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The prime minster, Sheikh Hasina, on Friday said the government would form an all-party parliamentary committee in two to four days for amending the constitution.
   ‘The government will amend the constitution in order to uphold the Supreme Court verdict which has declared illegal the fifth amendment to the constitution,’ said Hasina while addressing a meeting of the Awami League Central Working Committee at her official residence Ganabhaban.
   She said that the process for amendment to the constitution would start during the current session of the parliament.
   The opposition lawmakers have been skipping the session after making a brief appearance in the parliament on June 2, the day the budget session began.
   Hasina, also the Awami League president, said that the amendment was essential as military dictators had distorted the constitution.
   She hoped that her government would be able to tackle the problems that had accumulated over the seven years before her party came to power in January 2009.
   The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on February 2 upheld the High Court verdict that had declared illegal the fifth amendment to the constitution brought through martial law proclamations after August 15, 1975.
   The High Court bench of Justice ABM Khairul Huq and Justice ATM Fazley Kabir on August 29, 2005 delivered the verdict declaring illegal and void the fifth amendment and the martial law regulations proclaimed between August 15, 1975 and April 1979.
   The verdict, however, said, ‘… all acts and things done and actions and proceedings taken during the period from August 15, 1975 to April 9, 1979, are condoned as past and closed transactions.’
   According to the verdict, such matters will not be deemed illegal or void under the declaration the court has made.
   It also said, ‘Condonation of provisions were made, among others, in respect of provisions, deleting the various provisions of the fourth amendment but no condonation of the provisions was allowed in respect of omission of any provision enshrined in the original constitution. The Preamble, Article 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 25, 38 and 142 remain as it was in the original constitution. Besides Article 95, as amended by the Second Proclamation Order No IV of 1976, is declared valid and retained.’
   The ALCWC meeting with Hasina in the chair began at 5:10pm and continued till filing of this report at 10:00pm.

Grassroots level leaders of the Awami League complained on Friday, almost in one voice, that most of the party lawmakers were pursuing their parochial and personal interests, without taking into consideration the interests of the party activists.
   Addressing a meeting of the Awami League Central Working Committee, the district level leaders pointed the finger at the party MPs for not giving the dedicated local leaders the honour they deserved.
   Prime minister Sheikh Hasina chaired the meeting at Ganabhaban.
   AL general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam warned the party lawmakers that they would not get nomination in the next general election if they continued to ignore leaders and activists in their respective constituencies.
   The grassroots leaders also urged the prime minister to take tough action against those, particularly the Chhatra League activists, who were tarnishing the image of both the party and the government through their wrongdoing.
   Hasina assured them that her government would not tolerate any wrongdoing in the name of BCL. She also urged the party men to guard against corruption.

