Strike over pay paralyzes transport in the Tunisian capital

Strike over pay paralyzes transport in the Tunisian capital
People walk out of the Central Bank in Tunis, Tunisia, March 8, 2018. (Reuters)
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Updated 02 January 2023

Strike over pay paralyzes transport in the Tunisian capital

Strike over pay paralyzes transport in the Tunisian capital
  • Strike highlights the financial problems faced by public companies on the verge of bankruptcy

TUNIS: Metro and bus traffic in the Tunisian capital ground to a halt on Monday, after employees of the state transport company held a strike over delays in the payment of wages and bonuses.
The strike highlights the financial problems faced by public companies on the verge of bankruptcy, while the government of President Kais Saied suffers its worst financial crisis.
“The union is protesting against the delay in the payment of wages and bonuses,” said Hayat Chamtouri, a spokesperson for the company said.
“The financial situation in the company is really difficult,” she added.
The transport strike is a show of strength for the powerful UGTT union, which has pledged to hold a series of protests.
The union, with 1 million members, has approved a two-day strike by air, land and sea transport workers on Jan. 25 and 26, to protest against what it called “the government’s marginalization of public companies.”
The strike sparked anger among thousands of people struggling to find transport in the capital.
“Today, we do not find milk, oil, sugar, or coffee. Also now we do not find buses that take us to work. Tunisia has become an unbearable hell,” said Nejia, a woman waiting at a bus station.
In the poor Intilaka neighborhood, people blocked roads to protest against the strike.
Tunisia, is struggling seeking a $1.9 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund in exchange for unpopular reforms including spending cuts, the restructuring of public companies and reductions in energy and food subsidies.
The economy minister Samir Saeed said last month that Tunisia will face a difficult year with an inflation rate that will exceed 10 percent.
The strike will increase pressure on the government of President Saied, who is facing growing opposition 17 months after seizing executive powers in a move his opponents described as a coup.


Palestinian toddler shot by Israeli troops in West Bank dies of wounds

Palestinian toddler shot by Israeli troops in West Bank dies of wounds
Updated 58 min 9 sec ago

Palestinian toddler shot by Israeli troops in West Bank dies of wounds

Palestinian toddler shot by Israeli troops in West Bank dies of wounds
  • Mohammed Al-Tamimi was shot in the head near his village of Nebi Saleh
  • The Israeli military has opened an investigation into the incident

A 3-year-old Palestinian boy who was shot by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank last week died of his wounds, Israeli hospital officials said Monday.
Mohammed Al-Tamimi was shot in the head last Thursday near his village of Nebi Saleh while riding in a car with his father. He was airlifted to Israel’s Sheba Hospital, which announced the boy’s death.
The Israeli military has said it opened fire after gunmen in the area shot at an Israeli guard post at a nearby Jewish settlement.
But the boy’s father, Haitham Al-Tamimi, told The Associated Press that he had just buckled up his son in the car and they were driving to visit an uncle when the bullet struck. The father was also shot and treated at a Palestinian hospital.
The Israeli military has opened an investigation into the incident.
Rights groups, however, say that such investigations rarely lead to prosecution or disciplinary action against soldiers.
The shooting was the latest bloodshed in a more than yearlong surge of violence in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem. That fighting has picked up since Israel’s new far-right government took office in late December.
Nearly 120 Palestinians have been killed in the two areas this year, with nearly half of them members of armed militant groups, according to an AP tally. The military says the number of militants is much higher. But stone-throwing youths and people uninvolved in violence have also been killed.
Meanwhile, Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis in those areas have killed at least 21 people.
Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem, along with the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians seek these territories for a future state.
Some 700,000 Israelis now live in settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Most of the international community considers these settlements illegal or obstacles to peace.


