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  • Son of Norway’s crown princess charged with rape, domestic violence | Crime News

    Son of Norway’s crown princess charged with rape, domestic violence | Crime News

    Marius Borg Hoiby faces up to 10 years in prison after being charged with 32 criminal offences, including rape.

    The son of Norway’s crown princess has been charged with raping four women, domestic violence, assault and other crimes following a yearlong police investigation, according to prosecutors.

    Marius Borg Hoiby, 28, son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit and stepson of the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Haakon, is expected to stand trial early next year and could face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of the most serious charges, Oslo state attorney Sturla Henriksbo said on Monday.

    Hoiby denies the most serious accusations against him but plans to plead guilty to some lesser charges in court when the trial starts, his lawyer Petar Sekulic told the Reuters news agency.

    “He does not agree with the claims regarding rape and domestic violence,” Sekulic said of his client.

    Hoiby was charged on Monday with 32 criminal offences, including one count of rape with sexual intercourse and three counts of rape without intercourse, some of which he filmed on his telephone, the prosecution said.

    Henriksbo estimates the trial could begin in mid-January and take about six weeks.

    Princess Ingrid Alexandra, Marius Borg Hoiby, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit attend the celebrations of Princess Ingrid Alexandra’s Official Day at Deichman Museum on June 16, 2022, in Oslo, Norway [File: Rune Hellestad/Getty Images]

    Hoiby does not have a royal title and is outside the line of royal succession.

    “It is up to the courts to hear this case and to reach a decision,” the royal palace said in a statement.

    The prosecutor said Hoiby, as a member of the royal family, would not be treated “more lightly or more severely” than anyone else in similar circumstances.

    Domestic abuse

    Police in November last year held Hoiby in detention for one week as part of the investigation.

    In August of last year, Hoiby was named as a suspect of physical assault against a woman with whom he had been in a relationship – the only victim identified by the prosecution, Nora Haukland.

    “The violence consisted, among other things, of him repeatedly hitting her in the face, including with a clenched fist, choking her, kicking her and grabbing her hard,” the prosecutor said.

    Hoiby, in a statement to the media at the time, admitted to causing bodily harm to the woman while he was under the influence of cocaine and alcohol and of damaging her apartment. He had stated then that he regretted his actions.

    According to media reports, he spent time with gang members, Hells Angels bikers and members of Oslo’s Albanian mafia. In 2023, police contacted him to discuss his hangouts with “notorious criminals”.

    It emerged last year that Hoiby had already been arrested in 2017 for using cocaine at a music festival.

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  • Woodside cuts exploration, shifts focus to $39 billion project pipeline after profit drop – Reuters

    1. Woodside cuts exploration, shifts focus to $39 billion project pipeline after profit drop  Reuters
    2. Woodside Energy Group Ltd Reports Earnings Results for the Half Year Ended June 30, 2025  MarketScreener
    3. CEO SERIES: Woodside’s Meg O’Neill & BHP CFO Vandita Pant + CSL dumped  SBS Australia
    4. Woodside profit falls as costs rise and oil prices ease  Proactive financial news
    5. Woodside delivers strong growth results in 2025  Petroleum Australia

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  • Most Gulf bourses subdued on falling oil prices – Reuters

    1. Most Gulf bourses subdued on falling oil prices  Reuters
    2. Most Gulf bourses slip on geopolitics  Business Recorder
    3. Dubai stocks rise as Abu Dhabi slips  Daily Times
    4. Most Gulf shares muted on lower oil prices; Fed symposium in focus  TradingView
    5. Gulf Markets Drift As Investors Wait On US Fed Moves  Finimize

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  • Chinese FM Wang Yi due in Islamabad to co-chair strategic dialogue on August 21

    Chinese FM Wang Yi due in Islamabad to co-chair strategic dialogue on August 21

    Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (right) greets Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar in Beijing on May 20, 2025. — Xinhua
    • Wang Yi to co-chair Islamabad dialogue.
    • CPEC, trade, peace top agenda in talks.
    • First Pakistan visit since India’s May aggression.

    Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is visiting Islamabad to co-chair the 6th Pakistan-China Foreign Ministers’ Strategic Dialogue on August 21, the Foreign Office said in a statement on Tuesday.

    According to the statement, the visit forms part of regular high-level exchanges aimed at further strengthening the “All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership” between Pakistan and China.

    The dialogue will reaffirm mutual support on each other’s core interests, enhance economic and trade cooperation, and underline both countries’ commitment to regional peace, development, and stability.

    According to The News, Wang Yi’s engagements will include meetings with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, with a focus on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) progress, economic collaboration, regional security, and defence ties. 

    The Chinese foreign minister is also expected to meet Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir in Rawalpindi.

    This will be Wang Yi’s first visit to Pakistan since India’s cross-border aggression in May last year and comes weeks after his meeting with Field Marshal Munir in Beijing, a development seen as reinforcing the “ironclad” relationship between Islamabad and Beijing.

    Diplomatic sources have further indicated that the much-anticipated trilateral meeting of the foreign ministers of Pakistan, China, and Afghanistan is expected to take place in Kabul immediately after Wang Yi’s visit.

    DPM Dar is likely to accompany him for the talks with Afghanistan’s Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, though officials have not ruled out the possibility of the Afghan foreign minister travelling to Islamabad instead. The discussions are expected to cover regional stability and Pakistan’s security concerns regarding Afghanistan.

    Sources noted that some global capitals had attempted to obstruct the trilateral dialogue, but after weeks of negotiations, the three sides agreed to proceed. The meeting is seen as an important step in advancing trilateral cooperation.

    Wang Yi’s trip carries significant regional weight as it follows his stop in New Delhi and precedes Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to China later this month for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin.


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  • Prenatal Chlorpyrifos Exposure Linked to Brain Abnormalities

    Prenatal Chlorpyrifos Exposure Linked to Brain Abnormalities


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    A new study reports evidence of a link between prenatal exposure to the widely used insecticide chlorpyrifos (CPF) and structural brain abnormalities, as well as poorer motor function, in New York City children and adolescents.

    The findings are the first to demonstrate enduring and widespread molecular, cellular, and metabolic effects in the brain, as well as poorer fine motor control among youth with prenatal exposure to the insecticide. The study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and Keck School of Medicine of USC is published in the journal JAMA Neurology.

    The 270 children and adolescents are participants in the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health birth cohort study and were born to Latino and African-American mothers. They had measurable quantities of CPF in their umbilical cord blood and were assessed by brain imaging and behavioral tests between the ages of 6 and 14 years. Progressively higher insecticide exposure levels were significantly associated with progressively greater alterations in brain structure, function, and metabolism, as well as poorer measures of motor speed and motor programming. Links between higher CPF and greater anomalies across different neuroimaging measures suggest that prenatal exposure produces enduring disturbances in brain structure, function, and metabolism in direct proportion to the level of exposure.

    Residential use was the primary source of CPF exposure in this cohort. Although the EPA banned indoor residential use in 2001, agricultural use continues for non-organic fruits, vegetables, and grains, contributing to toxic exposures carried by outdoor air and dust near agricultural areas.

    “Current widespread exposures, at levels comparable to those experienced in this sample, continue to place farm workers, pregnant women, and unborn children in harm’s way. It is vitally important that we continue to monitor the levels of exposure in potentially vulnerable populations, especially in pregnant women in agricultural communities, as their infants continue to be at risk,” said Virginia Rauh, ScD, senior author on the study and the Jane and Alan Batkin Professor of Population and Family Health at Columbia Mailman School.

    “The disturbances in brain tissue and metabolism that we observed with prenatal exposure to this one pesticide were remarkably widespread throughout the brain. Other organophosphate pesticides likely produce similar effects, warranting caution to minimize exposures in pregnancy, infancy, and early childhood, when brain development is rapid and especially vulnerable to these toxic chemicals,” says first author Bradley Peterson, MD, Vice Chair for Research and Chief of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

    Reference: Peterson BS, Delavari S, Bansal R, et al. Brain abnormalities in children exposed prenatally to the pesticide chlorpyrifos. JAMA Neurol. 2025. doi: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2025.2818

    This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source. Our press release publishing policy can be accessed here.

