Damascus (AFP) - Syria's foreign ministry on Sunday condemned a surprise visit by the United States' top military officer to an army base in the Kurdish-held northeast, dubbing it "illegal", state media said.
In his snap visit Saturday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley met US troops stationed in areas of war-torn Syria under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
About 900 US troops are deployed in several bases and posts across northeastern Syria as part of the fight against Islamic State group remnants.
Official news agency SANA quoted a foreign ministry official as saying "Syria strongly condemns the illegal visit of the American chairman of the chiefs of staff to an illegal American military base in northeast Syria."
Milley's visit was "a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and integrity" of Syrian territory, the official added according to SANA, calling on "the US administration to immediately cease its systematic and continued violation of international law and support for separatist armed groups".
President Bashar al-Assad's government views the deployment of US forces in SDF-held territory as "occupation" and accuses US-aligned Kurdish forces of "separatist tendencies".
Kurdish officials deny any separatist aspirations and say they seek to preserve their self-rule, which Damascus does not recognise.
Milley's spokesman, Dave Butler, told AFP the US general "visited northeast Syria Saturday... to meet with commanders and troops".
It was Milley's first trip to Syria since assuming the chairmanship in 2019. He visited the country before as an army chief, the spokesman said.
During the visit, Milley "received updates on the counter-ISIS mission", Butler added using an alternative acronym for the IS jihadists.
The general also "inspected force protection measures and asserted repatriation efforts for the Al-Hol refugee camp", home to more than 50,000 people, including family members of suspected foreign IS militants whose home countries have not taken them back.
The US-led coalition battling IS provides support for SDF, spearheaded by the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).
After the jihadists lost their last territory to SDF-led forces in 2019, SDF has cracked down on remnants of IS, whose members still launch deadly attacks in Syria.
US forces have killed or arrested IS figures in numerous operations, including the group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019.
On February 19, the US military said troops working with SDF captured an IS provincial official.
The raid came a day after four US troops were wounded as they conducted another raid to kill a senior IS group leader in northeastern Syria, the US military's Central Command said.
Netanyahu was responding to remarks from International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Rafael Grossi after the IAEA and Iran reached agreement on Saturday on inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities.
"International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi just said in Tehran that an Israeli attack on the Iranian nuclear facilities is against the law," Netanyahu said. "Against which law?"
He noted that Iran openly called for the destruction of Israel and said that it was clear that Israel was allowed to defend itself.
"I say this because nothing will deter us from defending our country and preventing our enemies from eliminating the state of the Jews," Netanyahu said.
On Saturday, the IAEA and Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) announced that experts from the UN's nuclear watchdog would be permitted to carry out closer inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities.
The IAEA's cameras would also to be put back into operation, after they and other monitoring equipment were dismantled last year, Grossi said.
Since the United States withdrew from a nuclear deal that restricted uranium enrichment, Iran has enriched uranium to a purity level of 60%, raising international concerns that it was close to being able to build a nuclear weapon.
Israel is convinced that Iran is working to develop a nuclear weapon and sees its existence as threatened. Israeli leaders have repeatedly said they will not allow Iran to become a nuclear power and have refused to rule out a preventive strike.
By Dan Williams JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought on Sunday to soften international outcry over a call by a far-right member of his cabinet for a flashpoint Palestinian village to be "erased", saying those remarks had been "inappropriate". But Netanyahu also pushed back against censure of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, accusing foreign powers of playing down Palestinian violence like the Feb. 26 killing of two Israeli brothers in Huwara village that sparked a settler rampage there. Smotrich said last week that while he opposed vigilantism, he believed "...
BEIJING (Reuters) — China's armed forces should devote greater energy to training under combat conditions and boost combat preparedness, Premier Li Keqiang said on Sunday. "Our armed forces, with a focus on the goals for the centenary of the People's Liberation Army in 2027, should work to carry out military operations, boost combat preparedness, and enhance military capabilities," he said in his work report to the opening of the annual meeting of China's parliament.
By Jessie Pang
HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Hong Kong women's rights group cancelled a demonstration at the last minute on Saturday after police said violent groups might want to join the protest.
The Hong Kong Women Workers’ Association was originally granted permission by Hong Kong police to hold a rare public protest on Sunday ahead of International Women's Day, calling for labour rights, women’s rights and gender equality.
But the association said on its Facebook page late on Saturday it had regrettably decided to cancel the march without giving a reason. It could not immediately be reached for further comment.
