”The goal of the fundamentalists is to force us to leave Bangladesh and go to India,” says one activist for the rights of religious minorities.
Tag: pakistan
KARACHI – Begging and sex work are what transgender people in Pakistan too often end up doing. But this also means that they are more likely to have information about the dark world of child sex trafficking. Bindya Rana had the idea of tapping into this connection to find missing children. “We are provided with pictures of the missing child, which we pass on to the transgender people in the areas where they beg and live,” Rana explains, noting that some 2,000 transgender are on the case. “We direct them to search, and if they get any information to let […]
Monday, December 22, 2014 SOUTH KOREA NUCLEAR PLANTS THREATENEDSouth Korea’s nuclear plant operator has launched a two-day drill to check the safety of the country’s four power plants after a hacker leaked non-critical data and threatened further leaks yesterday, news agency Yonhap reports. It’s unclear whether it was connected to North Korea and the Sony […]
Wednesday, December 17, 2014 PAKISTAN MOURNS DEAD CHILDRENA three-day period of mourning began today in Pakistan, with vigils held in the country’s major cities and funerals in Peshawar, after Tuesday’s Taliban attack on a school in the northwest city that killed 141 people, including 132 children. The army began a series of massive air strikes […]
Using the power of light to combat the dark ideology of the Taliban. It sounds like the start of a bad movie, but that is exactly what Shahbaz Sharif, chief minister of the Pakistani province of Punjab, intends to do. “More jobs will mean fewer extremists because we can give people a better chance in […]
RAWALPINDI — When 40-year-old government employee Danial Ahmed has problems with his teeth, he goes to a quack on the streets of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. “The price of dental treatment is expensive,” he says. “I cannot afford it. These quacks offer cheap treatment. For just a few hundred rupees, we can get relief from toothache and other oral infections.” These cheap alternatives to real doctors can easily be found on virtually any roadside in Pakistan. They sit along the streets or in a small kiosks, where patients are treated on the spot. According to the government, there are more than 600,000 […]
Beyond the Taliban’s attack against Malala, there is also widespread corruption and poor state monitoring that leads to many Pakistani schools being simply abandoned buildings.
Take a tour of what the world’s been saying this week.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014 MH17 PRELIMINARY REPORT Dutch experts this morning published their preliminary report into the causes of the July 17 crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine. The report stopped short of saying whether a missile had hit the aircraft, explaining instead that it broke in mid-air after being hit by […]
Monday, September 1, 2014 UKRAINE FORCES LOSE AIRPORT AHEAD OF TALKS Ukrainian government forces pulled out of the international airport in Luhansk after an assault by pro-Russian rebels, even as Ukrainian and Russian officials are preparing to meet in Minsk for another round of talks, the BBC reports. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he […]
WASHINGTON POST Worldcrunch WASHINGTON – The U.S. commando raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden was guided from space by a fleet of satellites, according to a top-secret U.S. intelligence documents revealed Friday by the Washington Post. As the May 2011 mission unfolded, the satellites aimed dozens of receivers over Pakistan to collect electronic […]
BBC, AL JAZEERA Benazir Bhutto (rhyme reverie)
AL JAZEERA (Qatar), AFP Worldcrunch QUETTA — An attack on a Sunni Muslim mosque in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta has left at least 10 people dead and another 30 wounded, just one day after a suicide bomber killed at least 37 people in the same city. Friday’s attack in the capital of Balochistan […]
BBC NEWS (UK), AFP Worldcrunch QUETTA – Gunmen have killed at least 13 bus passengers on Tuesday in the southwest of Pakistan, according to officials. Provincial home secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani told AFP news agency that militants had blocked a road and held up a group of security personnel. They then stopped at least two […]
CBS, AP Worldcrunch ISLAMABAD – Heavy rains that caused flash floods and collapsed houses in different parts of Pakistan have killed 53 people over the past three days, a senior disaster management official said Monday. Civil and military authorities have launched rescue and relief efforts to deal with the crisis, said Brig. Kamran Zia, a […]
REUTERS Worldcrunch ISLAMABAD – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry agreed with Pakistan on Thursday to re-establish a “full partnership” — a partnership hurt by U.S. drone strikes and a 2011 NATO air attack in which 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed. Speaking after talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad, Kerry said the […]
BBC NEWS (UK) Worldcrunch DERA ISMAIL KHAN – Taliban militants have freed 243 prisoners in an assault on a prison in north-west Pakistan, officials say. The attack in the town of Dera Ismail Khan began with huge explosions at around midnight on Monday (15:00 GMT). Gunmen then opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades and machine-guns, police […]
Wednesday, July 2, 2014 CLASHES IN JERUSALEM AFTER DEATH OF PALESTINIAN TEEN A 16 year-old Palestinian who was allegedly kidnapped yesterday by Israelis, in an apparent retaliation for the death of the three abducted Israeli students, was found dead early this morning in a forest west of Jerusalem, AFP reports. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said […]
DAWN, NEWS PAKISTAN, PAKISTAN TODAY (Pakistan), WASHINGTON POST (U.S.), REUTERS Worldcrunch MIRAMSHAH – At least seven people were killed in a reported U.S. drone attack early Wednesday in northeastern Pakistan. The drone fired two missiles at a mud-built house in the tribal region of North Waziristan, which is considered a bastion of Taliban and al-Qaeda […]
To talk or not to talk with the Taliban may be the most pressing matter of all, writes Le Monde’s correspondent from Islamabad.
