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FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — As the late afternoon sun settles over Freetown’s main transit park, Hawa Mansaray pulls up her motorized three-wheeled vehicle and steps away for a break and to pray.

Mansaray is one of a small but growing number of women entering a male-dominated commercial transport sector in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown. The auto-rickshaws, known locally as kekeh, are an essential means of transport and until recently were almost exclusively driven by men.

“I have done different jobs since I came to Freetown but kekeh has done more for me,” said the 27-year-old single mother of one.

The rickshaws have become increasingly popular in Sierra Leone, filling the gaps in a strained public transport system as the West African country struggles to recover from its 1991-2002 civil war.

Freetown’s population has grown to more than 1.5 million, according to city estimates — roughly three times the size it was when much of its infrastructure was planned and built. Public transport systems have struggled to keep up, creating demand for commercial motorcycles and auto-rickshaws.

Although the rickshaws are usually rickety, run at minimal speed, and are considered less safe due to the maximum exposure that comes with how they’re built, commuters still prefer them because they’re easily accessible and offer maximum ventilation and relative comfort.

As more people turn to the rickshaws to earn a living, it’s also become a symbol of what women are capable of.

In the city, however, women are still “seen as people not adequate to do certain types of jobs,” said Marfoh Mariama Samai, a women’s rights advocate with Plan International Sierra Leone.

“So when a young woman ventures into a certain type of job, they are stigmatized,” she says of the female drivers.

Sierra Leone has one of the lowest levels of access to and availability of financial services in Africa, making it harder for groups such as women and rural residents to recover from economic shocks.

As a result, many women are confined to petty trading that offers little stability and makes them rely heavily on their husbands, said Samai.

“When the man gives you the money, he makes all the decisions,” she said of the patriarchal norms still in place in parts of Sierra Leone. “More young women should be encouraged to get into the transport sector.”

Mansaray knows the challenges of financial dependence firsthand. Originally from Kailahun District, where Sierra Leone’s civil war began, she was born at the height of the conflict, and had to drop out of school at the primary level.

As an adult, she turned to running small businesses to make ends meet for herself and her baby, after separating from her husband.

Learning to drive rickshaws for a living was initially not in her plans, but she took interest in it and paid to be trained after seeing women like her excelling in the business.

Mansaray now works under a company that requires her to make daily returns of 350 leones ($14), earning an average daily wage of 175 leones ($7), enough to cater to her family and considered high income for many in the country.

“I will advise my fellow women who aren’t employed to come into the game,” she adds.

Alimatu Kamara, another female rickshaw driver, can relate to Mansaray’s experience. She had been unemployed for years before deciding to venture into the business.

It’s been a great ride ever since, Kamara said, but added that a major challenge for her remains aggressive behavior from male riders, a common complaint among female drivers alongside safety concerns at night.

“Some women can panic,” she said. “It takes mind and determination to continue.”

Despite the difficulties, she plans to expand and purchase more rickshaws.

“We can’t just sit, waiting for office jobs. With jobs like kekeh, you can even make more money,” Kamara said.

The Sierra Leone Kekeh Riders Union has more than 1,000 registered members in western Freetown, but only about 20 are women, a number the union’s district chairman, Mustapha Thoronka, said has improved.

Thoronka said he supports efforts to train and assist female drivers, including advocating for loans for them.

“Whatever men can do, women can do better,” Thoronka said, hoping that through the business “they can support themselves and their families without relying on men.”

Thoronka is urging the government to provide more support, noting that it’s capital intensive, making it more difficult for women to get involved.

Mariama Barrie, a commuter, said she prefers female drivers.

“They are more careful than the men,” she said. For her, the growing presence of women in the kekeh sector sends a message particularly “to women who sit and wait to be spoon fed.”

“If you know how to ride, take kekeh … rather than sitting and waiting for handouts,” she said.

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By Parisa Hafezi and Angus McDowall

DUBAI, April 11 (Reuters) – Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is still recovering from severe facial and leg injuries suffered in the airstrike that killed his father at the beginning of the war, three people close to his inner circle told Reuters.

