• Namibia blocks ship carrying 'explosive material' for Israel citing Genocide Convention
• Scottish gov't suspends meetings with Israel until it 'cooperates with investigation of genocide'
• Israel's opposition leader Gantz and Foreign Affairs magazine warn country at risk of 'civil war'
• Germany 'has stopped approving war weapons exports to Israel' - 11 months into the genocide, and just prior to its elections

• Germany tells EU it can't take any more migrants
• German industrial output slumps, fueling recession fears; Deutsche Bank CEO urges citizens to 'work harder'
• Volkswagen considers German factory closures for first time in 87-year history

Russia's decision to expand its military was taken due to the current hostile environment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

On Monday, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to boost the number of personnel in the armed forces to almost 2.4 million, including 1.5 million service members.

"The move was motivated by the number of threats that exist for our country alongside our borders. The environment is 'extremely hostile' for Russia in the West and 'unstable' in the East, a situation that requires appropriate measures."

Russia's previous increase in army strength came last December, when its numbers were boosted to just over 2.2 million, including 1.3 million troops.

The Kremlin views the hostilities as a proxy war waged by the West, and has accused the US and its allies of intentionally escalating it. The US intends to fight "to the last Ukrainian" as long as it can damage Russia, Moscow believes.

(16:20 GMT) 'No northern Israel resident returning home after explosions'

Amir Oren, a columnist at Israeli publication Haaretz focusing on military and government affairs, says "not one Israeli hostage" and "not
one Israeli resident is going back home in the north after the exploding pagers".

Speaking to Al Jazeera from West Jerusalem, he said: "What Israel should have done - and many in the Israeli defence establishment have recommended - is to get a ceasefire in Gaza, which will bring about the ceasefire in the north and then let diplomacy take effect."

Oren said "hopefully" the incident in Lebanon will be "a substitute for a ground manoeuvre" and "not a precursor", noting that it's in Israel's interest "to get the war over both in Gaza and in Lebanon".

But he added: "Netanyahu for his personal, political and even judicial reasons - he is, of course, standing trial for bribery and other offences and is supposed to testify on his own defence come December 2 - would like to prolong the war and probably to broaden it.

"Whether he has the power within the cabinet, within the Israeli political system to do it, I doubt it. He has veto power over others but up to now he has not managed to provoke anything in regards to Hezbollah where he can later leapfrog from there to Iran. [US] President [Joe] Biden has been adamant not to let him do it for very good reasons of American national interest," Oren continued.

"So there is a delicate balance Netanyahu and others in the Israeli decision-making elite - hopefully he will not prevail."

(16:10 GMT) 'New brand' of communication devices heated, then exploded: Report

It remains unclear at this time how the communication devices used in Lebanon were rigged to explode.

A Hezbollah official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press the new brand of handheld pagers used by the group first heated up, then exploded.

A source close to the group, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told AFP news agency the blasts were an "Israeli breach" of its communication system. He didn't elaborate. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

(15:10 GMT) 'A very sophisticated attack'

We have some more comments from military analyst Elijah Magnier on the near simultaneous pager explosions in Lebanon.

• This is a very sophisticated attack, and normally at this scale, it requires the collaboration of more than one entity.
• If Israeli intelligence managed to compromise the pagers that have been supplied to Hezbollah, this [does not exclude] that they have managed to access the supply by Iran because Iran supplies Hezbollah with most of its equipment.
• An operation of this scale needs the presence of high explosives, even in small quantities, and an awfully long time to sit at every single pager and manually insert 1 to 3 grammes [0.4 to 0.11oz] of highly explosive material and yet conserve the functionality of the pager, the screen and all the electronics without all of this being affected.
• That requires the work of more than one intelligence service and a break in the channel of supply.
• That can also indicate that there is an explosive because batteries don't explode on their own in Beirut, in th Bekaa Valley, in the south of Lebanon and in Syria and everywhere there is a pager at the same instant.
• This is not something related to the malfunction of the pager, but it is something that is implemented in it and exploded by a frequency, most likely a radio frequency.
• In this case, we understand Israeli intelligence has placed this explosive with the support of a third country before they reached Hezbollah
• This means that they have not only taken their time but they also sat on this supply for a long time before it reached its final destination and most probably the Iranians will now be examining all their products and equipment to make sure that nobody has tampered in what they have acquired.

Hand-held radios used by Hezbollah detonated on Wednesday across Lebanon's south and in Beirut's southern suburbs, a security source and a witness said, further stoking tensions with Israel a day after similar explosions launched via the group's pagers.

Three people were killed in Lebanon's Bekaa region, the state news agency reported, and dozens of people were wounded in the latest device blast.

At least one of the blasts took place near a funeral organized by Iran-backed Hezbollah for those killed the previous day when thousands of pagers used by the group exploded across the country and wounded many of the group's fighters.

[,,,]

The hand-held radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, around the same time that the pagers were bought, said a security source. Israel's spy agency Mossad, which has a long history of sophisticated operations on foreign soil, planted explosives inside pagers imported by Hezbollah months before Tuesday's detonations, a senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters.

