Tag Archives: president

MNA International Desk: Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has appointed the country’s first prime minister in more than 40 years – the tourism minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz. The post of prime minister was scrapped in 1976 by the then revolutionary leader Fidel Castro. It was reinstated under the rules of a new constitution for the communist-run island passed earlier this year. Mr Marrero, 56, will take on some of the responsibilities that currently fall to the president, reports BBC. “The head of government will be the administrative right hand of the president of the republic,” state-run online news outlet Cubadebate said. ...

MNA Business Desk: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced on Monday that its Board of Governors has “unanimously elected” Masatsugu Asakawa as ADB president. Asakawa, 61, currently special advisor to Japan’s prime minister and minister of finance, will assume office as ADB’s 10th president on Jan 17, 2020. He will succeed Takehiko Nakao, who will leave office on Jan 16, 2020. Asakawa will finish the unexpired term of Nakao, which ends on Nov 23, 2021, reports Xinhua. “Asakawa’s extensive and diverse experience in international finance and development will serve ADB well in pursuing its vision of a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, ...

MNA International Desk: A criminal court of the Maldives found former president Abdulla Yameen guilty of money laundering on Thursday and sentenced him to five years in prison, the judge said. Yameen, who drew the Indian Ocean island country closer to China during his tenure, was accused of receiving $1.0 million of government money through a private company as part of a deal to lease a number of tropical islands for hotel development, reports Reuters. The court also slapped a fine of $5.0 million on Yameen, who is under arrest, Judge Ali Rasheed said. A lawyer for Yameen said he ...

MNA National Desk: President of the Marshall Islands Hilda C Heine on Thursday phoned Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and exchanged pleasantries. Hilda Heine made the phone call to the Prime Minister at noon and exchanged greetings, said PM’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim, reports UNB. He said Hilda Heine wished continued peace, progress and prosperity of the people of Bangladesh. The Prime Minister also wished peace, progress and prosperity of the people of the Marshall Islands, the press secretary said.

MNA International Desk: Bolivian opposition senator Jeanine Áñez has declared herself interim president of the South American country following Evo Morales’ resignation. Lawmakers from Mr Morales’ party boycotted the session, meaning there was no quorum for the appointment. But Ms Áñez said she was next in line under the constitution and vowed to hold elections soon. Mr Morales condemned the announcement, describing Ms Áñez as “a coup-mongering right-wing senator”. The former president has fled to Mexico, saying he asked for asylum there because his life was in danger. He resigned on Sunday after weeks of protests over a disputed presidential ...

MNA International Desk: Bolivian President Evo Morales said on Sunday (local time) he was resigning to ease violence that has gripped the South American nation since a disputed election, but he stoked fears of more unrest by saying he was the victim of a “coup” and faced arrest. Video footage showed clashes on the streets of La Paz and some buildings on fire Sunday night after the military called on Morales to step down and allies deserted him following weeks of protests since the October 20 election. Morales, in power for nearly 14 years, said in televised comments earlier that ...

MNA National Desk: President Abdul Hamid reached Tokyo on Monday on an eight-day official visit to Japan and Singapore. During his stay, he will attend the enthronement ceremony of the new Japanese emperor on Tuesday, his Press Secretary Md Joynal Abedin told UNB. A regular flight of Singapore Airlines carrying the President and his entourage took off from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) for Singapore at 1:35pm on Sunday and landed on Monday at 6:30am (Local time). The flight also landed at Singapore Changi International Airport at 7:30pm local time on Sunday en route to Japan. Bangladesh Ambassador to Japan ...

MNA National Desk: President M Abdul Hamid has asked all concerned to implement development projects maintaining quality and standard. The head of the State came up with the statement while witnessing the progress of different ongoing development projects, including the Itna-Mithamain-Astagram road, in Kishoreganj on Saturday afternoon. “Ensure quality work of development projects . . . The concerned institution or person must become liable, if any negligence is found in the work,” he cautioned, terming the under-construction the Itna-Mithamain- Astagram road is a visible development initiative of the incumbent government. The President directed the authorities concerned to complete the under-construction ...

