World Echo

India's prime minister praised Sunday the "pivotal role" of the firebrand leader credited with propelling Hindu nationalism into a dominant political force, after he was awarded the top civilian honour. Lal Krishna Advani, 96, a co-founder of the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- which hopes to win a third term in general elections beginning April 19 -- was accorded India's Bharat Ratna medal. "His honour is a recognition of his enduring contributions to our nation's progress," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X, formerly Twitter, where he posted a photograph of him clasping Advani's hand after the white-ribboned medal was put around his neck. Advani was the lodestar of a movement dedicated to championing the rights of the majority religion in the officially secular country, and his stewardship carried it from society's fringes to the levers of state power. In 1990, he was a key figure in the campaign to build a temple ...

Israeli military strikes killed dozens of Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, health officials said, as Egypt hosted an Israeli delegation for a new round of talks in a bid to secure a truce with Gaza's Hamas rulers. The warring sides have stepped up negotiations, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, on a six-week suspension of Israel's offensive in return for the proposed release of 40 of 130 hostages still held by Hamas fighters in Gaza after their Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. Hamas has sought to parlay any deal into an end to the fighting and withdrawal of Israeli forces. Israel has ruled this out, saying it would eventually resume efforts to dismantle the governing and military capabilities of Hamas. Hamas would not be present at the talks in Cairo, an official told Reuters on Sunday, as it waited to hear from mediators on whether a new Israeli offer was on the table. In the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, Israeli forces continued to blockade the two main ho...

Indian opposition parties united on Sunday to protest against the arrest of a prominent leader weeks before a national election, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party of rigging the vote and harassing them with large tax demands. "Narendra Modi is trying match-fixing in this election," Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi told a New Delhi rally as the crowd chanted "Shame!" Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, a staunch Modi critic, anti-corruption crusader and a high-profile leader of the 27-member "INDIA" opposition bloc, was arrested on March 21 for alleged graft over granting liquor licenses, less than a month before voting starts in a general election widely expected to solidify Modi's mandate with a rare third term. Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party says the case is fabricated and politically motivated. Modi's government and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) deny political interference and say law enforcement agencies are doing their...

A hostage drama at a nightclub in the eastern Netherlands ended on Saturday when police arrested a man wearing a balaclava mask after he exited the club. "The last hostage has just been released. One person has been arrested," a police statement said. "We cannot share more information at this time." Journalists at the scene said a man left the nightclub with his hands in the air and was detained and put in a police vehicle. Read also: Hostage drama ends in shootout Special police units had been deployed to the scene, a building in the centre of the town of Ede, to deal with a hostage situation, police said on social media. There was no indication of a terrorist motive, police said earlier. People were held at the nightclub by a man with weapons and explosives, national newspaper de Telegraaf had reported, citing several anonymous sources. from Latest World News, International News | Breaking World News https://ift.tt/1mlnLJU

The Indian Navy rescued an Iranian fishing vessel and its crew of Pakistani nationals after it responded to a piracy attack in the Arabian Sea, according to a statement. The navy said late Friday that it had received information about a “potential piracy incident” onboard the Al-Kambar on Thursday night and two Indian naval ships were diverted to intercept the vessel. It said it was reported to have been boarded by nine armed pirates. “After more than 12 hours of intense coercive tactical measures … the pirates on board the hijacked fishing vessel were forced to surrender. The crew, comprising 23 Pakistani nationals, have been safely rescued,” said the navy, adding that the vessel was intercepted early Friday. Read also: 8 Pakistanis among 19 crew rescued by Indian navy off Somalia The navy noted that “Indian Naval specialist teams are presently undertaking thorough sanitisation and seaworthiness checks of the fishing vessel in order to escort her to a safe area for resuming normal...

The biggest operational crane on the US Eastern Seaboard towered over Baltimore's port on Friday, ready to begin clearing the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge days after a cargo ship crashed into it, sending the span crashing into the harbor. Crews were still surveying the damage as of midday Friday. The crane, which can lift up to 1,000 tons, arrived late Thursday night and will probably start hauling debris out of the water on Saturday morning, according to US Coast Guard spokesperson Carmen Carver. A second crane is en route and expected to arrive soon to assist the effort, she said. State and federal authorities are focused on clearing the busy port and rebuilding the bridge after the Dali, a massive container ship that had lost power, plowed into a support column early on Tuesday, toppling the structure and leaving six workers presumed dead. Divers have recovered two bodies of the missing construction workers, who were repairing the bridge at the time of...

