Two Indian expats won USD 1 million each in the Dubai Duty Free raffle while another won a Mercedes Benz car. Jaya Gupta and Ravi Ramchand Bachani are the two lucky Indians who won USD 1 million each in the Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire draw. Jaya, resident of Dubai for the past 35 years, said that she has been buying the tickets for the raffle for the last 15 years and had bought the winning lot before flying to Mumbai. Ravi Ramchand Bachani, who will also collect USD 1 million in the raffle, is a Dubai-based Indian national for 14 years, runs a garment business and is a regular participant of the million-dollar promotion for the past 10 years now. He bought the winning lot while travelling to Croatia during Eid holidays.
Flash floods in Nepal leave 65 dead
The death toll from flooding and other rain-triggered incidents in Nepal climbed to 65 with over 30 people still missing, officials said. Heavy monsoon rains for the past few days have left many settlements at high risk of floods and landslides in several places in Nepal. Transportation has also been disrupted in all major highways. Rivers have also started to erode embankments putting nearby settlements at high risk of flooding. "The rain-triggered disasters have caused havoc across the country," the Nepal Police said in its news bulletin. Deaths were reported from various districts, including Lalitpur, Kavre, Kotang, Bhojpur and Makanpur. The rescue and relief operations have been intensified, a home ministry official said. Around 6,000 people have been badly affected by floods.
Pak news anchor gunned down in Karachi
Mureed Abbas, an anchor who worked in a Pakistan-based news channel, was killed outside a local cafe in Khayaban-e-Bukhari area in Karachi over personal enmity. A friend of the victimorperson, Khizar Hayat, also received two bullets in the same incident. Police said that an assailant identified as Atif Zaman opened fire at the journalist from a car. Hayat was shifted to a private hospital and was pronounced dead sustaining multiple bullet wounds on chest and abdomen. The security forces caught the suspected gunman who was attempting to commit suicide while his residence was raided. The suspect shot himself in the chest and was shifted to a hospital in a critical condition. Chief Minister of Sindh Murad Ali Shah issued directions to maintain law and order following the incident.
Hafiz Saeed contests charges against him
Mumbai attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed and his six aides challenged the charges of terror financing and money laundering against them in a Pakistani court. The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab Police on July 3 registered 23 FIRs against 13 leaders of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) including its chief Saeed on the charges of "terror financing" in different cities of Punjab province. Despite the Punjab police's claim that all those nominated in the terror financing FIRs will be arrested, no action has been taken against them so far. Seed and other six JuD made the federal and the Punjab governments, and CTD respondents in the case. The petitioners prayed to the court to declare that they (petitioners) are not linked with the LeT and therefore the CTD's FIRs be declared illegal.
Pak judge who jailed Sharif sacked
The Islamabad high court asked the Pakistan law ministry to remove accountability court judge Arshad Malik who had allegedly confessed in a video that he had been “pressured and blackmailed” to convict former PM Nawaz Sharif in a corruption case. Subsequently, the law ministry stopped Malik from working as a judge. Last week, Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz screened a video in which Malik could be seen meeting Nasir Butt, a PML-N sympathiser. Maryam said the judge had admitted before Butt that there was no evidence against Sharif but he was forced to announce an unfair verdict. The Islamabad HC decided to remove the judge after he submitted an affidavit in court claiming he was offered bribes by PML-N representatives to force him into issuing verdicts in favour of Sharif. In a letter to Islamabad HC, Malik refuted Maryam’s allegations. The Islamabad HC spokesperson said Malik’s affidavit and letter have been made part of Sharif’s acquittal plea. Pakistan law minister Farogh Nasim said no sentence can be overturned unless the HC finds the verdict was issued under duress by the judge.
Man miraculously survives Niagara Falls plunge
An unidentified man who was swept over the largest of the Niagara Falls was found alive, sitting on a rock in the river below with non-life threatening injuries, Canadian police said. The man was near the brink of Horseshoe Falls, a 188-foot (57-meter) plunge. Officials responded to the call about a “man in crisis.” When the police arrived, the man climbed over a retaining wall into the river and was swept over the waterfall's edge. He ended up on the Canadian side of the falls, which straddle the US-Canadian border. The incident marks the fourth time an adult is known to have survived going over without protection, reportedly.
Belgian sits in toilet for five days
A Belgian man sat on a toilet for nearly five days in a bid to set a world record. Jimmy De Frenne, a 48-year- old who is learning to be a bus driver, set himself a challenge of sitting for 165 hours on a toilet set up specially for the feat in the middle of a bar, but gave up after 116 hours. “Self-mockery is the best humour there is. Why am I doing this? Why not? There is nothing I like more than people making fun of me, because then I can do the same with them,” De Frenne said. De Frenne was allowed five minutes off every hour, which he could accumulate over several hours to allow him to sleep. Ironically, he needed toilet breaks as his bar toilet was not plumbed in.
