Authorities in central Iran executed a male fortune-teller for raping and sexually assaulting his clients, the judiciary said on Wednesday.
“A fortune-teller, who assaulted women and girls was executed in Yazd prison,” said Hossein Tahmasebi, chief justice of the central province, according to the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan Online website.
“The sentence of this rapist fortune-teller was carried out after being issued by the Revolutionary Court of Yazd and confirmed by the supreme judicial authority”.
According to Tahmasebi, the man had “assaulted and raped women and girls under false pretences”, using his fortune-telling services to deceive his clients.
Mizan reported that the convict was arrested sometime between March 2020 and March 2021 and that his request for amnesty was rejected because of “the number of complaints” against him.
The Islamic republic maintains the death penalty for several crimes, including rape and sexual assault.
In July 2023, Iran executed three men after they were convicted of raping women they had lured to a fake cosmetic surgery clinic and injected with anaesthetic drugs.
They were found guilty of conspiring in 12 cases of sexual assault in late 2021 in the southern province of Hormozgan.
Iran executes more people per year than any other nation except China, according to human rights groups including Amnesty.
At least 28 Pakistani pilgrims travelling to Iraq for a Shiite Muslim ritual were killed as their bus crashed in central Iran, state media reported early Wednesday.
“A bus carrying 51 Pakistani pilgrims overturned and caught fire in front of Dehshir-Taft checkpoint in the central province of Yazd on Tuesday night,” state television reported.
“28 people have been killed and 23 injured so far with the possibility of the death toll increasing,” it added.
Yazd province crisis management chief Ali Malek-zadeh told the broadcaster that some of the injured were in critical condition.
“Of the 23 injured, six have already been discharged from hospital, while the condition of seven others is critical,” Malek-zadeh said.
“The dead consisted of 11 women and 17 men,” he added.
The Pakistani pilgrims were headed through Iran to Iraq to attend the Arbaeen commemoration, one of the biggest events of the Shiite calendar which marks the 40th day of mourning for Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.
Last year, some 22 million pilgrims attended the commemoration in the Iraqi shrine city of Karbala, where Hussein and his brother Abbas are buried, according to official figures.
An emotional US President Joe Biden passed the torch to Democratic nominee Kamala Harris with a hug on Monday, saying he gave everything for his country in a bittersweet farewell speech at the party’s convention in Chicago.
“America, America, I gave my best to you,” the 81-year-old Biden said, quoting a patriotic hymn during a nearly hour-long address that ran through his achievements while urging voters to back his vice president against Donald Trump in November.
Harris joined him on stage after the speech and the pair embraced, as the crowd gave Biden a rapturous reception following his stunning decision less than a month ago to drop out of the 2024 White House race.
In a remarkable turnaround, Harris has reenergized the party and wiped out Republican rival Trump’s lead in the polls, but Biden insisted that he was not bitter about stepping aside.
Instead, as he contemplates the imminent end of a five-decade political career, he said that he had done what he thought best to ensure that his nemesis, Trump, does not return to the Oval Office.
“I love the job, but I love my country more. I love my country more,” said Biden. “And all this talk about how I’m angry at all those people who said I should step down — that’s not true.”
Both Biden and Harris appeared to wipe away a tear as the US leader won a huge four-minute ovation when he first took to the stage, following an introduction by First Lady Jill Biden and his daughter Ashley.
Several members of the audience were also in tears as Biden made his farewell speech, before leaving the stage to the strains of the song “Higher Love.”
And Harris had earlier made a surprise appearance — Democratic nominees don’t normally speak until the final day of the convention — to heap lavish tribute on her boss.
“I want to kick us off by celebrating our incredible president Joe Biden,” said Harris, who was wearing a tan suit and took to the stage to Beyonce’s “Freedom.”
It was undoubtedly a difficult swan song for Biden, but he insisted he would be the “best volunteer” for Harris’s campaign — knowing perhaps that his legacy depends on her beating Trump.
But he couldn’t quite let go of the presidency, with his speech focusing more on his own record in office than the future under a President Harris.
