Seven people were killed and dozens more injured in India on Saturday after clashes over local polls in West Bengal, a state notorious for political violence during election campaigns.
India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has in recent years worked hard to gain a toehold in West Bengal – ruled by a communist party for much of its history – to expand its reach beyond its Hindi-speaking northern heartlands.
Voters were casting their ballots in a fierce contest to elect municipal leaders, with more than 200,000 candidates across the state of 104 million people.
“Seven people have been killed and dozens wounded in poll-related violence in different villages across the state,” Jawed Shamim, additional director general of West Bengal's police force, said.
Another police official said five of the dead were from the state's ruling Trinamool Congress party.
The other two were affiliated with the BJP and West Bengal's Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Video aired by local broadcasters showed rival party workers roaming streets with batons, as well as ballot boxes being snatched and set alight outside polling stations.
There was a heavy security presence at voting centres, with paramilitary troops posted to keep order.
More than 200 crude bombs, a staple of West Bengal elections that are used to intimidate voters, were confiscated during the polls, police said.
West Bengal has been ruled by Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee since 2011, when her party defeated the Communist-led administration that had ruled the state for the prior three decades.
Ms Banerjee, a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has accused his Hindu nationalist BJP of attempting to import divisive sectarian politics into the state, which has a large Muslim minority.
Mr Modi has in turn accused her administration of endemic corruption.
But the roots of political violence in the state stretch back decades, with police recording thousands of murders around election time since the 1960s.
During state polls in 2021, which were won emphatically by Trinamool but with a strong BJP showing, several activists from both parties were shot or hacked to death, their bodies sometimes hung from trees as an intimidation tactic.
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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software
Publisher: Activision
Console: PlayStation 4 & 5, Windows, Xbox One & Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
FIXTURES
All kick-off times 10.45pm UAE ( 4 GMT)
Tuesday
Mairobr v Liverpool
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Feyenoord v Shakhtar Donetsk
Manchester City v Napoli
Monaco v Besiktas
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Wednesday
Benfica v Manchester United
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Bayern Munich v Celtic
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Qarabag v Atletico Madrid
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Barcelona v Olympiakos
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Uefa Champions League, last 16, first leg
Ajax v Real Madrid, midnight (Thursday), BeIN Sports
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Naga
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Cofe
Year started: 2018
Based: UAE
Employees: 80-100
Amount raised: $13m
Investors: KISP ventures, Cedar Mundi, Towell Holding International, Takamul Capital, Dividend Gate Capital, Nizar AlNusif Sons Holding, Arab Investment Company and Al Imtiaz Investment Group
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Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
The specs
Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
The specs
Engine: 2-litre 4-cylinder and 3.6-litre 6-cylinder
Power: 220 and 280 horsepower
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Transmission: eight-speed automatic
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TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
The biog
First Job: Abu Dhabi Department of Petroleum in 1974
Current role: Chairperson of Al Maskari Holding since 2008
Career high: Regularly cited on Forbes list of 100 most powerful Arab Businesswomen
Achievement: Helped establish Al Maskari Medical Centre in 1969 in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region
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The specs
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- On sale: 2026
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