Nepal counts cost after deadly protests

Nepal is assessing the multi-million dollar damage from last week’s violent protests, when parliament, government offices and a newly opened Hilton Hotel were set ablaze.At least 72 people were killed in two days of anti-corruption protests, with scores more badly injured, according to official figures.”So much has been destroyed,” police spokesman Binod Ghimire told AFP, adding that it would take time to calculate the full extent of the damage, including outside the capital.Nepal’s new interim Prime Minister Sushila Karki, speaking as she began work on Sunday, described the “widespread loss of lives and property”.At the Supreme Court, officials are working under tents outside the charred building, alongside rows of burned-out vehicles, trying to salvage water-soaked documents.AFP photographers who visited the gutted parliament building said entire halls had been reduced to blackened ruins by fires that burned uncontrolled for hours on September 9.The Hotel Association of Nepal reported more than 20 hotels damaged, including the Hilton fire. Others were looted.Losses were estimated at 25 billion Nepali rupees ($177 million), with more than 2,000 workers affected. Damage to the Hilton alone was put as high as $56 million.Tourism is a key employer, the country’s fourth largest, providing jobs to more than 371,000 people, according to government figures, with more than a million visitors every year.Fire also ripped through Singha Durbar, the sprawling palace that housed the prime minister’s office and ministries.The historic building is in ruins, its white pillars streaked black.As well as government offices, police stations were attacked, and courts were burned.”All our records, evidence, files of the Supreme Court have been all destroyed,” Karki said. “Extremely important bodies of the state were targeted and attacked.”- ‘Time and resources’ -More than 12,500 prisoners who escaped during the chaos remain on the run, presenting a major security challenge.Protesters targeted symbols of the ruling elite or the wealthy. They torched the homes of politicians, car showrooms, and private offices.Even media outlets were stormed and set ablaze.The Kantipur Media Group’s building was badly damaged, although the broadcaster has returned to air from a makeshift studio and its newspaper has resumed online.Durga Khanal, 45, from the Department of Roads, said her office had been badly damaged.”I support the change they are striving for, but I cannot agree with the destruction of physical infrastructure,” she said.New minister Kulman Ghising, who has the energy, infrastructure, transport and urban development portfolios, has ordered a rapid damage assessment and a reconstruction roadmap within a week.Nepal’s chambers of commerce and industry federation said it was still collating information.”No type of infrastructure has been spared. The government, private sector, media have all endured losses,” economist Chandra Mani Adhikari told AFP.”It will take a lot of time and resources to recover and rebuild everything.”

