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Billionaire and spiritual leader the Aga Khan dies
Billionaire philanthropist and spiritual leader Aga Khan has died at the age of 88, his charity the Aga Khan Development Network has announced.
Prince Karim Aga Khan was the 49th hereditary imam of the Ismaili Muslims, who trace his lineage directly to the Prophet Muhammad.
He “passed away peacefully” in Lisbon, Portugal, surrounded by his family, his charity said in a statement on social media.
Born in Switzerland, he had British citizenship and lived in a chateau in France.
King Charles III has been made aware of the death of the philanthropist, who was a friend of both himself and his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II. It is understood that the King is deeply saddened at the loss of a personal friend of many years and is in touch with the family privately.
The Aga Khan’s charities ran hundreds of hospitals, educational and cultural projects, largely in the developing world.
He enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, with a private island in the Bahamas, a super-yacht and a private jet.
The Aga Khan Development Network said it offered its “condolences to the family of His Highness and to the Ismaili community worldwide”. “We continue to work with our partners to improve the quality of life for individuals and communities across the world, as he wished, irrespective of their religious affiliations or origins,” it added.
The Ismailis, a Muslim sect, have a worldwide population of about 15 million, including 500,000 in Pakistan. There are also large populations in India, Afghanistan and Africa.
Prince Karim Aga Khan succeeded his grandfather as imam of the Ismaili Muslims in 1957 at the age of 20.
The prince had an estimated fortune of $1bn (£801m) in 2008, according to Forbes magazine. His inherited wealth was boosted by numerous business interests, including horse-breeding.
He became a leading owner and breeder of race horses in the UK, France and Ireland, breeding Shergar, once the most famous and most valuable racehorse in the world.
He was the founder of the Aga Khan Foundation charity prince and gave his name to bodies including a university in Karachi, and the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Aga Khan Trust for Culture was key to the restoration of the Humayun’s Tomb site in Delhi. There is an annual Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
And he founded the Nation Media Group, which has become the largest independent media organisation in east and central Africa.
Shergar won the Derby at Epsom in 1981 by 10 lengths in the Aga Khan’s emerald green racing silks with red epaulets but was kidnapped in Ireland two years later and never found.
Despite losing his beloved horse, he told the BBC in 2011 – on the 30th anniversary of Shergar’s biggest triumph – that he did not contemplate deserting his Irish breeding operation.
Of Shergar’s triumph, he said: “It’s a memory that can never, never go away. “I’ve seen that film I don’t know, tens or hundreds of times. I keep trying to analyse where this remarkable performance came from. Every time I see the film, I feel that I have learned something.
“If you’re in racing, the Epsom Derby is one of the greats. It always has been, so to win a race of that quality in itself is an extraordinary privilege. To win it the way he won it was more than that. “I had watched quite enough races to be able to determine what the jockey was feeling, how the horse was going at the time and when he came around Tattenham Corner, I couldn’t believe my eyes, frankly.
“His victory up to this point in time was unique. Two things I found stunning – one was the ease with which that horse moved and second was the fact that during the finishing straight he just kept going away, going away, going away. That was really remarkable.”
The Aga Khan went on to win the big race another four times with Shahrastani (1986), Kahyasi (1986), Sinndar (2000) and Harzand (2016).
Other notable successes included the 2008 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with the brilliant unbeaten filly Zarkava.
[BBC]
US President Donald Trump has filed a $5bn (£3.7bn) lawsuit against the BBC over an edit of his 6 January 2021 speech in a Panorama documentary.
Trump accused the broadcaster of defamation and of violating a trade practices law, according to court documents filed in Florida.
The BBC apologised to Trump last month, but rejected his demands for compensation and disagreed there was any “basis for a defamation claim”.
Trump’s legal team accused the BBC of defaming him by “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech”. The BBC has not yet responded to the lawsuit.
Trump said last month that he planned to sue the BBC for the documentary, which aired in the UK ahead of the 2024 US election.
“I think I have to do it,” Trump told reporters of his plans. “They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.”
In his speech on 6 January 2021, before a riot at the US Capitol, Trump told a crowd: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”
More than 50 minutes later in the speech, he said: “And we fight. We fight like hell.”
In the Panorama programme, a clip showed him as saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
The BBC acknowledged that the edit had given “the mistaken impression” he had “made a direct call for violent action”, but disagreed that there was basis for a defamation claim.
In November, a leaked internal BBC memo criticised how the speech was edited, and led to the resignations of the BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, and its head of news, Deborah Turness.
Before Trump filed the lawsuit, lawyers for the BBC had given a lengthy response to the president’s claims.
They said there was no malice in the edit and that Trump was not harmed by the programme, as he was re-elected shortly after it aired.
They also said the BBC did not have the rights to, and did not, distribute the Panorama programme on its US channels. While the documentary was available on BBC iPlayer, it was restricted to viewers in the UK.
In his lawsuit, Trump cites agreements the BBC had with other distributors to show content, specifically one with a third-party media corporation that allegedly had licensing rights to the documentary outside the UK. The BBC has not responded to these claims, nor has the corporation with the alleged distribution agreement.
The suit also claims that people in Florida may have accessed the programme using a VPN or by using streaming service BritBox.
“The Panorama Documentary’s publicity, coupled with significant increases in VPN usage in Florida since its debut, establishes the immense likelihood that citizens of Florida accessed the Documentary before the BBC had it removed,” the lawsuit said
(BBC)
The Situation Report issued by the Disaster Management Center at 06:00AM on 16th December 2025 shows that 70,297 persons belonging to 22,338 house holds are still being housed at 731 safety centers established by the government.
The number of deaths due to the recent disastrous weather stands at 643 while 183 persons are missing.
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The attack happened while an event was being held to mark the start of Hanukkah – police say they’re treating it as a terror incident
The two gunmen were father and son, police say. The 50-year-old man also died at the scene while the 24-year-old remains in hospital in critical condition
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calls the attack “an act of pure evil” that “deliberately targeted” the Jewish community
(BBC)
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