ICC extends Bangladesh's T20 World Cup venue deadline to Nov 30

The International Cricket Council has handed Bangladesh an extension until 30 November to be able to complete work on stadiums for the ICC World Twenty20 tournament next year.

According to the BBC, it had been widely reported that concerns over facilities might cause the tournament to be moved to another country, such as South Africa.

However, the ICC board has now approved a request to extend the deadline, the report said.

The full schedule for the event, due to take place between 16 March and 6 April 2014, will be released on 27 October, the report added.

The news follows an inspection report by the ICC's venue consultant, the report further said.

The World Twenty20 will feature men's and women's tournaments played in parallel, as has happened at three of the four previous events, and both are set to be the biggest yet with 16 men's teams rather than 12, and 10 women's teams rather than eight, according to the report.

Eid ul Azha on October 16, 2013

The holy Eid-ul-Azha, one of the biggest religious festivals of the Muslims, will be celebrated in the country on October 16 as the moon of  the month of jilhaj was sighted in the Bangladesh sky on Sunday.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the National Moon Sighting Committee held at Islamic Foundation's Baitul Mukarram conference room in the city on Sunday evening.

Director General of Islamic Foundation Shamim Mohammad Afzal presided over the meeting in absence of State Minister for Religious Affairs and also Chairman of the committee Advocate M Shahjahan Mia, Other committee member also attended the meeting.

After the meeting, the Islamic Foundation DG told reporters that the Jilhaj moon was sighted in Gaibandha district.

Facebook expands ad service for app developers

Facebook Inc (FB.O) is expanding an advertising service aimed at developers of smartphone and tablet apps, the social network's latest move to bolster it's fast-growing mobile business.

Facebook's so-called mobile app ads - which allow companies to promote their mobile apps to Facebook's 1.15 billion users - will include new capabilities designed to boost the amount of time that consumers use the third-party apps, the company said on Tuesday.

Since the start of the year, more than 145 million third-party apps have been installed by Facebook users, said Deb Liu, Facebook's director of platform monetization, providing the company's first public data about that portion of it's business. Roughly 8,400 advertisers used Facebook's mobile app ads in the second quarter, Liu said.

That is a small group relative to the more than 1 million total advertisers that Facebook counts, but analysts say that app developers represent an attractive and growing group of customers for Facebook to tap into. Smartphone apps, designed for Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPhone or Google Inc's (GOOG.O) Android-based phones, have struggled to stand out in a crowded field.

Facebook's new mobile app ads will allow the maker of a travel app to offer to promote an airfare or hotel room, for example, while a music app like Spotify could promote a band's new song. Previously, Facebook's mobile app ads were designed only to entice its users to install a third-party app on their smartphone or tablet, but not to encourage repeat visits to the app.

Airtel Bangladesh joins Bridge Alliance

Bridge Alliance has announced Airtel Bangladesh as it's member. The addition of Airtel Bangladesh brings Bridge Alliance to a new total of 14 members with a combined customer base of over 500 million mobile subscribers.

JICA to help repair risky garment factories

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will provide Taka 100 crore in loan for repairing risky buildings of garments factories to minimize accidents like Rana Plaza collapse.

Bangladesh Bank (BB), Public Works Department, JICA,Bangladesh Garment Manufactures and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) will sing a memorandum of Understanding (MoU) tomorrow.

After the singing of MoU, the central bank will publish a circular for the commercial banks informing them about the fund and its utilization, said BB's SME and Special Programmes Department General Manager Sukamal Sinha Choudhury.

"Only the owners of risky building will get the loan facility...the highest tk. 10 corer will be given to a owner," he added.

Loan will be allocated on the basis of the inspection reports of the JICA representatives and first come, first served basis.

30 dead in Indian road crash

A heavy goods truck careered onto the wrong side of the road and smashed head-on into two packed vehicles in the northeast of India on Thursday, killing at least 30 and injuring 10, officials said.

A police spokesperson said the accident took place on a highway on Thursday near the village of Doholapara in the Barpeta district of Assam, about 140 kilometres (90 miles) west of the main city of Guwahati.

The driver of the truck was arrested by police shortly after the accident.

"The two pick-up vans were carrying more people than the permissible limits. A probe has been ordered," district magistrate Siddhartha Singha said, saying 28 died on the spot and another two had succumbed to their injuries.

Some 110,000 people were killed in road accidents in 2011 - more than 300 every day - according to the latest available statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau.

Clashes flare at pro-Mursi march in Egyptian city, one dead

A high school student was killed when opponents and supporters of deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi clashed in the city of Suez on Wednesday night, medical and security sources said.

