BEIJING — A recent string of dismal indicators have dulled expectations for China’s economic performance in July, in an ominous sign for the rest of 2024 and pointing to the need for more stimulus measures beyond plastering over pain points in the world’s second-largest economy.

Calls for more growth boosting measures for the $19 trillion economy have dogged officials after a widely expected post-pandemic recovery failed to materialize in 2023. Still, the government is targeting economic growth of around 5% this year.

The latest data point to a rocky start to the second half. On Tuesday, central bank data showed July new bank loans plunged to a 15-year low, while other key gauges showed export growth slowed and factory activity slumped as manufacturers grapple with tepid domestic demand.

The economy had already grown more slowly than expected in the second quarter, expanding 4.7% from a year earlier, as wary consumers remained reluctant to spend and trade ties with major markets became more tense, suggesting a period of prolonged sluggishness is increasingly likely.

“The market consensus will move to the left side of the ‘around 5%’ growth target, since the economy slowed in July and a forceful plan to support the economy seems to be missing,” said Xu Tianchen, senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit, which has kept its growth forecast at 4.7% since March.

On Thursday, China will release a raft of activity data. Economists polled by Reuters poll expect that retail sales grew 2.6% year-on-year last month, versus 2.0% in June, while industrial output was forecast to have grown more slowly and investment growth leveled off.

Officials will also release the latest reading on new home prices, which fell at the fastest clip in nine years in June despite a host of support measures aimed at luring back buyers and stemming a protracted property crisis.

Credit data this week showed household loans, mostly mortgages, contracted 210 billion yuan ($29.37 billion) in July, compared with a rise of 570.9 billion in June.

One of the main reasons people are not spending in China is 70% of household wealth is held in real estate, a sector which had long been a major growth driver.

Exports

One of the few bright spots this year – exports – has so far failed to spark a broader economic recovery, not least because manufacturers have had to slash prices to find buyers overseas amid weak domestic demand.

And there are signs that global demand is slowing. The official factory managers’ survey for July showed producers received fewer export orders for a third month.

“It all hinges on exports,” said Alicia Garcia Herrero, chief economist for the Asia-Pacific at Natixis. “Exports are stagnant, (and) we have already seen Thailand announcing import tariffs, and, of course Turkey, Europe, and the U.S.”

“If we see exports growing negatively, then I think we need to lower our projections for 2024, maybe to 4.2%, something like that.”
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BENGALURU, India — The heavy rains that resulted in landslides killing hundreds in southern India last month were made worse by human-caused climate change, a rapid analysis by climate scientists found Tuesday.

The study by the World Weather Attribution, a group of scientists who use established climate models to quickly determine whether human-caused climate change played a part in extreme weather events around the world, found that the 15 centimeters (5.91 inches) of rain that fell in a 24-hour period July 29-30 was 10% more intense because of global warming. The group expects further emissions of planet-heating gases will result in increasingly frequent intense downpours that can lead to such disasters.

Nearly 200 people were killed and rescuers are still searching for more than 130 missing people in Kerala state, one of India’s most popular tourist destinations.

“The Wayanad landslides are another catastrophic example of climate change playing out in real time,” said Mariam Zachariah, a climate scientist at Imperial College of London and one of the authors of the rapid study.

Last month’s rainfall that caused the landslides was the third-heaviest in Kerala state since India’s weather agency began record-keeping in 1901.

Last year over 400 people died due to heavy rains in the Indian Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh. Multiple studies have found that India’s monsoon rains have become more erratic as a result of climate change. “Until the world replaces fossil fuels with renewable energy, monsoon downpours will continue to intensify, bringing landslides, floods and misery to India,” said Zachariah.

India’s southern state Kerala has been particularly vulnerable to climate change-driven extreme weather. Heavy rainfall in 2018 flooded large parts of the state, killing at least 500 people, and a cyclonic storm in 2017 killed at least 250 people including fishers who were at sea near the state’s coasts.

“Millions of people are sweltering in deadly heat in the summer. Meanwhile, in monsoons, heavier downpours are fuelling floods and landslides, like we saw in Wayanad,” said Arpita Mondal, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and one of the study’s authors. Earlier this year another study by the same group found that deadly heat waves that killed at least 100 people in India were found to have been made at least 45 times more likely due to global warming.

India, the world’s most populous country, is among the highest current emitters of planet-heating gases and is also considered to be among the most vulnerable regions in the world to climate impacts.

“When it rains now, it rains heavily. In a warmer world, these extreme events will be more frequent and we cannot stop them. However, we can try to establish early warning systems for landslides and also avoid any construction activity in landslide-prone regions,” said Madhavan Rajeevan, a retired senior official at India’s Ministry of Earth Sciences who is from Kerala state.

Tuesday’s study also recommended minimizing deforestation and quarrying, while improving early warning and evacuation systems to help protect people in the region from future landslides and floods. The study said the Wayanad region had seen a 62% decrease in forest cover and that that may have contributed to increased risks of landslides during heavy rains.
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Wellington, New Zealand — Pineapple sweets dished out by a New Zealand charity have tested positive for potentially lethal amounts of methamphetamine, police said Wednesday, sparking an urgent race to remove them from the streets.

A child, a teenager and a charity worker have already been taken to the hospital after they tasted the candies.

Although none are seriously ill, police have launched a criminal investigation and are now trying to track down up to 400 other people who may have received the sweets.

“We need to round these up as quickly as we can,” said Detective Inspector Glenn Baldwin, adding that 16 of the sweets had been found so far.

Police suggested the drugs might have been packaged under the “Rinda” brand by traffickers or dealers to evade detection.

They are then believed to have been donated to anti-poverty charity the Auckland City Mission, which inadvertently distributed them via a food bank.

“Drug importation is complex, and organised criminal groups use a range of measures and techniques to try and evade enforcement agencies, not only in New Zealand, but around the world,” Baldwin said.

A child and a teenager were taken to hospital after tasting the sweets and spitting them out. Both are okay, Baldwin added. 

A charity worker was also treated for symptoms consistent with methamphetamine, but later discharged.

The New Zealand Drug Foundation said a test sample of an innocuous-looking piece of white candy in a bright yellow wrapper indicated it contained methamphetamine.

Foundation spokeswoman Sarah Helm said the tested sweet contained approximately 3 grams of meth — hundreds of times greater than the common dose taken by users. 

“Swallowing that much methamphetamine is extremely dangerous and could result in death.”

Helm urged people who had received confectionaries from the Auckland charity not to consume them. 

