14 killed and 180,000 displaced in Israeli offensive in Khan Younis
Nearly 182,000 Palestinians have been forced to flee Khan Younis due to Israeli bombardment since Monday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
Hundreds of people are trapped as the Israeli military has “intensified hostilities” in the southern Gaza region, sparking a “new wave of internal displacement”, the UN agency said, according to AFP.
Palestinian authorities said Israeli attacks killed at least 14 people in Khan Younis since dawn on Saturday.
At least 12 Palestinians were also killed in an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in the Deir Al-Balah area of central Gaza, the local civil defence said.
The Israeli military on Saturday again ordered Palestinians to leave southern Khan Younis, which it had earlier designated as a humanitarian zone, so it could “forcefully operate” against Hamas fighters who were allegedly firing rockets from there.
It was the second evacuation order issued in a week in an area designated for Palestinians fleeing Israel’s air and ground offensive in Gaza. Many of these displaced civilians have been uprooted more than once as Israel has expanded its war across the territory.
Khan Younis is part of a 60sqkm “humanitarian zone” to which Israel has been ordering Palestinians to escape throughout the ongoing war. The area is blanketed with tent camps that lack basic facilities like sanitation and medical aid, UN and humanitarian groups say.
The Israeli military on Friday claimed to have battled Palestinian fighters and destroyed tunnels in the area.
The fighting, nine months into Israel’s invasion of Gaza, underlines the difficulty the military faces in putting down continued resistance from Hamas.
Israel’s latest war on Gaza has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. It has also displaced nearly 90 per cent of the territory’s 2.2 million population, according to the main UN agency for Palestinian refugees Unrwa.
The offensive came after Hamas attacked southern Israel last October, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking 250 hostage.
The Israeli military claimed on Saturday that its calls to evacuate were relayed to the displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis via several mediums in order to mitigate danger to civilians.
UN and humanitarian agencies accuse Israel of using disproportionate force, which it denies.
Israel accused Hamas of putting civilians in harm’s way by operating from densely populated neighbourhoods, an allegation the group denies.
Additional reporting by agencies.
Bali cracks down after tourists being tricked into eating dog meat
Officials in Bali cracked down on vendors after a recent investigation showed that Australian tourists were being duped into eating dog meat skewers during holiday on the picturesque Indonesian island.
They also seized hundreds of kilograms of raw dog meat and hundreds of skewers on Thursday despite a blanket ban on such meat trade on the popular resort island.
At least 500 dog meat skewers were seized by public order officers in Bali’s Jembrana district along with 56kg of raw dog meat from another seller in the area after a round of inspections, reported AFP.
Public order authorities were carrying out inspections this week and found three dog meat sellers who were still selling the banned meat despite local regulations, said Bali Public Order Agency head Dewa Nyoman Rai Dharmadi.
The crackdown is harsher on the repeat offenders who knew about the ban and still continued trading but a seller who was unaware of the restrictions will get a chance to switch to another meat trade, Mr Dewa said.
He added that a dog satay seller has been let go with a warning because he was not previously caught trading. But the other two sellers were repeat offenders with minor criminal offences filed against them at a local court. They will appear for a trial next month, he said.
“We won’t suddenly take legal action, but we are giving them the chance to know the ban and why it was banned. But we will process recurrent (sellers) for deterrent effect. We’re not playing around,” he said.
Bali has a strict ban on the dog meat trade, carrying a punishment of up to three months in prison or a fine of up to 50m rupiah (£2300) for those found guilty.
A recent investigation showed that Australian tourists were being tricked into eating dog meat during their holidays in Bali, said Animals International, an NGO voicing concerns against animal cruelty.
Dogs are commonly eaten in Southeast and East Asia, in countries such as China, Vietnam, and North Korea. They are also consumed in some African nations but all these regions are witnessing an overhaul in consumption due to the cruel and unregulated dog meat industry.
In recent times, South Korea’s dog meat industry has drawn more attention because of the country’s reputation as a cultural and economic powerhouse.
Several animal rights activists have flagged the practice of sale and consumption of dog and cat meat due to the “cruelty of trade”. Animals International said the dog trade meat inflicts terrible suffering on dogs and also creates significant health and safety risks for tourists and locals alike.
It said many dogs are poisoned on the street or beaches to cater to the trade demands and “others were brutally caught, muzzled with tape, tied up and shoved into bags to await their fate”.
