Fishermen from Ibrahim Haideri in Karachi caught a whole lot of Sowa fish, reportedly worth Rs. 700 million, says a report by Geo.
According to the Coastal Media Centre in Karachi, Sowa fish is extremely expensive. One fish costs around 70 hundred thousand to 10 million in Pakistani rupees. Its meat costs a thousand rupees per kg.
The fat in its stomach is rare and is used to form sutures used in surgeries.
Fishermen were extremely excited and happy as the news broke out.
Amidst its fight to reduce suffocating levels of smog, the Indian capital, New Delhi, has announced a ten-day-long winter break in schools throughout the city.
Over in Pakistan, the hazardous air has worsened to the extent that the government announced a four-day health emergency from November 9 to 12 in Lahore, Gujranwala, and Hafizabad. Schools, markets, offices, and restaurants shall remain closed in these cities.
Following the trail, New Delhi announced an early winter break for the session of 2023-24 in schools from November 9-18. The notification asserted that the step has been taken after observing “severe air quality prevailing in Delhi” and that there is “no respite from such adverse weather conditions in the near future”.
Lahore and New Delhi have been vying with each other in the charts of air quality index, being the top two most polluted cities in the world.
On Wednesday, Motaz Azaiza, one of the journalists sharing details of Israeli atrocities in Gaza, shared a picture of Gazans walking on a highway in a long line. “People evacuating the city to the south of the strip. It’s literally a new Nakba.”
Nakba is the most momentous event in all of Palestinian history, especially the history of the last century with Israelis. It literally means “catastrophe” and refers to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by the Israelis in 1948. It has been 75 years now that zionist forces took 78 percent of the historic land of Palestine and killed about 15,000 Palestinians in a series of 70 massacres. 7,50,000 Palestinians out of 1.9 million were made refugees in their own land as Israel established a Jewish majority state, fulfilling their Zionist motives.
The official commemoration of this expulsion and ethnic cleansing by Palestinians around the world was done on May 15, 1948, but the facts reveal more than half of the displacement was already done by then.
Since then, there have been many Arab-Israeli wars and many attempts to displace Palestinians. Israel, originally given 55 percent of the land by the UN, now owns 85 percent of it. However, it openly wishes to have control over all of it. In his address to the UN in September, Benjamin Netanyahu displayed two maps that showed the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip as part of Israel. The repeated calls to move to the South after October 7, is actually more than revenge.
In one of the videos posted by Motaz, it can be seen that tens of thousands of Palestinians are moving to the South- in front of the Israeli army- raising their hands to show that they are unarmed. In a number of incidents, these caravans have been bombed too.
This has been confirmed as the Israeli government claims that some 50,000 people have fled Northern Gaza to the South.
On the other hand, there are hundreds of thousands of people who are not obeying these orders because they believe there is no place safe from Israel’s bombings and that they would rather die at home.
Palestinian journalist Ahmed Abu Artema in his message to The News International has already called for the world to take action as he firmly thinks “This is the second Nakba”.
Up to 25,000 garment workers clashed with police in Bangladesh on Thursday, officials said, as protests rejecting a government-offered pay rise forced the closure of at least 100 factories outside Dhaka.
A government-appointed panel raised wages on Tuesday by 56.25 percent for the South Asian nation’s four million garment factory workers, who are seeking a near-tripling of their monthly wage.
Bangladesh’s 3,500 garment factories account for around 85 percent of its $55 billion in annual exports, supplying many of the world’s top brands including Levi’s, Zara and H&M.
But conditions are dire for many of the sector’s four million workers, the vast majority of whom are women whose monthly pay starts at 8,300 taka ($75).
Police said violence broke out in the industrial towns of Gazipur and Ashulia outside the capital after more than 10,000 workers staged protests in factories and along highways to reject the panel’s offer.
“There were 10,000 (protesting) workers at several spots. They threw bricks and stones at our officers and factories, which were open,” Mahmud Naser, Ashulia’s deputy industrial police chief, told AFP.
“One of our officers was injured. We fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the workers,” Naser said.
He said more than 100 factories were shut down in Ashulia and surrounding areas.
