Archive for September 21st, 2006
Thursday, September 21st, 2006At least 25 people, including a naval officer, were killed while some 2,000 fishermen went missing as around 500 trawlers, boats and a navy patrol ship capsized in the Bay when a violent storm hit the country's coastal belt Tuesday evening. According to the officials, the fishing trawlers sank in Dublar Char, Kachikhali, Narkelbaria and Baleshwar of the coastal districts of Bagerhat, Pirojpur, Barisal, Patuakhali, Barguna, Bhola as they were caught in the sudden storm.Of the dead, the body of a youth was found at Bishkhali of Laldia area in Patharghata, bodies of four fishermen were recovered at the Kuakata ...
(read more) Thursday, September 21st, 2006Law Minister Moudud Ahmed said in the parliament yesterday that former chief justice KM Hasan was involved with the politics of BNP in 1979.He however vouched for the former chief justice's professional integrity, who is most likely to be the chief of the next caretaker government.The law minister said, "KM Hasan is very competent and was one of the best judges of the Supreme Court."Lawmakers of the ruling BNP and main opposition Awami League once again locked horns in the parliament yesterday over Justice KM Hasan's political affiliation.At one point of the debate Awami League (AL) lawmakers walked ...
(read more) Thursday, September 21st, 2006Transport was disrupted for sometime at many places during the opposition's six-hour countrywide road-rail-waterways blockade programme yesterday while demonstrators' clashes with the law enforcers and ruling BNP activists left 32 people in Sirajganj and 10 people in Narayanganj district injured.The Awami League (AL)-led 14-party opposition combine also enforces a countrywide 6:00am to 6:00pm hartal today to press home its demand for reforms in the caretaker government system and the Election Commission.The blockade badly affected rail communication as the demonstrators took position at different stations including Tongi, Khulna, Brahmanbaria, Chittagong, Chandpur, Sayedpur, Goalanda, Natore, Dinajpur and Lalmonirhat.Inter-district bus communication also ...
(read more) Thursday, September 21st, 2006Some members of the dissolved board of directors of Oriental Bank have admitted to the charge of obtaining Tk 175 crore from the bank using fake accounts.The dissolved board appealed to Bangladesh Bank (BB) early this month to return the bank to them and pledged to pay back the money in next five years."Some members of the board, enjoying support of the Oriental Bank's top management, misappropriated huge money and admitted this in their prayer for returning the bank to them," said a source in the bank.But another source said the amount misappropriated is much higher than what the board ...
(read more) Thursday, September 21st, 2006Removing all uncertainties, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday gave green signal to release the sixth instalment of the Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF) and the Trade Integration Measure (TIM) worth $74 million by mid-October.The World Bank (WB) will also make an arrangement for release of half of a budgetary support credit (DSC-Phase IV), amounting to $ 200 million by the next two months.The bank board will approve another budget support worth $ 40 million for the development of Bangladesh Railway on October 17.The dramatic developments both with the WB and the IMF took place on the sidelines of ...
(read more) Thursday, September 21st, 2006A meeting between the water resources ministers of Bangladesh and India yesterday failed to reach any consensus on issues relating to the border rivers."We discussed different issues at the meeting but nothing was resolved. But with this discussion, the gaps are narrowing," said Bangladesh Water Resources Minister Hafizuddin Ahmed after the daylong meeting on how to protect erosion by the transborder rivers."We are still in the discussion mood...But definitely we will come closure in the next JRC [Joint Rivers Commission] meeting," he said while talking to journalists at a press conference after the meeting held at Hotel Sonargaon.His Indian counterpart ...
(read more) Thursday, September 21st, 2006Thailand's new military ruler pledged yesterday to resign from power in two weeks and restore democracy in a year, after sweeping aside Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a bloodless coup.General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, who orchestrated Tuesday night's coup while the billionaire premier was out of the country, said Thaksin had been pushed out in line with the wishes of the people after months of political turmoil."I will resign as interim prime minister within two weeks, and now we are looking for the person who will become the new prime minister," said Sonthi, who added that he hoped to hold new elections ...
(read more) Thursday, September 21st, 2006Civil society members under the banner of Narayanganj Nagarik Committee yesterday besieged a Narayanganj electricity office and demanded relief from the severe power outages before the Ramadan and Durga Puja. The committee besieged the superintend engineer's office of Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (DESA) on Bangabandhu street of the city and submitted a memorandum regarding their demand.A B Siddiqui, convenor to Nagarik Committee, Abdur Rahman, Rafiur Rabbi, Advocate Abul Kalam Azad, Haji M Hasnatullah, Abdus Sattar, Mohor Ali Chowdhury and Jannatul Ferdous spoke during the programme.The speakers said power outages in Narayanganj worsened recently. Household water supplies, production in ...
(read more) Thursday, September 21st, 2006After six years and a half, two prosecution witnesses (PWs) of the gold smuggling case filed against former president HM Ershad appeared and gave their deposition before a Dhaka court yesterday.But the two witnesses -- Fakir Ashraf, former joint collector of National Board of Revenue and Pandab Chandra Barman, assistant arms and explosives expert of Dhaka deputy commissioner's office -- told the court that they knew nothing about the case.The investigation officer (IO) of Criminal Investigation Department included witnesses who knew nothing about the case, Additional Public Prosecutor Golam Mostafa Khan told The Daily Star, adding that he did ...
(read more) Thursday, September 21st, 2006The investigation officer (IO) of the Ramna Batamul carnage case yesterday told a Dhaka court that an activist of banned Harkatul Jihad (Huji) gave important information about the bomb blasts.Mahmud Azhar alias Mamun of Gangni in Meherpur district, an accomplice of Mufti Abdul Hannan, operations commander of Harkatul Jihad's Bangladesh chapter, was shown arrested in the Ramna Batamul carnage case and remanded on September 14 for seven days.Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Inspector Abu Hena Mohammad Yusuf, also IO of the case, said he interrogated Mamun intensively the seven-day remand where he gave important information about the bomb explosion.Mamun is also ...
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