“We don’t know how widespread it is.”

Eight families so far affected

The Auckland City Mission’s Helen Robinson said the organization was “devastated” by the news.

Her organization believes as many as 400 people could have received the affected sweets in a food package.

Eight separate families had so far been affected, she said, including one instance where a parent gave one of the candies to her child, who immediately spat it out.

Robinson said she had been told the potent contaminated sweets tasted “acrid and revolting.”

“You could have only a very small touch or lick of the substance and still be deeply affected,” she warned. 

A contaminated sweet was taken for testing when a person felt strange after starting to eat it and noticed a bitter taste. 

Methamphetamine can cause chest pain, racing heart, seizures, delirium and loss of consciousness, the drug foundation warned.

Helm told Radio New Zealand it is common for drug smugglers to hide illegal narcotics in food form. 

“We suspect somebody hasn’t intentionally sought to poison children,” she said.
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TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, in a surprise move Wednesday, announced he will not run in the upcoming party leadership vote in September, paving the way for Japan to have a new prime minister.

Kishida was elected president of his governing Liberal Democratic Party in 2021 and his three-year term expires in September.

His drop out of the race means a new leader who wins the party vote will succeed him as prime minister because the LDP controls both houses of parliament.

Kishida, stung by his party’s corruption scandals, has suffered dwindling support ratings that have dipped below 20%.

Kishida’s announcement allows for a fresh leader in an effort to show that his party is changing for the better. Kishida will support a new leader, he said.

Local election losses earlier in the year eroded his clout, and LDP lawmakers have voiced the need for a fresh face ahead of the next general election.

Since the corruption scandal broke, Kishida has removed a number of Cabinet ministers and others from party executive posts, dissolved party factions that were criticized as the source of money-for-favor politics, and passed a law tightening political funds control law. But support for his government has dwindled.

The scandal centers on unreported political funds raised through tickets sold for party events. It involved more than 80 LDP lawmakers, mostly belonging to a major party faction previously led by assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Ten people — lawmakers and their aides — were indicted in January.
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Washington — Aid organizations in Afghanistan warn that without sustained international support and engagement, the country is at risk of becoming “a forgotten crisis.”

“Without rapid efforts to increase diplomatic engagement and longer-term sustainable funding, Afghans, especially women and girls, will be left to suffer for years to come,” read a joint statement released on Tuesday by 10 international aid organizations operating the country. 

Neil Turner, country director for Afghanistan at the Norwegian Refugee Council, said in a video message to VOA that international engagement is essential for a long-term solution to Afghanistan’s problems. 

“We need to have full international engagement with the authorities, and that would allow us to move to find durable solutions for the problems that exist and not just provide relief, which might get people … from one month to the next,” Turner said.

He added that although the aid organizations have been involved in humanitarian assistance for the past three years, when the international community “effectively abandoned Afghanistan,” the current efforts cannot address the problems of poverty, unemployment and displacement. 

Afghanistan has been facing one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises since the Taliban seized power three years ago.

The Taliban are not recognized as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. 

The international community called on the Taliban to fulfill their commitments to respect human rights and form an inclusive government as conditions for recognition. 

The Taliban, however, imposed repressive restrictions on women, banning them from receiving secondary and university education, working with government and nongovernmental organizations, traveling without close male relatives, and going to gyms and public parks. 

The Taliban have formed an all-male Cabinet and refuse to share power with others.

The U.N. reported that in May, 23.7 million people, more than half of Afghanistan’s population, needed food assistance. 

Women and children accounted for most of those in need. 

Sakhi Bayramli, an Afghan human rights activist based in Germany, told VOA that one of the challenges facing the international community is engaging the Taliban. 

“The international community should strike a balance between providing humanitarian assistance and negotiating with the Taliban to make sure that the aid reaches people in need in Afghanistan in a timely manner,” Bayramli said. 

The aid organizations also called on the international community to pressure the Taliban to respect human rights, particularly women’s rights. 
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washington — A U.S. Army intelligence analyst on Tuesday pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to sell military secrets to China, the Department of Justice said. 

Korbein Schultz was charged in March with conspiracy to disclose national defense information, exporting defense articles and technical data without a license, and bribery of a public official. 

Schultz, who held top secret clearance, conspired with an individual who lived in Hong Kong — who he suspected of being associated with the Chinese government — to collect national defense information, including classified information and export-controlled technical data related to U.S. military weapons systems, in exchange for money, according to charging and plea documents.  

“Governments like China are aggressively targeting our military personnel and national security information and we will do everything in our power to ensure that information is safeguarded from hostile foreign governments,” FBI Executive Assistant Director Robert Wells said in a statement.  

Before he was arrested, Schultz sent dozens of sensitive and restricted, but unclassified, military documents, the Department of Justice said. 

A document discussing the lessons learned by the Army from the Russia-Ukraine war that it would apply in a defense of Taiwan, documents relating to Chinese military tactics, and a document relating to U.S. military satellites were among the items collected and sent by Schultz. 

Schultz was paid about $42,000 for the information, according to the department.  

“By conspiring to transmit national defense information to a person living outside the United States, this defendant callously put our national security at risk to cash in on the trust our military placed in him,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said. 

Schultz is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 23, 2025.  
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Washington — South Asia’s youth bulge is a ticking time bomb. A demographic dividend looms, but millions of young people lack the job skills to cash in, choking the region’s economic potential.

Almost half of South Asia’s population of 1.9 billion is under 24, the highest number of any region in the world. With nearly 100,000 young people entering the job market daily, the region boasts the largest youth labor force globally.

For years, experts have sounded the alarm: Many of South Asia’s youth lack the education and skills for a modern labor force. A 2019 UNICEF study warned that if nothing changes, more than half risked not finding decent jobs in 2030.

Now, International Youth Day has put the spotlight on the region’s skills-gap crisis. While some South Asian countries have made progress in recent years, UNICEF’s latest figures paint a sobering picture: Ninety-three million children and adolescents in South Asia are out of school; almost 6 in 10 can’t read by age 10; and nearly a third are not in any form of education, employment or training, known as NEET.

“We know that the region has the highest number of children and young people, but sadly at the same time, despite the opportunity that that might bring, we know that for many young people, learning and skilling is not good enough,” Mads Sorensen, UNICEF’s chief adolescent adviser for South Asia, said in an interview with VOA. “This clearly holds them back from reaching their full potential.”

The problem, Sorensen said, comes down to the quality of education: Many teachers cling to old methods, schools in many regions lack basic tools such as computers, and students are not taught the digital skills needed to thrive in the modern workplace.

