MUMBAI: Eleven members of a family were found dead in India’s capital on Sunday, most of them hanging from the ceiling of their home, blindfolded and hands tied behind the back, in a part of the city that was the scene of a gang war just two weeks ago.
The victims included four men and seven women, including teenagers. A neighbor in the Burari district found the victims early on Sunday, police said.
One of the bodies was found lying on the floor and the others hanging from a railing attached to the ceiling, media reports said.
“We don’t know the reason yet, our team is at the spot and investigating this,” said a police official posted in the area, who did not give further details. The official cannot be identified under briefing rules.
On June 18, three people were killed and five were injured when members of rival gangs fired at each other in the main Burari market. Police said the two gangs are headed by men whose enmity goes back to 2013.
While police are yet to establish any connection between the two incidents, the investigation will consider all possible aspects, a senior police officer who is handling the gang war case told Reuters.
Eleven people killed in India’s capital, police probe link to gang war
Eleven people killed in India’s capital, police probe link to gang war
Bruno Fernandes strikes late to keep Man United on course for Europa League last 16 spot
- While United’s Premier League campaign still looks dire, their Europa League fate is in their own hands going into next week’s game against FCSB in Romania.
- First-place Lazio won 3-1 against Real Sociedad and Eintracht Frankfurt are second after a 2-0 victory over Ferencvaros
MANCHESTER, England: Bruno Fernandes scored a stoppage-time winner as Manchester United beat Rangers 2-1 on Thursday to take a big step toward the Europa League round of 16.
Rangers looked to have snatched a draw at Old Trafford when Cyriel Dessers leveled the game 1-1 in the 88th minute.
But United captain Fernandes struck from close range four minutes later to secure a vital win that moved Ruben Amorim’s team up to fourth in the standings with one round of games to go in the league phase.
First-place Lazio won 3-1 against Real Sociedad and Eintracht Frankfurt are second after a 2-0 victory over Ferencvaros.
United’s win was a much-needed boost for Amorim, who said after Sunday’s loss to Brighton that his team was “the worst, maybe, in the history” of the storied club.
While United’s Premier League campaign still looks dire, with the 20-time English champion 13th in the standings, their Europa League fate is in their own hands going into next week’s game against FCSB in Romania.
Victory, however, didn’t come without some fortune after Rangers goalkeeper Jack Butland punched the ball into his own net from a corner to give United the lead seven minutes into the second half.
The top eight teams automatically advance to the last 16, with those placed from nine to 24 going into a playoff round.
Lazio on top
Lazio maintained its unbeaten record in the Europa League with victory against 10-man Sociedad and is guaranteed a place in the last 16.
Goals from Mario Gila, Mattia Zaccagni and Valentin Castellanos effectively killed the game off before halftime, with Sociedad’s Aihen Munoz also sent off before the break. Ander Barrenetxea scored late for Sociedad.
Frankfurt is three points behind after a 2-0 win against Ferencvaros was secured through second-half goals from Can Uzun and Hugo Ekitike.
Athletic Bilbao, arevthird, behind Frankfurt on goal difference.
Son scores 2 for Tottenham
Son Heung-min scored twice as Tottenham beat Hoffenheim 3-2.
The South Korea star struck in each half at PreZero Arena to help ease the pressure on manager Ange Postecoglou.
It was only Tottenham’s second win in their past nine games overall and kept it on course for the round of 16.
Son doubled the lead in the 22nd minute after James Maddison had opened the scoring in the third. He got his second to make it 3-1 in the 77th. Son was making his 436th appearance for the club — moving up to 10th on Spurs’ list.
Anton Stach scored for Hoffenheim in the 68th and David Mokwa sparked hope of an unlikely comeback in the 88th.
Tottenham is sixth in the standings.
Ajax lose
Four-time European Cup winners Ajax were stunned by RFS — losing 1-0 to the Latvian team.
It was RFS’ first win in a group or league phase of a major European competition, with Adam Markhiyev scoring the decisive goal in the 78th. But it wasn’t enough to prevent his team from being eliminated. Ajax are 10th.
Nervy ending
The battle to secure a playoff place is in the balance for a number of teams.
Roma lost 1-0 to Dutch club AZ Alkmaar after Troy Parrott’s winner in the 80th.
With one game to go, the Italian giants are 21st, on nine points, and just one point above 25th-place Porto, who lost 1-0 to Olympiakos.
Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce are 23rd, also on nine points, after a 0-0 draw with fifth-place Lyon.
