A woman who claimed to be a Belgian national and alleged that she had been kept in captivity for months while being raped, has been found to be a permanent resident of Rawalpindi by the name of Farwa Kiyani.
The Belgium embassy has confirmed that she is not their citizen.
National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has revealed that Farwa Kiyani’s facial recognition and finger impression revealed her to be Pakistani national. Meanwhile, medical reports have shown no evidence of rape.
She has no document verification nor was international arrival and departure record found pertaining to her. Farwa spoke Pothohari, police sources claim
Farwa Kiyani was found at Islamabad G-7/1-3 on the roadside and claimed to have been raped and declared herself a Belgian citizen.
Beijing on Thursday said it would take “necessary measures” after the United States announced fresh sanctions aimed at crippling Russia’s military and industrial capabilities, punishing companies in China and elsewhere that help Moscow acquire weapons for its war in Ukraine.
“The Chinese side urges the US to stop smearing and containing China and stop wantonly implementing illegal and unilateral sanctions,” a foreign ministry spokesman said in a message to AFP.
“China will take all necessary measures to resolutely uphold the legal rights and interests of Chinese companies,” he added.
In a sweeping package announced by the US Treasury Department on Wednesday, Washington targeted nearly 300 entities in Russia, China and other countries accused of supporting President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said her department had “consistently warned that companies will face significant consequences for providing material support for Russia’s war”, and that its “actions will further disrupt and degrade Russia’s war efforts”.
China has never condemned Russia’s attack on Kyiv, and stands accused of indirectly supporting the war through its strategic partnership with its neighbour Moscow.
Beijing insisted again on Thursday it was “neither a creator nor a party” to the crisis in Ukraine, and said it had the right to develop “normal” trading relations with all countries, including Russia.
“China has always resolutely opposed the United States implementing illegal and unilateral sanctions against Chinese enterprises and exercising ‘long-arm jurisdiction’,” the spokesman said.
A growing number of children caught up in armed conflicts around the globe are being denied access to critical humanitarian aid, a United Nations official warned Wednesday, as relief operations come under attack or are blocked by governments.
The last report by the UN secretary-general on the rights of children in conflicts, published in June 2023, recorded nearly 4,000 confirmed cases of aid being denied to children, from Gaza to Yemen, Afghanistan and Mali.
“Data gathered for our forthcoming 2024 report shows we are on target to witness a shocking increase of the incidents of the denial of humanitarian access globally,” Virginia Gamba, the secretary-general’s special representative for children and armed conflict, told the Security Council Wednesday.
She said last year’s figure already represented an “exponential” increase since 2019.
“Cases of denial of humanitarian access are linked to the restriction of humanitarian activities and movements; interference with humanitarian operations and discrimination of aid recipients; direct and indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure; disinformation and detention, violence against, and killing of, humanitarian personnel; and looting,” Gamba said.
She did not specify which countries would be singled out in the 2024 report, set to be released this summer.
Nearly half of the cases in last year’s report — 1,861 — were of Israeli forces denying aid to children in Gaza.
That report came before the October 7 attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel and the ensuing all-out war in Gaza.
The UN has since repeatedly denounced restrictions Israel has put on aid entering the war-torn territory.
“As a result of these constraints, children cannot access age-appropriate nutritious food or medical services and have less than two to three liters of water per day,” UNICEF deputy executive director Ted Chaiban told the Council.
“The consequences have been clear,” Chaiban said, noting that one in three children in northern Gaza under two years old suffer from acute malnutrition, “a figure that has more than doubled in the last two months.”
Apart from Gaza, he also highlighted the threats to children’s access to humanitarian aid in Sudan and Burma.
In addition to access to humanitarian aid, the UN’s report on children and armed conflict also lists the number of children killed and wounded, as well as attacks on hospitals and schools.
From all the data points, the report draws up a “list of shame” of government forces and other armed groups responsible for the violations.
Last year’s report listed Russia’s military over its attacks on Ukraine, but excluded Israel, angering several NGOs which have called for its inclusion for years.
A Utah mother-of-six who doled out parenting advice on a popular YouTube channel has been sentenced to prison for abusing her children, holding two of them in conditions prosecutors likened to concentration camps.
Ruby Franke, 42, pleaded guilty in December to four counts of aggravated child abuse and was sentenced on Tuesday to one-to-15 years in prison on each charge.
Franke’s business partner Jodi Hildebrandt, 54, whom she described as her “mentor,” received the same sentence.
Beginning in 2015, Franke ran a since-deleted YouTube channel called “8 Passengers” which provided parenting advice. She would later feature on a YouTube channel run by Hildebrandt after separating from her husband.
Utah prosecutor Eric Clarke said Franke and Hildebrandt held two of the children, then aged nine and 11, in a “concentration camp-like setting.”
