Friday, October 9

Tag: Featured

Gaunt, hoarse and haunted: Tony Blair looked a broken man
7Jul By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, United Kingdom

Gaunt, hoarse and haunted: Tony Blair looked a broken man

    Editor’s note: The opinions in this article are the author’s, as published by our content partner, and do not represent the views of MSN or Microsoft. Tony Blair was sorrowful. But he wasn’t sorry. He apologised for “the mistakes in planning and process”. He apologised for relying “too much on the assurances I was given”. He apologised “for the mistakes in intelligence, even though I’m not responsible for that”. Anything else? “It would have been better to have more formal options papers presented to Cabinet at certain points.” But he wouldn’t apologise for the invasion of Iraq itself. He still believed it had been “the right thing to do”. He still believed he would take the same decision again, in the same circumstances, with the same information. And he still believed – ...
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Blair faces legal action after scathing Iraq war report
6Jul By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, United Kingdom

Blair faces legal action after scathing Iraq war report

    Demonstrators outside the Queen Elizabeth II centre vent their anger about the Iraq War Announcing a two-day House of Commons debate on the report next week, Prime Minister David Cameron - who voted for war in 2003 - said it was important to "really learn the lessons for the future" and to improve the workings of government, the decisions it arrives at, and its reading of legal advice. Sir John took no questions from the press following a televised statement in Westminster, which took place as anti-war campaigners outside chanted "Tony Blair - war criminal". His report acknowledged that the initial campaign to overthrow Saddam was successful and praised the "great courage" of service personnel and civilians involved during and after the invasion, which led to the deaths o...
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News Analysis: Why disgraceful death of our boys
6Jul By Sumon AdminNo Comments
Bangladesh, ENGLISH

News Analysis: Why disgraceful death of our boys

Shakhawat Liton: The dangerous fate of Fahim, Rohan, Mubasher and Nibras shows how our youths are becoming weapons of destruction if they are brainwashed and transformed into militants. Faizullah Fahim, who was killed in a so-called “gunfight” with police on June 18, was an accused of attempting to murder a Madaripur college teacher by hacking him. The 18-year-old disappeared in the middle of his HSC exam and travelled to Madaripur from Dhaka to kill the Hindu teacher. His father filed a “missing person” diary with a police station in the capital on June 11, but found him only after he was dead. Shocked by the untimely demise of his son, Golam Faruk said his son was brainwashed by some unknown persons. Two weeks later, we found three more youths who in a similar fashion had gone missing be...
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Muslims prepare for joyous Eid festival
6Jul By Sumon AdminNo Comments
Bangladesh, ENGLISH

Muslims prepare for joyous Eid festival

    The holy month of Ramadan will end on July 6, when over 1.6 billion Muslims around the world will celebrate the end of the fasting month with the festival of Eid. Ramadan was marked by violence this year, with a series of terrorist attacks at several areas dominated by Muslims. On July 5, a suicide attack outside the Saudi city of Medina—the resting place of the Prophet Mohammed and the second-most holy site in Islam—killed at least four security officers and injured five others. This was just two days after 125 Ramadan shoppers were killed and around 150 injured when a car bomb exploded on a busy street in Baghdad, Iraq. And on July 1, at least 20 people were killed by gunmen in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka after a 10-hour-long hostage situation at an upmarket cafe in...
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Legal case for Britain’s 2003 Iraq invasion unsatisfactory: UK inquiry
6Jul By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, United Kingdom

Legal case for Britain’s 2003 Iraq invasion unsatisfactory: UK inquiry

    Britain's decision to go to war with Iraq in 2003 had a "far from satisfactory" legal basis and ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair's case for military action was over-hyped, a long-awaited inquiry into the conflict concluded on Wednesday. The intelligence about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction which Blair used to justify joining the US-led invasion, which led to the removal of Saddam Hussein and the deaths of 179 British soldiers, was flawed but went unchallenged, inquiry chairman John Chilcot said. There was no imminent threat from Saddam in March 2003 and the chaos in Iraq and the region which followed should also have been foreseen, he added. "The inquiry has not expressed a view on whether military action was legal," Chilcot told reporters and relatives of some o...
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Forget Brexit: Italy is poised to tear Europe apart
6Jul By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, Europe

