A Lufthansa plane that took off from Germany had to make an emergency landing in New Delhi’s Indra Gandhi’s airport after an intense fight broke out between a husband and wife.
On November 29, right after the take-off from Munich, a couple started fighting in the plane. Seeing the situation getting worse, pilots informed the control room. It directed the plane to land in Pakistan. On not getting permission, the pilots made an emergency landing in New Delhi and handed over the two passengers to airport security there.
The wife, a native of Thailand, complained that her German husband was threatening her. Passengers as well as the crew also witnessed him shouting and hurling things at his wife while reportedly being drunk.
According to Indian media, the German embassy has been contacted to handle the matter. The police is talking to airline staff to ascertain the sequence of events and check if an FIR needs to be registered.
The wife was travelling on a separate ticket and later asked the airline to continue her journey to Bangkok alone but she too was deboarded.
Washington (AFP) – An Indian national has been charged with plotting to assassinate a Sikh separatist leader on US soil, the Justice Department said on Wednesday, alleging an Indian government official was also involved in the planning.
The Justice Department unsealed murder-for-hire charges against Nikhil Gupta, 52, “in connection with his participation in a foiled plot to assassinate a US citizen” of Indian origin in New York City, it said in a statement.
The man allegedly targeted in the killing “is a vocal critic of the Indian government and leads a US-based organization that advocates for the secession of Punjab,” a northern Indian state with a large population of Sikhs.
An Indian government official, directing the plan from India, worked with Gupta and others based around the world, the US government said.
Gupta, who lives in India, was arrested by authorities in the Czech Republic under US extradition orders.
The news comes after the White House said last week it was treating an alleged plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist on American soil with “utmost seriousness,” and had raised the issue with the Indian government.
The Financial Times reported that same day that US authorities had thwarted a conspiracy to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US and Canadian citizen.
After Wednesday’s news broke, Pannun said in a statement that “the attempt on my life on American soil is the blatant case of India’s transnational terrorism which has become a challenge to America’s sovereignty and threat to freedom of speech and democracy.”
The Justice Department, which did not identify the target of the alleged assassination attempt on Wednesday, said that Gupta was recruited into the effort in May 2023.
Canada and India had a major diplomatic row after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in September linked New Delhi to the killing of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, also a Sikh separatist, in June.
New Delhi called the Canadian allegations “absurd.”
But Trudeau said Wednesday that “the news coming out of the United States further underscores what we’ve been talking about from the very beginning, which is that India needs to take this seriously.”
“The Indian government needs to work with us to ensure that we’re getting to the bottom of this,” he said.
Pannun said that “first by assassinating Nijjar in Canada and then attempting to assassinate me on US soil, India under [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi has extended to the foreign soils its policy of violently crushing the Sikhs movement for right to self-determination.”
The US Justice Department said that after Nijjar’s killing, Gupta told undercover US officials that there was “now no need to wait” on killing the New York City target.
An Indian government spokesman on Wednesday said that the United States has “shared some inputs pertaining to nexus between organized criminals, gun runners, terrorists and others.”
“We had also indicated that India takes such inputs seriously since they impinge on our national security interests,” the statement said, adding that a “high-level Enquiry Committee” was established on November 18 “to look into all the relevant aspects of the matter.”
After 17 days trapped inside a collapsed Himalayan road tunnel they were building, Indian workers described the horror of their ordeal, and the hopes and prayers that kept them strong.
“We were really scared, every moment felt that death was standing nearby,” rescued worker Deepak Kumar told AFP on Wednesday. “We were not sure whether our lives would be saved or not.”
The men were welcomed as heroes after being hauled through 57 metres (187 feet) of steel pipe on stretchers specially fitted with wheels late Tuesday, the culmination of a marathon engineering operation.
Draped in garlands of orange marigolds, they were greeted with wild cheers.
“The world is again beautiful for us,” rescued worker Sabah Ahmad told AFP, describing the heartache of hearing his wife’s “worried and hopeless” voice while he was trapped.
“I know it was a difficult moment for those inside and more difficult for families outside,” said Ahmad, who comes from Bihar, one of India’s poorest states.
“But at last we have come out, and it is the only thing that matters.”
His wife Musarrat Jahan, speaking to AFP by phone from Bihar, said that “no words” could explain how happy she felt.
“Not only my husband got a new life, we also got a new life,” she said. “We will never forget it”.
Previous hopes of reaching the men were repeatedly dashed by falling debris and the breakdown of multiple drilling machines, and the men spoke of how hard it had been to keep their spirits up.
“It was not easy,” Kumar said. “After three or four days inside the collapsed tunnel, and the rescue team had failed to reach us, the reality is that our confidence and faith were at a low level.”