Private diagnostic centres and clinics set charges for pathological tests at their whim as the government has no control over the matter.
   Against the backdrop, diagnostic centres and clinics in the capital charge varying prices, even by a degree of six times in some cases, for similar medical tests.
   The patients, however, have a little scope to choose the laboratories for the tests as in most of the cases physicians refer them to particular diagnostic centres or clinics.
   Former Bangladesh Medical Association president Rashid-e-Mahbub said, ‘The government has no control over the fees for pathological tests set by different diagnostic centres. As a result, they charge according to their will.’
   In 1982, the government had set the rate of pathological tests which has not been updated yet, he said, adding that no initiatives was taken by the health ministry or the directorate general of health services to update and fix the charges.
   Rashid-e-Mahbub said the main reason that the diagnostic centres show over price variation is cost of reagents. ‘The diagnostic centres claim that they import and use better quality reagents and so their charges are higher,’ he said.
   He said the government should fix a standard of reagents and its price to make pathological tests affordable to all patients.
   The producers of the drugs have to register maximum retail price for their products with the drug administration, but the owners of the diagnostic centres are not accountable to any regulator who would fix the rates for pathological tests, he said.
   Shasthya Andolon co-convener Farida Akhter alleged that the doctors were prescribing the patients on the basis of laboratory diagnosis instead of clinical diagnosis. ‘It is a syndicate of physicians and the owners of the diagnostic centres,’ she complained.
   ‘We are shouting for fixing a standard cost for medical services in the health policy, but still there is no indication for ensuring that,’ Farida said.
   On the other hand, the government is encouraging commission distribution in the name of ‘users fee’ among the doctors of the government sector, she said, adding that it would leave an adverse impact on the total healthcare system.
   Allegations have it that that most of the physicians refer the patients to particular diagnostic centres, who provide the physicians with a commission of 40 per cent or more of the total charges for the tests.
   A professor in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University told New Age the diagnostic centres set the charges calculating the commissions of the physicians causing such variations in charges.
   Health and family welfare secretary Sheikh Altaf Ali on Sunday said the government would form a regulatory body to control the quality of the services at the diagnostic centres. It would also set up a referral pathological laboratory of international standard.
   ‘Sometimes we observe that same tests conducted by different laboratories show different results. In those cases the referral pathological laboratory will test and that result will be the standard result,’ he said.
   The secretary said that the health policy is yet to be finalised. So there remains the scope to insert the issue of fixing charges of diagnostic centres.
   The United Hospital charges Tk 205 for urine routine and microscopy examination (urine RME) test, Popular Diagnostic Centre Limited charges Tk 123, Padma Diagnostic Centre Limited Tk 81, Medinova Medical Services Limited Tk 120, Dhaka Community Hospital Tk 61, Ganashastha Nagar Hospital Tk 50 and Aitam Welfare Organisation Tk 30.
   Likewise, the United Hospital charges Tk 286 for serum bilirubin test, Padma Diagnostic Centre charges Tk 204, Medinova Medical Services Tk 200, Popular Diagnostic Center Tk 153, Dhaka Community Hospital Tk 123, Ganashastha Nagar Hospital Tk 150 and Aitam Welfare Organisation Tk 80.
   It was also found that an ultra-sonogram test of whole abdomen would cost between Tk 460 and Tk 1,534, depending on where patient goes for the test.
   United Hospital charges Tk 1,534 for ultra-sonogram of the whole abdomen. For the same test, Padma Diagnostic Centre charges Tk 818, Medinova Medical Services Tk 900, Popular Diagnostic Centre Tk 920, Dhaka Community Hospital Tk 460 and Aitam Welfare Organisation Tk 550.
   The variation in charges is also found for all other medical tests such as tests of blood group, stool culture, SGOT and CT scan of brain and head.