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  • Early Puberty and Childbirth Linked to Faster Aging

    Early Puberty and Childbirth Linked to Faster Aging


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    Reproductive timing matters when it comes to aging and age-related disease.  In a study now online at eLife¸ Buck researchers determine that girls who go through puberty (the onset of menstruation) before the age of 11 or women who give birth before the age of 21 have double the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart failure and obesity and quadruple the risk of developing severe metabolic disorders. The study also reveals that later puberty and childbirth are genetically associated with longer lifespan, lower frailty, slower epigenetic aging and reduced risk of age-related diseases, including type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s.

    Buck professor Pankaj Kapahi, PhD, senior author of the study says the public health implications of the research are significant.  “Even though women are routinely asked about their menstrual and childbirth history when they receive medical care, this information has rarely factored into the care they receive outside of OB/GYN,” he says. “These risk factors, whether positive or negative, clearly have significant influence on a variety of age-related diseases and should be considered in the larger context of overall health.”

    The research was based on one of the most comprehensive analyses to date, using regression analysis on nearly 200,000 women in the UK Biobank to confirm genetic associations. “We identified 126 genetic markers that mediate the effects of early puberty and childbirth on aging,” said postdoctoral fellow Yifan Xiang, MD, who led the research. “Many of these markers are involved in well-known longevity pathways, such as IGF-1, growth hormone, AMPK and mTOR signaling, key regulators of metabolism and aging.” 

    Genetic associations for antagonistic pleiotropy in humans

    Evolution is based on natural selection acting on traits early in life to encourage reproduction and survival of the species. The antagonistic pleiotropy theory of aging suggests that traits beneficial in the young can have negative effects later in life.  “Our study provides some of the strongest human evidence for this theory,” Kapahi says. “We show that genetic factors favoring early reproduction come with the significant cost later in life including accelerated aging and disease. It makes sense that the very factors that help enhance survival of the offspring may lead to detrimental consequences for the mother.”

    The role of BMI in aging and disease risk

    Kapahi says the study highlights the role of Body Mass Index (BMI) as a critical mediator of this process, finding that early reproductive events contribute to a higher BMI, which in turn increases the risk of metabolic disease.  “One can envisage that enhancing the ability to absorb nutrients would benefit the offspring but if nutrients are plentiful then it can enhance the risk of obesity and diabetes.”                                                                                                       

    Implications for public health and basic science

    Kapahi says understanding the long-term impact of reproductive timing allows for the development of personalized healthcare strategies that could help mitigate the risks associated with early puberty and early childbirth, adding that lifestyle modifications, metabolic screenings and tailored dietary recommendations could improve long-term health in women.  He says taking reproductive timing into account is currently relevant based on research that shows the age at which girls in the US begin menstruating has dropped by about three months per decade since the 1970s. No specific causes for the phenomena have been identified, but research suggests obesity may play a role.

    While updated research guidelines call for the use of both sexes in preclinical research in mice, Kapahi says this current study still challenges traditional experimental design, noting that most disease models use virgin female mice, which may not accurately represent real-world aging patterns.

    “If evolution has shaped us to prioritize early reproduction at the cost of aging, how can we leverage this knowledge to extend healthspan in modern society? Kapahi asks.  “While we cannot change our genetic inheritance, understanding these genetic tradeoffs empowers us to make informed choices about health, lifestyle and medical care.” The study also identifies several genetic pathways that can be manipulated to optimize health for mothers as well as her offspring Kapahi says.

    Reference: Xiang Y, Tanwar V, Singh P, La Follette L, Narayan VP, Kapahi P. Early menarche and childbirth accelerate aging-related outcomes and age-related diseases: Evidence for antagonistic pleiotropy in humans. eLife. 2025;13:RP102447. doi: 10.7554/eLife.102447.4

    This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source. Our press release publishing policy can be accessed here.

