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German Court Hands Tunisian 10-Year Sentence for Ricin Bomb Plot

Sief Allah H. on trial in Cologne in June 2019. Photo: DPA
Sief Allah H. on trial in Cologne in June 2019. Photo: DPA
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German Court Hands Tunisian 10-Year Sentence for Ricin Bomb Plot

Sief Allah H. on trial in Cologne in June 2019. Photo: DPA
Sief Allah H. on trial in Cologne in June 2019. Photo: DPA

When Tunisian Sief Allah H entered the courtroom in the western German city of Dusseldorf this week, he was all smiles and asked the police officer standing next to him to respect social distancing as a measure to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

The humor of the 31-year-old man, who has been in jail since 2018, turned into a nightmare when the judge at Dusseldorf’s higher regional court sentenced him to 10 years in prison for planning a biological bomb attack with the deadly poison ricin.

The ISIS sympathizer had ordered castor seeds, explosives and metal ball bearings on the internet in order to build the toxic bomb.

He was found guilty of producing a biological weapon and of planning a serious act of violent subversion.

His German wife Yasmin, 43, stands accused of helping him build the bomb but she is now being tried separately after the court accused her defense lawyers of attempting to spin out the case with a 140-page statement on Thursday.

Her trial will resume on April 1.

The couple "wanted to create a climate of fear and uncertainty among the German population," judge Jan van Lessen said.

He added that they had produced enough ricin to potentially kill up to 13,500 people.

The couple have been on trial since June last year.

Federal prosecutors said the couple had "for a long time identified with the aims and values of the foreign terrorist organization ISIS".

They decided in 2017 to detonate an explosive in a large crowd, "to kill and wound the largest possible number of people," prosecutors said ahead of the trial.

The pair had allegedly researched various forms of explosives before deciding on the deadly poison.

They ordered 3,300 castor beans over the internet and successfully made a small amount of ricin.

They also bought a hamster to test the potency of the poison.

"He is certainly guilty, we do not deny that," they reportedly said.

Before travelling to Germany, Sief Allah H worked as a mailman in Tunisia.

He had tried to travel to Syria to fight alongside extremists. But when his plans failed, he thought about an alternative plan to carry out the biological attack.

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World

Macron Presents UK’s Starmer with France’s Highest Award

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrives for the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris on July 14, 2026. (AFP)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrives for the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris on July 14, 2026. (AFP)
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Macron Presents UK’s Starmer with France’s Highest Award

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrives for the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris on July 14, 2026. (AFP)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrives for the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris on July 14, 2026. (AFP)

Britain's outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been awarded France's highest honor, in recognition of his work on the security of Europe and Ukraine.

President Emmanuel Macron's office said he presented Starmer with the Legion d'honneur on Monday in Paris, where he was attending a summit of Ukraine's allies.

Starmer, who has been prime minister since winning a landslide election victory in July 2024, is the first UK prime minister to receive the award.

He is due to leave office within days after losing the confidence of his governing Labour party over a slew of domestic policy U-turns that hit his popularity.

In contrast, he is held in high regard by many foreign leaders on issues from Ukraine to forging closer European ties.

Starmer is due to be replaced as Labour leader and prime minister by Andy Burnham, a veteran former minister, who is also a pro-European centrist.

Starmer, 63, attended the annual July 14 military parade in central Paris as a guest of Macron, alongside other Ukraine allies.

Presenting the former human rights lawyer and chief state prosecutor with the legion d'honneur, Macron praised his "personal leadership" and "commitments" to "the security of Europe, Ukraine, the bilateral relationship" and his "decency".

Starmer and Labour's return to power, after 14 years in opposition, marked a sea-change in relations with Britain's closest European allies, including France.

Under the Conservatives, Britain left the European Union after a divisive 2016 referendum on membership.

World

UN Warns of Cracks in Global Immunization System

Djoumessi Mabel, right, mother of a nine-month-old, attends a malaria vaccination session at the Soa District Hospital in Yaounde, Cameroon, Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (AP)
Djoumessi Mabel, right, mother of a nine-month-old, attends a malaria vaccination session at the Soa District Hospital in Yaounde, Cameroon, Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (AP)
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UN Warns of Cracks in Global Immunization System

Djoumessi Mabel, right, mother of a nine-month-old, attends a malaria vaccination session at the Soa District Hospital in Yaounde, Cameroon, Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (AP)
Djoumessi Mabel, right, mother of a nine-month-old, attends a malaria vaccination session at the Soa District Hospital in Yaounde, Cameroon, Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (AP)

Global infant vaccination levels improved slightly last year, the UN said Wednesday, but warned that drastic funding cuts, conflicts and misinformation were deepening dangerous coverage gaps and allowing outbreaks to surge.

