International

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, expressed her deep concern about recently published reports by the United Nations including OHCHR, describing a dramatic deterioration in conditions of detention for Palestinian men, women and children under Israeli custody, since the start of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023.The UN Special Representative pointed to reports of violence and inhuman and degrading treatment in the occupation's jails, stressing that such abhorrent acts not only constitute a grave violation of human rights and human dignity but they also undermine efforts towards peace and stability in the region.She called for the provision of necessary medical and psychological support to the victims to begin the healing process.Special Representative Patten stressed the importance of upholding international human rights standards and ensuring that detention conditions strictly conform with international norms and standards, and urges the Israeli occupation authorities to grant unhindered access to relevant international bodies to detention facilities in the Israeli entity and in the occupied Palestinian territories, including Gaza.She reiterated her call for independent and thorough investigations by relevant and competent UN bodies into all these alleged violations in order to bring all perpetrators, regardless of rank or affiliation, to justice

At least nine people have died after their boat sank off the coast of Senegal, the navy said yesterday, in the latest migration-linked tragedy to occur off West Africa.The pirogue, which was “involved in irregular emigration”, capsized on Sunday off the coast of the western town of Mbour, the navy said in a post on X.The navy said it had launched a search involving three vessels and a Spanish maritime patrol aircraft.“Nine lifeless bodies were discovered and three survivors identified. An unknown number of people have been rescued by local fishermen”, it said, without giving the number of missing.The search is ongoing along the coast, AFP journalists saw.Several locals said the boat was carrying dozens of migrants, but AFP was unable to verify this.Onlookers and relatives of the victims gathered on the shore for news of the missing.Senegal’s coasts are one of the main departure points for thousands of migrants heading to Europe. The Atlantic route is particularly perilous due to the strong currents, with thousands of deaths and disappearances every year on overloaded, often unseaworthy boats.Over 22,000 migrants have already landed in Spain’s Canary Islands so far this year, more than double the number from the previous year.“It’s a real catastrophe that we’re currently experiencing, and unfortunately we’re going to continue to do so because young people are so determined to leave,” said Mohamed Barro, a local councillor. He said he lost his 38-year-old nephew, who was married with two children, in the shipwreck and had been waiting five hours to recover his body from the morgue at a local hospital.During a three-day West African tour at the end of August, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez signed a new agreement with Senegal aimed at regularising migration.The accord covers new economic sectors and includes training for Senegalese who settle in Spain.

Catherine, Britain’s Princess of Wales, yesterday said she had finished her course of preventative chemotherapy for cancer, saying the treatment had given her a new perspective and made her grateful for “simply loving and being loved”.Catherine, 42, wife of heir-to-the-throne Prince William, underwent major abdominal surgery in January which revealed the presence of cancer and has been undergoing treatment since then.In a personal message accompanying a unique video of her with her husband and their three young children, Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte, Catherine said she would be carrying out a handful of public engagements later this year, but said her path to full recovery would be long.“As the summer comes to an end, I cannot tell you what a relief it is to have finally completed my chemotherapy treatment,” she said in her message.“The last nine months have been incredibly tough for us as a family. Life as you know it can change in an instant and we have had to find a way to navigate the stormy waters and road unknown.”Catherine made her first public appearance since her health issues emerged in June at the annual military parade to mark the official birthday of King Charles. In July, she appeared at the Wimbledon tennis championships.Her office, Kensington Palace, has declined to give any further details about the type of cancer or other specifics about her treatment, other than to say the preventative chemotherapy began in February.“The cancer journey is complex, scary and unpredictable for everyone, especially those closest to you,” she said.“With humility, it also brings you face to face with your own vulnerabilities in a way you have never considered before, and with that, a new perspective on everything.“This time has above all reminded William and me to reflect and be grateful for the simple yet important things in life, which so many of us often take for granted. Of simply loving and being loved.”

