Fears hard-won gains in reducing child mortality over 20 years are at risk after end of USAID funding for nutrition programmes
Child malnutrition in Nepal has reached “alarming” levels, according to the largest ever survey of under-fives in the country.
The new figures came just over a year after USAID, the former US flagship agency closed by the Trump administration in 2025, stopped funding work on child nutrition in Nepal.
Continue reading...Husband arrested after Sylvie Yasmina, 54, and five children found at home in north-western province
Pakistan police say they have rescued a French woman and her five children after she told authorities she had been held captive by her husband for more than a decade and subjected to years of domestic abuse in the country’s north-west.
The woman, identified as 54-year-old Sylvie Yasmina, was rescued earlier this week from a mud-brick home in Bara, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border, the district police chief, Waqar Ahmad, said.
Continue reading...Rights campaigners and MEPs say meeting would normalise regime that erases women from public life
Rights campaigners and MEPs have warned that a meeting between EU officials and a Taliban delegation in Brussels risks normalising a regime that has banned girls from school beyond the sixth grade and sought to erase women from public life, while its ranks include two leaders accused of crimes against humanity.
A spokesperson for the Afghan foreign ministry confirmed that a delegation representing the Taliban had travelled to Brussels after the Belgian foreign ministry issued five single-day visas.
Continue reading...Campaigners welcome announcement cutting levies on menstrual health items, but say their work to end period poverty is ‘far from over’
Pakistan plans to abolish “period tax”, in a victory for young campaigners who had taken the government to court over the charges.
Finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb announced that sanitary towels and related items were “daily necessities that are indispensable for women’s health, dignity and full participation in social activities”, and said he intended to remove the sales tax.
Continue reading...Relations at lowest ebb in years after Washington refuses to apologise for deaths in strait of Hormuz
Fury has continued to mount in India over the US’s refusal to apologise for the deaths of Indian sailors killed in strikes in the strait of Hormuz, further straining relations between the two countries as their leaders meet at the G7 summit in France this week.
Last week, three Indian seafarers, who were working on board commercial oil tankers, were killed when the US launched missile strikes on the vessel as it sailed through the strait of Hormuz.
Continue reading...Arrest of Min Zin, who writes about Myanmar and Chinese foreign policy, comes just month after Trump visit to Beijing
China has arrested a US scholar who writes about Myanmar and Chinese foreign policy on suspicion of spying.
Min Zin was suspected of “engaging in espionage activities that endanger China’s national security,” China’s ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson, Lin Jian, said on Friday.
Continue reading...Relatives of those killed on flight AI171 are still struggling to obtain answers about what happened
When Sagar Patel’s mother boarded Air India flight AI171 on 12 June last year, she called her son as she always did before takeoff. The flight was due to leave Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel airport in Ahmedabad, in the western Indian state of Gujarat, and was destined for Gatwick.
“We always had a little traditional thing,” said Patel, a business manager from London. “Once she got on the flight, she would sit down and call me. She’d tell me: ‘Yep, I’m on the flight. See you later.’”
Continue reading...Government urged to reconsider proposal for 1,100 Afghans, currently stranded in Qatar, who worked with US forces
Dozens of US lawmakers urged the Trump administration on Thursday to roll back any plans to ship to unsafe third countries Afghan nationals who worked with US forces during the war in their homeland.
In a letter seen by Reuters, more than 80 House of Representatives members, including at least three Republicans as well as Democrats, appealed to secretary of state, Marco Rubio, to reconsider plans for 1,100 Afghans who have been stranded in Qatar awaiting relocation.
Continue reading...Washington claims vessel was violating its blockade of Iranian ports and failed to comply with instructions
The Indian government has voiced a “strong protest” after three Indian seafarers were killed in US military strikes against oil tankers travelling through the strait of Hormuz.
US Central Command confirmed that its aircraft had fired two Hellfire missiles at the engine room of the MT Settebello as it sailed through the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Thai woman is in custody in connection with investigation after man was reportedly found dead at a hotel in Yangon
A US diplomat has been found dead in Myanmar’s largest city, and members of the diplomatic community in Yangon say a Thai woman has been detained by police in connection with the investigation.
US officials in Thailand and the US embassy in Myanmar referred questions on the case to the state department, which confirmed the “death of a US government employee” assigned to the embassy in Yangon, but gave no other details.
