Category Archives: South and Central Asia

RoboDoc: how India’s robots are taking on Covid patient care

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The pandemic has spurred on robotics companies building machines to perform tasks in hospitals and other industries

Standing just 5ft tall, Mitra navigates around the hospital wards, guided by facial recognition technology and with a chest-mounted tablet that allows patients and their loved ones to see each other.

Developed in recent years by the Bengaluru startup Invento Robotics, Mitra costs around $13,600 (£10,000) and – due to the reduced risk of infection to doctors – has become hugely popular in Indian hospitals during the pandemic.

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‘Moving mountains’: How Pakistan’s ‘invisible’ women won workers’ rights

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Home workers in Sindh province are celebrating new social security benefits, after being denied lockdown funding

Shamim Bano has been an invisible worker for 40 years. Working 12-hour days from home as a “cropper” in the port city of Karachi, she cuts the loose threads off clothing and makes samosas to sell at schools.

Bano is paid about 25 Pakistani rupees (£0.10) a day. It’s a precarious existence for Pakistan’s home-based workers, without access to social security benefits or pensions. Most of these informal workers are women.

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Photo reveals Australian soldier drinking beer out of dead Taliban fighter’s prosthetic leg

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Exclusive: Image obtained by Guardian Australia shows limb being used to down drinks in a special forces bar in Afghanistan

Senior Australian special forces soldiers drank beer out of the prosthetic leg of a dead Taliban soldier at an unauthorised bar in Afghanistan – with a photograph of the act being revealed for the first time by Guardian Australia.

A number of photographs obtained by the Guardian show one senior soldier – who is still serving – sculling from the leg in an unofficial bar known as the Fat Lady’s Arms, which was set up inside Australia’s special forces base in Tarin Kowt, the capital of Uruzgan province, in 2009.

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Cher greets ‘world’s loneliest elephant’ in Cambodia

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US star joined campaign for Kaavan to be moved from Islamabad zoo accused of substandard care

An elephant described as the “world’s loneliest” has landed in Cambodia after a seven-hour flight from Pakistan, receiving a warm welcome from Cher, who will accompany him to a sanctuary housing potential mates.

The case of Kaavan – an overweight, 36-year-old bull elephant – prompted global uproar from animal rights groups, who petitioned for him to be moved from an Islamabad zoo accused of substandard care and conditions.

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BBC’s A Suitable Boy rankles ‘love jihad’ conspiracy theorists in India

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BJP reaction to depiction of Hindu-Muslim romance follows recent rows over interfaith marriages

When the BBC’s adaptation of Vikram’s Seth’s novel A Suitable Boy recently landed on Indian Netflix it did not take long for the fanfare to turn to controversy.

The series, it was claimed by politicians from the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), had “hurt religious sentiments” of Hindus by depicting the lead character, a Hindu girl called Lata, passionately kissing a Muslim boy against the backdrop of a temple.

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‘I want to give what I never had’: the trans mum taking in abandoned children in India

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Manisha was shunned as a child by her family and ended up on the streets – now she dreams of opening an orphanage

When Manisha walks into her rented room, crestfallen at having earned little money at work, her children rush to the door and cluster around, welcoming her with hugs. “When I feel their arms around me, my worries just melt away,” she says.

Manisha, a transgender woman who goes by only one name, is not their biological mother. She has taken in eight abandoned children over the years and now, aged 35, looks after six, two having recently left to get married.

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The Indian school where students pay for lessons with plastic waste

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Villagers once burned the toxic waste as fuel, but a pioneering couple’s radical education model uses it much more creatively

Every morning, students in Assam’s Pamohi village go to school clutching a bag of plastic waste, in exchange for which they will get their day’s lessons.

Akshar School, founded by Mazin Mukhtar, 32, and his wife Parmita Sarma, 30, has turned its pupils into ecowarriors by waiving school fees and helping to stop local people burning used plastic.

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Afghanistan: footage shows aftermath of rocket strikes in Kabul – video

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Several rockets hit residential areas of the Afghan capital in the early rush hour on Saturday, killing at least three civilians and wounding a dozen more, police officials said. The explosions, close to the diplomatic quarter, set embassies' warning sirens blaring two days before a major donor conference for Afghanistan in Geneva

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Wealthy nations urged to give portion of Covid vaccine as ‘humanitarian buffer’

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Stockpile sought for use in rebel-held territories, asylum camps and for others unlikely to receive vaccinations

Public health groups are lobbying countries to commit a portion of their Covid-19 vaccine supplies to a “humanitarian buffer” that would be used to inoculate people living in rebel-held territories, those in asylum-seeker camps and others unlikely to receive vaccinations from their governments.

The emergency stockpile is intended to act as a safety net to ensure the global effort to end the Covid-19 pandemic is not sabotaged by governments using vaccines as bargaining chip with restive populations, or simply denying it to some marginalised groups.

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Fishermen fear Pakistan’s new ‘city for the elite’ will end their way of life

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A proposed island megacity off Karachi puts precious wetlands – and the millions of jobs that depend on them – at risk

On the island of Bundal, off Pakistan’s Arabian Sea coast, people gather in their thousands, as they have done for decades, to honour their saint, Baba Yousaf Shah.

As the sun shines on the festivities around the shrine, colourful flags flutter energetically as the air fills with the vibrant clamour of music, singing and feasting.

