‘Feel like I can breathe again…’: Bilkis Bano’s first reaction after SC’s verdict quashing release of 11 convicts
Bano was three months pregnant when she was gang-raped. Her three-year-old daughter was among seven of her relatives who were murdered during the riots, which left 1,000 people dead.
Weather update: Delhi sees coldest day of month today, minimum temperature dropped to…
Cold day to severe cold day conditions are very likely to persist in some parts of Delhi on Tuesday, IMD said.
Legal challenge to Dallas County’s cash bail system ends after U.S. Supreme Court declines to step in
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals previously held that federal courts can’t weigh in on the constitutionality of the county’s pre-trial processes.
Biden is not considering firing Secretary Austin after secret hospital stay: ‘Full trust and confidence’
President Biden has no plans to fire Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after the Pentagon chief withheld information from the White House about his extended hospital stay. A White House official confirmed Biden’s thinking in a statement to Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy. Austin was taken into an intensive care unit for several days without Biden’s knowledge, and the secretive hospital stay has given rise to widespread criticism of Austin, with some calling for him to resign. “The President has full trust and confidence in Secretary Austin. He’s looking forward to him being back at the Pentagon,” the official said. The Pentagon echoed the White House sentiment in a statement to Fox News Digital on Monday, saying Austin also has no plans to resign. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE LLOYD AUSTIN REMAINS HOSPITALIZED AFTER MYSTERY PROCEDURE; DOD REMAINS MUM ON RELEASE “Secretary Austin has no plans to resign,” Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder said. “He remains focused on conducting his duties as Secretary of Defense in defense of our nation.” DOD SECOND IN COMMAND TOLD OF AUSTIN’S HOSPITALIZATION 2 DAYS AFTER TAKING OVER SOME OF HIS DUTIES Austin’s hospital stay began on New Year’s Day and lasted multiple days. Details of his visit remain slim, beyond that he was there for an elective procedure. Former President Trump weighed in on the incident following a firestorm of attacks on Capitol Hill and social media. “Failed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin should be fired immediately for improper professional conduct and dereliction of duty,” Trump wrote on Sunday. “He has been missing for one week, and nobody, including his boss, Crooked Joe Biden, had a clue as to where he was, or might be.” DEFENSE SECRETARY AUSTIN HOSPITALIZED FOLLOWING SURGERY COMPLICATIONS “He has performed poorly, and should have been dismissed long ago, along with ‘General’ Mark Milley, for many reasons, but in particular the catastrophic surrender in Afghanistan, perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the history of our Country!” Trump added. Austin remains hospitalized at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Blast in Pakistan kills five police officers during polio vaccination drive
Bomb blast kills at least five police officers deployed to protect polio vaccination workers in northwestern Pakistan. Islamabad, Pakistan – At least five police officers have been killed and nearly two dozen others wounded after an explosive device targeted their vehicle during a polio vaccination drive in northwestern Pakistan. Officials told Al Jazeera the blast took place early morning on Monday in Bajaur, a tribal district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province neighbouring Afghanistan, when Pakistan began its latest round of the vaccination campaign. Five of those wounded were in critical condition and have been shifted to the provincial capital, Peshawar, about 133km (82 miles) south of Bajaur. “The blast took place early in the morning when the police team went out for the polio vaccination drive. We have shifted most of the injured to local hospital in Bajaur while critical patients were sent to Peshawar,” Bilal Faizi, spokesperson for the provincial rescue services, told Al Jazeera. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. In recent years, the Pakistan Taliban, also known by the acronym TTP, has killed dozens of polio vaccination workers and security officials in Pakistan. Resistance to the polio immunisation drive grew in Pakistan after the CIA, the intelligence agency of the United States, organised a fake vaccination drive to track Osama bin Laden, who was killed in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad in 2011. Religious leaders in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region also spread misinformation that the vaccine contained traces of pork and alcohol, which are forbidden in Islam. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries yet to be declared free of the wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV-1) disease. For a country to be recognised “free of polio”, it should show an absence of WPV-1 transmission for at least three consecutive years, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Pakistan reported six polio cases in 2023 – a considerable improvement from 2022 when 20 cases were reported across the country. The attack on the polio vaccination team came amid a dramatic surge in violent incidents in Pakistan. According to data compiled by the Pakistan Institute of Conflict and Security Studies, an Islamabad-based research organisation, more than 600 violent attacks took place in the country in 2023, an increase of 70 percent from the preceding year, killing more than 950 people. Adblock test (Why?)
