Hasina nominated for Indira Gandhi Gold Plaque

Sheikh HasinaStar Online Report

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been nominated for this year's Indira Gandhi Gold Plaque as she had significant contribution to human development.
The prime minister of Bangladesh was also nominated for the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2009.
The Asiatic Society of Kolkata awards the “Indira Gandhi Gold Plaque” annually to an eminent person of international repute for significant contribution to international understanding or inter-cultural cooperation or for significant contribution towards human progress.
Outgoing Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty during his farewell call on the prime minister at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) handed over a letter of the Asiatic Society to her in this regard on Sunday.
The letter reads: “The Council of the Asiatic Society in its meeting decided, unanimously, to confer the Indira Gandhi Gold Plaque 2009 on Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh.”
Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela were awarded with the plaque respectively in 1987 and 1989. Other recipients of the plaque included Dr Javier Pervez de Cuellar, 1988, Rev Desmond Titu, 1990, Yasir Araft, 1993, Aung San Suu Kyi, 1995, Dr Gabriel Garcia, 1998, Gunter Grass, 1999, Fidel Castro, 2000, Ernst Steinkellner, 2006, Pranab Mukherjee, 2008, Dinkar Kowshik, 2007, Somnath Hore, 2004, Ustad Bismillah Khan, 2003, Pandit Ravi Shankar, 2001, and Prof Amartya Sen, 1994.
The prime minister and the Indian high commissioner discussed various matters of national, regional and international development, Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad told reporters after the meeting.

Mymensingh, Netrakona road crashes kill 7

Mymensingh, Netrakona road crashes kill 7

At least seven people were killed and 32 others injured in three road accidents in Mymensingh and Netrakona Sunday afternoon.
Five people were killed and 12 others injured as a bus crashed into a human hauler (Laguna) on Dhaka-Mymensingh highway at Jamtala in Mymensingh Sadar upazila Sunday afternoon, reports UNB.
Three of the deceased were identified as Rubel, 25, son of late Abdul Kadir and Dulal, 40, son of late Muslem Uddin of Digarkanda in Sadar upazila and Abdul Hye, 45, son of late Hatem Ali of Radhakanai village in Phulbaria Upazila in the district.
Police said a Jamalpur-bound passenger bus coming from Dhaka hit the hauler coming from the opposite direction at about 12:30pm leaving four people dead on the spot and 13 others injured.
Nine of the injured were admitted to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital (MMCH) where an unidentified person succumbed to his injuries.
Police seized the bus but failed to arrest its driver.
In Netrokona, one person was killed and 20 others injured when a bus skidded off the road and fell into a paddy field at Gumai under Kalmakanda upazila around 9:00am.
The deceased was identified as Kasur Ali, 54, of Rahamatpur village under Kalmakanda upazila.
Four of the injured were taken to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital in critical condition.
In another accident, a trolley driver named Eklash Mia was killed in Gugbazar after his trolley fell into a ditch around 11:00am.

Govt set to import palm oil from Malaysia

A worker loads an oil tanker with crude palm oil. Photo: InternetStar Online Report

Bangladesh for the first time in the government-level is going to sign an agreement with Malaysia to import palm oil aiming to keep stable the local edible oil market, Commerce Minister Faruk Khan said on Sunday.
The agreement is expected to sign in the next week between the state-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) and Malaysian government.
The commerce minister revealed this in a meeting with Malaysian Plantation, Industry and Commodities Minister Bernard G Dompok at the secretary office without mentioning the quantity of the palm oil to be imported

Nearly 1,000 climate protesters released

Demonstrators gather outside Bella Center, the venue of the Climate Conference, on December 12, 2009. The UN climate change conference is underway in Copenhagen to way out how the world will be protected from global warming. Photo: APAP, Copenhagen

Danish police said they have released hundreds of activists who were detained during a mass rally to demand an ambitious global climate pact.
Police also said only 13 of the 968 people detained during the demonstration in Copenhagen remain in custody Sunday. Of those, three — two Danes and a Frenchman — are set to be arraigned in court on preliminary charges of fighting with police.
An estimated 40,000 people joined Saturday's mostly peaceful march toward the suburban conference center where the 192-nation U.N. climate conference is being held.
Riot police detained activists at the tail end of the demonstration, when some of them started vandalizing buildings in downtown Copenhagen.