Author: Asian Bangla

Asianbangla, Dhaka : In a plastic-roofed shack near an open sewer, Rohingya refugee widow Sufia Khatun is doing all she can to fend for the family she now heads. Her husband, Nur Mohammad, was struck with a machete and killed when he went to investigate smoke and commotion in their Myanmar village in late August. After fleeing to Bangladesh, she now provides for their five children, aged 20 and under, and her grandson. “The main challenge is food … The rations we get every month are not enough to meet our needs, and we have to borrow 10 kilos of…

Seven Myanmar soldiers have been sentenced to ‘10 years in prison with hard labour in a remote area’ for participating in a massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslim men in a village in northwestern Rakhine state last September, the army said on Tuesday. The military said in a statement published on Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing’s office Facebook page that seven soldiers have had ‘action taken against them’ for ‘contributing and participating in murder’. The massacre was being investigated by two Reuters journalists – Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28 – who were subsequently arrested in December and are still…

Asianbangla Desk : An Algerian military plane crashed near an airport outside the capital Algiers, killing several people on Wednesday, local media and a witness said. More than 100 military personnel were on board the plane when it came down near Boufarik airport, local channel Ennahar TV reported. There was no immediate confirmation from authorities. Television footage showed black smoke billowing near a motorway and a crowd of security officials and others standing in a field next to the crash site. The tail fin of a plane could be seen above olive trees, with smoke and flames rising from the…

Protests for quota reform started with fresh vigor this morning, following last night’s heat and tension at Dhaka University; and now protesters say they will not stop until the government gives out specifics. “We want a specific declaration by Prime Minister Sheikh Haisna,” Nurul Haque, joint convener of the leading platform Bangladesh General Students’ Rights Protection Forum, said in a press conference this morning, after decisions of a united demonstration last night. Placards shunning Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury during processions at Dhaka University on April 11, 2018. Hasan Al Mamun, convener of the forum, placed two fresh demands: expulsion of…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : Thousands of students today blocked two major highways — Dhaka-Rajshahi and Dhaka-Aricha highways — as part of a countrywide demonstration demanding reforms of the quota system in government service recruitment process. Leaders of Bangladesh Shadharan Chhatra Odhikar Sangrakkhan Parishad yesterday called for a nationwide road blockade and strike at universities and colleges from today. The blockade and strike will continue until their demands are met, they said yesterday. Dhaka-Rajshahi highway : The Dhaka-Rajshahi highway remained blocked since morning as several hundred students of Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET) blocked it in front of the university’s…

Bangabandhu-1, the first commercial satellite of the country, will be sent into orbit May 5 (Bangladesh time) and it will be ready for use in three months after the launch. The date was confirmed from the launching station in Florida, US this morning, Telecom and ICT Minister Mustafa Jabbar told The Daily Star. This date is final and will not be changed further, the minister added. Preparations for countrywide celebrations centering the launch are already underway, he further said.

Dhaka University authority today pledged support to the quota-reform movement that picked up momentum on April 8 and spread across the country. “From my behalf and from the university’s behalf we have expressed solidarity with the movement and have asked the government to take quick measures and give assurance to the students so that they can return to normal life,” DU VC Akhtaruzzaman today said at his office. “All our students have a responsibility towards their families, towards the country and towards the university and they never boycott classes and have not boycott exams either. And only for sake of…

Asianbangla, Dhaka : Students of private and other universities are maintaining the support for the central movement demanding quota system reform, cramping Dhaka’s roads seriously in long tailbacks. As reports came in, thousands of students had rolled on to the key thoroughfares in Mirpur, Farmgate, Sukrabad, and Dhanmondi areas demanding quota reform. “So what that we study in private universities? We too want a shot at government job,” Abdur Rahim, a student of civil engineering department at University of Asia Pacific, told The Daily Star. About a thousand students of the university paraded through Karwan Bazar and Farmgate areas this…

At the heart of the escalation of US-China trade tensions is President Donald Trump’s assertion of rampant “theft” of US intellectual property by China. But what constitutes “intellectual property” in today’s global economy? In order to sell goods in China, foreign companies must form joint ventures with local companies, which are usually state-owned in China. That’s the path General Motors took when it set up shop in China, where it now sells more automobiles than in the United States. GM, the biggest US automaker, builds most of the cars sold in China in China itself and must share its know-how,…

The shortfall from revenue collection target has widened further in the first eight months of the fiscal year as collection of the National Board of Revenue did not pick up. The NBR logged in Tk 126,357 crore as revenue in July-February, up 16 percent year-on-year. The overall receipt was Tk 17,512 crore short of the target of Tk 143,869 crore set for the period. The revenue collector missed the target in January by Tk 14,802 crore, according to preliminary data from the NBR. It was apprehended that the NBR’s revenue collection for the ongoing fiscal year would be below the…