Washington: In a potentially major development that can end one of the world's greatest unsolved mysteries, a former US Air Force intelligence officer claims to have found the wreckage of Amelia Earhart's plane at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, the disappearance of which almost nine decades ago stunned the world. Explorer Tony Romeo says he believes he found the wreckage using sonar data from a deep-sea drone.
Balochistan: At least six terrorists of a banned group were killed when Pakistani security forces thwarted at least three coordinated attacks with rockets and sophisticated weapons by militants on a high-security jail in the country's restive Balochistan province on Monday. A senior police official said at least 15 rockets were fired at the Central Mach Jail on Monday night where some dangerous militants and death row prisoners have been incarcerated. Balochistan’s caretaker Information Minister Jan Achakzai said the Pakistan Army and Frontier Constabulary Balochistan acted swiftly to thwart the attacks during the night.Jailed former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a special court on Tuesday for leaking state secrets, has reportedly stated that he had only waved a "piece of paper" during his party rally to expose a conspiracy against his government.
"The plan was to give (General Qamar Javed) Bajwa - retired army chief - the message that the entire plan will be exposed if the government is conspired against," Khan was quoted as saying in the statement he submitted to the court by the Express Tribune newspaper.
The 71-year-old cricketer-turned-politician also said the responsibility of protecting the cipher (secret diplomatic communication) was not his. "One of my ADCs (Aide-de-Camp) stole the cypher on Bajwa's directives," he said, adding that he was never in possession of the actual cypher.
"The responsibility for the PMO's security rested with the military secretary, principal secretary and secretary protocol during my three-and-a-half years," he said.
During the trial, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf founder submitted a mandatory statement in the special court, stating that he only waved a paper during the rally to merely express his fear of a conspiracy without naming any country, the report said.
The cipher controversy first emerged on March 27, 2022, when Khan - less than a month before his ouster in April 2022 - while addressing a public rally waved a letter before the crowd, claiming that it was a cipher from a foreign nation that had conspired with his political rivals to have his government overthrown.
Khan did not reveal the contents of the letter nor did he mention the name of the nation it came from. But a few days later, he accused the US of conspiring against him and alleged that Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs Donald Lu had sought his removal.
The cipher was about former Pakistan ambassador to the US Asad Majeed's meeting with Lu.
The case was filed against Khan and Qureshi on August 15 last year by the Federal Investigation Agency, which accused both of violating the secrecy laws while handling the cable sent by the Pakistan embassy in Washington in March 2022.
The verdict comes nine days before the February 8 general elections, which the PTI is contesting amid a state crackdown and without an electoral symbol.
In his statement, Khan said: "This is the only document that has gone missing from the Prime Minister's Office. If the cipher is missing then the military secretary should be asked to conduct an inquiry." The former premier said that this was the only time when he even got angry with the military secretary. "One of my ADCs stole the cypher on Gen Bajwa's order," Khan repeated his allegations.
He also said his government was toppled due to a conspiracy. "General Bajwa and US Secretary of State Donald Lu were involved in the conspiracy".
"The conspiracy to overthrow my government took place in October 2021 when General Bajwa replaced ISI chief Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed," the PTI founder stated.
Khan said that "all this happened with the connivance of Gen Bajwa, [PML-N leaders] Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif, because they promised Gen Bajwa to extend his tenure".
"[Former ambassador to the US] Hussain Haqqani was hired to lobby in the US on behalf of Gen Bajwa, for which the former was paid $35,000. In April, Hussain Haqqani tweeted that Imran Khan was anti-US while Gen Bajwa was pro-US," the former premier maintained in his statement.
Khan claimed that the former army chief used the ISI to convince the PTI's political allies to withdraw their support for the government and also forced party members to leave, insisting that their "future lay with the PML-N".
"I asked Gen Bajwa regarding the conspiracy when I met him, but he claimed nothing of the sort was taking place. Despite several meetings with him, the ISI kept working against my government.
"During the first week of March, I had an official trip to Russia and the foreign ministry agreed with the visit. Before leaving for Russia, I also talked with Gen Bajwa and he too agreed that I should undertake the visit. A few days after I returned, Shah Mahmood Qureshi informed me that Asad Majeed had sent a cypher message from Washington." "It was a shocking cipher which was not meant for the prime minister or foreign minister to see. Qureshi then called Asad Majeed (ambassador to US) for information regarding the cypher and I was left surprised after reading it," Khan said.
He said there was no precedent for a diplomat being threatened by the US officials during a meeting. "They threatened that if the prime minister is not removed, there would be consequences." "Asad Majeed informed Donald Lu that all stakeholders had agreed on the official visit to Russia. Asad Majeed recommended issuing a demarche to the US, while our allies were sending us messages that they were being pressurised by the ISI to leave the alliance." Khan claimed that the US Embassy in Pakistan was also active. "They were calling people to the embassy and during this time, several meetings were also held with Gen Bajwa. They were told that if the government is ousted the economy would be destroyed, and the economic plan of Shehbaz Sharif will not be able to stabilise the economy." He further claimed that the "cypher sent by Donald Lu was addressed to Gen Bajwa as he had the power to topple the government".
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping has offered to "break new ground" to give a fillip to the China-France ties, days after French President Emmanuel Macron's high-profile visit to India during which the two countries unveiled an ambitious defence roadmap besides intensifying cooperation in the strategic Indian Ocean and the Indo-Pacific region.Spanish police on Monday said they had busted the owners of a funeral parlour in Valencia for allegedly selling dead bodies to university research departments for 1,200 euros per corpse.
The four suspects, two owners and two employees, also helped the universities dispose of the bodies after they had been studied by incinerating them or disposing of their dismembered parts in other coffins slated for cremation.
Most of the bodies were of people without any family.
The suspects "falsified documentation to get the bodies from hospitals and retirement homes in order to later sell them to universities for research for 1,200 ($1,300) per corpse," a police statement said.
The suspects had sold at least 11 bodies, it added.
In some cases, they even billed the universities for cremations which never happened.
"They billed one university 5,040 euros for incinerating 11 bodies after being studied, which were not accounted for in the invoices of any of the crematoriums in the city," police said.
Police began investigating in early 2023 after discovering that two funeral parlour employees had taken a body from a hospital morgue using false documents and brought it to university researchers rather than burying it.
The body belonged to a man who was to be buried in his home town in an interment paid for by the local council, but instead was sold for study without anyone's consent.
The suspects "looked for people who had died without any living relatives, preferably foreigners," police said.
In another case, the suspects allegedly managed to persuade an elderly man with impaired mental faculties to agree to donate his body to science.
"That donor form said the body should be sent to a certain medical facility, but in the end it was taken to another" which "paid more money", the police statement said.
The suspects are facing charges of fraud and the falsification of documents.
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At least four people are dead following what police in Los Angeles characterised as a murder-suicide in the Granada Hills area on Saturday. Officers responded shortly before 7 pm to a report of a shooting in the 11600 block of Lerdo Avenue and found four people who were pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators determined the shooting was a murder-suicide, the Los Angeles Police Department said. After receiving the call, there was no answer when the officers arrived and knocked at the door, police said.Britain's King Charles III will not carry out any royal duties for up to one month as he recovers from a medical procedure for an enlarged prostate, media reports said on Sunday.
The 75-year-old King was treated for an enlarged prostate, after being admitted to the hospital on Friday morning and is "doing well".
He underwent the procedure at The London Clinic and remains in hospital.
Queen Camilla visited her husband again on Sunday as he continues to rest at The London Clinic following the treatment on Friday.
