Asia

3 days agoShareSaveSimon AtkinsonBBC News, BrisbaneShareSaveAn Australian radio presenter has left the network after comments he made about the country’s women’s football team – which have been branded as misogynist and disrespectful.
Marty Sheargold said on nationwide radio station Triple M that the Matildas players reminded him of “year 10 girls” and implied that their matches were boring.
He apologised earlier on Wednesday, and was due to be back on air but did not appear in his usual time slot.
Southern Cross Austereo (SCA), the parent company of Triple M, later said Sheargold and the station had agreed to “mutually part ways”.
In a statement on Wednesday, Sheargold said that he fully understood the gravity of his remarks and would like to “sincerely apologise to the Matildas and the broader organisation”.
The company said that it “takes its responsibility to listeners, shareholders, and clients seriously and its programming should align with the standards and expectations o..

3 days agoShareSaveKoh EweBBC NewsShareSaveFoodies in China have been reportedly flocking to an unlikely destination – a funeral home – after a noodle dish served at its canteen went viral on social media.
The dish is found at the Erlong Funeral Home in the southwestern province of Guizhou.
The canteen caters to the funeral home’s customers, but as word began to spread about its noodles, hordes of diners – some posing as mourners – began showing up to try the food.
Erlong has since announced it will allow some members of the public to eat at its premises, as long as they do not disturb genuine mourners.
The funeral home offers various types of noodle dishes during breakfast and supper hours, which cost 10 yuan per bowl ($1.38; £1.09).
The most popular type is reportedly the noodles topped with minced pork and peanuts.
One Erlong worker told Jiupai News that they “only served customers who come to the funeral home to handle matters”.
But other people have been sneaking in to get..

5 days agoShareSaveNikhil Inamdar, BBC News, Mumbai@Nik_inamdarShareSaveIndia is home to 1.4 billion people but around a billion lack money to spend on any discretionary goods or services, a new report estimates.
The country’s consuming class, effectively the potential market for start-ups or business owners, is only about as big as Mexico, 130-140 million people, according to the report from Blume Ventures, a venture capital firm.
Another 300 million are “emerging” or “aspirant” consumers but they are reluctant spenders who have only just begun to open their purse strings, as click-of-a-button digital payments make it easy to transact.
What is more, the consuming class in Asia’s third largest economy is not “widening” as much as it is “deepening”, according to the report. That basically means India’s wealthy population is not really growing in numbers, even though those who are already rich are getting even wealthier.
All of this is shaping the country’s consumer market in distinct wa..

6 days agoShareSaveBBC BurmeseShareSave”I just wanted to own a house and pay off my debts – that’s why I decided to sell my kidney,” says Zeya, a farm worker in Myanmar.
Prices had soared after a military coup in 2021 triggered civil war. He could barely feed his young family and was badly in debt.
They all lived in his mother-in-law’s house, in a village where thatched houses lined dirt roads, a few hours’ drive from the country’s largest city, Yangon.
Zeya, whose name has been changed to conceal his identity, knew of local people who had sold one of their kidneys. “They looked healthy to me,” he says. So he started asking around.
He is one of eight people in the area who told BBC Burmese they had sold a kidney by travelling to India.
Illegal organ trading is a problem across Asia, and Zeya’s story gives an insight into how it takes place.
Buying or selling human organs is illegal in both Myanmar and India, but Zeya says he soon found a man he describes as a “broker”.
He says the man ..

Race against time to save eight Indian workers trapped inside tunnel 2 days agoBalla SatishBBC TeluguZoya MateenBBC NewsAuthorities in the southern Indian state of Telangana are racing against time to save eight construction workers trapped inside a tunnel for more than 72 hours.
Around 50 workers had been working inside the 43km (26.7-mile)-long tunnel, located in Nagarkurnool district, when a part of its roof caved in early Saturday morning.
Officials say 43 of them managed to come out safely but efforts to reach the remaining eight men have faced repeated setbacks due to loose soil, mud and slush inside the tunnel.
They have also been unable to establish contact with the trapped men, or provide them with oxygen and other essential supplies.
Jupally Krishna Rao, a state minister overseeing the rescue effort, told PTI news agency that “the chances of their survival are very remote.”
On Monday an expert team of “rat-hole miners” – people trained in narrow tunnel navigation – arrived..

