GAZA — Six civilians were killed and others were injured on Friday morning in an Israeli shelling of the central and southern Gaza Strip.
WAFA correspondent said that the bodies of five civilians were recovered following an Israeli artillery shelling of the Bardweel family home in the al-Mawasi area in the city of Rafah, in the southern Strip.
A civilian was also killed and others were injured in an Israeli bombing that targeted a house belonging to the Aqel family on 20th Street Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the Strip.
The occupation’s aggression on the Gaza Strip, 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.
IPOH — Empat individu termasuk tiga pegawai Jabatan Imigresen Perak ditahan reman selama dua hari bagi membantu siasatan Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) berkaitan penerimaan wang rasuah Program Repatriasi Migran (PRM).
Permohonan reman ke atas mereka yang berumur antara 30 hingga 55 tahun itu dibenarkan oleh Majistret Siti Nora Shariff mengikut Seksyen 117 Kanun Prosedur Jenayah, bermula hari ini.
Difahamkan, tiga warga kerja Jabatan Imigresen itu berpangkat penguasa (KP42) dan pegawai Imigresen masing-masing bertaraf KP19 dan KP22 manakala seorang lagi ejen pekerja asing.
Mereka yang terdiri tiga lelaki dan seorang wanita itu ditahan ketika hadir memberi keterangan di Pejabat SPRM Perak, di sini antara petang semalam hingga malam tadi.
Mereka disyaki terbabit dalam aktiviti meminta dan menerima wang rasuah berjumlah antara RM50 sehingga RM300 dari setiap pekerja asing yang ingin pulang ke negara asal secara sukarela melalui PRM.
Wang rasuah yang diterima itu adalah sebagai balasan untuk mempercepatkan kelulusan program terbabit dengan aktiviti itu dikesan bermula sejak dari Mac hingga September 2024.
Pengarah SPRM Perak, Datuk Ahmad Sabri Mohamed ketika dihubungi mengesahkan penahanan itu untuk siasatan mengikut Seksyen 17(a) Akta SPRM 2009.
A resident cleans up on a street after flood waters receded in Hanoi on Sept. 13, 2024. Yagi was the strongest typhoon to hit the Southeast Asian country in decades. (AFP)
HANOI — The death toll in the aftermath of a typhoon in Vietnam climbed to 233 on Friday as rescue workers recovered more bodies from areas hit by landslides and flash floods, state media reported.
State-run broadcaster VTV said emergency crews have now recovered 48 bodies from the area of Lang Nu, a small village in northern Lao Cai province that was swept away in a deluge of water, mud and debris from mountains on Tuesday.
Another 39 people are still missing.
Across Vietnam, 103 people are still listed as missing and more than 800 have been injured.
Yagi was the strongest typhoon to hit the Southeast Asian country in decades. It made landfall Saturday with winds of up to 149kph. Though it had weakened by Sunday, downpours continued and rivers remain dangerously high.
Roads to Lang Nu have been badly damaged, making it impossible to bring heavy equipment in to aid in the rescue effort.
Some 500 personnel with sniffer dogs are on hand, and in a visit to the scene on Thursday, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh promised they would not relent in their search for those still missing.
“Their families are in agony,” Chinh said.
In a sign of hope, eight people from two Lang Nu households were found safe early Friday morning, state-run VNExpress newspaper reported.
They had been out of the area at the time when the flash flood hit.
Hundreds of villagers in Myanmar waded or swam through chin-high waters, fleeing severe floods around remote capital Naypyidaw on Friday, as Vietnam began clearing up after Typhoon Yagi.
A swathe of northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar have been battling floods and landslides in the wake of Typhoon Yagi, which dumped a colossal deluge of rain when it hit the region last weekend.
Myanmar’s national fire service on Friday confirmed the new death toll, up from 17, while more than 50,000 people have been forced from their homes.
“We walked through neck-high water this morning,” one woman told AFP at Sin Thay village.
“We are very hungry and thirsty. It been about three days we don’t have food.”
Soldiers rescued residents of flooded villages in the complex network of rivers and creeks surrounding the sprawling, low-rise capital, with some forced to wade through deep muddy brown waters.
Houses and nearby banana and sugarcane plantations were all submerged.
“This is the very first time I have experienced such a flood,” another man said near the village, where people had gathered near a small bridge.
“We didn’t have time to prepare. It was a very scary experience.”
State media said flooding in the area around the capital had caused landslides and destroyed electricity towers, buildings, roads, bridges, and houses.
In Mandalay region, one group of villagers rode elephants to reach dry land, in footage posted on social media.