“So, young people are not really acquiring those skills that we know are very much sought after by the labor market, especially the private sector,” Sorensen said.

The skill deficit extends beyond K-12 education. Higher education enrollment in South Asia has tripled in the past two decades, reaching an average of 27% in 2022, according to the World Bank. Yet the quality of college education remains uneven, with many graduates finding that their hard-earned degrees ill-prepare them for today’s job market.

Big investment but scant returns

Take Ariful Islam, a recent graduate with a business administration degree, who now helps his father in his sweets shop in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. After graduating last year, he had multiple job interviews. But none yielded an offer, forcing him to settle for a position that barely covered his expenses.

Having invested nearly $13,000 on Islam’s education, his father, Akram Khan, said he had to quit his job to start a business. Islam wasn’t earning enough, so Khan needed to boost the family’s income.

“I spent so much money to educate my son, but now he is not getting a job according to his qualifications,” Khan said in an interview with VOA. “As a father, [I] will feel bad.”

Others such as Zahirul Haque, a 2022 graduate in public administration, have been locked out of coveted government jobs.

A controversial quota system favoring Liberation War veterans and their offspring, at the heart of Bangladesh’s recent turmoil, has thwarted his aspirations for public service.

After two years of fruitless government-administered exams, he reluctantly accepted a low-paying job with a local nongovernmental organization.

“It was a little disappointing,” he told VOA.

Bangladesh’s strained job market offers few prospects for young graduates such as Haque. But he said he hasn’t given up hope for a better job.

Good news, sobering news

Bangladesh, once among Asia’s poorest countries, has surged economically in recent decades and is now on track to become a middle-income country by 2026.

Collectively, South Asia is poised to be the fastest-growing emerging market this year, according to the World Bank. In a new report released on Monday, the International Labour Organization, or ILO, said South Asia’s youth unemployment rate fell to a 15-year low of 15.1% last year.

Though signaling an easing job market for young people, the unemployment rate was the highest in the Asia Pacific region, ILO said. What’s more, “too many” young women are excluded from the labor market in South Asia, with the number of women not working or learning at more than 42%, the highest in the region, the ILO said.

Sorensen said that while countries such as Bhutan, the Maldives and Sri Lanka have narrowed the skills gap in recent years, the region’s most populous nations — India, Bangladesh and Pakistan — are lagging behind.

The plight of young women is even more grim. One in four girls in South Asia are married before age 18, their education and careers squandered. Bangladesh’s underage marriage numbers have worsened in recent years, Pakistan’s remains “dire,” Sorensen said.

Pakistan lags most of the region in higher education, with 13% enrollment as of 2022. While the country boasts quality universities, many students complain about outdated curriculums.

The curriculum is “not incorporating the emerging trends of the 21st century,” said Noor Ul Huda, an English major at a public university in Islamabad.

Huda said her major is considered “less practical” than academic fields such as engineering and business, leaving her job prospects bleak.

“The job market is overwhelmingly competitive, and I think I’d have a lot of difficulty finding a job,” she said.

Not ready for jobs

Many parents pouring money into their children’s education confront the same reality: Schools fail to equip students for the job market.

Humna Saleem, a preschool teacher in Rawalpindi, worries about her son, a soon-to-be computer science graduate from a private university. Despite a hefty tuition, he had to learn coding on his own, Saleem said.

“What I observed as an adult is that he is taught a lot of theoretical knowledge, but there are practical skills that are not taught to the students,” she told VOA.

Pakistan’s classrooms, she said, remain stuck in the past, while the world has changed. Students need digital skills and “soft skills,” such as critical thinking and interpersonal communication, not just degrees, she said.

“It doesn’t matter if you are a doctor, or you’re an accountant, or you are an engineer. Whatever profession you choose for yourself, you need to have those skills,” Saleem said.

In recent years, governments in the region have stepped up efforts to close the skills gap.

In India, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has partnered with UNICEF to provide youth with 21st-century skills, apprenticeships and entrepreneurial opportunities.

In Pakistan, the prime minister’s Youth Skill Development Program, launched in 2013, aims to equip youth with market-driven skills in IT, entrepreneurship, agriculture, tourism and vocational fields.

“We have to equip our youth with the skills in line with modern requirements so that they can contribute to the country’s development,” Pakistan’s education minister, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, said in July, according to Associated Press of Pakistan.

In Bangladesh, the National Skills Development Council, led by the prime minister, has introduced a new policy to enhance workforce skills for the modern economy.

Colleges and universities in South Asia have tried to tackle the skills gap crisis by emphasizing critical thinking, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. Some have also ramped up digital skills and vocational training to better prepare their graduates for the job market.

Sorensen lauded the regional efforts but said more needs to be done to build a vibrant, modern workforce in South Asia.

“We keep saying that young people are leaders of today, which they are, but they’re also more so leaders of tomorrow,” Sorensen said.

VOA’s Afghan, Bangla and Urdu services contributed to this report.
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KOLKATA — Hospital services were disrupted in several Indian cities on Tuesday after a doctors’ protest spread nationwide following the rape and murder of a trainee medic in the city of Kolkata, authorities and media said. 

Thousands of doctors marched on Monday in Kolkata and the surrounding West Bengal state to denounce the killing at a government-run hospital, demanding justice for the victim and better security measures. 

The 31-year-old doctor was found dead on Friday. Police said she had been raped and murdered and a police volunteer was subsequently arrested in connection with the crime. 

Protests spread on Tuesday, with more than 8,000 government doctors in the western Maharashtra state, home to the financial capital of Mumbai, halting work in all hospital departments except emergency services, media said. 

In the capital, New Delhi, junior doctors wearing white coats held posters that read, “Doctors are not punching bags,” as they sat in protest outside a large government hospital, Reuters Television images showed. 

Similar protests in cities such as Lucknow, capital of the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, and in the western tourist resort state of Goa hit some hospital services, media said. 

“Pedestrian working conditions, inhuman workloads and violence in the workplace are the reality,” the Indian Medical Association (IMA), the biggest grouping of doctors in the country, told Health Minister J P Nadda in a letter released before they met him for talks on Tuesday. 

IMA General Secretary Anil Kumar J Nayak told the ANI news agency that his group had urged Nadda to step up security at medical facilities. 

The health ministry did not immediately comment. 

A high court in Kolkata ordered that the criminal investigation be transferred to India’s federal police, the Central Bureau of Investigation, indicating that the authorities were treating the case as a national priority. 

