Author: Asian Bangla

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…

Fourteen year-old Mahi becomes calm and quiet, according to his family members. “Mahi becomes calm and quiet and he is not saying anything,” one of his relatives, Khondoker Rezaul Karim, told Prothom Alo. Tanjid Sultan Mahi, the only child of pilot Abid Sultan, has lost both of his parents in a span of 10 days. His mother Afsana Khanam died in a city hospital at 9:30am on Friday. Earlier, pilot Abid Sultan died in US Bangla plane crash in Kathmandu, Nepal. Afsana was undergoing treatment at National Institute of Neuroscience and Hospital in the capital. She suffered strokes twice after…

Bangladesh is among five countries where minimum standard of democracy is absent, according to a German organisation. The country is under an autocratic government, observed Bertelsmann Stiftung in its latest Transformation Index released on Friday. Shortcoming in elections in Bangladesh in recent times has been pointed out as sign of autocracy. The report said that they observed setback in terms of democracy in Bangladesh.

Media punditologists love to regale you with their cliché insight about how living in the White House is like living in a bubble – the ultimate in isolation from reality. So it is time we say a good word about Melania Trump. Because at the White House on Tuesday, the first lady made clear she is determined to continue her crusade to combat online bullying. She invited the officials of Facebook, Google, Amazon, Snap and Twitter to a White House roundtable discussion of the evils perpetuated by online bullying. This was her first event devoted to the topic since she…

Before Facebook suspended Aleksandr Kogan from its platform for the data harvesting “scam” at the centre of the unfolding Cambridge Analytica scandal, the social media company enjoyed a close enough relationship with the researcher that it provided him with an anonymised, aggregate dataset of 57bn Facebook friendships. Facebook provided the dataset of “every friendship formed in 2011 in every country in the world at the national aggregate level” to Kogan’s University of Cambridge laboratory for a study on international friendships published in Personality and Individual Differences in 2015. Two Facebook employees were named as co-authors of the study, alongside researchers…

Giving credit to the people for Bangladesh’s meeting the eligibility criteria to graduate to a developing country, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said the people can achieve anything. “It is an achievement of the people of Bangladesh. I think the country’s people are the main source of all power. They can achieve anything,” she said. The PM was addressing a reception accorded to her at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) for the government’s achievement of meeting the eligibility criteria to graduate from the LDC group. The function was organised as part of the government’s five-day programme to celebrate the achievement.…