Israel says will coordinate with Egypt before Rafah offensive

Israel says will coordinate with Egypt before Rafah offensive
Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz delivers his speech during the 60th Munich Security Conference at the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in Munich on Feb. 16, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 16 February 2024
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Israel says will coordinate with Egypt before Rafah offensive

Israel says will coordinate with Egypt before Rafah offensive
  • “Egypt is our ally, we have peace agreements with Egypt, and we will operate in a way that does not hurt the Egyptian interests,” Katz said
  • Katz underlined that US President Joe Biden would also be briefed on any military offensive

MUNICH: Israel will coordinate with Egypt before launching any military offensive in the southern Gazan border city Rafah, the Israeli foreign minister pledged Friday.
“We will operate in Rafah after we coordinate with Egypt,” Israel Katz told journalists on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, where 180 dignitaries have gathered to discuss conflicts around the globe.
“Egypt is our ally, we have peace agreements with Egypt, and we will operate in a way that does not hurt the Egyptian interests,” he said.
Fears had been growing for the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled the north of Gaza to Rafah as Israeli troops advanced into the territory to wage war on Hamas.
But Israel is now planning a major operation in the overcrowded city. With the border to Egypt closed, nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are essentially trapped there.
Katz underlined that US President Joe Biden would also be briefed on any military offensive, as he stressed his country’s determination to push ahead with the operation to root out Hamas fighters.
“If Sinwar and the Hamas murderers think that they can find protection in Rafah, it will not happen,” he said, referring to Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar.
“That’s why we will offer the civilians safe areas they can go to, and we will then deal with Hamas.”
According to the Wall Street Journal and an Egyptian NGO, Cairo is constructing a walled camp in the Sinai Peninsula to receive displaced Palestinian civilians from the Gaza Strip, according to a media report and an Egyptian human rights monitor.
The compound, part of “contingency plans” if ceasefire talks in Cairo failed, could accommodate more than 100,000 people, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, an Egyptian NGO, also released a report this week that it said showed construction of the compound to receive Palestinian refugees “in the case of a mass exodus.”
Israel, which is waging a four-month-old war against Hamas militants in the territory, has said it had no plans to move civilians there.
Israel has besieged the Gaza Strip since October 7, when Hamas fighters launched a deadly assault on border communities in southern Israel.
Some 1,160 died, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, while about 250 were taken hostage. Israel estimates that some 130 are still in Gaza but 30 may be dead.
According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, at least 28,775 people have been killed in the territory since the start of the war.


Top Indian actor arrested after death of fan at film premiere

Top Indian actor arrested after death of fan at film premiere
Updated 6 sec ago
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Top Indian actor arrested after death of fan at film premiere

Top Indian actor arrested after death of fan at film premiere
  • Allu Arjun appeared at the film premiere in the Indian city of Hyderabad on December 4
  • As fans clamoured to meet him, a 39-year-old woman died and her son was critically injured

HYDERABAD: A top movie actor in southern India was arrested on Friday, a week after a woman died and her son was seriously injured in the crush of fans that his surprise appearance at the premiere of his film provoked, police said.
Allu Arjun, prominent in the Telugu film industry, based in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where film stars are revered by die-hard fans, appeared at the film premiere in Hyderabad on Dec. 4.
As fans clamoured to meet him, a 39-year-old woman died and her nine-year-old son was critically injured. Police earlier this week arrested the owner of the theater where the incident took place, and on Friday they arrested Arjun at his residence.
He was granted bail by a local court a few hours after his arrest and he was expected to be released from prison shortly, his counsel said.
Arjun, 41, was named in the initial police complaint, which alleged that his personal security detail had tried to clear the crowd near him, causing the death of the woman who had become breathless, according to a copy of the document seen by Reuters.
Arjun’s counsel has denied any wrongdoing on his part, and he has publicly apologized for the incident.
Actors in southern India, which has a thriving film industry independent of Bollywood, are larger than life figures, with fan clubs who often build temples to their idols, and bathe their posters in milk during premieres.


