Muhith seeks support from WB, IMF

United News of Bangladesh . Dhaka

The finance minister. Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, stressed the need for enhanced budget support from the World Bank and Balance of Payment support from the IMF.

This was stressed in his statement for the 2011 annual meetings of the World Bank group and International Monetary Fund in Washington DC on Friday, said a press release of Bangladesh embassy in Washington DC.

He said Bangladesh’s public investments and expenditures were carefully planned and designed for achieving core of development objectives such as brining women to the forefront of the development, creating jobs, maintaining price stability, generating power and energy, devising food and social security programme and combating climate change impacts.

He noted that all these efforts need to be supplemented through budget support under the Poverty Reduction Support Credit(PRSC)programme of the World Bank and balance of payment support under the Extended Credit Facility(ECF)of the IMF.

‘Such supports would be key in creating fiscal space and mitigating pressure on the already strained country’s balance of payment’, he added.

Highlighting achievements of Bangladesh in maintaining a stable macroeconomic situation in the face if global economic downturn, particularly in areas such as balance of payments, maintaining stable export growth, expansion of domestic demand, strong performance in rural and agricultural sectors meeting power crisis and sustaining an overall growth rate of over 6%, the Finance Minister said that Bangladesh rightfully deserved budget support from the World Bank for additional investment it had to make to achieve them.

Muhith, also the Governor of the World Bank and IMF for Bangladesh, said Bangladesh has placed poverty alleviation central to its development efforts and allocated up to 53.12 percent of the budget for poverty reducing expenditure.

Referring to the experiences of the global financial crisis, the Finance Minister urged upon the Governors for restructuring the global, financial, monetary and architecture.

He proposed that G20 or the Board of Governors should inscribe restructuring as an agenda item to initiate a meaningful restructuring of the global financial system.

He put forward concrete suggestions for considerations including giving G20 informal mechanism, some legal court, managing liquidity by the global public sector, enhanced monitoring and surveillance of the IMF.

He reiterated the need for enhanced focus by the World Bank on mediating surplus resources for investment in deficit countries, enhanced efforts to overcome poverty and hunger, devising a pragmatic trade financing system and managing volatility of commodity prices, particularly those of fooed grains and petroleum.

Muhith is leading a high level Bangladesh delegation to the 2011 annual meetings of the Board of Governors of the World Bank and the IMF in Washington DC.

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Dhaka to vote for Palestine statehood bid: Hasina

 

United News of Bangladesh . New York

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has said Bangladesh would always stand by the Palestine people to establish an independent Palestine state.

‘If needed, we will vote for establishing Palestine State,’ she said in reply to a question at a ‘meet the press’ programme at the Bangladesh Mission office in New York on Saturday.

The Palestine president, Mahmoud Abbas, formally submitted a written statehood application to the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, on September 23.

The prime minister said Bangladesh had always been with the people of Palestine to establish their rights.

She recalled that there was close relations between Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. ‘We had a very close family relation,’ she said.

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Magura road accident kills 11

Elf Menschen, darunter vier Kinder wurden getötet, wenn ein Beschleunigung LKW eine geparkten menschlichen Schlepper Rast Sie beide Fahrzeuge in ein am Straßenrand Gewässer bei Saitrish in Magura Sadar Upazila am Sonntag Nachmittag.

Der verstorbene, alle Passagiere die drei Rädern menschlichen Muldenkipper Magura Stadt von Alamkhali gingen, teilte die Polizei mit.

Wütenden einheimischen Aufmachungen Barrikade Fällen von Bäumen, die Verkehr auf der Autobahn für fast vier Stunden ausgesetzt.

Später, Polizei und Landkreis Regierungsvertreter stürzte und versichert die rühren Mob von Maßnahmen einschließlich Geschwindigkeit Breakers Unfälle im Straßenverkehr zu enthalten.

Magura-Polizei-Superintendent Proloy Chisim sagte, dass Menschen zogen die Barrikade auf über 19:00, nachdem sie kamen überein, Geschwindigkeit Breakers an verschiedenen Stellen der Autobahn zu bauen.

Verstorbenen wurden fünf Pravir Kumar Ghosh, 45, Lehrer für Rawtara HM High School, sowie Suraiya Begum, 35, und ihre Schwester 12 Jahre Sumaiya Akter, Bewohner des Hajipur Dorfes Sadar Upazila, 5-jährige Madina-Akter, 12 Jahre alten Mohammad Sohag, ein Bewohner von Lokqiol Dorf erkennbar.

Identifiziert die anderen konnte nicht sofort bekannt sein.

Die Polizei sagte, Magura-Jhenidah Highway bei Saitrish der Unfall ereignet Bus Stand auf über 16:30 bei Dhaka Gemüse beladene LKW Bindung der ständigen menschlichen Schlepper auf Fahrgäste an der Bushaltestelle getroffen.

"Wir versuchen, sowohl die Fahrzeuge aus dem Gewässer abzurufen. Wir haben bereits die Stellen von der menschlichen Schlepper erholt. Bisher kam ich zu wissen, dass 11 Menschen bei dem Unfall starben, "sagte er.

Er sagte, dass der Fahrer des LKW die Szene nach dem Unfall geflohen.

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PM-Regeln Gespräche mit Oppositionsführer

Says next general polls to be held under EC

Bangladesh singing bath Sangstha. New York

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has ruled out the necessity of sitting for talks with the opposition leader about 'different problems' existing in the country.

