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The military-controlled interim government, which is in a negotiation with BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia for her probable release, on Saturday said it reached the final stage of working out a modus operandi to free the leader and her sons from prisons.
   Khaleda’s two daughters-in-law – Dr Zobaida Rahman and Syeda Shameela Rahman – separately appealed to the government for release of their ailing husbands for better treatment abroad on humanitarian ground.
   Khaleda Zia and her party are, however, still unwilling to appeal to the government for her release for treatment abroad.
   When education adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman was asked about the government’s latest stand on the demand for release of Khaleda and her sons, he said, ‘It cannot be done overnight. But we are in the final phase [of negotiation]. All types of initiatives are under way for the nation to have a meaningful election and a greater unity in national life,’ according to news agency BDNews24.com.
   ‘BNP is one of the biggest parties of the country and represents a large part of the population. The government is coordinating both humanitarian and legal aspects to ensure participation of the two big parties in the election,’ Hossain Zillur, who has been coordinating the dialogues with the political parties, told reporters after the inauguration of Bangladesh Economic Association’s Chittagong chapter in the port city.
   ‘Our aim is to create an environment in which political parties will have full confidence. We are working towards a specific goal,’ he said.
   Dr Zobaida Rahman, wife of Khaleda’s eldest son Tarique Rahman, on Saturday formally requested the government to release her husband on humanitarian ground, BNP sources said.
   In a letter to the government, she said Tarique Rahman was arrested on March 8, 2007 and since then he had been suffering from various health complications.
   She said Tarique needed to be sent abroad immediately for proper treatment to save him from getting crippled.
   ‘He requires orthopaedic surgical correction, which is not possible in Bangladesh,’ she said.
   Physicians of the regular medical board, headed by Professor Sirajuddin Ahmed and assigned to look after Tarique at the prison cell of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital, also said he should be sent abroad for treatment.
   Syeda Shameela Rahman, wife of Khaleda’s youngest son Arafat Rahman, on May 24 asked the government’s permission to take her ailing husband to Thailand, where he was treated earlier.
   He was admitted to the same hospital on November 12 last year was undergoing treatment at a separate prison cell. The government on June 5 formed a five-member medical board to examine him as his physical condition was gradually deteriorating.
   Director of National Chest Diseases Hospital, Mustafizur Rahman, who headed the board for Arafat, also suggested that he needed treatment abroad.
   Khaleda, also the immediate-past prime minister, now detained in a high security sub-jail on the parliament complex, and Arafat were arrested on September 3 last at their Dhaka Cantonment residence.
   The three are facing charges of corruption and bribes.
   She was recently offered a package deal for medical treatment abroad. But she rejected the offer on June 8 when she was produced in a special court for hearing in the framing of charges in the Niko graft case.
   The government on June 11 said in a handout that it would take necessary steps for proper treatment of Khaleda Zia, at home or abroad after completing the legal procedures.
   The assurance was made shortly after Sheikh Hasina, another former prime minister and the Awami League president, was released from jail by an executive order on the day for eight weeks for treatment abroad.
   The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, on Saturday once again dismissed suggestions that his party chief might appeal to the government for her release to have treatment abroad.
   ‘The government has detained Khaleda for political reasons and it is the government’s responsibility to free her. There is no need to appeal for it’, he said at the graveside of party founder Ziaur Rahman where he went along with the newly formed central committee of Jatiyatabadi Muktijoddha Dal.
   ‘Khaleda Zia has already said she would take treatment here. But [her sons] Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman need immediate treatment abroad. If they are not sent abroad for treatment,’ he said.

The commerce and education adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, has said the government wants to move forward for holding the national election ensuring the participation of the Awami League and the BNP, as both the parties represent the country’slarger population. ‘The temporary release of Awami League president Sheikh Hasina by the government is a one step forward in achieving its main goal of holding a free, fair and acceptable national election,’ he said.
   The adviser was addressing the biennial conference of Bangladesh Economic Association, Chittagong Chapter, at Theatre Institute on Saturday.
   He said the government had released Hasina on a humanitarian ground following all the legal processes. ‘The government is ready for taking any step in the future for the sake of holding the national election with the participation of all parties.’
   Zillur said the government was also considering the same process for setting free former prime minister Khaleda Zia what it followed in releasing Hasina.
   He hoped that the political parties would not do any thing that would take the country to the pre-1/11 situation. ‘They would take constructive decisions in the interest of the nation.’
   About Friday’s remarks by eminent lawyer Kamal Hossain and convener of the Progressive Democratic Party Ferdous Ahmed Qureishi, the adviser said it was not important who said what, but the important thing for the government was to hold elections.
   Association central general secretary Dr Abul Barakat and Professor Abdul Mannan Chowdhury, among others, spoke at the function.

The Awami League is now planning to reactivate its alliance, excluding the Gana Forum led by Kamal Hossain, to prepare to contest the forthcoming parliamentary elections with the allies and to do groundwork to continue with systematic movement aimed at its six-point demand.
   The party is also planning to launch a front of all democratic, secular and progressive forces who believe in the sprit of the independence war.
   The acting Awami League secretary general, Syed Ashraful Islam, has started communication with the allies to strengthen the alliance.
   He met the Workers Party president, Rashed Khan Menon, on Saturday. He will also liaise with other components to rejuvenate the alliance.
   The party earlier decided not to contest the elections with the party president, Sheikh Hasina, behind bars and to go for street agitation to free her.
   But the party changed its strategy after Hasina had been released from jail for eight weeks on June 11 by an administrative order. She had been in jail since her arrest on July 16, 2007.
   Now the party is making preparations to join the dialogue with the government and to contest the general elections. The party will also continue with democratic and systematic movement to push for its six-point demand.
   The party, by way of the movement, will also pressure the interim government to withdraw the state of emergency.
   Party leaders have now decided to observe the activities of the interim government regarding the holding of parliamentary polls. They have decided not to make any harsh comments on and criticism of the government. They will place their demands at the talks and tell the government to hold the national polls first.
   Awami League presidium member Tofail Ahmed said they would go for democratic movements to push for the six-point demand, which includes withdrawal of the state of emergency, saying that the holding of credible elections was not possible under emergency.
   ‘We are now trying to strengthen the party’s organisational activities with countrywide tours,’ he said.
   The party is sending teams of central leaders to attend extended committee meetings in all the district headquarters.
   The central leaders will exchange views with district-level leaders and prospective and former candidates and evaluate the overall organisational activities at the grassroots.
   Presidium member Matia Chowdhury said they were making preparations to contest the polls and to carry forward with systematic movement to implement the six-point demand.
   She said the party chief, before her departure for the United States, instructed them to activate the alliance and expand it with the inclusion of other progressive, democratic forces.
   Ashraful told the New Age they were trying to float a political front of all democratic, progressive and secular forces.
   In reply to a query about the participation in the elections by the party and the allies, he said, ‘We are preparing to join the electoral process. We will contest the general elections with our allies.’
   As for continuation with the democratic movement, he said they would continue with the movement to push for the demands which also include immediate withdrawal of the state of emergency, release of all party leaders and activists, withdrawal of the ‘false cases’ filed against them and immediate end to the blanket arrest to pave the way for atmosphere conducive to holding the national polls.

