Neighborhood News Digest – 13 March 2023

Afghanistan

Doval, SCO NSAs to discuss rise in Afghanistan drug trade, terrorism - Tribune India

The exponential rise in terrorism and drug production in Afghanistan will be the focus of discussion when National Security Advisers (NSAs) from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meet here on March 29. Click here to read... [2]

Islamic State claims responsibility for attack in Afghanistan's Balkh province - AwastheVoice

The Islamic State's Telegram account on Sunday claimed responsibility for the blast at a cultural centre during an event for journalists in northern Afghanistan's Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital city of the Balkh province. Authorities and journalists have said that at least one person was killed and eight wounded in the attack. However, the Tebyan Cultural Centre, stated, "Three persons were killed, and 30 others, including journalists, were injured in the incident”. Click here to read... [3]

Bangladesh

Bangladesh's inflation leaps to 8.78% in Feb - DajjiWorld

Bangladesh's inflation increased to 8.78 per cent in February from 8.57 per cent in January, the data showed on Sunday. Food inflation increased to 7.98 per cent in February from 7.41 per cent in the previous month. Non-food items inflation increased to 9.61 per cent in February from 9.48 per cent in January, Xinhua news agency reported. Click here to read... [4]

Bangladesh opposition not to contest next general elections - AA

Bangladesh's main opposition party will not participate in the next general elections slated for January 2024, party officials told EU diplomats in a meeting. Demanding a neutral non-partisan caretaker government to be formed before the parliamentary elections, the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) alleged that the incumbent government had lost its credibility to hold a free and fair election by manipulating the last elections. Click here to read... [5]

Bhutan

How Bhutan graduated from the ‘Least Developed Country’ status -Indian Express

Bhutan, the mountainous, landlocked country that is consistently ranked one of the happiest in the world, will on December 13th of this year, become the seventh nation to graduate from the United Nations’ (UN) list of Least Developed Countries (LDC). Click here to read... [6]

Maldives

Maldives Resumes Diplomatic Ties with Iran Following Saudi Arabia's Reconciliation - Lastly.com

The Maldivian Government announced that it will resume diplomatic ties with Iran after China-brokered reconciliation between Riyadh and Tehran. Click here to read... [7]

Plastic waste in the Maldives gets a second life: a luxury holiday resort turns beach clean-up trash into useful treasure - SCMP

“Local islands, especially schools, are where the most impact can be made,” says Michelle Schiele, a PhD research student at Britain’s Loughborough University who has spent years studying the problem of plastic waste and is working with the Maldives National University to create a team of local researchers to collect data relating to its accumulation in the region. Click here to read... [8]

Myanmar

Myanmar: Concrete UN Security Council Action Needed - HRW

The United Nations Security Council should build on its December 2022 resolution on Myanmar by adopting tangible measures to hold the junta accountable for ongoing abuses, Human Rights Watch said. The council will hold a session on Myanmar on March 13, 2023, and hear reports from Noeleen Heyzer, the UN secretary-general’s special envoy on Myanmar, and Retno Marsudi, Indonesia’s foreign minister and head of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) office of the special envoy on Myanmar. Click here to read... [9]

Could Myanmar Be Implicated in Russia’s War Against Ukraine - VOA

Russia is trying to buy “anything, anywhere”—including from Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar to get weapons for its invasion of Ukraine—according to the head of Ukraine’s defense intelligence Kyrylo Budanov. Click here to read... [10]

Nepal

Nepal EC upholds nominations of 4 candidates vying for vice president’s post - The Print

Nepal’s top electoral body said on Sunday it has upheld the nominations of all four candidates, including three women, for the vice-presidential election to be held on March 17. Click here to read... [11]

Oil corporation cites its debt burden for keeping fuel prices high, raking in profits - Kathmandu Post

Despite a sharp drop in the international crude oil prices, Nepal’s oil monopoly is continuing with its “unfair profiteering” from consumers. Brent crude oil dropped to $80 per barrel in the first week of March, after peaking at $128 per barrel in June last year. But in the domestic market, Nepal Oil Corporation, which has no other competitor, has not bothered to review the retail prices at the pumps. Click here to read... [12]

Pakistan

Ex-PM Imran Khan postpones election rally for second time - WIO News

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Sunday called off his mega election rally for the second time after the interim Punjab government imposed Section 144, banning public gatherings in the provincial capital. Khan took to Twitter to inform his supporters about the change in plan and said the rally had been postponed till Monday. Click here to read... [13]

Jammu Kashmir: DGP Dilbag Singh makes big statement on Pakistan's Infiltration attempt - Zee News

A big statement of DGP Dilbag Singh of Jammu and Kashmir has come to the fore. He said that infiltration on the border has increased due to change in the weather. Terrorism is getting funding through narcotics. Click here to read... [14]

Pakistan Economic Crisis: Hungry, poor and armed Pakistanis resort to stealing cars and bikes at gunpoint - Times Now

Pakistan is currently undergoing an economic crisis which might even turn worse than what Sri Lanka witnessed last year. The economic meltdown for Pakistan has been a long time coming with a series of corrupt and failed governments, military coups, rising international debts, no major exports and major class divide in the neighbouring nation. Click here to read... [15]

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s EC urges President to release funds for local body polls - Millennium Post

The move comes after officials in the Treasury told the election commission last month that funds for the local body polls have not been disbursed by the finance ministry. Earlier this month, the government’s printer Gangani Liyanage made written requests to the Treasury Secretary and police chief to hold the much-delayed local council elections. Liyanage’s office said the inability to print the ballot papers to conduct the postal voting from February 21 to 24 made the Elections Commission postpone the elections. Click here to read... [16]

Sri Lankan Navy arrests 16 Indian fishermen for illegal fishing - Devi Discourse

The Sri Lankan Navy on Sunday said that it carried out a special operation to chase away Indian trawlers from Sri Lankan waters. In a statement, Sri Lankan Navy said that the operation led to the seizure of 2 Indian trawlers along with 16 Indian nationals northeast of Veththalakeni and off the Analativu Island. The Sri Lankan Navy said that it continue to carry out regular patrols and operations in Lankan waters to curb illegal fishing practices of fishing trawlers. Click here to read... [17]