
Battle for Aleppo and Five-year-old Omran Daqneesh
Battle for Aleppo: Photo of shocked and bloodied Syrian five-year-old sparks outrage
A photograph of a dazed and bloodied Syrian boy rescued from a destroyed building in Aleppo after an air strike has caused outrage around the world.
Images of the boy sitting in an ambulance were released by activists and have since been shared widely on social media. He was identified as five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, who was treated for head wounds on Wednesday, doctors said. His parents and three siblings are believed to have survived the attack.
- ‘The world has turned its back on Syria’
- Aleppo medics tell of despair
- Why the battle for Aleppo matters
- Key battleground: Aleppo, Syria’s second city
The pro-opposition Aleppo Media Centre said the pictures of Omran had been taken in the rebel-held Qaterji district late on Wednesday, reportedly following Russian air strikes that killed at least three people and injured 12 others.
The video shows the boy being carried out of a damaged building by a medic and then placed on a seat in the back of an ambulance, covered in dust and with a blood-covered face. Omran is then left sitting quietly, appearing stunned by the ordeal. He runs his hand over his face and looks at the blood before wiping it on the seat.
Omran’s picture has already led to comparisons with another disturbing image, that of three-year-old Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi whose body was washed up on a Turkish beach after his family attempted to cross to Greece.
More to click Aleppo & Omran Daqneesh,

Fellowship, Award and Grant for Student and Journalists
Science Journalism Student Award
Description
The Science Journalism Student Award enables students pursuing a science or medical journalism degree to attend the SfN annual meeting. Two awards are granted each year. Recipients are assigned a mentor who is an experienced professional journalist covering the annual meeting. SfN makes every effort to pair awardees with a mentor based on mutual interests in print or broadcast journalism. SfN media staff are also available to advise award recipients how to navigate and report on the meeting.
Eligibility
- Open to both undergraduate and graduate students who are enrolled in or have recently completed (within the past calendar year) formal education in science or medical journalism;
- Formal education in general journalism and can adequately demonstrate the intent to primarily cover science or medicine;
- Formal education in a scientific or medical field and can adequately demonstrate the intent to primarily cover science or medicine.
Deadline: 16 September 2016
Open to: both undergraduate and graduate students who are enrolled in or have recently completed (within the past calendar year) formal education in science or medical journalism
Fellowship
- Recipients get complimentary meeting registration;
- Four nights lodging;
- USD 750 to help defray the expenses of attending the meeting
More to click Science Journalism Student Award
Applications Open: Ochberg Fellowship
The Ochberg Fellowship, now in its 18th year, is the Dart Center’s flagship program for veteran and mid-career journalists who wish to deepen their knowledge of emotional trauma and psychological injury, and improve reporting on violence, conflict and tragedy. The application deadline is September 30, 2016. Click here to apply.
Reporting responsibly and credibly on violence or traumatic events — on street crime and family violence, natural disasters and accidents, war and genocide — is a major challenge. The Ochberg Fellowship enables outstanding journalists from around the globe to explore these critical issues during a week of seminars held at Columbia University in New York City. Program activities include briefings by prominent interdisciplinary experts in the trauma and mental health fields; conversations with journalist colleagues on issues of ethics and craft; and a variety of other opportunities for intellectual engagement and peer learning.
Application deadline: September 30, 2016.
More to click Ochberg Fellowship
Alfred Friendly Press Partners Fellowship Opportunities
Apply by: August 31, 2016
General Fellowship
Early-career professional journalists from developing countries with proficiency in English can apply for a six-month fellowship. Alfred Friendly provides fellows with basic and advanced hands-on instruction at the Missouri School of Journalism and places them in leading U.S. newsrooms. The successful candidate will be 25-35 years old and have at least three years of experience as a journalist at a print, online or broadcast media outlet. Participants work as staff reporters in their host newsrooms are required to develop training plans that they implement when they return to their home newsrooms. The all-inclusive fellowship starts in mid-March and ends in early September.
Daniel Pearl Fellowship
Sharing the same goals, the Daniel Pearl Foundation partnered with Press Partners in 2003 to offer special fellowships to honor the life and work of journalist Daniel Pearl, The Wall Street Journal South Asia bureau chief who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in 2002. Daniel Pearl Fellows – eleven from Pakistan, four from Egypt and one from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nepal, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen – have worked at The Berkshire Eagle/North Adams Transcript, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, ProPublica, San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, Huffington Post (DC bureau), and The Wall Street Journal (Atlanta, New York and DC bureaus).
