Archive for January 21st, 2009
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009Stepping into history, Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in yesterday as America's first black president in a high-noon inauguration amid grave economic worries and high expectations.Braving icy temperatures and possible snow flurries, hundreds of thousands of people descended on the heavily guarded capital city for the first change of administrations since the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.Two years after beginning his improbable quest as a little-known, first-term Illinois senator with a foreign-sounding name, Obama moves into the Oval Office as the nation's fourth youngest president, at 47, and the first African-American, a racial barrier-breaking achievement believed impossible by generations ...
(read more) Wednesday, January 21st, 2009The newly elected Awami League (AL)-led alliance government is likely to modify the Local Government (Upazila Parishad) Ordinance to bestow some authority on lawmakers which the immediate-past caretaker government removed by promulgating the ordinance.LGRD and cooperatives ministry sources say the Ordinance might be passed in parliament incorporating some roles of lawmakers in local development in the face of pressure by many MPs.Giving the impression, LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam yesterday said, "The MPs should not play their role in making only laws. They have also made some pledges to the people of their constituencies."Some AL lawmakers told The ...
(read more) Wednesday, January 21st, 2009With everything set for upazila elections after around 19 long years, the time for formal electioneering ended midnight last night, 32 hours before voting begins tomorrow morning.Though non-partisan legally, the local government polls a little over three weeks after the national polls will see another contest between the political parties.Those in contention are mostly grassroots level leaders of Awami League (AL), BNP, Jatiya Party and others.Organizing or attending rallies or processions within election areas is banned since zero hour today. The curbs will be in force till 64 hours after the start of polling at 8:00am.Candidates and ...
(read more) Wednesday, January 21st, 2009The China Harbour and Engineering Company Ltd, which bribed Arafat Rahman Koko and other influential persons of the four-party alliance government to get the New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) Project, inflicted a loss of Tk 57 crore on the country by failing to complete the project in time.The Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) had to bear the loss as China Harbour failed to complete the project by August 16, 2006. China Harbour handed over the project to the CPA in an incomplete state in December 2007.Following a tender in July, 2003, the CPA signed an agreement with China Harbour on January ...
(read more) Wednesday, January 21st, 2009Before proper probes into the break-ins of Bangladesh Railway offices in Dhaka and Chittagong, the communication secretary yesterday said no important files and documents were stolen, adding confusion to the mysterious incident early Monday.Initially it was suspected that the criminals broke into the offices to steal documents or records related to railway's land properties, lease of land or documents of different projects to hide monetary corruption.Communication Secretary Iqbal Mahmud told reporters in a rushed briefing at the secretariat, "No important documents went missing from Dhaka Railway Bhaban according to the information we have got so far."Terming the incident ...
(read more) Wednesday, January 21st, 2009Twenty-two bodies among 25 missing day labourers were yesterday recovered from the earth-carrying trawler Sabbir-1 capsized in Meghna river in Doshani area under Matlab upazila early Monday.The deceased among others were identified as Masud, Akkas, Mukul, Altaf, Amirul, Arif, Ashraf, Joynal, Alaj, Farid, Liton, Mizanur, Rabiul, Monir, Noor Mohammad, Nayeb, Alauddin, Zahirul, Atahar, Nabir, Ripon and Shah Alam. All hailed from Chatmohor upazila of Pabna district.Fire service, coast guard men and divers of BIWTA located the sunken trawler in the river at about 12noon after 35 hours of the accident and recovered 22 bodies till filing of the report at ...
(read more) Wednesday, January 21st, 2009Finance Minister AMA Muhith said yesterday the government has no plan to return to the individuals the ill-gotten money recovered in the anti-corruption drive during the state of emergency."The money they deposited either willingly or for any other reason went to consolidated government fund. It is now the government's money," Muhith told reporters after a meeting with the ADB vice president.He said, "I don't know whether any legal question will arise in this regard. However, it can be seen if anybody files a case challenging it."Through the drive during the caretaker government's tenure, Tk 1,219 crore was deposited with the ...
(read more) Wednesday, January 21st, 2009The High Court (HC) yesterday declared illegal the Dhaka University's (DU) new admission rules that disqualify madrasa students for admission to the university's seven departments.An HC bench of justices Mir Hasmat Ali and Shamim Hasnain, however, observed that the Madrasa Education Board should consider revising its syllabus to meet the prerequisites for admission to general academic courses.The lawyers concerned said following the HC verdict, there is no legal bar now for madrasa students having passed Aleem exams to getting admitted to the university's seven departments.The HC verdict came following a writ petition filed by five DU admission seekers ...
(read more) Wednesday, January 21st, 2009Bangladesh Chhatra League activists of Chittagong University (CU) unit snapped telephone lines to the vice-chancellors' office and drove the deputy registrar of the office out yesterday afternoon.Four assistant proctors of the university submitted their resignation letters to the vice-chancellor (VC) yesterday and the VC accepted letters of three of them.The new developments came after the university authorities had the police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) raid all dormitories and two fraternity houses of the university Monday night. The law enforcers could not find anything illegal in the dorms during their raid that ended early yesterday morning.Sources said Chhatra ...
(read more) Wednesday, January 21st, 2009Pro-Awami League (AL) teachers of different public universities are now lobbying hard with new government high-ups to get appointment as vice chancellor (VC), pro-vice chancellor (pro-VC) and other top vital posts after the political changeover.On Thursday, Mass Communication and Journalism Department Professor and Dhaka University Teachers' Association (DUTA) former president AAMS Arefin Siddique was appointed as VC of Dhaka University (DU) in the place of Prof SMA Faiz. The new VC Siddique is a prominent and popular teacher from pro-AL teachers' group 'Blue panel' while outgoing VC Faiz was a member of pro-BNP 'White panel' of teachers.As part of removing ...
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