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Australian special forces involved in murder of 39 Afghan civilians, war crimes report alleges

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Brereton report finds prisoners were executed to ‘blood’ junior soldiers and unlawful killings were deliberately covered up

Australian special forces were allegedly involved in the murder of 39 Afghan civilians, in some cases executing prisoners to “blood” junior soldiers before inventing cover stories and planting weapons on corpses, a major report has found.

For more than four years, the Maj Gen Justice Paul Brereton has investigated allegations that a small group within the elite Special Air Services and commandos regiments killed and brutalised Afghan civilians, in some cases allegedly slitting throats, gloating about their actions, keeping kill counts, and photographing bodies with planted phones and weapons to justify their actions.

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Trump withdrawal plan could tip Afghanistan towards more violence

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Attacks up since September amid fears Taliban biding their time until US forces leave

Donald Trump’s plan for a swift withdrawal of over half the US troops in Afghanistan comes at a dangerous time for a country officially in peace talks, but grappling with escalating bloodshed and shrinking financial support from foreign donors.

Attacks are up by 50% since negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban began in September, a recent US government report found, above average levels for this time of year.

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Father faces criminal charge over son’s death in migrant boat tragedy

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Afghan asylum seeker accused of endangering six-year-old’s life after family tried to reach Greek island of Samos from Turkey

The father of a six-year-old who died trying to reach the Greek island of Samos from the Turkish coast has been charged by Greek authorities with endangering his son’s life.

Abdul*, 25, from Afghanistan, faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty. The cause of his son’s death has not been confirmed.

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From concrete to jungle: cartoonist puts Mumbai’s wildlife on the map

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The Indian city is home to 20 million people but is also a place rich in biodiversity, with flamingos, leopards and black kites among its flora and fauna

An Indian Ocean humpback dolphin swims beneath an Indo-Pacific octopus close to the coast, a gargantuan atlas moth flutters above Sanjay Gandhi national park, while an Asian palm civet shins up a tree near Vasai Creek and a black kite soars over a banyan tree. All are part of a vibrant new map of Mumbai that showcases the Indian city’s rich biodiversity.

“Most people only think of Mumbai as a concrete jungle, with skyscrapers, slums and beach promenades, but scratch beneath the surface, and you will find a place of rich biodiversity,” says Rohan Chakravarty, an award-winning wildlife cartoonist from Nagpur famous for cartoons that deal with the environment, conservation and wildlife, and creator of the Mumbai map.

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Aung San Suu Kyi’s party returns to power in Myanmar

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Election result is likely to further entrench divisions within the country, particularly resentment within minority communities

Aung San Suu Kyi’s party will return to power for another five year term after securing a widely predicted victory in what is the country’s second general election since the end of full military rule.

According to the Union Election Commission, Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy has won 346 of the 412 seats declared so far, a result driven by her continued status as an icon of democracy in the country – despite international outrage at her treatment of the Rohingya.

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‘Great expectations’: how world leaders reacted to Biden and Harris’s election win – video

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Most world leaders rushed to congratulate Joe Biden on his election on Twitter, and spoke of 'hope' and 'expectation' in later statements.

Biden’s key foreign policy priorities are cooperation in the fight against coronavirus, a commitment to rejoin the UN Paris climate agreement and, more broadly, to promise a change in tone toward traditional US allies. 

Russia and China are yet to congratulate the president-elect, as the outgoing president, Donald Trump, is yet to concede defeat

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Popa scoop: 100-year old monkey faeces reveals new species in Myanmar

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Popa Langur, numbering only 200-250 in the wild and at risk of extinction, was genetically identified from London museum sample

In a rare find, scientists have identified a new species of primate, a lithe tree-dweller living in the forests of central Myanmar with a mask-like face framed by a shock of unruly grey hair.

The Popa langur – named for an extinct volcano home to its largest population, some 100 individuals – has been around for at least a million years, according to a study detailing the find, published on Wednesday in Zoological Research.

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Lessons via loudspeaker: the students studying across India’s digital divide

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How do you learn from home without a laptop? Teachers are getting creative, but the pandemic remains a vast challenge

Vemula Deena lives in one of the tin huts strung along a narrow lane in the heart of Vijayawada, the business capital of Andhra Pradesh, in the south-east of India. Her parents are construction labourers. Vemula is 13 and wants to be a politician, enamoured of the spotless white kurta-pyjamas they wear and their public speaking.

But her school has closed its doors in the face of the Covid pandemic and gone online, effectively shutting her out. Vemula continues to practise her oration as she does her household chores.

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From schoolboy to tea seller: Covid poverty forces India’s children into work

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The pandemic has pushed millions of urban poor into crisis – and left children struggling to help their families survive

Subhan Shaikh used to start the day with a cup of cinnamon-flavoured tea, brought to him by his mother, Sitara, before he got ready for school. But the lockdown in March brought her salary as a school bus attendant to an end, and providing food – never mind tea – for Subhan, 14, and his two younger sisters, became a challenge.

Today, life for Subhan revolves around tea, which has become a lifeline for his family. After seeing his mother struggle, Subhan decided to do something and became a tea seller on the streets of Mumbai.

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Global coronavirus cases pass 50m with US worst affected country

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US close to 10m cases, with India second on 8.5m cases, followed by Brazil and Russia

The number of coronavirus cases worldwide has passed 50 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, which showed that the US, India and Brazil have the highest figures.

A total of 50,052,204 infections had been reported around the world by Sunday evening.

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