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Over 50 people were injured as Islamist bigots clashed with the police at Muktangan in the capital on Friday afternoon in a bid to force their way to the Dhaka Central Jail to ‘embrace detention willingly’.
   Agitated activists of the International Khatme Nabuwat Movement also damaged nine vehicles at Baitul Mukarram and Tejgaon areas.
   The violence erupted when the bigots tried to force their way to the Dhaka Central Jail from Muktangan after a rally demanding that the state declare the Ahmadiyya community as non-Muslims.
   Followers and supporters of the platform converged at Muktangan being mobilised from different mosques of the city after juma prayers.
   They continued their rally till 4:30pm and tried to march towards the central jail. As the police intercepted them, the activists threw brickbats on the police.
   In retaliation, the police lobbed teargas canisters to disperse the unruly activists. Immediately, the activists went on a rampage on vehicles on the busy Bangabandhu Avenue and damaged at least seven vehicles.
   At one stage, the law enforces chased them and the bigots took shelter at Baitul Mukarram mosque, entering through the south gate.
   The police stormed into the mosque and charged batons on the bigots. The regular devotees, who were reciting the Qur’an inside the mosque, also fell victim to the police attack.
   Another section of bigots again tried to march towards the central jail after the first round of violence and again faced police obstruction. They pelted brickbats on the police and the police retaliated with teargas canisters. The police also charged batons to disperse the bigots.
   The activists left the area at around 6:00pm, to hold a briefing at their office at Rahim Metal mosque in Tejgaon to declare the future course of the movement.
   Returning form Muktangan, the activists got agitated once again seeing a police lorry in front of the Rahim Metal mosque and damaged the truck. The police again charged baton to disperse them. The activists also broke the windshield of a van used by the officer-in-charge of the Tejgaon police station.
   Most of the injured in the clashes were released after first aid. Only a few were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for further treatment.
   But the amir of the movement, Mahmudul Hasan Mamtaji, at an impromptu briefing claimed 200 of his activists and five leaders were injured in the police assault when they headed for the central jail.
   He said 125 activists were given first aid and 60 were taken to different private clinics including Ashrafia Clinic in Tongi, Islami Bank Hospital and Al-Arafah Bank Hospital in Dhaka.
   The police had beefed up security in and around the Baitul Mukarram mosque since morning.
   Strict security measurers were also taken around the central mosque of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat at Bakhshibazar.
   The police put barricade in front of the Fazle Rabbi Hall of Dhaka Medical College and Chankharpool crossing to thwart attempts by the bigots to attack the Ahmadiyya complex. The police were also deployed in front of major mosques of Old Dhaka including the Chawkbazar Shahi Mosque.
   Members of the civil society and representatives of different non-governmental organisations visited the Ahmadiyya complex to extend their sympathy for the Ahamadiyya community. Six NGOs also formed a human-chain in front of the complex protesting against the rise of militancy and attacks on the Ahmadiyya community.
   Advocate Sultana Kamal, Sara Hossain, Khushi Kabir participated in the human chain.
   In an informal briefing, the Ahmadiyya community leaders said the crisis was totally artificial and fabricated by some unscrupulous people who want to create anarchy in the name of religion.

