World Echo

India on Saturday ended the preventive detention of prominent activist Sonam Wangchuk, freeing him six months after he was arrested over protests in India-held Ladakh. The Buddhist-Muslim enclave was deprived of its autonomy in 2019 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government carved it out of occupied Kashmir, placing the region under New Delhi’s direct control. Wangchuk, 59, an environmental advocate who became a key figure in Ladakh’s movement for greater autonomy, was held in September and later charged under India’s National Security Act (NSA) following protests that left four people dead and dozens wounded. New Delhi had blamed the violence on “provocative speeches” by Wangchuk, who had been on a hunger strike demanding either full federal statehood for India-held Ladakh or constitutional protections for its tribal communities, land and fragile environment. Supporters take part in a candlelight vigil protesting against the arrest of climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, at Jantar Ma...

Stranded for two weeks at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas as drones and missiles set ships ablaze nearby, 26-year-old seafarer Ambuj says he has not been home for six months and cannot wait to see his family. Ambuj, who asked Reuters not to use his second name for security reasons, is one of about 23,000 Indians working on merchant, harbour and offshore vessels across the wider Gulf region, which is bearing the brunt of the war between Iran and the United States and Israel. Hundreds of tankers and cargo ships have been waiting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian attacks have killed three Indian crew members and left another missing. The plight of Indian sailors in and around the Strait has become a major issue at home, with Delhi saying it is coordinating with multiple authorities, including in Iran, to ensure their safety. "We know how dangerous it could be to sail without a navy escort or without permission," Ambuj said by phone from his ship, stuck with 15...

The United ​States issued a 30-day waiver for countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products currently stranded at sea, in what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said ‌was a step to stabilise global energy markets roiled by the Iran war. Oil prices eased on Friday morning in Asia after the US waiver announcement, which, according to Russia's presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, would affect 100 million barrels of Russian crude, equal to almost a day's worth of global output. The move, the second significant rollback of Ukraine war-related US sanctions in just over one week, was the latest attempt by President Donald Trump's administration to tame energy prices after the US ​and Israeli strikes on Iran paralysed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The 32-nation International Energy Agency said on Thursday that the war in the Middle East was creating the biggest oil ​supply disruption in history. Waiver runs till April 11 The licence issued by Washington on T...

Japan will inform the US next week that it intends to join the "Golden Dome" missile defence initiative and expects that Washington may seek its help with missile production due to the Middle East war and other conflicts, two sources said. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will announce the latest plan when she meets US President Donald Trump in Washington D.C. at a leaders' summit on March 19, the Japanese government sources said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. Trump's Golden Dome project, announced last year with an ambitious 2028 timeline, envisions expanding existing ground‑based defences such as interceptor missiles with more experimental space‑based elements, meant to detect, track and potentially counter incoming threats from orbit. But the project has made little visible progress so far. Details of how Japan will participate also remain unclear. The Yomiuri newspaper, which first reported Japan's plans on Frida...

A senior military adviser to Iran's Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei insulted US President Donald Trump and vowed to destroy Israel in remarks to state television on Wednesday, as their countries wage a war that has engulfed the Middle East. "Trump is the most corrupt and stupid American president," Yahya Rahim Safavi said. "He is Satan himself." He also reiterated longstanding threats to eradicate Israel, which is fighting the Islamic republic alongside the United States. "In the Middle East region, Israel and Iran cannot be together. One of them must remain. The one that remains is Iran and the one that is destroyed is definitely the Zionist regime," he said. Read More: Iran denies special passage for Indian tankers through Strait of Hormuz Separately, Iran's powerful parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that Tehran will "abandon all restraint" if the United States and Israel attack any of its islands in the Gulf. "Any aggr...

A foreign hacker compromised files relating to the FBI’s investigation of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a break-in at the bureau’s New York Field Office three years ago, according to a source familiar with the matter and recently published Justice Department documents reviewed by Reuters. The details of who accessed a server at the FBI’s New York Field Office, including the allegation that a foreign hacker was involved, are being reported here for the first time. In a statement, the FBI said what it described as a "cyber incident" was "an isolated one." "The FBI restricted access to the malicious actor and rectified the network. The investigation remains ongoing, so we do not have further comments to provide at this time." Although the source said the intrusion appeared to have been carried out by a cybercriminal rather than a foreign government, the incident underscoresthe files' potential intelligence value, one academic said. The lega...