Arctic sea ice at lowest level ever this winter

Now retired, Wang Meili wants to see the world -- including North Korea, the reclusive nation that lies across the river from her lifelong home in northeastern China.

North Korea has long kept tight control over foreign visitors, and effectively sealed its borders at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic six years ago.

It has since partly reopened and restored daily passenger train services with China this month, but has not yet resumed issuing tourism visas to Chinese citizens, who once made up the bulk of its overseas visitors .

"We'd like to get visas to go. I've already got my passport," said 68-year-old Wang, who grew up in the border city of Dandong.

In another apparent sign of North Korea's reopening, Air China is set to resume flights to Pyongyang on Monday.

But for now, only those with work or study visas can go.

AFP journalists in Dandong, the main gateway for cross-border travel and trade, saw a mostly empty passenger train rattle over a bridge into North Korea this week.

Nearby, tourists on another bridge, partly destroyed by US bombs during the Korean War, posed for photographs and peered through binoculars at the North Korean city of Sinuiju on the opposite shore.

Tour boats took curious sightseers to gaze at North Koreans cycling along the Yalu river separating the two countries or cleaning boats on the bank. Uniformed guards stood at regular points along the boundary.

Li Shuo, the manager of a Dandong-based travel agency, said the resumption of passenger train services had had "no impact" on his business.

Unable to run tours into North Korea, he has been offering trips through border areas so customers can catch glimpses into the secretive state from a distance.

"We can only wait for news" on tourism visas, Li said, adding that they "would be a good thing for domestic tourists".

"Many people want to go," he said.

- 'The people are brainwashed' -

Others were less keen.

One Chinese tourist from the northeastern city of Shenyang told AFP that a peek at North Korea from Dandong was close enough for him.

"It's totalitarian over there, the people are brainwashed," he said, declining to provide his name given the sensitivity of the topic and his public-sector job.

"Actually, there's brainwashing here in China too, but it's not as severe," he said.

AFP also spoke to tourists from outside mainland China -- including Hong Kong, Japan and Australia -- all drawn to Dandong for a rare view of the country it borders.

Louis Lamb, a 22-year-old nurse from Brisbane, told AFP that travelling into North Korea was "a bucket-list item".

"You can see (North Korea) from a certain perspective in what we see from our media," said Lamb, adding that he would like to experience the country for himself.

Although stretches of the opposite riverbank appeared "desolate", he said, "it's a lot more developed than I thought".

China is a major backer for diplomatically isolated North Korea, though Pyongyang has notably drawn closer to Russia since the start of the Ukraine war.

But trade with China, much of it through Dandong, is a key lifeline for North Korea's moribund economy, under UN sanctions because of its nuclear weapons programme. 

Cross-border shipments swelled to $2.7 billion last year and have nearly rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, according to Chinese customs data.

AFP journalists saw a steady stream of trains and freight trucks hauling cargo from Dandong to Sinuiju.

- 'Going home soon' -

For some in Dandong, North Korea's tentative reopening kindled hope of returning home.

Thousands of North Koreans are thought to reside in the city of two million people, despite sanctions banning them from working overseas.

North Korea's abrupt border closure in 2020 stranded many of them abroad for years, and Pyongyang later beefed up defences along the frontier to dissuade illegal crossings.

Staff at a North Korean restaurant in Dandong forbade AFP journalists from filming or taking photos of a large screen showing a patriotic music and dance performance.

One waitress from Pyongyang told AFP she had been in China for over six years without returning home.

Western experts say such workers endure miserable living and working conditions, have their movements restricted and see most of their wages commandeered by the North Korean state.

But after a long wait, travel between the two nations now seemed to be getting easier, the waitress said, declining to give her name.

"I'll be going home soon."

pfc/dhw/mjw

Below the waves off Germany's northern tourist beaches, a toxic time bomb lurks on the Baltic Sea floor -- enormous quantities of World War II munitions that are slowly rusting away.

Scientists warn that as salt water corrodes the metal casings on rockets, artillery shells and bombs, they will release contaminants such as the explosive TNT into the marine environment.

To better map the dangers, a research vessel set sail this month from the port city of Kiel, whose bay is among the most polluted with unexploded ordnance.

