- Israel appeared to target Hezbollah's security chief in air strikes on Beirut that killed 22 people, in the deadliest raid on the centre of Lebanon's capital since the Israel-Hezbollah war began.
- There has been no official confirmation from either Hezbollah or Israel that Safa was targeted in the attack that Lebanon's health ministry said killed 22 people.
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Israel appeared to target Hezbollah's security chief in air strikes on Beirut that killed 22 people, in the deadliest raid on the centre of Lebanon's capital since the Israel-Hezbollah war began.
The raid came as Israel prepared to observe Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar which begins on Friday, while fighting wars against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
"The head of Hezbollah's security apparatus, Wafiq Safa, was targeted," a source close to the Iran-backed group said, requesting anonymity to discuss the matter.
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Safa was close to Hezbollah's late leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike on south Beirut last month.
In 2019, the US Treasury blacklisted Safa, saying he maintained Hezbollah's ties to financiers and allegedly helped arrange weapons and drugs smuggling.
There has been no official confirmation from either Hezbollah or Israel that Safa was targeted in the attack that Lebanon's health ministry said killed 22 people.
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Israel and Hezbollah have been at war since September 23, when Israel intensified strikes on Hezbollah strongholds, including south Beirut.
Thursday's raid was the third such attack on central Beirut since then. It was also its deadliest.
The war, which has also seen Israel send troops into south Lebanon, has killed more than 1,200 people, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, and displaced more than a million people.
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'No safe place left'
Lebanon on Friday condemned an Israeli attack that it said wounded United Nations peacekeepers in the country's south, after state media reported a second such attack in as many days.
On Thursday, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, UNIFIL, said Israeli fire on their headquarters in south Lebanon left two Blue Helmets injured.
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In central Beirut, AFPTV footage showed two plumes of smoke billowing from densely packed buildings after Thursday's deadly strike, with people seen scouring the rubble.
Residents, some weeping, checked their homes and asked for news of neighbours, with one saying his wife was in intensive care.
"There are a lot of families living here," many displaced from south Lebanon and who have relatives in the neighbourhood, said Bilal Othman.
"Do they (Israel) want to tell us there is no safe place left in this country?"
'Prevent broader conflict'
From sundown on Friday until nightfall on Saturday, Israeli markets will close, flights will stop and public transport will halt as most Jews fast and pray on the Day of Atonement.
But Israeli forces will continue operations against Hamas and Hezbollah, even as Israel's top ally the United States calls for de-escalation.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced hope Friday for a diplomatic solution in Lebanon and averting a broader conflict, as he backed efforts by the fragile state to assert itself against Hezbollah.
"We continue to engage intensely to prevent broader conflict in the region," Blinken said.
"It's clear that the people of Lebanon have an interest -- a strong interest -- in the state asserting itself and taking responsibility for the country and its future."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week urged Lebanese people to rise up against Hezbollah, or risk a similar fate to the people of Hamas-run Gaza.
"You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza," he said.
"Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end."
The Israel-Hezbollah war was sparked by Hezbollah's cross-border fire into Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, following the October 7, 2023 attack, the worst in Israel's history.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, bring back the hostages seized by militants on October 7.
More recently, with Hamas weakened but not crushed in Gaza, Netanyahu promised to secure Israel's northern border with Lebanon, in order to allow tens of thousands of Israelis displaced from their homes by Hezbollah's cross-border fire to return.
UN peacekeepers
With Lebanon deep in political and economic crisis for years, the power and influence of Iran-backed Hezbollah has become ever more entrenched in the Mediterranean country.
A stark symbol of the failure of Lebanese institutions to maintain even a semblance of rule of law was the Beirut port explosion of 2020, which killed more than 200 people and for which there has been no justice to date.
In 2021, a leaked message from a Hezbollah official -- widely believed to be Safa -- threatened to remove the judge investigating the catastrophic blast.
The role of UN peacekeepers stationed at Lebanon's border has also come into focus in the latest escalation, particularly following its accusation against Israeli forces of repeatedly targeting its positions and wounding two of its members on Thursday.
The Israeli military said it had been operating against Hezbollah militants near UNIFIL headquarters and had "instructed the UN forces in the area to remain in protected spaces".
Israel has also promised to retaliate against Iran's missile attack last week, which Tehran had said was vengeance for the assassination of two of its closest allies, Hezbollah leader Nasrallah and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, along with an Iranian general.
Iran's permanent representative to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, told the UN Security Council that his country was "fully prepared to defend its sovereignty" if attacked.
Biden has cautioned Israel against attempting to target Iran's nuclear facilities and opposes striking oil installations.
"I don't think we are currently in a situation that the two countries are seeking an all-out direct war," Hamid, a 29-year-old university student in Tehran, told AFP.
"It will have severe economic and military consequences" for both countries, he added.
burs/ser/dv
religion
BY MOHAMMAD MAZED
- Now back in the political mainstream, he says Hasina must be extradited to face trial with her allies for abuses committed during her tenure.
- Bangladesh's top Islamist politician says he supports the extradition of ousted premier Sheikh Hasina to face trial for crimes against humanity in the same tribunal that convicted his colleagues.
- Now back in the political mainstream, he says Hasina must be extradited to face trial with her allies for abuses committed during her tenure.
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Bangladesh's top Islamist politician says he supports the extradition of ousted premier Sheikh Hasina to face trial for crimes against humanity in the same tribunal that convicted his colleagues.
Shafiqur Rahman is the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, whose members were hounded, driven underground and sentenced to death during Hasina's autocratic 15-year rule.
Her government justified the crackdown on the nation's largest Islamist party by accusing it of sponsoring extremist attacks -- charges Rahman denies.
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After Hasina's toppling and exile in neighbouring India following a student-led revolution in August, the ban on Jamaat's activities was lifted.
Rahman is leading its public revival.
Now back in the political mainstream, he says Hasina must be extradited to face trial with her allies for abuses committed during her tenure.
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"We don't believe in the theory that just because we faced injustice, someone else should also face injustice," the 65-year-old told AFP at his party office in the capital Dhaka.
"But people want them to be tried. If they don't face trial, these criminals will commit more crimes."
Dozens of Hasina's allies were taken into custody after her regime collapsed, accused of culpability in a police crackdown that killed more than 700 people during the unrest that deposed her.
Several cases accusing Hasina of orchestrating the "mass murder" of protesters are being probed in a deeply contentious war crimes court her government set up.
The International Crimes Tribunal was ostensibly created to try Bangladeshis accused of committing crimes against humanity during the country's devastating 1971 independence war against Pakistan.
The United Nations and rights groups criticised its procedural shortcomings, and it became widely seen as a means for Hasina to eliminate political opponents.
The tribunal hanged five of Jamaat's top leaders, sparking protests that led to the deaths of around 500 people.
Rahman said it was important Hasina and her loyalists faced a fair trial, the kind denied to his executed comrades.
He said he was confident that the tribunal, if reformed, could meet the task.
"Whenever there is any crime against humanity in this country, then there is no problem with it being explored in the tribunal," he said.
"If there is any disparity of law, if there is any contradiction with the constitution or human rights, that can be amended."
At the same time, Rahman said Jamaat would challenge the tribunal's former wrongdoings by posthumously appealing the death penalty verdicts handed to his former colleagues.
"We will prove that we faced injustices in the court which hanged our leaders," he said.
No election without reforms
Jamaat's headquarters was shuttered for more than a decade but reopened days after Hasina's downfall. It is now swarming with party activists.
The party will contest the next national elections, expected sometime in the next two years -- but Rahman says they are in no rush.
Instead he wants the caretaker government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, to first fulfil its pledge of a democratic overhaul.
"The election would not be meaningful without reforms," Rahman said.
So far there had been no alliance struck with its previous coalition partner, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), he said.
