Agency Reporter

A Beijing court sentenced 29 people from Taiwan who had been deported from Spain to up to 14 years in jail on Thursday for telecoms fraud, state media said.

This is part of a series of deportations decried by Taiwan as an abuse of human rights.

In recent years, hundreds of Taiwanese suspected of telecom fraud have been deported to China, sometimes forcibly, from countries including Kenya, Cambodia, and Armenia, according to the Taiwan government.

China has defended the deportations, saying they were suspected of defrauding Chinese people and so should be tried in Chinese courts.

In the latest judgment, a Beijing court ruled that the suspects had defrauded people living in China by calling them from their base in Spain and claiming to be Chinese law enforcement officials, the Beijing News said.

A total of 14 victims were defrauded out of more than 6.17 million yuan (941,985 dollars), it said.

China claims democratically and separately governed Taiwan as its own territory, with no right to be treated as a country.

The deportations have arisen from the “one-China” policy of most countries under which they maintain formal relations only with the People’s Republic of China rather than Taiwan, with governments deciding to send them to China for trial.

READ ALSO: China slams UK for comments on ‘Hong Kong 12’ trial

Taiwan has complained about a lack of due process and expressed concern about the mistreatment of its people in Chinese jails.

Chinese authorities have sought to contain an explosion of telecom crime it says has led to huge financial losses, with callers often impersonating officials or authority figures and preying on the elderly, students, or the unemployed.

The fraud has spread overseas, with Chinese speakers recruited in Taiwan setting up operations in East Africa or Southeast Asia.

 

(Reuters/NAN)

By Agency Reporter

A limbless nine-year-old Indian boy, Madhu Kumar, who lost both his hands and legs in an accident, now churns out beautiful artworks wielding the paintbrush with the help of his mouth.

Kumar from Medak district, Telangana, lost his limbs following an accident on Sept. 15, 2019, but has proved his determination and ability with his awe-inspiring exploits, reports said.

His determination and hard work had helped him face the toughest times and within six months of the accident, he started churning out artworks that have made him a source of inspiration for others.

Kumar told ANI, “I am in standard six and am happy that I have learned to sketch since the accident last year. I had lost hope and many people helped me but in turn, I have become a source of inspiration for many people.”

Kumar became handicapped by the accident while he was playing on the terrace of his house in Kamkole village of Munpalle Mandal.

READ ALSO: 21-year-old girl set to become mayor in Indian state

A live iron rod came in contact with the power line and hit him due to which he lost all his limbs.

His father, Tuljaram, said “I run a puncture shop. My wife Pramila and I were in shock when doctors at Gandhi Hospital amputated all four limbs to save him.

”Life took a drastic twist for us as we were clueless about the future, we have three other children also to take care of.”

An artist, Dr Samudrala Harsha, turned up to offer the boy new hope by training him to make sketches using his mouth.

Harsha said, “I trained him to use his mouth to paint. I believe that he lost his limbs but not his passion for art.

”Today, Madhu Kumar is a model and source of inspiration for other people of this generation. Madhu has learned this way of making art in only six months which is another feather to his cap”.

Madhu has drawn the attention of many big celebrities like Chiranjeevi and has also performed along with Harsha at a live event.

 

(ANI/NAN)

Agency Reporter

Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard arrived in Tel Aviv on Wednesday after 35 years in prison in the US for espionage for Israel, according to The Jerusalem Post newspaper.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received Pollard in Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport and immediately offered him and his wife Israeli citizenship.

“Now you can begin your lives anew in freedom and happiness… Now you are home.” Netanyahu wrote on Twitter.

Several Israeli politicians welcomed Pollard’s arrival to Israel, including President Reuven Rivlin.

Pollard was arrested in 1985 and sentenced to life in 1987 after being found guilty of selling military secrets to Israel while working at the Pentagon in the 1980s, where he worked as a civilian intelligence analyst for the US Navy.

READ ALSO: 75-year-old Israeli man dies after getting vaccine

In 2015, he was freed but put in house arrest and was not allowed to leave his home in New York.

According to US regulations, the restrictions shall be removed after 5 years which ended for Pollard in November.

Previously, US presidents refused repeated requests by Israel to release Pollard; however, outgoing President Donald Trump released him to be added to the many gifts offered by him to Netanyahu, including the recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights and recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

(www.newsnow.co.uk)

Agency Reporter

Argentina’s Senate on Wednesday voted to legalise elective abortion, becoming the largest Latin American country to do so, a historic political shift in a heavily catholic country, media reports say.

The Senate approved the historic law change by 38 votes in favour to 29 against with one abstention, NPR reported.

“The emotion invades us, the work was a lot and the road to get here was long, but we got there,” Elizabeth Alcorta, minister of women, genders and diversity wrote before the vote.

