Essay: More than four billion people are eligible to vote in an election in 2024. Is this democracy’s biggest test?
NICHOLAS REESE, principal fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Melbourne School of Government, provides – in an article first published on The Conversation, a rundown of just some of the significant elections that will shape the world in 2024…
Bangladesh PM Hasina secures fourth straight term in vote boycotted by main opposition
Updated: 8:30am, 9th January, 2024 (AEDT)Dhaka, Bangladesh Reuters Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina swept to a fourth straight term in power, with her party winning almost 75% of the seats in Sunday’s general election that was boycotted by the main opposition and drew a low turnout. The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which participated in […]
Bangladesh turnout low in election set to keep PM Hasina in power
Dhaka, BangladeshReuters Bangladeshis largely stayed away from the polls in a general election on Sunday set to give Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina a fourth straight term, after a vote boycotted by the main opposition party and marred by violence. Rights groups have warned of virtual one-party rule by Hasina’s Awami League in the South Asian […]
Fire leaves nearly 7,000 Rohingya homeless in Bangladesh camp
Dhaka, BangladeshReuters A fire swept through a Rohingya refugee camp in south-eastern Bangladesh in the early hours of Sunday, destroying about 800 shelters and rendering thousands homeless, officials said. Fire service officials and Rohingya volunteers brought the blaze under control around three hours after it hit Camp 5 in Cox’s Bazar, a border district with […]
Bangladesh poll booths burn on election eve, as train arson kills four
Dhaka, BangladeshReuters Polling booths were set ablaze in Bangladesh on the eve of Sunday’s general elections, while four people, two children among them, were killed in a train fire that the government decried as arson targeting democratic values. Friday’s fire broke out at about 9pm, injuring eight passengers as it spread to four compartments of […]
Nobel laureate Yunus convicted in Bangladesh labour law case
Dhaka, BangladeshReuters A court in Bangladesh on Monday sentenced Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus to six months in prison for labour law violations, prosecutors said, for what he said was a crime he did not commit. Yunus, 83, and his Grameen Bank won the 2006 peace prize for their work to lift millions out of poverty […]
Bangladesh garment factories fire workers after protests, unions say
Dhaka, BangladeshReuters Bangladesh garment factories have fired hundreds of workers since protests in October demanding higher wages, three labour unions representing half a million workers told Reuters this week, while many others are on the run fearing arrest. Clashes during the protests, which ran alongside wider anti-government demonstrations by the opposition ahead of the Jan. […]
About 400 Rohingya land in Indonesia, adds to surge of recent arrivals
Jakarta, Indonesia Reuters Dilapidated boats carrying an estimated 400 ethnic Rohingya arrived in Indonesia’s Aceh province on Sunday, chief of a provincial fishing community has confirmed, adding to a recent surge of Myanmar’s Muslim minority arriving in the country. Prior to Sunday’s arrivals, the United Nations’ refugee agency, UNHCR, said that 1,200 Rohingya people, a […]
More Rohingya take children as they leave Bangladesh by boat – aid groups
Dhaka, BangladeshReuters An increasing number of Rohingya people are leaving refugee camps in Bangladesh with their children, taking to boats in search of a better life as hopes fade of returning to Myanmar or being resettled, and camp life gets tougher, aid groups say. Nearly one million members of the Muslim minority from Myanmar live […]
Rising temperatures, longer monsoon drive Bangladesh’s worst dengue outbreak
Dhaka, BangladeshReuters Rising temperatures and a longer monsoon in Bangladesh because of climate change are providing ideal breeding conditions for the dengue-spreading mosquito, experts said, as the country grapples with its worst-ever outbreak of the viral disease. The death toll from Bangladesh’s outbreak in 2023 is 1,476 as of 12th November, with 291,832 infected, official […]