From: sahmed@occs.cs.oberlin.edu (Saif Ahmed)
Subject: Norway to grant Bangladesh 73.5 Million Crowns
Organization: Oberlin College Computer Science
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 01:38:49 GMT


From     :  Saif Ahmed
Date     : November 11-16, 1992
Country  :  Bangladesh 

Headlines:

* Private college to award degree next year in  Bangladesh
* Paramilitary force deployed in Myanmar refugee camps
* Bangladesh tea output up, prices down
* World bank policy towards  bangladesh  criticized
* Norway will grant Bangladesh 73.5 Million Crowns
* Poultry farmers protest Indian egg smuggling
* SAARC speakers, parliamentarians association launched

                              * * * * *

HEADLINE: private college to award degree next year in  Bangladesh

DATELINE: dhaka, november 11

   A private Bangladesh university will start functioning from next
January with degree awarding. The north-south university (nsu) is the
first one to get government approval as a degree awarding private
university in the country.  the American modeled nsu, designed as a
non-profit project, is being sponsored by eminent university teachers,
top businessmen and retired government officials, Muslehuddin Ahmed,
president of nsu, told a press conference here today.  Parliament in
August endorsed the private university bill, paving the way for
private initiative in the country's higher education.  Justifying the
need for private university in the country, ahmed said at the
conference that some 37,000 students go abroad for higher studies
every year while there are many bangladeshi teachers in western
universities who are willing to return home.  "our aim is to hold back
a section of these students and bring back these teachers in an effort
to reverse the process of brain drain," he said.

HEADLINE: paramilitary force deployed in myanmar refugee camps

DATELINE: Dhaka, november 11; 


    Bangladesh authorities reinforced security with paramilitary
bangladesh rifles (bdr) deployed in myanmar refugee camps, where eight
people were killed monday, to ward off possible re-eruption of
violence.  A senior police official in cox's bazar told the united
news of bangladesh (a private news agency) today that they had also
stepped up their hunt for the armed myanmar refugees

DATELINE: DHAKA, Nov 12

 BODY:
   Bangladeshi soldiers deployed on Thursday at all 19 camps housing
300,000 Burmese Moslem refugees, barring outsiders from entering while
they searched for suspected guerrillas.

   Witnesses said soldiers and police continued their hunt for rebels,
whom the government blames for inciting Monday's clashes at two
refugee camps.


HEADLINE: Bangladesh tea output up, prices down

DATELINE: dhaka, november 15

   Tea production in bangladesh this year was reportedly to reach 48
million kg, surpassing the past record of 46 million kg, but tea
prices showed a declining trend, a press release from the chamber of
commerce said today.  the climate this year was very favorable for tea
production, and, at the same time, development work in the tea gardens
carried out in the past have started showing good results.  on the
other hand, the average price of tea this year was about 44.38 taka
(1.1 u.s. dollars) per kg, against the 1991-92 price of 52.85 taka
(1.32 u.s . dollars).  up to september, the country exported only
376,000 kg of tea as against 2 million kg during the same period last
year. the tea producers feel that the country will not be able to rear
the fruits of the recorded yield and that the export earnings from the
sector may drop from last year's.  concerned by the trend, the
government has already formed a committee on tea to review the
situation and work out strategies to overcome the difficulties.
tapping of new markets and boosting of the existing ones have also
been planned.  earlier reports said the slump in the tea market
started with the financial crisis in russia and other east european
countries.  the abolition of the barter system of trade has specially
slowed down tea export to russia, a traditional buyer of bangladesh
tea.  tea exporters demanded that a credit line with russia and east
european countries be set up immediately to overcome this sluggishness
in tea trade.

