BANGLADESH

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia have sent greetings to Bangladesh's cricket star Shakib Al Hasan on his 26th birthday.

"The prime minister wished Shakib a glorious future and hoped that he would lead Bangladesh's cricket to new heights," Hasina's special assistant (media) Mahbubul Haque Shakil told bdnews24.com on Saturday.

Khaleda's press secretary Maruf Kamal Khan also told bdnews24.com that Khaleda sent a cake and flowers with a greetings card to Shakib.

Party's sports affairs secretary Raihan Amin Talukder took the presents to Shakib's Mirpur residence, he said.

Shakib was born on Mar 24, 1987 in Magura. His debut test match was against India in 2007 while his ODI debut was against Zimbabwe the previous year.

He won the title of 'Man of the Tournament' in the just-concluded Asia Cup by scoring 237 individual runs and claiming six wickets during the tournament.

After 40 years of Liberation War, Bangladesh is set to honour its foreign friends on Mar 27 for their contribution to the freedom struggle in 1971.

The cabinet has approved a list of 132 but the government finally invited 110 friends, out of which 75 have consented to either come themselves or send their representatives to receive the honour.

This was disclosed by foreign minister Dipu Moni and state minister for liberation war affairs M Tajul Islam at a press briefing at the foreign ministry on Saturday.

The invitees will receive gold-plated silver metallic plaques bearing replica of the national mausoleum and a citation on silk cloth.

"We had formed a national committee to identify the foreign personalities contributing to our Liberation War," Dipu Moni said.

"We had prepared a list of 560 people, and finally we short-listed 132 names," she said.

In the first phase, daughter-in-law of former Indian prime minister Sonia Gandhi received the Bangladesh Freedom Honour awarded to Indira Gandhi in July last year.

President Zillur Rahman and prime minister Sheikh Hasina will hand over the award to the recipients at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.

"The committee has worked for the last two years and it is an ongoing process."

TRIPURA CHIEF MINISTER

When asked why Tripura chief minister is being honoured, the foreign minister said Manik Sarkar was a youth leader in 1971 and he contributed to the Liberation War.

Tajul Islam, also a freedom fighter, said he is the witness of the Manik's contribution to the Liberation War.

"He was junior to me by two to five years but when I went to Tripura, I saw him personally going door-to-door to seek help for freedom fighters," he said.

"Besides, it is we to decide whom we will give honour not the people of other country," he said referring to the ongoing agitation in Tripura as to why Manik Sarkar is being awarded in Bangladesh.

INVITEES

The foreign minister explained that out of the 132 in the list, they could manage to invite only 110 of them.

"Forty years have passed and many of them have changed their addresses and we found it difficult to locate them," she said.

PAKISTANIS IN THE LIST

When asked why there is no Pakistani in the list, the foreign minister said it is an 'ongoing process'.

"We acknowledge that there is a small group of Pakistanis which did raise voice for Bangladesh, and I am sure that after scrutiny they will be honoured," she said.

The liberation war affairs minister said the government has taken necessary steps to provide security to the invitees.

The telecom regulator has finalised the draft of the guidelines for awarding 3G mobile service licence with options to upgrade to 4G and long-term evolution (LTE) without any extra fees.

In the draft, the regulator -- Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) -- has proposed to give four companies the licences including two from existing five private mobile operators and a new one.

Teletalk will get the licence as state-owned firm.

"The draft will be sent to the telecommunications ministry next week," BTRC chairman Zia Ahmed told bdnews24.com in an interview on Thursday.

The work to award the licences would be complete by June or July after the ministry nods the guidelines, he added.

On Aug 9, a high-profile meeting of senior ministers and advisors chaired by the prime minister Sheikh Hasina took the decision to auction the wireless telecom spectrum to facilitate nationwide spread of 3G technology and wireless broadband services.

Ahmed had earlier said both local and foreign firms would be able to bid for the spectrum.

A top BTRC official has said 3G licence holders will be able to upgrade licences to 4G or LTE without any fee once the Cellular Mobile Phone Service (3G/4G/LTE) Regulatory Licence Guideline 2012 is cleared.

In the draft guidelines, the fee for every megahertz has been proposed at Tk 1.5 billion.

The floor price of 3G licence auction has been set Tk 15 billion.

The BTRC chairman said the estimated revenue from 3G licence is Tk 80 billion.

State-owned Teletalk, along with private operators Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi, Airtel and Citycell, is offering 2G services now.

The 3G technology will make mobile telephony much more efficient, with high-speed data transfer facilitating users to watch mobile TV, make video calls, using navigation equipment and access many other services.

LTE's data transfer speed is 80 percent higher than 3G.

Experts say 4G and LTE are same. Its download speed is 100 megabyte per second and upload speed is 50 Mb/S.

LTE's data pipe is built in such a way that users are able to do work of desktop computers with their mobile phones.

Bangladesh have demanded deduction of five runs from Pakistan's total score of Thursday's Asia Cup final for 'deliberate' obstruction by a Pakistani bowler to Mahmudullah in the last over of the match.

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) operations committee chairman Enayet Hossain Siraj on Saturday told bdnews24.com that they have appealed to the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and the International Cricket Council for review of the act of Pakistani bowler Aizaz Cheema.

"The appeal was made at a meeting with ACC," he said.

Current BCB chief A H M Mustafa Kamal is also ACC head, while former Bangladesh cricket player Syed Ashraful Haque is the organisation's chief executive.

The ACC has taken the plea into cognisance.

In case Pakistan get the five-run penalty or Bangladesh get five runs added to their score, Tigers could be the new Asia Cup champions.

Pakistan won by two runs after Bangladesh could score only six runs from the final over bowled by Aizaz Cheema.

BCB made the appeal to the top Asian cricket body alleging Cheema had deliberately blocked batsman Mahmudullah in the final over which they believe cost them the game.

He said, "Though the umpire had warned Cheema during the game, Bangladesh is not satisfied."

"We have seen video footage of the incident several times. It is clear that Cheema blocked Mahmudullah deliberately," Siraj added.

A never-say-die Bangladesh had lost agonisingly by two runs in a nail-biting thriller to hand Pakistan their second Asia Cup on Thursday.

Pakistan had batted first and scored 236 losing 10 wickets in the final match while chasing 237 to win, Bangladesh scored 234 for the loss of eight wickets in 50 overs.

The BCB appeal is in line with Section-42 (5) of the ICC's playing conditions.