عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

Jordanian Immigrant Faces Death Penalty in Huston for Committing ‘Honor’ Crimes

Police tape. photo credit: REUTERS
Police tape. photo credit: REUTERS
TT
TT

Jordanian Immigrant Faces Death Penalty in Huston for Committing ‘Honor’ Crimes

Police tape. photo credit: REUTERS
Police tape. photo credit: REUTERS

A Jordanian immigrant faces the death sentence after a jury in Houston, Texas, found him guilty of committing two murders, which he described as "honor killing."

His wife and son who were involved in the crime are expected to be sentenced to life imprisonment.

On Thursday, prosecutors said Ali Mahmoud Awad Irsan was angered when his daughter left the family home, converted to Christianity and married a Christian man, so he killed his son-in-law and his daughter's friend who encouraged her on the wedding.

Irsan's trial ran for five weeks, but on Thursday, the jury debated for only 35 minutes before coming up with its verdict for killing Kuti Beavers, his son-in-law, and Ghilara Baqarzadeh, an Iranian women rights activist, who is his daughter’s friend.

The Houston Chronicle reported on Saturday that when given the last opportunity to speak, Irsan denied he had killed the man and woman. He talked frequently about honor, chastity and shame in Jordan and other Arab and Muslim countries. He said that death is better for him than bearing his daughter’s conversion from Islam to Christianity. He said his daughter "caused terrible pain for me and my family" after marrying her Christian husband.

"Honor and shame, that's all," the newspaper cited the special prosecutor Anna Emmons while speaking to the jury. "You have heard him say: honor is very important to him, and the only solution to cleanse this honor is murder."

During the trial, the daughter, Nisreen Irsan, testified and said her father tried to stop her from getting engaged to a Christian man, and that she went to the court to issue a protection order to prevent her father and her family from harassing her after she moved to her husband-to-be’s apartment before marriage.

The father admitted that he violated the protection order because he continued to contact his daughter and threaten her. He said the woman became a drug addict and was "living with bad friends".

Shamo al-Rawabdeh, 40, his wife and Nesreen’s mother, said she saw her husband kill his son-in-law in his apartment. She denied that she had participated in the crime, saying her role was peaceful, and she preferred to solve the problem by diplomatic means.

The woman said her husband wanted to kill his son-in-law and his daughter, but when he entered the apartment, he didn’t find the woman who had gone to work early.

The Houston Chronicle described Irsan as a "devoted Muslim" and reported he hesitated to immigrate to the US because he hates Christians.

Most Viewed

 
 
Varieties

World’s Largest Whale Graveyard Discovered by Chinese Sub

This handout photograph taken by Global TREnD, IDSSE, seven kilometers under the sea on the deep seafloor of the Diamantina Zone in the Indian Ocean in 2023 and released on June 10, 2026, shows whale bones at the world's biggest known whale graveyard discovered by the Chinese submersible Fendouzhe. (Handout / Global TREnD, IDSSE / AFP)
This handout photograph taken by Global TREnD, IDSSE, seven kilometers under the sea on the deep seafloor of the Diamantina Zone in the Indian Ocean in 2023 and released on June 10, 2026, shows whale bones at the world's biggest known whale graveyard discovered by the Chinese submersible Fendouzhe. (Handout / Global TREnD, IDSSE / AFP)
TT
TT

World’s Largest Whale Graveyard Discovered by Chinese Sub

This handout photograph taken by Global TREnD, IDSSE, seven kilometers under the sea on the deep seafloor of the Diamantina Zone in the Indian Ocean in 2023 and released on June 10, 2026, shows whale bones at the world's biggest known whale graveyard discovered by the Chinese submersible Fendouzhe. (Handout / Global TREnD, IDSSE / AFP)
This handout photograph taken by Global TREnD, IDSSE, seven kilometers under the sea on the deep seafloor of the Diamantina Zone in the Indian Ocean in 2023 and released on June 10, 2026, shows whale bones at the world's biggest known whale graveyard discovered by the Chinese submersible Fendouzhe. (Handout / Global TREnD, IDSSE / AFP)

The world's largest whale graveyard has been discovered at the bottom of the Indian Ocean by Chinese scientists, who found that the vast expanse of both new and ancient carcasses supports huge communities of deep-sea life.

