London, May 21 (IANS/DPA) A woman in her fifties has been mauled to death by her two registered XL bully dogs.

Armed police officers were among those who attended the woman’s home in Cornwall Close, Hornchurch, east London, at just after 1 pm (1200 GMT) on Monday.

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene, and the two registered dogs were safely seized, having been contained inside a room.

London Ambulance Service sent crews, an incident response officer and a helicopter to the house.

From February 1, it became a criminal offence to own the XL bully breed in England and Wales without an exemption certificate.

Anyone who owns one of the dogs must have had the animal neutered, have it microchipped and keep it muzzled and on a lead in public, among other restrictions.

The UK government’s move to ban XL bullies followed a series of attacks on people.

–IANS/DPA

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Tokyo, May 21 (IANS) A 6.0 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday struck near the Ogasawara Islands in the Pacific Ocean, south of Tokyo, with no tsunami warnings issued, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.

The temblor occurred at around 9:39 a.m. local time at a depth of around 50 km, measuring 4 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in Hahajima Island, said the weather agency.

There was no threat of a tsunami, it added, Xinhua news agency reported.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or major damage.

–IANS

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Washington, May 21 (IANS/DPA) US President Joe Biden has rejected accusations against the Israeli leadership that it is committing genocide in its fight against the Palestinian militant organisation Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“Contrary to allegations against Israel made by the International Court of Justice, what’s happening is not genocide. We reject that,” Biden said on Monday in the Rose Garden of the White House at a Jewish American Heritage Month event.

On Monday, International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan applied for arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Joav Galant for alleged crimes against humanity.

The request for warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant relates to alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza Strip beginning on October 8, a day after Hamas militants launched their unprecedented attack on Israel.

Among the allegations are “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare” and “intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population,” a statement from Khan’s office said.

Arrest warrants were also requested for the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yehya al-Sinwar, and other representatives of the militant organisation.

South Africa has repeatedly called on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to take action against Israel and accused the country of genocide.

In urgent rulings, the UN judges have obliged Israel to do everything possible to prevent genocide and to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

–IANS/DPA

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Kyiv, May 21 (IANS/DPA) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has again emphasised his country’s urgent need for air defence weapons.

In his daily video address on Monday evening, Zelensky said Ukraine urgently needs more air defence systems and Western fighter jets.

“Unfortunately, the free world lacks speed on these two issues,” he said, adding that, due to its air superiority, Russia is able to destroy Ukrainian cities and defence positions with glide bombs.

According to Zelensky, the Russians actively used destructive tactics on the front lines near Kharkiv and in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk in the direction of Chasiv Yar and Pokrovsk.

Zelensky had already requested the delivery of two additional Patriot air defence systems several times in recent days.

He said that this would provide better protection for Kharkiv, which has been repeatedly attacked from the air. The city in northeast Ukraine is one of the hardest hit by the war.

Also, the fighter jets mentioned by Zelensky were promised to Ukraine a year ago. However, according to official information, the F-16s have still not arrived.

According to experts, the generally long delivery times of weapons from the West are allowing Russia to prepare for the new weapons.

–IANS/DPA

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Brussels, May 21 (IANS/DPA) European Union (EU) ministers are set to give the final approval to stricter rules governing artificial intelligence (AI) in Brussels on Tuesday.

The legislation aims to make the use of AI in the EU safer and is based on a proposal made by the European Commission in 2021.

Negotiators from the European Parliament and EU countries reached an agreement on the regulation of AI in December after marathon negotiations.

The regulations aim to ensure that AI systems are as transparent, comprehensible, non-discriminatory and environmentally friendly as possible.

An important aspect is that AI systems are monitored by humans and not just by other technological systems.

AI systems are to be categorised into different risk groups in the future. The higher the potential risks of an application, the higher the requirements will be.

For example, AI systems, considered particularly high-risk and used in critical infrastructures or the education and healthcare sectors, will have to fulfil strict requirements.

AI applications that violate EU values are to be banned altogether. This includes the evaluation of social behaviour, otherwise known as “social scoring”.

In China, this is used to rate citizens’ behaviour, allowing them to unlock benefits for good behaviour.

Additionally, emotion recognition will be prohibited in the workplace and educational institutions in the EU.

The hope is that the rules will be replicated in other legal systems around the world.

–IANS/DPA

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