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Staff Correspondent A businessman who filed an extortion case in 2007 against Arafat Rahman, the youngest son of Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia, on Thursday night submitted an application to withdraw the charge. Abu Ahmed Zayed an Rabbi, owner of an advertising firm, had filed the case with Gulshan police on May 16, 2007 ... Read more

2 Days to Vote Dhaka dates with rallies, processions Arun Devnath Dhaka morphed into a city of high-pitched rallies and processions as the election campaign yesterday moved closer to the final lap. In parts of the city, different rallies continued into late evening. Awami League President Sheikh Hasina spoke from a high-profile afternoon rally at ... Read more

Staff Correspondent BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia will address an election rally of 4-party alliance at the city’s historic Paltan Maidan today, a day after her political archrival Sheikh Hasina’s grand election rally at the same venue. Like Awami League, BNP has also exerted every effort to put up a huge showdown at the Paltan Maidan ... Read more

Unb, Dhaka The European Union Election Observation Mission (EUEOM) yesterday deployed nearly 100 short-term observers across the country. They will be joining the long-term observers who have been in the field for the past five weeks, following all electoral preparations including candidate scrutiny, campaigning and the work of the Election Commission. With the deployment of ... Read more

Staff Reporter Election Commission (EC) has imposed a ban on the movement of auto rickshaw, cars, microbus, jeeps, pickup vans, buses, trucks, launches, speed boats and all mechanised water vessels across the country from tomorrow (Dec 28) midnight to Dec 29 midnight to mark the parliamentary polls. An EC press release issued yesterday, however, said ... Read more

Barisal Correspondent More than fifty prominent Muslim religious leaders, madrasha, principals and teachers, Imams of mosques and marriage registers of Barisal city extended their support to Advocate Majibor Rahman Sarwar, district BNP president, former BCC Mayor and whip. In a joint statement issued yesterday they said as grand alliance included corrupt former autocrat and announced ... Read more

Staff Reporter India yesterday sent ships into Bangladesh territory to explore for gas in mineral-rich Bay of Bengal. Naval personnel of the country had sighted “Indian ships overlapping into our plains of the Bay of Bengal,” Foreign Secretary Touhid Hossain told the New Nation, adding they appeared to be exploring for gas. The Navy has ... Read more

AP, Islamabad Pakistan began moving thousands of troops to the Indian border Friday, intelligence officials said, sharply raising tensions triggered by the Mumbai terror attacks. India has blamed Pakistani-based militants for last month’s siege on its financial capital, which killed 164 people and has provoked an increasingly bitter war of words between nuclear-armed neighbors that ... Read more

Khaleda’s last rally in Dhaka, Hasina’s in Ctg Shahidul Islam Chowdhury Electoral campaigns for the December 29 parliamentary polls peaked as the top politicians, including Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, are travelling across the country and the candidates and the activists are trying hard to reach almost every voter in their constituencies. Apart from supervising ... Read more

Abdullah Juberee . Mymensingh Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia on Thursday urged the people to stand guard at polling centres across the country on December 29 so that none could ‘rig’ the polls or ‘change’ its results. ‘There are conspiracies to rig the polls at any cost. I urge you to go to the ... Read more

Staff Correspondent The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, on Thursday called upon the people to vote for her party’s symbol ‘boat’ without fear and remain vigilant against any attempt at vote rigging. ‘Attempts to intimidate voters will not be tolerated. Cast your vote for Awami League to build a

100 accused in murder case Staff Correspondent Of 1579 candidates contesting the national parliamentary election from 299 constituencies, 100 are accused in murder case and 48 are facing corruption cases. Out of 100 candidates accused in murder cases, 24 are contesting from the Awami League, 34 from BNP and the rest from other political parties. ... Read more

Election countdown Poll set to be held after 2 days amid unprecedented security Ban on campaign will be imposed from tomorrow midnight Staff Correspondent A festive mood prevails across the country as the stage is now set to hold the much-awaited national parliament election on December 29 (Monday) amid unprecedented security measures. The candidates from ... Read more

50 to contest in 52 constituencies Rakib Hasnet Suman Apart from Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, a crop of female leaders of different political parties have emerged as tough candidates in different constituencies in the upcoming parliamentary election. This time 50 woman candidates are contesting in 52 seats. In the 2001 polls, 38 women contested

Staff Correspondent Apart from a section of the urban elite, the provision for ‘no vote’, introduced in the national elections this time, is hardly known to people in the countryside because of poor publicity campaigns on the part of the Election Commission. In its package for political and electoral reforms, the military-backed government of Fakhruddin ... Read more