The UN rights chief has warned that the world needed to change paths to avoid a future filled with military escalation, repression, disinformation, deepening inequality and rampant climate change.Opening a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Volker Turk stressed that “we are at a fork in the road”.“We can either continue on our current path – a treacherous ‘new normal’ – and sleepwalk into a dystopian future, or we can wake up and turn things around for the better, for humanity and the planet,” he said.In a world wracked by conflicts, including Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the civil war raging in Sudan, Turk insisted that “states must not – cannot – accept blatant disregard for international law”.Currently, he warned, the world appears comfortable with the “crossing of innumerable red lines, or readiness to toe right up to them”.Turk said that during a record year for elections globally, such votes matter.“With some elections already having taken place, and others still to come this year, I urge all voters to keep in mind the issues that matter most to them – be it a home, education for their children, their health or job, justice, their family and loved ones, the environment, to be free from violence, tackling corruption, being heard,” he said.“These are all human rights issues,” Turk said. “I urge voters to ask themselves which of the political platforms or candidates will work for the human rights of everyone.”The world’s new normal, he said, “cannot be endless, vicious military escalation and increasingly horrifying, technologically advanced methods of warfare, control, and repression”.Turk warned against a “free-for-all spread of disinformation, smothering facts and the ability to make free and informed choices”.He also slammed “heated rhetoric and simplistic fixes, erasing context, nuance, and empathy. Paving the way for hate speech and the dire consequences that inevitably follow”.“I urge all voters to be vigilant. Be wary of the shrill voices, the ‘strongman’ types that throw glitter in our eyes, offering illusory solutions that deny reality,” Turk said. “Know that when one group is singled out as a scapegoat for society’s ills, one day your own might be next.”

Nobel Peace Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who unveiled her first documentary with Apple TV+ at the Toronto film festival, said yesterday that its inspiring story of elderly South Korean women sea divers dovetails perfectly with her own activism.The Last of the Sea Women tells the compelling story of the matriarchal haenyeo community, whose members support themselves by fishing off South Korea’s Jeju island, using only wetsuits, masks, flippers, baskets and hooks.The traditional community, inscribed on Unesco’s intangible cultural heritage list in 2016, has existed for centuries, but is at risk as many of the women are now in their 60s, 70s or even 80s.“I was looking for stories of women ... I wanted stories of their resilience. And when I heard about this project from Sue, I was like, ‘This is exactly what I’m looking for’,” Yousafzai told AFP in an interview with Korean-American director Sue Kim.“When I look at the stories of the haenyeo, it inspires me about the possibilities and the capabilities that women have in their bodies, in their minds,” said the 27-year-old Pakistani activist, who is one of the film’s producers. “They have inspired me in so many ways, in their activism and how they are co-operating with nature, how they have built the community.”In the 1960s, 30,000 women plucked everything from abalone to octopus from the sea to support their families.Today, that number has dwindled to 4,000.The film shows the women speaking candidly about their difficult jobs, which involves holding their breath underwater for up to two minutes, and includes beautiful under-sea images of them at work.It explores how the haenyeo are attempting to breathe new life into their culture through training and social media outreach, and how they work together to prevent overfishing.It also examines the threat they believe is posed by the release into the Pacific Ocean of wastewater from Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant.“I met them first when I was a child, and I was so struck by them, because they cut such a confident, bold figure,” Kim, making her feature directorial debut, told AFP. “They’re total badasses. They’re so physically agile and adept and strong, and they’re advocating for the environment, and they’re caring about the next generation.”As a teenager, Yousafzai survived a 2012 assassination attempt by the Taliban over her campaigning for education rights for girls.She was co-awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 at age 17.She signed a deal with Apple TV+ in 2021 to produce content focused on women and girls and has started her own production company.“Storytelling has been part of my activism, and I believe that we need to create platforms and opportunities for girls and women to reflect on the world as they see it,” Yousafzai said. “I hope to continue to work with these incredible female directors and storytellers to bring more stories to the screen.”

