JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday defended his decision to accept a ceasefire after the worst escalation with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip since a 2014 war.
“In times of emergency, when making decisions crucial to security, the public can’t always be privy to the considerations that must be hidden from the enemy,” he said at a ceremony in honor of Israel’s founding father David Ben-Gurion.
“Our enemies begged for a ceasefire and they knew very well why.”
The deal has provoked criticism from within Netanyahu’s government as well as from Israelis who live near the Gaza Strip and want further action against its Islamist rulers Hamas.
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Netanyahu defends Gaza ceasefire after Israeli criticism
Netanyahu defends Gaza ceasefire after Israeli criticism
- ‘Our enemies begged for a ceasefire and they knew very well why’
- The deal has provoked criticism from within Netanyahu’s government
Singapore hangs 4th person in 3 weeks
- The United Nations and rights groups say capital punishment has no proven deterrent effect
- Masoud Rahimi Mehrzad, a Singaporean citizen born in the city-state to a Singaporean mother and an Iranian father, was convicted in 2013 for drug trafficking
Singapore: Singapore hanged a 35-year-old Singaporean-Iranian man for drug trafficking on Friday, its fourth in less than a month, despite appeals from Tehran to "reconsider" his execution.
The United Nations and rights groups say capital punishment has no proven deterrent effect and have called for it to be abolished, but Singaporean officials insist it has helped make the country one of Asia's safest.
Masoud Rahimi Mehrzad, a Singaporean citizen born in the city-state to a Singaporean mother and an Iranian father, was convicted in 2013 for drug trafficking.
Appeals against his conviction and sentence, as well as petitions for clemency from the president, had been dismissed. After he was informed of his impending hanging, Masoud filed an 11th-hour appeal to stay his execution, which was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on Thursday.
Calling him "an Iranian citizen", Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi also appealed to his Singaporean counterpart Vivian Balakrishnan on Thursday to halt the execution.
"Araghchi expressed Iran's respect for Singapore's legal framework but appealed to Singaporean authorities to reconsider the execution of Masoud Rahimi, emphasizing humanitarian considerations," Iran's foreign ministry said on X.
However, Singapore's Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) announced "the capital sentence of death imposed on Masoud Rahimi bin Mehrzad... was carried out on 29 November 2024".
"Masoud... was convicted of having in his possession for the purpose of trafficking, not less than 31.14 grams (1.1 ounces) of diamorphine, or pure heroin," CNB said.
Under the country's tough drug laws, the death penalty applies for any amount above a 15-gram threshold for heroin.
It added that "capital punishment is imposed only for the most serious crimes, such as the trafficking of significant quantities of drugs which cause very serious harm".
His execution was the fourth in three weeks in Singapore.
Rosman Abdullah, 55, was hanged on November 22 and two men -- a 39-year-old Malaysian and a 53-year-old Singaporean -- were hanged on November 15 all for drug offences.
So far this year, there have been nine executions by the Singaporean government -- eight for drug trafficking and one for murder.
According to an AFP tally, Singapore has hanged 25 people since it resumed carrying out the death penalty in March 2022 after a two-year halt during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The UN this month reiterated its call on Singapore to review its position on capital punishment.
Macron offers first glimpse of post-fire Notre Dame
- France is to offer the world a first look inside the restored Notre Dame cathedral in Paris on Friday
PARIS: France is to offer the world a first look inside the restored Notre Dame cathedral in Paris on Friday, over five years after the fire that ravaged the interior of the heritage landmark and toppled its spire.
Eight days ahead of the December 7 reopening of the cathedral, President Emmanuel Macron will conduct an inspection, broadcast live on television, which will provide the first official insight into how the 850-year-old edifice now looks inside.
Notre Dame will welcome back visitors and worshippers over the December 7-8 weekend after a sometimes challenging restoration to return to its former glory the great Paris cathedral badly damaged by the April 19, 2019 fire.
Macron at the time set the ambitious goal to rebuild Notre Dame within five years and make it “even more beautiful” than before, a target that the French authorities say has been met.
Some 250 companies and hundreds of experts were mobilized for a restoration costing hundreds of millions of euros in what was dubbed the “building site of the century.”
All 2,000 people who contributed to the work have been invited to Friday’s event, of whom at least 1,300 are expected to attend.
“This final site visit is an opportunity to thank them in particular — from wood craftsmen to those of metal and stone, from scaffolders to roofers, from bell makers to art restorers, from gilders to masons and sculptors, from carpenters to organ builders, from architects, archaeologists, engineers and planners to logistical or administrative functions,” stated Macron ahead of the visit.