Analysts sense troubling times ahead of the next general elections as Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, leaders of the two major political parties, have publicly locked in a war of words last week.
   With the prime minister and the leader of the opposition in parliament both making unambiguous pronouncements of their seemingly hardline positions against each other, both their parties, the BNP ands the Awami League, look set to embark on a mission to flex their political muscle.
   In two major political rallies last week, the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, and the opposition leader, Sheikh Hasina, termed each other traitors, and threatened sedition charges against the other.
   Terming the statements as a mark of ‘desperation for power’, educationist Serajul Islam Chowdhury said, ‘Their statements would make the next election ‘troublesome’.
   Chowdhury found both the leaders responsible for the present ‘abnormality’ and said, ‘They will continue to do it and the people will get increasingly more annoyed with them.’
   ‘The two leaders must come to a compromise with whatever they have in mind for electoral reforms or actions against Islamist militants,’ Professor Ataur Rahman, the president of the Bangladesh Political Science Association, told New Age.
   He said the two leaders must act democratically, shunning the politics of confrontation.
   At a rally in Dhaka on Wednesday, Khaleda dismissed the Awami League-led opposition alliances’ demand for caretaker administration reforms, while a rigid Hasina vowed at a Rajshahi rally the next day not to participate in the next general election without the reforms.
   ‘The next general elections will be troublesome as both the incumbent and aspirant parties have been playing power games,’ said Ataur. ‘They are more interested in power politics than democratic practices,’ he said.
   ‘It seems to me that Khaleda Zia is now playing politics. She did not make her latest statements as prime minister,’ he said. ‘The BNP alliance is trying to push the Awami League to a corner.
   ‘She may be thinking that her recent stand would give her party an advantage in the next course of politics, especially in the upcoming election even if the Awami League does not take part. But traditionally the Awami League does not give legitimacy to an election which it has little chance of winning.’
   About Khaleda’s call for ‘national unity’, Ataur said, ‘Yes they are in a move to mobilise important groups. But in reality the nation is clearly divided.’
   Ataur, however, thinks that the two leaders would change their stance. ‘Now both the leaders have taken staunch positions, but that does not mean that all paths of negotiation have been closed. There might be some changes and events in the near future as neither of the parties would try to block the path of democracy.
   ‘The show of constitutional democracy must go on,’ he said.
   Former Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Saiful Islam told New Age on Friday, ‘Now it is the time to change the no-compromise-culture in politics. We, the business community, want dialogue and constructive role of politicians.’

Law enforcers have pinpointed Jahangirnagar University as a suspected base of the banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, but have returned empty handed in their continued search to find JMB activists on campus.
   Members of different law-enforcing agencies, including the Rapid Action Battalion, have conducted a number of raids at the university and its dormitories in the last several days. However, no suspected JMB members could be detained during the raids.
   The apprehension that several JMB members might be based in Jahangirnagar was fuelled by the arrest of two of the university’s students in Dhaka on December 11 and 13.
   Law enforcers said the two arrested students, KM Wahidul Islam Wasim of the economics department and Mohammad Alamgir Hossain of the chemistry department, were members of JMB’s suicide squad. Wasim reportedly told the police that he joined JMB in 2003 and was engaged in making bombs for the outfit. Both of them were being interrogated by law enforcers.
   Meanwhile, the Satkhira district Bar expelled a lawyer allegedly for issuing a letter of threat to seven senior members using the name of JMB.
   The decision of expelling the lawyer, BD Zaman, was taken at a meeting of the association on Thursday. The meeting also decided to send a resolution to the Bar Council office to cancel his license as lawyer. The letter containing death-threats was sent to the bar association office on December 13 in the name of JMB.
   Later, the association members came to know that Zaman issued the letter and typist Hafizur Rahman composed it.
   The lawyers caught Hafizur on Wednesday and handed him over to the police. But Zaman went into hiding after the arrest of Hafizur.
   In their continued hunt for militants, the Bangladesh Riffle arrested a suspected JMB member, Mohsin Ali, from Kagmari village in Shibganj upazila on Friday.
   In Kushtia, the police picked up a madrassah student, Sohel Rana, from in front of a local newspaper office at Mozompur gate area suspecting him to be a JMB member and seized some bomb making materials from his possession.
   The materials included three batteries, two capacitors, some transformers, two electric circuits and some white powder. He also possessed some Islamic books and the instruction manual of Islami Chhatra Shibir, student wing of the Jamaat-e Islami.

