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Haftar Makes Surprise Visit to Cairo, Salameh Meets with Saleh in Libya

Libya Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. (Reuters)
Libya Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. (Reuters)
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Haftar Makes Surprise Visit to Cairo, Salameh Meets with Saleh in Libya

Libya Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. (Reuters)
Libya Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. (Reuters)

The Commander of the Libyan Army, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, arrived in Cairo on Sunday on a surprise visit, while UN Envoy to Libya Ghassan Salameh met with Libyan Speaker Aqila Saleh on the second day of his visit to the country.

In a brief statement, Haftar’s office said the official arrived in Cairo on a working visit, during which he would discuss prospects of joint cooperation between Egypt and Libya. It added that he would meet Egyptian Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Mahmoud Hijazi and army leaders.

Meanwhile, the UN envoy held talks with Saleh in the city of Al Qubah (eastern Libya), focusing on the Skhirat Agreement, which was concluded in Morocco nearly two years ago.

In a news conference, Salameh described his meeting with the Libyan speaker as “productive”, noting that discussions have touched on “the means to bolster Libya’s independence and promote its institutions”.

He added that Saleh had shown “a spirit of openness towards other parties.”

Libya’s Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Parliamentary Committee has anticipated the UN envoy’s visit by stressing its “full and unequivocal rejection” of an agreement forged between Fayez al-Sarraj, the head of Libya’s UN-backed government, and Italy on measures to control illegal immigration.

The committee said the agreement was unconstitutional and a violation of the country’s sovereignty, adding: “The implications of such measures are contrary to international conventions and treaties and override the legislative and legislative authorities in the country.”

It pointed out to “threats on national security when migration is exported to Libya, along with its economic, security and social burdens.”

The committee called on the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union and the Arab League to take the necessary measures in response to the “flagrant violation of international treaties and covenants relating to the sovereignty of states.”

Meanwhile, Libya’s coastguard intercepted 137 migrants including five women and three children on Sunday as they attempted to reach Europe, a migration official told AFP.

The migrants, from several African countries, were aboard an inflatable boat intercepted Sunday morning around 40km north of Sayyad, a seaside village west of Tripoli, navy spokesman General Ayoub Qassem said.

They were taken to a navy base in the capital where the Libyan authorities gave them food, water and medical treatment, an AFP photographer said.

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Arab World

Sudan Drone Attack on Darfur Market Kills 10

Sudanese refugee girls carry water supplies near a polling station in the refugee camp of Zamzam, on the outskirts of el-Fasher, Darfur, Sudan, on April 13, 2010. (AP)
Sudanese refugee girls carry water supplies near a polling station in the refugee camp of Zamzam, on the outskirts of el-Fasher, Darfur, Sudan, on April 13, 2010. (AP)
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Sudan Drone Attack on Darfur Market Kills 10

Sudanese refugee girls carry water supplies near a polling station in the refugee camp of Zamzam, on the outskirts of el-Fasher, Darfur, Sudan, on April 13, 2010. (AP)
Sudanese refugee girls carry water supplies near a polling station in the refugee camp of Zamzam, on the outskirts of el-Fasher, Darfur, Sudan, on April 13, 2010. (AP)

A drone attack on a busy market in Sudan's North Darfur state killed 10 people over the weekend, first responders said on Sunday, without saying who was responsible.

The attack comes as fighting intensified elsewhere in the country, leading aid workers to be evacuated on Sunday from Kadugli, a besieged, famine-hit city in the south.

Since April 2023, Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been locked in a conflict which has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced nearly 12 million and created the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis.

The North Darfur Emergency Rooms Council, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across Sudan, said a drone strike hit Al-Harra market in the RSF-controlled town of Malha on Saturday.

The attack killed 10 people, it said.

The council did not identify who carried out the attack, which it said had also sparked "fire in shops and caused extensive material damage".

There was no immediate comment from either the Sudanese army or the RSF.

The war's current focal point is now South Kordofan and clashes have escalated in Kadugli, the state capital, where a drone attack last week killed eight people as they attempted to flee the army-controlled city.

