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A Bangladeshi woman attends an election rally organized by the BNP in Dhaka. Bangladesh's two main political leaders criss-crossed the country in a final day of campaigning ahead of the country's first democratic election in seven years. Photo Credit: Munir Uz Zaman.
Bangladesh
gets its own Taj Mahal
Bangladeshi
Muslim women offer Eid al-Adha prayers in Dhaka, Bangladesh,
Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2008. Muslims worldwide are celebrating
Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice. Photo Credit:
Pavel Rahman.
US
to follow Bangladesh election: McCain
U.S Senator
Joh McCain (C) talks in a news conference as other Senators
Joseph Lieberman (L) and Lindsey Graham (R) listen in Dhaka
December 3, 2008.
Bangladesh
gets $480 mln World Bank loans for food, power
DHAKA, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Bangladesh signed
on Thursday two loan agreements worth $480 million with
the World Bank in a bid to ease power and food crises.
The South Asian country will get a $130 million
loan from the bank to cope with rising food prices, which
have pushed more than 4 million people back into poverty,
the World Bank said.
Another $350 million loan would be used for
Siddhirganj power plant, which will be the first integrated
gas-to-power project in Bangladesh, contributing 300 MW
of generation capacity to help offset the country's power
shortage.
It will also finance a 60 km natural gas pipeline
that will improve the reliability of gas supply to the plant,
and an 11 km electricity transmission line so that power
from the plant can be distributed to consumers.
The credit from the International Development
Association carries a service charge of 0.75 percent annually
and has 40 years to maturity, including a 10-year grace
period.
Bangladesh was hit by a food crisis after
last year's floods and a cyclone, which together damaged
nearly 3 million tonnes of food grains, causing rice prices
to double.
Nearly half of Bangladesh's more than 140
million people live on less than $1 a day, spending 70 percent
of their total income on food. ($1 = 68.70 taka)
Bangladeshi
Paromita Mitra becomes Miss Mississipi Teen USA 2009
VoBD, New York - Paromita Mitra, 17, a Bangladeshi
immigrant in the United States, has won the crown for the
Miss Mississippi Teen USA 2009 competition, according to
a message received here on Tuesday.
The victory in the last week's competition,
sponsored by The Miss Universe Organization and NBC Universe,
will now bring Paromita to the Miss Teen USA Pageant competition
in 2009, to get a chance to embark on a year of traveling
around the world, working with incredible non-profit organizations
and attending red carpet events.
As a winner, Paromita received some scholarship
money, travel allowances, New York Film Academy Awards,
several custom designed cosmetics and jewelries, and speech
and communication training for Miss Teen USA, among many.
Paromita's onstage question was: What magazine
cover she would like to appear on and what her headline
would be.
"Time Magazine," she said and preferred
the headline to be "The headline would be: A new generation
for women". "Because I believe that I could be
a diverse addition to the Teen USA programme," she
said at the competition stage.
Daughter of Dr Amal and Ratna Mitra, Paramita
is a senior at Oak Grove High School in Hattiesburg, Mississippi
while she is the Senior Class President, a cheerleader,
a pianist, and a member of her school debate club and the
robotics team and in the future she wants to be an aeronautical
engineer and work for NASA.
With her areas of interests being astronomy,
physics, and math, Paromita likes Bengali music and dance
while in one of her last pageant competitions; she performed
a Bengali folk dance.
She plans to visit Bangladesh in summer 2009.
She wants to help the underprivileged children here. |
