NAIROBI: A rebel leader fighting Ethiopia’s government says his troops are near the capital and preparing another attack, predicting the war would end “very soon” as diplomats rush to negotiate a ceasefire.
Jaal Marroo, commander of the Oromo Liberation Army, warned Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed that pro-government fighters were defecting and the rebels were very close to victory.
“What I am sure (of) is that it is going to end very soon,” Jaal, whose real name is Kumsa Diriba, told AFP in an interview Sunday.
“We are preparing to push for another launch, and for another attack. The government is just trying to buy time, and they are trying to instigate civil war.”
The OLA and its allies, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, have claimed several victories in recent weeks, taking towns some 400 kilometers from the capital, and have not ruled out marching on Addis Ababa.
Jaal said his fighters were even closer — some 40 kilometers from the capital — and had “never moved (back) an inch” from territory they controlled.
AFP could not independently confirm this claim. Much of the conflict-affected zone is under a communications blackout and access for journalists is restricted, making battlefield positions difficult to verify.
The government has rejected suggestions the rebels are within striking distance of Addis Ababa, but has ordered the capital to prepare to defend itself, while foreign embassies have withdrawn staff.
“While we are being tested on many fronts, our collective will to realize the path we have embarked upon has strengthened us,” Abiy tweeted Monday, a day after tens of thousands marched in Addis Ababa in support of the government.
The threat of fresh rebel advances has spurred efforts by foreign envoys to broker a settlement to a conflict that has killed thousands and inflicted atrocities and starvation on civilians.
On Sunday, the African Union’s high representative for the Horn of Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo, sat down with TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael in Tigray’s capital Mekele.
The same day, the UN undersecretary for humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths, also visited Mekele where he met the “de-facto authorities” there, said a spokesperson.
Abiy, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, sent troops into Tigray in November last year to topple the TPLF, accusing them of attacking military bases.
In August, the OLA and TPLF — both designated terrorist groups by the government — announced they had brokered an alliance to fight against a common enemy, despite the two groups holding historic grievances.
Leader of Ethiopia’s Oromo rebels sees victory ‘very soon’
https://arab.news/mpkkp
Leader of Ethiopia’s Oromo rebels sees victory ‘very soon’
Australia win riveting fifth India Test to take series 3-1
- Australia win Border-Gavaskar series, book place in World Test Championship final
- Scott Boland takes 10 wickets in match to ensure India’s collapse in both innings
SYDNEY: Australia clinched a knife-edge fifth Test against India in Sydney by six wickets to seal a riveting series 3-1 Sunday and book their place in the World Test Championship final.
India were dismissed 45 minutes into the morning session of day three for 157, adding just 16 to their overnight 141-6 with the irrepressible Scott Boland ending with 6-45 and 10 wickets for the match.
Set 162 to win, the hosts reached the target before tea against an attack missing injured strike bowler Jasprit Bumrah to regain the Border-Gavaskar trophy for the first time since 2014-15.
Australia lost three wickets before lunch to leave the Test finely-poised, including Steve Smith who agonizingly fell just one short of becoming only the 15th player and fourth Australian to reach 10,000 Test runs.
But Usman Khawaja hit a composed 41 before Travis Head (34 not out) and debutant Beau Webster (39 not out) steered them home.
Victory was enough to ensure they will defend their World Test Championship title in the June final at Lord’s against South Africa.
It culminated a thrilling tour full of twists and turns that saw record crowds and some spectacular individual performances.
The five-Test series witnessed the emergence of exciting young talent in the form of Australian opener Sam Konstas and Indian all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy.
At the same time, aging veterans, notably Rohit Sharma, showed that the clock is ticking on their careers.
India won the first match in Perth convincingly before Australia bounced back in the day-night affair at Adelaide.
The rain-hit Brisbane clash ended in a draw before the hosts took all the momentum into Sydney with a pulsating day-five win in Melbourne.
Indian pace spearhead and skipper Bumrah, who has been dealing with a back issue, batted briefly when his team resumed after bowling just one over and leaving the field on Saturday.
But in a huge setback the 31-year-old did not appear again, leaving Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna to lead the bowling attack, with Virat Kohli in charge.
It appeared to be a difficult run chase on a deteriorating surface offering plenty for the bowlers, but Konstas and Khawaja had other ideas.
They raced to 35 off the first three overs, with teenager Konstas hitting out.
It proved his downfall, unnecessarily lashing at a good length ball from Prasidh only to sky it to Washington Sundar at mid-off, out for 22.
Prasidh then knocked over Marnus Labuschagne for six, caught by Yashasvi Jaiswal at slip, with the same pair removing Smith on four, fending off a rising ball.
Veteran Khawaja, who had a poor series, produced some cracking boundaries on his way to 41, but he mistimed a pull shot off Siraj with wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant collecting the edge.
It gave India a glimmer of hope before Head and Webster took the game away.
