Bangladesh

 According to the website of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the costs of telephone calls to most overseas destinations will be reduced from Sunday. These lower prices are part of the decision by the BTRC to bring all calls under a single platform - with callers from now on having to dial 00 to make international calls. Callers will no longer be able to make calls using 012 prefix. The BTRC website shows the revised tariff for calls to India using both land lines and mobile phones will be Tk 12 per minute, reduced from Tk 15-18 per minute. There will be a tariff of Tk 6 per minute for calling the following countries: Canada, the US, Argentina, the UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, China and Hong Kong.   Calls made to land lines telephones of the following destinations would be charged at Tk 8 per minute: The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Austria , Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey ,Nor...

The Bengali year was introduced during the regime of Emperor Akbar to facilitate revenue collection in the 16th century. Ameer Fateh Ullah Sirajee, member of Akbar's Nabaratna initiated the "crop year" by mixing the solar year with lunar year. It was Sirajee who began counting Bengali Nababarsha from Baishakh after combining Hizri with Bengali year. The name Baishakh was derived from a heavenly body named 'Bishakha.' Prospects of material folk culture studies and folklife museums in Bangladesh However, in Bangladesh, the celebration was first shifted in 1988, following a coordinating committee recommendation. It suggested to observe the day on Apr 14, saying that it would be scientific, instead of following 'panjika'. The committee was formed under the supervision of the Bangla Academy in 1963. Veteran academician Dr Muhammad Shahidullah and Dr Meghnad Saha were among the top members. But, the West Bengal government did not accept that. The citizens ...

On March 27 morning, Ashraf stabbed his girlfriend Barsha, and her parents at their Kalabagan residence. He had stayed there overnight. Kalabagan police station's sub-inspector, Tariqul Islam, had said, "Barsha and Ashraf appeared to have become involved at university." The Stabbing in the Stables (Fethering Mystery) Hey...Stop Stabbing Me! Ashraf had demanded Tk 20 lakh from Barsha's father and upon being refused became violent. Police has arrested Ashraf Ali from Kaliganj, three days after he stabbed his girlfriend and her parents in an altercation over money.

Bangladesh will talk with India on dredging of the Surma River at the Joint Rivers Commission meeting starting Thursday in New Delhi. A 16-strong Bangladesh delegation, headed by water resources minister Ramesh Chandra Sen, reached New Delhi on Wednesday to attend the 37th ministerial-level meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission. Peace Like a River Water Development Board officials say water flows in the Surma river comes down to almost nothing in the dry season after 1990s as a big shoal has emerged in the no-man's land in Amalshid where Indian Barak Iiver enters Bangladesh into two rivers—Surma and Kushiara. Surma Bengali News Weekly They say removal of the shoal by dredging has not got the importance it deserved. "We will discuss the Teesta's water sharing. Also, we will raise this issue of Surma's dredging at the JRC meeting," water resources secretary Shaikh Wahid-uz-Zaaman, one of the delegation members. Where the River Ends Water Development Board...

The largest trade exposition of the country, has been extended for seven more days. Commerce ministry spokesperson Faizul Haq said the ministry decided the extension Dhaka International Trade Fair on requests by participants in the fair, jointly organized by the ministry of Commerce and Export Promotion Bureau. Savannah Straw Market Basket Bangladesh Investment and Trade Laws and Regulations Handbook (World Law Business Library)   Now the fair, which was scheduled to close on January 31, will continue up to February 7. Around 500 organizations from 10 countries are taking part in the month-long annual trade extravaganza.

Royal Bengal tigers' population could disappear by the end of this century as rising sea levels caused by climate change destroy their habitat in the Sundarbans along the coast of Bangladesh, according to a new World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-led study published in the journal Climatic Change.   The Desperate Delta: Social Ecology of Sunderbans Tigers are among the world's most threatened species, with only an estimated 3,200 remaining in the wild, Swiss-based WWF, the worlds largest conservations organisation, said in a report on Friday. WWF officials said the threats facing these Royal Bengal tigers and other iconic species around the world highlight the need for urgent international action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "If we don't take steps to address the impacts of climate change on the Sundarbans, the only way its tigers will survive this century is with scuba gear," said Colby Loucks, WWF-US deputy director of conservation science and the lead aut...

Bangladesh need to concern the emerging inflation as prices of staples like rice are increasing since October last year, says a study by Centre for Policy Dialogue. It also says that outlook for the global recovery in the next half of the fiscal year signals that prices are expected to go up on the international market. The private research arm suggested boosting farm output by supplying enough inputs during the upcoming Boro crop season and maintain the spread of prices at different level import price, wholesale price, retail price and farm level. "Inflation can be contained by ensuring higher agricultural production or the other way is by importing food which would increase the subsidy burden," CPD executive director Mustafizur Rahman said on Monday. Inflation rate in the recent past has been tolerable, but since October there has been upward movements of prices, reads the report. The high growth in agricultural and industrial credit along with excess liquidity in the ...