Australian woman accused of joining Daesh faces 10 years in jail after rescue from Syrian camp

A group of women, reportedly the wives of suspected Daesh fighters, at Al-Roj camp in Syria in 2021. The Al-Roj camp houses thousands of former Daesh members and their families. (AFP file photo)
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Updated 15 March 2023
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Australian woman accused of joining Daesh faces 10 years in jail after rescue from Syrian camp

  • Mariam Raad, 31, allegedly traveled to be with former math teacher-turned top terror recruiter husband

LONDON: An Australian woman accused of joining Daesh to be with her husband, a senior fighter and recruiter, has appeared in a regional court after being repatriated from Syria’s Al-Roj camp.

Mariam Raad, 31, appeared on Wednesday at Young Local Court in New South Wales, wearing large sunglasses and a facemask.

If found guilty of the charges, she faces up to 10 years’ in jail. Prosecutors are set to compile evidence including financial records and phone messages.

The 31-year-old mother-of-four allegedly left Australia for Syria to join her husband, a former mathematics teacher who became a top recruiter for Daesh before his death in 2018.

Following the collapse of the terror group, Raad was captured and transferred to the Al-Roj camp in northeastern Syria, which houses thousands of former Daesh members and their families.

She spent three years in the camp before being repatriated to Australia along with three other women and 13 children in a government mission in October last year.

Raad has lived in Young since her return. However, she was arrested in January and charged with breaching federal law by entering Syrian territory under the control of Daesh.

Prosecutors will attempt to prove that Raad was aware of her husband’s involvement in the terror group.

She made no comment during the short hearing. The next court date was set for May 10 after her lawyers requested an eight-week adjournment.


Russia offers to help resolve India-Pakistan differences over Kashmir

Updated 05 May 2025
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Russia offers to help resolve India-Pakistan differences over Kashmir

  • Risie in tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors escalated after a deadly terror attack on a mountain tourist destination in the Pahalgam area of Kashmir valley on April 22

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke to his Pakistani counterpart on Sunday and offered Russia’s help in resolving tensions between Pakistan and India over Kashmir, the Foreign Ministry said.
“Particular attention was paid to the significant rise in tension between New Delhi and Islamabad,” the ministry said in a statement, referring to Lavrov’s conversation with Ishaq Dar, who is also Pakistan’s deputy prime minister.
“It was stressed that Russia is ready to act for a political settlement of the situation resulting from the act of terrorism of April 22 in the Pahalgam area of the Kashmir valley, in the event of a mutual desire on the part of Islamabad and New Delhi,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on Telegram.

Lavrov’s conversation with Dar took place two days after he spoke with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and also called for a settlement of differences between the two neighboring countries.
Suspected militants killed at least 26 people in last week’s attack on a mountain tourist destination in the Pahalgam area of the Kashmir valley.
Muslim-majority Kashmir is claimed by both countries and has been the focus of several wars, an insurgency and diplomatic standoffs.
Russia has been India’s largest weapons provider for decades and New Delhi and Moscow have had close ties since Soviet times.


Incoming German interior minister skeptical about ban on far-right AfD

Updated 04 May 2025
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Incoming German interior minister skeptical about ban on far-right AfD

  • German lawmakers have been discussing measures to dismiss civil servants who are members of the AfD and limit or halt public funding

BERLIN: Incoming German interior minister Alexander Dobrindt suggested on Sunday it was unlikely the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party would be banned after the spy agency classified it as “extremist” last week.
German lawmakers have been discussing outlawing the party and taking other measures including dismissing civil servants who are members of the AfD and limiting or halting public funding.
But Dobrindt told broadcaster ARD he was doubtful whether the AfD activities identified in the spy agency’s report met the requirements set out for an outright ban.
Guidelines set by the constitutional court say a party must be shown to be working “combatively and aggressively” to implement its goals to be banned.
“I’m skeptical, because the aggressive, combative nature of the party against our democracy must be a defining characteristic. The Constitutional Court was right to set high hurdles for banning a party,” Dobrindt said.
He added that he was “convinced that the AfD does not need to be banned, it needs to be governed away, and we need to talk about the issues that have made the AfD so big.”
Dobrindt, a high-profile member of the CSU, the Bavarian sister party of incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU, said his ministry would examine the designation in depth and he would discuss its findings with the spy agency’s top brass in person.
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that the future government would work to shrink the AfD.
“What I don’t believe is that a potential ban procedure, which could take years, is the sole instrument to bring the AfD down,” Klingbeil, Germany’s next vice chancellor, said.
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel accused outgoing Interior Minister Nancy Faeser of using the spy agency as a “secret justice system” to discriminate against the party.
“We are a future governing party; even the machinations of the secret justice system will not be able to prevent that in the long run,” Weidel told the Welt newspaper on Sunday.


South Africa exit from DRC to be completed this month

Updated 04 May 2025
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South Africa exit from DRC to be completed this month

  • The soldiers are part of a regional Southern African Development Community force that deployed to the eastern DRC in December 2023 during a resurgence of the M23 armed movement

JOHANNESBURG: South African troops withdrawing from the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have begun assembling in Tanzania and most should return home this month, the defense chief said on Sunday.

Under the phased withdrawal that started on April 29, the troops are to exit the DRC via Rwanda by road before entering Tanzania, Gen. Rudzani Maphwanya said.

From there they will return to South Africa by sea and air by the end of May, he said.

The soldiers are part of a regional Southern African Development Community force that deployed to the eastern DRC in December 2023 during a resurgence of the M23 armed movement.

The M23 now controls swaths of territory in the mineral-rich region.

Thirteen trucks with 57 members of the SADC peacekeeping force had already gathered at an assembly point in Tanzania, Maphwanya told reporters.

The next group was scheduled for withdrawal next week, he said.

