AQABA, Jordan — The United States is working to get a U.S. citizen found on Thursday in Syria out of the country and bring him home, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Jordan, where he held meetings to discuss the situation in Syria.
In media reports, the man was identified as Travis Timmerman.
Blinken said he had no update on American journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted in Syria in 2012, but said the U.S. was continuing work to find him.
AN-REUTERS
TUNIS — Tunisia’s coast guard has recovered the bodies of nine migrants while six others are still missing after their boat sank off the Tunisian coast, a judicial official said on Thursday, in the latest migrant boat disaster in the Mediterranean.
The coast guard has so far rescued 27 people who were on the boat when it broke down and took on water due to bad weather. According to survivors’ testimonies, the boat had been carrying at least 42 people when it sank.
Judge Farid Ben Jha told Reuters that a search was underway for at least six migrants who had been on the boat when it sank off the coast of Chebba.
All the migrants on the boat were from sub-Saharan African countries.
Tunisia is grappling with an unprecedented migration crisis and has replaced Libya as the major departure point for both Tunisians and people from elsewhere in Africa seeking a better life in Europe.
AN-REUTERS
DAMASCUS — Syria’s new government thanked eight countries on Thursday for swiftly reviving their diplomatic missions after a lightning militant offensive ousted president Bashar Assad at the weekend.
The offensive, which took less than two weeks to sweep across Syria and take the capital Damascus, stunned the world and brought an end to more than a half a century of brutal rule by the Assad clan.
The militants, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), appointed an interim prime minister on Tuesday to lead the country until March.
The new government’s department of political affairs issued a statement thanking Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, Oman and Italy “for resuming the activities of their diplomatic missions in Damascus.”
Italy had reopened its embassy in Damascus before Assad’s fall.
After the militants took Damascus, an “armed group” entered the residence of Italy’s ambassador in Damascus and stole three cars, the Italian government said on Sunday.
The new government also said it had received “direct promises” from Qatar and Turkiye “to reopen their embassies in Syria” adding it hoped to “build good relations with all countries that respect the will of the people, the sovereignty of the Syrian state.”
Many embassies had shut their doors as militants advanced toward Damascus.
Gulf states had severed diplomatic ties with Syria, closing their embassies in the aftermath of Assad’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 2011 that triggered the civil war.
Most have restored relations since 2018, with the exception of Qatar.
Qatar announced on Wednesday it would “soon” reopen its embassy in Damascus, closed in 2011.
The move aimed to “strengthen the close historical fraternal ties between the two countries,” Qatar’s foreign ministry said.
The Gulf country also sought to “enhance coordination with relevant authorities to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid currently provided by Qatar to the Syrian people” via an air bridge, it added.
Doha had supported opposition factions early in the war and remained a fierce critic of Assad while also calling for a diplomatic solution.
Turkiye has backed some Syrian militant groups since the start of the civil war.
The war killed more than 500,000 people and forced half the population to flee their homes, with six million of them seeking refuge abroad.
AN-AFP
LONDON — The Irish government will ask the International Court of Justice to expand its definition of genocide over Israel’s “collective punishment” of civilians in the Gaza Strip, Sky News reported on Thursday.
Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin said his government is “concerned” that a “narrow interpretation of what constitutes genocide” is leading to a “culture of impunity in which the protection of civilians is minimized.”
He added that there has been “collective punishment of the Palestinian people through the intent and impact of military actions of Israel in Gaza,” and that the Irish government “prioritizes the protection of civilian life.”
Ireland is set to link the request to the case brought by South Africa to the ICJ under the UN Genocide Convention, as well as a case brought by Gambia against Myanmar.
“By legally intervening in South Africa’s case, Ireland will be asking the ICJ to broaden its interpretation of what constitutes the commission of genocide by a state,” Martin said.
“Intervening in both cases demonstrates the consistency of Ireland’s approach to the interpretation and application of the Genocide Convention.”
The convention identifies the practice as the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” by killing, inflicting physical and mental harm, and imposing destructive conditions. Collective punishment is not currently part of the criteria.
Israel has also been accused of committing genocide by Amnesty International, which said the country has repeatedly attacked Palestinians, destroyed infrastructure and limited civilians’ access to food, water and medicine.
