Jim Obergefell of landmark gay marriage case to run for Ohio legislature
By Rich Klein

Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff in the Supreme Court decision that legalized marriage in all 50 states, rides as guest of honor in the LGBT Pride parade in San Francisco in June 2015. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that led to the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States, announced Tuesday that he is running for a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives.

The landmark Supreme Court decision in Obergefell vs. Hodges was handed down in June 2015.

Obergefell, a Democrat, is running to represent the state's 89th District, which includes his hometown of Sandusky. The seat is held by Rep. D.J. Swearingen, a Republican.

"This district deserves a representative who works to make things better for everyone," Obergefell said at a news conference. "I watched the good-paying jobs my father and brothers worked at GM and Scott Paper vanish when those factories closed. I watched my family struggle in the aftermath. I remember eating the so-called government cheese. I was just a kid."

After the court decision, Obergefell founded Equality Vines, a wine label that supports organizations dedicated to "equality and civil rights for all. "

He has also spoken around the world about gay rights and same-sex marriage. In 2016, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center honored him with its Everyday Freedom Hero Award.

Britain's upper house passes bill to make misogyny a hate crime


The bill would require police to note whether hatred of a person's sex or gender motivated a particular crime, and allow judges to impose stronger penalties if such prejudice is a proven motive. File Photo by Skye McKee/UPI | License Photo


Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Britain's House of Lords passed a measure on Monday night making misogyny a hate crime in England and Wales, and sent the proposal on to the House of Commons.

The upper house voted 242 to 185 to amend the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to make misogyny a hate crime.

The move was mostly backed by Labor and Liberal Democrats in Britain, but conservative Baroness Newlove, a former victims' commissioner, led the move to make misogyny a hate crime despite opposition from her party colleagues.

"Too often when it comes to violence against women, society demands the perfect victim before we act," Newlove said, according to The Guardian.

"As a society, we have rightly taken steps to acknowledge the severity of racist and homophobic crimes, but have not yet acted on crimes driven by hatred of women."

The bill needs approval from both houses to become law, and it will return to the House of Commons once the upper house is finished working on it.

The change would require police to note whether hatred of a person's sex or gender motivated a particular crime, and allow judges to impose stronger penalties if such prejudice is a proven motive.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Conservative Party leader since 2019, has opposed calls to make misogyny a hate crime.

Monday's vote also rejected other measures in the bill -- including a proposal to punish activists who lock themselves onto objects with as many as 51 weeks in prison, suspicionless stops and searches and introduction of "serious disruption prevention orders." The upper house also voted to block a proposal giving new powers to police to stop protests in England and Wales.

A RIGHT WING WOMAN IS STILL A RIGHT WINGER

EU parliament elects anti-abortion Maltese MEP as president

Roberta Metsola is first woman to lead assembly in 20 years

Roberta Metsola, the youngest ever president of the European parliament, promised to represent the parliament, rather than her own views.

 Photograph: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters


Jennifer Rankin in Brussels
Tue 18 Jan 2022 13.57 GMT

A conservative Maltese lawyer who opposes abortion has been elected president of the European parliament, the first woman in 20 years to lead the assembly.

Roberta Metsola, who is celebrating her 43rd birthday on Tuesday, is the youngest-ever president of the European parliament, winning a comfortable majority to serve a two-and-a-half-year term.

A former civil servant first elected in 2013, she is the first person from Malta, the smallest member state, to lead any EU institution.

Metsola, a member of the centre-right European People’s party, had been serving as interim president after the untimely death of David Sassoli last week. Sassoli, a popular Italian Social Democrat, was due to end his term in this week’s midterm reshuffle of top jobs.

As the favourite to succeed Sassoli since her candidacy was announced last autumn, Metsola’s victory was never in doubt after the parliament’s three largest groups made a pact to support her on the eve of the vote.

She won 458 of 690 votes cast, easily beating three rivals from smaller groups: the Greens, the radical left and conservative nationalists.

