Archive for March 12th, 2008
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008Detained Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina was admitted to city's Square Hospital yesterday, and a seven-member medical board there unanimously recommended that she should be sent to the US for treatment of hearing loss.Comprising Prof Mohammad Abu Tahir, Prof Tofail Ahmed, Prof Pran Gopal Dutta, Prof Modasser Ali, Prof MU Kabir Chowdhury, Dr ABM Abdullah and Dr MH Millat, the board examined the former prime minister for over an hour.They concluded there is no alternative to sending her abroad for treatment if she is to avoid permanently impaired hearing.Meanwhile, the AL yesterday called on the government to ...
(read more) Wednesday, March 12th, 2008Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed yesterday directed advisers and agencies concerned to find out mechanisms to keep prices of essentials, especially edible oil, under control.Sources said the government is weighing options, including importing edible oil through the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh and Bangladesh Rifles and reducing duty on oil import, to curb the unusual price hike.Expressing deep concern over the current price situation, the chief adviser directed the ministries to find out the reasons behind the abnormal increase of prices of essentials.The directive came at a meeting with Finance and Planning Adviser Dr Mirza Azizul Islam, Commerce Adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman, ...
(read more) Wednesday, March 12th, 2008I begin with an apology to my readers for not having written for sometime. As reported in the media, in a meeting last Monday, the chief adviser, approved in principle, the idea of forming a National Security Council (NSC). It has also been reported that a draft proposal is to be placed before him within a month. No timetable has yet been set for adopting it.Talks of forming an NSC came up in the rumour circuit soon after the events of January 11, 2007. In fact a seminar at Radisson, a few months into the emergency, did have some speakers referring ...
(read more) Wednesday, March 12th, 2008Welcoming the government initiative to enact an ordinance on right to information (RTI), eminent citizens yesterday stressed the need for discussing the matter with political players who will ultimately implement the law.A roundtable discussion they were addressing yesterday was told that the ordinance is likely to be promulgated within the shortest possible time, possibly in a couple of months, to ensure public access to information for maintaining transparency and accountability in government and non-government levels.During the daylong discussion on the draft of 'Right to Information Ordinance 2008', speakers suggested changes to the draft to make the proposed information commission truly ...
(read more) Wednesday, March 12th, 2008The caretaker government has not passed any "law" regarding equal rights of women on inheritance, Law Adviser AF Hassan Ariff yesterday said, adding that the National Women Development Policy, 2008 has been misinterpreted as a law.During a view exchange meeting with the Ulema (Islamic scholars) at Islamic Foundation in Baitul Mukarram, the adviser also said that the government has no plan to enact any law that goes against the rules and spirit of Islam."No such 'law' has been passed about inheritance and there is no question of enacting such a law," Hassan Ariff, also adviser to the religious affairs ministry, ...
(read more) Wednesday, March 12th, 2008Two huge suicide car bombs ripped through a police building and an advertising office in Lahore Tuesday, killing 26 people and posing a fresh challenge to Pakistan's incoming government.The deadliest blast demolished much of the eight-storey federal police headquarters in the heart of the eastern city, and the other hit an advertising agency several kilometres (miles) away. Two children were among the dead.Shortly after the attacks the Australian cricket team said they were cancelling an upcoming tour to Pakistan, due to security fears caused by a wave of violence across the country that has killed more than 600 ...
(read more) Wednesday, March 12th, 2008A special court yesterday sentenced former Awami League lawmaker HBM Iqbal to 10 years' rigorous and three years' simple imprisonment in a graft case for committing two different offences including amassing huge amount of wealth by illegal means.The court also fined him Tk 50 lakh and another one-year jail if he failed to pay the fine.Iqbal's wife Dr Momtaj Begum Dolly, sons Moinuddin Iqbal and Imran Iqbal and daughter Nawrin Iqbal were also jailed for three years each as they were found guilty of abetting him.They have also been fined Tk 1 lakh each and would be behind bars for ...
(read more) Wednesday, March 12th, 2008The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) yesterday submitted supplementary charge sheets of two cases filed in connection with the grenade attack on the British high commissioner at the shrine of Hajrat Shahjalal (RA) in Sylhet in 2004.Inspector Zobayer Ahmed of the CID filed the separate charge sheets with the Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court last evening accusing Hurkatul Jihad al Islami (Huji) leader Abu Zandal, also known as Mufti Mainuddin and Masum Billah Khaza, of delivering the grenades for the attack.Zandal, son of Nurul Islam of Amdanga under Lohagara upazila of Narail, is in a jail in the capital in another ...
(read more) Wednesday, March 12th, 2008The demand for trying war criminals has become a national issue and the government must make its response, speakers at a roundtable yesterday said.They said the trial of war criminals is required to establish justice in the society.Mentioning that representatives of the anti-liberation war element Jamaat-e-Islami have penetrated different organs of the government as well as the armed forces, speakers observed that the government has turned its back on its earlier stance regarding the trial of war criminals.Dainik Prothom Alo at its auditorium at the city's Karwan Bazar organised the roundtable titled "Let's start the process of ...
(read more) Wednesday, March 12th, 2008The country's achievements in education received mixed reviews as education ministers from nine countries representing about 60 percent of the world population began E-9 ministerial meeting in the Indonesian island of Bali yesterday.The E-9 groups Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Pakistan, who are among the most populous middle-income and low-income countries in the world.The annual EFA Global Monitoring Report, released at the start of the conference, recognised Bangladesh's success in universal primary-education enrolment and establishing gender parity but pointed to low literacy and high dropout rates.The country was placed in the lowest rung of the EFA ...
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