Bangladesh News Updates : 11.5.2009

Bangladesh News

Prove innocence in war crime Posted: 11 May 2009 05:35 PM PDT A Dhaka court yesterday summoned Jamaat leaders Ghulam Azam, Motiur Rahman Nizami, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid, BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, and 32 others to appear before it on July 20 to explain why they should not be declared war criminals for committing crimes against humanity during Bangladesh’s liberation war in 1971. According to the court [...]

GTCL goes for ‘forced’ re-tender for 3rd time Posted: 11 May 2009 05:33 PM PDT Going against its tender evaluation committee and a project consultant, the Gas Transmission Company Ltd (GTCL) board headed by the Petrobangla chairman disqualified the lowest bid of a crucial $150 million gas compressor project. The project is aimed at improving gas supply pressure and flow, sources said. During the GTCL board meeting Saturday, which saw heated arguments [...]

4th HC bench declines to hear Khaleda’s petition Posted: 11 May 2009 05:31 PM PDT This time a High Court (HC) bench assigned by Chief Justice MM Ruhul Amin has declined to hear BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s writ petition challenging the legality of the government decision to cancel the allotment of her cantonment house. Three HC benches had already shied away from hearing the former prime minister’s petition, and the court [...]

Demand for 100pc duty on newsprint import a conspiracy Posted: 11 May 2009 05:29 PM PDT As Bangladesh Paper Mills Association’s demanded 100 percent duty on newsprint imports, Newspaper Owners’ Association of Bangladesh (Noab) yesterday urged the government to keep zero tariff on newsprint imports to ensure press freedom and free flow of information. Expressing concern, Noab in a statement said the demand for imposing 100 percent duty on newsprint import is [...]

Parties’ Poll Expenses: Reports beyond public still Posted: 11 May 2009 05:25 PM PDT The Election Commission (EC) has not yet disclosed polls expenditure reports submitted to it by the political parties and candidates who contested the last parliamentary election although electoral laws make the disclosure mandatory to ensure people’s access to those. Representation of the People Order (RPO) provides that copies of polls expenditure of the parties and candidates [...]

Ghulam Azam: Focus back on, 8yrs after Posted: 11 May 2009 05:24 PM PDT Former Jamaat ameer Ghulam Azam stayed out of focus since he disappeared from open politics of Jamaat-e-Islami eight years ago. One of the front men of 1971 who actively helped Pakistani occupation forces’ attempts to foil the birth of Bangladesh, he was brought to spotlight once again after yesterday’s court order. Ghulam Azam, who was hyperactive [...]

200 BDR men held in 7 dists Posted: 11 May 2009 05:18 PM PDT About 200 suspected BDR rebels were arrested from different sectors, battalions and camps in seven northern districts yesterday as the police started filing sedition cases against the border troops across the country for staging February 25-26 mutiny. Police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) assisted by army personnel arrested suspected mutineers from different BDR units as courts [...]

RMG workers go on the rampage Posted: 11 May 2009 05:14 PM PDT Several hundred ready-made garment (RMG) workers vandalised more than a dozen garment factories at BSCIC industrial area in Fatullah of Narayanganj yesterday morning demanding a hike in their salaries. Meanwhile, another group of workers in Savar put up blockades on Dhaka-Aricha highway and damaged around 30 vehicles halting traffic movement for over an hour. Workers at both [...]

2 killed in Rangamati gunfight Posted: 11 May 2009 05:11 PM PDT Two activists of United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF) were killed in a gun battle with army members during a raid at Badalchhari under sadar upazila yesterday. The army men rounded up two UPDF activists in the predawn raid. A huge number of arms and ammunition were also recovered from the UPDF hideout, 30 kilometres off the [...]

Proposed salaries to be slashed off a little Posted: 10 May 2009 04:43 PM PDT The finance ministry plans to cut 10 to 20 percent of the Pay Commission’s recommended scales for 20 grades of government employees. Sources say the ministry is now looking for ways to cut Tk 2,000-2,500 crore of the commission’s recommended expenditure for paying government employees. They said the ministry is currently examining what amount of money they [...]

