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India’s Modi breaks silence over Manipur violence after viral video shows mob molesting women

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke more than two months of public silence over deadly ethnic clashes in India’s northeast, saying Thursday that the assaults of two women as they were being paraded naked by a mob in Manipur state were unforgivable.A video showing the assaults triggered massive outrage and went viral late Wednesday despite the internet being largely blocked and journalists being locked out in the remote state. It shows two naked women being surrounded by scores of young men who grope their genitals and drag them to a field.“The guilty will not be spared. What has happened to the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven,” Modi told reporters ahead of a parliamentary session in his first public comments related to the Manipur conflict.The violence depicted in the video was emblematic of the near-civil war in Manipur that has left more than 130 people dead since May, as mobs rampage through villages killing people and torching houses. The ethnic ...

Mueren cinco personas y decenas quedan atrapados en deslizamiento de tierra en India

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

NUEVA DELHI – Al menos cinco personas murieron y decenas continúan atrapadas después de que un deslizamiento de tierra arrasase una aldea en el oeste de la India, mientras los equipos de rescate trabajan contra reloj para recuperar a posibles víctimas.“Según la información preliminar, unas 48 familias se encontraban en el lugar, alrededor de 75 personas han sido evacuadas y cinco personas han muerto hasta el momento”, informó en Twitter el jefe adjunto del Gobierno del estado occidental de Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis.Este deslizamiento ocurrió en plena noche en el distrito de Raigad, que sufrió al igual que el resto de la región intensas lluvias en los últimos días que están dificultando las operaciones de rescate. Ascienden a 50 los muertos tras gigantesco alud de tierra en Ecuador Video: gigantesco alud de tierra deja al menos 7 fallecidos en Ecuador Hasta el lugar se han trasladado cuatro cuerpos de la Fuer...

Over 20,000 Wagner troops killed, 40,000 wounded in Ukraine: Prigozhin-linked channel

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

As of May 20 of this year, 22,000 Wagner fighters had been killed in Russia’s war in Ukraine — close to a quarter of the total number of the paramilitary group’s troops who’ve fought in the country — according to a Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel. “A total of 78,000 PMC Wagner fighters participated in the Ukrainian mission,” said a statement posted late Wednesday on the “Wagner Loading” channel, which appears to be close to the group’s mutinous leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin.“At the time of the capture of Bakhmut (20 May), 22,000 fighters were killed, 40,000 wounded,” the statement said.U.S. intelligence said in February that Wagner had at that point suffered 30,000 casualties in Ukraine, including 9,000 deaths.Troops from the Wagner Group have been involved in some of the fiercest fighting in Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — particularly in taking the eastern town of Bakhmut.But after Prigozhin launched a muti...

1 man is dead and 48 are injured after a suspected gas explosion in downtown Johannesburg

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — One man died and at least 48 people were injured after a suspected underground gas explosion ripped open roads and flipped vehicles in the heart of South Africa’s biggest city, authorities and emergency services said Thursday.Firefighters found the man’s body found under a vehicle.The cause of the blast at evening rush hour Wednesday in downtown Johannesburg remained unclear. The company that supplies gas to that part of the city said it did not believe its underground pipelines were responsible, as authorities first thought.An investigation was underway as city authorities brought in specialists to determine what other underground pipes or cables there were in the area and if there was a threat of another explosion or gas leak.“We are still searching for the source,” said Panyaza Lesufi, the premier of the Gauteng province, where Johannesburg is located.Firefighters discovered the body of the man in a nighttime search of the blast area, Emergen...

German police search for a lion suspected of being on the loose in Berlin’s suburbs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — German authorities warned people in Berlin’s southern suburbs on Thursday to watch out for a potentially dangerous animal, suspected to be a lioness, that was on the loose.Police in Brandenburg state, which surrounds the capital, issued a warning in the early morning hours of an “escaped wild animal” and asked people in and around Kleinmachnow, Teltow and Stahnsdorf — just outside Berlin’s city limits — not to leave their houses and to bring their pets indoors.The warning was later extended to southern areas of Berlin and an alert was sent on an official warning app that the animal was suspected to be a lioness. A vet and two hunters were participating in a search for the creature, which also involved helicopters. Police had no immediate information on who owned it.Two men reported seeing a big cat running after a wild boar, the latter common in and around Berlin, police spokesperson Daniel Kiep told local public broadcaster rbb.“The two gentlemen recorded ...

