Indonesia in talks with UK over repatriation of rapist Reynhard Sinaga

The British government is speaking with Indonesia about repatriating the most prolific rapist in UK history.

Reynhard Sinaga, 41, was in 2020 found guilty of assaulting 48 men in Manchester.

Sinaga met his victims at bars and clubs, then took them back to his apartment, where he drugged and raped them.

He was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison for 159 offences, which he committed between January 2015 and May 2017.

Indonesia’s senior minister for law and human rights affairs Yusril Ihza Mahendra told reporters late on Thursday that talks with the British government were at an early stage.

The mechanism for such a repatriation would be decided later, he said, either through a prisoner transfer or through an exchange with a British prisoner jailed in Indonesia.

“No matter how wrong a citizen is, the country has the obligation to defend its citizen,” Yusril said.

“It’s not an easy job for us,” he said, adding there are many things that need to be negotiated with the British government.

The British embassy in Indonesia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Indonesia is also looking at ways to repatriate Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, who was accused of being involved in some deadly attacks including the 2002 Bali bombings.

Under British rules, Sinaga is only able to file for leniency after he has been in jail for 30 years, Yusril said.

Sinaga’s family have met with the ministry’s representative to seek his repatriation.

If the British government agrees to his return he would be jailed in a maximum security prison, Yusril said. “Otherwise he will cause new problems.”

Sinaga, who has been in the UK since 2007, targeted young men who looked drunk or vulnerable and rendered them unconscious with a sedative.

The rape investigation was the largest in British legal history.

Nearly 100 fall sick on cruise ship after gastrointestinal outbreak

About 90 passengers and crew on a Royal Caribbean cruise in the Gulf of Mexico have fallen sick with a gastrointestinal illness, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Many of those onboard are suffering from diarrhoea and vomiting, according to reports.

“Radiance of the Seas” departed Tampa, Florida, on Saturday for a seven-day cruise around the western Caribbean, planning to visit ports in Mexico, Honduras and Belize, according to Cruisemapper.com. An outbreak of a gastrointestinal illness was reported to the CDC’s vessel sanitation program on Tuesday.

The Miami-based Royal Caribbean did not immediately return a request for comment.

Some 89 people – about 4% of the cruise ship’s 2,164 passengers – have reported being sick. Two members of the 910-person crew are also sick, the CDC said.

Royal Caribbean has increased cleaning on the ship, collected stool specimens for testing and isolated sick people, the CDC said. The ship is scheduled to return to Tampa on Saturday, February 8, according to Cruisemapper.com.

The CDC has said that norovirus, a highly contagious virus causing vomiting and diarrhea, is usually the cause of stomach bugs on cruise ships. It is not yet known what caused the illness on Radiance of the Seas.

A similar incident happened on the cruise ship in October last year when more than 180 people became sick with a gastrointestinal illness aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise traveling through Canada. Out of 2,172 passengers on the Radiance of the Seas, 180 along with three staff members reported feeling ill with symptoms that included diarrhea, abdominal cramps, headache, and muscle aches.

Landmark exhibition displays rare artworks by Salvador Dalí in India

A leading figure of the Surrealist movement, Salvador Dalí left a cultural imprint that is instantly recognisable—whether one thinks of his melting clocks in The Persistence of Memory, striking self-portraits, or his collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock or Elsa Schiaparelli.

Marking 120 years since Dalí’s birth last year, The Independent’s Alastair Smart wrote: “If the world was a stage, Dalí wanted to be chief protagonist.”

Indian art enthusiasts will now have the opportunity to experience Salvador Dalí’s work up close as Dalí: The Argillet Collection arrives in New Delhi, featuring over 200 etchings, drawings, and tapestries.

First exhibited in India in November 2024, the collection has been curated by Christine Argillet from the archives of her father, French publisher Pierre Argillet, Dalí’s longtime collaborator.

The two met in France in the late 1950s and collaborated on a series of works over the next two decades. This working relationship evolved into a strong friendship that lasted till Dalí’s death in 1989.

Before his death in 2001, Mr Argillet amassed a significant personal collection of rare Dalí works, which Ms Argillet has meticulously curated into distinct sections.

“Dali had always been fascinated by the Indian myths that have given birth to many of the Greek, Roman and European mythologies,” Ms Argillet told The Indian Express.

“For this reason, he had illustrated for my father the hippies movement by a series of 11 etchings in 1970. Dalí wanted to bring a parallel between the fascination of Westerners for Indian spirituality, and of Indians for Western culture.”

The exhibition, previously showcased at the Musée Boymans in Rotterdam, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the Museum of Art in Tokyo, and the Dalí Museum in Figueres, Spain, includes sketches inspired by photographs Pierre Argillet took during a trip to India in the 1970s—a period when young Americans flocked there in search of enlightenment.

