Prothom Alo Com: November 2011

SYDNEY, Australia: WikiLeaks has been recognised in Australia for its "outstanding contribution to journalism", with founder Julian Assange lashing out at "cowardly" Prime Minister Julia Gillard in an acceptance speech.

The anti-secrecy website was lauded at the annual Walkley Awards, where winners are chosen by an independent panel of journalists and photographers, for its courageous reporting of secret US cables.

"WikiLeaks applied new technology to penetrate the inner workings of government to reveal an avalanche of inconvenient truths in a global publishing coup," the Walkley trustees said in bestowing the award Sunday evening.

"Its revelations, from the way the war on terror was being waged, to diplomatic bastardry, high-level horse-trading and the interference in the domestic affairs of nations, have had an undeniable impact."

The whistleblowing website has published thousands of cables in which US diplomats give their often candid views on world leaders, to Washington's acute embarrassment.

Assange, an Australian citizen who has previously blasted Canberra for not doing enough to protect him in the fallout from the leaks, was scathing of the government in accepting the accolade in a pre-recorded video message.

"The Gillard government has shown its true colours in relation to how it’s handled US pressure on WikiLeaks," he said in footage shown on SBS television which broadcast the awards.

"Australian journalists are courageous, the Australian population is supportive, but Julia Gillard is a cowardly Australian prime minister.

"As Australians we shall not despair, as long as we can speak out, as long as we can publish, and as long as the Internet remains free, we will continue to fight back, armed with the truth," he added.

Assange has spent much of the last year under virtual house arrest in Britain since he was detained in December 2010 over claims of rape and sexual assault made by two women in Sweden.

He has strongly denied the allegations against him, claiming they are politically motivated and linked to the activities of WikiLeaks.

The former computer hacker is currently appealing a decision against his extradition to Sweden to face the charges.

Source: theindependentbd.com

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Speaker, MPs now under taxable income

NARASINGDI: Agitated people on Wednesday set fire to a train after the killing of the local mayor, Lokman Hossain. Independent photo See details

Source: theindependentbd.com

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Sunday, November 6, 2011

2.5m perform holy Hajj

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MOUNT ARAFAT, Saudi Arabia, Nov 5: About two and a half million Muslims gathered Saturday on Saudi Arabia’s Mount Arafat and its surrounding plain, marking the peak day of the hajj, the world’s largest annual pilgrimage.
Dressed in white garments, the pilgrims filled the Namera Mosque in Arafat and the nearby streets and camps for collective prayer, led by Saudi Arabia’s top cleric, Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh. “Islam is the solution for the problems” of Muslims, he said in a speech before the prayer began, warning the faithful of “a media and cultural invasion that seeks to weaken (their) faith.”
He urged Muslims to solve their problems “without interference from their enemies,” condemning those who want to “provoke hostility between you and your leaders.”
This year’s hajj coincides with the Arab Spring democracy protests that have swept many nations in the region and led to the ouster of the autocratic leaders of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
Saudi Arabia has been spared the unrest despite small-scale, sporadic Shiite-led protests that took place in its Eastern Province, which the Sunni-majority kingdom quickly controlled.
There were no immediate reports of major incidents as security officials focused on crowd control.
“Things are going well and according to plans,” interior ministry spokesman General Mansur al-Turki told the news agency.
Many went on buses, while others set off on foot from Mina, a tent-village that comes to life only during the five-day pilgrimage.
Others took the Mashair Railway, also known as the Makka Metro, to go to Mount Arafat and its surrounding plains, where the Prophet Mohammed is believed to have delivered his final sermon.
The Chinese-built railway is operating for the first time this year at its full capacity of 72,000 people per hour to ease congestion and prevent stampedes in which hundreds have been killed in past years.

