BRUSSELS, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The European Union will grant Syria around 620 million euros ($722 million) this year and next for post-war recovery, bilateral support and humanitarian aid, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday.

"After years of devastation under the Assad regime, Syria's recovery and reconstruction needs are immense, and I just could see (it) by my own eyes," she said during a visit to the Syrian capital Damascus.

The director of Oscar-shortlisted film "Palestine 36" said her big-budget production about a crucial but little-known Arab rebellion is a statement about Palestinians "refusal to disappear".

Veteran filmmaker Annemarie Jacir started production on the sweeping historical epic just before Israel's devastating invasion of Gaza in October 2023.

Making the movie was a "financial disaster", she admitted in an interview with AFP, but encouraging critical reaction since its debut last September and its shortlisting for an Oscar have offered solace.

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, Jan 9 (Reuters) - A global organisation dedicated to preventing violent extremism said on Friday the U.S. had made a mistake in withdrawing its support while the risk of militant attacks surges in the Middle East and Africa's Sahel.

The Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund, which supports prevention programmes across dozens of countries with communities vulnerable to extremism - appeared on Wednesday in a White House memo announcing a U.S. pullout from 35 international agencies and 31 U.N. entities it said rejected U.S. interests.

LONDON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Six Kurdish people went on trial in Britain on Friday charged with membership of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a militant group banned in its home country Turkey as well as Britain and elsewhere.

Prosecutors say the defendants, aged between 24 and 63, belonged to or professed to belong to the PKK, which was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in Britain in 2001.

By Saad Sayeed and Mubasher Bukhari

ISLAMABAD, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Pakistan is in the final phases of striking a $1.5-billion deal to supply weapons and jets to Sudan, a former top air force official and three sources said, promising a major boost for Sudan's army, battling the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Their conflict has stoked the world's worst humanitarian crisis for more than 2-1/2 years, drawing in myriad foreign interests, and threatening to fragment the strategic Red Sea country, a major gold producer.

A Russian warship arrived off South Africa's main naval base Friday to join Chinese and Iranian vessels in military exercises that risk further damaging Pretoria's relations with Washington.

The exercises draw together several nations feuding with the US administration and come at a time of heightened tensions following Washington's raid on Venezuela.

A Chinese destroyer and replenishment ship, and an Iranian forward base ship sailed into South African waters earlier this week ahead of the week-long manoeuvres due to kick off with an opening ceremony Saturday.

STOCKHOLM, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The number of people applying for asylum in Sweden dropped by 30% in 2025 to the lowest level since 1985, with the right-of-centre government saying it planned to further tighten rules this year ahead of an election in September.

The ruling minority coalition, which is supported by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, has made cutting the number of asylum seekers a key policy platform since taking power in 2022.

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Women are bearing the brunt of the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, with the majority of female-headed households not having enough food to eat, the U.N. said on Friday.

"Female-headed households are now three times more likely to be food insecure. Three quarters of these households report not having enough to eat," Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told reporters in Geneva.

By Mahmoud Hasano and Orhan Qereman

ALEPPO, Syria, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Kurdish groups in Aleppo vowed to defend their neighbourhoods from government forces on Friday, rejecting ceasefire terms declared by Damascus that demand Kurdish fighters withdraw from the Syrian city where clashes have raged this week.

The violence in Aleppo has exposed a deep faultline between President Ahmed al-Sharaa's Islamist-led government and Kurdish forces, which have resisted its efforts to bring their fighters under centralised authority.

Tear gas burning his eyes, his voice hoarse from shouting anti-government slogans as cars honked around him, Majid joined crowds of Iranians taking to the streets in defiance of a crackdown on a swelling protest movement.

He used a pseudonym for security reasons and like all those who spoke about the protests was reached by AFP journalists outside Iran.

Majid described how he rallied with hundreds of others in the streets of eastern Mashhad on Wednesday night, even as police tried to disperse the crowd that nonetheless kept reforming.