Speaking at a ' meet the press' programs with journalists at Bangladesh's Permanent Mission at the United Nations in New York on Saturday, the prime minister said the main

demands of the BNP leader were releasing her ' sons', stopping trial corrupt of criminals and withdrawing was the money laundering cases filed against her sons.

'Wouldn't' t the trial of illegally interests was criminals be held in of a political force? Should the corrupt be released? Wouldnt the persons who killed people through grenade attack stood in the dock, and those who embezzled orphans' money to be brought to book?,' she posed the questions.

Hasina said the country was liberated for 40 years and the Awami League was in power for 10 / 11 years. 'The development and welfare of the people were only made when the Awami League which is in power, but others plundered the country's property,' she said.

Health minister AFM Ruhal Haque, Bangladesh's permanent representative to the UN, foreign minister Dipu Moni, foreign secretary Mijarul Finley's Abdul Momen, PM's press secretary Abul Kalam Azad and Bangladesh's press minister in Washington Swapan Kumar Saha on the occasion were present.

At the outset of the programme, the prime minister highlighted various programmes of her 11-day tour of New York.

She said the US president, Barack Obama, had enquired about Bangladesh while ex changing greetings with her at the receptions hosted by the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon and US first lady Michelle Obama. 'The US president also expressed his interest to visit Bangladesh,' she said.

The prime minister said her government had been making strong efforts to resume Dhaka-New York flight of Bangladesh Biman.

The prime minister said the work of the United Nations which now not only limited to establishing peace. ' We want to see the world body more effective. We do not want to see conflicting world... we want to leave a peaceful environment for the new generation,' she said.

For this, she expressed opinion, the United Nations would have to play a special role.

About the 'peace model' she unveiled in her address in the 66th UN General Assembly on Saturday, Hasina said peace would come in the world if the matters mentioned in the peace model were implemented.

The prime minister said her government wanted to make the people the source of all power or owners. ' The people would decide through ballot who would govern the country and the people are the main strength of their power.

About the country's economy, she said the purchasing capacity of the people had increased, while the poverty, the main barrier to development, which is being reduced.

Stressing the need for peace and stability in the country for improving the living standards of the people, she said all had to work unitedly to eliminate poverty.

About the regional connectivity, Hasina said in the present global social and economic system no country remains isolated. 'For this, regional connectivity is a must,' she said, adding that her government has been working for welfare of the people by establishing friendly ties with all neighbouring countries.

The prime minister further said for establishing regional connectivity India had agreed to provide transit to Nepal and Bhutan during Manmohan Singh's recent visit to Bangladesh.

'The issue of cooperation about hydroelectricity in the region which so discussed during his tour,' she said.

About Bangladesh - India relations, she said friendly ties existed between the two neighbours. 'Discussions are underway about water sharing of the common rivers including Teesta,' she said.

She said so what discussion going on whether on interim agreement about water-sharing could be made of Teesta. 'When we could resolve a complicated problem like water sharing of the Ganges River, we would also be able to ink a deal about water sharing of Teesta River,' she hoped.

About Khaleda Zia's comments that the BNP would not go to election without the caretaker government, the prime minister said election would be held when time comes, and all political parties would participate in it.

Hasina said the next general elections would be held under the supervision of the Election Commission and all political parties would therefore participate in the polls, reports UNB.

'The government won't intervene in anything of the elections,' she said.

The prime minister said her party first forged a movement for caretaker government. ' The BNP did not want it... rather they said there which no neutral person in the country except mad persons and children.

Then, they were compelled to pass the caretaker government bill in parliament at midnight.'

Mentioning the peculiar experiences she gathered about the caretaker government of Justice Latifur Rahman, the prime minister said he (Latifur) helped dismissed 13 secretaries within on hour of talking oath and at that time other advisers were not appointed and meeting of the cabinet was not held.

She said the BNP made president Iajuddin Ahmed as the caretaker government chief in 2007 after breaking the law framed by the party.

Mentioning that all the masterminds of the previous caretaker government were created by the BNP, she said they (BNP) thought that they would be able to siphon off money abroad they plundered during their rule.

Hasina said her government did not want to cancel the caretaker government system. But, she said, the High Court pronounced verdict declaring illegal the caretaker government system.

' How would we legalise the caretaker government system which was declared illegal by the apex court?,' she questioned.

The prime minister said the Awami League which is not allowed to come to power in 2001 as the party did not agree to sell gas abroad.

'Sheikh Hasina does not do politics of selling the country's interests for greed of power,' she said.

Mentioning that BNP's movement would never be successful, Hasina said the people of the country would not stand in favour of the corrupts. 'They (BNP) could not the development and progress of the hinder country,' she said, urging the BNP not to do anything that causes sufferings to the people.

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Hasina's stand is 'you're either with me or against me': Yunus

A leaked US embassy cable has observed that a prophet has no honour in his own country, at least as far as Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus and the Awami League-led government attitude towards him is concerned.

The cable sent to Washington from the US embassy in Dhaka on November 30, 2009, said, ‘Prime minister Sheikh Hasina and foreign minister Dipu Moni made clear their distrust and suspicion of Yunus in several recent meetings with senior US government officials.’