Pro-Palestine march
Norwegian broadcaster NRK says hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters marched peacefully in Bodoe before their 3-1 win against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Russia accuses UNICEF head of caring more about kids in Ukraine than Gaza
- Demands a ‘most serious censure’ on UNICEF head for ‘refusing’ to brief UN Security Council on Gaza children's condition
- UNICEF says head was in Davos, focused on humanitarian crises; US rejects Russian accusation is it responsible for Gaza deaths
UNITED NATIONS: Russia on Thursday reprimanded the head of the UN children’s agency UNICEF for not providing a “weighty argument for her refusal” to brief the Security Council on children in Gaza — a meeting requested by Russia.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell, an American, had briefed the 15-member council on children in Ukraine “at the drop of a hat” in December, during the US presidency of the council.
“So it would appear that for UNICEF children in Gaza are less important than children in Ukraine,” Nebenzia said.
Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine in February 2022 and has been at war since then. The war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas began in October 2023 and a ceasefire took effect on Sunday.
“The refusal of UNICEF’s head to brief the Security Council about the horrific tragedy linked to the death of tens of thousands of children in Gaza is a flagrant step, which deserves our most serious censure,” Nebenzia told the council.
Russell is at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland with a focus on addressing humanitarian crises and was unable to adjust her schedule to brief the Security Council, said a UNICEF spokesperson.
“Ms. Russell had offered the Director of Emergencies to deliver her statement on her behalf,” the UNICEF spokesperson said. “The UNICEF Executive Director has briefed the Security Council several times on the situation of children in Gaza and appreciates the council’s focus on children impacted by war.”
The Security Council has met dozens of times to discuss the war in Gaza. Israel’s armed and security forces, Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants, and Russia’s armed forces are all on the UN global list of offenders for killing and maiming children.
Nebenzia also accused Washington on Thursday of some responsibility for the deaths of children in Gaza after the US used its council veto to shield Israel during the war. He also said the US ignored Russian calls for a meeting on Gazan children in December.
Acting US Ambassador Dorothy Shea rejected Nebenzia’s accusations.
“The idea that the United States is responsible for the terrible suffering there is just unacceptable to us and we reject it in its totality,” she told the council.
UN aid chief Tom Fletcher briefed the Security Council meeting on Thursday via video from Stockholm. He bluntly assessed the past 15 months of war in Gaza: “Children have been killed, starved, and frozen to death.”
“They have been maimed, orphaned, separated from their family. Conservative estimates indicate that over 17,000 children are without their families in Gaza,” he said. “A generation has been traumatized.”
Under the ceasefire, the United Nations and others are carrying out a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Aerial attack helps firefighters maintain the upper hand on a huge fire north of Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES: Evacuation orders were lifted Thursday for tens of thousands of people as firefighters with air support slowed the spread of a huge wildfire churning through rugged mountains north of Los Angeles where dangerous winds gained strength again.
The Hughes Fire broke out late Wednesday morning and in less than a day had charred nearly 16 square miles (41 square kilometers) of trees and brush near Castaic Lake, a popular recreation area about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires that are burning for a third week.
There was no growth overnight and crews were jumping on flareups to keep the flames within containment lines, fire spokesperson Jeremy Ruiz said Thursday morning.
“We had helicopters dropping water until around 3 a.m. That kept it in check,” he said.
The fire remained at 14 percent containment. Nearly 54,000 residents in the Castaic area were still under evacuation warnings, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday. There were no reports of homes or other structures burned.
In San Diego, evacuations were ordered Thursday afternoon after flames erupted near densely populated neighborhoods of La Jolla. The Gilman Fire was spreading through dry brush along streets with large homes not far from the campus of the UC San Diego School of Medicine.
And in Ventura County, a new fire Thursday briefly prompted the evacuation of California State University Channel Islands in Camarillo. Water-dropping helicopters made quick progress against the Laguna Fire that erupted in hills above the campus, where about 7,000 students are enrolled. The evacuation order was later downgraded to a warning.
Though the region was under a red flag warning for critical fire risk through Friday, winds were not as strong as they had been when the Palisades and Eaton fires broke out, allowing for firefighting aircraft to dump tens of thousands of gallons of fire retardant.
Parts of Interstate 5 near the Hughes Fire, which had been closed, reopened Wednesday evening.
Kayla Amara drove to Castaic’s Stonegate neighborhood on Wednesday to collect items from the home of a friend who had rushed to pick up her daughter at preschool. As Amara was packing the car, she learned the fire had exploded in size and decided to hose down the property.
Amara, a nurse who lives in nearby Valencia, said she’s been on edge for weeks as major blazes devastated Southern California.
“It’s been stressful with those other fires, but now that this one is close to home it’s just super stressful,” she said.
Closer to Los Angeles, residents in the Sherman Oaks area received an evacuation warning Wednesday night after a brush fire broke out on the Sepulveda Pass near Interstate 405. Forward progress was stopped within hours and the warning was lifted.