Most of the trapped men are migrant workers who left home to find employment, working on the Silkyara tunnel in northern Uttarakhand state, hundreds of kilometres (miles) from home high up in the bitterly cold Himalayan foothills.
Rescue teams later set up a telephone exchange to allow families far from the site to call in.
“I told my family, ‘I am fine and healthy, do not worry, everything will be all right, we will come out soon’”, Kumar said.
“But while I was saying these words to them, sometimes I felt strongly that I will never be able to see my parents.”
Guriya Devi, wife of rescued worker Sushil Kumar, told AFP that the family had “passed through horrible times, and sometimes we lost hope”.
Chamra Oraon, 32, from Jharkhand state, described the horror he felt when he heard a thud and debris began to fall deep inside the mountain road tunnel on November 12 — and the terror as the rock fall blocked the only route out with tonnes of rubble.
“I ran for my life but got stuck on the wrong side,” he told the Indian Express newspaper. “As it became clear we would be there for a long time, we grew restless, hungry. But we prayed silently for help.”
Subodh Kumar Verma told AFP how the first 24 hours in the tunnel were the worst, when they feared they could starve to death — if their air did not run out first.
“We faced problems related to food and air for 24 hours there,” Verma said.
The new year is just over one month away and it is going to be the biggest election year in history yet.
40 countries are scheduled to vote in 2024 across the globe which, as calculated by Bloomberg Economics, represent 41% of the world’s population and 42% of its global GDP.
The marathon will begin with Taiwan in January and end with the US in November.
Here are some of the prominent countries lined up for elections: Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Gambia, and Libya in Africa; Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, the United States, and Venezuela in the Americas; Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Australia, and Pakistan in Asia and Oceania; Austria, Belarus, Belgium, the European Union, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom in Europe.
There are, however, four elections that the world has eyes on — elections that are expected to alter geopolitics in the next decade.
Russia will elect the new president in March who will govern until 2030, putting Russia-NATO relations at the forefront.
In April-May, India will hold elections and as per analysts, Modi’s loss can push back investors.
The European Union will conduct bloc-wide polls in June to appoint members of the European Parliament for the 2024-2029 which will be pertinent for the increasing friction between right-wing and left-wing policymakers on issues like immigration and Ukraine.
The United States will hold legislative and presidential elections in November for 2025-2028, while everyone curiously waits whether Republicans will return to the White House or not.
A 16-year-old boy in New Delhi killed an 18-year-old with sixty stabs of the knife.
As per Indian Media, the shocking incident took place in New Delhi where a young boy robbed an 18-year-old boy for INR 350 and left him lying on the street in a pool of blood. The killer then celebrated the murder by dancing over the body of the murdered boy.
The police has recovered a blood-stained knife from the murderer and acquired CCTV footage. The suspect has been shifted to the police station.
The men became trapped after a portion of the 4.5-kilometer (2.8-mile) tunnel, which was under construction in the mountainous vicinity of the Himalayas, caved in on itself after a landslide. The tunnel collapsed around 200 meters (656 ft.) from its entrance.
Construction of the tunnel is part of the Chardham all-weather road, a flagship project of the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that aims to connect Hindu pilgrimage sites, so that the state can better accommodate the growing influx of pilgrims and tourists to the region.
The workers trapped in a collapsed tunnel in northern India for over a week are getting their first hot meals on Tuesday through a new six-inch wide steel pipe as rescuers pursue an alternative plan to free them. “We will bring you out safely, do not worry,” rescuers told the men, according to translations by Al Jazeera.
Indian rescuers have drilled two-thirds of the way through debris toward 41 workers trapped in a collapsed road tunnel, officials said Wednesday, warning that the next 24 hours could be critical.
Engineers are working to drive a steel pipe through at least 57 metres (187 feet) of the tonnes of earth, concrete, and rubble that has divided the trapped men from freedom since a portion of the under-construction tunnel in the northern Himalayan state of Uttarakhand collapsed 11 days ago.
Looking into the Silkyara tunnel entrance on Wednesday, an AFP journalist could see sparks flying as workers welded metal tube sections together, with the site busy as excavators and heavy trucks brought in equipment.
“I am very happy to share… that 39 metres of drilling have been completed,” said Mahmood Ahmad, a road and highways ministry official involved in the operations.
“If there is no blockage, we hope there could be happy news late tonight or tomorrow,” Ahmad told reporters at the site.
On November 21, 2023, a touching reunion happened in Makkah, bringing together families who were separated during the partition. Hujra Bibi, whose family was split during India’s partition, moved to Pakistan while her sister stayed in India, BBC shared the story.
The partition of India in 1947, led by the British, created two separate countries, India and Pakistan, causing many people to leave their homes.
