Teen dies of electrocution on bus while charging mobile phone

A teenager died in Malaysia after being electrocuted while charging his phone on a bus.

Nur Asymawi Jasmadi, 18, died on 1 November at the Penang Sentral bus terminal in Butterworth, shortly after boarding the bus en route to Kuala Lumpur.

The teenager tried to use a socket on the bus to charge his phone at around 6pm (local time), assistant commissioner of police Anuar Abdul Rahman said.

The fellow passengers reportedly heard the victim scream about 10 minutes after he connected the phone to the charger on the bus. The driver said the teenager appeared to have suffered severe electric shock with prominent burn marks on his left hand.

“An initial investigation revealed burn marks on the victim’s left fingers, suspected to be from an electric shock while he was charging his phone,” Mr Abdul Rahman said in a statement, according to The Straits Times.

The authorities drew the conclusion from the melted charging cable and the overheated mobile phone. Fellow passengers, who saw the foam-like substance coming out of the teenager’s mouth, immediately called the emergency services, who arrived at around 6.20pm (local time).

Paramedics pronounced the victim dead shortly after arriving at the scene. An autopsy later confirmed the cause of death to be electrocution.

Malaysian transport minister Anthony Loke said the department would form a special task force to investigate the incident.

“The transport ministry treats this electric shock incident, which tragically resulted in the death of a teenager while he was charging his phone on the express bus, with utmost seriousness,” he said in a statement, according to Free Malaysia Today.

“The special task force will investigate the cause of the incident to ensure it does not recur and that the safety of passengers will be guaranteed,” he added.

He said the task force would comprise three agencies, including the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research.

Elderly man beaten to death in India for complaining about fireworks

A 65-year-old man in India was lynched by three men after he objected to people bursting firecrackers outside his home, according to reports.

The incident took place on Friday in the city of Faridabad, located 28km from the Indian capital, New Delhi, sparking outrage and leading to an active police search for the suspects.

According to a complaint filed by the victim’s son, identified by his first name, Vinod, the confrontation began on Thursday evening when three individuals started setting off fireworks in front of the family’s residence, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI).

When Mr Vinod’s father objected, the exchange escalated into a heated argument. Mr Vinod managed to de-escalate the situation initially and the men dispersed.

However, around 1am, the three suspects reportedly returned and resumed bursting crackers outside the house. When Mr Vinod’s father confronted them again, he was allegedly assaulted by the group. As Mr Vinod and his wife attempted to intervene, they were also reportedly roughed up by the trio. The elderly man succumbed to his injuries on the scene, according to the police.

Faridabad authorities registered a case based on Mr Vinod’s complaint and are actively searching for the accused. Police are investigating further details surrounding the attack and have assured the family that those responsible will be brought to justice.

In a separate incident, a 20-year-old man was fatally stabbed during a violent confrontation between two groups over firework celebrations in Mumbai’s Antop Hill area early on Friday, police said.

Five individuals, including a woman, were detained in connection with the incident, while a search continues for additional suspects.

The altercation began post-midnight on Thursday, when a group of residents was setting off fireworks in a narrow lane in the Jai Maharashtra Nagar area. Kartik R Mohan Devendra, a passerby on a two-wheeler, reportedly asked the group to relocate to a less crowded spot, an official familiar with the investigation told PTI.

The group responded by allegedly assaulting Mr Devendra, who subsequently left the scene.

According to police, Mr Devendra returned shortly after with several companions, including his wife and brother, all armed with wooden sticks and cricket bats. The renewed confrontation led to a heated exchange between the two groups. Amidst the brawl, one person from the group setting off the fireworks allegedly produced a knife, which accidentally fell to the ground during the scuffle. A man who had accompanied Mr Devendra allegedly picked up the knife and repeatedly stabbing another man who later succumbed to his injuries.

Locals alerted police to the scene, and the victim was rushed to a civic hospital, where he was pronounced dead during treatment. Officers detained five individuals on the spot and filed charges under various sections of Indian law.

In another case, a 42-year-old woman was beaten to death after she protested against fireworks in front of her house in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh on Friday night.

The woman, Kalawati, who had a longstanding dispute with her neighbour Durgesh Kumar, protested after his family set off fireworks in front of her home.

