Delightfully Offbeat: Cancelled National Holiday in Bangladesh What Happened? On Tuesday, Bangladesh’s interim government made the surprising decision to cancel a national holiday on August 15. This date marks the assassination of the country’s founder and former prime minister, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who is also the father of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina. A…

Ukraine’s Incursion into Russian Territory Background Ukraine said Tuesday it would not hold on to Russian territory captured in its surprise cross-border incursion and offered to stop raids if Moscow agreed a “just peace”. Ukrainian forces entered Russia’s Kursk region last Tuesday, taking over two dozen settlements in the biggest attack by a foreign army…

Welcome to the Quirky Blog! Exclusive Reporting on Putin’s War on Georgia It was a brief war with long-lasting consequences Sixteen years ago this month, Russian forces invaded Georgia, in what some experts described as a foreshadowing of Putin’s later invasion of Ukraine. The conflict, while relatively short-lived, left a lasting impact on the region…

In Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, shop windows are filled with dazzling ball gowns and three-piece wedding suits. However, there’s a catch – the face of each mannequin is covered. According to a clothes seller in Kabul, the morality police have asked stores to hide the mannequins’ faces and photographs of models. “It makes the display a…