Khamenei’s face was disfigured in the attack on the supreme leader’s compound in central Tehran and he suffered a significant injury to one or both legs, all three sources said.

The 56-year-old is nonetheless recovering from his wounds and remains mentally sharp, according to the people, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. He is taking part in meetings with senior officials via audio conferencing and is engaged in decision-making on major issues including the war and negotiations https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/us-iran-ceasefire-what-we-know-2026-04-08/ with Washington, two of them said.

The question of whether Khamenei’s health allows him to run state affairs comes during Iran’s moment of gravest peril for decades, with high-stakes peace talks with the United States opening in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Saturday.

The accounts of the people close to Khamenei’s inner circle provide the most detailed description of the leader’s condition for weeks. Reuters couldn’t independently verify their descriptions.

Khamenei’s whereabouts, condition and ability to rule still largely remain a mystery to the public, with no photo, video or audio recording of him published since the air attack and his subsequent appointment as his father’s replacement on March 8.

Iran’s United Nations mission did not respond to Reuters questions about the extent of Khamenei’s injuries or the reason he has not yet appeared in any images or recordings.

Khamenei was wounded on February 28, the first day of the war launched by the U.S. and Israel, in the attack that killed his father and predecessor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had ruled since 1989. Mojtaba Khamenei’s wife, brother-in-law and sister-in-law were among other members of his family killed in the strike.

There has been no official Iranian statement on the extent of Khamenei’s injuries. However, a newsreader on state television described him as a “janbaz”, a term used for those badly wounded in war, after he was named supreme leader.

The accounts of Khamenei’s injuries tally with a statement https://www.reuters.com/world/irans-new-supreme-leader-wounded-likely-disfigured-hegseth-says-2026-03-13/ made by U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on March 13 when he said that Khamenei was “wounded and likely disfigured”.

A source familiar with U.S. intelligence assessments told Reuters that Khamenei was believed to have lost a leg.

The CIA declined to comment on Khamenei’s condition. The Israeli prime minister’s office didn’t respond to questions.

Alex Vatanka, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, said that, regardless of the severity of his injuries, it was unlikely the new and inexperienced leader would be able to command the overarching power wielded by his father. While he is seen to represent continuity, it could take years for him to build up the same level of automatic authority, Vatanka added.

“Mojtaba will be one voice but it will not be the decisive one,” he said. “He needs to prove himself as the credible, powerful, overriding voice. The regime as a whole has to make a decision in terms of where they are going to go.”

One of the people close to Khamenei’s circle said images of the supreme leader could be expected to be released within one or two months and that he might even appear in public then, although all three sources stressed he would only emerge when his health and the security situation allowed.

‘WE DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HIS WORLD VIEW’

In Iran’s theocratic system of rule, ultimate power is meant to be wielded by the supreme leader, a venerable Shi’ite Muslim cleric appointed by an assembly of 88 ayatollahs. The leader oversees the elected president while directly commanding parallel institutions including the Revolutionary Guards, a powerful political and military force.

Iran’s first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, enjoyed unquestioned authority as the charismatic leader of the revolution and the most learned cleric of his day.

His successor, Ali Khamenei, was a less revered cleric but had served as Iran’s president. He spent decades cementing his authority after his appointment in 1989, partly through promoting the power of the Revolutionary Guards.

His son Mojtaba does not command absolute power in the same way, senior Iranian sources have previously told Reuters. The Revolutionary Guards, who helped steer https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/irans-new-leader-still-silent-was-elevated-by-revolutionary-guards-2026-03-10/ him into the top job after his father’s assassination, have emerged as the dominant voice https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/irans-revolutionary-guards-take-wartime-lead-ensuring-harder-line-sources-say-2026-03-04/ on strategic decisions during the war. Iran’s U.N. mission didn’t respond to questions about the power wielded by the Guards and the new supreme leader.

As an influential figure in his father’s office, Khamenei had previously spent years nL1N3ZW031 involved in exercising power at the top levels of the Islamic Republic, officials and insiders have said, building ties with senior Guards figures.

While he is widely seen as likely to continue his father’s hardline approach due to his links to the Guards, we don’t know much about his world view, said Vatanka at the Middle East Institute.

