On the latest update of Asia Bibi, Pakistan has recently overturned her conviction. She had been arrested and sentenced to death for blasphemy, as a christian minority in Pakistan her family always had to be extremely careful considering the laws against blasphemy. A local woman went to her local cleric and accused Bibi of blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed. Without… Read more »
Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed on Tuesday to start returning Rohingya refugees in November, less than a week after UN investigators warned that a genocide against the Muslim minority was still ongoing. More than 720,000 Rohingya fled a brutal military crackdown in August last year, taking shelter in crowded camps in Bangladesh and bringing with them harrowing tales of rape, murder and arson blamed on… Read more »
The US-backed Afghan government has lost control of a number of districts to the Taliban, while casualties among security forces have reached record levels, a US watchdog agency has said. The latest quarterly report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) underlines the heavy pressure on the government in Kabul even as the United States has opened initial contacts with the… Read more »
India has unveiled the world’s tallest statue, which cost 29.9bn rupees (£330m; $430m) to build. The 182m (600ft) high structure in the western state of Gujarat is a bronze-clad tribute to independence leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the “statue of unity” would serve as a major tourist attraction. But locals say this is as a waste… 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 »