News

The Awami League government, ending its indecision on how to upgrade passports, has now decided to introduce electronic passport, or e-passport, from the next year in compliance with international requirements for ‘transparent’ identity of Bangladesh citizens. The e-passport project involving an estimated Tk 283 crore will be implemented by the Bangladesh army with logistics support ... Read more

Army ordered to ‘eliminate’ militants; one million displaced in northwest Pakistan Pakistan said yesterday an air and ground offensive to crush the Taliban in the northwest killed more than 140 militants and seven soldiers in an escalating conflict that has displaced hundreds of thousands. Warplanes bombed rebel hideouts in the Swat valley, an ex-ski resort, ... Read more

Security measures have been beefed up in the diplomatic enclaves at Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara in the city, following threats issued to the US, UK, Australian and Canadian embassies in Dhaka reportedly by an overseas militant organisation on Thursday. Four separate messages of the threats were faxed to the embassies in Dhaka by a militant ... Read more

Misconduct by transport workers, porters, the presence of criminals, armed extortionists, unauthorized vendors, pickpockets, snatchers and beggars in city’s three inter-district bus terminals create a disgusting atmosphere everyday leading to harassment and suffering of thousands of passengers. As soon as the present AL-led government assumed power all the bad elements returned to the bus terminals. ... Read more

Munna Mia was just five when his family flew to the Middle East to escape the hardships of Bangladesh — but all that awaited him was a life of danger, pain and hunger as a child camel jockey. His father, a bricklayer, had been offered a job in the United Arab Emirates by a recruitment ... Read more

Majority of orphans head towards uncertain life in inadequate and substandard orphanages amid negligence of the government resulting in involvement of a section of them in crime and religious militancy. There are more than 100 orphanages in Dhaka and outskirts most of which cannot provide inmates with required food, clothes, education and shelter due to ... Read more

Buddha Purnima, the biggest religious festival of the Buddhist community, will be celebrated across the country today with due religious fervour. The occasion marks three most important events in the life of Buddha — his advent, enlightenment and nirvana — about 2,500 years back. On this day in 563 BC, Buddha was born as Siddhartha ... Read more

Roundtable thrashes industrialists for mindless river contamination, seeks immediate actions to save waters Industries got a whacking yesterday as experts and environmentalists maintained that rivers around Dhaka are getting polluted wholesale by industrial waste. Even industries with effluent treatment plants do not run those facilities. The capital’s sewage is also mostly untreated and dumped into ... Read more

After rescinding 5th amendment to the constitution four principles of independence including secularism will be retrieved without deleting “bismillah” from it. At a press briefing Law Minister Shafique Ahmed clarified the position of the government amid protest by BNP and its ally Jamaat concerning detrimental effect of 5th amendment saying that “Former BNP law minister ... Read more

Malaysia is set to lift the ban on some 55,000 Bangladeshi jobseekers waiting for jobs there, said the expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment minister, Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, on Thursday. The Malaysian government on March 10 cancelled the visas of more than 55,000 Bangladeshi workers on the plea of the adverse impact of the global economic ... Read more

Stress govt-opposition partnership in parliament to deal with important issues European envoys here Thursday expressed cautious optimism in appraising the performance of the new government, stressing the need for government-opposition partnership in parliament to deal with important issues like impacts of the global recession, climate change and counterterrorism. Nine European Ambassadors and High Commissioners came ... Read more

Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Thursday said the ADB will provide US$ 200 million to Bangladesh under the next fiscal ‘as special budgetary support’ to pull the economy out of the impact of the global recession. It will be in addition to existing budgetary support programmes to be funded under different projects and development schemes ... Read more

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is in confusion whether it will go for tougher movement against the government before party reconstruction. After 29th December election debacle, the party is yet to reorganize politically. In this situation many senior leaders are thinking whether it will able to carry on movement or not. The party has started month-long ... Read more

The High Court (HC) yesterday declared illegal the detention of former deputy speaker Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui. The court also asked the government to release him immediately if he is not wanted in any other case. Upon a writ petition filed by his daughter Faria Tajeen Siddiqui with the HC challenging the legality of the detention ... Read more

The law minister, Shafique Ahmed, and the LGRD and cooperatives minister, Syed Ashraful Islam, on Thursday declined comments on lawmen’s carrying out extrajudicial killing even after government assurance to stop such incidents. A man was killed in the ‘crossfire’ with the Rapid Action Battalion in Dhaka early Wednesday only a day after the ruling party ... Read more

The 148th birth anniversary of Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore will be celebrated across the country today. The government and socio-cultural organisations have taken up elaborate programmes to celebrate the great poet’s birthday. President Zillur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have given special messages highlighting the colourful life of the poet and his contributions ... Read more

Today is the World Red Crescent Day and Red Cross Day 2009. This day will be observed in Bangladesh like other countries. A joint statement from the presidents of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Juan Manuel Suarez Del Toro and the International Committee of the Red Cross Jakob Kellenberger was ... Read more

One lighterage ship sank in the waters of Bay of Bengal when another ship hit  the lighterage ship at the outer anchorage of Chittagong Port at 8.30 am this morning. Sources said, Titu-9, a lighterage ship loaded with 900 MT cement clinker was coming to the jetty of Chittagong port from the outer anchorage at ... Read more