This would have been the first major civil rights protest to be approved by police in the city for several years.
China imposed a national security law on the city amid the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in 2020, leading to most applications by pro-democracy groups for public demonstrations being rejected by the police, largely on social distancing grounds.
Asked whether the police wanted to avoid a protest which might have embarrassed Beijing during China's annual parliamentary session, the National People's Congress, Senior Superintendent Dennis Cheng told reporters the organisers decided to cancel the march after weighing up different unspecified factors.
Cheng added that some "violent groups" wanted to join the protest, without identifying the groups.
The police had previously issued a "no objection" letter with the condition that the organisers ensure the protest would not run contrary to the interests of national security. But after the organisers cancelled, police issued a statement saying anyone taking part would therefore be participating in an unauthorised event.
"Any persons who continue to assemble in the relevant locations tomorrow would be considered (to be) participating in an unauthorised assembly," the statement said, adding they would be liable to a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment.
China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 outlawing acts including subversion with up to life in prison.
The law has been criticised by some Western governments as a tool to crush dissent, but the Chinese and Hong Kong governments say the law has restored stability to the city after protracted pro-democracy protests in 2019.
(Reporting by Jessie Pang; Editing by David Holmes)
(Reuters) — Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has paid a rare visit to Russia's forces deployed in Ukraine, awarding medals to military personnel and meeting senior commanders during the trip, a statement and videos issued by his ministry showed on Saturday.
Russia's top military chiefs have visited front lines in Ukraine only sparingly since Moscow sent tens of thousands of Russian troops into the neighbouring country just over a year ago in what it calls a "special military operation".
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday he was "surprised" that companies licensed to sell cocaine to pharmacists or hospitals seemed to signal Canada would soon allow legal sales of hard drugs to the public.
Earlier this week, several companies announced that Canada's federal health agency had allowed them to produce and sell cocaine.
The announcement came a month after the province of British Columbia launched an experimental decriminalization process meant to address an opioid overdose crisis that has killed thousands.
The province decriminalized the possession -- but not sale -- of small amounts of cocaine and other hard drugs, under a three-year pilot project, with the aim of removing the stigma associated with drug use that keeps people from seeking help.
Advocates have also been pushing for safer supplies of drugs to be made available to addicts who face a risk of dying from toxic drug poisoning linked to illicit street drugs.
Trudeau clarified Friday that the companies did not have "permission to sell it commercially or provide it on an open market," adding that the misunderstanding would be corrected.
"There are limited and very restricted permissions for certain pharmaceutical companies to use that substance for research purposes and for very specific narrowly prescribed medical purposes," he explained.
Trudeau made the comments after British Columbia Premier David Eby expressed shock at the claims by Sunshine Earth Labs and Adastra Labs.
"I was as surprised as the premier of British Columbia was to see that a company was talking about selling cocaine on the open market or commercializing it," Trudeau told reporters.
On Thursday, Eby said allowing commercial sales of hard drugs, including cocaine, "is not part of our provincial plan."
Sunshine Earth Labs had said in a statement it received permission from Health Canada to "legally possess, produce, sell and distribute coca leaf and cocaine," as well as morphine, MDMA (ecstasy) and heroin.
Adastra Labs had said its license also allowed it to produce and sell psilocybin and psilocin -- hallucinogens more commonly known as magic mushrooms that produce effects similar to LSD.
British Columbia -- the epicentre of a crisis that has seen more than 30,000 overdose deaths nationwide since 2016 -- is only the second jurisdiction in North America to decriminalize personal possession of small amounts (up to 2.5 grams) of hard drugs after the US state of Oregon did so in November 2020.
© 2023 AFP
Scores of disemboweled sharks have washed up on a South African beach putting the spotlight on a pair of shark-hunting killer whales whose behaviour has fascinated scientists and wildlife enthusiasts.
Marine biologists were alerted to the find by beach walkers who stumbled upon the grim sight last week in Gansbaai, a small fishing port 150 kilometers (93 miles) south east of Cape Town.
"The dead sharks are torn open at the pelvic girdle, they have Orca teeth marks known as rake marks on their pectoral fins and their liver is missing," said Alison Towner, 37, a shark scientist with the Dyer Island Conservation Trust.
All evidence points to "Port" and "Starboard", an infamous pair of killer whales spotted off Gansbaai only three days earlier.
Recognisable by their twisted dorsal fins, the animals are well known to locals, who have developed a penchant for sharks.