Emergency services stayed suspended on Tuesday in almost all the government-run medical college hospitals in Kolkata, state official N S Nigam told Reuters, adding that the government was assessing the impact on health services. 

Doctors in India’s crowded and often squalid government hospitals have long complained of being overworked and underpaid, and say not enough is done to curb violence leveled at them by people angered over the medical care on offer.
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Islamabad — Afghanistan’s Taliban officials said Tuesday that at least three civilians were killed on their side of the border in an overnight clash with Pakistan, saying the victims are a woman and two children. 

Abdul Mateen Qani, the spokesperson for the Taliban-led interior ministry in Kabul, accused Pakistani forces of initiating Monday’s conflict near the busy Torkham border crossing. 

He claimed in a statement that the Pakistani side targeted Afghan civilian homes and, in retaliation, Taliban forces destroyed two Pakistani border outposts. The claims could not be verified by independent sources.  

A security official in Pakistan reported that the incident had injured three soldiers. He spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media. 

The Pakistani military’s media wing did not respond to inquiries regarding the border skirmish and the reported casualties resulting from it. 

Multiple Pakistani security officials said that the Afghan side attempted to construct a border post in violation of bilateral agreements, prompting them to open fire when Taliban forces ignored warnings to stop the work.  

The clashes closed the historic Torkham border gate to all traffic between the two countries, and it remained closed Tuesday.  

The crossing is a major facility for landlocked Afghanistan to conduct bilateral and transit trade with Pakistan and other countries.  

Border controversy 

Clashes along the nearly 2,600-kilometer border separating the two countries are not uncommon.  

Afghanistan disputes parts of the 1893 demarcation that was established during British colonial rule of the Indian subcontinent.  

Pakistan rejects Afghan objections, saying it inherited the international border after gaining independence from Britain in 1947. 

Cross-border terror 

Monday’s deadly clash came amid escalating mutual tensions stemming from Islamabad’s allegations that Kabul is not preventing fugitive militants from using sanctuaries on Afghan soil to plan cross-border terrorist attacks against Pakistani civilians and security forces. 

The latest such attack was reported Tuesday in the volatile Pakistani border district of South Waziristan. Security sources said that the predawn raid resulted in the death of at least four soldiers and injuries to 27 others, while four assailants were also killed.  

Military officials did not immediately respond to VOA inquiries seeking a response to the deadly militant attack in time for publication. 

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, a globally designated terrorist organization, took responsibility for the attack and confirmed the death of at least one of their militants in the ensuing clashes with security forces.   

Pakistan complains that Taliban government forces in Afghanistan are facilitating TTP militants to carry out cross-border attacks. 

In its recent reports, the United Nations has also backed Islamabad’s assertions, saying TTP members are being trained and equipped at al-Qaida-run training camps in Afghan border areas.  

Kabul denies it is allowing anyone to use Afghan soil to threaten neighboring countries, dismissing U.N. reports about terror group presence in the country as propaganda against their Islamic government, established in August 2021 and not recognized by the world. 
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BEIJING — China’s top diplomat Wang Yi will visit Myanmar and Thailand from Aug. 14 to 17, Beijing’s foreign ministry said Tuesday.

“Wang Yi will visit Myanmar and travel to Thailand to co-chair the ninth Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers’ Meeting,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.

Wang will also attend an “informal discussion” between counterparts from Laos, Myanmar and Thailand, Lin said.

Last week, China’s special envoy for Asian affairs met Myanmar’s junta chief in the capital Naypyidaw for talks on “peace and stability” along their shared border, Myanmar state media said, days after ethnic rebels seized a regional military command.

Myanmar’s northern Shan state has seen repeated clashes since late June after ethnic rebel groups renewed an offensive against the military along a vital trade highway to China.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing discussed “internal peace processes in Myanmar, peace and stability measures in the border region” with China’s Deng Xijun, according to the Global New Light of Myanmar.

The senior general “explained the implementation of objectives and a five-point roadmap in order to ensure peace, stability,” the state-run newspaper said.

China is a major ally and arms supplier to the junta, but analysts say it also maintains ties with armed ethnic groups in Myanmar that hold territory near its border.

An unnamed spokesman from China’s foreign ministry on Tuesday said Wang’s visit to Myanmar was “aimed at deepening bilateral mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields.”

China supports “Myanmar’s effort to uphold stability, grow the economy and improve people’s livelihood,” the spokesman added.
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Geneva — Crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the Myanmar military have “escalated at an alarming rate,” UN investigators warned Tuesday, citing systematic torture, gang rape and abuses against children.

The United Nations’ Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) said that in the last six months, more than three million people are estimated to have been forced to flee their homes, as conflict spirals within the country.

“We have collected substantial evidence showing horrific levels of brutality and inhumanity across Myanmar,” said IIMM chief Nicholas Koumjian.

“Many crimes have been committed with an intent to punish and induce terror in the civilian population.”

In its annual report, covering July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, the IIMM said the conflict in Myanmar had “escalated substantially” in that time, “with reports of more frequent and brutal crimes committed across the country.”

The investigators said they had collected significant evidence of more intensive and violent war crimes, including aerial attacks on schools, religious buildings and hospitals, with no apparent military target.

They also cited physical mutilations against detainees, including beheadings and public displays of disfigured and sexually mutilated bodies.

The investigators are looking into unlawful imprisonment, including arbitrary detention and “manifestly unfair trials” of perceived opponents of the military junta.

“Thousands of people have been arrested and many tortured or killed in detention,” the IIMM said.

Rape and burnings

Myanmar’s ruling junta came to power in the February 2021 coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government, ending a 10-year experiment with democracy and plunging the Southeast Asian nation into bloody turmoil.

The junta is struggling to crush resistance to its rule by long-established ethnic rebel groups and newer pro-democracy forces.

In suppressing post-coup dissent, the report said there was “abundant evidence of systematic torture” in detention.

Torture methods included beatings with bamboo sticks; electric shocks; pulling out fingernails with pliers; dousing detainees in petrol and setting them alight; waterboarding; strangulation; breaking fingers; and forcing detainees to punch each other.

The report said there was reliable evidence of sexual crimes in detention committed against all genders, and including children. These crimes included rape, burning of sexual body parts with cigarettes and sexual humiliation.

Mounting evidence against perpetrators

The IIMM was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2018 to collect evidence of the most serious international crimes and prepare files for criminal prosecution.

The report’s findings were based on almost 28 million items of information collected from more than 900 sources. The team also studied evidence such as videos, geospatial imagery and forensics.

