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For Muslims in Saudi Arabia and most Sunni-ruled Middle Eastern states Ramadan will begin on Saturday, but in Shiite-majority Iran and Iraq it will start the following day, authorities announced. The holy month, during which hundreds of millions of faithful around the world observe a daytime fast, traditionally begins with the sighting of the crescent moon. Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s two holiest sites, was joined by its Gulf Arab neighbours in declaring that the moon had been sighted on Friday.”The Supreme Court has decided that tomorrow, Saturday, is the first day of the month of (Ramadan),” the official Saudi Press Agency posted on X.Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, the Palestinian territories, Sudan and Tunisia announced they too would begin the daytime fast on Saturday.But the office of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, declared Sunday the first day of Ramadan.Only in Morocco, at the far-western edge of the Arab world, will Sunnis start observing the daytime fast on Sunday, its Islamic affairs ministry announced. In multi-confessional Lebanon, the grand mufti announced Saturday as the first day of Ramadan for Sunnis, state media reported.Observing the Ramadan fast is one of the five pillars of Islam, requiring believers to abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours. Observant Muslims are also encouraged to donate to the poor.burs/kir/it

Deep in the Saudi Arabian desert, a group of robed men are peering into the sky, trying to spot the crescent moon that signifies the start of Ramadan.Their work is significant: an official sighting of the moon begins a month of fasting and prayer for millions of Muslims in Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam’s holiest sites, and beyond. “I feel a great responsibility, before God above all… and I seek success because the matter is related to the fasting of all Muslims,” said Abdullah al-Khudairi, director of the Majmaah University Astronomical Observatory. After much squinting, and using a large yellow triangle and protractor to work out where the moon will appear, the anxiety lifts: the moon is sighted, just after sunset. “The crescent has been seen. Tomorrow is the first day of Ramadan,” Khudairi told AFP. The news is relayed to the Royal Court, which duly announces Saturday as the start of the holy month. A similar process has played out for centuries, following the instructions decreed by the Prophet Mohammed about 1,400 years ago.Several Muslim countries follow the announcement from Saudi Arabia, the Prophet’s birthplace, in declaring the start of Ramadan. Although this group, one of 12 moon-sighting teams deployed around the kingdom, is equipped with high-tech telescopes, Saudi religious authorities insist the celestial body must be spotted with the naked eye. Khudairi, 58, takes his task so seriously that he stays away from smartphones and computer screens year-round, fearing they will dim his eyesight. “I don’t use the phone except for calls and I don’t turn on the computer… Colleagues do that for me, so I don’t use screens at all,” he told AFP. – ‘Ability to focus’ -The spotting team, wearing traditional kandora robes and red-and-white ghutrah headdresses, have driven about 30 minutes from the observatory down bumpy desert tracks to a rocky promontory about 160 kilometres (100 miles) north of Riyadh. Khudairi inherited his passion for astronomy from his father, who would often take him on trips to the desert. But he says his success in moon-sighting is down to his vision and concentration. Seeing the crescent with the naked eye demands “sharp eyesight, colour differentiation, and the ability to focus”, he said. “Not just anyone can say they saw the crescent; the person must be sane, balanced, adult, and known for justice for their testimony to be accepted,” added Khudairi. Sighting expeditions are often unsuccessful, delaying the start of Ramadan for at least a day. “Stirred dust, clouds or industrial and environmental pollution” can all obscure the view,” Khudairi said.Meanwhile, in the neighbouring United Arab Emirates, authorities took a more modern approach: flying drones equipped with artificial intelligence in an attempt to capture the moon.”This method will complement traditional naked-eye sighting accounts,” the official WAM news agency said, citing the UAE Council for Fatwa. 

For Muslims in Saudi Arabia and most Sunni-ruled Middle Eastern states Ramadan will begin on Saturday, but in Shiite-majority Iran and Iraq it will start the following day, authorities announced. The holy month, during which hundreds of millions of faithful around the world observe a daytime fast, traditionally begins with the sighting of the crescent moon. Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s two holiest sites, was joined by its Gulf Arab neighbours in declaring that it had been sighted on Friday.”The Supreme Court has decided that tomorrow, Saturday, is the first day of the month of (Ramadan),” the official Saudi Press Agency posted on X.Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, the Palestinian territories and Sudan announced they too would begin the fast on Saturday.But the office of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, declared Sunday the first day of Ramadan.In multi-confessional Lebanon, the grand mufti announced Saturday as the first day of Ramadan for Sunnis, state media reported.Observing the Ramadan fast is one of the five pillars of Islam, requiring believers to abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours. Observant Muslims are also encouraged to donate to the poor.burs/kir/it

