Indian Sub-continent

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — The United Nations and Bangladesh’s government have signed an agreement to work together to help Rohingya refugees on an island in the Bay of Bengal where thousands have been relocated from crammed camps near the Myanmar border.

More than 19,000 Rohingya have already been moved to the Bhasan Char island by the government, and the U.N. said one of the key reasons to sign the agreement was to start serving that population.

Bangladesh plans to relocate 100,000 Rohingya to the island in phases from the crowded refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar district.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The U.S. has agreed to provide humanitarian aid to a desperately poor Afghanistan on the brink of an economic disaster, while refusing to give political recognition to the country’s new Taliban rulers, the Taliban said Sunday.

The statement came at the end of the first direct talks between the former foes since the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops at the end of August.

The U.S. statement was less definitive, saying only that the two sides “discussed the United States’ provision of robust humanitarian assistance, directly to the Afghan people.”

KHOST, Afghanistan, Oct 10 (NNN-ANA) – Eight suspected members of the Daesh militants, have been arrested in Afghanistan’s eastern Khost province, a provincial official confirmed today.

“Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, arrested eight members of the Daesh group, in surrounding areas of Khost city, capital of Khost in recent days,” Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, head of provincial cultural and information directorate, said.

He said, the arrestees confessed that they were planning to conduct attacks in the province, 150 km in the south-east of Afghanistan’s Kabul.

KABUL, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations children's fund (UNICEF) on Sunday urged the Taliban's caretaker government to resume children's vaccination amid fear of spreading polio and measles in war-affected Afghanistan.

"The health system is about to collapse, we have weeks, not months or years. We will have humanitarian catastrophe," UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Omar Abdi was quoted as saying in a statement on Twitter.

KATHMANDU, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Nepal has managed to increase forested areas and the population of endangered animals, tigers and one-horned rhinos in particular, in its efforts to preserve biodiversity over the years.

The forested areas in the country have reached 45 percent of the total land area. "This is a significant jump from less than 30 percent in the early 1990s," Megh Nath Kafle, spokesperson for the Ministry of Forests and Environment, told Xinhua.

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Government forces have detained at least 500 people in a sweeping crackdown in Indian-controlled Kashmir, local officials said Sunday, following a string of suspected militant attacks and targeted killings in the disputed region.

Assailants fatally shot three Hindus and a Sikh person in the region’s main city of Srinagar this week in a sudden rise in violence against civilians that both pro- and anti-India Kashmiri politicians widely condemned.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Abdul Qadeer Khan, a controversial figure known as the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, died Sunday of COVID-19 following a lengthy illness, his family said. He was 85.

Khan, who launched Pakistan on the path to becoming a nuclear weapons power in the early 1970s, died in a hospital in the capital Islamabad, Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad said.

Jaipur, Oct 10 (PTI) A 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her cousin in Jaipur, police said on Sunday.

Manish (23) has been booked on the basis of a complaint lodged by the girl's family members, Galta Gate police station SHO Satish Kumar said.

The rape survivor's medical examination has been conducted and her statement will be recorded before the magistrate on Monday.

New Delhi, Oct 9 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday paid tributes to Bhai Taru Singh, a noted Sikh martyr, on his birth anniversary, saying generations to come will never forget his bravery.

His unwavering commitment to truth and justice are deeply inspiring, Modi tweeted.

Born in 1716, Singh laid down his life to protect Sikh values. He was killed by Mughal authorities.

New Delhi, Oct 9 (PTI) Climate activist Disha Ravi on Saturday claimed the government was "diluting" environmental laws by proposing amendments to the Forest Conservation Act and that this "trend" started with the changes made to Environment Impact Assessment rules last year.

The 23-year-old activist, who was arrested in February in connection with a 'toolkit' on farmer protests, also said indigenous people, tribals and environmental defenders are hurt every single day for the very work that will protect everyone.