AFP Asia Business

Sebastien Ogier bounced back from a mediocre first full day at the season-closing Rally Saudi Arabia to share the honours in Thursday’s final stage and boost his hopes of landing a ninth World Rally Championship. The Frenchman, who described the conditions as “terrible”, hit the same time as M-Sport Ford driver Martins Sesks in the final stage to close the day in seventh place overall, 44.2 seconds behind leader Adrien Fourmaux.That in turn left him two places and 41.1sec ahead of the other leading title contender Elfyn Evans who began the rally just three points ahead of his Toyota teammate.Ogier’s strong finish gave him the lead in the provisional championship standings by a single point, a remarkable performance given that he has missed three of the 14 rounds of the championship in his capacity as a ‘part-time’ driver.Evans, who had to open the road with little grip on the loose surface, struggled all day and was further compromised by a minor overshoot in the morning.”We paid for opening and I couldn’t really do any better, it’s tough,” said Welshman Evans. “We’ll keep fighting tomorrow (Friday).”- ‘Settling accounts’ -Kalle Rovanpera’s outside hopes of a third world title diminished as two punctures left him in eighth.”You can’t see it on the classification, but we’ve been doing a pretty good job today,” said Ogier. “My main target anyway is Elfyn and Kalle, and on that side we have done what we had to do. We are in front of them.”Tomorrow should be the most difficult day, the hardest. It’s the last day we’ll be settling accounts.”Fourmaux, meanwhile, moved to the top of the leader board after a difficult afternoon on the second pass of Khulays. The Frenchman avoided any major problems across all seven stages to end the day 6.0sec ahead of Toyota’s Sami Pajari, with early pacesetter Sesks just 0.9sec further back in third.”I’m really pleased with the day,” said Fourmaux.  “The gaps are small, so nothing is done for sure, but it’s positive to finish the day like that. The road position is important here and I’m pleased to have a good road position for tomorrow.”This inaugural visit to Saudi Arabia continues on Friday with the longest leg of the rally which features more than 130km against the clock across six demanding desert stages. 

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi on Thursday said she was permanently barred from leaving Iran, in a birthday message to her teenage twins who she has not seen for over a decade.Mohammadi, 53, had been in prison for over three years until her release in December last year for a limited period on medical leave.Her legal team has warned she could be re-arrested and sent back to jail at any time, and she is not able to leave the country.”I applied for a passport so I could come to you,” she said in a message to her twin children, Kiana and Ali Rahmani, marking their 19th birthday.But “the Islamic republic has issued and enforced two types of travel bans, including a ‘permanent travel ban’,” she said.Kiana and Ali live in Paris with their father and her husband Taghi Rahmani, also a prominent Iranian activist who endured long spells in jail.Mohammadi won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her two-decade fight for human rights in the Islamic republic and strongly backed the 2022-2023 protests sparked by the death in custody of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini.The Iranian authorities “stamp the word ‘permanent’ on our documents, while they themselves live each day in fear of the fall that will inevitably come at the hands of the people of Iran”, she said in the message.It was not immediately clear when and under what circumstances the bans were issued.Her two children received the Nobel prize in Oslo on her behalf in 2023, and she has now not seen for them 11 years.Mohammadi, who was last arrested in November 2021, has spent much of the past decade behind bars.She has remained defiant outside jail, refusing, in video conference appearances at international events, to wear the headscarf that is obligatory for all women in the Islamic republic.Mohammadi has also regularly predicted the downfall of the clerical system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Lando Norris insisted Thursday he was feeling calm and composed ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix where he could win his first drivers’ world championship title.Unperturbed by the double disqualification of himself and McLaren team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri in Las Vegas last weekend, the 26-year-old Briton told reporters he was completely at ease ahead of this weekend’s showdown. “I feel as relaxed now as I was before when I was 35 points behind and I feel the same when I’m 24 points ahead,” Norris said. “For now, that’s my strength. It feels the same to me now as before Mexico when I wasn’t leading and in Austin.”Norris, who needs only to out-score Piastri and defending four-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull by two points to win the title this weekend, made light of the pressures of expectation and the Dutchman’s fightback. “We’ve treated him as a threat the whole year even when he was a few more points behind,” he said of Verstappen, who was 104 points behind in the title race at the end of August, but is now level with Piastri — 24 behind Norris.”We treat him as a threat because we know what he’s capable of, we know what Red Bull is capable of — so therefore nothing changes now because he’s still the threat he’s always been through the whole year.”Norris conceded that his disqualification in Las Vegas had hurt, but said he and the team had dealt with it and moved on.”We all felt let down by the result and we were all disappointed, but actually I found it was quite easy to move on and have a few days off -– and then come into this weekend,” he explained.Piastri appeared to be equally calm, but made it very clear that as things stood he had no intention of abandoning his own bid for glory in favour of helping his McLaren team-mate. “We’ve had a very brief discussion on it and the answer is no,” the Australian said. “I’m still equal on points with Max and I’ve got a decent shot of still winning it if things go my way. So, yeah, that’s how we’ll play it.”McLaren team chief Andrea Stella explained that the disqualification of both cars, for excessive wear of the skid blocks, was a result of an unexpected level of “porpoising… exacerbated by the conditions” in Nevada. “We knew we were having a lot more issues than we ever expected during the race,” Norris said. “Maybe it would have hurt more if we won the race, but we didn’t so it doesn’t change anything… There’s no point being too sad about it.”I’m excited to go again this weekend. It doesn’t change anything. I want to try and win here in Qatar and to win in Abu Dhabi. It sucks, but that’s life sometimes.”