Both the Awami League and the Workers Party on Saturday asked the interim government to create atmosphere conducive to holding credible elections by lifting the state of emergency and taking effective initiatives to contain the essential goods price spiral.
   After a meeting with the Workers Party president, Rashed Khan Menon, and the general secretary, Bimal Bishwas, in its central office, the acting Awami League general secretary, Syed Ashraful Islam, told reporters they both wanted parliamentary elections before the local government polls and asked the government to withdraw the state of emergency.
    ‘We will join the dialogue. We are now exchanging views with our allies. We will place a combined proposal to the government,’ he said.
   In reply to a query about the remark of the Gana Forum president, Kamal Hossain, on Sheikh Hasina’s release, Ashraf said Kamal ‘is a respected person and guardian of the nation. So we expect sensible comment from him.’
   Menon said they wanted a complete withdrawal the state of emergency as it was essential for creating a congenial atmosphere for elections.
   He also asked the government to take effective steps to control the spiral of essential goods prices.
   Menon said they welcomed Hasina’s release, but did not want any corrupt person to be released. ‘It will be wrong if anyone compares Sheikh Hasina to a corrupt person.’

Home-bound air travellers will lose the facility of carrying up to 10 kilogram of gold even paying the duty from July 1 as the government has toughened the baggage rule to check smuggling, revenue sources said.
   No passenger will be allowed to bring home gold ornament weighed more than 10 grams under the new baggage rule.
   The government has scrapped the facility to protect jewellery importers from uneven competition as gold smugglers misused the liberal baggage rule and distorted local market prices, officials at National Board of Revenue argued.
   Under the facility put in force since 2004-05 fiscal year, a home-bound air traveller was allowed to carry 10 gm of gold ornaments duty-free and up to 10 kg gold paying Tk 150 duty per bhori [11.66 gram].
   The duty has been lowered to Tk 125 per bhori under the changed rules, but is made applicable only to commercial importers from now on, NBR sources said.
   The ban and new duty rate will be effective from July 1, according to a statutory regulatory order posted on NBR website.
   The new baggage rule will, however, allow a passenger to bring one 21- inch television, one VCD player, one digital camera and one toaster without duty.
   All the household items are dutiable now.
   The baggage rule has been made stringent to discourage gold smugglers, who managed to take huge gold out of the airports evading duty and sold that in the market at cheaper prices. Such practices forced jewellery importers into an uneven competition, customs officials said.
   ‘Though a huge quantity of solid gold and gold ornaments are brought home under baggage rule, NBR earns very negligible duty from gold from airports,’ a senior customs officer told New Age.
   The customs department often fails to detect passengers carrying gold under the baggage rule and collect the applicable duty, he admitted.
   While corrupt customs people will remain scot-free as usual for revenue failures, the new rule will bar the homebound passengers, mainly the blue-collar workers living in the Middle East, from bringing gold ornaments for their beloved ones at home.
   ‘The new rule will not help check smuggling. The more you toughen the rules, the wider scope is created for smugglers,’ said Kazi Wahidul Alam, a travel industry expert who also edits a tour magazine.
   The revenue authorities are penalising the innocent home-bound travellers to cover up their failure to check smuggling, he said.
   The steps will, however, make the jewellery traders happy as their association in its budget proposal earlier urged the government to scrap the facility to end uneven competition they face from gold smugglers who distort jewellery prices in the local market.
   The provision of bringing 20 kg of silver by a single passenger under the baggage rule will, however, remain unchanged, sources said.

Senior economists have said the country needs to build a buffer stock of at least two million tonnes of grains in three months to ensure food security of the people.
   ‘The government has to create the food stock through internal procurement and massive import drive in spite of escalating international prices,’ said Professor Moinul Islam, former president of the Bangladesh Economic Association.
   He made the recommendation at the first biennial conference of the Chittagong chapter of BEA held Thursday at the Theatre Institute, Chittagong.
   Senior economists brainstormed pressing issues relating to food and overall economy in five separate papers presented in the conference.
   In his paper, Professor Islam elaborated on spiralling price inflation of food items and the issue of food security in Bangladesh while Nitai C Nag, a professor at the department of economics of the Chittagong University, dwelt on use of nuclear energy, cost comparison and the developing country context highlighting Bangladesh issues.
   Dilip Barua, principal of the IGMIS in Chittagong, spoke on price spiral of commodities and sluggish economic activities in the first session chaired by Sayed Yousuf Hossain, a former secretary of the Bangladesh government.
   Professor Abul Barakat, general secretary of the association, detailed initiatives for energy cooperation in South Asia while Kazi Muzafar Ahmmed, a deputy director of Bangladesh Tea Board, searched for solutions to food problems in the second session with Professor Moinul Islam in the chair.
   The economists shared their concerns for rising global prices of rice, wheat, corn, pulses and edible oils, and feared that an imminent shortfall of the world’s food production might cause further price spiral.
   Massive local crop losses caused by last year’s floods and cyclone Sidr were major reasons behind unusual food price hike in domestic market, they said.
   The government’s plan to build a buffer stock of one million tonnes of food grains would be too little to face any future food exigency, they warned, suggesting that adequate warehouses need to be readied to store at least two million tonnes of grains under a crash programme.
   They urged the government to reactivate its mechanism for importing food items and strengthen alternative channels of food imports to shield consumers from the hands of profiteering traders.
   Commerce and education adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman inaugurated the daylong conference, while Chittagong chapter president of the economic association Professor M Sikandar Khan chaired the inaugural session in the morning.

