BNP terms it govt obstruction; Tuku denies

The main opposition BNP ran a campaign across the country yesterday to drum up public support for tomorrow's countrywide hartal amid obstructions from law enforcers at different places.
Police arrested about 600 people in different parts of the country yesterday ahead of the dawn-to-dusk hartal.
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It accuses FBCCI chief of political bias; businesses counter again saying 'strike very destructive to economy'

BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain yesterday sharply rebuffed a request by business leaders that the opposition find alternatives to economically crippling dawn-to-dusk hartals.
Delwar accused AK Azad, the president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), of bias in the country's political affairs, including the highly partisan general strikes.
“The president of a business organisation like the FBCCI should not make any biased statement,” he said at a press conference at the party's central office in Naya Paltan.
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The High Court (HC) yesterday granted ad interim bail to six top Jamaat-e-Islami leaders including its chief and secretary general in four separate cases.
But the Jamaat leaders would not get released from jail following the HC orders, as they are accused in other cases.
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The alliance leaders made the decision at a meeting yesterday at AL President Sheikh Hasina's political office at Dhanmondi in the capital.
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Hartal Tomorrow

The parliamentary standing committee on home ministry yesterday asked members of law enforcers to exercise restraint during tomorrow's hartal and simultaneously protect the people's lives and properties.
“We do not want police to be atrocious during hartal so that opposition parties get another issue,” Mujib-ul-Haque.
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Hearing of Khaleda's petitions today

Hearing on the petitions BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia filed over the disputed house in Dhaka cantonment would be held today at the Supreme Court.
Considering the sensitivity of the issue, law enforcement agencies have taken special measures to ensure security on the SC premises. Police also requested lawyers and visitors not to enter the chief justice's courtroom and the court premises unless they have to be there.
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Law Commission recommends amending CrPC, CPC for quick case disposal

The Law Commission has recommended that the government introduces plea bargain in the judicial system for expedited adjudication of petty criminal cases through negotiated settlements between plaintiffs and defendants.
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Railway proposes to buy 10 motors initially to improve travel to and from Dhaka; estimated Tk 210cr to come from Indian credit

The government is going to introduce railcars between the capital and its adjoining districts next year to improve the transport of commuters to and from the capital.
Bangladesh Railway recently submitted a proposal to the planning commission to buy 10 diesel-electric multiple units (DEMU), also called railcars or railmotors, in the first phase of this effort.
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PM meets Japanese 'Friends of Bangladesh'; Hasina-Kan summit today

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday sought increased Japanese assistance for the socio-economic uplift of Bangladesh especially for construction of Padma Bridge.
She sought the cooperation when a delegation of Friends of Bangladesh led by President of Parliamentary League of Japan Shin Shakurai called on her at hotel suit in Tokyo.
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Failure to Check Soybean Oil Price

The High Court yesterday asked the government to explain in two weeks why its inaction in taking effective measures to prevent the skyrocketing of soybean oil price should not be declared illegal. An HC bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik and Justice Sheikh Md Zakir Hossain made the ruling.
The court has directed the chief controller of Export and Import and the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) chairman to submit a report within four weeks on how much soybean oil had been imported in the past six months and what its price was.
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The Department of Environment (DoE) yesterday fined a factory a record Tk 69.87 lakh for discharging untreated liquid waste in the Bhairab River in Jessore.
This is the first ever punishment for polluting environment in the country's South-Western region and also the highest ever penalty awarded to a factory by DoE.
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Cop Assault Case

