Rescue team work near the church, after the roof collapsed, in Ciudad Madero, in Tamaulipas state, Mexico, October 1, 2023. El Citadino via REUTERS/ File Photo
The death toll from the collapse of a church roof during a Sunday Mass in northern Mexico has risen to 11, with around 60 others injured, officials said on Monday, as local authorities began wrapping up search and rescue efforts.
Five women, two men and three children were among those killed at the church in the Gulf Coast city of Ciudad Madero in Tamaulipas state, state Governor Americo Villarreal said. The death toll rose to 11 later on Monday after another young women died, a local media report said, citing the state health minister.
Footage posted on social media showed the moment the church roof caved in, puffs of gray smoke billowing into the air, followed by the toppling of yellow brick outer walls.
Mexican media reported that several children were being baptized during the Mass.
All of the people attending the service are now believed to be accounted for, Villarreal said, as military personnel and emergency services used rescue dogs and heavy machinery to sift through the ruins.
Pope Francis looks on as he meets with French President Emmanuel Macron (not pictured) at the Palais du Pharo, on the occasion of the Mediterranean Meetings (MED 2023), in Marseille, France September 23, 2023. Andreas Solaro/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
Pope Francis has appeared to leave open the possibility of priests blessing same-sex couples, if they are limited, decided on a case-by-case basis and not confused with wedding ceremonies of heterosexuals.
Francis made his opinion known in one answer to five questions from five conservative cardinals from Asia, Europe, Africa, the United States and Latin America.
The cardinals sent the pope a set of formal questions, known as “dubia” (“doubts” in Latin), about issues relating to a global gathering that starts at the Vatican on Wednesday.
One of the questions specifically regarded the practice, which has become relatively common in places like Germany, of priests blessing same sex couples who are in a committed relationship.
The written exchange took place in July and the Vatican published the pope’s responses on Monday after the five cardinals unilaterally disclosed their initiative, saying they were not satisfied with Francis’ answers.
With the approval by WHO, additional regulatory approvals are expected to follow shortly and R21/Matrix-M vaccine doses could be ready to begin wider roll-out as early as next year
Photo used for representation purpose only. File | Photo Credit: Reuters
The R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India, leveraging Novavax’s adjuvant technology, has been recommended for use by the World Health Organisation (WHO) after meeting required safety, quality and effectiveness standards, on Monday.
Following a detailed scientific review by the WHO’s independent advisory body, the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) and the Malaria Policy Advisory Group (MPAG), the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine has been recommended for use, noted a release issued by the Serum Institute of India. With the approval and recommendations by the WHO, additional regulatory approvals are expected to follow shortly and R21/Matrix-M vaccine doses could be ready to begin wider roll-out as early as next year.
The Serum Institute has already established production capacity for 100 million doses per annum, which will be doubled over the next two years. This scale of production is critical because vaccinating those at high risk of malaria will be important in stemming the spread of disease, as well as protecting the vaccinated.
The Matrix-M component is a proprietary saponin-based adjuvant from Novavax, which is licensed to the Serum Institute for use in endemic countries, while Novavax retains commercial rights in non-endemic countries.
The vaccine was developed by the Jenner Institute at Oxford University and the Serum Institute of India with support from the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), the Wellcome Trust, and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
To date the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine has been licensed for use in Ghana, Nigeria and Burkina Faso.
According to information released by the Serum Institute, the WHO recommendation was based on pre-clinical and clinical trial data which showed good safety and high efficacy in four countries, at sites with both seasonal and perennial malaria transmission, making it the world’s second-ever WHO recommended vaccine for preventing malaria in children.
The plane crashed on Sunday evening shortly after taking off from Canyonlands Airfield about 24 kilometres north of the desert recreation town of Moab, according to a Grand County Sheriff’s Department statement posted on Facebook.
Doug Larsen, his wife and two children
A state senator from North Dakota, his wife and their two young children died when the small plane they were travelling in crashed soon after a refuelling stop in Utah, a Senate leader said on Monday. Doug Larsen’s death was confirmed on Monday in an email that Republican Senate Majority Leader David Hogue sent to his fellow senators and was obtained by The Associated Press.
The plane crashed on Sunday evening shortly after taking off from Canyonlands Airfield about 24 kilometres north of the desert recreation town of Moab, according to a Grand County Sheriff’s Department statement posted on Facebook. The sheriff’s office said the senator was the pilot and all four people on board the plane were killed.
“Senator Doug Larsen, his wife Amy, and their two young children died in a plane crash last evening in Utah,” Hogue wrote in his email. “They were visiting family in Scottsdale and returning home. They stopped to refuel in Utah.”
“I’m not sure where the bereavement starts with such a tragedy, but I think it starts with prayers for the grandparents, surviving stepchild of Senator Larsen, and extended family of Doug and Amy,” Hogue wrote. “Hold your family close today.”
A bouquet of roses was draped over Larsen’s desk in the Senate chamber, just above the nameplate that reads: “D. Larsen – District 34.”
Probe underway
The crash of the single-engine Piper plane was being investigated, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a post on X, the social media website formerly called Twitter.
An NTSB spokesman said a board investigator was expected to arrive at the scene Monday “to begin to document the scene, examine the aircraft, request any air traffic communications, radar data, weather reports and try to contact any witnesses. Also, the investigator will request maintenance records of the aircraft, and medical records and flight history of the pilot.”
Officials didn’t release the plane’s origin or final destination. After landing at the airport, the travelers took a car into Moab before taking off in the refueled plane, NTSB spokesman Fabian Salazar said at a news conference at the airport.
The agency will have a preliminary report on the crash within a couple weeks, followed by a final report in a year to year and a half, Salazar said.
Who was Doug Larsen?
Larsen was a Republican first elected to the North Dakota Senate in 2020. His district comprises Mandan, the city neighbouring Bismarck to the west across the Missouri River. Larsen chaired a Senate panel that handled industry and business legislation. He and his wife, Amy, were business owners.
Larsen served 29 years in the North Dakota Army National Guard. He mobilized twice, to Iraq from 2009-10 and to Washington, D.C., from 2013-14, according to Gov. Doug Burgum’s office. He was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, Bronze Service Star and Army Aviator Badge among other honours.
Burgum in a statement said Larsen “was a father, husband, coach, entrepreneur, businessman, state senator and lieutenant colonel in the North Dakota National Guard who committed himself fully to each of those roles with an unwavering sense of honor and duty. As a legislator, he was a tenacious advocate for individual rights and the freedoms he defended through his military service.”
Turkish jets launched air strikes inside Iraqi Kurdistan late Sunday, after a blast earlier the same day injured two police officers near the parliament building in Ankara.
Turkey’s capital Ankara was rocked by suicide bombings on October 1. Photo : AP
Turkish jets launched air strikes inside Iraqi Kurdistan late Sunday, after a blast earlier the same day injured two police officers near the parliament building in Ankara. In the hours following the bombing, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had already vowed that “terrorists” would never achieve their aims.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), listed as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies, claimed responsibility for the blast. It has waged a deadly insurgency against Ankara for four decades. The district targeted in the bombing is home to several other ministries and the Turkish parliament, which reopened as planned in the afternoon with an address from Erdogan.
“The villains who threaten the peace and security of citizens have not achieved their objectives and will never achieve them,” Erdogan said.
The interior ministry said two attackers had arrived in a commercial vehicle around 9:30 am (0630 GMT) in front of “the entrance gate of the General Directorate of Security of our Ministry of the Interior, and carried out a bomb attack.”
“One of the terrorists blew himself up,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told journalists outside the ministry. “The other was killed by a bullet to the head before he had a chance to blow himself up.”
