Gibraltar’s chief minister threatens top rights lawyers with defamation

Lawyers call for apology and withdrawal of threats made during inquiry into alleged government corruption

Two leading London-based human rights lawyers have been threatened with defamation proceedings for making submissions on behalf of their client, in a highly unusual development.

The threat was made by lawyers representing the Gibraltar government and senior ministers, including the chief minister, Fabian Picardo, at an inquiry exploring alleged corruption at the top of the British overseas territory’s administration.

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Syrian rebel leader pleads for outside help a week on from earthquakes

Former al-Nusra Front chief keen to show scale of crisis in Idlib province and play down past links to al-Qaida

A Syrian rebel leader with a $10m (£8.3m) US government bounty on his head has appealed for urgent international aid to help the north-west province of Idlib after the earthquakes that have killed thousands and brought the last opposition-controlled area to its knees.

“The United Nations needs to understand that it’s required to help in a crisis,” said Ahmed Hussein al-Shara, better known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, amid a humanitarian crisis that had already reached critical levels in Idlib before the twin earthquakes last week.

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Chinese foreign ministry says US also flies balloons over China

Spokesperson says US overreacting and claims it has made at least 10 airspace incursions since start of 2022

China’s foreign ministry has accused the US of flying high-altitude balloons over its airspace more than 10 times since the beginning of last year, as the dispute over surveillance between the two countries continues.

A spokesperson told foreign reporters at a regular press briefing in Beijing that it was “not uncommon” for the US to go into other countries’ airspace, claiming they were aware of at least 10 incursions over China, but gave few other details.

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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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Heathrow has busiest start to year since before Covid lockdowns

More than 5.4m passengers travelled through airport in January, double the 2.6m from 2022

Heathrow airport had its busiest start to the year since before the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns in 2020 as travel restrictions continued to ease, according to data published on Monday.

More than 5.4 million passengers travelled through the UK’s and Europe’s busiest airport in January, double the 2.6 million from 2022, Heathrow said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange.

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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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US shoots down ‘octagonal’ flying object near military sites in Michigan

Military general says he will not rule out any explanation as fourth object is downed over North America this month

The US military has shot down a third flying object over North American airspace in three days, as the air force general overseeing the airspace said he would not rule out any explanation for the objects yet.

The high-altitude unidentified object, described as an “octagonal structure” with strings attached to it, was shot down over Lake Huron in Michigan on Sunday.

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Schumer says Chinese ‘humiliated’ after three flying objects shot down

‘Chinese were caught lying',’ says Senate majority leader as US and Canadian military scramble to recover pieces

US and Canadian military are continuing to search by sea and land amid hostile weather conditions in a scramble to recover portions of three flying objects shot down over North American airspace in the past week.

The Democratic majority leader of the US Senate, Chuck Schumer, told ABC’s This Week on Sunday that he had been briefed by the White House and that officials were now convinced that all three of the flying objects brought down by air-to-air missiles this week were balloons. He put the finger of blame firmly on China.

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Nikos Christodoulides elected Cyprus’s president with 52% of vote

Former foreign minister, who ran as independent, was backed by groups hostile to talks on island’s reunification

Nikos Christodoulides, a former foreign minister, has been elected the eighth president of Cyprus, beating the career diplomat Andreas Mavroyiannis in a high-stakes, closely fought race.

Christodoulides, 49, won 51.92 per cent of the vote compared with 48.09 per cent for his opponent, who had been backed by the leftist party AKEL. A mere 15,041 ballots had divided the loser from the winner.

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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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India opens first stage of $13bn Delhi to Mumbai expressway

Route linking two cities is part of concerted infrastructure push to catch up with geopolitical rival China

India has inaugurated the first stage of its longest expressway, a route linking Delhi and Mumbai, as it makes a concerted infrastructure push to catch up with its geopolitical rival China.

The $13bn (£10.8bn) project will eventually cut the road travel time between the country’s two biggest cities in half, to 12 hours.

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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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Mob storms Pakistan police station and lynches man accused of blasphemy

Killing is latest in string of mob attacks against people accused of blasphemy in Muslim-majority south Asian country

A mob in eastern Pakistan stormed a police station on Saturday and snatched a Muslim man accused of blasphemy from police custody and lynched him, in the latest religion-linked killing in the conservative Islamic country.

Muhammad Waris, in his mid-30s, was in police custody in Nankana Sahib in Punjab province, 80km (50 miles) from Lahore, for desecrating pages of the Qur’an.

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‘It’s too cruel’: family stuck in Ukraine after UK host dies suddenly

Exclusive: Nadiia Luba is one of 9,700 Ukrainians still waiting on visa decision under Homes for Ukraine scheme

Nadiia Luba was sheltering in a basement in central Ukraine earlier this month when she learned that her family’s chances of escaping to Britain had been dashed.

After nearly eight months of waiting for visas for her and her two sons, she got a text to say that the British host who had been so ready to welcome them had died suddenly. “I couldn’t stop crying,” she said. “My brain didn’t want to accept it.”

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New ‘unidentified object’ shot down over Canada, says Trudeau

Canadian prime minister says he has spoken to US president Joe Biden about the object

A US warplane shot down an unidentified object over North American airspace, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said on Saturday. It was the second day in a row in which the US military shot down an unidentified airborne object.

“I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace,” Trudeau tweeted on Saturday afternoon. A US F-22 fighter plane with the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which protects Canadian and American airspace, shot down the object over Yukon, Canada.

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Wagner head warns it could take two years to achieve Moscow’s objectives – as it happened

Yevgeny Prigozhin says Moscow’s stated aim of capturing eastern regions unlikely to happen in 2023. This blog is now closed

Ukraine’s presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, who headed the country’s negotiating team in the early phases of the conflict, has said “talks are out of the question”.

Podolyak posted to Twitter that Moscow was refusing to withdraw from occupied Ukrainian territories and to admit to “crimes”.

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Russia’s plans to seize eastern Ukraine could take two years, says Wagner boss

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s comments suggest Moscow is preparing for a long conflict, as Volodymyr Zelenskiy renews appeal for fighter jets

• Ukraine war live

The boss of the Russian mercenary Wagner group said it could take Russia two years to seize the entire east of Ukraine in a rare interview that suggests at least some key figures in Moscow are gearing up for a protracted conflict.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has emerged from the shadows to become a high-profile figure since the start of the war, suggested Russia’s focus was now on capturing the rest of the Donbas region it has not occupied since the start of the war nearly a year ago.

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Iain Duncan Smith calls for arrest of Chinese governor for ‘crimes against humanity’

Erkin Tuniyaz is head of the Xinjiang region, where human rights abuses are alleged to be taking place

The former Conservative party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith has joined calls for a governor from a region of China where the UN has said crimes against humanity may be taking place to be arrested during a potential visit this week.

The Tory backbencher said that the governor of Xinjiang, Erkin Tuniyaz, should be arrested if he arrives in the UK. The House of Commons heard this week that he was due to visit the UK next week and may meet Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) officials.

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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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