“The children were regularly denied food, water, beds to sleep in, and virtually all forms of entertainment,” Clarke said. “They were isolated from others, and were hidden when people came to visit the house.
“They were also forced to do manual labor outdoors in the extreme summer heat, at times without shoes or socks,” the prosecutor said. “Both children had extensive physical injuries from the abuse that required hospitalization.”
Clarke also said the children were emotionally abused, “to the extent that each believed, to some degree, that they deserved what was being done to them.
Eventually, the older one “had the courage” to run away and ask a neighbor to call the police, Clarke said, adding “Heaven knows how much longer they could have survived in that situation.”
Franke apologized for her actions at her sentencing hearing before Judge John Walton.
“I was led to believe that this world was an evil place filled with cops who control, hospitals that injure, government agencies that brainwash, church leaders who lie and lust, husbands who refuse to protect and children who need abuse,” she said.
She said her paranoia “culminated into criminal activity for which I stand before you today ready to take accountability.”
Franke and Hildebrandt will serve a minimum of four years in prison but their exact prison terms will be decided by the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.
Thailand has launched a scheme to offer visitors up to $14,000 in medical coverage in the event of an accident, the tourism minister said Thursday, as the kingdom seeks to lure travelers back after the pandemic.
The government will cover expenses up to 500,000 baht ($14,000) and pay compensation of up to one million baht in case of death under the new scheme.
Travel restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic hammered the kingdom’s vital tourism sector and arrivals have not bounced back as quickly as officials hoped.
Tourism minister Sudawan Wangsuphakijkosol told AFP the new Thailand Traveller Safety scheme began on January 1 and will run until August 31.
“The campaign aims to assure foreign tourists that Thailand is safe and everyone will be under good care,” she said.
The kingdom has long been popular with young backpackers from around the world seeking sun, sand and adrenalin.
But accidents are not uncommon and there have been numerous reports in recent months of young Europeans finding themselves facing big medical bills with inadequate insurance.
The Thai government stresses that the scheme will not cover accidents caused by “negligence, intent, illegal acts” or risky behaviour.
Tourists can register for the scheme through the Thailand Traveller Safety website at tts.go.th.
Some 28 million people visited Thailand in 2023, up from 11 million the year before, but still well down from the 40 million who came in 2019, the last year before the pandemic.
Officials are hoping to hit 35 million visitors in 2024, with a target of $55 billion in revenue.
Following Operation Marg Bar Sarmachar, Pakistan and Iran have mutually agreed that ambassadors of both countries will return to their respective posts by January 26, 2024 and the Iranian Foreign Minister is going to visit on January 29, 2024.
In a joint statement issued on Monday, the Foreign Office said that at the invitation of Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani, his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian will undertake a visit to Pakistan on January 29.
In a post on X, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Iran Mudassir Tipu said he was “so delighted that leaderships of both Pakistan and Iran so deftly handled a challenging moment astutely- swiftly putting relations back on track”.
I am so delighted that leaderships of both and so deftly handled a challenging moment astutely- swiftly putting relations back on track. We have great potential ahead & both brotherly countries must collectively promote peace & development in region .
Along with that the Foreign Office (FO) said on Monday that Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian would visit Pakistan on January 29.
The visit comes days after tensions escalated between the two countries following an Iranian air strike in Pakistan, leading Islamabad to strike terrorist hideouts in the neighbouring country’s Sistan-Baluchestan province.
“Following the telephone conversation between the foreign ministers of Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran, it has been mutually agreed that ambassadors of both countries may return to their respective posts by January 26, 2024,” the FO said in a statement.
The FO said that the Iranian foreign minister would travel to Pakistan on Jan 29 at the invitation of FM Jilani.
: PR NO. 2️⃣3️⃣/2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣4️⃣
Joint Press Statement of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran
Previously, Pakistan has targeted terrorist hideouts inside Iran in response to the violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that killed two children and injured three girls.
Hideouts used by terrorist organisations namely Balochistan Liberation Army and Balochistan Liberation Front were successfully struck in an intelligence based operation, code name ‘Marg Bar Sarmachar’, ISPR has stated in a recently released statement.
According to a statement by the Foreign Office (FO), a number of terrorists were killed during the intelligence-based operation codenamed ‘Marg Bar Sarmachar’. Meanwhile, Iran’s IRNA news agency reported that nine people, including seven “non-Iranian nationals”, were killed in the strike targeting a village near the city of Saravan.
The Khorasan Diary reported, that “7 BLF millitants involved in attacks in Pakistan have been killed/injured in Pakistan’s strikes in Iran.”
7 BLF MILITANTS INVOLVED IN ATTACKS IN PAKISTAN HAVE BEEN KILLED/INJURED IN PAKISTANS STRIKES IN IRAN.
A top Pakistani security official told The Khorasan Diary that 7 militants wanted to Pakistan have been killed or injured in the strike in Shamesar, Iran.
