Combine the seven colours of the rainbow and you get white light. That's not to say that combine all the rainbow flags and you get white.

A lot has been reported over the past couple of weeks about the escalating tension in the Korean Peninsula. As the western media demonises North Korea, one gets the impression that it is led by a “crazy fat kid” (Kim Jong-Un, 33), who is ready to go to war with America.

in order to properly regulate our system of democracy through the concept of “checks and balances,” citizens also have the complete right, and responsibility even, to demand from the government, transparency and accountability to the fullest. It is about time that the citizens of this country exercised that right, and took responsibility, for establishing the practice of good governance.

Some years ago, at a tea party in our home, an English friend devoured five samosas and exclaimed: “I just love these "triangular starters"—you must share the recipe with me!” The guests laughed, relishing the quaint nomenclature for a samosa—a South Asian

After taking the vitals of my mother, the nurse at this hospital in Bangkok, Thailand asks me in a soothing melody: “Yoll mathall blood pleshull high flom walkeeng to this loom?”

The fact remains that India has been wary in settling the border issues, despite having many negotiations with China over the past decades. Some experts believe that this standoff will be a long-haul affair. So far it has been a war of words between Delhi and Beijing—no shots have been fired.

On the very day that the world was observing the International Human Rights Day in 2012, a poor man was denied the basic right guaranteed to all human beings under God—right to life. Biswajit was a victim of depraved politics, killed brutally by some members of the student wing of the ruling party.

At the crux of the debate is the concept of separation of powers and specifically the independence of the judicial organ of the state. It also brings to the fore the aspect of immutability of some features of the Constitution.

A truly civilised country is one in which abiding by laws and good practice is seen as a personal responsibility of each and every citizen rather than for authorities to enforce. It may seem like a far-fetched idea for Bangladesh at this point in time but it is worth retaining that aspiration as part of our long-term plans.

Having dropped the A-bomb on Hiroshima, Brigadier-General Paul Warfield Tibbets Junior—pilot of the first plane (Enola Gay) to drop the atomic bomb—said to have blinked from the flash behind his goggles. When he opened his eyes to look down, what he saw, he described as “a peep into hell.”

It had been heralded last month that Bangladesh has moved up two notches in FIFA ranking. Wow! You sit up to bask in the glory that we could be, say thirty-forty places behind Germany or Brazil, Spain if you fancy Flamenco, because in a classroom situation that's how at worse fares the untalented, inattentive and unruly student. They make great “politicians” though.

Even after long seventy years of the most catastrophic event of the last century, the jury is still out on whether the bombings of the two Japanese cities were justified, morally or strategically.

"If in the past India lacked capital, a developed manufacturing sector and skilled manufacturing workers, the foreign manufacturing inflow is now helping India address the problem, backing up the government's 'Make in India' initiative."

I‘m a frequent and solo flier without the privilege of pre-boarding as a business class passenger.

We hope that instead of a knee-jerk reaction, the present ruling leadership will see the merit of the criticisms made and do their own homework so that all the vital organs of our constitution can work together and establish a functional state under law.

The finance minister would have us believe that corruption has so pervaded the entire society that it has rendered all of us more or less corrupt. Our finance minister is known for his broadsides and interesting utterances at various times during his long tenure in the job, which sometimes have been a cause of embarrassment for him and his party. This may be one such comment.

A critical examination of our trade balance with Japan brings in a few interesting statistics. While the Japanese import of apparel had shrunk to JPY 2,910 billion in 2016, Bangladesh remained amongst the top four exporting countries.

This newspaper has very rightly commented that the government's decision to start a permanent prosecution service by employing professional lawyers is a welcome move. In every criminal prosecution, the State is the complainant on behalf of the aggrieved people and it is thus only proper that public interests do not go by default on account of extraneous factors.

Nawaz's detractors have been celebrating the court verdict. But is it really a triumph for the people of Pakistan? There are completely opposing viewpoints with some calling it independent judiciary in a democracy while others trashing judicial activism describing it as the death knell of democracy.

What do you do when someone infantilises you because you're a young(ish) woman? There were men in that room with the same credentials as I. Did anyone ask them if they were teaching assistants?