At least 12 Indian paramilitary personnel have been killed and several others injured in a blast in Indian-administered Kashmir, according to local media reports.

A Car fitted with explosives rammed into a bus carrying Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in Pulwama district in southern part of the disputed Himalayan region, Greater Kashmir newspaper reported.

More soon.

One of three schoolgirls who left the UK to live in ISIL’s so-called “caliphate” has said she wants to “come home” as she is nine months pregnant.

In an interview with The Times newspaper, heavily pregnant Shamima Begum, now 19, said she was tired of life on a battlefield and feared for her unborn child after two of her other children died.

Begum left London for Syria with two of her friends in February 2015 after ISIL, also known as ISIS, launched its blitzkrieg across large parts of Syria and Iraq, capturing territory the size of the UK.

After arriving in Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIL, the three girls were placed in a home for ‘single women’ before Begum was married to Dutch fighter Yago Riedijk, 12 years her senior.

“I’m not the same silly little 15-year-old schoolgirl who ran away from Bethnal Green four years ago,” Begum said, speaking from the al-Hawl refugee camp in north-east Syria.

Syrian forces backed by the US took full control of Raqqa in October 2017, prompting its fighters to flee to other parts of Syria and across the border into neighbouring Iraq.

Begum said that her two friends – Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase had also married foreign ISIL fighters.

Sultana was reported to have died in a 2016 air raid on Raqqa. Begum said that Abase, the other schoolgirl, may still be alive.

Amira Abase, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Shamima Begum, 15, in a photo issued by police [Metropolitan Police/AP]

‘I don’t regret coming here’

Begum spoke fondly of her time under ISIL, saying she lived a relatively normal life despite seeing “beheaded heads” in bins and being forced to observe ISIL’s strict and literalist interpretation of Islam.

“Mostly it was a normal life in Raqqa, every now and then bombing and stuff,” she said, before giving a conflicting account of the so-called caliphate.

“There is so much oppression and corruption going on that I don’t really think they deserve victory”.

However, she added: “I don’t regret coming here”.

“I don’t have high hopes. They are just getting smaller and smaller,” she said.

Begum said her family had moved down the Euphrates valley as ISIL retreated, eventually arriving in ISIL’s last remaining stronghold of Baghuz, a village in Deir Az Zor province.

But after the deaths of her one-year-old daughter and three-month-old son in recent months she “fled the caliphate,” while her husband surrendered to a group of Syrian fighters allied to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

“I was also frightened that the child I am about to give birth to would die like my other children if I stayed on so I fled the caliphate.

“Now all I want to do is come home to Britain”.

‘She’s pregnant and vulnerable’

Begum’s sister, Reenu, pleaded for the British government to allow her to return, telling ITV News that she needed to be at home, “where she belongs”.

“She’s pregnant and vulnerable, and it’s important we get her out of al-Hawl camp and home as soon as possible.

“We hope the British government will help us bring her home to us where she belongs.”

The former head of Scotland Yard, Bernard Hogan-Howe, said in 2015 that Begum would not face terror charges if she returned – unless there was evidence she committed any specific crimes while with ISIL.

“I am relieved that she is alive and simultaneously appalled by the news that someone so young has birthed and lost children,” Tasnime Akunjee, the lawyer representing Begum’s family told Sky News.

He added that the topic of Begum’s return was “a contentious issue and stirs up very strong positions from the public”, adding: “There is a very traumatised young person who will have to live through the rest of her life with the added burden of the reporting of her tragedy”.

The US-backed SDF believes that some 400 to 600 ISIL fighters are holed up in Baghouz, including many hardened foreigners who are expected to fight to the death.

ISIL still retains a presence in Syria’s vast Badia desert and has claimed a series of deadly attacks by sleeper cells in SDF-held areas.

Australia‘s Prime Minister Scott Morrison has told the recently freed Bahraini footballer, Hakeem al-Araibi, that he may soon be granted the Australian citizenship.

The assurance on Thursday came just days after al-Araibi, who fled Bahrain in 2014 and received refugee status in Australia, was released by the Thai authorities following a months-long ordeal.

“It’s wonderful to have you here. I know it’s been a trying time for you,” Morrison told al-Araibi at the Australian parliament in Canberra.

“We are so pleased you are here now and that you can come and live your life here in Australia,” the PM added.

Al-Araibi, who credits Morrison with securing his freedom, was also welcomed to the PM’s office in parliament where the men shook hands.

“Thank you very much. I’m so happy to be back in Australia now and I’m grateful to be here to live in this country,” he said.

The 25-year-old also thanked Foreign Minister Marise Payne as well as former Australian national team captain Craig Foster who ran a campaign to help free the footballer.