Five more lawmakers belonging to the ruling Awami League and its ally Jatiya Party are at the risk of losing their memberships in the 9th parliament as the Election Commission is waiting for court rulings on their cases.
   The five lawmakers are Shafiqul Azam Khan for Jhenidah 3 and Kabirul Huq for Narail 1 of Awami League and Jatiya Party’s Ruhul Amin Hawlader for Barisal 6, his wife Nasrin Jahan Ratna, elected in a reserved seat, and Abul Kashem for Tangail 4.
   All the five lawmakers except Abul Kashem separately challenged the legality of the Election Commission’s notice asking them to explain why they should not be stripped of parliament membership for contesting polls while holding a public office of profit and not submitting documents of their educational qualifications.
   Besides, Awami League lawmaker Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir looks set to lose his Jatiya Sangsad seat while the Election Commission has shelved its move to scrap the membership of Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury.
   The Appellate Division on Thursday upheld a High Court order that had declared valid the returning officer’s decision to cancel MK Alamgir’s nomination papers for the December 29, 2008 parliamentary elections.
   On October 18, 2009, the SC declared illegal the parliament membership of Jasim Uddin, AL lawmaker for Bhola-3. The EC held by-election to the constituency on April 24.
   Election commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain said the commission was waiting for the court’s rulings. ‘We will go for next course of action after getting the court verdict.’
   Among the five lawmakers Shafiqul Azam Khan Chanchal, Kabirul Huq and Nasrin Jahan Ratna are in the soup as a High Court verdict has declared mayors and municipal chairmen disqualified from being elected lawmakers.
   According to a constitutional provision and electoral laws, they have been disqualified from being members of parliament after the court verdict as they are elected mayors of three municipalities – Maheshpur, Kalia and Bakerganj – respectively and holding offices of profit.
   The Election Commission asked them to explain why they should not be stripped of parliament membership for contesting the polls while holding a public office of profit. They filed writ petitions challenging the Election Commission’s notice but hearings were deferred a number of times at the request of the lawyers of the petitioners, Election Commission officials said.
   Election Commission’s lawyer Shahdin Malik said the date for hearing was July 13, but it was deferred to July 27 after the lawyers for the petitioners sought time. He said that it would not take much time to deliver the verdict once the hearting started.
   The High Court on December 15, 2009 declared the election of Abul Kashem illegal on the ground of loan default. The court also ordered the Election Commission to declare Mahmudul Hasan, a candidate nominated by the BNP-led alliance, elected MP as he polled the second highest votes in the constituency.
   The Appellate Division on December 17, 2009 stayed the High Court verdict for six week and asked Kashem to file a regular petition seeking permission to appeal against the verdict.
   The EC on April 13, 2009 wrote to Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ruhul Amin Hawlader to submit copies of certificates of their educational qualifications to the Election Commission before May 31, 2009. Ruhul Amin filed a writ petition challenging the legality of the EC’s letter while Salauddin did not respond to the commission’s letter.
   Salauddin, elected MP for Chittagong-2 constituency, mentioned in the affidavit signed by him that he had no educational qualification while Ruhul Amin stated he obtained BA (Hons) in public administration from Dhaka University but did not provide a copy of his certificate saying he had lost it.
   The Election Commission, earlier, initiated a move to scrap the membership of Salauddin for ‘suppressing educational information’ but shelved the move after his criticism of the election commissioners.
   Azam Khan on Friday told New Age, ‘The post of municipal mayor is not an office of profit. Moreover, the Election Commission just issued notice but did not take a decision to scrap our memberships. We will go to the court again if our seats are declared vacant,’ he added.
   According to Article 67(1) (d) of the constitution, a lawmaker should vacate his seat ‘if he has incurred a disqualification under clause (2) of article 66.’
   Article 66(2) says, ‘a person shall be disqualified from election as, or from being, a member of parliament who holds any office of profit in the service of the republic other than an office which is declared by law not to disqualify its holders.’
   Article 12(1) (a) of the Representation of the People Order (Amendment) Act, 2009 said, ‘a person shall be disqualified from being elected as, and from being, a member, if he is a person holding any office of profit in the service of the republic or of a statutory public authority.’
   Dhaka city mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka filed a writ petition challenging the decision taken by the EC on November 17 declaring city and municipal mayors disqualified from the national polls, considering their posts to be offices of profit in the service of the republic or of a statutory public authority.
   The High Court on December 4 rejected the petition upholding the commission’s decision and declaring the position of city mayor an office of profit.
   Sadeque, however, contested the December 29, 2008 national elections after obtaining a stay order from the Appellate Division on the High Court verdict. Accordingly, the three municipal mayors also contested the election and were elected lawmakers.
   The Appellate Division had asked Sadeque to file a regular petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court verdict but he did not file it presumably because he lost the election.
   The office of the Supreme Court registrar on May 6, 2009 sent an office order to the Election Commission secretariat, saying the period of time to file a regular petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court verdict had expired, but no step was taken.

