genocide

Unsung heroes who saved 1,000 children from Rwanda genocide

BY LUCIE PEYTERMANN

  • "It is also the start of a broader reconnection for these convoy children -- those who were very young (when they were rescued and who) are finally learning the story.
  • The untold story of how around 1,000 children were rescued from Rwanda during the bloodiest and most chaotic days of its genocide is finally coming to light three decades after they were saved from the slaughter.
  • "It is also the start of a broader reconnection for these convoy children -- those who were very young (when they were rescued and who) are finally learning the story.
The untold story of how around 1,000 children were rescued from Rwanda during the bloodiest and most chaotic days of its genocide is finally coming to light three decades after they were saved from the slaughter.
Aid workers risked their lives to get the children -- mostly orphans -- out to safety in neighbouring Burundi in a series of Swiss humanitarian convoys.
Many of the children were wounded or had watched their families being massacred in front of them in the 100 days of systematic slaughter.
Around one million people, mainly from the Tutsi minority, were clubbed, shot or hacked to death with machetes between April and July 1994 by the army and Hutu extremists from the Interahamwe militia.
Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse, who was 15 when she was smuggled out, tells of the little known operation from the inside in her acclaimed new book, "The Convoy".
AFP has also tracked down several other children from the convoys who grew up or were adopted abroad.
Umubyeyi Mairesse was hidden in the back of a truck under a sheet, with orphans sitting on her and her mother to conceal them when they were stopped at Hutu checkpoints.
The Rwandan authorities only allowed children under 12 to be transported on the packed convoys run by the Swiss charity Terre des hommes (Tdh) -- "People of the Earth" in English.
In her book, Umubyeyi Mairesse tells how they held their breath at the roadblocks, trying not to move a muscle as militiamen inspected the trucks, hoping the fear on the faces of the bandaged and traumatised children would not give them away.

'Chaotic'

She took several years to piece together the testimonies of the "children of the convoys" -- now scattered across the world -- who were rescued thanks to the courage of aid workers, nuns, journalists, a diplomat and a priest.
Some had been in Rwandan orphanages before the massacres began, while many were the children of Tutsis killed during the genocide. 
"Terre des hommes found itself facing an unbelievable situation," said Jean-Luc Imhof, a longtime Rwanda specialist for the charity.
They "were responsible for more than 1,000 of these children", and with war and the genocide raging all around, the situation was completely "chaotic", he told AFP.
"Lots were really young, some under three years old, but mostly there were between five and 10. Many had been wounded, including with machetes," he said.
As the Tutsi rebels from the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) -- who put an end to the massacres -- closed in, the army and the Hutu-led Interahamwe militia sensed defeat and "became crazy", he said.

'Unimaginable cruelty'

The first convoy in early June, which Tdh organised with the International Committee of the Red Cross, for whom Imhof had previously worked, got safely through to Burundi. But another that set off on June 18, unassisted by the ICRC, "was even riskier", said Imhof.
"The convoy went into the incredible unknown -- they were risking their lives at every checkpoint. The soldiers made the children get out... their lives were hanging by very little," he said.
These were deeply traumatised children who had "seen their families massacred" and "taken their trauma with them".
"Their normal had become escaping death multiple times a day," he said,
That was also the case for Claire Umutoni and one of her sisters, who got to Burundi on a July 3 convoy in an escape she still remembers vividly.
"We received a phone call around April 20 from someone whose voice my father recognised. He knew it was one of the dignitaries from the town of Butare, who told him: 'Your time has come.'"
He ordered his five daughters to flee and Umutoni, then 17, suddenly became head of her family, the sisters chased from one hiding place to the next.
Their parents were later murdered with "unimaginable cruelty", she said.
"Bombs were falling near the school where we were staying with several orphans -- the children had all sorts of injuries, both physical and emotional. It was terrible," Umutoni told AFP from her home in Canada.

Clubs and butcher knives

The terror only intensified when they joined the rescue convoy.
"I remember that on the road, there were many of the killers who had carried out genocide fleeing with hammers and machetes... It was chaos because the FPR was at the gates of Butare, but there were still perpetrators who wanted to kill the Tutsis," said Umutoni.
At four of the checkpoints she remembers the militiamen armed with "clubs, butcher knives and grenades".
Umutoni and her sisters made it out and were eventually taken in by their aunts.
Her aunt sent her to Canada in 1999 "to start a new life, to start over. And I chose not to spiral into madness," said Umutoni, who now works in Canada's Privy Council Office and is a mother to "three beautiful children".
She returned to Rwanda for the first time in 2008 to bury her parents, who had finally been identified.

'Awakening'

Umubyeyi Mairesse says the 30th anniversary of the genocide is an "awakening" for many of the survivors.
"It is also the start of a broader reconnection for these convoy children -- those who were very young (when they were rescued and who) are finally learning the story. It's powerful," she said.
Since her book came out, several aid workers and convoy children she was not able to track down have contacted her.
"When someone contacts me, I explain that I can send them photos, and we try to identify which convoy they were on."
Several of the convoy children were reunited with their rescuers for the first time at the Shoah Memorial in Paris in June. 
When survivor Nadine Umutoni Ndekezi, who now lives in Belgium, began speaking about her memories of the convoy, the emotion was palpable.
"We are here... because you did not give up," she said, thanking the aid workers and journalists for their courage.

'Our heroes'

Umutoni Ndekezi, who was nine at the time, told of how she came across a little boy in an orphanage in Rwanda that she used to look after back home. He had bad head wounds.
He could no longer speak or walk. "He had forgotten everything. I thought that if adults could do that, then I did not want to become an adult... I lost trust in them," she sobbed.
But thanks to the people who rescued them, Umutoni Ndekezi -- now a mental health social worker -- said she "regained hope".
"They stayed true to their values and put their own lives at risk," she told the audience.
"The boy's parents were exterminated. He left with you on June 18 -- I can never thank you enough, you saved our humanity and gave us the strength to move forward."
Other survivors concurred.
"They are our heroes, what they did was incredible," Claire Umutoni told AFP.
"I chose to live in the name of those innocents who were murdered," she declared. "To remain dignified and stand up to the killers" who wanted to wipe her and her sisters from the face of the Earth.
lp/ju/fg/db

France

Rwanda orphans build hope from horror 30 years after genocide

BY LUCIE PEYTERMANN

  • Jeanne lost her father, sister, friends, cousins, aunts and uncles -- "I try not to count".  
  • Jeanne Allaire Kayigirwa was sure she was going to die three times during the Rwandan genocide in which most of her friends and family were massacred.
  • Jeanne lost her father, sister, friends, cousins, aunts and uncles -- "I try not to count".  
Jeanne Allaire Kayigirwa was sure she was going to die three times during the Rwandan genocide in which most of her friends and family were massacred.
She and her sister hid in the bush for six weeks as the slaughter went on around them, moving on all the time as Hutu extremists hunted Tutsis like them "down with dogs". 
"I don't know how we survived," she said. 
Much about that time she does not want to remember. "Otherwise I won't be able to go on."
Jeanne learned to live with her demons, but "you cannot wipe a genocide from your memory. It comes back went it wants."
Then one day she took stock. "Am I going to let the killers who wanted to wipe me out also take my second life?
"Or am I going to live it?" said the 46-year-old, who went on to be a top local government official in Paris.
More than a million people died in the genocide organised by the extremist Hutu regime in 1994. 
Men, women, children from the Tutsi minority systematically exterminated between April and July 1994 -- often with machetes -- by Hutu forces, and sometimes even by their neighbours, colleagues and even friends.
Three decades after the horror, AFP set out to find Tutsi children who survived the killing and who were adopted or grew up in France. 
They talked of the weight of what they witnessed, their feeling of injustice and about living for those who were slaughtered. 
Some have remained abroad, while others have been drawn back to Rwanda.
Jeanne lost her father, sister, friends, cousins, aunts and uncles -- "I try not to count".  
"They put the guns to our temples the day they came to kill us," she said.

Silences

Moving to France "gave me the chance to study", but more than anything it "helped me because I didn't have to see the killers every day." 
Soon after arriving, Jeanne helped found the Ibuka group, a survivor group which keeps the memory of the genocide alive, going out into schools to speak about what happened.
Jeanne grabbed her "second life" in both hands, began a family and worked for the mayor of Paris. 
"I feel that by talking about it I am not shutting up the dead who have been silenced."   
A heavy silence, however, hung over Manzi Rugirangoga's childhood. 
Now living back in the Rwandan capital Kigali, Manzi survived the unthinkable as a baby.
He was just 15 months old when his family took refuge in a school with other Tutsis in the southern town of Butare. On April 29, 1994, Hutu militia attacked. His mother, who was carrying him on her back, was killed along with his aunt and uncle.
But he and his sister and brother, who were four and seven, were not.
"The killers didn't spare us, they just said that they didn't want to waste their bullets on us." Instead they were left to "die from hunger and grief".
Manzi's father found him in an orphanage in Burundi three months later.

