Author: Gulf News Week
Reuters Spanish police officers and soldiers escort a large group of migrants in Ceuta to the border to take them out of SpainSpain has condemned the “selfish, polarising and unlawful” reaction of some EU countries to the influx of about 60,000 migrants from Morocco to Ceuta. Officials say almost all those who reached the enclave on 30 July have returned, while Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said on Saturday that the death toll had risen to at least 67. It comes after Italy temporarily suspended the EU’s border-free Schengen arrangement with Spain, as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called the scenes…
Getty ImagesUS prosecutors have dropped charges against a former Olympian who had been accused of vandalising the Reflecting Pool in Washington DC, writing in court documents that the damage is now believed to be “the result of flawed installation by the contractor”.President Donald Trump had previously blamed the damage on “sick, deranged” vandals.But a document filed by prosecutors in Washington DC on Friday says new information “strongly suggests that a rushed and botched installation” job overseen by the US Department of Interior led to the damage.David Hearn, a champion canoeist, had been facing a 10-year prison sentence if found guilty…
BBCThe Great Barrier Reef might be the world’s most famous underwater ecosystem, but hidden in UK waters lies an ancient marine world you may not have heard of.Known as maerl beds, these carpets of coral-like seaweed create some of the richest habitats in the sea.And 40 years ago, while studying one such bed for her PhD, Prof Christine Maggs found a fragment of pink-striped seaweed living on maerl she had never seen before.The discovery would become a lifelong obsession and a decades-long scientific puzzle.Maerl beds may closely resemble corals but they are in fact thousands of pieces of free-living calcified…
Watch: Israeli settler challenged in rare access to West Bank outpostThe Israeli settler outpost of Havat Gilad, deep inside the occupied West Bank, is spread across several hilltops, its sheds and simple block houses clearly visible from neighbouring Palestinian villages.Last weekend saw a wave of settler attacks on Palestinian villages in the area, after an Israeli security guard from Havat Gilad was killed during a confrontation between Palestinians and Israelis in the village of Tal last Friday.Four Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were also killed in the incident, the original cause of which is disputed.After spending the weekend speaking to…
BBCSome Ethiopian inmates got hold of the number for the BBC Tigrinya service and called from a prison phone to tell their storiesThere was desperation in the voice of the young Ethiopian man when he managed to get through to the BBC from a phone in his prison cell on death row in Saudi Arabia.Habtom, whose name – like the other prisoner featured in this article – has been changed to protect his identity, has been held in a jail in the southern city of Khamis Mushait for more than three years.Above the noise of cellmates shouting behind him, he…
Infantino on the brink? Who might replace him if he goes?Fifa president Gianni Infantino is in the eye of a storm after scrapping his attempt to sell stakes in the World Cup. If he goes, who comes in?6 hrs agoFootball
ReutersFirefighters work at the site of an apartment building hit by a Russian missile strike in Kyiv early on SaturdayAt least nine people were killed in Russian ballistic missile strikes on Ukraine, local officials said early on Saturday.At least another 23 were injured in the attack on the capital Kyiv, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.Moscow has escalated deadly ballistic missile attacks on Ukraine’s capital recently, prompting President Volodymyr Zelensky to say interceptors are urgently needed.The strikes came two days after a suspected Russian cruise missile landed in Poland during a widespread attack on Ukraine that killed at least eight…
Watch: Why Fifa dropped plans to sell stakes in the World CupBBC’s Shaimaa Khalil explains why Gianni Infantino has backed down on his controversial investment proposal.52 mins ago
ReutersHamas weapons would be handed over to the Board of Peace, Trump saidA senior Israeli official has said troops will not pull back from their current positions in Gaza without the “genuine disarmament” of Palestinian armed group Hamas in the territory.Hamas meanwhile said handing over its heavy weapons was contingent on Israel ending “all forms of aggression” and withdrawing its forces from Gaza.It comes after Donald Trump said the Board of Peace had reached an agreement for the “complete disarmament” of Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza.On Friday Trump insisted that Israel was “very happy” with the proposed agreement,…
Getty ImagesNancy Guthrie (left) is the mother of Savannah Guthrie (right), one of the most recognisable TV presenters in the USPolice in Arizona have released two ransom notes in the hope the public can help identify whoever abducted the mother of US news presenter Savannah Guthrie.The first note, which is treated as apparently credible, demanded millions of dollars in Bitcoin. The other claimed Nancy Guthrie died shortly after she was abducted from her home near Tucson six months ago.The Pima County Sheriff’s Office say they cannot verify her death, and the investigation remains active.Officials released the two notes on Friday,…