The government is going to amend the Building Construction Rules 2008 with an aim to make it ‘more rational and to streamline building construction keeping the aspects of environmental and disaster management in view’, an official of the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha said.
   When the Building Construction Rules 2008 replaced the rules made in 2007, urban experts had warned it would hinder an environment-friendly urban development.
   After the enactment of the Building Construction Rules 2007, owners of small pieces of land ( 3 kathas and below) expressed their dissatisfaction saying that the provision for keeping a one metre open space on both sides of the building with a maximum 65 per cent ground coverage would hardly benefit them.
   Against that backdrop, the government enacted the Building Construction Rules-2008 allowing highest 67.5 per cent of a plot of land for building construction.
   Now the government is going to amend the law that might allow highest 75 per cent of a plot of land for construction in line with a suggestion of the parliamentary standing committee on housing and public works.
   The government has already formed a committee headed by a joint secretary to the ministry to review the law examining the suggestions made by different quarters.
   ‘One of the major objectives of the proposed amendments to the building construction rules is to ensure that lanes in a locality are widened to make the buildings accessible to vehicles, fire engines and ambulances,’ said Rajuk’s director of development (control) Sheikh Abdul Mannan, also the member-secretary of the committee.
   The 2008 rules allows a landowner constructing a building in the height-restricted areas of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh or Key Point Installations to use the entire land for construction leaving a minimum space around the building open as the ground coverage rule is not applicable to them, he said. ‘We have seen misuse of this provision and that’s why we are thinking how checks and balances can be ensured here.’
   ‘With necessary changes, the building construction rules will be more rational and effective,’ he hoped.
   But the parliamentary standing committee on housing and public works ministry recently requested the ministry to allow the highest 67.5 per cent of a three-katha plot of land for building construction, sources said.
   ‘Owners of three-katha or less than three-katha plots of land do not have much space to construct a building if 33-35 per cent of the land is left open to abide by the rules. That’s why; we have suggested bringing amendments to the rules,’ said Nasrul Hamid Bipu, member of the parliamentary standing committee and also the president of the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh.
   ‘We have recommended a provision for owners of three-katha lands so that they can use a maximum 75 per cent of their lands for construction,’ he added.
   Planners and urban experts, however, opposed any relaxation of the restrictions imposed by the rules warning that otherwise the Dhaka city would turn into a concrete jungle.
   ‘Environment-friendly urban development is one of the key objectives of such laws. If the provision for three-katha lands is relaxed, everyone will try to divide their plots into small pieces to get the benefit and Dhaka will grow into as a jungle of concrete with little space for breathing,’ said Mubasshar Hussain, president of the Institute of Architects, Bangladesh.
   ‘In Dhaka city, most of the landowners construct buildings or apartments through real estate companies and in that case, construction of large apartments merging two or three small plots into one will be more viable,’ he observed.
   ‘Small landowners will be benefited if they construct buildings or apartments following the existing provision of Floor Area Ratio,’ said Mubasshar, also chairman of the Architects’ Regional Council of Asia.
   According to the 2008 rules, owners having two-katha or less than two katha lands get a maximum 67.5 per cent ground coverage while those who have two-three kathas of land can use 65 per cent of the land for construction. Owners of three-five kathas are allowed to use 62.5 per cent of the land, five-nine kathas 60 per cent, 9-12 kathas 57.5 per cent, 12-14 kathas 55 per cent, 14-18 kathas 52.5 per cent and owners of 18 kathas and above can use 50 per cent of the land for construction of structures.

A fire at a hotel in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniya, possibly triggered by a gas leak, killed 30 people, including Bangladeshis, and injured at least 22 others, the police said on Friday.
   Among those killed were Bangladeshi hotel workers and a Briton, an American, a Canadian, a Japanese, a Pole, an Ecuadorean and an Australian, a police source said.
   It could not be immediately known how many Bangladeshis were there and what was their identity.
   A security official said the fire in Iraq’s relatively stable and violence-free Kurdish region was not a terrorist act and the cause was under investigation.
   The fire broke out late on Thursday in a restaurant on the ground floor of the Soma hotel in the centre of the city and raged out of control for several hours, officials said.
   The source said some worked for Asiacell, an Iraqi mobile phone operator in which Qatar Telecommunications Co has a 30 per cent stake.
   Another police official said a Chinese citizen also was among the dead.
   Iraq’s minority Kurds were oppressed by Saddam Hussein but have enjoyed virtual independence under Western protection since the 1991 end of the first Gulf War.
   As the rest of Iraq descended into sectarian warfare and a raging insurgency after the 2003 US-led invasion, Iraqi Kurdistan’s relative stability has drawn foreign investors, principally from Turkey and the Middle East.
   ‘This is not a terrorist act,’ Qader Hama-Jan, the head of local security operations, said of the fire.
   Women and children were among the casualties.
   ‘Most of the people who were killed were choked because of the smoke. They could not get out,’ said Dr Reqot Hama-Rasheed, head of the health department.
   ‘According to the information that we have, it was a gas leak. Otherwise it could not have spread this quickly,’ police Colonel Aras Baker told local television.
   At least three of the victims died jumping from the third floor to escape the flames, an official said.

