- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
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- Austrian rapper channels anti-racist rage in Romani hip-hop songs
- Ohtani magic powers Dodgers over Padres in MLB playoff thriller
- Five of the best: Pakistan-England Test thrillers
- Man sets arm on fire as marches across US mark Gaza war anniversary
- Vietnam's young coffee entrepreneurs brew up a revolution
- Trump rallies at site of failed assassination: 'Never quit'
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
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- Lebanon state media says Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Miami on track for MLS record points after win in Toronto
- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
- Mexico City's new mayor sworn in with pledges on water, housing
- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Guardians maul Tigers in MLB playoff series opener
- Macron criticises Israel on Gaza, Lebanon operations
- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
- Search continues for missing in deadly Bosnia floods
- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
- Hezbollah heir apparent Safieddine out of contact after strikes
- Liverpool stay top of Premier League as Arsenal, Man City win
- In dank Tour of Emilia, Pogacar shines in rainbow jersey
- DR Congo launches mpox vaccination drive, hoping to curb outbreak
- Trump returns to site of failed assassination
- Careless Leverkusen held to Bundesliga draw
- O'Brien's 'superstar' Kyprios posts landmark win on Arc weekend
- Liverpool suffer Alisson injury blow
- Habosi helps Racing beat Vannes before Auradou's playing return
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.
A.P.Maia--PC