A dozen scientists from Germany, Poland and Lithuania, backed by an 11-strong crew, are to spend three weeks on the Alkor, operated by the Kiel-based GEOMAR oceanographic research centre.

The voyage will take them past a sunken torpedo boat, a destroyer, a minesweeper and a submarine, all identified from naval logbooks and other records in the German military archives.

"One of the goals of the project is to develop some new tools for cleaning it up," Aaron Beck, a scientist leading the expedition, told AFP aboard the ship. 

"The idea is, what can we do to prevent this before the pollution comes out?"

Along the German coast, about 1.6 million tonnes of munitions litter the seafloor, especially near the ports of Kiel and Luebeck, making it one of the world's most contaminated areas.

Most munitions were hastily dumped there by the victorious Allied powers after Germany's 1945 surrender, to quickly eliminate what remained of the Nazi war machine.

- Traces found in shellfish -

Almost 80 years on, traces of carcinogenic explosives have been detected in shellfish and other sea life throughout the area.

The Baltic is shallow, with only a narrow passage between Sweden and Denmark leading to the open ocean, meaning pollution tends to linger.

A modern-day boom in undersea construction of pipelines, telecom cables and offshore wind farms has cast a new spotlight on the issue.

The scientists on the ship are using an underwater robot to film the seabed, as well as probes to collect sediment and water samples.

They are also dispersing packets of mussels, which they will later retrieve to study the levels of contamination ingested.

Beck, however, reassured that the pollution does not pose an immediate danger to humans.

"For a human being to ingest, at current concentrations, a concerning amount of explosive compounds, they would have to consume seven kilos (15 pounds) of fish a day for more than a year," he said.

Ammunition on the sunken warships is not the only environmental danger.

"On some of these ships, you have 10 tonnes of ammunition, but 200 tonnes of fuel. That's undoubtedly the biggest problem," Beck said.

One wreck still holding fuel is the Franken, a German navy tanker torpedoed by Soviet forces on April 8, 1945. It sank off what is now the Polish city of Gdansk, at the time still the German city of Danzig.

Uwe Wiechert, 70, a former German naval officer and part of the research team, called it a "time bomb".

The Franken also poses a legal conundrum, he said: who will pay to pump this fuel from a German ship, sunk by the Soviets, that now rests in Polish waters?

- Slow disposal efforts -

Seafloor munitions dumps are a global problem, with other major sites located along the coasts of the United States, Britain, Japan and Australia and even in Swiss lakes.

Germany has been at the forefront of European efforts to deal with unexploded underwater ordnance, says the European Commission.

Beyond mapping the problem, Germany has taken first steps toward munitions disposal.

In Luebeck Bay, a pilot project to destroy WWII munitions on a specially built floating disposal platform has begun.

Some contractors working on the project have experience of clearing munitions for large offshore wind farms along the Baltic and North Sea coasts.

Divers and underwater robots have sorted through tonnes of dumped munitions at four sites in the bay as part of the project, funded with an initial 100 million euros ($115 million).

But it remains unclear whether the pilot project could become a model for cleanups elsewhere.

So far, at least, no government has committed the long-term funding needed to tackle the problem.

When a similar project might start in waters off Kiel, said Beck, "is anybody's guess".

clp/bst/fz/sbk

Iran claimed on Sunday attacks on two major aluminium plants in the Gulf, further raising the economic stakes of the Middle East war after Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis joined the conflict.

The war that began on February 28 with US-Israeli attacks on Iran has mushroomed throughout the region, sending world energy markets into a tailspin and threatening to torpedo the global economy.

With the official status of talks between Washington and Tehran uncertain, daily salvoes of strikes across the region have continued unabated.

In Iranian capital Tehran, two blasts shook northern areas of the city early Sunday, according to an AFP journalist, although it was not clear what was targeted.

Iran for its part fired a volley of missiles and drones at plants belonging to two of the world's largest aluminium producers in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, the country's Revolutionary Guards said Sunday, targeting what they described as industries linked to the US military.

Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) said an Iranian attack wounded six and caused significant damage to its plant, while Bahraini state media said two Aluminium Bahrain (ALBA) employees were injured in a second Iranian attack, without providing more details.

As the spectre of a widening conflict grew, Yemen's Houthis on Saturday claimed their first attack of the war, before the rebels said they fired "a barrage of cruise missiles and drones" at strategic sites in Israel.

The attacks raised concern about the war spreading to the Red Sea, with Saudi Arabia rerouting much of its oil exports there to avoid the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran says it has closed to shipping from hostile powers.

During Israel's recent war in Gaza, the Houthis, claiming solidarity with Palestinians, attacked shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, forcing companies to take costly detours. 

- 'Complete attacks' -

The Tehran blasts came a day after the Israeli military said it struck the headquarters of Iran's Marine Industries Organisation in the capital, saying the facility developed "a wide range of naval weaponry".

An Israeli military spokesman said attacks on Iranian military industry had intensified and "within a few days, we will complete attacks on all critical components."

"I miss a peaceful night's sleep," an artist in Tehran told AFP, saying the previous night's strikes were "so intense it felt like all of Tehran was shaking".

On the other side, Israel said a new wave of missiles was fired from Iran at its territory on Sunday, as Gulf nations Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates reported fresh missile and drone attacks.

For the US' part, Vice President JD Vance said in an interview with podcaster Benny Johnson published Saturday that the US has "accomplished all its military objectives" in Iran but the war must carry on "a little while longer".

His comments came as The Washington Post reported the Pentagon was preparing plans for weeks of ground operations in Iran -- potentially including raids on Kharg Island and sites near the Strait of Hormuz -- though President Donald Trump has yet to approve any deployment.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards meanwhile threatened Sunday to strike US university campuses in the Middle East unless Washington officially condemned US-Israeli attacks on two Iranian universities. 

Several American institutions operate campuses across the Gulf region, including Texas A&M in Qatar and New York University in the UAE.

- Pakistan mediation -

Pakistan, acting as a go-between for Washington and Tehran, will host foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt in Islamabad on Monday for talks on the crisis.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian thanked Islamabad "for its mediation efforts to stop the aggression", while Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Friday he expected a direct US-Iran meeting in Pakistan "very soon."

Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff said such a meeting could take place soon, and promoted a 15-point plan that Washington says "could solve it all".

Still, the USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship carrying around 3,500 Marines and sailors, arrived in the Middle East on Friday amid speculation over a possible US ground deployment in Iran. 

- Three journalists killed  -

On another front, Israeli attacks have continued in Lebanon, which was drawn into the conflict when Tehran-backed Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli territory on March 2. 

On Saturday, the Israeli military killed three journalists in the south, including Al Manar correspondent Ali Shoeib, one of the network's most prominent war correspondents, who had covered Israeli attacks on Lebanon for decades.

Lebanese authorities, including President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, condemned the killings as war crimes.

Israel also carried out raids in southern Lebanon that killed nine paramedics, according to the health ministry.

On Sunday the Israeli army announced the death in combat of one of its soldiers in south Lebanon, as the fighting persists.

At a vocational institute north of capital Beirut, displaced mother Nasima Ismail signed up her children for services despite a lack of resources as the war interrupts education for hundreds of thousands of students.

"I want them to complete their education, even if we are left with nothing," she said. 

"I wish them days better than ours." 

burs-jfx/abs

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the ground test of an upgraded rocket engine, state media reported on Sunday, marking another key step in its weapons programme.

Defence experts believe North Korea is planning to use its solid-fuel rocket engines for launching intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The engines enable faster missile launches as they require little preparation before ignition.  

The latest test was "part of the national defence development plan in the period of the new five-year plan", Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, without elaborating on the date or location of the test.

It was the first officially confirmed high-thrust solid-fuel engine test since September last year, when state media said an engine generated a maximum thrust of 1,971 kilonewtons. 

KCNA reported the recent test had achieved a higher thrust of 2,500 kilonewtons.

The development demonstrates North Korea's "resolve to acquire missiles capable of hitting targets around the globe", Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP.

"Given the increased maximum thrust, this indicates its intention to possess ICBMs with global strike range, as well as the ability to overwhelm missile defence systems," he added. 

