Asia

New Delhi: India launched a revision of its voter rolls Tuesday, expanding a contentious exercise that activists warn could fuel disenfranchisement in the world's largest democracy. The three-month voter registration overhaul, known as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), kicked off in 12 states and territories, many of which are slated to hold local elections next year. Tens of thousands of election officials and nearly half a million volunteers will go door-to-door to help residents complete voter enumeration forms. Officials "will help the elector fill the enumeration form, collect it and submit it", Election Commission of India chief Gyanesh Kumar told reporters while announcing the exercise. Earlier this year, the ECI conducted a similar revision in the eastern state of Bihar, home to more than 130 million people, ahead of its state elections beginning November 6. The process led to the exclusion of around 6.5 million names, which the ECI said was necessary to prevent the inclusion of "foreign illegal immigrants". Members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have long claimed that undocumented Muslim migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh have fraudulently registered as voters. Critics, however, argue that stringent documentation requirements could result in large numbers of Indian citizens being wrongly removed from the rolls. Activists have reported cases of living voters declared dead and entire families being struck off draft lists. In August, India's Supreme Court eased some concerns by ruling that the widely used biometric-linked Aadhaar identity card could be accepted as valid documentation for the process. The latest SIR drive will cover major states including Uttar Pradesh -- India's most populous state with about 199 million people -- as well as West Bengal with 91 million, Tamil Nadu with 72 million, and Kerala with 33 million, according to the 2011 census. Several rights groups and opposition parties have filed legal challenges. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, whose party filed its opposition in the Supreme Court on Monday, said the exercise was a "mere trick to delete the names of genuine voters". "Voting is the body and soul of democracy, and that right is facing a threat," he told opposition parties on Sunday. The final electoral roll is expected to be released on February 7, 2026.

Asia

Cebu, Philippines: At least five people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced as rains driven by Typhoon Kalmaegi flooded swathes of the central Philippines on Tuesday. Entire towns on the island of Cebu have been inundated, while cars, trucks and even massive shipping containers could be seen swept along by muddy floodwaters in videos verified by AFP. In the 24 hours before Kalmaegi's landfall, the area around provincial capital Cebu City was deluged with 183 millimetres (seven inches) of rain, well over its 131-millimetre monthly average, state weather specialist Charmagne Varilla told AFP. "The situation in Cebu is really unprecedented," provincial governor Pamela Baricuatro said in a Tuesday Facebook post. "We were expecting the winds to be the dangerous part, but... the water is what's truly putting our people at risk," she said. "The floodwaters are just devastating." Local disaster official Ethel Minoza told AFP the bodies of two children had been recovered in Cebu City, where rescuers were still attempting to reach residents trapped by floodwaters. At least three other deaths have been confirmed elsewhere, including an elderly resident who drowned in an upper floor of their home in Leyte province and a man struck by a falling tree in Bohol. Don del Rosario, 28, was among those in Cebu City who sought refuge on an upper floor as the storm raged. "The water rose so fast," he said. "By 4:00 am, it was already uncontrollable -- people couldn't get out (of their houses)." "I've been here for 28 years, and this is by far the worst we've experienced." Scientists warn that storms are becoming more powerful due to human-driven climate change. Warmer oceans allow typhoons to strengthen rapidly, and a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, meaning heavier rainfall. Hundreds still living in tent cities after a 6.9-magnitude quake rocked the island in late September were "forcibly evacuated for their own safety", Cebu information officer Rhon Ramos told AFP by phone. In total, nearly 400,000 people were pre-emptively moved from the typhoon's path, Rafaelito Alejandro, deputy administrator at the Office of Civil Defense, said at a Tuesday press briefing. Read Also Thousands evacuated as typhoon bears down on Philippines Vietnam flood death toll rises to 35: disaster agency Vietnam floods kill 10, river level at 60-year high More storms expected As of 2:00 pm (0600 GMT), the typhoon was moving westwards through the Visayan island chain, with winds of 130 kilometres (81 miles) per hour and gusts of 180 kph toppling trees and downing power lines. The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, routinely striking disaster-prone areas where millions live in poverty. With Kalmaegi, the archipelagic country has already reached that average, weather specialist Varilla told AFP, adding at least "three to five more" storms could be expected by December's end. Just before midnight in Dinagat Islands province, where Kalmaegi first made landfall, Miriam Vargas sat with her children in the dark, praying as the winds slammed against the walls of her home. "The electricity went out about an hour ago, and we cannot see anything," the 34-year-old single mother told AFP. The Philippines was hit by two major storms in September, including Super Typhoon Ragasa, which tore the roofs off buildings on its way to killing 14 people in nearby Taiwan.

