MNA Education Desk: The ‘Gha’ unit re-test for admission into first year honours courses under the Social Science faculty for 2018-19 academic session of Dhaka University (DU) was held on Friday, reports news agency. The one-hour test was held from 3:00pm to 4:00pm at 19 centres on the university campus. A total of 18,463 students who passed the admission test held on 12 October sat for the retake against 1,615 seats. DU vice-chancellor professor Md Akhtaruzzaman, pro-VC Muhammad Samad, treasurer Md Kamal Uddin, dean of the Social Science faculty and Coordinator of ‘Gha’ unit admission test professor Sadeka Halim and ...

MNA Tech Desk: Facebook announced Thursday it is creating an independent body to make potentially precedent-setting calls on what content should be yanked from the social network. The announcement came as Facebook reported it has ramped up its ability to quickly detect “hate speech” and other posts violating community rules, with the leading social network under pressure from regulators in various countries and activists to root out abusive and inappropriate content. “I have come to believe that we shouldn’t be making so many decisions about free expression and safety on our own,” Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a ...

MNA National Desk: Jatiya Oikyafront leaders, led by Dr Kamal Hossain, are exchanging views with editors of print media at Hotel Lakeshore in the city on Friday. The view-exchanging programme began at 3:30pm, reported news agency. BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, its senior leaders Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Moudud Ahmed, JSD president Abdur Rob, Nagorik Oikya convenor Mahmudur Rahman Manna, among others, are attending the programme. Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman, New Age editor Nurul Kabir, Manabzamin editor Matiur Rahman Chowdhury, , News Today editor Moslemuddin Ahmed,  bdnews24 editor-in-chief Toufique Imrose Khalidi, Dhaka Tribune editor Zafar Sobhan, Holiday editor ...

MNA National Desk: The High Court has granted bail to acclaimed photographer Shahidul Alam in a case filed under the controversial ICT Act, reported news agency. A bench of Justice Sheikh Abdul Awal and Justice Bhishmadev Chakrabortty passed the order on Thursday. Deputy Attorney General Bashir Ullah appeared for the state while Barristers Sara Hossain and Jyotirmoy Barua appeared for Shahidul Alam during the court session. Earlier on Wednesday, the court set Thursday to hear the ruling on Shahidul’s  bail petition. On August 5, the 63-year-old photojournalist was picked up by law enforcement officials, hours after he had given Al ...

MNA Exclusive Desk: Although Bangladesh and Myanmar have completed all the necessary preparations to repatriate some 150 refugees, Rohingyas in different camps staged demonstrations on Thursday afternoon expressing their unwillingness to return to their homeland. Rohingyas at different camps in Jamtoli, Naikhangchhari and Teknaf areas are chanting slogans against the repatriation plan. Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) Mohammad Abul Kalam told reporters that although the local administration has been trying to take them to Ghumdhum point of Naikkhongchhari in Bandarbanon for starting the repatriation but they have not been able to do so yet. “No one of them will ...

MNA National Desk: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday urged everybody to work together for upholding country’s dignity and making a poverty and hunger nation. The prime minister made the call while inaugurating the newly built State Toshakhana Museum (state depository) near Bangabandhu Military Museum at Bijoy Sarani in Dhaka. “We are aspiring to celebrate the golden jubilee of independence through freeing the country from poverty and hunger and Bangladesh would be a developed nation by 2041,” she said. The five-storey modern state depository with 50,000 square feet area was constructed under the supervision of Bangladesh Army at a cost ...

MNA Sports Desk: Host Bangladesh won by 218 against visiting Zimbabwe in the second and final Test at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Dhaka on Thursday. Right-arm spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz took 5 for 38 to finish with eight wickets in the match as Zimbabwe were bowled out for 224. Bangladesh declared their second innings for 224/6 and set a target of 443 runs for Zimbabwe on the Day 4. The second Test of the two-match series began at Mirpur on Sunday. Zimbabwe won the first Test at Sylhet.    

MNA National Desk: The helmet distribution program of on-demand ride sharing service company Piickme Limited, Bangladesh, was inaugurated at the conference lounge of the National Press Club in Dhaka on Thursday. Piickme Business Operations Manager Shariful Islam Tarek presided over the program. Ilias Kanchan, the chairman of Nirapad Sarak Chai movement, was present as Chief Guest while Sayed Ishtiaq Reza, Chief Editor of GTV and Sarabangla, was present as special guest on the occasion. Helmets were distributed among the Piickme’s respected riders at the programme. Speaking on the occasion, Ilias Kanchan thanked Piickme Ltd for this app service as well ...

MNA National Desk: Three cases have been filed over the clash between police and BNP members in Dhaka’s Naya Paltan area, reported news agency. The cases were filed for attacks on the police and two vehicles being set alight during the clash on Wednesday. Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia, on Wednesday night, told the Dhaka Tribune that 34 people have already been arrested for the matter. He said 30 others, who were involved in the incident, have also been identified. The Counterterrorism and Transnational Crimes (CTTC) Deputy Commissioner Mohibul Islam Khan urged the public to notify the DMP ...