In Vietnamese capital Hanoi, residents equipped with shovels, brushes and hoses were out clearing up debris and mud from the streets after the waters that had submerged parts of the city receded — and the sun came out for the first time in days.
The Red River through Hanoi reached its highest level in 20 years earlier this week as the rain brought by Yagi funnelled out toward the sea.
“This was the highest flooding I’ve ever seen, it was more than a meter on our first floor,” Nguyen Lan Huong, 40, told AFP.
“The water started to recede yesterday afternoon so we began cleaning up bit by bit. But it will take days for our family to fully recover, and even weeks for the community here I think.”
A total of 130,000 people were evacuated in northern Vietnam since Yagi hit on Saturday — and many have not yet been able to return home — while more than 135,000 homes have been damaged according to the authorities.
In the deadliest single incident, a landslide wiped out a village in mountainous Lao Cai province, killing 48 people.
But in a rare piece of good news, eight people missing in the landslide and feared dead have returned safe.
Some had been staying with relatives while others managed to escape in time.
Northern Thailand was also badly affected, with one district on the Myanmar border reporting its worst floods in 80 years.
Officials said Friday a fatality in a landslide in Chiang Rai province had taken the toll in the kingdom to 10.
Flights to Chiang Rai airport resumed on Friday a day after airlines halted them.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was set to visit Chiang Rai on Friday to see relief efforts, which are being led by the military.
There are flood warnings for several locations along the River Mekong, including Laotian capital Vientiane.
The Mekong River Commission said low-lying areas around Vientiane are expected to be flooded over the next few days.
BEIRUT — The Lebanese health ministry said a child was among three people killed in an Israeli strike in the country’s south on Thursday, amid ongoing exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group has been trading near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces since Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, sparking war in the Gaza Strip.
The Lebanese health ministry said an “Israeli enemy strike” hit the village of Kfarjouz near Nabatieh, around 10 kilometers (six miles) from the border with Israel.
The strike killed “three people, among them a child, and wounded three others,” the ministry said, without providing further details.
A source close to Hezbollah confirmed that one of the dead was “a fighter in Hezbollah” and the two others were “civilians.”
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the strike “targeted two motorcycles on the Nabatieh-Kfarjouz road,” adding that a passing car was also hit.
In a statement posted to Telegram early Friday, Hezbollah said it had fired a barrage of Katyusha rockets at Israel’s Northern Command “in response to the attack and assassination carried out” in Kfarjouz.
The Israeli military said shortly after that “approximately 20 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory” around Safed, where the Northern Command is based.
“Most were successfully intercepted, the rest fell in open areas,” the army said in a statement, adding that no injuries were reported but teams were working to “extinguish the fire that erupted due to a fall in the area.”
Earlier Thursday, Hezbollah said it had launched a number of attacks on military positions in northern Israel, some with drones.
The Israeli military said at the time that “approximately 15 projectiles” were identified crossing from Lebanon, with some intercepted and no casualties reported.
The cross-border violence since early October has killed about 622 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including at least 142 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, authorities have announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians.
TEHRAN — Three police officers were killed Thursday in southeastern Iran in an attack claimed by a jihadist group that is active in the region, the country’s official news agency said.
“Three members of the police forces were killed and a civilian injured in an attack carried out by armed criminals in Mirjaveh in Sistan and Baluchestan province,” the IRNA news agency said.
Sistan and Baluchestan, one of the poorest regions in Iran, is mostly inhabited by the minority Baloch community, who largely practice Sunni Islam in a country where the theocratic government is staunchly Shiite.
The officers were attacked at a petrol station, IRNA said.
The Pakistani-based Sunni jihadist group Jaish Al-Adl, which means Army of Justice in Arabic, claimed responsibility for the attack in a post on Telegram.
The same group claimed responsibility for an attack last month that killed the head of the criminal investigation department in the city of Khash in Sistan and Baluchestan province.
Jaish Al-Adl also claimed two attacks in April in the region that saw 10 members of the security forces killed.
TAWAU — “Anakku dirogol,” kata lelaki warga Indonesia sejurus selesai dihadapkan ke Mahkamah Majistret hari ini, atas pertuduhan membunuh jiran yang juga rakan senegaranya awal bulan lalu.
Tertuduh Yohanes Kopong Jawan, 31, mengangguk faham terhadap pertuduhan yang dibacakan di hadapan Majistret Don Stiwin Malanjum yang dijalankan secara Zoom.
Bagaimanapun tiada pengakuan direkodkan memandangkan kesalahan kes bunuh di bawah bidang kuasa Mahkamah Tinggi.