“Some were kept like this for over 24 hours before being strangled, or clubbed to death,” the NGO said.
Murder suspects arrested in Mumbai after ‘real-life Memento’ case
Indian police were able to arrest several suspects accused of murder after they found tattoos on the dead man’s body naming individuals he believed wanted to harm him, in an eerie parallel to the Christopher Nolan film Memento.
Guru Waghmare was killed inside a spa in the Worli area of India’s financial capital of Mumbai around 3am on Wednesday. According to Worli police, Waghmare was extremely well-known to the police as an informer, reported Indian news daily Hindustan Times.
However, he also had a series of criminal cases registered against him on allegations of extortion, rape, and molestation.
According to local media reports, Waghmare was a frequent patron of the Soft Touch Spa, and had taken a few staff members to a restaurant on his birthday. After dinner ended, everyone returned to the spa and allegedly planned to spend the night there.
Police said three male staff members stepped outside around 2.30am, and two unidentified men entered the spa and fatally stabbed Waghmare several times.
“The incident took place in the middle of the night but police were informed only at 2pm after which a team was sent to the spot and a case of murder was registered,” said a senior police officer, reported Indian news daily The Indian Express.
While conducting an autopsy, the police found the names of 22 individuals on his thigh, as people who were likely responsible if anything unfortunate were to happen to him – in a manner similar to Nolan’s 2000 psychological thriller. Memento follows Leonard Shelby (Pearce), a man with short-term memory loss who uses photographs, notes, and tattoos in an attempt to uncover his wife’s murderer.
Santosh Sherekar, the owner of the spa in which the murder took place, as well as another spa owner named Mohamed Firoz Ansari were arrested.
“The deceased, RTI activist Guru Waghmare, would threaten and extort money from spa owners in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane. Likewise, he harassed spa owners in neighbouring states as well due to which there are about eight FIRs and 22 non-cognisable offences registered against him,” a senior police officer told The Indian Express.
Mr Sherekar was allegedly being extorted by Waghmare, and Mr Ansari’s spa had been shut down after a raid in 2023. Mr Ansari had refused to pay Waghmare, who then made a complaint to the police leading to the raid, the police said.
The two men decided to work together and allegedly hired a contract killer named Sakib, from the Indian capital Delhi, and offered him Rs400,000 (£3,712) for the job, police said.
CCTV footage from the spa as well as the restaurant helped police put together the sequence of events. The police found two men, who tried to hide their identity by wearing a raincoat, following Waghmare from the restaurant to the bar, but then noticed that they also stopped to buy something from a small shop nearby.
An investigation revealed that the payment was made by UPI, and the account linked to the payment belonged to Mr Ansari. The police were able to track Mr Ansari down to his home, where he allegedly confessed to the crime and named his accomplices.
Mr Sakib, who had left the city by train the night of the murder, was found and arrested from a station in Kota, a city in the North Indian state of Rajasthan. Two more people with him, also suspects, have been arrested.
Jimmy Lai to testify in own trial as judge refuses to dismiss case
Former media mogul Jimmy Lai will have to wait for several more months before he can take the stand to defend himself in a high-profile national security case in Hong Kong that critics have slammed as a show trial by the Chinese government.
Mr Lai, 76, founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper, could be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty of sedition and collusion with foreign powers under the draconian national security law.
The West Kowloon court on Thursday refused to dismiss the trial against Mr Lai. “Having considered all the submissions we ruled that the first defendant has a case to answer on all the charges,” judge Esther Toh said.
The court adjourned the hearing until 20 November.
Mr Lai’s defence, led by Robert Pang, had argued that the prosecution didn’t present evidence of the businessman’s involvement in a criminal plot to instigate international sanctions against Hong Kong.
To the prosecution’s allegation that Mr Lai used the Apple Daily as a platform to conspire against the city’s government, Mr Pang replied that the paper published a spectrum of views.
He pointed out that freedom of the press was guaranteed under the city’s Basic Law and the Bill of Rights Ordinance.
It marked the 92nd day of proceedings on a trial that was originally estimated to last 80 days. The four-month delay is because the three judges, each handpicked by the government, will handle other unrelated High Court criminal cases.
