THE WHITE HOUSE — U.S. President Donald Trump hosts Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House on Thursday, where administration officials say he will seek to boost U.S. defense and energy sales and further strengthen Washington’s relationship with the world’s most-populous nation as China flexes its muscles in the region.

“We will aim to build on defense sales to India to ensure they are prioritizing the use of American technology,” said an administration official in a briefing with reporters Thursday morning. As is custom when briefing journalists, the official is not being named.

“The president is also focused on unleashing American energy to the rest of the world and will prioritize India as a key importer of America’s natural resources to power their economy,” the official said. “The two leaders will discuss how we can improve our trade relationship that brings down our bilateral trade deficit and ensure an expanded fair-trade relationship.”

When asked directly about New Delhi’s largest concern — of being caught in the wave of reciprocal tariffs Trump has recently imposed as part of an escalating trade war with the world — a second administration official said, “What you’ll see coming out of a meeting today is further momentum towards a solidified, fair — and I emphasize that word ‘fair’ — bilateral trade arrangement between our two dynamic and growing economies. And the hope would be to have such a deal in place in the calendar year 2025.”

That official also touted announcements on “semiconductors, critical minerals, supply chain resilience and diversification.”

Modi said on X that he was “looking forward to meeting @POTUS Donald Trump and building upon the India-USA Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership. Our nations will keep working closely for the benefit of our people and for a better future for our planet.”

Analysts say China also looms large in these talks, and the White House added that the two leaders would discuss the elevation of the Quad grouping of the United States, India, Australia and Japan.

“The sharp deterioration in India-China relations after the 2020 Galwan Valley incident,” in which Indian and Chinese troops clashed over road construction in disputed territory, “undoubtedly encouraged New Delhi to be more enthusiastic about its strategic partnership with Washington,” said Daniel Markey, a senior adviser at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

And India-focused analyst Rick Rossow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies told VOA about India’s goals.

“As President Trump kind of initiates a trade war against the world, India’s got bigger stakes than a lot of countries do in that, and they need to make sure that the relations remain stable,” Rossow said. “So, they want to be here. They want to be in front. They want to talk about things they can buy from the United States. They want to talk about policies they can resolve and try to make sure that things remain on an even keel, because this relationship, it’s important for us. It’s vital for India.”

VOA’s Paris Huang contributed to this report.
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Bangkok — An influential lawyers’ association in Thailand said Thursday it is launching an investigation into the alleged killing of a Myanmar man by Thai soldiers last year, a move it says could lead to lawsuits against any officers involved.

The Lawyers Council of Thailand, which accredits the country’s attorneys, announced the probe after accepting a formal complaint about the case from Fortify Rights, an international advocacy group that previously carried out an investigation into the case.

In a report published last year, Fortify Rights alleged that three unidentified soldiers brutally beat Aung Ko Ko to death with bamboo rods in Baan Tai village, near the Myanmar border, on January 12, 2024, after disputing his membership in a security patrol team made up of local civilians.

The courts never charged any soldiers in the case, but convicted another civilian and Myanmar national, Sirachuch, who goes by one name, with manslaughter in September. Fortify Rights claims Sirachuch is being used as a scapegoat. Sirachuch has said he saw the soldiers attack Aung Ko Ko.

“After the Lawyers Council has taken the complaint, we will then investigate the nature and circumstances of the death of Aung Ko Ko. After that, we will take appropriate legal action,” Council President Wichien Chubthaisong told a press conference in Bangkok announcing the move.

“We will set up a subcommittee to conduct a fact-finding operation, hoping this will lead to the consideration of legal aid services and ensure that justice prevails for the family of Aung Ko Ko,” he added.

“Everyone has the right to have their human rights protected and respected under the law. Citizens in general should not be punished arbitrarily,” the chairman said.

Afterward, Wichien told VOA the evidence that Fortify Rights has gathered implicating the army appeared credible and that the council could pursue civil or criminal charges against any soldiers it identifies as suspects.

“With credible evidence and a strong case, I think what we can continue to do is to prosecute other people involved in this case,” he said.

Neither the Royal Thai Armed Forces nor the Royal Thai Police, which investigated Aung Ko Ko’s death last year and filed the charges that led to Sirachuch’s conviction, replied to VOA’s requests for comment.

Fortify Rights says the army has denied any responsibility for Aung Ko Ko’s death, both to local media and a House of Representatives committee hearing, claiming he was tortured on the Myanmar side of the border before his body was dumped on Thai soil.

The rights group denies the army’s claim and says it undermines the authorities’ case against Sirachuch, which rests on Thailand having jurisdiction over an attack by Sirachuch on Aung Ko Ko in Thailand.

Sirachuch, who is now serving a prison sentence of three years and four months, confessed to striking Aung Ko Ko once on the back and twice on the shins.

Fortify Rights, though, says that falls well short of manslaughter. It says the post-mortem report by the hospital that examined Aung Ko Ko’s body states he died of “head injuries caused by physical assault,” and that three eyewitnesses to the attack, Sirachuch included, claim it was the soldiers who beat Aung Ko Ko on the head.

“This is a grave miscarriage of justice at multiple levels and we are very heartened to see Thai leaders like Dr. Wichien willing to take a closer look at this case,” Fortify Rights CEO Matthew Smith said at Thursday’s press conference.

Afterward, Smith said his group pursued the council’s help because of its influence and connections with Thai authorities, especially its links to the Department of Special Investigation, or DSI. The department is a special Ministry of Justice unit that investigates some of the country’s highest profile and sensitive cases, including those that may involve public corruption and abuse of power. Wichien is on the department’s board of special cases, which guides its work and is chaired by Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra.

“So, the fact that the Lawyers Council is willing to take a closer look at this case, we hope, is one important step closer to DSI also doing a formal investigation,” Smith told VOA.

“This is the type of situation where DSI can get involved and actually uncover the truth and ensure actual justice takes place,” he added. “In some ways, DSI can unravel coverups, and DSI has the skills and ability and the influence and power to ensure justice in these really difficult cases.”

In its report on Aung Ko Ko’s death, Fortify Rights says it interviewed 23 people during its investigation, including witnesses, acquaintances and relatives, and spoke with local police. It says he had been living in Thailand for many years and was a well-known member of the community’s civilian security team, known locally as Chor Ror Bor, which is trained and organized by Thai authorities.

The report says the soldiers who detained Aung Ko Ko the day he died, and who later beat him, disputed his membership in the team, even after other members arrived to vouch for him. After the attack, it adds, Aung Ko Ko, badly bruised and bloodied, was being helped to the Myanmar border by other locals, on orders from the soldiers, when he collapsed and died of his wounds.
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ISLAMABAD — Pakistan and Turkey pledged to deepen cooperation in defense, mining, energy and other sectors during the seventh round of the Pakistan-Turkey High Level Strategic Cooperation Council in Islamabad on Thursday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan co-chaired the highest-level bilateral discussion forum with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

After the closed-door delegation-level talks Thursday, the two sides exchanged 24 signed documents, including a joint declaration, a few agreements, and several memoranda of understanding.

“We have agreed to further strengthen our relations,” Erdogan said in remarks broadcast live after the talks.

The text of the joint declaration was not released. However, a brief statement from Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “gives a roadmap for further deepening, diversifying and institutionalizing the strategic partnership between Pakistan and Turkey.”

Sharif and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari welcomed the Turkish leader Wednesday night at a military airbase near the capital with much fanfare.

From a 21-gun salute to a fighter jet flyby and traditional Pakistani dancers on the motorcade’s route, to a special song honoring Erdogan blaring across TV channels, Islamabad pulled out all the stops for the Turkish president, who returned after five years for a brief visit ending Thursday night.

Broad cooperation

Both sides agreed to cooperate in air force electronic warfare and to collaborate on defense production, with a memorandum of understanding, or MoU, signed between Turkey’s Secretariat of Defense Industries and Pakistan’s Ministry of Defense Production and another MoU between Turkey’s state-owned Aerospace Industries and Pakistan’s Naval Research and Development Institute.

