When a 2023 study found women were underrepresented and marginalized in the Liberian media industry — and portrayed negatively in news coverage — a female journalists association set up a pilot program to bring about change. From Monrovia, Liberia, VOA’s Senanu Tord has more.
…
Month: July 2024
UK police arrest man after 8 stabbed in ‘deeply shocking’ incident
London — British emergency services said a man had been arrested after at least eight people were stabbed in Southport, northwest England, on Monday, with a local children’s hospital declaring a major incident and the prime minister calling it “deeply shocking.”
North West Ambulance Service said it had treated eight patients with stab injuries who had been taken to three different hospitals, including Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.
Merseyside Police said armed police had arrested a man and seized a knife after being called to reports of a stabbing at around 11:50 a.m. (1050 GMT). There was no wider threat to the public, they added. The police asked people to avoid the area. Photos showed several police cars, ambulances and a fire engine behind cordon tape on a street lined with houses.
“Horrendous and deeply shocking news emerging from Southport. My thoughts are with all those affected,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on the social media network X, formerly Twitter.
“I would like to thank the police and emergency services for their swift response. I am being kept updated as the situation develops.”
British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper posted on X that she was “deeply concerned at the very serious incident.”
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital said it had declared a major incident and its emergency department was extremely busy. It asked parents only to bring their children in if it was urgent.
…
Urgent action needed to stop spread of drug-resistant malaria, scientists warn
Bangkok — Millions of lives could be put at risk unless urgent action is taken to curb the spread of drug-resistant malaria in Africa, according to a new paper published in the journal Science.
The paper says the parasite that causes malaria is showing signs of resistance to artemisinin, the main drug used to fight the disease, in several east African countries.
“Mutations indicating artemisinin-resistance have been found in more than 10% of malaria infected individuals in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania,” according to the report.
Artemisinin Combination Therapies, or ACTs, have been the cornerstone of malaria treatment in recent years — but there are worrying signs that they are becoming less effective, says report co-author Lorenz von Seidlein of the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit in Bangkok.
“We have increasing reports from eastern Africa saying that they have documented resistance against the first line treatments against malaria,” he says. “The first line treatments are artemisinin combination therapy – that has been used for the last 20 years and has worked excellently well. And it’s now not working quite as well as it used to do.”
It’s estimated that over one thousand children die every day from malaria in Africa. The World Health Organization estimates that the global death toll from malaria in 2022 — the most recent figures available — was 608,000.
Past lessons
Before artemisinin therapies were developed, chloroquine was the medicine most used to treat malaria. The report authors say that in the 1990s and early 2000s, signs that the malaria parasite was developing resistance to chloroquine were widely ignored.
“When chloroquine resistance slowly sneaked into Africa there was a whole wave of childhood mortality followed by it. So really, a large number of children — probably in the millions — died because chloroquine didn’t work as well as it used to do. And now we see these first signs that something similar is happening with the ACTs. And that is of course very worrying,” von Seidlein says.
Urgent action
The report authors urge policymakers and global funding bodies to act now to prevent artemisinin resistance taking hold.
Their recommendations include combining artemisinin drugs with other medicines.
“Combining an artemisinin derivative drug with two partner drugs in triple artemisinin combination therapies [TACTs] is the simplest, most affordable, readily implementable, and sustainable approach to counter artemisinin resistance,” the report says.
The authors also call for the rollout of new, more effective insecticides and mosquito nets; better training of community health workers; the rapid deployment of new malaria vaccines; and better monitoring of parasite mutations.
Southeast Asia
Many of these methods were used to halt the spread of artemisinin resistance in south-east Asia since 2014, notes von Seidlein.
“Ultimately, there was an understanding that this could be a major health emergency globally and so there were a lot of investments from funders for the from high-income countries towards these countries in the Greater Mekong sub-region to stop the spread of artemisinin resistant parasites,” he says.
The report says that sense of urgency must now be applied to tackling artemisinin resistance in Africa.
“We ask funders, specifically the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria [GFATM] and the U.S. Government’s President’s Malaria Initiative, to be visionary and to step up funding for malaria control and elimination programs to contain the spread of artemisinin resistance in Africa — as they have done effectively in Southeast Asia since 2014,” says report co-author Ntuli Kapologwe, the director of preventive services at Tanzania’s Ministry of Health.
