PAKISTAN
Alleged spy granted access
The government has ordered consular access for Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian naval commander condemned to death for spying, following a decision this week by the International Court of Justice. The UN court on Wednesday in The Hague ruled that Pakistan should undertake an “effective review” of the case, adding that a “continued stay of execution” was needed for that to happen. “As a responsible state, Pakistan will grant consular access to Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav according to Pakistani laws for which modalities are being worked out,” the government said in a statement on Thursday. Jadhav was arrested in March 2016 in Baluchistan Province, the site of a long-running conflict between security forces and separatists. He was convicted of planning espionage and sabotage, and sentenced to death. India says Jadhav is innocent and had asked the UN court to intervene, saying his trial had been unfair and Pakistan had denied him diplomatic assistance.
FRANCE
Man spots own amputation
A man has lodged a complaint after claiming an image of his amputated leg was used as a health warning on tobacco packets across the EU without his permission. The 60-year-old, who lives in Metz, claims a picture displayed on a packet of rolling tobacco alongside the message “smoking clogs your arteries” is of his leg. The tobacco was bought in Luxembourg by his son, who said he recognized in the picture the burns and scars of his father’s leg, according to reports. The European Commission, which is responsible for the graphic images of smoking-induced disease on cigarette packets, rejected the claim, saying any similarity was purely coincidental and that every person depicted in its library of 42 images signed a consent form. “We can confirm that the individual mentioned is not depicted in the library of health warnings,” a commission spokesperson said. Antoine Fittante, a lawyer for the complainant, said: “We will have no trouble to prove that this is my client. My client feels betrayed, wounded in his dignity to see his disability on cigarette packets in tobacco shops.” His client lost his leg in 1997 after an attack in Albania.
UNITED STATES
Hottest June on record
Earth sizzled to its hottest June on record as the climate keeps going to extremes. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday announced that last month averaged 15.9°C, about 0.9°C warmer than the 20th-century average. It beat 2016 for the hottest June in records going back to 1880. Europe shattered its June temperature records by far, while other records were set in Russia, Africa, Asia and South America. France had its hottest month in history, which is unusual because this month is traditionally hotter.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
PROTESTS: A crowd near Congress waved placards that read: ‘How can we have freedom without education?’ and: ‘No peace for the government’ Argentine President Javier Milei has made good on threats to veto proposed increases to university funding, with the measure made official early yesterday after a day of major student-led protests. Thousands of people joined the demonstration on Wednesday in defense of the country’s public university system — the second large-scale protest in six months on the issue. The law, which would have guaranteed funding for universities, was criticized by Milei, a self-professed “anarcho-capitalist” who came to power vowing to take a figurative chainsaw to public spending to tame chronically high inflation and eliminate the deficit. A huge crowd packed a square outside Congress
RSS