Over the last decade Pakistan and Turkey have ramped up defense production cooperation. That cooperation includes joint production of four MILGEM corvette warships for delivery to Pakistan, helping the South Asian country upgrade its aging fighter jet fleet, and the sharing and transfer of defense technologies.

Pakistan and Turkey also agreed to upgrade their existing trade agreement and reiterated a past pledge to boost annual bilateral trade volume to $5 billion from roughly $1.5 billion. In May 2023, the two signed a Preferential Trade Agreement, reducing Pakistani tariffs on 130 product categories, while Turkey cut down tariffs on 261 product lines.

Sharif announced Turkish firms will build a special economic zone in Pakistan for industrial production, despite Pakistan’s struggle to attract investment to special economic zones set up as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Both sides agreed on a protocol to amend their existing agreement of cooperation in the field of hydrocarbons and signed an MoU to help Pakistan’s energy transition. The South Asian country is aiming to decrease reliance on expensive foreign fuel and transition to affordable and abundant green energy.

Pakistan reached an MoU with Turkey on mining cooperation as well, a sector Islamabad is anxious to bring foreign investment to.

Under the bilateral strategic cooperation council, six joint standing committees cover a broad array of sectors, including trade, investment, banking, finance, culture, tourism, energy, defense, agriculture, transportation, communication, IT, health, science and technology, and education. Both sides signed cooperation documents in almost all the fields.

In his brief remarks after the talks, Sharif pledged to fight terrorism jointly with Turkey. The Pakistani leader then singled out Afghanistan as a source of the violence.

“Afghanistan is a neighboring country, and we expect that Afghanistan will cooperate in fighting terrorism and not spreading terrorism and in that we are together,” Sharif said.

Although Erdogan expressed support for Pakistan’s fight against terrorism in his remarks, the Turkish leader stopped short of naming Afghanistan as a root cause. Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers reject accusation of harboring anti-Pakistan fighters on their soil.

Critical timing

The two allies held their highest-level dialogue at a critical time in the Middle East.

“We discussed not only our bilateral relations but also regional and global developments extensively,” Erdogan said.

The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria has strengthened Ankara’s position in the region, but it has also put Turkey in direct competition with Israel, whose troops have advanced into Syrian territory.

“Turkey understands that increasing defense and strategic ties with countries like Pakistan, another established middle-sized defense power, are even more for interest for Turkey,” Umer Karim, a researcher at the University of Birmingham, told VOA.

“Sharing bilateral defense production technologies and learning is a key aspect,” Karim said.

The civil war in Syria also has deeply affected militancy in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Fighters from those countries fought alongside Syrian militias. But Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, a regional offshoot of the terror outfit IS, has brought more violence to the two South Asian neighbors.

With Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or HTS, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, now controlling Syria, security observers say Ankara and Islamabad need help from each other to manage nonstate actors.

“With Shia militias and movement from various nonstate actors, from Sunni militias moving into Syria as well, and now that the conflict has subsided, their ultimate return and its impact on the region is going to play a tremendous amount of role,” Iftikhar Firdaus, editor of The Khorasan Diary, told VOA. The online platform monitors militant activity.

A delegation of Turkish corporate leaders joined Erdogan on the visit to boost trade ties with Pakistan. Sharif and Erdogan also addressed the Pakistan-Turkey Business Forum in Islamabad on Thursday.

“Turkey can explore Pakistan in two ways,” Khurram Schehzad, advisor to Pakistan’s finance minister, told VOA. “One is as an investment corridor; the second is that Pakistan can become Turkey’s export hub into the Asia-Pacific region.”

Schehzad acknowledged that despite deep strategic and people-to-people ties, Pakistan and Turkey have failed to develop a strong economic relationship.

“What I would like to have is, how the follow-up is done post-MoUs and how that MoU is converted into value,” Schehzad said.

The previous session of the Pakistan-Turkey High Level Strategic Cooperation Council was held in Islamabad in February 2020.
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ISLAMABAD — Taliban officials said Thursday a suicide bomb explosion outside a ministry building in the Afghan capital of Kabul killed at least one person and injured several others.

The blast occurred when security guards at the entrance to the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing intercepted and killed a suicide bomber, an Interior Ministry spokesperson told VOA.

Abdul Mateen Qani confirmed the casualties, saying a member of Taliban security was killed, and three others were wounded in the ensuing explosion.

No immediate claims of responsibility were made, but suspicions fell on a regional Islamic State group affiliate, Islamic State-Khorasan, or IS-K.

The attack came two days after IS-K took credit for a suicide bombing outside a bank in the northeastern Afghan city of Kunduz that killed at least five people and wounded several others. Multiple sources reported that the victims of the Tuesday blast were predominantly Taliban security personnel who had assembled to collect their salaries.

IS-K has plotted repeated high-profile attacks since the Taliban retook control of the country in 2021. The violence has killed hundreds of people, including senior Taliban leaders, religious figures and members of the Afghan Shiite community.

The back-to-back bombings this week followed the Taliban’s renewed claims that their security forces nearly eliminated IS-K presence in the country, rendering the group incapable of posing a threat within or beyond Afghan borders.

The United Nations and independent critics remain skeptical about the Taliban’s assertions. U.N. counterterrorism officials warned during a Security Council meeting on Monday that IS-K is one of the “most dangerous” Islamic State branches and “continued to pose a significant threat in Afghanistan, the region and beyond.”
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NEW DELHI — U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talks Thursday at the White House.

Officials in New Delhi expressed optimism Modi’s visit will herald a renewed and substantive partnership. However, analysts said there will be contentious issues to navigate on trade and immigration, which are among Trump’s top priorities. 

Underlining that Modi will be meeting Trump within weeks of his taking office, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri – the ministry’s top civil servant — said India-U.S. ties are solid and that “this has been one of our strongest international partnerships.” 

Trade is important for both countries and India has taken steps to demonstrate that it is ready to address concerns of Trump, who has named India among countries that are “very big tariff abusers.” In a phone conversation with Modi last month, Trump called for moving toward a fair bilateral trading relationship. 

Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, repeated such concerns on Monday. “India has enormously high” tariffs that lock out imports, he said in an interview with CNBC. 

New Delhi, which wants to avoid trade tensions with the U.S., announced earlier this month that it would lower import duties on some items that will benefit American exports such as high-end motorcycles and cars. 

It also may offer other concessions that could help American goods gain Indian market access and boost energy imports from the U.S., analysts say. 

“New Delhi thought it would take a first step and try to resolve differences on trade. But, certainly, as a great negotiator and bargainer, he [Trump] will ask for more,” said Chintamani Mahapatra, founder of the Kalinga School of Indo Pacific Studies. “India also bargains very well. So, somehow, we will try to make a compromise that will benefit both.” 

For India, the stakes are high — the United States is its largest trading partner. Bilateral trade between the two countries was $118 billion, with an Indian surplus of about $32 billion in 2023. 

India has not been affected so far by Trump’s tariff impositions – the latest 25% tariffs he imposed on steel and aluminum imports will have an only marginal affect on India, as New Delhi is a small exporter of steel to the U.S., according to Indian officials. 

Strengthening security and defense ties with the U.S., Indian officials say will also be discussed in Washington. According to analysts that could include potential purchases of weapon systems and technology.  In the recent phone conversation with Modi, Trump had called on Modi to increase procurement of U.S.-made security equipment 

India, the world’s largest spender on military equipment, needs a range of weapons systems to modernize its military. As it diversifies its purchases from its traditional weapons supplier, Russia, India has been purchasing more arms from countries such as France, Israel and the United States.  

“The U.S. is a little concerned that it is losing out on the India [security] buys, so it has stepped up pressure to sell India a lot more defense equipment than India has bought in the last few years,” according to Rahul Bedi, a defense analyst in New Delhi. “There is likely to be initiatives on transport aircraft, surveillance aircraft for the navy, and possibly even fighter aircraft, as well as a lot of technology transfers for aircraft engines, infantry combat vehicles.”   