Hundreds missing from Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Hospital amid Israeli bombardment
WHO and UN officials say patients arrive every few minutes in central Gaza hospital operating with 30 percent of staff. Hundreds of patients and staff are reported to be missing from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza, which is struggling to cope amid intense air strikes across the enclave. The majority of medical staff, as well as around 600 patients, have been forced to leave the complex to unknown locations with no information of their whereabouts, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN) reported on Monday. The two institutions note chaotic scenes as the remaining staff at the hospital continues to try to cope with an influx of injured people as “heavy Israeli bombardment from air, land, and sea intensified across much of the Gaza Strip”. Staff from the WHO and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) visited the only functioning hospital in the governorate of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza on Sunday. They noted that intense bombing had driven many to seek medical help at Al-Aqsa. The Ministry of Health in Gaza reports that 225 Palestinians were killed and 296 people injured due to Israeli attacks on January 5 – 7. The officials said that large numbers of wounded were being treated by very few staff at the facility and called for more protection for medical centres. The director of the hospital reported that because of increasing hostilities and ongoing evacuation orders, most local health workers and about 600 patients have been forced to leave the facility to unknown locations. WHO official Sean Casey said that new patients were arriving at the hospital every few minutes, adding that due to evacuation orders and the dangerous situation, there were only five doctors left to oversee hundreds of emergency cases and casualties. “It is really a chaotic scene. The hospital director just spoke to us, and he said his one request is that this hospital be protected, even though many of his staff have left,” Casey said. “This hospital is currently operating with about 30 percent of the staff that it had just a few days ago. They are seeing, in some cases, hundreds of casualties every day in a small emergency department.” Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) stated that their emergency medical team had been forced to cease activities at the hospital and leave the facility, as a result of increasing Israeli military activity. ‘Sickening scenes’ WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that his staff had witnessed “sickening scenes of people of all ages being treated on blood-streaked floors and in chaotic corridors”. .@WHO has received troubling reports of increasing hostilities and ongoing evacuation orders near the vital Al-Aqsa Hospital in the Middle Area of #Gaza, which according to the facility’s director forced over 600 patients and most health workers to leave. Their locations are not… pic.twitter.com/Vzd9UWThNm — Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) January 7, 2024 “Al Aqsa is the most important hospital remaining in Gaza’s Middle Area and must remain functional, and protected, to deliver its lifesaving services,” Ghebreyesus stated. “Further erosion of its functionality cannot be permitted – doing so in the face of such trauma, injury and humanitarian suffering would be a moral and medical outrage.” Casey said his team delivered some medical supplies and beds to the hospital on Sunday for thousands of patients in need of dialysis and trauma care. He added WHO was looking into deploying emergency staff for Al-Aqsa which is “on its knees” like many other medical facilities in Gaza. Despite growing international pressure for a respite, Israel continues its attacks on Gaza’s health facilities and residential areas in Gaza. The WHO says hospitals in northern Gaza are completely out of service. Ghebreyesus has expressed shock at the scale of health needs and devastation in northern Gaza after security concerns forced WHO to cancel a visit to the region’s al-Awda Hospital. “Urgent, safe and unhindered access to the region is needed to deliver humanitarian aid. Further delays will lead to more death and suffering for far too many people,” he declared. Overall, at least 22,835 people have been killed – including 9,600 children – in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, according to the authorities in the enclave. Israel says about 1,139 people were killed in Hamas’s October 7 attack. Adblock test (Why?)
How PM Modi’s decision to aim 9 missiles at Pakistan brought Islamabad on its knees and secure Abhinandan’s release
Former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan, Ajay Bisaria, sheds light on the behind-the-scenes developments in his upcoming book, ‘Anger Management: The Troubled Diplomatic Relationship Between India and Pakistan’.
500 students accuse Hisar college professor of sexual assault, write letter to PM Modi, Haryana CM
Nearly 500 female students of Chaudhary Devi Lal University in Sirsa have allegedly accused a professor of sexual assault.
Congress demands more information on Defense Secretary Austin’s hospitalization
Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives are demanding more information on Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization and why it was kept under wraps for days before it was finally announced. The top lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee released a statement on Sunday evening calling for “additional details” on Austin’s condition and why notification was delayed. “While we wish Sec. Austin a speedy recovery, we are concerned with how the disclosure of the Secretary’s condition was handled,” Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and ranking member Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., said. DOD SECOND IN COMMAND TOLD OF AUSTIN’S HOSPITALIZATION 2 DAYS AFTER TAKING OVER SOME OF HIS DUTIES “Several questions remain unanswered including what the medical procedure and resulting complications were, what the Secretary’s current health status is, how and when the delegation of the Secretary’s responsibilities were made, and the reason for the delay in notification to the President and Congress. “Transparency is vitally important. Sec. Austin must provide these additional details on his health and the decision-making process that occurred in the past week as soon as possible.” DEFENSE SECRETARY AUSTIN HOSPITALIZED FOLLOWING SURGERY COMPLICATIONS Fox News Digital reached out to the Pentagon for a response. GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., the No. 3 House Republican, on Monday morning called for Austin’s resignation. “It is shocking and absolutely unacceptable that the Department of Defense waited multiple days to notify the President, the National Security Council, and the American people that Defense Secretary Austin was hospitalized and unable to perform his duties,” Stefanik said. “This concerning lack of transparency exemplifies a shocking lack of judgment and a significant national security threat. There must be full accountability beginning with the immediate resignation of Secretary Austin and those that lied for him and a Congressional investigation into this dangerous dereliction of duty.” PENTAGON ANNOUNCES NEW RED SEA INTERNATIONAL MISSION TO COUNTER ESCALATING HOUTHI ATTACKS ON SHIPS The Pentagon publicly revealed on Friday that Austin was in the hospital due to complications from elective surgery. He had been there since the start of the week. But a Politico report later revealed that not only were media kept in the dark, but that the highest levels of the White House and top officials in the Pentagon itself were not aware until Thursday Austin was in the hospital. Democrat Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa., wrote on X Sunday evening, “I serve on the House Armed Services Committee and share the concerns of Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Smith.”
