CounterCurrents: Global Tax Havens or Havens For Dirty Money, Another Secular Blogger Killed In Bangladesh, Four People Killed In Bangladesh Protesting A Coal Power Plant

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Binu Mathew
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www.countercurrents.org

Another Secular Blogger Killed In Bangladesh
By Countercurrents.org

http://www.countercurrents.org/cc080416.htm

Attackers in Bangladesh wielding machetes killed a liberal blogger on Thursday, the latest in series of murders of secular activists. Postgraduate law student Nazimuddin Samad, 28, was attacked as he was returning from a class at his university in the capital, Dhaka. Three or four men attacked Samad with machetes and then shot him after he fell to the ground. Samad was critical of radical Islamists and used to campaign for secularism on Facebook


Four People Killed In Bangladesh Protesting A Coal Power Plant 
By National Committee on Bashkhali Killing

http://www.countercurrents.org/ncb080416.htm

Four people, including two brothers, were killed at Gandamara village in Banshkhali upazila, Bangladesh during a demonstration against the construction of a coal-based power plant there


Waiting for Allah’s ‘Bichar’ (Justice): A Despairing Note On 
Bangladesh’s Politicized, Inept And Corrupt Criminal Justice System
By M. Adil Khan

http://www.countercurrents.org/mak080416.htm

In recent times Bangladesh has witnessed a rising spate in cases of unsolved rape, murder, kidnapping, enforced disappearances of political opponents, extrajudicial killings, plunder of national assets etc. etc. As a result people have lost faith in the government in general and its criminal justice system in particular such that most now believe that police and the criminal justice system is more of a source than solution to their safety and security


I’m A Former President Of The Jewish Society. BDS Is Not Anti-Semitic 
By Keziah Berelson

http://www.countercurrents.org/berelson080416.htm

As a Modern Orthodox Jew, a recent graduate from the University of Edinburgh and a former President of the University’s Jewish Society, (2012/13), I congratulate the student body’s decision to pass a motion of BDS. This is a victory for minority rights and democracy at the University. BDS is a non-violent campaign called for by over 170 Palestinian civil society organisations which use the methods of boycott, divestment and sanctions from institutions and companies who benefit from and contribute to Palestinian oppression in order to pressure the Israeli state to operate within the boundaries set by international law


Global Tax Havens or Havens For Dirty Money 
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali

http://www.countercurrents.org/ghazali080416.htm

Gabriel Zucman, the author of the 2015 book “The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens,” estimates that $7.6 trillion is stashed in tax havens. This amounts to 8 percent of the world’s personal financial wealth. The author believes that if all of this illegally hidden money were properly recorded and taxed, global tax revenues would grow by more than $200 billion a year


US Seeks To Develop Close Military Ties With Sri Lanka 
By Vijith Samarasinghe

http://www.countercurrents.org/samarasinghe080416.htm

The US Navy’s Seventh Fleet Flagship, USS Blue Ridge, arrived in Colombo on March 26 for a five-day visit, with 900 sailors on board. This is the first time in five years that a US navy vessel has docked in Colombo. Marking the event, the Seventh Fleet command said the visit aimed to “build new ties and promote peace and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific.” Part of the US Pacific command, the Seventh Fleet is the largest of the US Navy and conducts “forward deployed naval operations in support of US national interests in the Indo-Asia Pacific area.” Far from being a symbolic gesture of goodwill between the two nations, the ship’s visit is part of the close integration of Sri Lanka into the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia” directed against China


HCU In Custody - Part 1

http://www.countercurrents.org/hcu080416.htm

The events at the University of Hyderabad on March 22 following the return of Prof. Podile Appa Rao as its Vice Chancellor have been well documented. 27 people including students, faculty and an independent documentary maker were arrested by the police, and subsequently charged with various criminal sections including Damage to Public Property, Causing Hurt with a Dangerous Weapon, Rioting and Criminal Intimidation. Accounts by reporters and others who met the arrested individuals suggested arbitrary arrest and unlawful treatment by the police amounting to police brutality in some cases. In this video, the first of a series, some of those arrested recount their own experiences in police custody


The Undemocratic Means Of A Democratic State 
By Muneeb Yousuf

http://www.countercurrents.org/yousuf080416.htm

Even after six decades of turmoil and violence, Kashmir is witnessing a new form of violence that seems to be much more potent and lethal. Several recent reports have suggested that more educated youths have joined militancy which has serious consequences on the polity and stability of Kashmir. India has considerably and continuously failed in providing a healthy and peaceful environment which an "integral area" deserves