"We found in total 20 sharks," said Ralph Watson, 33, a marine biologist with local conservation and diving group Marine Dynamics.
Victims included 19 broad nosed seven-gill and one spotted gully sharks, he added.
Towner said the slaughter was noticeable as it was the first time that Port and Starboard had hunted those species in the area and "so many of them washed out after one visit."
Yet, it wasn't the orcas' most daring hunt.
Experts credited the duo with having caused white sharks, one of the world's largest sea predators, to disappear from some of the waters near Cape Town.
Last year, Starboard and another four orcas were captured on camera chasing and killing a great white off Mossel Bay, a southern port town.
The unusual behavior had never been witnessed in detail before.
Orcas, the ocean's apex predator, usually hunt dolphins in these parts and have been known to prey on smaller shark species. But evidence of attacks on great whites was previously limited.
Port and Starboard were first spotted near Cape Town in 2015.
"They probably came from somewhere else. West Africa, east Africa, the Southern Ocean, we don't know," said 45-year-old Simon Elwen, who heads Sea Search, a scientific collective.
Unlike other killer whales, the pair likes to hunt near the coast -- something that has made their peculiar fins a common sight in the region.
"Within southern Africa, Port and Starboard have been seen from as far west as Namibia to as far east as Port Elizabeth," said Elwen.
The marine mammals' killing technique is "surgical", added Watson, explaining the pair targets sharks' liver, "a very nutritious organ, full of oils."
"They tear open the pectoral girdle chest area... then the liver flops out," said Watson.
The 2022 video showing Starboard in action has worried biologists, for it suggested the practice was spreading with studies having established that the black and white animals have the capacity to teach hunting techniques.
Some Antarctic orcas use the cunning tactic of hunting in packs and making waves to wash seals off floating ice, according to researchers.
In the Antarctic two orca populations -- not subspecies, but different groups that overlap at the margins -- used very different hunting techniques, taught across generations.
Such behaviour is not hard-wired, but learned -- one of the arguments for suggesting that whales have 'culture'.
In the clip, the other four orcas shown were not known to have attacked white sharks before.
"This is now an additional threat to shark populations on coastal South Africa," said Towner.
Elwen said it was "fascinating, and frustrating" to see "a rare, endangered animal killing another endangered species".
Still, the overall danger Port and Starboard posed to South Africa's shark population remained very limited.
Hundreds of thousands of sharks are fished out of the sea every year, said Watson.
"Two killer whales are not going to wipe out a species," Elwen said.
© 2023 AFP
Olive oil, fragrant rose and orange blossom: the special "chrism" or holy anointing oil for the coronation of Britain's King Charles III has been blessed in Jerusalem's Old City.
Friday's ceremony was carried out at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Christians believe Jesus was buried.
"The chrism oil which will be used to anoint His Majesty The King on May 6 2023 has been consecrated in Jerusalem," Buckingham Palace said in a statement.
The unique mix was "perfumed with essential oils", and also included extracts of sesame, jasmine and cinnamon, it added.
Based on the same ingredients as the oil used at the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, it is based on a formula "which has been used for hundreds of years", the palace said Friday.
The oil, which will also be used to anoint Queen Consort Camilla, the wife of King Charles III, was consecrated in a special by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, and the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem, Hosam Naoum.
Now stored in an ornate silver flask, the oil came from the Mount of Olives, the ridge overlooking the walled Old City.
The olives were harvested from two groves, the Monastery of the Ascension and the Monastery of Mary Magdalene, where Charles III's grandmother is buried, Princess Alice of Greece.
The olives were pressed just outside the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the head of the Anglican church, said the coronation oil reflects Charles III's "personal family connection with the Holy Land", the palace statement added.
Welby, who will carry out the coronation service, said the oil signified the "deep historic link between the coronation, the Bible and the Holy Land".
"From ancient kings through to the present day, monarchs have been anointed with oil from this sacred place," he said.
© 2023 AFP
Africa's National Olympic Committees have followed their Asian counterparts in giving the green light on Saturday for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Russia and its ally Belarus have been sidelined from most Olympic sports since Russian forces invaded Ukraine last February.
However, in January the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it was seeking a "pathway" for Russians to take part in the Games.
Following that announcement, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) offered athletes from both countries the chance to compete in this year's Asian Games.
That was a significant move because they could gain qualifying marks in competition in Asia to allow them to compete in Paris.
Africa has now followed suit.
