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GENEVA – At least 183 people have been killed since July in clashes in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, the United Nations said Tuesday as it appealed for the killings, violence and rights abuses to end. “We are very concerned by the deteriorating human rights situation in some regions of Ethiopia,” UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado told reporters in Geneva. “In Amhara region, following a flare-up in clashes between the Ethiopian military and the regional Fano militia, and the declaration of a state of emergency on August 4, the situation worsened considerably. Source: https://www.nation.com.pk/30-Aug-2023/at-least-183-killed-in-clashes-in-ethiopia-s-amhara-un

A policeman was martyred in a firing incident on Benazir flyover at Spini road in Quetta this morning. According to police sources, the martyr policeman was going to police line for his duty. Source:https://www.nation.com.pk/02-Aug-2023/quetta-policeman-martyred-in-firing-incident

Proposals finalised by ministry of energy to be presented in today’s cabinet meeting n Info minister Murtaza Solangi says interim govt will explore ways to pass on relief to public without violating IMF programme n Lahore traders demand cut in power tariff n Jamaat-e-Islami announces nationwide strike on September 2. ISLAMABAD/KARACHI/LAHORE  –  A high-level meeting held at the Ministry of Energy where pro­posals were finalised on Monday on the issue of inflated electrici­ty bills. The protests against in­flated power bills spread to sever­al cities on Monday as the interim government is exploring options to provide some kind of relief to the electricity consumers without violating the conditions agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Citizens and traders shocked by inflated power bills took to the streets on Monday in several cities including Islamabad, Karachi, La­hore, Sargodha, Hafizabad, Vehari, Arifwala, Bahawalnagar, Hyder­abad, Gujrat, Multan, Chichawatni, Mandi Bahauddin, Rajanpur, Mu­zaffargarh, Pakpattan, Mansehra, Sahiwal, Rawalpindi, Lodhran and Sheikhupura. Information minister Murtaza Solangi said that the complete fo­cus of the government was on pro­viding relief to the masses in the electricity bills. “We are focus­ing on how to provide relief to the masses instead of looking into discussion that who is respon­sible for expensive electricity,” the minister said while talking to a private TV channel late Monday. He said the caretak­er government took the oath on August 17, and the con­sumers received inflated bills of the month of July. “These proposals will be presented in the federal cabinet meeting today (Tuesday) for a final de­cision, says a press release is­sued by the ministry on Mon­day. Also, Caretaker Minister for Information and Broad­casting Murtaza Solangi Mon­day said that the Ministry of Energy had finalised recom­mendations related to the in­flated electricity bills. Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar had tak­en notice of inflated electric­ity bills, Solangi said, adding, “We are responsible caretak­er government and cannot ig­nore the issue.” He said the is­sue would be taken up today by the federal cabinet which would explore the ways to pass on relief to the public without violating the Interna­tional Monetary Fund (IMF) programme. The minister re­solved that the cabinet would decide in favour of passing on the relief to the masses. He said the prime minister held a meeting with the rele­vant stakeholders on Monday as well. The media should in­form the masses about the reasons behind increase in electricity bills, he said while responding to a query. “Polit­ical temperature is already high in the country,” he said, stressing that there was no need to resort to debate that who was responsible for the bills. To another query, he said the caretaker govern­ment wanted to hold peace­ful and fair elections in col­laboration with all political parties as per the schedule of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The assis­tance to the electoral watch­dog would be provided by the government, he added. The ECP would decide about the tenure of the care­taker government, he said, adding the entire schedule of the delimitation exercise was uploaded on the watchdog’s website. In light of the deci­sions of the Council of Com­mon Interests, he said, the ECP issued its schedule under Article 51 of the Constitution. He said there was need to un­derstand difference between peaceful and violent protests. ‘SHUTTER DOWN STRIKE’ Hyderabad on Monday wit­nessed a shutter-down strike in various areas of the city, while shops remained closed in Market Tower, Sereghat, Shahi Bazar, Anaj Mandi, Ma­san Road, and Prince Road. The Chamber of Commerce announced a shutdown in a meeting of business organi­sations. Hundreds of people surrounded the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) office in Rawalpindi on Monday as protests trig­gered by inflated electricity bills continued in many parts of the country for the fourth day. The IESCO officials have called in the police for extra security as protesters shout­ed slogans against the electric utility company, demanding that the exorbitant charges be reduced or they would not pay their bills. Those attend­ing these demonstrations in­clude members of the civ­il society — both men and women — traders, farmers, and members of the legal and business fraternities. A similar situation was wit­nessed in Mansehra where all business centers across the district, including the city, re­mained closed. In other cities, protestors blocked main ar­teries, leading to traffic jams and disruptions. They held up placards and banners protest­ing what they term a “cruel” increase in the utility bill. “It was [already] difficult to af­ford two square meals a day, now where will we get money for extra electricity bill?” an elderly villager in Sargodha demanded during protests. A protestor in Bahawalpur lamented that his family had to sell their animals to pay off the bills last month, while women protesting in Multan asserted that they were al­ready struggling to make ends meet without the additional burden of power tariffs. NATIONWIDE STRIKE ON SEPTEMBER 2 In response to the Ja­maat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi’s call, over 100 protest demon­strations were staged in mar­kets across the city against the hike in power tariff. It was agreed in the joint hud­dle hosted by the JI for rep­resentatives of the civil so­ciety, lawyers, traders, labor unions, and other segments of the society that protests across the markets in the city will be staged on Monday. Meanwhile, JI Pakistan su­premo Sirajul Haq called for a nationwide strike on Septem­ber 2 against the electricity tariff hike. Earlier in the day, JI Karachi Ameer Engr Hafiz Naeemur Rehman addressed a protest demonstration held by traders at the Cooperative Market, Saddar in Karachi. Speaking on the occasion, he said that the ruling elite un­leashed a mafia named the K-Electric on Karachi to cone Karachiites. He further said that the KE itself was a de­faulter of Rs662 billion to the national grid alone. Similarly, the KE is a defaulter of heavy payments to several other or­ganizations. He said that the large scale protests across Karachi are a reflection of the future for the ruling regime. The caretaker government will have to reduce the elec­tricity tariff, eliminate the taxes and mitigate the infla­tion, he

France will ban schoolchildren from wearing abayas ahead of the upcoming academic year, the government has said, the latest in a series of contentious restrictions in the country on clothing associated with Muslims. French Education Minister Gabriel Attal said the long, robe-like garments often worn by Muslim women wouldn’t be permitted in the nation’s schools from the new term, which starts in September. “Schools of the Republic are built on very strong values and principles, especially laïcité,” he told TV network TF1 on Sunday, using a French term referring to the separation of state institutions and religions, but which some argue has been hijacked to justify anti-Islam positions. “For me, laïcité, when put in the framework of a school, is very clear: you enter a classroom and you must not be able to identify the religious identity of students just by looking at them,” Attal said. But the move was criticized by a number of opposition lawmakers. Danièle Obono, a prominent opposition politician, attacked the move as a “new Islamophobic campaign” on X, formerly known as Twitter. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a far-left firebrand, who placed third in France’s 2022 presidential election, described his “sadness to see the return to school politically polarized by a new absurd entirely artificial religious war about a woman’s dress.” “When will there be civil peace and true secularism that unites instead of exasperating?” Mélenchon asked. France has pursued a series of controversial bans and restrictions on items of customarily Islamic dress in recent years, which have frequently drawn the ire of Muslim countries and international agencies. Last year lawmakers backed a ban on wearing the hijab and other “conspicuous religious symbols” in sports competitions. The amendment was proposed by the right-wing Les Républicains party, which argued the hijab could risk the safety of athletes wearing it while playing sports. France’s earlier ban on the niqab – full-face veils worn by some Muslim women – violated the human rights of those who wore it, the United Nations Human Rights Committee said in 2018. Muslim women are pictured in a shopping mall in Nanterre, France, in July. Romuald Meigneux/SIPA/Shutterstock “This type of policy stands in opposition to the liberal core of the 1905 Law on Separation of Church & State – a law we’ve been distorting and weaponizing since the ’90s,” Rim-Sarah Alouane, a French legal scholar and commentator, wrote of the latest abaya ban on X. “Such policies fuel the nation’s fractures,” she added. Attal was asked on TF1 whether guidelines on hijabs would be enforced in schools, but refrained from commenting on those garments, and instead continued to discuss abayas. Source:https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/28/europe/france-abayas-schools-ban-intl/index.html

