Bangladesh News

Two more extortion cases against Hasina

Thursday, June 14th, 2007Two separate extortion cases--one for Tk 5 crore and another for over Tk 2.99 crore--were filed against former prime minister and Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina yesterday.Noor Ali, managing director of Unique Group of Companies, filed a case with Tejgaon Police Station accusing Hasina and her two relatives of extorting Tk 5 crore in exchange for mediating between the Power Development Board (PDB) and his firm to finalise a power plant in 1997.Azam J Chowdhury, managing director of Eastcoast Trading Private Ltd, filed the other case with Gulshan Police Station against Hasina and AL leader Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim ... (read more)

Mega FDI plans hang in limbo

Thursday, June 14th, 2007Around half a dozen multi-billion-dollar proposals of foreign direct investment (FDI) in infrastructure, power, oil, gas and manufacturing sectors have been hanging for years due to complicated policies, government indecisions and bureaucratic tangles.The government is neither giving approval to these proposals nor refusing them, leaving the investors frustrated. This is also creating a wrong impression about the country and its investment prospects, sources said.These investment proposals include Indian conglomerate Tata's $3 billion, United Arab Emirates-based Abu Dhabi Group's $2 billion, UK-based Global Oil and Energy Ltd's $2.9 billion, Malaysian Azimat Corporation's $900 million, and Contech Ltd's $900 million.Sources said the ... (read more)

AL leaders draw up 21-pt reform plan

Thursday, June 14th, 2007In a bid to bring 'drastic' reforms in the Awami League (AL), several influential leaders of the party have prepared a 21-point draft proposal, which they will hand over to party President Sheikh Hasina within the next week. Several pro-reform leaders said they will be with Hasina if she accepts the proposals, otherwise they will challenge her leadership.Many senior leaders of the party have held regular secret meetings during the last couple of weeks for preparing the draft, which they said have been prepared after taking opinion from the party's central to grass roots level leaders.To review the draft ... (read more)

Field level work starts next month at Rajshahi

Thursday, June 14th, 2007The Election Commission (EC) will start the field level task of preparing voter list with photographs and national identity cards initially at Rajshahi from mid-July."Initially, the task for preparing the voter roll with photographs will begin in Rajshahi City Corporation area. On receiving the required equipment, the task will begin in full swing in other places," Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda told reporters at his office yesterday."We will start the process for holding the polls soon after the voter list is ready," he said.According to EC's original timeframe announced on April 5, the field level task was supposed ... (read more)

Thousands of students may be denied admission in colleges

Thursday, June 14th, 2007Students passing this year's SSC (Secondary School Certificate) examinations, even GPA-5 scorers, are in anxiety of being denied admission at their college of choice due to shortage of available seats.Since the prestigious colleges are mostly located in urban areas, seats in colleges in rural areas are however likely to go unfilled.According to Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (Banbeis), a total of 1.34 lakh students will not be able to attend a college as there are only 4.63 lakh seats available for around 5.97 lakh students passing this year's SSC exams all over the country.After a high number of ... (read more)

Impoverished Chilmari found mineral rich

Thursday, June 14th, 2007The resource-starved impoverished Chilmari area of Rangpur district may become a world class source of heavy metal minerals mainly used in high-tech industries, according to a primary exploration report.Based on a 1979 finding of Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB), British company Carbon Mining Plc for the last four months have been exploring for the heavy metal minerals in the Brahmaputra riverbed in Chilmari and detected significant volume of the minerals carried by the river from the Himalayas.The economic implication of this finding could be enormous, if the Carbon Mining finds it economically viable to set up a mineral mining establishment ... (read more)

Ex-whip Wahidul Alam sued for extortion

Thursday, June 14th, 2007A Dhaka court yesterday rejected bail petitions of detained former BNP lawmaker Harunur Rashid and Nayeb-e-Amir of Khelafat Majlish Mufti Shahidul Islam in connection with criminal cases. In Chittagong, former BNP lawmaker and whip Syed Wahidul Alam and three others were sued in an extortion and money embezzlement case yesterday.Detained former BNP lawmaker MAH Selim was shown arrested in two extortion cases while the cheating case filed against barrister Nazmul Huda was transferred to a Dhaka court for its trial.Proceedings of graft cases against General Secretary of Swechchssebok League Pankaj Kumar Devnath, his wife Monika Devnath, CBA leader of ... (read more)