RUSSIA
Over 30,000 evacuated
Commissioner for Human Rights of Russia Tatyana Moskalkova yesterday said that 30,415 people, including nearly 8,000 children, have been evacuated from areas bordering Ukraine due to shelling and attacks. Moskalkova told news outlet Argumenty I Fakty in an interview that the evacuees have been placed in nearly 1,000 temporary accommodation centers across the nation. Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into the Kursk region in August, taking control of dozens of settlements and holding most positions since. Moskalkova said she had received appeals regarding more than 1,000 Russian citizens from Kursk, whose whereabouts are unknown and who were said to have been taken by Ukrainian forces. Reuters could not independently verify Moskalkova’s reports. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.
AFGHANISTAN
Image ban to be enforced
The Taliban yesterday pledged to implement a law banning news media from publishing images of all living things, with journalists told the rule would be gradually enforced. “The law applies to all Afghanistan... and it will be implemented gradually” by persuading people images of living things are against Islamic law, Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice spokesman Saiful Islam Khyber said. The Taliban government judiciary recently announced legislation formalizing their strict interpretations of Islamic law imposed by the authorities since they swept to power in 2021. The law detailed several rules for news media, including banning the publication of images of all living things and ordering outlets not to mock or humiliate Islam, or contradict Islamic law. Television and pictures of living things were banned under the previous Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, but a similar edict has so far not been broadly imposed since their return to power.
MEXICO
Five beheaded bodies found
Authorities on Sunday said they had found the bodies of five decapitated men on a road in western Jalisco state, the latest grisly find in the violence-plagued nation. The bodies were found in black plastic bags in the municipality of Ojuelos, the state prosecutors’ office said. “A report was received indicating that, on the asphalt strip of the road ... there were several bags that looked like human silhouettes,” it said. Upon arriving at the site, National Guard members found the headless bodies of five men, wearing only pants. Nearby, they found another bag containing what appeared to be the heads of the victims, the office said, adding that forensic scientists were combing the area for evidence. The violence in Jalisco is blamed chiefly on the Jalisco Nueva Generacion Cartel, one of nation’s most powerful and violent criminal groups. Official figures showed that 1,415 people were murdered in Jalisco in the first nine months of this year.
HONG KONG
Eight monkeys found dead
Eight animals were on Sunday found dead at the Zoological and Botanical Gardens, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department said in a statement, adding that necropsy and laboratory tests had been arranged to find out the cause of deaths. The animals were a De Brazza’s monkey, one common squirrel monkey, three cotton-top tamarins and three white-faced sakis, it said. While awaiting test results, the mammals section of the zoo was shut yesterday for disinfection and cleaning. “We will also closely monitor the health conditions of other animals,” it said.
The Philippine Department of Justice yesterday labeled Vice President Sara Duterte the “mastermind” of a plot to assassinate the nation’s president, giving her five days to respond to a subpoena. Duterte is being asked to explain herself in the wake of a blistering weekend press conference where she said she had instructed that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr be killed should an alleged plot to kill her succeed. “The government is taking action to protect our duly elected president,” Philippine Undersecretary of Justice Jesse Andres said at yesterday’s press briefing. “The premeditated plot to assassinate the president as declared by the self-confessed mastermind
Texas’ education board on Friday voted to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools, joining other Republican-led US states that pushed this year to give religion a larger presence in public classrooms. The curriculum adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, is optional for schools to adopt, but they would receive additional funding if they do so. The materials could appear in classrooms as early as next school year. Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has voiced support for the lesson plans, which were provided by the state’s education agency that oversees the more than
Ireland, the UK and France faced travel chaos on Saturday and one person died as a winter storm battered northwest Europe with strong winds, heavy rain, snow and ice. Hampshire Police in southern England said a man died after a tree fell onto a car on a major road near Winchester early in the day. Police in West Yorkshire said they were probing whether a second death from a traffic incident was linked to the storm. It is understood the road was not icy at the time of the incident. Storm Bert left at least 60,000 properties in Ireland without power, and closed
CONSPIRACIES: Kano suspended polio immunization in 2003 and 2004 following claims that polio vaccine was laced with substances that could render girls infertile Zuwaira Muhammad sat beside her emaciated 10-month-old twins on a clinic bed in northern Nigeria, caring for them as they battled malnutrition and malaria. She would have her babies vaccinated if they regain their strength, but for many in Kano — a hotbed of anti-vaccine sentiment — the choice is not an obvious one. The infants have been admitted to the 75-bed clinic in the Unguwa Uku neighbourhood, one of only two in the city of 4.5 million run by French aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Kano has the highest malaria burden in Nigeria, but the city has long
RSS