Children among dozens dead in drone attack in Myanmar, witnesses say
Dozens of people, including families with children, have been killed in a drone attack on Rohingya people fleeing Myanmar, witnesses have reported. The Rohingya are a mostly Muslim minority facing severe persecution in the country.
The attack is reported to have occurred last Monday, in Rakhine state near the border with Bangladesh.
The strike killed a heavily pregnant woman and her two-year-old daughter, while survivors were seen identifying their dead and injured relatives at the site, which was littered with piles of bodies, according to Reuters.
Activists, a diplomat and four other witnesses confirmed the attack on families trying to cross the Myanmar border into Bangladesh. This is the worst attack on civilians in Rakhine state in recent weeks, with fierce fighting between rebels and troops of the military junta currently in control of Myanmar.
According to three witnesses present at the spot, the Arakan Army, one of several armed groups currently fighting in Myanmar, was responsible. The militia group has rejected this.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the junta seized power from a democratically elected government in 2021, with mass protests evolving into widespread armed struggle.
Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi was removed from power by the military, sentenced to house arrest, and is currently serving a 27-year prison term on various criminal convictions in a specially built annex of the main prison in the capital, Naypyidaw, (though she was reportedly recently transferred to house arrest because of the extremely hot weather).
Meanwhile, Rohingya have been fleeing Rakhine for weeks as the Arakan Army has made significant gains in the north, which is home to a large Muslim population.
On Monday, visuals of the attack posted on social media showed piles of bodies strewn across muddy ground, with suitcases and backpacks scattered around them. Three survivors reported that more than 200 people had died, and a witness to the aftermath stated he had seen at least 70 bodies.
The Independent has not verified the claims on the ground. The location of the attack site has been placed just outside the coastal Myanmar town of Maungdaw by Reuters.
One man said his wife and two-year-old daughter were injured in the attack and later died of their wounds.
He said he was standing with them on the shore when drones began attacking the crowds. The man, named as Eleyas, 35, is now in a refugee camp in Bangladesh.
“I heard the deafening sound of shelling multiple times,” he said. Eleyas said he lay on the ground to protect himself and when he got up, he saw his wife and daughter critically injured and many of his other relatives dead.
Another witness, 28-year-old Shamsuddin, speaking from a refugee camp, said he survived with his wife and newborn son. He described seeing many dead and reported that “some people were shouting out from the pain of their injuries”.
In another apparent attack on Monday, boats carrying fleeing Rohingya sunk in the Naf River, which separates Myanmar from Bangladesh. Witnesses and Bangladeshi media reported that dozens of people were killed.
At least 39 people were treated by Medecins Sans Frontieres(MSF) for violence-related injuries, including mortar shell and gunshot wounds, the aid organisation said. Patients described seeing people bombed while trying to find boats to cross the river, MSF said.
A spokesperson for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees said the agency was “aware of the deaths of refugees from the capsize of two boats in the Bay of Bengal”. They said they had heard reports of civilian deaths in Maungdaw but could not confirm the numbers or circumstances.
From protests to Olympic heartbreak: Vinesh Phogat’s stellar journey
When Vinesh Phogat walked out at the Champ-de-Mars Arena this week, she was hardly a favourite to qualify for the women’s 50kg freestyle wrestling final. Though regarded as one of the finest wrestlers to emerge from India, she had much to prove given what she had endured on her way to securing a ticket to the Paris Olympics.
From protesting on the streets for months demanding legal action against India’s wrestling federation chief over sexual harassment allegations to challenging social norms by taking up a sport traditionally considered unsuitable for women, Vinesh faced a Herculean’s task.
Coming from the conservative northern state of Haryana, Vinesh and her cousins Geeta Phogat and Babita Phogat overcame social barriers that restricted women to their homes.
Haryana is infamous for preferring boys over girls to the extent that, according to the 2011 census, its sex ratio was 879 women for 1,000 men, way below the national average of 943.
Vinesh was aided along by her uncle Mahavir Singh Phogat, an amateur wrestler and coach who introduced her to the sport early on, as he had his daughters Geeta and Babita.
