Ousted leader, held at secret location for past year, charged with at least 20 offences and could spend rest of life in jail
Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved to solitary confinement inside a prison compound in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, according to the junta.
The former leader, who is 77, has been held by the military since 1 February last year, when it ousted her democratically elected government, plunging Myanmar into chaos.
Continue reading...Ranil Wickremesinghe’s comments come as island faces its worst crisis in recent memory, though PM didn’t cite any new developments
Sri Lanka’s debt-laden economy has “collapsed” after months of shortages of food, fuel and electricity, the prime minister told lawmakers in comments that underscored the country’s dire situation as it seeks help from international lenders.
Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament the South Asian nation faces “a far more serious situation” than the shortages alone, and he warned of “a possible fall to rock bottom.”
Continue reading...Analysis: humanitarian appeals for Taliban-ruled country have had poor responses and there are sanctions complications
As Afghanistan reels from a powerful earthquake and starts to bury its more than 1,000 dead, the Taliban leadership in Kabul have appealed to the international community to clear any barriers created by sanctions and come to their aid.
“The government is working within its capabilities,” tweeted Anas Haqqani, a senior Taliban official. “We hope that the International Community & aid agencies will also help our people in this dire situation.”
Continue reading...Toll expected to rise after deadliest quake in two decades strikes during night near Khost, 95 miles south of Kabul
A powerful earthquake in a remote area of Afghanistan’s Paktika province has killed at least 1,000 people and injured at least 1,500, with the toll expected to rise in the impoverished country.
According to Taliban officials, hundreds more were injured in what appears to have been the deadliest quake in two decades, striking during the night with heavy rain hampering rescue efforts.
Continue reading...In the middle of a crippling economic crisis, demonstrating is a luxury the country’s Tamil minority cannot afford
For months now, the sounds of protest and anger have rung out across Colombo, Sri Lanka’s largest city. Every day, along the city’s seafront promenade of Galle Face, people have gathered in their tens of thousands to rage against the government for plunging the country into its worst financial crisis in modern history.
But 200 miles north, in the district of Mullaitivu, the streets are silent. The economic crisis has hit Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority, who are concentrated in the north and eastern provinces, as hard as those in the south; the fishermen here say they are already starving. But they will also tell you that protesting is a privilege in Sri Lanka – one they have never been afforded.
Continue reading...India’s monsoon season has been worse than usual, sweeping away possessions and leaving people huddling on raised ground
People living in Assam, in north-east India, are usually stoical about the flooding that occurs to a greater or lesser extent every monsoon season. But this year they say the situation is dramatically worse. “It was like a scene from Titanic,” one man told local media of the rising waters that have flooded all but two of the state’s districts.
In some places entire villages are under water, while across the state 114,000 hectares of crops have been submerged and 5,000 livestock have been washed away. For those that remain, fodder is running out.
Continue reading...Hip-hop star Sidhu Moose Wala was shot dead in his car in Punjab last month
Indian police say have arrested three men accused of murdering hip-hop star Sidhu Moose Wala and that they have seized a cache of weaponry including a grenade launcher from the suspects.
Moose Wala – also known by his birth name Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu – was shot dead in his car in the northern state of Punjab last month.
Continue reading...Home Office accused of leaving mothers and traumatised children stranded for months while priority is given to Ukraine refugees
British couples who travelled to Pakistan to adopt children have been left stranded after the Home Office told them to expect months of delays in processing visas because of the Ukraine refugee crisis.
The delays are part of wider failings in visa processing that have left families around the world stuck waiting to return to the UK.
Continue reading...Tasneem was allegedly killed in front of her father after being taken to northern Pakistan from Perth with her three children
An Australian woman has allegedly been bludgeoned to death by her father-in-law with an axe in northern Pakistan after an argument about moving back to Australia with her children.
Sajida Tasneem was allegedly killed in front of her father at a home she shared with her in-laws in the city of Sargodha, 250km south of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, on 11 June.
Continue reading...Giant stingray snagged by local fisher in Mekong River weighs nearly 300kg
The world’s largest recorded freshwater fish, a giant stingray, has been caught in the Mekong River in Cambodia, according to scientists.
The stingray, captured on 13 June, measured almost four metres from snout to tail and weighed just under 300kg, according to a statement on Monday by Wonders of the Mekong, a joint Cambodian-US research project.
