Fourth flight of illegal immigrants deported from US lands in India
The US has deported a fourth batch of illegal Indian immigrants, with 12 people arriving in Delhi via Panama, days after prime minister Narendra Modi met president Donald Trump in Washington.
The 12 Indians are believed to be among the 299 illegal migrants deported by the US to Panama a few days ago.
Of the 12, four deportees from Punjab reached Amritsar on Sunday, officials said. Amritsar’s deputy commissioner, Sakshi Sawhney, confirmed their arrival, saying they were from Gurdaspur, Patiala, and Jalandhar districts.
The US has deported over 300 illegal migrants to India this month as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, in keeping with a key campaign promise.
The first deportation flight with 104 people, handcuffed and shackled, arrived in the northern state of Punjab on 5 February. Two more flights landed in the middle of the month.
Facing criticism over the treatment meted out by American authorities to the deportees, India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar said New Delhi had been engaging with Washington to ensure they were treated fairly. He said the deportation of illegal immigrants was not a new phenomenon and had been ongoing for years.
Illegal immigrants make up three per cent of the US population and 22 per cent of the foreign-born population. The exact number of undocumented Indians in the US was disputed due to varying calculation methods. Estimates for 2022 range from 700,000, according to the Pew Research Center and Center for Migration Studies of New York, making Indians the third-largest undocumented group, to 375,000 according to the Migration Policy Institute, ranking them fifth.
The Department of Homeland Security data from 2022 reports 220,000 unauthorised Indians in the country.
Between 2009 and 2024, the US deported some 16,000 Indians, according to the foreign ministry. Annual deportations averaged 750 under Barack Obama, 1,550 during Mr Trump’s first term and 900 under Joe Biden.
Deportations surged between 2023 and 2024, but the highest number was in 2020, with nearly 2,300 migrants sent back to the country.
Mr Modi previously said India would repatriate its citizens who were in the US illegally and take action against the “human trafficking ecosystem”.
“These are children of very ordinary families, and they are lured by big dreams and promises,” he said during his visit to Washington.
The deportations have sparked a political storm in India, with the opposition Congress party criticising the ruling Modi government for remaining silent while Indians are “humiliated”.
“Modi government must come out with a detailed statement on the deportation and why did we not send our own planes to bring back the Indians, with dignity and respect, instead of a military plane landing on our soil,” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said earlier in a post on X.
12-year-old girl in critical condition after vaping for two years
A 12-year-old girl in Thailand has been hospitalised with extensive lung damage after reportedly vaping and consuming kratom drinks for nearly two years.
The girl’s family, from the Buri Ram province, was unaware of her habit until her school informed them of her condition.
Her grandmother said the girl began displaying behavioural changes after entering the fourth grade, The Nation reported. She was a diligent student but became less involved in household chores and frequently left home on the pretext of studying with friends, the grandmother said.
Her health deteriorated and she was admitted to Satuek Hospital after experiencing severe breathing difficulties, vomiting and weakness.
There, doctors informed the family that almost all of her lung capacity had been compromised due to vaping and she required a ventilator.
The case was initially brought to public attention by Paphawarin Simlakorn, an emergency responder who shared images of students being transported to hospital after suffering from similar symptoms.
Three other students from the school, in grades 5, 6, and 8, were also admitted with breathing difficulties and chest tightness linked to the prolonged e-cigarette use and consumption of Kratom, an herbal substance that induces an opiod-like effect.
According to Surasak Koonpak, a clerk working for Don Mon municipality, while the grade 5 and grade 6 students were sent to Satuk Hospital last Tuesday, the eighth grader was admitted on Thursday. One of them was later transferred to Buri Ram Hospital for further treatment, reported the Bangkok Post.
Authorities have launched an investigation into the sale of these substances and arrested two individuals operating a shop near the school. They seized e-cigarettes, kratom drinks, cough syrup suspected to be mixed with kratom, and an illegal firearm.
The Thai government issued a renewed warning about the spread of illicit vaping devices marketed towards young people.