The two sides exchanged gunfire and threw petrol bombs after supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mursi chanted anti-army slogans as they marched in the city, the sources said.

Abdullah Mohamed Attia, 17, died from a bullet wound, the state news agency reported. The student was supporter of Mursi, the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party said in a statement.

The European Union's foreign policy chief is in Cairo this week to encourage reconciliation between the Brotherhood and the government installed after the army removed Mursi on July 3 following mass protests against his rule.

Since Mursi's downfall, security forces have killed hundreds of pro-Mursi protesters, and senior members of the Brotherhood have been arrested - actions that drastically reduced the size of protests.

A pro-Mursi alliance said it would march on Tahrir Square in central Cairo on Sunday. Mursi supporters on Tuesday briefly protested in the square for the first time since the army forced Mursi from office.

Prime Minister defeated forces want to see the state fail

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, "When defeated forces come to power, they try to make the state fail. It is as if they want to take revenge for their defeat." The Prime Minister said this when inaugurating the second unit of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) on Thursday. She said only the pro-liberation forces want to see the country flourish and develop.

"Everyone has to work together to realize the dream of creating a golden Bengal by the year 2021," the Prime Minister said. She also asked everyone to remain vigilant against the conspiracies of the defeated forces.

BCB elections set for October 10

The Bangladesh Cricket Board's elections will be held on October 10, according to a gazetted notice of the National Sports Council (NSC). It will be held at the NSC Tower in Dhaka, with the results announced on the same day.

The polls will coincide with the second day of the first Test between Bangladesh and New Zealand in Chittagong. But BCB's acting CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury has insisted that it will not affect the holding of the match.

Twenty-three directors will be elected through votes from 172 councillors of various entities around the country. These include all the divisional and district sports associations, the Dhaka clubs, former cricketers, governmental institutions and education boards. the NSC, the sports regulatory body in Bangladesh, will select three directors among their 15 councillors. From these 26 directors, the BCB will choose its president, the first elected chief in the board's history, A date has not been declared for the presidential election.

The BCB's current president, Nazmul Hassan, and former chief Saber Hossain Chowdhury are taking in the part in the elections, and are likely to head two panels and battle for the president's post. Both are ruling-party MPs, but have been involved in verbal battle through the media in recent weeks.

While it is the first time the BCB head will be elected, it's the fifth BCB elections - previously they were held in 1988, 2001,2005 and 2009. The directors elected in the last election ran the board till October last year, after which the governmet appointed an ad-hoo committee. The body was supposed to hold elections within three months of their appointment, but have taken almost a year to complete preparations for the elections.

Priyanka Chopra named India's most dangerous celebrity online

Actress Priyanka Chopra has topped the list of the most dangerous celebrities in the Indian cyberspace this year followed by Bollywood superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, according to a study.

Priyanka knocked off Sunny Leone, who topped the list last year but dropped to the ninth position this time, in the study by security software maker McAfee.

Kareena Kapoor and Akshay Kumar were in the top five in the study which highlights how cybercriminals use celebrities to take advantage of fans seeking more information about their idols.

"In India where celebrities enjoy demigod status, cybercriminals often use their names to lure people to sites which host malicious software designed to compromise personal details and disrupt devices." McAfee India Centre VP Engineering (Consumer and Mobile Business Group) Venkatasubrahmanyam krishnapur said.

This year, searching for a celebrity's name, with search terms like "wall paper", "videos" and "nude pictures" resulted in the highest instances of malware-laden sites. Chopra, showed 79 infected search results, while Shah Rukh was at the second spot with 75 malicious sites, Salman ranked third, with 68 infected sites.

The top-10 list was rounded off by Saif Ali Khan, megastar Amitabh Bachchan, Farhan Akhtar, Leone and Hrithik Roshan.

Alamgir; Any attempt to thwart polls to be resisted

Home Minister Dr. Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir on Thursday said any attempt to thwart the upcoming elections would be resisted strongly.

"Those who will try to foil the polls will be resisted with full force," the minister said while speaking at the inauguration programme of the new headquarters of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab-7), Chittagong Zone at Patenga here at noon.

"Some autocratic forces undercover of political parties want to foil election which is the main foundation of democracy," he said.

The Home Minister also urged the law-enforcers to play their due role in holding a free and fair election to safeguard democracy.

He said Rab was established as a force to mete out torture and repression during 2004-2008 but the present government has turned it into people-friendly one.

Environment Minister Hasan Mahmud, who was present at the progreamme as a special guest, said as along as the schedule for the election is announced the present government will work with its full force. "It'll be turned into an interim government when the election schedule will be announced."

