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Swiss state of Ticino has approved a ban on wearing burqa in public places Women cannot wear the garment in shops, restaurants or public buildings Anybody flouting ban can be given a fine of up to 10,000 francs (£6,500) Swiss Parliament has ruled the ban does not violate country's federal law...

Nine men have been convicted of sexually exploiting young girls in Greater Manchester. One of their victims tells her story. The testimony of one of the five victims of the Rochdale grooming ring revealed the depth of the exploitation she suffered. Speaking at the conclusion of a 10-week trial...

A court in India has found 23 people guilty of killing Muslims in religious riots in Gujarat state 10 years ago. Twenty-three other defendants were acquitted and one other died during the trial. Most of the defendants were Hindus. They were accused of burning 23 Muslims to death in a house...

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari will travel to India later this month, officials say, as tensions ease between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Mr Zardari will visit, in a private capacity, the shrine of a famous Sufi Muslim saint, in north-west Rajasthan state, his spokesman said. He...

NEW DELHI: Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi figures on the cover of the forthcoming issue of Time magazine which praises him in an article for development of the state he has been ruling for over a decade but wonders if he can become the Prime Minister. The cover of the Time magazine's...

Bangladesh's foreign minister has accused The Economist magazine of running a "smear campaign" against the country. Dipu Moni was reacting to a report in the magazine which said that India had helped and funded the ruling party's election victory in 2008. The magazine alleged that "bags of...

India will pay oil bills owed to Iran, avoiding cut off. Iran and India have resolved a payment dispute that was threatening to halt the Islamic state's crude exports to India. The National Iranian Oil Company said the two sides had agreed to settle the bill as soon as possible, state news...

Pakistan's new foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who was sworn in earlier this week, takes charge at a time when apparent contradictions in the country's foreign policy are coming to a head. Being the first woman in the post she may be able to project a softer image of Pakistan abroad, some...

India, a democracy of over a billion people, has a rate of growth almost as impressive as China's, a burgeoning middle class, a highly skilled work force and an abundance of raw materials. More important still, it operates under the rule of law not the rule of the politburo. Could it be that...

The deaths of at least 1,000 people since March 2008 in the ongoing nationalist insurgency in the volatile Pakistani province of Balochistan have often been overshadowed by the country's other troubles. Yet as the BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan discovered, the suffering there is every bit as acute...

At least 25 people have been killed in a US drone strike in the troubled Pakistani tribal region of North Waziristan, officials told the BBC. Missiles were fired on a large compound in the town of Spinwam, but five women and four children in a nearby house were also killed. The area is a...

By Aleem Maqbool BBC News, Pakistan The aftermath of the great monsoon floods is still a major problem facing Pakistan which is also suffering from regular suicide bomb attacks by Taliban militants. But as Aleem Maqbool reports, there seems to be little determination and will to tackle the...

2 February 2011, The ringleader of the 7/7 attacks received bomb-making guidance in phone calls from Pakistan in the days before, the inquests have heard. Mobile phone records analysed after the bombings on 7 July 2005 showed calls made from phone boxes in Rawalpindi to bomber Mohammad Sidique...

The leader of a separatist group in India's north-eastern Assam state has offered to start negotiations with the government, officials said. Arabinda Rajkhowa, chief of the United Liberation Front of Assam (Ulfa), has written to the state chief minister Tarun Gogoi seeking a dialogue. Mr...