Category Archives: South and Central Asia

Women with electric rickshaws combat Delhi’s toxic air – and its sexism

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Break into male-dominated public-transport helps tackle city’s pollution crisis and safety concerns

Monika Devi is thrilled to be driving her autorickshaw. The 35-year-old has two reasons to be particularly proud as she winds her way through New Delhi’s insanely congested streets.

She is one of the first women to be driving one of the three-wheeled taxis that swarm the roads of the Indian capital. And she is driving one of Delhi’s first e-rickshaws – part of the city’s drive to tackle its notoriously filthy air.

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Deportation of Rohingya woman from India sparks fear of renewed crackdown

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Hasina Begum was separated from her family and forced to return to Myanmar despite her refugee status. Hundreds of others now face expulsion

The deportation of a Rohingya woman back to Myanmar has sparked fears that India is preparing to expel many more refugees from the country.

Hasina Begum, 37, was deported from Indian-administered Kashmir two weeks ago, despite holding a UN verification of her refugee status, intended to protect holders from arbitrary detention. Begum was among 170 refugees arrested and detained in Jammu in March last year. Her husband and three children, who also have UN refugee status, remain in Kashmir.

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‘Gota go home’: desperate Sri Lankans call for President Rajapaksa to quit

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Strongman Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s position looks weak amid an economic crisis that threatens to turn into starvation

He was once known as “The Terminator”, the most feared man in Sri Lankan politics. But today, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s name can hardly be spoken without a loud chorus of derision and calls of “thief”, “madman”, “criminal” or “traitor”.

As Sri Lanka endures its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948, blame has fallen at the feet of one man. Rajapaksa, known to many simply as Gota, was elected in 2019 amid nationalistic fervour and a wave of support from the country’s Sinhalese Buddhist majority. But over the past three years, under his watch – and what many are calling “criminal financial mismanagement” – the economy has gone into freefall. Now many people can barely afford three meals a day. “He has dragged this country down into the gutter and we are all suffering,” said Dinesh Galgamuwa, 47, who was among the protesters in Colombo.

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Myanmar jailed more writers in 2021 than any other country, says rights group

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Exclusive: Junta detained at least 26 intellectuals last year as it sought to suppress opposition

Myanmar jailed more writers and public intellectuals in crackdowns last year than any other country, according to a freedom of expression advocacy group.

PEN America’s annual census of detained writers, the Freedom to Write Index, found Myanmar’s junta detained at least 26 writers in 2021 as it sought to suppress opposition after seizing power from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

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Joe Biden vows to tackle ‘grave threat’ of untraceable ‘ghost guns’ – as it happened

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The Democrat with perhaps the best chance to unseat Chuck Grassley, the Republican senator from Iowa, in the midterm elections in November has been knocked off the 7 June primary ballot – for now.

As the Associated Press reports, late on Sunday a state judge ruled that Abby Finkenauer cannot appear on the ballot for the Democratic primary, because of a technicality.

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Sri Lanka nearly out of medicine as doctors warn toll from crisis could surpass Covid

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Emergency surgery may soon be impossible, president told, while protests continue amid worsening economic downturn

Sri Lanka’s doctors have warned they are almost out of life-saving medicines and say the country’s economic crisis threatened a worse death toll than the coronavirus pandemic.

Weeks of power blackouts and severe shortages of food, fuel and pharmaceuticals have brought widespread misery to Sri Lanka, which is suffering its worst downturn since independence in 1948.

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Imran Khan threatened to impose martial law, documents suggests

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Pakistan’s now ousted PM appeared to give opposition ultimatum: agree to fresh elections or I’ll bring in army

Imran Khan, who was ousted as Pakistan’s prime minister on Saturday, threatened to implement martial law rather than hand over power to the opposition, according to documents seen by the Guardian.

According to security officials and opposition figures, he attempted several moves to hold on to power in the days and hours leading up to the no-confidence vote. However, he failed to stop it happening, and in the final minutes before midnight on Saturday, he was ousted from office.

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Pakistan parliament ousts Imran Khan in last-minute vote

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Pakistan’s prime minister found to have broken the law by attempting to stop vote going ahead

Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, has lost a no-confidence vote in parliament after a dramatic week in which he violated the constitution in an attempt to stop the move going ahead.

Khan, the former premier cricketer turned pious Islamist politician, has been fighting for his political life for weeks, after losing his parliamentary majority.

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‘We’re finished’: Sri Lankans pushed to the brink by financial crisis

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Thousands take to the streets to call for the resignation of president Gotabaya Rajapaksa

While thousands of angry cries and anti-government slogans filled the streets of the Sri Lankan city Colombo on Saturday, Chanda Upul stood quietly nearby, desperately pushing his wares of soft drinks and bottled water on protesters. But in his heart he was chanting along with them.

Sri Lanka has descended into its worst financial crisis since independence, with food, fuel, medicine and electricity becoming increasingly scarce, and calls for the president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa – frequently referred to as Gota – to step down. And 50-year-old Upul, who lives in a poor northern suburb of the city, is among those who have been pushed to the brink of survival.

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‘Fake’ US federal agent claimed ties to Pakistani intelligence, prosecutors say

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Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, accused of posing as homeland security officials and cultivating Secret Service access

One of two American men arrested in Washington for posing as US federal security officials and cultivating access to the Secret Service, which protects Joe Biden, claimed ties to Pakistani intelligence, a federal prosecutor told a judge.

