Father accused of Sara Sharif’s murder denies responsibility for death in UK trial

Sara Sharif was found dead in August 2023 at her home in Woking after what prosecutors say was a campaign of “serious and repeated violence.” (Surrey Police)
Sara Sharif was found dead in August 2023 at her home in Woking after what prosecutors say was a campaign of “serious and repeated violence.” (Surrey Police)
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Updated 05 November 2024
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Father accused of Sara Sharif’s murder denies responsibility for death in UK trial

Sara Sharif was found dead in August 2023 at her home in Woking.
  • Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones told jurors at the start of the trial that Sara had suffered a litany of injuries, including burns and bite marks

LONDON: The father of Sara Sharif, a 10-year-old girl who was found dead in her home in Britain, denied responsibility for his daughter’s death as he gave evidence at his murder trial on Tuesday.
Sharif was found dead in August 2023 at her home in Woking, a town southwest of London, after what prosecutors say was a campaign of “serious and repeated violence.”
Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones told jurors at the start of the trial that Sara had suffered a litany of injuries, including burns and bite marks.
Her father Urfan Sharif, 42, his wife and Sara Sharif’s stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and the girl’s uncle Faisal Malik, 29, are on trial at London’s Old Bailey court charged with her murder.
The trio are charged with causing or allowing the death of a child. All three deny the charges against them and blame each other for her death, prosecutors have said.
Emlyn Jones told jurors earlier this month that Urfan Sharif said to police: “It wasn’t my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much.”
Sharif entered the witness box on Tuesday and was asked by his lawyer Naeem Mian whether he was responsible for Sara’s death. He replied: “No.”
He became emotional as he was asked by Mian to describe what Sara was like, saying she was “beautiful, an angel” and that her favorite color was pink.
Sharif accepted slapping Sara on “a few occasions” to discipline her, but denied beating her in a regular or sustained way.
Mian had said to the jury that Sharif had wrongly been painted as a “villain,” rather than Batool, for slapping Sara.
Batool’s case, prosecutors have previously said, is that Urfan Sharif was a “violent disciplinarian” and that she was scared of him.
The trial is expected to run until December.


Death toll from Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia rises to six, officials say

Death toll from Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia rises to six, officials say
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Death toll from Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia rises to six, officials say

Death toll from Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia rises to six, officials say
  • Photos posted on the emergency’s Telegram messaging channel showed rescuers and machinery working in piles of rubble from a collapsed building at night
The death toll from a Russian missile strike that destroyed a clinic in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday has risen to six, while four more people remain under the rubble, the regional governor and emergency services said on Wednesday.
An additional 22 people were injured, governor Ivan Fedorov said on his Telegram messaging channel.
“All emergency services of the city are working at the scene,” he said.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service of Ukraine said its rescuers were able to pull out two women overnight from underneath the ruins of the building.
Photos posted on the emergency’s Telegram messaging channel showed rescuers and machinery working in piles of rubble from a collapsed building at night.
Russia regularly carries out airstrikes on Zaporizhzhia and the surrounding region. Last Friday, an attack on the city killed 10 people and wounded more than 20.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in their attacks, saying the aim of the strikes is to undermine infrastructure key to each other’s war efforts.
President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Ukraine’s allies on Tuesday to provide 10-12 more Patriot air defense systems that he said would fully protect the country’s skies.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has consistently asked its allies to supply more advanced air-defense systems.

Hundreds protest in New Delhi against reported attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh

Hundreds protest in New Delhi against reported attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh
Updated 49 min 34 sec ago
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Hundreds protest in New Delhi against reported attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh

Hundreds protest in New Delhi against reported attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh
  • Protesters demanded UN intervention, criticizing the world body for not doing more to address problems in Bangladesh
  • They also rejected claims by interim government officials in Bangladesh that the targeting of minorities was internal matter