Authorities in India have shut down a school days after footage of a teacher encouraging students to hit a Muslim pupil sparked outrage in the country. Tripta Tyagi, a teacher at the Neha Public School in Uttar Pradesh state’s Muzaffarnagar city, was heard asking other children to hit a Muslim child “harder” as he stood frozen before the class in tears. The teacher has been charged under several sections of India’s criminal code, and state officials told the Hindustan Times newspaper that the school has been shuttered temporarily, adding that they are seeking clarification its certification to function as an educational institute. The school in Uttar Pradesh, which is India’s most populated state, could still reopen once authorities clear the certification question, Shubham Shukla, an education official in Muzaffarnagar, told the outlet. “We have conducted an inquiry… We found that the school doesn’t meet the criteria of the department. We have issued a notice to the school to seal it and authorities are conducting an investigation to take further action. Notice has also been served to the teacher for hitting the child,” he told The Indian Express newspaper. “It’s an under-construction building and the teacher taught the students at her home,” one official told the outlet on the condition of anonymity. “There were no fans or lights for the children. There were no sections for classes 1 to 5. We have sealed it for now.” The official said the students, including the child of Muslim faith, would be given admission to a government school in Khabbupur village near Muzaffarnagar. “There is a government primary school in the village. Children who want to go there will be enrolled there. Students who wish to continue studying in the private school, can do so since they are already paying the fees. The formalities including transfer certificates (of the children) will be completed by the department so that the parents do not face any additional burden,” Mr Shukla was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. When Ms Tyagi’s family was approached for comment on the action by the authorities, they said they were “disturbed”, reported the Indian Express. However, in a separate video that later surfaced on social media, the teacher attempted to defend herself by saying that since she was disabled and could not get up to hit the child herself, she made her students do it. She said her actions did not have any religious bias. “I made a mistake by getting the child beaten up by the students. I am handicapped and could not get up,” Ms Tyagi said. She claimed the video of the incident was tampered with and only a portion of what she said was shown in it. But in another interview with Indian news channel NDTV, Ms Tyagi remained unapologetic about her actions, saying: “I am not ashamed. “I have served the people of this village as a teacher. They all are with me.” Defending her use of corporal punishment, Ms Tyagi said it was important to “control” the students at school. “This is how we tackle them,” she said. The teacher had previously dismissed the assault on the child as a “minor issue”. Local politicians on Saturday mediated a “compromise” between the family and the young boys at the centre of the incident. The father of the boy later told news channels there was no religious angle to the beatings, even though the teacher was heard in the video speaking about “Mohammedan (Muslim) children”. She told the police that what she meant was, that “the mothers of those Muslim children who do not pay attention to the studies of their wards, their academics get totally destroyed”, a senior official said. SOURCE:https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/india/muzaffarnagar-school-teacher-video-tripti-tyagi-b2400476.html

ISLAMABAD/KARACHI/PESHAWAR  –  Caretaker Prime Minister An­waarul Haq Kakar Saturday summoned an emergency meet­ing on Sunday (today) over the price of electricity and consum­ers’ bills. The prime minister also directed the ministry of energy and the power distributions companies to present detailed briefing over the issue, PM Of­fice Media Wing said in a press release on Saturday. The meet­ing would mull over provision of maximum relief to the mass­es over electricity bills. Separate­ly, on his X handle, the prime min­ister posted that he summoned an emergency meeting over these is­sues in the PM House and would hold consultations to provide max­imum relief to power consumers. The inflated power bills trig­gered nationwide protests, in­cluding Lahore, Karachi, Rawal­pindi, Multan, Gujranwala, and Peshawar. In Karachi, the Ja­maat-e-Islami held demonstra­tions at multiple places against the skyrocketing increase in power bills and what it said overcharging on part of the K-Electric (KE). In Rawalpin­di, protesters gathered at Com­mittee Chowk and burned bills while demanding that the gov­ernment abolish imposed taxes on electricity. Also in Peshawar, power consumers called the in­crease in electricity bills unbear­able and demanded immediate relief from the government. In Gujranwala, Protesters sur­rounded the Gujranwala Elec­tric Power Company office in protest against expensive elec­tricity. Protests were also held in other cities, including Narow­al, Attock, Sargodha, and Har­ipur, against high power bills. The protests in Multan were emotionally charged. They tied their electricity bills to donkeys as they marched towards the Gujranwala Electric Power Com­pany (Gepco) while chanting slogans against the government. Traders and citizens also in different cities held pro­test demonstrations on Friday against the rising cost of elec­tricity amid growing inflation­ary pressure, warning the gov­ernment to be prepared to face the “consequences” if did not address the issue that was con­sistently adding to the cost of living in the country. The protests began after Pa­kistan’s National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) increased the tariffs by Rs4.96 per unit last month, a condition set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for approving a short-term $3 billion bailout package for the South Asian state. NEPRA periodically adjusts consumer-end tariffs after get­ting input from