our south asia regional editor, anbarasan ethirajan, in delhi, has more. attacks on christmas day, they are unthinkable 20 years ago, but since 2014 after the bjp came to power, the hindu nationalist party, christian organisations say attacks against them have doubled. we have seen prayer halls being attacked, churches that are literally being burned, and also some of the pastors are being attacked by hindu right wing youths. this is all happening for the past few years and putting this community in fear, they fear that they this community in fear they fear that they are being persecuted. christians are a religious minority in india, about 2%, or 30 million people, but they have remained at the sidelines when you compare them with the other biggest religious minority, muslims. they feel the attacks are increasing, but the government denies
that there is an orchestrated campaign against the christians, but many people would complain that the police officers are not taking enough action as and when these christian places of worship are being targeted. it is not only about the christians. the way the hindu right wing people have started using hate speech that shocked many people. for example, a week ago in the conclave of religious leaders, hindu saints and some of the people linked to the governing bjp, they were calling for open violence against muslims. and in fact, they gave interviews for television channels afterwards standing by the statement. and this was again quite unprecedented, the level of hate speech against religious minorities. that s why many newspapers have been calling on the government, including the prime minister, narendra modi, to come out and openly condemn these incidents. otherwise the level of intolerance, the level of religious otherwise, the level of intolerance, the level of religious hatred wi
disaster officials warn it may take until february to restore all electricity supplies. tens of thousands of homes were damaged and there s still a lack of food and clean water. 378 people are now known to have been killed by the typhoon, and about 60 are still missing. a man who was arrested within the grounds of windsor castle on christmas day, while in possession of a crossbow, has been detained under the mental health act. the man entered the grounds but was not able to get into any buildings due to security. the 19 year old man from southampton was arrested on suspicion of breach or trespass of a protected site and possession of an offensive weapon. police in northern india have launched an investigation after a statue ofjesus was vandalised at the entrance of a colonial era church. the incident in the holy redeemer church in ambala city is the latest in a series of such attacks in recent months. newspaper editorials have urged the leaders of the governing hindu nationalist bjp to
of a second volcanic eruption. more than 30 people are known to have died when the nyiragongo volcano first erupted at the weekend. election officials in syria have announced that president bashar al assad has won a fourth term in office with 95.1% of votes cast in wednesday s polls. the election is the second such vote since the start of syria s conflict. it s already been dismissed by western diplomats as neither free nor fair. three men who assisted the perpetrators ofjihadist terrorist attacks in and around barcelona that killed 16 people in 2017 have beenjailed in spain. two of the group were handed sentences of 53 and 46 years, while a third man was given an eight yearjail term. twitter says it s worried about the safety of its staff in india. the company has been coming under pressure after it put a manipulated media label on a tweet by a spokesperson from the governing bjp.