Month: February 2009

Staff Reporter The three-day long 45th Biswa Ijtema, the second largest congregation of Muslims, concluded yesterday after Akheri Munajat seeking divine blessings of Almighty Allah for continued peace, prosperity of Muslim Ummah and for global peace and prosperity at the banks of the River Turag at Tongi in Gazipur. Moulana Jubayerul Hassan of India officiated ... Read more

Speaker says law, order situation could be addressed under existing law; other notices based on assumption Staff Correspondent Speaker of the Parliament Abdul Hamid yesterday turned down all 21 notices from BNP-led opposition lawmakers for holding discussions on various issues adjourning other scheduled businesses of the House. The opposition lawmakers in their notices, submitted to ... Read more

Staff correspondent Relations between the Awami League-led treasury bench and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led main opposition were strained over seating arrangement soon after the new parliament went into its maiden session on January 25. The session has become a dull and dreary affair as lawmakers of the BNP and its allies continued staying off the ... Read more

Staff Reporter Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday stressed the need for building up a knowledge-based advanced and open thinking society for upholding the dignity of the mother language. She urged the people to come up with suggestions and cooperation for development and preservation of language and culture of the nation alongside enriching those through drawing ... Read more

Staff Correspondent The Bangladesh Nationalist Party standing committee, the party’s highest policymaking body, on Sunday decided to reconstitute all the committees from grassroots to national levels in the aftermath of the December 29 elections debacle. Six committees, led by joint secretaries general, will start interviewing upazila-level leaders tomorrow to get the real picture of the ... Read more

Drive out 3 CAAB lessees; passenger sufferings mount Staff Correspondent Leaders and activists of Airport police station unit of Awami League (AL) and its front organisations yesterday took control of the cab service counters at Zia International Airport after driving out the three lessees of Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB). They locked the rooms ... Read more

Staff correspondent The ruling party and the opposition on Sunday continued demanding formation of high-powered parliamentary committees to examine extra-constitutional activities of the immediate-past military-controlled interim government. BNP-led main opposition lawmakers on Sunday supported the proposal of the archrival Awami League lawmaker Abdul Jalil for the formation of a parliamentary committee, with the speaker as ... Read more

Staff Correspondent The BNP-led opposition yesterday decided to abstain from parliament proceedings until the speaker decides on their demand for three more seats in the front row of the House. The opposition lawmakers boycotted parliament on its second sitting on Wednesday, placing their demand to the speaker, and remained out of the House for three ... Read more

Staff Reporter The students of secondary level across the country are suffering from textbook crisis. Although first month of the new academic year has already passed, the students are not getting textbooks to commence their study. Nobody knows when the textbooks will arrive to the learners. The crisis has been created by syndicates of textbook ... Read more

Staff Correspondent One person died and over two hundred people were wounded in two separate incidents while devotees were returning home after the end of the Biswa Ijtema yesterday. Over two hundred passengers sustained minor injuries after they jumped off a slow-moving train at Tongi in the afternoon following a false fire alarm. Most of ... Read more

Staff Correspondent, Bogra BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia spent only Tk 3 lakh in Bogra-6 (Sadar) constituency in the last parliamentary election when her nearest rival Awami League Bogra unit President Momtaj Uddin spent Tk 14.92 lakh. In her other constituency Bogra-7 (Gabtoli-Shahjahanpur), Khaleda spent Tk 5 lakh while her nearest contestant Grand Alliance nominee and ... Read more

Staff Correspondent The government will not appeal against the High Court verdict that ordered it to appoint 10 former additional judges of the High Court who were deprived of appointment as permanent judges between 2001 and 2003 during the BNP-led alliance government’s tenure. Additional attorney general M Enayetur Rahim told the Appellate Division of the ... Read more

UNB, Dhaka Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment secretary Mohammad Abdul Matin Chowdhury, Acting Secretary of Labour Dr Mahfuzul Haque, Additional Secretary of Agriculture MA Akmal Hossain Azad and Director General of NIPORT Nasimul Gani are made OSD, said an official handout today. Dr Khandaker Shaukat Hossain, OSD, was posted as Divisional Commissioner of Dhaka. A ... Read more

Agence France-Presse . Molo, Kenya At least 111 people died in Kenya when an overturned petrol tanker exploded as people swarmed over it to scoop up leaking fuel in one of the region’s worst such accidents, officials said Sunday. ‘Certainly this is a national tragedy. We have just been informed that more succumbed to injuries ... Read more

Staff Reporter A delegation of the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) will visit Bangladesh this month to see the progresses made by Bangladesh’s frozen food sector regarding hygiene and food safety. Prior the visit the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock will convene a preparatory meeting of the stakeholders tomorrow at the ministry ... Read more

Reuters/Bdnews24.com . Melbourne Rafa Nadal captured the Australian Open title with an enthralling 7-5, 3-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-2 win over Roger Federer on Sunday, denying the Swiss a chance to win a record-equalling 14th grand slam title. The world number one became the first Spaniard to win the Open and chalked up his fifth straight ... Read more

Staff Correspondent Unidentified criminals gunned down a contractor in the city’s Khilgaon area yesterday. The deceased was identified as Harun Gazi, 40, son of Wajed Gazi of East Rampura. Police said a gang of five to seven around 2:30pm shot him when he was supervising a construction site at Nabinbagh Balur Math of Meradia, leaving ... Read more

Diplomatic Correspondent Priyanka Gandhi, daughter of the current President of the Indian National Congress Sonia Gandhi, will arrive here tomorrow afternoon to get a first-hand experience of rural development projects run by Brac. Foreign Secretary Touhid Hossain confirmed the visit of Priyanka and said she will be visiting at the invitation of the Brac, the ... Read more

Staff Correspondent The Danish minister for climate and energy, Connie Hedegaard is arriving in Dhaka today on a three-day visit to get the first-hand impression of climate change vulnerability of Bangladesh’s coastal belt and hold talks with the officials. Foreign ministry officials said that the Danish minister was likely to meet the prime minister, Sheikh ... Read more