Inquiry ordered after 50-carriage freight train set off on its own when driver disembarked at station in Jammu
Indian Railways has ordered an investigation after a runaway freight train loaded with gravel travelled 43 miles (70km) without a driver.
About 50 carriages set off solo on Sunday, from the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir to Punjab, before being brought to a halt by wooden blocks placed on the tracks.
Continue reading...Shehbaz Sharif expected to become prime minister again after plans for coalition government announced between PML-N and PPP parties
Imran Khan’s political rivals have announced details of a coalition agreement, naming Shehbaz Sharif as their joint candidate for prime minister amid continuing concerns about the legitimacy of the recent elections.
Khan’s rivals said at a news conference of party leaders late on Tuesday that they had secured the required majority of votes to form a coalition government. The parliament will elect Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) as the new prime minister when the inaugural session of the National Assembly is convened later this month, the party leaders said.
Continue reading...Johnny Mercer tells UK inquiry of reports SAS had killed civilians between 2010 and 2013
The UK’s minister for veterans, Johnny Mercer, has effectively admitted in front of a public inquiry that he believed members of the SAS had engaged in dozens of unlawful killings of Afghan civilians between 2010 and 2013.
Mercer told the inquiry on Tuesday that at one point, shortly after first becoming a minister in 2019, Mercer said he told the then defence secretary, Ben Wallace, that “something stinks”. His boss replied: “There is no new evidence, Johnny,” and the cabinet minster chose not to take any further action.
Continue reading...MoD conducts review but stands accused of conflict of interest while public inquiry investigates conduct of SAS in Afghanistan
Elite Afghan commandos who fought alongside the British military have had their applications to relocate blocked by UK special forces despite evidence that they had served alongside them in dangerous missions against the Taliban.
Documents leaked and shared with BBC Panorama show that Britain’s secretive special forces were given a veto power over resettlement, prompting claims that hundreds of Afghan veterans have been left in limbo or danger in their native country.
Continue reading...Controversy in West Bengal centres around Akbar and Sita, named for a Hindu deity, being placed in the same enclosure
An Indian Hindu nationalist organisation has launched a court petition to stop two lions named after a Hindu deity and a 16th-century Muslim emperor from sharing a zoo enclosure.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a prominent rightwing Hindu organisation, went to court in the state of West Bengal after reports a lioness named Sita had been put with a lion called Akbar.
Continue reading...Confession by Punjab commissioner exacerbates tension over legitimacy of February general election results
A senior official in Pakistan has admitted to election rigging amid protests breaking out across the country over claims that its general election results were unfair.
The confessional statement throws further questions over the legitimacy of the 8 February elections, which were marred by controversies and allegations of rigging in Pakistan.
Continue reading...The Internationalists details how the president was determined to leave a country in which 2,324 US troops were killed since 2001
Joe Biden is “privately defiant” that he made the right calls on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in summer 2021, a new book reportedly says, even as the chaos and carnage that unfolded continues to be investigated in Congress.
“No one offered to resign” over the withdrawal, writes Alexander Ward, a Politico reporter, “in large part because the president didn’t believe anyone had made a mistake. Ending the war was always going to be messy.”
Continue reading...Rival parties will make Shehbaz Sharif prime minister, despite Khan’s party getting most votes at election
A coalition including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PLM-N) and the Pakistan People’s party (PPP) have agreed to form the next government of Pakistan, ensuring that the party of former prime minister Imran Khan will not take power despite getting the most votes in the election.
At a press conference in Islamabad on Tuesday night, it was confirmed that the rival parties had agreed, with two smaller coalition partners, to form a joint government “to take Pakistan out of difficulty” and that PLM-N’s president, Shehbaz Sharif, would be their sole nominee for prime minister.
Continue reading...Government will be formed by Nawaz Sharif’s party but it may not survive long given the popularity of the jailed Imran Khan’s PTI
It was mid-afternoon on Pakistan’s election day, sources say, when military intelligence began to realise that things on the ground were not going as planned.
Mobile services, including the internet, had been suspended across the country on the pretext of security issues. Those aware of the decision-making said the real reason was to keep voter turnout low, making the results much easier for Pakistan’s powerful military to “manage” and, most importantly, keep supporters of the former prime minister Imran Khan away from the ballot box.
Continue reading...Bullet hole found in Inderjit Singh Gosal’s house, reigniting fears of apparent campaign of violence targeting Sikh separatists
The house of a Sikh activist in Canada has been hit by gunfire, in the second such incident this month, reigniting fears of an apparent transnational campaign of violence and intimidation targeting Sikh separatists.
A construction crew found a bullet hole in a window of an unfinished house in the city of Brampton, Ontario, on Monday, according to the the US-based group Sikhs for Justice.