Khamenei’s first communication with Iranians as supreme leader came on March 12, saying in a written statement read out by a television news presenter that the Strait of Hormuz should stay closed and warning regional countries to shut U.S. bases.

His office has since issued a few other brief written statements from him, including on March 20 when he welcomed in the Persian new year, which he named the “year of resistance”. Public statements of policy on Iran’s war stance, its approach towards diplomacy, neighbours, ceasefire negotiations and domestic unrest, have been made by other senior officials.

‘WHERE IS MOJTABA?’ MEMES CIRCULATE ONLINE

Khamenei’s absence is widely discussed on Iranian social media and in messaging app groups, when the country’s patchy internet allows, with conspiracy theories widespread about his condition and who is running the country.

One popular meme circulating online is a picture of an empty chair under a spotlight with the slogan “Where is Mojtaba?”

However, some government supporters, including a senior member of the Basij militia, a volunteer paramilitary group run by the Revolutionary Guards, said that it was important for Khamenei to keep a low profile, given the threat posed by waves of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes that have already wiped out much of the country’s leadership.

A lower-ranking Basij member agreed.

“Why should he appear in public? To become a target for these criminals?” Mohammad Hosseini, from the city of Qom, said in a text message.

(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi; Additonal reporting by Jonathan Landay in Washington and Rami Ayyub in Jerusalem; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Pravin Char)

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By Ariba Shahid and Asif Shahzad

ISLAMABAD, April 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. and Iran were to hold negotiations in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Saturday seeking to end their six-week-old war, although Tehran threw the talks into doubt by saying they could not begin without commitments on Lebanon and sanctions.

The U.S. delegation, led by Vice President JD Vance and including President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, was on its way to Islamabad after a refuelling stop in Paris.

The Iranian delegation, led by ‌parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, arrived on Friday.

IRAN HAS ‘NO CARDS’, TRUMP SAYS

Qalibaf said on X that Washington had previously agreed to unblock Iranian assets and to a ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israeli attacks on Iran-backed Hezbollah militants have killed nearly 2,000 people since the start of the fighting in March. He said talks would not start until those pledges were fulfilled.    

Israel and the U.S. have said the Lebanon campaign is not part of the Iran-U.S. ceasefire while Tehran insists it is.

Qalibaf said separately that Iran was ready to reach a deal if Washington offered what he described as a genuine agreement and granted Iran its rights, Iranian state media reported.

The White House did not immediately comment on the Iranian demands, but Trump posted on social media that the only reason the Iranians were alive was to negotiate a deal.

“The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!” he said.

Vance, speaking as he headed to Pakistan, said he expected a positive outcome but added: “If they’re going to try to play us, then they’re going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive.”

Preliminary discussions have been separately held by Pakistani officials with advance teams from both sides, sources in Islamabad said.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said these included 70 members from Tehran, including technical specialists in economic, security and political fields as well as media personnel and support staff. About 100 members of an advance U.S. team were in the city, a Pakistani government source said.

“We’re very positive,” said another Pakistani source close to the discussions.

Asked if talks would end on Saturday, the source said: “Too early to say. They have instructions to close a deal or walk away. Hence not in a rush. These talks are not on the clock.”

Islamabad was under an unprecedented lockdown ahead of the talks with thousands of paramilitary personnel and army troops on the streets.

“We have deployed multi-layer security for this event, which is based on coordination, intelligence and constant monitoring for zero disruption and full control,” Pakistan’s junior interior minister, Talal Chaudhry, told Reuters.

Trump announced a two-week ceasefire in the war on Tuesday, which has halted U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran. 

But it has not ended Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has caused the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies, or calmed the parallel war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

FIGHTING CONTINUES IN LEBANON

The Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, and his Lebanese counterpart, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, will hold talks in Washington on Tuesday, Israeli and Lebanese officials said, amid the conflicting accounts on what those talks would cover.

Lebanon’s presidency said the two had held a phone call on Friday and agreed to discuss announcing a ceasefire and setting a start date for bilateral talks under U.S. mediation. But Israel’s embassy in Washington said the talks would constitute the start of “formal peace negotiations” and that Israel had refused to discuss a ceasefire with Hezbollah.    

