Dozens of people were killed, including many students, when a truck bomb exploded at a busy checkpoint in Somalia's capital on Saturday. The attack, one of the deadliest in the city's recent history, has not been claimed by any group; Al-Shabaab often carries out such attacks, but the al-Qaida-linked group was pushed out of Mogadishu several years ago.
Continue reading...Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa
Truck bomb kills scores including many students in Mogadishu
At least 79 dead and more than 100 injured after morning rush-hour blast in Somali capital
A truck bomb has exploded in central Mogadishu, killing at least 79 people including many university students, and injuring more than 100 in the deadliest attack on the Somali capital for more than two years.
The bomber struck during the Saturday morning rush hour, the start of Somalia’s working week. The mayor, Omar Mohamud Mohamed, told reporters at the blast site that most of those killed were civilians, including two Turkish citizens.
Continue reading...‘A blessed initiative’: secular Israel rejoices over Sabbath buses
Minibuses that run on Friday evenings and Saturdays buck state’s religious restrictions
Tel Aviv is one of Israel’s most dynamic cities, but the latest local craze could appear fairly humdrum to outsiders – a bus service that runs at weekends.
Packed 19-seat minibuses fill up fast with passengers, who excitedly gossip about the new routes. People patiently queue at bus stops, knowing they might have to wait for two or three buses to pass before there is a space. Still, they are upbeat. “It’s a pleasure,” said Ben Uzan, a 30-year-old electronic engineer. “It’s a blessed initiative.”
Continue reading...More than 235,000 people have fled Idlib region in Syria, says UN
Displacement follows two weeks of air and ground assaults on rebel stronghold
More than 235,000 civilians have fled their homes in opposition-held areas of north-west Syria in the past two weeks, the UN has said, after attacks by Syrian government forces intensified.
Syrian troops and their foreign backers are targeting the towns of Maaret al-Numan and Saraqeb in Idlib province, which sit on a highway connecting Aleppo with the capital, Damascus.
Continue reading...Israel: leadership win gives Netanyahu boost before tough election
Prime minister to enter March election campaign while under indictments for corruption
Triumphant after quashing a mini-revolt within his party, Benjamin Netanyahu faces what is likely to be a gruelling campaign to win Israel’s third national election in a year with damning corruption indictments still hanging over him.
Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, famed for his political acumen in escaping seemingly impossible situations, won a primary leadership contest held on Thursday by a landslide.
Continue reading...Israel: Netanyahu wins landslide in battle for Likud party leadership
Prime minister gets backing of 72% of members despite corruption indictments
Benjamin Netanyahu has won a landslide victory in a primary election for leadership of the ruling Likud party in Israel.
Official results announced early on Friday showed Netanyahu capturing 72% of the votes, compared with 28% for challenger Gideon Saar. Earlier, Netanyahu had declared a huge victory following an exit poll that put him on course for more than 70% of the vote.
Continue reading...Benjamin Netanyahu hustled off stage at election rally after rocket launched from Gaza – video
Israel's prime minister was bundled off the stage at an election rally on Wednesday after sirens rang out, warning of a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip. The incident happened in the southern town of Ashkelon, a few miles from Gaza. Israeli authorities said their Iron Dome missile defence system intercepted the rocket. Netanyahu was campaigning hours before an internal Likud party leadership ballot
- Benjamin Netanyahu takes shelter after rocket launched from Gaza
- Israel: voting under way in Likud primary seen as threat to Netanyahu
Reasons to be fearful – the international news review of 2019
This year world leaders struggled to manage the fallout from the erratic tenant in the White House – as China flexed its imperial muscles. We look back at the events that created the most turbulence
Click here for 2019’s reasons to be cheerful
A year of high anxiety was rendered more alarming by intensifying clashes of interest between world powers. As international cooperation declined, and nationalist agendas gathered strength, China, the US, Russia and Europe, and their respective allies, emulators and proxies, engaged in often dangerous competition.
The Chinese communist regime’s increasingly assertive behaviour at home and abroad, reflecting the authoritarian outlook of its paramount leader-for-life, Xi Jinping, produced head-on collisions with western countries, notably over Hong Kong, trade, technology and the repression of the Uighur Muslim minority in Xinjiang.
Continue reading...Benjamin Netanyahu takes shelter after rocket launched from Gaza
Second attack in three months forces Israel’s prime minister to interrupt campaign rally
A rocket launched from the Gaza Strip at a southern Israeli city as it hosted a campaign rally prompted the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to take shelter briefly before resuming the event, Israeli TV stations have reported.
The Israeli military confirmed the launch on Wednesday against Ashkelon, which is 12km (7.5 miles) from the coastal Palestinian enclave, and said the rocket was shot down by an Iron Dome air defence interceptor.
Continue reading...Benjamin Netanyahu: weakened Israeli PM faces primary vote
Party rival Gideon Saar has launched a bid to unseat Netanyahu as Likud leader
Israel’s longest-serving prime minister is poised to face one of his most dangerous political challenges in a decade on Thursday when the ruling Likud party holds a leadership primary to decide who will lead it in the next election.
The internal vote arrives at a particularly fraught time for Benjamin Netanyahu, wounded by three damning corruption indictments as well as growing internal dissent over his failure to score decisive wins in two inconclusive national elections.
