DHAKA (AFP) – Several children were among hundreds of people held in secret detention centres in Bangladesh, a commission investigating enforced disappearances carried out during the tenure of now deposed premier Sheikh Hasina revealed yesterday.
At least half a dozen children spent months in black site jails with their mothers, the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances said in its preliminary report, saying babies were even used as leverage during interrogations, including denying them milk.
Dhaka has issued arrest warrants including on charges of crimes against humanity for 77-year-old Hasina, who fled to India in August 2024 after she was toppled by a student-led revolution. Hasina’s government was accused of widespread human rights abuses, including the extrajudicial killing of hundreds of political opponents and the unlawful abduction and disappearance of hundreds more.
The commission said it had detailed “multiple verified cases where women were disappeared along with their children”, including as recently as 2023.
It highlighted a case where a pregnant woman – held along with her two young children – was beaten in a detention centre.
“This was not an isolated case,” the report stated.
The commission said one witness showed investigators the room in the detention site she had been held in as a child with her mother, run by the much-feared paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion’s (RAB).
“Her mother never returned”, the report read. In another incident, a couple and their baby were detained, with the child starved of mother’s milk “as a form of psychological torture” to pressure the father.
When in power, Hasina’s government denied committing enforced disappearances, claiming some of those reported missing had drowned in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe.
The commission said around 200 Bangladeshis abducted by security forces are still missing.
Committee member Sazzad Hossain said that while some victims could not pinpoint the exact officers who tortured them, their testimonies would be used to identify the forces involved.
File photo shows family members of people “disappeared” campaign for their return outside the Shaheed Minar in Dhaka, Bangladesh. PHOTO: AFP
BERNAMA/DPA – As long as you pick up some trash, too, you can glide along rivers and canals in Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Japan and Germany, thanks to an idea born in Copenhagen.
Called Green Kayak, people are kitted out with green boats and equipped with a large bucket and two litter pickers.
They are also handed maps of the waterways, showing where protected birds or plants should be avoided.
After each tour, their litter pickings are weighed and recorded. Germany is currently expanding the project which is established in Berlin, Hamburg, and Leipzig and is set to grow into Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia.
It is working. A stroll along Leipzig’s waterways reveals remarkably clean waters – thanks to Green Kayak volunteers who have been paddling through the city’s rivers and canals for some time now.
Volunteers are kitted out with green boats and equipped with a large bucket and two litter pickers. PHOTO: BERNAMA/DPA
Birgit Paul from the association for the Economy for the Common Good Central Germany started the project in Leipzig in May and is delighted with the progress so far.
“In the first two months, 116 paddlers collected 206 kilogrammes (kg) of litter,” she said. There were particularly rich pickings while Germany was hosting the European football tournament. Leipzig was one of 10 host cities, with fans visiting from around the world.
Volunteers mainly collected bottles, cans, and plastic packaging from the water. “There was really a lot to do,” said Paul.
Leipzig city officials reckon 20 to 25 tonnes of litter accumulate and need to be disposed of in the area’s medium-sized bodies of water every year.
That quantity could rise as city administrators say littering has increased in recent years. The association for the Economy for the Common Good Central Germany plans to offer more boats in Dresden and Halle next year, and in Jena the following year – with all three cities looking forward to supporting the project.
But money is needed first. The association needs sponsors before it can put boats in Dresden, Halle, Jena and beyond.
“In Halle, we want to station two boats and in Dresden preferably two to four,” Paul said.
Oke Carstensen, 33, co-founder of the Danish NGO Green Kayak, who started the project in 2017 with a friend after completing his master’s degree in Copenhagen, is pleased about Leipzig’s progress.
“Not bad at all for a completely new city. The high demand really pleasantly surprised us,” he said.
Getting started in Oslo was much harder, he said.
“In the first few years, we didn’t have as many people on the water there.”
Overall, Carstensen said, most locations see some 20 tonnes of litter collected annually. In Berlin, about 1,900kg of litter were collected from the water in 2023.
Most of the trash is consumer products such as plastic packaging or cigarette butts.
“But we have also already pulled bicycles, e-scooters, or even jewellery out of the water,” he said. Clothing items are also not uncommon.