Biden listed his proudest achievements including on the economy and health care, but above all for healing the “soul of America” after Trump’s time in office and the pro-Trump January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
“Donald Trump calls America a failing nation… He says we’re losing. He’s the loser,” he said, also referring to Trump as a “convicted felon” after the Republican was found guilty of doctoring business records to cover up hush money payments to a porn star.
Despite his low popularity ratings and the debate debacle against Trump that led him to step aside, Biden again insisted he’d given his all.
“I made a lot of mistakes in my career, but I gave my best to you,” he said.
As he has been so often in his five-decade-long political journey, Biden was surrounded by family at the end of his speech.
“Joe and I have been together for almost 50 years. And still, there are moments when I fall in love with him all over again,” the first lady said in a speech introducing him.
Monday’s first night of the convention was an emotional one on many levels, and for many of the key players.
Hillary Clinton, who lost against Trump in 2016 in her own bid to become America’s first woman president, backed Harris to finally break the glass ceiling.
“Something is happening in America, you can feel it — something we’ve worked for and dreamed of for a long time,” the former secretary of state and first lady said.
Biden addressed pro-Palestine protestors
US President Joe Biden said Monday that protesters against Israel’s war in Gaza who demonstrated outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago “have a point”.
“Those protesters out in the street, they have a point. A lot of innocent people are being killed, on both sides,” Biden said in his farewell speech to the convention, adding that it was time to “end this war.”
Earlier, protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza had shadowed the opening of the convention, underscoring what remains a potential vote-loser for Democrats among left-wingers and Arab Americans.
A group of demonstrators broke through the outer security fence of the convention after splitting off from a larger protest of thousands of people.
Police in blue helmets with shields and carrying black batons prevented them from getting to the inner cordon.
Trump, meanwhile, has been sent into a tailspin by the sudden change at the top of the Democratic ticket.
While Democrats are in Chicago, the Republicans will spend the week crisscrossing the country.
In the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Monday, he highlighted what he called Harris’s “craziness” and said she “has no idea what the hell she’s doing” on the economy.
The rape and murder of a female doctor has sparked protests and clashes all over India. Protestors, mostly women, are enraged by the growing number of crimes against women in the country.
Here is the timeline of this high-profile murder case:
Doctor Moumita Debanath, 31, a postgraduate trainee at a local Kolkata hospital, was raped and murdered on the night of August 8. Her bruised body was found inside the seminar hall of the hospital.
Local police told her family that the death was caused by suicide on August 9. As the family came to collect the body, they were denied access. When they eventually did get to her remains, they found the body unclothed.
Autopsy details reveal that the Moumita was raped and brutally tortured with 14 major injuries. The cause of death was manual strangulation. The report also highlights that the body had clear signs of sexual assault, most prominently her pelvic girdle being severely damaged due to forceful penetration.
The police used CCTV footage to arrest the suspect, identified as Sanjay Roy, a civic assistant who was placed in police custody on remand until August 23.
Doctors and civil society initiated protests, asking the authorities to take action. Meanwhile, the doctor’s family expressed their distrust of the State police. They met Mamta Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, who assured them of the urgency of concluding the investigation.
On August 11, the government transferred the superintendent of the hospital in Kolkota over reported lapses leading to the horrific rape and murder.
On August 12, the principal of the hospital stepped down from his post. Subsequently, the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) announced a nationwide halt to elective services. Protests escalated all around the country, with women chanting “Reclaim the Night” in the protests. They were joined by a large number online as the templates of justice for the victim and the growing number of cases of violence against women in the country were widely shared.
The incident made waves internationally when a mob of unidentified men vandalised the hospital’s emergency department on the night of August 15. Media reports claim that the mob comprised of around 7,000 people. They attacked the crime scene in the hospital, smashed the CCTV camera and damaged public property. The mob also clashed with the protesting women echoing the demand of reclaiming the night. Eye-witnesses claim that the whole attack was backed by the government.
The Kolkata High Court also criticised Mamta’s government for its failure to control the situation.
