Brick Lane adds another shrewd, poignant film to a growing genre of immigrant stories. This one stems from Monica Ali's debut novel, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2003. Where her book follows the life of Nazneen, a Bangladeshi village girl who moves to London at age 17 for an arranged marriage to an older man, the film version chooses to focus on a single fateful year, 2001, to capture the essence of how Nazneen, now a mother of two daughters, finds her identity, her strength and her voice after years of self-sacrifice.
Hollywood Reporter. USA | Read

If you eat rice, and particularly - in a monstrous irony - the "healthy" brown variety, or the kind used in baby food, the answer is almost certainly yes. According to Andrew Meharg, professor of biogeochemistry at Aberdeen University and a world authority on one of the most notoriously poisonous elements known to man, 10% of rice found on British supermarket shelves and 30% of rice-based baby food contains levels of arsenic higher than would be allowed in China, which as the world's largest consumer of the staple has the strictest standards (Britain's were set in 1959).
The Guardian, London | Read

Police in Bangladesh today arrested the former prime minister Khaleda Zia as part of the interim government's campaign against corruption. Ms Zia is the second former prime minister to be detained in the anti-corruption drive. Her arch-rival, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, has been held since July on blackmail charges.
The Guardian, London | Read

In December 1971, Indira Gandhi sent Indian troops to fight the Pakistan army in support of the Bangladesh war of independence. The intervention brought a conclusion to the war in nine short days, ending a nine-month campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing that had left countless dead and many millions displaced. Thus, on the eve of independence, it seemed the road was gilded for a great love-affair between Bangladesh and India. This romance was even adumbrated by our geography: India surrounds Bangladesh on three sides, a great bear-hug of a border. But in the decades since Bangladesh's independence, the affair has gone sour.
The Guardian, London | Read

A Bangladeshi performance poet with an extraordinary voice - the result of a bullet in the throat from riot police attempting to silence a singing protest - is the only man to appear on the New Writing Ventures awards shortlist for emerging literary talent. Mir Mahfuz Ali arrived in London 20 years ago seeking medical treatment and political refuge and found a new voice through poetry. Part of Exiled Writers Ink, a group of émigré authors who fled war-torn and repressive countries, and a regular reader at literary festivals, he is now in the running for a £3,000 prize with his shortlisting in the poetry category of the New Writing Ventures awards.
The Guardian, London | Read

A money-transfer company used by members of the Bangladeshi community has collapsed, depriving at least 2,000 families across Asia of funds and causing despair in some of Britain’s poorest areas. Police and detectives from the Insolvency Service are investigating why First Solution Money Transfer, based at the London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel, East London, was unable to deliver at least £1.7 million intended principally for the Sylhet region of Bangladesh.
The Times, London | Read

THE SOUTH ASIAN Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an organisation remarkable for the lack of cooperation its members demonstrate: anyone who has tried to travel between the countries of the region knows that all too well. This lack of cooperation is a symptom of the wound left by partition, still festering after 60 years, and the smaller countries’ fear of domination by their mighty neighbour India. Pakistani and Bangladeshi politicians go to great lengths to deny that they have anything in common with India.
The Times, London | Read

Bangladesh enjoyed a day of unbridled celebration yesterday with their most commanding victory over major opposition - a thoroughly deserved, brilliantly planned 67-run triumph over South Africa in their Super Eight match at the Guyana National Stadium yesterday. Mohammed Ashraful was the major hero, setting up the underdogs imposing total of 251 for eight with a delightful innings of 87 before Bangladesh's trio of left-arm spinners tied up the South African middle order in embarrassing knots.
The Telegraph, London | Read