ENGLISH

They left the port with an entire vessel without sufficient knowledge of sea navigation and suffered the consequences with the cost of three lives and the cargo-laden ship! The captain and the chief engineer, both from Bangladesh, of the sunken Cambodian cargo vessel “Ming Guang” were taken to Tokyo after they were rescued from northern Japan coast where the ship capsized with scrap metals on its way to South Korea. Mostofa Kamal, the captain, hailing from Bagerhat, was a labourer in Mongla port. His academic education is extended up to grade three in a primary school, Mohammed Nore-Alam, the counsellor at Bangladesh embassy in Tokyo, told The Daily Star over phone. Meanwhile, the “chief engineer” of the ship, Moniruzzaman, passed intermediate examinations and was also a labourer of t...

    Twenty-three hours into his fall, body of four-year-old boy Jihad was recovered from a deep well shaft at Shahjahanpur in Dhaka despite the authorities' repeated expression of doubt that there was anyone inside. Doctors to Dhaka Medical College Hospital confirmed the child was "brought dead" around 3:30pm. Three volunteers made the recovery over 12 hours into announcement by State Minister for Home Asaduzaman Khan Kamal and Director General of Fire Service that no human being was found in the shaft. The volunteers, who worked at the collapsed Rana Plaza, used a locally developed metal-rod cage to pull the child. There are marks of injury in his body and the child was not moving when he was pulled out of the well shaft, our correspondent reports from the spot. Angry o...

    World’s 10 most expensive shopping locations Where in the world is officially the most expensive place to shop? Real Estate advisors Cushman & Wakefield have revealed the top 10 most expensive shopping locations in the world. Find out which cities made the top 10...

Gazipur district administration today imposed Section 144 in the district as both BNP and Bangladesh Chhatra League, student front of ruling Awami League, have crossed swords centring Saturday’s rally at Bhawal Bodr-E-Alam Government College ground in the Sadar upazila. The section 144 was imposed banning all sorts of political activities like rally, demonstration and mass gathering  in the district and it will remain active until farther direction, our Gazipur Correspondent reports quoting Harun-ur-Rashid, superintendent of police in Gazipur. He was talking to reporters at a press briefing held at the meeting venue of Bhawal Bodr-E-Alam Government College ground this afternoon. The Gazipur district administration came up with the decision after a closed-door meeting held between i...

Christmas Day online shoppers are predicted to set a new spending record splashing out an estimated £636m today. Shoppers are expected to make 142 million visits to retail sites today - a 25% increase on last year. Research by Experian and online retailing trade association IMRG found Britons will spend around £441,000 a minute. "The ease of shopping online via connected devices raises the prospect of a very large amount of shopping activity on Christmas Day itself," said Experian general manager of consumer insight Giles Longhurst. Dominic Trigg, managing director for Europe of digital advertising technology company Rocket Fuel, said: "Shopping online on Christmas Day is now a normal part of UK consumers' holiday experiences every year. "It is clear that UK consumers now see shoppi...

Facebook Inc must face a class action lawsuit accusing it of violating its users' privacy by scanning the content of messages they send to other users for advertising purposes, a US judge has ruled. US District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland, California, on Tuesday dismissed some state-law claims against the social media company but largely denied Facebook's bid to dismiss the lawsuit. Facebook had argued that the alleged scanning of its users' messages was covered by an exception under the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act for interceptions by service providers occurring in the ordinary course of business. But Hamilton said Facebook had "not offered a sufficient explanation of how the challenged practice falls within the ordinary course of its business." Neither Faceb...

    Reaching new heights  Laying claim to being the tallest in a particular category has always had a certain allure for architects, whether they're building skyscraper-style hotels such as Dubai's Burj Khalifa or landmarks like Seattle's Space Needle. The Al Noor Tower, designed by French firm Valode & Pistre, will be the tallest building in Africa once it's been completed — these artistic renderings from the Paris-based Iceberg design studio give you an idea of how it's going to look when it's finished at some point in 2018. The development companies involved have announced that ground will be broken on the project in June 2015, with the structure costing around $1 billion (£640 million) to build.

Dhaka Central Jail will be shifted to Keraniganj from Lalbagh by June next while nine acres land of the existing prison will be utilized for construction of a park with opening of two museums in central jail for public. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said this while inaugurating 'Kara Saptaha-2014' (prison week-2014) at Kashimpur Prison Campus Parade Field here today. Sheikh Hasina said her government is running the jail administration with the principle - 'Hate the Sin not the Sinner'. So the government is implementing massive programmes for improvement of jail atmosphere. In the ancient age, she said, the concept of prison came to award punishment to the offenders. But, in the civilized world the prisons are used as centres of correction and rehabilitation. Congratulating the prison ...

  Former state minister Syed Mohammad Qaisar was sentenced to death on seven charges of killing and rape during the country’s Liberation War in 1971. 14 out of 16 charges proved Death penalty on 7 charges Jail until death on 4 charges 10, 7 and 5 years’ imprisonment for three other charges The 73-year-old has also been awarded jail until death on four charges while different terms of imprisonment on three other charges. However, he was acquitted of two charges. While reading out the summery of the 484-page verdict, Chairman of International Crimes Tribunal-2 Justice Obaidul Hassan said, “Wrongdoers deserve appropriate punishment.” An alleged local leader of anti-liberation forces Razakar and Peace Committee, Qaisar was founder of Qaisar Bahini, which had 400-500 collabora...

  Five dead bodies, including those of two females, were found on the railway tracks through Dhaka and Gazipur within a span of 24 hours until this noon. Bangladesh railway police and Dhaka police confirmed the news but could not ascertain their identity, reports our district correspondent and Bangla daily Prothom Alo. A male, around 35 years of age, was found on the rail tracks in Ahaki area of Kaliakoir upazila, Gazipur yesterday noon, reports our Gazipur correspondent quoting Dadan Mia, an assistant sub-inspector of Joydebpur Railway Police Station. “He might have fallen from a train and crushed under its wheels,” he said. The body of a female was found from Malibagh rail crossing around 8:30pm last night. Hours afterwards, a man was found dead at Jowarshara crossing, said A...