Thousands of workers also clashed with the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and police at Konabari and Naujore in Gazipur, with police using batons and tear gas to drive them into alleys, AFP correspondents at the scene said.
“Some 15,000 workers blocked the road at Konabari, and vandalised vehicles and other properties. We had to disperse them to maintain law and order,” Gazipur municipality administrator Sayed Murad Ali told AFP.
At least two injured workers were taken to hospital, police said.
The workers are seeking a wage rise to 23,000 taka and unions representing them have rejected the panel’s increase as “farcical”.
Police say at least three workers have been killed since the wage protests broke out in key industrial towns last week, including a 23-year-old woman shot dead on Wednesday.
At least six police officers have also been injured in the protests.
Unions say the panel’s wage increase fails to match soaring prices of food, house rents and schooling and healthcare costs.
They have also accused the government and police of arresting and intimidating organisers.
“Police arrested Mohammad Jewel Miya, one of the organisers of our unions. A grass-roots leader… was also arrested,” Rashedul Alam Raju, the general secretary of the Bangladesh Independent Garment Workers Federation (BIGWUF), told AFP.
Another union leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least six union leaders had been arrested and unions were being threatened by police to call off the protests and accept the wage offer.
There was no immediate comment from police about the arrests.
The United States has condemned violence against protesting Bangladeshi garment workers and “the criminalisation of legitimate worker and trade union activities”.
In a statement, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller urged the panel “to revisit the minimum wage decision to ensure that it addresses the growing economic pressures faced by workers and their families”.
Thea Lee, the US Department of Labor’s deputy undersecretary for international affairs, called for the release of BIGWUF organiser Miya.
The Netherlands-based Clean Clothes Campaign, a textile workers’ rights group, has also dismissed the new pay level as a “poverty wage”.
The minimum wage is fixed by a state-appointed board that includes representatives from the manufacturers, unions and wage experts.
Sindh’s caretaker Minister of Law and Human Rights, Muhammad Umar Sumro, confirmed that DNA samples collected from Pir Asad Shah, the prime suspect in Fatima murder case, have matched with the semen traces found on the victim’s clothing.
He was addressing the National Judicial Conference at a local hotel in Karachi.
On August 14, ten-year-old Fatima Pharriro was brutally subjected to physical and sexual violence, allegedly by Pir Asad Shah and his wife Hina Shah, and was found dead at their haveli in Ranipur.
A case was lodged on the complaint of her mother, Shabnam Khatoon, under Sections 302 (intentional murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) at Ranipur police station and an investigation was initiated.
The minister further highlighted that DNA samples initially did not yield a match due to the alleged tampering of evidence by officials of the health department, reportedly under the influence of the suspect.
A breakthrough occurred when the samples were sent to a facility in Punjab for processing, and the subsequent analysis established a clear match between the DNA obtained from the suspect and the samples found on the victim’s clothes.
According to an earlier DNA report from the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences in Jamshoro, the examination of the semen stains on the deceased girl’s clothing had revealed “mixed DNA profiles,” providing crucial evidence in the ongoing investigation of this tragic case.
Court Updates
On November 8, all suspects were produced by jail authorities, and the final charge sheet was submitted by the investigation officer. for the charge frame.
According to the final challan report, the DNA report has not been submitted to the court yet.
The DNA report has been submitted to Police Surgeon Karachi, as per the final post-mortem report, the supplementary post-mortem report will be submitted after the DNA report.
Therefore, after receiving the supplementary post-mortem report, it will be produced.
Fatima’s case
A domestic maid, 10-year-old child Fatima Phuriro, was found dead under suspicious circumstances in Ranipur.
The child had been working as a domestic worker at a haveli owned by an influential local, Pir Asad Shah Jilani.
Fatima’s mother, Shabana, was informed about the death by the employer who asked her to remove the body from the premises.
According to DIG Sukkur Javed Jiskani, the parents initially did not share the facts of the case with the police and claimed that the girl was suffering from gastroenteritis.
While her diagnosis was also confirmed by Dr Abdul Fatah Memon who treated her, the DIG revealed that Fatima was taken to the hospital either by the Pir or his staff and that the SHO was present at the time she was pronounced dead.
