Other Headlines

A Bangladeshi cattle trader was picked up by Indian Border Security Force (BSF) from Kushumpur-Benipur border under Moheshpur upazila in Jhenidah on September 08. The victim was identified as Saidur Rahman, 35, son of Moin Uddin of Dakatia village under the same upazila in Jhenidah. Commander of Chuadanga-6 Battalion

Terming the World Bank’s integrity department a worthless wing, Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday vowed to continue his efforts to abolish it. Integrity Vice Presidency (INT) of the WB “must be abolished”, he told a discussion on the state of the economy at the National Economic Council

It rained for six hours only between 6am till 6pm totalling 37 mm on Sunday. But it was enough to flood most of the capital streets, triggering massive tailbacks in central Dhaka and its suburbs as the rainwater took a long time to gurgle down the city’s clogged drainage system, causing immense sufferings to the ... Read more

The Hili immigration point, the country’s second largest check-post for immigrants located in Hakimpur upazila of Dinajpur district, has been missing out on large amounts of revenue because of corruption and malpractices on the part of officials, sources alleged. Revenues worth Tk. 3,303,300, earned from travel taxes in the 2012-13 fiscal year,

A Dhaka court has charged four in two cases under the Information and Communications Technology Act for writing alleged inflammatory blogs on sensitive religious issues. Metropolitan sessions court judge Md Zahurul Haque on Sunday gave the order against the four bloggers — Asif Mohiuddin, Subrata Adhikari Shuvo,

JU Student Zubair Killing 13 ex-BCL men to face trial A Dhaka court yesterday framed charges against 13 expelled Chhatra League activists of Jahangirnagar University in connection with the killing of Zubair Ahmed, a student of the university, last year. The accused, now on bail, pleaded not guilty and demanded justice when Judge ABM Nizamul Haque ... Read more

Al least 10 people were injured and three activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir were arrested as they clashed with police on Sunday in the capital, Rajshahi and other places. Shibir activists hurled crude bombs on police during their procession at Mohakhali in the city Sunday morning. They blasted four crude bombs

UNESCO estimates that Bangladesh will fail to reach its target of the percentage of adults who in 2015 will be able to read and write by ‘more than 5 percentage points.’ The fourth Education for All goal, set by the UN agency, states that adult literacy in 2015 should be 50 per cent more than ... Read more

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairman Dr Mizanur Rahman, on Sunday, said India had staged a drama, in the name of Felani murder trial, to uphold its image internationally. “We have been deprived of fair justice in the Felani murder trial,” he said. Rahman told this to reporters after a seminar on ‘Oppression and intimidation ... Read more

Tk 2,500 crore spent on adult literacy since 1991 Almost a half of the population continue to remain illiterate although successive governments have always talked about giving utmost priority to the sector and spent at least Tk 2,500 crore in last two decade, official statistics show. Officials and education rights activists blamed poor planning,

The acquittal of the lone accused in the Felani Khatun killing case by a special court of Indian border forces has drawn strong criticism from all quarters and the people in general in Bangladesh. A number of cabinet members already expressed their resentment at the verdict that acquitted BSF constable Amiya Ghosh of killing Felani,

Bid to Change Info Tech Law Worries abound Govt move decried; opposition’s silence criticised The government should not enact the recent amendment to the Information and Communication Technology Law, 2006 and its section 57, speakers at a roundtable observed yesterday. Present in the discussion, Shahdeen Malik said the government should eliminate section 57 from the ... Read more

Int’l Literacy Day today Bangladesh will observe International Literacy Day today as elsewhere in the world amid confusion about the actual number of literate people in the country. According to the Literacy Survey 2011 of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, published in July 2013, the functional literacy rate is 53.7 for

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday again urged people to vote for Awami League in the next general election to ensure food security. “The overall condition of the people always improves while Awami League is in power,” she said, addressing a rally, organised by the Lalbagh Thana unit of AL,

Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Khaleda Zia, will kick off her grassroots-level tour from Narsingdi on Sunday with a view to strengthening the ongoing movement for restoration of a non-partisan caretaker government by generating public support for the demand. She will also seek the people’s mandate in favour of candidates of the 18-Party

The Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) is going to carry out drug tests among its officials and students of universities and English-medium schools and colleges from this month to prevent drug abuse. Even government officials and employees will be included, if necessary, sources in the DNC and the home ministry said. The DNC director, Nazmul Ahsan ... Read more

Transplants being done abroad, two arrested An organised gang trading in human organs has returned to Kalai upazila of Jaipurhat where they are luring poor people into selling their kidneys for handsome amount of money. The police on Thursday night arrested two alleged members of the gang. The arrested persons were identified as Abdus Sattar,

Unidentified miscreants attacked and indiscriminately stabbed an organiser of Ganojagaran Mancha at Paribagh area in the city early Saturday while he was returning home at around 12:15am. Moniruzzaman Akash, a central committee member of cultural organisation Udichi, told The Independent, “Arif Noor, also a member of Udichi central committee,

A high-power delegation of the European Union (EU) will meet the Election Commission (EC) to examine the challenges of holding the 10th parliamentary election in Bangladesh. The delegation will particularly want to know measures taken by the EC to ensure a level playing field for all political parties. The delegation, now in Dhaka, will also ... Read more

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party acting secretary general, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, on Saturday said that the BNP wanted transfer of power through elections and by no other means. He made the remarks at a discussion on ‘Freedom of Mass Media and release of Mahmudur Rahman’ at the Institution of Engineers organised by