Authorities highlighted the increasing availability of pod toys, vaping devices disguised as miniature toys such as Japanese anime characters.
Some of these devices, widely known as ‘Doraemon e-cigarettes‘, are sold for as little as 99 baht (£2.34), making them accessible to minors.
Deputy government spokesperson Anukul Prueksanusak cautioned that some e-cigarettes had been laced with powerful sedatives, such as Etomidate, which could cause extreme drowsiness, low blood pressure, and respiratory distress.
Authorities urged parents to closely monitor their children’s activities and educate them about the dangers of vaping and drug-laced products.
Mysterious cloud at solar system’s edge found to host ‘mini galaxy’
The mysterious cloud of space rocks and debris at the edge of the solar system may have spiral arms, making it resemble a mini galaxy, a new study says.
The Oort cloud is a theoretical debris shell at the gravitational edge of the solar system whose origin could shed more light on the source of comets as well as the origin of our neighbouring planets.
It is estimated to exist 2,000 to 5,000 astronomical units away, with 1 AU being the distance between the Earth and the Sun.
The giant cloud of detritus is thought to be the source of strange comets and meteorites flying past Earth such as the mysterious cigar-shaped rock known as Oumuamua that was spotted in October 2017.
Previous research has suggested that the Oort cloud contains remnants of the solar system’s planets, which were formed over 4 billion years ago, but its exact shape and structure have been a mystery.
A new, yet-to-be peer-reviewed study suggests this cloud of debris may look like a mini galaxy with spiral arms.
Researchers used a supercomputer to model the structure of the Oort cloud based on the trajectories of comets as well as the gravitational forces within and beyond our solar system.
They particularly tried to model the pull on objects at the edge of the solar system by the “galactic tide”. This is the gravitational pull exerted by objects like stars and the monster black hole at the galaxy’s centre on the Oort cloud’s objects, but not on the solar system’s planets, which are pulled more strongly by our Sun.
When researchers used Nasa’s Pleiades supercomputer to simulate these forces, it modelled the Oort cloud as containing an inner structure similar to the spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy.
The spiral arms of the Oort cloud shown in the model stretched 15,000 AU end to end. “As the Galactic tide acts to decouple bodies from the scattered disk it creates a spiral structure in physical space that is roughly 15,000 AU in length,” the study says.
“The spiral is long-lived and persists in the inner Oort cloud to the present time,” it adds while noting that “direct observational detection of the Oort spiral is difficult”.
Afghan women’s radio to resume broadcast after Taliban lift suspension
An Afghan women’s radio station will resume broadcasts after the Taliban lifted their suspension over alleged cooperation with an overseas TV channel.
Radio Begum launched on International Women’s Day in March 2021, five months before the Taliban seized power amid the chaotic withdrawal of US and NATO troops.
The station’s content is produced entirely by Afghan women. Its sister satellite channel, Begum TV, operates from France and broadcasts programs that cover the Afghan school curriculum from seventh to 12th grade.
The Taliban have banned education for women and girls in the country beyond grade six. In a statement issued Saturday night, the Taliban Information and Culture Ministry said Radio Begum had “repeatedly requested” to restart operations and that the suspension was lifted after the station made commitments to authorities.
The station pledged to conduct broadcasts “in accordance with the principles of journalism and the regulations of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, and to avoid any violations in the future”, it added.
The ministry did not elaborate what those principles and regulations were. Radio Begum confirmed the ministry had granted permission to resume broadcasting. It did not give further details. Since their takeover, the Taliban have excluded women from education, many kinds of work, and public spaces.
Journalists, especially women, have lost their jobs as the Taliban tighten their grip on the media.In the 2024 press freedom index from Reporters without Borders, Afghanistan ranks 178 out of 180 countries.
The year before that it ranked 152.The Information Ministry did not initially identify the TV channel it alleged Radio Begum had been working with. But the Saturday statement mentioned collaboration with “foreign sanctioned media outlets”.
Cambodian toddlers killed by grenade buried since civil war
Two children in Cambodia died after a rocket-propelled grenade buried since the civil war blew up near their homes.
