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South Asia
Teacher who educates Afghan refugee girls wins UN prize
Aqeela Asifi, 49, a teacher who has dedicated her life to educating Afghan refugee girls, challenging cultural sexism by setting up classes in a temporary tent, has been named the 2015 Nansen Refugee Award winner by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Asifi left Kabul with her…
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South Asia
Afghan Taliban storm jail, release over 350 inmates
More than 350 inmates have escaped after an attack by Afghan Taliban insurgents on the main prison in eastern Ghazni province early on Monday, Deputy provincial governor of Ghazni Mohammad Ali Ahmadi said. However, the Afghan interior ministry said up to 400 managed to flee. Insurgents wearing military uniforms launched…
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South Asia
‘Islamic State’ militants claim attack on Pak-Afghan border
Former Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants who have pledged allegiance to Islamic State said on Sunday they had attacked a paramilitary checkpoint along the Afghan border, in the first such assault claimed by a former faction of the TTP in several months. A militant affiliated with the faction told Reuters the…
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South Asia
Mecca crane collapse disaster
A powerful storm toppled a construction crane Friday afternoon at the Masjid al-Haram, or Grand Mosque, in Mecca killing at least 107 people and injuring 238 others, Saudi Arabia’s civil defense authorities said on Twitter. Photos and video on social media showed the crane crashing through the mosque roof and…
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South Asia
American backpacker, artist killed in Nepal
After the devastating earthquake in April in Nepal, Dahlia Yehia, an artist and a teacher from the US, backpacked to the Asian country to help the people. According to the “Find Dahlia” Facebook page her family and friends started to help find her, Yehia, 25, arrived on July 20 and…
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South Asia
Over 1,000 Indian Muslim clerics deem IS ‘un-Islamic’
More than 1,000 Muslim clerics in India have backed a religious ruling condemning the Islamic State, calling the extremist group’s actions “un-Islamic.” Religious leaders from hundreds of mosques, education institutions and civic groups across India have signed the edict, or fatwa, saying the actions of the Islamic State group went…
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South Asia
61 infants died at Indian hospital in 2 weeks
Sixty-one infants have died at a children’s hospital in Cuttack, India in just two weeks, sparking protests and forcing the state government to launch an investigation. The deaths highlight the challenges faced in India’s underfunded public health system, where successive governments have failed to address the acute shortage of staff…
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South Asia
Lawmaker, author of Pakistan constitution passes away
Eminent lawyer and former law minister Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, 80, passed away late on Tuesday in a London hospital, a leading Pakistani newspaper, Dawn News reported. The veteran Supreme Court lawyer was among the prominent figures who had constituted the 1973 Constitution, the one the state of Pakistan still implements…
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South Asia
Indian village council orders rape of two sisters for brother’s elopement
An unofficial, all-male village council in India’s Uttar Pradesh state has ordered the rape of two young sisters after their brother eloped with a woman of a higher caste. The ‘sentence’ was handed down after the brother of two girls aged 23 and 15, the elder of whom is…
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South Asia
Pakistan to become 3rd largest nuclear power within a decade
Pakistan could become the third largest nuclear stock pile within the next five to ten years, behind only the United States and Russia, the Washington Post reported, quoting reports published by two American think tanks. The report published on Thursday by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Stimson…
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