NEW DELHI: Hundreds of protesters rallied near the Bangladesh diplomatic mission in the Indian capital on Tuesday, pressing for an end to reported attacks on Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh after former premier Sheikh Hasina fled into exile in India in August.
The protesters demanded an intervention by the United Nations, carrying banners and placards that criticized the world body for not doing more to address the problems in Bangladesh. They also rejected claims by interim government officials in Bangladesh that the targeting of minorities was an internal matter.
“It’s a very serious attack, a very sustained attack on the lives of the (Hindu) minority,” said Veena Sikri, a former Indian ambassador to Bangladesh. Attacks on the livelihoods, homes and businesses of minorities in Bangladesh must stop, she said.
Scores of social and cultural organizations joined the protest in New Delhi a day after top Foreign Ministry officials from the two countries, Vikram Misri and Mohammad Jashim Uddin, met in Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital, to discuss their strained relations. It was the first high-level visit to Bangladesh by an Indian official since massive protests ended Hasina’s 15-year rule.
Following Hasina’s ouster, minorities — and particularly Hindus — have reported widespread attacks in the Muslim-majority nation of Bangladesh, but Bangladesh says the reports are widely exaggerated.
Most Bangladeshi Hindus are thought to support Hasina’s secular Awami League party.
Tensions spiked over the recent arrest of a Hindu spiritual leader in Bangladesh, which is currently being run by an interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. India also stopped issuing visas to Bangladeshis, except for emergency medical visas, after Hasina fled. Many Indian nationals working on infrastructure projects also left Bangladesh because of security threats.
After Monday’s meeting, Misri told reporters there was no reason for the mutually beneficial relationship between the two countries to deteriorate.
“To that end, therefore, I have underlined today India’s desire to work closely with the interim government of Bangladesh,” he said.


Human trafficking rises sharply after dropping during pandemic, UN says

Human trafficking rises sharply after dropping during pandemic, UN says
Updated 11 December 2024
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Human trafficking rises sharply after dropping during pandemic, UN says

Human trafficking rises sharply after dropping during pandemic, UN says
  • Children accounted for 38 percent of detected victims, compared to 35 percent for figures for 2020 which formed the basis of the previous report

VIENNA: Human trafficking has risen sharply due to conflicts, climate-induced disasters and global crises, according to a United Nations report published on Wednesday.
In 2022, the latest year for which data is widely available, the number of known victims worldwide rose to 25 percent above 2019’s pre-pandemic levels, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Global Report on Trafficking in Persons said. A sharp fall in 2020 had largely disappeared by the following year.
“Criminals are increasingly trafficking people into forced labor, including to coerce them into running sophisticated online scams and cyberfraud, while women and girls face the risk of sexual exploitation and gender-based violence,” the report said, adding that organized crime was mainly responsible.
Children accounted for 38 percent of detected victims, compared to 35 percent for figures for 2020 which formed the basis of the previous report.
The latest report showed adult women remain the largest group of victims, representing 39 percent of cases, followed by men at 23 percent, girls at 22 percent and boys at 16 percent.
The total number of victims in 2022 was 69,627.
The most common reason by far for women and girls being trafficked was sexual exploitation at 60 percent or more, followed by forced labor. For men, it was forced labor and for boys, it was forced labor and “other purposes” in roughly equal measure.
Those other purposes include forced criminality and forced begging. The report said the growing number of boys identified as victims of trafficking could be linked to rising numbers of unaccompanied minors arriving in Europe and North America.
The region of origin that accounted for the largest number of victims was sub-Saharan Africa with 26 percent, though there are many different trafficking routes.
While improved detection could account for the growing numbers, the report said it was likely a combination of that and more trafficking in general.
The biggest increases in cases detected were in sub-Saharan Africa, North America and the ‘western and southern Europe’ region, according to the report, with migration influxes being a significant factor in the latter two.


South Korean police raid president’s office

South Korean police raid president’s office
Updated 11 December 2024
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South Korean police raid president’s office

South Korean police raid president’s office
  • Defense minister Kim Yong-hyun resigned last Thursday and was formally arrested Tuesday on charges including “engaging in critical duties during an insurrection” and “abuse of authority to obstruct th

