Vilnius (AFP) – The three Baltic states on Saturday cut ties with Russia's power grid to join the European Union's network, the culmination of a years-long process that gained urgency with Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- all former Soviet republics that are now in the European Union and NATO -- had wanted to block Russia's ability to geopolitically blackmail them via the electricity system.

"We have removed any theoretical possibility of Russia using energy (grid) control as a weapon," Lithuanian Energy Minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas told AFP on Saturday.

The European Commissioner for Energy, Dan Jorgensen, said: "This is indeed a historic day."

"I like the light better when there's no Russian electrons involved," he told reporters in Estonian capital Tallinn.

"It's important to underline that this is about security... No European country should be dependent on Russia for anything," he added.

Vaiciunas said the Baltic states had completed the disconnection process at 9:09 am (0709 GMT).

Latvia later physically cut a power line to Russia.

"Now we have complete control over our power grid," Latvian Energy Minister Kaspars Melnis told reporters while holding a piece of the dismantled wire.

Vaiciunas said the Baltics were now operating in so-called "isolated mode" before they integrate with the European grid on Sunday.

A total of 1.6 billion euros ($1.7 billion) -- mostly EU funds -- have been invested in the synchronisation project across the Baltic states and Poland.

The Baltics have long prepared to integrate with the European grid but faced technological and financial issues.

The switch became more urgent after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, spooking the Baltic states into thinking they could be targeted.

They stopped purchasing Russian gas and electricity after the invasion but their power grids remained connected to Russia and Belarus, controlled from Moscow.

This left them dependent on Moscow for a stable electricity flow, which is crucial for factories and facilities requiring a reliable power supply.

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Rami Abu Jamous is keeping a diary for Orient XXI. The founder of Gaza Press, an agency which helped and interpreted for western correspondents, he was obliged by the Israeli army to leave his Gaza City apartment with his wife Sabah, her children, and their two and a half year-old son, Walid, in October 2023. Having taken refuge since then in Rafah, they are now trapped in that destitute and overcrowded enclave like so many other families. For this diary of his, he has received two awards, the Prix Bayeux for war correspondents in the printed press category, and the Prix Ouest-France. This space has been dedicated to him in the French section of the site since 28 February 2024.

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Washington (AFP) – The United States on Friday announced the approval of the sale of more than $7.4 billion in bombs, missiles and related equipment to Israel, which has used American-made weapons to devastating effect during the war in Gaza.

The State Department has signed off on the sale of $6.75 billion in bombs, guidance kits and fuses, in addition to $660 million in Hellfire missiles, according to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA).

The proposed sale of the bombs "improves Israel's capability to meet current and future threats, strengthen its homeland defense, and serves as a deterrent to regional threats," DSCA said in a statement.

And the missile sale would "improve Israel's capability to meet current and future threats by improving the ability of the Israeli Air Force to defend Israel's borders, vital infrastructure, and population centers," it said.

Israel launched a hugely destructive offensive against Hamas in Gaza in October 2023 in response to an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian militant group that month.

The war has devastated much of Gaza -- a narrow coastal territory on the Mediterranean -- resulting in the displacement of much of its population, but a ceasefire has been in effect since last month, bringing a halt to the deadly conflict and providing for the release of hostages seized by Hamas.

In response to concerns over civilian deaths, then-president Joe Biden's administration blocked a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel -- larger than those in the latest proposed sale -- but his successor Donald Trump reportedly approved the shipment after returning to office.

While the State Department has approved the sale of the bombs and missiles, the transactions still need to be approved by Congress, which is unlikely to block the provision of the weapons to Washington's closest ally in the Middle East.

Bukavu (DR Congo) (AFP) – The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group was threatening another key town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday, as the United Nations top rights body said it would launch an investigation into alleged violations and abuses during the deadly clashes gripping the African nation.

In an urgent session requested by DRC itself, the UN Human Rights Council adopted Friday a resolution urging M23 fighters to withdraw immediately from occupied areas, and triggering an investigation.

During the Human Rights Council meeting UN rights chief Volker Turk warned "the risk of violence escalating throughout the sub-region has never been higher".

"If nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come, for the people of the eastern DRC, but also beyond the country's borders," he added.

He also said his team is "currently verifying multiple allegations of rape, gang rape and sexual slavery".

Also on Friday, a Swiss NGO said three local staff were killed in the area this week.

Congolese forces were bracing Friday for an assault on the town of Kavumu, which hosts an airport critical to supplying its troops, according to security, humanitarian and local sources.

Kavumu is the last barrier before the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu on the Rwandan border, where residents were also on edge.

"We see some people starting to flee," resident Aganze Byamungu told AFP.

A local who spoke on condition of anonymity said shops were barricading their fronts and emptying storerooms for fear of looting, while schools and universities suspended classes.