She has shared that the King is “doing well” and it has also been reported that the monarch visited his daughter-in-law the Princess of Wales.
Princess Catherine is also recovering at the same central London hospital after her abdominal surgery last week.
Sky's royal correspondent Laura Bundock says there will now be a "period of recuperation" for the King.
He will be available for state matters while in hospital and can attend to red boxes with government papers when he is discharged, she added.
The King had last carried out duties in private on Thursday, ahead of arriving in London from Norfolk to prepare for the procedure.
King Charles, who only acceded to the throne 16 months ago, had to cancel engagements ahead of the surgery as his doctors urged him to rest, though the exact nature of his treatment is not known.
The King had been staying at the royal Sandringham estate and completing some tasks there ahead of journeying down to London for the medical procedure on Friday.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wished King Charles the "very best" for his treatment and a "speedy recovery" afterward, a Downing Street spokeswoman said.
The King was diagnosed with the benign condition on January 17 while staying at Birkhall, Aberdeenshire, after going for a check-up because he was experiencing symptoms.
He is said to have wanted to share the news to encourage other men to get themselves checked.
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The International Court of Justice on Friday ordered Israel to take steps to prevent genocide acts in the Gaza Strip. The top court just stopped short of ordering a ceasefire in the region.
Red Sea crisis: In a dramatic development, Chinese officials on Friday issued an ultimatum to Iran - either halt the Houthi attacks on commercial and merchant vessels in the Red Sea, or risk harming business relations with Beijing - according to four Iranian sources and a diplomat aware of the matter. The Iran-backed group have launched a series of attacks in the Red Sea that pushed tensions to a boiling point in the Middle East amid the Israel-Hamas war.Focus on bringing Pakistan's economy back on track, the message of peace to India, a vow to combat climate change, and zero-tolerance towards terrorism are the highlights of the manifesto unveiled by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's party on Saturday.
With less than two weeks before the February 8 general elections, Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's (PML-N) manifesto promises to send a "message of peace" to other countries, including India, on the condition that New Delhi revert its August 2019 action on Kashmir, Dawn.com reported, quoting the manifesto.
India has told Pakistan that Jammu and Kashmir is an inalienable and integral part of the country. Article 370, which was abrogated by India's Parliament in 2019, is entirely a matter of India as well as its Constitution, the Ministry of External Affairs has reiterated previously.
The manifesto also vows to combat the impacts of climate change and a "zero-tolerance policy" towards terrorism, it said.
The other agendas on the PML-N's table include a "secured water future" and "add life to the economy through exports".
Released at a special event here in the provincial capital of Punjab, the PML-N later shared the detailed manifesto titled 'Pakistan ko Nawaz do' on its official X account.
"If voted to power, the party vowed to provide the public with cheap and increased electricity as well as speedy development. Its promises include a 20 to 30 per cent reduction in power bills, a 15,000 megawatt-increase in electricity production, and a 10,000 MW production of solar energy," the Dawn newspaper reported.
The party has vowed to ensure youth representation in national politics through parliament, and provincial and local governments and also said, it aims to restore student unions, expand the National Youth Scheme, allocate funds for IT start ups and increase youth entrepreneurship.
It also promised to establish Pakistan's first sports university and 250 stadiums and academies along with youth skills development.
A plan to bring constitutional, legal, judicial and administrative reforms; combating violence against minorities; modernising agriculture, and making women independent apart from introducing a new labour policy to ensure their rights were also mentioned in the document.
The other promises include the abolition of the National Accountability Bureau and bringing in comprehensive amendments to the Civil Procedure Code, 1908, and Criminal Procedure Code, 1898 to standardise the procedural laws.
The manifesto also said court proceedings will be telecast live if the party is elected, according to The News International newspaper.
Nawaz Sharif termed it a "strange coincidence" that despite him being ousted as the prime minister in 2017 and "political vendettas" against the PML-N, his party members were once again "preparing to contest elections and presenting their manifesto." The former three-time prime minister also added that he neither intended to "express his grievances" nor was "in a mood to complain today." In an indirect reference to former prime minister Imran Khan, he said, "If I was there in the previous government instead of the person who you saw, I would have never done what he did." Criticising the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party that formed a government following the 2018 elections, Nawaz Sharif said Imran Khan's regime broke the poor people's back through inflation and cut off the electricity. Nawaz Sharif claimed that electricity was never cut off during his rule.
Nawaz Sharif also recalled the PML-N's previous tenures, saying there was "no inflation" back then.
Pakistan is in economic ruin and awaiting a monumental financial default without long overdue structural reforms sought by global creditors such as the IMF and the World Bank, along with bilateral partners like China and the UAE.
The primary reason behind Pakistan's economic issues is its staggering debt levels, which, as of 2023, amount to nearly USD 125 billion owed to external creditors, with approximately one-third to China.
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Lahore: In a majorly surprising move that can only happen in Pakistan, three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's supporters brought a lion and a tiger at his rally in Lahore on Tuesday, according to Pakistani media. The animals represented the symbol of Nawaz's party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and were brought to the camps set up in the NA-130 constituency to welcome him .The United States on Friday reiterated its position that allegations Israel has committed genocide in Gaza are "unfounded," after the UN's top court ruled Israel must do more to prevent civilian deaths.
"We continue to believe that allegations of genocide are unfounded and note the court did not make a finding about genocide or call for a ceasefire in its ruling," a US State Department spokesman said after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to do everything to "prevent the commission of all acts within the scope" of the Genocide Convention.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Parts of a contested new French immigration law go against the constitution and must be scrapped, France's Constitutional Council said on Thursday.
The court, a body that validates the constitutionality of laws, struck down nearly three dozen measures contained in the bill, including the lion's share of clauses introduced by opposition rightwing lawmakers during a turbulent parliamentary process.
Measures including toughening conditions for the family reunification of migrants, birthright citizenship and access to state welfare, were scrapped, mostly for procedural reasons.
The ruling will offer some relief to President Emmanuel Macron, who had made the bill a key plank of his second term. While he had defended its passage through parliament, Macron, who lacks a working majority in parliament, was embarrassed by the support it drew from Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party as conservative lawmakers hardened its content.
Macron had referred the legislation to the Council, along with three other groups.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin welcomed the ruling, saying it had validated the government's initial proposals.
"Never has a bill included more measures to expel delinquents or introduced stricter requirements for the integration of foreigners," Darmanin added.
Far-right opposition leader Jordan Bardella slammed the court's annullment of several of the bill's toughest anti-immigration measures.
"The Constitutional Council has censured those measures that were most approved by the French people. The immigration law is dead in the water. The only solution is a referendum on immigration," Bardella wrote on X.
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Moscow: A Russian military transport plane has crashed in the southern Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, resulting in the killing of at least 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war. Quoting Russia's Ministry of Defence, Ria Novosti news agency said another nine people were on board, including six crew.A British man, Stefan Farbrother, who subjected a child to an extremely distressing and frightening series of sexually abusive incidents in the 1990s, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison. Farbrother handcuffed the child and threatened them with a knife during this appalling campaign of abuse. The victim suffered multiple instances of rape and sexual abuse between 1991 and 1997, leading to a profoundly negative impact on their life described as "catastrophic."
Stefan Farbrother, who lived in Sevenoaks, Kent at the time of the incidents, has been convicted of several crimes, including multiple rapes over a five-year period. Detective Sergeant Adam Ferguson of Kent Police stated that the 47-year-old Farbrother subjected the victim to a highly distressing and frightening series of abusive acts.
