February 18 – Afghanistan
United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) reports that the year 2014 was the deadliest year for Afghanistan’s civilians since the UN started keeping records in 2007. A total of 3,699 civilians were killed and 6,849 injured in 2014, a 22 percent increase from the previous year. These casualties are the result of increased fighting between Afghan government forces and the Taliban, as well as a significant decrease of number of Western troops.
April 25 – Nepal
A devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake strikes Nepal outside its capital, Katmandu. The quake kills more than 8,000 people and injures tens of thousands. The National Emergency Operations Center estimates that more than 10 percent of Nepal’s homes (about 300,000) have been destroyed and more than 250,000 damaged, including many historical sites. The earthquake also sets off deadly avalanches on Mount Everest that kill some hikers. Thousands of foreign aid workers help Nepal with the relief and rescue efforts.
May 23 – Bangladesh
Indonesia begins a rescue mission for thousands of Rohingya migrants dubbed as “boat people” who are stranded at Andaman Sea in Southeast Asia. It also agrees to provide a temporary shelter after an international pressure to help the migrants. Rohingyas, a Muslim minority that lives mostly in Myanmar and Bangladesh, flee poverty and systemic persecution. In the past few weeks, more than 3,000 people arrived in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand by rickety boats. It is estimated, however, that tens of thousands of them have fled just this year, many of them dying at sea during the journey. The crisis has been sparked by human traffickers who often take the migrants to Thailand and then overland to Malaysia where they hold them for ransom. (May 24): Malaysian police discovers 139 grave sites in abandoned camps on the border with Thailand. The authorities believe human traffickers held Rohingya migrants there for ransom.
July 30 – India
According to the United Nations’ 2015 Revisions to the report “World Population Prospects,” the world population has reached 7.3 billion by mid-2015, an increase of one billion within the last 12 years. Sixty percent of people live in Asia, followed by Africa (16 percent), Europe (10 percent), Latin America (9 percent), and North America with Oceania (5 percent). The two countries with the largest populations are China (1.4 billion) and India (1.3 billion). The report also says that within the next 15 years, the world population is expected to increase by more than one billion people, reaching 8.5 billion in 2030. On the country levels, the population on India is projected to surpass that of China by 2022.
August 18 – Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka’s ruling United National Party wins the most votes in the country’s parliamentary elections, doubling the number of its seats in the parliament to 106. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance party gets 95 seats and will be in the opposition. Rajapaksa was defeated in the presidential election in January.
October 15 – Afghanistan
The United States extends its military presence in Afghanistan by keeping 5,500 troops beyond 2016. Currently, there are 9,800 US troops in Afghanistan. The troops will continue to train Afghan soldiers and to prepare them to counter the growing threat of the resurgent Taliban. The troops will be stationed in Kabul, Bagram, Kandahar, and Jalalabad. The U.S. also wants to maintain a small number of military bases in Afghanistan for counter-terrorism operations.
October 29 – Nepal
Nepal’s parliament elects Bidhya Devi Bhandari as the country’s president, making her the first woman to hold this office in Nepal. Previously, she was Nepal’s defense minister. Although the post of president in Nepal is mostly ceremonial, Bidhya Devi Bhandari will be commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
November 4 – Maldives
The Maldives declares a state of emergency for 30 days after the government says it uncovered a plot to assassinate President Abdulla Yameen. The government claims that the president survived an assassination attempt on his boat despite the FBI’s report pointing to no evidence of a bomb blast. (November 5): The Maldives Parliament overwhelmingly votes to impeach Vice President Ahmed Adeeb who is arrested and accused of plotting to kill President Yameen. President Yameen came to power in 2013 in a bitterly contested presidential election against the first democratically elected leader, Mohamed Nasheed. In July this year, Nasheed was impeached, arrested and sentenced to13 years in prison on terrorism charges. His party claims the sentence was politically-motivated. International rights groups widely condemn the verdict.