Pakistan protesters surround Taliban-aligned mosque after Peshawar attack

Islamabad civil groups vow to reclaim Lal Masjid from Taliban after scores of children killed

December 22, 2014 12:39PM ET

by Renee Lewis

Protesters have descended on a controversial mosque in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, vowing to reclaim the space after its Taliban-aligned cleric refused to condemn the attack on a school in Peshawar last week that left 148 people, including more than 100 children, dead.

“I came to Islamabad for a conference, but then the Peshawar tragedy struck and everything changed. The next day, Lal Masjid cleric issued a statement that I couldn’t stomach and I decided … we should protest,” Jibran Nasir, lawyer and rights activist, told Pakistani news website Dawn. “We want to reclaim our mosques, our communities, our cities, indeed our entire country from extremists.”

US resettles five Guantánamo prisoners in Kazakhstan

After lengthy negotiations, the oil-rich Central Asian nation will host two Tunisians and three Yemenis

December 31, 2014 10:11AM ET

by Al Jazeera Staff

Five men who were held for more than a decade without charge at the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have been sent to Kazakhstan for resettlement, the U.S. government announced Tuesday.

Their transfer followed a recently renewed pledge by President Barack Obama for a stepped-up push to shut the internationally condemned detention center, where most prisoners have been held without being charged or tried.

Pope arrives in Sri Lanka, urges uncovering truth of civil war

On first stop of Asia tour, Pope said in Colombo that reconciliation could come only 'by overcoming evil with good'

January 13, 2015 12:58AM ET

Pope Francis arrived in Sri Lanka on Tuesday at the start of a weeklong Asian tour, calling on the nation to uncover the truth of what happened during its bloody civil war as part of a healing process between religious communities, as he arrived in Colombo a few days after the island's wartime leaders were voted out.

While Francis didn't specifically mention Sri Lanka's refusal to cooperate with a U.N. investigation into alleged war crimes committed in the final months of the war, he said that finding reconciliation after so much bloodshed, "can only be done by overcoming evil with good, and by cultivating those virtues which foster reconciliation, solidarity and peace."

Kerry urges Pakistan to fight back against Taliban, other groups

West has long suspected Pakistan of fighting some armed groups while supporting others for strategic reasons

January 13, 2015 8:07AM ET

Pakistan must fight groups that threaten Afghan, Indian and U.S. interests, visiting Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday as he offered sympathy for the victims of last month's massacre of children at a Pakistani school. The group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the killing.

Oil spill in Bangladesh threatens wildlife

Authorities in Bangladesh were urgently assessing environmental damage in one of the world’s largest mangrove forests on Friday after an oil tanker sank, threatening wildlife in the UNESCO World Heritage site, officials and local media said.

  Suicide bomber attacks high school in         Afghanistan

French-run Esteqlal High School, one of Afghanistan's oldest and most prestigious schools, targeted in attack

December 11, 2014 9:04AM ET Updated 3:00PM ET

A Taliban suicide bomber attacked a French-run high school in Kabul on Thursday, killing at least seven people and wounding several others, according to local news reports. 

Acting Interior Minister Mohammad Ayoub Salangi said the attack took place at the Esteqlal High School, one of Afghanistan's oldest and most prestigious schools. He said the attacker was about 16 years old. At least seven people were wounded in the attack, senior Kabul police official General Farid Afzail told AFP.

The attack, which occurred as the French Cultural Center hosted a musical performance inside the school’s auditorium, also injured 15 others. 

Taliban launches spate of deadly attacks in Afghanistan

Among those killed in the last 24 hours are 12 mine-clearing workers, two US soldiers and a Supreme Court official

December 13, 2014 8:44AM ET

Taliban fighters shot dead at least 12 workers clearing land mines Saturday in southern Afghanistan, authorities said, part of a series of attacks over the last 24 hours that saw seven Afghan and two U.S. soldiers killed, as well as a Supreme Court official.

The attack targeting the mine-clearing project struck southern Helmand province between its Nadali and Washir districts, police spokesman Farid Ahmad Obaid said. Taliban fighters killed at least 12 workers there and wounded another 12 before Afghan soldiers engaged in a gun battle with the assailants, he added.

Obaid identified the company leading the project as Star Link. A company employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the number of dead could be higher.

Mohammad Din, a Star Link manager, said separately that 81 workers were at the site when the gunmen launched their attack.

Arrests made over India bus assault as sisters lauded for bashing culprits

Video posted online shows the two young women fending off three men on crowded bus in Haryana state

December 1, 2014 2:32PM ET

Police in India's northern Haryana state have arrested three men in connection with an alleged incident of sexual harassment on a crowded bus that gained widespread attention after a video clip of two sisters fighting their tormentors went viral.

The three men were arrested late Sunday night on suspicion of molesting the women in Rohtak district while they were on their way home.

Pakistan struggles to cope with growing internal refugee crisis

Violence has displaced more than half a million people from Khyber to Peshawar, where funding and aid are scarce

December 1, 2014 12:30PM ET

Aid workers register new displaced people and verify the registrations of existing ones in Peshawar, Pakistan, Nov. 27, 2014. More than 1 million people have been forced out of their homes by operations in North Waziristan and Khyber since June

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Mir Jalal, a farmer from a small village in Pakistan’s Khyber tribal area, never imagined he would have to flee his village amid bombs, mortar shells and gunfights — at least not again.

