Headlines

Crooked agents to blame for woes A large number of Bangladeshi workers are still being subjected to inhuman torture in different countries. Hundreds of the Bangladeshi youths who went to different countries like Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and other Middle East and European countries spending big money returning home empty-handed many of them dead. Falling ... Read more

The government is likely to start testing travellers for swine flu, particularly those who are coming from the newly infected countries. The decision may be enforced from tomorrow in all the three international airports of the country, and within the next seven days at the seaports, said a high official of the health and family ... Read more

Party unlikely to take action against him All eyes are fixed on Awami League President Shiekh Hasina as to whether or not any action would be taken against party’s sidelined General Secretary Abdul Jalil for his volatile remarks made recently against some senior AL leaders as well as and some cabinet members. The government and ... Read more

Noted economist and Dhaka University teacher Dr Atiur Rahman is going to be appointed governor of Bangladesh Bank. Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday told journalists that an announcement in this regard might be made today. Finance ministry sources also said an order in this regard is likely to be issued today. The tenure of Bangladesh ... Read more

Parks, gardens and other public places in the capital Dhaka have turned into dens of criminals as law and order situation there remains in the doldrums. There are around 54 parks under the DCC, a zoo under fisheries and livestock ministry and a botanical garden under the environment & forest ministry in the capital. Parks ... Read more

Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, known as the ‘microfinance guru’, is now doing business in the centre of capitalism — New York City. In the past year the first US branch of his Grameen Bank has lent $1.5 million, ranging from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars, to nearly 600 women ... Read more

Study finds Hazaribagh water most contaminated River pollution around the capital has reached such a level that the groundwater system where the aquifers are recharged from the riverbeds is being contaminated, a recent study shows. In the seven months from November to April, virtually no water but only stinky mucky liquid flows in the gradually ... Read more

PM returns home from Saudi Arabia ‘Akama’ limit for BD people eased, expatriates will vote now: Dipu Moni Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia would be able to transfer their ‘Akama’ (work permit) and join new companies from now. Besides, the Bangladeshi expatriates in Saudi Arabia would franchise their voting power even staying there. Foreign Minister ... Read more

Proof of allegation will spell retirement: HT Imam The government is planning to force a large number of senior bureaucrats to retire because of their alleged involvement in partisan politics, presumably in support of the BNP-Jamaat alliance. Sheikh Hasina’s administration has ordered the establishment ministry to inquire into allegations against those officials, known as beneficiaries ... Read more

Industries Minister Dilip Barua has suggested bringing down the bank interest rate to single digit, saying that high interest rate is the major obstacle to industrialization in the country. “Bank interest rate is a big problem for investment in the country; this should be brought down below 10 percent,” he said while speaking at a ... Read more

People are likely to suffer more in the sweltering heat as meteorologists on Saturday said the heat wave now sweeping over a half of the country might continue for a couple of days. In the absence of rain, a draught-like situation coupled with a decline in the groundwater level has also put farmers in trouble ... Read more

No respite until Boro season ends; stopgap measures fail In spite of diverting 100 MW of electricity from REB, officials concerned have warned that power generation in the country is unlikely to improve before the Boro season comes to an end. The capital is eagerly looking forward to getting some respite from its protracted hours ... Read more

In the search for Earth-like planets, astronomers zeroed in Tuesday on two places that look awfully familiar to home. One is close to the right size. The other is in the right place. European researchers said they not only found the smallest exoplanet ever, called Gliese 581 e, but realized that a neighboring planet discovered ... Read more

Awami League General Secretary, who is now sidelined by the party high-ups, said, a number of ministers who were planted in the cabinet are agents of an intelligence agency and they are on their payroll. While talking to the New Nation last night without naming party spokesman and acting general secretary Syed Ashraful, Jalil said ... Read more

Rivers in some of the world’s most populated regions are losing water, many because of climate change, researchers reported on Tuesday. Affected rivers include the Yellow River in northern China, the Ganges in India, the Niger in West Africa, and the Colorado in the south-western United States. When added to the effects from damming, irrigation ... Read more

Bashundhara Group’s offer for 2 stadiums shocks Rajuk The lands, on which Bashundhara Group Chief Ahmed Akbar Sobhan alias Shah Alam promised two football stadiums for Bangladesh Football Federation, are mostly part of protected wetlands and flood flow zones, which cannot be legally used for building anything on them, according to Rajuk sources. Shah Alam ... Read more

Awami League (AL) Presidium member Amir Hossain Amu yesterday claimed that Abdul Jalil, General Secretary of AL, might have full information about connection of party leaders with an intelligence agency. Amu made this comment while talking to reporters at his Eskaton residence in a reaction to Abdul Jalil’s interview on Tuesday that a number of ... Read more

Frequent load shedding for long-period is severely affecting city people plunging them into unbearable sufferings. Without electricity for hours, people of the city fail to sleep in extremely hot and humid weather and students of different levels specially HSC examinees are not being able to pursue studies. Business activities, industrial productions, hospital services and normal ... Read more

Vowing to continue their movement leaders of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) yesterday said they would not sit idle if the government did not revoke the lease cancellation decision and withdraw eviction notice to the party chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia immediately. If the government fails to withdraw its decision we would come out to the streets ... Read more

As many as 62 cargo vessels – both incoming and outgoing – have been stranded at the Chittagong port as the only port channel was shut on Wednesday following the sinking of a clinker-laden coaster ship in the estuary, port and shipping sources said. Of them, 43 ships with import cargoes remained stranded at the ... Read more