Pakistan rode on twin centuries from Salman Butt and Younis Khan to win the Kitply Cup tri-nation tournament beating India by 25 runs in the final at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Saturday.
   Butt and Yunis shared a record-equalling 205-run partnership in the second wicket stand to help Pakistan pile up 315-3 before paceman Umar Gul scalped 4-47 to fold India for 290 in 48.2 overs.
   Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni almost snatched a win from Pakistan’s grip until he gave a catch to substitute fielder Nasir Jamshed off Shahid Afridi at cover to be dismissed as the last batsman. He scored 64.
   Chasing a target at more than six runs per over, India were in pursuit of the victory as long as Dhoni stayed at the crease. They lost wickets at regular interval, though a half-century from Yuvraj Singh (56) and a few cameos did not allow the match to lurch into Pakistan’s way completely.
   Earlier, Pakistan recovered from a slow start to make a challenging score as Butt and Yonis equalled the record of Pakistan’s best ever second-wicket partnership against India made by Mohsin Khan and Zaheer Abbas at Multan in 1982.
   Butt was retired hurt on 129 after Younis ended his inning of 108 runs having been caught by Virender Sehwag at mid-wicket off Ishant Sharma. Younis, who had scored two ducks in the previous two games (he was run out in the first match without playing a ball) joined Butt after the departure of Akmal (15).
   Younis started boldly with a cover boundary off the first ball and built up a solid partnership hitting almost every Indian bowler around the ground. He was dropped by Yusuf Pathan off Irfan Pathan at long-on, but by that time the one-down batsman had reached his fourth one-day century.
   In his 99-ball innings, Younis smashed three sixes and eight boundaries.
   India were left ruing a missed catch, given by Salman Butt when he was on 19. Rohit Sharma failed take the low catch at short cover off Praveen Kumar, who went wicketless.
   Butt made the most of his chance scoring his seventh one-day century and fifth against India before a hamstring injury forced him to retire. His 136-ball innings was studded by 12 fours and two sixes.
   Rohit made amends for his mistake taking the catch of Misbah-ul-Haq at long-on. Misbah made 33 runs from 21 balls capitalizing on the good work of Salman and Younis.
   Pakistan had a chance to inflate their innings further with Shahid Afridi and captain Shoaib Malik at the crease in the slog overs. But they disappointed the fans, especially Afridi who faced 11 balls to score just 10 without any boundary.

The special assistant to chief adviser for power and energy, M Tamim, Saturday said government subsidy on power and energy would come to some Tk 18,000 crore in the coming fiscal year under the newly proposed budget.
   Describing this government-borne huge cost of keeping the energy prices lower as a drain on the state exchequer, he mentioned that Tk 16,000 crore of this amount would go to the petroleum while Tk 1,000 crore to power and another Tk 1,000 to gas sector.
   Making the disclosure at a seminar on ‘Energy Security and Price’ organised at the National Press Club by the Energy Reporters Forum, the former BUET professor focused on merits of adjustment of the price of petroleum.
   In support of argument for a price rise he pointed out that as per today’s international market prices, government’s import price of per-litre diesel was about Tk 90 while its selling price was only Tk 40.
   ‘So, if we think about the sustainability of energy sector and energy security, we have to go for price adjustment... We should provide subsidy to different sectors keeping in mind inconveniences of the people. But how much we should provide has to be thought out,’ the special assistant told his audience.
   He said the country’s annual development programme was worth Tk 26,500 crore, but subsidies for different sectors, including fertiliser, would surpass this size of the development recipe.
   He also claimed that only a peanut 10 per cent of the total subsidies would go to the rural poor while the urban reach would grab the lion’s share of 90 per cent.
   Describing the world market scenario about the petroleum prices, the special assistant said in 1998, per-barrel petroleum price was $10 while it was up to $135 now.
   He noted that a huge volatility was prevailing on the world petroleum market and this uncertainty was unlikely to go before end of 2009.
   Justifying the need for price adjustment of natural gas, the special assistant said the government’s buying rate from international oil companies was about Tk 130 per unit while power plants and fertiliser companies were getting at a much lower rate.
   He said energy security was related to energy price. ‘If there is no coordination between the two, the energy security can’t be ensured.’
   Energy secretary Mohammad Mohsin told the function that the country had to go for alternative sources of energy for ensuring its security.
   He put the country’s coal reserve at about 3 billion tonnes and coal could be the proper option in this regard.
   Power secretary Dr M Fouzul Kabir Khan said the government would not arbitrarily raise the electricity tariffs unless it was approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission.
   ‘We have already told the power entities to go to the Energy Regulatory Commission with their own proposals to justify those,’ he said.
   Former PDB chairman Quamrul Islam Siddique said the government should move to coal-sector development to reduce its dependence on gas for power generation for the sake of energy security.

Pakistan’s print and electronic media are now enjoying greater freedom as official interference has ceased since an elected government of the people took over this year.
   The present administration, unlike the previous US-backed government of Pervez Musharraf, does not issue ‘press advice’ to newspapers and television channels to enable the media to contribute to the democratic process, according to officials concerned.
   ‘The present government does not control the media… The previous government used to give press advice which is gone. Neither the ministry nor any other agencies issue any advice to the press’, additional secretary to the information and broadcasting ministry, AS Abbasy, told New Age while responding to a query at his office in Islamabad.
   On June 7, Abbasy had a meeting with a media delegation from Bangladesh in the Pakistani capital where he also acknowledged the role of media in the country’s transition to democracy.
   He, however, said, ‘The only power we have is the power of persuasion if necessary.’
   ‘Media are now becoming more open with change in regime’, the senior official mentioned.
   He also exchanged views with the visiting journalists on various issues of Bangladesh and Pakistan.
   ‘We have done away with press advice…The intelligence agencies here do not interfere with the media’, principal information officer and also acting managing director of the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan, Ghulam Hazoor Bajwa asserted at a separate meeting with the team.
   A number of Pakistani journalists in the city described the present situation as better than it was during the rule of the previous government.
   ‘We used to receive press advice and even threats from the authorities on daily basis…The situation is better now. The information ministry does not call me dictating “don’t do this” which they used to do earlier’, Absar Alam, bureau chief of Geo television channel, told New Age at his office in Islamabad.
   Despite returning to democratic rule, Pakistan is passing through a transitional period as the country’s lawyers, a section of political parties and civil society groups are protesting against the presidency of former army chief Pervez Musharraf who seems unwilling to quit.
   The former general came to power in 1999 ousting Newaz Sharif’s elected government in a bloodless coup.
   Musharraf imposed martial law for six weeks late last year. Emergency rule was also used to impose draconian restrictions on the press.
   Opposition parties defeated the political party loyal to the incumbent president in the parliamentary elections in February this year and formed a coalition government led by Yousaf Raza Gillani of the Pakistan People’s Party.