The Socialists and Democrats, the second-largest group behind the EPP, threw their weight behind Metsola to gain a bigger number of 14 vice-president posts. Also joining the alliance was the centrist Renew group led by Stéphane Séjourné, ally of the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

The support of Renew was significant, as some French MEPs had voiced qualms about Metsola’s anti-abortion stance.

The former diplomat won round doubters by promising to represent the position of the parliament, rather than her personal views. “My position is that of the European parliament,” she told journalists. “And on this issue, this European parliament, on all sexual and reproductive health rights, it has been unambiguous, it has repeatedly called for these rights to be better protected.”

As vice-president of the parliament, she said, she had delivered a recent resolution condemning Poland’s anti-abortion law. “I promoted it and I presented it … That is exactly what I will do with all the positions that were taken in all this area in all the member states.”

Malta is the only EU country that completely bans abortion, a stance more hardline than Poland, which last year passed a law imposing heavy restrictions on a woman’s right to end a pregnancy. In 2015 Metsola signed a statement with other Maltese centre-right MEPs declaring “we remain categorically against abortion”. At the start of the pandemic in April 2020, she voted against a resolution on EU action on Covid-19 that described abortion as a human right.

Explaining another no vote on the same issue in 2021, she claimed in an interview with the website Lovin Malta that Malta’s right to legislate for itself on abortion had been at stake. “The report did not respect Malta’s right to legislate itself on this issue and therefore I could not support the final version of it.”

Despite misgivings, left-leaning political opponents have praised Metsola’s stance in defence of the rule of law and migrants’ rights. Speaking to MEPs, the co-leader of the Greens, Philippe Lamberts, said Metsola had “many excellent qualities”. He noted their disagreements on abortion and reproductive rights, but “many points of agreement as well”, on democracy, the rule of law and refugees.

The Belgian Green MEP urged Metsola to reform European parliament rules by introducing a system of proportional representation to end the backroom deals on carving up top posts. “It’s not a very glorious process,” he told MEPs. “Because once again … there were certain appetites that had to be satisfied and this to the detriment of smaller groups in the European parliament.”

Born in 1979, Metsola has said Malta’s accession to the EU sparked her interest in politics. The island nation joined the union in 2004, along with nine other mostly central and eastern European countries. She graduated from the elite College of Europe in Bruges, a training ground for EU officials, before going on to work for Malta’s government in Brussels and then the European Commission. A mother of four, she has described herself as part of the “Erasmus generation”, referring to the EU higher education exchange scheme.

Until now, only two women have served as European parliament president, in effect the speaker of the house. The former French minister Nicole Fontaine led the institution from 1999-2002. She was proceeded by another French woman, Simone Veil, a Holocaust survivor and celebrated minister, who led the fight to introduce abortion in France. Veil ran the parliament from 1979-1982.

Metsola said a in speech to MEPs in Strasbourg that she was standing on the shoulders of giants. The parliament mattered “to every woman in the union still fighting for their rights” she said, without mentioning the controversy over abortion.

She also referred to two journalists murdered for their investigative reporting, Daphne Caruana Galizia of Malta and Ján Kuciak of Slovakia, declaring “to the families of Daphne and Ján … your fight for truth and justice is our fight”.

Sudanese barricade streets after 7 killed in anti-coup protests

Sudanese demonstrators barricade a street in Khartoum Tuesday amid ongoing protests against a military coup (AFP/-)

Tue, January 18, 2022

Sudanese shuttered shops and barricaded streets with burning tyres and rocks Tuesday, staging angry rallies to protest against one of the bloodiest days since a coup derailed the country's democratic transition.

Security forces on Monday opened fire killing at least seven people as thousands marched against the army's October 25 takeover, taking the total number killed in a crackdown since the coup to 71, according to medics.

"No, no to military rule," protesters chanted Tuesday in southern Blue Nile state, where some carried banners daubed with the slogan "No to killing peaceful protesters", said witness Omar Eissa.

