Category: Global

President Bashar al-Assad fled Syria as Islamist opposition swept into Damascus, triggering celebrations across the country and beyond at the end of his oppressive rule.

Crowds cheered in the streets of Damascus, where celebratory gunfire erupted as five decades of brutal Baath party rule came crashing to a dramatic end with Assad’s flight from the capital on Sunday.

Russian news agencies said that Assad and his family were in Moscow, while rescuers on Monday searched the Syrian capital’s notorious Sednaya prison for hidden underground cells holding detainees in secret.

Assad’s government fell 11 days after the opposition began a surprise advance, more than 13 years after Assad’s crackdown on anti-government protests ignited Syria’s civil war — which had become largely dormant until the rebel push.

“This victory, my brothers, is historic for the region,” Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, leader of the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (HTS) that spearheaded the advance, said in an address at the landmark Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.

‘Syria is ours’

Residents cheered in the streets as the rebel factions heralded the departure of “tyrant” Assad, saying: “We declare the city of Damascus free.”

Celebratory gunfire sounded along with shouts of, “Syria is ours and not the Assad family’s”.

AFP correspondents saw dozens of men, women and children wandering through Assad’s modern, spacious home whose rooms had been stripped bare.

“I can’t believe I’m living this moment,” tearful Damascus resident Amer Batha told AFP by phone.

“We’ve been waiting a long time for this day,” he said.

The rebel factions on Telegram proclaimed the end to “50 years of oppression under Baath rule, and 13 years of crimes and tyranny and displacement”.

It is, they said, “the start of a new era for Syria.”

Search for Damascus prisoners 

Around the country, people toppled statues of Hafez al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad’s father and the founder of the repressive government he inherited.

For the past 50 years in Syria, even the slightest suspicion of dissent could mean prison or death.

During their advance, the opposition said they had freed prisoners, including on Sunday at the Sednaya facility, notorious for the darkest abuses of Assad’s era.

An intense search was underway at the jail Monday for “hidden underground cells, reportedly holding detainees”, said the White Helmets rescue group which had dispatched emergency teams to the facility.

“The teams consist of search and rescue units, wall-breaching specialists, iron door-opening crews, trained dog units, and medical responders,” the group said.

UN war crimes investigators urged those taking charge in the country to ensure the “atrocities” committed under Assad’s rule are not repeated.

The end of Assad’s rule came just hours after HTS said it had captured the strategic city of Homs.

Homs was the third major city seized by the opposition, who began their advance on November 27, the same day a ceasefire took place in neighbouring Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.

Hezbollah had supported Assad during the long civil war but has been severely weakened by Israeli strikes.

Hezbollah forces “vacated their positions around Damascus”, a source close to the group said Sunday.

HTS is rooted in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda but has sought to soften its image in recent years. It remains listed as a terrorist organisation by Western governments.

The commander of the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls much of northeast Syria, hailed the fall of Assad’s “authoritarian regime” as “historic”.

A military council affiliated with the SDF clashed Sunday with Turkish-backed Syrian fighters in Syria’s north, leaving 26 fighters from both sides dead, the Observatory said, as the Turkish-backed group launched an offensive on the Manbij area.

World reacts to Syria

The Observatory said Israel had struck government security buildings and weapons depots Sunday on the outskirts of Damascus, as well as in the eastern Deir Ezzor province.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the overthrow of Assad was a “historic day in the… Middle East” and the fall of a “central link in Iran’s axis of evil”.

The UN envoy for Syria said the country was at “a watershed moment”.

Russia requested an emergency UN Security Council meeting in New York, which is set for 3:00 pm (2000 GMT) Monday, multiple diplomatic sources told AFP.

Turkey, which has historically backed the opposition, called for a “smooth transition”.

Iran said it expected “friendly” ties with Syria to continue, even as its embassy in Damascus was vandalised.

Since the start of the rebel offensive, at least 910 people have been killed, mostly combatants but also including 138 civilians, the Observatory said.

Syria’s war has killed more than 500,000 people and forced half of the population to flee their homes.

Millions fled abroad.

“I can barely remember Syria,” said Reda al-Khedr, who was only five years old when he and his mother escaped Syria’s Homs in 2014.

“But now we’re going to go home to a liberated Syria,” he told AFP in Cairo.

US President Joe Biden said Assad should be “held accountable” but called the nation’s political upheaval a “historic opportunity” for Syrians to rebuild their country.

The foreign ministry of Assad’s key backer, Russia, had announced earlier Sunday that Assad had resigned from the presidency and left Syria.

