Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) and Dhaka district administration will jointly conduct four mobile courts every day in the capital to check the food adulteration during the month of Ramzan. Minister for Industries Amir Hossain Amu told this while addressing at a press briefing on…

National Board of Revenue (NBR) is going to introduce software to settle the cases pending in different tax regions, custom houses and commissionerates, reports BSS. To this end, the NBR has formed a seven-member committee headed with its Member Hussain Ahmed. The committee would submit report on next…

Exporters Association of Bangladesh (EAB) yesterday placed a number of demands, including upholding the present rate of 0.3 per cent tax at source for the export sectors in the upcoming budget for 2015-16 fiscal, reports UNB. The demands came at a press conference  held at the Bangladesh Garment…

Bangladesh Bank yesterday instructed all the scheduled banks to upgrade the duration of maternity leave of women employees to six months, reports UNB. It also asked them to follow the finance ministry’s order regarding the evaluation of female staff’s performance during the 6-month maternity…

AP/UNB, San Francisco: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is shuffling his top management team, announcing the departure of former Nokia boss Stephen Elop and three other top executives. Elop had left Microsoft once before to run Nokia, then returned when Microsoft bought the Finnish company’s smartphone…

Stock market closed the week in red, with the broader indices at Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges ending lower on profit-taking selling, reports BSS. DSEX, the broader index of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), lost 7.76 points to 4519.85 when the blue-chip DS30 finished 3.45 points lower at 1741.62 and…

AFP, SINGAPORE: Oil prices were lower in Asia yesterday following a mixed US energy report and after the US Federal Reserve signalled it will keep its near-zero benchmark interest rates unchanged for now, analysts said. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for July delivery fell 21 cents to $59.71 while…

Speakers at a roundtable have recommended for taking initiatives to turn foreign business visitors into tourists offering short tour packages matching with their busy schedules in Bangladesh, reports BSS. “Every fourth foreign visitor in the country was a business visitor (25 per cent) in last…

M Anis Ud Dowla has been elected the chairman of Pioneer Insurance Company Limited, says a press release. The board of directors of the company in its 186th meeting recently elected him as the chairman for the year 2015-2016. He is one of the sponsor shareholders of the company. Dowla is also the chairman…

Managing Director of Sadharan Bima Corporation (SBC) Rezaul Karim has been re-elected the vice-chairman of Asian Re-Insurance Corporation, says a press release. Karim was elected in an election of the international body held recently in Bangkok.

Emirates will be stepping up its Ramzan offerings to passengers and its flightofferings for Umrah, says a press release. The airline will operate 42 additional flights, serviced by the Boeing 777, between Dubai and Jeddah from June 18 to July 23. From July 24 to August 15, the airline will operate an…

Hotel Sarina offers the ultimate experience for its guests with sumptuous buffet Iftar with dinner during the holy month of Ramzan, says a press release. The Iftar and dinner buffet will offer numerous delicacies to cater to every taste bud. The food and beverage team, including the various internationally…

AFP, TOKYO: One of Japan's biggest banks yesterday said it would sell bonds denominated in China's yuan currency as frosty ties between the major trading partners show signs of thawing. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, a unit of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, said it would raise 350 million yuan…

AFP, TOKYO: Japan’s SoftBank said yesterday that its chatty humanoid robot Pepper would go on sale this weekend, as it announced a deal with China’s biggest e-commerce website Alibaba and a Taiwanese manufacturer to work on robotics technology. The deal came as local media said Alibaba was…

AFP, WASHINGTON: The US will put the image of a woman on an American banknote for the first time in over a century, breaking the lock that white male political heroes have on the greenback. The US Treasury announced yesterday that a yet-unchosen woman, likely “a champion for our inclusive democracy,”…

AFP, LONDON: Inside an upmarket London department store a genteel Middle Eastern woman glides by, trailing flowing robes and the distinctive smell of oud, a perfume popular with Arab women. Outside, petrol fumes fill the air and motors roar, as young Arab men rev the engines of some of the world’s…

AFP, BEIJING: Rust, dust and decay pervade a huge and largely abandoned steel plant in China’s capital Beijing, where ghosts of the industrial past linger on, years after the facility was closed. Tens of thousands of workers once toiled at the Capital Iron and Steel Works, a showcase for Communist…