The University Grants Commission will hold talks with top executives of public and private universities today to work out ways to implement uniform grading system from the academic session of 2006–2007.
   The commission, which prefers the grading system to ensure uniformity among university degrees, finalised the system four months ago.
   It also asked the universities to formulate examination ordinance, and set rules and regulations for examinations, and the announcement of results in line with its recommendations.
   It sent the recommendations to the Ministry of Education proposing a uniform grade system and suggesting ways to implement it in all the universities. But the ministry failed to make any decision in this regard in the past couple of months.
   The commission chairman, M Asaduzzaman, said everyone at the universities approved the commission recommendations, but no meeting was held for some complexities.
   He hoped that it might be implemented in the shortest possible time after the meeting with the university vice-chancellors. The meeting will be held in the LGED office in Dhaka. Asaduzzaman will be in the chair.
   The initiatives to formulate the uniform grading system were taken following a controversy over the variety of evaluation systems among the universities, even among departments or institutions at the same
   university.
   There are also universities that confer degrees on students based on two forms — traditional class system and letter grade system.
   The commission observed that the dissimilarities and inconveniences had harmed the students, and the employers in public and private sectors, who faced problems in comparing prospective candidates against each other.
   The commission has proposed a nine-step letter grade system for the evaluation in public and private universities to ensure conformity among the same level of degrees.
   The students will get numerical marks corresponding to letter grades in nine steps beginning from D to A and the grade points will be between 1.00 and 4.00.
   Grade D will be given for a numerical score between 50 and 54, and the grade point will be 1.00. Students scoring between 55 and 59 will get C with a grade point of 1.50.
   The grades will continue upwards in an increment of five, but grade points will vary for some letter grades.
   Grade C will have a grade point of 2.00, followed by Grade B–with 2.50 points, Grade B with 3.25 points, Grade B+ with 3.50 points, Grade A– with 3.75 points, and Grade A with 4.00 points.
   Transcripts will, however, have only letter grades and their corresponding grade points, and finally, the cumulative grade point average. The numerical marks will not be mentioned.
   The minimum cumulative grade point average for obtaining a degree will be 2.00. A student obtaining Grade C or below will be allowed to repeat the course. The minimum number of credit for a four-year bachelor’s degree will be 120.

India’s parliament on Friday expelled 11 legislators accused of taking bribes to raise questions in the federal parliament in the first such crackdown on corruption in the house.
   After a day of heated debate and a walkout by some legislators, both houses of parliament backed the expulsions.
   Chhattrapal Singh Lodha, a member of the appointed upper house from the main opposition Bhartiya Janata Party, was the first to go after being found guilty by a panel of peers of taking a bribe.
   He was also the first member of the upper house to be expelled.
   Shortly afterwards, the lower house moved swiftly to adopt a similar motion, which was hotly contested by the BJP, to which six of the 11 accused belonged.
   The 11 MPs were caught in a ‘sting’ operation by Aaj Tak television station which aired video footage on December 12 of the legislators stuffing money into their pockets to raise questions in parliament.
   ‘Corruption was there, but more than that it was stupidity ... This proposal is not at all commensurate with their offence,’ opposition leader LK Advani said in defence of his party members.
   Advani said his colleagues had not been given an opportunity to defend themselves. As the debate continued, BJP members walked out of the house in protest, but they could not prevent the expulsions, the biggest mass exit in the history of the parliament.
   Other expelled MPs belonged to the ruling Congress Party and regional parties.
   They allegedly took between 110,000 rupees (2,558 dollars) and 10,000 rupees (232 dollars) each to ask questions in parliament.
   On Tuesday seven more Indian MPs were caught in another sting asking for cash, this time courtesy of Star News TV.
   It broadcast pictures of MPs from different parties, including Congress, apparently asking for cash ranging from five to 45 per cent of the project value to approve spending on public works programmes in their constituencies.
   The scandals followed the resignation early in December of former foreign minister Natwar Singh from the cabinet over charges he benefited illegally from the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq.
   Tainted politicians are a major issue in India.
   A study last year by an independent watchdog found that nearly one quarter of the more than 540 people elected to parliament in 2004 faced criminal charges ranging from murder to rape.