While most of the information concerns crimes allegedly committed by the Myanmar security forces, the monitor said there was also credible evidence of crimes committed by armed groups fighting against the military.

“This includes summary executions of civilians suspected of being military informers or collaborators,” the investigators said.

It is also probing potential crimes committed against the Rohingya during the Myanmar military’s 2016 and 2017 clearance operations.

“No one has been held accountable for any crimes, which emboldens perpetrators and deepens the culture of impunity in the country. We are trying to break this cycle,” said Koumjian.

He claimed the IIMM had made considerable progress in building criminal cases against those most responsible.

“The mechanism hopes that the evidence it collects will one day be presented in a court of law and that those responsible will face justice,” the report concluded.
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INCHEON, South Korea — South Korea has deployed a bedbug sniffer dog at its main Incheon international airport in a bid to reduce the risk of the tiny insects entering the country when athletes, officials and fans return from the Paris Olympics. 

Leading the campaign is a beagle named Ceco, 2, who pest control company Cesco said is the first and so far only canine trained in the country to detect the odor of pheromones, the chemicals released by bedbugs. 

Ceco is capable of sweeping a standard hotel room in under two minutes, company official Kim Min-su said.

The pest control company has teamed up with South Korea’s ministries of security and transportation, as well as the Disease Control and Prevention Agency, and is working with airlines and Incheon airport to screen travelers on arrival. 

Last year, authorities in Paris raced to contain a nationwide panic over bedbugs as the city geared up for the Olympics, worried that the tiny wingless critters might ruin the event. It conducted a campaign to root out any infestation. 

“As the global community is gathering in Paris, France, on the occasion of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, there’s a chance bedbugs will enter the country following the event,” a South Korean government press release said. 

“Therefore, we are taking a preemptive response to intercept the entry through the Incheon international airport, which is the main gateway to the country.” 

Ceco and his team were deployed on Friday as more athletes and officials started arriving from Paris, and they will continue to work through to September 8, the government said. 

South Korea sent 144 athletes to the Olympics in Paris, which ended on Sunday.

Flights arriving directly from Paris are being disinfected once a week compared with a rate of once a month normally, and the airport quarantine service is being prepared to swing into action if an outbreak is detected in an aircraft or the airport. 

South Korea also went through a period of national hysteria in 2023 after reports of suspected infestations at microapartments, motel rooms and a traditional spa called a “jjimjilbang,” and it conducted a widespread disinfection campaign.
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A year ago, a massive mob attacked Christians in Jaranwala, Pakistan. Crowds of angry Muslims enraged by reports of alleged blasphemy burned several churches and homes. VOA Pakistan bureau chief Sarah Zaman visits the city as it approaches the anniversary of the violence.
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Kolkata, India — India has arrested nearly a dozen Bangladeshis attempting to cross the border to escape violence and political tumult following deadly protests that led to the ouster of prime minister Sheikh Hasina, border officials said Monday.

Hundreds more are waiting along the frontier pleading for permission to cross, India’s Border Security Force (BSF) said.

Hindus are the largest minority faith in mostly Muslim Bangladesh, and are considered a steadfast support base for Hasina’s party, the Awami League.

After Hasina’s abrupt resignation and escape to India ended her 15 years of autocratic rule on August 5, there were numerous reports of attacks against Hindu households, temples and businesses.

India’s BSF said 11 Bangladesh nationals had been arrested since Sunday trying to “sneak” across the frontier into West Bengal state.

“Several hundred Bangladeshi nationals are still waiting in no-man’s land to cross over the border,” BSF deputy inspector general Amit Kumar Tyagi told AFP.

Bangladesh is almost entirely encircled by India, with the border stretching for more than 4,000 kilometers, large parts of which are unfenced.

Four Bangladeshis were also “repelled” from India’s Assam state, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on social media platform X.

‘Safety and security’

New Delhi has kept a wary eye on the fall of Hasina, who pursued a delicate balancing act of enjoying support from India while maintaining strong relations with China.

Hindus account for around 8% of Bangladesh’s 170 million people.

Over the past week, religious rights groups said they documented more than 200 incidents of attacks on minority communities in Bangladesh, a figure that also includes Christians and Buddhists.

The security situation has since dramatically improved, and on Monday Bangladeshi police resumed patrols of the capital Dhaka, ending a strike that left a law and order vacuum.

India’s home minister Amit Shah said Friday a committee had been created to monitor the situation “to ensure the safety and security of Indian nationals, Hindus, and other minority communities living there.”

Interim government leader Muhammad Yunus’s “council of advisors,” the de facto cabinet now administering the country, said it had noted with “grave concern” some attacks on Hindus and other minorities.

In its first official statement on Sunday night, the cabinet said it would work to “find ways to resolve such heinous attacks.”
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Tarawa, Kiribati — Pacific nation Kiribati will begin voting in a general election this week, a poll that will test the strengthening ties between China and the government of the climate-threatened archipelago.

The vote on Wednesday in tiny Kiribati – a country of scattered atolls and islands – has the potential to stir ripples across the South Pacific.

Kiribati has drawn closer to China under longtime President Taneti Maamau, who is looking to extend his almost 10-year stint in charge.

Beijing has been sending small teams of police to train Kiribati’s stretched forces in the lead-up to the election, a development that has raised eyebrows among Pacific watchers.

“What China is doing is normalizing its presence in the region,” said Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst Blake Johnson.

“We haven’t seen any kind of agreement that shows what they are doing there or how many there are,” he told AFP.

“So it’s all a mystery.”

In the past five years, Kiribati’s Pacific neighbors, Solomon Islands and Nauru, have also switched diplomatic recognition to China.

The low-lying nation meanwhile faces a raft of economic and environmental challenges, such as the rising sea levels that now regularly taint scarce drinking water supplies.

With waves already encroaching on Kiribati’s outer atolls, its capital Tarawa has become one of the world’s most packed places.

Coastal erosion and the search for higher ground means Tarawa today has a population density comparable to Tokyo or Hong Kong.

Residents are plagued by contagious diseases and other symptoms of overcrowding.

Judicial meddling

Under President Maamau, a former public servant, Kiribati severed diplomatic links with Taiwan in 2019 in favor of Beijing.

A memorandum of understanding followed in 2020, with Chinese President Xi Jinping praising Kiribati for being “on the right side of history.”

Maamau’s government has also been accused of meddling in the judiciary.

Australian-born high court judge David Lambourne, who is married to Kiribati’s main opposition leader, was forced to leave the country in May after running afoul of the government.

