India lift Nehru Cup Football in thriller :

Hands of a Bengali boy behind India's historic win...
New Delhi , 31 August :
(L) India's goalkeeper Subrata Paul tries to stop the ball against Syria during their final match at the ONGC Nehru Cup football tournament. (R) Indian national football team players hold their throphies after beating Syria in the final of the Nehru Cup International Football Tournament at the Dr. Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi Today. India beat Syria 5-4 on penalties following a 1-1 stale mate to win the tournament. န Photos : Reuters

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Tripura editors agitate against low Ad rates, Arrested
Agartala, 31 August : Editors of all newspapers published from Tripura were arrested on Monday for staging a demonstration in front of the Assembly. They were seeking a change in the advertisement guidelines introduced by the state government in 2009.
No sooner had the House begun its business for the first day of its monsoon session than the editors and newspaper executives, under the banner of the Tripura Newspaper Society (TNS), gathered outside it and started shouting slogans against the advertisement guidelines, which they described as "anti-media". The editors were later sent to court, which granted them bail. This was for the first time that editors were arrested in the state. The new guidelines that came into effect from January 1 curtailed 40 per cent of advertisements to newspapers. TNS officials claimed that advertisement rates in Tripura were perhaps the lowest in the country. "In Assam, the highest rate is Rs 139 per column cm, while in Tripura it's only Rs 22," said Arun Nath, editor of a local daily and secretary of the TNS.
The arrests of the editors caused ruffles in the media circles. Many of their colleagues were seen gathering at the West Agartala police station. န Photos : Parthajit Dutta

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န 50 Years of historic Food Movement :

Left Front accuses Trinamool of doublespeak

Kolkata, 31 August : Accusing West Bengal’s principal opposition Trinamool Congress of double standards, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Monday said the party was blaming his government for price rise but keeping mum in Delhi where it was part of the coalition government.
“This opposition party says the state’s Left Front government should answer why prices of food items have gone up. But what about Delhi? Is there only fragrance of flowers there? Why is this party silent?” asked Bhattacharjee at a massive rally as it commemorates the golden jubilee of the food movement organised by the Left Front here.
The chief minister said the Left Front government was trying to provide rice, pulses, potato, edible oil and sugar to the people at reasonable rates. န Photo : AP

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Md Yunus invited to give lecture at Indian Lok Sabha

Dhaka, 31 August : Bengal's Nobel Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus has been invited to deliver a lecture to the Indian parliament in December this year.
Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Smt. Meira Kumar, invited the micro-finance pioneer to deliver the second Prof Hiren Mukerjee Memorial Annual Parliamentary Lecture at the Indian parliament during its winter session. Prof Hiren Mukherjee, who died in 2004, was a prominent member of the West Bengal Communist Party and a five times member of the Lok Sabha from 1952 to 1977.
Prof Yunus' lecture will take place on 9 December, 2009 in the central hall of the Parliament House in New Delhi. The first Prof Hiren Mukherjee memorial lecture was delivered by another Bengali Nobel Laureate Prof Amartya Sen in 2008.

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BD announces first swine flu death
Dhaka, 31 August : Bangladesh has had its first swine flu-related death, a hospital spokesman said on Monday, after a 37-year-old woman died in the capital Dhaka.
A woman had been admitted to the hospital just over two weeks ago and was diagnosed with the A(H1N1) virus soon afterwards. ‘She had been in isolation for the past two days. She had been suffering from heart complications as well as other conditions,’ he said.
Bangladeshi health authorities have so far reported 199 swine flu cases since the virus was first detected in the impoverished nation of 144 million people on 18 June.

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န Dhaka, 31 August :

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Lee Jong Woo, deputy secretary general of the Republic of Korea's National Election Commission, and Bangladesh Election Commission additional secretary Rafiqul Islam shake hands after signing an agreement to work more closely at the EC Secretariat in Dhaka on Monday.

CEC ATM Shamsul Huda and other commissioners were present. န Photo : Mustafiz Mamun

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Fresh move for dedicated air services in North East
UNI, Agartala, 31 August : Minister Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) has initiated a fresh move to launch an exclusive air-service to boost intra-regional connectivity in the North-east. Official sources here today said DoNER and Northeastern Council (NEC) had been trying to launch the service among the NE capitals and major towns for the past two years and the Centre had included it once again in government's 100-days’ agenda.
Identifying connectivity as the key issue, DoNER had initiated the proposal for dedicated air services for the region in 2007 and attempted to develop at least 11 unused airstrips, including two green field airports. Two private air operators expressed their interest for dedicated regional air services in North-east while the Ministry of Civil Aviation had also assured to increase the frequencies of flights in North Eastern Region.

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Don't import Indian egg,say Dhaka poultry operators

IANS, Dhaka, Khulna, 31 August : Bangladesh's poultry operators are protesting egg imports from India that enter the market during the festive season at less than half the price.
As two trucks carrying the first consignment arrived at Benapole Land Port on the border with India, there were widespread protests from the local producers who fear they would be swept out of the market, The Daily Star said Monday. The government has cleared import of 30 million eggs from India to meet the high demand during the holy Ramadan and Eid festival that will follow. The Parishad referred to a statutory regulatory order issued, which imposed restrictions on imports of eggs from any country affected by bird flu. "Permission to import eggs from India will increase the risk of the spread of bird flu again in the local poultry industry."
Khulna Poultry Fish Feed Shop Owners' Association president Kazi Mohammad Nurul Islam feared that more than 20 million people involved in the industry would lose their jobs. န Photo : AP

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Import, export divisions at Chittagong Customs House to be reunified
Chittagong, 31 August : The import and export divisions of Chittagong Customs House are set to be reunified after two years.
The Bangladesh National Board of Revenue has begun work to bring the two divisions of the country's biggest revenue collector under import division. After the merger, all import and export activities will be handled by the import commissioner alone. Up until July 2007, the two divisions functioned as a single unit. Syed Golam Kibria, import commissioner said, "It will take two more months to complete the reunification process and NBR is working on creating an organogram for it." Kibria also said NBR will issue order after the organogram gets approved by the establishment ministry.
Bangladesh Finance minister A M A Muhith had proposed reunification of the two divisions in his budget speech on 11 June.

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Suspected Maoists kill CPI(M) leader near Lalgarh

Midnapore, 31 August : Suspected Maoists today shot dead a CPI(M) leader on the suspicion that he was working as a police informer near Lalgarh in West Midnapore district.
A group of 10 armed Maoist cadre went to 40-year-old Sukdeb Mahato's house in Manihada village and took him to the jungle to"try"him in a Kangaroo court there, police said. He was shot from close range and the body was left there, they said.

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Concrete wheat silo to be built near 'Mongla port'

Bagerhat, Dhaka, 31 August : The Bangladesh government yesterday decided to construct a concrete wheat silo with a capacity of 50,000 metric tons near Mongla port in Bagerhat.
It was decided at an inter-ministerial meeting at Food and Disaster Management Ministry with Food Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque in the chair. “The silo will be constructed at Joymonirgol, 13 kilometres from Mongla port,” said Dr Razzaque emerging from the meeting. He said with the construction of the silo there would be smooth loading and unloading of food grains. Around 40 percent of the government-imported food grains are unloaded at Mongla port.
Giving government’s high importance to food security, he said the new godown would help increase food security in the country. The Japanese government assured the government of giving Tk 225 crore to construct the silo, he added.

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