The Afghan Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, has issued a disturbing proclamation, vowing to implement brutal punishments against women in public and reaffirming their opposition to Western democratic principles, according to a report by The Telegraph. In a chilling voice message broadcasted on state television, Akhundzada directly addressed Western officials, dismissing concerns about violating women’s rights by stoning them to death. "You say it’s a violation of women’s rights when we stone them to death," Akhundzada stated. "But we will soon implement the punishment for adultery. We will flog women in public. We will stone them to death in public," he declared, marking his most severe rhetoric since the Taliban seized control of Kabul in August 2021. These grim statements, purportedly from Akhundzada, who has seldom been seen in public except for a few outdated portraits, emanate from Afghanistan’s state TV, now under Taliban control. Akhund...

Israel sustained its aerial and ground bombardment of the Gaza Strip on Friday, killing dozens of Palestinians, as fighting raged around Gaza City's main Al Shifa hospital, Palestinian officials and the Israeli military said. Palestinian health officials said two Israeli strikes on the Al-Shejaia suburb in eastern Gaza City killed 17 people, while an Israeli air strike on a house in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip killed eight people. Gaza's Hamas-run government media office said at least 10 policemen, tasked with securing aid to the displaced in northern Gaza, were among those killed in Al-Shejaia. The Israeli military said its forces continued operations in around Gaza City's Al Shifa complex "while mitigating harm to civilians, patients, medical teams, and medical equipment", adding that over the past day it killed a number of “gunmen and located weapons and military infrastructure.” Read more: World court orders Israel to take action to a...

In a horrific medial emergency case, the doctors removed a foot-long live eel from a man’s belly apparently slid up his rectum in Vietnam’s northern Quang Ninh province. A 34-year-old man was admitted to a hospital complaining severe abdominal cramps due to intestinal perforations – a life threatening condition with pierced or swollen lining inside the abdomen – on March 20, Daily Mail reported. Initial Xray and scans showed he had foreign body wriggling inside the body and urgent surgery was suggested. The surgeons were astonished to see a thin-slimy creature inside the body. When it was pulled with the tongs, it was a live eel more than 30 centimeters long. After the delicate operation, the man was feeling well and complained only a mild pain inside the body. The man was unaware, how the creature reached into his abdomen? However, doctors believed that it slid up via the rectum and entered into the stomach by piercing it. According to the surgeons, it is a rare case in which the eel ...

Judges at the International Court of Justice on Thursday unanimously ordered Israel to take all the necessary and effective action to ensure basic food supplies arrive without delay to the Palestinian population in Gaza. The ICJ said the Palestinians in Gaza face worsening conditions of life, and famine and starvation are spreading. "The court observes that Palestinians in Gaza are no longer facing only a risk of famine (...) but that famine is setting in," the judges said in their order. Read more: Battles, bombardment in Gaza as Israel reschedules talks with US The new measures were requested by South Africa as part of its ongoing case that accuses Israel of state-led genocide in Gaza. In January the ICJ, also known as the World Court, ordered Israel to refrain from any acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention and to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza. Also read: Hamas chief arrives in Iran for talks on Gaza war In Thursday...

Battles and bombardment pounded Gaza on Thursday, after Washington said Israel agreed to reschedule cancelled talks with tensions worsening between the allies. The United States’ criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has mounted over Gaza's civilian death toll, dire food shortages, and Israeli plans to push its ground offensive against Hamas militants into the far-southern city of Rafah, which is packed with displaced civilians. World leaders have warned against a Rafah offensive which they fear would worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation for the Palestinian territory's 2.4 million residents. The United Nations reported late Wednesday that famine "is ever closer to becoming a reality in northern Gaza", and said the territory's health system is collapsing "due to ongoing hostilities and access constraints". Bombardment and fighting have continued despite a binding United Nations Security Council resolution passed three day...

