BANGLADESH

Shooting took centre stage at the Olympics on Saturday when IOC President Jacques Rogge handed over the first gold medal of the London Games, but it was the pioneering and pregnant athletes who stole the show.

China's Yi Siling took the honour of being the first London gold medallist when she won the women's 10 metre air rifle at a packed Royal Artillery Barracks in southeast London as supporters clamoured to see the opening action.

"I felt like a movie star," the 23-year-old Yi told reporters after winning her first Olympic gold.

"Now I've got the gold medal I feel very happy and very excited. I almost cried."

The event was graced by International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge who watched the 40 minute final and then presented the first medal at his last Games before he steps down from the role next year.

However, Yi and Rogge shared the spotlight with eight-months pregnant shooter Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi of Malaysia who had the world's media hanging on her every word and movement.

Struggling to fit into her shooter's jacket, the 29-year-old could only finish 34th in the 56 woman qualifying heat but her performance was not the pressing issue.

"Baby is quite fine. She hasn't made an appearance during training or competition. I told her to behave herself," Suryani said after she felt "only three or four kicks" during the competition.

"When she kicked I tried to breathe in, breathe out and make myself calm."

Another markswoman was also causing quite a stir.

Bahia Al Hamad became Qatar's debut female Olympian when she was the first of the Gulf nation's three women athletes to see action in London.

"DREAM COME TRUE"

The 20-year-old carried the flag for her country the previous evening at the opening ceremony and finished a credible 17th in the rifle qualifying heat after receiving a wild card to take part.

"The competition was very hard, but I'm so happy and I enjoyed it," Al Hamad said.

"It is fun to be in the Olympics. It's a dream come true for me to be here," she added before fleeing the media scrum around her mid-question as the attention seemed all too much.

After the qualifying had finished, Yi took control of the eight-woman final when she fired a pinpoint 10.7 at the target, just shy of the maximum 10.9, to overtake rival Poland's Sylwia Bogacka who had led for most of the way but could only manage a 9.7.

Bogacka had to settle for silver and China also collected a bronze thanks to Yu Dan but there was no clean sweep on day one for the 2008 Games hosts.

Expected to claim the majority of the 15 shooting golds on offer in London, China suffered a disappointing start to the men's disciplines when defending champion Pang Wei finished fourth in the 10m air pistol.

The event was won by South Korean Jin Jong-oh, who held his nerve to hold on for victory after a slight mid-final meltdown.

Groans echoed around the indoor range from the 2,000 spectators who packed both shooting finals as Jin fired a disappointing nine with his seventh shot to give his opponents hope.

But the 32-year-old, firing his pistol with his right hand while his left was planted firmly in his pocket, roared back with a near perfect 10.8 to seal gold ahead of Italy's Luca Tesconi. Andrija Zlatic of Serbia took bronze.

"The Chinese guy won the gold last time. I promised myself that I would not let it happen this time," Jin said.

Jin's memorable finished wrapped up a successful day for shooting, which attracts big headlines in Asia but lacks the same popularity elsewhere.

The women are the sole focus on Sunday with two gold medals up for grabs in the 10m air pistol and the skeet.

Earthquake originated in Myanmar jolted south-eastern part of Bangladesh Sunday morning.

Dhaka met office said the tremor, measuring 5.6 on the Richter Scale, was felt at 8:21am and lasted for 15 seconds.

The source of the quake was 397 km east from Dhaka's Earthquake Observation Centre.

People in Bandarban, Khagrachhari, Rangamati and Chittaogong felt the tremor, but there was no report of casualties or damage.

The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) has suspended its planned press meet where they were scheduled to announce hiked power tariff.

The Commission member Selim Mahmud told journalists about the suspension. "We had convened the press conference at 5pm at the BERC office. But we have suspended it as the technical evaluation needed to hike the power price was not completed yet."

Selim said the Commission has received new proposal about the power tariff. "We will make an announcement later after considering all the aspects."

Earlier, the Commission Chairman Yousuf Hossain told bdnews24.com "You've (journalists) been invited in the afternoon. You'll know the detail then."

The last time power price was hiked on Mar 29. Bulk and retail power prices were increased by 28 paisa and 30 paisa per unit on an average. The prices were retroactively made effective from Mar 1.

The Health Ministry on Thursday formed a three-strong probe body to investigate Wednesday's assault on journalists by Dhaka Medical College Hospital internees.

A ministry order said the committee has been asked to submit a report within seven days.

The committee is headed by Joint Secretary of the ministry (administration), Mahmuda Akter. Other members are Health Ministry Director (education) Shah Alam Latif and Prof Billal Alam of medicine department of DMCH.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has praised the former Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain as he resigned from the cabinet in the wake of raging tension between the government and the World Bank over alleged corruption in the Padma bridge project.

She also mentioned that the World Bank could not provide any evidence regarding the corruption allegation they raised against Abul Hossain.

"They (WB) pointed finger at a minister," Hasina said while replying questions from local Bangladeshi community media in London. "He put up advertisements in the media making his points and then submitted resignation letter to me."

