KOTA BHARU — Lelaki yang parah dipercayai diserang beruang di Kampung Dalam Senduk, Jerek, dekat Gua Musang, meninggal dunia awal pagi tadi.
Mangsa, Muhamad Zaki Che Mohamed, 33, meninggal dunia di unit rawatan rapi (ICU) Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) di Kubang Kerian jam 3.45 pagi.
Adiknya, Siti Jamilah, 22, mengesahkan kematian mangsa.
“Kami dalam perjalanan pulang ke rumah di Kampung Jerek. Jenazah abang akan dikebumikan di Tanah Perkuburan Islam Kampung Jerek kemungkinan selepas zohor,” katanya ketika dihubungi.
Terdahulu media melaporkan, seorang lelaki parah dipercayai diserang beruang ketika keluar memikat burung di kawasan kebun di Kampung Dalam Senduk.
Dalam kejadian Ahad lalu itu, Muhamad Zaki cedera dengan kesan koyakan pada kepala dan kaki serta mata akibat cakaran haiwan liar itu.
Susulan itu Muhamad Zaki menjalani pembedahan di HUSM dan disahkan stabil sebelum kesihatannya kembali merosot.
QUITO — The Foreign Ministry of Ecuador announced Friday that starting Saturday “consular services in Venezuela will continue to be served electronically and through the consulates in Bogota and Panama City,” after the closure of the Ecuadorian consulate in Caracas.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility established an action plan after the closure of the Ecuadorian consulate in that territory to be implemented from Sept. 14,” the ministry said in a statement, without explaining the reason for the closure of the consulate in Venezuela.
It added that the action plan facilitates consular services for Ecuadorian citizens who are in Venezuela, “without the need for them to move to another country.”
The Ecuadorian consulates in Bogota and Panama will electronically handle emergency passport procedures and the legalization of documents issued by Ecuadorian authorities with electronic signatures, according to the ministry.
BEIRUT — One person was killed and seven others were injured on Friday in an Israeli airstrike on a residential apartment in the town of Ahmadieh in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese military sources.
The military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that an Israeli drone fired two air-to-ground missiles at a residential apartment in a two-story building at the western entrance of Ahmadieh, partially destroying the building. The attack resulted in one death and seven injuries, including four children.
The sources added that local health authorities had transferred the injured to a hospital in the Western Bekaa region.
The sources also said that Israeli warplanes and drones conducted 10 airstrikes on seven villages and towns in southern Lebanon on Friday afternoon, while Israeli artillery shelled 10 towns in the region.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah announced in separate statements that it attacked the Philon base, a base for the 210th Division of the Israeli Defense Forces, with drones and bombed the main air defense missile base of Israel’s Northern Command at the Berea barracks with Katyusha rockets.
Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on Oct. 8, 2023, following a barrage of rockets launched by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas’ attack on Israel the day before. Israel then retaliated by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon.
BOSTON, USA — A pro-Israel rally in a Boston suburb turned violent Thursday evening when a passerby was shot during a scuffle after confronting a group of demonstrators, authorities said.
Police were called at 6:40 p.m. to the scene of what they described as a small rally in Newton. Words were exchanged before a passerby rapidly crossed the street and tackled one of the demonstrators, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said.
“A scuffle ensued. During that scuffle, the individual who had come across the street was shot by a member of the demonstrating group,” Ryan said during a news conference late Thursday.
Scott Hayes, 47, of Framingham, was arrested on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and violation of a constitutional right causing injury. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Hayes, who works as a contractor for National Grid, was ordered to be fitted with a GPS monitor and to stay away both from the city of Newton and from the individual who had been shot and to not be in possession of a dangerous weapon.
Hayes, who appeared to have bruising to his face during his court appearance Friday afternoon, was also required to post a $5,000 cash bail and to abide by a 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.
Prosecutors also told the court that an application for a criminal complaint has been applied for against the individual who was shot.
They said they opted for an application for a criminal complaint instead of an arrest because the alleged assault and battery was not committed in the presence of a police officers.