The protests come as Washington ramps up pressure in a bid to broker an end to the months-long crisis in the northeast African nation, with top US diplomats expected to arrive in the capital Khartoum for talks.

Sudan's main civilian bloc, the Forces for Freedom and Change, called for two days of civil disobedience to begin on Tuesday.

"Shop closed for mourning," signs read at Khartoum's sprawling Sajane construction supplies market. One of the merchants, Othman el-Sherif, was among those shot dead on Monday.

- 'Violent tactics' -

Protesters -- sometimes numbering in the tens of thousands -- have regularly taken to the streets since the coup led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan nearly three months ago.

The military power grab derailed a fragile transition to civilian rule following the April 2019 ouster of autocrat Omar al-Bashir, with prime minister Abdalla Hamdok resigning earlier this month warning that Sudan was at a "dangerous crossroads threatening its very survival".

The United Nations special representative Volker Perthes condemned the use of live ammunition on Monday, while the US embassy criticised the "violent tactics of Sudanese security forces," the latest such appeals by world powers.

On Tuesday, police fired tear gas at dozens of protesters setting up roadblocks in east Khartoum, an AFP correspondent said.

"We took to the streets to express our opinion peacefully but the military forces confronted us with live bullets," said protester Tarek Hassan.

"We call on all the Sudanese people, and to all the free revolutionaries, to barricade all the streets to announce the civil disobedience until the putschists fall."

Outside the capital, hundreds of protesters also staged demonstrations in other cities, including in the states of Blue Nile and Kassala in the east, witnesses said.

- Probe ordered into killings -

Burhan on Tuesday formed a fact-finding committee to probe Monday's violence, with its findings to be submitted within 72 hours, Sudan's ruling Sovereign Council said in a statement.

It comes as US Assistant Secretary of State Molly Phee and special envoy for the Horn of Africa, David Satterfield, were expected in Khartoum, where they would "reiterate our call for security forces to end violence and respect freedom of expression and peaceful assembly," State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

Sudan's authorities have repeatedly denied using live ammunition against demonstrators, and insist scores of security personnel have been wounded during protests. A police general was stabbed to death last week.

Police on Monday said they had used "the least force" to counter the protests, in which about 50 police personnel were also wounded.

On Tuesday the "Friends of Sudan" -- a group of Western and Arab nations calling for the restoration of the country's transitional government, and which includes the US, European Union, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the UN -- held talks in Saudi Arabia.

"Deep concern about yesterday's violence," Perthes, the UN envoy, said on Twitter, after attending the meeting via video link.

"International support and leverage is needed. Support for political process needs to go along with active support to stop violence."

bur/pjm/lg

LIBERTE, EQUALITE, FRATERNITE 
Tunisia freedoms at risk after protest crackdown: rights groups


Yassine Jelassi, president of the Tunisian National Journalists' Union (SNJT), said a "security mentality" is running the state (AFP/FETHI BELAID)

Tue, January 18, 2022, 8:11 AM·1 min read

Freedoms are imperilled in Tunisia after the violent suppression of protests against President Kais Saied last week, rights groups warned Tuesday.

Police on Friday cracked down heavily as hundreds gathered to rally against a July 2021 "coup" by Saied in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring revolts against authoritarianism.

"It is clear that freedoms are threatened and face an imminent peril," Yassine Jelassi, head of the Tunisian National Journalists' Union (SNJT), told a press conference organised by 21 human rights groups.

"A police and security mentality is running the state... Tunisia has become a country which suppresses freedoms."

The non-governmental groups have denounced what they said was heavy-handed police actions against journalists and protesters during rallies on Friday.

Tunis, the capital, has not witnessed such unrest for a decade.

Police backed by water cannon charged at demonstrators, fired tear gas, and made dozens of violent arrests.

The protests took place despite a ban on gatherings as coronavirus cases surge, but which Saied's opponents said was politically motivated.