The dual-track light railway connects the three holy sites of Mina, Muzdalifah and Mount Arafat—areas that see a massive influx of pilgrims during the hajj.
After sunset, pilgrims move to Muzdalifah, half way between Mount Arafat and Mina, to spend the night.
On Sunday, they return to Mina after dawn prayers for the first stage of the symbolic “stoning of the devil” and to make the ritual sacrifice of an animal, usually a lamb with the beginning of Eid-ul-Azha, or the Feast of Sacrifice.
On the remaining three days of the hajj, the pilgrims continue the ritual stoning before performing the circumambulation of the Kaaba shrine in Makka and then heading home.
However, the gathering in the plains around Mount Arafat symbolises the climax of the hajj.
The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and must be performed at least once in a lifetime by all those who are able to make the journey, and it is a dream that can take years to come true.
Mukhtar al-Rahman, who is more than 100 years of age, told that “this is the dream of my life which took a century to come true.”
“The crowds have tired me and as you can see I can’t stand properly because of the huge crowds flooding” into the area, the elderly Bengali said panting as he looked for a small chair to sit on.
Meanwhile, Indonesian Noor Laila said: “I’m so happy to have set foot on Arafat’s sacred soil.”
“I want to wash away all my sins and ask God to forgive my mistakes. This is the first time I come to hajj and I hope it won’t be the last,” said the 36-year-old.
Malaysian Abdullah Wali al-Deen, 45, said he had been working for years for this day.
“I came here with my family after we managed to save enough money,” he said.
“Everyone in here is equal. There are no differences between various nationalities. This is the religion of peace, love and brotherhood.”
More than 1.83 million pilgrims have arrived in the kingdom from abroad, marking a 1.5 percent increase from last year, said Mecca governor Prince Khaled al-Faisal.
Several hundred thousand Saudis and foreign residents in the kingdom were also granted permits to join them, he added.
Coping with the world’s largest annual human assembly poses a security headache for Saudi Arabia—guardian of the two holiest Muslim shrines in the cities of Mecca and Medina, the birth places of Islam.
To help prevent chaos, the authorities have numbered buses and tents in Mina and Arafat according to the countries from which the pilgrims have come.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has invested billions of dollars over the years to avoid deadly stampedes that have marred the hajj in the past.
In January 2006, 364 pilgrims were killed in a stampede at the entrance to a bridge leading to the stoning site in Mina, outside Makka, while 251 were trampled to death in 2004.
In July 1990, 1,426 pilgrims were trampled to death or suffocated in a stampede in a tunnel, also in Mina.
The deaths prompted authorities to dismantle the old bridge and replace it with a multi-level walkway with one-way lanes to ensure a smooth flow of pilgrims.
Saudi Arabia also launched a new $10.6-billion project for a new extension to Makka’s Grand Mosque to increase its capacity to two million worshippers.
For the first time this year, the hajj is being streamed live on video-sharing website YouTube in cooperation with the Saudi government. AFP

Source: theindependentbd.com

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Eid-ul-Azha tomorrow

Dhaka, Nov 5: The holy Eid-ul-Azha wil be observed in the country on Monday with reverence, offering prayers and sacrificing animals, seeking divine blessings from the Almighty.
With the weekends the Eid holidays virtually began since Thursday which would continue until Tuesday, making it a five -day vacation. The met office forecasts mainly a dry weather with partly cloudy sky over the country and the city with the temperatures ranging between 19-20 degrees Celsius and 28-30 Degrees Celsius on Monday.