Morrison gifted al-Araibi a football, which he signed “welcome home Hakeem,” and asked the footballer to sign another one for him.

Al-Araibi was arrested upon his arrival in Bangkok in November on his honeymoon.

His native Bahrain, which filed an extradition request through Interpol, wanted him returned to serve a 10-year prison sentence he received in absentia in 2014 for an arson attack that damaged a police station.

Al-Araibi, a former member of Bahrain’s national team, has denied the accusation, saying he was playing a televised match at the time.

He was released when Thai authorities shared a letter indicating that Bahrain had withdrawn its request for al-Araibi.

Officials in Bahrain said the country “reaffirms its right to pursue all necessary legal actions against” al-Araibi.

He says he fled the Gulf state because of political repression and that he fears torture if he returns.

The footballer said he is back in training next week with his Melbourne-based club Pascoe Vale.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Whether you’re a homemaker or a CEO – you are a possible target of an increasingly sophisticated and indiscriminate breed of cybercriminals.

That’s the message from the head of a company advising prominent firms in Asia on how to protect themselves from online attacks. The warning by the Kuala Lumpur-based Asia Cybersecurity Exchange coincides with the release of a global report on Wednesday by Aon, a large risk consultancy firm, showing how emerging technologies such as the so-called Internet of Things and even a company’s own employees are proving to be vulnerabilities around the world.

Analysts say Asia is particularly prone to attacks and stands to lose hundreds of billions of dollars.

“In 2019, the greatest challenge organisations will face is simply keeping up with and staying informed about the evolving cyber risk landscape,” Aon said in its report.

“Organised crime now uses former intelligence members for more sophisticated attacks and state actors are both broadening the nature of their attacks and increasing their frequency,” it added.

Massive attacks

The scale of damage that cybercriminals can inflict is also growing. A study by computer giant IBM, conducted by the Ponemon Institute, found the average cost of a data breach in 2018 was $3.86m, a 6.4 percent increase from 2017.

In some cases, cybertheft can be many times more costly. Internet giant Yahoo had to shave $350m off the offer price of its core business when it sold the venture to Verizon in 2017. After the deal was first announced, Yahoo disclosed that it had discovered data breaches in 2013 and 2014 affecting billions of user accounts.

Yahoo had to reduce the sale price of its Internet business by $350m after cyberattack [File: Miguel Candela/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images]

The perpetrators of the attacks on Yahoo sent users emails encouraging them to click on links that opened the door to names, dates of birth, passwords and other confidential data. Such so-called phishing attacks have successfully targeted online users for more than a decade, and continue to be used.

Your money or your data

The nature of cybercrime is changing, as well.

High-profile attacks using the WannaCry and NotPetya viruses in 2017 resulted in hundreds of thousands of users being locked out of their own computers. The perpetrators demanded financial payments in return for unscrambling hard drives. Organisations like the UK’s National Health Service and US logistics group FedEx reported hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity or damages as a result of the attacks.

But accurately quantifying the full impact of such events can be hard.

“I’d say we’re moving to a place where more companies are aware that they can be hit and accept the risk but find it difficult to quantify what that risk means to them,” Andrew Mahony, Aon’s Asia regional director for commercial risk solutions, told Al Jazeera.

Often companies lose business because potential customers worry about the safety of their data after an attack, something analysts call reputational damage.

Fong Choong Fook, CEO of the Asia Cybersecurity Exchange, an incubator for startups in the specialised field, says many firms underreport the full impact of cyberattacks.

“A lot of the time, the client’s main concern is not so much on just financial losses,” Fong told Al Jazeera. “If they make certain announcements about their losses, they incur more losses in terms of their image and trust from their customers.”

And he says cybercriminals are becoming indiscriminate.

“Hackers used to be very targeted. But today hackers are just basically leveraging off ransomware, and from housewives to corporate CEOs, all of them are just targets,” Fong said.

Aon’s report says the growth in the number of connected conferencing systems, printers, security cameras and other objects – the Internet of Things –  has created more ways for hackers to access sensitive data. These devices tend to be less secure than the servers and computers that form the backbone of a firm’s IT infrastructure.

Aon says a firm’s own employees could be a growing threat to data security (File: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images]

Another weakness can be a company’s own employees. Aon cites a recent survey of cybersecurity professionals which found that 53 percent reported their organisation had experienced an insider-related attack within the past year, either accidentally by clicking on phishing links or through malevolent behaviour.

