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Paris (AFP) – France on Saturday announced a "historic" accord with New Caledonia in which the overseas territory, rocked by deadly separatist violence last year, would remain French but be declared a new state.

President Emmanuel Macron had called for talks to break a deadlock between forces loyal to France and those wanting independence, asking New Caledonian elected officials, as well as political, economic and civil society leaders to gather near Paris to hammer out a constitional framework for the territory.

After 10 days of talks, the parties agreed that a "State of New Caledonia" should be created.

The archipelago is to retain "a status within France, with Caledonians who will remain French", said Nicolas Metzdorf, an anti-independence deputy.

"No more referendums are planned, with the exception of the one confirming this agreement," he said in a message sent to AFP.

The priority now was New Caledonia's economic recovery after last year's violence that killed 14 and is estimated to have cost the territory two billion euros ($2.3 billion), shaving 10 percent off its gross domestic product (GDP), he said.

Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said Saturday's deal -- which still requires parliamentary and referendum approval -- was of "historic dimensions".

Home to around 270,000 people and located nearly 17,000 kilometres (10,600 miles) from Paris, New Caledonia is one of several overseas territories that remain an integral part of France.

It has been ruled from Paris since the 1800s, but many indigenous Kanaks still resent France's power over their islands and want fuller autonomy or independence.

Unrest broke out in May 2024 after Paris planned to give voting rights to thousands of non-indigenous long-term residents, something Kanaks feared would leave them in a permanent minority, crushing their chances of winning independence.

As part of the agreement, New Caledonia residents will in future only be allowed to vote after 10 years of living on the archipelago.

The last independence referendum in New Caledonia was held in 2021, and was boycotted by pro-independence groups over the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Kanak population.

The referendum was the last of three since 2018, all of which rejected New Caledonian independence.

Since the 2021 referendum the political situation in the archipelago has been in deadlock.

Macron declared in early June he wanted a "new project" for New Caledonia.

The 13-page agreement announced Saturday calls for a New Caledonian nationality, and the possibility for residents there to combine that status with the French nationality.

According to the deal, a "State of New Caledonia" will be enshrined in France's constitution, and other countries could recognise such a state.

The deal also calls for an economic and financial recovery pact that would include a renewal of the territory's nickel processing capabilities.

Both chambers of France's parliament are to meet in the fourth quarter of this year to approve the deal, which is then to be submitted to New Caledonians in a referendum in 2026.

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Indirect talks between Hamas and Israel for a ceasefire in Gaza are being held up by Israel's proposals to keep troops in the territory, two Palestinian sources with knowledge of the discussions told AFP on Saturday.

Delegations from both sides began discussions in Qatar last Sunday to try to agree on a temporary halt [...].

Both Hamas and Israel have said that 10 living hostages who were taken that day and are still in captivity would be released if an agreement for a 60-day ceasefire were reached.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he hoped to clinch a deal "in a few days", which could then lead to talks for a more permanent end to hostilities.

But one Palestinian source, speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the talks, said Israel's refusal to accept Hamas's demand to withdraw all of its troops from Gaza was holding back progress.

Another said mediators had asked both sides to postpone the talks until the arrival of US President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, in Doha.

"The negotiations in Doha are facing a setback and complex difficulties due to Israel's insistence, as of Friday, on presenting a map of withdrawal, which is actually a map of redeployment and repositioning of the Israeli army rather than a genuine withdrawal," one Palestinian source said.

The source said Israel was proposing to maintain military forces in more than 40 percent of the Palestinian territory, forcing hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians into a small area near the city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, they added.

"Hamas's delegation will not accept the Israeli maps... as they essentially legitimise the reoccupation of approximately half of the Gaza Strip and turn Gaza into isolated zones with no crossings or freedom of movement," the source said.

A second Palestinian source accused the Israeli delegation of having no authority, and "stalling and obstructing the agreement in order to continue the war of extermination".

Gaza's civil defence agency said at least 14 Palestinians were killed in the latest wave of Israeli strikes across the territory on Saturday.