Immigration is another issue of concern to both countries. Although India has cooperated with the U.S. and said it is ready to take back undocumented migrants, reports of 104 undocumented Indians being shackled for 40 hours while being brought back to India on a military plane last week from the U.S. led to an uproar and protests by opposition parties.   

Indian officials have said that New Delhi will call for better treatment during future deportations. 

At the same time, India’s top priority during discussions will be to protect legal channels of immigration for skilled Indian workers and students heading to American universities. Indians are the largest beneficiaries of H1B visas, which allow U.S. employers to hire foreign professionals in specialized fields, such as technology.   

“People-to-people relationships constitute the bedrock of our deepening ties with the United States,” Indian foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told lawmakers, while responding to concerns about the transport and treatment of the deportees. 

In a statement before leaving New Delhi, Modi called his upcoming meeting with Trump an opportunity to build upon the successes of their collaboration in Trump’s first term.  

Mutual concerns about an assertive China are likely to keep the two countries aligned, according to analysts. Along with the U.S., Australia and Japan, India is a partner in the Quad, a strategic security grouping focused on the Indo-Pacific. Analysts say the two countries have convergence on geostrategic issues. 

“It was President Trump in his first term, who dusted off the Quad, which was in a dormant state for about 10 years, and he was solely responsible for reviving it,” said Mahapatra. “This is an area where both the countries have a lot of things in common for maintaining peace, stability and contributing to the growth story in the Indo-Pacific region.”
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WASHINGTON — More than 260 foreign nationals have been rescued from online scam operations in Myanmar and handed over to authorities in Thailand. The rescue is part of an escalating crackdown on human trafficking and cyber fraud along the two countries’ border.

A Myanmar insurgent group, the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, which recently raided scam centers in the region, handed the victims over to Thai authorities on Feb. 12.

DKBA Chief of Staff Major Saw San Aung told VOA’s Burmese Service in a telephone interview that the group’s forces raided casinos in Myawaddy District, Karen State, in search of trafficked foreign workers.

“On February 11, we identified 261 victims and transferred them to Thai authorities on February 12,” he said.

“We are handing over everyone we find today, but the process is difficult. The [Myanmar] junta’s immigration department is making demands, and the terrain is challenging. We have to retrieve the victims ourselves before transferring them to the nearest Thai authorities,” Major Saw San Aung said.

A rescue worker and eyewitness who requested anonymity for security reasons told VOA in a phone interview on Wednesday that online scam gangs force victims of trafficking “to meet monthly earnings targets of up to $50,000. If they failed, they were tortured. They were only allowed to sleep for two to three hours a day and worked nonstop. They were kept in dark cells and subjected to continuous abuse.”

Thai officials confirmed that the rescued individuals were taken by boat to Phop Phra, Thailand, before being moved to a secure facility.

China pressured to crack down on scammers

Tensions between China and Myanmar escalated after Chinese actor Wang Xing was abducted and held captive in Myanmar in January, before eventually being rescued from scam centers in Myawaddy.

In response to this incident, China pressured Thailand to crack down on scam networks operating in the region.

This pressure is widely believed to be a key factor behind Thailand’s decision to cut off electricity and fuel supplies to Myanmar, significantly impacting areas controlled by ethnic Karen armed groups.

The Wednesday handover follows another transfer on Feb. 6 when Myanmar’s ruling junta and another armed group, the Karen Border Guard Force handed over 61 trafficked individuals, including 39 Chinese nationals, to Thai custody.

Among those rescued and returned on Thursday, many were from Africa, including 46 Ethiopians and 33 Kenyans, according to the DKBA.

In recent days, Myanmar’s military leadership has also highlighted its efforts to crackdown on illegal online gambling and scam operations in cooperation with the international community.

In audio message shared with the news media last Friday, military junta spokesperson General Zaw Min Tun said many victims of trafficking were lured with promises of high-paying jobs in computer-related and translation fields.

“They were deceived by the prospect of high salaries and good working conditions. Most of them arrived in Mae Sot from Bangkok before being taken across the border illegally by online money-laundering gangs,” General Zaw Min Tun said.

Myawaddy: haven for scam syndicates

Myawaddy, located in Karen State along the Thai border, is controlled by Karen armed groups, including the DKBA and the Karen BGF, the latter was previously aligned with the Myanmar military.

The BGF-controlled town of Shwe Kokko in particular has turned into a notorious hub for online fraud.

As of May 2022, reports indicated that 1,225 Chinese nationals, along with individuals from Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, and the Philippines, were trafficked into Shwe Kokko to work in online scam operations. These victims were lured by fake job offers and later forced into online fraud schemes.

Since the Karen BGF severed ties with the Myanmar military and rebranded itself as the Karen National Army last year, the scam operations have faced increased scrutiny.

The U.S. Institute of Peace has warned that online scams originating from Southeast Asia, particularly Myanmar, are a major security threat and cause significant financial losses in the U.S.

In 2023, USIP estimated that Americans lost $3.5 billion to scams from the region. These scams, including forced labor, scams using romantic relationships and other financial crimes, target U.S. residents through fraudulent job applications and false high-tech job ads.

Aye Aye Mar from VOA’s Burmese Service contributed to this report.
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ISLAMABAD — The United States advised its citizens Wednesday to steer clear of a popular mosque in Pakistan’s capital due to potential terrorist threats. 

The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad issued the threat alert following the emergence of a social media video earlier this week featuring a purported militant operative at the city’s Faisal Mosque, a major tourist destination. 

The brief video showed the individual displaying a hand-drawn pamphlet featuring the flag of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which the United Nations has listed as a global terrorist organization. The video was shared on Monday via social media affiliated with TTP. 

The U.S. diplomatic mission has prohibited employees from traveling to the mosque area until further notice. The advisory also urged American citizens to avoid the area, stating that “TTP militants have issued threats against Faisal Mosque in Islamabad.” 

The terror threat alert was issued on the day Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Islamabad for a bilateral visit, amid heightened security measures. 

TTP routinely stages suicide bombings and gun attacks against Pakistani security forces and other official targets, mainly in districts near and on the country’s border with Afghanistan. The violence has killed hundreds of people in recent years.  

Islamabad has maintained that the group orchestrates terrorist attacks from sanctuaries in Afghanistan and has persistently called on the neighboring country’s Taliban leaders to rein in TTP militants.  

The Taliban government in Kabul, not recognized by any country, denies the presence of TTP or any other foreign militant organizations on Afghan soil. It claims that no one is allowed to threaten neighboring countries and beyond from Afghanistan. 

Critics have questioned the Taliban’s denial, pointing to the frequent high-profile attacks claimed or attributed to the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), an Afghan affiliate of the transnational Islamic State terrorist network. The violence has killed hundreds of people, including senior Taliban leaders, religious figures and members of the Afghan Shiite community, since the Taliban reclaimed control of the country in 2021. 

On Monday, U.N. counterterrorism officials warned during a Security Council meeting that IS-K is one of the “most dangerous” Islamic State branches. 

“ISIL-Khorasan has continued to pose a significant threat in Afghanistan, the region and beyond,” Vladimir Voronkov, U.N. undersecretary-general for counterterrorism, told the meeting, using another acronym for IS-K. 

The latest IS-K-claimed attack occurred on Tuesday when a suicide bomber detonated himself outside a bank in the northeastern Afghan city of Kunduz. Taliban officials said the blast killed five people and injured seven others. Multiple sources reported that the victims were primarily members of the Taliban security forces.
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Geneva — The U.N. human rights office on Wednesday estimated that up to 1,400 people may have been killed in Bangladesh over three weeks last summer in a crackdown on student-led protests against the now-ousted former prime minister. 

In a new report, the Geneva-based office says security and intelligence services “systematically engaged” in rights violations that could amount to crimes against humanity and require further investigation. 

Citing “various credible sources,” the rights office said it estimated that as many as 1,400 people may have been killed in the protests between July 15 and Aug. 5 — the day longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India amid the uprising. 

