Category: South Asia

AHMEDABAD, April 10, 2014 (AFP) – Election frontrunner Narendra Modi has acknowledged for the first time that he is married, solving one of the biggest mysteries about the private life of the man tipped to be India’s next prime minister.The 63-year-old is routinely described as a bachelor and is thought to have lived alone in […]

NEW DELHI, April 8, 2014 (AFP) – For a politician running on a platform of clean government, having a key aide facing murder and extortion charges could be seen as a liability — but not by the man tipped to be India’s next prime minister.Narendra Modi, the hardline Hindu nationalist leading the opposition Bharatiya Janata […]

DIBRUGARH, April 7, 2014 (AFP) – Indians began voting in the world’s biggest election Monday which is set to sweep the Hindu nationalist opposition to power at a time of low growth, anger about corruption and warnings about religious unrest. India’s 814-million-strong electorate are forecast to inflict a heavy defeat on the ruling Congress party, […]

NEW DELHI, April 4, 2014 (AFP) – India’s marathon nine-phase election kicks off Monday and will end on May 12 when hundreds of millions will have cast their ballots.AFP explains how it works and what is at stake. Q. Why will it take so long? Almost 814 million adult Indians are eligible to vote, making […]

ISLAMABAD, April 3, 2014 (AFP) – Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who is on trial for treason, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt as a bomb went off shortly before his convoy was due to pass early Thursday, police said. The bomb was planted on his route from an army hospital where he has been […]

PONDICHERRY, April 2, 2014 (AFP) – The makeup of India’s next government could lie in the hands of a trio of women who command a massive following in their regional heartlands, including a populist former movie star known as “Mother” to supporters.“Definitely their image, their fighting spirit, their charisma, and their administrative skills to a […]

MALÉ, March 23, 2014 (AFP) – Maldives President Abdulla Yameen’s party is poised to win control of parliament with the support of a key ally, early projections in the Indian Ocean nation showed Sunday. President Yameen’s Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) was leading in 34 out of the 85 constituencies after Saturday’s polls while his […]

MALÉ, March 21, 2014 (AFP) – The Maldivian elections commission said Friday it planned to go ahead with this weekend’s parliamentary polls despite the islands’ new president expressing doubts over whether the vote can be conducted.President Abdulla Yameen told a public rally in the capital island Male on Thursday night that a depleted Elections Commission […]

NEW DELHI, March 19, 2014 (AFP) – Authorities in the Maldives were probing reports Wednesday that islanders saw a “low-flying jumbo jet” on the day the missing Malaysia Airlines plane vanished.While the islands’ National Defence Force said that no trace of Flight MH370 had been picked up on radar, police and the civil aviation authority […]

TOKYO, March 17, 2014 (AFP) – Toyota said Monday it has suspended production at its two Indian auto assembly plants in response to threats against management and “deliberate” assembly-line stoppages, as efforts to hammer out a labour deal failed.A Tokyo-based company spokesman said Toyota hoped to restart production quickly, but could not give a timeline […]

NEW DELHI, March 16, 2014 (AFP) – India on Sunday suspended its search for Malaysia Airlines flight 370 around the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands and in the Bay of Bengal and is awaiting a new request from Malaysia, a defence official said.“The entire operation is on hold for now. We are awaiting fresh instructions […]

WASHINGTON, March 14, 2014 (AFP) – A US naval ship and surveillance plane are heading to the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal to search for a missing Malaysian airliner that vanished a week ago, officials said Friday.The hunt had initially focused on the South China Sea east of Malaysia — along the intended route […]