- Wednesday, 20 August 2025
Reuters
Violent clashes mar Brazil v Argentina World Cup qualifier
Argentina captain Lionel Messi accused the Brazilian police of brutality as the start of their World Cup qualifier against Brazil was delayed by half an hour after clashes between police and visiting fans at Maracana Stadium.
Half of the 2023 Cricket World Cup matches played in ‘unhealthy’ air
When the Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan cricket teams, and thousands of spectators, gathered in the Indian capital New Delhi on Nov. 6 for an eight-hour-long World Cup match, they faced a common opponent – dangerously harmful air-filled with high levels of fine matter that not only covered the city in a blanket of haze but can infiltrate deep into human lungs and even penetrate into the bloodstream.
Israel, Hamas agree 4-day truce for hostage release and aid into Gaza
By Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Rami Amichay, GAZA/TEL AVIV, Nov 22: Israel's government and Hamas agreed on Wednesday to a four-day pause in fighting to allow the release of 50 hostages held in Gaza in exchange for 150 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, and the entry of humanitarian aid into the besieged enclave.Officials from Qatar, which has been mediating secret negotiations, as well as the U.S., Israel and Hamas have for days been saying a deal was imminent.Hamas is believed to be holding more than 200 hostages, taken when its fighters surged into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.A statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said 50 women and children will be released over four days, during which there will be a pause in fighting.For every additional 10 hostages released, the pause would be extended by another day, it said, without mentioning the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange."Israel's government is committed to returning all the hostages home. Tonight, it approved the proposed deal as a first stage to achieving this goal," said the statement.Hamas said the 50 hostages would be released in exchange for 150 Palestinian women and children who are held in Israeli jails. The truce deal will also allow hundreds of trucks of humanitarian, medical and fuel aid to enter Gaza, the Palestinian group said in a statement.Israel had committed not to attack or arrest anyone in all parts of Gaza during the truce period, it added.U.S. President Joe Biden welcomed the deal."Today’s deal should bring home additional American hostages, and I will not stop until they are all released," Biden said in a statement.The Qatar government said 50 civilian women and children hostages would be released from Gaza in exchange for the release "of a number of Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons".The starting time of the truce would be announced within the next 24 hours, it said in a statement.Israel's justice ministry posted a list of about 300 Palestinian prisoners slated for release, a publication that appeared intended to allow for any last-minute legal challenges.The accord is the first truce of a war in which Israeli bombardments have flattened swathes of Hamas-ruled Gaza, killed 13,300 civilians in the tiny densely populated enclave and left about two-thirds of its 2.3 million people homeless, according to authorities in Gaza.But Netanyahu said Israel's broader mission was unchanged."We are at war and we will continue the war until we achieve all our goals. To destroy Hamas, return all our hostages and ensure that no entity in Gaza can threaten Israel," he said in a recorded message at the start of the government meeting.Hamas said in its statement: "As we announce the striking of a truce agreement, we affirm that our fingers remain on the trigger, and our victorious fighters will remain on the lookout to defend our people and defeat the occupation."RELEASE REPORTEDLY TO BEGIN ON THURSDAYThree Americans, including a 3-year-old girl whose parents were among those killed during Hamas's Oct. 7 attack, are expected to be among the hostages to be released, a senior U.S. official said.In addition to Israeli citizens, more than half the hostages held foreign and dual citizenship from some 40 countries including the U.S., Thailand, Britain, France, Argentina, Germany, Chile, Spain and Portugal, Israel's government has said.Israeli media said the first release of hostages was expected on Thursday. Implementing the deal must wait for 24 hours to give Israeli citizens the chance to ask the Supreme Court to block the release of Palestinian prisoners, reports said.Kamelia Hoter Ishay, the grandmother of 13-year-old Gali Tarshansky, who is believed to be held in Gaza, said she would not believe reports of a deal until she got a call that the teenager was freed."And then I'll know that it's really over and I can breathe a sigh of relief and say that's it, it's over," she said.Qadura Fares, head of the Commission for Prisoners' Affairs in the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, told Reuters that among more than 7,800 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel were about 85 women and 350 minors. Most were detained without charges or for incidents such as hurling rocks at Israeli soldiers, not for launching militant attacks, he said.Qatar's chief negotiator in ceasefire talks, Minister of State at the Foreign Ministry Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, told Reuters that the International Committee of the Red Cross would be working inside Gaza to facilitate the hostages' release.He said that the truce meant there would be "no attack whatsoever. No