Headlines

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wednesday said Bangladesh would remain isolated from rest of the world without being linked with the proposed Asian Highway. Replying to both main and supplementary questions raised by the lawmakers in the House during the Prime Minister’s question-answer session, she made it clear that her government doesn’t believe the country’s sovereignty ... Read more

Environment ministry blames industrialists, seeks help from the top to end river pollution After over four years’ futile negotiations with factory owners on preparing an action plan on setting up effluent treatment plant (ETP), the environment ministry is now seeking intervention from the highest level of the government. State minister for forest and environment in ... Read more

The government is yet to make any significant progress in retrieving the money, which was smuggled out of the country by a section of people including some politicians. It is widely believed that the corrupt goons have siphoned off a huge amount of money and kept it illegally in different countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, ... Read more

It is none but the traffic police who violate the automated traffic signal themselves in the city, which encourages drivers and commuters to disobey the rules. The encouragement further comes from the total inaction of traffic police in stopping and penalising violators, especially public motor vehicles that stop to drop and pick passengers at traffic ... Read more

The government plans to construct subway in the city to ease the acute traffic congestion and reduce transportation costs. The subway project proposal is likely to be placed at the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today for approval, sources in the Ministry of Communications said. This will be the second project under ... Read more

8 Rental Plants PDB tender goes online The Power Development Board debuts in floating its tender notice online today for eight rental power projects totalling 530MW capacity on its website www.bpdb.gov.bd. Power Secretary Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad inaugurated the launching of the online tender yesterday evening at the PDB office. PDB Chairman ASM Alamgir Kabir ... Read more

Extortion in the transport as well business sectors continues ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr, despite various measures taken by the law enforcing agencies, according the transport owners and businessmen of different city markets. The transport owners and employees alleged that they have to pay tolls regularly to extortionists at different spots on the highway. Traffic police ... Read more

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is to appoint a two-member team within a week to investigate the allegations of corruption brought by a JS body against former shipping adviser Maj Gen (retd) MA Matin and eight others in the Tk 9-crore container handling deal for Chittagong Port. “We received the findings of the Parliamentary Standing Committee ... Read more

As many as 30,000 children, who were engaged in various hazardous works, have been imparted training on non-formal education (NFE) and skill development training (SDT) after withdrawing them from their workplaces in the country. They were also given six-month skill development training under a five-year project titled ‘Elimination of Child Labour in Hazardous Works Phase-II’ ... Read more

Pak troops kill 24 extremists A US missile strike from a drone aircraft Tuesday killed at least 10 militants in a tribal area of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan while 24 other militants were killed in fighting in Khyber district, Pakistani officials said. “The strike targeted a Taliban compound in Dargamandi village of North Waziristan, killing 10 ... Read more

ORPHANAGE TRUST FUND CASE Court accepts charge against Khaleda A Dhaka court on Monday accepted the charge sheet against the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, her eldest son Tarique Rahman and four others in the Zia Orphanage Trust fund embezzlement case. Dhaka metropolitan senior special judge ANM Bashir Ullah accepted the charge sheet rejecting ... Read more

90 pc Swine flu patients don’t need drug: 1242 receive treatment in DMCH People panicked by swine flu continue to throng different hospitals of the capital seeking remedy. About 1,242 patients were given treatment in Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) till Monday morning. Though the government has taken initiatives to make the anti-viral drug ‘Oseltamivir’ ... Read more

As the ongoing operation clean street has failed to produce any tangible result, not to speak of disciplining the chaotic traffic, nation’s capital Dhaka is increasingly feeling the pain of a traffic system gone awry. Traffic police, embedded Ansars and ‘community police’ are routinely out on the streets to ‘control traffic’, but what is noticeably ... Read more

Saudi govt yet to clarify decision on barring elders, children, people with chronic illness from hajj Confusion mounts among the hajj pilgrims and agencies, as Saudi Arabia has not yet clarified Arab health ministers’ decision to restrict the elders and children to travel to the holy land in fear of a spread of H1N1 virus. ... Read more

Country sees lowest factory output growth in 7 years The troubled industrial sector may run into further setback this year as the energy situation shows no sign of immediate improvement, keeping investment decisions on hold, industry and banking sector people say. Idle money has been on the rise in bank vaults due to low demand ... Read more

Among them 42 secretaries, 89 addl secretaries 109 jt secretaries Since assuming power, the present government has so far mad 434 government officials as officers on special duty (OSDs), Parliament was told Monday. “Generally, government officials are made OSD for promotion and posting,” said LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, in charge of Establishment ... Read more

The Eid shopping is getting momentum with the shoppers crowding the city’s different shopping malls for buying dresses of their choice and other necessities on the eve of the Eid ul Fitr, the biggest Muslim festival which is only two weeks away. Shopkeepers are wooing customers by displaying different categories of men’s, women’s and children’s ... Read more

Obituary Reference on Saifur, Kennedy adopted, Speaker calls BNP to join The third session of the Jatiya Sangsad began yesterday in absence of the opposition BNP. As in the previous session the BNP-led four-party opposition did not take part in this session’s opening day pressing for various demands including arrangement of seats in the front ... Read more

The government brought a new law before parliament on Monday for passage that is designed to stop malpractices by the private real estate companies and secure interests of the consumers. Parliament adjourned until 11am on Tuesday. It recei-ved another bill for passage, adopted an obituary reference and discussed various issues. The Real Estate Development and ... Read more

Found in US-bound boat in Pacific The navy in El Salvador on Saturday detained 76 migrants, including 25 Bangladeshis, aboard a boat in the Pacific on their way to the USA. The others detected by the Salvadoran navy about 80 kilometers off the coast include 25 Nepalese, 21 Eritreans and five Ecuadorians, reported news agency ... Read more