Author: France 24

Senegal’s President Macky Sall said Thursday his mandate would end as planned on April 2, but left open the new date for a presidential election which he postponed earlier this month. Issued on: 22/02/2024 – 23:03 3 min Sall has faced a clamour to set a date for the vote after his abrupt delay to the February 25 election triggered weeks of crisis.Amid simmering social and political tensions, the president put off a decision on the date until after a political dialogue due to begin on Monday. In an apparent move to pacify public opinion, Sall also said he would consider…

Images of huge crowds of protesters in several towns in Germany have been circulating widely online since early February – but with false and misleading captions. Posts on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram claim that the protests were held in support of a ceasefire in Gaza, as Israel continues its deadly assault on the Palestinian enclave. In reality, these are images of large protests held in mid-January against the extreme-right AfD political party. Issued on: 22/02/2024 – 14:42 3 min If you only have a minute: Accounts on Instagram, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) have been sharing videos showing…

Israel has announced plans to launch a full-scale offensive on the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza strip, claiming it is the only way to “completely destroy” Hamas. But according to former French military officer and author Guillaume Ancel, a large-scale military operation in the city that is now host to half of Gaza’s population is of no strategic interest. In his analysis, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s only goal is to make the Palestinian enclave “uninhabitable”. The countdown has begun for Rafah. Israel repeated on Sunday its threats of carrying out a major ground attack against the southern Gaza city before the…

Issued on: 22/02/2024 – 17:41 02:44 ‘Dad, come back’: Palestinians radio loved ones in Israeli jails (2024) © AFP / France 24 Deprived of visiting rights after the October 7 Hamas attack, families of Palestinian detainees in Israel are trying to reach their loved ones by radio as prisons cut off communications. On the show “Messages for the Prisoners” broadcast on the Ramallah-based station Radio Ajyal, listeners can hear dozens of families trying to communicate with their loved ones in Israeli jails. Read more on related topics: Source link

The mother of Russia’s top opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Thursday that she has seen her son’s body and that she is resisting strong pressure by authorities to agree to a secret burial outside the public eye.  Issued on: 22/02/2024 – 18:31 4 min Speaking in a video statement from the Arctic city of Salekhard, Lyudmila Navalnaya said investigators have allowed her to see her son Alexei Navalny’s body in the city morgue. She reaffirmed her demand for her son’s body to be handed over to her and decried the pressure she was being subjected to by Russian authorities to try…

Russian forces threatened to shoot down a French surveillance aircraft patrolling in international airspace over the Black Sea, a signal of increasingly aggressive behavior from Moscow as its invasion of Ukraine struggles to make headway, French defense officials said Thursday.  Issued on: 22/02/2024 – 17:10 2 min “A Russian air traffic control system threatened to shoot down French aircraft in the Black Sea when we were in a free international zone where we patrol,” the French defense minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said on RTL radio.A French military spokesman, Col. Pierre Gaudillière, said Lecornu was referring to an incident in mid-November that…

Issued on: 22/02/2024 – 15:00Modified: 22/02/2024 – 15:38 02:01 The October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel involved systematic and deliberate sexual assaults on civilians, a report released by an Israeli group said on Wednesday. Read more on related topics: Source link

NGOs and leftist members of the opposition have increased the pressure on France’s government to reconsider arms sales to Israel in the wake of the war in Gaza and follow in the footsteps of other European nations that made moves to suspend military exports over concerns about the humanitarian situation on the ground.  It was Ramadan, and another war was raging in Gaza.In July 2014, 8-year-old Afnan Shuheibar, her 16-year-old brother Oday, and her three cousins Basel, Jihad and Wassim – ages 8 to 11 – went up to the roof of the Shuheibar home in Gaza City to feed the pigeons when…

A Spanish court on Thursday sentenced former Brazil international Dani Alves to four and a half years in prison after finding him guilty of raping a young woman at a Barcelona nightclub in December 2022. Issued on: 22/02/2024 – 11:03 3 min It also ordered the three-time Champions League winner to five years probation after he serves his jail term, and demanded he pay 150,000 euros ($162,000) in compensation to the victim.”The victim did not consent and there is evidence that, beyond the complainant’s testimony, permits the rape to be considered proven,” the Barcelona court wrote in a statement.”The court…

France’s iconic Eiffel Tower was closed for a fourth day on Thursday as employees extended a strike over the monument’s management, unions said. Issued on: 22/02/2024 – 11:27Modified: 22/02/2024 – 11:25 1 min The stoppage at one of the world’s best-known tourist sites is the second within two months in protest of what unions say is insufficient investment.The tower’s operator, SETE, has advised ticket holders to check its website before showing up, or to postpone their visit. E-ticket holders were asked to check their e-mails for further information.Ticket holders will be reimbursed, the operator said.Unions have criticised SETE for basing…