BANGLADESH

Myanmar is ready to take back its nationals living in Bangladesh after verification.

Newly-appointed Myanmar Ambassador U Myo Myint Than said this during his first meeting with Foreign Minister Dipu Moni at her office on Wednesday, according to a media statement of the Foreign Ministry.

"The Ambassador expressed his government's intention to take back the refugees and undocumented Myanmar nationals after verification," the statement said.

Dipu Moni at the meeting requested Myanmar to take back their nationals residing in Bangladesh immediately.

"Appreciating Myanmar government for its commitment for democracy and the recent political reconciliation, Dipu Moni hoped that the people who entered Bangladesh from Myanmar would be taken back by Myanmar," the statement said.

The minister appreciated the steps taken by the Myanmar government in containing violence in Rakhine state.

"The Myanmar Ambassador thanked Bangladesh government for the cooperation extended to Myanmar in dealing with the Rakhine state problem," it said.

Bangladesh and Myanmar at numerous meetings, including the recently-concluded Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) and during the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to Myanmar in December 2011, had agreed for repatriation of Myanmar refugees and undocumented nationals to their country.

The foreign minister hoped that the forthcoming visit of the President of Myanmar to Bangladesh would take place after the holy month of Ramadan.

Myanmar President Thein Sein was expected to visit Dhaka on July 15 but it was deferred due to recent violence in Rakhine.

The Myanmar Ambassador also called on Foreign Secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes earlier in the day.

The number of educational institutions where no student passed the Higher Secondary Certificate examinations has remained the same as the last year. However more institutions have secured hundred percent pass rate this year.

This year hundred percent examinees have passed from 1,036 colleges out of a total of 7,465 institutions. The number was 892 last year.

The pass rate is zero in 24 colleges this year which was exactly the same last year.

Of the institutions having hundred percent pass rates, Dhaka Board has the highest 56 institutions while Rajshahi has 12, Comilla 6, Jessore 4, Chittagong 5, Barisal, 5, Sylhet 12 and Dinajpur 12.

In Madrasah board, 767 institutions have hundred percent pass rates while the number of institutions is 157 in vocational board.

From the opposite account of educational institutions having zero pass rates, Dhaka still stands first with no students of its six institutions failing to come out successful.

Dhaka has been followed by Dinajpur, Rajshahi, Barisal and Jessore.

In Sylhet, Chittagong and Comilla, there is no institution where all students have been unsuccessful.

Traders have promised not to raise prices of sugar and edible oils during the holy month of Ramadan as there is sufficient stock of the essentials.

Vice-President of Bangladesh Vegetable Oil Refiners Association and City Group Chairman Fazlur Rahman also announced on Wednesday that on the contrary, the prices of edible oils would lower by minimum Tk 1 per litre since the prices had dropped in the global market.

"The final decision will be taken after talks with other members of the association," he added.

The announcement came from a meeting held at the conference room of the Commerce Ministry, with Commerce Secretary Golam Hossain in the chair.

All the 12 cadet colleges in the country have achieved 100 percent pass rate in the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and its equivalent examinations this year, while 539 students out of a total 558 students of those colleges have scored maximum grade point average of GPA-5.

Faujdarhat Cadet College has been the best performing institution of them with 38 out of its 41 examinees securing GPA-5.

Education Minister Nurul Islam submitted a copy of the HSC examination results to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her official residence Ganabhaban on Wednesday morning. Chairmen of different education boards were present on the occasion.

Jhenaidah Cadet College has secured the second position with 46 students out of its 47 getting GPA-5.

Forty-four students out of 45 have achieved the maximum GPA from Mirzapur Cadet College, while the number of GPA-5 scorers is 49 out of 50 from Pabna Cadet College, 40 out of 50 from Comilla Cadet College and 47 out of 48 from Feni Cadet College.

All of the 49 students of Joypurhat Cadet College, 50 of Mymensingh Girls' Cadet College, 44 of Rajshahi Cadet College, 46 of Sylhet Cadet College, 46 of Rangpur Cadet College and 45 of Barisal Cadet College have got GPA-5.

On average, 78.67 percent of examinees have passed the HSC and its equivalent examinations held under 10 education boards of the country this year.

The HSC or equivalent examinations began on April 1 and concluded on May 24 this year.

A total of 917,673 examinees -- 490,918 male and 426,755 female -- from 7,465 educational institutions appeared at the examinations, of whom 721,979 students have come out successful.

Of them, 61,162 candidates have scored maximum grade point average of GPA-5. The number is 21,393 more than that of the last year.

Sylhet Board has secured the top position among all the eight general education boards with a pass rate of 85.37 and Barisal Board has been the lowest with 66.98 percent success rate.

From Dhaka Board 81.89 percent candidates passed this year's HSC examinations.

The pass rate is 78.44 in Rajshahi, 67.87 in Jessore, 75.41 in Dinajpur, 72.29 in Chittagong and 74.56 in Comilla.

Under the Madrasa Education Board, 84,246 students took part in the examination and 91.77 came out successful.

Under the Technical Education Board 86,705 students sat for the examination. Of them, 73,103 came out successful. The pass percentage is 84.32.

Writer Humayun Ahmed is lying unconscious in a New York hospital after a deadly virus made his treatment difficult, a top official has said.

"He's been lying unconscious in the Intensive Care Unit," Bangladesh's Permanent Representative at the United Nations Dr Abdul Momen, who visited the writer Tuesday night (Wednesday morning Dhaka time), told bdnews24.com.

"There is accumulated water in his lungs, but the doctors said his brain is still functioning," he said.

Doctors at the Bellevue Hospital told Momen that they had failed to detect the virus rendering their efforts fruitless.

"An unknown virus, which could not be detected immediately, has spread through his body," Momen said quoting doctors.

The writer is currently under watch in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital and his lungs have swollen.

"The virus has infected him at the time he was expected to be recovering from illness," the ambassador said.

Humayun's friend and renowned actor Asaduzzaman Nur, MP, who is currently at the US, also visited the popular contemporary Bengali fiction writer at the hospital.

"His condition has slightly improved. But he is still in ICU. We are worried," Nur told bdnews24.com at 10:30pm on Wednesday.

The 63-year-old writer went to New York on Sept 14 last year with his wife and children for undergoing colon cancer treatment. The writer had been living at a rented flat in Queens with his family.

He underwent 12 chemotherapy cycles at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre.

After that, Humayun underwent a surgery on Jun 12. He was admitted to a Jamaican hospital after one day as he suffered from abdominal pain.

From there, he was transferred to the Bellevue Hospital for a second surgery.

His younger brother Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, also a renowned fiction writer, is currently at New York to stay by his side along with Humayun's wife Meher Afroz Shawon.

Born in Mymensingh in 1948, he did his graduation from the Dhaka University and later joined the university as a lecturer of Chemistry but later became a fulltime writer and filmmaker.

Winner of prestigious Bangla Academy Award in 1981, Ekushey Padak in 1994 and three National Film Awards (Best Story in 1993, Best Film 1994 and Best Dialogue in 1994), Humayun continued writing while he was undergoing treatment in New York.

On Jan 13, the government made the 63-year old writer Senior Special Adviser to the Bangladesh Mission at the United Nations in New York.