An intriguing story about Dalí’s connection with India dates back to 1967 when the country’s national airline, Air India, commissioned him to design a limited edition set of ashtrays for their valued clients—paying him not with money, but with an elephant.

According to reports, Air India’s then-public relations officer, Jot Singh, happened to meet Dalí by chance at a New York hotel, where he made the request. The porcelain ashtrays were inspired by Dalí’s 1937 work Swans Reflecting Elephants and featured a design that created double images—appearing as swans or elephants depending on how they were placed.

Dalí reportedly requested an elephant as payment, saying: “I wish to keep him in my olive grove and watch the patterns of shadows the moonlight makes through the twigs on his back.”

The airline agreed and flew a two-year-old elephant from Bengaluru, the capital of the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka, to Geneva. From there, the elephant was taken to Dalí’s home in Cadaqués, Spain.

Dalí’s plan to ride the elephant across the Alps never came to fruition, and the animal remained in a Barcelona zoo from 1971 until its death in 2018.

The story aligns with Ms Argillet’s recollection of the artist, whom she remembers as “a very humourous and elegant man, often having an eccentric and joyful way of being”.

Ms Argillet, who spent much of her childhood in Dalí’s presence and was fondly nicknamed “The Little Infante” by him, described how his love of blending different cultures is evident in some of the works on display.

“We can see these elements in the Santiago of Compostella etching where Dalí puts together hippy guitarists, but also a middle-aged cellist with an elephant and a Chinese character next to the famous Santiago of Compostela, a pilgrimage place. In many of the works presented here, you’ll see ‘yin-yang’ shapes, bringing the idea of love into the story,” she said.

Several works in the exhibition draw upon mythology, showcasing Dalí’s unique interpretation of the symbolism within these stories. Visitors will have the opportunity to see a series of 21 etchings illustrating Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s tragic play Faust in the piece Secret Poems by Apollinaire.

Also on display will be Study for the Demons, a series of illustrations Dalí created in 1968 based on poems by Mao Zedong, combining political satire with an exploration of Chinese culture.

Dalí Comes to India will be exhibited in New Delhi at the India Habitat Centre from 7 to 13 February, before moving to Masarrat Gallery by Bruno Art Group from 15 February to 16 March.

Report points to far higher death toll in Kumbh Mela stampede

At least 79 people died in last week’s stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela in India, far exceeding the toll of 30 claimed by the provincial government, an investigation by a news outlet has found.

The government in northern Uttar Pradesh state, run by Narendra Modi’s BJP party, has been facing criticism for mismanaging the Hindu religious festival in Prayagraj and accused of covering up the death toll from the stampede, with opposition leaders demanding transparency and accountability.

The state’s chief minister, a Hindu monk called Yogi Adityanath, has been under fire for his administration’s delayed response to the tragedy on 29 January and his failure to release casualty figures promptly.

While his government has since ordered an investigation, it has not revised the initial toll.

An investigation by independent news outlet Newslaundry found the actual toll was far higher. A senior government official gave the outlet a list containing the names of 69 people who had reportedly been brought dead from the Kumbh to the Motilal Nehru Medical College in Prayagraj. At least 66 of the bodies had been handed over to their families by 3 February while three remained unidentified.

Ten of these victims were men and the rest women. The bodies were stored in a large freezer space, instead of the mortuary, the same facility used after a 2013 Kumbh stampede. None of the corpses were taken for postmortem, the outlet found, raising further questions about the government’s handling of the tragedy.

“The responsibility for postmortems lies with the police,” Newslaundry quoted a state official as saying. “The hospital only carries them out upon police request, but the administration wanted to send the bodies home as soon as possible.”

Relatives were provided with free ambulances, accompanied by police personnel, to take away the bodies. They were given receipts to claim the bodies as well, but two such receipts reviewed by the news outlet did not carry a date.

Further discrepancies were found at the Swaroop Rani Hospital in Prayagraj where a bulletin board initially listed seven dead and 36 injured. The list had been taken down the next day.

Records examined by Newslaundry at a nearby station suggested six unidentified bodies had been brought to the hospital from the Kumb grounds. While two were the same as on the hospital’s list, one person had died at 10.27pm, taking the tally to 10.

Taken together with the 69 fatalities recorded at the Motilal Nehru Medical College, the death toll from the Maha Kumbh stampede rises to at least 79.

The official count of 30 deaths has also been met with scepticism from opposition leaders.

Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav accused the Adityanath government of hiding the true figures and mishandling the situation. Speaking in the Lok Sabha, the lower chamber of the parliament, he alleged that earthmovers and tractors were used to clear away bodies.

“Footwear and clothing were scattered at the scene and JCB machines and tractor trolleys were used to remove the dead,” Mr Yadav, a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, said. “When this sparked outrage, the government scrambled to cover it up.”