Officials accused Lambourne of misconduct, charges that his supporters maintain were trumped up as a political ploy.

Kiribati is home to around 120,000 people spread across about 20 inhabited islands and atolls.

The general election has up to two rounds of voting, and the process can stretch on for months.

Citizens separately elect a president from a pool of lawmakers put forward by parliament.
…

HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM — Hanoi’s joint drill with the Philippines in the South China Sea and efforts to define and uphold territorial boundaries with neighboring Southeast Asian nations is an effort to counter Beijing’s aggression in the hotly contested waters, according to analysts.

A Vietnamese coast guard ship arrived in Manila on Aug. 5 for a four-day goodwill visit and to perform joint exercises in the South China Sea. Although the two countries have their own territorial disputes in the South China Sea – a key trade and security route – it’s in both countries’ interest to work together, said Ray Powell, director of Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation.

“Both Hanoi and Manila recognize that while their overlapping claims are a problem, only Beijing has the means and clear intent to enforce its own claim,” he wrote to VOA over the messaging platform WhatsApp on Aug. 11. “They have wisely decided to manage their bilateral dispute amicably so that they can focus on the vastly greater threat posed by China.”

Leading Vietnam’s coast guard delegation to Manila, Colonel Hoang Quoc Dat said during a speech that the port call was a means to strengthen the countries’ “relationship for mutual benefit” and would help “the preservation and protection of the region’s maritime security and safety.”

China claims the vast majority of the South China Sea with its nine-dash line, a disputed map without legal basis. In April, China’s coast guard fired water cannons at a Philippine vessel as it carried out a patrol near the Chinese-controlled rocky output Scarborough Shoal, approximately 130 miles west of the Philippine island Luzon.

International law states that a country’s exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, stretches 200 nautical miles off its coast.

“While most of Beijing’s recent aggressions have been focused on the Philippines, it has found ways to antagonize Hanoi through intrusive Coast Guard patrols and oceanographic surveys that telegraph its sovereignty claims to most of Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone,” Powell said.

On July 19, China Coast Guard ship 5302 conducted a patrol in Vietnam’s oil and gas fields at Vanguard Bank, according to Powell. He stated that while Vietnam’s joint drill with the Philippines may have limited military benefits, it is symbolically powerful.

It sends “a message that this is how responsible countries cooperate and peacefully manage maritime disputes,” he said.

Settling disputes

To have strong grounds to counter Beijing, it is essential for Hanoi to settle its maritime boundaries with Southeast Asian nations, said Nguyen Khac Giang, visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

“Unless they settle the difference among themselves, they can’t establish a common and more unified stance to negotiate with China as a single entity,” he told VOA during a call on July 10. 

In June, Vietnamese state media reported that Hanoi was ready to hold talks with the Philippines to settle their overlapping undersea claims in the continental shelf in the South China Sea. 

It’s not Hanoi’s first effort to solidify territorial boundaries with neighbors. In December 2022, former President Nguyen Xuan Phuc met with Indonesia President Joko Widodo. During the visit in Indonesia, the leaders announced an agreement on the boundaries of the countries’ exclusive economic zones after years of negotiations. 

Gregory Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told VOA that Hanoi has made significant progress.

“Vietnam’s been on a pretty unbroken path of negotiating maritime boundaries and fisheries agreements,” he said over a Zoom call on July 9.

Illegal fishing

Although Hanoi has made inroads with neighboring countries in settling marine disputes, illegal fishing is a point of friction and has negatively affected the marine economy, analysts noted.

Giang said Hanoi has made a “massive effort” to control the fishing industry, but bureaucratic hurdles, costs, declining marine ecosystems, and education are hurdles for authorities attempting to control millions of fishers spread across 28 coastal provinces.

In 2017, the European Commission imposed a public warning about Vietnamese seafood because of the rate of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing by Vietnamese fishermen.

Collin Koh Swee Lean, senior fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, told VOA that despite Vietnam’s 2022 agreement with Indonesia, Vietnamese fishermen still often fish illegally in Indonesian waters. 

“The situation hasn’t really changed much in terms of the regularity of intrusions from the Vietnamese,” he said during a call on July 10. Vietnamese fishermen are known to fish in the North Natuna Sea, a fertile fishing ground within Indonesian territory that borders the southern boundary of Vietnam’s EEZ.

A third-generation fisherman in coastal Binh Thuan province told VOA it’s easy to increase profits outside Vietnamese waters.

“I don’t fish illegally myself but know people who went to Indonesia and China illegally to fish,” the 32-year-old said in Vietnamese on July 11, asking for his name to be withheld. “They shared with me that two days of fishing in Indonesia can make income like a month of fishing in Vietnam.”

Giang noted that part of the motive for Vietnamese fishers to move further South out of Vietnamese waters is to avoid the dangers of Beijing’s militarization of the South China Sea.

“There have been cases where Chinese vessels injure or even killed Vietnamese fishermen,” he said.  
…

MANILA, Philippines — Fishing has been a lifeline for Alejandro Alcones for the past four decades, but he now fears his small boat may be replaced by a floating solar farm on the Philippines’ largest lake.

Alcones is part of a group of fishermen opposed to the government’s plan to place solar panels atop Laguna de Bay, one of the country’s biggest sources of freshwater fish, as it looks for renewable energy sources to meet growing demand for power.

“Laguna Lake gives life and income to fishermen like us who didn’t finish school. It also gives many displaced workers here an alternative way to earn by fishing,” said Alcones, a 55-year-old father of two who lives near the lake.

An archipelago of more than 7,000 islands, the Philippines is hampered by limited land resources as it pursues a target to produce half of its electricity from renewable sources by 2040, compared with just a fifth in 2021.

Unlike traditional solar farms on land, floating photovoltaics – or solar panels installed on reservoirs, ponds and offshore waters – are an attractive alternative for fossil fuel-dependent countries with scarce land and high population density.

Last year, Indonesia opened Southeast Asia’s largest floating solar facility on a man-made reservoir.

But these novel projects may compete with people who depend on fishing and agriculture, according to a January report by the Responsible Energy Initiative of Forum for the Future, a collective of nongovernmental organizations pushing for “ecologically safe and socially just” renewable energy.

The report described the Laguna Lake project as a “testing ground” for the technology and the world’s first large-scale photovoltaics operation on a natural lake.

Potential hazards

Under the project, Laguna Lake, which spans 91,000 hectares southeast of Manila, will host three floating solar projects atop 2,000 hectares of water that will generate about 2 gigawatts of electricity to supply the Laguna area and the capital by 2026.

