India invokes emergency laws to ban BBC Modi documentary

Government accused of ‘censorship’ over ban on film about PM’s role in violence during 2002 Gujarat riots

The Indian government has invoked emergency laws to block a BBC documentary examining the role of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, during riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002.

Controversy has erupted in India over the first episode of the two-part programme, India: The Modi Question, which tracked his rise through the ranks of the Bharatiya Janata party and his appointment as chief minister of Gujarat.

Continue reading...

UK MP and peer on Kazakhstan visit denied access to opposition leader

Trip to examine country’s rights record derailed as meetings with government officials also cancelled

A high-profile trip by two senior UK parliamentarians to Kazakhstan to examine its human rights record has almost immediately run into trouble as they were denied access to a jailed opposition leader who is the focus of the visit.

The former director of public prosecutions Ken Macdonald and the former justice secretary Robert Buckland were not permitted to meet the head of the unregistered Democratic party of Kazakhstan, Zhanbolat Mamai, or senior Kazakh diplomats.

Continue reading...

Head of Indian wrestling federation accused of sexual harassment

Wrestlers including Olympic medallists stage sit-in demanding federation is disbanded

Two Olympic medal-winning wrestlers in India have accused the head of their sport’s governing body and its coaches of sexually harassing female players and have vowed to protest until the federation is disbanded and its leader investigated.

Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, who have Olympic bronzes, Vinesh Phogat, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist, and other athletes began a sit-in protest in the capital, Delhi, on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

Three children among six killed during Indian kite-flying festival

Victims reportedly bled to death when glass-coated strings were entangled around their necks

Six people, including three children, have died after their throats were cut by glass-coated kite strings during an annual kite-flying festival in India.

Hundreds flocked to terraces and rooftops to unfurl their kites towards the sky at the Uttarayan festival in the western Indian state of Gujarat over the weekend.

Continue reading...

Indian diamond heiress gives up fortune to become child nun

Eight-year-old daughter of wealthy gem dealer follows family’s Jain faith to enter strict religious order

An eight-year-old girl in India who was due to inherit a multimillion-dollar diamond fortune has instead been admitted as a nun to a strict religious order after renouncing worldly pleasures.

Devanshi Sanghvi was, until this week, an heiress to the Sanghvi and Sons jewellery business in the western city of Surat, known locally as Diamond City for its prominence in the global gem trade.

Continue reading...

Sea ‘a graveyard’ as number of Rohingya fleeing Bangladesh by boat soars

UN figures show number of those attempting to escape horrendous conditions in refugee camps increased from 700 in 2021 to over 3,500 in 2022

The number of Rohingya refugees taking dangerous sea journeys in the hope of reaching Malaysia or Indonesia has surged by 360%, the UN has announced after hundreds of refugees were left stranded at the end of last year.

Rohingya in Bangladesh refugee camps have warned that human smugglers have ramped up operations and are constantly searching for people to fill boats from Myanmar and Bangladesh headed for Malaysia, where people believe they can live more freely.

Continue reading...

UK government urged to honour pledge to Afghan refugees’ families

Exclusive: Charities and activists call on PM to follow through on pledge to allow families to resettle in UK

More than 100 charities and activists are calling on the prime minister to facilitate the resettlement of family members of thousands of Afghans who came to the UK under a government scheme.

The government pledged to resettle family members in the UK but at the moment there is no mechanism for them to do this. Campaigners have accused the government of abandoning Afghans in danger who were promised the right to reunite with family members in the UK.

Continue reading...

Nepal plane crash co-pilot was married to pilot who died in Yeti Airlines accident in 2006

Anju Khatiwada joined Yeti Airlines in 2010, four years after her husband died while piloting a plane for the same airline

The co-pilot of the Yeti Airlines flight that crashed on Sunday in Nepal was the widow of a pilot who flew for the same airline, and also died in a plane crash 16 years ago.

In 2010, Anju Khatiwada joined Yeti Airlines, following in the footsteps of her husband. Dipak Pokhrel also flew for the Nepali airline, but died when a small passenger plane he was flying went down minutes before landing.

Continue reading...

British man named as among those killed in Nepal air crash

Ruan Calum Crighton was onboard the Yeti Airlines flight which crashed on Sunday with at least 68 fatalities

A British man was among dozens of people killed in Nepal’s deadliest air crash in decades.

Ruan Calum Crighton was among 72 people onboard the Yeti Airlines flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara in the Annapurna mountain range when it crashed without warning on Sunday.

Continue reading...

Top lawyer shot dead by colleague at Pakistan high court, say police

Abdul Latif Afridi was killed by a junior lawyer in Peshawar in what is believed to be a grudge attack

A top lawyer has been murdered at a Pakistan high court by a colleague who shot him six times while dressed in full judicial robes, according to police and a witness.

Abdul Latif Afridi, former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan, was lounging with co-workers in a break room at Peshawar high court when he was killed in an apparent grudge attack.

Continue reading...

Western firms facilitating production of Myanmar junta’s weapons, says report

Independent experts find western-supplied materials are still finding their way into military’s hands

Companies in 13 countries across Europe, Asia and North America are assisting Myanmar’s junta – either indirectly or directly – by supplying materials to the stated-owned entity that produces the military’s weapons, a report by the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M) has found.