France seeks removal of Lebanese ambassador’s immunity after rape accusation

France seeks removal of Lebanese ambassador’s immunity after rape accusation
Updated 05 June 2023

France seeks removal of Lebanese ambassador’s immunity after rape accusation

France seeks removal of Lebanese ambassador’s immunity after rape accusation
  • Ambassador Rami Adwan is being investigated in France following complaints by two former embassy employees
  • Lebanon said it would send an investigation team to the embassy in Paris to question the ambassador

PARIS: French authorities will on Monday ask Lebanon to lift the immunity of Beirut’s ambassador to Paris after an investigation was opened into alleged rape and intentional violence by the envoy, a source said.
“Steps in this direction will be taken during the day,” a French diplomatic source, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
The ambassador, Rami Adwan, is being investigated in France following complaints by two former embassy employees. He has diplomatic immunity but could face trial if Lebanon agrees to France’s request.


Israel jails Palestinian for life over West Bank killing

Israel jails Palestinian for life over West Bank killing
Updated 05 June 2023

Israel jails Palestinian for life over West Bank killing

Israel jails Palestinian for life over West Bank killing
  • The Israeli military court sentenced Moath Hamed, 39, to two life sentences for the attack

Jerusalem: An Israeli court on Sunday sentenced a Palestinian to life in prison for the 2015 killing of an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank, the military said Monday.
The Israeli military court sentenced Moath Hamed, 39, to two life sentences for the attack, which he admitted to carrying out on behalf of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, the army said.
On June 29, 2015 Hamed fired at a vehicle, killing Malachi Rosenfeld, 25, who was returning from a basketball game near Shilo, an illegal settlement in the West Bank.
Three other Israelis were also injured in the attack.
In July 2015, Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency said it had arrested seven Palestinians in connection with the attack.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said Hamed had been arrested by Israeli forces in April 2022 after being “pursued by the occupation (Israel) for seven years.”
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967.
Cases involving events in the West Bank are tried by Israeli military tribunals.
Nearly three million Palestinians live in the West Bank, as do around 490,000 Israelis in settlements that are considered illegal under international law.


Sudan battle rages as Saudi Arabia, US urge new truce talks

Sudan battle rages as Saudi Arabia, US urge new truce talks
Updated 05 June 2023

Sudan battle rages as Saudi Arabia, US urge new truce talks

Sudan battle rages as Saudi Arabia, US urge new truce talks

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia and the US on Sunday made a renewed push for truce talks between Sudan’s warring generals as deadly fighting raged into its eighth week.

Envoys of Sudan’s regular army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces or RSF have remained in Jeddah despite the earlier collapse of ceasefire talks, the Kingdom’s Foreign Ministry said.

The foreign mediators called for “the parties to agree to and effectively implement a new ceasefire, with the aim of building to a permanent cessation of hostilities,” it said.

Saudi Arabia and the US are keen to resume formal talks between the delegations, the ministry said.

Saudi Arabia and the US remain steadfast in their commitment to the people of Sudan, the statement added.

The Sudanese delegations in Jeddah continue to engage in daily negotiations, the ministry said.

“Those discussions are focused on facilitating humanitarian assistance and reaching agreement on near term steps the party must take before the Jeddah talks resume,” according to the statement.

It added: “Facilitators stand ready to resume formal talks and remind parties that they must implement their obligations under the May 11 Jeddah Declaration of Commitment to protect the civilians of Sudan.”

A five-day extension of a truce formally expired on Saturday with no signs of the conflict abating.

Upwards of 1,800 people have been killed, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, and the UN says 1.2 million have been displaced with more than 425,000 fleeing abroad.

The RSF on Sunday claimed it had shot down a fighter jet after the army “launched an audacious airborne assault upon our forces’ positions” in northern Khartoum.

A military source told AFP a Chinese-made jet crashed near Wadi Seidna base north of Khartoum because of a “technical malfunction.”

Witnesses said they saw an aircraft traveling from the south to the north of the capital with flames erupting from it.

Other witnesses spoke of airstrikes on RSF positions in the east of the city, with some civilian casualties reported.