When Kalawati’s family opposed it, a heated altercation broke out, escalating to violence, reported the Times of India. Though Kalawati tried to mediate, she was attacked and sustained severe head injuries, leading to her death on the spot. A police complaint was filed based on the statement of Kalawati’s daughter-in-law, reported the daily.

In another fireworks-related case, one woman lost her life and two people sustained injuries in Gujarat’s Mehsana after a confrontation over fireworks between neighbours, local officials reported.

South Korea man hides father’s body over ‘inheritance issues’

A man in South Korea hid his dead father’s body inside a freezer for more than a year over family inheritance issues, police said.

The case came to light when the suspected man, who is in his 40s, turned himself in to the local Icheon police station on Friday in Gyeonggi province and confessed to have committed the crime. The police officials then visited the suspect’s home and found the body of the man, reported to be his father, inside a freezer, reported The Korea Herald.

He had visited his father’s home in September last year and found that the man had died. It is not immediately clear how the suspect transported the dead remains of his father.

However, he confessed he hid the body for more than a year to cover up the father’s death due to “inheritance issues”, the report added.

The police officials have not elaborated on the details of the nature of “inheritance issues” as the investigation is underway.

No evidence has been found by the investigators confirming the suspect’s involvement in his father’s death or his attempt to damage the body in any manner.

The suspect has been charged with violation of a section of the country’s law that include the charges of damaging, destroying, concealing or taking possession of a corpse, the report added.

Officials will request an autopsy of the body by the National Forensic Service to determine the exact cause and time of death.

Robot retrieves first radioactive fuel sample from Fukushima reactor

A robot has, for the first time since the 2011 meltdown, retrieved a piece of radioactive fuel from the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The remote-controlled robot, named Telesco, used its fishing-rod-like arm to clip gravel up to 5mm (0.2 inches) in size — about as large as a tiny granola bit — from the surface of a mound of molten fuel debris at the bottom of the No 2 reactor’s primary containment vessel.

It returned to an enclosed container for safe storage with the melted fuel bit held in its front tongs. Workers in hazmat suits removed it from the containment vessel earlier on Saturday, the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said.

This marks the first time a sample of melted fuel has been retrieved from the reactor, marking a crucial step in the decades-long decommissioning process.

However, the mission will only be complete once it’s confirmed that the sample’s radioactivity is below the specified limit and safely secured in a container.

If the radioactivity surpasses the threshold, the robot will need to re-enter the reactor to retrieve a different sample. TEPCO officials anticipate that the current sample is small enough to meet the requirement.

An estimated 880 tons of fatally radioactive molten fuel remain in the reactors, and TEPCO has carried out a number of robotic probes to determine how to manage the plant.

On 11 March 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake followed by a tsunami ravaged parts of Japan’s northern coast, leaving about 20,000 people dead. When the tsunami struck, three of the six reactors at the Fukushima plant were active, causing them to melt down.

Meanwhile, TEPCO confirmed that Telesco entered the reactor on Wednesday and returned with a piece weighing less than 3 grams from underneath the Unit 2 reactor core, where large amounts of melted fuel fell during the meltdown 13 years ago.

Plant chief Akira Ono said that only this tiny spec can provide key data to help plan the decommissioning strategy, develop the necessary technology and robots, and retroactively understand how the accident developed.

The government and TEPCO have set a target of 30 to 40 years for the cleanup, but experts say this is overly optimistic and should be reassessed.

US conducts long-range bomber exercise with South Korea and Japan

The United States flew a long-range bomber in a trilateral drill with South Korea and Japan on Sunday in response to North Korea’s recent test-firing of a new intercontinental ballistic missile designed to strike the US mainland, South Korea’s military said.

North Korea on Thursday tested the newly developed Hwasong-19 ICBM, which flew higher and stayed in the air longer than any other missile it has fired. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called it “an appropriate military action” to cope with external security threats posed by its rivals.

On Sunday, the US flew the B-1B bomber to train with South Korean and Japanese fighter jets near the Korean Peninsula, demonstrating the three countries’ firm resolve and readiness to respond to North Korea’s advancing nuclear and missile programs, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

The trilateral aerial training was the second by South Korea, the U.S. and Japan this year, the statement said.

