Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has won a decisive victory in Sunday’s elections to the lower house of the Japanese parliament. Together with its coalition partner, the Buddhist-backed Komeito party, the new government has secured a super majority of 326 seats in the 475-strong House of Representatives. [caption id="attachment_11352" align="alignleft" width="233"] Japan's Prime Minist...

The German government says it wants a debate about immigration but adds there’s no place in the country for those who incite hatred against religious or ethnic minorities. Anti-Islam rallies in German cities have been growing in recent weeks. More than 10,000 people are expected to attend such a protest Monday in Dresden. Members of Germany’s far right have been among the protesters. Government spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters Monday that those demonstrating should “think about who they are joi...

Discomfort often begets laughter. But there was more than a nervous chuckle at Thursday night’s annual Fail Festival in Washington, D.C. The global development community has a somewhat uneasy relationship with admitting failure, but professionals gathered at the event sponsored by FHI 360, Plan International and TechChange to hear stories of failure and poke fun at the challenges involved in being honest about mistakes — both large and small. FHI 360 CEO Patrick Fine performed an original song about “breakthrough innovation” “technology” and “...

German top-of-the-range carmaker BMW announced a shake-up at its helm Tuesday, appointing a new chief executive and proposing a new head of the supervisory board. Current head of production Harald Krueger, 49, will take over as BMW's chief executive in May, the company said in a statement. He will replace Norbert Reithofer, who has held the position since 2006 and will be put forward for election to the supervisory board at the 2015 annual general meeting, it added. The supervisory board supports Reithofer then for election as its chairman. ...

Andhra Pradesh’s desire to be part of Big-B has nothing to do with superstar Amitabh Bachchan. An ambitious coastal industrial development project between Japan and Bangladesh has prompted Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu to initiate efforts to get the project extended to his state. In September this year Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina, during the former’s visit to Dhaka, decided to pursue the ‘Bay of Bengal Industrial Growth Belt’ or BIG-B. The in...

The Mamata Banerjee government has been caught unawares by the new eastern maritime border that was re-drawn by a UN tribunal in July. The cost of this ignorance: 132 fishermen in 10 trawlers languishing in Bangladeshi jail for straying into its waters. Around 19,000 sq km of exclusive economic maritime zone where Indian fishermen would cast their nets was handed to Bangladesh nearly five months ago following a five-year arbitration. “We continued fishing in the area as usual but trawlers began to be seized by Bangladeshi authorities now ...