Tag: India

Indian student killed in Ukraine shelling: Delhi

  NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — An Indian student was killed on Tuesday in shelling in Ukraine, New Delhi said as it urged Moscow and Kyiv to secure safe passage for its around 12,000 nationals stuck in the country. “With profound sorrow we confirm that an Indian student lost his life in shelling in Kharkiv this morning,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Twitter. He added that the foreign secretary was “calling in […]

Ukraine crisis stretches Indian ‘neutrality’ to the limit

by Aishwarya KUMAR Agence France-Presse NEW DELHI, India (AFP) – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has left India’s traditional balancing act between Moscow and the West looking wobblier than ever, with experts saying New Delhi has few good diplomatic options. Last week India abstained on a UN Security Council resolution deploring Russia’s “aggression” against Ukraine, winning praise from Moscow for its “independent and balanced position”. But while New Delhi hoped this would be seen as neutrality, […]

US says in talks with India on its stance over Ukraine

  The United States is in discussions with India over its position on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday, as New Delhi has yet to clearly condemn Moscow’s assault. “We continue to engage with the Indians,” Psaki told reporters. On Thursday, when asked about the issue by a reporter, President Joe Biden admitted: “We haven’t resolved that completely.” In telephone talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, […]

Indian 16-year-old stuns chess world champion Carlsen

NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — Indian teenage chess grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa won praise Tuesday for a stunning victory over world number one Magnus Carlsen in an online championship. Praggnanandhaa, 16, who in 2016 became the youngest international master in history at age 10, beat Carlsen late on Monday at the Airthings Masters rapid chess tournament. “It’s about time to go to bed as I don’t think I will have dinner at 2.30 in the morning,” […]

38 sentenced to death over 2008 bombings in India: court

AHMEDABAD, India (AFP) – An Indian court sentenced 38 people to death on Friday over a string of bomb blasts in 2008 that killed dozens in the western city of Ahmedabad. The court had on February 8 convicted 49 people over the coordinated attacks that killed 56, launching shrapnel through markets, buses and other public places in Gujarat state’s commercial hub. “Special judge A R Patel awarded death sentence to 38 out of the 49 […]

US, Asia allies meet to deepen bulwark against China

by Paul HANDLEY Agence France-Presse MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) – The top diplomats of the United States, Australia, Japan and India opened talks in Melbourne Friday on deepening their Quad alliance, hoping to blunt China’s expanding power across the Asia-Pacific region. “Together we are a vital network of liberal democracies committed to practical cooperation and to ensuring all Indo-Pacific nations, large and small, are able to make their own strategic decisions, free from coercion,” Australia’s Foreign […]

India’s coronavirus death toll crosses 500,000

  NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India’s official death toll from Covid-19 crossed 500,000 on Friday, even as many experts flag underreporting of cases across the country. The daily update from the country’s federal health ministry showed the number of fatalities reaching 500,055, up 1,072 in the previous 24 hours. Total infections stood at 41.9 million, according to the statistics, second only to the United States. Case numbers have jumped in recent weeks due to […]

New Delhi’s homeless shiver through harsh cold snap

by Archana THIYAGARAJAN Agence France-Presse NEW DELHI, India (AFP) – India’s capital New Delhi is shivering through an unusually harsh bout of winter cold, blamed for killing scores of homeless people and leaving other hard-up residents struggling to keep warm. The sprawling megacity’s 20 million inhabitants are accustomed to year-round weather extremes, from blistering summer heat to torrential downpours and thick, toxic smog at the end of autumn. Still, the bracing chill and blustery rains […]

‘I am not a virus,’ insists Indian man named Kovid

NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — What’s in a name? For Indian travel start-up founder Kovid Kapoor, it has made him a social media sensation. The 31-year-old’s Twitter profile declares: “My name is Kovid and I am not a virus.” He posted this week that he had travelled outside India for the first time since the onset of the pandemic “and got a bunch of people amused by my name”. “Future foreign trips are going to […]

As cases rise, India fears another Covid catastrophe

  by Aishwarya KUMAR Agence France Presse NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — Haunted by the spectre of last year’s crisis, India is bracing for a deluge of Covid-19 cases, with authorities of various megacities bringing in restrictions in a bid to keep infections in check. Case numbers have yet to match the enormous figures seen last spring, when thousands died each day and the Hindu city of Varanasi maintained round-the-clock funeral pyres for the mass […]

Delhi imposes weekend curfew as Covid cases surge

NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India’s capital New Delhi will lock down over the weekend as authorities grapple with a fresh surge in coronavirus cases, partly fuelled by the fast-spreading Omicron variant. The country was battered by a devastating Covid outbreak last year that overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums, but daily case numbers had since then stayed reasonably low until last week. Delhi’s new restrictions came the same day the sprawling megacity’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, […]

Two dead after blast in Indian court building

NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — Two people were killed and two others injured after a powerful explosion ripped through an Indian court building on Thursday, police said. Footage showed police officers carrying the injured out of the building and asking others to leave the premises after the explosion near a restroom of the judicial complex in Ludhiana, north of the capital New Delhi. “There’s been a blast but we can not confirm the cause,” a […]