Author: Asian Bangla

Asianbangla, Dhaka : The Anti-Corruption Commission has opened an enquiry into eight BNP leaders over alleged involvement in money laundering and amassing of wealth illegally. They are BNP standing committee members Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, Mirza Abbas, Nazrul Islam Khan and Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury; vice chairmen Abdul Awal Mintoo and Morshed Khan; Executive Committee Member Tabith Awal, and Joint Secretary General Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel are being investigated, according to ACC Director (Enquiry and Investigation) Kazi Safikul Alam. Morshed Khan’s son Foysal Morshed and Dhaka Bank Managing Director Syed Mahbubur Rahman are also being investigated, he added. The ACC yesterday appointed…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : City authorities have tried out a host of “solutions” to control chaotic traffic over the decades. The result? All the money went down the drain and the situation turned from bad to worse. After bamboo and rope fences, manual traffic lights turned digital at the capital’s intersections in 2004 to ease traffic movement. Nine years later, the system was upgraded with electronic countdown timers and solar panels. The two projects cost Tk 37 crore but in the end public money was more or less wasted. Dhaka South City Corporation and the World Bank, lender of previous projects,…

Bangladesh has sought active cooperation from Russia and others for resolving the ongoing Rohingya crisis. Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali made the call at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow yesterday, says a foreign ministry press release. While describing Bangladesh’s achievements, including its becoming eligible for graduating to a developing country from a least developed one, Ali narrated how the possibility of outstanding economic and social development tempo of Bangladesh may face challenge by the Rohingya influx. The foreign minister told his Russian counterpart how Bangladesh was doing everything in its capacity to assist Rohingyas at a…

Bangladesh government is expecting to make a huge leap in growth during the running 2017-18 fiscal. Sources at the planning ministry say, the government is expecting that the GDP or growth will reach 7.65 per cent this year, what was targeted at 7.4 per cent during the budget preparation. The provisional projection has been made based on information of data available of the last eight months, the sources, highly placed within the ministry, told The Daily Star this afternoon. Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal informed the details to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a ECNEC meeting held at the NEC…

Last year, a 30-year-old teacher suffering from a severe bloodstream infection arrived in my emergency room for treatment. The woman had been in and out of local clinics with a stubborn chest infection and fever, and by the time I examined her, she was receiving chemotherapy for blood cancer. Instinctively, I treated her infection with an antibiotic from a group of drugs known as “carbapenems,” strong medicines commonly prescribed to people who are hospitalised. But after further tests I discovered that she was carrying a strain of bacteria that is resistant to most antibiotics in our therapeutic arsenal. There was…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : A battle is under way to force the global shipping industry to play its part in tackling climate change. A meeting of the International Maritime Organisation in London next week will face demands for shipping to radically reduce its CO2 emissions. If shipping doesn’t clean up, it could contribute almost a fifth of the global total of CO2 by 2050. A group of nations led by Brazil, Saudi Arabia, India, Panama and Argentina is resisting CO2 targets for shipping. Their submission to the meeting says capping ships’ overall emissions would restrict world trade. It might also…

Citing concern over the health of Khaleda Zia, the BNP has demanded her unconditional release from jail. Related Stories “We are anxious over her health. We urge the government to release her immediately so that we can arrange necessary medical tests and treatments by her personal physicians,” BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said at a media briefing in Dhaka on Friday. When asked if the former prime minister would be taken abroad if released, Fakhrul said: “We just want an unconditional release for her so that we can arrange medical care for her, either in the country or…

The World Bank is helping Bangladesh overcome barriers to higher growth. Unreliable power supply and environmentally-unstainable enterprises hinder a county’s competitiveness and poverty reduction efforts,” Zahid Hussain, World Bank’s acting country director for Bangladesh, said in a statement on Friday. “By improving electricity transmission and helping in micro-enterprises adopt environment-friendly technologies, these projects will help Bangladesh achieve sustainable growth and advance towards upper middle-income country vision.” The $450 million Enhancement and Strengthening of Power Transmission Network in Eastern Region Project will expand the electricity transmission network in the eastern region, covering Comilla and Noakhali and part of Chittagong. It will…

Nervous stock investors are hoping an unusually US strong earnings season can restore some of the optimism that characterised equity markets last year. Imploding technology stocks and fears of a trade war have pummeled the market in recent days. Given the surge in volatility this year, there is no guarantee that worst is over. Analysts predict strong results when reporting season starts up next month, with first-quarter S&P 500 profit growth on track to be the highest in seven years, according to Thomson Reuters data. That follows a blockbuster fourth-quarter period, and recent corporate tax cuts that boosted forecasts for…

The heist of $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank’s account at the New York Federal Reserve last year was “state-sponsored,” an FBI officer in the Philippines, who has been involved in the investigations, said on Wednesday. Lamont Siller, the legal attache at the US embassy, did not elaborate but his comments in a speech in Manila are a strong signal that authorities in the United States are close to naming who carried out one of the world’s biggest cyber heists. Last week, officials in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, blamed North Korea. “We all know the Bangladesh Bank…