Author: Asian Bangla

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Friday demanded that party chief Khaleda Zia should be freed on bail and sent abroad for her treatment. BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir raised the demand during a briefing at the party’s Naya Paltan central office and said Khaleda Zia’s personal physician should be allowed to test her health since, he claimed, the BNP chairperson’s health condition deteriorated. “Required steps should be taken based on recommendations by them [doctors]… The best way is to release her on bail and send her abroad for better treatment,” said Mirza Fakhrul. Talking to newsmen afterwards,…

Cultural affairs minister Asaduzzaman Noor said on Friday only the parties that believe in the liberation war and the country’s independence should be allowed to join polls. “Only those parties that believe in the liberation war should be allowed to participate in elections. After 47 years of independence, the anti-liberation forces shouldn’t have the right to speak about polls, let alone taking part in polls and coming to power,” Noor observed, according to UNB news agency. Earlier on Tuesday, Bangladesh Awami League (AL) president and prime minister Sheikh Hasina urged all to remain alert so that what she said the…

The authorities on Friday cancelled a recruitment test of the state run Rupali Bank for power outage during the exam thanks to the nor’wester that swept through the capital, said officials. The recruitment test for the post of Rupali Bank’s officer (cash) was held from 3:30pm to 5:30pm Friday, but the examination centre at the Dhaka Metropolitan Women College plunged into darkness twice for the nor’wester. Bangladesh Bank general manager and Bankers’ Selection Committee member secretary Mosharraf Hossain Khan confirmed this. He said that the examination centre plunged into darkness twice for half an hour each for the nor’wester. “That…

Every decision leads us to where we are, but some of them, of course, really stand out. For me, one such moment came in spring 1988, when, a little more than a year from college graduation and halfheartedly pursuing a teaching degree that I knew wasn’t right for me, I saw a job opening for a reporter at the Mankato State University student newspaper — aptly called the Reporter — and decided to apply. “I like writing,” I thought, glossing over the fact that before you can write news, you have to go out and talk to people and extract…

Twitter has finally rolled out an update to its Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app, transitioning it to a Progressive Web App (PWA). The update practically revives the Twitter app for Windows 10, which has been abandoned for quite some time and unable to receive a number of updates including the character limit extension from 140 to 280. With this update, users will be able to receive push notifications, which means they won’t have to open the app in order to view replies to tweets or see direct messages. The PWA version also bears some resemblance to Twitter’s PWA website for…

Facebook apology does little to satisfy lawmakers, Wall Street Reuters : Facebook Inc has came under further pressure from lawmakers, investors, advertisers and users after Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg admitted the social media network made mistakes in letting 50 million users’ data get into the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica. US lawmakers demanded Zuckerberg personally testify in Washington to explain his company’s actions. Meanwhile, advertisers Mozilla and Commerzbank suspended ads on the service and the hashtag #DeleteFacebook remained popular online, although it was hard to tell how many users are abandoning Facebook. In light of those concerns, investors continued…

The government has taken a programme to sing the country’s national anthem ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’ written by Rabindranath Tagore in correct form at 8:00am across the country and Bangladesh missions abroad on the Independence Day. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will lead the nation to sing the national anthem at the main programme at ‘Jatiya Shishu Kishore Samabesh’ to be held at Bangabandhu National Stadium on March 26, said an official release. It said the cabinet division has requested all to join the programme from their respective places of stay. In this regard, an inter-ministerial meeting was held today at the…

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader today categorically ruled out the possibility of the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina before the next parliament election. “There is no instance in the democratic countries across the world where prime minister resigns during election. And thus, there is no question of the resignation,” Quader said while talking to reporters in Sonargaon upazila of Narayanganj. Earlier, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir demanded dissolving of the current parliament and resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina before holding of the next general election. Brushing aside the demands, Quader, also road transport and bridges…

Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq today urged the government of United Kingdom to repatriate convicted criminal Tarique Rahman and war criminal Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin immediately. “It is our duty to execute the verdict given by our courts,” he said. The minister came up with the observations while addressing a human chain and rally held at capital’s Banani field in protest of recent vandalism of Bangladesh High Commission in London by BNP-Jamaat men, not arresting BNP senior vice-chairman Tarique Rahman, who allegedly ordered the attack. Organised by Bangabandhu Sangskritik Jote, the rally was presided over by its president and…

Skipper Asghar Stanikzai put a bout of appendicitis behind him to guide Afghanistan to a five-wicket victory over Ireland on Friday to qualify for next year’s Cricket World Cup. Afghanistan, after losing their opening three qualifying games, suffered a middle-order wobble that looked to have handed Ireland the advantage. But Stanikzai, who received on-field treatment for dressings around his abdomen, hit an invaluable 39 not out off 29 balls to guide the Afghans to 213 for five in reply to Ireland’s 209-7. “I am in too much pain, but I was playing for the country,” said Stanikzai. “It is our…