schools

Hundreds arrested in French school protests as Macron summons ministers

US

Saudi coalition says intercepted missile fired by Yemen's Houthis

BY AFP TEAMS IN YEMEN AND SAUDI ARABIA

  • Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the coalition, said on X that it "intercepted and destroyed" a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis towards the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait, home to an airbase.
  • The Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen's Houthis said on Tuesday that it intercepted a missile fired by the group at the kingdom, which backs the pro-government forces that have launched a major operation to recapture lost territory.
  • Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the coalition, said on X that it "intercepted and destroyed" a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis towards the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait, home to an airbase.
The Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen's Houthis said on Tuesday that it intercepted a missile fired by the group at the kingdom, which backs the pro-government forces that have launched a major operation to recapture lost territory.
The Iran-backed Houthis had earlier claimed an attack on the Saudi capital's main airport and on Tuesday denied being pushed back by government forces.
Late Monday, Yemen's military said it had removed the pro-Iran group from areas around the Bab al-Mandab strait, a Red Sea chokepoint, and the port city of Mocha.
Claims by both sides in Yemen have been impossible to independently verify, with the situation on the ground moving fast and access for journalists difficult.
After a four-year ceasefire, Yemen's long-running conflict has reignited during the wider Middle East war, which has roiled world energy markets and snarled trade routes.
Sources on both sides told AFP on Tuesday that fighting across the country had killed more than 270 government troops and Houthi fighters over the past day.
Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the coalition, said on X that it "intercepted and destroyed" a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis towards the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait, home to an airbase.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group still held all territory seized last month when they swept through coastal areas along the Red Sea, a vital global shipping route.
Houthi fighters "have full control over all their advances on the ground", he posted on Telegram.
Saree said they had carried out dozens of strikes in the past few hours targeting government forces in Yemen's Al-Jawf and Marib regions, while also attacking Taiz governorate.
He later said the Houthis had pushed back government forces "as they attempted to advance towards our forces' positions southwest of Al-Waziya", a strategic position to secure the Bab al-Mandab strait.
The Houthis' health ministry meanwhile said Tuesday that a Saudi airstrike killed six members of a family, including four children, in a village in Hajjah governorate.
On Monday, the Houthis said they had struck Riyadh airport and a refinery belonging to Saudi state oil giant Aramco.
Loud explosions rattled the Saudi capital on Monday evening. They were followed by another explosion on Tuesday that echoed through northern parts of the city, residents told AFP.
Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport is facing frequent temporary closures of its airspace, according to tracking website Flightradar24.
Saudi authorities have not publicly acknowledged the closures or confirmed any strikes targeting the facility.
But on Tuesday the civil aviation authority said at least three people were wounded in attacks on Jazan and Najran airports near the Yemen border a day earlier.  
Saudi Arabia, the main backer of the Yemeni government, has been providing air support for the counter-offensive launched by government forces.
 

'Mocha is a war zone'

 
Government forces claimed late on Monday that they had achieved "victories on several fronts". But military sources with the government refrained from confirming Mocha's recapture, only saying they had cut the one supply route to the area.
They also said they expelled the Houthis from several areas in Taiz in the southwest, where fighting has surged in recent days.
Mohammed, a 33-year-old charity worker who fled from Mocha to Aden, said "people there are terrified".
"Life in Mocha has come to a complete standstill -- there is no movement at all. The city has become a war zone," he told AFP.
Government forces also reported advances in the southern part of the governorate of Marib.
Yemen's government has announced a goal of retaking all Houthi territory -- home to most of the country's population, and much of it held for more than a decade.
Yemen's civil war flared up again in July after years of relative calm, opening a new front in the wider Middle East war that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February.
The Houthis last month seized control of Yemen's entire western coastline along the Red Sea in the country's deadliest fighting in years.
They have regularly targeted oil and military installations in Saudi Arabia and declared a maritime blockade on its ships.
Pakistan and Turkey on Monday pledged to deploy troops to Saudi Arabia under a mutual defence pact.
Hamish Kinnear, an analyst with UK-based Verisk Maplecroft, said the deployment "is likely to mean Turkey and Pakistan helping to intercept Houthi missiles and drones". 
He added that Turkey and Pakistan "will emphasise that their deployment is to support the Saudis and counter the Houthis, not to antagonise Iran and support the US". 
But "that distinction will become harder to maintain if the regional conflict continues to escalate".
burs-amj/

illness

'Nobody seems to care': Russian city shrugs off plague reports

  • The laboratory worker's death was first reported on Friday. 
  • Reports of a plague laboratory worker's death in Siberia have caused waves of speculation outside Russia, but in the city where she worked, many appeared unfazed.
  • The laboratory worker's death was first reported on Friday. 
Reports of a plague laboratory worker's death in Siberia have caused waves of speculation outside Russia, but in the city where she worked, many appeared unfazed.
The laboratory worker's death was first reported on Friday. Several Russian media outlets reported she had died from pneumonic plague, a highly contagious form of the deadly disease, and that dozens of people had been quarantined. 
But Russian officials downplayed the reports this week, saying that postmortem tests did not detect the disease in her body and that no special measures were in place.
"If it were really serious, I think they would have shut everything down by now," one man, who did not provide his name, told AFP in the remote Siberian city of Irkutsk.
"As it stands, nobody really seems to care," he added.
Another man in Irkutsk said he had asked his parents to take precautions like washing their hands, but that he did not view it as a "serious threat."
Russian news outlet People of Baikal reported on Friday that the laboratory technician, whom it named as 28-year-old Darya Shipilova, may have contracted plague from a broken test tube.
Other media reported a possible link between her death and a lab accident at the facility.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Washington was closely monitoring the situation and called for Russia to be "transparent".
 

'We can handle it'

 
Some residents in Irkutsk questioned whether the laboratory worker had died of plague at all.
"I don't think it was actually plague," one man in the city said, without giving their name.
Plague is a bacterial disease that can occur in several forms, including pneumonic plague, which is the most contagious type and can be transmitted by respiratory means. 
Pneumonic plague can be fatal if not treated early, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
In a press briefing earlier Tuesday, a WHO spokesman said the risk from the incident appeared to be "moderate to low".
The governor of the Irkutsk region said that health authorities found no evidence that the woman had died of plague.
US President Donald Trump on Monday offered help to Russia.
But Moscow appeared to counter that offer on Tuesday, saying it was ready to help the United States with its own infectious diseases.
"At first, they said a young woman had been brought in and had died. Then, there started to be denials and so on. But today I read that Trump wants to help the city of Irkutsk," said another man in Irkutsk.
"We can handle it ourselves," the man added.
bur/rmb

school

Trump blames France unrest on Islam, migration

BY DANNY KEMP

  • But leading voices in Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement have been using the French protests to ram home points about immigration ahead of the US midterm elections next month.
  • US President Donald Trump on Tuesday blamed France's mass student protests on Islam and migration, pushing his global right-wing narrative ahead of tough midterm elections at home.
  • But leading voices in Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement have been using the French protests to ram home points about immigration ahead of the US midterm elections next month.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday blamed France's mass student protests on Islam and migration, pushing his global right-wing narrative ahead of tough midterm elections at home.
"What's happening in France is nothing less than out of control mass migration," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network.
"This isn't about schools, this is about Islam wanting to take over a once great Country!" 
French students have blocked the entrances to hundreds of high schools across the country since late September to demand better conditions, in protests that have descended into sporadic clashes with security forces.
A quarter of a million demonstrators took to the streets across France on Tuesday.
Trump did not elaborate on his claims or provide any evidence. In France, no link has yet been established between the student movement and any religious or identity-based demands.
But leading voices in Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement have been using the French protests to ram home points about immigration ahead of the US midterm elections next month.
MAGA commentators repeatedly posted videos of the French unrest in the days leading up to Trump's post.
"The riots in France are a clear warning to the rest of the West," Trump ally Glenn Beck said on X on Monday. "What is happening in France today is all part of an international network of socialists working to dismantle the West."
"This will come to America if the Democrats take power again," posted right-wing commentator Dave Rubin to his 1.6 million followers, along with footage filmed in a French train station.

