The first thing I have noticed about South and Central Asia is that it is harder to find current event articles than for the Middle East. And once I find articles, they are vastly different in what news they are reporting. For the countries located in Central Asia, they have events that are more similar to the Middle East. The… Read more »
For nearly a month, a 41-year-old Indian man has been in prison for posting five satirical tweets. In September, Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, a Delhi-based defence specialist with some 20,000 Twitter followers posted what he himself described as a “disparaging” video from a visit to the 13th Century Konark temple in the eastern state of Orissa. Following outrage against his “vulgar” comments… Read more »
A supporter of Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina threatened to sue a cinema over a spelling error that inadvertently suggested she had a “tail”. The cinema in Dhaka misspelled the title, Hasina: A Daughter’s Tale – but has since corrected it. Hasina supporter Saad Chowdhury said the word tail was “elfish”; suggested part of an animal, and was humiliating. He demanded… Read more »
The United States announced a new raft of sanctions on Iran on Monday, but granted exemptions to eight countries, allowing them to temporarily continue buying Iranian oil, said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The move follows US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from a landmark 2015 international agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme. In a statement, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said:… Read more »
One US soldier was killed and another wounded in an “apparent insider attack” in Kabul on Saturday, NATO said, in the latest such assault on international forces in Afghanistan. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the third so-called “green-on-blue” attack in less than three weeks that have rattled foreign troops tasked with training and assisting the war-torn country’s… Read more »
I have always known that India is an over populated country, however I’ve never really focused on the effect that so many people in one area have on the planet. When I think of the population problem in India I automatically think of the traffic because of the many pictures I have seen and not the pollution that is inevitably… Read more »
Every winter, a thick blanket of smog descends on large parts of India and people begin a losing fight against the frightening levels of pollution. Thousands land up in doctors’ clinics with breathlessness, fill up hospital beds with lung problems and many are forced to stay off school or work. And with measures announced by the federal and state governments… Read more »
Mass rally comes as parliament speaker refuses to recognise Rajapaksa’s controversial appointment as PM. Tens of thousands of people have rallied in Sri Lanka‘s capital, Colombo, in support of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s controversial appointment as prime minister. Monday’s rally, near the parliament house, came amid a deepening constitutional crisis triggered by President Maithripala Sirisena’s decision to replace Prime Minister Ranil… Read more »
Riot reportedly broke out in the city of Khujand late on Wednesday, confirmed by the city government. At least 25 inmates and two security officers have been killed after a riot broke out at a high-security prison in Tajikistan, three security sources said on Thursday. The violence started late on Wednesday when an inmate, believed to be a member of the… Read more »
Pakistan’s Supreme Court Wednesday overturned the conviction of a Christian woman facing execution for blasphemy in a landmark case which has incited deadly violence and reached as far as the Vatican. Blasphemy is an incendiary charge in deeply conservative Muslim Pakistan, where even unproven allegations of insulting Islam and its Prophet Mohammed can provoke death at the hands of vigilantes… Read more »