WikiLeaks on August 30, 2011 released a number of diplomatic cables which had noted that while the government claimed Yunus was engaged in corrupt practices at Grameen Bank, his ties to the military-controlled interim administration and his brief contemplation of a role in

Bangladesh politics were more likely the reasons for Awami League’s disdain.

‘No one in Bangladesh can escape politics, however,’ said the November 30, 2009 cable.

One of the cables said Yunus wanted to resolve whatever ‘misunderstanding’ existed with Hasina over his efforts and organisation Grameen Bank and asked the US government to assist him in urging Hasina to change a long-standing rule that gave the government control over his position as Grameen Bank chairman and sought US help to resolve the problems.

Hasina signalled her displeasure with Yunus by refusing to ratify the interim regime’s ordinance that had empowered the Grameen Bank board of directors to appoint its chairman, said the November 30, 2009 cable sent by the then US charge d’ affaires Nicholas Dean.

‘Fearing [that the] government displeasure with him would jeopardise Grameen Bank and his other initiatives, Yunus requested the US ambassador to put in a good word with Sheikh Hasina on behalf of Grameen and Yunus,’ the cable read.

On November 5, 2009, when the US ambassador at a meeting with Hasina raised the Yunus issue, ‘the prime minister theatrically rolled her eyes and shook her head.  She spoke at length about her estrangement from Yunus and nodded her agreement when an advisor in the meeting characterised Yunus as ungrateful for the Grameen Phone deal that the prime minister had made possible.’

On November 11, 2009 ambassador-at-large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer met with Hasina, when the former was also interested in meeting with Yunus.

 ‘Most keenly, the prime minister felt Yunus had exercised poor judgment by courting military officers who had presented Yunus the possibility of coming to power through military backing in early 2007,’ the cable said. 

‘Perhaps we don’t work together.  But we don’t stop him.  When I was in Sweden (recently), Yunus was there and we exchanged hands.  It is our family tradition.’ Hasina was quoted in the cable to have said. 

When ambassador Verveer met with foreign minister Dipu Moni the next day, however, the latter had a litany of complaints against Yunus. Dipu Moni presented a range of allegations against Yunus and Grameen. 

‘She complained about the high interest rates Grameen charges its customers and alleged that the bank used “vicious practices” to recruit customers and obtain loan payments,’ the cable read.

Dipu Moni said, ‘Yunus broke rules and Grameen didn’t comply with Bangladesh law, including auditing requirements.  Many people in Bangladesh were upset when Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize given his corrupt practices.’

She also said government leaders understood the power of Yunus’ international reputation and therefore ‘bit our tongues’ when accolades were heaped upon him. 

According to the cable, on a personal note, Dipu Moni the foreign minister also complained that Yunus did not visit Sheikh Hasina in the hospital after she was injured in a 2004 bomb attack.

Ambassadors Verveer and James F Moriarty met with Yunus on November 11, 2009, when Yunus disputed all the allegations and said he and Grameen complied with all laws, including annual audits.

Yunus agreed that the prime minister likely viewed him as part of the caretaker government that tried to remove her and her rival, Khaleda Zia of the opposition BNP, from Bangladesh’s political scene. 

Yunus said Hasina’s attitude was, ‘you’re either with me or against me.’ 

 This dispute also raises questions about the long-term future of Grameen Bank.  Yunus is 69 years old.  Yunus told Moriarty and Verveer that he had offered to retire on a number of occasions, but the bank board had refused his offers, claiming there would be a run on the bank if he left. 

Yunus said he had been grooming a successor, but claimed government leaders had wooed that person into their camp and now he was working against him within the bank.

Another cable sent to Washington on August 12, 2009 by the then US ambassador James F Moriarty in Dhaka, said when the ambassador had met with Yunus on August 9, 2009 to congratulate him on winning the presidential medal of freedom, Yunus reported that tensions between him and the prime minister continued, but he hoped to meet with her soon to clear any misunderstandings over his efforts and organisation. 

Yunus said he had not yet received an appointment with Hasina despite his sending in an urgent request in late July 2009. Yunus perceived that even supportive government officials felt pressured to distance themselves from his recommendations and proposals.

Moriarty in another cable he sent to Washington on May 11, 2009 disclosed that Yunus had asked that the US assist him in urging Sheikh Hasina to change a long-standing rule giving the government control over his position as the Grameen Bank chairman.

Bangladesh’s 2007-2008 caretaker government passed an ordinance removing the GOB’s authority to select the bank chairman, but the parliament has not yet ratified that ordinance, the cable said.

In a May 10, 2009 meeting with the ambassador, ‘Yunus requested our input on the best way to request the PM reconsider her refusal,’ Moriarty said in the cable.

Yunus also discussed with the ambassador his disappointment over the AL government. He said the new government had to focus on the nation’s power needs and improve the quality of government bureaucracy in order for Bangladesh to weather the current economic turmoil, it said.

During the meeting Yunus said parliament had refused to approve an amendment to legislation that established Grameen Bank in the early 1980s; the amendment would have given the bank’s board of directors, rather than the government (as has been the practice), the authority to select the chairman of Grameen Bank, a position held by Yunus since the bank’s inception and renewed every two years.

In order to create Grameen Bank in 1983, Yunus sought support from the government to transform his micro-credit venture from a charitable organisation to a full-fledged bank, the cable said.

The government of Bangladesh passed an ordinance creating Grameen Bank, that decreed that the government would own 60 per cent of the bank and would have the authority to appoint its chairman. 

‘Since 1983, the GOB’s share of Grameen Bank has gradually declined; now the government only owns 5 per cent of the bank.’

The GOB has also continued to re-appoint Yunus the bank’s chairman.  However, Yunus has long desired to change the rule giving the GOB control of his position as chairman, the cable said. 

Over the years, Yunus told the ambassador, he had applied repeatedly to the GOB to amend the rules regarding the selection of the chairman.

The ambassador and Yunus went on to discuss more generally the prime minister’s performance during her first four months in office.

Yunus was critical of Hasina’s actions to strengthen the central government at the expense of local government.  He also criticised the AL government for exacting petty retributions against the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its leader Khaleda Zia.  ‘This is a divisive strategy,’ Yunus said.  The prime minister ‘must build bridges.’

Moriarty commented, ‘Despite, or perhaps because of, Yunus’ international reputation, many among Bangladesh’s political elite regard the Nobel Laureate with suspicion.  In the atmosphere of Bangladesh’s cult-of-personality politics, Sheikh Hasina and others likely view Yunus’ achievements and stature as a threat to their authority; in their minds, his very brief attempt to establish a political party in the early days of the 2007-2008.’

‘Yunus and his supporters, including the United States, need to convince the prime minister that an independent Grameen Bank is in her interest,’ he concluded.

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Saudi king gives women right to vote

Agence France-Presse . Riyadh

Saudi King Abdullah on Sunday granted women the right to vote and run in municipal elections, in a historic first for the ultra-conservative country where women are subjected to many restrictions.

‘Starting with the next term, women will have the right to run in municipal elections and to choose candidates, according to Islamic principles,’ he said in speech

to the Shura Council carried live on state television.

Women’s rights activists have long fought to gain the right to vote in the Gulf kingdom, which applies a strict version of Sunni Islam and bans women from driving or travelling without the consent of a male guardian.

Manal al-Sharif, a 32-year-old computer security consultant who was arrested on May 22 and detained for 10 days after posting on YouTube a video of herself driving around the eastern city of Khobar, said the king’s decision as ‘a historic and courageous one.’

‘The king is a reformist,’ she said of the 86-year-old monarch, whose country was spared a wave of protests rocking the region by which autocratic regimes in Tunisia and Egypt were toppled.

The king’s decision means that women will be able to take part in the elections that are to be held in four years, as the next vote is due to take place on Thursday and nominations are already closed.

In addition to participating in the only public polls in the country, women would have the right to join the all-appointed Shura (consultative) Council, he said in the address opening the assembly’s new term.

‘We have decided that women will participate in the Shura Council as members starting the next term,’ the king said in the unexpected move to enfranchise women.

More than 5,000 men will compete in Thursday’s municipal elections, only the second in Saudi Arabia’s history, to fill half the seats in the kingdom’s 285 municipal councils. The other half are appointed by the government.

The first elections were held in 2005, but the government extended the existing council’s term for two years.

King Abdullah said his decision came because ‘we refuse marginalising women’s role in the Saudi society in all fields,’ and followed ‘consultations with several scholars.’

He did not mention anything about women’s right to drive in the kingdom where they must hire male chauffeurs, or depend on the goodwill of relatives if they do not have the means.

However, he said that ‘balanced modernisation which agrees with our Islamic values is a necessary demand in an epoch where there is no place for those who are hesitant’ in moving forward.

Saudi Arabia has seen many changes since Abdullah became king in 2005.

Norah al-Fayez, who was named to the post of deputy education minister for women’s education in 2009, was the first woman ever named to a ministerial post in the country.

More than 60 intellectuals and activists had called in May for a boycott of the September ballot because ‘municipal councils lack the authority to effectively carry out their role’ and ‘half of their members are appointed,’ as well as because they exclude women.

The Shura Council had recommended allowing women to vote in the next local polls, officials have said.

In April, Samar Badawi said she was suing the municipal affairs ministry for upholding the ban on women taking part in the local poll.

Badawi filed a lawsuit at the administrative court in Mecca against the ministry for denying women the right to register as voters.

Also in April, a group of women defied the ban on women in elections by turning up at a voter registration office in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, in a rare public demonstration against the male-only electoral system.

But they were turned back by the head of the centre who told them women were still banned from voting.

The oil-rich Sunni kingdom has however seen minor sporadic demonstrations by Shiites that took place in its Eastern Province.

Sahrif was the icon of a campaign through which a group of defiant Saudi women got behind the steering wheels of their cars on June 17 in response to calls for nationwide action against the ban on driving.

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, has publicly thrown her support behind the campaign, saying that ‘what these women are doing is brave, and what they are seeking is right.’

‘The Saudi woman, will for the first time, become a partner in decision-making. I hope she gets assigned as a minister,’ said Sharif.

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Automatic vehicle inspection centres yet to be operational

AppId is over the quota

Shahin Akhter

The Bangladesh road transport authority is planning to appoint local consultants to run the five automatic vehicle inspection centres lying idle for more than a decade.

Since the Danish International Development Agency handed over the centres, set up under a joint road maintenance and rehabilitation project, to BRTA in 1999, the authorities failed to attract foreign consultants to make the plants operating.

