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Bangladesh observes World Teachers’ Day today, in the backdrop of low pay continuing to encourage the talented among the young primary teachers to quit teaching for better paid jobs. Poor pay remains a major cause of declining standards of primary education, which is supposed to shape the young learners across the

Bangladesh Cricket team led by Mashrafe Bin Mortaza will take on New Zealand Cricket team led by Daniel Vettori today in the first One Day International (ODI) clash of the five-match Micromax ODI series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur. The match starts today at 9.00 AM BST (Bangladesh Standard Time)

Parliament on Monday passed the Environment Court Bill 2010 seeking provisions for allowing citizens to file cases against polluters and for setting up at least one environment court in each district. The bill stipulates a maximum punishment of five years of imprisonment or Taka 5 lakh in fine or both for a person guilty of ... Read more

A Bangladesh Rifles special court indicted 84 troops of Dhaka sector on Monday for their alleged role in February 2009 mutiny at the BDR headquarters in the capital. The three-member special court-11, headed by BDR Mymensingh sector commander, Colonel Iftekhar Uddin Mahmud, set November 7 for the commencement of the trial, in the presence of

3 Bills Passed Environment courts get more power Parliament yesterday passed three bills including two for increasing the number of environment courts and their authority to take stern actions against polluters, making provision for establishing a trust to tackle adverse impacts of climate change. A new bill was also placed in parliament seeking to enact ... Read more

A 20-year-old junior executive of the Iffat Group was reportedly killed in the Dhaka city’s Rampura area while the police claimed that she committed suicide jumping from a high-rise building Monday afternoon. The deceased was identified as Shayela Sharif, daughter Sharif Uddin Biswash, but no detail was available till 10:00pm. The Rampura police claimed that ... Read more

One died and several got injured when a speeding bus rammed into some rickshaws and a parked car at East Shewrapara yesterday afternoon. The deceased was identified as Kazi Shahid, 40, a vegetable vendor of the local kitchen market. He was walking towards his home at Taltola for lunch, said his family members, when he ... Read more

Food price has increased more than 28 per cent on an average in a year and over 9 per cent month-on-month, a government report shows. A study of the retail food prices, done on the basis of information gathered by the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh, showed that major food items became costlier by as high ... Read more

Illegal Chemical Storage Old Dhaka hub left out of first day’s drive Day one of the drive against warehouses of combustible chemicals in the city’s residential areas yesterday ended without visiting its nerve centre in Old Dhaka amid lack of coordination between the mobile court and fire service officials. Starting around 12:45pm, the court managed ... Read more

The High Court on Sunday issued a rule suo moto asking the government to explain in two weeks why it would not be directed to demolish the 16-story BGMEA building constructed on Hatirjheel lake in Dhaka. The housing and public works ministry and Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha were also asked to explain why punitive action would ... Read more

The government is contemplating to formulate separate guidelines for journalists in the print and electronic media, information minister Abul Kalam Azad told parliament on Sunday. Responding to a question from Awami League lawmaker Israfil Alam, he said that the information ministry had discussions with the representatives of

The industrial police, a specialised unit of law enforcers, formally started its journey yesterday, aiming to maintain order in the country’s four industrial zones. Initially, 1,580 personnel deputed from the police department will make up the force. They will later be joined by 1,410 more cops to patrol Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayanganj and Chittagong industria

Drive at CEPZ 2 factories fined for pollution The Department of Environment (DoE) in a drive at Chittagong Export Processing Zone (CEPZ) yesterday fined two industries around Tk 33 lakh for water pollution. A team of the DoE, led by its Director (enforcement) Munir Chowdhury, made the drive titled “Operation Prevent Environmental Crime” at Sector ... Read more

The World Bank (WB) approved $75 million to support Bangladesh in its project for recovery from the damage caused by Cyclone Sidr and Cyclone Aila. The WB yesterday in a press release said, the credit is an additional financing for the ongoing Emergency 2007 Cyclone Recovery & Restoration Project

A number of schools and colleges in the capital continue to take coaching classes flouting government directives for ‘extra’ classes for students. The education ministry at a meeting on August 10 decided that educational institutions in the capital should not take coaching classes and left options for ‘extra’ classes so that students, especially

Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra artiste Bipul Bhattacharya is fighting for his life in a local hospital. Bipul, also one of the premier folk singers of the nation, has been suffering from lung cancer for the last few months. As his condition worsened on last Saturday he was shifted to intensive care unit of the capital’s ... Read more

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) yesterday in a drive demolished illegal structures in car-parking spaces of five buildings at the city’s Rokeya Sarani. Rokon-ud-Doula, executive magistrate of Rajuk, yesterday morning conducted the drive with around 30 day labourers, a bulldozer, two platoons of police and some officials of Rajuk. The

Allegation of acid attack HC judge’s son granted bail A Dhaka court on Sunday granted bail to Safayet Ahmed Chowdhury, son of High Court Judge Salma Masud Chowdhury, in connection with an acid throwing case. Additional chief metropolitan magistrate AHM Habibur Rahman Bhuiyan passed the order after hearing a petition seeking bail for

The government is planning to evict hawkers from footpaths in the busy and crowded areas of the capital to ease traffic congestion. ‘The drive to free the footpaths of makeshift shops and other types of illegal occupation would begin from November in the capital. The Dhaka Metropolitan Police has been instructed to make

Upazila chairmen and vice-chairmen on Saturday gave the government until November 30 to make the upazila parishads functional, or they threatened to take to the streets. Leaders of the Bangladesh Upazila Parishad Association, Bangladesh Chairman-Vice-Chairman Oikya Parishad, Bangladesh Vice-Chairman Samanway Parishad and