Geeta would go on to win India’s first gold medal in women’s wrestling at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
The coach’s pivotal role in helping his daughters and niece succeed is memorialised in the hit Bollywood film Dangal.
Vinesh started her wrestling journey just as Geeta was establishing herself on the national stage. She would go on to win three Commonwealth golds, a pair of World Championships bronze medals and an Asian Games gold. She was also crowned Asian champion in 2021.
She was on the cusp of making history as her country’s first wrestler to win an Olympic silver, and possibly gold, when fate intervened. When she was weighed on the morning of her final match on Tuesday, she came in about 100g overweight and was instantly disqualified.
“It is with regret that the Indian contingent shares news of the disqualification of Vinesh Phogat from women’s wrestling 50kg class,” the Indian Olympic Association said.
Vinesh announced retirement from wrestling on Thursday.
The news of her disqualification evoked an outpouring of sympathy in India, with prime minister Narendra Modi describing her as a “champion among champions” on X.
Many of her compatriots hailed the wrestler as “inspiration”, as much for her fight inside the ring as outside.
Vinesh, 29, was a prominent face of last year’s protests against wrestling federation chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
Along with fellow Olympians Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik, she demonstrated on the streets of the capital Delhi to demand action against Mr Singh over sexual assault and intimidation charges, only to be manhandled by police.
They called off the protest after then federal sports minister Anurag Thakur promised a fair investigation but resumed it when Mr Singh was re-elected the federation’s chief.
The wrestlers were assaulted and detained by police when they marched to the new parliament on the day of its inauguration last May.
At the peak of protest, with her career on the line, Vinesh was asked about the source of her courage. “It’s from my mother,” she said.
She recounted her mother’s struggle as a single parent and battle with cancer. “She was about 32 when she became a widow,” Vinesh told The Indian Express.
“I feel sad thinking about it. She struggled for us. In that struggle we didn’t even realise when we grew up. A single woman, she would be taunted by others, how they treated her.
“She didn’t even know where to sit, where to get off. No one supported her. We grew up seeing her struggle. If a single woman like that, illiterate, could fight the society on her own and make us big wrestlers, then we can do it too.
“If we don’t speak out today then all the struggles of my mother would have gone to waste. I won medals, that’s all right, but if we win this battle, she will proudly say, ‘I gave birth to them’. I am proud that my mother showed so much strength and character, I guess that’s in me as well. Even my father was like that. I am also like that.”
In a public voice call on Tuesday, she told her smiling mother that she would win gold.
Two days on, retiring from the sport, she wrote: “Mother, wrestling won, I lost. Forgive me that I broke your dream, but I do not have courage and energy anymore.
“Goodbye wrestling 2001-2024, I will always be indebted to your support. Forgive me.”
Japan’s 7.1-magnitude earthquake sparks fresh concerns over megaquake
A powerful earthquake measuring magnitude 7.1 struck southwestern Japan on Thursday, triggering tsunami warnings for a number of the country’s western islands and causing mostly minor injuries.
The tremor occurred off the coast of Miyazaki Prefecture at 4.42pm local time (7.42am GMT), at a depth of about 18miles (29km), according to Japan’s meteorological agency.
Officials said nine people were injured on the island of Kyushu, but the injuries were mostly minor. There were no reports of serious damage and tsunami advisories were later lifted.
Earlier Japan’s earthquake monitors said the magnitude was 6.9, before this was revised up to 7.1. Officials issued a tsunami advisory and residents in the coastal Kochi and Miyazaki prefectures are being asked to evacuate their homes as a precautionary measure until the warning is lifted.
However, the quake prompted seismologists to hold an emergency meeting in which they reassessed and raised the level of risk of major quakes associated with the Nankai Trough east of southern Japan.
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued on Thursday its first-ever warning of the risk of a huge earthquake on the country’s Pacific coast, following the quake that struck Kyushu.
Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida cancelled his plans to visit central Asia for summits with regional leaders after weather officials flagged that the risk of a major Pacific coast earthquake was higher than usual, public broadcaster NHK said.
