Four killed in fresh Bangladeshi riots

March 3, 2013

Bangladeshi_riots

Dhaka, Mar 3(DPA): At least four people were killed on the fourth day of rioting in Bangladesh on Sunday after an Islamist opposition leader was sentenced to death for war crimes, police said.

Soldiers were deployed after protesters torched police posts, a railway station and other government facilities in the northern district of Bogra during a strike called by the opposition.

Protesters and police exchanged gunfire that left four people dead in the region 230 kilometres north-west of Dhaka, police officer Abdul Waris said.

He said thousands of activists of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party attacked public property and offices of the ruling Awami League.

The rioting began after Jamaat-e-Islami vice-president Delwar Hossain Sayedee was convicted on Thursday of murder, looting, arson, rape during the country's 1971 independence war.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called on “all political actors in the country to exercise maximum restraint, use their influence to put an end to these violent incidents, and do all in their power to avoid exacerbating the divisions in society, which have been brought to a head by recent events.”

President Pranab Mukherjee visits Dhaka as clashes intensify

clashes_intensify

Dhaka, Mar 3(NDTV): President Pranab Mukherjee will begin his three-day state visit to Dhaka today, seeking to convey India's commitment to sort out unresolved issues between the two nations. His visit, however, comes as Bangladesh is witnessing massive clashes after a top Islamist opposition leader was sentenced to death for his role in atrocities, including rape and killings, during the 1971 Freedom War.

The clashes, between people celebrating the death sentence for the war crimes and supporters of the convicted Jamaat-e-Islami chief Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, have left 56 people dead since Thursday.

The Jamaat-e-Islami has called for a nation-wide general strike for today and tomorrow in protest against the war crimes trials supported by the Sheikh Hasina government in which some of its top leaders have been sentenced to death. The Jamaat is an ally of Bangladesh's main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which is led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, and was a partner in Zia's government from 2001 to 2006.

Opposition leader Begum Khalida Zia has also called for a strike on Tuesday. So Bangladesh is expected to remain shut on all three days of President Mukherjee's visit.

President Mukherjee is expected to meet Bangladesh President Mohammad Zillur Rahman, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia. He will also receive the Bangladesh Liberation War Honour Award for his contribution to country's liberation war and also an Honorary Doctorate of Law from the University of Dhaka.

Both countries had last month inked an extradition treaty, a liberalised visa agreement, and also exchanged maps of the demarcated stretches, in accordance with the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) of 1974.

Both the nations are also to launch a rail link between Akhaura in Bangladesh and Agartala in Tripura. They have also inked MoUs on several issues, including amending the double taxation avoidance treaty and for opening additional border haats (markets) in Tripura and Meghalaya.

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Agencies
January 6,2020

The Cambridge Analytica scandal is far from over. New explosive details leaked by a whistleblower shows that the extent of the rot is far deeper than previously thought.

An anonymous Twitter account, @HindsightFiles, has started releasing the documents, apparently on behalf of Brittany Kaiser, a former employee of the now defunct British data analytics and consulting company Cambridge Analytica.

"Democracies around the world are being auctioned to the highest bidder. We release the documents that explain how," reads the biography of the @HindsightFiles.

The document will reveal previously unreleased emails, project plans, case studies, negotiations and more spanning over 60 countries.

"Over the past two years I have given evidence to investigators, journalists and academics to analyse what happened at Cambridge Analytica, and how our data was used to influence democracies around the world. In the name of shedding light on these dark practices, I am releasing documents and emails in full for the public good," Kaiser, who worked with Cambridge Analytica from 2014 to 208, was quoted as saying.

"I do this to strengthen the case for data rights and enforcement of our electoral laws online globally. We should all be seeking more ethical digital future for ourselves and our children," added Kaiser who starred in the Oscar-shortlisted Netflix documentary "The Great Hack".

The details released so far includes links to material on the firm's activities in Malaysia, Kenya, Brazil and Iran, an addition to the John Bolton archive.

Over the next months, more than 100,000 documents relating to work in 68 countries are set to be released, according to a report in The Guardian.

More than one and a half year after the Cambridge Analytica scandal first became public, US regulators last month said that the now-defunct British data analytics and consulting company engaged in deceptive practices to harvest personal information from tens of millions of Facebook users for voter profiling and targeting.

According to Kaiser, the Facebook data scandal was part of a much bigger global operation designed to manipulate people in collaboration with governments, intelligence agencies, commercial companies and political campaigns.

The unpublished documents contain material that suggests the firm collaborated with a political party in Ukraine in 2017 even while under investigation as part of Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, said The Guardian report.

"There are emails between these major Trump donors discussing ways of obscuring the source of their donations through a series of different financial vehicles. These documents expose the entire dark money machinery behind US politics," Kaiser was quoted as saying.

Similar tactics were deployed in other countries that Cambridge Analytica operated in, including Britain, she claimed.

The files released by Kaiser suggest that Cambridge Analytica offered to help United Malays National Organisation (Umno), the party of Malaysia's Former Prime Minister Najib Razak, to influence the voting of 40 parliamentary constituencies in the 14th General Election (GE14) in 2013.

Umno, according to the leaks, requested the company to prepare a proposal to regain 13 seats, The South China Morning Post reported on Saturday.

In 2018, Razak claimed that he had never engaged Cambridge Analytica in any way.

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News Network
March 6,2020

Beijing, Mar 6: World health officials have warned that countries are not taking the coronavirus crisis seriously enough, as outbreaks surged across Europe and in the United States where medical workers sounded warnings over a "disturbing" lack of hospital preparedness.

The World Health Organization warned Thursday that a "long list" of countries were not showing "the level of political commitment" needed to "match the level of the threat we all face".

"This is not a drill," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

"This epidemic is a threat for every country, rich and poor."

Tedros called on the heads of government in every country to take charge of the response and "coordinate all sectors", rather than leaving it to health ministries.

What is needed, he said, is "aggressive preparedness."

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News Network
March 25,2020

London, Mar 25: Prince Charles on Wednesday has tested positive for the novel coronavirus and is working from home with mild symptoms, according to UK media.
A Clarence House spokesperson said the Prince of Wales was "displaying mild symptoms but otherwise remains in good health and has been working from home throughout the last few days as usual", the Telegraph UK reported.
"He has been displaying mild symptoms but otherwise remains in good health and has been working from home throughout the last few days as usual," the spokesperson added.
In accordance with the government and medical advice, the 71-year old heir to the British throne and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are now self-isolating at their home in Scotland.
The Duchess of Cornwall has also been tested but does not have the virus.
The tests were carried out by the NHS in Aberdeenshire where they met the criteria required for testing.
"It is not possible to ascertain from whom the Prince caught the virus owing to the high number of engagements he carried out in his public role during recent weeks," the statement further said.

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