Pakistan’s anti-corruption authorities Monday arrested the leader of the opposition in Parliament, Shehbaz Sharif, after a high court rejected his bail plea in a money laundering case. Sharif, president of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N), was taken into custody from the court’s premises in the eastern city of Lahore. His wife, sons and daughters areRead more

Russia joined the U.S. and other nations urging restraint from Azerbaijan and Armenia as fierce weekend fighting between the two rival neighbors over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region threatened to spiral into a wider conflict in the South Caucasus region. “We call on all sides in the conflict to show maximum restraint, to reject military methods and refuseRead more

India’s tally of coronavirus cases topped six million on Monday as the country – currently the second worst hit – continued to have the highest daily number of new cases in the world.With no let-up in sight, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Indians to follow rules that mandate wearing face masks. “These rules are weaponsRead more

Forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan continued fighting around the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave for a second day on Monday, despite calls from the international community for the hostilities to end.  Both sides exchanged accusations of using heavy artillery. The Azeri defense ministry said Armenian forces were shelling the town of Terter. The breakaway region reported that at least 15 additional soldiers were killed, bringing to over 30 the number of its soldiers killed since Sunday when itRead more

Sri Lanka says it is shipping 21 containers of waste back to Britain.  Officials said hazardous waste materials, including hospital waste, were found in some of the containers, in violation of international laws and European Union regulations.  Officials said the containers were supposed to be holding used mattresses, rugs and carpets for possible recycling. An AFP reports says the containers arrived in Sri Lanka between September 2017 and MarchRead more

Abdullah Abdullah, the head of Afghanistan’s peacemaking High Council for National Reconciliation, has begun a three-day official visit to Pakistan.     Abdullah is undertaking his first visit to the neighboring country in more than a decade amid peace negotiations between representatives of the Afghan government and Taliban insurgents underway in Qatar.    Officials in Islamabad said that in meetings between Abdullah andRead more

Three Bollywood actors, including top star Deepika Padukone, were questioned by India’s narcotics agency on Saturday as part of an investigation into the movie industry’s alleged links with drug peddlers and cartels, officials said.Padukone was the first to arrive at the Narcotics Control Board’s office in Mumbai. She had received a summons earlier in theRead more

Armenia declared martial law and total military mobilization after clashes with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Sunday.    “Get ready to defend our sacred homeland,” Pashinyan said on Facebook. Armenia and Azerbaijan reported heavy fighting around the Nagorno-Karabakh Sunday morning. The enclave has a majority Armenian population but is located entirely insideRead more

A young woman, who survived a deadly Islamic State-plotted suicide bombing in Afghanistan two years ago, is being celebrated locally and internationally for securing the top position in the war-torn country’s national university entrance exams.   Shamsia Alizada, the 18-year-old daughter of an Afghan coal miner, sat in the exam this year along with moreRead more

As protests wracked India in the aftermath of a controversial citizenship law passed last year, a wrinkled 82-year-old grandmother sitting with defiant eyes and prayer beads in her hands became the face of resistance to the legislation.Known only as Bilkis, she braved New Delhi’s coldest winter in more than a century to sit for moreRead more

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged the United Nations to universally outlaw what he called rising Islamophobia in many countries, including neighboring India.In a prerecorded speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Friday, the Pakistani leader denounced the fresh publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed by Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical weekly.“Muslims continueRead more

The Cambodian government has allocated $1.2 billion to bolster an economy struggling with the withdrawal of some European trade perks and the COVID-19 pandemic.Under its Everything But Arms policy, the European Union grants tariff-free access for goods from developing countries that meet international standards on democracy.But a ban on the main opposition party from contestingRead more

Vietnamese officials have lowered expectations for their country’s normally fast-growing gross domestic product in 2020 as the global economic slowdown thins demand for exports and stalls international tourism.The $260 billion economy has expanded at 6% or more per year since 2012 because of a boom in manufactured exports will grow at just 2% this year,Read more

Even as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani reiterated his demand for a cease-fire, few watching the peace talks in Doha expected a positive response from the Taliban.     “[T]he Afghan people have a clear and urgent priority: a cease-fire. An urgent end to the violence will more than anything else give us a chance toRead more

The rows of lettuce, microgreens and herbs that Himanshu Aggarwal and his mother grow in an enclosed room in a busy New Delhi market began flourishing six months ago, just when the COVID-19 pandemic was taking hold in India.Himanshu Aggarwal grows lettuce, microgreens and herbs in an 800-square-foot enclosed room in New Delhi. (Anjana Pasricha/VOA)ItRead more

Entrepreneurs in Indian cities are turning their attention to indoor hydroponic farming that uses the technique of soil-less cultivation. For one such enterprise, whose launch coincided with India’s strict lockdown, the COVID 19 pandemic actually helped grow business as consumers began to focus increasingly on healthy foods. Pasricha reports from New Delhi.Camera: Darshan Singh  Producer:  Jason Godman  …Read more

Pakistan and India have reported “intense” cross-border clashes in the disputed Kashmir territory a day after the United States reiterated its offer to facilitate peace talks between the South Asian rivals.     The Pakistani military said Wednesday two of its soldiers were killed by Indian gunfire in an “unprovoked cease-fire violation” along the LineRead more

India and China have agreed to not send more troops to a disputed border region in the Himalayas, where their respective troops engaged in deadly hand-to-hand fighting in June. A joint statement released Tuesday says the agreement was reached after talks between senior military officials from both countries the day before.  The statement said both nationsRead more