Accompanied by his wife Brigitte, Macron is expected from 0930 GMT to inspect the key areas of the cathedral including the nave, choir and chapel and discuss the restoration in person with the workers.
The restoration cost a total of nearly 700 million euros (more than $750 million at today’s rate).
It was financed from the 846 million euros in donations that poured in from 150 countries in an unprecedented surge of solidarity.
The 19th-century gothic spire has now been resurrected with an exact copy of the original, the stained windows have regained their color, the walls shining after fire stains cleaned and a restored organ ready to thunder out again.
Unseen to visitors is a new mechanism to protect against any future fires, a discreet system of pipes ready to release millions of water droplets in case of a new disaster.
Notre Dame, which welcomed 12 million visitors in 2017, expects to receive an even higher figure of “14 to 15 million” after the reopening, according to the church authorities.
French ministers have also floated the idea of charging tourists an entrance fee to the site but the Paris diocese has said free admission was an important principle to maintain.
Archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich told AFP last month that Macron will on Saturday, December 7 give an address inside Notre Dame to mark the reopening.
It is extremely unusual for a political leader to be allowed to address the faithful inside a Catholic religious building. France is by its constitution a secular country with a strict division between church and state.
World leaders are expected to join but the guest list has yet to be unveiled.
The next day, Sunday December 8, will see the first mass and consecration of the new altar, he added.
Macron in December said he had invited Pope Francis to the reopening of the cathedral but the head of the Catholic church announced in September, to the surprise of some observers, that he would not be coming.
Instead, the pontiff is on the subsequent weekend making a landmark visit to the French island of Corsica.
The French Catholic church has in recent years been rocked by a succession of sexual abuse allegations against clerics, including most recently the monk known as Abbe Pierre who became a household name for his aid to the destitute.
Over five years on, the investigation into what caused the fire is ongoing, with initial findings backing an accidental cause such as a short circuit, a welder’s torch or a cigarette.
Four killed in Syria in attack on Aleppo university dorms, state news agency says
- Islamist militants launched an incursion on Wednesday into a dozen towns and villages in the northwestern province of Aleppo
- The attack was the biggest since March 2020 when Russia agreed to a ceasefire to end years of fighting
DUBAI: Four civilians including two students were killed on Friday in the Syrian city of Aleppo in insurgent shelling of university student dormitories, the state news agency SANA reported.
More than 240 people, mostly combatants, were killed as intense fighting approached Syria’s northern Aleppo city after militants launched a major offensive on government-held areas this week, a monitor said Friday.
Rebels led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham launched an incursion on Wednesday into a dozen towns and villages in the northwestern province of Aleppo, which is controlled by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government forces.
“The combatants’ death toll in the ongoing... operation in the Idlib and Aleppo countrysides has risen to 218,” since Wednesday, said the British-based monitor with a network of sources inside Syria.
In addition to the fighters, it said 24 civilians were killed.
Syrian ally Russia launched air strikes that killed 19 civilians on Thursday, while another civilian had been killed in Syrian army shelling a day earlier, said the Observatory which on Thursday had reported an overall toll of about 200 dead, including the civilians.
The attack was the biggest since March 2020 when Russia, which backs Assad, and Turkiye, which supports the rebels, agreed to a ceasefire to end years of fighting that had uprooted millions of Syrians opposed to Assad’s rule.
Dakota Ditcheva poised for ‘massive statement’ at PFL World Championship in Riyadh
- Loughnane takes on Khizriev for men’s featherweight title in the headline bout
- Ditcheva faces Santos for the women’s flyweight championship in co-main event
RIYADH: Dakota Ditcheva said she is ready to make a “massive statement” on Friday night when she faces Taila Santos for the PFL Women’s Flyweight Championship in Riyadh and hopes an impressive performance can help inspire more women to pursue mixed martial arts.
Ditcheva, one of the most exciting talents in global mixed martial arts, puts her 13-0 unbeaten record on the line against the experienced Santos (22-3) when they meet in the co-main event of an extraordinary PFL World Championship event at King Saud University.
Six world title fights will take place on Friday to conclude a thrilling 2024 PFL season, headlined by the featherweight championship bout between 2022 champion Brendan Loughnane (30-5) and unbeaten Timur Khizriev (17-0). Each winner will walk away with the belts and $1 million in prize money.
