​ Guinea opposition leader urges ‘direct resistance’ after 40 parties dissolved. 43 minutes ago. Jean Otalor. AFP via Getty Images. Guinea’s main opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo has said that “direct resistance” to the country’s coup leader–turned–president is now the only remaining path to change, after the authorities dissolved 40 political parties.. The authorities accused the parties of not complying with the law – a charge they have rejected.. The move comes two months after former junta head Mamady Doumbouya was sworn-in as president, following an election that saw some key challengers barred from running.. Doumbouya, who came to power in 2021 after overthrowing Condé, has been accused of cracking down on democratic freedoms.. Among the parties dissolved were the the Rally of the People of Guinea of former President Alpha Condé and Diallo’s Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea. Diallo is currently in exile.. Late last Friday, Guinea’s ministry of territorial administration and decentralisation announced in a decree that the headquarters and local offices of 40 political parties would be closed, and their logos, acronyms and other symbols banned from use.. The parties’ assets have been confiscated and all offices sealed.. The ministry said the parties had failed to comply with legal requirements, including submitting mandatory financial statements. Several of the dissolved groups have rejected the allegations, insisting they met all obligations under the law, the Reuters news agency reported.. In a video statement released on social media on Sunday, Diallo said the decree showed that “war has been openly declared” on those challenging President Doumbouya.. He said political change would not happen through dialogue or democratic processes.. “The head of the junta and his malevolent clique want to rewrite the country’s history by erasing from the political landscape all forces likely to overshadow his nascent one-party state,” he added.. Jean-Marc Telliano, a former minister and president of the Rally for the Integrated Development of Guinea, also criticised the decision. Reuters quoted him as saying that his party would fight to assert its rights and “will use all legal means to have our rights restored”.. More about Guinea from the BBC:. From camouflage to tracksuits – Guinea’s junta leader becomes civilian president. US film stars Meagan Good and Jonathan Majors become Guinea citizens after DNA tests. From Hollywood to the homeland: Why African countries are courting black American stars. Getty Images/BBC. Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.. Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica. BBC Africa podcasts. Focus on Africa. This Is Africa. Guinea. Africa  

​ Australia urged to protect Iranian football team after Asian Cup elimination. 6 hours ago. Katy Watsonand. Simon Atkinson,reporting from the Gold Coast. Getty. Football’s governing bodies and Australian authorities are being urged to ensure the safety of Iran’s women’s team as they prepare to fly home from Australia after being eliminated from the Asian Cup.. Hundreds of supporters surrounded the Iranian Lionesses’ coach as it left the stadium on the Gold Coast on Sunday evening, with chants of “save our girls”.. Fears for Iran’s women’s team grew after they declined to sing the national anthem ahead of their first match against South Korea last week.. This prompted criticism from within Iran, with one conservative commentator accusing the team of being “wartime traitors” and pushing for harsh punishment.. “We all have very reasonable and serious concerns for their safety,” said Craig Foster, a former captain of the Australian men’s football team and prominent human rights advocate.. He told the BBC: “When any team participates in a Fifa-regulated tournament, whether Asian Football Confederation or any other confederation, they must have the right to safety and external support to express any concerns they have around their safety now or in future.”. In their second match against Australia and then again in Sunday’s final game against the Philippines, the Iranian team sang and saluted during the national anthem, leading critics to believe they’d been forced to take part by members of the ‘Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accompanying them as part of the delegation.. Deniz Toupchi, who travelled to support the team for their final match, said of the decision to initially stay silent: “We didn’t expect it to be honest because we know it’s a really major [thing] to do.”. She added: “We’re just proud of them.”. Toupchi was one of hundreds of members of Australia’s Iranian community in the stands on Sunday. During the anthem, which they do not recognise, they booed and jeered.. Midway through the first half, many also unfurled the Lion and Sun flag, which served as the official state flag before the Islamic revolution in Iran. These had been snuck into the stadium in defiance of signs outside which said only Iran’s current official flag could be displayed.. But while the fans enthusiastically supported the players, there was very little interaction between them and the team during the match.. In one notable exception, a player receiving medical attention on the sidelines blew a kiss to the stands, receiving a huge cheer.. And while the Filipina team lined up to thank their fans at the end of the match, the Iranians left the pitch promptly.. “They can’t speak freely because they are threatened,” said Naz Safavi, who attended all three matches in which the team played. “We are here to show them that we are fully supporting them.”. Getty. With concern rising over the players’ treatment once they return home, there is a push to support the women to seek  

