န Mother Teresa's 99th Birth Anniversary...

Kolkata, 26 August :
(L) A nun places a candle on Mother Teresa's tomb on her 99th birth anniversary at the Missionaries of Charity Today. (R) A woman prays at the tomb of Mother Teresa on the occasion of Teresa's 99th birth anniversary.

န Photos : Deshakalyan Chowdhury (AFP) and Jayanta Shaw (Reuters)

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Hasina offers condolences on USA's Kennedy's death

Dhaka, 26 August : Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina expressed profound sorrow at the death of American Senator Edward Kennedy, revered as a caring friend of Bangladesh.
In a condolence message issued in the capital, Dhaka on Wednesday, the prime minister said the United States of America lost their great leader at the demise of Kennedy. "Bangladesh has lost its hearty friend while the world missed a humanitarian personality," she added. Recalling Kennedy's support and role in forming world opinion for Bangladesh's liberation, Sheikh Hasina said the people of Bangladesh would remember his contribution forever.
Edward M Kennedy (77), youngest brother of the late US President John F Kennedy and the liberal lion of the Senate, died at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts on Tuesday night. န File Photo : AFP (New Delhi, 15 Aug, 1972)

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Tripura opposes clauses in "Education Reforms Bill"
Agartala, 26 August : The Left Front government in Tripura today opposed Centre's alleged move to privatise the education system of the country. Tripura Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty said the proposals in the proposed Education Reforms Bill was discussed in the state cabinet recently and certain points were found unsuitable for implementation.
"Human Resource Development (HRD) minister is trying to privatise the education system which is not acceptable to us and we can not fix up the the responsibility of the school children on the parents," he told reporters here.

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Howrah's crusader Subhas Dutta plans 'Green party'

Subir Bhaumik, BBC News, Kolkata, 26 August : One of India's leading environmental crusaders is planning to launch the country's first Green party.
After his success in forcing old and polluting vehicles off the streets in Kolkata, Subhas Dutta says the time has come to set up a political party to protect the country's environment. "Many like me who fight for environment protection have realised we need a full fledged party in India. Our movements are localised and it is not enough to operate as pressure groups or just fight legal battles," Dutta says.
He is due to visit the United Kingdom next month to meet the leaders of the Green Party there. "We are also in touch with the Green Party of Germany, we want to understand how the Green parties operate in Europe before we launch a Green Party of India. "But we will launch it soon, should we say, in a few months," he says.
Subhas Dutta says he was also in touch with leading environmentalists in India. READ FULL STORY

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Monsoon hampering anti-Maoist operation in Lalgarh

IANS, Kolkata, 26 August : Operations against Maoist rebels in West Bengal's tribal-dominated western districts has hit the monsoon roadblock - fields full of water and flooded jungles hampering force movement.
"We're facing obstruction in some areas because of the heavy monsoon rains. Most of the open fields are now full of water and we just can't march through them as we were doing two months back," West Midnapore Police Superintendent M.K. Verma told IANS. "The rainy season has made the dense forest areas inaccessible, impacting the speed of the operation," he said.
More than two months have elapsed after central paramilitary troopers and crack units of the West Bengal police launched the anti-Maoist campaign aiming to free Lalgarh and its surrounding areas in West Midnapore district from the left-wing rebels. The operation was later expanded to two other Maoist-affected districts of Bankura and Purulia. According to sources, the security forces have changed their modus operandi and are now advancing in a 'go-slow' mode due to the arrival of the monsoon. န Photo : AFP

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500,000 women to get "food processing training"

Kolkata, 26 August : The Indian government on Wednesday said it will provide food processing training to 500,000 women in collaboration with industrial training institutes (ITI) as part of its efforts to create 10 million jobs by 2015.
"The training given to the women will strengthen the food processing sector, which has emerged relatively unaffected from the economic slowdown," Minister for Food Processing Industries Subodh Kant Sahai said here. The government is also facilitating setting up of 350 food processing units, Sahai said at an interactive session with members of the Merchants Chamber of Commerce.

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Bangladesh's biggest IPO to hit market in October,09
Ruma Paul, Reuters, Dhaka, 26 August : Bangladesh's top mobile phone carrier, Grameenphone, said on Wednesday that shares from its initial public offering, the country's biggest ever, would make their stock exchange debut in the first week of October.
Grameenphone, 62 percent owned by Norway's Telenor (TEL.OL), is looking to raise 4.86 billion taka ($68 million) by offering 69.44 million shares at 70 taka each. Citigroup (C.N) is underwriting the issue. READ FULL STORY

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Iftar Delicacies

Dhaka, 26 August :

A vendor displays iftar delicacies at the Dhaka's famous Baily Road iftar market on Wednesday.

န Photos : Firoz Ahme

န Photos : Firoz Ahmed

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"TVS King" may be renamed "Arjun" in West Bengal

IANS, Hosur (Tamil Nadu), 26 August : Non-resident industrialist Prasoon Mukherjee may soon assemble a three-wheeler named 'Arjun' in West Bengal, while his ambition to launch a motorcycle under the same brand may take longer to realise.
'We could christen TVS King as Arjun for the markets in West Bengal,' said T.G. Sridhar, chief operating officer of Mahabharat Motors, a venture promoted by Mukherjee, referring to their pact with Chennai-based TVS group to assemble their products in the state. 'Basically, we are still interested in developing Brand Arjun. But initially, we are focusing on assembling the existing TVS brands in West Bengal. Later, in consultation with TVS, we will see what best we can do for the new Brand Arjun,' he added. Mahabharat Motors, through its joint venture with the India's third largest two-wheeler maker TVS Motor Co, will be assembling the latter's products in their upcoming factory unit at Uluberia in Howrah district of West Bengal.
The initial models include TVS Sport, a two-wheeler, and TVS King, a three-wheeler. Mahabharat Motors is a joint venture between Indonesia-based Salim Group and Universal Success Enterprises, a Singapore-based diversified group, headed by Mukherjee.