The government made a major reshuffle in the top brass of the Bangladesh Army.
   Three major generals and five brigadier generals were reassigned while three brigadier generals were promoted to the rank of major general, an ISPR release said on Friday.
   The 24 Infantry Division general officer commanding, major general Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan, was reassigned as the chief of the general staff of the force.
   The position of the chief of general staff was vacant after Main U Ahmed was promoted as the Bangladesh Army chief.
   The adjutant general of the force, major general Sina Ibn Jamali, was made general officer commanding of the 24 Infantry Division.
   The 33 Infantry Division general officer commanding, major general Md Matiur Rahman, was made adjutant general.
   Brigadier general Abdul Hafiz was promoted to the rank of major general and was simultaneously made general officer commanding of the 33 Infantry Division. He was earlier commanding the 44 Infantry Division.
   Brigadier general Anup Kumar Chakma was promoted to the rank of major general and was simultaneously made master general of ordnance of the force. He was earlier director at the Directorate of Military Training.
   The National Security Intelligence director general, brigadier general Md Rezzaqul Haider Chowdhury, was promoted to the rank of major general and will continue holding the same office. Brigadier general Mohammad Ashab Uddin was reassigned as the Directorate of Military Training director.
   Brigadier general Syed Imam Hossain was made commander of the 44 Infantry Division.

Army and BDR personnel in a joint drive recovered four sophisticated firearms along with ammunition from Ugalchari area in Bhagaichari upazila here on Friday.
   Sources in the joint forces said a team of army and Bangladesh Rifles raided Ugalchari area in Bhagaichhari, close to India’s border province of Mizoram, and seized the firearms.
   During the operation, the joint forces recovered one 9mm Sub Machine Carbine, one .22 bore rifle, one .22 pistol, one 9mm revolver, nine rounds of ammunition, 120 Indian currency and some anti-state documents, the sources said.
   However, nobody was arrested in this connection.
   Tribal miscreants might have been in possession of the arms, and sensing presence of the security forces, they fled the scene, the sources said.

The 10 elected lawmakers who were caught on camera accepting money to raise questions in India’s lower house of parliament Patients requiring surgery on the urinary tract have to wait for months because of the lack of surgeons and beds in both government and privately owned hospitals in the country.
   There are only 200 beds in both the government and privately owned hospitals and 80 surgeons, 12 of them experts, for an estimated 50 lakh patients having surgical problems in urinary tract, according to a source in the Director General of Health Services.
   Such patients outside the capital have to suffer most as almost all the urologists practice in the capital hospitals, a health services official said.
   One Shafiullah, who will have to undergo a surgery on his urinary tract, said he had to wait for about 11 months for his turn to get a bed in Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
   ‘I have got a bed after a long wait and now I shall have to wait for a schedule of the surgeons,’ he said.
   The service for urological problems was first introduced at DMCH in 1965 and since independence six public and private sector hospital have introduced the service, the health services official said.
   Only two or three patients out of about 50 to 60, who visit the urology outpatient department at DMCH everyday, become lucky enough to get admission, the secretary general of Bangladesh Association of Urological Surgeons, Prof AZM Zahid Hossain, said.
   ‘A patient has to wait for more than a year to get admission in the DMCH urology ward. So in other public hospitals like Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital, Chittagong Medical College Hospital and Sylhet Medical College Hospital,’ he said.
   He identified ‘high tariff’ as an obstacle to import instruments required for better diagnosis and surgical operation about urological problems.
   The minister for health and family welfare, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, said accidental injuries to kidney and urinary tract had increased due to increased number of road accidents in the country. ‘Some of the accident victims are developing kidney failure due to obstruction in the urinary passage following the trauma.’
   ‘Apart from patients whose urinary problems occurred due to road accidents, 3.9 per cent people of the country are having prostate trouble and need expert-level services,’ he added.
   About high import cost of the equipment, Mosharraf said he would look into the matter and try to reduce tariff on medical equipment.
   About 400 kidney transplantation surgeries have so far taken place in the country. The life donors provided those kidneys to the patients. ‘But Bangladesh has both legal bars and shortage of experts to popularise cadaver kidney transplantation,’ said Professor Harun-Ur-Rashid, chairman of the department of nephrology of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.
   ‘If cadaver transplantation is ethically acceptable and better treatment, we will take steps to amend the law, which bars such transplantation,’ said Mosharraf Hossain.

