Tk 4,64,573cr budget for FY19 setting 7.8pc growth target
Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith today rolled out a Tk 4,64,573 crore national budget for fiscal year 2018-19 setting the GDP growth target at 7.8 percent and outlining a set of plans-strategies to build a prosperous, happy and peaceful country.
“Our main objective of budget preparation is to alleviate poverty, reduce inequalities and bring basic and qualitative changes in people’s living standard. Regional parity, human resources development, infrastructure development as well as assuring quality of expenditure are focused in allocation of resources,” said the finance minister while placing the proposed budget 
7 mega projects to get Tk 29,675cr in FY19
Seven large projects are likely to get Taka 29,675 crore in the upcoming budget for financial year 2018-19 (FY19) for accelerating the implementation process of these ‘fast-track’ projects, reports BSS.
“The government will allocate for the mega projects as per their demand. We want to implement the mega projects within the scheduled time for the benefits of the economy,” Finance Secretary Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury told BSS.
The mega projects are Padma Multipurpose Bridge, Padma Bridge Rail link, Dohazari-Cox’s 
62 killed in protests of US embassy in Jerusalem
Palestinians followed through with their vow to protest massively along the Gaza border Monday with tens of thousands demonstrating and 62 killed by Israeli fire as clashes erupted over the controversial inauguration of the US embassy in Jerusalem.
The death toll made it the deadliest day in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the 2014 Gaza war, reports AFP.
The 41, including a 14-year-old, were shot dead by Israeli forces as clashes broke out at five points along the Gaza border hours before the opening of the embassy.
52.42 pc ADP implementation in 10 months
The implementation rate of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) during the July-April period of the current fiscal year reached 52.42 percent with an overall expenditure of Taka 82,603 crore.
The ADP implementation rate during the July-April period of the last fiscal year (FY17) was 54.56 percent with an overall expenditure of Taka 65,083 crore, according to the latest 
statistics provided by the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the Ministry of Planning, Reports BSS.
The IM...
statistics provided by the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the Ministry of Planning, Reports BSS.
The IM...
Bangladesh: Food assistance fact sheet
Attacks by armed actors on Burmese security posts in August 2017 and subsequent military operations in Rakhine state, home to the majority of Rohingya Muslims in Burma, has caused a major humanitarian crisis in neighboring Bangladesh. The violence in Burma has forced approximately 693,000 Rohingya refugees to flee to southeastern Bangladesh, joining more than 213,000 Rohingya living in the country prior to August 2017, according to the UN.
Most of these refugees currently reside in temporary settlements near Cox’s Bazar, where they 
The limits of art in a climate of fear
Since 2013, Islamist assailants wielding machetes and knives have killed more than 30 people in Bangladesh. The targeted attacks on liberal bloggers, freethinkers and atheists have created a climate of repression.
"Life is beautiful, but it's also a curse," sighs Pervaj Hassan Rigan as he searches for his best cartoons in a cramped drawer. Almost in passing, the young man mentions that for months he would always wear a motorcycle helmet to go shopping because he, too, was terrified that the machete of a radical Islamist might come down on his head. There came a point, though, where he decided that he could no longer live in constant fear and put the helmet aside.
Blood on the boot
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