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Prominent Tunisian human rights activist Sihem Bensedrine was released from jail on Wednesday after an appeals court ruling, AFP journalists said, although she remains barred from leaving the country.A court spokesman earlier said Bensedrine cannot leave Tunisia as she still faces charges in other cases.”I can only be happy, as no one wants to be in this hole,” she said upon her release on Wednesday evening from Manouba prison in the suburbs of the capital.”Breathing the air of freedom like this afternoon and after seeing a just a small patch of blue sky (from her cell), I prayed to God to see the entire sky, and my wish was granted.”Bensedrine, 74, headed the now-defunct Truth and Dignity Commission (IVD), which was tasked with uncovering abuses under the country’s past autocratic rulers.She had been detained since August for allegedly “falsifying” the commission’s final report, which was published in 2020.She has also been accused of accepting a bribe to include a passage accusing the Franco-Tunisian Bank (BFT) of corruption, an allegation she has denied.Her husband, Omar Mestiri, told AFP before her release that Bensedrine “had suffered but is in good spirits”.”She is determined to fight to assert her rights,” he said.In January, Bensedrine, a former journalist, said she was going on hunger strike in protest at her detention. She was hospitalised 10 days later.Announcing the hunger strike in a letter from Manouba, she had said she would “no longer tolerate the injustice that has struck me. Justice cannot be based on lies and slander, but on concrete and tangible pieces of evidence.”- ‘Persecution’ -Established in 2014 in the aftermath of Tunisia’s 2011 revolution, the IVD was tasked with documenting state-led human rights violations between 1955 and 2013.The period includes authoritarian rule in the North African country under presidents Habib Bourguiba and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was ousted during the revolution.The IVD received testimony from tens of thousands of Tunisian victims of abuses including rape and torture.On Tuesday, the United Nations human rights chief denounced the “persecution of political opponents” in Tunisia, urging the authorities to halt a wave of arrests and arbitrary detentions.Bensedrine’s lawyer, Abderraouf Ayadi, said in December that the charges were part of a “politically motivated case fabricated against her”.”Tunisia’s judiciary is currently under political influence,” he added, arguing that the charges stemmed from her role as an outspoken critic of the government.President Kais Saied was elected in 2019, after Tunisia emerged as the only democracy from the Arab Spring. But in 2021, he staged a sweeping power grab. Critics and human rights groups have since warned of a rollback on freedoms.Last August, a group of UN experts had called for Bensedrine to be given a fair trial, saying her arrest could amount to judicial harassment.”In a context marked by the suppression of numerous dissenting voices, the arrest of Ms Bensedrine raises serious concerns about the respect of the right to freedom of opinion and expression in Tunisia and has a chilling effect on journalists, human rights defenders and civil society in general,” they said in a joint statement.

Syria’s tiny Jewish community said they held their first group prayer in decades Wednesday, in a synagogue in Damascus’s Old City, expressing joy at the long-awaited return to public worship.In the Faranj synagogue, Syrian-American Rabbi Yusuf Hamra led the prayer for the first time since arriving this week from the United States, where he has lived since the 1990s.”The last time I visited the synagogue here and prayed was before I travelled to America,” said Hamra, 77.”After arriving in Damascus two days ago, I came to pray for the first time… after 34 years,” he told AFP in the Jewish quarter of the capital’s Old City.Hamra said he was the last rabbi to quit Syria — one of thousands of members of the Jewish community to leave in the 1990s.Syria’s centuries-old Jewish community was able to practise their religion under then president Hafez al-Assad, but the strongman prevented them from leaving the country until 1992.After that, their numbers plummeted from around 5,000 at the time.Now just seven elderly Jews are believed to live in Damascus.After an Islamist-led rebel alliance overthrew Hafez’s son Bashar al-Assad in December last year, Hamra said he seized the opportunity to return with his son.All of Syria’s synagogues closed when civil war erupted in 2011, Hamra said.A historic synagogue in the Damascus suburb of Jobar once drew Jewish pilgrims from around the world but was looted and heavily damaged during the war.The whole suburb was devastated during the conflict.The Assad family had presented itself as a protector of minorities in multi-ethnic, multi-confessional Syria.Syria’s new Islamist-led authorities have repeatedly sought to reassure minorities that they will be protected, and have pledged to involve all Syrians in building the country’s future.At the end of the prayer, community leader Bakhour Chamntoub expressed happiness at Hamra’s return to the synagogue.”I need Jews with me in the neighbourhood,” he said of the Jewish quarter, where he lives.He expressed hope that “Jews will return to their neighbourhood and their people” in Syria.”For nearly 40 years, I haven’t prayed with others. The feeling is indescribable,” he said.