MNA International Desk: Jacques Chirac, the former French president whose later years were blighted by corruption scandals, has died aged 86. Mr Chirac served two terms as French president and took his country into the single European currency, reports BBC. One of his major political reforms was to cut the presidential term of office from seven to five years. He was seen as the focus of opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

MNA Editorial Desk: Jatiya Party Chairman and ex-president Hussain Muhammad Ershad was finally laid to eternal rest on Tuesday at Polli Nibash in his hometown Rangpur. The former military strongman who ruled the country for nine years was buried at the grave dug by his party followers at the Litchi Orchard of his Polli Nibash around 5:53 pm as Jatiya Party was forced to revise its decision of burying him at Military Graveyard in the capital due to rigid stance of party followers in Rangpur. Huge army personnel took position around the prepared grave before the burial to maintain discipline ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad, who has died today (Sunday) at the age of 90 after having been on life support for the last 10 days, will be laid to eternal rest at the army graveyard in Dhaka city on Tuesday. The burial will follow four funeral prayers in Dhaka and Rangpur, the former military dictator’s hometown. The first namaz-e-janaza for Ershad was held at the Army Central Mosque in Dhaka on Sunday after Zuhr prayers. Later, his mortal remains will be kept at the CMH mortuary for the night. His second namaz-e-janaza will be held at ...

MNA International Desk: Indian politician Rahul Gandhi has said he is no longer Congress president and the party’s working committee should meet immediately to decide on his successor. “Party [Congress] should decide on the new president quickly without further delay. I am nowhere in this process. I have already submitted my resignation and I am no longer the party president,” Rahul Gandhi told reporters in the Parliament on Wednesday, reports India Today. “It is an honour for me to serve the Congress party, whose values and ideals have served as the lifeblood of our beautiful nation. I owe the country ...

MNA International Desk: Former Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi, the first democratically elected head of state in Egypt’s modern history, died on Monday aged 67 after collapsing in a Cairo court while on trial on espionage charges, authorities said. Mursi, a top figure in the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood, had been in jail since being toppled by the military in 2013 after barely a year in power following mass protests against his rule. The public prosecutor said he had collapsed in a defendants’ cage in the courtroom shortly after speaking, and had been pronounced dead in hospital at 4:50 pm (1450 GMT). ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Stressing the importance of a peaceful solution to Rohingya crisis, President Abdul Hamid on Saturday sought support and cooperation from CICA partners so that the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals can return to their homeland with safety, security and dignity. “We seek a peaceful solution to the crisis and signed instruments on repatriation with Myanmar. If left unresolved, the crisis can destabilise the entire region,“ he said. The President said this while addressing the 5th Summit of Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) held at Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. “The world knows Bangladesh ...

MNA National Desk: President M Abdul Hamid will leave Dhaka for Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on a seven-day official visit tomorrow (Thursday). “During his seven-day visit to the central Asian nations, the President will attend the fifth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) at Tajik capital Dushanbe . . . He will also start his visit to Uzbekistan on June 16,” President Press Secretary Joynal Abedin told BSS. He said a VVIP flight (BG-1516 ) of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying the President and his entourage members, including his spouse Rashida Khanam and officials concerned ...

MNA International Desk: Law enforcers of Pakistan have arrested Asif Ali Zardari, a former president of the country and co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), from his residence in Islamabad on Monday. A 15-member team of Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB), accompanied by police personnel, arrested Zardari after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) rejected an application seeking extension in the pre-arrest bails of him and his sister Faryal Talpur in the fake accounts case. A number of party workers and Zardari’s children Bilawal and Aseefa saw him off as the former president was driven away in a black Landcruiser. ...

MNA International Desk: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has asked the police chief and defense secretary to quit following recent series of bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels that killed 359 people. Two sources close to Sri Lankan president revealed the information on Wednesday. The sources declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter amid accusations within the government of intelligence failures ahead of the attacks. Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has asked the police chief and defense secretary to quit following the Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels that killed 359 ...

MNA International Desk: Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was forced to step down by the military on Thursday, after three decades of autocratic power, and moves were under way to form a transitional council to run the country, Sudanese sources said. Government sources and the minister of production and economic resources in North Darfur, Adel Mahjoub Hussein, told Dubai-based al-Hadath TV that Bashir had stepped down and consultations were taking place to form a ruling military council, reports Reuters. Sudanese sources told Reuters Bashir, 75, was deposed by the army and was at the presidential residence under “heavy guard”. The military ...