A United Nations expert told the global body's Human Rights Council on Tuesday that she believed that Israel's military campaign in Gaza since Oct. 7 amounted to genocide and called on countries to immediately impose sanctions and an arms embargo. Israel, which did not attend the session, rejected her findings. "It is my solemn duty to report on the worst of what humanity is capable of and to present my findings," Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Territories, told the UN rights body in Geneva, presenting a report called "The Anatomy of a Genocide". "I find that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide against Palestinians as a group in Gaza has been met," she said, citing more than 30,000 Palestinians killed among other acts. "I implore member states to abide by their obligations, which start with imposing an arms embargo and sanct...

Israel has recalled its negotiators from Doha after deeming mediated talks on a Gaza truce "at a dead end" due to demands by Hamas, a senior Israeli official said on Tuesday. The official, who is close to the Mossad spymaster heading up the talks, accused Hamas' Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar of sabotaging the diplomacy "as part of a wider effort to inflame this war over Ramadan". The warring sides had stepped up negotiations, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, on a six-week suspension of Israel's offensive in return for the proposed release of 40 of the 130 hostages still held by the Palestinian militant group in Gaza. Hamas has sought to parlay any deal into an end to the fighting and withdrawal of Israeli forces. Israel has ruled this out, saying it would eventually resume efforts to dismantle the governance and military capabilities of Hamas. Hamas also wants hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled Gaza City and surrounding areas southward during the first st...

Houthi militants in Yemen said on Tuesday they had mounted six attacks on ships with drones and missiles in the last 72 hours in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. The Houthis attacked the Maersk Saratoga, APL Detroit, and the Huang Pu after identifying them as either US or British, in addition to Pretty Lady ship which they claim was heading to Israel, the group's military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a statement. The Houthis, who control Yemen's capital and most populous areas, have attacked international shipping in the Red Sea since November in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians, drawing US and British retaliatory strikes since last month. Sarea added that the group also attacked two US destroyers in the Red Sea as well as Israel's city of Eilat. It was not immediately clear which if any of the targets were struck by the drones or missiles. Read also: Houthis fire missiles towards Chinese vessel in Red Sea: US CENTCOM US Central Command said on Sunday that...

Police in the Indian capital detained dozens of opposition supporters on Tuesday as they attempted to march to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's residence to protest against last week's arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Kejriwal, a key opposition leader whose Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has governed the national capital territory for a decade, was arrested by the financial crime-fighting agency on corruption charges relating to the city's liquor policy, weeks before India begins voting in general elections on April 19. He was remanded to the custody of the Enforcement Directorate until March 28, with the lawyer for the agency arguing he was the "kingpin" in the case and needed to be interrogated. Kejriwal's party, all of whose main leaders are now imprisoned in connection with the case, says he has been "falsely arrested" in a "fabricated case". The federal government and Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) deny political interfere...

A container ship smashed into a four-lane bridge in the US port of Baltimore in darkness on Tuesday, causing it to collapse and sending cars and people plunging into the river below. Rescuers pulled out two survivors, one in a "very serious condition," and were searching for more in the Patapsco River after huge spans of the 1.6-mile (2.57 km) Francis Scott Key Bridge crumpled into the water. The ship "lost propulsion" as it was leaving port, and crew on board notified Maryland officials they had lost control of the vessel, ABC News reported, citing an unclassified US intelligence report. Baltimore officials said at least seven vehicles plunged into the water but could not give an exact figure. A view of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after it collapsed, in Baltimore, Maryland, US, in this picture released on March 26. PHOTO: REUTERS Kevin Cartwright, the spokesperson for Baltimore City Fire Department, earlier told Reuters that as many as 20 people could be in the ri...

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh arrived in Tehran on Tuesday for talks with Iranian officials, the Palestinian group said. Haniyeh’s talks in Iran will focus on Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip and the latest Palestinian developments, Hamas said in a statement. The visit came one day after the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza during the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan. While Hamas welcomed the resolution, Israel rejected the cease-fire call and vowed to continue its war on the Palestinian enclave. Read also: Hamas issues ceasefire proposal detailing exchange of captives, prisoners Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed. More than 32,333 Palestinians have since been killed and over 74,694 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities. The Israeli war, now in its 172nd day, has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into intern...