Germany’s car lobby on Wednesday warned that tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump would raise prices for American drivers after Trump said he might hike taxes on imports of cars, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday, Trump told reporters that tariffs on the automobile industry will “be in the neighbourhood …

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Hamas signalled on Wednesday that it was willing to free all remaining hostages held in Gaza in a single swap during the next phase of an ongoing ceasefire.Israel and Hamas are currently in the process of implementing phase one of the fragile truce, which has held since taking effect on January 19 despite accusations of violations on both sides.Israel’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that talks would begin “this week” on the second phase, which is expected to lay out a more permanent end to the war.”We have informed the mediators that Hamas is ready to release all hostages in one batch during the second phase of the agreement, rather than in stages as in the current first phase,” senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP.He did not clarify how many hostages were currently being held by Hamas or other militant groups.Nunu said this step was meant “to confirm our seriousness and complete readiness to move forward in resolving this issue, as well as to continue steps towards cementing the ceasefire and achieving a sustainable truce”.Under the ceasefire’s first phase, 19 Israeli hostages have been released by militants so far in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails in a series of Red Cross-mediated swaps.Wednesday’s offer came after Israel and Hamas announced a deal for the return of all six remaining living hostages eligible for release under phase one in a single swap this weekend.Hamas also agreed on Tuesday to return the bodies of eight dead hostages in two groups this week and next.After the completion of the first phase, 58 hostages will remain in Gaza.- ‘Room to pressure Hamas’ -Muhammad Shehada, of the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that after more than a year of devastating Israeli assault in Gaza, “Hamas wants to prevent the war resuming at any cost”, albeit with some “red lines”.”And one of those red lines is that they should continue to exist, basically, whereas (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s position is that they should dismantle themselves,” he said.Since the start of the war, Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas’s capacity to fight or govern, something the militant group has rejected.But the appearance that Washington is now in complete alignment with Netanyahu’s government, as displayed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit this week, strengthened the Israeli premier’s hand in negotiations, according to Michael Horowitz, an expert at the risk management consultancy Le Beck International.It gives Netanyahu “more room to pressure Hamas”, Horowitz said, adding that US President Donald Trump “prefers that the agreement moves forward, but he’s leaving the field open to Netanyahu… as long as the ceasefire is maintained”.- ‘Held onto hope’ -Among the bodies Hamas said it would hand over on Thursday are those of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Kfir and Ariel, who have become national symbols in Israel of the hostages’ ordeal.The boys’ father Yarden Bibas was taken hostage separately on October 7, 2023, and was released alive during an earlier hostage-prisoner swap.While Hamas said Shiri Bibas and her boys were killed in an Israeli air strike early in the war, Israel has never confirmed this, and many supporters remain unconvinced of their deaths, including members of the Bibas family.”I ask that no one eulogise my family just yet. We have held onto hope for 16 months, and we are not giving up now,” the boys’ aunt, Ofri Bibas, wrote on Facebook late Tuesday following Hamas’s announcement.Israeli authorities have confirmed that the remains of four hostages are due to be returned on Thursday, although they have not officially named them.The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has acted as go-between in the exchanges, called for a respectful handover of the hostages’ remains.”We once again call for all releases to be conducted in a private and dignified manner, including when they tragically involve the deceased,” it said.Hamas and its allies took 251 people hostage during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, of whom 70 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,297 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.- Soldiers charged -Since the war began, Israeli forces have detained hundreds of Gazans, some of whom have been released in previous rounds of hostage-prisoner exchanges.On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it had filed charges of “causing severe injury and abuse under aggravating circumstances” against five reservist soldiers for assaulting a Palestinian detainee in July last year.”The indictment charges the accused with acting against the detainee with severe violence, including stabbing the detainee’s bottom with a sharp object, which had penetrated near the detainee’s rectum,” a military statement said, adding the alleged abuse also caused cracked ribs and a punctured lung.It said the incident took place at the Sde Teiman detention facility following an instruction to conduct a search of the detainee during which he was “blindfolded, and cuffed at the hands and ankles”.The detention centre near the border was created early in the war to hold detainees from Gaza.

