Dissident Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof released from prison

The award-winning film-maker, who was arrested last July, has apparently been formally released from prison, though there is no official comment

Iran has released award-winning film-maker Mohammad Rasoulof more than six months after arresting him for criticising the government, a pro-reform newspaper reported on Monday.

Rasoulof, whose 2020 film There Is No Evil won the top prize at the Berlin international film festival, is one of several prominent artists, athletes and other celebrities detained in recent months.

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Israel to authorise nine ‘wild’ West Bank settlements

Security cabinet announces recognition of areas built without Israeli authorisation, after series of attacks in East Jerusalem

Israel’s security cabinet has announced it will authorise nine settlements in the occupied West Bank after a series of attacks in East Jerusalem, including one that killed three Israelis.

“In response to the murderous terrorist attacks in Jerusalem, the security cabinet decided unanimously to authorise nine communities in Judea and Samaria,” the office of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a statement on Sunday that included the name Israel uses for the West Bank.

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Turkey arrests building contractors as earthquake death toll mounts

Warnings current toll of 33,000 from earthquake that struck parts of Turkey and Syria could double

Turkish authorities have issued more than 100 arrest warrants over collapsed buildings, amid warnings that the death toll from the earthquake that struck parts of Turkey and Syria could double from the current tally of 33,000.

State media reported that at least 12 people were in custody, including contractors, architects and engineers connected to some of the tens of thousands of buildings destroyed or seriously damaged in Monday’s 7.8- and 7.6-magnitude quakes.

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Turkey-Syria earthquake: death toll rises to 33,000; baby girl rescued alive after 150 hours, Turkish health minister says – as it happened

Officials and medics say 29,605 people have died in Turkey and 3,574 in Syria; Baby girl rescued in Hatay. This live blog is now closed

Randa Ghazy, the middle east regional media manager at Save the Children told the BBC long term there would be a “second disaster” as the rescued struggle to survive.

She said the charity has been delivering hot meals, water, blankets and mattresses, adding that many people “are still sleeping in their cars.”

Of course, in the long term, there will be a second disaster, which is the survival of those who managed to get out of the rubble, supporting them and supporting children in accessing for example, education, with all the schools closed. And having a warm shelter. We are here to make sure that all children of course, are safe and protected and their families as well.”

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Turkey-Syria earthquake: death toll passes 25,000 as Erdoğan warns against looting – as it happened

This live blog has now closed, you can read more about the earthquake here

Rescuers in Turkey pulled two women alive from the rubble of collapsed buildings after they were been trapped for 122 hours following the region’s deadliest quake in two decades, authorities said on Saturday.

The death toll exceeded 24,150 across southern Turkey and northwest Syria a day after the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said authorities should have reacted faster to Monday’s huge earthquake.

Our main goal is to ensure that they return to a normal life by delivering permanent housing to them within one year, and that they heal their pain as soon as possible.”

We focused all our energy to this project to serve people in the area impacted by the earthquake. We aim to provide a safe haven to them as soon as possible.”

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Turkey-Syria earthquake death toll likely to ‘more than double’, UN says

At least 24,596 people have been confirmed dead after the 7.8-magnitude quake struck on Monday

The death toll from the earthquake in Turkey and Syria is likely to “more than double”, according to a United Nations emergency relief coordinator.

Martin Griffiths, speaking to Sky News on Saturday, said he expected tens of thousands more deaths.

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Iran marks 44 years since revolution amid protests

Anti-government hackers interrupted televised speech by president Ebrahim Raisi, who appealed to the ‘deceived youth’ to repent

Iran marked the 44th anniversary its revolution on Saturday with state-organised rallies, as anti-government hackers briefly interrupted a televised speech by the president, Ebrahim Raisi.

Raisi, whose hardline government faces one of the boldest challenges from young protesters, appealed to the “deceived youth” to repent so they can be pardoned by Iran’s supreme leader.

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French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah released from Iran prison

In 2020 Iranian authorities sentenced Adelkhah to five years in jail on national security charges, which she denied

Iranian-French academic Fariba Adelkhah was released from Iran’s Evin prison, France said, but it was unclear what the conditions of her release were.

Adelkhah has been in prison since Iranian authorities arrested her in 2019 during a visit. She is one of seven French nationals detained in Iran, a factor that has worsened relations between Paris and Tehran in recent months.

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US announces 180-day exemption to Syria sanctions for disaster aid

Assad regime still insists on handling all aid shipments to war-torn and quake-ravaged country that has been all but cut off from help

The US has temporarily eased its sanctions on Syria in an effort to speed up aid deliveries to the country’s north-west, where almost no humanitarian assistance has arrived despite the deaths of thousands in this week’s earthquake.

The tremor that has killed nearly 23,000 people there and in neighboring Turkey added to the devastation suffered in Syria’s north, which was already badly damaged by the civil war and is now mostly under opposition control, with Bashar al-Assad’s government present only in some areas.

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UK’s Turkish and Syrian communities rush to aid earthquake victims

Determination to get donations to stricken areas is galvanising people haunted by fears for family and friends

Dozens of volunteers are packing boxes piled high on a north London industrial estate, filling them with vital donations to be sent to Gaziantep, the south-eastern province in Turkey devastated by the earthquake that hit in the early hours on Monday.

Huseyin Goran, 36, has been helping for three days straight. “The first two days I didn’t sleep and did as much as I could. I took a three-hour rest and carried on.”

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Child among two people killed in Jerusalem bus stop attack

Palestinian driver rams car into people on outskirts of city, in incident described by PM as terrorist attack

Two people including a child have been killed and several injured after a Palestinian driver rammed his car into a group of people at a bus stop on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

A police spokesperson said the driver, who was shot at the scene, was dead. An Israeli security official identified him as Hussain Qraqaa, 31, a resident of Issawiya in East Jerusalem.

