bursting several times. Then the customers started shouting, 'Run!'".
"There's a spot where you can hide behind the refrigerators, and we ran there. I heard a man moaning," she recounted, her voice trembling.
Footage posted by the UNIAN news agency, which AFP was unable to immediately verify, showed a man carrying a gun and shooting at a person from close range near a block of flats.
The assailant's motive was not immediately known.

40-minute standoff

Zelensky urged "a swift investigation" into the shooting and said that all the circumstances of the incident were being established.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said the standoff between the assailant and police negotiators at the supermarket lasted around 40 minutes.
"We tried to persuade him. Realising that there was likely an injured person inside, we offered to bring in tourniquets to stop the bleeding. But he didn't respond," Klymenko told reporters at the scene. 
"That's why the order was given to eliminate him," he added.
The man is also suspected of having set fire to his apartment near the supermarket, according to the authorities.
"I called the fire department as soon as I saw smoke coming out of the apartment," Lyubym Gleyevyi, 24, who lives on the floor just above, told AFP. "We had come home five minutes earlier; it's a miracle we didn’t run into him," he said. 
Fellow neighbour Ganna Kulyk said that he spoke very little and had been living in that apartment "for 10 years".
The prosecutor's office confirmed it had opened a terrorism investigation into the incident and that the suspect was a man born in Moscow in 1968.
Interior ministry spokeswoman Mariana Reva however told AFP that "so far there is no confirmation that he had Russian citizenship".
Ukraine, which has been fighting a more than four-year-long war with Russia, has seen sporadic shooting incidents but has a relatively low crime rate.
Last year, a man shot dead two people in a Kyiv suburb in a dispute over the sale of a firearm.
bur-mmp/sbk/gv

pope

Pope Leo speaks out against tyranny, exploitation on Angola visit

BY CLEMENT MELKI AND FRANCOIS AUSSEIL

  • In Luanda, he condemned the "social and environmental disasters" caused by rampant exploitation of resources.
  • Pope Leo XIV spoke out against tyranny and "disasters" caused by the exploitation of natural resources on Saturday as he arrived in Angola for a visit to the oil-rich country with high levels of poverty.
  • In Luanda, he condemned the "social and environmental disasters" caused by rampant exploitation of resources.
Pope Leo XIV spoke out against tyranny and "disasters" caused by the exploitation of natural resources on Saturday as he arrived in Angola for a visit to the oil-rich country with high levels of poverty.
Leo flew in from Cameroon for the third leg of his tour of Africa, telling journalists on the plane that he regretted his 11-day trip had been overshadowed by a spat with US President Donald Trump.
In the capital Luanda, he travelled in his popemobile to meet President Joao Lourenco, with hundreds of cheering and waving people lining the route.
Throughout his four-nation Africa visit, which started in Algeria on Monday, the pope has delivered pointed warnings against corruption, the plunder of the continent's resources and the dangers of artificial intelligence. 
In Luanda, he condemned the "social and environmental disasters" caused by rampant exploitation of resources.
"How much suffering, how many deaths, how many social and environmental disasters are caused by this logic of exploitation," he said in an address to officials including Lourenco.
Angola is one of Africa's top producers of crude oil and is also rich in resources like diamonds but inequality is stark as much of the wealth does not reach ordinary people.
Around a third of the largely young population of 36.6 million people lives below the international poverty line of $2.15 per day, according to the World Bank.
Speaking out against "despots and tyrants" who seek to subjugate people to their power, Leo also urged Angola to "not be afraid of dissent".
Authorities in the country, ruled by Lourenco's socialist MPLA party since independence in 1975, have been accused of stifling freedom of expression including through heavy-handed responses to demonstrations.
Poverty was partly blamed for a three-day looting spree during a strike against fuel hikes in July last year when around 30 people were killed in a police crackdown that was criticised by rights groups. Hundreds of people were jailed.

Regrets Trump spat

On the plane from Cameroon, Leo told journalists that he regretted that remarks he had made during his tour had been interpreted as a response to criticism from Trump, insisting he had no interest in debating the US leader.
He cited a speech about "tyrants" ransacking the world that he delivered in Cameroon on Thursday, saying that the remarks had been written well before Trump's "comment on myself and on the message of peace that I am promoting."
"And yet it was perceived as if I were trying to start a new debate with the president, which doesn't interest me at all," Leo said.
Leo had blasted "tyrants" while on a high-security visit to Cameroon's northwestern city of Bamenda, the epicentre of a nearly decade-long English-speaking separatist insurgency that has killed thousands. 
The remarks were interpreted by the US media in particular as a reference to Trump, who said days before he was "not a big fan".
Trump's criticism came after the global leader of Catholics made a plea for an end to the conflict in the Middle East. 