But Rahman did support the return of exiled BNP leader Tarique Rahman, convicted of graft charges during Hasina's government, and who has lived in London since 2008.
"We have many false cases against us, so we believe he also has many false cases against him," Rahman said.
Minority attacks
Hasina accused Jamaat of supporting extremism and undermining the country's secular constitution.
The impetus for her crackdown on the party was bolstered by several Islamist attacks during her time in office that killed bloggers accused of blasphemy and Westerners living in Dhaka.
Rahman emphatically denied the party's association with any extremist group, saying Jamaat had long committed to the democratic process.
He cited Jamaat's condemnation of a spate of attacks after Hasina's toppling on Bangladesh's minority Hindus, motivated by the community's perceived support of her government.
And he pointed to the party's efforts to guard Hindu temples and Sufi Muslim shrines after they were attacked since August.
"We are loud and clear," he said. "We don't have any ambiguity here. We don't support any of this."
mma/gle/pjm/dhc
mine
- No group has claimed the attack, but separatist militants in Balochistan regularly target natural resource extraction projects dotted across the mineral-rich province, which is the poorest in Pakistan.
- Twenty coal miners were shot dead in an overnight attack on their lodgings by a group of heavily armed men in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, police said Friday.
- No group has claimed the attack, but separatist militants in Balochistan regularly target natural resource extraction projects dotted across the mineral-rich province, which is the poorest in Pakistan.
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Twenty coal miners were shot dead in an overnight attack on their lodgings by a group of heavily armed men in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, police said Friday.
No group has claimed the attack, but separatist militants in Balochistan regularly target natural resource extraction projects dotted across the mineral-rich province, which is the poorest in Pakistan.
Up to 40 attackers fired at miners for half an hour starting around 12:30 am (1930 GMT Thursday) "before escaping into the night", said Asim Shafi, police chief in Duki district, where the attack occurred.
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"They had rocket launchers and hand grenades with them," he told AFP.
A senior government official in the district, Kaleemullah Kakar, confirmed the death toll and said seven more people had been wounded.
"The attackers also set fire to the machinery on-site," he said.
On Friday, the workers' coffins were laid out in a public square where hundreds of protesting union and labour group members demanded better protection amid a rise in violence.
"We are protesting here for our protection as terrorists always attack mine workers and coal-loaded vehicles and law enforcement agencies fail to provide protection," said Mohammad Ghous, 36, from a neighbouring district who joined the protest.
"Our lives don't matter to the government."
Militants targeting foreign interests
One of the wounded, Juma Khan, told AFP from hospital that he was shot in the arm while bullets rained down on the room as he was sleeping.
"There was heavy firing followed by some blasts of hand grenades," he said.
There were conflicting reports about where the victims hailed from.
Militants have in the past targeted energy projects in Balochistan with foreign financing -- most notably from China -- accusing outsiders of exploiting the resource-rich region.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed a Sunday night bombing on a vehicle convoy in southern Karachi that killed two Chinese coal plant workers.
Beijing is a crucial ally for cash-strapped Pakistan but Chinese-funded infrastructure projects have sparked resentment and its nationals are routinely targeted by militant groups.
Ethnic Baloch militants also regularly target migrant labourers from elsewhere in Pakistan, particularly Punjabis hailing from the east.
Punjabis are Pakistan's largest ethnic group and dominate the nation's military forces, which have been battling the insurgency in Balochistan for decades.
In August, the BLA carried out coordinated attacks across Balochistan that killed dozens of mostly Punjabis.
Friday's attack comes just days before Pakistan is due to host the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit -- a regional bloc established by China and Russia.
str-srq/ecl/lb
literature
- It was like I won the award really," she told AFP.
"A South Korean winning the Nobel literature prize is just crazy."
hs-cdl/ceb/dhw
- Major South Korean bookstores sold out of author Han Kang's books Friday, as sales skyrocketed and the share price of local publishers soared following her historic Nobel Prize win.
- It was like I won the award really," she told AFP.
"A South Korean winning the Nobel literature prize is just crazy."
hs-cdl/ceb/dhw
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Major South Korean bookstores sold out of author Han Kang's books Friday, as sales skyrocketed and the share price of local publishers soared following her historic Nobel Prize win.
The first Asian woman to win the literary award, short story writer and novelist Han is best known overseas for "The Vegetarian", her first novel to be translated into English, which won the Man Booker Prize in 2016.
The 53-year-old was honoured with the Nobel "for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life", the Swedish Academy said.
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Shortly after the announcement, which came late Thursday in Seoul, major bookstore websites across the country crashed as people rushed to order her books.
Han's works quickly filled all 10 slots on bookstore chain Kyobo's real-time bestseller list, with the company telling AFP 60,000 copies of Han's books had been sold early Friday, 451 times more than the day before.
"We're obviously thrilled, and it's incredible to see so many people wanting to read books all at once," Kyobo spokesperson Kim Hyun-jung told AFP.
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"Since there has never been a Nobel Prize-winning work in the Korean language, I think readers are both excited and somewhat unaccustomed to this very happy situation."
Shares of online book retailers such as YES24 and Millie Seojae skyrocketed Friday, reaching the daily limit of 30 percent, after which trade is suspended.
A YES24 spokesperson told AFP that almost 80,000 copies of Han's three books -- "Human Acts", "The Vegetarian" and "I Do Not Bid Farewell" -- had been sold as of Friday morning.
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Sold out
A sign at the Kyobo Book Centre's store in central Seoul announced that all of Han Kang's Korean-language books had sold out, leaving only a few English editions on the shelves.
Beside it, a large installation celebrating the author's award featured Han's portrait.
Disappointed readers either browsed the English editions or took pictures of the celebratory display.
Han's father Han Seung-won, who is also a novelist, said he initially could not believe the news of his daughter's win.
"A reporter called me to ask for my reaction," he told reporters. "I responded: 'Are you being misled by some fake news?'"
But he was spoke proudly of Han and her works.
"There's nothing to discard in Kang's novels. Each one is a masterpiece."
First Asian woman
Han is one of only 18 women to receive the literature Nobel out of 121 laureates.
A 1980 massacre in her native city of Gwangju, when South Korea's then-military government violently repressed a democratic uprising, later inspired her book "Human Acts".
"I'm glad that Han Kang (was recognised for) being a writer who draws on the pain experienced in South Korea," one reader wrote on X.
"She has continued to speak out as a minority -- whether as someone from the margins, a woman, a feminist, or a person born in a region facing discrimination."
Kim Min-ji, a 27-year-old fan, said she ran to the Kyobo Book Centre as soon as she heard Han won the Nobel.
"I told everyone she was going to be a great author, for crying out loud. It was like I won the award really," she told AFP.
"A South Korean winning the Nobel literature prize is just crazy."
hs-cdl/ceb/dhw
Global Edition
BY SHAUN TANDON
- - US, Russia hostility -
Despite disagreements, tensions over the past year have markedly eased between China and the United States, with President Joe Biden supporting dialogue to reduce the potential for conflict.
- The United States and its allies clashed on Friday with Russia and China at a summit in Laos dominated by disputes on maritime claims and Ukraine.
- - US, Russia hostility -
Despite disagreements, tensions over the past year have markedly eased between China and the United States, with President Joe Biden supporting dialogue to reduce the potential for conflict.
-
The United States and its allies clashed on Friday with Russia and China at a summit in Laos dominated by disputes on maritime claims and Ukraine.
World leaders descended on the normally tranquil, temple-lined streets of the Laotian capital Vientiane, which marked a rare occasion bringing together the top US and Russian diplomats.
The East Asia Summit came on the heels of meetings of the ASEAN bloc, where the Philippines has led the charge in criticising Beijing's actions in the hotly disputed South China Sea.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meeting ASEAN leaders before the full summit, reiterated calls for freedom of navigation in the bustling waterway.
