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The Secondary School Certificate and equivalent dakhil and vocational examinations begin today with students taking the Bangla first paper exams amid rumors of question papers being leaked. Guardians and students alleged that ‘questions’ for Sunday’s Bangla and others exams were making rounds on social networking sites and were being texted among examinees on

A child was burnt to death and more than 100 shanties were gutted in a fire that broke out at a densely populated slum at Madhubagh in the capital on Saturday morning. The victim was identified as Sabuj, a boy of two years and a half. Fire Service and Civil Defence deputy director Jahirul Islam ... Read more

Saturday’s fire in soap and plastic factories in densely populated Bangshal in Old Dhaka brought back haunting memories of the Nimtoli blaze. On June 3, 2010, a fire broke out in chemical warehouses and spread to houses claiming 124 lives. After the Nimtoli blaze, voices were raised from different quarters, urging relocation

465 beds against 12 lakh patients: study The facilities available for treatment of cancer in the country is widely disproportionate to the spread of the disease, say healthcare experts working in the field. According to them, the country is heavily short on treatment centers, radiation facilities, doctors and physicists, leaving the approximately 12 to 13 ... Read more

Emission of black smoke by unfit vehicles and brick kilns, and dust are causing severe air pollution in capital Dhaka, posing health hazards for millions of city people. A group of environmentalists expressing concern over the alarming air pollution yesterday demanded immediate government action to ensure

Consumers across the country are going to experience another spell of power hike by this month as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday endorsed the power and energy ministry’s proposal to rationalise the power tariff. “The prime minister has given her nod for rationalisation of power tariff,” Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, adviser to the prime minister, told

2013 SME Loans 65 per cent goes to unproductive sector SME loan disbursement by the banks and non-bank financial institutions increased by 22.32 per cent in 2013 from that of 2012 although major amount of the loans went to trade or unproductive sectors bypassing the manufacturing zone, according to BB data released on Thursday. Experts ... Read more

Telecoms ministry plans to check illegal VoIP trade The telecom ministry has taken a significant initiative to halve the call charge for the international incoming calls in a bid to whittle down the illegal VoIP business in the country. The post and telecommunications ministry yesterday sent a proposal to the finance ministry for slashing the ... Read more

Bangladesh, even 42 years after its independence, has neither been able to complete a land survey of the whole country nor finished undertaking a ‘revisional settlement’ survey, which was first launched in 1966 by the then Pakistan government. In the absence of an up-to-date and comprehensive

At least 11 people, including 5 children, were burnt to death and more than 40 were injured as a engine boat caught fire in Surma River at Chhatak upazila in Sunamganj on Monday night. Five more children remained missing till Tuesday afternoon, sources in the local administration said. Chhatak upazila police officer-in-charge Shahjalal Munsi said ... Read more

No central database of cancer has been maintained in the country so far, which is an essential part of any cancer control programme. But, the countries which have prepared the population-based cancer registry have achieved success in controlling the problem as the database contains statistics on the cases of cancer in

Biswa Ijtema, conducted in two phases with participation of tens of thousands of people from home and abroad, concluded yesterday through ‘Akheri Munajat’( final prayer) on the bank of the river Turag at Tongi, the outskirt of capital Dhaka. Senior religious scholar of Tablig Jammat Maulana Mohammad Jobairul Hassan of

3 more die on 2nd day The Bishwa Ijema, held in two phases, concludes today with offering of “Akheri Munajat’ (final prayer) on the bank of Turag river in Tongi, outskirts of capital Dhaka. A million people are expected to join the prayer at the Bishaw Ijtema, an annual event joined by people from home ... Read more

The much-awaited month-long Amar Ekushey Book Fair 2014 will begin on the Bangla Academy premises and at Suhrawardy Udyan today. This year, the fair has been dedicated to the language veteran, writer, researcher and Bangla Academy Fellow, Justice Habibur Rahman, who passed away recently. The Bangla Academy authorities have already completed all

The second phase of Biswa Ijtema began on the bank of the Turag river at Tongi on Friday. Thousands of devotees from home and abroad are thronging the Biswa Ijtema, one of the largest religious congregations of the Muslim world. The Ijtema began after Fazre prayer on Friday, with a religious sermon by Indian Islamic ... Read more

Babar, Nizami, 12 others sentenced to death A decade after the country’s biggest arms haul, a special court in Chittagong on Thursday handed down death sentence and life term to former ministers Matiur Rahman Nizami and Lutfozzaman Babar, 11 senior and influential civil-military bureaucrats and Indian separatist leader Paresh Baruah in two arms and smuggling ... Read more

The High Court yesterday declared Section 32(Ka) of the Anti-Corruption Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2013 “illegal” and “unconstitutional”. This section incorporated the provision that makes it mandatory for the ACC to take prior government approval to initiate any graft case against government officials and lower court judges. A HC bench comprising Justice

The second phase of Bishwa Ijtema begins today on the bank of River Turag at Tongi in Gazipur. In this phase, the people from 32 districts will join the Ijtema and the entire ground has been divided into 38 sections (khitta) for allocation to the devotees. The second phase is scheduled to end with an Akheri ... Read more

Sonali Bank burglary The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), on Wednesday, handed over the prime suspects in the Kishoreganj bank robbery case—Habibur Rahman alias Sohel Rana and Motahar Hoissain alias Idris Ali—to the investigation officer of Kishoreganj Sadar police station. The RAB also recovered Tk. 16.19 crore and

Nobel laureate Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus earned the top position among the 10 inspirational Bangladeshis around the world in a list released on Tuesday by British Bangladeshi Power and Inspiration, an organisation based in London. Co-founder of YouTube Jawed Karim, BRAC founder Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, JAGGO founder Korvi Rakshand, Khan Academy