The US senate has confirmed Indian American Neomi Rao, who was under scrutiny for her previous writings on sexual assault, as a judge on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Rao is set to take over the chair vacated by US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh following his nomination for the top post in the country's highest judicial body. The Senate voted 53-46, with all the Republicans backing Rao's nomination and the Democrats opposing her confirmation. The 45-year-old Indian-American, who serves as Trump's "czar" overseeing regulatory rollbacks, was quizzed not only about her work in the Trump administration, but for the commentary she wrote in the past few years as a student at Yale University, when she opined that women should change their behaviour in order to avoid date rape. While some Republicans had expressed apprehensions about her nomination, Rao apologised for her past writing.
Trudeau congratulates Lilly Singh
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau congratulated Canadian-born Lilly Singh, who goes by the stage name Superwoman, on bagging a late night show of a major TV network and said the YouTube sensation is making Canada proud. Singh has landed a rare chance to host a late night talk show on a major broadcast network - a feat for a woman of colour. She will replace Carson Daly as the host of NBC's late night talk show. The show will be re-titled "A Little Late with Lilly Singh" and will launch in September, making her the only woman to currently host a late night talk show on one of the big networks. "A Little Late" will feature Singh, who first became famous as a YouTube star, conducting in-studio interviews, as well as feature pre-taped comedy sketches and other "signature elements".
Surat man killed by friends in SA
Shiraz Patel, a 36-year-old man from the Rander area of Surat, was allegedly killed by his former business partners over a financial dispute in Johannesburg, South Africa. Shiraz had gone to meet his former business partners, in Johannesburg when one of them attacked him with a knife. Shiraz sustained multiple stab wounds, including one on neck that led severe blood loss. He was shifted to a hospital where he died during treatment. Shiraz had some financial dispute with three persons, his family members said. Meanwhile, Ayaz Babu, one of the accused, has confessed to killing Shiraz over financial dispute. Ayaz Babu said he attacked Shiraz after a heated argument over phone over financial issues.
Pak journalist criticised
A Pakistani journalist has come under fire on Twitter for likening Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar to the Tibetan leader Dalai Lama. Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir has, in a post on Twitter, likened the chief of the terror outfit to Dalai Lama. "It's very easy to understand why China blocked resolution against Masood Azhar in UNSC... India sheltering an enemy of China since decades and his name is Dalai Lama," Mir tweeted. The comparison drew outrage on Twitter with many questioning the journalist's logic in likening a man who has been called 'Mahatma Gandhi's Children' by TIME magazine and the spiritual heir to his legacy of non-violence with a man who has actively been linked to terror outfis, and acts of violence and killing.
8 killed in Brazil school shooting
At least eight people were killed when two young men opened fire at an elementary school, police said. Among the dead were five school children, one adult and the two adolescent shooters. A large number of children were injured in the shooting and were taken to hospitals. School shootings are rare in Brazil, even though the country is one of the world’s most violent, with more annual homicides than any other. The last major school shooting was in 2011, when 12 children were shot dead by a former pupil in Rio de Janeiro. While gun laws are extremely strict in Brazil, it is not difficult to illegally purchase a weapon. Police said that two adolescents wearing face masks entered the building and started shooting. The pair eventually shot and killed themselves.
Interpol red notices for 20 over Khashoggi killing
Turkey said that Interpol issued red notices for 20 suspects in connection to the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last year. Turkey's justice ministry said that the General Secretariat of Interpol issued the red notice on March 1, 2019, after Turkey's request was accepted. A manhunt has been initiated to search for the 20 suspects across the world. Earlier, Saudi Arabia rejected calls for an international and independent investigation into Khashoggi's killing, arguing that it was well equipped to bring the perpetrators to justice, according to reports. Khashoggi, a vocal critic of the Saudi regime, was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 last year, where he had gone to obtain paperwork certifying his divorce with his former wife Alaa Nassif in order to be able to re-marry his Turkish fiancée Hatice Cengiz.
Flight forced to return after woman forgets baby at airport
A Kuala Lumpur-bound Saudia flight had to return after a passenger told crew that she had forgotten her baby in the boarding area of the terminal. A video in which the pilot can be heard relaying the story to air traffic control was uploaded in Youtube and has since gone viral, with more than 50,000 views. It’s not the first time that a similar thing had happened. In 2017, a photo of a woman who’d left her baby on the airport floor while she used her phone, quickly went viral. However, the mother, Molly Lensing, said that her shaming experience should be a lesson to those who deem it acceptable to publicly judge a stranger’s parenting techniques online.
Flash floods kill 42 in Indonesia's Papua province
At least 42 people have been killed by flash floods in Indonesia's eastern Papua province, an official said, as rescuers raced to find more victims of the disaster. The floods in Sentani, near the provincial capital of Jayapura, were triggered by torrential rain and subsequent landslides, and also left 21 people injured. Dozens of homes were damaged, national disaster agency spokesman said. "The number of casualties and impact of the disaster will likely increase as search and rescue teams are still trying to reach other affected areas," the spokesman added. Flooding is not uncommon in Indonesia, especially during the rainy season which runs from October to April. In January, floods and landslides killed at least 70 people on Sulawesi island, while earlier this month hundreds in West Java province were forced to evacuate when torrential rains triggered severe flooding.
Chinese envoy calls Muslim detention centres ‘campuses’
A top Chinese diplomat claimed that detention centres for Muslims in China’s Xinjiang province are "campuses, not camps" and said they are eventually going to be closed as a "training programme" for ethnic Uighurs is downsized. At the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, executive vice foreign minister Le Yucheng reiterated that the detention centres are designed to provide training and fight regional terrorism. He also claimed that officials from around the world, including from the UN, had visited the region and that the detention centres in Xinjiang are "actually boarding schools or campuses, not camps" as reported by critics. The US State Department said that China has "significantly intensified" a campaign of mass detentions of minority Uighurs over the last year, with between 800,000 and 2 million people from the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region interned in camps. The centres have drawn condemnation from across the world.
Mobile phone saves Australian
An Australian man had a lucky escape while confronting a man armed with a bow outside his home, as a loosed arrow pierced the mobile telephone he was holding to take a photograph of the incident. The 43-year old man had returned to find the man, who was known to him, waiting outside his home near Brisbane. “The resident held up his mobile phone to take a photo of the armed man who then engaged the bow and was ready to fire,” a police statement said. “It’s alleged the man fired the arrow at the resident which pierced through the man’s mobile phone causing the phone to hit him in the chin. It left a small laceration that didn’t require medical treatment.” A 39-year old man was arrested at the scene and charged, police said.
Lion locked-up in South African jail
A young lion captured after being on the run for almost a month spent the night in a South African police cell before being moved back to its national park home. The juvenile male apparently escaped from the Karoo National Park through a hole in a perimeter fence. He was eventually tracked and darted before being moved to the Sutherland police station where he ended up alone in a holding cell.
Readers blast NYT over Pulwama report
Washington: Agitated readers, many from India, blasted the New York Times for describing the Pulwama terrorist attack that took the lives of 40 Indian soldiers as an “explosion”, forcing a hurried online change -without an explanation - from a newspaper famed for its meticulous corrections and clarifications. The headline, “In India’s Election Season, an Explosion Interrupts Modi’s Slump” was changed to “In India’s Election Season, a Bombing Interrupts Modi’s Slump” in the digital edition of the newspaper after chagrined readers vented at it. “If #Pulwama is explosion, #Osama was ‘misguided youth’ probably responsible for 9/11 plane crash,” one reader said tartly, while another asked if the paper would described IS as an “adventure group” and Taliban as a “standup comedy group.”