Justice department assistant attorney Joshua Rothstein asked a judge not to release Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, the men arrested on Wednesday for posing as Department of Homeland Security investigators.

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MEPs voice fury as Greek judges again postpone refugees’ smuggling appeal

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Second adjournment prolongs agony of Afghans Amir Zahiri and Akif Rasuli, serving 50-year sentences for piloting a migrant boat

MEPs appalled by “shocking” legal proceedings against two Afghans convicted of people smuggling in Greece have vowed to raise the issue with the European parliament.

Lawmakers who had flown into Lesbos for a scheduled appeals court hearing of the asylum seekers on Thursday – the second in three weeks – were outraged when judges again adjourned the case, prolonging the agony of the refugees, who are currently serving 50-year prison terms.

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Pakistan court orders Imran Khan confidence vote to go ahead

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Supreme court rules PM acted unconstitutionally in dissolving parliament before confidence vote

Pakistan’s supreme court has dealt a devastating blow to the prime minister, Imran Khan, by ruling that he acted unconstitutionally in dissolving parliament prior to a confidence vote he was expected to lose, and ordering the vote to go ahead this weekend.

In the conclusion to a hearing that has gripped Pakistan for the past four days, the chief justice of Pakistan, Umar Ata Bandial, said Khan had violated the law in his attempt to stop the vote, which was widely expected to oust him.

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Sri Lanka faces medical emergency as economic crisis hits drug supplies

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Union warns of complete breakdown of health system with hospitals ‘all running out of medicines’

Sri Lanka’s economic crisis has deteriorated into a medical crisis, with the top medical union declaring a national health emergency over a life-threatening shortage of drugs.

On Tuesday the country’s most powerful trade union, the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA), called a meeting and declared a medical crisis as doctors and hospitals reported a widespread lack of medicine.

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Pakistan’s supreme court delays verdict on fate of Imran Khan

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Country remains in political turmoil as it awaits ruling on PM’s move to dissolve parliament and call election

Pakistan remains without a government and engulfed in political turmoil after the supreme court delayed its verdict on whether the prime minister, Imran Khan, had violated the constitution by dissolving parliament rather than face a no-confidence vote.

Khan’s decision to call for parliament to be dissolved on Sunday, rather than allow a no-confidence vote on his premiership that was expected to oust him, had been justified by him on the basis that it was an alleged “foreign conspiracy” led by the west against his government.

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Sri Lanka’s cabinet resigns as protesters’ anger grows over economic crisis

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All 26 cabinet ministers aside from the president and the prime minister quit as unrest over the country’s worst financial crisis in decades continues

Sri Lanka’s entire cabinet aside from the president and his sibling prime minister resigned from their posts on Sunday as the ruling political clan seeks to resolve a mounting economic crisis, with a social media blackout failing to halt another day of anti-government demonstrations.

The south Asian nation is facing severe shortages of food, fuel and other essentials – along with record inflation and crippling power cuts – in its most painful downturn since independence from Britain in 1948.

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Tourists urged to avoid Myanmar as junta prepares to reopen to world

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Travel agents and aid workers raise issues of safety and note that tourism dollars will only benefit the ruling military

Foreign tourists have been urged to avoid visiting Myanmar after the junta signalled plans to open up the country despite widespread ongoing rights abuses and violence including kidnappings and killings by the military, as well as food shortages and regular blackouts.

More than a year after it seized power and ousted Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s military has announced it plans to reopen for tourism and resume international flights on 17 April.

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Imran Khan appears to want to keep power in Pakistan at any cost

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Prime minister cuts an increasingly isolated figure – and his dramatic dissolution of parliament is a very risky move

Imran Khan’s dramatic move to dissolve Pakistan’s parliament on Sunday morning, ahead of a vote that almost certainly would have removed him from office, reads to many like the desperate actions of a prime minister who will try to hold on to power at any cost.

While his repeated allegations of a “foreign conspiracy” and pressure from the US being behind the no-confidence vote has played well to his diehard supporters, most of whom are vehemently opposed to the west, it is still a very risky move for Khan.

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Sri Lanka protesters defy curfew after social media ban

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State of emergency imposed on Friday as country faces severe shortages of food, fuel and other essentials

Armed troops in Sri Lanka confronted crowds protesting against a worsening economic crisis, after a social media blackout failed to halt another day of anti-government demonstrations.

The south Asian nation is facing severe shortages of food, fuel and other essentials – along with record inflation and crippling power cuts – in its most painful economic downturn since independence from Britain in 1948.

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Pakistan’s PM calls for early election after vote of no confidence thrown out

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Imran Khan alleges ‘foreign conspiracy’ to topple his government as US denies involvement

Pakistan is on the brink of a constitutional crisis and the prime minister, Imran Khan, is facing accusations of treason after he dissolved parliament and called fresh elections in order to block a no-confidence vote that was expected to remove him from power.

The former superstar cricketer turned politician stunned the country after he took the dramatic action of dissolving the legislature prior to a parliamentary vote that could have stripped him of his prime ministership.

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Sri Lanka president declares public emergency after protests against economic crisis

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Declaration comes after hundreds of protesters clashed with police and the military

Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa has declared a nationwide public emergency, following violent protests over the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.

Rajapaksa said in a government gazette notification late on Friday that he took the decision in the interests of public security, the protection of public order and the maintenance of supplies and essential services.

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