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Cyprus Busts Refugee Trafficking Ring as More Arrive from Middle East 

File photo: Members of the German charity Sea-Watch 3 rescue ship team help migrants on a wood boat during a rescue operation in the Mediterranean Sea, February 26, 2021. Selene Magnolia/Sea-Watch/Handout via REUTERS
File photo: Members of the German charity Sea-Watch 3 rescue ship team help migrants on a wood boat during a rescue operation in the Mediterranean Sea, February 26, 2021. Selene Magnolia/Sea-Watch/Handout via REUTERS
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Cyprus Busts Refugee Trafficking Ring as More Arrive from Middle East 

File photo: Members of the German charity Sea-Watch 3 rescue ship team help migrants on a wood boat during a rescue operation in the Mediterranean Sea, February 26, 2021. Selene Magnolia/Sea-Watch/Handout via REUTERS
File photo: Members of the German charity Sea-Watch 3 rescue ship team help migrants on a wood boat during a rescue operation in the Mediterranean Sea, February 26, 2021. Selene Magnolia/Sea-Watch/Handout via REUTERS

Police in Cyprus on Monday arrested ten individuals suspected of running a crime gang trafficking migrants, as the island saw a fresh spike in arrivals over the weekend.

Cyprus, which lies at the crossroads of three continents, has seen irregular migration rise since 2017. Cypriot officials have in recent days repeatedly expressed concern that the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the Middle East could lead to a surge in people fleeing the area.

Some 264 Syrians arrived over the weekend after setting off from the Lebanese coast, an interior ministry spokesperson said.

Police said the trafficking suspects were arrested at various locations in the western Paphos district on suspicion of conspiracy to commit a crime, being members of a criminal organization, trafficking and money laundering.

A large amount of cash was found in the possession of one suspect, police said.

Arrivals this year are still considerably lower than a record-breaking 21,565 asylum applications made for the whole of 2022, according to figures from the UN refugee agency UNHCR. Until the end of August, Cyprus had received 7,369 asylum applications from new arrivals.

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World

US, Israel Unlikely to Achieve ‘Regime Change’ in Iran, Says Merz

27 March 2026, Hesse, Frankfurt/Main: Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz speaks at the "FAZ" Congress. (dpa)
27 March 2026, Hesse, Frankfurt/Main: Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz speaks at the "FAZ" Congress. (dpa)
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US, Israel Unlikely to Achieve ‘Regime Change’ in Iran, Says Merz

27 March 2026, Hesse, Frankfurt/Main: Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz speaks at the "FAZ" Congress. (dpa)
27 March 2026, Hesse, Frankfurt/Main: Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz speaks at the "FAZ" Congress. (dpa)

The US-Israeli war against Iran is unlikely to lead to "regime change", German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Friday, as the month-long conflict showed no signs of abating.

"Is regime change really the goal?" he said at a forum in Frankfurt organized by the FAZ newspaper.

"If that's the goal, I don't think you'll achieve it. It's mostly gone wrong" in past conflicts, he said, pointing to the Afghanistan war.

"I have serious doubts as to whether there is a strategy and whether that strategy is being successfully implemented," he added. "In that respect, it could take even longer."

Germany has pushed back at US President Donald Trump's criticisms of NATO members for failing to join the attacks on Iran, insisting that it is not their war.

Merz however said Friday he believed that Trump had accepted this stance.

He also said Germany would be open to helping provide military protection in the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for oil and gas, which has been nearly totally blocked, in the event of a ceasefire.

"This requires an international mandate, it requires approval from the German parliament and, prior to that, a cabinet decision. And we are far from that."

