Metropolitan

Mercury dips to 6 at Ishwardi The winter signalled it was gaining strength, as chilly winds started blowing on Wednesday, dipping the mercury to 6° Celsius in the northern town of Ishwardi, leaving it shivering under the merciless blow of a moderate cold wave. Nearby Rajshahi, too, had its share of the bite, a little ... Read more

project has reached 3262 villages in 16 dists, mobilizing approximately 545,000 poor The Empowerment and Livelihood Improvement “Nuton Jibon” Project is in line with Government of Bangladesh’s vision of pro-poor growth, reduced vulnerability and human development. The project aims to improve the lives and livelihoods of poor families in rural areas while building their resilience ... Read more

Describing the January 5, 2014 as a black day for democracy, the Supreme Court Bar Association on Sunday said no one witnessed such an unprecedented, candidate-less and voter-less farcical election not only in Bangladesh, but also in the world history. In a joint statement, SCBA president AJ Mohammad Ali, also adviser to BNP chairperson, and acting ... Read more

Violence against women marked an increase in the last year (2013) as 277 women, including 135 children, were raped as against 207 in the previous year. Of the victims, 62 were killed after violation while the figure was 55 in 2012, according to the annual report of Bangladesh Society for the Enforcement of Human Rights ... Read more

The body of an elderly woman was found at village Sundulpur under Daudkandi upazila in Comilla Saturday morning. She was Tohirunnessa Begum, 70, wife of Dilu Miahzi. Daudkandi thana OC Abdul Salam Miah said they went to the house of Dilu Miah at around 8:30am and found her body lying on the floor of her bed

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police has imposed a 24-hour ban on movement of 12 types of vehicles in the capital today. The ban would be effective from Saturday midnight to Sunday midnight, said a press release issued by the DMP and signed by its deputy commissioner Masudur Rahman. The release said baby-taxi, CNG-run auto-rickshaw, easy bike, jeep, bus, ... Read more

A woman died and a man received severe injury in a gas cylinder blast in the capitals’ Jatrabari area on Saturday. The deceased was Josna Begum, 35, wife of M Mosharrof Hossain of the area and the injured was Anwar Hossain, 22, of Mehendiganj in Barisal. Anwar was refilling the cylinder. The victim’s husband said ... Read more

Human rights activists formed a human chain in Sylhet on Sunday afternoon, demanding immediate steps to end violence against the ethnic minority groups in the country. Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minority Sylhet unit formed the human chain in front of the city’s Central Shaheed Minar in Chowhatta area.

The overseas employment of female workers has significantly increased although Bangladesh witnessed a negative growth of remittance inflow and drastic fall of labour migration in 2013, according to Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training. Bangladeshi female workers, mostly housemaids and garment workers, were being employed in Jordan, Lebanon,

Solid municipal wastes left uncollected here and there in the city almost throughout the day increased public health and environmental hazards. The city’s taxpayers blamed growing indifference and inefficiency of the two city corporations for the problem. Municipal waste on streets and open dumpsites has been a perennial source of

The first spell of cold wave is sweeping over the south-western part of the country including Khulna and neighbouring districts, halted the normal activities of the people. Md Amirul Azad, Officer-in-charge of Khulna Met Office said over cell phone that they recorded the lowest temperature at 13.0 degrees Celsius yesterday while it was recorded 12.0 ... Read more

Child rights activists in a seminar in Dhaka on Monday demanded inclusion of domestic works on the list of hazardous works for children. Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum organised the programme titled ‘rights of child domestic workers at risk: possible way forward’ at Bangladesh Institute of Administration and Management Foundation auditorium. They that

At least 50 lakh dwellers of the Chittagong city have been facing an acute crisis of drinking water because of extreme salinity in the water supplied by Chittagong Water Supply and Sewerage Authority over the last 20 days, forcing people to search for water from distant areas. The salinity was found at places in the port ... Read more

Rural institutions, cadet colleges perform poorly Results of the Junior School Certificate and the Junior Dakhil Certificate exams published on Sunday showed that the success rate and the number of GPA 5 scorers increased this year compared with that of 2012. The combined pass rate in JSC and JDC exams increased to 89.94 this year, while ... Read more

Participants in a volunteer training programme conducted by the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed in Barisal city urged for extending coordinated medicare facilities as a right for the disabled persons on Sunday. The centre manager, Mahmudul Hassan Al Imam, also a physiotherapist, chaired the programme held at Barisal ARDRID-CRP centre in the city.

Emissions by automobiles put an adverse impact on most of crops and plants, leading to a potential health hazards for mankind, said Dhaka University’s soil, water and environment professor SM Imamul Huq at a daylong seminar on Saturday. He said the pollutants of air from the automobiles including carbon monoxide (CO), lead (Pb), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ... Read more

The infection of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has increased more than 25 per cent in the country over the past one year. This was disclosed at an advocacy workshop with media personnel on HIV and AIDS in the city on Saturday. The workshop also informed that a total of 370 persons were infected by HIV ... Read more

[ The prisoners are passing days amid subhumanconditions as its already crowded cells are being overcrowded day by day for large scale arrests ] Chittagong: The Chittagong central jail is now crowded with three times higher number of prisoners than its actual capacity. According to an account

The government has taken initiative to record health-related data on pregnant women, mothers and under five children aiming to set a specific target of reducing maternal and child deaths. It had already launched a pilot scheme to record data in Bashail and Sakhipur upazilas of Tangail in cooperation with the World Health Organisation,

Information and communication technology secretary M Nazrul Islam Khan on Saturday called upon the firms to come up with IT training programmes, including freelancing outsourcing for women, in order to create opportunity for their self-employment. ‘There are about 1,000 IT firms in the country. If they provide IT training to women, the number