Actor and Dhaka City Corporation Councillor Monwar Hossain Dipjol turned himself in to the police last night, 12 days after he went into hiding to elude arrest over assault on a policeman.
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Army personnel in a raid Saturday night arrested ten indigenous youths with ammunition and firearms including an AK-47 rifle at Hazaribagh under sadar upazila of the district
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An alleged criminal was killed in a 'shootout' with Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in the capital's Gulshan area early yesterday.
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The Bangladesh captaincy for Zimbabwe one-day series has been 'imposed' on Shakib Al-Hasan yesterday. The long-awaited decision could have stretched a bit more had Shakib not budged, as he was reluctant to take up the job.
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Coach Alan Butcher believes Zimbabwe are here with a winning mentality, a different approach from their last month's tour to South Africa.
"We felt we didn't really have a chance to win in South Africa but it is different here. I can't sit here and promise you all [of a series win] because Bangladesh is pretty confident as well, but we will approach and prepare for every game to win," said Butcher.
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Bangladesh Ansar and VDP continued their domination of the 34th NCC Bank National Cycling Championships when they won three more gold medals with Bangladesh
Rifles winning two at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
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Partex Sporting Club and Eskaton Sabuj Sangha notched up 6-wicket victories against their respective opponents in the First Division Cricket League yesterday.
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Bangladesh under-17 footballers moved into the quarterfinals of the 51st Subrata Mukherjee Cup beating their Nepalese counterparts 4-3 in tiebreaker at the Ambedkar Stadium in Delhi yesterday.
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Given the recent record between the two sides, it was no surprise that someone from the Zimbabwe camp called themselves the 'underdogs' while their opponents would feel confident.
Bangladesh have won the last five one-day series against Zimbabwe and the overall win-loss ratio too is tilted towards the Tigers, who have won 25 out of 47 matches since their first ODI encounter in 1997.
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Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announced a 14-member BCB XI team yesterday for tomorrow's practice match against visiting Zimbabwe which will be held at BKSP in Savar.
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Ansar & VDP captured all three individual gold medals decided on the second day of the 34th NCC Bank National Cycling Championship yesterday.
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Hossain's 68 took Bangladesh Boys to a facile five-wicket win over North Bengal Cricket Academy in the First Division Cricket League at the Dhanmondi Cricket Stadium yesterday.
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The flashing blades of Sabbir Rahman and Naeem Islam took the country's sports to a new height yesterday as their rescue act in Bangladesh's five-wicket win over Afghanistan in the cricket final clinched the long cherished Asian Games gold medal for the first time.
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Bangladesh's 16th Asian Games campaign in Guangzhou provided a perfect picture of the country's sports; where cricket is the heartbeat and the rest struggle.
In sixteen disciplines, the country's athletes won a sum total of three medals, two of which came from cricket. The women's kabaddi team clinched the bronze medal but the national sport has lost its sheen quite a long time ago.
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Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged people to remain vigilant so that no “evil anti-democracy” force can foil the progress of democracy in Bangladesh.
Addressing a meeting with Bangladeshi community at her hotel here on Thursday night, she said the anti-people force has been trying to hinder development activities in the country.
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The party will hold a meeting with the components of the 14-party coalition tomorrow, a day before BNP's countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal.
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BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was disappointed at city unit leaders' failure to offer resistance to the move to "evict" her from the disputed cantonment house on November 13.
The BNP chief was also irked at the thin presence of party's senior leaders in protest programmes during the November 14 hartal called to protest her "eviction" from the house, said a source in the party.
Khaleda was displeased as only a few hundred leaders and workers gathered at Jahangir gate at Dhaka Cantonment to protest the eviction.
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Expelled BNP leader Nazmul Huda in a complete about face appealed party Chairperson Khaleda Zia to withdraw his expulsion order.
Claming himself innocent, the much-talked-about leader urged Khaleda to appoint him in a policymaking position in the party.
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Police yesterday released all the detainees of Thursday's car accident and the subsequent vandalism on Dhaka University campus following a negotiation between the car owner and the DU authorities.
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4-nation transit talks to continue separately

Bangladesh is likely to sign an agreement with India next week to allow the neighbouring country transit for a year and a half to carry power plant equipment to Tripura from West Bengal.
The deal would not be done as part of the on-going talks on transit and transhipment between Bangladesh and three neighbouring nations -- India, Nepal and Bhutan, said Shipping Secretary Abdul Mannan Howlader.
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Also urges manpower recruitment

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has requested the Belgian government to recruit skilled sailors, and skilled manpower for IT and other related sectors from Bangladesh.
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Saiful Islam, lecturer of physical education department of University Laboratory School and College, was accused of passing indecent comments and deliberately stumbling on the applicant in the exam hall. He was assigned as an invigilator there.
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Tk 200cr scheme for shipbuilding on cards

Industries Minister Dilip Barua yesterday announced to start funding the growing shipbuilding industry under a Tk 200 crore refining scheme at a single digit interest rate to boost up the sector.
Bangladesh Bank is awaiting green signal from the finance ministry in this regard, said Dilip.
He was addressing as the chief guest at the handing over ceremony of two of the largest ice class vessels ever built in the country by Western Marine Shipyard (WMS) to a German company at Chittagong Dry Dock Limited (CDDL).
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Tangents

To go to the Manipuri Raash Mela, you head towards Bhanugach from Sreemongol. After a right turn at the Komolganj intersection, the signs become unmistakeable: CNGs and vans with brightly dressed people, colourful posters and arches, and a festive spirit in the air.
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Green activists yesterday demanded that the dam construction on the Brahmaputra River by China be stopped saying such a project would adversely impact on environment and agriculture in downstream Bangladesh and India.
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When success story is rare in public service institutions, the Burn and Plastic Surgery unit at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) is an exception with increasing recovery rate and sliding death toll since its inception in December 2003.
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Says Ilias Kanchan