Although the warning does not indicate such a quake will definitely happen, Japan is set to cancel Mr Kishida’s trip in order to prepare for any eventuality, but hopes to hold some of the meetings online instead, NHK added.
The visit to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia was originally scheduled to run from Friday to Monday. Mr Kishida was to have travelled to Kazakhstan on Friday, followed by a visit to Uzbekistan before heading to Mongolia for a summit on Monday.
The meteorological agency’s advisory warns of a higher probability of a huge earthquake in the Nankai trough, an ocean-floor trench running along Japan’s Pacific coast, where previous quakes have triggered enormous tsunamis.
Japan estimates at 70 per cent to 80 per cent the probability of an earthquake of magnitude 8 or 9 happening around the trough in the next 30 years, according to the infrastructure ministry.
Advisories rather than warnings are issued when the waves are not expected to exceed 1m (3.3ft), meaning they are relatively minor but still pose a risk.
Some unverified videos on social media show cars and small structures shaking with several shops sustaining damage.
NHK said Miyazaki Port reported a surge of 20 inches, the largest so far.
The Miyazaki police chief told the broadcaster that they were checking if there had been any structural damage to buildings, but that so far no damage had been reported.
The Japanese government has set up a special task force in response to the quakes, AFP reported, citing a a statement. There were no immediate signs of major damage, according to the agency.
Japan, one of the world’s most tectonically active countries, has strict building standards designed to ensure structures can withstand even the most powerful earthquakes.
The country records more earthquakes, around 1,500 every year, than any other.
In 2011 Japan recorded its biggest earthquake on record with a massive magnitude of 9.0. The quake’s epicentre was just off its northeast coast and it triggered a large tsunami that left around 18,500 people dead or missing.
The catastrophe also sent three reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing Japan’s worst post-war disaster and the most serious nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
Additional reporting by agencies
British zoologist Adam Britton jailed for sexually abusing dogs
British zoologist Adam Britton has been sentenced to 10 years and five months in prison after he admitted to sexually abusing dozens of dogs in Australia.
The 53-year-old leading British crocodile expert confessed to bestiality and a plethora of animal sexual abuse charges filed against him in Australia in September last year.
Warning that some of the details of Britton’s crimes were too graphic to be published, Chief Justice Michael Grant suggested members of the public leave the courtroom at the Northern Territory Supreme Court.
“Your depravity falls outside any ordinary human conception,” the chief justice told Britton, according to the Australian Associated Press.
The popular zoologist who has worked on BBC and National Geographic productions pleaded guilty to 56 charges relating to bestiality and animal cruelty.
The court observed that the British zoologist had filmed himself torturing the animals until almost all died. He also uploaded the videos online under pseudonyms.
Members sitting in the public gallery were seen sobbing and gasping as the details of Britton’s violence and extensive offences were being read out. At least 39 dogs, including nine puppies, died as a result of the abuse by the Charles Darwin University academic.
Britton both tortured his own dogs and managed to source other canines from unsuspecting owners from Gumtree Australia in the Darwin region.
He encouraged others online to commit similar offences and shared advice on carrying out bestiality, according to the agreed facts of the case read out in court.
Justice Grant remarked: “Your sheer and unalloyed pleasure is sickeningly evident from the recorded material.”
Britton has also been sentenced for possessing and transmitting “the worst category” of child sexual abuse material.
Britton did not visibly react to the sentencing remarks by Justice Grant as he stood in the dock in a black suit and grey shirt.
In his sentencing, Justice Grant said Britton was banned from owning any mammal species of animal, or having them on his property, for the duration of his natural life.
The court recorded Britton’s offences to have begun in 2014 until his arrest in April 2022. They first came to light when a video of his offences reached the Northern Territory animal welfare authorities anonymously.
Outside the court where hearing was underway, animal right advocates labelled Britton as a “zoosadist” and said he deserved the death penalty. Capital punishment has been outlawed throughout Australia since 1985.
Britton has also pleaded guilty to four counts of accessing and transmitting child abuse material.
“I was talking with someone else about why I love to hurt dogs,” he wrote in a secret chat group. “I wasn’t sure at first, but now I live for it. I can’t stop myself hurting dogs.