It is also the deepest and oldest known whale graveyard on Earth, according to research published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, with some fossils dating back 5.3 million years.

From inside a small submersible, the Chinese researchers saw many strange animals -- many believed to be new to science -- living off the whale carcasses.

A new, though extinct, species of whale was also identified among the nearly 500 skeletons found up to 7,000 meters deep along a 1,200 kilometer corridor of bones in the Indian Ocean west of Australia.

Lead study author Xiaotong Peng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences told AFP that the researchers were "astonished" when the scale of their discovery became clear.

It was known that when whales die and drop to the seafloor, their sunken bodies -- called "whale falls" -- provide a source of food to deep-sea creatures.

"But discovering a necropolis of this scale was completely unexpected: the size of distribution, the depth and the age range were far beyond anything we had imagined," Xiaotong Peng said.

The whales were believed to have died in such numbers in this particular area because it is a popular foraging habitat -- and has a V-shaped trench that funnels carcasses to the seafloor.

- 'Truly incredible experience' -

For the discovery, the Fendouzhe submersible carried out 32 dives in 2023 -- though what it found was only revealed in Nature on Wednesday.

The sub took up to three people on the dives, collecting the fossil samples using robotic arms.

Study co-author Peng Zhou said witnessing the whale graveyard "was a truly incredible experience".

"The vibrant ecosystems we saw offered a completely different perspective on this otherwise dark and cold ocean floor."

Among the animals they discovered living off the carcasses were jellyfish, brittle stars, bone-boring worms and mollusks called bivalves.

Most of the 485 fossils the scientists catalogued were from different species of beaked whales.

Extrapolating from the number of bones they found, the scientists estimated there could be more than 10 million carcasses across the area, which is called the Diamantina Zone.

The soft tissue and lipids inside that many carcasses "translates to roughly 6.7 million tons of sequestered carbon," Xiaotong Peng said.

This provides an immense source of sustenance for animals, similar to how hydrothermal vents create their own ecosystems on the ocean floor.

Some of the animals seen by the scientists also live in hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, suggesting whale carcasses could help connect these deep-sea communities.

While this is by far the largest whale graveyard yet found, fossils found during trawling suggest there could be others off South Africa, the Iberian peninsula and the Crozet islands, said the study.

- 'More blockbusters to come'? -

University of Hawaii oceanographer Craig Smith, who discovered the first whale fall in 1987 but was not involved in the new research, told AFP it was "extremely exciting".

"The vast number of fossil whale falls documented, including a new species of beaked whale, is truly amazing and is of major importance to understanding whale evolution and whale distributions over geologic time," he said.

Whale fall researcher Amy Baco-Taylor at Florida State University told AFP the "remarkable discovery" would "likely provide many new insights".

This includes for the animals living in these "chemosynthetic" communities, whose numbers had been thought to have been drastically reduced by human whaling, she added.

US paleontologist Stephen Godfrey compared the "truly unique discovery" to past major underwater finds, such as when scientists first identified hydrothermal vents teeming with life on the ocean floor in 1977.

He called for future submersible voyages to find more whale graveyards across the world.

This discovery "reminded me of a trailer for the first in a series of epic movies", Godfrey commented in a linked Nature paper.

"I hope that there will be many more of these blockbusters to come."

Varieties

UK's Prince William Says AI Can Help to Tackle Homelessness

Prince William, Prince of Wales, attends the launch of the Global Humanitarian Memorial in London, Britain October 01, 2025. Chris Jackson/Pool via REUTERS
Prince William, Prince of Wales, attends the launch of the Global Humanitarian Memorial in London, Britain October 01, 2025. Chris Jackson/Pool via REUTERS
TT
TT

UK's Prince William Says AI Can Help to Tackle Homelessness

Prince William, Prince of Wales, attends the launch of the Global Humanitarian Memorial in London, Britain October 01, 2025. Chris Jackson/Pool via REUTERS
Prince William, Prince of Wales, attends the launch of the Global Humanitarian Memorial in London, Britain October 01, 2025. Chris Jackson/Pool via REUTERS

Britain's Prince William said artificial intelligence was being harnessed to identify people at risk of homelessness, enabling early intervention to keep them in housing or reduce the time they spend on the streets or in temporary accommodation.