The river basins and wetlands will be enveloped under fog in the early hours, with little chill in the air as winter advances slowly, tiptoeing across the country.
Streams of people availing all kinds of transports- buses, trains and launches- are leaving the city towards their roots in the countryside, to be with their near and dear ones to share the joy of the second biggest religious congregation of the Muslim.
To commemorate Hazrat Ibrahim’s (AS) devotion to the Almighty as illustrated by his readiness to give up his dearest son Hazrat Ismail (AS), well-off Muslims will sacrifice animals and share the sacrificial meat with their relatives, neighbours and poor people. Braving many odds, including struggle for tickets and sufferings, hundreds of thousands of people have already left the capital for their village homes.
The last moment rush for home will continue on Sunday. The hustling bustling metropolis started showing signs of tranquillity, which would remain for a few more days.
Important public buildings, thoroughfares and road islands of the capital will be decorated with national flags and banners inscribed with “Eid Mubarak.” Major government buildings will also be illuminated.
The main Eid jamaat (congregation) will be held at National Eidgah on the High Court premises at 8:00am on monday, according to an Islamic Foundation press release. Separate arrangements have been made there for women, diplomats and their spouses.
Five Eid congregations have been arranged at Baitul Mukarram National Mosque in the morning at 7:00, 8:00, 9:00, 10:00 and 10:45.
The public holiday for Eid-ul-Azha begins on Sunday. Newspaper offices will also remain closed for three days from today.
President Zillur Rahman, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday gave separate messages, greeting the countrymen on this occasion. In his message, the president called upon all to reflect the spirit of sacrifice of Eid-ul-Azha in their thoughts and deeds for building a peaceful and tolerant society. Sheikh Hasina, in her message, said the unique sacrifice of Hazrat Ibrahim (AS), in the name of Almighty Allah for His satisfaction, would ever remain an example for mankind to follow.
The state-run Bangladesh Betar and BTV and private television and radio channels will air special programmes on the occasion. The national dailies will bring out special supplements on Sunday highlighting the significance of the festival.
Special meals will be served at jails, orphanages, vagrant centres and dormitories on the day.

Source: theindependentbd.com

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Saturday, November 5, 2011

8 fall from train roof top to death

DHAKA, Nov 5: Going home to celebrate Eid with kith and kin has turned into a nightmare due to long gridlock on highways, disarray in the train schedule and overcrowded launches.
At least eight people died after falling off the roofs of two trains in Joypurhat, Naogaon and Tangail early Saturday and Friday night.
The victims were going home to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha, the second largest religious festival of the Muslims, with their near and dear ones. The Eid will be celebrated in the country on Monday. According to railway officials in Joypurhat, four passengers, who were riding on the roof of the Parbatipur-bound Eid special train, fell on the ground along the railway tracks after being hit with an iron structure of Halhaliya Bridge under Akkelpur upazila at around 2am Saturday.
Two of the victims died in the morning while the others succumbed to their injuries in the afternoon at Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital in Bogra.
The deceased were identified as Uzzal Miah, 30, son of Rawshan Ali of Parbatipur in Dinajpur, Dulal, 30, son of Sona Miah of Kaharol in Bogra and Julfikar Ali, 32, son of Habibur Rahman of Nilphamari.
In Naogaon, the railway police recovered body of a garment worker, Harunur Rashid, 27, of Palashbari in Gaibandha from beside the railway tracks at Raninagar railway station at around 11am Saturday.