Ahle Hadith Andalan Bangladesh, widely suspected to have close link with banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, on Friday demanded immediate release of its leaders, including the organisation chief Asadullah Al Ghalib.
   The organisation leaders at a news conference at a city restaurant also denied the organisation’s link with any Islamist group, militancy or subversive activity.
   ‘We have respect on the laws of the land but not on the law enforcers as they are corrupt,’ the organisation’s acting amir, Dr Moslehuddin, said.
   Accusing Jamaat-e-Islami, a component in the BNP-led alliance government, of playing role in the arrest of Ghalib, also a Rajshahi University teacher, about 10 months back, he said, ‘Jamaat turned annoyed after Ghalib had refused their proposal to join them with our three crore followers.’
   Conspiracy of an expelled leader and ‘baseless’ reports in media and by the intelligence agencies are also responsible for the arrest of Ghalib and others, he said.
   Defending their claim to have no link with militancy or anti-state activity, Moslehuddin said, ‘If the computer documents and compact disks of the organisation seized at different time carry anything wrong, why the government does not disclose it to the countrymen?’
   The organisation leaders, including SM Abdul Latif, Kabirul Islam and Abul Kalam Azad, were also present at the conference.

Large demonstrations broke out across the country on Friday to denounce parliamentary elections that protesters say were rigged in favour of the main religious Shia coalition. Also, the US military said two soldiers were killed when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Baghdad on Friday.
   At least 2,163 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
   Meanwhile, two Arab satellite television channels said a Sudanese diplomat and five of his countrymen had been kidnapped in Iraq, and a Sudan Foreign Ministry spokesman appealed for their release.
   Al-Jazeera’s Web site reported the kidnappings but did not give details about where and when the six nationals were seized.
   Several hundred thousand people demonstrated after noon prayers in southern Baghdad on Friday, many carrying banners decrying last week’s elections. Many Iraqis outside the religious Shia coalition allege that the elections were unfair to smaller Sunni Arab and secular Shia groups.
   During Friday prayers at Baghdad’s Umm al-Qura mosque, the headquarters of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a major Sunni clerical group, Sheik Mahmoud al-Sumaidaei told followers they were ‘living a conspiracy built on lies and forgery.’
   ‘You have to be ready during these hard times and combat forgeries and lies for the sake of Islam,’ he said.
   Sunni Arab and secular Shia factions demanded Thursday that an international body review election fraud complaints, and threatened to boycott the new legislature. The United Nations rejected the idea.
   Their demand came two days after preliminary returns indicated that the current governing group, the religious Shia United Iraqi Alliance, was getting bigger-than-expected majorities in Baghdad, which has large numbers of Shias and Sunnis.
   On Friday, more than 2,000 people demonstrated in Mosul, where some accused Iran of having a hand in election fraud. About 1,000 people demonstrated in Tikrit, Saddam’s hometown.
   The former leader claimed at his trial this week that he had been beaten by his American captors. But defence lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said Friday he had seen marks on his client’s body. Speaking in Amman, Jordan, Dulaimi said he had filed a compliant Thursday with the court hearing Saddam’s case.
   Meanwhile, gunmen Friday attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint in the city of Adhaim, in religiously and ethnically mixed Diyala province, killing eight soldiers and wounding seventeen.

