UN refugee agency says record 117m
people forcibly displaced in 2023
UNITED NATIONS, June 14: The United Nations refugee agency on Thursday said the number of people forcibly displaced stood at a record 117.3 million as of the end of last year, warning that this figure could rise further without major global political changes. "These are refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people, people being forced away by conflict, by persecution, by different and increasingly complex forms of violence," said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "Conflict remains a very, very deep driver of displacement." — Reuters
Heavy rain, landslides kill 6 in Sikkim, 2,000 tourists stranded
GUWAHATI (India), June 14: At least six people have been killed this week and around 2,000 tourists stranded in India's Himalayan state of Sikkim in landslides and floods after incessant rainfall, officials said on Friday. Another four people have been killed in Nepal's Taplejung district, which borders Sikkim, after a landslide following rains swept away the house in which they were sleeping, officials there said. Heavy rains triggered landslides at several locations in Mangan district, which covers north Sikkim and lies about 100 km (60 miles) north of the state capital Gangtok, the local government of the northeastern Indian state said. — Reuters
Philippine military chief urges fishermen
to ignore China's new coastguard rules
MANILA, June 14: The Philippine military chief urged Filipino fishermen to keep fishing in the country's exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, despite China's new coastguard rules allowing it to detain trespassers without trial that take effect on June 15. China, which claims almost all of the South China Sea including parts claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam, has issued new rules that would enforce a 2021 law allowing its coastguard to use lethal force against foreign ships in waters that it claims. "That's our message to our fishermen, for them not to be afraid but to just go ahead with their normal activities in our exclusive economic zone," Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief Romeo Brawner told reporters on Friday. — Reuters
Rishi Sunak warns a vote for Nigel Farage gifts Labour the UK election
LONDON, June 14: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warned on Friday that a vote for Nigel Farage's Reform UK party would hand electoral victory to Labour, after a poll put the right-wing group ahead of Sunak's Conservatives for the first time. Farage is one of Britain's most recognisable politicians best known for his decades-long - and eventually successful - crusade for Britain to leave the European Union. His Reform UK party began life as the Brexit Party in 2018, during the tortuous negotiations over how Britain would leave the bloc. Farage's return to frontline politics has split support among right-of-centre voters, further damaging Sunak's hopes of winning an election he was already predicted to lose to the opposition Labour Party. — Reuters
India brings home bodies of 45 workers killed in Kuwait fire
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (India), June 14: The bodies of 45 Indians who died in a fire in a labour housing facility in Kuwait were flown to India on Friday, as bereaved relatives and experts urged New Delhi to do more to protect the lives of those who work abroad and send remittances home. An electrical short circuit is likely to have caused Wednesday's fire in the housing facility in Mangaf, a coastal city south of the capital Kuwait City. The Indian workers were among the 49 people who perished. — Reuters
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