TEL AVIV, Israel: Pressure built around Israel’s prison system Wednesday after fires broke out at several facilities and the government hunted for six Palestinian escapees who have been on the run since they tunneled out two days earlier.
Fires were reported at several prisons amid efforts to try to move inmates as a precautionary measure. An umbrella group representing prisoners from all Palestinian factions called on prisoners to resist being relocated to other facilities and to start fires in their cells if guards try to move them by force. The prisoners group also threatened a widespread hunger strike.
The Israel Prison Service said through a spokesperson that a fire broke out in two cells in different wings of Ramon Prison and that the blaze was brought under control. The Palestinian prisoners group reported fires in Ketziot Prison, and there were media reports of more unrest.
Recriminations reportedly rippled through Israel’s prison system, meanwhile, in the wake of the country’s largest jailbreak of its kind in decades. The six men who escaped, between 26 and 49 years old, apparently dug a tunnel out of Gilboa prison near the occupied West Bank and escaped early Monday.
The massive manhunt through Israel’s north and the occupied West Bank continued Wednesday as the new coalition government sought to maintain calm and Jews celebrated Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.
The most well-known among the escapees is Zakaria Zubeidi, 46, who was a prominent leader in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed group affiliated with Fatah, during the second intifada from 2000-2005. He was later granted amnesty along with other Fatah-affiliated militants, but was arrested again in 2019 on what Israeli authorities said were new terror suspicions.
As a child, Zubeidi had been part of a children’s theater troupe in Jenin established by Arna Mer-Khamis, an Israeli rights activist, that was the subject of a 2004 documentary.
The other five prisoners were members of the Islamic Jihad militant group, and the prisoners’ group said four were serving life sentences.
Inside the prisons, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other factions each have an organized presence and appear to be acting together in the wake of the escape.
The jailbreak poses a potential dilemma for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose security forces coordinate with Israel. His Fatah party has praised the prison escape, but he has not commented on it.
Palestinians view prisoners held by Israel as heroes of their national cause, and have celebrated the prison break. If the escapees are apprehended in the occupied West Bank, many Palestinians are likely to blame the Palestinian Authority, which is already facing a popular backlash after the death of an activist in PA custody in June.
Fires flare in Israeli prisons amid manhunt for 6 escapees
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Fires flare in Israeli prisons amid manhunt for 6 escapees
- Fires were reported at several prisons amid efforts to try to move inmates as a precautionary measure
- Recriminations reportedly rippled through Israel's prison system in the wake of the country's largest jailbreak
German authorities warn people against becoming ‘disposable agents’ for Russia
BERLIN: German security authorities are warning people against becoming “disposable agents” as worries mount about Russia using social media to find recruits for spying and sabotage in or against Germany.
Western officials have accused Russia and its proxies of staging dozens of attacks and other incidents across Europe since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. They worry that the risks are rising as untrained saboteurs are increasingly used. German officials have voiced concern over the use of “low-level agents.”
Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office said Tuesday that, along with the country’s domestic, foreign and military intelligence services, it is seeing increasing activity in Germany and elsewhere in which Russian intelligence services — directly or via intermediaries — apparently use social media to recruit people for espionage or sabotage.
It said the so-called “low-level agents” or “disposable agents” carry out crimes without receiving intelligence training, for only a little money and often without knowing who is ordering the activities or what their purpose is.
“They are ‘used’ and then ‘thrown away,’” the police office said in introducing a campaign titled “Don’t become a disposable agent.” It warned that “anti-constitutional sabotage” carried a maximum sentence of five years in prison and espionage can carry a 10-year sentence.
It urged people to get in touch with Germany’s domestic intelligence agency if they or acquaintances have been contacted by strangers offering them money to engage in activity such as spreading pro-Russia slogans, scoping out people or property, or causing damage.
Several suspected cases are currently under investigation in Germany, involving among other things arson, damage to property, drone overflights and suspicious filming and photography, police said.
Suicide behind one in every 100 deaths globally — WHO
- In 2021, last year data was available, there were an estimated 727,000 suicides worldwide
- Sicide leading cause of death among young people across geographies, socioeconomics
GENEVA: More than one in every 100 deaths globally is due to suicide, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, calling for urgent action to stem a mounting mental health crisis among young people especially.
The WHO said that, while global suicide rates had fallen somewhat in recent years, progress in combating the issue was far too slow.
In 2021 — the last year for which data was available — there were an estimated 727,000 suicides worldwide, the United Nations’ health agency said.
“Globally, suicide accounts for more than one in every 100 deaths, and for each death, there are 20 suicide attempts,” said Devora Kestel, the interim head of the WHO’s non-communicable disease and mental health department.
Those suicides “affected countless more lives and livelihoods, as friends, carers and loved ones were forced to grapple with unimaginable hardship,” she told reporters.
The WHO’s World Mental Health Today report highlighted that suicide remains a leading cause of death among young people across geographies and socioeconomic contexts.
In 2021, it was the second leading cause of death for girls and women aged 15 to 29, and the third leading cause for males in the same age category, it found.
Despite a 35-percent global decline in the age-adjusted suicide rate between 2000 and 2021, the world is still falling short of its goal: instead of the targeted one-third reduction in suicide rates between 2015 and 2030, current progress suggests only a 12 percent decrease will be achieved, according to the WHO.
Decreases were seen in every region — except in the Americas, where the suicide rate increased by 17 percent in the same period.
Nearly three-quarters of all suicides take place in lower-income countries, where most of the global population lives.
