New Zealand tenants awarded £5,600 over massive cockroach infestation

A group of tenants in New Zealand who faced a severe cockroach infestation that disrupted their sleep and damaged appliances have been awarded £5,600 in compensation.

According to a recently released Tenancy Tribunal decision report, the cockroach infestation also caused two dishwashers to fail and led to other issues at the rental property.

The landlord had failed to address these problems adequately and tried to pass repair costs onto the six tenants of the apartment – the location of which has not been made public – including a stove replacement and a cracked toilet, according to the report.

Tribunal adjudicator Michelle Pollak noted that the landlord failed to take any further action to resolve the issue during the tenancy. However, a receipt indicated that pest control services treated the property for cockroaches two weeks after the tenants had moved out.

“The tenants endured a severe cockroach infestation for the duration of their tenancy that interrupted their sleep at night from the sounds of them scuttling across the ceilings and caused issues with the dishwasher appliances,” Ms Pollak said.

“This ongoing infestation has also led to them having to have all their belongings decontaminated after their tenancy ended and before they could safely move their belongings into a new premise.”

When the tenants vacated the property in February 2024, they were required to decontaminate all their belongings.

The tribunal also found that the landlord raised the rent before the legal minimum period had elapsed. The tenants moved into the property on 9 January last year.

The property was rented through PR Property Management Limited, acting as the agent for Bhavika Enterprises Ltd. The Auckland agent mentioned in the decision, Ram Narayanaraja, criticised the tribunal’s decision and was quoted as saying by NZME: “Everything was wrong, the decision was wrong.”

The landlord claimed that the tenants did not leave the premises clean and tidy, failed to remove all rubbish, and left the property “contaminated with cockroaches” that were not present at the start of the tenancy.

Protesters seize iconic Indian bridge in march after doctor’s death

Protests brought an eastern Indian city to a standstill on Tuesday as police used teargas and water cannons to disperse thousands of people demanding the chief minister’s resignation.

The protest march was the latest in a series of ongoing demonstrations in West Bengal following the rape and murder of a resident doctor at a state-run hospital in the state’s capital.

The doctor, 31, was found dead with visible marks of abuse in the seminar hall of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata city on 9 August. An autopsy confirmed that she had been sexually assaulted.

Police arrested a civil volunteer associated with the city’s police, Sanjay Roy, before the case was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation, a federal agency, amid calls for an unbiased probe.

In the course of Tuesday’s demonstration, called by a student group, the protesters broke through barricades set up by police to stop their march to the state secretariat.

“We were protesting peacefully and, without provocation, police fired teargas canisters directly at us and used water cannons,” Sayan Lahiri, one of the organisers, told The Independent.

Police had denied permission for the march and blocked the roads leading to chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s office as her ruling Trinamool Congress party accused the opposition of stirring unrest.

The organisers claimed the protest was led by students despite supporters of prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party taking part in the rally.

The protesters said they were seeking justice for didi, referring to the victim as elder sister, and action against corruption and political killings in the state.

One of India’s iconic tourist attractions – the Howrah Bridge – turned into a battleground as police in riot gear pushed back the protesters, using batons and teargas.

“There were no party flags. Some were carrying the national flag, which the police snatched and threw on the streets,” Mr Lahiri, 30, said.

“This movement will continue and grow till she steps down,” he added, referring to the chief minister. “People in the state are in distress. This cannot continue.”

More than 6,000 police personnel were deployed in Kolkata and its neighbouring city, Howrah, turning the areas around the secretariat into a fortress.

Four student activists were arrested ahead of the rally, police said, accusing them of trying to orchestrate widespread violence.

“Police used unnecessary brute force against us today. The people of West Bengal will not take this lightly,” said a 35-year-old proteste, who didn’t want to be named.

Police officers suffered injuries as well.

In the days since the doctor’s killing, public anger has boiled over into nationwide outrage and stirred protests.

Junior doctors have refused to see non-emergency patients in many parts of the country and launched protests demanding justice for the victim and greater safety for women at hospitals.

The Supreme Court of India has created a hospital safety task force and requested protesting doctors return to work, but some have refused to budge.

The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front claimed that Tuesday’s protest did not involve “protesting doctors in any way”.

Mr Modi’s party has extended support to the protesting students, while senior state member Suvendu Adhikari claiming that Ms Banerjee’s administration was trying to suppress the rape and murder incident — a charge the state government has denied.

The party has called a 12-hour statewide strike on Wednesday to protest police action against Tuesday’s demonstration.

Pakistan strike: Why traders have called for a nationwide shutdown

Traders in Pakistan went on strike Wednesday, shutting down their businesses in all major cities and urban areas to protest a rise in electricity costs and new taxes imposed on shop owners.

The government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has steadily raised electricity prices since Pakistan last month struck a deal with the International Monetary Fund for a new $7 billion loan. The higher cost of living and price hikes have triggered widespread discontent and drawn protests.

