Hasina wants white paper on corruption during Zia’s term

September 24th, 2009 DHAKA - US President Barack Obama has accepted an invitation by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to visit Bangladesh, media reports said Thursday. Seated next to Obama at a working dinner hosted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Hasina spoke on Bangladesh's woes in an era of climate change.

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 28th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, her sister Rehana and their children will get Special Security Force (SSF) protection in view of threats to their lives as per an executive order. Hasina Monday chaired a cabinet meeting that approved the 'Father of the Nation's Family Members' Security Bill 2009' with immediate effect "to ensure lifelong and foolproof security", New Age newspaper reported Tuesday.

July 28th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, her sister Rehana and their children will get Special Security Force (SSF) protection in view of threats to their lives, as per an executive order. Hasina Monday chaired a cabinet meeting that approved the Father of the Nation's Family Members' Security Bill 2009 with immediate effect "to ensure lifelong and foolproof security", New Age newspaper reported Tuesday.

July 19th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called for political unity to be able to "bargain better with India" over the contentious Tipaimukh dam issue between the South Asian neighbours. "Tipaimukh issue is a national problem.

July 11th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday said the country was awaiting the white paper promised by Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee on the railways' performance in the last five years. Banerjee told parliament July 3 that she would come out with a white paper on the actual performance of the railways in the past five years when Lalu Prasad headed the ministry.

May 11th, 2009 DHAKA - While Bangladesh's courts hear the government recommendation that 11 cases against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina be dropped, a senior law officer Monday began scrutiny of documents relating to 20 graft cases against opposition leader Khaleda Zia and her family. The cases were instituted by the military-backed caretaker government that ruled the country 2007-08.

May 2nd, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh's mainstream opposition leader Khaleda Zia Saturday asked her arch political rival Sheikh Hasina's four-month-old government to quit over failure in 'curbing terrorism and easing the power and water crisis'. 'Relinquish power as there is still time, don't compel the people to drive you away.

April 22nd, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has demanded that the Sheikh Hasina government secure a court order before enforcing a notice to evict their chief and former prime minister Khaleda Zia from her Dhaka cantonment residence. One of Zia's aides demanded that the government secure a court order before evicting her from her residence for which a 15 day notice was served last Sunday.

March 26th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh plans to train 10,000 programmers a year by introducing compulsory IT education at the high school level by 2013 and for primary students by 2021, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced. The present capacity is 2,500 IT programmers annually.

February 26th, 2009 DHAKA - Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in an address to the nation Thursday afternoon, asked the mutinous Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) troopers to lay down their arms and warned that she would take 'strong action if compelled to do so'. Hasina, in the address at about 2.30 p.m., said she had granted general amnesty to the rebels and assured them that they would not be harmed in any way if they give up their 'suicidal' mission.

January 14th, 2009 DHAKA - The US has said that Bangladesh may get the bribe money allegedly paid by a telecom giant to former prime minister Khaleda Zia's younger son, but 'only if the verdict in the case filed by the US justice department goes in its favour', a media report said. Zia's son Arafat Rahman Koko is alleged to have stashed the money in bank accounts in Singapore, where he is convalescing in a hospital.

January 7th, 2009 DHAKA - The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by former prime minister Khaleda Zia has decided to take oath and join the first session of the country's ninth parliament for the 'sake of democracy'. The decision to move on after the poll debacle of last week was taken late Wednesday.

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 - Bangladesh's Awami League (AL), which is poised to form a new government, named Zillur Rahman as the country's next president, media reports said Sunday, quoting party chief Sheikh Hasina. 'The party will nominate its presidium member Zillur Rahman as head of the state,' Hasina said after her party's newly elected legislators took the oath of office, Ittefaq newspaper reported.