The shooting victim, who was not identified, was being treated at a hospital for life-threatening injuries, Ryan said.
Acting Newton Police Chief George McMains asked witnesses to provide investigators with photos or videos of the confrontation. He said police would provide extra patrols at “houses of worship” over the next several days.
Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller called the shooting a “frightening incident” and asked for everyone to remain calm as police investigate.
“I know people will have a lot of questions, and we will share information with Newtonians and the press when we are able,” Fuller said. “It’s really early stages of an active investigation.”
People hold placards and wave Iranian flags during a global protest in solidarity with Iranian women in New York on September 16, 2023, on the first anniversary of the death of Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini in custody.(AFP)
GENEVA — UN experts accused Iran Friday of “intensifying” its repression of women two years after Mahsa Amini’s death in custody, which sparked nationwide protests, including an apparent pattern of sentencing women activists to death.
Amini, 22, was an Iranian Kurdish woman who died three days after her arrest in Tehran in September 2022 for allegedly breaching Iran’s dress code which requires women to wear a headscarf.
Two years on, “Iran has intensified its efforts to suppress the fundamental rights of women and girls and crush remaining initiatives of women’s activism,” the independent UN fact-finding mission on Iran warned in a statement.
The UN Human Rights Council appointed the experts to investigate the deadly crackdown on nationwide protests that rocked Iran after Amini’s death.
“Although mass protests have subsided, the unabated defiance of women and girls is a continuous reminder that they still live in a system that relegates them to ‘second class citizens’,” said the experts, who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations.
In a fresh update, they said repression had stepped up noticeably since April.
State authorities had “increased repressive measures and policies” through the so-called “Noor Plan,” which encourages sanctioning rights violations against women and girls who flout the mandatory hijab, they said.
“Security forces have further escalated pre-existing patterns of physical violence, including beating, kicking, and slapping women and girls who are perceived as failing to comply with the mandatory hijab laws and regulations,” the team said in a statement.
They also warned that state authorities had enhanced surveillance for hijab compliance, including in private spheres like vehicles, and with a range of tools, including drones.
At the same time, a new “Hijab and Chastity” bill, which is in the final stages of approval, provides for harsher penalties for women who do not wear the mandatory hijab — including soaring fines, long prison sentences and travel bans.
In their statement, the experts expressed particular concern about “an apparent new pattern of sentencing to death of women activists… following their convictions for national security offenses.”
“Over the last two years, the death penalty and other domestic criminal law provisions, in particular those related to national security, have been used as instruments to terrorize and deter Iranians from protesting and expressing themselves freely,” they said.
RIYADH — The Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority announced that Lieutenant General Khalid bin Qarar Al-Harbi, the former Director-General of Public Security, has been sentenced to prison and fined SR1 million for bribery and forgery crimes, an official source at the Ministry of Interior said Friday.
His sentence came in accordance with the Criminal Procedures Law and after an investigation by Nazaha.
MOSCOW — Russia completely disagrees with comments from Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan that Crimea should return to Ukrainian control, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
Erdogan said this week that Turkish support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence was unwavering, and that the return of Crimea — which Russia seized from Ukraine and annexed in 2014 — was a requirement of international law.
Asked about Erdogan’s comments, Peskov said the topic of Crimea “falls under the category of disagreements between us and our Turkish friends.
“Here we have completely divergent opinions. At the same time, we do not abandon our deliberate attempts to explain to our Turkish friends and colleagues our point of view, our position.”
Peskov said that Erdogan was under pressure from the United States over its traditionally close economic ties with Moscow “As for Turkiye’s attempts to mitigate US pressure, indeed, the US is exerting undisguised pressure on the Turkish Republic, not shying away from intimidation, with consequences for the Turkish economy,” said Peskov.
The Kremlin said this week that President Vladimir Putin may visit Turkiye for talks with Erdogan once preparations are completed.
Turkiye, a NATO member, has played a key role as a go-between for Russia and Ukraine during their 2-1/2-year-old conflict, including arranging an export deal for Ukrainian grain.
