Families seek shelter in Myanmar as Cyclone Mocha approaches

AFP
Fri, May 12, 2023 

People shelter at a monastery in Sittwe town in Myanmar's Rakhine state on Friday

Families in western Myanmar left their homes to seek shelter and higher ground on Friday ahead of a cyclone forecast to bring high winds and a storm surge to the eastern Bay of Bengal.

Cyclone Mocha is predicted to make landfall on Sunday near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, according to India's meteorological office, packing winds of up to 175 kilometres (108 miles) per hour.

The office predicted a storm surge of between two and two-and-a-half metres (6-8 feet) for the low-lying coastal region, which on the Bangladeshi side is home to sprawling camps hosting hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees.


Residents of low-lying villages in Myanmar's Rakhine flocked to the state capital Sittwe on Friday, with around a thousand preparing to shelter at one monastery in the town, AFP correspondents said.

Some set down blankets and staked out sleeping places while unpacking provisions.

Cho Cho Tun, 34, had brought her children to the temporary shelter.

"I hope this monastery is safe and nothing will happen here because this place is the highest place in Sittwe," she said.

"We wanted to stay in our homes... But when I thought of my children and the danger to their lives, I decided to shelter here."

Thant Zaw, 42, said he had lost several family members when Cyclone Nargis ravaged southern Myanmar in 2008, killing more than 130,000 people in the country's worst natural disaster.

"I told my family we should shelter at this monastery," he told AFP.

"I have six children and I can't lose my family again."

Myanmar's junta authorities were supervising evacuations from coastal villages along the Rakhine coast, according to state media, which did not say how many people had been moved.

Any boats leaving shore in Rakhine from Friday afternoon would face legal action, the junta said.

- Floods, landslides -

Heavy winds and rain could trigger flooding and landslides further inland in Myanmar and Bangladesh, the United Nations office for humanitarian affairs said on Friday.

Around six million people across Rakhine and Myanmar's northwest are already in need of humanitarian assistance, it added.

The cyclone looked set to pass near sprawling camps in Bangladesh home to almost one million Rohingya refugees who fled a Myanmar military crackdown in 2017.

Bangladeshi officials said Friday that all mosques, learning centres and offices in the camps would be turned into cyclone shelters.

The United Nations refugee agency was carrying out "emergency preparedness" in the camps and authorities were on "standby" with heavy machinery to clear roads, a spokesperson said.

Bangladesh has yet to carry out any evacuations, but officials said hundreds of cyclone shelters have been readied to house evacuated people.

Cyclones -- the equivalent of hurricanes in the North Atlantic or typhoons in the Northwest Pacific -- are a regular and deadly menace on the coast of the northern Indian Ocean where tens of millions of people live.

Bangladesh was last hit by a superstorm in November 2007 when Cyclone Sidr ripped through the country's southwest, killing more than 3,000 people and causing damage worth billions of dollars.

sa-lpk-lmg-rma/ssy

South Africa investigating U.S. charge of supplying arms to Russia: Khumbudzo Ntshavheni

SABC News May 12, 2023

President Cyril Ramaphosa declined to answer a question during his question and answer session in parliament yesterday on allegations that South African arms were sent to Russia to use in the war with Ukraine. Meanwhile, the South African government has undertaken to institute an independent enquiry into the allegations of the U.S. ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety. A retired Judge will chair the inquiry. A Russian vessel, the "Lady R", docked in Simon's Town in December last year and Brigety alleges that it was loaded with South African ammunition. We now speak to Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni about the allegations made by Brigety.

South Africans fret over US arms-to-Russia charge

Issued on: 12/05/2023 -

The row has exposed the dilemma facing President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ruling ANC, which has historic ties with Russia 

© MUJAHID SAFODIEN / AFP

Johannesburg (AFP) – South Africans were left angry and baffled on Friday after the US accused their country of secretly shipping arms to Russia, a charge that triggered both a government rebuke but also the announcement of an inquiry.

