Bangladesh rebukes US spy chief over religious violence remarks

Bangladesh rebukes US spy chief over religious violence remarks
Washington’s intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard arrived this week for a diplomatic trip to India, whose relations with Bangladesh have soured since an uprising overthrew the latter nation’s government last year. (Reuters)
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Bangladesh rebukes US spy chief over religious violence remarks

Bangladesh rebukes US spy chief over religious violence remarks
  • Washington’s intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard arrived this week for a diplomatic trip to India
  • New Delhi has repeatedly accused its Muslim-majority neighbor of failing to adequately protect its minority Hindu citizens

DHAKA: Bangladesh has rebuked Washington’s intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard, saying her comments on religious violence in the South Asian country were unfounded and risked fanning sectarian tensions.
Gabbard arrived this week for a diplomatic trip to India, whose relations with Bangladesh have soured since a student-led uprising overthrew the latter nation’s government last year.
New Delhi has repeatedly accused its Muslim-majority neighbor of failing to adequately protect its minority Hindu citizens – charges denied by the caretaker administration now in charge.
But Gabbard appeared to give credence to the claims when she was asked about violence in Bangladesh during a Monday interview with Indian broadcaster NDTV.
“The long-time unfortunate persecution, killing, and abuse of religious minorities... have been a major area of concern for the US government,” she said in response.
She added that the issue, along with Islamist extremism, remained “central focus areas of concern” and said the Trump administration has already raised them with the Bangladeshi government.
Bangladesh responded in a statement late Monday that Gabbard’s comments were both “misleading” and “damaging” to the country’s image and reputation.
“Political leaders and public figures should base their statements, especially on sensitive issues, on actual knowledge and take care not to reinforce harmful stereotypes, fan fears, or potentially stoke sectarian tensions,” the statement said.
Hindus make up about eight percent of Bangladesh’s 170 million people.
In the chaotic days following the August ouster of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina, there was a string of attacks on Hindus – seen by some as having backed her rule.
The caretaker government that replaced her has insisted that many of those attacks were motivated by politics rather than religion.
It has also accused India’s media and government of spreading disinformation exaggerating threats to Bangladeshi Hindus.
Gabbard met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington last month soon after her confirmation as director of national intelligence under President Donald Trump.
The pair met again on Monday and Gabbard used a speech to a geopolitical conference in New Delhi to praise the enduring partnership between the United States and India.
“I am confident that this partnership and friendship between our two nations and our leaders will continue to grow and strengthen,” she added.


India orders curfew after violence over tomb of 17th-century Muslim ruler

India orders curfew after violence over tomb of 17th-century Muslim ruler
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India orders curfew after violence over tomb of 17th-century Muslim ruler

India orders curfew after violence over tomb of 17th-century Muslim ruler
  • Violence in the central Indian city of Nagpur damaged many vehicles and injured several people
  • Situation escalated after several members of Muslim groups marched near a police station and threw stones at police
MUMBAI: Authorities clamped indefinite curfew on parts of the Indian city of Nagpur after more than a dozen police officers were hurt in clashes sparked by a Hindu group’s demand for the removal of the tomb of a 17th-century Mughal ruler, police said on Tuesday.
Monday’s violence in the central Indian city damaged many vehicles and injured several people, among them at least 15 police personnel, one of whom was in serious condition, a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Devendra Fadnavis, chief minister of the western state of Maharashtra, where the city is located, criticized the violence in a video message, calling for every effort to maintain law and order.
“I have told the police commissioner to take whatever strict steps are necessary,” Fadnavis added.
Police said in a statement that members of the group, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), burnt an effigy of the Emperor Aurangzeb and his tomb as they chanted slogans demanding its removal from the nearby city of Aurangabad.
The police officer said the situation escalated after several members of Muslim groups marched near a police station and threw stones at police.
The attackers, wearing masks to hide their faces, carried sharp weapons and bottles, a resident of the area told the ANI news agency, in which Reuters has a minority stake.
The VHP denied accusations of engaging in any violence. It wants the tomb to be replaced with a memorial for rulers from the local Maratha community, its general secretary, Milind Parande, said in a video message.
Nagpur is also the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. The VHP belongs to the same family of organizations.
Modi’s critics have often accused him of discriminating against Muslims, and failing to act against those targeting them. He and his government have denied the accusations.