Germany’s government has announced plans to impose tighter controls at all of the country’s land borders in what it called an attempt to tackle irregular migration and protect the public from threats such as religious extremism.The controls within what is normally a wide area of free movement – the European Schengen zone – will start on September 16 and initially last for six months, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said yesterday.The government has also designed a scheme enabling authorities to reject more migrants directly at German borders, Faeser said, without adding details on the controversial and legally fraught move.The restrictions are part of a series of measures Germany has taken to toughen its stance on irregular migration in recent years following a surge in arrivals, in particular people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East.Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government is seeking to seize back the initiative from the opposition far-right and conservatives, who have seen support rise as they tap into voter worries about stretched public services, integration and security.“We are strengthening internal security and continuing our hard line against irregular migration,” Faeser said, noting the government had notified the European Commission and neighbouring countries of the intended controls.Recent deadly knife attacks in which the suspects were asylum-seekers have stoked concerns over immigration.The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a knife attack in the western city of Solingen that killed three people in August.The AfD earlier this month became the first far-right party since World War II to win a state election, in Thuringia, after campaigning heavily on the issue of migration.Polls show that it is also voters’ top concern in the state of Brandenburg, which is set to hold elections in two weeks.Scholz and Faeser’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) are fighting to retain control of the government there, in a vote billed as a test of strength of the SPD ahead of next year’s federal election.“The intention of the government seems to be to show symbolically to Germans and potential migrants that the latter are no longer wanted here,” said Marcus Engler at the German Centre for Integration and Migration Research.A backlash had been building in Germany ever since it accepted in excess of 1mn people, mostly fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria, during the 2015/2016 migrant crisis, migration experts say.It reached a tipping point in the country of 84mn people after it automatically granted asylum to around 1mn Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s 2022 invasion even as Germany was struggling through an energy and economic crisis.Since then, the German government has agreed tighter deportation rules and resumed flying convicted criminals of Afghan nationality to their home country, despite suspending deportations after the Taliban took power in 2021 due to human rights concerns.Last year Berlin also announced stricter controls on its land borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. Those and controls on the border with Austria had allowed it to return 30,000 migrants since October 2023, it said on Monday.Faeser said a new model would enable the government to turn back many more – but it could not talk about the model before confidential negotiations with the conservatives.The controls could test European unity if they lead to German authorities requesting other countries to take back substantial numbers of asylum-seekers and migrants.Under EU rules, countries in the Schengen area, which encompasses all of the bloc except for Cyprus and Ireland, are only allowed to introduce border checks as a last resort to avert threats to internal security or public policy, and several have done so during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic or after attacks.The EU agreed a hard-fought overhaul to its asylum and migration laws earlier this year but the rules are only set to come into force in 2026.“Until we achieve strong protection of the EU’s external borders with the new common European asylum system, we must strengthen controls at our national borders,” Faeser said.Germany shares its more than 3,700km (2,300 miles) land border with Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland.Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told Bild newspaper yesterday that his country would not take in any migrants turned away by Germany at the border.“There’s no room for manoeuvre there,” he said.The measures may not immediately result in many more migrants being turned away at the border, but they could result in more returns to other European countries down the line, as well as acting as a deterrent, said Susan Fratzke at the Migration Policy Institute.The number of asylum applications in Germany already fell 21.7% in the first eight months of the year, according to government statistics.

HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, who is the current President of the GCC Ministerial Council, chaired the 7th joint ministerial meeting of the strategic dialogue between the GCC and Russia, which took place at the GCC Secretariat General in Riyadh Monday. The meeting discussed co-operation between the GCC and Russia, and ways to enhance and support them, along with a host of matters of mutual interest.

