Inaugurating an aesthetic 80-km marine driveway here, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday said it will unlock the potentials of the region enabling people to uplift their socioeconomic status and enjoy the natural beauty. “People will have the opportunity to…
As the refugee crisis enters its fourth year, the demographics of the men, women and children arriving on Europe’s shores are undergoing an unprecedented shift, reports the Independent. Syrians have so far made up the largest group of migrants attempting…
The judiciary and the news media are both vital institutions in a functioning democracy and must support each other to advance the cause of justice and human rights, eminent jurist Dr. Kamal Hossain said in a keynote speech at a…
Laxmi Padhi, 75, has spent her entire life by the banks of Mahanadi. The mother of all rivers in Odisha passes by her village Badhila in Sonepur district and she is not happy with what her experienced eyes have observed…
The “Süddeutsche Zeitung” daily, along with public broadcasters NDR and WDR, reported on Thursday that Swiss intelligence agency NDB planted an as-yet-unidentified spy in the financial administration of Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). The information emerged during an…
India’s top court has upheld death sentences of four men who were convicted in the fatal gang-rape and torture of a 23-year-old medical student on a moving bus in the Indian capital nearly five years ago. The four had challenged…
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday expressed her belief that any cooperation in space exploration will definitely take the South Asian countries to the ambitious technological enhancement for the benefit of the region. “I’m sure that any cooperation in space…
The 2,230-kg communication spacecraft carries 12 Ku-band transponders that can drive telecommunication, disaster management, broadcasting and direct to home TV, Internet activities, tele-education and telemedicine across the region. South Asia Communication Satellite GSAT-9 was put into space by GSLV F09…
A comparison of the positions of the two remaining candidates for France’s presidency shows that they take significantly different positions on human rights at home and abroad, Human Rights Watch said today “Looking closely at the positions and statements of…
An Indonesian police raid targeting gay men in Surabaya, Indonesia, on April 30, 2017, threatens the rights of the country’s already beleaguered lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, Human Rights Watch said today. The police ordered 14 men to…
The American Health Care Act, if enacted, would be a devastating setback for access to health care for those who can least afford it. The attacks on Medicaid alone – cuts in funding, turning it over to the states, and…
A Czech Scout has been praised after she confronted a neo-Nazi at a rally in Brno. A widely shared photograph shows 16-year-old Lucie Myslíková standing up to a rightwing demonstrator as he gestures angrily. Lucie was one of a number…
A giant coal-fired power plant approved by Bangladesh could drastically worsen air pollution for millions and cause the early deaths of 6,000 people over its lifetime, Greenpeace said Friday. Bangladesh is constructing the 1,320-megawatt power plant on the edge of…
There are two enormous myths about global warming. One is that dealing with it is optional. The other is that the measures needed to slow the process will devastate the economy. Neither is true. On the first point, we are…
State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam on Thursday urged the experienced journalists of the mainstream traditional media to help ensure smooth transformation into digital media where the future of journalism lies. “Many mainstream media outlets (print) have failed…
LGRD and Co-operatives Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain on Thursday told Parliament that 99 percent of the country’s total population is now under basic sanitation coverage. The Department of Public Health and Engineering (DPHE) is working relentlessly to ensure cent percent…
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed on Wednesday to support the formation of “de-escalation zones” in Syria, saying both Russia and Turkey wanted to bolster the fragile truce in the war-ravaged country. The meeting between the former foes,…
United Nations member countries should denounce the Philippines’ brutal “war on drugs” that has killed more than 7,000 people since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in June 2016, Human Rights Watch said today. The Philippines will appear for the third…
Reaffirming her commitment to ensure accommodation and jobs for the poor and the homeless, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said she does not want anyone to remain homeless after Bangabandhu’s birth centenary. “Our aim is to ensure home for…
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday dismissed BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s statement over the instruments signed during her recent India tour as totally untrue, whimsical and thoughtless, saying it is an ill-motivated attempt to mislead people. “None of the agreements/memoranda…
Law Minister Anisul Huq on Wednesday said the concern and confusion over section 57 of the ICT Act will be removed in the proposed Digital Security Act. He came up with the remarks while talking to reporters after a meeting…
For decades if not longer, repressive leaders around the world have defended restrictions on freedom of the press by citing examples of Western governments failing to live by their own professed standards. So when, in late-2016, Canadian photojournalist Ed Ou…
Police have pressed charges against 38 people, including Shahjadpur municipality mayor Halimul Haque Miru and his brother Habibul Haque Mintu, in the journalist Abdul Hakim Shimul murder case. Officer-in-charge (Investigation) of Shahjadpur Police Station Monirul Islam, also the investigation officer…
In a major reshuffle in the administration, the government has appointed new deputy commissioners (DCs) to 24 districts. The Public Administration Ministry issued a notification on Tuesday in this regard. Of them, six DCs were transferred and given new postings…
All available evidence strongly suggests that on April 4, 2017, a Syrian government warplane attacked Khan Sheikhoun, a town in the northwestern governorate of Idlib, with a nerve agent, killing at least 92 people, 30 of them children. The death…
Isai Lara Bermudez had just started lunch at a Tijuana barbecue joint when a stranger approached his table. “Watch out,” she warned him. “He’s after you.” Lara, an investigative reporter, had written a series of stories in February showing evidence…
“As we peer into society’s future, we—you and I, and our government—must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of…
Indian police officials say two Muslim men have been beaten to death by a mob in the northeastern state of Assam over allegations of cow theft, the latest in a series of similar attacks across the country. Senior Assam police…
Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Kazi Reazul Hoque on Monday said the police and public representatives cannot shirk the responsibility over the alleged suicide of a man along with his minor girl for failing to get justice.…