Quoting family members, railway officials said the victim was on way to the village home on Eid vacation travelling on the roof of a train from which he might fell from the roof sometime at night and died.
In Tangail, four people died and three were injured after falling off the roof of a running train in Mirzapur upazila of Tangail Friday night.
Three of the deceased were identified as Mintu Miah, 18, of Shahzadpur upazila in Sirajganj, Mamun Miah, 22, of Faridpur in Pabna and Jahirul Islam, 25, of Bholahat upazila of Chapainawabganj while the other, aged about 30, could not be known. Railway officials said that the seven people, who were travelling on the roof of Rajshahi-bound Silk City Express from Dhaka, fell off the train after they were hit by an electric wire when the train reached Deobhog near Mohera Railway Station at around 9pm Friday.
Two of the passengers died on the spot while five injured were taken to Mirzapur Kumudini Hospital where two succumbed to their injuries.
Thousands of people who are travelling by bus in different routes across country got trapped in gridlocks, especially on Dhaka-Chittagong, Dhaka-Tangail and Dhaka-Aricha highways. It is taking double or triple times to reach their destinations due to heavy traffic jam.
Passengers in the buses services stuck on different routes and had to suffer the worst especially women and children without food, water or toilet facilities.
Buses and trucks created a 40-50km-long tailback on Dhaka-Chittagong highway between Daudkandi and Comilla cantonment.
It is taking 2-3 hours more than the usual schedule on the Dhaka-Chattagong route and it has created much suffering to the homebound passengers in the eastern zone.
Our Tangail correspondent said: Traffic congestion on Dhaka-Tangail highways cause immense sufferings to the home-bound people, especially women and children. The congestion started from Friday and is continuing.
The Dhaka-Tangail traffic system had also been collapsed and had created 75-km long gridlock stretching between Mirzapur and Elenga since morning from Chandra to the Bangabandhu Bridge.
Sanower Hossain Inspector of Highway Police of Tangail told The Independent that huge congestion caused at Derua railway crossing, Gorai Industrial area, Pakulla, Natiyapara, Korotia, Elenga, Elanga rail crossing.
The heavy rush of transports on the two lane route has created the unending traffic jam. The police department is trying hard and soul to ease the traffic jam, he claimed.
Police Super of Tangail AKM Hafiz Akhter told the Independent that they have deployed 750 police personnel to control traffic movement. SP, Additional SP, Inspectors, Sub-Inspectors are also toiling round the clock in discharging their duties to ease the jam. He hopes that by ending of the day normalcy may come by their hard efforts.
Romesh Chandra Ghosh, Managing Director of Shyamoli Paribahan said, “Traffic jam is the reason for the collapse of their bus schedule. We really do not know where the buses are. So it is impossible to say when the bus will arrive.”
“I have come here at 6:00 am and now it is 12:30 pm. The employees cannot even say when the bus will arrive,” said Kamrul Hasan, a Rangpur-bound passenger, at Kalyanpur.
Excessive number of vehicles and delays in toll collection at Tora Toll Plaza created huge tailbacks on Dhaka Aricha highway in Ghior. A 6km-long queue was seen there around noon.
Delays in getting on ferries at Paturia and Daulatdia terminals caused traffic jam on both sides of the river adding woe to the passengers’ sufferings.
Shaymol Kumar Nath, additional superintendent of highway police (Comilla), said, “The gridlock became severe around 10:00am and lasted until 2:00pm between Meghna Bridge and Daudkandi.
Huge rush of vehicles, delays in paying toll at Meghna Bridge and breakdowns caused the gridlock, he claimed.
Meanwhile, thousand of people taking the risk of life are traveling on the roof of the train. But all trains were reaching destinations around 2 or 3 hours late. Khulna-bound Sundarbans Express was supposed to reach Dhaka at 6:20am but it came around 9:30, while Rangpur Express arrived five hours late.
However, the situation turned worse later in the day when a freight train derailed between Rajapur and Sadar Rasulpur railway stations in Comilla. The derailment snapped train communication between Dhaka and Chittagong, and Chittagong and Sylhet for five hours.
While hundreds were seen getting on the roof of launches at Sadarghat Launch Terminal, despite the government ban on the risky travel. All launches were seen overloaded.
Launch operators have started making two trips a day to cope with the rush of people heading home. Many passengers were seen looking for tickets, while most of the passengers travelled on
deck. Around 90 launches left the terminal yesterday for their destinations, said Mahbubur Rahman, traffic inspector of Sadarghat.

Source: theindependentbd.com

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Friday, November 4, 2011

Greece PM wins confidence vote

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Author / Source : Independent online/bbc

Athens: Greece Prime Minister George Papandreou has won a crucial confidence vote on Friday after promising to hold power-sharing talks.

In an address to parliament before the vote he ruled out snap elections, saying they would be "catastrophic".

He said he did not care about his post and the leadership of any government of national unity would be negotiable.

Papandreou previously shocked EU partners and sent markets into turmoil after calling for a referendum on an EU deal to bail out debt-ridden Greece.

