Latest from New Straits Times
New Straits Times
19 minutes ago
- Health
- New Straits Times
Israel: Iran's Khamenei 'can no longer exist' after hospital attack
JERUSALEM: Israel's defence minister warned that Iran's supreme leader "can no longer be allowed to exist" after a hospital was hit in an Iranian missile strike on Thursday, spiking tensions in the week-old war. As President Donald Trump dangled the prospect of US involvement, Soroka Hospital in the southern city of Beersheba was left in flames by a bombardment that Iran said targeted a military and intelligence base. Meanwhile Russia, an Iranian ally, told the United States that joining the conflict would be an "extremely dangerous step." Israel, fearing Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon, launched air strikes against its arch-enemy last week, triggering deadly exchanges. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran would "pay a heavy price" for the hospital strike, while Defence Minister Israel Katz issued a stark warning for supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed – he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals," Katz told reporters. "He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal. Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist." The latest escalation came on the seventh day of deadly exchanges between the two countries that have plunged the region into a new crisis, 20 months into the Gaza war. Hospital director Shlomi Codish said 40 people were injured at the Soroka, where an evacuated surgical building was hit leaving smoke billowing. "Several wards were completely demolished and there is extensive damage across the entire hospital," he told journalists at the site. World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called attacks on health facilities "appalling", while UN rights chief Volker Turk said civilians were being treated as "collateral damage." People fleeing the attacks on Iran described frightening scenes and difficult living conditions, including food shortages and limited internet access. "Those days and nights were very horrifying... hearing sirens, the wailing, the danger of being hit by missiles," University of Tehran student Mohammad Hassan told AFP, after returning to his native Pakistan. "People are really panicking," a 50-year-old Iranian pharmacist who did not want to be named told AFP at the Kapikoy crossing on the Turkish border. "Yesterday the internet stopped and two major banks were hacked so people couldn't access their money. And there's not even enough food." Khamenei has rejected Trump's demand for an "unconditional surrender", despite the president's claim that Iran wants to negotiate. Trump has been deliberately vague about joining the conflict, saying Wednesday: "I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do. "The next week is going to be very big," he added, without further details. Any US involvement would be expected to involve the bombing of a crucial underground Iranian nuclear facility in Fordo, using specially developed bunker-busting bombs. The White House said Trump would receive an intelligence briefing on Thursday, a US holiday. Top US diplomat Marco Rubio is set meet his British counterpart for talks expected to focus on the conflict. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had told aides on Tuesday he had approved attack plans but was holding off to see if Iran would give up its nuclear programme. The US president had favoured a diplomatic route to end Iran's nuclear programme, seeking a deal to replace the 2015 agreement he tore up in his first term. But since Israel unleashed the campaign against Iran last week, Trump has stood behind the key US ally. In Moscow, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters that any US military intervention would have "truly unpredictable negative consequences." On Thursday, Israel said it had carried out dozens of fresh raids on Iranian targets overnight, including the partially built Arak nuclear reactor and a uranium enrichment facility in Natanz. The Israeli military said the Arak site in central Iran had been hit "to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development." There was a "near-total national internet blackout" in Iran on Wednesday, a London-based watchdog said, with Iran's Fars news agency confirming tighter internet restrictions after initial curbs imposed last week. An Israeli military official, who asked not to be named, said Wednesday that Iran had fired around 400 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones since the conflict began on Friday. Iranian strikes have killed at least 24 people and injured hundreds since they began, Netanyahu's office said on Monday. Iran said Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. Iran had been enriching uranium to 60 percent – far above the 3.67-percent limit set by the 2015 deal, but still short of the 90 percent needed for a nuclear warhead. Israel has maintained ambiguity on its own arsenal, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says it has 90 nuclear warheads.--AFP
New Straits Times
19 minutes ago
- Politics
- New Straits Times
Netanyahu: Israel is 'changing the face of the world' with Iran war
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel was "changing the face of the world" in its war with Iran, as he welcomed "all help" in destroying the Islamic republic's nuclear sites. "I said that we're changing the face of the Middle East, and now I say we're changing the face of the world," he told public broadcaster Kan. Seven days into the war, Netanyahu said Israeli forces were ahead of schedule in their offensive against Iranian nuclear and missile sites, but refused to provide a clear timeline for an end to the most intense confrontation in history with arch foe Tehran. "We are at war. I'm not going to reveal our timeline. I'm not going to tell them [the Iranians] what we're preparing," said Netanyahu. "When you enter a war, you know when it begins, but not when it ends," he added. He said Israel had already destroyed "more than half" of Iran's missile launchers and was "capable of striking all of Iran's nuclear facilities." But, in an apparent nod to key ally the United States, Netanyahu added: "All help is welcome." During his interview with Kan, Netanyahu went on to say that US President Donald Trump "will do what is good for for the United States, and I will do what is good for the State of Israel."