Despite Farbrother's consistent denial of any wrongdoing, he was ultimately found guilty on all charges by a unanimous verdict.
In a statement by the Kent Police Force, Detective Sergeant Ferguson said, "Farbrother targeted the victim over a period of many years. He subjected them to the most appalling and terrifying campaign of abuse, using violence and threats that included restraining them with handcuffs and holding a knife to their throat."
"I would like to thank the victim, who has been incredibly brave to come forward and give evidence. The abuse has had a catastrophic effect on much of their adult lives, but I do hope they can now move forward from this knowing Farbrother will be serving a lengthy prison sentence," he added.
"Successful convictions such as this are just one of the reasons we continue to urge anyone who has been a victim of sexual abuse to contact the police. It is never too late to report a sexual offense. You will be believed."
Yemen's Houthi movement said on Monday its forces had carried out an attack against American military cargo ship Ocean Jazz in the Gulf of Aden.
"The Yemeni armed forces continue to retaliate to any American or British aggression against our country by targeting all sources of threat in the Red and Arab Sea," the Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a statement.
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Donald Trump's sexual assault defamation trial was delayed after a juror reported Covid symptoms Monday, the eve of the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary vote.
The juror in the civil case, at which Donald Trump says he will testify, reported symptoms of fever, as did one of Donald Trump's lawyers who had a separate exposure, the federal court in New York heard.
"We sent him home... We will not take testimony today, we will take the day off," said Judge Lewis Kaplan of juror number three.
Following the announcement of the delay, which will be reviewed Tuesday to determine if the case in its final stages can proceed, Donald Trump was whisked away in a metallic black Chevrolet SUV.
E. Jean Carroll, a successful writer, is seeking more than $10 million in damages for defamation by Donald Trump, whom another New York civil jury found liable for sexual assault against her.
Donald Trump separately faces four serious criminal cases, including his alleged attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 election in which he lost to Biden.
He has shuttled between New York to attend the defamation case and a separate civil fraud trial and New Hampshire campaign stops.
The primary is seen as the last, best chance for Haley to stop Donald Trump, who despite being twice impeached as president and now facing four criminal cases, has succeeded in imposing his far-right brand on the entire Republican party.
A new Washington Post/Monmouth poll Monday showed Donald Trump, 77, backed by 52 percent in New Hampshire to Haley's 34 percent.
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A sexual assault complaint filed last year against French screen legend Gerald Depardieu but dating back to 2007 was past the statute of limitations, prosecutors said Monday.
Gerald Depardieu, 75, has been charged with rape in another case and has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by more than a dozen women, allegations he denies.
The criminal complaint from actor Helene Darras, who said Gerald Depardieu groped and propositioned her during a 2007 film shoot, was dropped late last month, the Paris prosecutors' office told AFP.
Neither Darras nor Gerald Depardieu's lawyers were immediately available for comment.
Darras had already spoken to investigators in 2022 and news site Mediapart before filing her complaint in September, she told AFP last month.
"It took me a year to go from talking about what happened to the criminal complaint," she said at the time.
"Walking through the door of a police station, telling an officer someone touched your intimate parts, it's not easy, you need time to think about it," she added.
But she had "wanted to respond to the defence that plays down our allegations by saying they're 'just' witness accounts," Darras said.
In an interview with broadcaster France 2, she accused Gerald Depardieu of touching her hips and buttocks and inviting her into his dressing room, continuing even after she refused.
Gerald Depardieu was in 2020 charged with rape and sexual assault after another actor, Charlotte Arnould, filed her own complaint over allegations dating to 2018.
Arnould's lawyer has also asked Paris prosecutors to investigate a recording of Gerald Depardieu making derogatory comments about women during a filming trip to North Korea, which was later passed to France 2.
In a separate case, Spanish journalist and author Ruth Baza said that she had filed a criminal complaint in Spain against Gerald Depardieu last month, claiming he raped her nearly three decades ago in Paris.
The complaint has little hope of leading to charges due to the statute of limitations in France, but Baza said she decided to go ahead anyway in the hope that it would "help other people" to do the same.
Repeated allegations of sexual violence against Gerald Depardieu have become a culture-war frontline in France, dividing the world of cinema and pitting feminist groups against the actor's defenders -- including President Emmanuel Macron.
The President last month said Gerald Depardieu should enjoy the presumption of innocence, calling him an "immense actor" who "makes France proud" and saying he was now the victim of a "manhunt".
Emmanuel Macron more recently allowed that he had not "said enough how important the words of women who are victims of this violence are".
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Moscow will be asked to explain at the UN on Monday what has happened to thousands of Ukrainian children believed to have been forcibly sent to Russia since its 2022 invasion.
Kyiv estimates that 20,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly deported to Russia.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2023 on the war crime accusation of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children.
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child -- a panel of 18 independent experts -- is set over two days to examine Russia's record, as part of a regular review.
They want to know how many children have been "evacuated" to Russia or within Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.
They also want to know what Moscow has done to protect "the right of such children to preserve their identity, including nationality, name and family relations".
Their lengthy list of concerns was sent to Moscow in the first half of 2023.
Return mechanism idea
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and says it wants to protect these children from the fighting.
Only around 400 children have so far been repatriated.
Such placements are arranged at the children's "request and with their consent," Russia said in a written response sent in October and shown to media by the UN on Friday.
It does not specify the total number of children affected, but said they "included children from national residential institutions for orphans and children without parental care (about 2,000 in total)" and children with Ukrainian citizenship.
It also said that in the second quarter of 2023, some 46,886 Ukrainian children acquired Russian citizenship.
Kateryna Rashevska, a legal expert with the Regional Center for Human Rights, a Ukrainian NGO, hopes the UN committee will call for an "international legal mechanism" to identify and return the children.
"The international community is ready to do something but there is a need to do it faster," she told AFP.
At the current rate, "we need another 90 years in order to repatriate only already-identified Ukrainian children".
The ICC has also levelled similar charges to Putin's against Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's presidential commissioner for children's rights.
Russia, which is not a member of the ICC, insists the warrant against Putin is "void".
Broader crackdown context
The UN will also seek answers on what Moscow is doing to remove obstacles to children exercising their right to freedom of association and assembly, and to ensure that children are not punished for taking part in demonstrations, particularly against the war in Ukraine.
Russian lawyer Olga Sadovskaya, who heads the Crew Against Torture human rights organisation, said Russia had seen an increase in violence "in every part of life", which therefore affects children.
She noted a sharp increase in domestic violence and the severity of brutality when people are arrested.
In a report sent to the UN committee, the NGO Human Rights Watch said it was concerned about children's freedom of expression, their right to freedom of information, and discrimination linked to gender identity and sexual orientation.
Rachel Denber, deputy director of HRW's Europe and Central Asia division, told AFP this demonstrated how the "broader crackdown on rights in Russia has an impact on children's rights as well", noting how youngsters had faced "retaliation" for voicing critical opinions on Russia's war in Ukraine.
The UN committee also wants to discuss the illegal or arbitrary detention of children, corporal punishment, and measures taken to preserve the cultural and linguistic identity of indigenous children.
The experts want to know what Moscow is doing to combat certain "harmful practices" in the North Caucasus, such as child marriage, female genital mutilation, abductions for forced marriages and polygamy.
