TODAY'S WORLD NEWS::

Parents murder 4-year old daughter, hide her body in freezer

KUWAIT CITY: A Kuwaiti father was taken into custody by police after he admitted to murdering his 4-year old daughter and hiding her body in the freezer. 

According to details, Salem Bouhan, 26, killed his 4-year old daughter Isra by beating her up with an electric wire and pouring hot water over her. The body of the 4-year old girl, when recovered, contained burnt marks on her shoulders and legs. 

Bouhan, who has three other children, told the police at first that he was a drug addict and that his daughter had died after consuming one of his pills. However, he later revealed to the police how he had beaten her with an electric wire and poured hot water over her. Afterwards, he had gone to the market and bought a freezer to hide Isra's body in it. 

Police were tipped off that a murder might have taken place at a flat in the Salamiya area of Kuwait City. Investigators stated that Salem's wife was also an accomplice in the murder of their daughter and that the two were also drug addicts. Salem had been fired from his job a couple of days ago for showing up to work in an abnormal state.

Investigators also claimed that the parents were extremely negligent in bringing up their children. Their apartment was also dirty and disorganized.   

Earthquake measuring 6.1 shakes parts of Taiwan, including capital

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 shook parts of Taiwan on Tuesday and was felt in the capital, Taipei, residents and officials said, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey originally recorded the quake, centred about 110 km (70 miles) northeast of Taipei, with a magnitude of 6.4. Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau put the magnitude at 7.2.

Witnesses reported that tremors could be felt in buildings in Taipei, including the national parliament, as well as at the international airport in Taoyuan south of the capital.

The world's largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Inc, said there was no impact to its operations.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or significant damage.

20 Indian soldiers die as fire breaks out at India's largest arms depot

NEW DELHI: Firefighters were battling on Tuesday to extinguish a blaze in one of India's biggest arms depots, with 17 of those trapped in the blaze feared to have died, media said.

Indian television channels reported that as many as 17 people had been killed in the fire at the depot in Pulgaon, 600 km (373 miles) from Mumbai, the country's financial capital.

The fire broke out shortly after midnight, a regional official, Shailesh Nawal, told Reuters, adding that 17 people had been admitted to hospital, two of them in serious condition.

The cause of the fire is not known, Nawal said, adding that the tally of dead could not be confirmed since rescue teams had not been able to check all parts of the depot.

Number of Afghans uprooted by violence doubles, a million 'on brink of survival': Amnesty

LONDON: The number of Afghans internally displaced by conflict has "dramatically" doubled to 1.2 million in just three years, Amnesty International said on Tuesday, warning that a lack of basic services was putting people on the brink of survival.

The rights group said that situation of people uprooted from their homes in Afghanistan has deteriorated in recent years as global attention and aid money have been diverted to other crises.

"While the world's attention seems to have moved on from Afghanistan, we risk forgetting the plight of those left behind by the conflict," said Champa Patel, South Asia director at Amnesty International.

"Even after fleeing their homes to seek safety, increasing numbers of Afghans are languishing in appalling conditions in their own country, and fighting for their survival with no end in sight," she said in a statement.

The insurgency in Afghanistan has gained strength since the withdrawal of international troops from combat at the end of 2014 and the Taliban are stronger than at any point since they were driven from power by U.S.-backed forces in 2001.

The Taliban launched a spring offensive in Afghanistan last month, vowing to drive out the Western-backed government in Kabul and restore strict Islamic rule.

Amnesty said displaced Afghans lacked proper shelter, food, water, access to healthcare, employment and education.

"Even an animal would not live in this hut, but we have to," Amnesty quoted a 50-year old woman living in a camp in the western Afghan city of Herat as saying.

"I would prefer to be in prison rather than in this place, at least in prison I would not have to worry about food and shelter."

With food being scarce, some people were struggling to have a one meal per day, Amnesty said.

"We mostly live off bread or spoiled vegetables from the market," Raz Muhammad, a community leader in Kabul's Chaman-e-Barbak camp, told Amnesty.

Access to healthcare was limited to mobile clinics operated by charities or the government, which were only available occasionally, forcing displaced people to seek private care which they could hardly afford.

"If we are ill, then I have to beg and find some money to go to the private clinics," a 50-year-old woman in Herat told Amnesty. "We have no other choice."

The rights group said the international community and the Afghan government must address the needs of the displaced people "before it's too late".

• India unveils first-ever comprehensive draft law on human trafficking

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• NEW DELHI: India's minister for women and children unveiled a draft of the country's first-ever comprehensive anti-human trafficking law, which would treat survivors as victims in need of assistance and protection rather than as criminals.

  South Asia, with India at its centre, is the fastest-growing and second-largest region for human trafficking in the world, after East Asia, says the U.N. Office for Drugs and Crime.

  There are no accurate figures on the number of people trafficked within South Asia, but activists say thousands of mostly women and children are trafficked within India as well as from its poorer neighbours Nepal and Bangladesh.

  Many are sold into forced marriage or bonded labour to work in middle class homes as domestic servants, in small shops and hotels or confined to brothels where they are repeatedly raped.

  Women's Minister Maneka Gandhi said the draft bill aims to unify existing anti-trafficking laws, prioritise survivors' needs, and prevent victims such as those found in brothel raids from being arrested and jailed like traffickers.

