NewsBytes

Ousted Bangladesh PM Hasina sentenced to death for "crimes against humanity"   

Bangladesh's deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina was on Monday sentenced to death in absentia by a special tribunal for "crimes against humanity" over her government's brutal crackdown on student-led protests last year.   In its verdict that followed a months-long trial, the country's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) described the 78-year-old Awami League leader as the "mastermind and principal architect" of the violent repression that killed hundreds of protesters. It also handed the death sentence to former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on similar charges. Hasina has been living in India since she fled Bangladesh on August 5 last year in the face of the massive protests.  She was earlier declared a fugitive by the court.

Hours after the verdict, Bangladesh's foreign ministry demanded that Hasina and former home minister Kamal be immediately handed over under an extradition treaty in view of their sentencing. "We call on the Indian government to immediately hand over these two convicted individuals to the Bangladeshi authorities," the foreign ministry said in a statement in Bengali.

In her reaction, Hasina said the judgement has been made by a "rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate." "They are biased and politically motivated. In their distasteful call for the death penalty, they reveal the brazen and murderous intent of extremist figures within the interim government to remove Bangladesh's last elected prime minister, and to nullify the Awami League as a political force," she said in a statement.

US sees sharp dip in new foreign students; India still leads

The number of new international students arriving in the United States has sharply declined, even as India continues to remain the top source of foreign students in American universities, a new Open Doors study revealed on Monday. According to the report, first-time enrollments across US colleges and universities fell 17 per cent in fall 2025, signalling what experts say could be a worrying trend for the country’s higher-education sector. Nearly 60 per cent of institutions reported a drop in fresh international admissions, with only 30 per cent seeing an uptick. Open Doors -- a leading data resource backed by the US State Department -- attributed the shifting pattern largely to the differing fortunes of academic levels. Undergraduate numbers rose by 5 per cent, but new graduate enrollments plunged 15 per cent, pulling the overall figures down. Despite the slowdown, the United States remains a major draw for Indian students. India sent 3,63,019 students to American campuses in the 2024-25 academic year -- a 10 per cent jump over the previous year -- topping the charts for a second consecutive year. China followed with 2,65,919 students, a 4 per cent decline. Bangladesh, Canada, Ghana, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan and Vietnam were among 12 countries that recorded their highest-ever outbound figures to the US, the report said. International students made up 6 per cent of the total US higher-education population and pumped nearly $55 billion into the American economy in 2024, supporting more than 3.5 lakh jobs.

SC rules out year-round restrictions on polluting activities in Delhi, cites loss of jobs

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The Supreme Court on Monday ruled out extreme measures such as year-round restrictions on activities prohibited under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) -- a set of emergency measures to control pollution – to improve the air quality index (AQI), saying it would affect people’s livelihood. A Bench led by CJI BR Gavai said, “A large chunk of the population depends on various activities for their livelihood in the Capital. We agree with the amicus curiae (senior advocate Aprajita Singh) and Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati that a long-term solution is needed to tackle the menace of pollution in a graded manner.” “For that, a combined action by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), along with Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana officials, is needed,” it added.

The court’s comments came after senior advocate Gopal Sankarnarayanan, representing one of the parties, said Delhi had become a gas chamber, and all activities prohibited from GRAP 1 onwards should be prohibited for the entire year. Sankarnarayanan said the situation was akin to an “emergency” as the air quality had deteriorated to alarming levels, causing irreversible damage to the health of people, particularly children.

He demanded a complete ban on construction activities and private cars. Citing certain reports, the senior counsel said three in 10 deaths in the NCR were caused by air pollution and lung cancer cases were increasing exponentially. The Additional Solicitor General, however, submitted that a complete ban on construction activities would affect daily-wage workers coming from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other neighbouring states. Agreeing with the ASG, the CJI said such drastic measures would lead to a complete standstill.

While turning down Sankarnarayanan’s request, the Bench said, “The restriction to be imposed on activities in Delhi in a graded manner, taking into consideration AQI standards, has been finalised by experts in the field on the basis of scientific data. We do not possess expertise to deal with the same. We are, therefore, not inclined to act on the submission of Sankarnarayanan that all activities (prohibited from GRAP 1 onwards) be stopped in Delhi.”