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L1: Dembélé et Paris roulent sur Brest

Le Paris SG a pris un net ascendant psychologique sur Brest avant leur barrage en Ligue des Champions, en allant battre les Bretons (5-2) grâce à un nouveau triplé d’Ousmane Dembélé, samedi lors de la 20e journée de Ligue 1.Avec ce succès qui efface le demi faux-pas contre Reims (1-1), Paris reprend provisoirement 13 longueurs d’avance sur Marseille, qui reçoit Lyon dimanche.Après sa défaite logique mais frustrante par son ampleur (3-0) contre le Real Madrid mercredi, Brest, installé dans le ventre mou du championnat (8e), est resté “en mode Ligue des Champions”, face à son futur double adversaire en barrage d’accession en huitièmes de finale de la C1 (11 et 19 février).Les efforts bretons ont cette fois été récompensés par deux fort jolis buts, par Romain Del Castillo (50) et Ludovic Ajorque (71). Mais le triplé de l’intenable Dembélé (29, 57, 62) puis le doublé de son remplaçant Gonçalo Ramos (89, 90+7) sont venus illustrer ce qui sépare les Brestois des Parisiens, bien aidés par la prestation de leur gardien Gianluigi Donnarumma pour obtenir un écart de score flatteur.Mais l’atout-maître parisien du moment, c’est Dembélé, dans une forme étincelante: il avait déjà trouvé trois fois le chemin des filets à Stuttgart (4-1), mercredi, pour assurer à Paris un avenir européen.Totalement oublié par Abdoulaye Ndiaye, l’international français a d’abord profité d’un excellent appel de Bradley Barcola pour conclure facilement dans le but vide (0-1, 29). Il a ensuite bien suivi pour reprendre une tentative de Khvicha Kvaratskhelia repoussée par Bizot et redonner l’avantage à Paris (1-2, 57).Et cinq minutes plus tard, sur une passe lumineuse de Lee Kangin, il a marqué de près et en force au deuxième poteau, avant d’aller se reposer sur le banc (1-3, 62).- Gonçalo Ramos finit le travail -Si on ajoute les actions de Barcola qui a trouvé le poteau (19e), avant de rater le cadre (54e), ou de Khvicha Kvaratskhelia sur un centre d’Achraf Hakimi (13e), les Parisiens auraient pu connaître un déplacement plus tranquille.Mais ils ont été sacrément secoués en fin de match par des Brestois qui n’ont jamais abdiqué. Et sans Donnarumma, ils auraient peut-être plus tremblé pour ramener les trois points.Dès la 9e, le portier italien, a intercepté un centre d’Abdallah Sima pour Ludovic Ajorque, avant que le même Ajorque ne rate le cadre (18e). Sa parade la plus spectaculaire, l’Italien l’a offerte de la main gauche sur une frappe rasante appuyée de Romain Faivre (31e). Il a encore été irréprochable devant Kenny Lala (45+2), Ajorque (51e) et Faivre (78e). Tout heureux de voir une tête décroisée de Mahdi Camara frôler son poteau sur corner (76), il s’est toutefois incliné deux fois, sur une frappe enroulée du gauche de Del Castillo (1-1, 50e) ou sur un sublime enchaînement crochet intérieur du gauche, frappe enroulée du droit en lucarne d’Ajorque (2-3, 71e).Le doublé de Gonçalo Ramos en toute fin de match, après une chevauchée superbe de Désiré Doué (2-4, 89e) et sur une action individuelle pleine de réussite (2-5, 90+7) ont donné de l’ampleur à ce succès qui confirme aussi bien les qualités offensives que les fragilités défensives parisiennes.

ATP/Montpellier: Auger-Aliassime en finale contre la surprise Kovacevic

Kiev accuse Moscou d’avoir frappé une école, servant d’abri, dans la région russe de Koursk

Pakistan separatist militants kill 18 paramilitaries in ambush

Pakistani separatist militants claimed on Saturday an attack on a highway in a volatile southwestern province that killed 18 paramilitaries and seriously wounded three others.The attack was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army, a group behind rising violence in Balochistan province that borders Afghanistan and Iran.A vehicle carrying unarmed border troops “came under gunfire from 70 to 80 armed assailants who had blocked the road”, a police official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.The official said 17 troops were killed, along with another who came to their aid in the overnight attack on Friday near Mangochar, a city close to the Afghan border. The military said 18 paramilitaries were killed as they responded to militants who “attempted to establish roadblocks”, while 12 attackers were killed. The BLA said in a statement it had killed 17 troops and had carried out multiple “operations”.Attacks have increased in Balochistan province in recent months, often against security forces.The BLA frequently claims deadly attacks against security forces or Pakistanis from other provinces, notably Punjabis in Balochistan.The group has also targeted energy projects with foreign financing — most notably from China — accusing outsiders of exploiting the resource-rich region while excluding residents in the poorest part of Pakistan.In November, the BLA claimed responsibility for a bombing at Quetta’s main railway station that killed 26 people, including 14 soldiers.The group also said it was behind coordinated attacks by dozens of assailants in August that killed at least 39 people, one of the highest tolls in the region.Violence has surged in Pakistan’s border regions since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021.Pakistan has accused the Taliban government of failing to rout out militants who launch attacks from Afghan soil, a charge it denies.More than 1,600 people were killed in attacks in 2024 — the deadliest year in almost a decade — including 685 civil and military security forces, according to the Center for Research and Security Studies, an Islamabad-based analysis group.