Two police officers were lightly injured in the exchange of fire, but their lives were not in danger, he added. The Ankara prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation and banned access to the area. Local media were asked to stop broadcasting images from the scene of the attack.
Harpal Randhawa, the owner of RioZim, along with his son and four others was killed when the plane crashed. Photo: X
An Indian billionaire and his son were among the six individuals killed when their private plane crashed near a diamond mine in southwestern Zimbabwe after experiencing a technical fault, according to media reports.
Harpal Randhawa, the owner of RioZim, a diversified mining company producing gold and coal as well as refining nickel and copper, along with his son and four others was killed when the plane crashed in the Zvamahande area of Mashava, a news and media website in Zimbabwe, reported.
The Cessna 206 aircraft, owned by RioZim, was en route from Harare to the Murowa diamond mine when the tragic incident occurred on Friday. The single-engined aircraft crashed near the Murowa Diamonds mine, which is partly owned by RioZim.
The plane experienced a technical fault, possibly resulting in a mid-air explosion, before plummeting into Peter Farm in the Zvamahande region. All passengers and crew onboard lost their lives in this accident, the report said.
The Herald, a state-owned daily newspaper, quoted police as saying four of the victims were foreigners and the other two Zimbabweans.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police reports a plane crash which occurred on September 29 between 7.30 am and 8 am, where six people are confirmed dead, police said.
The Murowa Diamond Company (RioZim)-owned white and red Zcam aircraft had left Harare for the mine at 6 am and crashed about 6km from Mashava.
RioZim confirmed the crash and said it was working with relevant authorities to gather more information. Names of the deceased are yet to be released by police but journalist and filmmaker Hopewell Chinono, who was a friend of Randhawa, confirmed his death.
I am deeply saddened by the passing of Harpal Randhawa, the owner of RioZim who died today in a plane crash in Zvishavane. Five other people including his son, who was also a pilot but a passenger on this flight, also died in the crash, wrote Chinono on X.
Among the patients who died, 12 were newborn babies.(Image: X)
A total of 24 patients including 12 infants died at a government hospital in Maharashtra’s Nanded in a time span of 24 hours.
Congress leader Ashok Chavan on Tuesday claimed that the death toll has continued to rise as seven more patients have died in the hospital since yesterday, taking the death toll to 31. Taking to X, Chavan wrote, “Death toll continues in Nanded. 7 more patients unfortunately died in Government Medical College Hospital since yesterday. 4 children are also included in the dead. The state government should determine the responsibility.”
A three-member expert committee, which was formed to probe the matter on Monday, will be submitting its report on Tuesday afternoon.
On the 24 deaths, Dr Wakode, the Dean of Doctor Shanakarrao Chavan Hospital, Nanded said six male and female infants have died in the last 24 hours, adding that 12 adults died due to various ailments like snake bites, phosphorous poisoning etc.
“People do come here from far-off areas. We usually get emergency and extremely critical cases in this hospital as there is no hospital available like us in the periphery of 70-80km. Due to transfers of various staff, there was some difficulty for us…we were supposed to buy medicines from Halfkin Institute but that also didn’t happen,” Wakode said pointing at the tertiary-level status of the hospital.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said that he will seek more information on the incident, adding that, appropriate action will be taken in this regard.
– Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar condoled the death of the 24 people and said that such an incident shows the failure of the government systems. Citing a similar incident that took place two months ago in Thane, Pawar posted on X, “…The state government needs to ensure that concrete steps are taken so that these incidents are not repeated and the lives of innocent patients are saved.”
Mohamed Muizzu, from People’s National Congress-Progressive Party of Maldives coalition, won around 54% votes in presidential polls against 46% for ‘India-friendly’ incumbent Ibrahim Solih.
Maldivian president-elect Mohamed Muizzu (left) with outgoing president Ibrahim Solih | Photo: X/@Muizzu2023
New Delhi: The people of Maldives have chosen “pro-China” leader Mohamed Muizzu to lead the nation against “India-friendly” incumbent Ibrahim Solih in a presidential vote.
The results of the election were declared Saturday, with Muizzu from the People’s National Congress-Progressive Party of Maldives (PNC-PPM) coalition winning around 54 percent votes against 46 per cent for the Maldivian Democratic Party’s Solih, who conceded defeat late Saturday.
Muizzu, the mayor of capital Malé till now, was a surprise candidate in the election. He will be sworn in as president on 17 November.
Following the election results, Solih congratulated Muizzu on his victory in a post on the social media platform X: “Congratulations to president-elect Muizzu. I also congratulate the people who have set a peaceful democratic example.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also sent his wishes to Muizzu. “Congratulations and greetings to Mohamed Muizzu on being elected as President of the Maldives,” he said on X Sunday.
“India remains committed to strengthening the time-tested India-Maldives bilateral relationship and enhancing our overall cooperation in the Indian Ocean region,” he added.
Modi’s first foreign visit after being elected to a second term as PM was to the Maldives on 8-9 June 2019.
It is believed that Muizzu’s election to the top post in the Maldives, a 100 percent Muslim nation, may have repercussions for the island nation’s ties with India.
Muizzu is part of the pro-China camp and was a minister of housing and infrastructure during the Abdulla Yameen administration (2013-2018), under which the Maldives borrowed heavily from China for construction projects.
Yameen was ousted by Solih who, along with his party, held a firm “India-first” policy – turning the 2023 presidential election into a referendum on Maldives’ foreign policy orientation.
ThePrint explains Malé’s ties with New Delhi as well as Beijing, and why Solih is believed to have lost the election.
China and India jockey for influence
During the Yameen administration, ties between New Delhi and Malé soured. Yameen’s proximity with China, crackdown on democratic dissent, and anti-India rhetoric to fuel nationalist sentiments were some of the reasons behind the souring of relations, according to an October 2022 report by Observer Research Foundation (ORF), a New Delhi-based think tank.
Following Yameen’s election in 2013, interactions between Beijing and Malé increased, with president Xi Jinping of China visiting the Maldives in 2014.
Maldives subsequently joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative, under which Beijing offers investment to build railroads, ports and highways to expand trade and its reach across continents.
The two countries signed a free trade agreement and held negotiations for the establishment of a Joint Ocean Observation Centre, giving China greater access to the region, according to the ORF report.
In exchange, China offered Maldives loans and grants for mega-infrastructure projects, including the Sinamalé bridge project, connecting the island of Malé to the airport island Hulumale and another island.
The ORF report noted that, by 2018, Chinese funding to the island nation touched $1.5 billion, with only $600 million in government borrowings and $900 million as sovereign guarantees.
In 2018, Yameen asked India — which had earlier gifted two helicopters to the Maldives along with training personnel — to remove the helicopters and all military personnel from the country.
However, Solih, who won the 2018 elections, reversed course on Yameen’s policies, with a renewed focus on collaboration with India.
Virat Kohli flew back to Mumbai to be with his wife Anushka Sharma after news of her pregnancy made headlines. The ace cricketer will miss the warm-up world cup fixture against Netherlands tomorrow
Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli have grabbed headlines yet again due to reports suggesting that they are preparing for their second journey into parenthood. For those unaware, the deeply in love couple exchanged vows on December 11, 2017, in a stunning pastel-themed wedding that set trends for modern brides. Following that, they welcomed their daughter, Vamika, on January 11, 2021. Now, according to reports, the family of three is about to become a family of four.
Virat Kohli urgently flew from Guwahati to Mumbai to be with his beloved wife, Anushka Sharma, due to an unexpected situation and latter’s pregnancy news. Despite his busy schedule with World Cup warm-up matches, he had to take an emergency flight before Team India’s ICC ODI Cricket World Cup second warm-up match against the Netherlands in Thiruvananthapuram on October 3, 2023. Various sources confirmed Kohli isn’t with team India and he is back in Mumbai with wifey and looks like he wants to spend time with Anushka before the busy schedule ahead.