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Pakistan elections: Pakistan's imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday hinted that he remained open to talks with other parties ahead of the February 8 elections, after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder is almost out of all options for a chance of returning to power. Despite this, Imran emphasised that the PTI would prefer to join the opposition rather than form a "weak government", Dawn reported.The United States is taking the attack by Iran-backed operatives on a base hosting US forces in Iraq over the weekend "extremely seriously," the White House said Sunday.
"Multiple ballistic missiles and rockets" were fired by Iranian-backed operatives at Al-Assad Airbase in western Iraq late Saturday, the US military said, leading to one Iraqi and possible American casualties.
"It was a very serious attack, using a capability of ballistic missiles that posed a genuine threat," White House Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer said Sunday.
"We are going to respond... to establish deterrence in these situations, and to hold these groups accountable that continue to attack us," Finer added during his appearance on ABC's This Week.
"You can be assured that we are taking this extremely seriously."
Most of the projectiles fired at the base were intercepted by air defense systems, Finer and the Pentagon said.
Since mid-October, there have been dozens of attacks on the approximately 2,500 US troops in Iraq and the around 900 in Syria, deployed there with other coalition forces to fight jihadists of the Islamic State group.
Most incidents, including Saturday's attack, have been claimed by "Islamic Resistance in Iraq," a loose alliance of Iran-linked armed groups that oppose US support for Israel in the Gaza conflict.
The use of ballistic missiles marks an escalation in the attacks, which had previously been carried out with lower-tech rockets and drones.
Saturday's air base attack comes amid soaring tensions in the Middle East following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.
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Pakistan and Iran on Friday agreed to tone down tensions to the spirit of 'mutual trust and cooperation' after tit-for-tat missile against each other.Iran on Saturday blamed Israel for a strike on Damascus, saying it "reserves the right to respond" after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed four of its members had died.
Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani decried "frequent violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity and an escalation in aggressive and provocative attacks" by Tehran's arch-foe Israel.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves the right to respond... at the appropriate time and place" to the latest strike on the Syrian capital, Kanani said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said 10 people were killed in the Israeli strike on the Mazzeh neighbourhood of Damascus.
The Guards' Sepah news agency said the "evil and criminal Zionist regime (Israel)" killed four of its military advisers, while Iran's Mehr news agency reported one of them was the force's spy chief for Syria.
In recent weeks, Israel has been accused of intensifying strikes on senior Iranian and allied figures in Syria and Lebanon -- backers of the Palestinian group Hamas -- raising fears the Gaza conflict could expand further throughout the region.
Military actions across the region attributed to Israel "reflect the weakness and desperation" of its forces on the battlefield, Kanani charged.
He called the latest strike "a desperate attempt to spread instability and insecurity in the region".
The raid on Mazzeh came four days after the Revolutionary Guard said it attacked "an Israeli intelligence headquarters" in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's northern autonomous province of Kurdistan.
Iraqi authorities said the attack killed four civilians and wounded six others.
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The United States Congress on Thursday passed a short-term spending bill, the third in this fiscal year, to avert a government shutdown on Saturday as funding runs out. The bill was approved by the House of Representatives in a vote of 314 to 108 with 107 Republicans and 207 Democrats in support of the legislation, sending it to US President Joe Biden's desk to be signed.Palestinian groom Mohammed al-Ghandour wanted to give his bride a beautiful wedding but after war began in Gaza they had to flee their homes and the couple finally got married this week in the tent city where they now live.
Ghandour led his wife Shahad by the hand towards the tent decorated with some coloured lights and a mirror with a gold-coloured frame as a few relatives escorted them, clapping in time.
Inside the tent Shahad, wearing a white dress and veil with traditional red embroidery, lifted her hand and Ghandour put a ring on it.
"I wanted a party. I wanted a celebration, a wedding. I wanted to invite my friends, my relatives and my cousins, like anyone would," said Ghandour.
The couple are from Gaza City in the north of the tiny enclave where some of the worst of Israel's heavy bombardment and the fighting between it and Hamas have taken place since the war began on Oct. 7.
The homes of both Ghandour's family and Shahad's family were destroyed in Israeli airstrikes, they said, and they lost cousins and other family members in the bombardment.
"My happiness is maybe at 3% but will get myself ready for my wife. I want to make her happy," said Ghandour.
The war began when Hamas fighters rampaged into Israel, killing more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 240 hostages. Israel's bombardment and assault into Gaza have killed more than 24,760 people according to health authorities there.
Instead of the big party that Ghandour had wanted, he and Shahad had a small group of relatives who like them had managed to leave Gaza City and flee to Rafah, at the far southern end of the strip next to Egypt.
Shahad's mother led a small group of women ululating in celebration of the marriage and somebody had saved batteries for a small portable music player.
For a wedding feast in an enclave that the U.N. warns is heading towards famine, the couple had only a few snacks in plastic package, laid out carefully for them in the tent.
Both families had already spent lots of money on the wedding before the war began. Shahad had spent more than $2,000 on clothes, they said.
"My dream was to give Shahad the best wedding, the most beautiful in the world," said her mother, Umm Yahia Khalifa.
"We prepared her wedding things and she was happy. But it is all gone in the shelling. Every time she remembers she starts to cry," she said.
As the small wedding party began to clap and dance, people around them went about their daily chores among the lines of tents stretched across the sand, seeking food or hanging laundry.
A small girl in a pink and white dress smiled broadly as the clapping began and joined a group of other children dancing as the sun set behind the high border fence topped with barbed wire.
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A man in the US State of Texas fatally shot his estranged wife and three more relatives, including his eight-year-old niece, before claiming his own life at a house in Houston over the weekend, said authorities on Wednesday. The man was identified as the 46-year-old Alrick “Shawn” Barrett, who initiated the shooting after an altercation with his wife.
Thailand explosion: An explosion at a fireworks factory in central Thailand killed at least 23 people on Wednesday, according to provincial officials. The death toll was announced by authorities in Suphan Buri province, where the blast occurred in mid-afternoon. The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said officials were working to secure the site and help affected people.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was briefly stranded in Davos on Wednesday after his plane experienced a "critical failure" related to an oxygen leak and another plane is being flown to Switzerland to pick him up, according to a member of his traveling press pool.
The top U.S. diplomat had traveled to Davos on Monday and was scheduled to fly back to Washington on Wednesday.
A Bloomberg report said the aircraft was a Boeing plane. Reuters could not immediately confirm what aircraft Blinken was using.
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Japan earthquake: Nearly two weeks after a series of earthquakes killed over 200 people in Japan, the island nation was hit by another earthquake of magnitude 5.0 on Tuesday, January 16. According to the local media outlet, NHK, the government has issued an emergency for Ishikawa prefecture. As of writing this article, no tsunami warning has been issued.Danes will no longer be able to adopt children from abroad after the country's only adoption agency said Tuesday it was ceasing operations amid reports of irregularities.
The Danish International Adoption (DIA) agency said in a statement it was "initiating a controlled wind-up of its activities as a facilitator of international adoptions".
The announcement came after Denmark's social affairs ministry suspended adoptions from the six countries with which DIA currently cooperates due to irregularities involving employment regulations.
The six countries are the Czech Republic, India, the Philippines, South Africa, Taiwan and Thailand.
DIA, which halted adoptions from Madagascar last year amid concerns over possible fraud, said Tuesday it had no choice but to shut down.
"International adoption can no longer, under the current conditions in Denmark, be run by an NGO like ours," DIA said.
It said it was currently handling 36 adoption procedures, and provided no details about what would happen to those cases.
International adoptions have in recent years plunged more than ten-fold in Denmark since 2010, when 418 were registered.
