INDIA: Indian soldiers fired at worshippers outside a mosque in disputed Kashmir on Friday, killing one man and wounding another after some threw rocks, police and residents said.
Police said soldiers on patrol were pelted with rocks near the main mosque in Beerwah town, where worshippers had gathered to offer Friday prayers. A firecracker was hurled toward the soldiers, who mistook the loud noise for a grenade and retaliated, police said in a statement.
Residents, however, said only a few rocks were thrown and none hit any soldier. Witnesses said the soldiers fired indiscriminately after some rocks hit the iron shutters of shops that were closed because of a general strike against Indian rule in Kashmir.
The slain man, a tailor in his mid-20s, was hit by multiple bullets and died on the way to a hospital. The wounded man was reported to be in stable condition.
The killing triggered anger and widespread protests in the town. Police fired tear gas, fearing the funeral procession would turn into larger protests in the area as thousands carried the man’s body to a graveyard for burial while chanting slogans against Indian rule.
Some threw rocks at police, who fired shotgun pellets to quell the protest. No one was reported injured.
Shops, businesses and schools were closed in most parts of the region because of the general strike, called by separatists who challenge India’s sovereignty over Kashmir. The separatists also called for a march to the United Nations office in Srinagar, the region’s main city.
Authorities imposed a tight curfew in downtown Srinagar and areas near the UN office in anticipation of the march and anti-India protests. Armed police and paramilitary soldiers in riot gear patrolled streets and blocked roads with razor wire and steel barricades.
Later Friday, scores of people led by a top separatist leader, Mohammed Yasin Malik, defied the security lockdown and tried to hold a protest march in Srinagar. However, police detained Malik and several other activists.
Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety. Rebel groups have been fighting since 1989 for the Indian-administered portion to become independent or merge with Pakistan. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian military crackdown.
Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir’s mostly Muslim population and most people support the rebels’ cause against Indian rule.
India has accused Pakistan of arming and training the rebels, which Pakistan denies.
Rebel groups have largely been suppressed by Indian forces in recent years and public opposition to Indian rule is now principally expressed through street protests.
One dead as Indian troops open fire on Kashmiri protesters
One dead as Indian troops open fire on Kashmiri protesters
Taliban deny reports of American airbase takeover
- Chief spokesman: ‘The Islamic Emirate will not allow such an action’
- Rumors spread after US military flight landed at Bagram reportedly carrying top intelligence officials
LONDON: The Taliban have denied rumors that Afghanistan’s Bagram airbase has been handed back to the US, The Independent reported on Tuesday.
The denial followed the flight of a US military cargo plane into Afghanistan over the weekend.
The C-17 aircraft took off from Al-Udeid in Qatar and arrived in Afghanistan via Pakistan, landing at Bagram on Sunday, local media reported.
Khaama Press reported that the flight was carrying top US intelligence officials, including Michael Ellis, the CIA’s deputy chief.
It added that the Taliban handed the base to the US in the wake of comments by President Donald Trump expressing an interest in the facility, located north of Kabul.
However, the Taliban’s chief spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid dismissed the reports as “propaganda” and said the government maintains full control of the base.
“There is no need for any country’s military presence in Afghanistan at present and the Islamic Emirate will not allow such an action,” he added, describing an American takeover of the base as “impossible.”
Zia Ahmad Takal, deputy spokesman for Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry, told The Independent: “This news (of the takeover) is not correct.”
Bagram, the size of a small city, served as the command node for coalition forces during the 20-year war against the Taliban before the group recaptured Afghanistan in 2021.
It has two runways, 100 parking spaces for jets, a passenger lounge, a 50-bed hospital, and numerous hangar-sized tents housing equipment.
Boy stabbed to death in UK had fled war in Syria
- Ahmad Mamdouh Al Ibrahim, 16, died in Huddersfield after moving to ‘safe haven’ from Homs
- Family says he dreamed of becoming a doctor to help others after he was injured in bombing
LONDON: A 16-year-old boy who was fatally stabbed in the UK after fleeing war in Syria had dreamed of becoming a doctor, his family said on Tuesday.
Ahmad Mamdouh Al-Ibrahim died in hospital after being wounded in the neck in the northern English town of Huddersfield on Thursday.
The teenager was settling into his new life in the UK after fleeing Homs in Syria, where he had been injured in a bombing.
In an emotional tribute, his family said their “beloved Ahmad” had wanted to become a doctor to help others.
“Ahmad fled war-torn Homs, Syria, after being injured in a bombing,” the family said in a statement released through West Yorkshire Police.
“He chose to come to the UK because he believed in the values of human rights, safety and dignity.
“He was full of hope and dreamed of becoming a doctor — wanting to heal others after all he had endured.”
The family said Ahmad had been living with his uncle and adjusting to a new language, new home and a future “he was excited to build.”
“Ahmad was kind, gentle and carried so much promise. Losing him has left an unimaginable emptiness in our hearts,” they said.
“We never thought that the place he saw as a safe haven would be where his life would end.”
The family said they wished to lay Ahmad to rest in his homeland, Syria.
The tribute was released as a 20-year-old man, Alfie Franco, appeared in Leeds Crown Court on Tuesday accused of Ahmad’s murder. A trial date was set for October.
Police said they were continuing to work with Ahmad’s family and to investigate the stabbing.
Musk slams 'moron' Trump aide in deepening tariff spat
- Billionaire Elon Musk blasted President Donald Trump’s senior trade adviser Peter Navarro as “dumber than a sack of bricks”
- Musk has previously signaled his opposition to the president’s new import tariffs
WASHINGTON: Billionaire Elon Musk blasted President Donald Trump’s senior trade adviser Peter Navarro as “truly a moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks” on Tuesday in a growing rift over the US tariff policy that has rocked the world.