“The movement from Tanzania to (South Africa) will be by air for personnel and by sea for cargo,” he said.

SADC decided to end its SAMIDRC mission in mid-March after 17 of its soldiers — most of them South Africans — were killed in M23 offensives in January. They have been stranded there since.

The grouping confirmed last week the start of the withdrawal but gave no details.

On April 30, a separate evacuation began of hundreds of DRC soldiers and police trapped for months in United Nations bases in Goma after the eastern DRC city was taken by M23 rebels, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

SADC defense chiefs had informed the M23 they would “withdraw ... personnel and equipment unconditionally,” Maphwanya said.

No SADC equipment would remain. “SADC is not leaving even a pin in eastern DRC,” he added.

Officials do not comment on the size of the SAMIDRC deployment but the bulk of the troops come from South Africa, which is estimated to have sent at least 1,300 soldiers.

There are also South Africans in the DRC under a separate UN peacekeeping mission.

Calls for evacuation began mounting in South Africa after 14 of the country’s soldiers were killed in the region in January.

Three Malawian troops in the SADC deployment were also killed, while Tanzania said two of its soldiers died in clashes.

The evacuation from the DRC was not a sign of weakness or the abandonment of people caught up in the fighting, Maphwanya said.

“Our withdrawal is a technical move that allows peace and mediation to continue.”


Visa crackdown leads international students in the US to reconsider summer travel

Updated 04 May 2025
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Visa crackdown leads international students in the US to reconsider summer travel

  • International students weighing travel to see family, take a vacation or conduct research are thinking twice because of the Trump administration’s crackdown, which has added to a sense of vulnerability

CALIFORNIA: On summer break from a PhD program, an international student at University of California, San Diego, was planning a trip with a few friends to Hawaii. But after seeing international students across the United States stripped of their legal status, the student decided against it.
Any travel, even inside the US, just didn’t seem worth the risk.
“I probably am going to skip that to ... have as few interactions with governments as possible,” said the student, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of being targeted.
International students weighing travel to see family, take a vacation or conduct research are thinking twice because of the Trump administration’s crackdown, which has added to a sense of vulnerability.
Even before students suddenly began losing permission to study in the US, some colleges were encouraging international students and faculty to postpone travel, citing government efforts to deport students involved in pro-Palestinian activism. As the scale of the status terminations emerged in recent weeks, more schools have cautioned against non-essential travel abroad for international students.
University of California, Berkeley, for one, issued an advisory last week saying upcoming international travel was risky due to “strict vetting and enforcement.”
At least 1,220 students at 187 colleges, universities and university systems have had their visas revoked or legal status terminated since late March, according to an Associated Press review of university statements, correspondence with school officials and court records.
 

 

 


Malta offers to repair Gaza aid ship in drone strike row

A tug vessel puts out a fire on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla vessel Conscience outside Maltese territorial waters in this picture.
Updated 04 May 2025
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Malta offers to repair Gaza aid ship in drone strike row

  • Pro-Palestinian activists had pointed the finger at Israel for the attack
  • If the ship can be fixed at sea, it will be, but otherwise it will be towed under Maltese control to the Mediterranean island for repairs, paid for by Malta

VALLETTA: Malta offered on Sunday to repair an aid ship and send it on its way to Gaza after pro-Palestinian activists said the vessel had been hit by a drone strike.
But Prime Minister Robert Abela said the Freedom Flotilla Coalition must first allow a maritime surveyor on board to inspect the “Conscience” and determine what repairs are needed.
The pro-Palestinian activists had pointed the finger at Israel, which has blockaded the Gaza Strip throughout its military campaign against Hamas, for the attack.
If the ship can be fixed at sea, it will be, but otherwise it will be towed under Maltese control to the Mediterranean island for repairs, paid for by Malta.
“In the last few hours there was insistence that first the boat comes into Maltese waters and then the surveyor is allowed onboard,” Abela said.
“Before a vessel — any vessel — is allowed to enter Maltese waters then control must be in the hands of Maltese authorities, especially when we are talking about a vessel with no flag, no insurance.”
In an online press conference, members of the coalition who had been due to board the Conscience in Malta — including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg — said they had agreed to allow the inspection.
“When we received this offer from the Maltese government, we consulted with all of our Flotilla Coalition committee members who are on board,” said Brazilian FFC volunteer Thiago Avila.
“And their decision is that this is a good proposition from the Maltese government,” he said.
“As long as they can guarantee ... Conscience will not be stopped when it wants to leave on the humanitarian mission to take aid to Gaza.”
The activists explained the Conscience has no flag because the government of the Pacific nation of Palau had announced that they were withdrawing their registration on Friday, the day of the alleged strike.
Otherwise, they insisted they had made every effort to comply with international maritime law when embarking on the mission to take aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
According to the Flotilla Coalition, the Conscience was attacked in international waters as it headed for Malta on Friday, causing a fire that disabled the vessel and minor injuries to crew members.
Maltese and Cypriot rescuers responded. No government has confirmed the Conscience was the victim of drones, but Cyprus’s rescue agency said it had been informed by the island’s foreign ministry of an Israeli strike.
The Israeli military did not provide an immediate response when contacted by AFP.
First reported by CNN, a flight tracking service showed that an Israeli C-130 military cargo plane had been in the area immediately before the incident and had made several low altitude sweeps over the area.
Israel is known for conducting covert operations beyond its borders, including several during the Gaza war that it only acknowledged later.
The activists said the strike appeared to target the boat’s generator.
Thunberg told reporters that the incident should not distract from the focus of the boat’s mission to Gaza.
“What we are doing here is to try our very best to use all the means that we have to do our part, to keep trying to break the inhumane and illegal siege on Gaza and to open up humanitarian corridors,” she said.