Thousands more were injured in the weeks leading up to and after the protests, and the vast majority of those killed and injured “were shot by Bangladesh’s security forces,” the report said. 

Over 11,700 people were detained, the report said, citing information from security services. It said that about 12 to 13% of people estimated to have be killed —- or as many as about 180 people — were children. 

In some cases, “security forces engaged in summary executions by deliberately shooting unarmed protesters at point blank range,” it said. 

U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk cited signs that “extrajudicial killings, extensive arbitrary arrests and detentions, and torture” were conducted with the knowledge and coordination of the political leadership and top security officials as a way to suppress the protests. 

The U.N. fact-finding team was deployed to Bangladesh at the invitation of the country’s interim leader, the Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, to look into the uprising and violent crackdown. 

The team of investigators said the interim government has reportedly made 100 arrests in connection with attacks on religious and indigenous groups. The report said “many perpetrators of acts of revenge, violence and attacks on distinct groups apparently continue to enjoy impunity.” 

The human rights situation in Bangladesh continues to raise concerns, the U.N. office said. 

While the government has changed, “the system has not necessarily changed,” Rory Mungoven, head of the rights office’s Asia-Pacific region, told reporters. “Many officials and people who had served or been appointed under the previous regime continue to function,” he said. 

Such a situation creates “a potential conflict of interest” and could impede reforms and accountability, Mungoven added. 

The investigators issued dozens of recommendations to the government, such as steps to improve the justice system and setting up a witness protection program. It also recommended banning the use of lethal firearms by security forces to disperse crowds unless they are faced with “imminent threat of death or serious injury.” 

In a statement after the report was published, Yunus reiterated his government’s commitment to upholding the rule of law and said it was crucial to reform the country’s law enforcement and justice sectors. 

“I call on everyone working inside these institutions to side with justice, the law, and the people of Bangladesh in holding to account their own peers and others who have broken the law and violated the human and civil rights of their fellow citizens,” he said. 

What began as peaceful demonstrations by students frustrated with a quota system for government jobs unexpectedly grew into a major uprising against Hasina and her ruling Awami League party. 

A High Court decision in early June that reinstated the quota system was the “immediate trigger” to the protests, which were also fueled by long standing grievances about economic inequality and a lack of rights, the report said. 
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MANILA, Philippines — Philippine government investigators filed criminal complaints, including sedition, against Vice President Sara Duterte on Wednesday over her public threat to have the president assassinated if she herself was killed in an escalating political storm.

National Bureau of Investigation Director Jaime Santiago said at a news conference that the complaints of inciting to sedition and grave threats against Duterte were filed at the Department of Justice, which would decide whether to dismiss the complaints outright or elevate them to court.

The vice president, a lawyer and daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, reacted briefly by saying that she had expected the move by the NBI. She has accused her political rivals of taking steps to prevent her from seeking the presidency when President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s term ends in 2028.

The vice president’s father himself, whose presidential term ended in 2022, is facing legal troubles. The International Criminal Court has been investigating the widespread killings under a brutal anti-drug crackdown he oversaw while in office as a possible crime against humanity.

Sara Duterte ran as Marcos’ vice presidential running mate in 2022. Their whirlwind political alliance, however, quickly frayed and deteriorated into a bitter feud in an Asian democracy that has long been hamstrung by clashing political clans.

Last week, the vice president was impeached by the House of Representatives on a range of accusations that included her threat to have Marcos, his wife and House Speaker Martin Romualdez killed if she herself were fatally attacked in an unspecified plot that she brought up in an online news conference in November.

The impeachment complaint, which was signed by majority of the more than 300 members of the House, which is dominated by Marcos’ allies, also included allegations of largescale corruption and misuse of her office’s confidential funds. The 24-member Senate plans to tackle the impeachment complaint after Congress reopens in June.

The vice president has vaguely denied that what she said amounted to a threat against Marcos, his wife and Romualdez, the president’s cousin, but her remarks still sparked a national security alarm at the time and investigations, including by the NBI.

The vice president said at a news conference last week that her lawyers were preparing for a legal battle in her upcoming impeachment trial, but she refused to say if resignation was an option so that she could preempt a possible conviction that would bar her from running for president in the future.
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ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s economy is on a path to long-term recovery, thanks to a stabilization program backed by the International Monetary Fund, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said ahead of a first review of a $7-billion IMF bailout set for early in March.

The comments came in Sharif’s meeting on Tuesday with Kristalina Georgieva on the sidelines of the World Government Summit 2025 in Dubai, his office said in a statement.

He underscored the progress made under the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF), which has played a key role in stabilizing Pakistan’s economy and set it on the path of long-term recovery, it added.

Ahead of the IMF review, the government and central bank have expressed confidence about meeting its targets, even as Pakistan, bolstered by the bailout secured in September, struggles to navigate the recovery.

Tuesday’s meeting focused on the macroeconomic stability, achieved by the government’s agenda for comprehensive reform under the IMF program.

Discussions highlighted Pakistan’s commitment to adopting structural reforms and maintaining fiscal discipline under the IMF program, Sharif’s office said.

He reaffirmed his government’s resolve to maintain reform momentum, particularly in critical areas such as taxes, energy efficiency and private sector development, it added.

A three-member IMF mission, separately, is currently in Pakistan for a an assessment under the EFF program.
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Washington — Human rights experts in Washington are divided over whether the U.S. withdrawal from a United Nations body on human rights will hurt North Korea’s already poor human rights situation.

Last Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order pulling the U.S. out of the U.N. Human Rights Council, or UNHRC, reintroducing the stance he held during his previous term.

The executive order said that the UNHRC has “protected human rights abusers by allowing them to use the organization to shield themselves from scrutiny,” adding that the council deserves “renewed scrutiny.”

The decision was announced ahead of Trump’s recent meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited Washington for the first time since Trump’s second inauguration.

Since his first term, President Trump has been disapproving of the activities of the U.N. human rights body. In June 2018, the Trump administration criticized the UNHRC for its “bias against Israel,” stressing the council that year passed resolutions against Israel more than those passed against North Korea, Iran and Syria combined.

Negative impact

Robert King, who served as the U.S. special envoy for North Korea’s human rights under the Obama administration, said that the U.S. decision to withdraw from the U.N. Human Rights Council could negatively undermine international efforts to improve human rights conditions in the North.

“It will have a negative impact. The U.N. Human Rights Council has been a very effective body in terms of calling attention to North Korea’s serious human rights abuses,” King told VOA Korean on the phone last week. “And the fact that the United States will not be an active participant is again a very unfortunate situation.”

Roberta Cohen, former deputy assistant secretary of state for human rights, said leaving the UNHRC is “a short-sighted decision.”

Cohen, who also served as senior adviser to the U.S. Delegation to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and the General Assembly, said it is important that the U.S. be seated at the council with a vote and be active in mobilizing support for any new initiatives.

“If the reforms are needed and they are, the U.S. should be involved heavily,” Cohen told VOA Korean by phone last week. “Walking away cedes the floor to your opponents.”

Cohen highlighted that the council was where the Commission of Inquiry on the Human Rights in North Korea, or COI, was conceived. The COI is widely considered to be the first systematic and thorough documentation of Pyongyang’s violations of human rights.

She added that an update of the COI is to be presented in September for the first time in more than a decade, saying that Washington needs to be part of the process when the report is introduced.

However, others question the role of the Human Rights Council in making a real impact on improving North Korea’s human rights conditions.

“The Human Rights Council has become a very tragic farce. It was supposed to promote and protect human rights around the world but instead it coddles dictatorships and gives them legitimacy by including them as members of the council,” said Suzanne Scholte, president of the Defense Forum Foundation and a longtime North Korea human rights activist. “We’re not addressing the horrific things that are happening to the North Korean refugees in China that are being shot and executed when they’re returned.”

‘Illegitimate’ members

Human rights experts have long criticized Beijing for failing to afford protection to North Korean refugees and forcefully repatriating them to North Korea.