  "The bill shows far more compassion and makes a very clear distinction between the trafficked and the trafficker, which is a nuance that should have been made 60 years ago," Gandhi said on Monday as she unveiled the draft Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2016.

  The draft legislation provides for special courts to expedite trafficking cases, more shelters and a rehabilitation fund to help victims rebuild their lives.

  It also provides for anti-trafficking committees - at district, state and central levels - that will oversee prevention, protection and victim rehabilitation.

  According to the National Crime Records Bureau, there were 5,466 human trafficking cases registered in 2014, an increase of 90 percent over the past five years, though activists say this is a gross underestimate.

  Thousands of Indians - largely poor, rural women and children - are lured to big cities each year by traffickers who promise good jobs but sell them into domestic or sex work or to industries such as textile workshops.

  In many cases, they are unpaid or held in debt bondage. Some go missing, and their families cannot trace them.

  Gandhi said the draft bill would strengthen prosecutions and boost the number of convictions by setting up a special investigative agency to coordinate work between states and collect intelligence on trafficking offences.

  There is also a provision for the recovery of fines from the convicted in the draft bill, officials said, and victims who are not paid wages while in servitude will be reimbursed.

  The draft bill makes providing narcotic drugs or alcohol for the purpose of trafficking, and using chemical substances or hormones for purposes of exploitation offences.

  Gandhi said her ministry would be accepting suggestions until June 30 on how to further improve the proposed bill.

  It would then go to all the ministries for their feedback. The final bill could be brought before the Indian parliament by the end of the year, she added.
• • Sept. 11 suspects' treatment a focus in Guantanamo hearing

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  • A pre-trial hearing for five Sept. 11 suspects began on Monday at Guantanamo Bay, with prisoners' treatment expected to be a focus of the U.S. military court sessions.

    Forty-two motions are scheduled for the week-long hearing at the Navy base in Cuba. They include multiple requests by defense lawyers for evidence of how the five suspects were treated at secret Central Intelligence Agency prisons.

    James Connell, a defense lawyer, told Judge Army Colonel James Pohl that medical records provided by the prosecution had been insufficient, lacking personal identifying information and a chronology of patient care.

    "This is not the way that discovery is supposed to work ... the medical records are actually extremely important," said Connell, who represents Kuwaiti inmate Ammar al Baluchi, an alleged al Qaeda money mover.

    He is among five men suspected of conspiring to help hijackers slam airliners into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11, 2001. Almost 3,000 people died in the attacks.

    Two Guantanamo prisoners unrelated to the Sept. 11 case could testify to corroborate statements made in February by Yemeni defendant Ramzi bin al Shibh. He has accused guards of using noises and vibrations to torment him for years.

    Bin al Shibh's lawyer, James Harrington, told the Associated Press last week that Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian not seen since his CIA capture in 2002, has been called to testify about Bin al Shibh's allegations.

    A Somali inmate, Guleed Hassan Ahmed, also has been called as a witness. Bin al Shibh is charged with wiring money from al Qaeda leaders to the hijackers.

    Prison staff have denied Bin al Shibh's abuse allegations.

    The case against the five suspects has been plagued by repeated delays and is likely years from going to trial.

    The hearing is being held at Guantanamo Bay. It was monitored over closed-circuit television at a press room at Fort Meade, outside Washington.

  • White House back to normal after security lockdown

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  • A brief, partial lockdown at the White House was lifted on Monday after a metal object tossed over the fence was tested and determined not to be dangerous, the U.S. Secret Service said.

    President Barack Obama was at the White House during the incident.

    An individual threw the object over the north fence of the complex, Secret Service spokesman Shawn Holtzclaw said in an emailed statement.

    That person was apprehended without incident, he said.

    "All protective sweeps of the metal object were met with negative results. The White House has returned to normal operations," Holtzclaw said.

    The north side of the White House was placed on a security lockdown for a couple of hours after the incident, which took place on the U.S. Memorial Day holiday.

    Reporters were not allowed to leave the White House compound through its northwest gate and flashing lights from emergency responders could be seen nearby.

    Obama had visited Arlington National Cemetery earlier in the day as part of the annual commemoration for armed services members.

  • Attempted N. Korea missile launch fails  

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  • Seoul: North Korea attempted to fire a missile from its east coast early on Tuesday morning but the launch appears to have failed, South Korean military officials told Reuters.

    The launch attempt took place at around 5:20 a.m. Seoul time (2020 GMT), said the officials, who asked not to be identified, without elaborating.

    Japan put its military alert on Monday for a possible North Korean ballistic missile launch, state broadcaster NHK reported.

    Tension in Northeast Asia has been high since North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and followed that with a satellite launch and test launches of various missiles.

    South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said it appeared North Korea had attempted to launch an intermediate-range Musudan missile. North Korea attempted three test launches of the Musudan in April, all of which failed, U.S. and South Korean officials have said.

    North Korea has never had a successful launch of the Musudan, which theoretically has the range to reach any part of Japan and the U.S. territory of Guam.

    The attempted launch took place near the east coast city of Wonson, one of the South Korean officials said, the same area where previous Musudan tests had taken place.

    The flurry of weapons technology tests this year had come in the run-up to the first congress in 36 years of North Korea's ruling Worker's Party early this month. Tuesday's attempted launch appears to have been its first missile test since then.