Bangladesh News Updates : 10.5.2009

Bangladesh News

Nuke answer to power Posted: 09 May 2009 01:21 PM PDT Previous governments may not have kept the promise to build a nuclear power plant for the last 40 years but this Awami League government is committed to make it happen during its tenure, said State Minister for Science and ICT Yeafesh Osman yesterday. “We mean business,” he said at a discussion titled “Prospects of nuclear power [...]

Govt’s borrowing from banks may rise 34pc Posted: 09 May 2009 01:18 PM PDT The government’s bank borrowing target for the next fiscal year (FY) may be increased by 34 percent over this year’s and set at Tk 18,000 crore due to a possible mismatch between budgetary earning and expenditure next year. In the current FY, the target of bank borrowing is Tk 13,500 crore. Finance ministry sources however said the [...]

Dr Wazed no more Posted: 09 May 2009 01:15 PM PDT Eminent scientist and husband of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Dr MA Wazed Miah passed away yesterday afternoon in the capital’s Square Hospital after a prolonged battle with multiple illnesses. The prime minister was beside her husband at the moment of his passing away. He had been suffering for long from high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, and [...]

NID cards only for those eligible for becoming voters Posted: 09 May 2009 01:13 PM PDT Only people eligible for being registered as voters will now be entitled to get national identity (NID) card, according to a draft national identity registration act. It also proposed that preparation of fake NID card and any cooperation in this regard would be considered a non-bailable offence with the offender liable to imprisonment for up to [...]

Khaleda rushes to Sudha Sadan, consoles Hasina Posted: 09 May 2009 01:05 PM PDT Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia rushed to Sudha Sadan last night to stand beside Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and convey her condolence on the death of Dr MA Wazed Miah. The BNP chairperson went there around 9:00pm and stayed for around 25 minutes. The BNP also decided last night to postpone a human chain programme today [...]

Troops kill 55 Taliban in fierce Swat fighting Posted: 09 May 2009 01:02 PM PDT Doctors rushed to treat wounded Pakistani civilians and desperate refugees looted UN supplies yesterday, as thousands of troops backed by bomb-dropping warplanes sought to purge Taliban militants from a northwestern valley. The army said it killed as many as 55 more Taliban fighters in clashes in the Swat Valley on Saturday. Four soldiers were wounded, a [...]

Project for disabled gets uncertain Posted: 09 May 2009 12:59 PM PDT The fate of $35 million donor-funded project for the welfare of the persons with disability (PWDs) and disadvantaged children is uncertain due to negligence of the government in launching it formally within the timeframe, which has already expired. The World Bank and Bangladesh government signed an agreement on December 28 last year for the five-year term [...]

Infighting grips JCD over new committee Posted: 09 May 2009 12:57 PM PDT Internal feud has raised its ugly head in BNP’s student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) ahead of the formation of a new central committee as part of the party’s initiative to reform its associated organisations. The row was sparked over whether a fresh full-fledged central committee will be formed or a convening committee will run the [...]

Ex-NSI officer taken to TFI for quizzing Posted: 09 May 2009 12:54 PM PDT Further interrogation of arrested former director (security) of National Security Intelligence (NSI) Mohammad Sahab Uddin began at TFI cell in Dhaka yesterday afternoon in connection with the Chittagong arms haul case. Sahab Uddin was brought to the Task Force for Interrogation (TFI) cell in the afternoon. The interrogation started around 4:00pm, said the sources. A Chittagong court [...]

Foreign forces being invited in search of militants Posted: 09 May 2009 12:49 PM PDT Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami yesterday said a certain quarter is inviting foreign forces to Bangladesh in search of militants mentioning the country’s inability to fight against militancy. The Jamaat chief was addressing a council of Bangladesh Islamic Lawyers Association (BILA) as chief guest at Diploma Engineers’ Institute in the capital yesterday morning. He said besides Jamaat-e-Islami, [...]