'Civilizational erasure'

Trump, 80, has ramped up his rhetoric on core issues like migration and transgender people ahead of the midterms, as the Iran war and the cost of living look set to cost Republicans control of Congress.
At the same time, Europe has been a target for Trump ever since his first term in the White House. 
And his second administration has been keener than ever to warn of what it calls the decline of Western culture on the other side of the Atlantic.
The US national security strategy released in December said Europe faced "civilizational erasure" -- and in extraordinary language towards close allies, said it would be "cultivating resistance" to current political trends.
Vice President JD Vance has also been a vocal critic of Europe on the same issue.
Even Trump's handshake-heavy "bromance" with outgoing French President Emmanuel Macron has failed to keep the US leader from criticizing a key ally.
But France responded to Trump's reaction by comparing it to that of Iran, which earlier summoned the French envoy over what it called Paris's "violent response" to the school protests.
"You'll get the Iranians' version, perhaps the version from some Israelis, perhaps the version from some Americans," France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.
Barrot said French diplomatic missions were trying to put across the French case "so that we have our own narratives to disseminate, rather than being subjected to those of others." 
burs-dk/md

schools

Hundreds arrested in French school protests as Macron summons ministers

BY ERIN FLANAGAN WITH AFP BUREAUX

  • US President Donald Trump weighed in on Tuesday to blame the unrest in France on "mass migration" and Islam, as he pushed his global right-wing narrative ahead of tough midterm elections at home.
  • Mass protests over decrepit conditions at France's high schools descended into sporadic violence Tuesday, leading to nearly 500 arrests and prompting President Emmanuel Macron to call an emergency meeting. 
  • US President Donald Trump weighed in on Tuesday to blame the unrest in France on "mass migration" and Islam, as he pushed his global right-wing narrative ahead of tough midterm elections at home.
Mass protests over decrepit conditions at France's high schools descended into sporadic violence Tuesday, leading to nearly 500 arrests and prompting President Emmanuel Macron to call an emergency meeting. 
The protests started in late September with students blocking entrances to hundreds of high schools for 15- to 17-year-olds over complaints of dilapidated facilities and teacher shortages. 
US President Donald Trump weighed in on Tuesday to blame the unrest in France on "mass migration" and Islam, as he pushed his global right-wing narrative ahead of tough midterm elections at home.
In France, parents, teachers and union workers joined the high school students' movement in the capital Paris and other cities.
The interior ministry said 256,000 people protested nationwide, while union organisers put the figure at 450,000. 
Macron was expected to meet top officials late Tuesday, including Interior Minister Laurent Nunez and Education Minister Edouard Geffray, in response to the unrest, a government source said.
At least 488 people were arrested and 43 members of the security forces were wounded on Tuesday, the interior ministry announced.
 

'Wants to be heard'

 
Rights groups, unions and the students have accused authorities of using disproportionate force.
A teenager lost a hand on Monday after police fired a stun grenade.
A 14-year-old student in northwest Paris was hit in the face with a tear gas grenade at such close range that he lost several teeth. A policeman was charged Tuesday over that incident.
"Gen Z has risen up and wants to be heard," 19-year-old Lilia told AFP at a massive march in central Paris, adding she hoped Macron would listen.
At Paris's Place de la Republique, protesters gathered beneath banners demanding better-funded schools, including one reading "Neglected schools, sacrificed youth".
An AFP reporter described the Paris march as largely peaceful, but tensions flared near its endpoint in the east of the capital as police fired tear gas and some demonstrators threw rocks at a line of officers carrying riot shields.
Police officials said that "300 hostile individuals" attempted to confront officers.
Yanis, 16, said students felt ignored until the demonstrations turned violent. "It makes us feel like everything gets solved through violence," he said.
The unrest comes ahead of a 2027 election to choose Macron's successor, with far-right candidate Marine Le Pen riding high in the polls despite a graft conviction.
While many protests have been peaceful, some demonstrators have started fires, destroyed bus shelters or clashed with riot police.
Police have responded with batons, tear gas and riot-control rounds.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu condemned violence linked to the protests, telling lawmakers the violence would not be tolerated.
"Burning down a high school does not improve the state of high school buildings," he told parliament, rejecting accusations that the government had ordered "police repression" against protesters.
He also said that high schools across the country would be closed for a half-day between Wednesday and Friday, to permit "internal democracy" in the establishments.
The government says 215 students and 715 police officers have been injured since the start of the movement. 
The government has sought to address the students' grievances, while accusing the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party of encouraging the movement.
Veteran LFI presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon has strongly supported the protests, while calling for non-violent methods. 
 

Thousands of arrests

 
Thomas, a 17-year-old student from the Paris suburb of Val-de-Marne, said some of the classrooms at his school were short of desks and chairs while the bathrooms lacked doors, toilet paper and soap.
"We just want better conditions for studying," he told AFP. 
Teachers and parents joined demonstrations across France.
In Lyon, parents organised to support the youngsters, while teacher Rindala Younes said she wanted to help students "convey their message peacefully".
"The high school students' demands are legitimate," she said.
In neighbouring Belgium, students have started a similar protest movement in the city of Liege. On Tuesday, several of them were arrested after what police said were clashes and vandalism on the sidelines of a demonstration.
Amnesty International on Monday said the French authorities should "put an end to the disproportionate police repression seen in recent days during student protests".
Nunez said police had opened 10 internal investigations into allegations of misconduct.
Since the start of the movement, 24 schools have been burned or ransacked, according to the education ministry.
More than 6,500 people, mostly minors, have been arrested. The prime minister's office said 85 teaching staff have also been injured.
burs/giv/sjw/rmb

Halzen

Nobel winner Halzen says years of October 'misery' finally over

BY ISSAM AHMED

  • "Around this time of the year, I always felt miserable because I didn't win the prize, and thought... it was terrible for my collaborators who deserved it so much, and that I disappointed the whole IceCube collaboration every October," he added.
  • Physicist Francis Halzen has an impressively long list of academic accolades -- but every October, as the Nobel Prize rolled around, his failure to bag the biggest award of them all left him "miserable," he admits.
  • "Around this time of the year, I always felt miserable because I didn't win the prize, and thought... it was terrible for my collaborators who deserved it so much, and that I disappointed the whole IceCube collaboration every October," he added.
Physicist Francis Halzen has an impressively long list of academic accolades -- but every October, as the Nobel Prize rolled around, his failure to bag the biggest award of them all left him "miserable," he admits.
"It's a great relief for me, because this was not totally unexpected," he told a press conference Tuesday at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he serves as a professor. He spoke by video from a hotel room in Italy where he was attending a scientific meeting.
"Around this time of the year, I always felt miserable because I didn't win the prize, and thought... it was terrible for my collaborators who deserved it so much, and that I disappointed the whole IceCube collaboration every October," he added. "So that problem is finally solved. I'm very grateful for it."
The 82-year-old is the brains behind the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a telescope embedded in a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice that detects neutrinos -- particles with almost no mass that seldom interact with other matter.
Every second, about 65 billion neutrinos from the Sun pass through your little fingernail. Those from deeper in space carry clues about cosmic mysteries, like the supermassive black holes at the heart of galaxies.
Halzen, who grew up in Belgium, paid rich tribute to the roughly 450 people across more than a dozen countries who have helped turn an idea he conceived in the late 1980s into reality.
"UW took incredible risks on this project," he said of his university. "We had several milestones we had to pass, and at each point, this project could have failed."
He also thanked the National Science Foundation (NSF) for taking a chance on the project, "which in retrospect amazes me, I am not sure this could happen today, but it happened, and we were very lucky."
President Donald Trump's administration has called for deep cuts to the NSF, the US agency that funds fundamental research, and directed it to focus on the administration's technology priorities.
Physicists before Halzen had suggested water could capture neutrinos from space: when a neutrino hits an atomic nucleus, it produces a charged particle that travels in the same direction and emits blue light, which can be detected because water is transparent.
Halzen's great leap was to use ice instead -- unlike liquid water, it isn't disturbed by living creatures, and its darkness is constant at great depth.
Making it work was a struggle, but the first neutrino images, captured by an R&D precursor to IceCube, were "the greatest excitement I ever felt about this project," he said. "It was just incredible. It was the fact that we could make this work."
IceCube has been fully operational since 2011 and has detected high-energy neutrinos from a distant galaxy in the direction of the constellation Orion, as well as from our own Milky Way.
As for the future, Halzen noted that whenever humanity has opened a new "window on the universe," predictions about what would follow have proven wrong.
"What this will bring is impossible to predict, but it has always been great in the past, and there is no reason not to think that it will be great again."
ia/pnb

