Category Archives: South and Central Asia

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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Pakistan’s transgender women protest against rising tide of violence

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Rally and vigil held in Islamabad to highlight discrimination and attacks on community, including murders of five trans women in March

Mano had gone to meet her boyfriend at a printing press in Peshawar’s Qissa Khwani bazaar to get back some money he had borrowed.

“But he refused to pay,” her friend Farzana Riaz said. “Mano insisted and refused to leave without money. When Mano kept resisting, her boyfriend Sanaullah shot her.”

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Russia and India will find ways to trade despite sanctions, says Lavrov

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Russian foreign minister meets Narendra Modi and praises India’s refusal to condemn Ukraine invasion

The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, has afforded Russia’s foreign minister the honour of a meeting as Sergei Lavrov praised India’s refusal to condemn the Ukraine invasion.

Lavrov, who is visiting the country, predicted Moscow and Delhi would find ways to circumvent “illegal” western sanctions and continue to trade.

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‘The knowledge of our elders’: India’s living root bridges submitted to Unesco

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Meghalaya state hopes for world heritage status for unique bridges, which can take decades to create

India’s famous living bridges – the roots of trees coaxed and stretched into the form of a suspension bridge over a river – have been submitted to Unesco’s tentative list for the coveted world heritage site status.

The mountainous state of Meghalaya in the north-east has more than 100 such bridges in 70 villages, unique structures created by a combination of nature and human ingenuity.

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H&M pledges to end shopfloor sexual violence in India after worker killed

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Landmark agreement to protect garment workers from violence follows last year’s murder of Jeyasre Kathiravel, a Dalit woman

H&M has signed a legally binding agreement with one of its largest Indian clothing suppliers that pledges to end sexual violence and harassment against women on the factory floor after the murder of a young garment worker by her supervisor last year.

In January 2021, Jeyasre Kathiravel, a 20-year-old Dalit woman, was found dead on farmland near her family home after finishing a shift at Natchi Apparel, a factory making clothes for H&M in Kaithian Kottai, Tamil Nadu.

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Sri Lanka: 50 injured as protesters try to storm president’s house amid economic crisis

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Curfew lifted a day after 45 people were arrested when an angry crowd demanded the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa

Nearly 50 people were injured after authorities used teargas and water cannon to drive back a crowd that stormed the home of Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, amid anger over the government’s handling of the nation’s deepening economic crisis.

The crisis, the worst in living memory, has caused massive discontent, with people unable to find gas for cooking, medicines, fuel and basic items of food such as milk powder because the country has run out of foreign currency to pay for imported goods.

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UN donor conference falls billions short of $4.4bn target to help Afghanistan

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Conference raises only $2.44bn as Russian foreign minister says west is responsible for country’s humanitarian crisis

The world’s donor drought, and growing global divisions over Afghanistan’s political direction, have been laid bare when a UN appeal for $4.4bn (£3.35bn) to help Afghanistan fell massively short, the second UN donor conference in a month to do so.

Donor countries pledged only $2.44bn towards the appeal, a senior UN official said on Thursday after a high-level pledging conference.

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UK Foreign Office rushed £4.2bn of aid cuts, official audit finds

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Support slashed despite warnings about impact, with offices told not to discuss plans with local partners, says National Audit Office report

The British government forced through £4.2bn in aid cuts so quickly it had little time to plan the impact they would have, or consult partners, according to an official audit.

The National Audit Office (NAO) said bilateral spending – aid given directly to another government – faced some of the harshest cuts by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) – 53% compared with less than a third of the overall aid budget – because of political and legal commitments to multilateral spending.

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Imran Khan claims US threatened him and wants him ousted as Pakistan PM

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Khan makes claims in live televised address as no-confidence vote debate begins in parliament

Pakistan’s embattled prime minister, Imran Khan, has claimed that the US “threatened” him and is seeking his removal from office as he faces a no-confidence vote in the coming days that could mean the end of his premiership.

Khan, who opposition parties accuse of bad governance and economic incompetence, had claimed at a rally on Sunday he had a letter that showed a foreign country was conspiring against him and his political opponents working at its behest.

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Revealed: migrant workers in Qatar forced to pay billions in recruitment fees

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Guardian investigation finds labourers – including those on World Cup-related projects – were left with huge debts

Low-wage migrant workers have been forced to pay billions of dollars in recruitment fees to secure their jobs in World Cup host nation Qatar over the past decade, a Guardian investigation has found.