India resumed after a counter-attacking 61 from Pant helped build their second-innings lead.
Ravindra Jadeja began on eight and Sundar on six after they dismissed Australia for 181 in reply to their first-innings 185.
Jadeja crunched an early boundary off Pat Cummins, but he was out two balls later, getting a faint nick to wicketkeeper Alex Carey, adding just five to his overnight score.
The Australian skipper struck again to bowl Sundar for 12.
That brought Bumrah to the crease and he could only watch as Siraj edged Boland to Khawaja at slip to give the big Australian his fifth wicket.
Boland, whose line and length were impeccable all series, then bowled Bumrah to end the innings.
Israel-Hamas talks resume in Qatar as violence shows no let-up
- Israel’s defense chief says indirect negotiations with Hamas seek release of hostages
- Ninety-six Israeli hostages remain in Gaza, including 34 Israeli military says are dead
GAZA STRIP: Israel confirmed on Saturday that negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal had resumed in Qatar, as rescuers said more than 30 people had been killed in fresh bombardment of the territory.
The civil defense agency said a dawn air strike on the home of the Al-Ghoula family in Gaza City killed 11 people, seven of them children.
AFP images from the neighborhood of Shujaiya showed residents combing through smoking rubble. Bodies including those of small children were lined up on the ground, shrouded in white sheets.
As the violence raged, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed that indirect negotiations with Hamas had resumed in Qatar for the release of hostages seized in the October 2023 attacks.
The minister told relatives of one of the hostages, woman soldier Liri Albag, that “efforts are under way to free the hostages, notably the Israeli delegation which left yesterday (Friday) for negotiations in Qatar,” his office said.
Katz said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had given “detailed instructions for the continued negotiations.”
He was speaking after Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, released a video of Albag in captivity in Gaza.
In the undated, three-and-half-minute recording that AFP has not been able to verify, the 19-year-old conscript called in Hebrew for the Israeli government to secure her release.
In response, her family issued an appeal to Netanyahu, saying: “It’s time to take decisions as if it were your own children there.”
A total of 96 Israeli hostages remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the latest video was “firm and incontestable proof of the urgency of bringing the hostages home.”
Hamas had said late on Friday that the negotiations were poised to resume.
The militant group, whose October 7, 2023, attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war, said they would “focus on ensuring the agreement leads to a complete cessation of hostilities (and) the withdrawal of occupation forces.”
Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been engaged in months of effort that have failed to end nearly 15 months of war.
In December, Qatar expressed optimism that “momentum” was returning to the talks following the US election of Donald Trump, who takes office in 16 days.
But Hamas and Israel then accused each other of setting new conditions and obstacles.
As the clock ticks down to the handover of power in Washington, the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden notified Congress of an $8 billion arms sale to Israel, a source familiar with the plan said on Saturday.
“The department has informally notified Congress of an $8 billion proposed sale of munitions to support Israel’s long-term security by resupplying stocks of critical munitions and air defense capabilities,” the official said.
The United States is Israel’s largest military supplier.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the Ghoula home in Gaza City “was completely destroyed” by the dawn strike.
“It was a two-story building and several people are still under the rubble,” he said, adding Israeli drones had “also fired on ambulance staff.”
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army did not immediately comment.
“A huge explosion woke us up. Everything was shaking,” said neighbor Ahmed Mussa.
“It was home to children, women. There wasn’t anyone wanted or who posed a threat.”
Elsewhere, the civil defense agency said an Israeli strike killed five security officers tasked with accompanying aid convoys as they drove through the southern city of Khan Yunis.
The Israeli army said the five had been “implicated in terrorist activities” and were not escorting aid trucks at the time of the strike.
Rescuers said strikes elsewhere in Gaza killed 10 other people.
AFP images showed Palestine Red Crescent paramedics in Gaza City moving the body of one of their colleagues, his green jacket laid over the blanket that covered his corpse.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said a total of 136 people had been killed over the previous 48 hours.
On Sunday, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen in the latest of a series of attacks.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been firing missiles and drones at Israel — as well as at ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden — in what they say is a solidarity campaign with Palestinians during the war in Gaza.
The Hamas attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 45,717 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Gaza health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.
Pakistan government warns of ‘hurdles’ to talks if Imran Khan’s party doesn’t submit demands
- Second round of talks between Khan’s party, government ended inconclusively this week after PTI did not submit demands in writing
- Khan’s party has publicly stated two demands: release of political prisoners and setting up of judicial commissions to probe protests
ISLAMABAD: A leading government spokesperson this week warned that negotiations with former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party may face “serious hurdles” if the party fails to submit its demands in writing in the next meeting.
The PTI and the government’s second round of talks on Jan. 2 ended inconclusively after Khan’s party demanded more time to meet and consult the jailed former premier before submitting their demands in writing to the government.