Seoul: South Korean police raided President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office on Wednesday as the investigation into his declaration of martial law gathered pace.
Prison authorities, meanwhile, said the country’s former defense minister tried to kill himself shortly before his formal arrest over the events of the night of December 3.
The extraordinary drama saw troops and helicopters sent to parliament in an apparent — but failed — attempt to prevent lawmakers from voting down Yoon’s martial law declaration.
The deeply unpopular Yoon is already under a travel ban as part of an “insurrection” probe into his inner circle.
On Wednesday, a special investigation unit of South Korea’s police said it raided the presidential office as well as the National Police Agency, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and the National Assembly Security Service.
A statement gave no further details.
Former defense minister Kim Yong-hyun tried to kill himself shortly before midnight on Tuesday (1500 GMT Tuesday) while in custody, authorities said.
Kim was first detained on Sunday. The suicide attempt took place shortly before he was formally arrested, the justice ministry and a prison official said.
They added that he was in good health on Wednesday.
Kim was arrested on charges of “engaging in critical duties during an insurrection” and “abuse of authority to obstruct the exercise of rights.”
The former defense minister said through his lawyers that “all responsibility for this situation lies solely with me” and that subordinates were “merely following my orders and fulfilling their assigned duties.”
He had already been slapped with a travel ban along with the former interior minister and the general in charge of the martial law operation.
Cho Ji-ho, commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency, and Kim Bong-sik, head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, were also arrested early Wednesday, police said.

'Fascist dictatorship'
North Korean state media on Wednesday made its first comments about what it called the “chaos” in the South.
“The shocking incident of the puppet Yoon Suk Yeol, who is facing impeachment and a governance crisis, suddenly declaring a martial law decree and unhesitatingly wielding the guns and knives of its fascist dictatorship wrought chaos across South Korea,” a commentary said.
Yoon had said his declaration of martial law was intended, in part, to safeguard South Korea “from the threats posed by North Korea’s communist forces and eliminate anti-state elements plundering people’s freedom and happiness.”
Relations between the two Koreas have been at one of their lowest points in years, with the North launching a flurry of ballistic missiles in violation of UN sanctions.
Former defense minister Kim had been accused by opposition lawmakers of calling for strikes on sites from which North Korea was launching trash-carrying balloons, an order reportedly refused by his subordinates.
He also allegedly ordered drones sent to the North Korean capital of Pyongyang in an apparent attempt to provoke a conflict as a pretext for declaring martial law.

Task force
Yoon survived an impeachment motion in parliament on Saturday even as tens of thousands of South Koreans braved freezing temperatures to demand his ouster.
Further smaller protests have continued every evening since, with polls showing record-low public support for Yoon.
A special task force within Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) on Tuesday proposed a plan for the president to resign in February or March, followed by fresh elections in April or May.
But the proposal has not yet been adopted by the party as a whole.
Even if approved, the roadmap is unlikely to head off another opposition attempt to impeach Yoon on Saturday.
The motion only needs eight members of Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) to secure the necessary two-thirds majority.
Last week, two PPP lawmakers — Ahn Cheol-soo and Kim Yea-ji — voted in favor, and two more said Tuesday they would support the motion this time.


Trump picks Ron Johnson as US ambassador to Mexico

Trump picks Ron Johnson as US ambassador to Mexico
Updated 11 December 2024
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Trump picks Ron Johnson as US ambassador to Mexico

Trump picks Ron Johnson as US ambassador to Mexico

WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump has picked former US ambassador to El Salvador, Ronald Johnson, as the next United States ambassador to Mexico, he said on social media on Tuesday.
Johnson served as the ambassador to El Salvador from 2019 to 2021. Trump also cited Johnson’s more than 20 years of experience with the CIA in his announcement.
Trump made illegal immigration along the US-Mexico border a key issue during his election campaign.
Mexico has played a key role in implementing US immigration policy in recent years, accepting migrants from countries to which the US struggles to deport people, such as Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
US government estimates, though, also suggest nearly half of the immigrants living in the US illegally are Mexican.
“Ron will work closely with our great Secretary of State Nominee, Marco Rubio, to promote our Nation’s security and prosperity through strong America First Foreign Policies,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
US Senator Marco Rubio has been tapped by Trump for secretary of state.
Mexico is bracing for the arrival of large numbers of its citizens deported from the US once Trump takes office in January. It has argued, however, the deportations are unnecessary, pointing to the contribution of Mexicans to the US economy.
Mexico is seeking an agreement with Trump to ensure it does not receive deportees from third countries in case of large-scale deportations of migrants from the United States, President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Thursday.
Trump has threatened tariffs on Canada and Mexico until they clamped down on drugs and migrants crossing the border.