"We remain concerned about China's increasingly dangerous and unlawful actions on the South and East China Seas, which have injured people, harmed vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolution of disputes," Blinken said.
China has deployed military and coast guard vessels in recent months in a bid to eject the Philippines from a trio of strategically important reefs and islands in the South China Sea.
It has also been ratcheting up pressure over a disputed island group controlled by Japan in the East China Sea, rattling Tokyo and its allies.
Blinken also warned China over Taiwan, where the new leader delivered an annual speech in which he vowed that the self-governing democracy would resist annexation.
"China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions," Blinken told reporters.
US, Russia hostility
Despite disagreements, tensions over the past year have markedly eased between China and the United States, with President Joe Biden supporting dialogue to reduce the potential for conflict.
Biden and his political heir Vice President Kamala Harris, who both skipped the summit ahead of elections, have taken a different approach to Russia, believing Moscow's diplomatic overtures are insincere.
Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were spaced apart by the leaders of South Korea and India at the summit. Blinken said he did not speak to Lavrov but that neither walked out when the other addressed the summit.
"I think it's safe to say that we heard each other. I didn't hear anything new, unfortunately, about the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine," Blinken said.
Lavrov told reporters that the United States was "destructive" in Asia.
He also attacked the "militarisation" of Japan, where security-minded new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has in the past called for a NATO-style Asian pact with an unstated goal of deterring China.
"The Japanese are obviously being pushed to such a course by the United States," Lavrov charged.
Japan's foreign ministry said that Ishiba, on his first foreign trip since taking over, reiterated "serious concerns" about the "intensification of Chinese military activities in areas surrounding Japan" in a meeting with Premier Li Qiang.
Li made a veiled swipe at Ishiba during an ASEAN-related meeting on Thursday, warning of the danger of "attempts to introduce bloc confrontation and geopolitical conflicts into Asia".
In an interview with AFP at the summit, EU chief Charles Michel called for disputes to be resolved "through peaceful means" in the South China Sea.
Push for Myanmar diplomacy
The summit saw participation for the first time in more than three years by military-run Myanmar, which has brushed aside a 2021 ASEAN plan after its coup that calls for dialogue and an immediate end to violence.
ASEAN leaders in a statement voiced "deep concern" over Myanmar's path and stood by the plan, known as the Five-Point Consensus.
The United States, while supporting ASEAN diplomacy, has urged no let-up in pressure against the junta until it shows signs of progress.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has engaged the junta in the neighbouring country, voiced support for the restoration of democracy but said: "We believe that Myanmar should be engaged rather than isolated in this process."
Modi, who was seen speaking warmly with Blinken, has annoyed Washington by refusing to back Western sanctions on Russia, India's Cold War partner.
India, by contrast, has a border dispute with China and Modi at the summit voiced firm support for open navigation in the South China Sea.
sct/pdw/lb
conflict
- After meeting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for dinner late Thursday, Zelensky headed Friday morning for what was his second private audience at the Vatican, following a meeting in May 2023.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Pope Francis at the Vatican on Friday, part of a whirlwind tour of European capitals aimed at drumming up support from allies ahead of a tough winter.
- After meeting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for dinner late Thursday, Zelensky headed Friday morning for what was his second private audience at the Vatican, following a meeting in May 2023.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Pope Francis at the Vatican on Friday, part of a whirlwind tour of European capitals aimed at drumming up support from allies ahead of a tough winter.
Zelensky is seeking a military and financial boost during a 48-hour trip to London, Paris, Rome and Berlin, amid fears of dwindling support if Donald Trump wins the US presidency next month.
After meeting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for dinner late Thursday, Zelensky headed Friday morning for what was his second private audience at the Vatican, following a meeting in May 2023.
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Francis -- the leader of the world's almost 1.4 billion Catholics -- has repeatedly called for peace in Ukraine and regularly prays for its "martyred" people.
But the pontiff -- who also met Zelensky at the G7 summit in June -- sparked outrage in Kyiv earlier this year after giving an interview in which he urged Ukrainians to "raise the white flag and negotiate".
In a joint press statement with Zelensky on Thursday evening, Meloni pledged support for Kyiv "for as long as needed", and announced that the next international reconstruction conference to help his country will be in Rome in July.
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In Paris shortly before that, Zelensky held talks with France's President Emmanuel Macron, after which he denied media reports that he was discussing the terms of a ceasefire with Russia.
"This is not the topic of our discussions," he told the press in the French capital.
"It's not right. Russia works a lot with media disinformation so it (such reports) is understandable," he added.
Victory plan
Zelensky has rejected any peace plan that involves ceding land to Russia, arguing Moscow must first withdraw all troops from Ukrainian territory.
Zelensky also said he and Macron had discussed Kyiv's "victory plan" to defeat Russia.
"Before winter we need your support," he added, acknowledging "a difficult situation in the east" and a "big deficit" in terms of some equipment.
Without elaborating, Macron said Zelensky had outlined Ukraine's "plan for the next weeks" and the pair had discussed strategy for the coming "weeks and months".
Macron emphasised he had reaffirmed France's support "for the Ukrainian resistance against the Russian invasion".
Zelensky said later on Telegram that they had discussed the possibility of France and Ukraine jointly producing arms.
After meeting Francis, Zelensky will head to Berlin to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose government plans to halve its bilateral military aid to Ukraine next year.
Tough winter
Ukraine is facing its toughest winter since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, as Russia keeps up strikes on the country's power grid and advances across the eastern front line.
Russian strikes overnight on the southern Ukrainian region of Odesa killed four people, including a teenage girl, and wounded 10 more, the regional governor said Friday.
Zelensky arrived in Paris from London where he had had talks with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and NATO's new chief Mark Rutte.
Speaking after his Downing Street meeting, Zelensky said he had "outlined the details of our victory plan", adding that it "aims to create the right conditions for a just end to the war".
The meeting, Starmer said, had been a chance to "go through the plan, to talk in more detail".
Zelensky has said Ukraine desperately needs more aid to fight back after Russia captured dozens of small towns and villages in the east.
He is also pushing for clearance to use long-range weapons supplied by allies, to strike military targets deep inside Russia.
Washington and London have stalled on giving approval over fears it could draw NATO allies into direct conflict with Russia.
Zelensky said he had raised the subject at the Downing Street meeting.
Rutte told reporters: "Legally, Ukraine is allowed to use its weapons, if they can hit targets in Russia, if these targets present a threat to Ukraine."
A planned meeting of Ukraine's allies in Germany on Saturday was postponed after US President Joe Biden called off his visit to focus on the threat from Hurricane Milton.
burs-mca/ar/yad
conflict
- The attack came the same day the UN's peacekeeping force in Lebanon accused Israeli soldiers of "repeatedly" firing on its positions, including with a tank, leaving two Indonesian soldiers with injuries.
- An Israeli air strike killed at least 22 people in central Beirut on Thursday as Israeli ground troops in Lebanon were accused of firing on the UN's peacekeeping headquarters, injuring two Blue Helmets.
- The attack came the same day the UN's peacekeeping force in Lebanon accused Israeli soldiers of "repeatedly" firing on its positions, including with a tank, leaving two Indonesian soldiers with injuries.
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An Israeli air strike killed at least 22 people in central Beirut on Thursday as Israeli ground troops in Lebanon were accused of firing on the UN's peacekeeping headquarters, injuring two Blue Helmets.
The raid on Beirut, where an AFP journalist heard several loud explosions, was the third such attack on the centre of the Lebanese capital since Israel escalated its campaign last month.
Lebanon's health ministry issued the updated death toll and said the number of injured had risen to 117.
