MUMBAI: Indian actor Manoj Kumar, known for his roles in Hindi-language films with patriotic themes, died on Friday aged 87.
The death of the man dubbed “Bharat” Kumar — a reference to the ancient Sanskrit word for India steeped in Hindu religious symbolism — sparked tributes from across the country.
Kumar, who was also a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), died in Mumbai due to heart-related complications.
Modi led the condolences, calling Kumar an “icon” of Indian cinema, saying that his works “ignited a spirit of national pride and will continue to inspire generations.”
Throughout his career, Kumar was known for acting — and at times directing — films that had a focus on unity and national pride.
Born Harikrishan Goswami, he renamed himself in Bollywood tradition — taking on the name Manoj Kumar.
He was the recipient of several national awards, including the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India’s highest honor for cinema.
Kumar made his debut in Indian cinema in the late 1950s.
He went on to star in several films, many with patriotic themes, including “Upkar” (1967), “Purab Aur Pachhim” (1970) and “Kranti” (1981).
Indian patriotic movie ‘icon’ Manoj Kumar dies aged 87
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Indian patriotic movie ‘icon’ Manoj Kumar dies aged 87
- Kumar, also a member of PM Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist party, died in Mumbai due to heart-related complications
- He was the recipient of several national awards, including the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India’s highest honor for cinema
France’s Deneuve joins over 900 cinema figures on Gaza petition
CANNES: France’s Catherine Deneuve has joined over 900 cinema figures who have signed an open letter denouncing alleged “genocide” in Gaza and the movie industry’s failure to speak up about it, organizers said on Friday.
The petition began circulating during the buildup to the Cannes film festival and had garnered around 380 names, including “Schindler’s List” star Ralph Fiennes, when the event kicked off on May 13.
An update by organizers on Friday included more than 900 names, including Deneuve, British director Danny Boyle, and Swedish actor Gustaf Skarsgard.
The initiative, called “Artists for Fatem,” was sparked by the killing of Palestinian photojournalist Fatima (“Fatem“) Hassouna, who was the subject of a documentary that premiered at Cannes week.
Hassouna, 25, was killed in an Israeli airstrike along with 10 relatives in her family home in northern Gaza last month, the day after the documentary was announced as part of the ACID Cannes selection.
“As artists and cultural players, we cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza and this unspeakable news is hitting our communities hard,” the open letter says.
Other signatories include Juliette Binoche, who is chairing the jury at Cannes, Rooney Mara, Jonathan Glazer, US indie director Jim Jarmusch, “Lupin” star Omar Sy, Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Pedro Almodovar, and
Mark Ruffalo.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who is in Cannes to promote a documentary about his life, has also signed the letter, organizers said Friday.
He posed for photographers on Tuesday with a T-shirt bearing the names of killed Gaza children.
On Thursday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 3,613 people had been killed in the territory since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,762, mostly civilians.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack triggered the war.
2026 election: Djibouti president leaves door open to sixth term
ADDIS ABABA: Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh, in power since 1999, did not rule out running for a sixth term in next year’s election despite a constitutional ban on doing so, in an interview published on Friday.
Asked about a potential candidacy in April 2026 in the interview with The Africa Report, the 77-year-old said: “I won’t answer that.”
“What I can say is that I love my country too much to lead it into a reckless venture or sow division,” he added.
Running in the 2026 race would require changing the constitution, which prohibits candidates older than 75.
Guelleh won 97 percent of the vote in the 2021 election, and his UMP party currently holds a majority in parliament.
BACKGROUND
Ismail Omar Guelleh won 97 percent of the vote in the 2021 election, and his UMP party currently holds a majority in parliament.
Guelleh, known as “IOG,” succeeded Hassan Gouled Aptidon — who led Djibouti to independence from France in 1977 — after serving as his chief of staff for 22 years.
Djibouti is a stable state in a troubled region that has become a key strategic base for major powers, with the US, France, and China all maintaining a military presence there.
The Horn of Africa country, bordering Ethiopia, Somalia, and Eritrea, is one of the least populated on the continent, with around one million inhabitants.
Helmsman of cargo ship run aground in Norway ‘was likely asleep’
OSLO: The helmsman of a huge container ship that ran aground in Norway just a stone’s throw away from a cabin as its owner slept was probably asleep as well at the time of the accident, Norwegian media reported on Friday.
“Only one person was on the bridge at the time. He was steering the vessel, but did not change course when entering the Trondheim fjord as he should have,” the news agency NTB reported.
“Police have received information from others who were on board that he was asleep,” police official Kjetil Bruland Sorensen told NTB.
The 135-meter NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s wooden cabin around dawn on Thursday.
Helberg discovered the unexpected visitor only when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone.
It’s a very bulky new neighbor but it will soon go away.
