BANGLADESH

Police have reopened traffic at Dhaka's key Shahbagh intersection after a nearly 6-hour halt following protests and vandalism by the Dhaka University students after the death of a fellow student in a road accident on Tuesday evening.

Traffic resumed around 1pm on Wednesday.

Touhid Uz Zaman, a second-year undergraduate student of the International Relations Department and a resident of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Hall, came under the wheels of a Rajdhani Express bus around 4:30pm on Tuesday as he was crossing the street near BIRDEM Hospital.

He succumbed to his injuries around 7:30pm. His remains were later sent to his ancestral home in Kishoreganj.

Infuriated by his death, fellow DU students had descended on the streets and smashed around 40 vehicles and also set on fire several of them in Shahbagh and New Market areas.

Their demonstrations led the traffic to a complete halt in these areas from 8pm until 11:45pm.

The demonstrations continued on Wednesday morning, too. The students were seen taking out a procession with a coffin.

Police had closed the roads linking the Shahbagh intersection in the morning even though traffic had resumed past-midnight on Tuesday. All vehicles were seen taking the road in front of the Rupasi Bangla Hotel.

The traffic halt caused long tailbacks at key points of the city, including Banglamotor, Karwan Bazar, Kakrail and Paltan.

Around 11:15am, nearly 200 students brought out a procession at the Shahbagh intersection from Modhur Canteen and organised a rally there.

They also spelt out several demands to ensure safety of teachers and students, including building an underpass at the Shahbagh intersection, punishing the bus driver responsible for the accident and the on-duty traffic police, compensating the deceased's family and the students who got injured during the Tuesday night's clash with the police, tightening of security at all the university entry points and barring outside vehicles from the campus.

Shammi Akter Happy, another student of the university's Psychology department, was also run over and killed by a bus at the same intersection on May 28, 2005. The university authorities facing tough protest had assured the students of building an underpass then, but the assurance never become a reality.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Ramna Zone Deputy Commissioner Nurul Islam had earlier told bdnews24.com that the traffic through the intersection was closed to avoid any more demonstrations and vandalism.

"The decision has been taken to ensure safety of the general people," he said.

Extra police personnel have also been deployed at all the different university entry points. Vehicles only with the university authorisation were allowed to enter the campus.

Police were also controlling the traffic at the other streets adjacent to the university in Kataban, Nilkhet, Polashi, Chankharpool and the High Court areas.

Meanwhile, ruling Awami League's student front Chhatra League's DU unit brought out a mourning procession around 11:30am over the death of Touhid Uz Zaman. DU Proctor Amzad Ali was seen in the procession.

The students of the International Relations Department also observed a human-chain programme around 12pm in front of the Arts Building protesting the death of their fellow student. Teachers of the department also joined hands with their students.

A Dhaka court on Wednesday allowed police to remand in their custody for three days for questioning the driver of the bus that allegedly killed a Dhaka University student in an accident on Tuesday.

Judge Rezaul Karim of the Metropolitan Magistrate's Court passed the order after a hearing after Officer-in-charge of Shahbagh Police Station Rupesh Chandra Baidya, who is Investigating the homicide case, produced bus driver Anwar Hossain, 40, before the court with a seven-day remand petition, General Recording Officer of the court Sub-Inspector Arshad Ali told bdnews24.com.

The court also rejected the bail petition of Anwar Hossain.

Towhid Uz Zaman, 23, a second-year undergraduate student of international relations, was critically injured when the speeding bus of Rajdhani Express hit him at Shahbagh intersection on Tuesday afternoon.

Towhid, a resident student of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Hall, was first taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Later, he was shifted to Green Life Hospital at Green Road where he succumbed to his injuries in the evening.

As the news of his death spread, the university students rushed to the scene and blocked the intersection in protest at the incident.

The rowdy students also vandalised and torched over 50 vehicles in Shahbagh, Kataban and New Market areas during the violent demonstrations. They also set fire to a police box at Shahbagh crossing.

Towhid was laid to rest at his village home in Kishoreganj district on Wednesday noon.

Two hours into trading on the week's last working day, the Dhaka Stock Exchange has maintained its initial high in the benchmark index.

The DGEN stood at 4503.98 points around 1:40pm on Thursday, a 50.55-point or 1.14 percent hike from the opening.

It reached the peak around 11:25am, only about an hour into the trade, to stand at 4578.41 points.

Shares and mutual funds worth around Tk 6.22 billion had changed hands in the two-hour trade, with prices of 146 issues gaining, 115 declining and 10 sticking to their opening prices.

On Wednesday, the DSE turnover had hit a four-month high standing at Tk 7.04 billion. The benchmark index had posted a 161.56-point or 3.76-percent rise to close at 4453.43 points.

On Tuesday, the DSE had ended its trade with the DGEN down 49.39 points. Monday had also seen a high turnover, Tk 6.3 billion, but the DGEN had fallen by 0.96 percent.

Both the General Index and the turnover had seen a rise on Sunday, the first working day after an 11-day closure on account of the Eid-ul-Fitr and other national holidays.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday in Tehran of signing the Teesta water-sharing deal and settling other thorny issues as soon as possible.

The heads of the two governments met at the Grand Azadi Hotel before the 16th NAM summit starting on Thursday, Foreign Secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes told bdnews24.com.

The Foreign Secretary termed the meeting positive and said, "The meeting went very well. The Indian Prime Minister assured Sheikh Hasina of signing the deal to share the waters of common river Teesta.

"The Indian Prime Minister told our Prime Minister that he will fulfil the commitments he made in the past few years."

"Manmohan Singh emphasised signing the deal with everyone's participation," he added.

Quoting the Indian Prime Minister, Secretary Quayes also said, "India wants to be a good development partner of Bangladesh."

He told Hasina that Bangladesh will not be subjected to any harm by the proposed Tipaimukh dam, Quayes said and added Hasina emphasised joint survey on the dam.

They also discussed import of power from India.

Hasina thanked the Indian government for reducing the interest of the $1 billion line of credit and turning $200 million of the loan into grant. She thanked India for granting the duty-free access of Bangladeshi products into its market.

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, Ambassador-at-Large M Ziauddin and Bangladesh's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dr A K Abdul Momen, among others, were present.

At least one person was killed and 11 others injured when two trucks collided head-on in the capital's Uttara area on Thursday.

Officer-in-charge of Turag Police Station, Ziaul Karim, told bdnews24.com a Mymensingh-bound truck ran straight into a sand-laden truck at Kamarpara area around 5am, killing its driver on the spot.

Police identified the deceased as Mohammad Salauddin, 35, who was on his way to Mymensingh to buy fishes.

The injured have been identified as – Milon, 16, Islam, 15, Ohab, 30, Nazmul, 18, Swapan, 35, Mangal, 25, Tariful, 13, Chunnu, 14, Samad, 20, Nuru, 20 and Shahidul, 16.

The deceased and all the injured were on board the first truck, police said.

The injured have been sent to the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital for treatment, Karim said.

The OC said they had confiscated the sand-laden truck but its driver fled the scene immediately after the accident.

Karim said the dead body had been sent to DMCH for autopsy.

Director General of South Asia Department of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Juan Miranda has reasserted the bank's stance as a co-financer in the Padma bridge project and assured of continued support.

"Let me repeat that words that I want in your headline – this bridge will be built," he told journalists following a meeting with Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith at the Secretariat on Thursday.

When asked whether the Manila-based bank would remain on-board for the project, Miranda reassured: "ADB is as of today and as of tomorrow, ADB is a co-financier in this project."

To another query whether the ADB would extend the loan effectuation date, he again said, "This bridge will be built."

The Director General came to Dhaka on Tuesday night on a two-day official trip.

The genesis and further

The Padma bridge project has been in the throes of uncertainty ever since the lead financier, World Bank, cancelled its loan agreement of $1.2 billion for the mega project on June 29 saying it had "credible evidence" of a high-level corruption conspiracy among Bangladeshi government officials.

On July 31, the ADB and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), who were to provide major chunks of the remaining funds needed for the $2.9 billion project, extended their loan effectuation deadline to Aug 31.

The Asian lender has pledged to provide $610 million, while the JICA would contribute $400 million to the project, and the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank is committed to another $140 million.

Ever since the World bank pulled itself out of the project, the government has been stating that the bridge would be built with own fund, if need be, but the Finance Minister has been trying to persuade the World Bank to return.

On Aug 28, Muhith reiterated his hopes about the global lender getting on board again to finance the ambitious project. "Still, I have time until Aug 31. Don't get frustrated. So far nothing has happened to get frustrated."

Muhith made the observation as newspapers in the last two days had reported that the lending agency would not release the promised fund since all the conditions it had laid down were not fulfilled. It was rumoured that Prime Minister's Economic Affairs Advisor Mashiur Rahman is going to resign as per the bank's demand, but no such evidence is available to date.

After the Washington-based agency raised allegations of corruption last year, it gave the government some conditions for checking corruption in the project. As those remained unmet, it pulled out of Bangladesh's largest infrastructure project.