Virat Kohli didn’t join the team today in Thiruvananthapuram due to a personal emergency. He’s likely to join tomorrow. (Cricbuzz). pic.twitter.com/xIzba1rq6X
In the first interview after the announcement of her Nobel prize win, Katalin Kariko talked about how she was “kicked out” of the University of Pennsylvania ten years ago, her advice to women scientists, and the mantra she follows in life.
Katalin Kariko was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2023 along with Drew Weissman. (Photo: @kkariko on X)
The winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Katalin Kariko, said she was “kicked out” of the University of Pennsylvania ten years ago and was forced to retire. She joined the university in 1989 as an adjunct professor until her departure in 2013. Soon afterwards, she joined BioNTech, the German biotechnology company which partnered with Pfizer in 2020 to develop mRNA vaccines against Covid-19.
Kariko’s Nobel prize, which she shared with Drew Weissman, was for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against Covid-19.
In her first reaction to her Nobel win, Kariko told Adam Smith, the Chief Scientific Officer at Nobel Prize Outreach, that she thought “somebody was joking”.
Speaking about her journey on mRNA research, Katalin Kariko, who is now 68, said “I have conducted all her experiments with my own hands” at the age of 58. “I was 58 years old and I was still culturing plasmids and feeding cells”. She added that for nine years, she frequently commuted to Germany, where the company was located, from the US.
Kariko also paid tribute to her mother who passed away in 2018, and said, “My mother always listened to the announcement of the Nobel Prize and she would tell me, the next time they announce it, maybe you will get it. You know, I was laughing. I was not even a professor and didn’t have a team. I told my mom, don’t listen to it. And she said, ‘But you work so hard’ and I told her that all scientists work very hard”.
The Nobel prize winner also had some advice for other women scientists. She said they can have it all without choosing between their research and their families. “As a woman and a mother, I try to tell fellow female scientists that you don’t have to choose between having a family. You can have it, you don’t have to just assist your child. Your child will watch you and then they will do it because that’s what counts — the example that you present,” said Katalin Kariko.
A New York City college student was sentenced to one year behind bars by the United Arab Emirates for allegedly “assaulting and insulting” an airport security guard during a flight connection in Dubai over the summer, according to reports.
Elizabeth Polanco De Los Santos, 21, a student at Lehman College in the Bronx, was handed her sentence Monday after spending nearly three months effectively trapped in Dubai with a travel ban issued against her, according to the advocacy group Detained in Dubai.
“Elizabeth only intended to transit through Dubai for six hours but she’s been there for months on end and has lost $50,000 in expenses and lawyers costs,” said Detained in Dubai founder Radha Stirling.
“On top of being humiliated and traumatized by airport staff, Elizabeth has suffered months of being forced to stay in an expensive country, pay expensive lawyers and miss out on her university studies.”
Los Santos’ ordeal began on July 14, as she and a friend were heading home to New York from a vacation in Istanbul.
Their initial itinerary had them connecting home through Paris, but they changed the flight to transfer in Dubai so they could see the famous city during a ten-hour layover.
“We thought it would be a more modern and futuristic city but we were completely wrong,” Los Santos said, according to Detained in Dubai.
Elizabeth Polanco De Los Santos, 21, is reportedly a student at Lehman College in the Bronx, but she remains in Dubai.Los Santos and her friend had been returning home from a vacation in Istanbul when she was detained.
While passing through security, Dubai airport staff requested that Los Santos remove a waist compressor she was required to wear after a recent surgery.
Shown to a private booth, female staff members removed the compressor, but Los Santos’ mother told Detained in Dubai they were rough and hurt her daughter’s still healing surgery scars. They also laughed at her, and when she asked for help to put the complicated garment back on they refused.
“I was feeling uncomfortable and afraid. I felt really violated,” Los Santos said.
The compressor had “many many pins and you need to stretch the edges and clip small skinny pins together close to the body,” she said, and as staff continued to ignore her pleas for help Los Santos leaned past a security guard blocking her way and called out for her friend to come and help her.
“I gently touched her arm to guide her out of the way then desperately started crying to my friend for help,” she told Detained in Dubai.
Los Santos was then detained in a room for hours as the security guard she touched filed a complaint against her, and wasn’t allowed to leave until she signed a form written in Arabic.
When she returned to the airport later to catch her flight to New York, she was informed of the travel ban filed against her and forced to remain in the country until the charges against her were heard in court.
After staying in hotels for weeks, a judge allowed her to pay 10,000 AED (about 2,700 USD) and be on her way, but Dubai prosecutors appealed the ruling and she was finally sentenced to a year in prison Monday.
“She is under the most incredible stress which is impacting her physical and mental health, disrupting her entire life and scarring her long term,” said Stirling. “This is simply no way to treat visitors. It’s outrageous.”
The 9-year-old girl who vanished from an upstate New York park was found hiding in the cabinet of a camper on Monday after the man accused of kidnapping her left a ransom note bearing his fingerprints at her parent’s home, officials said.
Charlotte Sena is “in good health” after she went missing during a bike ride while camping with her family at Moreau Lake State Park Saturday, NY State Police said.
The suspect, identified as 47-year-old Craig Ross Jr., allegedly left a note at Charlotte’s family’s home – possibly demanding some type of ransom in connection to her alleged abduction.
Gov. Kathy Hochul told CNN host Anderson Cooper Monday night that investigators were able to track down the suspect through fingerprints left on the ransom note.
“There was a ransom note and that was instrumental in leading us directly to the suspect,” Hochul said. “His fingerprint was already in the database.”
Volunteers search woodland near Moreau Lake State Park on Monday, October 2nd, 2023. Angus Mordant
State police confirmed that during the investigation, they identified an “individual” who was in the park around the time Sena went missing.
When investigators searched multiple homes tied to that person, they located Sena around 6:30 p.m. Monday and took a suspect into custody, authorities said.
Sources told the Albany Times Union that Sena is believed to have been found in a trailer next to a house in Milton, where one of the suspect’s relatives lives.
Nine-year-old Charlotte Sena has been missing in upstate New York since September 30. New York State PoliceSena and family were camping at the upstate park when she disappeared NY Post illustration
State police had conducted an extensive 18-hour search of the park along with FBI agents and 34 volunteer fire departments using police dogs, drones, boats and underwater teams but found no sign of the young girl who was last seen around 6:15 p.m. Saturday.
Authorities activated an AMBER Alert “for a child abduction” with Charlotte’s photo and information on Sunday morning.
The alert noted that “the child was taken under circumstances that lead police to believe that they are in imminent danger of serious harm and/or death.”
By Monday afternoon, State Police Lt. Col. Richard Mazzone said investigators did not believe Charlotte, who is from Greenfield, was still in the park.
Francis, Richard McSpadden died moments after takeoff in New York
Russ Francis, a three-time Pro Bowler and Super Bowl champion with the San Francisco 49ers, was one of two people killed in a plane crash over the weekend in New York, authorities said.
Francis, 70, was with another aviation enthusiast, Richard McSpadden, 63, going for a ride out of Lake Placid Airport around 4 p.m. ET on Sunday. The two were in a single-engine Cessna 177 when the plane encountered trouble and crashed into an embankment at the corner of the airport, New York State Police said.
The former New England Patriots tight end was the organization’s first-round pick in 1975 and played for the team until 1980. He was a Pro Bowler for three straight seasons between 1977-1979.
“Russ was a fan favorite throughout his playing career,” Patriots team owner Robert Kraft said in a statement. “He was a dynamic player on the field who had an even bigger personality off it. He knew no boundaries, pushed the limits and lived his life to the fullest.”
