The 76th birth anniversary of eminent journalist Syed Mahmud is being celebrated today. Born on 1 May in a respectable Muslim Family in Jessore, he joined the profession of journalism in 1956 as the Jessore Staff Correspondent of the Daily…
Category: Society
Jail for eaters of endangered wild animals in China
People caught eating rare wild animals in China could be jailed for up to 10 years, state media report, under new measures passed on Thursday.
Iranian mother praised for ultimate act of mercy
Elham Asaad Buaras An Iranian mother has received world-wide praise for her “powerful act of forgiveness” after she spared her son’s killer during what was supposed to have been his public execution. Compelling photos show the act of mercy came…
Japan economy still feels the downslide of Fukushima
By Emre Tunç Sakaoğlu Japan’s trade deficit has quadrupled reaching a year-on-year level of ¥13.75 trillion ($134 billion) since the beginning of the previous financial year which ended on 31 March 2013.
India’s social media election battle
Ahead of the general elections, political parties in India are attempting to woo voters on social media for the first time.
Campaign against forced marriage
British High Commission in Bangladesh organised a children painting competition in Sylhet on Saturday to raise awareness of “forced marriage”. The UK recognises forced marriage as a form of violence against women and men, domestic and child abuse, and a…
Peace talks in India’s Northeast: The Bodo knot
By Rani P Das The Government of India’s approach to the prolonged insurgency and agitations in Assam’s Bodo heartland seems to have complicated the Bodo issue further. In the nearly three decades since the Bodoland movement began in 1987 under…
A valuable library in remote Jhenidah village
Shahneawz Khan Sumon Tutul is a household name in the village of Kaluihuda under Moheshpur upazila in Jhenidah district. Tutul established a library names as “Matrri Vasha Public Library” in the village for spreading education and inspiring local people with…
Medecines Sans Frontieres’ shock at Myanmar suspension
The aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres has expressed its shock at the order to cease operations in Myanmar. It said it was deeply concerned about the tens of thousands of people it was treating, particularly for HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB.…
Shaheed Milion’s mother urges AL, BNP to dump Ershad
Selina Akhter, mother of Shaheed Dr Milon, on Friday urged both the ruling and the opposition parties to end the politics of violence and dump ‘fallen autocrat’ HM Ershad.
Surviving climate change: Towards a climate revolution
A week after the most powerful “super typhoon” ever recorded pummeled the Philippines, killing thousands in a single province, and three weeks after the northern Chinese city of Harbin suffered a devastating “airpocalypse,” suffocating the city with coal-plant pollution, government…
Elections in South Asia: Prospects for stability?
By EU-Asia Centre The Maldives have elected Abdulla Yameen of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) as president. He won the run-off vote on 16 November with 51.3% while ex-president Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldivan Democratic Party (MDP) received 48.6%…
Why Israel wanted Arafat dead
By Jonathan Cook It seems there are still plenty of parties who would prefer that Arafat’s death continues to be treated as a mystery rather than as an assassination.
What’s more important: Security or freedom?
By Dave Lindorff So National Security Agency Director Keith B. Alexander, who, along with his boss, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., thinks that “if you can collect it, you should collect it,” now is asking whether it…
NSA chief should be fired for Snowden access: McCain
Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) says Gen. Keith Alexander, the head of the United States National Security Agency, should be fired or forced to resign for letting contractor Edward Snowden have access to the information he ultimately leaked.
Protecting right to privacy in age of mass surveillance
By David Mepham, UK director of Human Rights Watch In many places around the world, Human Rights Watch exposes abuses of state power and the absence of effective accountability over the agencies of the state – both factors highly relevant…
Nigerian wedding party in Borno State massacred by gunmen
Gunmen in north-eastern Nigeria have killed more than 30 people in a attack on a wedding convoy.
Indigenous communication gains strength
By Orsetta Bellani In Latacunga, capital of Ecuador’s Cotopaxi province, the antenna for Tv MICC stands beside the one for state television. It’s a symbolic victory for the country’s first Kichwa-language television station, which started operating in 2009 following an…
Burma and social media: Good, bad and the ugly
By Democratic Voice of Burma With internet access rapidly expanding in Burma and the price on SIM-cards and smartphones falling, more and more people are using social media.
‘Redefine poverty indicator to include life of unborn child’
The World Bank must define life expectancy, its key poverty indicator, as starting at the time of conception and not at the time of birth if millions of lives are to be saved from injury or death.
Rahul advocates a new kind of change
By Pradeep Bhargava Talking to large rallies of people with scores of everyday problems, pains and sorrows — to a farmer, a laborer, an unemployed youth with so many dreams — is no easy work. It is all the more…
Palestine is being disappeared
By Jonathan Cook Two recent images encapsulate the message behind the dry statistics of last week’s report by the World Bank on the state of the Palestinian economy.
Burma minister slams govt response to Sandoway violence
By Myo Zaw Linn A local government minister has blasted Burma’s “weak” response to the recent Muslim-Buddhist clashes in Arakan’s Sandoway township, which claimed seven lives.
India’s caste campaigners win EU backing
Campaigners from south Asia have welcomed an EU resolution passed on Thursday against caste-based discrimination, which they hope will help to push the issue on to the agenda at trade talks between the EU and countries like Nepal, India and…
Post-intervention Libya: A militia state
By Richard Falk Two apparently related and revealing incidents have turned public attention briefly back to Libya just after the second anniversary of the NATO intervention that helped anti-Qaddafi rebel forces overthrow his regime.
Burma concerns raised in UK House of Commons
By Jack Goodman British MP Valerie Vaz addressed the House of Commons last week to discuss the findings of an eight-day cross-party delegation to Burma in August. She met afterwards with DVB’s Jack Goodman to discuss the delegation, British foreign…
Giap, Wallace, and never-ending battle for freedom
By Ramzy Baroud
Building climate resilience for Nepal’s vulnerable populations
Nepal ranks as the fourth most climate-vulnerable country in the world and is highly exposed to a range of water related hazards such as floods, droughts and landslides. Current projections predict increased climate variability and increased frequency and higher intensity…
Thousands march in US for immigration reform
Thousands of people poured into streets across the United States on Saturday in a push to overhaul immigration and end the legal limbo of more than 11 million undocumented immigrants.
More detained as violence in Rakhine blamed on ‘outsiders’
Authorities in Myanmar said Friday that they have detained 10 more suspects in connection with this week’s deadly anti-Muslim violence in western Rakhine state during a visit by President Thein Sein, who has questioned the motive behind the attacks instigated…