Awami League wins majority in Bangladesh polls

July 31st, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh Prime Minister and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina Friday removed four "reformists" from the party's presidium and inducted six new ministers in the government as part of sweeping changes. 'Reformists' are those who attempted intra-party reforms while Hasina was in jail on graft charges during 2007-08 and whose loyalty to her was doubtful, media reports said.

July 4th, 2009 DHAKA - The Bangladesh government is coming under increasing pressures from its own ministers and ruling Awami League lawmakers to hold urgent bilateral talks with India, which is planning to build a dam on the Barak river the two neighbours share, a media report here said Saturday. Pressures are mounting as the government prepares to send a delegation of parliamentarians and experts to visit the project site.

May 8th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina may expand her cabinet that has a majority of first-termers to add some old hands and political allies, a media report said. She also plans to activate the Awami League that has been beset with infighting since its massive poll victory in December.

March 23rd, 2009 DHAKA - The Bangladesh Government has banned people suspected of war crimes during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan from travelling abroad. It says these people, who are accused of collaborating with Pakistani troops, will face war crime trials.

March 22nd, 2009 DHAKA - The former deputy speaker of the Bangladesh parliament, Akhter Hamid Siddiqui, has been detained for 30 days for allegedly making a 'seditious remark'. During an outburst at a police station, Siddiqui is alleged to have told an officer that the present Awami League-led government would be 'ousted' in two months and that 'thousands of people would die' during the period, according to United News of Bangladesh (UNB) news agency.

February 11th, 2009 DHAKA - Veteran politician Zillur Rahman was sworn in as president Thursday, more than a month after Bangladesh returned to democracy after two years under a military-backed government. Chief Justice Ruhul Amin administered the oath to the country's 19th president at a ceremony in the presidential palace attended by ministers, lawmakers, military officials and members of the diplomatic corps.

January 23rd, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is unlikely to interfere in the steps initiated by the Election Commission against a cabinet minister and an MP for allegedly influencing local body polls. An 'annoyed' Hasina will not protect the minister and lawmaker 'for tainting the government's image by meddling in Thursday's upazila (sub-district council) elections', a media report said Saturday.

January 23rd, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed Saturday inducted six more junior ministers into her cabinet, raising the cabinet's strength to 38, officials said. President Iajuddin Ahmed administered the oath to the new state ministers at the presidential palace, Bangabhaban.

January 17th, 2009 DHAKA - Scores of students have been hurt in campus violence in three universities and several educational institutions across Bangladesh triggered by the political changes following last month's general election. Gunfights were reported by the media Sunday as violence that began in the Dhaka University spread to Chittagong and Jehangirnagar universities.

January 5th, 2009 DHAKA - Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of the nation's founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was sworn in as prime minister of Bangladesh for a second time Tuesday following her landslide win in last month's general election. She was premier previously 1996-2001.

January 3rd, 2009 DHAKA - India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee is scheduled to be here mid-January, among the first foreign dignitaries to visit Bangladesh after the new government led by Sheikh Hasina is sworn in next Tuesday. The outgoing caretaker government's Foreign Affairs Advisor Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury confirmed this, but said details of the visit would be worked out by the new government.

January 2nd, 2009 DHAKA - The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former premier Khaleda Zia Friday questioned the neutrality of international elections observers during Monday's polls, in which the party faced an embarrassing defeat. 'Their observations were never intensive; how could they (foreign observers) claim that the polls were free and fair without visiting majority of polling stations?' Khandaker Delwar Hossain, secretary general of the party, told reporters.

January 2nd, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh's Awami League Saturday elected its chief Sheikh Hasina as Leader of the House, paving the way for her to form a new government to run the South Asian nation for the next five years. President Iajuddin Ahmed is expected to appoint Hasina as next prime minister Tuesday.

December 30th, 2008 AGARTALA - Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar Wednesday expressed optimism that the new Bangladesh government led by the Awami League would help settle pending issues related to the northeast, including terrorism. 'We strongly believe that the Awami League government headed by Sheikh Hasina would resolve the northeast India's terrorism related problems and provide transit to transport men and materials between the northeast and the rest of the country via Bangladesh,' Sarkar told reporters here.

December 28th, 2008 DHAKA - Polling began peacefully across Bangladesh amidst toughest security Monday to elect the country's ninth parliament, election officials said. They said polls started at 8 a.m.