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AFP live TV footage showed two plumes of smoke billowing between densely packed buildings, while there was no immediate comment from Israeli authorities about the nature of the target.
A Lebanese security source, without giving further details, said a "Hezbollah figure" was targeted after a series of killings of top officials in the Iran-backed movement.
Most Israeli strikes have targeted the south Beirut area, not the city's centre.
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The attack came the same day the UN's peacekeeping force in Lebanon accused Israeli soldiers of "repeatedly" firing on its positions, including with a tank, leaving two Indonesian soldiers with injuries.
EU chief Charles Michel said on Friday that "an attack against a UN peace mission is not responsible, is not acceptable", after Italy and Spain both slammed the attack.
Washington said that while Israel targets Hezbollah facilities "it is critical that they not threaten UN peacekeepers' safety and security".
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The Israeli military said it had been operating against Hezbollah militants near UNIFIL headquarters and had "instructed the UN forces in the area to remain in protected spaces".
Israel has been pounding Hezbollah in Lebanon since September 23 in an escalated campaign that has killed more than 1,200 people and displaced more than a million others, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures.
Its ground forces crossed into Lebanon on September 30 with the aim of stopping Hezbollah's cross-border fire in support of Palestinian militant group Hamas, which attacked Israel on October 7.
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Hezbollah missile and artillery fire has forced tens of thousands of Israelis to flee their homes near the border over the past year, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to fight until they can return.
- Humanitarian law -
The Lebanon operation is a second front for Israel's stretched armed forces, which are continuing their campaign against Hamas Palestinian militants in Gaza.
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Israeli forces launched a major operation in the north of the territory at the weekend around the Jabalia refugee camp, where about 400,000 people are trapped, according to Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday about the humanitarian situation, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that Washington was "incredibly concerned" as Israel tightens its siege.
"We have been making clear to the government of Israel that they have an obligation under international humanitarian law to allow food and water and other needed humanitarian assistance to make it into all parts of Gaza," he said.
An Israeli strike on a school building being used as shelter by displaced people in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza on Thursday left at least 28 people dead and 54 injured, according to the Palestine Red Crescent.
It is the latest of numerous such incidents.
The Israeli army said in a statement that the strike targeted Palestinian combatants operating from a command-and-control centre "embedded inside a compound that previously served as the (Rafida) School".
The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter -- a charge denied by the militant group.
UN investigators on Thursday also accused Israel of deliberately targeting health facilities and killing and torturing medical personnel in Gaza.
Israel is "committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities", the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry said in a statement.
'Deadly, precise'
Ahead of Yom Kippur starting on Friday, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Israelis are also braced for the country's reaction to a missile attack last week from Iran, which backs both Hamas and Hezbollah.
Iran fired about 200 missiles in what it said was retaliation for the assassination of two of its closest allies, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, along with an Iranian general.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic on Thursday that "we do not want a war", but "we are not afraid of it, and we will be ready for any scenario".
Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that "our attack on Iran will be deadly, precise and surprising. They will not understand what happened and how it happened."
Biden has cautioned Israel against attempting to target Iran's nuclear facilities and opposes striking oil installations.
"I don't think we are currently in a situation that the two countries are seeking an all-out direct war," Hamid, a 29-year-old university student in Tehran, told AFP on Thursday.
"It will have severe economic and military consequences" for both countries, he added.
The Gaza war began on October 7 last year, when Hamas militants stormed across the border and carried out the worst attack in Israeli history.
The militants took 251 people hostage in an attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
According to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, 42,065 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, a majority civilians, figures the UN has described as reliable.
burs/adp/mca/smw
hurricane
BY DANIEL STUBLEN
- The southeastern US state was able to avoid the level of catastrophic devastation that officials had feared.
- At least 11 people died as Hurricane Milton sent tornadoes spinning across Florida, officials said Thursday as the state grappled with flooding, power outages and other woes from a milder than expected storm that many had feared would be catastrophic.
- The southeastern US state was able to avoid the level of catastrophic devastation that officials had feared.
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At least 11 people died as Hurricane Milton sent tornadoes spinning across Florida, officials said Thursday as the state grappled with flooding, power outages and other woes from a milder than expected storm that many had feared would be catastrophic.
The hurricane blasted across the state late Wednesday before roaring into the Atlantic, leaving behind roads blocked by downed trees and power lines. It shredded the roof of a baseball stadium. Some three million homes and businesses were without power.
So far, though, it appeared that tornadoes, rather than floodwaters, have been responsible for the storm's deaths.
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"It was pretty scary," said Susan Stepp, a 70-year-old resident of Fort Pierce, a city on Florida's east coast where four people in a senior living community died after a tornado spawned by Milton struck Wednesday.
"They did find some people just outside dead, in a tree," she told AFP. "I wish they would have evacuated."
The deaths are five in St. Lucie County, three in Volusia County two in the city of St. Petersburg and one in the city of Tampa, local authorities said. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters the deaths were caused by the tornadoes.
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In Tampa, police found a woman in her early 70s trapped under a large tree branch and pronounced her deceased, saying her death "is believed to be related to restoration efforts post Hurricane Milton."
In Polk County, a member of a road crew was struck and killed by a colleague's vehicle as he removed a downed tree.
Stepp's husband Bill said a tornado "picked up my 22-ton motor home and threw it across the yard."
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"Scary and heartbreaking at the same time, to see much damage and all things you really love just gone, but it's only things and we're still here," the 72-year-old said.
The southeastern US state was able to avoid the level of catastrophic devastation that officials had feared.
"The storm was significant, but thankfully this was not the worst-case scenario," Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told a news conference.
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Milton made landfall on the Florida Gulf Coast as a major Category 3 storm, with powerful winds smashing communities still reeling from Hurricane Helene which hit only two weeks ago, killing 237 people in Florida and other southeast states.
The National Weather Service issued 126 tornado warnings across the state Wednesday, the most ever issued for a single calendar day for the state in records dating back to 1986, wrote hurricane expert Michael Lowry.
In Sarasota Bay, Kristin Joyce, a 72-year-old interior designer who did not evacuate either, took photos of tree branches snapped by the wind.
"There is no question it needs to be a serious wake-up call for everyone in terms of climate change," she told AFP, surveying the damage.
Scientists say extreme rainfall and destructive storms are occurring with greater severity and frequency as temperatures rise due to climate change. As warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapor, they provide more energy for storms as they form.
Biden fury at Trump
President Joe Biden, who said he spoke with DeSantis Thursday, urged people to stay inside in the aftermath of the storm, with downed power lines and debris creating dangerous conditions.
In a video posted on social media, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he and his wife Melania were praying for Florida residents affected by the storm and urged them to vote for him.
"Hopefully, on January 20th you're going to have somebody that's really going to help you and help you like never before," the former president said, referring to the presidential inauguration date.
Hurricane Helene struck Florida late last month, and the back-to-back storms have become election fodder as Trump spreads conspiracy theories claiming Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris are abandoning victims.
That prompted a furious response from Biden who on Wednesday called Trump "reckless, irresponsible."
'Lucky'
In Cocoa Beach, on Florida's east coast, one tornado swept in from the ocean, blowing out almost all the windows of a hair salon and tearing a chunk of roof off a bank.
Katherine and Larry Hingle said they were on their porch, watching water from a nearby river rise, when the tornado came through Wednesday evening.
"I said 'it sounds like a train's coming,'" Katherine, 53, told AFP while out to walk their dog and survey the damage.
In Sarasota, resident Carrie Elizabeth expressed the feelings of many -- that despite the violent night, Milton was not quite as bad as had been feared.
"I feel that we're very lucky," she said. "It'll take a long time to clean up, but it could have been much worse."
bur/jgc/dw
Stellantis
- At the same time, he said he might retire in January 2026.