He returned to the football field in 1982 after retiring in 1981. He played for the San Francisco 49ers before rejoining the Patriots in the middle of the 1987 season. He finished his career with the Patriots in 1988.
New England Patriots’ Russ Francis is shown during a press conference on Feb. 11, 1980, at Boston Garden. (AP Photo/File)
Francis won a Super Bowl in 1984. He had a touchdown catch against the New York Giants in the wild-card round of the playoffs. San Francisco later defeated the Miami Dolphins, 38-6. He had five catches for 60 yards in that game.
Francis was the president of Lake Placid Airways, which runs charter and scenic flights in upstate New York. He had been a pilot for nearly 50 years and had run a charter service in Hawaii, according to the airline’s website.
McSpadden was a senior vice president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and was a known aviation safety expert. The organization said his career included a stint as commander of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds.
A group of 67 women from Greenland are seeking compensation from the Danish government over a campaign of involuntary birth control in the 1960s.
At least 4,500 women, some of them teenagers, were fitted with coils under a programme intended to limit birth rates among the indigenous population.
An inquiry is due to conclude in 2025, but the women, some of whom are in their 70s, want compensation now.
They are seeking 300,000 kroner (£34,880; $42,150) each.
Greenland, now a semi-sovereign territory of Denmark, was a Danish colony until 1953.
The scale of the campaign was exposed last year in a podcast published by Danish broadcaster DR.
Records from the national archived showed that, between 1966 and 1970 alone, intrauterine devices (IUDs) were fitted into the women, some as young as 13, without their knowledge or consent.
The government of Greenland estimates that, by the end of 1969, 35% of women in the territory who could potentially have borne children had been fitted with an IUD, according to DR.
A commission set up by the Danish and Greenlandic governments to investigate the programme is not due to deliver its findings until May 2025.
“We don’t want to wait for the results of the inquiry,” said psychologist Naja Lyberth, who initiated the compensation claim.
“We are getting older. The oldest of us, who had IUDs inserted in the 1960s, were born in the 1940s and are approaching 80. We want to act now.”
Ms Lyberth said that, in some cases, the devices fitted had been too big for the girls’ bodies, causing serious health complications or even infertility, while in others the women had been unaware of the devices until they were discovered recently by gynaecologists.
She accused the Danish government of the time of wanting to control the size of Greenland’s population in order to save money on welfare.
“It’s already 100% clear that the government has broken the law by violating our human rights and causing us serious harm,” she said.
Mads Pramming, the lawyer representing the women, sent a claim on their behalf to the office of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Monday.
Donald Trump hit out at a “sham” trial as he stands accused of reaping more than $100m through fraud. He faces a potential $250m fine and could even lose Trump Tower.
Donald Trump speaks with journalists during a midday break in court. Pic: AP
Donald Trump is accused of raising more than $100m by lying about the value of his real estate empire, as he attacked the judge overseeing his civil fraud trial.
The ex-president – and current favourite to stand as the Republican candidate for the White House next year – committed fraud for years while building his property portfolio, a court ruled last week.
He’s now back in a New York court as the prosecution look at demonstrating “the full extent of his fraud and illegality”.
Attorney General Letitia James, who sued Mr Trump in this case, is seeking at least $250m (£201m) in fines and a permanent ban against him and his sons Donald Jr and Eric from running businesses in New York.
She also wants a five-year commercial real estate ban against Mr Trump and the Trump Organisation. He could even lose Trump Tower.
The case is centred on accusations that Mr Trump inflated his assets and net worth from 2011 to 2021 to get hold of favourable bank loans and lower insurance premiums.
Before the trial began, Mr Trump dismissed the case as a “scam” and a “sham”, claiming it is a “continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time”.
During a lunch break, he called the Democrat “a corrupt person, a terrible person, driving people out of New York”.
He was equally scathing of the judge, Arthur Engoron, calling him a partisan Democrat who is using the case to interfere with the 2024 presidential election.
“This is a judge that should be disbarred,” he told reporters. “This is a judge that should be out of office.”
Six additional claims
The trial – which is without a jury – will review six additional claims including falsifying business records, insurance fraud and conspiracy, and rule how much the defendants should pay in fines.
Last week, the judge found Mr Trump, his adult sons and 10 of his companies liable for fraud, describing in scathing terms how the defendants made up valuations.
These included, he said, valuing the Trump Tower apartment as if it were three times its actual size, and estimating Mar-a-Lago was worth up to $739m – even though an outside assessment pit it at no more than $28m.
The judge cancelled business certificates for companies controlling pillars of his empire, while Mr Trump responded at the time by calling Mr Engoron “deranged”.
A North Korean flag flutters on top of the 160-metre tall tower at North Korea’s propaganda village of Gijungdong, in this picture taken from Tae Sung freedom village near the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), inside the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, South Korea, September 30, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File… Acquire Licensing Rights
North Korea on Monday denounced the U.N. atomic watchdog for joining a U.S.-led pressure campaign and “cooking up” a resolution over its nuclear programmes, calling the agency a “paid trumpeter” for Washington.
An unnamed spokesman of Pyongyang’s Ministry of Nuclear Power Industry released a statement criticising a resolution adopted on Friday at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) general conference that calls for the North to curb its nuclear programmes.
The spokesman described the resolution as a “result of conspiracy” by the United States and its allies, saying North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapons state has already become “irreversible.”
“Such farce of the hostile forces is a revelation of their sinister intention to cover up their criminal acts of seriously threatening the international nuclear non-proliferation system and justify their hostile policy toward the DPRK,” he said, according to state media KCNA.
Thousands of migrants from different countries travel across Mexico in buses, trailers and freight trains in bid to reach the US.
At least 10 migrants have been killed and 25 others injured after a cargo truck clandestinely carrying them overturned on a highway in southern Mexico.
The accident took place early on Sunday in the Mexican state of Chiapas near the border with Guatemala.
A source in the prosecutor’s office who spoke on grounds of anonymity told AFP news agency the victims were apparently from Cuba and all were women, including one minor.
The incident occurred on a stretch of highway along the Pacific coast between the towns of Pijijiapan and Tonala, where people often travel as they attempt to reach the United States.
The truck, whose body was partially built of wood, was destroyed, with the migrants’ clothes, bags and backpacks strewn around it.
Thousands of migrants from different countries travel across Mexico in buses, trailers and freight trains as they head for the US.
It was the second fatal crash in less than a week involving migrants in Mexico. On Thursday, two migrants died when a truck overturned in the municipality of Mezcalapa, also in Chiapas state.
In August, at least 15 people were killed when a crowded bus carrying primarily Venezuelan migrants and asylum seekers collided with a trailer on a highway in Mexico that connects the states of Puebla and Oaxaca, a route known to be used by migrant smugglers.
In July, another bus in Oaxaca plunged off a steep road, killing as many as 27 people. Another 18 people were killed in a crash in April. And in February, migrants from Venezuela, Colombia, and Central America were involved in a bus crash, again between Oaxaca and Puebla, that left at least 17 dead.
A 9-year-old girl went missing during a bike ride while camping at New York’s Moreau Lake State Park with her family — and police scoured the area for 18 hours before issuing an Amber Alert.
Charlotte Sena, of Greenfield, NY, was enjoying a family outing on Saturday evening when she decided to make one last loop around their picnicking field by herself, Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a press conference Sunday.
Sena, the niece of a local firefighter, set off on Loop A on her bike at around 6:15 p.m., to prove she was “one of the big kids,” but she never came back.
Hochul said the girl’s family was distraught over the sudden disappearance.
“The family was here to make memories, the kind that would last a lifetime. Instead, it turned into every parent’s nightmare,” Hochul said.
When Sena failed to return within 15 minutes, her family and fellow campers went out to look for her, with police called to the scene at around 6:47 p.m.
