India’s navy deploys warships to Arabian Sea after tanker attack
Guided missile destroyers to ‘maintain deterrent presence’ after Israel-linked vessel hit off Indian coast. The Indian Navy has dispatched guided missile destroyers to the Arabian Sea after an attack on an Israel-linked chemical tanker off its coast, the Ministry of Defence said. Three stealth-guided destroyers were deployed “in various areas of the sea” to “maintain a deterrent presence” considering the “recent spate of attacks in the Arabian Sea”, the ministry said in a statement late on Monday. It was also using long-range maritime patrol aircraft for “domain awareness”, it said. The United States claimed that the December 23 strike on MV Chem Pluto in the Indian Ocean was “fired from Iran”, an accusation that Tehran has dismissed as baseless. The attack came as a US-led task force sought to counter similar threats to maritime shipping in the Red Sea posed by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels. Amid the uptick in maritime strikes, this was the first that the US has sought to directly pin on Iran. It was also the first on a vessel outside the Red Sea. “We can see that militarisation is increasing, not only in the Red Sea, but also in the Arabian Peninsula,” said Al Jazeera’s Resul Sardar, reporting from Djibouti. “These are the regional ramifications of the war on Gaza,” he reported on Tuesday. The Indian Navy said it was investigating the nature of the attack on MV Chem Puto, which “anchored safely” in the financial capital, Mumbai, on Monday. An initial assessment “pointed to a drone attack”, the ministry said. But “further forensic and technical analysis will be required to establish the vector of attack, including type and amount of explosive used”. The vessel had been “cleared for further operation” by its company, according to the ministry. Shipping under threat MV Chem Pluto, a Japanese-owned tanker carrying 21 Indians and one Vietnamese citizen, was hit on Saturday while travelling 200 nautical miles (370km) off the coast of India, according to the Pentagon. The attack sparked a fire, which was put out, but caused no casualties. The Houthis have pledged to target any Israel-linked vessel in the Red Sea, through which some 12 percent of all global trade passes, in solidarity with Gaza which has been bombarded by land, sea and air by the Israeli military. Sardar said that despite the new US-led task force, there still hasn’t been an increase in ships trying to pass through the Red Sea, adding that dozens of cargo ships remain stranded in Djibouti. Since October, the Houthis have waged attacks on more than a dozen vessels, pushing some of the world’s largest firms to abandon the route. The attack in the Indian Ocean, far away from the Red Sea, has raised concerns about even broader risks to maritime shipping amid the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Washington has accused Tehran of being “deeply involved” in the Houthi operations. But Iran insists that it is not coordinating with the Houthis and plays no role in the attacks. “The resistance [Houthis] has its own tools … and acts in accordance with its own decisions and capabilities,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri told the Mehr news agency on Saturday. Adblock test (Why?)
CISF personnel interrogate Indian passengers implicated in alleged trafficking scam
A plane carrying 303 Indian passengers that was grounded in France over suspected human trafficking landed at Mumbai’s Chattrapati Shivaji International Airport in the early hours of Tuesday.
India logs 116 new COVID-19 cases, active tally cross 4100-mark amid JN.1 variant surge
The current active cases in the country have reached 4,170, while the total death toll reached 5,33,337. States have been urged to ensure strict adherence to revised COVID-19 surveillance guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Inauguration of Ram Temple befitting reply to those who mocked BJP: Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis
Speaking at the ‘Atal Sanskriti Gaurav Awards’ event here, Devendra Fadnavis said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had realised the dream of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee with the construction of the Ram Temple and abrogation of Article 370.
Deported from France, implicated in alleged trafficking scam, passengers avoid media on arrival in India
The plane carrying 303 Indian passengers, which was grounded in France over suspected human trafficking, landed at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in the early hours of Tuesday.
Chennai techie chained, slashed with blade and burned alive by friend on her birthday, know why
The gruesome act involved chaining, slashing with a blade, and burning the young woman alive. The incident happened at Thalambur, which is located on the outskirts of Chennai.
