-By Professor Dr. Taj Hashmi While democracy has become problematic in several countries, on 5th January 2014, Bangladesh crossed the threshold of “illiberal democracy” to enter the domain of “authoritarian dynastic democracy” under Indian tutelage. The symptoms of the disease called “Orwellian State” are already visible here. The fictional Big Brother of Nineteen Eighty-Four is…
Al Mahmood Donors pledged an initial of $857 million to UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, to fund the operations destined to help around 67 million stateless people worldwide in 2018, also including operations in major emergency in Bangladesh. On Tuesday at an annual meeting in Geneva , the pledges were made. The pledge is amount…
Kabir Humayun: The Supreme Court upheld a High Court order that asked the government to provide division facilities to imprisoned internationally-acclaimed photographer Shahidul Alam. The order came to effect as Appellate Division’s chamber judge Justice M Imman Ali yesterday dropped a government petition from its hearing list that sought stay on the facilities. However, the…
Tech Explorist A new study has estimated the size of Pakistan’s nuclear stockpile to be lower than present estimates, attributing it to a shortage of uranium. The study estimates that Pakistan could at best have between 112 and 156 nuclear weapons. Of them, about 78 to 104 would be highly enriched uranium (HEU)-based weapons and…
A J M Shafiul Alam Bhuiyan, Professor of Television, Film, and Photography, Dhaka University: The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) involving seven South and South East Asian countries has just concluded its 4th summit in Nepal. What can the emerging economies like Bangladesh gain from this multilateral arrangement? In…
Desk Report: As the human haulers do not have route permits, they will not be allowed on roads- soon after such declaration by Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia on Tuesday, the modified four-wheelers stopped running on the main roads of the capital, reports Daily Asian Age. Those vehicles were not found on the…
Eye Witness News For decades the bright-eyed boy in the photograph was believed to be the legendary artist Vincent Van Gogh at the age of 13. But experts revealed Thursday that the picture is most likely not the Dutch Sunflowers painter but his brother Theo, who was 15 at the time. The Van Gogh Museum…
Desk Report: Two new local rice varieties, developed at the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), remain ready for release in the coming months, said officials, reports The Financial Express. The high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of paddy are Brridhan-88 and 89, they disclosed. The new varieties have already generated a great deal of interest among farmers and…
UNB: A fish trader was stabbed to death by miscreants in Old Ferryghat area of Morelganj upazila on Friday night.The deceased was identified as Jahangir Khan, 45, son of Kalu Kha hailing from Hoglapasha village in the upazila.
DOT Desk Export earnings of the country went up by 17.24 per cent year-on-year in July-November of the current fiscal year (2018-2019), riding on higher shipments of readymade garment products compared with that in the same period of last fiscal year (2017-2018). Country’s export earnings jumped to $17.07 billion in the five months in FY19…