"He had not resigned (earlier) because he had the guts (to face it), because he is a patriot."

"He [Abul Hossain] also wants Padma bridge. You should appreciate, only (an) Awami League (minister) could do this," she said.

Hasina said that the World Bank had stopped financing in communications and power sector in 2005 when BNP was in power. "Did the ministers resign at that time?"

The World Bank on Jun 29 cancelled its pledged $ 1.2 billion credit for the Padma bridge project claiming that the Bangladesh government had failed to meet its four conditions, one of which was sending those linked to the alleged corruption on leave pending the investigation.

The government has all along refuted the Washington-based lender's allegations. On Monday, however, Syed Abul Hossain, who was the Communications Minister when the graft charges were made, resigned as Minister of Information and Communications Technology, clearing the way for possible negotiations with the World Bank again. Former Bridges Division Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiya had also been sent on leave.

However, the Prime Minister in London said that the government had not moved away from its decision to build the Padma bridge with own fund.

She said if the World Bank decides to finances the Padma bridge project, that they would do on their own judgment.

"Let them decide. We have not moved away [from the initiative to build the bridge with own fund]. We will not back off."

"Padma bridge will be built with our own funds. Our initiative is on," Sheikh Hasina said on Wednesday in London.

The Prime Minister was talking to the local journalists of Bangladeshi origin at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel in London.

She reiterated her government's 'firm stand' to build Padma bridge. "We are not going backwards. We don't beg. We take loans."

"Whether World Bank comes or not we will build Padma bridge. We have the preparation," Hasina added.

On a question of submitting wealth statement of her cabinet members, the Prime Minister said the ministers submit wealth statement to the Cabinet Division every year. She also said that the account of wealth of the ministers can be found in the website of the Election Commission.

Humayun Ahmed wanted to turn his favourite retreat Nuhash Palli into a trust, but he could not do it in his lifetime, second wife Meher Afroz Shaon said on Tuesday.

"He wanted to build a trust from Nuhash Palli. I'll make his dream come true if I get the opportunity," she told reporters after Humayun Ahmed's burial there.

The famous virtuoso writer was laid to rest on Tuesday noon at his favourite spot Lichu Tola in his self-nurtured sanctuary Nuhash Palli at Pirujali village in Gazipur.

Shaon told reporters that she would do her utmost to realise Humayun's dream to make a trust of Nuhash Palli, which he built personally only for his own.

The celebrated writer-playwright-filmmaker raised Nuhash Palli in 1997 over a sprawling 40-bigha piece of land. This isolated sanctuary had meant 'more than his life' to him which boasts of hundreds of fruit, medicinal and other plants.

On May 12, a day after returning from New York after undergoing treatment, Humayun had told bdnews24.com at Nuhash Palli that he would prefer to be buried elsewhere so that his sanctuary did not turn into a regular graveyard.

"I had wanted to be buried here. But then I thought, maybe not. Then this place would turn into a typical graveyard. People would crowd the place…on Feb 21, on Nov 13, they would come here to lay wreaths," said the writer in his interview. "Now, that can't be allowed to happen."

He had said, "If, after my death, someone wants to research on medicinal plants, they would be most welcome. There could be a laboratory here, too."

His wife Shaon on Tuesday said that Humayun also wanted to build an institute there. "He had so many dreams centering Nuhash Palli."

She also asked for everyone's support to fulfil Humayun's dream.

Humayun died on July 19 at a New York hospital after battling with Cancer for about 10 months.

His first janaza was held in the United States followed by another one at the National Eidgah Maidan in Dhaka on Monday as his remains reached his homeland.

There was a rift in his family over the selection of burial site.

Shaon claimed Humayun's last wish was to be buried at Nuhash Palli, while the writer's three elder children from his first wife wanted their father to be buried at a place in Dhaka which was easily accessible for all.

Humayun's younger brother Muhammad Zafar Iqbal informed the media about the decision to bury his brother at Nuhash Palli in the wee hours of Tuesday following insistence from Shaon.

The seed of last month's violent RMG protests in Ashulia was arguably sown in late May when a storekeeper was beaten up for using his cell-phone on factory premises.

Salman Shameem Khan, from the neighbouring That's It Packaging was severely beaten for being on the phone at sister company Architect Design Ltd after visiting the factory's medical centre.

Both factories, set close to each other about an hour outside Dhaka, are part of the Ha-Meem group, a large conglomerate owned by FBCCI President Abul Kalam Azad.

Workers say that usually Ha-Meem Group employees get treated at the medical centre on Architect Design premises. Salman had come for treating his tuberculosis.

Refusing to be quoted by their names, workers allege that cell-phone use is strictly prohibited for them while on the factory compound. The executives, however, are allowed the privilege.

At one point, Salman could not take it anymore and slapped the angry executive, who the workers say was a director of the factory.

Soon, police were called in and Salman was turned in to them. He ended up at Ashulia Police Station only to be implicated in a false case, workers also allege.

