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Kurdish PKK fighters destroy weapons at disarmament ceremony

Thirty PKK fighters destroyed their weapons at a symbolic ceremony in Iraqi Kurdistan on Friday, two months after the Kurdish rebels ended their decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state.

The ceremony marked a major step in the transition of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from armed insurgency to democratic politics as part of a broader effort to end one of the region's longest-running conflicts.

A first group of PKK militants burnt their weapons at a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq

Sara Netanyahu: the ever-present wife of Israel's prime minister

Whether dining opposite US President Donald Trump or accompanying her husband on an official Pentagon visit, Sara Netanyahu's front-row role in Washington this week has sparked fresh questions over her place in Israeli politics.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's third wife and the mother of two of his children, Sara Netanyahu has long made headlines, notably for her alleged involvement in the political decisions of her husband.

Sara Netanyahu has long been the subject of speculation over her alleged influence in Israeli politics

Rami Al Ali becomes first Syrian in Paris fashion programme

Syrian couturier Rami Al Ali made history Thursday as the first fashion designer from his country to feature in the official Paris Haute Couture Week calendar in a new landmark for Arab representation in the luxury business.

After years of showing his tailored evening dresses on the sidelines of Couture Week, he was invited this year by France's Federation de la Haute Couture et de la Mode to join the programme.

Rami Al Ali was visibly emotional as he spoke to journalists afterwards

Iran threats in UK 'significantly increased': Intel watchdog

A UK parliamentary committee on Thursday blamed Iran for at least 15 attempts to kill or kidnap British-based individuals since 2022, saying the threat from Iran had "significantly increased".

London's response has been too focused on "crisis management", said parliament's intelligence and security committee, with concerns over Iran's nuclear programme dominating their attention too much.

Tehran swiftly issued a "categorical rejection of the unfounded, politically motivated and hostile allegations".

The parliamentary committee blamed Iran for at least 15 attempts at murder or kidnap inside the UK since 2022

Israel PM sets out red lines for lasting end to war in Gaza

Israel is ready to negotiate a lasting deal with Hamas to end the Gaza war when a temporary halt to hostilities begins, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.

But Netanyahu said the Islamist militants must first give up their weapons and their hold on the Palestinian territory, warning that failure to reach a deal on Israel's terms would lead to further conflict.

Scores of civilians were killed on Tuesday with ceasefire talks yet to reach a breaktrough

Ten rescued after deadly Huthi ship sinking off Yemen

Ten people have been rescued after Yemen's Huthis sank a cargo ship, an EU naval force said Thursday, with three killed and 12 missing in one of the rebel group's deadliest Red Sea attacks.

Three Filipino crew and a Greek member of the Eternity C ship's onboard security team were plucked from the sea overnight, "bringing the total number of those rescued to 10", the European Union's Operation Aspides naval task force posted on X.

A handout picture from Huthi media showing damage from the group's attack on the Eternity C, before the ship later sank

US funding cuts could reverse decades of gains in AIDS fight: UN

The halt to US foreign aid is a "ticking time bomb" that could reverse decades of hard-fought gains in the fight against AIDS, the United Nations warned Thursday.

Around 31.6 million people were on antiretroviral drugs in 2024 and deaths from AIDS-related illnesses had more than halved since 2010 to 630,000 that year, the UNAIDS agency said in a new report.

But now infections were likely to shoot up as funding cuts have shuttered prevention and treatment programmes, it said.

Around 31.6 million people were on antiretroviral drugs in 2024

Gaza civil defence says Israeli strike kills children at clinic

Gaza's civil defence agency said eight children -- killed as they queued for nutritional supplements outside a health clinic -- were among 66 people who died in Israeli strikes on the Palestinian territory Thursday.

The agency said the children were among 17 victims in a strike on Deir el-Balah.

According to the UN children's agency, the dead included a one-year-old boy whose mother said he had spoken his first words just hours earlier. The mother was critically injured, UNICEF added.

Smoke billows from an Israeli strike on Gaza on Thursday. 66 people were killed in attacks across the Palestinian territory, according to its civil defence agency

Israel's Bedouin communities use solar energy to stake claim to land

At the end of a dusty road in southern Israel, beyond a Bedouin village of unfinished houses and the shiny dome of a mosque, a field of solar panels gleams in the hot desert sun.

Tirabin al-Sana in Israel's Negev desert is the home of the Tirabin (also spelled Tarabin) Bedouin tribe, who signed a contract with an Israeli solar energy company to build the installation.

The deal has helped provide jobs for the community as well as promote cleaner, cheaper energy for the country, as the power produced is pumped into the national grid.

Children play beneath a scaffolding holding photovoltaic solar panels in the yard of a kindergarten in the Bedouin village of Umm Batin near Beersheva in Israel's southern Negev desert

US sanctions UN rights expert for Palestinian territories

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday announced Washington was sanctioning the United Nations special expert on the Palestinian territories, following her criticism of Washington policy on Gaza.

"Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt (International Criminal Court) action against US and Israeli officials, companies, and executives," Rubio said on social media.

UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese delivered her 'Anatomy of a Genocide' report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva