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U.S. FINANCE FAILING DUE TO UNJUST WARS
Economies face deadly threats,
including ours
M. Shahidul Islam
In moments of crisis, it is more important to reckon what takes one's breath away than how many breaths one takes.
Last week, yet another breathtaking moment was ushered in by President George W. Bush when he acknowledged for the first time the dire state of the US economy and sought from the Congress a hefty $700 billion bailout package to salvage the sinking economic ship of a nation that has already half-sunken by the overload of a series of unjust and unnecessary wars and the massive public debt the war efforts had created over the years...[ FULL STORY ]
Election hopes cast in a whirlpool
of doubts
Sadeq Khan
Throughout the lengthy recess of Eid and Puja holidays, a mild election fever has been running through the body politic of the nation. There were Eid greeting posters hung in every constituency by aspiring candidates. There were many "mejbanis" or Eid feasts by political leaders in mofussil areas. But the temperature in metropolitical Dhaka remained low from uncertainty about "free" electioneering under Emergency Powers Rules, and indeed about dearth of "loyal" candidates troubling the major political parties and their electoral alliances...[ FULL STORY ]
Pakistan's ISI gets new chief
Our New York Correspondent
Ordinarilly changes in the top hierarchy of army intelligence do not make world news. In fact such changes are kept a well guarded secret. In case of Pakistan it is a different story. The Chief of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in Pakistan is second most important position only after the Chief of Army Staff...[ FULL STORY ]
COLLAPSE OF 'COWBOY ECONOMY'
Market economy is set for decent burial
Fazle Rashid in New York
In the throes of Reports from US companies reveal that automobile sales have plummeted, airline traffic has dropped to alarming level, tables remain vacant in restaurants and there is hardly any shopper in the malls. There has been drastic a fall in non-farm employment in September. A total of 143,000 Americans have lost jobs. Manufacturing sector has cut 51,000 jobs, retailers sacked 40,000 workers, construction companies eliminated 35,000 jobs and the Wall Street giants slashed 17,000 jobs...[ FULL STORY ]
CG pulls emergency for polls: BNP
casts doubts
Special Correspondent
Both the major political parties- BNP and Awami League categorically opposed elections under the emergency rules but the Caretaker Government (CG) is advancing the idea at home and abroad making the political observers think over a home-grown democracy in Bangladesh...[ FULL STORY ]
NGO boss floats pro-AL party
Abdur Rahman Khan
Finally he has unmasked himself. Proshika Chairman Qazi Faruque Ahmed has launched a political party styled "Oikyabadda Nagorik Andolon" or United Citizens' Movement (UCM).
The NGO chief says Proshika facilities would be used for Nagorik Andolon. He says that it is not a new organisation; The organisation has been active since 1996 when he lent total support to Awami League (AL) in overthrowing the then government of BNP...[ FULL STORY ]
Water-logging in south-western region worsens further
Special Correspondent
The water logging problem has worsened further in the south-western districts of Satkhira, Jessore and Khulna throwing thousands of villagers into a calamitous condition.
The affected people have appealed to the government to declare it a calamity zone and come forward with relief and rescue package...[ FULL STORY ]
FARAKKA ISSUE IGNORED
Dr Fakhruddin fails to represent Bangladesh at UN session
Moinuddin Naser in New York
Despite UNISDR's call for global action to prevent flood in view of the recent flood in Bangladesh, India and Nepal in particular and flood problem in general, Dr.Fakhruddin Ahmed, Chief Adviser to the Caretaker Government, failed to mention about Bangladesh's situation in his speech at the General Assembly. He also did not say anything about Bangladesh's drought problem either. But neighbouring Nepal's Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda urged upon the international community to intervene in this regard and protect the Himalayan glacier in order to mitigate flood problems...[ FULL STORY ]
Vendetta against religious minorities
in India
Shamsuddin Ahmed
No let up in communal violence in secular India. Scores of Muslims have been killed in fresh violence in Assam during the past weeks. Reports trickling down from across the border said hunting of 'Bangladeshi intruders' continued in at least three districts of the state. More than one lakh people fled home. Similar grim situation prevails in Orissa where VHP-Bajrang Dal activists are lynching the Christian tribes and dalits...[ FULL STORY ]
GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT
Lord Curzon
K. Z. Islam
Lord Curzon (1859-1925) was elected president of the Oxford union in 1880. He had a gift for making friends in high places, and this was resented by his contemporaries. "Never has more harm been done to one single individual than the accursed doggerel has done to me", said Curzon. It went as follows...[ FULL STORY ]
Nobel prize for physics, medicine, chemistry announced
Anisur Rahman in Stockholm
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize for physics for 2008 to two researchers from Japan and an American colleague.
Professor Gunnar Oquist, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, announced on October 7. Half of the award will go to Yoichiro Nambu from the University of Chicago's Enrico Fermi Institute "for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics', nobelprize.org noted...[ FULL STORY ]
U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Obama clearly ahead of McCain
Moinuddin Naser in New York
After second Presidential debate Senator Barrack Obama is clearly leading the campiagn scenario. Almost all the pollsters have given Obama 51-43 lead over McCain. On Wednesday in the second Presidential debate Senators John McCain and Barack Obama hammered away at each other's judgment on the economy, domestic policy and foreign affairs...[ FULL STORY ]
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