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UK seizes record haul of illegal weight-loss drugs in factory raid

UK seizes record haul of illegal weight-loss drugs in factory raid
Britain's medicines regulator on Friday said it had made the largest single seizure of trafficked weight loss medicines recorded globally, dismantling a factory making thousands of unlicensed weight-loss jabs. (X/@press_newswire)
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Updated 4 sec ago

UK seizes record haul of illegal weight-loss drugs in factory raid

UK seizes record haul of illegal weight-loss drugs in factory raid
  • MHRA said it had seized 2,000 pens labelled as containing tirzepatide and retatrutide
  • The agency said the factory in central England was the first of its kind discovered in Britain

LONDON: Britain’s medicines regulator on Friday said it had made the largest single seizure of trafficked weight loss medicines recorded globally, dismantling a factory making thousands of unlicensed weight-loss jabs.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said it had seized 2,000 pens labelled as containing tirzepatide and retatrutide — drugs not approved for weight loss in the UK — tens of thousands of empty pens, and raw chemicals.

The agency said the factory in central England was the first of its kind discovered in Britain.
“This is a victory in the fight against the shameless criminals who are putting lives at risk by peddling dangerous and illegal weight loss jabs to make a quick buck,” health minister Wes Streeting said in a statement.
“These unregulated products, made with no regard for safety or quality, posed a major risk to unwitting customers.”


Roadside bombing kills 3 police officers in northwest Pakistan

Updated 7 sec ago

Roadside bombing kills 3 police officers in northwest Pakistan

Roadside bombing kills 3 police officers in northwest Pakistan
The bombing took place in the city of Hangu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attacks and blamed the Pakistani Taliban for the violence

PESHAWAR: A powerful roadside bomb struck a police vehicle Friday in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in the country’s northwest near the Afghan border, killing a city police chief and two junior officers, officials said.
The bombing took place in the city of Hangu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province as the officers were heading to a police station that had been attacked less than an hour earlier, local police chief Adam Khan said. He gave no further details.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attacks and blamed the Pakistani Taliban for the violence.
The latest assaults came a day before Pakistan and Afghanistan are scheduled to hold a second round of peace talks in Istanbul, following an initial meeting in Qatari capital Doha on Oct. 19. Those talks, brokered by Qatar and Turkiye, followed deadly border clashes that left dozens dead on both sides and led to a temporary ceasefire that remains in place.
The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, is a separate group but a close ally of Afghanistan’s Taliban, which returned to power in Kabul in August 2021 after the withdrawal of US and NATO forces.
Since then, many TTP fighters and leaders have found refuge in Afghanistan, some living openly under Taliban rule — a situation that has emboldened the group and strained ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The TTP frequently targets security forces and civilians inside Pakistan.
All border crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been closed since Oct. 13 following deadly clashes between the two sides.
Pakistan and Afghanistan share a 2,611-kilometer (1,622-mile) border known as the Durand Line, which Afghanistan has never formally recognized.

Four dead, 12 wounded in blast at Ukraine train station

Four dead, 12 wounded in blast at Ukraine train station
Updated 37 min 14 sec ago

Four dead, 12 wounded in blast at Ukraine train station

Four dead, 12 wounded in blast at Ukraine train station
  • Three women — a border guard and two civilians — were killed in the blast
  • The explosion was carried out by a man during a document check in a controlled border area

KYIV: A man detonated an explosive device at a railway station in northern Ukraine on Friday, killing three other people and dying of wounds he sustained, officials said.
Three women — a border guard and two civilians — were killed in the blast, which happened during a document check on a platform next to a train, Ukraine’s border guard said in a statement.
“The explosion was carried out by a man during a document check in a controlled border area at the Ovruch railway station,” the border service said on social media.
The man, 23, also died while being treated in an ambulance after the blast, it added.
Ukrainian media reported that he detonated a grenade, but a spokesperson for Ukraine’s interior ministry told AFP they could not confirm the type of device.
An image from the scene posted on Telegram by the Ukrainian border guard service showed rescuers helping casualties from the blast on the platform.
The man “had recently been detained for attempting to violate the state border in the western section of the state border,” it said.


