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The vice-chancellor of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology in Sylhet resigned on Sunday in response to the violent protests by the students who went berserk after the death of a fellow student in police firing.
   As soon as news of the death spread, the agitated students gathered in front of the official residence of the vice-chancellor, Mosleh Uddin Ahmed, and went on a rampage in the house, setting fire to furniture and other articles on the ground-floor, said witnesses.
   One of three students who were critically wounded in police firing on Friday night on the campus died at a hospital in Dhaka on Sunday. He was brought to Dhaka from Sylhet on Saturday.
   The agitated students vandalised the residence of professor Mosleh Uddin Ahmed and set a fire that gutted several valuables including two motor vehicles.
   The students started gathering on the campus from 4:00am on Sunday, after spreading the news that their classmate Mosharaff Hossain Shameem, a fourth year BBA student, had died at the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka, said witnesses.
   At about 9:00am, the agitated students took up a position at the entrance of the vice-chancellor’s residence and started demonstrating by chanting slogans against the VC in demand of his immediate resignation.
   In the meantime, a rumour spread that another injured student, Rajib Kumar Baishya, who was undergoing treatment at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital, had died, and fuelled the agitation once again.
   The furious students broke open the gate and entered the residence’s compound at around 9:45am and set fire to a car and a microbus in the garage, as VC Mosleh Uddin refused to meet them despite their repeated requests, said sources.
   At one stage the students, led by the convener of the university unit of Jatiytabadi Chhatra Dal, Akhlakur Rahman Akhlak, SUST press club president Imran Ahmed and ex-president Ramaprashad Babu entered the ground-floor of the house after breaking open the door, and vandalised the furniture, computer, photocopier, windowpanes, household utensils and set fire to other objects including furniture, beds and clothes in front of the house, confining Mosleh Uddin to the first-floor along with his family members.
   According to sources the valuables, vehicles and different equipment including two motor vehicles, computer, photocopier, power generator and other household machineries and utilities were damaged. The car and microbus were burnt to ashes along with the garage.
   The agitated students manhandled photojournalists while they were discharging their duties, said witnesses.
   The students also attacked and forced the journalists of different national and local dailies out from the campus, injuring several journalists in the process.
   Teachers of the SUST held a rally at the main entrance of the university at about 11:45am and expressed their solidarity with the students’ movement for the resignation of the vice-chancellor.
   Vice-chancellor Mosleh Uddin Ahmed sent the copy of his resignation letter to the students on Sunday at 12:30pm in the presence of the registrar of the university, Dr Jamil Ahmed Chowdhury.
   Student leaders present at the spot took the signature of the registrar on the resignation letter and took steps to send the copies to the authorities concerned, including the chancellor and prime minister. Hundreds of students welcomed the resignation by clapping their hands, said the sources.
   VC Mosleh Uddin Ahmed told the newsmen that the situation in the university has worsened due to some criminal persons.
   Admitting his resignation, he said, ‘I have done it for the greater interest of the university.’
   Mosharraf Hossain Shameem, a fourth year BBA student of the university who hails from Hiran Gram under Purbadhala upazila in Netrokona, died at the Dhaka Combined Military Hospital early Sunday, where he was shifted from the BSMMU for further treatment.
   He sustained bullet injuries along with several others during the demonstration on Friday night and was under treatment at the Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital.
   On Saturday, the authorities of SUST and Ragib-Rabeya Medical College and Hospital closed the institutions sine die following the fight between students of the two educational institutions on Friday night, which left at least 45 persons injured.

