Foreign News
Pakistani girl killed after photos with boy’s arm around her go viral

Police in Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have arrested a man who allegedly shot his teenage daughter dead last week after photos showing a boy’s arm around her were seen online.
Mukhtar Ahmed Tanoli, district police officer of Kohistan, told Al Jazeera the police had arrested the girl’s father, Arsala, “on charges of killing his own daughter”.
They also arrested the father’s brother and two cousins – who are accused of having planned the murder with Arsala.
Police were informed of the incident on November 24, and retrieved the body of the girl from her home in the Kolai-Palas district of Kohistan, a remote region 350km (217 miles) by road from the capital Islamabad.
According to the police report, photos circulated on Facebook earlier last week showed the girl with a boy, both from Kohistan, with their arms around each other. Kohistan is an insular, extremely conservative region where local traditions are often enforced through tribal councils known as a “jirgas” which have been known to issue death sentences against women for “violations” of the extreme interpretation of tradition.
In 2012, a video showed five women clapping as two men danced during a wedding ceremony. A local tribal council was called and ordered the killing of those involved in the video. At least three women in the video were killed. Six men were convicted and sentenced for life but in 2019, five of them were acquitted on appeal.
Tanoli said last week’s murder was different. “We cannot claim this was due to a jirga which may have ordered the killing. That is not what happened here,” he said.
He added that the police believe the viral photos were digitally altered, using images of another couple and that the police had sought help from cybercrime officials at Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency to track down the people behind the image alteration.
Nausher Khan, the father of the 17-year-old boy who had his picture with the murdered girl shared online, says he is not aware of any tribal council ordering the murder, but he fears for his son and family. “The police have now arrested the father of the girl and her uncle and cousins, but I am afraid the family of the girl will want to seek revenge by killing my boy,” Khan told Al Jazeera. “I have sent him away so he can hide, but I am now worried for my wife and five other children.”
Pakistani rights organisations have raised the alarm against the rampant femicide in the country, with data showing more than 5,000 women killed since 2012.
While the government has acted to strengthen the law against such murders, increasing the punishment to life imprisonment in 2016, the murders have continued.
In its 2022 report, The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said that there were 384 such murders reported, more than 100 of them from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
(Aljazeera)
Foreign News
Scores of whales to be euthanised after mass stranding in Australia