Erdogan told Putin at a summit in Kazakhstan in July that Ankara could help end the conflict, but the Kremlin has not taken the Turkish leader up on his offer.
GAZA — Two civilians were killed and several others were injured on Friday in the ongoing Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip.
Local sources reported that one civilian was killed in an Israeli air raid targeting a house in Gaza City. Another was killed and others were injured in the occupation’s bombardment of a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
The Israeli occupation’s aggression on Gaza by land, sea, and air since October 7, 2023, has so far resulted in the killing of 41,118 civilians, mostly children and women, and the injury of 95,125 others.
Thousands of victims remain missing; either buried under the rubble or scattered on the roads, as rescue teams face tremendous difficulties in reaching them due to the continued Israeli attacks and the massive amount of debris.
BAGHDAD — Two army officers were killed and three soldiers wounded on Friday in an attack by the extremist Islamic State (IS) militants in the northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk, said a local security source.
The attack occurred in the morning when IS militants opened fire on a military patrol near the town of Dibis, northwest of the namesake provincial capital, Kirkuk, some 250 km north of the capital Baghdad, Salam al-Obaidi from Kirkuk police told Xinhua.
Following the attack, a clash broke out between the two sides, during which a military vehicle was also damaged, al-Obaidi said.
He added that an Iraqi army force rushed to the scene and searched the area afterward to hunt down the attackers.
Also on Friday, the Iraqi military said it identified several senior IS leaders among the 14 militants it killed in an operation targeting IS hideouts in western Iraq’s Anbar desert on Aug. 29.
According to a statement from the Security Media Cell, a media outlet affiliated with the Iraqi Joint Operations Command, DNA tests on the 14 dead bodies revealed that Ahmed Hamed Zwain, deputy of the IS group’s top leader in Iraq, who was known by his nickname Abu Siddiq or Abu Muslim, and Abu Ali Al-Tunisi, head of weapons development and manufacturing for the IS, were among the victims.
The statement added the fatalities also included the leader of the group’s southern region and its leadership chain in Anbar province, including local leader Abu Hammam and several other military, communications, and financial officials.
The security situation in Iraq has improved since the defeat of the IS in 2017. However, IS remnants have sneaked into urban centers, deserts, and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians.
ABUJA — Nearly 40 people have been killed and more than 414,000 others affected by the devastating floods that have recently ravaged Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria’s northeastern state of Borno, an official of the United Nations in the African country has said.
Ann Weru, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Nigeria, said in a statement reaching Xinhua in the national capital of Abuja Friday that at least 58 people sustained injuries due to the severity of the devastating flood since Tuesday.
Weru said at least 37 people died from the incident, citing data from the National Emergency Management Agency, which mobilized a humanitarian response to the affected area.
Access to hospitals, schools, and markets was hampered by the heavy floods, the UN official said, noting that it also caused damage to infrastructure, including bridges.
“Evacuation of people in high-risk areas to safer ground is ongoing, amid concerns about the risk of disease outbreaks,” Weru added.
The floods, which local officials have described as the “state’s worst floodings,” were caused by the collapse of the Alau Dam on the Ngadda River in Borno Tuesday, forcing residents to flee their homes.
On Wednesday, the state government of Borno said the dam was at capacity due to unusually heavy rains.
At least 14 official camps, and many informal ones, have been opened for displaced persons. Barkindo Mohammed, head of the State Emergency Management Agency, told reporters Friday that the camps could accommodate over 2 million people.
Mohammed said at least 3,683 people trapped in their homes due to the severe floodings had been rescued while confirming that the rescue operation was still underway.
“The rescue operation involves the deployment of boats, canoes, local divers, military and fire trucks, among others. As the water recedes, we are concentrating on those who made distress calls,” the official said.
While expressing deep concern over the flooding, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu directed the relevant government agencies to expedite rescue efforts and called for the immediate evacuation of residents in communities overtaken by floods.