Allemagne: prison à vie pour l’auteur afghan de l’attaque au couteau de Mannheim

C’est le premier attentat d’une série qui a polarisé la société allemande: l’auteur afghan de l’attaque au couteau de Mannheim, qui visait un rassemblement anti-islam et avait provoqué la mort d’un policier fin mai 2024, a été condamné mardi à la prison à perpétuité.Le tribunal de Stuttgart a assorti la peine de prison à vie d’une reconnaissance de la gravité particulière de la culpabilité. Ce qui exclut quasiment une libération anticipée de Sulaiman A., 26 ans, considéré comme un partisan du groupe jihadiste État islamique (EI).Le tribunal, qui l’a reconnu coupable d’un meurtre et de quatre tentatives de meurtre, a ainsi suivi les réquisitions du parquet.Le condamné a voulu causer “le plus grand nombre de victimes mortelles possible”, a déclaré le juge Herbert Anderer.Le jeune Afghan a reconnu les faits et fini par présenter, au bout du procès, ses excuses aux proches du policier tué.Il a expliqué s’être radicalisé au cours d’échanges sur les réseaux sociaux, et imputé sa radicalisation à l’offensive israélienne contre le Hamas à Gaza.Le 31 mai 2024 à Mannheim (ouest), sur la place du marché, il s’en était pris à plusieurs membres d’une organisation anti-islam, le Mouvement citoyen Pax Europa (BPE).Il a d’abord poignardé l’orateur principal, Michael Stürzenberger, déjà condamné pour incitation à la haine raciale, qui a subi au total six coups de couteau.Sulaiman A. a ensuite donné des coups de couteau aux personnes venues en aide à Michael Stürzenberger, avant de s’en prendre à un policier de 29 ans.Une vidéo le montrant en train de frapper l’agent à la tête avait largement circulé sur les réseaux sociaux, accentuant l’émotion. La victime était décédée deux jours plus tard à l’hôpital.Le juge Anderer s’est adressé aux parents du policier, soulignant qu’il était mort pour “l’Etat de droit, aussi horrible cela soit-il”.- Mourir en “martyr” -Selon les enquêteurs, Sulaiman A., ce partisan de l’EI aurait décidé au printemps 2024 de commettre un attentat en Allemagne contre des “infidèles”.Il souhaitait lui-même mourir en “martyr” à la fin de l’attaque “pour entrer au paradis”, a déclaré le juge Anderer.Le condamné vivait jusque-là avec sa femme et ses deux enfants dans une petite ville de la région. Selon le tribunal, il avait fui l’Afghanistan pour l’Allemagne en 2013, comme mineur non accompagné. Sa demande d’asile avait été rejetée, mais il avait pu rester en raison d’une interdiction d’expulsion vers son pays en guerre.Ce verdict survient une semaine après une autre condamnation à perpétuité, celle d’un Syrien, pour une autre attaque jihadiste au couteau, à Solingen, qui avait fait trois morts en août 2024.Ces deux attentats avaient pesé sur les élections législatives de l’hiver suivant, marquées par la progression du parti d’extrême droite AfD.Au cours de la campagne, l’Allemagne a connu d’autres violences meurtrières impliquant des ressortissants étrangers qui ont enflammé le débat sur la politique d’asile et la sécurité.Mi-février, l’ouverture du procès de Sulaiman A. avait d’ailleurs coïncidé avec une attaque à la voiture-bélier à Munich, dont l’auteur présumé est également Afghan. Elle a fait deux morts, une petite fille de deux ans et sa mère de 37 ans, et 44 blessés graves.- Reprise des expulsions -Peu avant, fin janvier, un Afghan souffrant de troubles psychiatriques s’en est pris à un groupe d’enfants dans un parc à Aschaffenbourg (sud), poignardant à mort deux personnes, dont un garçon de deux ans.La première économie européenne a accueilli plus d’un million de réfugiés, dont de très nombreux Syriens et Afghans, lors de la crise migratoire de 2015-2016. Mais elle a aujourd’hui définitivement tourné cette page associée à l’ex-chancelière Angela Merkel (2005-2021).Pour enrayer l’ascension de l’AfD, le chancelier conservateur Friedrich Merz a opéré un nouveau tour de vis sur la politique migratoire, instaurant notamment le refoulement des demandeurs d’asile aux frontières.En juillet, sa coalition a organisé le rapatriement de 81 condamnés afghans dans leur pays, malgré la présence au pouvoir des talibans.

Sabotage Nord Stream: un juge italien ordonne l’extradition d’un Ukrainien vers l’Allemagne

La Cour d’appel de Bologne, dans le nord de l’Italie, a ordonné mardi l’extradition vers l’Allemagne d’un Ukrainien soupçonné par la justice allemande d’être l’un des coordinateurs du commando ayant saboté le gazoduc russe Nord Stream dans la mer Baltique en septembre 2022.Arrêté fin août, Serhii Kuznietsov, qui était militaire au moment des faits et nie tout lien avec cette affaire, va se pourvoir en Cassation auprès de la Cour suprême italienne, a affirmé à l’AFP son avocat, Nicola Canestrini.Il affirme qu’il se trouvait en Ukraine au moment des explosions et Me Canestrini a dénoncé un procès inéquitable.”Les droits fondamentaux – procès équitable, conditions de détention, immunité fonctionnelle – ne peuvent être sacrifiés au nom d’une coopération judiciaire automatique”, a-t-il déploré dans un communiqué.”Kuznietsov n’a pas été autorisé à assister personnellement à ses audiences et s’est vu refuser un accès complet au dossier allemand, en violation flagrante du droit à un procès équitable”, a-t-il déclaré dans un communiqué.L’affaire est particulièrement sensible en raison de l’invasion de Ukraine par la Russie en février 2022.Le 26 septembre 2022, quatre énormes fuites de gaz précédées d’explosions sous-marines avaient eu lieu à quelques heures d’intervalle sur Nord Stream 1 et 2, des conduites reliant la Russie à l’Allemagne et acheminant l’essentiel du gaz russe vers l’Europe.A cette époque, la Russie avait cessé de livrer du gaz via Nord Stream 1, sur fond de bras de fer avec les pays européens alliés de Kiev. Quant au gazoduc jumeau Nord Stream 2, pomme de discorde entre Berlin et Washington depuis des années, il n’était jamais entré en service. Après le sabotage, des enquêtes judiciaires avaient été ouvertes séparément par l’Allemagne, la Suède et le Danemark. Elles ont été closes dans ces deux pays scandinaves en 2024.L’enquête allemande a identifié une cellule ukrainienne composée de cinq hommes et d’une femme comme étant les auteurs des explosions du gazoduc. Selon le magazine Der Spiegel et d’autres médias, les membres de la cellule auraient affrété un yacht pour perpétrer l’attaque.Selon le parquet allemand, Kuznietsov a utilisé de faux documents d’identité pour louer le yacht, parti de Rostock, dans le nord du pays.De nombreuses pistes ont été évoquées, avec toujours en toile de fond l’hypothèse selon laquelle un État pourrait être le commanditaire de l’opération. 