Meanwhile in Norway, the Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufdir) in December put an end to all adoptions from the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand, after several cases of illegal adoptions emerged in the media.
And as of January, no new adoption procedures from South Korea are allowed.
Bufdir had recommended a two-year freeze on all international adoptions pending the outcome of an investigation, but the government ruled that out and asked Bufdir to submit an evaluation as soon as possible.
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Taiwan's president-elect Lai Ching-te hailed the island's "solid partnership" with Washington on Monday as he welcomed a US delegation -- which China said it "firmly opposed".
The island lost one of its few formal diplomatic allies on the same day, as Pacific nation Nauru unexpectedly announced it was severing ties and switching allegiance to Beijing.
The switch, just days after Taiwan's presidential election, means only 12 nations now formally recognise Taiwan, which Beijing claims as part of China.
Nauru's announcement overshadowed the visit by the unofficial delegation sent by US President Joe Biden's administration to congratulate Lai.
While Taiwan is not diplomatically recognised by the United States, Washington is a partner and its top weapons provider.
The Nauru government said it would no longer recognise Taiwan "as a separate country" but "rather as an inalienable part of China's territory" -- echoing Beijing's position on the island.
Taiwan cut ties in return to "safeguard our national dignity", and accused Beijing of buying Nauru off.
"China actively reached out to Nauru politicians and used economic aids to induce the country to switch diplomatic recognition," said deputy foreign minister Tien Chung-kwang.
Taiwan's Presidential Office called it a "wrong decision", and accused China of wielding "diplomatic repression (as) a retaliation against democratic values".
But China's foreign ministry said Beijing's resumption of ties with Nauru "reflects the sentiments of the people".
At Taipei's Diplomatic Headquarters -- a building that houses most of the foreign embassies in Taiwan -- Nauru's flag was removed.
US support
Losing Nauru comes as an early blow to Lai just two days after voters defied Beijing's repeated calls not to elect him.
In the run-up to the poll, Chinese officials slammed Lai as a dangerous separatist who would take Taiwan down the "evil path" of independence.
Beijing, which claims the self-ruled island as its territory and has never renounced force to bring it under its control, insisted that the vote did not change the fact the island was part of China.
Lai said Monday freedom and democracy "are the most valuable assets for the Taiwanese people" during his meeting with the US delegates at his party's headquarters.
"They are also the core values Taiwan and the United States share and the foundation for the long-term stability in Taiwan-US partnership," he said, adding that strong US support "is of great significance to Taiwan".
Before meeting Lai, the delegation met with Tsai, who said their visit highlighted the "close and staunch" US-Taiwan partnership, as well as the losing presidential candidates.
China said it was "firmly opposed" to all official exchanges between the United States and Taiwan.
Communist-ruled China vehemently objects to anything that even suggests official recognition of Taiwan.
Top partner
The delegation consists of a former US national security adviser and a former deputy secretary of state, and was led by the chair of the American Institute of Taiwan -- the de facto US embassy for the island.
Lai, of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), had vowed to defend the island from China's "intimidation", and Taipei's foreign ministry told Beijing to accept the result.
He reiterated to the delegates that under his future administration, "Taiwan will continue to defend peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait under the foundation built by President Tsai Ing-wen".
The last time a US delegation visited immediately after an election was in 2016, after Tsai's win, to meet her incoming team and the losing candidates.
Since then, China cut off all high-level communications, as Tsai and her party have defended Taiwan's sovereignty by saying the island is "already independent".
Beijing maintains a military presence around Taiwan, sending in warplanes and naval vessels near-daily -- which conflict experts call "grey zone" actions that stop short of an outright act of war.
But the sabre-rattling has upped worries of possible accidents escalating into full-blown conflict.
Big legislature loss
Under Tsai's two-term administration, Taiwan has greatly bolstered its defence resources -- buying fighter jets and building its own submarine -- as a form of deterrence against increasingly bellicose threats from China.
Her deputy Lai has vowed to follow the same policy path.
But he has been more outspoken in the past on the issue of independence, though he has moderated his comments to fit the party line in the lead-up to the election.
His win in Saturday's vote delivered an unprecedented third term for the DPP, but they no longer have their majority in the legislature, losing 12 seats, while the main opposition Kuomintang party gained 14 seats.
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A massive fire erupted after three oil tankers and a tractor-trailer caught fire at North Atlantic Fuels in Epping on Saturday evening, officials said. A thick layer of smoke rose from the spot where the crew attempted to take control of the blaze.Pakistan's jailed former prime minister Imran Khan has said that all cases pending against him will end if he obeys the powers that be, indicating that a message is being given to him.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder said he also conveyed the message of how he dared to expose the conspiracy and this is what the cipher case is, adding that the caretaker government was not neutral, while the Election Commission was practically ineffective.
Talking to journalists after the hearing of the case at the Adiala Jail on Friday, Mr Khan said the Toshakhana cases of Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari had been ended. At the same time, Maryam Nawaz had got a BMW from Toshakhana and had not declared it but her case had also been disposed of.
Mr Khan, 71, said Maryam also had four flats according to the Panama case, but the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had withdrawn from that case too, The News International newspaper reported on Saturday.
The PTI founder said he had been charged with over 200 criminal cases, and such a large number of cases had not been registered against any other person in the history of Pakistan. He said that when he gets bail in one case, he is booked in another one.
The former cricketer-turned-politician said there is no rule of law in the country and that is why Pakistan is not making progress.
The incarcerated PTI leader on Saturday said he was unaware of the distribution of the party tickets among the candidates.
Internal rifts emerged within the ranks of beleaguered PTI after the former ruling party reportedly set aside merit and awarded tickets to ex-lawmakers and influential personalities.
PTI workers had earlier on Saturday, inside the Adiala jail premises, registered their complaints with the party's founder against the "unfair" distribution of tickets.
Responding to a question about the "unfair" distribution of party tickets, Mr Khan told his supporters: "I don't know who got the ticket and didn't." "I was not allowed to consult about the distribution of party tickets." The PTI founder asked his supporters how he could verbally decide about 850 tickets.
Mr Khan, who has been in jail since August last year, was arrested on Tuesday by Rawalpindi police in at least a dozen cases on the May 9 violence, including the attack on the army headquarters.
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Israel said Friday it was not seeking to destroy the Palestinian people, as it hit back at what it called a "profoundly distorted" and "malevolent" genocide case against it at the UN's top court.
South Africa has launched an emergency case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) arguing that Israel stands in breach of the UN Genocide Convention, signed in 1948 in the wake of the Holocaust.
Pretoria wants judges to force Israel to "immediately" stop the Gaza campaign launched after the October 7 Hamas attacks that killed 1,140 people, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
At least 23,469 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel's offensive, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.
Tal Becker, a top lawyer representing Israel, said South Africa had "regrettably put before the court a profoundly distorted factual and legal picture."
Using videos and pictures, Becker painted a graphic image of the horrors of the October 7 attacks for the robed judges in the Peace Palace in The Hague, where the ICJ sits.
Hamas "tortured children in front of parents, parents in front of children burned people... systematically raped and mutilated," he said.
He stressed that Israel's response was in self-defense and not aimed at the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip.
"Israel is in a war of defence against Hamas, not against the Palestinian people," said Becker.
"In these circumstances, there can hardly be a charge more false and more malevolent than the allegation against Israel of genocide."
Both Israel and its ally the United States have dismissed the case as groundless and vowed a robust defence.
