At least 17 people were killed and two dozen more injured on Saturday in eastern India after a stampede that was likely caused by sudden rainfall during a Hindu religious gathering, officials said.

West Bengal’s Chief Minister Suvendhu Adhikari told reporters the fatalities included a seven-year-old girl, adding that 25 others were injured outside a pavilion “in a stampede” at the Hindu festival of Durga Puja in the city of Kolkata.

“Six bodies have so far been identified,” Adhikari said.

A senior police official at the scene told AFP an announcement caused “commotion” after it started raining at night and the “crowd waiting outside the pandal (pavilion) was pushing, pulling and rushing forward and fell on the ground, leading to the stampede”.

Deadly crowd incidents are a frequent occurrence at Indian mass events, such as religious festivals, due to poor management and safety lapses.

In August, a stampede at a Hindu temple in Bihar killed at least seven people and injured 19 others.

Last year, a stampede at India’s Kumbh Mela religious fair killed 30 people and injured several others, and 11 fans were crushed to death in Bengaluru during celebrations for the local cricket team’s first Indian Premier League title.

The same year, 36 people were killed after a stampede broke out at a campaign rally of a popular actor-turned-politician in southern Tamil Nadu state.

In 2024, 121 people were killed in northern Uttar Pradesh state during a Hindu religious gathering.

Police and protesters clashed violently in Paris and other French cities on Saturday on the sidelines of nationwide marches against soaring inflation, with one demonstrator’s hand blown off, multiple blazes set, and looters breaking into dozens of stores to strip them bare.

With just months to go before the two-round elections in April and May to choose Macron’s successor, the demonstrations follow weeks of high-school student blockades demanding better learning conditions.

Macron and his government were criticised by many of the demonstrators, who numbered 500,000 across the country, according to the CGT union. Authorities did not immediately give their estimate of the numbers.

Police used tear gas and water cannon against masked protesters in Paris and other cities who were throwing projectiles and aiming fireworks. Several parked cars were torched in the capital, and more than 130 arrests were made.

In the southern city of Saint-Etienne, a male protester had his hand blown off by a police crowd-control grenade, a police source told AFP. His maiming came after a 15-year-old lost his hand on October 5 to a police stun grenade during another protest in the city of Lens.

The protests geared up with a handful of gatherings nationwide on Saturday morning, AFP reporters said.

In Lyon, protesters set ablaze a tourist office in the city centre, and smashed their way into town halls in the cities of Marseille and Lille, where they vandalised the premises before leaving.

Dozens of shops were looted, including many in Marseille, among them a Hermes boutique, an Apple store in Lille, several shops in Nice and at least one mobile phone outlet in Paris, AFP journalists saw.

A crowd of more than 300 protesters tried to move up Paris’s Champs-Elysees, home to flagship luxury stores. As police firing tear gas blocked their way, they yelled, “All cops are bastards”.

In the western city of Rennes, around 20 people set up a barricade using trash bins and large pallets on the outskirts of a shopping mall.

Christophe, a 47-year-old carpenter and former Yellow Vest protester who did not give his surname, said he was indignant after seeing what he viewed as police brutality against teenagers in recent weeks.

“We’ve reached the point where the repression is targeting our own children,” he told AFP.

‘Macron, resign’

The looting and confrontations with police were being carried out by masked youths on the sidelines of marches that were largely peaceful and which attracted people of all ages, including families with children.

Paris mayor Emmanuel Gregoire stressed that “the overwhelming majority of demonstrators” wanted to “march calmly”, but “acts of vandalism” were tarnishing their protest.

In Paris, tens of thousands marched across the east and north of the city in one major march, some shouting “Everyone hates the police” and “Macron, resign”.

One demonstrator, Jules Petrichor, 47, who had brought his son, said: “There was a good atmosphere and then suddenly they (the police) started gassing us, even though nothing was happening. Naturally that worsened things and the hot-heads got hot-headed.”

Another protester who gave his first name as Louis, 19, complained that police were trigger-happy any time there was a demonstration.

“We can’t protest any more, it’s frightening,” he said.

The country’s Yellow Vest movement, which eight years ago staged street protests against Macron’s government over planned fuel tax hikes, has called Saturday’s “yellow and youth” demonstrations. It has appealed to teachers and students, workers, pensioners and farmers to take part in the protests on the first day of half-term holidays.

The principal grievance was the cost of living — pushed up in part by the war in the Middle East — that has helped send inflation soaring in Europe as elsewhere.
But there were other issues too.