The head of war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP: “Assad left Syria via Damascus International Airport before the army security forces left” the facility.

Later Sunday, a Kremlin source told Russian news agencies that Assad and his family had arrived in Moscow, where they had been granted asylum “on humanitarian grounds”.

As the Syrian opposition troops leave their positions, Israel has temporarily seized control of a demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights, claiming that the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria has “collapsed” with the opposition takeover of the country.

Residents of the occupied region also celebrated the HTS take over of the country.

Meanwhile, analysts are saying that Israel is behind toppling Assad’s regime as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Assad’s demise was “a direct result of the blows we have inflicted on Iran and Hezbollah, Assad’s main supporters”.

In yet another incident highlighting the spread of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiments in India, a Hindu man has brutally beaten up three Muslim children till they ended up chanting “Jai Shri Ram” – a popular Hindu slogan mostly attributed to extremist Hindutva group.

As per the details, a viral video showed the man beating up the children with a slipper, questioning them about a lighter in their possession. The man can also be seen slapping them continuously.

With one of the boys crying out “Allah” in pain, the man starts beating them even more viciously. The traumatised children on the other end then try to appease the man by saying “Bhagwan”, but he keeps assaulting them.

Eventually, the kids start chanting “Jai Shri Ram”, which seems to please the assaulter. “Won’t say Allah again,” one child can be heard as saying, wailing, as the abuser continues laughing and filming the act.

According to Indian media reports, the undated video was first posted to social media on December 5 from Madhya Pradesh.

The three children, aged 7, 10, and 12, are reportedly residents of Ashok Nagar Sabzi Pharosh area in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh. The assault took place when the children went to Amrit Sagar Pond. 

“The younger child is in trauma. He has become mentally disturbed. The children are not talking to anyone. The youngest child is an orphan as his parents died in an accident,” reports quoted Siraj, a local journalist, as saying. 

With the video going viral, protests broke out for the immediate arrest of the accused.

A police official, while talking to the media, said that a case had been registered against the man whose identity was yet to be established.

Commenting on the incident, journalist Rana Ayyub lamented the state of tolerance and democracy in the country. “Muslim couple forced to sell house after Hindu residents complaint, a man thrashes Muslim kids with slippers, forcing them to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’, Muslim houses demolished, places of worship under attack. And Prime Minister Modi continues to project India as a democracy,” she said in a post on X.

Professor Ashok Swain also shared the post and wrote, “Under Modi, India has become a burning hell for Muslims.”

A masked gunman shot dead a top US health insurance executive outside a New York hotel Wednesday in an apparently targeted hit, before fleeing on a bicycle and triggering a citywide manhunt.

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down as he prepared to address investors with the gunman firing several times before using a rented bike to flee in the direction of Central Park, police said.

Police released security camera images showing the killer brandishing a handgun and wearing a hooded top. Detectives offered a $10,000 reward for the man’s capture.

Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said the shooter arrived on foot about five minutes before Thompson as pedestrians streamed past an access door to the Hilton.

Kenny said he approached Thompson from behind and opened fire, cleared a jam in the firearm, and fired again.

“The motive for this murder currently is unknown, but based on the evidence we have so far, it does appear that the victim was specifically targeted. But at this point, we do not know why,” Kenny told a press conference.

 

 

 

 

 

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UnitedHealthcare is a major player in the multi-trillion-dollar US health care market, providing workplace insurance, as well as administering huge health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid for older and low-income people funded by state budgets.

Thompson, 50, was shot just before 7:00 am at the hotel in the Midtown district of Manhattan, with the CNBC broadcaster suggesting a silencer had been used.

Kenny would not confirm the report of a silencer being used, saying that the question would be part of the investigation but did confirm that a cell phone had been recovered from the scene.

He said that Thompson apparently had no security detail.

Video footage showed officers performing CPR on Thompson before he was taken to a nearby hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

The detective had no comment when asked at the press conference whether the killing could have been carried out by someone who had been denied insurance coverage for a medical condition — a common problem in the United States.

Minnesota-based Thompson’s wife Paulette Thompson told the NBC News outlet that he had received unspecified threats.

“There had been some threats basically I don’t know — (over) a lack of coverage? I don’t know details,” said Paulette Thompson who had two children with her late husband.

In a statement, UnitedHealth Group — the parent company of UHC — said it was “deeply saddened and shocked.”

Officers said the lighting of the Christmas tree at the nearby Rockefeller Center, a major annual event that draws vast crowds of tourists and locals, would proceed normally amid tightened security.