MNA National Desk: President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday morning paid rich tributes to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on the occasion of the 100th birthday of the great leader. The President and the Premier paid their homage by placing wreaths at the mazar (mausoleum) of Bangabandhu in Tungipara. President Abdul Hamid first laid a wreath at the mazar of Bangabandhu followed by the Prime Minister. After placing the wreaths, they stood in solemn silence for some time as a mark of profound respect to the memory of Father of the Nation ...

MNA Feature Desk: Abraham Lincoln did not live to observe his 65th birthday on Feb. 12, 1874. He had been assassinated nine years earlier, on April 14, 1865. But, on that day in 1874, the nation’s first public celebration of the 16th President’s birthday was held in St. James Hall in Buffalo, organized and funded by drugstore owner — and Lincoln aficionado — Julius E. Francis. The 145th anniversary of the first Buffalo celebration, held near the 210th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, drew more than 50 people and some 30 Civil War era re-enactors to the Buffalo History Museum for ...

MNA National Desk: Asking police force to ensure harassment-free services, President Abdul Hamid on Wednesday advised them to work cordially with utmost devotion. “Ensure harassment-free services to the people . . . Give topmost priority to necessary legal aids and advises for service-seekers,” the president told a function at Bangabhaban on the occasion of Police Week -2019. The head of the state hoped that the police being imbued with patriotism, honesty and devotion would serve the country and its people, reports BSS. UNB adds: The President said, “One of the key elements of good governance for the development and progress ...

MNA International Desk: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro proposed early parliamentary elections on Saturday, seeking to shore up his crumbling rule after a senior general defected to the opposition and tens of thousands thronged the streets in protest at his government. As domestic and international pressure on Maduro to step down mounts, a senior air force general disavowed him in a video that circulated earlier on Saturday, expressing his allegiance to parliament head and self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido. The military’s support is crucial for Maduro, who is deeply unpopular, largely due to an unprecedented economic crisis that has prompted an ...

MNA Editorial Desk: President M Abdul Hamid has said the Bangalee nation needs to forge an unwavering unity to build exploitation-free “Sonar Bangla” by uprooting terrorism, militancy, drug abuse and corruption from the society. “I urge upon all, irrespective of political affiliations, religion, caste, and creed to accelerate the ongoing democratic process and socioeconomic development of the country,” the President said while addressing the first session of the 11th Parliament with Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair on Wednesday. Leader of the House Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Opposition’s Deputy Leader GM Quader and lawmakers of both treasury ...

MNA Editorial Desk: World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim unexpectedly resigned on Monday, more than three years before his term ends in 2022, amid differences with the Trump administration over climate change and the need for more development resources. Kim, appointed twice by former US President Barack Obama for five-year terms, had pushed financing for green energy projects and largely dropped support for coal power investments, but had avoided public clashes with the Trump administration, which has made reviving the US coal sector a priority. Just last month, the World Bank announced it would double its investments to fight ...

MNA National Desk: President Abdul Hamid has assented to the much-talked- about Digital Security Bill passed in the 22nd session of the current parliament, making it a law. The 22nd session of the 10th parliament, which was prorogued on September 20, passed a total of 18 bills, including the Digital Security Bill 2018 and Road Transport Bill 2018, reported news agency. Amid concerns from different quarters, the ‘Digital Security Bill, 2018’ was passed in Parliament on September 19 to deal with cybercrimes, including hurting the religious sentiment, negative propaganda against the Liberation War and Bangabandhu, and illegal activities in e-transactions ...

MNA International Desk: Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan was proclaimed the winner early Monday of a landmark election that ushers in a government system granting the president sweeping new powers and which critics say will cement what they call a one-man rule, reported news agency. The presidential vote and a parliamentary election, both held more than a year early, completed NATO-member Turkey’s transition from a parliamentary system to a presidential one, a process started with a voter referendum last year. “The nation has entrusted to me the responsibility of the presidency and the executive duty,” Erdogan said in televised remarks ...

MNA International Desk: South Korean President Moon Jae-In said on Thursday the world had escaped the threat of war after this week’s Singapore summit, echoing US President Donald Trump’s upbeat assessment of his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump and Kim issued a joint statement after their historic meeting that reaffirmed the North’s commitment to “work toward complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula”, an end to joint US-South Korean military exercises and gave US guarantees of security to North Korea. “There have been many analyses on the outcome of the summit but I think what’s most important ...