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shirshobindu.com This Nov 25 Star photo shows Abdul Latif Siddique being escorted to a Dhaka court after his surrender at Dhanmondi Police Station. The controversial former minister was sent to jail with a number of cases filed against him on charges of hurting religious sentiments. A Dhaka Court today fixed December 7 for starting hearing on charge framing against sacked minister Abdul Latif Siddique in the case filed against him for hurting religious sentiment of Muslims. Metropolitan Magistrate Ashaduzzaman Nur also directed the prison authorities to produce the former post and telecommunications minister before it on that day. Latif, who drew flaks at home and abroad for his scathing remarks on hajj and Tabligh Jamaat about two months ago, surrendered at Dhanmondi Model Police S...

 Prime Minister's Political Affairs Adviser HT Imam once again misinformed the media yesterday when he claimed that he took the premier's consent to hold a press conference to “clarify” his recent controversial statement. Just when he was briefing reporters in the morning, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a meeting with her cabinet colleagues said Imam didn't take her consent. Several cabinet members told The Daily Star that Hasina made the comment when some ministers sought her views on Imam's recent remarks at a Chhatra League programme where he assured the activists of help once they overcame the hurdle of written test at BCS exams. His other comments at the programme four days ago also drew sharp reactions from different quarters. In his 50-minute speech, he narrated how the Awam...

The Cabinet on Monday approved the draft of the 'Metro Rail Bill,  2014' to give a legal framework to the overall activities of the proposed Metro Rail Project, including its operations, control and regulations. The proposed law kept provision of Tk 1 crore fine and 10 years of imprisonment for operating metro rail without license or illegal handover of license for operating Metro Rail. The approval was given at the regular weekly meeting of the cabinet held at the Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan briefed the reporters after the meeting. He said that the draft law also kept provision of five years of imprisonment or Tk 50,000 fine for creating obstructions in running metro rail.

Health condition of death row convict Muhammad Kamaruzzaman is sound, his son Hasan Iqbal said after meeting with his father at Dhaka Central Jail this morning. “I haven’t seen such a strong person like him”, Bangla Media reports quoting Iqbal as saying. Ten family members went to the jail in the morning and met the Jamaat-e-Islami leader, who was shifted to Dhaka from Kashimpur jail in Gazipur yesterday, for half an hour from 10:38am with the permission of the jail authorities. Kamaruzzaman’s wife Nurunnahar, sons Hasan Iqbal, Ahmed Hasan, Ikram Hasan and Hasan Imam, daughter Afia Nur, brothers Naziruzzaman and Abdullah Al Mahadi, sister Mohsina Begum, and nephew Abdul Alim, are among the family members who visited him at the jail. Shishir Monir, a counsel for the convicted war crim...

Shirshobindu News Desk: The body of convicted war criminal Ghulam Azam who died Thursday night has been handed over to his family. Jail authorities handed over his body around 7:30am today after autopsy at Dhaka Medical College, Tajul Islam, the lawyer of the former Jamaat ameer, told The Media. Ghulam Azam’s son Abdullahil Aman Azmi received the body and took it to their Moghbazar residence in Dhaka, Tajul said. Any further details were unavailable since last reported. Ghulam Azam, the man who was a symbol of war crimes in Bangladesh, died at 10:10pm last night at the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) in Dhaka at the age of 92. He was sentenced for 90 years in prison for crimes committed against humanity in 1971, which included leadi...

News Desk: The holy Eid-ul-Azha, the second biggest religious festival of the Muslims, is being celebrated across the country with due solemnity and religious fervour. On the occasion, the Muslims across the country are offering prayers in congregations and sacrificing animals in the name of Almighty Allah. They are offering munajat seeking divine blessings for peace, progress and prosperity of the country as well as welfare of the Muslim Ummah. The Eid-ul-Azha is celebrated on the 10th of Zilhajj month of the Hizri calendar as Hazrat Ibrahim (AS), on this day some 4,000 years ago, offered to sacrifice his beloved son Hazrat Ismail (AS) who willingly submitted to the will of his father to please Allah. But the Almighty in His benign mercy spared Hazrat Ismail (AS) and instead sent a ram ...

Nasa Spacecraft Successfully Enters Mars Orbit Nasa Spacecraft Successfully Enters Mars Orbit Nasa's Maven spacecraft has reached Mars after a 442-million-mile flight through space that began a year ago.After arriving at the Red Planet, Maven fired its main engines for about 33 minutes to slow down enough to "capture" into Mars' orbit.Flight controllers managing the $671m mission will spend six weeks checking the robotic explorer's instruments before it begins observations of the Red Planet's atmosphere.The mission's goal is to explore the planet’s upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and interactions with the Sun and solar wind. Maven - the name is short for Martian Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution - will also explore the planet’s interactions with the Sun. Scientists beli...

Padma corruption probe laid to rest Anti-graft body finds no graft conspiracy M Rahman: In a controversial move, the Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday cleared all accused of corruption conspiracy allegations in the Padma bridge project though the World Bank gave the ACC primary evidence and a trial is on at a Canadian court in this connection. "None was found guilty. The commission will submit its final report to the court," ACC Chairman Mohammad Badiuzzaman said at a press briefing at the ACC headquarters in the capital. The accused in the Padma bridge graft case included former communications minister Syed Abul Hossain and ex-state minister for foreign affairs Abul Hasan Chowdhury. The ACC concludes its probe in the case at a time when two officials of Canadian firm SNC Lavalin...

Floods rage thru' north 100 more villages inundated as Bogra embankment washed away; erosion takes alarming turn Inundated houses in Rohodoha of Shariakandi upazila of Bogra after the Jamuna washed away 300 metres of a dyke. Shirshobindu Nesw Desk: With the flood situation in the north showing no sign of improvement, more than one lakh people of 100 villages were freshly affected after a portion of the flood control embankment by the Jamuna river collapsed in Bogra yesterday. Including them, about nine lakh people have now been hit by the monsoonal flood in 19 districts, according to government figures. Marooned for over two weeks, many of these people have little or no food, drinking water and sanitation facilities. Authorities are distributing relief materials in the affected distr...