The project aims to bring people together from different social backgrounds to use the kayaks for free, Carstensen said.
“It is important to us that the offer is and remains free so that anyone who wants to commit to the environment can actively participate.”
After all, litter is caused by people and the environment does not distinguish between rich and poor.
Youngsters too can get involved, Paul said. The Economy for the Common Good Central Germany is working with schools and a children’s restaurant in eastern Leipzig, “to introduce children to the topic of environmental protection in a simple way.”
AP – In January 1981, Jimmy Carter nodded politely toward Ronald Reagan as the new Republican president thanked the Democrat for his administration’s help after Reagan resoundingly defeated Carter the previous November. Twenty years earlier, after a much closer race, Republican Richard Nixon clasped John F Kennedy’s hand and offered the new Democratic president a word of encouragement.
The United States (US) has a long tradition of defeated presidential candidates sharing the inauguration stage with the people who defeated them, projecting to the world the orderly transfer of power. It’s a practice that Vice President Kamala Harris resumed on January 20 after an eight-year hiatus.
Only once in the television era – with its magnifying effect on a losing candidate’s expression – has a defeated candidate skipped the exercise.
That candidate, former President Donald Trump, left for Florida after a failed effort to overturn his loss based on false or unfounded theories of voter fraud.
Below are examples of episodes that have featured a losing candidate in a rite that Reagan called “nothing short of a miracle.”
Deciding to skip President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, outgoing President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump depart Washington en route to his Mar-a-Lago Florida Resort, at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland on January 20, 2021. PHOTO: APFormer Vice President Richard Nixon shakes hands with President John F Kennedy at the end of Kennedy’s inauguration in Washington on June 20, 1961. PHOTO: APFile photo shows outgoing President George Bush, far right, accompanied by President-elect Bill Clinton, depart the White House for Capitol Hill to attend the swearing in ceremony of Clinton as the nation’s 42nd president, in Washington on January 20, 1993. PHOTO: APVice President Al Gore, far right, who conceded to Republican George W Bush after 36 days of legal battling over Florida’s ballots, looks on as Bush is sworn in as the 43rd president of the United States, outside the US Capitol in Washington on January 20, 2001. PHOTO: AP
2001: AL GORE AND GEORGE W BUSH
Democrat Al Gore conceded to Republican George W Bush after 36 days of legal battling over Florida’s ballots ended with a divided Supreme Court ruling to end the recount.
But Gore, the sitting vice president, would join Bush on the west steps of the Capitol a month later as the Texas governor was sworn in. After Bush took the oath, he and Gore shook hands, spoke briefly and smiled before Gore returned to his seat clapping along to the presidential anthem, “Hail to the Chief.”
A disappointed Gore accepted the outcome and his role in demonstrating continuity of governance, former Gore campaign spokeswoman Kiki McLean said.
“He may have wished, ‘I wish that was me standing there,’” McLean said. “But I don’t think Gore for one minute ever doubted he should be there in his capacity as vice president.”
2017: HILLARY CLINTON AND DONALD TRUMP
Democrat Hillary Clinton was candid about her disappointment in losing to Trump in 2016, when – like Gore against Bush – she received more votes but failed to win an Electoral College majority. “Obviously, I was crushed,” she told Howard Stern on his radio show in 2019.
Calling Inauguration Day “one of the hardest days of my life,” Clinton said she planned to attend Trump’s swearing-in out of a sense of duty, having been First Lady during her husband’s presidency from 1993 to 2001. “You put on the best face possible,” Clinton said on Stern’s show.
2021: MIKE PENCE (WITH TRUMP ABSENT) AND JOE BIDEN
Trump four years ago claimed without evidence that his loss to President Joe Biden was marred by widespread fraud. Two weeks earlier, Trump supporters had stormed the Capitol in a violent siege aimed at halting the electoral vote certification. Instead, then-Vice President Mike Pence was the face of the outgoing administration.
“Sure, it was awkward,” Pence’s former chief of staff Marc Short said. Still, Pence and his wife met privately with Biden and his wife to congratulate them in the Capitol before the ceremony, and escorted newly sworn-in Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband out of the Capitol afterward, as tradition had prescribed, Short said.