…
Meeting in Beijing, China’s Xi and Italy’s Meloni discuss conflicts
Beijing — Chinese President Xi Jinping and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni discussed the war in Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East at a meeting in Beijing on Monday, Meloni’s office said.
Meloni, whose country currently holds the rotating G7 presidency, stressed the importance of China as a partner in dealing with growing global insecurity during their talks.
The two leaders addressed the “priority issues on the international agenda from the war in Ukraine to the risks of a further escalation of the situation in the Middle East. They also discussed the growing tensions in the Indo-Pacific,” the Italian leader’s office said in a statement.
Meloni is seeking to relaunch her country’s economic ties with Beijing after Italy exited Xi’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative last year and amid deteriorating trade ties between the West and the world’s second-largest economy.
“There is growing insecurity at the international level, and I think that China is inevitably a very important interlocutor to deal with all these dynamics,” Meloni said during the talks at Beijing’s Diaoyutai State Guest House.
EU trade policy has turned increasingly protective over concerns that China’s production-focused development model could see the bloc flooded with cheap goods as Chinese firms look to step up exports amid weak domestic demand.
The European Commission this month confirmed it would impose preliminary tariffs of up to 37.6% on imports of electric vehicles made in China, ratcheting up tensions with Beijing.
Chinese officials have warned of a possible trade war, should Brussels not back down.
“Rebound into a new era”
Italy is of strategic importance to China as it has struck out on its own with Beijing before, and could prove to be a moderating voice within the bloc.
In 2019, Italy became the only member of the Group of Seven industrialized democracies to join Xi’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, billed as recreating the ancient Silk Road trade route.
And while Italy eventually left the infrastructure investment scheme last year, under pressure from the U.S. over concerns about Beijing’s economic reach, Rome signaled it still desired to forge stronger trade ties with the Asian giant, signing a three-year action plan on Sunday.
“Both sides face important opportunities for mutual development,” Xi told Meloni at the start of their meeting.
“China and Italy should uphold the spirit of the Silk Road … so that the bridge of communication between East and West through it can rebound into a new era.”
…
Vandalism hits communication lines in France during Paris Olympics
Paris — The French government says multiple telecommunications lines have been hit by acts of vandalism, affecting fiber lines and fixed and mobile phone lines as cities around France are hosting events for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The scale of the impact is unclear, as is whether it has affected any Olympic activities. The vandalism came after arson attacks hit train networks around France on Friday, hours before the Olympics opening ceremony.
Marina Ferrari, secretary of state in charge of digital affairs, posted on X that damage in several regions overnight Sunday to Monday affected telecommunications operators. She said that led to localized impact on access to fiber lines and fixed and mobile telephone lines.
Paris 2024 Olympics organizers would not immediately comment.
…
Thousands in Ukraine honor soldiers killed in blast, push to free prisoners
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainians urged their government to do more to get Russia to release prisoners of war, voicing their anger on Sunday at a ceremony commemorating the second anniversary of an explosion that killed more than 50.
Several thousand soldiers and civilians gathered at Kyiv’s Independence Square Sunday to commemorate the second anniversary of an explosion that killed more than 50 Ukrainians that Russia held in the Olenivka prison barracks.
Impassioned speakers at the ceremony urged the Ukrainian government to work harder to get the soldiers freed in a prisoner exchange.
The Olenivka explosion was one of the most painful pages in the war, according to many soldiers.
“I was there in Olenivka. I was rocked by the explosion,” said Sgt. Kyrylo Masalitin, who was later released. “Never before have I felt so helpless. And those still in captivity feel that helplessness every day. They must know that we have done everything we can do to get them released.”
Behind Masalitin, more than 300 soldiers of the Azov brigade stood in formation. In unison they recited a prayer before holding aloft red flares to honor their comrades.
Russia has claimed that the Olenivka explosion was caused by Ukrainian forces firing a missile that hit the prison barracks. But increasing evidence suggests that Russian forces set off the explosion, according to an investigation by The Associated Press.
The AP interviewed more than a dozen people with direct knowledge of details of the attack, including survivors, investigators and families of the dead and missing. All described evidence they believe points directly to Russia as the culprit. AP also obtained an internal United Nations analysis that found the same. Despite the conclusion of the internal analysis that found Russia planned and executed the attack, the U.N. stopped short of accusing Russia in public statements.