Bangladesh has been preparing its grounds for justifying its claim over the un-delineated maritime boundary, into which neighbouring India and Myanmar have reportedly encroached and started initial preparations for hydrocarbon exploration, according to officials at the foreign ministry.
   Despite India and Myanmar’s ‘encroachment’ into Bangladesh’s territorial waters, Dhaka has opted for going for the third round bidding for hydrocarbon exploration in deep water in its claimed 200 nautical miles of territorial water in the Bay of Bengal.
   ‘We will go for making new blocks throughout our 200 nautical miles of sea and float international tenders,’ the energy advisor, Mahmudur Rahman, told reporters on Sunday. He said he had information that India and Myanmar have encroached into 19,000 square kilometres and 18,000 square kilometres into Bangladesh’s maritime territories and floated international tenders for hydrocarbon exploration.
   ‘We’ll not spare them…We’ll go for international tenders within our waters,’ said Mahmud, adding that tenders would be floated after the relevant ministries finalise the procedure.
   Sources in the Energy Division said Mahmud has asked the energy secretary to send, as soon as possible, a letter with relevant documents and maps to the foreign ministry so that it can take steps against the reported encroachment by the two neighbours.
   Following press reports on India and Myanmar encroaching on gas blocks in Bangladesh’s maritime territory, prime minister Khaleda Zia summoned the advisor of the foreign ministry, Reaz Rahman, and the secretary of the ministry, Hemayetuddin, to ask them about the latest situation, said PMO sources.
   Asked to comment on the reported encroachment on our deepwater hydrocarbon exploration blocks by India and Myanmar, a top foreign ministry official said none of the three nations have yet demarcated the maritime boundary, and Bangladesh has been preparing its arguments to substantiate its claim.
   Bangladesh claims, according to the Law of the Sea, 12 nautical miles of territorial sea, 200 nautical miles of Exclusive Economic Zone and 350 nautical miles of the continental shelf under the Bay of Bengal.
   The country has been allowed 10 years’ time to justify its claim since it ratified the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea in 2001.
   The foreign ministry official termed the matter ‘very sensitive’ and said the government was conducting a number of studies and training its officials on many other complex matters related to maritime surveys.
   ‘Neither India nor Myanmar has yet established legitimate right on areas of deep water as they have not yet resolved the matter with Bangladesh,’ said a high official of the foreign ministry.
   He added that the Indian authorities had signed the UN convention on marine law in 1994 and their work on maritime demarcation was supposed to end by 2004. But, he said, India have sought five more years to complete the works and Myanmar’s deadline for demarcation work is 2009.
   Although the government has been trying to make headway in a lot of matters related to maritime boundary demarcation, it has produced hardly any news.
   ‘Due to lack of capacity to conduct surveys —bathymetric, gravity, magnetic and seismic surveys — in the continental shelf, the country has passed almost half of its stipulated 10 years’ time,’ a source in the foreign ministry told New Age on Sunday.
   The delay in establishing Bangladesh’s claim to its maritime territory has prompted the other neighbours to encroach, observed another source.
   In this circumstance, he said, the government is thinking of hiring international experts in addition to training up its own people to get the rest of the things in order in the next five years.
   The country is now lacking the necessary data even to protest if any of the neighbours make any undue claim, although the government had announced earlier determination of the maritime boundary baseline as per the UN convention, completion of the physical survey, and purchase or charter of necessary equipment for the survey, which is a priority project of the prime minister, with a deadline in June this year.
   Asked for an official comment on the progress of the work, the chairman of the Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organisation, Abdul Halim Hawlader, declined to talk to the press.
   The director of the Geological Survey of Bangladesh, Sirajur Rahman Khan, however, said that his department has finished part of the work. The GSB was given the responsibility of finding out the pattern of coast-line changes in the Bay of Bengal.

The police team investigating the smuggling of 75.5kg heroin to the United Kingdom on Sunday arrested the BD Foods Limited chairmen after two of his employees had given statement in court admitting to their involvement in the smuggling.
   The Criminal Investigation Department team arrested BD Foods chairman Badruddoza Chowdhury Momen from his house at Banani at about 6:15pm. He was taken to the CID head office for interrogation.
   He will be produced in court on Monday, seeking police remand for him, said one of the investigators.
   ‘We could know of BD Foods involvement in the smuggling after examining the bank transactions of 12 companies and after two of the BD Foods employees had given statement in court admitting to their involvement,’ said another investigator.
   The team arrested six persons in connection of the smuggling, three of them were employees of the BD Foods Limited and its sister concern King and Company, a company blamed for the heroin smuggling to the United Kingdom.
   The team arrested Nazmul Haider Bhuiyan Bulbul on April 20, from his apartment at Shantinagar, BD Sea Foods Limited manager Abu Bakar Siddique from Pahartali in Chittagang on May 3. Based on the statement of Abu Bakar, the team arrested Mohammad Mokhlesur Rahman, a cargo loader of BD Foods, from Turag at Tongi on the same day.
   The police produced them in court several times for remand after their arrest. Bulbul and Mokhles gave a statement in the court of magistrate Nani Gopal Biwas at noon on Sunday.
   They told the magistrate that they had been smuggling heroin to the United Kingdom at the directive of the BD Foods management.
   The investigation officer, Nurul Islam, meanwhile, produced Abu Bakar Siddique, in court seeking a five-day remand after the completion of his second-term remand. The court granted a remand for three days.
   According to a primary investigation report submitted by five government organisations in September 5, 2005, a leading private food company, BD Food Limited, and its sister concern King and Company manipulated the entire export process of the drug smuggling.
   The investigation found BD Foods managing director Badrul Haider Chowdhury, also managing director of the King and Company, and Nazmul Haider Bhuiyan Bulbul, an employee reportedly sacked by the King and Company, and its manager Mainuddin involved in the smuggling. The UK customs filed a case with its London head office mentioning the three as suspected international drug smugglers.

