An Air India technician has died after he was sucked into an aircraft engine at Mumbai airport, the airline says.
The accident happened as the jet of flight AI 619 from Mumbai to Hyderabad was being pushed back for departure.
Air India chairman Ashwani Lohani described the accident as a "mishap", but it is not yet clear what happened.
"We are deeply saddened and regret the tragic incident," Mr Lohani said. He added that the incident is being investigated.
The Times of India, quoting Air India sources, reported that the accident occurred when the co-pilot started the engine at the Chhatrapati Shivaji airport. The victim was standing nearby.
"At the moment, we are absolutely clueless on how this person was near the aircraft. Only an inquiry can establish whose negligence it was and whether the engine should have been switched on at that time," an airline official told the Hindustan Times.
Mr Lohani expressed his condolences to the family.
The Pakistani military has released a music video commemorating the 150 victims of the Peshawar school massacre to mark the first anniversary of the attack on Wednesday. But why is the army producing a song for peace?
Against a wall displaying the victims' school portraits, kids in bright green school blazers run around as a song on the audio track plays a rousing refrain. “Mujhe dushman ke bacho ko parhana hai (I want to educate the children of my enemies)," sings a chorus of voices in Urdu.
A year after Taliban gunmen stormed the Army Public School in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing more than 150 people, mostly children, the Pakistani army has released a video commemorating the victims of the December 16, 2014 massacre.
The music video opens with shots of parents sending their kids off to school, where they assemble in neat rows to sing a tribute to their slain classmates.
“Mujhe ma us se badla layne jana ha (Mother, I have to go take revenge)," the children sing before belting out exactly how they plan to extract retribution: I want to educate the children of my enemies.
Education as revenge, particularly in a country with a 55% literacy rate – among the lowest in the world – seems a fitting response to one of the most shocking terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil.
Afghan security forces suppressed a suicide attack on a guest house attached to the Spanish embassy in Kabul, killing three Taliban fighters after hours of intermittent gunfire and explosions that lasted into the early hours of Saturday.
Two foreigners including a Spanish security officer and a Spanish police officer along with four Afghan police were also killed in the attack, in a heavily protected part of Kabul close to several embassies and government buildings, Kabul police spokesman Basir Mujahid said.
In addition, nine Afghan civilians were wounded and another 47 Afghans and foreigners were rescued from nearby buildings where they were trapped as security forces sealed off the area around the guest house, which guards at the site said formed part of the Spanish embassy compound.
Image copyrightAFPImage captionNepal has been hit by a blockade for the past two months
Nepal has been gripped by a blockade in the country's south for the past two months, leading to acute shortages of fuel and medicine.
The blockade is led by ethnic minorities who say they are discriminated against in the new constitution. The government also accuses India of deliberately worsening the embargo - something India denies.
The BBC looks at six ways the blockade has affected Nepal.
1. Chopping trees
Image captionA fuel shortage has increased demand for firewood
The crippling shortage of essential fuels such as liquefied petroleum (LP) gas, widely used for cooking in Nepal, has clearly put a lot of pressure on the country's forest resources.
Nepali newspapers are awash with reports of incidents of illegal logging in several forests in the unrest-affected Tarai plains of southern Nepal, which boasts some of the country's best lush green forests and national parks.
Officials say that, right now, things are still under control - but if the fuel supply situation doesn't return to normal, more and more trees could be chopped down by loggers and those in need.
Thakur Bhandari, an official at the Federation of Community Forest Users Nepal (FECOFUN), the umbrella body of the country's nearly 19,000 community forest user groups, says community-managed forests are safe as of now.
"But our forests have become vulnerable and difficult to protect now," as the demand for firewood for fuel surges, he told the BBC.
2. Medicines running low
One of the worst-hit supplies has been essential medicines.
Image copyrightAFPImage captionProtesters have called the blockade "inhuman"
Procurement procedures, airport red tape and other factors have so far prevented hospitals in Nepal from flying in urgent medical supplies - and doctors warn of a humanitarian crisis within weeks if the shortages are not addressed.
Even major hospitals have said that they are running short of life-saving drugs such as those used in intensive care units.
In November, Unicef warned that more than three million children under the age of five were at risk of death or disease due to the acute shortage of fuel, food, medicines and vaccines.
