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Iranian security forces on Friday detained the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi along with at least eight other activists in an arrest condemned as “brutal” by the Norwegian Nobel committee.Mohammadi, who was granted temporary leave from prison in December 2024, was detained along with eight other activists at the ceremony for lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, who was found dead in his office last week, her foundation wrote on X.Those arrested at the ceremony in the eastern city of Mashhad included Mohammadi’s fellow prominent activist Sepideh Gholian, who had previously been jailed alongside her in Tehran’s Evin prison.”These individuals were present solely to pay their respects and express solidarity at a memorial ceremony,” her foundation said, adding the arrests “constitute a blatant and serious violation of fundamental freedoms and basic human rights”.”Narges was beaten on the legs and she was held by her hair and dragged down,” one of her brothers, Hamid Mohammadi, told AFP in Oslo where he lives.The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it was “deeply concerned by today’s brutal arrest” of Mohammadi, calling on Iran to “immediately” clarify her whereabouts.The arrest came two days after the ceremony in Oslo for the 2025 prize winner, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, a fierce critic of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro who is an ally of Tehran. The Nobel committee said it “notes” the timing “given the close collaboration between the regimes in Iran and Venezuela”.Within Iran, the Mehr news agency cited the Mashhad governor Hassan Hosseini as saying the individuals were arrested at the ceremony after “chanting slogans deemed contrary to public norms” but did not name them.- Slogans at funeral -Alikordi, 45, was a lawyer who had defended clients in sensitive cases, including people arrested in a crackdown on nationwide protests that erupted in 2022.His body was found on December 5, with rights groups calling for an investigation into his death, which Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights said “had very serious suspicion of a state murder”.The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) posted footage of Mohammadi, who was not wearing the headscarf women are obliged to wear in public in the Islamic republic, attending the ceremony with a crowd of other supporters of Alikordi.It said they shouted slogans including “Long live Iran,” “We fight, we die, we accept no humiliation” and “Death to the dictator” at the ceremony which, in line with Islamic tradition, marked seven days since Alikordi’s death.Other footage broadcast by Persian-language television channels based outside Iran showed Mohammadi climbing on top of a vehicle with a microphone and encouraging people to chant slogans.”When peaceful citizens cannot mourn without being beaten and dragged away, it reveals a government terrified of truth and accountability. It also reveals the extraordinary bravery of Iranians who refuse to surrender their dignity,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran.- Years behind bars -Mohammadi, 53, who was last arrested in November 2021, has spent much of the past decade behind bars. Her two twin children received the Nobel prize in Oslo on her behalf in 2023, and she has now not seen them for 11 years.  Her temporary release in December 2024 was allowed on health grounds after problems related to her lungs and other issues.”In the prison, she had lots of complications. Her lungs, her heart, she has had some operations,” said Hamid Mohammadi. “I’m not worried that she is arrested. She’s been arrested a lot of times, but what worries me most is that they will put a lot of pressure on her physical and psychological condition. And it might lead to again experiencing those complications,” he added.Mohammadi has also regularly predicted the downfall of the clerical system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, saying in a 19th birthday message to her twins last month that “they (the authorities) themselves live each day in fear of the fall that will inevitably come at the hands of the people of Iran”.