MNA International Desk: Sri Lanka’s parliament on Wednesday (Nov 14) voted out the bitterly disputed government of former strongman Mahinda Rajapakse, removing one controversial figure but leaving the country in a power vacuum. The island nation has been in crisis since the president sacked prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Oct 26 and replaced him with Mr Rajapakse, who served as president until being voted out three years ago. On Tuesday the Supreme Court overruled the president’s dissolution of parliament and halted preparations for a snap election, in a major boost for the ousted prime minister. In stormy scenes Wednesday, legislators ...

MNA Education Desk: The two-day long ‘Jatiya Nabanna Utsab’ kicked off on Thursday at Bakultala of the Fine Arts Faculty of Dhaka University (DU) as part of the countrywide celebrations with this year’s theme ‘Esho Mili Shobe Nabanyer Utshobe’. Jatiya Nabanna Utsab Udjapan Parishad, the celebration committee of the festival, chalked out different day-long cultural activities including Folk songs, Lalon giti, Tagore song and dance to welcome the first day of Bengali month Agrahayan. Eminent Cultural personality Ramendra Majumder officially inaugurated the cultural programme around 7:00 am. Poets, painters, musicians, bauls and people from all walks of life joined together ...

MNA Business Desk: National Board of Revenue (NBR) received Tk 551.15 crore in income tax from 65,050 taxpayers at the different income tax fair venues across the country, reported news agency. Around 2.36 lakh people received services, related to income tax payment from taxmen, at the weeklong fair venues, including the central one at Officers’ Club in the city. Tax collection increased by 1.44 per cent or Tk 7.84 crore on second day of this year compared to that of Tk 543.31 crore on second day of last year’s fair. On the day of the last year’s fair, 39,351 taxpayers ...

MNA Feature Desk: World Diabetes Day was observed across the globe to create awareness about the disease and its prevention, reported news agency. This year’s theme “The Family and Diabetes” aims to encourage families to learn more about the warning signs of diabetes and play a vital role in spreading awareness of the disease. Various activities were planned across the country to raise awareness of the impact that diabetes has on the family and support network of those affected. Jointly introduced by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and International Diabetes Federation (IDF), the day is internationally recognised. It was first ...

MNA Tech Desk: “Please enjoy your meal,” says Nepal’s first robot waiter, Ginger, as she delivers a plate of steaming dumplings to a table of hungry customers. The poor Himalayan nation is better known for its soaring mountain peaks than technological prowess, but a group of self-taught young innovators are seeking to change that. Local start-up Paaila Technology built Ginger, a 1.5 metre (five-foot) tall robot, from scratch and programmed her to understand both English and Nepali. The bilingual humanoid robot — named Ginger after a common ingredient in Nepali cuisine — can even crack jokes like Apple’s Siri or ...

MNA Entertainment Desk: Bollywood actors Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh have got married as per South Indian traditions in Lake Como, Italy in the presence of their families and close friends on November 14. A second ceremony as per Sindhi traditions is scheduled for November 15. Before the wedding, several details about the pre-wedding functions were shared by sources on social media. From Ranveer’s dramatic entry to Tune Mari Entriyaan to Harshdeep Kaur’s performance, sources spilled the beans on the highly-anticipated #DeepVeerKiShaadi. Deepika and Ranveer will host two receptions – first, on December 21 in Deepika’s hometown Bengaluru, and second, ...

MNA Lifestyle Desk: You may lose your beautiful hairs for many reasons but there are some natural tips to prevent hair fall. Long, luscious hair is a desire that keeps pricking you. For many years, people in the world have searched and tried different types of home remedies for hair growth.  However, each of the hair strands has a life cycle with different stages in it. By the time you reach middle age, which is around 30 years, hair growth slows down. This happens due to hormonal imbalances, excessive stress and an imbalanced diet. Anyone with long and thick hair ...

MNA Sports Desk: Bangladesh declared their second innings for 224/6 and set a target of 443 runs for Zimbabwe on the Day 4 in the second Test in Mirpur in Dhaka, reported new agency. In Bangladesh’s 224 runs, skipper Mahmudullah Riyad contributed a stunning century, the second in his career. That helped visitors post a challenging target for the tourists. He remained unbeaten at 101. His first century was against New Zealand at Hamilton in February 2010. The hosts opted against enforcing the follow-on despite their 218-run first innings lead. Debutant Mohammad Mithun scored 67 runs and built up an ...

MNA National Desk: BNP supporters have clashed with the police on the third day of the party’s nomination form sale, in front of the party’s headquarters at Naya Paltan in Dhaka. It is unclear what triggered the clash. BNP activists are fighting running battles with police in front of their headquarters. TV footage shows several BNP activists vandalizing two vehicles and torching them. BNP activists hurled brick chunks at police. Law enforcement responded by firing teargas canisters. It is unclear how many people have been injured in the clash. Police and stick-wielding BNP activists took position on two ends of the ...