A terrible injustice

The children survived thanks to an extraordinary rescue operation by the Swiss charity Terre des hommes (Tdh), which has only come to light recently thanks to a book called "The Convoy" by Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse, one of 1,000 survivors its aid workers got out of the country. 
"Dozens of members of my family" were killed in the genocide, said Manzi, now 31. "My father is the only survivor on his side." A vet, he was in France on a training course when the genocide began.
He brought the children to France "because he had very little hope of finding anything in Rwanda".  
"I still feel this huge feeling of injustice about what happened," said Manzi.
Little was ever said at home. "People would ask you where you came from, and I knew very little." 
It was only after the "shock" of returning to Rwanda for the first time when he was 10 that he felt "an instinctive need" to go home. 
"I finally knew where I came from," he said. 
After some difficult teenage years, Manzi went back to Kigali on his own when he was 15 to stay with his aunt, and then boarded at high school in the east of the country, where he had to learn Rwandan. 
After university in France, he moved back to Kigali.
"Back then, I didn't see my future in France," he said.
Sandrine Lorusso grew up in the same silence. The youngest of nine, she lost both her parents and three siblings in the massacres. 
Adopted by her eldest sister and her husband who were living in France, her interview with AFP was the first time the soft-spoken mother-of-two has ever talked publicly about what she went through in Kigali. 
"It wasn't something we talked about," said the nurse. 
"The killers gathered in front of our house. They took my mother, but they left me and my sister Aline. We ran to our neighbours and a few minutes later we heard gunfire," she said, her voice breaking with emotion. 

Panic attacks

She still doesn't know how her father died. He was found in a mass grave.
Growing up, "my brain worked hard to hide" the memories. But things got "complicated" as Sandrine approached adulthood. It all got too much "between the ages of 17 and 24 and I had depression". 
The trauma came back with a vengeance when she was pregnant with her first child. "I had inexplicable panic attacks. You try to keep it down but sooner or later it comes out," she said.
When she left for France, Jeanne thought she was also "leaving the genocide" behind her. 
"I thought I was going to live a good life, I hoped to never have to see the images of the bones and the ruins. But even if you move 6,000 kilometres (3,700 miles), you bring the genocide with you," she said.
She described how it followed her down French streets where she would notice "spots where people might be able to hide", or be spooked by the "sound of shooting" when she went to the cinema.
"The nightmares have lasted a long time," she said.
Gaspard Jassef's memories would not leave him alone either. As a six-year-old, he hid out from the genocide alone in the forest for five months.
"The commemoration of the 30 years (since the genocide) touched me intensely... and I want to sort out of all the unknowns in my head about what happened to me," he told AFP in a Paris cafe. 
His little sister and his mother -- a Tutsi married to a Hutu -- were poisoned by their Hutu relatives at the start of the genocide.
Fearful for his "mixed" child, his father told him to hide in the forest. But he never came to find him. He too had been killed, according to information Gaspard has been able to piece together. 
In October 1994 -- three months after the genocide ended -- a French nurse called Dominique Jassef, who had been working in a local dispensary, found him in the forest with advanced malnutrition. "I ate what I could. I hunted small animals. I stayed in the trees," he said.    
"When my second mother found me, I probably had a week to live," he said. The doctors thought "there was no hope" but the French nurse refused to give up on him, got him treatment and later adopted him, changing his life. 

France's shameful legacy

Gaspard still has trouble sleeping and is haunted by the day when he had to bury his mother and his sister.
But in "my sadness I have had the great good luck to have had two very loving mothers", he added.
Despite the trauma, he was a brilliant student and worked for several years for a think tank and co-founded the support group, The Adopted of Rwanda. 
Even so, "everyday life can be a struggle, and sometimes I feel very old", he admitted.  
A deeply social party animal, Gaspard loves nothing more than talking French politics for hours on end. "My blood and my skin is Rwandan and I also feel fully French," he said. 
Yet France's role in the genocide of the Tutsi has been an extremely touchy subject.
Paris, which had close relations with the murderous Hutu regime, was for a long time accused by Kigali of "complicity" in the genocide.   
A commission of historians in 2021 found that France under the late president Francois Mitterrand had "heavy and overwhelming responsibility" for the genocide but had not been complicit.
The writer Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse makes a distinction between "the absolutely fantastic French people who welcomed her" and "the French politicians and military whose actions should be condemned".    
Her host family "really looked after me" and even took her to a psychologist.
Despite the trauma, she was able to "reconstruct" her life. "Of course, you feel fragile," she admitted. "When you have been excluded from humanity... it's a long road back from that," she said.
She chose a career where she "fights against death", working for NGOs dealing with AIDs and addiction. 

Reconnecting

The 30th anniversary of the genocide has been a big moment for many of the survivors.  
Last year Jeanne moved back to Rwanda with her husband and young son. 
"I felt I was missing something in France," she told AFP from Kigali. "I wanted to live with my family and my mother again. She is now over 80. I wanted to show my son my homeland and my language and maybe help rebuild the country."
Gaspard said he has finally found a "form of stability" and wants to go back to his village and understand what happened to his father. 
Manzi has a heap of projects on the go in Kigali. He has written an "African futurist" novel, founded a publishing house and has invested in farms growing peppers, beans and watermelons.
"Reconnecting with my roots, my family and my history has helped me," he said.
But "the idea that we can totally reconstruct ourselves, and that we don't think about what happened, that is unobtainable," Manzi added. 
Back in France, Sandrine wants to get more involved in a group keeping alive the memory of what was done.
She has also thought about going to a therapist. "There are things about what happened in 1994 that I can't remember -- and the genocide has also robbed me of my memories of what went before, of my early childhood."   
Since she went back to Rwanda, Beata has found happiness in its particular "light and landscapes" and the spirit of the place. 
"Every time I return, I reconnect with who I was," she said. 
lp/fg/giv

reproduction

Chile launches vaccine that neuters dogs for a year

  • The Egalitte vaccine has been patented in 40 countries, including the United States, Argentina, and Brazil, as well as in the European Union.
  • Chile has launched a vaccine described as the first of its kind that sterilizes dogs for a year and is expected to be sold in several dozen countries.
  • The Egalitte vaccine has been patented in 40 countries, including the United States, Argentina, and Brazil, as well as in the European Union.
Chile has launched a vaccine described as the first of its kind that sterilizes dogs for a year and is expected to be sold in several dozen countries.
The injection prevents sexual behavior and reproduction, offering an alternative to irreversible surgical castration, its creators say.
"This is the first vaccine of this type in the world for dogs," said Leonardo Saenz, from the University of Chile's veterinary sciences faculty.
The researcher and his team have been working since 2009 to develop the vaccine, which began to be distributed this month in the South American nation.
It stimulates antibodies and stops the production of sex hormones for a year in both male and female dogs.
"Everything is blocked: sexual activity and fertility," Saenz said.
The Egalitte vaccine has been patented in 40 countries, including the United States, Argentina, and Brazil, as well as in the European Union.
In Chile, it costs $50 a shot.
Ivan Gutierrez, a 27-year-old student, took his dog Franchesco to a veterinary clinic in Santiago to be given the injection.
"I didn't really want him to have the operation," he said.
He is not alone in having concerns about surgical castration.
"Most owners are afraid of surgery," said Mariela del Saz, the clinic's veterinarian, noting the risk of cardiorespiratory arrest.
Another method of temporary castration for dogs involves the insertion of a hormonal implant under the skin, but it "can cause side effects," Saenz said.
ps/vel/dr/aha

Australia

Alpacas, hecklers and climate warnings: King Charles visits Australia's capital

BY DANIEL DE CARTERET

  • The alpaca -- named "Hephner" -- sneezed on the king after he reached out to rub his nose. 
  • King Charles visited Australia's capital Canberra on Monday, where he was sneezed on by a suit-wearing alpaca, heckled by an Indigenous senator, and applauded for a speech on the country's climate perils. 
  • The alpaca -- named "Hephner" -- sneezed on the king after he reached out to rub his nose. 
King Charles visited Australia's capital Canberra on Monday, where he was sneezed on by a suit-wearing alpaca, heckled by an Indigenous senator, and applauded for a speech on the country's climate perils. 
The 75-year-old sovereign is on a nine-day jaunt through Australia and Samoa, the first major foreign tour since his life-changing cancer diagnosis earlier this year. 
One of the busiest days in a schedule pared back to manage his fragile health, the centrepiece was a packed address given to lawmakers gathered in the parliament's Great Hall. 
The monarch urged Australia -- a longtime climate laggard with an economy geared around mining and coal -- to assume the mantle of global leadership in the race to slash emissions. 
"It's in all our interests to be good stewards of the world," Charles said in a speech that drew hearty applause. 
The "magnitude and ferocity" of natural disasters was accelerating, said Charles, who described the "roll of unprecedented events" as "an unmistakable sign of climate change". 
He paid particular tribute to Indigenous "traditional owners of the lands" who had "loved and cared for this continent for 65,000 years".
But as the clapping receded, an Indigenous lawmaker drew gasps with her own interjection.
"Give us our land back!" screamed independent senator Lidia Thorpe, who had earlier turned her back on the king as the dignitaries stood for the national anthem. 
"This is not your land, you are not my king," Thorpe added, decrying what she described as a "genocide" of Indigenous Australians by European settlers.

