US sends five Guantanamo prisoners to Kazakhstan for resettlement

Three Yemenis and two Tunisians held for more than a decade at the US military prison at Guantanamo have been flown to Kazakhstan for resettlement, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, the latest in a series of prisoner transfers aimed at...

Abbas seeks to re-submit statehood bid to UN Security Council

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on January 4, he was discussing with Jordan plans to resubmit to the United Nations Security Council a resolution calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state that failed to win enough votes last week....

Iran says no deal with US to ship enriched uranium to Russia

Iran denied on January 3 that it had reached an agreement with the United States to ship its surplus enriched uranium to Russia under new concessions aimed at clinching a comprehensive nuclear deal with six world powers. The Associated Press,...

Friend turned foe - the challenger for Lanka\\\'s presidency

Over a dinner of rice-flour pancakes with his trusted health minister one evening in November, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa observed with a grin that there would be no serious candidate to challenge him in the coming presidential election. Little...

UN-brokered Libya dialogue delayed again

A new round of U.N.-brokered peace talks aimed at ending the escalating political crisis in Libya has been delayed once again and will not take place early this week as originally planned, diplomatic sources said on January 4. The United...

Navalny is a thorn in Putin\\\'s side, but silencing him won\\\'t be easy

In Russia, August is commonly believed to be the month of bad surprises, when planes fall out of the sky and economic crises begin. But from the point of the view of the Kremlin, the last days of December are...

Record 641kg smuggled gold seized

Officials likened 2014 to a 'golden year' as customs intelligence of Bangladesh alone had seized a record haul of 641 kilograms of smuggled gold during the bygone year, amid a boom in the clandestine trade. The amount of gold, seized...

Beware of \\\'white poison\\\'

Most of the family dairy owners in rural areas of the country are now engaged in adulteration of their cow milk. A national Bangla daily reported last week that alone in Pabna and Sirajganj districts more than 50 thousand litres...

Move to act on global cues as rice market starts heating up

As the prices of most varieties of rice started increasing this week, the government has taken measures to avoid volatility in the domestic market by taking an initiative in advance, officials concerned said. As per the move, the ministry of...

B’desh battles to get backing from peers as time runs out

Bangladesh needs to get the global trade regime governing the intellectual property rights extended to protect its pharmaceuticals industry, but support from its peers in the Third World is 'challenging', an expert has said. The privilege under the WTO's special...

Milad-un-Nabi: A special day for the Muslims

Mahatma Gandhi, in a statement published in the 'Young India' in 1924,  said about Hazrat Muhammad, the last messenger of God: "I wanted to know the best of the life of one who holds today an undisputed sway over the...

Likely rise in government borrowing

The Bangladesh Bank has published the auction calendar of Treasury Bills and Bonds for the first quarter of 2015. The government is going to borrow Tk 40 billion from the banking sector in January 2015 through auction of treasury bills...

The economy in 2014

By most accounts, 2014 has been a good year for Bangladesh economy. Economic progress was steady and confident - even vibrant. No major crisis marred the performance. Underpinning the steady course of the economy was the political calm and normality...

Salvaging the moribund jute sector

Bangladesh jute sector has long been ridden with problems. The 'golden fibre' is now a myth. Jute played a major role in the economic development of the then Pakistan. But it has failed to so in independent Bangladesh. This is...

Financing South Asian infrastructure

With a sustained growth rate of 6.7 per cent over 2000-2012 (World Bank, 2013), South Asia is emerging as the second fastest growing region in the world. Financial pundits predict that the growth will continue at 6-8 per cent until...

Teaching and being a teacher

Teaching is perhaps one of noblest tasks that human beings perform. Teachers are the architects of a nation. Teachers teach and prepare the best human capital for our society. In this regard, schools, colleges, and universities are the workshops where...

Quality education and skills development, key to prosperity

Students of primary and secondary grades began the new year 2015 with sheer happiness on their faces on getting free new textbooks in their hands. The programme initiated by the government since 2010 is surely laudable and this year alone...

NBR implements 58pc BTC recommendations in four fiscal years

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has implemented only 69 recommendations out of 119 made by the Bangladesh Tariff Commission (BTC) over the last four fiscal years (FYs), officials said.   Only 58 per cent recommendations of BTC were implemented by...

NBR to outsource campaign for netting in new taxpayers

Government's revenue authority plans outsourcing a countrywide campaign for netting new taxpayers, officials said. The move has come following taxmen's failure to bring in new taxpayers under tax-net through similar programmes during the last few years. Rather the dropout of...

MRP delivery to migrant workers may miss deadline

Many Bangladeshi expatriates are likely to be in big trouble if the government fails to provide them with machine-readable passports (MRPs) by the deadline set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), officials concerned said. Foreign ministry officials said many...

Lead MFIs envisaged for taking anti-poverty drive into top gear

A government move is now in top gear for introducing Lead MFI (micro-finance institution) System to coordinate poverty-reduction programmes at the root level. The Micro-credit Regulatory Authority (MRA) is preparing the new model of action under the poverty-alleviation recipe.   "Lead...

Strategies to ensure financial health of banks

Bankers now-a-days prioritise extending purpose- oriented credit facilities with required security/ collateral support because of growing awareness. They feel the imperative need to exercise due diligence in credit assessment focusing on the borrower's business dynamics and operational aspects. They do...

Financing SMEs: Challenges and strategies

All enterprises, large or small and medium-sized, need financing from start-up business to supply of finished products or services to the consumers. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a vital role in employment generation, economic growth and development in developed...

Can we really go without America?

Dan Mozena, US ambassador to Bangladesh, left Dhaka on 22nd December 2014 almost suddenly. His successor did not come to take the responsibility though she was supposed to come as we heard through media several months back. At the fag...

In the mind of Salvador Dali: His mysticism and madness

Sometimes his sadistic impulses were triggered by desire and passion. Thus, when he is lying down on the floor at the tower in the Muli de la Torre as a child together with the peasant girl, whom he calls Dullita,...

Switching on to solar

A spark of light came from south corner of a muddy house early that evening. Above a wooden table different colourful books and khatas were scattered. Eight years old Lata sat under the solar lamp with her school books and...

Cox\\\'s Bazar is fast losing its attraction

Teeming with thousands of people-tourists composing the bulk of the crowd-the beach area unfolds a picture of Dhaka's Sadarghat, launch terminal i.e; rather than the once peaceful paradise-like retreat of Bangladesh. Sure enough, the nauseating tar-like water of the Buriganga,...

BSEC body suggests closed-end IF for pvt equity, venture financing

A committee has recommended incorporation of a provision for creating closed-end Investment Fund (IF) in the proposed rules on private equity and venture capital financing to facilitate funding arrangements for prospective private firms. The committee also suggested changing the title...

Banks asked to keep min LCR, NSFR

The central bank has asked the commercial banks to maintain the minimum standard for Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) and Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) from this month for implementation of the Basel-III roadmap. The Bangladesh Bank (BB) issued a circular...

A case against callousness

The disappointing result of a mid-November Gallup poll on the issue of expanding access to healthcare has compelled some of the Americans to question if callousness is enough to describe the apathy. Lee A. Daniels, a columnist who belongs to...