​ N Korea cancels Pyongyang Marathon for ‘some reasons’. 1 hour ago. Sofia Ferreira Santos. AFP via Getty Images. North Korea has cancelled the Pyongyang marathon for unspecified reasons, a tour agency linked to the event has said.. British-owned Koryo Tours, which describes itself as the official partner of the marathon, said on Monday that it had received notice of the cancellation from North Korea’s athletics association.. A message it attributed to the association said the marathon was being cancelled “due to some reasons”.. The annual event was established in 1981 to celebrate the birth of North Korea’s founding leader Kim Il Sung. The 2026 race was set to take place on 5 April.. N Korea holds first international marathon in six years. The message, purportedly from the North Korea athletics association’s general secretary, thanked “all the Elite Marathoners and Amateur Runners of the world who are interested in Pyongyang International Marathon”.. The message gave no further explanation on what the reasons for the cancellation were.. Koryo Tours said it understood the decision was final and had been taken “at a level above the organisers of the event itself”.. It said it would be seeking clarification on the circumstances surrounding the decision.. The tour company added that neither organisers nor event partners were involved in making the decision, and said it recognised “this announcement will be disappointing to many runners who had already registered or were planning to participate”.. Koryo Tours, based in Beijing, China, offers several marathon packages to foreigners, departing from Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang.. Packages start from €2,190 ($2,529; £1,894) for 2.5 nights in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, including a marathon place and “highlights” of the capital and tickets were sold out this year, according to the agency’s website.. It said all deposits paid will be returned and runners have the option to retain their deposit for a future event or North Korea tour.. A date for the 2027 marathon has not yet been set.. The event had only returned last year after it was suspended for five consecutive years due to the Covid pandemic.. It is open to both amateur and some professional athletes and offers several race distances – 5km (3.1 miles), 10km (6.2 miles), half marathon (21.1km; 13.1 miles) or full marathon (42.2km; 26.2 miles).. Asia. Marathon running. Pyongyang. North Korea  

​ Istanbul’s ex-mayor on trial for corruption charges. 1 hour ago. Alys Davies. AFP via Getty Images. The former mayor of Istanbul has appeared in court asthe central defendant in a mass corruption trial thathis opposition party and rights groups say is politically motivated.. Ekrem Imamoglu, 55, faces more than 140 charges including corruption and running a criminal organisation. Prosecutors are seeking a jail term of up to 2,430 years.. He and his Republican People’s Party (CHP) deny any wrongdoing. They accuse Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his allies of launching a crackdown over the leader’s decline in popularity.. Prior to the trial, which got off to a chaotic start on Monday, Imamoglu was widely seen as one of the few politicians capable of defeating Erdogan, who has been at the top of Turkish politics since 2003.. Another 407 of Imamoglu’s supporters have also been put on trial, accused of running a criminal corruption network headed by the opposition figure, who prosecutors describe as its “founder and leader”.. Imamoglu was greeted by his supporters with cheers and whistles as he entered the courtroom in the Marmara prison on Monday.. But it was not long before proceedings were brought to a halt by the judge after the politician contested the judge’s decision to hear the testimony of other defendants before his in the trial.. The judge called the protest disrespectful and ordered a recess until the afternoon, just 15 minutes after the hearing had started.. Present in the courtroom were Imamoglu’s wife, Dilek, and CHP leader Ozgur Ozel.. Imamoglu was arrested in March last year on the day he was named as the CHP’s presidential candidate for 2028.. His detention triggered the country’s largest street protests in more than a decade, followed by hundreds of arrests and a police crackdown.. Who is Turkish opposition leader Ekrem Imamoglu?. Turkey moves to silence jailed Erdogan rival by blocking account on X. Apart from the corruption case, prosecutors have accused him of a raft of other offences including espionage and forging his university degree, a qualification he would need to become president and that has since been annulled.. Turkish authorities deny that the judiciary is being used as a political tool.. But the trial has been strongly criticised by rights groups.. “The trial of Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu follows more than a year of weaponising the criminal justice system against his party and other CHP elected officials while he sits in jail,” Benjamin Ward, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement last week.. “Looking at these cases as a whole, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that prosecutors are trying to remove Imamoglu from politics and discredit his party in ways that undermine democracy.”. Amnesty International called the charges brought against Imamoglu “absurd”.. “This politically motivated prosecution, which is based almost entirely on secret witness testimony, is riddled with  

​ Police release images of Oslo US embassy explosion suspect. 29 minutes ago. Alys Davies. Norway police. Police in Norway have released pictures of a suspect linked to an explosion outside the US’s embassy in Norway’s capital Oslo on Sunday.. Two heavily pixelated images taken from surveillance footage show a person with their face concealed, dressed in dark clothing and carrying a backpack.. Police said in a statement on Monday that their investigation had so far showed the explosion was caused by an improvised device that was placed at the building’s entrance. The blast caused minor damage and no injuries were reported.. Police previously said it was possible the explosion was an act of terrorism. They said in their latest update that they had no developments on the attacker’s motive.. As well as the images, investigators were also examining a video published on Google Maps around the time of the incident, police said.. The now-deleted video featured Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, local media reported. He was assassinated last month during joint US-Israeli strikes on Tehran.. Police said the investigation into the embassy blast was being treated as high priority and that dogs, drones and helicopters had been used to carry out investigations at the scene of the explosion.. They appealed to anyone with information about the suspect, as well as anyone who noticed anything unusual in the area between midnight and 02:00 local time (01:00 GMT) on Sunday, to contact them.. Emergency services were dispatched to the embassy, in the western Morgedalsvegen district of Oslo, at about 01:00 on Sunday.. Following the incident, photos posted on social media showed shattered glass in the snow outside the entrance to the embassy’s consular section, cracks in a glass door and dark marks on a tiled floor.. Norwegian authorities described the incident as “unacceptable”, with Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide stressing that “the security of diplomatic missions is very important to us”.. A US State Department spokesperson said it too was investigating the incident.. Explosion at US embassy in Oslo may have been terrorism, Norway police say. Norway