New Straits Times
20 minutes ago
- Sport
- New Straits Times
Danial, Adania cruise into matchplay round at Youth World Cup
KUALA LUMPUR: Bowlers Danial Abu Samah and Adania Redzwan got off to promising starts at the IBF Youth World Cup in Sweden, as both advanced to the round-robin stage following strong qualifying performances. The qualifying phase, held at Olympia Bowling in Helsingborg over three days, concluded on Thursday. Danial finished sixth in the boys' division after rolling down 4,001 pinfalls over 18 games to comfortably make the top 16 cut from a field of 37. Adania also did well by placing 11th in the girls' division with 3,516 pinfalls from her three-day effort, joining the 16-player matchplay round out of 31 contenders. Slovakia's Simon Hrusovsky topped the boys' qualifying with a 4,251 total, followed by Norway's Mathias Otting (4,149) and Romania's Mate B-Becsi (4,041). In the girls' division, Costa Rica's Elena Weinstock topped the leaderboard with 3,881, ahead of Denmark's Karen K Nielsen (3,787) and Germany's Fiona Lindemann (3,733). The top 16 in each division will now contest a 15-game round-robin matchplay phase across the next two days, with 30 bonus pins awarded for each win and 15 for a draw. Only the top eight will progress to the next stage. This is the second edition of the Youth World Cup, following the inaugural event held in Peru in January last year. Back then, Malaysia was represented by Megat Zaqrul Haiqal Megat Zairudin and Nur Hazirah Ramli. Megat came agonisingly close to a podium finish, ending fourth, while Hazirah also impressed by reaching the quarter-finals.
New Straits Times
34 minutes ago
- Politics
- New Straits Times
Israel bombs Iran's nuclear sites, hospital hit in retaliation
TEL AVIV: Israel bombed nuclear targets in Iran on Thursday and Iranian missiles hit an Israeli hospital overnight, as the week-old air war escalated with no sign yet of an off-ramp. Following the strike that damaged the Soroka medical centre in Israel's southern city of Beersheba, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tehran's "tyrants" would pay the "full price." Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military had been instructed to intensify strikes on strategic-related targets in Tehran in order to eliminate the threat to Israel and destabilise the "Ayatollah regime." Israel's sweeping campaign of airstrikes aims to do more than destroy Iran's nuclear centrifuges and missile capabilities. It seeks to shatter the foundations of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's government and leave it near collapse, Israeli, Western and regional officials said. Netanyahu wants Iran weakened enough to be forced into fundamental concessions on permanently abandoning its nuclear enrichment, its ballistic missile programme and its support for militant groups across the region, the sources said. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, speaking to reporters outside the damaged hospital, said "regime change" in Tehran was not a goal the security cabinet had set "for the time being." US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has kept the world guessing about whether Israel's superpower ally would join it in airstrikes. Israel said it had struck Iran's Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites. It initially said it had also hit Bushehr, site of Iran's only functioning nuclear power plant, but a spokesperson later said it was a mistake to have said this. An Iranian diplomat told Reuters Bushehr was not hit and Israel was engaged in "psychological warfare" by discussing it. Any attack on the plant, near Arab neighbours and housing Russian technicians, is viewed as risking nuclear disaster. Trump has veered from proposing a swift diplomatic end to the war to suggesting the United States might join it. On Wednesday, he said nobody knew what he would do. A day earlier he mused on social media about killing Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, then demanded Iran's unconditional surrender. A week of Israeli air and missile strikes against its major rival has wiped out the top echelon of Iran's military command, damaged its nuclear capabilities and killed hundreds of people, while Iranian retaliatory strikes have killed at least two dozen civilians in Israel. STRAIT OF HORMUZ Iran has been weighing its options in responding to its biggest security challenge since the 1979 revolution. A member of the Iranian Parliament's National Security Committee Presidium, Behnam Saeedi, told the semi-official Mehr news agency Iran could consider closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20pct of daily global oil consumption passes. Tehran has in the past threatened to close the strait. Shipping sources said on Wednesday that commercial ships were avoiding Iran's waters nearby. Oil prices rose after Israel and Iran continued to exchange missile attacks overnight and Trump's stance on the conflict kept investors on edge. Iran was maintaining crude oil supply by loading tankers one at a time and moving floating oil storage much closer to China, two vessel tracking firms told Reuters, as the country seeks to keep a key source of revenue while under attack. The conflict poses a fresh hurdle for Iran, which uses a shadow fleet of tankers to conceal their origin and skirt US sanctions reinstated in 2018 over