The Libyan Business Council (LBC), Eastern Branch, hosted a high-level French trade delegation from Business France in Benghazi yesterday.The LBC said...

As part of the technical evaluation and follow-up work of dam facilities, the Dams and Flood Risk Study Committee at the Libya Development and Reconst...

The countries are not opposed to a new map per se; they're testy about the colour shades.

The inaugural Ultimate Championship opens with Olympic Games champions competing for a record prize pot of $10m.

Officials say there was a stampede as they fled a fire that engulfed two schools in the eastern rebel-held city of Bukavu.

King Oyo's family say he left a will naming his young son as heir to the Tooro kingdom.

Mokha's capture brings the Iran-backed group closer to controlling a key international shipping route.

The paper said it stood by its reporting, after publishing extracts from a book where the claim appears.

Egyptian detainees issue call for government to apply new caps to pretrial detention Submitted by Katherine Hearst on Fri, 09/04/2026 - 16:41 The new Criminal Procedure Code, adopted in November and set to take effect in October this year, promises to place limits on periods of pretrial detention A picture taken on 16 January 2022 shows the Correctional and Rehabilitation Centre in Badr city, 65 kms east of the Egyptian capital Cairo (AFP/Khaled Desouki) Off Egyptian prisoners held in pretrial detention have called for the government to apply new statutory limits to their cases, which are set to be introduced next month. The new Criminal Procedure Code, adopted in November and set to take effect in October this year, promises to place limits on periods of pretrial detention. In a letter seen by MEE and addressed to the Egyptian government, the anonymous group said that they had been held in pretrial detention for “many years”, and that they welcomed the new legislation. “We hope that it will allow us once again to enjoy freedom and the rights of citizenship,” the letter reads. “And that each of us may return to making a positive contribution, with dedication and sincerity, to the advancement of our country and society in every sphere of life, within what is possible and legally permitted”. Rights defenders have backed the detainees' demands. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); “They’re trying to get a step ahead,” Samar Elhussieny, executive director of the Egyptian Human Rights Forum, told MEE. “They’re saying we’re committed to doing whatever you want, just don’t exclude us from the pretrial detention cap." The letter further noted that the prisoners had “turned the page on the past and all its ambiguous and unfavourable circumstances”. A source who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, told MEE that one of the letter’s signatories is a 70-year-old doctor who has been held in pretrial detention for over six years. During that time, his health has deteriorated rapidly, having undergone open-heart surgery. “He does not leave his cell and is suffering from weakness, emaciation and difficulty moving, without the necessary medical care,” the source said. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The letter was shortly followed by another statement, entitled “Enough is enough”, signed by a different cohort of prisoners from across several prisons, protesting their detention conditions. The statement demands “release for all detainees,” condemning “the imprisonment of women, prolonged pretrial, detention, the arbitrary recycling of charges (tadweer) following release orders or served sentences, the detention of children, extrajudicial arrests, and enforced disappearances”. Political researcher and former prisoner Saif Alislam Eid, who is in contact with the group, told MEE that the group intends to conduct a prison strike if their demands were not met. He added that one of the letters’ signatories is in his mid-thirties and has been in prison for 11 years. ‘High expectations’ Elhussieny said she is sceptical as to whether the changes will result in the release of the estimated 60,000 political detainees currently behind bars. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); “Supposedly, when the law comes into effect, they have to review everyone who has been in pretrial detention for the maximum time and then release them,” Elhussieny said, noting that this process should already have been underway prior to implementation. The fledgling legislation has already come under fierce scrutiny by rights groups, as well as the EU and the UN, who wrote letters expressing concerns regarding the draft bill. Cairo accused of ‘punishment by proxy’ after British-Egyptian woman arrested over sister's activism Read More » In September last year, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi sent back an initial draft of the legislation to parliament for revision, following outcry from rights groups, the Egyptian Lawyers' and Journalists’ Syndicates, and UN experts. Critics warned it would vastly expand police and prosecutorial powers and threaten to entrench existing violations such as arbitrary detention, limiting access to legal counsel, travel bans and expedited trials.  Elhussieny said that the revised version adopted by the government in November last year is similarly flawed, with the only promising amendment being the pretrial detention cap. “When Sisi sent the draft bill back we were expecting a better version. This didn’t happen,” she said. “It was more of a gesture from the president that I'm listening to your concerns. “This law was supposed to be fixing the issues in the current law, but it’s actually more problematic." The final draft of the legislation does not address the practice of “recycling” charges against detainees- which involves the authorities filing identical or fresh charges against detainees when their prison sentence concludes, trapping them indefinitely behind bars. Additionally she said, the new code authorises police interrogations to be conducted without the presence of a lawyer. Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the right to timely access to legal counsel is guaranteed “during all stages of the criminal justice process”. Prior to passing the law, between October 2024 and January 2025, the Egyptian government referred thousands of people to trial, meaning they are no longer formally categorised as “pre-trial detainees”.  'The Egyptian government for many years now has been manipulating this idea of releasing pretrial detainees' -Samar Elhussieny, Egyptian Human Rights Forum Elhussieny said the detainees’ letter is a sign of “desperation” to ensure they’re not excluded from the impending reforms. “The Egyptian government for many years now has been manipulating this idea of releasing pretrial detainees,” she said. Previous pledges by the Egyptian authorities to address the issue of pretrial detention, including the establishing of a Presidential Pardon Committee, which periodically releases batches of detainees, have had little impact. Elhussieny said the committee had facilitated “dozens” of releases while an estimated 60,000 pretrial detainees remain behind bars. While the government does not release figures relating to pretrial detainees, a 2022 US State Department estimate put Egypt's prison population at around 120,000, with pretrial prisoners thought to represent 33.3 percent of that figure. Rights groups have pointed to the lack of transparency around the pardon committee’s work, accusing its members of  producing “fake pardon lists”, confirming the release of political detainees who had in reality had their detention renewed by prosecutors. Elhussieny said the new legislation was presented by Egypt to pacify concerns raised by the EU and the United Nations over its burgeoning population of pretrial detainees. “I think there are high expectations that once this law is in force, thousands of people will be released,” Elhussieny said. “I’m sceptical." The final disbursement of an unprecedented EU payout to boost Egypt’s flailing economy is due in December this year, months after the legislation will take effect. Rights activists criticised the move, saying the EU had made a slew of concessions in order to give Cairo a “clean bill of health on human rights” and ram through the aid package aimed at stymieing migration flows to Europe. Nonetheless, Elhussieny said that the EU was likely to examine pretrial detainee numbers before making its final disbursement. A black box The letters come amid a blackout on information regarding conditions within Egypt’s prisons. Elhussieny said that, since mid-2024 following reports of hunger strikes by detainees over their conditions at Egypt’s notorious Badr prison and escalating numbers of prisoner deaths, the authorities have targeted prisoners’ rights advocates and family members of detainees. She said that since then, Egypt’s prisons have become a “black box” with scarce communication from detainees. “Lawyers don’t have any access, families of detainees that are deemed to be a risk are banned from visiting,” she said. 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Iran faces strategic dilemma as war of attrition drags on Iran and the United States have entered another limited but dangerous phase of confrontation, with mounting military and economic pressure forcing Tehran to weigh escalation against the narrowing possibility of a negotiated settlement. The latest flare-up began with a US strike on Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces in southern Iran, according to Iranian accounts. Washington then said it believed Iranian forces were preparing to deploy rockets carrying mines in the Strait, one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints. Iran responded by attacking US bases in the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain. The military escalation comes as Iran has already spent weeks under a de facto US siege of its ports, placing additional pressure on an economy that was struggling even before the latest crisis. The Iranian rial has suffered a sharp depreciation, trading at around 2.2 million rials to the dollar, compared with roughly 1.8 million before the siege began. Yet despite the pressure, the government appears, at least so far, to have avoided the kind of widespread shortages that could trigger a domestic crisis. There has been no broad collapse in the supply of essential goods. But another vulnerability is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore: gasoline. Read more: Iran faces strategic dilemma as war of attrition drags on     An F/A-18 Super Hornet is seen parked on the flight deck of aircraft carrier USS George Washington in the Arabian Sea on 4 September 2026 (AFP/US Navy)

