Bangladeshs outgoing ruling party vowed on Friday to take part in this months scheduled elections, even as 20,000 opposition activists pledged to boycott what they called farcical polls.
Khaleda Zia, the outgoing prime minister and leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), said her party and allies would contest the elections despite a decision by the main opposition Awami League and its coalition partners to stay away from the polls. We have always wanted to go to polls in accordance with the constitution. It has been our only demand, Zia told a news conference in the capital, Dhaka. Now if a party does not take part in the elections and if that lessens the acceptability of its results, the boycotting party will be blamed for the crime, not the participating party, Zia said.
Under the constitution, Bangladeshs interim government, which assumed power on October 28, must hold the polls within 90 days of its tenure. This means it will have to stage the elections by January 25. The government has already announced January 22 as the polling date. But the Awami League and its allies said they would boycott the poll, accusing the interim government of failing to create fair conditions.
Zia made the announcement as thousands of opposition supporters marched through central Dhaka demanding the cancellation of what they said were farcical and one-sided polls. At least 20,000 opposition supporters joined the protest and marched to the citys centre, police inspector Abdul Latif said. Similiar rallies were staged across the country, police said. It all went off peacefully. We have enough security to prevent violence, Latif said.
The alliance of opposition parties maintains it is more important for the elections to be seen as credible, with all parties taking part, than for them to be held on time. It has demanded a string of reforms which it said were needed to ensure the polls were not tilted in favour of the outgoing BNP-led government.
The coalition accused the BNP of trying to rig the elections by appointing biased officials to key positions in the election commission and the temporary administration charged with organising the polls. The BNP, however, has rejected the allegations, saying the opposition had sensed defeat and was determined to sabotage the elections. The reforms demanded by the opposition include a revision of the voters list, changes to judiciary and intelligence agency chiefs and the replacement of two election commissioners.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/06/2007 00:00 ||
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Traces of lethal Polonium-210 have been detected at a restaurant linked to the investigation of the murder of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko, the Health Protection Agency said Friday.
The agency said "some evidence" of radioactive contamination had been found at the Pescatori Restaurant in London's Mayfair neighborhood, but measures to remedy the problem had been completed and the resaturant had been allowed to reopen. "On the basis of the monitoring results received there is no public health concern," said the agency, which has taken the lead in monitoring people and places for signs of contamination.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/06/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I'll have your tuna tartare and scallop capraccio starter, but could I have the Plonimum-210 on the side please. Thank you so much.
#7
*scans through menu*
Waiter, where is the Pu239 watercress sandwich???
It always gave my gizzard a little warm feeling on such dreary winter days. Don't give me that crap about being out of season. I'm not buying that excuse. Nooooo....not the Russian supplier going out of business excuse, either. You tried North Korea or Chicom wholesalers yet? No? Jeeze Louise, get crackin'! You are going to lose your loyal customers. Your reputation is based on the wide variety of isotopes you offer.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/06/2007 13:48 Comments ||
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Assailants ambushed and shot dead a state legislator who was driving to a radio and television station for an interview in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, city officials said.
Jorge Bajos Valverde, a member of the National Action Party of President Felipe Calderon, was blocked in his path by a white van without number plates in the center of the city, said Gloria Mendez, a spokesman for Acapulco's Public Safety Department, on Thursday.
Assailants stepped out of the van and shot the legislator several times killing him instantly, Mendez said. The motive for the attack was not clear, she said. Although a conservative, Bajos Valverde was known to be a political ally of Guerrero State Gov. Zeferino Torreblanca, of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party and had defended him in several recent interviews.
In the last two years, Acapulco has been a hit by a wave of execution-style killings blamed on rival drugs gangs fighting over lucrative smuggling routes and a budding local drug market.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/06/2007 00:00 ||
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How do you identify an honest politician in Mexico?
Unfortunately, this is probably how.
#2
"The motive for the attack was not clear"
are you kidding? "Acapulco has been a hit by a wave of execution-style killings blamed on rival drugs gangs fighting over lucrative smuggling routes and a budding local drug market"
yeah this be a good explaination
Posted by: Jan from work ||
01/06/2007 13:24 Comments ||
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#3
The first time, ever I saw your Fez...
