BANGLADESH

Bangladesh are through to their first ever Asia Cup final after beating Sri Lanka by five wickets in Tuesday's cricket match.

“Pakistan will meet Bangladesh in Final. and India will meet Sri Lanka at the Airport,” joke Google users who are following the 2012 Asia Cup.

The Los Angeles Kings ice hockey team came out ahead against the San Jose Sharks in a Tuesday evening match in the US. The Kings beat the Sharks 5-2 in their fifth consecutive victory.

A video remix of Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady” has gone viral on Google+ as G+’ers discuss political rivals Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. The video is called and features American politician Mitt Romney rapping to the tune of Eminem’s song.

“Syria” remains at the top of Google+’s list of most talked about topics as the death toll in the country rises. “Israel” is back in the headlines too as G+ users link to news articles and try to help spread थे social movement message via their followers.

News reports say storms with heavy rains and strong winds have killed at least 17 people and injured dozens more in Bangladesh.

Dhaka's Prothom Alo and Janakantha newspapers say Friday's storms damaged mud-and-straw huts and felled trees in 10 of the country's 64 districts.

The reports say most of the deaths occurred from lightning. Some victims were buried under their collapsed houses.

Official confirmation of the reports was not immediately available.

Rainstorms are common in Bangladesh, a tropical delta nation of 160 million people.

An allegation of making up 'fake plaintiff' has surfaced to withdraw a case filed on charges of fraud against four people including Destiny Multipurpose Co-operative Society chairman and Kutub Bagh Darbar Sharif's 'Pir'.

The issue of the 'fake plaintiff' in the case came to light on Sunday when two lawyers for the plaintiff contradicted his location and pleas in the court of magistrate Mohammad Hasibul Haque of Dhaka's Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court.

Haque, after hearing plea of both lawyers, ordered Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police to check the voter ID cards of the two people who claimed themselves as plaintiffs. Police will have to submit their findings on May 15.

The court also ordered the Ramna Police Station officer-in-charge to make sure that first plaintiff Syed Shariful Haque Chishti is produced before the court on Tuesday.

One of the plaintiffs' lawyers, Amirul Islam, in his plea, said, "After filing the case on Mar 13, Syed Shariful Haque Chishti has gone missing. And now, the accused in the case are trying to withdraw the case by presenting a fake plaintiff."

Islam claimed, "The fake plaintiff's name is Shariful Islam, son of late Wasim Uddin. But Chishti is the real plaintiff, son of late Syed Nasirul Haque Chishti."

The lawyer also urged the court to protect the 'real' plaintiff and take measures against the 'fake' one.

Meanwhile, Shariful Chishti's lawyer Mohammad Golam Sarwar in a plea submitted on Mar 28 to withdraw the case said the case was filed following a misunderstanding between the plaintiff and the accused. But now, the plaintiff does not want to continue with the case as they have reached an understanding, he said.

The judge ordered to quash the case following his plea.

But Amirul on Sunday raised the allegation of creating a 'fake' plaintiff to drop the case.

Kutub Bagh Darbar Sharif's Pir Mohammad Jakir Shah's former 'Khadem' Shariful Haque Chishti filed the case at the Dhaka CMM's Court on Mar 13 accusing Jakir Shah, Destiny Multi-purpose Co-operative Society Limited chairman Amin, one Kabir Hossain and Ismail Hossain Babu.

Magistrate Hasibul Haque had ordered the accused to be present in court on Apr 15 after the hearing that day.

According to the case details, the accused confined Chishti inside the Kutub Bagh Darbar Sharif and forced him to sign some stamped blank cartridge papers on Apr 13 last year.

Later, he came to know that some pieces of land he owned at his paternal home were sold to Destiny Co-operative Society chairman Amin by Pir Jakir Shah for Tk 16.5 crore.

When Chishti went to him to talk about it, the accused had threatened to kill him, the case details said.

The High Court on Monday ordered authorities to suspend the process of the 33rd Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) preliminary test for three weeks and asked why the circular should not be declared illegal.

Following a writ petition filed on Sunday by 20 candidates who applied online but did not get admit cards, the bench of justices Farid Ahmed and Sheikh Hassan Arif issued the orders.

"According to the High Court order, all sorts of activities of the 33rd BCS will remain halted for three weeks," petitioners' lawyer A K M Fayez told bdnews24.com.

"The court wanted to know why the BCS circular with the condition of online application only should not be declared illegal," he said.

The court also asked why the Public Service Commission (PSC) would not be given directives to allow the applicants, who did not get their admit cards, to sit the test slated for June 1.

The court ordered the PSC chairman, Cabinet secretary, PSC's examination controller and Teletalk chairman to respond in one week.

"We told the court that the deprived applicants are at no fault. They applied in proper time. They cannot be deprived for the problem in Teletalk server. They did not get recourse even after appealing to the PSC chairman," Fayez said.

"In line with law, applications with the process to fill up online forms do not give everyone equal opportunity, which is contradictory to Section 29 of the constitution. The Section says everyone will have to be given equal opportunity in appointments," he added.

On Feb 29, the PSC published the circular for the test to fill up 4,206 vacant posts.

Amidst threat by applicants who did not get admit cards to move the High Court, the PSC had announced on Apr 10 that the 33rd BCS preliminary test will be held on June 1.