US ambassador Reuben Brigety on Thursday said Washington was confident weapons and ammunition had been laden onto a Russian freighter that docked at a Cape Town naval base.

The explosive remarks drew an angry response from President Cyril Ramaphosa, who however did not deny the charge but said a retired judge would lead an investigation into the matter.

The move was welcomed by the United States but met with a mix of ridicule and bewilderment at home, with many questioning how the government could not have known what had happened.

"It perhaps points to a South African president who simply is unaware of what is happening effectively under his nose," political and economic analyst Daniel Silke told AFP.

The emerging picture was of "information disarray" within the government, he said.

The Lady R, a cargo vessel under western sanctions flying a Russian flag, docked at South Africa's largest naval base in December, officially to offload an old order of ammunition.

But ambassador Brigety said intelligence showed weaponry was loaded onto the vessel before it headed back to Russia.

"Did we or didn't we? And if we did, shouldn't the president know?" Bongani Bingwa, host of a popular morning radio show, wrote on Twitter.

Others quipped that the government appeared to be setting up inquiries for everything.

The deadline for the latest investigation has not been revealed, and there has been no immediate announcement as to who will lead it.
'Disingenuous'

If confirmed, the shipment would mark a break from South Africa's professed neutrality over the conflict in Ukraine.

The foreign ministry on Friday said there was no record of any approved arms sales to Russia during the period in question but the probe would shed light on the case.

"There should be nothing to investigate," Kobus Marais, a lawmaker with the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), told AFP.

"The president as the commander-in-chief and the minister of defence should know exactly what happened," he said.

"It's disingenuous of them to suggest they're innocent and just bystanders."

South Africa has been walking a diplomatic tightrope over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which it has refused to condemn, saying it prefers dialogue to end the war.

A continental powerhouse, the country has strong economic and trade relations with the US and Europe.

Trade with Russia is much smaller, but Pretoria has ties with Moscow dating back decades, to when the Kremlin supported the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party in its struggle against apartheid.

The remarks triggered a diplomatic spat just hours after Brigety made them, during a briefing with local media.

Ramaphosa's office said it was "disappointing" that Brigety had gone public with comments that "undermine the spirit of cooperation and partnership" between the two nations

The foreign ministry on Friday said it would formally protest to Brigety, while Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor would speak to Washington later.
'Economic suicide'

The quarrel has also heightened concerns about South Africa's ailing economy, with analysts saying the country has much to lose and little to gain from a fight with Washington.

The rand dropped sharply against the dollar reaching its lowest point in three years on Thursday.

"The news certainly aggravated the negative sentiments towards South Africa," said Hugo Pienaar, chief economist at Bureau for Economic Research, a think tank.

Afrikaans rights group AfriForum said the government was "leading South Africa to economic suicide" by siding with Russia.

Some worry the US could kick the country out of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) -- a deal granting duty-free access to the US market for products from sub-Saharan nations that comply with standards on rights and democracy.

South Africa is the largest beneficiary of the agreement, which was worth $21 billion to the country's economy last year, according to the US ambassador.

"This is a very serious matter," said Silke, adding South Africa's economy was already "very vulnerable", facing almost zero growth and contracting domestic demand.

"South African exporters... desperately need their products to be sold on international shelves."

© 2023 AFP

South Africa hits back at US charge of supplying arms to Moscow | Russia-Ukraine War | WION Live

WION

 #RussiaUkraineWar #SouthAfrica #WIONLive

The U. S. ambassador to South Africa accused the country Thursday of providing weapons and ammunition to Russia for its war in Ukraine via a cargo ship linked to a sanctioned company that docked secretly at a naval base near the city of Cape Town in December. …

US ambassador accuses South Africa of providing weapons, ammo to Russia

By GERALD IMRAY and MICHAEL BIESECKER

yesterday

The Russian vessel, Lady R, is docked at the Simon's Town Naval Base near Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022. The U.S. ambassador to South Africa has accused the country of providing weapons to Russia. Ambassador Reuben Brigety said the U.S. government was certain that weapons were loaded onto a cargo ship that docked secretly at a naval base near the city of Cape Town for three days in December. 