Photos released by KCNA showed leader Kim Jong Un inspecting what appeared to be part of the engine, flanked by officials.

Another image showed flames erupting from a ground-mounted engine, illuminating the surrounding test site in orange light.

Kim said that North Korea's defence capabilities had entered "a significant phase of change" in building up its strategic forces.

-Multi-warhead ICBMs?- 

The North has already demonstrated it has mastered the engine technology needed to launch a missile capable of reaching the US mainland with a lower-thrust engine, said Lee Ho-ryung of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.

"They have already passed that mark," she said. 

The question is no longer whether a missile could reach the United States, but whether it could carry multiple warheads, she said.

A multi-warhead missile can strike multiple targets with a single launch while overwhelming defence systems through simultaneous, dispersed reentry vehicles.

"A multi-warhead missile needs higher thrust power because of its heavier weight," she said. 

"In order for the North to show it can launch a multi-warhead ICBM, it needs a test launch to prove its mastery of such technology."

Pyongyang last test-fired an ICBM in October 2024.

Kim also visited a special forces training base, according to a separate KCNA report, inspecting drills in which photos showed soldiers wielding weapons, including an axe and a sledgehammer. 

The demonstration "showed the physical and technical ability they have prepared to be a match for a hundred combatants with iron fists", KCNA said. 

kjk/lb

Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in the northern US city of Minneapolis on Saturday as part of the national "No Kings" movement, months after it was wracked with protests due to federal immigration raids. 

The January raids led to the deaths of two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both at the hands of federal agents, making the city a flashpoint of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

Minneapolis hosted the flagship event for the third "No Kings" protest since the grassroots movement kicked off last year, in protest of Trump's strongman political leadership and right-wing agenda. Organizers later said an estimated 200,000 people went to the event.

Famed US musician Bruce Springsteen headlined the rally in neighboring "Twin City" capitol St. Paul, during which he played his song "Streets of Minneapolis," which he wrote in tribute to Good and Pretti shortly after their deaths. 

"Their bravery, their sacrifice and their names will not be forgotten," Springsteen said about the two deceased Americans.

At the rally, thousands chanted the slogan: "no Kings, no ICE, no war!" 

"Your strength and your commitment told us that this is still America, and this reactionary nightmare and the invasions of American cities will not stand," Springsteen told the crowd.

- 'Wannabe dictator' -

Pamela Sinness, 73, told AFP she attended the rally because she believes "in equal rights for all people, including the immigrants who come to our country." 

"It feels wonderful to see all the like-minded people gathered here, because the people of Minnesota were very traumatized by the violence and the disrespect shown to all people, and the murders in our streets of Renee Good and Alex Pretti," she said.

Among the throngs of people, many carried signs and banners with protest slogans, including some as simple as "ICE OUT," in reference to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which carries out Trump's immigration agenda.

From the rally stage, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, thanked the crowd for standing up to Trump, who he dubbed a "wannabe dictator." 

Leftist US politician Bernie Sanders also addressed the Minnesota rally, telling attendees: "We will never accept a president who is a pathological liar, a kleptocrat and a narcissist who is undermining the Constitution of the United States and the rule of law every day." 

Gina Bilotta-Racelis, who attended the fanfare, said Trump is "incompetent" and that "he has no idea what he's doing." Amid the escalating Middle East war spurred by US-Israeli strikes on February 28, the 73-year-old protester said Trump "should follow the rules and the laws like everyone else." 

Between the Iran conflict and its economic fallout, including soaring oil prices, as well as the controversial immigration raids, Bilotta-Racelis said she thinks Republicans and their narrow majority in Congress will not survive the November midterm elections. 

"I think they'll lose," she said. "If you're watching the polls, you can see it happening day by day."

str-rfo/jgc/ane

iPhone maker Apple celebrates its 50th anniversary on April 1 having marked pop culture and the tech industry like few other firms since its beginnings in 1976.

Here are five things you may not know about the history of the California giant.

- Apple logo -

Designer Rob Janoff said that Apple cofounder Steve Jobs gave him one terse instruction when he commissioned a new logo in January 1977: "don't make it cute".