No killer driver has ever been brought to justice in nearly two decades with every successive government taking benefit of massive extortion from the transport sector, said a pioneer campaigner for road safety.
"I have not seen a single killer driver being punished in seventeen years," said Ilias Kanchan, a popular film star, who has been carrying a vigorous campaign for road safety following the tragic demise of his beloved wife in a crash in 1993.
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Photo Exhibition on Everest Mission

“When the Bangladesh national flag was flying high on Everest on May 23, 2010 at 5:16am, for the first time, I instantly wanted to jump back to Bangladesh and say look we have done it,” said Musa Ibrahim, the first Bangladeshi to conquer the Everest.
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The Zimbabwe cricket team arrived in Dhaka yesterday hoping for some competitive cricket against the in-form Tigers during their five-match one-day international series.
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The Bangladesh U17 football team moved into the second round of 51st Subroto Mukherjee Cup Football tournament when they handed another lone-goal defeat to Arunachal Pradesh in a Group H match in New Delhi yesterday.
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Uttara Sporting Club, Azad Sporting Club and Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club won their respective matches of the First Division Cricket League yesterday.
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After a three-year gap, the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) returned to cycling with a bang winning all four events on the opening day of the NCC Bank 34th Cycling Championship at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
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2 cars set ablaze, 25 others vandalised as learner driver critically injures student on campus

Angry students of Dhaka University torched two cars and vandalised 25 others after a trainee driver hit a student of the university on the campus yesterday afternoon.
To contain the situation, police stopped vehicular movement on the campus for six hours triggering more-than-usual heavy traffic in Dhaka.
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State Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Qamrul Islam yesterday blamed a quarter for spreading the news of recent stalking incidents, claiming the stalking incidents are at a tolerable level in the country. Read more>>

Motihar police yesterday arrested one more Islami Chhatra Shibir cadre in connection with February 9 violence on Rajshahi University (RU) campus.
The arrestee is Abu Saleh Mamun, a master's student of Arabic department and also a resident of Sher-e-Bangla Hall of the university. Read more>>

The special court-14, set up at Sylhet Sector headquarters, yesterday fixed December 29 for judgment in BDR mutiny case.
Meanwhile, Two separate BDR special courts yesterday fixed charge-framing dates against 54 mutineers of Rangpur sector headquarters and 34 Rifles Battalion under the sector and 42 jawans of Khagrachhari sector headquarters. Read more>>

Demand acquiring riverbank areas instead of 3-crop lands

Farmers of Gobindal, Azimpur, Noyadingi, Laxmipur, Bauntewri, Sahrail and Dakkhin Charigram villages in Singair upazila brought out a procession at the upazila headquarters yesterday protesting the government's alleged move to acquire agricultural lands at the villages to develop a satellite town.
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A widow was killed by unknown criminals in Chirirbandar upazila on Wednesday night, police said. The dead is Shamiyara Begum, 48, wife of late Abdul Latif of Ichhamati village in the upazila.
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Brahmanbaria Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court yesterday sent a sub inspector (SI) to jail after he appeared before the court in a case for bribery and torture.
SI Md Abdul Awal, in-charge of Aruail police outpost under Sarail Police Station in the district, along with a police team on October 26 night raided the house of Abul Kashem at Bhuishar village under Sarail upazila on suspicion about the presence of a fugitive in a robbery case, goes the prosecution.
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Police arrested seven robbers with firearms in Maria area under Kishoreganj Sadar upazila early yesterday.
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Train service on Chandpur-Laksham route remained suspended for nearly three hours due to damage of railway sleepers at Balakhal railway station yesterday morning. Read more>>

A three-day Digital Innovation Fair-2010 will begin at Sonadanga Public Hall Auditorium here tomorrow. 
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The bridge over Kumar River in Shailokupa has not been opened for the public even three years after the completion of construction work.
Construction authority said the absence of wing walls and connection of the approach roads with the bridge were mainly responsible for the situation.
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An influential group is grabbing the land in Sabujbagh area of the town, originally owned by a widow, even after a forbidding court order. The group is now threatening the lives of the widow Majeda Begum and her son Mahbub Hasan, a student of Jogonnath University in Dhaka.
Majeda Begum is the widow of late Prof. Abdul Ali, former principal of Patuakhali Govt. Women College. Majeda filed a General diary (GD) with Patuakhali police station on November 13 in the threats to life regard.
Majeda was awarded ownership of 2.46 decimal land of the plot no.8450 of lane 9 of Sabujbagh by the Patuakhali first civil court in March 1986.
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The NCC Bank National Cycling Championship gets underway today amidst disagreement about holding the 34th edition of the meet on the athletic turf at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
"It is nothing new to hold a cycling competition on the athletic turf as we had earlier staged the competitions on turfs at the Mirpur Stadium and Army Stadium. We hope the turf will face no damage during the competition, but it will be exceptional if any incident happens there," said Bangladesh Cycling Federation general secretary SM Imtiaz Khan Babul at a press conference at the Bangladesh Olympic Association yesterday.
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The Prime Bank-Dhaka Sports Carnival begins today at different venues in the city with amateur athletes from 35 social clubs from India, Pakistan, Thailand and Bangladesh taking part in the three-day meet.
The country's seven premium social clubs: Dhaka Club, Gulshan Club, Uttara Club, Officers' Club, Kurmitola Golf Club, Cadet College Club and the All Community Club in association with Prime Bank is organizing the carnival for the sixth time since the inaugural meet in 2004, said speakers at a press conference at the Dhaka Club yesterday. Read more>>

