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One Person Dies as Migrants Aim to Cross English Channel

10 March 2025, United Kingdom, Dover: A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the Channel. Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire/dpa
10 March 2025, United Kingdom, Dover: A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the Channel. Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire/dpa
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One Person Dies as Migrants Aim to Cross English Channel

10 March 2025, United Kingdom, Dover: A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the Channel. Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire/dpa
10 March 2025, United Kingdom, Dover: A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the Channel. Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire/dpa

One person has died after a boat carrying migrants trying to cross the English Channel from France got into difficulties overnight, said a local French authority on Thursday.
The French local authority responsible for the North Sea and English Channel regions said 15 people had been rescued and brought back to shore at the port of Gravelines, near Dunkirk, Reuters reported.
Both the British and French governments have made tackling migrants crossing the English Channel illegally - often in perilous conditions as they travel in dinghies or small boats - a high priority.
Data in January showed Britain's Labour government had removed 16,400 illegal migrants since coming to power last July, marking the highest rate of such removals since 2018, although Labour's political opponents say the government needs to do more.

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US Drops Bounties on Top Afghan Taliban Officials

Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani. Ahmad SAHEL ARMAN / AFP
Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani. Ahmad SAHEL ARMAN / AFP
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US Drops Bounties on Top Afghan Taliban Officials

Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani. Ahmad SAHEL ARMAN / AFP
Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani. Ahmad SAHEL ARMAN / AFP

The United States has removed multimillion-dollar bounties on leaders of Afghanistan's feared Haqqani militant network, including the current Taliban interior minister, the State Department and the Taliban government said.

The Haqqani network was responsible for some of the deadliest attacks during the decades-long war in Afghanistan, AFP said.

The men remain on Washington's list of "specially designated global terrorists" but the bounty price has been scrapped.

Taliban interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani told AFP that Washington had "cancelled rewards" for Sirajuddin Haqqani -- who also heads the Haqqani network -- as well as other key leaders, Abdul Aziz Haqqani and Yahya Haqqani.

Sirajuddin Haqqani had long been one of Washington's most important targets, with a $10 million bounty on his head.

The US State Department said that "the three persons named remain designated as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs), and the Haqqani Network remains designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a SDGT".

But while the wanted page remains active, the bounty on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) website has been removed.

"It is the policy of the United States to consistently review and refine Rewards for Justice reward offers," a State Department spokesperson told AFP on Wednesday.

'Largely symbolic'

The bounty cancellation came days after the first visit by US officials to Afghanistan since President Donald Trump returned to office, and the announcement afterwards of the release of a US citizen by Taliban authorities.

US-based Afghan political analyst Abdul Wahed Faqiri told AFP that the bounty removal is likely "largely symbolic" but a way for the United States to "give credit to Sirajuddin Haqqani", seen as an emerging more moderate "alternative".

Media reports talk of increasing tensions between the "pragmatic" Haqqani figures and a more hardline circle around Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who vie for influence within the government.

Despite the US bounty and international travel bans, Sirajuddin Haqqani has travelled outside Afghanistan multiple times since the Taliban government swept back to power in 2021.

The government in Kabul is not recognized by any country and has expressed hopes for "a new chapter" with Trump's administration.

Trump signed a peace deal with the Taliban during his first term in office, that paved the way for the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and their return to power.