its nuclear programme. Countries around the world are taking measures to evacuate their citizens from Israel and Iran and airspace in the region remains closed. Earlier, the Israeli military said it targeted the Khondab nuclear site near Iran's central city Arak overnight, including a partially-built heavy-water research reactor. Heavy-water reactors produce plutonium, which, like enriched uranium, can be used to make the core of an atom bomb. Iran's atomic energy agency said the attack caused no casualties. The Israeli military also said it attacked launch sites in western Iran after attempts to restore them were detected. Israel, which has the most advanced military in the Middle East, has been fighting on several fronts since the Oct 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas triggered the Gaza war. It has severely weakened Iran's regional allies, Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon's Hizbollah, and bombed Yemen's Houthis. 'STAY AWAY FROM OUR COUNTRY' The extent of the damage inside Iran has become more difficult to assess in recent days, with the authorities apparently seeking to prevent panic by limiting information. Iran has stopped giving updates on the death toll, and state media have ceased showing widespread images of destruction. The internet has been almost completely shut down, and the public has been banned from filming. Arash, 33, a government employee in Tehran, said a building next to his home in Tehran's Shahrak-e Gharb neighbourhood had been destroyed in the strikes. "I saw at least three dead children and two women in that building. Is this how Netanyahu plans to 'liberate' Iranians? Stay away from our country," he told Reuters by telephone. Israel has issued evacuation orders for whole sections of Tehran, a city of 10 million. Thousands of residents have fled, jamming the highways out. Samira, 11, moved in with her grandparents in the northwestern city of Urmia after her family fled Tehran when a shopping centre near their house was struck. She said she has been unable to sleep at night. "I'm afraid Israel will hit our home and my mom will die. I'm too scared. I just want to go home," she said by phone. Inside Israel, the missile strikes over the past week are the first time a significant number of projectiles from Iran have pierced defences and killed Israelis in their homes. The director general of the Israeli hospital that was damaged in Beersheba, Shlomi Kodesh, told reporters at the site that a missile strike had destroyed several wards and wounded 40 people, mostly staff and patients. Netanyahu, visiting the site, said he had issued instructions that "no one is immune" from Israeli attacks. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted Israeli military and intelligence headquarters near the hospital. An Israeli military official denied there were military targets nearby. Missiles also hit a residential building in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv. "It's very scary," said Yaniv, 34, who lives nearby. He said he heard a deafening explosion when the missile hit, shaking his apartment tower.
New Straits Times
an hour ago
- Sport
- New Straits Times
Messi's 'winning spirit' surprising: Inter Miami's Mascherano
ATLANTA: Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano admitted he is surprised at Lionel Messi's desire to win after the MLS side shocked Porto at the Club World Cup on Thursday. Veteran playmaker Messi curled home a fine free-kick in a man-of-the-match performance at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, the winning goal in Miami's 2-1 Group A victory over their Portuguese opponents. Mascherano said his Argentine compatriot's competitive spirit at 37 was more surprising to him than the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner's quality. "Beyond his goal... he's a player who shows us how to compete, his hunger, his desire to continue competing at whatever level it is," Mascherano told reporters. "In a footballing sense, what else is there to say? He's the best player that has played this sport in its history, but what is surprising is his will to win. "Today, even in the last minutes, tired, with a knock, he kept helping the team in any way he could, in attack, in defence, to get the result... "We know having him gives us an advantage, but above all, through his contagious spirit, the winning spirit that he has." Many expected Porto to beat Inter Miami but the American side recorded a first ever victory in a competitive match for an MLS team against European opposition and the first shock at the Club World Cup. "I think that we understood that in football there are obviously hierarchies, and we were facing against a team at a high level, with international players," said Mascherano. "But we were convinced that if we did what we had to do, if we had a plan, if we supported each other, if we were together, but above all, if we dared to play, we could compete." Samu Aghehowa netted a first-half penalty for Porto but Telasco Segovia and Messi's strikes after the break earned Inter Miami victory which puts them level on four points with Palmeiras at the top of the group. "What I told them (at half-time) was... to raise their spirits, because we had clearly showed we could compete, and that we had reached a moment where I didn't care about the result," added Mascherano.
