Shireen Mazari’s daughter tweeted that her mother was beaten and taken away by police near her Islamabad home on Saturday
Pakistan’s former human rights minister was arrested on Saturday in the capital over a decades-old land grabbing allegation, her daughter and another former minister said.
Shireen Mazari, who served in the cabinet-level position under former prime minister Imran Khan, was detained by police near her Islamabad home, daughter Imaan Mazari said in a tweet.
Continue reading...The ban on wheat exports highlights the effect a rapidly warming planet has on food security – and livelihoods
It was his buffaloes that he was first worried about. As temperatures in the small village of Baras, deep in the Indian state of Punjab, began to soar to unseasonably hot levels in April, farmer Hardeep Singh Uppal noticed that his two buffaloes, essential for his family’s livelihood, became feverish and unwell.
A few weeks later and the buffaloes now seem fine, flicking their tails leisurely as an icy breeze blows down from an air conditioning unit, a luxury that once sat in Uppal’s parents house but now has been installed in an otherwise run-down cowshed, running all day at great expense. “The vet told me I need to keep them cool in this heatwave otherwise they will die so this is the only way,” said Uppal.
Continue reading...Forty-two hunger strikers are part of group of 89 Sri Lankans whose boat was intercepted in Indian Ocean by UK military
Dozens of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who have been detained for more than seven months in a military base on an overseas territory claimed by Britain have gone on hunger strike in despair at their plight.
The 42 hunger strikers are part of a group of 89 Sri Lankans, including 20 children, whose boat was intercepted and escorted to Diego Garcia in the middle of the Indian Ocean by the British military after running into distress while apparently headed to Canada from India in October.
Continue reading...Economists fear Sri Lanka could be first of several, with IMF in talks with Egypt, Tunisia and Pakistan
Sri Lanka has defaulted on its debts for the first time in its history as it struggles with an economic and political crisis triggered by global shock waves from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
An inflation rate spiralling towards 40%, shortages of food, fuel and medicines and rolling power blackouts have led to nationwide protests and a plunging currency, with the government short of the foreign currency reserves it needed to pay for imports.
Continue reading...Female anchors post pictures of themselves being ‘erased’ on orders of virtue and vice ministry
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have ordered all female TV presenters to cover their faces on air, the country’s biggest media outlet has said.
The order came in a statement from the Taliban’s virtue and vice ministry, tasked with enforcing the group’s rulings, as well as from the information and culture ministry, the Tolo news channel tweeted on Thursday. The statement called the order “final and non-negotiable”, the channel said.
Continue reading...Escalating tensions erupt into regime-backed violence against the minority group in the autonomous region of Gorno-Badakhshan
At least 25 people were killed on Wednesday by security forces in Tajikistan during a protest in the autonomous region of Gorno-Badakhshan (GBAO), where the Tajik regime has targeted the Pamiri ethnic minority.
The deaths mark an escalation of violence in the region. Conflict between the central government and the Pamiri has continued for decades, with the cultural and linguistic minority ethnic group suffering human rights abuses, as well as discrimination over jobs and housing.
Continue reading...Pakistan’s first female suicide bombing marks shift in nature of Baloch militancy
On 26 April, Pakistan’s first female suicide bomber killed three Chinese teachers and the driver of the minibus they were travelling in as she blew herself up in front of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi.
The impacts have been felt far and wide. Chinese teachers working at the cultural and educational institutions have now left Pakistan, and in the restive province of Balochistan female activists are facing greater pressures, with three reported abductions this week.
Continue reading...Report by special inspector general blames Trump and Biden administrations, as well as the Afghan government of Ashraf Ghani
Afghan armed forces collapsed last year because they had been made dependent on US support that was abruptly withdrawn in the face of a Taliban offensive, according to a scathing assessment by a US government watchdog.
A report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (Sigar) on the catastrophic defeat that led to the fall of Kabul on 15 August, blamed the administrations of Donald Trump and Joe Biden as well as the Afghan government of Ashraf Ghani.
Continue reading...Latest analysis adds to evidence that the impacts of human-caused global heating are already damaging many lives around the world
Record-breaking heatwaves in north-west India and Pakistan have been made 100 times more likely by the climate crisis, according to scientists. The analysis means scorching weather once expected every three centuries is now likely to happen every three years.
The region is currently suffering intense heat, with the Indian capital New Delhi setting a new record on Sunday above 49C and the peak temperature in Pakistan reaching 51C. Millions of people are suffering from crop losses, and water and power outages.
Continue reading...Gang who stole statues from Hindu temple in India return most items, with note saying they had suffered nightmares
A gang of thieves have returned more than a dozen idols they stole from an ancient Hindu temple in India, saying they had been haunted by nightmares since the crime, according to police.
Last week, the group stole 16 statues from a 300-year-old temple to Lord Balaji – an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu – in Uttar Pradesh, police inspector Rajiv Singh told Agence France-Presse.