On July 25, Said suspended parliament, dismissed the prime minister and said he would assume executive powers. Then in September he took steps to rule by decree.

The demonstrations came on the 11th anniversary of late dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's flight into exile.

His departure led to enormous progress in terms of freedoms in Tunisia, the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring uprisings.

But civil society groups and Saied's political opponents have been warning of a return to authoritarianism under his power grab.

Some Tunisians, however, tired of the inept and graft-ridden parliamentary system, have welcomed his moves.

ayj/ezz/it/pjm

Why is the Yemeni rebel attack on Abu Dhabi a game changer?
AFP18 Jan 2022

A deadly attack by Yemen’s Huthi rebels on the United Arab Emirates marks a new phase in a seven-year civil war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

Here are some key questions and answers after Monday’s drone and missile assault:

What happened?

Two Indians and a Pakistani were killed in a fuel-tank explosion near storage facilities of oil giant ADNOC, sending smoke and flames billowing into the air.

A fire also broke out in a construction area of Abu Dhabi airport.

Police said “small flying objects” were found at both sites, pointing to a deliberate attack using drones — a hallmark of Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels.

The rebels later claimed the attack and said there could be more to come, warning UAE residents to stay away from “vital installations”.

Why attack Abu Dhabi?

The UAE is a member of the Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting the rebels since 2015. Although it announced a troop withdrawal from Yemen in 2019, it has remained involved by supporting and training forces there.

It is no coincidence that the Huthis’ attack followed their defeat in Yemen’s Shabwa province to the UAE-trained Giants Brigade, which dealt a blow to the rebels hopes of capturing the key city of Marib in the neighbouring governorate.

“The battle of Shabwa has changed the equation of the conflict in Yemen,” said Majid Al-Madhaji, a researcher at the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies.

Al-Madhaji said the Huthis were “anxious”, and had launched the Abu Dhabi attacks “to send this military message in the heart of the UAE”.

The Huthis have repeatedly threatened to target the UAE, and claimed to have carried attacks in 2018 which were never acknowledged by the wealthy Gulf country.

“Many are not surprised by the attack, Ansar Allah had repeated threats to target UAE and today they delivered on that promise,” said Mohammad Al Basha, a Yemen expert for research group Navanti, referring to the Huthi movement by its formal name.

The attack also came two weeks after the Huthis captured a UAE-flagged ship and its international crew in the Red Sea, saying it was carrying military equipment.

How did they do it?

The Huthis regularly target neighbouring Saudi Arabia with drones and missiles, but this attack appears to have traversed hundreds of kilometres (miles) of Saudi desert that separate Yemen from UAE.

The Huthis said they had used Quds 2 cruise missiles to hit the Musaffah refinery and Abu Dhabi airport, and also used Sammad-3 long-range drones.

They have a wide range of military equipment and weapons, including tanks and ballistic missiles, which they seized from Yemeni army stores after taking the capital Sanaa in 2014.

The Huthis also say they make their own drones, which they showed off as part of a military display in March last year in Sanaa.

Saudi Arabia and the United States have long accused Iran of supplying military hardware to the Huthis. Iran denies the charge.

What happens next?

The coalition responded with air strikes on the Yemeni capital late on Monday, killing several people, including the head of the Huthis’ air force academy.

In turn, the UAE will be on edge for further assaults by the Huthis, particularly against its oil facilities and airports.

The rebels claimed they also attempted an attack on Monday on Dubai airport, a major transport hub.

But while it has backed the pro-government Yemeni Giant Brigades force, the UAE scaled back its involvement over two years ago and may be reluctant to get dragged in again, experts say.

“The UAE will not rush to a knee-jerk reaction. It has invested heavily in Yemen, particularly in new political and military infrastructure in the south,” said Elisabeth Kendall, a researcher at Oxford University.

“It is unlikely to veer from its long-term strategy, for example by scaling up its own troop presence in Yemen again, on the basis of a provocation.”