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The U. S. ambassador to South Africa accused the country Thursday of providing weapons and ammunition to Russia for its war in Ukraine via a cargo ship linked to a sanctioned company that docked secretly at a naval base near the city of Cape Town in December.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said an investigation into the visit by a Russian vessel named Lady R to his nation’s main naval base was already underway behind the scenes with the help of U.S. intelligence services before Ambassador Reuben Brigety went public at a news conference in the South African capital, Pretoria, that the cargo was weapons and ammunition.

Brigety said the U.S. was certain that military equipment was loaded onto the Lady R at the Simon’s Town naval base between Dec. 6 and Dec. 8 and then transported to Russia. He said it brought into question South Africa’s supposed neutral stance on the war in Ukraine and its calls for the conflict to end.

“The arming of the Russians is extremely serious and we do not consider this issue to be resolved,” Brigety said in comments reported by multiple South African news outlets.

If South Africa is found to be giving Russia military aid, it threatens to fracture the relationship between the United States and a key partner in Africa. Despite South Africa’s neutral stance on the war in Ukraine, the Biden Administration was hoping it could still be a key buffer against growing Russian and Chinese influence on the continent.

While Ramaphosa’s office said in a statement later Thursday that there was currently “no evidence” to support allegations that arms were loaded onto the Lady R, The Associated Press established that the vessel is tied to a company that was sanctioned last year by the U.S. for being involved in transporting military equipment for the Russian government.

The news of Brigety’s comments broke while Ramaphosa was in Cape Town answering questions on other matters in Parliament. When the leader of the political opposition, John Steenhuisen, asked about the weapons and ammunition, the president replied that “the matter is being looked into, and in time we will be able to speak about it.”

Ramaphosa declined to comment further, citing the need for the investigation to play out.

Steenhuisen asked the president if South Africa was “actively arming Russian soldiers who are murdering and maiming innocent people?”

Ammunition supplies have become a problem for Russia in the war. The leader of Russian military company Wagner complained last week about his mercenary soldiers in Ukraine allegedly dealing with dire shortages.

Ramaphosa’s office acknowledged in its statement that the Lady R docked in South Africa, but did not say when, where or for what reason. The statement also criticized the American ambassador for going public.

Records reviewed by the AP show the Lady R was purchased by a Russian company, Transmorflot LLC, in 2019. In May 2022, the U.S. sanctioned Transmorflot and several vessels it alleges are controlled by the company, including the Lady R, for aiding the Russian war effort. The company then changed its name to MG-Flot LLC, which is also listed as the current owner of the Lady R.

Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that another ship owned by MG-Flot, the Rasul Gamzatov, transported artillery shells from Iran to Russia, citing Middle Eastern officials.

The AP has also independently confirmed that the Lady R docked at the Simon’s Town naval base during the time frame Brigety cited.

MarineTraffic, a service that collects radio and satellite transponder data from ships, tracked the Lady R off the South African coast in early December, but the signal was lost on Dec. 5. Ships are required by international law to keep their transponders on while at sea. Smugglers often turn them off to hide their movements.

Satellite imagery obtained by AP shows a ship the same length, color and layout as the Lady R docked at the naval base the following day and remained there through Dec. 8. AP also obtained photos of the ship at the naval base, the name Lady R clearly visible on its stern in both English and Russian. The ship set sail Dec. 9 and its transponder signal popped back up on Dec. 10. It returned to the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea on Feb. 22.

Steenhuisen’s opposition party had previously raised questions over the appearance of a “mystery” Russian vessel in Simon’s Town. In late December, South African Defense Minister Thandi Modise said the ship was handling an “old order” for ammunition, and arms were offloaded, not loaded onto the ship.

The South African government has stated numerous times it is neutral on the war in Ukraine and wants the conflict resolved peacefully through diplomacy but recent displays of its closeness to Russia opened Africa’s most developed country to accusations that it has effectively taken Russia’s side.