1993: GEORGE HW BUSH AND BILL CLINTON
Bush stood on the Capitol’s west steps three times for his swearing-in – as vice president twice and in 1989 to be inaugurated as president. He would attend again in 1993 in defeat. He joined Bill Clinton, the Democrat who beat him, on the traditional walk out onto the east steps. Bush would return triumphantly to the inaugural ceremony eight years later as the father of Clinton’s successor, George W Bush.
1961: RICHARD NIXON AND JOHN F KENNEDY
Nixon had just lost the 1960 election by fewer than 120,000 votes in what was the closest presidential contest in 44 years.
But the departing vice president approached Kennedy with a wide grin, a handshake and an audible “good luck” just seconds after the winning Democrat’s swearing-in.
Nixon would have to wait eight years to be sworn in as president, while his losing Democratic opponent – outgoing Vice President Hubert Humphrey – looked on.
He was inaugurated a second time after winning reelection in 1972, only to resign after the Watergate scandal.
1933: HERBERT HOOVER AND FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT
Like Bush, Hoover would attend just one inauguration as a new president before losing to a Democrat four years later.
But Democrat Franklin Roosevelt’s 1933 swearing-in would not be Hoover’s last.
Hoover would live for another 31 years, see four more presidents sworn in, and sit in places of honour at the two inaugurations of Republican Dwight D Eisenhower.
1897: GROVER CLEVELAND AND BENJAMIN HARRISON
Cleveland, the sitting Democratic president, lost reelection in 1888 while winning more popular votes than former Indiana Senator Benjamin Harrison.
But Cleveland still managed to hold Harrison’s umbrella while the Republican was sworn in during a rainy 1889 inauguration.
Elected to a second, non-consecutive term in 1892, Cleveland, however, would stand solemnly behind William McKinley four years later at the Republican’s 1897 inauguration, leaving the presidency that day after losing the 1896 nomination of his own party.
Cleveland was the only president to win two non-consecutive terms until Trump’s victory in November. – Thomas Beaumont
PASADENA (AFP) – When Serena Null saw the flames roaring toward her family home in the Los Angeles suburb of Altadena, she ran to find her pet Domino, but the cat eluded her grasp.
“We could see the fire from the front door, and so we just didn’t have enough time, and we had to leave him,” the 27-year-old Null said.
The ferocious blaze reduced her mother-in-law’s house to ashes, and a search of the blackened rubble the following day proved fruitless. Null feared she would never see her green-eyed friend again.
But on Friday, to her amazement, she and Domino were reunited.
“I just was so relieved and just so happy that he was here,” a tearful Null told AFP outside the NGO Pasadena Humane, where Domino – suffering singed paws, a burnt nose and a high level of stress – had been taken after being rescued.
ABOVE & BELOW: Dogs rescued after the Eaton fire are housed at an animal shelter in Pasadena, California; and a rescued cat sits in an office of the shelter. PHOTO: AFPPHOTO: AFPErick Rico and Jaylene Rosalez are reunited with their chihuahua. PHOTO: AFPSerena Null is reunited with her cat Domino. PHOTO: AFPA rescued parrot sits in a cage. PHOTO: AFPRescued rabbits at the shelter. PHOTO: AFP
Domino is one of several hundred pets brought to the centre as the Eaton fire roared through Altadena, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes in such a rush that many left with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Pasadena Humane was accustomed to dealing with crises, but the sudden explosion in demand was without precedent.
“We’ve never had to take 350 at once in one day before,” said the centre’s Kevin McManus. “It’s been really overwhelming.”
Many animals were delivered by their owners, who had lost their homes and had to find temporary housing for pets while they themselves stayed in hotels or shelters.
But others were brought by rescue workers and volunteers. The centre says on its website that when it receives a report of a pet left behind, it sends “search and rescue teams as quickly as possible in areas that are safe to enter.”
The centre opened up as much space as it could to accommodate the influx, even placing some pets in offices.
And it was not just dogs and cats, McManus said. There were species rarely seen in an animal shelter – like a pony, which spent a night in the centre.
More than 10 days after the fires began raging through Los Angeles, the centre still houses some 400 animals, including rabbits, turtles, lizards and birds, including a huge green, red and blue macaw.