At least 56 killed as fighting grips greater KhartoumSat, 01 Feb 2025 18:12:46 GMT

At least 56 killed as fighting grips greater KhartoumSat, 01 Feb 2025 18:12:46 GMT Read More »

At least 56 killed as fighting grips greater Khartoum

Artillery shelling and air strikes killed at least 56 people across greater Khartoum on Saturday, according to a medical source and Sudanese activists.Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been locked in a battle for power since April 2023 that has intensified this month with the army fighting to take back control of the capital.RSF shelling killed 54 and injured 158 people at a busy market in army-controlled Omdurman, part of greater Khartoum, on Saturday, overwhelming the city’s Al-Nao Hospital, according to a medical source and the health ministry.”The shells hit in the middle of the vegetable market, that’s why the victims and the wounded are so many,” one survivor told AFP.The RSF denied carrying out the attack.Across the Nile in Khartoum proper, two civilians were killed and dozens wounded in an air strike on an RSF-controlled area, said the local Emergency Response Room, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating emergency care across Sudan.Although the RSF has used drones in attacks including on Saturday, the fighter jets of the regular armed forces maintain a monopoly on air strikes.Both the RSF and the army have been repeatedly accused of targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.- Metres away from hospital -In addition to killing tens of thousands of people, the war has uprooted more than 12 million and decimated Sudan’s fragile infrastructure, forcing most health facilities out of service.A volunteer at Al-Nao Hospital told AFP it faced dire shortages of “shrouds, blood donors and stretchers to transport the wounded”.The hospital is one of the last medical facilities operating in Omdurman and has been repeatedly attacked.According to the Sudanese doctors’ union, one shell fell “just metres away from Al-Nao hospital” on Saturday.The union said most of the victims were women and children, and called on nurses and doctors in the area to head to the hospital to relieve a “severe shortage of medical staff”.The fighting in the capital comes weeks after the army launched an offensive across central Sudan, reclaiming Al-Jazira state capital Wad Madani before setting its sights on Khartoum.The RSF has since remained in control of the road between Wad Madani and Khartoum, but on Saturday an army-allied militia claimed control of the towns of Tamboul, Rufaa, Al-Hasaheisa, and Al-Hilaliya, some 125 kilometres (77 miles) southeast of the capital.The group, the Sudan Shield Forces, is led by Abu Aqla Kaykal, who defected from the RSF last year and has been accused of atrocities against civilians both during his tenure with the RSF and now on the army’s side.Sudan remains effectively split, with the RSF in control of nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur and swathes of the south, and the army controlling the country’s east and north.After months of stalemate in greater Khartoum, the army has broken RSF sieges on several bases in the capital this month, including its headquarters, pushing the paramilitary increasingly into the city’s outskirts.Witnesses said Saturday’s bombardment of Omdurman came from the city’s western outskirts, where the RSF remains in control.A resident of a southern neighbourhood reported rocket and artillery fire on the city’s streets.- Counter-offensive -Saturday’s bombardment came a day after RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo vowed to retake the capital from the army.”We expelled them (from Khartoum) before, and we will expel them again,” he told troops in a rare video address.Greater Khartoum has been a key battleground in nearly 22 months of fighting between the army and the RSF, and has been reduced to a shell of its former self. An investigation by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that 26,000 people were killed in the capital alone between April 2023 and June 2024.Entire neighbourhoods have been taken over by fighters while at least 3.6 million civilians have fled, according to the United Nations.Those unable or unwilling to leave have reported frequent artillery fire on residential areas, and widespread hunger in besieged neighbourhoods blockaded by opposing forces.At least 106,000 people are estimated to be suffering from famine in Khartoum, according to the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, with a further 3.2 million experiencing crisis levels of hunger.Nationwide, famine has been declared in five areas — most of them in Darfur — and is expected to take hold of five more by May.Before leaving office, the administration of former US president Joe Biden sanctioned Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, accusing the army of attacking schools, markets and hospitals and using starvation as a weapon of war.That designation came a week after Washington sanctioned the RSF commander for his role in “gross violations of human rights” in Darfur, where the State Department said his forces had “committed genocide” against non-Arab minority groups.