espionage

German ex-spy chief arrested for suspected espionage, treason

BY JASTINDER KHERA WITH SAM REEVES IN FRANKFURT

  • Hanning's former chief of staff, partially named as Manfred D. who continued working for the spy agency until March 2026, was also arrested.
  • A former German spy chief was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of espionage and treason, an embarrassing case at a time when the country is seeking to broaden the powers of its intelligence agencies.
  • Hanning's former chief of staff, partially named as Manfred D. who continued working for the spy agency until March 2026, was also arrested.
A former German spy chief was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of espionage and treason, an embarrassing case at a time when the country is seeking to broaden the powers of its intelligence agencies.
August Hanning, who ran Germany's BND foreign intelligence agency from 1998 to 2005, is accused of espionage, treason and working for foreign intelligence services, federal prosecutors said.
They did not say which foreign powers were involved. However, AFP understands it was not Russia.
The news magazine Spiegel, citing unnamed sources, reported that Hanning had been in contact with an intelligence operative for Azerbaijan.
Hanning's former chief of staff, partially named as Manfred D. who continued working for the spy agency until March 2026, was also arrested.
He is accused of obtaining classified information while working for Hanning's successors and selling them to his former boss, who was working as a private sector consultant.
Hanning then allegedly used the information in his private consulting work, which included preparing a briefing for a foreign spy and passing information to an agent of another foreign intelligence service, prosecutors said.
According to Spiegel's report, the briefing was prepared for the Azerbaijani spy.
Germany would "not tolerate the betrayal of secrets", Marc Henrichmann, chairman of parliament's intelligence oversight committee, said in a statement to AFP.
"Whoever allies themselves with the enemies of our liberal democracy will be found out," he said, adding that Hanning's alleged behaviour would represent "trampling his official duties underfoot".
Treason can be punished with a maximum penalty of life in prison in Germany.
The scandal comes after the government last month signed off on a major overhaul of intelligence agencies with broader powers for covert operations. 
The BND and the BfV domestic spy service have had more limited powers than foreign counterparts, but authorities are seeking to strengthen them to face growing threats, especially from Russia.
The reforms are expected to be passed by parliament early next year.
The current head of the BND Martin Jaeger said the agency had "quickly carried out extensive internal investigations" into Hanning before federal prosecutors took over.
"For the BND and for me, there are no compromises when it comes to internal security," Jaeger told the Rheinische Post newspaper, adding that the incident had "not called into question any of my aims or any of my priorities".

'Grave, deeply disturbing'

According to prosecutors, Manfred D. provided Hanning with approximately 2,000 documents, many with classified information.
Hanning -- who served as the top civil servant in the interior ministry from 2005-2009 -- used classified intelligence "to draft an analysis for an officer of a foreign intelligence service", although it is not clear if "the material reached the intended recipient". 
He is also accused of being "in close contact with a representative of another foreign intelligence service, to whom he passed on political information, partially based on material provided by Manfred D., for several years".
According to the ARD broadcaster, the information that Manfred D. passed on included material on the Iranian nuclear programme and the Russian army.
It quoted security sources as saying some of the information came from partner intelligence agencies abroad.
Konstantin von Notz, an opposition Greens party lawmaker, told AFP the allegations were "grave and deeply disturbing", and called for a investigation into the "potential damage".
The MP, who also sits on the intelligence committee, said he had repeatedly criticised the "dubious and wide-ranging lobbying activities of former senior civil servants".
"They are quite obviously also an entry point for hostile intelligence services," he said.
The allegations came to light through Hanning's involvement in the case of Christina Block, a steakhouse chain heiress on trial for ordering the kidnapping of her two children.
In that case Hanning and a retired police officer were accused of accepting a commission from Block of more than 100,000 euros ($112,000) in exchange for returning the children from Denmark, where they were living with Block's ex-husband.
Hanning's property was searched in September 2025, leading to the current probe.
jsk-sr/bst/ach 

court

Exiled Catalan separatist leader Puigdemont cleared to return to Spain

BY DANIEL SILVA

  • Puigdemont fled to Belgium to avoid detention after the referendum and had remained the subject of an arrest warrant.
  • A Spanish judge on Tuesday lifted an arrest warrant for exiled former Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, paving the way for his return to Spain ahead of a general election in November.
  • Puigdemont fled to Belgium to avoid detention after the referendum and had remained the subject of an arrest warrant.
A Spanish judge on Tuesday lifted an arrest warrant for exiled former Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, paving the way for his return to Spain ahead of a general election in November.
Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium after Catalonia's failed 2017 independence bid, hailed the decision as a "very special" moment, saying it marked the end of more than nine years of what he called "political repression".
Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena made the move after Spain's Constitutional Court backed extending a 2024 amnesty law to include the crime of embezzlement.
The law was aimed at easing tensions in the wealthy northeastern region after the failed  independence bid triggered Spain's worst political crisis in decades.
Around 400 people involved in the independence push have benefited from the amnesty, but Puigdemont, who headed Catalonia's regional government when it held a banned independence referendum and attempted to secede from Spain, had been excluded.
He was accused of using public funds to organise the referendum, which the courts had said amounted to embezzlement.
Puigdemont fled to Belgium to avoid detention after the referendum and had remained the subject of an arrest warrant.
Spain's Supreme Court initially ruled that the amnesty law did not apply to those investigated for embezzlement, including Puigdemont.
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez welcomed the lifting of the warrant, saying it would allow Catalonia to "look to the future".
"We should celebrate that this also helps Catalan society, as it has been demanding throughout this time," he added at a Madrid news conference.

'Nothing resolved'

But Puigdemont warned his campaign for an independent Catalonia was far from over despite his years abroad.
"In terms of relations between Catalonia and Spain, nothing has been resolved today," he said during an address from Belgium, without saying when he plans to return to Spain.
He briefly returned to Barcelona in August 2024 after almost seven years in exile, appearing before thousands of supporters and vowing to continue the fight for Catalan independence.
He then disappeared before the regional parliament's vote to install Socialist Salvador Illa as Catalonia's leader, evading a police operation to arrest him.
Both his parents died in Spain while he was in exile, and he was unable to attend their funerals.
The amnesty law was passed to secure the backing of Catalan separatist parties, whose support allowed Sanchez to remain in power after a 2023 election produced no clear majority.
Spain's right fiercely opposed the amnesty, with the mainstream conservative Popular Party (PP) and far-right Vox arguing it undermined the rule of law.
The two parties frequently accused Sanchez of trading political support for the votes of Catalan separatists and staged large protests against the amnesty law.