MNA National Desk: The interview of those who have collected nomination papers to contest the forthcoming general election with Awami League tickets will be held today. Awami League Parliamentary Board (ALPB) will interview the aspirants from 11:00am at party president Sheikh Hasina’s Dhanmondi political office. Awami League president prime minister Sheikh Hasina will preside over the interview session. Staff members at the AL chief’s political office were passing a busy time in sorting out the nomination papers submitted by the party aspirants. However, a total of 4,023 party leaders collected nominations forms to contest the election with AL tickets, reported ...

MNA International Desk: Another round of upheaval engulfed president Donald Trump’s White House on Tuesday, with the future of several senior aides in doubt just a week after U.S. congressional elections. Three Trump cabinet members – chief of staff John Kelly, homeland security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and interior secretary Ryan Zinke – could soon be gone, said sources familiar with internal discussions in the Republican administration. Turnover among White House personnel paused during the run-up to last week’s elections after senior Republicans asked Trump to refrain from firing staff, hoping to minimize perceptions of disorder. Attorney general Jeff Sessions was ...

MNA Education Desk: The government has merged two cadres of the civil administration — admin and economic – with a view to ensuring a more dynamic, coordinated and people-friendly administrative system. The public administration ministry issued a gazette notification on Tuesday in this regard. As per the notification, all the posts and manpower of the Bangladesh Civil Service (admin) and BCS (economic) cadres will be considered as BCS (admin) cadre.

MNA Entertainment Desk: ‘Hasina, A Daughter’s Tale’, a 70-minute docu-fiction on the eldest child of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, will be released in movie houses across the country on November 16. The premier of the movie will be held at Star Cineplex on November 15. Initially, the movie will be screened at Star Cineplex, Blockbusters Cinemas, Modhumita Cinema Hall in Dhaka and Silver Screen in Chattogram. Radwan Mujib Siddiq and Nasrul Hamid Bipu of Center for Research and Information (CRI) produced the docu-fiction directed by Piplu Khan of Apple Box Films, while music by Debojyoti Mishra. Edited by Navnita Sen, ...

MNA Business Desk: Transcom Group Chairman Latifur Rahman has been honoured by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) as top taxpayer in the Dhaka City Corporation area. NBR yesterday accorded Latifur Rahman and his family recognition as ‘Kor Bahadur Paribar’ for their long-standing practice of unerring tax payment. In total, four companies of Transcom Group received tax cards. Three of the winners in the print and electronic media category are of Transcom Group. These are Mediaworld, Mediastar and Transcraft. On behalf of Mediaworld, the crest and tax card was accepted by its chairperson and former caretaker government Rokia Afzal Rahman. ...

MNA National Desk: Chief election commissioner KM Nurul Huda on Tuesday said there is no way to defer the date of the 11th national parliamentary elections further. He came up with the remark while inaugurating the training session of returning officers at the Election Commission office in the capital, reported news agency. “There’s no scope to delay it further. So, it won’t be possible to defer the date as we’ve already completed all the preparations for holding the election on 30 December,” said the CEC. He urged the returning officers to perform their duties neutrally without fear.

MNA Business Desk: Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith inaugurated a week-long Income Tax Fair-2018, which aims to provide better services to taxpayers and to encourage more people to pay taxes, reported news agency. The senior minister, inaugurating the fair at the Officers Club in Dhaka Tuesday morning, said: “There was a time when 70% of the people that lived in Bangladesh were poor. Now we have been able to decrease it to 22%. This means only around 30 million people are poor in our country now.” “We expect a certain million number of people will pay taxes. It is ...

MNA International Desk: Amnesty International announced on Monday that it has withdrawn its highest honour, the Ambassador of Conscience Award, from Aung San Suu Kyi, in light of the Myanmar leader’s shameful betrayal of the values she once stood for. Amnesty International’s secretary general Kumi Naidoo wrote on 11 November to Aung San Suu Kyi to inform her that the organisation is revoking the 2009 award. Naidoo expressed the organisation’s disappointment that she had not used her political and moral authority to safeguard human rights, justice or equality in Myanmar, citing her apparent indifference to atrocities committed by the Myanmar ...

MNA Editorial Desk: After declaration of election schedule on Nov 8, the 11th parliamentary elections on Dec 23 have become a reality in front of the Bangladeshi people. With several twists in the form of huge demands and dialogues, Jatiyo Oikyofront has also confirmed to participate in the much anticipated elections though they have urged to delay the elections for a month which was very much possible under the provisions of the constitution. But on Nov 12, the Election Commission has rescheduled the elections on Dec 30, a seven-day delay from the first date. For the last decade, Bangladesh has ...