Archive for December 6th, 2008
Saturday, December 6th, 2008Registered political parties including Awami League, BNP, Jatiya Party and Jamaat-e-Islami placed on their polls tickets some 130 individuals who are either loan or utility service bill defaulters.Under pressure from the parties, the caretaker government relaxed the electoral laws twice to allow defaulters to contest the December 29 general election.Yet, the candidacy seekers in question did not reschedule their debts or outstanding bills, while the organisations did not bother to make sure their nominees are not in default on loans or utility bills.Of 39 registered political parties, as many as 30 nominated around 90 of their leaders defaulting on ...
(read more) Saturday, December 6th, 2008Awami league (AL), BNP and Jatiya Party (JP) are now scrambling to find alternative party nominees for parliamentary constituencies where their original nominees' applications for candidacy were rejected by returning officers.Meanwhile, some BNP and AL leaders who applied as independents are now vying for party backings as the original nominees in those constituencies had been denied candidacies, although in some constituencies the 'back-ups' or 'independents' loyal to the two major electoral alliances had also been declared unfit for contesting in the upcoming general election.All parties however decided to carry on legal battles against the rejections till the last date ...
(read more) Saturday, December 6th, 2008Purchase and sale of sacrificial animals have already started at different cattle markets in the city ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha but prices are high compared to the last year's prices because of low supply of cattle.Traders said the supply of cows was about 20 percent lower than that of the last year at Gabtali cattle market, the lone permanent cattle market, yesterday possibly because farmers did not rear as many cows for sale during the festival this year and the number of cows coming from India through different borders is still small.However, a number of sacrificial animals especially cows have ...
(read more) Saturday, December 6th, 2008Saudi Arabia has mobilised a force of 100,000 men to protect an estimated two million Muslim pilgrims flocking to Makkah for hajj, amid fears of attack or deadly stampedes.For the first time, the authorities have brought in sophisticated US-built helicopters to guard against possible attack during the world's largest pilgrimage, which has often been blighted by tragedy.Around two million Muslims are expected join the annual ritual, which this year begins on Saturday, including several hundred thousand Saudis and residents of the kingdom and at least 1.6 million from other countries."(Saudi forces) are ready to cope with their responsibilities," Interior Minister ...
(read more) Saturday, December 6th, 2008Agricultural sector in Bangladesh is already affected by global climate change, needing support for climate resilient agriculture and for overall adaptation, ActionAid said in a report at the UN summit on climate change in Poland.Citing an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report which had said South Asia might experience a 30 percent drop in agricultural production by 2050, ActionAid said the slide is already evident.The report of the international non-government development organisation noted that food security is under threat in many regions of the world, which will only worsen as the full extent of the impact of ...
(read more) Saturday, December 6th, 2008Chief Election Commission (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda said yesterday there cannot be a level playing field for all in the coming parliamentary election as some influential loan and bill defaulters will be in the polls race with court orders.Some renowned persons identified by Bangladesh Bank as defaulters got High Court orders following their writ petitions that allow them to contest the polls. But many other defaulters who did not file such writ petitions will remain out of the electoral race, he told a roundtable on 'Ninth Parliamentary Election and Our Mass Media'.The Election Commission (EC) and the central bank now ...
(read more) Saturday, December 6th, 2008Even though BNP leader Fazlur Rahman Patal owns a Lexus and a Nissan SUV, a Mazda car and a building in Dhaka worth Tk 1.54 crore, he claims to be a farmer earning Tk 2.15 lakh a year, thus not having to pay any income tax.Fazlur, a former state minister for youth and sports, in his nomination papers for Natore-1 constituency claimed agriculture as the only source of his income. Fazlur does not have to pay any income tax, according to the wealth statement attached to his nomination papers. One has to earn at least Tk 2.65 lakh a year ...
(read more) Saturday, December 6th, 2008The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has now set its sight on the country's cattle markets ahead of Eid-ul-Azha as part of its intensified drive against tax evaders.The revenue board thinks that the well-off people go for high-priced sacrificial animals in their efforts to get social attention.“We want to avail of this chance to net more tax dodgers,” NBR Chairman Muhammad Abdul Mazid told the news agency over phone on Thursday.The NBR also apprehended that the candidates, who are contesting the December 29 elections, would go for expensive sacrificial animals for this Eid-ul-Azha as the Eid is going ...
(read more) Saturday, December 6th, 2008The US ambassador to Dhaka has said elections intended to restore democratic rule in Bangladesh will be a watershed which could produce either a model Muslim democracy or a new hotbed of extremism."There will be no more transformational election in the world this year than the parliamentary elections scheduled for Dec 29 in Bangladesh," James F Moriarty said Thursday.He told a panel in Washington that according to reports available in websites, stakes for the United States in the December 29 parliamentary elections of Bangladesh, where 140 million people live, are enormous."The country could achieve a peaceful transition and become a ...
(read more) Saturday, December 6th, 2008Average milk consumption in Bangladesh is the lowest in the region. Its cost is the highest in the region due to low yield and high production cost, making it almost impossible for the majority people to have the nutritious food item.In Bangladesh, per capita daily calorie intake through milk is only 24 kilocalories, while in Sri Lanka it is 57, 82 in Nepal, 104 in India and 265 in Pakistan, according to statistical yearbook of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).Nutritionists say milk is an ideal food that easily provides large amounts of calcium and protein to the body but ...
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