News in Brief

Date: 23 April 2021 - 21:09

News ID: ۸۹۴۷۷

WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- In yet another disturbing case of anti-Muslim hate crime in the U.S. that has come to light a month later, an unidentified man threw acid on a Muslim woman of Pakistani origin as she walked home. The incident happened in Long Island, a suburb of New York City, on March 17 when 21-year-old college student Nafiah Ikram and her mother were getting out of their car and the assailant rushed up to them and threw caustic acid, before whisking away. Nafiah, a medical student at Hofstra University, was immediately rushed to the hospital. The attack, according to reports quoting the victim’s family, left her severely burned and nearly blind. A statement from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights group, said the attack left her hospitalized for 15 days, with severe burns to her face, eyes, neck, and hands.  CAIR is demanding that the attack be investigated as a "hate crime”, although police have appeared reluctant to do that.

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WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- The United States faced immediate criticism after returning to climate talks as part of attempts to end its international isolation, with activists saying Washington’s pledge to fight global warming is too little. The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden came under fire as 40 leaders from dozens of countries and organizations attended an international summit on climate change via video conference on Thursday, pledging action and calling for unity to tackle the climate crisis.   The summit showcased America’s return to the fight against global warming after four years of international withdrawal from the issue under former President Donald Trump, who mocked the science of climate change and pulled the U.S. out of the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord. The U.S. president’s pledge to cut America’s fossil fuel emissions as much as 52 percent by 2030 was swiftly faulted by the world’s most famous young climate activist, Greta Thunberg, who lambasted world leaders for their inaction — particularly the U.S., which she singled out as the "biggest emitter in history.” In testimony at a U.S. congressional hearing, delivered at the same time as the Biden climate summit was under way, Thunberg hit out at world leaders and said their climate targets were "very insufficient.”

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ARIS (Reuters) -- An attacker fatally stabbed a female police administrative worker at the entrance to a police station in Rambouillet, a middle-class commuter town outside Paris, on Friday. The assailant was shot and overpowered by police officers. BFM TV reported that he was of Tunisian nationality and had been shot dead. Officials did not give any information about a possible motive. Prime Minister Jean Castex said he was on his way to his scene, as did his interior minister. The Versailles prosecutor was investigating and France’s anti-terror prosecutor had not yet been called on to take the lead, an official said. The incident follows the fatal stabbing of four people in the headquarters of the Paris police force in 2019, and comes six months after a teenager beheaded a school teacher in the same administrative department of France.

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LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Court of Appeal has overturned the convictions of 39 people who ran local post offices and were accused of theft, fraud and false accounting following the installation, more than 20 years ago, of what turned out to be a defective computer system in local branches. Announcing the court’s ruling on Friday, Lord Justice Timothy Holroyde said Britain’s postal service, the Post Office, "knew there were serious issues about the reliability” of the Horizon computer system developed by Fujitsu, and had a "clear duty to investigate” its defects. "Post Office Limited’s failures of investigation and disclosure were so egregious as to make the prosecution of any of the ‘Horizon cases’ an affront to the conscience of the court,” the judge said.

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TOKYO (AP) — Japan declared a third state of emergency for Tokyo and three western prefectures on Friday amid skepticism it will be enough to curb a rapid coronavirus resurgence just three months ahead of the Olympics. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced the emergency for Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo from April 25 through May 11. The step is largely intended to be "short and intensive” to stop people from traveling and spreading the virus during Japan’s "Golden Week” holidays from late April through the first week of May, Suga said. Suga said he will ensure enough vaccines are delivered to local municipalities so all of the country’s 36 million senior citizens can receive their second shots by the end of July — a month behind an earlier schedule. Japan’s third state of emergency since the pandemic began comes only a month after an earlier emergency ended in the Tokyo area. For days, experts and local leaders said ongoing semi-emergency measures have failed and tougher steps are urgently needed.