Monday, May 4

Tag: Featured

Paris attacks: Belt of explosives found in litter in town south of capital
24Nov By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, Europe

Paris attacks: Belt of explosives found in litter in town south of capital

    A device resembling an explosive belt has been found in the town of Montrouge south of Paris and is currently being analysed by police. The item was found in a pile of litter on a residential street near students’ accommodation on Monday afternoon, and police experts are working to establish its composition and whether it is made up of explosives. A source close to the investigation told Reuters: “It looks like a belt of explosives.” The immediate area where the belt was found was closed off while police checked the material and established what it was. There was no police confirmation yet as to whether it was an explosives belt. Security services in France and Belgium are trying to hunt down suspects and potential accomplices following a series of coordinated terrorist at...
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Why I Love Winter
24Nov By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, Life Style

Why I Love Winter

    I hate winter season. The mornings are the worst. Getting out of the warm bed is a challenge by itself. The harsh, icy water and the bone shattering cold air doesn't make life easier for anyone. The dense fog, which is adamant, refuses to go away till midday, creating a nuisance of traffic. As it is apparent, winter does not charm me. But there is one exception. The only reason winter is worth waiting for, in my opinion, is pitha. I hate winter season. But I love pitha. It is hard for a Bangladeshi not to. The fascination with pitha has existed among Bengalis for centuries and is now probably inscribed in our genes! Niaz Zaman in her book 'Bosha Bhat to Biriyani: The Legacy of Bangladeshi Cuisine' mentions a reference to pitha in the seventeenth century Mymensingh balla...
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Paris attacks: How the influence of Saudi Arabia sowed the seeds of radicalism in Belgium
24Nov By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, Europe

Paris attacks: How the influence of Saudi Arabia sowed the seeds of radicalism in Belgium

    Armed police guard a street in Brussels There are many reasons why Belgium has become a hotbed of radical Islamism. Some of the answers may lie in the implanting of Saudi Salafist preachers in the country from the 1960s. Keen to secure oil contracts, Belgium’s King Baudouin made an offer to Saudi King Faisal, who had visited Brussels in 1967: Belgium would set up a mosque in the capital, and hire Gulf-trained clerics. At the time, Belgium was encouraging Moroccan and Turkish workers to come into the country as cheap labour. The deal between the two Kings would make the mosque their main place of worship. Brussels already had the perfect place. An oriental pavilion designed by Belgian architect Ernest Van Humbeek had been built in the capital’s Cinquantenaire park in 1879, ...
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Turkey Shoots Down Russian Jet Near Border
24Nov By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, Europe

Turkey Shoots Down Russian Jet Near Border

    A Russian jet has been shot down after allegedly violating Turkish airspace near the Syrian border. The pilot was warned 10 times before being shot down by two Turkish F16 jets, according to the country's military. An official said two planes approached the Turkish border and were warned before one of them was shot down, adding their information shows Turkish airspace was repeatedly violated. A Kremlin spokesman said it was a "very serious incident", but said it was too early to draw conclusions. The Russian defence ministry said in a statement the Sukhoi Su-24 jet did not violate Turkish airspace and added it was downed by artillery fire. Russia Su-24 jet shot down by Turkey F-16 fighters near Syria border The ministry also said that according to preliminary data the pilo...
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Turning a swamp into fish farm
22Nov By Sumon AdminNo Comments
Bangladesh, ENGLISH

Turning a swamp into fish farm

Jahirul Islam Jewel with Andrew Eagle: It's a great pleasure to feed the fish each day, says an enthusiastic Kajol Rani Howlader of Choupala Bazar in Jhalakathi sadar upazila, standing beside an unlikely fish enclosure built on swampy, disused land. “We have thousands of fish and after throwing feed, there are so many that anybody can touch them,” she says. Kajol Rani is participating in a new style of pisciculture and vegetable growing project that aims to utilise water-logged non-agricultural land to improve people's lives. To ask the ten women in the group of thirty locals involved in the project, is to hear how their husbands used to pass days in idle gossip in teashops while wives were busy with household chores. It all changed last July, thanks to the BRAC-organised project, champion...
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Imminent Terror Threat Shuts Brussels Metro
21Nov By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, Europe