Ditcheva has been making major waves since swapping a world championship-winning Muay Thai career for MMA in 2021. Her enormous potential was spotted by the Professional Fighters League and she was signed in 2022 after five victorious MMA bouts.
Since clinching the PFL Europe women’s flyweight title in 2023, the English-Bulgarian fighter has made the step up to world level look easy, claiming two regular season wins and a semi-final victory in 2024 — all by first-round stoppage.
Now she faces the toughest challenge of her career against experienced Brazilian Santos, who has also impressed since joining the PFL with three straight wins this season.
On what a win over Santos would mean, Ditcheva said: “A massive statement, I feel like. I don’t know whether it will still gain the respect of the people on the internet, but that’s not something I’m worried about.
“Beating Taila would be massive; she’s someone I used to watch in the UFC and someone I have a lot of respect for so I’m just excited to put on an amazing fight. It seems to be a fight that’s got everyone excited, so I’m hoping we can both bring it on the night and put on a great performance.”
Ditcheva’s bout against Santos is another significant moment for women’s MMA as the second professional bout to be staged in Saudi Arabia. It comes nine months after boxing superstar Claressa Shields fought Kelsey DeSantis in the PFL vs Bellator event in Riyadh in the first professional women’s MMA fight in the Kingdom.
“Being a female over here in Riyadh, it can motivate a lot of other women probably and being one of the first ones to come over and show you can still fight, you can perform in such an amazing country, it’s just nice and hopefully motivating for other women,” Ditcheva said.
Among the bouts on the night is one featuring Hattan Alsaif, a rising MMA talent from Saudi Arabia who aspires to follow in Ditcheva’s footsteps and become a global PFL fighter. Alsaif’s inclusion in the event highlights the growing opportunities for women in the region to compete at the highest levels of the sport.
Ahead of the fight, Ditcheva took in the many sights of Riyadh, which included attending a Saudi Pro League match to watch Al-Nassr and their superstar captain Cristiano Ronaldo.
“Everyone knows I’m a big football fan and my brother is a massive Ronaldo fan, as I’m sure everyone is. It was just amazing that I was able to go and experience that,” she said.
“That’s what I love about this sport; it takes you all over the world, you get to experience different sports, meet different people. It’s probably not something I would have had without this sport, so I feel very lucky that I get to do that.”
The 26-year-old will be well supported on Friday night and will have her family by her side, including her mother Lisa Howarth, who was a world champion kickboxer and is a lifelong inspiration for the MMA star.
UN talks struggle for breakthrough on plastics treaty as deadline looms
- South Korea is hosting delegates from about 175 countries at the fifth and final meeting of the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee
- Nations which produce petrochemicals, such as Saudi Arabia, oppose efforts to cap plastic production
BUSAN, South Korea: The chairman of talks aiming for an international treaty to rein in pollution from plastics issued a document on Friday outlining measures that could furnish the basis of a pact, in an attempt to spur discussions as a Dec. 1 deadline approaches.
South Korea is hosting delegates from about 175 countries at the fifth and final meeting of the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) to agree globally binding rules on plastics, but this week's talks had moved at glacial pace.
The document, issued by committee chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso and viewed by Reuters, featured ideas such as a global list of plastic products to be managed and a financial mechanism to help fund developing countries act on the treaty.
"The high and rapidly increasing levels of plastic pollution ... represent a serious environmental and human health problem," the document said.
It mentioned, but did not confirm, some of the most divisive tasks, such as whether the treaty will set a global target to cut output of primary plastic polymers or skip it altogether, and left undecided how rich nations would contribute to a fund.
"A global target to reduce plastic production is in (the document)," said Graham Forbes, who led the Greenpeace delegation to the talks.
"Keeping this in the final treaty text must be a redline for any country serious about ending plastic pollution."
The International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) representing makers of plastic, backs governments' efforts to finalise the deal, said its spokesperson, Stewart Harris, adding that the body wanted to hasten a circular economy for plastics.
Nations which produce petrochemicals, such as Saudi Arabia, oppose efforts to cap plastic production, despite the protests of low- and middle-income nations that bear the brunt of plastic pollution.
While supporting an international treaty, the petrochemical industry has also been vocal in urging governments to avoid setting mandatory plastic production caps in favour of efforts to reduce plastic waste, such as recycling.
The chairman's move came after several participants had expressed frustration at the slow pace of the talks, amid disagreements over procedure, multiple proposals and some efforts to return to ground covered in the past.
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