The incident enraged the workers who were apparently already aggrieved by their low pay and an increasingly hard life. They started to become organised demanding Salman's release, forcing factory authorities to bring the sick man back and produce him in front of them in a couple of days.

Salman had been severely injured, beyond recognition, according to eyewitnesses. This only added to the wild speculations that someone else had been produced instead of Salman, who had actually been killed and fallen victim to another 'forced disappearance'.

According to news reports, the unrest had first broken out at Architect Design. The agitation began spreading on Jun 11 and raged through 300 factories in the area like a wildfire with thousands of poorly-paid workers, many of whom are often manhandled by supervisors, spilling out onto the streets, demonstrating.

Apparently refusing to address and resolve the situation, owners decided to go on a strike of their own. They decided to shut down their factories as the demonstrations and police violence ran into the fifth consecutive day on Jun 16.

Insiders say grievance was already there over meagre payment and disgruntled workers let out their pent-up emotions in waves of protests.

"I can't explain how it turned into such a big agitation, but it all began centring the apparently trivial incident," said Azhar Ali, Production Manager at That's It Packaging.

"You cannot control a mob of 11,000 workers when you have a capacity to handle only 2000. The group (Ha-Meem) failed to control its workers," said Babul Akhter, President of Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation.

Workers say they were fed up with tough factory rules. The monthly 'attendance bonus' of Tk 250 is off even if they show up seconds late for a single day.

"Even if it was due to illness and you produce medical certificate to support the claim, you won't get the attendance bonus," said garment worker Hamidul Islam who finds Tk 250 quite a sum.

When a factory has a lot of orders, overtime is mandatory for all the workers. It does not matter whether someone is sick or not, workers told bdnews24.com.

"Otherwise, you miss the annual increment of Tk 300-400," said Asma Khatun, another RMG worker.

Sometimes the labourers lose their jobs for such trivial reasons as failing to meet their daily production requirements. That is what happened to Mahtab and his wife Rokeya Begum, who had come from Gaibandha.

Mahtab's daily production meant checking 1,200 items in eight hours, or 150 per hour or, to be more precise five items every two minutes.

"If you cannot meet the daily rate in eight hours, you won't be allowed to come out of the factory until you complete your work, no matter how long it takes," said Mahtab.

Even the time spent in the toilet is measured and if it takes longer than what the senior officials think reasonable, the worker will certainly be given a dressing down.

"I understand our late attendance may hamper production, but there are ways to deal with it," said Jahanara Begum, who had to quit out of fear after a fire broke out in her factory.

Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers & Exporters Association President AKM Salim Osman admitted that mid-level factory management has not matured or developed as have workers and factory owners. "Our mid-level management is not good at all."

Strict factory rules for the sake of what they said maintaining standards do not quite match what the factories provide for workers.

Working conditions are said to fall far short of international standards that the owners are keen about as regards their products. The 9-storey Spectrum Sweater Industries collapsed to kill 61 workers in 2005. The following year a fire at KTS Textiles and Garments factory in Chittagong killed 54. These are just a couple of examples out of dozens.

Allegations have it despite clear neglect of owners, they have been acquitted each time.

"People would have taken to the streets in droves to support us if they knew what happens inside a factory," said Mahtab.

Babul Akhter admitted it was not at all unlikely that someday aggrieved garment workers would fall prey to the machinations of political parties out to secure their narrow self interest.

Amid rains and flower petals, writer Humayun Ahmed was laid to eternal rest at his favourite retreat at Nuhash Palli in Gazipur on Tuesday.

Thousands of people including his fans, relatives and friends thronged Nuhash Palli to say goodbye to the popular writer who captivated them for nearly four decades.

Rain, which had fascinated the writer most in his lifetime, poured down incessantly during the burial.

"Humayun Ahmed liked rain. His janaza and burial took place in the rain. In New York it also rained during his janaza," brother Muhammad Zafar Iqbal told reporters.

Humayun's elder son Nuhash led the pallbearers who gave shoulder and placed Humayun in the grave. Nuhash was wearing a Panjabi of blue colour, the colour his father related with rainy season in many of his fictions.

Humayun's daughters Sheela and Nova, second wife Meher Afroz Shaon and her sons Nishad and Ninit along with the writer's two brothers, Zafar Iqbal and Ahsan Habib, and two sisters attended the burial.

Following the family's decision in the early hours of Tuesday to bury Humayun at Nuhash Palli, the ambulance carrying his remains left BIRDEM mortuary and reached Nuhash Palli at 12:05pm. Police restricted traffic at various points of the Highway.

A sculptor at Nuhash Palli, Asaduzzaman Khan, told bdnews24.com they had been taking preparations for the burial since morning.

The local administration remained alert to avoid any unpleasant incidents at the burial. Police provided tight security to the ambulance once it entered Gazipur.

Thousands of fans lined the streets from Uttara to Gazipur to get a last glimpse of Humayun. They waved to him as the coffin passed and some threw flowers at the convoy.