South Africa hosted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for talks in January, giving him a platform to blame the West for the war in Ukraine.

Weeks later, South Africa allowed warships from the Russian and Chinese navies to perform drills off its east coast. The Russian navy brought its Admiral Gorshkov frigate, one of its navy’s flagship vessels. The South African navy took part in the drills and said they would “strengthen the already flourishing relations between South Africa, Russia and China.”

South Africa also faces a diplomatic dilemma over a possible visit this year by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for alleged war crimes involving the abductions of children from Ukraine. Putin is due to visit South Africa in August for a meeting of leaders of the BRICS economic bloc, made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

South Africa is a signatory to the international court based in The Hague, Netherlands, and obliged to arrest Putin. The government indicated it would not detain the Russian leader and threatened to leave the ICC instead. Ramaphosa’s office released a statement last month backtracking on the threat.

___

AP Writer Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg contributed to this story. AP Global Investigative Reporter Michael Biesecker reported from Washington.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

BEHIND PAYWALL

Ramaphosa takes call from Putin as S Africa-US dispute ...

Financial Times

https://www.ft.com › ... › War in Ukraine

8 hours ago — South Africa president Cyril Ramaphosa has spoken to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin amid an escalating diplomatic storm over a US ...

Belgium learns to share its beaches with sleepy seals

by Marie GENRIES

During Covid restrictions, seals found Belgian beaches to be deserted resting spots. Now 

that's changing.

Visitors to Belgium's coast are having to get used to North Sea visitors not seen for a while—dozens of seals that are using the short sandy coastline as a resting place.

The reason? During the long period of COVID restrictions between early 2020 and early 2022, the sea mammals found the sandy stretches to be calm, without the usual crowds of people.

Now with people returning, and ahead of what could be a bumper summer season, the challenge for Belgian animal protection groups is to educate the public on how to coexist with dozens of seals getting some downtime.

The exact number of the seals using the coast is hard to pin down but is probably between 100 and 200, according to Kelle Moreau, a marine biologist who is spokesman for the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.

The two species that waddle up here are gray seals, whose adults can weigh 300 kilograms (660 pounds), and common or harbor seals, a smaller mammal that weighs up to 165 kilograms.

The beaches, though, are essential for seal pups, which hang back in relative safety on land until they get hungry enough that instinct pushes them to go into the sea to find food.

That is why, Moreau explained, it is vital that humans do not feed them.

"At the start of the lives, the pups have to spend a few days on the beach until they get hungry. If someone feeds them, they won't go into the sea and learn how to hunt," he said.

To keep beachgoers at bay, volunteers rope off areas that seals are using.

In one spot near Belgium's main coastal town of Ostend, a dozen people stand behind a rope fascinated by two seals on the sand.

Around these zones, volunteers with the North Seal Team wearing orange fluorescent vests tell people that dogs have to be kept on a leash.

Beach areas with seals are roped off, to keep people at a safe distance.

"We take turns all day long, from seven in the morning to 10 or 11 at night," Inge de Bruycker, founder of the group, tells AFP in between calling out to curious passers-by to be less noisy.

The seals "need to be left alone because they get very stressed very quickly.

"And when you go near them, if they go swimming again they can drown. If they are tired, they can drown."

Keeping dogs away is important, she said, because "seals have bitten some dogs, and dogs have bitten some seals"

"We don't want that happening to people, especially not to children."

Injured seals

North Seal Team, created soon after COVID restrictions were imposed in Belgium, worked with Ostend municipal authorities to devise rules for behavior around beached seals, notably on giving the animals 30 meters (yards) of safe distance.

For the seagoing mammals, the return of people to coastline they had thought deserted is an adjustment.

"The seals became used to coming to rest up on the beaches and people are generally happy when they see them. They want to pet them, take selfies with them," said Moreau, who works for the Belgium natural sciences institute.