“I was sadistic as a child to animals, but I had repressed it. In the last few years I let it out again, and now I can’t stop. I don’t want to.” He added a smiley.
Britton’s lawyer – who has sought to remain anonymous due to the threats they have been receiving for representing Britton – presented a recent sentencing hearing with a fresh report on the zoologist’s “paraphilia”, a psychological term to describe a condition characterised by intense sexual fantasies, urges, or behaviours involving atypical objects, situations, or individuals.
How China’s discovery of a major gas field will affect South China Sea
China has found a major gas field in the South China Sea, a discovery that could significantly influence the region’s complex geopolitical landscape.
This new find, described as the world’s first “ultra-shallow gas field in ultra-deep waters”, is estimated to contain more than 100 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas, according to China’s state media.
The announcement was made by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) in June, and the discovery has now been officially reviewed and registered by state authorities.
While the exact location of Lingshui 36-1 has not been disclosed, it is reportedly situated in waters southeast of Hainan, China’s southernmost island province, according to CNOOC. It has an average water depth of around 1,500m.
“The main gas-bearing play is the Ledong Formation of Quaternary, with an average burial depth of 210m,” CNOOC said in June. “The field has been tested to produce over 10mcm/day of open flow natural gas.”
The discovery adds to China’s already substantial reserves of gas in the South China Sea, which, together with other offshore fields, have now surpassed the trillion-cubic-metres mark.
However, the South China Sea, known for its rich deposits of hydrocarbons, has also been a focal point of intense territorial disputes involving several countries.
China’s claim to almost the entirety of the South China Sea, demarcated by the so-called “nine-dash line”, overlaps those of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan.
Disputes and tensions often rise over each other’s oil and gas exploration and development attempts in the contested waters. The discovery of such a large gas field could potentially exacerbate existing tensions and complicate diplomatic relations among these nations.
The South China Sea is still underexplored because of these territorial disputes. Most discovered oil and gas fields are in uncontested areas, close to the shorelines. Approximately 3.6 billion barrels of petroleum and other liquids and 40.3 trillion cubic feet of gas in proved and probable reserves are in the South China Sea, according to Rystad, an independent research and business intelligence company.
The South China Sea is a crucial maritime region, not only for its economic resources but also for its strategic significance. The area is a major shipping route, with a significant portion of global trade passing through its waters. The new discovery by China could further assert its dominance in the region, potentially heightening friction with neighbouring countries who also have competing claims.
Vietnam and the Philippines, in particular, have been vocal in their opposition to China’s expansive claims and have engaged in their own exploratory activities in the disputed waters.
The presence of such a substantial gas field could lead to increased scrutiny and confrontations over resource exploitation and maritime boundaries.
Aside from the geopolitical ramifications, the discovery of Lingshui 36-1 also raises questions about environmental management and economic impact. The extraction of gas from ultra-deep waters presents significant technical challenges and environmental risks.
While shallow gas is abundant in the seabed, its precarious position makes it highly susceptible to dispersion caused by ocean currents. The formation of a commercially viable oil and gas field under such conditions was previously deemed impossible by experts.
How China plans to manage these challenges while ensuring environmental protection will be closely watched by the international community.
New Zealand PM suggests Australians are stupid in war of words
The removal of basic Māori phrases from an invitation to an Australian official was not a snub of the Indigenous language by New Zealand’s government, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has said, instead joking that it actually reflected the “incredibly simple” language required when speaking to Australians.
The prime minister appeared to indulge in a favorite pastime of New Zealanders, who enjoy a friendly rivalry with their closest neighbor: calling Australians stupid.
The jibe from Luxon comes after the removal of the Māori words from an invitation sent to Australia’s arts minister.
It was an attempt to rebuff criticism that his government is anti-Māori, as it seeks to reverse policies favoring Indigenous people and language.“In my dealings with Australians, it always pays to be incredibly simple and clear and use English,” Luxon said, referring to the invitation sent to Tony Burke.
Ripostes between lawmakers across the Tasman have precedent. In the most famous example, a New Zealand leader, Rob Muldoon, quipped in the 1980s that New Zealanders who migrate to Australia “raise the IQ of both countries.”