World

More Than 300 US Troops Injured Since Start of Iran War

US Navy sailors taxi an F/A-18F Super Hornet on the flight deck aboard Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in support of the Operation Epic Fury attack on Iran from an undisclosed location March 17, 2026. (US Navy/Handout via Reuters)
US Navy sailors taxi an F/A-18F Super Hornet on the flight deck aboard Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in support of the Operation Epic Fury attack on Iran from an undisclosed location March 17, 2026. (US Navy/Handout via Reuters)
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More Than 300 US Troops Injured Since Start of Iran War

US Navy sailors taxi an F/A-18F Super Hornet on the flight deck aboard Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in support of the Operation Epic Fury attack on Iran from an undisclosed location March 17, 2026. (US Navy/Handout via Reuters)
US Navy sailors taxi an F/A-18F Super Hornet on the flight deck aboard Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in support of the Operation Epic Fury attack on Iran from an undisclosed location March 17, 2026. (US Navy/Handout via Reuters)

More than 300 US troops have been wounded since the start of the Iran war on February 28, US Central Command said on Friday.

"Since the start of Operation Epic Fury, approximately 303 US service members have been wounded. The vast majority of these injuries have been minor, and 273 troops have returned to duty," US Navy Captain Tim Hawkins said.

A US official who asked not to be identified told AFP that 10 troops remain seriously wounded.

A further 13 troops have been killed in the war, according to the latest figures, with seven killed in the Gulf and six in Iraq.

In a separate development Friday, Iran's military said that hotels housing US soldiers in the region would be considered targets.

"When all the Americans (forces) go into a hotel, then from our perspective that hotel becomes American," armed forces spokesman Abolfazl Shekarchi told state television on Thursday.

Iran's government has not released an updated casualty toll, but a US-based activist group said on March 23 that some 1,167 Iranian troops had been killed and 658 troops' status is unknown. AFP is not able to independently verify tolls in Iran due to reporting restrictions.

The war began on February 28 when the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran, killing its supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Since then, the conflict has spread across the Middle East. Iran has fired drone and missiles at Gulf states home to American military bases and other interests.

US President Donald Trump insisted on Thursday that talks to end the conflict were "ongoing" and "going very well".

World

UN Appeals for $80 Mn for Refugees, Hosts in Iran

A man clears debris from a building damaged after a nearby residential building was hit in a US-Israeli strike in Tehran, Friday, March 27, 2026. (AP)
A man clears debris from a building damaged after a nearby residential building was hit in a US-Israeli strike in Tehran, Friday, March 27, 2026. (AP)
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UN Appeals for $80 Mn for Refugees, Hosts in Iran

A man clears debris from a building damaged after a nearby residential building was hit in a US-Israeli strike in Tehran, Friday, March 27, 2026. (AP)
A man clears debris from a building damaged after a nearby residential building was hit in a US-Israeli strike in Tehran, Friday, March 27, 2026. (AP)

The United Nations said Friday it had launched an $80-million appeal to address the urgent humanitarian needs of nearly two million refugees in Iran and their host communities as the Middle East war rages.

Iran hosts the largest number of refugees in the world and has a significant migrant population, including 4.5 million Afghans, according to Tehran, and, according to the UN, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

"With the recent escalation of conflict, refugees, other Afghans and host communities in Iran are struggling with concerns for their safety, job losses, psychological distress and urgent shelter needs," said Babar Baloch, spokesman for UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.

UNHCR and its humanitarian partners have put together a flash refugee response plan, urgently seeking $80 million to respond to the immediate humanitarian needs from March to May.

"This will cover 1.8 million Afghan refugees and Afghans under other status living in Iran, plus also a million in their hosting communities who have also been affected," Baloch told a press conference.

"In Iran, most Afghan refugees, they live with the urban communities side by side, and everyone is affected," he said, adding that UNHCR was getting "thousands of desperate calls every day" from Afghans seeking support.

The Middle East war erupted on February 28 when Washington and Israel launched strikes on Iran, with Tehran in turn attacking targets in Israel and Gulf nations.

The UN's International Organization for Migration said no atypical outflows of people from Iran had been detected.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross said the month of war had upended the lives of millions and sent shockwaves far beyond the region at a speed "that threatens to overwhelm the humanitarian response".

"Essential infrastructure critical for the supply of energy, water and health care has been damaged or destroyed. The use of heavy explosive weapons with wide area impact in urban settings has caused suffering and fear," the ICRC said in a statement.

"Without respect for the rules of war, civilians will continue to suffer profound consequences that could outlast the current conflict."