A Syrian teenager stabbed to death in the UK had escaped the war in his homeland after being injured in a bombing in Homs, his family have said.
The family of Ahmad Mamdouh Al Ibrahim, 16, paid tribute to the “kind and gentle” teenager, who had dreams of becoming a doctor. A man has appeared in court charged with his murder in Huddersfield on April 3.
“Ahmad fled war-torn Homs, Syria, after being injured in a bombing,” his family said in a statement issued through West Yorkshire Police. “He chose to come to the UK because he believed in the values of human rights, safety and dignity. He was full of hope and dreamt of becoming a doctor, wanting to heal others after all he had endured.”
The family added that Ahmad had begun to settle into his new life in the UK with his uncle and was “adjusting to a new language, a new home and a future he was excited to build”.
“Ahmad was kind, gentle and carried so much promise. Losing him has left an unimaginable emptiness in our hearts,” the statement said. “We never thought that the place he saw as a safe haven would be where his life would end. Our only wish now is to lay him to rest in his homeland, Syria. Thank you for helping us honour his memory.”
Homs was a key battleground in the Syrian civil, after residents responded to the call to overthrow former president Bashar Al Assad in 2011. Regime forces were driven out of much of the city a year later.
Government forces responded by laying siege to the city for two years. The fighting left whole areas destroyed before rebel forces withdrew. The city passed fully into government control in 2017, but was retaken by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham in early December, as the group led rebel forces to Damascus.
Alfie Franco, 20, appeared at Leeds Crown Court on Tuesday charged with Ahmad’s murder. He was remanded in custody with a trial date set for October 2. Police are working with Ahmad’s family and are investigating the attack, West Yorkshire Police added.
The five pillars of Islam
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Votes
Total votes: 1.8 million
Ashraf Ghani: 923,592 votes
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Ain Dubai in numbers
126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure
1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch
16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.
9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.
5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place
192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Global Fungi Facts
• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
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Washmen Profile
Date Started: May 2015
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Tips to stay safe during hot weather
- Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of fluids, especially water. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can increase dehydration.
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- Check on vulnerable people: Regularly check in on elderly neighbours, young children and those with health conditions.
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Afghanistan squad
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SPECS
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
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Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
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Rating: 4/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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