IPhone 16 is first Apple smartphone designed around AI featuresApple's AI tech, Apple Intelligence, so far has a release timeline only in the USHuawei to officially announce new products after Apple's eventGoogle has showcased AI features to challenge Apple's dominanceApple on Monday unveiled its artificial intelligence-boosted iPhone 16, showing off the long-awaited device hours after Chinese rival Huawei's tri-fold phone began racking up orders."The next generation of iPhone has been designed for Apple Intelligence from the ground up. It marks the beginning of an exciting new era," Chief Executive Tim Cook said at a product launch. Apple and technology companies around the world are racing to add AI to products, and phones are expected to be one of the most important battlegrounds. The Cupertino, California-based company also is betting the AI feature will drive consumers to upgrade amid a slowdown in iPhone sales.Apple Intelligence, the company's AI software, will be used to improve its personal assistant, Siri, as well as enhancing features such as understanding and identifying objects captured by the phone camera."Apple Intelligence marks the start of a new era for Siri and makes it more natural, more contextually relevant and more personal to you," said Apple's software engineering chief, Craig Federighi.A test version of Apple Intelligence will be available in the U.S. version of English next month. It will be available for other localized versions of English in December, with versions in languages including Chinese, French, Japanese and Spanish next year.The iPhone 16 will use the new A18 chip and have an aluminum back, as well as a new customizable button that can be used for camera controls. The iPhone 16 will start at $799 and the iPhone 16 Plus will start at $899.Apple also unveiled iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max, titanium models with a faster chip, the A18 Pro, and more AI capability, such as offering suggestions on how to set up a photo shoot more effectively and audio-editing capabilities aimed at professional-level video production. The iPhone 16 Pro will start at $999 and the 16 Pro Max starts at $1,199.Apple's new iPhone chips use the latest version of Arm's architecture that includes specific features to speed AI applications."Existing iPhone users who have had their device for 3-4 years will definitely be enticed to upgrade, even if some things are rolling out later, as this will future-proof their device for AI," said International Data Corp analyst Nabila Popal."While it's a great list of upgrades, it's a long-term play and will have a huge impact starting next year once language support extends and more use cases roll out," Popal added.Apple shares were down 0.2% in late afternoon trading. Huawei's website showed on Monday that it had garnered more than 3 million pre-orders for its Z-shaped tri-fold phone. This underscores Huawei's ability to navigate U.S. sanctions and solidifies its position against Apple in China, where consumers are hankering for more AI features and are willing to pay for them.Apple also unveiled new Watches and AirPods with health-focused capabilities, as well as hardware-design improvements. Apple highlighted the Watch's ability to discover longer-term health conditions such as sleep apnea as well as detecting and responding to emergencies such as a fall.As it updated AirPods, Apple rolled out hearing-aid features that it has submitted for U.S. regulatory review.Apple fans globally have been waiting to see the new phones with AI. IPhones accounted for more than half of Apple's $383 billion sales last year."While most of the features will start in the U.S., they will also help Apple stay competitive against fast-moving competitors in China," said D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria. "While Android phones may have some of these features, Apple has packaged them well and will be able to market them far more broadly."Apple Intelligence must be approved by Beijing in order to be released in China. In July, OpenAI blocked access to ChatGPT in China, and Apple has not announced an AI partner for China."Apple fell out of the list of top five smartphone vendors in China in Q2," said eMarketer senior technology analyst Gadjo Sevilla. "It was the first time that China's domestic smartphone firms held all five spots. Since Apple Intelligence still needs to be approved by Beijing for a rollout in China, it will likely not initially be a key driver for adoption in the region." In China, Apple aggressively slashed prices earlier this year, prompted by government restrictions and increased domestic competition.The iPhone 16 lineup is the first Apple smartphones designed around these AI features though those are expected also to be available on iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, the top-end versions of the previous-generation devices.Rivals including Alphabet's Google are also showcasing AI features to try to upend Apple's dominance in the high-end smartphone market. Google, developer of the Android operating system which competes with Apple's iOS, focused its Pixel smartphone rollout event in August on AI features including Gemini Live, which allows users to hold live voice conversations with a digital assistant. Many of the AI features Google announced were also rolled out to the Android-based devices made by manufacturers such as Samsung and Motorola. In June, one week after its developer conference, Apple said it would delay the release of AI-powerd features in Europe due to European Union tech rules.Huawei has scheduled an official announcement of its Mate XT phone on Tuesday in China.

HE Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, the current President Ministerial Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), chaired the joint ministerial meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the GCC States and the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mauro Vieira, which was held at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Riyadh, on Monday.During the meeting, they discussed the cooperation relations between the GCC States and the Federative Republic of Brazil and ways to support and enhance them, in addition to a number of topics of common interest.