'Must be punished'

While PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo said he "respected" the Supreme Court's decision, he again criticised the amnesty law, calling it a "deception".
"Selling favours in exchange for power must be punished at the ballot box. Spain finally deserves a government that puts truth, the law and equality for all Spaniards first," he wrote on X.
Puigdemont's Junts party later withdrew support for the government, accusing Sanchez of failing to fulfil commitments, including amnesty for its leader.
Junts on Friday voted against housing relief measures proposed by Sanchez's minority government amid nationwide protests. The party's seven seats would have been key for passing the decrees.
The defeat of the measures led Sanchez on Monday to call a snap vote for November 29. The next general election was due by August 2027.
Since Puigdemont fled, Junts has seen its support decline as the Catalan independence movement has lost momentum and a new far-right separatist party, Alianca Catalana, has emerged as a rival.
bur-rs/ds/gv

conflict

Caribbean tourism hotspot loses men to Russian war machine

BY SAURO SCALELLA

  • Moscow is accused, in some cases, of using fake job ads to hoodwink men from deprived backgrounds in Africa, Asia and Latin America into traveling to Russia and then forcing them to fight on arrival.
  • Halfway around the world from Russia, in a Caribbean tourism hotspot, men, both young and old, are being lured by Moscow with tantalizing job offers, only to find themselves en route to the front lines in Ukraine.
  • Moscow is accused, in some cases, of using fake job ads to hoodwink men from deprived backgrounds in Africa, Asia and Latin America into traveling to Russia and then forcing them to fight on arrival.
Halfway around the world from Russia, in a Caribbean tourism hotspot, men, both young and old, are being lured by Moscow with tantalizing job offers, only to find themselves en route to the front lines in Ukraine.
Both Moscow and Kyiv have recruited thousands of foreign nationals into their armies since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Moscow is accused, in some cases, of using fake job ads to hoodwink men from deprived backgrounds in Africa, Asia and Latin America into traveling to Russia and then forcing them to fight on arrival.
From countries such as India, Kenya, Equatorial Guinea, Colombia and Brazil, the long arm of Russian recruitment has now reached the Dominican Republic.
Jesus Campusano, a 52-year-old from the impoverished port city of Bajos de Haina, was offered thousands of dollars to work as a welder in the city of Kazan.
But when he arrived in the country at the end of July he was transferred to a Russian military base, from where he fears being deployed to the war against Ukraine. 
The government has identified 20 Dominicans who were tricked into enlisting in the Russian armed forces, President Luis Abinader said last month in New York, adding that the matter was under investigation.
Campusano applied for a job through an online link.
When he arrived at Kazan airport, about 1,000 kilometers from the Ukraine border, he was given a document in Russian to sign, his 54-year-old sister Cristina told AFP.
The authorities then took his passport, gave him a uniform, and told him he was going to be trained up as a police officer.
But last week, his sister told AFP, they told him "they were going to take him to the war to fight."
"I need the authorities to help me, because we are desperate and I want our brother back," she appealed. 

A 'cultural exchange'

Amnesty International last month accused Russia of preying on civilians "from low-income countries in the Global South" with false promises of jobs in security, logistics, construction, IT and other sectors.
But some of those enlisted volunteered to fight.
A Dominican man, Juan Carlos Savila, has posted videos on Instagram showing himself in action on the front line.
In one, he can be seen hiding in the undergrowth while gunfire and explosions ring out nearby.
In another, he related how he was injured after stepping on a landmine. 
"We cannot forbid people from engaging in activities. What we want to do is warn them so they understand the reality of what they are signing up for", Abinader said.
Carlos Sanchez Diaz, a Dominican human rights coordinator, says most of the Dominicans wearing Russian uniforms were recruited under false pretenses.
He estimates up to 100 were the victims of entrapment. 
"It's clearly a scam. These are people from vulnerable sectors, living below the poverty line," Sanchez Diaz explained.
He related one device used by the recruiters: "an invitation to a cultural exchange in Kazan."
"But when they arrive, there's no cultural exchange. They're put on a plane and from there taken to a military base."
- 'I want him back' - 
Maico Enrique Campusano, also from Bajos de Haina but no relation of Jesus Campusano, was offered work as an advertising professional.
He traveled to Panama, where a recruiter was waiting for him, and then flew on to Kazan via Istanbul.
He too ended up in a military base, being put through his paces "from 4:00 in the morning until 6:00 in the evening," according to his mother, Jaqueline del Carmen Feliz.
Feliz told AFP she couldn't sleep at night with worry.
"He's not Russian, nor is he Ukrainian, so he shouldn't be out there. I want him back," she said.
When she asks him about the situation in Russia, he replies: "Don't worry, I'm fine."
But Feliz is skeptical.
"You only go to war to die," she remarked.
str-lp/cb/pnb

conflict

Bulgaria searches for missing crew after drones hit more Black Sea ships

BY ROSSEN BOSSEV

  • Early Tuesday, "sea and air drones" attacked two merchant vessels, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said, adding that it was too soon to determine from which country the drones came.
  • Bulgarian authorities on Tuesday were searching for the missing crew of a ship that sank in the Black Sea after drones hit two vessels in what EU leaders condemned as an "unacceptable" attack.
  • Early Tuesday, "sea and air drones" attacked two merchant vessels, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said, adding that it was too soon to determine from which country the drones came.
Bulgarian authorities on Tuesday were searching for the missing crew of a ship that sank in the Black Sea after drones hit two vessels in what EU leaders condemned as an "unacceptable" attack.
The dual strike came a day after another ship caught fire and sank off the Romanian coast, killing one and leaving one missing. Ukraine said the drone attack was launched by Russia.
Black Sea shipping has been hit by growing fallout from the Ukraine-Russia war in recent months.
Early Tuesday, "sea and air drones" attacked two merchant vessels, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said, adding that it was too soon to determine from which country the drones came.
A Bulgarian ferry that witnessed the explosion and rushed to the scene discovered overturned life rafts and life jackets near the ship that sank.
No crew members from that ship have been found, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev told reporters. He did not specify how many people were missing.
Eighteen crew -- 11 Turkish and seven Indian -- were rescued from the other ship.
The attack within Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone "constitutes a flagrant violation of maritime law and, more broadly, of the rules of navigation", Radev said, adding it was "absolutely unacceptable".
A search operation was launched 70 nautical miles east of the coastal town of Byala, authorities said.
Both vessels are Turkish-owned, according to the Equasis merchant shipping database.
"The situation significantly complicates navigation in the Black Sea, drives up insurance premiums, and makes maritime traffic extremely difficult," Radev said before convening an emergency meeting of ministers.
The ship that sank was the Togolese-flagged Alfa Watan, according to the Maritime.bg specialised website. 
The second ship, the Able, registered in Palau, was set on fire.
Two of the rescued crew members were hospitalised, one suffering from burns and one from a head injury.
 

'Very concerning'

 
European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen also called attacks on civilian shipping in the Black Sea "unacceptable".
"While exact circumstances of these incidents are still being established, the developments are very concerning," von der Leyen wrote online. 
Romanian foreign minister Oana Toiu on X also "firmly" condemned the attack.
According to the available information, the Able was carrying wheat and heading south, while the Alfa Watan was sailing north, Radev said.
 
Neighbouring Romania reported on Monday that a grain ship had caught fire and sank in the Black Sea.
Ukraine blamed the attack on the Turkish-owned Royad Mammadov on Russia.
The Azerbaijani captain died, while one Azerbaijani crew member remains missing, according to Azerbaijan's foreign ministry, as cited by Russia's Ria Novosti news agency.
Amid mounting fallout from Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, incidents involving drones have become increasingly frequent in recent months across eastern European countries. 
The conflict has also spread across the eastern Black Sea.
At least 45 merchant vessels have been attacked over the past 12 months in areas of the Black Sea previously not listed as high-risk, maritime risk expert Ambrey said last month.
No strikes were recorded in the areas in the preceding 12 months, Ambrey said, adding that the increase was driven by attacks further from the coasts of Russia and Ukraine.
It was the first such incident off Bulgaria.
A drone exploded in August close to the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline linking Turkey to Ukraine near the Romanian border in Bulgaria.
Ukraine denied targeting Bulgaria after Bulgaria's defence ministry said the drone was of a type "widely used by the Ukrainian military".
burs-rb-jza/rmb

