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Local News
Sunday
November 24, 2002
Head Lines
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News Brief, Summary of
more than 20 leading Bangla & English Dailies, Source : News Garden |
Sunday
November 24, 2002
National
The arms licenses of those who did not deposit their weapons within the
deadline disregarding a government directive have been cancelled.
Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia has said, the
government wants to rid the administration of politics to ensure good
governance. "We want to ensure good governance and an honest
administration, so we are working to build a committed, competent,
honest and neutral administrative system for people's welfare," she told
secretaries of the government at her Secretariat office yesterday. She
also said the government wants to have an administration where there
would be no place for nepotism or favouritism.
Prime Minister Khaleda Zia Saturday assured her
government's assistance in setting up a library in the name of Shaheed
Dr. Milon at the Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) office. The prime
minister recalled with gratitude the supreme sacrifice of Dr. Milon in
1990 that injected fresh momentum to the anti-autocratic mass movement.
Opposition leader Sheikh Hasina yesterday called for
a comprehensive political plan to stamp out terrorism and crimes from
respective countries alongside their fight against global terrorism.
"International terrorism is an abhorrent idea and a wrong strategy and
we must stamp it out. But while annihilating international terrorism,
every efforts should be made to remove the root cause of discontent of a
nation or an ethnic group, she said.
The low over Southeast Bay and adjoining Southwest
Bay has become a well marked low. It is likely to intensify and move
initially in a west and northwesterly direction, said a Met office
bulletin in Dhaka yesterday. Maritime ports of Chittagong, Cox's Bazar
and Mongla have been advised to hoist distant cautionary signal No One.
BNP Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan has been
elected standing committee member of the International Conference of the
Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) in Bankok. The election took place on
the inaugural day of the ICAPP's second conference that began in Bangkok
yesterday, according to a message received in the city. LGRD and
Cooperatives Minister Mannan Bhuiyan and Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan
have also been elected vice-chairmen of the second conference.
The government has proposed to ESCAP a new route in
the Bangladesh portion of the proposed Asian Highway to connect
Chittagong with Myanmar, Communications Minister Nazmul Huda told BBC
yesterday. He however said, "A final decision on the proposed route is
yet to be taken by the government though it is important for us and for
our commerce.
A leader of Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal, youth organisation
of the ruling BNP, died of army scare at his house near Kajla Gate of
Rajshahi University in the early hours of yesterday. The victim, Enamul
Haque was president of the Motihar thana unit of the Jubo Dal and was
wanted in several cases of extortion and terrorism. According to family
sources, on hearing the sound of army vehicles at around 4:00 am
yesterday, a frightened Enamul asked his wife to check through the
windows and see if the army had reached the house. She came back and
found him death at the dining seat.
Election to union parishads set to begin in January
next has been deferred by two months. Elections to 4,598 union parishads
will now be held from March 1 to April 30. Explaining the reason for
delaying the polls, a competent official of the Local Government
Ministry said that the army would be required for maintenance of peace
during the election. But the army is now engaged in operation against
terrorism and recovery of illegal arms. Considering its pre-occupation
the schedule for the UP elections has been deferred by two months. UP
election was earlier set from January 4 to February 27.
A magistrate court of the Chittagong Port Authority
(CPA) in a special drive yesterday fined twelve inland cargo vessels
Taka 0.113 million for evasion of port taxes and polluting environment
in the port channel. Of the vessels, eleven were fined for evasion of
port taxes and one for polluting environment by emitting black smokes in
the port channel, a CPA press release said.
Dhaka University admission tests for the session
2002-2003 will begin from January 17 next year. The admission forms for
the test will be sold from December 17 and the admission seekers have
been asked to submit their applications before January 9. The test of `Ga'
unit will be held on January 17 while that 'Gha' unit on January 24, 'Kha'
unit on January 31 and 'Ka' unit on February 7. Admission seekers can
collect the forms for the test from different banks located on the
university campus. This year the students who want to take admission in
Law Department will be selected from the 'Gha' unit only, says a DU
press release.
High Court directed Saturday the government,
including the commmanding officers of Operation Clean Heart, not to
disturb Mohammad Hossain Mukta, ward commissioner of Khulna City
Corporation and Abdul Baten, chairman of Bera Paurashava in Pabna, for
one month except in due course of law. The directive came upon petitions
filed on behalf of Baten and Mukta. The court also issued rule in this
connection. On another petition filed by Mohammad Ali, independent MP
from Noakhali, the High Court bench comprising Justice Amirul Kabir
Chowdhury and Justice Nizamul Huq also directed the authority not to
disturb the lawmaker for one month without due process of law.
The port city will be air linked by yet another
foreign airlines when a flight of the Phuket Air of Thailand land at
Shah Amanat International Airport Chittagong (SAIAC) today. The Phuket
flight will carry 60 Thai citizens including 16 senators of Parliament,
top business leaders, journalists, elite and government and
non-government officials to the country's main business centre.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) took over
the sensational Tinni murder case yesterday and immediately started
investigating it. Keraniganj police handed over the case to the CID as
they failed to make any headway in its probe into the killing of the
model and actress, sources said. A CID team yesterday visited the
Buriganga Bridge from where Keraniganj police had recovered Tinni's body
on November 16.