A drone attack in Abu Dhabi could mark a dangerous turning point for the Middle East. Here's what to know

Analysis by Tamara Qiblawi, CNN
January 18, 2022

(CNN)A deadly drone attack in the heart of the United Arab Emirates' capital has thrust the Middle East into uncharted waters at a time when the region's leaders have sought to heal years-long rifts.

Three people were killed when the strikes hit fuel trucks near the airport in Abu Dhabi on Monday, causing multiple explosions. Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels quickly claimed the attacks.

In response, the UAE and Saudi Arabia responded by pummelling the Yemeni capital of Sana'a with airstrikes, killing at least 12 people, in the deadliest bombardment in the city since 2019.


Aside from escalating violence in a region that has sought to turn the page on a decade of proxy wars, the exchange of fire could also cloud a series of high-level talks between regional and international foes. Negotiations between Iran and Western powers on how to revive the 2015 deal to limit Tehran's nuclear program have recently shown signs of progress. And there are also indications that historic but difficult discussions between Saudi Arabia and regional rival Iran were beginning to bear fruit.

But the unprecedented Houthi attacks in Abu Dhabi could throw a wrench into those talks.

And if the rebels make good on their promise to launch further strikes, it could dent the UAE's image as a safe place to live, work and do business in a troubled region.
Here's what to know about the crisis.

In this satellite image provided by Planet Labs PBC, smoke rises over a fuel depot in Abu Dhabi's Mussafah neighborhood on Monday.


Why was the Houthi attack so significant?

In addition to being the first deadly attack in the UAE in many years, the drone attacks on Monday demonstrated the Houthis' ability to launch long-range attacks. Yemen's rebels frequently conduct cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia, Yemen's neighbor, but these were relatively short distances in comparison with Abu Dhabi, and the vast majority of the missiles and drones were intercepted before they hit their targets.

Oil prices spiked after the attacks, which spurred a flurry of international condemnation from the US and other world leaders. UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed asked the US to reclassify the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization -- a label that was instituted in the final days of the Trump administration before being lifted by President Joe Biden.

The Houthis previously claimed to have conducted strikes on the UAE, which it does not share a border with. But Emirati authorities never acknowledged the alleged attacks, and many observers considered the claims to have been farfetched.
Now Yemen's Houthis have delivered on a threat that they have for years made against the UAE, a major coalition partner in a six-year Saudi-led military campaign to crush the Iran-backed rebels.

The wreckage of buildings damaged in Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, on Tuesday.

In 2019, the UAE pulled most of its troops from Yemen, after privately deeming the war unwinnable. The campaign failed to crush the rebels but exacted a huge humanitarian toll, with thousands of Yemenis dead and malnourishment and disease widespread.
More recently, however, the UAE has returned to the fray, backing Yemeni groups in flashpoints like the oil-rich provinces of Shabwa and Marib and repelling Houthi fighters from the strategic desert town.

Now, analysts say the rebels are eager to spark another Emirati withdrawal.
"The intervention of the UAE-supported forces was a game-changer. This angered the Houthis," said Maged al-Madhaji, executive director and co-founder of the Sana'a Center for Strategic Studies. "The Houthis are trying to create some sort of balance by striking the image of stability and security in the Emirates."

What's at stake for the UAE?

The oil-rich nation has for decades managed to stave off the political turbulence occurring elsewhere in the region. Stability is one of the UAE's major selling points -- helping to attract millions of expatriates and billions of dollars in foreign investment -- but that image could be shattered if the conflict with the Houthis escalates.

The UAE relies heavily on foreign workers, who make up the vast majority of the country's workforce. Authorities intensively manage the country's reputation, and freedom of political expression is practically non-existent. Defenders of those restrictions on expression argue that they're necessary to maintain stability against all odds in the conflict-ridden Middle East.

The Abu Dhabi skyline, pictured in 2020.