Gaza’s civil defence agency on Friday said at least 16 people had died in the last 24 hours, including three children who died from exposure to the cold, as a winter storm batters the territory.Heavy rain from Storm Byron has flooded tents and temporary shelters across the Gaza Strip since late Wednesday, compounding the suffering of the territory’s residents, nearly all of whom were displaced during more than two years of war.Gaza’s civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authority, told AFP three children had died from exposure to the cold — two in Gaza City and one in Khan Yunis in the south.Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City confirmed the deaths of Hadeel al-Masri, aged nine, and Taim al-Khawaja, who it said was just several months old.Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis on Thursday said eight-month-old Rahaf Abu Jazar had died in the nearby tented encampment of Al-Mawasi due to the cold.With most of Gaza’s buildings destroyed or damaged, thousands of tents and makeshift shelters now line areas cleared of rubble.Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said six people died when a house collapsed in the Bir al-Naja area of the northern Gaza Strip.Two bodies were recovered from the rubble of a home in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City, he added.Five others died when walls collapsed in multiple separate incidents, Bassal said.In a statement, the civil defence said its teams had responded to calls from “13 houses that collapsed due to heavy rains and strong winds, mostly in Gaza City and the north”.- No dry clothes -Under gloomy skies in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, Palestinians used bowls, buckets and hoes to try and remove the water that had pooled around their tents made of plastic sheeting.Young children, some barefoot and others wearing open sandals, trudged and hopped through ponds of muddy water as the rain continued to fall.”The mattress has been soaked since this morning, and the children slept in wet bedding last night,” Umm Muhammad Joudah told AFP.”We don’t have any dry clothes to change into.”Saif Ayman, a 17-year-old who was on crutches due to a leg injury, said his tent had also been submerged.”In this tent we have no blankets. There are six of us sleeping on one mattress, and we cover ourselves with our clothes,” he said.Jonathan Crickx, spokesman for the UN children’s agency who is currently in Gaza, told AFP night-time temperatures could drop to around eight or nine degrees Celsius (46-48 degrees Fahrenheit).”The rains are heavy, and these families are living in makeshift tents battered by the wind, where they’re barely protected by a plastic tarp,” he said.Samer Morsi, a 22-year-old displaced Palestinian sheltering in the central area of Deir el-Balah, said he had “spent the night holding onto the tent pole so it wouldn’t fly away in the strong wind”.”We don’t know how to cope with these harsh conditions,” he added.”We are human beings with feelings, not made of stone.”- ‘Appalling hygiene conditions’ -Crickx also described “absolutely appalling hygiene and sanitary conditions,” saying there was a fear that preventable waterborne illnesses could spread.”There aren’t enough toilets, there are places — I saw some in Gaza City — where large pools of water are essentially open sewers right next to the displacement camps. So we’re especially concerned for the immediate health of the children,” he said.A ceasefire between Israel and militant group Hamas that took effect in October has partially eased restrictions on goods and aid entering into the Gaza Strip.But supplies have entered in insufficient quantities, according to the United Nations, and the humanitarian needs are still immense.The UN’s World Health Organization warned on Friday that thousands of families were “sheltering in low-lying or debris-filled coastal areas with no drainage or protective barriers”.”Winter conditions, combined with poor water and sanitation, are expected to drive a surge in acute respiratory infections,” it added.

Former Iraqi president Barham Salih is set to become the next United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, according to a document seen by AFP on Friday, taking over an agency tackling swingeing budget cuts.Salih, 65, was president of Iraq from 2018 to 2022. He will replace Filippo Grandi, who is leaving at the end of December after 10 years as the UN refugees chief.A moderate and veteran Kurdish politician, Salih’s long political career has included several senior positions in the Iraqi government and in the country’s autonomous Kurdistan region after the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled longtime ruler Saddam Hussein.A letter from UN chief Antonio Guterres, seen by AFP, said he will propose Salih for approval by the UN General Assembly — typically a routine procedure — for a five-year term starting on January 1.He will be stepping into a firefighting role from day one.The Geneva-based UNHCR, like many other UN agencies, has been clobbered by drastic international aid cuts. It has shed nearly 5,000 jobs this year — more than a quarter of its workforce.The UNHCR is grappling with surging global displacement, while under President Donald Trump, the United States — traditionally the world’s top donor — has heavily slashed foreign aid, causing havoc across the globe.Washington previously accounted for more than 40 percent of the UNHCR’s budget, and its pull-back, along with belt-tightening by other major donor countries, has left the agency facing “bleak” numbers, according to Grandi.The right to seek asylum, agreed by states in 1951, “is under threat — more now than in living memory”, the agency’s chief spokesman Ewan Watson told a press conference on Friday.”At times, it can feel like fear and division are drowning out compassion.”More than 117 million people are forcibly displaced from their homes, whether inside or outside their own borders.UNHCR’s funding has been slashed by 35 percent this year to date, “leaving millions without access to safety, food, shelter and vital protection services, let alone the means to re-start independently”, said Watson.