Some people have mistakenly thought the seals were inadvertently beached and tried to push them back into the sea. "But these are wild animals!" he said.

In some cases, however, the seals do need direct human care.

Fishing nets are a hazard for seals.

That is the role of the Seal Rehabilitation Center.

It is located in the Sea Life Blankenberge aquarium, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Ostend.

North Seal Team volunteers contact it through WhatsApp groups when they come across a seal that might need attention.

Increasing numbers of people walking the beaches also get in touch.

"They send us images of the animal and we decide if we need to step in or not," said Steve Vermote, head of Sea Life Blanenberge.

"We are actually having more interventions because some seals are perfectly fine to actually survive in the wild and they might have a minor wound, but we see seals with bigger wounds these days."

Most of the treated animals are released after two months. But some, like a blind female named Lily, are taken in indefinitely.

Last year, the center treated a dozen gray seals and three harbor seals.

It also gave care to several seals with neck wounds, probably caused by a type of fixed fishing net that is not easy for them to spot.

The Royal Institute of Natural Sciences says those types of nets were the cause of dozens of seal deaths in 2021, which led to Belgium banning them for recreational fishing.

Last year, the remains of 54 seals were counted on Belgian beaches, according to the institute, noting that that was half the number from 2021.

For Moreau, that is an indication that the new ban is working, and that humans and seals are able to find ways to coexist.

© 2023 AFP

More than 130 seals found dead on Caspian beaches

Architects don’t need AI, says high-tech pioneer Norman Foster

12-05- 2023

British architect Norman Robert Foster poses during a photo session in Paris on May 10, 2023. AFPPIX


PARIS: British architect Norman Foster has spent six decades pushing the boundaries of technology with awe-inspiring modernist structures from California to Hong Kong, but he is yet to be convinced by the craze for artificial intelligence.

“Artificial intelligence at the moment has the ability to cheat, to invent,“ he told AFP in a recent interview in Paris, which is hosting a retrospective of his work.


“We live in a world which is physical, we inhabit buildings, streets, squares. That physicality, you can’t replicate by artificial intelligence.”

Foster has been shaping urban landscapes since the 1960s and won the Pritzker Prize, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in architecture, in 1999.


His statement projects include Apple's giant ring-shaped headquarters in California, London's Wembley Stadium and Millennium Bridge, and Berlin's Reichstag.

Experts describe his practice, Foster and Partners, as possibly the most prolific in history, and the most adept at navigating changing trends and technologies.

“He conceives architecture almost as an organism balancing itself with the air, the sun, life,“ said Frederic Migayrou, curator of the Norman Foster exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in the French capital.

Yet he has not swerved controversy, irking climate campaigners with his keenness to build airports and his views on the environment.

'Hard facts'

He is a champion of urban living -- “people live longer in cities” -- but his vision for sustaining urban lifestyles has courted some criticism.

He supports nuclear power, saying it had not caused a single death and the world would only be able to tackle climate change “with hard facts, not emotion”.


He sees it as a vital part of the solution to the deprivation and poverty seen in megacities and overpopulated slums across the world.

“Many people gravitated to those cities because there are more opportunities,“ he said.

“The answer has to be an abundance of clean energy, and the cleanest, safest form of energy is nuclear.”

Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok airport, opened in 1998, made a huge splash for his firm, and he has worked on several airports since -- much to the annoyance of climate activists, who see air travel as part of the problem.

Yet when he talks of his broader philosophy, the 87-year-old could easily make common cause with climate activists.

End of the sprawl

Surrounded by models of his greatest creations, he talked breezily about the development of cleaner, greener cities.

The pandemic accelerated a growing need for people to have access to outdoor spaces for eating and strolling, and for services within walking distance of their homes, he argued.

“The cities which are most popular... they fit that model, essentially it’s a European model born before the ascendency of the automobile,“ he said.

And the transformation of our relationship with cars is central to the reshaping of modern cities, he said.

“You have younger generations who are less interested in ownership, who will move towards ride-sharing and mobility more as a service,“ he said.