Contracts have already been awarded to three companies that must still undergo an environmental impact assessment before construction can start.

Alcones is one of the 13,000 people who depend on the lake for their livelihoods, according to the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA), a state agency responsible for the preservation, development and sustainability of the area.

The LLDA regularly meets with fisher groups to hear their concerns and the government “doesn’t want to dislocate them as much as possible” when the solar project gets underway, said Mhai Dizon, the LLDA’s renewable energy project coordinator.

But the Philippines’ largest fishermen’s alliance, the National Federation of Small Fisherfolk Organizations in the Philippines, or Pamalakaya, accused the LLDA of only consulting local government officials and small groups of Laguna fishermen.

Following a request by Pamalakaya, it met with the LLDA in Manila in July, when it raised concerns that the Laguna solar project could impact more than 8,000 fishermen, including 2,000 people who work in aquaculture, according to Ronnel Arambulo, Pamalakaya’s vice chairperson.

“We are worried that the floating solar farms will further shrink our fishing grounds that have already been reduced by past development projects,” Arambulo told The Thomson Reuters Foundation outside of the meeting, which was closed to press.

Fishermen from Pamalakaya fear the project would reduce catches and pose hazards to communities if they become untethered during strong typhoons and rising water levels, Arambulo said. The panels could also impede boats and destroy docks, he said.

Waterborne solar panels are still being tested and raise “numerous questions” about potential long-term effects on the environment and local communities, according to the Responsible Energy Initiative report.

Coastal soil erosion, increased sedimentation and siltation, disruption of photosynthesis and diminished fishing yields as the ecosystem changes are among potential risks.

“Depending on their specific location and scale, floating solar can reduce access to fishing grounds by independent fishermen,” said Marvin Lagonera, Forum for the Future’s energy transition strategist in Southeast Asia.

He described a “a rights-based approach” in clean energy transitions as essential.

“This includes meaningfully engaging with impacted communities,” including civil society, environmental groups and local communities, he said.

Race for renewables

The Laguna Lake project would generate enough electricity to supply 2 million homes, Mylene Capongcol, assistant secretary at the Department of Energy, said in a statement.

“The Department of Energy supports the development of floating solar projects as this will contribute to the government’s target of a 35% renewable energy share in the power generation mix by 2030 and 50% by 2040,” she said.

Transitioning to renewable energy is becoming ever more urgent for the Philippines.

It is now Southeast Asia’s most coal-dependent country, with about 62% of its electricity production fired by the dirty fossil fuel last year, according to a report from the energy think tank Ember.

The slow adoption of clean energy is due in part to competition with agriculture for space, with just 18% of the island nation’s total land deemed arable.

But floating solar panels can help defuse tensions over land rights that have plagued solar development elsewhere, research firm Rystad Energy said in a report.

At present, floating solar farms account for just 500 megawatts of power production across Southeast Asia, but another 300 MW would come online this year alone, it estimated.

“Countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand are well-positioned to be at the forefront of this growing trend,” the report said, and pointed to the Philippines’ inland lakes as suitable for solar farms.

Lagonera also saw the technology as a chance for the Philippines to accelerate its shift to green energy.

“With the Philippines’ ambitious renewable energy targets, floating solar systems present an innovative alternative and opportunity to scale renewable energy,” he said.

“However, as floating solar scales, it also risks similar competition for limited resources.”

Three dozen towns whose inhabitants depend on the lake for food, water and income line Laguna’s shores.

Each year, fishermen haul up to 90,000 tons of fish, including mudfish, catfish and ayungin, a silver perch endemic to the Philippines, from its waters.

They are also among the poorest: Almost a third of all Filipino fishers live below the poverty line. Alcones earns an average of $87 a month.

He has already seen a decline in the quantity and variety of fish and blames stresses on Laguna arising from its use as a flood reservoir and waste sink, as well as for irrigation and hydropower.

The LLDA believes the floating solar farms could actually boost Laguna fisheries in the future.

“Based on studies … the bottom of the panels can be used as breeding ground for fishes,” Dizon said.

While some Laguna fishers have welcomed the solar project, others believe they have more to lose than gain.

“We recognize the energy transition or the shift to renewables. But this should be put up in areas that are no longer productive, unlike Laguna Lake,” Arambulo said.
…

Islamabad — Taliban authorities in Afghanistan reported Sunday that a bomb blast struck a minibus in Kabul, killing at least one person and wounding 11 others.

A police spokesperson confirmed the casualties, stating that the attack took place in Dasht-e Barchi, a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in the western part of the Afghan capital.

Khalid Zadran said an investigation into the bombing was under way. 

The Kabul-based Emergency international humanitarian organization, providing care to people affected by war and poverty, reported that “a magnetic bomb placed under the bus” caused the blast.

The charity wrote on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that its surgical center received eight victims, including three women, noting that one of the patients “in particular is in a serious condition.”

There were no immediate claims of responsibility, but the Afghan branch of the Islamic State, IS-Khorasan, is the primary suspect. It has taken credit for almost all recent attacks targeting members of the Shi’ite community in Dashti-e-Barchi and elsewhere in the country. 

The attack occurred on a day when the Taliban government, citing its official national calendar, declared a public holiday on Wednesday, August 14 to mark the “victory day” against the United States-led international forces.

The Taliban stormed back to power in Kabul on August 15, 2021, facing almost no opposition from the then-U.S.-backed government forces, as American and NATO troops departed the country after almost two decades of involvement in the Afghan war.

There has been no significant Afghan armed resistance to the Taliban rule since then. However, both the United States and the United Nations have warned about the increasing threat of terrorism to the region posed by IS-Khorasan.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesperson, responded to those assertions on Saturday, saying they are “unfounded and driven by propaganda.”

He stated that counterterrorism operations by Taliban forces have “significantly weakened” IS-Khorasan, and their government “remains firmly” in control of “the entire territory of Afghanistan.”
…

Islamabad — The United States has promised to make every effort to secure the release of three Americans whom it says are being held “unjustly” by Taliban authorities in Afghanistan.

The detainees, Ryan Corbett, Mahmood Habibi, and George Glezmann, were taken captive in separate incidents in Kabul in 2022, roughly a year after the Taliban stormed back to power in the Afghan capital.

“My thoughts and prayers are with Ryan Corbett, Mahmood Habibi, and their families today,” Thomas West, the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, said on X, formerly Twitter, marking the two-year anniversary of the capture of the two men.

