Weeks after a Nicaragua-bound plane carrying Indians was grounded in France and later sent back to India, the Gujarat police have booked 14 agents on the charge of human trafficking for trying to send more than 60 persons from Gujarat to the US illegally via Mexico border, a senior official said.

'We have interesting leads on the agents. The roles of agents in this entire operation, who were doing what.'

'Our missions do not have any reliable data on the number of Indians staying or working illegally in foreign countries,' the MEA says.

More than 60 people from Gujarat on board the Nicaragua-bound plane, which was sent back from France over suspected human trafficking, had agreed to pay Rs 60 lakh to Rs 80 lakh to immigration agents, who promised to cross into the US illegally after reaching the Latin American country, officials said.

According to a senior state Crime Investigation Department official, those passengers included at least 60 from Gujarat, who have already reached their respective native places in the state.

The company said it has suspended the staffers and that it was part of the operation to unearth this crime.

The 25 passengers, who had applied for political asylum in France, were reportedly freed on Tuesday and five of them were taken into care of child welfare services being minors.

He said most of the passengers on the chartered plane that returned from France were from districts of Banaskantha, Patan, Mehsana and Anand.

The Nicaragua bound charter Legend Airlines Airbus A340 flight, that was grounded at Vatry airport in France for four days on suspicion of human trafficking, arrived in Mumbai on Tuesday, December 26, 2023.

According to French authorities, the plane had 276 passengers on board when it took off for Mumbai, as 25 persons, including two minors, had expressed the wish to apply for asylum and were still on French soil. Two others were held, produced before a judge and placed on assisted witness status, a French news channel said.

French authorities launched a judicial investigation into the conditions and purpose of the trip, with a unit specialising in organised crime investigating suspected human trafficking.

A Romanian aircraft carrying 275 passengers, mostly Indians, on Monday left for India four days after they were detained by the French authorities at an airport near Paris over suspected 'human trafficking'.

A plane carrying more than 300 passengers, mostly Indians, is expected to land at Mumbai airport early on Tuesday, three days after it was detained by French authorities over suspected human trafficking, a source said.

Four French judges earlier in the day began questioning the passengers detained by the French authorities at Vatry airport, 150 km east of Paris, since Thursday over suspected "human trafficking".

The plane that took off from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates carrying 303 Indian passengers, including many minors, was grounded at the Chalons-Vatry airport in Marne on Thursday.

The Indian embassy in France has reached and obtained consular access.

What makes this edition of the contest important were a few more events that happened for the first time at Miss Universe.

This comes after the Hamas attack on Israel in which more than 1,400 Israelis were killed, mostly in the initial Hamas attack. In addition, 203 people were believed captured by Hamas during the incursion and taken into Gaza, the Israeli military has said.

The Democrats, especially the Biden administration, wanted to deliver a sharper message to Mr Modi than would be possible in a formal summit setting. So, why not get the most prominent Democrat in decades to deliver it?, explains Shekhar Gupta.

China on Thursday said Beijing views the BRICS as an "open and inclusive" platform and it backs moves to expand the five-member grouping with "like-minded partners".

The Modi government finds itself in a contradiction of its own making. It has encouraged pro-Russian, Westophobic public sentiment while setting strategic policy that's exactly the opposite, points out Shekhar Gupta.

Iran was ousted from the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women on Wednesday evening in the wake of the Mahsa Amini protest.

Significantly, for the first time, the FATF put Myanmar in the "high risk jurisdictions subject to a call for action", often referred to as the watchdog's black list.

The 193-member general assembly voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to condemn Russia's "illegal so-called referendums in regions within the internationally recognised borders of Ukraine and the attempted illegal annexation of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, following the organisation of the above-mentioned referendums".

The exercise from September 1 to 7 is taking place at different locations in Russia's Far East amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Russia said on Monday that the Vostok 2022 military exercises will be held from September 1 to 7 in different locations in the Far East and the Sea of Japan and involve more than 50,000 troops from China, India and several other countries.

A beautiful documentary from Delhi. A shocking satire that spares no one. A thriller about a serial killer in Iran. A Pakistan film about family secrets... Aseem Chhabra lists the best films he saw in Cannes.

India in the past rejected similar reports.

Glimpses of Valentine's Day 2022 being celebrated across the planet.

The results for the People's Choice Award for the Wildlife Photographer Of The Year are in.

The next 12 months will see many world cinema heavyweights unveiling exciting new films.

While the Indian government has been procuring Covid-19 vaccines at low prices so far, manufacturers have to declare the prices of vaccines they would supply to the open market (industries, private hospitals, etc) and state governments before May 1. Sohini Das reports.

The Hyderabad-based manufacturer uses a proprietary adjuvant Algel-IMDG, which has now proven to be a safe and effective adjuvant, especially to stimulate memory T cell responses.

Scotland Yard's War Crimes Team, which is part of its Counter-Terrorism Command, has launched an investigation into the role of British mercenaries in fighting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels in Sri Lanka during the 1980s.

The data, released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), shows that 65 out of 75 countries studied significantly reduced their multidimensional poverty levels between 2000 and 2019.

The coronavirus crisis could hit soccer's international calendar for "two to three years" and potentially affect the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Lars-Christer Olsson, an executive committee member of European soccer's governing body UEFA has said. The novel coronavirus, which has infected over 3.13 million people globally causing more than 218,000 deaths, has wreaked havoc on the soccer schedule with Euro 2020 postponed to 2021 and national leagues and continental club competitions on hold.

Professional athletes across the world should not be rushed back to action once the coronavirus pandemic subsides, and they must have a strong say in determining the conditions for their return, the World Players Association said on Tuesday. Sports competitions around the world have come to a screeching halt this year as the virus spreads across the globe, starving clubs, leagues and federations of revenues and putting tens of thousands of professional athletes on hold.

Will the fans rush back to the stadium once sport resumes? Will training abroad be as hassle-free as it used to be? What about contact sports where social distancing can't really be practised? Some of India's biggest sportspersons -- current and former -- gave their views on future of sports once the action resumes.

The Italian federation (FIGC) is determined to complete the season and its president Gabriele Gravina has been presenting new ideas on an almost daily basis of how that can be done. Meanwhile, Turkmenistan in Central Asia is set to resume its soccer season with spectators at the weekend, making it only the second country in the world to let fans attend matches as the new coronavirus shuts down almost all of world football.

The Right to Read programme hopes to cover 100,000 schools, covering 15 million students.