The police in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand arrested more than 5,000 people in a coordinated swoop against illegal football betting during the World Cup, Interpol said Friday.
   The international police agency, which helped coordinate the month-long operation, said officers had raided more than 800 illegal gambling dens that had handled more than 155 million dollars (119 million euros) in bets.
   ‘The results we have seen are impressive,’ said Interpol executive director for police services Jean-Michel Louboutin, in a statement released by the agency’s headquarters in Lyon, central France.
   ‘As well as having clear connections to organised crime, illegal soccer gambling is also linked with corruption, money laundering and prostitution,’ he said, declaring a blow had been struck against underworld gangs.
   The operation ran between June 11 and July 11, during a time when hundreds of millions of fans around the globe were glued to their television screens, following the action from the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
   Many supporters were also tempted to gamble on the results, sometimes legally and sometimes with unlicensed and often crooked bookmakers.
   In the operation, the police seized 10 million dollars in cash along with other alleged criminal assets such as cars, bank cards, computers and mobile phones, Louboutin said in his statement.
   ‘The information gathered will now be reviewed and analysed to determine the potential involvement of other individuals or gangs across the region and beyond,’ he warned.
   ‘The experience and expertise developed in each of these types of operations provides an even stronger base from which police can work,’ he said, praising the close cooperation between the Asian police forces.
   The World Cup operation was dubbed SOGA III, following two previous but smaller series of raids.
   In all, these operations have led to nearly 7,000 arrests, the seizure of more than 26 million dollars in cash and the closure of illegal gambling dens which handled more than two billion dollars’ worth of bets, Interpol said.
   Friday’s announcement came a week after Hong Kong, one of the Chinese territories which took part in the SOGA III operation, announced that it had smashed a huge illegal football gambling syndicate.
   Officers arrested 93 people from Hong Kong and the mainland in a joint operation, broadcaster RTHK said. A large amount of betting slips were seized, including seven billion yuan (1.03 billion dollars) from the mainland.
   The police said the syndicate mainly received online and telephone bets through more than 400 bank accounts, the largest number of accounts involved in a local illegal soccer betting case, according to Cable TV.
   But some say illegal bookmakers offer better odds and easier credit terms, although failure to repay can lead to violent reprisals.
   Legal attitudes to sports betting vary wildly around the world.
   In Britain, a large and generally well regulated betting industry did record business during the World Cup, and in neighbouring France the law was loosened to allow Internet betting for the first time.
   In parts of Asia, however, the practice remains illegal, despite the massive underground industry revealed by the latest police raids.
   In Malaysia, for example, sports betting was only made legal last month — angering conservative Islamists — but the licences were not ready in time for the World Cup and a police task force was assigned to lead a crackdown.

Three physicians of a hospital in the capital on Friday were sent to jail after their arrest in connection with ‘wrong’ treatment which allegedly caused the death of a patient on Thursday.
   The arrested are Amjad Ali, Hashem Tareque and Sayed Hossain Sayeed Ahmed Ali working with Eastern Hospital and Medical Research Centre in the capital.
   The victim’s father Fazlul Haque accused the physicians of administering wrong treatment to Nasirul Haque, 39, a resident of Pallabi who sustained injuries in the hands in a traffic accident, after a minor surgery which ‘caused the his death.’
   Nasirul Haque was admitted to the medical centre on Thursday morning and had a minor surgery done by the physicians about 10:00pm.
   The victim started vomiting after the surgery, Fazlul Haque said. He later fell unconscious as the physicians administered an injection to him. The physicians later pronounced Nasirul dead about 11:00pm.
   The victim’s father filed the case with the Mohammadpur police accusing four physicians of doing a wrong treatment. The police, who arrested the three on Thursday night, were yet to arrest Saafat Latif, the other accused.
   The investigation officer of the case, Abu Zafar M Mahfuzul Haque, said the police had produced the three in the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court seeking them to be remanded in custody for three days.
   The court rejected the remand prayer and ordered them to be sent to jail.

