Goa man receives life sentence for rape and murder of Irish backpacker

Goa man receives life sentence for rape and murder of Irish backpacker
Above, family members of an Irish woman who was raped and murdered at a popular tourist resort in 2017 in Goa react after the court’s verdict on the case in Goa, India on Feb. 14, 2025. (AP)
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Updated 17 February 2025
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Goa man receives life sentence for rape and murder of Irish backpacker

Goa man receives life sentence for rape and murder of Irish backpacker
  • The body of Danielle McLaughlin was found by a farmer on a beach in Goa in March 2017
  • Crime highlighted persistent violence against women in India despite tougher laws against sexual assault

NEW DELHI: A court in India’s western Goa state on Monday sentenced a 31-year-old man to life in prison for raping and murdering an Irish woman at a popular tourist resort nearly eight years ago.

The body of 28-year-old Danielle McLaughlin was found by a farmer on a beach popular with holidaymakers in Goa in March 2017. An autopsy showed that cerebral damage and constriction of the neck caused her death.

Vikat Bhagat was found guilty of the crime on Friday. McLaughlin’s family in a statement had said they and her friends were “thankful to the public prosecutor and the investigating officer for justice.”

Usually, rape victims cannot be named under Indian law. In this case, the victim’s family spoke to the media to raise awareness of her case.

The crime highlighted persistent violence against women in India despite tougher laws against sexual assault imposed after the 2012 death of a young woman who was gang-raped on a bus in New Delhi.

Goa is a popular backpacking destination in India. Millions of tourists visit its numerous beach resorts every year.


Watchmaker Swatch apologizes for ‘slanted eye’ ad after online backlash in China

Watchmaker Swatch apologizes for ‘slanted eye’ ad after online backlash in China
Updated 56 min 28 sec ago
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Watchmaker Swatch apologizes for ‘slanted eye’ ad after online backlash in China

Watchmaker Swatch apologizes for ‘slanted eye’ ad after online backlash in China
  • The images for the Swatch Essentials collection were widely condemned online in China
  • Swatch, which also makes Omega, Longines and Tissot watches, is heavily exposed to China for revenue

SHANGHAI: Swiss watchmaker Swatch issued an apology at the weekend and pulled ads featuring images of an Asian male model pulling the corners of his eyes up and backwards in a “slanted eye” pose.

The images for the Swatch Essentials collection were widely condemned online in China, where many comments said they appeared to mimic racist taunts about Asian eyes.

In an apology posted in both Chinese and English on its official account on the Weibo social media platform on Saturday, Swatch said that it has “taken note of the recent concerns” and removed all related materials worldwide.

“We sincerely apologize for any distress or misunderstanding this may have caused,” the statement said. It also posted the same apology on Instagram.

Swatch Group did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for further comment.

The criticism over the advert is the latest setback for a firm whose shares have fallen by more than half since early 2023 and now faces a 39 percent tariff on its exports to the United States.

Swatch, which also makes Omega, Longines and Tissot watches, is heavily exposed to China for revenue, with around 27 percent of the group’s sales last year coming from the China, Hong Kong and Macau region.

Revenue for the watchmaker slumped 14.6 percent to 6.74 billion Swiss francs ($8.4 billion) in 2024, hit by a downturn in demand in China, where Swatch said it was seeing “persistently difficult market conditions and weak demand for consumer goods overall.”


Hong Kong pro-democracy activists granted asylum in Australia and Britain

Hong Kong pro-democracy activists granted asylum in Australia and Britain
Updated 18 August 2025
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Hong Kong pro-democracy activists granted asylum in Australia and Britain

Hong Kong pro-democracy activists granted asylum in Australia and Britain
  • Tony Chung and Ted Hui both announced they have received asylum in the countries where they now live
  • They are among dozens of activists on the run from Hong Kong authorities

TAIPEI: A Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and a former lawmaker who are wanted by the city’s authorities have been granted asylum in Great Britain and Australia, respectively.

Tony Chung, an activist who was imprisoned under Hong Kong’s sweeping national security law, and Ted Hui, a former lawmaker who was facing trial for his role in anti-government protests in 2019, both announced over the weekend that they have received asylum in the countries where they now live.

They are among dozens of activists on the run from Hong Kong authorities. Civil liberties in the city have been greatly eroded since Beijing in 2020 imposed a national security law essentially criminalizing dissent in the former British colony. Both Beijing and Hong Kong have hailed the security law as bringing stability to the financial hub.

