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Francis’s popemobile converted into clinic for Gazan children

Before his death, Pope Francis donated one of his popemobiles to be converted into a children’s clinic in war-torn Gaza, Catholic charity Caritas said on Monday.The iconic open-sided vehicle, designed to allow the pontiff to greet crowds of well-wishers, has been transferred to Caritas Jerusalem and will head to Gaza if and when Israel opens a humanitarian corridor.The car, a converted Mitsubishi, was used by the pope during a 2014 visit to Bethlehem and had since been on display, gathering dust and rust. It has now been repaired and refurbished as a mobile clinic.  “With the vehicle, we will be able to reach children who today have no access to healthcare — children who are injured and malnourished,” said Peter Brune, secretary general of Caritas Sweden.Brune told AFP that Sweden’s Cardinal Anders Arborelius had asked the late pope, who died on April 21 aged 88, that the spare vehicle be put to use providing essential frontline healthcare to Palestinian children.It will be fitted with medical equipment and a fridge for medicines and be assigned a driver and a team of doctors.”This vehicle represents the love, care and closeness shown by His Holiness for the most vulnerable, which he expressed throughout the crisis,” said Anton Asfar, secretary general of Caritas Jerusalem.It was not clear, however, if or when the aid agency’s hoped-for humanitarian corridor would open.Israel resumed major operations across Gaza on March 18 amid political deadlock over how to build on a two-month ceasefire in its war against Hamas, which was sparked by the militants’ October 2023 attack.On Monday, Israel’s security cabinet approved an expansion of military operations that would lead to what an official described as the “conquest” of the Palestinian territory. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Sunday that at least 2,436 people had been killed since Israel resumed its campaign on March 18, bringing the overall death toll from the war to 52,535.Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Crisis-hit Maldives secures $8.8bn Qatar investment

Cash-strapped Maldives has signed a deal with a Dubai-based company to establish an $8.8 billion investment zone aimed at diversifying the tourism hotspot into a “financial freezone”, the government said Monday.Three residential and office towers, a convention centre and hotels will form part of the Maldives International Financial Centre (MIFC), President Mohamed Muizzu’s office said …

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Huthis report US strikes after Israel vows revenge for airport attack

Yemen’s Huthi rebels on Monday blamed Washington for around 10 strikes in and around the capital Sanaa after a missile fired by the Iran-backed group struck the area of Israel’s main airport.The Huthi-run Saba news agency said the strikes included two targeting Arbaeen street in the capital as well as one on the airport road, blaming them on “American aggression”.The rebels’ health ministry said 14 people were wounded in the Sawan neighbourhood, according to Saba.The Huthis, who control swathes of Yemen, have launched missiles and drones targeting Israel and Red Sea shipping throughout the Gaza war, saying they act in solidarity with Palestinians.The missile fired from Yemen by the Huthis landed near the main terminal of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday, wounding six people.The military confirmed that the attack, which gouged a large crater in the perimeter of the airport, had struck despite “several attempts… to intercept the missile”.In a video published on Telegram, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had in the past “acted against” the Iran-backed rebels and “will act in the future”.”It will not happen in one bang, but there will be many bangs,” he added, without elaborating. Later on X, Netanyahu said Israel would also respond to Iran at “a time and place of our choosing”.Several international airlines suspended flights to Israel following the attack, and hours later the Huthis promised more such strikes and warned airlines to cancel their flights to Israeli airports.A police video showed officers standing on the edge of a deep hole in the ground with a control tower visible behind them. No damage was reported to airport infrastructure.An AFP photographer said the missile hit near the parking lots of Terminal 3, the airport’s largest. – ‘Hit them’ -“You can see the area just behind us: a crater was formed here, several dozen metres wide and several dozen metres deep,” central Israel’s police chief, Yair Hezroni, said in the video.”This is the first time” that a missile has directly struck inside the airport perimeter, an Israeli military spokesperson told AFP.The Huthis claimed responsibility for the attack, saying their forces “carried out a military operation targeting Ben Gurion airport” with a “hypersonic ballistic missile”.In a later statement, the group’s military spokesperson Yayha Saree said they would target Israeli airports, “particularly the one in Lod, called Ben Gurion”, near Tel Aviv. He called on airlines to cancel flights to Israeli airports.Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said it had treated at least six people with light to moderate injuries.An AFP journalist inside the airport during the attack said he heard a “loud bang” at around 9:35 am (0635 GMT), adding that the “reverberation was very strong”.”Security staff immediately asked hundreds of passengers to take shelter, some in bunkers,” the AFP journalist said.- ‘Panic’ -One passenger said the attack, which came shortly after air raid sirens sounded across parts of Israel, caused “panic”.”It is crazy to say but since October 7 we are used to this,” said the 50-year-old, who did not want to be named, referring to the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.Flights resumed after being halted briefly, with the aviation authority saying Ben Gurion was now “open and operational”.Soon after a government official said Israel’s security cabinet was to meet on Sunday, army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir confirmed media reports of a planned expansion of the Gaza war.”This week we are issuing tens of thousands of orders to our reservists to intensify and expand our operation in Gaza,” Zamir said in a statement.The army would destroy all Hamas infrastructure, “both on the surface and underground”, he added.The Huthis, who control swathes of Yemen, have launched missiles and drones targeting Israel and Red Sea shipping throughout the Gaza war.US strikes on the rebels began under former president Joe Biden, but have intensified under his successor Donald Trump.Israel resumed major operations across Gaza on March 18 amid a deadlock over how to proceed with a two-month ceasefire that had largely stopped the war.