It was not until videos of the child were leaked by an unknown source and circulated on social media that the case caught the media’s eye. By then, the family had buried Fatima on August 15.
The body was later exhumed and sent for an autopsy which revealed that the girl had been raped both vaginally and anally.
Fatima’s parents revealed heartbreaking details when we talked to them in September this year.
Caretaker CM Punjab Mohsin Naqvi has said that, “The next four days are highly important regarding smog.” He was visiting construction sites in Saggiyan.
Section 144 has been imposed in Lahore as part of a health and environmental emergency. The Chief Minister asserted that people should not come out of their houses unnecessarily. “There will not be much restriction on Iqbal Day but later anti-smog measures will be strictly implemented,” he said.
The lesser number of traffic on the roads will provide ease in improving the environment and for that Punjab Government has requested traders to comply with the decision and announce the shutdown of the markets. This, he believes, will reduce the traffic and that will lessen the intensity of the smog.
It is important to mention that Lahore is topping the charts for having a hazardous air-quality index for the last one week.
The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service report has claimed that 2023 was the warmest October on record globally, noting an average surface temperature of 15.3 degrees Celsius (59.54 degrees Fahrenheit) over the month. The report is “virtually certain” that 2023 is the warmest year ever recorded.
The mean temperature was 0.85 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average for October and 1.7 degrees Celsius warmer than the preindustrial period of 1850-1900.
Earlier, 2016 was declared as the hottest year in world history. Climate change experts find the shocking data to be “like something out of a Hollywood movie”
COP28 is scheduled to take place by the end of November and this finding makes it more crucial than ever because the current temperature rise is 1.43 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average which was aimed to be curbed to just 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050. The figures are alarming and demand the world’s attention.
The world has already warmed by around 1.1 degrees Celsius after over a century of burning fossil fuels as well as unequal and unsustainable energy and land use. Indeed, it is this temperature increase that is fueling a series of extreme weather events around the world.
A South Korean man was misidentified as a box by a robot that crushed him to death, local media has reported.
The incident took place when the worker, reportedly in his 40s, was inspecting the robot’s sensor at a warehouse for agricultural products.
Yonhap news agency reports that the robot was lifting boxes of bell peppers when it mistook the man for a receptacle.
According to police sources, the “Mechanical arm pushed the man’s upper body onto a conveyor belt and crushed his face and chest”.
The man later died in hospital.
In an official statement released by the Donggoseong Export Agricultural Complex, the plant owner, called for a “precise and safe” system to be established.
Sky News reports that in March, another South Korean man in his 50s, endured serious injuries after getting trapped by a robot while working at a vehicle parts manufacturing plant.
Washington Post was slammed on the internet on Wednesday for a racist cartoon dehumanising the Palestinians. Right now the number of Gazans killed in Israeli airstrikes has reached 10,000. The cartoon has since been deleted, while Post has put out an editorial note.
The offensive drawing shows a crudely drawn Arabic man labeled Hamas with three children and a woman tied around him with ropes.
“This is the kind of anti-Palestinian racism that they think is acceptable for publication,” slammed Palestinian poet Remi Kanazi.
This is the @washingtonpostThis is the kind of anti-Palestinian racism that they think is acceptable for publication pic.twitter.com/nd6FYc4cb0
— Remi Kanazi (@Remroum) November 8, 2023
Palestinian journalist Ahmed Eldin re-shared the post to point out how the racism Palestinians are enduring in the Western media is similar to how the Jews were drawn as evil with physical features that compared them to rats or cockroaches.
“Before the Holocaust, Jews were portrayed as irrational and evil, with physical features that made them appear akin to cockroaches and rats. These images dehumanized Jews to justify their mass extermination. Now, the Western press is doing the same to Palestinians. The source of this obscene and offensive piece of propaganda masquerading as a “political cartoon” by Michael Pramirez is not a lesser-known publication, but rather the widely recognized
@washingtonpost. Regardless of the validity of the claims regarding Hamas using human shields, the notion that thousands of children being killed can be justified or deemed acceptable as collateral damage is absolutely unacceptable. The dehumanization of Palestinians, which serves as a pretext to permit and rationalize their mass killing, is a disturbing trend that seems to have no boundaries within American discussions and debates.”
