News

Cyclone Bijli hit the coastal areas of Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar last night. Strong wind coupled with heavy rain started blowing at around 7:30pm. It may take another 4-6 hours to cross the coasts, said a late night Met office bulletin. The storm lashed the offshore island of Sandwip, coastal upazilas of Banshkhali and Anowara ... Read more

About 25 lakh jobseekers, who completed their secondary education after 2000, are facing difficulties in taking recruitment tests in the absence of an official harmonisation of the pre- and post-2001 evaluation systems of academic results, alleged sufferers. The government in 2001 introduced letter-grade system in secondary school certificate examinations, ending the traditional evaluation of examinations ... Read more

Some 743 out of 1,175 garment factories located in Dhaka division and surveyed in 2008 have failed to fully comply with a 2006 tripartite agreement, according to a government inspection report. The survey revealed that the non-compliant factories had not implemented the all eight conditions agreed on by the labour ministry, representatives of apparel owners ... Read more

Bangladesh Business Awards 2008 Corporate luminaries honoured Two businesspersons, one enterprise and one financial institution won The Daily Star-DHL business awards yesterday for their extraordinary performance in different fields. As part of the Bangladesh Business Awards 2008, Abdul Monem, chairman and managing director of Abdul Monem Group of Companies, has been honoured as the Business ... Read more

Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College (SBMC) was today closed sine die following clashes between two rival groups of BCL, abduction of a student and ransacking of college library and hostel rooms. Students of SBMC were ordered to vacate halls by this morning. Police and RAB have been deployed on the campus to avoid further trouble. Dr. ... Read more

The local Awami League (AL) lawmaker’s men in Bagmara upazila have allegedly taken away cheques worth Tk 19 lakh granted by the prime minister for the victims of the cruelties committed by Bangla Bhai-led vigilante gangs. They are now pressing the recipients to hand them the rest two of the 21 Tk 1 lakh cheques ... Read more

Three important projects, aiming to address the country’s acute poverty and to rehabilitate the people affected by cyclone and flood, are being implemented spending over US$101 million (Tk 660 crore) as about 5.6 crore people still live below the poverty line. The projects are ‘Social Investment Program Project’ (SIPP), ‘Flood Re-storation and Recovery Assistance Program’ ... Read more

Workers in Bangladesh’s export industries are paid the world’s lowest wages. Productivity remains very low due mainly to poor management by the manufacturers and inadequate marketing skills. Bangladeshi workers in factories involved in leather processing, shoe making, jute yarn manufacturing, shrimp processing and production of medicines receive the world’s lowest wages. The average monthly wages ... Read more

The politicians and labour leaders on Friday called upon the government to allocate a special fund for the workers in the next fiscal budget to protect them from the impacts of the global economic recession. They made the call at the opening session of the 4th national conference of the Bangladesh Garment Sramik Trade Union ... Read more

The Bangladesh Upazila Chairmen’s Forum on Friday denounced the statement of the LGRD and cooperatives minister, Syed Ashraful Islam, and announced their plan to mobilise Upazila Parishad representatives across the country from next week with the aim of launching a movement. ‘We strongly condemn the LGRD minister’s statement and warn him that it is not ... Read more

Country’s 17 percent of land will go under water and 30 percent production of crops will decrease by 2050 if policies to resist the impact of climate change globally are not formulated soon. This observation was made by speakers at a seminar on ‘climate change: its impact on health and environment’ jointly organized by Bangladesh ... Read more

Massive irregularities continue at the Zia International Airport in the absence of anti-graft drives by the ACC and administrative actions by the government. A section of unscrupulous officials of Civil Aviation Authority and customs have been indulging in corruptions and illegal activities for long but anti-graft watchdog remains silent astonishingly. It has been learnt that ... Read more

NEW YORK, Apr 17: Asia may see more conflicts over scarce water resources in the coming years as climate change and population growth threaten access to the most basic natural resource, a report warned on Friday, reports Reuters. Water problems in Asia are already severe, with one in five people, or 700 million, not having ... Read more

Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh is developing a health care network for the poor in his country that will operate at low cost using mobile phone technology. Yunus is working with U.S. medical experts to help Bangladeshi villagers transmit their medical information to doctors in far-away cities for better treatment. Muhammad Yunus ... Read more

Eight years into the Ramna Batamul blast, a Dhaka court yesterday framed charges against 14 operatives of outlawed Islamist outfit Harkatul Jihad al Islami (Huji) including its chief Mufti Abdul Hannan in two cases filed in connection with the incident. Metropolitan Sessions Judge ANM Bashir Ullah rejected the discharge petitions submitted by the counsels for ... Read more

Ashraful warns upazila chairs LGRD and cooperatives minister Syed Ashraful Islam on Thursday warned the upazila chairmen and vice-chairmen, who were protesting against the new upazila parishad law, that the parliament members had the authority to revoke the law anytime and dissolve the local bodies. He urged the aggrieved chairmen and vice-chairmen to have patience ... Read more

State Minister for Law Adv Qamrul Islam yesterday said opposition leader Khaleda Zia would receive notice within next week to vacate her cantonment house at 6 Mainul Road inside Dhaka cantonment. “Process of serving notice by the cantonment board began and she would receive it within next week,” he told reporters at the Law Ministry. ... Read more

The cabinet on Thursday approved a draft bill which proposed amendments to the Information and Communications Technology Act making provisions to curb cyber crimes and to reach ICT services to people of all walks of life. ‘It is an update on the Information and Communica-tion Technology Act 2006 which incorporated provisions to fight cyber crimes,’ ... Read more