Dhaka not to recognise Kosovo: official

October 7th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh has cancelled leave of its border guards and stepped up army deployment on its border with Myanmar, alleging large-scale intrusion and to protest against the eastern neighbour erecting a border fence. Tension mounted along the Naikhyangchhari border in Bandarban after Myanmar resumed border fencing Friday.

August 23rd, 2009 DHAKA - Ahead of Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni's visit to India Sep 7, Dhaka wants more information on Delhi's plan to build Tipaimukh dam in Manipur state, a senior official has said. Foreign Secretary Mirajul Quayes described last month's visit to India by a parliamentary team as "useful" and said the data supplied by India was being examined by a committee of experts, New Age newspaper reported Sunday.

August 11th, 2009 Kosovo editor: Islamist hackers block Web sitePRISTINA, Kosovo — The editor of a Kosovo newspaper said Tuesday he suspects that Islamist radicals have attacked the paper's Web site because it was covering the trial of a Kosovar charged in the United States with plotting terrorist acts. Berat Buzhala said the Web site of the Express newspaper was blocked for 10 hours Tuesday and hackers left a warning to the "anti-Islamic newspaper to stop ridiculing" Muslims.

July 29th, 2009 DHAKA - At least 10 people died and large parts of the national capital were inundated in a heavy downpour that broke a 53-year record, an official said. Dhaka ended its relatively dry spell, thanks to a delayed monsoon wherein 333 mm rain fell Monday and Tuesday.

July 14th, 2009 DHAKA - Despite bursting at the seams and poor civic amenities, Dhaka, the four centuries-old city that is now the capital of Bangladesh, remains the country's "most attractive" city, says a survey. Dhaka gets 7.3 points in a scale of 10 -- well below the international criteria of competitiveness of a city in terms of cost of doing business, dynamics of local economy, human resources and training, infrastructures, and quality of life.

June 29th, 2009 Kosovo enters Int'l Monetary Fund, World BankWASHINGTON — Kosovo, a former province of Serbia, has become the 186th member of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Documents were signed and speeches made at the State Department on Monday to make Kosovo's accession official 16 months after the province's ethnic Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia.

June 24th, 2009 DHAKA - Retired career diplomat Ahmad Tariq Karim has been appointed the new high commissioner of Bangladesh to India. Brought back from voluntary retirement and a sabbatical in a US university, Karim was the deputy high commissioner in New Delhi in the 1980s.

June 23rd, 2009 DHAKA - Some key members of banned Islamist militant organisation Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) are now staying in Pakistan for taking military training, an official said. A senior official of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), while requesting anonymity, told The Daily Star newspaper that at least two 'ehsar' (full-time militants) wanted by his organisation had fled to Pakistan and were staying there for the last three months.

June 17th, 2009 PRAGUE - The Czech parliament's upper house Wednesday agreed to keep up to 1,085 troops in NATO missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo in 2010. The Senate voted 64-2 to deploy up to 535 soldiers in NATO's International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan next year, up from the 2009 limit of 480 troops.

March 14th, 2009 DHAKA - A massive fire broke out Friday afternoon in a crowded shopping complex in this Bangladesh capital, an official said. The fire broke out on the top floors of the 20-storey Bashundhara City shopping complex, The Daily Star reported.

February 9th, 2009 DHAKA - Dhaka and Moscow have expressed their willingness to sign a free trade agreement (FTA), Bangladesh's foreign ministry said Tuesday. The volume of Russia-Bangladesh trade was at present $250 million and there was opportunity to expand trade by signing an FTA, Russian Ambassador Gennady Trotsenko to Dhaka was quoted as saying in a meeting here with Bangladesh's Foreign Minister Dipu Moni.

February 7th, 2009 DHAKA - The US plans to help Bangladesh protect mineral-rich waters it claims in the Bay of Bengal through maritime patrolling, a senior US official said Sunday. 'I think there is some interest in maritime patrols to protect your sea areas better.

February 2nd, 2009 DHAKA - Dhaka Warriors, an Indian Cricket League (ICL) franchise comprising Bangladeshi cricketers, have alleged that the Bangladesh Cricket Board has been trying to block them from practising at a rented city ground. The BCB has barred the Dhaka Warriors from using the grounds and practice facilities owned by it and its affiliated organisations.

January 12th, 2009 DHAKA - Joint fight against terrorism and some of the long-pending bilateral issues will be discussed when Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee visits Dhaka in early February, an official said. Announcing Monday the tentative programme of the minister's visit, Indian High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty said the main concern of the Indian government was to ensure security in the region by eradicating terrorism, New Age newspaper reported.

December 25th, 2008 DHAKA - Bangladesh has deployed two war ships in the Bay of Bengal after a standoff with India over hydrocarbon exploration in the waters, according to a media report quoting a navy official. The row began as three survey vessels backed by the Indian Navy started exploration early Thursday, eight nautical miles inside what Dhaka claims is its maritime territory near the Fairway Buoy navigation channel around Block 14 in the southwest of the Bay.