Continue reading...Erdoğan arrives in Tunisia for surprise talks with president
Turkish leader’s visit comes as Ankara moves to strike deals with Mediterranean nations
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has arrived in Tunisia on a surprise visit for talks with his Tunisian counterpart, his office has said.
The visit, the first by a head of state since the Tunisian presidential elections in the autumn, comes as Turkey has ramped up efforts to strike deals with nations on the Mediterranean, where Ankara has been at odds with Greece over resources off the coast of the divided island of Cyprus.
Continue reading...Lebanon heads for meltdown as protesters keep returning to streets
Power of the street has run headlong into a system invested in entrenched graft and incompetence
In mid-December, a month and a half into protests that have crippled Lebanon and placed its political class in the dock, a priest caused a stir by telling his congregation to start stockpiling food.
The coming three years would be difficult, the cleric in the southern city of Sidon said. Citing the country’s Maronite Patriarch, he advised people to plant their own wheat. “His Holiness says the crisis will last for years, and famine is approaching.”
Continue reading...Thousands flee north-west Syria amid fierce assault by Assad
Up to 30,000 leave area of Idlib province as government forces push to reopen road from Damascus to Aleppo
A mass exodus of civilians from the last rebel-held stronghold in Syria has begun as thousands of people flee towards the Turkish border in the face of a fierce new military assault by Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies.
As many as 30,000 people have left the area around the town of Maarat al-Numan after four days of airstrikes and heavy shelling paved the way for Syrian government troops to push deeper into north-western Idlib province.
Continue reading...Barriers, barbed wire and borders in the head: Josef Koudelka’s Holy Land
The Magnum photographer grew up behind the iron curtain. As a documentary charts his journey where Israel and Palestine meet, Koudelka talks about challenging official narratives – and himself
There’s a surreal moment near the start of Koudelka Shooting Holy Land, a documentary about the acclaimed photographer Josef Koudelka. He has pointed his lens at one of the concrete barriers that separate Israel and Palestine but has been stopped by an official and a heavily armed soldier. His local assistant, Gilad Baram, is trying to smooth things over. “It might result in a book,” Baram tells the soldier. “He is a one of the most renowned photographers worldwide. He is a photographer with an agency called Magnum.”
Suddenly the atmosphere changes. “Magnum? Ah, I know it,” says the soldier, his stern face breaking into a smile. A short discussion later, a friendly handshake and all is well.
Continue reading...‘Mockery of justice’ after Saudis convict eight over Khashoggi killing
Court exonerates crown prince’s inner circle of involvement in murder of dissident journalist
Saudi Arabia has been accused of engaging in a mockery of justice by shielding the alleged masterminds of the killing of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, after a court effectively exonerated Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s inner circle of involvement in the murder.
The gruesome killing in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 stunned Saudi Arabia’s western allies, plunging the kingdom into its worst diplomatic crisis since the 9/11 attacks.
Continue reading...Popular chat app is actually a spying tool of UAE government – report
Government reportedly uses ToTok to track conversations, locations and other data of those who install the app
A chat app that quickly became popular in the United Arab Emirates for communicating with friends and family is actually a spying tool used by the government to track its users, according to a New York Times report.
The government uses ToTok to track conversations, locations, images and other data of those who install the app on their phones, the Times reported, citing US officials familiar with a classified intelligence assessment and the newspaper’s own investigation.
Continue reading...Saud al-Qahtani: who is fixer cleared by Saudis over Khashoggi murder?
Saudi prosecutors found no link to aide prominent in CIA, MI6 and Turkish inquiries
In 14 months of global investigations into the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, all paths seemed to lead to Saud al-Qahtani – the most influential aide of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
Saudi prosecutors, however, reached a starkly different conclusion on Monday, finding no evidence to link Qahtani to the gruesome killing inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, and instead sentencing five lower-ranking members of a hit squad to death.
Continue reading...Oman readies baroque succession process as sultan’s health worsens
With Qaboos bin Said’s illness seemingly terminal, an elaborate set of rules is enacted
Elaborate discussions are under way in the Omani court about a potential successor to Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who has ruled the Arab nation for nearly 50 years but whose longterm illness has been worsening.
The succession process involves the opening of sealed letters in the court in Muscat identifying the sultan’s choice of successor, if the court cannot agree among itself.
Continue reading...Banksy’s nativity – with bullet hole in place of star – unveiled in Bethlehem
Scar of Bethlehem designed to make people think about how Palestinians live in divided city
Banksy’s latest piece – the artist’s take on a nativity scene – has been unveiled at a hotel in Bethlehem.
The Scar of Bethlehem features a nativity scene with Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus, but instead of a star hanging over the crib there is what appears to be a large bullet hole piercing an imposing grey wall.
Continue reading...Hope and heartbreak, three years after the fall of Aleppo
When the Observer spoke to people in the besieged city three years ago, they told of their daily struggle. Now they tell their stories of exile
In December 2016, in the eastern half of Aleppo, a brutal siege was drawing to a bloody end. The last bombs were falling on its shattered streets, snipers were picking off their last victims. Besieged civilians, if they still had food, prepared their final meagre meals inside a city they had clung to for four painful years.
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