"I just wanted to make the computer easy and fun to be around," Janoff told Forbes in 2018.

He included the bite mark for scale to set the apple apart from similar round fruit like cherries -- learning only later it was a homonym for the computer term "byte".

And belying urban legends, there was no link to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve or the death of computing pioneer Alan Turing.

Janoff added that the Apple job was "the only time in my entire career where I presented only one solution" to a client.

"But it was just so right".

- '1984' ad -

In a totalitarian sci-fi world, a hammer thrown by a young athlete smashes a "Big Brother" figure declaiming to brainwashed citizens from a vast screen.

Tens of millions of Americans saw director Ridley Scott's one-minute Apple advert during the Super Bowl on January 22, 1984.

Broadcast with an announcement of the release of the Apple computer, it was more than a little inspired by George Orwell's dystopian novel named for the year.

The ad's originality lay in the fact it did not directly show off the product, but instead promised a new world of emancipation for consumers thanks to home computers.

- Bold colours -

Apple's devices have over the years played with colour to set themselves apart from more staid competitors.

Its first-generation iMacs, released in 1998, offered transparent shells in candy-like blue, green and more -- combining a pop of visual interest with a glimpse at the high tech workings within.

The iPod music player, at first available in metallic grey, quickly diversified into a whole spectrum of bright colours.

Later, the "rose gold" variant of the iPhone 6S in 2015, spawned many copycats, surfing a years-long trend dubbed "millennial pink".

- 09:41 photos -

Anyone who has watched more than one Apple product announcement or browsed its website will see a remarkable coincidence: almost every screen appears to show the time as 9:41 am.

Australian game developer Jon Manning said he asked Scott Forstall, then-head of Apple's mobile operating system iOS, about the phenomenon when he bumped into him in California in 2010.

Forstall explained that the timing was down to Steve Jobs' preferred structure for announcements.

"We design the keynotes so that the big reveal of the product happens around 40 minutes into the presentation," Forstall said.

"When the big image of the product appears on screen, we want the time shown to be close to the actual time on the audience's watches. But we know we won't hit 40 minutes exactly".

- Apple's third man -

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak have gone down in history as the Apple co-founders.

In fact, a third man also signed the three-page contract that launched the company on April 1, 1976: Ronald Wayne.

According to Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs, Wayne, an engineer at the Atari video game company, was in charge of hardware engineering and documentation in the fledgling business.

But while his two co-founders were throwing themselves into the business, Wayne feared losing what little savings he had if Apple failed.

Just 11 days later, he gave up his co-founder status, selling his 10 percent stake for two instalments of $800 and $1,500.

That 10-percent share of Apple would have been worth around $370 billion by 2026.

kf-tgb/ach/ceg 

Iranian forces' threat to ships in the crucial Strait of Hormuz has driven up payments for the insurance that underpins the world freight industry.

Here are facts and figures about how maritime insurance works -- and the impact from the war sparked by US-Israeli strikes on Iran, which has virtually cut off shipping in the strait.

- Insurance available -

After the fighting broke out on February 28, some insurers served so-called cancellation notices for war risk policies to "reassess... and then reinstate that cover at adjusted terms", the International Union of Marine Insurance said in a statement.

Despite the name, "a 'Notice of Cancellation' does not, necessarily, end the cover. War cover remains available for owners and operators wishing to take it."

Executives in London -- the world's top shipping insurance market -- insisted captains were avoiding the route to protect their crews, not because they could not get insured.

"Safety concerns, not insurance availability, (are) driving reduced vessel traffic," headlined the Lloyd's Market Association (LMA), a trade body for the London ship insurance industry, in a report.

The price of such policies to cross the strait has shot up, however, according to industry players.

- Surging premiums -

Before the current Middle East conflict, a war risk premium would typically have cost less than one percent of the vessel's so-called hull value.

Now, war risk insurance could run into tens of millions of dollars for a single trip through the Hormuz Strait.

Premiums have surged for ships seeking special cover to cross the strait, according to Robert Peters of UK maritime consultancy Ambrey, which has an insurance arm.

"I'm not sure the market has settled on an agreed range," he added, noting figures typically range "from five percent down to one percent".