Third papal visit

Leo is the third pontiff to visit Angola, where around 44 percent of the population identifies as Catholic, after John Paul II in 1992 and Benedict XVI in 2009.
"There is a lot of suffering, a lot of poverty in Angola. I hope the pope will see with his own eyes the needs of the youth here," said Antonio Masaidi, a 33-year-old engineer.
On Sunday, Leo will celebrate a giant open-air mass in Kilamba on Luanda's outskirts.
In the afternoon, he will travel by helicopter to the village of Muxima, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) southeast of Luanda, home to a 16th-century church that has become one of southern Africa's most important pilgrimage sites.
On April 20, he is due to travel more than 800 kilometres from the capital to visit a retirement home in Saurimo and celebrate another mass before departing the following morning for Equatorial Guinea.
cmk-fal-br/gv

diplomacy

US extends sanctions waiver on purchases of Russian oil

  • The latest move allows for the purchase of oil and petroleum products that have been loaded onto any vessel as of Friday, through 12:01 am (0401 GMT) on May 16.
  • US President Donald Trump's administration on Friday issued a month-long sanctions waiver allowing the sale of Russian oil and petroleum products that are at sea, extending an earlier move to soften surging energy prices.
  • The latest move allows for the purchase of oil and petroleum products that have been loaded onto any vessel as of Friday, through 12:01 am (0401 GMT) on May 16.
US President Donald Trump's administration on Friday issued a month-long sanctions waiver allowing the sale of Russian oil and petroleum products that are at sea, extending an earlier move to soften surging energy prices.
The license, issued by the Treasury Department, comes two days after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Washington would not renew the waiver.
The latest move allows for the purchase of oil and petroleum products that have been loaded onto any vessel as of Friday, through 12:01 am (0401 GMT) on May 16.
It prolongs an earlier easing of sanctions that expired on April 11.
On Wednesday, however, Bessent had told reporters that the United States would not make such an extension for Russian oil -- or Iranian oil.
Both measures aimed to ease global supply shocks from the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Tehran retaliated by effectively closing off the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for energy shipments.
Oil prices have since surged, squeezing countries and especially those dependent on energy exports from the region.
US gasoline prices have jumped as well, putting pressure on households ahead of key midterm elections this year.
But such waivers could complicate efforts to deprive Russia of oil revenue needed for its war on Ukraine.
Senate Democrats Jeanne Shaheen, Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren slammed the decision as "shameful" in a joint statement.
"This decision is shameful and a 180-degree reversal from Secretary Bessent, just two days after he pledged not to extend sanctions relief for Russia," the senators said.
"Make no mistake, Putin has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of President Trump's war against Iran, as Russia saw oil revenues nearly double in March" they added.
This week, after a meeting of Group of Seven finance leaders in Washington, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure stressed that "Russia mustn't be getting benefits from what's happening in Iran."
He added that Ukraine should also not be "collateral damage."
Russia's invasion of Ukraine, launched in 2022, has become the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II.
bys/sla/aks/hol

pope

Pope arrives in Angola on Africa tour overshadowed by Trump

BY CLEMENT MELKI AND FRANCOIS AUSSEIL

  • Trump had said on April 12 he was "not a big fan of Pope Leo", and accused his fellow American of "toying with a country (Iran) that wants a nuclear weapon".
  • Pope Leo XIV arrived in Angola on Saturday on the third leg of visit to Africa, lamenting that the tour had been marked by a war of words with US President Donald Trump.
  • Trump had said on April 12 he was "not a big fan of Pope Leo", and accused his fellow American of "toying with a country (Iran) that wants a nuclear weapon".
Pope Leo XIV arrived in Angola on Saturday on the third leg of visit to Africa, lamenting that the tour had been marked by a war of words with US President Donald Trump.
Leo flew into the oil-rich country from Cameroon, where he ended his visit with a huge public mass.
After landing at an airport in the capital Luanda, he travelled in his popemobile to meet President Joao Lourenco with hundreds of cheering and waving people lining his route.
On the plane to the southern African country, Leo told journalists that he regretted remarks he had made during his tour had been interpreted as a response to criticism from Trump, insisting he had no interest in debating the US leader.
An example was a speech about "tyrants" ransacking the world that he delivered in Cameroon on Thursday on the second leg of the trip, he said.
The remarks had been written well before Trump's "comment on myself and on the message of peace that I am promoting", he said.
"And yet it was perceived as if I were trying to start a new debate with the president, which doesn't interest me at all," Leo said.
"Much of what has been written since then has been more commentary on commentary trying to interpret what has been said," he said.
Leo had blasted "tyrants" while on a high-security visit to Cameroon's northwestern city of Bamenda, the epicentre of a nearly decade-long English-speaking separatist insurgency that has killed thousands. 
The remarks were interpreted by the US media in particular as a reference to Trump.
But Leo insisted that "there's been a certain narrative that has not been accurate in all of its aspects".
Trump had said on April 12 he was "not a big fan of Pope Leo", and accused his fellow American of "toying with a country (Iran) that wants a nuclear weapon".
He later doubled down with a post on Truth Social, saying: "Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy."

