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Dhaka, March 15 – A Dhaka court ordered the arrest of Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiky after a senior BNP leader filed a defamation case against the 38 year-old on Sunday.
ASM Hannan Shah told bdnews24.com Sunday he had filed the case as Irad had brought false allegations against Khaleda Zia. The son of BNP standing committee member Chowdhury Tanbir Ahmed Siddiky also made offensive comments against Hannan that tarnished his image as well as the party's, he alleged.
Hannan, the BNP chairperson's adviser, filed the case with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court.
His lawyer advocate Hossain Ali said the case had been filed under sections 500 and 501 of penal code.
Allegation and insults
Irad, in presence of father Tanbir, alleged at a press briefing last Monday that Khaleda asked for Tk 5 crore in return for a party ticket in the Dhaka mayoral election.
Irad called incumbent mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, and former mayors BNP's Mirza Abbas and AL's Mohammad Hanif "all corrupt", who "failed to deliver".
He called Hannan Shah the "'bastard' child of democracy".
He said none among Khoka, Abbas, Hannan and former FBCCI chief Abdul Awal Mintoo—the likely BNP candidates—was acceptable.
Tanbir, however, was not very quick to counter his son's allegations.
"What my son said was false," Tanbir told reporters the following day when the newspapers carried the story with screaming headlines.
He said Khaleda never sought money in return for the Dhaka mayoral ticket, as Irad claimed.
Tanbir dismissed his son's remarks as "false and unwanted", and said he was hurt by harsh comments on retired brigadier Hannan, "a personal friend of mine since boyhood".
The son's comments have nevertheless angered party adherents and the standing committee on Tuesday asked Tanbir to explain in 72 hours why he should not be punished over Irad's allegations.
Irad on Saturday sought to distance himself from his father and the BNP, saying he just voiced his own views and that he had no links to his father politically.
AHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - Former Pakistani prime minister and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif was placed under house arrest on Sunday hours before he was due to address a protest rally, his party said.
Sharif has thrown his support behind a protest campaign by anti-government lawyers that threatens to bring turmoil to Pakistan as the government struggles to stem militancy and to revive a flagging economy.
"A senior police officer is here and he informed Mr Sharif that he's been detained for three days," said party spokesman Pervez Rasheed.
Police in riot gear virtually sealed off Sharif's house with road blocks on all approaches.
Government officials were not available for comment.
Another party official said Sharif's brother, Shahbaz, who is also a politician and a senior member of his party, had also been ordered detained along with other party leaders.
Police have detained hundreds of lawyers and opposition activists in a crackdown launched on Wednesday to prevent lawyers and opposition parties from embarking on a cross-country "long march" protest.
Nevertheless, black-suited lawyers and flag-waving opposition activists began the march in the south on Thursday, aiming to head to Islamabad for a sit-in outside parliament on Monday.
Authorities quickly broke up the procession and snuffed out protests elsewhere with detentions and roadblocks.
Protest leaders, including Sharif, said they were still determined to rally in Islamabad and a looming showdown raised fears of bloodshed.
Sharif had been due to address a rally in Lahore, his power base, later on Sunday and then head to Islamabad.
If the political crisis gets out of hand, the army could feel compelled to intervene, though most analysts say a military takeover is highly unlikely.
The United States is deeply worried that the crisis is a distraction to Pakistan's efforts to eliminate Taliban and al Qaeda enclaves on the Afghan border, vital to U.S. plans to stabilise Afghanistan and defeat al Qaeda.
RECONCILIATION STEP
In what appeared to be a step toward reconciliation with the opposition, the government said on Saturday it would seek a review of a Supreme Court ruling last month that barred the Sharifs from elected office.
But the secretary general of Sharif's party, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, dismissed the move as "eye-wash" and said the protest would go on.
The Sharifs said Zardari was behind the ruling, which was based on old convictions the Sharifs say were politically motivated.
The ruling nullified a by-election victory by Shahbaz Sharif and disqualified him from holding the office of chief minister of Punjab, the most populous and influential of Pakistan's four provinces.
Zardari then imposed central rule in Punjab for two months, throwing Sharif's party out of power in the province.
Some analysts say Zardari did not want the Sharifs in control of the country's most important province while backing the long march protest.
The protesters' main demand is the reinstatement of former Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who was dismissed in 2007 by then president and army chief Pervez Musharraf.