"The State of Israel is accused of genocide at a time when it is fighting genocide," said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the run-up to the hearings.
"A terrorist organisation carried out the worst crime against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, and now someone comes to defend it in the name of the Holocaust? What brazen gall. The world is upside down," he added.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the South African case was "unfounded".
The ICJ will likely rule within a matter of weeks on South Africa's request. Its rulings are final and legally binding but it has little power to enforce them.
A month after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the ICJ ordered a halt to the military operation -- to no avail.
'Crossed the line'
For this emergency proceeding, the court will not rule on the fundamentals of the case -- whether Israel is actually committing genocide -- but on whether the rights of Gazans to exist are at risk.
South Africa can bring an ICJ case against Israel as both countries have signed the Genocide Convention.
Pretoria's Justice Minister Ronald Lamola told the court on Thursday that Israel had "crossed the line" and was in breach of the convention.
He said that even the brutality of the Hamas attack could not justify this.
"Genocides are never declared in advance," said Adila Hassim, a top lawyer for South Africa.
"But this court has the benefit of the past 13 weeks of evidence that shows incontrovertibly a pattern of conduct and related intention that justifies a plausible claim of genocidal acts."
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has long been a firm supporter of the Palestinian cause, often linking it to its own struggle against the white-minority apartheid government, which had cooperative relations with Israel.
Anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela famously said South Africa's freedom would be "incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians".
Addressing the ICJ on Thursday, the lawyer for South Africa Blinne Ni Ghralaigh said international justice itself was on the line.
"Some might say that the very reputation of international law, its ability and will to bind and protect all peoples equally, hangs in the balance," she told the court.
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Pakistan earthquake: A powerful earthquake of magnitude 6.0 magnitude jolted parts of the country on Thursday. According to the Pakistan news channel, DawnNewsTV, tremors were felt in Islamabad, Lahore and its surrounding areas, and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), the 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck at 2:20 pm in the Hindu Kush region, Afghanistan at a depth of 213km. It had a longitude of 70.63 East and a latitude of 36.16 North.A Polish priest was arrested and charged with sex and drug crimes as well as failure to assist a person at medical risk after media reports that a man collapsed at a sex party at his home, state news agency PAP said on Thursday.
The diocese in southwest Poland has been engulfed in scandal since reports emerged last September of an orgy at the home of a priest in the town of Dabrowa Gornicza.
The priest, referred to as Tomasz Z due to Polish privacy laws, was placed in pre-trial detention after his arrest on Monday. He could face up to 10 years in prison.
"Three of [the charges] concern crimes described in the law on counteracting drug addiction and are related to providing drugs, one of these is additionally related to... crimes against sexual freedom and decency," a spokesman for the local prosecution told PAP.
The fourth charge concerns the failure to assist someone facing a threat to their life or health.
According to Polish media reports, a man collapsed at the party after taking too many erectile dysfunction pills.
One of the partygoers called an ambulance, but when paramedics arrived they were refused entry and were only able to attend to the man after police were called, according to the reports.
The media reports said the man was a male prostitute but the prosecutor's office denied that. It said three men had taken part in the event - the man who collapsed, Tomasz Z and a man who called for help.
The bishop of the diocese stepped down last year, the Vatican said at the time, without giving a reason for his resignation. Tomasz Z was discharged from the clergy last year after the media reported on the alleged sex party.
Parallel to the work of the prosecutor's office, the church will also conduct its own trial in the case of Thomasz Z, the results of which will be forwarded to the Vatican, the press office of the Sosnowiec diocese told Reuters.
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Pakistan's Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the death penalty for the late former military dictator Pervez Musharraf which was awarded to him by a special court in 2019 over a high treason case. The apex court rejected a verdict by the Lahore High Court (LHC) that declared all actions against Musharraf unconstitutional, Dawn reported.A total of 104 Myanmarese soldiers, who fled to Mizoram during armed clashes with an ethnic insurgent group in the neighbouring country, have been sent back, an Assam Rifles official said on Wednesday.
Over 350 such soldiers have now been sent back to Myanmar by Indian defence authorities between November last year and January, she said.
The latest batch of 104 soldiers were airlifted from Aizawl to Sittwe in Myanmar on Tuesday, the official told PTI.
The Myanmarese soldiers, also known as 'Tatmadaw,' crossed the Indian border and entered Lungpuk in south Mizoram's Siaha district on January 6, she said.
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Alphabet's Google is set to go before a federal jury in Boston on Tuesday in a trial over accusations that processors it uses to power artificial intelligence technology in key products infringe a computer scientist's patents.
Singular Computing, founded by Massachusetts-based computer scientist Joseph Bates, claims Google copied his technology and used it to support AI features in Google Search, Gmail, Google Translate, and other Google services.
A Google court filing said that Singular has requested up to $7 billion in monetary damages, which would be more than double the largest-ever patent infringement award in US history.
Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda called Singular's patents "dubious" and said that Google developed its processors "independently over many years."
"We look forward to setting the record straight in court," Castaneda said.
An attorney for Singular declined to comment on the case.
The trial is expected to last two to three weeks.
Singular's 2019 complaint said Bates shared his computer-processing innovations with Google between 2010 and 2014. Singular said Google's Tensor Processing Units, which enhance the tech giant's AI capabilities, copy Bates' technology and infringe two patents.
The lawsuit said that Google's circuits use an improved architecture Bates discovered that allows for greater processing power and has "revolutionized the way AI training and inference are accomplished."
Google introduced its processing units in 2016 to power AI used for speech recognition, content generation, ad recommendation, and other functions. Singular said that versions 2 and 3 of the units, introduced in 2017 and 2018, violate its patent rights.
Google told the court in December that its processors work in different ways than Singular's patented technology and that the patents are invalid.
"Google engineers had mixed feelings about the technology and the company ultimately rejected it, explicitly telling Dr. Bates that his idea was not right for the type of applications Google was developing," Google said in a court filing.
A US appeals court in Washington also will hear arguments on Tuesday about whether to invalidate Singular's patents in a separate case that Google appealed from the US Patent and Trademark Office.
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Four people were killed in a "massive" wave of Russian strikes across Ukraine Monday, officials said, as authorities in the Russian border city of Belgorod evacuated hundreds due to Ukrainian shelling.
As the war approaches its second anniversary, both Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of causing dozens of civilian casualties in a sharp escalation of attacks.
"Overnight on 8 January 2024, the enemy launched a massive attack on Ukraine," Ukraine's air force said on social media.
Russia launched 51 missiles in all, 18 of which were shot down, it added.
Russian missiles hit a shopping centre and high-rise buildings in President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown of Kryvyi Rih, killing one person, deputy head of the presidency Oleksiy Kuleba said.
"In Kryvyi Rih, there are many breakages in power grids, there are power outages, and electric transport does not work," he said.
A separate missile attack in the western region of Khmelnytsky killed two people, officials said, while an elderly woman in the Kharkiv region died after being pulled from the rubble of her home.
Russia said it had only struck "military" targets in its latest defence ministry briefing.
Unprecedented evacuations
The strikes came as Russia moved some 300 people from the border city of Belgorod due to Ukrainian shelling, the biggest evacuation from a major Russian city since the conflict began.
Kyiv's forces have launched waves of deadly strikes on Belgorod, which lies less than 20 miles (32 kilometres) from the Ukrainian border.
Some 300 residents who decided to leave are now being housed in temporary accommodation in the towns of Stary Oskol, Gubkin and the Korochansky district, further from the border, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
"Over the past 24 hours we received 1,300 requests to send Belgorod children to school camps away from the city in other regions," he added.
