MNA National Desk: Seven men were sentenced to death on Wednesday for their roles in the Holey Artisan café attack, the deadliest terror attack in Bangladesh’s history that claimed the lives of 22 people, including 17 foreigners. Judge Mohammad Mujibur Rahman of Dhaka Anti-terrorism Special Tribunal handed down the verdict. The convicts are – Jahangir Hossain, Aslam Hossain Ryash, Hadisur Rahman, Rakibul Hasan Rigen, Abdus Sabur Khan, Mamunur Rashid Ripon and Shariful Islam Khaled. Each of them was fined Tk 50,000. One of the accused, Mizanur Rahman alias Boro Mizan, was acquitted as charges brought against him could not be ...

MNA International Desk: Over 500 ministers, senior policymakers, UN officials and civil society from across Asia and the Pacific region on Wednesday gathered in Bangkok to chart out priority actions aiming to support accelerated progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment. The three-day Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+25 Review, jointly organised by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, will provide a platform for countries to explore policy options and innovative strategies, towards addressing barriers to gender equality and realising women’s rights for ...

MNA Editorial Desk: The Road Transport Act 2018 had come into effect few days back. Though it is yet to be implied in full extent, it has already created severe chaos and panic. We have been the victims of transport strike for a short period immediately after the implementation of this law. The law was passed in parliament on September 19, 2018. More than a year after it was passed into a law, the Road Transport Act, 2018 officially came into effect across Bangladesh. The authorities in charge of enforcing the law, however, are not fully prepared for the job ...

MNA Business Desk: The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has waived the formalities of online transaction authorisation form (OTAF) for online payments through international cards. The central bank issued a new notice on Sunday over the matter after it came under intense criticism for introducing the OTAF, report BSS and bdnews24.com. “To bring further simplification in online transactions, it has been decided to waive OTAF formalities for online payments abroad through international cards,” according to the BB circular. Authorities had introduced the online transaction authorisation form to stop illegitimate online payments to participate in gambling or stock trading. In this context, Sunday’s ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Bangladesh on Sunday said Myanmar is solely responsible for the non-commencement of Rohingya repatriation as it fails to ensure conducive environment in Rakhine state. Myanmar must not expect Bangladesh to cooperate in repatriation in an uncertain environment in Rakhine, the foreign ministry said in response to Myanmar’s allegation that repatriation could not be started due to the non-cooperation of Bangladesh. Bangladesh observes that Myanmar is entirely responsible for failure in encouraging the displaced Rohingya to return voluntarily in an appropriate manner. Unfortunately, Myanmar has utterly failed to demonstrate any political will to fulfil its obligations and it ...

MNA National Desk: Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation President Shajahan Khan has said drivers should be brought to justice if they commit any crime, but there should be a provision of securing bail in the new road transport act. The former shipping minister also mentioned that there will be a crisis of drivers if they remain in custody for a long time. Shajahan Khan came up with the statement on Sunday after the first meeting of the Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan -led taskforce designated for implementing 111 recommendations. The recommendations were proposed by a committee headed by Shajahan Khan to ...

MNA International Desk: Rescue workers pulled 18 bodies from the rubble after a plane crashed into a densely populated neighborhood in the city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo shortly after take-off on Sunday. The aircraft, operated by local company Busy Bee, was en route to the city of Beni, about 250 km (155 miles) to the north, North Kivu Governor Carly Nzanzu Kasivita’s office said in a statement. An official from Busy Bee, who asked not to be named, said the 19-seater Dornier 228-200 crashed with 16 passengers and two crew on board. A Reuters witness at ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Mentioning the recent rumours over the scarcity of onion and salt in the market, prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday urged all not to pay heed to such propaganda. “We see confusion being created carrying out false propaganda on many occasions. I would like to tell you all not to pay heed to such propaganda,” she said while addressing a reception at Army Multipurpose Complex in Dhaka Cantonment. The prime minister hosted the reception for the close relatives of the Bir Shresthas and other gallantry award-winning freedom fighters and their family members on the occasion of the ...

MNA Business Desk: A new rule requiring customers to obtain a certificate before completing a transaction online is causing people a lot of grief with businessmen in the IT sector suffering in particular. Bangladesh Bank (BB) issued the circular last week according to which, customers must seek authorisation to make online purchases using foreign currency by filling up a form and submitting it to their respective banks. The measure was adopted to prevent the purchase of cryptocurrency online, lottery tickets, gambling and misuse of the international credit card, according to the central bank. But bankers and customers have slated the ...

