Category Archives: India

Allegations of Indian interference rock Canada election campaign

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Senior officials warn nations including China, Pakistan and Iran could attempt to subvert vote with sophisticated tools

The spectre of interference by India has already rocked the early days of Canada’s federal election, with officials warning that sophisticated efforts from other hostile nations are expected in the coming weeks.

As Canadians prepare to cast ballots on 28 April, senior officials say that India, China, Pakistan and Iran are all expected to make efforts to subvert the national vote through increasingly sophisticated disinformation campaigns.

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Internationally acclaimed film Santosh blocked in India over portrayal of police brutality

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Award-winning film set in fictional town has already made its debut at Cannes but censors have refused to approve it for domestic release

Indian film censors have blocked the release of critically acclaimed film Santosh over concerns about its portrayal of misogyny, Islamophobia and violence in the Indian police force.

Santosh, written and directed by British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri, is set in north India and has won international plaudits for its portrayal of a young widow who joins the police force and investigates the murder of a young Dalit girl.

Santosh is currently on release in UK cinemas

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Mumbai comedy club ransacked after performer’s joke about local politician

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Shiv Sena party supporters tore apart the Habitat comedy club after Kunal Kamra’s satirical song about a top minister

A mob violently ransacked a Mumbai comedy club and its building has been partly demolished after one of India’s most prominent comedians performed a satirical song about a local ruling politician during a performance there.

Kunal Kamra has a reputation for his acerbic comedy which often pokes fun at political figures. Few comedians in India dare to make political jokes for risk of a backlash.

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Judge bars Trump administration from deporting Indian academic over political views

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Badar Khan Suri, who teaches at Georgetown University, being held incommunicado in Louisiana ‘staging center’

A US district judge has barred Donald Trump’s administration from deporting an Indian academic from Georgetown University after the Department of Homeland Security accused him of having ties to Hamas.

On Thursday, US district judge Patricia Giles in Alexandria, Virginia, prohibited federal officials from deporting Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at the university, in an order that is to remain in effect until it is lifted by the court, Reuters reports.

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X sues Modi’s government over content removal in new India censorship fight

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Elon Musk’s company is arguing against the government’s expanded powers to allow easier removal of online content

India’s IT ministry has unlawfully expanded censorship powers to allow the easier removal of online content and empowered “countless” government officials to execute such orders, Elon Musk’s X has alleged in a new lawsuit against New Delhi.

The lawsuit and the allegations mark an escalation in an ongoing legal dispute between X and the government of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, over how New Delhi orders content to be taken down. It also comes as Musk is getting closer to launching his other key ventures, Starlink and Tesla, in India.

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Pakistan accuses India of sponsoring militant terror group after train hijacking

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A spokesperson offered no evidence for the claim after 26 people were killed on a train that was hijacked in Balochistan province on Tuesday

Pakistan’s military has accused neighbouring India of sponsoring militant groups in the south-west of the country as survivors recounted their ordeal from an unprecedented attack that killed 26 passengers on a hijacked train.

The scope of the attack in Balochistan province underscores the struggles that Pakistan faces to rein in militant groups.

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US journalist sues Indian government after losing his overseas citizenship

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Raphael Satter had his OCI card taken away after publishing a story critical of an Indian businessman

A US journalist has taken the Indian government to court after his Indian overseas citizenship was unilaterally cancelled, after the publication of a story critical of a prominent Indian businessman.

Raphael Satter, who covers cybersecurity for the Reuters news agency in the US, received a letter from India’s ministry of home affairs in early December 2023, accusing him of producing work that “maliciously” tarnished India’s reputation and informing him that his Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card had been cancelled.

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Two men arrested in India over alleged rape of Israeli and local woman

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The two women were said to have been stargazing with three male travellers when the incident took place

Two men have been arrested in India in connection with the alleged rape of an Israeli and a local woman.

The Israeli woman and her homestay operator were said to be stargazing with three male travellers in Koppal town in southern Karnataka state on Thursday night.

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British activist Jagtar Singh Johal acquitted in India terror trial

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Human rights campaigner still faces threat of death penalty if found guilty of further charges

Jagtar Singh Johal, the British human rights activist accused of terrorism has been acquitted on all charges in a case in Punjab, after a court rejected the allegations against him made by Indian authorities.

Johal has been held in detention for seven years awaiting judgment, but must remain in prison since he is facing eight essentially duplicate cases brought by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) based on the same alleged confession.

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Indian cinema chain sued by film-goer over lengthy pre-film ads

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Court orders compensation to be paid to 30-year-old from Bangalore, saying ‘in the new era, time is considered as money, each one’s time is very precious’

For some, the adverts that precede the start of a film are the bane of a trip to the cinema; for others, they are a useful buffer as you stand in the popcorn queue.

