KOLKATA, India (Reuters) -- Protesters angered by a new law on land use they say discriminates against Muslims set fire to police vehicles in Kolkata, capital of India’s West Bengal State, after a weekend of violence claimed three lives, authorities said. Protesters in the Bhangar area of Kolkata clashed with police after officers stopped a protest rally. A major highway was blocked by protesters during the disturbances. The protesters were angry about a new law passed by the Indian parliament this month, which makes sweeping changes in the management of vast tracts of land set aside solely for Muslim use, potentially stoking tensions between the government and minority Muslims. Muslim groups and political parties say the law, like many of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies, aims to alienate and discriminate against Muslims. Modi and officials in his party deny the allegations, and have said the law is a “pro-Muslim reform”. 

 

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LONDON (Reuters) -- Britain sent Ukraine 752 million pounds ($990 million) to buy air defenses and artillery, part of a broader $50 billion international loan program backed by frozen Russian assets, Britain’s government said. The Group of Seven advanced economies agreed an outline lending package in October 2024 - before the election of Donald Trump as president changed the United States’ approach to the conflict - and finance minister Rachel Reeves Reeves and her Ukrainian counterpart Serhiy Marchenko finalized details of Britain’s contribution in March. Pressured by the United States’ increased reluctance to provide security in Europe, Britain’s government announced in February that it would raise defense spending from about 2.3% of national income to 2.5% by 2027 and 3% some time after 2029. Monday’s payment to Ukraine is the second of three installments totaling 2.26 billion pounds. The first was on March 6 and the final part will be paid next year.

 

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SYDNEY/JAKARTA (Reuters) -- Indonesia dismissed on Tuesday a report in defense publication Janes that Russia has requested basing military aircraft in Papua, its easternmost province, after the issue caused concern in Australia. “The report is incorrect,” said Frega Wenas, the spokesperson of Indonesia’s defense ministry. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles spoke to his Indonesian counterpart Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin who said there would be no Russian air force planes based in Indonesia. “He (Sjamsoeddin) has said to me in the clearest possible terms, reports of the prospect of Russian aircraft operating from Indonesia are simply not true,” Marles said. Papua is about 1,200 km (750 miles) north of the Australian city of Darwin, where a U.S. Marines Corp rotational force is based for six months of the year, and Australian air bases are being upgraded to host visiting U.S. bombers.

 

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BEIJING/MANILA (Reuters) -- China and the Philippines accused each other on Tuesday of dangerous maneuvers in a hotly disputed shoal in the South China Sea, in the latest confrontation over the waterway. A Chinese coast guard vessel sped up and maneuvered on Monday to block the navigation route of a Philippine vessel around 36 nautical miles off the Scarborough shoal, the Philippine Coast Guard said. China’s coast guard said the Philippine vessel “dangerously approached” its ship and crossed its route, alleging it attempted to stage a false collision, Xinhua reported on Tuesday. Tensions between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea have escalated in the last two years, including in the Scarborough Shoal, a prime fishing patch claimed by both as their territory.

 

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NAIROBI (Reuters) -- Four smugglers caught trying to transport thousands of live ants out of Kenya for sale on exotic pet markets in Europe and Asia will be sentenced for trafficking wildlife in a case being hailed as a milestone by the Kenya Wildlife Service. The KWS said authorities had intercepted live queen ants, including from the sought-after Messor Cephalotes species also known as the Giant African Harvester Ant, concealed in modified test tubes and syringes. While some people may see ants as a picnic-ruining nuisance, aficionados enjoy keeping them in formicariums, transparent cases where they can watch them building complex colonies. A court document seen by Reuters stated that the authorities had intercepted about 5,000 queens packed in 2,244 containers, with a street value of about 1 million Kenyan shillings ($7,800). Two Belgians, one Vietnamese and one Kenyan pleaded guilty on Monday to charges of illegal possession and trafficking of live wildlife and appeared again on Tuesday at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport Court.

 

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SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) -- The death toll at last week’s nightclub roof collapse in the capital of the Dominican Republic rose to 231, the Minister of Interior and Police said, as families of victims began filing lawsuits against the nightclub’s owners. Relatives of Virgilio Rafael Cruz, one of the victims who died on April 8, have begun a legal action against the establishment’s owners, the family’s lawyer told local media. Other families have also indicated they will file lawsuits. Local media and ticketing sites indicate the club could accommodate between 700 and 1,000 people, though there is no official confirmation on how many were present at the time of the disaster.