The Kremlin has tried to maintain a semblance of normalcy on the home front, but recent strikes on Belgorod have brought the Ukraine conflict closer to home for many Russians.
On December 30, Ukrainian shelling of the city killed 25 people, prompting schools to shut for an extended period.
Moscow vowed to intensify strikes on Ukraine in response to the attack, the deadliest in Russia since the start of the war in February 2022.
'They're trying to destroy us'
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa paid a surprise visit to Kyiv Sunday, where she said Tokyo was "determined" to keep supporting Ukraine.
Kamikawa, the first high-level foreign official to visit Kyiv this year, announced new deliveries of defence equipment and discussed Tokyo's plans to host a February conference to promote Ukraine's economic reconstruction.
"Japan is determined to support Ukraine so that peace can return to Ukraine," Kamikawa told a press conference with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba held in a bomb shelter as an air raid siren rang out.
"I once again strongly condemn Russia's missile and drone attacks, particularly on New Year's Day," said Kamikawa.
She said Tokyo would "allocate" $37 million (34 million euro) to provide Ukraine with a drone detection system. It will also supply five generators to help Ukraine "survive" another winter.
Kuleba said Kyiv was thankful for Japan's decision last year to provide Ukraine with F-16s jets, but said the country also needed air defence systems.
"Every day, Ukrainian cities are destroyed by Russian missiles and drones. They cannot capture us, so they are trying to destroy us," he said.
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Israel-Hamas war: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met on Sunday with Jordan's king and foreign minister and visited a World Food Programme warehouse in Amman as he pressed ahead with an urgent Middle East diplomatic mission to prevent Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza from spreading.
Iranian authorities on Friday said that security forces arrested at least 11 suspects for their alleged involvement in twin blasts during a ceremony commemorating the prominent slain commander Qassem Soleimani on Wednesday that killed nearly 100 people. The Islamic State had previously taken responsibility for the attack while the country has vowed revenge.The UK's Opposition Labour Party has got into campaigning mode for an expected general election later this year, with advertisements claiming British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is giving the British public a “raw deal” and also raising questions over his wife Akshata Murty's recently liquidated investment venture, Labour's national campaign coordinator and shadow minister, Pat MacFadden, posted a letter on social media dated January 4 that he wrote to UK Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden questioning the circumstances surrounding Ms Murty's Catamaran Ventures being wound up.
The 43-year-old Indian businesswoman and daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy had incorporated the venture in 2013 with her husband as one of the directors before he resigned in 2015. It had emerged in a financial statement last year that she had decided to wind down her firm as a going concern.
“In the past few months, numerous reports about the business dealings of Catamaran Ventures have circulated,” reads MacFadden's letter on X. “It was revealed that the firm run by the Prime Minister's wife received GBP 2m through government Covid support schemes devised by Rishi Sunak himself. It then emerged businesses in which Ms Murty had invested went bust, costing taxpayers GBP 1m… Colleagues and I have written numerous correspondence to government ministers and bodies. Alongside the outstanding questions, the decision by Ms Murty to liquidate her company raises several others that I believe need to be clarified in the public interest,” it notes.
The letter goes on to question the impact the closure of Catamaran Ventures could have on government-backed education start-up Study Halls that it had shares in and any other companies it retained a stake in. It also questions the arrangements in place for the payment of tax owed to the HMRC, the UK tax department, and whether Catamaran Ventures would be “fulfilling all its liabilities to the British taxpayer?” A spokesperson for Murty confirmed to the British media that the Catamaran Ventures UK business was wound up by Murty on December 21, 2023. “As a result, a significant donation has been made to ShareGift, an independent UK-registered charity with experience accepting donations in the form of shares. Ms Murty has shortlisted several charities focused on veterans' affairs and education for the ShareGift team to consider at the time of disbursement,” the spokesperson said.
The personal finances of Mr Sunak and his wife have previously also been under scrutiny when it was revealed that Murty had legal non-domicile tax status, which meant she did not have to pay UK tax on her Indian income. However, after an Opposition furore over this issue, she had relinquished her non-dom tax status and said she would pay all her tax in the UK to prevent the issue becoming a distraction for her husband's political career.
“My decision to pay UK tax on all my worldwide income will not change the fact that India remains the country of my birth, citizenship, parents' home and place of domicile. But I love the UK too,” Ms Murty had said in a statement at the time in April 2022.
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As many as 21 Indian fishermen were repatriated from Sri Lanka to Chennai on Friday, the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka informed through a statement.
They were detained by the Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly being involved in illegal poaching in the Lankan waters.
21 #Indian fishermen have been repatriated from #SriLanka to #Chennai a short while ago. pic.twitter.com/4YNeZAFgJy
— India in Sri Lanka (@IndiainSL) January 5, 2024
At least 33 Indian trawlers and 220 Indian fishermen were apprehended by the Sri Lankan Navy in 2023, the Sri Lankan Navy said in a statement back in December, last year.
Six Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu were arrested by the Lankan Navy in December.
In a separate incident in the same month, 25 fishermen -- 12 from Tamil Nadu and 13 from Puducherry -- were also detained by the Sri Lankan navy.
The arrests of Indian fishermen by the Lankan navy in the recent past have been a matter of concern not just for the Centre but also the Tamil Nadu government.
In October, last year, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin wrote to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, expressing concern over the repeated arrests of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy, while reiterating his demand that the Centre do the needful in safeguarding the traditional fishing rights of the state's anglers in the Palk Bay region.
Tamil Nadu BJP president Annamalai also wrote to EAM Jaishankar over the issue.
Notably, the issue was also discussed during the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Sri Lankan counterpart Ranil Wickremesinghe during the latter's visit to India in July this year.
"We also discussed the issues related to the livelihood of fishermen. We agree that we should proceed with a humane approach in this matter," the official statement by PM Modi after the meeting read.
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Four children were charred to death after a fire swept through their house in Lahore, ARY News reported on Friday, citing rescue personnel.
According to sources, the fire broke out in a houseroom located in the Baba Azam area of Lahore. As a result, four minor children named Noor Fatima, Eman Fatima, Ismail and Ibrahim lost their lives.
The rescue team and police upon receiving the information, reached the spot and shifted the bodies to the hospital.
The rescue sources said the fire broke out from a gas stove, as per ARY News.
In a similar incident recently, three people were killed after a fire broke out at the Arshi Shopping Centre located near Ayesha Manzil in Karachi's Federal B Area, according to police and rescue services.
The blaze reportedly broke out at the Arshi Shopping Centre in Karachi and damaged vehicles parked near the building, while there was also a traffic jam in the area.
Footage aired on television showed black smoke billowing into the sky as flames engulfed the structure. Firefighters could also be seen attempting to douse the flames.
Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab took to X to post, "Third dead body" had been found, adding, "Rescue operation still continues. I have been informed of 2 casualties so far, however will give further confirmation. I am present myself at site."
"Fire brigade team is present on the ground to deal with the fire situation at Ayesha Manzil. Snorkel is also present on site to evacuate people from the roof if required. Will keep everyone posted," he added.
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The year 2024 will continue to be turbulent for the world but India is well-positioned politically and economically to navigate the challenges, and maintain its rising global role and its path of development, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said.Britain will likely go to the polls in the last six months of this year, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak indicated Thursday, as speculation mounts about the date of the vote.
Rishi Sunak, whose Conservative party has been in power since 2010, has until the end of January 2025 to call a much-anticipated general election.