More to click Alfred Friendly Press Partners Fellowship
Bitch Media Fellowships for Writers
Bitch Media, an independent, nonprofit feminist media organization now in its 20th year, is pleased to announce the Bitch Media Fellowships for Writers, a series of three-month intensive writing fellowships whose goal is to develop, support, and amplify emerging, diverse voices in feminist, activist, and pop-culture media. The program will be directed by Bitch cofounder Andi Zeisler.
Bitch Media’s mission is to provide and encourage an engaged, thoughtful response to mainstream media and pop culture. We strive to be a fresh, revitalizing voice in contemporary feminism, one that welcomes complex arguments and refuses to ignore the contradictory and often uncomfortable realities of life in an unequivocally gendered world. We publish the award-winning magazine Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture, daily online articles and opinions, weekly podcasts, and offer lectures and workshops around the world through Bitch on Campus.
We are pleased to kick off the second year of our fellowship program. We seek fellows who are passionate, engaged, and interested in developing their unique voices for these four fellowships, each of which pay a stipend of $2,000 for the three-month period.
Applications for 2017 fellowships are open August 1st-September 15th, 2016.
More to click Bitch Media Fellowship
Cross-Border Journalism programme
Autumn 2016 call for applications for “Cross-Border journalism” is now open
The new digital era of media, and the globalisation of economic and political processes have brought new challenges to journalism. In particular, they have highlighted the need for journalists to develop international professional networks in order to understand regional characteristics and better cover transnational stories.
To reflect the needs of journalists Perspektivy is opening a scheme that aims to connect journalists in ‘cross-border’ collaboration. Journalists from Russia, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, the Baltics or the Caucasus will have the opportunity to work together to produce stories through partnership and collaboration that transcend their national border. Journalists will be offered distance mentoring and seminars to help them to produce insightful stories. Perspektivy will cover participants’ costs for research trips as part of the project.
This is an opportunity for journalists in the early and mid stages of their career looking for the chance to develop their skills in international reporting and enhance their professional network abroad.
Working in teams, journalists can produce joint or individual work. These stories can be on any topic, as long as they draw on examples from outside of their home country. For example, refugee and migrant crises, climate changes, food production and its export/import, media, or civil society. Other ideas are welcome.
Journalists may apply as part of a team, or individually, and allow Perspektivy mentors to match them up with another journalist.
More to click Cross-Border journalism
ConDev’s Student Media Grants
Opens August 1, 2016! September 30, 2016 deadline.
About the Grant
ConDev’s Student Media Grants award up to $5,000 to current students interested in capturing issues facing fragile and conflict-affected areas of the world through stunning photography. Past winners have traveled to and produced photography highlighting issues in Nigeria, Mali, India, Nicaragua, Kenya, Haiti, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Perú, and other conflict-affected regions.
Who’s Eligible?
The program is OPEN TO STUDENTS WORLDWIDE (undergraduate, graduate, PhD, etc.). Students graduating in April-May 2017 are also eligible to apply.
Application Timeline
- August 1, 2016: APPLICATION OPENS! You can start e-mailing your finished proposals to condevcenter@condevcenter.org
- September 30, 2016 by 11:59pm CST: Application deadline
- October 2016: Review Period – please be patient as we review your incredible proposals!
- November 2016: Notification Period
- January 2017 (Depending on proposal timeline): Funding Disbursement (approximate)
- January-December 2017: Grant winners travel and implement their photojournalism projects
More to click ConDev’s Student Media Grants
Compiled by News Network

2016 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic
Applications are now open for the 2016 “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” Human Rights Prize of the French Republic, awarded by the Prime Minister of the French Government.
This Prize, which was set up in 1988, is awarded in recognition and support for the completion of individual or collective projects carried out in the field, in France or abroad, regardless of nationality or borders, and linked to one of two possible themes.
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
- Theme 1: defending and protecting migrants.
- Theme 2: representing and defending the rights of disabled people under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
- Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and individual candidates, regardless of nationality and borders, should present a field initiative or project to be implemented in France or abroad, on one of the two themes for 2016:
Theme 1: defending and protecting migrants.