A powerful earthquake tore up hills, fields and roads in northern Japan on Saturday, killing at least six people, injuring around 100 more and trapping guests at a levelled resort hotel.
   The earthquake, which measured 7.2 on the Richter scale, also caused a small leak of radioactive water from a power plant, although the company said there was no cause for public concern.
   Japan deployed nearly 800 troops to the largely agricultural region in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures, where military helicopters plucked to safety residents, many of them elderly, who were suddenly cut off from the world.
   Landslides snapped highways, which abruptly turned into cliffs of falling mud and dirt, and clogged rivers to create a series of ‘quake lakes.’
   ‘I was driving my car when the earthquake hit,’ said Makoto Katsurashima, 72. ‘I just turned white as I saw the road disappear before my eyes a few metres away.’
   The quake, which struck just eight kilometres underground, was strong enough to shake buildings in Tokyo, 350 kilometres to the south, and was followed by around 160 aftershocks.
   Dozens of residents flocked in the evening to makeshift shelters set up in public buildings, either out of fright or because power and running water were cut off to their homes.
   ‘The top priority is to save lives,’ the prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, said in Tokyo as he dispatched the military and his disaster minister. ‘We’re doing our best in rescue operations.’
   Six people were killed and another 90 were injured, officials said, while public broadcaster NHK put the number of injured at 162.
   The dead included two construction workers, aged 53 and 54, caught in a landslide, with their bodies retrieved hours afterwards.
   ‘One of them for a while hung onto a tree, but then he fell with the tree,’ said an official at the construction project.
   The other dead included a 60-year-old man who rushed out of his home in panic and was hit by a truck.
   Twelve people remained missing including three foreigners, whose nationalities were unclear, who were out camping.
   The earthquake tore to pieces a hot-spring resort, which turned into a pile of wooden rubble with access cut off by a landslide.
   Five people were rescued from the Komanoyu hotel in a remote scenic forest, two of them with broken bones, but several remained missing, the police said.
   Ayako Inomata, whose daughter worked there, said she took a helicopter to the resort hotel and found that 31 customers and workers were safe.
   ‘I was so relieved because today I couldn’t get through on her mobile or on her landline. But my daughter and her colleagues and other customers there looked OK,’ Inomata said.
   Kyoichi Suzuki, a 50-year-old beekeeper, said he was just 100 metres away from a landslide that buried a car.
   ‘I escaped by a hair’s breadth,’ he said with relief afterwards. ‘If I had been in that car, I would have been killed.’
   Japan endures about 20 percent of the world’s powerful earthquakes and has built an infrastructure intended to withstand the impact of tremors.
   Tokyo Electric Power Co. said that 14.8 litres of water came out of a pool in which radioactive equipment is stored at a reactor in Fukushima prefecture, but the company said there were no risks to the public.
   Japan’s land ministry said around five ‘quake lakes’ were formed when landslides blocked rivers. But it said it did not expect dangers from the lakes, which posed a major risk after last month’s devastating earthquake in China’s Sichuan province.
   Masanori Oikawa, a local official in Oshu, said that people in his town were responding calmly, even though they were in shock.
   ‘The jolt was so strong that I couldn’t stand without holding onto the wall,’ he said. ‘We saw electric poles swinging and the walls of homes were damaged.’
   ‘We’re used to earthquakes, but this was really scary.’

The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, on Saturday said the political consequences of the release of Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina on an eight-week parole would help his party reap a double benefit.
   ‘I rather think the BNP is leading the race and has been doubly benefited by her [Hasina’s] release and we will prove it in the next elections’, Delwar said responding to a query on how he evaluated his rival party’s gains by the release of their leader. He did not elaborate on the statement.
   Delwar also questioned Hasina’s meeting with four advisers on the night before her departure for the United States. ‘I do not know why and how the meeting was held, people will evaluate such things’, he said.
   The BNP secretary general also dismissed suggestions that his party chief Khaleda Zia might appeal to the government for her release to have treatment abroad.
   ‘The government has detained Khaleda for political reasons and it is the government’s responsibility to free her. There is no need to appeal for it’, he said at the graveside of party founder Ziaur Rahman where he went along with the newly formed central committee of Jatiyatabadi Muktijoddha Dal.
   ‘Khaleda Zia has already said she would take treatment here. But [her sons] Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman need immediate treatment abroad. If they are not sent abroad for treatment, Tarique faces the risk of being physically disabled and Arafat may not survive,’ he said.
   BNP’s acing office secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, the newly appointed president of Muktijoddha Dal, Sohrabuddin, and general secretary Shafiuzzaman Khokan, central BNP leaders Habibunnabi Khan Sohel, former lawmaker Helen Zerin Khan and acting Chhatra Dal president Sultan Salahuddin Tuku were present on the occasion.
   The new committee of Muktijoddha Dal sent a bouquet to Khaleda Zia at the sub-jail on the parliament complex.
   Earlier on Saturday the party’s a joint secretary general Nazrul Islam Khan said the release of Sheikh Hasina was the result of the government’s political decision for the need to have dialogue with her. ‘Definitely Sheikh Hasina needs treatment, but she was not released on that single ground’, he had said.