Amnesty’s executive director in Ireland, Stephen Bowen, called Dublin’s actions a “glimmer of hope,” adding: “Those like Ireland who have called for a ceasefire must join with other like-minded states to create this common platform to end the genocide.
“They must be resolute; they must be relentless; they must be loud, clear, visible. This is genocide. This must stop.”
AN
LONDON — UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged an additional £13 million ($16.56 million) to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.
The announcement followed a meeting between him and UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini in London on Wednesday.
Starmer gave his condolences to the agency for the deaths of staff members killed in Gaza. The pair agreed that more needs to be done to protect aid workers in the Palestinian enclave, and reiterated their calls for an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages held by Hamas.
The money will come on top of the £21 million per year already given to UNRWA by the UK, which was temporarily suspended by the former government after Israel accused 12 agency members of taking part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in 2023.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said he was “reassured” that UNRWA met UK government standards for vetting employees following an independent review of the situation.
UNRWA was established in 1949 to help Palestinian refugees. In October, Israel banned it from operating in its territory, hampering its ability to operate in the Occupied Territories.
Starmer condemned the decision, saying it had left him “gravely concerned” and would make it “impossible” for vital work to be done helping displaced and vulnerable Palestinian civilians.
AN
MOSCOW — Russia will “definitely” respond to a Ukrainian attack on a southern airfield using US-supplied ATACMS missiles, the Kremlin said Thursday.
President Vladimir Putin has previously threatened to launch its new hypersonic ballistic missile, named Oreshnik, at the center of Kyiv if Ukraine does not halt its attacks on Russian territory using US-supplied ATACMS missiles.
Russia’s defense ministry on Wednesday accused Ukraine of firing the missiles in an overnight attack on an airfield in the port city of Taganrog in the southern Rostov region.
A response “will follow when, and in a way that is deemed, appropriate. It will definitely follow,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
He did not provide details of how Russia might retaliate.
Washington only recently gave Kyiv permission to fire ATACMS on Russian territory, following months of requests.
The United States warned Wednesday that Russia could be preparing to fire Oreshnik missiles at Ukraine again.
The US warning was “based on an intelligence assessment that it’s possible that Russia could use this Oreshnik missile in the coming days,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told journalists.
Both sides have escalated aerial attacks in recent months as Russia’s troops advance on the battlefield.
Russia’s defense ministry said Thursday its troops had captured the tiny settlement of Zarya in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
AN-AFP
TAIPEI — Taiwan said Thursday it detected 16 Chinese warships in waters around the island, one of the highest numbers this year, as Beijing intensifies military pressure on Taipei.
The navy vessels, along with 34 Chinese aircraft, were spotted near Taiwan in the 24 hours to 6:00 a.m. Thursday, according to the defense ministry’s daily tally.
Beijing has been holding its biggest maritime drills in years from near the southern islands of Japan to the South China Sea, Taiwan authorities said this week.
Around 90 Chinese warships and coast guard vessels have been involved in the exercises that include simulating attacks on foreign ships and practicing blockading sea routes, a Taiwan security official said Wednesday.
There has been no announcement by Beijing’s army or Chinese state media about increased military activity in the East China Sea, Taiwan Strait, South China Sea or Western Pacific Ocean.
AN-AFP
RAIPUR, India — Indian troops shot dead seven Maoist rebels in a fierce gunbattle on Thursday, as security forces step up efforts to crush the long-running armed conflict.
More than 10,000 people have died in the decades-long insurgency waged by the Naxalite movement, as the Maoist insurgents are known, who say they are fighting for the rights of marginalized Indigenous people in India’s resource-rich central regions.
The insurgency has drastically shrunk in recent years and a crackdown by security forces has killed over 200 rebels this year, according to government data.
The latest gunbattle took place in a remote forested area of Bastar region in Chhattisgarh state, the heartland of the insurgency.
“So far seven bodies of Maoists, who were in their uniforms, have been recovered during search operations,” police inspector general P. Sunderraj said, adding that the toll was likely to rise.
Indian home minister Amit Shah warned the Maoist rebels in September to surrender or face an “all-out” assault, saying the government expected to quash the insurgency by early 2026.