A number of employees of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education still stay in the directorate office, widely known as Shiksha Bhaban, despite repeated attempts to drive them out.
   ‘Since December 26, 2004, we have issued several notices asking the employees to vacate the office premises, but they continued staying there at night,’ the director general of the directorate, Professor Dilara Hafiz, said.
   A number of employees are still staying on the office premises at night and allegedly engaging themselves with anti-social activities hampering the environment and security of the office, she said. ‘They are an organised force.’
   She said these employees had been using electricity, water and toilet facilities of the office.
   ‘We have formed a central security pool and the pool members have been trying their best to oust them,’ Dilara said adding ‘We are trying hard to keep the office premises free from all kinds of anti-social activities.’
   The authorities on December 26, 2004 issued a notice asking the employees to vacate the office by December 31, but a number of employees continued staying inside the office till January.
   Following an education ministry directive, the directorate authorities issued another notice in January 25 asking the employees to vacate the office premises by March. But a number of them were found living there till the past week.
   The education minister, M Osman Farruk, told New Age in the past week that the employees, who stay inside the directorate office, had been found involved with widespread corruptions.
   ‘I was surprised to know that a huge number of employees stay illegally in the directorate office and are involved in anti-social activities there,’ he said adding ‘I have ordered the director general of the directorate to drive out the employees from the office premises as soon as possible.’
   The responsibilities of the directorate is to monitor and supervise the administrative affairs of about 30,000 secondary and higher educational institutions, including madrassahs and other special organisations, across the country.

South Korean investigators said Friday the apparent landmark stem cell research by cloning expert Hwang Woo-Suk had been faked, turning the one-time national hero into a disgraced fabricator.
   A nine-member committee from Hwang’s Seoul National University said his paper published this year in science journal contained false information.
   ‘The data of the 2005 paper were not the result of simple mistakes but of an intentional fabrication,’ the committee said in a statement issued after a week-long probe.
   ‘This is a serious wrongdoing that has damaged the foundation of science.’
   Hwang had admitted to having played a role in manipulating scientific data, committee spokeswoman Roh Jung-Hye said.
   She said the committee was also investigating the authenticity of Hwang’s 2004 paper and his work on ‘Snuppy’—the Afghan hound that the professor unveiled in August as the world’s first cloned dog.
   The disgraced scientist immediately accepted the committee’s report and gave up his professorship. ‘I sincerely apologise,’ he said. ‘I am resigning as a Seoul National University professor.’
   Hwang, however, insisted that patient-tailored embryonic stem cells remain ‘the proud technology of our nation.’
   With his reputation already in tatters over previous revelations of ethical problems in his research, the veterinary professor had been under pressure from the academic community to give up his research and posts.
   The latest revelations were a severe blow for Hwang, who was until recently considered a national hero for what was hailed as ground-breaking research.
   The government had showered Hwang with honours and research funds estimated at some 40 million dollars.
   It opened a state research hub in October meant to serve as the heart of global medical efforts to find cures for diseases now considered incurable.
   Hwang was widely idolised until the TV network MBC and young scientists publicly accused him of fabricating key parts of his research into the production of patient-specific stem cells.
   On Friday the committee said Hwang had manipulated data and photographs of two stem cell lines to make it appear as though his team had cultivated 11 stem cell lines as they had claimed in his paper.
   Stem cells are master cells which experts believe can develop into any organ and may someday help fight cancer and other hard-to-treat diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and diabetes.
   The veracity of the two stem cells themselves has yet to be verified, pending the outcome of the ongoing DNA analysis of the cell lines which were supposed to be ‘therapeutic’ patient-specific cells.
   South Korean scientists, politicians and civic groups expressed shock and anger. Scientists here fear the committee’s announcement may stoke scepticism abroad about their credibility.

Fifteen eminent personalities were accorded a reception for their contribution to the establishment of women’s rights
   The Gender Trainers and Activists Core Group accorded the reception at the inaugural session of its two-day national convention that began in the BIAM auditorium on Friday with the slogan ‘Journey towards Gender Equality.’
   The personalities were Bangladesh Mahila Parishad chairman Hena Das,
   Founding chair of the Dhaka University women studies department Professor Nazma Chowdhury, former chair and incumbent member of the CEDAW Committee Salma Khan, Ganaswasthya Kendra project coordinator Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury, daily Sangbad editor Bazlur Rahman, Proshika Manabik Unnayan Kendra president Dr Quazi Faruque Ahmed, Bangladesh Mahila Parishad general secretary Ayesha Khanam, senior DANIDA programme officer Shirin Haque, development affairs adviser at the Norwegian embassy Zakia K Hasan, women leader Bela Nabi, development specialists Jawshan A Rahman and Taherunnesa Abdullah, novelist and researcher Selina Hossain, women rights leader Dr Hameeda Hossain, and women activist Maleka Begum.
   The programme began with the recitation of a poem of Kazi Nazrul Islam, and the singing of the national anthem in chorus.
   Hena said she had been working since 1940 after being inspired by social reformists Raja Rammohan Roy, and Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, and pioneer of women movement Begum Roquiah. She also recalled her participation in the anti-British movement and the contribution of the women to the war of independence.
   Selina vowed to work for a society where both men and women would be treated equally.
   Steps towards Development executive director Ranjan Karmakar presented an overview on the background of the convention.

