Syed Ashfaqul Haque

About 6,000 Bangladeshi students brace for bad times as recession strikes Australia and starts to bite deeper into a once solid economy of a paltry 21.7 million population.

The mandatory system for pre-shipment inspection of imports is to stay till 2009-end as the present contract with three companies expires in August amid uproar over irregularities in imports.

Rampant corruption in the control of imports became institutionalised as the bodies charged with monitoring trade, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and customs, became partners in the crime, an investigation by The Daily Star can reveal.

WAITING TO BE AUCTIONED… Like this awe-striking abandoned Hummer SUV, at least 60 other seized luxury vehicles are gathering dust at different police stations in the capital since early last year, belying army chief General Moeen U Ahmed's pledge to raise funds for hospitals for the poor through auction.

The system for pre-shipment inspection (PSI) of imports has become riddled with corruption, and plagued by tax dodging and money laundering, depriving the country of huge amounts of revenue, reveals an investigation by The Daily Star.

A mother with tearful eyes stares at the Bay of Bengal at Roshangiri in Banshkhali, Chittagong, yesterday hoping her missing son will return. Her son went fishing near Dublarchar in Bagherhat before the storm.Photo: Focus Bangla

A man collects cow carcasses floating in a canal at Taful in Bagherhat yesterday. The animals perished when Sidr lashed the region Thursday.

Residents of a house mangled in storm at Kandipara of Maoa in Munshiganj removing debris yesterday.

Growth in the readymade garment industry, the powerhouse of the country's export economy, has slowed with the sector for the first time failing to reach export targets and facing a sharp decline in new orders.

With two days of unprecedented rioting at garment industries in and around Dhaka, a number of complex issues leaped to the fore that, experts fear, may cripple the most export-revenue generating sector well beyond repair if we let our hair down.

It is not just the US that has changed irrevocably after the most horrendous attack on America on September 11, 2001. The whole world has changed since then, and yet many in the West have little idea about how much the change has been.

The multi-million-dollar Chhatak gas field is all set to turn into a vast wasteland as experts fear all four layers of the upturned natural gas structure at Tengratila might have crumbled following the blowout, second in six months.

The fresh 3-day hartal call in the port city is destined to put exports and imports on the verge of collapse as two hartal series kept the industry wheels to a grinding halt for eight days in the last 10 days.

Readymade garment (RMG) buyers, especially from Europe, tend to avoid coming over to Dhaka in the wake of an alarming fall in law and order.

With the cricket's ruling body playing a dubious innings off the field, Dhaka clubs carry on their vendetta against the cricketers who have dared to raise voices for their rights lately.

The National University hurries on to hold yet another haphazardly arranged examination from January 24, refusing to look into some seemingly realistic problems and reasonable pleas of the Honours Final examinees of 1998.

India broke a world record to clinch the Coca-Cola Independence Cup, beating Pakistan in the spill-thrill last game of the three-match finals by three wickets at the Dhaka Stadium yesterday.