NEW DELHI: An Air India airplane flying from Delhi to San Francisco made an emergency landing in Russia after the crew detected a potential issue in the cargo hold area, the airline said on Friday, its second such incident on the route in just over a year.
Many carriers, including US and European Union airlines, avoid Russian airspace following the war in Ukraine, but Air India uses that route, giving it a flying time and cost advantage on US-bound flights.
The Boeing 777 aircraft, carrying 225 passengers and 19 flight crew, made a precautionary landing safely in the Russian region of Siberia at the Krasnoyarsk International Airport, the airline said in a statement.
It added Air India was “concerned about the passengers and staff and are making every effort possible to operate the ferry flight as soon as possible.”
The airport said the flight’s crew had been moved to hotels, and passengers were in the international departure area, which angered some of those stranded, according to social media posts.
Mayank Gupta, whose mother was on the flight, wrote on X he was “sad and angry” that her medicines and luggage remained on the airplane.
A passenger said on X that people were struggling to get food and water, posting a photo showing some passengers sleeping on the floor inside the airport area.
In another statement on Friday, Air India said representatives from the Indian consulate in Moscow traveled to Krasnoyarsk overnight and “are working with Russian authorities to allow passengers to move to hotels, which have been on standby throughout the night.”
The airport said the plane landed due to an activated smoke detector. Regulatory clearances have been obtained for a relief flight that will depart Mumbai at 11 a.m. India time (0530 GMT) on Friday and ferry the guests out of the airport, Air India said.
Shortly after the incident, Russia’s civil aviation agency, Rosaviatsiya, said the aircraft had taxied to a parking spot after landing and there had been no signs of a fire or smoke onboard.
Boeing and a spokesperson for the US State Department deferred to Air India for comment on the incident.
Russia banned many foreign carriers from its airspace in retaliation for Western sanctions over the Ukraine war, and many countries and airlines also banned their planes from crossing over all or part of Russia.
The bans have redrawn air routes and upset business models for some airlines that now need to fly around the world’s largest country. United Airlines canceled many of its non-stop US-India flights due to the issue.
In June 2023, an Air India Boeing plane on the same route was stranded for a day after reporting a technical issue. Passengers on that flight, including US citizens, were housed in makeshift accommodation at Russia’s remote Magadan airport.
Air India sent an aircraft a day later to pick up the stranded passengers.
US-bound Air India plane makes emergency landing in Russia
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US-bound Air India plane makes emergency landing in Russia
- The Boeing 777 aircraft, carrying 225 passengers and 19 flight crew, made a precautionary landing safely in the Russian region of Siberia at the Krasnoyarsk International Airport
Killer wolves spark panic in India
- Hundreds of Indian police have been deployed to search for a pack of wolves who are reported to have killed nine people, eight of them children
LUCKNOW: Hundreds of Indian police have been deployed to search for a pack of wolves who are reported to have killed nine people, eight of them children, wildlife officials said Monday.
In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, terrified residents of Bahraich district are keeping all-night vigils, deploying guard dogs and letting off firecrackers in hopes of scaring off the predators.
The killings have happened over the past two months, with the latest attack on a six-year-old boy in the early hours of Sunday morning. The boy was sleeping on the veranda of his home — a common practice during the hot and humid days of the monsoon rains — when the wolf grabbed him by the neck.
“I woke up to find my son in the animal’s jaws,” his mother Gudiya told the Times of India.
“I acted instinctively and pulled my son away with as much strength as I could muster.”
Experts say wolves attack humans or livestock only as a last resort when they are starving — preferring less dangerous prey such as small antelopes.
But wildlife officials say heavy flooding from extreme torrential rains has swamped the wolves’ usual territory and driven them into areas of more populated farmland.
“When their natural prey is no longer available, wolves are left with fewer options,” said state forestry official Ajeet Kumar Singh, who is part of the wolf hunt, told the Times of India.
“The floods have created a scarcity that has pushed them to take risks they wouldn’t normally consider.”
The grassland plains of Bahraich district lie about 50 kilometres south of the border with Nepal, where thick forests cover Himalayan foothills.
British lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn forms pro-Palestine parliamentary alliance
- Former Labour Party leader joins forces with 4 independent MPs
- ‘Millions of people are crying out for a real alternative to austerity, inequality and war,’ group says
LONDON: Former UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has formed a pro-Palestinian parliamentary alliance that includes four independent lawmakers, The Guardian reported.
Members of parliament Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan, Adnan Hussain and Iqbal Mohamed were all elected on a pro-Palestine platform in Britain’s July election.
They will join Corbyn, a longtime supporter of the Palestinian cause, as an official grouping called the Independent Alliance in the House of Commons, rivaling Reform UK and the Democratic Unionist Party in MP numbers.