The two sides kicked off negotiations last month to end the political deadlock in the country. Khan’s party has publicly stated two demands: the release of political prisoners and the establishment of judicial commissions to investigate protests on May 9, 2023, and Nov. 26, 2024, which the government says involved his party supporters, accusing them of attacking military installations and government buildings.
“In an interview with a private television channel, he [Senator Irfan Siddiqui] said that if PTI does not submit its demands in writing as promised, the negotiation process may face serious hurdles,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported.
“He said even after 12 days, no significant progress has been made.”
Siddiqui, who is the parliamentary leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz ()PML-N) in the Senate and a member of the government’s negotiation committee, said the government had facilitated Khan’s party by arranging its meetings with the former prime minister in jail.
However, he said the PTI remained “indecisive” about formalizing their demands despite written assurances made in joint declarations.
“However, if the written demands are not presented in the third meeting, the negotiations could face significant setbacks,” Radio Pakistan quoted Siddiqui as saying.
He said the date for the third meeting between the two sides would be decided by the PTI.
Khan’s ouster in a parliamentary no-trust vote in 2022 has plunged Pakistan into a political crisis, particularly since the PTI founder was jailed in August last year on corruption and other charges and remains behind bars. His party and supporters have regularly held protests calling for his release, with many of the demonstrations turning violent.
The talks between the two sides opened days after Khan threatened a civil disobedience movement, and amid growing concerns he may face trial by a military court for allegedly inciting attacks on sensitive security installations during the May 9, 2023 protests.
Washington Post cartoonist quits after paper rejects sketch of Bezos bowing to Trump
- Ann Telnaes said that she’s never before had a cartoon rejected because of its inherent messaging and that such a move is dangerous for a free press
- Wapo exec says the cartoon was rejected only to avoid repetition, because the paper had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon
A cartoonist has decided to quit her job at the Washington Post after an editor rejected her sketch of the newspaper’s owner and other media executives bowing before President-elect Donald Trump.
Ann Telnaes posted a message Friday on the online platform Substack saying that she drew a cartoon showing a group of media executives bowing before Trump while offering him bags of money, including Post owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Telnaes wrote that the cartoon was intended to criticize “billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump.” Several executives, Bezos among them, have been spotted at Trump’s Florida club Mar-a-Lago. She accused them of having lucrative government contracts and working to eliminate regulations.
Telnaes said that she’s never before had a cartoon rejected because of its inherent messaging and that such a move is dangerous for a free press.
“As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable,” Telnaes wrote. “For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job. So I have decided to leave the Post. I doubt my decision will cause much of a stir and that it will be dismissed because I’m just a cartoonist. But I will not stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they say ‘Democracy dies in darkness.’”
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists issued a statement Saturday accusing the Post of “political cowardice” and asking other cartoonists to post Telnaes’ sketch with the hashtag #StandWithAnn in a show of solidarity.
“Tyranny ends at pen point,” the association said. “It thrives in the dark, and the Washington Post simply closed its eyes and gave in like a punch-drunk boxer.”
The Post’s communications director, Liza Pluto, provided The Associated Press on Saturday with a statement from David Shipley, the newspaper’s editorial page editor. Shipley said in the statement that he disagrees with Telnaes’ “interpretation of events.”
He said he decided to nix the cartoon because the paper had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon and was set to publish another.
“Not every editorial judgment is a reflection of a malign force. ... The only bias was against repetition,” Shipley said.
Pakistan Business Council elects new board to strengthen trade, investment ties with UAE
- PBC provides a platform to Pakistani companies and professionals in Dubai, helping them with networking
- It also engages in initiatives to enhance Pakistan’s image, organize business forums and cultural activities
PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Business Council (PBC) Dubai, a non-profit organization established in 2004 to strengthen trade and investment ties with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has elected its new board of directors for the 2025-2026 term, according to its statement on Saturday.
PBC serves as a platform for Pakistan-related companies and professionals operating in Dubai and the Northern Emirates, facilitating business networking, information exchange and maintaining strong connections to Pakistan.
Established under the patronage of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the council boasts a membership of over 200 Pakistani businessmen and companies from diverse sectors, including trade, manufacturing, professional services, finance, technology and health care.
Pakistan’s Consul General in Dubai, Hussain Muhammad, congratulated the newly elected board during a ceremony held at the Pakistan Association Dubai.
“The PBC serves as a dynamic platform for fostering trade, investment and collaboration between Pakistan and the UAE,” he said, according to a council statement. “I urge the new board to continue identifying and promoting sectors where both nations can collaborate for mutual benefit.”
PBC actively engages in initiatives to enhance Pakistan’s image. It also closely works with local government departments in Dubai and organizes events such as business forums, seminars, workshops and cultural celebrations related to Pakistan.
During the ceremony, the consul general praised the outgoing board for their contributions and highlighted the strong relationship between Pakistan and the UAE.
Members of both the outgoing and incoming boards also addressed the gathering, saying the council was playing a vital role in promoting business-to-business collaboration between the two countries.
