More than 33 million people have been displaced as destructive monsoon rains continue to wreak havoc
Flash floods triggered by destructive monsoon rains across much of Pakistan have killed more than 1,000 people and injured and displaced thousands more since June, officials have said.
The new death toll came a day after the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, asked for international help in battling deadly flood damage. More than 33 million people have been displaced.
Continue reading...Authorities say more than 900 killed and 220,000 homes destroyed in worst monsoon rains disaster for a decade
Heavy rain has pounded large areas of Pakistan as the government declared an emergency to deal with monsoon flooding it said had affected more than 30 million people.
The annual monsoon is essential for irrigating crops and replenishing lakes and dams across the Indian subcontinent, but each year it also brings a wave of destruction.
Continue reading...T Raja Singh suspended earlier this week for hate speech after allegedly abusive comments
Police in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad have arrested a suspended leader of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) for making allegedly abusive remarks about the prophet Muhammad.
Police arrested T Raja Singh, 45, on Thursday after thousands of Muslims took to the streets in the city protesting against his speech.
Continue reading...Government also cites food security after heatwave stunted domestic wheat output and drove up prices
India’s cabinet has approved restrictions on wheat flour exports to calm prices in the local market.
The government banned the export of wheat itself in mid-May as a heatwave curtailed output and domestic prices hit a record high. That ban boosted demand for Indian wheat flour, exports of which jumped 200% between April and July from a year ago, and lifted prices in the local market, the government said on Thursday.
Continue reading...Vicky Bowman and Burmese husband Htein Lin detained and charged with immigration offences
Myanmar’s military junta has detained Britain’s former ambassador to the country, as well as her husband, a prominent artist, in Yangon.
Vicky Bowman and Htein Lin, a renowned painter and former political prisoner, were arrested in Yangon on Wednesday and charged with immigration offences, Reuters reports. They were taken to Insein prison, a notorious facility where many political prisoners are held.
Continue reading...Police barred until 1 September from arresting former PM, whose supporters gathered outside court
A Pakistani court has barred officers from arresting the former prime minister Imran Khan until the end of the month, according to officials, after police filed terrorism charges against him.
The court protected Khan, the leader of Pakistan’s opposition, from arrest until 1 September over accusations that during a speech at the weekend, he threatened police officers and a judge.
Continue reading...One million Rohingya remain in Bangladesh refugee camps and the persecuted group has little hope of returning to Myanmar
It has been five years since Myanmar’s military launched a campaign of massacres that killed about 7,000 Rohingya in a single month and compelled 700,000 to flee for the Bangladeshi border.
Since the first major military operation against the Rohingya minority in 1978, which forced out 200,000, the Rohingya have been collectively stripped of their citizenship and targeted by increasing violence and discrimination that culminated in the “clearance operations” that began on 25 August 2017. Those operations were years in the planning, according to military documents uncovered by the Commission for International Justice and Accountability and sent to the international criminal court.
Continue reading...India previously blamed a ‘technical malfunction’ for accidental firing of unarmed missile in March
The Indian air force has said it has sacked three officers for accidentally firing a missile into Pakistan in March.
“A court of inquiry, set up to establish the facts of the case, including fixing responsibility for the incident, found that deviation from the standard operating procedures by three officers led to the accidental firing of the missile,” the air force said.
Continue reading...Lawyers for Jagtar Singh Johal say he was given electric shocks after unlawful arrest in Punjab in 2017
A British Sikh campaigner is facing a possible death sentence after the UK intelligence services passed on information about him to the Indian authorities, according to a high court complaint.
Lawyers for Jagtar Singh Johal from Dumbarton, Scotland, say he was tortured, including being given electric shocks, after his unlawful arrest in the Punjab in 2017 where he had travelled for his wedding.
Continue reading...New viral infection detected in dozens of children in Kerala, and now also in Tamil Nadu and Odisha
An outbreak of a new viral infection referred to as tomato flu that was first detected in children in the southern Indian state of Kerala in May has spread to two other states.
According to an article in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine, 82 children aged under five had been diagnosed with the virus in Kerala as of 26 July.
