Archive for August 29th, 2008
Friday, August 29th, 2008The High Court (HC) yesterday acquitted six former army men including Syed Farook Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Bazlul Huda and AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed of charges in the Jail Killing Case.It however upheld the death sentence to Resalder (retd) Muslemuddin, still on the run.Of those acquitted, Dafadar (dismissed) Marfat Ali Shah and Dafadar (dismissed) Abdul Hashem Mridha had been condemned to death for killing four national leaders inside jail while Lt Col (dismissed) Farook, Lt Col (retd) Shahriar Rashid, Major (retd) Huda and Major (retd) Mohiuddin sentenced to life for abetting in the act.Marfat Ali and Abdul Hashem are ...
(read more) Friday, August 29th, 2008The government yesterday launched a long-term mega project to establish an integrated environment-friendly traffic management system in greater Dhaka to relieve people of the present traffic congestion.The 20-year Strategic Transport Plan (STP) includes 17,400 square km of water and surface ways of Dhaka and neighbouring Narayanganj, Narsingdi, Munshiganj, Gazipur and Manikganj districts.Metro train services, elevated motorways, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), construction of roads connecting the east of the capital to the west, flyovers, footbridges and new roads, and repair of the damaged thoroughfares are the main features of the plan. It is aimed to be safe, reliable and affordable ...
(read more) Friday, August 29th, 2008Detained BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Tarique Rahman has secured bail in all the 13 cases filed against him as the Supreme Court (SC) yesterday granted his bail prayer in the Tk 21 crore bribery case.The three-member full bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice MM Ruhul Amin granted Tarique two months' ad interim bail yesterday in connection with the case involving the murder of Bashundhara Group Director Humayun Kabir Sabbir.The same bench of the apex court also upheld the High Court (HC) stay order on the proceedings against Tarique in a tax evasion case filed by the ...
(read more) Friday, August 29th, 2008THE Representation of People's Order 1972 has been amended and made into a law. We had earlier commented on this, bringing out its positive aspects and suggesting exactly where it could still be perfected.It has evidently come too late vis-à-vis the timing in the roadmap for registration of political parties by June this year in accord with an amended RPO, which should have come earlier. The political parties have not clearly specified what objections they have to the RPO, except to say it has come too late which, needless to say, we sympathise with. Thus the lead time for ...
(read more) Friday, August 29th, 2008THE pavements along the city streets are in a most chaotic state, unkempt, craggy, and worst of all, occupied by squatting vendors, shop-fronts, ticket counters, welding gears, bits and pieces of construction materials, fallen rubbish from house-tops, and sometimes, sewer spillage from manholes. Add to this, the diminishing ledges or shoulders of thoroughfares, the pedestrians have nowhere to go. Thousands of walking people are an integral part of city traffic but that being congested all around, the pedestrians look for elbow room on the pavements. But the pavements meant exclusively as walk-ways have lost their character, so the pedestrians get ...
(read more) Friday, August 29th, 2008THE drive from the airport to the Santika Hotel takes about 45 minutes, and, as with all other drives to the heart of a capital city, is a decent introduction to a new country. Jakarta, I could not help but note, certainly seems closer to Dhaka in terms of development and third world chaos than, say, a city like Bangkok.It is more developed, but has the same slightly dilapidated (sorry) air that Dhaka also has, and despite the stretches of prosperity and a general air of sufficiency, we passed by a number of pretty down-at-heel shanty-towns, clusters of tin-sheet huts ...
(read more) Friday, August 29th, 2008WHAT has happened to the dissenting voices, people who disagree to agree and speak their minds in the face of mortal challenge? The whole world believed that the sun revolved around the earth until one Nicolaus Copernicus proposed his contrary hypothesis. People of ancient Arabia indulged in idolatry and the Prophet of Islam proclaimed that Allah was the one and only God. When one Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the church door, the Catholic Church proved critically flawed.Even in the darker days of the world, one voice could have the power of many. It rang through the ...
(read more) Friday, August 29th, 2008FIRST Principles" (August 18) touches on scores of issues but I'll focus on curriculum and what Prof. Anwarul Huque describes as" adherence to universal child-friendly pedagogic treatments" and "real school working days." These, I felt, graduated beyond the realm of the rhetoric.Let me begin with some of Prof. Huque's unfounded claims. Many toss around expressions such as "child-friendly" and "child-centred," assuming that the meanings were obvious. Huque suggests that "child-friendly pedagogic treatments" are "universal."None of the South Asian countries, other than Sri Lanka and Maldives, and most developing countries, don't have child-friendly, let alone, child-centred schools.The former ...
(read more) Friday, August 29th, 2008Chittagong Mohammedan made history when they reached the semifinals of the Citycell Federation Cup for the first time yesterday.Goalkeeper Mamun Khan saved two penalties as the port city side set a semifinal clash with their more illustrious Dhaka namesakes when they ended BKSP's impressive run with a 4-2 tiebreakers victory after the last quarterfinal ended 1-1 in extra time at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.The Dhaka and Chittagong Mohammedans will play the second semifinal tomorrow.Both sides came to the quarterfinal unbeaten but the B. League outfit had an edge over the students of BKSP in the first half, taking a 1-0 ...
(read more) Friday, August 29th, 2008Bangladesh cricket team will take on Australia in the first of three one-day internationals at Darwin on Saturday. The match is scheduled to start at 6 o'clock in the morning.Usually the ESPN-STAR Sports network brings live coverage of cricket matches down under to this part of the world. Checking the programme schedules on the network's website, we found that neither ESPN nor STAR Sports would be telecasting the series. We were doing so to let our valued readers know which channel was going to show the matches.We then turned to the state-run Bangladesh Television to get the information if they ...
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