More than 30 people were killed on Friday, including 10 people who were waiting for aid handouts, the agency said.

The second Palestinian source said "some progress" had been made in the latest talks on plans for releasing Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and getting more aid to Gaza.

Netanyahu, who is under domestic and international pressure to end the war, said this week that neutralising Hamas as a security threat was a prerequisite for any long-term ceasefire talks.

That included the group giving up weapons, he said, warning that failure to do so would mean Israel would have to do so by force.

Greek lawmakers voted on Friday to temporarily stop processing asylum requests from migrants arriving from North Africa by sea in a bid to reduce arrivals into Europe's southernmost tip, a move rights groups and opposition parties have called illegal.

The ban comes amid a surge in migrants reaching the island of Crete and after talks with Libya's Benghazi-based government to stem the flow were this week.

It marks a further hardening of Greece's stance towards migrants under Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' centre-right government, which has built a fence at its northern land borders and boosted sea patrols since it came to power in 2019.

Human rights groups accuse Greece of forcefully turning back asylum-seekers on its sea and land borders. This year, the European Union border agency said it was reviewing 12 cases of potential human rights violations by Greece.

The government denies wrongdoing.

The law, which received 177 votes in favour and 74 against, halts asylum processing for at least three months and allows authorities to quickly repatriate migrants without any prior identification process.

"Faced with the sharp increase in irregular arrivals by sea from North Africa, particularly from Libya to Crete, we have taken the difficult but absolutely necessary decision to temporarily suspend the examination of asylum applications," Mitsotakis was quoted by his office as telling the German newspaper Bild on Friday.

"Greece is not a gateway to Europe open to everyone."

Greece was on the front line of a migration crisis in 2015-16 when hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa passed through its islands and mainland.

Since then, flows have dropped off dramatically. While there has been a rise in arrivals to the outlying islands of Crete and Gavdos - those numbers have quadrupled to over 7,000 so far this year - sea arrivals to Greece as a whole dropped by 5.5 percent to 17,000 in the first half of this year, U.N. data show.

Rights groups and opposition parties said the ban approved by parliament violates human rights.

"Seeking refuge is a human right; preventing people from doing so is both illegal and inhumane," said Martha Roussou, a senior advocacy adviser for aid group International Rescue Committee (IRC.)

Thousands of irregular migrants have been rescued by the Greek coastguard off Crete in recent days, the Athens government said. Hundreds of them, including children, were temporarily housed at an exhibition centre in Agyia, near the city of Chania in western Crete, amid sweltering summer temperatures.

Footage by the Reuters news agency on Friday showed a migrant who had fainted being taken out of the shelter on a stretcher.

Crete lacks an organised reception facility. The government said it would build a migrant camp there but the local tourist industry is worried the plan could harm the island's image.

“The weight is too great, the load is too big, and solutions now have to be found ... at a central level,” said George Tsapakos, a deputy governor for Crete.

(With newswires)

Thirty years on from Europe’s worst atrocity since the Second World War, the Bosnian town of Srebrenica is still marked by empty streets, rows of graves and families who have never stopped waiting. Home to 6,000 people before the war, it now has fewer than 800 residents, as many young people leave in search of a fresh start far from Bosnia’s old divisions.

On 11 July, 1995, Bosnian Serb forces killed more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in a massacre that international courts later ruled was a genocide.

Srebrenica was at the time a United Nations Safe Area, under the protection of UN troops.

Daily life in the town now revolves around the vast cemetery at Potocari, where the victims are buried.

“It’s important that Srebrenica lives – and not only on 11 July,” Nerma, a florist whose shop faces the cemetery, told RFI. She has seen the crowds shrink as fewer foreign visitors come each year to pay their respects.

Nerma, who lost relatives in the massacre, said the town still struggles with things most people take for granted.

“It’s no longer about knowing who is Bosniak or Serb. We have no bakery, no butcher, no clothing shop. If we want to do shopping for the children’s return to school, we have to go to another town,” she said.

On Friday, thousands gathered at the Potocari Memorial Centre to bury seven more victims, including a 19-year-old man and a 67-year-old woman.