Continue reading...Cockroach Janta party began as online joke but is growing into one of the most unexpected challenges to country’s rightwing government
The call out to the youth of India was simple: “Get ready to swarm the streets of Delhi with peaceful and loving dissent.” They came in their thousands.
The weekend marked the first public protest of the Cockroach Janta party (CJP), a movement that began as an online joke, but which has swiftly grown into one of the most unexpected challenges to the indomitable power of the country’s rightwing Narendra Modi government – driven by millions of discontented and disillusioned young people.
Continue reading...Climbing support team rescue Hillary Dawa Sherpa almost a week on from when he was last seen
A Nepali guide who was believed to have died on Mount Everest has been found crawling to base camp a week after going missing – and after his funeral rites had begun.
Dawa Sherpa, also known as Hillary Dawa Sherpa after the famous climber Edmund Hillary, was last seen on 29 May but did not reach base camp with other climbing groups.
Continue reading...ICC’s decision comes amid growing concerns the team is being influenced by members of a notorious gang in India
Cricket’s international governing body has suspended Canada over what it described as “serious breaches of its membership obligations”, dealing the latest blow to an organization that critics say has become a “laughing stock” within the sport.
The suspension also comes amid growing concerns that one of Canada’s fastest-growing sports is being influenced by members of a notorious gang that operates with impunity from an Indian prison cell.
Continue reading...Truck was carrying Afghan families returning Pakistan when it overturned, official says
A truck overturned in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing 18 people on board including 10 children, a provincial official told Agence France-Presse.
Deadly traffic crashes are common in Afghanistan, due in part to poor roads after decades of conflict, dangerous driving and a lack of regulation.
Continue reading...Rare albino buffalo spared due to security concerns over unusual level of public interest in 700kg animal
A rare albino buffalo in Bangladesh nicknamed “Donald Trump” for its distinctive blond tuft has been spared from Eid al-Adha sacrifice after a last-minute government intervention, according to a home ministry official.
The nearly 700kg (1,543lb) animal had already been sold for ritual slaughter when authorities stepped in, citing security concerns after a surge of public interest before Thursday’s festival.
Continue reading...Senior lawyers call on prime minister to request Indian prosecutors drop charges that would breach double jeopardy rule
Four senior lawyers, including the former attorney general Dominic Grieve, have written to Keir Starmer urging him to request that Indian prosecutors drop charges against the British national Jagtar Singh Johal on the basis that continued prosecution would be in manifest breach of the double jeopardy rule which prevents someone being tried twice for the same offence.
Johal has been held in an Indian jail for eight years, and in March last year was acquitted of the terrorist charges laid against him in a court in Punjab. The court found the prosecutors had “miserably failed” to present any reliable evidence, despite having had seven years to do so.
Continue reading...Explosives-laden vehicle detonated as passenger train travelled through south-western city of Quetta
A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle near a railway track as a passenger train travelled through the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 70 others, officials have said.
The force of the explosion on Sunday caused two of the train cars to overturn and catch fire, sending thick black smoke into the air, according to footage shared online.
Continue reading...Move comes against backdrop of challenge by prime minister, Narendra Modi, to country’s traditional elites
The Indian government has ordered one of the country’s most exclusive private clubs to vacate its premises in two weeks, underscoring the long-running push of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, against entrenched elite institutions.
The ministry of housing and urban affairs directed the Delhi Gymkhana Club to hand over its sprawling site in the heart of New Delhi by 5 June, citing urgent public interest requirements, including defence and security infrastructure.
Continue reading...Iran has threatened to impose tolls on shipping, while US demands that Iran hand over its highly enriched uranium may be deferred. Is there an end in sight?
Qatar has rushed a team of mediators to Tehran in a sign that talks to open the strait of Hormuz, in return for the lifting of US sanctions and asset freezes, are reaching a climax.
The aim would be to sign a memorandum of understanding on the strait that would lead to 30 days of talks on Iran’s nuclear programme – so deferring discussion of the US demand that Iran hand over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
Continue reading...Up to 70% of girls may be in early or forced marriages but law now makes divorce impossible if husbands disagree
Child marriage appears to have been legally recognised for the first time by the Taliban in Afghanistan, as activists say “shameful” new laws make it almost impossible for girls and young women to seek divorce against their husbands’ will.
There are no official statistics on forced and underage marriages in Afghanistan, but activists say it has risen at an alarming rate in recent years, driven by the ban on girls being in education after the age of 11.
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