BANGLADESH

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has said Bangladesh's rights over 460 nautical-mile area in the Bay of Bengal will be secured from India and Myanmar.

"Both Myanmar and India will have to accept that we have rights in that part of the sea. We have our rights over the resources. Inshallah, we will secure the rights," she told parliament on Wednesday during the question-answer session.

Replying to a supplementary question of Naogaon-2 constituency MP Sahiduzzaman Sarkar, she said: "We have rights over the amount of sediment going to sea from Bangladesh and the area created by that sediment."

"We have rights over that 460 nautical-mile area of the Bay of Bengal. In the sea, Bangladesh has an area which is larger than its (Bangladesh) size," she added.

Bangladesh placed its 'position paper' on its maritime claim in the Bay of Bengal to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in New York on Feb 25. It claimed that Bangladesh owns that area.

But Myanmar on Mar 31 and India on Jun 20 last year placed their 'objection letters' to the UN over Bangladesh's claim.

The hearing on Bangladesh's claim began on Aug 24 last year at the UN.

Moreover, a case is also running at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) between Bangladesh and Myanmar to settle a dispute over degrading maritime border. The hearing of the case started last September.

Applications for cadre service jobs have to be submitted online from the next Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) examinations, an official has said.

Public Service Commission (PSC) controller of examinations (cadre) I E M Nesaruddin told : "Job applications have to be sent online starting the 33rd BCS examinations. Likewise, admit cards can also be collected online."

"Sufferings of the job aspirants will get immensely with the introduction of online application system," he said.

Nesaruddin said PCS has signed a contract to this effect with public-sector mobile phone operator Teletalk."

The agreement was inked with the consent of the finance minister, he said adding: "Application forms can be filled up through the PSC and Teletalk websites."

The PSC official said there would be instructions for filling up various parts of the forms. Applicant's copy will be seen and each applicant given an invoice number on filling up the form.

"The applicant can pay the exam fee through Teletalk mobile phone using the invoice number. Once the fee is paid, the aspirant will get a registration number. Then the applicant can download admit card using the invoice and registration numbers."

If anyone loses the admit card, it can be downloaded again, Nesaruddin said.

He hinted that circular for the 33rd BCS exams could be published late February or early March.

The PSC official said colour photos of the examinees would be affixed to the attendance book apart from the admit cards.

Those sitting the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinations in 2014 will have to deal with creative questions for 12 subjects.

In the HSC examinations of 2013, questions of Bangla, political science, chemistry and business entrepreneurship will be creative ones, chairman of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Dhaka, Fahima Khatun told on Wednesday.

Only Bangla will see creative questions in 2012, she added.

Apart from the four subjects to see creative questions in 2013, questions of physics, biology, accounting, business entrepreneurship and practical management, history, Islamic history, social science and social welfare, will be creative, an education ministry circular issued earlier in the day said.

In 2014, physics and biology students will have to answer creative questions of 40 numbers, multiple choice questions of 35 numbers and practical questions of 25 numbers.

Accounting, business entrepreneurship and practical management, history, Islamic history, social science and social welfare will see creative questions of 40 numbers and multiple choice questions of 60 numbers.

The government has issued a gazette on the appointment of former CSP officer Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed as the new chief election commissioner.

In a formal announcement on Wednesday evening, the Cabinet Division also issued gazettes on appointment of four others as election commissioners.

Retired additional secretary Mohammad Abu Hafiz, retired joint secretary Abdul Mobarak, retired brigadier general Mohammad Jabed Ali and retired sessions judge Mohammad Shahnewaz were appointed as Rakib's deputies and they will work with him for the next five years.

Earlier in the day, president Zillur Rahman's press secretary A K M Nesar Uddin Bhuiyan had confirmed about Rakib's appointment as the new CEC.

Following the gazette issuance, the EC secretariat would now make arrangements for their swearing-in by the chief justice.

EC secretary Mohammad Sadique had told that they would ask the chief justice for time to schedule the oath administration once the gazette is issued.

Islami Chhatra Shibir has called a half-day general strike for Thursday in protest at the deaths of two of its members in a clash at Chittagong University.

The lockdown will be enforced from 6am to 12pm in the port city, Shibir's metropolitan unit (north) president Mohammad Ismail told around 6:30pm on Wednesday.