The death toll from Tuesday's blasts rose to 12, including two children, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said on Wednesday. Tuesday's attack wounded nearly 3,000 people, including many of the militant group's fighters and Iran's envoy to Beirut.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called for an independent investigation into the events surrounding exploding pagers.

Flames rise up a building in Lebanon amid the explosions in Lebanon, September 15, 2024 Thousands of walkie talkies used by Hezbollah fighters have detonated across Lebanon, killing three and wounding hundreds of people including mourners at a funeral, witnesses and security sources have reported.

The second wave of carnage comes a day after thousands of exploding pagers used by the group left almost 3,000 people injured and a dozen dead, including civilians and children.

Security sources have now confirmed that hand-held radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, at around the same time as the compromised pagers.

© Social mediaPictures purportedly showing exploded hand-held radios have been circulating online

The latest explosions this afternoon have hit the country's south and the capital Beirut, where dramatic time-lapse video shows multiple plumes of smoke rising above the skyline in different locations almost simultaneously.

Multiple explosions occurred at the site of a funeral for three Hezbollah members and a child killed by exploding pagers the day before, according to reports.

The attacks amount to the biggest security breach in Hezbollah's history, with the group and its backers Iran condemning Israel and labelling it 'mass murder'.

The repetition of the clandestine attacks, which Israel has not taken responsibility for, will raise already spiking tensions in the region to fever pitch, with Lebanon's foreign minister today warning that the blasts are an omen of a widening war.

[...]

It has been alleged that Mossad, working in collaboration with Israel's Defence Forces (IDF), was behind yesterday's pager attacks, with Hezbollah officials already laying blame for the latest attacks with Israel.

Officials in Jerusalem have thus far declined to comment on yesterday's pager blasts, but Axios reports that two sources 'with knowledge of the operation' confirmed Israel's involvement.

The unnamed sources allege that the walkie-talkies were booby-trapped in advance by Israeli intelligence and then delivered to Hezbollah as part of its emergency communications system, which the group had planned to use during a war with Israel.

As well as security sources, weapons experts and regional analysts have also suggested that Israeli intelligence would have been capable of staging the pager attacks.

It has been widely theorised that intelligence services could have infiltrated the supply chain to plant a small quantity of high explosives within the pagers before they were delivered to Lebanon in the spring.

These rigged devices were subsequently distributed to thousands of unsuspecting members across the political, military, operational and medical branches of Hezbollah before they were eventually detonated on Tuesday afternoon.

The death toll rose to 12, including two children, according to the Lebanese health ministry, while nearly 3,000 people were injured, including many of the militant group's fighters and Iran's envoy to Beirut.

A Taiwanese pager maker denied that it had produced the pager devices which exploded in the audacious attac.

Gold Apollo said the devices were made by under licence by a company called BAC, based in Hungary's capital Budapest.

Full text:

BREAKING: THE COMPANY RESPONSIBLE FOR PAGER EXPLOSION IN LEBANON HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED

The AR-924 pagers were manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT, based in Hungary's capital, according to a statement released Wednesday by Gold Apollo.

According to Hsu, payments from BAC had been "strange" and came through the Middle East.

BAC's website, filled with generic images, lists its CEO and founder as Cristina Arcidiacono-Barsony, and claims the company specializes in consulting across various fields including environment, development and international relations. The official address provided is a private residence in Budapest.

The website of the company is now offline.

Full text:

The company in question appears to be a suspicious entity with *Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono* listed as the owner and sole employee, according to the website. While Cristiana holds a PhD and has a LinkedIn profile created in 2019, her online presence is minimal and unusual, with only 3-4 photos available and no presence on platforms like Facebook or Instagram. Moreover, her LinkedIn account contains irrelevant or unusual content for a professional platform. Other employees associated with the company seem to have fake names or profiles, and some are listed under real names of people who do not actually work there. Additionally, Cristiana's photo is linked to another potentially fraudulent company, whose phone number is disconnected, raising concerns about the legitimacy of both companies. This morning, the company's website was blocked behind a username and password.

All attempts to contact the company or Cristiana by phone have gone unanswered.

17 Jan, 2024 21:09
African islands rocked by riots (VIDEOS)Police and protesters clashed in Comoros after the country's president won a fourth term in office
[...]
Assoumani declared a curfew on Wednesday evening, claiming that the unrest was stirred up by opposition parties.

In a statement on Wednesday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called on Assoumani to "ensure a safe environment, where all Comorians ... can freely express their views and exercise their right to peaceful assembly." Turk also called on demonstrators to refrain from violence and vandalism.

Situated in the Indian Ocean between Mozambique and Madagascar, Comoros is made up of three islands, with Moroni located on the largest of these islands, Grande Comore.

The country has seen more than two dozen coups d'etat since it gained independence from France in 1975, with Assoumani seizing power in a military putsch in 1999. A former army general, Assoumani transitioned to civilian rule when he won an election in 2002, before he retired from politics in 2006. He came out of retirement and was elected president again in 2016 and 2019.