Day: August 13, 2014

Scandal-hit BASIC Bank accounts for two-thirds of the increase Rejaul Karim Byron: Banks' total default loans rose Tk 3,183 crore in the three months from March 31, with the scam-hit BASIC Bank accounting for almost 64 percent of the rise. On June 30, the banking sector's total default loans stood at Tk 51,345 crore, up 6.59 percent from the first quarter, according to data from the central bank. The amount is 10.75 percent of the total outstanding loans. The state-run BASIC Bank alone accounted for Tk 2,034 crore of the default loans, which is 40.77 percent of its total outstanding loans. Only ICB Islami Bank has a higher percentage of default loans. Of the 47 scheduled banks (excluding the nine new banks), 23 banks saw their default loans ascend and 24 descend. The four state-owne...

Ebola Bomb: Possible, But Not So Easy to Make Ebola virus Elizabeth Palermo: If some worst-case scenarios are to be believed, then terrorist groups could use the recent outbreak of Ebola in Africa to their advantage. By using the Ebola virus as a biological weapon, the story goes, these groups could wreak havoc around the globe.But the idea that Ebola could be used as a biological weapon should be viewed with heavy skepticism, according to bioterrorism experts. Although deadly, Ebola is notoriously unstable when removed from a human or animal host, making weaponization of the virus unlikely, two experts told Live Science.That's not the view posited by Peter Walsh, a biological anthropologist at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. The world should be taking the thre...

Judge being held to account Will restore judiciary's image News Desk: THE Chief Justice deserves compliments for initiating action against a recently retired judge who, reportedly, dispensed hurried judgments immediately prior to his retirement to the extent that he disposed of 20 cases between 4 and 10 days and set free all the accused of 20 cases. No wonder it is judges like Faruk Ahmed who taint the image of the judiciary by abjuring the norms of trial process causing miscarriage of justice. While we appreciate the CJ's action we feel that ex-Judge Faruk Ahmed's case may just be the tip of the iceberg which merits the CJ's immediate attention, and we urge him to use the weight of his office to go deeper into the functioning of the entire judiciary, particularly the lower judiciary, ...

Online Report: Thirty-three officials --  11 of Sonali Bank and 22 of Hall-Mark and its sister concerns -- have been sued for taking Tk 755 crore in loan using fake documents. Abul Hashem, deputy general manager of Sonali Bank, Sheraton Hotel branch, filed the case with the Third Joint District Judge’s Court of Dhaka today. Hall-Mark Group Chairman Jasmine Islam, Managing Director Tanvir Mahmud and General Manager Tushar Ahmed have been made accused in the case. Earlier, Sonali Bank filed 17 cases against Hall-Mark Group with Artha Rin Adalat (money loan court) for taking huge amount of money in loan submitting forged documents. Sonali Bank started filing the cases after it failed to get buyers for the mortgaged assets of Hall-Mark. Apart from these, the Anti-Corruption Commission ...