Migrants account for 3.2% of the world population; this figure includes refugees fleeing persecution or the threat of persecution, environmentally displaced persons and those who leave their country seeking work. This percentage has remained fairly stable for years, but these movements, whether voluntary or imposed, are now driven by more complex factors and affect a wider range of destinations. All regions of the world and all population groups are now concerned.
Despite this diversification of migratory movements and the fact that human mobility is inevitable in our globalized world, the countries of the North remain obsessed by the fear of an “invasion” of poor migrants from the South. As a result, the intrinsic vulnerability of migrants is growing, as increasingly strict security policies are implemented to control migration. Europe is introducing ever tighter controls at its external borders, forcing refugees to take increasingly dangerous routes that are all too often fatal or lead to camps where they face abject living conditions.
And yet the volume of migration between countries of the South now equals, or even exceeds that of migration from the South to the North. Many countries in the South, especially emerging economies, are no longer only countries of origin, but are also countries of transit and destination. This new intraregional migration pattern is a source of problems. The countries of transit and destination are often unable to provide appropriate services, for example in the fields of health and education, and thus cannot protect migrants’ rights.
Applications can be submitted for projects that aim to help and support migrants by defending and protecting their rights. The prize may be awarded to projects demonstrating innovative, concrete action that seeks to offer practical solutions to the problems facing migrants. Projects can also focus on better documenting violations of migrants’ rights throughout their journey and encouraging national authorities to reform their legislation and policies through advocacy work.
Theme 2: representing and defending the rights of disabled people under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
People with disabilities are often among the most marginalized and encounter unique and specific difficulties when it comes to exercising their fundamental rights. For a long time, it was assumed that these difficulties were a natural, inevitable consequence of their physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairment. In 2006, the entry into force of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities marked a radical change in the existing approaches to disabilities and encouraged a shift from a medical approach to a societal one. In the Convention, the emphasis is no longer on a condition that is perceived as a personal defect and considered a weakness or a disease. On the contrary, the Convention views disability as a “pathology of society”, in other words, the result of society’s inability to accept the person’s differences and be fully inclusive. It is society that must change, not the individual, and the Convention actually sets out a roadmap for this change.
Applications can be submitted for projects that support or promote the effectiveness of the rights of disabled persons, projects that seek to defend or protect those rights, and projects that seek to enable disabled persons to participate fully in public life. The prize may be awarded to projects demonstrating innovative, concrete action that seeks to offer practical solutions to the problems facing disabled persons. Projects can also involve training activities on the Convention that aim to encourage national authorities to reform their legislation and policies by implementing the provisions of the Convention.
2 . Five prize winners will be invited to Paris for the official ceremony. They will receive a medal and share a total sum of €70,000, awarded by the Prime Minister.
Five runners-up will be awarded a special medal by the French ambassador in their country of origin.
More to click Human Rights Prize of the French Republic

Bangladesh Priorities From Research to Smart Policy Investment Advocacy
DHAKA, 20 August (News Network) – Bangladesh Priorities promises to have an impact for years to come. Copenhagen Consensus has signed a 3-year MoU with Access to Information (a2i) of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The purpose of the MoU is to advocate for policies in order to give tailwind to smart interventions with high benefits for every taka spent.
Bangladesh Priorities, a research collaboration between Copenhagen Consensus Center and BRAC, provides a menu of policy options, based on cost-benefit analysis. It has produced 1,100+ pages of new, made-for-Bangladesh research — but the real impact is in the implementation of locally-driven policy options.
Bangladesh Priorities has provided specific inputs to the upcoming National Nutrition Plan of Action for the next decade. It was reported by the national news agency of Bangladesh that the “research was a timely input to the revitalized Bangladesh Nutrition Council, and the Bangladesh National Plan of Action for Nutrition.”
What’s more, the Hon’ble Finance Minister has read the outcomes and clearly been influenced. In the latest budget, he has, for the first time, used the word “priorities” to discuss implementation of the current Five Year Plan.The Budget emphasizes some of the most effective solutions prioritized by the Bangladesh Priorities Eminent Panel, including automated VAT collection, scaling of e-procurement across the government, revamped focus on nutrition, and expansion of digital public and private services through Union Digital Centers.
The project has also created positive headlines internationally. On May 07, 2016, The Economist published a story titled “How to spend it.” It reported the research findings of Bangladesh Priorities and concluded that Bangladesh Priorities provided an opportunity for more scrutiny of promising projects, and, “almostanything would be better than spending money on projects because their backers can tell agood story, or because they are supported by powerful politicians.”