Shipowner linked to giant Beirut port blast held in Bulgaria

A shipowner wanted over a 2020 blast at Beirut port that killed more than 220 people has been arrested in Bulgaria, officials said Tuesday.The August 4, 2020 disaster was one of the world’s largest non-nuclear explosions, ravaging swathes of the Lebanese capital and injuring more than 6,500 people.Authorities have said the blast was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser had been stored haphazardly for years after arriving by ship, despite repeated warnings to senior officials.Beirut authorities identified Igor Grechushkin, a 48-year-old Russian-Cypriot citizen, as the owner of the Rhosus, the ship that transported the ammonium nitrate.Interpol issued red notices for him and two others in 2021.Grechushkin “has been placed in detention for a maximum duration of 40 days by a court decision on September 7, confirmed on appeal,” a Sofia city court spokeswoman told AFP.The authorities requesting extradition have 40 days to send the necessary documents to effect such a move, according to Bulgarian law.- Held at airport -Grechushkin was held on an Interpol red notice at Sofia airport on September 5 upon his arrival from Paphos in Cyprus, a Bulgarian judicial source confirmed to AFP.Wanted by the Lebanese judicial authorities, he is being sought for allegedly “introducing explosives into Lebanon, a terrorist act that resulted in the death of a large number of people, disabling machinery with the intent of sinking a ship”, the Bulgarian prosecutor’s office said in a statement.Grechushkin was arrested during a routine check of passengers arriving from Paphos, according to border police.”He offered no resistance. He repeatedly insisted on speaking to a lawyer and, after consulting one, he fully cooperated,” Zdravko Samuilov, head of the border police at Sofia Airport, told reporters Tuesday.He informed the officers that he came to Bulgaria “for tourism”, Samuilov added.- Long-stalled investigation -The Rhosus, a Moldovan-flagged cargo ship sailing from Georgia and bound for Mozambique, is widely understood to have brought the fertiliser to Beirut in 2013.After it arrived in Lebanon, the Rhosus faced “technical problems”, and security officials said it was impounded after a Lebanese company filed a lawsuit against its owner.Port authorities unloaded the ammonium nitrate and stored it in a run-down port warehouse with cracks in its walls, according to officials.The ship later sank in Beirut port in 2018.An investigation into the blast has been mired in legal and political wrangling.Judge Tarek Bitar resumed his investigation into the blast this year as Lebanon’s balance of power shifted.This followed a war between Israel and Hezbollah that weakened the Iran-backed militant group, which had spearheaded a campaign for Bitar’s resignation.Those questioned in the investigation include former Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab, as well as military and security officials.

Israel launches ground assault on Gaza City

Israel launched its long anticipated ground assault on Gaza City before dawn on Tuesday, shortly after visiting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio backed its goal of eradicating Hamas in Gaza.A United Nations probe, meanwhile, charged Israel with committing “genocide” in the Palestinian territory and accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials of incitement.During the night, the military unleashed a massive bombardment of Gaza City as Israeli troops moved deeper into the territory’s largest urban hub.”Last night, we transitioned into the next phase, the main phase of the plan for Gaza City… Forces have expanded ground activity into Hamas’s main stronghold in Gaza, which is Gaza City,” a military official told journalists.”We are moving towards the centre” of Gaza City, he said. When asked whether troops had moved deeper into central Gaza City he replied: “Yes.”The military estimated there were “2,000-3,000 Hamas” militants operating in the area, he added.Defence Minister Israel Katz said Gaza City was “on fire”.”The IDF (Israeli military) is striking terrorist infrastructure with an iron fist, and IDF soldiers are fighting bravely to create the necessary conditions for the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas,” he said.Witnesses told AFP of relentless bombing of Gaza City, much of which is already in ruins after nearly two years of Israeli strikes since the Hamas attacks of October 2023 that triggered the war.”We can hear their screams,” said 25-year-old resident Ahmed Ghazal.Rubio offered robust backing for the offensive on Monday as he met Netanyahu, who has ordered the Israeli military to seize Gaza City.Rubio told reporters as he left Israel: “We think we have a very short window of time in which a deal can happen. We don’t have months anymore, and we probably have days and maybe a few weeks to go.”Rubio said a diplomatic solution in which Hamas demilitarises remained the US preference, although he added: “Sometimes when you’re dealing with a group of savages like Hamas, that’s not possible, but we hope it can happen.”Rubio, who met Monday in Jerusalem with families of hostages in Gaza, acknowledged that Hamas had leverage by holding them.”If there were no hostages and no civilians in the way, this war would have ended a year and a half ago,” he said at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport.A group representing hostages’ families said they were “terrified” for their loved ones after Netanyahu ordered the strikes.”He is doing everything to ensure there is no deal and not to bring them back,” they said in a statement.- ‘Genocide’ -The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI), which does not speak for the world body and has faced harsh Israeli criticism, found that “genocide is occurring in Gaza and is continuing to occur”, commission chief Navi Pillay told AFP.”The responsibility lies with the State of Israel.”The investigators said explicit statements by Israeli civilian and military authorities along with the pattern of Israeli forces’ conduct “indicated that the genocidal acts were committed with intent to destroy… Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as a group”.The report concluded that Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and former defence minister Yoav Gallant have “incited the commission of genocide”. Israel said it “categorically rejects this distorted and false report” and called for the “immediate abolition” of the COI.Before flying out to Qatar, Rubio said he hoped the US ally would keep up its Gaza mediation efforts, despite Israel carrying out air strikes against Hamas leaders gathered in the Gulf emirate last week to consider a US truce proposal.”We want them to know that if there’s any country in the world that could help end this through a negotiation, it’s Qatar,” Rubio said.Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 27 people had been killed by Israeli fire on Tuesday.Media restrictions in the territory and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.- Ahead of statehood push -Rubio’s visit came a week before France will lead a UN summit in which a number of Western governments, angered by what they see as Israeli intransigence, plan to recognise a Palestinian state.Rubio called statehood recognition “largely symbolic”, while Netanyahu — whose government is fervently opposed to such a move — said his country may take unspecified “unilateral steps” in response.The October 2023 attack by Hamas resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed at least 64,905 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