According to the PSC, 183,627 applicants have applied online from Mar 8 to Apr 7 for the 33rd BCS. This is first time BCS candidates have submitted applications online. The fee for the test was Tk 500.

State-owned mobile-phone operator Teletalk was assigned the task to collect the money submitted by candidates using its SMS service.

Teletalk said money of some 13,500 candidates could not be deposited as the pressure on the server was at its peak in the last two days as 50,000 candidates applied on those days.

The PSC argued that those who failed to submit the fee will not be allowed to take the test as 'the commission had alerted them about the pressure on the server by the end of the deadline to submit applications'.

Hours before the PSC announcement to hold the preliminary test, eight to 10 aspirants who had failed to get admit cards even after filling up online forms at a media conference threatened to move the High Court if they were not allowed chance to sit the test.

Apart from Fayez, lawyers Mostafizur Rahman and Parvin Hannan stood for the petitioners while assistant attorney general Samarendra Nath Biswas stood for the government.

Opposition leader and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia has returned home after undergoing a medical treatment at Singapore's National University Hospital.

A Singapore Airline flight carrying her touched the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport just before 11pm.

Khaleda's press secretary Maruf Kamal Khan said the opposition leader underwent a full medical check-up in Singapore.

"She (Khaleda) is fine now," he added.

Top party leaders including acting secretary-general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, standing committee member Barrister Moudud Ahmed, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Barrister Jamir Uddin Sarker, Nazrul Islam Khan, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, Aman Ullah Aman, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, Fazlul Haque Milon and Juba Dal president Moazzem Hossain Alal, among others, received her at the airport.

She had left Dhaka for Singapore to undergo a medical check-up on Apr 9.

Taking 'full responsibility' for the recent cash scandal involving one of his personal aides, railway minister Suranjit Sengupta stood down on Monday.

Suranjit, who took over the newly-craved ministry barely five months back, made the announcement at a press briefing at the capital's Rail Bhaban after days of drama and suspense.

He met prime minister Sheikh Hasina at her official residence Ganabhaban Sunday night, first time since the scandal surfaced.

"Even though I was not linked to the incident, I am resigning to strengthen democracy," he told the press conference.

The resignation letter will be sent to the prime minister later, the ruling Awami League's advisory council member told reporters.

He came under pressure after his assistant personal secretary (APS) Omar Faruq Talukder was detained by the Border Guard Bangladesh personnel in the early hours of Apr 10 with unaccounted-for Tk 7 million in the car carrying Faruq and two top railway officials.

The officials are Railway Division (east zone) Yusuf Ali Mridha and Government Railway Police (GRP) (Dhaka zone) commandant Enamul Haque.

Mridha and Enamul were temporarily suspended and Faruq was fired on Sunday.

The ministry has asked the Bangladesh Bank to freeze Faruq and his wife Marzia Farhana's bank accounts and to investigate their banking transactions.

Opposition BNP has been claiming that the minister is also linked to the scandal and called for his resignation. But, Suranjit had rejected the demand saying, "The opposition hasn't given me the post ... I won't leave the post on their demand."

But after he met party president Hasina on Sunday night at Ganabhaban, rumours were rife that he was going to step down. The gossips grew when he was absent in the regular Cabinet meeting on Monday morning.

Though his briefing was supposed to begin at 12pm, Suranjit arrived at Rail Bhaban after 12:30pm and came to the conference room a 1:45pm with railway director general Abu Taher and railway secretary Fazle Kabir after spending some time at his chamber.

"I won't say much today. I won't take any questions and won't answer any either," he said at the beginning of the 20-minute briefing.

He said, "The incident is fully my responsibility, it is neither my party's nor the government's. I met the prime minister last Sunday for about an hour after she returned home. I expressed my desire to her to resign and she agreed."

Explaining the situation, he said, "A new debate has risen over the incident of Apr 10. People are saying many things. As my APS and two railway officials were linked to the incident, this is a responsibility of my ministry."

A very depressed Suranjit, who has been in politics for over 50 years, told the media call, "Everyone has been benefitted in many ways in 40 years of independence of Bangladesh. But I'm feeling sad to say this that no one made sacrifices in those years."

"I'm facing a difficult test at the end of my life," he added.

Protesting his innocence, he said, "Most of the people barring some intellectuals and a couple of people in my party have asked me whether the investigation would be free of influence if I am in office. I have to take responsibility for this incident to strengthen democracy. Though I'm not linked, I've decided to resign."

However, he put this resignation 'just a break' in his journey in Bangladesh's politics.

"I'll prove my innocence and will be back in politics in a transparent manner," Suranjit said.

After the press briefing, Suranjit held his last meeting with top railway officials at Rail Bhaban's conference room on the sixth floor. He urged the officials to keep up the good work achieved in the last several months.

Suranjit then left the Rail Bhaban around 3pm in a black jeep.

Suranjit, who has been MP in most parliaments formed since independence, took oath as the railway minister on Nov 28 last year. This is the first time Suranjit became a minister. During Awami League's last tenure, he was Hasina's parliament affairs advisor.

He joined Awami League in the early 1990s. He was a member of the country's first committee to constitute the charter and co-chairman of the special committee on the 15th Amendment to the Constitution.

Suranjit was also the head of the parliamentary standing committee on the law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry until recently.