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Congress party’s Arun Reddy held over fake video of interior minister Amit ShahIndian police have said they have arrested the social media chief of the country’s main opposition party over a doctored video widely shared during the ongoing national election.Arun Reddy of the Congress party was detained late on Friday in connection with the edited footage, which falsely shows India’s powerful interior minister, Amit...

Inadvertent poisoning of scavengers across Indian subcontinent is forcing some communities to give up ancient customTraditional Zoroastrian burial rites are becoming increasingly impossible to perform because of the precipitous decline of vultures in India, Iran and Pakistan.For millennia, Parsi communities have traditionally disposed of their dead in structures called dakhma, or “towers of silence”. These circular, elevated edifices are designed to prevent the soil,...

Prime minister said there were ‘credible allegations’ that India was behind killing of Hardeep Singh NijjarCanadian police have charged three members of an alleged hit team for their role in the assassination of the Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the first arrests in a high-profile killing that officials believe was masterminded by India.The arrests come nearly a year after the prominent activist was killed...

Parties clash over communal issues in increasingly charged campaign amid concerns unseasonably hot weather affecting voter numbersIndia has held the second phase of the world’s biggest election, with prime minister Narendra Modi and his rivals hurling accusations of religious discrimination and threats to democracy amid flagging voter turnout.Almost 1 billion people are eligible to vote in the seven-phase general election that began on 19...

Despite eventual visa backflip by authorities, ABC’s south-Asia correspondent Avani Dias left after being made to ‘feel so uncomfortable’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastThe south-Asia correspondent for Australia’s national broadcaster, Avani Dias, has been forced out of India after her reporting fell foul of the Indian government, in a...

Opposition says prime minister targeting Muslim minority with ‘hate speech’ and violating election rulesIndia’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has been accused of hate speech during a campaign rally where he called Muslims “infiltrators” who had “many children” and claimed they would take people’s hard-earned money.The opposition accused Modi of “blatantly targeting” India’s 200 million Muslim minority with comments made while addressing voters at a...

Thousands of civilians flee as resistance fighters fight to flush out soldiers holed up at eastern bridge border crossing Fighting raged at Myanmar’s eastern border with Thailand on Saturday, both governments said, forcing 3,000 civilians to flee as rebels fought to flush out Myanmar junta troops holed up for days at a bridge border crossing.Resistance fighters and ethnic minority rebels seized the key trading...

Experts say Indian PM is hoping to be ‘bigger than Gandhi’ as he aims to win a third term in officeAs the distant rumble of a helicopter drew closer, cheers erupted from the gathered crowds in anticipation. By the time India’s prime minister finally stepped on to the stage, bowing deeply while immaculately dressed in a white kurta and peach waistcoat and with a...

First phase in world’s largest democratic exercise begins, with 969 million people eligible to vote over six-week periodVoting has begun in India’s mammoth general election, as Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party hopes to increase its parliamentary majority amid allegations that the country’s democracy has been undermined since it came to power 10 years ago.India’s elections are the largest democratic exercise in the world, with...

Military spokesperson says Nobel laureate is among prisoners to be moved out of prison as a precaution during hot weatherMyanmar’s detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved from prison to house arrest, according to the military junta.A spokesperson said the measure was taken due to extremely hot weather and that it was trying to prevent heatstroke among “all those who need...

Two men from Bishnoi gang, whose leader has threatened to kill Salman Khan, arrested over Mumbai shootingTwo members of a criminal gang have been arrested by Indian police for firing at the home of the Bollywood actor Salman Khan in retaliation for the star’s killing of two antelopes.The Bishnoi gang, accused of several murders and extortion rackets, hails from a wider desert-based religious sect...

Thailand PM says army is weakening after junta requests permission to land evacuation flight from Myawaddy across the borderMyanmar’s embattled junta has evacuated personnel from a key border position after hundreds of soldiers surrendered to opposition groups, in another humiliating defeat for the army.The military is now on the brink of losing control of Myawaddy, in Karen state, one of the most important border...