Charlotte Sena, 9, disappeared Saturday during a bike ride while out with family at New York’s Moreau Lake State Park. Facebook/Jené SenaSena, of Greenfield, was last seen wearing a tie-dye Pokemon shirt, dark blue pants, black Crocs and a gray bike helmet. Twitter/@nyspolice
The 9-year-old’s bike was found on Loop A, with a 100-person search party composed of state troopers, special ops, forest rangers, park police and civilian volunteers converging at the scene.
Since Sena’s disappearance, NY State Police Lt. Col. Richard Mazzone said his team had conducted an extensive 18-hour search of the park, with police believing the child is no longer there.
As of 9:45 a.m. Sunday, police issued an Amber Alert, fearing that Sena might have been abducted when she was by herself.
Police believe the child might have been abducted from the park. Family Handout
Nine people are reported to have been killed and some 20 others trapped after a church roof collapsed in Mexico.
Local media said 49 people were taken to hospital, after the roof of Ciudad Madero’s Santa Cruz church fell in.
Police in the coastal state of Tamaulipas said around 100 people were at a mass at the time of the collapse. Local media reported it was a baptism.
A number of children are believed to be amongst those trapped and rescue efforts are ongoing.
Images on social media showed the church building in ruins as people crowded around the rubble, desperately searching for those who were trapped inside.
Local journalist Franc Contreras told the BBC World Service’s Newsday programme that the collapse happened at a key moment in the church service.
“The church was packed with about a hundred people, and people were lined up to take the communion – of course that’s sort of the climax of the Catholic mass – and that’s when the roof came down on top of them; bricks, concrete, and of course steel support structures coming down on top of the people,” he said.
He added that according to Red Cross officials the roof came down on pews in the church, allowing the possibility that anyone trapped there could survive in air pockets.
People were said to be arriving with shovels and pickaxes to try to move the debris.
Later posts showed the emergency services were at the scene, following the collapse on Sunday afternoon.
Calls were made on social media for medical and rescue materials to help those searching for survivors.
The airstrike hit 20 targets belonging to a Kurdish military group, the Turkish government said, adding the target included ‘caves, bunkers, and warehouses used by the terrorists responsible’.
Bomb disposal teams working in Ankara following the attack. Pic: AP
Turkey has carried out an airstrike in northern Iraq after a suicide bombing attack in capital Ankara, its defence ministry said.
The airstrike destroyed 20 targets belonging to the Kurdish militant group PKK, which claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Earlier on Sunday, two police officers were injured in an attack in Ankara, hours before parliament was scheduled to re-open after a three-month summer recess.
Two terrorists carried out the attack, Turkey’s interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said. One died in the blast and the other was killed in a shoot-out with police.
In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, a Turkish government spokesperson said: “Air operations were carried out against terrorist targets in the Metina, Hakurk, Kandil and Gara regions in the north of Iraq at 9.00pm on 1 October and the Separatist Terrorist Organization (BTO).
“A total of 20 targets, consisting of caves, bunkers, and warehouses used by, and considered to contain, the terrorists responsible, were destroyed.
“Many terrorists were neutralised by using the maximum amount of domestic and national ammunition in the operations carried out.
“The Turkish Armed Forces, coming from the heart of our noble nation, will continue the fight against terrorism with determination and determination for the survival and security of our homeland and nation, as in the past, until there is not a single terrorist left.”
They added measures were taken not to harm civilians in the attack.
A spokesperson for President Recep Tayipp Erdogan added: “With these operations, the terrorist organization has suffered another major blow.
“As our president clearly emphasized, the enemies of Turkey will suddenly feel the breath of our state’s security forces on their necks one night.
“In a process where the fight against terrorism is so sensitive, effective and successful, it is of great importance that the national and international public be vigilant against disinformation activities, especially those attempted to be carried out by the terrorist organization.”
A “terrorist attack” rocked Turkey’s capital city Ankara on Sunday. A suicide bomber blew him up near the Turkish Parliament. The video of the horrific incident was caught on camera.
Members of Turkish Police Special Forces secure an area following an explosion near the Interior Ministry in Ankara, (Photo: X)
In the video, it could be seen that the terrorists came out of a car and blew himself up after reaching near Parliament.
The powerful explosion was heard for several kilometres from the attack site. Turkey’s Interior Ministry said two attackers arrived in a commercial vehicle around 9:30 am (0630 GMT) “in front of the entrance gate of its General Directorate of Security and carried out the attack.
“One of the terrorists blew himself up and the other was neutralised,” the ministry said as quoted by AFP. Two police officers were injured in the attack.
BREAKING:
Terror attack in Ankara Turkey
Police officers were injured after a suicide bombing attack in front of the Interior Ministry in the Turkish capital, Ankara
Emergency services have warned the number of dead may rise as they search the site of the blaze in Murcia, southeast Spain.
At least 13 people have died in a nightclub fire in Murcia in southeast Spain, officials have said.
Rescuers are still searching for people unaccounted for after the blaze broke out in the early hours of the morning.
The fire tore through three adjoining nightclubs.
Pic: X/@BomberosMurcia
Four people were injured and the number of dead could rise, Murcia’s emergency services said.
Video posted by Murcia’s fire service on X, formerly Twitter, showed firefighters working to control flames inside the nightclub.
The fire had destroyed part of the roof, the footage showed.
Diego Seral, of Spain’s National Police, told reporters the collapse was making it difficult to locate victims, and it was hard to pinpoint yet where exactly the fire started.
The identification of the bodies would take time, he said.
Outside the club, young people hugged, looking shocked as they waited for information about those missing.
“I think we left 30 seconds to one minute before the alarms went off and all the lights went out [and] the screams saying there was a fire,” one survivor, who was not identified, said.
“Five family members and two friends are missing.”
Pic: X/@BomberosMurcia
A spokesperson for the Teatre nightclub, Maria Dolores Albellan, told reporters the fire originated in the neighbouring club, Fonda Milagros, before spreading to the two adjoining clubs.
Spanish media reported several birthday celebrations were taking place at the time.
Murcia mayor Jose Ballesta said they were working to establish the cause of the blaze.
“We are devastated,” he said on Spanish TV channel 24h.
Hollywood’s writers union said its members could return to work on Wednesday while they decide whether to approve a three-year deal that provides pay raises and some protections around use of artificial intelligence among other gains.
The iconic Hollywood sign is pictured the day after the Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced it reached a preliminary labor agreement with major studios in Los Angeles, California, U.S., September 25, 2023. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) leadership voted unanimously to end the strike on Wednesday, the guild said in a statement. The 11,500 members have until Oct. 9 to cast their votes on the proposed contract.
The WGA said the estimated value of the deal was $233 million per year.
Film and television writers walked off the job in May after failing to reach a deal with major studios, including Netflix (NFLX.O), Walt Disney (DIS.N) and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD.O).
Writers appeared to have won concessions across the board, with raises over the three years of the contract, increased health and pension contributions, and AI safeguards.
Under the agreement, the studios agreed to meet at least twice a year with the guild to discuss plans to use AI in film development and production.
The studios are not expressly prohibited from using AI to generate content. Writers, however, have the right to sue if their work is used to train AI.
Writers can choose to use AI when drafting scripts, but a company cannot require the use of the software. The studios also must disclose to a writer if any materials were generated by AI.
A fire broke out at a Lord Ganesh pandal in Pune where BJP president J P Nadda was offering prayers along with the party’s Maharashtra unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Tuesday evening.
Visuals from the scene showed Nadda being safely escorted out of the venue even as the fire engulfed the top portion of the makeshift pandal in the Lokmanya Nagar area in the heart of the city.
No casualty was reported in the incident.