Australian authorities are euthanising about 90 false killer whales which survived a mass stranding on a remote beach in Tasmania.
A team of experts at the site said complex conditions have made it impossible to save them.
They are part of a pod of 157 whales that had beached near Arthur River, in the island’s north west. The rest had died shortly after the stranding.
Tasmania has seen a series of mass whale strandings in recent years – including the country’s worst-ever in 2020 – but false killer whales haven’t mass stranded there in over 50 years.
False killer whales are technically one of world’s largest dolphin species, like their orca namesakes. They can grow up to 6m (19ft) and weigh 1.5 tonnes.
Authorities on Wednesday said the pod had been stranded at the site for 24 to 48 hours, and the surviving animals were already under extreme stress.
Local resident Jocelyn Flint told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation she had travelled to the site on Wednesday morning after her son noticed the pod while out shark fishing overnight.
“There are babies… There’s just families of them. Their eyes are open, they’re looking at me, like ‘help’.”
“It’s just absolutely horrific.”
The site – about 300km (186 miles) from the city of Launceston – is extremely difficult to access and transport any rescue equipment to, marine biologist Kris Carlyon told media.
“This is possibly the trickiest location I’ve seen in 16 years of doing this role in Tasmania,” he said.
“We’re talking a very rough, steep, single lane road into the site. We can get four-wheel drives in there, but not a lot else.”
Rough conditions meant returning the animals to the sea at the location they stranded was impossible, so an expert team tried to relocate two and refloat them, but were unsuccessful.
“The animals just can’t get past the break to get out. They just keep turning around and coming back towards the beach,” said Shelley Graham, from Tasmania’s Parks and Wildlife Service.
With conditions for the next two days forecast to be similar, expert wildlife veterinarians made the “tough” and “confronting” decision to euthanise the remaining whales.
“The longer these animals are out stranded, the longer they are suffering. All alternative options have been unsuccessful, euthanasia is always a last resort,” Dr Carlyon said.
That grim task – which involves shooting the animals – is expected to begin on Wednesday but continue on Thursday.
Authorities are still working out how to dispose of the carcasses. The site has important cultural heritage for Aboriginal people so a department spokesperson earlier suggested “it may be a case of… letting nature run its course”.
Authorities have asked members of the public to avoid the site, with bushfires burning nearby and limited road access.
More than 80% of Australian whale strandings take place in Tasmania – often on its west coast.
Around 40 pilot whales were stranded further south at Macquarie Harbour in 2020 and about 350 of them died despite rescue efforts. Another 200 became standed in the same harbour in 2022.
Whales are highly social mammals and are well known for stranding in groups because they travel in large, close-knit communities which rely on constant communication.
There are a range of theories for why beachings occur. Some experts say the animals can become disoriented after following fish they hunt to the shore.
Others believe that one individual can mistakenly lead whole groups to shore.
[BBC]
Foreign News
Pope Francis has pneumonia in both lungs, Vatican says
Pope Francis has developed pneumonia in both his lungs and his condition remains “complex”, the Vatican says.
The 88-year-old has been suffering from a respiratory infection for more than a week and was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Friday.
“The follow-up chest CT scan which the Holy Father underwent this afternoon… demonstrated the onset of bilateral pneumonia, which required additional drug therapy,” the Vatican said.
It said lab tests, a chest X-ray and the Pope’s clinical condition “continue to present a complex picture”.
Despite this, the Vatican said the pontiff remained in “good spirits” and spent the day “reading, resting and praying”.
Pope Francis also expressed his gratitude to well-wishers and asked them to “pray for him”.
Before his admission last week, the Pope had bronchitis symptoms for several days and had delegated officials to read prepared speeches at events.
He had been due to lead several events over the weekend for the 2025 Catholic Holy Year which runs through to next January, however all public events on the Pope’s calendar have been cancelled through to Sunday.
On Monday, the Vatican said that doctors had changed the Pope’s drug therapy for the second time during his hospital stay to tackle what at the time was thought to be a “polymicrobial infection of the respiratory tract”.
The Pope is especially prone to lung infections due to developing pleurisy as an adult and having part of one of his lungs removed at age 21.
During his 12 years as leader of the Roman Catholic church, the Argentine has been hospitalised several times including in March 2023 when he spent three nights in hospital with bronchitis.
[BBC]
Foreign News
US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

The US government is trying to bring back nuclear safety employees it fired on Thursday, but is struggling to let them know they should return to work, NBC News has reported.
The National Nuclear Security Administration workers were among hundreds of employees in the energy department who received termination letters.
An email obtained by NBC said the letters for some NNSA employees “are being rescinded, but we do not have a good way to get in touch with those personnel”.
The terminations are part of massive effort by President Donald Trump to slash the ranks of the federal workforce, a project he began on his first day in office, less than a month ago.
Last week, nearly 10,000 federal workers were let go, according to multiple US outlets.
That figure was in addition to the estimated 75,000 workers who have accepted an offer from the White House to leave voluntarily in the autumn.
The nuclear security officials who were laid off on Thursday helped oversee the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons. That included staff who are stationed at facilities where the weapons are built, according to CNN.
Attempting to reach the workers, the email, which was sent to current employees, said: “Please work with your supervisors to send this information (once you get it) to people’s personal contact emails.”
Trump is working to slash spending across the board, abroad and at home, and going so far as to call for eliminating the education department. He is getting help from the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who, through an effort called Doge for Department of Government Efficiency, has sent workers to comb through data at federal agencies and helped implement the “buyout” offer.
Last week, the Trump administration ordered agencies to fire nearly all probationary employees, those who had generally been in their positions for less than a year and not yet earned job protection. That included the NNSA staff members.
Altogether, the move could potentially affect hundreds of thousands of people.
Several of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the government’s size and spending have been met with legal challenges.
More than 60 lawsuits have been filed against the Trump administration since the president was inaugurated on 20 January.
[BBC]
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