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Exclusive: India probe into bribery claim in toxic syrup tests nears completion

India is close to finishing an investigation into a "comprehensive and exhaustive" complaint that a state drug regulator, in return for a bribe, helped switch samples of cough syrups linked to the deaths of children in Gambia before the samples were tested in India, the investigator told Reuters. While the World Health Organization (WHO) linked the syrups made by India's Maiden Pharmaceuticals to the deaths of 70 children in the African country last year, India's government says tests at an Indian government laboratory showed the syrups were not toxic. Maiden has said it had not "done anything wrong". Reuters reported in June that in an April 29 letter to the Anti-Corruption Bureau in Haryana state, where Maiden has its factory, a lawyer named Yashpal accused the state's drug controller, Manmohan Taneja, of taking a bribe of 50 million rupees ($600,687) from Maiden to help switch the samples before they went for tests at the government laboratory. Reuter...

Gunman kills 14 in unprecedented attack at Prague university

A 24-year-old Czech student shot dead his father, then killed 14 people and wounded 25 others at his Prague university on Thursday before possibly killing himself, police said, marking the country's worst-ever mass shooting. The government declared a day of mourning across the central European country for December 23 to remember the victims, decided at a special cabinet meeting with President Petr Pavel. "I would express my great sadness along with helpless anger at the unnecessary loss of so many young lives," Pavel said. "I would like to express my sincere condolences to all relatives of the victims, to all who were at this tragic incident, the most tragic in the history of the Czech Republic." Police -- who discovered a large arsenal of weapons at the downtown Prague Charles University building where the shooting took place -- were tipped off earlier in the day the suspect was likely heading to Prague from his town in the Kladno region outside the capital wi...

Israel bombs Gaza aid crossing as UN plans vote

Israel bombed a newly reopened aid crossing point on Thursday, hours before the United Nations Security Council was to make another attempt to pass a much-delayed resolution on pausing the Gaza fighting. Separate diplomatic efforts continued for a fresh truce and captive release deal in the worst-ever Gaza war. The United Nations human rights office in Ramallah said it had received reports that Israeli troops had "summarily killed" at least 11 unarmed Palestinian men and then ushered women and children into a room and threw grenades in Gaza City's Rimal neighbourhood this week An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, rejected the allegations as "yet another example of the partisan and prejudiced approach against Israel" by the UN body. Israel has been under increasing pressure from allies, including the United States which provides it with billions of dollars in military aid, to protect civilians. The UN estimates 1.9 million Gazans are displaced...

Three Indian soldiers killed in IIOJK gunfight

Three soldiers were killed in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) during a gun battle in the disputed Himalayan territory, the army said Thursday. Two army vehicles were conducting an operation in Rajouri district south of Srinagar, the occupied region's biggest city, when they were fired upon by separatists, a defence spokesperson told AFP. "Troops sustained three fatal and three non-fatal casualties," the spokesperson added. Army operations were continuing in the area and further details of the incident were "being ascertained", they said. Read also: Five Indian soldiers killed in IIOJK firefight The fighting comes just days after India's top court upheld a 2019 decision by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to revoke the limited autonomy of the Muslim-majority occupied territory. Separatist groups have waged an insurgency in IIOJK since 1989, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan. The conflict has left tens of thousan...

North Korea's Kim warns of 'nuclear attack' if provoked with nukes

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Pyongyang would not hesitate to launch a nuclear attack if an enemy provokes it with nuclear weapons, state media reported on Thursday. Kim made the remark as he met with soldiers working for the military's missile bureau and congratulated them over Pyongyang's recent launching drill of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), KCNA news agency said. He said the test demonstrated the loyalty and strong stand of the armed forces and was "a clear explanation of the offensive counteraction mode and the evolution of the nuclear strategy and doctrine of the DPRK not to hesitate even a nuclear attack when the enemy provoke it with nukes", KCNA reported. DPRK is the abbreviation for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. North Korea said this week it had tested its newest ICBM on Monday to gauge the war readiness of its nuclear forces against mounting US hostility. The top diplomats of the United...

'Dying every two hours': Afghan women risk life to give birth

Khost, Afghanistan, Dec 21, 2023 (AFP) - Zubaida travelled from the rural outskirts of Khost in eastern Afghanistan to give birth at a maternity hospital specialising in complicated cases, fearing a fate all too common among pregnant Afghan women -- her death or her child's. She lay dazed, surrounded by the unfamiliar bustle of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF)-run hospital, exhausted from delivery the day before, but relieved. Her still-weak newborn slept nearby in an iron crib with peeling paint, the child's eyes lined with khol to ward off evil. "If I had given birth at home, there could have been complications for the baby and for me," said the woman, who doesn't know her age. Pregnant women wait at the corridor of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF)-run maternity hospital in Khost, Afghanistan. PHOTO: AFP Not all of the women who make it to the hospital are so lucky. "Sometimes we receive patients who come too late to save their lives" after deliverin...

Gaza children dizzy from hunger as war impedes food deliveries

The children displaced to south Gaza were craving chicken, but all their mother had left to feed the family for the day was a tin of peas donated by a man who took pity on her when he saw her crying. Left homeless by Israel's military offensive against Hamas, like most of Gaza's 2.3 million population, Tahany Nasr was in a tent camp in Rafah focused on one thing only: how to find enough food and water to get everyone through another day. She said her children had lost weight and were getting dizzy spells because they were not eating enough. "I've been begging to feed my children and don't find anything. I go to Social Affairs, they say go to the mosque. I go to the mosque, they say go to the Affairs," she said, referring to Gaza's welfare ministry which normally organises distributions of basic goods like flour to people in hardship. Hunger has become the most pressing of the myriad problems facing hundreds of thousands of displaced Gaza Palestinians, with...