Most of the public markets across Pakistan were closed on Wednesday, though pharmacies and grocery stores selling basic food items remained open. Kashif Chaudhry, a strike leader, said those were not closed so as not to inconvenience the general public.

Stores were shuttered in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi, as well as in the city of Lahore, the country’s culture capital, and the main economic hub of Karachi.

The strike was called by Naeem-ur-Rehman who heads the religious Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan party and endorsed by most of the various traders’ unions and associations.

However, traders in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the southwestern Balochistan provinces observed a partial strike, keeping some stores open while closing others.

The strike is aimed at forcing the government to reverse the recent hikes in power bills and the controversial tax that followed the recent talks with the IMF, which wants to see Pakistan broaden its tax base.

The July deal was Pakistan’s latest turn to the global lender for help in propping up its economy and dealing with its debts through big bailouts. Earlier this year, the IMF approved the immediate release of the final $1.1 billion tranche of a $3 billion bailout to Pakistan.

Anger and alarm over ‘dystopian’ Taliban ban on women speaking

The Taliban’s “dystopian” new laws that forbid women from speaking or showing any part of their bodies in public have sparked anger among human rights activists, who say they will worsen the gender apartheid enforced by the country’s hardline Islamist rulers.

Last week the Taliban introduced the country’s first set of official rules aimed at “preventing vice and promoting virtue” since their takeover of the country in 2021. The rules are presented in a 114-page, 35-article document.

The regulations, approved by Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, require women to cover their bodies and faces fully with thick clothing in public.

Under the new rules, women are not allowed to let their voices be heard in public, even from within their own homes, including by singing or reading aloud. Women are also forbidden from looking directly at men who are not direct members of their family, and taxi drivers can be punished for transporting women without a male escort.

Roza Otunbayeva, who heads the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said on Sunday the laws provided a “distressing vision” for Afghanistan’s future.

“It extends the already intolerable restrictions on the rights of Afghan women and girls, with even the sound of a female voice outside the home apparently deemed a moral violation.”

Penalties for violating these rules include “advice, warnings of divine punishment, verbal threats, confiscation of property, detention for one hour to three days in public jails, and any other punishment deemed appropriate”.

Heather Bar and Sahar Fetrat from Human Rights Watch wrote in Zan Times: “This isn’t a dystopian novel. This isn’t a story from history, either. It’s Afghanistan right now, and the Taliban’s crackdown on women and girls is steadily deepening.”

“Afghanistan is setting the bar for how bad – how dystopian – things can be for women and girls. Politicians around the world seem appalled by the Taliban, but not so much as to do something about it,” they wrote.

A former journalist from Afghanistan, who goes by the name Elaha on Twitter/X, wrote: “I will reach freedom again. We, the women and girls of Afghanistan, will fight for freedom against the Taliban as long as we live.”

The Taliban has reacted dismissively to the global criticism of their new rules, claiming it displays “arrogance”.

Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesperson for the Taliban’s government, said in a statement: “We urge a thorough understanding of these laws and a respectful acknowledgement of Islamic values. To reject these laws without such understanding is, in our view, an expression of arrogance.

“We must stress that the concerns raised by various parties will not sway the Islamic Emirate from its commitment to upholding and enforcing Islamic sharia law,” Mr Mujahid added.

Ms Otunbayeva noted: “After decades of war and in the midst of a terrible humanitarian crisis, the Afghan people deserve much better than being threatened or jailed if they happen to be late for prayers, glance at a member of the opposite sex who is not a family member, or possess a photo of a loved one.”

The Taliban’s rules, based on their interpretation of Islamic law, now include barring girls over 11 from education, restricting women’s access to public spaces and jobs, and enforcing dress codes and male guardianship.

Women are excluded from almost all aspects of public life, and the group has reintroduced punishments like flogging and stoning for adultery. Women have also been barred from secondary education, employment, public parks, gyms, and beauty salons.

“Day by day, they are trying to erase women from society,” an unnamed woman from Kabul was quoted as saying by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“The Taliban government does not have any sort of legitimacy and these new edicts designed to further erase and suppress women are an indication of their hatred towards women,” Fawzia Koofi, an Afghan human rights activist was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

“When they say women cannot speak in public as they regard women’s voices as a form of intimacy it is incredibly frightening yet the whole world acts like this is normal.”

Elica Le Bon, an activist wrote on Twitter/X: “… The Taliban passed a law that bans women from showing their faces and having their voices heard in public. Their burqas must now entirely cover their faces and they are not permitted to speak in public or to look at any males that are not relatives.

“Perhaps it’s been an emotional year, or maybe it’s because I’m triggered, but I once again cried when I heard the news. I’m still trying to piece myself together. Not even animals are treated with such cruelty, such dehumanisation, such indignity, and such little value for human life.”

Her post was viewed by about 2.9 million people and garnered more than 30,000 likes.