THE presidential elections in Iran on May 19 saw the re-election of President Hassan Rouhani for a second term of office. As was widely expected by most Iranian observers, this was the most convenient outcome for the theocratic regime in Tehran. The election, from the opening of nominations, the vetting of candidates, the televised debates, during a three-week-long campaign, followed the normal practice of a carefully state-managed show.

IT is indeed ironical that just a day after the ILO facilitated a national stakeholders meeting on a proposed National Policy for Domestic Workers for the government of India at New Delhi on July 11, the incidents of violence and repression in Noida happened after the news spread that a domestic worker had been wrongfully confined by her employer in a posh apartment complex.

AFTER WannaCry and (Not)Petya ransomware hitting global high profile organisations, there is a much greater awareness of the risks from cyber weapons. Both these ransomware used EternalBlue, the stolen NSA exploit of a Windows vulnerability. The call for a Geneva Convention for controlling cyber weapons – a cyber Geneva Convention – has therefore grown, with Microsoft, Deutsch Telekom and other big corporations now backing the call.

AN exhibition titled ‘Women Freedom Fighters of the Left’ ​ ​was inaugurated this morning by Subhashini Ali, vice president of AIDWA at the Constitution Club, New Delhi. ​Over two hundred women from different parts of Delhi and NCR participated in the meeting.On July 23 every year, AIDWA pays its homage to the memory of Captain Lakshmi Sehgal, one of its founding leaders.

THE Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had given a call to observe a day on July 15, demanding the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the monsoon session of the parliament, which ensures 33 per cent reservation for women in parliament and state assemblies. Hundreds of people, especially women, participated in the protest demonstrations across the country.It has been more than 20 years since the time the bill was first introduced in the parliament by H D Deve Gowda led government in the year 1996.