Category Archives: South and Central Asia

Ben Roberts-Smith defamation loss bad news for Seven boss as Nine marks ‘day of justice’

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Seven chairman Kerry Stokes, who parachuted the former soldier into a network job in 2015, says ‘the judgment does not accord with the man I know’

For Seven’s chairman, Kerry Stokes, the verdict in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial was all bad news.

The cost of the trial is estimated to be between $25m and $35m and, with the billionaire media proprietor bankrolling the former soldier and Seven employee, Stokes’s legal tab will be significant if he does pick up the bill.

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Indian official fined after draining reservoir in search of mobile phone

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Rajesh Vishwas dropped phone into Paraklot reservoir in Chhattisgarh state while taking a selfie

An Indian official who drained a reservoir to retrieve a mobile he dropped while taking a selfie has been fined 53,092 rupees (£520) by the government.

Rajesh Vishwas, a food inspector, had dropped his new phone worth about £1,000 into the Paralkot reservoir in Chhattisgarh state while taking a selfie during a picnic and swim with friends.

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Outrage in India after teenage girl killed in Delhi street

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Body of teenager lay untouched until police informant passed by, raising fresh concerns about women’s safety

The killing of a 16-year-old girl in Delhi who was stabbed and bludgeoned to death in an alley as pedestrians walked on has sparked outrage over the safety of women in India.

CCTV footage of the incident shows the teenager was accosted in public by a man, alleged by police to be 20-year-old Sahil Khan, who stabbed her more than 30 times and hit her with a concrete slab.

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EU accused of ‘staggering neglect’ after just 271 Afghans resettled across bloc

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Many in need of permanent protection remain stuck in ‘prison-like’ camps on Greek islands, leading refugee charity says

Just 271 Afghans were resettled in the EU in 2022, 0.1% of the 270,000 identified as in need of permanent protection, it has emerged.

Leading charity the International Rescue Committee accused EU leaders of “staggering neglect” of Afghan refugees with many remaining trapped in “prison-like” conditions on Greek islands.

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Climate change to blame for up to 17 deaths on Mount Everest, experts say

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Nepal’s head of tourism says variable weather on the mountain has led to one of the deadliest years on record

Experts say this is likely to be one of the deadliest years on record on Mount Everest, with variable weather caused by climate change being blamed as one of the main reasons for the deaths of up to 17 people.

A total of 12 people have now been confirmed dead during Everest expeditions this season and another five are missing, presumed dead, as no contact has been made for at least five days in all cases, according to the Himalayan Database, which tracks mountain fatalities.

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Stateless Rohingya could soon be the ‘new Palestinians’, top UN official warns

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Special rapporteur Olivier De Shutter calls for action on neglected crisis after finding ‘absolutely terrible’ conditions on visit to Cox’s Bazar camps in Bangladesh

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are at risk of becoming “the new Palestinians”, according to a UN head, who said they are trapped in a protracted and increasingly neglected crisis.

Olivier De Schutter, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said the almost 1 million people living in overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar should be given the right to work in their host country of Bangladesh, and that forcing them to rely on dwindling international support was not sustainable.

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Indian official suspended after draining reservoir to retrieve phone

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More than 2m litres of water pumped from dam on orders of food inspector who said device held sensitive government data

A government official in central India has been suspended after he ordered a reservoir to be drained to retrieve his dropped phone.

Millions of litres of water were pumped over three days from the Kherkatta dam in the state of Chhattisgarh after Rajesh Vishwas, a food inspector, said his Samsung mobile held sensitive government data.

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World Cup security guards still jailed in Qatar after dispute over unpaid wages

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Workers at World Cup 2022 venues fired as tournament ended and allegedly jailed or deported after trying to claim unpaid wages

Three World Cup security guards who were detained while trying to resolve a dispute over unpaid wages are still being held in Qatar four months after their arrest.

Shakir Ullah and Zafar Iqbal from Pakistan, and an Indian national, have allegedly been sentenced to six months in prison and fined 10,000 riyals (£2,220) each.

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Australian tourist who was missing for three days found dead in Kazakhstan

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Body of Melbourne lawyer Jake Herd found at high altitude in poor weather near Big Almaty Lake

An Australian tourist who was missing for three days in mountains in Kazakhstan has been found dead, authorities in the central Asian country said on Tuesday.

Police said they had found the body of Melbourne lawyer Jake Michael Herd, born in 1995, near Big Almaty Lake in the Tian Shan mountains at an altitude of about 2,500m.

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‘We give our blood so they live comfortably’: Sri Lanka’s tea pickers say they go hungry and live in squalor

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Top tea firms investigate as plantation workers say they have to pick 18kg a day but still skip meals and make their children work

Some of the world’s leading tea manufacturers, including Tetley and Lipton, are examining working conditions on the plantations of its Sri Lankan suppliers, following a Guardian investigation.

Two global trade-certification schemes, Fairtrade and the Rainforest Alliance, are also conducting inquiries after it was revealed that some workers on 10 certified estates could not afford to eat and were living in squalid conditions.