The cabinet committee on madrassah education on Sunday approved recommendations of a government committee to equate fazil degree with bachelor’s and kamil with master’s of general education.
   Fazil and kamil degree holders are now not eligible to take the Bangladesh Civil Service or any other competitive examinations for government jobs as the degrees are not equated with bachelor’s and master’s.
   The committee formed to amend the Islamic University Act 1980 and the Madrassah Education Ordinance 1978 for recognition of fazil and kamil degrees had a meeting with the LGRD and cooperatives minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan.
   The law minister, Moudud Ahmed, who attended the meeting, told newsmen that the madrassah education would be equated with the national education system by keeping its nature unchanged. ‘The final decision will be made at the next meeting.’
   Moudud said laws concerned might need to be amended for the implementation of the decision.
   The education ministry put forth a proposal to the cabinet committee on education early 2002 to equate fazil with bachelor’s and kamil with master’s.
   Formed in November 2005, the 10-member committee, headed by the National University dean Sher Mohammad, put forth the recommendations updating the madrassah education curriculum.
   The committee recommended that madrassah students
   will need to take examinations of 1,400 marks a three-year course for bachelor’s degree and they will need to study Bangla and English as compulsory subjects in compliance with the National University syllabus.
   For masters’ degree, the students will need to take examinations of 500 marks in Part I and of 500 marks in Part II in two-year course.
   The committee also recommended that 1,000 teachers should be recruited at madrassahs offering fazil and kamil degrees.
   The government early 2005 decided to put the fazil and kamil curriculums under the National University.
   The education minister, M Osman Farruk, industries minister Matiur Rahman Nizami and commerce minister Hafizuddin Ahmed also attended the meeting.
   The National University earlier accepted in principle the education ministry proposal for the affiliation of fazil and kamil madrassahs, which are now run by the Madrassah Education Board.

