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…
Tag: Society
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…
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…
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…
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…
Shoe thrown at Rohani upon return to Iran
By Al Bawaba News
Suu Kyi says polls ‘cannot be fair’ sans revised constitution
Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi marked her party’s founding anniversary Friday with a fresh call to reform the country’s constitution, warning that the general elections in 2015 “cannot be fair” without changes to the army-written charter.
Tatmadaw is the biggest dacoit of Burma
By Kanbawza Win
The politics of India’s communal violence
By Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay
Vodka and whisky conquer Brazilian spirits market
Vodka and whisk(e)y are slowly conquering the hearts of Brazilian drinkers, leading them away from traditional spirits cachaça and brandy, and the trend looks set to continue.
‘Arab Spring’ degrades into sectarian counterrevolution
By Nicola Nasser
Russia-US deal puts Syrian rebels back to “minus one”
By Ravi Joshi
When the water runs dry, the ideas flow
By John James
Saudi Arabia top Middle East billionaire list
Saudi Arabia tops the list of Middle East’s billionaires, with 64 highly wealthy individuals possessing $204 billion in 2013, the Wealth-X and UBS World Ultra Wealth Report said.