SYRIA: Nearly 70 children were among those killed when a suicide car bombing tore through buses carrying evacuees from besieged government-held towns in Syria, a monitor said on Sunday.
Saturday’s blast hit a convoy carrying residents from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya as they waited at a transit point in rebel-held Rashidin, west of Aleppo.
At least 68 children were among the 126 people killed in the attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, updating a previous toll of 112 dead.
At least 109 of the dead were evacuees, the Britain-based monitoring group said, while the rest were aid workers and rebels guarding the convoy.
The evacuations were taking place under a deal between Syria’s regime and rebels that is also seeing residents and rebels transported out of Madaya and Zabadani, towns near Damascus which are surrounded by pro-government forces.
The agreement is the latest in a string of evacuation deals, which the government of President Bashar Assad says are the best way to end the violence after more than six years of civil war.
Rebels say they amount to forced relocations after years of bombardment and crippling sieges.
Body parts and the belongings of evacuees — including clothes, dishes and even televisions — were still strewn at the scene of the attack on Sunday, an AFP correspondent said.
The shattered buses were nearby as was the shell of a pick-up truck — with little left but its engine block — that was apparently used to carry out the bombing.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, though the key Ahrar Al-Sham rebel group denied any involvement. The government blamed “terrorists” — a catch-all term for its opponents.
The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria to monitor the conflict, said hundreds of people were also wounded in the blast.
It said a petrol station at the transit point was caught up in the explosion, adding to the number of victims.
The Syrian Red Crescent said three of its workers were among the wounded.
Maysa Al-Aswad, a 30-year-old evacuee from Kafraya, said she was sitting on one of the buses with her six-month-old son Hadi and 10-year-old daughter Narjis when the blast shook the parked convoy.
“Hadi was on my lap and Narjis on a chair next to me. When the explosion happened I hugged them both and we fell to the floor,” she told AFP by telephone from near Aleppo.
“I didn’t know what was happening, all I could hear was people crying and shouting,” she said.
“All I can think about is how we survived all the death during the last few years and then could have died just after we finally escaped.”
More than 5,000 people left Fuaa and Kafraya and about 2,200 left Madaya and Zabadani on Friday, the latest in a series of evacuations from the four towns under the agreement.
The evacuation process resumed after the bombing, the Observatory said, with the residents of Fuaa and Kafraya eventually arriving in Aleppo, Syria’s second city which the government gained full control of last year.
Wounded survivors, including many children, were taken for treatment at an Aleppo hospital.
UN aid chief Stephen O’Brien condemned the bombing, saying in a statement: “The perpetrators of such a monstrous and cowardly attack displayed a shameless disregard for human life.”
Pope Francis on Sunday also urged an end to the war in Syria as he presided over the traditional Easter mass in Rome.
The pontiff said he hoped that Jesus Christ’s sacrifice might help bring “comfort and relief to the civil population in Syria, prey to a war that continues to sow horror and death.”
The residents and rebels from Madaya and Zabadani arrived late Saturday in rebel-held territory in Idlib province, where they were greeted with embraces and shots fired into the air.
It was not immediately clear whether further evacuations were taking place on Sunday.
The evacuation deal was brokered by Qatar, a longtime supporter of Syrian opposition forces, and Iran, a key regime ally.
Shiite-dominated Iran has repeatedly raised concerns for the residents of Fuaa and Kafraya, who are mainly Shiites and were besieged by Sunni rebels.
Syria’s war has left more than 320,000 people dead since erupting in 2011, with more than half the population forced from their homes and hundreds of thousands trapped under siege.
Dozens of children dead in Syria evacuees bombing
Dozens of children dead in Syria evacuees bombing
Lebanon PM to visit new Damascus ruler on Saturday
- Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati will on Saturday make his first official trip to neighboring Syria since the fall of president Bashar Assad, his office told AFP
Mikati’s office said Friday the trip came at the invitation of the country’s new de facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa during a phone call last week.
Syria imposed new restrictions on the entry of Lebanese citizens last week, two security sources have told AFP, following what the Lebanese army said was a border skirmish with unnamed armed Syrians.
Lebanese nationals had previously been allowed into Syria without a visa, using just their passport or ID card.
Lebanon’s eastern border is porous and known for smuggling.
Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah supported Assad with fighters during Syria’s civil war.
But the Iran-backed movement has been weakened after a war with Israel killed its long-time leader and Islamist-led rebels seized Damascus last month.