- The struggling auto giant Stellantis said late Thursday that its CEO Carlos Tavares will retire in 2026 when his contract runs out and it is now looking for a successor.
- At the same time, he said he might retire in January 2026.
-
The struggling auto giant Stellantis said late Thursday that its CEO Carlos Tavares will retire in 2026 when his contract runs out and it is now looking for a successor.
The US-French-Italian company whose brands include Chrysler, Citroen, Fiat and Jeep is going through a rough patch, in particular with sales in North America, its cash cow.
Late last month, Stellantis cut its profit forecast, citing efforts to improve its sagging US business as well as competition from Chinese automakers.
The company, which also makes Maserati and Dodge cars, said on September 30 it expected an adjusted operating income margin of 5.5 to 7.0 percent -- not the double-digit growth it had anticipated.
In a statement issued late Thursday, the group said: "To drive simplification and enhance organisational performance in a turbulent global environment, Stellantis today announced targeted management changes, effective immediately."
Stellantis said it wants to "redouble the company's focus on its key business priorities and confront head-on the global challenges facing the industry."
The statement announced senior management changes in addition to the departure of the CEO.
It said Doug Ostermann, until now the head of operations in China, will become chief financial officer and replace Natalie Knight, who is leaving the company.
In another departure, Uwe Hochgeschurtz, who was in charge of European operations, will be replaced by Jean-Philippe Imparato.
Also, Antonio Filosa will take over for Carlos Zarlenga as head of operations for North America but also keep his job as CEO of the Jeep brand. Zarlenga's new assignment was not immediately announced.
Tavares said in the statement, "During this Darwinian period for the automotive industry, our duty and ethical responsibility is to adapt and prepare ourselves for the future, better and faster than our competitors to deliver clean, safe and affordable mobility."
In an illustration of Stellantis's woes, in July it published an earnings report that showed its performance down sharply in the first six months of the year as vehicle sales in North America -- the company's main source of profits -- were down 18 percent.
And in the third quarter those same North American sales fell another 20 percent compared to the same stretch of last year.
Tavares, who is from Portugal, said a week ago during a visit to a Peugeot plant in France that car companies around the world are struggling, not just Stellantis.
At the same time, he said he might retire in January 2026.
"In 2026, the person sitting answering you will be 68 years old -- that's a reasonable age to retire. It's an option," Tavares told reporters at the factory in Sochaux in eastern France.
Stellantis said the hunt for a replacement for Tavares is underway.
It has been assigned to a special committee that is supposed to wrap up its work in late 2025, the statement said.
Stellantis is the result of the merger in 2021 of Peugeot-Citroen and Fiat-Chrysler.
In electronic trade after the session closed Thursday in New York, Stellantis shares were up 0.36 percent.
elm/eml/dw/jgc
Global Edition
BY PIERRE-HENRY DESHAYES
- The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA or UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres could be given the nod for their work amid Russia's war in Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and Islamist group Hamas.
- With wars raging around the world, the Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded Friday could honour ardent defenders of world order, such as the International Court of Justice, UNRWA or UN chief Antonio Guterres.
- The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA or UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres could be given the nod for their work amid Russia's war in Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and Islamist group Hamas.
-
With wars raging around the world, the Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded Friday could honour ardent defenders of world order, such as the International Court of Justice, UNRWA or UN chief Antonio Guterres.
The climax of the Nobel season, the Peace Prize will be announced at 11:00 am (0900 GMT) at the Nobel Institute in Oslo.
The state of world affairs is decidedly bleak, with devastating wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, famine in Sudan and the ever-present climate catastrophe.
According to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, there were 59 armed conflicts in the world in 2023, which is almost double the number in 2009.
Some experts see that as a reason to not award a Nobel Peace Prize this year -- as has happened 19 times since it was first awarded in 1901.
But the Norwegian Nobel Committee has insisted that on the contrary, rewarding peace efforts is "perhaps more important than ever".
"It's hard to be an optimist when you look around in the world today, and forces of peace do not seem to be on the offensive," the secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Olav Njolstad, told AFP.
"But... there are definitely people and organisations who are doing a great job," he added.
Trump and Musk
According to Nobel watchers, the five members of the prize committee could seize the opportunity to highlight the importance of respecting world order.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA or UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres could be given the nod for their work amid Russia's war in Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and Islamist group Hamas.
The ICJ has -- albeit in vain -- ordered Moscow to immediately end its offensive and Israel to halt its military operations in Gaza.
UNRWA, which has been harshly criticised by Israeli authorities, has come to the aid of millions of Palestinians, while Guterres has, among other things, repeatedly called for ceasefires.
The International Criminal Court, the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the Emergency Response Rooms initiative in Sudan and Afghan women's rights activist Mahbouba Seraj have all been singled out by experts as possible winners this year.
In all, 286 candidates -- 197 individuals and 89 organisations -- are known to have been nominated this year.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee keeps the candidates' names secret for 50 years, but those eligible to nominate can reveal who they have proposed.
Former US president Donald Trump, billionaire Elon Musk, Pope Francis, ex-NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, British environmentalist David Attenborough and Reporters without Borders are all known to have been nominated.
A men's year, again
The Peace Prize is the only Nobel awarded in Oslo, with the other disciplines announced in Stockholm.
Last year, the Peace Prize went to jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran.
This year's Nobel season has so far been a predominantly male, Anglo-Saxon affair, with seven North Americans or Britons honoured, including with two prizes celebrating artificial intelligence (AI).
On Monday, the medicine prize went to US duo Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of microRNA, a previously unknown type of genetic switch that could pave the way for new medical breakthroughs.
Tuesday's physics prize honoured Canadian-Briton Geoffrey Hinton and American physicist John Hopfield for pioneering work on the foundations of AI.
The chemistry prize on Wednesday was awarded to David Baker and John Jumper of the US, and Demis Hassabis of Britain, for work revealing the secrets of proteins through computing and AI.
The only woman and non-Western laureate so far this year has been South Korea's Han Kang, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday.
The economics prize will wrap up the Nobel season on Monday.
The Nobel Prizes consist of a diploma, a gold medal and a $1 million prize sum. They will be presented at ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of scientist and prize creator Alfred Nobel.
phy/po/jj/smw
internet
BY BILL MCCARTHY
- Far fewer people use Truth Social than X, formerly Twitter, where Trump boasted a far louder voice before his supporters stormed the US Capitol and he was temporarily banned.
- Donald Trump has been lashing out against Kamala Harris incessantly on Truth Social as next month's US presidential election nears -- mirroring his rally broadsides but in increasingly vulgar and vindictive terms that cater to his most uncompromising supporters online.
- Far fewer people use Truth Social than X, formerly Twitter, where Trump boasted a far louder voice before his supporters stormed the US Capitol and he was temporarily banned.
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Donald Trump has been lashing out against Kamala Harris incessantly on Truth Social as next month's US presidential election nears -- mirroring his rally broadsides but in increasingly vulgar and vindictive terms that cater to his most uncompromising supporters online.
Last month, the Republican candidate attacked Democratic rival Harris in more than one in every three posts or reposts, according to an AFP analysis of Trump's roughly 1,000 messages.
The escalation comes as Trump seeks to harden up his base while also laying the groundwork to challenge the election results yet again, with repeated calls for a vote that is "too big to rig."
Far fewer people use Truth Social than X, formerly Twitter, where Trump boasted a far louder voice before his supporters stormed the US Capitol and he was temporarily banned.
But the former president has posted relentlessly on his Truth site -- over 30 times per day in September, on average -- with sprees stretching late into the night.
The attacks on Harris included claims the vice president is "guilty of CRIMES" and "should be IMPEACHED, PROSECUTED, or BOTH."