Many families wait years to lay loved ones to rest because remains are often found in fragments in secondary graves.

“Before the war, there were 6,000 inhabitants. During the war, there were up to 50,000 people, and even more. Today, there aren’t even 800,” explained Sadik, a local writer who has watched the town empty, year by year.

That emptiness weighs on families who never found all they lost. “For 30 years we have carried the pain in our souls,” said Munira Subasic, president of the Mothers of Srebrenica group.

Her husband Hilmo and 17-year-old son Nermin were among those killed in the massacre. "Our children were killed, innocent, in the UN protected zone. Europe and the world watched in silence as our children were killed."

In May last year, the UN General Assembly named 11 July the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica.

Many young Bosnians now choose to build their lives in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Canada or Australia. They leave behind a country still divided by old rivalries and a web of overlapping governments.

Bosnia’s power-sharing deal – the Dayton Agreement, which ended the Bosnian War – created a complex political structure, with a total of 17 governments split between the two entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina – Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Serb-majority Republika Srpska controls nearly half the land and is still pushing for independence. Bosniaks support a single, united state. Croats, the third-largest ethnic group in the country, want an autonomous region of their own.

Some young people see the conflict through fresh eyes. “Some are interested and try to understand and visit memorial sites,” Aline Cateux, an anthropologist who studies post-war Bosnia, told RFI. "They want each community, Serb or Muslim, to be able to commemorate its dead, to better move on."

She added that young people often focus more on the problems of today, such as corruption or pollution, rather than old divides.

Still, daily trust can be fragile. Small choices remind people of the past.

"From the point of view of a survivor, what trust can you place in a Serb doctor? If you are a Bosniak Muslim woman, are you really going to choose a Serb gynaecologist?" asks Cateux.

Some Serb leaders continue to reject the word genocide. “A terrible crime was committed, but it was not genocide,” Milorad Dodik, president of Republika Srpska, told a rally last week.

That denial shapes what some children learn, Cateaux said. In Serb-run areas, textbooks no longer mention Srebrenica. "In schools following the Serb curriculum, Bosniak Muslim children learn that certain war criminals are heroes."

While Bosnian Serb wartime leaders Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic were jailed for life by international courts, lower-level suspects are still being pursued.

Since the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia closed in 2017, which had been responsible for the prosecution of serious crimes committed during the Yugoslav Wars, Bosnia’s prosecutors have taken on nearly 500 cases linked to the war, involving around 4,000 suspects. Many of them live in Serbia or Croatia, where extradition is slow and rare.

Earlier this year, Bosnian courts charged five police officers and four soldiers over their alleged roles in the killings. Around 7,000 victims have been identified and buried so far, but nearly 1,000 are still missing.

Some families are able to bury only a bone or two when remains are found.

For Nezira Mehmedovic, visiting the graves of her sons Sajib and Sinan, killed in their early twenties, brings her closer to what is left.

"I like the most to come here to my sons. I talk to them, I cry, I pray, I kiss them,” she told French news agency AFP. “My heart aches for them constantly. They say life goes on... but how?"

Several NGOs, including the International Federation for Human Rights, have filed a legal complaint in Paris against two French-Israeli soldiers accused of carrying out summary executions of civilians in the Gaza Strip. The plaintiffs say the case could mark a turning point in judicial responses to the war in the enclave, challenging what they describe as the 'systemic impunity' of Israeli snipers.

The legal complaint, filed with civil party status, concerns two soldiers identified as Sasha A and Gabriel B – members of an elite sniper unit of the Israeli army, known as the “Ghost Unit” or Refaim in Hebrew.

The plaintiffs accuse them of carrying out deliberate killings in Gaza – crimes that could be considered war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide under international law.

The complaint was submitted by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its member organisations – Al-Haq, Al Mezan, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PHCR), the LDH and the Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS) – on 1 July to a specialised unit of the Paris Judicial Court.

This unit has jurisdiction over crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and enforced disappearances – particularly those cases involving French victims or suspects, or foreign suspects present or habitually resident in France.