Although wealthier countries have a higher suicide rate, as a proportion of population, it is difficult to compare since they also tend to have better data available than lower-income countries, the WHO pointed out.
The agency cautioned that, while suicide rates have been slowly declining, the prevalence of mental disorders like anxiety and depression has been swelling.
“Between 2011 and 2021, the number of people living with mental disorders increased faster than the global population,” the report said.
According to the latest findings, more than one billion people are living with mental health disorders.
The WHO voiced particular concern about growing mental health distress among young people.
While there are likely a long line of drivers behind the increase, Mark van Ommeren, head of the WHO mental health unit, said “the two main hypotheses are social media and the impact of the Covid pandemic.”
In this context, WHO voiced alarm at a “stagnation” in mental health investment around the world, with median government spending on mental health remaining at just two percent of total health budgets — unchanged since 2017.
Globally, only nine percent of people with depression get treatment, it found.
“Transforming mental health services is one of the most pressing public health challenges,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
Actress Nelly Karim named face of Prada Beauty
DUBAI: Egyptian Russian actress Nelly Karim is the face of Prada Beauty in Egypt, the brand revealed this week.
The campaign highlights the Paradoxe Eau de Parfum Intense fragrance.
The pictures show Karim in two contrasting looks. In one image, she appears in a voluminous pale pink gown while holding the perfume bottle, set against a soft backdrop. Another image presents Karim in a brown dress with flowing sleeves, posing with the perfume against a dark background highlighted by green light beams.
Paradoxe Eau de Parfum Intense is a floral-amber fragrance that features notes of neroli and jasmine combined with amber accords and a vanilla base.
Prada first entered the Egyptian market in July with a summer pop-up activation, before announcing its official debut through the new campaign led by Karim.
Karim, born in Alexandria to an Egyptian father and Russian mother, began her acting career in 2000 with the TV series “Wageh El Amar.” She later appeared in Youssef Chahine’s “Alexandra … New York,” which screened at Cannes.
Since then, Karim has become one of Egypt’s most prominent actresses, with notable roles in “678,” “A Girl Named Zaat,” “Women’s Prison,” “Clash,” and the box office hit “The Blue Elephant 2.”
She also starred in “Voy! Voy! Voy!,” a satirical drama that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023 and went on to represent Egypt at the Academy Awards.
Her performances have brought her both regional and international recognition, cementing her status as a leading figure in Arab cinema and television.
Famously, and fittingly, Karim did not begin her career in the spotlight as an actress. From her childhood until her big break, dancing on “Fawazeer Ramadan,” she was a ballerina. She danced in Alexandria and then in the former Soviet Union, where she lived for a time as a child and was so moved by the work of famed Russian choreographer Boris Eifman at the tender age of 5 that she decided her life would be spent on the stage.
Court sentences Iraqi Kurd opposition leader to five months jail
- Abdulwahid was arrested on August 12 at his home in Sulaimaniyah, the second largest city in Kurdistan and a PUK stronghold, in a defamation case filed by a former MP
SULAIMANIYAH: A court in Iraqi Kurdistan sentenced opposition leader Shaswar Abdulwahid to five months in prison on Tuesday, his lawyer and party said.
The businessman-turned-politician heads the New Generation party, which holds 15 of the 100 seats in the northern region’s parliament, and nine of 329 seats in Iraq’s parliament.
His party serves as the main opposition to the autonomous Kurdish region’s two historic parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
The court sentenced Abdulwahid to “five months in prison,” his lawyer Bashdar Hasan told AFP, adding that his team would appeal.
New Generation vowed in a statement to intensify its efforts against the KDP and the PUK, and expressed readiness for Iraq’s legislative elections in November.
The party is part of the electoral alliance led by Iraq Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani for the elections, which are often marked by heated political wrangling.
Abdulwahid was arrested on August 12 at his home in Sulaimaniyah, the second-largest city in Kurdistan and a PUK stronghold, in a defamation case filed by a former MP.
He has been arrested several times since he launched his party in 2017. He was also wounded in an assassination attempt.
Iraqi Kurdistan portrays itself as a haven of stability, but activists and opponents frequently denounce corruption, arbitrary arrests and violations of press freedom and the right to protest.
Ten days after Abdulwahid was detained, clashes erupted in Sulaimaniyah during the arrest of another opposition figure, former PUK senior leader Lahur Sheikh Jangi.
Mobile exhibition in Buraidah brings regional heritage to life
- The title “Our Saudi Story” reflects the brand identity of the regional museums
RIYADH: The Museums Commission launched the first phase of the mobile interactive exhibition “Our Saudi Story: A Window into Museums,” the first of its kind in the Kingdom to showcase regional museum collections through modern technology.
The exhibition began its tour in Buraidah, Qassim region, coinciding with the Buraidah Dates Carnival, and will run until Sept. 13, offering visitors a sensory, visual, and auditory experience.
The title “Our Saudi Story” reflects the brand identity of the regional museums the commission plans to inaugurate in phases over the coming years, according to a Saudi Press Agency report.
Together, these 11 museums will present the cultural and civilizational heritage of Saudi Arabia’s regions, with each museum highlighting a distinct story within a shared narrative of national pride.
The exhibition opened to visitors with 11 selected artifacts digitally reimagined and presented through motion design and sound effects, allowing direct interaction with the Kingdom’s heritage.
The commission said that the exhibition aims to provide modern cultural experiences that enhance public awareness of heritage, showing how technology can preserve national identity and engage new generations.
