Year: 2018

A pair of Indonesian Islamic universities are pushing female students to ditch niqab face veils — with one threatening expulsion for non-compliance — as concerns grow over rising fundamentalism in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation. Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University said it issued the edict this week to more than three dozen niqab-wearing students, who will be booted from school if they refuse. Although niqabs are common in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf states, they’re rare in secular Indonesia, where around 90 percent of its 260 million people…

A super luxury yacht owned by embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya has been seized by authorities in Malta over unpaid wages amounting to USD 1 million to its crew, including some Indians, according to an international traders union. Nautilus International said the 95-metre vessel named ‘Indian Empress’ was “arrested” to recover over USD 330,000 unpaid wages and other costs on behalf of its members. Mallya, who is facing an extradition trial in London on fraud and money laundering charges involving his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines’ default of bank loans amounting to…