india - The African Mirror

Oct

2023

By SUBRATA NAG CHOUDHURY and JATINDRA DASH

Himalayan lake flooding in India kills 18, nearly 100 missing

AT least 18 people were killed and nearly 100 were missing after heavy rains caused a Himalayan glacial lake in northeast India to burst its banks, the worst such disaster in the region in more than 50 years. Lhonak Lake in Sikkim state overflowed on Wednesday, causing major flooding that authorities said had impacted the lives of 22,000 people. It is the latest deadly weather event in South Asia's mountains being blamed on climate change. The weather department said Sikkim received 101 mm (4 inches) of rain in the first five days of October, more than double normal levels, unleashing…

Sep

2023

By MICHELLE NICHOLS

Canada’s Trudeau wants India to cooperate in murder probe, declines to release evidence

WORLD

CANADIAN Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on India to cooperate with an investigation into the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia and said Canada would not release its evidence. Trudeau said on Monday that Ottawa had credible allegations linking Indian government agents to the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June, prompting an angry reaction from New Delhi. Najjar, 45, was a Canadian citizen. The Canadian government has amassed both human and signals intelligence in a months-long investigation into the Sikh separatist leader's murder, CBC News separately reported on Thursday citing sources. Traditional Canadian allies have so far taken…

Jul

2023

By The African Mirror

Ethiopia wants to join the BRICS group of nations: an expert unpacks the pros and cons

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

A few years ago, the BRICS grouping – Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa – had lost salience because three of its members were in severe economic difficulty. Brazil, Russia and South Africa are primarily natural resource exporters and were badly affected by the global commodity price bust of 2014. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has now given BRICS a new geopolitical salience as the members and their respective allies respond to events. PADRAIG CARMODY, Professor in Geography, Trinity College Dublin In the emerging world order, there is also now increased demand to join BRICS, in part as a countervailing…

Jul

2023

By The African Mirror

Ethiopia asks to join BRICS bloc of emerging economies

BUSINESS

ETHIOPIA, one of Africa's fastest-growing economies, has asked to join the BRICS bloc of emerging markets, the foreign ministry said. The term BRIC was coined by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill in 2001 to describe the rise of Brazil, Russia, India and China. The BRIC powers had their first summit in 2009 in Russia. South Africa joined in 2010. "We expect BRICS will give us a positive response to the request we have made," foreign ministry spokesman Meles Alem told journalists, according to the state-run news agency ENA. Ethiopia will continue to work with international institutions that can protect its…

Jun

2023

By The African Mirror

South Africa to host BRICS summit despite Putin arrest warrant

NEWS

CARIEN DU PLESSIS SOUTH Africa said it will host the BRICS bloc summit in August as planned, amid speculation that it may move to China so Russia's President Vladimir Putin can attend in a nation not obliged to arrest him on war crimes accusations. South Africa has a duty as a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to arrest Putin if he attends the talks between the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China, due to an arrest warrant over the deportation of children from Ukraine. Putin denies the charges. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa met with him on…

Jun

2023

By The African Mirror

Egypt and India bolster ties as Modi makes first trip to Cairo

NEWS

EGYPT and India discussed strengthening ties in areas including trade, food security and defence during a state visit to Cairo by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the two countries said. On his first trip to Egypt, Modi met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Egyptian ministers appointed to an "India unit" after a state visit by Sisi to India in January during which a "strategic partnership" was announced. Both sides said talks on Sunday covered areas including trade and investment, renewable energy, information technology and pharmaceuticals. "Prime Minister (Modi) and President Sisi also discussed further cooperation in G-20, highlighting the…

Jun

2023

By KRISHNA N. DAS

Gambia syrup deaths: India probes bribery claims

NEWS

INDIAN authorities have launched an inquiry into an allegation that a local pharmaceutical regulator, in return for a bribe, helped switch samples of cough syrups that the World Health Organization (WHO) had linked to the deaths of children in Gambia before the samples were tested at an Indian laboratory, according to two government officials and documents reviewed by Reuters. In an April 29 letter to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in Haryana state reviewed by Reuters, a lawyer named Yashpal accused the state's drug controller, Manmohan Taneja, of taking a bribe of 50 million rupees ($605,419) from local manufacturer Maiden Pharmaceuticals…

Jun

2023

By JATINDRA DASH

India investigates rail disaster as trains crawl through crash site

WORLD

THE official investigation into India's deadliest rail crash in over two decades began after preliminary findings pointed to signal failure as the likely cause for a collision that killed at least 275 people and injured 1,200. The disaster struck on Friday, when a passenger train hit a stationary freight train, jumped the tracks and hit another passenger train passing in the opposite direction near the district of Balasore, in the eastern state of Odisha. Following non-stop efforts to rescue survivors and clear and repair the track, trains resumed running over that section of the line on Sunday night. Trains were passing slowly…

Jun

2023

By JATINDRA DASH and ABINAYA V

India’s worst train crash in decades kills at least 288

WORLD

AT least 288 people have died in India's worst rail crash in over two decades, officials said, after a passenger train went off the tracks and hit another one in an accident a preliminary report blamed on signal failure. One train in Friday's accident also hit a freight train parked nearby in the district of Balasore in Odisha state in the east of the country, leaving a tangled mess of smashed rail cars and injuring 803. The death toll has reached 288, said K. S. Anand, chief public relations officer of the South Eastern Railway. Dead bodies are still trapped…

Jun

2023

By WENDELL ROELF

BRICS ministers put on show of strength as Putin arrest warrant looms large

NEWS

BRICS foreign ministers asserted their bloc's ambition to rival Western powers but their talks in South Africa were overshadowed by questions over whether Russia's president would be arrested if he attended a summit in August. South Africa's foreign minister Naledi Pandor said her country was mulling options if Vladimir Putin, the subject of a war crimes arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), came to the planned BRICS summit in Johannesburg. As a member of the ICC, South Africa would theoretically be required to arrest Putin, and Pandor was bombarded with questions about that as she arrived for…