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Military has to remain strictly professional
M. Shahidul Islam
Nowhere do nation-states function like sporting clubs to lay open their budgets for scrutiny, nor are they supposed to be wobbling trees that get swayed by blowing winds.
All sovereign nations have confidential files, geopolitical visions, masked spies and forward strategies to safeguard vital national interests and they never compromise on these points -- be it the developed West or the South Asian countries including India.
Ours is, however, different for unexplainable reasons. Here the government can handcuff the intelligence chiefs for alleged complicity with secessionist forces abroad and feel no qualm in castigating senior officers of the armed forces on charges ranging from attempt to poison certain political leader to having linkage with militants of any hue, true or not...[ FULL STORY ]
Why Nobel Committee gave Obama Peace Prize?
Following is the text of the announcement Friday by the Oslo-based Norwegian Nobel Committee giving the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama:
"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons...[ FULL STORY ]
BNP should stick to its ideological mooring
Faisal Rahim
At a time when the Awami League-led grand coalition government is rapidly becoming authoritarian, putting all signs of failures in all fronts and offering vital national interest to the neighbour, BNP as the major opposition is engaged in intra-party squabble to come out of its organisational mess to give the nation the leadership it needs...[ FULL STORY ]
Court orders Jalil's arrest
Holiday Desk
Abdul Jalil, former General Secretary and a sitting MP of the ruling Awami League, has taken the lead in the media once again.
A N M Bashirullah of Metropolitan Senior Special Judge's Court for Dhaka ordered his arrest hours after the National Board of Revenue (NBR) filed the case on Thursday on charges of evading income tax by hiding income worth Tk 54 lakh.
The NBR detected abnormal transaction in the bank accounts of Jalil and his wife at different times, which is not relevant with his income tax return statement. NBR found savings accounts and FDR in the name of his children, which were not mentioned in the income tax return statement...[ FULL STORY ]
Prachanda's Beijing mission worries Delhi
Shamsuddin Ahmed
China has accused India of pursuing 'hegemonic ambitions in South Asia' and provoking Beijing over the border disputes. The allegation made in the editorial of the Chinese official mouthpiece People's Daily Wednesday is quite significant at a time when Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Maoist leader of Nepal Pushpa Kamal Dahala (Prachanda) are in Beijing...[ FULL STORY ]
Obama's Nobel win stir up hubbub
Sadeq Khan
It is surprising how divided public opinion has turned out to be over the award of Nobel peace prize to US President Barack Hossain Obama. Racist undercurrent of ill-will in the WASPS (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Supremacists) territory around the world and demonisation mission by lying neo-con propagandists notwithstanding, majority people in the "global village" continue to have faith in Obama and consider his Nobel prize well-deserved. So do I. Against heavy odds and overcoming his handicap of part Muslim African parentage, the proven potency of his message that roused young Americans to support and elect him to US Presidency, with an express agenda to limit American's wars abroad and resort to peaceful engagement, is in itself an achievement. It was an achievement in favour of world...[ FULL STORY ]
Controversy on MSP's militant connection
Shahriar Noori
A renewed controversy involving the armed forces and their link with militants, as reported in the media not only embarrassed the government but also poised a potential threat to the integrity of Bangladesh forces in peacekeeping abroad.
Quoting from an unauthenticated statement of an arrested accused, the media report on October 11 says that the name of the Military Secretary to the President (MSP) Major General Ehtesham Ul Haque was linked to a militant's confession. General Ehtesham was immediately removed from President's house (Bangabhan ) and appointed general officer commanding (GOC) of 66 Infantry Division in Rangpur...[ FULL STORY ]
EU concerned over govt's HR record
Special Correspondent
The European Union has suggested the government of Bangladesh to improve the judiciary system, ensure the rights of citizens and also allow the accused persons on trial to have their say.
Three envoys from the European Union visiting Bangladesh last week came up with the suggestions for the government.
On the first such visit sponsored by the European Union following the new government's takeover early this year the three Human Rights Ambassadors from Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark took stock of the human rights record of the country since the general elections held in December last...[ FULL STORY ]
Undoing a good work for atrocious partisanship
M. Abdul Latif Mondal
According to an English-language daily newspaper report published last Sunday, the government is planning to recruit teachers at non-government educational institutions by repealing the existing qualifying test for Non-Government Teachers' Registration and Certification Authority (NTRCA) certificate. This test was made mandatory for candidates for teaching positions since March 2005 and became instrumental in significantly reducing corruption and nepotism in the recruitment of teachers...[ FULL STORY ]
BANGLADESH-MYANMAR TENSION
Settle maritime boundary through talks
Special Correspondent
The government wants the military to prepare for a war against Myanmar which has reportedly mobilized huge forces along the common land and maritime boundaries following the government's decision on October 8 to initiate an arbitration process against Myanmar and India to resolve maritime disputes.
The gravity of the situation compelled the army chief Gen Abdul Mubin to visit the tension-gripped Alikadam area of the Myanmar-Bangladesh border on October 12 while a navy officer was quoted by a daily newspaper as saying: "30 warships in Chittagong and Khulna have been mobilized to dispel any Myanmar attack." Another source said on condition of anonymity: "The army brigade removed from the Hill tracts has been deployed along the Myanmar border and more reinforcements were on the way...[ FULL STORY ]
GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT
Alfred Hitchcock
K. Z. Islam
Sir Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) was not only a legendary filmmaker, television personality with a unique ability to manipulate audiences, but also a profound psychologist social observer, and a Catholic moralist.
He got into movie making early in life. After some freelance work designing silent movie title, he obtained a full time job at Islington Studios in 1920. He directed his first picture, an extravagant melodrama The Pleasure Garden in 1925. Following year Hitchcock drew on his fascination with the classic English murder to make a movie about a man suspected of being Jack the Ripper, The Lodger, which was his first thriller. In 1929 he directed the first British talking film, Blackmail...[ FULL STORY ]
Dhaka celebrating 400 years to project her glorious past
Abdur Rahman Khan
A nation cannot progress without having a clear conviction and pride in her past glories. A citizen develops the feeling of esteem for his or her heritage through learning about the country's historical and cultural legacy.
This is why the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (ASB) have planned a three-year programme for the celebration of 400 years of Dhaka city as the capital, says Professor Dr Sharif uddin Ahmed, Chief Coordinator and Chief Editor of the celebration programme.
Launched in September 2008, the three-year programme will continue till September 2011 involving more than 200 researchers and historians to produce scholarly books, organise seminars on various aspects of Dhaka, its past and the future.
"The most important item of our activities is the restoration and conservation of the Nimtali Deuri, a famous historical relic lying within the precincts of the ASB at Nimtoli in the city," Dr Ahmed told the Holiday...[ FULL STORY ]
TOP U.N. OFFICIAL SAYS
Afghanistan poll marred by widespread fraud
Fazle Rashid in New York
The United Nations election monitoring unit declared that August 20 presidential poll in Afghanistan was marred by widespread fraud. Kai Eide, the top UN official flanked by Ambassadors to Kabul from US, Britain, France and Germany declared unequivocally that the election was tainted and marred by widespread fraud...[ FULL STORY ]
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