Sunday Times

Indian authorities Friday ordered a probe into the deaths of a dozen endangered wild Asiatic lions, half of them cubs, over the last 10 days, officials said.

One lioness died after preying on a poisoned boar while eight others lions died of an infection in the lungs and liver. Three cubs were killed in infighting while other three passed away in the course of treatment.

Gujarat officials have sent the lions' carcasses to a veterinary hospital for further analysis into the cause of infection.

“Primarily the deaths appear due to natural causes or some infection,” Vijay Chaudhary, forest department official, told AFP.

The lions, a major tourist attraction in the state, have been a target of poachers in the past. Experts said that the deaths cannot be dismissed as part of a natural cycle.

“There needs to be some preventive action by tracking the pride of lions in the area and checking them for infections,” Priyavrat Gadhvi, a wildlife expert and members of state wildlife board in Gujarat, told AFP.

According to the latest lion count done in 2015, there are 521 Asiatic lions. About 10 of them died in floods in 2016.

The bodies of three policemen abducted by militants were recovered in Indian-administered Kashmir on Friday, police said, as tensions mount ahead of local civic polls. Police officers, many of them local Muslims, have been increasingly targeted in recent months in the territory rocked for decades by violence.The increased focus on policemen seems to be in response to what appear to be new police tactics of detaining the family members of prominent militants.

Kashmir has been divided since the end of British colonial rule in 1947 but both India and Pakistan claim the former Himalayan kingdom in full. India has about 500,000 soldiers in the zone it controls, where separatist groups demand independence or a merger with Pakistan.
The latest incident saw groups of armed militants raiding the homes of at least 11 policemen in the twin villages of Kapran and Batgund in southern Kashmir valley.

They abducted three Special Police Officers (SPOs), as well as the brother of a police constable, police and witnesses said.
“Three bullet-riddled bodies of the SPOs were found lying in the fields,” a police officer told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The brother of the constable was released unharmed.

– AFP 

Maldives strongman Abdulla Yameen seeks a second term as president Sunday in a tourist paradise that has become a battleground for influence between regional giants India and China, and a source of global alarm over political oppression and a muzzling of the media.

With all his main rivals in prison or in exile, the odds appear stacked in the Beijing-friendly incumbent's favour, and warnings of punitive action from the international community have been flowing in even before a single ballot has been cast.

The EU has said it is ready to slap travel bans and asset freezes on individuals “if the situation does not improve”, while the US has warned it would “consider appropriate measures” against people undermining democracy and rule of law. Battered by years of violent intimidation, spurious arrests and enforced exile, the opposition has united behind a joint candidate — the little-known Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. But voters would be hard-pressed to notice, with heavy-handed decrees and reporting restrictions stifling a media already fearful of doing anything to offend the president of the Muslim nation of 340,000 people.

“The election campaign reporting is severely restricted by the defamation law. This is not fair reporting, but we have no choice,” one local journalist told AFP, preferring to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions. “We can't even use social media to talk about opposition politicians,” the reporter said.

Even publishing photos of people wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the faces of jailed politicians is off-limits.

Few foreign journalists seeking to cover the election have been granted visas, and in many cases only at the last minute, anecdotal information suggests.