PM: Remain united to protect the country

"Remain united in favour of war crimes trials. Keep this above party strategies. Remember, if they had the chance, they would not have spared you either," said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to freedom fighters who are loyalists to BNP.

The Prime Minister made the call when a representative group of US Freedom Fighters Sangsad met with her at Grand Hyatt Hotel on Wednesday.

She said BNP is blatantly trying to protect the war criminals of 1971. She said as freedom fighters they should not support such program mes.

With apple power, battle cancer and cut calories

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away" is certainly no exaggeration, for the mighty apple is indeed a storehouse of vitamins, minerals and many other valuable substances. In fact, apple consumption has been associated with reduced risk for a number of diseases including cancer, particularly lung cancer, as well as cardiovascular diseases, asthma and type 2 diabetes. Apples are rich in vitamin C and vitamin E, the content varying with the 7,000 known varieties. Vitamins C and E are powerful antioxidants, which help to build immunity. fight chronic diseases and slow down ageing.

Apples are also an excellent source of disease-fighting soluble fibre in the form of pectin. Its high pectin content helps lower cholesterol and acts as a laxative by bulking the stool and maintaining intestinal balance. Pectin also helps to bind toxic metals such as mercury and lead, and helps excrete them.

Cooked apples are known to relieve diarrhoea, dysentery and colitis. One large apple a day has been shown to reduce serum cholesterol levels by 8-11 percent.

The pectin in apples supplies galacturonic acid to the body, which lowers the body's need for insulin and may help in the management of diabetes. Apple pectin helps in gelling and it is this property which helps in making apple jams and jellies.

Apples and apple juice are rich in phytochemicals (plant chemicals) including flavonoids and polyphenols. Polyphenols such as tannins (tannic acid) are potent enemies of viruses particularly herpes simplex virus. Two polyphenols - phloridzin and phloretin xyloglucoside found in apples have not been found in any other fruit.

Not only are apples exceptionally rich in phenols, they also have the highest concentration of "free phenols", which means that they are more available for absorption into the blood stream. Quite impressively, the anti-oxidant capacity of approximately one apple is equivalent to about 1,500 mg of vitamin C (although one apple has only about 5mg of vitamin C). A recent study reported that risk of colorectal cancer was reduced by about 50 percent on intake of more than one apple a day.

Is Katrina Aamir's new best friend?

After Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan, the latest in the growing list of B-town Khan's charmed by the gorgeous babe Katrina Kaif is none other than Aamir Khan!

We hear that Aamir is charmed with kat to the extent that he made his pleasure at working with her in Dhoom3 and felt great when she managed to take time out for a special screening of his wife Kiran Rao's Ship of Theseus.

Dhoom3 is an upcoming Hindi action thriller film, written and directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya and produced by Aditya Chopra. It will be the third installment of the popular Dhoom series.

Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra will reprise their roles as Jai Dixit and Ali Khan while Aamir Khan and Katrina Kaif form the antagonist duo. Dhoom 3 will be released on 25 December 2013 in regular 2D and IMAX formats.

IPL7 may move to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka -BCCI

The next season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) - or at least some matches of the T20 tournament may be played outside India. Sri Lanka or Bangladesh, or both, could be the likely host, a top cricket board official said.

The reason is the same as in 2009, when the second season was played in South Africa: Lok Sabha elections. The election dates are not known yet, but the BCCI has begun to prepare for a possible overlap with the IPL, which is played in April and May.

"A clear picture will emerge only after the dates for the Lok Sabha elections are announced. Until then, we are considering whether to have a few games in India and then move abroad, or vice versa. Both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are short journeys, so logistically, it won't be much of a problem," the BCCI offcial said.

The current Lok Sabha's term ends in May 2014, and if the election is not brought forward, the IPL will coincide with  campaigning and voting, and severely stretch security forces.

"The decision to move to South Africa in 2009 was taken at the last minute, and nobody had expected than that there would be an issue regarding security. But we now know that such a situation may arise again, and we are getting ready for it," the official said.

IPL CEO Sundar Raman will come up with detailed plans in due course. The BCCI is considering splitting season 7 into two halves, one of which might travel outside India.

Unlike in 2009, the board will not this time knock on the doors of Cricket South Africa (CSA) - the reasons being the recent tensions with their CEO Haroon Lorgat, and the expensive dollar, which would make playing the tournament in South Africa Significantly more expensive.