The low humidity, bone-dry vegetation and strong winds came as firefighters continued battling the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires. Officials remained concerned that those fires could break their containment lines as firefighters continue watching for hot spots. Containment of the Palisades Fire reached 72 percent, and the Eaton Fire was at 95 percent.
Those two fires have killed at least 28 people and destroyed more than 14,000 structures since they broke out Jan. 7.
Ahead of the weekend, Los Angeles officials were shoring up hillsides and installing barriers to prepare for potential rain that could cause debris flows, even as some residents were allowed to return to the charred Pacific Palisades and Altadena areas. Precipitation was possible starting Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
The California fires have overall caused at least $28 billion in insured damage and probably a little more in uninsured damage, according to Karen Clark and Company, a disaster modeling firm known for accurate post-catastrophe damage assessments.
On the heels of that assessment, California Republicans are pushing back against suggestions by President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and others that federal disaster aid for victims of wildfires should come with strings attached.
The state Legislature on Thursday approved a more than $2.5 billion fire relief package, in part to help the Los Angeles area recover from the fires.
Trump plans to travel to the state to see the damage firsthand Friday, but it wasn’t clear whether he and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom will meet during the visit.
Emergency contraception pill could be an alternative to mifepristone for abortions, study suggests
A new study suggests that a pill used for emergency contraception could be repurposed at a higher dose as an abortion drug, providing a possible alternative to mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in the most common type of abortion in the United States.
Mifepristone has been under attack by abortion opponents, with several states seeking in federal court to restrict its use.
Now used in two-thirds of US abortions, mifepristone blocks a hormone needed to sustain a pregnancy. It’s typically used with misoprostol, which causes contractions and bleeding.
In the study, 133 women who were up to nine weeks’ pregnant took a 60 milligram dose of ulipristal acetate, the active ingredient in the prescription contraceptive Ella, followed by misoprostol 24 hours later.
For 97 percent of them, that drug combo was effective at inducing an abortion, an effectiveness equal to the mifepristone-misoprostol combination. Four women needed a procedure or an additional medication to complete the abortion.
The 60 milligram dose of ulipristal used in the study is twice the dose of Ella, a prescription drug used for emergency contraception.
The company that makes Ella says on its website that it won’t end an existing pregnancy. It can be taken up to five days after unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy.
The findings, published Thursday in the journal NEJM Evidence, may make emergency contraception a target of abortion opponents.
“I’m really worried that these results could be misapplied by anti-abortion activists to try to further their assault on contraception,” said Dr. Daniel Grossman of the University of California, San Francisco, who wrote an accompanying editorial in the journal. Grossman praised the study but said more research is needed on ulipristal as an abortion drug before doctors would prescribe it routinely for that use.
Lead author Dr. Beverly Winikoff, president of Gynuity Health Projects, a not-for-profit research group, said women need information about ulipristal, especially with mifepristone challenged in court.
“At least now we would have an alternative,” Winikoff said. “I think it’s better to have more things that you could use.”
— The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Moscow mayor says air defenses repel drone attacks aimed at capital
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said early on Friday that air defense units had intercepted three separate attacks by Ukrainian drones headed for Russia’s capital.
Sobyanin, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said air defense units southeast of the capital in the Kolomna and Ramenskoye district had repelled one group of “enemy” drones, without specifying how many were involved.
“At the site where fragments fell, no damage or casualties have occurred,” Sobyanin wrote on the Telegram messaging app, without specifying how many drones were involved. “Specialist emergency crews are at the site.”
The mayor posted two more announcements in quick succession.
Sobyanin said two drones also headed for Moscow had been downed by air defenses in Podolsk district, south of the capital. He then reported a single drone downed in Troitsky district, in the southwest of the capital.
Specialist emergency crews were dispatched to all the sites, Sobyanin said.
Russian news agencies quoted Rosaviatsiya, the federal aviation agency, as saying two Moscow airports, Vnukovo and Domodedovo, had suspended all flights.
Russia’s Defense Ministry had earlier said that it had destroyed 49 Ukrainian drones over a three-hour period late on Thursday, most of them over the Kursk region near the Ukrainian border.
The ministry, in a report on Telegram, said 37 drones had been destroyed solely in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces hold chunks of land after a mass incursion last August.
It said the drones had been destroyed between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Moscow time (1600-1900 GMT).
Unofficial Russian Telegram channels had reported a “large number” of drones over Kursk region and posted videos of explosions.
The ministry statement said drones had also been destroyed over the border regions of Bryansk and Belgorod and the Russian-annexed Crimea peninsula.