“We have the opportunity to make history,” she wrote

The Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Bill permits abortion to take place throughout the initial 14 weeks of pregnancy.

Prior to this, abortion in Argentina was legal only if the mother’s life was jeopardised or if the pregnancy was a result of rape.

Argentine President Alberto Fernandez, who has been vocal about legalising abortion during his presidency, had initially proposed the legislation in mid-November.

Argentina is the new name in the list of Latin American and Caribbean countries that have legalised elective abortion. The other countries are Uruguay, Cuba and Guyana.

READ ALSO: Argentina lower house approves bill to legalize abortion

While a significant majority of countries in the region restrict access unless the mother’s life is threatened, some countries outlaw it altogether.

Pope Francis, who is from Argentina, has previously voiced his opposition to the legislation, equating abortion to hiring “a hit-man.”

Argentina’s Ministry of Health has said that in 2018, 35 women died from medical issues arising from having an abortion.

Two years earlier, according to Human Rights Watch, the agency also reported that over 39,000 women and girls were hospitalised due to problems from abortions and miscarriages.

Of that total, 5,816 were 15 to 19 years old and 348 were 10 to 14 years old.

(ANI/NAN)

Agency Reporter

A newly elected U.S. congressman, Luke Letlow has died shortly after testing positive for the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

A Wednesday post on the Republican politician’s Facebook page read: “Congressman-elect Luke Letlow, 41, passed away this evening at Ochsner-LSU Health Shreveport due to complications from COVID-19.”

The 41-year-old was admitted to the hospital on Dec. 19 after testing positive.

Three days later he was placed in intensive care.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said he ordered flags to be flown at half-staff on the day of Letlow’s funeral, which is yet to be announced.

“Louisiana has lost more than 7,300 people to COVID-19 since March, and each one of them leaves a tremendous hole in our state,” Edwards said as he offered his condolences to the congressman-elect’s family.

READ ALSO: TIBA’20: Honour for COVID-19 survivors

Letlow, who was due to be sworn into office on Sunday following his recent electoral victory, is survived by his wife and two young children.

There are currently more than 19 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S., according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The number of cases in the U.S. exceeds that of any other country, and the number is expected to increase following the holiday season.

More than 338,000 people have died in the U.S. from COVID-19.

(dpa/NAN)

Agency Reporter

China on Tuesday slammed UK Foreign Minister, Dominic Raab, for his comments on the trial of 12 Hong Kongers facing charges for alleged illegal border crossing, the CGTN reported.

The ‘Hong Kong 12′ fugitives, whose trial elicited the comments, were intercepted at sea by the Chinese coastguards while fleeing to Taiwan, and have been detained since August.

Raab had on Monday expressed concerns that the “Hong Kong 12” were tried in secret in Shenzhen and asked China to “conduct trials in a fair and transparent manner.”

Enraged by Raab’s remarks, the Chinese embassy in Hong Kong urged London to stop interfering in Beijing’s internal matters.

Beijing claimed that the defendants were given an open trial of the first instance at the People’s Court of Yantian District in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province.

The embassy deemed Raab’s remarks as “fact-distorting” and called the UK Government to take concrete steps to abide by international law and the basic norms governing international relations.

China also urged the UK to stop interfering in Hong Kong’s affairs, China’s internal affairs and China’s judicial sovereignty.

Eleven of the 12 defendants, aged 16 to 33, have been charged already in Hong Kong with offences related to last year’s anti-government protests.

The 12 persons boarded a speedboat on Aug. 23 at the pier of Po Toi O, a nondescript village in Sai Kung, and headed towards Taiwan.

READ ALSO: China journalist gets four year jail term over Wuhan virus reporting

However, their vessel was intercepted by the Chinese coastguard.

They were arrested and later detained at the Yantian district detention centre in Shenzhen, a mainland city just across the border from Hong Kong.

Following almost three months of detention, Shenzhen police announced late November that they had completed their investigation into the cases and handed them over to prosecutors.

The prosecutors confirmed on Dec.16 that 10 of them would face charges, while closed-door hearings would be held to decide how to deal with the other two, who were underaged.

Despite information from the court last week that the trial would be held behind closed doors, staff maintained on Monday that it was in fact open to the public.

However, it was later observed that the court’s gallery was full.

As such, a group of diplomats from Britain, the U.S., Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and Canada, who had come to observe the trial were instead left to wait outside the court entrance.

Prior to the trial, the U.S. embassy in Beijing had called for the detainees’ release, saying their only “so-called ‘crime’ was to flee tyranny.”

Hitting back, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, said Washington had “ignored the facts, and mixed up right and wrong.”

(ANI/NAN)

Our Reporter

A magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck near Petrinja, Croatia on Tuesday at a depth of 10 kilometers, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

There are currently no reports of casualties and damage.

Details later…

(www.newsnow.co.uk)