Many of the pets’ owners, still without permanent housing, come to the centre to visit their animal friends – people like Winston Ekpo, who came to see his three German shepherds, Salt, Pepper and Sugar.
As firefighters in the area make progress, many animal owners are able to come and recover their pets, tears of sadness turning to tears of joy.
The centre’s website posts photos of recovered animals, including information on the time and place where they were rescued.
McManus said some 250 pets have so far been returned to their owners.
One of them, curiously, was Bombon, who had actually been lost long before the fires.
The Chihuahua mix went missing from its Altadena home in November, said 23-year-old Erick Rico.
He had begun to resign himself to never seeing Bombon again.
Then one day a friend told him he had seen a picture on the Pasadena Humane website that caught his attention.
When Rico saw it, he was so excited he couldn’t sleep that night – “it looked exactly like him,” he said – and he arrived at the centre early the following morning.
When he saw his owners, Bombon “started crying a lot, wagging his tail and everything. He was very, very happy.”
After the painful days of uncertainty, Rico too finally felt relief. “Now I’m just happy that he’s back home.”
ANN/THE JAPAN NEWS – Over the weekend, baby Asian short-clawed otters were spotted dashing around with boundless energy in their exhibit at Tokushima Zoo in Tokushima.
The quintuplet pups – three males and two females – measure between 35 and 50 centimetres in length and were born in October last year. This marks a significant moment for the zoo, as it’s the first time in 24 years that this species has successfully bred there.
When the pups appeared with their mother, visitors at the zoo cheered, calling out, “So cute!” and “So small!”
The five followed their mother around and put fallen leaves in their mouths, while visitors took pictures of the adorable little stars.
Baby otters at the Tokushima Zoo in Japan. PHOTO: THE JAPAN NEWS
NASHVILLE (AP) – Draft lyrics to Bob Dylan’s song Mr Tambourine Man went for over a half-million dollars as part of a weekend sale of dozens of items related to the iconic American singer-songwriter.
About 60 Dylan items – including photos, music sheets, his guitar, pencil drawings and an oil painting composed by the Nobel Prize for literature winner – were sold on Saturday in Nashville, Tennessee, through Julien’s Auctions.
The items generated nearly USD1.5 million in sales overall through in-person and online bidding, the auction house said. Julien’s said 50 of the items, including the lyrics that received the highest sale price, came from the personal collection of late music journalist Al Aronowitz.
The typewritten lyrics, which covered three drafts of the 1965 song, were written on two sheets of yellow paper, with Dylan’s annotation on the third draft.
Dylan wrote the original draft lyrics in the journalist’s New Jersey home, according to Julien’s, citing a 1973 newspaper article by Aronowitz.
The third draft, while close to the final version, still had significant variations from the final lyrics, the auction house said on its website.
The song appeared as the lead track on the acoustic side of his 1965 Bringing It All BackHome album and was the first Dylan composition to reach No. 1 in the United States and the United Kingdom, Julien’s said.
Other high-selling items included a 1968 Dylan-signed oil-on-canvas painting for USD260,000 and a custom 1983 Fender guitar that he owned and played for USD225,000.
Bob Dylan’s lyrics for famed song ‘Blowing in the Wind’. PHOTO: JULIEN’S AUCTIONS
TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba yesterday congratulated Donald Trump on his return to the White House and said he wanted to build a “relationship of trust”.
Japan and the United States (US) are key defence allies and each other’s top foreign investors, but businesses and diplomats are bracing themselves for potential changes under Trump.
During his first term Trump had pressed US allies to increase defence spending, and this time has threatened them with trade tariffs.
Ishiba told reporters that it appears the new US president “prefers bilateral frameworks over multilateral frameworks” for dealmaking.
“I would like to establish a relationship of trust through sincere discussions centring on how we can make the most of our bilateral relationship,” he said, pledging to keep the national interests of Japan and the US in mind.
Earlier yesterday, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said Ishiba had sent a congratulatory letter to Trump.
In the letter, Ishiba “expressed that he would like to work closely to further strengthen the Japan-US relations and to realise a free and open Indo-Pacific”, it said.
Japanese businesses meanwhile urged Trump to engage with them after previous president Joe Biden blocked a bid by Nippon Steel to buy US Steel.