The alliance will also have one more MP than the left-wing Green Party.
As well promoting the Palestinian cause, the alliance has pledged to fight austerity and the two-child benefit limit, as well as UK arms sales to Israel.
The five independents issued a call for more MPs to join them.
“We were elected by our constituents to provide hope in a parliament of despair,” they said.
“Already, this government has scrapped the winter fuel allowance for around 10 million pensioners, voted to keep the two-child benefits cap and ignored calls to end arms sales to Israel.
“Millions of people are crying out for a real alternative to austerity, inequality and war — and their voices deserve to be heard. As individuals we were voted by our constituents to represent their concerns in parliament on these matters and more, and we believe that as a collective group we can carry on doing this with greater effect.
“The more MPs who are prepared to stand up for these principles the better. Our door is always open to other MPs who believe in a more equal and peaceful world.”
The five have not formed a political party but a grouping without a leader, potentially allowing them more time to speak and debate in the House of Commons.
In the election, the independents stood on strong pro-Palestine platforms in seats with high numbers of Muslim voters, many of whom were dissatisfied with Labour’s stance on the Gaza war.
In parliament, the alliance will likely pile new pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer over Britain’s relationship with Israel.
In July, Labour suspended seven MPs for supporting a Scottish National Party motion calling for the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap. The Independent Alliance will likely target the suspended MPs, including former key allies of Corbyn, for defection.
Six killed, 13 wounded in Kabul suicide bombing
- Afghan Taliban declared security their highest priority since surging back to power three years ago
- Violence has waned in Afghanistan, though several militant groups remain active including Daesh
KABUL: A suicide bomber triggered explosives in the Afghan capital on Monday, police said, killing six people and wounding 13 more.
Violence has waned in Afghanistan since the 2021 Taliban takeover. However, several militant groups remain active including the regional chapter of Daesh.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Monday afternoon’s attack, which took place in the Qala-e-Bakhtiar area of Kabul’s southern outskirts.
Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said “a person wearing explosives on his body detonated,” and one woman was among the fatalities.
“The injured were transferred to hospitals on time and investigations are ongoing,” he posted on social media platform X.
Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities have declared security their highest priority since surging back to power following the chaotic withdrawal of foreign forces three years ago.
While their sweeping security operations have led to a decline in militants challenging their rule, according to analysts, they also downplay or delay confirmation of attacks.
The last suicide attack in Afghanistan claimed by the regional chapter of Daesh was in the southern city of Kandahar — the Taliban’s historic stronghold — in March.
Taliban authorities said only three people were killed while a hospital source put the toll far higher at 20.
Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP last month that Daesh “existed here before but we suppressed them very hard.”
“No such groups exist here that can pose a threat to anyone,” he said.
Pope heads to Indonesia, first stop in four-nation tour
- Catholics currently represent fewer than three percent of the population of Indonesia, compared to the 87 percent who are Muslim
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis, 87, embarked Monday on an ambitious four-nation tour that begins with Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, for a visit dominated by inter-faith ties.
The pontiff left Rome on Monday afternoon and is due to land in Jakarta on Tuesday morning (around 0430 GMT), the first stop in a 12-day voyage that will also take in Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore.
Covering some 32,000 kilometers (almost 20,000 miles), the tour — the longest and farthest of his 11 years leading the worldwide Catholic Church — will test Francis’ increasingly fragile health.
But in recent weeks the pontiff has appeared in good spirits, and he is often energised by being among his flock.
Catholics currently represent fewer than three percent of the population of Indonesia — some eight million people, compared to the 87 percent, or 242 million, who are Muslim.
But they are one of six officially recognized religions or denominations in the secular nation, also including Protestantism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism.
On Thursday Francis will meet representatives of all six at Istiqlal Mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia and a symbol of religious co-existence.
It is linked via a “tunnel of friendship” to the cathedral across the road, where Christians in recent days have been taking selfies with a life-sized cutout of the pope.
At the mosque, Pope Francis will sign a joint declaration with the grand imam, Nasaruddin Umar.
The statement will focus on “dehumanization,” notably the spread of violence and conflict, particularly to women and children, as well as environmental degradation, according to the Indonesian bishops’ conference.
Francis has repeatedly urged the world to do more to combat climate change and mitigate its effects — including rising sea levels, which threaten the heavily polluted megalopolis of Jakarta.
Security is tight for the three-day visit, with the military, police and members of the president’s own detail among more than 4,000 law enforcement officers deployed.
A new billboard advert declaring “Welcome Pope Francis” has been put up in central Jakarta, while the government has ordered a special stamp in his honor.