Fighting in the capital has led to widespread damage and looting, a collapse in health services, power and water cuts, and dwindling food supplies.

Beyond the capital, deadly fighting has also broken out in the remote western region of Darfur, already grappling with long-running unrest and huge humanitarian challenges.


US, UK navies say they responded to distress call as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard ‘harassed’ ship

US, UK navies say they responded to distress call as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard ‘harassed’ ship
Updated 05 June 2023

US, UK navies say they responded to distress call as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard ‘harassed’ ship

US, UK navies say they responded to distress call as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard ‘harassed’ ship
  • The recent seizures have put new pressure on the US, long the security guarantor for Gulf Arab nations

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: The US Navy said Monday its sailors and the United Kingdom Royal Navy came to the aid of a ship in the crucial Strait of Hormuz after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard “harassed” it.
Three fast-attack Guard vessels with armed troops aboard approached the merchant ship at a close distance Sunday afternoon, the US Navy said in a statement. It offered black-and-white images it said came from a US Navy Boeing P-8 Poseidon overhead, which showed three small ships close to the commercial ship.
The US Navy’s guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul and the Royal Navy’s frigate HMS Lancaster responded to the incident, with the Lancaster launching a helicopter.
“The situation deescalated approximately an hour later when the merchant vessel confirmed the fast-attack craft departed the scene,” the Navy said. “The merchant ship continued transiting the Strait of Hormuz without further incident.”
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Arabian Gulf, sees 20 percent of the world’s oil pass through it.
While the Navy did not identify the vessel involved, ship-tracking data from MarineTraffic.com analyzed by The Associated Press showed the Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier Venture erratically changed course as it traveled through the strait at the time of the incident. Its location also matched information about the incident given by the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a British military operation overseeing traffic in the region. The vessel also resembled the images released by the Navy.
The ship’s registered manager, Trust Bulkers of Athens, Greece, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Iranian state media and the Revolutionary Guard did not immediately acknowledge the incident. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This latest incident comes after a series of maritime incidents involving Iran following the US unilaterally withdrawing from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.
The suspected American seizure of the Suez Rajan, a tanker linked to a US private equity firm believed to have been carrying sanctioned Iranian crude oil off Singapore, likely sparked Tehran to recently take the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Advantage Sweet. That ship carried Kuwaiti crude oil for energy firm Chevron Corp. of San Ramon, California.
While authorities have not acknowledged the Suez Rajan’s seizure, the vessel is now off the coast of Galveston, Texas, according to ship-tracking data analyzed by the AP.
Meanwhile, Iran separately seized the Niovi, a Panama-flagged tanker, as it left a dry dock in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, bound for Fujairah on the UAE’s eastern coast. While not carrying any cargo, data from S&P Global Market Intelligence seen by the AP showed the Niovi in July 2020 received oil from a ship known then as the Oman Pride.
The US Treasury in August 2021 sanctioned the Oman Pride and others associated with the vessel over it being “involved in an international oil smuggling network” that supported the Quds Force, the expeditionary unit of the Guard that operates across the Mideast. Purported emails published online by Wikiran, a website that solicits leaked documents from the Islamic Republic, suggest that cargo carried by the Niovi was sold on to firms in China without permission.
Satellite images analyzed by the AP show those two vessels anchored off Bandar Abbas, Iran.
The recent seizures have put new pressure on the US, long the security guarantor for Gulf Arab nations. The United Arab Emirates claimed last week it earlier “withdrew its participation” from a joint naval command called the Combined Maritime Forces though the US Navy said it was still in the group. Meanwhile, the US military’s Central Command said Saturday its chief visited the region, met with Emirati leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and “discussed shared regional security concerns as well as US and UAE security partnerships.”
The Mideast-based commanders of the US, British and French navies last month also transited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday aboard an American warship, a sign of their unified approach to keep the crucial waterway open after Iran seized the two oil tankers.