|
Local News
Monday,
December 30, 2002
Head Lines
-
Business news
-
General news
-
Political news
-
Feature news
-
Sports news
-
Stock news
|
News Brief, Summary of
more than 20 leading Bangla & English Dailies, Source : News Garden |
Monday,
December 30, 2002
National
Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia said
yesterday her government is determined to build up a modern, stronger
airforce as in the present world the role of airforce in every country is
indispensable in peace and war.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of Bangladesh submitted Sunday
to President Prof Dr Iajuddin Ahmed six special and annual audit reports,
which involved some cases of financial anomalies. The audit observations
mainly contained cases of wastage, non-deduction of VAT and income tax,
irregular fixation of pay causing financial loss, and no compliance with
financial rules and regulations.
A good number of state agencies and corporations defaulted on payment of
import duties and taxes worth Tk. 9.52 billion to the National Board of
Revenue (NBR) during the past two years, forcing the NBR to seek finance
minister's intervention, official persuasions by the NBR through holding a
series of meeting with the defaulting state agencies and deferment of the
payment schedules, the dues were not cleared.
An independent review of the Country's economy found a mismatch in its
micro and macro economic fundamentals during the first half of the
2002-2003 fiscal. "Strengthening of the macroeconomic fundamentals and the
first stimuli provided in the 2002-03 fiscal budget have had no
discernible effect on bringing dynamism in the micro-economic behaviour in
Bangladesh during the period of July-November, 2002," said the review
released by Debapriya Bhattacharya, Executive Director of the Centre for
Policy Dialogue (CPD), sunday.
The government has decided to fix the lowest basic salary slab for the
foreigners working in various companies in Bangladesh to ensure tax
compliance. An inter-ministerial meeting at the industries ministry Sunday
decided the lowest basic salary from the SAARC countries would be Tk
20,000 for a manufacturing worker and Tk 25,000 for a worker in any other
profession.
The government is actively considering constituting a new
counter-intelligence unit for the police force, Principal Information
Officer (PIO) Khandker Monirul Alam said Sunday.
A Nationwide survey on detection of arsenic in ground water has begun
under Bangladesh Arsenic Mitigation and Water Supply Project (BAMWSP).
Under the three-month project, water samples of 3.0 million (30 lakh)
tube-wells in 147 upazilas of the country will be tested.
The government has given its green signal to the Tk. 300 million (30 crore)
project in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) for initiating a social
afforestation programme in the region, official sources said. The
government gave the approval to the project Sunday during an
inter-ministerial meeting at the Ministry of Forest and Environment (MOFE)
in the city.
The Full panel of the ATAB Gonotantrik
Front led by MA Mohaiman Saleh won election to the Association of Travel
Agents of Bangladesh (ATAB) which took place Saturday. Another panel-ATAB
Sammilita Gonotantrik Forum-led by Ataur Rahman Khan MP bagged only 25 per
cent votes, according to unofficials results.
A unique case of power burglary was unearthed in the city's Shyampur area
Sunday and an industrial unit was fined Tk 32 million (3.2 crore) for the
pilferage, it is reported.
Dilip Barua was removed from the post of coordinator of the left leaning
11-Party Alliance yesterday. The interim action was taken against Barua
for accompanying the Prime Minister during her recent visit to China,
which the alliance viewed as a 'political blunder'.
Six of the seven chemical containers that slipped into the river
Karnaphuli at Chittagong port Jetty No. 7 area were salvaged till 6:00
last evening. The remainder was expected to be recovered by last night.
The incident occurred on Wednesday morning.
Top
of the page
Regional
India said Sunday it was launching a
drive to deport more than 11,000 Pakistanis who are in the country
illegally, warning that they could pose a security threat. Some 11,208
Pakistanis are known to be in India illegally, of whom 8,884 have
overstayed their visas and the rest have gone underground, it is reported.
The drums of war still echo across the heavily-militarised divide between
India and Pakistan, though with far less menace than during the year that
saw the bitter nuclear rivals propelled twice to the brink of all-out
conflict.
A general strike called by Maoist rebels in Kathmandu as part of their
campaign to topple the constitutional monarchy paralysed the Nepali
capital Sunday. Most shops were closed and streets deserted on the first
day of the two-day general strike.
Top
of the page
International
Miss Russia, 19-year-old student
Svetlana Koroleva, won the Miss Europe 2002 title late Saturday in Beirut
which was hosting the contest for the second consecutive year. She was
crowned by Miss France and Miss Europe 1991, Elodie Gossuin.
UN nuclear inspectors will leave North Korea on New Year's eve after
Pyongyang booted them out, and the Bush administration plans to step up
pressure on the communist state if it refuses to abandon its nuclear arms
programme.
Saudi Arabia would allow the United
States to use its air bases and an important operations centre in a
possible war with Iraq, the New York Times reported Saturday, citing
senior US military officials.
Vetern politician Mwai Kibaki and his opposition alliance won a landslide
victory in Kenyan elections, breaking the ruling party's 39-year grip on
power, results from an independent monitoring body showed Sunday.
Russian investigators Saturday said they saw an Arab connection in a
suicide bomb attack that struck at the heart of the pro-Moscow
administration in Chechnya and left at least 41 people dead.
Top
of the page
Sports
Khulna and Magura advanced into the
final round of the CityCell Digital 22nd National Youth Cricket
Championship. Khulna scored a 33-run win against Satkhira at Jessore,
while Magura outplayed Jessore by 73 runs at Jhenidah to earn their places
in the 12-team final phase.
Bangladesh will take on Oil India in the second semifinal of the Jigme
Dorji Wangchuk Memorial football tournament in Phuentsholing, Bhutan
today.
Virender Sehwag's 108 was not enough for India to stop New Zealand winning
the second one-day international by 35 runs in Napier. The victory saw the
home side take a 2-0 lead with five matches remaining in the series.
Sehwag, publicly backed by his captain Saturday after a poor tour to
date, scored his fourth one-day century from 111 balls with eight fours
and two sixes.
Teams refusing to play World Cup matches in Zimbabwe next February will
forfeit their points, International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive
Malcolm Speed says. If the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) said that
they weren't going to play that game because they have been told by their
government that they are not to play that, game, they would forfeit the
points', Speed told a news conference in Melbourne Sunday.
Top
of the page
|
