Taib Ahmed This year’s winter is likely to set in at the end of the current month while the fog which has overcast the country excluding Khulna and Chittagong districts will take more two or three days to go, said meteorologists of the Bangladesh meteorology department. ‘The full-fledged winter will take at least two weeks ... Read more
Month: December 2008
Govt to set up automated DEDO for online bill collection
Staff Correspondent The government has decided to set up an automated Duty Exemption and Drawback Office (DEDO) aiming to reduce time to collect bills of entry from the customs houses through online across the country. “Collection of DEDO copy of bills of entry that is one of the major hassles often takes a long time. ... Read more
Govt invites parties to speak on media
bdnews24.com, Dhaka Fifteen political parties are being given the chance to deliver electoral speeches on state-run Bangla-desh Television and Bangladesh Betar. “The speeches will be broadcast from Dec 17 but the draft texts have to be submitted beforehand (by Dec 15),” information secretary Jamil Osman said on Sunday. The information ministry has sent letters to ... Read more
Govt steps in pipeline to keep remittance stable
Asif Showkat The government has decided to take initiatives to keep the remittance inflow stable in this stormy time of global financial turmoil, sources in Bangladesh Bank said. ‘We will take several plans for increasing remittance inflow, including asking the banks to reduce their charges on remitted money; as a result, more remittance will come ... Read more
Dhaka stocks see lacklustre day
Turnover drops to 9-month low Staff Correspondent Dhaka stocks finished lower on Sunday amid thin participation of investors as the bourse returned to trading after a nine-day closure, market operators said. The Dhaka Stock Exchange remained closed from December 5 to 13 on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha and the weekly holidays. The DSE general index ... Read more
Siemens bribed to bag contracts in Bangladesh, other countries
Kazi Azizul Islam Documents submitted to a US court in a case disclose that German industrial conglomerate Siemens bribed the authorities concerned to gain a telecom infrastructure contract in Bangladesh as it did at least in two other countries. The case documents were submitted on Friday to a US court, which is scheduled to hear ... Read more
TeleTalk eyes loan from China
Md Hasan State-run mobile operator TeleTalk seeks to get $221 million loans from the Chinese government, mainly to expand its network to provide third-generation technology (3G). The operator said its board had accepted the loan proposal, now pending with the Economic Relations Division (ERD) for further processing. “The telecommunication ministry is in talks over the ... Read more
Victory Day celebration at Liberation War Museum
Nadia Sarwat A four-day celebration by Liberation War Museum (LWM) on our Victory day started on December 13 at the museum premises with a demand to include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the curriculum of schools, colleges and Madrassas. Mafidul Haque, trustee and member secretary of LWM welcomed the audience and presented the ... Read more
I don’t know if the most deserving won or not: Parvathy Omanakutta
Spicezee Bureau Mumbai: After her scintillating and confident show at the Miss World 2008 pageant held in South Africa, India`s Parvathy Omanakuttan, the first-runner up reveals that she is rapturous over her success, but unsure if the winner was deserving. Her confidence and poise throughout the gala was exemplary. On being announced as the first-runner ... Read more
BNP pledges accountable political system
Khaleda unveils 36-point election manifesto Shahidul Islam Chowdhury The Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, pledged to create a responsible and accountable political system in the country as she unveiled the party’s 36-point election manifesto on Saturday. She also promised to make Jatiya Sangsad the ‘centre of politics’, amendments to provisions of the caretaker government ... Read more
AL manifesto termed positive subject to implementation
Staff Correspondent Economists and political analysts on Saturday termed Awami League ‘election manifesto’ as positive but said political parties before election usually promise to do all good for the people and the country but when they go to power, they don’t implement their commitment. To The Bangladesh Today, economist and political analyst Farhad Mazhar said ... Read more
Martyred Intellectuals Day today
Staff Correspondent The nation pays tribute to the martyred intellectuals today amid increasing demand for trial of war criminals who systematically killed prominent Bangladeshi intellectuals and professionals at the fag end of the Liberation War on this day in 1971. On this day in 1971 renowned academics, doctors, engineers, journalists, teachers and other eminent personalities ... Read more
Filing of nomination for upazila polls ends
9,976 nomination papers filed Staff Correspondent The election authorities received a total of 9,976 nomination papers from aspirants in 481 upazilas till Saturday, the last date for the filing of nominations for the January 22 polls, the Election Commission said. Of the total aspirants, 3,562 filed nominations for the post of chairman, 2,968 for the ... Read more
Vote 4-party to foil anti-state plots, Urges Khaleda Zia
Staff Correspondent BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday urged people to vote for the BNP-led four-party alliance to foil the conspiracy to make the country a ‘failed and subservient’ state. “A political alliance has been conspiring to make the country a failed and subservient state. They foiled the January 22 election last year killing people and ... Read more
No anti-Islamic law if AL voted to power, Says Matia
Staff Correspondent Awami League (AL) will not formulate any anti-Islamic law if voted to power since the party is committed to restoring the image of Islam as a religion of peace and equality, said AL presidium member Matia Chowdhury yesterday. “Awami League and its allies do not want to use Islam as a political tool ... Read more
We joined Awami League for sure win: Ershad
bdnews24.com, Sylhet Jatiya Party joined the Awami League-led electoral alliance for a sure victory, JP Chairman Hossein Muhammed Ershad said on Saturday. “I’m disappointed that we got much less than what we wanted from the alliance, and we got only one seat in Sylhet out of six,” the former president told local media in Sylhet. ... Read more
Dense fog disrupts journey of Dhaka bound passengers
Road, water and air communications disrupted Staff Correspondent Dense fog on Saturday disrupted road, water and air communications throughout the country causing untold suffering specially to the city bound people who were returning to their respective cities including capital Dhaka after Eid celebration. The fog forced flight operations at the Zia International Airport (ZIA) to ... Read more
EC in dilemma over symbol distribution: Parties, allies in disarray
Pulack Ghatack Ties within the major political parties as well as in their electoral alliances remain loose resulting in the increase of defiant candidates, which has bewildered the Election Commission (EC) in allotting symbols for the December 29 general elections. Indecision among the parties over seat sharing with their allies has also put the EC ... Read more
India pressurises Pak to crack down on militants
Pak govt banned Jamat-ud-Dawah for its own interest, says US Afp, Pti, New Delhi India yesterday piled new pressure on Pakistan to crack down on Islamic militants in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh citing a “moral duty” to combat terrorism. The comments came after Pakistan arrested dozens of members ... Read more
UN talks set stage for climate pact next year
Afp, Poznan, Poland A planet-wide forum on climate change yesterday hammered out a work schedule designed to end in a treaty for expunging the darkening threat to mankind from greenhouse gases. In the pre-dawn hours, the 192-member UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Poland set down a programme of work that, it declared, ... Read more