Feb 15 News Live: India right place to host AI summit, says UN Chief Guterres

Probe into Ahmedabad air crash still underway: Mohol

Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol has refuted a foreign media report about the probe into the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad last year, stating that the investigation is still going on.

An Italian daily had claimed that agencies probing the crash blamed the pilots in their report.

"I just want to inform you all that our investigation agencies are probing the matter. Should we have faith in our own agencies or outsiders? Our agencies are working on it," Mohol said here on Saturday. "Once the final report is finalised, then only it will be justifiable to comment on it," he added.

In one of the worst aircraft accidents in India, a total of 260 persons, including 241 passengers, died after Air India's Boeing 787-8 aircraft operating flight AI171 to London Gatwick crashed soon after take-off from Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025.

On Thursday, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said the probe was still in progress and no final conclusions have been reached. It said media reports suggesting that the investigation into the accident has been finalised are "incorrect and speculative". 

BJP MLA demands forensic test of Karnataka CM's signature amid fake note row

A day after police registered a case over a fake note purportedly issued from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) in Karnataka, BJP MLA V Sunil Kumar escalated his attack on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday, demanding a forensic probe into the document and questioning the CMO's functioning.

Police registered the case against an unidentified person on Friday, following a complaint from the CMO over the circulation on social media of the fake note, which falsely claimed that a district health and family welfare officer in Mandya was posted as the deputy commissioner of excise in Mysuru.

The case was lodged at the Vidhana Soudha police station under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) provisions relating to forgery and the use of forged documents. The CMO has alleged that the act was carried out with malicious intent to bring disrepute to the chief minister and the Congress government in the southern state.

"If the letter bearing the Chief Minister's signature itself is fake, should we not reflect on how the Chief Minister's Office is functioning?" Kumar asked in a post on X a day after the case was filed. The BJP MLA from Karkala said the controversy raises serious questions on administrative oversight.

Zelenskyy says questions remain for allies over security guarantees for Ukraine

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked his international allies for their support but suggested there was still questions remaining over the future security guarantees for his country.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday, Zelenskyy repeatedly thanked American and European allies for helping Ukraine by providing air defence systems that protect infrastructure like power plants and "save lives".

Previous US-led efforts to find consensus on ending the war, most recently two rounds of talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, have failed to resolve difficult issues, such as the future of Ukraine's Donbas industrial heartland that is largely occupied by Russian forces.

Later with reporters, Zelenskyy questioned how the concept of a free trade zone — proposed by the US — would work in the Donbas region which Russia insists Kyiv must give up in order to get peace. He also said the Americans want peace as quickly as possible and that US team wants to sign all the agreements on Ukraine at the same time whereas Ukraine wants guarantees over the country's future security signed first.

European nations, including the UK and France, have already said they will commit troops to Ukraine to guarantee its future security. The US is also expected to be involved and discussions are currently ongoing about the nature of America's support.

Four new astronauts arrive at International Space Station to replace NASA's evacuated crew

The International Space Station has returned to full strength with the arrival of four new astronauts to replace colleagues who bailed early because of health concerns.

SpaceX delivered the US, French and Russian astronauts on Saturday, a day after launching them from Cape Canaveral.

Last month's medical evacuation was NASA's first in 65 years of human spaceflight. One of four astronauts launched by SpaceX last summer suffered what officials described as a serious health issue, prompting their hasty return. That left only three crew members to keep the place running — one American and two Russians — prompting NASA to pause spacewalks and trim research.

Moving in for eight to nine months are NASA's Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, France's Sophie Adenot and Russia's Andrei Fedyaev. Meir, a marine biologist, and Fedyaev, a former military pilot, have lived up there before. During her first station visit in 2019, Meir took part in the first all-female spacewalk.

At least 6,000 killed over 3 days during RSF attack on Sudan's el-Fasher, UN says

More than 6,000 people were killed in over three days when a Sudanese paramilitary group unleashed “a wave of intense violence … shocking in its scale and brutality” in Sudan's Darfur region in late October, according to the United Nations.

The Rapid Support Forces' offensive to capture the city of el-Fasher included widespread atrocities that amount to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, the UN Human Rights Office said in a report released on Friday.

“The wanton violations that were perpetrated by the RSF and allied Arab militia in the final offensive on el-Fasher underscore that persistent impunity fuels continued cycles of violence,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.

The RSF and their allied Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, overran el-Fasher, the Sudanese army's only remaining stronghold in Darfur, on Oct. 26 and rampaged through the city and its surroundings after more than 18 months of siege.

The 29-page UN report detailed a set of atrocities that ranged from mass killings and summary executions, sexual violence, abductions for ransom, torture and ill-treatment to detention and disappearances. In many cases, the attacks were ethnicity-motivated, it said.

US, Iran to hold new round of nuclear talks in Geneva, says Swiss govt

Iran and the United States will hold a second round of talks over Tehran's nuclear programme next week, the Swiss Foreign Ministry has said.

Oman, which welcomed the first round of indirect talks on February 6, will host the talks in Geneva, the Swiss ministry said on Saturday, without specifying which days. After the first discussions, US President Donald Trump warned Tehran that failure to reach an agreement with his administration would be "very traumatic".

Similar talks last year broke down in June as Israel launched what became a 12-day war on Iran that included the US bombing Iranian nuclear sites. Trump has repeatedly threatened to use force to compel Iran to agree to constrain its nuclear programme. Iran has said it would respond with an attack of its own. Trump also has threatened Iran over its deadly crackdown on recent nationwide protests there.

Gulf Arab nations have warned any attack could spiral into another regional conflict. Trump said Friday the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world's largest aircraft carrier, was being sent from the Caribbean to the Mideast to join other military assets the US has built up in the region. He also said a change in power in Iran "would be the best thing that could happen".