An alpaca audience

In a brief moment of levity during an otherwise weighty address, Charles spoke fondly of his teenage experiences as a student in rural Victoria. 
This included "being given unmentionable parts of a bull calf to eat from a branding fire in outback Queensland". 
He might have added a bizarre interaction earlier that very morning. 
Greeting supporters on a rope line at the Australian War Memorial, Charles stopped to admire a pet alpaca clad in a gold crown and suit. 
The alpaca -- named "Hephner" -- sneezed on the king after he reached out to rub his nose. 
The rest of the day was set aside for causes close to the monarch's heart -- conservation and climate change. 
A lifelong greenie, Charles' passion for conservation once saw him painted as a bit of an oddball. 
He famously converted an Aston Martin DB6 to run on ethanol from leftover cheese and white wine, and once confessed that he talked to plants to help them grow.

'Climate king'

But his climate advocacy -- which has seen him dubbed the "climate king" -- is sure to resonate in a country increasingly scarred by fire and flood. 
Charles visited a purpose-built lab at Australia's public science agency, which is used to study the bushfires that routinely ravage swathes of the country. 
There he ignited the "pyrotron", a 29-metre (95-foot) long combustion wind tunnel built to study bushfire behaviour. 
Later he strolled through plots of native flowers at Australia's national botanic garden, discussing how a heating planet would imperil the country's many unique species. 
Many of Australia's state premiers skipped a reception for the king hosted at parliament. 
Tied up with overseas travel, elections, and other pressing government business -- their absence suggested the throne does not have the pulling power of old.
Australians, while marginally in favour of the monarchy, are far from the enthusiastic loyalists they once were. 
A recent poll showed about a third of Australians would like to ditch the monarchy, a third would keep it, and a third are ambivalent.
Visiting British royals have typically carried out weeks-long visits to stoke support, parading through streets packed with thrilled, flag-waving subjects. 
But the king's health this time around has seen much of the typical grandeur scaled back. 
Aside from a community barbecue in Sydney and an event at the city's famed opera house, there will be few mass public gatherings.
sft/arb/fox

music

Cher, Mary J. Blige, Ozzy Osbourne among Rock Hall of Fame inductees

  • "It was easier getting divorced from two men than it was getting in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," she quipped Saturday night.
  • Cher, Mary J. Blige and Ozzy Osbourne were among this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, an elite group formally introduced into the music pantheon Saturday at a star-studded concert gala.
  • "It was easier getting divorced from two men than it was getting in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," she quipped Saturday night.
Cher, Mary J. Blige and Ozzy Osbourne were among this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, an elite group formally introduced into the music pantheon Saturday at a star-studded concert gala.
Kool & the Gang, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, A Tribe Called Quest, and Peter Frampton round out the 2024 class of honorees, artists honored at the ceremony held in Cleveland, Ohio, home of the prestigious hall.
Big Mama Thornton, Alexis Korner and John Mayall received special honors for "musical influence," as Jimmy Buffett, MC5, Dionne Warwick and Norman Whitfield received awards for "musical excellence."
Suzanne de Passe, a trailblazer for women executives in the music business, who was big in Motown, won the night's award for non-performing industry professionals.
Dua Lipa kicked off the evening with a performance of "Believe," with Cher joining the pop star onstage to finish her 1998 smash hit, which was credited as the first song to use auto-tune technology as an instrument.
"I changed the sound of music forever," she said in her acceptance speech, less than a year after railing against the hall for not having yet added her to the ballot.
"It was easier getting divorced from two men than it was getting in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," she quipped Saturday night.
Performers included Kelly Clarkson, Sammy Hagar, Slash and Demi Lovato, who all appeared for Foreigner. 
A group of artists including Queen Latifah, De La Soul and Busta Rhymes also performed with the surviving members of the eclectic, pioneering hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest -- Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi White.
mdo/jm

Australia

Charles expresses 'great joy' at being back in Australia

BY LAURA CHUNG

  • His first official public appearance was a Sunday morning service at St Thomas' Anglican Church, a stone edifice built as a place of worship for British colonial settlers.
  • King Charles' antipodean admirers got a first glimpse of their reigning monarch Sunday, as the British royal attended a church service and expressed his "great joy" at returning Down Under.
  • His first official public appearance was a Sunday morning service at St Thomas' Anglican Church, a stone edifice built as a place of worship for British colonial settlers.
King Charles' antipodean admirers got a first glimpse of their reigning monarch Sunday, as the British royal attended a church service and expressed his "great joy" at returning Down Under.
The 75-year-old sovereign arrived in Sydney late on Friday evening, but had kept a low profile as he balances cancer recovery with royal duties.
His first official public appearance was a Sunday morning service at St Thomas' Anglican Church, a stone edifice built as a place of worship for British colonial settlers.
A few hundred people gathered around the building, cheering, holding flowers and waving flags. Two women held up a sign saying "G'day your majesties". 
Lynton Martin, 22, drove nine hours from Melbourne and donned a union flag print jacket and nine royal lapel pins before trying to catch a glimpse of the royals.
"I wanted to show that we are supportive and welcoming of the king," he told AFP, expecting an "aura" to Sunday's service.
Last year Martin travelled to London for Charles' coronation, which he described as a "spectacular" event.
During the church service Bishop Christopher Edwards prayed for peace and an end to wars, and asked that Charles' upcoming Commonwealth summit in Samoa be prosperous.
Later Sunday, Charles made a brief remarks at the New South Wales legislative council, where he hailed the "promise and power of representative democracy" and cracked a joke about his advancing age.
"I first came to Australia nearly 60 years ago, which is slightly worrying" he said to laughter.
"It just remains for me to say what a great joy it is to come to Australia for the first time as sovereign and to renew a love of this country and its people which I have cherished for so long".
Charles will spend the balance of Sunday at Admiralty House a harbourside mansion that is the Sydney residence of Australia's governor-general, the monarch's representative in the country.
Royal watchers eager to glimpse the king will have another chance on Monday, when he arrives in the capital Canberra alongside Queen Camilla for the busiest stretch of his slimmed-down schedule. 
Charles -- who received the life-changing cancer diagnosis just eight months ago -- is embarking on a nine-day visit to Australia and Samoa, the first major foreign tour since he was crowned. 
Visiting British royals have typically carried out weeks-long visits to stoke support, parading through streets packed with thrilled, flag-waving subjects. 
But the king's fragile health this time around has seen much of the typical grandeur scaled back.
Intentional or not, the more modest schedule should also help stave off republican concerns about out-of-touch spending and lavish royal banquets.
Aside from a community barbecue in Sydney and an event at the city's famed opera house, there will be few mass public gatherings.
A handful of protesters gathered near the church on Sunday, brandishing demands to "decolonise" Australia.
Australians, while marginally in favour of the monarchy, are far from the enthusiastic loyalists they were in 2011 when thousands flocked to catch a white-gloved wave from Charles' mother Queen Elizabeth II.
sft-lec/arb/fox

protest

Animal rights activists sentenced for Buckingham Palace fountain protest

  • Prosecutors said the dye turned the water red to "create the impression of a bloodbath", staining the stonework.
  • A UK judge on Friday criticised animal rights activists who poured red dye into a marble fountain outside Buckingham Palace, causing thousands of pounds' worth of damage.
  • Prosecutors said the dye turned the water red to "create the impression of a bloodbath", staining the stonework.
A UK judge on Friday criticised animal rights activists who poured red dye into a marble fountain outside Buckingham Palace, causing thousands of pounds' worth of damage.
The five protesters were convicted of causing £7,080 ($9,234) of damage to the Queen Victoria Memorial water feature in central London in August 2021.
Prosecutors said the dye turned the water red to "create the impression of a bloodbath", staining the stonework. Cleaning took 64 hours, they added.
Judge Gregory Perrins told the protesters they "displayed a high degree of arrogance that you were in the right, that your views were all that mattered and that the consequences of your actions were a price worth paying for the promotion of your cause".
The targeting of a "culturally significant monument" was designed to ensure "maximum publication" for their cause, he added.
One of those convicted, Christopher Bennett, 33, was handed an 18-month prison sentence, to run concurrently with another he is serving for causing a public nuisance.
The other four were given 18-month jail sentences, suspended for two years, meaning they risk being jailed if they offend during that time. They were also ordered to pay compensation.
One of the four, Louis McKechnie, was described as a "seasoned protester". The judge warned him that he would face a "severe" jail term if he re-offended.
"You have been extremely fortunate to have been dealt with relatively leniently by the courts in the past," Perrins said.

