MADRID: Over 4,000 migrants died or disappeared trying to reach Spain by sea in 2021, twice as many as in the previous year, a migrant rights group said on Monday. Migrant arrivals in Spain’s Canary Islands in the Atlantic have increased since late 2019 after increased patrols along Europe’s southern coast dramatically reduced crossings to the continent via the Mediterranean. This route is fraught with dangers due to strong currents and the greater distances involved. A total of 4,404 migrants perished or vanished in attempts to reach Spain last year, up from 2,170 in 2020, according to Spanish non-governmental organisation…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
SEOUL: A man observed crossing the heavily fortified border from South Korea into North Korea last week is believed to be a North Korean who previously defected to the South in 2020 in the same area, Seoul’s defence ministry said on Monday. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) had said it carried out a search operation after detecting the person on Saturday on the eastern side of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas. “The authorities presume the person is a North Korean defector and are in the process of verifying related facts,” the Ministry of National Defence…
DUBAI: Yemen’s Houthi rebels seized a ship in the Red Sea, armed drones targeted Baghdad’s international airport, and hackers hit a major Israeli newspaper on Monday in a string of assaults that showed the reach of Iran-allied militias on the anniversary of America’s killing of a top Iranian general. All three coincided with a massive memorial in Tehran for Qassem Soleimani, the general killed by a US drone strike in 2020 in Iraq. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi demanded former US president Donald Trump be prosecuted and killed. “If not, I’m telling all American leaders, don’t doubt that the hand of…
WASHINGTON: After a bruising holiday week of flight cancellations and record surges in Covid-19 cases, a powerful winter storm on Monday further snarled US transport and shuttered the federal government and schools. Many Americans have been scrambling to return home after the Christmas and New Year period, with several thousand flights cancelled since December 24 due to bad weather and airline staffing woes blamed in part on rising coronavirus infections among crews. Nearly 3,500 flights on Monday, the first workday of 2022, were already cancelled as of 9:45am, including 2,000 US flights or international ones starting or finishing in the…
PARIS: Five global nuclear powers pledged on Monday to prevent atomic weapons spreading and to avoid nuclear conflict, in a rare joint statement setting aside rising West-East tensions to reaffirm a goal of a nuke-free world. “We believe strongly that the further spread of such weapons must be prevented,” said permanent UN Security Council members China, France, Russia, the UK and United States, adding: “A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” The statement was issued after the latest review of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) — which first came into force in…
A United States jury on Monday found Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes guilty of defrauding investors in the blood testing startup, convicting her on four of 11 counts. Holmes was convicted of investor fraud and conspiracy, but acquitted on three counts of defrauding patients who paid for tests from Theranos, and a related conspiracy charge. The jury could not reach a decision on three counts related to other, individual investors. Holmes, wearing a gray suit, appeared poised after the verdict was read. A sentencing date was not immediately set. Prosecutors said Holmes, 37, swindled private investors between 2010 and 2015 by…
Turkey’s lira weakened 1.4 per cent on Tuesday as investors weighed the consequences of a surge in the country’s inflation rate to its highest in 19 years following the implementation of an unorthodox rate-cutting policy. The lira stood at 13.15 to the dollar, as of 0500 GMT, weakening from a close of 12.96 on Monday. The lira hit a record low 18.4 two weeks ago before rebounding following the government’s steps to support the unit. Last year, the lira weakened 44pc, making it by far the worst performer in emerging markets and marking its worst year since President Tayyip Erdogan came…
Police in India have arrested a man alleged to be behind the offering for sale of prominent Muslim women through a fake online auction, according to government officials, in a case that has sparked anger and outrage across the country. Satej Patil, the technology minister for the Maharashtra state, said late Monday that the cyber unit of the Mumbai Police has detained a 21-year-old engineering student from the southern city of Bengaluru in the neighboring Karnataka state and registered a case against him. Police did not reveal the identity of the suspect, and it wasn’t clear whether the man had…
ISLAMABAD: The first batch of Hindu pilgrims currently visiting the country met National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser on Monday and lauded the maintenance and upkeep of religious sites belonging to Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan. Talking to a delegation of Hindu yatris (pilgrims) belonging to different countries at the Parliament House, Mr Qaiser said that religious minorities are a critical part of the Pakistani community and their contribution to the progress and prosperity of the country is praiseworthy. Parliament and the government were fully cognisant of their responsibilities and had safeguarded the rights and liberties enjoyed by all religious minorities…
LAHORE: During the first session of her cross-examination, singer Meesha Shafi on Monday said she decided to speak up about the alleged incidents of sexual harassment after the matter could not be resolved privately. “… it became clear to me that this matter was not being resolved privately,” she said, responding to the queries of the counsel for actor-cum-singer Ali Zafar, who is pursuing a defamation suit against the female singer. Asked about the possibility of private resolution, she said the resolution would have looked like an acknowledgement or apology from Zafar about his past behaviour so that she could…