High school student Kamil Alahyan, 18, said he was protesting “for so many reasons — the elections coming up in 2027, politicians who lie, the ultra-rich who’ve been taking more and more wealth over the past 10 years”.

“For years we’ve had climate, economy and equality problems but the government is not doing anything about it,” said Agnes, a 50-year-old actor who did not give her second name.

Anae, a 24-year-old student who did not give her surname, said she was protesting because she did not have a “sustainable future”.

“Our planet’s burning. And we’ve got a government that doesn’t give a toss,” she said.

Le Pen blames ‘rioters’

Opposition politicians vying to succeed Macron have seized upon the protests.

Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who has sided with the police, said on X: “Looting, pillaging, attacking police — rioters have once again sullied the October 17 demonstrations over the cost of living.” She claimed that the protesters’ demands had been “hijacked by the far left”.

Her far-left rival Jean-Luc Melenchon, insisted early Saturday that “everything is passing off peacefully”, while accusing television news of “flooding us with images of violence in dozens of cities”.

Several protesters sought to draw parallels with the French Revolution of 1789.

“It’s the Revolution — we’re taking the Bastille!” some shouted in Marseille during the forced entry of the mayor’s offices.

In the western city of La Rochelle, marchers streamed behind a placard reading: “Revolution or death.” And in the southern city of Montpellier, a giant blue sign reading “The people will win” was unfurled above a central square.

“The government is trembling and it’s right to tremble because when the French people are angry, they never let up,” Ryad Rani, the head of the LSU high school student representative body, told journalists in Paris.

Des colons israéliens ont attaqué, samedi 17 octobre, un convoi de diplomates européens qui effectuaient une visite en Cisjordanie occupée, rouant de coups un maire français, ont indiqué à l'AFP un témoin et deux sources diplomatiques. Sur une vidéo consultée par l'AFP, Bernard Baudoux, maire communiste de la ville d'Aulnoye-Aymeries (nord), apparaît affalé au sol contre une voiture. Vendredi, c'est une photojournaliste du Washington Post qui était rouée des coups par des colons.

Fogo nas ruas, confrontos com as forças de segurança e milhares de manifestantes. As manifestações em França deixaram imagens marcantes. Veja a galeria.

Fogo nas ruas, confrontos com as forças de segurança e milhares de manifestantes. As manifestações em França deixaram imagens marcantes. Veja a galeria.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday that Tehran supports a “political process” to resolve the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The Houthis have repeatedly attacked Saudi targets, including energy facilities and Riyadh’s international airport, where 13 people were killed in a major attack last week.

“We support an inclusive and comprehensive political process as the only practical and sustainable way to resolve the issue,” Araghchi said in a speech at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Baghdad.

Araghchi repeated Iran’s offer to mediate between the two sides. Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh previously said Riyadh has not responded to Iran’s overture.

On Friday, Iran denied having anything to do with the Houthi attacks, after Saudi Arabia accused Tehran of encouraging the group’s escalation.

In his speech, Araghchi also said “either we build security together, or we will endure insecurity together,” adding that Tehran was willing “to cooperate with all its brothers and neighbours to achieve the first option”.

The Houthis have repeatedly attacked Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers after a truce in their long-running war with Yemen’s coalition government unravelled in July.

On Wednesday, Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they had targeted facilities belonging to Saudi Aramco, after Saudi officials reported a strike on a building in Riyadh housing the energy giant’s operations centre.

Powerful explosions also rattled the Saudi capital, as the coalition fighting the Houthis said it had intercepted a missile fired by the group towards Riyadh.

On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia launched strikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, targeting fuel and energy facilities it said were being used to support missile and drone attacks, as the Yemeni group threatened a “harsh and painful” response against Saudi airports, refineries and oil installations.

Hours later, Saudi authorities issued warnings of potential hostile aerial threats in the kingdom’s eastern province and Riyadh.

Loud explosions were heard near Saudi Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran, according to witnesses. Later, a Saudi energy ministry official confirmed the attack. Saudi Arabia’s civil defence agency said that four people — two women, a man and a child — were wounded by debris from two intercepted Houthi cruise missiles in the capital and that 15 homes were damaged.