Direct action

The five activists, who had denied criminal damage but were found guilty at trial in August, had been seeking to draw attention to the use of Crown land for hunting and animal farming.
Orla Coghlan, from the Animal Rising pressure group behind the protest, called on the British royal family to allow their estates to be rewilded instead. 
"Britain must move to a sustainable, plant-based food system away from animal agriculture to ensure our food security and a fairer future for all," Coghlan said. 
The protest was one of a string of headline-grabbing stunts in the UK in recent years, from mass traffic disruption caused by protesters scaling bridges or motorway gantries, to attacks on art works or historic sites.
The latest case follows long sentences handed out to five Just Stop Oil activists, including the climate group's founder Roger Hallam, earlier this year.
They were each given between four and five years in jail in July for conspiring to plan protests that blocked a motorway.
UN experts criticised the "severe" sentences handed to climate protesters after two Just Stop Oil activists were jailed in April 2023 for two and three years after scaling the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge over the River Thames at Dartford, east of London.
In a letter last year to the government, UN special rapporteur for climate change Ian Fry warned the sentences could stifle protest and were "significantly more severe than previous sentences imposed for this type of offending in the past".
har/phz/js

conflict

Relief, anxiety in Israel after Sinwar's killing

BY SHARON ARONOWICZ WITH OLIVIER FENIET

  • Israeli commanders believed Sinwar hid in the maze of tunnels Hamas built beneath Gaza, while Israeli media had reported he was likely to be surrounded by hostages.
  • Some Israelis felt relief with the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, even as the fate of nearly 100 hostages in Gaza still stirred anxiety.
  • Israeli commanders believed Sinwar hid in the maze of tunnels Hamas built beneath Gaza, while Israeli media had reported he was likely to be surrounded by hostages.
Some Israelis felt relief with the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, even as the fate of nearly 100 hostages in Gaza still stirred anxiety.
Israeli authorities long accused Sinwar of masterminding the October 7 attack, the deadliest in the country's history.
Hamas militants overran portions of southern Israel, shooting people, storming military bases and attacking a music festival where they killed at least 370 people.
It was an unprecedented attack that deeply shook the country.
For some, the killing of the October 7 architect brought some closure following a year of fighting in the Gaza Strip. 
"It's like closing the circle, bringing things full circle," Dolev, a 29-year-old Tel Aviv resident, told AFP, asking to use only a single name.
"It feels like we've finished what we set out to do, and I hope this will also lead to an end," he added, though since late September Israel has also been fighting on another front, with intensified air strikes and troops on the ground in Lebanon against Hamas ally Hezbollah. 
"I hope it will lead to the end of the war, the return of the hostages, and for quieter days," Dolev said.
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures that includes hostages killed in captivity.
Militants took 251 people hostage during the attack. Ninety-seven remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.

'Window of opportunity'

The war triggered an Israeli military retaliation that has killed at least 42,500 people in Gaza, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the UN has acknowledged as reliable.
As the military targeted Hamas fighters and leaders while searching for any sign of Sinwar, the war reduced large parts of the Palestinian territory to rubble.  
Israeli commanders believed Sinwar hid in the maze of tunnels Hamas built beneath Gaza, while Israeli media had reported he was likely to be surrounded by hostages.
But when the Hamas chief was finally cornered and killed by the Israeli army, he was above ground with just two other fighters and no captives in sight, the military said. 
Following the announcement of Sinwar's death, Israelis along with leaders from across the West called on Israel to seize the moment to leverage a deal to release the remaining captives. 
"To be honest, I only thought about the hostages, whether this will help move any deal forward, if there will now be a way to bring them back, or if, on the contrary, this is pushing a deal further away," said Sharon Sborovsky, 31, from Tel Aviv.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met earlier Friday to discuss the aftermath of Sinwar's death, including the fate of the hostages.
A statement released by the president's office said that "a significant window of opportunity opened -- including the promotion of the return of the hostages and the elimination of Hamas".
Later in the day, Hamas said it had no plans to release the hostages until Israel ends its "aggression against our people in Gaza", withdraws from the territory and frees jailed Palestinians. 
And while the death of Sinwar marked a milestone in the war, many Israelis were not yet ready to celebrate. 
"It is nice to have killed the leader of Hamas," said Yonatan, a 34-year-old resident of Haifa. 
"But we hope that all the hostages will come back, then we can start the party."
bur-str-ds/jd/it

conflict

Sinwar's killing boosts Netanyahu but still no sign of war ending

BY RUTH EGLASH AND CHLOE ROUVEYROLLES-BAZIRE

  • - Political benefits - For Netanyahu, the political benefits of killing the Hamas chief are significant.
  • The killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is a political victory for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but divisions remain in Israel over his strategy for securing the release of hostages.
  • - Political benefits - For Netanyahu, the political benefits of killing the Hamas chief are significant.
The killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is a political victory for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but divisions remain in Israel over his strategy for securing the release of hostages.
More than a year after the Islamist group's unprecedented attack, the Israeli military said on Thursday that Sinwar was killed in a surprise firefight with a group of Israeli soldiers in southern Gaza on Wednesday.
The announcement sparked celebrations in Israel but many remained worried about the fate of hostages still held in Gaza more than a year after their capture.
Michael Milshtein, an expert on Palestinian affairs at the Moshe Dayan Center in Tel Aviv, said he would not celebrate until the "hostages are back home".
During their October 7 attack, Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
As news of Sinwar's death spread on Thursday, an Israeli campaign group, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, appealed for Israeli authorities to strike a deal to secure the hostages' release.
"We call on the Israeli government, world leaders, and mediating countries to leverage the military achievement into a diplomatic one by pursuing an immediate agreement for the release" of all hostages, the group said in a statement.
In a rare comment predicting the course of the war, Netanyahu himself indicated that Sinwar's killing could be the "beginning of the end" of the Gaza war.
"This is an important moment in the war," Netanyahu said, speaking directly to the families of the hostages.
"The return of our hostages is an opportunity to achieve all our goals and it brings the end of the war closer."
In August Netanyahu called Sinwar "the only obstacle to a hostage deal."
But critics in Israel have repeatedly accused the prime minister himself of such obstruction for his own political reasons.

Political benefits

For Netanyahu, the political benefits of killing the Hamas chief are significant.
The death of the man seen as the architect of the October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people on Israeli soil, mostly civilians, has reassured his far-right ministers -- key allies in the governing coalition.
"There were those who wanted to raise their hands and remove the IDF (military) from Rafah and Tal al-Sultan area and move on," a jubilant Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's far-right finance minister, said on his Telegram channel.
"But there were those who understood that the key word in war is patience and perseverance."
Smotrich has consistently made calls to "destroy the enemy and return the hostages home".
Jonathan Rynhold, head of the political studies department at Bar-Ilan University, told AFP that "Netanyahu's political standing in general will definitely go up in the short-term but equally there will be far more pressure" to reach a hostage deal.
"It will be easier for Netanyahu to reach that agreement because Israel's negotiating position has improved and because Hamas is already destroyed as a conventional military force."
Smotrich and his fellow far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, oppose any swap deal that would see Hamas free Palestinians held in Israeli detention.
But they are unlikely to "bring down" the prime minister "while Israel is engaged in a war with Hezbollah and still engaging with Iran and that gives him more room," said Rynhold, referring to the Iran-backed Lebanese group which Israeli is fighting on its northern border.

No plan for hostages

Other Israeli figures say the government should instead resume negotiations on hostage release.
"Israel must lead a move toward the only possible deal: ending the war in Gaza in exchange for the return of all the hostages, both living and dead," said former opposition lawmaker Ofer Shelah, a research director at the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies (INSS).
"Such a deal, with international involvement, would solidify the operational achievements in Gaza and Lebanon, offer an alternative to Hamas that is not Israeli rule over Gaza, and create an image of victory for Israel."
But for the families of the hostages, the uncertainty is unbearable. The fighting in Gaza shows no sign of abating with Israeli forces engaged in battles in several areas of the territory.
"Now that Sinwar is not a formal obstacle in the way of the release of the hostages, it is unacceptable that they would stay in captivity even one more day," said Ayala Metzger, daughter-in-law of killed hostage Yoram Metzger.
She fears Netanyahu has no plan for ending the war.
"We (are) afraid that Netanyahu does not intend on stopping the war, nor does he intend to bring the hostages back.
"For more than a year he has not done anything to prepare for the day after Sinwar's elimination," she said.
bur-crb/cyj/jd/ds/it