The US often responds to major North Korean missile tests with temporary deployments of some of its powerful military assets such as long-range bombers, aircraft carriers and nuclear-powered submarines to and near the Korean Peninsula. North Korea typically responds angrily to such US actions, calling them part of a US-led plot to invade the North and performing additional weapons tests.

The US has flown the B-1B bomber over or near the Korean Peninsula four times this year, according to South Korea’s military. A B-1B is capable of carrying a large conventional weapons payload.

Thursday’s Hwasong-19 test, North Korea’s first ICBM test-firing in almost a year, showed progress in North Korea’s missile program. But many experts say North Korea still has some technological issues to master to acquire functioning ICBMs that can deliver nuclear strikes on the US mainland. The experts say the Hwasong-19 shown in North Korea’s state media photos and videos looked too big to be useful in a war.

The ICBM test was seen as an effort to grab American attention ahead of the US presidential election this week and respond to international condemnation of North Korea’s reported dispatch of thousands of troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine, observers say.

Iran arrests female student who stripped to protest harassment

An Iranian woman was arrested after reportedly stripping down to her undergarments to protest an alleged assault by security forces for not following strict hijab laws.

The woman was reportedly assaulted, and her clothes were torn inside Tehran’s Islamic Azad University science and research branch on Saturday for not following strict hijab rules, Iran International reported.

A widely circulated video on social media shows a woman sitting and walking around the university campus in her underwear.

Another video shows her being detained by security forces and forcibly taken into a car.

Islamic Azad University confirmed her arrest on X (Twitter) without giving any reason.

“Following an indecent act by a student at the science and research branch of the university, campus security intervened and handed the individual over to law enforcement authorities,” Amir Mahjoub, director general of public relations at Islamic Azad University, wrote on X.

“The motives and underlying reasons for the student’s actions are currently under investigation.”

The student sustained injuries after being physically assaulted during her arrest, Iran International reported, citing a newsletter by the student group Amir Kabir newsletter.

It said the student was “disrobed after being harassed for not wearing a headscarf and having her clothing torn by security forces”.

“Blood stains from the student were reportedly seen on the car’s tyres,” the newsletter said, adding that her head was struck either by a car door or a pillar which caused heavy bleeding.

Amnesty International’s Iran unit called on the Iranian authorities to “immediately and unconditionally” release the student who was violently arrested on Saturday.

“Pending her release, authorities must protect her from torture and other ill-treatment & ensure access to family and lawyer. Allegations of beatings and sexual violence against her during arrest need independent & impartial investigations. Those responsible must held to account,” it said in a statement on X.

A growing number of women are defying the strict hijab laws in the country by discarding their veils since the brutal 2022 death of Mahsa Amini.

Twenty-two-year-old Amini died after being detained by the morality police for not wearing her hijab correctly. Her death became a breaking point, sparking unprecedented protests known as “Women, life, freedom”, which lasted for three months in the country.

A monthslong security crackdown that followed killed more than 500 people and saw over 22,000 detained.

However, media reports indicate that nothing has changed since the protests, and scattered photos and videos have surfaced showing women and young girls being roughed up by officers.

In October 2023, Iranian teenage Armita Geravand was injured in a mysterious incident on Tehran’s metro while not wearing a headscarf. She later died in the hospital after falling into a coma.

In July, activists reported that police opened fire on a woman fleeing a checkpoint to avoid her car being impounded for not wearing the hijab.

The country’s new reformist president Masoud Pezeshkian campaigned on a promise to halt the harassment of women by morality police. But the 85-year-old supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who remains the country’s ultimate authority, has previously said that “unveiling is both religiously forbidden and politically forbidden”.

India warns Canada of ‘serious consequences’ over surveillance claims

India has accused Canada of indulging in harassment and intimidation of its consular personnel after Ottawa placed officials on audio and visual surveillance amid an escalating diplomatic row between the two countries.

The Indian foreign ministry said it summoned the Canadian high commission representative and lodged a strong protest over Ottawa’s allegation against minister for home affairs Amit Shah, prime minister Narendra Modi’s chief lieutenant

“Such irresponsible actions will have serious consequences for bilateral ties,” spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a press conference in New Delhi on Saturday.