People began gathering at Nuhash Palli from morning, ignoring the intermittent showers. At one point people filled the road up to one-kilometre outside Pirujali village. Gazipur's Deputy Commissioner, acting Superintendent of Police and local MPs were also present.

Thousands attended Humayun's third funeral, held at 1:30pm at Nuhash Palli. Immediately afterwards, he was laid to rest at Lichu Tola.

Zafar Iqbal thanked the local administration for their help with the burial.

On choosing the burial spot Ahsan Habib told bdnews24.com: "He often used to make fun of death. Once he went to the Litchi orchard [at Nuhash Palli] and said he would like the place to be his grave. Again he went near a tamarind tree and said 'please bury me here, I have liked it too."

In the last few days, family members were divided on the issue of Humayun's burial site. Shaon claimed Humayun's last wish was to be buried at Nuhash Palli while the writer's children with his first wife wanted their father to be buried at a place in Dhaka easily accessible to all.

At at 2:30 am Tuesday, after long negotiations, Zafar Iqbal told the media they had decided to bury his brother at Nuhash Palli, adding that they did not want to get the burial delayed anymore.

Ahsan Habib said Humayun's first wife Gultekin Ahmed and her younger daughter Bipasha Ahmed were supposed come to Bangladesh from the United States on Tuesday.

Humayun died on July 19 at a New York hospital after battling with cancer for about nine months. His first janaza was held there.

Thousands of people, fans, colleagues, political leaders, top government officials descended on the Central Shaheed Minar to pay their last respects to Humayun after a flight carrying the remains landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Monday morning.

Humayun's body was taken to the BIRDEM Hospital mortuary after the second namaz-e-janaza at the the National Eidgah ground.

Nuhash, Sheela and Nova reached Nuhash Palli before the ambulance came.

Fans started to converge there as soon as the first light of the day appeared and about a kilometre of road stretching from Nuhash Palli to Pirujali village was filled with people.

All of them took part in the writer's last funeral.

Humayun Ahmed almost knew where the killer disease called cancer was going to take him finally, or at least so it seems.

And being a writer, he picked up his pen-n-paper yet again to narrate how it would be like to be dead – his premonition of death.

Perhaps, he had sensed the disease even before the formal diagnosis of cancer in September last year, and authored his experiences in "Megher Upor Bari" (house over the clouds), which he published in the National Book Fair he attended in February this year.

Surprisingly, Humayun died exactly the way described in the book, which can be at best termed a mere coincidence or through the writer's preferred theory of Extrasensory Perception (ESP).

With a dateline of Jamacia, New York, where the writer had fought the fatal disease for close to 10 months, Humayun in a two-paragraph preface to the book writes, "I wrote this novel…when a complex disease named cancer has made my body its abode. I did not know about it until then… Is it true that my sub-conscious mind had the news for a strange reason?"

"I assume it is true. That's why I have written this novel in the words of a dead man… Why did I write all these? The universe is mysterious."

Then begins the novel: "I am dead, or am I going to die, I still cannot decide. It seems I am dead."

The agonist, who has just died, begins telling the story reminding repeatedly, "I am dead."

Humayun, a charismatic writer, who is often identified affectionately by his fans as 'a man moonstruck' for his romanticism for moonlit-night and rain, could not keep up with being dead for long.

His protagonist looked for a console and said, "I now understand, telepathy is a power that comes after death."

"Living people do not have any telepathic power, dead do have. Don't know if everyone of the dead has it ... at least I have."

Within a few pages the power, which made many of his fiction characters so influential like Himu, who has strong influence on the younger generation, soon appeared frail confronting another problem of being dead: "Maybe, dead cannot feel by touching. The matter is not clear to me. (Page 18)"

The dead protagonist then wonders why his dead relatives are not coming to give him a lift.

"I knew, relatives crowd around a man dying. They mainly try to make the man's journey into the unknown world easier. (Page 23)"

Humayun, who wrote over 322 books topping the list of bestsellers for over two decades in Bangladesh due to lucid narratives peppered with humour, takes an absurd break, "How will my hell look like? There will be some of my students .... they will ask me questions I will not be able to answer. (Page 25)"

Coincidentally, the dead protagonist has strange resemblance to the writer, a Ph.D in Polymer Chemistry who taught Chemistry at the Dhaka University. The protagonist is Dr Iftekharul Islam, an Associate Prof of Applied Physics.

"It will definitely make news for newspapers. Media person await such news. A follow-up is published every day. But it stops the 5th or 6th days. Everyone will forget everything" thinks the protagonist as the story develops.

But, how the protagonist is going to keep up the suspense when the writer is distracted by the thought of death?

Well, Humayun Ahmed had his ways.

"There are lot many things to enjoy for the people on earth. Drama-cinema-book-music-arts… Is there any such arrangement in afterlife?" the dead protagonist wonders.

Giving every possible detail centering death, Humayun writes: "We are parts of an entertainment game designed by a master programmer."

