BBC -An Indian man accused of plotting to kill a Sikh separatist leader in New York City has pleaded guilty to three criminal charges in a federal court.

Nikhil Gupta, 54, admitted to murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He faces up to 40 years in prison.

The target of the alleged plot, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, is a US citizen who advocates for Khalistan. The Khalistan movement calls for an independent homeland for Sikhs in India.

Prosecutors allege Gupta was directed by an Indian government official to carry out the plot. India denies having anything to do with the alleged plot to kill Pannun.

“Nikhil Gupta plotted to assassinate a US citizen in New York City,” said US attorney Jay Clayton.

“He thought that from outside this country he could kill someone in it without consequence, simply for exercising their American right to free speech. But he was wrong, and he will face justice.”

Pannun said in a statement to the BBC that “Nikhil Gupta’s guilty plea was judicial confirmation that India’s Modi government orchestrated a structured murder-for-hire assassination plot on American soil”.

India has labelled Pannun a terrorist, though he denies this, stressing he is merely an activist.

Sikhs are a religious minority that make up about 2% of India’s population. Some groups have long called for a separate homeland for Sikhs.

The movement is not prominent in India now with most major political parties, including in Punjab – where Sikhs make up the majority of the population – opposing such calls. But supporters in the Sikh diaspora have continued to advocate for Khalistan.

Prosecutors alleged that Gupta was recruited by an Indian government employee in May 2023, adding that the pair met in Delhi to discuss the potential assassination.

The officer, Vikash Yadav, worked for Indian government’s Cabinet Secretariat, which houses India’s foreign intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing, according to the indictment.

Yadav has not been arrested in connection to the charges.

The indictment alleged that, at Yadav’s orders, Gupta contacted a man to hire someone to carry out the killing in New York.

The man, a government informant, introduced Gupta to a second person who presented himself as a hitman but who was actually an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration officer, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors alleged that Yadav gave Gupta information about the murder target, including his home address in New York and his phone numbers, which Gupta then fed to the purported hitman.

The target was an associate of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, also active in the Sikh separatist movement, who was murdered by a masked gunman in Canada in June.

Shortly after Nijjar’s murder, Gupta allegedly told the purported hitman that Nijjar was “also the target”, adding “we have so many targets”, prosecutors said.

Canada then accused India of being linked to both Nijjar’s murder and to the murder plot against Pannun. India denied any involvement in both cases.

Beijing’s scrapping of tariffs for all but one African country will start May 1, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Saturday, according to state media.

China already has a zero-tariff policy for imports from 33 African countries, but Beijing said last year it would extend the policy to all 53 of its diplomatic partners on the continent.

China is Africa’s largest trading partner and a key backer of major infrastructure projects in the region through its vast “Belt and Road” initiative.

From May 1, zero levies will apply to all African countries except Eswatini, which maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

China claims the democratic island as its own and does not rule out using force to take it.

Many African countries are increasingly looking to China and other trading partners since US President Donald Trump imposed steep tariffs worldwide last year.

Xi said the zero-tariff deal “will undoubtedly provide new opportunities for African development”, announcing the date as leaders across the continent gathered in Ethiopia for the annual African Union summit.

BBC -A British couple detained by the Taliban in Afghanistan for seven-and-a-half months have described a “huge culture shock” after returning to the UK.

Peter, 80, and his wife Barbie Reynolds, 76, said they were never told why they were being held, nor why they were released in September.

The couple, who have run a charity programme in Afghanistan for almost two decades, told BBC Newsnight the last five months in the UK have been “totally different”.

“What we’ve been through changes us. What we’ve been through in the last, well decades, but also obviously last year, it reshapes you,” said Barbie.

“You think differently and you see things differently than we did when we used to live here before.”

While living in their long-term home in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan province, Barbie said she wore a Hijab at all times and was not allowed out in public without her husband.

“The freedom here is very striking; people are free to wear what they want, go where they want,” she said.

They were arrested on 1 February 2025 after taking a chartered flight from Kabul to Bamiyan province, along with friend Faye Hall and their translator who were later released.

The Taliban said the pair had broken Afghan laws and were released after judicial proceedings – but has never disclosed the reason for their detention.

They were released through Qatari mediation but Peter said the reason for their detention was “a complete mystery”.

The couple, who married in Kabul in 1970, previously said they were detained in 10 different prisons and at one point thought they would be executed.

“I wasn’t sure whether Barbie was alive,” Peter said.

Barbie said she shared a prison block with 240 women but there were “many more blocks with women, with 40 children”.

“It was cramped, there were about seven toilets for that number of people. They tried to fix the showers but they broke again and the drains were always overflowing,” she said.

During Ramadan, Barbie had one meal a day but after Ramadan, they were given the same amount of food but just divided at lunchtime and dinner.

“I became very malnourished and I got anaemia – Peter said I aged 20 years when I next saw him,” she said.

“Sometimes I could hardly walk and I became really quite poorly.”

Taliban officials maintained the pair received adequate medical care during their detention and that their human rights were respected.

One of the prisons Peter and Barbie were held in was Pul-e-Charkhi, a notorious maximum security prison outside Kabul that is home to some of the most dangerous criminals.

At one point they were held in basement cells with no windows for two months. For the final weeks of their detention they were moved above ground, where they say they had access to better food and were treated with kindness.

Peter said he was “shocked” when he saw Barbie after months apart.

“She was no longer a 76-year-old, she was in her 90s,” he said, adding that his wife was unable to steady herself to walk.

They previously said they wished to “hug” the people who decided to jail them and forgive them.

“I’d want them to know I’m not holding a grudge against them,” Peter said.

He added that he would love still to work with the government of Afghanistan “for the good of the people of the country”.

They sent a message to Craig and Lindsay Foreman, who were arrested and detained in Iran in January 2025.

“Hang in there, don’t lose your hope,” said Barbie.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was killed using a poison developed from a dart frog toxin, the UK and European allies have said.

Two years on from the death of Navalny at a Siberian penal colony, Britain and its allies have blamed the Kremlin following analysis of material samples found on his body.

There is no innocent explanation for the toxin, called epibatidine, being found in samples taken from Navalny’s body, the UK Foreign Office said.

Speaking from the Munich Security Conference, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Only the Russian government had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin against Alexei Navalny during his imprisonment in Russia.”

While Cooper announced the findings, a joint statement was issued by the UK, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Cooper met with Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya at the conference this weekend.

“Russia saw Navalny as a threat,” Cooper said at the event.

“By using this form of poison the Russian state demonstrated the despicable tools it has at its disposal and the overwhelming fear it has of political opposition,” she added.

In the statement the allies said: “Only the Russian state had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin to target Navalny during his imprisonment in a Russian penal colony in Siberia, and we hold it responsible for his death.

“Epibatidine can be found naturally in dart frogs in the wild in South America. Dart frogs in captivity do not produce this toxin and it is not found naturally in Russia.

“There is no innocent explanation for its presence in Navalny’s body.”

The Foreign Office said the UK has informed the Organisation on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons of Russia’s alleged breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said his country “pays tribute” to Navalny, who he said was “killed for his fight in favour of a free and democratic Russia”.

Navalny – an anti-corruption campaigner and Russia’s most vociferous opposition leader – died suddenly in jail on 16 February 2024 at the age of 47.

In 2020 he was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. He underwent treatment in Germany, and was arrested at the airport upon his return to Russia.