A fire brigade official said the blaze may have been caused by fireworks at the pandal set up by the Sane Guruji Ganesh Mitra Mandal.
A view of a site following a fatal fire at a wedding celebration, in the district of Hamdaniya in Iraq’s Nineveh province, Iraq, September 27, 2023. REUTERS/Abdullah Rashid
More than 100 people were killed and 150 injured in a fire at a wedding party in Hamdaniya district in Iraq’s Nineveh province that left civil defence searching the charred skeleton of a building for survivors into the early hours of Wednesday.
Nineveh Deputy Governor Hassan al-Allaq told Reuters that 113 people had been confirmed dead, with state media putting the death toll at at least 100, with 150 people injured.
The fire ripped through a large events hall in the north-eastern region after fireworks were lit during the celebration, local civil defence said, according to state media.
“We saw the fire pulsating, coming out of the hall. Those who managed got out and those who didn’t got stuck. Even those who made their way out were broken,” said Imad Yohana, a 34-year-old who escaped the inferno.
Video from a Reuters correspondent at the site showed firefighters clambering over the charred wreckage of the building, shining lights over smouldering ruins.
As many as 39 BJP workers were injured when the bus they were travelling in crashed into a parked truck in Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone district.
39 BJP workers injured in a road accident in Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone (Credits: PTI)
A bus ferrying BJP workers crashed into a parked truck in Khargone district, Madhya Pradesh, leaving 39 passengers injured.
They were on their way to the ‘Karyakarta Mahakumbh’ in Bhopal, where PM Modi will address a mega congregation of BJP workers on Monday, September 25.
The accident occurred late at night near Kasrawad. The injured were moved to a district hospital for treatment.
Mostly, BJP workers from Khaparjamli, Rupgarh and Rai Sagar of Bhagwanpura were travelling on the bus.
BJP WORKERS’ MEGA MEET IN BHOPAL
The ‘Karyakarta Mahakumbh’ is being organised on the birth anniversary of Jana Sangh co-founder Deendayal Upadhyaya to mark the formal culmination of the BJP’s ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatras’ that crisscrossed the length and breadth of the state, party leaders said.
Simone Biles spoke out Friday in response to a viral video that featured a black female gymnast being passed over for a medal at an Irish gymnastics event, tweeting, “There is no room for racism in any sport or at all !!!!”
Over the weekend, a clip from a March 2022 medal ceremony at a Gymstart event in Dublin circulated on social media, which featured a group of young gymnasts waiting in line for their awards, with the athlete in question skipped.
The incident set off a frenzy on social media, with Biles, a four-time Olympic gold medalist, weighing in.
This is heartbreaking, everyone got a medal apart from the Black girl and she kept smiling. pic.twitter.com/rnqWvoVMAF
“I would love to see @Simone_Biles reach out to this girl if she’s able,” an X user tweeted.
Biles then replied: “When this video was circulating, her parents reached out. It broke my heart to see, so I sent her a little video.
“There is no room for racism in any sport or at all !!!!”
Fellow U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles also addressed the incident, which she deemed “hurtful on so many levels.”
A viral video posted on Twitter shows an incident at a GymSTART event in March 2022 when a young female gymnast was not given a medal alongside other girls competing at a Gymnastics Ireland. Twitter
“Gymternet pls help me find this little girl… This is beyond hurtful on so many levels, I need you guys to find her pls… asap,” the Olympian posted Friday on her X account.
Gymnastics Ireland released a statement Friday on the matter.
“Gymnastics Ireland immediately contacted the family to express its regrets and to assure them that the incident would be investigated,” the organization said in a statement.
“… The official in question accepted fully that what had happened had not been acceptable but stressed that it had not been intentional. The official concerned said that upon realizing the mistake they immediately rectified it and ensured that the competitor concerned was presented with her medal before she left the Field of Play (FoP).
Strike signs await striking SAG-AFTRA actors and Writers Guild of America (WGA) outside Disney Studios in Burbank, California, U.S., July 25, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
Hollywood’s writers union reached a preliminary labor agreement with major studios on Sunday, a deal expected to end one of two strikes that have halted most film and television production and cost the California economy billions.
The three-year contract still must be approved by leadership of the Writers Guild of America (WGA,) as well as union members, before it can take effect.
The WGA, which represents 11,500 film and television writers, described the deal as “exceptional” with “meaningful gains and protections for writers.”
“This was made possible by the enduring solidarity of WGA members and extraordinary support of our union siblings who joined us on the picket lines for over 146 days,” the negotiating committee said in a statement Sunday.
The WGA settlement, while a milestone, will not return Hollywood to business as usual even if it is ratified. While writing may resume, the SAG-AFTRA actors’ union remains on strike.
Writers walked off the job on May 2 after negotiations reached an impasse over compensation, minimum staffing of writers’ rooms, the use of artificial intelligence and residuals that reward writers for popular streaming shows, among other issues.
“We stuck it out,” WGA liaison Caroline Renard said Sunday. “This is a union industry, and it’s about the people that make the actual product that makes these company billions of dollars.”
One writer posted an image on social media of a picket sign that read simply: “The End.”
The only comment from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the trade group representing Walt Disney (DIS.N), Netflix (NFLX.O), Warner Bros Discovery (WBD.O) and other major studios, came in a brief statement with the union.
“The WGA and AMPTP have reached a tentative agreement,” the statement said.
The proposed contract is still preliminary. The WGA’s negotiating committee said it would share details only after it receives final contract language. After that, the negotiators will vote on whether to recommend the deal to leadership, which must then decide if they will present it to members for a vote.
Hollywood’s dual strikes had shut down production of movies and TV series and sent late-night talk shows into re-runs. Efforts to restart daytime talk shows without writers, such as “The Drew Barrymore Show,” collapsed this month, in the face of criticism from striking writers and actors.
At picket lines, protests took on the rhetoric of class warfare. Writers assailed media executives’ compensation and said working conditions had made it hard for them to earn a middle-class living.
Executives at times fanned tensions. Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger, fresh off a contract extension that offered an annual bonus of five times his base salary, criticized striking writers and actors as “just not realistic” in their demands.
Iger subsequently struck a conciliatory note, citing his “deep respect” for creative professionals.
“It’s been a long road, and I’m ready to take the next step forward, which is just like healing for our guild and getting back to work on ourselves,” “Harlem” writer Brandon K. Hines said on Sunday.
BILLIONS LOST
The work stoppages took a toll on camera operators, carpenters, production assistants and other crew members, as well as the caterers, florists, costume suppliers and other small businesses that support film and television production.
The economic cost is expected to total at least $5 billion in California and the other U.S. production hubs of New Mexico, Georgia and New York, according to an estimate from Milken Institute economist Kevin Klowden.
Four top industry executives – Iger, Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and NBCUniversal (CMCSA.O) Studio Group Chair Donna Langley – joined negotiations this week, helping to break the months-long impasse.
As with past writers’ strikes, this job action responds to Hollywood capitalizing on a new form of distribution – and writers seek to participate in the newfound revenue. The 100-day strike in 2007-08 focused, in part, on extending guild protections to “new media,” including movies and TV downloads as well as content delivered via ad-supported internet services.
Ethnic Serb gunmen in armoured vehicles stormed a village in north Kosovo on Sunday, battling police and barricading themselves in a monastery in a resurgence of violence in the restive north that killed four people.
The siege centred on a Serbian Orthodox monastery near the village of Banjska in the Serb-majority region where monks and pilgrims hid inside a temple as a shootout raged.
One police officer and three of the attackers died, according to authorities in Kosovo and Serbia.
Ethnic Albanians form the vast majority of the 1.8 million population of Kosovo, a former province of Serbia.
But some 50,000 Serbs in the north have never accepted Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence and still see Belgrade as their capital, more than two decades after a Kosovo Albanian guerrilla uprising against repressive Serbian rule.
