Author: Asian Bangla

Asianbangla Desk : People who have their tongues split deliberately are putting their health at serious risk, surgeons have warned. The procedure involves cutting the tongue in half to create a lizard-like forked effect. But experts said it came with the risk of significant blood loss, infection, nerve damage and problems with breathing and swallowing. They also warned that tongue and lip piercings carry serious dangers, such as tooth fractures and gum damage. Tongue splitting is popular among body modification enthusiasts – people who make deliberate changes to their anatomy or appearance, often with the use of plastic surgery. In March,…

Asianbangla Desk : A North Carolina man who declared support for Islamic State online will spend two years in prison and be deported. unb A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced Houcine Ghoul to 24 months in prison for immigration fraud and false statements on his tax returns. After his sentence, the Tunisian national will be deported. Ghoul entered the country on a visa in 2001 and married a U.S. citizen to obtain permanent legal resident status. He later was divorced. Prosecutors said Ghoul first attracted attention from federal authorities in 2014 after posting a photo online expressing support for the…

Asianbagla Desk : Three boys from a soccer team who were rescued from a flooded cave in northern Thailand last month were granted Thai citizenship on Wednesday, authorities said. Their 25-year-old coach, Ekapol Chanthawong, also gained citizenship. Ekapol and 12 boys had gone to explore the Tham Luang caves in Chiang Rai province on June 23, when a rainy-season downpour flooded the cave system and trapped them underground. They survived for nine days on water dripping from rocks before they were discovered. An international effort to rescue them ended on July 10 when they all were brought out safely. Three of…

Asianbangla Desk : Nine confirmed Ebola victims have died since the virus resurfaced in the Democratic Republic of Congo this month, the country’s health ministry said Tuesday. The previous official toll was seven dead, with the two latest victims — like all the others — registered in the Beni region in North Kivu province, an eastern region with deep security problems which shares borders with Uganda and Rwanda. The health ministry on August 1 announced that the country was facing its 10th outbreak of Ebola since 1976.

Asianbangla Desk : The death toll from a shallow 6.9-magnitude earthquake on the Indonesian island of Lombok has risen above 130, officials said yesterday, with some 156,000 forced from their homes. AFP The shallow 6.9-magnitude quake triggered panic among locals and tourists on Lombok on Sunday, just a week after another tremor surged through the holiday island and killed 17. Around 1,477 people have been severely injured in the latest quake, with tens of thousands of homes damaged, and authorities have appealed for more medical personnel and basic supplies. Workers with heavy machinery resumed searching through the rubble of homes,…

Asianbangla Desk : The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has notified the final results of the general election but withheld results of nine national and 17 provincial assembly seats for various reasons, stirring a new controversy before the formation of the next government. The strength of the Pakis­tan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) in the National Assembly has gone down from 116 to 112 for now and its ally Balochistan Awami Party from four to three. The nine NA constituencies where the results have been withheld include NA-53 (Islamabad) and NA-131 (Lahore) from where prime minister-in-waiting Imran Khan had defeated former PM Shahid Khaqan…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : To stop buses racing on city streets, Dhaka Road Transport Owners Association yesterday decided to abolish the system of daily contracts with drivers and their helpers. Many bus owners rent out their vehicles to drivers on daily contracts. In this system, drivers pay a specific amount to the owner and to maximise profits, they drive recklessly to make as many trips as possible in a day, said Khondaker Enayet Ullah, general secretary of the association, a platform of Dhaka-based transport owners. He said the number of accidents is on the rise as drivers race on the streets and…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : Police last night launched a massive block raid in the capital’s Bashundhara Residential Area and its adjacent Kalachandpur to arrest “drug peddlers and criminals”. Equipped with armoured personnel carrier and dog squad, around 1,500 law enforcers, including members of Detective Branch (DB) of police, started the raid around 8:30pm, police said. The raid was underway when this report was filed around 1:30am today. The move came two days after a clash in the area between police and students demanding road safety measures. The law enforcers, however, claimed that the raid had nothing to do with the clash. SM…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : Vice-chancellors of several private universities yesterday urged the government to grant amnesty to students arrested in cases filed in connection with violence during the student movement for safe roads. At a views-exchanging meeting with Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, they said many of the students who took part in the protest for a legitimate cause were provoked into violence. They asked the government to release them. In reply, the minister said the law would take its own course. “Who are we to grant amnesty? No question of pardon comes here. The students joined the movement because of their…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : In a joint statement on Tuesday, 438 Indian photographers, artists, filmmakers, curators and writers appealed to Bangladesh authorities to release internationally acclaimed photographer Shahidul Alam, remanded in police custody. ‘We are deeply concerned and agitated by the news of the arbitrary and unreasonable detention of our colleague, friend and mentor, the photographer and educator Shahidul Alam, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, under provisions of the draconian ICT act,’ they said in the statement. ‘We demand his immediate, unconditional and honourable release from detention’, they said. ‘We totally refute the allegation that Shahidul Alam committed any crime by highlighting the utterly…