Imminent Terror Threat Shuts Brussels Metro

    People in Brussels are being urged to avoid busy areas such as concerts and transport hubs after the city's terror alert was raised to the highest possible level. The Belgian capital's metro transport service will be closed until Sunday afternoon over the "serious and imminent threat". Belgium's Prime Minister said the terror alert was as a result of "quite precise information about the risk of an attack like the one that happened in Paris". Heavily armed soldiers and police are patrolling the city amid fears at least one suspect in the Paris attacks could be in Belgium. Belgium's crisis centre website said it had asked local authorities to cancel large events, urge people to avoid crowds and postpone soccer matches. Belgian PM Charles Michel said the government would revie...
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Hasna Ait Boulahcen: Europe’s first female suicide bomber ‘did not blow herself up’
21Nov By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, Europe

Hasna Ait Boulahcen: Europe’s first female suicide bomber ‘did not blow herself up’

    Hasna Ait Boulahcen, the woman labelled "Europe's first woman suicide bomber" did not blow herself up during a police raid on an apartment building in Saint-Denis, new reports have claimed. Despite French prosecutors initially saying she had detonated an explosives vest and died during the assault on Wednesday, a police source reportedly told Agence France-Presse news agency the suicide bomber who blew themselves up was a man, not a woman. Boulahcen is reported to have shouted: “Help me, help me, I am on fire,” prior to the explosion. Her body parts were later found strewn across the road. It was through intercepting Aitboulahcen's phone calls that security agencies were able to track her cousin Abdelhamid Abaaoud and six other terror suspects to their hiding place. After ...
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SQ Chy, Mujahid file mercy petitions
21Nov By Sumon AdminNo Comments
Bangladesh, ENGLISH

SQ Chy, Mujahid file mercy petitions

    Death row convicts Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mujahid have filed presidential mercy petitions. Magistrates of the war criminals visited them at the Dhaka Central Jail this morning. President Abdul Hamid to consult Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina before taking decision on the matter. The jail authority have already completed the preparations for hanging the death row convicts. Family members of Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mujahid visited them Thursday at the Dhaka Central Jail. On Thursday, the Supreme Court released its full verdicts that dismissed their petitions to review their death sentences. Later the verdicts were readout to the war criminals.
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Friday Jumma Mubarok: Check list
20Nov By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, Life Style

Friday Jumma Mubarok: Check list

    Amal Al-Sibai:Saudi Arabia: Friday is a special day for Muslims. It is a holiday; it is a day of remembrance of Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him), a day of renewing repentance, and recharging spiritually for the entire week. On each Friday, Allah forgives all the sins of the believers (except for major sins) who pay proper attention to the value of this day. The sins will be forgiven for those who follow the steps that should be performed before, during, and after the Friday prayer. It is obligatory for men to attend the congregational Friday prayer in the mosque, and optional for women. As for appreciating the sanctity of Friday, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) repeatedly mentioned the significance of this special day. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) s...
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Britain’s First Mosque
18Nov By Sumon AdminNo Comments
ENGLISH, United Kingdom

Britain’s First Mosque

Syed Neaz Ahmad: Built in 1889, the Shahjehan Mosque is a symbol of Muslim history in Britain. A prison, a lunatic asylum and a crematorium hardly provide an deal setting for a sacred institution, but the first mosque to be built in Britain in October 1889 was sited against such a background. The actual first mosque was in a converted building in Liverpool. However, the Shahjehan Mosque in the County of Surrey assumed larger than life proportions in matters of public interest and became a landmark. As a matter of fact, the little known sleepy town of Woking, because of the mosque, became a priority destination for visiting dignitaries and the focus of Islam in England. The story of the Shahjehan Mosque is the history of the site and the wanderings of a Budapest Linguist Dr Gottlieb Wilhelm...
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