Asia

India anger as judge frees man accused of raping wife who then died4 days agoGeeta PandeyBBC News, London•@geetapandeybbcWarning: This report contains some disturbing details
An Indian court’s ruling that a man’s forced “unnatural sex” with his wife is not an offence has led to huge outrage and sparked renewed calls for better protections for married women.
The controversial order has also brought back into the spotlight the issue of marital rape in a country which has stubbornly refused to criminalise it.
Earlier this week, a high court judge in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh set free a 40-year-old man who was convicted by a trial court in 2019 of rape and unnatural sex with his wife, who died within hours of the alleged assault.
The lower court had also found the man guilty of “culpable homicide not amounting to murder”. He was sentenced to “rigorous imprisonment for 10 years” on each count, with all the sentences to run concurrently.
But on Monday, the High Court’s Justice..

Why Muslims in India are opposing changes to a property law2 days agoMeryl Sebastian & Neyaz FarooqueeBBC NewsA proposal to amend a decades-old law that governs properties worth millions of dollars donated by Indian Muslims over centuries has triggered protests in the country.
The properties, which include mosques, madrassas, shelter homes and thousands of acres of land, are called waqf and are managed by a board.
The new bill – which introduces more than 40 amendments to the existing law – was introduced in August but was later sent to a joint committee of MPs for discussion.
On 13 February, the committee’s report on the bill was tabled in both houses of parliament amid protests by opposition leaders.
They claimed that their notes of dissent had been deleted, but the federal government denied the allegation.
The new bill is likely to incorporate changes suggested by the committee and put to vote in parliament. If it is passed by both houses of parliament, it will be sent to President ..

Five key takeaways from Modi-Trump talks5 days agoSoutik Biswas and Nikhil InamdarBBC News, DelhiDespite the hype, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first visit to Washington under Donald Trump’s second term was a sober, business-first affair – unsurprising for a working visit, which lacks the pomp of a state visit.
Trump announced expanded US military sales to India from 2025, including F-35 jets, along with increased oil and gas exports to narrow the trade deficit. Both sides agreed to negotiate a trade deal and finalise a new defence framework.
He also confirmed the US had approved the extradition of Tahawwur Rana, a Chicago businessman accused of playing a role in the 2008 terror attack in Mumbai.
“That’s a lot of deliverables for an administration less than a month old,” Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute in Washington told the BBC
“Overall, both sides seem comfortable continuing Biden-era collaborations, particularly in tech and defence, though many..

Japanese woman arrested for squashing bun in shop5 days agoKoh Ewe and Chie KobayashiBBC NewsReporting fromSingapore and TokyoA woman in Japan has been arrested for allegedly squashing a bun at a convenience store and leaving without buying the packet of bread.
Authorities in the southern city of Fukuoka confirmed to the BBC that the 40-year-old had been arrested on Monday for “criminal damage”.
The woman, who said she was unemployed, claimed she “only checked the firmness of [the bun] by pressing lightly with my hand”, according to police.
The woman had allegedly touched a bag of four black sesame and cream cheese buns. While the bag’s wrapper was intact, police said one of the buns was damaged after she pressed it with her right thumb, and the entire bag could not be sold.
Police said the owner of the Lawson convenience store had claimed he had seen the woman squashing buns several times in the past.
As the woman was leaving the shop on Monday, the owner noticed the bun was damaged a..

S Korea striker gets suspended jail term for filming secret sex videos4 days agoKoh EweBBC NewsSouth Korean football player Hwang Ui-jo has been handed a suspended one-year jail term for illegally filming his sexual encounters with a woman, Yonhap News Agency reported.
The 32-year-old, a former Norwich City and Nottingham Forest striker, now plays for the Turkish club Alanyaspor. He also plays for the South Korea national team but was suspended in 2023 amid the allegations.
The Seoul court said that “given the seriousness of the socially harmful effects of illegal filming, it is necessary to punish [Hwang] strictly”.
However, it noted Hwang had shown remorse and the videos were posted on social media by a third party.
Hwang had said he was “deeply sorry” for causing “disappointment” during his first court appearance last December.
The videos came to light after Hwang’s sister-in-law shared them on social media last June, in an attempt to blackmail him.
She was sentenced to three years..

