BNP�s fresh oust-govt programmes after Eid

Main opposition BNP will go for fresh agitation programmes shortly after the holy Eid-ul-Azha to compel the Awami League-led government to step down and hold the next general election under a non-party caretaker government.

?BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia would declare the programmes, including hartal, blockade and demonstration, from a public meeting in the capital next month,? Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman, member of the party?s policymaking standing committee, told daily sun on Friday.

In the first phase, Khaleda Zia concluded her anti-government campaign by launching road marches to Sylhet, Bogra and Mymensingh from the capital to mobilise peoples? support for the political issues.

?Khaleda Zia?s road march encouraged her party?s grassroots leaders and workers to take to the street against this fascist government,? Mahbubur added.

Brig Gen (retd) ASM Hannan Shah, another member of the standing committee, said the Bangladesh Nationalist Party is going ahead with a one-point demand to unseat the government.

?The opposition party is gradually intensifying the anti-government movement. Opposition leader Khaleda Zia will announce the programmes after the Eid,? he added.

Quoting Khaleda?s statement, Hannan Shah says that it is very clear BNP now wants to give an exact reply to the government if it hatches any conspiracy to hold the election under a political government.

?Our chairperson has already hinted that a new tougher agitation movement will be waged soon from the capital to topple the government. And she urged the people to come to Dhaka and join the oust-government programme. So, we as well as the common people are eagerly waiting for her announcement,? he mentioned.

As the people were worried about the activities of the ruling AL, the government had left no option for the BNP but to forge a movement to protect national interests and the country?s independence and sovereignty, they said.

The BNP will also hold a grand rally in the capital in order to show its popularity to the grand alliance government.

Source: daily-sun.com

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C�wealth fights to preserve its relevance in new age

 Britain?s Queen Elizabeth II (2nd L) is joined by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (L), Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard (2nd R) and Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar (R) for the official female heads of state photo at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth on Friday. afp photoPerth: Queen Elizabeth II urged ?enduring results? from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting Friday to keep it relevant as changes to succession rules for the British throne were approved.

Amid heavy security, the monarch officially opened the three-day summit Friday, saying she expected a ?meeting that promises to bring new vibrancy to the Commonwealth?.

?I wish heads of government well in agreeing to further reforms that respond boldly to the aspirations of today and that keep the Commonwealth fresh and fit for tomorrow,? she said.

Now 85, the queen said she had attended many such meetings that had looked to the future with a sense of vision and practical action.

?The results of this meeting may be global in impact or simply touch a single individual even imperceptibly. But in every respect I trust the results will be positive and enduring,? she said.

The queen is head of state in 16 Commonwealth nations and in an historic move leaders of those countries agreed to scrap ancient laws barring first-born daughters or anyone married to a Roman Catholic from inheriting the throne.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said the agreement, which will have to be formally approved by the affected nations, would sweep aside outdated rules that ?just don?t make sense to us any more?.

Cameron has the political support to make the changes in London but required the backing of the other Commonwealth realms, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and smaller nations in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

The debate was intensified by the April wedding of William, the second in line to the throne. The changes mean that if he and wife Kate Middleton have a girl as their first born then she would one day be queen.

Composed mainly of former British colonies and embracing two billion citizens, the Commonwealth?s relevance in the 21st century will be a key focus for the summit.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the host, told the opening gathering that it was vital for the organisation to move with the times.

?The world has changed, and a wise institution changes too,? she said.

?So as the Commonwealth journeys towards its centenary, it is time for renewal.?

Most Commonwealth leaders are attending the summit, although Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pulled out without giving a reason and New Zealand?s John Key is absent.

Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma said the meeting would consider a series of proposals, including establishing an independent commissioner to monitor human rights.

In one step that Sharma hailed as progress, the Commonwealth agreed on Friday to procedures that would allow the bloc to intervene or engage earlier with governments in danger of violating human rights and the rule of law.

Other issues set to be discussed are the laws in many Commonwealth countries that criminalise homosexual sex and the prevalence of forced marriages of young girls.

The summit is being held amid heavy security with the centre of Perth in virtual lockdown to deter potential terrorist threats and limit any protests by those wanting to emulate the global ?Occupy? movement.

About 1,500 people marched in solidarity with the Occupy movement against corporate greed and the growing rich-poor divide, but it passed off peacefully.

Police have been given special powers to deal with any protests and can search people at will and ban known activists from entering special zones. ?AFP

Source: daily-sun.com

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High transit fees will put off Indians

New Delhi will accept the fees Dhaka fixes for providing transit but Indian businessmen may feel discouraged if the rate is too high, said outgoing Indian High Commi-ssioner Rajeet Mitter on Friday.