MNA National Desk: Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader has said the guidelines on the new road transport act are in the final stages. “Once it is done, there won’t be any problem with the enforcement of the law,” he told a news conference at Awami League’s Dhanmondi offices on Thursday, reports bdnews24.com. Transport owners and workers called off their strike after the government promised to address their concerns over the new law on Wednesday. However, bus services on several long routes are yet to fully resume. “There is no reason to interrupt traffic. There will be no unnecessary ...

MNA International Desk: Malaysian authorities have arrested 680 Chinese nationals suspected of operating an extensive online fraud operation cheating people in their homeland, officials said on Thursday. A team of 150 Immigration Department officers raided the suspects’ well-guarded headquarters in the town of Cyberjaya on Wednesday, the director general of the Immigration Department, Khairul Dzaimee Daud, said in a statement. About 100 suspects managed to escape, and some were hurt in the melee, Khairul said. The gang was believed to have operated from the premises for about six months, Reuters reports. “The modus operandi of this syndicate is to target ...

MNA Sports Desk: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said the government will undertake projects to develop tennis courts at school, college and university levels to popularise tennis alongside cricket and football. “We’re usually busy with cricket and football but tennis is also a good sport. We’ll provide assistance so that universities, colleges and schools can set up tennis courts to flourish this game as the young generation is showing interest,” she said. The Prime Minister said this while speaking to the players of the participating countries in Sheikh Russell International Club Cup Tennis Tournament-2019 and diplomats of the respective ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Gambia will open its case against Myanmar before the UN’s top court in December accusing the mainly Buddhist state of genocide against its Rohingya Muslims, the tribunal said Monday. The small, majority-Muslim African country will ask the International Court of Justice to make an emergency injunction to protect the Rohingya, pending a decision on whether to deal with the wider case. Gambia’s case at the ICJ accuses Myanmar of breaching the 1948 UN Genocide Convention through a brutal military campaign targeting the Rohingya minority in Rakhine state. The ICJ said in a statement that it “will hold ...

MNA National Desk: The government today urged all not to get confused with misleading information over salt stock and price being spread by an unscrupulous group saying the current salt reserve is much more than the country needs. “There’s no shortage of salt. At present, the salt stock in the country is much higher than the demand,” said Chairman of Bangladesh Small & Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) Md Mostaque Hassan. He said an unholy syndicate is trying to reap benefits by spreading misleading information through online media. “The people of the country are requested not to get confused.” The BSCIC ...

MNA Business Desk: Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has encouraged the Bangladeshi expatriates in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to send more remittance to Bangladesh through formal channel as the government is providing lucrative incentives to the remitters. He made the call while inaugurating the smart NID card and voter enrolment services at the Bangladesh Embassy in Abu Dhabi on Monday. At the beginning of the programme, Bangladesh Ambassador to the UAE Muhammad Imran briefed the audience about the smart NID card and voter enrolment services in Abu Dhabi Mission. The Foreign Minister highlighted different success stories of Bangladesh ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Onion, a highly used commodity product in Bangladeshi kitchens, has broken all records in terms of price as well as percentage of price hike within a given period of time. The recent price hike of onions has been the talk of the nation as people everywhere are discussing this unusual jump. This issue was covered not only by the Bangladeshi media but also the international media on several occasions. Moreover, anyone, who uses social media, is receiving thousands of posts related to this onion price hike every day from the frustrated citizens. We have made a culture ...

MNA National Desk: The Biman Bangladesh Airlines is set to buy two 787-9 Dreamliner jets, valued at $585 million. Biman and Boeing announced a deal over the procurement at the 2019 Dubai Airshow on Sunday, reports bdnews24.com quoting a statement. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who had inaugurated the four 787-8 Dreamliner airplanes of Biman in Dhaka, is currently in Dubai to watch the airshow. The new purchase was recorded in October as an unidentified order on Boeing’s website. It complements Biman’s fleet of 787-8 jets with the larger and longer-range 787-9 variant. The national flag carrier of Bangladesh says the ...

MNA International Desk: Sri Lanka’s former wartime defence chief Gotabaya Rajapaksa has won a presidential election that has split the country along ethnic lines. Official results showed Mr Rajapaksa took 52.25 per cent of the vote. His rival Sajith Premadasa had already conceded. Analysts say Mr Rajapaksa was the clear victor in Sinhalese majority areas while Mr Premadasa scored better in the Tamil-dominated north, reports BBC. The election is Sri Lanka’s first since a deadly terror attack in April. Militants linked to the Islamic State group targeted churches and high-end hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, killing more than ...