The motion -- to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete under a neutral flag -- was passed unanimously by the executive committee of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) at their meeting in Nouakchott, Mauritania.
"The members came out unanimously in favor of the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in all international competitions," the ANOCA said in a statement.
It said ANOCA president, the Algerian Mustapha Berraf, had reiterated that the body "aligns itself with the position of the International Olympic Committee and its President Dr. Thomas Bach".
The statement continued: "It will thus be a question of allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in complete neutrality without any sign of identity in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games."
The IOC has explained that its reasoning was based on its belief that "no athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport".
But their stance has been met with contempt by Ukraine whose sports minister Vadym Goutzeit said such a move was "unacceptable" and called for a boycott if they are allowed to compete.
Many western nations also questioned the move.
Germany's National Olympic Committee went public last month, declaring it is not "the right time to allow athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport to compete in international competitions again."
In a letter in February, more than 30 countries, including Canada, France, Great Britain, Poland, Sweden and the United States, expressed concern about how the athletes could be neutral, particularly given the "strong links and affiliations between Russian athletes and the Russian military".
The letter asked the IOC for "clarifications" on the neutrality required for Russian and Belarusian athletes at the Olympics.
The IOC responded that the letter ignored the human rights of Russian and Belarusian athletes.
© 2023 AFP
Who were the first people to ride horses?
Researchers believe they have found the earliest evidence of horseback riding, by the ancient Yamnaya people in Europe some 5,000 years ago.
Their conclusions, based on an analysis of human skeletal remains found in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania, were published on Friday in the journal Science Advances.
Domestication of horses for milk is widely accepted to have begun around 3500 BC to 3000 BC, the study said, but the "origins of horseback riding remain elusive."
The researchers from the University of Helsinki and other European institutions date the earliest horsemanship to 3000 BC to 2500 BC among members of the Yamnaya culture.
"Our findings provide a strong argument that horseback riding was already a common activity for some Yamnaya individuals as early as 3000 BC," the researchers said.
Horse bones have been discovered in Yamnaya settlements but they are not as well preserved as human skeletons, which were given proper burials in earth-covered mounds known as "kurgans."
The researchers said the human skeletons provided the best source of information about horse riding because any riding tack used by early riders would have been made using perishable materials.
The researchers said some of the human skeletons they analyzed bore skeletal traits indicative of what they called "horsemanship syndrome."
"A skeleton of a living person is reacting," Martin Trautmann, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki and one of the authors of the study, told AFP.
"If you sit on horseback you need to balance with every step of your mount, you need to cling tightly with your legs."
Doing that repeatedly leaves tell-tale changes in bone morphology, Trautmann said, including "stress-induced vertebral degeneration," a common ailment among avid horse riders.
"We know that saddles and stirrups dated much later," Trautmann said, and the early horse riders were probably riding bareback and gripping the mane of the horse.
Volker Heyd, a professor of archeology at the University of Helsinki, said the findings "fit very nicely into the overall picture" of Yamnaya culture.
"We were already suspecting them of using horses," Heyd said, and it could help explain the "exceptional" geographic expansion of their society in a few generations.
"It is difficult to envision how this expansion could have taken place without improved means of transport," the researchers said.
"Using horses for transport was a decisive step in human cultural development," they said.
"Trade and cultural exchange as well as conflicts and migrations leapt with the increase in speed and range provided by horsemanship."
The researchers said the Yamnaya were probably not initially using horses for warfare.
"They were cowboys, not warriors," said Trautmann.
Heyd said the early horse riders "were probably helping the Yamnaya people in guarding their animals, their cattle and sheep mostly."
According to the researchers, the earliest figurative evidence of horse riding comes from the Mesopotamian Ur III period shortly before 2000 BC through depictions of a horse and rider.
Images and mentions in cuneiform texts of horseback riding are also found in the Old Babylonian period from around 1880 BC to 1595 BC.
© Agence France-Presse
Rafael Vinoly, a Uruguayan-born and New York-based architect known for designing landmark buildings around the world, has died at the age of 78, his family announced Friday.
Vinoly's death Thursday was announced by his son Roman on the website of the family firm, Rafael Vinoly Architects.
"He was a visionary who will be missed by all those whose lives he touched through his work," the son's statement said.
Vinoly's sometimes controversial work features more than 600 structures around the world, including office and residential buildings, hotels, concert halls, stadiums and airports.