The Naxalites, named after the district where their armed campaign began in 1967, were inspired by the Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong.
They demanded land, jobs and a share of the region’s immense natural resources for local residents, and made inroads in a number of remote communities across India’s east and south.
The movement gained in strength and numbers until the early 2000s when New Delhi deployed tens of thousands of security personnel against the rebels in a stretch of territory known as the “Red Corridor.”
Authorities have since invested millions of dollars in local infrastructure and social projects.
AN-AFP
PARIS — Fifty-four journalists were killed worldwide while carrying out their work or because of their profession in 2024, a third of them by the Israeli army, according to an annual report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published Thursday.
According to the press freedom NGO, Israeli armed forces were responsible for the deaths of 18 journalists this year — 16 in Gaza and two in Lebanon.
“Palestine is the most dangerous country for journalists, recording a higher death toll than any other country over the past five years,” RSF said in its annual report, which covers data up to December 1.
The organization has filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “war crimes committed against journalists by the Israeli army.”
It said that in total “more than 145” journalists had been killed by the Israeli army in Gaza since the start of the war there in October 2023, with 35 of them working at the time of their deaths, RSF said.
It described the number of killings as “an unprecedented bloodbath.”
In a separate report published Tuesday, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reported that 104 journalists were killed worldwide in 2024, with more than half of them in Gaza.
The figures differ between the IFJ and RSF due to two different methodologies used in calculating the toll.
RSF only includes journalists whose deaths have been “proven to be directly related to their professional activity.”
Israel denies that it intentionally harms journalists but admits that some have been killed in air strikes on military targets.
“We don’t accept these figures. We don’t believe they are correct,” Israeli government spokesman David Mercer told a press conference on Wednesday.
After Gaza, the deadliest places for journalists in 2024 were Pakistan with seven deaths, followed by Bangladesh and Mexico with five each.
In 2023, the number of journalists killed worldwide stood at 45 in the same January-December period.
As of December 1, there were 550 journalists imprisoned worldwide, compared to 513 last year, according to RSF figures.
The three countries with the highest numbers of detained journalists are China (124, including 11 in Hong Kong), Myanmar (61), and Israel (41).
Furthermore, 55 journalists are currently being held hostage, including two abducted in 2024.
Nearly half — 25 in total — are in the hands of the Daesh group.
In addition, 95 journalists are reported missing, including four new cases reported in 2024.
AN-AFP
MEXICO CITY — A judge was shot dead Wednesday in Mexico’s once-thriving beach city of Acapulco, local media and the state prosecutor’s office said.
Local press identified the slain judge as Edmundo Roman Pinzon, president of the Superior Court of Justice in Guerrero state, saying he was shot at least four times in his car outside an Acapulco courthouse.
The southern state of Guerrero is one the areas hardest hit in Mexico by violence linked to organized crime, and has seen a string of deadly attacks this year.
In October, the mayor of the state capital Chilpancingo was killed and decapitated just days after taking office.
Weeks later, armed clashes between alleged gang members and security forces left 19 people dead in the state. Last month, a dozen dismembered bodies were discovered in vehicles in Chilpancingo.
Acapulco, the state’s most populous city, was once a playground for the rich and famous, but has lost its luster over the last decade as foreign tourists have been spooked by bloodshed that has made it one of the world’s most violent cities.
On Wednesday, the Guerrero state prosecutor’s office said in a statement that it was “investigating the crime of aggravated homicide against Edmundo N,” in line with the usual practice of not giving full names.
The killing comes just over a week after President Claudia Sheinbaum led a meeting of the National Public Security Council in Acapulco, with state governors in attendance.
Spiraling violence, much of it linked to drug trafficking, has seen more than 450,000 people murdered in Mexico since 2006, when the government launched an offensive against organized crime.
Sheinbaum, who took office in October as Mexico’s first woman president, has ruled out launching a new “war on drugs,” as the controversial program was known.
She has pledged instead to stick to her predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s “hugs not bullets” strategy of using social policy to address the causes of crime.
Last year, 1,890 murders were recorded in Guerrero.
AN-AFP