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The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Defense announced Sunday that its air defenses are responding to missile and drone attacks coming from Iran.The ministry said in a statement that the sounds heard in various parts of the country are the result of intercepts by both ballistic missile defense systems and fighter jets targeting drones and missiles. Source link
Saudi Arabia has ordered Iran’s military attache and four other embassy staff to leave the kingdom within 24 hours after declaring them persona non grata, the Saudi foreign ministry said on Saturday in a statement, citing what it described as continued Iranian attacks against Saudi territory. Related Story Source link
Whispers followed her offline. Online, the abuse imploded, unchecked: comments, ridicule, shares, screenshots. She had never consented to any of it. That hadn’t stopped anyone.Within minutes,…
A firefighting helicopter drops water to extinguish a fire at a car parts plant in Daejeon on Friday. (AFP) Fourteen people were killed in a fire in a car parts factory in South Korea that also injured 59 others, authorities told AFP Saturday, updating a previous toll of 11 fatalities.Fire crews were initially unable to enter the factory in the central city of Daejeon to look for survivors due to the risk of the building collapsing.The response was also hampered by sodium stored at the site, which can explode if improperly handled, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.Around 170 workers were at the plant when the fire broke out at about 1:00pm (0400 GMT) Friday, according to Yonhap.”We can confirm the latest death toll has risen to 14, with no one reported missing,” an official from the interior ministry’s department that handles fires and other disasters told AFP.Officials have not said what may have caused the fire, which spread rapidly. A witness told Yonhap about hearing an explosion.Fire crews could be seen shooting water onto the site from cranes while a thick column of black smoke filled the sky in images released by Yonhap.The fire was extinguished by Saturday afternoon.President Lee Jae Myung visited the site and met bereaved families, promising to provide full support for victims and their families, Yonhap said.”The government will thoroughly investigate the cause of the incident and prepare fundamental measures to prevent such tragedies,” Lee wrote on X.Wealthy South Korea has a patchy record on labour safety, with more than 10,000 worksite deaths between 2000 and 2024, according to official statistics.In September, South Korea sentenced the CEO of battery maker Aricell to 15 years in prison over one of the country’s worst industrial fires.The 2024 blaze at the lithium battery factory in Hwaseong, south of capital Seoul, killed 22 people, most of them Chinese nationals.In its verdict, the Suwon District Court said the company had prioritised profit over workers’ safety. Related Story Source link
A rainbow arcs above the building as Iranians celebrate the spring holiday of Nowruz in Tehran. AFP Firefighters battled another blaze at a Kuwait oil refinery Friday after a fresh drone attack from Iran where millions were marking the country’s New Year with muted celebrations under the shadow of war.Despite calls for an end to targeting Gulf energy infrastructure by European leaders on Thursday, Kuwait reported a fire for the second time this week at its giant Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery, a day after a direct hit on Qatar’s vital Ras Laffan facility.Iranian authorities vowed to retaliate after an Israeli strike on Wednesday damaged its South Pars gas field, which draws on the world’s biggest known gas reserve and is vital for domestic supplies.The escalating damage to Gulf energy infrastructure has led to fears of lasting damage to oil and gas supplies, even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated an end to the fighting could be close.”We are winning and Iran is being decimated,” the Israeli premier said at a press conference on Thursday, claiming Tehran no longer had the capacity to manufacture ballistic missiles.”This war is ending a lot faster than people think,” he added in comments that also suggested a “ground component” would be needed to overthrow the government.Iran’s leaders, despite an Israeli assassination campaign and three weeks of bombardment, have vowed to end the conflict on their own terms.”Our missile industry deserves a perfect score… and there is no concern in this regard, because even under wartime conditions we continue missile production,” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.Moments after his message was shared by the agency, the Revolutionary Guards said he had been killed in an airstrike.Tehran suffered a new wave of Israeli bombardment Friday, dashing hopes of a truce as the country celebrated the new year spring festival Nowruz and Muslims in the Gulf and elsewhere marked the end of Ramadan.The Israeli army also targeted a northern region around the Caspian Sea, a popular holiday destination that has so far been largely spared attacks.Sixteen Iranian cargo vessels were sunk in ports on the Gulf “following the American-Zionist air attack”, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported.”We assume and hope that there will be no attacks on the first day of the new year,” Hoda, a resident in Saveh south of Tehran, had told AFP on Thursday.In Tehran’s markets, shoppers were out in force buying new clothes and gifts, although sidewalks were less packed than usual for this time of year, with many people having fled north, AFP correspondents said.Huge banners bearing images of Nowruz, which begins officially in the evening, have replaced portraits of the country’s late leader Ali Khamenei who was assassinated on the first day of the war on February 28 by Israel.As the war heads towards its fourth week, Iran retains a stranglehold over the strategic Strait of Hormuz through which a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) usually flows.As concerns grow over the conflict’s economic fallout, President Emmanuel Macron said France planned to talk with permanent members of the UN Security Council about establishing a framework to secure navigation in the Strait of Hormuz – but only after fighting had stopped.On Thursday President Donald Trump repeated a call for major US allies and others, none of which were consulted or advised on the war, to help secure the safety of shipping.Germany, Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan and Canada pledged in a joint statement to join “appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait”.Prospects of a truce have not been helped by the sense that Israel and the US are pursuing different goals and strategies.”The Israeli government has been focused on disabling the Iranian leadership,” US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on Thursday. “The president said that his objectives are to destroy Iran’s ballistic missile-launching capability, their ballistic missile production capability and their navy.” Related Story Source link
A displaced girl from Tyre prays in front of a grave at a cemetery in Sidon, Lebanon, on the day of Eid al-Fitr, following an escalation…
This file picture shows cargo ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam…
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated that the United Nations was ready to contribute to efforts aimed at de-escalating tensions in the Middle East and ensuring the protection of the vital Strait of Hormuz. He explained that the UN had previously played a key role in facilitating the Black Sea Initiative, which enabled the export of Ukrainian food and fertilizers through a humanitarian corridor starting in July 2022. Guterres added that his main objective was to explore whether similar conditions could be created in the Strait of Hormuz. He noted that the UN was currently engaging with key parties in the Gulf, as well as the European Council. He further said that while the context and solutions would differ, the UN was willing to assist and had teams ready to manage such efforts, emphasizing a preference for working directly with the United States and other partners Source link
The Israeli army continued its attacks on southern Lebanon, targeting a number of towns and areas. The National News Agency reported that the outskirts of the towns of Al Ghandourieh and Borj Qalaouiyeh, as well as the town of Naqoura, were subjected to hostile artillery shelling, while Israeli aircraft carried out an airstrike on the city of Bint Jbeil. The Israeli army also conducted two airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, targeting Ghobeiry and Borj El Barajneh.It is worth noting that one person was killed and five others were injured in two raids carried out by Israeli warplanes at dawn today on southern Lebanon. ( Source link
UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, accused Israel of practicing systematic torture against Palestinians on a scale suggesting collective punishment and destructive intent. In a media report, she stated that since Oct. 7, 2023, Palestinian detainees had been subjected to severe physical and psychological abuse. She noted that torture in detention centers had been used on an unprecedented scale as a form of collective punishment. Albanese added that acts such as brutal beatings, sexual violence, starvation, and systematic deprivation had left deep and lasting impacts on tens of thousands of Palestinians and their families. She stressed that such practices had become an integral part of control and punishment, affecting men, women, and children through detention abuse, forced displacement, widespread violence, and the destruction of basic living conditions. Source link