MNA National Desk: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ordered the authorities to form a separate police unit for the safety of the ongoing Dhaka metrorail project. The directive came from a meeting on the progress of the project at the prime minister’s official residence Ganabhaban in Dhaka on Monday. “The metrorail police will be there for security. They have to be trained,” Hasina said. Former Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of the National Security Affairs Cell Md Asaduzzaman Mia has been assigned to start the process of forming the new police unit. More than 30 percent of ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Monday urged the United Kingdom (UK) to continue supporting Bangladesh in international forum especially in the United Nations (UN) for creating pressure on Myanmar in order to ensure sustainable repatriation of the Rohingyas. He advocated it while addressing a delegation of 14 British parliamentarians led by Ms. Ann Mette Kjaerby at the foreign ministry. The parliamentarians are visiting Bangladesh on a study tour on sexual and reproductive health. Dr Momen told the delegation about the atrocities carried out by Myanmar on the Rohingyas and sought support for ensuring safe and ...

MNA International Desk: A small plane crashed near the southwestern Colombian city of Popayan on Sunday (local time), killing seven of the nine passengers aboard, the city’s mayor and the country’s civil aviation authority said. The incident occurred just a few minutes after the aircraft, owned by a small local company, took off from the airport in Popayan, a city of about 270,000 surrounded by mountains. The other two passengers were injured and were being treated at a hospital, Popayan Mayor Cesar Gomez said. Photographs on social media showed parts of the airplane scattered atop houses in the area. Gomez ...

MNA Business Desk: The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) will start open market sales of onions in a subsidized price from Tuesday in the capital for enabling the consumers to heave a sigh of relief in the wake of overnight surge of the commodity price. “We will start sale of the onion at a subsidized rate from Tuesday initially at five spots in the city,” said M Humayun Kabir, deputy senior executive officer of the TCB, reports BSS. The official disclosed the name of three city spots—Press Club and Secretariat gate, Mothijheel Bok Chattar and Khamar Bari– but the other ...

MNA National Desk: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday asked the architects to design multistorey buildings in a planned way taking the movement of people and traffic in surrounding roads, open space and waste management into consideration. She also asked them to ensure natural ventilation systems and proper verandas in the new multistoried housing projects to keep the indoor environment healthy. “If you (architects) design any multistorey building project, it should be done keeping in mind the size of streets, possible traffic movement, rush of people, and waste management,” the Prime Minister said. Sheikh Hasina was witnessing the conceptual presentation ...

MNA International Desk: China and Russia are expected to reach a number of deals when Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visits Russia next week, Gao Feng, spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Thursday. Gao said the deals will include trade, investment, digital economy, agriculture, technology, aerospace and nuclear energy. “The trade cooperation of the two countries is speeding up, and continues to strive for high-quality development,” Gao said. Li will visit Russia from Monday to Thursday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced earlier, and it is widely believed that his visit will further strengthen and broaden the China-Russia strategic ...

MNA Business Desk: Dubai-based Emirates has announced new executive leadership appointments for its operational, commercial, and international affairs functions. Adel Al Redha is appointed Chief Operating Officer (COO) while Adnan Kazim is Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) and Sheikh Majid Al Mualla is Divisional Senior Vice President, International Affairs, says a press release received on Wednesday. As Chief Operating Officer, Adel Al Redha is at the helm of all operational departments: Flight Operations, Service Delivery, Airport Services, Emirates Engineering, Crew manpower, aircraft procurement and the Emirates Flight Training Academy; as well as worldwide network operations including crisis response. Al Redha, who ...

MNA Editorial Desk: The European Union (EU) has provided a fresh fund of €2.0 million to the United Nations World Food Programmes (WFP) for carrying out its humanitarian activities for the Rohingyas refugees. The new funding will help WFP sustain lifesaving food assistance to the refugees, address high rates of malnutrition among children and mothers, while also protecting them from the risks of monsoon season, said a WFP statement on Thursday. “Two years on since the biggest influx of the Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh, the situation in the camps in Cox’s Bazar remains critical,” says Richard Ragan, WFP Representative and ...