Strange foam and dead fish wash ashore at 2 Australian beaches as surfers fall sick

Strange foam and dead fish wash ashore at 2 Australian beaches as surfers fall sick
Updated 38 min 18 sec ago
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Strange foam and dead fish wash ashore at 2 Australian beaches as surfers fall sick

Strange foam and dead fish wash ashore at 2 Australian beaches as surfers fall sick
  • The goverment closed Waitpinga Beach and neighboring Parsons Beach on Monday. Dozens of dead fish have reportedly been washed shore
  • Surfers have been complaining since the weekend of getting sore eyes, sore throats and coughing after contact with the water

MELBOURNE: An Australian state closed two beaches after dead fish and an unusual off-white foam washed ashore while surfers reported feeling unwell, officials said on Tuesday.
A microalgal bloom created by unusual weather conditions was suspected to have sickened humans and marine life as well as creating the foam that has covered hundreds of meters (yards) of coastline, South Australian Environment Protection Authority principal scientific officer Sam Gaylard said.
“It is very concerning,” Gaylard told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“It is unusual at this scale. At this time of year, when the weather conditions allow, we do occasionally get isolated blooms, but something of this scale is definitely a little bit unusual,” Gaylard added.
Waitpinga Beach and neighboring Parsons Beach, both south of the South Australia state capital Adelaide, have been closed to the public since Monday in response to a “fish mortality event in the area,” the Department for Environment and Water said in a statement.
“The beaches will be re-opened as soon as possible,” the department said.
Dozens of dead fish have reportedly been washed shore.
Surfers have been complaining since the weekend of getting sore eyes, sore throats and coughing after contact with the water, said local Anthony Rowland, who surfed at Waitpinga on Saturday.
“While we were out there, we started coughing,” Rowland said, refering to his surfing comrads. He said he was overwhelmed by the response from other surfers after posting his experience online.
“Lots of people reached out – so many people have said they’re had exactly the same symptoms,” Rowland said.
Marine scientists took water samples from the foam, which is a byproduct of the toxic organisms’ decay, on Monday, but it could take until the end of the week to identify the organism, Gaylard said.
A bloom of microalgae – microscopic, single-celled organisms – could have been caused by a recent extended period of hot and dry weather with little wind and low tides, Gaylard said.
A swell has picked up in the area since Sunday, and the turbulence could break up the algae while generating more foam, he said.
“At the moment, we’re not sure how long this will last,” Gaylard said.


Turkiye’s Erdogan seeks meeting with Trump, Bloomberg News says

Turkiye’s Erdogan seeks meeting with Trump, Bloomberg News says
Updated 41 min 15 sec ago
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Turkiye’s Erdogan seeks meeting with Trump, Bloomberg News says

Turkiye’s Erdogan seeks meeting with Trump, Bloomberg News says
  • Erdogan’s office and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comments

ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is working to secure a meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House, potentially by late April, Bloomberg News said on Tuesday, citing Turkish officials familiar with the matter.
Erdogan sees closer US-Turkiye ties as crucial for regional stability, particularly as Ankara seeks a bigger role in mediating conflicts from Ukraine to Syria, the report added.
Erdogan’s office and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comments.
In the battle against militant group Islamic State in Syria, the United States is allied with a Syrian Kurdish militia that Turkiye regards as a terrorist group. Turkiye has sharply criticized this US stance as a betrayal of a NATO ally.
Turkiye’s 2019 purchase of Russian S-400 missile defense systems also led to US sanctions and the country’s removal from the F-35 fighter jet program.
On Sunday, Erdogan spoke by telephone with Trump, discussing efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and to restore stability in Syria.
He told Trump that Turkiye supported his “decisive and direct initiatives” to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and would continue to strive for a “just and lasting peace,” Erdogan’s office said in a statement.


NASA astronauts head home on SpaceX capsule after drawn-out space station stay

NASA astronauts head home on SpaceX capsule after drawn-out space station stay
Updated 18 March 2025
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NASA astronauts head home on SpaceX capsule after drawn-out space station stay

NASA astronauts head home on SpaceX capsule after drawn-out space station stay
  • Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams’ homecoming caps an end to an unusual, drawn-out mission filled with uncertainty and technical troubles
  • The astronaut pair had launched into space as Starliner’s first crew in June for what was expected to be an eight-day test mission