Israeli attacks continued across southern Lebanon on Friday. One strike on a government building in the city of Nabatieh killed 13 members of Lebanon’s state security forces, President Joseph Aoun said in a statement.

Hezbollah said in a statement on its Telegram channel that it fired rocket salvos at northern Israeli towns in response.

Hours after the ceasefire was announced, Israel launched the biggest attack of the war, killing more than 350 people in surprise strikes on heavily populated areas, Lebanese authorities said.           

Tehran’s agenda at the talks also includes demands for major new concessions, including the end of sanctions that crippled its economy for years, and acknowledgment of its authority over the Strait of Hormuz, where it aims to collect transit fees and control access in what would amount to a huge shift in regional power.

Iran’s ships were sailing through the strait unimpeded on Friday, while those of other countries remained hemmed inside.

Disruption to energy supplies has fed inflation and slowed the global economy, with an impact expected to last for months even if negotiators succeed in reopening the strait.   

The hard line taken by Iran’s leaders ahead of the negotiations followed a defiant message from its new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on Thursday. 

Khamenei, yet to be seen in public since taking over from his father, who was killed on the war’s first day, said Iran would demand compensation for all wartime damage.

“We will certainly not leave unpunished the criminal aggressors who attacked our country,” he said.

Although Trump has declared victory and degraded Iran’s military capabilities, the war has not achieved many of the aims he set out at the start: to deprive Iran of the ability to strike its neighbours, dismantle its nuclear programme, and make it easier for its people to overthrow their government.

Iran still possesses missiles and drones capable of hitting its neighbours and a stockpile of more than 400 kg (900 pounds) of uranium enriched near the level needed to make a bomb. Its clerical rulers, who faced a popular uprising just months ago, withstood the onslaught with no sign of organised opposition.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by William Mallard)

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A U.S. delegation led by Vice President JD Vance is headed to Pakistan for talks with Iranian officials aimed at shoring up a shaky ceasefire and paving the way for a permanent end to the fighting. It marks the first such meeting since the war began more than a month ago.

The ceasefire brokered by Pakistan still faces hurdles in the talks beginning Saturday, as Israel and Hezbollah militants have been trading fire along the border of southern Lebanon and Iran has set conditions before negotiations can begin.

The Iranian delegation arrived early Saturday in Islamabad, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who said on X that discussions will only take place if there is an Israeli ceasefire in Lebanon the release of blocked Iranian assets.

Hours earlier, President Donald Trump wished Vance good luck. “We’ll find out what’s going on. They’re militarily defeated.”

In Islamabad, the streets of a normally bustling capital were deserted Saturday as security forces sealed roads ahead of the talks.

Here is the latest:

The Iranian delegation is scheduled to meet with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at noon Saturday, according to the Tasnim news agency, which is close to the powerful Revolutionary Guard.

Iran’s negotiating team, chaired by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and includes Foreign Minister Abbas Arghchi, met late Friday with Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir.

The meetings come ahead of high-stakes talks between Iran and the U.S. in Islamabad which aim at reaching a permanent end of the war in the Middle East.

Pakistan’s government has set up a state-of-the-art media center to facilitate Pakistani and foreign journalists covering the talks between the United States and Iran, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said.

Tarar told reporters the facility at the Jinnah Convention Center offers high-speed internet and a range of free services to support media coverage. Shuttle services have been arranged to transport journalists between the media center and a hotel in the city’s main shopping mall.

Pakistan has announced visa-on-arrival for journalists and official delegations traveling from the United States and Iran for the talks, which have been dubbed the “Islamabad talks.”

Inside the media center, rows of workstations equipped with laptops and charging points allow reporters to file stories. Large screens broadcast major domestic and international television channels. The facility also has designated areas for live stand-ups, press briefings and interviews.

The streets of Pakistan’s normally bustling capital were deserted Saturday as security forces sealed roads ahead of talks between high-level officials from Iran and the U.S. to end their nearly six-week war. Pakistani authorities urged Islamabad residents to stay inside, leading the city to look like it was under curfew.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance is leading the American delegation, which was expected to arrive before noon.