Uma mensagem mandava-o “ir para o inferno”. Outras diziam que merecia ser preso. Choveram ameaças de morte. Asiáticos com o mesmo nome de um dos homens acusados de violar uma estudante universitária nos EUA têm sido alvo de uma enxurrada de insultos online. A alegada violação em grupo de uma estudante da Universidade de Cornell em 2024, descrita numa ação judicial recente, provocou uma onda de indignação contra os sete acusados. O caso pôs “detetives da internet “a vasculhar rastos digitais à procura de pistas para os encontrar. Um dos acusados é um coreano identificado pela imprensa norte-americana como Winston

India’s Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke was released from detention on Saturday, a day after he was detained during a police crackdown on protests against the election authority.

Dipke, 31, was detained on Friday in New Delhi as he headed to join a rally that the CJP protest movement had called in the capital’s central Connaught Place district. He was arrested to prevent a breach of the peace, broadcasters NDTV and ​India Today reported.

He walked out of a police station on Saturday afternoon, waving to the media and giving a thumbs up as he was driven away, an AFP photographer saw.

“Abhijeet Dipke released,” CJP legal affairs chief Ratna Singh said on social media.

Opposition parties and CJP activists have defied a security crackdown, rallying to demand the resignation of India’s Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar after accusing the poll body of manipulating voter rolls to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party.

More than 130 million voters were deleted ​during the revision. The Election Commission has denied favouring any party and said wrongly deleted voters can re-enrol. The BJP has accused rivals of trying to undermine democracy by wrongly questioning legitimate electoral processes.

Student activist Neha ​Bora, a prominent face of the protests, who was also detained on Friday as she ​tried to reach central Delhi with dozens of supporters, was released earlier on Saturday as well.

“Please, spare the people of India. ‌Impeach ⁠Gyanesh Kumar and halt SIR (special intensive revision), so that the ordinary citizens of this country can breathe a sigh of relief, feel at ease, and have their voting rights ensured,” Bora told ANI news agency after she was released.

Two other senior CJP leaders, Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, were arrested on Oct 14 after entering Jantar Mantar, a decades-old protest site that police have declared off-limits for demonstrations. They remain in custody.

Members of Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have long alleged that large numbers of undocumented Muslim migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh have fraudulently entered India’s electoral rolls.

Rights groups and critics, however, say Modi’s government has eroded democratic freedoms during more than a decade in power, citing pressure on journalists, civil society groups and political opponents — allegations the government rejects.

A weeks-long sit-in by supporters of the movement earlier this year forced then-education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation over ​exam paper leaks.

Le président américain Donald Trump a annoncé, vendredi 16 octobre 2026, la levée de plusieurs sanctions, restrictions et droits de douane visant la Russie, prévus dans le cadre d'une loi promulguée le mois dernier, avant même leur entrée en vigueur.

Tous les candidats au poste de secrétaire général de l'ONU se sont vu opposer, vendredi 16 octobre, un veto par les membres permanents du Conseil de sécurité, a-t-on appris de source diplomatique. Au terme de ce vote indicatif, aucun des sept candidats n'a réussi à échapper à un veto des cinq grandes puissances qui disposent de ce droit, ouvrant la voie à d'éventuelles nouvelles candidatures. 

Com um papel duplo, Virginie Efira recorda a experiência de trabalhar com o mestre de cinema iraniano, ao lado de Isabelle Huppert, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney e Catherine Deneuve.

O comediante está a ser julgado num tribunal de Londres por sete acusações de crimes sexuais cometidos entre 1999 e 2009, num caso que envolve seis mulheres.

A Hello Sunshine fora vendida em 2021, na era dourada do streaming, por um valor que se revelaria inflacionado e insustentável.

Este grupo francês fazia música eletrónica escondido por detrás de capacetes e vendeu milhões de discos em todo o mundo. Daft Punk? Não, Space, fundado em 1977 por Didier Marouani e precursor da French Touch, que explodiria 20 anos mais tarde.

Conhecido por vários filmes de Olivier Marchal, o ator apresentara queixas por assédio sexual contra o cineasta André Téchiné e um diretor de casting.

"Digger" arrisca-se a ser um dos maiores desastres comerciais de sempre, mas várias figuras de Hollywood recusam deixar cair a sátira ecológica que juntou Tom Cruise com Alejandro González Iñárritu.

Novo filme mostra como a empresa de Mark Zuckerberg contribuiu para a radicalização de uma parte dos seus utilizadores.

Filme com Jessica Chastain não cumpriu totalmente as expectativas e "O Veredito Social" caiu com estrondo nas bilheteiras.

In Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province, dozens of excavators operate day and night to extract gold from the mountains where villagers and their livestock once roamed.