Research process
The groundwork for the major research undertaking started in March 2015 when Copenhagen Consensus and BRAC met with more than 150 prominent individuals from across Bangladesh, representing government and donors, academia, NGOs, think-tanks, and sector experts. This created a rare opportunity to extract an in-depth and nuanced overview of the challenges facing Bangladesh. These meetings result in hundreds of research ideas, from health, education and ICT skills to land administration, climate change and infrastructure.
From May to July, 2015, BRAC and Copenhagen Consensus organized a series of 20 roundtables.The 20 topics selected for the roundtables are informed by a review of the 26 background studies’ recommendations that formed the basis of the 7th Five Year Plan (7FYP, 2016-2020).
More than 800 people from government, NGOs, think-tanks, businesses, donors, multilateral organizations and academia identified and prioritized 76 promising solutions for Bangladesh.All these 76 solutions fall within the purview of the ongoing 7th Five Year Plan.More than 30 top economists were commissioned to undertake cost-benefit research of each solution, taking into account not just economic effects but also the social, health and environmental impacts.
Peer groups of economists shared outlines and draft papers for feedback, and early findings were shared with sector experts and non-academics in Review Roundtables starting from December 2015 to February 2016. These had the aim of gaining inputs from sector experts and fellow economists in order to improve papers and their cost-benefit analysis. Sector experts from the government, donor community, academia and nonprofits attended the roundtables.
The feedback was incorporated into final cost-benefit papers and short reviews. All of the research papers are publicly available, accessible to anyone interested in Bangladesh’s future.
Prioritization by Eminent Panel
A panel of distinguished economic and development experts was invited to convene in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in May, 2016 to consider these issues. The members of the Eminent Panel comprised of:
- Professor Finn E. Kydland, University of California, Santa Barbara (Nobel Laureate)
- Selima Ahmad, President and Founder, Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry
- KAS Murshid, Director General, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies
- Mushtaque Chowdhury, Vice Chair, BRAC
The panel was asked to address the research and to answer the question: Where should additional resources be spent first? The panel examined the 76 proposals in detail and each proposal was discussed with its principal author over three days.
Each Eminent Panel member assigned his or her own ranking to the proposals. The Eminent Panel’s ranking was calculated by taking the median of individual rankings (see Table 1).
Looking ahead
Given that a number of the top priorities turned out to be in the digital realm, many of the champion seminars are planned to take place at the PMO, under the purview of Copenhagen’s joint MoU with a2i. In the upcoming months, with support from the PMO of Bangladesh, BRAC, CRI and other local and international development partners, Copenhagen Consensus will be organizing more champion seminars to give tailwind to smart investments as revealed by Bangladesh Priorities.
For example, Copenhagen Consensus will be working with a2i in bringing together stakeholders in land digitization to develop a more coherent strategy for smarter investments.
Bangladesh Priorities is making a real difference to Bangladeshi policy prioritization. It is only the dawn of a more evidence-based intellectual discussion, using a simple tool of economics: cost-benefit ratios. It is clear that the research is having a real impact on guiding decisions on national priorities and promises to help even more into the future, as Bangladesh journeys to Vision 2021 and beyond.
Table 1: Eminent Panel’s Top 10 Rankings
Rank | Intervention |
1 | TB treatment |
2 | e-procurement across government |
3 | Nutrition & micronutrients, ½-5 year olds |
4 | Land records digitization |
5 | Bus Priority for Dhaka |
6 | Increase secondary education for girls |
7 | Iron and folic acid in pregnancy |
8 | Psycho-social stimulation for stunting |
9 | Immunize children in urban slums |
10 | Hypertension medication |
Bangladesh Priorities Activities and Impact: A Snapshot
Time frame | Activity | Outreach impact | |
2015 | |||
March – May |
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June – July |
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2016 | |||
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ENDs/
News Network, a Dhaka based leading non-profit media support organization of Bangladesh.
For more info you can reach to Copenhagen Consensus Center through following link;

Opportunities for journalists: Fellowship, Training, Photo Contest and Award
Reporters Without Borders
Call for Application
Reporters Without Borders Germany (RSF) is seeking applications from journalists and bloggers around the world for a two month residency for one journalist in Berlin in the second half of 2016.