He demanded that “the figures for deaths, injured individuals, medical facilities, food, water, and transport should be disclosed in the parliament” of India.

Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the main opposition Congress party, caused an uproar in the parliament by claiming “thousands” of people had died at the Kumbh, prompting upper house chairperson Jagdeep Dhankar to demand that he authenticate the number or withdraw the statement. “This is my estimate and if this is not right, you should tell what the truth is,” Mr Kharge said, addressing the government.

Trinamool Congress member Saugata Roy called the stampede one of the worst tragedies of independent India.

The ruling BJP, however, downplayed the incident. Senior MP Hema Malini described the stampede as a minor event. “We visited the Kumbh, everything was well-managed,” she said. “It is true that the incident happened, but it wasn’t that big. It is being exaggerated.”

Mr Adityanath, meanwhile, claimed on Tuesday that the stampede was a conspiracy and threatened strict action against anyone found responsible.

The Independent has contacted the Uttar Pradesh government for comment.

Fake alcohol warning after 100 die from poisoning in tourist spot

Turkey this week issued a warning on bootleg alcohol, with the number fatally poisoned by illicit booze in Turkey rising to 103 since the beginning of the year.

The deaths happened in Ankara and Istanbul, NTV reported on Friday, after authorities warned about rising sales of illicit booze being passed off as big-name brands.

In Istanbul, 70 people have died since 14 January, NTV said. Another 33 have died in the capital Ankara since the start of the year, NTV said, citing Ankara governor Vasip Sahin.

Another 230 people in the two cities had been hospitalised. Of those in hospitals, 40 were in a critical condition.

The price of alcoholic drinks has rocketed in recent years due to heavy taxes imposed by president Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted ruling AK Party. Alcoholic drinks makers have also faced an increasingly onerous tax burden and other restrictions.

The high costs have pushed some consumers and shops, restaurants, and bars to rely on bootleg alcohol and homemade drinks, leading to rising poisoning in recent years.

The government again hiked taxes on alcohol and tobacco products for 2025 on 3 January. The office of Istanbul‘s governor could not immediately be reached for comment.

Last month, the Istanbul governor’s office said it had taken steps to combat bootleg sales and distribution, including mandatory cameras at shops selling alcohol, suspending or revoking sale licences, and carrying out regular inspections.

Authorities have arrested 13 people in Ankara and 11 others in Istanbul, NTV said, citing the local governors. They have seized 102 tons of methanol and ethanol in Ankara, and over 86,000 litres of bootleg or smuggled alcohol in Istanbul, it added.

The warning comes a few months after six people, including a British backpacker, died after apparently drinking tainted alcohol in Laos.

British backpacker and lawyer Simone White, 28, from Orpington in Kent was among those to have died from suspected methanol poisoning after allegedly being served free drinks in Laos‘s Vang Vieng area.

Two Danes, two Australians and an American have also died after being taken to the hospital with similar symptoms.

Homemade alcohol, popular in southeast Asia, may accidentally contain too much methanol because of the distillation process. Or it may be used as a cheap substitute for ethanol – effectively a counterfeit alcoholic drink.

Hong Kong continues to suspend packages for US

Hong Kong’s post office announced late Thursday it would continue to suspend shipping items containing goods to the United States until further notice, despite its American counterpart having reversed its ban on packages from the region and other parts of China.

The Hong Kong government said in a statement that Hongkong Post was in talks with the U.S. postal administration but further clarification was still needed on certain matters, including over a tariff. It reiterated its strong disapproval over the U.S. imposition of additional duty on Hong Kong products, urging the U.S. to take “urgent actions to rectify its wrongdoing.”

The U.S. post office had announced Tuesday that it would no longer accept parcels from China, including Hong Kong, after the U.S. imposed an additional 10 per cent tariff on Chinese goods and ended a customs exception that allowed small-value parcels to enter the U.S. without paying tax.

It reversed course Wednesday but gave no reason, saying it would work with Customs and Border Protection to implement a collection process for the new tariffs to avoid delivery disruptions.

Although the ban was short-lived and the U-turn came within the same day for those who live in the Hong Kong time zone, it confused those who wanted to post to the U.S. from the trading hub.

It also sparked concerns over the potential impact on online shopping platforms like Shein and Temu, popular with younger shoppers in the U.S. for cheap clothing and other products, usually shipped directly from China.

Cheap, direct postal service helps these companies keep costs low, as did the “de minimis” exemption that previously allowed shipments to go tax-free if their value is under $800.

The U.S. imported about $427bn worth of goods from China in 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Consumer electronics, including cellphones, computers and other tech accessories, make up the biggest import categories.

Mandatory jail term for Nazi salute under new rules in Australia

Australia on Thursday passed anti-hate crime laws under which a Nazi salute in public, among other similar offences, will be punishable by a mandatory jail sentence.

