န 2011 Cricket World Cup :

India will host the final and semi-final
Bangladesh to host two quarter-finals
PTI, Mumbai, 28 April : India will host the final and one semi-final of the 2011 World Cup while Bangladesh will stage eight matches at two grounds, including two quarter-finals, the tournament's organising committee decided in Mumbai on Tuesday, according to cricinfo.com.
Sri Lanka will stage the other semi-final and 12 matches in three venues while India will host 29 matches in eight venues. The quarter-finals will be shared among the three neighbours.
The organising committee, headed by ICC vice-president Sharad Pawar, will include an operations and planning group comprising Bangladesh official Mahboob Alam, Indian board secretary N Srinivasan, Sri Lanka's Duleep Mendis and Shetty. The committee also decided to shift the tournament secretariat from Lahore to Mumbai. The ICC had to decide on the redistribution of Pakistan's 14 matches after it removed the country from the list of hosts because the "uncertain political situation" would have made it difficult to "deliver a safe, secure and successful event" in Pakistan.
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India Post plans to reach every doorstep in Andaman
Port Blair, 28 April : Directorate of Post(DoP) recently opened two franchised outlets in South Andaman to offer postal facilities in the outskirts of the city.
Till now, the residents of these areas- Austinabad and Bimlitan had to go to Garacharma Sub-Post Office in South Andaman to avail postal facilities, an official release of the Director of Post said here today. The franchised outlets will provide postal facilities such as sale of stamps, registered letters, speed post, money order, payment of telephone bills etc. According to DoP’s plan, the range of services available from these outlets will be increased later. The franchise owners will be free to conduct and canvass business round the clock but the outlets will be opened to public for transaction from 9 am to 1 pm from Monday to Saturday, the release said.
Postal department is the second largest department in Andaman and Nicobar after PWD.
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BDR ammunition could reach Indian militants: Dhaka
Dhaka, 28 April : A former chief of the Bangladesh Rifle (BDR) has said the ammunition and explosives that went missing during the troopers' mutiny could have been smuggled to militant groups in northeastern India, fuelling Dhaka's worries.
"The missing weapons could reach the hands of terrorists and other criminals, and could even be smuggled into neighbouring countries' separatists like the United Liberation Front of Assam," Lt. Gen. (retd) Atiqur Rahman, a former BDR chief, told the local newspaper. India has alleged that militants in India' northeast use Bangladeshi soil to stage armed operations, an allegation that Dhaka has consistently denied. Faruq Khan, a minister in Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government, said mostly small arms had gone missing. The minister, a retired army colonel who is coordinating the government's effort to probe the mutiny and related developments, however, did not give details of what all had gone missing, the report said.
Eighty-one people, including 55 Bangladesh Army officers on deputation to the BDR, were killed during the Feb 25-26 mutiny. The troopers revolted over low wages and poor working conditions.
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Army get 'AFSPA' ext in Tripura for six months more
Agartala, 27 April : Tripura government has extended for another six months the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act of 1958 (AFSPA), providing special powers to paramilitary troopers to curb separatist activity in the region, officials here said Monday.
“Though militancy has been tamed in the northeastern state of Tripura, the state government is averse to take any chances for some more time,” an official said. “Out of 64 police stations in Tripura, the AFSPA had been enforced in 34 police stations in 1997,” he told Bengal Newz.
Tribal-based parties in the state are against the AFSPA and have been demanding the repeal of the law, which they term “draconian”. “The act gave access to the armed forces to victimise innocent people, especially the tribals, in the name of anti-insurgency operations,” said former minister Rabindra Debbarma, general secretary of the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT).
A number of regional political parties, civil rights groups, NGOs and student bodies in the northeast, especially Manipur, have been demanding the repeal of the act for several years, citing human rights abuses by security personnel.
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Advocate Anisul made chief
prosecutor for BDR carnage
Dhaka, 27 April : The Bangladesh government has also appointed Advocate Syed Haider Ali and Advocate Mosharraf Hossain Kajal as public prosecutors for conducting the case.
“The government has appointed me as chief prosecutor and Advocate Syed Haider and Advocate Mosharraf Hossain as public prosecutors for dealing with the Pilkhana carnage case on behalf of the state," Anisul told reporters this afternoon. The case is now under investigation and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has been conducting the inquiry into the incident.
The investigation of the case is going on under the conventional law.
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Auto drivers vandalise vehicles to protest harassment
Chittagong, 27 April : Hundreds of CNG-run autorickshaw drivers took to the street today and vandalised several vehicles at different points of the Chittagong city demanding an end to police ‘harassment’.
The three-wheeler drivers slapped a wildcat strike this morning to press their five-point demand. The drivers ransacked a number of vehicles, including a police van, at the city’s Dewanhat intersection, Agrabad and Beparipara area.
In a rally in front of the Chittagong Press Club, the leaders of the Chittagong Metropolitan Auto-rickshaw and Auto-tempo Workers Welfare Union gave the authorities four days to fulfill their demands. They warned the authorities of tougher movement if their demands were not met by the deadline.
Sources said Traffic Department of Chittagong Metropolitan Police launched a drive against the auto-rickshaws plying with faulty traffic meter or without meter on 20 April. Police seized a number of auto-rickshaws and sued many.
