World

The initial relief that greeted the dramatic discovery of the trapped Thai soccer team has given way to questions over why the boys are still inside the flooded cave network and not on their way to the surface and their waiting families.

Part of the concern about attempting to bring the boys out of the cramped, pitch-black chamber where they have spent the better part of nine days is that they are around two kilometres (1.2 miles) inside the cave, and nearly a kilometre below the surface, according to rescuers.

The boys, who were found alive by British divers in the early hours of Monday morning, are now being tended to by seven Thai Navy Seals, including a doctor and nurse, Thai Navy Seal Chief Rear Adm. Aphakorn Yoo-kongkaew told reporters at a news conference late Tuesday.

The children were being given access to telephone lines to be able to reach their families, but the focus, said Yoo-kongkaew, was on building their strength so they can attempt the journey out. However, options for the rescuers working in and around the Tham Luang Nang Non-cave system in northern Thailand are limited.

The area in which the group remains stranded is accessible only via a narrow, flooded channel, and attempts to pump water from the cave or find a natural opening in the roof of the chamber, have so far been unsuccessful.

Capt. Akanand Surawan, a commander with the Royal Thai Navy, said authorities would now supply the group with four months' worth of food and begin teaching the boys how to scuba dive.

Surawan's reference to four months has been interpreted as a potential sign that authorities are considering waiting until after the rainy season ends in October to begin the rescue operation.

But with heavy rain expected to continue in the coming days, rising water levels could force rescuers to act sooner rather than later.

Diving is considered among the least preferable escape methods, with experts cautioning that any attempt to traverse the narrow passageways will be fraught with difficulties and potential complications, especially if the children can't swim.The boys, who are between 11 and 16 and are members of the Wild Boars soccer team, had been exploring the cave network with their soccer coach on June 23, when heavy seasonal rains flooded the cave's entrance, forcing the group further and further into the labyrinth of tunnels in search of high ground.

Their sudden disappearance sparked a desperate nine-day race against time as hundreds of volunteers and specialist international search teams battled against the heavy rains to locate the missing group.

Source : CNN

n a series of tweets fired off on Sunday, US President Donald Trump described people entering the country from Mexico as "invaders" trying to "break into the country," and suggested sending them back to their country of origin without legal proceedings.

"When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came," he wrote.

American civil rights advocates immediately responded that such a procedure would violate the US Constitution.

"What President Trump has suggested here is both illegal and unconstitutional," a tweet from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) read. "Any official who has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and laws should disavow it unequivocally."

Trump's tweets were the latest to display his hardline stance on immigration, a core part of White House policy that has increasingly raised ethical concerns from Democratic and even some Republican lawmakers recently.

Trump gave in to bi-partisan pressure last week and reversed a policy that ordered the separation of children from their parents who enter the US unlawfully. However, his "zero-tolerance" policy of criminally prosecuting all undocumented border-crossers remains in place.

Source : Deutsche Welle

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was arrested on Tuesday, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, amid an investigation into how billions of dollars went missing from a state fund he founded almost a decade ago.

Authorities picked up Mr. Najib from his home after serving him with a remand order, two sources close to the family said. One of the sources said Mr. Najib was expected to be charged in court on Wednesday.

Malaysia’s anti-graft agency also said Mr. Najib had been arrested, according to state news agency Bernama.

A spokesman for the former premier did not immediately have a comment. Mr. Najib has consistently denied wrongdoing in dealings with state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Since his shock election loss to Mahathir Mohamad in May, Mr. Najib has been barred from leaving the country, quizzed by the anti-graft agency and had his personal and family houses searched as part of the 1MDB probe.

Mr. Mahathir said in an interview with Reuters last month that embezzlement and bribery with government money were among the charges that Malaysia was looking to bring against Mr. Najib, adding they had “an almost perfect case” against him.

Founded by Mr. Najib in 2009, 1MDB is being investigated in at least six countries for alleged money laundering and graft.

Civil lawsuits filed by the U.S. Department of Justice allege that nearly $4.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB.

Source : Reuters

Saudi women are officially allowed to get behind the wheel after a decades-old driving ban was lifted. The change was announced last September and Saudi Arabia issued the first licences to women earlier this month. It was the only country left in the world where women could not drive and families had to hire private chauffeurs for female relatives.