IMD update: Delhi-NCR in grip of cold wave, dense fog, AQI remains ‘very poor’ in Noida, Ghaziabad
Residents sought refuge in night shelters across various parts of the national capital as the cold wave intensified on the intervening night of Tuesday.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 671
As the war enters its 671st day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Tuesday, December 26, 2023. Fighting Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed Russian troops had gained full control of the eastern Ukrainian town of Marinka in what would be their first major breakthrough since the capture of Bakhmut back in May. Ukrainian military spokesperson Oleksandr Shtupun denied the Russian claims. “It’s not correct to talk about seizing Marinka,” he told national television. “Our forces are within the city.” Five people were killed after Russian shelling of Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson and towns elsewhere in the region hit an apartment block and residential homes. Nine other people, including a 15-year-old, were wounded while gas and water supplies were partially cut off in the attacks. Russian-installed authorities, meanwhile, said one person had been killed and six wounded in Ukrainian shelling of the Russian-occupied eastern town of Horlivka. Ukraine said it shot down 28 of 31 drones launched by Russia overnight as well as two missiles mostly targeting the south of the country. Russian and Ukrainian military officials both reported bringing down enemy aircraft in different areas of the 1,000km-long (621-mile) front line. Mykola Oleshchuk, the commander of Ukraine’s Air Force, said Ukrainian anti-aircraft units had hit a Russian Su-34 fighter bomber near the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol. Russia’s Defence Ministry, meanwhile, said its air defence systems shot down four Ukrainian military aircraft over the previous 24 hours. Ukraine is proposing lowering the age of those who can be mobilised for combat duty from 27 to 25, according to the draft text of a new law on conscription. Politics and diplomacy Ukraine celebrated Christmas on December 25 for the first time in part of an ongoing effort to distance itself from Russian influence. Russia marks the holiday in January. Ukraine received $1.34bn in funds from the World Bank. The money will be used to support non-security related financial and economic stability, Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance said. Hundreds of supporters of Igor Girkin, a jailed former commander of Russian-backed fighters in Ukraine who is better known by his alias Igor Strelkov, rallied in Moscow to back his bid to stand for president. Girkin was a key leader of fighters in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and has criticised Russia’s military strategy in Ukraine for being “too kind”. He was detained in July. Weapons Denis Manturov, the Russian deputy prime minister who oversees arms production, told the RIA news agency that Russia had the upper hand in weapons production over Western countries and intended to grow its arms industry. Manturov said that the volume of state defence orders in 2023 had doubled compared with the previous year, with production of “certain weapons” rising ten-fold. Adblock test (Why?)
Plane held in France over trafficking concerns lands in India
Airbus A340 carrying 276 Indian passengers arrives in Mumbai early on Tuesday. A plane carrying hundreds of Indian passengers that was grounded in France for four days amid a probe into possible human trafficking has arrived in India. The Airbus A340 carrying 276 Indian passengers landed in Mumbai early on Tuesday morning, flight tracking data showed. The flight, operated by Romania-based Legend Airlines, had been en route from the United Arab Emirates to Nicaragua when it was detained at a regional airport on Thursday following a tip-off that its passengers may be victims of trafficking. Passengers on the flight were confined at Vatry airport, about 150km east of Paris, while authorities turned the terminal into a makeshift courtroom to carry out emergency hearings. Among the 303 original passengers who stayed behind in France, 25, including five minors, requested asylum in the country and two others were initially detained as part of the trafficking probe before being released, local authorities said. The plane’s departure on Monday came after a French court ruled that authorities did not have legal authority to detain several of the passengers further. French authorities have said they did not find evidence of human trafficking but are continuing to investigate potential breaches of immigration laws. The Indian Embassy expressed thanks to French officials for the “quick resolution of the situation enabling Indian passengers to return home” in a post on X. Adblock test (Why?)
Ukraine proposes lowering age for military conscription from 27 to 25
Draft bill proposed as military looks for hundreds of thousands of new recruits in its fight to eject Russia. Ukraine has proposed reducing the age of those who can be mobilised into the armed forces from 27 to 25 after the military said it needed as many as 500,000 more soldiers in its now 22-month-long war against Russia. The age reduction was in the text of a draft law posted on the website of Ukraine’s parliament late on Monday. The text detailed which Ukrainian citizens would be subject to enrolment for military registration of conscripts and said it would apply to those “who have reached the age of 25”. An explanatory note signed by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov summarised key provisions of the draft law, saying they included the “change of conscription age from 27 to 25 years”. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed earlier this month that the military had proposed mobilising between 450,000 and 500,000 more Ukrainians but that it was a “highly sensitive” issue that the military and government would discuss before deciding whether to send the proposal to parliament. Zelenskyy, who has yet to back the proposal publicly, said on December 19 that he wanted to hear more arguments for mobilising additional people. “This is a very serious number,” he said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not yet backed the proposal publicly [Ukrainian Presidential Press Service via Reuters] Ukraine’s troop numbers are not known but in the past, it has been said the country has about 1 million people under arms. US officials estimate that hundreds of thousands have been killed and wounded since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Neither Ukraine nor Russia publishes its casualty figures. David Arakhamia, the head of Zelenskyy’s party in parliament, said the government was working on the bill at the request of the military and that it was due to be introduced on Monday. “The military needs a solution to its problems,” he said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. “Society wants to hear answers to all sensitive questions.” Adblock test (Why?)