Haque Specialized Group's News

Top politician and Awami League MP Suranjit Sengupta, nearly six decades of whose illustrious career crashed in a sack-of-cash debacle, is dead. The 77-year old former minister had been on life support at Labaid Hospital in Dhaka, reports bdnews24.com. The eloquent parliamentarian and witty public speaker was declared dead at 4:10am, the hospital’s Chief Operating Officer Al Emran Chowdhury told the bdnews24.com on Sunday morning. The Awami League Advisory Council member, who has been suffering from a kind of cancer, was taken to the hospital's Coronary Care Unit at 8:00pm on Saturday. His family had been preparing to take him to Singapore in a last-ditch attempt to save his life as his health began to fail him. But the  family, quoting doctors, told bdnews24.com that the condition of the veteran politician did not allow them to take him abroad. The Hindu minority leader was put on life support around 12:30am. An MP from north-eastern Sunamganj district, he was the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry. He began his political career as a left ideologue during the pre-independence troubled times of the 60s of the last century. But later he joined the Awami League. He has been an MP in all parliaments since Bangladesh’s birth. He was Awami League President Sheikh Hasina's parliamentary affairs adviser in 1996. He became the railways minister when the Awami League returned to power in 2008. But he resigned after five months after finding himself embroiled in a bribery scam. Hasina retained him as a minister without portfolio. He studied at Dhaka University and started his career as a lawyer after obtaining LLB degree from Central Law College. He was a member of the Supreme Court Bar Council.....

Published at: 2017-02-05 00:00:07

The United States has suspended President Donald Trump's controversial ban on travelers from seven Muslim countries, following a court ruling that blocked its enforcement. "We have reversed the provisional revocation of visas," a US State Department spokesman was quoted by US news agencies and private television stations as saying on Saturday.   ....

Published at: 2017-02-05 00:00:07

Germany's influential weekly news magazine Der Spiegel has come under fire for a cover image showing US President Donald Trump beheading the Statue of Liberty. Some German newspapers criticised the cartoon, while the German vice-president of the European Parliament called it "tasteless". The cartoonist, Edel Rodriguez, said the image represented "the beheading of democracy". US-German relations have deteriorated under President Trump, who has criticised the policies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He said last month that her policy of welcoming masses of migrants who arrived in Germany had been a "catastrophic mistake".  His trade adviser also recently attacked Germany for gaining unfair trade advantages from a "grossly undervalued" euro. The front cover image is similar to one that appeared on the front page of the New York Daily News in December 2015, also showing Mr Trump beheading the Statue of Liberty but in a less gory fashion. Mass-market tabloid Bild, which has the Jihadi John headline, says that Der Spiegel has been accused of anti-Americanism in the past. "Then [during the George W Bush presidency] it was often American interventionism that Spiegel was criticising, while with Trump it is the end of interventionism that Spiegel is criticising," it says. "The Spiegel cover is exactly what Trump needs - a distorted image of him that he can make use of for his own distorted image of the press," writes the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung broadsheet. It says the cover lacks a sense of irony and that equating Mr Trump and terrorism is too simple. Die Welt, another broadsheet, says that the cover "damages journalism" rather than the new president "because it confirms many people's preconception that the 'mainstream media' does biased reporting and that many journalists prefer to promote their own worldview than be neutral witnesses to what is happening." Mr Rodriguez, who arrived in the US as a political refugee from Cuba in 1980 told the Washington Post that he wanted to make a comparison between the Islamic State and Donald Trump, saying "both sides are extremists". Der Spiegel editor Klaus Brinkbaumer wrote in an editorial that Mr Trump was "attempting a coup from the top" and wanted to "establish an illiberal democracy". The White House has accused liberal media groups of false and irresponsible reporting designed to smear President Trump and the new administration. Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, a member of the Germany's Free Democrats and vice-president of the European Parliament, said the cover said more about Der Spiegel journalists than Mr Trump. "The cover plays on the lives of terror victims in a very nasty way," he told Bild. Several other magazines are using the front covers of their next editions to comment on the US president and his policies. Bloomberg Businessweek shows Mr Trump holding an executive order, which says: "(Insert hastily drafted, legally dubious, economically destabilising executive order here)." British weekly The Economist, which has endorsed both Republican and Democratic presidents, pictures President Trump throwing a molotov cocktail. The New Yorker, a liberal magazine which endorsed Hillary Clinton, shows the Statue of Liberty's flame extinguished. The conservative National Review's cover story defends nationalism, which it says critics of Mr Trump's inauguration speech wrongly see as dangerous.  ....

Published at: 2017-02-05 00:00:07

The President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday said he is scrapping peace talks with communist rebels due to take place later this month. Duterte said he is abandoning discussions in Norway with the New People's Army (NPA) and is instructing his negotiators to return home, reports BBC. He said that demands by communist rebels for the release of 400 prisoners were excessive. The news follows the end of a six-month ceasefire between the two sides. "I'm not ready to resume [peace talks]," Duterte said, adding that he would "request the Philippine contingent to fold their tents and to come home". "I tried everything," he added. "I walked the extra mile, released prisoners, released their leaders so they can go to Oslo to talk." Elusive deal Duterte said that the communist leaders who his government had freed temporarily to take part in the peace negotiations overseas now faced returning to jail. Talks in Italy last week aimed at negotiating a truce failed when the rebels demanded the release of 400 more political prisoners, including a man who killed an American army colonel in 1989. The six-month ceasefire between the two sides broke down in recent days following renewed fighting. Previous ceasefires have also been marred by the killings of soldiers and rebels. Since he took office last year, Duterte has tried to revive the peace process and has already held two rounds of formal discussions with the rebels. The conflict, which began nearly 50 years ago with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the NPA, its armed wing, has claimed an estimated 30,000 lives. The rebels, who say they will not give up arms even if a deal is reached, have accused the country's military of using Duterte's drug war as a pretext to mount operations in rebel areas amid ceasefires. They strongly oppose the US military presence in the Philippines and have in the past killed American service personnel stationed in the country. Since the 1980s they have entered into talks with successive governments, but a peace deal has remained elusive.....

Published at: 2017-02-05 00:00:07

Barcelona moved to within one point of Real Madrid at the top of La Liga with victory over Athletic Bilbao on Saturday, reports BBC. Paco Alcacer scored his first La Liga goal for Barcelona on a rare start, with Luis Suarez rested, when he turned home Neymar's cross from 10 yards. Lionel Messi doubled the lead when he beat Athletic keeper Gorka Iraizoz at his near post from a right-wing free-kick. And Aleix Vidal sealed the win after a solo run past several defenders. His goal meant Barca became the first European team to score 100 times in all competitions this season, with Monaco also reaching the landmark later in the afternoon. Real Madrid, whose scheduled match away to Celta Vigo on Sunday has been postponed because of storm damage to the hosts' stadium, have two games in hand on Barca. Sevilla, who are three points behind Barcelona, host Villarreal on Sunday (11:00 GMT). Fourth-placed Atletico Madrid beat Leganes 2-0, with Fernando Torres scoring his first two La Liga goals since September. In Saturday's other La Liga matches, Sergi Enrich scored twice as Eibar climbed to seventh with a 4-0 victory at 10-man Valencia, who had Carlos Soler sent off, while Espanyol won 1-0 at Malaga.....

Published at: 2017-02-05 00:00:07