However, the move comes amid an intensified crackdown on activists who campaigned for the right to drive. At least eight women's rights activists are being detained and could face trial in a counter-terrorism court and long prison sentences for their activism, human rights group Amnesty says. They include Loujain al-Hathloul, a well-known figure in the campaign for women's driving rights. Amnesty has also called for wider reforms in Saudi Arabia, where women remain subject to male guardianship laws.

Source : BBC

Theresa May has vowed to eradicate the “abhorrent” practice of gay conversion therapy as she today publishes the world’s largest LGBT+ survey and a government plan aimed at addressing discrimination and health inequality.

Writing exclusively for The Independent, Penny Mordaunt, the women and equalities minister, said that conversion therapy – sometimes referred to as “gay cure” – is “abuse of the worst kind and must be stamped out”.

The decision comes after ministers found the controversial practice, which aims to alter a person’s sexual orientation, to be more prevalent than previously thought after analysing the survey of 108,000 LGBT+ individuals across the UK.

It forms one of 75 commitments in the action plan – alongside a £4.5m fund – to tackle issues raised by the LGBT+ community in the survey last summer that aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of experiences of life in Britain.

Results in the survey suggested that 5 per cent – 5,400 people – had been offered the widely discredited therapy by a range of faith organisations, healthcare providers, and family members while two per cent (2,160) had undergone it.

Ms. Mordaunt said the practice – described as “unethical and potentially harmful” by NHS England in 2014 – can “range from pseudo-psychological treatments to in the most extreme cases, surgical interventions and ‘corrective rape’.”

Her department will now consider “all legislative and non-legislative options” to prohibit promoting, offering or conducting the therapy in the UK.

Other results of the survey included:

Two in three people (68 per cent) said they avoided holding hands with a same-sex partner in public for fear of a negative reaction2 per cent have undergone conversion therapy while 5 per cent have been offered itNearly a quarter (23 per cent) said people at work reacted negatively to them being LGBT+70 per cent said they avoided being open about their sexual orientation for fear of a negative reactionOf trans respondents, 59 per cent said they avoided expressing their gender identity for fear of negative reactionLaunching the action plan on Tuesday, the prime minister said it sets out “concrete steps” to “deliver real and lasting change across society”.

Ms May continued: “I was struck by just how many respondents said they cannot be open about their sexual orientation or avoid holding hands with their partner in public for fear of a negative reaction. No one should ever have to hide who they are or who they love.

“We can be proud that the UK is a world leader in advancing LGBT+ rights, but the overwhelming response to our survey has shone a light on the many areas where we can improve the lives of LGBT+ people.”

(The Independent)

Wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been charged with fraud relating to the alleged misuse of state funds.

Sara Netanyahu is charged with misusing 359,000 shekels ($100,000; £77,000) for catering services at the prime minister's official residence.

She is also charged with a breach of trust following a police inquiry, the justice ministry says.

Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing. Her lawyers described the indictment as absurd and delusional.

On Thursday, she was charged along with Ezra Seidoff, a former deputy director-general of the prime minister's office.

The Jerusalem District Attorney's Office said the decision to indict both Netanyahu and Seidoff was made "after reviewing all evidence and weighing all circumstances of the case".

Last year, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced that he was considering charging Netanyahu over the allegations following a long-running investigation, which has been the subject of intense speculation in the Israeli media.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad wants Malaysia's young citizens to forget racial origins and think of themselves as "pure Malaysians".

In an interview with Channel NewsAsia on Monday (Jun 25), Dr Mahathir was asked what he could promise millennials about the Malaysia they will be living in in the years to come.
 
"(Malaysia is) not only multiracial, it is multilingual, multireligious, multicultural," he said. "Despite the differences, we still live together, more or less at peace with each other (but) of course, there are little conflicts ... and I think this is what they are going to inherit."
 
He said Malaysians "have to learn to understand each other".
 
"And to forget - slowly forget the racial origins and think of themselves as pure Malaysians."
 
Ethnic Malays like Dr Mahathir and indigenous people make up close to 70 per cent of the population with almost a quarter of the country Chinese. The rest are Indians as well as from other ethnic groups. 
 
Source : Channel News Asia

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today that Canadians will be able to consume marijuana recreationally without criminal penalties starting on Oct. 17, 2018 — many months later than the government's initial target date.

"One of the things that we heard very clearly from the provinces is that they need a certain amount of time to get their bricks and mortar stores — their online sales — ready. Producers need time to be able to actually prepare for a regimented and successful implementation of the regime ... This is something that we want to get right," Trudeau told reporters at a press conference held today before the House of Commons rises for its summer recess.