Missing Picasso painting found in Madrid weeks after vanishing

Missing Picasso painting found in Madrid weeks after vanishing
Updated 51 min 57 sec ago

Missing Picasso painting found in Madrid weeks after vanishing

Missing Picasso painting found in Madrid weeks after vanishing
  • The small framed “Still Life with Guitar” was part of a larger shipment of artworks moved to Granada
  • Police said the painting may not have been loaded onto the transport truck

MADRID: Spanish police said on Friday they had recovered a 1919 Pablo Picasso painting that went missing earlier this month ahead of its planned display at a temporary exhibition in southern Spain.
The small framed “Still Life with Guitar” was part of a larger shipment of artworks moved from Madrid to Granada. The exhibit’s organizers filed a police complaint on October 10 once they noticed it missing after the crates were unpacked.
In a post on X, police said the painting may not have been loaded onto the transport truck before the shipment left Madrid. The historical heritage brigade was continuing its investigation, the statement said, without indicating whether police believed any crime had been committed.
Police released pictures of forensic experts examining the painting while wearing full sterile bodysuits and masks.
The police had registered the painting, which is owned by a private collector, in Interpol’s global database of Stolen Works of Art containing nearly 57,000 items.
The CajaGranada Foundation holding the exhibition said its security camera footage showed only 57 works being unloaded from the vehicle when it arrived, instead of the 58 expected.


At least 14 dead as migrant boat sinks off Turkiye

At least 14 dead as migrant boat sinks off Turkiye
Updated 24 October 2025

At least 14 dead as migrant boat sinks off Turkiye

At least 14 dead as migrant boat sinks off Turkiye
  • At least 14 migrants died when their inflatable dinghy capsized in the Aegean Sea off the Turkish resort of Bodrum, the governor's office said Friday, raising an earlier toll of seven dead

ISTANBUL: At least 14 migrants died when their inflatable dinghy capsized in the Aegean Sea off the Turkish resort of Bodrum, the governor’s office said Friday, raising an earlier toll of seven dead.
“The lifeless bodies of 14 irregular migrants were recovered,” the office of the Mugla governorate said on X, saying the coast guard was alerted to the emergency in the early hours of Friday morning.
It said they had found two survivors, one of whom said the boat had been “carrying 18 people” when it started letting on water, sinking just 10 minutes later. One survivor managed to swim to Celebi Island.
One of the survivors was an Afghan national, the governor’s office said without saying where the others were from.
It said four coast guard boats backed by a helicopter and a specialist diving team were looking for the two remaining migrants who were unaccounted for, it said.
Migrant boats are often lost on the short but perilous route between the Turkish coast and the nearby Greek islands of Samos, Rhodes and Lesbos that serve as entry points to the European Union.
Bodrum lies close to the Greek island of Kos.
According to the Missing Migrants Project run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), nearly 1,400 migrants have died trying to reach Europe via the Mediterranean Sea this year.


Families search Mexican forest for remains of over 100 missing

Families search Mexican forest for remains of over 100 missing
Updated 24 October 2025

Families search Mexican forest for remains of over 100 missing

Families search Mexican forest for remains of over 100 missing
  • The groups involved in the operation estimate that there could be between 130 and 150 bodies buried or hidden in the area
  • Nationwide, there are more than 127,000 missing persons, with an uptick in reported disappearances linked to a rise in drug-related violence since the government launched a major operation targeting crime groups in December 2006

MEXICO CITY: Families of dozens of Mexicans feared killed and buried in the woods south of the capital on Thursday joined a colossal search operation for their loved ones alongside activists, authorities and forensic experts.
They began combing a large wooded area in Ajusco, a volcanic hill south of Mexico City, searching for human remains.
The groups involved in the operation estimate that there could be between 130 and 150 bodies buried or hidden in the area.
Mothers dug the ground with pitchforks and shovels, while others used machetes and heavy machinery to clear vegetation, AFP images showed.
Araceli Olmedo Cruz, 40, told AFP she was searching for her son Benjamin who went missing from a nearby neighborhood in April 2024.
“Since it’s a secluded area, it makes it easier for people to come and dump the bodies,” she said.
Nationwide, there are more than 127,000 missing persons, with an uptick in reported disappearances linked to a rise in drug-related violence since the government launched a major operation targeting crime groups in December 2006.
Bodies have been discovered across the country.
In Bartolina, in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, authorities unearthed about 1,100 pounds (500 kgs) of human remains between 2017 and 2021.
Arnulfo Garcia is searching for his mother, Placida, who he hasn’t heard from in a year but hopes is still alive.
“We had searched in urban areas of the city, put up posters,” he said.
Garcia said he decided to join the Ajusco search in the hopes of connecting with authorities who may be able to locate his mother.
Local media said the search, involving some 430 people, will continue until October 31.