"The border with Rwanda is open but almost impassable because of the number of people trying to cross. It's total chaos," they added.

The offensive has raised fears of regional war, given that several countries are engaged in supporting DRC militarily, including South Africa, Burundi and Malawi.

Burundi has sent an additional battalion to support the Congolese army, a security source told AFP on Friday.

"As we seek a joint resolution following numerous earlier initiatives, we need to understand that insecurity and conflicts in one region can escalate and destabilise the whole world," Kenyan foreign secretary Musalia Mudavadi, who is in Tanzania for the meeting, said in statement.

A joint summit between the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community will take place today and Saturday in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Presidents of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Paul Kagame and Félix Tshisekedi, are both expected to attend.

Both presidents were supposed to meet in December in Angola and sign a peace agreement, but the meeting was cancelled. Both parties blamed each other for failed talks as tensions escalated.

A source close to the Congolese presidency said: "From this summit, we expect an immediate ceasefire, the unconditional withdrawal of Rwandan troops and their auxiliaries, the reopening of Goma airport for humanitarian reasons, and the return of the city to the official administration."

Tina Salama, the spokesperson for Félix Tshisekedi, added, "We also expect severe sanctions against Rwanda,"

The situation is at a "pivotal moment" United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, adding that the conflict "risks engulfing the entire region" and urged the parties to work together for peace.

The rebels seized Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo, last week, then on Wednesday took another mining town - Nyabibwe - in the South Kivu province, in a push towards the provincial capital Bukavu, violating the ceasefire they had declared on Tuesday.

Two regional organisations, East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), are organising the summit and have both expressed their desire to hold a joint meeting as soon as possible to align their positions and prevent the risk of a regional escalation.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni and Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud are also expected to attend the talks.

For Rwanda, a key issue is the role of the SADC mission in the DRC, according to RFI's correspondent in Kigali, Lucie Mouillaud. Kigali describes this force as "offensive" and is calling for its withdrawal, along with that of the Burundian troops.

But the EAC and the SADC have differing views on solutions to the conflict.

The EAC advocates direct negotiations between the Congolese government and the M23, a solution that Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi has so far refused to consider.

This led him to replace the EAC’s peacekeeping force in the DRC with that of the SADC, which is calling on Rwanda to first withdraw from Congolese territory, as the government in Kinshasa wants.

"We should not have too high expectations," Sematumba told RFI, for whom simply holding this summit with all the announced participants would already be "a diplomatic success" in itself.

Reports of rebel advance towards Bukavu on Thursday sparked panic in several towns and villages including in Bukavu, where the Catholic university suspended academic activities scheduled for Friday, a statement said.

The rebels, signalling their intent to govern seized areas, assembled hundreds in a Goma stadium to introduce newly appointed administrators and urge a return to work and school.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that hundreds of thousands are displaced in Goma, with former displacement sites north of the city looted, destroyed, or abandoned. He added that healthcare facilities are overwhelmed, and essential services such as schools, water, electricity, and communications are severely disrupted.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Wednesday estimated that at least 2,800 people died in Goma.

(with newswires)

Bengaluru (India) (AFP) – Each morning Indian farmer R Murali opens an app on his phone to check if his pomegranate trees need watering, fertiliser or are at risk from pests.

"It is a routine," Murali, 51, told AFP at his farm in the southern state of Karnataka. "Like praying to God every day."

Much of India's vast agricultural economy -- employing more than 45 percent of the workforce -- remains deeply traditional, beset by problems made worse by extreme weather driven by climate change.

Murali is part of an increasing number of growers in the world's most populous nation who have adopted artificial intelligence-powered tools, which he says helps him farm "more efficiently and effectively".

"The app is the first thing I check as soon as I wake up," said Murali, whose farm is planted with sensors providing constant updates on soil moisture, nutrient levels and farm-level weather forecasts.

He says the AI system developed by tech startup Fasal, which details when and how much water, fertiliser and pesticide is needed, has slashed costs by a fifth without reducing yields.

"What we have built is a technology that allows crops to talk to their farmers," said Ananda Verma, a founder of Fasal, which serves around 12,000 farmers.

Verma, 35, who began developing the system in 2017 to understand soil moisture as a "do-it-yourself" project for his father's farm, called it a tool "to make better decisions".

But Fasal's products cost between $57 and $287 to install.

That is a high price in a country where farmers' average monthly income is $117, and where over 85 percent of farms are smaller than two hectares (five acres), according to government figures.

"We have the technology, but the availability of risk capital in India is limited," said Verma.

New Delhi says it is determined to develop homegrown and low-cost AI, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to co-host an AI summit in France opening on Monday.

Agriculture, which accounts for roughly 15 percent of India's economy, is one area ripe for its application. Farms are in dire need of investment and modernisation.