Synod

Women priests secretly ordained in the shadow of the Vatican

BY CLéMENT MELKI

  • Even more, canonical law says the six ordinands -- three priests and three deacons, including Rocher and another transgender person -- should all be excluded from the Catholic community, along with the ceremony's other participants.
  • On a barge on Rome's River Tiber, a stone's throw from the Vatican, Loan Rocher was "ordained" in a secret ceremony in defiance of the Catholic Church's ban on women deacons and priests.
  • Even more, canonical law says the six ordinands -- three priests and three deacons, including Rocher and another transgender person -- should all be excluded from the Catholic community, along with the ceremony's other participants.
On a barge on Rome's River Tiber, a stone's throw from the Vatican, Loan Rocher was "ordained" in a secret ceremony in defiance of the Catholic Church's ban on women deacons and priests.
Dressed in a white robe with a rainbow stole, the 68-year-old Frenchwoman acknowledged her ordination was unauthorised by the Vatican, where a month-long summit on the future of the Church concludes next week.
No matter, said Rocher, who is transgender.
"They've been repeating the same message for 2,000 years -- women are inferior, subordinate, invisible. It's okay. We've waited long enough, so I'm doing it now," Rocher told AFP.
Thursday's ceremony in three languages, organised with the utmost discretion in the presence of around 50 faithful from several countries, followed the same liturgy as an official mass, with readings from the Bible, singing and Communion.
Yet it was illegal in the eyes of the Church. 
Even more, canonical law says the six ordinands -- three priests and three deacons, including Rocher and another transgender person -- should all be excluded from the Catholic community, along with the ceremony's other participants.
Such excommunication would be an unjustified sanction according to US "bishop" Bridget Mary Meehan.
She belongs to the group organising the event, which says it has performed 270 ordinations of women in 14 countries since its creation in 2002. 
"For 22 years, we have worked hard to create a more inclusive, loving church where LGBTQ, divorced and remarried (people) -- everyone -- is welcome at the table. No-one is excluded," said Meehan, 76. 
On the upper deck of the barge, the six candidates committed to "serving the people of God" before an altar decorated with candles and two crowns of flowers. 
Then one by one, the members of the congregation laid their hands on the heads of the newly ordained to bless them.

'Cold shower'

In recent weeks, feminist associations have multiplied initiatives to put pressure on the ongoing Synod, which began in 2021 and is due to end this month.
The groups -- occasionally supported by theologians -- condemn the way women are marginalised by the patriarchal system, despite their central role in parishes around the world. 
Unlike other Christian denominations like Protestantism, the Catholic Church remains firmly opposed to the ordination of women.
They are relegated instead to support roles, whether in catechism or education, as nuns or lay people. 
The agenda of the Synod summit in October 2023 included a proposal to admit women as deacons -- ministers who can celebrate baptisms, marriages and funerals but not mass.
But that idea has now been ruled out. 
The pope, 87, himself excluded it during a CBS television interview in May, to the astonishment of activists. 
"It was a cold shower," said Adeline Fermanian from the Comite de la Jupe, a French Catholic feminist group that has been campaigning on the issue since 2008. 
Fermanian told AFP the Church's "authoritarian" response and the decision to remove women's ordination from the Synod agenda was "totally out of step" with the philosophy of the summit, which is based on consulting the faithful, including women, around the world.

'The hierarchy is afraid'

Some participants at the Synod say the appeals for more inclusion of women is too Western a concept and certain regions of the world, such as Africa, are not yet ready for women deacons for cultural reasons. 
Since becoming pontiff in 2013, Pope Francis has repeatedly stressed the merits of women, including in September, when he declared: "The Church is a woman!" 
The Argentine pontiff has also appointed women to important roles within the government of the Holy See. 
But he does not see women's central role within the Church as including ministry -- a vision the feminist groups view as misogynistic and retrograde. 
"They overpraise our qualities. They make women practically into goddesses... and they tell them 'You're serving. It's the most beautiful vocation'", said Fermanian. 
"In fact, it's a strategy to sideline and discriminate."
Sixty years after the Second Vatican Council, which sought to equip the Church for the modern world, the institution is fighting for its survival, according to these activists. 
But the women ordained in Rome are not losing hope. 
"I prefer to be someone who moves forward, rather than one who complains," said Loan.
Meehan summed up the mood: "The hierarchy is afraid but the people are not afraid.
"And they love women priests."
cmk/ams/ar/gil

execution

Top Texas court stays execution of autistic man in 'shaken baby' case

BY MOISES AVILA WITH CHRIS LEFKOW IN WASHINGTON

  • Roberson would be the first person executed in the United States based on a conviction of shaken baby syndrome, according to his lawyers.
  • The Texas Supreme Court issued a last-minute stay of execution on Thursday to an autistic man whose murder conviction was based on what his lawyers say was a misdiagnosis of "shaken baby syndrome."
  • Roberson would be the first person executed in the United States based on a conviction of shaken baby syndrome, according to his lawyers.
The Texas Supreme Court issued a last-minute stay of execution on Thursday to an autistic man whose murder conviction was based on what his lawyers say was a misdiagnosis of "shaken baby syndrome."
Robert Roberson, 57, had been scheduled to die by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville on Thursday for the February 2002 death of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki.
But the Texas Supreme Court temporarily stayed the execution following an appeal from Texas lawmakers who issued a subpoena to Roberson so he can testify before a House committee that is examining his conviction.
"If the sentence is carried out, the witness obviously cannot appear," wrote Justice Evan Young.
A bipartisan group of 86 Texas lawmakers has urged clemency for Roberson, citing "voluminous new scientific evidence" that casts doubt on his guilt, and the committee has subpoenaed him to testify on Monday.
Roberson is one of two death row inmates who were to be executed in the United States on Thursday.
Derrick Dearman, 36, was put to death by lethal injection in Alabama for the 2016 axe murders of five people who were related to his girlfriend, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said.
"The gruesome facts of this case merited the ultimate punishment," Marshall said.
Dearman confessed to the killings and had abandoned appeals against his death sentence.
Roberson, however, has maintained his innocence and his attorney, Gretchen Sween, said there is "overwhelming new medical and scientific evidence" that shows his daughter died of "natural and accidental causes, not abuse."
The diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, made at the hospital where Roberson's chronically ill daughter died, was erroneous and the cause of death was in fact pneumonia, which was aggravated when doctors prescribed improper medication, Sween said.
His legal efforts had been thwarted however until the Texas Supreme Court decision.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined by a 6-0 vote to recommend clemency to Roberson and the US Supreme Court also rejected his request for a stay of execution, denying it without comment.
Roberson's case has drawn the attention of the Innocence Project, which works to reverse wrongful convictions, as well as best-selling American novelist John Grisham, Texas lawmakers and medical experts.

'An innocent man'

Also among those seeking to halt his execution is the man who put him behind bars -- Brian Wharton, the former chief detective in the town of Palestine.
"Knowing everything that I know now, I am firmly convinced that Robert is an innocent man," Wharton said at a recent press conference organized by Roberson's supporters.
Grisham, author of the legal thrillers "The Firm" and "A Time to Kill," also appeared at the event and said: "What's amazing about Robert's case is that there was no crime."
Roberson would be the first person executed in the United States based on a conviction of shaken baby syndrome, according to his lawyers.
Kate Judson of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences said more than 30 parents and caregivers in 18 US states have been exonerated after being wrongfully convicted using "unscientific" shaken baby testimony.
Sween said Roberson's autism spectrum disorder, which was not diagnosed until 2018, contributed to his arrest and conviction.
"It is quite possible that Mr Roberson would not be on death row today, but for his autism," she said.
Sween said staff at the hospital where his daughter was admitted did not know he had autism and "judged his flat affect as a sign of guilt."
There have been 20 executions in the United States this year including five in Alabama.
cl/jgc

tobacco

Nicotine pouches rise in popularity as US youth tobacco use hits 25-year-low

  • Cigarette smoking reached its lowest level ever recorded by the annual survey, with only 1.4 percent of students reporting current use, compared to 1.6 percent the year before.
  • Nicotine pouches have overtaken cigarettes in youth popularity, as tobacco product use among US middle and high schoolers dropped to its lowest level in a quarter of a century, according to official data released Thursday.
  • Cigarette smoking reached its lowest level ever recorded by the annual survey, with only 1.4 percent of students reporting current use, compared to 1.6 percent the year before.
Nicotine pouches have overtaken cigarettes in youth popularity, as tobacco product use among US middle and high schoolers dropped to its lowest level in a quarter of a century, according to official data released Thursday.
The pouches -- which are placed in the mouth to allow direct absorption into the bloodstream -- were used by 1.8 percent of all students in 2024, compared to 1.5 percent in 2023, according to the data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
That made them the second most popular product after e-cigarettes, which counted 5.9 percent of youth as users, retaining its leading position for an 11th year in a row. 
Although nicotine pouches were introduced a decade ago and are legally restricted to individuals aged 21 and older, they have become a youth trend, heavily promoted on social media by "Zynfluencers" -- a play on the name of the top-selling brand, Zyn.
The CDC hailed the decline of tobacco products overall, which it credited to factors such as price hikes, mass media campaigns, and comprehensive smoke-free policies that include e-cigarettes.
"Reaching a 25-year low for youth tobacco product use is an extraordinary milestone for public health," said CDC's Deirdre Lawrence Kittner. 
"However, with more than two million youth using tobacco products and certain groups not experiencing declines in use, our mission is far from complete." 
In 2024, 2.25 million middle and high school students reported current use -- defined as use on one or more days in the past 30 days -- of any tobacco product, compared to 2.8 million in 2023.
Middle school generally covers ages 11 to 14, while high school spans up to age 18.
E-cigarette use plummeted to 1.63 million youth from 2.13 million the year before, while hookah use declined sharply to 190,000 youth compared to 290,000 the year before. 
Cigarette smoking reached its lowest level ever recorded by the annual survey, with only 1.4 percent of students reporting current use, compared to 1.6 percent the year before.
The CDC data also highlighted uneven progress between demographic groups. 
For example, overall use of tobacco products rose among American Indian and Alaskan Native students, while use of nicotine pouches increased among white students.
ia/st

