|
FOREIGN MINISTRY LACKS FOCUS
Kunming plan to forge Dhaka-Beijing ties on back burner
Faisal Rahim
The Kunming initiative, which gathered momentum in bringing Bangladesh closer to China through highway connectivity down to Chittagong Port, appears losing ground. The expectations that the initiative will gather new momentum by Awami League (AL) Government are also nowhere visible. Specially, the Foreign Ministry appears having no focused targets to deal with the Chinese government and develop the relations to the advantage of the country's socio-economic and business benefits...[ FULL STORY ]
IMPLOSION IN HOME MINISTRY
Ineptitude marks governance
M. Shahidul Islam
The lust for power absorbs a multitude of aberrations; ineptitude is certainly not one of them. Yet, since assuming power on January 6, the Awami League-led Government has shown signs of incompetence in almost every aspect of governance, resulting in casting the nation into what one might call a state of 'managed anarchy'.
That ongoing anarchy is characterised not only by the sharp deterioration in the law and order situation and the seeming indecision in matters involving vital national interests, ardent Bangladesh observers think the AL-led regime has so far shown no principled stand on any major policy matter. They say the regime is deeply engrossed in chasing oppositions and in crisis management, instead of managing cohesively the governance as per priorities dictated by national, regional and global compulsions...[ FULL STORY ]
US warns of terror threat in India
Holiday Report
The United States last week asked its nationals to remain vigilant and keep a low profile while travelling to India due to terror threat.
An "Urgent Warden Message" posted on American Embassy website which cautioned American citizens in India said "The United States Mission in India wishes to urgently remind all US citizens resident in or travelling to India that there is a high threat from terrorism throughout India," the message said...[ FULL STORY ]
U.S. FOREIGN POLICY SHIFT
Obama for new ties with Muslims
Fazle Rashid in New York
US President Barack Obama called for a ``new beginning between the United States and Muslims'' on Thursday and said together, they could confront violent extremism across the globe and advance the timeless search for peace in the Middle East. ``This cycle of suspicion and discord must end,'' Obama said in a widely anticipated speech in Cairo.
President Barack H Obama is breaking lose from President Bush's major foreign policy plank of "you are with us or against us" and "US does not require anyone's permission to defend itself" and underscoring the importance of "engagement based upon mutual interests and mutual respect"...[ FULL STORY ]
Khetmajur Union's National Council today
Holiday Report
Bangladesh Khetmajur Union, a left-leaning organisation of the agricultural and rural labourers, holds its national council session at Tajul Auditorium today (Friday) to voice their various economic and political demands.
The council is being held with the aim of accelerating the mass movement for establishment of a people's democratic state and install a people's government in power, said Saiful Huq, General Secretary of the organisation.
Highlighting the demands of the organisation, the council's leaflet demanded creation of round-the-year employment for the rural workers, sustainable wage as per the ILO convention, round-the-year food rationing system for the rural poor, creation of public-supervision for all rural development works, free housing facility for the homeless people, complete reforms for land and agriculture, increaseds ubsidy in agriculture and fair price for agro-products. ..[ FULL STORY ]
PINTU'S ARREST SLATED
Budget session begins without BNP
Holiday Report
The budget session of the Jatiya Sangsad began on Thursday with the main opposition BNP staying away demanding more seats on the front row in the House.
Speaker Abdul Hamid earlier said that the BNP would get one more front-row seat in parliament, not five as demanded by the Opposition. However, BNP secretary general Khandakar Delwar Hossain accused the government of 'dangling a carrot' in the ongoing seat dispute in parliament.
"In fact, they do not want the opposition in parliament, so that facts about repression and the people's real problems are not brought to the floor," claimed Delwar...[ FULL STORY ]
RAPE, ARSON ALLEGED
Indian SSB drive Nepali families out of their villages
Holiday Desk
Taking the advantage Nepal's internal political crisis, the Indian border security force, Seema Surakshya Bal (SSB), has driven out hundreds of Nepali families living in different villages along the Nepal-India border in west Nepali district of Dang, Kathamandu's major English-language Kantipur Daily reported quoting the victims.