WASHINGTON: NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams departed the International Space Station early on Tuesday morning in a SpaceX capsule for a long-awaited trip back to Earth, nine months after their faulty Boeing Starliner craft upended what was to be a roughly week-long test mission.
Wilmore and Williams, two veteran NASA astronauts and retired US Navy test pilots, strapped inside their Crew Dragon spacecraft along with two other astronauts and undocked from the orbiting laboratory at 1.05 a.m. ET (0505 GMT), embarking on a 17-hour trip to Earth.
The four-person crew, formally part of NASA’s Crew-9 astronaut rotation mission, is scheduled for a splashdown off Florida’s coast later on Tuesday at 5:57 p.m. ET.
Wilmore and Williams’ homecoming caps an end to an unusual, drawn-out mission filled with uncertainty and technical troubles that have turned a rare case of NASA’s contingency planning – as well as failures of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft – into a global and political spectacle.
The astronaut pair had launched into space as Starliner’s first crew in June for what was expected to be an eight-day test mission. But issues with Starliner’s propulsion system led to cascading delays in their return home, culminating in a NASA decision last year to have them take a SpaceX craft back this year as part of the agency’s crew rotation schedule.
The mission has captured the attention of US President Donald Trump, who upon taking office in January called for a quicker return of Wilmore and Williams and alleged without evidence that former President Joe Biden “abandoned” them on the ISS for political reasons.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, a close adviser to Trump, echoed his call for an earlier return. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is the United States’ only orbital-class crew spacecraft, which Boeing had hoped its Starliner would compete with before the mission with Wilmore and Williams threw its development future into uncertainty.
The astronauts will be flown to their crew quarters at the space agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for several days of health checks, per routine for astronaut returns, before NASA flight surgeons approve they can go home to their families.
Living in space for months can affect the human body in multiple ways, from muscle atrophy to possible vision impairment.
Upon splashing down, Wilmore and Williams will have logged 286 days in space – longer than the average six-month ISS mission length, but far short of US record holder Frank Rubio. His continuous 371 days in space ending in 2023 was the unexpected result of a coolant leak on a Russian spacecraft.
Williams, capping her third spaceflight, will have tallied 608 cumulative days in space, the second most for any US astronaut after Peggy Whitson’s 675 days. Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko set the world record last year at 878 cumulative days.
Replacement crew
Swept up in NASA’s routine astronaut rotation schedule, Wilmore and Williams could not begin their return to Earth until their replacement crew arrived, in order to maintain adequate US staffing levels, according to NASA.
Their replacements arrived on Friday night – four astronauts as part of NASA’s Crew-10 mission briefly put the station’s headcount at 11.
“We came prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short,” Wilmore told reporters from space earlier this month, adding that he did not believe NASA’s decision to keep them on the ISS until Crew-10’s arrival had been affected by politics.
“That’s what your nation’s human spaceflight program’s all about,” he said, “planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies. And we did that.”
Wilmore and Williams have been doing scientific research and conducting routine maintenance with the station’s other five astronauts. Williams had performed two six-hour spacewalks for maintenance outside the ISS, including one with Wilmore.
The ISS, about 409 kilometers in altitude, is a football field-sized research lab that has been housed continuously by international crews of astronauts for nearly 25 years, a key platform of science diplomacy managed primarily by the US and Russia.
Williams told reporters earlier this month that she was looking forward to returning home to see her two dogs and family. “It’s been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us,” she said.


Canada reviews F-35 fighter jet deal, says it relies on US too much for security

Canada reviews F-35 fighter jet deal, says it relies on US too much for security
Updated 18 March 2025
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Canada reviews F-35 fighter jet deal, says it relies on US too much for security

Canada reviews F-35 fighter jet deal, says it relies on US too much for security
  • Canadian PM: ‘It is clear that our security relationship ... is too focused on the United States. We must diversify’
  • US President Donald Trump has slapped tariffs on Canada and mused about turning it into the 51st state

OTTAWA: Canada is looking for possible alternatives to its deal to buy US fighter jets in part because it relies too much on the United States for security, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Monday.
Carney made the comments just days after ordering a review of a C$19-billion ($13.29 billion) contract for 88 F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin. Canada is locked in a trade war with the United States.
Canada’s defense ministry says the contract remains in place and Ottawa has made a legal commitment of funds for the first 16 F-35 aircraft. Carney made clear Canada would seriously look elsewhere.
“It is clear that our security relationship ... is too focused on the United States. We must diversify,” he told reporters during a visit to London, noting that Canada spent about 80 percent of its defense budget on American weapons.
“Given the need for value for money, given the possibility of having substantial production of alternative aircraft in Canada... it’s prudent and in the interest of Canada to review those options,” he said.
Carney did not mention specific firms. Sweden’s Saab, which lost out on the fighter jet contract to Lockheed Martin, had promised to assemble its planes in Canada.
Canadian firms also benefit from the relationship. Bombardier CEO Eric Martel said he was concerned Washington could target the planemaker’s US contracts if Canada canceled the Lockheed Martin deal.
US President Donald Trump has slapped tariffs on Canada and mused about turning it into the 51st state.
Philippe Lagasse, a professor at Carleton University who specializes in procurement, said buying 16 F-35s and then adding another jet would be expensive.
Canada, pressured by successive US administrations to increase defense spending, last year pledged billions more for the armed forces and said military expenditures would be closer to the NATO target by 2030.
In a statement, Lockheed Martin said it valued its ties with Canada and referred procurement questions to the government.
The US Defense Department did not respond to a request for comment.