Bangladesh

    Bangladesh still have two more warm-up matches before their Champions Trophy opener but captain Mashrafe Mortaza admits their five-wicket victory over New Zealand sends them to England with confidence high. The warm-up games will be important, wickets will be different from here but we will learn something from the games against Pakistan and India, so they are two big games, said Mortaza, We missed out in the first game against Ireland and the first game against New Zealand was tough but we did really well in last two games and confidence is high at the moment. New Zealand, after half centuries from skipper Tom Latham (84), Neil Broom (63) and Ross Taylor (60 not out), slumped from 208 for three to finish on 270 for eight while in their winning reply Bangladesh soared from...

    Bangladesh will procure six new ships from a Chinese company to add those to the fleet of Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC). The six ships-- three product oil tankers and three bulk carriers(each having capacity of capacity of carrying 39,000 DWT)-will be procured from China National Import and Export Machineries Corporation (BPC) at a cost of Tk 1,843 crore, said an official release. Of the total cost, BSC will provide Tk 395 crore and the rest Tk 1,448 crore will be provided by the Chinese government as loan, reports news agency UNB. A three-member committee, led by Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan, on Monday night left the city for China to attend a programme of plate cutting of the ships. The other members of the committee are additional secretary of the ministry M...

    Issuing a note of warning that no one will be spared if any negligence is found in haor embankment construction, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said haor farmers will get free agricultural inputs for the next crop. The government is not only providing relief materials to the flood-hit people, it'll also distribute all necessary agricultural inputs free of cost for their next crop, she told a civic gathering here. Sheikh Hasina is now in the district to see for herself the flood-affected areas where Boro crops on over two lakh hectares of land were damaged, causing a colossal loss to the livelihood, fish and livestock of farmers. The Prime Minister arrived at Shaheed Ali Model High School maidan in Shalla upazila by a helicopter. About irregularities in embankment c...

    Former British Prime Minister David Cameron paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her official residence Ganobhaban on Thursday morning. Earlier, on Wendesday night, Cameron arrived in Dhaka on less than 24-hour maiden visit to Bangladesh. Cameron, who is the chair of IGC’s Commission of State Fragility, growth and Development, reached Hazrat Shahjalal International Aiport at about 11:05pm. He will also join a roundtable discussion of International Growth Centre (IGC), a UK-based organization working in promoting sustainable growth in developing countries by providing demand-led policy advice based on frontier research later on Thursday. Cameron, who was the British prime minister from 2010-2016, will also pay a visit to a DFID-funded project and a garmen...

    Authorities of Scholars Home School and College at Shahi Eidgah in Sylhet city discovered a bomb-like object on the stair of the five-storey school building on Tuesday morning. The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) members evacuated students from the classrooms safely after a reportedly powerful bomb found there at about 11:00am. RAB-9 Senior Assistant Director (Media) Maen Uddin Chowdhury said it has been known from primary investigation that the object is a powerful bomb. Law enforcers cordoned off the school area. The college principal Rtrd Brigadier Zubayer Siddique said the cleaners of the college informed him after discovering the bomb-like object under the stairs of 5th floor in the morning. Later, the principal called RAB. He said the students were recovered from th...

    A three‐member team of Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute arrived in Sunamganj on Friday to examine the cause of death of fishes and ducks in the haors (water bodies) of the district. The team, led by Chief Scientist Dr. Masud Hossain Khan, visited Khachar Haor in Bishambharpur upazila, Halir Haor and Mahaliar Haor in Tahirpur upazila in the morning and examined water of the haors. While talking to reporters, Dr. Masud said, The water of the haors is not in its normal condition and there is existence of toxic gas in the water for which fishers are dying. Dead fishes and ducks were found floating in the haors of Jagannathpur upazila in the last several days after a flashflood in the region that created tension among the farmers of the area. Though the local administrat...

    Saudi Arabia has agreed to donate $118 million to set up 560 model mosques across Bangladesh, a media report said on Thursday. The decision follows Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's last year vist to Saudi Arabia where she met King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud. The mosques will be able to accommodate at least 450,000 men and over 30,000 women for daily prayers and will have lodging space for more than 2,000 foreign guests and libraries. The Saudi government has also agreed to donate money to establish a permanent campus for the Islami Arabic University in Bangladesh.

Speaking at the launch of the training programme Shuroksha (well protected), Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, the Honourable Prime Minister’s Media Adviser said that “ press freedom is a constitutional right and the State has a responsibility to protect citizens including journalists and internet users”. He added that “it is a harsh reality that we lost so many journalists like Humayun Kabir Balu, Manik Saha and Mehrun Runi and Sagar Sarwar who were brutally murdered for carrying out professional duties” and concluded that, “Press freedom cannot be ensured unless democracy and good governance are institutionalized. On the other hand, press freedom in a right direction is the oxygen for democracy and good governance.” Organised by ARTICLE 19 Bangladesh and South Asia today at BRAC Centre Inn, the pr...

    Cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab on Monday said it had obtained digital evidence that bolsters suspicions by some researchers that North Korea was involved in last year’s $81 million cyber heist of the Bangladesh central bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Russian-based Kaspersky released a 58-page report on Lazarus, a group linked to the heist in Bangladesh and the 2014 attack on Sony’s Hollywood studio, which the US government blamed on North Korea. Among its findings, the report said Lazarus hackers made a direct connection from an IP address in North Korea to a server in Europe that was used to control systems infected by the group. Kaspersky researcher Vitaly Kamluk told Reuters by telephone that the finding marked ‘the first time we have seen a d...

    Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) mayor Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul and Sylhet City Corporation (SCC) mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury have been suspended again hours after taking charge on Sunday. The Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives issued separate circulars in this regard as they are accused in criminal cases, said Zakir Hossain, public relations officer of the ministry. BNP-backed RCC mayor Bulbul resumed his duties this morning after the Supreme Court upheld a High Court order that declared his suspension illegal on March 5. On May 7, 2015, the government suspended RCC mayor Bulbul as he was charged with criminal offences. The Supreme Court on March 24 upheld a High Court order that stayed the suspension of Sylhet City Corporation (SCC) Mayor Ar...