It is the third papal visit to Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,500 islands, after Paul VI in 1970 and John Paul II in 1989.
The independent Jakarta Post newspaper hailed the visit in an editorial Monday as “highly significant for the advancement of interreligious relations” both in Indonesia and abroad.
Despite Indonesia’s official recognition of different faiths, there are concerns about growing discrimination, including against Christians, with local Catholics hoping the pope will speak out.
The Jakarta-based Journalists’ Union for Diversity (SEJUK) told AFP it had recorded eight violations of religious freedom in August alone, including the banning of church construction, attacks on temples and assaults.
But Michel Chambon, a theologian and anthropologist at the National University of Singapore, said the pope would be pressing a wider message he has already delivered in other Muslim-majority countries, from Iraq to Bahrain, Turkiye and Morocco.
The visit “is not really aimed at Catholics in Indonesia” but is intended to highlight the global importance of Islamic-Christian dialogue, he told AFP.
“There are divisions even within the Catholic Church. Some leaders think that good interreligious dialogue is all well and good, but that it will not go further than peaceful coexistence,” he added.
Francis will meet outgoing President Joko Widodo during his visit, and hold meetings with young people, diplomats and local clergy.
He will also preside over a mass in a 80,000-seat stadium, one of several such events during the tour, the 45th overseas trip of his papacy.
Originally planned for 2020 but postponed due to the Covid pandemic, the visit takes place just three months before his 88th birthday.
The Argentine now routinely uses a wheelchair to move around, underwent hernia surgery last year and has been plagued by respiratory issues.
He has not traveled abroad since visiting Marseille in France in September 2023, having canceled a planned address at United Nations climate talks in Dubai two months later.
He will be traveling to Indonesia with his personal doctor and two nurses, but Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said this is normal, saying no extra precautions were in place.
Pakistanis tried for incitement to kill Dutch far-right leader Wilders
- Dutch prosecutors have charged 56-year-old religious leader Muhammed Ashraf Jalali for calling on his followers to kill Wilders
- Saad Hussain Rizvi, leader of the TLP party, is suspected of urging followers to kill Wilders after Pakistani cricketer Khalid Latif was sentenced for incitement to murder
SCHIPHOL, Netherlands: Two Pakistani men stood trial in absentia Monday at a high-security court in the Netherlands over alleged attempts to incite the murder of far-right and anti-Islam Dutch leader Geert Wilders.
Dutch prosecutors have charged 56-year-old religious leader Muhammed Ashraf Jalali for calling on his followers to kill Wilders and promising they would be “rewarded in the afterlife.”
Another man, Saad Hussain Rizvi, leader of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party, is suspected of urging followers to kill Wilders after Pakistani cricketer Khalid Latif was sentenced for incitement to murder him.
“This case has had a huge impact on me and my family,” said Wilders, dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and maroon tie.
“I’m asking this court to send a strong signal... that calling a fatwa in this country is unacceptable,” he added.
The trial took place at a highly secure courthouse near Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.
Dutch authorities asked Islamabad for legal assistance to question the suspects and demand they appear in court.
However, no treaty exists with Pakistan for mutual legal assistance and the two men did not appear in the dock. Neither man had legal representation present.
In September last year, judges sentenced Latif to 12 years behind bars for incitement to murder Wilders after the firebrand lawmaker sought to arrange a competition for cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Wilders canceled the cartoon contest after protests broke out in Pakistan and he was inundated with death threats. He has been under 24-hour state protection since 2004.
The planned competition “caused a lot of unrest within the Muslim community. He (Wilders) received hundreds, if not thousands of death threats,” said the judge, who asked not to be identified.
In the Netherlands, the plan to stage the contest was widely criticized as needlessly antagonizing Muslims.
But the call to kill Wilders appeared to resonate, as a Pakistani man was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2019 for plotting his assassination in the wake of the canceled contest.
Wilders said in court he had planned the contest because “it’s unacceptable that you are not allowed freedom of speech... in countries where it is permitted by law.”
“For the past 20 years I have been robbed of my freedom because of what I think, say, write and do,” said Wilders.
“Fatwas are the worst of all. They never go away. I still receive death threats on a daily basis,” added the politician.
The public prosecutor called for Jalali to receive 14 years in prison. The hearing against Rizvi was due to begin later Monday with a verdict expected on September 9.
“The aim of the suspect (Jalali) was to kill Wilders. He (Jalali) had great influence in Pakistan,” alleged the prosecutor, who asked to remain anonymous.
“Unfortunately we see politicians being more and more threatened because of what they say and think.”
The hard-line TLP religious group is known for its massive street protests over blasphemy allegations that can paralyze cities for days.
It brought tens of thousands of people to the streets after Paris-based satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo republished cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in 2020.
