SOUTH ASIA

Islamabad, Sep 20 (IANS) Pakistan's Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights has reviewed disturbing reports of corporal punishment, torture, and sexual abuse against children at religious seminaries across provinces of Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, local media reported.The meeting, chaired by Senator Samina Mumtaz Zehri at Parliament House, called for strong action to protect children from abuse at seminaries and schools, declaring that no child should suffer in the name of education.Highlighting that the Pakistani authorities bear the foremost responsibility to protect children, Senator Zehri expressed concern over the lack of proper registration, financial transparency, and monitoring of these institutions.She demanded strict measures, including regular inspections of madras...

Seoul, June 12 (IANS) North Korea appears to have paused its broadcasts of loud noises toward South Korea on Thursday, the South's military said, a day after Seoul suspended its yearlong anti-Pyongyang broadcasts along the border."There were no areas where North Korea's loudspeaker broadcasts were detected Thursday," the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said, adding it is closely monitoring related movements in North Korea.The North's broadcasts of loud noises were last heard in the western border area late Wednesday night, a military official said on condition of anonymity.On Wednesday, President Lee Jae-myung ordered the suspension of loudspeaker broadcasts targeting North Korea in a move aimed at easing tensions and rebuilding trust, according to Yonhap news agency.The presidential office ...

Washington, June 12 (IANS) Non-essential US embassy staff and their dependents have been ordered to leave Iraq due to unspecified security risks, sources from the US State Department have said."Based on our latest analysis, we decided to reduce the footprint of our mission in Iraq," the State Department said in a statement on Wednesday."We are constantly assessing the appropriate personnel posture at all our embassies," it added.Also on Wednesday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved the voluntary departure of US military dependents from the Middle East.The security risks leading to the ordered departure from Iraq are not immediately clear, reports Xinhua news agency.According to media reports, Iran recently threatened to strike US bases in the region if negotiations over Iran's nucl...

United Nations, June 12 (IANS) UN humanitarians have voiced concern over the alarming rise in internal displacement as a result of violence in Haiti.The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Wednesday said nearly 1.3 million people are now displaced across the country, citing figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).It represents an increase of 24 per cent since December 2024. It also marks the highest figure ever recorded due to violence in Haiti.While the capital city of Port-au-Prince remains the epicentre of violence among armed groups, its expansion into other regions, particularly the Centre and Artibonite departments, has triggered large-scale displacement, said OCHA.In the Centre Department, the number of displaced people has more t...

Tel Aviv, June 12 (IANS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the bodies of two hostages had been recovered from Gaza in a joint operation carried out by the Israeli military and the domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet.In a statement on Thursday, Netanyahu confirmed that one of the recovered hostages was Yair Yaakov, while the identity of the second individual has not yet been made public."In an operational activity by the IDF and Shin Bet in the Gaza Strip, the bodies of two of our abductees were returned to Israel - the late Yair Yaakov, and another abductee whose name has not yet been released (his family has been informed of this)," he said in a post on X.The Israeli military said Yaakov, 59, was abducted and killed by the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad during t...

New York, June 12 (IANS) An Indian-origin man has been sentenced to over six years in prison for his involvement in a nearly $2 million scheme to defraud senior citizens by using call centres abroad. Giving him the 75-month sentence on Wednesday, Federal Judge William Jung also ordered Pranav Patel to forfeit $1.79 million that was collected from seniors in Florida and elsewhere.According to court documents, Patel worked as a "money mule" -- collecting money or gold from victims -- and was convicted of money laundering, which he admitted to, in December."Preying on vulnerable, unsuspecting elderly victims to rob them of their hard-earned money is despicable," Secret Service Special Agent Robert Engel said after the sentencing in the federal court in Tampa, Florida."Even worse, the defendan...

Dhaka: Muhammad Yunus's popularity is waning as the interim government faces a series of crisis, with Bangladesh's political landscape becoming increasingly complex. June marks the 10th month since Yunus assumed leadership of the country's state machinery as the Chief Advisor of the interim government — formed through the consensus of political parties, civil society, and the military following the ousting of Sheikh Hasina. It was widely expected that the interim government would serve a brief term, similar to previous caretaker administrations, with its primary responsibilities being efficient management of state affairs and facilitation of free and fair elections. In practice, however, the Yunus administration has failed to achieve either objective and has instead undertaken the broader ...

Brussels, June 11 (IANS) India and the European Union (EU) on Wednesday signed an agreement on Trilateral Cooperation that focuses on joint priorities and supports pilot projects in third countries.The agreement driving forward India–EU engagement in connectivity, India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), green shipping and clean energy was signed in the presence of External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar and Jozef Sikela, the European Commissioner for International Partnership.Both sides noted that the signing of the trilateral cooperation agreement will benefit the Global South."To fully unlock the potential of the EU–India partnership, today we signed a Cooperation Agreement on Trilateral Cooperation with Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar. This new initiative will...

Islamabad, June 11 (IANS) Pakistani journalists on Wednesday boycotted the post-budget press conference held by the country's Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb in Islamabad, accusing the government of breaking a 20-year-old tradition by not holding a technical briefing on the federal budget 2025-2026.Local media reports highlighted that journalists staged a walkout immediately after Aurangzeb began the press briefing. Several senior business journalists also chanted slogans and called for transparency and adherence to past practice. Their exit interrupted the briefing and sent a strong message about the feeling of discontentment that prevails in the country over the current budget.The Federal Minister for Information Attaullah Tarar tried to de-escalate the situation, confirming that the...