ISLAMABAD: At least three heart patients died on Wednesday after a group of lawyers attacked doctors at a cardiac hospital in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore, officials and ministers said.

“Three patients including an elderly woman died after doctors failed to provide them timely treatment and remained engaged in averting the assault,” Punjab provincial health minister Yasmeen Rashid said at a televised press conference in Lahore.

A group of more than 200 lawyers, who had ongoing issues with the doctors of the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, stormed the hospital, vandalising property and damaging dozens of vehicles of visitors and setting ablaze a police van, Rashid said.

The incident was apparently triggered by video clips some doctors had made ridiculing the lawyers.

Punjab information minister Fayyaz-ul-Hassan who arrived at the hospital to mediate was also thrashed by angry lawyers.

“This was kind of a high-handedness which none of civilised societies can tolerate,” provincial law minister Raja Basharat said.

Private television channels showed live footage of the scuffles from the scene where some of the lawyers were also seen brandishing pistols.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, who ordered an inquiry into the incident, directed Punjab provincial government to take stern action against all those involved in the attack.

“Several lawyers have been identified from the television footage and the government will deal with all those involved in the attack with an iron hand,” Basharat said.

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — From Thanos and the Cost of Living Aid (BSH) to the Air Pollution Index (API) readings, these random words and terms have one thing in common — they’re Google’s trendiest searches for 2019 in Malaysia.

Releasing its annual Malaysian Year in Search today, Google Malaysia took a look at the unique trending searches this past year, particularly the top ten for 2019, starting with the Earth Day Quiz.

The light-hearted knowledge test by Google coincides with Earth Day on April 22 every year, which assigns quiz takers an animal they are most like, based on their responses to questions such as their preferred activity on a Friday night or their preferred snack.

In second place is the ruthless Marvel Cinematic Universe villain Thanos, whose dialogue lines and personality have become iconic, inspiring merchandise and memes alike. More serious in third place is BSH, which saw many look it up to check on their funds.

Football remains an enduring passion for Malaysians, as the South American regional tournament Copa America 2019 came in fourth, particularly as host nation Brazil garnered its ninth winning title.

The ongoing haze pollution earlier this year which engulfed much of the Peninsular and East Malaysia led to the API being in fifth place. Other honourable mentions include Islamic prayer times in sixth place, while the movies Joker, Captain Marvel, and Avengers Endgame came in at seventh to ninth places respectively. The newly-launched Perodua Aruz SUV came in at tenth place.

Google Malaysia’s head of communications Zeffri Yusof said for the most part, trending searches in Malaysia have been fairly diverse in the past several years.

“It is neatly divided between entertainment with popular figures, and current affairs news. For example trending people this year include Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali and Indonesian celebrity Vanessa Angel, while trending news include the Budget 2020 and last month’s Tanjung Piai by-election,” he told Malay Mail following the media event revealing Malaysia’s trending searches at Publika along Jalan Duta.

Zeffri added such diversity was not always a given, as there have been instances when one phenomenon or field dominates all others in a given year.

“In terms of Malaysian search interests, last year was very political since it was the 14th general election. For 2014 it was primarily human interests, in light of the MH370 and MH17 tragedies that took place,” he said.

KOTA KINABALU, Dec 11 — The Sabah government today declared December 24 as an additional public holiday in conjunction with Christmas starting this year.

Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said with the announcement, there will be an additional public holiday to Christmas which falls on December 25.

“The matter was decided in the state cabinet meeting this morning and I hope the additional holiday would benefit those celebrating the occasion.

“The additional public holiday will enable those celebrating Christmas to return home earlier,” he said when speaking at the 2019 Kota Kinabalu Christmas celebration here tonight.

Also present were three Sabah Deputy Chief Ministers Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau, Datuk Jaujan Sambakong and Datuk Christina Liew as well as state cabinet ministers.

Commenting on the celebration, Mohd Shafie said the celebration is a symbol of the solidarity and harmony of the various races and religions in the state.

“Harmony is the key to the development and progress of our country. As such we need to maintain unity for our beloved Sabah state.

“In my view, the theme tonight is ‘Purity in Harmony’ is very appropriate. Solidarity is created via harmony and harmony would become a source of strength in difficult or good times,” he added. — Bernama

JAKARTA: Malaysia and Indonesia have agreed in principle on the use of technology such as drones to monitor security and crime along their common border.

Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the Malaysia-Indonesia border agreement, which will be renewed next year, will lean towards the use of technology to resolve border issues.

“The memorandum of understanding on the border crossing agreement and border trade agreement is being finalised and will be signed next year,” he told reporters here today.

Muhyiddin, who is on a two-day working visit to Indonesia, held discussions with Indonesia’s Manpower Minister Ida Fauziya and Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laolyn today.

He said Malaysia and Indonesia will continue to work closely to resolve issues like smuggling, drug trafficking, human trafficking and cross-border crimes.

He said he and Ida also discussed the issue of workers who enter Malaysia illegally.

“Malaysia and Indonesia are united on this. The issue of illegal immigrants must be resolved together and seriously,” he said.

He also said the two countries were looking at implementing an exchange programme of prisoners, adding that the matter was brought up by Indonesian President Joko Widodo at a recent meeting with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The proposed programme will see prisoners being sent back to their own countries to serve their sentences.

There are about 300 Malaysians in Indonesian prisons, while more than 5,000 Indonesians are serving time in Malaysia.

PH leaders told to stop disputes

Meanwhile, Muhyiddin, who is the PPBM president, said Pakatan Harapan leaders should stop any turmoil or disputes, which could give a negative impression and affect the people’s confidence in the government.

Without pinpointing any leader, he said everyone should be focused on improving the economy and solving the people’s problems.

“I hope everyone involved (in any conflict) would find a way to solve the party’s problems,” he said.

Muhyiddin said the people were expecting the government to focus on efforts to improve their standard of living, address the cost of living issues and create new economic opportunities for them.

MADRID: Seventeen people, most of them teenage boys, have been arrested in Spain for sharing images of “extremely violent” child pornography on Whatsapp, police said Tuesday following a two-year investigation spanning three continents.

The arrests came as part of a wide-ranging international probe led by Spain’s national police, in which 33 people were detained in raids across 11 countries.

As well as the 17 arrested in Spain, another nine were being held for investigation – with a total of 14 teenage boys involved.

In Spain, “most of those arrested” were minors, with the youngest just 15, police spokesman Eduardo Casas told AFP.

They were arrested for storing and sharing pornographic files, which in some cases were “extremely serious”, Casas said.

He indicated some involved the graphic abuse and rape of very young children, including “babies of just a few months up to children aged 11 or 12”.

Following several tipoffs by email, police discovered “a Whatsapp group formed by minors, in which several participants had normalised the existence of child pornography and the sexual abuse of other minors”.

As well as sharing files, they had even produced “stickers” – small, digital images like emojis which can be readily shared online – showing “very young children being abused”.

In one case, a 29-year-old man was arrested for not only downloading child pornography but for encouraging other group members to make contact with young girls who could be exploited, particularly migrants who were unlikely to approach the police for help.

A total of 20 people were arrested in Europe – 17 in Spain, and three others in Italy, France and the United Kingdom.

A further 10 were arrested in Latin America – four in Ecuador, two in Uruguay, two in Peru and two in Costa Rica. Another three were picked up in India, Pakistan and Syria.