Archive for September 5th, 2006
Tuesday, September 5th, 2006Investigators suspect that the four persons arrested in the last two days in connection with the grenade attack on British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury at Hazrat Shahjalal's shrine in Sylhet have links with banned militant Islamist organisation Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJi) or other Islamist groups.Arrested after over two years and three months into the incident, the four are the first to be shown as apprehended for their involvements with the attack that killed three and injured 70. Although around 20 people were detained earlier following the attack, all were released because the investigators could not find any link between ...
(read more) Tuesday, September 5th, 2006The Bangladesh Biman staff yesterday suspended the indefinite strike called at airports across the country after the state minister for civil aviation and tourism assured them of solving the financial problems of the national flag carrier.The announcement came after a meeting between State Minister for Civil Aviation Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Biman Sammilito Sangram Parishad (BSSP), a combined body of various trade unions.Sangram Parishad leaders said the meeting with the minister at his office was fruitful and so they have suspended the strike scheduled to take effect from September 7.Announced on Sunday, the strike and other demonstration programmes were ...
(read more) Tuesday, September 5th, 2006Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) MA Aziz does not see any crisis impeding the upcoming parliamentary election despite an open conflict between the opposition coalition and the government over electoral reforms which is making the fate of the polls exceedingly uncertain in the public mind."There is no crisis now and there will be no crisis in future. Good sense will prevail and all the political parties will participate in the next parliamentary election," Aziz, who has already been mired in controversies, told reporters yesterday in his office brushing aside apprehensions of further crises regarding holding of the election."There will be ...
(read more) Tuesday, September 5th, 2006Utter negligence of the government in equipping the national flag carrier Biman with adequate aircraft, absence of professional marketing plan and poor manpower planning are helping foreign airlines to drain out 90 percent of air-passenger revenue from Bangladesh.In terms of money, the foreign airliners are making a hefty $1.2 billion air ticket revenue per year while Biman hardly gets around $200 million, and its share is gradually shrinking every year, aviation sources pointed out.Interestingly, Bangladesh's airlines market is rapidly growing at a rate of 12 per cent a year, which should have encouraged the cash-strapped government to invest more in ...
(read more) Tuesday, September 5th, 2006The bodies of six Bangladeshi peacekeepers, killed in a road accident in Ivory Coast on August 25, arrived in Dhaka yesterday.A special UN aircraft, carrying the bodies, landed at Zia International Airport at about 2:45 pm. Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan received the bodies at the airport.A pall of gloom descended at the tarmac of the VVIP terminal with wailing by wives, parents and other relatives of the killed peacekeepers when their bodies were brought down from the aircraft.The foreign minister placed wreaths at the coffins. The chiefs of the three services were beside him.Senior officers of the ...
(read more) Tuesday, September 5th, 2006Opposition leader Sheikh Hasina yesterday apparently kicked off her election campaign, pledging a package of commitments that she said will be fulfilled if the 14-party opposition combine is voted to power.Hasina, who has long been leading a movement for electoral reforms, held out the promises while addressing several wayside rallies at Sherpur of Bogra, Ghoraghat, Matibali Crossing and Gobindaganj in Dinajpur on her way to Phulbari.She said if the 14-party alliance is voted to power in the next general elections, terrorism and corruption will be eliminated, prices of essentials brought down to people's reach and rate of literacy increased."If you ...
(read more) Tuesday, September 5th, 2006The government yesterday imposed a ban on any kind of gathering, procession, demonstration or laying siege to anything in and around the Election Commission (EC) Secretariat for 19 hours from 1:00am tomorrow.The move was apparently to thwart 14-party opposition combine's programme to lay siege to the EC Secretariat tomorrow.The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) in line with the government directives yesterday in a press release disclosed its decision about imposing the ban. The press release said the DMP feared deterioration of law and order in the area as 'some political parties' made programmes to lay siege to the EC Secretariat. ...
(read more) Tuesday, September 5th, 2006Confrontational politics and corruption are major setbacks to achieving the millennium development goals (MDGs).This was the observation of lawmakers of different political parties including the ruling BNP and main opposition Awami League (AL) and civil society members at a national dialogue in the capital yesterday.The poor are deprived of economic development despite better growth rate and enrolment for primary education because of disparity in resource distribution and education system, and inefficiency in project implementation, they noted.The dialogue on 'Election manifesto and MDGs: commitment and its implementation by the politicians and parliamentarians' was organised by All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on MDGs, ...
(read more) Tuesday, September 5th, 2006The garment workers' leaders once again warned of going for strike if the minimum wage for the readymade garment sector were not declared by September 12.They reiterated their earlier demand of Tk 3,000 as the minimum wage.Accusing the government and garment owners of disregarding the tripartite agreement, they said although the government and owners committed to declare and implement the minimum wage within August they are yet to do it.As per the agreement signed on June 12, the cases against the leaders of garment workers were to be withdrawn but it has not been done, they said, adding that ...
(read more) Tuesday, September 5th, 2006Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has categorically said the next general elections will not be held at the instruction of anyone or to appease anyone, rather it will be held as per constitutional provision.Addressing a public meeting at Mirzapur SK Pilot High School ground yesterday, she said the Election Commission (EC) is preparing to hold the elections and the BNP is mentally prepared to contest the polls.'But the opposition doesn't like the existing system of caretaker government," she said, adding that it doesn't want to accept the provision of caretaker government enshrined in the constitution."It has been written in the constitution ...
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