Before the Holocaust, Jews were portrayed as irrational and evil, with physical features that made them appear akin to cockroaches and rats.
— AHMED | أحمد (@ASE) November 8, 2023
These images dehumanized Jews to justify their mass extermination.
Now, the Western press is doing the same to Palestinians.
The source… pic.twitter.com/fvnxikZ36m
‘What’s more troubling than this racist depiction,” Palestinian-American poet Mohammad El-Kurd wrote. “Is that the Washington Post thinks it’s OK to kill civilians if, hypothetically, ‘terrorists’ hid behind them. Even if the “human-shields” myth was true, only those who kill civilians are responsible for the act of killing.”
What’s more troubling than this racist depiction, is that the Washington Post thinks it’s OK to kill civilians if, hypothetically, “terrorists” hid behind them.
— Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) November 8, 2023
Even if the “human-shields” myth was true, only those who kill civilians are responsible for the act of killing. https://t.co/oa8tueosL9
Columnist and writer Fatima Bhutto tweeted her outrage:
“This cartoon is so anti-Muslim, so racist it boggles the mind that any newspaper could print it. Beyond which, Israel has murdered over 4,000 children- do you have absolutely no shame depicting Palestinian children in this manner? What a disgrace.”
This cartoon is so anti-Muslim, so racist it boggles the mind that any newspaper could print it. Beyond which, Israel has murdered over 4,000 children- do you have absolutely no shame depicting Palestinian children in this manner? What a disgrace @washingtonpost. https://t.co/QVEk08ScdP
— fatima bhutto (@fbhutto) November 8, 2023
The Washington Post opinion editor David Shipley published an apology for the cartoon on their website and took it down:
“A cartoon we published by Michael Ramirez on the war in Gaza, a cartoon whose publication I approved, was seen by many readers as racist. This was not my intent. I saw the drawing as a caricature of a specific individual, the Hamas spokesperson who celebrated the attacks on unarmed civilians in Israel. However, the reaction to the image convinced me that I had missed something profound, and divisive, and I regret that. Our section is aimed at finding commonalities, understanding the bonds that hold us together, even in the darkest times.”
Human Rights Lawyer and activist Moniza Kakar has been active on Twitter to show the suffering caused by the government policy of repatriation of Afghans. She has been vocal about the Pashtun community getting deported while being mistaken for Afghans. Her reporting and advocacy of the rights of refugees has gained her the ire of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) which has sent a complaint to Twitter, stating that her account is posting against the policies of the state.
She posted screenshots of the email she received from Twitter on her account, stating that in the interest of transparency, “we are writing to inform you that Twitter has received a request from PTA regarding your Twitter account, @Moni-Kakar, that claims the following content violated LAW of Pakistan.”
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has requested Twitter to suspend my Twitter account because I am advocating for the rights of Afghan refugees, and according to the PTA, this is against Pakistani law.#RefugeesRightsInPakistan pic.twitter.com/tACXkYNTyl
— Moniza Kakar (@Moni_Kakar) November 8, 2023
To this, former Senator and leader of the National Democratic Movement Afrasiab Khattak responded, “HR lawyering is not easy in Pakistan”.
This the account of a human rights lawyer. Those who demand its suspension speak for the violators of the rights. HR lawyering isn’t easy in Pakistan. https://t.co/iw8W1jejvM
— Afrasiab Khattak (@a_siab) November 8, 2023
While talking to The Current, Moniza seemed unfazed, stating, “Aise kam karein ge to zahir si bat hai kuch to masail ka samna karna parta hai [When we do things like these, then of course we have to face some problems].”
She went on to explain that this time round, Twitter has been requested to block her account altogether. She has also posted the tweet that has been referred to the Twitter team by PTA. It was a video showing a documented Afghan refugee, outside the holding centre in Karachi, whose wife and two-month-old were picked up by the police in a raid.
Upon asking if she has another account on social media, she mentioned that her LinkedIn profile is active.