Month: July 2013

BNP-led 18-party alliance backed candidate Professor MA Mannan is set to be the first mayor of the recently established Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) winning a hard-fought election battle against 14-party alliance supported candidate Azmatullah Khan. Perhaps no other civic body elections generated so much heat and nationwide interest like the GCC election

The Awami League advisory council member, Tofail Ahmed, said on Saturday that the Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) election shows that the Opposition’s demand for a caretaker government to oversee the next general election is “illogical”. “The present Election Commission is not like the one headed by Aziz. All elections under this EC have been held

The main Opposition BNP on Saturday alleged irregularities and bias at many centres in the GCC election, saying that officials on poll duty worked in favour of the ruling party-backed candidate. The party also showed some examples as proof of irregularities in press briefings. Led by party standing committee member MK Anwar,

Though a ban was imposed on polythene bags 11 years ago, production of such bags is still continuing unabated. This is being attributed to the facts that the authorities have not enforced the ban properly and have not provided any feasible alternative to users. Green activists alleged that despite having enough knowledge

The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad Saturday claimed that the Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) elections were held in a free, fair and peaceful manner. “The voting in the GCC polls was completed without any unpleasant incidents and the voters exercised their franchises in peaceful environment,” CEC said this while addressing

The Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) elections were marked by enthusiastic participation of the voters without any incident of violence or clashes, who exercised their franchise braving scorching heat to elect a mayor, ward commissioners and women commissioners, says election observer FEMA. In its interim report, FEMA also observed that

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asked the opposition BNP to sue The Washington Times as it is claiming that the US daily published an article forging Khaleda Zia’s signature. “Why don’t you (BNP) sue The Washington Times if the signature is really fake?” she said while addressing a meeting of expatriate Bangladeshis living in Britain ... Read more

Around 25 kilograms of gold bar worth about Tk 9 crore from a toilet of an aircraft of Biman Bangladesh Airlines was recovered on Saturday noon. The Biman flight (Flight No. 044) arrived in the Shahjalal International Airport tarmac from Kuwait. Confirming the matter to The Independent, ASP of Armed

India’s Border Security Force (BSF) has shot and killed a total of 15 innocent Bangladeshis, in the first six months of 2013, according to a report by human rights organisation Odhikar. The Indian security men have also injured 53 and abducted 60 Bangladeshis in the same period, the report added. Giving details about the BSF’s ... Read more

Eminent economist Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya on Saturday urged the civil society members to be more active and play their due role during the ongoing crisis of the country. “There’s no scope for sitting idle for the civil society members. Something needs to be done,” he said while speaking at a views-exchange meeting organised by

The experimental Solar Impulse aircraft departed Washington early Saturday en route to New York on the final leg of its US tour aimed at showcasing the promise of clean energy, organisers said. The plane, which runs on four electric propellers powered by an array of solar cells mounted on the plane’s 63 meter wingspan, lifted ... Read more

Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus has once again clarified his position on his overstay as Grameen Bank managing director, saying that the bank’s board of directors had allowed the extension. The clarification came at a reception in his honour

Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei was chosen Saturday as premier to help lead Egypt out of a deepening crisis, sources said, after bloodshed followed the ouster of the country’s first freely elected president. The Tamarod movement, which engineered mass protests culminating in the overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on Wednesday, made

All eyes are on the high-stake Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) poll on Saturday, which has come to the fore of national politics in the backdrop of the landslide victory of Opposition-backed candidates in the recently concluded election to four city corporations. The GCC election has become an acid test for the Awami League

The BNP’s acting secretary general, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, has warned of an intense movement if rigging takes place in the Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) election on Saturday. “The government is planning to rig the GCC poll. We want to make it clear that if that happens a movement will be launched to topple the ... Read more

The ruling Awami League on Friday accused the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of hatching a conspiracy to make the Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) polls controversial at any cost. “We are very much shocked as the BNP leaders are engaged in spreading falsehood regarding the GCC polls to make it controversial,” Tofail Ahmed, AL ... Read more

Hundreds of primary school students are facing serious problems following the local administration’s directive to close schools as the buildings are unsafe. In a letter, dated June 12, Saturia Upazila primary education officer Sabera Sultana had asked seven primary school authorities to abandon their buildings as they developed multiple cracks.

The decision of the United States to suspend Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) facilities for Bangladesh may have been triggered by the ruling Awami League’s seemingly vindictive treatment of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who is widely seen as a darling of the West, and the killing of a labour organiser named Aminul Islam in custody, ... Read more