French minister under fire over lobster dinners
France’s widely lampooned environment minister denied having a taste for the high life and said he would not resign over accusations he squandered taxpayer money, in a scandal that risks upsetting the government’s reform drive.
Investigative website Mediapart reported Francois De Rugy and his wife hosted lavish dinners at his official residence while he was speaker of parliament from June 2017-October 2018. Mediapart published images of lobsters and €500 wines at one dinner. De Rugy denied any wrongdoing. “I don’t like it, I don’t eat it, I have an intolerance for shellfish,” said De Rugy. “I don’t like oysters ... I hate caviar and champagne gives me a headache,” he told BFM TV.
Man slit teen's throat for listening to rap music
A 17-year-old boy was brutally stabbed in Arizona by a man who said the rap music the victim was listening made him feel “unsafe”, police said. The victim, Elijah Al-Amin of Glendale, had finished work at a sandwich shop and stopped at a convenience store. He was standing at a soda machine when Michael Paul Adams, 27, who was released from prison two days earlier, stabbed him in the back and slit his throat, witnesses told police. The two were not believed to have known each other. Elijah fled the store, bleeding and collapsed in the parking lot. He died 20 minutes later. The witnesses told police that Al-Amin hadn't done or said anything to provoke the attack. Police found him nearby and he admitted to the killing. Adams, who is white, told cops that Elijah, who was multiracial, had been listening to rap music before he entered the store, which made him “feel Unsafe” because in the past he had been “attacked by people (blacks, Hispanics and Native American) who listen to rap music.”
US spa fined for denying service to blind customer
A spa in Los Angeles has agreed to change its policies and pay damages to a blind man denied access to the facility on grounds “his kind” would not be able to follow instructions. Spa Palace settled the case with the US department of justice after the man filed a complaint. The man went to the spa in 2017. An employee told him that he couldn’t enter the facility or receive a massage as “his kind” would not be able to follow instructions and the therapist couldn’t care for him. Spa Palace said the man was not denied service but was told that he would need to be accompanied by his friend at all times - a policy that will now be changed.
Xi told officials not to ‘spend whole day eating’
Chinese officials must not use the fight against corruption as an excuse to sit around and do nothing, idling their time away and “spending the whole day eating”, President Xi Jinping told a meeting of Communist Party members. Since Xi began his war on graft after assuming power in 2012, the party and government have scolded officials who think they can avoid punishment by trying to keep a low profile by not doing their jobs or making decisions. Xi said it was important to “correctly handle the relationship between being clean and being responsible,” Xinhua news agency reported. “Don’t be muddle-headed officials who are politically apathetic and do things halfheartedly; don’t be lazy officials who spend the whole day eating and idle their time away."
New Zealand PM’s neighbour kills her cat
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s guilty neighbour, identified only as Chris, has let the cat out of the bag - he accidentally killed her cat almost two years ago. He killed the nation’s “First Cat” - Paddles while reversing out of his driveway. Paddles died in November 2017, shortly after Jacinda won office, but the full circumstances of the death were never revealed, leading to curiosity about who killed the cat. The much-loved feline, dubbed the First Cat of New Zealand, attracted a viral following for her cute antics, extra opposable thumbs (polydactyly) and interrupting a call between Jacinda and US President Donald Trump.
9 deer in Japan park die after eating plastic bags
Nine deer at a famed park in western Japan have died recently after swallowing plastic bags. Nara Park has more than 1,000 deer, and tourists can feed them sugar-free crackers sold in shops nearby. The crackers don’t come in plastic bags, but people still carry them. The Nara Deer Preservation Foundation says nine of the 14 deer that have died since March had plastic in their stomachs. Masses of plastic were retrieved from their stomachs, with the heaviest amount weighing a little above 4 km.
Dubai slaps ‘dirty car’ tax of 500 dirham on locals
Leaving an unkempt, dirty vehicle in public parking places in Dubai can bring more than just an eye sore. Dubai Municipality has warned residents not to leave their cars unwashed for a long time or else they will have to shell out dirham 500 as a fine. City's image-conscious authorities said leaving their cars parked on public parking spaces can “tarnish the aesthetic appearance of the city”.
France to slap ‘eco-tax’ of up to €18 on airfares
France declared to introduce an “ecotax” of up to €18 on tickets for all flights leaving the country. “We have decided to put in place an eco-tax on all flights from France,” transport minister Elisabeth Borne said. She added the tax, which is expected to raise around €180m annually from 2020, would finance daily transport in France. The tax will range from €1.50 for short-haul flights and up to €18 for long-haul journeys in business class.
