Even after the fours years, the families of many of the Rana Plaza victims who were killed during the tragedy are yet to get any compensation from the authorities concerned due to identification crisis. The families of some 150 people,…
Category: Human rights
Middle East, engulfed by a ‘perfect storm’
By Baher Kamal Rome, Apr 21 (IPS) – A perfect storm has engulfed the Middle East, and continues to threaten international peace and security. Hardly anyone could sum up the Middle East explosive situation in so few, blunt words as…
AL GS Quader says, BNP won’t repeat boycott of election
Dhaka – The Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader Thursday said their arch rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) would not repeat its mistake by boycotting the next polls scheduled to be held in 2019.
Brands must reveal where their clothes are made
More apparel and footwear companies should join 17 leading apparel brands that have aligned with an important new transparency pledge, a coalition of unions and human rights and labor rights advocates said in a joint report issued today. The pledge…
Is there a future for social democracy in Europe?
by Sebastían Royo The response to the Great Recession from European social democratic/centre-left parties, with some notable exceptions like Portugal’s, was largely to implement the austerity policies of the right: they bailed out the banks and the bondholders, and they…
Org to help those serving long jail terms sans trial urged
Dhaka – Supreme Court Legal Aid Committee Chairman High Court Division Justice M Enayetur Rahim yesterday said that a specific law is needed to rehabilitate those people who were released from jail after long terms incarceration without any trial.
US attack on Syria mosque likely unlawful
United States forces appear to have failed to take necessary precautions to avoid civilian casualties in a March 16, 2017 strike that killed at least 38 people in western Aleppo in Syria, Human Rights Watch said in a report released…
90m smart ID cards distribution in Bangladesh by Dec
The Election Commission has taken additional measures to complete the distribution of 90 million smart national identity (NID) cards among voters across the country within the stipulated time of December next. Director General of NID Registration Wing of the Election…
Turkey’s ‘yes’ vote gives enormous power to president
With 51.3 percent of the vote, the “Yes” vote campaign has won Turkey’s historic April 16 referendum on a new political system giving enormous centralized power to the president. The campaign took place in a climate of unprecedented political repression.…
Suspected criminal killed in Dhaka ‘gunfight’
Dhaka, Apr 17 – A suspected criminal was killed in a reported gunfight with detectives in the city’s Mirpur area early Monday.
Enforced disappearances: BNP says AL to face trial one day
BNP senior leader Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury on Sunday warned that Awami League will have to face a trial of international standard someday for making around 500 BNP leaders and activists, including Ilias Ali, disappeared. “Our about 500 leaders and…
Trump signs law taking air at planned parenthood funding
President Trump signed legislation on Thursday aimed at cutting off federal funding to Planned Parenthood and other groups that perform abortions, a move cheered by conservatives who have clamored to impose curbs on reproductive rights. The measure nullifies a rule…
Reflections on World Health Day
By Martin Khor Penang, Apr 13 (IPS) – What’s the most precious thing in the world which unfortunately we take for granted and realise it true value when it is impaired? Good health, of course. That’s something many people must…
Survivors of sex abuse say UN neglected them
By Tharanga Yakupitiyage UN, Apr 14 (IPS) – Several survivors who were sexually abused by peacekeeping forces in the Central African Republic (CAR) continue to be neglected by the UN, an investigative team has found. Three years after cases of…
Incendiary weapons burn again in Syria
Recent attacks on Saraqeb caught on video Mary Wareham Videos and photographs taken last weekend in the city of Saraqeb, in northwestern Syria, show the unmistakably bright trails produced by incendiary weapons. The ZAB incendiary submunitions used in the attacks…
EU calls for moratorium on executions
Dhaka – The European Union in a statement on Thursday reitrerated its opposition to capital punishment which, it said, is not a deterrent against crime and renders miscarriages of justice irreversible.
Wrong time Tillerson freezes out Russia’s independent groups
Rex Tillerson’s first visit to Russia as secretary of state was understandably dominated by the fallout from the April 7 US air strike on a Syrian air base. While he met with President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and…
Britain’s deadliest bed: Hundreds sleep in wheelie bins
Refuse operators live in fear of accidentally killing a rough sleeper The UK homeless crisis means that refuse collectors are now living with the fear that they could accidentally kill a person sleeping in a commercial wheeled bin as they…
Malala Yousafzai becomes UN’s youngest messenger of peace
By Tharanga Yakupitiyage UN, Apr 10 (IPS) – Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai has become the youngest UN Messenger of Peace with a special focus on girls’ education. During a designation ceremony, UN Secretary-General António Guterres selected and honoured Yousafzai…
Passenger dragged off overbooked United flight
A man’s refusal to give up his seat on an overbooked United Airlines flight led to a disturbing scene Sunday that has travelers up in arms over airline policies.
Poland, new player in Islamophobia game
By Claudia Ciobanu Warsaw, Apr 8 (IPS) – Ameer Alkhawlany moved to Poland in September 2014 to pursue a Master’s in biology at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland’s second largest city. Two years later, the Polish state awarded him…
HRW asks Indonesia to release 2 gay men facing torture
Indonesian authorities should immediately and unconditionally release two men detained in Aceh province under a local ordinance that criminalizes homosexuality, Human Rights Watch said today. On the night of March 28, 2017, unidentified vigilantes forcibly entered a home and brought…
The Statue of Liberty was originally a Muslim woman
By Erin Blakemore The United States has debated immigration since the country’s founding, and the Statue of Liberty—a potent symbol for immigrants—is often invoked as an argument for why we should usher in those who seek safety and opportunity with…
‘2001 national polls had conspiratorial outcome’
Dhaka, Apr 6 – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday said the 2001 national election had a result of a huge conspiracy against her party and she was a witness to it. “I was the direct witness to that incident…
The Most Feared Newspaper in France Is Full of Fiction, Scandal, and Puns
Political discourse around the world tends to be driven by sober media stalwarts like the Washington Post, the Times of London, or Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. In France, the star of the show is an eight-page weekly that features excruciating…
Homosexuals fleering Chechnya
A Russian LGBT activist group says it has received more than 10 appeals for help from homosexuals in Chechnya seeking to flee the southern Russian republic, where local authorities are accused of targeting homosexuals in an “unprecedented” campaign of persecution.…
Syria ‘chemical attack’: Trump condemns ‘affront to humanity’
US President Donald Trump has condemned the killing of dozens of civilians in northern Syria in an apparent chemical weapons attack by Syria’s air force. It was an “affront to humanity”, he said, adding: “When you kill innocent children, innocent…
Bangladesh improves in Human Development Index
Bangladesh has gained three spots on the Global Human Development Index (HDI) 2015 ranking, placing 139th out of 188 countries, according to the Human Development Report (HDR) 2016. HDR 2016 was officially launched at the Planning Commission in Dhaka on…
Worst Chemical Attack in Years in Syria; U.S. Blames Assad
One of the worst chemical bombings in Syria turned a northern rebel-held area into a toxic kill zone on Tuesday, inciting international outrage over the ever-increasing government impunity shown in the country’s six-year war. Western leaders including President Trump blamed…
No decision yet over blocking Facebook, says telecom div secy
The government has neither taken any decision nor given any directive to block social networking site Facebook after midnight, said Posts and Telecommunications Division secretary Shyam Sunder Sikder. “It won’t be wise to block Facebook now as it’s not only…