Modi hails US-India ‘mega partnership’ in Trump meeting4 days agoJude Sheerin, Jaroslav Lukiv and Koh EweBBC NewsReporting fromWashington DC, London and SingaporeIndia’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hailed a “mega partnership” with the US, as he and US President Donald Trump agreed on a deal for Delhi to import more American oil and gas.
Modi’s two-day visit comes as Trump recently ordered that all the US’ trading partners – including India – should face sweeping reciprocal tariffs.
While both men praised each other’s leadership, Trump criticised India for having some of the highest trade tariffs in the world, calling them a “big problem”.
The Indian leader, seeking to soften impending trade barriers, said he was open to reducing tariffs on US goods, repatriating undocumented Indian nationals and buying military fighter jets from the US.
At a joint news conference, Modi made several references to Trump’s “make America great again” slogan, including his own spin to it: “It’s Make..

Direct rule in violence-hit Indian state after chief minister quits4 days agoNikhil InamdarBBC News, DelhiThe Indian government has brought the troubled north-eastern state of Manipur under direct federal rule days after Chief Minister N Biren Singh resigned.
Singh, from India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), quit on Sunday after facing months of pressure to step down.
Ethnic clashes broke out between the state’s majority Meitei and minority Kuki communities in May 2023 over economic benefits, land rights and job quotas.
More than 250 people have been killed in the conflict and tens of thousands displaced.
The state hit the global headlines in July 2023 when a video showing two women being paraded naked by a mob went viral, sparking outrage in India.
While the scale of unrest has reduced since the peak in 2023, divisions between the communities persist and violent incidents continue to occur.
Singh’s position had become increasingly untenable in recent months with Kuki groups..

Australia accuses China of ‘unsafe’ fighter jet move3 days agoKelly NgBBC NewsA Chinese fighter jet released flares in front of an Australian military aircraft while flying over the South China Sea early this week, authorities in Canberra have said.
Australia’s defence ministry said it “expressed concerns” to its Chinese counterparts over the “unsafe and unprofessional interaction”.
No one was injured and there was no damage to Australia’s P-8A surveillance jet after Tuesday’s incident, the ministry said.
But China said the Australian aircraft “intentionally intruded” into its airspace and that the Chinese fighter jet responded in a “legitimate, lawful, professional, and restrained” manner.
This is the latest in a string of encounters between the two countries’ militaries in the region, where China’s vast claims over islands and outcrops overlap with those of its neighbours.
While it has no claims to the South China Sea, Australia has aligned itself close to the US and its allies in sa..

Honda-Nissan multi-billion dollar merger collapses4 days agoJoão da Silva & Annabelle LiangBusiness reporters, BBC NewsMerger talks between Honda and Nissan have collapsed after the firms failed to agree on a multi-billion-dollar tie-up.
The Japanese carmakers, along with junior partner Mitsubishi, had aimed to combine their businesses to fight back against competition from rival firms, especially in China.
The merger would have created an auto group worth $60bn (£48bn), and the world’s fourth-largest by vehicle sales after Toyota, Volkswagen and Hyundai.
The companies said they would continue their partnership on electric vehicles.
Karl Brauer, an analyst from online research platform iSeeCars.com, said the failure of the merger was not a total surprise.
“Plenty of automotive mergers have not worked out, and this one had as much potential for disaster as it did to help both brands,” he added.
The planned tie-up was seen as providing Nissan, which for a while was Japan’s second-l..

Hundreds of foreigners freed from Myanmar’s scam centres6 days agoJonathan HeadSouth East Asia CorrespondentMore than 250 people from 20 nationalities who had been working in telecom fraud centres in Myanmar’s Karen State have been released by an ethnic armed group and brought to Thailand.
The workers, more than half of whom were from African or Asian nations, were received by the Thai army, and are being assessed to find out if they were victims of human trafficking.
Last week Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra met Chinese leader Xi Jinping and promised to shut down the scam centres which have proliferated along the Thai-Myanmar border.
Her government has stopped access to power and fuel from the Thai side of the border, and toughened up banking and visa rules to try to prevent scam operators from using Thailand as a transit country for moving workers and cash.
Some opposition MPs in Thailand have been pushing for this kind of action for the past two years.
Foreign workers are..