Tag: Featured

News Desk: At least Seven people were killed and 10 others injured as a bus, microbus and motorbike, coming from three opposite directions, collided head-on in Bahubal upazila of Habiganj this afternoon. All the deceased -- four microbus passengers and two motorbike riders -- died on the spot, reports our Moulvibazar correspondent. The accident took place at Tudli intersection around 4:25pm as the Dhaka-bound passenger bus from Sylhet, Sylhet-bound microbus from Dhaka and the motorbike crashed from triangular directions on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway, Wahidur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Bahubal Police Station, told the correspondent. The killed motorbike riders -- Khokon, 28, and Rokan, 22 of Bahubal upazila, are siblings, the OC said. Identities of other deceased and injured could no...

News Desk: Around 500 Bangladeshis working for different South Korean companies in Libya may return home as their employers have started evacuating workers from the North African country due to intensive clashes between government forces and rebels. Daewoo Engineering and Construction (Daewoo E & C), a South Korean company, has already granted 169 Bangladeshis six months' leave without pay who are now waiting to return home, said Ahsan Kibria Siddique, first secretary of the Bangladesh mission in Tripoli. “The Korean companies have started evacuating their workers from Libya on a temporary basis due to security risks in workplaces,” he said. Bangladeshi workers in Libya are living in fear as the recent spate of clashes between the two forces has intensified. At least five Bangladeshi...

  News Desk: People condemn the Israeli aggression in Gaza, from a human chain organised by the National Human Rights Commission at Central Shaheed Minar in the capital yesterday. National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairman Prof Mizanur Rahman yesterday accused the influential countries of encouraging Israel in its atrocities in Gaza. “We find that the big powers raise their voices and issue statements even in a case of trivial human rights violation in Bangladesh. But we are not seeing such statements and worries of those about the ongoing destruction and killing in Gaza," he said. "Rather, sometimes they are encouraging and supporting the killings and destruction by some statements," he told a rally, organised by the commission, at the capital's Central Shaheed Minar. The...

News Desk: This employee of a garment factory of Tuba Group got a call on her phone informing her of her mother-in-law's death yesterday. She had been on hunger strike inside her Badda factory demanding unpaid wages and Eid bonuses. When she came downstairs to leave for home, she found the gates locked. Owners of Tuba Group backed by police confined more than 1,000 agitating workers for hours yesterday in an apparent bid to quell their ongoing protests for full payment of arrears. The nine-hour confinement ends around noon when an unidentified man opened the gate of the building where the workers have been on hunger strike for ten days. But the workers refused to go to the BGMEA office to take partial payments promised earlier. "We went to the BGMEA office several times. But it did not...

Online Report: Many intellectuals were killed by Razakars and Al-Badrs at Rayerbazar killing ground prior to the independence of Bangladesh in 1971. The law minister today rejected a suggestion of holding trial of 1971 war crimes in another country, terming it "unrealistic" and "unreasonable". The lawyers of Jamaat-e-Islami leaders who are facing war crimes charges allegedly made the suggestion during their meeting with US ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues Stephen Rapp at a hotel in Dhaka last night. Rapp met Law Minister Anisul Huq at the latter's office at Secretariat this morning. When he came out, reporters raised the issue with the law minister. "It is an unrealistic and unreasonable demand," he said. Talking about the meeting, the minister said Rapp has apparently exp...

Online Report: Managing Director of Tazreen Fashions Delawar Hossain was seen at the High Court on July 21, 2013. Photo: Focus Bangla Tuba Group Managing Director Delwar Hossain, who was in jail in connection with Tazreen Fashions fire case freed on bail this evening. Golam Haidar, deputy inspector general (prison) told The Daily Star that he got necessary papers in hand at around 6:00pm and freed him around 8:00am. The Tuba MD sent to jail on February 9 this year in a case in connection with a fire incident that broke out at his another factory Tazreen Fashions at Ashulia that killed 112 in 2012. The HC bench of Justice Syed AB Mahmudul Huq and Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder on July 24 granted interim bail for two months to Delwar in the case following a bail petition filed by th...

Did BGMEA play its due role? Refayet Ullah Mirdha: The painful saga of the Tuba Group workers' agitation over a payment of dues has been quite revealing of the questionable role played by the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) in the crisis. And that has been despite the fact that the association was tasked to streamline its member factories. The BGMEA staged the payment drama at such a time when the whole world has been focusing on Bangladesh's garment sector, particularly over safety and labour standards in the workplace. The BGMEA was also supposed to monitor such compliance factors as timely payment of wages and safety and security measures for workers of its affiliated member factories. Sadly, though, that role was conspicuous by its absence. The lai...

Capacity 85, passengers over 200 Tawfique Ali: The ill-fated vessel MV Pinak-6 was overcrowded far beyond its capacity of 85 people. There was no effective safety watch either at Kawrakandi ferry terminal in Madaripur. Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), the shipping department, Madaripur district administration and police are to enforce loading regulations at the terminal, but all of them apparently failed at their job. With around 200 passengers on board, the launch sank in the mighty Padma yesterday morning. GSM Zafar Ullah, deputy commissioner of Madaripur, said though the Eid-ul-Fitr passed six days ago, the rush of capital-bound people was still on. He claimed that the Eid rush management committee was vigilant at the terminal. Asked how the vessel under watch l...

Online Desk: The primary terminal examinations 2014 for class five students of schools and madrasas will begin across the country on November 23. The date was announced after a meeting held at primary and mass education ministry in the capital today. Kazi Akhtar Hossain, secretary to the ministry, conformed it to Bangla daily Prothom Alo. The exam will end on November 30.