The Israeli military carried out another series of strikes against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon on Thursday, exactly a year into the ceasefire with the militant group.Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Israeli aircraft launched “a series of raids on Al-Mahmoudiya and Al-Jarmak”, just north of the Litani River.The November 27, 2024 ceasefire sought to end over a year of hostilities between the two sides.But Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite the truce, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah members and infrastructure to stop the group from rearming.Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said his country was “in a one-sided war of attrition that is escalating”.The Israeli military said it “struck and dismantled Hezbollah terror infrastructure in several areas in southern Lebanon”, in a statement after Thursday’s strikes.It also said it had hit “several launch sites where Hezbollah weapons were stored”, “military posts” used by the Iran-backed group, and a storage facility containing weapons.Israel’s military “will continue to operate to remove any threat to the State of Israel”, it said.The military said that ever since the ceasefire, it has been trying to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding by dismantling infrastructure, thwarting its intelligence operations and diminishing its military capabilities.It said it had carried out around 1,200 “targeted activities”, and “eliminated more than 370 terrorists” from Hezbollah, Hamas and other Palestinian groups during the ceasefire.- US pressure -According to the ceasefire agreement, Hezbollah was to pull its forces north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the border with Israel, and have its military infrastructure there dismantled.Under a government-approved plan, the Lebanese army is to dismantle Hezbollah military infrastructure south of the river by the end of the year, before tackling the rest of the country.The United States is increasing its pressure on the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah.The Lebanese military has said it is carrying out its plan to disarm the group, but Washington and Israel have accused Lebanese authorities of stalling the process.Lebanese President Joseph Aoun “rejected the Israeli claims”, his office said Thursday, adding that the Lebanese army was “preventing armed displays, confiscating ammunition, inspecting tunnels, among other things”.On Thursday, Aoun met Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the United Nations’ special coordinator for Lebanon, who said that a year on from the ceasefire, “uncertainty remains”.”For too many Lebanese, the conflict is ongoing — albeit at a lower intensity. And one does not need a crystal ball to understand that as long as the current status quo continues, the spectre of future hostilities will continue to loom large,” she said.Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday warned there would be “no calm” in Lebanon if Israel’s security was not guaranteed.An Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday killed Haitham Ali Tabatabai — the most senior Hezbollah commander to be killed by Israel since the ceasefire entered into force.The Lebanese premier slammed Hezbollah’s claims that its weapons deter Israeli aggression.”These weapons did not protect either Hezbollah’s leaders or the Lebanese people and their property,” Salam said.”Are Hezbollah’s weapons currently capable of repelling the ongoing Israeli attacks? These weapons have provided neither deterrence nor protection, nor have they brought victory to Gaza.”rjm-burs-glp/jsa

Pope Leo XIV began a four-day visit to Turkey on Thursday, urging Ankara to embrace its role as a mediator in a world gripped by conflict after talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.”Mr President, may Turkey be a source of stability and rapprochement between peoples, in service of a just and lasting peace,” he said in the capital as he began the first overseas trip of his papacy.”Today more than ever, we need people who will promote dialogue and practice it, with firm will and patient resolve,” said Leo, in a nod to Turkey’s growing role in conflict-resolution efforts in Gaza, Ukraine and beyond. Elected in May as the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, the 70-year-old pontiff landed in Ankara shortly after 12:20 pm (0920 GMT) on a trip that will also take him to Istanbul and the ancient city of Iznik before heading to Lebanon on Sunday. “I have very much been looking forward to this trip because of what it means for all Christians, but it is also a great message to the whole world,” he told reporters on board his plane, describing it as a “historic moment”. A tight cordon of security meant the papal convoy swept through nearly empty streets en route to the vast mausoleum dedicated to the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, where Leo paid his respects. He then headed to the sprawling presidential complex for talks with Erdogan, who is seen as a key player for peace efforts in a region fraught with conflict. “This land is inextricably linked to the origins of Christianity, and today it beckons the children of Abraham and all humanity to a fraternity that recognises and appreciates differences,” he said. Hailing Turkey’s “special role” as a bridge between East and West, Asia and Europe, he described it as a “crossroads of sensibilities” that was richer for its “internal diversity”.”Uniformity would be an impoverishment. Indeed, a society is alive if it has a plurality,” he said in a country that counts some 100,000 Christians among a population of 86 million, mostly Sunni Muslims. “Christians desire to contribute positively to the unity of your country. They are — and they feel — part of Turkish identity.”- ‘A source of enrichment’ -Ahead of Leo’s speech, which was in his native English, a choir dressed in embroidered robes accompanied by traditional Turkish instruments sang a host of spiritual songs in English and Turkish. Giving the first address, Erdogan insisted Turkey was a country that “would not allow even a single one of our people to be subjected to discrimination”. “We do not consider cultural, religious, and ethnic differences a source of division, but rather a source of enrichment,” he said. He also hailed Leo’s stance on “the Palestinian cause” and called for “justice” for the Palestinian people.”As the human family, our greatest debt to the Palestinian people is justice. The way to repay this debt is to implement the two-state solution as soon as possible.”Friday’s calendar will take on a more religious aspect with the celebration in Iznik of the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, a gathering of bishops in the year 325 that resulted in a statement of faith still central to Christianity.Invited by the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Leo will join an ecumenical prayer service on the shores of Lake Iznik.The pope’s trip comes as the Orthodox world appears more fragmented than ever, with the war in Ukraine accelerating the split between the Moscow and Constantinople patriarchates.The pope is the fifth pontiff to visit Turkey, after Paul VI in 1967, John Paul II in 1979, Benedict XVI in 2006 and Francis in 2014.On Sunday, Leo will head to religiously diverse Lebanon, a nation that has been crushed by a devastating economic and political crisis since 2019 and which has been the target of repeated bombings by Israel in recent days, despite a ceasefire.burs-hmw/rh