Jalal, 40, left his home in the village of Isoray, about 30 kilometers west of Peshawar, on foot on Nov. 7, walking for five hours with his family of eight to escape a military operation that has emptied much of the Khyber tribal area of its inhabitants.

“There were jets and helicopters and [armored vehicles] in my area,” he told Al Jazeera at the Jalozai refugee camp, about 30 kilometers southeast of Peshawar, where some of the displaced have sought refuge. “They were hitting everything at that time.

“We walked for five hours to get out. My whole family was with me. We had only the clothes on our backs. Helicopters came, and jets started flying overhead. It all started suddenly. So we decided we had to leave.”

The female faces of Hyderabad tech companies

Although men still dominate the field in India, women are catching up

December 1, 2014 5:00AM ET

Microsoft is one of many companies that have moved to Hyderabad,

 India, in recent years. Perhaps a third of the businesses' new 

employees are female.

HYDERABAD, India — It’s still dark outside when Ramya Vemuri rises at 4:30 a.m. to get her two sons ready for school. Academic competition is fierce in India, so over milk and upma each morning, her younger child prepares assignments while the older one studies for his entrance exam for the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology. Around 8:30 she drives to the office. The commute, roughly 30 miles one way, can take two hours if traffic is bad — and in Hyderabad, the fourth most populous city in India, traffic is almost always bad. Once she gets home from work in the evening, “it’s like being a housewife again for a few hours,” Vemuri says. At night, she often takes calls from U.S.-based clients or answers emails.

Kabul police chief resigns after spate of attacks

Afghanistan's capital has seen eight deadly suicide attacks in the last 16 days

November 30, 2014 10:21AM ET

Kabul police chief Gen. Mohammed Zahir resigned on Sunday, following three Taliban attacks in 10 days on foreign guest houses and in the capital. The most recent attack came on Saturday, when Taliban suicide attackers killed the South African leader of a foreign aid group, his son and daughter and an Afghan worker in an assault on the agency's Kabul offices.

Kabul's police spokesman declined to comment to Reuters on the reason for the chief's resignation.

Dozens killed in suicide blast on Pakistan-India border

At least 55 people were killed and 120 wounded on Sunday when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a restaurant on the Pakistani-Indian border in an attack claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.

Latest update : 2014-11-03

The attack at the Wagah border crossing near the Pakistani city of Lahore came just after a daily ceremony when troops from both India and Pakistan simultaneously lower the two nations’ flags.

Police said at least 55 people had been killed in the blast, revising upwards a previous estimated death toll of 45.

“We claim the Lahore suicide attack,” senior Taliban commander Gilamn Mehsud said.

Mehsud said the attack was carried out in response to the Pakistani army’s operation against Islamist militants in the tribal areas straddling the Afghan border.

The suicide bombing took place in a car park on the Pakistani side at least 500 meters from the border with India. No Indian troops were hurt in the attack.

US and Iran meet in bid to reach nuclear deal

US secretary of State meets his Iranian counterpart in Oman as Obama says there is a big gap in reaching a deal. Last updated: 10 Nov 2014 00:27 The United States and Iran held high-level talks in Oman as the deadline for a nuclear deal loomed closer, but President Barack Obama warned there might be no agreement. US Secretary of State John Kerry met Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in the Gulf sultanate on Sunday, seeking to resolve key disputes that have left the West's negotiations with the Islamic republic close to deadlock.

Bangladeshi migrants eke out a living in Rome

Italy has second largest Bangladeshi community in Europe after Britain, many of whom have been smuggled or trafficked. Nishtha ChughLast updated: 06 Nov 2014 14:06 Rome, Italy - "Tourists in groups never buy anything." Ignoring the large group of American tourists sauntering back towards his stall, Faisal pulls out a photo of a boy from his wallet. "This is Sifat, my son. I send him to an English school and he's at the top of his class," the 30-year-old migrant from Bangladesh and a school dropout said. At 3pm the autumn sun in Rome is still harsh and the crowds near the Trevi fountain are thinner than usual. Walking past his stall, a few stragglers in the American group slow down to look at Faisal's shining "Chanel" and "Prada" handbags arranged in neat rows on the ground, then shuffle on hurriedly. "They don't like getting separated from the group. The best time to approach them is when they are alone and have time to negotiate," Faisal volunteers his business strategy. A few yards away, his partner Rafiq, another migrant, is furtively scouring their surroundings for signs of plainclothed policemen. Every few minutes the two men exchange uneasy glances. They haven't sold a single bag today. "Sales are down for the last three-four months and at times it feels very desperate. But we have no choice. Who is going to feed our families back home?" said Rafiq, shifting his gaze towards three men standing near an expensive restaurant not far from him. Their hardened faces and sunken eyes scanned the busy tables impassively as they stood beside their worn tarpaulin sheets on the ground, laden with tourist souvenirs and cheap leather goods. Like Rafiq and Faisal they are from Bangladesh too, and entered Italy on forged documents.