Relations between India and Canada have suffered since Ottawa accused the Indian high commissioner and other top diplomats of being directly involved in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Mr Nijjar, 45, a Canadian Sikh who was wanted in India, was shot dead by masked gunmen in Surrey outside Vancouver in June last year. He was the face of the Khalistan movement, which seeks to carve out an independent Sikh homeland in western India.

New Delhi had long accused Mr Nijjar, a Canadian citizen born in India, of being involved in terrorism, an allegation he denied.

It comes as Canadian deputy foreign minister David Morrison reiterated that Mr Shah sanctioned a wave of violence targeting Sikh separatists across the North American country.

On Tuesday, Mr Morrison confirmed he was the source of the The Washington Post story which first named Mr Shah as the “senior official in India” who “authorised the intelligence-gathering missions and attacks on Sikh separatists” in Canada. The story did not name the source of the report when it was published last month.

Mr Jaiswal said the Canadian government “deliberately leaked unfounded insinuations to international media to discredit India and influence other nations”.

He said the foreign ministry delivered a strong note of protest to firmly condemn the baseless allegations made against Mr Shah.

The foreign ministry said that some consular officials in Ottawa said they were recently informed by the Canadian government that “they had been and continue to be under audio and video surveillance”.

“Their communications have also been intercepted. We have formally protested to the Canadian government as we deem these actions to be a flagrant violation of relevant diplomatic and consular conventions,” he said.

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau went public with the allegations against Indian officials last year, sparking a diplomatic fallout between the two countries.

Bilateral ties hit a nadir last month when Canada expelled six Indian diplomats, accusing them of involvement in the killing. New Delhi, in a tit-for-tat move, expelled six Canadian diplomats.

Pakistani website apologises for advertising fake Halloween parade

A Pakistan-based company has issued an apology for a “mistake” that led thousands of Dubliners to line up on the streets, eagerly awaiting a Halloween parade that never happened.

Scores of decked-out people packed O’Connell Street in Dublin city centre on Thursday, as the enthusiastic crowd arrived to watch the parade.

The crowd also left a huge gap in the middle of the road for the giant Halloween puppets from Macnas, one of Ireland’s best-known theatre groups, to pass through, despite the absence of police barricades or any police presence.

The event was first advertised on a website called myspirithalloween.com, promoting a parade to be held from 7pm to 9pm, and the interest it generated led the news to rank on Google.

But parade-goers were instead spooked by the no-show of the procession after police informed them that no such event was happening, leading many to suspect that thousands had been scammed.

Nazir Ali, the man behind the website, explained that the incident occurred due to “human error” when a team member copied last year’s event notice and pasted it into this year’s calendar.

“It was our mistake and we should have double checked it to make sure it was happening. But newspapers are reporting that we posted it intentionally and this is very, very wrong,” Mr Ali told the Irish Times.

“We are highly embarrassed and highly depressed, and very sorry.”

The site, which he said was based in Pakistan, featured in the top Google results in the days leading up to 31 October and the posting on the parade was also shared widely on multiple social media platforms.

Irish filmmaker Bertie Brosnan described the scene at the street where he was filming for 40 minutes, saying: “From Parnell Square West – both sides of the street – people were packed five to 10 deep, lined up all the way down around the corner as far as the spire.

“Thousands were there. The Luas [tramline] was completely blocked on both lines.”

As the people unsuspecting of the mistake continued to swell on the streets, the Gardaí (local police) was forced to put out a message for those waiting on O’Connell Street to “disperse safely”.

A spokesperson said: “Please be advised that contrary to information being circulated online, no Halloween parade is scheduled to take place in Dublin city centre this evening or tonight.

“All those gathered on O’Connell Street in expectation of such a parade are asked to disperse safely.”

Peter Farrelly who shot video from his window of the crowds gathering at O’Connell Street told The Independent: “It was funny. We are still smiling now. It took about an hour from the start time for people

“The Gardaí were trying to clear the street. It was also the festival of Divali last night so a lot of people were out on the street as well.”

The event will not be investigated as “no criminal offences were disclosed”, a Gardaí spokesperson said.

“An Garda Síochána advises that members of the public always verify any information online regarding upcoming events from trusted and reputable sources.

“Public information on major events including traffic management, transport and public safety advice is often available on the Garda website, Dublin City Council website and from other relevant stakeholders,” they added.