Lebanese on Friday conducted a delayed burial in a border village for more than 90 civilians and fighters from the Hezbollah movement who died during the war with Israel that ended with a November ceasefire.Under the truce, Israel had an initial 60 days, later extended to February 18, to pull out its troops from southern Lebanon, but it did not withdraw most of them until the later deadline.In the heavily damaged town square of Aitaroun, the coffins arrived on four trucks, some covered in the yellow flag of Iran-backed Hezbollah, others in the national flag.Flowers were scattered on top.Sobbing women, dressed in black, gathered around the vehicles holding photos of the Hezbollah fighters or the movement’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed by an Israeli air strike during the war.The coffins were then transported to a cemetery where 95 graves were dug, each marked by a number.The dead included 51 Hezbollah fighters, most of them killed in combat, and 31 civilians, including five children and 16 women, killed by Israeli strikes, according to a channel dedicated to the village on the Telegram app.It added there were 13 people who had died of natural causes. One of the mourners, Atef Khouzeirat, said an Israeli strike on a building killed his son Hussein, a volunteer with the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee.”My son stayed for 56 days inside the building after his death, without rescuers being able to recover his body,” Khouzeirat said. “Where is the humanity? Where are the human rights?”Khouzeirat added that his son had studied radiography at university. “He was not a terrorist,” but a volunteer “in the service of his country.”Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel in October 2023, saying it was acting in support of Hamas in its war with Israel in Gaza. Nearly a year of low-level conflict escalated in September last year, with Israel sending in ground troops.The ceasefire took effect on November 27, after more than a year of conflict killed more than 4,000 people. Reconstruction costs are expected to top $10 billion, Lebanese authorities have said.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday spoke to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, urging him to release a British citizen and activist jailed in Cairo, Downing Street said.”The prime minister discussed the case of British national Alaa Abd El-Fattah with President Sisi. He pressed for Alaa’s release, having met his mother Laila Soueif in recent weeks,” Downing Street said in a readout of the pair’s telephone call. Fattah, 43, a pro-democracy and rights campaigner, was arrested by Egyptian authorities in September 2019 and later given a five-year sentence for “spreading false news”.He was a key figure in the 2011 revolt that toppled Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak and was given British citizenship in 2022 through his British-born mother.His family criticised his trial as a “farce” and has demanded he be released having completed his sentence.Soueif, 68, has been on hunger strike for 152 days in protest against the detention, and has been given a glucose drip after being hospitalised in London, a campaign group said on Friday.She was admitted to London’s St Thomas’s Hospital late on Monday due to “dangerously new lows” in her blood sugar and sodium levels, as well as her blood pressure.She had previously turned down artificial glucose, despite being warned there was an “immediate risk to life”, but agreed at the request of her daughters Sanaa and Mona to take one dose “in an effort to extend her life”, campaign group Free Alaa said in a press release.- ‘Free my brother’ -Soueif started the drip on Thursday and the dose was given to her over the course of 12 hours “due to the dangers of the intervention at this stage in her hunger strike”, said the campaign group.”Doctors at the hospital have stressed that this is a temporary intervention, that they cannot guarantee it will extend Laila’s life, and that if it does it will be for a limited time, possibly only a few hours, and if lucky a few days,” they added.Soueif has lost almost 30 kilograms (66 pounds) since starting her hunger strike, which she has vowed to continue until her son is released.For weeks, Soueif braved London’s bitter cold to demonstrate outside Starmer’s Downing Street office each working day since the date she says her son should have been released.Sanaa Seif called on Starmer to take urgent action.”When we met Keir Starmer he asked us for more time and promised that he would do all he could to free my brother,” she said.”I don’t think we’ll be able to convince mum to do this again. So we desperately urge the prime minister to use this time well,” she added.

Eli Sharabi, who was held hostage in Gaza for more than 490 days, has recounted his suffering in captivity in a televised interview, an extract of which was posted on social media by Israel’s foreign ministry Friday.”For a year and four months my legs were shackled with chains with very, very heavy locks that cut into your flesh,” Sharabi said in the interview broadcast late Thursday on Israel’s Channel 12.He spoke of intense hunger, food deprivation and the days when the only thing to eat was “this quarter of a pita that you can finish in three bites”.”You eat it for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, crumb by crumb, to really feel that you’ve eaten something,” he said in the interview.Sharabi, now 53, was at his home in kibbutz Beeri with his British-born wife Lianne and their two teenage daughters when Hamas stormed it on October 7, 2023 in the attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.He was released on February 8 with two other Israelis as part of an exchange for Palestinian prisoners under the truce that came into effect on January 19. The frail, disoriented appearance of the three men sparked dismay and shock in Israel and beyond.It was only after his release that Sharabi learned that his wife and two teenage daughters had been killed on October 7, 2023.His brother, Yossi Sharabi, was taken hostage separately and is still in Gaza, presumed dead.”Contrary to what one might think, I’m not angry,” Eli Sharabi told Channel 12.”I’m lucky I had Lianne for 30 years and our two amazing daughters for years, I’m lucky they didn’t kill me,” he said.Sharabi recalled that one day in captivity, his guard “learned that Israeli planes had destroyed his family’s house”.”I was the first one to get it. Kicks, punches, to the ribs,” he said.”He was starved. Beaten. Tortured — physically and mentally,” Israel’s foreign ministry said in a post on X Friday which included an extract from the interview.”For 491 days, he was held hostage in unimaginable conditions, completely cut off from the outside world,” it said.Sharabi said he gave the almost hour-long interview for the hostages still being held in Gaza so that they could be brought back as soon as possible.