This was pushing us away from sprawling car-centric cities with rigid work-home zones to ones where buildings were multipurpose, reducing the need for commuting.

Despite his storied history, Foster, still a central figure in all these threads of modern design, is not keen to dwell on his achievements.

The Pompidou exhibition, which displays models of his buildings alongside exhibits that inspired their design, has allowed him to see hidden connections.

But understandably for someone who forged the “high-tech” architectural movement in the 1960s with fellow Briton Richard Rogers, what comes next is always more important than what has already gone.

“Overall, I’m more excited by the future than I am by the past.”

- AFP

Largest Norman Foster retrospective opens in Paris

Le Viaduc de Millau, Millau (France), 1993-2004   -  Copyright  Foster + Partners, Photo : © Ben Johnson

By Katy Dartford  •  Updated: 09/05/2023

Six decades of works by the world renowned British architect who is often seen as a leader of the "high-tech" trend are now on display at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

The largest retrospective of works by British architect, Norman Foster has opened at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, spanning the last six decades of his career.

Drawings, workbooks, scale models, prototypes and videos enable visitors to delve into 130 major projects on display in the centre, which itself is considered one of the first examples of the "High Tech" architectural trend that Foster helped pioneer.

The exhibition reviews the different periods of the architect’s work and highlights cutting-edge creations, such as the headquarters of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (Hong Kong, 1979-1986), the Carré d’Art (Nîmes, 1984-1993), Hong Kong International Airport (1992-1998) and Apple Park (Cupertino, United States, 2009-2017).

Carré d'Art, Nîmes (France), 1984-1993Foster + Partners, Photo : © James Morris

The architect’s work is explored through seven themes: Nature and Urbanity; Skin and Bones; Vertical City; History and Tradition; Planning and Place; Networks and Mobility and Future.

Norman FosterPhoto : © Yukio Futagawa

Sources of inspiration for Foster, including Fernand Léger, Constantin Brancusi, Umberto Boccioni and Ai Wei Wei are also presented in the exhibition.

Foster's creations were influenced by his time working with American architect, Richard Buckminster Fuller, who founded the concept of combining technology with the environment. 

Hearst Headquarter, New York (USA), 2000-2006Foster + Partners, Photo : © Chuck Choi

The exhibition traces these themes of sustainability and anticipation of the future:

"The birth of the practice in the 1960s coincided with the first signs of an awareness of the fragility of the planet. These were the green shoots of what would later be named The Green Movement," explains Foster.

"These principles may now be mainstream, but more than half a century ago, they were revolutionary and anticipated the reality of today. Throughout the decades, we have sought to challenge conventions, reinvent building types and demonstrate an architecture of light and lightness, inspired by nature, which can be about joy as well as being eco-friendly."

The exhibition runs until August 7, 2023, and is organised by the Centre Pompidou, with the participation of Foster + Partners and the Norman Foster Foundation.

Apple headquarters in Cupertino is often dubbed a spaceship 

© JUSTIN SULLIVAN / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

The building known as the 'gherkin' has become iconic on the London skyline © Daniel SORABJI / AFP/File

Norman Foster : « My quest is for a holistic approach that achieves a balance with nature. »  - Magazine - Centre Pompidou

Moura massacre: Malian troops, foreign forces executed 500 people in 2022

AFP

Issued on: 12/05/2023 - 

01:46

Malian soldiers and unidentified foreign military personnel were likely to have executed at least 500 people during a five-day operation in the village of Moura in central Mali in March 2022, the UN Human Rights Office said on Friday. A UN report on the incident was released after a months-long investigation into the attack, which rights groups say is the worst atrocity in a 10-year-old conflict between Islamist groups and the army in which thousands have died and millions have been displaced.

France says 2 citizens held in Iran freed from prison, on way to Paris

Issued on: 12/05/2023 - 

00:55

Video by: FRANCE 24

Two French citizens imprisoned in Iran have been freed, France's foreign minister said Friday. Benjamin Briere and Bernard Phelan, who both had been held in a prison in Mashad, in northwest Iran, were heading to Paris, a statement from Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said.