During his trial the businessman, who was first detained in 2020 and has remained in solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison for nearly four years, has appeared in court dressed in suits and wearing a scarf around his neck, greeting his wife and children in the courtroom while appearing calm.
Several Western governments, human rights groups and his colleagues have criticised Mr Lai’s trial as a sham.
Nearly 175 people, including US and British nationals, have been named as co-conspirators in the case against Mr Lai, who was jailed in 2020.
Human rights campaigner Luke de Pulford, an alleged co-conspirator in the case, said on Thursday the trial is a “ludicrous travesty of justice”.
“No amount of posturing around in wigs can cover up the fact that this is Chinese Communist Party lawfare, plain and simple,” Mr Pulford told The Independent. “Shamefully the UK has barely lifted a finger to help him, despite the fact Jimmy is a British citizen and his case represents a violation of an international agreement with Britain.”
Britain returned Hong Kong to China in 1997 after 156 years of colonial rule. But many legal traditions from the colonial era linger on, with judges wearing silver horsehair wigs and dark robes with lilac facings to court.
Mark Simon, an American who worked at Apple Daily, criticised the court’s decision to delay Mr Lai’s hearing until a November date, saying it will keep the diabetes patient for an extended period.
“My boss, Jimmy Lai is 76, diabetic, kept in solitary confinement, no communication with outside world. The HK government just delayed Mr Lai’s testimony until 20 November,” Mr Simon, another co-conspirator in the case, said. “It is not just Mr Lai’s newspaper they didn’t want you to read, it’s Jimmy Lai they do not want you to hear.”
North Korea snubs Trump for saying Kim misses him: ‘We don’t care’
North Korea delivered a stinging rebuke to Donald Trump for flaunting his supposedly friendly relations with Kim Jong-un, saying “we do not care” about the Republican.
The state-run Korean Central News Agency ran an editorial after the former president said Washington’s relations with the East Asian country would improve if he was re-elected in November.
“No matter what administration takes office in the US, the political climate, which is confused by the infighting of the two parties, does not change and, accordingly, we do not care about this,” the state news agency said.
It rejected the idea that Mr Trump’s first presidency had a substantial impact on US-North Korea relations, and said personal connections and diplomacy should be looked at separately.
And it said it had no interest in talking to a possible second Trump administration if all it offers are “dialogue with sinister attempts and dialogue as an extension of confrontation”.
Speaking at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week, Mr Trump flaunted his supposedly strong personal ties with Mr Kim and suggested the North Korean leader probably wanted him back in the White House. “I think he misses me,” the former president said.
While acknowledging Mr Trump’s attempt to improve relations during his presidency, the North Korean news agency said that it brought no substantial positive change.
Mr Kim and Mr Trump had a complicated relationship. They initially exchanged barbs, with Mr Trump threatening to unleash “fire and fury” after Mr Kim tested a series of nuclear weapons in 2017 and KCNA responding by calling him a “dotard” and his envoys “gangsters”.
But they went on to what seemed to be a historic diplomatic breakthrough in 2018, holding summits in Singapore and Hanoi in the next two years.
At the 2018 summit in Singapore, they signed a statement agreeing to work towards the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and improving relations.
The engagement declined after the 2019 Hanoi summit ended abruptly without an agreement, mainly due to differences over sanctions relief and denuclearisation steps.
Mr Trump has claimed that he and Mr Kim had been exchanging letters and had fallen in love.
After Joe Biden took over as president from Mr Trump in early 2021, Washington deepended ties with the US’s long-time allies in the region South Korea and Japan, conducting regular defensive drills in the Korean Peninsula rather than engaging directly with the Kim regime.
Bright blue water flows from taps in Delhi – residents are mystified
Residents in India’s capital Delhi say they are alarmed and concerned after the water coming out of their taps turned an unnatural bright blue last week.
Some 50 homes in west Delhi were affected by the phenomenon over the weekend, sparking an outcry and demands for an explanation.
Mausami Devi, 55, told The Independent at her home in the Peeragarhi neighbourhood that she was used to occasional problems with their water supply – but nothing that compares to the vivid blue-coloured liquid that poured out of the taps on Saturday.
“It is so blue it stains your hand and doesn’t wash off even with soap,” she told The Independent.
“It’s been like this for the last four days,” she said as she fetched a bucket of water to back up her claim.
“I didn’t open the supply to my tank on Sunday because I was concerned that it would be polluted,” she said.