A group of Kosovo Serbs positioned trucks on a bridge into the village, shooting at police who approached them, before the battle moved to the nearby monastery, according to accounts by both Kosovo police and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
Police officers patrol in the aftermath of a shooting, on the road to Banjska village, Kosovo September 24, 2023. REUTERS/Laura Hasani
The gunmen had left the monastery by night, the Serbian Orthodox Church said, though it was unclear where they went.
Vucic said the action was a rebellion against Kurti, who has refused to form an association of Serb municipalities in north Kosovo. “Serbia will never recognise independent Kosovo, you can kill us all,” he said.
Two Serbs were seriously injured and a fourth among them may have died, Vucic said. He condemned the killing of the police officer and urged restraint from Kosovo Serbs.
The Serbian Orthodox Church’s diocese of Raska-Prizren, which includes Banjska, said men in an armoured vehicle entered the monastery compound, forcing monks and visiting faithful to lock themselves inside the temple.
The Kosovo police later said they had entered the monastery and were checking for possible infiltrators among worshippers. Three of their personnel were also injured, as well as the fatality in their ranks, police said.
Kosovo’s Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla said police found a large number of heavy weapons, explosives and uniforms “that were enough for hundreds of other attackers”, indicating preparations for a massive assault.
According to the authorities, the blaze broke out on Friday night at the factory in Pingtung county and raged overnight. Rescuers are looking for four factory workers and one firefighter as they are still missing.
Fire broke out at golf ball factory in southern Taiwan on Saturday X (Formerly Twitter)
In a tragic fire incident followed by a subsequent explosion, at least five people died at a golf ball factory in southern Taiwan while over hundred people were injured. It has been reported that five people are still missing as well.
About the incident
According to the authorities, the blaze broke out on Friday night at the factory in Pingtung county and raged overnight. Three firefighters were among the dead, authorities said.
Rescuers are looking for four factory workers and one firefighter as they are still missing, officials said.
What did the authorities say?
According to Taiwanese news outlet Focus Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-wen in a speech in Taipei on Saturday expressed her condolences to the families of the victims and said she would travel to Pingtung to visit those affected by the disaster,
It has been told that the Pingtung county government had set up an emergency operation center to offer assistance to those impacted by the fire.
Asian Games 2023 Live updates Day 1: Follow live score and updates of all the action in Hangzhou as India officially begin their Asiad campaign
Asian Games 2023 Live Updates Day 1: India bag first medal in Asiad in women’s 10m air rifle(SAI)
Asian Games 2023 Live Updates Day 1: India won a medal with their first event of the day, as the trio of Ramita, Mehuli Ghosh, and Ashi Chouksey earned a silver medal in the women’s 10m air rifle event. Additionally, Ramita and Mehuli also qualified for the individual final, that ran parallelly with the team event in Hangzhou. Shortly after the first medal, army men Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind won a silver in men’s lightweight double sculls as well. India’s women’s cricket team takes on Bangladesh in the semi-final, while later in the day, boxing champion Nikhat Zareen will also kick off a rather difficult draw in China. Both the men’s and women’s football teams will also be in action in group matches later in the day.
Asian Games 2023 Live Updates Day 1: India bag first medal in Asiad in women’s 10m air rifle
Asian Games 2023 Live Updates Day 1: India bag first medal in Asiad in women’s 10m air rifle(SAI)
Events completed so far:
SILVER MEDAL: Shooting – India’s Ramita, Mehuli Ghosh and Chouksey in Women’s 10m Air Rifle (Team)
SILVER MEDAL: Rowing – India’s Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind in Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls
Rowing – India’s Kiran and Anshika Bharti finish 9th in Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls
Rowing: India’s Satnam Singh and Parminder Singh finish sixth in Men’s Doubles Sculls
Young Indian wrestler Antim Panghal’s superb campaign at the World Championships culminated with a bronze medal, a performance that also earned the country a 53kg quota for the Paris Olympics.
The 19-year-old Panghal became only the sixth Indian woman to win a bronze medal at the Worlds with her win over Sweden’s Emma Jonna Denise Malmgren, the two-time European champion.
The high-scoring bout ended with a technical superiority win for the Indian, who became the first Indian wrestler — male or female — to lock a quota for the next year’s Games.
Panghal raced to a 5-0 lead after beginning with a quick push-out point. Malmgren fought with a take-down move and had the Indian in her grip but somehow the Indian wriggled out.
The polls point to a historical first: Claudia Sheinbaum, currently the frontrunner, could become the country’s first Jewish and female president.
Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum gestures as she speaks on the day she is certified as presidential candidate for the ruling National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party during a ceremony, in Mexico City, Mexico September 10, 2023. (photo credit: REUTERS/HENRY ROMERO)
The way things stand now, Mexico is headed to elect its first woman president next year. The two leading candidates in the polls for the 2024 election are Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico City’s former mayor, and Xóchitl Gálvez, a senator representing the center-right opposition bloc.
The polls point to another first: Sheinbaum, currently the frontrunner, could become the country’s first Jewish president, too.
Earlier this month, Sheinbaum, 61, was announced as the candidate for the left-wing Morena party, which has been led by the country’s outgoing president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Since then, her momentum has only grown — a poll taken by the El Pais newspaper has 47% of voters supporting her, while Gálvez, her closest competitor, notched 30%.
If elected, Sheinbaum would join the ranks of the few Jews outside Israel who have been elected to their country’s highest office, including Janet Jagan of Guyana, Ricardo Maduro of Honduras, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski of Peru and Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
Here is a primer on Sheinbaum and how her Jewishness has become part of the campaign.
She is a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and political liberal who has beaten back crime.
Born to two science professors in Mexico City, Sheinbaum herself studied physics and became an engineering professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Her research focused on, among other things, energy usage in Mexico’s buildings and transportation system. Along with a group of other experts on the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, she would go on to win the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
As Mexico City’s head of government, Obrador appointed Sheinbaum as his environmental secretary in 2000. She became a close ally and joined his new left-wing Morena party (named after the country’s Catholic patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe) in the early 2010s. In 2015, she was elected mayor of Tlalpan, Mexico City’s largest borough, before becoming mayor of the entire city in 2018. She stepped down as mayor this summer to enter the presidential race.
Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum gestures as she speaks on the day she is certified as presidential candidate for the ruling National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party during a ceremony, in Mexico City, Mexico September 10, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/HENRY ROMERO)
Like the term-limited Obrador — whose approval rating of over 60% has been one of the highest in the world — Sheinbaum’s platform includes fighting Mexico’s deeply rooted corruption, continuing cash transfers to Mexico’s most vulnerable populations and developing Mexico’s energy sovereignty. But Sheinbaum will likely be more pro-environment than Obrador — while the current president has bolstered Mexico’s oil industry, Sheinbaum has said most of the country’s future “has to be related to renewable energy.”
As mayor of Mexico City, Sheinbaum led the city through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. While Obrador appeared to minimize the threat of the virus, Sheinbaum advocated for masks and increased testing early on. And in a country plagued by violence, she has reduced her city’s murder rate by nearly half.
But some controversy also brewed during her time as mayor. Despite expanding public transport, there were at least a dozen accidents, some deadly, in the city’s subway system. Critics say she hasn’t done enough to fix the city’s crumbling infrastructure.
Sheinbaum also faced controversy involving infrastructure disaster as head of Tlalpan. In 2017, during an earthquake that killed more than 300 people in total, an elementary school collapsed in Sheinbaum’s district, killing 19 children and six adults. An apartment had been built on top of the school, destabilizing it, and some criticized her for allowing district officials to approve the construction permits. She apologized for what happened, but some parents of the deceased children still hold her accountable.