RSF and the Tactical Technology Collective want to promote knowledge about digital security for journalists and bloggers. Therefore, the two organizations have created the “Hub of Digital Freedom”, to strengthen Berlin as a hub for a creative community that can inspire change around the world. The project is funded by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany. More to click Reporters Without Borders
IWMF Fellowship Opportunities
As part of the Adelante initiative, the IWMF will lead six trips to Latin America in 2016. The first three days of each reporting trip will consist of comprehensive security training and briefings by regional experts. Participating journalists will participate in approximately one week of in-country independent and group reporting activities, and will have the opportunity to interact with key stakeholders and in-country journalists. The IWMF pays for fellowship-related expenses including travel, lodging, meals and fixers/interpreters unless a selected journalist’s news organization wishes to assume these costs. More to click IWMF
Annual CGAP Photo Contest
Financial Inclusion Through Your Lens
Now in its 11th year, the CGAP Photo Contest is looking for original, striking images that capture the importance of microfinance and financial inclusion efforts around the world. Digital innovations and the growing use of smartphones are making it easier for poor and rural customers to manage their daily finances, grow a business, or respond to an emergency. But two billion people still lack access to basic financial services such as savings accounts and credit. Closing the access gap can play a role in reducing extreme poverty and increasing prosperity.
The 2015 contest received more than 3,300 entries from photographers in 77 countries. Winners were showcased by top global media outlets and viewed tens of thousands of times online. The top photographs receive prizes and recognition, and all entrants help to show why financial inclusion matters, in vivid and memorable ways. More to click CGAP Photo Contest
Entries are invited for the 2016 ‘Young Journalist’ prize sponsored by the Thomson Foundation
Part of the Foreign Press Association (FPA) Media Awards, the award enables journalists aged 30 and under from countries with a Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of less than $20,000 to enter their work for scrutiny by the Foundation – the world’s longest established international media development organisation – and then the FPA judges.
The three finalists will be flown to London, spend two nights in the city and attend the gala award night at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel on Tuesday, November 29, along with a host of other potential award winners and leading figures from the world of journalism. More to click Thomson Foundation
Asia-Europe Foundation
Call for Applications: ASEF Journalists’ Workshop
ASEF is pleased to invite practicing journalists from ASEM countries to apply for the ASEF Journalists’ Workshop on “Asia-Europe Media Connectivity: Collaborating on Digital Journalism” to be held on 4-7 October 2016 in Madrid, Spain.
This workshop will be a platform for the participants to share their journalistic experiences in and perspectives on handling digital connectivity from national and regional levels. Through discussions, the event will explore the current environment of digital media and the role of journalism in reflecting and facilitating ‘connectivity’ between diverse communities.
Application deadline for ASEF Journalists’ Workshop in Spain will be Monday, 29 August 2016. More to click Asia-Europe Foundation

Award and Fellowship for Journalists
Science Journalism Student Award
The Science Journalism Student Award enables students pursuing a science or medical journalism degree to attend the SfN annual meeting. Two awards are granted each year.
Recipi ents get complimentary meeting registration, four nights’ lodging, and $750 to help defray the expenses of attending the meeting. Additionally, recipients are assigned a mentor who is an experienced professional journalist covering the annual meeting. SfN makes every effort to pair awardees with a mentor based on mutual interests in print or broadcast journalism. SfN media staff are also available to advise award recipients how to navigate and report on the meeting. All applications are due by September 16, 2016. More to click Science of Neuroscience (SFN)
Knight Visiting Nieman Fellowships
The Kinght Visiting Neman Fellowships at Harvard offer short-term research opportunities to individuals interested in working on special projects designed to advance journalism in some new way. Candidates need not be practicing journalists, but must demonstrate the ways in which their work at Harvard and the Nieman Foundation may improve the prospects for journalism’s future. This may be related to research, programming, design, financial strategies or another topic. Both U.S. and international applicants are invited to apply.
Information about applying for 2017 visiting fellowships will be posted on this page in August 2016. The application deadline is Oct. 14, 2016.
Successful applicants are invited to the Nieman Foundation for a period ranging from a few weeks to three months, depending on the scope of the project. Knight Visiting Nieman Fellows have access to the extensive resources at Harvard and throughout Cambridge, including local scholars, research centers and libraries.
More to click: Knight Visiting Nieman Fellowships
International Multimedia Journalism
The MA in International Multimedia Journalism develops practical skills and critical thinking for journalists and storytellers so they can deliver both short-form and long-form projects on digital platforms.
