bdnews24.com relaunched

President Zillur Rahman unveiled a new-look bdnews24.com on Tuesday, calling the country's pioneering online newspaper "an example to follow".

The event held at Bangabhaban was webcast live, as the president clicked open the site at 1.40pm.

"I am happy to launch the redesigned website of bdnews24.com," said Rahman.

"Such an initiative is an example to follow on our way to a Digital Bangladesh," he said.

"I convey my greetings to all through bdnews24.com, and congratulate all watching the programme at home and abroad."

Chief editor of bdnews24.com Toufique Imrose Khalidi demonstrated a sleek new design, added content and greater interactivity of the new-look site.

In a more informal moment, the president told bdnews24.com journalists there, "It's amazing what you've done ... It's the most advanced." He wished them all success.

Bangladesh's first online newspaper, bdnews24.com now offers audio-visual content, more features and introduces, for the first time, opinion and comment from all points of the compass.

Top columnists, from home and abroad, will be writing regularly for the site.

bdnews24.com, partnered with Thomson Reuters, also broadcasts BBC, Voice of America and Deutsche Welle news.

The company, which began as Bangladesh's first live online news provider on Oct 22, 2006, has been a pioneer in multimedia news services on Internet and mobile phone ever since, in both Bangla and English.

It also claims to be the country's fastest and most reliable news provider.

According to a US-based company, it is Bangladesh's most read online newspaper. The site is hit from more than 4,30,000 IP addresses a day, figures show.