Pre-Grammys gala honoring the Grateful Dead focuses on fire relief

Music world A-listers took the stage Friday to honor the Grateful Dead at an annual pre-Grammys benefit gala, which this year raised millions for musicians impacted by the recent wildfires that devastated Los Angeles.The 34th annual MusiCares Person of the Year gala — which benefits the charitable wing of the Recording Academy, behind the Grammys — honored the psychedelic jam band as it raised more than $5 million in one evening.The sum brings its total funds raised since the fires broke out in early January to more than $9 million, organizers said.The broader mission of MusiCares involves offering a parachute for artists and other workers in the precarious US music industry, providing assistance for physical and mental health, addiction recovery and human services including basic living expenses like rent.”So many people who work in music have no safety net. They are living paycheck to paycheck, and they are incredibly vulnerable,” Theresa Wolters, MusiCare’s vice president of health and human services, told AFP in an interview prior to the gala.As of January 28, she said the organization had received nearly 3,000 claims related to the Los Angeles fires — a number that’s on top of the assistance requests MusiCares normally receives.She noted that the disastrous fires came on the heels of deadly hurricanes that hit southern and eastern regions of the United States last year, and also led to a surge in need.Wolters explained that typically the organization’s immediate emergency aid includes $1,500 in financial assistance and a $500 grocery card, and longer-term support can include help with insurance deductibles, medical bills, rent or musical instrument replacement.Private forecaster AccuWeather has estimated the total damage and economic loss from the fires at between $250 billion and $275 billion. – ‘Give some back’ -Donors Friday night included Dead member Bob Weir, who raised his paddle during an auction-style donation round before settling in to hear a wide range of tributes to the vast influence of his band.The Grateful Dead members, including icon Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, were key figures in the counterculture that began in the 1960s.The band that was beloved for never performing the same show twice revolutionized fan engagement, as followers recorded and swapped bootleg tapes of the concerts in a communal, drug-addled camp environment.Friday evening featured a number of cuts from the band’s extensive catalogue, including Norah Jones with a twangy, slowed-down rendition of the classic “Ripple,” and Vampire Weekend with “Scarlet Begonias.” Sammy Hagar of Montrose and Van Halen meanwhile brought the crowd to its feet for “Loose Lucy.”John Mayer — who for years has been playing with the band Dead & Company, which includes former Dead members Weir, Hart and Kreutzmann — had the audience rapt with an impressive version of “Terrapin Station.”And he took the stage again as the honorees joined him to perform a trio of all-timers to close the night: “Althea,” “Sugar Magnolia” and “Touch of Grey.””Longevity was never a major concern of ours; lighting folks up and spreading joy through the music was all we really had in mind, and we got plenty of that done,” said Weir in accepting the honor.He also emphasized the night’s mission in quoting his bandmate Garcia: “All along, my old pal Jerry used to say, ‘You get some, you give some back.'”

Toll rises to 7 dead, 19 hurt in Philadelphia plane crash

The death toll from the crash of a medical jet carrying a Mexican child home from a hospital in Philadelphia has risen to seven, officials said Saturday, with 19 others wounded.The crash — the second major aviation disaster in the United States this week — occurred Friday when the twin-engine Learjet 55 plummeted towards a busy Philadelphia neighborhood, exploding on impact and showering wreckage over homes and vehicles.Officials had earlier said that all six on board — a young girl who had been in the United States for medical care, her mother, and members of the flight and medical crews with her — were killed. They were all Mexican nationals.On Saturday, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said that at least one other person, who was in a car, had also been killed, and that 19 people had been wounded.Speaking at a press conference, Parker warned that the toll was “not etched in stone” and could yet rise. “We have a lot of unknowns about who was where on the streets of this neighborhood last night at the time of impact,” said the city’s managing director Adam Thiel, warning that it could be days before the full toll emerged. He said the impact area covered four to six blocks, and there was also debris in a “remote area where something happened with the aircraft.”Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum posted her condolences on social media platform X. The US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) said it was launching an investigation with the National Transportation Safety Board.Both agencies are already probing the deadliest US air disaster in almost a quarter century, after a passenger jet operated by an American Airlines subsidiary collided with a Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday.The airliner with 64 people onboard was landing at Reagan National Airport in the Washington area — just miles from the White House — when it collided with a US Army helicopter on a training mission.

