Nationalist monk U Wirathu on Monday lashed out against calls for Burma’s Parliament to oppose controversial legislation that would restrict birth rates at the discretion of local authorities, claiming the bill was designed with the dual purpose of protecting women’s health and “stopping the Bengalis.” The comments, made to The Irrawaddy during a telephone interview, supported criticisms that the legislation was intended to target minorities, particularly stateless Rohingya Muslims in western Burma’s Arakan State, also known as Rakhine...

An Egyptian court has pronounced death sentences on ousted president Mohammed Morsi and more than 100 other people over a mass prison break in 2011. Morsi is already serving a 20-year prison term for ordering the arrest and torture of protesters while in power. Egypt’s religious authorities will now have to give their opinion before the sentence can be carried out. Morsi’s supporters from his Muslim Brotherhood movement have described the charges against him as “farcical”. He was deposed by the military in July 2013 following mass str...

India and China have signed a record 24 bilateral agreements worth $10 billion during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first visit to China. Both sides are dedicated to establish a “new direction between the two largest Asian countries.” [caption id="attachment_15961" align="alignleft" width="300"] Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) shakes hands with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang during a news conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, May 15, 2015. (Reuters / Kenzaburo Fukuhara)[/caption] Education, establishment of c...

ICICI Bank's non-executive chairman KV Kamath has been elected as the chief of BRICS Development Bank. At the BRICS summit in Brazil last year India was accepted as the head of the $100-billion development bank. Kamath is the non-executive chairman of ICICI Bank and is also the chairman of Infosys. He has a degree in mechanical engineering and did his management studies at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. While the New Development Bank, as it will be called, will be headquartered in Shanghai, India has got the righ...

A prominent Thai mayor has been arrested over a human trafficking scandal exposed by the discovery of mass graves in southern Thailand. Banjong Pongphon was a “key suspect” in the investigation who “wielded great influence” in the area, police said. The UN refugee agency said on Friday that 25,000 migrants boarded people smugglers’ boats from Myanmar and Bangladesh in 2015’s first quarter. This was about double the number who left over the same period in 2014. Banjong Pongphon is mayor of Padang Besar, a sub-district in...

Foreign politicians have been congratulating UK Prime Minister David Cameron on the election victory of his governing Conservative Party. But among the messages of praise are signs of some of the challenges ahead. The poll was closely watched across the EU, as Cameron has pledged to negotiate a “better deal” for the UK and hold a referendum on membership. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he was “looking forward to meeting Cameron soon”. A statement from his office said he would examine any British propos...