Papandreou said the bail-out deal currently on offer by the EU had to be accepted, and it would be "historically irresponsible" to lose it.

He said immediate elections would be "catastrophic" for the deal, so proposed a new coalition to take charge until it had been agreed.

"I have been in contact with the president and I will visit him tomorrow (Saturday) to inform him of my intentions and that I am moving forward with all the parties for a broader coalition government, and to agree on common goals, a timeframe and people, to agree on its composition and even the head of this coalition," he said.

"I therefore ask for a vote of confidence in order to ensure the security of this nation."

The vote took place after several hours' debate. Papandreou addressed parliament for more than half an hour.

Thousands of protesters have gathered in Athens' Syntagma Square. Security has been tightened around the nearby parliament building.

Eurozone leaders fear that failure to solve the Greek debt crisis could risk it spreading to other vulnerable economies, particularly Italy.

The figures in the Greek parliament revealed Papandreou's vulnerability. His governing Socialist party (Pasok) held a tiny majority - 152 out of 300 seats. In the end 153 MPs voted for the government.

The vote was timed to take place when the markets in Europe and the US are closed, such is the sensitivity of the issue.

Although Papandreou survived the confidence vote, the political situation in Greece still seemed far from certain.

Leader of the main opposition New Democracy party Antonis Samaras rejected the prime minister's idea of a coalition government and repeated his demands for immediate elections.

"Papandreou rejected our proposal. The only solution is elections," a party spokesman quoted Samaras as saying.

On Thursday Samaras led his MPs in a dramatic walkout of parliament.

The proposed referendum had caused serious divisions in Pasok, with Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos insisting it should not be held.

He told European partners on Friday that Greece had officially scrapped the referendum.

Venizelos said he had informed EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and eurozone chairman Jean-Claude Juncker of the decision.

Papandreou had earlier said the referendum was never an end in itself, and there were two other choices - an election, which he said would bankrupt the country, or a consensus in parliament.

Earlier on Friday, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the BBC he expected a government of national unity to be formed in Greece and that the economic problems "will be solved".

In another development on Friday, international ratings agency Moody's cut Cyprus's credit grade by two notches - to the brink of junk status - over its banking sector's exposure to Greek bonds.

The Greek crisis overshadowed the G20 summit in Cannes which ended on Friday.

EU President Herman Van Rompuy said leaders had agreed to increase the firepower of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but gave no specifics on the funding.

Papandreou had been summoned for urgent talks at the G20 on Wednesday, where he was told that any referendum would turn on the question of whether Greece wanted to stay in the eurozone.

The next tranche of Greece's existing bailout was also put on hold.

Without the bailout funds, Greece may go bankrupt before the end of the year.

The EU bailout deal, agreed last month, would give the heavily indebted Greek government 130 billion euros and it imposes a 50 percent write-off on private holders of Greek debts, in return for deeply unpopular austerity measures.

Although the Greek public has strongly resisted the austerity measures, a recent opinion poll in a newspaper showed 70 percent wanted to remain within the eurozone.

Source: theindependentbd.com

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Tuesday, November 1, 2011

West Indies score 62/2

Dhaka: West Indies scored 62 for the loss of two wickets in the second innings of the second and final Test against Bangladesh at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in the capital on Monday.

West Indies lead by 180 runs with 8 wickets remaining till filing of this report at 12:45pm.

Opener Kraigg Brathwaite was sent back to the pavilion after being run-out on the first ball.

Earlier, Bangladesh were all out for 231 in their first innings in reply to West Indies’ 355.

Bangladesh squad: Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Shahriar Nafees, Raqibul Hasan, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim (Captain), Naeem Islam, Nasir Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Shahadat Hossain and Suhrawadi Shuvo.

West Indies squad: Kraigg Brathwaite, Kieran Powell, Kirk Edwards, Darren Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Marlon Samuels, Carlton Baugh, Darren Sammy (Captain), Fidel Edwards, Devendra Bishoo and Kemar Roach.

Source: theindependentbd.com

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