Forget Brexit: Italy is poised to tear Europe apart

    Italy is on the cusp of tearing Europe apart but the economic and political crisis brewing in the nation is largely going unnoticed. All eyes have turned to Britain's vote to leave the European Union as having the most drastic political and economic impact onto the 28-nation state but if you look at the country's economic data, bank issues, and the impending constitutional referendum coming up, Italy is like a bomb waiting to explode. The Italian financial system, which to put it gently, is in a major state of flux right now. While Britain's EU referendum in June was seismic in terms of having economic and political repercussions across the bloc, there is another referendum of equal importance, coming up in Italy in October, and the result could fundamentally alter the sta...
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Britain is plunging towards an economic nightmare and it isn’t just because of Brexit
5Jul By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, United Kingdom

Britain is plunging towards an economic nightmare and it isn’t just because of Brexit

    On Monday morning, Markit released its latest set of data on the state of the UK’s construction sector, and to say things didn't look good would be an understatement. The sector slipped into contraction for the first time since April 2013, hitting just 46.o, a shock fall from an already poor base last month, and the biggest single month fall since 2009. All this helped confirm fears about a coming crash in the UK's construction industry. Generally speaking, Markit doesn’t make grand proclamations and or use strong language about its data, but on Monday representatives from both Markit and CIPS, which jointly produced the survey, variously said that "the rate of decline was not as sharp as that experienced during the last recession" and called the data "a clear warning flag...
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Standard Life shuts property fund amid rush of Brexit withdrawals
5Jul By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, United Kingdom

Standard Life shuts property fund amid rush of Brexit withdrawals

    Investors in Standard Life’s property funds have been told that they cannot withdraw their money, after the firm acted to stop a rush of withdrawals following the UK’s decision to leave the EU. The firm halted trading on its Standard Life Investments UK Real Estate Fund and associated funds at midday on Monday, citing “exceptional market circumstances” for the decision. It said the suspension would remain in place until it is “practicable” to lift it, and that it would review the decision at least every 28 days. The £2.9bn fund, which invests in commercial properties including shopping centres, warehouses and offices, is thought to be the first UK property fund to suspend trading since the 2007-2009 financial crisis, when some of the biggest names in investment management ...
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Islamic State declares war on Malaysia and Indonesia
5Jul By Sumon AdminNo Comments
Asia, ENGLISH

Islamic State declares war on Malaysia and Indonesia

    A gun-toting adult is surrounded by children, and a teen standing away from the group is seen cradling an AK-47 assault rifle. The man is wagging his right index finger back and forth, and talks in a mix of Bahasa Malaysia and what sounded like Arabic. He expresses gratitude to Allah for “easing our journey and jihad” and for appointing them as “soldiers of Tawhid (The Oneness of God)”. He called out to the authorities of the nusantara (archipelago) – especially in Malaysia and Indonesia. “Know this ... we are no longer your citizens, and have liberated ourselves from you,” he said as the camera panned to show a goateed man nearby holding another Malaysian passport. “With His permission and His assistance, we will come to you with a military force that you cannot overcome....
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Second EU referendum would be legal, former attorney general says
5Jul By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, United Kingdom

Second EU referendum would be legal, former attorney general says

    Dominic Grieve A second EU referendum could be justified if it becomes clear public opinion has shifted strongly against Brexit, the former attorney general has said. Dominic Grieve, a Conservative MP who was the Government’s chief legal advisor until 2014, said the result of the first referendum had to be “treated with respect” but that it was not necessarily set in stone. In correspondence seen and verified by The Independent Mr Grieve tells a constituent that the result of the first referendum cannot be ignored, but that a second plebiscite could become democratically justifiable. “We have to accept … that the referendum result represents, at the time it was held, a clear statement of a majority view that we should leave the EU,” he wrote. “In a democracy such a result ...
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