Author: News Desk

A US-France-brokered ceasefire agreement to the 14-month conflict between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah came into power on Wednesday morning, but Israel’s vow to double down on its war in Gaza and focus on its main enemy, Iran, could soon challenge the deal’s solidity.  Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire begins after nearly 14 months of conflict

A 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants has commenced, with both sides withdrawing from southern Lebanon. The deal, announced on Tuesday night, comes after nearly 14 months of fighting.Brokered by the US and France, the agreement is designed to provide a permanent end to the conflict, US President Joe Biden said following the announcement. But Israeli ministers insisted it would resume strikes on Lebanon if Hezbollah breached the terms of the ceasefire, while the deal does not affect Israel’s continuing war with Hamas in Gaza. In a statement, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer described the deal as “long…

The needs of the Valencian municipalities flooded by the flood, far from disappearing, are evolving or becoming entrenched. At first, after the Dana tsunami that devastated a good part of the towns in the industrial belt of Valencia on October 29, the main need in ground zero of the disaster was bottled water, boots to walk through the mud, food basics and cleaning and hygiene products. However, in addition to all that, tons of unsorted clothing, boxes and boxes of baby food and milk, and even high-heeled shoes arrived in the towns. Days later, what was urgently needed was heavy…

Drug trafficking – A criminal group that had set up an international smuggling route for prescription pills was taken down during a large-scale operation coordinated from Eurojust’s headquarters. Romanian, Estonian, Finnish and Serbian authorities, supported by Eurojust and Europol, arrested 47 people and seized over 6 million pills. The criminal group, which operated throughout Europe, bought pills from other criminal networks in Serbia. The pills, used to treat anxiety, seizures and insomnia, were then hidden in tyres, in cars, which were transported on lorries, and in clothing to be taken to Romania and Estonia. After arriving in Romania or Estonia,…

You might have seen the picture of DUP leader Gavin Robinson standing beside graffiti on the wall of the Royal Victoria Hospital supporting Palestine. No, he wasn’t supporting Palestine, though the picture offered an ambiguous interpretation. He was objecting to the graffiti. He claimed it is “upsetting” to members of the local Jewish community “who see it as directly pointing to them”. How does he know? He didn’t say if any members of the local Jewish community had complained to him. The whole matter is so urgent it took him a mere six months to make an issue of it.…

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On September 12, 2020, Jean-François Mayet, on call at the prosecutor’s office in the southeastern French town of Carpentras, was informed about the arrest of a man called Dominique Pelicot, who had been caught filming up supermarket customers’ skirts. At the time, Mayet had no idea that, four years later, alongside his colleague Laure Chabaud, he would be standing up in court to request sentences for 51 defendants an extraordinary rape trial, before the local, national and international press. In the nearby city of Avignon, on the first of two days of closing arguments from the prosecution, on Monday, November…

DHL cargo plane crashes in Lithuania A cargo plane flying on behalf of German logistics company DHL crashed near Vilnius International Airport in Lithuania early on Monday, killing at least one person, according to Lithuanian officials. The deceased person was confirmed by Lithuanian police to be a Spanish national and member of the flight crew, although not one of the pilots. The other occupants of the plane — a German, a Lithuanian and another Spaniard — were reportedly injured, but their condition remained unclear. What did DHL say? “We can confirm that today, at approximately 4:30 am CET [0330 GMT],…

Japan’s space agency, JAXA, aborted an engine test for the Epsilon S rocket after a large fire broke out at the Tanegashima Space Center on Tuesday. “There was an abnormality during today’s combustion test. We are trying to assess what happened,” JAXA said. Footage on national broadcaster NHK showed flames and smoke rising from the site on the southern Japanese island. Journalists positioned around one kilometer (0.62 miles) away reported a large explosion shortly after the test began at 8:30 a.m. local time (2330 GMT). Nobody reported hurt, investigation announced No injuries were reported, and the cause of the incident is…

Four security force members were killed in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, on Tuesday, the country’s Interior Ministry said, after thousands of supporters of imprisoned ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan defied a police lockdown to march in the city center. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets as the protesters broke through a barricade of shipping containers blocking off the national capital. The government warned that security forces would respond with live gunfire if protesters used weapons against them. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said four members of the paramilitary Rangers force died after being “run over by a vehicle.” There were no claims of responsibility for…