Africa

Port Sudan: The International Criminal Court warned on Monday that atrocities committed in Sudan's El-Fasher could amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes, as the UN said that thousands had fled a neighbouring region where paramilitaries have turned their focus. According to United Nations figures, more than 36,000 civilians have fled towns and villages in the Kordofan region between October 26 and last Friday, while the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces warned it was amassing along a new front line. Kordofan is a strategic area linking the vast western region of Darfur with Khartoum, the capital. The widening of the war comes just over a week after the RSF took control of El-Fasher -- the army's last stronghold in Darfur -- where reports of mass killings, sexual violence, looting and abductions have emerged in the aftermath. The RSF has set up a rival administration in Darfur to the pro-army government operating out of the Red Sea city of Port Sudan. Residents on Monday reported a major surge in both RSF and army forces across towns and villages in North Kordofan state. The two sides are vying for El-Obeid, the North Kordofan state capital and a key logistics and command hub that links Darfur to Khartoum. Suleiman Babiker, who lives in Um Smeima, west of El-Obeid, told AFP that following the paramilitary capture of El-Fasher, "the number of RSF vehicles increased". "We stopped going to our farms, afraid of clashes," he told AFP. Famine spreading Another resident, requesting anonymity for fear of reprisal, also said "there has been a big increase in army vehicles and weapons west and south of El-Obeid" over the past two weeks. The RSF claimed control of Bara, a city north of El-Obeid last week. "Today, all our forces have converged on the Bara front here," an RSF member said in a video shared by the RSF on its official Telegram page late on Sunday, "advising civilians to steer clear of military sites". Awad Ali, who lives in Al-Hamadi on the road linking West and North Kordofan, said he has seen "RSF vehicles passing every day from the areas of West Kordofan toward El-Obeid since early October". Kordofan is a resource-rich region divided administratively into North, South and West Kordofan. While the fighting shifts, famine is spreading with it. The Rome-based Integrated Food Security Phase Classification had previously declared famine in parts of South Kordofan as well as three displacement camps around El-Fasher. On Monday it declared that famine had reached two more areas of the country, including El-Fasher, and the besieged city of Kadugli in South Kordofan state. It added that twenty more areas across Darfur and Kordofan were at risk of famine. Reprisals The ICC prosecutor's office voiced on Monday "profound alarm and deepest concern" over reports of mass killings, rapes and other crimes in El-Fasher, warning that such acts "may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity". In Istanbul, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also urged the Muslim world on Monday to take its responsibility for ending the bloodshed in Sudan after paramilitaries seized the key city of El-Fasher. "No one with a heart... can accept the recent massacres targeting civilians in El-Fasher. We cannot remain silent," he said. Ankara has provided support for the army during the war. Martha Pobee, assistant UN secretary-general for Africa cautioned last week that Kordofan "is likely the next arena of military focus for the warring parties". She said "large-scale atrocities" had been perpetrated by the RSF, raised the alarm over patterns that echoed those in Darfur, where the group's fighters have been accused of mass killings, sexual violence and abductions against non-Arab communities after the fall of El-Fasher. Both Darfur and Kordofan contain large non-Arab communities, distinct from the country's Sudanese Arab majority. At least 50 civilians, including five Red Crescent volunteers, were killed in recent violence in North Kordofan, according to the UN. Both the RSF, descended from Janjaweed militias accused of genocide in Darfur two decades ago, and the army face war crimes allegations. The United States under Joe Biden in January this year concluded that "members of the RSF and allied militias have committed genocide in Sudan". But international action on Sudan has largely been muted and peace efforts have failed so far. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced nearly 12 million more and created the world's largest displacement and hunger crises.