HEADLINE: world bank policy towards  bangladesh  criticized

DATELINE: dhaka, november 15

    Bangladesh politicians, entrepreneurs, intellectuals, social
workers and students strongly criticized the world bank's policy
towards their country on the eve of arrival of the world bank chief in
the country.  at a seminar on "world bank and bangladesh" held here
saturday, speakers termed the world bank as an "imperialist agency",
and it was politically influencing the government

HEADLINE: NORWAY WILL GRANT BANGLADESH 73.5 MILLION CROWNS

DATELINE: DHAKA, NOV 15

   Norway will grant Bangladesh 73.5 million crowns under two
agreements signed here on Sunday, finance ministry officials said.

   They said the money would be used to finance primary education and
railway tele-communications. No details were available.


HEADLINE: POULTRY FARMERS PROTEST INDIAN EGG SMUGGLING

DATELINE: DHAKA, Nov 15

   Bangladeshi poultry farmers took to smashing eggs on the streets of
Dhaka this weekend in protest against the free flow of cheaper Indian
eggs on to the local market, witnesses said on Sunday.

   ''Ban the import of Indian eggs here and now,'' chanted the
protesters, mostly from Dhaka and its suburbs, trying to whisk up
public support during their protest on Saturday.

   Market sources say more than 50 per cent of eggs available in
Bangladesh are smuggled in from India, especially from West Begal,
forcing local producers to lower prices sharply.

   Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia told a rally in northern
Lalmonirhat district on Saturday her government was considering
measures to curb the flow of Indian eggs. She gave no details.

   Traders say many Indian goods have recently been flooding markets
in Bangladesh, including the capital.

   ''Anything you buy from a cabbage to fine rice or sugar are perhaps
Indian,'' one said. ''It looks as though no border exists between
Bangladesh and West Bengal.''

   But customers are generally happy with the current market forces.
''Normally Indian goods are of better quality and are cheaper,'' one
said.

HEADLINE: saarc speakers, parliamentarians association launched

DATELINE: kathmandu, November 16

   Parliament speakers of the south asian association for regional
cooperation (saarc) have formally launched the association of saarc
speakers and parliamentarians.  at a function held in the nepalese
parliament house today, speakers from bangladesh, bhutan, india,
maldives, nepal, pakistan and sri lanka signed the charter of the
association.  the association, whose formation was decided at a
conference held in colombo last june, will work to strengthen
people-to-people contact with a view to achieving mutual
understanding, trust and friendship among the peoples of the saarc
countries, according to the charter.  it will also promote contact,
coordinate and exchange experience among parliaments and
parliamentarians of the countries.  nepal's king birendra met the
speakers at his palace today.

HEADLINE: saarc speakers, parliamentarians association launched

DATELINE: kathmandu, november 16

   Parliament speakers of the south asian association for regional
cooperation (saarc) have formally launched the association of saarc
speakers and parliamentarians.  at a function held in the nepalese
parliament house today, speakers from bangladesh, bhutan, india,
maldives, nepal, pakistan and sri lanka signed the charter of the
association.  the association, whose formation was decided at a
conference held in colombo last june, will work to strengthen
people-to-people contact with a view to achieving mutual
understanding, trust and friendship among the peoples of the saarc
countries, according to the charter.  it will also promote contact,
coordinate and exchange experience among parliaments and
parliamentarians of the countries.  nepal's king birendra met the
speakers at his palace today.

   One man was killed and 10 were injured when members of the small
Ohabi Islamic sect opened fire on a procession of Sunni Moslems in the
Bangladesh port of Chittagong, police said on Thursday.

   The attack on Wednesday followed ''derogatory'' remarks made about
the Ohabis at a Sunni rally a few days earlier, one police officer
told reporters.

   More than 90 per cent of Bangladeshi Moslems are Sunnis, the
largest sect in Islam.

   Last week unidentified attackers burned down several homes
belonging to members of a third Moslem sect, the Qadianis, in the
Bangladesh capital and damaged a mosque, police said.

   The fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party had earlier asked the
government to declare the Qadianis non-Moslem.

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Newsgroups: misc.news.southasia