security

Iceland is 'critical outpost' for security, says Rubio during visit

BY LéON BRUNEAU

  • Rubio said at a news conference that Iceland had long served as "a critical outpost for monitoring clandestine behaviour and deterring our adversaries".
  • US Secretary of State Marco Rubio  said Tuesday that Iceland had long been a "critical outpost" for security during a visit to the island, as his country pushes for greater American influence in the Arctic region.
  • Rubio said at a news conference that Iceland had long served as "a critical outpost for monitoring clandestine behaviour and deterring our adversaries".
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio  said Tuesday that Iceland had long been a "critical outpost" for security during a visit to the island, as his country pushes for greater American influence in the Arctic region.
His trip came after US President Donald Trump has stirred up the power balance in the region by making threats to buy or annex Greenland.
The US signed a security pact with Denmark and Greenland in late September that will allow Washington to establish two new military bases there, drawing the autonomous Danish territory further into US orbit.
Rubio said at a news conference that Iceland had long served as "a critical outpost for monitoring clandestine behaviour and deterring our adversaries".
He arrived in Reykjavik on Monday and has held talks with Icelandic Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir and top diplomat Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir.
They covered topics including geothermal energy, data centres and the pharmaceutical industry.
With competition on the rise in the Arctic, Iceland has regained status as a strategic player, even as the island continues to rely heavily on the US for security.
"For decades this nation, Iceland, has occupied a critical strategic position for our collective security and that remains true today more than ever before," Rubio said.
At the start of September, Trump sparked new controversy by sharing an AI-generated map that appeared to show all of North America, the Caribbean, Greenland and Iceland as "the United States of America."
In response, Reykjavik summoned the US ambassador and called the image "wholly inappropriate".
Gunnarsdottir said on Tuesday the issue had now been dealt with and she also welcomed the US deal with Greenland, adding that her country would continue strengthening ties with Washington.
 

EU rejected

 
Trump again signalled his obsession with Greenland on Sunday, posting on his Truth Social platform an AI-generated image of his face looming over what appears to be its landscape, accompanied by the words "Hello, Greenland!".
Icelanders voted in late August 52.8 percent to 47.2 percent against resuming negotiations on joining the EU, which have been frozen since 2013.
Since gaining independence in 1944, Iceland has never had a military. It relies on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for its security and on a bilateral defence pact signed with the US in 1951.
Washington does not have a permanent base in Iceland, but is looking to consolidate its control over Arctic access routes coveted by Russia and China.
Later Tuesday, Rubio left Iceland for Athens where he will participate in a "strategic dialogue" with NATO member Greece on regional and energy security, the State Department said. 
The wars in Iran and Ukraine have laid bare the fragility of energy supply chains, and Greece is positioning itself to become a key hub in southeastern Europe for natural gas transport.
The visit follows media reports about possible conflicts of interest involving the US ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former fiancée of Donald Trump Jr. and ex-wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom.
In a letter addressed to Rubio, Congressman Gregory Meeks sought clarification of a Wall Street Journal report alleging that Guilfoyle had stated the United States could create "political change" in European countries.
Rubio later wraps up his European tour with a brief stop in Lisbon.
bur-ft/jxb/yad/gv/rmb

piracy

Four Indonesian seamen return home after Somali pirate ordeal

  • Days before the Honour 25, they rescued another oil tanker, the Sibu 1. 
  • Four Indonesian seamen who were kidnapped and held hostage by Somali pirates aboard an oil tanker for more than five months arrived back home on Tuesday, an AFP reporter saw. 
  • Days before the Honour 25, they rescued another oil tanker, the Sibu 1. 
Four Indonesian seamen who were kidnapped and held hostage by Somali pirates aboard an oil tanker for more than five months arrived back home on Tuesday, an AFP reporter saw. 
The men were among 17 crew rescued a week ago when maritime police from the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in northern Somalia stormed the Palau-flagged MT Honour 25 tanker that was hijacked in April.
Before the vessel could be recaptured, the pirates had already killed five crew members -- three Pakistanis, an Indian and a Myanmar national -- according to a Puntland police statement. 
The four Indonesians were received at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport by their families and officials including Foreign Minister Arrmanatha Nasir.
In a welcome ceremony, Arrmanatha thanked the ship's Indonesian skipper Ashari Samadikun for helping ensure the surviving crew members remained safe during the rescue.
"I would also like to thank the families for their patience... because it is not easy to wait for news, not knowing the fate of their children, their husband on board the ship," the minister said.
Ashari expressed regret for the deaths of the five crew members. 
"I sincerely apologise to the families of my five deceased crew members. I couldn't keep my promise to bring all my crew members back safely," he said through tears. 
Puntland police said the Honour 25 had 18,500 barrels of oil on board. 
Sixteen pirates were detained in the rescue operation, while others "fled towards the shore and moved inland", police added.
Somali piracy has seen a resurgence, with at least 15 attacks since April, the highest number since 2013. 
Puntland police have faced criticism for failing to act against a new pirate network that has been highly active in the region this year. 
Days before the Honour 25, they rescued another oil tanker, the Sibu 1. 
But several pirates arrested in the operation escaped while being transferred to jail.
Puntland police also responded recently to the hijacking of the MT Eureka, forcing pirates to run the vessel aground before abandoning it and disembarking the crew. 
All crew were later "confirmed safe", according to the police, while the pirates fled ashore.
burs/mrc/mlr/lga

election

Crisis-striken Haiti postpones elections

BY JEAN DANIEL

  • - Engulfed by violence - The Caribbean country, the poorest in the Americas, has long faced a political, economic and security crisis, but the situation has deteriorated in recent years as gangs step up killings, kidnappings, rape and child recruitment.
  • Haiti, which has been engulfed by years of gang violence and political chaos, has indefinitely postponed elections due to be held later this year, officials said Tuesday.
  • - Engulfed by violence - The Caribbean country, the poorest in the Americas, has long faced a political, economic and security crisis, but the situation has deteriorated in recent years as gangs step up killings, kidnappings, rape and child recruitment.
Haiti, which has been engulfed by years of gang violence and political chaos, has indefinitely postponed elections due to be held later this year, officials said Tuesday.
Haiti has not held elections since 2016, and its last president, assassinated in 2021, has not been replaced.
The first round of presidential and legislative elections was set for December 13, and the second round for February 21, 2027.
"The period originally scheduled for the electoral campaign has been postponed," the Provisional Electoral Council's statement said, omitting any mention of a new election date and adding that the timetable "will be made public as soon as possible."
The council says the schedule will be updated to take into account the "technical and operational requirements of the process, as well as the conditions necessary for the proper conduct of the various stages."
It adds, however, that voter registration is continuing.
A member of the electoral council, speaking to AFP on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that "the December 13 date no longer stands," adding that "we are working on a new timetable."
Holding elections has been seen a crucial step to stabilizing the Haitian government and tackling rampant gang crime.

Engulfed by violence

The Caribbean country, the poorest in the Americas, has long faced a political, economic and security crisis, but the situation has deteriorated in recent years as gangs step up killings, kidnappings, rape and child recruitment.
Of its approximately 11 million inhabitants, nearly 1.5 million are internally displaced by violence, according to the International Organization for Migration, which stressed that attacks were not confined to the capital.
The country's gang violence crisis has left at least 5,700 people dead or wounded this year while more than 1,000 women and girls have been raped, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said last week.
The figures, compiled by the UN mission in Haiti up to September 11, also include 230 kidnappings, though Turk said "the real figures are likely much higher."
A UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF) is being slowly deployed to assist overwhelmed local police. The mission is intended to reach 5,500 personnel but currently only has about 1,500 so far.
The GSF replaced the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission, which was seen as under-equipped and underfunded.
The UN Security Council late last month approved a six-month extension of the mandate for the GSF with the resolution authorizing it, emphasizing "the importance of ensuring security conditions conducive to holding free and fair elections."
str-eml/pnb/bgs

Caribbean

World Bank forecasts modest growth for Latin America, highlights climate risks

BY ASAD HASHIM

  • - Climate effects - The World Bank also noted that El Nino "could further disrupt agriculture and hydropower and push up food and energy prices."
  • The World Bank on Tuesday forecast modest economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean, warning that risks from high energy prices and the climate phenomenon El Nino could impact the region.
  • - Climate effects - The World Bank also noted that El Nino "could further disrupt agriculture and hydropower and push up food and energy prices."
The World Bank on Tuesday forecast modest economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean, warning that risks from high energy prices and the climate phenomenon El Nino could impact the region.
In its biannual Regional Economic Update, the multilateral development organization upgraded its growth outlook for the area by 0.1 percentage point to 2.2 percent in 2026.
"Latin America and the Caribbean has the potential to achieve stronger and more ambitious growth," said Susana Cordeiro Guerra, the bank's regional vice president.
"Countries that have maintained sound macroeconomic frameworks, strengthened institutions, and advanced reforms are demonstrating that stronger growth is possible."
Still, risks to the region "are tilted to the downside," said a World Bank statement accompanying the report.
The organization cited energy price volatility as a key risk factor for inflation, with central banks likely to keep interest rates higher for longer to combat high prices.
The US-Israel war on Iran, launched in late February, has plunged the Middle East into violence and seen global energy prices skyrocket due to Tehran's retaliatory action.
Iran has targeted Washington's oil-producing Gulf allies and blocked a vital trading waterway, the Strait of Hormuz, affecting oil, natural gas and fertilizer supplies. 

