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Nigeria’s Super Falcons on Saturday night scored their first ever goal against France in any international engagement. The historic goal came from forward Ifeoma Onumonu before half time in the ongoing friendly encounter between the French team and Nigeria at at the Raymond-Kopa Stadium, Angers, France. Though there have been just three matches pitching the two teams together in the past 13 years, the Nigerian side never scored a goal and conceded 10. The match in still at 2-1 during the second half as at the time of filling this report. Details loading...Beirut, Dec 13 (AP) After insurgents toppled Syrian President Bashar Assad this month, many senior officials and members of his dreaded intelligence and security services appear to have melted away. Activists say some of them have managed to flee the country while others went to hide in their hometowns. For more than five decades, the Assad family has ruled Syria with an iron grip, locking up those who dared question their power in the country's notorious prisons, where rights groups say inmates were regularly tortured or killed. The leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham insurgent group — which led anti-government fighters who forced Assad from power — has vowed to bring those who carried out such abuses to justice. “We will go after them in our country,” said HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, who was previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani. He added that the group will also ask foreign countries to hand over any suspects. But finding those responsible for abuses could prove difficult. Some 8,000 Syrian citizens have entered Lebanon through the Masnaa border crossing in recent days, according to two Lebanese security officials and a judicial official, and about 5,000 have left the neighbouring country through Beirut's international airport. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release the information. Most of those are presumed to be regular people, and Lebanon's Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said earlier this week that no Syrian official entered Lebanon through a legal border crossing. In an apparent effort to prevent members of Assad's government from escaping, the security officials said a Lebanese officer who was in charge of Masnaa was ordered to go on vacation because of his links to Assad's brother. But Rami Abdurrhaman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says several senior officers have nonetheless made it to neighboring Lebanon using travel documents with fake names. Here's a look at Assad and some of the officials in his inner circle. Bashar Assad: The Western-educated ophthalmologist initially raised hopes that he would be unlike his strongman father, Hafez, when he took power in 2000, including freeing political prisoners and allowing for a more open discourse. But when protests of his rule erupted in March 2011, Assad turned to brutal tactics to crush dissent. As the uprising became an outright civil war, he unleashed his military to blast opposition-held cities, with support from allies Iran and Russia. He has fled to Moscow, according to Russian state media. Maher Assad: The younger brother of the ousted president was the commander of the 4th Armoured Division, which Syrian opposition activists have accused of killings, torture, extortion and drug trafficking, in addition to running its own detention centres. He is under US and European sanctions. He disappeared over the weekend, and Abdurrhaman said he made it to Russia. Last year, French authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Maher Assad, along with his brother and two army generals, for alleged complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity, including in a 2013 chemical attack on rebel-held Damascus suburbs. Maj Gen Ali Mamlouk: Mamlouk was a security adviser to Assad and former head of the intelligence services. He is wanted in Lebanon for two explosions in the northern city of Tripoli in 2012 that killed and wounded dozens. Mamlouk is also wanted in France after a court convicted him and others in absentia of complicity in war crimes and sentenced them to life in prison. The trial focused on the officials' role in the 2013 arrest in Damascus of a Franco-Syrian man and his son and their subsequent torture and killing. Abdurrahman said Mamlouk fled to Lebanon, and it is not clear if he is still in the country under the protection of Hezbollah. Brig Gen Suheil al-Hassan: Al-Hassan was the commander of the 25th Special Missions Forces Division and later became the head of the Syrian Special Forces, which were key to many of the government's battlefield victories in the long-running civil war, including in Aleppo and the eastern suburbs of Damascus that long held off Assad's troops. Al-Hassan is known to have close ties to Russia and was praised by Russian President Vladimir Putin during one of his visits to Syria. Al-Hassan's whereabouts are not known. Maj Gen Hussam Luka: Luka, head of the General Security Directorate intelligence service, is not well known among the wider public but has played a major role in the crackdown against the opposition, mainly in the central city of Homs that was dubbed the “capital of the Syrian revolt”. Luka has been sanctioned by the US and Britain for his role in the crackdown. It's not clear where he is. Maj Gen Qahtan Khalil: Khalil, whose whereabouts are also unknown, was head of the Air Force Intelligence service and is widely known as the “Butcher of Daraya” for allegedly leading a 2012 attack on a Damascus suburb of the same name that killed hundreds of people. Other officials: -- Retired Maj Gen Jamil Hassan, former head of the Air Force Intelligence service, is also suspected of bearing responsibility for the attack in Daraya. Hassan was among those convicted in France this year along with Mamlouk. -- Defence Minister Lt Gen Ali Abbas and Maj Gen. Bassam Merhej al-Hassan, head of Bashar Assad's office and the man in charge of his security, are accused of human rights violations. (AP) SCY SCY (This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)
The Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Karim Badawi, met with a Romanian delegation on Wednesday to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation between the Egyptian petroleum sector and Romanian companies. The delegation included Olivia Toderean, the Romanian Ambassador to Cairo, and Horatiu Horatiu Sebastian Calugar, chief executive of CIS GAS. Yassin Mohamed, managing director of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), and other officials also attended the meeting, as well as the ministry’s official spokesperson. During the meeting, Minister Badawi emphasised the potential for local manufacturing of equipment and supplies for the petroleum industry. He affirmed the ministry’s commitment to providing full support for enhancing this cooperation, aiming to attract further investment from Romanian companies to the Egyptian market. Badawi also highlighted the promising opportunities within Egypt’s petroleum sector, particularly in exploration and production, which he noted have seen considerable activity recently. Ambassador Toderean noted that the relationship between Egypt and Romania is based on a long-standing friendship. She highlighted Egypt’s numerous promising petroleum projects, which offer opportunities for continued cooperation between the two countries. The ambassador also pointed out that Romanian companies possess significant expertise and advanced technologies applicable to the oil and gas industry. Calugar presented his company’s successful projects in Romania and Eastern Europe. He noted the existing cooperation between CIS Gaz and the Egyptian company Town Gas. This collaboration involves manufacturing and assembling gas pressure reduction stations in Egypt using Romanian components. Calugar highlighted that Town Gas has been accredited by the Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) as a contractor for natural gas connection projects. This makes it the first Egyptian company to work in this field in Europe through its Romanian branch. Calugar expressed a desire for further collaboration with Egyptian firms ENPPI and Petrojet, aiming to implement projects together in Romania. CIS Gaz is also seeking to offer its expertise in exploration and production services within Egypt. In October, Egypt’s natural gas distribution company, Town Gas, secured contracts to manufacture and deliver natural gas pressure reduction stations in Egypt and to connect homes and other facilities to the gas grid in Romania. The contracts, signed during the Romanian-Egyptian Joint Committee for Economic Cooperation and the Business Forum in Bucharest, mark the first time an Egyptian company will work in this field in Europe. Mohamed Fathi, Chairperson of Town Gas, and Calugar, chief executive of CIS GAS, signed the agreements.
Representative image HYDERABAD: Global IT and engineering solutions provider Techwave opened its second global delivery centre in Hyderabad, along with its first AI Engineering Hub , as part of plans to increase its headcount to around 6,000 in India by 2027. The facility, which is spread over 1 lakh square feet at financial district, has a capacity to accommodate around 1,200 people, including the 100-seater AI engineering hub that will cater to over 300 global clients. Techwave currently has a global headcount of around 3,300, of which 2,000 are in Telangana between its GDCs in Hyderabad and Khammam. The US-based company is headquartered in Houston and also has a presence in Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, and Hungary, apart from India. “We plan to set up a facility in Warangal as well in Q1 of 2025 and plan to have a headcount of 1,000 each in Warangal and Khammam over the next 2-3 years. In India, we plan to house 6,000 out of our total expected global headcount of 7,000 by 2027,” Damodar Rao Gummadapu, Co-founder and chairman, Techwave, told TOI on Saturday after the Telangana IT and industries minister Duddilla Sridhar Babu inaugurated the new GDC here. At Khammam, he said, the company is looking at ramping up the headcount to 800-1,000 people over the next year or so from the existing 400-odd techies, who support global clients in telecom and utilities with technologies such as 5G, as well as data analytics and data integration. He said at Warangal too, the teams will focus on supporting clients for global telecom and utilities. The teams in Hyderabad focus on digital transformation , building interfaces, data lakes, and application modernisation. The newly unveiled AIE will develop proof of concept (PoC) for clients primarily across sectors such as fintech, manufacturing, life sciences, telecom, and utilities, he added. Ready to Master Stock Valuation? ET’s Workshop is just around the corner!