Two years after the explosion, many Ukrainians still want to know exactly how it happened. The demonstration Sunday brought together people who are commemorating Olenivka with others who are protesting Russia’s imprisonment of Ukrainian fighters who defended the Azovstal steel works and were taken prisoner when Russia seized the city of Mariupol.
Many were also pressing for the release of Ukrainian soldiers who were defending the Avovstal steel works and were captured when Mariupol fell in 2022. At least 900 soldiers from the Azov brigade are held as prisoners of war by Russia. The “Free Azov” campaign has become a vociferous pressure group in Kyiv and holds weekly vigils to urge President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government to do a prisoner exchange to get free Ukrainian prisoners held by Russia.
“We’re here to remember those who died and also those in captivity. We’re here to push our government to work hard on this,” said a soldier who identified himself as Stanislav.
He said he had been a defender of Mariupol when the Russians invaded in February 2022 and he was injured in an artillery attack, losing his left arm. He was treated in the army base inside the Azovstal steel works before he was taken captive by the Russian forces and then released. After physical rehabilitation, Stanislav returned to the army and now works in military headquarters in Kyiv.
He said he will keep pushing for the release of captive soldiers.
“We’re here for a special reason, to see that our brothers-in-arms in captivity come back,” he said. “All of those in captivity.”
The event in the center of Kyiv drew together many families, including the mothers, wives and children of soldiers who were killed at Olenivka or are currently imprisoned by Russia.
Her voice cracking with emotion, Halyna Stafiichuk, 71, said her son is being held by the Russians and she hasn’t heard from him in more than two years.
“I’m crying every day. I’m just praying for a note from him that says he is OK and that he will be home soon,” said Stafiichuk. “We trust that God and our government will bring all our soldiers back.”
…
Russia reports downing 19 Ukrainian drones over Kursk as part of latest aerial attacks
Seven people killed in stampede at a music concert in Congo’s capital
KINSHASA, Congo — Seven people were killed and many others were injured during a stampede at a music concert in Congo’s capital, authorities said Sunday.
The stampede occurred Saturday at the 80,000-capacity Stade des Martyrs stadium in the heart of Kinshasa where Mike Kalambayi, a popular Congolese gospel singer, was performing, Kinshasa Gov. Daniel Bumba said.
State television RTNC said seven people were killed in the chaos and some of those injured were admitted to intensive care.
Authorities did not comment on what caused the stampede, saying an investigation was underway. However, the local music management company that organized the event said the chaos erupted when “the security services tried to neutralize some troublemakers.”
An estimated 30,000 people attended the concert, which featured several other musicians and pastors, the management company Maajabu Gospel said in a statement.
Videos that appeared to be from the scene and broadcast of the event showed large crowds gathered outside the stadium in front of barricades as they waited to enter. Inside, people could be seen rushing to the center stage.
Congo has witnessed such stampedes in past years, often blamed on poor crowd control measures such as excessive use of force. Eleven people died in a similar crush at the same stadium last October during a music concert.
…
France makes landmark gesture over WWII massacre of African troops
19 people killed as boat capsizes in Ethiopia
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — At least 19 people drowned when their boat sank in a river in Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region Saturday, the region’s official media said Sunday.
“Seven people including a child were saved in difficult circumstances,” the Amhara Media Corporation (AMC) added, quoting a local administrator.
The boat was taking passengers across the Tekeze river, which runs along Ethiopia’s border with Eritrea before it crosses into Sudan at the point where the three countries meet.
Officials said that 26 people were estimated to have been on board the boat at the time of the accident at around noon (0900 GMT) on Saturday.
Only two bodies have been recovered, AMC said, adding that those rescued had been taken to nearby hospitals.
Media access to remote northern Ethiopia is heavily restricted by the authorities, with information often trickling in hours later.
Amhara — Ethiopia’s second most populous region — has been wracked for months by clashes between the Ethiopian military and an ethnic Amhara militia known as Fano.
It was also caught up in the neighboring region Tigray’s war, with its regional forces fighting alongside federal government troops against Tigrayan rebels.
