Archive for May 8th, 2008
Thursday, May 8th, 2008Awami League (AL) acting President Zillur Rahman yesterday reiterated that the AL would not take part in the upcoming parliamentary election without the release of detained party President Sheikh Hasina.“Our first and principal demand is that Sheikh Hasina will have to be freed. We hope that the caretaker government will resolve the prevailing political crisis through releasing her,” Zillur said addressing a book-launching programme.The book titled 'The first elected mayor of Dhaka, Mohammad Hanif: Words about his struggles in life' by journalist Mostak Hossain was unveiled by the acting AL chief on the occasion of Dhaka's turning into 400 years.Mohammad ...
(read more) Thursday, May 8th, 2008A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced two men to death, nine to 43 years' rigorous imprisonment (RI) each and a former Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) ward commissioner to 13 years' in jail in the sensational Lalbagh seven-murder case.Judge ATM Musa of Public Safety Disturbance Crime Prevention Tribunal delivered the verdict at a packed courtroom in the morning, 14 years after the case had been filed.The complainant, victims' family members and people of the locality, however, rejected the verdict and demonstrated on the court premises demanding capital punishment for DCC Ward Commissioner Abdul Aziz, the prime accused in the case.The two condemned ...
(read more) Thursday, May 8th, 2008In a lukewarm response to the country's first offshore bidding round, only six oil and gas companies submitted their bids yesterday for 16 out of 28 offshore blocks.With a few offers overlapping different blocks, the oil companies offered to invest $1.6 billion. The bids included three offers for exploration in shallow water blocks.The second round block bidding in 1998 generated offers from 22 oil companies, of which Shell Oil alone offered to invest over $2 billion.The off-shore bidding round was announced in February with 20 deep sea blocks and eight shallow water blocks--each having exploration area cover between 3,000 square ...
(read more) Thursday, May 8th, 2008Despite a strong revenue growth, budget deficit in current fiscal year may reach Tk 33,073 crore, 11 percent higher than the original estimate, and the government will have to take loans from banking sector to meet a large amount of the shortfall.Huge subsidies in the petroleum products, fertiliser and food are the major reasons for such a high deficit, finance ministry sources say.The government had a plan to adjust prices of petroleum products to minimise huge losses resulted from under pricing, said a finance ministry official. But the government did not adjust the prices considering possible public sufferings for price ...
(read more) Thursday, May 8th, 2008A Dhaka court yesterday issued arrest warrants against former BNP lawmaker Qazi Saleemul Haq, Bashundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, his two sons and the personal secretary to detained BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Tarique Rahman in connection with the Tk 21 crore bribery case.Meanwhile, the same court also issued arrest warrants against former principal secretary to the prime minister's office Kamal Uddin Siddique and four others in connection with the case for abuse of power and corruption in awarding a gas exploration and extraction deal to Canadian company Niko.CASE AGAINST SHAH ALAM After scrutinising all relevant documents, Metropolitan Sessions Judge ...
(read more) Thursday, May 8th, 2008The Election Commission (EC) yesterday assured President Iajuddin Ahmed of holding the long-stalled ninth parliamentary election by this year-end.Meanwhile, sources in the EC said the commission expects the voter list to be ready by early October, three weeks ahead of schedule.The field level task of voter listing will be completed by the end June or first week of July while the final roll with photographs will be ready by the end of September or first week of October.Talking to reporters at the EC Secretariat on return from the Bangabhaban, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda said, “The ...
(read more) Thursday, May 8th, 2008Former ambassadors of the country yesterday stressed the need for a more proactive foreign policy replacing the existing one, which remains 'reactive' only to developments in other countries.Criticising the neglect shown to matters of foreign affairs over the years, the former ambassadors urged for putting foreign policy in the centre of governance 'as done in the rest of the world'.Over 20 former ambassadors, who represented Bangladesh to different countries over the past few decades, underscored the need for bringing changes to the foreign policy apparatus at a roundtable discussion yesterday.The Daily Star and the Centre for Foreign Affairs Studies (C-Fas) ...
(read more) Thursday, May 8th, 2008Aid groups said yesterday they were still awaiting permission to enter Myanmar, where they reported bodies rotting on the ground and desperate cyclone survivors dying from hunger and disease.Five days after the storm hit, leaving more than 60,000 people dead or missing in one of the world's worst natural disasters, the full scope of the tragedy was not yet known, with many towns simply washed away.But international agencies painted a picture of devastation and urgent need, saying millions of people were homeless and without food and water -- while disaster experts waited in limbo, blocked by Myanmar's secretive army rulers."One ...
(read more) Thursday, May 8th, 2008British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury observed that the popularity with which the caretaker government came to power seems to be on the wane as he said two years are a long time for an interim regime.“Yes, it is a longer period of time. Our view was that it should be as shorter as possible and actions should be as faster as possible so you get to the elections,” he said in an exclusive interview with the UNB.Choudhury said, “The longer you take to do anything, the more risky you are from unseen events. Even if you are brilliant, you ...
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