Why hasn't the government reconstituted NHRC even after seven months?
Govt must step in to ensure uninterrupted care, resolve ongoing standoff
Ordinance on freedom fighters creates confusion, controversy
Bobby Fischer, arguably the greatest chess master that ever lived, died on Thursday last at the age of 64, leaving behind not only a wealth of beautiful games but also many interesting episodes and incidents inseparably linked to his presence in chess tournaments. He loved the game so much that he developed an intense dislike, or even hatred, for the detractors (in his perception) of the royal game.
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It seems our destiny is intertwined with the political parties of the country. We shall go up if they perform well. We shall go down if they fail. We could not yet evolve a system where we could run the affairs of the state without the meddling of the burgeoning groups of corrupt people who go about flashing cards of various political parties.
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The US presidential election is still almost a year away. But the aspirants to be the country's forty-fourth president have already been in the race for more than a year. George Bush's two-term presidency has resulted in a total mess, with its inconclusive wars, chronic deficits and continuing erosion of America's lofty liberal values. Therefore, as the prospects of a Republican candidate entering the White House any time soon have significantly receded, attention, both at home and abroad, is now focused on two front-running Democrat candidates -- Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Houssein Obama.
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India is the world's latest quotation mark. Nepal has become a question mark, Sri Lanka an oversized exclamation mark; and Bangladesh is imprisoned between brackets, the space for leeway decreasing by the day. Pakistan is teetering towards a full stop. China has turned into yesterday's paragraph: still impressive, but with the contradictions becoming evident through cracks separating sentences.
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WE in Bangladesh have observed two strands of reaction to the question of terrorism. There are those who have always cried wolf at any mention of terrorism, to a point where they have ended up exaggerating or over-estimating the influence of religious extremism in the country. That has often created a rather sickening doomsday scenario. And then there is the other, equally lamentable truth, which is that influential quarters in the government have always been in denial mode on the terrorism question. One has only to go back to the JMB issue to know how resolutely the government of the day denied its presence, with consequences that were to be horrific. The point here is that we as a nation cannot afford to fall into the pitfalls created by either of the two assumptions above. In...
IF conflict between civilizations is replacing the ideological animosity that ended with the cold war then it becomes necessary to understand the term civilization, that Samuel Huntington described as basically a cultural entity, and that the most important conflicts in the future will occur along the cultural fault lines. The differences among civilizations are not only real but are also basic. Among these differences the most important is religion.
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"RS 1 lakh car drives 1 billion dreams," "Tata reinvents the wheel," screamed the headlines as the media rapturously welcomed Tata Motors' Nano amidst rousing music. The car has been called "revolutionary" and a "historic breakthrough" which makes "every Indian inches taller," and will trigger innovation in manufacturing technology the world over!
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BUSH ended his eight day Middle East trip a few days ago, sparking questions concerning various issues, particularly the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iran's nuclear capability. But the most significant part of his tour has been the resumed peace process between Israel and Palestine, which had remained dormant for more than seven years as it received very scant importance from the Bush administration. George Bush's visit to Ramallah gave the green signal for the Middle East peace process, as he called for an end to Israel's 41-year occupation of Palestinian lands and stated a commitment to forge a peace agreement before the end of his tenure in office. Bush said: "I believe its going to happen, that there's going to be a signed peace treaty by the time I leave office." He further...
The 10th day of Muharram is a day of mourning for the Muslims of the world. It is also a day of triumph.
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The concocted story and tailored image shown recently on London based television channel Bangla TV as that of Tarique Rahman being tortured on remand is but a vulgar attempt at maligning the government and the judicial system of the country not to mention the noble profession of journalism. The crudity of the whole episode speaks loudly of how low the perpetrators can stoop in their desperation to attain a political objective. It was devoid of truth and ethical standards that journalists must abide by in their professional work. The media world at home and abroad join hands to condemn the act with the strongest of words.
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