“We will and we must continue every effort to bring them and George Glezmann home to their families,” he wrote Sunday. 

Roger Carstens, the U.S. special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, in separate remarks posted on X, said that Ryan, Mahmood, and Glezmann “have been held for far too long and their families have endured unimaginable pain.”

Corbett, a humanitarian worker, was taken into custody in August 2022. He had lived, along with his family, and worked in Afghanistan for years before being evacuated during the August 2021 Taliban takeover following the withdrawal of U.S.-led Western troops.

Corbett returned to Afghanistan in 2022 and was detained by the Taliban but has not been charged with any crimes, according to his family.

Glezmann was visiting Kabul as a tourist lawfully traveling in Afghanistan when he was seized by the Taliban’s intelligence services on December 5, 2022, “without just cause or formal charge,” according to the Foley Foundation, working to secure freedom for Americans held unjustly captive abroad.

Separately on Saturday, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI, released a statement seeking information into the disappearance of Habibi, saying he was taken from his vehicle near his home in the Afghan capital, along with his driver, on August 10, 2022.

The FBI stated that the Afghan-American businessman worked as a contractor for Asia Consultancy Group, a Kabul-based telecommunications company. “It is believed that Mr. Habibi was taken by Taliban military or security forces and has not been heard from since his disappearance,” the agency noted.

Habibi was detained by the Taliban reportedly on suspicion that his company was involved in a July 31 U.S. drone strike in Kabul that killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the fugitive al-Qaida network chief. The FBI said that de facto Afghan authorities had also briefly detained 29 other employees of the Asia Consultancy Group.

The Taliban have not responded to the latest U.S. calls for releasing the three Americans.

While de facto Afghan authorities have publicly disclosed that Corbett and Glezmann are among “several foreign nationals” imprisoned in Afghanistan for allegedly violating local immigration and other laws, they refuse to acknowledge holding Habibi.

The Taliban announced last month they had discussed a possible prisoner exchange in direct talks with U.S. officials on the sidelines of an international conference in Doha, Qatar, hosted by the United Nations. 

“During our meetings, we talked about the two American citizens who are in prison in Afghanistan,” Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesperson, told reporters after the meeting.

“But they must accept Afghanistan’s conditions. We also have prisoners in America, prisoners in Guantanamo. We should free our prisoners in exchange for them,” he said without elaborating further.

Last week, the U.S. State Department spokesperson told reporters in Washington that U.S. officials have raised the detainees’ fate in every meeting with the Taliban.

Mathew Miller stated that Corbett and Glezmann “are wrongfully detained” according to the U.S. legal determination. “That’s not a determination we have yet made with respect to Mahmood Habibi, which is not to say we’re not working to try and secure his release,” he explained.

“Oftentimes, we can’t make a wrongful detention determination because we don’t have access to certain types of information or because the situation is unclear. There can be other factors as well,” Miller explained.   
…

Dhaka — Bangladesh’s new chief justice has been sworn into office after his predecessor, viewed as a loyalist of toppled premier Sheikh Hasina, quit following protester demands, a presidential official said Sunday.  

It is the latest in a string of fresh appointments to replace an old guard viewed as linked to the previous regime, ousted by the student-led uprising.   

Syed Refaat Ahmed, the senior-most high court judge, was sworn into office by President Mohammed Shahabuddin, the president’s press secretary Shiplu Zaman told AFP.  

“He became the 25th chief justice of Bangladesh,” Zaman said.  

Ahmed studied at the University of Dhaka, Oxford and Tufts University in the United States.   

Hasina, 76, fled by helicopter to neighboring India on Monday as protesters flooded Dhaka’s streets in a dramatic end to her iron-fisted rule.   

Her government was accused of widespread human rights abuses including the extrajudicial killing of thousands of her political opponents over her 15-year rule.  

Cabinet ministers left blindsided by her sudden fall have gone to ground, while several top appointees have been forced out of office — including the national police chief and the central bank governor.  

Ahmed’s predecessor Obaidul Hassan on Saturday became the latest to announce his departure, after hundreds of protesters gathered outside the court to demand he step down.   

Appointed last year, Hassan earlier oversaw a much-criticized war crimes tribunal that ordered the execution of Hasina’s opponents, and his brother was her longtime secretary.   

Bangladesh’s interim leader, Nobel laureate, Muhammad Yunus, 84, returned from Europe this week to lead a temporary administration facing the monumental challenge of ending disorder and enacting democratic reforms.  

The restoration of law and order is the caretaker administration’s “first priority,” Yunus said.  

Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his pioneering work in microfinance, credited with helping millions of Bangladeshis out of grinding poverty.   

He took office Thursday as “chief advisor” to a caretaker administration, comprised of fellow civilians bar one retired brigadier-general, and has said he wants to hold elections “within a few months.” 
…

Sydney — Australia’s spy chief on Sunday accused some friendly nations of running foreign interference operations in the country, saying their identities would surprise people if revealed.

Canberra last year named Iran as having engaged in foreign interference, adding that Australian intelligence had disrupted “individuals” conducting a surveillance operation on an Iranian-Australian’s home.

But other countries are also secretly attempting to interfere in Australia’s political system and in its diaspora communities, said Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO).

“I can think of at least three or four that we’ve actually actively found involved in foreign interference in Australian diaspora communities,” Burgess said in an interview with public broadcaster ABC.

“Some of them would surprise you. Some of them are also our friends,” he said.

Burgess declined to identify the countries involved beyond confirming the government’s allegation of Iran’s involvement.

Foreign interference, espionage and politically motivated violence are Australia’s principal security concerns, Burgess said.

“In diaspora communities, there are multiple countries that attempt to threaten and intimidate Australians living in this country,” he said.

“When we find it, we deal with it effectively.”

In 2022, Burgess revealed ASIO had foiled a foreign interference plot by a wealthy person — named only as “the puppeteer” — with deep connections to a foreign government.

That person had funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to an employee to try to influence an election, he said at the time, without specifying which vote was targeted.

ASIO this month raised Australia’s terrorism threat level to “probable,” saying a homegrown rise in extreme ideologies had increased the likelihood of a violent act in the next 12 months.

Burgess said Sunday the spread of misinformation on social media made it harder to tackle the threat of politically motivated violence, with minors notably “locked in their bedrooms on their devices” and increasingly exposed to violent extremism.

The spy chief said ASIO would be keeping an eye on such risks surrounding Australia’s next general election, widely expected to be held in 2025, because it would be a “focal point” for robust debate on social issues. 
…