A man jumped out of the window of the third floor of a three-storey building and died at Bangshal in Dhaka early Friday when the police went to arrest him.
   The deceased was Haji Saber Hossain, an automobile spare parts trader.
   Witnesses said the Bangladesh Motor Parts Businessmen’s Association president Solaiman Hossain Moina had entered into an altercation with Haji Saber about 6:00pm on Tuesday over opening his shop in the area.
   Saber and his men allegedly assaulted Solaiman at one point during the altercation.
   Solaiman later filed a case with the Bangshal police against seven, including Saber, on charges of assaulting him and taking away spare parts from his shop.
   The police arrested Saber’s nephews — Delwar Hossain Dilu and James — on Wednesday night. The two later secured bail from a Dhaka court A police team, led by subinspector Sayem Hossain, on Friday raided Saber’s house about 3:00am. Saber then tried to jump through the window on the roof of a neighbouring building to avoid arrest but fell down on the ground in which he was critically injured. He was taken to Square Hospitals where he was pronounced dead.
   The family said the police team got away after seeing that he had been critically injured.
   Delwar Hossain told New Age Solaiman Hossain had accompanied the police team when the police went there to make the arrest after Saber had been implicated in a ‘false case.’
   The Bangshal police officer-in-charge, Abdul Mannan, told New Age Saber had jumped through his window of the third floor of the three-storey building and died when the police went there to arrest him after in a case filed against him on charges of assaulting Solaiman and snatching away spare parts from his shop. ‘We are investigating the incident.’
   Additional policemen were deployed in the area to stave off any untoward incidents as an uneasy calm prevailed in the area after Saber’s death.

The authorities have missed the deadline for launching Sangsad Bangladesh, an exclusive TV channel for broadcasting the proceedings of Jatiya Sangsad.
   The speaker, Abdul Hamid, had set the deadline of July 15 for launching the channel with technical assistance from the state-owned Bangladesh Television.
   Officials said that the deadline could not be met due to lack of manpower and preparations at parliament secretariat.
   The information minister, Abul Kalam Azad, had assured his support to open the channel by July 15.
   Neither Bangladesh Television nor the parliament secretariat could prepare the ground for launching the channel in time, said parliament secretariat officials.
   They said that the finance ministry allocated Tk 10 crore for the project.
   ‘We need to have enough programmes at hand to air them for at least two months, but now we’ve nothing,’ said an official.
   Parliament secretariat, he said, was yet to assign a committee the responsibility to run the channel.
   An group of experts led by Dhaka University vice chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique at a meeting with the speaker earlier this month suggested for running the channel under the ownership of parliament itself, using a BTV frequency.
   ‘As we do not have the needed manpower in parliament secretariats, we have to depend on BTV for the moment,’ said an official.
   Parliament approved a private member’s resolution to set up a television channel to broadcast its proceedings.
   The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, in requested the speaker in February to initiate launching the channel in shortest possible time for broadcasting parliamentary proceedings.
   According to a plan drafted by parliament secretariat officials the channel would initially air programmes for six hours a day, including the regular business of the House, when in session, the coverage of news of parliamentary committees and hosting talk shows on parliamentary affairs.
   ‘We can also broadcast debates that took place in previous parliaments,’ Abdul Hamid told New Age.
   He said that the practices of the other parliamentary democracies could be followed.

