Kabul, Afghanistan – Pashtana Arabzai feels she has done her homework and says it is only a matter of days before she realises her ambition. For the past three weeks, she has travelled back and forth across Afghanistan‘s capital, Kabul, trying to convince voters to back her in Saturday’s parliamentary elections. Arabzai is among the 118 women candidates trying to… Read more »
Kabul, Afghanistan – Polls opened in Afghanistan’s long-delayed parliamentary election on Saturday amid security threats from the Taliban armed group who vowed to disrupt the “bogus” vote. Voting centres opened at 7am (02:30GMT) and will close at 4pm (12:30GMT). Close to nine million Afghans have registered to take part in the vote, which was first scheduled for 2015.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Four Indian cabinet ministers will suggest steps to address sexual harassment at work, the government said on Wednesday, after a growing #MeToo movement sparked accusations against more than a dozen men and forced a minister to resign.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s capital is set for a “deadly cocktail” of pollution in coming weeks, a senior government official said, as air quality in the New Delhi area plummeted on Wednesday, alarming doctors and environmentalists.
NOIDA, India (Reuters) – Smartphone-maker Lava is a small player in India’s booming mobile communications industry, but it has become a poster child for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious effort to make India a global hub for electronics manufacturing.
MUMBAI (Reuters) – The Indian federal agency that investigates financial crimes raided Amnesty’s southern India office on Thursday, a spokeswoman for the human rights watchdog said, in the latest crackdown on an international non-profit group in the country.
The top security leadership of Afghanistan’s Kandahar has been assassinated in a brazen gun attack claimed by the Taliban, leaving a power vacuum in the crucial province ahead of Saturday’s elections. General Abdul Raziq, one of Afghanistan’s most powerful security officials, was killed along with Kandahar’s intelligence chief, Abdul Mohmin, when a bodyguard opened fire after a meeting in the… Read more »
Campaigners are calling on India to protect girls in state-run institutions who are at risk of sexual assault and violence after 34 girls were violently attacked by a mob for fighting off sexual harassers in Bihar state. Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, a residential school for girls in Supaul district, witnessed chaotic scenes on Saturday after some girls objected to sexual advances and lewd… Read more »
Despite Taliban threats of violence to disrupt last Saturday’s parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, many Afghans showed up in large numbers to vote. Their commitment once again debunked the myths and caricatures so readily put forth by Western commentators that Afghans do not want democracy. Over and over the Afghan people have shown that they want accountability from their leaders, inclusion,… Read more »
Pakistan has released the Afghan Taliban leader from prison, a spokesman for the Taliban announced on Thursday. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, also known as Mullah Baradar, is a co-founder of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. He was arrested by Pakistani authorities in the southern port city of Karachi in 2010. Pakistan has released Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and he joined his… Read more »