The finance and planning minister, M Saifur Rahman, at a pre-budget discussion on Sunday assured local entrepreneurs that the government would trim the tax and investment-related facilities available for foreign direct investment and increase opportunities for local investors in order to strike a balance in the overall business environment.
   He said local entrepreneurs would be provided with the facilities which were being enjoyed by foreign investors in the existing export processing zones and equal opportunities would soon be available for all in the special zones to be established soon.
   The finance minister was addressing a discussion, styled ‘the meeting of the 27th consultative committee of the National Board of Revenue,’ at a local hotel.
   Saifur expressed his resolve to stop the ongoing tax and monetary irregularities in the name of direct purchase, and turned down the suggestions that the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh should be allowed to play a more active role in containing price spiral of essential commodities.
   ‘I find no reason to patronise the FDI in Bangladesh at the cost of local investors, as foreign investments still contribute little to the national economy in spite of the fact that they enjoy a lot of facilities,’ Saifur told businessmen who expressed their frustration over the inadequate facilities they enjoy compared to the opportunities extended to foreign investors in the country.
   ‘The mobile phone companies, without making any investment here, are making huge profits, which they cannot make in their own countries,’ he told the discussion.
   ‘The local entrepreneurs will be provided with the facilities which are being enjoyed by the foreign investors in the planned special economic zones, and their interest will be protected in the existing EPZs like foreign companies.’
   The meeting was jointly organised by the NBR and the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Mir Nasir Hossain, the president of the FBCCI, conducted the meeting.
   Earlier, AK Azad, the president of Bangladesh Chamber of Industries, said foreign investors in the country were enjoying more facilities than local entrepreneurs which had created unfair situation for local investors.
   Citing an example, the BCI president told the discussion that interested local industrialists were ignored when the government had made allotment for establishing industry in the newly-established Adamjee EPZ and same was the case in the Dhaka EPZ.
   ‘Locals have long been discriminated against in terms of land allocation in the EPZs, exemptions in taxes and land values etc,’ Azad noted.
   Mahbubur Rahman, the president of International Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh, urged the minister for finance and planning to stop the discrimination between local and foreign investors.
   ‘The government is discriminating against local investors in terms of extending facilities,’ he alleged.
   He questioned the rationality of allowing foreigners in the businesses like restaurants, beauty parlours and hair dressers.
   Abul Kashem Haider, vice-president of the FBCCI, urged the minister to make it mandatory in the next budget to offload at least 30 shares of mobile companies in the capital market.
   Faisal Morshad Khan, the chairman of Arab Bangladesh Bank Ltd, said the government had allowed a good number of foreign companies to operate land phones, which were not justified, given that the companies were remitting foreign currency abroad.
   Responding to concerns expressed by a businessman on money laundering and undervaluation currently practised through direct purchase, Saifur said he fully agreed with the allegation on the system.
   ‘Malpractice in the name of direct purchase should be stopped,’ he told the meeting.
   Expressing his desire to patronise agriculture sector in the next budget, the minister said the culture of paying taxes should be bolstered so that the government could earmark a good chunk of fund for agriculture sector.
   Venting his frustration, Saifur said the tax-GDP ratio, which is only 10 per cent in the country, is humiliating for the country.
   ‘Even the ratios in Bhutan and Nepal are higher,’ he said in the meeting and urged businessmen to contribute more to the country’s revenue.
   We cannot even meet the revenue expenditure by the tax you pay to the exchequer, a frustrated Saifur told the meeting, adding that the situation had compelled him to approach the donors for budgetary support.
   On the issue of hiking fuel oil prices, he said the country provides the highest subsidies to petroleum compared to other countries in South Asia.
   A number of businessmen at the discussion proposed import of essential commodities through the TCB, but Saifur opposed it vehemently.
   ‘I am against importing commodities through the TCB as it takes more time in import along with hassles in tender processes and other formalities,’ he told the meeting.
   ‘These corporations are responsible for the sorry state of the economy,’ the finance minister said.

Inviting the Chittagong city’s mayor, ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, to come to terms on the sea-port issue, the shipping minister, Akbar Hossain, simultaneously warned him of a defamation suit for making ‘reckless’ allegations of corruption.
   The minister came up with a ‘stick and carrot’ approach at a press conference on Sunday after Chittagong’s mayor accused him of misappropriating Tk 200 crore while purchasing port equipment and also threatened to go for a shutdown programme in Chittagong if the government privatises port services.
   Joining the political controversies centring on the Chittagong port issue, Akbar, a senior leader of ruling BNP, further urged the Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, to mediate the entire issue to bring Mohiuddin, a follower of her party, to the negotiation table.
   The minister expressed his firm determination to keep the port open, shrugging off threats of an agitation programme, and said, ‘Chittagong port was not closed for a single day in the last four and a half year.’ Leaders of the Chittagong units of ruling BNP and opposition Awami League have, in the meantime, pushed themselves into a political confrontation on the port issue.
   ‘You have to offer a solution to the issue instead of creating road-blocks; otherwise you will be responsible for the national losses. At the personal level, I will serve a legal notice upon Mr Mohiuddin claiming Tk 5 crore for making irresponsible comments,’ said the minister.
   The mayor has reportedly accused Akbar of misappropriating Tk 200 crore, but the minister pointed out that the entire project of importing four gantry cranes from Japan was implemented at a cost of Tk 117 crore. ‘What a foul argument! However, if he says he’s sorry, I will accept his apology,’ he added.
   Mentioning the mayor’s announcement of enforcing hartal from May 20 or so, the minister said, ‘I don’t understand why he is so furious when the tender document (to privatise port services) is yet to be ready.’
   Mohiuddin Chowdhury, thrice an elected mayor of Chittagong City Corporation, also opposed the move to privatise the services of the port in the tenure of the previous Awami League regime.
   Akbar claimed that if the current hassle continues, the government will have to incur loss of some Tk 20 crore every month and if Mohiuddin’s demand ‘is valid’, it will take three years to start normal operation at the New Mooring container terminal.
   The government plans to inaugurate the terminal by July and begin full-swing operation by November this year, said the shipping minister. He further urged the business community to divert the shipping of goods and commodities to the Mongla port to ease pressure on Chittagong port and thereby stop the ‘use of muscle’ by people like Mohiuddin.
   The shipping ministry, earlier on March 19, formed an 11-member committee to frame the proposal on the tender document for handing over the New Mooring container terminal to the private sector.

