Five separate reports, as a response to the High Court's directive, were submitted to the attorney general's office

WITHOUT being alarmist, one can quite see a risk perception growing in Bangladesh about swine flu.

We can understand only too well the frustration of indigenous groups whose repeated pleas for full implementation of

What the BNP chairperson said in her first speech to the national media since January 19, was disappointing as well as

JUST how vulnerable the village women are to harassment, coercion and graft while seeking justice or claiming other entitlements has been brought to bold relief by a TIB study.

THIS paper has highlighted the plight of our expatriate workers over the non-issuance of machine readable passports (MRPs) a number of times.

TODAY we celebrate our 24th anniversary. For this journey of more than two decades, so satisfying and rewarding, we profoundly thank our readers, contributors, patrons and advertisers without whose inestimable support we would not have been able to come so far.

RELIGIOUS extremists are using the internet to spread their fanatical propaganda throughout the world and Bangladesh is no exception.

IT is heartening to see that the country's first ever Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) Unit has successfully restored all its twelve blood cancer patients to health in the last one year.

ANOWAR Hossain and Helal Uddin are two Bangladeshis among other foreign nationals who have been taken hostage by the Islamic State or some other militia group in Libya.

CRICKET in Bangladesh has indeed come of age. Gone are the days when Bangladesh buckled at the crunch time, miserably failing to live up to the expectations of its millions of fans who stay glued to the television to get a chance of seeing their team play well.

WITH the deadly H1N1 virus claiming 1,300 lives in India over the last two months alone, we are reassured by the government's proactive steps to minimise the possibility of a similar outbreak of swine flu in Bangladesh.

ONE major instrument of the government for poverty alleviation consists of safety net coverages called Vulnerable Group Development (VGD), Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) and Employment Generation Programme for the Poorest (EGPP).

Bangladesh's energy woes may soon be over as short and long-term regional energy exchange among four countries appears to be taking

A new draft law proposed by the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs recommends that while the minimum age for marriage should

AT least 67 percent of the country's 8,500 brick kilns are running without the permission of the Department of Environment, according to the environment group, Poribesh Bachao Andolon (Poba). Of these, more than 1,900 kilns use wood to burn bricks, a practice which is a punishable offence as per our environmental laws. These statistics are highly alarming, given that unauthorised brick kilns are responsible for causing irreversible damage to the environment and posing serious health hazards to people working and living in nearby areas.

ACCORDING to an international survey carried out by VeriskMaplecroft, Bangladesh's aspirations to become a major gateway for international manufacturing is in for a shock. Having being ranked 35 out of 100 cities most vulnerable to natural disasters, it is imperative for the government to factor in the exposure of future industries and industrial belts to natural vagaries. Dhaka has been identified as the worse affected followed by Barisal, Chittagong, Khulna and Narayanganj. Sadly Dhaka is the premium industrial centre for the country.

ON Tuesday, foreign diplomats, including the US and EU ambassadors in Dhaka, met with BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan office. Reiterating their urgent concerns about violence against innocent citizens of Bangladesh, the diplomats urged Khaleda to ensure that the violence resulting from her movement comes to an end.

THE explanation offered by a senior police officer in disallowing rally of leaders of progressive student alliance to protest Avijit murder in Rajshahi University is unacceptable. They were told that only Bangladesh Chattra League (BCL) is allowed to take out processions on campus to protest the killing of secular writer Avijit Roy.

FRUIT and vegetable growers, given their limited staying power with perishables, are among the hardest-hit in the economy .