Bangladeshi men migrating to Qatar are likely to have paid about $1.5bn (£1.14bn) in fees, and possibly as high as $2bn, between 2011 and 2020. Nepali men are estimated to have paid around $320m, and possibly more than $400m, in the four years between mid-2015 to mid-2019.

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Britain hands billions to projects linked to labour abuse and climate damage

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UK Export Finance used £5.24bn of taxpayer money to fund overseas energy and infrastructure ventures – despite its own review raising concerns

The British government has provided more than £5bn in the past three years to overseas energy and infrastructure projects linked to labour abuses and environmental damage, according to documents and interviews with workers.

The funding – a combination of loans and guarantees – comes from the government’s export credit agency, UK Export Finance (UKEF), a government department to help UK companies access business contracts overseas.

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Indian journalist prevented from flying to Europe to speak about intimidation

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Rana Ayyub, a columnist for the Washington Post, was not allowed to board a flight at Mumbai airport on Tuesday

A prominent Indian journalist has been prevented from flying to Europe to speak about intimidation of journalists and rights in the world’s largest democracy.

Rana Ayyub, an outspoken critic of the government of Narendra Modi and columnist for the Washington Post, was not allowed to board a flight at Mumbai airport on Tuesday. She had been due to travel to London to address a conference at the International Centre for Journalists.

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Pakistan PM Imran Khan loses support days before no-confidence vote

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Key coalition partner has switched allegiance ahead of a parliamentary no-confidence vote this weekend

Imran Khan’s future as prime minister of Pakistan is looking increasingly in doubt after a key coalition partner switched allegiance ahead of a parliamentary no-confidence vote this weekend.

The former cricketer was expected to address the country in the evening, as weeks of political turmoil come to a head – including allegations of foreign interference.

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Afghanistan aid pledges could fall far short of target, officials fear

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Taliban’s increasingly repressive rule could lead to donor backlash at UN pledging conference on Thursday

Western officials fear a UN pledging conference this Thursday aimed at raising more than $4.4bn (£3.34bn) aid for Afghanistan is likely to fall well short of its target. One UN official admitted he feared the Taliban’s increasingly repressive rule would lead to a donor backlash.

The new UN appeal, on top of the flash appeal for $600m in the immediate wake of the Taliban takeover in August, is hoping to raise the biggest sum ever for a single country at a pledging conference.

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Low turnout for India’s national two-day strike as 50 million join protests

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Unions say strike over ‘anti-worker’ government policies a success despite limited impact, with far fewer than predicted taking part

An estimated 50 million people joined India’s two-day national strike this week, a fraction of the number expected to protest.

Bank, factory and public transport workers disrupted services in six states on Monday and Tuesday, but the strike had limited impact across the rest of the country.

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Eight UN peacekeepers killed in helicopter crash in DRC

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Six Pakistanis, a Russian and a Serb victims of fatal reconnaissance mission, officials say

Eight UN peacekeepers – six Pakistanis, a Russian and a Serb – were killed on Tuesday when a Puma helicopter crashed in the troubled eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), UN and Pakistani officials said.

“While undertaking a reconnaissance mission in Congo, 1 Puma Helicopter crashed. Exact cause of crash is yet to be ascertained,” the Pakistani military’s media wing said. It added that six Pakistani troops were among those killed.

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Toxic fumes fill Delhi’s skies after vast landfill site catches fire

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Blaze at 65-metre high ‘mountain of shame’ in Ghazipur still not completely put out

Parts of a fire that broke out on Monday at a gigantic landfill site on the outskirts of Delhi known as the “mountain of shame” were still smouldering 24 hours later, choking local residents who have complained of breathing in toxic fumes.

Dozens of firefighters struggled to douse the flames at the landfill site in Ghazipur, due to its height and a lack of access roads.

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Myanmar’s military ruler vows to ‘annihilate’ resistance groups

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Min Aung Hlaing also urges ethnic minorities not to support militias opposed to army rule

Myanmar’s top general has vowed to intensify action against homegrown militia groups fighting the military-run government, saying the armed forces would “annihilate” them.

Gen Min Aung Hlaing, speaking at a military parade marking Armed Forces Day on Sunday, also urged ethnic minorities not to support groups opposed to army rule and ruled out negotiations with them.

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