'Courage to change'

The US-born pope concluded his three-day visit to Cameroon with an open-air mass at Yaounde airport before 200,000 people.
In his homily delivered in French, he thanked the people of Cameroon and urged the crowd to have "the courage to change habits and structures", in a country ruled with an iron fist by 93-year-old Paul Biya since 1982.
Throughout his 11-day four-nation Africa visit, which started in Algeria, he has delivered pointed warnings against corruption, the plunder of the continent's resources and the dangers of artificial intelligence. 
They are warnings that are likely to strike a chord in oil-rich Angola.
Despite its wealth of resources, around a third of the population of 36.6 million people lives below the international poverty line of $2.15 per day, according to the World Bank.
The economy is heavily dependent on oil, leaving it exposed to price fluctuations, while corruption is reportedly rampant.
Around 15 million people in the Portuguese-speaking country, about 44 percent of the population, identify as Catholic.
Leo is the third pontiff to visit the country, after John Paul II in 1992 and Benedict XVI in 2009.

'Needs of the youth'

"There is a lot of suffering, a lot of poverty in Angola. I hope the pope will see with his own eyes the needs of the youth here," said Antonio Masaidi, a 33-year-old engineer.
On Sunday, Leo will celebrate a giant open-air mass in Kilamba on Luanda's outskirts.
In the afternoon, he will travel by helicopter to the village of Muxima, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) southeast of Luanda, home to a 16th-century church that has become one of southern Africa's most important pilgrimage sites.
On April 20, he is due to travel more than 800 kilometres from the capital to visit a retirement home in Saurimo and celebrate another mass before departing the following morning.
Leo will then fly to Equatorial Guinea, the final stop of his whirlwind 18,000-kilometre tour.
cmk-fal-br/sbk

US

Trade ships hit in Hormuz as Iran recloses strait

BY ROLAND LLOYD PARRY

  • - Iran tightens control - Iran's central military command on Saturday appeared to reverse the decision to reopen the route, saying it would resume "strict management" of the strait because of the continued US naval counter-blockade.
  • Commercial ships came under fire and threats from Iran's military as they tried to cross the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, security monitors said, as Iran closed the crucial trade route again following a brief reopening.
  • - Iran tightens control - Iran's central military command on Saturday appeared to reverse the decision to reopen the route, saying it would resume "strict management" of the strait because of the continued US naval counter-blockade.
Commercial ships came under fire and threats from Iran's military as they tried to cross the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, security monitors said, as Iran closed the crucial trade route again following a brief reopening.
Iran reversed its pledge to reopen the strait to commercial traffic during a ceasefire in the Middle East war in protest at an ongoing US counter-blockade of the route, a crucial passage for commodity shipments.
A UK maritime security agency said Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) fired at a tanker, while security intelligence firm Vanguard Tech reported the force threatened to "destroy" an empty cruise ship that was fleeing the Gulf after Tehran on Friday announced a brief respite.
A handful of oil and gas tankers crossed the strait early Saturday during the brief reopening, tracking data showed, but others retreated and tracking platforms showed hardly any vessels crossing the waterway by the late afternoon.

Tanker shot at

IRGC gunboats fired on the tanker in the strait northeast of Oman, the UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre (UKMTO) said in an online statement, adding the vessel and crew were safe.
Vanguard identified the tanker as the India-flagged tanker Sanmar Herald.
It cited the captain as saying two IRGC patrol boats approached it with no radio contact and "shots were fired, resulting in damage to the bridge windows".
Vanguard said separately that the Malta-flagged cruise ship Mein Schiff 4 reported a splash nearby while crossing near Oman, on the far side of the strait from Iran.
"The Master confirmed VHF (radio) traffic from IRGC units stating 'we are carrying out operation, we will fire and destroy you,'" but no damage was reported, Vanguard said.
In a third incident, the UKMTO said that it also received a report of a container ship in the same area "being hit by an unknown projectile which caused damage to some of the containers" but no fire.

Ships dash through

Around a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas passes through the strait in peacetime, but traffic came to a near-standstill after the war erupted on February 28 with US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
During the reopening, at least eight oil and gas tankers crossed the strait early Saturday after the Iranian announcement on Friday afternoon, data from tracking firm Kpler indicated.
Tracking platform MarineTraffic showed several other crude oil tankers approached the strait but turned back near Iran's Larak Island, a checkpoint for vessels seeking to exit the Gulf under the Iranian blockade of the passage.
Four French-owned container ships bearing the name of major shipping firm CMA CGM also made U-turns in the strait on Saturday around 1000 GMT after starting to exit, the platform indicated.
Besides the Mein Schiff 4, MarineTraffic indicated three other cruise ships -- reportedly empty -- had fled the strait.

Iran tightens control

Iran's central military command on Saturday appeared to reverse the decision to reopen the route, saying it would resume "strict management" of the strait because of the continued US naval counter-blockade.
Iran's closure of the strait has trapped hundreds of ships in the Gulf and driven up the price of oil and the costs of shipping goods, with captains avoiding the region for fear of attacks or mines.
The shipping industry had reacted guardedly to the reopening on Friday.
"BIMCO believes shipping companies should consider avoiding the area," Jakob Larsen, chief security officer of major shipping association BIMCO, said in a statement emailed to AFP, citing the risk of sea mines.
pa-rlp/sbk