Author: Gulf News Week
Getty ImagesMany schools, especially in rural India, are starved of funding and in disrepairThe squat one-storey building has recently received a fresh coat of paint and looks respectable from a distance.But this government-run primary school for girls in Faridabad, a district on the outskirts of the Indian capital Delhi, suffers from a host of problems.The road outside the school in Khedi Kalan village is dotted with shallow potholes filled with filthy water. Inside, local social worker Satpal Narwat points out the plaster falling from the ceiling.”It looks new from the outside, but it’s crumbling from inside. Four of its eight…
Getty ImagesChow Hang-tung had also seperately been arrested in June 2021 for “inciting” the public to take part in a Tiananmen vigilTwo Hong Kong activists who organised annual vigils to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown have been found guilty of inciting others to subvert state power under the city’s controversial national security law.Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison after being convicted under the China-introduced law. Sentencing is expected at a later date.A third defendant, Albert Ho, 74, pleaded guilty in January.Lee and Chow “incited other persons to organise, plan,…
PA MediaBritish rapper Yung Filly will face a retrial on three rape charges in Australia, after a jury cleared him of several sexual assault offences but could not reach a decision on others. The YouTuber, whose real name is Andres Felipe Valencia Barrientos, was charged with repeatedly raping and assaulting a fan after performing at a nightclub in Perth in 2024.He denied all 10 charges, and last month a jury found him not guilty on three counts of rape. He was also acquitted of one assault charge and another of strangulation, but was found guilty of two counts of assault,…
EPAThe settlers were laden with bedding, furniture and building material as they approached KadimA new generation of Israeli settlers has returned to the settlement of Kadim, in the occupied West Bank, two decades after it was evacuated by a previous Israeli government.Thirty “pioneer families” arrived in the settlement on Thursday from Tel Aviv, according to the regional settlers’ council, riding a wave of Jewish nationalism driven by Israel’s current government.They came in small groups, some under military escort, blue and white Israeli flags fluttering from their cars as they passed Palestinian villages and farmlands. Some dragged trailers loaded with bedding,…
Getty ImagesJapan has executed a man who killed five people in a gaming parlour fire in 2009, making this the first time in more than a year that the country has enacted the death sentence.Sunao Takami, 58, had doused the pachinko gaming parlour near his home in Osaka with gasoline and set it alight, killing four customers and one employee.A six-member jury and a panel of three judges rejected the defence’s argument that Takami was mentally ill at the time of the crime, and sentenced him to hang in 2011.Japan and the United States are the only G7 countries that…
AFP via Getty ImagesBali’s usually bustling beaches turn empty during Nyepi, an annual Hindu holidayA Swiss tourist has been sentenced to one year in prison for insulting a sacred religious event on Indonesia’s holiday island of Bali.In a now-removed video, Luzian Andrin Zgraggen, 26, had filmed himself walking to an empty beach during the Hindu holiday of Nyepi, describing the scene as “crazy”.He was arrested in March after the video sparked widespread anger among Balinese on social media. Nyepi, also known as the Day of Silence, is an annual holiday during which the usually bustling tourist island goes quiet, as…
ReutersTrump and Kim met at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in 2019South Korea’s annual military exercises with the US come to an abrupt end on Friday.Ulchi Freedom Shield, which involves 18,000 South Korean troops and 11 other American ally nations, is being halted with only half of the scheduled programme complete – days after US President Donald Trump announced he had ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” the drill.This revelation by Trump, who called the exercise “inappropriate and hostile” towards North Korea and costly to the US, caught his allies by surprise.Seoul’s Foreign Minister Cho Hyun tried to paint…
El Niño set to be ‘strongest in living memory’, says UK’s Met OfficeScientists say the growing El Niño weather pattern is an “unprecedented event” and means 2027 is likely to be the world’s hottest year on record.1 hr ago
DOJ/FBIPolice provided images of Bowie with a shopping trolley seen allegedly buying bomb-making parts at a local hardware storeThe FBI has arrested a New York woman who was allegedly planning to bomb the state capitol building in Albany to kill lawmakers.Prosecutors allege that Jessica Bowie, 35, had previously pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group (IS). She is charged with providing material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organisation. Bowie had “repeatedly surveilled the building” in advance, and was carrying a fake bomb and a defective gun, which had been supplied to her by undercover agents, prosecutors said.”I…
EPANearly six months after US President Donald Trump vowed a swift victory over Iran, the conflict appears to be at a standstill, with prospects of a military victory or negotiated settlement growing dimmer. To break the deadlock, Trump has vowed an “economic D-Day” under which any country that does business with Iran would face “tremendous” economic consequences. Iran, however, has long faced sanctions and has so far shown a willingness to endure pain and a capacity to adapt to immense economic and military pressure as the conflict drags on. The key question for the US then becomes, will further sanctions…