Author: Anil Shrivastava

An Indian police official has been suspended from service after he won 15m rupees ($180,310, £149,009) on a fantasy sports platform. Somnath Zende, a police sub-inspector posted in Maharashtra state’s Pune district, won the money while playing Dream 11, an online fantasy league. Authorities say he was suspended for breaching the police code of conduct. Mr Zende has refuted the claim. He’s due to face a departmental inquiry. The police department in Pune’s Pimpri Chinchwad area, under which Mr Zende works, told BBC Marathi that he was suspended for playing the game without permission and for giving media interviews in…

A court in India has acquitted two men who spent years on death row for the rape and murder of 19 women and children in 2005. Surinder Koli and his businessman employer Moninder Singh Pandher were convicted in 2009 in a gruesome case that shocked the country. They were held in 2006 after body parts were found near their home near Delhi. On Monday, the Allahabad High Court acquitted Koli in 12 cases in which he had been sentenced to death. The court also ordered Pandher to be freed in the two cases in which he’d been found guilty. The…

Frankfurt, Brussels (6/10 – 27) While Tajik authorities have not been able to lay their hands on their activist opponents living in Europe, they are able to turn the screws on their families and relatives, back in the old country. The recent case of arrest of family members took place shortly after President Emomali Rahmon’s visit to Germany, to attend a summit of Central Asian leaders, at the end of last month. Throughout Rahmon’s visit, he was trailed by demonstrators holding up placards bearing pictures of political prisoners and calling him a dictator. When Rahmon headed to the Bundestag on…

An author hopes musical soft toys inspired by characters from his book can challenge stereotypes around Sikhs and particularly their turbans. Pritpal Rai, from Coventry, was one of a group of fathers who started writing the Khalsa Family children’s books to fight racism and teach children about the religion. They feature a would-be superhero and his daredevil sister. The characters have been turned into toys that play a lullaby and a prayer. Mr Rai said they were already changing perceptions. “Rather than say ‘he looks like bin Laden’ they say ‘he looks like a Simran’ [a character from the book],”…

The African Union is to become a member of the G20, after been invited to join on 9 September 2023, at the group’s summit in India’s capital Delhi. The African Union will represent 55 countries from across the continent at future G20 meetings. What is the G20? The G20 – or Group of Twenty – is a club of countries that meets to discuss global economic and political issues. Between them, G20 countries account for 85% of the world’s economic output and more than 75% of world trade. They contain two-thirds of global population. The G20 members are the EU plus…

India’s Moon rover has taken first “steps” on the lunar surface a day after the country made history becoming the first to land near the south pole. Chandrayaan-3’s rover “ramped down” from the lander and “India took a walk on the Moon!”, the space agency said. The Vikram lander successfully touched down as planned on Wednesday evening. With this, India joins an elite club of countries to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, after the US, the former Soviet Union and China. The 26kg rover called Pragyaan (the Sanskrit word for wisdom) was carried to the Moon in the…

Ukraine’s allies are gathering for the next Rammstein talks today, June 15. One of the main topics of the meeting is the “aircraft coalition” and the training of Ukrainian pilots. The Contact Group will also discuss the strengthening of military assistance for a successful counter-offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. RBC-Ukraine has collected everything that is known about Rammstein-13, as well as what to expect from the meeting in Brussels. Talks at NATO Headquarters The 13th meeting in the Ramstein format was announced for June 15, 2023. This time, the members of the defense coalition will meet in person in Brussels, at…

The Kremlin is unaware of talks to resolve the conflict in Ukraine in July, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Earlier this was reported by the German TV channel ARD. “The Kremlin does not know anything about this, and it is probably necessary to contact the ARD channel for additional information,” the Kremlin spokesman said. On June 26, a German television channel, citing sources, reported that official negotiations on Ukraine could take place as early as July. According to the channel, on Saturday, June 24, an international meeting on Ukraine was held in Copenhagen (Denmark), which was held in conditions of “strict…

An Indian court’s recent verdict that significantly expands the rights of homemakers over their husband’s property has been hailed as a positive sign by women’s rights advocates. On 21 June, the Madras high court – in the southern state of Tamil Nadu – passed a verdict in a domestic dispute case that allowed a housewife equal share in her husband’s property. Experts say this is the first time an Indian court has formally recognised the contribution of a housewife to the husband’s income. They, however, point out that the verdict is not binding on other states unless the country’s Supreme…

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has alleged that the Indian government threatened to shut the platform and raid employees’ houses in the country. In an interview with a US-based YouTube channel, Mr Dorsey said India requested removal of several tweets and accounts linked to the farmers’ protest in 2020. Twitter was also asked to censor journalists critical of the government, he alleged. India has denied the allegations and accused Twitter of violating laws. “This is an outright lie… Perhaps an attempt to brush out that very dubious period of Twitter’s history,” federal minister Rajeev Chandrashekar tweeted on Tuesday. “No one…