On Thursday, a smiling Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded to Luxon with a favorite Australian joke — that no one can understand the New Zealand accent.
He said that at times interpreters were needed, perhaps diplomatically adding that he had sometimes “missed” things said by Luxon’s predecessors too.
“Look, we’re great friends and we’re great mates,” the Australian leader said. “Sometimes though we do speak a different language and that’s when we both think we’re speaking English.”
The exchange offered a diversion in an otherwise tense session of New Zealand’s Parliament, which has been roiled by accusations of bullying, racism and insults in recent weeks, with lawmakers in tears and the prime minister urging “all political leaders to watch their rhetoric.”
During Question Time, Luxon was asked by opposition leader Chris Hipkins about a series of inflammatory remarks he said lawmakers had recently made.
Among them was the report that New Zealand’s arts, culture and heritage minister, Paul Goldsmith — who signed off on the new year invitation — had directed officials to remove some Māori phrases from the materials, according to documents divulged by 1News.
They included “t*n* koe” — a formal way to say hello, learned by New Zealand children in their first year of elementary school — and “Aotearoa,” a commonplace Māori name for New Zealand.
A spokesperson for Burke, the Australian recipient of the controversial invitation, said on Thursday that he had known the meaning of the word Aotearoa since 1982, when it was referenced in the lyrics of a popular song by the New Zealand band Split Enz.
“I just didn’t think it needed a lot of te reo in it,” Goldsmith told 1News, using a phrase meaning the Māori language, an official one of New Zealand. The language was once close to dying out, but activists provoked a revival over several decades, and common Māori words or phrases are now in everyday use among all New Zealanders.
The same movement prompted a revival of Matariki, the Māori lunar new year, which was established as a nationwide public holiday in 2020.
Since assuming office after the 2023 election, Luxon’s coalition government has prompted fraught public debates about race. One was over a return to English names for government agencies, many of which had assumed Māori titles in recent years.
Another was over ending initiatives that offer priority to Māori, who lag behind other New Zealanders in most health, economic and justice statistics.
Protestors gathered outside Parliament in the capital, Wellington, this week to oppose the government’s plans to repeal a clause requiring recognition of children’s Māori heritage from the law governing the child protection system.
Pakistani national with ties to Iran accused of plot to kill Trump
A Pakistani national with ties to the Iranian government has been accused of seeking to carry out a murder-for-hire plot targeting US government officials, according to the Department of Justice.
Asif Raza Merchant, who is now in federal custody, traveled to the US to hire hit men, who were undercover officers, in order to carry out assassinations in August or September this year, according to an indictment unsealed in New York on Tuesday.
The investigation does not appear to be related to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last month. White House and federal law enforcement officials do not believe the 20-year-old gunman who fired at the former president has any connection to the murder-for-hire scheme detailed in the indictment.
FBI officials reportedly believe Trump was among Merchant’s potential targets, according to CNN, which first reported the indictment.
“For years, the Justice Department has been working aggressively to counter Iran’s brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against American public officials for the killing of Iranian General Soleimani,” according to a statement from Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“The Justice Department will spare no resource to disrupt and hold accountable those who would seek to carry out Iran’s lethal plotting against American citizens and will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to target American public officials and endanger America’s national security,” he added.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Tuesday that apparent retalitatory threats from Iran are “a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority.”
In April, after traveling to Iran, Merchant arrived in the US from Pakistan and contacted a person he believed could help carry out the attacks, according to the indictment.
That contact was coordinating with law enforcement as a confidential source.
The following month, during a meeting with the source, Merchant made a “finger gun” motion while giving instructions to meet with potential hit men, and detailed a scheme that involved stealing documents or USB drives from a target’s home, planning protests, and then killing a “politician or government official,” according to prosecutors.
Merchant said that the killings would take place while he was out of the country, and that he would use “code words” to communicate instructions, according to the indictment.
The source was told to run a “legitimate clothing business” to serve as a front that could launder money for the operation, with “tee-shirt” meaning “protest”; “flannel shirt” meaning “stealing”; and “fleece jacket” meaning “commit the act of the game,” the indictment alleges.