Ukraine’s Zelensky to meet European leaders in Brussels on Wednesday

Ukraine’s Zelensky to meet European leaders in Brussels on Wednesday
Updated 13 December 2024
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Ukraine’s Zelensky to meet European leaders in Brussels on Wednesday

Ukraine’s Zelensky to meet European leaders in Brussels on Wednesday
  • Zelensky and some of his European allies have called for European troops to be deployed to Ukraine
  • “It won’t be a meeting that has concrete decisions, but more political to discuss the coming weeks and months,” said a source

BRUSSELS: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will attend a meeting with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, NATO and the EU in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss support for his country in its war with Russia, sources familiar with the plan told Reuters.
The meeting comes as European countries face the possibility of the US, Ukraine’s largest source of support, changing its approach to the conflict when Donald Trump returns to the White House in January.
Zelensky and some of his European allies have called for European troops to be deployed to Ukraine to act as a deterrent to further military action by Russia after any ceasefire.
“It won’t be a meeting that has concrete decisions, but more political to discuss the coming weeks and months,” said a source familiar with the meeting.
The gathering, hosted by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, will be held on the day leaders were already due to meet for the EU-Western Balkans summit in Brussels, and involve a joint meeting and several bilateral meetings with Zelensky.


Companies from UK, Italy and Japan to form joint venture for new fighter jet

Companies from UK, Italy and Japan to form joint venture for new fighter jet
Updated 13 December 2024
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Companies from UK, Italy and Japan to form joint venture for new fighter jet

Companies from UK, Italy and Japan to form joint venture for new fighter jet
  • Under the agreement, Britain’s BAE Systems, Italy’s Leonardo and Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement will each own a third of the new joint venture
  • The headquarters for the Global Combat Air Programme will be the UK

LONDON: The three companies building a next generation fighter jet for the UK, Italy and Japan revealed Friday that they are forming a joint venture to deliver the aircraft.
Under the agreement, Britain’s BAE Systems, Italy’s Leonardo and Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement will each own a third of the new joint venture, which will be subject to regulatory approvals.
“This agreement is the result of an intensive journey made possible by pooling our mutual and shared experiences,” said Roberto Cingolani, Leonardo’s chief executive.
The headquarters for the Global Combat Air Programme, or GCAP, will be the UK, but operations will take place in each of the partner nations. Under the terms of the agreement, the first chief executive will come from Italy.
“The new business will bring together the significant strengths and expertise of the companies involved to create an innovative organization that will lead the way in developing a next generation combat air system, creating long-term, high value and skilled jobs across the partner nations for decades to come,” said Charles Woodburn, BAE Systems’ chief executive.
The triangular-shaped jets will have supersonic capability and cutting-edge technology. Pilots will be able to use virtual reality in the aircraft’s digital cockpit, with vital information displayed directly in front of them.
The aim is that they will take to the skies by 2035.
Kimito Nakae, president of JAIEC, acknowledged that the way ahead “might not always be simple and straightforward,” but that “through continuing the strong spirit of trilateral cooperation and collaboration that we have fostered up to this point, we will not only deliver the GCAP on time but also at a level that exceeds all of our expectations.”


Austria offers Syrian refugees 1,000 euros to return home

Syrians celebrate during a demonstration following the first Friday prayers since Bashar Assad's ouster, in Damascus' central sq
Syrians celebrate during a demonstration following the first Friday prayers since Bashar Assad's ouster, in Damascus' central sq
Updated 13 December 2024
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Austria offers Syrian refugees 1,000 euros to return home

Syrians celebrate during a demonstration following the first Friday prayers since Bashar Assad's ouster, in Damascus' central sq
  • Conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer said Syria now needs its citizens in order to be rebuilt