In a video posted, it can be seen the damage caused by Pakistani Strikes in approximately 200 kilometres away from PAK-Iran border.
TKD MONITORING: A video uploaded by news outlets of Saravan city at dawn shows at least one site hit by Pakistan early this morning. Multiple bodies are under the debris it states. Saravan city in Sistan wa Balochistan province of Iran is approximately 200 kilometres from… pic.twitter.com/LrLr58iMBO
Publication The Khorasan Diary also claimed that Jaishul Adal, the same militant group, Iran claimed to have targeted has taken the responsibility for the attack on Saravan Corps of Sistan Wa Baluchistan province, Colonel Hossein Ali Javadanfar, adding that the security official was assassinated along with two of his guards.”
ALERT: The deputy commander of the Saravan Corps of Sistan Wa Baluchistan province, Colonel Hossein Ali Javadanfar, was shot dead when he was returning from an administrative mission on the Khash-Zahedan road, Iran. Iranian state media reported. Jaishul Adal, a militant group… pic.twitter.com/LiizDcCVFT
Previously, The Iranian strikes were part of a series of attacks carried out by the country in recent days in Syria and Iraq as a response to recent terrorist attacks on its territory. They have heightened concerns about regional stability, particularly amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.
Pakistan undertook a series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts in Siestan-o-Baluchistan province of Iran. A number of terrorists were killed during the Intelligence-based operation – codenamed ‘Marg Bar Sarmachar’, says the official statement released by the Foreign Office of Pakistan.
“Last night’s unprovoked and blatant breach of Pakistan’s sovereignty by Iran is a violation of international law and the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,” FO Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said in a statement on Wednesday.
A context to the response by the Foreign Office
Foreign Ofiice of Pakistan provided a detailed context to Operation Marg Bar Sarmachar.
“Over the last several years, in our engagements with Iran, Pakistan has consistently shared its serious concerns about the safe havens and sanctuaries enjoyed by Pakistani origin terrorists calling themselves Sarmachars on the ungoverned spaces inside Iran. Pakistan also shared multiple dossiers with concrete evidence of the presence and activities of these terrorists. However, because of lack of action on our serious concerns, these so-called Sarmachars continued to spill the blood of innocent Pakistanis with impunity. This morning’s action was taken in light of credible intelligence of impending large-scale terrorist activities by these so called Sarmachars,” the statement read.
The Foreign Office described the action as a part of its resolve to “defend its national security against all threats.” Moreover it mainatianed that “Pakistan fully respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The sole objective of today’s act was in pursuit of Pakistan’s own security and national interest which is paramount and cannot be compromised.”
Strict monitoring of Air Space
Geo News’ Azaz Syed quotes Civil Aviation Authority that amid the escalation of tensions in Islamabad-Tehran ties, Pakistan has started strict monitoring of all flights from the West including Iran.
Meeting of Foreign Minister with Iranian Counterpart
Caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani Wednesday told his Irani counterpart that no country should follow its path of launching an attack on a neighbouring nation’s soil against the menace of terrorism unilaterally.
“No country in the region should tread this perilous path,” Jilani told Iran’s FM Hossein Amir-Abdollahian during a telephone call hours after Tehran claimed it had targeted “terrorists” in Pakistan.
Iranian response
There is a group called Jaishal Adal, which is an Iranian terrorist group that have taken refuge on Pakistan-Iran border. Several times we have talked to Pakistani security officials that this group killed our security personnel and we responded by killing Iranian terrorist on Pakistani soil. I have spoken to my Pakistani counterpart, the Foreign Minister of Pakistan, we do respect the sovereignty of Pakistan but we don’t allow our national security be compromised and be played with. We have no hesitations when it comes to our national interest and those terrorist groups inside Pakistan and those affiliated with Israel” the Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said while speaking in Davos at The World Economic Forum.
WE RESPECT PAKISTANS SOVEREIGNTY BUT WILL NOT COMPROMISE ON OUR NATIONAL SECURITY SAYS IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER
There is a group called Jaishal Adal, which is an Iranian terrorist group that have taken refuse on Pakistan-Iran border. Several times we have talked to Pakistani… pic.twitter.com/NHLrTyCwqn
India India in a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs said, “This is a matter between Iran and Pakistan. Insofar as India is concerned, we have an uncompromising position of zero tolerance towards terrorism. We understand actions that countries take in their self-defence.”
China, close partners of Iran and Pakistan, urged restraint, with foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning saying both should “avoid actions that would lead to an escalation of tension”.
United States of America
The United States, meanwhile, condemned the Iranian strikes in Pakistan, Iraq and Syria, with State Department spokesman Matthew Miller saying Tehran had violated the “sovereign borders of three of its neighbours in just the past couple of days”.