Water shortages, floods and increasingly erratic weather, as well as debt, have taken a heavy toll in an industry that employs roughly two-thirds of India's 1.4 billion population.

India is already home to over 450 agritech startups with the sector's projected valuation at $24 billion, according to a 2023 report by the government NITI Aayog think tank.

But the report also warned that a lack of digital literacy often resulted in the poor adoption of agritech solutions.

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After negotiating with authorities for five years, three organisations from Italy, Iraq and Belgium have now opened Baghdad's first skatepark.

It is not the first in the country, however: that honour went to the northern city of Sulaimaniyah.

The new skatepark at the sports ministry in a Baghdad suburb provides a welcome means of escape for young people in a country that has endured decades of conflict and crisis.

It also offers a rare respite from the often scrutinising gaze of conservative Iraqi society.

Zubaidi, wearing a pink sweater, watched fellow enthusiasts, both professional and amateur, as they rolled on colourful boards in the open-air park.

"When my friends first told me about skateboarding, I was scared," she said -- not just of falling but also because of what people might say and because her parents might not approve.

"But when I tried it, it just filled me with a beautiful energy," she added.

The skatepark project "is about inclusivity and community, about having a place for everyone", said Ishtar Obaid of Iraq's "Forsah" association.

Forsah, which means "opportunity", was one of the three organisations that spearheaded the project.

It provides a space "where people from different backgrounds" come together, and "that's the beauty of sport", said Obaid, who also advises Iraq's Olympic committee.

Her organisation plans to run skateboarding classes for children and trainers.

"It is a new chapter for sports in Iraq," Obaid said.

When the authorities approved the project in late 2024, the associations including Make Life Skate Life, a Belgian-US charity that has set up skateparks in northern Iraq, Libya and India, built the new facility in just one month.

Kjell Van Hansewyck of Make Life Skate Life said it was a "real struggle" to find a location for the skatepark.

He described Baghdad as "a crowded city with a lot of pollution and traffic jams", and lacking "public land and facilities for children".

The Iraqi capital is bustling with dozens of infrastructure and construction projects. Towering cranes and machinery dominate its streets, as new tunnels and bridges are being built.

"It is like one big job site," Van Hansewyck said.

When authorities said they could provide space at the sports ministry, the groups could hardly turn down the offer, despite this meaning skaters would have to pass through security checkpoints.

Van Hansewyck said the skatepark is "not visible from the streets", which makes it difficult for people who want to check it out.

But he is confident that passionate skaters will still promote the park and do everything possible to make it a major attraction.

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The military junta in Niger has ordered the International Committee of the Red Cross to leave the country. The regime, which has made sovereignty a key issue, did not give any details about the decision.

The Foreign Affairs ministry asked the ICRC to leave the country after denouncing certain agreements, a civil society source in Niger told RFI.

Some foreigners working with the NGO in Niger have already begun to leave the country, and the delegation’s office has been closed since Tuesday, according to the AFP news agency.

No official reason was given for the decision to shut down the ICRC. The French NGO ACTED and its Nigeran partner APBE had a similar experience in November.

The ICRC, which published a report on its activities in Niger during the first half of 2024 on Tuesday, the day its expulsion was announced, has not yet reacted publicly,

In the report, the ICRC says it has been present in Niger since 1990, and highlights its provision of healthcare to over 120,000 victims of armed conflict last year.

At the end of January, Interior Minister General Mohamed Toumba said he was taking “important measures to monitor and supervise NGOs and development organisations”.

He added that the junta has found that “many NGOs are involved with these partners who are waging war against us… through the support they often give to terrorists”.

(With newswires)

Brasília (AFP) – The UN's climate chief, seeking to shore up solidarity on combating global warming as the United States retreats from its leadership role, appealed to nations' self-interest in a speech Thursday.

Speaking at a university in Brazil's capital, Simon Stiell said global heating was "dangerously high," but that real progress had been made since the landmark Paris Agreement.

He conceded many countries would miss a February 10 deadline to submit their next round of climate plans -- giving them until September to deliver "first-rate" emissions roadmaps.

Brazil is set to host the next global climate conference, COP30, in November.

"We are already headed in the right direction. We just have to implement, and implement more and faster," said the former Grenadan environment minister.

Quickly after his White House return, President Donald Trump announced the US withdrawal from the Paris deal for the second time.

"A country may step back –- but others are already stepping into their place to seize the opportunity, and to reap the massive rewards: stronger economic growth, more jobs, less pollution and far lower health costs, more secure and affordable energy," said Stiell.

He said economic reality would drive action, with climate investment now at $2 trillion.

Self-interest, he said, "above all other factors, is why the clean energy shift is now unstoppable: because of the colossal scale of economic opportunity it presents."