The children, a girl and a boy both two years old, died after coming across the unexploded ordinance near their homes in rural northwestern Siem Reap province on Saturday.
The province’s Svay Leu district was once a battle site for Cambodian government soldiers and Khmer Rouge fighters in the 1980s and 1990s.
Parents of Muo Lisa and her cousin, Thum Yen, were reportedly working at a far when the toddlers came across the grenade and it detonated. Experts from the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMCA) determined afterward from fragments that it was a rocket-propelled grenade.
“Their parents went to settle on land that was a former battlefield, and they were not aware that there were any land mines or unexploded ordinance buried near their homes,” CMAC director-general Heng Ratana said. “It’s a pity because they were too young and they should not have died like this.”
He said one child was killed instantly while the other succumbed at the hospital.
“The war has completely ended and there has been peace for more than 25 years, but the blood of Cambodian people continues to flow because of landmines and the remnants of war,” Heng Ratana told AFP.
The blast took place after Cambodia was forced to partially suspend demining operations in the aftermath of US president Donald Trump‘s freeze on foreign aid for 90 days. Heng Ratana said Thursday he had been informed that Washington had issued a waiver allowing the aid – $6.36m (£5m)covering March 2022 to November 2025 – to resume flowing.
Cambodian deminers are among the world’s most experienced, and several thousand have been sent in the past decade under UN auspices to work in Africa and the Middle East.
Some four to six million land mines and other unexploded munitions are estimated to have littered Cambodia’s countryside during decades of conflict that began in 1970 and ended in 1998.
Since the end of the fighting in Cambodia, nearly 20,000 people have been killed and about 45,000 injured by leftover war explosives. The number of casualties has declined over time, but there were 49 deaths in 2024.
Last month, two Cambodian deminers were killed while trying to remove a decades-old anti-tank mine from a rice field.
Man bitten by shark off Queensland coast in second attack in a month
A 29-year-old man was flown to the hospital and is reported to be stable after a shark attack off the Queensland coast, a Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) spokesperson said.
The incident happened on the Moreton Island, a popular tourist destination north of Brisbane. The man, whose identity was not immediately disclosed, was being treated for abdominal injuries and lacerations to his leg, reports said.
Emergency services arrived at The Wrecks Walking Track on Moreton Island about 3.03pm on Saturday and airlifted the man to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in a stable condition, according to reports.
Authorities have yet to identify the species of shark involved.
David James, the Tangalooma Island Resort director, told ABC he was thankful to hear the man was in a stable condition. “We’re really happy it only appears to be a minor bite, he’ll make a full recovery,” he said.
“That’s the best outcome possible with any of these sort of incidents happening.”
This is the second shark attack in the bay in less than a month. A 17-year-old girl died after being bitten by a shark while swimming off a beach in the north of Brisbane earlier this month. The attack marked Australia’s third fatal shark incident in just over five weeks. The girl, identified as Charlize Zmuda, “sustained life-threatening injuries and succumbed to those injuries” about 15 minutes later, a Queensland police spokesperson said.
On 2 January, surfer Lance Appleby was killed by a shark at Granites Beach in South Australia. Just days earlier, on 28 December, 40-year-old chaplain Luke Walford was fatally bitten while spearfishing near the Keppel Bay Islands in Queensland.
Shark control measures, including baited drum lines and drone surveillance, are in place at Woorim Beach.
More than 1,200 cases of shark attacks have been reported in Australia since 1791, of which more than 250 were fatal, according to a national database, reported CBS News.
French aircraft carrier stages combat drills with Filipinos in disputed sea and visits Philippines
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines on Sunday after holding combat drills with Filipino forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China.
The Charles de Gaulle docked on Friday at Subic Bay, a former U.S. Naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Filipino forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in the South China Sea, Philippine and French officials said.
Last year, the French navy deployed a frigate for the first time to participate in a joint sail with United States and Philippine counterpart forces in and near the disputed waters. It was part of the largest annual combat exercises in years by American and Filipino allied forces. The drills, known as Balikatan (Tagalog for “shoulder-to-shoulder”), involved more than 16,000 military personnel.
