Author: Asian Bangla

Asianbangla Desk : India will launch its first manned space mission by 2022 and roll out a health insurance scheme from September, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday in his last Independence Day speech ahead of next year’s general election. Modi, speaking from the ramparts of the historic Red Fort in New Delhi, told a crowd of supporters that “sleeping elephant” India had awakened and was ready to take its place in the global economy. Modi, who seeks re-election in the world’s biggest democracy early next year, used the speech to broadcast his government’s achievements, amid concerns about lack…

Asianbangla Sports : The backlash continued against the India cricket team that surrendered in abject fashion to England in the second Test at Lord’s on Sunday to go 0-2 down in the five-match series. Yesterday, in his column for The Quint, former India cricketer and ex-chairman of selectors Sandeep Patil homed in on a pre-series quote from captain Virat Kohli to throw shade on the Indian cricket team in England. Before the Indian team left for England, Kohli was asked about his plans and targets about the tour. “I was asked this on the last tour of England as well.…

Asianbangla Desk : Bangladesh’s entrepreneur Muhammed Aziz Khan, chairman of Summit Group, was named as the 34th richest man in Singapore in the Forbes’ list for 2018. His net worth was $910 million as of July 25, said Forbes on its website. “I am very pleased and happy to be making to the list,” Khan said, according to his company. Forbes has taken into consideration only the power assets worth $910 million, according to Mohsena Hassan, head of public relations of Summit Corporation. All of Khan and his family’s assets, which are all in Bangladesh, worth about $1.5 billion, she…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : Myanmar has requested Bangladesh not to use the words “Forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals” on the registration cards issued to Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar. Instead, the Myanmar authorities, during a meeting with a Bangladesh delegation last week, requested to use words “Displaced persons from Rakhine State” as their identities, said Bangladeshi officials present at the meetings. “Yes, there was a discussion on the matter during the meeting. But, Bangladesh authorities have not taken any formal decision regarding this yet,” Refugee Relief & Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) Mohammad Abul Kalam told the reporter yesterday. However, Myanmar claims Bangladesh has…

Asianbangla, New Delhi : Former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was on life support as his condition worsened yesterday. Vajpayee, 93, was admitted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi on June 11 with kidney and urinary tract infections and low urine output, doctors, attending him at the hospital, said in a statement. The AIIMS statement was issued hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Vajpayee yesterday evening to enquire about his condition. Modi spent there around 50 minutes. The statement said, “Vajpayee has been admitted to the AIIMS for the last nine weeks. His…

Asianbangla, Patuakhali : A sixth-grader was killed after allegedly being raped by four unidentified people at her home in a remote village here on Tuesday night. The victim’s mother, who was at home with her two minor sons when the incident took place, was also sexually abused, alleged her relatives. However, police later detained her for “interrogation” and did not allow journalists to talk to her. The deceased, aged about 11, was a student of Mohipur Cooperative High School in Patuakhali’s Kalapara upazila. According to relatives, the girl’s mother was sleeping with her two sons aged 2 and 3 on…

Asianbangla Desk : “As in so many other developing societies of South Asia, in Assam too, myths and dogma take root, develop their own reality, and begin to dictate political debate unchallenged by the mainstream media, academia or larger intelligentsia. Such is also the case with what can only be called the myth of continuing Bangladeshi migration into Assam.” – Anindita Dasgupta, The Myth of the Assamese Bangladeshi The signals from India, albeit stemming unofficially but nonetheless from the mouths of Indian ministers and BJP high-ups, regarding the National Register of Citizens (NRC), sound ominous. From the threat of the ruling…

Asianbangla Desk : Malaysia is looking to cancel multibillion-dollar Chinese-backed infrastructure projects signed by the previous scandal-tainted government as it digs itself out of debt, Malaysia’s prime minister said yesterday during an extensive interview in which he also blasted Myanmar’s treatment of Rohingya Muslims as “grossly unjust.” Ap, Putrajaya Mahathir Mohamad, at 93 the world’s oldest prime minister, spoke with The Associated Press days before he heads to Beijing for his first visit since returning to power in a stunning electoral upset three months ago. Mahathir blasted Myanmar’s treatment of Rohingya Muslims and said he was “very disappointed” with leader…

Asianbangla Desk : At least 100 Afghan security forces have been killed as troops backed by US airpower struggled to push the Taliban from embattled Ghazni city, officials said yesterday, while residents reported food and medicine shortages four days after fighting began.Afp, Kabul The Afghan government said it had sent reinforcements to the strategic city, which lies barely two hour’s drive from Kabul on the main highway connecting the capital with the country’s south. US forces in Afghanistan said they had been conducting airstrikes daily since the fighting began. The assault, which the Taliban launched late Thursday, comes as the…

Asianbangla Desk : Former White House staffer and TV celebrity Omarosa Manigault Newman has released a recording of a private conversation with President Donald Trump after she was fired. Afp, Washington NBC’s “Today” program yesterday played the brief recording, in which Trump claims to have had no knowledge that she was sacked and expresses regret at the news. The recording is the latest volley from the disgruntled 44-year-old, once an ardent Trump ally, and represents another stunning breach of presidential trust. But it also appears to show a president who has little knowledge of what is happening inside his own…