China will host the 14th BRICS Summit on Thursday in what analysts see as a chance for Beijing to promote its governance and development model at a time of global instability.Chinese President Xi Jinping will join with the leaders of Brazil, India, Russia and South Africa via video link to discuss issues of mutual concern as part of the summit themed around ushering in a “new era” for global development. Ahead of the summit in Beijing, Chinese state media have praised the BRICS – an

"There was water everywhere, but not a single drop to drink." That is how Ronju Chowdhary described the scene outside her house on Saturday. She lives in Udiana, a remote village in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam, which has been hit by severe floods.It had been raining incessantly, she remembers. The water rose so quickly that the streets were completely submerged within hours.

Monsoon storms in Bangladesh and India have killed at least 59 people and unleashed devastating floods that left millions of others stranded, officials said Saturday.Floods are a regular menace to millions of people in low-lying Bangladesh, but experts say climate change is increasing their frequency, ferocity and unpredictability.Relentless downpours over the past week have inundated vast stretches of Bangladesh's northeast, with troops deployed to evacuate households cut off from neigh

The World Trade Organization (WTO) chief voiced cautious optimism Sunday as global trade ministers gathered to tackle food security threatened by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, overfishing and equitable access to COVID vaccines.Speaking ahead of the WTO's first ministerial meeting in nearly five years, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala acknowledged that "the road will be bumpy and rocky."But she told journalists she was "cautiously optimistic" that the more than 100 attending m

Nupur Sharma's remarks, made in a TV debate in May-end, have incensed Indian Muslims and outraged more than a dozen Islamic nations.On Thursday, two weeks after her comments, Delhi police said they had opened investigations against Ms Sharma – and a few others – "on the basis of social media analysis against those trying to disrupt public tranquillity and inciting people on divisive lines".On Sunday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suspended Ms Sharma from the party.

Muslims took to the streets in huge protests around Asia after Friday prayers, sparked by remarks about the Prophet Mohammed by an Indian ruling party official that embroiled the country in a diplomatic storm.Anger has engulfed the Islamic world since last week, when a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party commented on the relationship between the prophet and his youngest wife on a TV debate show.Around 20 countries have since called in their Indian ambassadors and

Indonesia and Malaysia have both summoned India's envoys in their countries over "derogatory" remarks made about the Prophet Mohammed by two officials with the South Asian nation's ruling party, their foreign ministries said Tuesday.It comes as anger spreads across the Arab and Muslim world, with various Middle Eastern nations summoning New Delhi's envoys and a Kuwaiti supermarket removing Indian products.Remarks by a spokeswoman for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Mod

India's diplomatic nightmare over controversial comments made by two senior officials of the country's ruling party about the Prophet Muhammad is showing no signs of ending.The UAE, Oman, Indonesia, Iraq, the Maldives, Jordan, Libya and Bahrain have joined the growing list of countries in the Islamic world that have condemned the remarks.

China provides a “glaring example” of how governments are cracking down on religious minorities, a United States (US) official has said, as the Department of State released its annual report on religious freedom around the world.Rashad Hussain, the US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, said during a news conference on Thursday that “far too many governments remain undeterred of their repression of their citizens”.

Leaders of Japan, India, Australia and the United States (US) warned Tuesday against attempts to "change the status quo by force" as concerns grow about whether China could invade self-ruled Taiwan.A joint statement by the so-called Quad bloc avoided any direct mention of China's growing military power in the region, but left little doubt about where its concerns lie.The carefully worded document also made reference to the conflict in Ukraine, but without offering any joint pos