distribution companies which suggest differ­ent rates calculated on the basis of their revenue requirements. “We warn the government that if the decision to increase elec­tricity prices is not withdrawn immediately, the consequences will be borne by the incompe­tent rulers,” Muhammad Kashif Chaudhry, President of Marka­zi Tanzeem-e-Tajran Pakistan, a central association of traders in the country, said in a statement. He added the business commu­nity had launched a string of protests against the electricity price hike and were planning to gradually spread the movement nationwide. “We had already warned the rulers of this country not to become a tool of the inter­national financial institutions by implementing anti-people pol­icies,” Chaudhry said. He main­tained people residing in differ­ent cities, towns and villages had started pouring into the streets and were burning their electric­ity bills, adding it was their way of expressing “rebellion.” Meanwhile, speaking to the participants of the demonstra­tion in Karachi, Atiq Mir, Chair­man of All Karachi Tajir Ithehad (AKTI), highlighted that when traders and businessmen were compelled to protest on the streets, it signaled a “genuine economic crisis in the country.” Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman, the JI chief, said criticised the gov­ernment for initially increas­ing petrol prices before raising the cost of electricity costs. He pointed out it had become chal­lenging for the common citizen to meet basic requirements. In the last 30 days, the govern­ment twice raised the fuel prices under a fortnightly cost adjust­ment mechanism, leading to an all-time high with over 15 per­cent hike. Traders underscored the recent increase in fuel and power prices, coupled with spi­raling inflation, had severely hampered their business activi­ties. Inflation in country reached a historic peak of 38 percent in May before easing to 28.3 per­cent in July, though it continues to remain significantly elevated. Meanwhile, the former law­makers of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Saturday expressed concern over the hike in electricity bills,the prevalent problem of delayed bills and urged the gov­ernment to withdraw the recent hike in units. In a statement issued here on Saturday the former MNAs Sabir Hussain Qaimkhani and Salahuddin said besides making electricity very expensive, up to 10 to 12 hours of load shedding was also being carried out, af­fecting domestic, commercial and industrial consumers. They deplored that instead of ensuring that the meter read­ing of exactly, the meter readers of Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) take read­ings of extra days. They reiterated that the com­plaints about the burnt or de­fective transformers were not timely addressed and the con­sumers had to pay from their pockets to get the tranformers repaired even though HESCO’s stated policy was that the com­pany was reposonsible for the repair and replacement. The legislators said the ex­pensive electricity at the time when the country and its peo­ple were reeling from inflation only multiplied woes of the people.They requested the gov­ernment to withdraw the re­cent hike in the price of units and to address the services re­lated issues of the power distri­bution companies like HESCO. Source:https://www.nation.com.pk/27-Aug-2023/inflated-electricity-bills-spark-nationwide-protests

France will ban children from wearing the abaya – the loose-fitting, full-length robe worn by some Muslim women – in state-run schools, the country’s education minister has said ahead of the back-to-school season. France, which has enforced a strict ban on religious signs in state schools since 19th-century laws removed any traditional Catholic influence from public education, has struggled to update guidelines to deal with a growing Muslim minority. end of list French public schools do not permit the wearing of large crosses, Jewish kippas or Islamic headscarves. In 2004, the country banned headscarves in schools, and in 2010, it passed a ban on full face veils in public, angering many in its five million-strong Muslim community. “I have decided that the abaya could no longer be worn in schools,” Education Minister Gabriel Attal said in an interview with TV channel TF1. “When you walk into a classroom, you shouldn’t be able to identify the pupils’ religion just by looking at them.” The move comes after months of debate over the wearing of abayas in French schools, where women have long been banned from wearing the hijab. The right and far right had pushed for the ban, which the left argued would encroach on civil liberties. Unlike headscarves, abayas occupied a grey area and faced no outright ban until now. The French Council of Muslim Faith (CFCM), a national body encompassing many Muslim associations, has said items of clothing alone were not “a religious sign”. Defending secularism is a rallying cry in France that resonates across the political spectrum, from left-wingers upholding the liberal values of the Enlightenment to far-right voters seeking a bulwark against the growing role of Islam in French society. Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/27/france-to-ban-wearing-abaya-dress-in-schools-minister