The Awami League’s central working committee on Saturday named a nine-member delegation for the dialogue with the government. The party will send the names to the chief adviser in a day or two.
   The party also urged the interim government to hold parliamentary elections at the earliest after a complete withdrawal of the state of emergency.
   The meeting, presided over by the party’s senior presidium member Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury in the party chief’s office at Dhanmondi, also urged all democratic, secular forces and the ones which acted for the independence of the country in 1971 to get united.
   The meeting has decided that the party’s acting president Zillur Rahman will lead the team to the talks with the government. Others on the team are presidium members Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed, Suranjit Sengupta, Matia Chowdhury and Ataur Rahman Khan Kaiser and acting general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam.
   Briefing newsmen after the meeting, the party’s acting general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam said the government should hold the parliamentary elections as early as possible after withdrawing the state of emergency as it was mandatory for the government to create atmosphere conducive to holding credible polls.
   ‘We request all democratic, secular, pro-liberation and progressive forces of the country to get united,’ he said.
   Ashraf demanded that the government should implement their six-point demand, including permanent and unconditional release of the party chief Sheikh Hasina, withdrawal of the state of emergency, release of all Awami League leaders and activists, end to blanket arrest and effective initiatives for the trial of war criminals.
   The meeting decided to continue with the countrywide signature campaign, started on June 7 to push for the party’s six-point demand, by 15 more days. The signature campaign will continue till July 15.
   Ashraf said the meeting expressed its concerns about essential goods price spiral. He said the prices increased after the national budget for the 2008–09 financial year had been proposed and the government should take steps to contain the price spiral.
   The meeting also decided on the programmes to mark the Awami League’s founding anniversary on June 23.

The US ambassador James F Moriarty on Saturday hailed the release of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina from prison as a ‘good start’ in the ‘process of compromise’ for holding a free, fair and credible election by December.
   The top US diplomat in Dhaka also urged the political parties and the caretaker government to hold more dialogues and make more compromise for making the election participatory and meaningful.
   Moriarty was talking to reporters after inaugurating new counters for US visa applications at the embassy on the occasion of renovation and development in the Consular Section of the US mission.
   When his attention was drawn to the recent political developments, including Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina’s temporary release and subsequent departure for treatment abroad, the US envoy said that the process of compromise had begun and Washington had taken it as a ‘positive development’.
   Moriarty said, ‘We do want to see further discussions and further compromise that would be necessary for a free, fair and credible election. It’s [release of Hasina] is a good start.’
   On the issue of probable release of Khaleda Zia, another former prime minister, he said that the caretaker government and the people here would decide it.
   About the process of compromise, the US diplomat said that he always wanted to mean that an election should be participated by all parties on the basis of mutual understanding.
   He informed reporters that Washington was interested in watching what the next government would do after the general elections.
   Moriarty made it clear that the US companies would not invest in Bangladesh if the people within the government demanded kickbacks.
   He said Washington hoped that the anti-corruption drives would not peter out as corruption had always been the biggest barrier to attracting foreign, even domestic investments. End.

Law enforcers have arrested 30,191 people, with 1,552 in 24 hours till Saturday morning, since the countrywide crackdown began on May 29.
   A police release said of the 1,552 arrested till Saturday morning, 1011 were arrested on warrants, 274 in regular cases, 88 in drug substance cases and 12 in arms cases.
   The police also filed nine cases in connection with keeping illegal firearms. They also seized 14 firearms, 9 bombs and 31 bullets in 24 hours from Friday morning.
   In Dhaka, the police held 89 people on various charges in 24 hours. Of them, 2 were convicted fugitives, 25 on warrants, 45 in regular cases, 3 on murder charges and 14 on other charges.
   The Dhaka Metropolitan Police also seized 45 bottles of Phensidyl (codeine) syrup, cannabis, 72 bottles of beer, 250 packets of heroin and 16 litres of liquor during the drive.

The recently formed Bangladesh Free Media Forum on Saturday welcomed the government’s move to amend the Emergency Powers Rules 2007.
   In a statement issued on Saturday, the forum members — senior journalists KG Mostafa, ABM Musa, Nirmal Sen and Kamal Lohani — urged the review committee either to repeal or completely amend the rules related to the press, Rule 5(1), 5(3) and 6
   of the Emergency Powers Rules.
   They said the rules made room for the authorities or some vested interests for covert or overt control over the freedom of press, publication of news, flow of information and harassment of journalists.
   They also urged the committee to consult journalist leaders, editors and representatives of media houses to repeal or amend thoroughly the rules that are impediments to the free exercise of journalism, said the statement, signed by the forum coordinator, ABM Musa.

Afghan and international troops launched a desperate hunt Saturday for more than 1,100 prisoners NATO said escaped a jail in Afghanistan when Taliban rebels blasted it open, killing prison guards.
   The Taliban said 400 of its own fighters escaped when the rebels attacked the facility in the southern city of Kandahar late Friday, blasting it open with suicide bombs before shooting the guards.
   Afghan authorities put the number of prisoners who fled one of the country’s biggest jails at 886, more than 380 of whom were Taliban.
   The rebels said they spent two months planning the attack, which deputy justice minister Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai said was their most sophisticated yet, and which came as four troops with the US-led forces were killed in the south.
   ‘A massive operation is underway to find the escaped inmates. The Afghan security forces are searching for them within the city and along the main and secondary roads,’ Hashimzai said in the capital, Kabul. None of the escaped inmates has yet been caught, he added.
   ‘Afghanistan national security forces and ISAF forces have cordoned off the area to re-establish security and recapture the escapees,’ General Carlos Branco, a spokesman for the NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said. ‘More than 1,100 prisoners were able to escape.’
   A Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, calling AFP from an unknown location, said the rebels used suicide bombs and detonated a bomb-laden water tanker in the attack.
   ‘First we exploded two suicide attacks and then our mujahedeen (holy warriors) riding motorcycles entered the prison and killed the remaining security guards.
   ‘We successfully freed all prisoners, including our jailed Taliban and other prisoners,’ he said.
   A statement posted on the Taliban web site, signed by Ahmadi, said the rebels had planned the attack two months ago.
   ‘Today we succeeded,’ it said, adding the raid was part of a militant operation – Ibrat, which means Lesson – which the rebels declared at the beginning of this year.
   An AFP reporter based in the southern city said large numbers of security forces including those of the US-trained Afghan national army had been deployed to search vehicles.
   It was not clear how many prison guards were killed in the raid, with Hashimzai saying seven had died and Ahmad Wali Karzai, the head of the Kandahar Provincial Council, putting the figure at 15.
   Hashimzai said just 173 of the prison’s 1,052 inmates had not escaped.
   The prison raid is a blow to president Hamid Karzai, coming one day after world donors pledged 20 billion dollars to rebuild Afghanistan at a conference in Paris but also called on him to strengthen the rule of law.
   Despite the presence of about 70,000 international troops mainly operating under NATO, the insurgency aimed at toppling the US-backed government in Kabul has gained pace in the past two years.
   On Saturday a roadside bomb killed four soldiers with the US-led coalition forces in southwestern Farah province, taking the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year to 83.
   Another soldier was seriously injured, the coalition said in a statement.
   Their nationalities were not revealed but most soldiers in the coalition are American.
   Two British soldiers and a Romanian trooper – all serving with the separate NATO-led force – were killed in two separate attacks in Afghanistan on Thursday and Friday.
   The Taliban have been battling Hamid Karzai’s government since they were toppled from power in a US-led operation for failing to hand over al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in 2001.