At certain stages, the dead feels the urge to read and sometimes to write, but finds neither pen nor paper. He decides to continue writing in his thoughts. He thinks about the God and finds himself in the ocean of paradox.

He imagines going through the roads in Shalban as his relatives take his remains for burial. He wonders about his wife and her child who cannot get through the stages of video games without his father.

"I have become an observer," the dead realises sometimes.

The strange thing about the novel is that the writer virtually describes his own death the way it actually came by. The agonist's aunty dies of colon cancer, which after setting off from colon affected her liver and lungs before rendering her unconscious.

On July 18, a day before the writer died, the Bangladesh's Permanent Representative at the UN in New York said an unknown virus had attacked the writer, affecting his lungs and liver and that the writer was unconscious.

At the end of Page 95 of the 96-page book, Humayun writes, "I understand, I have to leave. Where will I go? I don't know. Man does not know from where he comes. Then how is he expected to know where he will go!"

Suddenly the dead protagonist sees lights having abnormal magnetic power pulling him to its centre.

He begins to rush towards the light. He turns for a moment to say, "Men of the earth! Be good. Be happy. I am running towards the light. I know I have to travel an infinite distance. Infinite never finishes. Then how the journey will end? Who will tell me that?"

Bangladesh on Tuesday told India that if New Delhi failed to sign the 1974 land boundary agreement and its additional protocol that the two countries signed in September 2011, it would send out "a very wrong signal".

Foreign Secretary Mohamed Mirajul Quayes is understood to have conveyed to his Indian counterpart Ranjan Mathai Dhaka's concern over implementation of the agreement and the protocol signed during Indian Prime Minister's visit to Dhaka last year.

Quayes and Mathai on Tuesday led the Bangladesh and Indian delegations respectively in the annual bilateral Foreign Office Consultation.

Sources with knowledge of the matter said that Quayes stressed early implementation of the land boundary deal and the protocol during his talks with Mathai.

A spokesman for the India's Ministry of External Affairs said the two sides had "cordial, constructive and comprehensive" talks on the entire gamut of bilateral relations, including cooperation in political and security related matters, border management, counter-terrorism, trade and investment, water resources, power cooperation, including in renewable energy, connectivity, development cooperation and increasing people-to-people ties.

He said the issue of the stalled negotiation for the agreement on sharing of water of river Teesta was also raised during the Foreign Office Consultation.

The Indian Foreign Secretary is understood to have reiterated to his counterpart that New Delhi was committed to continuing negotiations for an agreement to share the water of Teesta, but at present it was engaged in internal discussions with the State Governments of West Bengal and Sikkim.

BNP thinks that the US is correct in being concerned over human rights situation in Bangladesh, especially on account of alleged extra judicial killings by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

BNP Acting Secretary-General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir discussed the party's stance over the matter with journalists on Saturday.

He thanked the US for discussing Bangladesh's human rights situation in its Congress.

"Human rights are being violated to the hilt under this government. A number of BNP leaders and activists, including Organising Secretary M Ilias Ali, have been kidnapped and killed.

"We've spoken against these many times, but the government did not pay any heed. Even the US Congress heard that the human rights in Bangladesh are now in tatters. It's worrisome," he said.

Robert O Blake Jr, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs of the US, told the Congress on Thursday that the US has authentic information on extra-judicial killings and abductions by RAB in Bangladesh.

Blake said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had conveyed during her trip to Bangladesh in May the concern of her country over the murder of labour rights activist Aminul Islam and the disappearance of opposition leader Ilias Ali.

Aminul had been killed and Ilias disappeared in April.

Despite prayers and good wishes, Humayun Ahmed, losing his battle to cancer, started on his final trip to Bangladesh, in a coffin.

Relatives of the popular contemporary fiction writer boarded a flight from the John F Kenedy Airport around 9am (BDST) on Sunday.

Hundreds of expatriate Bangladeshis have gathered at the airport to bid final farewell to the writer. The Bangladeshi permanent envoy to the UN A K Abdul Momen was present too at the time of departure.

Momen said the Emirates flight carrying the writer's mortal remains was scheduled to land at the Hazrat Shahajalal International Airport, Dhaka at 8:40am on Monday via Dubai.

The writer will be laid to rest at Nuhash Palli on Tuesday.

Earlier, Shammilata Shangskritik Jote President Nasiruddin Yusuf Bacchu said the writer's remains will be kept at the Central Shaheed Minar on Monday from 11am to 2pm so that public can pay their last respect.

He said a janaza will be held at the National Eidgaah at 2:30pm and then Humayun's body will be kept at Birdem's mortuary.

The writer will be laid to rest at Nuhash Palli after Johr prayers On Tuesday, Bachchu added.

The prolific writer breathed his last at a New York hospital after suffering from cancer for nine months. When his condition deteriorated, his younger brother Muhammad Zafar Iqbal and his wife Yasmin Haq went to New York and were with Humayun when he died.

The writer's first wife, Gultekin, was in New York too but she was not seen at the hospital or anywhere. According to sources, she might be present at the burial at Nuhash Palli.

