Pakistan on Sunday charged a Baloch rights activist with terrorism, sedition and murder after she led a demonstration which ended in the death of three protesters, according to police documents.Mahrang Baloch, one of Pakistan’s most prominent human rights advocates, has long campaigned for the Baloch ethnic group, which claims it has been targeted by Islamabad with …
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Three civilians including two children were killed Sunday in an artillery attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Omdurman, part of Greater Khartoum, a medical source told AFP.Eyewitnesses in the area said the strikes were some of the heaviest in recent months, coming two days after the army recaptured the capital’s presidential palace in a major symbolic victory.Since April 2023, the RSF has been fighting Sudan’s regular army in a war that has killed tens of thousands, uprooted over 12 million and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.Analysts have warned that the army’s gains, while significant, are unlikely to end a war marked by mass atrocities against civilians, including bombs and artillery routinely hitting homes and markets.”Before, there used to be four or five rounds of shelling, and there was time between one strike and the next,” one resident told AFP, requesting anonymity for fear of retaliation.”This morning there were seven, one right after the other,” he said.The medical source, who is at Al-Nao hospital, one of the city’s last functioning health facilities, said “two children and a woman were killed and eight others injured in the shelling”.In recent days, the army and allied armed groups have regained most of Khartoum proper’s government district, just across the Nile from Omdurman.RSF fighters remain stationed in parts of the city centre including the airport, as well as the capital’s south and west.From their positions in western Omdurman, they have regularly launched strikes on civilian areas.In February, over 50 people were killed in a single RSF artillery attack on a busy Omdurman market.- Clearing operation -After a year and a half of humiliating army defeats, the tide seemed to turn late last year, when a military counteroffensive through central Sudan dislodged the RSF from key bases.Since January, the army has retaken much of the capital Khartoum, pushing the paramilitary into holdout pockets and the outskirts of the city.On Friday, the army and allied armed groups seized the country’s presidential palace, which the RSF had used since the start of the war to house elite forces and stockpile ammunition.The paramilitary force responded with what it called a “lightning operation” including a drone strike that killed three journalists and a number of army personnel.The military has since launched a clearing operation to push the RSF out of the city centre, on Saturday retaking several strategic state institutions including the central bank, state intelligence headquarters and the national museum.An RSF source on Saturday told AFP the paramilitary had “withdrawn from some locations” but that forces were waging “a fierce battle” near the airport.The army has also seized key infrastructure, pushing on Saturday through Tuti Bridge to reclaim Tuti Island, which sits at the confluence of the Blue and White Niles in the centre of Greater Khartoum and has been under paramilitary control for nearly two years.Despite the army’s advances in the capital, Africa’s third largest country remains effectively split in two, with the army holding the east and north while the RSF controls nearly all of the western region of Darfur and parts of the south.