Continue reading...Foreign Office diplomats secured their freedom but sources say nothing was given in return except an apology
Five British nationals held by the Taliban since last December including the former BBC cameraman and Afghanistan expert Peter Jouvenal were released on Monday after backroom diplomacy by the British Foreign Office (FCDO).
It is understood that the five had been seized separately, and British sources said nothing was given in return for their release except an apology by them. However, the British government on Sunday had released a statement renouncing violence in Afghanistan and saying there was no alternative to pragmatic engagement with the current administration.
Continue reading...Campaigners say curtailing of women’s rights in Afghanistan means Trump-era waiver must be removed
Human rights groups are urging the UN to end a Trump-era waiver that allows Taliban members most responsible for the oppression of women in Afghanistan to travel abroad.
In a test for the international community’s willingness to isolate the Taliban, critics argue that those Taliban members curtailing women’s right to leave their homes within Afghanistan should at minimum be banned from leaving their country.
Continue reading...Seven wounded after motorists protest petrol shortage as government declares two-week school shutdown to conserve fuel
Sri Lanka’s military have opened fire to quell rioting at a fuel station, officials say, as unprecedented queues for petrol and diesel were seen across the bankrupt country.
Troops fired in Visuvamadu, 365km (228 miles) north of Colombo on Saturday night as their guard point was pelted with stones, army spokesperson Nilantha Premaratne said.
Continue reading...Government announces concessions to scheme as police arrest at least 260 people and hundreds of train services cancelled due to unrest
Protesters in India’s eastern state of Bihar have damaged public property and ransacked offices in a railway station, expressing outrage at a new military recruitment plan and demanding the government reverse course.
The government of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, has introduced a scheme called Agnipath, or “path of fire”, designed to bring more people into the military on four-year contracts to lower the average age of India’s 1.38 million-strong armed forces.
Continue reading...The exile who once led a military dictatorship is in hospital and a spokesperson has said his wish to come home should be granted
The possible return to Pakistan of its former president Pervez Musharraf for the first time since he left the country in 2016 has reopened a bitter debate about the military dictatorship he led for more than a decade.
Musharraf came to power in a coup in 1999 that toppled Nawaz Sharif’s government, and went on to hold the presidency from 2001 to 2008, when he resigned to avoid impeachment. Since then he has spent most of his time in self-imposed exile in the UK and the Middle East.
Continue reading...At least two people killed and seven wounded, officials say after attack in capital claimed by Islamic State
Gunmen have stormed a Sikh temple in the Afghan capital, killing at least two people and wounding seven more, officials say.
The interior ministry said the attacker used at least one grenade during the attack on Saturday, setting off a blaze in the complex. Minutes later, a car bomb was detonated in the area but caused no casualties, it added.
Continue reading...Lightning kills 21 and millions of homes submerged while armed forces asked to help amid continuing storms
At least 59 people died as floods cut a swatch across north-eastern India and Bangladesh, leaving millions of homes underwater, authorities said on Saturday.
In India’s Assam state, 18 people died in the floods or landslides and 2 million others had seen their homes submerged in flood waters since Thursday, the state disaster management agency said.
Continue reading...Minister appeals for people to cut their consumption by one or two cups a day and save on imports
A minister in Pakistan’s newly elected government has been criticised after appealing to the nation to drink less tea to help save on imports amid a deepening economic crisis.
Pakistan is among the world’s top tea importers, and the brew is hugely popular among rich and poor. The typical Pakistani is believed to drink at least three cups a day on average.
Continue reading...Public sector employees also encouraged to find work overseas and send money home amid unprecedented economic crisis
Sri Lanka is asking government workers to take an extra day off each week to grow crops in their back yards in a bid to forestall a looming food shortage.
An unprecedented economic downturn has left several staple foods in short supply, along with petrol and medicines, and high inflation is ravaging household budgets.
Continue reading...UN expert says minors have been beaten and forced to endure mock executions
Scores of children have been killed in Myanmar since last year’s coup, not just in the crossfire of conflict but as deliberate targets of a military willing to inflict immense suffering, a United Nations expert has said.
Minors had been beaten and stabbed and had fingernails or teeth removed during interrogation, while some were made to endure mock executions, according to a report published on Tuesday from the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews.
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