Asian hotspots

Companies and governments in the US and Europe have spent billions of dollars on boosting their cyber defences. But analysts say Asia remains a global weak spot in terms of implementing and coordinating legislation among countries. Corporate investment is also below Western levels.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, a supplier of chips for Apple’s iPhones, suffered an attack in August by a variant of the WannaCry virus, while dozens of Asian hospitals were also hit.

A survey of 1,300 businesses across Asia last year by consultancy firm Frost & Sullivan for Microsoft suggested that the potential losses from cybersecurity breaches could reach $1.75 trillion, or around seven percent of the total size of the region’s economy.

Even critical infrastructure such as power plants, transport and water systems in parts of Southeast Asia could be vulnerable to cyberattacks, according to one study.

But Asia is also increasingly being used to launch attacks elsewhere. A report by US consulting firm AT Kearney points to Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam as global hotspots.

Maria Ressa, an award-winning Philippine journalist, has been freed on bail following an arrest that prompted international condemnation and allegations she is being targeted over her news platform’s criticism of President Rodrigo Duterte.

The 55-year-old editor of the Rappler website spent the night in detention at the National Bureau of Investigation in the capital, Manila, after being arrested late on Wednesday on a “cyber libel” charge that carries a 12-year prison sentence.

Ressa and the site she heads, known for its tough scrutiny of Duterte’s administration and his controversial crackdown on illicit drugs that has killed thousands of people, have both been previously hit with separate tax evasion charges.

“It’s about two things: abuse of power and weaponisation of the law,” an emotional Ressa told journalists on Thursday as she stepped out of a Manila court where she paid 100,000 pesos ($1,900), the sixth time she has posted bail to avoid detention.

“What we are seeing is death by a thousand cuts to our democracy,” added Ressa, who was named a Time Magazine Person of the Year in 2018 for her journalism.

Press freedom advocates and human rights groups said Ressa had been arrested on trumped-up charges aimed at intimidating journalists who criticise Duterte’s rule – an accusation denied by the government of the Philippines.

“Ms Ressa being a media practitioner and a high ranking officer of a media outfit critical of the president’s programmes and policies has nothing to do with the present circumstances she is currently in,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said, adding that the administration respected the judiciary and did not meddle in how it handles cases in courts.  

“Freedom of expression, as critics of this administration erroneously suggest, is absolutely unrelated with Ms Ressa’s probable violation of the country’s laws,” Panelo added.

2012 report

The libel case against Ressa and former Rappler reporter Reynaldo Santos, Jr. stems from a 2012 report written about a businessman’s alleged ties to a then-judge on the nation’s top court.

While investigators initially dismissed the businessman’s 2017 complaint about the article, the case was subsequently forwarded to prosecutors for their consideration.

The legal foundation of the case is a controversial law aiming to crack down on online offences ranging from harassment to child pornography.

Ressa’s team has argued the legislation did not take effect until months after the story was published and is not retroactive, however the government has countered that it is fair game because the story was updated in 2014.

Rappler concedes the story was updated, but notes it was to fix a typo and no substantive changes were made.

The businessman who sued Rappler, Wilfredo Keng, on Thursday welcomed the charges as he said the website “destroyed my reputation and endangered my life”.

Duterte has lashed out at other critical media outfits, including the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper and broadcaster ABS-CBN.

He had threatened to go after their owners over alleged unpaid taxes or block the network’s franchise renewal application.

Some of the drug crackdown’s highest-profile detractors have wound up behind bars, including Senator Leila de Lima, who was jailed on drug charges she insists were fabricated to silence her.

Ressa insists the site is not anti-Duterte, saying it is just doing its job to hold the government to account.

‘Brazenly politically motivated’

In a statement, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines condemned the arrest of Ressa as “a shameless act of persecution by a bully government”.

“This government, led by a man who has proven averse to criticism and dissent, now proves it will go to ridiculous lengths to forcibly silence a critical media and stifle free expression and thought,” it said.

Amnesty International Philippines also said Ressa’s arrest was based on a “trumped-up libel charge”.

“This is brazenly politically motivated, and consistent with the authorities’ threats and repeated targeting of Ressa and her team,” it added.

The International Press Institute (IPI), a global network of media personnel, also denounced condemned Ressa’s detention.

“The arrest of Maria Ressa is an outrageous attempt by the Philippines government to silence a news organisation that has been courageously investigating corruption and human rights violations in the country,” Ravi R. Prasad, IPI director of advocacy, said in a statement.

“The manner in which Ressa has been pursued by the government by slapping legal cases against her is not only shameful but also a gross and willful violation of press freedom.”

Denpasar, Indonesia – It’s not even 7am and hundreds of men and women are walking up and down Bali’s western coast, grabbing all the rubbish they can find.

