Foreign News
India preacher denies blame for crush deaths
The preacher who led an overcrowded gathering in India where more than 120 people were crushed to death on Tuesday has denied blame, and pledged to co-operate with the police investigation.
A lawyer for the self-styled guru known as Bhole Baba told the BBC the crush occurred “due to some anti-social elements”, and blamed a “criminal conspiracy hatched against” his client. Bhole Baba – whose real name is Narayan Sakar Vishwa Hari – will fully co-operate with the investigation, his lawyer AP Singh said.
Nearly all those killed were women and children, who were attending the satsang – a Hindu religious festival – in Hathras district.
On Thursday, police said they had arrested six people who were part of a committee that organised the event.
The case has sparked outrage in India and questions about a lack of security measures.
Mr Singh also denied reports that security guards at the festival triggered panic by pushing away people who tried to get Bhole Baba’s blessing. “Totally false allegation,” Mr Singh told the BBC. “Security staff always provide help to the followers.”
This is one of the worst crushes to happen in India for years.
Shocking images from the aftermath of the disaster have circulated online, of people driving the wounded to hospital in pick-up trucks, tuk tuks and even on motorbikes.
The crush took place in Pulrai village, where Bhole Baba was holding a religious gathering.
An initial police report said that officials had given permission for 80,000 people to gather, but some 250,000 people turned up to the event.
The report says the chaos began as the preacher drove off. Eyewitnesses said people lost their footing and started falling on top of each other as hundreds rushed towards the preacher as he was leaving the venue.
As people ran after his vehicle, survivors said a number of those sitting and squatting on the ground got crushed.
One of the first on the scene, local resident Yogesh Yadav, told the BBC that hundreds of women ran after Bhole Baba’s car as he was leaving. “Some crossed the highway to get a better glimpse of his car. In the melee, many women fell in the drain adjacent to the highway. People started falling on top of each other,” Mr Yadav said.
The police document added that some people tried to cross the road to a patch of mud-soaked fields, but were forcibly stopped by the organisers and were crushed.
Bhole Baba was originally named Suraj Pal, but he reportedly re-christened himself as Narayan Sakar Vishwa Hari.
One senior police officer in Uttar Pradesh told BBC Hindi that the preacher had been a police constable, but was suspended from service after a criminal case was lodged against him. He was reinstated in the force after a court cleared him but left his job in 2002, the senior officer said.
The preacher has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers in Hathras and neighbouring districts.
Bhole Baba is known to have an ashram in Mainpuri, about 100km (62 miles) from Pulrai village.
His lawyer told the BBC his client is now at his ashram. The preacher has not been named in the initial police complaint.
[BBC]
“It’s so good to be home.”
The statement sums up how almost 400 people felt after their flight from Dubai arrived in Dublin on Wednesday night.
The Emirates flight was the first in a number of days after the United States-Israeli attacks on Iran led to the closure of nearly all airspace in the Middle East.
One of the passengers, Norita Geary, said: “Everyone clapped when the plane landed and we all cheered.”
“It was unreal. I mean you see these things on television, you see them in movies but you just don’t think you’ll end up there yourself,” she added.
A second flight directly to Dublin from Dubai is scheduled for Thursday, with a further 400 passengers on it.
Rushali Lakhani said she is feeling “very happy” to be back [BBC]
Rushali Lakhani said she is “very happy” and “very grateful” to be back.
“It was quite a stressful time but grateful and thanking our lucky stars really.”
She said was “it was quite nerve wracking, we couldn’t really sleep much”.
“A lot of sleepless nights, a lot of bangs. There were no airplanes flying so whenever we heard some noises we knew that it wasn’t good news.”
So far 25,000 Irish citizens in the region have registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs – 2,000 of them have said they want to leave.
The Irish government has chartered a flight for Irish citizens from Muscat in Oman on Friday.
The Irish Embassy in the UAE thanked all those had registered but warned that registration is not an expression of interest in a flight.
Meanwhile, a flight chartered by the UK government which had been due to bring back some Britons stranded in the Middle East on Wednesday night did not take off as scheduled..
British citizens stuck in the Middle East have told the BBC there has been a lack of information about available routes to travel home.
The Foreign Office said two more chartered flights would depart by the end of the week.
Foreign Office officials said 138,000 British nationals in the Gulf had registered their presence, of whom 112,000 were in the UAE.
[BBC]
An eight-year-old Queensland girl has been killed after she was seriously injured in a snowmobile accident at a Japanese ski resort.
Chloe Jeffries, from the Gold Coast, was riding on a snowmobile with her mother in Hakuba Valley, Nagano prefecture, on Saturday when it overturned, trapping her underneath. She was airlifted to hospital but later died.
In a tribute from her netball club, Jeffries was remembered for her “beautiful nature” and “her cheeky, infectious smile”.
Tour operator Hakuba Lion Adventure said the vehicle flipped after going up an embankment along a forest road and that police were investigating. Jeffries is the fourth Australian to have died at a Japanese ski resort this year.
Prosecutors in Norway have charged the son of Norway’s crown princess with reckless behaviour and violating a restraining order a month after he went on trial for rape and dozens of other alleged offences.
Marius Borg Høiby was arrested the day before his trial began at the start of February, on suspicion of threats and violence against a woman in his flat in Oslo. Police remanded him in custody for the first four weeks of the trial.
Although allegations of bodily harm and knife threats have been dropped, prosecutors say the 29-year-old has admitted reckless behaviour and violating a restraining order.
He now faces a total of 40 charges and denies the most serious allegations.
Marius Borg Høiby is the son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit and grew up in the royal family, but he is not a member of Norway’s royal house. He was four when his mother married Crown-Prince Haakon in 2001.
He has admitted some of the 40 charges against him, but denies four counts of rape which all involve a woman who was either asleep or incapacitated after they had had intercourse.
The latest charges against him relate to a woman from the upmarket Frogner area of Oslo, who he was banned from contacting at the time.
He already admitted violating a restraining order relating to the same woman at the start of the trial and partially admits other allegations that date back to 2024.
Marius Borg Høiby was first arrested after a violent incident at the woman’s Frogner flat, and spoke at the time of suffering from mental issues for years.
Although it is unusual for further charges to be added during a trial, state prosecutor Sturla Henriksbø explained that this was possible if the defendant admitted the offences. Reckless behaviour can command a jail term of up to two years in prison.
By Tuesday the trial at Oslo District Court was 17 days into the 28 days allocated for the case, which is taking place amid tight restrictions requiring no images of either the defendant or the four women he is alleged to have raped.
The only woman who can be identified is a former girlfriend, Nora Haukland, who he denies abusing. She has already given evidence to the court that he kicked, punched and choked her during their relationship between 2022-23.
Last week an audio recording was played to the court of an argument in which Marius Borg Høiby could be heard hurling abuse at Ms Haukland, a Norwegian influencer with more than 100,000 followers on Instagram.
He denies being violent and his defence counsel says his ex-girlfriend did not in any way “live in a regime of fear”.
During Tuesday’s proceedings, the court heard from Nora Haukland’s former boyfriends, including one who spoke of their “peaceful break-up” and his respect for her, and another who described their relationship as turbulent.
If found guilty of the more serious charges he could spend at least 10 years in jail.
[BBC]
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