Dhaka Mirror

Delhi says India not planning to attack Pakistan Afp, Ap, Srinagar/ New Delhi India’s foreign minister said yesterday the peace process with Pakistan had been put on hold in the wake of last month’s Islamic militant attacks on Mumbai. “I do admit there is a pause in the composite dialogue process because of the attacks ... Read more

Staff Correspondent The nation today celebrates the 37th anniversary of its glorious victory over the Pakistani occupation forces after nine-month-long Liberation War amid calls for boycotting the war criminals in the upcoming parliamentary election. The people imbued with the spirit of the Liberation War in 1971 will pay homage to the three million martyrs for ... Read more

Staff Reporter Awami League (AL) president Sheikh Hasina yesterday said her party, if elected to office, would not pass any laws that go against the Quran or Sunnah. She made the declaration at an election rally of Jahangir Kabir Nanak, the grand-alliance candidate for Dhaka-13 constituency. Addressing a large section of the electorate who are ... Read more

Staff Reporter BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia yesterday warned that people of the country would not accept any attempt to sabotage the forthcoming parliamentary elections on December 29. She said any attempt to sabotage the polls will be catastrophic. “Conspiracy is under way to foil the elections,” she said at an election meeting in Jessore ... Read more

Staff Correspondent The Election Commission (EC) has decided to deploy the Army from December 20 across the country ahead of 9th parliamentary poll slated for December 29 although the commission previously planned to deploy them from December 24. The EC’s decision was disclosed by Election Commissioner Brig General (retd) Shakhawat Hossain while briefing newspersons at ... Read more

Dhaka Constituencies Confusion persists over delimitation Wasim Bin Habib and Najmul Alam Nobin The city dwellers’ confusion about constituencies redrawn by the Election Commission (EC) has begun to clear up only now with the electioneering for the ninth parliamentary polls underway. Talking to people, The Daily Star correspondents have found that voters in the capital ... Read more

Agency An NHS doctor who was freed following claims that she was being held captive in Bangladesh by her parents is due to fly into the UK later. Lawyers for trainee GP Humayra Abedin, 33, from east London, said her family planned to force her into marriage. She had travelled to Dhaka in August after ... Read more

bdnews24.com, Dhaka Adviser Dr CS Karim has argued strongly for continued state subsidies for Bangladesh’s “resilient” farmers, recounting how they battled and won, in the wake of successive disasters in 2007. “The state has to support them,” he told diplomats, donors and editors Monday, in a presentation titled ‘A saga of resilience’. “The government, with ... Read more

Staff Correspondent The flow of remittances increased by over 18 per cent in the month of November over the previous month due to the Eid-ul-Azha festival, officials said. The remittances from Bang-ladeshi nationals working abroad were estimated to be S$ 767.35 million in November this year. In October the remittances stood at $646.51 million, according ... Read more

Taib Ahmed Bangladeshi expatriates willing to apply for the Rajuk plots alleged that the application process was deliberately made cumbersome to keep them out of the lottery. Hundreds of Bangladeshi expatriates now in Dhaka and intending to apply for plots in Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha’s Uttara and Purbachal projects were seen flocking to the Rajuk’s member ... Read more

Staff Correspondent Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha on Monday finally relaxed the provision for submitting the affidavit using Tk 150 non-judicial stamps to apply for the plots in its projects at Uttara and Purbachal in Dhaka. The applicants for the Uttara and Purbachal plots will now pay Tk 150 court fees instead of non-judicial stamps for their ... Read more

Zaman Monir . Sylhet Ten heavyweight candidates of rival Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party are in the race for 11 out of 19 electoral constituencies in Sylhet division in the forthcoming parliamentary polls set for December 29. Among them, 7 candidates are contesting the polls on Awami League’s tickets and 3 have been nominated ... Read more

Farewell Iraq tour marred by shoe assault Ap, Afp, Baghdad/ Washington An Iraqi official says a reporter who threw his shoes at President Bush is being held for questioning by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s guards and is being tested for alcohol and drugs. The official tells The Associated Press that Muntadar al-Zeidi is being interrogated ... Read more

Ap, Bangkok Opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva was chosen as Thailand’s prime minister yesterday in an effort to end months of political turmoil, but the move unleashed new protests by supporters of the previous government who hurled rocks at lawmakers. Abhisit, 44, one of the world’s youngest heads of government gathered 235 votes against 198 by ... Read more

Agence France-Presse . Hong Kong From the devastating China earthquake and Myanmar cyclone to the terror attacks in Mumbai and the freefall on the stock markets, 2008 was a year that exposed Asia’s vulnerability. A region hailed for its booming economies, led by China and India, and its enormous potential suddenly found itself fending off ... Read more

Agence France-Presse . Geneva Nearly 100 journalists were killed doing their job during 2008, a slight fall from the previous year due to security improvements in Iraq, a press rights group said Monday. The Geneva-based Press Emblem Campaign said in its annual report that 95 journalists were killed in 32 different countries in the past ... Read more