Climate effects

The World Bank also noted that El Nino "could further disrupt agriculture and hydropower and push up food and energy prices."
El Nino is a natural phenomenon recurring every two to seven years owing to the warming of sea surfaces -- bringing worldwide changes in winds, pressure and rainfall patterns.
Global forecasters predict this year's event will peak at an intensity never observed in the modern era, compounding the effects of man-made climate change which drives extreme weather patterns.
The World Bank highlighted the diversity of economic outcomes and policies in the large Latin American and Caribbean region, pointing to El Salvador, Paraguay, Panama and the Dominican Republic as strong performers.
It also pointed to Argentina's economic recovery since it suffered a hyperinflation crisis, with the economy expected to post growth for three successive years to 2027 -- the first time it will have done so in nearly 20 years.
The region's largest economies -- Brazil and Mexico -- were growing at or below the average, "constrained by tight monetary conditions needed to continue disinflation, policy uncertainty, and fading public investment impulses."
The Bank's report said that the region "urgently requires new engines of productivity" and pointed to the potential of AI technology to help provide this.
"The region has significant talent and resources," said Cordeiro Guerra. "The priority now is to build on these strengths through consistent policies and investment that can raise productivity, create better jobs, and increase incomes."
aha/dw

economy

IMF warns cost-of-living shocks cause 'lasting deterioration' in affordability

BY ASAD HASHIM

  • The war in Ukraine snarled supply chains for many food-related goods as well as energy, and the US-Israel war on Iran has seen energy and fertilizer prices skyrocket due to the closure of a key Gulf supply route.
  • The International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday that price increases for necessities like food and energy, fuelled by the wars in Iran and Ukraine, were more persistent than previously expected.
  • The war in Ukraine snarled supply chains for many food-related goods as well as energy, and the US-Israel war on Iran has seen energy and fertilizer prices skyrocket due to the closure of a key Gulf supply route.
The International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday that price increases for necessities like food and energy, fuelled by the wars in Iran and Ukraine, were more persistent than previously expected.
Global prices for many commodities have remained elevated for several years, fuelled first by pandemic supply chain shortages and then by the wars in Ukraine and Iran.
The war in Ukraine snarled supply chains for many food-related goods as well as energy, and the US-Israel war on Iran has seen energy and fertilizer prices skyrocket due to the closure of a key Gulf supply route.
"We find that the prices of necessities relative to other goods continue rising for more than a year after the start of a typical episode, and remain persistently elevated," the IMF said in a blog post accompanying its new report.
"As a result, people face not only a temporary spike in food and energy costs, but a lasting deterioration in the affordability of essentials relative to other items."
Households worldwide have struggled with cost of living increases due to the wars and the pandemic, with wages struggling to keep up with persistent price pressures. 
The Iran war, launched in February this year, has pushed global inflation and saw the IMF upgrade its forecast for the metric to 4.7 percent worldwide in 2026, compared to 4.1 percent the year before.
The IMF is due to release the main portion of its World Economic Outlook update next week, with new figures for global growth and inflation forecasts. 
Tuesday's report is part of that release, focusing on lessons learned from the cost-of-living crises of the last five years.
The IMF warned that the consequences of so-called supply shocks extended far beyond "a few months of higher inflation."
Central banks across the world have begun raising interest rates to combat the inflation.
Raising the key rate of an economy can help fight higher prices, but also tends to slow economic activity -- a difficult balancing act in developing countries that may not be able to afford the slowdown.
The report said that the persistent inflationary pressures were a threat to macroeconomic stability for many countries.
"Inflation remains elevated long after the initial surge in food and energy prices," it said.
"Inflation expectations also rise and stay above pre-crisis levels for years, suggesting that these episodes may complicate efforts by central banks to control inflation."
The burden of those price increases falls disproportionately on working-class families, for whom spending on necessities is both non-negotiable and forms a larger share of their monthly spending.
As a result, such inflation has a "substantial" impact on increasing poverty and income inequality.
The Fund called on countries to avoid broad-based subsidies to combat such crises, and to instead issue "targeted and temporary transfers" to those who need them most.
With global debt levels at elevated levels, however, many low-income and developing countries lack the fiscal space to do so, especially given the repeated shocks since the pandemic.
aha/dw

migrants

Myanmar leader to visit Malaysia after migrant returns begin

  • The Malaysian visit will be among Min Aung Hlaing's most diplomatically significant since ASEAN leaders froze out Myanmar's junta following the 2021 coup and ensuing civil war.
  • Myanmar's coup leader turned president Min Aung Hlaing will head to Malaysia on Wednesday for a two-day visit, officials said, following Kuala Lumpur's plan to return thousands of Myanmar immigrants.
  • The Malaysian visit will be among Min Aung Hlaing's most diplomatically significant since ASEAN leaders froze out Myanmar's junta following the 2021 coup and ensuing civil war.
Myanmar's coup leader turned president Min Aung Hlaing will head to Malaysia on Wednesday for a two-day visit, officials said, following Kuala Lumpur's plan to return thousands of Myanmar immigrants.
The visit comes after a group of nearly 1,500 returnees reached Myanmar on Sunday, with rights groups warning Rohingya refugees could be among those sent back.
Malaysia said about 5,000 Myanmar nationals have agreed to "voluntary" return, but authorities have not commented on the ethnicities of those who have returned.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim "will hold talks with President Min Aung Hlaing on key bilateral issues, including the voluntary, dignified and safe repatriation of Myanmar nationals of all ethnic groups who have been in Malaysia illegally," Malaysia's Foreign Affairs Ministry said on Tuesday.
"The Leaders are also expected to review the ongoing efforts undertaken under the ASEAN mechanisms" for peace in Myanmar, the ministry said in a statement.  
Earlier on Tuesday, Anwar told the Malaysian parliament he and other top Malaysian officials "will raise issues towards a solution".

Growing hostility

Naypyidaw has repatriated nearly 10,000 migrants from Malaysia this year, its state media said on Monday.
Anwar said Myanmar had to "guarantee proper treatment to their own people so that there is no abuse, oppression and violation of human rights".
"But for me, any country that wants to bring back their people from our country, we welcome that," Anwar said.
The Malaysian visit will be among Min Aung Hlaing's most diplomatically significant since ASEAN leaders froze out Myanmar's junta following the 2021 coup and ensuing civil war.
But Anwar said last month he would welcome the Myanmar leader to expedite migrant repatriations. 
"I want to tell him that we can be friends and trade. We can accept Myanmar, but they must accept (their refugees) back," Anwar said during a podcast interview.
The repatriation plan follows what Malaysia's human rights commission has called "growing hostility, discriminatory rhetoric and online attacks" against the Rohingya in Muslim-majority Malaysia.
Malaysia hosts more than 215,000 refugees and asylum seekers registered with the United Nations refugee agency, including more than 126,000 Rohingya from Myanmar -- its largest refugee community. 
The UN and rights groups have raised concerns about the repatriations, with monitors fearing the Rohingya could face a new wave of abuses in Myanmar, where they are denied full citizenship.
Rights advocates view Min Aung Hlaing as the primary architect of a crackdown against the group, starting in 2017, which is being weighed by the International Court of Justice as potential genocide.