Only 19 individuals involved in the mob have been arrested until now.
Other medical associations also announced nationwide withdrawal as a sign of protest, prompting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address the matter in the Independence Day speech: “An immediate investigation and strict punishment against those who commit such monstrous crimes against women is important to instil confidence in society.”
Against the backdrop of a huge number of crimes against female doctors and paramedic staff Indian Medical Association sought PM Modi’s “intervention” in the Kolkata doctor rape case.
Victim Dr Moumita’s family was recently interviewed by NDTV India, in which her father expressed her disappointment over the investigation so far. “Early on I had full faith in her (Mamata Banerjee), but now no. She is asking for justice but what is she saying that for? She can take charge of that, she is doing nothing,” he said.
The victim’s aunt shared how she was about to get married, and all she wanted was to get a gold medal.
Big fish theory
Additionally, Indian media recently coined the “big fish theory” regarding the case. Mint India reported that friends of the victim have revealed that she was under immense pressure of working for long hours.
One of her colleagues asked how the accused, Sanjay Roy, got to know of the victim’s presence in the seminar hall. “Roy could be a part of a plot hatched by a big fish. She was targeted. How did the civic volunteer know she was alone in the seminar hall at that time?” the colleague said.
Another colleague claimed the victim was trying to expose the possible drug siphoning racket in her department. “She might have known too much about something,” he said.
The media also reported that her family shared that she was not happy at her job, yet nothing is confirmed, and the investigation is underway.
However, protests have erupted all over the country, reminding journalists of protests after the 2012 Delhi gang-rape case when a 22-year-old Nirbhaya was gang raped in a bus in Delhi. Her mother, Asha Devi, talked to AlJazeera and said, “Whenever such an incident happens, people start bringing up Nirbhaya. But what have we learnt from the Nirbhaya incident and the movement that followed in her support? What changes were brought to our legal system? And what actions have we taken after the laws were amended after the Nirbhaya incident? We are still living in 2012.”
The Iranian police have shot Arezoo Badri over allegedly violating country’s hijab rules.
‘’She is paralysed from the waist down and doctors have said it will take months to determine whether she will be permanently paraplegic or not’’, said a BBC source
Mother of two, Badri was heading home with her sister when the police stopped her car to check whether she was complying with the hijab law. When the car did not stop, the police first shot the tires and then opened fire, targeting the driver’s side, according to the state-run news agency in Iran.
‘’The bullet entered her lung and severely damaged her spinal cord and the bullet was only removed after 10 days’’, the source said
Both police and BBC sources confirm that the car window was tinted.
A court in Bangladesh opened Tuesday a murder investigation into ousted ex-premier Sheikh Hasina and six top figures in her administration over the police killing of a man during civil unrest last month.
A week ago, Hasina, 76, fled by helicopter to neighbouring India as protesters flooded Dhaka’s streets in a dramatic end to her iron-fisted tenure.
“A case has been filed against Sheikh Hasina and six more,” said Mamun Mia, a lawyer who brought the case on behalf of a private citizen.
He added that the Dhaka Metropolitan Court had ordered police to accept “the murder case against the accused persons”, the first step in a criminal investigation under Bangladeshi law.
Mia’s filing with the court also named Asaduzzaman Khan, Hasina’s former home minister, and Obaidul Quader, the general secretary of Hasina’s Awami League party.
In addition, it named four top police officers appointed by Hasina’s government who have since vacated their posts, including former police inspector general Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun.
It also named detective branch chief Harun-or-Rashid and senior Dhaka Metropolitan Police officers Habibur Rahman and Biplob Kumar Sarker.
Police take control of Dhaka streets
Bangladeshi police resumed patrols of the capital, Dhaka, on Monday, ending a weeklong strike that had created a law and order vacuum caused by recent uprisings.
Officers vanished from the streets of the sprawling megacity of 20 million people last week after Hasina’s resignation and flight abroad ended her 15-year rule.
Police were loathed for spearheading a lethal crackdown on the weeks of protests that forced her departure, with 42 officers among the more than 450 people killed.