Three hundred and fifty-five examinees were expelled for adopting unfairmeans and three teachers for abetting it on the first day of the Higher Secondary Certificate, Business Management and Alim examinations under the nine education boards on Sunday.
   According to the education ministry control room and the New Age correspondents, 58 examinees under the seven general education boards, 67 under the technical education board and 230 examinees under the madrassah education board were expelled in the English first paper (compulsory) examination.
   The three teachers were expelled under the madrassah education board, they said.
   Under the general education boards, 21 examinees were expelled in Dhaka, 17 in Rajshahi, eight in Comilla, six in Barisal, four in Jessore and one each in Chittagong and Sylhet.
   The education minister, M Osman Farruk, visited the Shahidullah College and the Government Badrunnesa College centres in Dhaka and expressed satisfaction over the cheating-free examinations.
   The state minister for education, ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milan, visited some centres in Dhamrai and Tongi.
   According to the examination control room, about 4,000 examinees did not sit for the examination on the day.

Nepal’s seven main political parties are planning to strip the king of most of his powers, especially control over the army, and declare the parliament supreme, they said.
   Nepal’s new parliament is expected to take up a resolution on Monday, or soon after, on sweeping proposals after more than a year of often violent protests in the streets of the capital Kathmandu and elsewhere. The protests reached a crescendo last month forcing the king to return power back to the political parties—a year after he had sacked an elected government and assumed absolute power.
   At least 17 people were killed and thousands hurt in last month’s protests while 38 people were reported missing.
   Nepal’s new parliament has already approved a plan by the prime minister, Girija Prasad Koirala, to hold elections for a ‘special assembly’ to write a new constitution.
   The resolution is being discussed by Nepal’s seven main political parties for presentation in parliament and speaker Subas Nemwang said late on Saturday, the ‘special declaration’ was expected to be presented on Monday.
   ‘The idea of the resolution is to curtail the king’s power,’ a top political leader, who requested anonymity, told Reuters.
   It could wrest the king’s control over the Royal Nepalese Army and give it to parliament, also changing its name to the Nepal Army, Rajendra Pandey, a senior leader of the Communist Party of Nepal, the nation’s second-biggest party, said.
   The king is also set to loose the ‘His Majesty’s’ tag to the government which may simply be renamed the Nepal government.
   ‘These are not personal institutions of the king,’ Pandey told Reuters. ‘We want to change their names and make them the people’s institutions.’
   Also on the agenda is scrapping the Raj Parishad or Privy Council, a key advisory body of the king.
   King Gyanendra had sacked the government in February 2005 on the grounds it had failed to curb a Maoist revolt. However, a year later, analysts and political parties said the king had miserably failed to bring peace to the country.
   The Maoists have been fighting a bloody war against the king for more than a decade in which over 13,000 people have been killed.
   Koirala has matched a rebel ceasefire which the king had earlier rejected and invited the Maoists for talks. The invitation has been accepted by the elusive Maoist chief, Prachanda, who said on Saturday he would meet Koirala but only after hundreds of Maoist prisoners were freed.
   Last week, the government detained five ministers of the former royalist regime, and suspended the country’s top bureaucrat and nine senior police officers. The decision has been criticised by a human rights group as a ‘misuse’ of power.