“Denim jacket” meant “sending money,” and Merchant began arranging plans to send $5,000 to pay hit men — who were, in fact, undercover law enforcement officers, according to prosecutors.
In June, Merchant said he needed the “hit men” to steal documents, stage protests at political rallies, and then kill a “political person,” according to prosecutors.
They were to receive instructions for the assassination within the last week of August or the first week of September, after Merchant fled the country, the indictment says.
Merchant was arrested on July 12 as he was preparing to leave the US. Law enforcement agents found a handwritten note with code words with him, according to the indictment.
FBI director Christopher Wray said the alleged plot is “straight out of the Iranian playbook.”
“A foreign-directed plot to kill a public official, or any US citizen, is a threat to our national security and will be met with the full might and resources of the FBI,” he said in a statement.
”The targeting of former and current officials by foreign actors is an affront to our sovereignty and our democratic institutions,” added Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen with the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
Human remains found inside 16ft crocodile days after man goes missing
Human remains were found inside a giant crocodile suspected of killing a man fishing on vacation with his family in Australia.
The remains are believed to be of David Hogbin, a 40-year-old man from New South Wales (NSW), who went missing after he fell from a steep bank on Saturday into the Annan River south of Cooktown in Queensland state and never surfaced.
While further testing will be conducted to confirm the identity of the victim, the police have temporarily suspended the search for him, reported 7 News.
Wildlife rangers on Monday killed a 4.9m (16ft) crocodile after locating it in a creek 4km upstream from where the man disappeared. The crocodile that allegedly took the man had distinctive scars on its snout similar to the ones witnesses reported seeing on a reptile in the vicinity of the disappearance, officials said.
“Wildlife officers have humanely euthanised a large crocodile that is believed to be responsible for the fatal attack on the Annan River,” said the Department of Environment, Science and Innovation.
“The animal had markings on its snout that were consistent with it being the target animal.
“Wildlife officers are removing the animal from the creek and will hand it over to the Queensland Police Service.”
The victim was a tourist from NSW, Australia’s most populous state which lies beyond crocodiles’ tropical habitat. He had been on vacation with his family and was fishing at a location known as Crocodile Bend, which is popular among tourists who come to see these large reptiles.
“He was at the top of the bank and has fallen into the water, and it’s quite a large drop there,” acting chief superintendent Shane Holmes told the media on Monday.
“I believe it was an accident when he fell into the water,” he said. It was unclear whether the victim’s family or people nearby saw what happened.
A spokesperson for Sonic Healthcare, a healthcare provider in Australia, condoled the death of Hogbin, reported ABC News. However, the nature of his association with the organisation is unclear. “We are deeply saddened by the news of this tragic event,” she was quoted as saying. “This is a very challenging time for our team.”
His biography at Jewells Medical Centre said Hogbin was a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners after qualifying in 2021 and in spare time enjoyed “four-wheel driving and camping with his wife and three boys”.
The tragedy followed a 12-year-old girl’s death in a crocodile attack on 2 July. She was swimming with her family in a creek in the neighboring Northern Territory when she was snatched. Her remains were found days later and wildlife rangers shot dead a 13ft crocodile.
There have been three fatal crocodile attacks in Australia this year, close to the worst annual death toll on record of four in 2014. A 16-year-old boy was killed while swimming off a Queensland island on 18 April.
The crocodile population has exploded across Australia’s tropical north since they became a protected species in the early 1970s. Hunting for their skins since the 1950s had almost wiped them out.
The Department of Environment is also investigating online videos purportedly showing people feeding crocodiles as senior conservation officer Daniel Guymer described the behavior as “risky and reckless”.
“So any information and evidence in relation to alleged illegal activities, such as the unlawful feeding of a crocodile at that location, will be investigated by our wildlife officers,” he said.
Explaining the repercussions of “stupid” and “dangerous” behaviour, local wildlife carer Beau Peberdy told ABC News that it conditions “an animal to come in to feed from people”.
“People I think really need to start understanding that these animals are dangerous … and doing silly or inappropriate things in and around the water’s edge, it has severe consequences.”