Foreign Media - NsNewsWire

Bangladesh opposition head under ‘virtual house arrest’

Dhaka (AFP) – Bangladesh’s main opposition party said Thursday its leader Khaleda Zia was being kept under virtual house arrest after she called for a mass march aimed at scuppering a January 5 election. “Since yesterday she has been under virtual house arrest,” Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) vice-president Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury told AFP. “The police […]

International Troops Prepare as South Sudan Violence Worsens

The U.S. and the United Nations are preparing to make more peacekeeping troops available for the growing conflict in South Sudan, as President Salva Kiir opened the door to talks with his deposed vice president. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asked the Security Council to add 5,500 soldiers to the peacekeeping mission of 7,000 already […]

Officials sent to learn more about Taiwanese held in Bangladesh

Taipei, Dec. 24 (CNA) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent officials to look into the arrest of Taiwanese nationals in Bangladesh accused of violating the southeast Asian country’s telecommunications regulations by using Internet telephony equipment, the ministry said Tuesday. “Earlier today, our representative office in India sent officials to Bangladesh to look deeper into […]

Kalashnikov assault rifle designer is dead at 94

DHAKA, Dec. 24 (NsNewsWire) — Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the assault rifle that has killed more people than any other firearm in the world, died on Monday aged 94, Russian officials said. Kalashnikov, who was in his 20s when he created the AK-47 just after World War Two, died in his home city of […]

Indian diplomat treated housekeeper ‘like a slave’

In India, Devyani Khobragade advocated for women’s rights. But in New York, she was a slave driver, says the family of Khobragade’s housekeeper. Consular official Khobragade worked domestic servant Sangeeta Richard from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day, “tantamount to keeping a person in slavery-like conditions or keeping a person in bondage,” Richard’s husband, Philip, said […]

Pakistan-Bangladesh relationship strained

Dhaka, Bangladesh – Ties between Pakistan and Bangladesh have been strained over the past week after Pakistan passed a national assembly (NA) resolution protesting Thursday’s execution of Jamaat-e-Islami’s former Assistant Secretary General Abdual Quader Mollah. Mollah was convicted by a Dhaka Court for committing crimes against humanity during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971. […]

Protesters swarm in Thai capital to demand PM resigns

Tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators massed at sites around Thailand’s capital on Sunday in a bid to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra before an uncertain February election the main opposition party will boycott. Yingluck has called a snap poll for February 2 to try to cool tension and renew her mandate, but protesters reject […]

India says US ties ‘very strong’ as it seeks to cool maid row

India sought to tamp down Saturday a furore over the arrest and strip-search of one of its diplomats in New York, insisting the episode should not be allowed to derail “strong” ties with the United States. Foreign minister Salman Khurshid said a dialogue with Washington was under way to defuse the crisis sparked by the […]

Bangladesh’s future hangs in the balance

Bangladesh’s hopes for a free, fair, and peaceful election are dead. The result is already known. But certainty over the ballot means only uncertainty for the future of the country. A boycott of the controversial poll by almost all opposition parties has resulted in 154 seats in the 300-member parliament already decided in walkovers, the […]