Monthly archive

Kosh Raj Koirala – Asian Tribune Correspondent in Nepal

Keeping in view of bringing all children to schools, Nepal Government has started a three-week long school enrollment campaign starting Wednesday. The government has set a slogan—Hopes of New Nepal, Free of cost, qualitative and inclusive education to all—to make the nationwide enrollment campaign started in new academic session a success. Officials at Department of Education (DoE) said they have directed all regional and district education offices to form a separate committee comprising representatives of guardians to effectively organize the campaign.

M.A. Kader-Asian Tribune Correspondent in Bangladesh

Bangladesh Upazila Parishad (Council), a tier of local government chairmen on Wednesday warned to declare local Member s of Parliament (MPs) "persona non grata" if the chairmen’s authority is not restored to the local councils in line with a 2008 ordinance passed by the past caretaker government. The chairmen, who were elected in direction election, at a press conference in Dhaka yesterday demanded cancellation of the much-debated Upazila Parishad Act 2009, passed by the parliament on April 6, which restored powers of MPs over the councils and made it mandatory for chairmen to accept MP recommendations as ex-officio advisers to the country's 481 upazila parishad.

By Farzana Shah Asian Tribune Correspondent in Pakistan

16 people including 10 police men were killed in a suicide attack on a check post in Charsadda NWFP. Attack took place at Harichand check post in Tangi area of Charsadda in which a police inspector Jahangir Khan and DSP Buhadar got killed along with other 13 people and one suicide bomber. According to report inspector Jhangir was on hit list of terrorists as he foiled an attempt of suicide bomb on public meeting of Skhinder Sher Pao, son of former interior minister Aftab Sher Pao, last month by shooting down suicide bomber before he could detonate his explosive belt.

M.A. Kader-Asian Tribune Correspondent in Bangladesh

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will announce a 'combined financial package' for recession-hit sectors before she tours Saudi Arabia on April 22, the finance minister AMA Muhith said Wednesday. "The special package is almost at the final stages. It will be announced before Sheikh Hasina's Saudi tour," finance minister told reporters after a meeting with the representatives of the Association of Development Agencies Bangladesh (ADAB) at the Secretariat. While the commerce minister Faruk Khan hinted that the bailout package could be worth Tk 2500-3000 crore (one crore= BDT 10 million).

By Wajid Ali Syed - Washington Correspondent

US soldiers could remain in Mosul, Iraq, past June 30 - when Iraqi forces are scheduled to assume full security responsibilities for the entire country, said Army Col. Gary Volesky, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division's 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, in a video news conference from Iraq. He, however, said that the Iraqi government will make that determination. "We are conducting an assessment right now with our Iraqi counterparts to determine what the way ahead is for security in Mosul," Col. Volesky said. "If the Iraqi government believes we should stay in Mosul to continue the security progress, we'll support our Iraqi counterparts past 30 June."

At the end of a two-day humanitarian pause in Sri Lanka’s military offensive against separatist rebel Tamil forces, the head United Nations humanitarian official said the ceasefire was inadequate in easing the plight of more than 100,000 civilians caught up in the conflict. "It’s clear that 48 hours was not long enough to allow us to get in significant amounts of aid, or indeed to allow visits by humanitarian workers to the area," Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes told reporters in New York, warning of the possibility of a “blood bath” on the beaches of the South Asian island nation. "Unfortunately, it is also clear that not only did this not allow more civilians to get out, there seemed to be less civilians getting out during the pause than before."

By Asif Haroon Raja

One of the most read English newspaper of Pakistan, "The News", controlled from Karachi projects mainly the views of liberals and so-called enlightened moderates. The bearded Muzaffar Iqbal is one of the lucky ones to find space in this prestigious paper. Articles of Masooda Bano are published under sub-heading ‘dissenting note’. Writers like me who at times show mirror to the liberal brigade cannot think of getting even one article published particularly after Omar Qureshi took over the charge of editorial wing in mid-2006.