An army officer and his cousin were detained by the police at the western end of Bangabandhu Bridge with at least 780 bottles of smuggled Indian phensedyl early Friday.
   The police said that they handed over the major to the military police and sent his cousin to Sirajganj jail.
    Police said, they detained 40-year old Major Reza Shah Mohammad Zillullah of the Army Engineering Corps, now posted at the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka, and his 35-year old cousin, Abu Sadat Md. Milon with the contrabands.
   Bangabandhu Bridge police detained them at Saidabad Gol Chattar in Sirajganj after they found the contrabands in their luggage after searching a Dhaka-bound car, they were travelling in from Charghat upazila in Rajshahi.
   Reza is son of the late Sultan Uddin of of Bishwa Charan Das Lane at Azimpur, Dhaka and Milon is son of Md. Hossain Ali, Binodpur village in Rajshahi.
   Police said that they seized the phensedyl bottles packed in separate cartons, a set of army uniform, I.D-card, driving licence and the rank badge from the car.
   Police said that they handed Major Reza over to the military police in Bogra cantonment. and sent Milon to Sirajganj jail. At Sirajganj additional superintendent of police Md. Delwar Hossain Saiyadee said that at first the police were puzzled to notice the huge consignment of the contraband in an army-major’s car.
   He said they informed higher police authorities officials and detained the major and his cousin.
   He said that police handed over the army officer to a military police team-led by Captain Reza, who came from Bogra cantonment.
   The police said that they lodged a case with the Bangabandhu Bridge (West) police station in this connection.
   An Inter Service Public Relations release said that the army took the officer into its custody and initiated inquiry into the matter.
   It said that exemplary legal action would be taken against the officer after the inquiry in order to uphold the discipline and image of the army.
   It described it as an isolated incident.

With the Maldives recovering from global recession, the island republic is recruiting more and more Bangladeshis for its booming construction indutry.
   Ahmed Sareer, the Maldivian High Commissioner in Dhaka, told New Age that his country issued nearly nine hundred work permits to Bangladeshis in June, up from around 200 in January.
   The Maldivian authorities issued 878 work permits to Bangladeshis in June, 569 in May, 348 in April, 330 in March, 170 in February and 209 in January.
   The Maldives, said the high commissioner, issued 3,095 work permits to Bangladeshis since September 2009.
   Sareer said that an increasing number of Bangladeshis are getting jobs as a construction boom had been picking up in the Maldives in recent months.
   ‘A lot of private and commercial buildings, ports and other infrastructure and tourism facilities are under construction in the Maldives,’ he said.
   The global recession, he said, had reduced flow of tourists.
   The economy of the Maldives, he said, was fast recovering, drawing investments.
   He said that mostly unskilled Bangladeshis were going to the Maldives.
   He said that the Maldives had highly paid jobs for tens of hundreds of skilled professionals including for doctors and teachers.
   The Maldives authorities had stopped issuing work permit to foreigners from June to August 2009.
   Its registration records show that by end June of last year, 39,383 Bangladeshis were working in Maldives on work permits, 54 per cent of them in the construction industry, 12 per cent work in the social and personal services sector and 10 per cent with tourism facilities.
   More than a decade ago, Bangladeshi job seekers had started exploiting opportunities in Maldives and
   Employers in the Maldives like Bangladeshis, who started going to the island republic a decade ago, for their hard work and honesty.
   The economy of the beautiful Indian Ocean island country is based on tourism and fishing. Its unique coral islands are favourite destinations for high-spending tourists from across the world.

Iran was Friday probing twin suicide bombings in a crowded Shia mosque which slaughtered 27 people in an attack a shadowy Sunni rebel group said was to avenge the execution of its militant leader.
   Thursday night’s bombings, which reportedly targeted members of Iran’s elite defence force, the Revolutionary Guards, struck the Jamia mosque in Zahedan, a southeastern city ravaged by a fierce Sunni insurgency for the past decade.
   The bombers detonated their payloads as worshippers were celebrating the birthday of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed, on a day also annually observed as the Guards’ Day.
   The attack ‘has left 27 people martyred and 270 wounded,’ health minister Marziah Vahid Dastjerdi told the Mehr news agency, adding that 11 of the wounded were in critical conditions.
   Deputy interior minister Ali Abdollahi said members of the Guards were among the dead and wounded but gave no details.
   Ali Mohammad Azad, the governor general of Sistan-Baluchestan, the province of which Zahedan is the capital, said Iran was ‘investigating who was behind the attack’, which was claimed Friday by Sunni rebel group, Jundallah, as revenge for the hanging of its veteran leader Abdolmalek Rigi.
   Rigi was executed on June 20 after Iranian warplanes intercepted a flight from the United Arab Emirates to Kyrgyzstan and security forces seized him.
   ‘Jundallah announces to the people of Baluchestan and Iran that tonight two of its sons were able to send more than a hundred of the Guards to hell,’ the group said.