The boat accident is the second major incident in Ethiopia in recent days. On Monday, a landslide in the south killed over 250 people.
…
Cash-starved Pakistan engages in debt ‘reprofiling’ talks with China
Islamabad — Pakistani Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said Sunday that he had engaged in “very constructive” talks with Chinese counterparts on rescheduling billions of dollars in debt owed to China, but he reported no immediate progress.
Islamabad is asking that Beijing, its close ally, delay at least $16 billion in energy sector debt repayments and extend the term of a $4 billion cash loan facility because of Pakistan’s economic troubles and dwindling foreign exchange reserves.
Aurangzeb, shortly after returning from a multi-day visit to the neighboring country, held a news conference in the Pakistani capital, sharing details of his meetings with Chinese Finance Minister Lan Fo’an and the central bank governor, among others.
“We presented the debt reprofiling proposal to them,” Aurangzeb said without specifying any amount. He said that his government is seeking to reschedule the debt for 10 China-funded energy-related projects in Pakistan.
“We’ll have to go project-by-project and work with the central bank in China… We’ll also appoint a local adviser (in China) instead of leading the process from Islamabad,” the minister added.
Aurangzeb said that in addition to China, Pakistan was in talks with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in seeking an extension on the existing $5 billion and $3 billion cash loan facilities, respectively.
He stated that his government was confident in securing these crucial extensions before an International Monetary Fund executive board meeting to grant final approval for a newly negotiated $7 billion loan for Islamabad.
“I want to assure you that external financing and assurances will be forthcoming between now and the IMF board approval,” the minister said.
The Washington-based global lender announced earlier in July that it had reached a preliminary agreement with Pakistan for a 37-month loan of $7 billion under the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility arrangement.
The IMF stated that the agreement “is subject to approval by its executive board and “the timely confirmation of necessary financing assurances from Pakistan’s development and bilateral partners.” It did not specify a date for the board meeting.
Some of the power projects in focus are built under the China-Pakistan Energy Corridor, or CPEC, a massive project aimed at improving Pakistan’s infrastructure for better trade with China and further integration of the countries of South Asia.
CPEC has, over the past decade, brought more than $25 billion in Chinese investment and loans to Pakistan as part of Beijing’s global Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to improve connectivity, trade, communication, and cooperation with participating countries.
Pakistani and Chinese officials deny allegations the mega project has deepened Islamabad’s economic troubles.
…
7 security forces, 5 rangers killed in Benin by jihadi violence
Cotonou — At least seven members of Beninese security forces and five rangers working with a conservation nonprofit have been killed in an attack by an armed group in Benin’s National Park W that is overrun by militants, according to the conservation group.
The attack Wednesday happened not far from the Mékrou River in the 10,000-square-kilometer (3,800-square-miles) park which straddles the borders with Burkina Faso and Niger, the African Parks group said in a statement Saturday.
Authorities in Benin have not yet spoken about the attack, which is common with the government and the military.
It is the latest in a surge in violence in which jihadis from the conflict-battered Sahel region that is south of the Sahara Desert have spread farther into West Africa, targeting coastal states like Benin.
It was not clear which jihadi group carried out the attack in Park W, into which militants from troubled neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger have recently moved, raising fears they could use its vast protected area as a base for infiltrating other West African countries.
The al-Qaida linked JNIM group has been the most active in the Sahel and most recently in coastal West African states like Benin and Togo.
Although they were once believed to be spreading to the coastal states for better cover to recuperate, get financing and gather weapons to launch more attacks on Sahel governments, their fighters have started to attack communities and security forces as militancy begins to take root.
your ad hereFrance showcases fighter jets in the Philippines, defends freedom of navigation
CLARK, Philippines — France renewed a commitment to help defend freedom of navigation and overflight in the Asia-Pacific Sunday and said that its supersonic fighter jets — a pair of which landed for the first time in the Philippines — and advance military power would enable it to respond rapidly to any humanitarian or security crisis in the region.
France is also working to quickly conclude a defense pact that would allow it to deploy a larger number of forces for joint exercises to the Philippines, French Ambassador to Manila Marie Fontanel said.
France has moved to broaden its defense engagements in the Indo-Pacific region, including with the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations.