La Russie lance des frappes meurtrières sur l’Ukraine et accentue la pression sur une ville stratégique

La Russie a tiré des dizaines de missiles et de drones sur l’Ukraine tuant 12 personnes, a déclaré Kiev samedi, tandis que Moscou affirme que ses forces progressaient vers la ville stratégique de Toretsk.”La nuit dernière, la Russie a attaqué nos villes avec différents types d’armes: des missiles, des drones, des bombes aériennes”, a dénoncé le président ukrainien Volodymyr Zelensky sur Telegram.”Chacune de ces attaques terroristes montre que nous avons besoin de plus d’aide pour nous défendre face à la terreur russe”, a-t-il poursuivi, appelant les “partenaires” de Kiev à agir.Selon M. Zelensky, des dommages ont été signalés dans six régions: celles de Zaporijjia, Odessa, Soumy, Kharkiv, Khmelnytsky et Kiev.A la mi-journée, l’armée de l’air ukrainienne a affirmé que Moscou avait lancé 42 missiles et 123 drones sur le pays, l’une des attaques les plus importantes depuis des semaines. Plusieurs missiles ont été abattus par les défenses antiaériennes, a ajouté cette source, sans préciser leur nombre. Par ailleurs, 56 drones ennemis ont été détruits et 61 autres n’ont pas atteint leur cible, toujours selon l’armée.Au moins 12 personnes sont mortes dans ces frappes dans le centre et l’est de l’Ukraine dans la nuit de vendredi à samedi et tôt samedi matin, selon les autorités. Huit d’entre elles, dont un enfant, ont été tuées dans une frappe de missile sur un immeuble résidentiel dans la ville centrale de Poltava, ont indiqué les services d’urgence. Les autorités ont déclaré trois jours de deuil.Un photographe de l’AFP a vu sur place des pompiers fouillant les ruines fumantes du bâtiment et plusieurs victimes dans des sacs mortuaires.A Kharkiv, grande ville du nord-est, la chute sur une zone résidentielle d’un drone russe abattu a également tué une femme et fait quatre blessés, a annoncé Oleg Synegoubov, le gouverneur de la région.Trois policiers ont par ailleurs été tués dans une frappe aérienne russe à Iounakivska, dans la région de Soumy (nord-est), a annoncé l’administration militaire régionale.Le ministère russe de la Défense a déclaré avoir frappé pendant la nuit des infrastructures énergétiques “assurant le fonctionnement d’entreprises du complexe militaro-industriel” de l’Ukraine.- Progression russe dans l’Est -Alors que le pays subit constamment les frappes russes meurtrières, les troupes ukrainiennes sont en grande difficulté dans la région de Donetsk, où l’armée russe progresse constamment, petit à petit, malgré de lourdes pertes humaines et matérielles.Dans un communiqué, le ministère russe de la Défense a déclaré que des unités “du groupement Centre” avaient conquis la localité de Krymské (Krymskoïe en russe) située dans la banlieue nord-est de Toretsk.Le groupe d’analystes ukrainiens DeepState indique que les forces russes sont présentes dans le centre de Toretsk et Tchassiv Iar, deux villes disputées depuis des mois.Alors que l’invasion russe va entrer en février dans sa quatrième année, l’armée russe avance également dans la région de Kharkiv (nord-est) et se rapproche de l’importante ville de Koupiansk.La perspective de négociations entre Moscou et Kiev est de plus en plus souvent évoquée depuis le retour de Donald Trump à la Maison Blanche, perçu comme un potentiel tournant dans la guerre.Le président américain s’est montré critique des sommes dépensées par les Etats-Unis pour aider l’Ukraine, mais il a aussi adopté un ton sévère avec Moscou, qu’il a menacé de sanctions supplémentaires ces dernières semaines. – Un recruteur ukrainien abattu -L’armée de Kiev, qui manque de soldats et d’équipements, peine à recruter de nouvelles troupes face notamment aux réticences de la population, épuisée après trois ans de combats très meurtriers.Samedi, un soldat a été tué dans la ville de Pyriatyn, dans la région de Poltava, alors qu’il accompagnait un groupe d’hommes mobilisés, ont indiqué les services de recrutement militaire locaux.Selon cette source, le soldat a été attaqué par un homme cagoulé qui l’a abattu avec un fusil avant de fuir avec l’un des mobilisés. Les deux hommes ont ensuite été arrêtés, toujours d’après cette source.Par ailleurs, une explosion dans un bureau de recrutement militaire dans la ville de Rivné, dans le nord-ouest de l’Ukraine, a tué samedi une personne et fait six blessés, a indiqué la police ukrainienne, sans expliquer pour l’heure l’origine de la déflagration.Les services de sécurité ukrainiens (SBU) ont également annoncé samedi l’arrestation de cinq personnes accusées d’animer un groupe, “Le front des travailleurs d’Ukraine”, qui sous couvert “d’idées néo-communistes”, véhiculait “les narratifs du Kremlin” et s’opposait à la mobilisation, d’après le SBU.