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Experts express optimism about the high-profile investments in the country, which is a fast-growing market DHAKA: World-renowned executive car producers, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, could soon be putting the pedal to the metal by setting up an assembling plant in Bangladesh, officials told Arab News on Saturday.  A high-profile delegation from Germany is on a five-day visit to the country, to ... Read More »

A powerful body of editors of leading newspapers and TV stations has officially protested the bill, called the Digital Security Act Observers say the bill is part of a broader campaign to silence critics in Bangladesh DHAKA, Bangladesh: Journalists and human rights groups are demanding major amendments to a bill recently passed in Bangladesh’s Parliament, saying it will further choke ... Read More »

DHAKA: An 87-year-old British woman has been awarded Bangladeshi citizenship for her humanitarian work in the country over almost five decades. “It is a long-cherished dream. I love this land and the people of this country,” Lucy Holt told Arab News after the citizenship ceremony. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina praised Holt as “a true friend of Bangladesh” at a ceremony ... Read More »

JAKARTA, Indonesia: The UN’s human rights chief has warned that Myanmar’s persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority has the potential to spark regional conflict. Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein reiterated while in Indonesia on Monday that acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing may have occurred in the campaign of violence against Rohingya that sparked an exodus of nearly 1 million people to ... Read More »

DHAKA: Bangladesh has agreed to complete the process of returning Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar within two years after repatriation begins, the south Asian nation said on Tuesday, following a meeting of the neighbors to implement a pact signed last year. A statement by the Bangladesh foreign ministry did not say when the process would begin. But it said the return ... Read More »

DHAKA: Six people were killed Wednesday when fire swept through a clothing factory outside Dhaka, police said, just the latest fatal industrial accident to hit Bangladesh’s $30 billion garment industry. Firefighters recovered the bodies of five men and a woman from the top floor of a factory in Muktarpur, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Dhaka, where it appeared ... Read More »

DHAKA: Thousands of Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh since Myanmar announced a military build-up in Rakhine state earlier this month, community leaders said Wednesday. Rakhine in northern Myanmar has been gripped by violence since October, when militants attacked police posts. That sparked a bloody military crackdown that the UN believes may amount to ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, a mainly ... Read More »

BARCELONA: Spanish police said Monday they had identified the driver of a van that mowed down pedestrians in Barcelona, killing 13, as an international manhunt for the suspect believed to be a Moroccan national deepened. In a tweet, police in Catalonia said they knew who the driver was without naming him, but regional interior minister Joaquim Forn said in a ... Read More »

Katmandu/DHAKA: Heavy monsoon rains in Nepal, Bangladesh and India have killed more than 160 people in the last week, officials said on Tuesday, as authorities rushed to rescue those missing or stranded in flooded areas. In Nepal, the death toll rose to 115 amid more flash floods and landslides, with 38 people missing. Relief workers said 26 of Nepal’s 75 ... Read More »

DHAKA — Ten-month-old Bangladeshi Siamese twins were recovering in hospital on Wednesday after what surgeons hailed as the country’s “groundbreaking” first successful separation operation on conjoined siblings. Sisters Tofa and Tahura, who were born conjoined at the spine and rectum, underwent a grueling nine hours in surgery under the care of two dozen doctors. “It is the first time we have ... Read More »

DHAKA — Bangladesh’s highest court on Sunday rejected the final appeal by a top extremist leader to overturn his death sentence, all but paving the way for his execution within weeks. The Supreme Court upheld a 2008 order to execute Mufti Abdul Hannan and two associates for an attack on a shrine that left three dead and injured the British ... Read More »

BEIJING/DHAKA: China’s state-run Zhenhua Oil has signed a preliminary deal with Chevron to buy the US oil major’s natural gas fields in Bangladesh that are worth about $2 billion, two Beijing-based Chinese oil executives said. Zhenhua is a subsidiary of China’s defense industry conglomerate NORINCO. A completed deal would mark China’s first major energy investment in the South Asian country. ... Read More »

NEW DELHI — A woman and a teenager believed to be linked to a banned militant group blew themselves up during a police raid on a two-story house in Bangladesh’s capital on Saturday, a government minister said. The woman died after detonating explosives attached to her body during the raid, while the teenage boy’s bloodied body was found inside an ... Read More »

A 13-year-old boy has died in hospital in Bangladesh after an apparently gruesome assault at a spinning mill. The incident took place in Dhaka's Narayanganj district. Police say a colleague pumped air into the boy's rectum using a high-pressure hose. Police say the reason for the incident is not clear but the teenager's colleague has been arrested and his family ... Read More »

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's tomorrow's scheduled visit to Tungipara in Goplaganj has been suspended due to inclement weather, BSS reports. "The visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to Tungipara in Goplaganj slated for tomorrow has been suspended due to inclement weather," PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim said. Sheikh Hasina was scheduled to go to Tungipara tomorrow to pay homage to ... Read More »