- ‘You are not alone’ -Numerous other candidates were in the running for the UNHCR job, including Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and Jesper Brodin, the outgoing head of the holding company managing most of furniture giant Ikea’s stores.Salih was a longstanding top official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the second-largest Kurdish Iraqi party.He was also part of an interim authority established by the United States following the 2003 invasion.He was one of Iraq’s deputy prime ministers from 2006 to 2009, then served as the Kurdish prime minister from 2009 to 2012.Fluent in English, Arabic and Kurdish, Salih served for four years as Iraq’s president — a largely ceremonial office traditionally held by a Kurd since 2005.He is a senior fellow with the Middle East Initiative and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs of Harvard University.Salih holds a civil engineering degree from the University of Cardiff and a doctorate in statistics and computer applications in engineering from the University of Liverpool, according to the Belfer Centre.UNHCR is hosting its biennial Global Refugee Forum Progress Review in Geneva from Monday to Wednesday, bringing together more than 1,800 participants to try to find solutions for millions of displaced people worldwide.Watson said: “The promise of asylum must be kept alive — and refugees must not be consigned to the margins. So today we send a clear message to every person forced to flee: you are not alone.”apo-burs/rjm/phz

In the Nile Delta village of Nagrig, residents love local son Mohamed Salah from a distance, with ructions between the Egyptian super striker and long-time English club Liverpool doing little to dim his lustre at home.”Thanks to him I can dream,” 16-year-old Mohamed Ahmed told AFP as he stepped onto a pitch at the Nagrig sports complex where Salah first honed his talents before making his improbable journey to some of football’s most dizzying heights. “I’m so happy to play here,” Ahmed said, referring to the complex renamed in Salah’s honour, where young people from the village and beyond come to bask in the footballer’s legend, greeted by a mural of the star as they enter.That image of Salah, triumphant in the red strip of his Merseyside team, is as close as many will get to the hometown icon in Nagrig where, while everyone knows his name, few get the chance to meet him. Elsewhere in the village there is little trace of him.”When he comes, it’s at night so that no one sees him,” said Asma, a young student who gave only her first name. The 33-year-old Egypt international spoke out against Liverpool manager Arne Slot after being left as an unused substitute against Leeds last week. Dropped from Liverpool’s squad for their Champions League tie at Inter Milan on Tuesday, Salah has been subsequently linked to a move to the lucrative Saudi Pro League.- ‘Charitable commitment’ -Despite the off-pitch drama, Roshdy Gaber, head of security at the sports complex, said Salah was “an icon for young people” and a “determined lad who has worked hard to get where he is today”.Having left Nagrig at 14 to join a club in Cairo before moving to Europe, where he played for Basel, Chelsea, Fiorentina and Roma before Liverpool, Salah, nicknamed the “Pharaoh”, has not forgotten his roots.Mohamed Ahmed’s father, Ahmed Ali said the football youth centre was the “greatest proof” of Salah’s “charitable commitment”. “Our children don’t have to go to other villages to play football,” explained the 45-year-old factory worker who shares his son’s love of football.Salah, who has used prayer in his pitch celebrations and has spoken frequently of his Muslim faith, has funded the construction of a religious institute for boys and girls in Nagrig, costing over 17 million Egyptian pounds ($350,000).Every month, his charitable foundation donates EGP 50,000 to orphans, widows and divorced women in the village. A local official, who asked not to be identified, said Salah was “a great source of pride” for the village and the football star had remained “the polite and unassuming young man we knew”.The official did question whether the two-time African Ballon d’Or winner, who earns a weekly salary of £400,000 ($535,000), could have given more of his wealth back to the community.-‘Exaggerated’-“Unfortunately, many stories have been exaggerated,” the official said referring to the financial support provided, by Salah.Ali, who makes roughly $100 a month at the factory where he works, similarly believes Salah could have given more back.”I know farmers who are more generous,” he said. Surrounded by the fields of the fertile Nile Delta, growing crops including onions, jasmine and rice, the village of 20,000 inhabitants, 120 kilometres northwest of Cairo struggles under the burden of ailing infrastructure. In early December, rainwater had flooded Nagrig’s potholed streets and players making their way to the sports complex had to abandon their bus and complete the journey by foot.Trudging through the mud, boots in hand, the players picked their way through flowing water to play.Despite his misgivings, the local official said Salah had “breathed new life into his village, but also into his country, the Arab world and even Africa”.”It will be a long time before we see another Mohamed Salah,” he added. 

Iranian security forces on Friday “violently” arrested the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi along with at least eight other activists at a memorial ceremony for a lawyer who died earlier this month, her supporters said.Mohammadi, who was granted temporary leave from prison in December 2024, was detained along with eight other activists at the ceremony for lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, who was found dead in his office last week, her foundation wrote on X.Those arrested at the ceremony in the eastern city of Mashhad included Mohammadi’s fellow prominent activist Sepideh Gholian, who had previously been jailed alongside her in Tehran’s Evin prison.Also writing on X, Mohammadi’s Paris-based husband, Taghi Rahmani, confirmed the arrests. The Hengaw rights group said the activists had been “violently detained and transferred to an undisclosed location”.”Narges was beaten on the legs and she was held by her hair and dragged down,” one of her brothers, Hamid Mohammadi, told AFP in Oslo where he lives.Alikordi, 45, was a lawyer who had defended clients in sensitive cases, including people arrested in a crackdown on nationwide protests that erupted in 2022.His body was found on December 5, with rights groups calling for an investigation into his death, which Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights said “had very serious suspicion of a state murder”.The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) posted footage of Mohammadi, who was not wearing the headscarf women are obliged to wear in public in the Islamic republic, attending the ceremony with a crowd of other supporters of Alikordi.It said they shouted slogans including “Long live Iran,” “We fight, we die, we accept no humiliation” and “Death to the dictator” at the ceremony which, in line with Islamic tradition, marked seven days since Alikordi’s death.Other footage broadcast by Persian-language television channels based outside Iran showed Mohammadi climbing on top of a vehicle with a microphone and encouraging people to chant slogans.- Years behind bars -Mohammadi, 53, who was last arrested in November 2021, has spent much of the past decade behind bars. Her two twin children received the Nobel prize in Oslo on her behalf in 2023, and she has now not seen them for 11 years. Mohammadi said last month in a message marking the 19th birthday of her twins that she had been permanently barred from leaving Iran.But she has remained defiant outside jail, refusing to wear the headscarf, addressing foreign audiences via video conferences and meeting activists across Iran.Her temporary release in December 2024 was allowed on health grounds after problems related to her lungs and other issues. But supporters have warned she could be re-arrested at any time.”In the prison, she had lots of complications. Her lungs, her heart, she has had some operations,” said Hamid Mohammadi. “I’m not worried that she is arrested. She’s been arrested a lot of times, but what worries me most is that they will put a lot of pressure on her physical and psychological condition. And it might lead to again experiencing those complications,” he added.She 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.Mohammadi has also regularly predicted the downfall of the clerical system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.The clerical authorities were shaken by the months-long protest movement calling for women to dress freely but also making wider political demands. It only dwindled in the face of an intense crackdown that was condemned by the international community.In the birthday message to her twins, she said while Iranian authorities “stamp the word ‘permanent’ on our documents they themselves live each day in fear of the fall that will inevitably come at the hands of the people of Iran”.