2 suicide bombers in Pakistan attack police and government compound, killing 1 and injuring 15

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Two suicide bombers attacked a sprawling compound housing a police station and government offices in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least one police officer and wounding 15 other people, police and rescue officials said.The attack occurred in the Bara neighborhood in northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, provincial police chief Akhtar Hayat said. He said part of the compound collapsed after the bombing.The explosive vest on one of the suicide bombers detonated when police opened fire after coming under attack, Hayat said.Gunshots were heard after the bombing, said Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for the provincial emergency service, and an exchange of gunfire followed. The wounded people included police officers and civilians, officials said.No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Bara, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, but suspicion was likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, which have stepped up attacks in recent ...

Japanese, US, and South Korean officials condemn the North’s weapons plans but urge dialogue

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Senior officials from Japan, the U.S. and South Korea condemned North Korea over its recent ICBM-class ballistic missile launches and vowed to step up their trilateral cooperation to strengthen deterrence and sanctions against the North, while stressing the need for dialogue with Pyongyang.Their meeting Thursday in the central Japanese city of Karuizawa comes days after North Korea’s solid-fuel ICBM launch last week, which landed in the water off the western coast of Japan’s northern main island of Hokkaido and one day after the launch of two missiles on Wednesday. The U.S. special representative for North Korea, Sung Kim, also said that the United States was “working hard” to gather information about an American soldier who fled to the North earlier this month. The U.S. was seeking to ensure his safety and return him home, Kim said. Private 2nd Class Travis King, 23, had been held in South Korea on assault charges and was released on July 10 after serving his time. He ...

In the news today: continuing fallout from labour dispute at B.C. ports

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…B.C. ports in limbo as union removes strike notice…The fallout from the labour dispute at British Columbia ports continues to unfold, as the union representing about 7,400 workers abruptly rescinded a strike notice hours after issuing it.Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has stepped up action in the federal response to B.C. ports potentially shutting down again in the dispute between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada and the BC Maritime Employers Association, convening an incident response group typically gathered at times of “national crisis” or events with major implications for Canada.In a statement, the Prime Minister’s Office says Trudeau spoke with B.C. Premier David Eby about the labour dispute and agreed on the need to “ensure the stability” of national supply chains.The strike originally s...

Toronto’s Laysla De Oliveira honours her immigrant parents with role in new TV series

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

TORONTO — For Toronto-born Laysla De Oliveira, it was the sacrifice of her immigrant parents that instilled in her grit and determination – the very qualities that she channels in her new role as a U.S. Marine Raider in a new spy thriller series on Paramount Plus. In “Special Ops: Lioness,” created by “Yellowstone” showrunner Taylor Sheridan and inspired by a real-life U.S. military program, De Oliveira plays Cruz Manuelos, who is recruited to the Lioness team to infiltrate and take down a terrorist group by befriending the daughter of a man linked to the organization.The series, which premieres on Sunday, is stacked with Hollywood A-listers, including Zoe Saldana, Nicole Kidman and Morgan Freeman. Saldana and Kidman also serve as executive producers on the series.De Oliveira attended the Toronto premiere of the series last week — before the Hollywood actors’ strike was announced — and said she tried to honour her immigrant parents with this role.“...

B.C. ports in limbo as union removes strike notice despite dispute with employers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

The fallout from the labour dispute at British Columbia ports continues to unfold, as the union representing about 7,400 workers abruptly rescinded a strike notice hours after issuing it.Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has stepped up action in the federal response to B.C. ports potentially shutting down again in the dispute between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada and the BC Maritime Employers Association, convening an incident response group typically gathered at times of “national crisis” or events with major implications for Canada.In a statement, the Prime Minister’s Office says Trudeau spoke with B.C. Premier David Eby about the labour dispute and agreed on the need to “ensure the stability” of national supply chains.The ILWU said in a statement late yesterday that it had “removed” the strike notice it issued earlier that same day, but gave no reasons or details behind the decision in what the BCMEA calls ...