Anger over Saudi torture of Lankan maid with 20 nails hammered in her body

By Feizal Samath COLOMBO, Sep 2 (IPS) – The ordeal of a Sri Lankan domestic worker whose Saudi Arabian employer allegedly drove nails and metal wires into her body has sent alarm bells ringing among government officials and activists, but how...

Pakistan: Brutal lynching of two brothers raises painful questions

By Zofeen Ebrahim KARACHI, Pakistan, Aug 30 (IPS) – A breakdown in Pakistan’s justice system, a sign of a society desensitised to violence, an example of mob brutality. Whatever one calls the sight filmed on video by at least two television...

Victory for tribals as Govt. scraps Vedenta Bauxite project in Orissa

NEW DELHI: After a long drawn -out consultation process, the Union government has finally pronounced its verdict against Vedanta Alumina’s $1.7-billion plan to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri Hills of Orissa. Local tribals have been agitating against...

Pakistan Flood Aid Exposes Distrust of Gov’t

By Zofeen Ebrahim KARACHI, Pakistan, Aug 20 (IPS) – Inundated by appeals through text messages, email and Twitter, as well as in print and broadcast media, that call for donations of dried rations, hygiene kits, buckets, tubs and cooking pots,...

Lisa Singh: First person of South Asian decent to enter Australian Federal Parliament

Melbourne: Australian Labor Party (ALP) candidate Lisa Singh from Tasmania has become the first person of South Asian decent in Australia to enter the Australian Federal Parliament. Lisa Singh, 38, a former Minister in the ALP government in Tasmania...

Australia poll delivers hung Parliament

By our political correspondent Melbourne: Australia is all set to have a hung parliament for the first time in 70 years after voters dealt Labor a crippling blow, with large swings to the Coalition in New South Wales and Queensland and a record primary...

U.N. Steps Up Pressure to Raise Funds for Pakistan Floods

By Megan Iacobini de Fazio and Matthew Berger* UNITED NATIONS, Aug 19 (IPS) – The U.N. General Assembly met Thursday to express the world community’s solidarity with the people of Pakistan and to urge member states to step up their aid...

Voices against ‘caste’ in Indian census

Analysis by Ranjit Devraj NEW DELHI, Aug 18 (IPS) – Strident voices are rising against the Indian coalition government’s move to identify people by their caste background in the ongoing census. India has not included caste as a category...

Climate change behind Pakistan floods: Expert

By Zofeen Ebrahim KARACHI, Pakistan, Aug 16 (IPS) – ”If this is not God’s wrath, what is?” 40-year-old taxi driver Bakht Zada said of the massive floods in Pakistan that have swept away his life earnings. Speaking to IPS from Madyan...

Oil spill off Mumbai coast

MUMBAI: The Coast Guard on Sunday sounded an alert over the oil spill off the Mumbai coast as the slick covered a large area, up to five nautical miles, from the spot where two ships collided on Saturday morning. The spillage from MSC Chitra, after...