Nebraska Senator introduces bill to make nitrogen asphyxiation a legal method of execution
A Nebraska lawmaker has introduced a bill to add asphyxiation by nitrogen to the state’s method of carrying out the death penalty, even as Alabama officials await a judge’s ruling on a request to block its plans to become the nation’s first state to carry out an execution by nitrogen gas. Nebraska’s current sole method of execution is lethal injection. The bill introduced Thursday would add the nitrogen method, in which a mask that fits tightly over the nose and mouth would deliver pure nitrogen to a death row inmate, who would die of hypoxia — or a lack of oxygen to tissue and cells. UNITED NATIONS MOVES TO STOP ALABAMA FROM CARRYING OUT AMERICA’S FIRST NITROGEN GAS EXECUTION The bill, introduced by state Sen. Loren Lippincott of Central City, would leave the decision of which method to use up to prison officials. Lippincott, a Republican in the officially nonpartisan Legislature, said he brought the bill at the suggestion of one of his constituents. “We know that the death penalty is the law of the land in Nebraska,” he said. “It’s the will of the people. I introduced this as a way to do the death penalty humanely.” If passed, the measure would make Nebraska the fourth state to switch to death by nitrogen gas asphyxiation. The others are Alabama, Oklahoma and Mississippi, although the method has never been used in the U.S. to put an inmate to death. Alabama is seeking to become the first and has set an execution date of Jan. 25 for Kenneth Eugene Smith, convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of a woman. A federal judge is scheduled to decide before then whether to block the planned execution after Smith’s lawyers argued that the method could violate the constitutional provision against cruel and unusual punishment, likening the untested method to human experimentation. They also argued that if the mask fails to seal properly, it could allow air to mix with the nitrogen, which could prolong the execution and possibly cause Smith pain. Lippincott is not bothered by the court challenge facing Alabama officials over the protocol. “Everything gets challenged in court,” he said Friday. He is also certain a death by nitrogen hypoxia would be painless. A former Air Force and Delta Airlines pilot, Lippincott said he experienced altitude hypoxia simulation as part of his training, and he recalled it to be a painless experience. “For me, it was a sensation of being sleepy and a warm feeling,” he said. “Basically, you just go to sleep.” IDAHO’S MOVE TO RESURRECT FIRING SQUAD ‘MAKES SENSE’ AS ‘QUICKEST, SUREST’ DEATH PENALTY OPTION, EXPERT SAYS It’s too early to know whether the bill has a chance of passing. It has not been prioritized, which would give it more of a chance of advancing from committee, but it still could be before the Feb. 14 deadline. And while it has 17 co-signers, lawmakers are in a “short” 60-day session this year and have already introduced more than 200 bills in the first three days. It’s clear there is at least some opposition. Progressive Omaha Sen. Megan Hunt offered a tongue-in-cheek amendment to the bill Friday that would give state prison officials the power to determine whether death row inmates are executed by lethal injection or a firing squad “composed of all members of the Legislature.” An annual report on capital punishment released late last year by the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center said more Americans now believe the death penalty is being administered unfairly. Nebraska has a long and chaotic history with the death penalty. The Legislature abolished it in 2015, overriding then-Gov. Pete Ricketts’ veto to do so. Nebraska voters reinstated the death penalty the next year through a ballot initiative heavily bankrolled by Ricketts, who is a multi-millionaire and currently a U.S. senator for Nebraska. Nebraska rarely carries out executions, having put only four people to death since 1976. It’s last was in 2018 with the execution of Carey Dean Moore for killing two cabdrivers in Omaha in 1979. WASHINGTON GOVERNOR SIGNS BILL ELIMINATING DEATH PENALTY IN STATE Nebraska currently lacks the drugs it needs to carry out lethal injection, the state Department of Correctional Services confirmed Friday. Like most states with the death penalty, Nebraska has struggled for years to obtain the drugs used to execute inmates because most manufacturers of the drugs now refuse to openly supply them. In 2020, Ricketts vetoed a bill that would have prohibited prison officials from blocking the view of execution witnesses before the condemned inmate is declared dead. The bill was introduced after prison officials closed the witness viewing curtain for 14 minutes during the 2018 execution of Moore, which prevented members of the media from seeing the full process. Critics have said that prevented the public from knowing whether something went wrong with Moore’s execution. Nebraska currently has 12 men on death row.