World number one Aryna Sabalenka slumped to a 6-3, 6-2 loss against Denmark’s Clara Tauson in the last 16 of the Dubai Championships on Wednesday, as Jasmine Paolini’s title defence came to a painful end.Sabalenka, who beat the 38th-ranked Tauson on her way to last month’s Australian Open final, suffered a second straight premature exit after losing in her opening match in Qatar a week ago.Tauson broke Sabalenka’s serve six times and the Dane will go on to play Czech youngster Linda Noskova, who knocked out fifth seed Jessica Pegula in straight sets to reach the quarter-finals.The 22-year-old Tauson beat Noskova in the first round of the Australian Open. She also won the title in Auckland at the start of January and made the semi-finals in Linz earlier this month.Noskova will have her shot at revenge on Thursday after beating Pegula 6-3, 7-6 (10/8). Defending champion Paolini suffered an ankle injury and was dumped out by Sofia Kenin as the fourth seed from Italy lost 6-4, 6-0 in just over an hour.Kenin, the world number 27, raced to a 5-2 lead in the opening set before closing the door on a Paolini fightback.Any hopes Paolini had of forcing the match to a deciding set were undone when she took a bad fall early in the second set.Rolling over her right ankle mid-rally she played on, but was obviously suffering, and in tears.This was Kenin’s first win over a top-five player since her victorious title run at the 2020 Australian Open.Kenin’s reward for defeating last year’s Wimbledon and French Open finalist was a quarter-final date with Elena Rybakina after the Kazakh sixth seed overcame a tight battle with Paula Badosa 4-6, 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (7/2).Paolini’s loss came after a tricky start to her title defence on Tuesday. – Zheng sent packing -She had reached match point before rain forced the players off the court. Over four hours later, the world No.4 returned to win the final point, beating German qualifier Eva Lys 6-2, 7-5.Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen suffered a similar fate to Paolini, the Chinese seventh seed beaten in three sets by Kenin’s fellow American, Peyton Stearns.The 23-year-old Stearns, ranked 46 in the world, fought back from a set down against last year’s Australian Open finalist to win the second round tie held over after Tuesday’s rain 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. After a brief break Stearns returned to face 12th seed Mirra Andreeva in the last 16 where her Dubai run ended, losing 6-1, 6-1 to the young Russian.Waiting for Andreeva in the quarter-finals is second seed Iga Swiatek.The Pole, beaten in the Australian Open semi-finals last month, won the last eight games to beat Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska 7-5, 6-0.American eighth seed Emma Navarro, made it into the last 16 after defeating this month’s Abu Dhabi Open winner Belinda Bencic 7-6 (8/6), 2-6, 6-3.Earlier Wednesday tennis officials said Emma Raducanu was targeted by “a man who exhibited fixated behaviour” after the former US Open champion was reduced to tears on court.The 22-year-old Briton was down 2-0 in the first set against Karolina Muchova on Tuesday when she approached the umpire, then briefly took refuge behind the umpire’s chair.Muchova went over to see what was wrong before Raducanu reappeared, wiping away tears with her towel.The WTA said it would ban the man, who had been sitting in the first few rows of the crowd in Raducanu’s match, after what it called “the security incident in Dubai”.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday rejected a controversial proposal by US President Donald Trump to displace Palestinians from the war-devastated Gaza Strip. The Arab League is scheduled to hold an extraordinary meeting in Cairo on March 4 in response to Trump’s plan to take over Gaza and permanently move its Palestinian inhabitants elsewhere, including to Egypt and Jordan, and then redevelop the coastal territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.Speaking in Madrid ahead of the gathering, Sisi called for the “international community’s support and adoption of a plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip without displacing the Palestinian people — I repeat, without displacing the Palestinian people — from their land, which they cling to, and their homeland, which they do not agree to relinquish”.Sanchez, one of the staunchest defenders of the Palestinian cause within the European Union, agreed, saying “Gaza belongs to the Palestinians and is part of the future Palestinian state”.”Their expulsion would not only be immoral and contrary to international law and United Nations resolutions, but would also have a destabilising effect,” the Socialist premier added.The two leaders also signed a declaration upgrading Egypt-Spain relations to a “strategic partnership”, as well as several memorandums of understanding in various fields including illegal migration and defence.Trump’s plan sparked an outcry from Arab governments as well as from world leaders, and the United Nations warned against “ethnic cleansing” in the Palestinian territory.