Defence minister’s comments after Guardian report are first time India has acknowledged any assassinations on foreign soilIndia’s defence minister has appeared to confirm that the government carried out extrajudicial killings in neighbouring Pakistan, after a Guardian report on the alleged assassinations.Intelligence officials from India and Pakistan who spoke to the Guardian had alleged that India’s foreign intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (Raw), had...

National Unity Government said it attacked two military targets in junta-controlled NaypidawOpponents of Myanmar’s military said they had carried out drone attacks against junta sites in the capital, Naypyidaw, in what appears to be a rare incursion against the embattled junta’s centre of power.The National Unity Government (NUG), which was formed to oppose the 2021 coup, said it had launched drone attacks on two...

Allegations of up to 20 assassinations since 2020 follow Canada’s accusation of Delhi role in murders of dissidentsThe Indian government assassinated individuals in Pakistan as part of a wider strategy to eliminate terrorists living on foreign soil, according to Indian and Pakistani intelligence operatives who spoke to the Guardian.Interviews with intelligence officials in both countries, as well as documents shared by Pakistani investigators, shed...

Researchers find that in low and middle-income countries owning spectacles can help people over 35 can increase their incomeOwning a pair of reading glasses might help people increase their earnings by a third, according to new research.The study, conducted in Bangladesh, is the first to examine the impact of having a decent pair of spectacles, and researchers found monthly median earnings among one group...

High court members allege ISI put cameras in their bedrooms and tortured a relative to make them hear an appeal against ex-PMClaims by senior Pakistani judges that the intelligence agencies put pressure on them in cases involving the former prime minister Imran Khan have reached the country’s supreme court, following the publication of an unprecedented letter that has created a storm in Pakistan.The letter...

Shah Muhammad Rais was devastated when Taliban destroyed his shop, but now he is sending books to Afghanistan via the internetShah Muhammad Rais first opened his bookshop in the Afghan capital in 1974. By 2003, when his story was made famous by the bestselling book The Bookseller of Kabul, the business had collected about 100,000 books, in different languages, about literature, history and politics....

Opposition parties accuse government of ‘match fixing’ for elections over Arvind Kejriwal treatmentDelhi’s chief minister, a key opposition leader, must remain in custody for a further two weeks, a court has ruled, with India’s opposition parties accusing the government of “match fixing” before the country’s elections later this month.On Monday, a court ruled that Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, could remain in...

Parties unite at New Dehli rally to accuse PM of ‘tax terrorism’ and rigging the vote, after arrest of prominent leaderIndian opposition parties united on Sunday to protest against the arrest of a prominent leader weeks before a national election, accusing the prime minister, Narendra Modi, and his party of rigging the vote and harassing them with large tax demands.“Narendra Modi is trying match-fixing...

Afghan regime’s return to public stoning and flogging is because there is ‘no one to hold them accountable’ for abuses, say activistsThe Taliban’s announcement that it is resuming publicly stoning women to death has been enabled by the international community’s silence, human rights groups have said.Safia Arefi, a lawyer and head of the Afghan human rights organisation Women’s Window of Hope, said the announcement...

US called for fair legal process for opposition figure Arvind Kejriwal amid claims that challengers to Narendra Modi are being targeted ahead of national electionsIndia has summoned a top US diplomat after Washington warned it to ensure a “fair, transparent and timely legal process” for a senior opposition leader jailed just weeks ahead of parliamentary elections.The US state department had said it was “closely...

Five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver killed while en route from Islamabad to dam construction siteSix people have been killed after a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers working on a dam project in north-west Pakistan, in the third significant attack on Chinese interests in the country in a week.The first two attacks targeted a Pakistani naval airbase...

Limited details have emerged about background of Muhammadsobir Fayzov and three other Tajik men accused of carrying out atrocityFormer colleagues and clients at the small barber shop where Muhammadsobir Fayzov once worked were stunned when they saw the news.They knew the 19-year-old as a promising, hard-working stylist, and saw no signs that he and three other Tajik gunmen would be accused of committing last...