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Tunisia Court Extends Prison Term for Nabil Karoui

Nabil Karoui. AFP file photo
Nabil Karoui. AFP file photo
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Tunisia Court Extends Prison Term for Nabil Karoui

Nabil Karoui. AFP file photo
Nabil Karoui. AFP file photo

A Tunisian corruption court tripled the prison term facing a businessman who challenged President Kais Saied in the 2019 presidential election.
Nabil Karoui — a populist media mogul who has been plagued by charges since being imprisoned in the lead-up to that election — was sentenced on Friday to three years behind bars. The court's spokesperson said he was charged with unlawfully receiving more than $1 million in foreign funds to bankroll his campaign.
Karoui is among the many prominent figures from business and politics who have been targeted in investigations of corruption, foreign funding and undermining state security.
Facing a raft of charges, he crossed from Tunisia to Algeria in 2021, where he was arrested and later fled. His whereabouts are unknown.
Karoui was originally sentenced to one year in prison but the term was tripled after Tunisia’s public prosecutor filed an appeal. Karoui will also be ineligible to run for office for five years.
Karoui founded Tunisian television channel Nessma TV and headed what was once one of the country's largest political parties. He was arrested and imprisoned in the middle of his 2019 campaign season on suspicion of money laundering but released before election day.

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Arab World

Israeli Strike Kills Infant Girl in South Lebanon during Father's Funeral

A member of civil defense personnel holds the body of Taleen Saeed, 1.5 years old, killed in an Israeli strike in the village of Srifa, at the Al Kharab mosque in Tyre, Lebanon, April 12, 2026. REUTERS
A member of civil defense personnel holds the body of Taleen Saeed, 1.5 years old, killed in an Israeli strike in the village of Srifa, at the Al Kharab mosque in Tyre, Lebanon, April 12, 2026. REUTERS
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Israeli Strike Kills Infant Girl in South Lebanon during Father's Funeral

A member of civil defense personnel holds the body of Taleen Saeed, 1.5 years old, killed in an Israeli strike in the village of Srifa, at the Al Kharab mosque in Tyre, Lebanon, April 12, 2026. REUTERS
A member of civil defense personnel holds the body of Taleen Saeed, 1.5 years old, killed in an Israeli strike in the village of Srifa, at the Al Kharab mosque in Tyre, Lebanon, April 12, 2026. REUTERS

Wrapped in bloodied bandages, Aline Saeed, seven, barely survived the Israeli strike on her home in south Lebanon last week. She was there to bury her father as hopes of a truce spread across the region, but a new strike killed her infant sister and other relatives.

The strike on the Saeed family home in the village of Srifa took place on Wednesday, the first day of a US-Iran ceasefire that many in Lebanon hoped would apply to their country, too. Instead, Israeli strikes killed more than 350 across Lebanon and left the Saeed family with four more relatives to bury.

"They said it was a ceasefire. Like all these people, we went up to the village. We went to the casket to read the prayers and walk home... suddenly we felt like a storm was landing right on us," said Nasser Saeed, Aline's 64-year-old grandfather, who also survived, Reuters reported.

On Sunday, he joined other relatives in the southern port city of Tyre to pick up the bodies wrapped in green cloth. One of them, a fraction the size of the rest, contained his granddaughter Taleen, Aline's sister.

She had not yet turned two.

With bandages to his head and right hand and scratches on his face, Saeed mourned in silence as the women around him turned their faces up to the sky and screamed in agony.

The Israeli military said that it did not have enough details to look into the incident, adding that it takes measures to reduce harm to civilians in its strikes against Hezbollah militants.

TALEEN 'BORN IN WAR AND DIED IN WAR'

"This isn't humanity. This is a war crime," Saeed told Reuters at the hospital where Aline's mother, Ghinwa, was still being treated.

"Where are the human rights? If a child - a child! - is wounded in Israel, the whole world jumps up. Are we not people? Are we not humans? We're like them!" he said.

