Arresting for writing in social media platforms, forcing artists to delete their songs from the internet and filing court cases against comedians are some of the missiles launched by the authorities to curtail free speech in recent times. These trends suggest that the government authorities are determined to curtail freedom of expression in online and offline platforms. With the promulgation of regressive and restrictive laws one after another, the situation is getting worse.

Our socio-political situation always and noticeably remits one or another controversial issue to the people, who love to engage in an endless debate. MCC was the talk of the town, and still is. The proposed bill on information technology—mentioned as IT Bill—has hogged the media space and engaged the mass at mammoth scale. The provision that states anyone posting defamatory, blasphemous and disrespectfully vulgar or profane remarks against somebody on and through social media will be sentenced up to five year and fined up to one and half million rupees is the subject of intense criticism.

KATMANDU, Nepal — Nepal descended into a new crisis on Sunday after rival political parties in the Himalayan nation failed to reach an agreement on a new constitution before the national legislature’s term expired at midnight.

The rising economic clout of China and India as the next door neighbors could be a blessing for socio-economic transformation of Nepal if Nepal can maintain a balanced foreign policy and constructive engagement. One of the major challenges faced in overall socio-economic development of the country is the modernization and expansion of physical infrastructures like energy, transport and border facilities which requires huge amount of financial resources and technologies suited to the fragile ecosystem and rugged terrain of the young mountains.

Iran has announced that it is withdrawing from the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal. Pulling out of the deal that was constraining its uranium enrichment is a clear sign that Iran is considering acquiring a nuclear weapon. This is a major blow to the nonviolent efforts initiated by the Obama administration to bring Iran’s nuclear-arms pursuit to its end. The assassination of Iran’s top military leader, General Qassem Soleimani, essentially has put the countries on a volatile space.

MOSCOW – Over the last year, predictions of serious struggles for Russian President Vladimir Putin – or even his political demise – have been increasingly frequent. A recent article in The Economist, “An awful week for Vladimir Putin,” is just one example. But it is Putin biographer and New York Times correspondent Steven Lee Myers whose assessment rings most true: “Putin,” Myers has repeatedly said to me, “always wins.”

There are two things everyone should know about sexually transmitted infections (STIs). First, almost all STIs can be prevented through ready access to and use of a highly effective technology—condoms. The four most common STIs – chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis and trichomonas vaginalis can be cured by antibiotics. Second, STIs don’t always show symptoms, despite the health impacts they can have. Untreated gonorrhea and chlamydia can cause infertility. Syphilis in a pregnant woman can cause fetal and neonatal illness and death. Human papillomavirus (HPV) can cause cervical cancer.

Strategic culture, Professor Colin S Gray says, “rests primarily upon the interpretation of history and history’s geography.” In September 1949, the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference met in its first session in Beijing to make final preparations to declare the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949. It adopted the Common Program stating: “The principle of the foreign policy of the People’s Republic of China is protection of the independence, freedom, integrity of territory and sovereignty of the country, upholding of lasting international peace and friendly cooperation between the people of all countries, and opposition to the imperialist policy of aggression and war.”

Every year over a quarter of a million pregnant women and girls lose their lives and another 10-15 million suffer permanent damages every day as a result of childbirth and pregnancy complications. Pregnancy is becoming one of the scariest and risky phases that a woman has to go through. Being pregnant should be a beautiful experience and not a matter of life and death. But for too many women around the world, it is. Nearly all of these deaths are preventable because they are a result of hemorrhages, sepsis, hypertensive disorders (particularly eclampsia), pro- longed or obstructed labor and unsafe abortions.

STANFORD – The assassination by the United States of Qassem Suleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, was certainly a major escalation in the two countries’ long-running conflict. But it need not beget World War III (as some pundits are already predicting). Moreover, while the US may have achieved a short-term tactical advantage by killing Suleimani, the Iranian regime could yet benefit from recent developments.