But for years, the UAE's muscular foreign policy — which saw it intervene in Egypt, Libya, Syria and the horn of Africa, in addition to Yemen — imperiled that very stability. When tankers were being targeted by its regional arch-nemesis Iran in 2019, off the coast of the UAE, Abu Dhabi quickly changed tack.

Since then it's been on a diplomatic spree to heal years-old rifts. It has made a number of overtures to Iran, including sending a high-level delegation reportedly in October 2019 and then again in late 2021. It's also mended ties with Syria's pariah president Bashar al-Assad, after backing armed groups that sought to overthrow him in that country's war. The UAE's leadership has repeatedly said that it seeks to become a deescalating force in the region.

Yet Monday's attack underscored a point that many observers have made, which is that turning the page on a decade of blood-drenched proxy war will be neither smooth nor instantaneous. All countries in the region, not just the UAE, will have a vested interest in a rapid deescalation of Monday's violence.

Was Iran involved in the Houthi attack on the UAE?

We don't know. What we do know that the drones were likely supplied by Iran, the principal supporter of the Houthis in their war on the internationally-recognized government of Yemen. But it is unclear if the Houthis' backers in Tehran ordered the strike, or if the rebel group suddenly went rogue.

It wouldn't be the first time Iran-aligned groups appeared to go their own way. In November 2021, the head of Iran's elite Quds force Esmail Qaani paid a visit to Iraqi Prime Minister Mostafa al-Kadhimi, shortly after an attempt on the life of Iraqi Prime Minister Mostafa al-Kadhimi by Iran-backed militias. Some observers saw the visit as a bid to distance Iran from the actions of their militant allies.

Another reason to suspect that Houthis acted on their own accord is that Iran has repeatedly said that it wishes to revive relations with its regional foes. Iran's new hardline President Ebrahim Raisi has received at least two invitations to visit the UAE, according to Iranian state media.

In their statements condemning the attack in Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and the UAE -- uncharacteristically -- steered clear of blaming the rebel group's backers in Tehran. Iran has not yet publicly commented on the attack.

Yet, as ever, Iran's leadership is hard to read. A Lebanese news network, Al Mayadeen, reported that Raisi met with the head of Sana'a's negotiation team in Tehran on Monday, the day of the attack. Some observers viewed that as an admission of responsibility in the Abu Dhabi attack.

What does this mean for the Iran nuclear talks?

The violence on Monday has the potential to derail the nuclear negotiations in Vienna, as well as parallel talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran seen as critical to the success of a possible second version of the 2015 deal.

If Iran is believed to be behind the Monday attack in Abu Dhabi — in the same way that they were widely accused of being responsible for the 2019 attacks on ARAMCO oil refineries (Iran denied the allegations) — then confidence-building measures could collapse and it would be difficult to see how the negotiations could continue.

If, on the other hand, Iran brings the Houthis to heel, as an overture to its regional foes, then Monday's violence may blow over and the negotiations could carry on, possibly unabated.

CNN's Sarah El Sirgany contributed to this report from Abu Dhabi.

Rwandan woman referee creates Africa Cup of Nations history


History-making Rwandan referee Salima Mukansanga (3R) lines up with the assistant referees, the fourth official and the captains of Zimbabwe and Guinea, Knowledge Musona (2L) and Naby Keita (2R) before an Africa Cup of Nations Group B match in Yaounde on Tuesday. (AFP/Kenzo Tribouillard)


Tue, January 18, 2022, 

Rwandan Salima Mukansanga became the first woman to referee an Africa Cup of Nations match when she oversaw the Group B clash between Guinea and Zimbabwe in Yaounde on Tuesday.

On Monday, a Confederation of African Football (CAF) statement said Mukansanga would handle the match with two female assistant referees, Carine Atemzabong of Cameroon and Fatiha Jermoumi of Morocco.

However, when the officials entered the pitch for the match at Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo in the Cameroonian capital, both assistant referees were males.

CAF did not immediately explain why the assistant referees were changed.

