الكاتب: kafej

The father of Liverpool star Luis Diaz has revealed details of his captivity – and said he intends to keep living in Colombia despite his ordeal.

Luis Manuel Diaz was released on Thursday after spending 12 days in the hands of guerrillas.

During a press conference, the 58-year-old said his kidnappers had advised him to remain calm.

He said he had “almost 12 days without sleep” and had to endure “a lot of quite difficult horseback riding, lots of mountains, rain”.

“Even though the treatment was good, I didn’t feel very comfortable,” he said.

He and his wife were abducted by armed men on motorcycles at a petrol station in the town of Barrancas, near Colombia’s border with Venezuela on 28 October.

The 26-year-old footballer’s mother, Cilenis Marulanda, was rescued within hours by police after roadblocks were set up.

“My aspirations are to continue in my town because I have my entire family in my town,” Mr Diaz said.

“The government has given me impressively strong and great support. I trust and have faith that it will provide me security to be in Barrancas.”

During his captivity special forces were deployed to search for Mr Diaz – with air and land patrols trawling a mountain range that straddles both Colombia and Venezuela.

Officials said they could not rule out the possibility that he had been smuggled over the border – meaning he would have been out of reach of Colombian police.

A reward of $48,000 (£39,000) had been offered for information leading police to the hostage.

The Liverpool winger had pleaded with his father’s captors to release him – and said he and his brothers were in a “desperate” situation.

Mr Diaz was eventually released by guerrillas from the National Liberation Army (ELN), according to the Colombian FA.

The capture stoked criticism of ongoing peace talks between the ELN and the government of leftist President Gustavo Petro, who is trying to put an end to Colombia’s six-decade internal conflict that has left more than 450,000 dead.

The government and the ELN began a six-month ceasefire in August.

Israel says more than 100,000 Palestinians have moved from the north to the south of Gaza in the last two days.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled northern Gaza on foot as Israeli forces push deeper into dense urban neighbourhoods and attack hospitals where residents have been sheltering.

Gaza City has been the focus of Israel’s ground offensive, with fierce battles and air raids reported on Friday in densely populated areas.

A spokesperson for the Israeli army said on Friday more than 100,000 Palestinians have moved from the north to the south of Gaza in the last two days.

A never-ending stream of people including many children, the wounded, and the elderly were seen moving south, mostly on foot, carrying only small backpacks and essential belongings.

Israel has repeatedly targeted and attacked civilians who are making their way to the south.

“The fighting in the urban areas of the Gaza Strip has reached critical levels, as the Israeli occupation forces are pushing forward and deeper,” Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported from Khan Younis.

“Now the Israeli troops are stationed in Tel Al-Hawa neighbourhood, in Al-Shati refugee camp and even in the eastern areas of Gaza as they are trying to infiltrate more into the central and to main centres of Gaza City. They are only one kilometre [0.6 miles] away from Al-Shifa Hospital.”

The UN’s humanitarian office said on Friday it is unable to deliver aid trucks to the north of Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people still reside.

“If there is a hell on earth, it is the north of Gaza,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters in Geneva.

Also on Friday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, called for an investigation into what he called Israel’s use of “high-impact explosive weapons” in Gaza. He said the use of such weapons was causing indiscriminate destruction in the besieged Palestinian enclave.

The UN said earlier this week that at least 1.5 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have fled their homes since the war began.

More than 11,000 Palestinians, including 4,506 children, have been killed in Gaza since Israel started pounding the enclave in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack that Israel says left more than 1,400 dead, mostly civilians.

Hospitals in Gaza City and northern Gaza are in their final, “critical hours”, and are expected to completely go out of service due to a lack of fuel and as a result of “direct and intentional targeting”, the government’s media office said.

The number of hospitals that have gone out of service since the beginning of Israel’s offensive has reached 21.

As attacks around the Al-Shifa Hospital intensified, the head of Gaza’s largest medical facility, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, told Al Jazeera, “This day was a day of war on hospitals.”

The government called for the “urgent, immediate, and permanent” opening of the Rafah border crossing, though which aid and medical supplies can flow to hospitals and various relief centres. It also called for much-needed fuel so that hospitals can continue operating and providing healthcare services to the thousands in need.

“We hold the Israeli occupation and the international community, especially the US, fully responsible” for the crimes being committed against “defenceless” Palestinians in Gaza, the media office added.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health says the number of Palestinians killed since October 7 has risen to 11,078, including at least 4,506 children.

A British man who went missing while visiting Jamaica has been found dead. 

Robert Dyer, from Lewisham in southeast London, got lost while on a hike in woods near St Elizabeth in the south-west of the Caribbean island on Sunday.

His family last heard from the 60-year-old at around 1pm on Monday, when he told them he was lost, according to reports by local media.

His son, Lewis Dyer, posted an appeal online on Tuesday to say his father was lost somewhere in Ballards Valley and had been without water for days.

Mr Dyer’s body was found at 9.15am local time, the Jamaica Constabulary Force said in a statement.

Hundreds of police officers were involved in the search, and the force also thanked locals who were out “night and day” and played a “critical role” in the operation.

The Jamaica Defence Force and the fire brigade were also involved in the search.

The force said “no foul play” was suspected in his death.

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“Throughout the search, we have been determined to find Mr Robert Dyer,” a police officer said in a video posted to social media.

“We were hopeful we would find him alive.

“It is very unfortunate that we did not manage to find him earlier, but we did everything available based on the information that we had.”

Mr Dyer was a personal trainer and co-founded Mace Masters, an exercise training company.

Pop powerhouse Taylor Swift has broken yet another record as the Grammy award nominations are revealed.

Swift, who is currently on the road with her epic Eras Tour, has become the first artist to have seven tracks nominated in the prestigious Song Of The Year category, with her track Anti-Hero picking up a nod.

She has previously been in the category with You Belong With Me, Shake It Off, Blank Space, Lover, Cardigan and All Too Well.

Swift’s latest studio album Midnights is up for Album Of The Year, while her remix of the track Karma with Ice Spice was recognised in the duos category.

If she wins the album category, it would make her the first artist to bag the accolade four times.

But it’s SZA who picks up the most nominations this year with nine, who is also up for song, album and duo performance, as well as best R&B performance and Record Of The Year.

She’s followed by indie artist Phoebe Bridgers and her group Boygenius, as well as Olivia Rodrigo and Victoria Monet.

Billie Eilish and Miley Cyrus also picked up a handful of nominations, with the former getting recognition for her song What Was I Made For, which she wrote for the Barbie movie, while Cyrus’ hit Flowers grabs several nods.

Barbie dominates the soundtrack category, with five of the six nominated tracks coming from the summer smash – including Ryan Gosling’s I’m Just Ken and Dua Lipa’s Dance The Night.

Jon Batiste has the most nominations among male artists, going up in the jazz category, as well as Record, Song and Album of the year.

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Beyonce remains the most decorated artist in Grammy history, with 32 trophies, followed by Hungarian conductor Georg Solti with 31, and legendary producer Quincy Jones who has 28.

Next year’s ceremony will be held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on 4 February, and be televised in the US on CBS and Paramount+.