Headlines

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

The politicians and labour leaders on Friday called upon the government to allocate a special fund for the workers in the next fiscal budget to protect them from the impacts of the global economic recession. They made the call at the opening session of the 4th national conference of the Bangladesh Garment Sramik Trade Union ... Read more

The Bangladesh Upazila Chairmen’s Forum on Friday denounced the statement of the LGRD and cooperatives minister, Syed Ashraful Islam, and announced their plan to mobilise Upazila Parishad representatives across the country from next week with the aim of launching a movement. ‘We strongly condemn the LGRD minister’s statement and warn him that it is not ... Read more

Country’s 17 percent of land will go under water and 30 percent production of crops will decrease by 2050 if policies to resist the impact of climate change globally are not formulated soon. This observation was made by speakers at a seminar on ‘climate change: its impact on health and environment’ jointly organized by Bangladesh ... Read more

Massive irregularities continue at the Zia International Airport in the absence of anti-graft drives by the ACC and administrative actions by the government. A section of unscrupulous officials of Civil Aviation Authority and customs have been indulging in corruptions and illegal activities for long but anti-graft watchdog remains silent astonishingly. It has been learnt that ... Read more

NEW YORK, Apr 17: Asia may see more conflicts over scarce water resources in the coming years as climate change and population growth threaten access to the most basic natural resource, a report warned on Friday, reports Reuters. Water problems in Asia are already severe, with one in five people, or 700 million, not having ... Read more