- Ohtani makes MLB history with first 50-homer, 50-steal season
- Ohtani eyes MLB history after surpassing 50 stolen bases, 49 homers
- Ohtani eyes MLB history after surpassing 50 stolen bases
- Barca downed by Monaco as Arsenal held in Champions League stalemate
- Head's 'good night at office' after century seals win over England
- Dubois seeks legitimacy with Joshua scalp
- Rate cut could lift consumer spirits before US elections
- Last-gasp Gimenez strike sends Atletico past Leipzig
- Barca stumble at Monaco after early red card
- Raya heroics save Arsenal in Champions League opener at Atalanta
- Cathay Airbus engine fire linked to cleaning: EU regulator
- Guardians beat Twins to secure MLB playoff berth
- Jihadist attack in Mali capital killed more than 70: security sources
- Alonso hails 'efficient' Leverkusen after Feyenoord rout
- Head's hundred seals Australia win over England in 1st ODI
- Ex-Man United striker Anthony Martial joins AEK Athens
- NFL unbeatens meet as Texans visit Vikings, Steelers host Chargers
- Head's hundred seals Australia win over England in 1st ODI after Labuschagne strikes
- Dream debut for Wirtz as Leverkusen thump dire Feyenoord
- Myanmar flood death toll climbs to 293: state media
- Israel army says West Bank air strike kills 4 militants
- LIV golfers get green light for US Ryder Cup team, PGA Championship
- US accuses social media giants of 'vast surveillance'
- Ten Hag to bed Hojlund, Mount in carefully when they return for Man Utd
- Breaking bad as McIlroy endures 'weird' day
- EU chief announces $11 bn for nations hit by 'heartbreaking' floods
- Spanish PM, Palestinian leader urge Mideast de-escalation
- New study reinforces theory Covid emerged at Chinese market
- World Bank boosts climate financing by 10 percent
- Bagnaia eyeing summit on home ground in 100th MotoGP
- 'Something was wrong', defendant in French mass rape tells court
- Hezbollah chief admits 'unprecedented' blow in device blasts
- Sales of US existing homes slip slightly in August
- Fear, panic haunt Lebanese after devices explode
- Labuschagne sparks Australia fightback in England ODI opener
- S.Africa's HIV research power couple says fight goes on
- Why is Israel focusing on border with Lebanon?
- Mpox vaccines administered in Rwanda, first in Africa
- US Fed rate cut is 'very positive sign' for economy: Yellen
- Unknown Mozart string trio discovered in Germany
- 'Are we five-year-olds?' F1 drivers won't mind their language
- Brazil judge orders X to reimpose block or face hefty fine
- Munich to rename stadium street after Beckenbauer
- Champions Italy to face Argentina in Davis Cup Final 8
- The winding, fitful path to weight loss drug Ozempic
- Italians defeat American Magic to reach Louis Vuitton Cup final
- Norris has 'nothing to lose' as he hunts Verstappen in Singapore
- Kyiv 'outraged' at Swiss showing of Russian war film
- French city renames Abbe Pierre square after abuse claims
- Footballer charged after huge cannabis seizure at UK airport
World rallies for Women's Day under Ukraine war shadow
Protesters took to the streets worldwide for International Women's Day Tuesday with rallies in Pakistan defying security warnings and demonstrations in Europe urging solidarity with war-torn Ukraine.
Despite the marches, all eyes were on the unending stream of women and children pouring out of Ukraine following Russia's invasion, sparking Europe's fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II.
With more than two million people forced into exile, few of those arriving in the Polish border city of Przemysl could spare a thought to mark the date although one lone priest could be seen wandering through the train station with an armful of tulips, handing them out to the arriving women.
"It's very important today in this difficult place that someone speak to them saying they're very important," said Franciscan friar Kordian Szwarc as he handed out the red and yellow tulips.
"We know their men are very, very far from here and there's nobody to tell them they're important and beautiful," he told AFP.
"It's the first time it feels like a special day!" said Lilia Kysil, a 22-year-old student from Kyiv, a huge smile on her face as she stood with her mother and sister, thanking him.
At some checkpoints in war-torn Kyiv, volunteer soldiers were also handing out tulips to women passersby, an AFP correspondent said.
Meanwhile in Brussels, protesters held a "Women stand with Ukraine" rally, holding up a vast blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag, an AFP correspondent said.
And in Paris, several thousands marched against gender violence and for equal pay in a rally headlined: "the feminist groundswell for equality".
Ahead of the rally, organisers read out a letter from Russian feminists urging women's rights activists around the world to "take a stand against the war", saying it brought out both "the violence of bullets but also sexual violence".
- Thousands rally in Pakistan -
In Pakistan, some 2,000 women rallied in the eastern city of Lahore despite official efforts to bar the protest and withdraw security for an event frequently targeted by violence.
In a jovial atmosphere, they marched through the streets, chanting "Give respect to women" and "End the patriarchy" as another 1,000 women rallied in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, and 200 in the capital, Islamabad.
Such rallies have triggered a fierce backlash since they began four years ago in deeply conservative and patriarchal Pakistan where women have been shot, stabbed, stoned, burnt and strangled for damaging family "honour".
Critics say they are promoting liberal Western values and disrespecting religious and cultural mores, and two years ago Islamist hardliners stoned the women as they marched through Islamabad.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan marked the day in muted fashion with activists cowed by the threat of arrest by the country's Taliban rulers who swept back to power in August, rolling back decades of advances for women.
Squeezed out of government employment, they can no longer travel alone and must dress according to a strict interpretation of the Koran.
"If you care about women’s rights -- anywhere in the world -- you should be watching Afghanistan with deep alarm," Heather Barr, of Human Rights Watch told AFP on Tuesday.
- Turkey women rally against femicide -
In Turkey, protesters have spent days preparing banners ahead of the main march in Istanbul later on Tuesday to protest against femicide and urge Ankara to rejoin a Europe-wide treaty protecting women from violence.
Last year, 416 women were killed in Turkey, while this year's toll currently stands at 72, figures from the We Will Stop Femicide platform show.
There has been a groundswell of protest after Turkey's withdrawal last year from the Istanbul Convention that lays out a legal framework to tackle, prevent and prosecute violence against women.
Ankara justified the withdrawal by saying the 2011 treaty had a hidden agenda to normalise homosexuality.
And in Kenya, 150 people marched through the capital Nairobi calling for an end to gender-based violence after a woman was viciously attacked by motorcycle taxi drivers.
The incident occurred after a road accident on Friday, with a viral video showing the men grabbing at the young woman's clothes as she screamed inside her car.
The protesters marched to police headquarters, waving banners reading "Hear my scream" and urging an end to gender-based violence.
Police arrested 16 people in connection with the assault.
burs-hmw/mg/yad
J.Fankhauser--BTB