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What’s behind Bangladesh’s protest against PM Sheikh Hasina?

Protesters wave national flags as they stand over the Anti Terrorism Raju Memorial Sculpture during a protest in Dhaka on August 4, 2024, to demand justice for the victims arrested and killed in the recent nationwide violence during anti-quota protests. (AFP)
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Updated 05 August 2024
Reuters
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What’s behind Bangladesh’s protest against PM Sheikh Hasina?

  • Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned on Monday and fled the country
  • Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman said an interim government would be formed
Updated 05 August 2024
Reuters

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned on Monday and fled the country, as more people were killed in some of the worst violence since the birth of the South Asian nation more than five decades ago.

Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman announced Hasina’s resignation in a televised address to the nation and said an interim government would be formed.

Media reports said Hasina, 76, was flown in a military helicopter with her sister and was headed to India. The CNN News 18 television channel said she had landed in Agartala, the capital of India’s northeastern state of Tripura, across the eastern border of Bangladesh.

Here are details of the new protests and their history:

CALLS FOR HASINA TO STEP DOWN
The ‘Students Against Discrimination’ group, which was at the forefront of last month’s job quota protests, is leading the latest demonstrations.
The protests to reform the quota system paused after the Supreme Court scrapped most quotas on July 21. Protesters, however, returned last week demanding a public apology from Hasina for the violence, restoration of Internet connections, reopening of college and university campuses and release of those arrested.
By the weekend, the demonstrations spiralled into a campaign seeking Hasina’s ouster as demonstrators demanded justice for people killed last month.
The students’ group called for a nationwide non-cooperation movement starting Sunday with a single-point agenda — Hasina must resign.

WHY DO PROTESTERS WANT HASINA’S RESIGNATION?
The protesters blame Hasina’s government for the violence during the protests in July. Hasina’s critics and rights groups have accused her government of using excessive force against protesters, a charge the government denies.

WHAT HAS HASINA SAID RECENTLY?
Hasina, 76, and her government initially said students were not involved in the violence during the quota protests and blamed the Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for the clashes and arson.
But after violence erupted again on Sunday, Hasina said that “those who are carrying out violence are not students but terrorists who are out to destabilize the nation.”
The students group has declined Hasina’s offer for talks to resolve the crisis.

WHAT TRIGGERED THE JOB-QUOTA PROTESTS?
Demonstrations started at university campuses in June after the High Court reinstated a quota system for government jobs, overturning a 2018 decision by Hasina’s government to scrap it.
The Supreme Court suspended the high court order after the government’s appeal and then dismissed the lower court order last month, directing that 93 percent of jobs should be open to candidates on merit.

FLAGGING ECONOMY, UNEMPLOYMENT
Experts also attribute the current unrest in Bangladesh to stagnant job growth in the private sector, making public sector jobs, with their accompanying regular wage hikes and privileges, very attractive.
The quotas sparked anger among students grappling with high youth unemployment, as nearly 32 million young people are out of work or education in a population of 170 million.
The flagging economy, once among the world’s fastest growing on the back of the country’s booming garments sector, has stagnated. Inflation hovers around 10 percent per annum and dollar reserves are shrinking.

HASINA WINS JANUARY ELECTION
Hasina retained power for a fourth straight term in a January general election boycotted by BNP, which accused her Awami League of trying to legitimize sham elections.
BNP said 10 million party workers were on the run ahead of the election with nearly 25,000 arrested following deadly anti-government protests on Oct. 28. Hasina blamed the BNP for instigating anti-government protests that rocked Dhaka ahead of the election and left at least 10 people dead.

Topics: Bangladesh

Cyprus and the US sign a defense deal outlining ways to tackle regional crises

Updated 12 sec ago
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Cyprus and the US sign a defense deal outlining ways to tackle regional crises

Updated 12 sec ago
NICOSIA: Cyprus and the United States have signed a defense cooperation framework agreement that outlines ways the two countries can enhance their response to regional humanitarian crises and security concerns, including those arising from climate change.
Cyprus Defense Minister Vassilis Palmas and US Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Celeste Wallander hailed the agreement on Monday as another milestone in burgeoning Cypriot-US ties in recent years that saw the lifting in 2022 of a decades-old US arms embargo imposed on the east Mediterranean island nation.
“The Republic of Cyprus is a strong partner to the United States, in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, and plays a pivotal role at the nexus of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East,” Wallander said after talks with Palmas.
The US official praised Cyprus for acting as a safe haven for American civilians evacuated from Sudan and Israel last year and for its key role in setting up a maritime corridor to Gaza through which more than 20 million pounds of humanitarian aid has been shipped to the Palestinian territory.
“It is evident that Cyprus is aligned with the West,” Wallander said.
Palmas said Cyprus would continue building toward “closer, stronger and beneficial bilateral defense cooperation with the United States.”
According to a joint statement, the agreement also foresees working together on dealing with “malicious actions” and bolstering ways for the Cypriot military to operate more smoothly with US forces.

