The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh says it will build the world’s tallest statue, weeks after the current record holder – an 182-metre likeness of founding father Sardar Patel – was completed in another part of the country.

If constructed, the 221m-high effigy of the Hindu god Ram in the town of Ayodhya could make India home to the world’s three tallest statues, with a 212-metre likeness of the medieval ruler Shivaji also currently under construction off the coast of Mumbai. Plans for the bronze Ram statue were unveiled over the weekend, with five construction firms giving presentations to the the state’s chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, a firebrand Hindu monk accused of instigating violence against’s the state’s Muslim minority.

Ayodhya has been considered a crucible for the Hindu nationalist movement since 1992, when thousands of adherents stormed a Mughal-era mosque in the town and demolished it, believing it was built at the site where Ram was born, and where an ancient Hindu temple had been torn down by earlier Muslim rulers.(theguardian)…[+]

Emmanuel Macron has said the “battle scenes” in central Paris between police and protesters over the weekend risked unnerving foreigners.

The French president told ministers at a cabinet meeting on Monday that the government must respond after images were relayed around the world of police firing teargas and water cannon at protesters who set up barricades, lit fires and smashed restaurants and shopfronts on the Champs-Élysées. France was still clearing up on Monday after the clashes, which were sparked by anger over fuel tax rises. The clean-up operation continued along what France calls the “most beautiful avenue in the world”, as city authorities mobilised 200 extra workers to repair the damage to streets and buildings.

Shopkeepers whose windows were smashed and tagged with graffiti during what was supposed to be a peaceful demonstration by the gilets jaunes (yellow vests), had been hoping for a busy weekend after the Champs-Élysées’s celebrated Christmas lights were turned on last week.(theguardian)…[+]

Relatives of a woman locked up in a Syrian prison for just under a year wants the state to assist in having her repatriated. Adill Ramirez, who last communicated with his mother, Summer Ramirez in January last year spoke with Sunday Newsday after receiving a letter from her on Thursday. Ramirez said that the letter is penned in his mother’s handwriting. He said his mother was held trying to cross into to Syria trying to make her way back home.

Both Ramirez and her husband Chris Lewis left TT in 2014 supposedly to fulfill their religious obligation and take part in the holy pilgrimage of Hajj in Saudi Arabia. Ramirez said after performing Hajj and their sins forgiven, the couple wanted to remain in an Islamic country, Ramirez told Sunday Newsday. He said as a Muslim his mother had to obey her husband, who he said had militant views and wanted to fight for his beliefs.(Trinidad Newsday)…[+]