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Election announcement brings parties into action
Abdur Rahman Khan
With the announcement of the dates for national and upazila polls, political parties have started active parley among the alliance partners as well as within the party organizations...[ FULL STORY ]
Roadmap of polls steadily gains limelight
Sadeq Khan
Political wind in the country is now steadily blowing in one direction. The focus is set on general election, by end-2008 in accordance with the Caretaker Government’s roadmap. Major political parties, including Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party, have welcomed the announcement of the date for elections to the ninth parliament...[ FULL STORY ]
INDIA’S MASSIVE MILITARY BUILDUP
Delhi thinks China has military base in Chittagong!
Fazle Rashid in New York
With over half its population living under the poverty line, India is aspiring to be a global military power. Long embedded in the Gandhi-Nehru philosophy of non-violence India has now started to remodel itself as a military power with global reach...[ FULL STORY ]
RIGHT TO INFORMATION ORDINANCE
Pious move, but bureaucrats may escape thru’ loopholes
Shamsuddin Ahmed
The move is good. The objective is pious. The government has approved the draft of the Right to Information Ordinance. It is now awaiting the consent of the President for proclamation through a gazette notification. But it will take time, at least three to four months for the ordinance to come into force. For, an independent Information Commission has to be formed and separate cells to be set up in respective government departments that will provide information sought by the inquisitive members of the public...[ FULL STORY ]
WILL THERE BE A PEACEFUL TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY?
Politicians snub FBCCI chief’s plea
Faruque Ahmed
The FBCCI business politics backfired last week as the leaders of the two major parties instantly ignored the apex body’s proposal that they should sit together, shun old hostilities and become close friends to work for building a new future.
“Learn from the present crisis and give the nation new politics,” FBCCI president Annisul Haque told leaders of the two major parties, the BNP and Awami League last week at an Iftar party hosted especially for them to present the appeal...[ FULL STORY ]
KHALEDA-HASINA DIALOGUE
Another exercise in futility?
Mohammad Ali Sattar
It’s good news that we are shortly going to have a political ‘dialogue’ between the two main leaders of the country - Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina. The present government, in its last effort to bring about a peaceful transfer of power to the elected representatives, is keen to have the talk’s between them as professionally as possible. After discarding the much touted ‘minus two’ and ‘manage two’ schemes it now looks into the third and practical of all steps. Barrister Rafiqul Haque has been the natural choice as a go between...[ FULL STORY ]
‘WE HAVE NO SPECIFIC INFO’: GEN. DAILEY
A new US war in Pakistan
Gareth Porter in Washington
The George W. Bush administration’s decision to launch commando raids and step up missiles strikes against Taliban and al Qaeda figures in the tribal areas of Pakistan followed what appears to have been the most contentious policy process over the use of force in Bush’s eight-year presidency...
Tzipi Livni will be the second women prime minister of Israel after the iron lady Golda Meir...[ FULL STORY ]
EXTENSIVE FRAUD IS SUSPECTED
Economic tsunami hits US
Moinuddin Naser in New York
While the United States Congress is locked in debating the proposed $700 billion bailout plan by the Bush Administration to revitalise the anaemic economy of the country, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has started investigation inside four U.S. financial institutions whose collapse triggered fury in the financial market. This is being called as “economic tsunami” after great depression of 1935...[ FULL STORY ]
Indian mothers selling kids for Rs 200
Holiday Desk
Desperate mothers in the flood-hit Indian state of Bihar are selling their children en masse to traffickers. Bihar’s Child Labour Commission pointed out that children in the districts of Supaul, Araria, Saharsa and Purnea were being sold for Rs 200 per child,
Just last week, 1,500 children being smuggled out of Bihar by human traffickers were caught at the railway stations of Patna, Hajipur and Khagaria, according to a report published in The Asian Age on Thursday...[ FULL STORY ]
GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT
T E Lawrence
K. Z. Islam
Thomas Edward Lawrence (1888-1935) “Lawrence of Arabia” became a myth in his own life time is credited with practically single handedly driving out the Ottoman Turks from Middle East using the Arabs. More than a military leader and inspirational force behind the Arab revolt against the Turks, he was a super tactician and master in guerrilla warfare. His small but irritating second front behind the Turkish lines was a guerrilla operation focusing upon the mining of bridges and supply trains which dislocated the supplies to the Turkish troops...[ FULL STORY ]
EMPLOYMENT GENERATION IS VITAL FOR NATION
Black money may be invested in industrial sector, says Manzur Elahi
Holiday Report
Industrialisation is the prerequisite for employment generation in an underdeveloped country like ours which is now the crying need of the nation where millions are jobless. So new entrepreneurs should come up to set up factories where jobs will be created. In this context the National Board of Revenue (NBR) can pursue a liberal policy towards black money, if it is invested in the industrial sector, said Syed Manzur Elahi, Chairman of the Apex Group...[ FULL STORY ]
MDG to remain unmet as rich nations fail to meet commitments
Fazle Rashid in New York
The United Nations had conceded, much before the present economic turmoil had set in, that the deadline of the millennium development goal of cutting global poverty in half by 2015 will not be met. That was because world’s richest eight nations had failed to meet their obligations of providing $130 billion a year to reach the goal...[ FULL STORY ]
CHIEF ADVISER IN NEW YORK
Fakhruddin says CG strictly implementing roadmap
Moinuddin Naser in New York
The incumbent caretaker government of Bangladesh did not budge a single inch from it’s objective of election road map that was announced early this year.
Speaking at a civic reception held on Wednesday Evening (Bangladesh time Thurssday morning) at the World’s Fair Marina restaurant in New York, Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed said: “We did not derail from our objective and that is holding a free and fair election by the end of the year, and handing over o power to the new government. The main objective is to hold free and fair elections...[ FULL STORY ]
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