Two weeks after the devastating flash floods, the number of dead and missing continues to rise. At Kathmandu’s public hospital, as well as outside the military base in Bidur, hundreds of photographs of missing people have been put up. Hundreds of families come forward, hoping for news – good or bad – of one or more loved ones. A race against time is underway: helping survivors, finding those still alive and identifying the victims. Rescue teams have been carrying out repeated helicopter flights, as air access is now the only way to reach remote areas cut off from the rest of the world. Civil society has also mobilised, particularly Nepal’s Generation Z. From Kathmandu to Betrawati, FRANCE 24's reporters Alban Alvarez and Fantine Dantzer accompanied a humanitarian convoy along one of the country’s most treacherous roads.

Israel said Thursday it demolished key tunnels built by the Iran-backed Hezbollah group beneath the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon, with the force of the explosions enough to trigger a 4.1 magnitude tremor. It comes a few days after Israeli authorities claimed to have taken control of the Ali al-Taher ridge, saying that the pro-Iranian Hezbollah had dug numerous tunnels there, allowing it to attack Israel from this mountainous area.

A Russian drone strike on a gas station in Kyiv resulted in two fatalities and four injuries, heightening concerns about a targeted campaign against fuel stations. Kyiv’s mayor confirmed the deaths in the attack.

The IMF forecasts global growth to hit 3% by 2026, but warns of high risks due to energy shocks and rising public debt. Central bankers are advised to focus on price stability.

Congolese authorities inaugurated a new treatment centre in the city of Kisangani as they race to ramp up surveillance, diagnostic and treatment capacity

Smail Debeche, a professor of international relations at the University of Algiers III, said the decision was a reaction to what he described as UAE actions against Algeria on the regional level, including in Africa's Sahel region and Libya.