U A former minister in Israel has admitted to spying for regional rival Iran as part of a plea deal in exchange for an 11-year prison sentence, the Israeli justice ministry has said. The ministry on Wednesday said Gonen Segev reached a plea bargain after confessing to severe espionage and passing information to an enemy country. The Jerusalem District Court set a sentencing hearing for February 11…. Read more »
LUCKNOW: Though opposition parties have targeted the Yogi Adityanath government for alleged “lawlessness in Uttar Pradesh”, official figures have another tale to tell with the graph of major crimes witnessing a downward trend in 2018 in comparison to 2017. “Certainly, graph of key crimes has seen a downward movement in the state in past two years. Maintaining law and order… Read more »
NEW DELHI: A day after Army chief General Bipin Rawatstated India cannot be left out of the “bandwagon” when a number of countries are reaching out to the Taliban, the external affairs ministry on Friday said there is no change in the position on Afghanistanand New Delhi supports the process which is “inclusive” towards achieving peace. External affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar… Read more »
KABUL, Afghanistan — Militants stormed Afghan government offices in Kabul on Monday after setting off a car bomb, and officials said at least 43 people were killed. The attack lasted at least five hours and shattered a period of relative calm in the Afghan capital, which over the years has been subjected to deadly and audacious assaults by militants opposed… Read more »
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — After the Chinese Consulate in a major Pakistani city was attacked by a squad of suicide bombers last month, Pakistani officials pointed fingers at the commander of a separatist group waging an insurgency in the southwestern province of Baluchistan. On Tuesday, a suicide bomber killed that commander, Aslam Baluch, along with five associates in an upscale neighborhood of Kandahar, in southern… Read more »
India’s army chief said on Thursday that gay sex and adultery would not be tolerated in the army’s ranks, months after a landmark court ruling struck down colonial-era prohibitions against homosexuality and infidelity. After a decades-long campaign by activists the supreme court last year decriminalised Section 377 – also known as “unnatural offences” – and the adultery law from the statue… Read more »
MAZAR I SHARIF, Afghanistan — Violence in northern Afghanistan has intensified in recent days, with both Afghan security forces and the Taliban suffering heavy casualties, but the heavy fighting has failed to shift the battle lines in the 17-year-old war. While many previous winters brought a relative lull to the war, as low temperatures and snow set in, this year… Read more »
As of the end of December, over half of Maharashtra has now been overcome by a drought. This crisis is not due to a lack of rainfall; however, it is due to the scattered nature of India and concentration of this rainfall in particular areas. The varying concentration of this rainfall left the fields either overflooded with the crops drowned,… Read more »
Delhi residents woke to a thick, grey smog on Thursday as air pollution in the Indian capital surged to emergency levels. The state-run Central Pollution Control Board’s air quality index, which shows the concentration of poisonous particulate matter known as PM 2.5, stood at 440, up from 430 on Wednesday and about 12 times the US government-recommended level of 35…. Read more »
The northern Indian city of Allahabad witnessed a historic procession on Sunday led by a Hindu congregation of transgender people. Photojournalist Ankit Srinivas reports. Thousands thronged the streets of Allahabad to seek blessings from transgender sadhus (holy people), ahead of the Kumbh Mela festival, which is set to begin in the city on 15 January and will continue until 4… Read more »