The Pakistan high commission in Dhaka removed the controversial cover photo from its Facebook page that used an alleged “distorted” image of Bangladesh’s national flag, following the country’s strong objection. The high commission had recently uploaded a collage of Pakistan’s and Bangladesh’s national flags as the cover photo of its official Facebook page. The collage picture displayed a flag which adds moon and crescent to the original red and green flag of Bangladesh.
At a press meet, foreign minister A K Abdul Momen said objections were raised on the picture of the flags of Bangladesh and Pakistan together on the Facebook page of the Pakistan high commission and it was asked to remove the image.
Facebook removes Taliban-controlled Af media pages
Facebook has removed the accounts of at least two state-owned media outlets in Afghanistan, the company confirmed. “The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organisation under US law and they are banned from using our services,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. “We remove accounts maintained by or on behalf of the Taliban and prohibit praise, support, and representation of them,” it added. While Facebook parent Meta did not list the banned media outlets, state broadcaster National Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) and the government-owned Bakhtar news agency both said that they had been blocked.
Ex-mayor among 3 killed in Philippine shooting
Three people died in a shooting at a university graduation ceremony in the Philippines’ capital region, including a former mayor from the volatile south of the country, police said. Local Quezon City police chief Remus Medina said the shooting appeared to have been an assassination attempt of the former mayor of the southern Lamitan city, Rose Furigay. The suspect, wounded in a shootout with a campus security officer and arrested after a car chase, was now in custody and being interrogated, Medina told reporters. Quezon is part of the Manila capital region, an urban sprawl of 16 cities home to more than 13 million people.
Record heat in China
Cities across China were on red alert for heatwaves, as tens of millions of people were warned to stay indoors and record temperatures strained energy supply. Scientists say the extreme weather has become more frequent due to climate change, and will likely grow more intense as global temperatures continue to rise. China is no exception and is sweating through one of its hottest summers on record. In the eastern provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian, the mercury rose above 41°Celsius over the weekend, reaching all-time highs in two cities
Rights group seeks arrest of Gotabaya
A rights group documenting alleged abuses in Sri Lanka has filed a criminal complaint with Singapore’s attorney general, seeking the arrest of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for his role in the nation’s decades long civil war. The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) said Rajapaksa committed grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions during the civil war in 2009 when he was country’s defence chief, according to a copy of the complaint. The ITJP argued that based on universal jurisdiction the alleged abuses were subject to
prosecution in Singapore, where he fled after months of unrest over his country’s economic crisis. Rajapaksa submitted his resignation in Singapore, a day after fleeing on July 13.
Phone saves Ukraine soldier’s life
As per a recent post on Reddit, the iPhone might have saved the life of an Ukrainian soldier by blocking a bullet. According to the post and a video uploaded along with it, the phone was kept in the soldier’s vest which blocked the bullet and took the damage, allowing the soldier to live and fight another day. In the process the back of the phone was severely damaged and the front display suffered numerous cracks. However, neither the post nor the video could be independently verified. The post also does not not clarify whether the iPhone was truly bulletproof or if it had titanium inserts that help in reducing the overall damage.
Aid for Africa's top public health body
Africa's main public health body, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), will get $100 million from the World Bank to help African countries prepare for, detect and respond to disease outbreaks. The Africa CDC has played a major role in advising African countries during the Covid-19 pandemic and is also providing supervision on diseases like monkey pox. The World Bank said that the financial support would help for enhancement of Africa CDC's technical capacity and include investments to increase the number of epidemiologists and outbreak responders.
First polio case found in NYC in a decade
A case of polio has been identified outside New York City and confirmed by federal health officials, the New York state health department said in what would be the nation’s first known case of the disease in nearly 10 years. Testing suggested the Rockland county case of the highly contagious virus may have originated outside of the US, the department said in statement. “We are monitoring the situation closely and working with the New York state department of health and the CDC to respond to this emergent public health issue,” Rockland county health commissioner Patricia Schnabel Ruppert said.
UN court to hear Rohingya genocide case
Judges at the United Nations’ highest court dismissed preliminary objections by Myanmar to a case alleging the Southeast Asian nation is responsible for genocide against the Rohingya ethnic minority. The decision establishing the International Court of Justice’s jurisdiction cleared the way for the highly charged case, brought in 2019 by Gambia, to go ahead. That sets the stage for court hearings airing evidence of atrocities against the Rohingya that human rights groups and a UN probe say breach the 1948 Genocide Convention.
Pilot dies after making emergency landing
An aircraft of the Indonesian low-cost airline Citilink was forced to make an emergency landing at Juanda International Airport in the Indonesian province of East Java after its pilot had a health emergency. Citilink’s president director Dewa Kadek Rai confirmed the pilot who managed the landing safely died after being shifted to a nearby hospital. He said the QG307 flight which was flying to Ujung Pandang in South Sulawesi Province at around 6 am local time requested an emergency landing about 15 minutes after takeoff. Citilink officers gave explanations to passengers and provided on ground service before the flight for the same route departed again.
US Congressman attacked on stage
A man climbed on stage and tried to stab US Congressman Lee Zeldin as he gave a speech in his run for New York governor, the candidate and authorities said. Zeldin was unhurt and his attacker arrested. “His words as he tried to stab me a few hours ago were ‘you’re done’,” the Republican politician tweeted, thanking attendees including fellow politician Alison Esposito for help.
“I’m ok . . . fortunately, I was able to grab his wrist and stop him for a few moments until others tackled him. ”
Oldest male panda dies
A giant male panda, the oldest ever in captivity, died at a Hong Kong theme park after his health deteriorated. He was 35. He lived at Ocean Park after he and a female panda were gifted to Hong Kong by China in 1999. The panda called ‘An An’ had high blood pressure, a common condition among geriatric pandas. Over the past three weeks, it had been kept out of sight from visitors at the park as his health worsened.