MNA Business Desk: As onion price started falling with the government’s move to import the produce and arrival of the locally-produced ones in the market, the wholesalers in the capital were seen passing idle time on Sunday due to poor turnout of retailers fearing losses. A number of wholesalers said retailers were not coming to buy onion apprehending that the price of the vegetable will drop rapidly after the arrival of cargo planes with the imported onion. Some of them said they have already suffered losses due to the downtrend in the onion price. Md Shahidul Islam, a wholesaler at ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Mentioning that Bangladesh is under serious threat for money laundering, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said the government is putting all out efforts to prevent the crime. The minister said that money laundering and financing of terrorism not only threaten an economy of a country, but also threaten the existence of human kind. The minister came up with the statement while addressing a seminar on the “National Strategy for Prevention of Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism 2019-2021” at Hotel Intercontinental in the city on Sunday, reports BSS. Foreign Affairs Ministry, Financial Institutions Division of ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Myanmar struck back Friday after a surge of global legal pressure over its alleged crimes against the Rohingya, branding an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) “not in accordance with international law”. On Thursday the ICC approved a full probe into Myanmar’s 2017 bloody military crackdown against the minority Muslim group. The decision came after rights groups filed a separate lawsuit in Argentina —- in which former democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was personally named —- and a further submission of a genocide case at the UN’s top court. Two years ago some 740,000 Rohingya ...

MNA National Desk: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday said the government wants to see whether there is any conspiracy behind the sudden surge in onion price in the country. “Onion price is a problem right now…this is right that onion price has surged in different countries, but I don’t know why this price soared abnormally in our country. We want to see if anyone is involved in this conspiracy,” she said. The Prime Minister said this while inaugurating the 3rd national council of Awami Swechchhasebak League, an associate body of Awami League, at historic Suhrawardy Udyan. A total of ...

MNA Sports Desk: India beat Bangladesh by an innings and 130 runs in the first of the two-Test series in Indore, India on Day 3. With the win, India took a 1-0 lead in the 2-match series with the final match — first Day/Night Test on India — set to take place from November 22 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Bangladesh were bundled out for 213 in the second innings. Times of India adds: The stars of the win in the Test for India were run-machine Mayank Agarwal and the pacers. The trio of Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma and Umesh ...

MNA International Desk: A car bomb exploded Saturday in a northern Syrian town controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters, killing at least 18 people and wounding several others, Syrian opposition activists and Turkey’s Defense Ministry said. Northern Syria has been hit by several explosions that have killed and wounded scores of people over the past month. That’s since Turkey began a military operation against Kurdish fighters in the wake of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the bulk of American troops out of northern Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 19 people, including 13 civilians, were killed ...

MNA Business Desk: The first consignment of onion from Egypt will be flown to Bangladesh on Tuesday, the Commerce Ministry said Saturday. S Alam Group is importing the onion from Egypt. On Friday, the government announced that onions are being flown from abroad on emergency basis to keep the local market stable. The prices of onion, a common ingredient in Bangladeshi kitchen, have been on the rise since India banned its export in late September. Various measures taken by the government could not bring down the prices which hit the Tk 250 per kilogram mark on Friday. The Trading Corporation ...

MNA Culture & Entertainment Desk: Arab film and TV star and World Food Programme (WFP) Goodwill Ambassador Hend Sabry visited the Rohingya families in the refugee camps of Bangladesh to show that suffering has no borders and humanity has no boundaries. Sabry, mother of two girls, visited the world’s largest refugee camp on Thursday where over one million Rohingyas have sought sanctuary. “I met inspiring women who have become heads of their households and are doing their best for their children in one of humanity’s most difficult circumstances. They have lost so much but remain hopeful and looking forward to ...

MNA Career & Education Desk: The Primary and Ebtedayee terminal examinations begins across the country on Sunday. The examinations will be held at 7,470 centres across the country. This year, 25,53,267 students will sit for the Primary terminal examinations. Of them, 11, 81,300 are boys and 13,71,967 girls, UNB reports. Besides, 3,50, 371 students – 1,87,082 boys and 1,66,281 girls – will attend the Ebtedayee terminal examinations. The examinations will be held at 7,458 centres across the country. Besides, 615 students will sit for the examinations from eight countries. The examinations are scheduled to end on November 24. The two ...