In the wake of controversy over the allegation of corruption, former Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain resigned in July last year and former Bridges Division Secretary Mosharraf Hossain was sent on leave.

Loan deadline extension to be urged

When journalists approached to the finance minister on Thursday and asked for his comment, he said, "You got the message."

The minister said he would not talk with the press on holidays. Friday and Saturday are holiday in Bangladesh.

"I am busy preparing my tax return. I will not talk during the holidays," he said.

However, on Wednesday, the minister, responding to queries by journalists about whether the government would appeal the project's co-financers to extend their Aug 31 deadline, said that they 'might'.

Officials of the ministry's Economic Relations Department said that the government was indeed drafting a letter for the ADB urging an extension.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith is refusing to throw in the towel even though rumours have it that the World Bank is not coming back into the Padma bridge project.

He is still sanguine about the global lender getting on board again to finance the ambitious project.

"Still, I have time until Aug 31. Don't get frustrated. So far nothing has happened to get frustrated," said Muhith at his Secretariat office on Tuesday.

Muhith made the observation as newspapers in the last two days reported that the lending agency would not release the promised fund since all the conditions it had given were not fulfilled.

It was rumoured that the Prime Minister's Economic Affairs Advisor Mashiur Rahman is going to resign as per the bank's demand but no information was available.

The World Bank cancelled a $ 1.2 billion loan for $ 2.9 billion bridge in June last year. The two other lenders, Asian Development Bank and Japan International Cooperation Agency extended the deadline of finalising the loan deal for the bridge until Aug 31.

The project will expire if the World Bank does not return by Aug 31.

Ever since the bank pulled itself out of the project, the government has been stating that the bridge will be built with own fund, if need be, but the Finance Minister has been trying to persuade the World Bank to return.

A few days back, Muhith had said, "If the World Bank finances (the project), image and dignity lost over the issue would be regained." He said he had prepared a letter which will be sent once a positive response was received in the ongoing negotiations.

After the Washington-based agency raised allegations of corruption last year, it gave the government some conditions for checking corruption in the project. As those remain unmet, it pulled out of Bangladesh's largest infrastructure project to date.

In the wake of controversy over the allegation of corruption, former Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain resigned in July last year and former Bridges Division Secretary Mosharraf Hossain was sent on leave.

Rail links of Dhaka and Sylhet with Chittagong have been restored after nearly six hours of halt due to derailment of a passenger train in Comilla.

Comilla Railway Station Master Mohammad Hossain Majumder said train communication resumed around 10:30am on Wednesday when the troubled train was removed.

Assistant Engineer of Comilla Railway, Hamidul Haque, had earlier told bdnews24.com that a Chittagong-bound passenger train derailed around 5am at Comilla sadar snapping Chittagong's rail link with the capital and Sylhet.

Haque said six wheels of the train's engine got derailed. The compartments of the train had been brought to Shashidal Station following the accident.

The government has made some changes in the administration as it shuffled Additional Deputy Commissioners (ADC) and Upazila Nirbahi Officers (UNO).

The Ministry of Public Administration issued three circulars to this effect on Tuesday.

The Ministry's Senior Assistant Secretary (OSD) Dr Rezaul Bashar Shiddique has been made Deputy Secretary with effect from Feb 8 last.

Among the ADCs, Nazim Uddin has been transferred from Manikganj to Kurigram and Dr Golam Mostafa from Brahmanbaria to the Ministry of Public Administration.

Dinajpur Chirirbandar UNO Rashidul Kabir has been made an OSD at the Ministry.

A group of medical and dental college admission seekers continued to demonstrate on Tuesday to demand that the government scrap its decision to follow grading system in place of admission test.

A platform of the protesting students held a human chain programme and solidarity assembly in front of the National Press Club from 10am on Tuesday.

Around 12:45pm, the student protestors announced agitation programme for Wednesday.

They called for a sit-in programme wearing black masks in front of the Dhaka University Teachers-Student s Centre.

The students also protested police action against demonstration programme in Chittagong and detention of seven students there.

Four local organisations representing Bengali settlers in the Chittagong Hill Tracts are enforcing a 36-hour general strike from Wednesday morning in Rangamati, Khagrachharhi and Bandarban hill districts.

The shutdown has been organised to protest against amendment to the land act while the organisers demand that the government scrap its move to put local police administration under the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council.

In line with the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord, sub-section 1 of section 62 of the Parbatya Zilla Parishad law says that a Zilla Parishad can appoint, transfer and punish police officials ranking from Sub-Inspector and below. Members of the tribes from the hill tracts will get priorities in case of appointment to the local police administration.

The Bengali-speaking settlers, who had been rehabilitated from outside the region, have long been protesting against the provision.

Parbatya Chatragram Somo-Adhikar Andolon (Chittagong Hill Tracts Equal Rights Movement), Parbatya Ganaparishad (the Hill Tracts People's Council), Parbatya Bangali Chatra Parishad (Hill Bengali Students' Council) and Parbatya Bangali Chhatra Oikya Parishad (Hill Tracts Bengali Students' Unity Council) jointly announced the lockdown at a press conference in Rangamati district headquarters on Monday.

On Wednesday, most businesses in Khagrachhari, Rangamati and Bandarban towns remained closed. Long-route and inter-district bus operations remained suspended.

Most educational institutions also remained closed. No passenger ferries were seen operating in Rangamati during the beginning hours of Wednesday.

Meanwhile, police detained Convenor of Parbatya Bangalee Chhatra Parishad's Khagrachhari unit, Abdul Majid, on Tuesday night.

Officer-in-Charge of Khagrachhari Sadar Police Station Mostafijur Rahman has confirmed Majid's detention.

Police on Wednesday halted traffic at Dhaka's key Shahbagh intersection following protests and vandalism by Dhaka University students after a fellow student who was injured in a raod accident died on Tuesday night.

The security officials were diverting traffic to avert any further vandalism.

Touhid Uz Zaman, a second-year undergraduate student of international relations and a resident of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Hall, fell under the wheels of a Rajdhani Express bus around 4:30pm on Tuesday as he was getting across the street near BIRDEM Hospital.

He succumbed to his injuries around 7pm.

Infuriated by his death, fellow DU students took to the streets and smashed around 40 vehicles and also set fire to several of them in Shahbagh and New Market areas.

Police had shut down traffic at the key intersection after students descended on the street around 8pm to midnight.

Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Ramna Zone, Nurul Islam told bdnews24.com on Wednesday that vehicular movements at Shahbagh had been shut down to avert further agitation and vandalism.

"The decision has been taken to secure people's lives and properties," he said.

The police official said traffic would resume through the intersection after the students' anger had been calmed.

Meanwhile, police have been positioned at various entrances to the university. No vehicles, except those bearing university's sticker, are being allowed into the campus.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has decided to move the High Court to seek judicial probe into what happened to Limon Hossain, the college student who had his leg amputated after being shot allegedly by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

NHRC Chairman Prof Mizanur Rahman made the announcement at a press conference on Monday.

"An appeal petition will be filed in the High Court seeking a judicial probe to ensure the rights of Limon," Rahman said.

A member of the NHRC, Fouzia Karim Firoz will file a petition next Sunday.

"If the High Court runs a judicial probe the allegations against Limon will be proved false. We believe Limon will get justice and get back to his normal life," the chairman added.

"We believe the High Court will consider our appeal and take necessary actions."

Replying to a question on why the NHRC did not file any case against RAB, Rahman said that he believed Limon would get justice even without the commission taking such measures.

"We can make recommendations on different matters. We don't have executive power," said Rahman answering whether the commission would file a case over the attack on Limon's family and then accusing them of murder.

But he said the commission would go to court if Limon was indicted in any of the cases.

Rahman defended the NHRC by referring to the steps they had taken to ensure justice to Limon. He said the commission wrote to the Home Ministry on July 11 regarding Limon.

"We haven't noticed any positive movement even after writing to the Home Minister. On the other hand, the situation is being vitiated filing cases against Limon, attacking him and filing a murder case against him," Rahman said.

Limon, a college student from Jhalkathi, had his leg amputated allegedly after being shot by RAB on March 23 last year.

RAB filed two cases against Limon accusing him of preventing law enforcers from carrying out their duties and for possessing illegal fire arms.

Limon's mother also filed a case against the RAB officials for shooting her son. On Aug 14, Rajapur police submitted the final report relieving the RAB of the allegations.

On Aug 20, the Eid day, Limon and his family members were attacked by a group of people allegedly led by one Ibrahim Howlader. Howladar was identified as a RAB source byLimon's family.

On Aug 23, Howlader accused Limon's father, mother, elder brother and uncle of murdering his brother-in-law.

Ever since he was shot, Limon and his family were not staying in their village home at Saturia in Jhalkathi and has rented a house at Kaukhali in Pirojpur.

Amid whispers ruling out a return for the World Bank in Padma bridge project, Malaysia on Monday submitted to Bangladesh its final proposal on construction of the bridge.

Now bridging the mighty river with assistance from Malaysia requires only the government's consent.