Image captionThere have been long queues for cooking gas
The government says it is trying to "fast-track" the process of buying essential medicines.
The protesters are accused of failing to keep a promise to let essential medicines through the blockade.
Read more on Nepal's crisis:
Image copyrightEPAImage captionMadhesi activists say the government has used excessive force against protesters
Image captionThe shortage of cooking gas has hit families hard
Due to lack of diesel to run their buses, many schools have been forced to hold brief holidays.
The government has started rationing diesel to schools to twice a week. "We have not totally closed schools but we are hit very hard," says private schools association president Lakchyya Bahadur KC.
The lack of fuel, paper and ink have also obstructed the printing of textbooks.
"We need to print 15 million textbooks in next four months. If the situation does not change, we will face shortages shortly," said a senior official at the Janak Educational Materials Centre - a government body that prints school textbooks for public schools.
Image copyrightEPAImage captionNepalese school children have taken part in anti-India protests against the blockade
4. Quake rebuilding in limbo
The Nepal earthquakes in April and May killed about 9,000 people, with nearly 600,000 houses damaged.
Now, the blockade has badly affected supplies of essential commodities, including construction materials and raw materials needed to run local industries, say government officials and UN agencies responsible for reconstruction work.
Image copyrightReutersImage captionThe earthquakes devastated parts of Nepal
The bulk of vital supplies are stranded in border warehouses or in trucks on the other side of the Indian border, officials say.
Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, the spokesperson at the Ministry of Home Affairs, told the BBC: "We don't have enough fuel to ensure supplies of essential materials for reconstruction... to the earthquake areas.
"Until the crisis ends, rebuilding will remain in limbo."
5. Running on empty
Image captionSome households have been forced to switch to induction stoves or firewood due to the fuel shortage
Nepal is dependent on India for its fuel - which has been rationed ever since the blockade.
Nepalese authorities said the Indian Oil Corporation is refusing to load their tankers in normal numbers and that Indian officials are deliberately obstructing the flow of fuel tankers even from the peaceful border points. India denies this.
It has been several weeks since gas stations have stopped selling fuel to private vehicles. Amid these restrictions, there are reports of rampant black marketing of fuel.
The shortage of cooking gas has taken toll in almost all households in the urban areas forcing them to switch to other alternatives like induction stoves and firewood.
The daily power cut of eight hours, which is projected to go up to 12 hours in the coming weeks, has made the situation worse.
6. Economic pain
On the economic front, the effect of the blockade has been brutal.
In November, Nepal's finance minister said he was lowering the growth forecast this year to 2%, from 6%. The minister said in the last three months, total trade had come down by one-third compared to the same period last year.
The earthquakes of April and May resulted in losses of over $7bn - but government officials are now saying that the blockade is going to inflict even bigger losses on the economy.
Japan and India sign bullet train deal amid closer ties
Image copyrightAP
India has agreed to buy a high-speed bullet train from Japan, in an attempt to transform its creaking rail system.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the train would link Mumbai and Ahmedabad, cutting travel time on the route from eight hours to two.
The deal was one of a raft of agreements reached after talks between the two sides in Delhi.
The leaders of Asia's second and third largest economies also announced other areas of co-operation.
These include working on defence technology, and agreeing a memorandum of understanding on the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
The latter agreement is expected to allow Japan to export nuclear plant technologies to India.
Last week Mr Modi's cabinet cleared the $14.7bn (£9.6bn) cost of building the bullet train system.
The agreements with Japan came during a three-day visit to India by the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, which began on Friday.
Both countries are in territorial disputes with China, and their new accords may be seen by some as a reaction against China's growing influence in the region.
Pakistan market bombing kills 15 people in Kurram
Image copyrightAFPImage captionMore than 40 people were injured in the explosion in a clothes market
At least 15 people have been killed by a bomb blast in a crowded market in a town in northwest Pakistan's Kurram tribal agency, near the Afghan border.
More than 40 people were hurt in the blast at the Eid Gah clothes market in the town of Parachinar.
TV images showed people fleeing over ground covered in clothes and debris.
No group has said it carried out the attack but a sectarian motive is suspected, as most people in Parachinar are from Pakistan's Shia minority.
Kurram has a history of sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni Muslims, and agreements to calm tensions between the communities have not been implemented.
Several Taliban-affiliated groups are known to be active in the region.
