Consultant resigns, new one yet to be picked up
Const of 3rd Karnaphuli bridge in limbo |
Samir Kanti Barua
Construction works of the much awaited 3rd Karnaphuli Bridge on the river Karnaphuli, that links vast areas of southern Chittagong including tourist towns Cox's Bazar and hill district Bandarban with rest of the country is likely to be delayed. Despite authorities claim that construction of the bridge will be completed before the schedule but it is likely to be delayed for want of extra dose bridge specialist .
Sources close to the ministry of communications and engineers attached to the construction said that the building of the bridge might delay though its project director has set September, 2009 for completion of the construction works. 
Hang in Balance : Under constriction 3rd, and, cable-stayed brigde on the River Karnaphuli, which was supposed to be completed ahead of schedule now falls in limbo and even uncertainty looms large on its finishing. Photo : AUH Dulal
Even Project Director (PD) Muktadir Belal assured the communications advisor Major Gen. (rtd) Golam Kader who visited construction side on January 25 that the bridge would be completed before schedule. Uncertainty of the completion works loomed large as complication over the resignation of the appointed consultant defying the terms of agreement and selection of new consultant and subsequent procrastination of the construction works has arisen. A highly placed source in the Ministry of Communications
said that construction works suffers a setback when former consultant a Japanese national also specialist in extra dose bridge had resigned a few months back due to unknown reasons. |
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| Young man shot dead,
5 lynched at Mirsarai |
Staff Correspondent
Five alleged miscreants were lynched and three other critically injured after they have shot a youngster to death at Ajompur Bazaar under Mirsarai upazila in the small hours of Sunday.
The victim youngster was identified as Nazrul Islam alias Shipon (23), son of late Mulkatur Rahman of village Banskhali under Mirsarai police station.
Of the deceased four miscreants were identified as Rafiqul Islam (35), son of Sobhan Khan of village Shankorpasha under Pirojpur district, Priyotosh Barua (36), son of Ranjit Barua of village Onainpura under Patiya police station, Mohammed Shawkat (30), of village Dewannagar under Hathajari and Sabuj alias Rejaul Haque, son of Mahamudul Haque under Mirsharai police station in Chittagong district.
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| Erosion of Karnaphuli
at Kaptai 'alarming' |
Staff Correspondent
Director General of paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) Major General Shakil Ahmed assured here yesterday that India's recent ban on rice export to Bangladesh in private level would not create any impact on local market.
He has claimed that the government is fully ware of the issue and said that there is nothing to be worried over the decision.
The BDR bigwig urged the business persons to import rice from other countries before facing probable impending crisis. |
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National News |
| Adviser discounts fallout
from India's rice export ban |
Food adviser AMM Shawkat Ali said Sunday that India's decision to stop rice exports to Bangladesh would not affect the local market.
"India will fulfil its commitment of exporting five lakh tonnes of rice to Bangladesh," the adviser told reporters, after the media reported that India had halted rice exports to Bangladesh through private channels. The export restriction on non-basmati rice notified on Feb 7 is applicable to all countries, and is not specific to Bangladesh, the Indian High Commission in Dhaka said in a statement. |
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Delwar's condition rejected
Unity talks must be held
sans precondition : Saifur |
P View Desk
 BNP acting chairman Saifur Rahman Sunday said unity talks in BNP must be held without any precondition, as he rejects party secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain's condition that for any reconciliation, Saifur must dismantle his committee.
"We want unity, but Delwar is against it. How Delwar, who does not even believe in Begum Zia's message, could want unity in BNP," Saifur told reporters at his Gulshan house where nearly two dozen former party MPs attended a meeting, UNB reports from Dhaka
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| EC starts second round
dialogue next week |
P View Desk
The Election Commission will next week start its second round of dialogue with the political parties on electoral reforms.
The EC will sit separately with each political party, not with all the 17 political parties at a time, said Election Commissioner M Sohul Hussain, UNB reports from Dhaka. Besides, a draft ordinance is underway to restrict posters and writings on the walls. The law will be implemented by the LGRD Ministry, he said.
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Global News |
| Huckabee beats McCain in Kansas
Obama sweeps primary contests |
AP/UNB, Washington
 Sen. Barack Obama swept the Louisiana primary and caucuses in Nebraska and Washington state, slicing into Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's slender delegate lead in their historic race for the Democratic presidential nomination. The Illinois senator also won caucuses in the Virgin Islands on Saturday, completing his best night of the campaign. "Today, voters from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast to the heart of America stood up to say 'yes we can"' Obama told a cheering audience of Democrats at a party dinner in Richmond, Virginia. He jabbed simultaneously at Clinton and Republican nominee-in-waiting Sen. John McCain, saying the election was a choice between debating McCain "about who has the most experience in Washington, or debating him about who's most likely to change Washington. Because that's a debate we can win."
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| Documents show Al-Qaida
in Iraq weakened |
AP/UNB, Baghdad
A diary and other documents seized during U.S. raids +show al-Qaida in Iraq leaders fear the terror group is crumbling in at least two areas, with many fighters defecting to American-backed neighborhood watch groups, the U.S. military said Sunday. The military revealed two documents discovered by American troops in November: a 39-page memo written by a mid- to high-level al-Qaida emir with knowledge of the group's operations in Iraq's western Anbar province, and a 16-page diary written by another group leader north of Baghdad. In the Anbar document, the author describes an al-Qaida in crisis, with citizens growing weary of militants' presence and foreign fighters too eager to participate in suicide missions rather than continuing to fight, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a U.S. military spokesman. "We lost cities and afterward, villages We find ourselves in a wasteland desert," Smith quoted the document as saying.
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