BRTA engineering department director Mohammad Saiful Haque told that under the joint project with Danida, new age five vehicle inspection centres had been set up in different parts of the country in 1997-98 fiscal years.

Each of the centres, with a capacity to inspected about 150 vehicles per day, which set up at a cost of TK one crore, he said.

' But the Danida consultants left the country in 1999 without supporting the operational side of the plants and as a result they could not work for a single day,' he said.

Saiful Haque said that the BRTA had tried to attract different foreign companies, but they did not show interest in the work.

'So we have asked the communications ministry to invite tender to appoint local consultants and activate the plants as soon as possible,' he said.

He hoped tender would be floated for local consultants by this year.

Earlier, BRTA deputy director of engineering department Sheikh Mohammad Mahbub-e-Rabbani told new age that the centres would check motor vehicles' fitness by using automatic equipment, including brake testers, alignment testers, checkers smoke testers and under chassis.

He said that two centres were set up in Mirpur and Ekuria in Dhaka and three others in Chittagong, Khulna and Rajshahi.

BRTA sources said that at present vehicles were checked manually by 57 motor vehicle inspectors all over the country.

The sources said about 16 lakh registered motor vehicles were plying the country's roads and all of them needed annual re-registration.

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Police, polls officials intervene in Ivy briefing

 

A team of policemen and election officers on Sunday intervened when Selina Hayat Ivy, an aspirant mayoral candidate for the Narayanganj City Corporation elections, was holding a press conference on Sunday.

The press conference Ivy

was holding at the Narayanganj Press Club began at noon and about half an hour later, the police team, headed by the Sadar police officer-in-charge, Md Aktar Hossain, sadar upazila election officer Rakibuzzaman, and assistant returning officer for the city corporation elections Mosleuddin entered the press club and a heated exchange took place.

Aktar Hossain and Rakibuzzaman told Ivy that they had visited the place on information that there was an election campaign going in breach of the electoral code of conduct.

‘I went to the venue of the press conference as election officials asked us to go there,’ Aktar told New Age.

Ivy was briefing reporters on her position about the rumours that had been rife for a few days that she was joining or negotiating with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami so that she could win the elections.

She said that she was daughter of Ali Ahmed Chunka and she would never stop being with the Awami League. ‘Other aspirants have spread the rumours,’ she added.

She also told the reporters that her father was chairman of the municipal corporation and she had also been elected chairman to the now-defunct mnicipal corporation. ‘I am vice-president of the city unit Awami League and now I am a mayoral candidate of the city corporation polls.’

In reply to the question of the reporters, she said, ‘I have never left Narayanganj and I will stand by the city residents in future.’

As for visit of the policemen and election officials and intervention in the press conference, she said that it was clearly meant to thwart the citizens’ right to voting.

She also urged army deployment before the elections to stave off any untoward situations.

The district administration and the superintendent of police are serving the purpose of Shamim Osman and they need to be transferred if the elections were to be free and fair, Ivy said.

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PM preaches peace harbouring unrest at home: Fakhrul

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Staff Correspondent

The acting Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Sunday said that the prime minister was preaching peace in the United Nations after inciting and harbouring unrest at home.

Fakhrul urged Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister, to ensure peace in the country before taking up efforts for global peace.

‘Its funny that the prime minister presents a model for global peace while the police back in her country pin people down to the ground with fool and the destitute keep scavenging food from dustbins,’ he said at a representatives’ meeting of the Dhaka city unit Jatiyatabadi Swechchhasebak Dal at the Institute of Diploma Engineers.

Hasina on Saturday presented a model of peace as she addressed the 66th session of the UN general assembly in New York.

‘I could not hold my laughter seeing the news. I would like to ask the prime minister to concentrate on affairs at home first,’ he added.

‘We are living in a country where rallies of political opponents are attacked, a policeman stamps a citizen in the chest, a lawyer is whisked away from his house and beaten to death in custody. It is extremely unbecoming of the prime minister of such a country to preach peace in the United Nations,’ he said.

Fakhrul said that he might not agree with political ideals of Jamaat leader ATM Azharul Islam but it could not acceptable that he would be tortured in custody and presented before the media as robbers.

‘If he violates any law, there could be trial and punishment. Why is this torture?’ he added.   

He said that 33 per cent of the young people had cast their vote in 2008 elections and the Awami League had promised them jobs, at least for one in a family, but the government failed to keep its word.

The Dhaka city unit BNP member secretary Abdus Salam, Swechchhasebak Dal president Habibunnabi Khan Sohel, general secretary Mir Sharafat Ali and organising secretary Shafiul Bari Babu also spoke at the programme, chaired by Yasin Ali.

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Polizei, RAB Exzesse nicht akzeptabel: JS-Panel

Ofiul Hasnat Ruhin

The parliamentary standing committee on the home ministry on Sunday expressed concern over the stamping of a pro-hartal picket in Dhaka by the police and questioned the role of rapid action battalion in the death of a Juba Sanghati leader in Sylhet.

The committee warned law enforcers not to do excesses while on duty to maintain law and order.

The standing committee at a meeting so asked the home ministry to investigate the incidents and let the committee know about what had happened, meeting sources said.