But for one man in India, the lengthy marathon of cinema advertising was so infuriating that he took the matter to the courts – and won.

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Musk’s ‘Doge’ claim about USAid funds for India sets off political firestorm

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Apparently baseless claim that $21m was given to help voter turnout seized on by Trump and Modi government

Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” has been accused of setting off a political firestorm in India after it claimed that the US government had been sending millions of dollars to support the Indian elections.

In a list published on Musk’s social media platform X last week, Doge, a special group that Donald Trump created, claimed that a $21m grant distributed by USAid – the US agency for international development – to help “voter turnout in India” had been cancelled, as part of the president’s sweeping cuts to foreign aid.

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British tourist dies after rescue from mountain trail in Himalayas

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Man was trekking with another Briton in Dhauladhar range on trail from Dharamkot to Triund in northern India

A British tourist has died after seriously injuring himself while trekking in the Himalayas.

The man, who had gone on a short hike to the foot of the Dhauladhar mountain range in northern India with another British tourist, fell during his descent on Sunday evening and was taken down the mountain on a stretcher.

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Meta plans to link US and India with world’s longest undersea cable project

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Project Waterworth, which involves cable longer than Earth’s circumference, to also reach South Africa and Brazil

Meta has announced plans to build the world’s longest underwater cable project, which aims to connect the US, India, South Africa, Brazil and other regions.

The tech company said Project Waterworth involved a 50,000km (31,000-mile) subsea cable, which is longer than the Earth’s circumference.

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At least 18 people die in crowd crush at Delhi railway station

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Rush broke out as travellers scrambled to board trains in India’s capital to go to world’s largest religious gathering

At least 18 people have died in a crush at a railway station in India’s capital when surging crowds scrambled to catch trains to the world’s largest religious gathering, officials have said.

The Kumbh Mela attracts tens of millions of Hindu faithful every 12 years to the northern city of Prayagraj, and has a history of crowd-related disasters – including one last month, when at least 30 people died in another crush at the holy confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers.

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Goa man found guilty of rape and murder of Irish backpacker eight years ago

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Family of Danielle McLaughlin say justice has finally been achieved after Vikat Bhagat convicted in India

The family of a young Irish woman raped and murdered in India eight years ago have said justice has finally been achieved after a man was convicted in Goa.

Danielle McLaughlin, from Buncrana in County Donegal, was found dead in a field in Canacona, an area of Goa popular with holidaymakers, in March 2017.

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Police in India stop Ed Sheeran busking on street before concert

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Local channels show police officer walking up to star as he sings Shape of You and unplugging microphone

Ed Sheeran has been stopped by police from busking in India after he was told he lacked permissions.

The songwriter was seen singing the hit single Shape of You on a pavement in the southern city of Bengaluru before his concert on Sunday night.

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‘Backsliding’: most countries to miss vital climate deadline as Cop30 nears

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Developing countries urge biggest polluters to act as Trump’s return to the White House heightens geopolitical turmoil

The vast majority of governments are likely to miss a looming deadline to file vital plans that will determine whether or not the world has a chance of avoiding the worst ravages of climate breakdown.

Despite the urgency of the crisis, the UN is relatively relaxed at the prospect of the missed date. Officials are urging countries instead to take time to work harder on their targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions and divest from fossil fuels.

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India crowd crushes: dozens feared dead at Kumbh Mela religious festival – latest updates

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Pilgrims are desperately searching for missing loved ones after deadly crushes in Prayagraj where world’s largest religious gathering is taking place

Wednesday is when the sadhus (holy people), all 13 sects of them, take their holy baths in the Ganges.

The holy bathing time is at 4am and that is around the time that the crowd crushes are thought to have started. It appears three separate crushes took place, as people surged forward, into groups of people who were sitting or lying on the ground on the banks of the river.

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India and China agree to resume direct flights for first time in five years

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The development is the latest sign of thaw in diplomatic relations between the world’s two most populous nations

India and China have agreed in principle to resume direct flights between the two nations, nearly five years after the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent political tensions halted them.

The announcement on Monday came at the conclusion of a visit to Beijing by New Delhi’s top career diplomat and heralds the latest signs of a thaw in the frosty ties between the world’s two most populous nations.

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‘Has the world gone mad? It has’: foreign reporters share a view of Trump from abroad

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Journalists from countries that have seen challenges to democracy give their view on the second Trump presidency

What is the view of US democracy from abroad, and what can Americans learn from other nations with a history of political tumult?

During his first term Donald Trump tested democratic norms by undermining trust in fair elections, encouraging political violence and demonizing the media and public servants. He has promised to be a dictator “on day one” of his second term.

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