The course is based in Beijing, and is a collaboration between the Beijing Foreign Studies University and the University of Bolton in the UK, with the degree awarded by the University of Bolton. For each annual cohort we aim to recruit 10 International students and 10 Chinese students each year to work together.
The course is one year long, begins in the third week of September, and is divided into three terms.
In the first term, through workshops, seminars and short assignments students develop core multimedia skills needed to deliver short-form journalism stories on digital platforms. We teach technical proficiency without losing sight of fundamental news gathering skills. Writing, photography, audio, video, infographics and social media, as well as a critical understanding of contemporary trends in the new media economy, are all covered. At the end of the term, students complete a practical assignment to deliver a news story within 24 hours, using multiple media formats and social media on a digital platform. Applications for 2016-17 are now open.
More to click: MA in International Multimedia Journalism

Network of journalists, CSOs representatives are the best defenders of democracy and human rights
Participants in two different interaction meetings held in Barisal and Cox’s Bazar put forward a number of recommendations to promote and defend democracy and human rights issues.
The participants — journalists and CSOs — jointly took part in open discussions, group works and presentations. They all reached a consensus that journalists and CSOs are the best actors to defend democracy and human rights issues.
The participants in the Barisal Interaction Meeting were in group discussions to prepare their presentations. About 65 local journalists and CSOs representatives attended the meetings.

The Barisal meeting was organised on 23 June, while that of Cox’s Bazar on 26 June 2016. Earlier both the groups received skill development training from News Network, supported by the United Nations Democracy Fund.

Group photo of Barisal participants
The participants described their professional progress, which was very much appreciated as their ability improved to address the issues confidently. Sharing information between the groups is also found better than earlier.
The participants urged for arranging a follow-up training for them and expanding it to other parts of the country. – News Network

Great soul : Faraaz Ayaaz Hossain
The 12-hour tense siege at the Holey Artisan Bakery, the brutal killings, the blood and the faces of the young militants all left millions in a state of shock as it was beyond their imagination that such brutality could be unleashed in Bangladesh.

As they slowly overcome the shock, many also started to contemplate whether it is the beginning of an end.
But the same incident also presented a beacon of hope: Faraaz Ayaaz Hossain.
It is pronounced in unspoken words that there is something to look forward to.
Faraaz went to the restaurant with two of his high-school friends, Abinta Kabir, a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin and also a student of Emory University in Atlanta as him, and Tarishi Jain, an Indian national and a student of the University of California, Berkeley.
When the captors came to know about his friends’ citizenship they refused to release them. They however allowed Faraaz to go.
He had the opportunity to leave his friends behind and return to safety like many would have done in times of danger, but he chose greatness and declined to depart alone.
The former student of Sir John Wilson School and American International School in Dhaka was among the 20 people who were killed in the hands of militants at the restaurant.
Rezaul Karim, whose son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren were taken hostage but were later freed, told The Daily Star yesterday: “My daughter-in-law told me that she heard a Bangladeshi youth refused to leave the restaurant when the militants offered to free him but not his two other friends.”
Only 20 years of age, Faraaz was gallant, conscientious, well-mannered and innocent. He went to study abroad but his heart remained with Bangladesh.
He was getting ready to serve the country by following the examples of his father, mother and grandparents, who have been doing the same through setting up industries and creating jobs for decades.
When the poisonous seed of radicalism is being sown in the hearts of many youths, Faraaz was a different soul.
He taught Bangladesh not to give up even in times of danger as there are many like him who are very tender in age but possess immense courage, and the country can count on them.
By sacrificing his life, Faraaz has shown the power of love for others and how it makes people indomitable.
Mohammad Isam, a Dhaka-based journalist working for a foreign media outlet, wrote on his Facebook page: “Faraaz, all we can say is thank you. But we should not just mourn your passing away.”
“We must all extend ourselves like you did. You are one of us. We are sorry that we failed you because till that last moment, you didn’t fail us, humans and Bangladeshis.”
Classmates of Faraaz and Abinta remembered them as genuine and intelligent people who had no enemies.
Kereisha Harrell, a classmate, says she worked with Faraaz and Abinta on a committee at Emory’s Oxford College that planned school-wide events. She says both were part of an honour society recognising academic achievement.
“We are honestly shocked,” she said, according to Associated Press.