Violence in the country overall has fallen since the Pakistani army embarked on an offensive against the Taliban and other militants in the North Waziristan agency, bordering Kurram.
The head of Afghanistan’s main intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, resigned over policy disagreements with President Ashraf Ghani, laying bare divisions that have hindered efforts to fight the growing Taliban insurgency.
The resignation of Rahmatullah Nabil follows a series of setbacks in recent months including the fall of the northern city of Kunduz to the Taliban and a raid on Kandahar airport in the south on Tuesday in which 50 civilians, police and security personnel were killed.
Relations between Ghani and the NDS had been strained since at least the fall of Kunduz, which an inquiry last month blamed on poor leadership.
Later, Ghani dismissed some NDS officials including the provincial chief of the agency who he said had neglected their duty to defend Kunduz.
In the letter, Nabil said that over the past few months, there had been “a lack of agreement on some policy matters” and the president had imposed unacceptable conditions on his ability to do his job.
He said Ghani’s “repeated verbal summons” had put him under impossible pressure and forced his resignation.
The deputy spokesman for the president confirmed via Twitter that Ghani accepted his intelligence chief's resignation and is currently searching for an interim replacement.
Already without a permanent defence minister, due to disagreements between partners in Ghani’s national unity government, the country now has no spy chief.
The resignation raises fresh questions over the leadership of Afghanistan’s security apparatus, which has struggled to contain a Taliban insurgency that has gained momentum since international forces ended most combat operations last year.
The letter, a day after Ghani attended the Heart of Asia regional peace conference in Islamabad, also clouds prospects for a coordinated effort to resume peace talks including both the Taliban andPakistan that were broken off this year.
In an angrily worded post on Facebook that appeared before the resignation letter was made public, Nabil made clear his frustration with efforts to work with Pakistan, which many in Afghanistan accuse of controlling the Taliban.
The “red alert” issued by the city of Beijing on Tuesday over mass pollution has made many wonder if China can keep its pledge to curb its carbon emissions by the year 2030, but scientists say hitting the target is still possible.
It was the first time the smog-shrouded capital declared the highest pollution level on the four-tier system it adopted three years ago, and came while world leaders were hammering out a new global agreement to fight climate change in Paris.
The pollution peak, which forced authorities to shut schools and construction sites in the city of 21 million people, also highlighted China’s unflattering status as the world’s top polluter.
Asia’s economic powerhouse is being closely scrutinised at the COP 21 climate conference in the French capital, with many using Beijing’s “red alert” to argue it has to do more to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
The 2030 revolution
China, like India, faces the daunting task of establishing clear environmental objectives, while pursuing economic development targets that will raise the standard of living of millions of its citizens.
“The problems in Beijing are important, but the rest of the country must grow economically, which will result in an increase in carbon emissions,” Zhiyao Tang, an associate professor of environment at the University of Beijing, told FRANCE 24 on Tuesday.
Zhiyao is not part of the official delegation, but few know more about the quantities and rate of Chinese CO2 emissions than him. And one of the central commitments China adopted ahead of the COP 21 is a timetable for reducing gases that are responsible for global warming.
Indeed, Chinese leaders garnered worldwide praise by announcing last year that the country’s CO2 emissions would peak by 2030.
Zhiyao denies his studies are directly responsible for the historic emissions deadline.
“The group I work with on this issue is independent, but the government has been aware of our studies for the past several years” he said, insisting he did not know to what extent the Chinese government had drawn on his research to set the target.
2030 or 2023?
Zhiyao himself began studying the subject in the wake of the 2009 climate conference in Copenhagen that failed to produce a comprehensive international climate agreement. Since then, he and other colleagues have developed six emissions peak scenarios, grouping them in a study that was published in November of last year.
He contends that the government’s 2030 target is entirely realistic. In fact, a peak in emissions could even come sooner.
“If China receives financial and technological support from developed countries, the emissions peak could be reached before 2030,” the scientist said. One scenario published in the study calculated that China could reach its highest levels of CO2 output by 2026, and another as early as 2023.
While Zhiyao’s estimates may be heartening for the leaders gathered at the COP 21 and environmentalists around the world, he himself is careful about not crying victory too soon.
He pointed out that CO2 emissions will not plunge the year after the emissions peak is reached, be that 2031 or sooner. Instead, Zhiyao predicts they “will be stable for several years before they start to fall”.
