Other Headlines

People from Dhaka on their way to outlying areas suffered because of huge tailbacks on different highways on Friday. After being trapped for 72 hours during the fourth spell of blockade of road, railway and waterways, enforced by the opposition alliance, people rushed out of their houses in droves, leading to the heavy rush. Thousands of passengers ... Read more

The operation of brick kilns, one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, in the country continues unabated, flouting the laws as the authorities concerned have failed to address the issue properly. Under the laws, brick-fields cannot be set up within three kilometres of densely populated residential areas, commercial areas, parts of city corporation, ... Read more

Phensidyl Booming trade along border They usually go there in groups, crossing the international border, unchallenged. Some 20 makeshift houses there, just along the zero line in India, sell phensidyl, an addictive cough syrup. The houses are on the Dhorla river, opposite to Chauratari village under Moghalhat upazila, approximately nine kilometres west of Lalmonirhat town. Every day, ... Read more

Actor Khaled Khan died in BIRDEM Hospital in the capital Dhaka on Friday night. He was 57. The actor was admitted to hospital on Monday night for motor neuron disease he had been suffering from for about 10 years. As the news of the death spread, his colleagues, friends and members of his family rushed to the ... Read more

The customs officials Thursday night seized four gold bars weighing four kilograms at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka. They said that the gold bars worth about Tk 2 crore were found hidden inside a television set, but no arrest was made in this connection.

Dhaka asks Islamabad to ensure security Banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has threatened to attack Bangladesh High Commission in Islamabad in retaliation for execution of Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quader Mollah, reports a Pakistani newspaper. The Nation, a leading Pakistani daily, released the news Thursday. Although security around Bangladesh foreign mission in Pakistan has been enhanced manifold

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said election would be held again, if necessary, after the January 5 polls by dissolving parliament if BNP shuns hartal, blockade and violence and cuts ties with Jamaat-e-Islami. She said election process has already started and BNP has missed the polls train as it did not come to the elections. ... Read more

Toxic Toys Study finds toxin level 100 times safe limit Young children are at risk of serious health problems from toxic materials found in toys widely available in the capital city. A recent study, undertaken by the Environment and Social Development Organisation, identified high levels of lead, cadmium, bromine and chromium in all but one of ... Read more

Pak mission to get enhanced security Police on Thursday foiled for the second day Ganajagaran Mancha’s bid to lay siege to the Pakistani High Commission in Dhaka. At least two Ganajagaran Mancha activists, including its spokesman Imran H Sarker, were injured as law enforcers charged batons to disperse the anti-war criminal protestors who tried to lay ... Read more

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led 18-Party Alliance has declared another spell of a 83-hour countrywide road-rail-waterway blockade from 6am on Saturday to mount pressure on the government to hold the next general election under a non-party poll-time interim management and postpone the schedule for the 10th Parliamentary election. Starting

The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has approved a resolution on ‘the critical need for political reform in Bangladesh’, paving the way for a full Senate hearing on the motion. The resolution on Bangladesh asks the US Senate to condemn the political violence and urges political leaders in Bangladesh to engage directly in a ... Read more

Stray incidents of violence marked the third day of the 72-hour-long nationwide blockade programme, called by the BNP-led 18-Party alliance, on Thursday. The opposition alliance called the blockade, demanding that the next election be held under a non-party poll-time administration and that the already

The issue of deploying the Army during the general election would be decided tomorrow (Friday) at an emergency meeting on the law and order situation, chief election commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad said here on Thursday. The meeting will be held with members of law enforcement agencies and returning officers. “We need to discuss the ... Read more

A Dhaka court has sentenced a superintendent of railway police (SP) to life in jail in an extortion case. Judge Md Motahar Hossain of the third Special Judge’s Court handed down the verdict on Thursday. Superintendent of Railway Police Mostafa Kamal, now posted in Syedpur, was awarded 30 years imprisonment for breaching faith as a public ... Read more

Winter is yet to arrive fully, but people living in the sub-Himalayan districts in northern Bangladesh have already started to feel the bite. The temperature slid to 9.8 degrees Celsius in the hill- and forest-clad north-eastern town of Srimangal on Thursday. Though it provided respite to

India and the United States tried Thursday to soothe a blistering row over the arrest and strip-search of a female diplomat in New York, saying it should not do lasting damage to ties. After US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed “regret” at the episode in a fence-mending phone call, India’s Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) says it is unwilling, at this moment, to launch probes into wealth statements of ruling party leaders, who are contesting in the January 5 national polls “To avoid any possible indiscipline in the country, we do not want to asses the wealth statements given by candidates in their affidavits before

Gazipur Factory Blaze Probe bodies fail to submit reports in time The four separate committees formed to investigate the fire in the garment factory of Standard Group at Konabari in Gazipur have been allowed time to submit their reports after they missed the deadlines to do so. Three of the four committees are yet to make ... Read more

The hearing on the case related to the Bay of Bengal maritime boundary dispute between Bangladesh and India concluded at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Netherlands on Monday. The Arbitral Tribunal constituted on the matter of the Bay of Bengal Maritime Boundary Arbitration between Bangladesh and India has just concluded its hearing ... Read more

President Robert Mugabe wants Victoria Falls to be renamed ‘the smoke that thunders’ to get rid of its colonial history. The president of Zimbabwe believes Victoria Falls does not reflect its liberation heritage. The waterfall, which is along the Zambezi River at the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia, is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It ... Read more