India police ‘arrest Singapore firm’s officials’

Indian police have arrested two top officials of Singapore-based online survey company Speak Asia in Mumbai for allegedly duping investors of US$294 million (S$354 million), reports said on Saturday.
Police identified those arrested as Tarak Bajpai, Speak Asia’s chief operating officer in India, and financial manager Ravi Khanna, according to the Press Trust of India and other media. Two web technicians

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Kate Moss to write her autobiography?

She’s always been staunchly private when it comes to discussing her personal life, but now Kate Moss has reportedly decided to write the book we’ve all been dreaming of: her autobiography.
In what is set to be one of the juiciest books, like, ever, the explosive account is likely to discuss working in the modelling industry, being a mother to daughter Lila and her wild sex, drugs

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Ramadan starts on Monday in UAE

Saudi Arabia will start Ramadan on Monday along with most other Gulf states
Dubai: The Moon Sighting Committee has announced that Sunday will be the 30th of Sha’aban.
Dr Hadef Bin Jua’an Al Daheri, Minister of Justice, said in a statement after the committee’s meeting Saturday night that Monday will be the first day of Ramadan.
On this occasion, Al Daheri and the committee congratulated President His Highness

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New generation popular bands rock huge crowd

Popular  new generation  rock music bands –Artcell, Black and Cryptic Fate– rocked the audience together in a concert on Friday at the Engineers’ Institute.
The concert titled “ABC Generation Concert” was organised by Live Square Concerts with the motto to revive the pulse of the new generation rock music lovers.
Cryptic Fate was first to appear onstage. The crowd welcomed the band with shouting its name

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Of Art, Aesthetics and Shadhona

In conversation with Lubna Marium
Lubna Marium — aesthete, danseuse, dance pioneer, teacher, choreographer and impresario is a pioneering figure in the contemporary South Asian cultural scenario. Daughter of illustrious parents Colonel Quazi Nooruzzaman and Professor Sultana Zaman, Lubna Marium has dedicated a lifetime to the promotion of culture, particularly dance and other performing arts. She is the director of Shadhona — a center for promotion of

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Dengue catches DCC napping

Strikes early this year; number of infection shows sharp rise as anti-mosquito drive hardly carried out; DCC complains of poor logistics
The dreaded dengue fever is back. The number of dengue-affected people in the capital took a sharp rise with 82 new cases reported from July 23 to 28.
According to the control room of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), 188 people contracted dengue fever in the capital this month, whereas the number was just 35 in July last year.
The statistics however, only gives a partial picture of the spread of this communicable disease. The figures of the affected are collected from only 25 private hospitals and clinics out of 592

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BSF told to hold fire

Chidambaram speaks of Delhi’s firm instruction to border guards; deal signed to fight cross-border crimes together
India yesterday said it has ordered its Border Security Force not to shoot anyone crossing Indo-Bangla border no matter what the circumstances are.
Visiting Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram said this at a joint press conference with his Bangladesh counterpart Shahara Khatun

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Students to depend more on pvt institutions for higher edn

Students who have passed Higher Secondary Certificate and equivalent exams this year will depend more on private educational institutions as the students far outnumber the seats in public universities and students are unwilling to pursue higher education under the National University in colleges.
According to the latest University Grants Commission report that was placed in the parliament this

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Make border deal public: Alamgir

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has demanded publication of Joint Border Management Agreement signed in Dhaka on Saturday. Acting secretary general of the party Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir made the demand.
“The agreement must be made public before the nation, “ he said at a roundtable in Dhaka on Saturday.
He alleged the government has done nothing in resolving bilateral problems with India due to its

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OC Helal suspended

Student ‘Victimised’ by Cops
OC Helal suspended 
Police form probe body; law ministry waits on copy of HC order
Helal Uddin, officer-in-charge of Khilgaon Police Station, was suspended yesterday over torture of Dhaka University student Abdul Kadar.
DMP’s Additional Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman confirmed The Daily Star about the suspension of Helal who allegedly chopped the calf muscle of Kadar’s left leg with a cleaver and let other

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Messy affair in Malaysia

Uncertainty grips Bangladeshis as brokers meddle in KL’s amnesty to illegal workers
The much-awaited amnesty programme for the irregular foreign workers in Malaysia starts tomorrow amid confusion in many Bangladeshi expatriates about their status.
Around 5 lakh Bangladeshis work in the Southeast Asian nation. Of them, over 3 lakh are irregular and are facing threats of arrest, low pay or other forms of

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Delhi pledges to help nab 2 fugitives

Bangabandhu Killers
Delhi pledges to help nab 2 fugitives
Two condemned killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — Moslehuddin Khan and Abdul Mazed — might be hiding in India, and Delhi has assured Dhaka of making all efforts to apprehend and hand them over to it.
“Of the six absconding (killers of Bangabandhu) it is possible that the two might be in India,” Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said in

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Bulk electricity tariff goes up 6.66pc Monday

Bulk electricity tariff will rise by 6.66 percent, effective from Monday.
Tariff of each unit of electricity at the bulk level will go up to Tk 2.80 from the existing Tk 2.63 now, according to an earlier decision of the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC).
On February 8, BERC raised the bulk electricity tariff in two phases by a total of

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3 national minority people killed trying to save woman from rape

Three villagers were killed as they tried to save a young woman from getting raped by some young people in Rupashipara at Naikhyangchari in Bandarban on Saturday.
The miscreants killed Aung Sha Marma, 62, Hamu Sing, 35, and his minor son Maungnuching, 5.
The Rupashipara union council chairman, Maching Marma, said that five young people sneaked into

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Six unnatural deaths in capital

A business executive was electrocuted at Badda, a woman was killed in a road accident at Ramna, three women committed suicide at Dakkhin Khan, Adabar and Badda and a factory worker died, reported to be from snake bite, at Mirpur on Saturday and Friday night, the police and hospital sources said.
Babu Ahmed, 25, manager of the MR Power IPS company, came in contact with a live wire when he

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GO-civil society nexus to implement RTI act urged

Building mass awareness on the right to information (RTI) act is imperative to ensure transparency and accountability at all levels, said speakers at a discussion yesterday.
It requires cooperative engagement between the government and civil society bodies, competent officials and political will, they

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RU students vandalise railway station

The Rajshahi Railway Police on Friday night took in, and later released, some Rajshahi University students on charges of vandalising the railway station and damaging government property.
The GRP sources said that they took in only three students for questioning.
The police said some university students asked the loco-master and other staff of intercity

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