David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy in Washington, said North Korean human rights issues need to be separated from how Trump wants to deal with the United Nations.

“This is about the Trump administration’s views toward U.N. organizations and how they are being misused by countries such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea,” Maxwell told VOA Korean on Monday via email. “When these organizations are coerced by members of the so-called axis of upheaval, they are not able to support the people who are suffering true human rights abuses.”

Meanwhile, Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow and the SK-Korea Foundation chair at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Asia Policy Studies in Washington, said the U.S. has other tools to address the North Korean human rights issue.

“Pulling out of the UNHRC won’t make much of a difference practically speaking,” Yeo told VOA Korean via email last week. “The U.S. has other means and platforms to raise North Korean human rights objections, including its own State Department human rights reports.”

The U.S. rejoined the UNHRC shortly after the inauguration of Joe Biden as president in 2021, but the Biden administration decided not to seek a second term as a board member of the council when the three-year membership was to expire at the end of 2024.

The move was made amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, which launched a surprise attack on the former a year prior. The State Department explained at the time that the U.S. decided not to pursue a second term at the council “because we are engaged with our allies about the best way to move forward.”

Every March or April, the State Department releases the annual Human Rights Reports, which cover the human rights situations around the world. The document last year said there were credible reports of unlawful killing, enforced disappearances and torture taking place in North Korea.
…

WASHINGTON — In Kabul, Afghanistan, a major midwifery program — girls’ only higher education option — has closed.

Across Pakistan, dozens of development programs have ground to a halt.

In Bangladesh, a health research center has laid off more than 1,000 employees.

The fallout comes two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration suspended foreign aid amid a widespread review, leaving thousands of development programs in limbo.

“I’m in shock,” said a student at the USAID-funded midwifery school in Kabul, speaking anonymously. “This was the last remaining option for girls to receive an education and get a job.”

“People keep calling and asking, ‘When is the program going to restart?'” said the head of a USAID-backed education nonprofit in Afghanistan, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The freeze follows a Jan. 20 executive order issued by Trump that suspended all foreign aid pending a 30-day review.

The president said the review was necessary because “the United States foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests, and in many cases, antithetical to American values.” The executive order said the current setup “serves to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries” that undermine “harmonious” international relations.

Now, U.S. government agencies involved in delivering foreign assistance must decide by April 30 to keep, change or end their foreign aid programs.

The aid suspension marks a sharp break with decades of U.S. foreign policy. Historically, the U.S. has been the world’s biggest foreign aid donor, with $68 billion in aid in 2023.

The offices of USAID, the lead foreign aid agency, remain closed. Although the State Department has issued a broad exemption to “lifesaving” humanitarian programs such as emergency food distribution in Afghanistan, most programs on the ground remain closed.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has taken over as acting head of USAID, said that while he backs foreign assistance, “every dollar” spent on foreign assistance must advance U.S. national interest.

“We are not walking away from foreign aid,” Rubio told Scott Jennings on Sirius XM Patriot 125 on Monday. “We are walking away from foreign aid that’s dumb, that’s stupid, that wastes American taxpayer money.”

USAID is recognized globally as a premier development agency, but critics at home and abroad have long accused it of throwing American taxpayer money into wasteful projects.

To highlight this, the White House last week issued a list of USAID programs involving “waste and abuse,” including $1.5 million “to advance diversity, equity and inclusion” in Serbia; $47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia; and $6 million to fund tourism in Egypt.

Foreign aid defenders acknowledge the waste, but they argue these projects represent a fraction of the $68 billion U.S. aid program.

South Asia

Though U.S. aid to South and Central Asian nations has declined recently, the region still gets billions annually, with Afghanistan the largest regional recipient.

The country, which received $1.3 billion in 2023, now faces a wave of program shutdowns. While emergency humanitarian aid continues after a brief interruption, development programs from child and maternal health to education have stopped.

The impact has been wide-ranging. The United Nations Population Fund has frozen all U.S.-backed programs in Afghanistan, potentially leaving more than 9 million people cut off from health services, according to regional director, Pio Smith.

The UNFPA, which Republicans have long accused of promoting coercive family planning practices, relies on U.S. assistance for almost a third of its humanitarian operations. The agency, which denies the charge, is likely to lose all that support, impacting its work across the region.

Education is another casualty of the aid suspension in Afghanistan. The American University of Afghanistan, established in 2006 with a USAID grant and now operating out of Qatar, has reportedly suspended classes. A university spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile in Bangladesh, the Asian University for Women is scrambling to keep hundreds of Afghan students after U.S. funding dried up. To cover the funding shortfall, the university has launched a $7 million appeal.

“We cannot and will not send these students back to an uncertain and oppressive future,” the university said in a statement.

Bangladesh, despite its $437 billion economy, is also feeling the pinch. The country is a U.S. ally and South Asia’s largest recipient of U.S. aid after Afghanistan, with more than $500 million supporting a wide range of programs from emergency food assistance to fighting tuberculosis and pandemic influenza.

In Pakistan, more than three dozen USAID-funded projects have reportedly shut down in recent days. A burns and plastic surgery center in the northwestern city of Peshawar, built with a $15 million USAID grant, faces an uncertain future.

“At the moment, I don’t know what’s going to happen to the whole program, but I’m hopeful that the program will move forward,” Dr. Tahmeedullah, the center’s director, said in an interview.

Central Asia

In Central Asia, where five former Soviet republics received about $235 million in 2023, nearly every USAID-funded program and initiative has been stopped, according to local news reports.

“From what I’ve gathered, all types of programs and initiatives have been suspended as of now,” said Alisher Khamidov, a Kyrgyzstan-based consultant who follows USAID projects in the region.

The suspensions include critical health initiatives such as USAID’s $18 million-$20 million “TB-Free” programs in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, both launched in 2023.

“This five-year project has special significance for Uzbekistan as it was one of the few projects tackling TB in the country,” Khamidov said in an interview last week with VOA.

In a statement, a State Department spokesperson said, “We are reviewing all foreign assistance programs to ensure they are efficient and consistent with U.S. foreign policy under the America First agenda.”

USAID has poured billions of dollars into many regional development programs since the early 1990s, including initiatives to promote democratization and civil society. Those efforts, however, represent a fraction of the total aid. Today, the agency is largely focused on agriculture and health projects, according to Khamidov.

Across the region, USAID programs have long faced allegations of waste and abuse, with numerous examples uncovered by the agency’s own inspector general.

Nowhere has the alleged abuse been starker than in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have been accused of siphoning of millions of dollars in U.S. aid funneled through U.N. agencies.

Some Taliban opponents have welcomed the aid freeze, arguing that it could force the group to accede to international demands. Others, such as former Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh, say it could level the political playing field in the country.

“The dismantling of USAID clears the path for the rise of genuine leaders in Afghanistan,” Saleh wrote on X.

Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, says a multibillion-dollar program can inevitably lead to waste and abuse. He told VOA that foreign aid can showcase U.S. goodwill but also cause diplomatic friction over policy and cultural issues.

Clark said that though the aid pause should have been less abrupt, a thorough review of the program is necessary.

“It makes sense to stop as a new administration comes in and reassess where the money is going, where it’s being allocated,” he said.

VOA’s Afghan, Deewa and Urdu services and correspondent Vero Balderas contributed to this report.
…

The 27-nation European Union and Canada quickly vowed Tuesday to stand firm against U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to impose 25% tariffs on their steel and aluminum exports, verbal sparring that could lead to a full-blown trade war between the traditionally allied nations.

“The EU will act to safeguard its economic interests,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement. “Tariffs are taxes — bad for business, worse for consumers.

“Unjustified tariffs on the EU will not go unanswered — they will trigger firm and proportionate countermeasures,” she said.

Trump said the steel and aluminum tariffs would take effect on March 12. In response, EU officials said they could target such U.S. products as bourbon, jeans, peanut butter and motorcycles, much of it produced in Republican states that supported Trump in his election victory.