About three weeks after it landed on Mars, the Phoenix lander has collected particles that offer a snapshot of millions of years of life on the Red Planet, the team behind the probe said Friday.
   NASA’s 420-million-dollar lander has also possibly located ice and is in the process of providing a 360-degree view from its landing site in the Martian polar region, with rocks and hills fading into the dusty distance.
   ‘We’re getting about twice the data volume we were told to expect,’ said Peter Smith, Phoenix principal investigator at the University of Arizona.
   The team is hoping to find evidence of the existence of water and life-supporting organic minerals in the polar region, on the basis that the similar areas on Earth preserve traces of climate change and signs of life.
   For the past week, Phoenix’s robotic arm, which looks like a back-hoe, has been digging into the soil around it and uncovered a bright surface about 2-2.5 inches below the soil that could be ice.
   ‘Not everybody’s sure that this is ice. There’s been some debate within our team,’ said Smith. ‘The debate centres around perhaps there’s a salt layer above the ice, which would be very bright and white also.’
   He explained during a televised briefing in Tuscon, Arizona that scraping further into the surface was ‘really a high priority.’
   Some of the soil collected so far was ‘very clumpy, its very sticky,’ Smith said, and initially got stuck on one of Phoenix’s oven-like instruments, the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer. Tests are now underway.
   Other finer particles have been collected in another testing instrument and reveal the history of soil on Mars, ranging from black glassy and potentially volcanic particles to more weathered ones, Phoenix team member Tom Pike said.
   ‘What we’re looking at here is a potted history of Martian soil,’ he said.
   He described ‘black glassy particles that over millions, even billions of years have been slowly weathering down, becoming iron-enriched which gives the organic material its characteristic (red) colour, and we’re seeing that process captured on the variety of particles that we’re looking at.’
   Pike said that so far, however, ‘we haven’t been able to make a definite confirmation that water has been involved’ in this weathering.
   To provide context to these findings, the lander’s stereoscopic imager has provided pictures of the robotic arm collecting samples and its surroundings to show the scientists back on Earth the conditions Phoenix is working in.
   ‘We can zoom out to the horizon and see distance features that are observable from orbit, we can see hills fading into the dust in the background, as well as a large number of small rocks,’ team member Mark Lemmon said.
   ‘Ultimately we will get a 360-degree view of our site in full colour.’
   The imager can also look into the sky to help Phoenix establish the weather in the polar region along with other meteorological equipment.
   On Thursday, the temperature on the Mars polar region ranged from minus 30 to minus 85 degrees Celsius, said Nilton Renno, part of the team responsible for studying Mars’ atmosphere.
   The pressure is ‘a very small fraction of what we have on Earth’ and the wind has been relatively calm, although the level of dust in the atmosphere makes the landing site ‘like a really polluted place on Earth,’ he said.
   ‘Our results from these analyses are going to be used to inspire future missions that’ll come to Mars,’ Smith said, ‘and hopefully take over where we leave off because we’re bound to raise lots of questions.’

David Villa scored a dramatic injury time winner as Spain defeated Sweden 2-1 in Euro 2008 Group D here on Saturday to all but book their place in the quarter-finals.
   Until then Sweden had seemed set to earn a point from a dogged display after Zlatan Ibrahimovic had cancelled out Fernando Torres’s opener.
   ‘We dominated the opening 20 minutes and deserved to go in front but then we lost our way a bit,’ said Spanish coach Luis Aragones.
   ‘However, with six points we would normally expect to be through,’ added Aragones, who said he would feel able to ring the changes for the final pool match against defending champions Greece on Wednesday in Salzburg.
   Villa added to his burgeoning reputation with his fourth goal of the tournament following his treble against Russia and said his latest effort was the pick of the bunch.
   ‘This goal gives me more pleasure than the three in the previous match. But my goals are not the most important thing - the most important thing is the team has six points,’ said the Valencia striker, said coveted by Real Madrid, Barcelona and Chelsea.
   ‘I hope the fiesta will continue right up to June 29,’ the date of the final,’ he added.
   Spain enjoyed some success in getting behind the Sweden defence in the early stages but they could only find yellow shirts with their crosses as the Scandinavians remained stout at the back.
   However, the Iberians took the lead with a corner routine of sublime intricacy on 15 minutes.
   Villa darted out of the six-yard box to receive a short corner from Xavi and transfered the ball to David Silva, whose marker had been drawn to the ball, on the edge of the area.
   Silva crossed and Torres stretched out a leg in front of his marker Petter Hansson to poke the ball home at the near post.
   That drew an instant response from Sweden as Johan Elmander took a return pass from Henrik Larsson and burst into the area only to hit the side netting from a tight angle.
   Having been on the back foot for most of the opening stages, Sweden now came more into the match and a brilliant through ball from Ibrahimovic over the defence found Larsson’s angled run but, off balance, he lofted his shot over the bar.
   Sweden were in the ascendancy and deservedly equalised on 34 minutes through Ibrahimovic, who took down a deep cross from full-back Fredrik Stoor, held off the back-tracking Sergio Ramos and curled home a low shot despite Iker Casillas getting a hand to it.
   Sweden survived a penalty shout in the last minute of the half as Elamnder barged into the back of Silva but Dutch referee Pieter Vink waved away Spain’s protests.
   The Vikings suffered a blow as Ibrahimovic, who had been struggling with a knee problem in the build up, failed to come out after the break, replaced by Markus Rosenberg.
   Sweden set out their stall to defend and counter while Spain were guilty of overplaying the ball around the area, particularly between Silva and Villa.
   Aragones replaced Xavi and Andres Iniesta with Cesc Fabregas and Santi Cazorla but the move back-fired as Spain lost some of their fluency.
   Spain had a treble chance on 63 minutes after neat interplay between Villa and Silva opened up the Swedish defence, but Silva dallied in bringing the ball onto his favoured left foot and his weak shot was parried by Andreas Isaksson who then got up to block Villa’s follow up before Torres had a shot cleared by Daniel Andersson.
   Marcos Senna then forced a fine diving save from Isaksson after beating three men in midfield.
   With 11 minutes remaining Larsson came within inches of turning home a ball from Hansson across the face of goal but he arrived just too late.
   Right at the death, though, Villa latched onto a stunning long ball from Joan Capdevila to slide the ball past Isaksson and send Spain’s fans into jubilation.

