The Guardian: China is mulling scrapping its controversial birth restrictions, reversing nearly four decades of family planning policies as birth rates fall. Chinese couples are limited to two children at present, after rules were relaxed from the infamous one-child policy that was in force from 1979 to 2016. Now officials are poised to enact a…
AP: France’s high-profile environment minister, former TV personality Nicolas Hulot, has unexpectedly announced his resignation live on national radio, dealing a blow to the lofty green ambitions of President Emmanuel Macron. Clearly emotional, Hulot made clear his frustrations at what he said was France’s slow pace of progress on green issues. The long-time environmental advocate told…
Reuters: South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar refused to sign the latest draft of a peace deal with the Juba government that would end a years-long conflict, Sudan’s foreign minister said on Tuesday. “The main opposition party, led by Machar, as well as another group, refused to sign, demanding guarantees over their reservations” about the…
Constantino Xavieris, Fellow at the Foreign Policy Studies, at Brookings India, in New Delhi/BDnews24 Despite attracting growing attention as the strategic heart of the Indo-Pacific, the Bay of Bengal remains one of the world’s least integrated regions, with abysmal levels of connectivity and formidable barriers to cooperation. To overcome these divides and foster regionalism, Bangladesh…
AFP: North Korea still poses a “serious and imminent threat”, Japan said Tuesday in its first annual defence review since tensions eased on the Korean peninsula. Japan’s 2018 defence white paper also took aim at China’s rise as a military power, saying Beijing was sparking “strong security concerns in the region and international community, including…
Kabir Humayun: The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has quizzed eight officials of Petrobangla over the disappearance of coal from the Barapukuria plant. ACC spokesperson Pranab Kumar Bhattachariya said Shamsul Alam, Deputy Director and Investigation Officer of ACC, interrogated them at the anti-graft watchdog’s headquarters yesterday, reports bdnews24.com. The eight officials include Petrobangla’s General Manager (Mine Operation)…
Desk Report: A Dhaka court yesterday granted bail to Faria Mahjabin, owner of Nerdy Bean Coffee Haus in Dhanmondi, in a case filed over “spreading rumours on social media platforms” during the recent student movement for safe roads, reports The Daily Star. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Md Aminul Haque passed the order after her lawyer…
Independent.UK: The etiquette surrounding email communication is entrenched in nuance. From signing off in an appropriate manner to striking the right balance between a friendly but professional tone, getting to grips with email rhetoric is a true art, one that many of us are evidently getting wrong. A new survey carried out by software company Adobe…
Syed Badrul Ahsan, Editor-in-Charge, The Asian Age : Bangladesh’s villages need to be saved from ‘development’. There must be laws, those which civilized societies observe everywhere, that will ensure that no individual or group will mar the traditional structure of the village through steps that are a clear extension of lopsided urban planning. In simple…
M Humayun Kabir: Professor Imtiaz Habib, an eminent scholar who taught a generation of students Shakespeare at home and abroad, has died in the United States. He was 69. The English Department of Virginia-based Old Dominion University where he was a teacher until his death, said this on its Facebook page, reports bdnews24.com. “It is…