David Smith, head of the marine arm at specialist insurance broker McGill, meanwhile estimated it at "anywhere between three and-a-half and 10 percent".

"It is going up and down almost on an hourly basis," he told AFP.

Cargo insurance rates have followed the same trajectory.

"A brand new LNG (liquefied natural gas) ship could be worth $200 million to $250 million alone, and then a cargo could be worth the same again," Smith noted.

- Five-fold cover -

Commercial ships typically need several separate insurance policies.

Hull cover insures against loss or damage to the vessel, while protection and indemnity (P&I) acts like third-party liability coverage.

The cargo on board -- from petrochemicals to containers -- also requires insurance.

In addition, ships need war risk insurance -- typically an annual premium -- but that does not cover ships entering the most active conflict zones, known as "listed" areas.

To do that, they must renegotiate another war risk premium.

"The annual (war risk) premium is not designed for a crisis," said Neil Roberts, head of marine and aviation at the LMA.

- Danger zones list -

In early March, London's marine insurance market widened the "listed" areas in the Gulf region.

The system "enables underwriters to respond quickly and proportionately to areas of increased risk", said Roberts, who sits on the committee that updates the list.

To price war risk premiums, underwriters are considering numerous factors such as the type, flag and owner of the vessel, as well as its size, speed and cargo.

"We have seen some quotes where the underwriter has actually warranted that the vessel goes through at... full throttle," said Smith.

"That is deemed to be an improvement in the risk factor."

- No buyers -

Ships normally have 24 hours to buy insurers' quotes for listed area entry, but that has narrowed to 12 hours for Hormuz, Smith said.

"You line your ship up, you turn the engine on, you get ready to make a charge, then you'll get your quote," he said.

But currently "no one is buying", he added, saying one underwriter reported to him less than one-percent uptake for Hormuz-related policies.

- US insurance scheme -

A US shipping insurance initiative to boost Hormuz crossings will begin operating soon, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday.

US President Donald Trump previously announced the scheme would involve naval escorts and urged Western and other powers to step up. But they have proved unwilling while the conflict rages.

If a crossings framework with military protection could be agreed and proven effective, insurance "rates would tumble very, very quickly" Smith predicted.

jj/rlp/rl

Seafarers' helplines say they are overwhelmed with messages from crews stuck in the Gulf by the Middle East war, desperately seeking repatriation, compensation and onboard supplies.

"Writing to urgently inform you that our vessel is currently facing a critical situation regarding provisions and one crew health conditions," read an email from one seafarer on March 24 to the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF)'s Seafarer Support team.

"Immediate supply of food, drinking water, basic necessities is required to sustain the crew," said the message to the team's helpline.

The ITF said it had received more than 1,000 emails and messages from seafarers stuck around the Strait of Hormuz and the wider region since the war erupted with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.

- Bomb strikes -

Some sought to clarify what their rights are while navigating a war zone, while others sent videos of bombings striking next to their ship and asked the federation for help to get off board, according to ITF documents seen by AFP.

"It is an extraordinary situation, there is a lot of panic," Mohamed Arrachedi, ITF's Network Coordinator for the Arab World and Iran, in charge of handling requests from seafarers in the region, told AFP, describing the situation as "really shocking".

"I get calls from seafarers at two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning. They call me the minute they have access to the internet," Arrachedi said on Wednesday by telephone from Spain.

"One seafarer called in a panic, saying: 'We are here bombed. We don't want to die. Please help me, sir. Please get us from here."

About 20,000 seafarers are currently stuck in the Gulf, according to the UN's maritime body, known as the IMO, and at least eight seafarers or dock workers have died in incidents in the region since February 28.

All correspondence was shared with AFP on condition of anonymity, as the helpline guarantees confidentiality to seafarers.

- War zone rights -

The International Bargaining Forum (IBF), a global maritime labour body, has declared the area a war zone.

This normally gives seafarers exceptional rights, including repatriation at the company's cost and double pay for those working on ships covered by IBF agreements -- around 15,000 vessels worldwide, according to the ITF.

Despite this, many seafarers -- especially on ships without such labour agreements -- are reporting difficulties with getting repatriated.