That dovetails with the effort of the administration of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to boost his country’s territorial defense by allowing a larger U.S. military presence in the Philippines under a 2014 defense agreement and by building security alliances with Asian and Western nations as it deals with China’s increasingly assertive actions in the disputed South China Sea.
An annual French air force mission called Pegase, which showcases its combat power and travels to friendly countries to deepen defense relations, arrived over the weekend at Clark air base, a part of the former U.S. Air Force base, north of Manila, with two French-made Rafale fighter jets and air force cargo and transport aircraft.
The French air force flew a small group of journalists, including from The Associated Press, aboard an Airbus A400M cargo aircraft over Philippine waters facing the South China Sea Sunday to demonstrate its crucial capability to undertake aerial refueling. But pockets of turbulence prompted the French military to abort the maneuver for safety reasons.
Philippine air force personnel will also get the chance to fly onboard the Rafale jets and familiarize themselves with the aircraft. The fighter jets have been a “game changer,” French air force Brig. Gen. Guillaume Thomas, who was heading the air force mission, told a news conference.
“They enable us to go very far and very fast and to be able to react very quickly… in case of a humanitarian crisis or even security crisis,” Thomas said. “We are able to deploy forces from France to be in this area in the Pacific in a very short notice.”
The French air force mission “is not designed to target any specific country or any specific situation” and does not aim to escalate regional tensions, Fontanel said.
France and the Philippines have begun preliminary talks on a status-of-forces agreement that would provide a legal framework and enable troops from each country to hold exercises in the other’s territory. France has been tasked to finish an initial draft of the agreement by September that would be the basis of future talks, Fontanel said.
Aside from France, the Philippines has been holding separate talks with Canada and New Zealand for such agreements. It signed a similar pact with Japan earlier this month.
China has strongly criticized such alliance-building and large-scale U.S. military exercises in the Philippines, saying the Philippines is “ganging up” with countries from outside Asia, and warned that military drills could instigate a confrontation and undermine regional stability.
Philippine military officials have dismissed China’s criticism, saying the drills and alliances are aimed at boosting Manila’s territorial defense and are not directed at any country.
…
5 killed, dozens wounded in Ukraine’s Donetsk region; Russia claims gains
KYIV — Five civilians died and 15 more were wounded following Russian strikes Saturday and overnight in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, its governor said, as Moscow claimed further gains in its monthslong grinding offensive in the country’s war-battered industrial heartland.
Shortly after Donetsk Gov. Vadym Filashkin reported on the casualties Sunday, other local Ukrainian officials said Russian shelling wounded more civilians in the east and south.
At least eight people suffered wounds after Moscow’s forces Sunday struck the eastern Ukrainian city of Nikopol, local Gov. Serhii Lysak reported that same day. Lysak said a toddler and a 10-year-old girl were among the victims, six of whom had to be hospitalized.
Russian shelling Sunday also wounded eight more civilians, including a 10-year-old and two teenagers, in a village in Ukraine’s southern Kherson province, local official Roman Mrochko reported.
Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2022, sending millions of people fleeing to neighboring countries. Taking control of all of Donetsk is one of the Kremlin’s main war goals.
In the Donetsk region, Russian troops continued to eke out gains as they pushed westward toward the towns of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that its forces had taken control of two neighboring villages some 30 kilometers (19 miles) east of Pokrovsk, Prohres and Yevhenivka. The day before, Moscow claimed the nearby village of Lozuvatske, one of nearly a dozen it says it has captured in the province this month.
Earlier Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said seven Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight over Russian territory, while a regional official said a drone strike set fire to an oil depot in southern Russia. Firefighters were battling the blaze Sunday morning after three fuel tanks went up in flames in the Kursk region, according to acting regional Gov. Alexey Smirnov. Smirnov said nobody was hurt.
…
India’s Charaideo Moidam royal burial mounds designated World Heritage Site
NEW DELHI — The Charaideo Moidam royal burial complex and shrines, built by northeast India’s Ahom dynasty, has been inscribed as a new World Heritage Site, the United Nations’ cultural agency said on Friday.
UNESCO experts, who are deliberating on a list of sites nominated for the World Heritage Site tag, announced the decision in Indian capital New Delhi, where they are holding their 46th session.
The Charaideo Moidams, located in Assam state, are a mound burial system that served as a resting place for Ahom kings and queens. They were constructed by providing an earth cover over a hollow vault made of bricks, stone or earth.