Angry over the removal of certain Islamic pages from Facebook, more than 2.5 million Muslim users are likely to quit the social networking website, according to a media report.
   Following the removal of four extremely popular Islamic pages from the website, the Muslim community has expressed anger and a template letter that has been pasted into numerous Facebook pages accused the website’s founder Mark Zuckerberg of ‘ignoring the feelings of more than 2.5 million Muslims’, the Daily Mail reported.
   The letter reads: ‘Although you have attended the world’s best communication skills courses you have been most successful in growing great hatred and hostility between you and Muslims around the world, but seriously this time you have caused an almost unrepairable damage.’
   The letter demanded not only that the pages are reinstated but that new rules are introduced which make it a violation of Facebook’s terms to post anti-Islamic comments.
   Apart from reinstating the four deleted pages, the letter demanded the website to ban disrespecting Islamic religious symbols and disable any Facebook page which does so.
   It warned that unless its demands are met Facebook’s ‘2.5 million Muslim users’ will join ‘madina.com’ - a social networking site for Muslims.

Half of Americans who have a profile on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are worried about their privacy, according to a new poll.
   The Marist survey showed that people over 60 are the most worried about privacy, and women are more concerned than men.
   ‘We’re in an era of information. Some people are concerned, reluctant and skittish about the extent of online information. There’s a privacy element that some people feel is getting lost,’ said Dr Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.
   Privacy on social networking sites is an ongoing issue. Facebook recently changed its policies to give users more control over how much information from their profiles is public following protests from privacy watchdogs and consumers about the difficulty in changing default account settings.
   ‘It doesn’t take much to increase the concern factor and when headlines start blaring about breakdowns in privacy, that goes a long way to raising people’s concerns,’ Miringoff added.
   The poll showed that 27 per cent of the 1,004 people were concerned about privacy on social networking websites, and a further 23 per cent were very concerned.

Opener Tamim Iqbal guided Bangladesh to a face-saving six-wicket victory over Ireland in the second one-day international at the Civil Service Cricket Club in Belfast on Friday.
   Tamim scored 74 off 91 balls hitting six fours and one six as Bangladesh scored 191 for four in 37.4 overs. Ireland, batting first, scored 189 for 9 in the match curtailed to 46 overs by rain.
   After the departure of opener Imrul Kayes on 5, the centurion of the last match Junaed Siddique came into the crease but added only 13.
   The 84-run third-wicket partnership between Tamim and Jahurul Islam steadied the ship before Jahurul Islam’s exit. The two-down batsman contributed 34 off 51 balls. Shakib al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim were unbeaten on 33 and 13 runs.

Reckless driving killed a rickshaw-puller and injured the rickshaw passenger at Pallabi in the capital on Friday, which led to protests by pedestrians.
   The rickshaw puller was Yunus Ali, 32, a resident of Sujanagar in Pabna.
   Witnesses said a bus of the Super Link Paribahan had hit the rickshaw in front of the Sitara Convention Centre at Pallabi. As Yunus fell down on the ground, the bus ran over him, killing him on the spot about 7:30am, the victim’s brother-in-law Azizul Haq said.
   Soon after the accident, the drive managed to get away. The mob blocked the road and damaged at least three buses. Traffic remained suspended for about an hour and a half.
   The blockade was withdrawn on assurance of the Pallabi office-in-charge.