A Jatiyo party lawmaker and member of the committee raised the issues of stamping of a picket by the police during the September 22 hartal enforced by the Bangladesh nationalist party-led opposition and the death of Monwar Hossain Monir, general secretary of Sylhet district Juba Sanghati, the youth front of the Jatiyo party, early Saturday reportedly from torture by the RAB, sources said.

"It could not be accepted that pickets or anyone would be beaten to death by the law enforcers," the committee chairman, Abdus Salam told reporters after the meeting, adding that they had discussed the incidents.

He said that the committee had earlier warned the law enforcers against doing excesses and overenthusiastic behaviour. ' Now that such incidents have taken place, the committee wants explanations after investigations.'

Salam, however, said that those enforcing hartal had

no right to unleash anarchy and damage public property in the name of political programmes.

Sources said that the committee members had also accused law enforcement agencies of tarnishing the image of the government by such activities very often.

' I asked the inspector general of police whether punitive action was taken against the police personnel responsible for stamping a picket and he said that an investigation was on,' Jatiyo party lawmaker Mujibul Haque Chunnu told new age, adding that the police was asked to submit a report on the incident to the committee after investigation.

He also said that the director general of RAB was asked about the death of Monir in Sylhet and he explained that Monir had died of cardiac arrest, which the committee did not accept.

The committee therefore asked for a detailed report from the RAB about the incident, said the JP lawmaker.

The police during the hartal hours on September 22 stamped a picket in the city's Motijheel area. The picture of the incident which published and broadcast by the media.

Sylhet unit Juba Sanghati leader Monir, RAB so president of cultural organization MohanA singing critique Sangstha what arrested by 19 and handed over to police on September. He died early Saturday in Sylhet Medical College Hospital.

His brother Altaf Hossain said that his brother had died from torture by the RAB.

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JnU students rampage demanding repeal clause

Dhaka University unit Chhatra League activists student beat when Jagannath went students on Sunday on the road to the Supreme Court building in protest against State funding rules for the University. -New-age-photo

Bdnews24.com. Dhaka

The police of the High Court have to charged with batons, to distribute hundreds of students of the University of Jagannath, blocking of roads close to require removal of funding generally, which has angered.

The police action Sunday came on after they were driving, to ignore repeated calls to the authorities on the streets.

Has the police of his last almost two hours protests, 14: 00 to move, to distribute them.

You smashed at least a dozen vehicles, and not less than six to arrest police, students from the scene.

Deputy Police Chief Krishnapada Roy said Dhaka City, she had no other options but go for measures such as the students ignored its repeated calls.

"We asked them to leave the road several times and go back to their campus and peacefully demonstrate." But when she began vandalising vehicles and the police had to act ", he told reporters."

The students said she wanted to that immediate withdrawal of a clause of the University Act, which says the institution is not eligible for any Government funding.

Earlier, JnU Vice-Chancellor Professor Mesbah Uddin Ahmad visited the demonstrating students at 13: 30, and urged them to free the streets. The students refused.

The students, which continues to shown on the University campus, before they marched through the streets at 11: 30 to reach above the High Court Division.

During the business hours of protests, position on the streets around the roundabout between the National Press Club and the High Court took the students and chanted slogans urging withdrawal of the clause.

The protests broke to out, after they came from a newspaper report learn, provided that the Jagannath University Act 2005, that the University must maintain funds themselves.

The protest concerned area paralyzed times how traffic movement had come to a halt.

Jagannath University proctor Ashok Kumar Saha said: 'Article 27 (4) of the Jagannath University Act - 2005 says that the University authority have to earn the cost of the operation of the University itself.'

"We hold discussions with the Government, has the effect of this clause because their implementation would tuition hike and it is a little difference of Jagannath University with other private initiatives," he added.

The students claimed that their semester fees of TK 3,500 TK 20,000 increase you sales of the University had to be increased.

Requests the students include also recovery which set up University dormitories, library and the transportation facilities.

Earlier, the students smashed vehicles to the University area.

Activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League Jagannath University was unit supposed to beat police and disperse the angry students, blocked the traffic on the street in front of the National Press Club.

A group of 10 to 12 BCL activists were against the protesters and she hindered photograph press corps, who beat them tried a demonstrator at the Shikkha Bhaban.

The BCL activists with the demonstrators at the beginning was but became angry when she beat the students about their request to demonstrate, by leaving the road.

BCL Jagannath University unit convener Saiful Islam Akhand, however denied the claim. 'Those who had beaten protesters not Chhatra League belong to,' he told the news agency.

The Education Minister said the decision on the financing of Jagannath University are demanding abolition of self-financing would determine after consultation with all stakeholders, hours after his students roads blocked and vandalized vehicles.

But Nurul Islam Nahid criticized their vandalising cars.

The Minister told journalists in the Secretariat, ' I with the Vice-Chancellor of the University and the University Grants Commission spoke. We will find a way to solve this problem by talking to everyone.'

He also stressed that the relevant legislation will be changed, needs to resolve this issue, but could not specify how long it will take.

Question whether the law will be changed to the Minister said, 'I can't say whether it be changed unless a decision is made after talks.',

"We are not releasing their Reasons…with education costs rise, students have the right, worried," the Minister said.

But vandalism can not the answer, Nahid said, ' caused such disease by the destruction of property of the people damage the image of students. "

Increase the universities urging their internal sales, Nahid, said "It is not possible to develop everything with funds from the Government."

