South Asia is a fascinating and important region for the world in numerous respects. Although the eight countries of South Asia form just 3.5 percent of the world’s surface area, the region is home to 1.89 billion people or 24…
Category: Life
Meghan puts notes on bananas sent to needy women in Britain
London, Feb 3 (AP/UNB) — Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has written personal messages to women being helped by a charity that seeks to help sex workers break free from prostitution. Prince Harry’s wife took the unusual step of writing…
‘Living some sort of ‘captive life’, says PM Hasina
Dhaka, Feb 1 (UNB) – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday lamented her inability to roam around the Ekushey Book Fair freely, saying she is now living some sort of a ‘captive life’. “When I was not in power, I…
Bd HC landmark verdict declares Turag river as living being
Dhaka, Jan 30 – In a historic verdict, the High Court on Wednesday declared the Turag River as a legal/juristic person or a living being to save the river from illegal encroachment. In its partial judgment, the HC bench of…
Recognise rivers as living beings: Green activists
Dhaka, Jan 29 (UNB) – Mentioning that rivers are being killed through unplanned development, encroachment, pollution and climate change impacts, experts and green activists on Tuesday demanded that the rivers be recognised as living being for saving those. They made…
ACC finds 40 percent doctors absent from govt hospitals
Dhaka, Jan 21 – Officials of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) found 40 per cent doctors absent while conducting drives in 10 government hospitals in eight districts simultaneously on Monday. They also found that 62 per cent doctors in Upazila hospitals were…
Six Thakurgaon kids lose lives in cold-related ailments
Thakurgaon, Jan 12 – The sweeping cold wave has claimed the lives of at least six children in the district over the last one week and affected many more, said acting civil surgeon Dr Shahjahan Newaz.
Housewife ‘commits suicide’ in Rajshahi over rebuke
Rajshahi, Jan 9 – A housewife reportedly committed suicide by hanging herself from a mango tree near their house at Mahdipur village in Bagha Upazila on Tuesday.
Tearful adieu to Ashraful Islam – an honest politician
Awami League Presidium member and Public Administration Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, who passed away at a Thailand hospital on Thursday, was laid to eternal rest here on Sunday.
Tetulia shivers at Bangladesh’s lowest temperature 4.9˚C
Bangladesh recorded its lowest temperature of the winter so far after the mercury fell to 4.9 degrees Celsius in Tetulia at 6am on Wednesday.
Russian baby rescued after nearly 36 hours in frozen rubble
Moscow, Jan 2 (AP/UNB) — Laboring through sub-freezing temperatures, Russian rescue workers were digging into a sprawling heap of jagged rubble from a collapsed apartment building when one heard the faintest sound. It was the sound of life.
Of cockroaches and humans
Rita Levi-Montalcini, the Italian Nobel laureate honoured for her work in neurobiology, once gave a splendid conference with the title “The imperfect brain”. There she explained that man has a brain that is not used completely, while the reverse is…
Nonrecorded Filipino workers assistance program ends Tuesday
The deadline for illegal Filipino workers, including housemaids, to benefit from their country’s Financial Assistance Programme ends tomorrow.
Living with Climate Change
By Patrick V. Verkooijen ROTTERDAM – For anyone still undecided about the consequences of global warming, the summer of 2018, one of the hottest on record, should have tipped the scales.Across far-flung longitudes and latitudes, regions are struggling with the…
Watch two men leading camels in flooded Saudi desert
Dhaka, Nov 20 – Two men lead a herd of camels through a brutal sandstorm and a haze of rain in a dramatic video that’s gone viral for both its drama and its beauty.
Peace, stability not possible sans rural development
Rome, 9 November 2018 – At this week’s Paris Peace Forum, Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will ask global leaders to consider the crucial role that increased investment in rural areas of developing…
Rainwater harvesting eases daily struggle in Argentina
“I’ve been used to hauling water since I was eight years old. Today, at 63, I still do it,” says Antolín Soraire, a tall peasant farmer with a face ravaged by the sun who lives in Los Blancos, a town…
BD to demolish 255 vulnerable buildings in capital Dhaka
Housing and Public Works Minister Engineer Mosharraf Hossain on Sunday told Parliament that steps are being taken to demolish 255 vulnerable buildings in the capital.
People suffer on first day of countrywide transport strike
Dhaka, Oct 28 – Commuters faced immense sufferings as transport workers across the country went on a 48-hour work abstention on Sunday to press home their eight point-demand, including amendments to the recently passed Road Transport Act.
Mitigating India’s climate-change misery
Gulrez Shah Azhar Santa Monica – The record-setting heat that blanketed the planet this summer was a sticky reminder that as global temperatures increase, people on the margins of society – the sick, the elderly, and the poor – will…
Japan send spacecraft on 7-year journey to Mercury
European and Japanese space agencies said an Ariane 5 rocket successfully lifted a spacecraft carrying two probes into orbit Saturday for a joint mission to Mercury, the closest planet to the sun.
EU wants Bangladesh to abolish capital punishment
The European Union (EU) has called on Bangladesh authorities to introduce a moratorium on executions as a first step towards abolition of capital punishment.
The Caribbean reiterates 1.5 Degrees Celsius to stay alive
If there is one lesson that Dominican Reginald Austrie has learnt from the devastation Hurricane Maria brought to his country last September, it is the need for “resilience, resilience, resilience”.
Doomsday in real life: Warned of quake, govt eyed risk area
Petobo, Oct 9 (AP/UNB) — When the violent shaking from a massive magnitude 7.5 earthquake finally stopped, Selvi Susanti stood up and realized something strange was happening. First, she saw the ground suddenly begin to sink. Then the pavement split…
People are the biggest assets for Bangladesh tourism
Says Russian bloggers after their 8-day tour of Bangladesh Dhaka, Oct 6 – Bangladesh has a lot of unique things to offer foreign tourists. But the simple, friendly and hospitable people are the biggest assets for the development of tourism…
Storm warning for the fossil-fuel industry
by Daniel Litvin London – This has been a year of extreme weather events, from the “Beast from the East” that froze much of the United Kingdom in March to Hurricane Florence on the US East Coast and Typhoon Mangkhut…
‘The Hate U Give’ screenwriter Audrey Wells dies at 58
Los Angeles, Oct 6 (AP/UNB) — Audrey Wells, who wrote the screenplay for the brand new feature film “The Hate U Give,” died the day before the film was released after a five-year battle with cancer. She was 58.
Father riding late daughter’s tiny bike 200 miles for charity
A man from Cornwall is cycling on a tiny pink bike that belonged to his daughter to raise awareness of a brain tumour that killed her.
The useful idiocy of Donald Trump
By Chris Hedges The problem with Donald Trump is not that he is imbecilic and inept—it is that he has surrendered total power to the oligarchic and military elites. They get what they want. They do what they want.
Klamath River – a life or death issue for Yurok Tribe People
Fishermen are scarce in the Klamath River delta, unlike other fishing season, because climate change has driven up water temperatures which kills off the salmon, the flagship species of this region in northern California.