sextortion

Instagram moves to face rising tide of sextortion scams

  • Additionally, Meta is globally rolling out nudity protection features, which blur potentially nude images and prompt teens before they send one, in Instagram direct messages.
  • Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, on Thursday announced new measures to fight sextortion, a form of online blackmail where criminals coerce victims, often teens, into sending sexually explicit images of themselves. 
  • Additionally, Meta is globally rolling out nudity protection features, which blur potentially nude images and prompt teens before they send one, in Instagram direct messages.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, on Thursday announced new measures to fight sextortion, a form of online blackmail where criminals coerce victims, often teens, into sending sexually explicit images of themselves. 
The measures include stricter controls on who can follow or message teen accounts and safety notices in Instagram direct messages and Facebook Messenger about suspicious cross-country conversations. 
The measures beef up Instagram's "Teen Accounts," which were announced last month and are designed to better protect underage users from the dangers associated with the photo-sharing app.
The company is also implementing restrictions on a scammer's ability to view follower lists and interactions, as well as preventing screenshots in private messages. 
Additionally, Meta is globally rolling out nudity protection features, which blur potentially nude images and prompt teens before they send one, in Instagram direct messages.
In certain countries, including the US and Britain, Instagram will show teens a video in their feeds about how to spot sextortion scams.
This initiative aims to help teens recognize signs of sextortion scams, such as individuals who come on too strong, request photo exchanges, or attempt to move conversations to different apps.
"The dramatic rise in sextortion scams is taking a heavy toll on children and teens, with reports of online enticement increasing by over 300 percent from 2021 to 2023," said John Shehan of the US National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
"Campaigns like this bring much-needed education to help families recognize these threats early," he added on a Meta blog page announcing the measures.
The FBI earlier this year said sextortion online was a growing problem, with teenage boys the primary victims and offenders often located outside the US.
From October 2021 to March 2023, US federal officials identified at least 12,600 victims, with twenty of the cases involving suicides.
Meta's move to protect children came as pressure has been building across the globe against the social media giant founded by Mark Zuckerberg and its rivals. 
Last October, some forty US states filed a complaint against Meta's platforms, accusing them of harming the "mental and physical health of young people," due to the risks of addiction, cyber-bullying or eating disorders.
For the time being, Meta refuses to check the age of its users in the name of confidentiality, and is urging legislation that would force ID checks at the level of a smartphone's mobile operating system, i.e. by Google's Android or Apple's iOS.
arp/st

law

Russian MPs back ban on 'propaganda' of childless lifestyles

  • Lawmakers unanimously backed draft legislation to ban "propaganda" advocating the "rejection of childbearing".
  • Russian MPs on Thursday approved the first reading of draft legislation banning the "propaganda" of childless lifestyles, the latest measure targeting what Moscow depicts as Western liberal ideas. 
  • Lawmakers unanimously backed draft legislation to ban "propaganda" advocating the "rejection of childbearing".
Russian MPs on Thursday approved the first reading of draft legislation banning the "propaganda" of childless lifestyles, the latest measure targeting what Moscow depicts as Western liberal ideas. 
Facing an ageing population and low birth rates, Moscow is seeking to reverse a demographic slump -- accentuated by its military offensive on Ukraine -- that threatens its economic future.
Lawmakers unanimously backed draft legislation to ban "propaganda" advocating the "rejection of childbearing".
Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin urged them to support it. "Today there is a war on the ideological front," he argued.
The proposed legislation would apply to public materials, whether online, in media, advertising and in films.
Violations would be punishable by fines up to 400,000 rubles ($4,020) on individuals to five million rubles for businesses. The bill also includes a provision to deport foreigners.
This would amend existing legislation that already bans any information seen as encouraging LGBTQ relationships or changing gender.
"We propose cutting off information threats," one of the bill's authors, Elvira Aitkulova told MPs, introducing herself as a mother and grandmother.
More than 22 percent of Russian couples do not have children, she said. "Manipulative technologies" were persuading Russians that "not having children is the norm", she added.

A 'demographic crisis'

The "strategic" legislation targets "openly destructive content" and online material with titles such as "10 reasons not to have children", she said.
"It is not about personal choice or lifestyle, it is precisely propaganda that comes under the ban."
More than a decade ago, Russia banned "propaganda" of LGBTQ relationships to minors, and extended this to adults in 2022.
This effectively outlawed any representation of LGBTQ people in public and in the media, part of a Kremlin crackdown on what it calls "non-traditional values".
President Vladimir Putin in a 2022 decree set a policy goal of "strengthening traditional Russian spiritual and moral values".
Oleg Nilov from the A Just Russia party told parliament the trend not to have children was "very dangerous for our country" when it is "in such a complex demographic crisis".
"This must be banned and stopped harshly and unfailingly" he said.
Speaker Volodin linked the phenomenon to the use of inclusive language and even unisex toilets in the US and Europe.
"What will the result be? Sodom and Gomorrah, we don't want that," he said.
"Every free country must defend itself."
One lawmaker, Sardana Avksentyeva, voiced some concern about the legislation, saying it raised the "risk of denunciations".
"People must be stimulated to create a family," she added.

Falling birth rate

The Kremlin has appeared to offer its backing to the bill.
"Everything that needs to be done to increase the birth rate must be done," its spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last month.
Russia recorded its lowest birth rate in 25 years in the first half of 2024.
Hundreds of thousands of young men have been called up to fight in Ukraine or fled abroad to avoid conscription.
In a bid to boost births, Putin has revived a Soviet tradition of awarding medals to parents of large families, who also get tax and welfare benefits.
Russian television has aired fear-mongering coverage of those who do not want children, linking this trend to the United States.
Around one in 15 Russian women aged 30-40 does not want children, Channel One reported last month, citing polls, but in Moscow it is one in five.
In a crackdown on "non-traditional" ideas since launching its Ukraine offensive in 2022, Russia last year banned what it called the "international LGBT movement".
bur/jj

justice

Climate-hit Pacific Islands plot landmark UN court case

BY LAURA CHUNG

  • International Court of Justice opinions are often taken into account by national courts.
  • Five Pacific nations on Thursday plotted how to prosecute a pivotal UN court case that aims to hold climate-polluting countries to account and safeguard their islands' survival. 
  • International Court of Justice opinions are often taken into account by national courts.
Five Pacific nations on Thursday plotted how to prosecute a pivotal UN court case that aims to hold climate-polluting countries to account and safeguard their islands' survival. 
The International Court of Justice will start hearings on December 2 in a case that will test countries' climate obligations and whether they can be sued for failing to act.
Vanuatu's Attorney-General Arnold Kiel Loughman told AFP on Thursday that the case was "important" and could give climate-hit small island states more leverage to force change.
He met this week with his counterparts from Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea and Tuvalu to discuss the case, prepare legal arguments and meet experts.
"It concerns our very livelihood because climate change affects weather patterns, it affects our land and sea and basically the environment we live in," Loughman said. 
And while there were countless international forums talking about climate change, he said there had been very little "action". 
"As far as small island countries are concerned, we haven't seen much."
Despite emitting less than 0.02 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, Pacific nations are more exposed to climate change impacts like rising sea levels.
In 2020, Vanuatu emitted 121,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, compared to neighbouring Australia's 379 million tonnes, according to data from the World Bank. 
"For too long, our region has withstood the brunt of climate impacts while contributing the least to the crisis," Loughman said. 
He estimated the nation of roughly 313,000 people needs about US$1.2 billion by 2030 to pay for climate adaptation, mitigation and to cover related losses.