A source from a humanitarian organization operating in Kadugli told AFP on Sunday that humanitarian groups had "evacuated all their workers" from the city because of the security conditions.

The evacuation followed the United Nations' decision to relocate its logistics hub from Kadugli, the source said on condition of anonymity, without specifying where the staff had gone.

- Measles outbreak -

Kadugli and nearby Dilling have been besieged by paramilitary forces since the war erupted.

Last week, the RSF claimed control of the Brno area, a key defensive line on the road between Kadugli and Dilling.

After dislodging the army in October from the western city of el-Fasher -- its last stronghold in the Darfur region -- the RSF has shifted its focus to resource-rich Kordofan, a strategic crossroads linking army-held northern and eastern territories with RSF-held Darfur in the west.

Like Darfur, Kordofan is home to numerous non-Sudanese Arab ethnic groups. Much of the violence that followed the fall of el-Fasher was reportedly ethnically targeted.

Communications in Kordofan have been cut, and the United Nations declared a famine in Kadugli last month.

According to the UN's International Organization for Migration, more than 50,000 civilians have fled the region since the end of October.

Residents have been forced to forage for food in nearby forests, according to accounts gathered by AFP.

Doctors without Borders (MSF) said on Sunday that measles was spreading in three of the four states in Darfur, a vast region covering much of western Sudan.

"A preventable measles outbreak is spreading across Central, South and West Darfur," the organization said in a statement.

"Since September 2025, MSF teams have treated more than 1,300 cases. Delays in vaccine transport, approvals and coordination, by authorities and key partners are leaving children unprotected."

Business

Greece Headed for ‘Record Year’ for Tourism, Says Minister

Tourists descent Propylaia, the ancient gate of the Acropolis archaeological site in Athens on June 21, 2023. (AFP)
Tourists descent Propylaia, the ancient gate of the Acropolis archaeological site in Athens on June 21, 2023. (AFP)
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Greece Headed for ‘Record Year’ for Tourism, Says Minister

Tourists descent Propylaia, the ancient gate of the Acropolis archaeological site in Athens on June 21, 2023. (AFP)
Tourists descent Propylaia, the ancient gate of the Acropolis archaeological site in Athens on June 21, 2023. (AFP)

Greece is on track for "another record year" for tourism in 2025, despite ongoing labor shortages in a key sector of its economy, Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni said on Sunday.

Between January and the end of September, the Mediterranean nation -- long beloved by tourists for its sunny islands and rich archaeological sites -- welcomed 31.6 million visitors, a four-percent increase compared with the same period in 2024, according to Bank of Greece data published in late November.

"Overall, we expect 2025 to be another record year for tourism in our country," Kefalogianni said in an interview with the Greek news agency ANA.

The conservative minister also expressed hope for another bumper year in 2026.

"The indicators for 2026 are already particularly encouraging and allow us to be optimistic," she said.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, Greece has been breaking annual records in tourism revenues and the number of foreign visitors.

Across 2024, 40.7 million people visited Greece, up 12.8 percent from 2023.

But the uptick has sparked concern over the unchecked construction in several hotspots, while Athens locals have complained that the proliferation of short-term holiday lets has caused rents to skyrocket.

Climate change-fueled heatwaves and increasingly devastating wildfires also pose a threat to the sector, which Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has trumpeted since taking office in 2019 in a bid to revive the economy after the financial crisis.

According to the Institute of the Greek Tourism Confederation (INSETE), tourism directly contributed around 13 percent of GDP in 2024 and indirectly to more than 30 percent of GDP.

Entertainment

'Avatar: Fire and Ash' Launches With $88Mn Domestically, $345Mn Worldwide

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Kiri, performed by Sigourney Weaver, in a scene from "Avatar: Fire and Ash." (20th Century Studios via AP)
This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Kiri, performed by Sigourney Weaver, in a scene from "Avatar: Fire and Ash." (20th Century Studios via AP)
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'Avatar: Fire and Ash' Launches With $88Mn Domestically, $345Mn Worldwide

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Kiri, performed by Sigourney Weaver, in a scene from "Avatar: Fire and Ash." (20th Century Studios via AP)
This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Kiri, performed by Sigourney Weaver, in a scene from "Avatar: Fire and Ash." (20th Century Studios via AP)

“Avatar: Fire and Ash” opened with $345 million in worldwide sales, according to studio estimates Sunday, notching the second-best global debut of the year and potentially putting James Cameron on course to set yet more blockbuster records.

