By Baher Kamal ROME, May 9 2017 (IPS) – Hundreds of migrants along North African migration routes are being bought and sold openly in modern day ‘slave markets’ in Libya, survivors have told the United Nations migration agency, which warned…
Category: Environment
Dhaka for cooperation with Stockholm for energy, urban dev
Dhaka, May 10 – State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid, now on a three-day visit to Sweden, will hold a series of discussions there focusing on energy and sustainable urban development. He is leading a delegation…
Climate envoys meet in Bonn, but all eyes on Washington
Climate negotiators return for talks in Bonn Tuesday under the cloud of Donald Trump’s threats to pull America from the hard-fought Paris Agreement, as the president prepares to hold a special meeting to discuss US participation. After months of uncertainty,…
Paris deal shouldn’t be renegotiated – developing nations
Bonn, 9 May (T Ajit) -As climate change talks under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) convened in Bonn on 8 May, developing countries conveyed unequivocally that the Paris Agreement (PA) must not be renegotiated, nor its…
‘Higher tobacco tax, increases revenue saves lives’
Dhaka – A pre-budget press conference on ‘Which Type of Tobacco Tax Demanded’ was held at the conference lounge of National Press Club on Monday. The programme held at the initiative of PROGGA and Anti Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA) was…
In a divided France, challenges await President-elect Macron
Paris – It will be a short honeymoon for French President-elect Emmanuel Macron. France’s youngest president faces the daunting task of reuniting a troubled and divided nation riven by anxieties about terrorism and chronic unemployment and ravaged by a bitter…
Manipur villages oppose oil explorations
Newmai News Network Imphal, May 5 – Concerned by the efforts of the government to drill oil in some hill districts of Manipur, some serious consultations were carried by villagers in association with some organizations on May 2 and 3…
7-day drive to ensure jute packaging from May 15
Dhaka – The government will conduct a weeklong special drive across the country from May 15, aiming to ensure the use of jute bags in packaging of 17 products and stop use of polythene bags. UNB news agency reported
France bans captive breeding of dolphins, killer whales
France on Saturday banned the breeding in captivity of dolphins and killer whales under tighter rules that campaigners hope will eventually herald the end of shows involving the animals. Environment Minister Segolene Royal had on Wednesday signed a version of…
Bangladesh now single biggest source of refugees on boats
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…
Tussle between Odisha and Chatrtisgarth over Mahanandi river
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…
Rampal plant to become ‘poisonous gas chamber’, says BNP
Khulna – BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Saturday alleged that the government is setting up a ‘poisonous gas chamber’ by implementing the Rampal power plant near the Sundarbans just to appease India. UNB news agency reported
Coal plant could cause 6000 early deaths in BD
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…
Refugee journalists, the challenge of reporting from exile
By Elena L. Pasquini Rome, May 4 (IPS) – Abdulwahab Tahhan is a journalist and a refugee. From his exile in London, he documents the war that is devastating his homeland of Syria, monitoring airstrikes and assessing civilian casualties for…
Flying green in Bangladesh
By Sohara Mehroze Shachi Dhaka, May 4 (IPS) – New technology could be the answer to reducing negative climate impacts of aviation – one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gases. And a recent quantitative research at North South University…
Fight against corruption to defend the Amazon
By Milagros Salazar Tarapoto, Peru, May 3 (IPS) – Corruption has penetrated the Amazon rainforest like an illness that infects everything, said Ruben Siqueira, coordinator of the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), during the VIII Panamazonic Social Forum (FOSPA), which brought…
Dhaka’s rice outpur shortfall 1.5m tonnes due to flash floods
Dhaka – The government is apprehending at least 15 lakh tonnes of rice production shortfall due to damage of Boro crops caused by floods in haor region other areas of the country this year. Meanwhile, the government has included 50,000…
5,000 illegal gas lines cut off in city
Dhaka – A mobile court on Thursday disconnected around 5,000 illegal household and organisation gas connections at Basila of Mohammadpur in the city. UNB news agency reported
99 percent senitation coverage achieved: Dhaka
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…
Morocco fights to save its iconic monkey
“If nothing is done, this species will disappear within 10 years,” warns a poster on Ahmed Harrad’s ageing 4×4 showing Morocco’s famed Barbary macaque monkey. Harrad spends his time crisscrossing northern Morocco to try to convince locals to protect the…
We can’t delay action onenvironment and public health
“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…
BD students willing to study in India must face JEE
Dhaka – Indian High Commission on Tuesday said Bangladeshi students, willing to study in India, are now required to directly appear for the (JEE-advanced) 2017 to be conducted for the first time here on May 21. UNB news agency reported
Food support to Bangladesh’s flash-flood-hit people urgent
Dhaka – Speakers at a view exchange meeting on Sunday emphasised the need for taking coordinated efforts to ensure reaching of food and assistance to all the flood affected people in haor (depression) area until the next harvest. Speaking at…
Cities brace for climate challenges
Faced with exploding populations and steadily rising temperatures worldwide, cities must make haste in reinforcing defences against climate change-induced flooding and heat waves, experts warned this week. City temperatures are forecast to shoot up in the coming years, exposing inhabitants…
Why Muslims are marching for climate
By Nana Firman (CNN) — From the cropless farmer to the beleaguered first responder to the person forced to evacuate their flooded home, we all have our reasons for caring about climate change. As an Indonesian-born Muslim living in California,…
BNP accuses Govt of maltreating flood-hit haor people
Dhaka – BNP vice-chairman Shamsuzzaman Dudu on Saturday accused the government of maltreating with the flood-hit people of haor areas. Addressing a human chain on Saturday he said that troubles and miseries of the haor areas relected the failure of…
Vinegar offers hope in Barrier Reef starfish battle
Coral-munching crown-of-thorns starfish can be safely killed by common household vinegar, scientists revealed Thursday in a discovery that offers hope for Australia’s struggling Great Barrier Reef. The predatory starfish is naturally-occurring but has proliferated due to pollution and run-off at…
12 teenagers return from Indian after serving jail term
Jessore – Twelve teenage Bangladeshi girls and a child returned home from India through Benapole Check post here on Friday evening after languishing in jail there for different terms. UNB news agency reported
Bangladesh-India to promote Sundarbans tourism together
AKM Moinuddin, UNB Staff Writer Dhaka, Apr 29 – Bangladesh wants to promote the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove and a Unesco world heritage site, working together with India and promote cross-border tourism keeping the environment unhurt. An official at…