Global warming has left millions of migrant workers in Gulf states increasingly worried that they might have to leave if the region becomes hotter, their leaders have said.
Some 1.5 million workers migrate from South Asia to the Gulf every year, according to the International Organization for Migration.
There is growing concern among mainly outdoor labourers that working conditions may become impossible in the future if the temperature continues to rise at its current rate.
A recent study said heat waves would make several places in the Gulf impossible for human survival if climate change was unchecked.
During the summer, the temperature in many parts of the Gulf already reaches 50C.
Soaring temperatures
For five months every year no outdoor work can be done during late mornings and early afternoons due to excessive heat, members of the migrant workers' community said.
"For outdoor labourers it would be a matter of life and death if temperatures continued to rise," said Maksud Alam, leader of the Nepalese migrant workers' community in Qatar.
"Under such circumstances people will be compelled to go back home but that would also mean losing jobs."
Image captionA Nepali shop assistant in Qatar who is working there to send money home
A leader of the Indian workers' community in the region, who did not want to be named, agreed.
"We come here with a mindset that it would be very hot but there will be a limit and we all are worried what happens when that point is crossed."
Money sent home by these workers mean a huge source of income for their countries.
Mr Alam said the issue of rising heat was discussed during a recent meeting of migrant workers' communities from different countries.
"The majority of the workers are not conscious of global warming or the ongoing Paris climate talks but they are well aware that the heat is going up and that is enough to keep them worried."
Impossible to live?
A recent study by scientists with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said several coastal cities in the Gulf would not be inhabitable because of unbearable heat if the global temperature continued to rise at its present rate.
"Our results expose a specific regional hotspot where climate change, in the absence of significant mitigation, is likely to severely impact human habitability in the future," the authors of the study wrote in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Image copyrightAP
The world is already nearly one degree Celsius warmer compared to the pre-industrial period.
Scientists say if the warming crosses two degrees, climate change impacts including sea level rise, droughts, heat waves, wildfires, floods, landslides, among others, will become uncontrollable.
West and Central Asia have observed between 0.4 and 2.5 degrees Celsius rise in temperature, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The UN scientific body has predicted temperatures to increase on average by 2 to 4 degrees Celsius by as early as 2046 in the region, with the most warming in the central areas including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.
The IPCC has also said that the highest daily maximum temperature in the region will increase by 4 to 7 degrees Celsius.
No official figures
Media reports quoting the Indian and Nepalese embassy in Qatar say at least 1,200 workers from the two countries have died in the Gulf state since 2010.
Image copyrightAPImage captionA construction boom followed Qatar's successful bid for the World Cup
How many of them died because of excessive heat is not known.
Leaders of workers communities say heart attacks caused by the high temperature are common.
"Headache and skin coming off are common problems I face working in the scorching sun," said Taleswar Sah from Nepal, who works as a goat shepherd in Qatar's desert area bordering Saudi Arabia.
"If it is already like this, we fear what might happen when the heat goes further up?"
Harun Rashid from India's Bihar state said tree plantations in recent years had helped a bit but the trend of temperature rise seemed to be undermining that solution.
"As a camel herder I spend most of my time in the desert and the rising heat frustrates me during summer time. And I am constantly thinking, 'will it mean I will have to go back?'"
Other members of the migrant workers community said the issue was even more pressing for those working in the construction sector.
"Those involved in scaffolding have more cases of heart attacks and fainting as they have to bear with more heat working higher from the ground," said a worker from Bangladesh who did not want to be named.
While migrant workers are increasingly concerned about the rising temperature, many of their host countries have been criticised for slowing the UN climate negotiations all these years, a charge they deny.
Since these countries are oil producers, there are allegations that they would block any deal that would keep their petroleum products in the ground.
Some of these countries, however, have embarked on development of renewable energies as well.
Qatar hosts 1.4 million migrant workers, with Nepalis and Indians accounting for 60% of this total.
It will host the 2022 World Cup and is ramping up its construction industry but was unavailable for comment at the Cop21 talks in Paris.
A Gulf official, who was not authorised to speak publicly, said the rising temperature was a global issue just like other climate change impacts such as floods and droughts.
"We are trying our best to achieve energy efficiency but this is a global challenge and everyone will have to take action," the official said.