'No time to return'

Myanmar this month pledged "safe and dignified" returns for its citizens displaced abroad.
Myanmar is also riven by violence, with 50 killed last week in a military airstrike on a marketplace in western Rakhine state. 
"This is no time to return anyone forcibly to a country plagued by egregious human rights violations and abuses," UN rights chief Volker Turk said last week. 
Min Aung Hlaing ousted the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, plunging Myanmar into a civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people, according to monitor ACLED. 
Since elections that were widely dismissed as a charade, Min Aung Hlaing became civilian leader and launched a drive for regional recognition.
ASEAN has frozen Myanmar's top leaders out of its summits since the coup over a lack of engagement with its roadmap to end the civil war.
After 2021, the bloc presented a united front, demanding Myanmar engage with it's five-point plan to bring peace through dialogue between all sides.
But analysts have warned the consensus is now fracturing, with some ASEAN nations now welcoming Min Aung Hlaing.
Malaysia will be the fifth nation of the 11-member ASEAN bloc -- following Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia -- to welcome him since taking up the presidency. 
He has also visited China -- which previously backed him behind the scenes, according to analysts -- as well as India and Russia.
burs-jhe/lga

far-right

Germany's AfD poised to preside over state assembly for first time

BY ODD ANDERSEN

  •   - Merz under pressure -   The AfD's leader in Saxony Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund, has said he hopes to be elected as state premier in December, which would be another first for the party.
  • The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is poised Tuesday to preside over a state assembly for the first time following its landslide election victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.
  •   - Merz under pressure -   The AfD's leader in Saxony Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund, has said he hopes to be elected as state premier in December, which would be another first for the party.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is poised Tuesday to preside over a state assembly for the first time following its landslide election victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.
The AfD took nearly 44 percent of the vote last month in the state in the former communist East Germany, easily beating the centre-right CDU of unpopular Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Newly elected state lawmakers gathered for the first time Tuesday in the state capital Magdeburg to elect a speaker, with the AfD's candidate Tobias Rausch expected to win despite facing accusations of nepotism.
It would be the first time a far-right party has held such a position in post-war Germany.
Several hundred protestors gathered outside the state parliament to urge other parties not to co-operate with the AfD, which in Saxony-Anhalt is classified as a "confirmed extremist" organisation by domestic intelligence.
They held signs with slogans such as "Never again is now" in reference to Germany's Nazi past and read out parts of the constitution which set out citizens' basic rights.
The anti-immigration and Moscow-friendly AfD narrowly missed out on an absolute majority, winning 39 out of 83 seats.
That means they will need to seek support from other parties, in the first instance from the five lawmakers from the small BSW, a left-wing party that nonetheless echoes the AfD's stances on Russia and immigration.
The BSW has said it will support a speaker from the AfD.
The BSW's deputy leader Christian Leye defended the decision, saying the "firewall" erected by the other parties against co-operation with the AfD "is not working".
"We need a smarter way of dealing with the AfD and that means tackling the content of their programme instead of a firewall," Leye told the Politico site.
Other parties have expressed alarm at the prospect of a far-right speaker.
The leader of the far-left Linke in the state, Eva von Angern, has drawn parallels with Hermann Goering's time as speaker of the Reichstag federal parliament in the 1930s and his role in enabling Adolf Hitler's takeover.
The BSW has called the comparison "shameful".
 

Merz under pressure

 
The AfD's leader in Saxony Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund, has said he hopes to be elected as state premier in December, which would be another first for the party.
The BSW has so far not committed to backing Siegmund for the post, although according to  media the two parties have agreed to co-operate on issues such as a commission of inquiry into government policies during the coronavirus pandemic.
The AfD is also courting the 15 CDU lawmakers.
But Sven Schulze, the CDU's regional leader and current state premier, on Monday insisted there would be no defectors from his party.
The AfD also placed first in an election in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania last month, although a coalition of left-wing parties is expected to continue governing.
In the city-state of Berlin, the Linke party notched a victory as both Merz's CDU and the chancellor's junior coalition partners, the centre-left Social Democrats, slumped.
The results of all three regional elections have added to the pressure on Merz, who took office in 2025 promising to sap the AfD's appeal by kickstarting Germany's spluttering economy and taking a tougher line on immigration.
But his coalition has instead been beset by disagreements over reforms while the AfD has surged, reaching 30 percent in the latest opinion polls, while the CDU/CSU continues to drift downwards as low as 17.5 percent.
bur-jsk

economy

Le Pen vows drastic cost savings to prevent French 'default'

  • "If the French do not choose a political break, France is heading towards default," Le Pen said.
  • French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said Tuesday that she would implement 140 billion euros ($157 billion) in cost savings by 2032 if elected next year, warning that without change France was "heading towards default" on its debt.
  • "If the French do not choose a political break, France is heading towards default," Le Pen said.
French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said Tuesday that she would implement 140 billion euros ($157 billion) in cost savings by 2032 if elected next year, warning that without change France was "heading towards default" on its debt.
The current frontrunner in the presidential race made the announcement in a bid to stake out her credibility on the economy and regain momentum after her top ally Jordan Bardella was accused of making antisemitic comments, which he has denied.
Le Pen also vowed to bring France's public deficit back to below the EU limit of three percent of GDP by 2030, while urging the European Central Bank to "ease the burden" of interest rates.
France's deficit -- the annual shortfall of revenue to spending -- came in at 5.1 percent of GDP last year, and instead of reducing that level as originally planned the government now forecasts it will hit 5.4 percent this year.
It plans to borrow 340 billion euros ($385 billion) in 2027, around 28 billion euros more than this year, to help finance government spending and repay debt coming due.
But those forecasts could be jeopardised by rising interest rates, which have seen France's government bond yields soar in recent weeks.
"If the French do not choose a political break, France is heading towards default," Le Pen said.
She slammed the successive governments of President Emmanuel Macron for failing "to anticipate the slightest economic, financial or budgetary policy capable of preventing the noose of interest payments from strangling France".
Le Pen also lamented that "productivity has completely fallen behind that of the United States, and our research spending is incapable of giving us the slightest comparative advantage in the technological battle that is raging".
She also reaffirmed her proposal to introduce via referendum a budget "golden rule" to oblige an annual reduction in debt.
But Le Pen will have to find areas to make significant cost savings, given she also wants to lower the retirement age to 62, or even 60.
She promised cost savings of 15-20 billion euros within pensions alone by correcting "inefficient and unfair" measures in the current system.
A poll last week showed Le Pen was on course to easily win not just the first round of the presidential elections next April, but also the second round against any challenger.
But the accusations last week that Bardella made antisemitic comments on Facebook messenger in 2013 dealt a blow to her campaign. She has made clear she still has full confidence in Bardella. 
gbh-sjw/ah/js

wounded

'Eats through a straw': French teens wounded in high school protests

BY ANTOINE BOYER WITH AFP BUREAUX

  •   - Injured eye -   In the capital's northwestern suburb of Argenteuil, near two high schools, a blast ball injured a 16-year-old in the eye on Thursday.
  • Several children have been seriously injured during protests in France, as high school pupils demand better conditions and police crack down on their demonstrations.
  •   - Injured eye -   In the capital's northwestern suburb of Argenteuil, near two high schools, a blast ball injured a 16-year-old in the eye on Thursday.
Several children have been seriously injured during protests in France, as high school pupils demand better conditions and police crack down on their demonstrations.
The government says 215 students and 715 police officers have been injured since the start of the protests in late September.
Police have used tear gas and other means to try to control what the authorities have described as "urban violence".
But unions, rights groups and many of the children have accused the police of using disproportionate force.
The police have launched 10 internal investigations into allegations of brutality since the protests started, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said late Monday.
Here are four cases:
 

Hand blown off

 
A 15-year-old on Monday lost his hand at a protest in the northern town of Lens.
A police union source said he picked up a sting-ball grenade fired by riot officers.
But a witness told La Voix du Nord newspaper that the grenade landed on the teenager.
Local prosecutor Etienne Thieffry late Monday said he was not able to immediately determine "whether this teenager had actually picked up a grenade that exploded in his hand, or whether the grenade had landed on him".
 

