 
|
Obama fund raiser convicted of fraud: Scandal threatens US presidential race
AP, Chicago
A day after Barack Obama sealed the Democratic nomination for president, a corruption scandal involving a fundraiser who once bankrolled his campaign resurfaced to slightly dampen the festivities.
Chicago businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko, 52, was convicted Wednesday of fraud, money laundering and aiding and abetting bribery in a plot to squeeze illegal payoffs out of firms hoping to do business with the state.
Republicans are already capitalizing on Rezko's ties to Obama, even though the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is accused of no wrongdoing and his name was barely mentioned at trial.  |
Hasina’s bail prayer in Niko case rejected
UNB, Dhaka
A special court yesterday summarily rejected the bail prayer of detained former Prime Minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina in the Niko graft case.
Passing the order, Judge AK Roy said since the state of emergency is in place, there is no scope for entertaining the bail petition as the Emergency Power Rules (EPR) revokes the right to seek bail by an accused facing graft charges under the Corruption Prevention Act 1947.
Hasina filed the bail petition on June 1. |
BNP reunification a far cry: Delwar, Hannan Shah on collision course
Shahidul Islam
BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain has dissolved its powerful Dhaka city committee on Wednesday to weaken the rival reformist group of the party and his new challenger Brig Gen (retd) ASM Hannan Shah.
Party insiders said this yesterday adding that Khandaker Delwar's action consolidated his authority on the party machinery further.
"Like a season player, Khandaker Delwar dissolved the committee a day after his challenger BNP Chairperson's Advisory Council member Brig Gen (retd) ASM Hannan Shah publicly blamed him as the main obstacle to reunification of the party," one of the close aides of the BNP Secretary General said, adding that he had destroyed the prime fortress of reformist group at the same time. |
Anti-crime crackdown: 14,000 held so far
Staff Reporter
Over 14,000 people, including leaders and activists of mainstream political parties, have been arrested by law enforcing agencies following the anti-crime crackdown launched across the country on May 28.
A press release issued by the Police headquarters yesterday said 1,679 people were arrested in the past 24 hours.The law enforcers also recovered
17 firearms, nine hand bombs, five cocktails and 53 rounds of bullet during the period, it added.
Besides, 41 motorbikes were seized for not having valid documents and 365 cases were filed under the Motor Vehicle Act during the last 24 hours. |
Osman Gani, wife jailed: Property worth Tk 3.6cr, 270 tolas gold to be confiscated
UNB, Dhaka
Top forest-gobbler Osman Gani, caught for minting money out of country's forest resources, was yesterday sentenced to 12 years rigorous imprisonment for corruption.
A special court that deals with corruption cases under the current purge in the interim period, in it is judgment, also jailed his fugitive wife Mohsen Ara Gani for 3 years for aiding her husband in protecting his ill-gotten wealth.
The much-talked-about chief conservator of forests, who became an icon of the corrupt after a huge haul of money from his pillow and rice drum during his arrest, was convicted on two counts: amassing wealth illegally and concealing information about his fabulous assets. |
Package plan for city’s transportation: Mass transit for Dhaka city
UNB, Dhaka
As a package plan for improving the capital's transportation system was unveiled, Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed Thursday said the government is thinking about mass transit in the city so that huge people can move at a time smoothly.
He said though implementation of such mass- transport scheme is a matter of long time, but the decision should be taken now. He mentioned some options of mass transit, including underground train and human hauler.
The head of caretaker government made the remarks while inaugurating the under-implementation Airport Road-Rokeya Sarani (Agargaon-Mirpur-10) Link Road on the western side of Tejgaon Old Airport. |
|
|
Internet Edition. June 6, 2008, Updated: Bangladesh Time 12:00 AM 
