Author: Asian Bangla

Asianbangla, Dhaka : Visiting Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland on Wednesday said Rohingya issue is an important issue for the Commonwealth. Scotland came up with the remark while speaking at an event, titled ‘The Commonwealth Advantage: Progress and Potential’, at Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) here in the morning. Responding to a question, she said Rohingya issue is an important issue for the Commonwealth, and appreciated Bangladesh for sheltering and providing humanitarian support to a large number of Rohingyas. Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali spoke at the event as the chief guest. The Secretary General arrived here…

Asianbangla Desk : The 2005 Ashes series is popularly remembered as Flintoff’s Ashes because of the rousing performances of the former England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff. Although the recently concluded tour of West Indies by Bangladesh does not elicit the same fanfare from neutrals as the Ashes series does, nor does it have a catchy name, it will be fitting to unofficially name the month-long tour as Tamim Iqbal’s series. Although the left-handed opener did not fire in the Test series — and it was hardly surprising that the team fell to two heavy defeats at the start of the tour –…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : Japan will further promote the Japan-Bangladesh Comprehensive Partnership and continue to fully support Bangladesh’s development on all fronts so that the country can attain the status of a middle-income country by 2021. For this, Japan has sought a safe and conducive investment environment and asked the Bangladesh government to continue to secure the safety of Japanese people. While raising the issue during separate meetings with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono also asked Dhaka to share information on the basis of the charge-sheet submitted to court regarding the July…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : Radical Islamist groups are trying to forge a single platform with the aim to create anarchy ahead of the national elections, intelligence agencies alerted the home ministry recently. So-called Bangladeshi jihadists in and around Syria are tipped to be piecing fragmented extremist groups together. Law enforcement agencies, which claimed to have dismantled the terror network through at least 60 anti-militancy operations since the 2016 Holey Artisan terror attack in the capital, did not leave anything to chances. On receipt of a confidential report from the home ministry, the police headquarters has already stepped up monitoring and taken preventive…

Asianbangla Dhaka : Leaving out the alleged ruling party men involved in attacks on road safety demonstrators and journalists, police have made students accused in cases filed over the last few days’ violence in the capital. The complainants in all the 29 cases filed with 16 police stations mentioned that the attackers were unknown students, many of whom were in school and college uniforms. The case documents also state that some of the attackers were unidentified youths believed to be the infiltrators into the student movement sparked by the killing of two of their peers in a road crash on…

(For Professor Fakrul Alam: A Belated Birthday Wish) T. S. Marin (This is for Professor Fakrul Alam: A Belated Birthday Wish) Sir: What is that book you are reading? Me: It is this sweetest fantasy novel — by a very famous German author… Sir: Aah! Marin and her fantasies! Me: (aside) What are you saying, sir? I nearly fell off my unicorn! I Before I begin fan-girling over my Fairy Godfather, to quench the curious bibliophiles (like yours truly), the book I had been carrying around that day was Cornelia Funke’s The Griffin’s Feather! Now, without further ado, I must…

Sohana Manzoor Lina slumped into the chair as Chameli left her room. She did not know how to tell her mother that she did not like to visit Reba Auntie’s house. Reba Auntie was her mother’s best friend and Lina had been visiting her old fashioned house with a delightful orchard since childhood. It had not been such a big problem when Lina was a tiny tot, in fact it was a welcome thought to her child’s heart. But lately it had become a source of tremendous discomfort and terror. Lina’s mother had been planning on a whole day retreat…

Asianbangla Desk :The 77th death anniversary of the Bard of Bengal Rabindranath Tagore is being observed on Monday. Different organisations are holding many programmes while television channels are airing special productions based on Rabindranath Tagore’s works. Bangla Academy will hold a solo lecture and a cultural function at Abdul Karim Sahitya Bisharad auditorium on the academy premises at 4pm. Besides, Shilpakala Academy, Shishu Academy and different government and non-government institutions and cultural organisations have drawn up various programmes marking the day. Tagore was a poet, visual artist, playwright, novelist, as well as a composer whose works reshaped Bangla literature and…

Asianbangla Desk: Russian hackers who penetrated hundreds of U.S. utilities, manufacturing plants and other facilities last year gained access by using the most conventional of phishing tools, tricking staffers into entering passwords, officials say. The Russians targeted mostly the energy sector but also nuclear, aviation and critical manufacturing, Jonathan Homer, head of Homeland Security’s industrial control system analysis, said during a briefing Wednesday. They had the capability to cause mass blackouts, but chose not to, and there was no threat the grid would go down, the officials said. Instead, the hackers appeared more focused on reconnaissance. The 2017 attack prompted a…

Asianbangla Desk :Rescue teams search for victims in the rubble caused by an earthquake at a Mosque in North Lombok, Indonesia, Monday, Aug. 6, 2018. Lading-Lading, Aug 7 (AP/UNB) — Indonesian soldiers have pulled a man alive from the rubble of a large mosque flattened by an earthquake, while thousands of homeless locals wait for aid and stranded tourists camp at beaches and in the lobbies of damaged hotels. The north of the island of Lombok has been devastated by the magnitude 7.0 quake that struck Sunday night and rescuers are faced with thousands of damaged buildings while still struggling…