Sixteen years into the “Avatar” saga, Pandora is still abundant in box-office riches. “Fire and Ash,” the third film in Cameron’s science-fiction franchise, launched with $88 million domestically and $257 million internationally. The only film to open bigger in 2025 was “Zootopia 2” ($497.2 million over three days). In the coming weeks, “Fire and Ash” will have the significant benefit of the highly lucrative holiday moviegoing corridor.

But there was a tad less fanfare to this “Avatar” film, coming three years after “Avatar: The Way of Water.” That film launched in 2022 with a massive $435 million globally and $134 million in North America. Domestically, “Fire and Ash” fell a hefty 35% from the previous installment. Reviews for “Fire and Ash” were also more mixed, scoring a series-low 68% “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Yet those quibbles are only a product of the lofty standards of “Avatar.” The first two films rank as two of the three biggest box-office films of all time. To reach those heights, the “Avatar” films have depended on legs more than huge openings.

“Avatar” (2009), opened with $77 million domestically but held the top spot for seven weeks. It ultimately grossed $2.92 billion worldwide. “The Way of Water” also held strong to eventually tally $2.3 billion globally.

“The openings are not what the ‘Avatar’ movies are about,” said David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter on box office numbers. “It’s what they do after they open that made them the #2 and #3 biggest films of all time.”

Should “Fire and Ash” follow in those footsteps, “Avatar” would become the only movie franchise with three $2 billion installments. Working in its favor so far: strong word-of-mouth. Audiences gave it an “A” CinemaScore.

In interviews, Cameron has repeatedly said “Fire and Ash” needs to perform well for there to be subsequent “Avatar” films. (Four and five are already written but not greenlit.) These are exceptionally expensive movies to make. With a production budget of at least $400 million, “Fire and Ash” is one of the costliest films ever made.

“Fire and Ash” was especially boosted by premium format showings, which accounted for 66% of its opening weekend. A narrow majority of moviegoers (56%) chose to watch it in 3D.

The “Avatar” films have always been especially popular overseas. “Fire and Ash” was strongest in China, where its $57.6 million opening weekend surpassed the two previous movies.

“Fire and Ash” didn’t have the weekend entirely to itself. A trio of other new wide releases made it into theaters in hopes of offering some counterprogramming: Lionsgate’s “The Housemaid,” Angel Studios’ “David” and Paramount Pictures’ “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants.”

In the race for second place, “David” came out on top. The animated tale of David and Goliath collected $22 million from 3,118 theaters, notching the best opening weekend for Angel Studios.

“The Housemaid,” Paul Feig’s twisty psychological thriller starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, opened with $19 million 3,015 theaters. The Lionsgate release, which cost about $35 million to make, is set up well to be one of the top R-rated options in theaters over the holidays. Based on Freida McFadden’s bestselling novel, it stars Sweeney as a woman with a troubled past who becomes a live-in maid for a wealthy family.

Trailing the pack was “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants,” which collected $16 million from 3,557 theaters. The G-rated film, based on the Nickelodeon TV series, is the first “SpongeBob” theatrical movie since 2015’s “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.”

All of this weekend’s new films will hope the ticket sales keep rolling in over the upcoming Christmas break. Starting Dec. 25, they’ll need to contend with some new wide releases, including A24’s “Marty Supreme,” with Timothée Chalamet; Focus Features’ “Song Sung Blue,” with Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson; and Sony’s “Anaconda,” with Jack Black and Paul Rudd.

Before expanding on Christmas, “Marty Supreme” opened in six theaters over the weekend, grossing $875,000 or $145,000 per theater. That was good enough for not only the best per-theater average of the year, but the best since 2016 and a new high mark for A24. The film, directed by Josh Safdie and starring Chalamet as an aspiring table tennis player in 1950s New York, is the most expensive ever for A24.