Pakistan | Nearly 150 die of heatstroke in Karachi

Nearly 150 people have died from heatstroke in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi in the last two days, officials said yesterday. Hospital reports confirm at least 148 deaths, said the city’s health director, Zafar Ejaz. Hundreds more are being treated for heat-related ailments, including fever and dehydration, said Seemi Jamali, a spokeswoman for Jinnah Hospital. She added that most of the deaths have been among elderly people. Karachi has been in the grip of a rare heat wave, with temperatures soaring to 45 degrees Celsius. A collapse of the local power grid over the weekend made matters worse. The heat wave is the worst in at least a decade, but the arrival of monsoon rains in the coming days should bring relief, meteorologist Mohammad Hanif said. Health officials have advised people to stay out of the sun and drink more fluids.

Malaysia | Rights group slams Muslim court for prosecuting transgenders

Human Rights Watch yesterday criticized a Malaysian Islamic court for fining nine Muslim transgender women for cross-dressing and jailing two of them for a month. Religious authorities in northeastern Kelantan state arrested the group in a raid on June 16 and they pleaded guilty the next day, the New York-based watchdog said in a statement. Their lawyer has filed an appeal and the two sentenced to jail were released on bail pending the outcome, it said. “The raid is the latest incident in a pattern of arbitrary arrests and harassment of transgender women in Malaysia,” it said. Human Rights Watch has called Muslim-majority Malaysia one of the world’s worst countries for transgender people as they face constant harassment, sexual abuse and arrest by Islamic authorities. Since the 1980s, every state has passed Shariah criminal enactments that institutionalize discrimination against transgender people. All 13 Malaysian states prohibit Muslim men from “dressing as women,” while three states also criminalize “women posing as men,” it said.