HE Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, President of the GCC 161st Ministerial Council Meeting, chaired Monday the joint ministerial meeting for the strategic dialogue between the GCC and the Republic of India, at the GCC General Secretariat in Riyadh.The meeting discussed cooperation relations between the GCC and the Republic of India and ways to boost them, along with several topics of common interest.

Indian and Emirati officials are expected to review their trade agreement this week amid concerns raised by Indian industry over a sharp increase in imports of precious metals from the United Arab Emirates, people familiar with the matter said.India and the UAE signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in 2022 after just 88 days of negotiations. The agreement has become a template for similar trade pacts the UAE has since signed with many other nations.An Indian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the pact would be reviewed this week when a UAE government delegation led by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed al-Nahyan visits Mumbai and New Delhi.A second source, confirming the review, and the Indian government official downplayed the significance of the discussion and said that reviews took place from time to time.The Indian trade ministry and the UAE ministry of economy did not respond to requests for comment on the review.Indian officials have said New Delhi was seeking a review of the agreement, including if rules of origin were being met.

The UN rights chief warned Monday that the world needed to change paths to avoid a future filled with military escalation, repression, disinformation, deepening inequality and rampant climate change.Opening a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Volker Turk stressed that "we are at a fork in the road"."We can either continue on our current path - a treacherous 'new normal' - and sleepwalk into a dystopian future, or we can wake up and turn things around for the better, for humanity and the planet," he said.In a world wracked by conflicts, including Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, Russia's war in Ukraine and the civil war raging in Sudan, Turk insisted that "states must not - cannot - accept blatant disregard for international law".Currently, he warned, the world appears comfortable with the "crossing of innumerable red lines, or readiness to toe right up to them".Turk said that during a record year for elections globally, such votes matter."With some elections already having taken place, and others still to come this year, I urge all voters to keep in mind the issues that matter most to them - be it a home, education for their children, their health or job, justice, their family and loved ones, the environment, to be free from violence, tackling corruption, being heard," he said."These are all human rights issues," he said."I urge voters to ask themselves which of the political platforms or candidates will work for the human rights of everyone."The world's new normal, he said, "cannot be endless, vicious military escalation and increasingly horrifying, technologically advanced methods of warfare, control, and repression".He warned against a "free-for-all spread of disinformation, smothering facts and the ability to make free and informed choices".Turk also slammed "heated rhetoric and simplistic fixes, erasing context, nuance, and empathy. Paving the way for hate speech and the dire consequences that inevitably follow"."I urge all voters to be vigilant. Be wary of the shrill voices, the 'strongman' types that throw glitter in our eyes, offering illusory solutions that deny reality," he said."Know that when one group is singled out as a scapegoat for society's ills, one day your own might be next.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer convened a coalition to stop young people from falling into knife crime on Monday, joined by actor and anti-knife crime campaigner Idris Elba. Starmer launched the coalition to fight the "national crisis", bringing together campaign groups as well as families and young people affected by knife crime, the most common method of homicide in England and Wales. The annual knife crime meeting aims to increase understanding of the causes behind youth involvement in knife crime. The government is also looking to strengthen laws around the online sale of knives and younger people's access to them. Addressing the summit at 10 Downing Street, Starmer said there was a need to "try to reach into the lives of young people who may be going off the tracks and trying to bring them back before they do so". "Far too many knives are too easily available, whether that's online, whether that's through the post. "Talk is good, but action is important," Elba, who shot to fame as drugs kingpin Stringer Bell in the hit TV series "The Wire", said at the meeting. "We needed joined-up thinking, we needed so many different perspectives: parents' perspectives, youth workers' perspectives, charity organisations, governance, policing," he added, after previously calling the summit a "positive" step. In January, Elba launched the campaign "Don't Stop Your Future", pushing for urgent government action on youth violence, including addressing drastic cuts to youth services funding in the last decade. Although knife-related offences in England and Wales are lower than pre-pandemic levels, they have been steadily increasing since 2012. A total of 41 percent of all homicides in the two UK nations in the year ending March 2023 were knife-related, according to government data. In July, three girls were killed in a mass stabbing in Southport, north England, one of the latest in a series of high-profile cases of knife violence. The Labour government, in power since the start of July, has pledged to halve knife crime in the next decade. A ban on zombie-style knives and machetes will come into force on September 24, and will be followed by plans to ban ninja swords