A passenger was killed and five were injured as assailants fired on a travel agency at Paribagh in Dhaka Sunday evening, apparently over a refusal to pay extortion money.
   The deceased was Ramzan Master, 28, of Brahmanbaria. The injured were Abdullah Al Mamun, 35, Shahjahan, 30, Shah Alam, 26, Joydhan, 25 and Saddam Hossain, 28 — all from Brahmanbaria.
   A gang of extortionists demanded Tk 50 lakh from Shahabuddin Ahmed, owner of the Turkey Associate, a week ago. The gang threatened that Shahabuddin would need to pay Tk 5 crore if he failed to pay Tk 50 lakh, the travel agency’s accounts officer Jahangir Alam told New Age.
   Witnesses said the gang members entered the Turkey Associate at around 6:15pm identifying them as members of a gang led by wanted listed criminal Joy and fired on the passengers, waiting for flight to Saudi Arabia Sunday night. As the assailants began firing, six passengers sustained injuries.
   When the assailants left the place, the local people took the injured to Dhaka medical College Hospital where Ramzan Master died from his injuries 15 minutes after his admission.
   The other five were under treatment. Physicians reported the condition of the five injured to be critical.
   ‘I heard gunshots, I ran for shelter as the gang shot at me,’ said Shahjahan, lying in hospital bed. Most of the passengers had gone out for medical check-up before the gang attacked.
   A member on the agency staff said Joy, who is now staying in India, demanded Tk. 50 lakh from the owner. But the number he used was of a mobile in Singapore.
   The owner filed several general diaries with the Ramna police.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on Sunday asked the University Grants Commission to take necessary action against private universities responsible for gross irregularities that have led to unrest among the aggrieved students.
   She issued this directive when she summoned the chairman of the commission, Professor M Asaduzzaman, and wanted to know why unrest has gripped some private universities. The commission is the regulator of both public and private universities.
   In the one-to-one meeting, the commission’s chairman explained the regulatory state with regard to the private universities, which are being theoretically controlled by the Private Universities Act, 1992,which was amended in 1998. Many of them are not properly following the rules and regulations.
   The chairman also requested the prime minister to direct the authorities concerned to take steps for amendment of the existing private university act and introduction of an accreditation council, which are the two steps that the commission believes are necessary for preventing such irregularities.
   ‘The honourable prime minister wanted to know the reasons behind the ongoing agitation at some private universities and directed me to take measures immediately,’ said the chairman when the New Age correspondent approached him.
   Khaleda was also reported to have expressed her surprise as she was all along told that private universities were free from student politics. Asked to detail the reasons for the students’ discontent, Asaduzzaman said that irregularities, indiscipline, lack of adequate facilities for students, exorbitant tuition and admission fees, shortage of quality teachers, shortage of classrooms and library facilities have angered the students.
   Several hundred students of Stamford University and Darul Ihsan University went on a rampage on their respective campuses at Siddheswari and Dhanmondi on Saturday, ransacking offices and classrooms in protest against alleged irregularities at the institutions.
   The Stamford University authorities declared the university close for an indefinite period on Saturday. The students of Darul Ihsan declared that classes would be suspended till Wednesday to underscore their demands.
   Moreover, a tense situation prevails in Comilla University, Queens University and University of Science and Technology in Chittagong.
   There are 54 private universities in the country but only a few of them have adequate facilities to provide higher education.

Power shortage crossed 2000 megawatts on Sunday evening causing frequent outages across the country as the 110MW Khulna power plant tripped and the 80MW Tongi plant remained shut.
   The Higher Secondary Certificate examinees went through long agonising hours after sunset waiting for power in many areas of the city.
   The total generation during the evening peak hours was only 2825 megawatts against the demand for around 4500-5000 megawatts.
   The 110MW Khulna plant tripped in the evening while the Tongi plant was shut temporarily due to troubles in its air-filter, officials at the Power Development Board said.
   The power crisis worsened on Sunday with the closure of the two plants. Three units of Kaptai hydroelectric plant and two units of Barapukuria power plant have been out of operation for the last few days.
   Kaptai plant was producing only around 30 megawatts of electricity from one of its units. The three other units of the plant can generate around 90 megawatts of power.
   Officials hoped that the two 125MW units of Barapukuria plant would resume production today.
   Much of the city areas experienced frequent power outages on Sunday evening as the Dhaka Electric Supply Authority received only 1000 megawatts from the PDB against a demand for around 1800 megawatts.

