Pakistan’s government blinked, agreeing to democratic opposition demands before a new massive rally was to begin. But a bomb blast apparently targeting the rally killed eight in Rawalpindi.
Pakistan opposition leader and ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif defied a house arrest order to lead a huge opposition march against President Asif Ali Zardari.
Pakistani police conducted raids and arrested opposition leaders, including members of the country’s lawyers’ movement, prior to a protest rally led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Police in Bangladesh charged more than 1,000 members of the Bangladesh Rifles in last week’s mutiny, which killed dozens of top officers, including the force’s commander.
The Committee to Protect Journalists protested the arrest of Sri Lanka newspaper editor Nadesapillai Vidyatharan on charges of collaboration with the Tamil Tigers, calling it part of a pattern of repression.
India’s Border Security Force remains on high alert after a two-day mutiny by the Bangladesh Rifles left scores dead. Unconfirmed reports in the Indian press link the mutiny to Pakistani intelligence.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court upheld a ruling that bars former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from holding office based on his conviction for “hijacking”—that is, attempting to thwart the 1999 military coup.
As fighting continues in Sri Lanka, Amnesty International has called upon the government and the Tamil Tigers to declare a truce and allow more than a quarter million trapped civilians to escape.
Hundreds of members of the Dongria Kondh formed a human chain at the base of their sacred Niyamgiri mountain Jan. 27 to prevent British mining giant Vedanta from bulldozing it.
Some 7,000, including hundreds of Dongria Kondh tribespeople, marched in India’s Orissa state against British mining firm Vedanta, which plans an open-pit mine on the top of the hill tribe’s sacred mountain.
Pakistani interior minister chief Rehman Malik boasted at an Islamabad press conference that authorities have arrested more than 120 in a crackdown on groups allegedly linked to the Mumbai attacks.
The TamilNet news service reports that Red Cross and other aid and medical evacuation vehicles are being barred access to the northern pocket of Sri Lanka still held by the Tamil Tiger rebels, which has come under heavy bombardment in… Read moreSri Lanka: Tamil territory under siege, bombardment
