Archive for November 13th, 2008
Thursday, November 13th, 2008Finally, former prime ministers and arch-rivals Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia yesterday agreed to sit together to solve the crises confronting the country.However, while Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina wants an agenda for the discussions, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia says the talks should not be confined to specific subjects.The issue of the much-desired meeting between the two resurfaced when AL spokesman Syed Ashraful Islam yesterday afternoon said their party chief is ready to sit with her counterpart in BNP if the government sets an agenda.He was briefing reporters after a meeting between the AL president and ambassadors ...
(read more) Thursday, November 13th, 2008The High Court (HC) yesterday granted two months' ad interim bail to former finance minister M Saifur Rahman, Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Matiur Rahman Nizami and Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid in the Barapukuria coalmine corruption case.An HC bench of justices Muzammel Hossain and Afzal Hossain Ahmed stayed proceedings of the case against them for two months and issued a rule upon the government and the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) to explain within four weeks why the proceedings against them should not be quashed.Meanwhile, the Special Judge's Court-2 fixed November 23 as the next date for hearing in the case after ...
(read more) Thursday, November 13th, 2008The armed forces will be in the field along with other law enforcement agencies for 20 days from December 12 to maintain law and order before and after the upcoming parliamentary and upazila parishad elections.A high-powered meeting of the Election Commission (EC), the government, armed forces and different law enforcement and intelligence agencies yesterday took the decision on troops deployment.Chaired by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda, the meeting decided to engage the army, navy, air force, Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), armed police, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and Ansar in election duties six days before the parliamentary election scheduled for ...
(read more) Thursday, November 13th, 2008Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday assured that they would take steps to reduce the existing trade gap between Bangladesh and India.The Indian premier made the assurance as Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed requested him to take measures for striking a balance in the volume of trade between the two countries through narrowing the existing gap.To this end, Bangladesh also requested India to increase trade facilities for increased export of Bangladeshi products to the Indian market through removing non-tariff barriers.The assurances and requests were made when the chief adviser had a meeting with the Indian prime minister at his residence ...
(read more) Thursday, November 13th, 2008Officials of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTCL) nakedly get Tk 15,000 to Tk 1.5 lakh each every month as a share of collective illegal income, says the Truth and Accountability Commission (Tac).These top-to-bottom level officials of BTCL, former BTTB, are committing gross corruption for long, causing a huge loss to the government exchequer every year.Whenever a committee was formed to look into corruption and take departmental action, the issue was suppressed in course of time, as the investigators themselves were involved. Moreover, whenever the authorities were forced to take action, lower-level officials were made the scapegoat.Tac Chairman Justice Habibur Rahman ...
(read more) Thursday, November 13th, 2008The International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday forecast that the growth of garment exports from Bangladesh might drop to single digits in the current fiscal year (FY09) due to global economic turmoil.It also said the country's GDP growth in the year would dip to 5.5 percent, which was projected at 6.5 percent by the present government.The predictions came when a three-member delegation of the Fund met Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam and Bangladesh Bank Governor Salehuddin Ahmed.According to meeting sources, the IMF team said the outlook for garment exports looks bleak because of severe economic downturns in the US and ...
(read more) Thursday, November 13th, 2008The International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday forecast that the growth of garment exports from Bangladesh might drop to single digits in the current fiscal year (FY09) due to global economic turmoil.It also said the country's GDP growth in the year would dip to 5.5 percent, which was projected at 6.5 percent by the present government.The predictions came when a three-member delegation of the Fund met Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam and Bangladesh Bank Governor Salehuddin Ahmed.According to meeting sources, the IMF team said the outlook for garment exports looks bleak because of severe economic downturns in the US and ...
(read more) Thursday, November 13th, 2008General Secretary of Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) Mujahidul Islam Selim has said the nation is going to witness a 'bad election' by the yearend as the government has failed to bring any fundamental changes in the institutions overseeing the polls process.“Money game will be on, violence and manifold attempts to influence the administration will be there this time also,” he said.Despite all this, the CPB will participate in the coming election as the nation badly needs an elected government, Selim said in an interview with The Daily Star.“We think an elected government must govern the country, and restore ...
(read more) Thursday, November 13th, 2008BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain yesterday said the four-party alliance would not participate in any stage-managed election designed to form a 'rubber stamp parliament and a puppet government.'"We want to take part in a free, fair and credible election and will accept the election result," he said at a meeting in the city's Diploma Engineers' Institute to press home the four-party's demand to release their three top leaders."Those who will win in that election will form the government and we will sit on the opposition bench if we lose," Delwar said, adding that they however will not accept any ...
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