The US presidential race remains neck-and-neck according to polls released yesterday, two days before Kamala Harris and Donald Trump hold their first – and potentially only – televised debate. The latest polling confirms that Trump retains locked-in support from about half of voters, despite the Republican’s historic status as a convicted felon and his role in instigating the unprecedented attempt to overturn his 2020 loss to Joe Biden. Harris, who only jumped into the race after President Biden abruptly quit in July, has rapidly transformed herself from a little-noticed vice-president into a serious contender. However, the polls show that she has not made a major breakthrough, leaving the race a toss-up. A New York Times/Siena poll found that 78-year-old Trump is leading Harris nationally by 48% to 47%, well within the margin of error. US presidential elections are decided by tallying the results of state-by-state contests, rather than an overall national popular vote, meaning that a tiny handful of swing states typically decide the balance. The poll found Harris, 59, narrowly ahead in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania and tied in four other swing states – Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina and Arizona. The poll notably showed that voters feel they need to learn more about Harris, while their opinions on Trump are largely set. In the survey, 28% of likely voters said that they needed more information about the Democratic nominee, while only 9% said the same about Trump. A CBS News/YouGov poll put Harris ahead by one percentage point in Michigan and Wisconsin and tied in Pennsylvania. The election is already chaotic, with 81-year-old Biden dropping out amid concerns over his age, Trump narrowly surviving an assassin’s bullet at a rally, and fears mounting that Trump will again refuse to concede if he loses in November. However, the latest numbers confirm that each candidate retains a remarkably stable base of loyalists, almost evenly splitting the country. The poll notably showed that voters feel they need to learn more about Harris, while their opinions on Trump are largely set. In the survey, 28% of likely voters said they needed more information about the Democratic nominee, while only 9% said the same about Trump. One game changer could be tomorrow’s ABC News debate, the only one scheduled between the two. Trump will be under pressure to rein in his characteristic use of insults and intimidation as he stands next to a mixed-race candidate vying to become the first female president in US history.

Malaysia has called on global leaders to further enhance coordination mechanisms among nations to fight transnational crime more effectively.In his keynote address on Monday at the Global Public Security Cooperation Forum Lianyungang (GPSCFL) 2024, in Lianyungang City in China's Jiangsu Province, the Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said that a strong coordination mechanism between nations which involves fostering closer cooperation between government agencies, law enforcement, community organizations, and private sector partners is crucial in fighting such crimes, according to (Bernama) news agency.Ahmad Zahid added that these crimes are often perpetrated by international syndicates, not isolated local organizations, thus an effective coordination would allow all countries to address security threats more efficiently and precisely."Addressing transnational crime requires more than national efforts...it demands strong international collaboration. Law enforcement agencies, governments, and international organizations must share intelligence, reinforce legal frameworks, and build capacity to effectively tackle these cross- border threats," he said."Our response must be swift, coordinated, united and we cannot afford to work in isolation. We need to invest in cutting-edge technologies, enhance cross-border information sharing, and build strong partnerships to counter these criminal networks," he added. (

At least 48 people were killed yesterday in a fuel tanker truck explosion following a collision with another vehicle in north-central Nigeria, the state’s disaster management agency said. The agency in north-central Niger state said the fuel truck collided with a truck carrying travellers and cattle. Several other vehicles were also caught up in the accident, it said. The agency’s spokesperson Hussaini Ibrahim put the death toll at 48.