  Police in India are investigating a teacher after a video of her encouraging students to slap their 7-year-old classmate, who is Muslim, sparked widespread outrage in the country. The video of the incident, which took place in the Muzaffarnagar district in northern Uttar Pradesh state, shows the boy fearfully standing in front of his classmates as the teacher calls on students to hit him. The boy cries as his classmates take turns to slap him, while the teacher is heard telling the students to do it “properly.” A man can be heard laughing as the boy wails while the slapping continues. Muzaffarnagar’s superintendent of police, Satyanarayan Prajapat, on Friday said the teacher told students to hit the boy “for not remembering his times tables.” The teacher also referenced the boy’s religion, according to Prajapat. “The female teacher declared: ‘When the mothers of Mohammedan (one who follows Islam) students don’t pay attention to their children’s studies, their performance is ruined,” he said. Police in the district have registered a case against the teacher and an investigation is underway. The teacher has not been formally charged. District officials have also ordered the school to shut, according to CNN affiliate CNN News-18. CNN has reached out to Uttar Pradesh police officials for more details. The incident has caused widespread anger and upset in India, the world’s largest democracy of 1.4 billion, where the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Hindu nationalist policies have deepened the country’s communal tensions and created what rights groups and government critics say is an atmosphere of fear and alienation among minority groups. Prominent opposition politician Rahul Gandhi accused the teacher of “sowing the poison of discrimination in the minds of innocent children.” Writing on Twitter, now known as X, he said: “Turning a holy place like school into a market place of hatred – there is nothing worse than this that a teacher can do for the country.” Gandhi also blamed the BJP for stoking religious intolerance. “This is the same kerosene spread by the BJP which has set every corner of India on fire,” Gandhi wrote. “Children are the future of India – do not hate them, we all have to teach love together.” While the BJP has not responded to Gandhi’s comments, it has long maintained it does not discriminate against minorities and “treats all its citizens with equality.” During a trip to the United States in June, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told reporters there was “absolutely no space” for discrimination in India. Indian law does not have a statutory definition of corporal punishment targeting children, however physical punishment and mental harassment are prohibited under the country’s Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act. According to CNN News-18, the teacher claimed the 7-year-old’s father had asked her punish the child, adding that she was unable to do so because she is disabled and had therefore told the other students to discipline him. “His father brought the child in and said to straighten him out. Now because I can’t get up, I thought I’d get one or two children to hit him,” she said. The incident comes at a time of heightened communal tensions in the country as the BJP’s popular but divisive policies gain momentum in India. A study by economist Deepankar Basu noted a 786% increase in hate crimes against all minorities between 2014 and 2018, following the BJP’s election victory. Uttar Pradesh, where the incident took place, is India’s largest state of about 200 million. It boasts a religiously diverse population, where about 20% of its residents are Muslim. However, it remains among one of the most polarized of states in India. Its chief minister, the Hindu-monk-turned BJP politician Yogi Adityanath, has been criticized for his anti-Muslim rhetoric and Hindu-first policies, and the state has passed legislation critics say is rooted in “Hindutva” – the ideological bedrock of Hindu nationalism Source:https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/28/india/india-muslim-student-slapped-teacher-video-intl-hnk/index.html

Hundreds of people are still listed as unaccounted for after this month’s devastating wildfires on Maui – a number that’s expected to change as the FBI continues vetting names. The “validated list” curated by the FBI currently includes 388 names, Maui County said Thursday, as cell phone data is now being used to try to pinpoint where victims may have been when the deadliest US wildfire disaster in more than 100 years tore through the Hawaiian island. At least 115 people are confirmed dead, though authorities say that number is likely to change. The FBI on Friday acknowledged the list of names was “a subset of a larger list” of people who are believed to be missing. Steven Merrill, the bureau’s special agent in charge in Hawaii, said those currently on the list are people who authorities had more complete information about. Since the list was released, they’ve gotten “at least 100 people that have notified us that a certain person shouldn’t be on the list,” Merrill said – so the number of those still unaccounted for is expected to change. As the race to identify the lost continues, the state’s main electrical utility stands accused of compromising evidence in the fire investigation, and Maui County officials have followed others in suing the company over responsibility for the fire. First responders also are pressing for answers about why they weren’t better prepared after a similar ruinous fire five years ago. The updated list of the missing was released with hopes of confirming anyone who’s not truly still lost, officials said. ‘As long as it takes’: Biden vows support for fire-ravaged Maui as search efforts continue “We’re releasing this