Day: December 15, 2014

  Customs officials claimed of rescuing 150 tortoises from being smuggled abroad at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka this morning. The tortoises were rescued alive in a crackdown, conducted upon a tip-off, near the Gate 1 around 10:30am, said Jewela Khatun, assistant commissioner of the airport’s customs. No one could be detained in this connection, she added. Talking to The Daily Star, the customs officer said that the tortoises, worth around Tk 20 lakh in the current market, would be handed over to forest department soon

The Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (Haab) leaders urged the government to reduce the Moallem (guide) fee to Tk 30,000 instead of Tk 1.20 lakh as fixed earlier for each pilgrim for the next year hajj. Haab president Mohammad Ibrahim Bahar placed the demand at a press conference at a hotel in Dhaka.  The association came up with the demand seven days after the government fixed two hajj packages for the pilgrims and fixed Tk 1.20 lakh as charge for each Moallem under private management. They also urged the government to give a second chance to those private agencies for which pilgrims could not perform hajj last year. Over 400 pilgrims could not travel to Saudi Arabia at the fault of the agencies last year, the Haab president said. “We also demand for allowing all Middle East-...

  At least 129 bodies have been recovered from Lake Tanganyika in the Democratic Republic of Congo, after a ferry capsized on Friday. Local transport minister Laurent Sumba Kahozi said the search for survivors was continuing. Rescue workers found passengers in the water on Sunday, clinging on to petrol cans and other objects. Correspondents say such accidents are fairly common in the region as ferries are often overloaded. Life jackets are also often missing and many people cannot swim. Officials in Katanga province said strong winds and overloading caused the boat, the MV Mutambala, to capsize. A number of women and children were among the victims in the disaster, which happened in the early hours of Friday morning. Initial reports said 26 people had died. The number of su...