Bangladesh News Updates : 8.5.2009

Bangladesh News

Pollution industry-made Posted: 07 May 2009 02:13 PM PDT Industries got a whacking yesterday as experts and environmentalists maintained that rivers around Dhaka are getting polluted wholesale by industrial waste. Even industries with effluent treatment plants do not run those facilities. The capital’s sewage is also mostly untreated and dumped into the rivers as the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) has very few [...]

ADB pledges $200m Posted: 07 May 2009 02:12 PM PDT Bangladesh is going to get $200 million as budget support by December this year from the newly formed recession fund of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to tackle the fallout of global meltdown. Finance Minister AMA Muhith said this at a press briefing at his office yesterday on return from the ADB’s annual conference in Indonesian [...]

Cabinet to expand soon Posted: 07 May 2009 02:12 PM PDT Some senior and mid-level leaders of Awami League (AL) and the components of its grand alliance are busy with hectic lobbying to become cabinet members, as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is planning to expand the cabinet soon. Sources in the government and AL said Hasina’s plan was inspired by an evaluation report that had identified [...]

55,000 Bangladeshis to get job gradually Posted: 07 May 2009 02:11 PM PDT Malaysia will gradually recruit the 55,000 Bangladeshi workers it sent back, said Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain yesterday. “Bangladesh High Commissioner in Kuala Lumpur said there was discussion in the Malaysian parliament on lifting the ban but the decision has not been officially shared yet,” Mosharraf Hossain told The Daily Star. “Malaysia needs [...]

Slack swine flu screening at ZIA Posted: 07 May 2009 02:11 PM PDT Shahabul, a migrant worker returning from Malaysia, was coughing yesterday as his relatives helped him away from Zia International Airport (ZIA) after his arrival. The 25-year-old man said he was forced to give up his job and return home after suffering from continuous fever and coughs for over three months, but on arrival at ZIA he [...]

Talks on change in constitution start Posted: 07 May 2009 02:10 PM PDT A parliamentary committee yesterday began deliberations on a private member’s bill seeking to repeal the constitutional provision that allows the president to assume the role of chief adviser to caretaker government. Along with another, the bill also proposes provisions for displaying the portrait of father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at offices of [...]

Bismillah to remain in constitution Posted: 07 May 2009 02:10 PM PDT Law Minister Shafique Ahmed yesterday said Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim would remain in the constitution as it was even if the fifth amendment to the constitution was annulled in line with the High Court (HC) verdict. He refuted the allegation of former minister Moudud Ahmed that one-party BKSAL (Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League) rule and anarchy would [...]

Fresh notice to Khaleda to vacate house Posted: 07 May 2009 02:08 PM PDT Directorate of Military Lands and Cantonments yesterday served a fresh notice upon BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia asking her to show cause as to why she should not be asked to return the estate, including the house, within the next 15 days. Talking to The Daily Star a senior intelligence official said an officer of the Directorate [...]

Pakistan pounds Taliban hideouts Posted: 07 May 2009 02:07 PM PDT Pakistani attack helicopters and warplanes pounded suspected Taliban hideouts Thursday, as thousands of people fled the deadliest fighting to erupt in the northwest district of Swat in months. Aid workers warned that the humanitarian crisis was escalating in the area after families streamed out of the Taliban militant stronghold on foot or crammed into cars weighed [...]

Madhav may lead Nepal coalition Posted: 07 May 2009 02:06 PM PDT The CPN (UML) is all set to choose Madhav Kumar Nepal as the leader of the next coalition that will form the government. UML Vice-Chairperson Bidhya Devi Bhandari here on Wednesday said, “Madhav Kumar Nepal has the ability to bring together different parties. UML is going to pick him unanimously as the leader of the next [...]