76 die from drinking bad liquor; more deaths expected
At least 76 people have died in northern India after drinking bootleg liquor, the latest in a series of tragedies caused by illegal alcohol that turned out to be poisonous.
Local administrator Alok Kumar Pandey said tainted liquor has killed at least 36 people since Thursday in the district of Uttar Pradesh, about 130 miles from New Delhi, the nation's capital, and the death toll is likely to rise. Other victims are being treated in local hospitals, and “doctors are trying their best to save their lives,” Pandey said.
In the neighboring district of Uttarakhand, 32 people died after consuming illegal liquor served to them as part of mourning ritual. Authorities believe the two incidents are linked, with mourners likely having made the journey from Uttar Pradesh to Uttarakhand while bringing back liquor to sell. captured 41 positions held by Islamic State group militants and destroyed their fortifications in the last tiny pocket they hold in eastern Syria amid fierce fighting, a spokesman said Sunday.
Mustafa Bali said the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces made the advances overnight and on Sunday, hours after they launched a final push to clear the area from IS militants Saturday night.
The final battle to clear the village of Baghouz is playing out after 20,000 civilians were evacuated from the area in the eastern province of Deir-el-zour over the past few weeks.
and has urged the Chinese government to close detention camps estimated to hold 1 million people, a rare rebuke from a majoritymuslim country.
In its statement Saturday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned China’s “reintroduction of concentration camps in the 21st century and the policy of systematic assimilation” in its far western region of Xinjiang as a violation of the “fundamental human rights” of Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims.
“It is no longer a secret that more than 1 million Uighur Turks incurring arbitrary arrests are subjected to torture and political brainwashing in internment camps and prisons,” said the statement from Hami Aksoy, the Foreign Ministry spokesman. He called on the international community and the secretary-general of the United Nations to take action to end the “human tragedy.”