PAKISTAN
Taliban claims attack
The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for a suicide attack that on Saturday killed 11 soldiers and wounded 13 in the Swat Valley. Authorities said the attack was the first in more than three years in the northwestern region once ruled by militants. In a statement sent to media, the Taliban said a lone suicide bomber carried out the attack to avenge the killing and arrests of fellow militants. The bomber detonated his explosive vest near an empty lot where soldiers were playing volleyball. Muslim militants ruled the valley from 2007 until a massive military operation routed them in 2009. Pakistan has said that militants who escaped from the valley and elsewhere are now operating out of neighboring Afghanistan’s Kunar Province.
EGYPT
Tomb thought 4,400 years old
Archeologists in Egypt have discovered a 4,400-year-old tomb near the country’s famed pyramids at the Giza plateau just outside Cairo, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities said on Saturday. The tomb was found in a wider area of Giza’s western necropolis, which is known to be home to tombs from the Old Kingdom. It likely belonged to a woman known as Hetpet, who archeologists believe was close to ancient Egyptian royals of the Fifth Dynasty. The tomb, unveiled on Saturday, is made of mud brick and includes wall paintings in good condition depicting Hetpet observing different hunting and fishing scenes.
PAKISTAN
Singer killed after refusal
Police said three gunmen on Saturday shot and killed a female singer who refused to accompany them to a private party. The incident happened in the northwestern city of Mardan, Police official Saeed Khan said. The artist, known only as Sumbul, was shot multiple times and killed at her home, after the gunmen broke in and asked her to perform for them at the party, he said. The perpetrators fled the scene of the killing and police are searching for them, he said. There have been similar attacks on female artists in the same region in the past.
MEXICO
Police detain 300 migrants
The authorities have taken into custody more than 300 Central American men, women and children who were being smuggled to the US without water or food, officials said on Saturday. The largest group — 198 people crammed into the bottom of a truck — was found in Tamaulipas in the northeast, just south of Texas, Mexican immigration enforcement officials said. The migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador “were traveling in grossly overcrowded conditions without enough ventilation, food or water,” they said. Among the child migrants, 55 were with their relatives, while 24 were making the dangerous journey alone.
COLOMBIA
Shelter built for Venezuelans
The government on Saturday opened its first shelter for Venezuelans, who are pouring across the border in ever-larger numbers to escape their nation’s economic crisis. The bare-bones shelter near the border city of Cucuta is to provide shelter to 120 people each day for up to 48 hours. Pregnant mothers, the elderly and minors who entered the country legally are to be given priority. It is to be administered by the Red Cross. Cucuta has been overwhelmed in recent weeks by an increasingly large exodus of Venezuelans. Many are sleeping on the streets and crime in the city has spiked as gangs recruit and take advantage of the desperate migrants.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘POINT OF NO RETURN’: The Caribbean nation needs increased international funding and support for a multinational force to help police tackle expanding gang violence The top UN official in Haiti on Monday sounded an alarm to the UN Security Council that escalating gang violence is liable to lead the Caribbean nation to “a point of no return.” Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador said that “Haiti could face total chaos” without increased funding and support for the operation of the Kenya-led multinational force helping Haiti’s police to tackle the gangs’ expanding violence into areas beyond the capital, Port-Au-Prince. Most recently, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, and during the attack more than 500 prisoners were freed, she said.
DEMONSTRATIONS: A protester said although she would normally sit back and wait for the next election, she cannot do it this time, adding that ‘we’ve lost too much already’ Thousands of protesters rallied on Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the US for a second major round of demonstrations against US President Donald Trump and his hard-line policies. In New York, people gathered outside the city’s main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans such as: “No Kings in America” and “Resist Tyranny.” Many took aim at Trump’s deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting: “No ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], no fear, immigrants are welcome here.” In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process. The
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