The Border Security Force of India shot dead a teenage Bangladeshi boy on Laxmipur frontier in Akhaura on Friday.
   The victim was identified as Zakir Hossain, 14, son of Mostafa of Moniandha village in Akhaura.
   BDR sources said the BSF troops opened fire at the boy as he got close to the border looking for his goat. He died instantly.

Salim Bhuiyan was elected the president of the Dhaka Club for 2005-06 at the annual election to the club.
   Salim, vice-chairman of the Bangladesh General Insurance Company and a member of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, got 726 votes while his nearest rival bagged 276 votes.
   A 10-member executive committee was also elected by the life and permanent members of the club.
   The members of the committee are Ishtiaque Ahmad, ASM Ali Khabir Chand, Jahangir Shah Badsha, Enamul Hoque, AA Ibrahim (Kaju), Mohammad Iftekharuddin Khan (Naushad), Ashraful Islam, Tulu Kalimullah, Ashrafuzzaman Khan (Puton), and Nawzia Islam (Rasha).

Biman Bangladesh Airlines will resume it flights between Dhaka and Barisal from January 1.
   However, the flight operation of the national carrier, will restart under the revised winter domestic flight schedule, officials sources said.

The suspension of production in three more power generation plants due to technical faults in last two days resulted in the loadshedding on Friday in the capital city as well as other places across the country.
   However, the loadshedding came down to 200MW Friday. The production of electricity on Friday was 3300MW against the peak-hour demand for 3500MW.
   When contacted, the Power Development Board informed that production in at least seven units of some power plants remained suspended till Friday forcing them to resort to loadshedding across the country.
   Out of the seven units, 210MW-capacity Siddhirganj power plant, the 150MW-capacity Ashuganj power plant (unit-4) and its 40MW-capacity GT-2 unit, two units having 100MW and 60MW Khulna plant, the 80MW-capacity Tongi plant and the 55MW-capacity Ghorasal plant (unit-1) remained suspended due to technical faults and for overhauling works over the last couple of days.

The Rapid Action Battalion arrested two in possession of two firearms and ammunition in Sylhet early Friday.
   The arrested were Tipu, 30 and Alamgir, 28. The battalion members conducted a drive in the Shahjala Bridge area and arrested Tipu. Based on his statement, the battalion later arrested Alamgir from Madina Market area.

The World Bank has ignored a court injunction on appointment to one of the positions in its Dhaka office, a lawyer’s chamber alleged.
   A legal notice, served by barrister Rehan Husain, in July further asked the bank to stop the recruitment of ‘external affairs officer’ as there had been an order of injunction against the post. A case in this regard has been pending with a Dhaka court.
   The World Bank is yet to be given immunity by the Bangladesh government as a bill on the matter has now been pending with a respective standing committee of the parliament.
   In spite of such legal status, the Bank has recently given appointment to a person renaming the post as ‘senior communications officer’ in its Dhaka office, and he is expected to join work next week.
   An official of the World Bank said, ‘Due procedure has been followed in making the appointment to the post of senior communications officer, not of external affairs officer, on which there is a bar. The bank thinks it has not violated the injunction order.’
   According to a release issued by lawyer SM Hossain, this appointment is the second precedent of violation of court order by the lending agency after it had named Subrata Dhar in the same capacity in 2002.
   ‘The multilateral financial institution has now been defying court orders by renaming the position in sheer disregard and defiance for Bangladesh’s rule of law and court’s order of injunction,’ the release said.