YEMEN: Authorities foil Al Qaeda attack in Mukalla

General Faraj Salmin, who commands Yemen's Second Military Zone in the eastern province of Hadramaut, revealed today that the authorities had foiled a massive terrorist attack aimed at the local administrative headquarters in Mukalla. He said a car loaded with 15 high-explosive bombs had been detected in time before an individual linked to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP, had been able to carry out the attack, averting a major disaster.

Closing the Gaps in Fight Against Wildlife Trafficking in Latin America

Although it violates the international conventions that regulate the wildlife trade, it is possible to go online and find websites to buy, for example, axolotl salamanders (Ambystoma mexicanum) or spiny softshell turtles (Trionyx spiniferus).

Is Good Governance Key To Eliminating Poverty?

For over a decade, much of the international development community, led by the OECD and the World Bank, promoted ‘good governance’ as a pre-requisite for economic development and poverty eradication. Good governance became the explanation for the failure of the structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) to deliver economic growth and poverty reduction. The link between good governance and poverty eradication is premised on the presumption that good governance promotes economic growth and development. It was presumed that SAPs were good for growth and the poor.

Battered by Storms, Sri Lanka Rethinks Food Security

The picture could be straight out of a tourist postcard – a sleepy green mountain with misty clouds floating above the canopy – if not for one fatal flaw: the ugly gash running right through the middle.

Young African Women More Vulnerable to HIV

When Lebogang Brenda Motsumi was 16  years old she fell pregnant, terrified about what her life would look like, she went to a backdoor clinic for an abortion.

Time to Change Expectations: Zero Retribution to Zero Tolerance

The drugging, abduction and violent gang rape of a 16-year-old girl in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil calls us all to turn the tide of sexual violence against women and girls in Brazil and in every country in the world.

Hardening US Stance

`Interesting` times are upon Pak-US ties again. A US drone strike killed Mullah Mansour in Balochistan; the proposed US F-16 sale to Pakistan formally expired. The Obama administration failed to convince lawmakers on Capitol Hill to allow use of US public funds to complete the transaction and Pakistan refused to pay for them in toto; and the US Congress is moving to put further Haqqani network-related conditionalities on assistance to Pakistan.

Recent Killings Tarnish Bangladesh’s Tolerant Image

Not only the European Union, but the rest of the world is also beginning to express concern about the spate of killings by extremists in Bangladesh over the last three years. News organisations such as the BBC and CNN feature these killings prominently in their newscasts. The initial killing of bloggers has now escalated into killing of foreign aid workers, religious minorities and academics. In April and May alone, a university professor in Rajshahi, two LGBT activists in Dhaka, a Hindu tailor in Tangail and a Buddhist monk in Bandarban were hacked to death.

It’s Time to Tell Livestock’s Untold Secret

As nations attempt to usher in a new era of global development, seeking to satisfy both the Paris climate agreement and Sustainable Development Goals, there is one natural resource that has remained untapped.

Islamophobia: Why Are So Many People So Frightened?

Islamophobia has become a significant factor driving politics in many Western countries. Islamophobia – fear of Muslims – is now highly visible among European populations concerned about terrorist responses from Islamic groups claiming Jihadi links.

Banking on the Milk of Human Kindness

The recent launch of Amaara, New Delhi's first human milk bank, has been greeted with much cheering. The initiative endorses the long-term goal of reducing infant mortality and addresses the critical issue of lack of mothers' milk for physically fragile newborns in India's capital city.

The Idiocy of Things Requires an “Information Habeas Corpus”!

Today we are saturated with media hype about the joys of information and communication technology (ICT). We will all be connected, all the time, by the Idiocy of Things (IoT )devices and our social media, all converging in the cloud. Our lives will be monitored by smart sensors in homes with smart refrigerators, toasters, TVs, doorbells, alarm systems, garages, cars and electricity meters. We are bombarded with ads showing us how all these smart devices will improve our lives and health, bringing ever greater convenience. Driverless cars will be safer, allowing us to read, monitor our kids or enjoy the scenery. All this ICT and automation is already a multi-billion dollar industry and its producers are salivating over its growth and profits. Individual privacy rights and security concerns seem to be an afterthought.

Can Poor Countries Combat Big Tobacco Too?

This year for World No Tobacco Day on May 31 the World Health Organization has recommended that countries adopt plain packaging as a way to reduce tobacco use, however so far mostly only rich countries have been able to afford to implement the changes.

African Leaders Make an Economic Case for Increased Nutrition Investments

Africa’s contribution to global malnutrition statistics is miserably high, with 58 million children under the age of five said to be too short for their age, while 13.9 million weigh too little for their height.

The Korean Peninsula Conflict: A Way Out

Like the Israel-Palestine conflict, the world has gotten tired of it, “what, the two Koreas still unable to sort it out”? Also, like Israel-Palestine, the USA is in it; making the situation complicated.

Illiberal Democracy Rising

Indian democracy is quite often about the politics of visibility, the image most often replacing the substance. Political parties celebrate their leaders, both living and dead, in huge newspaper advertisements that cost an enormous amount. For leaders who have passed on, there is usually a remembrance on their birth and death anniversaries whereas in the case of serving politicians just about any occasion is an excuse to indulge in an extra splash of image building.

A Jarring Anomaly of Society

It is easy to miss stories about child domestic workers being tortured and killed. Easy because stories of children being killed have become eerily regular. It is May 28 and there is the report of 14-year-old Konika Rani being hacked to death by a drug addict with three of her classmates also grievously injured by him. There is also the horror of having to read about a six-year-old being left critically wounded after being raped by her neighbour. Next to this is the news of 11-year-old Hasina Akhter dying in hospital from the fatal wounds inflicted on her, presumably by her employers.

Achieving Universal Access to Energy; Africa Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place

“It is unacceptable that 138 years after Thomas Edison developed the light bulb, hundreds of millions of people cannot have access to electricity to simply light up the bulb in Africa,” says Africa Development Bank (AfDB) Group President, Akinwumi Adesina, mourning the gloomy statistics showing that over 645 million people in Africa lack access to electricity, while over 700 million are without clean energy for cooking.

When the UN Comes Under Heavy Fire

When heads of government and foreign ministers make their annual pilgrimage to the United Nations in September, it is rare to hear hard-hitting, headline-grabbing political statements from the podium.

A Balance Sheet for May 28

On this very day, exactly 18 years ago, riotous celebration erupted after Pakistan tested its nuclear weapons. Just 17 days earlier, India had experienced a similar moment. Then, one year later, Pakistan once again saw mass jubilation during the officially sponsored Youm-i-Takbir. But, in sharp contrast, today`s nuclear celebrations are barely audible. One hopes that this signals increased national maturity and sobriety.

The Price of Non-Governmental Growth

It is well known that since the 1980s, Bangladesh has made astonishing progress on a wide variety of development indicators such as reducing the prevalence of extreme hunger and poverty, increasing primary education enrolment rates, and reducing child and maternal mortality. This progress has been mirrored by an impressive record of sustained GDP growth, spanning decades. In contrast to these successes, the quality of our democratic institutions has languished to the point where they now threaten to undermine all these hard-won gains. This article argues that the provision of public goods and services by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has not only contributed to these successes, but also to this failure.