The United Nations Security Council on Monday demanded an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian fighters Hamas and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages after the United States abstained from the vote. The remaining 14 council members voted for the resolution, which was proposed by the 10 elected members of the body. "The Palestinian people has suffered greatly. This bloodbath has continued for far too long. It is our obligation to put an end to this bloodbath, before it is too late," Algeria's UN Ambassador Amar Bendjama told the council after the vote. Israeli army radio reported shortly before the council meeting started that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would cancel a planned delegation to Washington if the US did not veto the resolution. Read more: Gaza protesters, police clash near red-zone Washington had been averse to the word ceasefire earlier in the nearly six-month-old war in the Gaza Strip and had used its veto power...

The Kremlin refused to comment Monday on Da’ish's claims that it was behind the deadliest attack in Russia in two decades, as rescuers searched for bodies amid the rubble of the burnt-out Moscow concert hall. At least 137 people were killed when gunmen in camouflage stormed Crocus City Hall, shooting spectators before setting the building on fire in the most fatal attack in Europe to have been claimed by Da’ish. The group has said several times since Friday that it carried out the attack, and Da'ish-affiliated media channels have published videos of the gunmen inside the venue shooting concert-goers. But in his only public remarks on the massacre, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday pointed to a possible Ukraine connection, and no senior Russian official has commented on the Da'ish claims. Officials expect the death toll to rise further as rescuers still search the site for remains. PHOTO: AFP "The investigation is still ongoing. No coherent version has yet be...

Yemen’s Houthis fired at least five missiles towards a Chinese vessel in the Red Sea, said the US Central Command (CENTCOM). The CENTCOM said in a statement on Sunday that the Iranian-backed group launched four anti-ship ballistic missiles “in the vicinity” of M/V Huang Pu, a Panamanian-flagged, Chinese-owned and Chinese-operated oil tanker, on Saturday. It added that a fifth ballistic missile “was detected as fired toward M/V Huang Pu.” “The ship issued a distress call but did not request assistance. M/V Huang Pu suffered minimal damage, and a fire on board was extinguished within 30 minutes. No casualties were reported, and the vessel resumed its course,” the statement said. Read also: US destroys Houthi targets in Yemen after missile attack in Red Sea It said, “Houthis attacked the MV Huang despite previously stating they would not attack Chinese vessels.” Yemen’s Houthi group has been targeting cargo ships in the Red Sea owned or operated by Israeli companies or transporting go...

Russia lowered flags to half-mast for a day of mourning and charged four men it accused of gunning down scores of people at a concert outside Moscow on Friday night in the deadliest attack inside Russia for two decades. President Vladimir Putin declared Sunday a national day of mourning after pledging to punish all those behind the attack, in which 137 people were killed, including three children, and 182 were injured. Over 100 people remained in hospital, some of them in a serious condition. Video footage showed a sombre-looking Putin lighting a candle at a church at his residence outside Moscow on Sunday evening to honour those who died. Earlier on Sunday, people laid flowers at Crocus City Hall, the 6,200-seat concert hall outside Moscow where four armed men burst in just before Soviet-era rock group Picnic was to perform its hit "Afraid of Nothing". The men fired their automatic weapons in short bursts at civilians who fell screaming. Islamic State...

Israeli forces besieged two more Gaza hospitals on Sunday, pinning down medical teams under heavy gunfire, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, and Israel said it had captured 480 fighters in continued clashes at Gaza's main Al Shifa hospital. Israeli forces say hospitals in the Palestinian enclave where war has been raging for over five months have frequently been used as strongholds of Hamas fighters harbouring bases and weapons. Hames and the medical staff deny this. The Palestinian Red Crescent said one of its staff was killed when Israeli tanks suddenly pushed back into areas around Al-Amal and Nasser hospitals in the southern city of Khan Younis, amid heavy bombardment and gunfire. Israeli armoured forces sealed off Al-Amal Hospital and carried out extensive bulldozing operations in its vicinity, the Red Crescent said in a statement, adding: "All of our teams are in extreme danger at the moment and are completely immobilised." It said Israeli forces were now demanding...