“A lot of us are not ready to talk about it. But we were a family. It hit us hard. There are a lot of people very upset. We’re just trying to support each other through this.”
In a statement, Emory University said Abinta was a rising sophomore at Emory’s Oxford College and Faraaz was a graduate of Oxford College and a student at the university’s Goizueta Business School.
“The Emory community mourns this tragic and senseless loss of two members of our university family. Our thoughts and prayers go out on behalf of Faraaz and Abinta and their families and friends for strength and peace at this unspeakably sad time.”
Source: The Daily Star

Global Coalition Seeks Ban on Mercury Use
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 12 2016 (IPS) – A coalition of over 25 international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has launched a global campaign to end a longstanding health and environmental hazard: the use of mercury in dentistry.
Spearheading the campaign is the Washington-based World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry, which is seeking to phase out dental amalgam, described as a “primitive pollutant”, by the year 2020.
The environmental health benefits from mercury-free dentistry would be “huge to the world”, says the World Alliance, “The European Union’s science committee calls amalgam a ‘secondary poisoning’ because its mercury gets into fish and vegetables which children eat.”
A proposal before the European Commission calls for the use of dental amalgam in an encapsulated form, and more importantly, the implementation of amalgam separators, which should be mandatory to protect dental practitioners and patients from mercury exposure and to ensure that resulting mercury waste are not released into the environment but are collected and subjected to sound waste management.
Describing dental amalgam as “vastly inferior to today’s alternative materials,” the President of the World Alliance Charles G. Brown, told IPS: “Western corporate interests fund the counter-campaign to protect amalgam sales, especially in developing nations.”
“The game changer in our favour is the 2013 Minimata Convention on Mercury,” (which has been signed by 128 nations), said Brown, a former Attorney General of the US State of Ohio.
But the Convention, which aims to reduce or eliminate all man-made uses of mercury, needs 50 ratifications to become legally binding. But so far, only 28 countries have ratified the Convention, including the US.
The most recent ratifications have included Switzerland and Mali (in May) and Botswana (in June).
“We need a push to get over the finish line,” declared Brown, whose campaign reaches out Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, North America and the Island States.
Besides the World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry, the coalition includes the European Environmental Bureau, Health and Environment Alliance, Women in Europe for a Common Future, International Academy for Oral Medicine and Toxicology, Asian Centre for Environmental Health, Danish Association for Non-Toxic Dentistry and Zero Waste Europe.
In a letter to members of the Environment Committee of the European Parliament, the coalition points out that, after long delays, the European Commission proposed a new mercury package last February, positioning the EU to finally ratify the Minamata Convention.
The package updates existing EU law to conform to the Convention, but falls short in several key areas, including a new proposal that would eventually perpetuate mercury use in EU dentistry.
“This proposal is clearly out of step with both the spirit and intent of the treaty,” the letter warns. The Minamata Convention requires each State party to “phase down the use of dental amalgam”.
The Environment Committee is calling for a phase-out of amalgam in Europe by the year 2021.
But the EC mercury package, on the other hand, proposes merely to require amalgam separators and encapsulated amalgam – two measures that fail to phase down European amalgam use for several reasons.
Asked if this problem is largely confined to the EU, described as the largest user of dental mercury in the world, Brown told IPS: “No, this problem is not confined to Europe although the EU is the largest user partly because dental care is more available in general”.
A report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), a mercury monitoring network, shows that North America (including the US) is consuming its share.
“Although use is far less in developing countries right now, it is expected to increase as dental care becomes more available – unless we prevent it by ensuring that mercury-free alternatives are used from the start.”
Achim Steiner, former Executive Director of UNEP, wrote a letter to the World Alliance last year endorsing the activist phasing down of amalgam in general, and singling out the work of the World Alliance of Mercury-Free Dentistry, in particular.
UNEP and the World Alliance have co-hosted two 10-nation conferences to work for mercury-free dentistry: for francophone Africa, April 2014 in Abidjan; and for Asia (South, Southeast, & East Asian nations), March 2016 in Bangkok.
The overall goal of the Global Mercury Partnership, according to UNEP, is to protect human health and the global environment from the release of mercury and its compounds by minimizing and, where feasible, ultimately eliminating global, anthropogenic mercury releases to air, water and land.
UNEP recently developed a brochure to assist nations in phasing down amalgam use. In it, UNEP particularly promoted the following steps:
(a) Raising public awareness of amalgam’s mercury content; (b) Updating dental school curricula to promote mercury-free dentistry; (c) Modifying government progra
ms and insurance to favor mercury-free fillings; and (d) Restricting amalgam use in children and pregnant women.