The laws were passed in an effort to tackle a wave of high-profile antisemitic attacks targeting Jews in Australia in the wake of Israel’s war on Gaza.

The laws will impose jail sentences between 12 months for less serious hate crimes, such as giving a Nazi salute in public, and six years for those found guilty of terrorism offences.

Recent months have seen an escalation of attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars of Jewish community members across the country, including the discovery of a caravan laden with explosives with a list of Jewish targets in Sydney.

“I want people who are engaged in antisemitism to be held to account, to be charged, to be incarcerated,” prime minister Anthony Albanese, who had initially opposed mandatory minimum sentences for hate crimes, told Sky News.

The government’s hate crimes bill was first introduced to parliament last year, creating new offences for threatening force or violence against people based on their race, religion, nationality, national or ethnic origin, political opinion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status.

Home minister Tony Burke, who introduced the amendments enabling the provisions late on Wednesday, said the changes were the toughest laws Australia has ever had against hate crimes.

Self-described Nazi Jacob Hersant was the first person to be convicted in the state of Victoria last year for performing the outlawed Nazi salute.

The 25-year-old gave the salute and praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in front of news media cameras outside the Victoria County Court on 27 October 2023, after he had appeared on an unrelated charge. It was six days after the Victoria state government had made the salute illegal.

Three men were convicted in June 2024 of performing the Nazi salute during a soccer match in Sydney on 1 October 2022. New South Wales state had banned Nazi symbols in 2022. They were each fined and have appealed.

Netflix India shares 2025 lineup heavy on Bollywood star children

Netflix has revealed its Indian original content lineup for 2025, with over 25 projects across films, series, sports, and unscripted programming.

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan makes his Netflix debut with The Ba***ds of Bollywood, which he directed. The series, which follows an ambitious outsider and his friends as they navigate the larger-than-life yet uncertain world of Bollywood, is produced by Shah Rukh Khan and wife Gauri Khan’s production company Red Chillies Entertainment.

From YRF Entertainment comes Akka, set in the 1980s matriarchal society of a fictional city of Pernuru, South India and will star National award winner Keerthy Suresh, Radhika Apte, and Tanvi Azmi.

Also from YRF is Mandala Murders, a moody series starring Vaani Kapoor and Surveen Chawla that delves into ritualistic killings linked to a centuries-old secret society.

Glory, starring Divyenndu, Pulkit Samrat, and Suvinder Vicky, is a murder mystery set in the sporting world, following legendary boxing coach Raghubir Singh who is forced to reunite with estranged sons after a savage attack.

Marking Netflix’s first foray into Telugu series, Super Subbu stars Sundeep Kishan and Mithila Palkar in a comedy drama about a man’s job as an adult sex education teacher in a remote, conservative village.

Bringing together two Bollywood legacies is Nadaaniyan, starring Saif Ali Khan’s son Ibrahim Ali Khan in his debut and Sridevi’s daughter Khushi Kapoor in a film that follows a South Delhi diva who hires a boy with a middle-class background to pose as her boyfriend. Hijinks ensue in the romance that also stars Mahima Chaudhary, Suniel Shetty, Dia Mirza and Jugal Hansraj.

Speaking of Bollywood legacies, Netflix will also release Dining with the Kapoors, which claims to offer an intimate look into Bollywood’s iconic Kapoor family, featuring multiple generations including Ranbir Kapoor, Karisma Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor Khan.

The Royals brings together The Perfect Couple’s Ishaan Khatter with Bhumi Pednekar in a breezy romcom that follows prince Aviraaj Singh trying to save his dysfunctional royal family from financial ruin with CEO Sophia Kanmani Shekhar, who in turn is hoping to keep her startup away from aggressive investors.

Toaster, starring Rajkummar Rao, Sanya Malhotra, and an ensemble cast including Archana Puran Singh and Abhishek Banerjee, looks to be a fun ride as it follows a miser obsessed with the titular toaster he gifted at a wedding and somehow finds himself in the midst of murder and utter chaos.

Saif Ali Khan reunites with his Salaam Namaste director Siddharth Anand in the latter’s streaming debut, Jewel Thief – The Heist Begins. A high stakes thriller about a jewel thief hired by a powerful crime lord to steal the elusive African Red Sun diamond, the film sees what happens when a meticulously planned heist goes awry.

New seasons of popular series Khakee, Rana Naidu, Kohrra, and international Emmy-winning Delhi Crime are also set to return to Netflix this year.

Earlier this year, Netflix released subscriber numbers for the last quarter of 2024, which showed that the streamer’s gamble with live sporting events had paid off spectacularly, as November’s Mike Tyson and Jake Paul boxing match drew 108 million viewers worldwide, making it the most-streamed sporting event ever.

With that in mind, Netflix will be hosting more live events like WWE wrestling, which will be available with Hindi commentary this year.