Trump has also promised to punish other lawmakers and said if he wins in November, then voters, lawyers, donors and election officials who "CHEATED" in the 2020 or 2024 elections will be "prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country."
"Trump's base loves this nonsense," Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, told AFP. "Yet there are millions of others, perhaps on the edge of voting for him again, who might recoil."
"People should wake up every day and be forced to see and listen to his posts."
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Pre-emptive fraud claims
In between self-glorifying opinion polls, links to conservative media and posts hawking $100,000 watches and other merchandise, the former president's feed is full of erratic, often all-uppercase screeds that push the website's 1,000-character limit.
"WOMEN ARE POORER THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE LESS HEALTHY THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE LESS SAFE ON THE STREETS THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO," Trump began one post that made false claims about abortion.
"I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT," he said in another, after the singer endorsed Harris.
With election day less than a month away, Trump has ramped up warnings of fraud and homed in aggressively on Harris -- notably blaming her for border crossings in misleading posts that AFP fact-checkers found were distorting data, some of which is decades old, about migrants with criminal convictions.
He has baselessly accused his opponent of illegally registering immigrants to vote and shared a manipulated video that falsely portrayed her asking them if they had done so.
Other insults have been personal, branding Harris as "crazy," "lyin'" and "cognitively challenged" and accusing her of staging photos and paying fake supporters.
"Did they give Comrade Kamala the questions?" he said after their debate. "It was 3-on-1, but they were mentally challenged people, against one person of extraordinary genius."
John Jost, a New York University professor of psychology and politics, said Trump's activity could signal "dread, immense anxiety and hatred" over the possibility of losing.
"Trump is a desperate man. He is willing to say or do anything, regardless of truth value."
'Twisted commentary'
Facing backlash for amplifying an August post implying Harris exchanged sexual favors for political gain, Trump said on a podcast that "the ones you get in trouble with are the reposts."
Yet multiple times since, he has boosted conspiratorial and sometimes nakedly racist posts.
One from "@1776WeThePeople1776," an account promoting QAnon conspiracies, featured a picture of a knife-wielding man with a head covering. It said: "We're your new neighbors."
After Sean "Diddy" Combs was indicted, Trump shared an image -- which AFP fact-checkers determined was doctored -- of Harris with the rapper, from an account called "@akaPR0B0SS."
"Even to someone like me who has followed Trump for nine years, this is shocking," said Sabato. "For most of my life a candidate who had written this sort of twisted commentary would have been driven out of his nomination."
As Republicans including Trump baselessly accused Haitians in Ohio of eating pets, the former president promoted a misrepresented video and other dubious evidence online.
The community was then flooded with bomb threats.
Jared Holt, senior researcher of US extremist movements at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, warned of Trump emboldening "the ugliest parts of the modern conservative movement."
"His social media posts encourage, normalize and spread extremist ideologies."
bmc/adm/nro
technology
BY ANUJ CHOPRA
- It operates a web archive called the Wayback Machine, which has captured snapshots of millions of internet pages.
- The Internet Archive, an online repository of web pages, was offline Thursday after its founder confirmed a major cyberattack that exposed the data of millions of users and left the site defaced.
- It operates a web archive called the Wayback Machine, which has captured snapshots of millions of internet pages.
-
The Internet Archive, an online repository of web pages, was offline Thursday after its founder confirmed a major cyberattack that exposed the data of millions of users and left the site defaced.
The assault on the San Francisco-based nonprofit, claimed by a shadowy group that experts described as a pro-Palestinian "hacktivist," lays bare the perils of cybersecurity breaches ahead of the November 5 US presidential election.
Brewster Kahle, the Internet Archive's founder and digital librarian, acknowledged a series of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks -- aimed at disrupting a website or server -- since Tuesday and said the organization was working to upgrade security.
The assault led to the "defacement of our website" and a breach of usernames, emails and passwords, Kahle wrote on X, formerly Twitter, late Wednesday.
In a new post early Thursday, Kahle said the attackers had returned, knocking down both the Internet Archive's main site and its "Open Library," an open source catalogue of digitized books.
The Internet Archive's data "has not been corrupted," he wrote in a subsequent post.
"We are working to restore services as quickly and safely as possible," he added.
On Wednesday, users reported a pop-up message claiming the site had been hacked and the data of 31 million accounts breached.
"Have you ever felt like the Internet Archive runs on sticks and is constantly on the verge of suffering a catastrophic security breach?" said the pop-up, apparently posted by the hackers.
"It just happened. See 31 million of you on HIBP!"
HIBP refers to site called "Have I been Pwned," a site that allows users to check whether their emails and passwords have been leaked in data breaches.
In another post on X, HIBP confirmed that 31 million records from the Internet Archive had been stolen, including email addresses, screen names and passwords.
'Rising' threat
Kahle did not respond to a request for comment about the scale of the data breach.
A hacker group called "SN_BLACKMETA" claimed responsibility for the attack on X.
"The Internet Archive has and is suffering from a devastating attack," the group wrote on the platform Wednesday.
"They are under attack because the archive belongs to the USA, and as we all know, this horrendous and hypocritical government supports the genocide that is being carried out by the terrorist state of 'Israel.'"
In a threat advisory in July, Radware, a cybersecurity solutions provider, described the group as a "pro-Palestinian hacktivist with potential ties to Sudan" and possibly operating from Russia.
Radware called the group a "rising cyber threat" with a "strong ideological stance and a strategic approach to cyber warfare."
The Internet Archive, a nonprofit that is not known to have any ties to the US government or Israel, was founded in 1996 and advocates for a free and open internet.
It operates a web archive called the Wayback Machine, which has captured snapshots of millions of internet pages.
Like other archival sites, the Wayback Machine is a crucial resource for fact-checkers, who use it to trace deleted web pages and ensure that the evidence cited in articles is permanently available to readers.
It can also be used to document changes made to online content over time and helps researchers and scholars find historical collections that exist in digital formats.
ac/mlm
conflict
BY ELLA IDE WITH ANNA SMOLCHENKO IN PARIS AND PETER HUTCHISON IN LONDON
- Before that Zelensky held talks with France's President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, after which he denied media reports that he was discussing the terms of a ceasefire with Russia.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday a ceasefire with Russia was not under discussion with European allies and urged more Western support ahead of a tough winter during his lightning tour of four capitals.
- Before that Zelensky held talks with France's President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, after which he denied media reports that he was discussing the terms of a ceasefire with Russia.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday a ceasefire with Russia was not under discussion with European allies and urged more Western support ahead of a tough winter during his lightning tour of four capitals.
Zelensky was seeking a military and financial boost during a 48-hour trip to London, Paris, Rome and Berlin, amid fears of dwindling support if Donald Trump wins the US presidency next month.
The Ukrainian president travelled to Rome for a working dinner with Giorgia Meloni, after which the Italian prime minister announced the city would host the next "recovery conference" to help Ukraine's reconstruction on July 10-11, 2025.
-
"Ukraine is not alone and we will stand with it for as long as needed," Meloni told reporters after the supper.
Before that Zelensky held talks with France's President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, after which he denied media reports that he was discussing the terms of a ceasefire with Russia.
"This is not the topic of our discussions," he told the press in the French capital. "It's not right. Russia works a lot with media disinformation so it (such reports) is understandable," he added.
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Zelensky has rejected any peace plan that involves ceding land to Russia, arguing Moscow must first withdraw all troops from Ukrainian territory.
Zelensky also said he and Macron had discussed Kyiv's "victory plan" to defeat Russia.
"Before winter we need your support," he added, acknowledging "a difficult situation in the east" and a "big deficit" in terms of some equipment.
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Without elaborating, Macron said Zelensky had outlined Ukraine's "plan for the next weeks" and the pair had discussed strategy for the coming "weeks and months".
