World news in brief
Police name lone shooter in Khan’s assassination attempt
Pakistan police have finally registered a criminal complaint, naming just one shooter, days after a failed assassination attempt on former prime minister Imran Khan. The delayed action on the assassination bid comes after Pakistan’s Supreme Court gave a 24-hour deadline to open a criminal investigation as Mr Khan raised questions over the delay in filing the complaint.
Punjab police opened a criminal investigation late on Monday night against assailant Naveed Mohammad Basheer, the prime accused in the case who was arrested from the rally where Mr
Khan was shot in the leg. The complaint did not name any of the three people – current prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, interim minister Rana Sanaullah, and a senior Pakistan army majorgeneral Faisal Naseer – accused by Mr Khan and his party of hatching a plot to assassinate him.
Last week, Mr Khan survived the assassination attempt during his anti-government protest rally in the eastern Pakistan town of Wazirabad as he waved to supporters from the roof of a container truck. He was leading a convoy six days into a march to Islamabad demanding early elections. The attack killed one and wounded at least 10. Mr Khan said yesterday that he will receive the forensic report of the attack on him and it will prove that “there was more than one shooter”.
Indoor cooking on wood fires linked to pregnancy deaths
Fumes released from cooking indoors over a fire can lead to lifethreatening complications for some pregnant women, new research has found. The study, carried out by King’s College London, discovered indoor household pollution from wood or charcoal fires can lead to poor pregnancy repercussions for women living in low and middle-income nations.
The connection between the rate of eclampsia and the number of deaths triggered by indoor household pollution was examined by researchers. Eclampsia is a serious life-threatening condition that sees high blood pressure lead to women experiencing seizures while pregnant – with women who have no history of seizures able to develop the rare condition.
It is a severe complication of preeclampsia, which is another condition that some pregnant women experience, with early indicators including protein in urine and high blood pressure.
Philippines hands 129-year sentence to Australian sexual abuser
The Philippines handed a sentence of 129 years in prison to an Australian man over a child sexual abuse scandal. For Peter Gerard Scully, who is already serving a life sentence for a
plethora of charges including rape and trafficking of girls, this was the second conviction. Scully was arrested in 2015 in Malaybalay in the Philippines after fleeing from Australia in 2011.
He had come to the Philippines to escape fraud charges in his home country. He then set up a cybersex business, filming teenage girls from impoverished families as he had sex with them or used sex toys, investigators said previously. On 3 November, a Cagayan de Oro court handed down the sentence after Scully and his three co-accused entered into a plea bargaining agreement. Reports said that they had been charged with 60 offences, including trafficking, child exploitation material, child abuse and rape.
Scully’s girlfriend, Lovely Margallo, was sentenced to 126 years in jail. Two others were given sentences of more than nine years.
Griner being moved to Russian penal colony
US basketball star Brittney Griner is in the process of being moved to a Russian penal colony, her legal team announced early yesterday in Moscow. Griner’s lawyers said they were not immediately aware of the location where she is being taken. Her legal team say they and the US embassy in Moscow will only be informed after Griner’s arrival at her destination.
The WNBA star is headed to a penal colony to serve the remainder of her sentence after a Russian court denied her appeal to reduce her nine-year prison term for drug possession last month. Griner’s attorneys, Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov, said in a statement: “Brittney was transferred from the detention centre in Iksha on 4 November. She is now on her way to a penal colony. We do not have any information on her exact current location or her final destination.”
It could take up to two weeks for them to receive formal notification of her whereabouts, which is normally given via email, the lawyers said. The White House called on Russia to
improve her treatment and the conditions she may be forced to endure in a penal colony.
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