He has already indicated he will not leave it until the last minute to go to the country and try to secure his own mandate after becoming Tory leader in an internal party vote in October 2022.
"My working assumption is we'll have a general election in the second half of this year," he said on a visit to Mansfield, central England.
The Tories, who have had five leaders and prime ministers in 14 years, are widely expected to lose the election, handing power to Keir Starmer's main opposition Labour party.
The Conservatives' years in power have been bookended by economic troubles, first the fall-out from the 2008 global financial crash, and latterly a cost-of-living crisis fuelled by high inflation and energy prices.
Possible dates suggested for the vote include May 2, coinciding with local elections, and coming soon after the March 6 government budget, when the Tories are tipped to announce tax cuts to woo voters.
Asked if he could rule out a May election, former finance minister Sunak, who has pledged to halve inflation from highs nudging 11 percent again repeated that he was looking at a vote later in 2024.
"I want to keep going, managing the economy well and cutting people's taxes. But I also want to keep tackling illegal migration," he said, referring to another key pledge.
"So, I've got lots to get on with and I'm determined to keep delivering for the British people."
The last general election, won by then-Tory leader Boris Johnson on a pledge to "get Brexit done", was held in December 2019.
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After landing, smoke filled the cabin and flames licked the windows, but the Japan Airlines crew got all 367 passengers safely off the aircraft in an orderly fashion -- and just in time.
Babies and children screamed and panic-stricken passengers begged to be let off, footage from the scene on Tuesday at Tokyo's Haneda Airport showed.
"Honestly, I thought we wouldn't survive. So I texted my family and friends to say that my plane is burning, right now," a woman told broadcaster NHK.
After arriving from Hokkaido in the north, the Japan Airlines Airbus collided with a coast guard plane and caught fire as it sped down the runway.
It careened to a halt after the front landing gear failed, but all 379 passengers and crew managed to escape down two emergency slides before the plane was engulfed in flames.
The smaller coast guard vessel was heading to deliver aid to earthquake-hit central Japan. Five of the six personnel died.
Those on board JAL's Airbus liner feared that could have been their fate.
"It felt like we abruptly hit something. Then the fire started, like, 'bang!'" a male passenger told broadcaster TBS.
"The smell of smoke was in the air, and the doors were not opening. So I think everyone panicked," a woman told reporters at the airport.
Eight children were on board the passenger plane. In one video clip, a young voice can be heard shouting: "Please let us out. Please. Please open it. Just open it. Oh, god."
'Evacuating promptly and efficiently'
The plane landed at 5:46 pm (0846 GMT) and everyone was off just under 20 minutes later, Japan Airlines told a briefing on Tuesday night.
Aviation experts said it was a carefully rehearsed and executed evacuation that stopped the plane from turning into a death trap.
"Passengers seemed to have followed instructions in a textbook manner," Terence Fan, an airline industry expert from Singapore Management University told AFP, with others praising those on board for leaving their cabin bags behind.
"This is exactly what evacuation policies are designed for -- the airframe itself is not meant to survive the blaze, ultimately."
David Kaminski-Morrow, air transport editor at aviation news website FlightGlobal said: "I wouldn't personally call the successful evacuation of the JAL flight a 'lucky escape', although the passengers might believe so."
Instead, he added, an efficient evacuation showed "what can be achieved by evacuating promptly and efficiently".
Passenger William Manzione told Sky News that "everything was really quick".
"When I saw the inflatable slide, I understood this was bad. I took my son ... Then I turned around and saw the aeroplane with the nose completely smashed and the flames all over the back," he said.
After 10 minutes on the tarmac, the flames had spread and a loud noise, like at take-off, came from one of the engines.
"That was the biggest moment of fear for me and the other passengers, because the feeling was like, 'this is about to explode'," he said.
"The crew in that moment start shouting to run altogether away from the airplane, (but) eventually nothing happens, so it's good."
Other emotional footage showed a mother waiting for her teenage son who was on the plane, rushing to hug him when he emerged.
And a young boy expressed his relief and gratitude to the cameras: "To people at JAL and to God, I want to say thank you so much."
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Poland said it had dispatched four F-16 fighter jets to its eastern border on Tuesday to protect its airspace after a barrage of Russian missile attacks on neighbouring Ukraine.
"In order to ensure the safety of Polish airspace, two pairs of F-16 fighters and an allied air tanker were put into action," the Polish army said in a statement.
On Tuesday morning, Russia hit Ukraine's capital Kyiv and the northeastern city of Kharkiv with a barrage of missiles.
Poland -- a NATO and EU member -- is a staunch ally of Ukraine as the Russian invasion nears its second anniversary.
During the last wave of deadly attacks on Ukraine on Friday, Poland said a Russian missile had passed through its airspace.
According to the Polish army, data from the radar systems indicated that the missile was in Polish airspace for three minutes.
In November 2022, a Ukrainian air defence missile fell in the Polish village of Przewodow near the border, killing two civilians.
The explosion occurred at a grain storage site near a school about six kilometres (four miles) from the border during another intensive Russian bombardment of Ukraine.
There was initial doubt about whether the missile was Russian, raising concern that NATO could become directly involved in the war as member state Poland is covered by the alliance's collective defence agreement.
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In a surprise announcement, Denmark's Queen Margrethe II, in her New Year's speech, said that she plans to leave the throne to make way for her son, Crown Prince Frederik. The Queen announced during her New Year's speech that she would abdicate on January 14th, which is the 52nd anniversary of her own accession to the throne at age 31 following the death of her father, King Frederik IX.In Rafah zoo, dozens of destitute Gazans are camping between the cages where starving monkeys, parrots and lions cry out for food 12 weeks into Israel's offensive.
Nearly all Gaza's 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes under a bombardment that has reduced much of the territory to rubble. Many now cram the southern city of Rafah, their shelters packing street corners and empty lots.
In the private zoo, run by the Gomaa family, a line of plastic tents stood near the animal pens and washing hung from lines between palm trees. Nearby a worker tried to feed a weak monkey tomato slices by hand.
A Palestinian man feeds tomatoes to a monkey at a zoo in Rafa.
Many of those sheltering at the zoo are members of the extended Gomaa family who were living in different parts of the enclave before the conflict smashed their homes.
"There are many families who have been completely wiped out. Now all our family is staying in this zoo," said Adel Gomaa, who fled Gaza City. "Living among the animals is more merciful than what we get from the war planes in the sky."
Palestinians feed a monkey at a zoo, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Four monkeys have already died and a fifth is now so weak it cannot even feed itself when food is available, zoo owner Ahmed Gomaa said.
He also fears for his two lion cubs. "We feed them dry bread soaked in water just to keep them alive. The situation is tragic really."
The cubs' mother has lost half her weight since the conflict started, going from daily meals of chicken to weekly servings of bread, he added.
Lions sit in their enclosure at a zoo in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
A U.N.-backed report last week warned that Gaza was at risk of famine with the entire population facing crisis levels of hunger. Israel stopped all food, medicine, power and fuel imports into Gaza at the start of the war.
Though it now permits aid to enter the enclave, security checks, delivery bottlenecks and the difficulty of moving through the rubble of a warzone have hindered supplies. Many Palestinians there say they do not eat every day.
At the zoo, the lioness and her cubs lay listlessly in their cage while children played nearby.
Animals were dying and falling ill every day, said Sofian Abdeen, a vet who has worked at the zoo. "Cases of starvation, weakness, anaemia. These problems are widespread. There is no food."
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)