Macron emphasised he had reaffirmed France's support "for the Ukrainian resistance against the Russian invasion".
Zelensky said later on Telegram that they had discussed the possibility of France and Ukraine jointly producing arms.
-
Ukraine is facing its toughest winter since the full-scale invasion started in February 2022, as Russia launches strikes on the country's power grid and advances across the eastern frontline.
- 'Just end to war' -
Zelensky arrived in Paris from London where he had had talks with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and NATO chief Mark Rutte.
Speaking after his Downing Street meeting, Zelensky said he had "outlined the details of our victory plan", adding that it "aims to create the right conditions for a just end to the war".
The meeting, Starmer said, had been a chance to "go through the plan, to talk in more detail".
Zelensky says Ukraine desperately needs more aid to fight back after Russia captured dozens of small towns and villages in the east.
He is also pushing for clearance to use long-range weapons supplied by allies, to strike military targets deep inside Russia.
Washington and London have stalled on giving approval over fears it could draw NATO allies into direct conflict with Russia.
Zelensky said he had raised the subject at the Downing Street meeting.
Rutte told reporters: "Legally, Ukraine is allowed to use its weapons, if they can hit targets in Russia, if these targets present a threat to Ukraine."
But he added: "Whether individual allies do, that's in the end, always up to individual allies."
Rutte and Britain cautioned against placing too much focus on long-range missiles.
Starmer's spokesman said the talks were instead about "the range of support" for Ukraine.
A planned meeting of Ukraine's allies in Germany on Saturday was postponed after US President Joe Biden called off his visit to focus on the threat from Hurricane Milton.
- Funding -
On the ground, questions are growing about the long-term strategy of Ukraine's counteroffensive into Russia's Kursk region, given Moscow's push in the east of Ukraine.
"If this is a short-term operation, it will strengthen us," Bogdan, one serviceman sitting at a cafe in Druzhkivka, near Kramatorsk, told AFP.
"If it's a long-term operation and we plan to stay in Kursk, it will deplete our main resources."
On Thursday, the Kremlin said its missiles had struck two launchers of a US-made Patriot air-defence system, which Ukraine uses against Russian missiles.
Ukraine relies on billions of dollars' worth of US aid to fight Russia's invasion, and the US presidential election in November could prove pivotal.
The German-based Kiel Institute warned Thursday Western military and financial aid to Kyiv could halve to about 29 billion euros ($31 billion) in 2025 if Trump wins the November 5 election.
Trump has promised to end the war "in 24 hours" if he is elected -- a prospect Kyiv fears means being forced to make massive compromises to achieve peace.
Zelensky is scheduled to meet with Pope Francis and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday.
bur-vl-sjw-as-ide/rlp
Palestinians
BY ACIL TABBARA, WITH GREGORY WALTON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
- "This morning, two peacekeepers were injured after an IDF Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at UNIFIL's headquarters in Naqura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall," the mission said, using an acronym for the Israeli military.
- UN peacekeepers said Israeli fire on their headquarters in south Lebanon Thursday injured two Blue Helmets, sparking condemnation from European members of the mission.
- "This morning, two peacekeepers were injured after an IDF Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at UNIFIL's headquarters in Naqura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall," the mission said, using an acronym for the Israeli military.
-
UN peacekeepers said Israeli fire on their headquarters in south Lebanon Thursday injured two Blue Helmets, sparking condemnation from European members of the mission.
Israel acknowledged its forces had opened fire in the area, saying the Hezbollah militants on whom it is waging an escalating war operate near UN posts.
Italy, a major contributor of troops to the force, said the acts "could constitute war crimes" while Washington said it was "deeply concerned."
-
The incident came after the peacekeeping mission last week rejected Israeli demands to "relocate" from some of its positions.
UNIFIL, which has about 10,000 peacekeepers stationed in south Lebanon, has called for a ceasefire since an escalation between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on September 23, after a year of cross-border fire.
"This morning, two peacekeepers were injured after an IDF Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at UNIFIL's headquarters in Naqura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall," the mission said, using an acronym for the Israeli military.
The peacekeepers did not suffer serious injuries, "but they remain in hospital," it said.
A UNIFIL spokeswoman said they were from Indonesia, a major contributor of troops to UNIFIL.
Indonesia's UN ambassador Hari Prabowo said the incident "clearly demonstrates how Israel positioned itself above international law, above impunity and above our shared values of peace."
Israel said its military "opened fire in the area" of the UNIFIL base after telling UN forces to seek shelter.
Italy's defence minister said the attack and other incidents UNIFIL blames on Israel "could constitute war crimes", and asked for an explanation because "it was not a mistake".
Guido Crosetto described the "shooting" as "intolerable," lodging protests with his Israeli counterpart and the country's ambassador to Italy.
In Washington, the White House was "deeply concerned", a National Security Council spokesperson said Thursday.
"We understand Israel is conducting targeted operations near the Blue Line to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure... it is critical that they not threaten UN peacekeepers' safety and security."
Spain's foreign ministry said it "strongly condemns the Israeli firing that hit UNIFIL headquarters" which it called a "grave violation of international law".
'Serious risk'
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris, whose country has about 370 troops in the mission, said "any firing in the vicinity of UNIFIL troops or facilities is reckless and must stop".
UNIFIL said Israel had also hit "the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering... damaging vehicles and a communications system".
The mission added that an Israeli military drone "was observed flying inside the UN position up to the bunker entrance."
UNIFIL headquarters and nearby positions "have been repeatedly hit," the mission said.
On Wednesday, "IDF soldiers deliberately fired at and disabled" perimetre-monitoring cameras around a position, UNIFIL added.
The head of UN peacekeeping Jean-Pierre Lacroix said peacekeepers were at "serious risk" and that by Sunday 300 Blue Helmets were temporarily relocated to larger bases "with the movement of another 200 planned."
UNIFIL's footprint in the most affected positions would be slashed by 25 percent, he said.
"The safety and security of peacekeepers is now increasingly in jeopardy," Lacroix told the UN Security Council Thursday.
'Extremely dangerous'
Israel has pounded what it says are Hezbollah positions in Lebanon in the past two weeks, killing more than 1,200 and displacing more than a million, according to official figures.
It has said it is carrying out "limited" incursions across its northern border, while Hezbollah has repeatedly said it was firing on Israeli soldiers trying to advance in the area.
Earlier on Thursday, Hezbollah said it had destroyed an Israeli tank advancing toward Ras al-Naqura, and fired rockets at Israeli troops in another Lebanese area along the frontier, Mais al-Jabal.
It also said it launched rockets at several areas in northern Israel, including one area north of the city of Haifa.
UNIFIL was set up in 1978 to monitor the withdrawal of Israeli forces after they invaded Lebanon in reprisal for a Palestinian attack.
It was bolstered by Security Council Resolution 1701 after Hezbollah and Israel fought a war in 2006, and its peacekeepers are tasked with monitoring the ceasefire between the two sides.
at-ah-aya-gw/rlp
Palestinians
BY KAMAL MEHANNA
- Two other strikes have hit central Beirut in the past few weeks.
- Loud bangs sounded, thick columns of smoke rose and ambulance sirens rang throughout the night as deadly Israeli strikes hit residential areas of central Beirut on Thursday evening.
- Two other strikes have hit central Beirut in the past few weeks.
-
Loud bangs sounded, thick columns of smoke rose and ambulance sirens rang throughout the night as deadly Israeli strikes hit residential areas of central Beirut on Thursday evening.
The Israeli attacks hit two central Beirut locations, killing 22 people and injuring over 100, Lebanon's health ministry said.
They were the deadliest such attacks to target central Beirut since Israel intensified its bombardment campaign on the country two weeks ago.