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Regional
The West Bengal government has made it mandatory for
anyone in the state who rents out a flat to a Bangladeshi national to
immediately notify the local police about it. Similarly, hotels have
been asked to report to the police whenever Bangladeshi checks in. The
police will then go to the tenants or boarders and verify the papers.
The West Bengal police yesterday announced the decision through a
notification carried by local newspapers.
The state governments of Tripura and Mizoram of India
have sought permission to use waterways of Bangladesh for transportation
of goods from the two states through Bangladesh. Industry and Commerce
Minister of Tripura Pabitra Kar yesterday told BBC that he had made a
proposal for this to the shipping minister of Bangladesh recently.
Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga Friday
urged all parties involved in the recent violent incidents in the north
and east of the country to work out a course of action for the
de-escalation of violence and to bring back normalcy.
More than 100,000 slogan-chanting farmers and
fishermen took to the streets of Taipei Saturday to protest against
government reforms to their trade bodies' finances. In the largest
protest ever organised by Taiwan's farmers and fishermen, the
demonstrators pledged to resist any attempts to scrap their
associations' financial units and called for more government funding.
After three years of military rule, executive power
returned to civilian hands in Pakistan Saturday with the swearing-in Mir
Zafarullah Khan Jamali as prime minister and his 21-member cabinet.
President Pervez Musharraf, who administered the oaths, came to power in
a bloodless coup in October 1999 but was shortly afterwards ordered by
the Supreme Court to return executive power to the people within three
years.
About 50 Maoist rebels were believed dead when
Nepal's army attacked a guerrilla hideout in the west of the kingdom, a
newspaper reported Saturday. Officials in Kathmandu confirmed the battle
Friday in Lamjung district, some 125 kilometres (75 miles) from the
capitals, but said they were awaiting details from the remote area.
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International
A congressional inquiry into intelligence failures related to the Sept.
11, 2001 attacks on the United States is investigating a possible money
trail from the Saudi Arabian government to two of the hijackers, US
sources said. They said, the joint inquiry of the Senate and House
intelligence committees received information in recent months about the
possibility that money was funneled from the Saudi government through
Omar Al-Bayoumi, a Saudi who lived in San Diego, to hijackers Khalid al-Mihdhar
and Nawaf al-Hazmi.
In the first of its kind, Communist North Korea
appealed to the South on Saturday to help stave off US pressure amid a
row over its nuclear-arms programme. Pyongyang called for a "nationwide"
struggle to force Washington to sign a non-aggression treaty with the
North, a plea that coincides with a string of anti-US protests in the
South.
· Riots raged on in the northern Nigerian city
Kaduna yesterday after violence there forced beauty pageant organisers
to abandon plans to stage Miss World in Nigeria. Fighting which began as
protest by Muslim youths against a newspaper article on the pageant has
now degenerated into a bloody street war between Muslims and Christians.
· The Zimbabwe government wants to make all civil
servants sit tests to assess their patriotism if they want to keep their
jobs, the state-run Herald reported yesterday. Those who "are found
wanting" will be sent for training and could lose their jobs, the
newspaper quoted Public Service Commission (PSC) secretary. Ray
Ndhlukula as saying. The tests would be introduced in January.
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Sports
Yousuf Youhana confirmed his
status as Pakistan's top batsman in the first of five one-day
internationals against Zimbabwe at the Queens Sports Club. He boasted to
141 runs against a hapless Zimbabwe in 147 balls and his classy
contribution produced a total of 302-4 which is almost certainly, beyond
Zimbabwe's reach. It was Youhana's highest international 50-overs match
score, beating his previous 129, and it came hard on the heels of an
innings of 159, scored in the second of two Test matches here earlier in
the week.
Level with three wins apiece, India and the West
Indies have vowed a fight to the finish in the deciding game of their
seven-match limited-over cricket series. The rivals go into Sunday's
final one-dayer at Vijaywada expecting another tall-scoring contest and
winning the toss will take on more significance than usual. The team
batting second has won all six matches in this series, so the captain
who wins the toss Sunday would most likely send the opposition into bat
first to gain a psychological edge.
England face a desperate battle to avoid going two
down in the Ashes cricket series after Australia gave them a roasting at
the Adelaide Oval Saturday. The Australians, who comprehensively won the
opening Brisbane Test by 384 runs inside four days, looked poised for
another massive win on the fourth day here Sunday after declaring with a
massive first innings lead of 210 runs. Australia called a half to their
run spree at 552 for nine late on a long, hot day in the field for
England and then had the tourists on the run the 12 remaining over.
Participation of Bangladesh national hockey team in
the traditional Indian meet Lal Bahadur Shastri Hockey Tournament has
become uncertain following delay in getting Government Order (GO) for
the team. Team officials said the tour might be cancelled if the team
fail to get visa from Indian High Commission today (Sunday) as the team
will not get enough time to reach the venue by road before playing their
first match on November 28.
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