The Ghost Unit, comprised of a few dozen snipers assigned to carry out “targeted neutralisations”, is primarily made up of dual nationals – including Israeli-American, Israeli-Belgian and Israeli-Ethiopian soldiers.

Approximately 4,000 French nationals are currently believed to be serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) – which FIDH refers to as the Israeli Occupying Forces.

Dual nationality exposes them to prosecution under French law. The complaint accuses the two soldiers of “deliberate attacks on life”, constituting crimes under international law.

"There is no ‘Israel exception’. Justice must move forward,” said Alexis Deswaef, a lawyer and vice-president of the FIDH. “Impunity fuels future crimes. We absolutely need a conviction for war crimes, crimes against humanity, or even genocide – a first conviction so that others can follow."

"It would mark a turning point…and would probably change things on the ground," he said, although he acknowledged too that justice alone "won’t be enough to stop the ongoing genocide in Gaza," and said there must be a ceasefire.

The legal complaint is based on investigative work by independent Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi, who conducted an investigation into the Ghost Unit.

His 38-minute documentary, published on X (formerly Twitter) in October 2024, shows footage of sniper attacks on civilians, including children and paramedics. One fatal shot came from more than a kilometre away.

The alleged acts took place between November 2023 and March 2024, near the al-Nasser and al-Quds hospitals in Khan Younis – both of which have been the target of intense Israeli bombardments following the 7 October Hamas attacks.

The documentary features an interview with the unit’s Israeli-American staff sergeant Daniel Raab. Speaking directly to camera, he explains how they shoot unarmed Gazan civilians near the two hospitals.

“If they are in an area designated as a combat zone, and they are men of military age, then we shoot," Raab said on camera. "The question of women and children is debated with command... As a sniper, you have a lot of independence, a lot of responsibility, and a lot of room for judgement... In some cases, they say yes or no, and in others, they say yes when you think it should be no... and then it’s up to you. You shoot.”

Raab states that his unit killed at least 120 Palestinians in under five months.

The NGOs say they have additional evidence supporting Tirawi’s findings.

“We were able to gather testimonies from direct victims of snipers in the time and place documented by Younis Tirawi – precise statements from victims, snipers or relatives of people killed by snipers at the entrance to the two hospitals,” said Deswaef.

“The testimonies complete the evidence collected by the journalist. That’s what makes this case so exceptional.”

“The convergence of eyewitness accounts and the documentation provided by Tirawi clearly indicates the involvement of the same snipers in a coordinated campaign of extra-judicial executions in various locations across Gaza,” the FIDH said in a statement.

Deliberately targeting civilians with lethal intent constitutes a serious violation of international law, including prohibited acts under the Genocide Convention, it added.

As a signatory to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their 1977 Additional Protocols, as well as to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, France has a legal obligation to investigate and, if warranted, prosecute its nationals accused of international crimes.

According to the complaint: “In the areas where the unit operates, the apparent strategy is to open fire on any person of military age, even in the absence of any clear threat. Each shot fired by the snipers is intended not to wound, but to kill.”

The complaint argues that “these acts may constitute not only war crimes, but also genocide and other crimes against humanity”.

This is not the first case of its kind. In late 2024, the FIDH filed a complaint against another Franco-Israeli soldier, Yoel O, for alleged torture of Palestinian prisoners. The case was dismissed.

A previous complaint concerning the same individual had also been dropped earlier in the year by the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat).

More recently, Pnat opened two judicial inquiries into French-Israeli nationals accused of participating in the obstruction of humanitarian aid. On 4 July, the organisation Lawyers for justice in the Middle East (AJPO) filed a complaint against French-Israelis living in illegal settlements, along with French entities allegedly complicit in recruiting individuals in France to move to West Bank settlements.

Additional complaints targeting other members of the Ghost Unit are expected to be lodged in Italy and other European jurisdictions. Investigations are already under way in South Africa and Belgium.

But Deswaef insists their case is exceptional. "What makes this case so particular is that we already have the evidence at the time the complaint is filed – significant and even sufficient evidence to allow for prosecution and conviction.