MNA National Desk: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday expressed the hope to have a positive response from India over different unresolved issues, including the Teesta water-sharing one, before her visit to the neighbouring country in early October. “We’re optimistic that the unresolved issues between the two countries will be sorted out soon. We hope we’ll get positive results over the aforesaid issues before my visit to India,” she told Parliament responding to a starred question from opposition Jatiya Party MP Mujibul Haque (Kishoreganj-3). The prime minister is scheduled to visit India on October 3-6 next to attend the India ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Myanmar is going host an international delegation in the Northern Rakhine State to show the preparation taken by them for the repatriation of Rohingyas, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has said. The delegation, which includes envoys from different counties, will assess whether the right condition for repatriation exists or not, the minister said while talking to media after a seminar held in the city on Wednesday. Responding to a question regarding the international media report that Mayanmar government has built infrastructure in the 40 per cent of the Rohingya dominated area in Rakhine, the foreign minister ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Assam, a state of our neighboring country India, has been in the headlines during the last few weeks as humanitarian crisis seems to be building up there. The issue remains with the current population of Assam. Indian government and many of the Assamese citizens do not consider the whole population of Assam as its own. True that is as along with the locals, many migrated to Assam many years back. But it is the same story of millions of settlers all around the world and after living for generations and serving the economy of a country, no ...

MNA National Desk: The government is set to amend the Companies Act-1994 to allow formation of a company by single person. A new section, ‘One-Person Company’, will be incorporated with the existing law in this regard, according to a press statement issued on Sunday by Ministry of Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs. To this effect, a consultation meeting with stakeholders was held at the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs on Sunday. The meeting was organised by the Legislative Research and Reform Project and the law will be implemented by the Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Department. The objective of ...

MNA International Desk: British MPs, including Tories expelled from the party, are preparing legal action in case the PM refuses to seek a delay to Brexit. A bill requiring Boris Johnson to ask for an extension to the UK’s departure date to avoid a no-deal Brexit on 31 October is set to gain royal assent. But the PM has said he would “rather be dead in a ditch” than ask for a delay. Now MPs have lined up a legal team and are willing to go to court to enforce the legislation, if necessary. The cross-party bill – which requires ...

MNA Feature Desk: Bangladesh is set to sew the world’s largest T-Shirt to break the Guinness record, marking the centenary founding anniversary of the International Labour Organization (ILO). Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has been assigned to sew the T-Shirt using cotton fabric to be branding the country’s apparel industry, which is the world second largest exporter. BGMEA President Dr Rubana Huq on Saturday said they started the process upon getting proposal from the ILO. Bangladesh is going to take the record over the Plastindia Foundation at Mumbai, India, which on 5 January 2018 sewed the largest T-shirt ...

MNA National Desk: Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader has said more than 150 rebel candidates of Awami League in the last upazila election and their patrons will get show-cause notice from Sunday. Quader, also the Road Transport and Bridges Minister, came up with the information at a press conference at Awami League President’s Office on Saturday, reports UNB. The list of the show-caused leaders will include central to local-level leaders and no sympathy will be shown to anyone when it comes to maintaining organisational discipline, he said. Responding to BNP’s recent criticisms, Quader said there might be some corruption ...

MNA Business Desk: Telenor Group and Axiata Group Bhd have mutually agreed to end discussions to merge their Asia operations to gain a bigger foothold in the region’s mobile phone market with potentially 300 million customers across nine countries. Announcing the development in a statement on Friday, Telenor said the proposed deal collapsed after four months of talks ‘due to some complexities’ without shedding any further light on the matter, reports bdnews24.com. In the proposed non-cash merger, Telenor’s stake was expected to be 56.5 per cent and Axiata’s 43.5 per cent. Both companies operate in Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh and ...

MNA Sports Desk: A rampaging Serena Williams moved to the brink of a record equaling 24th career Grand Slam title on Thursday storming past Elina Svitolina 6-3 6-1 to book her spot in the US Open final. Since returning to action after the birth of her first child Williams has come agonizingly close to matching Margaret Court’s mark three times and will have a chance on Saturday to do so in front of an adoring home crowd for a second successive year. Last year Williams was left in tears following a chaotic and controversial loss to Naomi Osaka on Arthur ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Plans announced by Myanmar’s military to prosecute soldiers for actions at a village where security forces reportedly killed as many as 400 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority drew skepticism on Monday from the New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch. The military announced over the weekend that investigations had determined that orders were not properly followed at a village in Rakhine state. It gave no dates or other details of the offence, but said a court martial is being convened to act “in accordance with the military discipline due to the weakness in following the instructions ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Bangladesh Awami League is the oldest political party of the country. It has been active in politics before and after the independence of this nation. For over 70 years, this party has been leading the political environment of Bangladesh and being a part of this party itself is a great achievement for anyone who wants to make a career in politics. On top of that, Awami League being in the government for consecutive third term has made a position inside the party like a golden egg which everyone wants to chase. In this process, many leaders and ...

