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The IYC's protest at the AI Impact Summit was inspired by Nepal's violent Gen Z movement that recently toppled the government there, the Delhi Police said on Saturday. Investigators are probing the financial trail behind the protest, including who funded the printing of t-shirts brandished during the demonstration, it said. The t-shirts carried messages such as 'PM is compromised', 'India-US Trade Deal' and 'Epstein Files', it said. Teams are conducting raids to locate the printing facility where the shirts were printed and to identify persons involved in arranging them, it said. The police are also questioning Indian Youth Congress president Uday Bhanu Chib, who was examined for the second consecutive day, while a hunt is on to arrest remaining agitators allegedly linked to the protest, sources said. Earlier, the Delhi Police arrested four IYC workers and booked them at Tilak Marg Police Station under multiple provisions, including criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly, assault
A Delhi court on Saturday sent the four Indian Youth Congress (IYC) workers, who were arrested for protesting at the AI Impact Summit venue a day ago, to five-day police custody. Judicial Magistrate Ravi allowed the Delhi Police's plea seeking five days of custodial interrogation of the accused persons. A detailed order is awaited. The arrested protesters were Krishna Hari, national secretary of Youth Congress from Bihar; Kundan Yadav, IYC state secretary, Bihar; Ajay Kumar, IYC state president, Uttar Pradesh; and Narasimha Yadav from Telangana. Delhi Police sought five-day custody of the arrested protesters, arguing that they raised anti-national slogans and wore T-shirts with objectionable images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the event venue. It said the mobile phones of the accused persons were required to be recovered and, as they were from different states, custodial interrogation was necessary. Counsel for the police argued that it was a "serious" matter. An attempt wa
Thousands of Kokborok-speaking students formed human chains across Tripura on Saturday to press their demand for the adoption of the Roman script for the language. The Kokborok, the second official language of the northeastern state, is the mother tongue of most of the 19 tribes. The students under the banner of the United Movement Committee for Roman Script (UMCRC) formed human chains at 11 locations across Tripura and raised slogans for the introduction of the Roman script for the Kokborok language. "The government must respect the sentiment of Kokborok-speaking people and introduce the Roman script," John Debbarma, the convener of UMCRC, a joint platform of Kokborok-speaking students, told reporters. He expressed disappointment over Chief Minister Manik Saha's recent statements on the demand for the Roman script for the Kokborok language. "A democratically elected chief minister can't ignore the aspirations of the people. We hope that he will allow Roman script for the Kokborok
Iran's president apologised on Wednesday to "all those affected" by the nationwide protest and bloody crackdown that followed it. President Masoud Pezeshkian also denounced unspecified "Western propaganda" surrounding the protests. Pezeshkian said he knew the "great sorrow" felt by people in the protests and crackdown, without directly acknowledging the hand Iranian security forces had in the bloodshed. "We are ashamed before the people, and we are obligated to assist all those who were harmed in these incidents," Pezeshkian said. "We are not seeking confrontation with the people." Pezeshkian also insisted that his nation was "not seeking nuclear weapons... and is ready for any kind of verification." His comments came during a speech at a commemoration marking Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran is in the midst of negotiations with the United States over its nuclear program. It remains unclear, though, if a nuclear deal will be reached. President Donald Trump has threatened to se
Dozens of relatives and friends of Venezuelan opposition leaders, human rights defenders and others detained for their political activities protested Saturday outside a notorious prison in the capital to demand the immediate release of their loved ones. The demonstration outside Helicoide prison in Caracas comes during mounting pressure on the government of acting President Delcy Rodriguez to release all people whose detentions months or years ago have been linked by their families and nongovernmental organisations to their political beliefs. Her government last month announced it would free a significant number of prisoners, but families and human rights watchdogs have criticised authorities for the slow pace of the releases. Rodriguez last month also promised to close Helicoide, where torture and other forms of physical and psychological abuse of prisoners have been extensively documented. She said the facility, which was initially built to be a mall, would be turned into a ...