In one email sent to the ITF on March 18, a seafarer said the ship's operator was ignoring crews' requests to leave, arguing that there were no flights from Iraq and refusing alternative routes.

"They are forcing us to continue to do cargo operations and STS (ship-to-ship operations) even (when) we raise our concerns about our safety and we are in war like area. They are keeping us in a position with no options," read the email seen by AFP.

The International Seafarers' Welfare and Assistance Network (ISWAN), another organisation operating a helpline, told AFP on Wednesday that it had seen "a 15-20 percent increase in calls and messages" since the start of the war, with a third relating to repatriation difficulties.

- $16 a day -

Another major concern is compensation.

"About 50 percent of emails we receive concern pay," Lucian Craciun, one of five members of ITF's support team processing requests at the organisation's headquarters in London, told AFP.

He said many seafarers choose to stay on board despite the dangerous conditions because they cannot afford to leave.

One email seen by AFP came from a seafarer asking to confirm whether his salary would go from $16 a day to $32 because he was in a designated war zone.

The ITF says such low salaries indicate that the shipowners do not have labour agreements in place to ensure decent pay.

Seafarers working under such arrangements are particularly at risk because their contracts often do not cover operations in war zones, and owners tend not to respond to requests from organisations such as the ITF, according to the support team.

When that happens, the ITF reaches out to the flag states and, if that does not work, to the state port authority where the vessel is located.

Arrachedi said that many such cases in the Gulf are still unresolved, with seafarers desperately awaiting responses from operators. 

lmc/rlp/st/ceg

In a corner of suburban Singapore, Betty Boon vaults a guardrail, crawls underneath a slide, executes forward shoulder rolls and scales a steep slope, finishing the course to applause.

"Good job!" the 69-year-old's coach cheers.

This is "geriatric parkour", where around 20 retirees learned to tackle a series of relatively demanding exercises, building their agility and enjoying a sense of camaraderie.

Boon, an upbeat grandmother, said learning parkour has aided her confidence and independence as she ages.

"When you're weak, you will be dependent on someone," she told AFP after sweating it out with her parkour classmates in suburban Toa Payoh, under the shadow of government-built apartment blocks.

"I feel more alive, it's a whole new world."

The discipline has gained a devoted following of senior citizens in the city-state, which is among the world's fastest-ageing countries.

Singapore is projected to become a "super-aged" nation this year, meaning the proportion of residents aged 65 and above exceeds 21 percent.

By 2030, one in four Singaporeans will be aged 65 and above, according to the health ministry.

As the society greys, various activities and industries have mushroomed up to cater to seniors' needs, including social activities and group exercise classes.

Coach Tan Shie Boon, 33, said he was initially met with scepticism when he started offering parkour classes for older students in 2017, especially due to the risk of injury.

But his idea was to share manoeuvres that could help seniors with their balance, stamina and coordination.

"It's meaningful, I can see the impact of my work," he said.

- Not just for youngsters -

Parkour, a discipline that originated in France, focuses on overcoming physical obstacles like walls, gaps and platforms without any aid.

Often called the "art of displacement," it involves running, jumping, climbing, rolling and vaulting to quickly dart from one point to another.

The activity has a young, athletic following, but coach Tan and his students insist it can be suitable for every age.

"When people hear the word parkour, they think it's only for youngsters who can jump from rooftops," said retired banker and parkour enthusiast Irene Chuah, 67. "We don't do that. We jump over benches."

Tan, who specialises in coaching senior citizens in his classes across Singapore, tailors all the stunts to match the capabilities of his students, aged between their early 50s to 83.

"The whole point of parkour is to improve your agility ... you'll be faster in your reaction," he said.

"When seniors fall, they get severely injured because they have a lack of coordination, balance and agility. They're not fast enough to react in time," he added.

Chuah experienced firsthand how the moves she learned in parkour class can apply outside of practice.

When a trolley she was pushing at a supermarket hit an obstacle, it overturned and pulled her over.

But thanks to her training, she managed to jump over the mess, remain on her feet and escape unharmed.

"Nobody helped me because the people thought I was young," Chuah told AFP with a laugh.