Continue reading...Four other government departments scrapped as cash-strapped regime faces $500m budget deficit
Taliban authorities in Afghanistan dissolved five key departments of the former US-backed government, including the country’s human rights commission, deeming them unnecessary in the face of a financial crunch, an official said.
Afghanistan faced a budget deficit of 44bn Afghanis ($501m) this financial year, Taliban authorities said as they announced their first annual national budget since taking over last August.
Continue reading...Ranil Wickremesinghe says country’s finances ‘extremely precarious’ in first address since appointment
Sri Lanka’s new prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has warned that the financial crisis engulfing the country will get worse and “the next couple of months will be the most difficult ones of our lives”.
In his first address to the country since he was appointed as interim prime minister on Thursday, after Mahinda Rajapaksa stepped down from the role amid Sri Lanka’s worst economic crash since independence, Wickremesinghe was blunt as he described the conditions of the country’s finances as “extremely precarious”.
Continue reading...Further intense unrest puts more pressure on the presidency of Gotabaya Rajapaksa
They have called it “Gota Go Village”. Here, on what was once an empty stretch of lawn outside the office of the Sri Lankan prime minister, on Colombo’s seafront Galle Face promenade, a thriving community has sprung up. There are tents, food stalls, a library, a memorial, art installations, stages for music and speeches, and even the beginnings of a small farm growing vegetables and fruit from recently planted trees. Nearby, a patch has been set aside to cultivate rice.
It began as the focal point of the anti-government protests that have engulfed Sri Lanka for months as the country goes through the worst economic crisis since independence. As fuel, food and medicine have run short, the blame has been placed firmly at the feet of one man, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, widely known as Gota, who stands accused of economic mismanagement and corruption pushing the country to the brink of bankruptcy. The calls from the majority of the population have been clear: Gota must step down.
Continue reading...Move imposed with immediate effect in attempt to control prices after heatwave damages crops
India, the world’s second largest producer of wheat, has banned all exports with immediate effect after a heatwave affected the crop.
A notice in the government gazette by the directorate of foreign trade, dated Friday, said a rise in global prices for wheat was threatening the food security of India and neighbouring and vulnerable countries.
Continue reading...Dozens injured as official says building had no fire exit and most died ‘due to asphyxiation’
At least 27 people have died and dozens more were injured in a huge fire in a commercial building in India’s capital, Delhi.
The large fire broke out at the four-storey building near a railway station in the western suburb of Mundka in the late afternoon on Friday, but its cause was not immediately clear.
Continue reading...Song has more than 111m views on YouTube and has been heralded for transcending boundaries
From radio stations in Islamabad to the nightclubs of Delhi and house parties in Kathmandu, it is a song that in recent months has been impossible to avoid. As soon as the distinctive opening claps of Pasoori, by the Pakistani singer Ali Sethi and his collaborator Shae Gill, are heard, it is often greeted with a roar of approval.
And it is not just in south Asia: since it was released in February, the song, which draws on traditional and modern musical influences, has gone on to become a global phenomenon and one of Pakistan’s most popular musical exports for years. It has more than 111m views on YouTube, it was the first Pakistani song to top Spotify’s global viral charts, and the first Pakistani song to enter its official global songs chart.
Continue reading...Parents lament pilot son ‘still not planning a baby’ after six years of marriage and demand compensation for exhausting their savings on him
An Indian couple are taking their son to court demanding that he and his wife either produce a grandchild within a year or cough up almost $650,000.
Sanjeev and Sadhana Prasad say that they exhausted their savings raising and educating their pilot son and paying for a lavish wedding.
Continue reading...Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed to lead ‘unity government’ after days of deadly violence
Sri Lanka’s beleaguered president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has sworn in a new prime minister to replace his brother as the country reels from days of violence.
The new PM, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has held the post five times before, will head up a “unity government” tasked with finding a way out of Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis since independence, with severe shortages of food, fuel and medicines and long power cuts.
Continue reading...Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned this week after his supporters attacked anti-government protesters and ran riot in Colombo, unleashing days of violence
Beleaguered president Gotabaya Rajapaksa was set to name a new prime minister on Thursday to try to steer Sri Lanka out of its dire economic crisis after days of violence, officials said.
Respected five-time former premier Ranil Wickremesinghe was the frontrunner to head a “unity government” with cross-party support in the 225-member parliament and replace Rajapaksa’s elder brother Mahinda who stepped down on Monday.
Continue reading...Fears grow path is being laid for a military takeover, although this was denied by top defence official
Troops and armoured vehicles have been deployed across the city of Colombo and security officials given orders to shoot on sight anyone deemed to be participating in violence as anti-government protests continued to rock Sri Lanka.
The crisis turned volatile earlier this week after pro-government supporters began attacking a camp of peaceful demonstrators who had been protesting against the government and the devastating economic crisis that has engulfed the island of 22 million people.
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