VIENNA: Austria’s conservative-led government said on Friday it is offering Syrian refugees a “return bonus” of 1,000 euros ($1,050) to move back to their home country after the fall of Bashar Assad.
Conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer reacted quickly to Assad’s overthrow on Sunday, saying the same day that the security situation in Syria should be reassessed so as to allow deportations of Syrian refugees.
Deporting people against their will is not possible until it becomes clearer what direction Syria is taking. For now, Austria’s government has said it will focus on voluntary deportations. It has also stopped processing Syrians’ asylum applications, as have more than a dozen European countries.
Like many conservatives in Europe, Nehammer is under pressure from the far right, with the two groups often seeming to try to outbid each other on tough-sounding immigration policies. Syrians are the biggest group of asylum-seekers in Austria, a European Union member state.
“Austria will support Syrians who wish to return to their home country with a return bonus of 1,000 euros. The country now needs its citizens in order to be rebuilt,” Nehammer said in an English-language post on X.
How many Syrians will take up the offer remains to be seen. With national flag-carrier Austrian Airlines having suspended flights to the Middle East because of the security situation, the Austrian bonus may not even fully cover travel.
An economy class one-way ticket in a month’s time to Beirut, a common starting point for those heading overland to Damascus, currently costs at least 1,066.10 euros ($1,120.58) on Turkish Airlines, according to the company’s website.
Austria’s far-right Freedom Party came first in September’s parliamentary election with around 29 percent of the vote but, as no potential coalition partner was forthcoming, Nehammer is leading coalition talks with the Social Democrats and liberal Neos.


Europe rights watchdog criticizes Italy over migrant detention centers

Europe rights watchdog criticizes Italy over migrant detention centers
Updated 13 December 2024
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Europe rights watchdog criticizes Italy over migrant detention centers

Europe rights watchdog criticizes Italy over migrant detention centers
  • The committee visited centers in Milan, Gradisca, Potenza and Rome
  • The report acknowledged that police interventions usually follow disturbances

STASBOURG, France: The Council of Europe rights body on Friday criticized Italy’s treatment of migrants in detention centers, citing police violence and the use of psychotropic drugs on detainees.
The COE’s anti-torture committee made the comments after a visit in April to four repatriation centers on mainland Italy, where migrants are held pending expulsion. Italy said some “prison elements” were necessary at the centers to prevents escapes but said in its defense that it was building new facilities.
“The report describes several cases of physical ill-treatment and excessive use of force against detained persons by police staff in the CPRs (centers) visited,” said the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
“The committee is also critical of the widespread practice of the administration of unprescribed psychotropic drugs diluted in water,” added the summary.
It called for a review of the practice of transporting people “handcuffed in a police vehicle without being offered food and water during journeys of several hours.”
There was no adequate oversight of the police working there and injuries sustained by the detainees were not accurately recorded, it noted.
The committee visited centers in Milan, Gradisca, Potenza and Rome.
At Potenza, it criticized “the widespread practice of the administration of unprescribed psychotropic drugs diluted in water to foreign nationals.”
The report acknowledged that police interventions usually follow disturbances.
But this was “a direct consequence of the disproportionate security restrictions, the lack of individual risk assessments of foreign nationals, and the fact that detained persons were in effect provided with nothing to occupy their time,” it argued.
People can be detained at such centers for up to 18 months while the judicial process for expulsion is completed.
The committee noted the jail-like design and layout of the centers — including triple-metal mesh screens and cage-like outdoor facilities — recommending that such elements be removed.
The food for detainees was poor and there was a lack of toiletries, it added.
The committee also raised questions about Italy’s attempts to hold foreigners at Italian-run centers in Albania, a controversial initiative that Italy’s courts last month referred to the European Court of Justice.
Rome should ensure that any detainees the centers received proper treatment and lived in decent conditions, said the committee.
In its response, Italy said the prison-elements could not be removed as that would only lead to “increased escapes from the centers and episodes of vandalism.”
But it was building new facilities that would comply with European guidelines, it added.
Police paid the “utmost attention” to the training of staff at such centers, it said.