“These are damning elements. We have enough to try them as perpetrators of crimes, or at the very least as co-perpetrators or accomplices as members of the Ghost Unit operating collectively in Gaza."

He said having the staff sergeant openly explaining they were shooting unarmed civilians who pose no threat from 1.2 kilometres away, with the clear intent to kill, was "the very definition of a war crime".

France has been outspoken and active in its efforts to secure the release of French-Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October, 2023. Deswaef hopes it will show the same determination in holding its citizens accountable for any crimes committed in Gaza.

“We must hope so because otherwise it would be just another example of the completely unacceptable double standard – an insult to human intelligence and an insult to the European values that our leaders so often invoke to criticise others.

"Unless we’re to say that France makes an exception for Israel? This double standard is unbearable, and it undermines credibility. I don’t think our European leaders realise how much our international credibility has evaporated because of our inaction over Israel’s crimes committed in total impunity and without provoking the slightest reaction."

While France has one of the most advanced frameworks in matters of universal jurisdiction, lawyer Johann Soufi questions the political will to prosecute French citizens for crimes committed abroad.

"At present, France appears reluctant – both in its statements and in its actions," he said. "I detect no sincere willingness on the part of political leaders to shed light on the possible involvement of our compatriots in what the International Criminal Court – and many legal experts – now define as war crimes, crimes against humanity or even genocide."

Since the Hamas attacks on Israel, international justice has moved faster than diplomacy.

The ICC, which considers Israel's actions in Gaza war crimes and crimes against humanity, has issued arrest warrants. The International Court of Justice has acknowledged a plausible risk of genocide and ordered several provisional measures. United Nations bodies have documented what they describe as a criminal – even genocidal – policy, including the deliberate starvation of civilians.

“We cannot turn a blind eye to the possible responsibility of our compatriots in these crimes, whether military or civilian,” said Soufi. “International courts have done their part – they’ve stated the law, legally qualified the facts and established responsibility on the basis of the evidence presented to them.

"But justice depends – and will always depend – on the political will of states to be effective. Today, those who are failing are not the NGOs or lawyers, such as those who brought this complaint. It's the political leaders – particularly in the West – who, through their silence or complicity, through their total lack of moral compass, are burying the values they claim to uphold.

"When the time comes to account for these events, it won’t be up to defenders of international law to justify themselves, but those who refused to act. Unfortunately, we will all pay the price for this betrayal, because international law itself is being allowed to disappear.”

The death toll in Gaza has now surpassed 57,000, with more than 130,000 people injured, according to the Hamas health authority – figures that the UN deems credible.

As a peace deal signed by the Central African government and rebel groups comes into force on Friday, the leaders of 3R and UPC have officially dissolved their movements in a ceremony in Bangui led by President Faustin-Archange Touadéra.

General Sembé Bobo, head of the Union for Peace (UPC), and Ali Darassa of Return, Reclamation and Rehabilitation (3R), confirmed the disbanding of their political and military wings during the event on Thursday.

Wearing blue and white boubous, the two warlords took turns placing Kalashnikovs on a table, marking the end of hostilities, reported RFI's correspondent Rolf Steve Domia-leu.

The laying down of arms follows a ceasefire agreement signed between Bangui, UPC and 3R on 19 April in N'Djamena, with Chadian mediation.

“In the name of our movement, the 3R, we are here to answer the call for peace, we commit to honouring this agreement for the supreme interest of the nation,” Bobo said. “I assure you that I will respect all the commitments I have made.”

Darassa made a similar promise and urged the Central African government to do the same. He called for security guarantees to be upheld, signatory groups to be included in running public affairs and fighters to be integrated into reintegration and community development plans.

CAR has been mired in violence since a coalition of mostly northern and predominantly Muslim rebels known as Seleka, or "Alliance" in the Sango language, seized power in March 2013 after ousting president Francois Bozize.

Their dominance gave rise to the opposing anti-balaka Christian militias.

The UN mounted the Minusca peacekeeping operation in 2014.

Touadéra was elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2020 but large parts of the country have remained under the control of armed groups.