Rubio asks Qatar to stay as mediator after Israel strike

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Qatar’s leader Tuesday to ask the Gulf country to stay on as a mediator in Gaza talks, a week after Israeli warplanes attacked Hamas leaders in the emirate.Rubio, on a brief, hastily arranged stop in Doha, shook hands with the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, in his office before entering closed-door talks with his aides.Visiting just as Israel launched its ground offensive into Gaza City, Rubio was pessimistic about a ceasefire deal but said Qatar was in a unique position to help.”We’re going to ask Qatar to continue to do what they’ve done, and we appreciate very much, and that is, play a constructive role in trying to bring this to an end,” Rubio told reporters as he flew out of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport to Doha.”Obviously they have to decide if they want to do that after last week or not, but we want them to know that if there’s any country in the world that could help end this through a negotiation, it’s Qatar,” he said.Rubio landed in Qatar a day after an Arab-Islamic summit in Doha condemned Israel for the strikes, which have strained relations between the Gulf Arab states and the United States.UN rights chief Volker Turk on Tuesday condemned Israel’s strike on Doha, saying it “was shocking breach of international law, an assault on regional peace and stability, and a blow against the integrity of mediation and negotiating processes around the world”.In Doha on Monday, the head of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council urged Washington to “use its leverage and influence” to rein in Israel.Rubio said the United States would work with Qatar to finalise a defence agreement soon despite the Israeli military action.President Donald Trump told reporters in Washington that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “won’t be hitting” Qatar again.Rubio made no such comments in Israel. Speaking next to Netanyahu, Rubio was reticent on praising Qatar, saying only that it was important to look forward after the strike.- Duelling US relationships -In language also not used publicly in Israel, State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said that Rubio in Doha “will reaffirm America’s full support for Qatar’s security and sovereignty following Israel’s strike”.Qatar has been at the centre of diplomacy to broker an end to the nearly two-year Gaza war, and Israel struck as Hamas leaders were gathering to discuss a new US ceasefire proposal.Qatar is home to the largest US air base in the Middle East and is the forward base of Central Command, the US military command responsible for the region.The tiny gas-rich emirate is classified by Washington as a major non-NATO ally, and has assiduously courted Trump, gifting him a luxury plane.But few countries are closer to the United States than Israel, which has enjoyed robust support from Washington despite international opprobrium over its military campaign in Gaza.Hamas triggered the war with its October 2023 attack on Israel.Netanyahu said his government assumes “full responsibility” for the attack on Doha “because we believe that terrorists should not be given a haven”.Before the October 7 attack, Israel and the United States had reportedly quietly encouraged Doha’s role, including its transfer of millions of dollars to Hamas in hopes of maintaining stability in Gaza.In 2012, Qatar agreed to host the Hamas political bureau with US blessing.Both the United States and Israel viewed Qatar, with its close relationship with Washington, as a better place to keep an eye on Hamas and prevent the militants from basing themselves in Iran, which openly backs the group.