Thousands of miners are deployed across the Shiwa area, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of the provincial capital Faizabad, extracting gold for investors nationwide.

Some residents in the area have profited from the gold rush, only to regret it later, such as farmer Muhammad Amin.

“Before, the river was deep, the water was clean,” said the 74-year-old from Pul-e-Ziri Ban valley.

Since mining got underway, “the water of the river is not drinkable; you can’t even wash your body with that water”, he told AFP.

With tears in his eyes, Amin said the grass along the riverbank “has all gone” and farming is no longer possible due to “the wind and dust”.

Now he can only feed up to 15 goats, compared with as many as 40 previously.

Amin said he was paid half the $20,000 for which he agreed to lease his land to a mining firm that failed to fulfil a promise to restore his fields after the work stopped.

The Taliban authorities have expanded the mining sector since returning to power five years ago, aiming to tap into Afghanistan’s vast underground resources to boost state coffers.

Abdul Mateen Rahimzai, head of Badakhshan’s mines department, said they have registered “almost 650 to 700 companies, and there are thousands of people working manually”.

The World Bank said hundreds of mining contracts have been signed since 2021, with “real growth averaging 25 to 30 percent” annually according to a May report.

– ‘Better than anything else’ –

While mining has temporarily stopped in Amin’s village, not far from his home, in Gulak-Dara valley, dozens of diggers were carving into the mountainside.

With jobs scarce in Afghanistan, the area has drawn workers from across the country.

Mohammad Agha Khwaja Khail, from Kabul, has worked in mining for five years and earns 10,000 Afghanis ($150) a month loading trucks.

“It’s better than anything else… There aren’t many jobs in Kabul,” said the 21-year-old, above the din of diggers.

Shafiullah Ehsas, a father-of-five, transported his excavator hundreds of kilometres from Jalalabad about three months ago.

“In Jalalabad, the gold (mining) work hasn’t started, and it was happening in Badakhshan, so we didn’t have any other option but to bring our machinery here,” said the 32-year-old, who earns 25,000 Afghanis per month.

The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum has sought to regulate the industry, with spokesman Hamayoun Afghan saying resources “used to be extracted erratically; it wasn’t done under supervision” by the previous government.

Gold mining has accelerated in the north, the ministry spokesman said, including in neighbouring Takhar province where an Afghan company was operating with Chinese partners.

Fabrizio Foschini, a researcher at the Afghanistan Analysts Network, said during earlier decades of war “mining mainly benefited insurgent groups, including the Taliban, and local strongmen with links to corrupt government officials”.

Mining firms are now taxed 20 grams of gold per hectare per month, or the equivalent in cash, no matter their profits.

– ‘Reduced to ruins’ –

Mohammadullah Mubariz, the manager of a mining company with about a hundred labourers and 20 diggers, said the team can extract “200 to 300 grams of gold” in a week.

Despite this, he said the firm was operating at a loss because of start-up costs since April.

Rahimzai, head of the provincial mines department, said last year the government collected 112 kilograms (247 pounds) of gold in Badakhshan. According to miners who spoke to AFP, their sale price per gram was around $118.

Rahimzai said that last year, “most of the mines were not registered, and there was no system to collect the fees from them”.

He has also ordered the closure of around 225 sites that caused damage, including in the Shiwa area.

“There was a bridge there, there were shops, and there was a school. All of them were buried under floodwater, mud, and debris. The area has been completely reduced to ruins,” Rahimzai told AFP.

The provincial mining chief also pledged to tackle any corruption, and ensure the “mineral resources of Badakhshan will be utilised properly and for the benefit of the people”.

Some parts of the province remain untouched, including a few kilometres from Shiwa where herder Fazil hoped the miners would stay away.

“Because it’s a place for people, for picnics, for livestock to graze,” he told AFP, giving only his first name for security reasons.

The gold industry “doesn’t benefit the local communities here”, said the 45-year-old, who has brought his herd to the mountains each summer since childhood.

“It benefits only the powerful people.”

By Agence France-Presse

The post “Gold Rush” in Afghanistan: Taliban Mining Booms in Badakhshan. Jobs & Gold for Some, Ruined Land for Others appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.

As Japan marks the anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombs, its leaders are pushing for a renewed debate on nuclear weapons in a challenge to the nation’s long-time pacifist stance.

The post Japan’s Nuclear Debate Unnerves Pacifists as Tokyo Declines to Reaffirm Non-Nuclear Principles Amid China Threat appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.