A family source said Gultekin was supposed to arrive in Bangladesh by 11am on Monday.

Humayun was diagnosed with cancer less than a year ago. The prolific writer, who has authored more than 300 bestsellers, was 64 at the time of his death.

Apparel factory workers have blockaded the Dhaka-Sylhet highway and demonstrated for over two and a half hours pressing for various demands including payment of due wages.

Quoting eyewitnesses Rupganj Police Station's Officer-in-Charge Atikur Rahman Khan said that workers of Harvest Rich Garments factory at Rupganj took to the streets at Bhulta Aukhab area around 9am on Suday.

At one point, they vandalised the windowpanes of the factory building and seven to eight vehicles on the street, he said.

They withdrew from the street around 11:45am after the factory authorities assured to pay their dues within Monday.

The nearly two and a half hour stop in traffic has led to a large backlog on the highway, the police official added.

Anwar Hossain, a worker of the factory, said that their wages for two months were pending. Every month they receive payment not before 22nd-23rd, he added.

The workers became agitated when they came to the factory on Sunday and found that their wages were not yet ready. At one point, around 6,500 workers started demonstrating in the factory premises.

They vandalised the windows of the factory building and the adjacent branch of Rupali Bank. They later took to the streets and vandalised a number of vehicles, police said.

Sporadic chases and counter-chases took place between the workers and police when they tried to force the demonstrating workers out of the highway.

Director of Industrial Police's Adamjee unit (Battallion 4) Mahbub Alam told : "The owners have assured to pay the due wages within Monday after talks with the workers. The workers withdrew demonstration around midday."

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.

The Rajshahi University has asked Bangladesh Chhatra League activists to stop fund-raising for the Padma bridge project, a day after a student was killed in a clash over the campaign.

It was none other than the university's Vice-Chancellor (VC) Prof Abdus Sobhan who had opened the campaign on July 12 with the slogan, 'It is us who will build the Padma bridge'.

The VC was the first to contribute Tk 500 to the fund.

According to versions of some BCL leaders, the gunfight that broke out between two factions of the ruling Awami League's student front in the early hours of Monday had stemmed from an argument over collection of money for the planned bridge.

The university administration decided to ask the BCL to call off the campaign on Tuesday. BCL leaders said they would give the money already collected in the campaign to the VC.

"I did not have any idea that such an incident would have arisen from such a small matter. After learning from the Finance Minister that money cannot be collected in the name of Padma bridge, we asked Chhatra League to stop collecting money in the name of building the bridge," said the university's Pro-Vice-Chancellor Prof Mohammad Nurullah.

Earlier on Tuesday the morning on, Muhith said, "The government has not made any official announcement yet to collect money for the Padma bridge. Nobody was given the responsibility to collect fund. Those who extorted money are toll collectors. They should be punished."

The Pro-VC was also present at the inaugural ceremony of the fundraising campaign.

"I had gone there at the inaugural ceremony along with the Vice-Chancellor to inspire fund-raising after (we came to learn that) different progressive student organisations including the Chhatra League will collect money from the university teachers, students, officers and employees," said Prof Nurullah.

"We will give VC the money along with the boxes used for the collection," said BCL university unit President Ahmed Ali.

He, however, refused to accept that the bloody gunfight that claimed the life of one of their activists was triggered by the fundraising campaign.

One of the eight BCL activists expelled following the killing, Touhid Al Tuhin, had said that they collected Tk 18,000 so far.

Repairs of a major undersea communications cable will snap Bangladesh's internet connectivity with the rest of the world for nearly three hours after Tuesday midnight, officials say.

Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd (BSCCL) Managing Director Monowar Hossain confirmed  that there would be 'no connectivity' due to the repairs on the submarine cable severed a month ago 60 kilometres away from Singapore.

The mending will start at around 1am and he expects will be completed before 4am.

He said the internet remained uninterrupted despite the cable cut as they 'quickly' managed bandwidth from Italy.

"But now the power has to be shut down for reconnection," he said explaining the reason of no connectivity during repairs.

Bangladesh connects with the rest of the world with a lone submarine cable SEA-ME-WE-4 that stretches from Singapore to Mumbai in India via Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India's Chennai and Sri Lanka.

Goto this link you can get your HSC RESULT.

The government on Monday said power cuts will last only half an hour in Ramadan to ease public woes.

Currently, the people have to remain without power one hour on average once the power supply goes off.

Prime Minister's Power and Energy Advisor Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury said after a meeting the government will try to ensure uninterrupted power supply during Sehri and Iftar and during Tarabi prayers.

The average daily power production will rise by 600 megawatts (MWs), he told the meeting, just a week to Ramadan.

"If necessary, we will produce around 6,500 megawatts of electricity against the demand of 6,000 during Ramadan," Chowdhury said.

He, however, said around 6,300 MWs of electricity would be sufficient to meet the demands if the consumers use it wisely.

According to government statistics, the daily demand has been limited to around 6,500 MWs through 'Demand Side Management' though the real demand is almost 7,500 MWs.