Central New York 

UnitedHealth Group had revenues of $100.8 billion in the third quarter of the year.

UnitedHealthcare’s Employer and Individual products are used by almost 30 million people in the United States according to an investor presentation.

Thompson’s own compensation package in 2023 was $10.2 million according to a regulatory filing.

He had been chief executive of UnitedHealthcare since April 2021, according to a separate Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Before that, he oversaw UnitedHealthcare’s government programs including Medicare from July 2019 to April 2021.

The company was due to hold an investor day in New York on Wednesday at which Thompson was scheduled to deliver a keynote speech.

The event was canceled, CNBC reported, and the company did not respond to an AFP request for comment.

The New York Hilton Midtown is one of the city’s biggest hotels, popular with tourists and business travelers, and describes itself as Manhattan’s largest self-contained function space.

It was not answering calls in the wake of the incident.

Outside the hotel, senior police commanders briefed officers as plainclothes detectives passed by upturned paper cups placed on the ground to mark evidence.

The suspect was described as a white man wearing a hooded jacket, black face mask, black and white sneakers, and carrying a grey backpack.

Natural disasters have caused an estimated $310 billion in economic losses around the world this year, swelling six percent from 2023 as the climate crisis takes its toll, reinsurance giant Swiss Re said Thursday.

Insured losses, meanwhile, swelled by 17 percent year-on-year to $135 billion, with the devastating hurricanes Helene and Milton pushing up the costs, Swiss Re said in a statement.

A woman from New York boarded a flight headed to Paris as a stowaway (someone who hides on a ship or an airplane in order to travel without paying or being seen) and bypassed security checks by hopping between bathrooms. 

As per international media, she is going to remain in France for some time as she has also disrupted a return flight to the US that was booked for her.

57-year-old Svetlana Dali boarded a jam-packed Thanksgiving flight without a ticket before it departed from John F Kennedy Airport in New York. 

The American Transportation Security Administration (TSA) asserted that while Dali went through property security channels, she never got a boarding pass and did not get her passport checked.

“TSA can confirm that an individual without a boarding pass was physically screened without any prohibited items. The individual bypassed two identity verification and boarding status stations and boarded the aircraft,” the official statement quoted by The Guardian read. 

However, fellow passengers claimed that Dali managed to escape any suspicion while on the plane by moving from one bathroom to another.

She didn’t take a seat but got caught by flight attendants. 

The matter made it to headlines when a passenger made a video on the plane and shared it on social media. 

The video featured the pilot’s announcement about the stowaway.

Another eye-witness told CNN: “I overheard the flight attendants talking about it with the pilots – they said this person was in one lavatory and then would exit and walk to a different lavatory and go in there for a long time.”

“They’ve directed us to keep everyone on the airplane until we sort out the extra passenger that’s on that plane,” the video showcased the announcement.

Upon arriving in Paris, French officials detained the middle-aged stowaway for not having a visa. 

Initial investigations indicate that she is a Russian national who is also a legal resident of the US.

Dali reportedly requested asylum in France, but this request was swiftly denied.

The stowaway was then put on another Delta flight back to the United States from Paris. 
However, she became “unruly”, which prompted French authorities to remove her from the plane.

So, she is still in the country.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol faced demands to resign on Wednesday after his short-lived attempt to impose martial law was voted down by lawmakers and brought thousands of protesters to the streets.

Yoon’s shock bid to impose martial law on South Korea for the first time in over four decades plunged the country into the deepest turmoil in its modern democratic history and caught its close allies around the world off guard.

The United States, which stations nearly 30,000 troops in South Korea to protect it from the nuclear-armed North, initially voiced deep concern at the declaration, then relief that martial law was over.

The dramatic developments have left the future of Yoon — a conservative politician and former star public prosecutor who was elected president in 2022 — in jeopardy.

South Korea’s main opposition party — whose lawmakers jumped fences and tussled with security forces so they could vote to overturn the law — demanded Yoon’s immediate resignation.

“We will file charges of insurrection,” against Yoon, his defence and interior ministers and “key military and police figures involved, such as the martial law commander and the police chief”, the Democratic Party said in a statement.

It added that it would also push for impeachment.

The nation’s largest umbrella labour union called an “indefinite general strike” until Yoon resigned.

And the leader of Yoon’s own ruling party described the attempt as “tragic” while calling for those involved to be held accountable.

– Defiance –

Yoon stunned the world with a late-night television announcement that he was declaring martial law because of the threat of North Korea and “anti-state forces”.

