David Shadrach

Manila, Philippines - After two days of ceremonious meetings, Southeast Asian leaders missed the bullseye in talks about two major human rights issues affecting their region: Myanmar's handling of the Rohingya crisis and the Philippines' bloody campaign against illegal drug traffickers. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, this year's Chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), managed to fend off criticism of his "war on drugs", which has left thousands of people dead. "I think Duterte was very smart in using this event to legitimise himself and push back against criticism of his drug war," said Richard Heydarian, a geopolitical analyst from De La Salle University in Manila. "We saw no major country raising the drug war issue or if ever they raised it, it was very low-key."

Bert Bayou counts himself among the lucky ones. He had completed his undergraduate studies in politics and international relations and was working for the United Nations' World Food Programme in Ethiopia when his mother pestered him into applying for the Diversity Visa Lottery Programme . In 2000, after entering for the first time, he "won". Then 23-year-old Bayou, seeing it as his best opportunity to pursue his graduate studies, decided to take the next step and apply for the visa to come to the United States. "I was young,I didn't want to stay doing the same thing that I was doing. "I really wanted to continue working on development projects and addressing poverty, and most of the international professionals that I knew working these jobs at a higher level had graduate degrees," Bayou continued. Created by the 1990 Immigration Reform Act, the Diversity Visa Programme (DVP) selects 100,000 applicants in a lottery who are then eligible to apply for a U...

Osama bin Laden's secret personal diary, seized during the US Navy Seals raid on his house in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011, that ended with his killing, offers an insight into the mind of someone who was once one of the world's most wanted men. In the al-Qaeda documents, bin Laden comes across as an engaged commentator reacting to current events, not a strategic thinker taking part in shaping and influencing those events from his hideout. In the tranche of documents released by the US Central Intelligence Agency on November 1, bin Laden shows no global vision or strategy. The dominant theme of the secret journal is its dissection of the revolts of the so-called Arab Spring in 2011, with bin Laden offering little more than commentaries and analyses. Advertisement On Libya, for example, he discussed the decision of the longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi of attacking the rebels who were trying to topple his government. Bin Laden expressed apprehension that Gaddafi might be able to defeat...

A 50-year-old mother-of-two who lost her job earlier this month for sticking a middle finger up at Donald Trump's motorcade has been showered with donations of over $70,000 after a GoFundMe account was created to support her. Julie Briskman went viral when newsmen captured her on a bike giving the President's motorcade the middle finger on October 28 as the president left Trump National Golf Course in Sterling, Virginia. Three days later, the marketing executive was fired by her company, government contractor Akima. After she was fired, Rob Mello, who was inspired by what Juli did, set up a GoFundMe account to raise money for her. “Thank you, Juli Briskman,” wrote Rob Mello. The description for the campaign reads: “Juli Briskman is an inspiration to us all. This week we learned that she was fired from her employer for exercising her first amendment rights.” The account was set up on November 6 and only days after, over $70, 000 has been raised with thousands of people donating ...

The Super Eagles of Nigeria have just thrashed Argentina 4-2 in the International friendly match which took place in Krasnodar, Russia this evening. A brace from Arsenal starlet, Alex Iwobi and a goal from Kelechi Ihenacho and Brian Idowu were enough to seal the comfortable win for Super Eagles ahead of preparations for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Argentina opened the scoring in the 28th minute of the game through a free kick from Ever Banega before Sergio Aguero doubled it in the 36th minute. Ihenacho scored an incredible free-kick in the 44 minutes of the first half to end it 2- 1. Back in the second half, Iwobi equalised in the 52nd minute to make it 2-2 before Brian Idowu made it 3-2 for Nigeria in the 54th minute of the game. To officially seal the win for the night Iwobi got his name on the scoresheet again as he scored his second goal of the game to make it 4-2 in the 73 mins.

History of America in hole punched. During the Great Depression that started from 1929, the US government decided to launch a project to portray the country's reality. The project, the largest government- sponsored photography project, involved sending photographers across the country to document social problems in the US, and live on the farms. More than 150,000 photos were captured by photographers such as Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, Ben Shahn, Jack Delano, Gordon Parks, John Collier, Carl Mydans, Walker Evans and Marion Post Wolcott. Advertisement Roy Stryker, the director of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documentary photograph programme, was the editor who was responsible for this project. Stryker was considered by many a ruthless photo editor who used to hole- punch images that he considered were not good enough or unnecessary. The decision to discard images was quick and troublesome for many. "Roy was a little bit dictatorial in his editing and he ruined q...