News

River grabbers back after 2 years of hibernation; rampant encroachment narrows the river down to a canal Encroachment, after pollution, stands as the biggest threat to the life of our rivers. The reach and scope of the encroachers have made them seemingly invincible. Powerful, rich and ruthless, these encroachers have come to pull strings in ... Read more

The government has initiated an inquiry into unnatural deaths of Bangladesh Rifles soldiers in custody after the February 25–26 rebellion in the BDR headquarters in Dhaka. ‘The home affairs ministry has formed a committee for an executive inquiry into unnatural deaths of BDR soldiers after the February rebellion… The committee will find out the reason ... Read more

The government has decided to go ahead with the project of machine-readable passports, to be issued from the next year, backtracking from its earlier decision to introduce e-passport, to be commissioned in 2014. The Awami League government immediately after assuming office on January 6, 2009, first decided to implement machine-readable passports and then moved towards ... Read more

Communications ministry meets today to settle the issue The Awami League-led coalition will sign the inter-governmental agreement on the Asian Highway network although the BNP-Jamaat government refrained from ratifying it on the grounds of ‘controversial’ route proposals, said officials of the communications ministry on Wednesday. The BNP-led four party alliance, which tried to bring about ... Read more

Two former generals who were once in charge of national security intelligence of the country were taken to dock for abetting arms supply to Indian separatist ULFA. They were accused of using the government installations in CUFL Jetty in Chittagong Port for unloading arms. But their political bosses have not yet been taken to task. ... Read more

Ctg Arms Haul Ex-NSI chiefs tell of foreign links Interrogators have gleaned important information about the smuggling of 10 trucks of arms and ammunition and foreign links to the incident from the two arrested former National Security Intelligence (NSI) chiefs, the prosecution yesterday told the court. But the former NSI directors general–Maj Gen (retd) Rezzaqul ... Read more

JS body members for combining Gazipur, N’ganj with capital giving them city corporation status Members of the parliamentary standing committee on the local government ministry at a meeting yesterday discussed forming Dhaka metropolitan government combining Gazipur and Narayanganj to improve city life. Members of the parliamentary body suggested that Dhaka City Corporation should be divided ... Read more

Country’s construction industries face slide, as the prices of raw materials of this industry are increasing day-by-day following the global economic recession. Due to the economic meltdown across the world, thousands of Bangladeshi workers employed in the construction industries in Middle East, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia have been discharged from their jobs. The jobless people ... Read more

At least 28 journalists have been killed while covering the news in 19 countries as we approach the mid-point of 2009. INSI (International News Safety Institute) counts an additional 13 deaths in 10 countries where it is not yet clear whether the victim died as a result of their work as a journalist. The worst ... Read more

Direct effect of tobacco About 50,000 people die and 40,000 become disabled due to smoking and direct affect of tobacco every year in the country. Some 12 lakh people suffer from eight kinds of various respiratory, brain and kidney-related diseases due to the use of tobacco every year, speaker yesterday said this while addressing a ... Read more

The dwindling size of farms, rise in landlessness and constant depletion of farmland are posing formidable threats to Bangladesh’s agriculture, increasing poverty and trapping many ultra-poor people in a vicious circle, according to various reports. The average farm size has been reduced to less than 0.6 hectares and the percentage of landless people stands at ... Read more

Absconding jawans now 25; no mercy for post-Feb 25 rebels The committee, headed by Director General (DG) of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) Maj Gen Md Mainul Islam, that was formed to report on restructuring the paramilitary force, submitted yesterday a partial report suggesting the new logo, the new uniform and the new name for the border ... Read more

Villagers along polluted Turag moving to safer places Indiscriminate discharge of liquid waste by the industries in and around Konabari industrial zone has ruined a large part of the Turag river and Baimail Jheel, causing immense suffering to residents living on the banks. Industrial liquid waste and black smog created by brick kilns have doubled ... Read more

Prabhakaran’s ‘body’ recovered from battlefield Sri Lanka’s president declared his country “liberated from separatist terror” yesterday as the military said it recovered the body of Tamil Tiger rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran from the battlefield on which he was slain. The images were shown after the Tigers announced the guerrilla leader was still alive and well, ... Read more

The government is going to entrust the army with the much-discussed machine-readable passport and visa project that would cost nearly Tk 283 crore. The home affairs ministry took the move following directives from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for engaging the army in implementing the project which was originally initiated in 2004 by the Bangladesh Nationalist ... Read more

Meeting finalises machine readable passport work plan National identity (ID) cards would be made compulsory for every citizen of the country by amending the citizenship act, said Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday. “If necessary laws will be amended to make national ID cards compulsory because laws are for the people’s welfare,” he told reporters after ... Read more

Auto- traffic signal proves ineffective The severe traffic congestion in the city of Dhaka has been continuing despite promise given by Dhaka Metropolitan Police to ease. It is true, hardly there is any city in the world free of traffic jamming, but in the case of Dhaka it is beyond tolerable level. The installation of ... Read more