Tertuduh yang juga pemegang pasport Indonesia itu didakwa membunuh mangsa, Martin Sili, 33, di sebuah rumah di sini antara jam 7.30 malam pada 31 Ogos hingga 12 tengah hari 1 September lalu.
Dia didakwa mengikut Seksyen 302 Kanun Keseksaan yang memperuntukkan hukuman mati atau penjara antara 30 hingga 40 tahun dan jika tidak dihukum mati hendaklah disebat tidak kurang 12 kali, jika sabit kesalahan.
Pendakwaan dikendalikan Pegawai Pendakwa, Asisten Superintendan Nur Intan Jamrin tidak menawarkan sebarang jaminan dan memohon satu tarikh baharu untuk sebutan semula kes sementara menunggu keputusan laporan bedah siasat diperoleh.
Mahkamah kemudian membenarkan permohonan itu dan menetapkan tarikh 16 Oktober depan sebagai tarikh sebutan semula kes.
Terdahulu, pada 1 September lalu media melaporkan kejayaan Bahagian Siasatan Jenayah Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah (IPDk Tawau, berjaya menahan suspek dan menyelesaikan kes bunuh dalam tempoh kurang 24 jam.
Ketua Polis Daerah Tawau Asisten Komisioner Jasmin Hussin dalam kenyataannya berkata, tangkapan dibuat susulan laporan diterima daripada seorang individu yang memaklumkan adik lelakinya dibunuh oleh seorang lelaki yang dikenalinya.
PUTRAJAYA — Kontroversi berhubung pensijilan halal berpunca daripada salah faham pelbagai pihak, kata Ahli Parlimen Seputeh, Teresa Kok.
Menerusi posting dimuat naik di akaun Facebook rasminya, beliau turut menyerahkan kepada Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (JAKIM) sebagai pihak selayaknya untuk membuat penjelasan mengenai isu berkenaan.
“Nampaknya kontroversi pensijilan halal ini berlaku atas sebab salah faham daripada pelbagai pihak.
Saya rasa lebih baik JAKIM beri penjelasan mengenai isu ini,” katanya.
Isu pensijilan halal menjadi polemik selepas Teresa dalam laporan media berkata, pensijilan halal seharusnya bersifat sukarela untuk membolehkan pengusaha membuat keputusan berdasarkan permintaan pasaran, bukan dilaksanakan secara paksa.
Beliau dipetik mendakwa, cadangan mewajibkan restoran dan syarikat makanan memiliki sijil halal hanya akan menambah kesukaran operasi perniagaan serta beban kepada perniagaan kecil, selain bertentangan dengan semangat kepelbagaian budaya dan mungkin menjadikan Malaysia sebagai bahan ejekan di luar negara.
Ia susulan kenyataan Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri (Hal Ehwal Agama), Datuk Dr Mohd Na’im Mokhtar, bahawa JAKIM sedang mengkaji cadangan untuk mewajibkan restoran serta syarikat makanan untuk memiliki sijil halal.
Terdahulu, Naib Presiden DAP itu menghadiri mesyuarat Jawatankuasa Pilihan Khas Kewangan dan Ekonomi di Parlimen.
Pada mesyuarat itu, JAKIM dan Halal Development Corporation Bhd (HDC) turut dijemput memberi pembentangan mengenai usaha mereka untuk mempromosi pensijilan halal.
“Saya sempat mengambil gambar dengan Datuk Dr Sirajuddin Suhaimee (Timbalan Ketua Pengarah JAKIM) dan Mohd Zamri Mohamed (Pengarah Sekretariat Majlis Halal Malaysia JAKIM).
“Sirajuddin memaklumkan mereka datang ke Parlimen selepas memberi keterangan kepada pegawai polis di Bukit Aman berkenaan kontroversi pensijilan halal yang membabitkan Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri (Hal Ehwal Agama), Datuk Dr Mohd Na’im Mokhtar dan saya,” katanya.
Teresa berkata, mesyuarat jawatankuasa berkenaan dengan usaha pensijilan halal itu dijalankan dalam suasana mesra.
Several people were killed and others injured in an attack by unknown armed individuals in Afghanistan on Thursday, the country’s Interior Ministry spokesman said, the first attack on civilians in Daykundi province since the Taliban took power.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, the group said on Thursday on its Telegram channel. It did not immediately provide any evidence for its assertion.
Most of the residents of Daykundi province are Shia Muslims, and it was considered one of the safest provinces.
Islamic State-Khurasan, a local affiliate of the Middle East-based Islamic State, has waged an insurgency against the Taliban, who they see as their enemies.