The EU scheduled a first emergency video on Wednesday to shape the bloc’s response.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland, which holds the EU presidency, said it was “important that everyone sticks together. Difficult times require such full solidarity.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during a conference on artificial intelligence in Paris that Trump’s steel and aluminum levy would be “entirely unjustified,” and that “Canadians will resist strongly and firmly if necessary.”

Von der Leyen is meeting Tuesday with U.S. Vice President JD Vance in Paris, where they are expected to discuss Trump’s tariff orders.

“We will protect our workers, businesses and consumers,” she said in advance of the meeting.

Trump imposed the steel and aluminum tariff to boost the fortunes of U.S. producers.

“It’s a big deal,” he said. “This is the beginning of making America rich again.”

Billionaire financier Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee to lead the Commerce Department, said the tariff on the imports could bring back 120,000 U.S. jobs.

As he watched Trump sign an executive order, Lutnick said, “You are the president who is standing up for the American steelworker, and I am just tremendously impressed and delighted to stand next to you.”

Trump’s proclamations raised the rate on aluminum imports to 25% from the previous 10% that he imposed in 2018 to aid the struggling sector. And he restored a 25% tariff on millions of tons of steel and aluminum imports.

South Korea — the fourth-biggest steel exporter to the United States, following Canada, Brazil and Mexico — also vowed to protect its companies’ interests but did not say how.

South Korean acting President Choi Sang-mok said Seoul would seek to reduce uncertainties “by building a close relationship with the Trump administration and expanding diplomatic options.”

The spokesperson of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said London was “engaging with our U.S. counterparts to work through the detail” of the planned tariffs.

In Monday’s executive order, Trump said “all imports of aluminum articles and derivative aluminum articles from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Mexico, EU countries and the UK” would be subject to additional tariffs.

The same countries are named in his executive order on steel, along with Brazil, Japan and South Korea.

“I’m simplifying our tariffs on steel and aluminum,” Trump said. “It’s 25% without exceptions or exemptions.”

Bernd Lange, the chair of the European Parliament’s international trade committee, warned that previous trade measures against the U.S. were only suspended and could legally be easily revived.

“When he starts again now, then we will, of course, immediately reinstate our countermeasures,” Lange told rbb24 German radio. “Motorcycles, jeans, peanut butter, bourbon, whiskey and a whole range of products that of course also affect American exporters” would be targeted, he said.

In Germany, the EU’s largest economy, Chancellor Olaf Scholz told parliament that “if the U.S. leaves us no other choice, then the European Union will react united.”

But he warned, “Ultimately, trade wars always cost both sides prosperity.”

The European steel industry expressed concerns about the Trump tariffs.

“It will further worsen the situation of the European steel industry, exacerbating an already dire market environment,” said Henrik Adam, president of the European Steel Association.

He said the EU could lose up to 3.7 million tons of steel exports. The United States is the second-largest export market for EU steel producers, representing 16% of the total EU steel exports.

“Losing a significant part of these exports cannot be compensated for by EU exports to other markets,” Adam said.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
…

At least 16 Pakistanis have died in a migrant boat accident off the coast of Libya, Pakistani officials said Tuesday. Survivors of a migrant boat rescued in the Atlantic Ocean near Morocco in January have come home in recent days with harrowing stories to tell. VOA Pakistan bureau chief Sarah Zaman met with a survivor as well as relatives of victims to find out why young Pakistani men are willing to risk their lives to get to Europe. Videographer: Wajid Asad
…

New Delhi — As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to the United States for a two-day visit starting Wednesday, officials in New Delhi expressed optimism that the visit will herald a renewed and substantive partnership. However analysts said there will be contentious issues to navigate on trade and immigration, which are among U.S. President Donald Trump’s top priorities.

Underlining that Modi will be meeting Trump within weeks of his taking office, Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri said India-U.S. ties are solid and that “this has been one of our strongest international partnerships.”

Modi will reach Washington after visiting France, where he is attending a global conference on artificial intelligence.

Trade is important for both countries and India has taken steps to demonstrate that it is ready to address concerns of Trump, who has named India among countries that are “very big tariff abusers.” In a phone conversation with Modi last month, Trump called for moving toward a fair bilateral trading relationship.

His top economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, repeated such concerns on Monday. “India has enormously high” tariffs that lock out imports, he said in an interview with CNBC.

New Delhi, which wants to avoid trade tensions with the U.S., announced earlier this month that it will lower import duties on some items that will benefit American exports such as high-end motorcycles and cars.

It also may offer other concessions that could help American goods gain market access to India and boost energy imports from the U.S., say analysts.

“New Delhi thought it would take a first step and try to resolve differences on trade. But, certainly, as a great negotiator and bargainer, he [Trump] will ask for more,” said Chintamani Mahapatra, founder of the Kalinga School of Indo Pacific Studies. “India also bargains very well. So, somehow, we will try to make a compromise that will benefit both.”

For India, the stakes are high — the U.S. is its largest trading partner. Bilateral trade between the two countries was $118 billion, with a surplus of about $32 billion in India’s favor in 2023.

India has not been impacted so far by Trump’s tariff impositions — the latest 25 percent tariffs he imposed on steel and aluminum imports will have merely a marginal impact on India, as New Delhi is a small exporter of steel to the U.S., according to Indian officials.

Strengthening security and defense ties with the U.S., Indian officials say will also be discussed in Washington. According to analysts that could include potential purchases of weapon systems and technology. In the recent phone conversation with Modi, President Trump had called on Modi to increase procurement of American-made security equipment.

India, the world’s largest importer of military equipment, needs a range of weapons systems to modernize its military. As it diversifies its purchases from its traditional weapons supplier, Russia, India has been purchasing more arms from countries like France, Israel and the United States.

“The U.S. is a little concerned that it is losing out on the India [security] buys, so it has stepped up pressure to sell India a lot more defense equipment than India has bought in the last few years,” according to Rahul Bedi, defense analyst in New Delhi. “There is likely to be initiatives on transport aircraft, surveillance aircraft for the navy, and possibly even fighter aircraft, as well as a lot of technology transfers for aircraft engines, infantry combat vehicles.”

Immigration is another issue of concern to both countries. Although India has cooperated with the U.S. and said it is ready to take back undocumented migrants, reports of 104 undocumented Indians being shackled for 40 hours while being brought back to India on a military plane last week from the U.S. led to an uproar and protests by opposition parties.

Indian officials have said that New Delhi will call for better treatment during future deportations.

At the same time, India’s top priority during discussions will be to protect legal channels of immigration for skilled Indian workers and students heading to American universities. Indians are the largest beneficiaries of H1B visas, which allow U.S. employers to hire foreign professionals in specialized fields, such as technology.

“People-to-people relationships constitute the bedrock of our deepening ties with the United States,” Indian foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told lawmakers, while responding to concerns about the transport and treatment of the deportees.

In a statement before leaving New Delhi, Modi called his upcoming meeting with Trump an opportunity to build upon the successes of their collaboration in Trump’s first term.

Mutual concerns about an assertive China are likely to keep the two countries aligned, according to analysts. Along with the U.S., Australia and Japan, India is a partner in the Quad, a strategic security grouping focused on the Indo-Pacific. Analysts point out that the two countries have convergence on geostrategic issues.

“It was president Trump in his first term, who dusted off the Quad, which was in a dormant state for about ten years, and he was solely responsible for reviving it,” said Mahapatra. “This is an area where both the countries have a lot of things in common for maintaining peace, stability and contributing to the growth story in the Indo-Pacific region.”
…

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan reported Tuesday that a suicide bomber detonated himself at the entrance to a bank in the northern city of Kunduze, killing at least five people and injuring many others.

Jumaddin Khaksar, a spokesperson for the area police, confirmed the casualties to VOA by phone, saying the early morning powerful blast ripped through a crowd waiting outside the Kabul bank branch to collect their salaries.

He added that Afghan civilians and Taliban members were among the victims.