Mukansanga created history after the previous 32 editions of the flagship African tournament from 1957 were refereed exclusively by men.

Previously the Rwandan was the fourth official when Guinea defeated Malawi on January 10 in Bafoussam.

"We are super proud of Salima because she has had to work exceptionally hard to be where she is today," said Confederation of African Football (CAF) referees' boss Eddy Maillet from the Seychelles.

"We know that as a woman she had to overcome serious obstacles to reach this level and she deserves a lot of credit.

"This moment is not just for Salima, but every young girl in Africa who has passion for football and who sees herself as a referee in the future."

Leaders Guinea need one point to seal a second-round place while Zimbabwe are playing for pride having been eliminated after two losses.

dl/dmc

Standoff over Palestinian eviction ends, family says


Members of the Palestinian Salhiya family sit on the roof of their home beside gas canisters as they protest an eviction attempt by Israeli Police and Jerusalem municipality (AFP/AHMAD GHARABLI)

Tue, January 18, 2022, 10:21 AM·3 min read

Israeli police on Tuesday backed down from attempts to evict Palestinians from their home in a Jerusalem flashpoint district, the family said.

Family members had threatened self-immolation in response to the eviction attempts, triggering a standoff.

The Salhiya family has been facing the threat of eviction from their home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem since 2017, when the land where their home sits was allocated for school construction.

Anger in Sheikh Jarrah where families battled eviction orders fuelled an 11-day war between Israel and armed Palestinian factions in Gaza last year.

When police arrived to carry out the eviction order on Monday, Salhiya family members went up to the building's roof with gas canisters, threatening to set the contents and themselves alight if they were forced out of their home.

An hours-long standoff ensued, during which a delegation of European diplomats visited the site. Sven Kuehn von Burgsdorff, head of the European Union's mission to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, told AFP on Monday that "in occupied territory, evictions are a violation of international humanitarian law".

By Tuesday, police sent for the eviction had already been removed but children of the Salhiya family remained on the roof with the gas canisters, their father Mahmud told AFP.

According to him, no agreement or understandings had been reached, but lawyers for the family filed a petition to the supreme court on Tuesday to cancel the eviction order.

Dozens of supporters were meanwhile camped out in small bonfire vigils in the vicinity of the home, an AFP reporter said.

In a Tuesday statement to AFP, the municipality of Jerusalem stressed the Salhiya family had numerous opportunities to move out of their home, deemed illegal, and the city had every intention of taking the plot under a district court decision.

Hundreds of Palestinians are facing evictions from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and other east Jerusalem neighbourhoods. Circumstances surrounding the eviction threats vary.

In some cases Jewish Israelis have mounted legal challenges to claim the plots they say were illegally taken during the war that coincided with Israel's founding in 1948.

- 'A different story' -

Palestinians say their homes were legally purchased from Jordanian authorities who controlled east Jerusalem between 1948 and 1967.

The Salhiya case was a totally different story, according to deputy Jerusalem mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum.

In a Tuesday briefing she said the plot they claim as theirs was in fact originally "owned by Arab private owners, and certain neighbourhood chiefs."

The Jerusalem municipality purchased the land from the Arab owners, and allocated it for classrooms for special-needs Palestinian children, she said, accusing the Salhiya family of illegally using the land they never owned.

Hassan-Nahoum said she was "particularly disappointed" by the European diplomats "showing up for something that was a municipal issue, a building and planning issue, and talking about international law breaches."

Late Tuesday, masked Palestinians hurled stones at police forces passing by the area, a police spokesman told AFP, adding that stun grenades were used to disperse them, with no reports of casualties.

Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it, in a move not recognised by the international community.

