Iran on Thursday arrested a former international football player of Kurdish origin who has strongly supported the protests that have rocked the country since September, news agencies said.
Voria Ghafouri, an outspoken figure who appeared 28 times for Iran up until 2019, was arrested after a club training session over accusations that he spread "propaganda" against the Islamic republic, the Fars news agency reported.
Iran forward Mehdi Taremi on Thursday denied his team had come "under pressure" from their government after opting not to sing the national anthem before their first World Cup match.
The Iranians had stood impassively during their anthem before their 6-2 defeat to England on Monday in an apparent gesture of solidarity with anti-government protesters in the Islamic republic.
Iran on Thursday arrested a former international football player of Kurdish origin who has strongly supported the protests that have rocked the country since September, news agencies said.
Voria Ghafouri, an outspoken figure who appeared 28 times for Iran up until 2019, was arrested after a club training session over accusations that he spread "propaganda" against the Islamic republic, the Fars news agency reported.
An Algerian court Thursday sentenced 49 people to death over the lynching of a man falsely accused of starting deadly forest fires during an extended heatwave last year, state media reported.
The North African country has, however, maintained a moratorium on carrying out death sentences since the last executions in 1993.
Onlookers had beaten 38-year-old Djamel Ben Ismail to death after he turned himself in at a police station in the Tizi Ouzou region.
Syria's Kurds, bracing for a Turkish land offensive against their autonomous northern region, face an additional threat: being squeezed by warming ties between their foe Ankara and the Assad regime.
The Kurds -- an ethnic minority who live in mountainous regions across Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran -- have long fought for their own homeland, and Turkey brands their separatist groups "terrorists".
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed Kurdish armed groups for a deadly bomb attack in Istanbul this month, an accusation they have strongly rejected.
From the Arab Spring uprisings to the MeToo movement in which women spoke up about sexual assaults, Twitter has proven itself a formidable ally for political activists and opposition groups, one whose reach and impact would be difficult to replace.
Other social media platforms may have more users, but the network now owned by the billionaire Elon Musk dominates the global conversation -- even as Twitter's future is being called into doubt.
An Algerian court on Thursday sentenced 49 people to death over the lynching of a man falsely accused of starting deadly forest fires in August last year, state media reported.
The North African country has, however, maintained a moratorium on carrying out death sentences since the last executions in 1993.
Onlookers had beaten 38-year-old Djamel Ben Ismail to death after he turned himself in at a police station in the Tizi Ouzou region.
He had gone there upon hearing that he was suspected of arson, at the height of blazes which killed at least 90 people nationwide.
Qatar coach Felix Sanchez hopes his team can bring their "A Game" against Senegal as the host nation battle to avoid setting an unwanted World Cup record.
Defeat on Friday would mean the earliest-ever exit for a host nation -- South Africa also went out at the group stage in 2010 -- but were still alive heading into their third match.
Reigning Asian champions Qatar became the first hosts to lose their opening game after freezing in a dispiriting 2-0 defeat to Ecuador.
At least two people died on Thursday as heavy rains hit western Saudi Arabia, including the coastal city of Jeddah, delaying flights and forcing schools to close, officials said.
"Two deaths have been recorded so far, and we call on everyone not to go out unless necessary," the Mecca regional government said on its Twitter page.
The Mecca region includes Jeddah, the kingdom's second-largest city of roughly four million people, and Mecca city, the holiest city in Islam where millions perform the hajj and umrah pilgrimages each year.
Relatives of death-row inmates in Saudi Arabia fear each day could be the last for their loved ones as the Gulf kingdom picks up the pace of executions.
After a nearly five-month lull in which no one was put to death, 24 people have been executed since early October, 18 of them in the past two weeks, according to an AFP tally based on state media reports.
They include 16 people convicted of drug-related offences, ending a moratorium on administering capital punishment for such crimes that was announced in January 2021.