China’s number two leader on Sunday called for “dialogue” with Washington, during a meeting in Beijing attended by prominent US business executives and a key congressional ally of President Donald Trump.Relations between the world’s two largest economies have plunged in recent weeks, as blanket tariffs imposed by Trump threaten China’s trade prospects.Premier Li Qiang’s comments …
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In a Baghdad arena, a crowd cheers to the rhythm of drums, not for a football match but for a fiery centuries-old game enjoyed by Iraqis during Ramadan called “mheibes”.”It’s a heritage game, the game of our ancestors, which unites all Iraqis,” said Jassem al-Aswad, a longtime mheibes champion in his early seventies and now president of the game’s national federation.The game involves members of one team hiding a ring — “mehbis” in Arabic — and the captain of the opposing team trying to guess who has it in the palm of his hand.And he has to do so within 10 minutes.Played during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, the game first appeared as early as the 16th century in Ottoman-era Baghdad, according to Iraqi folklore expert Adel al-Ardawi.More than 500 fans and players gathered in the stands and on the field for two matches: the Baghdad neighbourhood of Kadhimiya against the southern city of Nasiriyah, and the capital’s Al-Mashtal district versus a team from the port city of Basra.Everyone watched as the 40 players on one team huddled together under a blanket to avoid prying eyes, and decided who would hide the “mehbis” or signet ring worn by many Iraqi men.Sitting on the ground or on chairs, the members of the team hiding the ring then adopted serious expressions. Some closed their eyes, while others crossed their arms or even clenched their fists.The rival team captain carefully read these facial expressions and body language to try and guess who had the ring — before pronouncing the verdict.When the first team failed to guess correctly, the other team scored a point and the crowd went wild. – ‘It’s in our blood’ -“Iraqis love football the most, but mheibes comes a close second. It’s in our blood,” Kadhimiya captain Baqer al-Kazimi told AFP.The clean-shaven 51-year-old, who wears a black robe called a jellaba, said he inherited his love of the game from his father.Though mheibes was impacted during decades of conflict, including at the peak of the sectarian war between 2006 and 2008 marked by suicide attacks and kidnappings, Kazimi said he and others continued playing even during those dark years. He said that only the coronavirus pandemic forced players to put their hobby on hold.”Despite the sectarian violence, we played in cafes,” he said, recalling one game between players from the Sunni neighbourhood of Adhamiya and those from Kadhimiya, a predominantly Shiite area.The two districts were separated by a bridge that had been closed for years because of the violence.”We played on the bridge. Sunnis and Shiites met,” he said. Ahmed Maala from Basra recalled a game with a team from Baghdad that lasted all night. “I learned the game by playing with friends and family,” he said.”Mheibes will go down in history for its very large fan base throughout Iraq.”Passion for the game runs so deep that sometimes arguments erupt among players, even escalating into physical violence.In a country with nearly 400 teams, annual competitions see players from across the nation competing against each other, with 10 teams qualifying in Baghdad alone to represent the city’s different neighbourhoods.Mheibes champion Aswad said he hopes the game will one day expand beyond Iraq’s borders. “Just as Brazil popularised football, we will transmit this game to the whole world,” he said.
Israel launched a new wave of strikes on Lebanon in response to a rocket attack from across the border on Saturday, as militant group Hezbollah denied responsibility for the launch.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered “a second wave of strikes against dozens of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon”, the defence ministry said, in the largest escalation since a November 27 ceasefire.It said the strikes were “a response to rocket fire towards Israel and a continuation of the first series of strikes carried out this morning” against southern Lebanon.Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported one girl among five people killed in an Israeli strike during the day on the southern town of Touline.The agency later said three people were killed in an Israeli strike on the city of Tyre, targeted in the second wave of strikes on the south and east, with multiple injuries also reported.Bilal Kachmar, spokesman for the Tyre Disaster Management Unit, told AFP two people were killed and two wounded when “an Israeli strike targeted an apartment in a residential building in the Al-Raml neighbourhood of Tyre”, a key coastal city targeted for the first time since the ceasefire.A security source told AFP that a Hezbollah official was targeted in the Tyre strike, without confirming whether he had been killed.- Hezbollah denial -Israel’s military said six rockets, three of which were intercepted, were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel Saturday, setting off air raid sirens.Hezbollah denied any involvement in the rocket attack, and called Israel’s accusations “pretexts for its continued attacks on Lebanon”.Hezbollah said it stands “with the Lebanese state in addressing this dangerous Zionist escalation on Lebanon”.While Hezbollah has long held sway over parts of Lebanon bordering Israel, other Lebanese and Palestinian groups have also carried out cross-border attacks.Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam warned that renewed military operations on the southern border risked “dragging the country into a new war”, his office said.Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi called for “pressure on Israel to stop the aggression and escalation and contain the dangerous situation on the southern borders”.Israeli defence chiefs say they hold the Lebanese government responsible for all hostile fire from its territory, regardless of who launches it.”We cannot allow fire from Lebanon on Galilee communities,” Israeli Defence Minister Katz said of towns and villages in the north, many of which were evacuated after Hezbollah began firing at Israel in support of Hamas in October 2023.”The Lebanese government is responsible for attacks from its territory.”- UN ‘alarmed’ -The United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said it was “alarmed by the possible escalation of violence” following Saturday morning’s rocket fire.France, which helped broker the ceasefire, condemned the rocket fire and urged Israel to show “restraint”, while Jordan called for immediate international action to “stop the Israeli aggression against Lebanon”.Hezbollah has long had strongholds in south and east Lebanon, as well as south Beirut, but the war with Israel dealt the group devastating blows, leaving it massively weakened.Under the ceasefire, Hezbollah is supposed to pull its forces north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.Israel is supposed to withdraw its forces across the UN-demarcated Blue Line, the de facto border, but has missed two deadlines to do so and continues to hold five positions it deems “strategic”.Israel has carried out repeated air strikes during the ceasefire, targeting what it said were Hezbollah military sites that violated the agreement.The Lebanese army said it had dismantled three makeshift rocket batteries in an area north of the Litani on Saturday.- Hamas official killed -The flare-up came just days into Israel’s renewed offensive in Gaza, which shattered the relative calm in the territory since a January 19 ceasefire.Israel resumed air strikes on Gaza on Tuesday before sending troops back into areas evacuated during the pause in fighting.Katz said Friday he had ordered the army to “seize more territory in Gaza”.On Saturday in Gaza City, Sameh al-Mashharawi said “seven people were martyred” in a strike on his family’s house that killed his two brothers, their children and wives.An Israeli air strike that hit a tent encampment in southern Gaza killed senior Hamas political official Salah al-Bardawil and his wife, a Hamas source told AFP early Sunday.Israel says its military campaign is necessary to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages, dead or alive.Hamas has accused Israel of sacrificing the hostages with the resumed bombardments, while many of the families of the captives have called for a renewed ceasefire, noting that most of those released alive did so during truce periods.
Israel’s opposition leader on Saturday called for a general strike if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to obey a Supreme Court decision freezing the government’s dismissal of the internal security chief.If the government “decides to disobey the Court’s decision it will become a government outside of the law,” Yair Lapid told thousands of demonstrators in central Tel Aviv.”If that happens, the entire country should stop,” he said. “The only system that must not stop is the security system.”The unprecedented move to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar has deepened divisions in the country as Israel resumes its military operations in the Gaza Strip.Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said on Friday that Netanyahu could not name a replacement for Bar, following the Supreme Court decision.Netanyahu insisted, in a post on X, that it was up to the government to decide who headed the domestic security agency. “There will be no civil war! The State of Israel is a state of law, and according to the law, the government of Israel decides who will be the head of the Shin Bet,” the prime minister said.He reiterated that view in a video message Saturday as the Tel Aviv protest was under way.”Ronen Bar will not stay as head of Shin Bet,” he said. “There will not be civil war, and Israel will remain a democratic state.”- ‘Flagrant conflict of interest’ -Demonstrators have spoken of Netanyahu’s policies, including the firing of Bar, as a threat to Israel’s democracy.Lapid spoke at an anti-government rally where demonstrators held signs protesting the war in the Gaza Strip and calling for hostages held there to be freed.Signs read “No more bloodshed” and “Stop the war, Now!” to ensure the return of the 58 hostages captured on October 7, 2023 and still held in Gaza.In front of the defence ministry headquarters, Menahem Begin Street was packed from Kaplan Street to King Saul Street, an AFP photographer observed, suggesting a crowd of several tens of thousands of people, a very significant mobilization on a national scale.Lapid’s party Yesh Atid, which appealed Bar’s firing to the Supreme Court, denounced the government move to sack Bar as “a decision based on flagrant conflict of interest”.The government is to meet on Sunday to begin dismissal proceedings against the attorney general, a vocal Netanyahu critic, citing “prolonged disagreements”.A demonstration against her removal is scheduled for Sunday outside parliament, and near Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence.