Lebanese lawmakers elected the country’s army chief Joseph Aoun as president on Thursday, ending a vacancy of more than two years that critics blamed on Hezbollah.
For three decades under the Assad clan, Syria was the dominant power in Lebanon after intervening in its 1975-1990 civil war.
Syria eventually withdrew its troops in 2005 under international pressure after the assassination of Lebanese ex-prime minister Rafic Hariri.
Kremlin says Putin ready for talks with Trump
- Incoming US president has said he can bring a swift end to the nearly three-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine
- Washington has delivered tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its military offensive
MSOCOW: The Kremlin said Friday that President Vladimir Putin was open to talks with Donald Trump, after the incoming US president said a meeting between the pair was being set up.
Trump, who will be inaugurated on January 20, has said he can bring a swift end to the nearly three-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine, without presenting a concrete plan.
“The president has repeatedly stated his openness to contact with international leaders, including the US president, including Donald Trump,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Trump on Thursday said a meeting with Putin was being arranged.
“He wants to meet, and we’re setting it up,” Trump said at a meeting with Republican governors at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
“President Putin wants to meet, he’s said that even publicly, and we have to get that war over with, that’s a bloody mess,” he said.
The Kremlin welcomed Trump’s “readiness to solve problems through dialogue,” Peskov said Friday, adding Moscow had no prerequisites for staging the meeting.
“No conditions are required. What is required is mutual desire and political will to solve problems through dialogue,” he told reporters in a daily briefing.
Trump’s hopes for a swift end to the conflict have stoked concern in Kyiv that Ukraine could be forced to accept a peace deal on terms favorable to Moscow.
Washington has delivered tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale military offensive in February 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that without such support his country would have lost the conflict.
He is pushing Trump to back his “peace-through-strength” proposal, seeking NATO protections and concrete Western security guarantees as part of any settlement to end the fighting.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry dismissed Trump’s comments on any forthcoming meeting with Putin.
“Trump has talked about plans for such a meeting before, so we see nothing new in this,” said spokesman Georgiy Tykhy.
“Our position is very simple: we all in Ukraine want to end the war fairly for Ukraine, and we see that President Trump is also determined to end the war,” he said, according to the Interfax Ukraine news agency.
Tykhy said Ukraine was preparing for high-level discussions between Kyiv and Washington “immediately” after the inauguration, including between Trump and Zelensky.
The Supreme Court is considering a possible TikTok ban. Here’s what to know about the case
- Three appeals court judges have sided with the government and upheld the law, which bans TikTok unless it’s sold
- The justices largely hold the app’s fate in their hands as they hear the case Friday
WASHINGTON: The law that could ban TikTok is coming before the Supreme Court on Friday, with the justices largely holding the app’s fate in their hands.
The popular social media platform says the law violates the First Amendment and should be struck down.
TikTok’s parent company is based in China, and the US government says that means it is a potential national security threat. Chinese authorities could force it to hand over sensitive data on the huge number of Americans who use it or could influence the spread of information on the platform, they say.
An appeals court has upheld the law, which bans TikTok unless it’s sold.
The law is set to take effect Jan. 19, the day before a new term begins for President-elect Donald Trump, who has 14.7 million followers on the platform. The Republican says he wants to “save TikTok.”
Here are some key things to know about the case:
Is TikTok banned?
Not now, but the short-form video-sharing app could be shut down in less than two weeks if the Supreme Court upholds the law.
Congress passed the measure with bipartisan support, and President Joe Biden, a Democrat, signed it into law in April.
TikTok’s lawyers challenged the law in court, joined by users and content creators who say a ban would upend their livelihoods. TikTok says the national security concerns are based on inaccurate and hypothetical information.
But a unanimous appeals court panel made up of judges appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents has upheld the law.
When will the Supreme Court decide?
The justices will issue a decision after arguments Friday, a lightning-fast movement by court standards.
The conservative-majority court could drop clues about how it’s leaning during oral arguments.
TikTok lawyers have urged the justices to step in before the law takes effect, saying even a monthlong shutdown would cause the app to lose about one-third of its daily American users and significant advertising revenue.
The court could quickly block the law from going into effect before issuing a final ruling, if at least five of the nine justices think it is unconstitutional.
What has Trump said about it?
The law is to take effect Jan. 19, the day before Trump takes over as president.
