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Soccer-Former Rochdale midfielder Thompson dies at 36

Soccer-Former Rochdale midfielder Thompson dies at 36
Updated 18 April 2025
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Soccer-Former Rochdale midfielder Thompson dies at 36

Soccer-Former Rochdale midfielder Thompson dies at 36
  • Rochdale said Thompson died peacefully at home with his family by his side
Updated 18 April 2025
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DUBAI: Former Rochdale midfielder Joe Thompson has died aged 36 after a long battle with cancer, the English fifth tier club said on Friday.
Rochdale said Thompson died peacefully at home with his family by his side. He was diagnosed with stage four lymphoma for a third time in April last year, five years after retiring from professional football.
Lymphoma, a form of blood cancer, had reached his lungs after he overcame the illness twice during his playing days. The Bath-born player began and ended his career at Rochdale, making three separate spells at the club.
“We first knew Joe primarily as a talented footballer, but we would soon grow to adore his loving, infectious personality,” Rochdale said in a statement.
“He faced every battle head-on, both on and off the pitch. His journey and indomitable spirit have been an inspiration for everyone who has been touched by his story.
“Our thoughts are with Joe’s family and friends at this incredibly sad time.”
Thompson came through Manchester United’s academy, having joined it at the age of nine, before playing for Rochdale, Tranmere Rovers and Carlisle United.
“A man who epitomised our club’s values ... A warm personality who had a deep connection with our club from a young age, our thoughts are with Joe’s family and friends at this difficult time,” Manchester United said in a statement.

Growing Arctic military presence worries Finland’s reindeer herders

Growing Arctic military presence worries Finland’s reindeer herders
Updated 3 min 47 sec ago
AFP
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Growing Arctic military presence worries Finland’s reindeer herders

Growing Arctic military presence worries Finland’s reindeer herders
  • Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer border with Russia, dropped decades of military non-alignment to join NATO in 2023
  • Finland has 4,305 reindeer owners and around 184,000 reindeer, living in 57 reindeer husbandry districts
Updated 3 min 47 sec ago
AFP

ROVANIEMI, Finland: A fighter jet roaring through the grey sky breaks the tranquility of a boreal forest in northern Finland, one more sign of a growing military presence that is challenging the ability of reindeer herders to exercise their livelihood.
“Military activity has increased massively here since Finland joined NATO,” reindeer herder Kyosti Uutela said on a tour in Rovajarvi, the largest artillery practice range in western Europe, on a day when no ground exercises were underway.
Located 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Russian border, Rovajarvi covers an area of 1,070 square kilometers on land that also makes up part of the reindeer husbandry district that Uutela heads.
Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer border with Russia, dropped decades of military non-alignment to join NATO in 2023 in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
And in 2024, a defense cooperation agreement between the United States and Finland came into force.
“Training activities and exercises have increased since the beginning of the war in Ukraine” because of the worsened security situation, the Finnish Defense Forces told AFP in a statement.
“This is naturally also reflected in Rovajarvi,” it said, saying the firing range provided unique training possibilities for international troops thanks to its size, terrain and seasonal changes.
Last year, Finland participated in 103 military exercises at home and abroad, up from 89 in 2023.
Ascending a small hill where the forest has been clear-cut and trenches dug for training purposes, Uutela said the spot “had been lost” as a grazing ground.
“The use of heavy army tanks and the presence of thousands of soldiers in the forest destroy the lichen pastures,” Uutela said, referring to the reindeer’s main source of food.
“Reindeer will not be able to live here anymore,” he said.
Finland has 4,305 reindeer owners and around 184,000 reindeer, living in 57 reindeer husbandry districts that cover 36 percent of the country’s total area.
A part of them belong to the indigenous Sami population that lives in Sapmi, which straddles northern regions of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia.
The non-Sami people such as Uutela who also practice reindeer husbandry include herders living near the Rovajarvi range, outside the Sapmi homeland.
Full-time herders sell reindeer meat, pelts and handicrafts as their main source of income, and husbandry has been an integral part of the indigenous Sami culture for generations.
Riikka Poropudas, another herder in Rovajarvi, said the military presence in the area had increased “radically” since Finland’s NATO accession, forcing herders to feed their reindeer in fenced areas more often than before.
Finland’s Defense Forces said the needs of reindeer husbandry were “taken into account in the planning of exercises, for example in terms of the times and locations,” adding that they were in daily contact with Rovajarvi herders.
But Poropudas worries that a large live-fire and combat exercise involving around 6,500 soldiers from Finland, Sweden and Britain this month would disturb her reindeer.
The calving season is at its busiest in mid-May.
“The activities stress both female reindeer and newborn calves, and drive them away from their natural pastures,” she said.
Tuomas Aslak Juuso, acting president of the Sami parliament in Finland, said climate change and land use changes – including the militarization of the Arctic – posed special challenges for the roughly 1,200 Sami reindeer herders in Finland.
“Our way of reindeer husbandry depends fully on the herding model and the reindeer being able to graze freely on natural pasture lands,” he said.
But the effects of climate change on winter conditions already mean that herders increasingly have to provide their reindeer with supplementary feed “in order to avoid mass deaths.”
A large international military exercise conducted in Finnish Sapmi in 2023 had been “quite a negative experience for the Sami people,” Juuso said.
“The local reindeer herders had not been informed beforehand, grazing conditions for that spring were damaged and tractors damaged the lichen cover, which may never grow back,” he said.
“When these things are planned, there should be early consultation with the Sami and responsibility for damage and harm.”