Russia lowered flags to half-mast on Sunday for a day of mourning after scores of people were gunned down with automatic weapons at a rock concert outside Moscow in the deadliest attack inside Russia for two decades. President Vladimir Putin declared a national day of mourning after pledging to track down and punish all those behind the attack on Friday evening, in which 137 people were killed, including three children, and 180 were injured. Over 100 people remained in hospital, some of them in a serious condition. Putin lit a candle at a church at his residence outside Moscow on Sunday evening to honour those who died, his spokesman told the Interfax news agency. "I express my deep, sincere condolences to all those who lost their loved ones," Putin said in an address to the nation on Saturday. "The whole country and our entire people are grieving with you." Da’ish claimed responsibility for the attack, but Putin has not publicly mentioned the Islamist militant grou...

More than 100 Israeli settlers forced their way into the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque complex on Sunday to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim, according to a Palestinian agency. In a statement, the Jordan-run Islamic Waqf Department, which oversees the holy sites in Jerusalem, said the settlers entered the site through the mosque’s al-Maghariba Gate under police protection. The settler incursion came amid rising tensions across the West Bank over Israel’s deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip, which killed more than 32,200 people since last October following a Hamas attack. Read also: Israel to set security limits on Ramazan prayers at Jerusalem's Al Aqsa At least 450 Palestinians have been killed and 4,750 others injured by Israeli army fire in West Bank since Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Health Ministry. Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world's third-holiest site for Muslims. Jews call the area the "Temple Mount," claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times....

More than 70 Rohingya are "presumed dead or missing" after a boat they were on capsized off the coast of Indonesia's Aceh province, while 75 have been rescued, the UNHCR refugee agency said on Friday. The UNHCR said in a joint statement with the International Organization for Migration that if the death toll was confirmed, it would be the biggest loss of life so far this year. The alert was raised on Wednesday when fishermen rescued six of the migrants. A fishing community in Aceh said they had been standing on the hull of the boat after it capsized due to high tides. For years, Rohingya have left Buddhist-majority Myanmar where they are generally regarded as foreign interlopers from South Asia, denied citizenship and subjected to abuse. More than 2,300 Rohingya arrived in Indonesia last year, UNHCR data showed, surpassing the number of arrivals in the previous four years combined. The 2023 toll of at least 569 Rohingya dead or missing while trying to flee Myanmar or Bang...

A court in India essentially banned madrasas in the country's most populous state, a move that could further distance many Muslims from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist government ahead of national elections. The Friday ruling scraps a 2004 law governing madrasas in Uttar Pradesh, saying it violates India's constitutional secularism and ordering that students be moved to conventional schools. Reuters could not contact Rathore or determine if he is connected to any political group. India holds a general election between April and June that Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is widely expected to win. Muslims and rights groups have accused some BJP members and affiliates of promoting anti-Islamic hate speech and vigilantism and demolishing Muslim-owned properties. Modi denies religious discrimination exists in India. Read also: Hindu nationalists attack foreign students for offering Ramazan prayers in India The BJP says the government is undoing historica...

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Friday declared 800 hectares in the occupied West Bank as state land, in a move that will facilitate the use of the ground for settlement building. The announcement, on the day US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, underlined the government's determination to press ahead with settlement building in the West Bank, despite growing international opposition. Palestinian authorities condemned the move. "While there are those in Israel and in the world who seek to undermine our right to Judea and Samaria and the country in general, we promote settlement through hard work and in a strategic manner all over the country," Smotrich said, using Biblical names for the area of the West Bank that are commonly employed in Israel. The denomination of the 1,976 acres of land in the Jordan Valley as state land follows a similar designation of 300 hectares (740 acres) in the Maale Ad...