“The tank was empty by Monday and we needed water for everyday chores. But as you can see, it is still not clean,” she said, pointing at her bucket. “It is not as bad as it was on Saturday, but it is still blue.”
There is little clarity as to the source of contamination, with residents accusing local officials of inaction on the matter.
Peeragarhi village head Vinod Shaukeen, who is associated with prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said he sent “a swift complaint” to the Delhi Jal Board, the water authority in the city, when he learned about the contamination.
It was likely caused by sewage and chemical waste from denim-dyeing factories in the area, he said.
“There are at least eight to 10 such companies. After we raised a complaint, the people running the factories abandoned them and ran away,” he claimed.
According to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, denim-dyeing is permitted only in “approved industrial areas and Peeragarhi falls out of it”.
Peeragarhi’s villagers, however, are sympathetic to the illegal denim-dyeing factories because they provide employment.
“Joblessness is a real problem,” said Than Singh Yadav, 61, a village council representative. He said adverse action against the factories could drive them away and leave many residents without work.
“The main issue is how the contaminated water reached us,” Mr Yadav said.
“Blue colour from denim wash has helped us realise that the dirty water isn’t coming from a broken pipeline but from sewage discharge.”
The village has been getting “unclean water supply for four to six months”, Mr Yadav said. “Everytime we complain, authorities say that the pipeline is damaged due to metro construction. At least now we know it is waste water contamination.”
Bhanu Pratap, the Delhi Jal Board supervisor in the area, said he received a complaint about the blue water on Tuesday morning.
“The drinking water pipe had decayed and water from sewage blocking the road was contaminating the supply,” he said.
“The blue water is from jeans-dyeing factories that dump denim on the road. That too was polluting the supply water.”
The Independent could not verify the claims independently.
Mr Pratap said they repaired the broken connection, “resolving the issue in 70 per cent of the households”.
“We also got the sewer cleaned.”
Authorities have collected samples from the area to test and narrow down the source of contamination, Mr Pratap said.
Sub divisional magistrate Virendra Singh Tomar, administrative head of the area, said the matter was under investigation.
He would not say if any action had been taken against officials responsible for maintenance of water supply lines or against the denim factories operating illegally in the area.
“Give me a few days,” he said. “We are preparing a report on the issue.”
How pilot survived Nepal plane crash that killed everyone else onboard
The pilot of a Saurya Airlines plane that crashed at Kathmandu airport in Nepal on Wednesday survived likely because the cockpit got stuck on a container, civil aviation minister Badri Pandey said.
The small aircraft struck a container at the edge of the Tribhuvan International Airport and the cockpit was found lodged inside it.
Captain Manish Ratna Shakya was rescued from the cockpit within five minutes of the crash. He suffered head and facial injuries and is expected to undergo surgery for broken bones in his back.
“The pilot survived. He is in a stable condition,” Nepal police spokesperson Dan Bahadur Karki said. “It was a miracle.”
Senior police superintendent Dambar Bishwakarma told the BBC the pilot was facing difficulty breathing when he was found.
“We broke the window and immediately pulled him out,” he said. “He had blood all over his face when he was rescued, but we took him to the hospital in a condition where he could speak.”
The CRJ 200 plane bound for Pokhara was carrying 19 people, mostly crew and technical staff, but no paying passengers, when the crash occurred just after 11am local time. The pilot was the sole survivor of the crash.
According to Reuters the aircraft was transporting the technicians to Pokhara, where another plane was awaiting repairs. It flipped during takeoff, struck the ground with its wing tip and caught fire before crashing into a gorge.
“That was an unusual sound. It was a big bang like a bomb,” an eyewitness told The Kathmandu Post.
“Shortly after takeoff from runway 2, the aircraft veered off to the right and crashed on the east side of the runway,” the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said.
Mr Pandey said the fuselage split apart, struck the slope of the tabletop airport and bounced 50 metres away before finally coming to rest on the muddy ground. “The other part of the plane crashed into a nearby mound and it tore into pieces,” he said.
The cause of the crash isn’t clear yet. But experts who reviewed footage of the incident suggested it may have been caused by “climb failure”, meaning the plane could not gain altitude as it tried to take off, according to The Indian Express.
Possible reasons for “climb failure” include engine failure, improper weight assessment during pre-flight planning, technical issues, or pilot error.