'Matter of survival'

In March 2023, UN members asked the Hague-based court to rule on "legal consequences" for states that "have caused significant harm to the climate system and other parts of the environment", as well as obligations to future generations.
A record 100 oral submissions will be heard over two weeks of court proceedings later this year.
The court's final opinion will not be binding, but it can carry significant legal, moral and political weight.
International Court of Justice opinions are often taken into account by national courts.
Climate experts fear Tuvalu and Kiribati will be among the first countries to be swallowed by rising sea levels, while Fiji has been relocating communities to higher grounds since 2014.
Fiji's Attorney-General Graham Leung said the court case was "not simply a legal issue -- it is a matter of survival".
NASA analysis shows many Pacific nations will experience at least 15 centimetres (6 inches) of sea level rise in the next 30 years, which is particularly concerning given 90 percent of populations live within five kilometres (3.1 miles) of the coastline.
lec-arb/dhc

matchmaking

'Love match' apps rival traditional matchmaking in Pakistan

BY SHROUQ TARIQ

  • Choosing your husband or wife yourself can be seen as a challenge to the deeply ingrained reverence towards elders and a threat to the traditional family structure.
  • Pakistan's traditional matchmakers play a revered role in moulding daughters into potential brides, but marriage apps marketing themselves as halal are offering women a new route to finding a husband.
  • Choosing your husband or wife yourself can be seen as a challenge to the deeply ingrained reverence towards elders and a threat to the traditional family structure.
Pakistan's traditional matchmakers play a revered role in moulding daughters into potential brides, but marriage apps marketing themselves as halal are offering women a new route to finding a husband.
"When I saw my colleague happy after being married to someone she met online... I thought, since we have tried rishta aunties for four or five years, let's try this too," Ezza Nawaz, a textile designer in Lahore, told AFP.
Rishta aunties -- or traditional matchmakers -- polish up women and present them to the families of potential suitors, in a country where dating is considered dishonourable.
But in the last few years, marriage apps for Muslims have emerged in Pakistan promising so-called "love matches".
Some offer a "chaperone" option -- which provides a weekly transcript of sent and received messages to a chosen relative, satisfying families wary of their son or daughter connecting with strangers.
For Ezza, it was a success: just three months after meeting Waseem Akhtar on Muzz, she was married.
"We went on a couple of dates before we got our family involved. We took our time," she said.
More than 80 percent of Pakistanis have arranged marriages, according to a survey by Gallup and Gilani Pakistan, where families decide the union, sometimes settling an engagement without the bride and the groom even meeting.
Parents enlist the help of professional rishta aunties to help find a suitable family, with the first impression often based on how the young woman looks as she pours tea for her potential in-laws.
The app, however, says 1.2 million Pakistanis have signed up since it launched last year with an advertising campaign in major cities, and 15,000 people have already married.
Marriage apps describe themselves as "halal", or permissible in Islam, offering options to blur profile pictures for privacy and making clear the purpose is to reach a proposal.
But they continue to battle a stigma linking them to casual dating apps such as Tinder, which has been banned in Pakistan for being "immoral".
"I do not tell people how I met my wife until I am sure that the person would not judge us," said Waseem.

Tradition dates modernity

Marriage is viewed as a coming together of two families in Pakistan, where many live in multigenerational households.
Choosing your husband or wife yourself can be seen as a challenge to the deeply ingrained reverence towards elders and a threat to the traditional family structure.
Rishta aunties are therefore relied upon to find suitors from acceptable families -- a process that young women, who are widely expected to marry by the age of 25, can sometimes find demeaning.
"I was asked not to tell the guy's family that my hobbies are hiking or photography, but are cooking and cleaning... it made me angry," said Rida Fatima.
"They had the audacity to talk about how I looked, what I did, how much I earned, who my family is, how many brothers I have, what are my future aspirations. So every little thing is judged."
Fatima was presented with several potential matches through a rishta auntie appointed by her parents, but was asked to pay around $700 for an introductory meeting with a guy.
The rate fluctuates depending on whether the match has a foreign passport, she added.
Eventually, she ditched the process, becoming part of the 18 percent of Pakistanis who have a "love marriage" after meeting her husband by chance.
"No matter how the guy looks, even if he is bald or has a big belly, he wants a wife who looks like a model," said Muskan Ali, the managing director at a marriage consultancy in Karachi.

Waste of time

Rishta aunties do not feel threatened yet.
Their offices buzz with parents and their children crafting profiles on computers, as matchmakers strive to digitise their businesses with sleek websites and WhatsApp groups for client communication.
Consultants teach young women how to walk, talk and dress to best correspond to the wishes of their future in-laws.
Many traditional matchmakers like Fauzia Aazam, the head of a community of rishta aunties in Rawalpindi, reject marriage apps altogether. 
"People waste time on these apps," she said.
"Chatting together all through the night, I just don't like it."
For Aisha Sarwari, a feminist author, the matchmaking process is about exercising "control" over daughters-in-law.
"I would say that we need to find a good middle ground, where the respect is equal on both sides and there is no sense of demeaning a human being just because they look a certain way or they are from a particular race," she told AFP.
Aneela, a digital media artist, whose name has been changed, tried her best to avoid being poured over by a matchmaker and turned to a marriage app, but found a new set of concerns.
"It is hard being on an app... men lie," she said, swiping through her profile at a cafe in Islamabad.
She later admitted to using a fake name and pictures on her profile so that men cannot identify her.
"The only option left is to go for an arranged marriage instead." 
stm/sbh/ecl/dhw/cwl

report

UN report says 1.1 billion people in acute poverty

BY ANA FERNÁNDEZ

  • The five countries accounted for nearly half of the 1.1 billion poor people.  af-nr/bjt/jgc
  • More than one billion people are living in acute poverty across the globe, a UN Development Program report said Thursday, with children accounting for over half of those affected.
  • The five countries accounted for nearly half of the 1.1 billion poor people.  af-nr/bjt/jgc
More than one billion people are living in acute poverty across the globe, a UN Development Program report said Thursday, with children accounting for over half of those affected.
The paper published with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) highlighted that poverty rates were three times higher in countries at war, as 2023 saw the most conflicts around the world since the Second World War.
The UNDP and the OPHI have published their Multidimensional Poverty Index annually since 2010, harvesting data from 112 countries with a combined population of 6.3 billion people.
It uses indicators such as a lack of adequate housing, sanitation, electricity, cooking fuel, nutrition and school attendance.
"The 2024 MPI paints a sobering picture: 1.1 billion people endure multidimensional poverty, of which 455 million live in the shadow of conflict," said Yanchun Zhang, chief statistician at the UNDP.
"For the poor in conflict-affected countries, the struggle for basic needs is a far harsher and more desperate battle," Zhang told AFP.
The report echoed last year's findings that 1.1 billion out of 6.1 billion people across 110 countries were facing extreme multidimensional poverty.
Thursday's paper showed that some 584 million people under 18 were experiencing extreme poverty, accounting for 27.9 percent of children worldwide, compared with 13.5 percent of adults.
It also showed that 83.2 percent of the world's poorest people live in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Sabina Alkire, director of the OPHI, told AFP that conflicts were hindering efforts for poverty reduction. 
"At some level, these findings are intuitive. But what shocked us was the sheer magnitude of people who are struggling to live a decent life and at the same time fearing for their safety –- 455 million," she said.
"This points to a stark but unavoidable challenge to the international community to both zero in on poverty reduction and foster peace, so that any ensuing peace actually endures," Alkire added.
India was the country with the largest number of people in extreme poverty, which impacts 234 million of its 1.4 billion population.
It was followed by Pakistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The five countries accounted for nearly half of the 1.1 billion poor people. 
af-nr/bjt/jgc

Women

Italy extends surrogacy ban to couples seeking it abroad

BY ELLA IDE

  • The highly divisive bill, adopted by the Senate, makes Italians who seek surrogacy in other countries liable for prosecution on their return home.
  • Italian lawmakers on Wednesday extended the country's ban on surrogacy to couples who seek it abroad, despite warnings the move would damage children's rights.
  • The highly divisive bill, adopted by the Senate, makes Italians who seek surrogacy in other countries liable for prosecution on their return home.
Italian lawmakers on Wednesday extended the country's ban on surrogacy to couples who seek it abroad, despite warnings the move would damage children's rights.
The highly divisive bill, adopted by the Senate, makes Italians who seek surrogacy in other countries liable for prosecution on their return home.
It was championed by the far-right Brothers of Italy party of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a self-described "Christian mother" who won 2022 elections on a campaign of nationalism and traditional family values.
"The bill making renting wombs a universal crime is finally law," Meloni said on X, calling it "a common sense norm against the commodification of the female body and children".
Rights groups, including LGBTQ activists, have slammed the law as "medieval", but Families Minister Eugenia Roccella said the "ban... puts us at the forefront among nations on the rights front".
"People are not objects, children cannot be bought and you cannot sell or rent human body parts. This simple truth, already contained in our legal system, that punishes as a crime the aberrant practice of surrogacy, can no longer be circumvented," she said.
Under 2004 legislation, anyone involved in surrogacy in Italy faces three months to two years in jail and a fine ranging from 600,000 euros ($650,000) to one million euros.
Until now, Italians who can afford it have been able to travel to countries where surrogacy is allowed, such as the United States or Canada.
Media reports suggest the vast majority of them have been heterosexual couples who cannot have children themselves.
The far-right League party, a member of Meloni's coalition, said the law would stop people "going abroad to commission a child that is then recognised in our country".