More than 280 troops backed by 24 helicopters arrived at parliament to lock down the site after the extraordinary declaration.

But 190 lawmakers defied the rifle-carrying soldiers to force their way into parliament to vote against the move, leaving Yoon with no choice but to retract.

Under the constitution, martial law must be lifted when a majority in parliament demands it.

“Just a moment ago, there was a demand from the National Assembly to lift the state of emergency, and we have withdrawn the military that was deployed for martial law operations,” Yoon said in a televised address around 4:30 am (1930 GMT Tuesday).

“We will accept the National Assembly’s request and lift the martial law through the Cabinet meeting.”

Senior aides working for Yoon offered Wednesday to resign en masse over the martial law declaration.

By midday, Yoon had yet to reappear publicly.

– ‘Impeachment’ –

The U-turn prompted jubilation among protesters outside parliament who had braved freezing temperatures to keep vigil through the night in defiance of Yoon’s martial law order.

Demonstrators who had been waving South Korean flags and chanting “Arrest Yoon Suk Yeol” outside the National Assembly erupted in cheers.

Lim Myeong-pan, 55, told AFP that Yoon’s decision to rescind martial law did not absolve him of wrongdoing.

“Yoon’s act of imposing it in the first place without legitimate cause is a serious crime in itself,” Lim told AFP.

“He has paved his own path to impeachment with this.”

With more protests expected, large numbers of police were patrolling key avenues Wednesday morning.

– ‘Anti-state’ elements –

Yoon had given a range of reasons to justify his action.

“To safeguard a liberal South Korea from the threats posed by North Korea’s communist forces and to eliminate anti-state elements plundering people’s freedom and happiness, I hereby declare emergency martial law,” Yoon said in a televised address.

Yoon did not give details about the North’s threats, but the South remains technically at war with nuclear-armed Pyongyang.

“Our National Assembly has become a haven for criminals, a den of legislative dictatorship that seeks to paralyse the judicial and administrative systems and overturn our liberal democratic order,” Yoon said.

The president labelled the main opposition Democratic Party, which holds a majority in the 300-member parliament, “anti-state forces intent on overthrowing the regime”.

Yoon and his People Power Party are also bitterly at odds with the opposition over next year’s budget.

Opposition MPs last week approved a significantly downsized budget plan through a parliamentary committee.

Yoon’s move came after his approval rating dropped to 19 percent in the latest Gallup poll last week, with many expressing dissatisfaction over his handling of the economy and controversies involving his wife, Kim Keon Hee.

– Concern, relief –

Democratic South Korea is a major ally of the United States in Asia, but Washington said it was not given advance notice of Yoon’s plan to impose martial law.

“We welcome President Yoon’s statement that he would rescind the order declaring emergency martial law,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

“We continue to expect political disagreements to be resolved peacefully and in accordance with the rule of law.”

China, a key ally of North Korea, urged its nationals in the South to stay calm and exercise caution, while Tokyo said it was monitoring the situation with “exceptional and serious concerns”.

Vladimir Tikhonov, professor of Korea studies at the University of Oslo, said Yoon’s move to impose martial law was “an attempt to wind history back”.

“I don’t think South Korea’s civil society can recognise Yoon as a legitimate president any longer,” he told AFP.

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law, accusing the opposition of being “anti-state forces” and saying he was acting to protect the country from “threats” posed by the North.

The National Assembly was sealed late on Tuesday night and helicopters were seen landing on the roof, as army chief General Park An-su took charge as martial law commander and immediately issued a decree banning “all political activities”.

Troops entered the building for a short time, while hundreds of protesters gathered outside parliament chanting: “arrest Yoon Suk Yeol” and facing off with security forces guarding parliament.

Yoon’s stunning announcement — South Korea’s first declaration of martial law in more than 40 years — came as his party and the opposition bicker over the budget.

“To safeguard a liberal South Korea from the threats posed by North Korea’s communist forces and to eliminate anti-state elements plundering people’s freedom and happiness, I hereby declare emergency martial law,” Yoon said in a live televised address to the nation.

Yoon did not give details of the North’s threats, but the South remains technically at war with nuclear-armed Pyongyang.

“With no regard for the livelihoods of the people, the opposition party has paralysed governance solely for the sake of impeachments, special investigations, and shielding their leader from justice,” Yoon added.

“Our National Assembly has become a haven for criminals, a den of legislative dictatorship that seeks to paralyse the judicial and administrative systems and overturn our liberal democratic order,” Yoon said.

With martial law imposed, all military units in the South have been ordered to strengthen their emergency alert and readiness postures, Yonhap news agency reported.