The designated site contains 90 modiams of different sizes, which were created over a period of 600 years, and include other cultural features like ceremonial pathways and bodies of water, said a spokesperson from ICOMOS, the advisory body of the World Heritage Committee.
“The moidams are an exceptional example of an Ahom necropolis that represents funeral traditions and associated beliefs in a tangible way,” they said.
The Ahom clan established their capital in different parts of the Brahmaputra River Valley between the 12th to 18th century, after migrating from China, according to the U.N. cultural agency’s website. They established the first capital at the Patkai hills in eastern India and named it Charaideo, which means “a dazzling city above the mountain” in their language. Even though the clan moved across cities, the burial site they built was seen as the most sacred place for the departed souls of the royals.
Experts say the shrines showcase the architecture and expertise of Assam’s masons, comparing them to the royal tombs of China and the pyramids of the Egyptian Pharaohs.
The site has the largest concentration of these vaulted mound burials, according to UNESCO, and reflects the sculpted landscape of the surrounding hills.
India is now home to 43 World Heritage Sites.
Other sites inscribed on Friday included the Colonies of the Moravian Church in Germany, the U.S. and U.K.; the Umm Al-Jimal in Jordan and the Badain Jaran Desert in China.
The committee also inscribed the Monastery of Saint Hilarion, in the archeological site of Tell Umm Amer in the Gaza Strip, on both the World Heritage List and on the List of World Heritage in Danger. It said the decision recognized the site’s value and the need to protect it given threats posed by the conflict in the Gaza Strip.
…
Bangladesh students vow to resume protests unless leaders freed
Dhaka, Bangladesh — A Bangladeshi student group has vowed to resume protests that sparked a lethal police crackdown and nationwide unrest unless several of its leaders are released from custody Sunday.
Last week’s violence killed at least 205 people, according to an AFP count of police and hospital data, in one of the biggest upheavals of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year tenure.
Army patrols and a nationwide curfew remain in place more than a week after they were imposed, and a police dragnet has scooped up thousands of protesters, including at least half a dozen student leaders.
Members of Students Against Discrimination, whose campaign against civil service job quotas precipitated the unrest, said they would end their weeklong protest moratorium.
The group’s chief, Nahid Islam, and others “should be freed and the cases against them must be withdrawn,” Abdul Hannan Masud told reporters in an online briefing late Saturday.
Masud, who did not disclose his location because he was in hiding from authorities, also demanded “visible actions” be taken against government ministers and police officers responsible for the deaths of protesters.
“Otherwise, Students Against Discrimination will be forced to launch tough protests” from Monday, he said.
Islam and two other senior members of the protest group were on Friday forcibly discharged from hospital in the capital, Dhaka, and taken away by a group of plainclothes detectives.
Earlier in the week Islam told AFP he was being treated at the hospital for injuries police inflicted on him during an earlier round of detention and said he was in fear for his life.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters Friday that the trio were taken into custody for their own safety but did not confirm if they had been formally arrested.
Police told AFP on Sunday that detectives had taken two others into custody, while a Students Against Discrimination activist told AFP that a third had been taken on Sunday morning.
At least 9,000 people have been arrested nationwide since the unrest began according to Prothom Alo, Bangladesh’s largest daily newspaper.
While a curfew imposed last weekend remains in force, it has been progressively eased through the week, in a sign of the Hasina government’s confidence that order was gradually being restored.
Telecommunications minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak told reporters the country’s mobile internet network would be restored later on Sunday, 11 days after a nationwide blackout imposed at the height of the unrest.
Fixed line broadband connections had already been restored on Tuesday but the vast majority of Bangladesh’s 141 million internet users rely on their mobile devices to connect with the world, according to the national telecoms regulator.
Jobs crisis
Protests began this month over the reintroduction of a quota plan reserving more than half of all government jobs for certain groups.
With around 18 million young Bangladeshis out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute employment crisis.
Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to the ruling Awami League.
The Supreme Court cut the number of reserved jobs last week but fell short of protesters’ demands to scrap the quotas entirely.
Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.
Her government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.
Protests had remained largely peaceful until attacks by police and pro-government student groups on demonstrators last week.
…