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Sonia shares dais with Mamata, slams WB's Left Front
We are extremly happy to have Mamata here with us : Sonia Gandhi
Aligarh Muslim University campus in Murshidabad : Pranab Mukherjee
Jangipur, 27 April : Sharing the dais with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee for the first time in eight years, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday launched a scathing attack on the Left parties for failure to support UPA government on the nuclear deal issue. "To meet the growing energy requirement, we went for the nuclear deal, but the Left opposed us saying it was not required," Sonia Gandhi said addressing an election meeting in this key Lok Sabha constituency from where external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee is contesting.
Attacking the Leftists in the Left Front ruled state, she said that the ambitious rural job scheme, NREGA, was not implemented properly in West Bengal. Gandhi accused the Left Front West Bengal government of paying lip service to the poor and downtrodden sections of the society though Leftists swore by their name and claimed themselves to be their 'messiah'.
Taking a dig at the hordes of prime ministerial aspirants, Gandhi said "these days it a fashion to aspire for prime ministership. But the Congress aim is to serve the country and its people." Seeking votes for the Congress-TMC combine, Gandhi said there is a need for secular and stable govt at the Centre. "I am sure you will vote for the combine to ensure a stable and secular government at the Centre," she said. Targeting minority votes in the state, Pranab Mukherjee announced setting up of Aligarh Muslim University campus in Murshidabad district of the state.
The trio will also be touring Lalgola, Murshidabad, Malda, and Jalpaiguri. Gandhi had last shared the platform with Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata during state Assembly elections in 2001 after which the TC supremo had joined hands with the NDA.
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Kolkata Schools tweak routine to tackle mercury heat
Kolkata, 27 April : The rise and rise of mercury levels is taking a toll on children who have to spend long days in their schools. They are the hardest hit because schools usually get over when the sun is at its zenith. What's more, frequent power-cuts have added to their woes. With no respite in sight, many city schools have been quick to work out relief measures for their students.
While most schools have rescheduled their routine so that classes can get over earlier than usual, some schools also gave a short heat break last week. Authorities of some schools have decided to wait and watch as the week unfolds before announcing further measures. Some also keep lemonades and electrolytes handy in case a student feels weak or dehydrated. ။ Photo : AP & Indrajit Dutta
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Row over revision of school timings in Andaman
Port Blair, 27 April : The Andaman and Nicobar administration is faced with a strong opposition from some sections of the society against revision of the existing school timings in the Islands.
On 22 April, Lt Governor of the Islands Bhopinder Singh had revised the existing school timings except for those institutions which are running shifts. Now, since Wednesday last, all the schools in the islands have been functioning between 0730 hours and 1330 hours.
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With the mercury soaring, time to revamp wardrobe
Rina Dhaka's collection beats the heat
Kolkata, 27 April : So when fashion designers Rina Dhaka and Kiran Uttam Ghosh, showed how to beat the heat with cottons, there were takers galore. Models Deepti Gujral and Amanpreet Wahi made quite a statement walking on a makeshift ramp at a city five-star hotel wearing cotton dresses. Kiran Uttam Ghosh’s collection highlighted the and rogynous look through constructed jackets worn over shirts. Rina Dhaka’s spring summer collection was all about Bengal. Rina, who rarely visits Kolkata, confessed her love for the city and how she is planning for a long holiday here with her kids in tow.
The designer said she would love to take a trip to Shantiniketan and the Sunderbans, apart from paying a visit to Mother House, Kolkata. She also admitted that the fashion industry is feeling the recession heat.
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Tripura tea garden owners to start Rubber cultivation
Agartala, 27 April : The owners of few tea gardens are reportedly trying to start Rubber cultivation instead of tea plantations causing panic among the tea workers. It may be noted that Tripura is the 5th largest quality tea producing state in India. Rubber cultivation is less labour intensive as a result large scale cut in job is expected.
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Notorious Bangla Bhai 'accomplice' held in Naogaon
Naogaon, 26 April : Police arrested a suspected accomplice of notorious militant kingpin Bangla Bhai in Naogaon on Sunday. District CID police inspector Shahidul Islam said: "The accused, 45 year-old Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury, was caretaker at Bangla Bhai's Banshbaria camp torture cell." He was picked up around 12pm(BDST) from Ukilpara Road, said the CID officer.
Siddique ul-Islam, known popularly as Bangla Bhai, was a top commander of banned militant outfit Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). Most active in miltant activities in the northwest, around Rajshahi, Bangla Bhai gained nationwide notoriety for planning and carrying out bombings throughout the country. He was captured in Mymensingh on 6 March, 2006, and hanged as a terrorist along with 5 others on 30 March, 2007.
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Pakistan's militants using Bangladesh route for infiltration : BSF chief
Agartala, 26 April : Pakistan sponsored anti-India elements are now using the eastern border with Bangladesh and Nepal for infiltrating into the Indian territory, said Director General of the Border Security Force (BSF) M L Kumawat.The western frontier is almost fully fenced and is better mended because the fencing work started much early, they (Pakistan intelligence sponsored militants) have to find some other ways to come into India, said the BSF head during interaction with reporters here at the BSF Tripura Frontier headquarters.
He claimed that India would further tighten the vigil along the 4,095 km-long international border with Bangladesh by increasing border outposts (BOPs) from 1,411 to 1,882 and deploying more BSF troopers with modern gadgets and devices and flood lighting of the fencing.