Her Jewish identity is more political than religious
Sheinbaum had Ashkenazi grandparents who immigrated from Lithuania in the 1920s and Sephardic grandparents who left Sofia, Bulgaria, in the 1940s to escape the Holocaust. She has said that she celebrated holidays at her grandparents’ houses, but at home, her family life was secular.
Sources told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2018 that Sheinbaum feels connected to the history of Jews in political activism, but not as much so to the religion or its traditions. Like many secular, leftist Jews in Mexico, her parents moved to the south of the city to be closer to the National Autonomous University of Mexico, a hotbed of political activism. She told a group of Jewish women voters during her mayoral campaign in 2018 that she was a proud Jewish woman.
She also hasn’t made any public pronouncement about Israel or spoken as a member of a minority, even though Jews make up less than 1% of the capital city’s population. It is not known if she belongs to any synagogue or other Jewish institution.
At several places, angry protestors confronted the police and other security agencies. The police finally used batons and tear gas to disperse the crowds. Many are reported to be injured in the incident.
Manipur: There were clashes between the mob and the police outside the Sinjamei police station.
Violence spiked once again in parts of Manipur valley, including state capital Imphal, as protesters clashed with police in multiple areas. Batons and tear gas shells were used and many people were injured, reports said.
The situation has been escalating since the arrest of five men, who were caught in the uniform of security forces and carrying with sophisticated arms on September 16.
It led to widespread protests and demonstrations in the valley areas. Demanding the unconditional release of the detained men, a 48-hour lockdown was enforced in the Valley from Tuesday by the locals. Monday was the unofficial strike.
This afternoon, women demonstrators marched to police stations across five valley districts areas, demanding the unconditional release of the detainees. If not, they demanded that they also be arrested.
At several places, angry protestors confronted the police and other security agencies. The police finally used batons and tear gas to disperse the crowds. Many are reported to be injured in the incident.
Around 1am on Thursday, four men barged into houses of migrant labourers working at two fish farms on village outskirts, held them hostage at gunpoint before killing a woman and raping three others besides fleeing with ₹18,000, a mobile phone and ornaments
Panipat superintendent of police Ajit Singh Shekhawat said, “Two incidents were reported at two locations. At one spot, a man and his ailing wife were targeted and the woman died. While at another farm, three women were allegedly raped and ₹13,000 were robbed.” (iSTock)
The 45-year-old ailing wife of a migrant labourer was killed and three other women members of two families were raped when armed men targeted two fish farms on the outskirts of a village under Matlauda police station in Panipat district early on Thursday.
Police said the victims belonged to two families that worked at the fish farms of local farmers. The victims told the police that around 1am, four men carrying weapons barged into the first dera or farm house and targeted the couple.
They allegedly thrashed them, hit the woman on the chest and took away their mobile phone and ₹5,000.
“The accused were speaking Haryanvi and were carrying a pistol and a sword. They slapped me and hit my wife. She died few hours later”, alleged one of the victims.
The accused then allegedly hit another farm. According to the victims, they tied the hands of the male members and children and took the women into a room and raped them repeatedly, before robbing the house. They also thrashed a woman who resisted. The robbers locked the women in a room and fled with ₹13,000 and ornaments.
A bus carrying members of a high school marching band on a trip to a music camp ran off a highway and tumbled down a steep ravine in New York state on Thursday, killing two people and injuring dozens of others, several of them severely.
Reuters Graphics
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, speaking at a news conference hours later, said it appeared likely “a faulty front tire contributed to the accident,” though the cause of the wreck remained under investigation.
Lieutenant Colonel Richard Mazzone of the New York State Police said the wreck killed two adult women who were among 44 passengers, 40 students and four adults, headed from Farmington High School on Long Island to Pennsylvania.
Hochul said five or six other people were critically injured. One of the dead was a faculty adviser for the school’s band program.
Dozens of students suffered minor bumps and bruises and were seen walking around the scene after the crash. The injured were taken to a half-dozen area hospitals.
“Imagine the fear, the screams in the aftermath. These high school students, many of them freshmen were surrounded by this chaos,” Hochul said.
The two dead were identified as Beatrice Ferarri, 77, of Farmingdale, and Gina Pellettiere, 43, of the nearby Long Island town of Massapequa. Pellettiere was one of three advisers to the marching band, as well as the lone adviser to both the school’s jazz and “pep” bands, the Farmingdale High School website shows.
In a Facebook posting, an individual named Ray Eugenio wrote that his grandson was among those injured in the wreck and asked for prayers.
“He was involved in a very serious accident and we do not know the extent of his injuries,” the post said. The account could not be independently verified.
The crash occurred in the early afternoon along Interstate 84 near the town of Wawayanda, about 75 miles (120 km) northwest of New York City near the border with New Jersey. The New York State Police said in a posting on social media the westbound lanes of the highway were closed at that point.
The building in the central business district has been described as an “informal settlement” where homeless people had moved in looking for accommodation.
At least 74 people have been killed in a fire in a multi-storey building in South Africa’s biggest city, authorities have said.
Officials said 55 more were injured in the blaze in Johannesburg, which broke out in the middle of the night.
Robert Mulaudzi, a spokesman for the emergency services, has warned the number of fatalities may rise further – as more people could be trapped inside.
There were “obstructions” everywhere, and this would have made it difficult to escape.
Firefighters work at the scene of a deadly blaze
Firefighters have been currently going from floor to floor – working slowly through the building’s five storeys.
“Over 20 years in the service, I’ve never come across something like this,” Mr Mulaudzi added.
Witnesses saw people throwing babies from the burning building in an attempt to save them – and at least one man jumped to his death.
Seven of the victims were children – and the youngest was a year old.
One woman who escaped the flames with her grown son and a two-year-old said she didn’t know what had happened to two other children in her family.
The building in the central business district has been described as an “informal settlement” where homeless people had moved in looking for accommodation. Some of the victims may have been renting rooms from criminal gangs.
According to witnesses, at least 200 people may have been living there – maybe more – and many of them were foreign nationals.
People looking for their loved ones have been warned that chances of finding them alive are “very slim”.
One woman looking for her daughter tearfully told reporters: “This is not a place where somebody can live. I was trying to get her to come back home so she could get back to the life she was living before.”
The blaze was reported on the third floor of the hotel at around 1.17 pm after which four fire tenders rushed to the spot.
Mumbai: Three people died while five people were injured in a fire that broke out in the Galaxy Hotel in the Santacruz area of Mumbai on Sunday afternoon. Police and local authorities have rushed to the spot.
The blaze was reported on the third floor of the ground-plus four-storey hotel at around 1.17 pm after which four fire tenders and as many water tankers were rushed to the spot.
According to the fire brigade, the blaze was confined to electric wiring, electric installation, split AC unit, curtain, mattresses, wooden furniture of room number 103 and 203.
The fire was also confined to electric wiring in common electric duct, laundry cloths, and blankets from the staircase lobby from the first floor to third floor of the hotel.
The Fire was extinguished using three small hose lines, one high pressure first aid line. The fire was categorized as Level 1 and was doused at 3.20 pm.
Two persons identified as Rupal Kanji (25), Kishan (28) and Kantilal Gordhan Vara (48) were declared brought dead by VN Desai hospital authorities. Alfa Vakhariya (19) and Manjula Vakhariya (49) are injured and are under treatment,” he said.
The Fire was extinguished using three small hose lines, one high pressure first aid line. The fire was categorized as Level 1 and was doused at 3.20 pm.
Two persons identified as Rupal Kanji (25), Kishan (28) and Kantilal Gordhan Vara (48) were declared brought dead by VN Desai hospital authorities. Alfa Vakhariya (19) and Manjula Vakhariya (49) are injured and are under treatment,” he said.
