South Asia | The Daily Star

  • Clash with militants kill 7 Pak troops

    Seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in an exchange of fire with militants in the country's northwest near the Afghan border on Saturday, the military said. The militants had infiltrated from across the Afghan border, and an officer was among the Pakistani soldiers killed. Nine militants were also killed.

  • Maoist rebels kill Indian lawmaker

    Maoist rebels were yesterday accused of assassinating a south Indian lawmaker and another former legislator in a brazen daytime ambush on their vehicle, police and media reports said.

  • India rolls out 'Modicare'

    India yesterday launched the world's biggest health insurance scheme which Prime Minister Narendra Modi said would cover some 500 million poor people. The programme, dubbed "Modicare", promises health cover worth 500,000 rupees ($6,900) to every poor family to treat serious ailments.

  • Maldives election will not be free and fair

    The Maldives presidential election will not be free and fair because President Abdulla Yameen has used draconian laws to crackdown on rivals, a foreign monitoring group said on the eve of voting.

  • Who will come out on top?

    More than a quarter of a million people will vote on Sunday for the next leader of the small Indian Ocean nation of the Maldives in an

  • Prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz

    Ousted Pak PM Nawaz released

    Ousted Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Mohammad Safdar, were released from Adiala jail yesterday after a court suspended their respective prison sentences for corruption pending an appeal hearing.

  • 40 lakh given a chance

    India's Supreme Court yesterday ordered resumption of filing of claims and objections by around 40 lakh people who were left out in the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) of Assam.

  • India Muslim women

    India criminalises 'triple talaq'

    India yesterday prescribed arrests and jail terms for offenders in a campaign to stamp out instant Muslim divorce, or "triple talaq", as Prime Minister Narendra Modi looks to woo women voters of the South Asian nation's minority community.

  • Aung San Suu Kyi

    Suu Kyi's sculpture to be sold for underprivileged in Myanmar

    A figurative bronze sculpture of Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi will be put up for sale by auction in order to raise money for charity, said Dr Thant Thaw Kaung, executive committee member of the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation.

  • Our EVM can’t be tampered with: Indian EC

    The Election Commission of India has told the Supreme Court that its Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) could not be tampered with and that it is taking all measures to ensure that these machines are safely transported.

  • Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh

    India plans digital fence on border

    India will launch a digital smart fencing project along Assam state's border with Bangladesh in November, Home Minister Rajnath Singh has said.

  • Will work together for development

    Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said she looks forward to continued support from India for the development of Bangladesh.

  • 3 infants die every 2 mins in India: UN

    Three infants die every two minutes on an average in India due to lack of access to water, sanitation, proper nutrition or basic health services, according to a report by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.

  • Indian villagers who have musical identities

    Curious whistles and chirrups echo through the jungle around Kongthong, a remote Indian village, but this is no birdsong. It's people calling out to each other in music -- an extraordinary tradition that may even be unique.

  • Pick up phone or pack up

    Sri Lanka's president yesterday justified his decision to sack six diplomats -- including an ambassador -- for not answering his phone calls, saying more would follow if the foreign service did not shape up.

  • Afghan, 'Bengali' immigrants to get citizenship: Pak PM

    Pakistan's new premier Imran Khan has vowed to give citizenship to some Afghan refugees and Bengali immigrants, officials confirmed yesterday, granting rights to many who have lived in the country for decades.

  • Dozens inmates flee Myanmar jail break

    Myanmar police are hunting dozens of escaped inmates who hijacked a delivery truck and smashed through the gates of their jail in a daring prison break yesterday, officials said. Forty-one prisoners escaped, according to state police chief Aung Myat Moe, but three have been recaptured while the hunt intensifies for the rest.

  • Bhutan's ruling party defeated

    Bhutan's prime minister conceded defeat yesterday, after the ruling party was knocked out in the first round of the small Himalayan nation's third-ever election. Harvard educated Tshering Tobgay was seeking a second term in the poll but fell short of two rival parties, who will contest a runoff on October 18.

  • Afghan conflict could be deadlier than Syria

    The Afghan conflict could overtake Syria as the deadliest conflict in the world this year, analysts say, as violence surges 17 years after the

  • Sri Lanka seeks UN reprieve

    Sri Lanka's president said yesterday that he wants the United Nations to drop its demand for state accountability over the alleged killing of some 40,000 Tamil civilians by government forces during a brutal civil war.

  • Pak PM woos bureaucracy

    Prime Minister Imran Khan yesterday addressed civil servants in Islamabad, asking them to support the government through a "down cycle" over the next two years and to support its "out-of-the-box" policy reforms.

  • Pak army curbs press freedom

    Pakistan's military is using fear and intimidation to stifle the media and undermine press freedom even as overall violence against reporters has fallen, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Wednesday.

  • Ease visa rules for foreign journos

    The main Maldives opposition party said on Wednesday that President Abdulla Yameen's government must ease "draconian" visa measures limiting the number of foreign journalists coming to cover a presidential election on September 23.

  • China plans bullet train to India via Bangladesh

    Chinese Consul General in Kolkata Ma Zhanwu has said his country is mooting a bullet train service between Kunming and Kolkata, traversing through Myanmar and Bangladesh.

  • Three terrorists killed in J&K encounter

    Three Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) terrorists were killed and twelve security personnel, including a DSP, injured yesterday in an encounter in

  • Opposition seeks FM's resignation

    The leader of India's opposition Congress Party has called for the resignation of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over what he termed an act of "collusion" in the case of Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya - an accusation Jaitley denies.

  • Pakistan military 'quietly' stifles press with intimidation: CPJ

    Pakistan's military is using fear and intimidation to stifle the media and undermine press freedom even as overall violence against reporters has fallen, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says.

  • Death toll in Afghan suicide attack hits 68

    The death toll from a suicide attack on Afghan protesters has soared to 68, officials said yesterday, as violence flares across the country

  • Ex-Pak PM released on parole

    Pakistan's jailed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter have been temporarily released on parole for the funeral of his wife, government and party sources said yesterday.

  • India sentences two to death over 2007 blasts

    An Indian court Monday sentenced two members of a banned Islamist militant group to death for carrying out twin blasts in August 2007 in the southern city of Hyderabad that killed 44 people.

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