Zia shifts stance, to take on Hasina without Islamist allies
Dhaka, Feb 20 (IANS) In a change of stance, the main opposition party in Bangladesh --Khaleda Zia-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) -- is distancing itself from Islamist allies as it takes on the ruling Awami League (AL) led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The BNP and Islamist parties have launched separate movements against the government over the deals that Hasina signed during her visit to India last month.

Separately, they have accused Hasina of "selling out" ... Read More

Hasina's India pacts a total sell-out, says Khaleda Zia
Dhaka, Jan 17 (IANS) Bangladesh opposition leader Khaleda Zia Sunday termed the agreements signed with India during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's New Delhi visit as "a total sell-out".

Zia, a former prime minister, told a media conference that Hasina's visit and the talks she had with the Indian leadership were "not only a failure, but also a harmful event for the country", Star Online, website of The Daily Star reported.

Zia has been reportedly engaging ... Read More

Zia stresses political goodwill between Dhaka, Delhi
Dhaka, Dec 18 (IANS) As Bangladesh prepares for summit level talks with India, opposition leader and former prime minister Khaleda Zia has called for "political goodwill" to resolve issues between the South Asian neighbours.

"We want good relations with India. If the unresolved issues between the two countries were settled, the relations would be strengthened and increased," Zia, a two-term prime minister (1991-96 and 2001-06), told the outgoing Indian envoy Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty Thursday.

Chakravarty, who ... Read More

Judge who convicted Mujib killers is new chief justice
Dhaka, Dec 16 (IANS) Senior Bangladesh Supreme Court judge Mohammed Tafazzul Islam, who confirmed death sentences on a dozen former army officers for killing the country's founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, has been appointed as the new chief justice.

His appointment by President Zillur Rahman was announced Tuesday evening, The Daily Star reported Wednesday.

He will succeed Justice M.M. Ruhul Amin.

Justice Tafazzul headed the five-member special bench of the Supreme Court Appellate Division that pronounced ... Read More

Asiatic Society award for Hasina
Dhaka, Dec 14 (IANS) The prestigious Asiatic Society of Kolkata has chosen Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for the Indira Gandhi Gold Plaque 2009.

Indian High Commissioner to Dhaka Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, during his farewell call on Hasina as he moves to his next posting, Sunday handed over a letter from the Asiatic Society.

The letter reads: "The Council of Asiatic Society in its meeting decided, unanimously, to confer the Indira Gandhi Gold Plaque 2009 on ... Read More

Sheikh Hasina does not wish to go the Pakistan way
By Sanjoy Hazarika

The crackdown on the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), northeastern India's separatist militants, and its associate groups has partly grown out of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's deep concern to avoid any experience similar to the devastation that Pakistan's involvement with the Taliban and Afghanistan's civil war has wrought on that country.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, who visited India in September, has said her country had "pledged not to allow our land ... Read More

Khaleda Zia re-elected chief of Bangladesh Nationalist party
Dhaka, Dec 4 (DPA) Former prime minister Khaleda Zia was re-elected chairperson of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), a party spokesman said Friday.

T.H. Khan, chief of the party's election commission, said Zia ran unopposed.

Zia became chairperson in 1983. She served as premier from 1991-1996 and 2001-2006. ... Read More

Two held as Hasina charges father's killers of terror links
Dhaka, Oct 25 (IANS) Two people have been arrested as Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accused killers of her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, of organising a bomb attack on a lawmaker.

Mehnaz Rahman, who was detained Saturday, is the eldest daughter of Lt. Col. Khondkar Abdur Rashid, a fugitive condemned to death in the August 1975 killing of the country's founding father. She said that her father is living in Libya with the rest of the ... Read More

Hasina talks against corruption, but party men aren't listening
Dhaka, Oct 18 (IANS) Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called corruption “the biggest barrier to poverty eradication”, but her warnings to political colleagues have gone unheeded, media reports said.

District level officials have sent in reports that a section of the Awami League leaders are ‘grabbing’ contracts through manipulation of rules and coercion of the bureaucracy, New Age newspaper said Sunday.

Another report in the newspaper said that at a closed-door meeting of the ... Read More

Aussie lessons for Bangladesh lifeguards
Many children in Bangladesh drown swimming in waterways near their homes

By Mark Dummett

BBC News, Bangladesh

Australians are helping to train Bangladesh's first ever lifeguards in a bid to cut the huge number of drownings which occur every year.

A recent study discovered that drowning is the leading cause of death for Bangladeshi children - 17,000 lose their lives annually, while 68,000 have close escapes.

Researchers worry that these numbers could become much higher in coming ... Read More