Some 190 lawmakers managed to get in to the assembly in the early hours of Wednesday, where they unanimously voted in favour of a motion to block the martial law declaration and call for its lifting.

Under the constitution, martial law must be lifted when a majority in parliament demands it, but it was not immediately clear whether this would be respected.

Democratic South Korea is a major ally for the United States in Asia, and the US State Department said it had “grave concern” about the situation.

“We are watching the recent developments in the ROK with grave concern,” Campbell said, referring to South Korea by its official name, the Republic of Korea.

“We have every hope and expectation that any political disputes will be resolved peacefully and in accordance with the rule of law,” he said.

China, a key ally of North Korea, urged its nationals in the South to stay calm and exercise caution, while Britain said it was “closely monitoring developments”.

– ‘Anti-state’ forces –

The decree by martial law commander Park also banned “actions that deny or seek to overthrow the liberal democratic system, including the spread of fake news, public opinion manipulation, and false propaganda”.

The president labelled the opposition, which holds a majority in the 300-member parliament, as “anti-state forces intent on overthrowing the regime”.

Yoon described the imposition of martial law as “inevitable to guarantee the continuity of a liberal South Korea,” adding that it would not impact the country’s foreign policy.

“I will restore the country to normalcy by getting rid of anti-state forces as soon as possible,” he said, without elaborating further other than the martial law in place.

He described the current situation as South Korea “on the verge of collapse, with the National Assembly acting as a monster intent on bringing down liberal democracy”.

– Budget row –

Yoon’s People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party are bitterly at odds over next year’s budget.

Opposition MPs last week approved a significantly downsized budget plan through a parliamentary committee.

The opposition has slashed approximately 4.1 trillion won ($2.8 billion) from Yoon’s proposed 677 trillion won budget plan, cutting the government’s reserve fund and activity budgets for Yoon’s office, the prosecution, police and the state audit agency.

Yoon, a former prosecutor, accused opposition lawmakers of cutting “all key budgets essential to the nation’s core functions, such as combatting drug crimes and maintaining public security… turning the country into a drug haven and a state of public safety chaos.”

The imposition of emergency martial law came after Yoon’s approval rating dropped to 19 percent in the latest Gallup poll last week, with many expressing dissatisfaction over his handling of the economy and controversies involving his wife, Kim Keon Hee.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has expressed doubts about new legislation imposing tougher penalties on women who flout mandatory hijab regulations.

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, women in Iran have been required to cover their hair in public.

A 25-year-old woman pilot in India has committed suicide by hanging over alleged harassment by her boyfriend, Indian media reported.

The young pilot, namely Srishti Tuli, was a resident of Mumbai, reports said.

Local police were informed about Srishti’s death by a local hospital at around 8 am on November 25. An initial investigation suggested that the pilot committed suicide by hanging herself on November 24 after returning home from duty.

A postmortem report confirmed that she died of asphyxiation due to hanging, reports added.

Srishti’s family has blamed her 27-year-old boyfriend for the death. Srishti, who hails from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, had gone to Delhi in 2019 to train for her Commercial Pilot License (CPL). After completing her training, Srishti got a job with Air India in 2023, for which she had to relocate to Mumbai.

She and the accused first met in Delhi about two years ago.

Her uncle, Vivek Kumar, told the police that Srishti and her boyfriend had been living in the same house for five to six days before the suicide.

An initial investigation suggested that the accused had left Mumbai for Delhi at around 1 pm on November 25. However, the uncle claimed that an argument took place between the two at their home and later over the phone. 

The police also found out that Srishti called the accused and threatened to commit suicide after which he returned to Srishti’s residence in Mumbai.

However, when the accused returned home in the morning, Srishti did not open the door or answer his calls.

The accused called a locksmith, with the help of whom the door was opened. A friend of the accused was also accompanying them. When all these people entered the house, they found out that Srishti had hanged herself.

The accused took Srishti to a nearby hospital for first aid but doctors confirmed her death and informed the police.

Srishti’s family reached Mumbai later in the day. In their statements to the police, they alleged that Srishti committed suicide due to alleged harassment and abuse by the accused. Her uncle also claimed that her niece was “disturbed by her boyfriend’s behaviour for some time”.

“He often behaved rudely and hurled insults at her in public,” reports quoted the uncle as saying.

The deceased’s family also alleges that the accused “encouraged” Srishti to commit suicide.

According to Indian news outlets, the boyfriend has been arrested on charges of harassment, and further investigation is underway.