Indian Sub-continent

COLOMBO, Dec 25 (NNN-XINHUA) – Sri Lanka recorded over 50,000 international tourist arrivals, for the first 20 days of Dec, a significant improvement compared to previous months, according to latest data released by the tourism authority.

The daily average of arrivals in Dec is over 2,500, and in the first 11 months of this year, the figure was around 1,900, data from Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) showed.

The total number of international tourist arrivals for the year to Dec 20, was 678,392, according to the SLTDA.

NEW DELHI, Dec 25 (Reuters) - At least 180 ethnic Rohingya stranded at sea for weeks after leaving Bangladesh in November are feared dead, as their rickety boat is thought to have sunk this month, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said.

Citing unconfirmed reports, the agency said the "unseaworthy" boat probably sank after it went missing in the sea.

"Relatives have lost contact," the UNHCR wrote on Twitter on Saturday. "Those last in touch presume all are dead."

MALE, Dec 25 (Reuters) - The Maldives criminal court on Sunday sentenced former president Abdulla Yameen to 11 years in prison and fined him $5 million after finding him guilty of corruption and money laundering charges related to receiving kickbacks from a private company.

Yameen has denied any wrongdoing.

He lost power in 2018 but has been declared presidential candidate for the Progressive Party of the Maldives for an election due in 2023.

ISLAMABAD, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- At least four people were injured on Sunday in a hand grenade attack in Quetta city of Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province, police said.

According to local police, some unknown miscreants threw two hand grenades in front of a shop across the road from a police station at the Sabzal Road area of Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan.

Police, security forces and rescue teams rushed to the site and shifted the injured to a hospital.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The U.S. has condemned the Taliban for ordering non-governmental groups in Afghanistan to stop employing women, saying the ban will disrupt vital and life-saving assistance to millions.

KABUL, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Taliban-run administration on Saturday ordered all local and foreign non-governmental organisations (NGO) to stop female employees from coming to work, according to an economy ministry letter, in the latest crackdown on women's freedoms.

The letter, confirmed by economy ministry spokesperson Abdulrahman Habib, said the female employees were not allowed to work until further notice because some had not adhered to the administration's interpretation of Islamic dresscode for women.

NEW DELHI (AP) — Members of India’s main opposition Congress party and thousands of supporters walked into the capital on Saturday as part of a 5-month-long cross-country “unity march” seeking to challenge what they say is a “hate-filled” version of the country under the Hindu nationalist government.

Joined by thousands of party workers and senior leaders, the march led by Rahul Gandhi, an opposition leader of the Congress party and scion of the influential Gandhi family, entered New Delhi after passing through eight states.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban government on Saturday ordered all foreign and domestic non-governmental groups in Afghanistan to suspend employing women, allegedly because some female employees didn’t wear the Islamic headscarf correctly. The ban was the latest restrictive move by Afghanistan’s new rulers against women’s rights and freedoms.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A powerful car bomb detonated in a residential area in Pakistan’s capital on Friday, killing two suspected militants and an officer, police said, raising fears that militants have a presence in one of the country’s safest cities.

At least three police officers and seven passersby were wounded in the bombing in Islamabad. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the explosion.

Friday’s bombing happened 15 kilometers (about 9 miles) from the garrison city of Rawalpindi, home of the military and government spy agencies.

MUSCAT, Dec 22 (APP): Pakistan has clinched second position in the Huawei Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Competition 2022 held in Muscat, Oman on Thursday.

According to the statistics, 12,000 students from 135 universities attempted the nationwide test in which two teams comprising six students qualified for the Middle East Regional Finals from Pakistan.