Iranian negotiators, headed by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, arrived late Friday.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif the conflict was entering a “difficult phase” as the sides try to shift from a temporary pause in fighting to a more lasting settlement. He said they were at a “make-or-break” moment.

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LONDON (AP) — A charity co-founded by Prince Harry in Africa to honor his late mother, Princess Diana, has sued him for defamation after he stepped down as a patron last year.

Sentebale, which supports young people living with HIV in Botswana and Lesotho, filed suit last month in London’s High Court, according to court records reviewed Friday.

Online filings show Harry and his friend, Mark Dyer, a trustee at the charity, are being sued for either libel or slander. No documents were available.

Disagreements at the charity surfaced in 2023 over a new fundraising strategy. Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, co-founders of the charity, stepped down as patrons in March 2025.

At the time, they said the relationship between the board and its chair, Sophie Chandauka, was beyond repair. Chandauka later accused Harry of orchestrating a campaign of bullying and harassment to try to force her out.

The Charity Commission for England and Wales investigated and criticized both sides for allowing the issue to be played out in public and damaging the organization’s reputation, but found no evidence of widespread bullying or misogyny at Sentebale.

“Sentebale’s problems played out in the public eye, enabling a damaging dispute to harm the charity’s reputation, risk overshadowing its many achievements, and jeopardizing the charity’s ability to deliver for the very beneficiaries it was created to serve,” commission CEO David Holdsworth said in a statement in August 2025.

Harry’s spokesman had criticized the commission’s report while Chandauka welcomed it.

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BEIRUT (AP) — Attacks intensified Friday between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah ahead of direct talks between the Lebanese government and Israel set to begin next week.

At least 13 members of Lebanon’s State Security forces were killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon Friday, while Hezbollah claimed an attack targeting a naval base in the Israeli port city of Ashdod some 90 miles away from the border.

Israel launched strikes across several towns in southern Lebanon, including one on a government building in the southern city of Nabatieh that killed the government security personnel. Hezbollah claimed 31 other attacks on northern Israel and on Israeli ground troops that have invaded southern Lebanon.

Israel launched its latest aerial campaign and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon after Hezbollah fired rockets toward northern Israel in solidarity with Iran, its key ally and patron, on March 2.

At least 1,888 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli strikes, according to the Health Ministry. At least 303 were killed in a rapid series of 100 strikes that hit the country — including multiple areas in dense residential and commercial areas in central Beirut — in 10 minutes on Wednesday, the bloodiest day in the latest war between the two sides. Civil Defense first responders are still searching for bodies trapped under the rubble in the Lebanese capital.

Meanwhile, officials at Beirut’s main government-run hospital on the southern edge of the capital fear it could be in the line of fire after the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for the surrounding suburbs, including the busy neighborhood of Jnah where the hospital is located. Israel has launched attacks in Jnah, both with and without warning.

The World Health Organization has since called for the Rafik Hariri University Hospital to be spared from attacks and not to evacuate, and WHO officials said Friday that they received assurances that it would not be struck. The hospital has not evacuated, though staff are fearful, as getting to work now requires them to drive on roads that can be struck at any time says Dr. Mohammad Cheaito, who heads the emergency department.

“The entire zone around the hospital was threatened and deemed dangerous,” he told the AP. “But at the end of the day, we have a humanitarian duty.”

Lebanon’s authorities have not yet commented on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement on Thursday of the decision to go ahead with talks. Netanyahu said the talks would revolve around disarming Hezbollah and establishing “peaceful relations” between the two countries.

A Lebanese official in government familiar with the developments said that a halt in the fighting is a critical condition for the country to engage in direct talks with Israel, similar to the one between the U.S. and Iran. It has yet to appoint a representative for negotiations. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun had initially proposed the direct talks early on in the war on similar terms, at the time hoping for Israel to stop an escalation in airstrikes and to not invade the country. At the time, with only the backing of France, that failed.