3 days agoShareSavePeter HoskinsBusiness reporterShareSaveSingapore’s biggest bank, DBS, says it expects to cut about 4,000 roles over the next three years as artificial intelligence (AI) takes on more work currently done by humans.
The move will affect temporary and contract staff, a bank spokesperson said, with the reduction in the workforce coming from “natural attrition” as projects are completed.
Permanent staff are not affected by the cuts. The bank’s outgoing chief executive Piyush Gupta also said it expected to create around 1,000 new AI-related jobs.
It makes DBS one of the first major banks to offer details on how AI will affect its operations.
The company did not say how many jobs would be cut in Singapore.
“Over the next three years, we envisage that AI could reduce the need to renew about 4,000 temporary/contract staff across our 19 markets working on specific projects,” the DBS spokesperson said.
“As such, we expect the reduction in workforce will come from natural attrit..

Bangladesh wooed by China as ties with India fray2 days agoEthirajan AnbarasanBBC World Service, South Asia editorReporting fromLondonA 22-member Bangladeshi delegation of political leaders, civil society activists, academics and journalists have begun a 10-day visit to China.
They will be having talks with Chinese government officials and senior members of the ruling Communist Party, a delegation leader confirmed with the BBC.
Analysts say China is making overtures while diplomatic tensions have risen between Bangladesh and India on a range of issues.
This includes ousted Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Hasina living in exile in India. Dhaka has requested her extradition but Delhi has refused.
Abdul Moyeen Khan, a senior official from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) who’s leading the delegation in Beijing, told the BBC: “It’s basically a goodwill visit, initiated by Beijing.”
“It is unique because China this time has invited a team representing various groups in Bangladesh.”
Many of ..

4 days agoShareSaveEmma RossiterBBC NewsLeigh MilnerNews correspondentShareSaveA British couple in their 70s have been arrested by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Peter Reynolds, 79, and his wife Barbie, 75, were returning to their home in Bamiyan on 1 February when they were detained.
The couple have been running training projects in Afghanistan for 18 years and their daughter, Sarah Entwistle, told the BBC she had not heard from her parents in more than two weeks.
It is not known exactly what the couple were arrested for but projects run by them include one training mothers and children, which had apparently been approved by the local authorities despite a ban by the Taliban on women working and on education for girls older than the age of 12.
The couple, who originally met at the University of Bath, married in Kabul in 1970. Since 2009 they have been running training projects in five schools in Kabul and one project in Bamiyan training mothers and children.
While the Taliban’s return t..

3 days agoShareSaveSoutik BiswasIndia correspondent•@soutikBBCShareSaveRoaring crowds, faces painted blue and green, flags waving like battle standards.
This is the opening of The Greatest Rivalry: India v Pakistan, a new Netflix documentary on one of cricket’s most storied contests.
India’s Virender Sehwag sets the tone: “This is a contest bigger than one between the bat and ball”. Cut to dramatic footage of some of the matches, the Wagah border, partition refugees. A nation split into two, but forever bound by cricket.
Pakistan’s Waqar Younis doesn’t hesitate: “I put this rivalry right at the top. There’s no match like India v Pakistan.” India’s R Ashwin agrees: “I think this is bigger than the Ashes.”Ramiz Raja says it’s “the political garnish that makes this rivalry world-class”.
Despite wars, border standoffs and terror attacks, the India-Pakistan cricket rivalry has endured, driven by history and national pride. Even when politics halts the bilateral series, International Cricket..

3 days agoShareSaveNikita YadavBBC News, DelhiShareSaveIndia and the UK have restarted free trade talks, nearly a year after negotiations were paused ahead of general elections in both countries.
Jonathan Reynolds, the UK’s business and trade secretary, met his Indian counterpart Piyush Goyal in Delhi on Monday and kicked off the two-day discussions.
The talks focused on “advancing” the negotiations and ensuring that the deal was “balanced, ambitious and mutually beneficial”, Goyal wrote on X.
The countries have held more than a dozen rounds of negotiations since 2022, but an agreement has remained out of reach.
Sticking points include high tariffs in India on Scotch whisky and relaxing fees and visa rules for Indian students and professionals going to the UK.
Talks are being held for the first time after the Labour Party came to power in the UK and Reynolds says securing a deal is a “top priority” for his government.
“Growth will be the guiding principle in our trade negotiations wi..