He added that the students also the universities increase should help.

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| Source: newagebd.com

BBC News, Al Jazeera take online journalism honours

Boston . Massachusetts

BBC News, Al Jazeera and The Los Angeles Times scooped up the top prizes as the Online News Association handed out its annual awards on Saturday.

Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, Argentina’s La Nacion, France’s OWNI and Germany’s Zeit Online were also among those recognised by the ONA for their digital journalism efforts.

BBC News took the award for general excellence in online journalism by a large site while The Globe and Mail won the award for a medium site.

Al Jazeera was honoured in the breaking news category for its coverage of the popular uprising in Egypt.

The Los Angeles Times won two awards: one for innovative investigative journalism and a second for online video journalism at a large site.

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NTC fighters enter Sirte

  National Transitional Council fighters prepare their weapons prior their fights in the city of Sirte on Saturday. ­— AFP photo

Agence France-Presse . Sirte

Hundreds of fighters for Libya’s new rulers thrust into Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte from the east on Sunday, as NATO warplanes pounded the coastal city for a second straight day.

Flashing V-for-victory signs, the fighters moved into Sirte on pickup trucks and larger lorries, backed by three artillery tanks as they shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is greatest), an AFP correspondent said.

Other fighters loyal to the National Transitional Council held their ground west of the Mediterranean city, as deadly clashes also raged in the western oasis of Ghadames near the Algerian border.

And west of Sirte, NTC forces assembled outside Bani Walid for a fresh assault on the town, the only other remaining Gaddafi redoubt.

As they rolled in from Sirte’s eastern gate, two ambulances sped out with sirens ablaze, and other NTC fighters emerged from the Gaddafi bastion, where they said there were small arms firefights.

‘We are fighting with Kalashnikovs and small arms around the city centre,’ Mar’ee Saleh of the Ali Hassan Jabar Brigade said.

‘We are firing at Gaddafi’s men but their return fire is not very strong,’ he said as he exited from the eastern gate.

Saleh added that ‘NATO carried out several strikes today. I saw them myself.’

Many of the pickup trucks entering the city carried food and water supplies, as well as mattresses, an indication the fighters were planning to take positions inside Sirte, the correspondent said.

West of Sirte, however, NTC forces held their ground saying they had received instructions not to launch a fresh assault into Sirte to allow NATO to carry out operations.

On the political front, NTC chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil said an interim government would be announced next week and that Gaddafi’s internationally ‘banned weapons’ were now under its control.

Earlier, one of the fighters stationed at Sirte’s eastern gate said fighters were looking for land mines.

‘We fear that Gaddafi forces have buried land mines on the outskirts of the city. So we are careful. So far today it has been quiet after heavy clashes yesterday,’ said frontline fighter Abdul Hameed.

Fighters stationed west of Sirte told another AFP correspondent they had been told by the NATO coalition to stay put on Sunday and hold back a planned new assault on the city.

NATO aircraft launched at least a dozen air strikes around Sirte on Sunday morning, a correspondent said.

On Saturday, NATO warplanes blew up 29 armed vehicles, a firing position, two command and control nodes and three ammunition storage facilities in the area, the alliance said in an operational update.

On Saturday fighters entered Sirte in what appeared to be a pincer movement from the south and the east.

‘Our troops went seven kilometres inside through the eastern gate and there were sporadic to sometimes heavy clashes with Gaddafi’s forces,’ said commander Mohammed al-Marimi of the Fakriddin Sallabi Brigade.

Misrata Military Council spokesman Abdel Ibrahim said seven NTC fighters were killed and 145 wounded.

The fighters used tanks and pickups mounted with anti-aircraft guns to clear roadblocks set up by Gaddafi forces and drove towards Sirte city centre, erecting their own defences in advanced positions.

On a beach road surrounded by craters and pock-marked buildings, a 106mm anti-tank cannon repeatedly pounded Gaddafi positions, backed by a barrage of mortar fire and multiple rocket-launchers.

One Sirte resident who managed to flee early on Sunday said fighting subsided at around 7:00pm on Saturday.

‘There are African mercenaries roaming across the city. They are firing at houses with anti-aircraft guns in district one’ on the western edge of Sirte, he said, refusing to give his name for security reasons.

He also said he twice saw one of Gaddafi’s sons, Mutassim — once in a command centre in a hospital basement, over the past three weeks.

Front line fighters in Sirte have repeatedly said Mutassim is holed up in its southern outskirts.

Saturday’s assault came after reports of a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in the city of around 75,000.

NATO forces struck at Gaddafi forces after reports emerged from Sirte of ‘executions, hostage-taking, and the calculated targeting of individuals, families, and communities within the city,’ a coalition statement said.

The assault on Ghadames, 600 kilometres southwest of Tripoli, came at dawn, killing at least eight NTC fighters and wounding 50, said Muhandes Sirajeddin, deputy chief of the local council.

‘The attack began at around 5:30am (0330 GMT). Around 100 Gaddafi loyalists, including mercenaries who came from around Algeria (across the border), and groups of Tuareg took part in the fighting,’ he said.

Sirajeddin and two other residents said clashes were still under way in Ghadames, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to Roman ruins.

Heavy fighting also raged in Bani Walid, the only other remaining pro-Gaddafi bastion, with NTC fighters coming under fire from inside the town, an AFP correspondent said.

