Archive for October 27th, 2008
Monday, October 27th, 2008The deep depression over the Bay of Bengal grew into Cyclone Reshmi yesterday, and was approaching the country's south-western coast with the possibility of making landfall by noon today.According to the Met office, the storm has lost much of its strength for expansion. As of last evening, it was spinning over a radius of 250 kilometres. The wind speed at the core was ranging between 60 and 80 kms an hour.A special warning issued by the Met office said the cyclone was about 460 kms west-southwest off Chittagong port, 435 kms west-southwest off Cox's Bazar and 280 kms southwest ...
(read more) Monday, October 27th, 2008The government has slashed petroleum prices by 10 to 13 percent following the recent drastic price fall in the global market.In an announcement yesterday, chief adviser's special assistant for energy M Tamim said prices of per litre diesel and kerosene will come down to Tk 48 from Tk 55, petrol to Tk 78 from Tk 87 and octane to Tk 80 from Tk 90.The new fuel prices effective from Sunday midnight will also reduce diesel-run transport fares by Tk 0.05 to Tk 0.07 per kilometre, he added."The petroleum prices have been reduced following fall of prices in the global market; ...
(read more) Monday, October 27th, 2008Interbank foreign exchange trading that caused big losses to at least eight banks about six years back has suddenly been twisted and wrongly labelled as 'money laundering', although the Bangladesh Bank had resolved them as transactional losses.The false notion arose when an attempt was made on Saturday to file a case against Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) chief Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury. Efforts were made to implicate that Mashhud had laundered money from Trust Bank, of which he was the ex-officio chairman as the erstwhile army chief. The allegation was based on the fact that the bank had lost about Tk 22.41 ...
(read more) Monday, October 27th, 2008The problem of wording BNP had in its provisional amended constitution regarding severing its ties with 'associated' organisations of students and professionals was corrected yesterday, removing all barriers to its registration with the Election Commission (EC).BNP Joint Secretary General Nazrul Islam Khan went to the EC Secretariat yesterday and made the correction making it clear that the party will not have any front or associated organisation."Now we have no problem in getting registered with the commission," he said on his way out of the secretariat.Meanwhile, the EC is likely to miss its own October 30 deadline for completing registration ...
(read more) Monday, October 27th, 2008The government yesterday appealed to the Afghan authorities to secure the release of two Brac officials who were abducted from Ghazni province Thursday afternoon.Three days after they were kidnapped the whereabouts of the two are yet to be known.Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury also made an appeal to the abductors to release the two innocent Bangladeshis who were engaged in development work for the benefit of Afghan people.Meanwhile, Brac said it would gradually withdraw its 160 Bangladeshi workforce in Afghanistan in the next five years.Four gunmen abducted Mohammad Shahjahan Ali and Akhter Ali, Brac area managers posted in Ghazni, ...
(read more) Monday, October 27th, 2008Leaders of the BNP-led four-party alliance yesterday said they would not participate in the December 18 election without Khaleda Zia.They also demanded that the caretaker government clear the air over the BNP chief's polls participation before the announcement of election schedule on November 2.They were addressing a gathering at the National Press Club auditorium."You must say loud and clear now if they [BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina] would be allowed to contest the election," said BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain."We want to make it clear that the four-party alliance won't take ...
(read more) Monday, October 27th, 2008The Awami League (AL) yesterday finalised its draft policy to seek names of the possible candidates for the next national election from its grassroots level committees.The local AL bodies will now finalise a five-member panel of candidates for each constituency through holding an open ballot. The party has recently put this provision in its constitution to get registered with the Election Commission.The AL presidium, the highest policymaking body, last night finalised the draft, which will be approved by the AL Central Working Committee (ALCWC) within a week."In our draft ward, union, municipality, thana, upazila and district committee members will ...
(read more) Monday, October 27th, 2008Renowned lawyer barrister Rafique-ul Huq has said big political parties should appoint an ombudsman if they want to clean the party and bring real democracy in it.The next government may repeal the caretaker government system and the two major political parties might come to a consensus that those who can run the country can also hold an election and that they would have trust in that election, he said in an interview with The Daily Star.He appreciated the present caretaker government for its good work like formulating the income tax law amendment ordinance and the Supreme Judicial Commission ordinance, preparation ...
(read more) Monday, October 27th, 2008The power ministry is seeking the opinion of the government's Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) to see if the ongoing tender process of the 450MW Bibiyana Power Project complies with the procurement rules.As the cabinet's purchase committee last month raised a number of questions about the Powertek Consortium--the tender's lone bidder from Malaysia and South Korea--and its bid, the ministry recently turned to CPTU of the Implementation, Monitoring, and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the planning ministry."Based on the CPTU's review we shall ask the Power Cell [which floated the tender] to re-evaluate Powertek's bid," said a top source of the ...
(read more) Monday, October 27th, 2008The government has taken steps to enforce the High Court (HC) order on stopping sale and display of all the eight brands of powdered milk "contaminated with melamine".Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) will issue a public notice in this regard for the police and the departments concerned to implement the order, while committees will be formed at district levels to monitor the markets.A high-level meeting on melamine in milk held at the secretariat with Health and Food Adviser AMM Shawkat Ali in the chair took the decision yesterday.The government took the decision prior to receiving the certified copy ...
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