People rush to cyclone shelters

Thousands of people in Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar have started rushing to safe shelters as Cyclone Mahasen approached the coastal areas of the two districts on Wednesday afternoon. Danger signal No. 7 was hoisted in the afternoon. People living in the coastal areas of Sitakunda, Mirasarai, Anwara and Banshkhali upazilas and 11 wards of the city packed their valuables

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18 killed in Cox’s Bazar road mishap

Eighteen people, including a child and five women, were killed and 25 others injured in a road accident at Chakoria of Cox’s Bazar early Monday on the Cox’s Bazar-Chittagong highway.
Police and witnesses said the accident took place as a Cox’s Bazar-bound bus coming from Fatikchari Nanopour Maizbhandar Shrine in Chittagong hit a railing of the Chiringha

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‘Please save my future generation’

The Buddha statues made of gold are lost forever. The intrinsic designs of Khadi wood are lost in the inferno. The Tripitak is lost too. But for Shreemad Satyapriya Mohathero, who had just turned 83, the loss and pain are even greater. He has lost all faith in his knowledge and reading of humanity.
“Even in 1971, I did not see this grotesque brutality on us,” Mohathero says. Mohathero

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Buddhist temples, houses torched in Cox’s Bazar

Buddhist monasteries, Hindu temples and households in 10 villages in Ramu of Cox’s Bazar were torched by angry Muslims since midnight on Saturday, and authorities
clamped a ban on gatherings for an indefinite period to restore order.
The police had to open fire on a mob at Hwaikong of Teknaf on Sunday evening as the unruly

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Down with the hills!

Probir Kumar Sarker
Though Bangladesh is prominently a plain land, its Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Rangamati, Khagrachhari, Bandarban and Sylhet have hilly areas with forests and rich biodiversity. These areas are full of natural resources fulfilling needs of the people and other living species.
But at present, the destruction of hills in every area has become so alarming that many concerned people have been upbeat against the greedy grabbers who are out to convert these hilly areas into plain lands to set up industries and

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A friend of nature

Khurshida Begum, a young widow from Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar, has been selected for the Wangari Maathai Award 2012 for her co-management efforts and leadership in conservation of natural resources.
She started her natural resource conservation activities in 2006, during the inception of Nishorgo Network, through forming a female Community Patrol Group (CPG) with 28 women at

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NGOs asked to stop aid to Rohingyas

The government has ordered three non-governmental organisations to stop their charity activities for unregistered Rohingya refugees staying in Cox’s Bazar.
The NGOs are the Musilm Aid UK and France’s ACF (Action Against Hunger) and Medecins Sans Frantieres (Doctors Without Borders) which had been providing shelters, food and medical services

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Yet another fatal crash

7 of a family killed in bus-microbus collision
Eight people, including seven of a family, were killed in a head-on collision between a bus and a microbus at Dulahazara of Cox’s Bazar yesterday, two days after a similar accident claimed 12 lives, including nine of a family, in Keraniganj near Dhaka.
The bus heading towards Cox’s Bazar collided head on with the microbus heading for Feni on

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Roughed up by army men

Man ends up in hospital for protesting ball-throwing at wife
A tourist was beaten and injured by army members at Kolatoli Sugandha point on the Cox’s Bazar sea beach yesterday morning.
Two constables of Tourist Police– Karmen Priya Chakma, 28, and Jewel Haque, 29– were also beaten up when they tried to save Mohammad Hanif, 40, who came from

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Promising singer Abid, his friend drown in sea

Close up-1 singer Abid Shahriar and one of his colleagues drowned in the sea at Cox’s Bazar yesterday evening.
Abid, 26, a known face in the country’s music arena through the talent hunt show, and the other dead, Mostakim, 27, were in the beach city on a two-day tour with a team from advertising agency Matra.
The 30-member group was staying at Motel Shoibal since

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Fancy a walk on the beach?

Walking barefoot on the sand isn’t just fun – it’s good for you!
What could be more relaxing than a barefoot walk along a sandy beach? Besides being a treat for the senses, this simple pleasure is actually a very healthy option that adds to the attractions of a beach holiday and can help make up for some of the tempting excesses of local food. To begin with, walking – whether on the sand or elsewhere – can improve blood circulation, making it a particularly suitable exercise for people suffering with varicose veins.
Massage your soles. If

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Mismatch in salt prices

Tk 2 at field, Tk 18 at market
“You eat that with everything every day. That is salt, nothing else,” said the driver pointing at the pile of snow-white substance in a barren field on way to Cox’s Bazar.
The salt farmers, seeming long deprived, in torn cloths, were working barefoot making piles of sun dried salt. They would sell the raw salt to the processing factories after drying the seawater in the sun for five days.
Consumers across the country pay over 10 times the price the farmers

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12,000km in 357 days

Sea turtle routes tracked
The first turtle that was tagged in Bangladesh with a satellite chip to track its journey last year has travelled over 12,000 kilometres in 357 days and is now coming back to Bangladesh coast from Sri Lanka.
Urmee, the name of the turtle, has crossed the path until March 23, 2011. It is now in the middle of the Bay of Bengal, 780 km east of the Chennai coast of India, 977 km northeast of the Sri Lankan coast, 662 km west of

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51 BGB men convicted

Teknaf Mutiny
51 BGB men convicted
Fifty-one jawans of 42 Rifles Battalion of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) were sentenced to different jail terms ranging from one year to seven years yesterday for their involvement in the 2009 mutiny in Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar.
The Special Court-16 led by BGB Rangamati Sector Commander Col Md Bashirul Islam also

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Dhaka City College student drowns

A Dhaka City College student drowned yesterday while bathing near St Martin’s Island under Teknaf upazila in Cox’s Bazar while three other students were rescued in critical condition.
The deceased Sakhawat Hossain Jitu, 21, a student of Department of Business Administration, was visiting the island with four faculty members and 152 students, police

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Over 100 illegal shops, shanties knocked down

Cox’s Bazar Beach
Over 100 illegal shops, shanties knocked down
In compliance with a recent High Court order, the district administration yesterday evicted more than 100 shanties and shops in a drive to free the world’s longest sea beach of illegal occupants.
The structures, erected illegally at the beach’s Sugandha point and adjacent to Jhauban (tamarisk tree grove) area, were pulled down during the four-hour long drive led by Md Sukur Ali,

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