Fishermen, locals in Monpura estuary join police in 3-hour gunfight with pirates Ten pirates wounded in a gunfight with police were later beaten to death by a mob in Bhola’s Bhashan Char on Monpura estuary yesterday afternoon, police said. Also, the police recovered the body of an abducted fisherman from the scene. But it could ... Read more
Other Headlines
All she wanted was to study
Husband blindfolds, chops off her hand as punishment, culprit sent to jail She was blindfolded and gagged. Her hands tied. Her husband took out a machete and hacked off her right hand. Her only fault was that she would pursue studies despite her husband’s objections. “I was waiting for a surprise from my expatriate husband ... Read more
Nation pays tributes to martyred intellectuals today
The nation will observe the Martyred Intellectuals’ Day today (Wednesday) commemorating the killing of the illustrated sons of the soil two days before the country’s victory through a nine month bloody war in 1971. Sensing a humiliating defeat, Pakistani forces with their local collaborators–Rajakar, Al-Badr and Al-Shams– picked up leading Bengali intellectuals and professionals on ... Read more
Time to redeem the old pledge
Martyred Intellectuals’ Day today Syed Badrul Ahsan The wounds remain as fresh as they were four decades ago. The memories of those done to death by the murder squads of the collaborators of the Pakistan occupation forces are, forty years on, as agonising as the moment when we first discovered that they had been abducted, ... Read more
Kabir Chowdhury passes away
Kabir Chowdhury, a national professor who became the icon of anti-communalism through his decades-long active stance against the forces of evil and injustice, succumbed to a cardiac arrest in the capital yesterday. The reputed academic, considered as a voice of conscience during many national crises, was 89. According to the family members, Prof Chowdhury breathed ... Read more
Risking life to save money
Trucks unload vegetables Flouting laws, a section of truck drivers carry passengers to northern districts from the capital’s Karwan Bazar every night to earn extra bucks. The passengers, most of whom are day labourers and rickshaw pullers, choose to travel by truck risking their lives as it costs them five to eight times less than ... Read more
Criminal database underway
Rab hopes for quick crime-busting The government is working on a highly-sophisticated criminal database, the first of its kind, to facilitate law enforcers in detecting criminal elements quickly by cross-checking the bank of biometrics and other records. The Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) began implementing the Tk 2.5 crore-project in June last year in cooperation with ... Read more
Unemployment world’s fastest rising fear
Unemployment is the world’s fastest-rising worry, a BBC World Service survey covering 11,000 people in 23 countries suggests. The annual poll, called The World Speaks, gave people a list of concerns and asked which they had discussed with friends or family in the past month. Corruption and poverty still ranked the highest, but unemployment was ... Read more
Highway police seldom seen on highways
Even after six years in operation, the highway police have failed to check road accidents and discipline traffic on highways across the country. The government in 2005 launched the police unit to ensure a safer highway network and a smooth traffic management system. Highway police officials, however, put the blame on the shortage of manpower ... Read more
Human traffickers to get death
Cabinet okays max punishment in draft bill The cabinet yesterday approved the draft bill on human trafficking with the provision of capital punishment for the heinous offence. The weekly cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the secretariat also okayed a list of 124 foreign nationals including politicians, artists and intellectuals, and institutions
Public healthcare in sorry state in DMCH
Despite efforts to lift Bangladesh from the status of developing nations, the country refuses to make any progress in its healthcare sector. Everyday, emergency patients in Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) are facing harassment, due to mismanagement, poor doctor-patient ratio, and unavailability of beds. A visit to the hospital would inevitably show patients undergoing treatment ... Read more
Three bridges in danger of collapse
Three major bridges — Kanchpur, Meghna and Gumti — on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway may collapse anytime, said Communications Minister Obaidul Quader yesterday. “The soil around the bases of the bridges have almost been washed away due to overloading, sand extraction and movement of overloaded cargo vessels on the water, he told The Daily Star after ... Read more
UN charts new climate course
Nations approve a late deal for 2015 global pact, agree on fund for climate aid to poor countries; critics say gains modest A marathon UN climate conference yesterday approved a roadmap towards an accord that for the first time will bring all major greenhouse-gas emitters under a single legal roof. The European Union will place ... Read more
Bangladesh among top rice-eaters
Bangladesh stands fourth in per-capita rice consumption in the world, show data prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Brunei Darussalam tops the list with per-capita rice consumption of 245 kilograms a year, according to Faostat, a regular food supply data prepared by the
Over 30,000 licences issued without proper tests: BRTA
The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority has issued 30,000 driving licences mostly to drivers of buses and trucks on ‘easy terms’ without holding proper tests since 2006. The authorities in the period issued about three lakh driving licences, according to an affidavit submitted by the agency’s chairman Md Ayubur Rahman Khan to the High Court on
No water yet for Buriganga, Turag from Jamuna river
The “Buriganga River Restoration Project (New Dhaleswari-Pungli-Bangshi-Turag-Buriganga river system)” has been virtually stalled for various reasons, including delay in funds allocation, non-availability of dredgers and non-participation of bidders in the tender process. The Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) project, worth Tk. 944.09 crore, was supposed to take off in December last
People won’t accept India’s Tipai move: Ershad
Jatiya Party chairman HM Ershad on Saturday said the people of Bangladesh would not allow India to construct the Tipaimukh dam on the River Barak because it would spell disaster downstream and turn Sylhet into a desert. ‘India has turned the country’s northern region into a desert by constructing the Farakka Barrage and now it ... Read more
A day of human chains, rallies near Press Club
Rallies and human chains formed by different organizations marking the international human rights day on Saturday in front of the Jatiya Press club virtually turned the street in front of the club into a public meeting ground. As many as three to four rows were formed in front of the club. The use of the ... Read more
Migration cost could be reduced by 50pc removing middlemen
Speakers at a workshop on Saturday said the migration cost would be reduced by 50 per cent if middlemen are removed from the process. The government should formulate strict law to stop the activities of the middlemen during the recruitment process, they said. BRAC Safe Migration Facilitation Centre organised the workshop
Hundreds watch total lunar eclipse
A total lunar eclipse took place on Saturday for the second time in a solar year. The first one occurred on June 15, 2011. This was a relatively rare central lunar eclipse where the centre point of the earth’s shadow passed across the moon. It was visible from all of Asia, Australia and seen as ... Read more