Power Development Board (PDB) says the daily power production was 6,055 MWs against the demand of 6,100 MWs on Sunday.

PDB on Mar 22 set a new record of electricity generation by feeding 6,066 MWs to the national grid.

The prime ministerial advisor said the Power Division faced a few problems in distributing electricity in some regions although the production was more than it was last year.

He said the authorities had been directed to ensure uninterrupted power supply especially during azan times in Ramadan.

Chowdhury urged the consumers to use power wisely and said, "I have requested the authorities of the industries to shut their operations during Sehri and Iftar and during Tarabi prayers."

"I have also requested the shop owners to use electricity more economically," he added.

He said the incumbent government inked several agreements to build 56 power plants under both private and public management and added that 29 of those plants had started operations.

According to PDB, the daily power production increased by 3,500 MWs due to installation of new plants during the tenure of the incumbent government.

bill payment through SMS

The consumers of three of the 64 Palli Bidyut Samity (rural electrification associations) will be able to pay their bills through SMS from Sunday.

These are Dhaka Palli Bidyut Samity-2, Gazipur Palli Bidyut Samity and Cox's Bazar Palli Bidyut Samity.

Teachers at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) have threatened to resign en masse unless the Vice-Chancellor and Pro-Vice-Chancellor leave by Sunday.

The teachers, demonstrating for quite some time now, took the decision at a general meeting of their association on Monday afternoon. The meeting that lasted for two and a half hours starting at 4pm was held at the Civil Engineering Building with more than 250 educators in attendance.

Former Director of Students Welfare Prof Aminul Hoque said the meeting also decided to stage demonstration for two hours starting 11am every day.

He said they would be collecting signatures from teachers until Sunday in a campaign to force the duo to resign. He said they will resign en masse if their demand was not met by then.

According to him, over 250 teachers agreed to resign at the meeting by signing a declaration at the meeting.

Students began contacting their teachers after a rumour swirled at the campus in the afternoon that the agitating teachers were withdrawing their strike. They requested them not to withdraw the programme.

Later, the teachers' association leader Prof Humayun Kabir announced on the loudspeaker that they would not backtrack on their demand.

A Chinese company, incorporated in Australia, is keen to build the Padma bridge with a financing option that look better than that of the traditional multilateral lenders led by the World Bank.

"The company will provide 70 percent of the $2.9 billion required for the project without any interest," a senior official of the Economic Relations Division told the bdnews24.com after reviewing a proposal presented last week.

Asked, Communications Minister Obaidul Quader neither denied nor confirmed the development. "I shall not speak about this Padma bridge project and not go beyond what the Prime Minister has said."

Quader told bdnews24.com: "I can talk about the Second Padma Bridge."

World Bank's $1.2 billion loan bears 0.75 percent service charge while Asian Development Bank would have charged less than one percent for its promised $ 615 million.

"The great thing about the Chinese proposal is it is interest-free, quality would be ensured and the government will not need to spend foreign currency for the project," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because there was no official decision to make the offer public.

"The 30 percent of the project cost would be financed by the government in local currency as lots of materials would be procured domestically."

"The company will form a consortium of three companies for main construction, river training and rail link and it would complete the entire work in less than three years," the official said.

In the original project proposal based on which the WB-led donor consortium agreed to fund the project, the bridge construction is supposed to take five years to complete.

The cancellation of the World Bank loan has made the Padma Bridge project uncertain, and the government is desperately looking for other financing options.

The bridge, an election pledge of the Awami League government, will connect Dhaka with 16 south western districts, home to about 60 million people, is estimated to contribute 0.6 per cent to the economy.

Last week, top ERD officials heard senior representatives from the Australia-based company with such details of the proposal as the plan to widen the road to six lanes instead of the originally proposed four lanes.

"It could be a blessing in disguise," the official said.

"In the presentation, we asked the company representatives about ensuring the quality and they said that they wouldn't have any problem if Bangladesh appointed an independent monitoring agency to keep an eye on their work," the official said.

"But the government will have to make separate arrangement for paying the independent body as the cost will not be included in the $2.9 billion that the Chinese are talking about," the official explained.

After the bridge opened to traffic, the government would pay the loan amount in the following 20 years with the earning from the bridge, the official added.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asked the members of Juba League, the ruling party's youth front, to be vigilant against 'any efforts to create unrest in the country'.

Awami League president Hasina was addressing them after inaugurating the organisation's sixth national congress at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center on Saturday.

In her 20-minute speech she advised Juba League members to build up future leadership and that they remain cautious about the people 'conspiring against the country and democracy'.

"Juba League must guard our land relentlessly... let no one play games with Bangladesh anymore," she added.

"You know who those people are… who are trying to create unrest in the country," she said.

Hasina bitterly criticised the opposition for their stand on the trial of War criminals.

"They don't want the trial to continue. They are involved in many conspiracies to destroy democracy in our country. The youth must be alert about this," she said.