In 2025, 90 percent of infants globally, or nearly 116 million, received at least one dose of the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP), while 85 percent completed the full three-dose series, according to data published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, the United Nations' health and children's agencies.

On the surface, those numbers look promising, with both indicators up one percentage point from 2024 and up four points since 2021.

But they remained one point below the levels in 2019 -- before the Covid pandemic wreaked havoc on global vaccination programs.

This means "millions of vulnerable children are still being left unprotected due to conflict, displacement, and poverty", UNICEF chief Catherine Russell said in a statement.

"No child should suffer from a disease that a simple vaccine can prevent," she insisted.

According to the data, an estimated 13.5 million so-called zero-dose children did not receive a single shot in their first year during 2025.

That was 750,000 fewer than in 2024, and around one million fewer than in 2023.

- 'Unprecedented numbers of outbreaks' -

The UN agencies warned that a growing number of children, mainly in poorer countries, start on the vaccine schedule but do not complete it.

Globally, the data showed that an estimated 7.3 million infants had received their first DTP dose in the first months of life, but did not go on to receive their first measles dose, usually given at between nine and 12 months.

While there can be many reasons for such dropouts, "we think that this is clearly related in some settings to false information, misinformation that is provided around measles vaccination", the WHO's vaccines director Kate O'Brien told reporters, adding that this was of "very significant concern".

Dropouts have contributed to measles coverage stalling at 84 percent of children globally receiving their first measles dose, and just 77 percent receiving the second dose -- far short of the 95 percent needed to avert the spread of the highly contagious disease.

"The consequence is being felt now," O'Brien said, pointing out that "57 countries reported in 2025 large or disruptive measles outbreaks".

Overall, the world saw "unprecedented numbers of outbreaks" last year, she said, with "more diphtheria outbreaks, more cholera outbreaks", in addition to the measles spread.

- Surveillance 'considerably impacted' -

O'Brien cautioned that this was a first hint in the data of the impact of dramatic aid cuts by the United States but also other countries since US President Donald Trump's return to office last year.

"We don't think that the impact of those funding cuts is showing up yet fully in the 2025 data," she said, adding that "our concerns are very much for what's happening in programs in 2026 and what is yet to come".

The outbreaks were however already indicating "real cracks in the system now for immunization", she warned.

UNICEF's immunization chief Ephrem Lemango agreed, cautioning that funding cuts were taking a toll on the data systems needed to track the effect of such cuts.

"Our ability to have a strong surveillance of outbreaks has been considerably impacted," he told reporters.

Only 18 national immunization surveys were undertaken and submitted for 2025, down from 50 a year earlier.

On a positive note, Wednesday's report showed that vaccine coverage against a range of diseases had hit a record high in the 57 low-income countries supported by the vaccine alliance Gavi.

But that organization warned that dwindling funding for its operations risked taking a dire toll down the road.

"We believe that 600,000 lives that could have been saved will be impacted", Gavi's chief country delivery officer Thabani Maphosa told reporters.

World

Iran Hangs Man Convicted for Part in January Protests

Iranian women walk past a mural of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on a street in Tehran, Iran, 15 July 2026. (EPA)
Iranian women walk past a mural of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on a street in Tehran, Iran, 15 July 2026. (EPA)
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Iran Hangs Man Convicted for Part in January Protests

Iranian women walk past a mural of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on a street in Tehran, Iran, 15 July 2026. (EPA)
Iranian women walk past a mural of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on a street in Tehran, Iran, 15 July 2026. (EPA)

Iran hanged a man on Wednesday, the judiciary announced, after finding him guilty of taking part in anti-government protests that rocked the country over the winter.

"Mohammad Amini Dehaghani, a collaborator with the enemy, was hanged this morning after confirmation of the verdict by the supreme court," the judiciary's press agency reported.

He was found guilty of "moharebeh" (war against God in Persian) and "corruption on earth".

The condemned had "thrown a Molotov cocktail on January 9 outside the governor's office in Dehaghan, set it alight and destroyed public property as well as the town's police station," state media added.

At the end of December, protests against the cost of living in Iran spread rapidly across the country and expanded to include political demands.

The protests were met by a crackdown that rights groups say killed thousands.

Iranian authorities have portrayed the protests as riots backed by the United States and Israel, and said the violence killed around 3,000 people.

Rights groups abroad put the toll higher and accused the security forces of firing at demonstrators.

The number of executions has surged since the start of the Middle East war, begun by the United States and Israel against Iran on February 28.

According to Amnesty International, Iran conducts the second most executions of any country, after China.