Gaza’s civil defence agency on Friday said at least 13 people had died in the last 24 hours, including three children who died from exposure to the cold, as a winter storm batters the territory.Heavy rain from Storm Byron has flooded tents and temporary shelters across the Gaza Strip since late Wednesday, compounding the suffering of the territory’s residents, nearly all of whom were displaced during more than two years of war.Gaza’s civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authority, told AFP three children had died from exposure to the cold — two in Gaza City and one in Khan Yunis in the south.Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City confirmed the deaths of Hadeel al-Masri, aged nine, and Taim al-Khawaja, who it said was just several months old.Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis on Thursday said eight-month-old Rahaf Abu Jazar had died in the nearby tented encampment of Al-Mawasi due to the cold.With most of Gaza’s buildings destroyed or damaged, thousands of tents and homemade shelters now line areas cleared of rubble.Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said six people died when a house collapsed in the Bir al-Naja area of the northern Gaza Strip.Four others died when walls collapsed in multiple separate incidents, he said.In a statement, the civil defence said its teams had responded to calls from “13 houses that collapsed due to heavy rains and strong winds, mostly in Gaza City and the north”.- No dry clothes -Under gloomy skies in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, Palestinians used bowls, buckets and hoes to try and remove the water that had pooled around their tents made of plastic sheeting.Young children, some barefoot and others wearing open sandals, trudged and hopped through ponds of muddy water as the rain continued to fall.”The mattress has been soaked since this morning, and the children slept in wet bedding last night,” Umm Muhammad Joudah told AFP.”We don’t have any dry clothes to change into.”Saif Ayman, a 17-year-old who was on crutches due to a leg injury, said his tent had also been submerged.”In this tent we have no blankets. There are six of us sleeping on one mattress, and we cover ourselves with our clothes,” he said.The Hamas-run interior and national security ministry gave a preliminary toll of 14 dead due to the effects of the winter rains since Wednesday.A ceasefire between Israel and militant group Hamas that took effect in October has partially eased restrictions on goods and aid entering into the Gaza Strip.But supplies have entered in insufficient quantities, according to the United Nations, and the humanitarian needs are still immense.The UN’s World Health Organization warned on Friday that thousands of families were “sheltering in low-lying or debris-filled coastal areas with no drainage or protective barriers”.”Winter conditions, combined with poor water and sanitation, are expected to drive a surge in acute respiratory infections,” it added.

A raft of proposed measures from Israel’s ruling coalition targeting the media has sparked outrage, with critics warning the planned reforms would deliver a blow to press freedom.Suggested changes to public broadcasting, coupled with a bid to give permanent powers to the government to ban foreign TV channels which are deemed a threat, come as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to seek another term next year.Surveys show a majority of Israelis believe the premier should be held accountable for the deadly attack on the country by Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023.The government has also announced to much dismay the proposed closure of the widely listened-to public army radio station next year.Months before Hamas’s attack, Netanyahu’s government — one of the most right-wing in the country’s history — proposed far-reaching judicial reforms that triggered mass protests as many feared a slide towards authoritarianism.Israel’s top court struck down a key component of the overhaul in January 2024.Now, Israel’s Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi is pushing a bill that would give the government significantly more control of public broadcasting.The government’s own legal advisor also criticised the text.- ‘Chilling effect’ -In the crosshairs herself with impeachment proceedings, attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara said the bill “endangers the very principle of press freedom”.The law if passed would create a new body to oversee public media that the government says would encourage competition and reduce bureaucracy.But Baharav-Miara warned the concentration of power in the new authority’s hands and political appointments to the body are “likely to have a chilling effect on press independence”.The Union of Journalists in Israel has filed an appeal to the Supreme Court against the text, which Reporters Without Borders (RSF) described as “a nail in the coffin of editorial independence”.”This is not a reform. It is a campaign to incite hatred and silence the free press,” opposition leader Yair Lapid said on Monday, condemning “a hostile takeover of the media”.Media freedom has been deteriorating in Israel, especially since the war in Gaza began in October 2023 following Hamas’s attack, according to RSF.Israel dropped 11 places in the 2025 RSF global press freedom index, from 101st to 112th out of 180 surveyed countries in 2024.