Dhoni at Defexpo, jumbo ‘water war’ in Thailand, and other news in pictures

India’s mega defence exhibition — the DefExpo — began at Thiruvidanthai, a suburb of Chennai, with the participation of major global and domestic military firms. The expo is being held between April 11 and 14. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to officially inaugurate it on April 12.

Elephant water battle heralds Thai new year

Visitors and elephants splash water at each other during a ceremony ahead of Songkran Festival of Thai New Year in Ayutthaya on April 11, 2018. The Buddhist new year festival officially starts on April 13 and runs for three days.   | Photo Credit: AFP

Elephants used their trunks to shower floral-clad Thais with water in a street fight celebrating the kingdom's traditional new year, a raucous festival known as Songkran that will bring revellers out for a nationwide water battle this week.

The animals, whose wrinkled hides were decorated with paint, splashed and sprayed in the streets of Thailand's former capital Ayutthaya, a tourist hotspot famed for its ancient temple ruins.

A mix of Thais and foreigners armed with water guns and buckets fired back at the elephants, who were controlled by mahouts riding on their backs.

The Buddhist new year festival officially starts on April 13 and runs for three days. 

Traditional celebrations include paying respect to elders and sprinkling water over Buddha figures at local temples, a ritual believed to accrue good karma.

But the holiday has also become known as one of the world's biggest water fights, drawing massive crowds of Thais and tourists to soggy street parties that bring much of the country to a standstill. 

Police expect some 60,000 partiers to cram into just one Bangkok neighbourhood for the watery warfare later this week.

Under military rule, Bangkok's Songkran water fights have become less raucous in recent years with alcohol sales restricted and regular appeals from authorities to avoid provocative dancing.

Similar but smaller water festivals are also held in neighbouring Buddhist countries like Myanmar and Laos.

Winnie Mandela’s funeral service

An African National Congress supporter arrives at a memorial service for Winnie Madikizela-Mandela at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg’s Soweto township in South Africa on April 11, 2018.   | Photo Credit: AP

Several thousand mourners gathered at Soweto’s Orlando Stadium for the official memorial service for anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who died on April 2 at the age of 81.

The death of Madikizela-Mandela, often called the “Mother of the Nation,” has triggered widespread soul-searching in South Africa over the legacy of one of the nation’s most important fighters against racial discrimination, yet who was dogged by scandal.

During the decades of imprisonment of her husband Nelson Mandela, Madikizela-Mandela helped keep the plight of the jailed political leader and the gross injustices of the apartheid system in the global spotlight, her own face and voice becoming synonymous with the anti-apartheid struggle.

In the week since her death in a Johannesburg hospital, there has been an outpouring of support for a woman whose fearlessness and defiance helped bring end to the apartheid system, but whose public image was also tarnished by controversy.

Wheat harvest

Farmers harvest wheat crop near Yamuna River, in New Delhi on Wednesday.   | Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma

Though the wheat harvest is taken up by some farmers along the Yamuna river in New Delhi,  moderate rains in parts of the key wheat-producing states of Punjab and Haryana could delay the harvest of wheat by at least a week, experts and officials said.

Landslip in Japan's Oita prefecture

Rescuers are searching for six people after an overnight landslide buried a small cluster of houses at the foot of a steep slope Wednesday April 11, 2018 in Nakatsu, Oita Prefecture, in southern Japan.   | Photo Credit: AP

Rescuers were searching Wednesday for six people after an overnight landslide buried a small cluster of houses at the foot of a steep slope in southern Japan.

The landslide, which occurred around 3-50 a.m., left six people missing and damaged four homes in Oita prefecture on Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands, Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.

Mohammed bin Salman at Elysee Palace

French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attend a press conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France.   | Photo Credit: REUTERS

France's President Emmanuel Macron took on critics of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday, saying it was too easy to criticise the young leader's haste to reform and urged detractors to give him time.

Prince Mohammed, who was ending a three-day tour of France on Tuesday, has won Western plaudits for seeking to reduce Saudi Arabia's reliance on oil, tackle chronic corruption and transform the deeply conservative, mainly Sunni Muslim kingdom.

Commonwealth Games - Day 7

Indian rhythmic gymnast Meghana Gundlapally competes using the ball at the the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games on Wednesday.   | Photo Credit: REUTERS

Day seven of the Games kicked off on a sunny morning with badminton preliminaries, shooting, lawn bowls and table tennis. While Indian boxing legend M. C. Mary Kom (48kg) advanced to the Commonwealth Games final with a comprehensive triumph over Sri Lanka’s Anusha Dilrukshi Koddithuwak, relay victories showcased Australian dominance.