Johan Helberg
“The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television channel TV2.
His neighbor, Jostein Jorgensen, said he was roused at around 5 a.m. by the sound of a ship heading at full speed toward land and immediately ran to Helberg’s house.
None of the cargo’s 16 crew members were injured, and Norwegian police have opened an investigation.
“We are aware of the police stating that they have one suspect, and we continue to assist the police and authorities in their ongoing investigation,” the NCL shipping group said on Friday.
“We are also conducting internal inquiries but prefer not to speculate further,” it added.
Efforts to refloat the ship have failed so far, and the massive red and green container ship remained stuck, looming over the small cabin.
UN urges warring sides in South Sudan to ‘pull back from the brink’
- The human rights situation risks further deterioration as fighting intensifies, Volker Turk says
GENEVA: The UN rights chief has urged warring sides in South Sudan to pull back from the brink, warning that the human rights situation risks further deterioration as fighting intensifies.
“The escalating hostilities in South Sudan portend a real risk of further exacerbating the already dire human rights and humanitarian situation, and undermining the country’s fragile peace process,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.
“All parties must urgently pull back from the brink,” he added.
Since May 3, fighting has intensified, with OHCHR citing reports of indiscriminate aerial bombardment and river and ground offensives by the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces SSPDF on Sudan People’s Liberation Army positions in parts of Fangak in Jonglei State and in Tonga County in Upper Nile.
Clashes between South Sudan’s army and fighters backing the rival to President Salva Kiir have killed at least 75 civilians since February, the UN human rights chief said on Friday.
Dozens more have been injured and thousands forced to flee their homes, said the commissioner.
He expressed concern over arbitrary detentions and a rise in hate speech since February.
BACKGROUND
South Sudan, the world's youngest country after gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, was plunged into a violent civil war between 2013 and 2018 that claimed around 400,000 lives.
South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, was plunged into a civil war between 2013 and 2018 that left around 400,000 dead and 4 million displaced.
A 2018 power-sharing agreement between the warring parties had allowed for a precarious calm.
But for several months, violent clashes have set President Kiir’s faction against supporters of his rival, Vice President Riek Machar, who was arrested in March.
Civilian-populated areas have been struck, including a medical facility operated by medical charity Doctors Without Borders or MSF, Turk said.
According to a UN estimate in mid-April, around 125,000 people have been displaced since the escalation of tensions.
Turk said dozens of opposition politicians linked to the SPLM-IO had been arrested, including Machar, ministers, MPs and army officers, as had civilians.
Woman arrested after 12 injured in stabbing at Hamburg station
- Some of the injured sustained life-threatening injuries in the attack
- Suspect is a 39-year-old woman who was thought to have acted alone
BERLIN: Germany police on Friday said they had arrested a woman after at least 12 people were injured in a knife attack at the main station in the northern city of Hamburg.
Some of the injured sustained life-threatening injuries in the stabbing, emergency services said, although the exact number remained unclear.
Around 6:30 p.m. (1600 GMT), Hamburg police said on X they were carrying out a major operation at the main train station in Germany’s second-largest city.
“A person injured several people with a knife at the main train station” and a suspect had been arrested, they said.
The suspect, police subsequently said, was a 39-year-old woman who was thought to have “acted alone.”
Investigations into the incident were “running at full speed,” police said, without giving an indication of a possible motive.
A spokesman for the Hamburg fire department told AFP that 12 people had been injured in the knife attack.
Among them were “six people with life-threatening injuries,” the spokesman said. German media however reported the number of people with very severe injuries was lower.
The attack took place around 6:00 p.m. in the middle of rush hour at the end of the working week, according to German media.
The suspect was thought to have carried out the attack “against passengers” at the station, a spokeswoman for the Hanover federal police directorate, which also covers Hamburg, told AFP.
Images of the scene showed access to the platforms at one end of the station blocked off by police and people being loaded into waiting ambulances.
Some of the victims in the attack were being treated onboard waiting trains in the station, Bild reported.
German rail operator Deutsche Bahn said on X that four platforms at the station had been closed.
The incident would lead to “delays and diversions in long-distance services,” Deutsche Bahn said in a post on X.
Germany has been rocked in recent months by a series of violent attacks with often jihadist or far-right extremist motivations that have put security at the top of the agenda.
The most recent, on Sunday, saw four people were injured in a stabbing at a bar in the city of Bielefeld.
The investigation into the attack had been handed over to federal prosecutors after the Syrian suspect in the attack told the police officers who arrested him that he had jihadist beliefs.
The question of security — and the immigrant origin of many of the attackers — was a major topic during Germany’s recent election campaign.
The vote at the end of February saw the conservative CDU/CSU top the polls and a record score of over 20 percent for the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany.