He took the unusual step of filing court documents asking the Supreme Court to put the law on hold so that he could negotiate a deal for the sale of TikTok after he takes office. His position marked the latest example of him inserting himself into national issues before he takes office. It also was a change from his last presidential term, when he wanted to ban it.
Parent company ByteDance has previously said it has no plans to sell. Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, last month.
Who else is weighing in?
Free-speech advocacy groups like the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have urged the court to block the law, saying the government hasn’t shown credible evidence of harm and a ban would cause “extraordinary disruption” in Americans’ lives.
On the other side, Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican former Senate leader, and a group of 22 states have filed briefs in support, arguing that the law protects free speech by safeguarding Americans’ data and preventing the possible manipulation of information on the platform by Chinese authorities.
Pakistan receives over 22,000 applications for 4,500 scholarships for Afghan students
- The scholarships were announced in July last year under the Allama Iqbal Scholarship program, amid ongoing tensions between the two countries
- The program, which covers tuition fees, accommodation and monthly stipend, offers scholarships in medical, engineering, agriculture and other fields
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has received more than 22,000 applications for 4,500 scholarships it announced for Afghan students last year, Pakistan’s special representative for Afghanistan said on Friday.
The scholarships were announced in July last year under the Allama Iqbal Scholarship program, amid ongoing tensions between the two countries that prompted Islamabad to launch a deportation drive targeting unregistered Afghans in late 2023.
The program, which covers tuition fees, accommodation and a monthly stipend for undergraduate, graduate and doctoral studies at Pakistani universities, was introduced in 2009 to strengthen bilateral ties between the two neighboring states.
In a statement issued from his office, Pakistan’s special representative Sadiq Khan said this is the third phase of the program that will offer fully funded scholarships in medical, engineering, agriculture and other fields over the next three years.
“This month, over 22,000 applicants will take an online test, followed by interviews for final selection. The entire process will conclude within 45 days,” he said.
“Notably, 33 percent of the scholarship seats are reserved for female students.”
Pakistan last year announced the scholarships on the same day its federal cabinet approved the extension of registration cards for 1.5 million Afghan refugees for another year.
Ties between the two countries have been strained because of a surge in militant attacks in Pakistan’s western regions that border Afghanistan.
The attacks particularly surged after the breakdown of a fragile truce between the Pakistani government and the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Nov. 2022.
Pakistan has frequently accused neighboring Afghanistan of sheltering and supporting militant groups that launch cross-border attacks. Afghan officials deny involvement, insisting Pakistan’s security issues are an internal matter of Islamabad.
The two countries also conducted cross-border strikes in each other’s territory last month in the latest escalation of hostilities along the border.
UN says 3 million Sudan children facing acute malnutrition
- Famine has already gripped five areas across Sudan, according to a report last month
- Sudan has endured 20 months of war between the army and the paramilitary forces
PORT SUDAN, Sudan: An estimated 3.2 million children under the age of five are expected to face acute malnutrition this year in war-torn Sudan, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“Of this number, around 772,000 children are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition,” Eva Hinds, UNICEF Sudan’s Head of Advocacy and Communication, told AFP late on Thursday.
Famine has already gripped five areas across Sudan, according to a report last month by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed assessment.
Sudan has endured 20 months of war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), killing tens of thousands and, according to the United Nations, uprooting 12 million in the world’s largest displacement crisis.
Confirming to AFP that 3.2 million children are currently expected to face acute malnutrition, Hinds said “the number of severely malnourished children increased from an estimated 730,000 in 2024 to over 770,000 in 2025.”
The IPC expects famine to expand to five more parts of Sudan’s western Darfur region by May — a vast area that has seen some of the conflict’s worst violence. A further 17 areas in western and central Sudan are also at risk of famine, it said.
“Without immediate, unhindered humanitarian access facilitating a significant scale-up of a multisectoral response, malnutrition is likely to increase in these areas,” Hinds warned.
Sudan’s army-aligned government strongly rejected the IPC findings, while aid agencies complain that access is blocked by bureaucratic hurdles and ongoing violence.
In October, experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council accused both sides of using “starvation tactics.”
On Tuesday the United States determined that the RSF had “committed genocide” and imposed sanctions on the paramilitary group’s leader.
Across the country, more than 24.6 million people — around half the population — face “high levels of acute food insecurity,” according to IPC, which said: “Only a ceasefire can reduce the risk of famine spreading further.”