The Bangladesh U-17 football team began their Subroto Mukherjee Cup Football campaign on a winning note when they handed a lone goal defeat to Lagaland in their Group H opener in Delhi, India yesterday.
Masud Rana struck the all-important goal on 50 minutes.
Bangladesh will take on Arunachal Pradesh today. Read more>>

BNP began a six-day agitation programme yesterday by holding rallies and bringing out processions at district and upazila levels across the country.

The National Standing Committee of the party had earlier announced the programme that includes hartal on November 30 demanding steps to end miseries of the people and to save democracy as well the country.

The party will organise rallies and processions at district and upazila levels tomorrow and across the country on November 29 in support of the hartal. Read more>>

The Least Developed Countries (LDC) Report 2010 has predicted that annual growth of Bangladesh would be 8.4 percent by 2020 and income per capita under PPP (purchasing power parity) method would rise to $2,776 from the present $1,361.
“The prediction of the LDC report is close to the national perspective plan which reclaimed that Bangladesh would enter into middle income countries group within 10 years," eminent economist Prof Wahiduddin Mahmud said at a report dissemination function at the Cirdap auditorium here yesterday.
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Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Islamic Development Bank have approved loans of $615 million and $140 million for the construction of Padma Multipurpose Bridge.
The development partners took the decisions at their board meetings yesterday, said Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain.
Approval of $1500 million loan by the World Bank (WB) is now in process, the minister said.
Yesterday in a press release, the WB said the preparation for the bridge is on in full swing, and the government along with four development partners is working closely to complete the construction of the bridge in time.
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An alleged drug peddler was killed in a 'shootout' between his cohorts and members of the Rapid Action Battalion at Belghar bazaar in Madhabpur upazila of Habiganj early yesterday.
The deceased was identified as Abdul Hakim, 40, son of Abdus Samad of Itakhola Nayapara in the upazila.
Hakim, a known drug-peddler in the area, was accused in 13 cases, a Rab official said.
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European Union leaders have assured that Bangladesh will get adequate funding from the promised European Union Climate Change Adaptation Fund.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina received the assurance when she met separately with President of Council of the European Union Van Rompuy and President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso yesterday morning. Read more>>

The cricketers made it into the final of the Twenty20 but elsewhere it was just doom and gloom as usual for the Bangladesh athletes in all the disciplines they participated in at the Asian Games in Gaungzhou, China yesterday.
The national hockey team suffered a 6-5 defeat to Oman in a place-deciding match to finish eighth, their lowest ever finish, while the women's kabaddi team's hope of moving into the final evaporated when they conceded a 34-23 defeat to Thailand in the semifinals.Read more>>

The Zimbabwe cricket team, led by Elton Chigumbura, will arrive in Dhaka today to take part in a five-match one-day series against the hosts who are buoyant after their recent 4-0 drubbing of New Zealand.
The Zimbabweans will play a limited-overs warm-up match against a BCB XI at BKSP on November 29 before playing the first one-day international at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on December 1.
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Bangladesh rode on some excellent spin bowling to romp into the final of the Asian Games cricket with a comfortable five-wicket victory over Sri Lanka at the Guanggong International Cricket Stadium yesterday.
Mohammad Ashraful's boys, who are now on the brink of making history by clinching the first gold medal for the country, set up today's final clash with high-flying Afghanistan, who had stunned Pakistan in the first semifinal by 22-runs.Read more>>

Ruling Awami League is not worried about the main opposition BNP's threat of resigning en masse from the parliament, as the vacuum can be filled through by-elections, according to AL leaders.
AL policymakers said the government will complete its tenure as mandated by the people, although resignation by all BNP lawmakers would create a problem for the parliament to function efficiently, and advancement of democracy would also be hampered to some extent. But the magnitude of the problem would be nothing that could not be handled.  Read more>>

Two influential ministers of the government yesterday blasted the country's apex trade body, FBCCI, for their stance on enacting law to ban hartal.
“Why are you giving such provocative statements?” asked Textiles and Jute Minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui at the inaugural session of the three-day Batexpo 2010 at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital.   Read more>>