-
In the working-class district of Basta, whose inhabitants are largely Sunni and Shiite Muslim, two old buildings of three or four floors had collapsed.
Around a kilometre away (less than a mile), a Beirut resident was still reeling from the terrifying sound of the blast.
"I'm not scared usually, but it was like an earthquake," she said, adding that she wanted to flee the area.
-
Rescuers pointed large spotlights at the rubble to see in the dark.
Dozens of men, some in yellow vests, worked to clear the debris with shovels, some stepping in mud after a pipe appeared to have burst.
"Watch out, there's a hole over there," one called out.
Several wounded people lay by the side of the road, while others collected their clothes in bags as they prepared to flee the area.
Injured hand
Israel has repeatedly pounded Beirut's southern suburbs, the bastion of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, over the last two weeks but Thursday's raid was only the third time the city centre has been targeted.
At the site of the second strike in the Nweiri neighbourhood, a brand new eight-storey building had been damaged.
Ayman, who lives across the street and declined to give his last name, said he "heard three explosions".
"The kitchen windows exploded... and my son started crying," he said.
Firemen worked to put out the blaze after the strike on what the National News Agency described as a "residential building".
They worked to evacuate residents from the upper floors using a ladder.
Hassan Jaber, who lives in a nearby building, said he was wounded in the hand and leg.
"I went out to throw out the rubbish, opened the door of the lift and the strike hit" and he was propelled to the ground, he said.
"It was such a big shock," he said, bewildered.
The atmosphere was tense after Hezbollah and the Lebanese army set up a security cordon around the area.
Hezbollah said it was cancelling a press conference planned for Friday, "in view of current developments".
Other strikes
After almost a year of cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel increased its air strikes against what it said are Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on September 23.
Since then, Israeli strikes have killed upwards of 1,200 people and displaced more than one million, according to official figures.
A massive Israeli strike on September 27 killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in the southern suburbs, for which there was no Israeli military warning.
A five-minute drive away in another part of town, another person said the strikes sounded incredibly close.
Two other strikes have hit central Beirut in the past few weeks.
Earlier this month, Israel carried out a deadly air raid in Beirut, hitting an emergency services rescue facility run by Hezbollah, killing seven workers, the service said.
That strike was a short drive away from a commercial area in downtown Beirut and the seat of government.
On September 30, an Israeli drone strike on a building in Beirut's busy Cola district killed three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the leftist armed group said.
The damaged building can be seen from the main highway bridge linking the Beirut city centre to the airport.
sbh-ah/aya/rlp
conflict
BY FULYA OZERKAN
- Turkey is estimated to have 14,000 citizens registered with its consulate in Lebanon and has pledged to carry out more evacuations if necessary.
- Exhausted but relieved, hundreds of Turkish citizens and their families docked in southern Turkey late Thursday after being evacuated from war-torn Lebanon on two naval ships sent by Ankara.
- Turkey is estimated to have 14,000 citizens registered with its consulate in Lebanon and has pledged to carry out more evacuations if necessary.
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Exhausted but relieved, hundreds of Turkish citizens and their families docked in southern Turkey late Thursday after being evacuated from war-torn Lebanon on two naval ships sent by Ankara.
"The situation is very bad back in Beirut. My kids were very scared. We are the lucky ones," Esra Gongu, a mother in her thirties told AFP on disembarking from the TCG Bayraktar which docked at 9:00 pm (1800 GMT) after a 13-hour journey.
A second boat, the TCG Sancaktar, was to land at midnight, officials said.
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Between them, they were carrying 966 refugees who had asked the Turkish embassy to be evacuated amid escalating Israeli bombardments in Lebanon's south and east and bombardments of Beirut's southern suburbs.
"It was a long and exhausting journey but we will be at peace here," said Ismail Baysal, who was planning to travel to Istanbul with his family.
"It was not easy in Beirut. Israel drops bombs every day. The noises went on uninterrupted until 4:00 am," he told AFP.
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But he insisted he would "go back to Lebanon once this war is over."
Beirut under bombardment
At the port, soldiers could be seen helping the passengers disembark, one carrying a crying toddler, while another pushed a boy in a wheelchair.
Still others helped the elderly or carried bags, an AFP correspondent said.
Turkey's foreign ministry said some 2,500 people had signed up to leave but only "around 1,000 turned up" with some changing their minds "at the last minute".
"We lived under the threat of bombs with no food, no electricity. They hit the buildings," said a woman in her 40s called Sevim Abu Shakir, from the southern Lebanese port of Sidon.
Several hours after the boats left, Israel pounded central Beirut with a deadly air strike which left 22 dead and more than 115 wounded, Lebanon's health ministry said.
More evacuations if necessary
A young woman wearing a headscarf told AFP she was very worried about relatives who had stayed behind in Beirut.
"Lebanon is a small country. Beirut is no longer safe. A few moments ago there were strikes. I still have relatives back there and it is very dangerous," Safa Coskun told AFP.
"I am happy Turkey has not abandoned us."
Turkey is estimated to have 14,000 citizens registered with its consulate in Lebanon and has pledged to carry out more evacuations if necessary.
Its embassy said Wednesday preparations were under way to organise "a limited number of flights for a fee" with foreign ministry sources also pledging to send more ships "if necessary".
Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily fire on the country's southern border since the start of the Gaza war a year ago.
Israel has intensified its strikes against Hezbollah since September 23, killing more than 1,200 people in Lebanon and displacing more than a million from their homes, UN figures show.
fo-hmw/rlp
conflict
- "The Israeli enemy's attacks on the capital Beirut this evening resulted in a new toll of 22 people killed and 117 injured," the ministry said in an updated toll statement.
- At least 22 people were killed in Israeli strikes on a densely populated area of central Beirut on Thursday, the Lebanese health ministry said, with a security source saying a Hezbollah figure was the target.
- "The Israeli enemy's attacks on the capital Beirut this evening resulted in a new toll of 22 people killed and 117 injured," the ministry said in an updated toll statement.
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At least 22 people were killed in Israeli strikes on a densely populated area of central Beirut on Thursday, the Lebanese health ministry said, with a security source saying a Hezbollah figure was the target.
Israel has repeatedly pounded Beirut's southern suburbs, the bastion of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, over the last two weeks but Thursday's raid was only the third time the city centre has been targeted.
"The Israeli enemy's attacks on the capital Beirut this evening resulted in a new toll of 22 people killed and 117 injured," the ministry said in an updated toll statement.
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A Lebanese security source, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told AFP that Israel had attempted to kill a Hezbollah official who often frequented the locations targeted.
It was unclear if the official was among the dead.
Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) said the strikes hit the neighbourhoods of Nweiri and Basta.
"The first strike in Beirut targeted the third floor of an eight-storey building" in the Nweiri area, and a second strike hit "a four-storey building... in al-Basta al-Fouqa", NNA reported.
An AFP photographer at the site of the strike in the Basta area said two old buildings had collapsed, while the windows of surrounding homes had been blown out with the force of the explosion.
Rescue services and local residents were attempting to pull survivors out of the mountain of rubble, with some of them carried away on stretchers.
Firefighters worked to put out a blaze in a residential building hit in the Nweiri area, with residents being evacuated from the upper floors using a ladder, NNA reported.
Immediately after the raids, AFP live footage showed two plumes of smoke billowing in between densely-packed buildings.
Earlier this month, Israel carried out a deadly air raid in Beirut, hitting an emergency services rescue facility run by Hezbollah, killing seven workers, the service said.
On September 30, an Israeli drone strike on a building in Beirut's busy Cola district killed three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the leftist armed group said.
Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and its foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily cross-border fire for nearly a year in fallout from the Gaza war.
But since September 23, Israel has escalated its air strikes on targets in Lebanon, killing more than 1,200 people and forcing more than one million to flee their homes, according to official figures.
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