S Samy Vellu, special envoy of the Malaysian government for South Asia, formally handed over a copy of the final proposal to Communication Minister Obaidul Quader at the Setu Bhaban in Dhaka.

The minister said: "A technical committee will scrutinise the proposal and put forward its recommendations to the highest decision-making body."

He said construction would begin within this fiscal year.

Quader declined to disclose the content of the agreement or when the government would take decision on the Malaysian proposal.

"It is a draft agreement and Bangladesh will negotiate on the terms and conditions included in the proposal," the minister said.

Quader said if there was any agreement, the bridge would be built under a build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis and Malaysian Exim Bank will be the lead arranger.

Bangladesh is desperately looking for alternatives to bridge the river Padma after the World Bank refused to lend $1.2 billion in June.

The minister said: "Economic and public interests will be given priority while considering the proposal and agreement will be signed if it doesn't go against national interest."

On the scope of a settlement with the World Bank, Quader said; "You better ask this to the Finance Minister or ERD Secretary."

"The door is still open to any party as we can't say that dispute with World Bank is over."

The global lender in October last year suspended its pledged $1.2 billion fund for the $2.9 billion project to build the first bridge raising corruption allegation. The funds pledged by the other donors also remain suspended.

After the suspension of the World Bank funds, the Malaysian government expressed its interest in the construction of the bridge.

The governments of Bangladesh and Malaysia on Apr 10 signed a memorandum of understanding in Kuala Lumpur on cooperation in the construction of the Padma Bridge and associated facilities.

The Detective Branch of police has efused to take custody of 'Kamal, 29, detained by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), saying he was not connected with the murder of Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) leader Dr Narayan Chandra Datta Nitai.

Deputy Commissioner of DB, Molla Nazrul Islam, told bdnews24.com on Monday that RAB had detained one 'Kamal' on Saturday and handed him over to them on Sunday. "In the course of our investigation, we found out that the detained Kamal was not the one whose name came up in connection with the murder," he said.

He was handed over to RAB the same night, the DB police official added.

After nabbing Kamal, RAB had claimed that they found his association with the 48-year-old doctor's murder.

Dr Nitai was knifed to death in the early hours of Thursday at his home in Mahakhali's National Institute of Disease of the Chest and Hospital (NIDCH) residential area.

On Sunday, a Dhaka court granted the police five days to interrogate the four suspects detained in connection with the murder.

The police official said in the course of quizzing, they found proof of the detainees' involvement in the murder.

Officer-in-Charge of Banani Police Station Mahbub Hasan told bdnews24.com on Monday that RAB had handed over one 'Kamal' to them in the wee hours of Monday. "He was later shown arrested for wandering around in a suspicious manner and produced before court on Monday," he added.

RAB Media Wing Director M Sohail told bdnews24.com that they had merely assisted the DB with its probe. He said Kamal was detained for his suspected connection with Nitai murder case.

The RAB spokesperson said in primary questioning they had found Kamal's involvement with the murder and handed him over to the DB, the main investigator of the case.

Sohail said DB's investigation might not find Kamal's association with the murder.

Police had nabbed four suspected robbers over two days after the murder and produced them before the media on Saturday. The law enforcers said they had recovered looted gold ornaments and the knife used for killing the doctor.

Those detained are Masud alias Peda, 28, Saidul, 38, Pichchi Kamal, 35 and Faisal, 32.

'Faisal' had told journalists that they had one 'Kamal' and 'Mintoo' with them.

The law enforcers had been insisting that Nitai's murder took place during a burglary despite his family's belief that it was a premeditated murder over recruitment in a hospital.

The father of the deceased, Tarit Kanti Datta, had filed a case over the incident with the Banani police mentioning that Tk 500,000 was missing after the incident.

Nitai's brother-in-law Surash Chowdhury claimed that it was premeditated murder.

He alleged Nitai was being threatened over recruitment of class three and four employees at the NIDCH but failed to name anyone.

The High Court on Monday declared 'ineffective' and 'without legal basis' Speaker Abdul Hamid's previous ruling that Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury violated the Constitution by making derogatory comment on the Parliament.

The two-strong panel of justices Hasan Foez Siddique and ABM Altaf Hossain made the observation after a petition sought the court's intervention over the Speaker's June 18 ruling that Justice Choudhury violated Article 78 (1) of the Constitution.

On July 24, the High Court settled the writ petition but signed the written copy of its observations on Monday.

After the verdict, Deputy Attorney General Biswajit Roy, who represented the state, had told bdnews24.com that the court had given the verdict after hearing both sides. "The petition was settled with several observations."

Roy had said the observations would be elaborated in the written copy of the verdict.

On July 18, the bench of justices Naima Haider and Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar had felt embarrassed to hear the petition that sought an order to declare illegal the Speaker's ruling.

The petitioners also sought an order to ban issuance of any such ruling by the Speaker.

Speaker Hamid had given the ruling rather reluctantly in Parliament as MPs demanded steps after Justice Choudhury criticised the chief of the legislature and threatened to invoke the constitutional provision to impeach sitting judges.

The Speaker had hoped the Chief Justice would himself initiate measures in this regard and Parliament would support his decision.

The row began after the Speaker on May 29 made the statement that people might stand up against the judiciary if they are aggrieved by any verdict of the court. It involved an order of the High Court that had asked the Roads and Highways Department to return some land to the Supreme Court.

Justice Choudhury in response to the statement said on June 5 that the Speaker's such a comment was tantamount to sedition.

His comment triggered commotion in Parliament and MPs demanded ruling from the Speaker.

In his ruling, the Speaker said Justice Choudhury's comment was derogatory and a violation of the constitution.

Article 78 of the Constitution provides immunity to the speeches, actions and votes of MPs made within Parliament sessions, and holds them not answerable for any such actions of the court.

The BUET VC has convened an emergency meeting of the Syndicate, the highest policy-making body of the premier university, on Monday as the BUET stalemate was yet to be resolved.

The meeting scheduled to be held at 5pm will discuss the overall situation, Prof Nazrul Islam told bdnews24.com on Sunday evening.

The Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) reopened on Saturday after a 44-day shutdown stemming from protests by its teachers and students seeking ouster of the Vice-Chancellor and Pro Vice Chancellor.

No classes were held at the university on Saturday, the first day of resumption of academic activities at the university.

No classes took place on Sunday too.

Some of the demonstrating teachers said they pressed on with their protests at personal level by skipping classes but without any formal declaration of any protest plan to avoid facing contempt of court charges.

The High Court on Aug 14 in a rule ordered authorities to start the admission process of the first-year students amid the teachers' protests.

"The emergency syndicate meeting has been called under such an unusual situation. The meeting will discuss various issues including that of teachers not joining classes defying court's orders," he added.

Admission test to BUET for the 2012-2013 academic sessions has also become uncertain as the protesting teachers have been boycotting classes and other academic activities for more than a month.

In the wake of movement demanding resignation of the VC and Pro-Vice Chancellor, the BUET authorities had advanced the Eid-ul-Fitr vacation to close it on July 10. The decision, however, failed to deter the protesters from going ahead with the movement.

One of the teachers, seeking anonymity, said the teachers were not attending classes claiming personal reasons to stay away from court contempt.

Asked whether the Syndicate would pressurise the teachers to join classes, he said, "The members of the body will take decisions after discussing several issues."

Meanwhile, the Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid is leaving Dhaka on Sunday night on a seven-day visit to attend the 'Commonwealth Education Ministers Conference' in Mauritius. He is scheduled to return on Sep 2.

On July 11, 24 teachers holding administrative posts resigned and the Teachers Association announced that the teachers would resign en masse on July 22 if their demand was not met.

They, however, postponed the 'resignation decision' until July 30 after Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid had said a solution would be worked out after discussions with the Prime Minister and the President, days before the court slapped the ban on any protests on the BUET campus.

The BUET authorities shut the university on July 10, a month in advance for Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr, until Aug 24 and the teachers and students erupted in protest.

A platform of medical and dental college admission-seekers on Sunday announced that they were resuming their protests against the new enrolment system from Monday.

The students said at a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters' Unity that they would assemble at the Central Shaheed Minar at 9am for 'peaceful' demonstration.

Farzana Afrin, representative of the platform, claimed students of various medical colleges, universities, schools and colleges across Bangladesh have thrown their weight behind them.

She said a 'civil assembly' would take place at 11am and a memorandum will be submitted to the Prime Minister's Office at noon.

"We'll be compelled to wage tougher agitations from Aug 28 if no announcement comes [from the government] within Monday," Afrin warned.

On Aug 12, Health Minister AFM Ruhal Haque said the government had decided to enrol students at the medical and dental colleges based on their SSC and HSC GPAs from this year in lieu of admission tests.

The Minister's announcement triggered off protests by admission seekers and guardians.

The admission-seekers had staged daylong demonstrations on Aug 13 and 14 Dhaka's Central Shaheed Minar, the National Press Club and the Shahbagh intersection resulting in huge tailbacks across the capital.

The students put off their protest on Aug 14 and on the same day the government decision was challenged in the High Court. The court ordered authorities to explain why the new system would not be declared illegal.