“I hope the US government will adopt policies that foster predictability and encourage businesses to invest with confidence,” chair of the Japan Business Federation Masakazu Tokura said in a statement.
The group, Japan’s largest business lobby, said nearly a million US jobs had been created by Japanese investment.
Citing national security concerns, Biden blocked Nippon Steel’s USD14.9 billion acquisition of US Steel earlier this month, a highly unusual move that irked officials in Tokyo.
Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya attended Trump’s inauguration on Monday and is seeking to hold a meeting with newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Ishiba said Iwaya was “paving the way” for a meeting between himself and Trump.
Iwaya also met separately in Washington with his counterparts from India and Australia, which partner with Japan and the US in the “Quad” four-way framework for security in the Asia-Pacific.
BERNAMA – North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Chief Mark Rutte and European Union (EU) leaders congratulated United States (US) President Donald Trump on his return to the White House, expressing hopes for strengthened transatlantic ties, Anadolu Agency reported.
“We will turbo-charge defence spending and production,” Rutte said, referencing Trump’s push for Europe to increase its military capabilities.
“My warm congratulations to @realDonaldTrump. Together we can achieve peace through strength – through @NATO,” he wrote on X.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc looks forward to working closely with Trump. “Together, our societies can achieve greater prosperity and strengthen their common security. This is the enduring strength of the transatlantic partnership,” she posted.
European Council President Antonio Costa and European Parliament President Roberta Metsola also expressed best wishes, with Metsola stating, “Europe stands ready to work together as friends and partners, to shape a world of stability, opportunity and hope.”
EU Foreign Policy Chief Kaja Kallas echoed similar sentiments, saying, “Together, we are stronger and safer to tackle global challenges.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the US Germany’s closest ally, reaffirming that “the EU, with 27 members and more than 400 million people, is a strong union”. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer extended “warmest congratulations” in a video message, assuring that “the special relationship between the United Kingdom and the US will continue to flourish for years to come”.
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris highlighted the peaceful transition of power said, “As the torch of democracy passes peacefully, I send my very best wishes to President Trump and the people of the US.”
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis emphasised the “strong and vibrant #Transatlantic link”, while Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof lauded “long-standing historic ties” with the US.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed eagerness to “strengthen the strategic relationship” between their nations.
The flags of alliance members outside the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. PHOTO: AP
LJUBLJANA (AFP) – At least one miner died and two others are missing after water and silt flooded a coal mine in Slovenia, authorities said yesterday.
Rescue teams continued their search after the accident late Monday at the Premogovnik Velenje mine, around 75 kilometres northeast of the capital Ljubljana.
“When the flooding happened there were 14 people working in the mine. Three of them did not leave the mine and were missing” before a first body was recovered overnight, the mine said.
“The chances for finding them alive are slim,” the mine’s Director Marko Mavec was quoted as saying by the STA news agency.
An investigation into the cause of the accident has been opened but the mine said in its statement that “despite all security measures such events cannot be predicted”.
It was the first deadly accident at the Velenje coal mine since 2003, when two miners were killed. Prime Minister Robert Golob was expected to travel to the mine.
LONDON (AP) – United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister Keir Starmer said yesterday that the killing of three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class must lead to “fundamental change” in how the British state protects citizens.
Starmer said the government must also answer “tough questions” about how authorities failed to stop a violence-obsessed teenager before he stabbed three young girls to death in the seaside town of Southport in July.
In a televised statement, the prime minister said that a public inquiry would tackle failings in the case of Axel Rudakubana, who injured another eight children, their instructor and a passer-by.
“The tragedy of the Southport killings must be a line in the sand for Britain,” Starmer said.
Rudakubana, 18, unexpectedly changed his pleas to guilty on Monday, the first day of his trial at Liverpool Crown Court. He is due to be sentenced tomorrow.
His guilty plea means that details that had been withheld from the public to try to ensure a fair trial can now be reported. They include the fact that Rudakubana was referred three times to the government’s anti-extremism programme, Prevent, when he was 13 and 14, and was in contact with multiple state agencies – all of whom failed to spot the danger he posed.
The killings in Southport in northwest England triggered days of anti-immigrant violence across the country after far-right activists seized on incorrect reports that the attacker was an asylum-seeker.
United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer. PHOTO: AFP
