Archive for April 27th, 2008
Sunday, April 27th, 2008The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects that high prices of food and oil will push up Bangladesh's trade deficit for FY08 to around $6 billion, which is around $2-3 billion higher compared to the previous fiscal years.The high trade imbalance will also push the current account balance into deficit, which had around $1 billion surplus in the last fiscal year, the IMF projected in a report on Bangladesh's current economic situation released last week."The pressure on the balance of payments has intensified significantly and our current account balance is now negative for the first time in several years," Finance Adviser ...
(read more) Sunday, April 27th, 2008The police on Friday night filed a case against about 60 people including four ex-MPs of the pro-Delwar faction of BNP for violating the state of emergency through staging demonstrations at the Election Commission (EC) Secretariat gate on April 17.Sub-Inspector Dipak Kumar Pal of the Tejgaon Police Station filed the First Information Report (FIR) under the Emergency Powers Rules (EPR) mentioning names of 14 people. The others -- around 40 to 50 people -- were not named.The accused former lawmakers are -- Bilkis Jahan Shirin, Rehana Akhter Ranu, Saimum Begum and Shirin Sultana, also the general secretary of Dhaka city ...
(read more) Sunday, April 27th, 2008Two days after almost doubling of the price of compressed natural gas (CNG), the government yesterday raised fares for CNG-run autorickshaws to Tk 6 a km, non-air-conditioned taxis to Tk 8 and air-conditioned (AC) taxis to Tk 10.The minimum fare for non-AC and AC taxis were doubled from Tk 15 and Tk 20 while the autorickshaws' minimum fare was raised to Tk 18 from Tk 13.50. The previous fare for autorickshaws, non-AC taxis and AC taxis were Tk 5.50, Tk 6 and Tk 8.However, the CNG-run buses would not be allowed to hike their fares.Drivers of autorickshaws and taxis would ...
(read more) Sunday, April 27th, 2008With a caretaker government working to prepare grounds for sustainable democracy through a fair election, political analysts feel that some recent developments appear to be major threats to holding a credible parliamentary election.Irked by the Election Commission's (EC) decision to invite only Saifur Rahman-led faction of BNP to an electoral reform talk, pro-Khaleda Zia faction of the party led by detained chairperson appointed General Secretary Khandaker Delwar Hossain, announced that it will not participate in the next parliamentary election under the incumbent EC.Saifur-led faction is however ready to contest in the parliamentary election, which is supposed to be ...
(read more) Sunday, April 27th, 2008Detained Awami League President Sheikh Hasina was sent back to the makeshift jail at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban complex yesterday after receiving treatment at the Square Hospitals for a week.Former premier Hasina who has been suffering from multiple health complications including problems in her ears and eyes was admitted to the Square Hospitals for the second time on April 19.Earlier, she had been admitted to the hospital on March 11 and discharged on March 30.Deputy Inspector General (Prisons) Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui told news agency UNB that the former premier was sent back to the makeshift jail as the ...
(read more) Sunday, April 27th, 2008Saifur Rahman-led faction of BNP alone participates in electoral reform talks with the Election Commission (EC) today as the other faction loyal to detained BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has refused to take part in the dialogue together with them.Unless any dramatic development takes place overnight, a 10-member delegation of pro-Saifur faction would join the dialogue at the EC Secretariat at 10:00am, ending over six months of tussle between the two factions for EC's invitation to participate in talks.Against this backdrop, police authorities plan to deploy at least eight platoons of police personnel to beef up security in the ...
(read more) Sunday, April 27th, 2008The pro-Saifur faction of BNP is pushing forward a new unity formula, urging its rival faction to accommodate Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Maj (retd) Hafiz Uddin Ahmed and Brig Gen (retd) Hannan Shah in the standing committee of the party.Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar, who is now mediating unification of the two rivals, yesterday discussed the proposal with Khandaker Delwar Hossain, the chairperson-appointed secretary general of the party, at the speaker's Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban office.According to the proposal, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, who was expelled by party Chairperson Khaleda Zia hours before her arrest last year, would have to be reinstated in the ...
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