On Wednesday, the U.S. and Iran announced a temporary ceasefire in the war that began on Feb. 28. It included Lebanon and other countries impacted in the wider regional conflict, mediator Pakistan announced. However, Israel — and later the United States — denied this. They want to separate the diplomatic tracks of the two wars.

Hezbollah considers Israel’s attacks on Lebanon to be a violation of the ceasefire, while Beirut, in a bid to disarm Hezbollah and assert its full sovereignty over the country, says it wants to be included in talks related to Lebanon.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Kassem in a statement broadcast Thursday did not directly mention the prospect of Israel-Lebanon talks, but called on the Lebanese government to “stop giving free concessions” to Israel.

Dozens of supporters of the Iran-backed group protested outside of the Lebanese prime minister’s office in central Beirut. They see the scheduled direct talks as a surrender to Israel, which says its troops will stay in the country indefinitely.

“Our blood has been spilled on this land, and our state is conspiring against us,” said protester Hassan Shuaib. “Our state wants to kill us; our state wants to strip us of our weapons.”

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Associated Press producer Malak Harb and video journalist Fadi Tawil in Beirut contributed to this report.

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By Laila Bassam and Maya Gebeily

BEIRUT, April 10 (Reuters) – Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun has called for historic direct talks with longtime foe Israel since war erupted a month ago – a month in which Israel’s military has forced more than a million Lebanese to flee, levelled parts of Beirut and triggered sectarian friction.

Now that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has finally answered the call to talk peace, Lebanon is in its weakest position to deliver it, experts said. 

Armed group Hezbollah, which is locked in clashes with invading Israeli troops in south Lebanon, is opposed to direct negotiations – throwing into question whether it would abide by any ceasefire agreed by the state.

“The talks that will take place between Lebanon and Israel are frankly pointless, because those conducting them in the name of Lebanon have no leverage to negotiate,” a Lebanese official close to the group told Reuters on condition of anonymity.    

MORE THAN 300 KILLED IN DAY OF STRIKES

Israel intensified air attacks on Lebanon after Hezbollah fired missiles into Israel on March 2, three days into the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. It has since widened a ground offensive.

Shi’ite Muslims, the community from which Hezbollah draws its support and which has borne the brunt of Israel’s strikes, have told Reuters they have little faith in a state they see as failing to defend them.

Netanyahu’s instructions to his cabinet to prepare for direct talks came a day after Israeli strikes across Lebanon killed more than 300 people, one of the bloodiest days for Lebanon since its civil war ended in 1990. Rescuers were still pulling mangled bodies out of the wreckage of pulverized buildings on Friday as families held funerals across Lebanon. 

Israeli bombardment has destroyed public infrastructure across southern Lebanon and killed several Lebanese state security forces on Friday.

“Israel’s brutality does not distinguish between one civilian and another, nor between Muslim and Christian, in this country. We must all stand together to confront this barbarity and this aggression,” said Hassan Saleh, a Lebanese man attending a funeral in the southern city of Tyre.    

STATE’S STANDING DETERIORATES

Many Lebanese, including two officials who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said they saw Netanyahu’s belated acceptance of talks as a fig leaf, aimed at generating goodwill in Washington as the U.S. begins talks with Iran this weekend, while ultimately keeping the war in Lebanon going. 

“Just because Israel agreed to negotiate with us doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. The problem is that we don’t have any other option,” said Nabil Boumonsef, deputy editor-in-chief of Lebanon’s Annahar newspaper.

Lebanon’s state has historically been weak, hamstrung by corruption, a sectarian powersharing system that is frequently deadlocked and cycles of internal fighting and wars between Hezbollah and Israel.

Lebanese have repeated the refrain of “there is no state” for decades, but recent crises have degraded the government’s standing even further.  

Lebanon’s financial system collapsed in 2019 and a 2020 chemical explosion at the Beirut port killed more than 200 people. No one has been held to account for either.

In September 2024, an Arab Barometer survey found that 76% of Lebanese had no trust at all in their government. 

The following month, Israel sent troops into Lebanon and escalated its bombing campaign after a year of exchanging fire with Hezbollah. More than 3,700 people were killed in Lebanon.