Two Pakistanis convicted of incitement to kill Dutch far-right leader Wilders

PVV leader Geert Wilders looks on prior to the verdict in the case against two Pakistani men who threatened him to death.
Updated 2 min 45 sec ago
AFP
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Two Pakistanis convicted of incitement to kill Dutch far-right leader Wilders

  • The two men were tried in absentia as Pakistan did not force the men to appear at the high-security trial as requested by the Netherlands
Updated 2 min 45 sec ago
AFP

BADHOEVEDORP: A Dutch court on Monday convicted two Pakistani men on charges of incitement for urging their followers to murder far-right and anti-Islam leader Geert Wilders.
The two men, Muhammed Ashraf Jalali and Saad Hussain Rizvi, were tried in absentia as Pakistan did not force the men to appear at the high-security trial as requested by the Netherlands.
Jalali, a 56-year-old religious leader, was handed a 14-year sentence for calling on his followers to kill Wilders and promising they would be “rewarded in the afterlife.”
Rizvi, 29, leader of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party, was sentenced to four years after urging followers to kill Wilders after Pakistani cricketer Khalid Latif was sentenced for incitement to murder him.
In September 2023, judges sentenced Latif to 12 years behind bars for incitement to murder Wilders after the firebrand lawmaker sought to arrange a competition for cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Wilders canceled the cartoon contest after protests broke out in Pakistan and he was inundated with death threats.
He has been under 24-hour state protection since 2004.
The call to kill Wilders appeared to resonate, as a Pakistani man was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2019 for plotting his assassination in the wake of the canceled contest.
In the Netherlands, the plan for the cartoon contest was widely criticized as needlessly antagonizing Muslims.
“This case has had a huge impact on me and my family,” Wilders told the court last week.
Wilders’ PVV (Freedom Party) was the big winner of Dutch parliamentary elections in November.

Topics: Pakistani Dutch Geert Wilders anti-Islam

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WTO says trade alone won’t bridge gap between economies

Updated 45 min 31 sec ago
AFP
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WTO says trade alone won’t bridge gap between economies

  • WTO’s 2024 report on global trade looked at role commerce has played to narrow gap between economies
Updated 45 min 31 sec ago
AFP

GENEVA: The World Trade Organization said Monday that open trade alone was not enough to reduce inequalities between wealthy and developing nations and more was needed to help poorer countries.
The WTO’s 2024 report on global trade looked at the role that commerce has played to narrow the gap between economies since its creation in 1995.
“Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the report is its reaffirmation of trade’s transformative role in reducing poverty and creating shared prosperity,” WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in the foreword.
This conclusion, she added, runs “contrary to the currently fashionable notion that trade, and institutions like the WTO, have not been good for poverty or for poor countries, and are creating a more unequal world.”
“But the second biggest takeaway is that there is much more we can do to make trade and the WTO work better for economies and people left behind during the past 30 years of globalization,” Okonjo-Iweala said.
The report found that low- and middle-income economies tend to engage less in international trade, receive less foreign direct investment and depend more on commodities.
They also export fewer “complex products” and “trade with fewer partners,” the WTO said.
“Protectionism, the report demonstrates, is not an effective path to inclusiveness,” Okonjo-Iweala said, warning that it can raise production costs and invite “costly retaliation from disgruntled trading partners.”
WTO chief economist Ralph Ossa added: “Less trade will not promote inclusiveness, nor will trade alone.”
“True inclusiveness demands a comprehensive strategy — one that integrates open trade with supportive domestic policies and robust international cooperation,” Ossa said.
The report said domestic policies that are needed to make trade more inclusive include vocational training, unemployment benefits and “education for a more skilled and mobile workforce.”
It also called for “competition policy to ensure consumers benefit from lower prices, reliable infrastructure, and well-functioning financial markets.”

Topics: World Trade Organization (WTO)

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Catherine, princess of Wales, says she’ll return to public duties

Updated 56 min 18 sec ago
AP
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Catherine, princess of Wales, says she’ll return to public duties

  • The princess announced in March that she was being treated for an undisclosed type of cancer
Updated 56 min 18 sec ago
AP

LONDON: Catherine, the Princess of Wales, says she has completed chemotherapy and will return to some public duties in the coming months.

The 42-year-old wife of Prince William is expected to undertake a light program of engagements until the end of the year.

The princess announced in March that she was being treated for an undisclosed type of cancer.

Kate attended a ceremonial birthday parade for her father-in-law King Charles III in June, and the following month presented the men’s winner’s trophy at the Wimbledon tennis championships.

Topics: UK Catherine Princess of Wales Princess of Wales

UN rights chief voices ‘abhorrence’ of Afghanistan ‘vice’ law

Updated 09 September 2024
AFP
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UN rights chief voices ‘abhorrence’ of Afghanistan ‘vice’ law

  • Taliban published widely-criticized law in August further tightening restrictions on women’s lives
Updated 09 September 2024
AFP

GENEVA: The UN rights chief on Monday slammed Afghanistan’s latest laws curtailing women’s rights, decrying the “outrageous” and “unparallelled” repression of half the country’s population.
Speaking before the United Nations Human Rights Council, Volker Turk made clear his “abhorrence of these latest measures.”
The Taliban government in Afghanistan — which took power in 2021 but is yet to be recognized by any other country — published a widely-criticized law in August further tightening restrictions on women’s lives.
While many of the measures have been informally enforced since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, their formal codification sparked an outcry from the international community and rights groups.
The new “vice and virtue” law dictates that a woman’s voice should not be raised outside the home, and that women should not sing or read poetry aloud.
It requires them to cover their entire body and face if they need to leave their homes, which they should only do “out of necessity.”
These measures, Turk pointed out, come on top of previous measures that included “forbidding girls from attending secondary school and women from attending university; denying women’s rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, opinion, expression and freedom of movement; and severely curtailing women’s rights to seek employment.”
He emphasized that “women who have sought to protest such laws or express any different opinion or form of dissent have faced harsh punishments.”
“I shudder to think what is next for the women and girls of Afghanistan.”
His comments came after the UN Security Council last week called for the repeal of the new laws, warning they “undermine” efforts to reintegrate the country with the international community.
Turk meanwhile described the “repressive control over half the population in the country” as “unparallelled in today’s world.”
“It is a fundamental rupture of the social contract. It is outrageous and amounts to systematic gender persecution,” he told the council.
“It will also jeopardize the country’s future by massively stifling its development,” he warned.
“This is propelling Afghanistan further down a path of isolation, pain and hardship.”

Topics: Afghanistan Volker Turk

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