Our Time

The most propagated rumour in Bangladesh these days is that the country is a democracy having rule of law and the affairs of its state managed in accordance with its great liberation war spirit. Don’t heed rumours.

Arab News: India has asked its telecom operators to find ways of blocking applications such as Facebook and messaging app WhatsApp in the case of misuse, according to a document seen by Reuters. India has in recent months intensified efforts to crack down on mass message forward after it found that people were using social…

Reuters: An elderly village witch doctor in Indonesia entrapped a 12-year-old girl and tricked her into having sex with him for the next 15 years by claiming to be possessed by the “jin”, or spirit, of a young boy, police said on Tuesday. The woman, an identified by police as “H”, was rescued on Sunday…

The Guardian, UK: New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s daughter will be raised learning both English and the indigenous language of the country. Ardern told Māori Television that she “certainly wants” newborn daughter Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford to learn te reo Māori. “We haven’t just made that decision though about how that will happen…

Abrar Hussain: After a catastrophic 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia on Sunday, rescue workers are currently searching the ruins of a mosque in Lombok in Indonesia, where it is feared that people were still trapped. As of writing this report on Tuesday, the death toll from the quake is at least 98, but officials believe…

CNN: After previously slamming a June report by Amnesty International, the US-led military coalition fighting ISIS is now acknowledging findings by the human rights group that 77 civilians were in fact killed during airstrikes conducted in Raqqa, Syria, last summer. An investigation prompted by Amnesty International’s research revealed that the 77 civilians were killed in…

Internationally renowned photographer Dr. Shahidul Alam, Managing Director, Drik, was forcibly abducted from his house in Dhanmondi, Dhaka after 10pm on 5 Aug 2018. According to security guards of the apartment building and other eyewitness reports, there were roughly 30 to 35 men, in plain clothes, who claimed to be from the Detective Branch (DB),…

Wio News: Despite being a relief to recent searing hot days, Tuesday’s heavy rains sweeping across much of China have also triggered floods and mudslides in many regions. The heavy rainfall in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality developed into a rainstorm on Tuesday afternoon. Video footage shot by a local resident’s cell phone showed that the…

Hossen Sohel: The news of Japan Tobacco acquiring Akij Group’s tobacco business for $1.48 billion in what would be the biggest ever single foreign direct investment in Bangladesh has irked the anti-tobacco activists, reports bdnews24.com. PROGGA, which leads anti-tobacco groups in Bangladesh, said Japan Tobacco’s presence will “increase the risk of public health since the…

Channel News Asia: Mexico’s President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador vowed Monday (Aug 7) his country would not be threatened by a wall, in a thinly veiled rebuke to US President Donald Trump’s jabs across the border. “Mexico is going to become a power – and will change the balance of power. Nobody will threaten us…