AbRam makes Eid special for Shah Rukh Khan

Although SRK is releasing his much published film "Chennai Express" on Eid, Aug 9, his happiness is primarily because of his son. "This Eid is very special as I have got a new son. That is the best production I have, everything else is secondary," Shah Rukh told IANS. He has two more children - son Aryan and daughter Suhana - with wife Gauri.

He was unable to keep roza completely this time, as he had to take painkillers every morning.

When asked about his plans for Eid, he said: "We will read the namaz and offer 'dua'. Whoever wants to read, they can come. I have told Gauri to make some biryani for everyone. Normally, I celebrate Eid and my birthday with everyone."

Talking about Rohit Shetty directed "Chennai Express"; the 47-year-old said he doesn't believe in holding a film after it is completed.

"When my film finishes, it comes out. The same thing is happening now. It is a holiday and I hope people enjoy it. We had thought of releasing it on October 11, but I had to get a surgery done, so I requested Deepika Padukone if she could give a month to the film. When we did that, we could release it on Eid," he said.

While making a film, SRK is not bogged down by any thought and added: "When I am doing a film, I don't think or anything else."

He hopes that everyone earns profit from "Chennai Express".

"I hope my film comes and whatever it is worth, it will do. I hope everyone recovers their money. I don't have any calculation. I don't even calculate how much my last film had done," he said.

Police in open fire as textile workers protest over pay

Bangladeshi security forces have opened fire on textile workers protesting in pursuit of a higher minimum wage.

Police used batons, rubber bullets and tear gas on day five of demonstrations near the capital Dhaka.

Workers on a minimum wage equivalent to 28 euros a month, want their monthly income to rise to 74 euros.

The huge Bangladeshi garment trade has been under the spotlight amid deadly incidents including the collapse of a building housing factories in April that killed more than 1,130 people.

In the latest protests, workers are said to have dispersed after security forces moved in. Police did not provide details of the injuries sustained.

Sayedee's petition rejected

The Appellate Division has rejected Jamaat Leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee's two petitions urging the Supreme Court's two judges to voluntarily abstain from the proceedings of his appeal challenging his death sentence.

The three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain passed the order the order on Thursday. The two other members of the bench are- Justice Wahab Mian and Justice Hasan Fayez Siddiqui.

The two judges against whom the petitions were filed are Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha and Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik.

Sayedee filed the petition on Wednesday fearing these two justices in question may not be unbiased when dealing with the appeal fighting his death verdict.

'Bebasi' - James' Brand New Song from Warning 3D released

The Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha of 'Warning 3D' have released a new song from the film. Sung by the legendary James & solo voice by Aditi Paul, 'Bebasi' reflects the helpless situation in which the characters of the film are stuck. The visuals of the song gives viewers a small glimpse into what India's first 3D underwater film has in store for them!

Starring Santosh Barmola, Manjari Fadnis, Jitin Gulati, Madhurima Tuli, Sumit Suri, Varun Sharma & Suzana Rodrigues, Warning follows the story of 7 friends that reunite after 5 years in the beautiful island of Fiji. What starts off as a celebration of long-lasting friendship turns into utter horror & terror when boundaries are overlooked & Warnings are ignored. Directed by Gurmmeet Singh & produced by AnubhavSinha & Sunil Lulla, the film hits theatres on 27th September, 2013.

Warning Movie touted as India's first 3D underwater film, Anubhav Sinha & first-time director, Gurmeett Singh will take audiences on a journey into the lives of 7 young friends who do not heed a warning and find themselves stranded in shark-infested seas, unable to find themselves back on to their luxury yacht.

Shot in its completion with 3 dimensional cameras in under 41 days, the film hopes to take audiences on a novel cinematic experience. The survival franchise, Warning will see an all new cast consisting, Santosh Barmola, Suzana Rodrigues, Varun Sharma (of Fukrey fame), Manjari Phadnis, Jitin Gulati, Sumit Suri & Madhurima Tuli.

Government to procure 650 taxicabs with help from army

Communications Minister Obaidul Quader said the government will provide 650 new taxicabs to Dhaka and Chittagong. Dhaka will get 250, Chittagong 250 and army will supervise 150 cabs.

The Minister said the decision came at the annual development programme (ADP) review meeting on Wednesday at Communications Ministry.

The Minister said considering Dhaka's transportation system, a decision has been taken to give route permits in Dhaka to AC minibuses only.

He said the Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of the Metro Rail, Dhaka Sustainable Urban Transport Project and second Kanchpur, Meghna, Gomoti bridge construction next month.

Obaidul Quader said the Tk. 22,000 crore project will be implemented under Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Development Project. Of the total cost, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will provide Tk. 16,600 crore.