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'FORMAL DIALOGUE MAY OR MAY NOT BE HELD'
Confrontation in politics feared
Abdur Rahman Khan
The dialogue with the political parties appears to have been a buying time exercise that put the caretaker government (CG) rather in a dilemma. Indications are clear that the politics of the country is going to take a confrontational course in the next few weeks...[ FULL STORY ]
STAGNATION DAMPENS ECONOMY
Govt. seeks split in political parties
Fazle Rashid
The skepticism about the government's anxiety to meet the promised deadline is mounting. The government, Chief Adviser's office, the cantonment or the Election Commission (EC), whoever in charge, must double its efforts to calm down speculations. Speculations are rife about the Caretaker Government (CG) fulfilling its part of the obligations by holding the elections to the Parliament by December this year...[ FULL STORY ]
'Elected govt. will endorse Caretaker regime'
Moinuddin Naser in New York
Two opposition leaders now in New York have expressed their ambivalent attitude on question of freeing Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia prior to holding parliamentary polls in Bangladesh. The two opposition leaders are: Workers Party leader Rashed Khan Menon and Jatiya Party leader Anwar Hossain Manju...[ FULL STORY ]
PEOPLE WANT POSITIVE OUTCOME
Barriers will hinder CG's dialogue with politicians
Amanullah Kabir
The long-awaited political dialogue that the Caretaker Government (CG) has finally initiated responding to the compelling situation seems to be destined to slip into a cumbersome process as the pre-dialogue encounter with the political parties indicates. The main challenge that the CG is facing is the crisis of confidence created since its takeover, distancing itself from the political parties discomfited under the year-old emergency...[ FULL STORY ]
Maoist movement gets a fillip in India
Shamsuddin Ahmed
The prediction of Gwynne Dyer has come true. From thousands of miles away in London, the veteran columnist wrote in 2006 that the Maoists in Nepal "are only miles away from taking over power"...[ FULL STORY ]
AN UNDILUTED VIEW FROM KOLKATA
Will Maitree Express turn out to be a train to nowhere?
Sunanda K. Datta-Ray in Kolkata
The romance of the railroad generated confidence long before strategic writers recognized connectivity as an essential element of bonding. One of history's best-known examples is British Columbia's refusal to join the Canadian federation until the Canadian Pacific Railway was built. But romantics on either side of the Bengal-Bangladesh border would be well advised not to be carried away by the heavy symbolism of the flower-bedecked Maitree Express running for the first time in 43 years on Poila Baisakh...[ FULL STORY ]
ENERGY MINISTRY WORKING AS MULTINATIONAL LOBBYIST?
Coal mining: National interest must be prioritised
Faruque Ahmed
The government should arrange a dialogue between the proponents and the opponents of the open-pit coal mining with the object of removing the bottleneck in the way of developing the country's coal mine. This was observed last week at a roundtable by FBCCI president Anisul Haque. It is very important at this time when the country is facing acute energy crisis as the gas reserve is dwindling fast, he said. But who will arrange the dialogue?...[ FULL STORY ]
GLIMPSES OF GREAT
Joseph Stalin
K. Z. Islam
Once, during the civil war that followed the Russian Revolution, a father and his two young sons were brought to the desk of a Red Army field commander, accused of sympathy for those in power before the revolution. Without hearing the evidence - scarcely even looking up from his work - the commander ordered, "Shoot them!"...[ FULL STORY ]
AMERICA TOWARDS TOTAL WAR
US attacks Pakistan nuke plant
Sorcha Faal
In a world spinning rapidly out of control, and towards total nuclear chaos, Russian military officials reported that on April 8 that United States Special Forces Troops stationed in Afghanistan launched an attack against Pakistan's Khushab Nuclear Facility which produces enriched plutonium for that Muslim nation's nuclear arsenal...[ FULL STORY ]
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