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Says Hasina in Al Jazeera documentary Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has denied the opposition’s allegation that the trial of war criminals is an act of revenge, insisting that it is rather the due course of law. “Sometimes you can hear the hue and cry from many quarters that you are taking revenge on the opposition ... Read more

Realising that lack of proper dredging encourages grabbers to occupy the city’s canals, the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) has taken up a micro-dredging project for 26 city canals, rendered stagnant by liquid and solid wastes. The BWDB and WASA recently reclaimed the Ramchandrapur canal in Mohammadpur and Kalayanpur canal in Mirpur-1; it

Names of 25 workers, not included in the official confirmed list of 99 workers who died in the Tazreen Fashions fire in November 2012, have been filed in the High Court by the anthropologists who had earlier petitioned the court to take action against government authorities for their failure to prosecute Tazreen Fashions owner

RMG workers tell owners Apparel workers at a rally in Dhaka on Saturday warned that they would launch a strong movement if the factory owners did not accept their demand for Tk 8,114 in minimum monthly wage. Rejecting a proposal of the owners’ representative to athe sector’s minimum wage board for fixing the wage at ... Read more

Report shows Bangladesh’s outstanding success over 22 years Children don’t die in big numbers in Bangladesh now as they did 22 years ago. The country is preventing over 1,100 child deaths a day, thanks to a successful reduction in child mortality by 72 percent in last two decades. Back in 1990, as many as 1,454 ... Read more

Citizen’s platform asks govt The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports yesterday demanded cancellation of the government decision to set up the Rampal Power Plant close to the Sundarbans by tomorrow. Leaders of the committee made the call ahead of its long march programme towards the Sundarbans starting on Tuesday ... Read more

MDG Goals Bangladesh top achiever along with Cambodia Bangladesh, jointly with Cambodia, according to a new study topped the chart of the least developed countries in achieving Millennium Developed Goals thanks to its steady progress in major targets. The first of its kind study by the Centre for Policy Dialogue said both countries were likely ... Read more

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is installing its criminal justice DNA database software at the National Forensic DNA Profiling Laboratory in Dhaka to increase the lab capacity, officials on Saturday said. ‘The FBI will also train us to run the software,’ the DNA lab’s national technical adviser Sharif Akhteruzzaman said. An FBI team on ... Read more

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina leaves here tomorrow on an eight-day official visit to New York to attend the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Sources in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said the Prime Minister will address the Assembly on September 27, apart from attending a number of high

Unidentified Rana Plaza Victims DNA report next month US software to quicken data matching The DNA report of the unidentified victims of Rana Plaza tragedy will be completed by the middle of next month. Prof Sharif Akhteruzzaman, technical adviser of National Forensic DNA Profiling Laboratory (NFDPL), yesterday informed The Daily Star about the expected time ... Read more

A mobile court here yesterday sentenced eight fake doctors to two years in prison each for treating people illegally without any registration from the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council (BMDC). The court also fined them Tk 1 lakh each, defaulting on which they will have to serve an additional jail term of three months. The ... Read more

At least 40 shanties were gutted, properties worth about 10 lakh were burned to ashes and panic gripped the apartment dwellers when devastating fire broke out at Kathpattin Slum of Rani Market of Kamrangrichar, a shoe factory at Bangshal and an apartment of Moghbazar area in the city in a span of six hours time ... Read more

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB-7) arrested 38 persons, from Hotel Sea Park at Kalatoli Hotel-Motel Zone of Cox’s Bazar municipality, under Sadar thana of the district on Saturday. They were allegedly being trafficked to Malaysia through Bay of Bengal. RAB source told the Journalist that on information, RAB-7 Cox’s Bazar camp members on Saturday

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested four people with drugs, including 15,000 Yaba pills, in the capital yesterday and Friday. Rab-10 yesterday arrested Md Abdur Rahim, an alleged dealer, near Shonir Akhra in Jatrabari and recovered the Yaba pills from the bumper of the Tata Ace pickup van he was driving, said Rab officials. Abdur brought ... Read more

With the government allowing four private universities to set up in Dhaka in the past two years, the University Grants Commission officials and educationalists have expressed concern about the regional inequality in the provision of higher education. The approval in the past week of a Dhaka-based private university brought the total number of universities in Dhaka ... Read more

The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) has closed down the bank accounts of Bangladesh High Commission in London, Birmingham and Manchester. In its explanation of the closure of the bank accounts of the Bangladesh mission in three major cities of the UK, the HSBC said: “This was part of a strategic decision following ... Read more

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina alleged, on Friday, that the main opposition leader and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Khaleda Zia herself was engaged in spreading propaganda to mislead people against the ruling party. Addressing a view-exchange meeting with the party’s grassroots-level leaders from five districts at her official residence ‘Ganobhaban’, the premier called upon her

Fertiliser applicator invented by Bangladeshi scientist lessens farmers’ pain; getting popular in several African countries Since the 1980s, farmers in the country have been applying Guti urea to their crops for increased yield and low production cost. They have been successful in this endeavour, but for that they have to bear high labor cost and ... Read more

The BNP-led 18-party alliance is drawing up a plan to paralyse Dhaka, pressing home its demand to hold the next general election under a non-party caretaker government (CG). “We will paralyse the capital if the Election Commission (EC) announces the schedule of the 10th parliamentary poll before restoration of the non-party CG provision to the ... Read more

The Bangladesh Bank has rejected a proposal for the establishment of a rural savings bank as its goal said to be boosting the rural economy could not be achieved after other such specialised banks have faltered. The central bank conveyed its opinion on the proposal to the finance ministry on Wednesday. The LGRD and cooperative ... Read more