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Bangladesh rebel seeks troop pullout from tribal CHT

Nizam Ahmed, Reuters, Rangamati, 26 August : The former head of a tribal insurgent group in southeastern Bangladesh urged the government on Wednesday to honour its promise to withdraw troops from the area.

Members of the Shanti Bahini ended a 25-year revolt in the Chittagong Hill Tracts area in 1997 after a peace treaty with the government under which troops were to be withdrawn and land acquired by settlers restored to local tribesmen. "The troops should immediately return to garrisons leaving hundreds of temporary camps they set up across the hills in early eighties," Jyotirindra Budhipriyo Larma, the former head of the group, told Reuters in an interview.
A Bangladesh army official said the pullout of one army brigade, comprising nearly 1,000 troops, began early this month and would be completed by September. A full withdrawal was not immediately possible because of the threat from hardline elements, settlers rights group say. But Larma, who now heads the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council, said the peace deal could come under pressure from the hardliners if the government dragged its feet on pulling out troops from the area. "If troops pullout is delayed or incomplete, tribespeople who opposed the peace deal will gather steam and may try further to frustrate it," Larma said.
The Shanti Bahini guerrillas fought for autonomy in the hill and forest region bordering India and Myanmar in a campaign in which nearly 8,500 troops, rebels and civilians were killed.
The area comprising three districts - Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban - is also a major tourist spot but visitors stay away for fear of abduction or killing as remnants of the Shanti Bahini are still active, trying to regain control and drive settlers away. န Photos : Reuters and Ittefaq

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Jet Airways to introduce services on Mumbai-Dhaka sector from 15/9

Mumbai, 26 August : Effective 15 September, Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, will introduce new daily, direct services on the Mumbai-Dhaka-Mumbai sectors*, aboard state-of-the-art Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
This will be Jet Airways’ third daily service to the Bangladesh from India, and connect travelers to and from the Gulf with Dhaka, via Mumbai. The airline currently flies daily from Delhi and Kolkata to Dhaka.
Flight 9W 276 will depart Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at 0840 hrs, arriving in Dhaka’s Zia International Airport at 1300 hrs. Flight 9W 275 will then depart Dhaka at 1530 hrs, arriving in Mumbai at 1700 hrs.

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Rose Valley Group launches Rupashi Bangla channel
Kolkata, August 25 : The Rose Valley Group announced their diversification into media and entertainment industry with the grand launch of Rupashi Bangla - the most awaited Bengali general entertainment channel in the city.
Rupashi Bangla is all set to go on air from 31 August with shows of different categories ranging from reality to socio-mythology, feature films to news updates and from comedy to drama. Renowed actors Rituparna Sengupta, Indrani Halder, Annu Kapoor and with Shibomoy Dutta Managing Director of Rose Valley Group were present at the star studded launch of the much awaited Bengali channel. Rituparna Sengupta said, 'In spite of being new in the market I think they have the capability of becoming one of the favourite channels in Kolkata, that is the reason when I decided to telecast my show, I considered their name in the first place'.
Gautam Kundu, Chairman of Rose Valley Group, said: 'In the present scenario, content is king, and that is exactly our greatest edge over our competitor channels. Our content is completely exclusive; especially our reality shows which are unique in format. The look and feel of the shows is glamorous but the heritage value of Bengal has been retained completely. There is an underlying perspective in every programme which reflects the richness of our culture and also the ubiquitous Bengali feelings.'
Asked about the total investment in the new business, Dutta said, 'The group invested Rs 500 crore to start the channel. The projected revenue estimation from advertisements is Rs75 crore for this financial year only'.

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Chittagong ship accident : Body recovered, 1 missing

Chittagong, 26 August : The Bangladesh coast guard recovered the body of a deckhand on Wednesday who had been missing since his ship went down in Chittagong Port channel on Monday.
Eighteen hands of buoy lifting vessel BLV Ali were swept into the port channel on Monday night when their ship floundered in high waves while working on Buoy Number 2 in the harbour. Chittagong Port Authority, the Bangladesh Navy and coast guard mounted a joint rescue operation in the channel and the outer anchorage. Sixteen of the workers were rescued soon after the incident.

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Photo exhibition showcasing 128-year-old past of heritage railway in Darjeeling
Siliguri, 26 August : To create awareness regarding the history and evolution of the heritage railway especially amongst school children, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) in collaboration with the Siliguri Science Centre has organised a week-long photo exhibition showcasing its glorious past of 128 years, in Siliguri.
The exhibition, which will conclude on 30 August, depicts the evolution of the DHR from its inception to the modern times. The DHR is an important landmark on the Indian tourism map especially after UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 1999. The DHR's 82 kilometres of journey from Siliguri junction to Darjeeling is an enchanting journey offering a majestic view of the Darjeeling Himalayas.
The organisers believe that the exhibition will make young generation aware of the history of the DHR, an important part of their heritage.

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6 people including women and children killed in Habiganj boat capsize

UNB, Habiganj, 26 August : were killed on Tuesday night after a boat capsized during a storm at Baniachang haor in Habiganj. Two others were missing.
Sujatpur Union Parishad chairman Ataur Rahman told UNB that the people, inhabitants of Noabad, were returning home from a shrine at Ikram. The boat sank in the middle of Ikram and Noabad haors, Rahman added. People of surrounding villages began rescue operation and pulled four bodies in the night. Two more bodies were recovered on Wednesday morning, he said.

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