Foreign News
India court dismisses Rahul Gandhi’s appeal against conviction
BBC reported that an Indian court has rejected opposition leader Rahul Gandhi’s appeal seeking a stay on his conviction in a criminal defamation case.
The decision extends the uncertainty over whether he can contest in national elections due next year.
Rahul Gandhi has been sentenced to two years in jail for 2019 comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname at an election rally. He won’t be arrested until he has exhausted all legal appeals. Gandhi’s lawyer, Kirit Panwala, told the BBC that they will challenge the decision in the Gujarat high court.
Gandhi lost his seat in parliament a day after his conviction on 23 March due to a Supreme Court order which says that a lawmaker convicted in a crime and sentenced to two or more years in jail is disqualified with immediate effect.
The Congress has criticised Gandhi’s conviction and accused the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of political vendetta. The BJP has denied this, saying that due judicial process was followed in the case.
Earlier this month, Gandhi had filed appeals to suspend his sentence, or secure bail, and to suspend his conviction in a court in Surat. The court had granted Gandhi bail to appeal against his conviction, but it’s the stay or suspension of his conviction that’s crucial to reinstating him as an MP.
The defamation case against Rahul Gandhi, brought by BJP lawmaker Purnesh Modi, revolved around comments Gandhi made in Karnataka state in 2019 during an election rally: “Why do all these thieves have Modi as their surname? Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi,” he said.
Nirav Modi is a fugitive Indian diamond tycoon while Lalit Modi is a former chief of the Indian Premier League who has been banned for life by the country’s cricket board. Purnesh Modi in his complaint alleged that the comments had defamed the entire Modi community. However, Gandhi said that he made the comment to highlight corruption and it was not directed against any community.
A Russian-American citizen has been released in a prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington.
Amateur ballerina Ksenia Karelina, a Los Angeles resident, had been in prison in Russia for over a year, after being arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg in early 2024.
She was found guilty of treason for donating money to a US-based charity providing humanitarian support to Ukraine and was sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony.
In exchange, the US reportedly freed Arthur Petrov, a dual German-Russian citizen arrested in Cyprus in 2023. He was accused of illegally exporting microelectronics to Russia for manufacturers working with the Russian military.
[BBC]
A nationwide general strike disrupted public services across Greece, with ferries tied up in port, flights grounded and public transport running only part-time as labour unions press for higher wages to cope with rising living costs.
The 24-hour strike on Wednesday was called by the two main umbrella unions covering the public and private sectors, seeking a full return of collective bargaining rights which were scrapped as part of international bailouts during Greece’s financial crisis.
Greece has emerged from a 2009-18 debt crisis, which saw rolling cuts in wages and pensions in turn for bailouts worth about 290 billion euros ($319bn) and economic growth seen at 2.3 percent this year, outpacing other eurozone economies.
Tapping on the country’s progress, the conservative government increased the monthly minimum wage by a cumulative 35 percent to 880 euros ($970). But many households still struggle to make ends meet amid rising food, power and housing costs, the labour unions say.
The country braces for further global financial turmoil triggered by US tariffs.
[Aljazeera]
King Charles and Queen Camilla have had a private meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican where he wished them a happy 20th wedding anniversary.
In a statement released by Buckingham Palace, the King and Queen said they were “delighted the Pope was well enough to host them – and to have had the opportunity to share their best wishes in person”.
The meeting took place on the third day of their state visit to Italy and ahead of a state banquet in Rome on Wednesday evening.
It is understood the meeting was only confirmed on Wednesday morning. It came after previous plans for the couple to meet the pontiff in a state visit to the Vatican were postponed because of the Pope’s ill health.
(BBC)
Woman jailed over £39 donation to Ukraine freed in US-Russia prisoner swap
Enforcing the law against bribery and corruption is not an act of political revenge but a profound human responsibility – President
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