Canadian police arrested one person in connection with a series of burglaries at temples in the province of Ontario in recent months. Durham Regional Police Service (DRPS) identified the person as 41-year-old Jagdish Pandher, a resident of the town of Brampton in the Greater Toronto Area or GTA. He is facing charges for numerous offences and is being held for a bail hearing. Pandher was also involved in another series of burglaries targeting places of worship last year. DRPS said a man was seen on security surveillance breaking into the Hindu temple on October 8 and taking a large quantity of cash from the donation boxes.
Italian court sentences Pak parents
The parents and an uncle of an 18-year-Pakistani woman have been convicted of her murder in Italy after she refused her family’s demands to marry a cousin in their homeland. Saman Abbas’ body was dug up in November 2022 in an abandoned farmhouse near the fields where her father worked in northern Italy, a year and a half after she was last seen alive on surveillance video walking nearby with her parents. Italian prosecutors argued that she was killed by her family on 1 May 2021. A few days later, her parents flew from Milan to Pakistan. The parents were sentenced to life in prison, while her uncle was handed a 14-year prison term by a court in Reggio Emilia.
New Chinese defence minister
China named former navy chief Dong Jun as its new defence minister to replace the last minister who disappeared from public view four months ago. The appointment by Chinese lawmakers comes as President Xi Jinping upgrades the military as part of his push to make China a dominant world power, a goal that has alarmed many neighbours. The role of China’s defence minister is to be the public face of the People’s Liberation Army. A crucial element of his job is to engage with the US military to lower the risk of conflict over Taiwan and the South China Sea.
48 killed as strong quake hits Japan
Hours after a 7.6 magnitude earthquake and subsequent aftershocks and tsunami hit Japan’s western coast, officials said that at least 48 people have been killed as relief and rescue operations continued. Thousands of rescuers are still struggling to reach the worst-hit area in the Noto peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture due to badly damaged and blocked roads. More than 90 tremors have been detected since the quake first hit on Monday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, which has warned more strong shocks could hit in the coming days. It has lifted all tsunami advisories for areas along the Sea of Japan, but Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, “The search and rescue of those impacted by the quake is a battle against time.” Meanwhile, the Indian embassy in Japan has set up an emergency control room to provide assistance and support to those affected. To aid Indian nationals in distress, the embassy enlisted numbers and email IDs in an update on their X handle.
Nobel laureate Yunus jailed in Bangladesh
A labour court in Bangladesh’s capital sentenced Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus to six months in jail for violating the country’s labour laws. Yunus, who pioneered using micro credit to help impoverished people, was present in court and was granted bail. The court gave the defence 30 days to appeal. Grameen Telecom, which he founded as a non-profit, is at the centre of the trial. Yunus is also facing an array of other charges involving alleged corruption and fund embezzlement.
World population up 75 mn in 2023, standing at 8 bn on Jan 1
The world population grew by 75 million people over the past year and on New Year’s Day it will stand at more than 8 billion people, according to figures released by the US Census Bureau. The worldwide growth rate in the past year was just under 1%. At the start of 2024, 4.3 births and two deaths are expected worldwide every second, according to the Census Bureau figures. The growth rate for the US in the past year was 0.53%, about half the worldwide figure. The US added 1.7 million people and will have a population on New Year’s Day of 335.8 million people. If the current pace continues through the end of the decade, the 2020s could be the slowest-growing decade in US history, yielding a growth rate of less than 4% over the 10-year-period from 2020 to 2030, said William Frey, a demographer at The Brookings Institution. The slowest-growing decade currently was in the aftermath of the Great Depression in the 1930s, when the growth rate was 7.3%.
Iran hikes production of enriched uranium
Iran has increased the rate at which it is producing near weapons grade uranium in recent weeks, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report to member states. Director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said that Iran “in recent weeks had increased its production of highly enriched uranium, reversing a previous output reduction from mid-2023,” according to an IAEA spokesperson. Iran had previously slowed down the rate at which it was enriching uranium to 60% purity.
Soviet-era Russian plane lands on frozen river
A Soviet-era Antonov-24 aircraft carrying 30 passengers landed on a frozen river near an airport in Russia’s far east. The Polar Airlines An-24 landed safely on the Kolyma river near Zyryanka in the Yakutia region, the prosecutors said. “The cause was an error by the crew in piloting the aircraft,” a spokesperson for the Eastern Siberian transport prosecutor said. There were no casualties.