Amid the ongoing protests, the Health Minister had said the medical and dental admission 'coaching centres were instigating' the demonstrations.

At Sunday's press conference, the student demonstrators demanded closure of all coaching centres claiming no one was instigating their demonstration or was associated with it. They also argued against the new enrolment system.

On Aug 23, another petition was filed in the High Court in a bid to secure an order to start admission process like previous years.

Unknown miscreants have shot a Bangladeshi citizen to death at a food mart in Connecticut's East Hartford in the United States.

The deceased, Belal Tarafder, 47, was gunned down during an attempted robbery around 11pm local time on Saturday, NBC Connecticut reported on Sunday quoting police.

He had been working as a clerk at the Circle H Food Mart situated at 1084 Burnside Avenue for the last five years.

Belal hailed from Moulvibazar. Saturday night was supposed to be the last night on the job.

NBC said in its report that East Hartford police responded to the mart around 11pm on a suspicious activity call. Upon arrival, the officers found the store clerk suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

There are two other businesses located in the plaza where the Circle H Food Mart is. Village Pizza was open and crowded. Police have already interviewed several witnesses.

Witnesses described the suspect as a black male in his late teens to early 30s. He was wearing a dark coloured shirt, light coloured shorts and a dark coloured baseball hat. He was carrying a handgun.

NBC said police were investigating the murder. The East Hartford Police Crime Investigation Division is working with the State Attorney's office on the investigation.

At least nine people were killed as a micro-bus skidded off the road and plunged into a ditch in Ramganj upazila of Laxmipur Sunday afternoon.

Police and locals said the accident occurred around 3.30pm at the Ramganj-Hazjiganj highway.

The deceased were identified as one 'Joynal', 40, from Ramganj's Noahgaon area, his wife Nasima, 35, daughter, 10, niece Rabia, 20, Amina Begum, 40 and Monowara Begum 50, Harun-or Rashid,65, Zakia Sultana, 12 and 'Tamanna' 13.

Ramganj Upazila Chairman Munir Chowdhury told bdnews24.com that police have recovered nine bodies so far from the micro-bus.

He added they met the accident on their way to join a family marriage programme in Chandpur's Faridganj Upazila

When approached, the officer-in-charge of Ramganj Police Station could not give the exact number of causalities adding that the micro-bus had been recovered from the ditch.

The Department of Environment (DoE) has fined the Ibn Sina Pharmaceutical Industries Limited for operating a manufacturing facility without its clearance for the last 18 years.

The department's Director (Enforcement) Mohammad Muneer Chowdhury slapped the penalty after a hearing on Sunday, a DoE statement said.

The fine was collected from Managing Director of the facility Abu Naser Mohammad Abduz Jahed, it further said.

"The operation of such a large manufacturing facility illegally for 18 years is an unprecedented violation of the environmental laws," Muneer Chowdhury said adding that they have taken the 'exemplary step' to ensure that the law is abided to everywhere.

The step came after the DoE discovered the illegal operation in a recent raid on the facility located in Kaliakoir in Gazipur. The factory officials allegedly did not cooperate with the DoE on the matter on that day and the MD on Sunday apologised to the DoE Director in writing for that.

"The factory authorities have been told to submit without delay all records of their production plan and waste management," the DoE official added.

The company's General Manager and Secretary Mohammad Shaheed Farouqee, Plant Manager Rafiqul Haque, Quality Control Manager Abdul Khaleque and Manager (Engineering) Momtajul Karim represented the company at the hearing.

They apologised for building and operating the plant without clearance for so long, the statement added.

The facility built over 13 acres of land had been producing drugs including antibiotics, anti-histamines, anti-ulcerants and anti-paretics.

"The DoE does not want destruction of any organisation but it wants environment-friendly management alongside investment and employment," the DoE Director said.

He added there was no more scope to neglect the environment during investment and that it should get the highest priority.

Prime Minister's Economic Affairs Advisor Dr Mashiur Rahman on Sunday said he would have no problems stepping down if the Prime Minister wanted and it removed complications regarding the World Bank financing of the Padma bridge project.

He made the comment amid whispers that he had resigned to meet one of the global lender's conditions for getting back on board for the ambitious scheme.

"If my resignation resolves the complexity over the $ 2.9 billion loan, then why once, I will resign ten times if needed," Mashiur, also the project's integrity advisor, told journalists in front of his official Hare Road residence.

"But if there are any accusations, then the proofs behind them have to be presented and I will have to be given the scope to defend myself."

He skirted a direct reply when asked if he had resigned already. Mashiur said the government should come up with a statement on the matter first and then he might give his reactions. The Finance Minister will speak for the government, he insisted.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith did not appear for journalists to take questions on the issue, neither did he go to his office. Around 3:15pm, his Assistant Personal Secretary A S M Rashed told journalists that the Minister will not be talking with them on the issue just yet.

However, a well-placed source has confirmed bdnews24.com he met with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina around noon.

bdnews24.com's Senior Correspondent Reazul Bashar said that the car carrying the advisor when he left his residence around 5:15pm had the flag of Bangladesh on it, a clear sign that he was still in office.

The Washington-based lender had given a number of conditions for the government to fulfil after raising graft allegations and suspended the fund for the project in September last year after Canadian authorities launched investigation against SNC-Lavalin, a firm shortlisted as consultant of the project.

On June 30, it cancelled its promised loan of $1.2 billion for the country's biggest-ever infrastructure project claiming that the government did not implement their requisites.

After the deal was scrapped, Information Communications and Technology Minister Syed Abul Hossain, who was the Communication Minister when the allegations were raised, resigned and former Bridges Secretary Mosharraf Hossain was sent on leave.

After Eid, rumours swirled that the advisor would also be following similar steps and a number of dailies ran stories on the issue on Saturday.

Muhith on Saturday told bdnews24.com at his Minto Road residence that the barriers to an understanding with the World Bank are being removed one by one. He also expressed hopes of reaching a resolution within a week.

The advisor time and again ducked questions from the media crew on Sunday about the gossips that he had stood down.

Mashiur went on to compare his predicament with a character of Franz Kafka's well-known novel 'The Trial': "The author showed a person on trial, but without saying what crime he had committed."

He also referred to James Frazer's comparative study of mythology and religion, The Golden Bough, and pointed out, "When people in ancient Greece started working on any establishment, they would put human blood in its foundation. When they were not getting any human blood, they started using chicken blood."

"When even that became scarce, they started building on the shadow of chickens. A business revolving around the shadow started afterwards."

At this stage, journalists asked whether the government was not giving him the scope to explain himself. Mashiur said, "If you want to blame anyone, he should be given the chance to defend himself."

The World Bank was to fund $ 1.2billion for the six-kilometre bridge that was estimated to cost $ 2.9billion. Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) were supposed to fund most of the remaining budget.

Even though, the World Bank cancelled their funding, ADB and JICA extended the deadline for their deals to Aug 31. So the government will have to reach a resolution with WB before that.

No classes took place even on the second day at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) that reopened after a 44-day shutdown following protests by teachers and students.

The teachers are not attending classes through there is no programme of agitation while the students are unwilling to return to classroom until the standoff among the teachers is over.

No classes were held at the university on Saturday, the first day of resumption of academic activities at the university.

Admission test to BUET for the 2012-2013 academic session has also become uncertain as the protesting teachers have been boycotting classes and other academic activities for more than a month.

In the wake of movement demanding resignation of the VC and Pro-Vice Chancellor, the BUET authorities had advanced the Eid-ul-Fitr vacation to close it on July 10. The decision, however, failed to deter the protesters from going ahead with the movement.

Some of the demonstrating teachers said they pressed on with their protests at personal level by skipping classes but without any formal declaration of any protest plan to avoid facing contempt of court charge.

The High Court on Aug 14 in a rule ordered authorities to start the admission process of the first-year students amid the teachers' protests.

Students' presence on the campus was very thin on Sunday.

Sudipto Shaha, a student of the Department of Medical Engineering, was one of the very few who came to the campus.

"We will not return to the classes until the standoff ends. We are also demanding removal of the VC. The Eid vacation has just ended and we will decide the next course of action once all returns," said Saha.

Aked why classes were not being held, the VC Prof Nazrul Islam said, "It has to be discussed with teachers why they are not coming to classes."

He observed teachers not taking classes is also a kind of agitation in violation of the court order and accused them of contempt of court.

The VC, who faced harsh protest from his colleagues and students recently, had earlier threatened to continue the university's academic activities by appointing new teachers.

Brushing aside the allegation, BUET Teachers Association General Secretary Prof Ashraful Islam told bdnews24.com: "It is the interpretation of the Vice Chancellor. The teachers are not in any kind of agitation. So, there is no question of contempt of court. If any teacher does not take class, it is completely his personal decision."

The Teachers Association had started abstaining from work on Apr 7 demanding the removal of the VC and Pro-VC Habibur Rahman and continued with the movement for a month. After the Prime Minister had promised to consider their demand, they had postponed the strike. But as their demand was not met within July 7, they started work abstention for two hours from 11am.

The BUET authorities shut the university on July 10, a month in advance for Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr, until Aug 24 and the teachers and students erupted in protest.