In its attempts to protect human health and the environment from mercury—and in support of the Minamata Convention on Mercury—the UN Development Programme (UNDP), says sound management of chemicals and wastes is an important component of its efforts to achieve sustainable, inclusive and resilient human development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
UNDP advocates integrating chemicals management priorities into national environmental and poverty reduction planning frameworks, while helping countries access financial and technical resources, and providing assistance and implementation support to improve the holistic management of chemicals and waste at national, regional and global levels.
UNDP currently supports 42 countries with a Global Environment Facility (GEF) mercury portfolio of $22 million in grants and $32 million in co-financing.
Asked if the medical lobby is powerful enough to keep stalling an eventual ban on dental mercury, Brown said: “It’s actually the dental lobby specifically that opposes the ban (many physicians tend to either not take a stand or they agree with us). “Are they effective or powerful? It depends on whom you talk with, he said.
Dentistry is divided into two hotly contesting factions: the mercury-free numbers are growing, the pro-mercury faction shrinking – but the latter is represented by the World Dental Federation (FDI, its initials in French) and its constituent Western members, such as the American, British, and Canadian Dental Associations.
The American Dental Association spent $2,850,000 on lobbying expenses in 2013, the year the treaty negotiations ended, but in its arrogance the money was largely wasted, he added.
“At the Minamata Convention, FDI and the American Dental Association (ADA) were represented by white Western males, whereas dentists on our side came from every continent and race, as did our NGO team of talented women and men.”
“We outworked, outpointed, and outsmarted the well-heeled pro-mercury faction of dentistry, and amalgam is crucially placed in Annex A-II of the Minamata Convention.”
Their rearguard action to protect the status quo is not ineffective, but they cannot stall the amalgam ban indefinitely – else their own members will pull out the rug on them, said Brown.
More to click: Inter Press Service

New York Times journalist Sydney Schanberg, who covered 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, dies
Pulitzer Prize winner journalist Sydney H Schanberg is no more but we are remembering him from our core of heart for his contribution to report on Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. He was among the foreign journalists, who were so shocked to see the brutalities and carnage carried out by the Pakistani occupation forces and their collaborators and alerted the world by sending horrifying stories. Sydney H Schanberg is part of our glorious victory.
-Shahiduzzaman, Editor and CEO of News Network and a Freedom Fighter of Liberation War of Bangladesh

Sydney H Schanberg, a correspondent of The New York Times who covered the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, died yesterday in Poughkeepsie, New York at the age of 82. A “restive, intense, Harvard-educated newspaperman with bulldog tenacity”, as termed by New York Times, Schanberg won a Pulitzer Prize for covering Cambodia’s fall to the Khmer Rouge in 1975 and inspiring the film “The Killing Fields” with the story of his Cambodian colleague’s survival during the genocide of millions.
His death was confirmed by Charles Kaiser, a friend and former Times reporter, who said Schanberg had a heart attack on Tuesday (7 July 2016), The New York Times reports.
COVERAGE OF BANGLADESH WAR
During Bangladesh’s 1971 War of Independence, Schanberg was the South Asia correspondent for The New York Times. He visited Bangladesh several times despite expulsion order by the Pakistan authorities.
He was among the foreign journalists, who were so shocked to see the brutalities and carnage carried out by the Pakistani occupation forces and their collaborators and alerted the world by sending horrifying stories, including massacre in their respective media after starting of the genocide on March 25, 1971.
ALSO READ: Sydney Schanberg among foreign journos Pakistanis tried to keep away during 1971 Bangladesh War
Schanberg, along with Sir William Mark Tully, Manosh Ghose, Simon Dring and Ingvar Oja were among the ones who played crucial role to uncover brutalities on Bangladeshis.
In June 1971, Schanberg filed a number of eyewitness accounts from Bangladeshi towns for The New York Times. In response, the Pakistan army expelled him from the country on June 30, 1971.
Schanberg described the systematic subjugation and killing of Bangalees. “Army trucks roll through the half-deserted streets of the capital of East Pakistan these days, carrying “anti-state” prisoners to work-sites for hard labour. Their heads are shaved and they wear no shoes and no clothes except for shorts–all making escape difficult.” More to click: The Daily Star