They had vowed not to resume work until their safety on duty was guaranteed but agreed to return after late-night talks with the new interim government, helmed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.
“It’s good to be back,” Assistant Commissioner Snehasish Das told AFP while directing traffic at a busy intersection. “As we feel secure now, we are back on duty.”
Student-led protests against Hasina’s government had been largely peaceful until police attempted to disperse them violently. Yunus told reporters that Bangladesh was experiencing a “revolution” after Hasina’s ouster after ” the whole government’s business collapsed”.
He said he had been instructed by the protests’ student leaders to take office, adding he told them, “Because you ordered me to do this, I take your order.”
Several top Hasina allies, including the chief justice and the central bank governor, stepped down after students issued them ultimatums to quit their offices.
However, Yunus said their resignations had been conducted legally.
“I’m sure they will find the legal way to justify all of this because legally… all the steps were followed,” he said at a late-night briefing on Sunday.
Around 450 of the country’s 600 police stations were targeted in arson and vandalism attacks over the past month, according to the national police union.
In the police’s absence, the students who led the protests that toppled Hasina volunteered to restore law and order after looting and reprisal attacks in the hours following her departure.
They acted as traffic wardens, formed overnight neighbourhood watch patrols and guarded Hindu temples and other places of worship, quickly settling the unrest.
Arrests in India
India has arrested nearly a dozen Bangladeshis attempting to cross the border to escape violence and political tumult following deadly protests that led to the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, border officials said on Monday.
Hundreds more are waiting along the frontier pleading for permission to cross, India’s Border Security Force (BSF) said.
BSF said 11 Bangladesh nationals had been arrested since Sunday trying to “sneak” across the frontier into West Bengal state. “Several hundred Bangladeshi nationals are still waiting in no-man’s land to cross over the border,” BSF deputy inspector general Amit Kumar Tyagi said.
Donald Trump ran through his checklist of conspiracy theories Monday in a rambling conversation with his uber-wealthy supporter Elon Musk that was initially derailed by what the tech titan said was a technical glitch.
In a very one-sided conversation on X, Trump vented about a “zombie apocalypse” of immigration, repeatedly blasted President Joe Biden as “stupid”, and mused about developing a new missile defense system based on the one that defends Israel.
The Republican standard-bearer also dismissed climate change, whose sea-level rises he said would simply create more real estate opportunities.
“The biggest threat is not global warming, where the ocean is going to rise one-eighth of an inch over the next 400 years,” he told Musk.
“You’ll have more ocean front property, right? The biggest threat is not that. The biggest threat is nuclear warming, because we have five countries now that have significant nuclear power, and we have to not allow anything to happen with stupid people like Biden.”
What was billed as a “no limits” conversation between the two started more than half an hour late, with many of those logging on unable to listen in live.
Musk, the world’s richest man according to Forbes, claimed the platform formerly known as Twitter had experienced a cyber “attack.”
The conversation was intended to help reinvigorate Trump’s stuttering campaign, which has flagged since Biden dropped out of the race, to be replaced by a surging Kamala Harris.
The young men who view Musk as a hero are a prized target for Trump, whose following tends to skew older.
More than a million users listened in live to the conversation on X. Musk, who has said he previously voted Democrat, has thrown his weight — and his wealth — behind Trump since a gunman tried to assassinate the Republican at a rally last month.
The apparent technical difficulties come after Musk fired swathes of staff at the platform, and also served as an uncomfortable reminder that the Tesla boss had once backed Trump’s rival Ron DeSantis, whose campaign launch on the platform was also beset by problems.
When things finally got under way, Musk said the “massive attack illustrates there’s a lot of opposition to people just hearing what President Trump has to say.”
Trump was banned from Twitter after a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol in January 2021, but Musk reinstated him when he took the platform over and renamed it.
The South African-born billionaire has emerged as a major voice in US politics, but is accused of turning X into a megaphone for right-wing conspiracy theories.
