Bangladeshi ‘dies of swine flu in Mexico’
April 30, 2009
The health minister said Thursday the government was on alert after Mexican officials confirmed one of eight people who died of swine flu there was from Bangladesh, according to Agence France-Presse news agency. Mexico’s National Epidemiological Center said on Wednesday that the only foreign national among the dead was a Bangladeshi man who had been in the country just six months working as a street vendor. A F M Ruhul Haque told the agency that Bangladeshi officials were working closely with the World Health Organization (WHO) as officials in Mexico work to pin down the origin of the H1N1 swine flu. Read more
Set VoIP free
April 30, 2009
A parliamentary body yesterday made some recommendations including opening up of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for increasing government’s revenue earnings from the telecom sector. The parliamentary standing committee on post and telecommunications ministry proposed withdrawal of Tk 800 tax on SIM card, reducing international call routing charge from 4 cents to 3 cents, zero duty on import of mobile phone sets valued up to TK 3,000 each and fixing monthly internet charge at Tk 300 for home users. Read more
Scene from the Liberation War recreated
April 30, 2009
A month-long unique sculpture exhibition on Liberation War is on at a remote village, called Palash Bari, of Sadar upazila in the district. Nripen Mali, a veteran freedom fighter of Sector 6 created the sculptures using clay and cement. Industries Minister Dilip Barua inaugurated the exhibition on April 21. The exhibition has several segments. The first segment features a sculpture of Bangaban-dhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman delivering the historic speech of March 7. Read more
Govt gives priority to national interest in industrialization: Dilip Barua
April 30, 2009
Industries Minister Dilip Barua on Wednesday said, the industry-friendly government is giving priority to industrialization for the sake of the national interests. Referring to first one hundred days of the government, he said, ” By this time Chittagong Chemical Complex (CCC) has been reopened, additional manpower appointed in BSTI and Trademarks act-2009 passed.” Dilip Barua said this in a meeting with the leaders of Bangladesh Plastic Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BPGMEA) at his office. BPGMEA President Jasimuddin and General Secretary Shamim Ahmed led the delegation, an official handout said. Read more
Favourable impact of tea plantation
April 30, 2009
TEA does not grow everywhere in the world as it needs special type of soil, climate and also environment. Tea is basically a forest loving plant. It was found in deep forest area of upper Myanmer, South-East China, Assam, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam long back. The British started commercial planting here more than 160 years back. The first commercial plantation was at Malnicherra Tea Estate near Sylhet town in 1854. However, first experimental tea cultivation in Indian sub-continent was in 1840, in and around Chittagong Club. Read more
WHO warns global swine flu pandemic imminent
April 30, 2009
The World Health Organization warned a global swine flu pandemic was imminent, as more nations confirmed cases of a deadly disease that has spread round the world in a matter of days. Although most of those now affected are not thought to be in serious danger, the flu’s spread from Mexico to every corner of the globe has deepened fears that modern air travel can spread disease faster than anything in history. Nations from Asia to Europe to the Americas announced new confirmed and suspected cases of the flu, believed to be a new strain of virus that has combined existing varieties of bird, swine and common human influenza. Read more
DBBL 500th ATM booth at BAU launched
April 30, 2009
Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd (DBBL) has launched its 500th ATM booth on the Bangladesh Agricultural University Campus recently. Prof Dr. MA Sattar Mandai, Vice Chancellor of the University inaugurated the ATM booth by drawing money through DBBL Nexus Card on April 28. Vice Chancellor M A Sattar Mandai in his speech in the launching function lauded the role of DBBL and recalled other Philanthropic activities carried out by the bank for the welfare of the society. He extended his sincere thanks to the members of the Board of Directors of the bank for taking initiatives of modem banking facilities for the customers. Read more
BUET team gets prestigious ICPC award
April 30, 2009
A team of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) got an award in the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) held in Sweden April 18-22. This year KTH-Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, hosted the World finals of the prestigious ICPC, a BUET official told BSS on Monday. The BUET team secured 34th position in the contest by solving four problems leaving behind teams from the reputed universities like host KTH, KAIST, Cornell, UIUC, UT Austin, Caltech, Purdue and National University of Singapore.
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Google puts flu tracker to work on swine flu
April 30, 2009
Using a new tracking tool, search engine giant Google said on Wednesday it saw a spike in searches for information about flu among people in Mexico last week even before news of the outbreak became widely known. Google said it has put together a flu trends tracking system for Mexico based on the US Google Flu tool launched last fall that is used by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to figure out where influenza is heating up. It is based on Google’s observation that people who are sick with flu tend to search for the same types of information on the Internet, and these searches can be used to predict where an outbreak may be occurring. Read more
Beware of swine flu, but don’t panic: minister
April 30, 2009
Health minister AFM Ruhul Haque has advised all to be aware of the dangers of a new type of swine flu but not to panic about it. “There is no reason we should be panicking about the disease—swine flu. You should be better aware of how it spreads and affects people,” he told reporters after attending an inter-ministerial meeting at the health ministry Wednesday. He urged the news media not to publish or present any scary news about the disease. “Though Bangladesh is not directly threatened by the disease, we are taking all preparatory steps necessary to face and handle the menace.” Read more