Dozens of schools in Delhi get bomb threats – report

Dozens of schools in Delhi get bomb threats – report
Above, parents collect their children from a New Delhi school. At least 40 schools received a bomb threat by email in Delhi on Monday demanding $30,000, ANI news agency said. (AFP file photo)
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Updated 09 December 2024
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Dozens of schools in Delhi get bomb threats – report

Dozens of schools in Delhi get bomb threats – report
  • Schools, railway stations and airports this year have been subject to hundreds of bomb threats, which have later turned out to be hoaxes
  • Airlines and airports in India received 999 hoax bomb threats from the start of the year until mid-November

NEW DELHI: At least 40 schools received a bomb threat by email in Delhi on Monday demanding $30,000, ANI news agency said, while police officials conducted initial searches on school premises.
Schools, railway stations and airports this year have been subject to hundreds of bomb threats, which have later turned out to be hoaxes.
Airlines and airports in India received 999 hoax bomb threats from the start of the year until mid-November, and 12 people had been arrested during the same period, government data shows.
Two schools got the threatening email on Sunday night, which said multiple bombs were planted inside buildings and would be detonated if the sender was not paid $30,000, according to ANI.
Many other schools received the emails on Monday morning, prompting school authorities to call parents to take the students home for the day.
Parents were seen picking their children up from the gates of some schools as police checked school premises for suspicious items.
Police officials in Delhi did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
In May, more than 50 schools in Delhi and the adjoining suburb of Noida received similar bomb threat emails that turned out to be hoaxes.


Peru declares Mexican president persona non grata over asylum spat

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Peru declares Mexican president persona non grata over asylum spat

Peru declares Mexican president persona non grata over asylum spat
LIMA: Peru’s Congress voted to declare Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum persona non grata on Thursday, after her country granted asylum to a former Peruvian prime minister on trial for allegedly aiding a 2022 coup attempt.
The two Latin American countries have had strained diplomatic relations for years, but tensions rose on Monday when Mexico granted asylum to ex-PM Betssy Chavez, prompting Peru to break off formal ties.
Chavez was Peru’s prime minister in December 2022 when then-president Pedro Castillo was ousted for trying to dissolve Congress following a months-long standoff.
The declaration against Sheinbaum was passed on Thursday in a 63-33 vote by Peru’s Congress, which also recently removed Castillo’s highly unpopular successor, Dina Boluarte.
Fernando Rospigliosi, the right-wing acting Congress president, said “it has been clearly established” that Sheinbaum interfered in Peru’s affair, “not only in words” but also by granting Chavez asylum.
Socialist lawmaker Jaime Quito meanwhile criticized the measure, saying “once again, they are making an international embarrassment by breaking relations with our sister country Mexico.”
Following the breakdown in diplomatic relations, interim president Jose Jeri announced on Monday night that Mexico’s top diplomat in Peru had been given a “strict deadline to leave.”
Relations between Lima and Mexico deteriorated sharply over the ouster of Castillo, a former rural schoolteacher and trade unionist dubbed Peru’s “first poor president.”
Back in December 2022 Castillo was on his way to the Mexican embassy in Lima to request asylum together with his family when he was arrested and charged with rebellion and abuse of authority.
Chavez was charged alongside him, and the pair went on trial in March.
While Castillo has been in preventive custody since his impeachment, Chavez was released on bail.
She has taken up asylum at the Mexican ambassador’s residence as Peru’s Foreign Ministry evaluates a request for safe passage to Mexico.
Prosecutors had sought a 25-year term for Chavez for allegedly participating in Castillo’s plan.
They have sought a 34-year sentence for Castillo.