More than 200,000 Jewish settlers have since moved into the area, fuelling tensions with Palestinians, who claim east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

bur-ag-jjm/dwo

NOT A HOT HOUSING MARKET

Auction of Roman villa with Caravaggio mural draws no bids

Issued on: 18/01/2022 -

The Casino dell'Aurora attracted no bidders Laurent 

EMMANUEL AFP
2 min

Rome (AFP) – A Roman villa housing the only mural by Caravaggio failed to find a bidder in an auction Tuesday sparked by a dispute between its heirs.
ADVERTISING


The sprawling Casino dell'Aurora will be put up for sale again in April, with the base price of 471 million euros ($534 million) lowered by about 20 percent, according to the notary involved in the sale.

"Nobody took part in the auction," Camillo Verde told AFP, saying the next sale would take place on April 7 at 2:00pm Rome time.

The residence of the noble Ludovisi Boncompagni family for hundreds of years, the 2,800-square-metre (30,000 square feet) Casino dell'Aurora is located in central Rome between the Via Veneto and the Spanish Steps.

The auction was ordered by a Rome court following a dispute among the heirs of Prince Nicolo Ludovisi Boncompagni, the head of the family who died in 2018.

The dispute is between the prince's third and final wife, Rita Jenrette Boncompagni Ludovisi, a 72-year-old American former real estate broker and actor who once posed for Playboy, and the children from his first marriage.

The building is a Baroque jewel with gorgeous gardens and a valuable art collection that also includes frescoes by Guercino.

The base price has been lowered from 471 million euros to 376.8 million euros, Verde said.

Almost 35,000 people had called on the Italian government to exercise "its pre-emptive right" to buy the building and the Caravaggio, which alone is valued at 350 million euros, according to a petition on Change.org.

Under Italian law, the government can only do this after the sale to a private individual, and then within 60 days of the sale's completion -- and for the same price.

The oil mural by Caravaggio, whose real name was Michelangelo Merisi, dates to 1597 and is located on the ceiling in a corridor on the first floor of the palace.

It depicts Jupiter, Pluto and Neptune with the world at the centre, marked by signs of the zodiac.

"It's certainly one of his earliest (works) and is very interesting because the subject is a mythological subject, and Caravaggio painted almost only sacred works," art historian Claudio Strinati told AFP.

The palace was originally an outbuilding in the grounds of the Villa Ludovisi, of which nothing remains today. Its name comes from a Guercino fresco depicting the goddess Aurora, or Dawn, on her chariot.

© 2022 AFP

12th century prayer room found under mosque in Iraq’s Mosul

The foundations of a prayer hall from the 12th century have been discovered under Al Nuri mosque — where the Daesh group once proclaimed their “caliphate” — in Iraq’s Mosul, site managers said on Tuesday.

© Provided by Khaleej Times Excavations around Al Nuri mosque in the old town of Iraq's northern city Mosul. — AFP

The mosque, which along with its iconic leaning minaret was severely damaged by Daesh during the battle to dislodge the militants from Mosul in 2017, has been undergoing reconstruction.

The prayer room was found during excavation underneath the mosque, according to Khaireddine Nasser, director of the department of antiquities and heritage in Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital.

Four additional rooms for the performance of ablutions were also discovered under the prayer room, Nasser said.

Those rooms “are interconnected and built of stone and plaster”.

The discovery allows for “better knowledge of the surface of Al Nuri mosque and this ancient prayer room, but also the ablution basins” found there.

Each ablution room measures three metres in height and 3.5 metres in width, Nasser said.

“They are about six metres underground,” he added.

He said the discovery “amplifies the importance of this historical and archaeological site”.

The excavation was carried out by his department, with support from Unesco and funding from the UAE.

“The foundations of the old prayer hall are more extensive than those of the prayer hall built in the 1940s”, he added.

The mosque was constructed in 1172, but much of it was destroyed and reconstructed in 1942, with the exception of its minaret, which endured.

Unesco raised more than $100 million in 2019 as part of its initiative to “revive the spirit of Mosul”. About half of the funds were pledged by the UAE.

Reconstruction work is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.

Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi made his sole public appearance as Daesh chief at the mosque in the Summer of 2014.