A Biman aircraft with 251 passengers on board was on Saturday barred from landing at John F Kennedy Airport in New York as the US Federal Aviation Authority restricts any DC-10 aircraft in that country.
   The aircraft, which left Dhaka Friday morning for New York en-route to Brussels, then landed in Montreal Airport, Canada, leaving the passengers of the BG 011 flight stranded, according to a message received in Dhaka on Sunday. It landed in Montreal at 6:35am on Sunday.
   The US authorities had been talking tough on the operation of such outdated aircraft as those aeroplanes, according to them, are highly risky for long trips, it added. The managing director of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines, MA Momen, acknowledged the incident.
   He, however, could not confirm why the aircraft had been barred from landing at Kennedy Airport, but said they had operated DC-10 airplanes there in March and April. All passengers have been shifted to hotels and efforts were on to send them to New York by alternative flights.

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Over 45,000 illegal household gas connections, burners and other machinery were legalised in the past two months in the city after the government had given the chance to do those without fine.
   The regularisation deadline expires today, and the Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company will start drives in the city from Tuesday to detect the still illegal connections and burners.
   According to the company officials, about 41,000 applications for regularising illegal connections and burners and around 5,000 applications for regularising double-burners were submitted by the city dwellers since the company announced regularisation without any charge and penalty in March.
   The energy and mineral resources adviser, Mahmudur Rahman, said it was surprising that such a huge number of burners and gas connections had been remaining illegal for months.
   The company’s annual income will go up by Tk 20 crore with the regularisation of the burners and lines, he added.
   Mahmud held a meeting with the Titas officials at his office on Sunday and directed them to launch drive against illegal gas connections in the city from Tuesday.
   The meeting decided that 10 special teams would be formed to detect the illegal lines and burners.
   The company, which has around 11 lakh consumers, in January and February conducted drives against illegal and tampered gas connections and meters in industries outside the capital and disconnected around 250 connections.
   The company realised about Tk 9 crore in penalties from those industries at Savar, Tongi, Gazipur, Narayanganj, Narsingdhi and Mymensingh.

A group of mothers led by prominent war opponent Cindy Sheehan, who lost her soldier son in Iraq, started Saturday a 24-hour vigil outside the White House to protest the war in Iraq.
   Actress Susan Sarandon was also expected to attend part of the demonstration Sunday, on Mother’s Day. The protesters are calling for an end to the Iraq war and to express opposition to a military attack against Iran.
   ‘I don’t want any more moms to grieve for a child lost in this unjust, unnecessary war in Iraq,’ said Sheehan, who has become a leading war protesters since her 24-year-old sold was killed in Iraq.
   ‘This Mother’s Day we’ll be outside the White House all day and all night demanding that our children come home from Iraq and not be sent to another reckless war in Iran,’ she said in a statement.
   Women for Peace, made up of mothers and their families, met at 3:00pm (1900 GMT) prepared to spend the night outside the White House before dispersing at the same time Sunday.
   Sarandon was to attend from 1:00 to 4:00pm on Sunday, when ‘organisers plan a dramatic action,’ according to the anti-war group Code Pink.
   President George W Bush will not be at the White House, but at the presidential weekend retreat at Camp David.
   Events include a concert, film screenings, workshops on legislative strategies, writing letters to First Lady Laura Bush, a pink pajama party, an interfaith service on Sunday morning, and a visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center to deliver roses to mothers and wives of injured soldiers, the group said.

The High Court on Sunday stayed again the trial proceedings of the former finance minister SAMS Kibria murder case, which is pending with the Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal, Sylhet.
   A High Court bench of Justice MA Rashid and Justice M Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan also issued a rule on the government asking it to explain why it should not be directed to conduct further investigation into the case.
   The proceedings will remain suspended till the disposal of the rule, the court ordered after hearing a petition filed by the complainant of the case against the refusal of further investigation into the murder by the tribunal on May 3, the date set for taking deposition of the witnesses.
   The trial proceedings, which remained halted for long due to a legal battle on the plea for further investigation, resumed in the tribunal on April 23 after the Supreme Court had dismissed the complainant’s similar appeal for further investigation.
   The complainant of the case, Abdul Majid Khan, an advocate and the general secretary of Habiganj district Awami League, filed the petition.
   Awami League leader Kibria, his nephew Shah Manjurul Huda and three others were killed in a grenade attack on January 27, 2005 at Baidyerbazar in Habiganj.
   Pleading for Majid, Kamal Hossain argued that the charge sheet was submitted without any in-depth inquiry, leaving out the masterminds and sources of the grenades. ‘All these were done to frustrate the trial.’
   Kamal with Mahbubey Alam and Shamsuddin Ahmed Chowdhury Manik appeared for the petitioner while additional attorney general Abdur Rezzaque Khan for the state.

