SOUTH ASIA

Washington, March 9 (IANS) A newly surfaced video appears to show a US Tomahawk cruise missile striking an Iranian military facility next to an elementary school in the southern town of Minab, adding new questions to competing claims over a deadly attack that reportedly killed scores of civilians, including children.The footage, first released by Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency and later analysed by investigative researchers and reported by international media outlets including The New York Times and CNN, shows a missile striking a building at a naval facility operated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) near the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school.The strike occurred on February 28 during a wave of attacks in southern Iran as fighting expanded across the region.Accord...

Washington, March 9 (IANS) The United States has said it will ensure the security of the Strait of Hormuz and maintain the free flow of global energy supplies as the conflict with Iran escalates, while warning that Tehran is miscalculating American military resolve.In an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said American forces were already degrading Iran’s naval capabilities and were prepared to take further action to safeguard critical shipping routes.“What was the Iranian Navy is largely no more,” Hegseth said, adding that US forces would continue targeting vessels and assets that threaten maritime security.Hegseth suggested Washington’s military operations were aimed at ensuring that such disruptions do not materialise.“We’re taking care of a lot of that… A...

Washington, March 9 (IANS) A newly emerged video appears to show a US airstrike targeting a building at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval base in Minab, Iran, adjacent to an elementary school where Iranian state media says more than 160 pupils were killed on February 28.The footage, posted by the semi-official Iranian news agency Mehr News, is the first to show missiles striking the area and adds to a growing body of evidence that appears to contradict recent claims by US President Donald Trump casting blame on Iran, Xinhua news agency reported quoting the CNN report.In the footage, filmed from a nearby construction site, a munition consistent with a US Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) can be seen before striking a location inside the IRGC base, said the report, noting t...

London, March 8 (IANS) Child abuse in Pakistan remains pervasive, with cases being reported of physical, sexual, and emotional violence and widespread exploitation through child labour and trafficking, but despite several legislative measures like the Zainab Alert and Recovery and Response Act of 2020, the country continues to have low conviction rates in child abuse cases, as per a report. "On February 2, 2026, in what appears to be one of Pakistan’s most alarming and far‑reaching child‑exploitation cases, the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) uncovered a sprawling online network after arresting a Rawalpindi man allegedly involved in trapping and blackmailing minors through fake social‑media identities. Investigators recovered more than 600 indecent videos of children fro...

Islamabad, Feb 13 (IANS) An inspection of buildings conducted by the Sindh government committee has revealed that 91.3 per cent of the buildings in province lacked fire safety arrangements, Pakistani media reported on Friday.The government has decided to seal high-risk buildings which were found by the committee in violation of fire safety laws in Sindh. The committee was set up after the fire incident in Karachi's Gul Plaza which claimed lives of nearly 80 people, injured hundreds and caused financial loss for thousands of people, Pakistan's leading daily 'The Express Tribune' reported.During a high-level meeting on fire safety on Thursday, Chief Secretary Asif Hyder Shah stated that inspections were conducted in 3,633 buildings in Sindh. He said that 889 buildings had been declared hi...