Hui, who fled Hong Kong in December 2020, is part of a group of overseas activists who are targeted by police bounties of up to 1 million Hong Kong dollars ($127,800). The former lawmaker is now working as a lawyer in Adelaide.

He announced on Facebook on Saturday that he and his family have been granted protection visas.

“I express my sincere gratitude to the Government of Australia – both present and former – for recognizing our need for asylum and granting us this protection,” Hui wrote. “This decision reflects values of freedom, justice, and compassion that my family will never take for granted.”

While in Hong Kong, Hui had been an outspoken pro-democracy lawmaker. He was also known for disrupting a legislative session after he threw a rotten plant in the chamber to stop a debate of the national anthem bill – controversial legislation making it illegal to insult the Chinese national anthem. He was subsequently fined 52,000 Hong Kong dollars ($6,600) for the act.

Chung, who had advocated for Hong Kong’s independence, was sentenced to almost four years in prison for secession and money laundering in 2020. He was released on a supervision order, during which he traveled to Japan, from where he fled to Britain seeking asylum.

In a post on social media platform Threads on Sunday, he expressed his excitement at receiving refugee status in Britain along with a five-year resident permit. He said that despite his challenges over the past few years, including persistent mental health problems, he remains committed to his activism.

British and Australian authorities didn’t immediately comment on the activists’ statuses.

Hong Kong’s government did not comment directly on the cases but issued a statement on Saturday condemning “the harboring of criminals in any form by any country.”

“Any country that harbors Hong Kong criminals in any form shows contempt for the rule of law, grossly disrespects Hong Kong’s legal systems and barbarically interferes in the affairs of Hong Kong,” the statement read.


Hurricane Erin restrengthens as it lashes Caribbean with rain

Hurricane Erin restrengthens as it lashes Caribbean with rain
Updated 18 August 2025
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Hurricane Erin restrengthens as it lashes Caribbean with rain

Hurricane Erin restrengthens as it lashes Caribbean with rain
  • Forecasters do not currently expect it to make landfall along its expected course, but tropical storm warnings are in effect for the southeast Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands

WASHINGTON: Hurricane Erin restrengthened into a Category 4 storm late Sunday, with forecasters warning it is expected to intensify and grow in size in the coming days as it lashes Caribbean islands with heavy rains that could cause flash floods and landslides.

The first hurricane of what is expected to be a particularly intense Atlantic season, Erin briefly strengthened into a “catastrophic” Category 5 storm before its wind speeds weakened.

Forecasters do not currently expect it to make landfall along its expected course, but tropical storm warnings are in effect for the southeast Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands.

Hurricane Erin was located about 205 kilometers east of Grand Turk Island at 11:00 p.m. Atlantic Standard Time (Monday 0300 GMT), with maximum sustained winds of 215 kilometers per hour, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC).

“The core of Erin is expected to pass to the east and northeast of the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas overnight into Monday,” the NHC said in its latest report.

The North Carolina Outer Banks, Bermuda and the central Bahamas were advised to monitor Erin’s progress.

Hurricane Erin had reached the highest level on the Saffir-Simpson scale just over 24 hours after becoming a Category 1 storm, a rapid intensification that scientists say has become more common due to global warming.

It could drench isolated areas with as much as 15 centimeters of rain, the NHC said.

“Some additional strengthening is expected over the next 12 hours followed by gradual weakening,” the agency said.

“However, Erin is forecast to continue increasing in size and will remain a large and dangerous major hurricane through the middle of this week,” it added.

The NHC also warned of “locally considerable flash and urban flooding, along with landslides or mudslides.”

In San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, fishermen cast their rods into the storm-swollen waters of a local river on Sunday, AFP images showed.

Earlier last weekend, surfers rode the swells along the island’s coast before the storm approached.

Areas of Puerto Rico – a US territory home to more than three million people – saw flooded roads and homes.

Swells generated by Erin will spread to the Bahamas, Bermuda and the US and Canadian east coast in the coming days, creating “life-threatening surf and rip currents,” the NHC said.

While meteorologists have expressed confidence that Erin will remain well off the United States coast, they said the storm could still cause dangerous waves and erosion in places such as North Carolina.

The Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June until late November, is expected to be more intense than normal, US meteorologists predict.

Several powerful storms wreaked havoc in the region last year, including Hurricane Helene, which killed more than 200 people in the southeastern United States.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – which operates the NHC – has been subject to budget cuts and layoffs as part of US President Donald Trump’s plans to greatly reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy, leading to fears of lapses in storm forecasting.

Human-driven climate change – namely, rising sea temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels – has increased both the possibility of the development of more intense storms and their more rapid intensification, scientists say.


Australia cancels far-right Israeli politician’s visa

Australia cancels far-right Israeli politician’s visa
Updated 18 August 2025
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Australia cancels far-right Israeli politician’s visa

Australia cancels far-right Israeli politician’s visa
  • Simcha Rothman, had been scheduled to speak at events organized by the Australian Jewish Association
  • Rothman is a member of the far-right Religious Zionist Party, whose leader Bezalel Smotrich, is under sanctions by the Australian government

SYDNEY: The Australian government canceled the visa of a far-right Israeli politician on Monday ahead of a speaking tour.

Simcha Rothman, whose party is part of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, had been scheduled to speak at events organized by the Australian Jewish Association.

But Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Australia would not accept people coming to the country to “spread division.”

“If you are coming to Australia to spread a message of hate and division, we don’t want you here,” he said.

“Australia will be a country where everyone can be safe, and feel safe.”

As an automatic condition of the visa cancelation, Rothman is unable to travel to Australia for three years.

Rothman is a member of the far-right Religious Zionist Party, whose leader Bezalel Smotrich, is under sanctions by the Australian government. In an interview earlier this year with Britain’s Channel 4 News, Rothman denied Palestinian children in Gaza were dying of hunger due to Israel’s limitations of food and aid.

When asked by a reporter why Israel won’t let Palestinian children flee to Israel, he replied: “Because they are our enemies.”

Australian Jewish Association chief executive Robert Gregory said the purpose of Rothman’s visit was to “show solidarity with Australia’s Jewish community, which is facing a wave of antisemitism.”

“The visit was not in any way connected to current events in the Middle East,” he posted on social media.

Gregory said cancelation of Rothman’s visa was “a viciously antisemitic move,” accusing the Australian government of being “obsessed” with targeting the Jewish community and Israel.


Pakistan resumes rescue operations in flood-hit areas; death toll over 300

Pakistan resumes rescue operations in flood-hit areas; death toll over 300
Updated 18 August 2025
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Pakistan resumes rescue operations in flood-hit areas; death toll over 300

Pakistan resumes rescue operations in flood-hit areas; death toll over 300
  • Heavy rains that started on Friday have claimed lives and spread destruction in several northern districts, with most people killed in flash floods
  • Torrential rains and flooding this monsoon season have killed 657 people across Pakistan since late June

PESHAWAR: Authorities in Pakistan resumed rescue and relief work on Monday in the country’s northwest where flash floods have killed over 300 people after heavy rain forced them to suspend operations for several hours, a government official said.

Heavy rains that started on Friday have claimed lives and spread destruction in several northern districts, with most people killed in flash floods, according to the National Disaster Management Authority. In hilly areas, the rains caused flash floods as well as mud and rock slides that washed away houses, buildings, vehicles and belongings.

Buner district was the worst hit, with over 200 deaths.

Heavy rain in the flood-hit areas, including Buner, forced rescue teams to halt relief efforts for several hours on Monday, a regional government officer, Abid Wazir, told Reuters.

“Our priority is now to clear the roads, set up bridges and bring relief to the affected people,” he said.

Relief goods have been sent to the affected areas, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told local Geo News television.

Food, medicine, blankets, camps, an electric generator and de-watering pumps are included in the relief goods, the disaster management authority said in a statement.

Buner, a three-and-a-half-hour drive from the capital Islamabad, was hit by a cloudburst, a rare phenomenon in which more than 100 mm (4 inches) of rain falls within an hour in a small area, officials said.

In Buner, there was more than 150 mm of rain within an hour on Friday morning, they said.

More heavy rain was expected across Pakistan until early September, officials said.

“The current weather system is active over the Pakistan region and may cause heavy to very heavy rainfall during the next 24 hours,” the disaster management authority said on Sunday.

Torrential rains and flooding this monsoon season have killed 657 people across Pakistan since late June, it said.