Paris (AFP) – Iran on Friday released two French citizens jailed in separate cases, France said, urging Tehran to release four others still detained in the Islamic republic.

Bernard Phelan, who also holds Irish nationality, and Benjamin Briere were freed from their prison in the northeastern city of Mashhad and are "on their way to France", Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said.

There had been grave concerns about the health of both men, both of whom had been on hunger strikes to protest their conditions.

President Emmanuel Macron added on Twitter: "Free, finally. Benjamin Briere and Bernard Phelan can reunite with their loved ones. It's a relief".

The flightradar24.com website showed that the Dassault Falcon plane had taken off from Mashhad around 1100 GMT and was due to touch down at Paris Le Bourget airport -- no longer used for commercial flights -- after 1700 GMT.

Benjamin Briere's sister Blandine Briere, who has led the campaign for his release during her brother's two-year ordeal, told AFP: "We are avoiding a tragedy. I have no words to describe the joy we feel."

"We cannot tell you how relieved we are," added Phelan's sister Caroline in a statement.

The pair were among some two dozen foreigners jailed in Iran who campaigners see as hostages held in a deliberate strategy by Tehran to extract concessions from the West.
'Difficult ordeal'

Phelan, 64, a Paris-based travel consultant, was arrested in October in Mashhad and has been held ever since.

In April, he was jailed for six and a half years on national security charges strongly rejected by his family.

With Iran rocked by anti-regime protests since September, Phelan was accused of taking photos of a burned mosque and police officers, and sending images to a British newspaper, the family said.

Phelan went on a dry hunger strike in January to protest his detention, refusing both food and water. But he stopped the action at the request of his family, who feared he would die. They said his health had deteriorated considerably in detention.

"The last seven months have been a very difficult ordeal for Bernard and for his family and I am pleased and relieved that this is now at an end," said Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin.

Briere, 37, was first detained while travelling in Iran in May 2020 and later sentenced to eight years in prison for espionage.

Although acquitted by an appeals court, he remained in prison in a situation described as "incomprehensible" by his family.

Held like Phelan in the prison of Vakilabad in Mashhad, Briere also went on hunger strikes to protest his conditions.

Briere's France-based lawyer Philippe Valent said he had started his latest hunger strike on January 28.

"This release had to happen before there was a catastrophe. There was a real risk to his life," he told AFP.

'Regain full freedom'

Four more French citizens, described previously as "hostages" by the French foreign ministry, are still in prison by Iran.

Colonna said she had spoken earlier Friday to her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian and made clear "France's determination to ensure that the other French citizens still detained in Iran also rapidly regain their full freedom".

Iran's foreign ministry described the release of Briere and Phelan as a "humanitarian action".

Macron added: "We will continue to work for the return of our compatriots still detained in Iran."

Cecile Kohler, a teacher, and her partner Jacques Paris were arrested in May last year and remain in prison accused of espionage charges their family deny.

Louis Arnaud, described by his family as an innocent traveller, was arrested in September. Another French citizen is confirmed to be held by Paris but has never been named.

French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah was released from prison in February but appears still unable to leave the country.

Several US, German, British, Swedish and other European citizens also remain detained.

Colonna told a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Stockholm that Europe would work for the release of "all Europeans, too many unfortunately, detained without reason in Iran".
Increased tensions

The holding of foreigners by Tehran has increased tensions with the West at a time when the Islamic republic is also under scrutiny for its crackdown on the protest movement that erupted in September.

Talks between Iran and the West on reviving the 2015 deal on its nuclear programme are frozen.

Activists are also alarmed by a surge in the number of executions by Iran. On Saturday, Tehran hanged Swedish-Iranian dissident Habib Chaab on terrorism charges.

German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd and Iranian-Swedish national Ahmadreza Djalali also face execution after being sentenced to death in trials denounced as a sham by their families.

