BANGLADESH

Main opposition BNP's chairperson Khaleda Zia will officially announce four-party alliance's extension from the March 12 grand rally.

Jammat-e-Islami's Nayeb-e-Amir Maulana Abdus Subhan briefed journalists about the decision taken by members of the four-party alliance at a meeting on Wednesday night. The over an hour-long meeting ended around 10:00pm.

"We discussed the draft of the announcement for expanding our coalition. We have offered some suggestions. The announcement will come at the grand rally on March 12," said Abdus Subhan.

Another member of the coalition Bangladesh Jatiya Party chairman Andalib Rahman Partho said the discussion focussed on whether the government would be given an ultimatum or any other move.

He mentioned that the coalition would assume a different name after its expansion and that some names have already been proposed.

The meeting was also attended by Jamaat-e-Islami executive member Mia Golam Parowar, BJP secretary general Shamim Al Mamun, Islami Oikya Jote secretary general Abdul Latif Nezami, and Khelafat Majlish chairman principal Mohammad Ishaque.

The March 12 rally, convened by BNP, would be held in front of the party's head office in Naya Paltan.

Later, Khaleda Zia held another meeting with 10 other like-minded parties to discuss the preparations of the grand rally and new programmes to be announced from there.

The parties include National People's Party, Jatiya Gonotantrik Party, Islamic Party, Labour Party, and National Democratic Party. Khaleda also held another meeting with the leaders of Liberal Democratic Party.

Apple Inc took the wraps off a faster 4G-equipped iPad on Wednesday, hoping the latest version of its tablet can safeguard its dominance as rivals from Amazon to Samsung pile into the market.

CEO Tim Cook, presiding over his biggest product launch since 2011's voice-enabled iPhone 4S, introduced the highly anticipated third iteration of the tablet, which commands upwards of two-thirds of the growing market.

The newest iPad will be capable of operating on a high-speed 4G "LTE" or Long-Term Evolution network. At speeds roughly 10 times faster than current 3G technology, that may help banish the sometimes shaky video quality of older devices.

Apple is betting a 4G-equipped iPad will tempt more U.S. consumers to pay extra for higher-quality video on the go. That, in turn, should give Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc a revenue boost, analysts say.

Until now, buyers have been reluctant to shell out extra cash even for iPads with slower 3G connections. The cheaper Wi-Fi-only model - with much more limited Web access - is by far Apple's top-selling one today.

The company is counting on a warm reception to its latest tablet to fend off an increasingly aggressive challenge from Google Inc Android-powered tablets, with Microsoft Corp software-driven devices slated to come soon.

"Everyone's been wondering who will come out with a product that's more amazing that the iPad 2," Cook said.

"Stop wondering: we are."

The global tablet user base reached 67 million in 2011, according to researcher Strategy Analytics.

Earlier in the session, Cook again held forth on what he called a "post-PC world", in which users move increasingly away from traditional desktop and laptop computing and toward an array of portable devices.

And he announced that the company's new $99 Apple TV set-top box, a concept that late CEO Steve Jobs had called a "hobby," now supports high-definition 1080p screen technology.

"Last year alone we sold 172 million post-PC devices," Cook told the audience at the Yerba Buena Center in downtown San Francisco, Apple's preferred venue for product unveilings.

"And this made up 76 percent of our revenues. This is incredible."

Investigators arrived on the crime scene 12 hours after the incident taking place and two hours after getting to know that the man killed had been identified as a Saudi Arabian embassy official.

Khalaf Al Ali, an official with the consular section of the embassy, died about four hours after he was shot by unidentified criminals around 1:00am Tuesday.

But the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) sleuths had not descended on the scene of crime until 1:00pm. In other words, they collected evidence like foot print after passage of such a long time, so very crucial in the investigation of a crime like murder.

Assistant police superintendent of CID Sabdar Ali, however, refused to accept the allegation, though he did accept that many evidences might have been destroyed or lost during those precious hours.