Zardari, widower of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, has refused to reinstate the judge, seeing him as a threat to his own position.
A senior official in Zardari's party said on Saturday the president was refusing to cave in to pressure from Sharif and his supporters in the media.
"What Nawaz Sharif is offering is a future of overturning the electoral mandate by generating a mob," said the official, who declined to be identified. "If he thinks he's right, let him bring a resolution to parliament and see if he can get a majority."
The official also dismissed talk of any "erosion" in support from the United States or the army.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke by telephone to Zardari and the Sharifs on Saturday.
DHARAMSALA, India, Mar 15 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - The Tibetan government-in-exile welcomed China's willingness for more talks with its envoys, but reiterated the conditions outlined in its previous memorandum to Beijing.
"His Holiness the Dalai Lama is always ready to engage with the Chinese leadership to find a mutually acceptable solution to the problems of the Tibetan people," Samdhong Rinpoche, prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, said in a statement issued late on Saturday.
A memorandum of "genuine autonomy" for Tibet was presented to Beijing last October during the eighth round of talks with China.
"The Memorandum clearly outlines the aspirations of the Tibetan people strictly within the constitutional principles of the People's Republic of China. Premier Wen Jiabao appears to be trying to avoid acknowledging this document," the statement said.
Chinese officials and envoys of the Dalai Lama -- branded by Beijing as "splittist" -- have held several rounds of talks, but little of substance has been achieved.
Wen said on Friday that China was open to more talks with envoys for the Dalai Lama as long as the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader renounces what Beijing describes as separatism.
The Dalai Lama marked March 10, the 50th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule, with a speech calling for "meaningful autonomy" for Tibet in the north Indian town of Dharamsala, seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
The latest statement reiterated that the Dalai Lama is not seeking separation. Thubten Samphel, a spokesman, added they would not negotiate on their core demands.
"These are our core demands. We will not dilute them, we will not climb down," he said.
Washington, March 14 (bdnews24.com)—Americans are losing their religion and turning more to atheism, according to the results of the American Religious Identification Survey released this week.
The poll results also show that America still remains a predominantly Christian nation, but it's becoming both less Christian and less religious. The survey covered people of many faiths but somehow omitted Muslims and Hindus.
According to the survey, the percentage of Americans who define themselves as Christian has dropped from 86 percent in 1990 to 76 percent in 2008.
In one of the most dramatic shifts, 15 percent of Americans now say they have no religion -- a figure that's almost doubled in 18 years. Americans with no religious preference are now larger than all other major religious groups except Catholics and Baptists.
"What seems to be happening is there is a decline in what we might call traditional brand loyalty to the old denominations, specific churches," Barry Kosmin, a principle investigator for the American Religious Identification Survey, told ABC News.
In the last 18 years, despite population growth and immigration, almost all religious denominations have lost ground. Mainline Protestants are down the most. Methodists, for example, have gone from 8 to 5 percent. Baptists are down from 19.3 to 15.8. And Jews are down from 1.8 to 1.2 percent.
Meanwhile, the number of atheists, while still small, has nearly doubled from 900,000 to 1.6 million.
Kosmin says that people may feel more comfortable admitting their lack of faith at a time when atheist books, like Christopher Hitchens' "God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything", and movies are getting a lot of attention. Comedian Bill Maher took aim at religion in his documentary film "Religulous," saying that he preaches "the gospel of 'I Don't Know.'"
But researchers point out that just because people are dropping out of organised religion, it doesn't mean they're abandoning faith. In an informal poll conducted by ABC News, it found a wide variety of sentiments.
"I no longer attend church, but still pray to Jesus," said Sean Whitney.
"I dropped out of the Catholic faith years ago. However, it doesn't mean I have stopped believing in God," said Carmen Rivera.
The study finds that more people are exploring spiritual frontiers. Some 2.8 million Americans now say they identify with new religious movements like Wicca, paganism or spiritualists. Catholic strongholds in New England and the Midwest have faded as people have moved toward the Sunbelt states, like Florida, Texas and California.
"We are becoming a nation of spiritually anchored people who are not traditionally religious," said Serene Jones, president of the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.
While Americans may be leaving established denominations, the one major growth area in American Christianity is among evangelicals. Megachurches are booming, rising from 5 to 11.8 percent of the population.
And with the economy in free fall, many megachurches say they're seeing increased attendance. They're praying that perhaps hard times will draw Americans back to their faith.