Drivers of app-based taxis and autorickshaws on Saturday observed a day-long strike in Maharashtra and other parts of the country to draw the government's attention to various demands, including a ban on "illegal" bike taxis and action against "arbitrary" fare policy. The protest affected commuters to some extent as most of the cabs and rickshaws linked to aggregator apps remained off roads. State Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik warned of taking action against the ride aggregator companies if they behave unfairly with the drivers and indulge in "injustice" against them. He said the government was ready to support the drivers on their genuine issues. Maharashtra Kamgar Sabha (MKS), a union that had given the strike call, claimed the protest was "successful" as most of the drivers "spontaneously" participated in the strike in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, Aurangabad and other regions in the state. It warned to intensify the agitation if their demands were ignored. MKS' head Dr Kesh
The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to list for hearing a plea challenging a recently notified University Grants Commission (UGC) regulation on the ground that it has adopted a non-inclusionary definition of caste-based discrimination and excludes certain categories from institutional protection. A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi took note of the submissions of a lawyer seeking urgent hearing of the plea. "There is a possibility of discrimination against the general class. My case is 'Rahul Dewan and Ors vs Union'," a lawyer said. "We know what is happening. Make sure defects are cured. We will list it," the CJI said. The new regulations mandating all higher education institutions to form "equity committees" to look into discrimination complaints and promote equity were notified on January 13. The University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026, mandated that these committees must include
Four months after the Gen Z protests in Nepal, as many as four former prime ministers have filed their nomination papers from different constituencies for the March 5 general elections. Communist Party of Nepal (Unified MarxistLeninist) chair and deposed Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, is contesting from Jhapa-5 while former prime minister Pushpakamal Dahal 'Prachanda' of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) has filed nomination from Rukum East. Two other former prime ministers Madhav Kumar Nepal of Nepali Communist Party and Baburam Bhattarai representing Pragatisheel Lokatantrik Party have filed nominations from Rautahat-1 and Gorkha-2 constituencies respectively. However, two former prime ministers, Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and senior leader of Nepali Communist Party Jhala Nath Khanal are not in the race. The general elections in Nepal were necessitated after Oli resigned as prime minister on September 9, following violent protests by the youth-led Gen Z ...
A US-based activist agency said Sunday it has verified at least 3,919 deaths during a wave of protests that swept Iran and led to a bloody crackdown, and fears the number could be significantly higher. The Human Rights Activists News Agency posted the revised figure, up from the previous toll of 3,308. The death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding the 1979 revolution. The agency has been accurate throughout the years of demonstrations in Iran, relying on a network of activists inside the country that confirms all reported fatalities. The Associated Press has been unable to independently confirm the toll. Iranian officials have not given a clear death toll, although on Saturday, the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the protests had left several thousand people dead and blamed the United States for the deaths. It was the first indication from an Iranian leader of the extent of the casualt
Thousands of people rallied Saturday in Serbia as university students announced a new stage in their struggle against President Aleksandar Vucic's tenure. They have led more than a year of mass demonstrations that shook his autocratic government in the Balkan country. Protesters in Novi Sad, chanting "thieves," accused the government of rampant corruption that they believe also led to a November 2024 train station disaster in the northern city that killed 16 people and triggered the nationwide movement for change. Vucic has refused to schedule an immediate early election that students have demanded. Hundreds of people have been detained, or reported losing their jobs or facing pressure for opposing the government. University students told the crowd in Novi Sad on Saturday that after last year's protests, they will now offer a plan on how to rid Serbia of corruption and restore the rule of law. They proposed banning corrupt officials from politics and investigating their wealth as ..
Iran's foreign minister said on Monday that the situation has come under total control after a bloody crackdown on nationwide protests in the country. Abbas Araghchi also said that the protests turned violent and bloody to give an excuse for US President Donald Trump to intervene. Araghchi offered no evidence for his statements, which came after activists reported more than 500 people in Iran have been killed during the past two weeks of protests the vast majority of them demonstrators. Araghchi spoke to foreign diplomats in Tehran. The Qatar-funded Al Jazeera satellite news network, which has been allowed to work despite the internet being cut off in the country, carried his remarks.
A crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran has killed at least 544 people and even more are feared dead, activists have said, while Tehran warned that the US military and Israel would be legitimate targets if America uses force to protect demonstrators. Another over 10,600 people have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency on Sunday, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces. With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran's government has not offered overall casualty figures. Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran's security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the