Topics: reindeer NATO Finland

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Pakistan ranks seventh in civilian harm, second in IED casualties worldwide — report

Pakistan ranks seventh in civilian harm, second in IED casualties worldwide — report
Updated 9 min 11 sec ago
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Pakistan ranks seventh in civilian harm, second in IED casualties worldwide — report

Pakistan ranks seventh in civilian harm, second in IED casualties worldwide — report
  • UK-based Action on Armed Violence monitor says Pakistan witnessed 790 civilian casualties in 248 incidents last years
  • The Baloch Liberation Army killed and injured 119 civilians, followed by Daesh (45 casualties) and Pakistan Taliban (10)
Updated 9 min 11 sec ago
KASHIF IMRAN

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan ranked seventh in the world for civilian casualties from explosive weapons and second most affected nation in terms of casualties from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) last year, UK-based monitor Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) said this week.

In its annual report, the AOAV said it had recorded 67,026 deaths and injuries as a result of the use of explosive weapons around the world, which was the highest since 2010.

The report said 89% of 59,524 civilians were either killed or wounded by explosive weapons in 2024, adding that 41% of them, or 24,147 individuals, were killed in incidents of explosive violence.

Pakistan was the seventh most affected country for civilians harmed by explosive weapons last year, with 790 civilian casualties (210 killed) in 248 incidents, a 9% decrease from 2023. However, there was a 11% increase in incidents compared to 218 in 2023.

“The majority of civilian harm was attributed to non-state actors, who were reportedly responsible for 76% (603) of civilian casualties. In particular, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) killed and injured 119 civilians in Pakistan last year,” the report read.

“The Islamic State (Daesh) affiliate in the region, Islamic State – Khorasan Province (IS-KP), was the reported perpetrator of 45 civilian casualties in Pakistan last year, down from 194 recorded civilian casualties in 2023. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) killed and injured 10 civilians last year, down from 32 in 2023.”

Unknown non-state actors accounted for 54% of civilian casualties (423), down from 541 recorded in 2023, in Pakistan. The BLA was the reported perpetrator of 15% (119) civilian casualties, marking a 440% increase from 22 in 2023.

Pakistan is currently battling twin insurgencies: one led my religiously motivated groups, including the TTP, mainly in its Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province and the other by ethno-nationalist Baloch separatist groups like the BLA in Balochistan.

Islamabad has frequently accused Afghanistan and India of supporting the TTP, BLA and other militant groups who have mounted their attacks in Pakistan in recent years. Kabul and New Delhi deny the accusations.

In terms of IEDs, Lebanon saw the highest level of harm globally, with 3,373 civilians killed and injured across only 16 incidents, accounting for 58% of civilian casualties from IED attacks globally, according to the report.

Pakistan saw the second highest level of civilian harm due to IED attacks, with AOAV recording 485 civilian casualties (139 fatalities) in 132 incidents.

“This is a 30% decrease in civilian casualties, but an 8 % increase in incidents,” the monitor said.

Other countries which saw elevated levels of civilian harm from IEDs in 2024 included Nigeria (385 civilian casualties), Iran (378), Somalia (270), Syria (253), Afghanistan (170), and Myanmar (84).

US ‘deeply concerned’ over activists’ treatment in Tanzania

US ‘deeply concerned’ over activists’ treatment in Tanzania
Updated 19 min 31 sec ago
AFP
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US ‘deeply concerned’ over activists’ treatment in Tanzania

US ‘deeply concerned’ over activists’ treatment in Tanzania
Updated 19 min 31 sec ago
AFP