'Black day'

The law has been strongly criticised by opposition parties who have warned that targeting people using surrogates abroad was impractical and unconstitutional.
Left-wing member of parliament Riccardo Magi said it was a "black day" for "parliament... for rights and for freedoms".
"The right has made it illegal for Italian citizens to use surrogacy even in those countries where (it) is perfectly legal, regulated and safe," he wrote on social media.
He said the law "equates childbirth and parenthood with 'universal crimes' such as paedophilia and genocide" and added the opposition would "fight" the law, challenging it in the Constitutional Court.
"Women's bodies, wombs and freedom belong to women. Not to Giorgia Meloni. Not to this government. Not to any government," he said.
Activists say the law is the latest example of moves to erode civil rights since Meloni took office.
The issue is part of a wider unsolved problem in Italy, which lacks a law to recognise the children of same-sex couples.
That leaves them in legal limbo with only the biological parent registered on their birth certificates, forcing the other to embark on the lengthy and costly process of adoption.
Surrogacy is banned in many European countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden. 
And while surrogacy is legal in Canada and in many parts of the United States, the status of the parents is often uncertain on their return to Europe.
ide/sbk

Palestinians

War piles pressure on roads, services in crisis-hit Beirut

BY LISA GOLDEN

  • Fadi Baghdadi, a member of the city's disaster management unit, said its already-ailing infrastructure is now "in a deplorable state" due to the crisis.
  • The potholed streets of the Lebanese capital, sometimes plunged into darkness at night due to regular state power outages, were already busy before the displacement crisis sparked by the Israel-Hezbollah war.
  • Fadi Baghdadi, a member of the city's disaster management unit, said its already-ailing infrastructure is now "in a deplorable state" due to the crisis.
The potholed streets of the Lebanese capital, sometimes plunged into darkness at night due to regular state power outages, were already busy before the displacement crisis sparked by the Israel-Hezbollah war.
Now, with tens of thousands of people having fled to Beirut in their cars and on their motorbikes due to Israeli bombardment, parts of the city and its roads have become overwhelmed.
"Before there were traffic problems" but now "Beirut has become a parking lot," said Jamal Adada, who has worked as a taxi driver for 25 years.
The streets have swelled with vehicles since families desperately fled the war that erupted in late September, with Israel bombing Hezbollah's once densely populated south Beirut bastion, as well as towns and villages across eastern and southern Lebanon.
"This road is supposed to have two lanes... but there's just one" now, Adada said, pointing to the line of cars parked down one side of Hamra street in Beirut's main commercial district.
Fadi Baghdadi, a member of the city's disaster management unit, said its already-ailing infrastructure is now "in a deplorable state" due to the crisis.
He said more than 55,000 people forced to flee their homes were staying in 169 shelters dotted around Beirut, adding that all the centres were now full.
Another estimated 200,000 people have found shelter in apartments and houses, he added.
Many have been taken in by friends and families, and other are paying rent in temporary apartments using their savings. Some have taken shelter in uninhabited buildings and flats.

Overflowing dumpsters

All these people "need water, (extra) rubbish is being dumped, the sewage is increasing", Baghdadi said, adding that the traffic was so bad that emergency vehicles were sometimes struggling to reach their destinations.
Trash has piled up around overflowing dumpsters, a worrying sight in a country that has been hit by past garbage crises and a five-year economic collapse that has left many living in poverty.
"The problem is not simply the increase in (the amount of) rubbish," said Walid Bou Saad, general manager of local waste management company RAMCO.
The sheer number of vehicles lining the roads has made work harder for rubbish collectors, he told AFP, with trucks unable to access narrower streets.
"Most people don't move their vehicles," he said, adding that rubbish that piles up in the meantime must be collected by hand, which "takes much more time".
AFP journalists saw rubbish collectors trying to clear large mounds of trash near overflowing dumpsters, with trucks sometimes struggling to manoeuvre around vehicles.
The crisis has also had an impact on water distribution, with the number of water trucks on the streets also increasing in recent weeks.
Beirut's public water network has long been patchy and most people rely on bottled water for drinking. Many use water trucked in for bathing, washing and cleaning.
The UN children's agency UNICEF told AFP last week it had provided 172,500 litres of bottled water and 2.2 million litres of trucked water to support displaced people in shelters nationwide.

'Extreme stress'

Fouad El-Semelawy, whose company delivers water across Beirut, says demand for his services have spiked.
Before, "I was being asked for 20 deliveries", now it's more than 30 a day, said Semelawy, an Egyptian living in Lebanon for more than three decades.
Most of the deliveries are to schools-turned-shelters and other places hosting large numbers of displaced people, he said.
Nadim Farajalla, chief sustainability officer at the Lebanese American University, said Beirut's water network is "under extreme stress".
"Demand for water is extremely high," but "groundwater tables are very low" due to the lack of rain over the summer, he said.
The displaced themselves are on the frontlines of the crisis, with some finding shelter in long-abandoned buildings. 
Such buildings are not always connected to the water grid, and their old wastewater pipes may run into storm-water drains instead of the sewage network, Farajalla said. 
UNICEF said the majority of Beirut's wastewater network was "implemented decades ago", making it "susceptible to cracks and breaks due to the heavy shelling on the city".
More broadly, the large numbers of people now living in Beirut also means there is an increased chance of blockages and overflows, which could pose "a substantial public health risk", the agency said.
lg/aya/ysm/ser

parliament

New assisted dying bill introduced in UK parliament

BY MARIE HEUCLIN

  • Welby will get a vote on the matter as he is one of the 26 "lords spiritual", senior Church of England clerics who sit in the upper chamber House of Lords.
  • A new proposal to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales was introduced in the UK parliament on Wednesday, sparking concern from senior church leaders and opponents about its implications.
  • Welby will get a vote on the matter as he is one of the 26 "lords spiritual", senior Church of England clerics who sit in the upper chamber House of Lords.
A new proposal to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales was introduced in the UK parliament on Wednesday, sparking concern from senior church leaders and opponents about its implications.
Lawmakers in the House of Commons will get a free vote on Labour MP Kim Leadbeater's Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, allowing them to vote with their conscience rather than along party-political lines.
Details have not yet been published but an official with knowledge of the matter told AFP the bill in its current form would require a patient's wish to die to be signed off by a judge and two doctors.
It would also be limited to those with six to 12 months to live.
Supporters and opponents of changing the law made their voices heard outside parliament, where an assisted dying bill was last debated -- and defeated -- in the Commons in 2015.
Anil Douglas, 39, said an assisted dying law would have provided "safety" and "dignity" to his father, who took his own life. 
"It was a very lonely, dangerous, isolated death. He was forced to take very drastic action behind closed doors and couldn't discuss his decision with any of us that loved him," he said.

'Not about disabled people'

Currently, assisted suicide is banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. 
In Scotland, which has a separate legal system and devolved powers to set its own health policy, it is not a specific criminal offence. But it can leave a person open to other charges, including murder.
Leadbeater said her bill reflected a shift in public opinion towards assisted dying, which has been legalised to varying degrees in a number of European countries.
She promised "very robust, very secure safeguards" but said the main thrust of the change was about giving people at the end of their life choice.
"This is not about disabled people. It's not about old people. It's about people who are terminally ill and the rights that I believe they should have," she told AFP.
"At the heart of this is the fact that at the moment, people are taking their lives, losing their lives in really difficult circumstances, and that needs to change."

'Dangerous'

Opponents of the bill include some disability rights groups and the UK's highest-ranking Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who has urged followers to write to MPs to oppose the change.
On Tuesday night, the leader of the world's Anglican communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, called the proposal a "dangerous... slippery slope" towards it being used by those who are not terminally ill.
Welby will get a vote on the matter as he is one of the 26 "lords spiritual", senior Church of England clerics who sit in the upper chamber House of Lords.
Alistair Thompson, from anti-euthanasia group Care Not Killing, also said changing the law could see the country follow Belgium and the Netherlands, which have both extended assisted dying to minors.
"We know that introducing an assisted suicidal euthanasia bill would put a lot of people under pressure to end their lives prematurely," he told AFP.
MPs are expected to debate and vote on the bill on November 29. The outcome is difficult to predict given Leadbeater introduced it as a private member's bill and not as part of the government's legislative agenda.
Starmer has voiced support for assisted dying in the past -- something that may encourage Labour's legion of new MPs to back a change.
Lawmakers may also be influenced by polls showing majority support for assisted dying among the public.
A bill to make assisted dying legal in Scotland was introduced in the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh earlier this year. 
The Isle of Man and Jersey -- self-governing British Crown Dependencies which are not part of the UK -- are also moving towards passing laws to give terminally ill people the right to die. 
Belgium, along with the Netherlands, in 2002 became the first EU countries to allow euthanasia. 
Spain in 2021 authorised euthanasia and medically assisted suicide for people with a serious and incurable illness, followed by Portugal in 2023.
bur-pdh/phz/giv