Taliban authorities say they have mostly crushed the group, even as it continues to carry out attacks in Afghanistan.
Salman Rushdie’s “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,” his explicit and surprisingly resilient memoir about his brutal stabbing in 2022, is a nominee for the National Book Awards. (Getty Images/AFP)
NEW YORK — Salman Rushdie’s “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,” his explicit and surprisingly resilient memoir about his brutal stabbing in 2022, is a nominee for the National Book Awards. Canada’s Anne Carson, one of the world’s most revered poets, was cited for her latest collection, “Wrong Norma.”
The National Book Foundation, which presents the awards, released long lists of 10 Thursday for nonfiction and poetry. The foundation announced the lists for young people’s literature and books in translations earlier in the week and will reveal the fiction nominees on Friday. Judges will narrow the lists to five in each category on Oct. 1, and winners will be announced during a Manhattan dinner ceremony on Nov. 20.
Rushdie, 77, has been a literary star since the 1981 publication of “Midnight’s Children” and unwittingly famous since the 1988 release of “The Satanic Verses” and the death decree issued by Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini for the novel’s alleged blasphemy. But “Knife” brings him his first National Book Award nomination; he was a British citizen, based in London, for “Midnight’s Children” and other works and would have been ineligible for the NBAs. Rushdie has been a US citizen since 2016.
Besides “Knife,” the nonfiction list includes explorations of faith, identity, oppression, global resources and outer space, among them Hanif Abdurraqib’s “There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension,” Rebecca Boyle’s “Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are” and Jason De León’s “Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling.”
The other nonfiction nominees were: Eliza Griswold’s “Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church,” Kate Manne’s “Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia,” Ernest Scheyder’s “The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives,” Richard Slotkin’s “A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America,” Deborah Jackson Taffa’s “Whiskey Tender” and Vanessa Angélica Villarreal’s “Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders.”
Along with Carson’s “Wrong Norma,” poetry nominees include Pulitzer Prize winner Dianne Seuss’ latest, “Modern Poetry“; Fady Joudah’s elliptically titled “(…)”; Dorianne Laux’s “Life on Earth”; Gregory Pardlo’s “Spectral Evidence”; and Rowan Ricardo Phillips’ “Silver.”
Others on the poetry list were Octavio Quintanilla’s “The Book of Wounded Sparrows,” m.s. RedCherries’ “mother,” Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s “Something About Living” and Elizabeth Willis’ “Liontaming in America.”
People check the damage at the scene where a vehicle exploded in the central Israeli city of Ramla on Sept. 12, 2024, reportedly killing several people and injuring others. (AFP)
RAMLA, Israel — Four people were killed and eight injured when a vehicle exploded in the central Israeli city of Ramla on Thursday in an apparent gangland hit, medics and police said.
Liad Aviel, spokesman for the Asaf Harofe Medical Center in central Israel, said it “mourns the deaths of four individuals injured in the Ramla incident,” adding that six other casualties were receiving treatment there.
The Israeli police said it had launched an investigation into the cause of the explosion which was suspected to be linked to “a criminal conflict between crime families in the Arab neighborhood.”
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir visited the site of the explosion and said police would “continue to fight this crime with all the tools at its disposal.”
“But I warn: crime in the Arab community requires more extensive tools and broader powers.”
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid criticized Ben-Gvir’s visit to the scene.
“There have been incompetent ministers before him, but he’s the first to turn failure into a profession,” he wrote on social media platform X.
Israel’s emergency medical service Magen David Adom said the vehicle “exploded while parked on the sidewalk near a store and residential building” in Ramla.
“As a result of the explosion, several passersby were injured by the blast and shrapnel,” rescue worker Benny Cohen said in a statement.
“The burning car was parked next to the store entrance, which prevented people inside the store from getting out.
“We moved the injured we were treating away from the fire scene… The rescued victims were unconscious, and our teams began advanced resuscitation efforts and transported them to hospitals in critical condition.”
Liat Cohen, another paramedic at the scene, said the unconscious victims included a month-old infant and a 50-year-old woman.
All suffered from smoke inhalation and were transported to hospital, he said.
“They tell us it’s a settlement of personal scores, but an explosion downtown in midday in a crowded area, that’s crazy,” Judith Touati, a Ramla resident and mother of seven, told AFP.
“My children were there just an hour before.”
Located east of Israel’s commercial hub of Tel Aviv, Ramla is a mixed city, home to both Jews and Arabs.
Arab communities in Israel have long complained of violence connected to organized crime.
Organizations such as the Mossawa Center, a nonprofit representing Arabs in Israel, argue such violence should receive more attention from the government.