Villagers from some 22 entry points bordering Dang district on the Nepali side and Balarampur, Shravasti and Gonda districts on the Indian side have fled their homes as the SSB assaulted and kidnapped their women, the daily alleged.
Nepali farmers in Bara district have claimed that, Indian villagers have been encroaching upon Nepali land for farming purposes. "We are forced to become mute spectators when they rape our ladies," said Begaram Pun of Siriya village. Likewise, Nepalnews on the web has claimed: "More than 15 girls have already gone missing...[ FULL STORY ]
El Salvador gets leftist president
Marcos Aleman in San Salvador
A journalist from a party of former Marxist guerrillas became El Salvador's first leftist president on June 1, promising to remain friendly with the United States while immediately restoring ties with Cuba.
Mauricio Funes brought to power the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front that fought for 12 years to overthrow U.S.-backed governments until laying down their arms in 1992.
But he sought to ease fears of radicalism by comparing himself to U.S. President Barack Obama as well as Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a leftist who has maintained warm ties with leaders across the political spectrum...[ FULL STORY ]
GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT
The Brontė Sisters
K. Z. Islam
The Brontė family is one that occupies a unique position in England literary history. Interest in the lives of the three novelist sisters - Charlotte (1816-1855), Emily (1818-1848), and Anne (1820-1849) - their authoritarian father, and their talented but dissipated brother Branwell (1817-1871), has equalled, and sometimes even obscured, interest in their work. Books about them have proliferated; plays, films, and novels have been based on their lives as well as on their fiction; their home, the Haworth parsonage, has become the shrine of a Brontė cult. Charlotte's Jane Eyre and Emily's Wuthering Heights are among the most widely read novels in the English language.
Readers to note that Charlotte live for 39 years when Emily 30 years and Anne 29 years. They grew up in Haworth where their father Rev. Patrick Brontė had the appointment of the perpetual curacy at the Haworth parsonage. The Brontė sisters grew up in the Haworth parsonage a cold depressing stone house, exposed and high on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors where the wind blows and it rains a good deal. The cheerless parsonage looked on to what might have been a causeway of gravestones: flat, grey-green, all too often telling of life cut short...[ FULL STORY ]
China concerned about US military presence in South Asia
Abdur Rahman Khan
Peoples' Republic of China sharing its border with four South-Asian countries in its south-west flank is concerned with the increased US military presence in the region.
China's concerns have increased with the Obama administration's shifting its priority from Iraq to Afghanistan and the US strategic partnership with India.
The concerns have been voiced by Chinese foreign policy expert Ms Han Hua, Associated Professor and Director of the Centre for Arms Control and Disarmament at the School of International Studies, Beijing University, China. Ms Han Hua came to Dhaka recently to attend the South Asian Regional Conference on Peace and Security...[ FULL STORY ]
THEY'RE ETCHED ON MINDS OF MILLIONS
A tribute to Mujib and Zia
Fazle Rashid in New York
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of revered memory, chief architect of Bangladesh, and Ziaur Rahman who proclaimed the War of Independence of Bangladesh and freedom fighter of great valour, played complementary roles to carve out a sovereign nation, Bangladesh, on the world map. The independence was won at a huge cost.
The two leaders were not opposed to each other, as many erroneously suggest. Two events will amply vindicate the assertion made above. Ziaur Rahman declared the War of Independence in the name of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of revered memory. The leader paid back the compliment by inducting Ziaur Rahman into the Central Commiittee of BAKSAL as the representative of the Bangladesh Army when one-party rule was ushered in the country.
Mujib ignored claim
Sheikh Mujib ignored the claim of Shafiullah also, a freedom fighter who was then the chief of army staff. Zia was the number two man in the army. Sheikh Mujib also conferred upon Zia the second highest military award of Bir Uttam in recognition of his immense contributions to the War of Independence...[ FULL STORY ]
|