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  • China’s Foreign Minister Wang to visit Pakistan on Aug 21 for strategic dialogue: FO – Pakistan

    China’s Foreign Minister Wang to visit Pakistan on Aug 21 for strategic dialogue: FO – Pakistan

    Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is set to visit the country this week for the sixth Pakistan-China Strategic Dialogue, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Tuesday.

    Pakistan and China share a longstanding strategic partnership with
    ties ranging across different sectors — including trade, energy, defence and infrastructure. The fifth round of Strategic Dialogue in May 2024 was co-chaired by Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and his Chinese counterpart Wang in Beijing.

    According to the FO’s statement today, “On the invitation of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar … Mr Wang Yi is visiting Islamabad for co-chairing the sixth Pakistan-China Foreign Ministers’ Strategic Dialogue on August 21, 2025.”

    “The visit is part of the regular high-level exchanges between Pakistan and China to further deepen their ‘All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership’, reaffirm support on the issues of respective core interests, enhance economic and trade cooperation, and reaffirm their joint commitment to regional peace, development and stability,” the statement added.

    The development comes during Wang’s ongoing visit to India. During talks with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Monday, Wang said that China and India should “view each other as partners and opportunities, rather than adversaries or threats”.

    He pointed to the resumption of “dialogue at all levels” and “maintenance of peace and tranquillity in border areas” as evidence that bilateral ties were on a “positive trend of returning to the main path of cooperation”.

    Last month, Dar met with Wang on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation event, where the pair discussed and reaffirmed mutual support in core sectors, including agriculture, mining, industry and security.

    “China is ready to work with Pakistan to implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, and push forward the building of a China-Pakistan community with a shared future,” Wang had said.

    In February, President Asif Ali Zardari held a bilateral meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing, with the two sides vowing to strengthen the Pakistan-China strategic cooperative partnership.

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  • Norway fund divests from more Israeli companies operating in West Bank, Gaza-Xinhua

    OSLO, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) — Norway’s 2 trillion U.S. dollars oil fund said Monday that it will exclude six more Israeli companies from its investment portfolio after an ethics review found their operations in the West Bank and Gaza.

    The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund did not specify the companies, but said their names and the reasons for exclusion would be disclosed once the divestments are finalized.

    Media reports said Monday that the list could include Israel’s five largest banks, which have been under review by the fund’s ethics watchdog.

    Meanwhile, the fund said it had sold stakes in six other companies as part of last week’s decision to cut its holdings in Israeli firms from 61 at the end of June to 32 in the coming weeks, keeping only those included in an equity benchmark index created by Norway’s Finance Ministry.

    Norges Bank Investment Management, the body overseeing the fund, announced last week that it had sold its holdings in 11 Israeli companies.

    “More companies could be excluded,” Norwegian Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg told reporters.

    The fund launched an urgent review earlier this month after reports found that it had invested in an Israeli jet engine group that provides services to Israel’s armed forces.

    Critics said the fund could only avoid potential ethical breaches by fully divesting from Israeli companies. ■

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  • Spatiotemporal dynamics and associated drivers of COVID-19 incidence in Nepal | Tropical Medicine and Health

    Spatiotemporal dynamics and associated drivers of COVID-19 incidence in Nepal | Tropical Medicine and Health

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  • Three Consecutive Holidays Expected in September

    Three Consecutive Holidays Expected in September

    The Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) has released its forecast for the sighting of the Rabi-ul-Awwal moon for the Islamic year 1447 AH.

    According to the report, the new moon is expected to be born on August 23, 2025, at 11:06 a.m. By the evening of August 24, it will be over 32 hours old, making it visible under favorable conditions.

    Based on this calculation, the first day of Rabi-ul-Awwal is likely to fall on August 25, with 12 Rabi-ul-Awwal expected on Friday, September 5.

    The following day, September 6, marks Defence Day, which is commemorated nationwide to honor the sacrifices of Pakistan’s armed forces. While it is not officially listed as a public holiday, the government may declare one this year in light of Pakistan’s recent victory against India in the May conflict.

    With Sunday, September 7, already a weekly holiday, citizens could have three consecutive days off at the start of September — combining religious observance, national commemoration, and the regular weekend break.


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