DAWN, NATION, THE NEWS (Pakistan), BBC, THE GUARDIAN (UK) Worldcrunch ISLAMABAD – Following the contested Pakistani elections, marred by accusations of voter fraud, several candidates participated in nationwide sit-in protests Monday, writes The News. Muslim League leader, Nawaz Sharif claimed victory in Saturday’s polls, but was short of a clear majority. “There was total rigging. […]
ISLAMABAD – If Pakistan’s May 11 parliamentary elections unfold according to recent national opinion surveys, two-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif will once again take power in Islamabad. Deposed in a 1999 coup led by General Pervez Musharraf, Sharif fled for nearly a decade of Saudi-sponsored exile. Today, however, it is Musharraf who lives under house […]
DAWN, THE NEWS, NATION (Pakistan) Worldcrunch ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s bloodiest election campaign ever came to an end overnight, marred by terror threats and attacks that killed at least 117 people including candidates, reports Dawn. On Friday, a motorbike bomb near party political offices killed three people and wounded 13 in the northwestern town of Miranshah, […]
AFP, ALJAZEERA (Qatar), PAK TRIBUNE (Pakistan), REUTERS, ZEE NEWS (India) Worldcrunch KURRUM – The death toll from a bombing at a political rally near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border has increased to at least 25 as of Tuesday morning, making it the deadliest attack to date on the current national election campaign, says the AFP. The explosion […]
ISLAMABAD – A senior prosecutor investigating the 2007 murder of Pakistan’s ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was shot down in an ambush on Friday morning near Pakistan’s capital Islamabad. Chaudhry Zulfikar Ali was also Pakistan’s main state prosecutor in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, in which 166 people were killed. Zulfikar was shot multiple times by gunmen […]
Lashkar-e-Taiba is the terrorist group responsible for the 2008 deadly attacks in Mumbai. Le Temps conducted a rare interview with its founder, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.
AFP (France), BBC (UK), DAWN (Pakistan) Worldcrunch ISLAMABAD – A Pakistani court has ordered the arrest of ex-military leader Pervez Musharraf on Thursday, in connection with his March 2007 attempt to put judges under house arrest. After the Islamabad High Court rejected his bail application, Musharraf immediately left the premises, escorted by his bodyguards. It […]
The shooting of teenage blogger Malala Yousafzai was just the tip of the iceberg. Extremists are taking aim at all girls schools of northwest Pakistan. What does the Taliban fear?
AFP, FRANCE 24 (France) Worldcrunch KARACHI – Pakistani security officials said Monday they have arrested a former senior leader of a banned militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) who was allegedly involved in the 2002 murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, AFP reported. Qari Abdul Hayee, popularly known as Asadullah and from Karachi’s eastern Gulshan-e-Iqbal neighborhood, was […]
THE CRIMEAN MANDATE Crimeans voted overwhelmingly yesterday to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. With a turnout of 83%, the measure won support from 96.77% of voters. MALAYSIA PLANE’S COMMUNICATION SYSTEM DISABLED MANUALLY The co-pilot of missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 issued his last message to air traffic control after part of the […]
The Microsoft founder and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg are active in trying to eradicate polio. But immunization efforts have led to deadly attacks from Nigeria to Pakistan.
AFP, BBC (UK), VOICE OF AMERICA (USA) Worldcrunch KARACHI – The death toll has reached at least 45, with 150 wounded from a powerful blast in a mainly Shiite Muslim area of Karachi. There are reports that the explosion was set off by Sunni terrorists, although by midday Monday no group had claimed responsibility for […]
Worldcrunch 1. ARGENTINA – The twin sister of a murdered model is set to wed her dead sister’s killer, much to the dismay of her parents, according to Buenos Aires daily Clarín. The wedding has been in the works for months, but these two lovebirds hold back nothing when it comes to romance: the ceremony […]
Some skeptics, though, wonder whether all the enthusiasm for the developing world has created a sort of emerging market “bubble”.
BBC (UK), DAWN (Pakistan) Worldcrunch ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on corruption allegations. Ashraf has been accused of accepting bribes during his term as minister for water and power in 2010. Authorities have 24 hours to take him into custody, along with 15 others included […]
AL JAZEERA, BBC, LAHORE TIMES (Pakistan) Worldcrunch KARACHI/QUETTA/SWAT– Pakistan has declared three days of mourning after a string of bombings killed more than 100 people, while nine others died in separate shootings. Photo: CIA via Wikipedia In the northwest city of Quetta, a suicide bomber entered a snooker club on Thursday that was close to […]
INDIA TIMES, HINDUSTAN TIMES (India) Worldcrunch NEW DELHI – India lashed out at Pakistan after two Indian soldiers were killed in a firefight in the disputed region of Kashmir, and reports spread that one of the soldier’s body had been mutilated. India’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement about the incident that used the terms “barbaric […]
BBC NEWS (UK), PAKTRIBUNE (Pakistan), REUTERS Worldcrunch ISLAMABAD – At least seven militants have been killed in two U.S. drone attacks close to the town of Mir Ali in northwestern Pakistan, a region along the Afghan border that is a key stronghold of the Taliban. According to the news service Paktribune, unmanned aircraft fired three […]
BBC NEWS, ITV (UK) Worldcrunch BIRMINGHAM – Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban for urging girls to attend school, has been released from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, reports ITV. The Pakistani schoolgirl activist was admited at the hospital in October following an attack on October 9 on her schoolbus in […]
BBC NEWS (UK), AL JAZEERA (Qatar) Worldcrunch ISLAMABAD – Senior Pakistani militant leader Mullah Nazir has been killed by a US drone strike, Pakistani security officials say. The drone attack killed at least least five fighters including the militant Wednesday night in the northwest tribal district of South Waziristan, according to security officials, reports BBC […]