Taleen was born in 2024, in the last round of fierce clashes between Hezbollah and Israel.

"She was born in the war and died in the war," said Mohammed Nazzal, Ghinwa's father.

FIERCE BOMBARDMENT CONTINUES

Iran wants a ceasefire for Lebanon as part of talks with the United States, which concluded on Sunday without a breakthrough. But Israel wants to pursue talks with Lebanese officials through a separate track.

Heavy bombardment on Lebanon has continued, with nearly 100 people killed on Saturday.

Dr. Abbas Attiyeh, head of emergency operations at Tyre's Jabal Amel hospital, said last week's bombardment was one of the heaviest in recent years and many of the patients arriving at his hospital were children.

"The challenges we're facing now are the numbers of wounded that come at the same time, within the same 30 minutes or hour," Attiyeh told Reuters.

Arab World

Ben Gvir, Settlers Storm Al-Aqsa Mosque

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir - REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir - REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
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Ben Gvir, Settlers Storm Al-Aqsa Mosque

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir - REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir - REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday morning with a group of settlers, under the protection of Israeli police.

The Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) reported that “during the incursion, settlers performed Talmudic prayers in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, in a new provocative step aimed at imposing a new religious reality at the site and entrenching temporal and spatial division.”

The Jerusalem Governorate said the move comes amid escalating violations against Islamic and Christian holy sites in occupied Jerusalem, and continued restrictions on worshippers’ access.

In a video filmed at the site and published by his office, Ben Gvir said: “Today, I feel that I am the owner of this place,” according to Reuters.

He added: “There is still more to be done, and more that needs to be improved. I continue to press Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do more. We must continue to move forward step by step.”

Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the visit in a statement, describing it as “a flagrant violation of the historical and legal status quo at the Noble Sanctuary, a desecration of its sanctity, an escalation that is condemned, and an unacceptable provocation.”

A spokesperson for Ben Gvir said the minister is seeking to secure more entry permits for Jewish visitors and to allow prayers at the site.

The spokesperson added that Ben Gvir prayed at the site. Netanyahu’s office has not yet commented. Previous visits and statements by Ben Gvir had prompted Netanyahu to issue statements affirming that there is no change in Israel’s policy of maintaining the status quo.

Arab World

Pope Says he is 'Closer Than Ever' to Lebanese People

Pope Leo XIV addresses the crowd from the window of the apostolic palace overlooking St. Peter's square during the Regina Caeli prayer in The Vatican on April 12, 2026. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP)
Pope Leo XIV addresses the crowd from the window of the apostolic palace overlooking St. Peter's square during the Regina Caeli prayer in The Vatican on April 12, 2026. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP)
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Pope Says he is 'Closer Than Ever' to Lebanese People

Pope Leo XIV addresses the crowd from the window of the apostolic palace overlooking St. Peter's square during the Regina Caeli prayer in The Vatican on April 12, 2026. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP)
Pope Leo XIV addresses the crowd from the window of the apostolic palace overlooking St. Peter's square during the Regina Caeli prayer in The Vatican on April 12, 2026. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP)

Pope Leo XIV expressed his closeness to the people of Lebanon on Sunday, saying there was a "moral obligation" to protect them while calling on warring parties to seek peace.

"I am closer than ever, in these days of sorrow, fear, and unconquerable hope in God, to the beloved Lebanese people," the pope told the crowd at St. Peter's Square following his Regina Coeli prayer, citing "a moral obligation to protect the civilian population from the atrocious effects of war."

An Israeli strike on Sunday morning hit a home of seven people in the Lebanese town of Maaroub, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The strike came without warning, and Israel did not immediately comment on it.

Israel’s government has said its strikes target operatives or infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah.

Israeli strikes over Beirut have decreased in recent days, but its attacks on southern Lebanon have intensified alongside a ground invasion.