Hujra Bibi’s story is special because the reunion happened in a different country. After being separated during the partition, Hujra, now living in Jhang, Punjab, Pakistan, met her sister’s family from India in Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
The credit for this emotional meeting on November 20 goes to Naseer Dhillon, a native of Faisalabad, Pakistan, and his friend. Naseer, through his YouTube channel, has been actively helping families reconnect.
Despite facing challenges from the government, the families remained determined. Hujra applied for an Umrah visa, and Hanifan, her sister’s daughter, applied from India. Naseer’s friend, Pal Singh Gill from the United States, played a crucial role in making the meeting possible.
Naseer highlighted the importance of their efforts, mentioning that despite the distance and obstacles, love and friendship can bring families back together. Hujra BiBi and her niece finally met in Makkah, ending years of being apart. Naseer traveled all the way from Dubai to Saudi Arabia to make this reunion possible. He said, “We thanked Allah for making it happen.” This story shows how families can stay strong and connected, even when they are separated by borders and obstacles. It’s truly amazing how love and determination can bring people together.
Authorities in India’s most populous Indian state Uttar Pradesh have banned the distribution and sale of Halal-certified products. These include dairy products, garments and medicines. A notificaton from the state government proclaims that the halal certification of the products is illegal.
Uttar Pradesh, or UP as it is commonly called, is ruled by firebrand right-wing Hindu monk Yogi Adityanath, a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
UP Govt. banned sale of Halal Certified products in the state.Several organisations issuing #HalalCertification for financial gains & exploiting religious sentiments of a particular community in country. We request Central Govt. to ban Halal in whole country.#Yogi_Against_Halalpic.twitter.com/iAwUxUFrBn
“Halal certification of food products is a parallel system which creates confusion regarding the quality of food items,” the notification said.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is the country’s apex body in charge of determining standards for most food products sold in the country and determines the standards food products should meet, the notification said.
Officials have conducted inspections all around the state.
After the ban on Halal products by BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh Government,a team of Food Safety and Drug Administration officials conducted an inspection of food items at Sahara Mall. Lucknow,Uttar Pradesh #HalalBanInUP | #HalalCertification | #Indiapic.twitter.com/gpGgRt1TW0
Extremists from the right wing are appreciating the step as a way to curb “jihad”, alleging that it is funded by the sale of halal products.
Halal Money funds Jihad..period!! On the #HalalCertification ban in UP, I applaud the decision by Yogiji and ask – What do the Muslims actually want? They want personal laws, Halal food, madarssas and then they complain about not being mainstream ♂️
“Religion should not be brought into food. There were many items such as garments, sugar, etc which were being branded as Halal, which is against the law,” state BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said on Monday.
After India’s historic loss against Australia in the ICC Cricket World Cup final, fans were devastated. Some chose to lash out at Australian players, posting misogynistic and degrading slurs on the Instagram profiles of Australian cricket players Travis Head and Glenn Maxwell as well as their wives.
An Indian firm named Marketing Moves is going viral after they offered a day off to their employees to recover from India’s loss.
“Hi team,” the message read. “In light of India’s loss in the recent WC, we recognise the impact on our team members. To offer some support during this time, the company has decided to grant a one-day leave relaxation. We believe this will provide an opportunity for everyone to regroup and recover. Let’s come back stronger.”
Glenn Maxwell guided Australia into the World Cup semi-final with a stunning double century against Afghanistan, even if the physical effects were “horrific”.
Australia were all but beaten at 91-7, chasing 292 for victory in Mumbai on November 7.
But Maxwell snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with a remarkable 201 not out, only the third double-hundred in World Cup history.
Who is Glenn Maxwell’s wife?
Vini Raman was born in Australia on March 3, 1993.
Vini’s parents migrated from India to Melbourne. She traces her roots back to South India.
Vini pursued graduated in medical science and is a pharmacist by profession.
Glenn Maxwell and Vini Raman’s love story began when they first met at a Melbourne Stars event in 2013. Their paths crossed in the world of cricket, sparking the beginning of a special connection.
Speculation about their relationship started when Vini posted a picture with Glenn Maxwell in August 2017. The photo, though captionless, hinted at a close connection, and fans began to take notice.
Vini married Glenn Maxwell as per Christian rituals on March 18, 2022, in Australia before tying the knot again in a traditional Tamil wedding on March 27 in Chennai.
Vini and Maxwell welcomed a baby boy on September 15, naming him Logan Maverick Maxwell.
The Australian team won a record-extending sixth cricket World Cup title in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
Indian cricket fans are targeting Raman for supporting Australia and celebrating their win.
She posted a public service announcement on her Instagram account, “Can’t believe this needs to be said BUT you can be Indian and also support the country of your birth where you have been raised and more importantly the team your husband + father of your child plays in #nobrainer take a chill pill and direct that outrage towards more important world issues.”
Here are some of the hate comments The Current’s team found on her profile.