Continue reading...Khan is reportedly accused of making threats to the country’s judiciary and police force
Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has been charged under anti-terrorism legislation after he gave a fiery speech to supporters at the weekend in which he vowed to sue police officers and a female judge and alleged a close aide had been tortured after his arrest.
Khan will have to “face the law for threatening and hurling abuses”, tweeted the interior minister, Rana Sanaullah.
Continue reading...Lawyers say the woman, who is in hiding in Pakistan with her son, will be killed if sent back to Afghanistan
A female former senior judge from Afghanistan who is in hiding from the Taliban with her son has filed an appeal to the Home Office after her application to enter the UK was denied.
Lawyers for the woman – who is named as “Y” – said on Saturday they had submitted an appeal on behalf of their client and her son at the Immigration Tribunal, saying she had been left in a “gravely vulnerable position” by the withdrawal of British and other western troops.
Continue reading...Wall Street Journal suggests Russian and Chinese leaders could hold discussions in Uzbek city
Xi Jinping could meet Vladimir Putin in mid-September at a regional summit in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, it has been reported.
According to the Wall Street Journal, preparations are being made for the Chinese president to travel to Samarkand on 15 September for a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
Continue reading...In a wide-ranging Guardian interview, the former prime minister says he understands anger The Satanic Verses created ‘but you can’t justify what happened’
Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has condemned the attack on Salman Rushdie, describing it as “terrible” and “sad”, and saying that while the anger of the Islamic world at Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses was understandable, it could not justify the assault.
Khan also said he expected Afghan women to “assert their rights” in the face of Taliban restrictions in a Guardian interview in which he sought to moderate his reputation as a firebrand. He is fighting for his political survival after being ousted from office in April. Khan says his staff and followers are being persecuted and intimidated and he is battling eight-year-old charges of illicit campaign financing that could lead to him being banned from politics.
Continue reading...New president has been approached to provide security for predecessor who fled country amid economic crisis
Sri Lanka’s ruling party has asked the country’s new president to provide security and other assistance for his predecessor, who fled to south-east Asia last month after protests flared amid a crippling economic crisis.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa flew to Singapore last month and quit as Sri Lanka’s president, making way for veteran politician Ranil Wickremesinghe to win a vote in parliament and take the top job.
Continue reading...Six arrested but ringleader still at large after fraudsters in Bihar charged money to locals and paid others to work there
An Indian gang operated a fake police station from a hotel for eight months where they dressed up as officers and are believed to have extorted money from hundreds of people, an official has said.
Incidents of fraudsters pretending to be police or soldiers are common in India, where there is widespread fear of and respect for those in uniform, but setting up a bogus police station takes the scams up a level.
Continue reading...UN expresses concern over rising number of civilian casualties from explosions
A blast that tore through a Kabul mosque during evening prayers on Wednesday killed 21 people, police said, as the United Nations expressed concern over a growing number of civilian casualties from explosions.
The police spokesperson Khalid Zadran said another 33 people had been injured in the blast, which witnesses said shattered the windows of buildings near the mosque in a northern Kabul neighbourhood.
Continue reading...Daksh Giri was wedged on father’s scooter when stray razor-sharp kite string wrapped around his neck
A six-year-old boy has died after his throat was cut by a stray glass-coated kite string as he rode on a scooter with his father in Ludhiana, north India.
Daksh Giri was standing on the scooter on Tuesday, wedged between the steering unit and his father, when they drove into a plastic kite string coated with powdered glass. The string became wrapped around his neck, cutting his throat. Daksh died later in hospital.
Continue reading...Gujarat frees men serving life sentences for rape, and for murder of three-year-old daughter and other relatives
A Muslim woman who was gang-raped by a Hindu mob, which also murdered her three-year-old daughter and 13 other members of her family, has spoken of her incredulity at the release of the 11 men jailed for the crimes.
The men were released on Monday by the Gujarat government after serving 14 years of their life sentences. Under Indian law, after 14 years some prisoners can be released on remission provided they fulfil certain criteria relating to their age and conduct.
Continue reading...Police report multiple casualties after powerful explosion during evening prayers
A huge bomb attack at a mosque in Kabul during evening prayers has killed at least 10 people, including a prominent cleric, and wounded at least 27 others.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on Wednesday, the latest to strike Afghanistan in the year since the Taliban seized power.
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