list of names today because we know that it will help with the investigation,” Police Chief John Pelletier said in the release. “We also know that once those names come out, it can and will cause pain for folks whose loved ones are listed. This is not an easy thing to do, but we want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to make this investigation as complete and thorough as possible.” Pelletier said Friday that since the names were released, authorities have received hundreds of calls. Authorities would like to do a weekly update on the list of missing people to help notify the public, he said. The FBI has worked with agencies “to unduplicate people that have been reported missing,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said earlier Thursday in a social media post. Some 800 to 1,200 people have been listed as unaccounted for since the fires, he said. The grim search for those believed missing began shortly after wind-whipped flames tore through the island on August 8. Much of the western Maui community of Lahaina – once a lively economic and cultural hub – was left in ruins, with entire neighborhoods and businesses reduced to ash. Some residents were forced to jump into the ocean to survive as flames overtook the town. Search crews and cadaver dogs have searched 100% of single-story homes in the disaster area, Maui County officials said Tuesday. They are now going through multistory homes and commercial properties. A 7-year-old boy and his relatives are among the dozens killed in the Maui wildfires. Here’s what we know about some of the 115 lives lost And an FBI team that specializes in using cell phone data has launched in Maui to help identify potential fire victims, a law enforcement source told CNN. The Cellular Analysis Survey Team was on the island working with local law enforcement, the official said. The team can get and analyze cell phone company subscriber records and cellular tower registration data, which could prove useful to the search efforts by geolocating the last known area where a victim’s cell phone was operating. The team in the past has used information obtained through court orders to help with terrorism, kidnapping and criminal investigations. Enter your email to sign up for CNN’s “Meanwhile in China” Newsletter. close dialog “Cellular telephone analysis” is among the resources being provided by the bureau, Steven Merrill, special agent in charge of the FBI’s office in Hawaii, said during news conference Tuesday without giving specifics. Additionally, Maui County has named a new interim administrator of the Maui Emergency Management Agency after its prior chief resigned from the post August 17. In announcing Darryl Oliveira’s hiring Friday, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said he has a track record of “invaluable experience and skill during challenging times.” Oliveira, who previously served as the administrator of the Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency, is expected to begin leading the county’s emergency agency Monday Evidence may have been compromised, power company says As the human toll of the fire comes into focus, investigators also are trying to determine what sparked the flames, and while no official cause has been announced, the Hawaiian Electric Company is facing scrutiny over its actions before and after the fires broke out. Some evidence potentially vital in determining the cause of the deadly fire in Lahaina may have been compromised, Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) acknowledged in an exchange with attorneys included in court documents obtained by CNN How a devastating combination of conditions triggered America’s deadliest wildfire in more than a century The company said fallen power poles, power lines and other equipment were moved during firefighting efforts and as officials worked to make the area safe for residents, according to letters part of a class action lawsuit. The company told attorneys, who are representing Lahaina residents in the class action suit, that it was “possible, even likely” that evidence that “relate(s) to the cause of the fire” might be lost, correspondence obtained by CNN shows. The equipment was removed from the area around the Lahaina substation – which is thought to be where the blaze started – before federal investigators arrived. Those actions could have violated national guidelines, which say the fire scenes should be heavily preserved for investigators and any and all evidence should be secured and not removed from the site without documentation, court documents filed by attorneys say. The ATF said on

The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Punjab on Saturday claimed to have arrested eight suspected terrorists allegedly belonging to banned organisations. According to CTD spokesperson, the arrested terrorists include 2 commanders of the banned Al-Qaeda. Officials said explosive material, grenades and cash were also recovered from those arrested terrorists. The terrorists were arrested from Lahore, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Sargodha, and Multan, it added. The officials claimed that the arrested men were preparing a dangerous plan. The CTD officials said that during this week, 700 combing operations were conducted during which 135 suspects were taken into custody. During the combing operations, more than 16,784 people were questioned, the officials added. Source:https://www.nation.com.pk/26-Aug-2023/ctd-arrests-eight-terrorists-of-banned-outfits-in-punjab