China strongly criticized the exercises then, saying the Philippines was “ganging up” with countries from outside Asia in an obvious reference to the U.S. and its security partners, and warned the drills could instigate confrontation and undermine regional stability.
France’s recent and ongoing military deployments to the Philippines underscore its “commitment to regional security and the shared goal of strengthening maritime cooperation in the Indo-Pacific,” Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson Co. Xerxes Trinidad said.
The Charles de Gaulle, the only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the world other than those of the U.S. Navy, led a strike group that included three destroyer warships and an oil replenishment ship in its first-ever visit to the Philippines, French officials said.
France has been shoring up its military engagements with the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations at odds with China in the disputed waters, a key global trade and security route although it says those emergency-preparedness actions were not aimed at any particular country.
China, however, has bristled at any presence of foreign forces, especially the U.S. military and its allies, which carry out war drills or patrols in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety although it has not publicly released exact coordinates of its claim other than 10 dashed lines to demarcate vaguely what it calls its territory on maps.
Beijing’s claims overlap with those of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan in long-unresolved territorial standoffs. Indonesia has also figured in violent confrontations with Chinese coast guard and fishing fleets in the Natuna waters.
Two weeks ago, Australia protested after a Chinese J-16 fighter jet released flares that passed within 30 meters (100 feet) of an Australian P-8 Poseidon surveillance jet over the South China Sea, according to Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles.
The Australian military plane did not sustain any damage and no crewmember was injured in the Feb. 11 incident. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson accused the Australian aircraft of “deliberately” intruding into airspace over the disputed Paracel Islands, which China and Vietnam contest.
In late 2023, French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro signed an accord to boost military cooperation and joint engagements.
France and the Philippines began talks last year on a defense pact that would allow troops from each country to hold exercises in the other’s territory. French negotiators have handed a draft of the agreement to their Filipino counterparts to start the negotiations.
The Philippines has also signed such status-of-forces agreements with the U.S. and Australia. A signed agreement with Japan was expected to be ratified by Japanese legislators this year for it to be enforced while talks between New Zealand and the Philippines for a similar defense pact recently concluded.
Great Wall of China may be centuries older than previously thought
Archaeological excavations in eastern China‘s Shandong province suggest that some of the oldest sections of the Great Wall were built 300 years earlier than previously thought.
Recent digs in the Changqing area show that the engineering marvel wasn’t a single construction project, but a series of fortifications built during multiple dynasties.
The Great Wall was built to secure ancient China’s northern borders against nomadic groups from the Eurasian Steppe. Historical records suggest the construction of the Unesco World Heritage monument spanned centuries. However, extant documentation of the wall lacks details that could reveal its true origins.
It was believed that the largest portions of the first walls were constructed around the 7th century BC and joined together under the Qin dynasty around the third century BC.
However, new excavations undertaken last year and covering over 1,000 square meters found sections of the wall dating back to the late Western Zhou Dynasty, which ruled from 1046BC to 771BC, and to the early Spring and Autumn Period of 770-476BC.
The findings shed light on advanced engineering of the ancient Chinese to expand the wall to about 30 meters at the peak of Qi State likely during the Warring States Period.
Some ancient texts suggest that sections of the wall went through many phases of development, use, sometimes collapse and abandonment, and attempts at restoration.
Researchers reportedly used a multidisciplinary approach to date these sections of the wall, including analysis of traditional artefacts collected at the site as well as specimens of plant remains and animal bones.
Archaeologists found buried sections of roads, house foundations, trenches, ash pits, and walls at the site, Zhang Su, the project leader from the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, told Global Times.
One particularly well-preserved section was built during the Warring States Period from 475BC to 221 BC and is the best preserved, researchers said.
This section is the “earliest known Great Wall in China”, said Liu Zheng, a member of the Chinese Society of Cultural Relics.
The latest research also establishes the proximity of the Great Wall of this time to the ancient Pingyin city mentioned in historical texts, suggesting the wall was not just a fortification against invasion but also served a strategic role in controlling trade and transportation.