The prince told an audience at London Tech Week that it was an "unusual conversation" for a technology forum, but the types of data companies handled daily could give insights that made a real difference.

"I'm not sure you realise how much that data can be used to predict and see problems with potential homelessness before they arise," he said, Reuters reported.

Homelessness has long been an important cause for the prince, and three years ago he set up the "Homewards" project with the aim of making the problem "rare, brief and unrepeated".

The program launched its Homelessness Data Lab at Tech Week in partnership with LandAid and Salesforce, supported by Bloomberg, VodafoneThree, Accenture, NatWest Group and others.

The lab will analyse data to flag warning signs - such as a missed bill payment, a phone being cut off or a child absent from school - to intervene to reduce homelessness, a problem Homewards said affected more than 430,000 people in Britain.

The prince said the data could help identify much earlier when somebody was getting into difficulties, allowing intervention that could help them stay in their homes, jobs and communities.

"Prevention is better than cure," he said, appealing to other companies and organizations to join the 25 already working with the lab.

William was shown an "Economic Wellbeing Explorer" map that uses anonymized data from NatWest to pinpoint homelessness risks in Lambeth, London, one of the six locations Homewards works in.

"It's game-changing stuff," he told Tim Siret, an analyst at Smart Data Foundry, a subsidiary of the University of Edinburgh, which created the explorer.

 

Varieties

Japan Lawmakers Back Plan to Ease Imperial Succession Crisis

Japans Emperor Naruhito delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of the World Island Nations Ocean Conference in Tokyo on June 3, 2026. (Photo by Jiji / AFP)
Japans Emperor Naruhito delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of the World Island Nations Ocean Conference in Tokyo on June 3, 2026. (Photo by Jiji / AFP)
TT
TT

Japan Lawmakers Back Plan to Ease Imperial Succession Crisis

Japans Emperor Naruhito delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of the World Island Nations Ocean Conference in Tokyo on June 3, 2026. (Photo by Jiji / AFP)
Japans Emperor Naruhito delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of the World Island Nations Ocean Conference in Tokyo on June 3, 2026. (Photo by Jiji / AFP)

Japan's legislature endorsed on Wednesday a proposed framework aimed at easing a looming imperial succession crisis, with just one young heir to the throne currently remaining.

The imperial household operates under strict rules that allow only male offsprings from the male side of the family to ascend to the ancient Chrysanthemum Throne.

That means that the household's future currently hinges on 19-year-old Prince Hisahito, Emperor Naruhito's nephew and the only young man in the family.

Other family members are either women -- who are not allowed to inherit the throne -- or older men, the youngest among them 60-year-old Crown Prince Akishino, who is Naruhito's brother and Hisahito's father.

In a bid to expand the thinning line of succession, lawmakers endorsed in principle amending the Imperial Household Law, presenting their initiative to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

The proposals would allow women keep their royal status even after marrying someone outside the family, and let the imperial family adopt male distant relatives.

"Given all the differing opinions, we believe we've managed to produce the best possible result," lower house speaker Eisuke Mori told a news conference before presenting the legislature's view to Takaichi.

Once her government drafts the amendments, the bill will return to the legislature, with Mori expressing his wish to pass it before the current parliament session ends on July 17, AFP reported.

Under the proposal, adopted men would not be heirs but their sons could be placed in line to succeed the throne, Mori said this week.

The imperial family now has 16 members in total, including five men -- the 66-year-old emperor and his brother, Prince Hisahito, retired emperor Akihito, who is 92, and his 90-year-old brother.

Emperor Naruhito has a daughter, Princess Aiko. The existing male-succession rule means that she would have to leave the family once she marries a commoner.

The lawmakers' proposal did not address the possibility of a woman emperor, an idea that has wide public support.