BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia is likely to visit India sometimes in mid March to join World Cultural Festival in New Delhi, according to party sources. The World Forum Ethics in Business and The Art of Living Foundation will jointly organise…
Category: Int’l relations
Pakistan HC employee released
Police released an official of the Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka keeping his colleague as guarantor, hours after his detention at Gulshan police station on Monday.The Pakistan High Commission issued a press statement stating that a team of four to…
Trump dealt blow by Cruz in Iowa vote
Texas Senator Ted Cruz has won the Iowa Republican caucuses, in the first vote of the US presidential campaign.”Tonight is a victory for courageous conservatives,” he declared, to great applause, as he railed against Washington, lobbyists and the media.He took…
Dhaka-Delhi happy over implementation of joint declaration
Bangladesh and India have expressed satisfaction over the progress of implementation of Joint Declaration issued by the Prime Ministers of Bangladesh and Indi in June last year.The expression came when Foreign Secretary Md. Shahidul Haque met with his Indian counterpart…
Suu Kyi forms Myanmar ruling party after long struggle
Hundreds of lawmakers from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy were sworn into Myanmar’s parliament on Monday, with enough seats to choose the country’s first democratically elected government since the military took power in 1962. The NLD won…
Missing Bangladesh High Commission official in Pak back
Dhaka – Personal officer of Press Counsellor Iqbal Hossain at Bangladesh High Commission in Islamabad Jahangir Hossain who went missing on Monday evening returned home ‘unhurt’ after nearly seven hours. Confirming his return, an official said Jahangir returned home around…
Drone warfare in South Asia and beyond
Conference on “The Expanding Meaning of Drone Warfare in Southasia and Beyond”, 16-17 April, 2016, Kathmandu The Hri Institute and Himal Southasian have been deeply concerned about the new method of warfare that has emerged in Southasia over the past…
DB detains, releases Pak HC staff for ‘suspicious movement’
Amid diplomatic row between Bangladesh and Pakistan, detectives here on Monday detained an official of Pakistan High Commission for his ‘suspicious movement’.
Islamic State bombings kills 71
Bombings claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group killed 71 people and wounded dozens more on Sunday near a revered Shiite shrine outside the Syrian capital Damascus, a monitor said.The blasts, which came as the UN’s Syria envoy struggled to…
Iowa Democratic caucus
Hillary Clinton’s quest for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 was supposed to be a coronation, not a conflagration.Now, however, the former secretary of state finds herself in Iowa just days before the first-in-the nation caucuses, trying to extinguish an…
As Myanmar enters a new era, Washington and Beijing vie for influence
By Nile Bowie Myanmar is a country rapidly moving toward uncharted political terrain. By March 2016, the National League for Democracy (NLD) will take power for the first time in history, bringing an end to five decades of rule by…
Boko Haram attack: Children burnt alive among 86 killed in Nigeria
At least 86 people, including children, killed in a series of attacks on a village in northern Nigeria. At least 86 people, including a number children, have been killed in a series of attacks on a village in north-eastern Nigeria,…
The Suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula: Caste instigated political murder
By Samar “I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan. At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write.” Rohith Vemula, a young Dalit research scholar and student activist of the…
Syria opposition threatens to walk out of Geneva talks
Syria’s main opposition bloc has threatened to pull out of United Nations-sponsored peace talks in Geneva if what it called the “crimes” of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government persisted.Representatives of the Saudi Arabia-based group, known as the High Negotiations Committee…
Turkey summons Russian ambassador
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador in Ankara to protest and condemn what it called a violation of airspace by a Russian warplane.The Foreign Ministry said the Russian SU-34 fighter was warned by Turkish air radar units, in both…
France to recognise Palestine if talks fail
France intends to make another push at trying to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has warned that if its efforts failed, it would recognise a Palestinian State.”France will engage in the coming weeks in the preparation of an international conference…
Russian fighter came within 15 feet of U.S. Air Force jet
A Russian fighter jet came within 15 feet of a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane over the Black Sea this week in what the Pentagon is calling an “unsafe” incident, U.S. officials say.”On January 25, 2016, a U.S. RC-135U flying…
Malaysia 1MDB scandal: About $4bn missing
About $4bn (£2.8bn) may have been stolen from a fund owned by the Malaysian state, a prosecutor says.The 1MDB fund was set up in 2009 to pay for major new economic and social developments in Malaysia.Last year, Swiss authorities opened…
Hillary Clinton emails declared ‘top secret’
Hillary Clinton’s unsecured home server contained more than a dozen emails deemed “top secret”- one of the highest levels of classification in the US government, the White House has said. State Department spokesman John Kirby said the documents were not…
US Senate committee passes sanctions against N Korea
Bill, should it pass full senate and conference committee, would be strongest against North so far The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved legislation on Thursday that would tighten sanctions on North Korea.
Republican debate: Absent Trump mocked by rivals
Republican hopefuls poke fun at Trump after his refusal to show up in the final debate before voting begins in Iowa. US Republican presidential candidates strained to take advantage of Donald Trump’s absence in Thursday’s presidential debate, mocking the frontrunner…
Syria’s main opposition group ‘to join talks in Geneva’
The main Syrian opposition body has agreed to attend talks which have begun in Geneva, sources told Al Jazeera. UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura said on Friday that he believed he would be able to meet the…
Dhaka for joint river basin management
Dhaka – Terming water-sharing issue between Bangladesh and India, a “sensitive”, Bangladesh has said it is in favour of setting up of a joint basin management system for common rivers. Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Syed Muazzem Ali said this…
SA speakers summit begins tomorrow
A two-day South Asian Speakers’ Summit on achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) begins in the city on Saturday.The Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU), Bangladesh Parliament and Washington-based organisation Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK) are jointly arranging the summit at Pan Pacific…
Donald Trump Proves He Can Dominate the Republican Debate
There was a massive Donald Trump-shaped hole on the Republican debate stage in Des Moines last night, much to the dismay of viewers who eagerly hoped that the Republican frontrunner would show up despite announcing earlier this week that he…
Japan military on alert for N Korean missile test
Japan has put its military on alert for a possible North Korean ballistic missile launch after indications it is preparing for a test firing, two people with direct knowledge of the order told Reuters on Friday.”Increased activity at North Korea’s…
Dispossessed in the name of ‘security’
Robert J. Burrowes A new book, edited by Nick Buxton and Ben Hayes, both involved with The Transnational Institute, brings together a thoughtful collection of scholars, journalists and activists to explain the pre-eminence of the military and corporations in shaping…
Is Burma’s long peace process coming to a halt?
By C. S. Kuppuswamy “Without a lasting peace with ethnic minority groups, who make up around 40 percent of the population, any future administration will have difficulty ensuring a nationwide buy-in for its reform agenda and providing the political stability…
Sweden to expel up to 80,000 refugees
Sweden intends to expel as many as 80,000 refugees and migrants who arrived in 2015 and whose applications for asylum have been rejected.”We are talking about 60,000 people, but the number could climb to 80,000,” Interior Minister Anders Ygeman was…
Israeli vulture detained in Lebanon
Imagine Jason Bourne — but with feathers, claws and two-meter wingspan.A vulture that flew into Lebanon from an Israeli nature reserve has been captured on suspicion of spying, according to local media reports.Gamla Nature Reserve tracked the bird to near…