The Taliban-led Interior Ministry in the Afghan capital, Kabul, described the casualty figures as preliminary and promised to share more details later.

Multiple local sources in Kunduz, the capital of the province of the same name, reported a significantly higher death toll.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing, but suspicions pointed to Islamic State-Khorasan, or IS-K, an Afghanistan-based affiliate of the self-proclaimed transnational Islamic State terrorist network.
…

SINGAPORE — An 18-year-old Singapore student who was radicalized by violent far-right extremism online and who idolized the gunman behind deadly attacks on two mosques in New Zealand has been detained under the Internal Security Act, the government said.

Nick Lee Xing Qiu, identified as an “East Asian supremacist,” envisioned starting a “race war” between Chinese and Malays in Singapore, the Internal Security Department (ISD) said in statement issued on Monday.

“At the point of his arrest, Lee’s attack ideations were aspirational and he had no timeline to carry them out,” the ISD said, adding investigations into his online contacts had not revealed any imminent threats to Singapore.

Lee has been detained since December under the ISA, which allows suspects to be held for up to two years without trial.

The ISD said Lee found Islamophobic and far-right extremist content on social media in 2023, and then began actively searching for such content. It said he idolized the gunman who killed 51 people in two mosques in Christchurch in 2019, role-playing as him in an online simulation.

“Lee aspired to carry out attacks against Muslims in Singapore with like-minded, far-right individuals that he conversed with online,” the ISD said.

Lee is the third Singaporean youth with far-right extremist ideologies to be dealt with under the ISA, the department said, noting far-right extremism was a growing concern globally.

“Youths may be more susceptible to such ideologies and may gravitate toward the sense of belonging and identity that far-right movements appear to provide,” the ISD said.
…

So-called birth tourism is not only happening on the U.S. mainland. Pregnant Chinese mothers have been heading to a U.S. territory much closer to home to have their babies and obtain for them coveted U.S. citizenship. VOA Mandarin’s Yu Yao and Jiu Dao have the details from Saipan, capital of the Northern Mariana Islands. Elizabeth Lee narrates.
…

Islamabad — United Nations counterterrorism officials warned during a Security Council meeting Monday that an Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan remains a significant threat to regional and global security. 

The discussion centered on the threat posed by Islamic State, also known as Daesh, and its regional offshoots to international peace and security.  

The Afghan-based Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) was highlighted as one of the “most dangerous branches” of the transnational terrorist group. It has carried out repeated high-profile attacks targeting Afghan civilians and members of the country’s de facto Taliban rulers.  

“ISIL-Khorasan has continued to pose a significant threat in Afghanistan, the region and beyond,” Vladimir Voronkov, U.N. undersecretary-general for counterterrorism, told the meeting, using another acronym for IS-K.  

He stated that IS-K supporters had plotted attacks in Europe and were actively seeking to recruit individuals from Central Asian countries.  

“There were also reports of small numbers of foreign terrorist fighters continuing to travel to Afghanistan,” Voronkov said. He renewed a U.N. appeal for all member states to come together to prevent the South Asian country from “again becoming a hotbed of terrorist activities.” 

While addressing the meeting, U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea described IS-K as a significant global threat.  

“We remain concerned about ISIS-K’s capabilities to plot and conduct attacks, as well as sustain recruitment campaigns, particularly in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Shea stated, using another acronym for IS-K.  

Chinese envoy Fu Cong cautioned without elaborating that terrorists linked to IS-K, al-Qaida and the anti-China East Turkestan Islamic Movement “are very active” in Afghanistan and “are colluding with each other.”  

“China calls on the Afghan interim government to take visible and verifiable action to disintegrate and eliminate all terrorist organizations entrenched in Afghanistan,” Fu said, referring to the Taliban government, which is not recognized by any country.  

Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the U.N., attributed the increasing threat of IS-K to the hasty withdrawal of U.S.-led NATO troops from Afghanistan in 2021. 

“The growing activity of ISIL-Khorasan is no coincidence. While hastily leaving Afghanistan, NATO troops abandoned vast quantities of weapons and equipment there, which then fell into the hands of ISIL inter alia [among other things],” Nebenzya asserted.  

Munir Akram, Pakistan’s envoy to the U.N., questioned the validity of U.S. claims that IS-K is conducting recruitment campaigns in his country. He cited U.N. findings that Afghanistan is “the main hub for ISIL-K’s recruitment and facilitation” and rejected “any imputation that there is any such recruitment in Pakistan.” 

Taliban authorities have not responded to the U.N. assertions but have persistently downplayed IS-K activities in the country, claiming that no foreign terrorist groups operated on Afghan soil.  

De facto Afghan leaders assert that Taliban counterterrorism forces have nearly eliminated IS-K hideouts, and the group can no longer pose a threat to Afghanistan or other nations from its territory. 

However, IS-K has routinely conducted and claimed attacks targeting members of the Afghan Shiite community and the Taliban. 

Last December, an IS-K suicide bomber targeted and killed Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani, the Taliban’s minister of refugees, along with several of his associates inside his ministry in Kabul, the Afghan capital. This marked the most high-profile assassination since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021, following the withdrawal of NATO troops from the country.
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BEIJING — China hopes the Dalai Lama can “return to the right path” and is open to discussions about the Nobel Peace laureate’s future, as long as certain conditions are met, the foreign ministry said on Monday.

The exiled leader of Tibetan Buddhism, who turns 90 this year, fled Tibet in 1959 for India after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, but has expressed a desire to return to Tibet before he dies.

China is open to talks about the future of the Dalai Lama if he abandons his position of splitting the “motherland,” a foreign ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, told a regular press conference.

Guo was responding to a request for comment on the death of the spiritual leader’s elder brother Gyalo Thondup, who had previously acted as his unofficial envoy in talks with Chinese officials.

Gyalo Thondup died on Sunday, aged 97, in his home in the Indian town of Kalimpong.

The Dalai Lama needs to openly recognize that Tibet and Taiwan are inalienable parts of China, whose sole legal government is that of the People’s Republic of China, Guo said, using the country’s official name.

The Dalai Lama stepped down in 2011 as the political leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile, which Beijing does not recognize. Official talks with his representatives have stalled since.

As the Dalai Lama ages, the question of his successor has also become increasingly urgent. China insists it will choose his successor as Tibet’s spiritual leader.

But the Dalai Lama says he will clarify questions about the succession, such as if and where he will be reincarnated, in line with Tibetan Buddhist belief, around the time of his 90th birthday in July.

A new book by the Dalai Lama, due out in March to coincide with the anniversary of the uprising, is expected to outline a framework for the future of Tibet “even after I am gone,” he has said.
…

Beijing — Emergency teams in China’s southwestern Sichuan province raced against time Sunday to locate 28 people after a landslide triggered by rains killed one person and buried homes. 

Nearly 1,000 personnel were deployed following the landslide in the village of Jinping in Junlian county on Saturday. Some officers navigated through the remains of collapsed buildings, using drones and life-detection radars to locate any signs of life with the help of locals who were familiar with the area, state broadcaster CCTV said. 

Two injured people were rescued and about 360 others evacuated after 10 houses and a manufacturing building were buried, CCTV reported. 

At a news conference Sunday, authorities said preliminary assessments attributed the disaster to heavy rainfall and local geological conditions. They said these factors transformed a landslide into a debris flow about 1.2 kilometers (more than half a mile) long, with a total volume exceeding 100,000 cubic meters (3.5 million cubic feet). 

The rescue operation was hampered by continuous rainfall and more landslides. According to preliminary estimates, the collapsed area was about 16 football pitches in size and many houses were carried far by the debris flow. 

Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong was at the site to guide the operation and visited the affected residents, according to official news agency Xinhua. 

Liu also noted the surrounding slopes still pose collapse risks, calling for scientific assessment to ensure the safety of the operation and prevent another disaster, Xinhua said. 

China has allocated about $11 million to support disaster relief and recovery efforts. 