On July 11, 24 teachers holding administrative posts resigned and the Teachers Association announced that the teachers would resign en masse on July 22 if there demand was not met.

They, however, postponed the 'resignation decision' until July 30 after Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid had said a solution would be worked out after discussions with the Prime Minister and the President, days before the court slapped the ban on any protests on the BUET campus.

Dhallywood, which was recently declared an industry, is on its 'death bed', say those tied to it.

Filmmakers, directors, producers and critics have pointed out that along with the fall in audience, the number of cinema halls has also shrunk and the crisis of talents, investment-scare and the lack of attention from the authorities have left the field barely breathing.

The fall in vitals

The slump in the industry is most evident through the fall in the number of releases on Eid, the largest festival of the Muslim community, which has traditionally seen the highest releases each year.

The overall releases each year have also slumped to barely 10 percent over the last seven fiscals, records of Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC) show, with the last fiscal registering the highest level of inactivity.

A hundred films were released in FY2005-06, only two more than the output in the following fiscal.

The same fall was observed over the FY 2007-08, followed by a 32-release fall taking the number down to 64 in the FY2008-09. The industry seemed to have stabilised going down by only one release in FY2009-10.

However, the stability was a short-lived one as the number slumped by 11 releases in FY2010-11, followed by the largest annual fall in the seven-fiscal period, a whopping 34 releases, to stand at only 11 in FY2011-12.

Why this?

The number of audience falling due to lack of production of quality films and continuous closing down of movie theatres had embedded fears of losses in the producers leading to a fall in investments, pointed out film-related professionals.

On the other hand, lack of patronisation and technical training is creating a crisis of artists and crew, and the low-quality productions are not fit to compete in the markets abroad, negating the scope of earnings from there, creating a vicious cycle of poverty in every aspect of the arena.

"Bengali films lost its glory a long time back, the industry is now on its death bed," said Bangladesh Film Producers-Distributors Association President Masud Parvez.

Parvez, who is also a renowned actor known by his alias Sohel Rana, claimed that the fall saw its start in the nineties.

Vulgarity, recreation of Bollywood and Tamil cinemas instead of original productions, low budgets and repetition of same story lines have pushed away the audiences since then, seeing in fact, the loss of a lion's share of the fan base.

Target: Quick bucks

However, Dhaka University mass communications Associate Professor Fahmidul Haq puts the blame on the 'business-like mentality' of producers and directors.

"With this mentality, many come and take their places behind the camera without any prior preparations and many unneeded films are made every year."

He also questioned the professionalism of directors and producers: "They do not have any clear concept about what recreational movies are, and they keep on making the films based on same type of scripts written on the old formula of stars-songs-fights-love."

Parvez pointed out that even though violence and vulgarity had been somewhat put on a leash over years, questions over the quality of films remain.

He continued that in the past, the film business was profitable and even the artistes, who worked along with the directors and producers, were dedicated.

"But now, even the directors, producers and artistes are here just to make a quick buck. They have neither long-term plans nor experience."

The film arena veteran continued that filmmaking had become like betting on a horse race. "Who wins, wins. The rest lose."

Lack of government interference

He also pointed out that there was a lack of government patronisation and help in the field. "None of the governments since independence took special care of the film industry.

"Instead, wrong steps and lack of support have in many cases held back the industry from booming."

Bangladesh Film Directors Association Chairman Mohammad Hannan also agrees with Parvez about the state of Dhallywood.

"If we make movies, where will we screen them? Cinema Halls are closing down one by one, and there are no government initiatives to save them."

According to statistics of the Information Minister to the parliament this year, nearly two-thirds of Bangladesh's movie theatres have shutdown.

"Many say there is a crisis of talent in and behind the silver screen. I agree. But we also do not have the necessary environment for making films," Hannan vented.

Silver screen's home in tatters?

BFDC's Managing Director has changed 40 times over the last four decades, which Hannan believes sped up the fall of the arena.

"The film industry is a vast area. The overall performance is essentially dependent on internal understanding. However, by the time a new MD manages to develop the understanding, he is transferred. It's FDC's bad luck."

Parvez, the distributors' platform stalwart, points out: "Most of these appointments are political. That would not have mattered if they were tied to films. I have repeatedly advocated for the appointment of someone who understands cinema."

He continued that three appointments were made over the last six months out of which two were 'from theatre' while one of them is 'up to an extent' tied to films.

"They might understand stage drama. But it is not possible to make them understand the totality of films."

Run-down equipment

Parvez also highlighted the desolate state of the technical side of the corporation. "Most of the work is carried out using equipment from the sixties. Besides, those operating them do not have proper training."

"A sound capturing machine was brought in 1990. Of the 40 knobs on the panel, the operators do not know how to switch on most of them. They do not know their functions.

"And the chemicals used to develop negatives in the lab are very low standard. Much better results are gotten when they are developed outside."

Hannan pointed out that despite being a film development corporation, most of the floors were rented out for television programmes throughout the year. Even though the filmmakers were supposed to get separate benefits now that the arena has been declared an industry, film-making is becoming tougher due to various charges being imposed every now and then.

Fahmidul Haq adds that no new equipment entered the BFDC after FY2005-06. The Telecine machine has been out of order for the last three years which is a similar scenario about the sub-title machine and the digital dubbing system.

"Anyone who wants to make a good film and get them to last more has to get his editing done in Madras after finishing off their shoot here.

However, the incumbent MD and drama icon, Pijush Bandopaddhay, is still enthusiastic about the BFDC. "FDC has nine shooting floors along with its own editing panel, lab and sound system, facilities which many South Asian countries do not have."

Information Secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamun said that the government had been undertaking short-term, middle-term and long-term plans for the development of the film industry. "Under the short-term planning, FDC will be given Tk 580 million to bring the organisation up to date."

"It is a misery that the decision-takers do not discuss with us about what we need. This fund will be disbursed over five years, which means that every year, we will get funds a little over Tk 100 million," Parvez said.

"But to buy 12 cameras, we need Tk 480 million, the developing machine will cost Tk 30 million while the digital sound complex will require another Tk 100 million. That is leaving many other things out," he added.

Bandopaddhay agreed that the fund was not enough. "If we want to fully digitalise FDC from the manual system, this fund is in no way enough. But we also have to keep in mind the various limitations of a developing country."

Home Minister Shahara Khatun on Sunday said her government would not hesitate to go tough on opposition leaders when required and said the people were not afraid of BNP's threat of movement.

She made the comment at a discussion organised at Dhaka Reporters Unity by Dhaka Metropolitan Bangabandhu Academy marking the eighth death anniversary of senior Awami League leader Ivy Rahman.

Her remarks came hours ahead of opposition chief Khaeda Zia meeting policymakers of the BNP on Sunday night. The main opposition party has been threatening the government with launching tougher agitation after Eid-ul-Fitr and is expected to discuss the future course of anti-government movement at the meeting.

"The people of Bengal are not afraid of the BNP's threat. If necessary, they (the opposition protesters) would be resisted with a strong hand for ensuring progress of the country," she said.

"Nobody would be able to protect them (BNP leaders) when the people will file cases against BNP leaders and activists."

The ruling Awami League's Presidium Member also urged all to stand united so that the 'war criminals' could not fly national flag riding on the shoulders of the BNP.

"The evil powers that were at play on Aug 15 and Aug 21 of 1975 and 2004 respectively come from the same source," said Khatun.

Ivy Rahman was among the 24 killed in the Aug 21 attack on an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue.

The first prosecution witness against Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami on Sunday said he had led the Al Badr vigilante militia during the 1971 Liberation War.

Himself a former member of Jamaat's student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha, Misbahur Rahman Chowdhury, currently heading a faction of Islami Oikkya Jote, told the first war crimes tribunal of Bangladesh that Al Badr was set up with Jamaat student cadres.

The vigilante groups like Al Badr, Razakar and Al Shams are said to have been widely responsible for war crimes during the Liberation War.

The 57-year old witness said Al Badr was not like other anti-liberation militia groups. "The members were trained by the Pakistani Army and they were, in a way, above the other groups."

The International Crimes Tribunal-1, set up to try crimes against humanity during the nine-month War of Independence, indicted Nizami on May 28 for 16 war crimes.

The witness said the Jamaat chief's current number two, the party's Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed, was also his number two during the War in Jamaat's student wing and also within Al Badr.

Misbahur Rahman also placed Jamaat guru Ghulam Azam, also a former party chief (during 1971), at the court of King Faisal of Saudi Arabia after the Liberation War where the witness had gone to visit the Saudi King as a young leader of a Muslim students' organisation.

"I saw that Ghulam Azam and his brother Moazzem were already there and the professor (Ghulam Azam) was telling the king that freedom fighters had destroyed mosques."

He said he heard the Jamaat guru tell the Saudi king that madrasas had been closed and Qurans had become scarce and asked for funds for rehabilitation and reconstruction.

"Afterwards, I protested what Ghulam Azam had stated pointing out to the king that most of the freedom fighters were Muslims and thus would not have damaged or destroyed mosques."