Camouflage-clad terrorists opened fire with automatic weapons at concertgoers near Moscow on Friday, killing at least 60 people and injuring 145 in an attack claimed by the militant Islamic State. In the deadliest attack in Russia since the 2004 Beslan school siege, gunmen sprayed civilians with bullets just before rock group "Picnic" was to perform to a full house at the 6,200-seat Crocus City Hall just west of the capital. The attackers entered the building on Friday, opened fire and threw a grenade or incendiary bomb, according to a journalist for the RIA Novosti news agency at the scene. Fire quickly spread through the Crocus City concert hall in Moscow's northern Krasnogorsk suburb, as smoke filled the building and screaming visitors rushed to emergency exits. Verified video showed people taking their seats in the hall, then rushing for the exits as repeated gunfire echoed above screams. Other videos showed men shooting at groups of people. Some victims lay motionles...

The United Nations Security Council on Friday failed to pass a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as part of a hostage deal after Russia and China vetoed the measure proposed by the United States. The resolution called for an "immediate and sustained ceasefire" lasting roughly six weeks that would protect civilians and allow for the delivery of humanitarian assistance. "The vast majority of this council voted in favour of this resolution, but unfortunately Russia and China decided to exercise its veto," US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council. Before the vote, she said it would be a "historic mistake" for the council not to adopt the resolution. Read also: US proposes UN Security Council oppose Rafah assault, back temporary Gaza ceasefire Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, also speaking before the vote, called on members not to vote in favour of the resolution. He said the r...

As a speed boat carrying more than a dozen Somali pirates bore down on their position in the western Indian Ocean, the crew of a Bangladeshi-owned bulk carrier sent out a distress signal and called an emergency hotline. No one reached them in time. The pirates clambered aboard the Abdullah, firing warning shots and taking the captain and second officer hostage, Chief Officer Atiq Ullah Khan said in an audio message to the ship's owners. "By the grace of Allah no one has been harmed so far," Khan said in the message, recorded before the pirates took the crew's phones. The company shared the recording with Reuters. A week later, the Abdullah is anchored off the coast of Somalia, the latest victim of a resurgence of piracy that international navies thought they had brought under control. A member of the Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF) stands guard on the coast of Bosaso, in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, Somalia January 30, 2024. PHOTO: REUTERS The raids a...

China has started revising the industry catalogue of sectors encouraging foreign investment, the country's top economic planner said on Wednesday. During the revision process, the National Development and Reform Commission will engage in extensive communication with foreign chambers of commerce and enterprises through field investigations and seminars, said Hua Zhong, an official of the commission. Read also: ‘China’s opening conducive to foreign businesses’ The revision will maintain a focus on the manufacturing sector as one of the priorities for attracting foreign investment, Hua said, adding that China will step up support to advanced manufacturing, modern services, advanced technology, energy conservation and environmental protection to attract more foreign investment in these areas. The revision will be tailored according to local resources and industrial foundations in central and western regions to encourage multinationals to develop businesses there, Hua said. from Lates...

India's foreign ministry said on Tuesday that China was making "absurd claims" over Arunachal Pradesh, adding that the northeastern state which shares a border with China will always be an "integral and inalienable part of India". China claims Arunachal Pradesh to be a part of southern Tibet. New Delhi rejects the claim, saying Arunachal Pradesh has always been a part of India. "Repeating baseless arguments in this regard does not lend such claims any validity," Randhir Jaiswal, India's foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday. He was responding to last week's comments made by Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang, spokesman of China's Ministry of National Defense, days after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a road tunnel in Arunachal Pradesh on March 9. Read also: India rejects China's objections to Modi's visit to Himalayan border state Zhang said in a statement that India should "stop taking any moves that compli...

Hong Kong lawmakers on Tuesday unanimously passed a domestic national security bill, in a first since the semi-autonomous region was returned to Chinese rule in 1997. All 89 lawmakers voted to pass the bill, which will take effect on Saturday. After it takes effect as law, the Safeguarding National Security Law covers 39 offenses divided into five categories: treason; insurrection, incitement to mutiny and disaffection, and acts with seditious intention; sabotage; external interference; and theft of state secrets and espionage. The 212-page bill under Article 23 of China’s semi-autonomous region’s Basic Law was submitted to the Legislative Council for deliberations and a vote early this month. Read also: Pragmatism takes centre stage at China's NPC According to the Hong Kong Free Press, in an unusual move, the council’s President Andrew Leung also cast a vote. “As the president of the Legislative Council, I would not vote in usual circumstances,” Leung said. “However, legislation o...