"By giving the provinces more time to ensure that they are fully ready for the day of coming into force of this legislation, it will be a smooth success in all the ways that we can hope for."


A historic bill to legalize and regulate pot has passed in Parliament, but consumption is still not legal, says Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images) 

While the federal government was responsible for the bill that will ultimately legalize recreational marijuana possession, home growing and sales to adults — by dismantling key aspects of the Criminal Code that ensured prohibition for 95 years — the practical details of implementing legalization have been left largely to the provinces and territories.

As is common in the Canadian system of federalism, each province has taken a different approach — and some are more prepared than others. New Brunswick, for example, has already built its first retail storefront, while Nunavut only passed its legal framework on Tuesday.

The government has long said there would be a buffer of eight to 12 weeks between the bill's passage and full legalization to allow provinces to get their systems up and running to sell recreational marijuana from storefronts.

A notorious gangster is on the run after escaping by helicopter from a prison in the Paris region. Redoine Faid was helped by three heavily-armed men with assault rifles.

Two gunmen in balaclavas used smoke bombs and angle-grinders to break into the visitors' room where Faid was talking to his brother. A third man in the prison courtyard guarded the helicopter and its pilot - a flying instructor whom the men had taken hostage.

The helicopter flew to the nearby Gonesse area, where it was found by local police.

Faid, 46, has been serving a 25-year sentence for a failed robbery during which a police officer was killed.

This is the armed robber's second prison break: in 2013, he escaped after seizing four guards as human shields and blowing several doors off with dynamite.He staged that escape less than half an hour after arriving at a prison in northern France, and spent six weeks on the run.

Nearly 3,000 French police have been drafted into the manhunt, a police source told AFP. "Everything is being done to locate the fugitive," an interior ministry official said.
 
Source : BBC

The US is withdrawing from the United Nations human rights council, the Trump administration announced on Tuesday, calling it a “cesspool of political bias” that targets Israel in particular while ignoring atrocities in other countries.

The US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said she had travelled to the council’s headquarters in Geneva a year ago to call for reforms, to no avail.

“Regrettably it is now clear that our call for reform was not heeded,” Haley told reporters at the state department. “Human rights abusers continue to serve on, and be elected to, the council.”

She added: “The world’s most inhumane regimes continue to escape scrutiny and the council continues politicising and scapegoating of countries with positive human rights records in an attempt to distract from the abusers in their ranks.”

“For too long the human rights council has been a protector of human rights abusers and a cesspool of political bias.”

The UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, expressed regret about the US withdrawal. The organisation’s top human rights official, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said in a tweet: “Given the state of human rights in today’s world, the US should be stepping up, not stepping back.”

Source : The Guardian

A gunman blasted his way into the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis with a shotgun Thursday afternoon, killing five people, authorities said.

Journalists dived under their desks and pleaded for help on social media. One reporter described the scene as a “war zone.” A photographer said he jumped over a dead colleague and fled for his life.

The victims were identified as Rob Hiaasen, 59, a former feature writer for The Baltimore Sun who joined the Capital Gazette in 2010 as an assistant editor and columnist; Wendi Winters, 65, a community correspondent who headed special publications; Gerald Fischman, 61, the editorial page editor; John McNamara, 56, a staff writer who had covered high school, college and professional sports for decades; and Rebecca Smith, 34, a sales assistant hired in November.

Two others were injured in the attack that began about 2:40 p.m. at the Capital Gazette offices at 888 Bestgate Road in Annapolis.

Police took a suspect into custody soon after the shootings. He was identified as Jarrod W. Ramos, a 38-year-old Laurel man with a long-standing grudge against the paper.

Ramos was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, according to online court records. He did not have an attorney listed; a bail review hearing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Friday in Annapolis.

A strong earthquake in Osaka, Japan has killed at least three people, including a child, and injured more than 200. Airports in the area were closed for several hours, train lines interrupted and factories had to halt production.

The 6.1 magnitude quake did not trigger a tsunami warning and nuclear plants in the area are operating normally. Japan lies in a particularly earthquake-prone region and accounts for around 20% of quakes worldwide of magnitude 6.0 or more.

Monday's quake in Osaka occurred just before 08:00 local time (23:00 GMT Sunday) north of the city, the meteorological agency said.

A nine-year-old girl killed by a falling wall at her school was one of three confirmed fatalities. An elderly man was also killed by a collapsing wall while another was trapped below a bookcase at home, national broadcaster NHK reported.

Source : BBC