Headlines

Shakhawat Liton The nation has its fundamental rights reinstated today after around two years as an ordinance promulgated by the president Monday ends the state of emergency. Another ordinance decreed the same day repeals the Emergency Powers Ordinance 2007 and Emergency Powers Rules 2007. The laws were proclaimed to enforce the state of emergency declared ... Read more

Says Gen Moeen before emergency lifted Staff Correspondent The army has proved it wants nothing but the development of Bangladesh as it is happily returning to barracks, said Chief of Army Staff General Moeen U Ahmed yesterday, a day before the withdrawal of around a two-year-long emergency. Appearing on a number of television channels in ... Read more

Staff Correspondent  Tens of thousands of people thronged the National Martyrs Memorial to pay homage to the liberation war heroes on Tuesday, while veterans called for the war criminals of 1971 to be brought to justice. Celebrating the nation‘s 38th Victory Day, they also urged the electorate to refrain from voting for war criminals, some ... Read more

Staff correspondent The Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Tuesday pledged to fight against corruption and violence if her party voted to power in the general elections slated for December 29. Khaleda also called on the people to cast their vote for the party candidates in the ensuing national elections for what she said ... Read more

Faulty Saving Clause All steps at stake Shakhawat Liton Flawed saving clauses in the newly promulgated ordinance that repeals the emergency power ordinance and rules, make uncertain the fate of ongoing anti-graft activities initiated under the state of emergency, according to legal experts. A saving clause is a provision in a statute or contract which ... Read more

Hasina tells rallies en route to Tungipara Hasan Jahid Tusher, from Gopalganj Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina yesterday said she faced “foreign” pressure to sell country’s natural gas to other countries during her rule between 1996 and 2001 but did not give in. “I as the daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman neither yielded ... Read more

Bdnews24.com . Dhaka Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s ‘two-nation theory’ was quite appropriate for the times prior to creating the two countries — Pakistan and India — in 1947 and its applicability did not wear out even in the case of an independent Bangladesh, said the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami chief, Matiur Rahman Nizami, on Tuesday. He made the ... Read more

Our Correspondent A devastating fire burnt alive six people including four children yesterday in the Roads and Highways Department’s staff quarters of Dighinala upazila in Khagrachhari district. Khagrachhari fire service and Dighinala police sources said the fire originated at about 1:00 am from an electric short-circuit in the colony and rapidly engulfed the houses of ... Read more

Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha . New York Secretary of state nominee Hillary Clinton has said she loves Bangladesh and looking forward to visiting the country. ‘Election in Bangladesh should be free and fair and democracy is cultured in that country,’ she said while speaking at her first public appearance at the Manhattan Centre Ballroom in New ... Read more

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