Only a handful of countries have so far submitted their climate plans, including Brazil and Britain, with big emitters China and the European Union expected to follow later in the year.

A UN official said that over 170 countries had indicated they were working on their new emissions goals and planned to submit them this year, most of them before COP30.

When the Paris deal was signed ten years ago, the world was heading for 5 degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels.

That was "a death sentence for humanity as we know it," said Stiell, noting that the current trajectory of 3C was still catastrophic.

The safer limit under the Paris deal is 1.5C, but scientists say that is slipping out of reach.

Last year was the hottest on record, and the combined average temperature of 2023 and 2024 exceeded the 1.5C threshold for the first time.

On Thursday, Europe's climate monitor said last month was the hottest January on record.

Last year's contentious COP29 meeting in Baku ended with richer countries agreeing to provide at least $300 billion annually by 2035 to help poorer nations progress their green transition and build resilience.

The actual need has been estimated at $1.3 trillion in developing countries -- many of whom are facing crushing debts.

Stiell said the focus this year would be to find other sources of money to plug the gap.

He stressed the funding was "not charity" but a way to curb inflation caused by climate disasters.

"Just take rising food prices, which have the fingerprints of climate-driven droughts, floods, and wildfires all over them," he said.

Panama City (AFP) – Panama on Thursday rejected the United States' claim of securing free passage for its government vessels through the Panama Canal, while bowing to US pressure to quit a key Chinese project.

Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino told reporters the US assertion about the waterway was "intolerable," adding that he rejected "bilateral relations based on lies and falsehoods."

Since winning the US election in November, President Donald Trump has refused to rule out the use of force to seize the canal built by Washington over a century ago and later handed over to Panama.

Around 40 percent of US container traffic passes through the narrow body of water linking the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean.

The new row between Panama and Washington erupted after the US State Department claimed that Panama had agreed to let American government vessels through the canal for free after talks last weekend between Mulino and Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

In a post on the social media platform X, the State Department claimed the decision would save the US government "millions of dollars a year."

Speaking Thursday in the Dominican Republic, Rubio argued that it was "absurd" for US naval vessels to have to pay "to transit a zone we are obligated to protect in time of conflict."

He stopped short however of claiming that an agreement had been reached.

The Panama Canal Authority (PCA), an independent body that runs the waterway, said it had "not made any adjustments" to its tariffs but that it was open to dialogue on the matter.

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Cocaine "is no worse than whisky" and is only illegal because it comes from Latin America, said Colombian President Gustavo Petro during a live broadcast of a government meeting.

Colombia is the world's biggest cocaine producer and exporter, mainly to the United States and Europe, and has spent decades fighting against drug trafficking.

During a six-hour ministerial meeting -- broadcast live for the first time ever -- the leftist president said "cocaine is illegal because it is made in Latin America, not because it is worse than whisky."

"Scientists have analyzed this. Cocaine is no worse than whisky," he added, suggesting that the global cocaine industry could be "easily dismantled" if the drug were legalized worldwide.

"If you want peace, you have to dismantle the business (of drug trafficking)," he said. "It could easily be dismantled if they legalize cocaine in the world. It would be sold like wine."

Petro also pointed out that fentanyl "is killing Americans and it is not made in Colombia", referring to the opioid responsible for around 75,000 deaths in the United States a year, according to official data.

"Fentanyl was created as a pharmacy drug by North American multinationals" and those who consumed it "became addicted," he added.

Since coming to power in 2022, Petro has attempted to make peace with all of the armed groups that are fueled by drug trafficking in the hope of ending six decades of conflict.

Cocaine production in Colombia reached a record-high in 2023, jumping 53 percent to 2,600 tons, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

The United States said Wednesday that its government vessels would sail for free through the Panama Canal following heavy pressure from President Donald Trump, but authorities at the waterway swiftly issued a denial.

"US government vessels can now transit the Panama Canal without charge fees, saving the US government millions of dollars a year," the State Department said in a post on social media platform X.

It was the first public announcement of promises hinted at by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said that Panama offered concessions during his talks on Sunday.

The Panama Canal Authority, the agency that runs the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, said no agreement had been reached.

"The Panama Canal Authority, which is empowered to set tolls and other fees for transiting the canal, reports that it has not made any adjustments to them," the agency said in a statement.

It said it was still ready to hold a dialogue with US authorities.

Rubio said he had told Panama that it was unfair for the United States to be in a position to defend the vital waterway and also to be charged for its use.

US government vessels -- which would be primarily from the navy -- make up a small portion of the ships that go through the canal.

Aircraft carriers are too large to sail through the canal and must make the far longer journey around South America through the Strait of Magellan.

The United States and Panama are scheduled to hold new talks on Friday to discuss the canal.

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