Author: Asian Bangla

Asianbangla Desk : Syrian President Bashar al-Assad yesterday told his troops they were close to winning the country’s seven-year civil war after inflicting a succession of defeats on rebels. AFP Early last year, government forces held just 17 percent of national territory but a series of blistering offensives has since forced the rebels out of many of their strongholds, putting Assad’s government in control of nearly two-thirds of the country. “Our date with victory is near,” Assad wrote in an open letter to the rank and file. “They (the rebels) were ultimately forced to leave — humiliated, rolled back, their tails…

Asianbangla Desk : Bangladesh held on to its status as the second biggest apparel supplier in the world in 2017, accounting for 6.5 percent share of the market, according to data from the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In 2017, Bangladesh exported garment items worth $29 billion, the data said. In 2016, Bangladesh’s share of the global apparel market was 6.4 percent. China remained the largest apparel supplier globally, although its share shrank to 34.9 percent. The value of exported clothing items from China last year was $158 billion. Vietnam came in third with its 5.9 percent market share, the WTO data…

Asianbangla Desk : It will be a totally new experience for the Bangladesh cricketers when they take part in their maiden international match in the United States of America on Saturday. The visitors will take on West Indies in the remaining two matches of the three-match T20I series, scheduled for August 4 and 5 at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium in Florida. It will also be a marked change in atmosphere from the Caribbean. But Shakib Al Hasan and his troops will have to get used to the change pretty fast if they are to save the three-T20I series after…

Pakistani soldiers patrol a street with a billboard featuring an image of Imran Khan in Rawalpindi. Photo: Aamir Qures Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan ndc, psc (Retd) This was the second consecutive election in Pakistan held following the completion of full tenure of the incumbent government, but Nawaz Sharif added his name, once again, to the ingloriously long list of prime ministers not to have completed his or her full term in office. The circumstances of decoupling the leader of the ruling party from politics and election, and his subsequent conviction on charges of corruption and incarceration have raised serious…

Asianbangla Desk : In the mountains of central Vietnam, a colossal pair of hands lifts a golden thread of walkway high above the clifftops, as if the mountain itself has sprouted limbs. Reuters. “I feel like I’m walking on clouds,” said Vuong Thuy Linh, a tourist from Hanoi. “It’s so unique”. Cau Vang or the “Golden Bridge” in Vietnam’s Ba Na Hills has attracted scores of tourists since it opened in June, eager to see a novel piece of architecture famed for its unusual design. The pedestrian walkway, designed by TA Landscape Architecture in Ho Chi Minh City, sits at over…

Asianbangla Desk : As fear and anger run deep over Assam’s citizenship issue, many of those left off the final draft of National Registration of Citizens (NRC) complain of being harassed at different places of neighbouring state of Meghalaya. “Centring the NRC, Bangalees are being tortured. Khasi people are intercepting them on different roads in Meghalaya,” local daily Jugasankha reported yesterday. It said activists under the banner of Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) were forcing people to get down from vehicles to check their nationalities. According to The Northeast Today, KSU has set up checkpoints in three districts and detected more than…

Asianbangla Desk : Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Imran Khan to congratulate him on his party’s victory in the Pakistan general election, with both men discussing regional peace. It was their first call since Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) emerged victorious from last week’s vote that has been marred by claims of pre-election rigging and irregularities on the day. Relations between the nuclear-armed rivals have frayed in the last couple of years, with direct talks stalled amid diplomatic rows and military firing across the Line of Control frontier that divides the disputed region of Kashmir. Khan, widely seen as Pakistan’s…

Asianbangla Desk : A relatively new anti-blasphemy party whose leader has reportedly vowed to nuke the Netherlands should he ever come to power did surprisingly well in Pakistan’s elections last week, which were tainted by the rise of extremist groups. Islamic fundamentalist parties fielded more than 1,500 candidates in Pakistan’s provincial and national elections that were won by cricket hero turned politician Imran Khan. Here AFP looks at how the main extremist parties fared during Wednesday’s polls. The performance of Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), led by radical preacher Khadim Hussain Rizvi, will worry mainstream politicians and human rights activists the most. The…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : The new Chhatra League central committee was announced yesterday, almost two and a half months after its central council meeting. Rezwanul Haque Chowdhury Shovon and Golam Rabbani have been named as president and general secretary of the pro-Awami League student body. AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader, on behalf of party President Sheikh Hasina, announced the names of the leaders of the new committee last night, according to a press release of the prime minister’s press wing. He also announced BCL committees of Dhaka University, Dhaka metropolitan south and north units. Both Shovon and Rabbani, hailing from Kurigram and…

Asianbangla Desk : A suicide bomb and gun attack by militants on an Afghan government building in Jalalabad yesterday killed at least 15 people, some burned “beyond recognition”, officials said, the latest in a series of assaults on the eastern city. On the other side of the country a roadside bomb apparently intended for security forces hit a passenger bus and killed 11 people, marking yet another bloody day for civilians who have borne the brunt of violence in Afghanistan. The attack in Jalalabad targeted the compound of the refugees and repatriations department. It ended after more than five hours of…