NTC commander Omar Mukhtar said his men are ‘regrouping’ but would not attack on Sunday.

‘We are getting ready,’ he said, as an AFP correspondent saw five tanks rolling up to the front line.

NTC forces believe that Gaddafi’s most prominent son, Seif al-Islam, is holed up in Bani Walid. ‘We know exactly where he is,’ Mukhtar said.

Meanwhile, the remains of more than 1,700 prisoners executed in 1996 by jailers at Tripoli’s notorious Abu Salim prison have been found in a mass grave in the capital, a National Transitional Council spokesman said Sunday.

‘We found the place where all these martyrs were buried,’ said Khalid Sharif, spokesman of the NTC’s military council, adding it was proof of ‘criminal acts’ by Gaddafi’s regime.

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Special courts for DU students on Eid day

Authorities have decided to Dhaka University, set up to special courts Eid day for the resident students, which can leave the campus for various purposes, especially to prepare for upcoming exams.

The students will receive the unique foods at breakfast and hours.

The authorities concerned, also decided to illuminate, halls and academic buildings in the free miniature with animated lights.

Zahurul Haque Hall Provost Abu Mohammad Delwar Hossain said new age, which have some students in halls for research or other purposes, namely stay the paging on.

"Each Hall make, special dishes for the students", confirms it.

DU Vice-Chancellor AAMS Arefin SIDDIQUE said that he the Hall appropriate authorities measures to appropriate facilities for the students.

Second year student Reza told new age, that he could not go home as exams approached.

Final year student Abdul Aleem Dhrubo said that he remain in Hall at his part-time job, if he had the desire to celebrate the Eid with his family.

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Pak Court orders seizure of Musharraf's property

A Pakistani court on Saturday ordered the confiscation of the former President Pervez Musharraf property and freezing

his bank accounts in

a prosecutor said the country.

Musharraf, who lives in exile in London and Dubai, is about the 2007 murder of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto wanted to. Prosecutors issued an arrest warrant in February said his failure over them, they provide enough security.

' The Court ordered today by Pervez Musharraf property confiscation and freezing of his bank accounts in Pakistan,' Prosecutor's Office said Chaudhry Azhar after a hearing Saturday.

Musharraf's assets of the country is not known, but he owns properties, including two apartments, a farmhouse in Islamabad and country, in the development in Baluchistan.

The hearing took place in the Adiyala prison in the City garrison in Rawalpindi, and was interrupted until September 10..

Is accused of the former President and military ruler, part of a "broad conspiracy ' have been, his political rivals have killed before elections, although the exact nature of the charges against him has not been clearly made."

Benazir was killed, after addressing garrison in Rawalpindi, near an election campaign rally in the city the capital of Islamabad, on 27 December 2007.

At that time, Musharraf's Government made the assassination of the Chief of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, which any participation.

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Al-Qaeda operative dead doubt Pakistani officials

Pakistani security officials expressed doubts Sunday about reports from the United States, that it had killed the al-Qaida Deputy close to the Afghan border.

Said Senior US official on Saturday, that in the Northwest tribal Waziristan on August 22, had been killed Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, without disclosure of the circumstances of his death.

However, local officials in the region said last week that a U.S. drone at least four fighters killed strike in North Waziristan on this day. It was not clear whether the two incidents were connected.

A senior Pakistani security official in Peshawar said: "we have reviewed these messages with informants and it edited have." I doubt the authenticity of this message.'

One other security officials in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, said that he had received no details of the killing.

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Mahfouz acts in more than 10 plays in oath

Popular TV actor director Mahfuz Ahmed has more than ten single episode plays and tele films in various private broadcast TV channels traded during the Festival Eid. Audience get to see Mahmuz in different roles in many of the Eid offers.

' I play in 10-12 single-episode and conducted tele-films for the upcoming Eid. Viewers of watch me in various characters including romantic, negative and comic roles,' said the versatile actor.

About his selection of characters, Mahfouz said, ' before you run in every production, I thoroughly go through the character. If the character emotionally moved me, I go and I managed to do it, even if my schedule remains busy.'

Mahfouz has developed before recently a TV to play Director.  "Amader Nurul Huda" was the first serial, that he Anwar together with Aranya drama. ' Tomar DOA-e Bhalo Achhi Ma' and 'Choita dekhechhi', among other things, directed by Mahfouz, were admired by the TV viewers. In addition to serial, he led several single episode plays. In the upcoming Eid are two plays single episode and a Telefilm, directed by him, in various TV channels are broadcast.

"The themes of my three productions are completely different from each other." The single-episode game "Ekjon Chhayaboti" points out that there are people, the protection of an undertaking of its kind in distress. In the play a woman plays the central role which offers accommodation, said Mahfuz."

"Another piece titled"Dehorakhhi"focuses on the negative effects of Eve teasing while the tele film"Ki Kotha Tahar Shathey"is purely romantic." The tele film is a love Tri-angle in the fall in love with the same person in the mother and daughter ' Mahfouz added.

Speeches, as he his calendar in Eid, he said managed: ' the time moves on crazy for us, the players. And, of course, my venture for direction adds additional pressure. The only measure is hard-working, however, to manage the schedule. "

After completing all assignments, the actor to spend a holiday in Chennai with his wife.

More on Hotels Dhaka | Source: newagebd.com