The extraordinary public spat came after Navarro described the Tesla boss and so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief as “not a car manufacturer” but “a car assembler” who relies on imported parts.
Musk, the world’s richest person, has previously signaled his opposition to the president’s new import tariffs that have roiled markets.
“Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false,” Musk posted on his X social network, under a clip of Navarro saying Tesla imported batteries, electronics and tires, and that Musk “wants the cheap foreign parts.”
Musk doubled down in a series of other messages, saying that “Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks.”
Musk also dubbed him “Peter Retarrdo” and said Navarro “should ask the fake expert he invented, Ron Vara” — referring to a fictional pundit Navarro quoted in a series of books and a policy memo, using an anagram of his own name.
The South African-born tycoon recently backed the idea of a free-trade zone between North America and Europe — a wish at odds with Trump’s flagship tariffs.
The US president has ruled out any pause in his aggressive stance despite retaliatory action from China and signs of criticism from within his normally loyal Republican Party.
But there have also been conflicting messages from within the White House itself.
A long-time China hawk, Navarro has been one of the most hard-line voices on tariffs, and targeted Musk himself in an interview with CNBC.
“When it comes to tariffs and trade, we all understand in the White House, and the American people understand, that Elon’s a car manufacturer. But he’s not a car manufacturer — he’s a car assembler in many cases,” Navarro said.
“If you go to his Texas plant... the batteries come from Japan and from China, the electronics come from Taiwan.”
The row came a day after Navarro insisted in an opinion piece in the Financial Times that the tariffs were “not a negotiation” — only for Trump to admit later that he was in fact open to some negotiations.
The spat is all the more unusual because of the mesh of loyalties involved.
Trump has strongly defended Musk after a series of vandalism attacks and protests against Tesla over DOGE’s cost-cutting drive — even turning the White House into a pop-up showroom for the electric vehicles in a show of support.
Navarro, however, has proven his loyalty to Trump by serving a four-month jail sentence for contempt after refusing to testify to Congress on the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters.
Italian police say they disrupted migrant smuggling ring, 15 Egyptians arrested
- Smugglers used sailboats for dangerous illegal crossings from Turkiye to Greece and Italy
MILAN: Italian police said on Tuesday they had dismantled a migrant smuggling network, leading to the arrests in several countries of 15 Egyptians involved in using sailboats for dangerous illegal sea crossings from Turkiye to Greece and Italy.
According to an Italian police statement, the network facilitated the illegal entry into Italy of at least 3,000 migrants since 2021, earning more than $30 million by charging them $10,000 each.
The Italian police said the arrests were made simultaneously in multiple countries with the cooperation of Albanian, German, Turkish and Omani police, coordinated by Italian anti-mafia prosecutors in Sicily and relying on Interpol and Europol.
The smuggling network had been led by an Egyptian who ran operations from Istanbul, the Italian police said.
“The organization had set up a system that involved recruiting professional skippers, almost all Egyptian, providing logistical support in Turkiye while the migrants waited to leave, and transporting them in sailboats to the Greek and Italian coasts,” Italian police said in a statement.
Crossings departing from the Turkish ports of Bodrum, Izmir and Marmari took up to a week, with dozens of migrants crammed on board 12-15 meter sailboats with no life-saving equipment, the statement said.
Tens of thousands of migrants are believed to have died trying to cross the Mediterranean in recent years. The sea route from Turkiye to Italy has been particularly notorious since February 2023, when at least 94 people died off Cutro in southern Italy in one of the worst disasters of the crisis.
Dubai crown prince arrives in India on official visit
- With more than $3 billion in foreign direct investment, India was Dubai’s top investor in 2024
- Dubai crown prince will also take part in a business roundtable meeting in Mumbai
NEW DELHI: The crown prince of Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday for his first official visit to India, where he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and members of his Cabinet.
Sheikh Hamdan is on a two-day visit to New Delhi and Mumbai, leading a delegation of ministers, senior government officials and business leaders.
India’s economic ties with Dubai have been growing rapidly since the 2022 UAE-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which has eliminated trade barriers, lowered tariffs and eased business operations, making it easier for companies in both countries to access each other’s markets.
“Dubai has played a key role in advancing the India-UAE Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. This special visit reaffirms our deep-rooted friendship and paves the way for even stronger collaboration in the future,” Modi said on X after the meeting.
Trade volume between Dubai and India was worth about $45.4 billion in 2023, up from $36.7 billion in 2019, data from the emirate’s media office showed.
India was Dubai’s top investor in 2024, with more than $3 billion in foreign direct investment in various sectors, such as business services, software and IT services, consumer products, food and beverages, and real estate.
As of last year, more than 70,000 Indian companies have joined the Dubai Chamber of Commerce.
Dubai, the most populous of the UAE’s seven emirates, is also home to the majority of India’s 4.3 million diaspora in the country.
“It was a pleasure meeting the Prime Minister Narendra Modi today in New Delhi,” Sheikh Hamdan wrote on X.
“Our conversations reaffirmed the strength of UAE-India ties, which are built on trust, shaped by history, and driven by a shared vision to create a future full of opportunity, innovation, and lasting prosperity.”
Sheikh Hamdan, who is also the UAE’s minister of defense, held meetings with his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.
On the sidelines of the visit, representatives of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce preside over a business forum in Mumbai to explore “new trade and investment prospects” with about 200 industry leaders, the Dubai Media Office said in a statement.
After Delhi, Sheikh Hamdan will visit Mumbai, where he will take part in a roundtable meeting with top business leaders from India and Dubai.