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Cheetah deaths raise questions over India’s reintroduction scheme

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Three of the 20 big cats brought from Africa have died as critics of the plan say their new habitat is unsuitable

A programme to reintroduce cheetahs in India after 75 years has been called into question after three of the animals died in recent weeks and concerns were raised that their new habitat was unsuitable.

Since October, 20 cheetahs – which became extinct in the country in 1952 – have been brought over from South Africa and Namibia as part of a much-lauded government programme to house them in Kuno national park, Madhya Pradesh state.

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China and Saudi Arabia boycott G20 meeting held by India in Kashmir

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Indian presidency of group becomes mired in controversy as tourism session hosted in disputed territory

India’s presidency of the G20 group of leading nations has become mired in controversy after China and Saudi Arabia boycotted a meeting staged in Kashmir, the first such gathering since India unilaterally brought Kashmir under direct control in August 2019.

The meeting, a tourism working group attended by about 60 delegates from most G20 countries taking place from Monday to Wednesday, required a large show of security at Srinagar international airport.

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Indian court issues BBC with summons over Modi documentary, say reports

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Documentary questioned Indian prime minister’s leadership during 2002 Gujarat riots

The high court in Delhi has issued a summons to the BBC in a defamation case over a documentary on the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, that questioned his leadership during the 2002 Gujarat riots, according to reports in Indian media.

The defamation suit states that the documentary India: The Modi Question, which aired earlier this year, cast a slur on India’s reputation and that of its judiciary and the prime minister, the reports said.

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Australian climber Jason Kennison dies on Mount Everest while returning from summit

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Forty-year-old, who was raising money for Spinal Cord Injuries Australia, spent years recovering from a spinal injury after being told he might never walk again

An Australian man who climbed Mount Everest after learning to walk again has died on his return from the summit.

Jason Bernard Kennison died on Friday. His family said “he achieved his goal of reaching the peak … he stood on top of this world but sadly didn’t come home.”

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US and Papua New Guinea sign pact amid Pacific militarisation concerns

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Concerns security deal could leave Papua New Guinea stuck between increasingly hostile US and China

The US has signed a security pact with Papua New Guinea despite concerns within the country about increasing militarisation as Washington competes with Beijing for influence in the Pacific.

The state department said the new agreement would provide $45m (£36m) to help improve security cooperation, including protective equipment for the Papua New Guinea defence force, plus help in mitigating the effects of the climate crisis, transnational crime and HIV/Aids.

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Jennifer Lawrence brings documentary about Afghan women to Cannes

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Bread and Roses, co-produced by Lawrence, documents lives of three women after Taliban’s return to power

A documentary about the lives of three women living under the Taliban, co-produced by Jennifer Lawrence, has premiered at the Cannes film festival.

Bread and Roses, shown at a special screening on Sunday, follows three Afghan women in the weeks after the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 after the withdrawal of US troops.

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Australia, India, Japan and US take thinly veiled swipe at China

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Beijing clearly target of joint statement by Quad group calling for ‘stability in Indo-Pacific maritime domain’

The leaders of the Quad group – Australia, India, Japan and the United States – delivered a thinly veiled swipe at Beijing’s behaviour on Saturday at a summit in Hiroshima.

The US president, Joe Biden, and his three partners in the group did not mention China by name but the communist superpower was clearly the target of language in a joint statement calling for “peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific maritime domain”.

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Imran Khan alleges ‘reign of terror’ as supporters face trial in military courts

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Former Pakistan prime minister says ‘fascist tactics’ employed by those in power

Imran Khan has alleged his party and followers are facing an unprecedented crackdown, as thousands have been swept up in arrests and hundreds face trial in military courts.

When violence erupted in Pakistan last week, after the arrest of the former prime minister on corruption charges, the government and the military vowed stringent action against all those who took part in the attacks on dozens of government buildings and military leaders’ homes and headquarters. At least nine people were killed in the violence and hundreds injured.

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UN denied access to Rohingya refugee camps after Cyclone Mocha

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UNHCR says Myanmar government has refused to allow it to distribute health supplies in Sittwe, where an estimated 90% of Rohingya homes have been destroyed

UN staff say they have been denied access to help thousands of Rohingya living in displacement camps in Myanmar who are in urgent need of food, medicine and shelter in the aftermath of Cyclone Mocha, which struck the west of the country on Sunday.

People living in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state, said they estimated that about 90% of homes of Rohingya people had been destroyed and more than 100 people killed when winds of more than 150 miles an hour hit the region. However, the refugee agency UNHCR said the Myanmar government has refused access to the camps in Sittwe, home to about 100,000 people. “As yet, UNHCR has not been granted access to carry out needs assessments.”

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Imran Khan and Lahore police remain in tense standoff

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Since ex-PM was released from custody he has only left his residence once, citing fear of being re-arrested

Imran Khan and the police have been locked in a tense standoff in Lahore, with Pakistan’s former prime minister holed up in his residence claiming he was about to be arrested and officers barricading the surrounding roads and accusing him of harbouring “terrorists”.

Since Khan was released from police custody on Friday, after his arrest in a corruption case was declared illegal, he has repeatedly expressed his fear of being re-arrested and has only left his residence once, to attend court with his wife on Monday.

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