As beer-swilling males from across Europe gather in the genteel Alpine republic of Austria, they should remember good manners and the ladies present, according to Vienna behaviour guru Thomas Schaefer-Elmayer.
   ‘You sometimes see a man taking off his T-shirt. That of course should be avoided. Your appearance has a huge influence on the ambiance you create around you,’ he told Reuters in an interview.
   ‘Take as an example the traditional Vienna balls held in the opera and the imperial palace. Just imagine if people there wore jeans and pullovers,’ tutted the elegant 62-year-old, who runs a school teaching etiquette and ball-room dancing in the capital.
   Vienna will host the final of Euro 2008 on June 29, and the fan zone accommodating up to 70,000 fans is located right in the heart of the city, among some of its grandest architecture.
   Schaefer-Elmayer concedes black-tie is certainly not ‘de rigeur’ at a soccer match, and thinks colourful make-up and hats are ‘funny and nice’. Leisure wear is perfectly acceptable for a stadium or a fan zone ambiance.
   However, soccer fans must consider their conduct. Never drink so much that you lose control and think carefully about how you celebrate a goal, he said.
   Is a spontaneous embrace of someone in your vicinity allowed, if overjoyed by a goal or a result?
   ‘It should at least be someone from your own fan group — otherwise kissing a supporter from a rival team could create frustration or controversy,’ he said.
   ‘I personally would not embrace anyone out of respect for their feelings’.
   Schaefer-Elmayer also has advice for people wary of being grabbed and kissed in the heat of the moment—’hold a newspaper or something in your hand. Then it makes it difficult for people to embrace you’.
   The etiquette guru admitted he was certainly not beyond celebrating a goal for the Austrians.
   ‘I would also clap and probably shout. I might even stand up — it depends on the technical sophistication of the goal.’
   Musing more generally on soccer and behaviour Schaefer-Elmayer said he thought most of the time the players behaved much better than the spectators.
   ‘People should go back and really consider what sport is for. It should be friendly.’

In the wake of worldwide inflation, poorer nations like Bangladesh need to make stricter regulations to save depleting farmland for food security and embark on improved technology to have access to sustainable energy resources, feel leaders of Euro zone countries.
   Even the authorities of developed nations are grappling with high inflation, which has prompted the European Central Bank to be in a ‘state of heightened alertness’ for fighting inflation with a policy instrument of raising interest rate from the next month.
   The rate of inflation in the areas under the command of the Bank has recently been estimated at 3.6 per cent, as against a comfortable rate of 2 per cent for the 15 countries of common currency Euro. The inflation in Bangladesh hovers around a double-digit rate.
   Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, a member of the European Parliament from Germany, underlined the need for strong regulations for stopping conversion of arable land into infrastructure sites or industrial premises in order to ensure the food security of Bangladesh.
   ‘Our concern is for food at reasonable prices, not for more self-sufficiency,’ Daniel Daianu, another member and former finance minister of Romania, told 15 Asian journalists at the building of European Parliament in Brussels recently.
   In view of the tension of globalisation and other challenges, he forecast in the years to come elements of a ‘war-economy style of policymaking’ might proliferate in a hectic convoluted way.
   However, European Parliament lawmaker Chatzimarkakis, who is concerned about the global community’s dependence on fossil for required energy consumption, advocated a ‘second generation’ of new plants for substituting petroleum products simultaneously ensuring food for mankind.
   ‘We also have to address the challenge of global warming,’ he said referring to the challenges of climate change faced by the global community as a whole.
   Cheaper supplies from developing countries like China and India are continuing to affect inflation in the Euro zone, said two senior journalists in Frankfurt of Germany, the headquarters of the European Central Bank.
   The bank’s president, Jean-Claude Trichet, announced in a press conference, attended by Asian journalists, that the bank was preparing for a July quarter percentage point increase in the main interest rate, which had stood at 4 per cent for a year. He argued the lesson from the 1970s oil shock was a need to hold the possibilities of inflation in future in check.
   Experts in the European Union, too, believe, they are facing the problem of inflation, which they themselves had not created. Globalisation is a major factor in instigating the inflation, said some of them.
   For the recent inflation caused by the high food and oil price, poverty must take the highest precedence to be addressed properly, said one of the experts.
   The European Union has been undergoing some demographic changes, which, according to many, would create opportunities for the growing nations to export their workforces there in an effort to increase the working hands.

The government is planning to reduce visa fees for the transit passengers to encourage development in the tourism sector of the country, said secretary to the ministry of home affairs, Abdul Karim on Saturday.
   ‘I will check if the ministry of home affairs had imposed the fees or not. If I find the home ministry did it, I will take immediate steps to reduce visa fees for the transit passengers in Bangladesh. But it will take some time if the ministry of finance and planning is found to have imposed the fees’, said the secretary at a discussion on the development of tourism, organised by the Bangladesh Monitor and Daily Samakal in association with Banglalink at the Sheraton Hotel.
   At present the visa fee for a transit passenger in Bangladesh is $20 and in some countries $50, he said. They brought some reforms to the visa policy in 2007 for encouraging the tourism he said, adding that one of the reforms was automation in the immigration system. They also have a plan to abolish the registration system for the Indian and Pakistani nationals who want to stay in this country for more than three months, he added.
   Anyone who could fulfil the basic requirements got a visa to visit Bangladesh, said Kazi Imatiaz Hossain, director general of the SAARC, ministry of foreign affairs, adding that although the present visa policy is liberal but it will create a healthy environment for the development of tourism if the government takes a more liberal decision on the visa system.
   The tourism industry people including the tour operators, travel agents and stakeholders said tourists often felt discouraged from visiting the country thinking of the complications in the visa system of Bangladesh. They urged the government to liberalise the visa policy.
   Mahbub Jamil, special assistant to the chief adviser and also in-charge of the ministry of civil aviation and tourism, said the government would work as a facilitator for the tourism industry.
   Asking the private entrepreneurs to invest in the tourism sector, he said the government would create the necessary infrastructure for pursuing the development activities in the sector.
   Sayed Mohammad Zobaer, secretary to the ministry of civil aviation and tourism, said the ministry was working to formulate a law for the tourism sector, and turn the Parjatan Corporation into a board. Raquib Siddiqi, chief editor of the Bangladesh Monitor, presented the keynote paper and Abed Khan, editor of the Daily Samakal, moderated the programme.
   Shafique Alam Mehedi, chairman of the Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation, M A Momen, managing director of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Solaiman Alam from Banglalink, Shahab Sattar, managing director of the GMG Airlines, M Haideruzzaman, chairman of the Best Air Limited, Hasan Mansur, president of the Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh, Hanif Zakaria, area manager of the Emirates Airlines and Mohammad Jahangir, executive director of the Centre for Development Communication, spoke at the programme.

Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif stepped up his attack on the president, Pervez Musharraf, on Saturday, suggesting he could be hanged while addressing thousands of protesters outside the presidency.
   ‘We asked you to quit with honour after the election but you didn’t,’ Sharif told the crowd, referring to US ally Musharraf, who overthrew him in a 1999 coup.
   ‘Now people have given a new judgment for you ... they want you to be held accountable,’ he said in the early hours of Saturday.
   The crowd, officially estimated at up to 20,000, chanted ‘hang Musharraf’ as it listened to the two time former prime minister’s fiery speech.
   ‘Is hanging only for politicians?’ asked Sharif, referring to former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, hanged by a military dictator in 1979.
   ‘These blood-sucking dictators must be held accountable.’
   The demonstration, a few hundred meters from the presidency and parliament buildings, marked the climax of an almost week-long rolling protest across the country led by lawyers, though by the end they were easily outnumbered by Sharif party activists.
   The United States and other Western allies fear prolonged political instability in the turbulent nuclear-armed Muslim nation will play into the hands of Islamist militants and undermine the US-led campaign against terrorism.
   Sharif has called for Musharraf to be tried for treason for tearing up the constitution during a brief spell of emergency rule late last year and for the coup nearly nine years ago.
   Helped by Saudi Arabia, Sharif was allowed back from exile late last year as Musharraf’s grip on power slipped following a clash with the judiciary.
   His party came second in an election in February that resulted in defeat for pro-Musharraf parties, and brought to power a coalition government led by the Pakistan People’s Party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
   Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir’s widower and political successor, is trying to take away Musharraf’s powers through changes to the constitution that will take months to pass, and the PPP is worried that Sharif is making more political capital by seeking Musharraf’s humiliation.
   Sharif was barred from contesting the election, but he will contest a by-election on June 26 for a National Assembly seat.
   Treading a careful line, Zardari congratulated the lawyers on their ‘long march,’ a cross-country convoy of cars that set off days ago for the capital. Security was tight as the rally ended just as dawn broke on Saturday. An avenue in front of the parliament building was sealed off but there was no violence.
   Lawyers mingled with flag-waving supporters of Sharif’s party, conservative religious activists, rights workers and students on a wide road overlooking the National Assembly.
   Unlike the beatings and tear-gas that protesting lawyers got from police under a pro-Musharraf government last year, the new government ordered police to assist this week’s protest.
   ‘This unprecedented gathering in Islamabad shows the flourishing of democracy under the government of Pakistan People’s Party,’ Zardari said in a statement.
   Musharraf’s problems erupted in March last year when he tried to dismiss the Supreme Court chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry.
   In November, General Musharraf resorted to emergency rule to purge the judiciary, including Chaudhry, to stop the Supreme Court ruling on whether his re-election while still army chief the previous month was legal.
   Having secured the presidency, Musharraf quit as army chief and ended emergency rule in mid-December, but his actions left him increasingly isolated and unpopular.
   Political parties backing the lawyers’ movement hope that reinstating the judges will lead to Musharraf’s ouster.

The Centre on Saturday ruled out any possibility of carving out a separate state of Gorkhaland from West Bengal as demanded by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, but said it was ready for talks.
   ‘There is no question of creating a separate state of Gorkhaland,’ the external affairs minister, Pranab Mukherjee, told reporters on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce here.
   The government, he said, was ready to hold talks with GJM, but without any precondition.
   He also held a brief meeting with the West Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, on this issue during the day.
   The GJM has renewed the demand for Gorkhaland originally demanded by GNLF chief Subhas Ghising before settling for the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council.
   GJM had called an indefinite bandh in Darjeeling hills and in some parts of adjoining Terai and Dooars region demanding Gorkhaland on June 10.
   They had asked all tourists to vacate the hills overnight. The hill party had relaxed the bandh for 60 hours from 4:00pm on June 11 for easy exit of stranded tourists and facilitating the hill people to buy food and essentials.

A physician and three of his family members were killed when an ambulance plunged into a roadside ditch on the Dhaka–Sylhet Highway at Bezura under Madhabpur upazila in Habiganj early Saturday.
   The deceased were Dr Mujibur Rahman, 52, of Akhiul Sub Health Complex under Moulvibazar sadar upazila, his wife Nazma Begum, 40, college-going son Al-Amin, 17, and father-in-law Rashid, 70.
   They came from village Bazargaon under Hajiganj upazila of Chandpur.
   The police said family members of Dr Mujibur, who was a diabetic patient, were taking him to BIRDEM Hospital in Dhaka by the ambulance.
   The police recovered the bodies and sent those to hospital morgue for post-mortem examinations.

The Anti-Corruption Commission chairman, Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury, resumes office today ending speculation about his resignation fuelled during his 22 days of overseas trip.
   The commission’s director-general Hanif Iqbal, told reporters on Thursday, ‘A rumour is always a rumour and it rarely proves true. The chairman will resume office on Sunday ending the speculations…’
   When asked if Mashhud had withdrawn his resignation, Hanif, also the commission’s spokesman, retorted: ‘This is a baseless question as the ACC chairman resumes office on Sunday.’
   Mashhud had left Dhaka on May 19 for a long tour of Australia, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates, and returned home on June 10. There were rumours that the ACC chairman had tendered his resignation to president Iajuddin Ahmed.

A mob burned a Mozambican man alive on Saturday near Pretoria after accusing him of setting fire to a shack, the police said, following a recent wave of xenophobic attacks in South Africa.
   The 30-year-old victim was stoned then burned, said Captain Thomas Mufamadi, who estimated the mob at about 300 people.
   More than 60 people were killed and thousands were displaced in the wave of violence that erupted last month.