In February 2019 Bangui signed the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in the Central African Republic (APPR-RCA) in Khartoum with 14 armed groups, but attempts at integrating rebel factions into state structures failed and the main ones withdrew.

The agreement was revived after lengthy negotiations between Bangui, the 3R and UPC, brokered by Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, and signed on 19 April.

It sets out a detailed process to incorporate rebel fighters into the army and security forces.

Fighters from the UPC and 3R have already been relocated to five cantonment sites in rebel strongholds in the east and north-west of the country, and registered.

They will then be disarmed.

Former rebels deemed fit for service will begin training, with a view to joining the Central African Armed Forces (FACA) or one of the other branches of the country’s defence and security forces, as pledged by the government. Fighters deemed unfit will benefit from the country's Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration programme (DDR).

As mediator and guarantor of the 19 April agreement, Chad will be responsible for ensuring its effective implementation.

During Thursday's ceremony, Chad's Defence Minister Issakha Malloua Djamous urged all parties to remain faithful to its spirit. “Ongoing instability in the Central African Republic could destabilise Chad,” he warned, calling on all parties to work “hand in hand”.

President Touadéra acknowledged everyone’s efforts. “This latest agreement is not a sign of weakness,” he said, expressing his conviction that “dialogue will contribute to the development of the Central African Republic”.

He reiterated calls for “an immediate end to hostilities through a ceasefire, a permanent renunciation of the use of weapons and violence, and the handing over of arms to the government within the framework of the DDR process”.

Bangui is also in negotiations with other rebel movements, including the anti-balaka militias and the Patriotic Movement for the Central African Republic (MPC) – both of which have expressed a willingness to rejoin the 2019 agreement.

Washington (AFP) – More than 1,300 State Department employees were fired Friday in a downsizing ordered by President Donald Trump and touted as cutting bloated government -- but which critics predict will hamstring US influence around the world.

Diplomats and other staff clapped out departing colleagues in emotional scenes at the Washington headquarters of the department, which runs US foreign policy and the global network of embassies.

Some were crying as they walked out with boxes of belongings.

A State Department official said 1,107 members of the civil service and 246 Foreign Service diplomatic employees were terminated.

The layoffs at the department came three days after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to begin carrying out its plan to gut entire government departments.

The conservative-dominated top court lifted a temporary block imposed by a lower court on Trump's plans to lay off potentially tens of thousands of employees.

The 79-year-old Republican says he wants to dismantle what he calls the "deep state." Since taking office in January, he has worked quickly to install fierce personal loyalists and to fire swaths of veteran government workers.

His secretary of state, Marco Rubio, says the foreign policy department is too cumbersome and requires thinning out of some 15 percent.

The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) -- the union representing State Department employees -- condemned the "catastrophic blow to our national interests."

"At a moment of great global instability -- with war raging in Ukraine, conflict between Israel and Iran, and authoritarian regimes testing the boundaries of international order -- the United States has chosen to gut its frontline diplomatic workforce," AFSA said in a statement.

"We oppose this decision in the strongest terms."

The State Department employed over 80,000 people worldwide last year, according to a fact sheet, with around 17,700 in domestic roles. The US Agency for International Development, long the primary vehicle to provide US humanitarian assistance around the world, has already been mostly dismantled.

According to The Washington Post, State Department employees were informed of their firings by email.

Foreign Service officers will lose their jobs 120 days after receiving the notice and will be immediately placed on administrative leave, while civil service employees will be separated after 60 days, the newspaper said.

Ned Price, who served as State Department spokesman under Democratic former president Joe Biden, condemned what he called haphazard firings.

"For all the talk about 'merit-based,' they're firing officers based on where they happen to be assigned on this arbitrary day," Price said on X. "It's the laziest, most inefficient, and most damaging way to lean the workforce."

Former ambassador Barbara Leaf, Biden's top Middle East diplomat, said the move "will have terrible consequences for our ability to protect American citizens abroad, pursue and defend the national interest and our national security."

"This is not a re-org. This is a purge," Leaf said in a post on LinkedIn.

