Archive for August 2nd, 2006
Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006Prime Minister Khaleda Zia yesterday called for unlocking South Asia's true potential through faster and deeper economic integration so that this region can play its due part in this Asian resurgence in the new era.The 21st century is Asia's, said the prime minister, also the current Saarc chairperson, as the foreign ministers of the member countries sat for an important meeting in Dhaka to execute some of the major decisions taken in the forum's recent summit."We are happy to see progress in the implementation of Safta. Dividends of economic benefits can play a crucial role in furthering regional cooperation," ...
(read more) Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006With a new parliament election round the corner, 13 cases of 2001 election disputes still remain pending with the Supreme Court making the Election Commission's (EC) move for quick adjudication of the disputes a futile exercise.The possibility of adjudicating the disputes within the tenure of the current parliament is slim and the cases are likely to be automatically dismissed after expiry of the current parliament's tenure on October 27 this year, sources said.Ahead of the parliament election in 2001, the EC through reforms in electoral laws introduced a new system of lodging election dispute cases with the High Court ...
(read more) Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006The Bangladesh Bank (BB) decided to employ an external auditor to find out irregularities in the functioning of Oriental Bank and to take actions against the bank's top brass including members of the board of directors, who are responsible for the poor financial standing of the problem bank.The BB yesterday submitted a report on problem banks including Oriental, which was taken over by the central bank in June due to its poor financial condition, to a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on finance ministry.The BB report told the standing committee meeting that an investigation team of the central bank ...
(read more) Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006Most of the Jatiya Party (JP) lawmakers yesterday expressed support for party Chairman HM Ershad to press on with his move to join the ruling coalition. A few of them, however, strongly opposed the idea at a JP parliamentary party meeting with Ershad, sources said.JP Presidium Member and brother of the former president, GM Quader, did not attend the meeting.Meanwhile, Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP) Chairman Naziur Rahman Manzur yesterday paid a visit to the JP chairman and welcomed his ex-boss for the initiative to join the four-party alliance.Naziur, former secretary general of JP, had formed the BJP when Ershad ...
(read more) Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006Bangladesh go into the third one-day international against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club ground today with a hope to take an advantage in the five-match series.The series is tied at 1-1 after the Tigers strongly bounced back with a 62-run victory in the second match on Sunday after conceding a two-wicket defeat in the first game at the same venue, only the day before.Bangladesh Television and satellite channel STAR Sports will beam the match live from the Zimbabwean capital at 1:30pm.The visitors however suffered a big blow before the match as captain Habibul Bashar has been ruled out ...
(read more) Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006Foreign ministers of South Asian countries at their informal meeting yesterday agreed in principle to grant South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) observer status to USA, South Korea and the European Union.Diplomatic sources said the foreign ministers were however focused on resolving the disputes between India and Pakistan over the South Asia Free Trade Area's (Safta) becoming operational.Bhutanese Foreign Minister Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk, Indian State Minister for External Affairs E Ahamed, the Maldives State Minister for Foreign Affairs Abdullah Shahid, Nepal's Foreign Minister KP Sharma Oli, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid M Kasuri, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera and ...
(read more) Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006Indian State Minister for External Affairs E Ahamed yesterday hoped for a truly free and fair election in Bangladesh, saying that a stable and secular democratic Bangladesh is not only in the interest of India, but also for the region."There is already an intense debate in Bangladesh on the coming election. I must admit that there is also a keen interest in India... We hope that the next general election will be truly free and fair," he said.Speaking at a luncheon hosted by India-Bangladesh friendship Organisation at Sonargaon Hotel, Ahamed however said, "We look forward to working with whichever government ...
(read more) Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006 Prime Minister Khaleda Zia leaves Dhaka for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, today to attend the special OIC summit on the Lebanon situation.Khaleda, who will lead the Bangladesh delegation at the high-profile OIC summit on August 3, will join other leaders to highlight Bangladesh's position on Middle East and reaffirm solidarity with the OIC member countries.Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the current chairman of the 57-nation OIC, will open the summit in Putrajaya, Malaysia's administrative centre.The summit is likely to condemn the Israeli atrocities in Lebanon.The Bangladesh delegation will include Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan, Prime Minister's Secretary Khandaker Shahidul Islam, ...
(read more) Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006Proceedings of the death reference case of seven Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) leaders including militant kingpins Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai began in the High Court (HC) yesterday.Deputy Attorney General Helal Uddin Mollah started reading the paper book (history of the case) and completed reading the first 20 pages of the over 300-page paper book before a death reference bench of the HC yesterday.Although over 500 death reference cases still await paper book preparation and death reference hearing in the HC, the paper book of the seven JMB militants' death reference case has been prepared on priority ...
(read more) Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006Seeing spontaneous participation of both the general public and party activists in the ongoing road march programme, the Awami League (AL)-led 14-party opposition coalition might not go for hard-line programmes like non-stop hartals until the next election if no massive untoward incident takes place in the country's political arena.Rather, the opposition coalition has been planning to step up its agitation and propaganda on the streets including grand rallies and sit-in programmes involving tens of thousands of people to force the four-party alliance government to carry out the proposed electoral reforms before handover of power in October.The opposition parties are now ...
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