Author: Amrit Ashtekar

Rescuers in India have freed 41 workers who had been trapped in a collapsed Himalayan tunnel for 17 days. Miners drilled the final section by hand to reach the workers in the 4.5km (3-mile) tunnel in Uttarakhand. The men, who were brought out in wheeled stretchers through a 90cm (3ft) wide pipe, were taken to hospital for check-ups. No one was injured. Marathon efforts to free them from the Silkyara tunnel which collapsed on 12 November overcame numerous setbacks. The mission was ultimately completed on Tuesday evening thanks to the efforts of a group of “rat-hole” miners, who used hand-held…

India and the U.S. underlined their commitment to boosting security ties Friday as their top diplomats and defense chiefs met to discuss regional security, China, and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with their Indian counterparts in New Delhi as part of an Asian trip aimed at showing unity over Russia’s war in Ukraine and preventing differences on the Israel-Hamas war from deepening. Blinken said the U.S. and India were continuing to “deepen our collaboration on everything from emerging technologies to defense to people-to-people ties” and align diplomacy for “an…

The official representative of the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuri Ignat, is confident that Russia did not involve most of its aircraft in the special operation. According to him, Moscow uses only 300 aircraft. “Out of its one and a half thousand combat aircraft and helicopters, Russia uses <…> about 300 units,” said Yuri Ignat in an interview with Ukrainian journalist Dmitry Gordon (included by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in the register of individuals-foreign agents and the register of terrorists and extremists). He concluded that the Russian Federation did not use most of its aviation equipment. In Ukraine, they…

Some Indian opposition leaders have accused the government of trying to hack into their phones after receiving warning messages from Apple. Apple’s alert said it believed the recipient was “being targeted by state-sponsored attackers”. It did not specify who the attackers could be. When contacted by the BBC, Apple said that it did not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored organisation. Federal ministers dismissed the allegations, with one calling it “destructive politics”. But he added that the government would “investigate to get to the bottom of these notifications”. So far, around a dozen opposition politicians have confirmed that…

A row has broken out after the founder of popular photo blog Humans of New York criticised a similar Indian platform’s take on copyright. Humans of Bombay, which follows the same format as Brandon Stanton’s New York blog, started in Mumbai in 2014. It recently filed a suit against People of India, which started a few years later, of copyright infringement. All three tell stories of people in the form of interviews or posts alongside their photos. Earlier this month, Humans of Bombay (HOB) filed a lawsuit in the Delhi High Court saying People of India (POI) was an “identical…

US President Joe Biden has said that he raised issues of human rights in India and the importance of a free press with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi. Mr Biden was in the Indian capital to attend the G20 summit. He also held a bilateral meeting with Mr Modi. The US president left India on Sunday before the summit ended to travel to Vietnam. Activists and rights groups have questioned India’s deteriorating human rights track record under Mr Modi. His government has denied allegations that attacks on minorities, especially Muslims, have risen since his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party…

At least 26 people have been killed and more are feared missing after a railway bridge under construction collapsed in north-eastern India, officials said. The incident occurred near the town of Sairang, in the state of Mizoram. Up to 40 workers were at the site when part of the bridge collapsed, according to local media reports. The cause of the incident is not yet clear and the railway authority has opened an investigation. Three people have so far been rescued. That includes an injured worker who had to be brought down from the top of one of the bridge’s 100m-high…

President Volodymyr Zelensky, in response to a question about territorial concessions for the sake of Ukraine’s membership in NATO, said that Ukraine was ready to exchange Russian Belgorod for membership in the Alliance. Source: Zelensky at a joint press conference with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen Direct speech: “Exchange of territories? We are ready to exchange Belgorod for our NATO membership.” Details: Thus, Zelensky commented on proposals to exchange the territory of Ukraine for peace and NATO membership. Frederiksen noted that Ukraine will decide for itself whether to negotiate peace and when. According to Zelensky, it is difficult to criticize the Ukrainian counteroffensive…

Northamptonshire have signed India’s Prithvi Shaw for the One-Day Cup. The 23-year-old right-handed batter scored 134 against West Indies on his Test debut in Rajkot in October 2018. He has made almost 9,000 runs across all formats of the game and will be available throughout the competition, which begins on Tuesday. “Prithvi is going to bring high class, he’s going to bring expertise, he’s going to bring a bit of superstardom,” said head coach John Sadler. “He’s coming over with a point to prove and to enhance his own game. “He’s had some pressure on his shoulders for some time living up…

“I always carried three grenades, two for the enemy and one in case I had to commit suicide,” he told Euronews. “I refuse to become a prisoner of war”. A former Wagner mercenary has spoken exclusively to Euronews to reveal what it was like to serve on the frontline. Sasha, not his real name, fought in the gritty months-long battle for Bakhmut, likened to a “meat grinder” by Western analysts. Due to their sheer lack of discipline and will to fight, he said Wagner acted as a second line behind regular Russian troops on the front, which Sasha described as…