India's Supreme Court will hear on Monday the pleas filed by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren challenging their arrests by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Both petitions have been listed before the bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar D
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is concerned by the dip in voter turnout in the first two of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections. The party’s brass has cracked the whip on the state units and directed the workers to ensure they intensify outreach and motivate voters to turn out in large numb
Six years ago, a Muslim boy returned red-faced from a well-known school in the northern Indian city of Agra. "My classmates called me a Pakistani terrorist," the nine-year-old told his mother. Reema Ahmad, an author and counsellor, remembers the day vividly. "Here was a feisty, lit
Israeli air strikes on three houses in the southern Gaza city of Rafah killed 13 people and wounded many others, medics said on Monday. Hamas media outlets put the death toll at 15. In Gaza City, in the north of the strip, Israeli planes struck two houses, killing and wounding several people, hea
Iraq’s parliament has passed a law criminalising same-sex relationships with a maximum 15-year prison sentence, in a move it said aimed to uphold religious values, but was condemned by rights advocates as the latest attack on the LGBTQ community in Iraq. The law adopted on Saturday aims to &
An undersea quake, with a magnitude of 6.5, has jolted western Indonesia's West Java province, without triggering giant waves, the country's meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency said. The earthquake occurred at 23:29 Jakarta time (1629 GMT) on Saturday with its epicenter located 151 km s
Five people were killed and 33 others injured by a strong tornado that hit Guangzhou, the capital city of south China's Guangdong Province, Saturday afternoon, local authorities said. The tornado hit Zhongluotan Town in the city's Baiyun District at approximately 3:00 pm., while the weather statio
India held the second phase of the world's biggest election on Friday amid lower voter turnout, compared to that of the previous phase. A total of 88 seats out of the 543 in the lower house of parliament went to the polls on Friday, with 160 million people eligible to vote across 13 states and fed
Commenting on Bangladesh’s economic growth, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said although the then ‘West Pakistan’ once considered ‘East Pakistan’ as a burden, independent Bangladesh has made tremendous strides in industrial growth. According to Shehbaz Sha
The vast amount of rubble including unexploded ordnance left by Israel’s devastating war in the Gaza Strip could take about 14 years to remove, a United Nations official said on Friday. Israel’s military campaign against Gaza’s ruling Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has reduced
A baby girl who was delivered from her dying mother’s womb in a Gaza hospital following an Israeli airstrike has herself died after just a few days of life, the doctor who was caring for her said on Friday. The baby had been named Rouh, meaning Soul. Her mother, Sabreen Al-Sakani, was serio
Sri Lanka has approved a new law allowing the state to seize any proceeds from criminal activities, a cabinet spokesperson said on Friday. At a cabinet briefing, Sri Lanka’s Transport Minister Bandula Gunawardana said the new law was proposed as part of efforts under the IMF programme to imp
Pakistan's economic indicators are showing positive signs, with an agenda of painful reforms and privatisation on track, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Friday, ahead of an IMF board meeting to decide on a $1.1 billion funding for the country. The prime minister said, in an address to