Landslides, often caused by rain or unsafe construction work, are not uncommon in China. Last year, a landslide in a remote, mountainous part of China’s southwestern province of Yunnan killed dozens of people.
…

PATNA, India — At least 31 suspected Maoist rebels and two police officials were killed on Sunday in the deadliest combat so far this year in central India, police said. 

Hundreds of police and paramilitary soldiers launched an operation in the forests of the Indravati area of Chhattisgarh state based on intelligence that large number of rebels had gathered there, said state police Inspector General Pattilingam Sundarraj. 

Sundarraj said as the troops conducted a search operation fighting erupted in the forest, killing at least 31 insurgents and two police officials. Two other police were injured . He said search operations were continuing in the area and the troops had recovered some arms and ammunition, including automatic rifles. 

There was no immediate statement from the rebels. 

Sunday’s fighting is the biggest so far this year and the second major clash in less than a month in Chhattisgarh, according to police officer Jitendra Yadav. 

At least 16 rebels were killed in the state’s Gariband district on Jan. 23. According to Indian officials, the government had issued a bounty for 12 of them totaling about $345,000. Eight rebels were killed in a gunbattle with troops in the Bijapur district on Jan. 31. 

Indian soldiers have been battling the Maoist rebels across several central and northern states since 1967, when the militants, also known as Naxalites, began fighting to demand more jobs, land and wealth from natural resources for the country’s poor indigenous communities. The insurgents are inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong. 

Years of neglect have isolated many locals, who face a lack of jobs, schools and health care clinics, making them open to overtures by the rebels. The rebels speak the same tribal languages as many villagers and have promised to fight for a better future especially in Chhattisgarh, one of India’s poorest states despite its vast mineral riches. 

The rebels have ambushed police, destroyed government offices and abducted officials. They’ve also blown up train tracks, attacked prisons to free their comrades and stolen weapons from police and paramilitary warehouses to arm themselves. 
…

BEIJING — China’s top economic planning agency said on Sunday it was taking steps to scale back subsidies for renewable energy projects after a boom in solar and wind power installations.

China broke its own records for new solar installations in 2024 with installed capacity up 45% from the previous year. China now has almost 887 GW of installed solar power, more than six times the capacity of the United States, according to data from the International Renewable Energy Agency.

The surge in installations meant China hit its 2030 target six years ahead of schedule, underscoring the speed of its clean energy rollout at a time when President Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of the Paris climate deal for a second time and pledged to make it easier to drill for oil and gas.

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said together with China’s energy administration it had issued “market-oriented” changes to policies intended to encourage clean energy projects.

The NDRC said China’s clean energy capacity of all kinds had reached more than 40% of the economy’s total energy generation capacity, in part because of the support of a system that guaranteed prices for renewable energy sold to the grid.

“The cost of new energy development has dropped significantly compared to earlier stages,” the NDRC said in a statement.

The agency said any new projects completed after June this year would face payments for electricity based on “market-based bidding.”

The NDRC said it expected there would be no impact on the price for residential users and farming and that power prices would be “basically the same” for industrial and commercial operations after the change took effect.

The NDRC said it would work with local governments across China on the implementation of the plan. It did not provide details of the pricing formula it would introduce.

Less generous subsidies for new solar farms could add pressure on China’s solar industry, where overcapacity relative to global demand has sent prices for solar panels plunging and threatened to drive smaller producers into bankruptcy. 
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JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Economists are raising concerns about the viability of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s program launched this year to combat child nutrition.

According to an Indonesian Ministry of Health Nutritional Status Study report, 21.6% of children ages 3 and 4 experienced stunting caused by malnutrition in 2022.

The first stage of the Free Nutritious Meal Program, extending through March, is intended to provide around 20 million Indonesian school children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers meals to improve their health and prevent stunting.

The effort was initially projected to cost $28 billion over five years. However, Coordinating Minister for Food Zulkifli Hasan said on Jan. 9 during a meeting on food security that the $4.4 billion budgeted for this year will run out in June and that $8.5 billion more will be requested to fund the program through December.

China, Japan, the United States and India have expressed support for the program, although it is unclear how much money will be provided or what form that support will take. Japan and India have said their help will be in the form of training.

Officials plan to implement the program in stages, eventually reaching 83 million people — more than a quarter of Indonesia’s 280 million population — by 2029, Muhammad Qodari, deputy chief of the presidential staff told reporters on Feb. 3.

The program is part of a long-term strategy to develop the nation’s youth to achieve a “Golden Indonesia” generation, referring to a plan to make Indonesia a sovereign, advanced and prosperous nation by its 2045 centennial.

The program’s cost could make Prabowo politically vulnerable, according to Dinna Prapto Raharja, a professor of international relations at Jakarta’s Bina Nusantara University and a senior policy adviser at Jakarta consulting firm Synergy Policies.

“In order to finance this program, Prabowo has taken steps to implement major cutbacks in his government budget with some ministries seeing 50% cuts,” Dinna said.

“Now he is forced to seek financial assistance from overseas sources.” she told VOA on Jan. 31.

The Finance Ministry said the spending cuts would amount to $18.7 billion, 8% of this fiscal year’s approved spending.

While other nations said they would support the program, officials from the National Nutrition Agency — which manages the program — said internal talks about the level of foreign aid, type of assistance and technical aspects of its implementation have not begun.

Support from China, Japan, US and India

In November, China committed to supporting free nutritious meals but did not pledge a specific amount.

The Chinese Embassy in Jakarta did not respond to VOA requests for further information on the value and form of the assistance. It remains unclear whether China’s financial assistance will be in the form of a loan or grant.

The United States is providing training to Indonesian dairy farmers to support the program, which has increased the demand for locally produced milk. Indonesia, so far, can provide milk only two to three times a week to school children, according to Deddy Fachrudin Kurniawan, CEO of Dairy Pro Indonesia and project leader of U.S. Dairy Export Council training.

Deddy told VOA on Jan. 8 that Indonesia has had to import 84% of its milk in the past, and that demand will double because of the food program.

In January, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced Japan will support the meal program by helping the Indonesian government increase its ability to combat childhood malnutrition.

Ishiba offered Japan’s support by training Indonesian cooks and sending Japanese chefs to assist. Prabowo added that Japan will also assist in improving the fishery and agriculture sectors, based on Japan’s experience.

More recently, India reaffirmed support for the program through the sharing of knowledge of the government’s Food Corporation of India and other institutions with Indonesian officials.

“India shares its experiences in the fields of health and food security, including the [free] lunch scheme and public [service] distribution system to the Indonesia government,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on his YouTube channel on Jan. 25.

Other support and reaction

Other countries have said they support the program. France and Brazil expressed their support on the sidelines of the recent G20 Leaders Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Prabowo instructed his team to arrange a visit of an Indonesian delegation to Brazil to take notes from the South American country’s similar program. France, which has a similar school feeding program, intends to share its expertise and help Indonesia modernize its agricultural sector.

Teuku Rezasyah, an associate professor of international relations at Bandung’s Universitas Padjajaran, noted that India exported 20,000 metric tons of water buffalo meat to Indonesia last year while Brazil exported 100,000 metric tons of beef to Indonesia.

British Deputy Prime Minister Angela Reynar showed similar interest during her meeting with Prabowo in London in November. However, it remains unclear what type of support the U.K will offer.

Mohammad Faisal, executive director of the Center of Reform on Economics, told VOA in Jakarta on Jan. 31 that countries offering support will have their own interests in mind, as well.

“I believe there’s no free lunch,” Faisal said. “The donations may be partly altruistic, but not entirely. Donor countries consider it as strengthening bilateral ties, but they may also expect to reap the benefits in the future, such as enjoying ease of investing in Indonesia through incentives and getting better penetration of export markets as a reward.”

Rezasyah agreed.

“Donor countries are probably hoping Indonesia will import more products from their countries to support this multibillion-dollar supplemental food program,” he said. “On the other hand, they see Indonesia becoming a middle power that could contribute to finding solutions to global affairs.”
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