Headlines

Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee The 79-year-old politician Zillur Rahman, who is scheduled to take oath of office as the 19th president of the republic this evening, was born on March 9, 1929 at Bhairab in Kishoreganj. His father, the late Mohammad Meher Ali Miah, was a lawyer. Meher was then also the chairman of then Mymensingh ... Read more

Minister ‘mistakenly’ included Staff Correspondent The House yesterday constituted five standing committees, beginning the process of formation of the crucial committees in the current session of parliament. Three of the committees have been formed for businesses related to Jatiya Sangsad (JS) and two on ministries. But the treasury bench ignored the JS rules of procedure ... Read more

Poachers active in Hakaluki Haor Rajat Kanti Goswami, Moulvibazar With the arrival of thousands of migratory birds in Hakaluki Haor, the biggest wetland in South Asia, poachers have become active and are killing a large number of the species for meat every day. Several bands of local poachers set poison traps on the bank of ... Read more

Staff Correspondent Severe text book crisis has been created due to unpl-anned and insufficient book supply by the government to the markets as well as syndicate created by the members of allottees for printing text books with a motive to earn quick money. Book publishers, printing owners and wholesalers alleged that the government has set ... Read more

Staff Correspondent The examinations scheduled to begin on Wednesday in all the polytechnic institutes of the country, expecting the Rajshahi Polytechnic Institute, were held peacefully. The agitating students sat for the final examinations after their demand for change in the referred exams system was met, the Bangladesh Technical Education Board chairman, Nitai Chandra Sutradhar, told ... Read more

STP won’t be able to solve Dhaka’s traffic problem, says mayor Taib Ahmed The Dhaka City Corporation is yet to take any visible steps to reduce the insufferable traffic congestion and consequent jams in the capital; so far it has only formed a committee though five days have elapsed since the premier asked the mayor ... Read more

Staff Correspondent The government expects to add 741 megawatts (MW) additional power in both private and public sector by June this year to ease the country’s ongoing power crisis. According to the press statement, placed before the parliament yesterday to be answered by the prime minister during question-answer session, the government has undertaken short, mid ... Read more

Staff Correspondent A man allegedly strangled his wife to death three days into their married life at Mohammadpur in the city. The victim was identified as Shima Akhter, 22, wife of Mohammad Polash and a garment worker. She hails from Muladi of Barisal. Police recovered the body at 11 am on Tuesday from a house ... Read more

Series of street protest causes miles of tailbacks throughout the day Kailash Sarkar Traffic system in the capital virtually collapsed yesterday due to several processions and demons-trations that forced thousands of vehicles to remain stranded for hours and inflicted untold sufferings on commuters. While traffic gridlock is a regular scene in the capital, yesterday’s situation ... Read more

UNB, Dhaka Over 200 people were injured, including policemen, as polytechnic students yesterday clashed with law-enforcers during demonstrations in different districts against a new examination system enforced by the Technical

Staff Correspondent The Election Commission in its half-month investigation primarily found proofs of irregularities including stuffing of ballot boxes, capturing of polling centres, tampering with the results and intimidation at the polling centres in 50 upazilas, but suspended publication of the official results of only 20 of them. The election commissioners, after looking into a ... Read more

Staff Correspondent Power outage at daytime, in addition to the outages during evening hours, has become frequent for two days, especially in the cities, as people started using air-coolers and fans with weather warming up and power generation dropping further. Power Development Board officials said power outage in urban areas at daytime had also increased ... Read more

Shamim Jahangir The Food and Disaster Management Ministry has constituted a five-member high powered committee to investigate embezzlement of the huge amount of money from the caretaker government-initiated 100-day programme for 20 lakh extreme poor across the country. Additional Secretary of the Food and Disaster Management Ministry (FDMM) AKM Abdul Awal Majumder leads the inquiry ... Read more

Accounts of 39 graft accused to stay shut; NBR seeks legal opinion for decision Rejaul Karim Byron The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided to conditionally reopen 270 bank accounts that were frozen during the immediate past emergency regime, as democracy has been restored. NBR sources said they started working towards that end yesterday. ... Read more

Seven banks pandering to clients’ desire for luxury goods Staff Correspondent Bangladesh Bank’s governor Salehuddin Ahmed on Tuesday expressed his dissatisfaction with the pattern of commercial banks’ loan disbursement, saying that most of their loans are going to the non-productive sectors like real estate. ‘All that the banks seem to be interested in is lending ... Read more

Islamabad claims elements in India assisted Mumbai attacks; US official holds talks with Pak leaders Afp, Pti, New Delhi/ Islamabad India yesterday accused Islamabad of delaying its investigation into the Mumbai attacks, which have been widely blamed on militant groups based inside Pakistan. The charge came a day after Islamabad said its investigators needed more ... Read more

Pti, London A top al-Qaeda commander, who was reported killed in a US drone strike last year, has appeared in a video warning India of more Mumbai-style terror attacks if it tried to attack Pakistan. “India should know that it will have to pay a heavy price if it attacks Pakistan,” Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, believed ... Read more

BSS, Cox’s Bazar The seventh South Asian Free Media Conference (SAFMA) under the theme of ‘Democracy and Authoritarianism’ began here yesterday with a call to enable democratic values flourish and benefit people living in abject poverty from the fruits of democracy by breaking local power nexus and empowering them at the grassroots. The speakers, participating ... Read more

Staff Correspondent A rickshaw puller hacked to death his wife and an 11-month daughter over a family feud at a slum near the Nabodoy Housing at Adabar in the capital city Tuesday morning. After the brutal killing, he immediately surrendered to the Rapid Action Battalion members at the Shia Mosque camp at Mohammadpur. Witnesses said ... Read more

Staff Correspondent Manzurul Alam resigned on Tuesday as the Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commi-ssion chairman. The immediate-past military-controlled interim government appointed Manzurul, a retired major general, to the commission as chairman in April 2007. Manzurul told New Age, ‘I submitted my resignation as it is a common practice that a new government will want to appoint ... Read more