Author: News Desk

Workers from several readymade garment factories in the Ashulia industrial area are demonstrating demanding a 15 percent annual increment, rejecting the governments recently proposed 4 percent increment. At least 12 factories have declared a general holiday for today in response to the protests and work stoppages, said Mohammad Mominul Islam Bhuiyan, superintendent of Police at Ashulia Industrial Police-1. Employees from factories such as Ha-Meem Group, Sharmin Group, Medlar, Next Collection, Al Muslim, and Setara Group reportedly stopped work despite reporting to their workplaces in the morning. According to the industrial police, workers did not get engaged in any chaos or…

India’s Adani Group has withdrawn its request for a US government-backed loan to construct a port in Sri Lanka seen as a counter to a rival Chinese project, according to company filings. The move comes weeks after a bombshell indictment in New York accused the conglomerate’s billionaire founder Gautam Adani of deliberately misleading international investors as part of a bribery scheme. Subsidiary Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd said in a Tuesday statement that it was pulling its request for a loan of $553 million from the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to build the deep-sea Colombo…

Donald Trump said solving the Ukraine crisis would be his top priority once he assumes office next month, describing the Middle East as a “less difficult situation.” “I think we have to solve the Ukraine problem with Russia,” the US president-elect told French magazine Paris Match in an interview recorded on Saturday and released on Wednesday. “Both those countries are losing numbers that nobody can believe. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers are being killed,” Trump said, replying to a question about his top priority on the international stage. “And the Middle East is of course a big priority. But I…

Israel’s arrest of almost 30 mostly Jewish citizens who allegedly spied for Iran in nine covert cells has caused alarm in the country and points to Tehran’s biggest effort in decades to infiltrate its arch foe, four Israeli security sources said. Among the unfulfilled goals of the alleged cells was the assassination of an Israeli nuclear scientist and former military officials, while one group gathered information on military bases and air defences, security service Shin Bet has said. Last week, the agency and Israel’s police said a father and son team had passed on details of Israeli force movements including…

Syria’s new transitional prime minister has called for Syrians who have sought refuge abroad to return to their homeland following the ouster of longtime president Bashar al-Assad. Mohammad al-Bashir, appointed by rebel groups as the transitional head of government to run the country until March, told Italy’s Corriere della Sera daily that one of his first goals was to “bring back the millions of Syrian refugees who are abroad”. “Their human capital, their experience will allow the country to flourish,” Bashir said in an interview published Wednesday. “Mine is an appeal to all Syrians abroad: Syria is now a free…

The Kremlin said Wednesday that it wanted to see rapid stabilisation in Syria, criticising Israeli strikes and its creation of a “buffer zone” along the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Russia also said its military offensive on Ukraine remained its “absolute priority” amid questions over whether Moscow’s almost three-year campaign there meant it could not support long-term ally Bashar al-Assad in the face of the lightning rebel offensive. “We would like to see the situation in the country stabilised somehow as soon as possible,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. He also condemned Israel’s strikes on Syrian military installations and the establishment…

The long march towards Agartala organised today by three BNP affiliate groups is underway. Law enforcement and land port authorities have already made preparations in Brahmanbaria to avoid any untoward incident at the border. Jubo Dal, Swachhasevak Dal and Chhatra Dal organised the programme to protest the attack on Assistant High Commission of Bangladesh in Agartala, desecration of the national flag, misinformation against Bangladesh in the Indian media, unwanted interference in the internal affairs of Bangladesh and conspiracy to create communal riots. The long march started from Nayapaltan in the capital at 9:00am and it will reach the Akhaura border…

Three people including a child were killed and six others injured in a three-way collision involving a truck, a pick-up van and a microbus in Brahmanbaria’s Bijoynagar upazila this morning. The deceased were identified as Fazilatunnesa, 75, of Nasirnagar; Pavel Miah, 30, of Habiganj; and 11-month-old Raisa Aktar, daughter of Manik Mia of Madhavpur under Habiganj district. The injured are Abu Hanif, 40, Runa Aktar, 35, Safia Begum, 60, Tanveer, 10, Abdul Hamid Masud, 60 and Billal Hossain, 30. Confirming the accident, Brahmanbaria’s Khantihata Highway Police Station Officer-in-charge (OC) Md Margub Touhid said that the incident took place at Birpasha…

India cannot be considered a friend to Bangladesh, as it shelters Sheikh Hasina, said Swechchhasebak Dal president SM Jilani today. India is not a friend of Bangladesh. Especially since Sheikh Hasina resides there—a person who is an enemy of Bangladesh—India cannot be a friend of Bangladesh,” he said at a roadside gathering during the party’s long march at Bhairab intersection. The march, which began at 9:00am, reached Brahmanbaria’s Bishwa Road area around 2:00pm. “India claims to be a democratic state, but it has sheltered Sheikh Hasina, who fled in the face of the mass movement in Bangladesh along with her accomplices. If…

The Mitali Express, an international train connecting Dhaka and New Jalpaiguri, India, was sent back to India yesterday morning after being stranded in Dhaka for nearly five months due to the mass uprising against the former Hasina government. The train crossed the Chilahati-Haldibari border under high security around 7:05am last morning, with its empty coaches handed over to Indian authorities at Haldibari station, said Md Haidar Ali, station master of Chilahati Railway Station. The train departed Dhaka Cantonment station on July 17 but was unable to return to India as protests disrupted its operations, he added. Bangladesh Railway officials confirmed…