Misbahur Rahman Chowdhury told the court that his father had whisked him out of his native Moulvibazar where a local Sangha leader urged him to join the Al Badr.

The witness was then sent off to London, England. "It was very risky at that time to denounce or quiet the Chhatra Sangha."

However, the witness had to return to Bangladesh within two months as his mother was sick while the war still raged on. He again went to the Great Britain after the war and studied at a college in Wales where he founded a Muslim students' organisation.

Earlier the first war crimes tribunal rejected a bail petition for acting Jamaat Secretary General A T M Azharul Islam saying that it had previously rejected other bail applicants whose health condition was 'far worse' than that of the instant applicant.

The tribunal, however, directed the jail doctor to perform an MRI and a CT scan as recommended earlier and make sure that all medical treatment is accorded to Azharul Islam. The court directed that if needed Azharul Islam be taken to the medical university hospital, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Medical University.

At the second tribunal, Shahriar Kabir, a long time activist calling for the trial of suspected war criminals, testified as the first prosecution witness against Jamaat Secretary General Mujaheed.

A platform of medical and dental college admission-seekers on Sunday announced that they were resuming their protests against the new enrolment system from Monday.

The students said at a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters' Unity that they would assemble at the Central Shaheed Minar at 9am for 'peaceful' demonstration.

Farzana Afrin, representative of the platform, claimed students of various medical colleges, universities, schools and colleges across Bangladesh have thrown their weight behind them.

She said a 'civil assembly' would take place at 11am and a memorandum will be submitted to the Prime Minister's Office at noon.

"We'll be compelled to wage tougher agitations from Aug 28 if no announcement comes [from the government] within Monday," Afrin warned.

On Aug 12, Health Minister AFM Ruhal Haque said the government had decided to enrol students at the medical and dental colleges based on their SSC and HSC GPAs from this year in lieu of admission tests.

The Minister's announcement triggered off protests by admission seekers and guardians.

The admission-seekers had staged daylong demonstrations on Aug 13 and 14 Dhaka's Central Shaheed Minar, the National Press Club and the Shahbagh intersection resulting in huge tailbacks across the capital.

The students put off their protest on Aug 14 and on the same day the government decision was challenged in the High Court. The court ordered authorities to explain why the new system would not be declared illegal.

Amid the ongoing protests, the Health Minister had said the medical and dental admission 'coaching centres were instigating' the demonstrations.

At Sunday's press conference, the student demonstrators demanded closure of all coaching centres claiming no one was instigating their demonstration or was associated with it. They also argued against the new enrolment system.

On Aug 23, another petition was filed in the High Court in a bid to secure an order to start admission process like previous years.

The online admission process for the first year honours courses under 2012-13 academic session of Dhaka University (DU) will begin from one minute past Saturday midnight.

Vice-Chancellor Professor A A M S Arefin Siddique will inaugurate the online admission process at the central admission office in the university's administrative building at 00:00am, DU public Relations Officer Ashraf Ali told bdnews24.com.

The application forms and related information will be available online at www.admission.univdhaka.edu till Sep 15. The forms have to be submitted online during the period.

The last year's price of Tk 300 for each admission form will remain the same this year. Students, however, will have to pay an additional Tk 20 for bank charge this year.

Students will be required to fill in and submit admission forms as per directions available on the website.

They will have to download a three-part pay-in-slip, fill that up, and deposit Tk 320 with the slip to any branch of Agrani, Rupali, Sonali, and Janata banks across the country.

Admit cards for admission tests will be available on the website as well after 48 hours of depositing the money. The applicants will have to download the admit cards and get them printed.

Students, who successfully completed the HSC examinations in 2011 and 2012 and fulfil other requirements set by the DU authorities, will be eligible to take the admission tests.

Admission test of 'Ka' unit (Science Faculty) for the first-year Honours course will be held on Oct 12, 'Kha' unit (Arts and social sciences) on Oct 19, 'Ga' unit (Business Studies) on Nov 23, 'Gha' unit (changing discipline) on Nov 9 and 'Cha' unit (Fine Arts) on Nov 16.

Police have arrested four suspected robbers while the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) held one on Saturday in connection with the murder of the Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) leader Dr Narayan Chandra Datta Nitai.

Despite his family's belief that it was a premeditated murder over recruitment in a hospital, the law enforcers insisted that the incident took place during a burglary.

At a press conference, where the four detainees were produced, Deputy Commissioner (South) of the Detective Branch of Police Monirul Islam said the law enforcers had recovered looted gold ornaments and the knife used for killing the 48-year-old doctor.

They had been detained from Dhaka and adjacent areas over the past two days, Islam said.

"We are preliminarily confirmed that the murder was conducted during the robbery," he said.

"But," he added, "this isn't final. We are giving similar priority to the other chances, including the talks over politics."

Those detained are Masud alias Peda, 28, Saidul, 38, Pichchi Kamal, 35 and Faisal, 32.

Faisal said one of his associates, barred during the burglary at the house, knifed a person.

"We heard later in the morning that the victim has died," he said.

Four of the seven robbers, including Faisal, entered the house after cutting the window grill, he said.

"He (Nitai) was asleep when we entered [the house]. Getting awake, he scuffled with us. We wanted to tie him up but he resisted. Then Mintu knifed him and we fled after looting some things," he added.

RAB arrested another member of the gang, Kamal. RAB spokesman M Sohail said he would be handed over to the police.

Dr Nitai, an Executive Committee member of BMA, was knifed to death in the early hours of Thursday at his home in Mahakhali's National Institute of Disease of the Chest and Hospital (NIDCH).

On the fateful night, he was alone in his room and his octogenarian mother Manju Dutta was on the floor below. On the first floor, police found household items scattered all over the place, leading them to suspect the killing was part of a robbery.

A case filed by the father of the deceased, Tarit Kanti Datta, over the incident with the Banani police mentioned Tk 500,000 has gone missing.

But DR Nitai's brother-in-law Surash Chowdhury claimed after the murder that it was premeditated.

He alleged Nitai was being threatened over recruitment of third and fourth-class employees at NIDCH.

"Everything is false. It is a staged drama. If it was an incident of burglary, it would have been carried out after tying his hands, legs and mouth, and he would not have been killed. Though money and gold ornaments were looted, I would still say it was a premeditated murder," said Surash.

Surash, however, could not name any of those threatening Nitai.

Superintendent of the NIDCH Dr Bashir Ahmed said Dr Nitai never talked about receiving any threats.

According to Ahmed, the 55 newly appointed NIDCH staffs included Nitai's brother Goutam and Gautam's wife. The appointment was formalised on Aug 1.

"Narayan (Nitai) was superintendent of the NIDCH even six months ago and the possibility of killing him to avenge previous enmity cannot be brushed aside," said one of his colleagues, preferring anonymity.

Jahangirnagar University is slated to resume academic activities from Sunday after a 24-day closure in the wake of violent clashes between ruling Awami League student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League and police.

Authorities say dormitories would be opened from Saturday afternoon.

A media release from the university said students would have to present their identity cards at the hall gates. Teachers would examine the cards, it said.

Students residing at halls would be allowed to enter their dormitories only between 8am and 11pm every day, the press release added.

University Vice-Chancellor Professor Anwar Hossain hoped that academic activities would go unhindered after the reopening.

On Aug 1, Tahmidul Islam Likhon, a post-graduate student of Economics and leader of a Chhatra League faction, was stabbed by assailants. The pro-government student wing's activists responded violently when the law enforcers went to detain a student in connection with the attack.

Five students were injured when police fired rubber bullets as the agitated students vandalised Mir Mosharraf Hossain Hall Provost's residence and smashed a vehicle of the law enforcers.

Students had to leave their dormitories within Aug 3 when the university authorities announced Eid vacation in advance apparently to avert further violence.

Jurors felt Samsung Electronics Co Ltd should pay significant damages in the landmark patent trial against Apple Inc, even though they viewed Apple's demands as too high, according to the foreman.

Apple won a sweeping victory against Samsung on Friday in a federal courtroom in San Jose, California.

A nine-member jury found the Korean company had infringed on several Apple features and design patents and awarded the iPhone maker $1.05 billion (664 million pounds) in damages, which could be tripled because the jury also decided the Korean firm had acted wilfully.

Apple said it intends to seek sales bans against Samsung mobile products, which Samsung will oppose.

In an interview on Saturday, jury foreman Velvin Hogan, 67, said Apple's arguments about the need to protect innovation were persuasive in the jury room. He also said video testimony from senior Samsung executives made it "absolutely" clear to them that the infringement was purposeful.

"We didn't want to give carte blanche to a company, by any name, to infringe someone else's intellectual property," Hogan told Reuters a day after the verdict.

However, Hogan said Apple's damages demand of up to $2.75 billion were "extraordinarily high," partly because it was unclear whether Apple had enough component supply to sell more phones even if it had wanted to.

FIGURING DAMAGES

Apple's damages expert testified that Samsung earned margins of roughly 35.5 percent on the products at issue in the lawsuit, on $8.16 billion in revenue. However, Hogan said they thought Apple's percentage did not properly take into account many other costs identified by Samsung.