New Delhi (AFP) – Fuel control switches to the engines of an Air India flight that crashed shortly after takeoff, killing 260 people, were moved from the "run" to the "cutoff" position moments before impact, a preliminary investigation report said early Saturday.

The report, issued by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, did not offer any conclusions or apportion blame for the June 12 disaster, but indicated that one pilot asked the other why he cut off fuel, and the second pilot responded that he had not.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was headed from Ahmedabad in western India to London when it crashed, killing all but one of the 242 people on board as well as 19 people on the ground.

In its 15-page report, the investigation bureau said that once the aircraft achieved its top recorded speed, "the Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of 01 sec".

"In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cutoff. The other pilot responded that he did not do so," it said.

The aircraft quickly began to lose altitude.

The switches then returned to the "RUN" position and the engines appeared to be gathering power, but "one of the pilots transmitted 'MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY'", the report said.

Air traffic controllers asked the pilots what was wrong, but then saw the plane crashing and called emergency personnel to the scene.

Earlier this week, specialist website The Air Current, citing multiple sources familiar with the probe, reported it had "narrowed its focus to the movement of the engine fuel switches", while noting that full analysis will "take months -- if not longer".

It added that "the focus of the investigators could change during that time".

The Indian agency's report said that the US Federal Aviation Administration had issued an information bulletin in 2018 about "the potential disengagement of the fuel control switch locking feature".

Though the concern was not considered an "unsafe condition" that would warrant a more serious directive, Air India told investigators it did not carry out suggested inspections as they were "advisory and not mandatory".

Air India was compliant with all airworthiness directives and alert service bulletins on the aircraft, the report said.

The investigations bureau said there were "no recommended actions to B787-8 and/or GE GEnx-1B engine operators and manufacturers", suggesting no technical issues with the engines (GE) or the aircraft (Boeing).

Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The bureau said the investigation was ongoing, and that additional evidence and information has been "sought from the stakeholders".

The UN's International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) stipulates that states heading investigation must submit a preliminary report within 30 days of an accident.

US and British air accident investigators have taken part in the probe.

The plane was carrying 230 passengers -- 169 Indians, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian -- along with 12 crew members.

Dozens of people on the ground were injured.

One passenger miraculously survived, a British citizen who was seen walking out of the wreckage of the crash, and who has since been discharged from hospital.

Health officials in the Indian state of Gujarat initially said at least 279 people were killed, but forensic scientists reduced the figure after multiple scattered and badly burnt remains were identified.

Guatemala City (AFP) – An angry mob lynched five men accused of robbing homes in a Guatemalan town hit by a series of earthquakes that left seven people dead, police said Friday.

The incident occurred on Thursday night in Santa Maria de Jesus, the municipality worst affected by the tremors of up to 5.7 magnitude, which began on Tuesday.

"Residents detained five people who were beaten and lynched because they were accused of being thieves," police spokesman Cesar Mateo said.

The men were accused of using the cover of darkness to break into homes following the earthquakes, which led people to sleep in shelters or with relatives, he told AFP.

"While it's true that robbery is illegal, lynching is also a crime," Mateo said.

Vigilante violence is common in Guatemala in response to impunity exploited by criminals.

Videos circulating on social media showed a man being beaten on the ground by residents and then set on fire with gasoline.

Santa Maria de Jesus, home to an Indigenous Mayan community, had no power and access roads were cut off by landslides, prompting the government to fly in humanitarian aid.

Around half of all buildings in the municipality of 27,000 residents had some kind of damage, according to mayor Mario Perez.

Between 2008 and 2020, vigilante justice left 361 people dead and 1,396 injured in the Central American country, according to Mutual Support Group, a local civil society organization.

Washington (AFP) – A US appeals court on Friday scrapped 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's plea agreement that would have taken the death penalty off the table and helped conclude the long-running legal saga surrounding his case.

The agreement had sparked anger among some relatives of victims of the 2001 attacks, and then-US defense secretary Lloyd Austin moved to cancel it last year, saying that both they and the American public deserved to see the defendants stand trial.