© 2023 AFP

Portuguese parliament legalises euthanasia

Levi FERNANDES
Fri, 12 May 2023 

Decriminalising euthanasia has deeply divided Catholic Portugal

After a long battle, Portugal on Friday passed a law legalising euthanasia for people in great suffering and with incurable diseases, joining just a handful of countries around the world.

The issue has divided the deeply Catholic country and witnessed strong opposition from conservative President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, a devout churchgoer.

Under its provisions, people aged over 18 will be allowed to request assistance in dying if they are terminally ill and in intolerable suffering.

It will only cover those suffering "lasting" and "unbearable" pain unless they are deemed not to be mentally fit to make such a decision.

The law will only be applicable for nationals and legal residents and not extend to foreigners coming into the country to seek assisted suicide.

The euthanasia bill was approved by parliament four times in the last three years but sent back every time for a constitutional review due to opposition from the president.

The definitive version of the law was adopted on Friday with support from the governing Socialists, who hold an absolute majority in the chamber.

"We are confirming a law that has already been approved several times by a huge majority," said Socialist MP Isabel Moreira, a fervent advocate of legalising euthanasia.

The president now has a week to promulgate the new law. It could come into force by the autumn, Portuguese media said.

"We have at last come to the end of a long battle," Moreira told AFP earlier this week.

- Debate continues -

Rebelo de Sousa had vetoed earlier bills due to "excessively undefined concepts" and later said the language used to describe terminal conditions continued to be contradictory and needed to be clarified.

The new version of the law now provides that euthanasia is only authorised in cases where "medically assisted suicide is impossible due to a physical disability of the patient".

Rebelo de Sousa has asked lawmakers to specify who would "attest" to whether a patient was physically incapable of assisted suicide but lawmakers this time refused to modify the text.

Questions raised by the president can be addressed through implementing decrees, said Catarina Martins, the leader of the far-left Left Bloc.

Rebelo de Sousa himself said approval of the law "wasn't a great drama" and did not give rise to "constitutional problems".

The debate over medically assisted dying is far from over in Portugal.

"The adoption of this law has been relatively fast compared with other big countries," said Paulo Santos, a member of the pro-euthanasia group Right To Die With Dignity.

He warned a large number of doctors could raise moral objections to carrying out euthanasia, as they had done over abortions in 2007.

"There's a good chance euthanasia will lead to even stronger resistance," he told AFP.

For their part, critics of medically assisted dying regret that the issue has not been put to a referendum and hope opposition deputies will once again ask the constitutional court to look into the bill.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are only allowed in a handful of countries, including the Benelux nations and Portugal's neighbour, Spain.

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‘All hopes are riding on the election’: Alevi minority yearns for change ahead of Turkish vote

Issued on: 12/05/2023 - 

01:36

Quake-stricken members of Turkey's Alevi minority say they have been abandoned by the state. © FRANCE 24 screengrab

Text by: Nadia MASSIH

Video by: Julie DUNGELHOFF|Nadia MASSIH

From our special correspondents in Iskenderun, Turkey – With just two days to go ahead of Turkey’s high-stakes presidential and parliamentary elections, the country is at a crossroads. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seeking an unprecedented third term in power but is facing a serious challenge in the shape of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, a member of the Muslim Alevi minority that has long faced discrimination and is yearning for change.

The opposition candidate’s faith and origins have been major talking points during the campaign – an unthinkable prospect in past decades, when Alevis faced significant discrimination and even persecution. His promise to build a more inclusive nation has resonated with a community that feels abandoned by the state and has tired of Erdogan's 20-year rule.

Ahead of the vote, our reporters Julie Dungelhoeff, Mohammed Farhat and Nadia Massih went to meet Alevis who survived February's devastating earthquakes – to listen to their stories and hear their hopes for Turkey’s future. Click on the player above to watch their report from the quake-stricken port city of Iskenderun.

>> Read more: ‘All we’re asking is to be recognised’: the Alevis of Turkey struggle for equality