MNA International Desk: Pakistan would not use nuclear weapons first, Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday, amid tensions with arch-rival India after New Delhi revoked the special status of its part of the disputed Kashmir region. “We both are nuclear-armed countries. If these tensions increase, the world could be in danger,” Khan said, addressing members of the Sikh religious community in the eastern city of Lahore. “There will be no first from our side ever,” he said. The foreign ministry’s spokesman subsequently said on Twitter that the comments were being taken out of context and did not represent a ...

MNA National Desk: Saad Ershad, the son of late Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad, may seek the party nomination for the Rangpur-3 by-polls. The seat became vacant after the death of the former military dictator. The Jatiya Party leaders, both new and veterans, have begun to collect the nomination forms with three of them already buying the forms over the past two days after the by-polls schedule was announced. The last day of submitting nomination forms for the by-polls is Thursday. However, the political equation will shift if the party nominates Ershad’s eldest son Saad Ershad. His mother, party Senior ...

MNA Business Desk: Japan’s JERA has agreed to acquire stakes in a power project in Bangladesh now under development by Reliance Power. Under the agreement, signed with the India’s Reliance Power, it will acquire 49 per cent of the gas-fired thermal power generation project with combined capacity of 750MW, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. The gas-based combined cycle power project will be set up in Narayanganj’s Meghnaghat, 40km southeast of Dhaka. The project will be set up within 36 months of signing the agreements, according to the statement. The Bangladesh Power Development Board will buy electricity from ...

MNA Sports Desk: Rafa Nadal faced his stiffest challenge yet at the US Open but raised his game to beat Marin Cilic 6-3 3-6 6-1 6-2 on Monday and continue his quest for a fourth Flushing Meadows title. The second-seeded Spaniard was in cruise control as he took the first set behind some superb serving and stout defence but the big-hitting Croatian battled back to snatch the second. That was as good as it would get for Cilic, however, the momentum shifting decisively in Nadal’s favour when he jumped in the air to hit a spectacular overhead smash that electrified ...

MNA Culture & Entertainment Desk: Joaquin Phoenix is having a hard time defining the Joker, but then again, he doesn’t really want to. The actor spent eight months exploring how a struggling stand-up comedian named Arthur Fleck becomes Batman’s antagonist, the villain with a chilling laugh and a love of chaos. Preparing for the role involved losing quite a bit of weight, studying personality disorders and practicing the laugh over and over again, reports AP. ″(It’s) very difficult to distill into a soundbite,” Phoenix said Saturday in advance of the world premiere of “Joker” at the Venice International Film Festival. ...

MNA Lifestyle Desk: Cancer has overtaken heart disease as the leading cause of death in wealthy countries and could become the world’s biggest killer within just a few decades if current trends persist, researchers said on Tuesday. Publishing the findings of two large studies in The Lancet medical journal, the scientists said they showed evidence of a new global “epidemiologic transition” between different types of chronic disease. While cardiovascular disease remains, for now, the leading cause of mortality worldwide among middle-aged adults – accounting for 40 per cent of all deaths – that is no longer the case in high-income ...

MNA Science & Technology Desk: Alphabet Inc’s Google will spend up to $200 million to settle a US Federal Trade Commission investigation into YouTube’s alleged violation of a children’s privacy law. Politico reported the settlement is expected to be between $150 million and $200 million. The settlement is set to be announced next week and will be the largest ever fine imposed for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule by collecting personal information from kids without parental consent. Google declined to comment. The FTC voted 3-2 to approve the settlement and sent it to the Justice Department as part ...

MNA National Desk: The government has initiated a move to bring the surplus money of different autonomous, semi-autonomous and statutory agencies, including non-financial corporations, to the national exchequer as 68 self-governed agencies have Tk 2.12 trillion of idle money in different banks. To ensure the better use of the surplus money, the Cabinet on Monday approved the draft of a bill at its meeting held at Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. The title of the bill is ‘Deposition of Surplus Money of Self-Governed Agencies including Autonomous, Semi-Autonomous and Statutory Government Authorities and Public Non-Financial Corporations ...