Weather conditions on Wednesday morning were typical for the monsoon season, with low visibility but no rain.
Dirga Bahadur Khadka, granduncle of co-pilot Sushant Katwal, who was killed in the crash, blamed the airline. “We suspect that the company put pressure on the pilots into flying the plane,” he was quoted as saying by The Kathmandu Post.
“Otherwise, no one would like to fly a plane with technical problems. A question also arises about the civil aviation authority, the aviation sector regulator. How could it allow planes with technical problems to fly?”
Saurya Airlines has reportedly been financially troubled for years, worsened by the Covid pandemic. Last year, it proposed switching to ATR-72 aircraft and promised to uphold safety standards until the new planes arrived. However, the airline couldn’t secure the necessary investment for fleet replacement.
An investigation will determine the exact cause of the crash.
The Independent has reached out to the airline for comment.
Nepal has a troubled aviation history due to its mountainous terrain and rapidly changing weather conditions.
The latest crash was the 105th since the country started operating flights in the 1950s, The Kathmandu Post quoted the civil aviation agency as saying.
The Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives has recorded 69 aviation accidents in the Himalayan country since 1946, causing around 900 fatalities.
It has been a concern in Nepal that many of its aircraft are ageing and lack standard equipment and modern maintenance. Flightradar24, a flight tracking website, said it did not track the crashed Saurya Airlines flight because the aircraft “was not equipped with a modern ADS-B transponder”.
In 2013, the European Union banned all Nepalese aircraft from entering its airspace due to the South Asian country’s inadequate aviation safety regulations and enforcement. It cited “safety information from various sources and a hearing both with Nepalese aviation authorities as well as with a number of Nepalese carriers” to justify the blanket prohibition.
In December last year, the European Commission decided to keep the ban due to ongoing safety concerns.
It recognised the Nepalese Civil Aviation Authority’s work to improve safety oversight but said the agency’s capacity to meet international standards remained questionable.
In August 2022, the UN aviation watchdog, International Civil Aviation Organisation, asked Nepal to split its Civil Aviation Authority into separate regulatory and operational entities.
The separation is a crucial reform agenda that has reportedly been pending for the past decade and a half.
In July 2023, before a planned EU safety audit, Nepal’s tourism ministry submitted draft bills to create an independent aviation regulator in a bid to have the aviation ban lifted. They were reportedly halted by the government.
Marco Chan, a senior lecturer in aviation operations at Buckinghamshire New University’s School of Aviation and Security, said the Tribhuvan International Airport faces challenges due to its high elevation of 4,390 feet and mountainous terrain.
“It is important to note that the minimum safe altitude within 25 nautical miles of the airport’s navigation aid is 21,100 feet which affects the carefully designed departure and arrival routes that navigate around the terrain. These factors lead to the airport being classified as a category C airport, which means pilots require additional qualifications and training to operate flights safely in and out of the airport,” he said in a statement shared with The Independent.
“In this scenario, ‘high elevation’ means that the airport is in an area with lower air density. As a result, aircraft will generally require a higher speed for takeoff, which may necessitate a longer takeoff distance. Additionally, the engine power will be more limited than at sea level.”
Mr Chan, however, noted the recent crash could have resulted from engine failure or stall, possibly caused by incorrect flap settings.
China cancels flights as Typhoon Gaemi nears after killing three
Taiwan’s coast guard is working to rescue dozens of sailors stranded off its southern coast after Typhoon Gaemi sank one freighter and left eight others stranded.
The typhoon flooded streets, knocked out power and killed at least five people in Taiwan before heading to China. It earlier killed 22 people in the Philippines.
Seventy-nine crew members are awaiting rescue on the eight freighters that were stranded, the coast guard said. Nine people were rescued earlier today from a Togo-flagged freighter stranded on a beach.
Typhoon Gaemi made landfall in China on Thursday evening, after officials issued widespread flood warnings and evacuations.
More than 290,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Fujian while emergency responses were put in place and flights and trains have been cancelled.
Gaemi is forecast to unleash intense rainfall in at least 10 Chinese provinces, including the capital Beijing, in the coming days, areas that have already been soaked by days of rainfall.
Gaemi has drawn comparisons with Typhoon Doksuri last year, which triggered historic flooding as far north as Beijing and caused nationwide losses of nearly $30bn.