military movements, no expansion, nothing."Al-Khulaifi added that Qatar hopes the deal "will be a seed to a bigger agreement and a permanent cease of fire. And that's our intention."Hamas has to date released only four captives: U.S. citizens Judith Raanan, 59, and her daughter, Natalie Raanan, 17, on Oct. 20, citing "humanitarian reasons," and Israeli women Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, on Oct. 23.The armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, which participated in the Oct. 7 raid with Hamas, said late on Tuesday that one of the Israeli hostages it has held since the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel had died."We previously expressed our willingness to release her for humanitarian reasons, but the enemy was stalling and this led to her death," Al Quds Brigades said on its Telegram channel.As attention focused on the hostage release deal, fighting on the ground raged on.In the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, an Israeli drone strike killed five Palestinians and wounded others in the Tolkurm camp, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.Mounir Al-Barsh, director-general of Gaza's health ministry, told Al Jazeera TV that the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza City. Israel said militants were operating from the facility and threatened to act against them within four hours, he said.On Tuesday, Israel also said its forces had encircled the Jabalia refugee camp, a congested urban extension of Gaza City where Hamas has been battling advancing Israeli armoured forces.WAFA said 33 people were killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli air strike on part of Jabalia.In southern Gaza, Hamas-affiliated media said 10 people were killed and 22 injured by an Israeli air strike on an apartment in the city of Khan Younis.Reuters could not immediately verify the accounts of fighting on either side.
Hamas chief says close to truce agreement with Israel
The chief of Hamas told Reuters on Tuesday that the Palestinian militant group was near a truce agreement with Israel, even as the deadly assault on Gaza continued and rockets were being fired into Israel.
Israeli air strikes kill 32 in south Gaza amid calls for civilians to flee
Israeli air strikes on residential blocks in south Gaza killed at least 32 Palestinians on Saturday, medics said after Israel again warned civilians to relocate as it turns to attack Hamas in the enclave's south after subduing the north.
Once-in-a-century flooding swamps Somalia after historic drought -UN
The United Nations has described floods that uprooted hundreds of thousands of people in Somalia and neighbouring countries in East Africa following a historic drought as a once-in-a-century event.
Israel hunts Hamas in tunnels after encircling Gaza City
Israel's ground forces in the Gaza Strip aimed on Wednesday to locate and disable Hamas militants' vast tunnel network beneath the enclave, the next phase in an Israeli offensive that has killed thousands of Palestinians.
Sri Lanka sacks board, appoints interim committee
Sri Lanka has dismissed the board of its cricket governing body and replaced it with an interim committee, the Ministry of Sport said on Monday, after a disappointing World Cup campaign.
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Hamas govt says Israeli strike on camp kills 38; Arab world, US split on ceasefire
The Hamas-run government said on Sunday that Israeli military attacked a Gaza refugee camp on Saturday night, killing at least 38 people, as calls for a ceasefire by the Arab world were rejected by the United States and Israel.
Hamas vows 'full force' after Israel steps up Gaza ground operations
Hamas said on Saturday its militants in Gaza were ready to confront Israeli attacks with "full force" after Israel's military widened its air and ground attacks on the Palestinian enclave. The Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza had said its fighters were clashing with Israeli troops in areas near the border with Israel after Israel reported intensified attacks in Gaza.
Pakistan's three time premier Nawaz Sharif arrives home from exile
Pakistan's three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif arrived home on Saturday from four years of self-imposed exile in London to kick-start his party's campaign for an election early next year, targeting former premier Imran Khan as the biggest rival.
Israeli forces clash with Hamas gunmen after hundreds killed
Israeli forces clashed with gunmen from the Palestinian group Hamas on Sunday, 24 hours after the militants launched a surprise attack on Israel in which about 500 people were killed in the deadliest day of violence in Israel for 50 years.
Afghanistan earthquakes kill 2,053, Taliban says, as death toll spikes
Powerful earthquakes in Afghanistan have killed more than 2,000 people and injured more than 9,000, the Taliban administration said on Sunday, in the deadliest tremors in years in the quake-prone mountainous country.
Israel 'at war' as Hamas gunmen launch surprise attack from Gaza
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched the biggest attack on Israel in years on Saturday, killing more than 20 people and wounding hundreds in a surprise assault that combined gunmen crossing into Israel with a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza.
Jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi wins Nobel Peace Prize
Iran's jailed women's rights advocate Narges Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a rebuke to Tehran's theocratic leaders and a boost for anti-government protesters.
