NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India is among the world’s most protectionist countries but the United States is trying to negotiate a limited trade deal with the South Asian nation to resolve their differences, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said on Thursday. “All that we are looking for is to level the playing field,” Ross said in an interview on… Read more »
India, once thought of as a country of more than a billion people living in poverty, has seen its economy boom, and has emerged as a new force in global manufacturing. But that is not the full story. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), more than 150 million children and teenagers are victims of child labour around the world, and… Read more »
NEW DELHI — Her face was everywhere — on the news, at police stations and at the airports where the Pakistani government had put her on a list of the nation’s most wanted. She has been accused of treason, though human rights defenders said that the allegations were bogus and that she was being targeted for highlighting abuses committed by… Read more »
“Bangladesh recorded the highest economic growth among a list of 26 countries in the last 10 years”, said Sheikh Hasina, noting a 188 per cent expansion in its gross domestic product (GDP), which “has grown from $102 billion in 2009 to $302 billion this year”. Citing poverty and inequality as two major obstacles to development, she pointed out that “poverty eradication, sustainable… Read more »
Barbed Wire, Guard Towers to Deny Freedom of Movement (New York) – The Bangladesh government’s plans for barbed wire and guard towers around Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar violate refugees’ rights to freedom of movement, Human Rights Watch said today. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan announced the plan on September 26, 2019, saying it was specifically ordered by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. While the… Read more »
GAUR, Nepal — The monsoon rains would not stop. They lashed Nepal’s border with India, pooling into a swift current that crumbled homes, cut electricity and swept away people and animals. But this summer’s flash floods played out differently on the Indian side. Embankments blocked swollen upstream rivers from emptying south, leaving Nepal to deal with two or three times… Read more »
On 11 September 2001, attacks in America killed nearly 3,000 people. Osama Bin Laden, the head of Islamist terror group al-Qaeda, was quickly identified as the man responsible. The Taliban, radical Islamists who ran Afghanistan and protected Bin Laden, refused to hand him over. So, a month after 9/11, the US launched air strikes against Afghanistan. As other countries joined… Read more »
Residents of a district in the border province of Paktika are being issued with Pakistani ID cards, an IWPR investigation has found. Local leaders have urged central government authorities to intervene, suggesting the practice amounted to an act of aggression by the neighbouring country. “Many people in Barmal district now have Pakistani IDs,” said Baryali Jabarkhail, a member of Paktika’s… Read more »
SOPORE, India (Reuters) – It’s harvest time, but the market in the northern Kashmiri town of Sopore – usually packed with people, trucks and produce at this time of year – is empty, while in orchards across India’s Jammu and Kashmir state unpicked apples rot on the branch. FILE PHOTO: Rotten apples are seen on a tree at an apple… Read more »
JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A U.S. drone strike intended to hit an Islamic State (IS) hideout in Afghanistan killed at least 30 civilians resting after a day’s labor in the fields, officials said on Thursday. The attack on Wednesday night also injured 40 people after accidentally targeting farmers and laborers who had just finished collecting pine nuts at mountainous Wazir… Read more »