Agency

Online bill collection

Bdnews24.com

AP, WASHINGTON -- Inflation pressures eased a bit in April despite the biggest jump in food prices in 18 years.

The Labor Department reported Wednesday that consumer prices edged up 0.2 percent last month, compared to a 0.3 percent rise in March.

REUTERS, Washington - A new wave of defense industry mergers and the increasing propensity of companies to protest contract losses signal the post-9/11 surge in US defense spending is finally coming to an end.

The US defense budget, which accounts for half the world's military spending, ramped up dramatically this decade but is now likely to plateau, albeit at a high level, according to defense analysts.

Reuters, Taipei - The row of gleaming bicycles being assembled on the factory floor of Giant Manufacturing, one of the world's biggest bicycle-makers, will soon hit streets from Seattle to Sydney, Amsterdam and even Beijing.

REUTERS, BRUSSELS - World number one Justine Henin announced she was retiring from professional tennis with immediate effect on Wednesday.

"It's the end of a wonderful adventure but it's something I have been thinking about for a long time," she told a news conference.

Slapping incident

Tour diary

New Zealand's No. 4 looks ahead to his first Test at the home of cricket

Cricinfo.com

REUTERS, LONDON - All-rounder Andy Flintoff would have been selected in the squad for the first test against New Zealand if he had not suffered yet another injury setback, England coach Peter Moores said on Tuesday.

Flintoff, 30, played only one test last year because of his troubled left ankle which eventually required a fourth operation.

There was a time when Bengal used to produce more food than its population needed. With population growing at a brisk pace and agriculture not getting the attention it deserves, the scenario has changed radically. If a recent study is any indication, a large section of our people suffer from calorie needs.

Bdnews24.com

Former prime minister Khaleda Zia and all other accused in the Niko scam case are facing an order to appear in court on May 20.

Metropolitan special judge Md Azizul Haque passed the order.

The court Tuesday ordered former BAPEX general manager Mir Moinul Haque and former BAPEX secretary Md Safiur Rahman, to jail after they turned themselves in to court and appealed for bail.

Bdnews24.com

As announced by the Chief Adviser Monday, the government will Tuesday start sending out letters inviting the political parties to the dialogue starting May 22, said the education and commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman Tuesday.

"We are advancing step by step towards holding the dialogue. To make the proposed dialogue successful, the Chief Adviser addressed the nation yesterday (Monday).

Bangladesh Navy has test-fired a C-802 missile in the deep Bay of Bengal, the Inter-Service Public Relations Directorate said in a statement Monday, reports bdnews24.com.

This marks the upgrading of Bangladesh's missile system with a Chinese technical team.

Bdnews24.com

Supreme Court lawyers split into opposing camps Tuesday over the planned boycott of the Appellate Division.

The UK has welcomed chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed's address to the nation and termed it "very positive",reports bdnews24.com.

"The UK very much welcomed this speech (by the chief adviser)," outgoing British high commissioner Anwar Choudhury told reporters Tuesday after inaugurating an electronic projector in Shahbagh.

Agency

Bdnews24.com

Adviser Ghulam Quader Tuesday shrugged off the danger of the government making a travesty of the year-end election, as many political leaders fear, reports bdnews24.com.

Addressing doubt expressed by political parties after the chief adviser's speech Monday over the possibilities of holding the polls without lifting emergency rule completely, Quader emphasised that the "election would be held properly, leaving no space for any question to arise".

Cases against Obaidul Kader

Bdnews24.com, New Delhi—The Indian Border Security Force has come out openly for the first time to say that coordination with the BDR to manage the Indo-Bangladesh border is better than ever before.

But the BSF alleges that there is no doubt that insurgents from Northeast India are carrying out their activities primarily from Bangladesh soil.