"CID had been informed at the right time. Traffic congestion might have delayed their arrival," said additional deputy commissioner of Gulshan zone Niyamul Haque.

He, however, claimed that police kept the crime scene enclosed until the CID sleuths reached there.

Incidentally, this is not an isolated incident of investigators showing lethargy in evidence collection once a crime has taken place. It was no different even after the killing of journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi, senior officials had then confirmed.

According to eye witnesses, Khalaf Al Ali was shot in the chest in front of his house at Gulshan's Road No. 120, Plot 9/A. Police took him to a private hospital where he died around 5:00am.

Police took a snap of the diseased and it only around 11:00am that they could establish the identity of the deceased.

Although several teams from police, Detective Branch, CID and RAB have been pressed to investigate into the killing, all seem clueless like any other layman.

Free screening camps, rallies, awareness meetings and discussions will be organised on Thursday as part of the World Kidney Day in Dhaka as elsewhere in the world.

President Zillur Rahman and prime minister Sheikh Hasina, in separate messages prior to the day, urged all concerned to raise mass awareness to prevent kidney diseases, as an estimated 20 million people suffer from various types of the ailment.

'Donate Kidney for Life' is the theme of the day.

Terming the theme 'appropriate and time-befitting' as 'it would encourage people to donate kidney to their close relatives', president Zillur Rahman urged the specialist physicians and the well-off to step forward to help out the poor kidney patients.

Hasina expressed her hope that all organisations concerned would play an important role in creating mass awareness about kidney transplant and the related diseases.

Bangladesh Renal Association, Kidney Foundation, Paediatric Nephrology Society of Bangladesh, Society of Organ Transplant Bangladesh, and Bangladesh Diabetic Society will jointly organise a rally and a discussion to mark the day.

To raise awareness, Bangladesh Renal Association will organise an open-air meeting at the capital's Rabindra Sorobor.

The Barakah Kidney Hospital and Research Institute Ltd at a press conference on Wednesday declared month-long free kidney screening camp and 40 to 50 percent discount on different surgical procedures of kidney.

The hospital will distribute awareness leaflets on Thursday.

The prime minister has urged the people to resist the 'anti-liberation forces' paid by Pakistani intelligence agency ISI and trying to save war criminals.

"I wonder how they can take money from the people who killed our mothers and daughters, and against whom we had waged a war. I wonder how they can take money for protecting war criminals," said Sheikh Hasina in parliament on Wednesday while taking part in a motion on the historic March 7 speech.

She made those remarks apparently referring to a news item appearing in a national Bangla newspaper on Mar 4 that alleged BNP chief Khaleda Zia took money from ISI before the 5th national election.

Hasina also recalled the criticism she had faced after terming the 1991 election 'an election of fine rigging' in her reaction to BNP then winning the polls.

"They had become victorious in the 91 election by using the money paid by ISI. Those who had criticised me at that time now understood how true that was," she added.

Drawing attention of the House, she said those in charge of Pakistan military and ISI at that time have also made confessions in a court of law under oath on the matter.

She also sought to stress the point that the newspaper which published the story 'is preferred by BNP'.

"Those who announce movements in the months like Dec and March do not believe in our independence. They are there just to protect war criminals. Everybody has to be aware of their betrayal," she added.

The prime minister went on to say that Bengalees who helped war criminals during the independence war are the real war criminals.

"Ziaur Rahman killed the Father of the Nation, scrapped all the laws to try them and finally released the war criminals."

Some disgruntled military officers in a coup killed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members in 1975, four years after winning the war of independence. Ziaur Rahman became the president of the country within two years of the assassination.

Awami League leaders Amir Hossain Amu, Tofael Ahmed, Suranjit Sen Gupta, Mujibul Haque, Hasanul Haque Inu, Abul Maal Abdul Muhit, Matia Chowdhury, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim and Latif Siddiqui also participated in the motion.