Pakistan came in for flak at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights from Kashmiri groups in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), which alleged trampling of fundamental rights of people in Gilgit and Baltistan and PoK.
A picture of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri decorates his flower-covered grave as Lebanese light candles at Beirut's Martyrs' Square March 21, 2005. Syria has completed the first stage of a two-phase plan to withdraw its troops from Lebanon after facing mounting international pressure and Lebanese popular protests since the killing of former prime minister al-Hariri last month. Syrian troops have been pulled back to the Bekaa Valley and about 4,000-6,000 have been withdrawn completely. (Source: REUTERS/Damir Sagolj, 21 Mar 2005)
A Palestinian policeman holds a Palestinian flag at the Anabta checkpoint near the West Bank town of Tulkarm March 22, 2005. Palestinian police were deployed in the town of Tulkarm for the first time in more than four years on Monday after Israel gave Palestinians security control of a second West Bank city.
Siddique Islam (National News Service ) Dhaka, Tuesday, March 22 : the death toll in Sunday night’s devastating tornado in the country’s northern districts Gaibandha and Rangpur rose to 43, unofficial sources said Monday.
Threats against press freedom in Asia "spiked" last year, as authoritarian regimes in North Korea and Myanmar kept a tight grip on the media while the Philippines remained the deadliest place in the continent for journalists, a US-based media rights group said Monday.
ROME (Reuters) - Leading U.S. ally Italy said on Tuesday it would start withdrawing its soldiers from Iraq in September, in a fresh blow to U.S. President George W. Bush's shrinking coalition.
Siddique Islam (National News Service), Dhaka, Sunday, March 13: The government of Bangladesh has planned to go for third round of bidding to make way for international gas and oil companies in conducting survey and exploring new gas fields in the offshore of the Bay of Bengal.
Siddique Islam (National News Service), Dhaka, Friday, March 11: Hartal has cost Bangladesh 3–4 per cent of its GDP on an average every year between 1991 and 2000, said a United Nations Development Programme Report (UNDP), which was released in Dhaka Thursday last.
MY FATHER, Shah A.M.S. Kibria, was assassinated on Jan. 27. He was 73 years old. In his lifetime he had held various senior positions in Bangladesh and abroad, including finance minister of Bangladesh, undersecretary general of the United Nations and executive secretary of Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, and foreign secretary of Bangladesh. At the time of his death my father was a leading member of the opposition in Parliament and a regular newspaper and magazine columnist.
Siddique Islam, (National News Service), Dhaka, Sunday, March 06: the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central bank, Saturday asked all the commercial banks not to open any fresh letters of credit (LCs) against imports without settling the previous import-related matters, official sources said.
Siddique Islam (National News Service), Dhaka, Thursday, March 03: Leader of the Opposition and the Awami League President Sheikh Hasina Wednesday asked people to form action committees with pro-liberation and progressive forces across the country and fight unitedly against the coalition government to end its 'misrule.'
Police on the Indonesian resort island of Bali are hard-pressed to explain the sudden proliferation of white markings at hundreds of temples across the deeply superstitious Hindu island.
Siddique Islam (National News Service), Dhaka, Wednesday, March 2: The US Human Rights Report on Bangladesh drew angry reaction from the government while the opposition hailed it as one giving the real picture.
JAKARTA (Agencies): Hundreds of people hit the streets across Java on Tuesday to protest against sharp fuel price hikes -- an average of nearly 30 percent.
Protests took place in at least 10 cities and towns, as anger grew over the government's decision to raise fuel costs.
