At least 12 bloggers have packed their bags and fled abroad in recent weeks. Others are preparing to follow suit and leave the Muslim-majority country. They are all ardent advocates of atheist standpoints in their blogs. Despite the fact that…
Year: 2015
Saudis blame high wind for crane collapse on Baitul Haram Mosque
Saudi Arabia has begun an investigation into why a crane collapsed in the Muslim holy city of Makkah, killing at least 107 people. The huge red crane crashed into a part of the Grand Mosque as it was filled with…
Protests against Vat on tuition fees contginue
Students of various private universities brought out processions and staged demonstrations in different parts of the country, including Dhaka, Savar, Sylhet and Chittagong, on Saturday as part of their ongoing movement against the imposition of 7.5 percent VAT on tuition…
BAU Badhan observes 15th anniversary
Badhan, a voluntary blood donation organisation at the Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Mymensingh had a day long programme including free blood grouping, colorful rally and discussion on the campus to mark the 15th anniversary of the organisation.
Vat on education is an immoral act: Prof. Emajuddin
Former vice chancellor of Dhaka University Prof Dr Emajuddin Ahmed on Saturday termed the government decision to impose VAT (value added tax) on private educational institutions an “immoral” act. “There is no precedence of creating obstruction for education anywhere in…
Finance minister will have to pickpocket to implement budget: Goyeshwar
BNP leader Goyeshwar Chandra Roy has said that VAT has been imposed on the tuition fees of private universities to implement the ‘jumbo’ budget presented by the finance minister. AMA Muhith presented around Tk 3 trillion budget for 2015-16 fiscal…
Williams upset has Djokovic, Federer on high alert
On high alert after a day of upsets during which Serena Williams was sent packing from the US Open, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer made sure their names were not added to the list of shocks on Friday as they…
Two dead, one injured in plane crash on location of Tom Cruise movie
A small plane that was being used in the production of Tom Cruise’s new movie “Mena” crashed in Colombia on Friday, killing two crew members and sending a third to the hospital, according to reports in US and Colombian media. Reuters,…
Bangladesh Roadshow in UK begins to woo foreign investment
Bangladesh Roadshow UK 2015 has got underway at London’s Winter Garden Canary Wharf in a bid to attract foreign investment. The two-day event started on Thursday with the welcome address from Bangladesh’s High Commissioner to the UK Md Abdul Hannan. India and…
83 killed in twin blasts in India’s Madhya Pradesh
Eighty-three people have been killed and over 100 injured, 20 seriously, when an explosion at a tea stall packed with customers was followed by a massive blast that ripped through an adjoining building in Madhya Pradesh’s Jhabua district. An investigation…
Mantra for 9/11 : Fourteen years later, improbable world
By Tom Engelhardt Fourteen years later and do you even believe it? Did we actually live it? Are we still living it? And how improbable is that? Fourteen years of wars, interventions, assassinations, torture, kidnappings, black sites, the growth of…
French honorary consul ‘sold boats to migrants’ in Turkey
France has suspended the country’s honorary consul in the Turkish port of Bodrum after a television report showed dinghies being sold to migrants from a shop that she owned. Footage secretly filmed by France 2 TV shows Francoise Olcay selling…
107 dead in Makkah Masjidul Haram crane collapse
At least 107 people have died after a crane collapsed on the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Makkah, the Saudi Arabian government has said. More than 230 people were injured in the accident, the country’s civil defence authority…
3-day strike called over Vat in Private Varsities from Saturday
Students of different private universities have announced a three-day strike on their respective campuses from Saturday, demanding that the government cancel 7.5 percent VAT from their tuition fees. Jotirmoy Chakrabarty, coordinator of ‘No VAT on Education’, a platform of the…
Tamimul wins archery gold for Bd in C’Wealth Youth Games
Tamimul Islam has become the first Bangladeshi to win a gold medal in the Commonwealth Youth Games when the 16-year-old archer won the event in the fifth edition of the youth jamboree in Samoa on Friday.
