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Despite acute crisis at home, corrupt traders exported edible oil to India
Faruque Ahmed
It is difficult to believe that at a time when an exasperated government is finding it impossible to import adequate quantity of edible oil to meet local demand, a group of dishonest businessmen exported 20,000 metric tons of edible oil at a throwaway price to Indian importers. What is more difficult to believe is that the goods in question were formally exported with permission from the relevant government agencies. ..[ FULL STORY ]
‘SLIPPED TARGETS’ CAUSE CONCERN
CEC reaffirms polls will be held in time
Abdur Rahman Khan
Initiating the second round of dialogue with the political parties last week, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda said that the election commissioners do not want to become national traitors by reneging on the commitment to the nation for holding the stalled ninth parliamentary election before the year end...[ FULL STORY ]
Benazir killed with laser gun?
Holiday Desk
The controversy over former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto’s assassination took another turn with a section of her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) claiming she was targeted with sophisticated “laser beam technology”...[ FULL STORY ]
Constitutional debate awaits SC
M. Shahidul Islam
A constitutional debate awaits the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) as both the appellant and the defendant will reinforce their legal armoury to fight out an appeal hearing on the Azam J. Chowdhury-initiated extortion case against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina...[ FULL STORY ]
OUTLAY OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, NO EXPERTS IN COMMITTEE
Biman needs wide-bodied planes, not new ones
Khurshid Alam Khan
Biman is now a public limited company, but it is still 100 per cent Government-owned. In other words, the same old wine in a new bottle. It only changed its name to “Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited”. By a written agreement with the Government of Bangladesh, it has inherited and accepted “the entire undertaking” of the erstwhile Bangladesh Biman Corporation. ..[ FULL STORY ]
U.S. PRESIDENTIAL POLLS
Nader, spoiler of 2000 election, reappears
A.H. Jaffor Ullah
The veteran consumer advocate, Ralph Nader, announced last Sunday (Feb 24, 2008) that he intend to run for the White House on November 4, 2008. He announced this on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He justified his decision to run as a third party candidate in the forthcoming presidential election by saying that many Americans are disenchanted with the two dominant parties, and that none of the presidential contenders are addressing ways to stem corporate crime and Pentagon waste and promote labour rights...[ FULL STORY ]
Sangbad editor Bazlur Rahman dead, laid to rest
Holiday Desk
Bazlur Rahman, veteran journalist and editor of Bangla daily Sangbad was laid to rest with state honour at the Martyred Intellectuals’ Graveyard at Mirpur on Wednesday. He suffered a massive heart attack Tuesday night and was taken to Ibrahim Cardiac Centre in Dhaka where doctors declared him dead...[ FULL STORY ]
Parliament will decide on anti-terror fight, says Nawaz Sharif
Jonaid Iqbal in Islamabad
US Ambassador Anne W. Patterson met former Prime Minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif at the Frontier House in Islamabad on Monday. ..[ FULL STORY ]
LOCAL ADMIN PUSHES ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS OUT OF HOME, JOB
Immigrants facing tough times in USA
Moinuddin Naser in New York
The wave of massive movement on immigration issue that was generated in the year 2006 and 2007 in New York, Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Boston, Milwaukee and Washington D.C has gradually been bogged down. As a result the anti-immigrants are being able to enact stringent law against the illegal immigrants locally. Meanwhile laws regarding not to employ the illegal immigrants and not to rent out house to them have been implemented in many immigrant dominated states. These measures are shrinking place for the illegal immigrants in the USA. Many cities, counties and states are making preparation to introduce new bills. At the same time the immigration departments are also active to arrest and deport the illegal immigrants. In one hand the drumming for election is going on, on the other hand swords of law are being extended on the immigrants who are respectful to law and hardworking. ..[ FULL STORY ]
GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT
Mark Twain
K. Z. Islam
Mark Twain (1835-1910), or to give him his real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens, stands at the centre of American literature. During the period 1853-1862 he made his efforts as a humorous writer using several pseudonyms. In 1863 he adopted his pseudonym “Mark Twain” a river phrase meaning “two fathoms deep”. The pen name seemed to free Clemens’ genius and from that time on, his life was committed to the art of the professional humour. The event that gave him worldwide attention was his voyage in 1867 on the Quaker City, which was bound for the Holy Land on the first organised pleasure trip from the New World to the Old. The record of that trip, first written in the form of dispatches to San Francisco and then rewritten as The Innocents Abroad (1869) brought him fame as well as fortune. In quick succession followed Roughing It (1872), The Gilded Age (1873), The Adventure of Tom Sawyer (1876) and finally there was his masterpiece Huckleberry Finn begun in 1876 but not finished until 1884. Many other books followed but none in the class of Huckleberry Finn...[ FULL STORY ]
IAEA CLEAR IRAN
Tehran reiterates its right to peaceful nuke programme
Special Correspondent
Iran reiterates its right to peaceful use of nuclear energy. Iran has no ambition for procurement of any weapon of mass destruction or nuclear weapon, the Iranian Ambassador to Bangladesh, Mr Hasan Farazandeh asserted. ..[ FULL STORY ]
DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY IN U.S.
All eyes on Texas and Ohio
Moinuddin Naser in New York
Polls zeal is heating up and the questions that are now being feverishly asked are whether Hillary will win in Texas and Ohio? If not she should quit before March 4, the date scheduled for primary in Texas, Rhode Island, Ohio and Vermont. If Hillary wants to be in race she should win Texas and Ohio comfortably, at least by a margin of 10 to 20 per cent. All these issues are now being discussed among the political circle and interested political quarters, all over the United States. ..[ FULL STORY ]
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