A supporter of Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina threatened to sue a cinema over a spelling error that inadvertently suggested she had a “tail”. The cinema in Dhaka misspelled the title, Hasina: A Daughter’s Tale – but has since corrected it. Hasina supporter Saad Chowdhury said the word tail was “elfish”; suggested part of an animal, and was humiliating. He demanded… Read more »
The United States announced a new raft of sanctions on Iran on Monday, but granted exemptions to eight countries, allowing them to temporarily continue buying Iranian oil, said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The move follows US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from a landmark 2015 international agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme. In a statement, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said:… Read more »
One US soldier was killed and another wounded in an “apparent insider attack” in Kabul on Saturday, NATO said, in the latest such assault on international forces in Afghanistan. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the third so-called “green-on-blue” attack in less than three weeks that have rattled foreign troops tasked with training and assisting the war-torn country’s… Read more »
India opened it first hospital for elephants last week. I find it interesting in a society they uses elephants for not only work but cultural ceremonies that the care for the animals is so pour. Also they must be a huge investment. The animal its self must cost a lot of money therefore I doubt they are easily replaced. I… Read more »
DUSHANBE (Reuters) – Tajikistan started the first turbine of its Rogun hydroelectric power plant on Friday, part of a dam project that aims to secure the Central Asian nation’s energy independence. The former Soviet republic issued its first Eurobond last year to help finance the project, which will include the world’s tallest dame when it is completed in 2026. Italy’s… Read more »
KABUL (Reuters) – The U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan hopes to cement a peace deal with Taliban insurgents by April 2019, local media reported on Sunday. Zalmay Khalilzad, in Kabul to lead talks between the United States, the Taliban and the Afghan government, told reporters he hopes “a peace deal is reached before April 20 next year”, when Afghanistan is… Read more »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Two men on motorcycles threw a grenade at a Sikh religious gathering of about 250 people in Amritsar city in the northern Indian state of Punjab on Sunday, killing three and injuring around 20, police said. Initial reports suggest that two people armed with pistols came to the venue, said provincial police chief Surinder Pal Singh…. Read more »
MATHURA, Uttar Pradesh (Reuters) – At India’s first hospital for elephants, opened last week in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, 49-year old Asha placed her left foreleg on a stool for a doctor to attend to an injury while visitors filmed it all on their mobile phones. The facility, armed with facilities such as wireless digital X-Ray, thermal imaging,… Read more »
Bangladesh said it was ready to begin repatriating some of the more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled from army-led violence in Myanmar since last year. But refugees said they would refuse to go because of fears for their safety. Some said their families have fled from their shanties in the refugee camps to avoid being sent back. The situation remained… Read more »
Sabarimala, one of Hinduism’s most holy temples, has become a symbol of the fight for gender equality in India as female worshippers continue to be denied access to the premises despite a Supreme Court decision striking down a longtime ban on women. For centuries, women of childbearing age have been forbidden from entering Sabarimala in southern Kerala state. In a landmark… Read more »