David Warner to miss Bangladesh tour with broken thumb
Newly appointed Australian Test vice-captain David Warner has been ruled out of next month’s tour of Bangladesh due to a fractured thumb, Cricket Australia said Friday. Warner suffered the injury when he got in a tangle trying to play a…
Coast Guard arrest 2 drug dealers, recover 16,000 Yaba pills
Members of Bangladesh Coast Guard arrested two alleged drug dealers and recovered 16,000 pieces of contraband Yaba tablets from Naf river of Teknaf in Cox;sbazar district on Friday. The arrested drug traders are Md Saber Hossain and Monwar Hossain.
41 Shibir activists arrested at Farmgate area
Police arrested 41 Shibir leaders and activist while they were allegedly holding a secret meeting at a restaurant of Firmgate area in the city on Friday afternoon.
Three sentenced to prison for selling turtles in city
A mobile court on Friday sentenced three people simple jail ranging from 3 to 9 months on charge of being involved involved in selling turtles in the city’s Shakhari bazaar area. A Rab-10 team along with executive magistrate Md Sarwar…
Woman detained with 1,000 yaba tabs
In its anti-crime operation, Detective Branch (DB) of police arrested a woman with 1000 Yaba tablets from Hadirmore Bowbazar area under Boalia Police Station in the city yesterday.The arrested was Shakila Aktar Popy, 20, wife of Bilal Hossain of Maria…
Cattle influx from India resumes as Eid-ul-Azha gets close
The cattle influx from India has resumed along the border in the district ahead of Eid-ul-Azha after months’ of fall in its supply since April this year as Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh had asked BSF jawans to put a…
Ensuring urban public, environmental health underscored
Ensuring urban public and environmental health is very vital for substantial and sustainable livelihood improvement of the civic lives in Rajshahi city through improving its health status of the mass people especially poor, health experts, educationists and development activists here…
Public representatives should have knowledge on RTI Act
The grassroots level elected public representatives should have adequate knowledge on the Right to Information (RTI) Act for smoothly running the local government bodies ensuring accountability and transparency.The observation came out at a daylong orientation course on ‘Right to Information…
Digitisation process creates employment, income scope
As a whole, the digitisation process had already created scope of employment and income generation in various ways including outsourcing, selling products through e-shop and offering different services everywhere in the country including the Union Digital Centres (UDCs), speakers at…
NBR clarification over VAT on private universities eyewash, says BNP
The BNP sees a deception in the assurance the National Board of Revenue (NBR) gave to students who were demonstrating against VAT on tuition fees at the private universities. The party says VAT should not be collected from either the…
Atletico looking to new boys to see off Barca
Atletico Madrid will be looking to some of their new signings to help see off Barcelona when the champions visit the Calderon in La Liga on Saturday, according to fullback Filipe Luis. Atletico were one of Spain’s most active clubs…
Plummer plays Auschwitz survivor in Venice film ‘Remember’
Christopher Plummer plays an Auschwitz survivor searching for a former camp guard in a film that explores the themes of memory and undying anger. In Canadian director Atom Egoyan’s “Remember”, competing for the top prize at the Venice Film Festival,…
Oil falls more than 2 percent after Goldman cuts forecasts
Oil prices fell more than 2 percent on Friday after Goldman Sachs cut its crude forecasts, citing global oversupply and concerns over the Chinese economy, and after Saudi Arabia dismissed the idea of an oil producer summit. Joining a long…
US to China: Take back your undocumented immigrants
In early June, in cities across America, US immigration agents arrested more than two dozen Chinese nationals with unfulfilled deportation orders, telling them that after years of delay, China was finally taking steps to provide the paperwork needed to expel…
Europe launches two more Galileo satellites
Europe came a step closer to setting up its own satellite navigation system after successfully launching two Galileo satellites from French Guyana on Friday. The European Space Agency’s Galileo project is meant as an EU alternative to the US Global…