Headlines

BNP, Jamaat remain absent from House for 38 out of 59 working days already; Khaleda attends only 3 sittings; no effective initiative of ruling party to make JS functional The main opposition BNP and its key ally in four-party alliance Jamaat-e-Islami remain absent from joining the House proceedings, paying no attention to their electoral pledges ... Read more

TIPAIMUKH DAM PLAN Dhaka to do whatever needed in its interests: FM The foreign minister, Dipu Moni, on Wednesday said Bangladesh will do whatever it needed to protect its own interest. ‘Our ties with India are very significant and we will maintain the relations, upholding our national interest,’ she said in reply to a question ... Read more

The secretary committee to scrutinise of the seventh pay commission report has finalised its recommendations for increasing the maximum salary to Tk 35,000 from the existing Tk 25,000 and the lowest basic to Tk 4,000 from the existing Tk 2,300. The committee finalised the recommendations at its seventh meeting held at the cabinet division with ... Read more

Commissioners appointed, but no office The government on Wednesday formed the three-member Information Commission, with retired secretary M Azizur Rahman as chief information commissioner, under the Right to Information Act 2009 that came into effect in its entirety on the day. The other commissioners are retired secretary Mohammad Abu Taher and Professor Sadeka Halim, teacher ... Read more

State minister for law Quamrul Islam on Wednesday brushed aside any possibility of withdrawal of any cases filed against BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s two sons, Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman, during the military-backed interim government’s tenure. ‘There is no reason to think that the government will recommend withdrawal of cases against Tarique and Coco [Arafat] ... Read more

JS probe committee likely to place report on July 6/8 The ‘All-Party Parliamentary Probe Body investigating corruptions during the 8th parliament’ will finalise its recommendations in connection with the graft charges against former Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar, Deputy Speaker Akhter Hamid Siddiqui and former Chief Whip Khandaker Delwar Hossain on July 5 and is likely to ... Read more

Country forks out Tk 300cr a year on fixing damaged roads Almost all the 40,000 trucks running throughout the country carry weights more than twice the capacity, causing colossal damage to the roads and bridges. Sources at the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) said the trucks bring about severe traffic congestion, pollution and lead to ... Read more

A United Nations inquiry into the assassination of former Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto has formally began. It is headed by Chile’s ambassador to the UN, Heraldo Munoz, and includes a former Indonesian attorney general and a former senior Irish police officer. The inquiry will last six months and investigate the “facts and circumstances” of Ms ... Read more

New Long March China moving fast to break unipolar world The skeptics are now convinced that China rightly embarked on the second long march in the year 1978 after successfully blending socialist political system with market economy. The historic long march brought political independence for the Chinese people and the new China emerged in the ... Read more

Plan to build 4 satellite towns outside Dhaka State Minister for Housing and Public Works advocate Abdul Mannan Khan invited all local and foreign firms to invest in the country”s housing sector hugely under Public-Private Partnership (PPP), the newly-conceived development paradigm, to rid the capital city of unplanned urbanization that creates what is sardonically called ... Read more

Khaleda seeks Hasina’s assistance to send BNP team to dam site Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has said the problems posed by the controversial Tipai-mukh dam project by India could be resolved through bilateral discussion . “I believe I will be able to resolve the problem through bi-lateral discussions.” She accused the main opposition BNP of ... Read more

Hundreds of angry apparel workers set ablaze a 10-storey building of Hameem Group yesterday in protest against at the death of two of their co-workers in Ansar and police firing over the past two days at Ashulia in Savar. The two garment workers were killed in firing by Ansar and police and about 200 others ... Read more

Duties on newsprint, mobiles, motorbikes, micro-buses ought to be lowered, says PM The premier, Sheikh Hasina, on Monday asked the elected representatives and members of the administrations to work hard to implement the proposed budget for 2009-10 fiscal year, which she termed a ‘pro-people’ budget. The premier, while taking part in the general discussion on ... Read more

The leader of the opposition in parliament and BNP’s chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Monday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, naming a six-member team for visiting the site of the proposed Tipaimukh dam, in response to the latter’s request that BNP send a separate team. The team comprises BNP’s two vice-chairmen, MK Anwar ... Read more

The High Court yesterday issued a rule upon the government to show cause within four weeks as to why the extra-judicial killings ‘in the name of crossfire or encounter’ by the law enforcing agencies, should not be declared illegal and without lawful authority. The court also asked the government to explain as to why departmental ... Read more

RMG Workers’ Mayhem in Ashulia It all started with the sacking in a sick unit Sacking of about 1,000 workers of a sick garment factory was at the root of yesterday’s mayhem in Ashulia. But it fanned at a stunning speed the festering anger of workers of a large number of sick garment factories. Ultimately, ... Read more

Home Minister Advocate Sahara Kathun told the House on Monday that a total of 74 persons, including 57 army officers, were killed in BDR mutiny at Pilkhana on February 25-26. Replying to a question raised by treasury bench member Begum Meher Afroz, she said the other people, who were killed in the carnage, included a ... Read more

A telephoned threat to bomb the Dhaka Stock Exchange on Monday forced the authorities concerned to stop trading at the bourse forty-five minutes earlier than the scheduled closing time, said a senior official. When contacted, DSE’s president Rakibur Rahman told New Age from Singapore over the phone, ‘We think the fake bomb threat was an ... Read more

Focus only on their constituencies: Suranjit Awami League (AL) lawmaker Suranjit Sengupta criticised some ministers for speaking only about their own constituencies rather than the entire country during discussion on the proposed budget in parliament yesterday. Suranjit, chief of the parliamentary standing committee on law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry, also fired a broadside at

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) yesterday blamed government ‘failure’ to ensure law and order as the main reason behind last three days’ incidents in Ashulia-Savar industrial belt near the capital, resulting in damage worth around Tk 300crore. Leaders of the BGMEA refused to recognise the incidents as ‘labour unrest’. They claimed that these ... Read more