Eyesight lost

 
A 16-year-old has lost the use of his right eye after he was seriously injured in the head on Wednesday during the blockade of Balzac High School in the central town of Tours.
His wounds are "compatible with the impact of a defensive bullet of the blast ball type", local prosecutor Catherine Sorita-Minard said.
The family has filed a legal complaint for "violence by a person with public authority", her office said.
The family of the boy, named Mael, has said in a statement that he had "absolutely no involvement, whether directly or indirectly, in any activist or political activity whatsoever".
"He is simply a teenager who found himself caught up in the events," they said.
 

Teeth obliterated

 
On Monday last week, in Saint-Ouen-L'Aumone, northwest of Paris, a 14-year-old named as Eden lost most of his teeth when a police officer appeared to fire a grenade at him at very close range.
"His jaw is sealed shut, he can no longer speak and he eats through a straw," his mother told media on Monday, adding all his upper teeth were broken and "his lower teeth torn out".
In widely relayed video footage, three helmeted riot police officers are seen facing the high school student. One of them lands a first blow to the teenager, who responds with a kick, before a grenade launcher shot to the face sends him crashing to the ground.
Lawyer Elsa Marcel said there was no way the officer ignored that "his weapon could fatally strike a child when shot at point-blank range" at "a distance of 1.50 metres" (five feet).
The family was on Monday preparing to file a legal complaint for "attempted intentional homicide".
 

Injured eye

 
In the capital's northwestern suburb of Argenteuil, near two high schools, a blast ball injured a 16-year-old in the eye on Thursday.
The local prosecutor's office said police were responding to two men around 20 metres away who had fired fireworks in their direction.
Two officers with defensive ball launchers used them, it said, adding that "the description of the young man taken into care by the emergency services appeared to correspond to that of one of the two individuals who had been involved".
Paul Vannier, a lawmaker from the hard-left France Unbowed party that has expressed support for the protests, said the teen was still in hospital.
"At this point the doctors are unable to say whether he will lose the use of his eye or not," he said.
burs/ah/st

crime

The alleged murder by US Marine on Okinawa: five things to know

  • Among the most contentious is Japan's lack of primary jurisdiction over crimes committed by US military personnel while on duty.
  • A woman's murder allegedly committed by a US Marine in Okinawa has triggered public outrage, prompted Japan's premier to slam a "heinous crime" and rekindled controversy over the heavy military presence on the southern island.
  • Among the most contentious is Japan's lack of primary jurisdiction over crimes committed by US military personnel while on duty.
A woman's murder allegedly committed by a US Marine in Okinawa has triggered public outrage, prompted Japan's premier to slam a "heinous crime" and rekindled controversy over the heavy military presence on the southern island.
Here are five things to know about the latest case and Okinawa's thorny relations with the US military bases.
   

What happened?

Police said Sunday that a US Marine stationed on Okinawa was arrested on suspicion of killing a 39-year-old woman at a hotel in the city of Naha and stealing her wallet.  
Local media reported she was choked to death and that the Marine is denying the allegations.

Why are so many bases concentrated in Okinawa?

Despite comprising just 0.6 percent of Japan's landmass, Okinawa hosts 70 percent of the country's US military bases and facilities.
In the wake of World War II, Japan regained its sovereignty under the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1952, but Okinawa remained under American control, making it a hub of US military build-up. 
The 1972 return of Okinawa's sovereignty to Japan did little to diminish the number of US bases on the island, leading to the disproportionate burden it is saddled with today.

Why is it so controversial?

The heavy US presence has led to a host of issues, from helicopter crashes and noise pollution to crimes involving servicemen, including the 1995 gang-rape of a local 12-year-old schoolgirl.
That rape by three US soldiers in Okinawa fuelled widespread calls for a rethink of a 1960 pact that outlined the legal status of Japan-based US military personnel.
Some argue, however, the military bases create jobs and help boost Okinawa's local economy, accounting for around five percent of the region's annual income.

How does jurisdiction work?

The 1960 Japan Status of Forces Agreement is often accused of rendering US military bases virtually extraterritorial and immune to Japan's domestic laws. 
Japanese authorities are, for example, hard-pressed to conduct an on-site probe into alleged environmental pollution inside the bases and regulate low-altitude flights of their aircraft. 
Among the most contentious is Japan's lack of primary jurisdiction over crimes committed by US military personnel while on duty.
Even if crimes are committed while off-duty, as long as the individual responsible remains on base, their custody won't be handed over to Japan until they are indicted, according to the Japan Federation of Bar Associations.
In this case, Kyodo reported that a police officer questioned and detained the suspect as he walked alone on a street in Naha's entertainment district late Saturday.
- How sensitive is the issue for Japan? - 
Despite the controversy, Japan -- which has a pacificist constitution -- relies on US military might as a deterrent against any potential attack, stressing the importance of American soldiers being garrisoned, trained and on standby 24/7.
But Japan's safety is not necessarily America's only concern.
Experts say Washington essentially sees Okinawa as its strategic foothold to deploy militarily in the region and beyond, and the island is seen by both countries as important for monitoring China, the Taiwan Strait and the Korean peninsula.
In the past, American troops were mobilised from Okinawa to participate in conflicts such as the 1990 Gulf War and the 2003 Iraq War.
tmo/aph/fox

cybercrime

South Korea warns of possible AI use in banking hacks

  • Police said Tuesday that an investigation had been launched at Lee's urging.
  • Artificial intelligence may have been used in a string of cyberattacks targeting South Korea's financial sector, the president said Tuesday, as police announced the launch of an investigation.
  • Police said Tuesday that an investigation had been launched at Lee's urging.
Artificial intelligence may have been used in a string of cyberattacks targeting South Korea's financial sector, the president said Tuesday, as police announced the launch of an investigation.
More than seven financial institutions, including some of South Korea's biggest banks, have reported customer data breaches in the past week.
The ability of AI systems to find previously unknown software vulnerabilities and hack banks, companies or government infrastructure is in the global spotlight as leading labs release ever-more advanced models.
"There are signs that artificial intelligence was used in some hacking attacks, causing considerable concern and anxiety among the public," President Lee Jae Myung told a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
"We have now reached a point where AI can make (hacking) easy for even those without special skills," he said.
More than 68,000 people have been affected by the hacks, according to the Financial Services Commission. 
Shinhan Bank, one of the hacked institutions, said information attached to loan applications for about 25,000 customers, including names, phone numbers and annual income, had been leaked.
"With advances in AI technology, hacking methods are becoming increasingly sophisticated, while the scope of the damage is spreading across all areas on a scale that is difficult to compare with the past," Lee said.
"The government, companies and our society as a whole need to recognise the seriousness of the current situation and remain particularly vigilant."
Police said Tuesday that an investigation had been launched at Lee's urging.
A government official told AFP it was "highly likely" that Artex AI, an open-source security testing tool believed to be a Chinese AI system, was used in the attacks.
But officials have said that its use does not indicate that the attackers were Chinese.
"Attackers can move between and use IP addresses in multiple locations, so it is impossible to identify an attacker based on an IP address alone," Park Sang-won, head of the Financial Security Institute, told reporters.
An IP address, or internet protocol address, is a unique number assigned to a particular internet connection.
In Japan meanwhile, at least three companies have reported data leaks in recent days, while 10 firms have said their data may have been compromised following unauthorised access to servers and other websites.
The major car-sharing company Times Car said the data of 6.6 million accounts had been leaked, while a Japanese BBQ restaurant chain said that the personal data of more than 10 million app users had been leaked.
hs/cwl/fox