Samsung's damages expert testified the margin should be closer to 12 percent, and the jury picked a number slightly above that, Hogan said.

"We wanted to make sure the message we sent was not just a slap on the wrist," Hogan said. "We wanted to make sure it was sufficiently high to be painful, but not unreasonable."

Hogan worked as an engineer for decades before he retired, and holds a patent of his own. He said jurors were able to complete their deliberations in less than three days - much faster than legal experts had predicted - because a few had engineering and legal experience, which helped with the complex issues in play.

Once they determined Apple's patents were valid, jurors evaluated every single device separately, he said.

"We didn't just go into a room and start pitching cards into a hat," he said.

At one point during the second day of deliberations, jurors turned off the lights in the room to settle a debate about the potential influence screen brightness might have on Apple's graphics interface. Their verdict: Apple's designs were unique.

"All of us feel we were fair, that we can stand by our verdict and that we have a clear conscience in that we were totally not biased one way or another," Hogan said.

The case in US District Court, Northern District of California, is Apple Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, No. 11-1846.

Gultekin Khan, the estranged wife of virtuoso writer Humayun Ahmed who died on July 19, visited her former husband's grave at Nuhashpalli in Gazipur for the first time on Thursday, and prayed for the departed soul.

Sculptor of Nuhashpalli, favourite retreat of the popular Bengali fiction writer, Asaduzzaman said Gultekin accompanied by her in–laws arrived at the grave around 10am.

The in-laws accompanying Gultekin were her mother-in-law Ayesha Fayez, her two sons Zafar Iqbal and Ahsan Habib, and their three sisters Sufia Haider, Mamtaz Shahid and Rokhsana Ahmed. Humayun's nephew and nieces also went there along with their families.

Humayun's fan visiting the grave that time also joined the prayer.

The celebrated writer was buried at Nuhaspalli on July 24.

Humayun's second wife Meher Afroz Shaon visited the grave along with her two sons a day before the Eid.

Myanmar on Thursday told the Prime Minister it had formed a high-powered commission to investigate the causes of recent sectarian violence between Muslim Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists at Rakhine State.

Myanmar's Ambassador to Bangladesh U Myint Than informed Sheikh Hasina of latest situation of Rakhine state after the riot at a meeting at her office, PM's Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad said.

The envoy said the tension in violence-hit Rakhine state had eased after the Myanmar government sincerely tackled the situation, which was now under control of the authorities.

"The high-powered commission will dig out the cause of the violence and recommend necessary measures,' Azad quoted him as saying.

Hasina hoped the Yangon will soon start repatriating refugees from the refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Other bilateral interests were also discussed at the meeting.

Ambassador at-Large M Ziauddin, PM's Principal Secretary Sheikh Wahid-Uz Zaman and Office Secretary Mollah Wahiduzzaman were present.

A relative of Dr Narayan Chandra Datta Nitai is refusing to take the incident as a robbery and believes the murder was premeditated.

Brother-in-law Surash Chowdhury claims Dr Nitai was being threatened over recruitment at the National Institute of Diseases of the Chest and Hospital (NIDCH).

Unnamed assailants had stabbed him to death at the residential building of NIDCH in Mohakhali on Thursday.

Police found everything on the house's first floor in a disorderly manner and suspected the killing was part of a robbery.

"Everything is false. It's an organised drama. Robbers would only take away things. They would not kill," Surash said.

"Even if money and gold were looted, I'll take it as a planned murder," he added.

He said the NIDCH had been plagued with problems during the past several days over appointment of the third and fourth-class employees.

"One of the doctors and his associates often threatened him," Surash said without naming anyone.

However, Superintendent of the NIDCH Dr Bashir Ahmmed said Dr Nitai never talked about receiving any threats.

He said Dr Nitai's brother Gautam and his wife Korna Das were among the 55 employees appointed to third and fourth-class posts on Aug 1.

Officer-in-Charge (Investigation) of the Banani Police Station Moinul Haque told bdnews24.com that the incident took place in the wee hours.

An Executive Member of Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA), spokesperson for medical profession, was also an Assistant Professor at the NIDCH.

"The assailants entered Dr Nitai's residence breaking the window grill and stabbed him to death. He was rushed to the hospital in the morning where doctors declared him dead," the police officer said.

Two knives and a crowbar were found at the scene of the murder, he said.

"Most probably the miscreants entered the house to steal. They knifed Dr Nitai as he would have sensed them," he added.

Moinul Haque said one "Saidul" had been nabbed in connection with the murder.

Dr Nitai's wife, Dr Lucky Chowdhury, who and her husband are leaders of pro-government Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad, had gone to her village home in Chittagong on holiday. She came back around 1pm after learning about her husband's murder.

Dr Nitai's octogenarian mother Manju Dutta lived on the floor below him, according to police who believe the assailants entered the residence to commit burglary and fled killing Nitai when he noticed them.

Mother Manju Dutta told journalists that around Tk 500,000 in cash and 30 tolas of gold ornaments had gone missing.

Night guard in the hospital area Abdur Rauf told journalists he had gone to the first floor of the building hearing Dr Nitai's mother's scream in the morning. There, he said, he had found the doctor in a blood-stained state.

He said, "Sir's (Dr Nitai) face was covered with a lungi. When I removed the lungi, Sir said, 'Call in a doctor'. He did not make any more noise."

Rauf said 17 night guards were appointed for the area and that his colleagues had asked him to take up the "duty" in front of the quarter during night as he was old.

The night guard added that assailants often chased guards there.

Dr Nitai's body was taken to his residence around 2pm after autopsy. His brother-in-law said Nitai's funeral would take place at Kalipur village in Chittagong's Banshkhali Upazila.

He will be cremated at the Great Crematorium in the Baluar Dighir Parh.

Health and Family Welfare Minister A F M Ruhal Haque rushed to the hospital soon after hearing the news. The minister, President of Swadhinata Chikitshak Parishad, expressed his deep shock and told the law-enforcing agencies to nab the killers at the earliest.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered quick arrest of the murderers.

Former U.S. astronaut, Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon, has died at the age of 82, his family said on Saturday.

Armstrong underwent a heart-bypass surgery earlier this month, just two days after his birthday on August 5, to relieve blocked coronary arteries.

As commander of the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969. As he stepped on the dusty surface, Armstrong said: "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."

Those words endure as one of the best known quotes in the English language.

Neil Alden Armstrong was 38 years old at the time and even though he had fulfilled one of mankind's quests that had loomed for centuries and placed him at the pinnacle of human achievement, he did not revel in his accomplishment. He even seemed frustrated by the acclaim it brought.

"I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks but for the ledger of our daily work," Armstrong said in an interview on CBS's "60 Minutes" program in 2005.

He once was asked how he felt knowing his footprints would likely stay on the moon's surface for thousands of years. "I kind of hope that somebody goes up there one of these days and cleans them up," he said.

A VERY PRIVATE MAN

James Hansen, author of "First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong," told CBS: "All of the attention that ... the public put on stepping down that ladder onto the surface itself, Neil never could really understand why there was so much focus on that."

The Apollo 11 moon mission turned out to be Armstrong's last space flight. The next year he was appointed to a desk job, being named NASA's deputy associate administrator for aeronautics in the office of advanced research and technology.

Armstrong's post-NASA life was a very private one. He took no major role in ceremonies marking the 25th anniversary of the moon landing. "He's a recluse's recluse," said Dave Garrett, a former NASA spokesman.


"Howard Hughes had nothing on him," he said, speaking of the reclusive aviator.

Hansen said stories of Armstrong dreaming of space exploration as a boy were apocryphal, although he was long dedicated to flight. "His life was about flying. His life was about piloting," Hansen said.

He left NASA a year after Apollo 11 to become a professor of engineering at the University of Cincinnati.

The former astronaut lived in the Cincinnati area with his wife, Carol.

"We are heartbroken to share the news that Neil Armstrong has passed away following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures," the family said in a statement. "Neil was our loving husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend.

The government has moved to evict hawkers and remove banners, festoons, posters and billboards from footbridges and underpasses in Dhaka City to ensure safe roads.

The Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives on Wednesday directed the authorities of Dhaka City Corporation (North) and Dhaka City Corporation (South) to remove banners, posters and festoons.

State Minister for Local Government Jahangir Kabir Nanak told bdnews24.com on the evening, "The chief executives of the two city corporations have been given directives. They've also informed me that on getting the directives, they asked the officials concerned to take measures to this effect."

The junior minister said the foot-over bridges encroached upon by hawkers make it difficult for the pedestrians to move on the bridge. Pedestrians avoid most of the foot-over bridges and underpasses since billboards and banners leave them dark. As a result, muggers, bag-snatchers and pickpockets enjoy thrive in those places.

According to the Local Government Division and the Dhaka City Corporations, there are currently 52 foot-over bridges in the city while eight more under construction.

Of the three foot-underpasses built in the busiest areas in the city to facilitate movement of pedestrians, barring the one in Karwan Bazar, the two others have become unusable. Security risk, shabby environment and dark underground path in the city subways discourage people from taking them.