Retired kindergarten teacher Ling Ying Ying, 66, said doing parkour helped her to be able to mop the floor on her knees "like we used to do when we were young."

- 'Dare to do' -

At the fitness space in Toa Payoh, the parkour students also practised traversing down an incline and scaling a low wall during the 90-minute session.

A couple of students jumped over a gap after some encouragement.

Life after retirement used to be "quite dull", Chuah said.

"After parkour, I can go line dancing, and I can remember the steps. You dare to do a lot of things that you think only young people can do," she added.

Her classmate Boon said one time she brought her grandchildren to a neighbourhood playground and taught them to jump onto a platform and do forward rolls.

When she looked back, she saw a line of other children wanting to try the moves.

"Since then, I became like the favourite grandmother. The children recognise me even when I'm far away," she said.

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Blazing-hot kilns in India's $6.5 billion ceramics manufacturing hub employing hundreds of thousands of people have gone cold, shut down in an energy crunch caused by the Middle East war.

At a cavernous facility in Morbi, in India's western Gujarat state, a 200-metre-long propane-powered kiln that normally fires clay nonstop is silent. It is one of hundreds of plants supplying homeware tiles across the world that have been forced to suspend operations.

Thick layers of dust smother giant grinding and pressing machines, while only a tiny crew of workers transfer the last batch made three weeks ago off snaking assembly lines and into trucks.

"We are suffering a lot," said Kishor Dulera, a tile unit proprietor who closed this factory and two others in early March, sending hundreds of workers home.

India, the world's fourth-largest economy, depends on imports for 60 percent of its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) demand.

The overwhelming majority comes through the Strait of Hormuz waterway, which has been effectively blocked by Iran after US-Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic late last month sparked a broader regional conflict, disrupting global energy supplies.

New Delhi has prioritised supply for households, shielding Indians who use it to cook food. That has squeezed the amount available for industrial use. 

Factories in sectors including stainless steel and plastic have cut back on production as a result.

- 'Disaster' -

"If the main raw material is disturbed, the whole industry is disturbed," Dulera told AFP.

The ceramics hub at Morbi makes up 90 percent of India's total production and is one of the world's largest ceramic manufacturing centres, exporting tiles to countries like the United States and Thailand.

The industry at Morbi provides direct and indirect employment to nearly a million people, according to government statistics.

More than 400 plants have closed after the gas supply chain was "broken", said Manoj Arvadiya, head of the local manufacturing industry association.

Keeping the kilns hot means plants operate around-the-clock -- and emergency shutdowns can damage machinery.

"It is a continuous process," said Arvadiya. 

"You can't run it for two days and then switch it off for one day. It doesn't work like that."

Hitesh Detroja said his now-shut Lexus Granito plant had produced 30,000 tiles per day, calling the closure a "disaster". He said he has no income to pay his fixed costs and interest on loans of $74,000 each month.

"This crisis is horrible," Detroja said.

- 'Worried' -

The ripple effects of the energy crisis have been felt throughout the Morbi ecosystem.

"Everyone is worried," said 29-year-old labourer Bunty Goswami, a migrant worker at a shut plant.

"We are confused about what to do -- whether we should go home, or not." 

India's government has boosted domestic LPG production, negotiated the passage of a handful of tankers and purchased new cargoes from Australia and Russia.

That should, in time, ease supply constraints.

Jitendra Aghara of Simpolo Tiles, one of Morbi's biggest manufacturers, has kept operating by buying propane at more than double the price it was before the war to ensure he fulfills customer orders.

"If now we suffer a loss for two to three months, in the future we will get it back," he said.

The tile industry developed in Gujarat due to the availability of clay and good transport connections, but it relies on overseas energy to fire.

Aghara said the previous abundance of LPG and natural gas meant that there had been few moves to fully develop and adopt electric or hydrogen-powered kilns.

Indian corporate giants like Reliance Industries have big green hydrogen production plans, which could remove Morbi's import dependencies.

But first, development is needed to ensure hybrid kilns can produce tiles of the quality that Morbi is known for. 

Aghara noted alternative fuels can't replace gas "100 percent just yet".

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