In the past week, protests have been circling an Indian Hindu temple. The reason behind these protests are because the Supreme Court lifted a long lasting ban on women of menstrual cycle age, allowed into the temple. The ban was in place because there was a link between menstruation and the impurity within Hinduism. Those that were arrested at the… Read more »
Indian police arrested 68 people taking part in protests around a controversial Hindu temple ahead of a Supreme Court ruling Monday on whether it should be given more time to let women enter. The Sabarimala temple in the southern state of Kerala has become a major battleground between Hindu radicals and gender activists. Tens of thousands of pilgrims have thronged to the… Read more »
Bangladesh said it was ready to begin repatriating some of the more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled from army-led violence in Myanmar since last year. But refugees said they would refuse to go because of fears for their safety. Some said their families have fled from their shanties in the refugee camps to avoid being sent back. The situation remained… Read more »
Sabarimala, one of Hinduism’s most holy temples, has become a symbol of the fight for gender equality in India as female worshippers continue to be denied access to the premises despite a Supreme Court decision striking down a longtime ban on women. For centuries, women of childbearing age have been forbidden from entering Sabarimala in southern Kerala state. In a landmark… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s parliament passed a no-confidence vote against the controversially appointed government of Mahinda Rajapakse Wednesday, a day after the Supreme Court overturned a presidential decree dissolving the legislature. Speaker Karu Jayasuriya ruled that a majority of the 225-member assembly supported a no-confidence motion against Rajapakse who was made prime minister on October 26 in place of Ranil Wickremesinghe. Parliament convened for… Read more »
The Iranian nuclear program has become a more present issue as the the years of development have progressed. Iran has their back up against a wall with nowhere to go, besides build nuclear weapons. The strategy that they play is nerve wracking for many surrounding countries, as well as the countries that depend on their trade negotiations with Iran. The… 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 »
The United States will add 700 individuals and entities to its Iran blacklist and pressure the global SWIFT banking network to cut off Tehran when expanded sanctions are put in place next week, US officials said Friday. But eight countries will be able to continue importing Iranian oil at lower levels in order to avoid upsetting global crude markets when… 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 »
Sri Lanka’s President lifted a suspension of parliament Thursday and called a meeting of lawmakers next week that could end an increasingly bitter power struggle between two rival prime ministers, officials said. The climbdown by Maithripala Sirisena, who sparked the crisis by sacking Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister and naming former strongman leader Mahinda Rajapakse in his place, could lead… Read more »