- 'Crazy' tree planter greening Sao Paulo concrete jungle
- French champagne makers bid to protect seasonal workers from abuse
- Atletico Madrid president splits time between football and film
- Japan ruling party to hold 'toss-up' vote for next PM
- Alcaraz says 'a lot of players' agree after schedule 'kill us' comments
- Outdated rules, limited metro collide for 'unbearable' Athens gridlock
- Ninth body recovered in flood-hit Japan region
- Sirens sound in Tel Aviv after fresh air strikes reported in Lebanon
- China launches intercontinental missile into Pacific in rare test
- The EU vs X: How big could the fines be for Musk?
- Hefty Australian penguin chick 'Pesto' becomes star
- Fashion's fun 'Frankenstein' flies after Olympic triumph
- Volkswagen crisis pits homegrown leaders against each other
- Princess Zelda takes the lead in 'Echoes of Wisdom'
- Astros clinch division title, Yankees kept waiting
- Asian markets boosted again after another Chinese rate cut
- The struggle to keep track of Gaza war deaths
- China cuts another key interest rate to boost economy
- Restarting nuclear power plants: the unprecedented gamble in the US
- US state executes man despite conviction doubts
- Asylum seeker lifts South Korea hopes at Homeless World Cup
- Hostages freed in Gaza truce pine for those left behind
- Pope offers refuge to Myanmar's jailed Suu Kyi: report
- Tragic tale of two West Bank teenagers freed in Gaza truce
- US intel warns of Iran threats to assassinate Trump: campaign
- In election, Hollywood is about cash not endorsements
- UK foreign minister Lammy seeks 'strongest position' for Ukraine
- Macron presses Iran president for Lebanon de-escalation
- UNRWA fears new 'tragedy' as Lebanon violence adds strain: chief to AFP
- Russia mulls ban on 'childless propaganda'
- Blackwater founder probed by Venezuela over anti-Maduro campaign
- Crypto CEO and Bankman-Fried ex Caroline Ellison gets two-year sentence
- Hezbollah announces death of commander after strike on south Beirut
- Tatum hungry for more after breakthrough Celtics success
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs sued for alleged 2001 rape
- Biden pleads for democracy in emotional UN farewell
- New York area port prepares for possible US strike disruption
- Rodri 'irreplaceable' but Guardiola confident Man City will still compete
- Brook 'relieved' as maiden ODI hundred sets up first win as England captain
- Dior's arrows and Amazons as Saint Laurent revives its master
- Mbappe strikes again as Madrid hold off Alaves
- Nkunku hits Chelsea hat-trick, Man City edge into League Cup last 16
- Amnesty calls for commission to probe Kenya protest deaths
- Bolivian government rejects Morales ultimatum for cabinet reshuffle
- US Congress calls on Novo Nordisk to lower drug prices
- Stock markets advance on China stimulus
- Russia 'can only be forced into peace," Zelensky tells UN
- Hundred hero Brook keeps England alive in Australia ODI series
- Biden pleads for democracy in final UN address
- Brook's hundred sees England beat Australia in 3rd ODI
Palestinians lose two-decade court battle over land
Israeli civil rights groups on Thursday denounced a High Court decision that approved the eviction of roughly 1,000 Palestinian villagers to make way for a military training zone.
Residents of eight villages had been in court for around 20 years fighting Israeli government efforts to evict them.
The case of Masafer Yatta -- or Firing Zone 918 -- an agriculture area near Hebron in the occupied West Bank, has been one of Israel's longest running legal battles.
In the early 1980s the army declared the 3,000-hectare (30 square kilometre) territory a restricted military area and claimed it was uninhabited.
The roughly 1,000 Palestinians living there said it was their people's home long before Israeli soldiers set foot in the West Bank, which the Jewish state has occupied since 1967.
It captured the territory from Jordan in the Six-Day War and the West bank is now home to more than 475,000 settlers -- Jewish Israelis living in communities widely regarded as illegal under international law.
In its decision late on Wednesday the High Court said the villagers "failed to prove" their claim to permanent residence before its declaration as a training zone.
A court review of aerial photographs proved the army right, Judge David Mintz said.
First kicked out in 1999, about 200 families filed their court challenge the following year with help from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).
They secured a temporary reprieve which allowed the Palestinians to stay on the land until a final resolution of the case.
ACRI on Thursday said there were "unprecedented consequences" to the top court's ruling handed down "without warning in the middle of the night".
It "allows the expulsion of approximately 1,000 women, men, children and elderly Palestinians," the organisation said in a statement.
Another rights watchdog, B'Tselem, described the decision as weaving "baseless legal interpretation with decontextualized facts". It added "there is no crime which the high court justices will not find a way to legitimise."
Lawyers said they were still trying to see whether or not there were any further legal avenues to stop the expulsions.
J.Bergmann--BTB