New Delhi, India - In the first week of the new year, police in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand registered a criminal complaint against more than 3,000 people protesting against a new citizenship law, accusing them of "sedition" among other charges.

India has seen nationwide protests since mid-December following the passage of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that activists and opposition politicians have described as divisive, discriminatory and against the country's secular constitution. The new law is being challenged in the Supreme Court.

Iraqis have congregated in the capital's Tahrir Square for weeks demanding an overhaul of the political system in the biggest wave of mass protests since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The death toll came as Iraq's military spokesman said security forces were ordered not to use live fire on demonstrators.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A radical Pakistani cleric, who galvanized tens of thousands of followers to march on Islamabad, met Monday with opposition politicians and agreed to continue their sit-in even after a deadline he imposed for the prime minister to resign passed without Imran Khan stepping down.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s followers, many of them students of his religious schools, started out last week from the southern port city of Karachi, marching to Islamabad where they have since camped out on the city’s outskirts for three days.

Mumbai, India - Several activists and lawyers, who were targeted with surveillance in India, have accused the government of spying on them.

On Thursday, WhatsApp said Indian journalists and human rights activists were among the 1,400 users globally whose phones were hacked using the spyware, Pegasus.