Headlines

The Sub-Committee of Parliamentary Probe Committee on the alleged corruption of former speaker Barrister Jamir Uddin Sircar will recommend for taking legal actions against the former speaker and BNP Secretary General and former whip Khondoker Delwar Hossain for their corruption in medical bills. After a meeting of the Sub-Committee, SK Baker, convenor of the committee ... Read more

The government yesterday announced a Tk 3,424 crore stimulus package to cushion the blow of global economic downturn. The fund meant to be used over the last quarter of the current fiscal year includes Tk 450 crore in cash subsidies for the export industries already hit by the recession. Unveiling the plan at a press ... Read more

Few trade bodies have expressed their frustration over the financial stimulus package the government announced Sunday to help face the recession challenges and demanded reconsideration of the incentives. “I can’t consider it a complete stimulus package… it only addressed the concerns of three sectors from the recession-hit ones,” FBCCI president Annisul Huq told UNB in ... Read more

A parliamentary panel has questioned the expenditure by a minister for decoration of his official chambers and the attempt to have a luxury Sports Utility Vehicle purchased for his official use, a member of the parliamentary watchdog told New Age. ‘We asked the ministry’s officials to explain under which law they had spent so much ... Read more

Diarrhoea, which has broken out in alarming proportions in Dhaka, has claimed the life of a six-year-old girl and afflicted more than 700 others till 5:00pm on Sunday. The ICDDR,B received 908 patients on Saturday, 775 on Friday and 899 on Thursday. According to the health control room, the number of patients in the last ... Read more

Bangladesh Bank issued a circular Sunday asking commercial banks to reduce the maximum limit of their annual lending rate to 13 percent to help industries face the challenges of the global recession. The rate will be applicable for term loans of agriculture credit, large and medium industries, financing housing and commercial transactions. The instruction comes ... Read more

No remarkable improvement of power situation is seen in the ongoing summer season that causes huge suffering for the HSC examinees and Boro farmers. Residents and boro farmers yesterday experienced ten to sixteen hours electricity cut, according to sources. There was 1,800MW of load shedding yesterday against the demand of 5,500MW, sources said. In Dhaka ... Read more

Four activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling Awami League, were injured in infighting on the Jahangirnagar University campus Sunday. The injured were Ullash, Bitu, Faisal and Arnab of the Sagor-Sumon group of the BCL at the JU. All of them were residing at the Bhashani Hall of the university. ... Read more

Many BNP leaders likely to retire Veteran politician and founder member of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) M Saifur Rahman resigned from the party standing committee as well as retired from active politics. Many standing committee members are likely to go to self-retirement following him. The size of standing committee will be smaller for these retirements ... Read more

The Criminal Investigation Department of police on Saturday night arrested a field officer of the National Security Intelligence in connection with the April 2004 Chittagong arms haul case. The court remanded Akbar Hossain Khan, the NSI official, in CID’s custody for two days for interrogation. The court also ordered a fresh two-day remand for Mohsin ... Read more

662 houses, about 650 hectares of cropland damaged At least six people were killed in Cox’s Bazar, Chittagong, Noakhali and Bhola and scores injured as cyclonic storm Bijli, the first of the 2009 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, crossed past Bangladesh early Saturday, levelling several hundred houses and standing crops on a vast tract. According ... Read more

India has warned Bangladesh’s political leadership, including prime minister Sheikh Hasina, of a possible assassination plot, an Indian newspaper reported on Saturday. The Indian Express said foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon had informed Dhaka of the threat during a recent visit. Menon arrived in the capital on an “unscheduled visit” on Apr 12. Bangladesh foreign ... Read more

Cyclone Bijli hit the coastal areas of Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar last night. Strong wind coupled with heavy rain started blowing at around 7:30pm. It may take another 4-6 hours to cross the coasts, said a late night Met office bulletin. The storm lashed the offshore island of Sandwip, coastal upazilas of Banshkhali and Anowara ... Read more

About 25 lakh jobseekers, who completed their secondary education after 2000, are facing difficulties in taking recruitment tests in the absence of an official harmonisation of the pre- and post-2001 evaluation systems of academic results, alleged sufferers. The government in 2001 introduced letter-grade system in secondary school certificate examinations, ending the traditional evaluation of examinations ... Read more

Some 743 out of 1,175 garment factories located in Dhaka division and surveyed in 2008 have failed to fully comply with a 2006 tripartite agreement, according to a government inspection report. The survey revealed that the non-compliant factories had not implemented the all eight conditions agreed on by the labour ministry, representatives of apparel owners ... Read more

Bangladesh Business Awards 2008 Corporate luminaries honoured Two businesspersons, one enterprise and one financial institution won The Daily Star-DHL business awards yesterday for their extraordinary performance in different fields. As part of the Bangladesh Business Awards 2008, Abdul Monem, chairman and managing director of Abdul Monem Group of Companies, has been honoured as the Business ... Read more

Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College (SBMC) was today closed sine die following clashes between two rival groups of BCL, abduction of a student and ransacking of college library and hostel rooms. Students of SBMC were ordered to vacate halls by this morning. Police and RAB have been deployed on the campus to avoid further trouble. Dr. ... Read more

The local Awami League (AL) lawmaker’s men in Bagmara upazila have allegedly taken away cheques worth Tk 19 lakh granted by the prime minister for the victims of the cruelties committed by Bangla Bhai-led vigilante gangs. They are now pressing the recipients to hand them the rest two of the 21 Tk 1 lakh cheques ... Read more

Three important projects, aiming to address the country’s acute poverty and to rehabilitate the people affected by cyclone and flood, are being implemented spending over US$101 million (Tk 660 crore) as about 5.6 crore people still live below the poverty line. The projects are ‘Social Investment Program Project’ (SIPP), ‘Flood Re-storation and Recovery Assistance Program’ ... Read more

Workers in Bangladesh’s export industries are paid the world’s lowest wages. Productivity remains very low due mainly to poor management by the manufacturers and inadequate marketing skills. Bangladeshi workers in factories involved in leather processing, shoe making, jute yarn manufacturing, shrimp processing and production of medicines receive the world’s lowest wages. The average monthly wages ... Read more