UK police arrest seven Iranians in terrorism probes

British police said Sunday that they had arrested eight people, including seven Iranian nationals, on suspicion of “terrorism offences.” Britain’s interior minister Yvette Cooper described the arrests, which come amid heightened concerns about Iranian activities on UK soil, as two major operations.In one operation, five men — four of them Iranian — were arrested on suspicion of “preparation of a terrorist act”, London’s Metropolitan police said in a statement.The arrests were carried out in London, Swindon and the Greater Manchester area on suspicion of “terrorism offences”. “These were two major operations that reflect some of the biggest counter state threat and counter terrorism operations that we have seen in recent years,” Cooper said.The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that the authorities felt they had been dealing with an imminent attack.Police said the men, aged between 29 and 46, had been detained by counter terrorism officers on Saturday in relation to “a suspected plot to target a specific premises” — not identified in the statement.The four Iranian men were arrested under the Terrorism Act, while the fifth man, whose nationality was still being established, was detained under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act.”This is a fast-moving investigation and we are working closely with those at the affected site to keep them updated,” said Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism chief Dominic Murphy.”The investigation is still in its early stages and we are exploring various lines of enquiry to establish any potential motivation as well as to identify whether there may be any further risk to the public linked to this matter,” he added.- ‘Serious events’ -Three other men, all Iranian nationals, were arrested in London in a separate counter terrorism police operation on Saturday.The men, aged 39, 44 and 55, were arrested under the National Security Act — which gives law enforcement greater powers to disrupt “state threats” including foreign interference and espionage.The Met police confirmed that the three London arrests “are not connected to the arrest of five people yesterday”.Cooper thanked the police in a statement earlier Sunday.”These are serious events that demonstrate the ongoing requirement to adapt our response to national security threats,” Cooper told the PA news agency.”The government continues to work with police and intelligence agencies to support all the action and security assessments that are needed to keep the country safe.”In March, Iran became the first country to be placed on an enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, which aims to boost the UK’s national security against covert foreign influences.The measures, due to come into place later this year, will mean that all persons working inside the UK for Iran, its intelligence services or the Revolutionary Guard would have to register or face jail.Last October, the head of Britain’s MI5 domestic intelligence service revealed that since 2022 the UK had uncovered 20 Iran-backed plots posing “potentially lethal threats”.