One of his better known works is the so-called Walkie Talkie building in London -- an almost cartoonish skyscraper that is broader at the top than the bottom and looks like it is sagging.
Britain's Manchester City football team, for which Vinoly designed its training ground, called City Football Academy, expressed its condolences on Twitter.
Some of Vinoly's projects have drawn criticism.
One is 432 Park Avenue, an 85-floor residential building in Manhattan, some of whose multi-millionaire tenants have sued over what they say are banging and creaking noises and vibrations coming from the building.
In London, the Walkie Talkie building at 20 Fenchurch Street raised eyebrows in 2013 because sunlight reflected off its mirrored concave side melted various parts on a Jaguar car parked nearby.
"He leaves a rich legacy of distinctive and timeless designs that manifested in some of the world's most recognizable and iconic structures," Roman Vinoly wrote.
© Agence France-Presse
When "All Quiet on the Western Front" first premiered back in September, there was little to suggest it was about to wage an all-out campaign for Oscar votes.
The German-language World War I film comes from Netflix, which had a roster of far more expensive "prestige" movies primed for Academy Award pushes, from Oscar-winning director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Bardo" to the star-studded "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery."
But while those have largely fallen by the wayside, with one nomination each, "All Quiet" has emerged from the crowded trenches of awards season hopefuls as an Oscars frontrunner, with nine nods, including for much-coveted best picture honors.
"It really feels like a wave of joy and luck that has come over us," director Edward Berger told AFP, days before his film won seven prizes at Britain's BAFTAs, including best film.
"We're very grateful for that... it's a German war movie!"
Indeed, Berger's film is the third screen adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's seminal novel about naive young German soldiers confronted with the horrors of war -- but the first shot in the author's native language.
Had he been asked, the director "would have immediately said no" to making another English-language version.
Luckily, the decision to flip the script was helped by Netflix's wildly successful expansion into new global markets with recent subtitled hits such as South Korean series "Squid Game" and Oscar-winning film "Roma."
The movie's eventual $20 million price tag was comparatively small change for the streaming giant, but a huge sum in the German film industry.
"We wouldn't have gotten the type of budget that you need to make this film five years ago," said Berger.
The film's best picture Oscar nomination is the first for any German-language movie.
Ironically, the film has been far better received outside of the German-speaking world than it has at home, where many reviewers savaged it.
In particular, critics slammed Berger's decision to depart from Remarque's text, which -- with 50 million copies sold worldwide, and the legacy of being banned by the Nazis -- holds hallowed status in Germany today.
Unlike the novel, the film portrays tense armistice peace talks with French generals. It also omits a section in which one of its war-hardened heroes visits home but cannot readjust to civilian life.
"I don't follow it very closely... that's part of the journalist's job -- to observe, criticize," shrugged Berger.
"I felt licensed to make those changes" because "why make it the same?" he added.
To encapsulate the "physical difference" between the film's reception at home and overseas, Berger pointed to one especially harrowing scene towards the end of the movie.
A key character is fatally bayoneted through the back -- a moment which Berger intended to be heartbreaking and brutal, but not necessarily unexpected, given the novel's fame and the war's unfathomable death toll.
Yet at the film's world premiere in Toronto last year, "there was a loud gasp in the audience," he recalled.
"I was so surprised, because I didn't plan on this... In Germany, that didn't happen," said Berger.
"As Germans, we expect -- in a German movie about war -- you cannot have a hero. You cannot have people be successful in the mission. You almost cannot have a soldier survive," he said.
By contrast, "in America, you're used to the hero. You want them to come out positively, and you cling on to the hope that your hero is going to change the world."
In any case, Berger did not sign up out of any sense of patriotic duty. The film and the original anti-war novel are both stridently against jingoism of any stripe.
"We wanted to make a very German movie -- but we are not making it for the country," he said.
"I'm not a patriot. Germans have a difficult relationship with patriotism, or pride or honor, about their history or country. So I'm not in that business."
Instead, filming in German offered "an outer stamp of authenticity" and a deeper sense of the "shame and responsibility and guilt" many Germans feel about history, said Berger.
Whatever happens at the Oscars ceremony on March 12, "All Quiet" clearly left an indelible impact on voters at the US-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
It is seen as a shoo-in for the best international feature statuette, a strong possibility for best picture, and its nine Oscar nominations are one short of the all-time record for a foreign-language movie.
"Were we surprised? Of course," said Berger. "I mean, you can't count on something like that."
© Agence France-Presse
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