Hawkers have taken their control of the two other foot-overpasses at Gabtoli and Gulistan. The makeshift shops installed by the hawkers and presence of beggars add to the sufferings of the daily commuters.

As both sides of most of the foot-over bridges in the city remain covered with billboards, banners, festoons and posters, hawkers occupy the foot-over bridges during the daytime and at night-time, muggers and prostitutes prowl around.

The government has not been fully successful in previous attempts to rid the foot-over bridges of banners and billboards.

Nanak said this time the government will strictly monitor the eviction drive begun from Wednesday.

People have started coming back into the capital after spending a long vacation.

But there was no traffic rush on the city streets on Wednesday and crowds of people were mostly seen in the bus and ferry terminals and railway stations.

Mohammad Mahmud, Traffic Inspector of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), told bdnews24.com that 50 passenger launches reached Sadarghat ferry terminal from the southern districts while only 12 launches left Dhaka on Wednesday.

He added the outbound launches were crowded but the flow of passengers in the incoming ones was mostly normal. However, the pressure of passengers coming to Dhaka will go up in the next couple of days.

This year, government and private employees enjoyed a weeklong holiday on the occasion of Eid, National Mourning Day, Shab-e-Qadr and weekends.

The government, semi- government and private offices, banks and other institutions reopened on Wednesday after the extended weeklong holiday. But attendance of employees in the offices was thin as thousands of people who streamed out of the capital are yet to return.

It is believed that the city will be brimming with residents from Sunday.

Railway's Transportation Officer (Dhaka zone) M Salahuddin said that 14 trains reached Kamalapur Railway Station from other parts of the country on Wednesday.

Nurul Islam Nuru, Manager of Ilish Paribahan at Sayedabad bus terminal, told bdnews24.com that holidaymakers already started flocking back to the capital.

"The pressure of passengers will rise on Saturday and Sunday," he added.

A 12-year-old boy from Moheshkhali drowned at Cox's Bazar sea beach on Wednesday.

Mohammad Sohel, son of Shamsul Alam from Amtoli village, had come to the resort town with his cousin Saiful Islam aged 12 years, too, to spend Eid holiday with their aunt's family at Bharuakhali, Saiful told bdnews24.com.

They went to the beach's Laboni Point along with their cousin (aunt's son) Mohammad Faisal f same age in the afternoon.

"We were taking pictures. Suddenly Sohel ran into the sea. When he was drowning, Faisal and I went to rescue him," Saiful said.

"All of us were downing then. Lifeguards rescued the two of us at once but Sohel was found after a long time," he added.

"The boy (Sohel) went to swim with a tube but drowned when the tube turned over around 3pm," Robi Lifeguard Director Syed Noor said.

He was rescued after around half an hour and rushed to a hospital where the doctor declared him dead, he said.

The lifeguards rescued at least 14 tourists on Wednesday, he said. One of them, 'Rubel', was admitted to the Cox's Bazar Sadar Hospital, he added.

Yasir Lifeguard Director Mostafa Kamal said they rescued at least 20 tourists throughout the day.

Dhaka is the second most vulnerable city to serious flooding among nine coastal cities around the world and will remain so until 2100 unless measures to counter the threat are taken, suggests an international study.

The finding is the result of a new method developed by a team of researchers from the Netherlands and the University of Leeds for assessing flood vulnerability. The team also developed a Coastal City Flood Vulnerability Index (CCFVI) based on exposure, susceptibility and resilience to coastal flooding.

Dhaka sits only 4 metres above the current sea level and is regularly hit by tropical cyclones and floods and yet it has few defences in place and little resilience, the study says.

While evaluating a city's physical attributes, the study also considers social and economic factors as they prepared the rating using 19 indicators.

According to the rating, the Chinese city Shanghai is considered the most exposed to the risk of flooding. Shanghai is particularly vulnerable because it is exposed to powerful storm surges and the land is subsiding as sea levels rise.

The rest of the rating order is Kolkata (India) and Manila (Philippines), Casablanca (Morocco), Rotterdam (Netherlands), Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Marseille (France), and Osaka (Japan).

The cities were picked up as these are built on river deltas.

The social vulnerability to floods of Shanghai, Dhaka and Manila will double by 2100, it says.

"The population close to the coastline and the number of cultural heritages exposed to floods will increase, so there is an urgent need for action towards adaptation measures by raising the anticipatory mentality of local population," finds the research that has appeared in the European journal Natural Hazards.

The analysis, the journal reports, reveals that the highly prosperous megapolis of Shanghai is more vulnerable than much poorer cities such as Dhaka,

Nigel Wright, from the University of Leeds' School of Civil Engineering, who led the study, said, "Vulnerability is a complex issue."

"It is not just about your exposure to flooding, but the effect it actually has on communities and business and how much a major flood disrupts economic activity," he added, according to a university statement.

He told BBC News current methods to determine vulnerability to flooding tends to be two dimensional.

"Very often we look at these sorts of things in a very deterministic way," he explained.

"We still use the physical ones but also economic and social ones, such as how much attention is given by local or national governments to protect citizens and citizens' property through investing in various forms of resilience," he added.

These included the percentage of a city's population living close to the coastline; the amount of time needed for a city to recover from flooding; the amount of uncontrolled development along the coastline, as well as the volume of measures to physically prevent floodwater entering a city.

The indicators that led to the measurement include measures of the level of economic activity in a city, its speed of recovery, and social issues such as the number of flood shelters, the awareness of people about flood risks, and the number of disabled people in the population.

"Our index looks at how cities are prepared for the worst — for example, do they have flood defences, do they have buildings that are easy to clean up and repair after the flood? It is important to know how quickly a city can recover from a major flood," Wright said.

Mohammad Abdul Qayyum, National Project Director of the government's Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme, however, ruled out the risk of coastal flooding in Dhaka.

"I did not see the study, but if they are talking about the risk of coastal flooding, then I'll say 'no'," he told bdnews24.com.

"Dhaka is not a coastal area. It has the risk of urban flooding."

Qayyum said as a country Bangladesh had the greatest risk of flooding. "But if I pinpoint an area of the country, then Dhaka is not the most at-risk city."

"We have mechanisms to identify the flood vulnerability even of a small village," he said.

The Project Director explained: "Dhaka is very much susceptible to urban flooding and even monsoon floods may enter from the eastern side as about 50 percent area is not protected by embankment."

He attributed unplanned urbanisation and lack of proper drainage system to the risk of Dhaka's urban flooding.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday vowed not to leave the path of her father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, though she had to face death several times in the past.

"I've continued working with the spirit of War of Independence to fulfil Bangabandhu's dreams despite several attempts to kill me," she said.

She said, "I'm working so that Bangladesh doesn't fall in the hands of any unconstitutional and undemocratic power."

Hasina made the promise after placing wreaths at a makeshift memorial at Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital on the occasion of the eighth anniversary of the grisly grenade attack on an Awami League rally.

On Aug 21 in 2004, at least 24 people, including President Zillur Rahman's wife and senior politician Ivy Rahman, were killed in the blasts in front of the Awami League central office and some 200 others were injured.

Investigations found Sheikh Hasina, then the opposition chief, was the prime target of the attack, but survived with permanent hearing impairment. Her bodyguards and several senior party members formed a human wall to save and escort her to the car. Rapid brushfire riddled the bulletproof car as it sped off.

The chargesheet in the case filed over the blasts said the Aug 21 attack was planned after several attempts to kill her had failed.

BNP Chairman Khaleda Zia's elder son and party's Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman, Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary-General and then Social Welfare Minister Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed, and former State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar were also charged in the case along with others.

Remembering those who perished in the attack, Hasina on Tuesday held the then BNP-Jamaat alliance government responsible for the incident.

She said, "We had planned to stage a demonstration at Mukgtangon to protest an attack on the British High-Commissioner. We didn't get the permission. But then again, the permission was given late in the night."

"We had cancelled the programme. But why the permission was given?"

Hasina, also the Awami League President, continued, "Thirteen grenades blasted one by one right after I finished my speech. Those who threw the grenades had left the scene, but police shot teargas shells and charged baton on those trying to rescue the dead and injured."

She also claimed that evidences found at the scene of crime were also destroyed.

"I promise you, trials of the conspirators will be held in this land," she said promising that justice for all killings including the grenade attack would be served.

Hasina placed wreaths on the memorial at Bangabandhu Avenue at 11am as the Prime Minister and then placed another wreath as the party's President along with other Awami League leaders.

She also talked to the family members of those injured in the attack and enquired about their wellbeing.

Awami League Advisory Council member Amir Hossain Amu, General Secretary and LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) President Hasanul Haque Inu, Workers Party President Rashed Khan Menon, and Samyabadi Dal General Secretary and Industries Minister Dilip Barua, also spoke on the occasion.

Syed Ashraful Islam said, "Those who run newspapers with funding from ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam), land grabbers, and people who don't believe in the spirit of the Liberation War, have united to thwart democracy."

He also asked everyone to be united to stand against those who were conspiring to foil democracy in the country.