- More powers -Government critics say it is not the only draft text that has caused concern.The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, is also debating whether to make permanent a temporary law passed in 2024 that gave the government the power to ban foreign TV channels if they are deemed a threat to the state.The parliament approved the law in the middle of Israel’s war in Gaza, and it was mainly aimed at Qatari news channel Al Jazeera.Using its new powers, the government banned the outlet in May 2024, alleging it has ties with Hamas, which Al Jazeera has denied.Now the current proposal would allow the government to ban a foreign TV outlet without a court order — and regardless of whether the state is at war.The author of the amendment, Ariel Kelner, a Knesset member and part of Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, defended the changes.”The production line of terrorism begins in minds, and especially in the media, which publish confidential information and poison hearts with hatred and anti-Semitic propaganda,” Kelner said.But International Federation of Journalists general secretary Anthony Bellanger said the law, if passed, “would be a serious blow to free speech and media freedom”.- ‘Beyond absurd’ -Like the public broadcasting bill, the Kelner amendment was approved in its first reading and faces a committee review before a final Knesset vote.Another cause for concern is Defence Minister Israel Katz’s decision to shut down the publicly funded military radio station known as Galei Tsahal, founded in 1950. It is Israel’s third most listened to station, latest figures show.The Israel Democracy Institute warned that the government’s move is “contrary to the fundamental principles of the rule of law and undermines press freedom”.Katz said the station would cease broadcasting by March 2026 after he presents it to the cabinet this month.Against this backdrop, the Israeli government continues to deny foreign journalists from independently entering the Gaza Strip, where more than two years of war have devastated the Palestinian territory.The Foreign Press Association (FPA), which filed a petition to the Supreme Court demanding independent access, has denounced the situation as “beyond absurd”.An AFP journalist sits on the FPA’s board of directors.

Iranian authorities have freed a woman who was condemned to hanging over the killing of her husband who she married while a child, in a case that sparked international concern over the plight of women sentenced to death in the Islamic republic, rights activists said on Friday. Iranian authorities confirmed the freeing of Goli Kouhkan from prison in the northern Golestan province after her death sentence was revoked earlier this week under an accord with the dead man’s family.Kouhkan, a member of the Baluch minority without documentation and now aged 25, had been set to be executed this month over the 2018 killing of her husband who according to rights groups was violently abusive towards her and their child.Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) said that she had been spared execution and then released after so-called blood money — diyah under Iran’s Sharia law — was raised to pay her husband’s family for the loss of life.Iranian state television quoted the chief of the judiciary in the Golestan province Heydar Asiabi as saying she had been released on Thursday. It posted a picture of her with officials in a chador with her back to the camera.UN rights experts last week urged Iran to halt the execution of Kouhkan, saying she was forced into marriage at the age of 12 to her cousin and at 13 gave birth to their son, with both mother and child suffering violent abuse from the husband.According to IHR’s current toll, Iranian authorities have executed more than 40 women this year alone. Many of those executed were convicted of killing their husband, who was in some instances abusive or a close relative.The Islamic republic has stepped up its use of capital punishment this year with at least 1,426 people hanged up until the end of November, according to IHR.The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran Mai Sato said while “we celebrate one life saved, we cannot ignore the institutional injustices that nearly killed Goli Kouhkan”. “Goli was sold into marriage as a child and subjected to domestic violence in a country where such violence is not properly criminalised,” she wrote on X.IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “Unfortunately Goli’s story is not unique. So far in 2025 at least two child brides have been executed in Iran.”She was sentenced to death along with her husband’s cousin who she had called when the husband had been beating her and her son. A fight then broke out in which the husband was killed. IHR says that the cousin, Mohammad Abil, “remains on death row and at risk of execution”.