Greece plans to impose a €20 levy on cruise ship visitors to the islands of Santorini and Mykonos during the peak summer season, in a bid to avert over-tourism, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Sunday.Greece relies heavily on tourism, the main driver of the country’s economy which is still recovering from a decade-long crisis that wiped out a fourth of its output.However, some of its most popular destinations, including Santorini, an idyllic island of quaint villages and pristine beaches with 20,000 permanent residents, risk being ruined by mass tourism.The tourist island of Santorini with its volcanic caldera is a favourite stopover for cruises, with its sea-blue church domes and world-famous sunsets.However, at peak times parts of the island are nearing saturation, and officials have been considering various restrictions.Speaking at a press conference a day after outlining his main economic policies for 2025, Mitsotakis clarified that excessive tourism was only a problem in a few destinations.“Greece does not have a structural over-tourism problem ... some of its destinations have a significant issue during certain weeks or months of the year, which we need to deal with,” he said.“Cruise shipping has burdened Santorini and Mykonos and this is why we are proceeding with interventions,” he added, announcing the levy.Greek tourism revenues stood at about €20bn in 2023 on the back of nearly 31mn tourist arrivals.Last year 800 cruise ships brought 1.3mn tourists to the island of 15,500 residents, according to the Hellenic Ports Association.In Santorini, protesters have called for curbs on tourism, as in other popular holiday destinations in Europe, including Venice and Barcelona.Part of the revenues from the cruise shipping tax will be returned to local communities to be invested in infrastructure, Mitsotakis said.The government also plans to regulate the number of cruise ships that arrive simultaneously at certain destinations, while rules to protect the environment and tackle water shortages must also be imposed on islands, he said.Greece also wants to increase a tax on short-term rentals and ban new licences for such rentals in central Athens to increase the housing stock for permanent residents, Mitsotakis said on Saturday.The government will detail some of the measures today.In an AFP interview earlier this summer, Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni also said there was a need to set quotas, with local officials already setting an overall limit of 8,000 cruise passengers per day from next year for Santorini.“It’s impossible for an island such as Santorini ... to have five cruise ships arriving at the same time,” she said.

Thousands of supporters of Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan gathered in Islamabad on Sunday despite authorities’ attempts to block the protesters’ main routes into the capital, AFP journalists noted.The demonstration, led by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, is the largest in Islamabad since the retired international cricketer was jailed last year on several charges, some of them still before the courts.The rally’s “size and popularity ensure (PTI’s) mobilisation capabilities remain intact despite relentless attempts to curb it”, said Michael Kugelman, Pakistan specialist at the Wilson Centre, a US-based think tank.Protesters removed the containers used by Pakistani authorities to block major roads into Islamabad ahead of the demonstration.“They closed the city with containers. But despite this, thousands are here. They cannot stop this motivation and emotions the people have right now,” Humayun Mohmand, a PTI senator, said.In jail since August 2023, Khan insists along with his party that the charges against him are designed to prevent him from returning to office.Backed by the military, which wields enormous influence, he rose to power in 2018 by standing against widespread corruption embedded in the country’s revolving door of dynastic politics.However, he was ousted in 2022 after falling out with the military establishment.That furthered a sense of helplessness and frustration among many Pakistanis who want the generals to stay out of politics in a country that has been ruled by the military on and off for much of its history, and where a civilian prime minister has never served a full term.Khan’s first arrest, on graft charges in May 2023, sparked nationwide demonstrations by supporters expressing anger at the army.In response, the army orchestrated a massive crackdown on the PTI.

Sudan has rejected a call by UN experts for the deployment of an “independent and impartial force” to protect millions of civilians driven from their homes by more than a year of war.The conflict since April last year, pitting the army against paramilitary forces, has killed tens of thousands of people and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.The independent UN experts said Friday their fact-finding mission had uncovered “harrowing” violations by both sides, “which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity”. They called for “an independent and impartial force with a mandate to safeguard civilians” to be deployed “without delay”.The Sudanese foreign ministry, which is loyal to the army under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said in a statement late Saturday that “the Sudanese government rejects in their entirety the recommendations of the UN mission.” It called the UN Human Rights Council, which created the fact-finding mission last year, “a political and illegal body”, and the panel’s recommendations “a flagrant violation of their mandate”.The UN experts said 8mn civilians have been displaced.More than 25mn people — upwards of half the country’s population — face acute food shortages. World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on a visit to Sudan yesterday, said: “The scale of the emergency is shocking, as is the insufficient action being taken to curtail the conflict and respond to the suffering it is causing.” In Port Sudan, where government offices and the UN have relocated to due to the intense fighting in the capital Khartoum, Tedros called on the “world to wake up and help Sudan out of the nightmare it is living through”.

Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia – who insists that he, not strongman Nicolas Maduro, is Venezuela’s legitimate president-elect – fled for exile in Spain yesterday to save his own life, the opposition said.Gonzalez Urrutia, who the opposition says it can prove won July 28 elections in which Maduro claimed a widely questioned victory, arrived in Spain after a month in hiding in the crisis-hit South American country.The choice for the 75-year-old to leave was made as “his life was in danger” amid a “brutal wave of repression”, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said on X.Gonzalez Urrutia had replaced Machado on the ballot at the last minute after she herself was prevented from running by institutions loyal to Maduro.Venezuela’s regime-loyal CNE electoral authority declared Maduro the winner of the July 28 elections, but the opposition cried foul and much of the international community has refused to accept the result without seeing a detailed vote breakdown, which has not been forthcoming.Authorities issued an arrest warrant for Gonzalez Urrutia, who Maduro has said belongs behind bars along with Machado.She remains in hiding, save for leading a handful of anti-Maduro protests since the disputed vote.Gonzalez Urrutia left Venezuela yesterday after ignoring three successive summons to appear before prosecutors, arguing that doing so risked his freedom.Machado said on X that “the increasing threats, subpoenas, arrest warrants and even attempts at blackmail and coercion against (Gonzalez Urrutia) show that the regime has no scruples or limits in its obsession to silence him and try to bring him down”.She added that “faced with this brutal reality, it is necessary for our cause to preserve his freedom, his integrity and his life”.Madrid said it would grant asylum to the retired diplomat.He arrived on a Spanish military plane at the Torrejon air base near Madrid with his spouse around 4pm local time (1400 GMT), according to a foreign ministry statement.Speaking at a socialist party meeting on Saturday, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez described Gonzalez Urrutia as “a hero who Spain will not abandon”.Venezuela’s vice-president Delcy Rodriguez said on social media that Caracas had agreed to the safe passage of Gonzalez Urrutia, who had taken “refuge voluntarily at the Spanish embassy in Caracas a few days ago”.Attorney-General Tarek William Saab later told journalists that Gonzalez Urrutia’s departure marked the close of a piece of “farcical theatre ... fatefully named To the End” – the opposition’s post-election fightback slogan.He did not say whether the investigation against the opposition figure was now closed.The European Union’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell, meanwhile, demanded that Venezuelan authorities “end repression, arbitrary arrests and harassment against members of the opposition and civil society, as well as release all political prisoners”.Saab had opened an investigation against Gonzalez Urrutia for crimes related to his insistence that he was the rightful victor of the July poll.Charges include usurpation of public functions, forgery of a public document, incitement to disobedience, sabotage, and association with organised crime.He risks a jail sentence of 30 years.The charges stem from the opposition decision to publish its own tally of polling station-level ballots cast, which it says showed Gonzalez Urrutia winning about two-thirds of votes.Venezuela’s electoral authority has said it cannot provide a breakdown of the election results, blaming a cyber attack on its systems.Observers have said there is no evidence of such hacking.Post-election violence in Venezuela has claimed 27 lives and left 192 people injured, while the government says it has arrested some 2,400 people.After Venezuela’s last election, in 2018, Maduro also claimed victory amid widespread accusations of fraud. With the support of the military and other institutions, he managed to cling to power despite international sanctions.Maduro has led the oil-rich but cash-poor country since 2013.His tenure has seen GDP drop 80% in a decade, prompting more than 7mn of the country’s 30mn citizens to flee.