He is one of the Democrats’ fiercest critics, leveraging his 194 million-strong following on X to assail liberal efforts to boost diversity and inclusion — what he calls the “woke mind virus” — and the White House’s handling of the southern border.
“We have people streaming over,” Musk told Trump, likening the border to the “zombie apocalypse” depicted in the film “World War Z.”
“It’s just not possible for the United States to absorb, you know, everyone from Earth,” said Musk, identifying himself as a “legal immigrant.”
In his “chat” with Musk, Trump returned often to a favorite theme — boasting about his relationship with autocrats like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping, and insisted America would be safer under his stewardship.
“One of the things we’re going to do is we’re going to build an Iron Dome,” he said, referring to Israel’s missile defense system.
“We’re going to have the best Iron Dome in the world… because it just takes one maniac to, you know, start something.” Musk reiterated his strong support for Trump, saying the ex-president “was the path to prosperity and Kamala is the opposite.”
At one point he also appeared to be touting for a job under a future Trump administration, suggesting he would like to serve on a cost-cutting committee.
“I think it would be great to just have a government efficiency commission that takes a look at these things and just ensures that taxpayer money… is spent in a good way,” he said. “I’d be happy to help out on such a commission.” Trump appeared sold on the job application.
“You’re the greatest cutter,” he told the man who slashed swathes of staff months after taking over Twitter.
Marathon gold medalist Sifan Hassan, a Dutch of Ethiopian descent, accepted her Olympic gold medal wearing a hijab.
It was Sifan’s third medal in Paris. She was competing in the 5,000m, the 10,000m and the marathon – the last two events just two days apart.
On Friday, Hassan took bronze in the 10,000m in the Stade de France after coming away with a bronze in the 5,000m.
“It was not easy,” said Hassan, 31. “It was so hot, but I was feeling OK. I’ve never pushed myself through to the finish line as I did today,” Sifan said.
France has been criticised during the Olympics for prohibiting athletes from wearing hijab while competing.
Athletes from other countries, like Egypt, have worn hijabs while playing. For several years, apparel makers have designed hijabs that function well for competition, which has eliminated one argument that had been used by some detractors.
Hassan’s presence at the ceremony was not a direct reaction to the French rule, but it is a reminder of a position taken by France that has been widely criticised.
A helicopter crashed into the roof of a Hilton hotel in northeastern Australia on Monday, police said, igniting a blaze atop the building and forcing a mass evacuation.
Mangled pieces of the helicopter’s propeller landed in the hotel’s pool, said an emergency services official, adding that one man was treated at the scene with life-threatening injuries.
Hundreds of patrons were evacuated from the DoubleTree by Hilton in the tropical northern city of Cairns after the helicopter crashed around 1:50 a.m. local time.
Images showed a bright plume of fire blazing on the hotel’s roof.
“They just flew into that building,” a female voice says in a video shared on social media that captured the aftermath as sirens blared in the background.
“Madness, man. Shivers. People were living in that. It smashed right in.”
Queensland Ambulance supervisor Caitlin Denning said the aircraft’s propellers had “dislodged”.
“One landed on the Cairns Esplanade and there was a second propeller located in the hotel pool on the bottom floor and it was on fire,” she told local media.
Queensland police said “there were no injuries sustained by people on the ground”.
Cairns is a popular tourist hub that offers a gateway to Australia’s famed Great Barrier Reef.
A team of government investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau have been dispatched to the crash site.
Following pressure from Bangladeshi student protesters, the Chief Justice of Bangladesh, Obaidul Hasan, has decided to resign “in principle.”
Local media reports that hundreds of protesters surrounded the Supreme Court in Dhaka and gave Chief Justice Obaidul Hasan a one-hour ultimatum to resign.
The protesters had announced that they would storm the judges’ residences if they did not resign.
Justice Obaidul Hasan will submit his resignation after consulting the President this evening.
He called for a full court meeting with the judges of both divisions.
On the other hand, Bloomberg’s report states that Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdul Rauf resigned from his position yesterday. However, he resigned for personal reasons.
