America's president must back the Group of Twenty

One of the biggest foreign policy challenges facing the next US president will be how to modernise the main forums of global decision-making. Crises in Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran will consume much of his time, but Barack Obama or John...

sports digest

Yorkshire will appeal against their expulsion from the Twenty20 Cup for fielding an ineligible player. Pakistan-born Azeem Rafiq, 17, played against Nottinghamshire in June, but he had not been registered for the first team and does not hold a UK...

Macro economic challenges

THE budget deficit will continue to be sizeable or on the higher side, notwithstanding the increased revenue collection in fiscal 2007-08. But for the momentum in revenue collection to sustain, economic growth will have to be yet higher or government's...

Delivery of remittances by post offices starts tomorrow

The Bangladesh Post Office (BPO) will start from tomorrow (Sunday) the delivery of remittances transferred through a US company, to recipients across the country.In January, the postal department signed a ground-breaking agreement with the global money transfer leader, Western Union,...

The prospect of 280 million Bangladeshis by 2085

The World Population Day was observed in Bangladesh amid worrying information that this country is falling far short in taking measures to control its population though it is already a highly overpopulated country and has the highest density of population...

sports digest

SYDNEY, July 11: Football Federation Australia is to take up with FIFA the legalities of an Australian club sending its young stars to Croatia, reports said Friday. Sydney United, formerly Sydney Croatia, has produced 32 Socceroos over the years and...

Baghdad opens door to foreign developers

Iraq has invited foreign companies to bid for contracts developing eight of its oil and gas fields, launching a process that will let big international oil companies back into the country for the first time in more than 30 years.Hussein...

The curse of early marriage

At 15 Jolly was preparing for her SSC exams. She never set for the tests. The teenager instead was married off to become a houswife. Although her parents boast of having a rich son-in-law, they have never tried to know...

Five jute mills to go under private management

Five mostly inoperative state-owned jute mills are set to go under private management as the government has completed formalities to lease them out to the private entrepreneurs, said a senior jute ministry official Friday.The move will create employment for around...

G8's Toyako summit and all the talks

The eight most advanced nations on Earth met in Toyako on the island of Hokkaido in Japan to talk on a set of issues ranging from global warming to soaring food and fuel prices to the election in Zimbabwe. The...

Ctg Customs destroys 150 tonnes of powdered milk

The Chittagong Customs House destroyed 150 tonnes of date-expired imported powdered milk worth US$ 0.25 million Monday last.The powdered milk was imported in six containers in 2004 and its date expired in 2006. The cargo has since remained stuck up...

Moral maze for retailers reliant on developing world suppliers

Primark, the clothing retailer, last month announced it had fired three suppliers in India after it was found that they had subcontracted work to home workers who used child labour. George Weston, chief executive of Associated British Foods, which owns...

Made in Melbourne, exporting to Asia

ONE look at the soaring profits of mining companies is enough to show how important exports to China and other emerging markets are to the success of domestic companies.But it is not just the vast multinationals such as BHP Billiton...

Horrors of genetically modified crops

MAJOR biotech companies like, Monsanto, Syngenta, Bunge, Cargill, etc. are all bent on controlling the world's food supply. Monsanto has played the leading role in destroying organic agriculture and millennia-old biodiversity.They have no respect whatever for the lives and the...

Japan business confidence falls

Japanese business sentiment has deteriorated across the board, according to the widely watched Tanoan survey, although the fall was not as bad as many feared and capital investment plans remained reasonably firm at large manufacturers.The headline diffusion indices, which subtract...

Share trading of Rupali Bank to resume this month

Share trading of Rupali Bank Limited, the top market capitalisation leader of 2006 and 2007, is likely to resume in the stock market sometime in the third week of this month, officials said.Trading on the largely state-owned bank share has...

DU students take refuge in mosque as there is not enough room in halls

Students of the Dhaka University (DU) have started to take refuge in the mosques located on the campus as there is not enough room in the residential halls and the rent of mess in the city has gone up significantly...

sports digest

preliminary Trophy squadSYDNEY, July 10:Test newcomer Beau Casson was left out of a 30- man preliminary Australian squad announced Thursday for the Champions Trophy in Pakistan in September. The left-arm wrist spinner played in the final Test of the recent...

Fund raising for presidential race a teneous job

NEW YORK, July 10: Millions of dollars are spent on the US presidential race. Beginning from primaries to election day on Nov 7, it is flow of ceaseless fund that is what is of pivotal interest to the candidates. Fund...

The moment of truth

DG, WTO------------------------------------A memorandum to the world's trade ministers:As the world economy is on a downturn, most trade agreements were concluded under the pressure to create additional welfare from trade. For the past eight years, the global economic pressure has not...

Prices of non-brand edible oil defy govt-fixed cap

Prices of non-brand edible oil remained unchanged Thursday at their previous highs at the retail level amid lax government monitoring despite setting a cap on their wholesale rates earlier on Wednesday.In a meeting between the officials of the Directorate General...

Taming the unwieldy essentials' market

The prices of essential commodities have again shot up following the latest hike in fuel oil price effected by the government. The prices of essential commodities have again started the old cat and mouse game with the hapless common consumers...

Govt opts for long-term borrowing

The government has gradually changed its debt management strategy towards long-term borrowing from short-term to facilitate development activities.Under the new strategy, the government will increase borrowing for longer tenure by issuing different bonds instead of short-term borrowing through treasury bills...

Syria heads east to boost its foreign investment

Western isolation has forced Syria increasingly to look eastwards for its economic future. As the country pushes through much-needed reforms, Bashar al-Assad, the president, is focusing on links with rising economic powers such as India and China.Even as Syria is...

G8 club under pressure to expand

Some of the Group of Eight leaders might have choked on their green tea when Nicolas Sarkozy this week proposed expanding the organisation to 14 or 15 members.Not only should China and India, the world's two biggest emerging economies, be...

Diesel price hike takes toll on garment, fish exporters

CHITTAGONG, July 10: Following rise in price of diesel, average production cost on alternative consumption of power in view of load-shedding in the garment factories and frozen fish exporters' factories has increased by 30 to 40 per cent.According to concerned...

Asian exchanges plan trading link

FT Syndication ServiceBANGKOK: Six Asian stock exchanges are planning to establish a trading platform linking their 180 largest companies to help promote cross-border and foreign investment.The plan, being elaborated by the stock exchanges of Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia and...

Why obstacles to a deal on climate are mountainous

Something has changed in the debate on man-made climate change: the US is engaged. But its engagement - or at least the engagement of President George W. Bush - is neither enthusiastic nor unconditional. In particular, at discussions among the...

Workers Party has no connection with AL or 14-party combine: Rono

NEW YORK, July 09: Haider Akbar Khan Rono, a firebrand student leader of the 60s, now a leading light of the left politics, categorically stated here the other day that the Workers Party has no connection either with the Awami...

Energy demand boosts Indonesian coal mines

Bayan Resources highlighted early this month the interest investors are taking in Indonesia, the world's largest thermal coal exporter, when it announced plans to raise up to $695m by floating 25 per cent of its shares on the country's stock...