12/02/2026

THURSDAY | FEB 12, 2026

9

Canada high school shooting, 10 dead

GRENOBLE: French prosecutors on Tuesday appealed for more victims to testify in a mass abuse case against a 79-year-old former teacher charged with the rape and sexual assault of 89 minors since the 1960s across multiple countries. Prosecutor Etienne Manteaux spoke to reporters in Grenoble to publicise the case of the man, who had also confessed to killing his terminally ill mother and his elderly aunt. In an unusual move, French authorities named the suspect, Jacques Leveugle, who was born in 1946 in Annecy, an Alpine town an hour’s drive away from Grenoble. Leveugle has been in custody since being charged in 2024, the prosecutor said. “This name must be known because the aim is to enable potential victims to come forward,” the prosecutor said. Manteaux said that Leveugle, who is accused of abusing minors in countries including Germany, India and Colombia between 1967 and 2022, has called himself a “gentleman boy-lover” and targeted male teenagers aged 13 to 17. “Cultured and charismatic”, Leveugle took the youngsters under his wing and proceeded to “intellectually seduce”them, he said. “There was never any violence,” said Serge Procedes, commander of the Grenoble investigation unit. “We are really talking about moral coercion.” The investigation is a race against time, said Procedes, given the suspect’s age and the statute of limitations. “This judicial investigation will have to be closed in 2026,” he said. The witness appeal is aimed at “seeking out”unidentified victims or those who appear in the documents “only by their nickname or first name”, said Procedes. – AFP Appeal for more witnesses in mass sexual abuse case Jakarta readies peacekeepers JAKARTA: The proposed Gaza peacekeeping force could number 20,000 troops, with Indonesia estimating its potential contribution at 8,000. P residential spokesman Prasetyo Hadi said: “The total force is about 20,000 troops and Indonesia has estimated it can send up to 8,000 troops. We are preparing in case an agreement is reached and the need arises to deploy.” Deputy Foreign Minister Arrmanatha Nasir said Indonesia plans to hold a forum to discuss the situation in Palestine as part of a D-8 meeting this year to advance efforts to resolve the Palestinian Israeli conflict. He said the forum will address latest developments and steps that the D-8 countries can take jointly. Indonesia chairs the D-8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation, which includes Indonesia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkiye. – Bernama

OTTAWA: Ten people including the shooter are dead after an assailant opened fire at a high school in western Canada on Tuesday in one of the country’s deadliest mass casualty events in recent history. The outburst brought to Canada the type of mass shooting more common in the neighbouring United States, and was carried out by a shooter described as female, police said. Six people were found dead inside a high school in the town of Tumbler Ridge in British Columbia, two more people were found dead at a residence believed to be connected to the incident, and another person died on the way to hospital, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said. At least two other people were hospitalised with serious or life threatening injuries, and as many as 25 people were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said. A suspected shooter was also found dead from what appears to be a self-inflicted injury, police said, adding they did not believe there

Tumbler Ridge Secondary School has 160 students in grades seven through 12, roughly ages 12 to 18, according to its website. The school was closed for the rest of the week and counselling will be made available to those in need, school officials said. Officials said the town’s small police force was on the scene within two minutes of receiving a call, and that victims were still being assessed hours after the incident. “This is a small, tight-knit community with a small RCMP detachment as well, who responded in two minutes, no doubt saving lives today,” said British Columbia Public Safety Minister Nina Krieger. – Reuters

o Public alert reports female shooter

A police active shooter alert said the suspect was described “as female in a dress with brown hair”. Police Superintendent Ken Floyd later confirmed that the suspect described in the alert was the same person found dead in the school. Police did not say how many of the victims may have been minors. Tumbler Ridge is a remote municipality with a population of around 2,400 people in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in northern British Columbia, about 1,155km northeast of Vancouver.

were any more suspects or ongoing threat to the public. “It’s hard to know what to say on a night like tonight. It’s the kind of thing that feels like it happens in other places and not close to home,” said British Columbia Premier David Eby. Police released almost no details about the shooter except to say the person was described a female – potentially an unusual development as mass shootings in North America are almost always carried out by men.

Russia pivots to India for workers Indians – nearly a third of the total annual quota for migrant workers on visas. Indian workers working on tulle fabric at a textile factory in the town of Balashikha near Moscow. – REUTERSPIC

MOSCOW: A group of weary-looking Indian men carrying sports bags queued at passport control at a busy Moscow airport one recent evening after flying over 4,345km and via Uzbekistan to get work. “I have a contract for one year. In the rubbish disposal business. The money is good,” said Ajit. Faced with what the authorities say is an immediate shortage of at least 2.3 million workers, a shortfall exacerbated by the strain of Russia’s war in Ukraine and one that Russia’s traditional source of foreign labour, Central Asians, is not able to fill, Moscow is turning to a new supplier: India. In 2021, a year before Russia sent its troops into Ukraine, some 5,000 work permits were approved for Indian nationals. Last year, almost 72,000 permits were okayed for

Gaurav, 23, from India said he had been working in Russia for three months. “I was told to come (over) to this side, that the work and money are good,” he said. “Russian life is very good.” Married with two children, he said he spoke to his family back in India by phone every day and told them he missed them. Olga Lugovskaya, the company’s owner, said the workers – with the help of samples and supervision – had picked up the work in time and were highly motivated. Outside Moscow, the Sergiyevsky farm relies on Indian workers too, using them to process and pack vegetables for an average salary of about 50,000 roubles (RM2,585) per month, a salary for which the farm says locals will not work. – Reuters

economic ties between Moscow and New Delhi. India has been buying discounted Russian oil that Moscow, due to Western sanctions, cannot easily sell elsewhere. President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed a deal in December to make it easier for Indians to work in Russia. Denis Manturov, Russia’s first deputy prime minister, said at the time that Russia could accept an “unlimited number” of Indian workers. At least 800,000 people were needed in manufacturing, and another 1.5 million in the service and construction sectors, he said. Brera Intex, a Moscow textiles company, has hired around 10 workers from South Asia, including Indians, to make curtains and bed linen.

“Expatriate employees from India are the most popular,” said Alexei Filipenkov, director of a company that brings in Indian workers. He said workers from ex-Soviet Central Asia, who do not need visas, had stopped coming in sufficient numbers. Official figures show they still made up the majority of some 2.3 million legal foreign workers not requiring a visa last year, however. But a weaker rouble, tougher migration laws, and increasingly sharp anti-immigrant rhetoric from Russian politicians have eroded their numbers and encouraged Moscow to boost visa quotas for workers from elsewhere. The choice of India for unskilled labour reflects strong defence and