A HOUSE DIVIDED

Even after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in November 2024, Israel kept troops in Lebanon and continued its strikes against what it said was Hezbollah infrastructure. Those who returned to demolished southern Lebanese towns spent their own savings to rebuild their houses without state help.

Thousands more who could not return home said their own government was at fault for failing to secure Israel’s withdrawal through diplomacy.

The U.S. and Israel, meanwhile, blamed the Lebanese state and army for failing to fulfil a promise under the 2024 ceasefire deal to fully strip Hezbollah of its arsenal.

Lebanese officials said disarming Hezbollah by force would trigger civil strife and talks to convince the group to abandon its weapons were failing as Israel still occupied Lebanese land.

After Hezbollah entered the regional war on March 2, Lebanon outlawed its military activities. But the army did not stop the group’s missile launches, with officials again citing the risk of internal conflict. 

Netanyahu has said talks would focus on Hezbollah’s disarmament and a historic peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon, who have technically been at war since Israel’s founding in 1948.

But both are hard to imagine after such a deadly week.

Lebanon was heading into talks as a house divided, said Michael Young of the Carnegie Endowment’s Middle East Center.  

Disarming Hezbollah “means entering into a confrontation with the entire Shi’ite community, which will not accept Hezbollah’s disarmament because they feel they are surrounded by enemies”, he said.    

“We’re weak because we’re unclear on the terms of reference of negotiations, divided over the question of negotiations, because our demands will be rejected and because we cannot do what we need to do to secure an Israeli withdrawal.”

(Writing by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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MADRID (AP) — A bus carrying tourists in Spain’s Canary Islands fell down a ravine Friday, killing one person and injuring 27 others, local emergency services said.

Most of the passengers were British nationals.

The incident took place in La Gomera, one of the eight islands that make up the Spanish archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean off the western coast of Africa.

The injured were transferred to a local hospital on the island, emergency services said, and were being treated for injuries.

La Gomera is among the smallest of the Canary Islands, with steep terrain marked by volcanic mountains, dense forest and cliffside villages. The islands, known for their year-round warm temperatures, are popular holiday destinations for many Britons and Europeans.

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LUCKNOW, India (AP) — An overcrowded tourist boat capsized in the Yamuna river in northern India on Friday, leaving at least 10 people dead, officials said.

The accident occurred near the temple town of Vrindavan, a major Hindu pilgrimage site in Uttar Pradesh state.

Officials said the privately operated boat, which had a capacity of about 15 passengers, was carrying around 25 people when it overturned midstream. Preliminary findings indicated strong winds caused the vessel to sway before it struck a pontoon bridge and capsized.

Senior administrative officer Chandraprakash Singh said 15 people were rescued, four of them in critical condition. The dead were all from India and included six women, he said.

Officials said most passengers were not wearing life jackets and that the boat appeared poorly maintained. The operator fled the scene after the accident, they said.

The tourists were part of a larger group of about 150 people visiting the area, officials said.

Boating accidents are common in India, where many vessels are overcrowded and have inadequate safety equipment.

In 2023, a tourist boat capsized in southern India, killing at least 22 people.

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LONDON, April 10 (Reuters) – British police have arrested a Sudanese man on suspicion of endangering life after four migrants died while attempting to cross the Channel from France to Britain on a small boat this week, authorities said.

Britain’s National Crime Agency, which investigates organised crime, said the 27-year-old was arrested on Friday following the incident which occurred off the coast of Saint-Etienne-au-Mont, near Calais in northern France, on Thursday.

The man was arrested at a processing centre in Manston, southern England, on suspicion of ‘endangering another during a journey by sea to the UK’ under the new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act, the NCA said. He was not named and Reuters was unable to reach a representative for comment.

The four victims, two men and two women whose identities have not yet been released, died when they tried to board a water taxi which smugglers are increasingly using to avoid police, the NCA said.

Thirty-eight people were returned to the French shore after the incident, while 74 migrants sailed on to Britain, it added.

The numbers of people crossing the Channel to seek asylum in Britain have made illegal immigration a hot issue for Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his predecessors in Downing Street.

(Reporting by Muvija M; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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