The weapons are then being used to commit human rights atrocities.

Continue reading...

Nepal plane crash: last moments inside cabin caught on passenger’s Facebook live video

Harrowing footage shows passengers had no idea plane was in danger before crash

In the moments before Nepal’s deadliest air crash in decades on Sunday, four friends from India who were onboard began excitedly recording the descent on a Facebook live video.

They were heading to Pokhara for the trip of a lifetime, visiting temples and paragliding in Nepal’s famed Annapurna mountain range. “It’s really fun,” one of the men can be heard on the video surveying the city below as the plane began its descent. The friends can be heard laughing and joking as the camera is turned on a smiling Sonu Jaiswal, a 29-year-old father-of-three, who ran a small business back home in India.

Continue reading...

Nepal plane crash: data recorders found as day of mourning begins

So-called ‘black boxes’ are in good condition, says official investigating deaths of at least 68 people when Yeti Airlines flight plummeted into a gorge

The black box and cockpit voice recorder from the Yeti Airlines plane that crashed in Nepal have been located, as the country observed a day of mourning on Monday for the victims of its deadliest aviation disaster in three decades.

Teknath Sitaula, a Kathmandu Airport official, said the so-called black boxes were “in a good condition now. They look good from outside.”

Continue reading...

Former Afghan MP Mursal Nabizada shot dead in Kabul

Bodyguard also killed at home of one of few female parliamentarians who stayed in Kabul after Taliban takeover

A former Afghan MP and her bodyguard have been shot dead by unknown assailants at her home in the capital, Kabul, police have said.

Mursal Nabizada was among the few female parliamentarians who stayed in Kabul after the Taliban seized power in August 2021. It is the first time an MP from the previous administration has been killed in the city since the takeover.

Continue reading...

Nepal plane crash with 72 onboard leaves at least 68 dead

Foreign nationals from Australia, France, Ireland and India among the passengers onboard

At least 68 people were confirmed dead and hope faded for any survivors after a plane with 72 onboard crashed in Nepal, the Himalayan country’s deadliest aviation disaster in three decades.

“Thirty-one [bodies] have been taken to hospitals,” said police official, AK Chhetri, adding that another 36 were still in the 300-metre gorge the aircraft plunged into at the site in Pokhara in central Nepal.

Continue reading...

‘World’s longest river cruise’ could threaten endangered Ganges dolphin, experts warn

A luxury cruise has been hailed as the start of a new age of Indian tourism. But conservationists fear the impact of increased river traffic and pollution

The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, has officially launched the “world’s longest river cruise” from the city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. The luxury voyage will last 51 days, travelling 3,200km via Dhaka in Bangladesh to Dibrugarh in Assam, crossing 27 river systems.

The three-deck MV Ganga Vilas, with 18 suites, is the latest venture in a trend for cruise tourism in India being promoted by the government. Modi hailed the cruise industry on the Ganges as a “landmark moment”, which will herald a new age of tourism in India.

Continue reading...

British Council workers in Afghanistan step closer to UK relocation

Minister speaks of ‘progress’ on security checks, but Foreign Office clarifies no green light yet for contractors

A group of 47 British Council contractors forced to live in hiding since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan have cleared the penultimate hurdle for being accepted on to a scheme designed to relocate them in the UK.

The group was said to have passed security checks and been invited to provide biometrics at a visa centre, after which they would have to have a final set of security checks.

Continue reading...

Sri Lanka ex-president Sirisena ordered to compensate 2019 Easter bombing victims

Supreme court finds top government, police and intelligence officials were responsible for ‘failing to prevent’ bombings

The supreme court in Sri Lanka has ordered the former president Maithripala Sirisena to pay millions in compensation to the victims of the 2019 Easter bombings, the first time the courts have acknowledged the government’s role in the attacks.

The top court found that Sirisena and several other top government, police and intelligence officials were responsible for “failing to prevent” the bombings in April 2019, “despite receiving intelligence ahead of the attack”.

Continue reading...

Myanmar junta hit Indian territory during strike on rebel camp, say witnesses

Locals in Farkawan village said that two bombs were dropped on the Indian side of the border but no one was hurt

The Myanmar military launched an airstrike on a prominent training camp for pro-democracy forces close to the Indian border, with jets dropping at least two bombs inside Indian territory according to eyewitnesses.

The Myanmar junta, who seized power in a coup in February 2021 and are engaged in a bloody battle to crush pro-democracy insurgents, began bombing Camp Victoria in Myanmar’s Chin state, on Tuesday afternoon, a rebel commander confirmed to the Guardian.

Continue reading...

Banks and countries pledge $10bn to rebuild Pakistan after catastrophic floods

International funders join Pakistan PM and UN secretary general in Geneva to agree recovery plan following ‘monsoon on steroids’

The international community has promised $10.5bn (£8.77bn) to help Pakistan rebuild after last summer’s catastrophic floods, described by UN secretary general António Guterres as a “monsoon on steroids.”

The pledges were made on Monday at the International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan in Geneva, Switzerland, hosted by Pakistan’s prime minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and Guterres.

Continue reading...