Ten Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh activists were on Sunday sentenced to life imprisonment in the August 17, 2005 Jaipurhat bomb blast case.
   The Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal, Rajshahi also convicted three more activists of the banned Islamist outfit and gave each of them 20-year sentence.
   Those given life imprisonment are Ataur Rahman, Majnu, Mehedi Hasan, Dulal, Likhon, Mantezar Rahman, Azizul Bari, Tuhin, Abdur Rauf and Monsur Rahman, and those awarded 20-year imprisonment are Rabiul Islam, Jahangir Alam and Golam Mostafa.
   Four of them — Mehedi, Monsur, Montezar and Likhon — were tried in absentia.
   The court also acquitted 14 others of the charge. They were Dulal, Shariful, Aminul, Hafez, Mosta-fizur, Selim, Mozammel, Idris, Jabbar, Habibur, Afaz, Rezwan, Abdul Mabud, and Ziaur Rahman.

Bangladesh registered their third straight victory but a scrappy performance against Iran, who they edged 5-3 at the Maulana Bhasani National Stadium on Sunday to almost book a place in the Asian Games. Wing-back Mamunur Rahman Chayan slammed the first hat-trick of the qualifiers.
   Bangladesh, who need just one more win from their qualifying matches against Oman, Singapore and Hong Kong, lead the table with nine points.
   Although Bangladesh dominated the first half they had to wait till the 26th minute when Zahid bin Talib broke the deadlock scoring from a penalty-corner. The Iranians packed their D-box with ten men and the Bangladesh forwards hardly found any free space in the defence. Chayan then came to the scene scoring three consecutive goals from three penalty-corners in 40, 43 and 52 minutes. Jahid bin Talib initiated the penalty-corner and skipper Titu stooped the ball on all occasions.
   Iran exploited the relaxed mood of Bangladesh after the four-goal lead and skipper Komti scored from a penalty-corner and Abbasi struck twice utilising the defensive lapses. Shamim Reza however calmed the nerves with a 65th minute goal.
   In the other match of the day Singapore defeated Sri Lanka 3-1.

The Election Commission will be updating the draft voters’ roll till May 21 for revision, inclusion and dropping of names.
   The draft roll has been sent to the offices of the union councils, municipalities, ward commissioners in city corporations and primary and high schools, colleges, madrassahs and other places for correction, said a release.
   Voters have been asked to appeal to the revising authorities in a scheduled form in case they have any objections to the roll prepared by the commission.
   The forms will be available free with district election offices and its units at upazilas or thanas and offices of assistant registration officers, the release said.
   Upazila nirbahi officers and deputy election commissioners in Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Rajshahi cities, additional district magistrates, additional deputy commissioners and cantonment executive officers areas were employed as revising authorities.
   Any bits of information on voters’ enrolment will be provided from district election officer office or from its upazila and thana units.

The case, filed in connection with the April 24 car accident that killed Nasreen Parvin Huq, the country director of the ActionAid Bangladesh, has taken a new turn as the victim’s husband appealed to the police to exhume the body of Nasreen and filed a murder case.
   The victim’s husband, Nurul Islam, submitted a supplementary petition that his wife was killed as per conspiracy and demanded post-mortem examination to verify the allegation.
   The police Headquarters on Sunday handed the case docket over to the Criminal Investigation Department from the Detective Branch and asked to trace out the allegation.
   The CID police produced the car-driver, Zakir Hossain, in the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court and sought 10-day remand again, saying the driver had killed Nasreen as per a plan.
   The police said the accused had driven the car of Nasreen recklessly, pushed her against the front wall of the building and the adjacent steel door of her residence on Road No 4/A, Dhanmondi on April 24.
   Nasreen sustained fatal injuries in the legs and later died at Combined Military Hospital the same night.
   The magistrate, Sujayetullah, granted a three-day remand for Zakir, rejecting him bail.