Continue reading...Police fire teargas on supporters of Imran Khan amid turmoil as several parties claim they would be forming government
Police fired teargas to disperse supporters of Imran Khan as protests broke out across Pakistan amid allegations of widespread vote-rigging targeting the former prime minister’s political party and other nationalist groups in the general election.
The results of the election, which took place on Thursday, gave a surprise first place to Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which won the most seats despite facing a stringent crackdown by the country’s powerful military establishment.
Continue reading...State media report all men aged 18-35 and women 18-27 must serve for up to two years and up to five years in a state of emergency
Myanmar’s junta has declared mandatory military service for all young men and women, state media said, as it struggles to contain armed rebel forces fighting for greater autonomy in various parts of the country.
All men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 must serve for up to two years, while specialists like doctors aged up to 45 must serve for three years. The service can be extended to a total of five years in the ongoing state of emergency, state media said on Saturday.
Continue reading...Jailed leader says he has support to form next government but analysts say results only suit the army
Imran Khan’s political party has declared it intends to form the next government after claiming a shock election victory, despite efforts by the opposition to take power in a backroom coalition deal.
Even as results showed that candidates backed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party run by the incarcerated former prime minister Khan, had won the most seats, by Saturday night there was still little clarity on who would be forming the next government in Pakistan, adding to a climate of political turmoil.
Continue reading...Country faces uncertainty after strong performance by independent candidates loyal to former PM Imran Khan
Pakistan’s army chief has told feuding politicians to show “maturity and unity” after an election failed to produce a clear winner, leaving the military’s favoured party having to cobble together a coalition in order to rule.
The country faces days of political horse-trading after a strong performance by independent candidates loyal to the jailed former prime minister, Imran Khan, scuppered the chances of the army-backed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) from winning a ruling majority.
Continue reading...Candidates backed by Khan’s PTI secure most seats but rival Nawaz Sharif seeks to form coalition
Politicians allied with the former prime minister Imran Khan’s party have defied a military-led crackdown and alleged widespread rigging to win the most seats in Pakistan’s election, but opponent Nawaz Sharif claimed victory and said he would form a coalition government.
Candidates backed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party run by Khan who is now serving sentences of more than a decade in jail, claimed a stunning victory after Thursday’s polls, defying all expectations that Sharif, a three-time former prime minister, and his Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) would win an easy majority.
Continue reading...Caretaker government says it took decision for security reasons after two bomb blasts targeted election offices
Phone services have been suspended in Pakistan as the country voted in a general election marred by allegations of vote rigging and militant attacks.
The caretaker government said phone services, including mobile internet, had been suspended on Thursday for security reasons, after two two bomb blasts by Islamic State targeted election offices in the restive region of Balochistan on the eve of the polls.
Continue reading...Gun Ufuk, 29, sentenced to 20 years in prison over deadly sinking that occurred metres from shore
An Italian court has sentenced a people smuggler to 20 years in prison for involvement in a shipwreck last year that killed at least 94 migrants.
The court in the southern city of Crotone found Gun Ufuk, a 29-year-old Turkish national, guilty of crimes including causing a shipwreck and aiding illegal immigration. It also ordered him to pay a €3m fine and pay damages to civil plaintiffs.
Continue reading...Fear of crime in UK capital is one of biggest concerns of rich Indians, says entrepreneur
Indian business people are avoiding being out and about in Mayfair over fears they could be mugged for their expensive watches after a 27% rise in “theft from a person” in London, an entrepreneur has said.
Devin Narang, an entrepreneur, told a meeting attended by David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, that fear of crime in London was one of the biggest concerns of India’s rich elite.
“People are being mugged in the heart of London – in Mayfair,” Narang, a member of the executive committee of the federation of Indian chambers of commerce and industry, said at a meeting in New Delhi, according to the Financial Times. “All CEOs in India have had an experience of physical mugging and the police [in London] not responding.”
Party office and that of an independent candidate hit in Balochistan province on day before vote, leaving dozens injured
Two bomb blasts, at the election offices of a political party and an independent candidate in south-west Pakistan, have killed at least 24 people and wounded more than two dozen others, a day before parliamentary elections are to be held.
In the first attack, in Pishin, a district in Balochistan province, at least 14 people were killed, officials said. The wounded were transported to a nearby hospital, some listed as in a critical condition.
Continue reading...Exclusive: $9bn port, airport and military base on Great Nicobar Island will cause ‘genocide’ of isolated Shompen, academics warn
Academics from around the world have urged India to cancel a huge construction project on Great Nicobar Island, warning it would be “a death sentence” for the Shompen hunter-gatherer people who live there.
The $9bn (£7bn) port project, planned to transform the Indian Ocean island of 8,000 inhabitants into what has been called the “Hong Kong of India”, includes the construction of an international shipping terminal, airport, power plant, military base and industrial park. It will also develop tourism.
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