Headlines

A training aircraft of Bangladesh Air Force crashed on the Karnaphuli River channel at Patanga near the outer anchorage of Chittagong port yesterday. The lone pilot of the aircraft, Flight Lieutenant Abdullah-A-Mamun, managed to escape by parachute after the aircraft crashed,an ISPR press release said. The divers of Bangladesh Navy with the help of some ... Read more

Sends letter to speaker today over violation of electoral laws; membership of 3 others at risk The Election Commission (EC) will ask Parliament Secretariat today to scrap the membership of BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury for suppressing educational information while seeking candidacy for the December 29 national election. “Salauddin Quader Chowdhury cannot continue as a ... Read more

Massive power outages have hit the country again as power generation dropped and demand shot up because of sweltering heat in the last few days. Most of the Dhaka city areas are facing around six to eight hours of load shedding amid sweltering heat and humidity while other parts of the country are facing around ... Read more

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water Resources Ministry yesterday decided to send a team to India to visit the much-talked-about construction of Tipaimukh Dam on the river barak in Bangladesh’s upstream. “An all-party parliamentary team, headed by the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on Water Resources Ministry, will go to India to witness the ... Read more

Gas cylinder explosion caused the fire Three workers were killed and 15 others injured as a blade factory caught fire after a gas cylinder explosion at Masimpur in Tongi Industrial area of Gazipur early yesterday. Witnesses said a gas cylinder exploded on the ground floor of the two-storey Bidyut Bangladesh Pvt Ltd with a big ... Read more

Polytech students’ death in city A murder case was lodged with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) court against 11 people including 10 members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on charge of killing two students of the Dhaka Polytechnic Institute in an alleged ‘shootout’ with the force at Manik Mia Avenue on May 27. Though ... Read more

Vested quarters are again trying to grab parts of the Gulshan Lake to build new residential plots inside illegally filling with soil. The lake is being filled at the sides of roads No 21, 22, 23, 24, 28, 55, 105, 118 and 136. Recently, hundreds of trucks have been engaged to carry soil to different ... Read more

Convicted criminal’s records show 184 calls on a single day A convicted imprisoned top criminal made and received 184 cellphone calls to and from his cohorts in just 24 hours, law enforcers found this out recently to their disbelief. Inmates are not allowed to have cellphones in jail but that convict made and received over ... Read more

Like all rural Bangladeshis, Saidul Islam knows the hardships of summer, when his tin-roofed house turns into a furnace with not enough electricity to power even a fan. For the 100 million Bangladeshis — most of them farmers — who live in the countryside, the notion of electricity supply is little more than an empty ... Read more

Natural and man-made disasters killed nearly a quarter of a million people in 2008 and warnings about looming disasters, particularly climate change, are not being heeded, the Red Cross said yesterday. In 2008, disasters ranging from the Chinese earthquake to a devastating cyclone in Myanmar wrought the second most devastating annual toll of the past ... Read more

Three routes on wish list The cabinet on Monday approved Bangladesh’s accession to the Asian Highway network though the route through the country will be decided later on from among three options. A regular meeting of the cabinet held at the Prime Minister’s Office with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair took the long-overdue ... Read more

Public Procurement Govt’s rules change to rock WB aid flow As the government has finalised some major amendments to the public procurement rules, the World Bank last week said adoption of these changes would jeopardise its project aid including budget support for Bangladesh. To amend the Public Procurement Act/Rules (PPA)/(PPR), the government has finalised about ... Read more

MPs, ministers should step down if they fail to stop Tipaimukh Dam: Prof Mozaffer The construction of Tipaimuk Dam on Barak River will be resisted at any cost and the government will be forced by countrywide movement to raise its voice against this evil plan of India. The sentiment was expressed by the members of ... Read more

The government is planning for reaching an understanding with the countries concerned to bring back siphoned off money within three to four months, according to highly placed sources. “The money siphoned off particularly by political leaders, businessmen and individuals will be brought back as soon as the government reaches understanding with countries concerned,” hinted a ... Read more

Students and political activists across the country on Monday went out on demonstrations against the just retired chief of army staff, Moeen U Ahmed, burning his effigies and asking the government to put him on trial for violating the constitution by going beyond his professional jurisdiction. Effigies of the former military chief were burnt on ... Read more

Patients’ Sufferings Know no Bound DMCH finds huge food supply graft Indoor patients at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) are getting apparently improved diet after being provided with rotten food for years thanks to rampant irregularities by the authorities and food suppliers. DMCH Director Brig Gen Bazle Quader admitted the ill-practices that existed at the ... Read more

Principal Staff Officer (PSO) of the Armed Forces Division M Abdul Mubeen yesterday took over as the Chief of Army Staff upon becoming a four-star General succeeding  General Moeen U Ahmed who proceeded on retirement  after completing his extended tenure. Chief of Naval Staff Rear Admiral Z U Ahmed and Chief of Air Staff Air ... Read more

No need of caretaker system, says Suranjit Lawmakers came down very heavily on the immediate past caretaker government for making a Taka 94,140 crore additional budgetary allocations for the fiscal 2008- 2009 as the general discussions on supplementary budget continued in the Jatiya Sangsad [JS] for the second day yesterday. They said, despite enough allocations ... Read more

Experts at a workshop here on Monday urged the government to formulate a national action plan to reduce indoor air pollution as it kills nearly 50,000 people every year in the country. They said about 50,000 people, two-thirds of them under-5 children, die each year for using indoor solid fuel since 92 percent households in ... Read more

Allegation of corruption A sub-committee formed by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Shipping Ministry at its meeting yesterday decided to summon former shipping adviser Maj Gen (retd) MA Matin to hear his version about allegations of corruption against him in  awarding a container handling contract at Chittagong Port. The sub-committee however did not fix any ... Read more