Category: Asia

NEW DELHI (AFP) – Indian authorities have seized more than US$70 million (S$94.58 million) worth of cash, booze and illegal drugs under special laws designed to curb vote buying during the world’s biggest election, officials said on Tuesday (March 26). Around 900 million Indians are eligible to vote in the mammoth polls, which start on April […]

An Indonesian theme park has covered the bare breasts on two statues to respect “Eastern values”. Ancol Dreamland in the capital city Jakarta placed golden chest wraps on the mermaid figures, which have been at the park for the last 15 years. The move has confused many in the city and prompted questions about whether […]

Millions of women and homeless people will be barred from voting in India’s elections because of biases and difficulties in getting identification papers, human rights groups said on Tuesday, warning this would increase their marginalisation. Every Indian who is 18 years or older has a right to vote in polls due to start on April […]

Turkish defense products have left visitors in awe as the 2019 Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace (LIMA) Exhibition kicked off on Tuesday in Malaysia. Turkish Defense Industry President Ismail Demir, Deputy Minister of National Defense Muhsin Dere, Turkish ambassador to Kuala Lampur Merve Safa Kavakçı and various top level officials are among the attendees. Representatives […]

Hundreds of protesters, Tibetans and Uyghurs refugees in France, met Monday in Paris to call on Emmanuel Macron to denounce the oppression they endure on Chinese territory. “Justice for the Uyghurs”, “Stop the genocide”: Several hundred representatives of minorities demonstrated Monday in Paris in the hope of putting human rights on the menu of Chinese […]

MUMBAI (REUTERS) – Indian tax authorities are hoping for a windfall with the auction on Tuesday (March 26) of rare oil paintings that were once part of fugitive billionaire jeweler Nirav Modi’s collection and have been seized by the government. Auctioneers say the sale is the first of its kind in a country where tax authorities have […]

Authorities in the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council forcibly evicted more than 600 Muslim families from their land in Hojai, saying the families, including Kulsuma’s, had encroached upon government land. In February 2017, the government informed the Assam assembly that about 3,481 families were evicted from 13 districts. Indrajit Bezbaruah, an associate professor at Assam’s Lumding College, saidt hose evicted were either internally displaced persons from flood-affected areas, IDPs from ethnic conflict-ridden Bodoland districts, or the local landless peasants belonging to the indigenous Kachari Muslim community settled in the area since the 1970s. Assam has 362,450 landless families spread across 31 of its 33 districts, Forest Minister Pramila Rani Brahma told the state assembly in February last year. Suprakash Talukdar, a leader of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, alleged that Assam government has not conducted any land settlement survey since 1965, which has denied land to the landless and kept them vulnerable to forced evictions. Bhabesh Kalita, Minister of State for Revenue and Disaster Management in Assam said his government was working to rehabilitate those displaced by erosion. Muslim IDPs in Assam carry an additional risk of being stripped of their citizenship rights, according to Guwahati-based activist Hafiz Ahmed.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo inaugurated the country’s first mass rapid transit (MRT) system on Sunday with the aim of easing the worsening traffic congestion in the capital Jakarta. The 16-kilometer long line with six underground and seven elevated stations stretches from the south to the city center with 30-minute travel time. The same route would […]

Pakistan wants peace with India and they should focus on health and education, the Pakistani president said on Saturday during a parade to show off its military might following a tense standoff between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Conflict between the rivals erupted last month following a suicide bomb attack claimed by a Pakistan-based militant group in […]