NAIROBI: The United States expressed concern Saturday over the “mistreatment” of two east African activists in Tanzania, days after they were detained and reportedly tortured.
Prominent campaigners Boniface Mwangi of Kenya and Agather Atuhaire of Uganda traveled to Tanzania this week in solidarity with detained opposition leader Tundu Lissu ahead of his court hearing on charges of treason, which carries a potential death penalty.
But they themselves were detained before being deported and then found abandoned near the Tanzanian border.
Mwangi and rights groups allege that both were tortured while held “incommunicado” for days.
The US Bureau of African Affairs said on X it was “deeply concerned by reports of the mistreatment” of Atuhaire and Mwangi while in Tanzania.
“We call for an immediate and full investigation into the allegations of human rights abuses,” it said, urging “all countries in the region to hold to account those responsible for violating human rights, including torture.”
Atuhaire received in 2023 the EU Human Rights Defender Award for her work in Uganda and was honored last year with the International Women of Courage Award by former US First Lady Jill Biden.
Mwangi is a longtime critic of the Kenyan government, frequently denouncing instances of alleged injustice and rights abuses.
Human rights groups say Tanzania and neighboring Uganda have accelerated crackdowns on opponents and dissidents as they prepare for presidential elections in the next seven months.
But Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has slammed what she called interference in the country’s affairs and had urged security services “not to allow ill-mannered individuals from other countries to cross the line here.”

Topics: Uganda US

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Kim Kardashian’s robbers found guilty in Paris

Kim Kardashian’s robbers found guilty in Paris
Updated 28 min 9 sec ago
AP
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Kim Kardashian’s robbers found guilty in Paris

Kim Kardashian’s robbers found guilty in Paris
  • Algerian-born Aomar Aït Khedache, 69, the ringleader, got the stiffest sentence, eight years imprisonment but five of those were suspended
Updated 28 min 9 sec ago
AP

PARIS: A Paris court this week found the ringleader and seven other people guilty in the 2016 armed robbery of Kim Kardashian, but did not impose any additional time behind bars for their roles in what the US celebrity described as “the most terrifying experience of my life."

The chief judge, David De Pas, said that the defendants' ages — six are in their 60s and 70s — and their health issues weighed on the court’s decision to impose sentences that he said “aren’t very severe.”

He said that the nine years between the robbery and the trial — long even by the standards of France’s famously deliberate legal system — were also taken into account in not imposing harsher sentences. The court acquitted two of the 10 defendants.

Algerian-born Aomar Aït Khedache, 69, the ringleader, got the stiffest sentence, eight years imprisonment but five of those were suspended.

Three others got seven years, five of them suspended. Three more got prison sentences ranging from five to three years, mostly or completely suspended, and an eighth person was found guilty on a weapons charge and fined.

With time already served in pretrial detention, none of those found guilty will go to prison and all walked out free. The trial was heard by a three-judge panel and six jurors.

Still, the chief judge said that Kardashian had been traumatized by the Oct. 2, 2016, jewel heist in her hotel during Fashion Week.

“You caused harm,” the judge said. “You caused fear.”

Kardashian, who wasn't present for the verdict, said in a statement issued afterward that she was “deeply grateful to the French authorities for pursuing justice in this case.”

“The crime was the most terrifying experience of my life, leaving a lasting impact on me and my family. While I’ll never forget what happened, I believe in the power of growth and accountability and pray for healing for all. I remain committed to advocating for justice, and promoting a fair legal system," said the celebrity who is working to become a lawyer.

Topics: Kim Kardashian

India’s monsoon rains arrive eight days early, says weather bureau

India’s monsoon rains arrive eight days early, says weather bureau
Updated 32 min 57 sec ago
Reuters
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India’s monsoon rains arrive eight days early, says weather bureau

India’s monsoon rains arrive eight days early, says weather bureau
  • Summer rains, critical for economic growth in Asia’s third-largest economy, usually begin to lash Kerala around June 1
Updated 32 min 57 sec ago
Reuters

MUMBAI: Monsoon rains hit the coast of India’s southernmost state of Kerala on Saturday, eight days earlier than usual, the weather office said, offering respite from a grueling heat wave while boosting prospects for bumper harvests.

Summer rains, critical for economic growth in Asia’s third-largest economy, usually begin to lash Kerala around June 1 before spreading nationwide by mid-July, allowing farmers to plant crops such as rice, corn, cotton, soybeans and sugarcane.

Topics: weather India

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Latest updates

Growing Arctic military presence worries Finland’s reindeer herders
Growing Arctic military presence worries Finland’s reindeer herders
US ‘deeply concerned’ over activists’ treatment in Tanzania
US ‘deeply concerned’ over activists’ treatment in Tanzania
Kim Kardashian’s robbers found guilty in Paris
Kim Kardashian’s robbers found guilty in Paris
India’s monsoon rains arrive eight days early, says weather bureau
India’s monsoon rains arrive eight days early, says weather bureau
Ukraine says downed 6 missiles, 245 drones overnight
Ukraine says downed 6 missiles, 245 drones overnight

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