Posted by: Roberta Flack ||
01/06/2007 16:33 Comments ||
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The Supreme Court on Friday came down heavily on the Centre for failing to deport Bangladeshi nationals staying illegally in the country just because the neighbouring country refuses to accept them back as their citizens.
"Merely because Bangladesh does not accept the deportees cannot be a solution to the problem," the Bench of Justices GP Mathur and LS Panta remarked while hearing a public interest litigation on the issue filed by NGO, Image India Foundation.
The court brushed aside Solicitor General GE Vahanvati's contention that this problem was acute since the other side was not willing to cooperate in resolving the dispute. The court also found little merit in Vahanvati's argument that there was a human problem in pushing these deportees across the border with the Bangladesh Rifles guards shooting them down .
Viewing the repercussions as serious, the Bench commented, "That does not mean that the entire population of Bangladesh can come in India."
Vahanvati assured that in view of these compulsions, the Government is keen on completing fencing of the Indo-Bangladesh border by March 2007 to prevent further infiltration.
The Centre said it was willing to part with details about fencing and the time period by when it is proposed to be completed. Arguing for the petitioner, senior advocate Vijay Hansaria along with advocate CD Singh told the Bench this exercise was to be completed by December 2006. The petitioner further led the court's attention to the number of tribunals required to be set up by the Centre in each state.
Giving two months time, the bench asked the Centre to furnish details about the fencing of border, time schedule for its completion, the number of Foreigners Tribunals constituted in states and the number of Bangladeshis actually detected and deported in the last three years.
The Bench which heard the Centre at length, questioned the Government's complacency in deporting Bangladeshis when it was found wanting in providing sufficient means to its own people. Taking a reality check, it observed, "at the time of independence undivided India had a population of about 40 crore. "Today minus Bangladesh and Pakistan, farmers in the country are providing enough to meet the requirements of a huge population. But for how long will this continue."
The population is bursting at its seams with severe power, water shortage in cosmopolitan cities. Openly expressing its fears about the current trend, the Bench observed, "we must not lose sight of the fact that Russia got disintegrated due to scarcity of food."
According to an affidavit filed by the Centre in July 2005, India shares a border length of 4095 kilometres with Bangladesh out of which 926 kilometres is riverine border. Despite non-cooperation from Bangladesh, the affidavit stated over 1,17,428 Bangladeshi nationals were deported between 2001 and 2003.
On two earlier occasions the Court has even pronounced judgements noting such infiltration as causing an "external aggression" seeking immediate steps to contain the damage.
Posted by: john ||
01/06/2007 00:00 ||
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At least the Bangli Gubmint is gener being honest zabout NOT being able to take care of its citizens.
#2
The Bench which heard the Centre at length, questioned the Government's complacency in deporting Bangladeshis when it was found wanting in providing sufficient means to its own people.
AMEN, BROTHER! I only wish we had such brave judges in our own country. They're actually building a fence.
#3
Simple solution, take them to the border and dump them out, post guards, if they try to return, shoot them.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/06/2007 13:08 Comments ||
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RJ, it sounds like that won't be necessary, inasmuch as paragraph 3 has this gem: "The court also found little merit in Vahanvati's argument that there was a human problem in pushing these deportees across the border with the Bangladesh Rifles guards shooting them down ."
Seems the Bangli gov't is 'taking care of its own (not).'
Minister Louis Farrakhan, who recently ceded leadership of the Nation of Islam to an executive board because of ill health, has undergone a 12-hour operation, the organization said Saturday.
Physicians have told Farrakhan's family they were pleased with the operation's outcome but will monitor him closely for the next 24 to 48 hours, the Chicago-based group said in a statement.
No other details were released, and a man who answered the telephone at the office of Farrakhan's chief of staff declined to reveal the nature of the surgery or where it was performed.
Farrakhan, 73, wrote in a Sept. 11 letter to followers that he was anemic and 20 pounds lighter because of complications from an ulcer in the anal area. He had surgery in 2000 for prostate cancer.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/06/2007 17:48 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Assailants ambushed and shot dead a state legislator who was driving to a radio and television station for an interview in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, city officials said. 