Austin "acted within the bounds of his legal authority, and we decline to second-guess his judgment," judges Patricia Millett and Neomi Rao wrote.

Plea deals with Mohammed as well as two alleged accomplices -- Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi -- were announced in late July last year.

The decision appeared to have moved their cases toward resolution after years of being bogged down in pre-trial maneuverings while the defendants remained held at the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba.

But Austin withdrew the agreements two days after they were announced, saying the decision should be up to him, given its significance.

He subsequently said that "the families of the victims, our service members and the American public deserve the opportunity to see military commission trials carried out in this case."

A military judge ruled in November that the deals were valid and binding, but the government appealed that decision.

The appeals court judges on Friday vacated "the military judge's order of November 6, 2024, preventing the secretary of defense's withdrawal from the pretrial agreements."

And they prohibited the military judge "from conducting hearings in which respondents would enter guilty pleas or take any other action pursuant to the withdrawn pretrial agreements."

Much of the legal jousting surrounding the 9/11 defendants' cases has focused on whether they could be tried fairly after having undergone torture at the hands of the CIA -- a thorny issue that the plea agreements would have avoided.

Mohammed was regarded as one of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's most trusted lieutenants before his March 2003 capture in Pakistan. He then spent three years in secret CIA prisons before arriving at Guantanamo in 2006.

The trained engineer -- who has said he masterminded the 9/11 attacks "from A to Z" -- was involved in a string of major plots against the United States, where he attended university.

The United States used Guantanamo, an isolated naval base, to hold militants captured during the "War on Terror" that followed the September 11 attacks in a bid to keep the defendants from claiming rights under US law.

The facility held roughly 800 prisoners at its peak, but they have since slowly been sent to other countries. A small fraction of that number remain.

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes on Friday killed at least seven people, including five at a school-turned-shelter in the Palestinian territory's north.

"Five martyrs and others injured in an Israeli strike on Halima al-Saadia School, which was sheltering displaced persons in Jabalia al-Nazla, northern Gaza," the agency said in a brief statement.

The civil defence agency also reported two people killed in separate strikes in Gaza City and the southern city of Khan Yunis.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties.

A Palestinian speaking to AFP from southern Gaza on condition of anonymity said there were ongoing attacks and widespread devastation, with Israeli tanks seen near Khan Yunis.

"The situation remains extremely difficult in the area -- intense gunfire, intermittent air strikes, artillery shelling and ongoing bulldozing and destruction of displacement camps and agricultural land to the south, west and north of Al-Maslakh," an area to Khan Yunis's south, said the witness.

Nigeria has pushed back on accepting Venezuelans deported from the United States, after US media reported President Donald Trump was urging African countries to take in deportees from around the world.

Deporting people to third countries has been a hallmark of the Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented migrants, notably by sending hundreds to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

"The US is mounting considerable pressure on African countries to accept Venezuelans to be deported from the US, some straight out of prisons," Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar said in an interview with Channels Television on Thursday.

"It will be difficult for Nigeria to accept Venezuelan prisoners. We have enough problems of our own," he added.

Tuggar also suggested the US motivation for threatening tariffs against the Brics political bloc – of which Nigeria is a member – was related to the issue of deportations.

Trump has announced a 10 percent tariff on Nigerian goods exported to the US.

Tuggar's comments followed a meeting between President Trump and the leaders of five west African nations – Senegal, Liberia, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau and Gabon – in the White House on Wednesday. His administration was pushing them to accept deportees from around the world, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The president of Guinea-Bissau told reporters that Trump had raised the issue of deportations to third-countries but "he didn't ask us to take immigrants back".

In an unprecedented move, Trump has overseen the deportations of hundreds of people to Panama, including some who were sent away before they could have their asylum applications processed.

Hundreds have also been sent to El Salvador, with the US administration invoking an 18th century law to remove people it has accused of being Venezuelan gang members.

Some of the people were sent to El Salvador despite US judges ordering the planes carrying them to turn around.

Earlier this month, the White House deported eight third-country nationals to impoverished South Sudan, which the United Nations warns may be seeing a return to civil war.