Large excavators and trucks fitted with giant rakes follow behind, sweeping everything into massive heaps of bottles, bags, snack wrappers – and even used nappies. The 20km stretch between Kuta and Canggu is one of the Indonesian holiday island’s most popular tourist beaches. 

“We come out here every day during the wet season,” a truck driver employed like the rest of the crew by the local government told Al Jazeera as he waited for his turn to collect the refuse. “We keep coming back until all the rubbish is gone. Sometimes each truck comes back three times per day, even though there are tens of trucks in use.”

Hours later, the coast looks clean again, with beachgoers relaxing under the sun.

But along the shoreline, plastic debris floats in on every wave.

Discarded straws and instant noodle packets swirl around tourists’ feet, many of whom ignore the rubbish and continue to swim, surf and sunbathe.

A video of a British man swimming among reams of plastic rubbish in the ocean off Bali went viral in early 2018, shocking both Indonesians and foreigners alike. While many people on the island knew the situation was bad, they had not realised the scale of the problem.

Indonesia is the world’s second-largest producer of plastic waste after China, contributing 3.2 million tonnes annually, according to research published in Science Journal in 2015.

Almost everything Indonesians buy comes wrapped in plastic or is placed into a plastic bag whether at a small roadside stall, a traditional market, a restaurant or a high-end boutique. The vast archipelago aims to reduce plastic waste by 70 percent by the year 2025.

A plastic bag washed up on the shoreline of a beach on Bali’s southwest coast. [Kate Walton/Al Jazeera]. [Al Jazeera]

Discarded or burned

Some Indonesians are deeply concerned, including Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti. “If we don’t solve this problem by 2030, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish,” she said at an event at her office in December 2018. “We must reduce our use of plastic.”

As many as 10 million new plastic bags enter circulation every day across Indonesia; a statistic that prompted the authorities in Bali to announce measures to outlaw plastic bags, plastic straws and styrofoam. A ban in Bali’s capital city, Denpasar, is already in force, while vendors across the island have until the beginning of July to comply.

“Much of the marine plastic litter in Indonesia originates from land-based sources,” said Thomas Wright, a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland, whose research focuses on plastic waste in Indonesia.

“If a household does not have access to a recycling plant or waste collection services, household waste – including plastic – is discarded in a river or burned.”

Throwing the plastic away is a problem because it kills marine life, clogs waterways and leaks poisonous substances, Wright said, noting the additional risk raised by microplastics, which “attract and store toxins, making some plastic litter potentially carcinogenic”.

Many supermarkets, restaurants and shops in Bali – home to more than four million people and Indonesia’s main tourism hub attracting millions of foreign visitors annually – are already implementing the ban.

Cashiers at Bintang Supermarket in Seminyak told Al Jazeera they stopped giving out plastic bags to customers on January 1, although small bags would still be available until the stock ran out. “Many customers complain because they are not prepared with their own reusable bag,” one cashier said, laughing.

Up the road at Ultimo, one of the upmarket resort’s most popular restaurants, manager Arsinka Gede said they had also banned single-use plastics. “We’ve been using paper straws since the start of 2019,” Gede said. “It’s important for us because Bali is a tourist spot known for being beautiful. If Bali is not clean, not beautiful, the tourists just won’t come.”

Rubbish-filled plastic bags discarded on a street in Bali. Indonesia’s most popular resort island is banning the use of single-use plastics. [Kate Walton/Al Jazeera]

Giant dump

Wright points out that although the government-led ban is an important step and will certainly have a significant effect on the amount of plastic waste produced on the island, there is an urgent need to implement sustainable rubbish collection services and management facilities.

The rubbish from southern Bali’s beaches and waterways ends up at the Suwung Waste Processing Plant, a 32-hectare landfill near Sanur, another tourist area on the eastern coast where trash pickers sift through the stinking mountain of waste accompanied by birds, wild cows and pigs.

The local government is planning to develop a 10-hectare waste-to-energy generator at the site by 2021 and convert the remainder of the space into an ecopark.

“[Reducing plastic in Bali] is not so much a technical challenge, but a social challenge of adoption, dedication and changing habits,” Wright said. “Plastic litter is a massive challenge and it will take years of dedicated effort to address it. Seeing the change that has taken place in Indonesia just in the last two years is amazing, and I am positive that if these efforts persist and develop a new norm, Indonesia can become a role model for positive change.”

When asked if they supported the plastic ban, the truck driver and his colleagues were enthusiastic. “Yes, we support the ban,” he said, explaining it was good for the environment.

Aren’t they worried about their jobs?

“No,” he laughs, shaking his head. “We aren’t worried. There will always be lots of rubbish.”