World Echo

Nepal will kick off a high-stakes effort this fiscal year to drain four glacial lakes perched high in the mountains, as it scrambles to reduce flood risks, officials said, after a recent disaster that killed more than 1,400. Rescuers are still searching for more than 5,000 people missing in the border region with China after August's glacier collapse unleashed landslides and a flash flood that tore through valleys. "Our aim is to lower the risk of the lakes breaching their natural dams and reduce the risk of downstream floods," said Subash Tuladhar, an expert with a government research centre tasked with overseeing the new project. Canals will drain water into nearby rivers in a regulated way, he said, adding that workers faced health risks as a result of the lengthy periods of high-altitude work required, in addition to the dangers of sudden flooding. Read: Floods, landslides kill 56 in India and 14 in Nepal Design work and detailed studies targeting t...

Riot police clashed with high school students in cities across France on Friday, as President Emmanuel Macron's government battled to contain increasingly violent protests over classroom conditions and funding. Tear gas clouded the streets in the eastern city of Strasbourg, fireworks were aimed at police lines in Marseille in the south and rubbish bins set ablaze in Rennes in the west. In Paris, where there were also skirmishes, students waved placards reading "We have a future to build, not to endure". Six months before next year's presidential election, opinion polls consistently show the deep unpopularity of Macron and his centre-right-leaning government. Planned budget cuts, which exacerbate the funding crisis in education, have fuelled the discontent. Minister says parents should pay reparations The protests erupted in the Paris region last week but have turned increasingly violent as they spread nationwide. Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin told RTL...

Hundreds of eligible offenders are set to leave prisons in England and Wales as the government’s early-release scheme took effect Thursday. The scheme was introduced after the prison system came close to running out of capacity in the summer of 2024, with fewer than 100 spaces remaining. Under the new rules, eligible offenders serving sentences of up to 19 months can be released after serving a third of their term. The government has faced criticism over the plan, with the main opposition Conservative Party warning that dangerous criminals could be released under the early-release scheme. Read: UK rapper gets 12-year jail term for hit-and-run killing “I think what would make the public less safe is if we had no prison capacity in which to put people who are arrested, suspected of crimes, today,” Treasury minister James Murray told Sky News. Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s office said last month that more than 3,200 prison places had already been bui...

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Thursday hailed the “expulsion” of the US from Iraq, saying the move marks the beginning of a broader US withdrawal from the region. In a statement marking the completion of the US withdrawal from Iraq, the IRGC said the development was “the herald of West Asia’s liberation from the yoke of the Great Satan’s domination.” The IRGC said the US departure from Iraq was the result of the “will of the Iraqi people,” as well as "resistance and action by the Iraqi government," describing it as a “historic victory.” It called on Washington to leave the region and “leave the management of security to the peoples of its countries.” The statement said the US presence in Iraq “lasted for two decades” and was a “first step toward the full expulsion of American forces” from the region. Read: US forces exit Iraq after two decades...

US President Donald Trump will not win ​this year's Nobel Peace Prize as he wages war with Iran, but his influence will still be felt by the awarding body ‌that picks the laureate, according to experts. Last year's award, to Venezuela's Maria Corina Machado, was unique in the prize's 125-year history, coming amid repeated lobbying by Trump to get the award. Weeks later, Machado gave her gold Nobel medal to Trump, in a bid to win support for her efforts for a democratic Venezuela. This year, the five-strong body will be mindful of ​picking someone who can withstand pressure from Trump, according to Haakon Gjerloew, acting director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo. "I think last ​year's events around the Nobel Peace Prize, Maria Corina Machado giving it to Trump afterwards, will affect some of ⁠the considerations that they make," he told Reuters. "One worry the committee might have is whether awarding it to someone could put them under ...