An Egyptian-British mother on hunger strike in protest against the detention of her activist son in Cairo has been given a glucose drip after being hospitalised in London, a campaign group said on Friday.Laila Soueif, 68, has been on hunger strike for 152 days and was admitted to London’s St Thomas’s Hospital late on Monday due to “dangerously new lows” in her blood sugar and sodium levels, as well as her blood pressure.She had previously turned down artificial glucose, despite being warned there was an “immediate risk to life”, but agreed at the request of her daughters Sanaa and Mona to take one dose “in an effort to extend her life”, campaign group Free Alaa said in a press release.Soueif has lived on only coffee, tea and rehydration sachets since September 29, 2024, the date that marked five years in detention for her son Alaa Abdel Fattah.Fattah, 43, a pro-democracy and rights campaigner, was arrested by Egyptian authorities in September 2019 and later given a five-year sentence for “spreading false news”. His family criticised his trial as a “farce” and has demanded he be released having completed his sentence.Soueif started the drip on Thursday and the dose was given to her over the course of 12 hours “due to the dangers of the intervention at this stage in her hunger strike”, said the campaign group.”Doctors at the hospital have stressed that this is a temporary intervention, that they cannot guarantee it will extend Laila’s life, and that if it does it will be for a limited time, possibly only a few hours, and if lucky a few days,” they added.Soueif has lost almost 30 kilograms (66 pounds) since starting her hunger strike, which she has vowed to continue until her son is released.For weeks, Soueif braved London’s bitter cold to demonstrate outside Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Downing Street office each working day since the date she says her son should have been released.Sanaa Seif called on Starmer to take urgent action.”When we met Keir Starmer he asked us for more time and promised that he would do all he could to free my brother,” she said.”I don’t think we’ll be able to convince mum to do this again. So we desperately urge the prime minister to use this time well,” she added.

US President Donald Trump’s idea to rebuild the Gaza Strip as a swanky riviera is unacceptable unless it is for Gazans themselves to live in, a Palestinian minister said on Friday.”It’s very good to rebuild Gaza as a riviera — but with its people in it,” said Palestinian minister of state for foreign affairs Varsen Aghabekian.Trump’s vision for Gaza involves the United States taking over the occupied Palestinian territory, resettling its Palestinian inhabitants elsewhere and transforming the war-ravaged strip into a riviera for “world people”.Aghabekian said displacing Gazans elsewhere was “unacceptable, by all means”.”Let it become a riviera,” she said, “but for its people, who have been suffering for such a long time and deserve that their place becomes a riviera rather than a besieged place that smells of death.”Aghabekian was speaking to the United Nations correspondents’ association ACANU during a visit to Geneva to address the UN Human Rights Council.She said it would be a “natural development” for her Palestinian Authority to run the territory instead of the militant group Hamas in future.”Palestinian national interests should supersede any other factional interests,” she said.”The running of Gaza would be through the legitimate authority of the state of Palestine and its arm the government. That’s how we see it for the future of Gaza.”- ‘Gaza-isation’ of West Bank -Hamas called on Friday for international pressure on Israel to enter the next phase of a ceasefire between them that has largely halted the war in Gaza, as negotiations were resuming in Cairo.The fragile ceasefire, which came into effect on January 19, “has to be maintained at any cost”, said Aghabekian.The ceasefire has seen the release of Israel hostages from Gaza, with Hamas staging elaborate handover ceremonies, and Palestinian prisoners from Israeli detention.Aghabekian said hostages should be treated with respect and within the law.”We would hope that there would be no more exhibitions of such parades in the future and that the release of the rest of the hostages and moving into the second phase takes place smoothly,” she said.Hundreds of Palestinians, some kept in Israeli jails for years, have been freed in the West Bank under the ceasefire.”These people need a lot of rehabilitation. They need to integrate into a society that is already struggling and suffering, so there are a lot of issues of concern,” Aghabekian said.Israel’s military began a major raid against what they said were Palestinian militants in the West Bank over a month ago, in the longest continuous offensive in the occupied territory in two decades.”The situation on the West Bank is extremely volatile,” Aghabekian said.”What we are being threatened with is the Gaza-isation of the West Bank, which means that people are afraid that the model that has been exercised on the Gaza Strip — the genocidal, atrocious, brutal attacks — are transferred to the West Bank.”

India will finalise a “mutually beneficial” free trade deal with the European Union by the end of this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday after meeting with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.”We have asked our teams to work out a mutually beneficial bilateral free trade agreement by the end of this year,” Modi …

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