Ismail said both south and north units of Chhatra Shibir have called on the strike with the support of Jamaat-e-Islami's Chittagong metropolitan unit.

Jamaat's metropolitan unit chief A N M Shamsul Islam MP has also confirmed his party's support for the shutdown.

Two pro-Jamaat-e-Islami students had died earlier in the day in clashes with pro-Awami League students over distribution of invites for the university's Islamic History department first-year orientation programme.

According to police and witnesses, the clash left at least 35 injured including CU proctor Nasim Hasan while police have arrested 10 Shibir activists from the campus.

Doctors at Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) had declared zoology second-year student Mohammad Mojaheed and English final year student Masud Bin Habib dead around 3:30pm after they were taken there with fatal injuries.

Meanwhile, the university authorities have ordered all students to vacate the dormitories and postponed academic activities until Feb 16 following the clashes.

Pro-government Bangladesh Chhatra League has claimed that one of the two who died in the clash with Islami Chhatra Shibir at Chittagong University was a BCL member.

Earlier, claiming both deceased as their members, the pro-Jamaat-e-Islami student organisation called a half-day general strike on Thursday in the port city.

"Deceased Mohammad Mojaheed was a BCL activist," CU BCL unit senior vice-president Abul Mansur Shikder told a press briefing at 8pm on Wednesday at a private hospital Medical Center in the city's GEC Intersection area.

Zoology second-year student Mohammad Mojaheed and English final-year student Masud Bin Habib died earlier in the day in clashes between BCL and Chhatra Shibir activists over the distribution of invites for the university's Islamic History Department first-year orientation programme.

However, right after the clash, Shibir's CU unit president Badiul Alam claimed that Habib was the general secretary of university's Suhrawardy Hall unit and Mojaheed was a member of his organisation.

Doctors at Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) declared Mojaheed and Habib dead around 3:30pm after they were taken there with fatal injuries.

Meanwhile, the university authorities have ordered all students to vacate the dormitories and postponed academic activities until Feb 16 following the hour-long clashes which also left at least 35 injured, including CU proctor Nasim Hasan.

BCL held the press briefing at Medical Center where some of the injured were admitted.

Blaming Shibir for the clash, Mansur said at least 50 BCL activists were injured in the clash and five of them were in critical condition.

He claimed, "This was a planned assault. Chhatra Shibir also held show-down programme on Tuesday night. Wednesday's assault took place as the CU BCL unit president and general secretary were not present on the campus."

He further alleged that police were also not effective during the clash.

Asking the CU authorities to resume university activities, the ruling party student wing leader said BCL will file a case with Hathazari Police Station over 'Mojaheed murder'.

He also announced at the briefing that his party will hold a human-chain programme and demonstrate in the city's Sholoshohor area on Thursday to protest 'Mojaheed's murder and assault'.

If the chief justice agrees, the newly-appointed chief election commissioner and the four election commissioners will be taking the oath of office on Thursday, the Election Commission secretary says.

"We have received the gazette on the appointment of the new CEC and four commissioners. We will request the chief justice to make arrangements for their swearing-in on Thursday," Mohammad Sadique told Wednesday evening.

If everything goes fine, the oath administration ceremony will take place on Thursday afternoon, he said.

President Zillur Rahman appointed former CSP officer Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed as the new CEC. Retired additional secretary Mohammad Abu Hafiz, retired joint secretary Abdul Mobarak, retired brigadier general Mohammad Jabed Ali and retired sessions judge Mohammad Shahnewaz were appointed as Rakib's deputies.

The EC received the gazette in the afternoon following its issuance by the Cabinet Division.

When asked about the administration of oath, Supreme Court registrar A K M Shamsul Islam told arrangements will be made after they receive EC Secretariat's letter.

"If they request to conduct the swearing-in on Thursday, the time will be fixed in line with the chief justice's schedule," he said.

The president on Jan 22 formed a search committee, following a series of dialogues with political parties having representation in parliament, to reconstitute the top polls panel as the tenure of the incumbent commission ends in the middle of this month.

Zillur Rahman accepted recommendations from the search committee headed by a Supreme Court judge, who submitted a list of 10 names, including two for the CEC's post, and he finalised the five on Wednesday from that list.

Meanwhile, EC officials have said that one of the new commissioners' swearing-in could be postponed as the term of election commissioner M Shakhawat Hossain is due to end on Feb 14.