Syrian rebels capture second major city after military withdraws
David Gritten
Syrian rebels say they have taken control of the major city of Hama, after the military withdrew its troops amid fierce battles.
The leader of the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, declared "victory" in the city and vowed there would be "no revenge".
Earlier, a rebel commander said HTS fighters and their allies had taken over a prison and released inmates, while the military said it had redeployed troops to "preserve civilian lives and prevent urban combat".
South Korean woman who grabbed soldier’s gun says ‘I just needed to stop them’
Video of party spokesperson grappling with rifle-wielding soldier has gone viral as symbol of defiance against martial law
Thu 5 Dec 2024 12.53 GMT
A South Korean party spokesperson seen grappling with a rifle-wielding soldier in a video that went viral as a symbol of defiance against martial law has insisted that she was not especially brave.
President Yoon Suk Yeol was forced to abandon his declaration of martial law this week after 190 lawmakers defied a contingent of soldiers in helmets and body armour and voted unanimously to reject it.
Footage of the lawmakers’ aides tussling with the troops to prevent them entering the main hall has become a symbol of public rejection of the attempt to impose military rule.
With Ukraine a slog and Syria aflame, Russia is worn thin
Because of its war against Ukraine, Russia is not able to intervene heavily on the behalf of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad as rebels rise up. However, the Kremlin cannot abandon its strategic Middle Eastern ally either.
Aleppo has long been considered a symbol of Russia's strength.
After government troops spent four years fighting rebels for control of the city, it was the Russian military that helped Syrian President Bashar Assad lock down control at the end of 2016.
Now, as part of the current offensive by the pro-Turkish Islamist militia Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Aleppo has fallen to the rebels in less than four days.
Amnesty International report says Israel is committing genocide in Gaza
Amnesty International accused the state of Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza war in a report published on Thursday, an allegation Israeli leaders have repeatedly denied. The report says Israel has "unleashed hell and destruction on Palestinians in Gaza brazenly, continuously and with total impunity".
Amnesty International on Thursday accused Israel of "committing genocide" against Palestinians in Gaza since the start of the war last year, saying its new report was a "wake-up call" for the international community.
The London-based rights organisation said its findings were based on "dehumanising and genocidal statements by Israeli government and military officials", satellite images documenting devastation, fieldwork and ground reports from Gazans.
"Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them," Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard said in a statement.
Anger, sorrow of fiery hibakusha torchbearer still inspire successor
By TAKASHI OGAWA/ Staff Writer
December 5, 2024 at 17:35 JST
Atomic bomb survivors gathered at Nagasaki Peace Park here 35 years ago to protest the laying of a wreath by the captain of a U.S. military vessel that was suspected of carrying a nuclear weapon.
Senji Yamaguchi, who was president of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council, trampled on the flowers on Sept. 16, 1989, scattering white chrysanthemum petals all around. He was trembling.
“I could hardly stand still when I thought about the feelings of people killed by the atomic bomb,” said Yamaguchi at the time, who died in 2013 at the age of 82.
Can’t work, sing, travel, study: All the ways the Taliban are restricting lives of women in Afghanistan
Afghan women cannot be heard in public, even if it is to offer prayers, and have been banned from schools, workplaces, salons, gyms and national parks under the current Taliban rule. Arpan Rai reports
Women in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan are currently barred from most of the ordinary activities their counterparts elsewhere in the world see as their natural right – studying, working, going to a salon or the gym, and even speaking or praying in public.
The steadily increasing diktats on Afghanistan’s nearly 50 million women, imposed by the hardline Islamist regime which initially promised a progressive society, have been globally condemned as gender apartheid.
A female cat has more rights than a woman in Afghanistan, Hollywood star Meryl Streep said in September, speaking at an event on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
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