Headlines

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Sunday demanded investigation to establish whether poisoned food had been served for the chiefs of the Awami League and the BNP when they were in jail during the rule of the military-governed interim government. The BNP’s standing committee member Khandkar Mosharraf Hossain said they suspected ‘poisoned food’ had also been ... Read more

Chief of General Staff (CGS) of Bangladesh Army Major General Abdul Hafiz on Sunday said Bangladesh as a troops contributing country to United Nations Peacekeeping Mission has ranked second for sincere efforts and high standard training of its peacekeepers. The CGS said this while addressing the inaugural session of the Asia-Pacific Peacekeeping Training Centre Commandants ... Read more

The low lying coastal areas of Southern Bangladesh may go under sea by 2100 due to global climate change, State minister for forest and environment Advocate Mostafizur Rahman Fizar told the Jatiya Sangsad yesterday. Replying to a question of Rashed Khan Menon of Workers Party, he said “there is a possibility of rising in the ... Read more

Peyara Begum, 45, mother of five children and widow of the late Abdu Miah of Khaiyer at Rasulpur of Debidwar in Comilla, was whipped 200 times by a fatwa (religious decree) committee for an alleged relation with one Mamun Miah, who was whipped 100 times Saturday night. Village leaders had met twice before Saturday since ... Read more

One dies, 20 hurt; wrong signal blamed Two passenger trains collided head-on in outer signal area of Kamalapur Railway Station in the city yesterday afternoon due to wrong signal. The accident caused a huge damage to two carriages and engines of the trains, killing a security guard of the railway and injuring 20 people, six ... Read more

SSF, other forces to provide full-time security blanket The government is going to enact soon a new law titled Father of the Nation’s Family Members’ Security Act, 2009 for ensuring security to the two daughters of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana. The Home Ministry has already ... Read more

The students of primary schools across the country are studying two versions of history of the War of Independence as more than half of them were supplied with textbooks bearing the old version of history while new books with certain corrections have been made available to others. The teachers said that such a situation has ... Read more

Ganges water sharing and Tipaimukh Dam Indian HC’s contention challenged by Bangladeshi water expert Tauhidul Anwar Khan, a veteran water expert of the country and former executive member of Joint Rivers Commission and DG of Water Resources Planning Organisation, has contested and rebuffed Indian High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty’s contention on Ganges water sharing and ... Read more

BDR reform proposals handed to Faruk Khan Against the backdrop of last February’s bloody mutiny, three out of the four BDR battalions now based in its headquarters at Pilkhana are likely to be moved outside the capital. Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) sources said a set of proposals for BDR reforms was prepared by a sub-committee, formed ... Read more

The Rapid Action battalion (RAB) on Sunday night arrested banned Jama’atul Mujahidin Bangladesh’s (JMB) information technology (IT) chief and three other members of the wing in separate drives in the capital and Mymensingh areas. RAB seized five detonators, two grenade covers, a binocular, a laptop and a number of books from their possession, official sources ... Read more

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has agreed to provide Bangladesh with US$1.3 billion for construction of the proposed Padma Bridge. The government of Bangladesh has also signed a loan agreement with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) under which IDB would disburse 18 million US dollars as project loan for harnessing renewable solar energy. Finance Minister ... Read more

Residents of both city and rural areas have been facing severe load shedding despite saving of 205MW of electricity on an average after introduction of daylight saving measure from June 19 midnight. State Minister for Power and Energy Advocate Shamsul Hoque Tuku yesterday told the reporters at his Secretariat Office that the power division had ... Read more

Students went berserk following the death of Anima Rani Saha, wife of Professor Parimal Saha of Dhaka University, when a car hit her in front of Jagannath Hall of the university early Monday. The students set fire to the car that hit the victim and damaged a number of other vehicles after the incident on ... Read more

BNP MP Salauddin Quader Chowdhury has said, he did not give wrong information in the nomination paper. He said, during state of emergency the joint forces took his educational certificates. That is why he marked ‘no’ in the space provided in the nomination form for noting educational qualification and certificate. The Election commission has taken ... Read more

The High Court on Sunday acknowledged Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the proclaimer of 1971 Independence, declaring illegal the state-published documents naming Ziaur Rahman as its proclaimer. In a landmark judgment, a High Court bench comprising Justice ABM Khairul Haque and Justice Momtazuddin Ahmed ruled that Bangabandhu proclaimed the Independence of Bangladesh immediately before his ... Read more

BNP yesterday made it clear that it would not be part of the all party parliamentary team which is expected to visit the proposed Tipaimukh Dam project site in India if national level experts are not included in that committee. The BNP proposed five names of experts for inclusion in the team. They are Dr ... Read more

Mobile operators told at The Daily Star roundtable The mobile industry in Bangladesh, which is still lagging at the bottom rung of tele-density in the region, is at the crossroads of growth where the huge untapped rural market beacons it. But the challenge is strong enough as the cost of owning a mobile set and ... Read more

DST fails to improve supply situation Power outage turned severe across the country on Sunday and the daylight saving time introduced midnight past Friday failed to create any positive impact on the power supply situation. Most city areas faced outages for six to eight hours on the day, for one to two hours at a ... Read more

The appearance of former Speaker Barrister Jamiruddin Sircar, Deputy Speaker Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui and former Chief Whip Khandker Delwar Hossain before the parliamentary probe committee on June 27, seems to be uncertain. Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui talking to The New Nation said yesterday afternoon he did not receive the parliamentary sub-committee letter. The decision whether to ... Read more

Indian High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty yesterday said his country had consulted with Bangladesh on the construction of the Tipaimukh Dam. There has been a lot of agitation of the issue on Tipaimukh Dam. I reiterate that it is a hydro-electric multi-purpose project to produce electricity. There is no international law that could stop India ... Read more