Archive for March 11th, 2008
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008Biman Bangladesh Airlines Ltd yesterday unveiled its plan to buy eight new-generation aircraft from Boeing at a cost of $1.265 billion (Tk 8,728 crore).Of the new eight planes, the first consignment of four Boeing 777-300ER planes, with 463 passenger capacity, will be delivered in 2013 while the four 394-seater Boeing 787-8s (yet to enter service) will be handed over in 2017.The national flag carrier will also have a facelift, a change of its interior design and exterior looks.This is the first time Biman independently decided to buy aircraft without any political and government interference after its birth in ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 11th, 2008Prices of coarse rice continued to rise for the third consecutive day yesterday on retail and wholesale markets in the capital due to India's latest restriction on exporting the commodity at prices lower than $650 a metric ton.Meanwhile, prices of pulses, flour, sugar and onion also went up on the city markets yesterday.Edible oil price, after a sharp increase in the recent days, however, remained stable on retail markets while witnessing a slight drop on wholesale markets.Traders said hundreds of rice-laden trucks, which had been stranded at Petrapole and Shojadanga land ports of India, could not enter Bangladesh till ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 11th, 2008The government has asked the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for opinion on the proposed Truth Commission.The ACC received a dossier from the government on formation of the much talked about body Sunday, ACC Director General Col Hanif Iqbal told The Daily Star.Earlier the same day a high-level meeting of the caretaker administration approved in principle the proposal to form a Truth and Accountability Commission.The anti-graft body will place its recommendations and comments on the matter to an "appropriate authority" at an "appropriate time", Col Hanif observed.Addressing a routine press briefing yesterday, he said they are examining the proposal in ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 11th, 2008Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina did not yet consent to being admitted to any local hospital.The government has been urging her to be admitted to any city hospital by this week as recommended by four of her personal physicians, but Hasina has been refusing the request for the last couple of weeks.The physicians recommended that Hasina should be admitted to any local hospital for carrying out necessary medical tests.After visiting the detained former premier on Sunday, three other specialist doctors recommended that Hasina should be sent abroad immediately for her ear treatment, otherwise she runs the risk of going ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 11th, 2008The government will start issuing machine-readable passport (MRP) by July next year and is going to float a tender for a project in this regard shortly.A total of 1.1 crore MRPs and 2.5 lakh machine-readable visas (MRV) will be issued in five years under the project involving Tk 220-250 crore, a home ministry official said quoting a meeting held at the ministry yesterday.At present, about 1.20 crore citizens of the country are passport holders, he added.Home Adviser Maj Gen (retd) MA Matin, who chaired the meeting, directed a technical committee headed by Abdur Rab Hawlader, director general (DG) of ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 11th, 2008It was unbelievable for Musharraf camp. March 9, 2007 was a bad day for Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry when he was removed from his office.Exactly one year after that incident, March 9, 2008 was really a bad day in the life of President Musharraf. Two big victors of the recent elections announced on the same day in Bhurban that they will restore all deposed judges including Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Something more unbelievable for Musharraf is yet to come soon.The president's camp was not expecting any breakthrough between Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif on the restoration of judges. ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 11th, 2008The government will start issuing machine-readable passport (MRP) by July next year and is going to float a tender for a project in this regard shortly.A total of 1.1 crore MRPs and 2.5 lakh machine-readable visas (MRV) will be issued in five years under the project involving Tk 220-250 crore, a home ministry official said quoting a meeting held at the ministry yesterday.At present, about 1.20 crore citizens of the country are passport holders, he added.Home Adviser Maj Gen (retd) MA Matin, who chaired the meeting, directed a technical committee headed by Abdur Rab Hawlader, director general (DG) of ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 11th, 2008After two years of deals and negotiations the Advisory Committee on Economic Affairs yesterday cancelled the process of Rupali Bank sale to Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al-Saud."The process to sell Rupali Bank to the Saudi prince has been cancelled as we didn't get timely response from him," Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam told reporters after a meeting of the committee.The finance adviser who chaired the meeting said the bank's bidder, Saudi prince, has failed to pay the selling price despite repeated reminders. For this the government dropped Rupali Bank's name from the privatisation list for the time ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 11th, 2008Dreaded criminal Sanjidul Islam Emon told CID interrogators that Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Maulana Motiur Rahman Nizami had tried to influence former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar to relieve Emon and his associate Shahadat of a murder charge.Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is interrogating Emon, placed on an eight-day remand, who also admitted his involvement in the killing of former BNP lawmaker of Brahmanbaria Shahjahan Hawlader Sujon for a handsome amount from a businessman, sources said.However, Nizami's Press Secretary Khurshad Alam Khondokar denied that Nizami tried to convince Babar to relieve any person involved with murder.CID sources said Emon ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 11th, 2008Education ministers from nine high-population and low to middle-income countries including Bangladesh will kick off the seventh E-9 meeting at Bali today.The objective of the meeting is to brainstorm and find better solutions for achieving Education for All (EFA) by 2015 -- a key component of the Millennium Development Goal.Themed "Improvement of Teacher Education and Training as a Focus of Educational System Reform," the high-level biennial meeting is designed to receive political will behind education policies and strategies, exchange best practices and monitor progress towards reaching the EFA.The E-9 ('E' for education and '9' for nine countries) Initiative was launched ...
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