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Survivors pulled from rubble 100 hours after quake as toll passes 23,000

Hundreds of thousands more people have been left homeless in often sub-zero winter conditions

A second convoy of aid trucks has crossed into stricken north-western Syria from Turkey, as rescuers continued to pull survivors – including a newborn baby – from the rubble 100 hours after an earthquake that has killed more than 23,000 people.

Hundreds of thousands more people have been left homeless and short of food in often sub-zero winter conditions after 7.8- and 7.6-magnitude quakes struck within hours of each other on Monday. Dozens of countries have pledged help and sent emergency teams.

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UK accused of ‘dangerous whitewash’ over Bahrain human rights abuses

Humanitarian groups urge foreign secretary to issue correction to a recent report, amid fears it could provide cover for repression in the Gulf state

The British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has been urged by humanitarian organisations to issue a correction over a “misleading” Foreign Office (FCDO) report on Bahrain, as they say it represents a “dangerous whitewash” on human rights that risks emboldening abusers in the Gulf state.

A letter to the foreign secretary, signed by Human Rights Watch (HRW), Reprieve and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird), said the report is “fraught with inaccuracies” and amounts to disinformation that could be used as propaganda by the government of Bahrain.

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Pressure mounts on UN to provide urgent support to north-western Syria

Rescue teams say death tolls will continue to rise if UN does not speed up ‘overly cautious’ delivery of aid into rebel-held region

Pressure is mounting on the UN to provide urgent support to north-western Syria, which is yet to receive meaningful aid five days after the earthquake that devastated the region, and with the chance of finding any survivors beneath the rubble almost gone.

A convoy of 14 UN lorries entered the opposition-held part of the country from Turkey on Friday at the Bab al-Hawa crossing, containing humanitarian-kit, solar lamps, blankets and other items, one day after a six-lorry convoy crossed the border with blankets and basic supplies. Thursday’s convoy had been arranged before the disaster that has killed at least 3,500 people inside Syria and left thousands more buried under rubble.

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Geological impact of Turkey-Syria earthquake slowly comes into focus

Subsidence has caused flooding, while hillsides are at risk of landslip, which mean roads may need to be rerouted and people rehomed

More than 17,000 people are now known to have died after the huge earthquake in Turkey and Syria and the focus right now is on supporting survivors.

But there are wider geological implications to the quake that may have consequences in the longer term slowly coming into focus. In the coastal city of İskenderun, there appears to have been significant subsidence, which has resulted in flooding, while the quake has left many hillsides around the country at a serious risk of landslip. This may result in roads and pipelines having to be rerouted and communities rehomed.

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No room for the dead as cemeteries in earthquake-hit Turkey and Syria fill up

Bodies are piled up in stadiums or car parks for identification; coffins are being brought in and mass graves dug

At the Nurdağı cemetery in the Turkish province of Gaziantep, on the Syrian border, there will soon be no more room for the dead. The freshly dug graves are marked with blank headstones, with only pieces of ripped cloth gathered from the victims’ clothing to identify them. The frayed ends of the cloth blow slightly in the frigid air.

On the street outside, dozens of bodies lie piled on top of each other on a row of pickup trucks, waiting to be buried. At least five imams have rushed to Nurdağı to officiate a ceaseless rush of mass funerals, sometimes for as many as 10 victims at once. Officials brought in deliveries of coffins from neighbouring villages and as far as Istanbul to provide a final resting place for the overwhelming numbers of corpses arriving in the town.

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Baby born in rubble of Syria earthquake is named Aya and has new guardian

Great uncle will look after baby whose mother died in the wreckage of their home, as teenager pulled alive from house in Turkey, days after quake

A Syrian baby girl whose mother died after giving birth to her under the rubble of their home during this week’s earthquake now has a name: Aya, Arabic for “a sign from God”.

With her parents and all her siblings killed, her great-uncle, Salah al-Badran, will take her in once she is released from the hospital.

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First aid convoy enters north-west Syria as quake toll passes 21,000

Turkey says it is working to open two more border crossings; girl and father pulled alive from rubble in Antakya

The first convoy of humanitarian assistance for victims of Monday’s earthquake has crossed into north-west Syria, as the death toll in Turkey and Syria climbed to more than 21,000 amid fading hopes of finding survivors under rubble in freezing weather.

Six trucks passed through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing from Turkey carrying tents and hygiene products, as Turkey said it was working to open two more border crossings with Syria to allow in more humanitarian aid.

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Turkey and Syria earthquake death toll passes 15,000 as Erdoğan defends response

Turkish president rejects growing criticism as rescuers continue to pull survivors from freezing rubble

Turkey’s president has rejected growing criticism of the authorities’ response to Monday’s huge earthquakes, as the death toll passed 15,000 across Turkey and Syria and rescuers continued to pull survivors from the freezing rubble.

Making his first visit to Turkey’s worst-affected region since the 7.8- and 7.5-magnitude quakes hit within hours of each other, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan acknowledged early problems with Turkey’s response but said it was now working well.

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Iranian prosecutors concealed rape by Revolutionary Guards, document shows

Internal report on rape of two women arrested during protests suppressed for fear of ‘misrepresentation by enemy groups’

Members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards raped two women in an attack covered up by state prosecutors, according to an internal judicial document seen by the Guardian.

The document, originally leaked to Iran International by hacktivist group Edalat-e Ali (Ali’s Justice), reveals the case of sexual assault by two IRGC officers of a woman aged 18 and a woman of 23 in a van during protests against the death in September of Mahsa Amini in police custody in Tehran.

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