Central leaders of Awami League and other front organisations as well as ambassadors and diplomats of different countries were present at the event.

Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam in his speech reminisced about the first congress of Juba League in 1974 and said he was present there as a representative of Chhatra League.

Juba League Chairman Omar Faruk emphasised on finding new leadership instead of promoting old leaders. "Instead of blaming each other, a politics of self-criticism can take us a long way," he said.

"A political organisation without political movement becomes a leisure club. We need to strengthen the organisation," he added. "No outside power can harm us, because we know who they are. It may come from within, the enemies hiding inside," he said.

Awami League Advisory Council member Amir Hossain Amu, Presidium member Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Joint General Secretary Jahangir Kabir Nanak also spoke on the occasion.

The deadlock at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) has taken a new turn as a group of teachers, students and employees of the institution have emerged to support the beleaguered Vice-Chancellor and Pro-Vice Chancellor.

'BUET Teachers-Students-Officers-Employees Unity Forum' held a rally in front of the BUET Cafeteria on Saturday afternoon and told reporters that the teachers association's demands were irrational.

They also added a political flavour to the movement, claiming most of the teachers protesting against the VC were Jamaat-e-Islami aligned.

Professor Munaj Ahmed Noor, convenor of the newly-formed forum, said after the rally that the most of the 16-point demands put forth by the protesters had been met.

"Moreover, 10 of their demands are contrary to the interests of the officers and employees," he added.

Speakers at the rally urged the demonstrators to withdraw the movement and let a judicial commission investigate allegations against the VC.

BUET Deputy Registrar and Bangabandhu Parishad President Kamal Ahmed said, "Seeing the involvement of pro-Jamaat teachers among the demonstrators, I suspect that this is a deep conspiracy against the state, government and BUET."

Earlier in the morning, the demonstrating teachers and students vowed to continue their protests seeking removal of the VC and his deputy.

On the fourth day of the continuous protests, the agitating teachers and students brought out a silent procession from in front of the academic building and paraded across the campus and the Central Shaheed Minar.

The BUET Teachers Association General Secretary Professor Ashraful Islam administered an oath of the teachers and students. More than 200 teachers and students reportedly took part in the oath and vowed to continue with their demonstration until the VC and Pro-VC step down.

They have been staging sit-in protests in front of the academic building since last Wednesday demanding VC Prof SM Nazrul Islam and Pro VC Prof M Habibur Rahman's resignation.

The students have initiated a mass signature campaign in support of their demand. They said the collected signatures along with their demands would be handed over to the President Zillur Rahman, who is also the Chancellor of the university, on Sunday.

Jahangirnagar University teachers, under the banner of Shammilito Shikkhak Parishad, have besieged the administrative building of the university to press for their demand to hold dean, syndicate and senate polls before the election of the panel for the Vice-Chancellor post.

The demonstrating teachers took position at the two gates of the building around 7:30am on Sunday, blocking entry to and exit from the building.

Registrar Abu Bakr Siddique and other administrative officials could not enter the building when they arrived there 15 minutes later.

The teachers' platform has been demonstrating since July 14, after the VC panel election, scheduled for July 20, was announced.

The platform's Joint Convenor Professor Hanif Ali told : "It will not be possible to hold the VC election in the university under current situation. But it is possible to hold polls to the vacant posts (of dean, syndicate and senate) in 20/21 days if sincere efforts are taken."

The immediate past Vice Chancellor Sharif Enamul Kabir was removed from office on May 17 after months of demonstrations by teachers and students triggered by death of a student Zobair Ahmed, who allegedly died on Jan 8 after being tortured by group of Chhatra League activists reportedly backed by the VC.

Enamul Kabir was replaced by Dhaka University Professor Anwar Hossain, who the teachers said had repeatedly promised to hold student union, dean, syndicate and senate polls gradually since taking over. Demonstrating teachers alleged that the sudden call for VC panel election without holding the pending elections was not acceptable.

Supporters of Bangladesh Chhatra League of two halls at Rajhshahi University started a violent clash at Sunday midnight.

Students at the university said activists of Madar Bakhsh Hall and Suhrawardi Hall, activists of the ruling Awami League's student wing, fired gunshots at around midnight. Several hand-bombs were also exploded.

Motihar Police Station Officer-in-Charge Anisur Rahman told reporters the police had brought the the situation under control. Additional police had been deployed in front of every dorm.

Some students who were injured in the clash have been sent to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital. Students said one of them, Sohel Rana, had been shot.

Tension had been building among rival groups on the campus since the university unit of Chhatra League announced its new committee.

Sohel Rana, student of third-year Social Work, was shot in the left eye and has been sent to Dhaka in critical condition.

Clashes broke out after an argument between BCL Vice-President Akheruzzaman Takim and Organising Secretary Touhid Al Tuhin, eye-witnesses said. They said at least 15-20 shots had been fired and hand-bombs exploded.

BCL General Secretary Abu Hossain Bipu said the incident was regrettable but declined to make further comments.

No cases had been filed in the incident, OC Anisur Rahman told