He also told a select group of journalists that the agreement on sharing Teesta waters should be fair, equitable and acceptable to all stakeholders in the two countries.

?Progress in India cannot be separated from progress in Bangladesh. The two neighbours must progress together,? Mitter said, reiterating the focus of Indian foreign policy on Bangladesh.

The career diplomat, who is set to retire on completion of his Dhaka assignment since December 2009, appreciated the role of Awami League government in bringing a thaw in Indo-Bangladesh relations in the past two years but insisted that the relations must continue beyond any regime.

Dwelling on the contentious issue of transit, Mitter pointed out that nothing would be sustainable unless it is beneficial to both the parties.

?India will be benefited from connectivity and new business opportunities like transport services will also open for Bangladesh,? he said, adding that northeast India would remain a hinterland of Bangladesh.

The high commissioner emphasised that Bangladesh?s unique geographical location has made it the focal point of transit to neighbouring countries including Bhutan, Nepal and China.

?We are ready to pay transit fees and we are already paying for water transit. As it is the businessmen who will use the facilities at the end of the day, I think the rate should not be too high and its structure should be consistent,? he said.

The diplomat explained that the water transit remained operational in line with inland water trade and transit protocol of 1972 and that the recent shipment of Indian consignments through Ashuganj in Bangladesh was an addition to the earlier deal.

Asked about the barriers to a possible deal on Teesta water sharing, Mitter said there are a number of factors and the two governments are trying to sort them out before signing an agreement which should be ?fair, equitable and acceptable to all stakeholders?.

He declined to comment on Paschimbanga Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee?s comments on the confusions reported by the press centring her role in Teesta talks.

But he said the issue should not overshadow the progress made during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh?s recent visit to Dhaka.

The high commissioner mentioned that Bangladesh?s exports to India increased 68 percent in the past financial year and it would grow further after Manmohan?s announcement allowing duty-free access of goods from Bangladesh to the Indian market.

Asked if Delhi would seek extradition of insurgent leader Anup Chetia, who is now in custody of Bangladesh government, Mitter did not go into individual case but said the two countries joined hands in combating terrorism along the border and such efforts would continue.

In his last appearance before the Bangladesh media, the high commissioner touched on a wide range of bilateral issues from cooperation in power trade to progress in India?s $1 billion credit line for Bangladesh, to scholarship for Bangladeshi students and exchange of programmes in cultural arena.

Asked how he tackled the nightmarish situation after Manmohan Singh?s statement that 25 percent Bangladeshis are anti-Indians, Mitter remained evasive, saying the issue is over.

?India and Bangladesh must work together,? he said, appreciating the generosity and warm hospitality and beauty of rural Bangladesh as Sonar Bangla.

Source: daily-sun.com

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Army kept out of NCC polls

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
A road in Kalibazar, Narayanganj, is awash with posters of different candidates. Campaigning for the maiden Narayanganj City Corporation election concluded at midnight ahead of polling on Sunday. syed zakir hosainElection Commission is yet to deploy army personnel in Narayanganj City Corporation elections much to the frustration of Awami League rebel candidate Dr Selina Hayat Ivy and BNP-backed Taimur Alam Khandkar.

Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamshul Huda has already said the commission failed to deploy the army due to non-cooperation from the government.

Meanwhile, the main opposition BNP at an emergency press briefing on Friday demanded resignation of the election commissioners for their failure to deploy army in the polls.

The party even hinted at withdrawal of its candidate from the polls race.

?The government is hatching a conspiracy to ensure victory for AL-backed candidate Shamim Osman through vote rigging,? Abdullah Al Noman, vice-chairmen of BNP told reporters at the party?s Naya Paltan headquarters.

?The government didn?t pay heed to our request,? the CEC told waiting journalists at his secretariat in the city after an emergency meeting on Friday evening.

Four companies of the army were supposed to be posted in the election areas for five days from 6:00am on Friday to midnight of 1 November, according to the commission?s earlier decision.

Former Narayanganj municipality mayor Dr Selina Hayat Ivy and opposition BNP-backed Taimur Alam Khandkar expressed their deep concern over non-deployment of the army and feared vote rigging and even direct manipulation of election results.

They feared that the army had not been deployed only to help ruling AL-backed AKM Shamim Osman win the electoral race.

The commission, in a letter, requested the government to deploy the army during the polls. ?As the government has not yet replied, it is clear that army would not be deployed,? said Huda.

In her reaction to the EC?s announcement, Dr Selina Hayat Ivy told reporters at his residence that the army had not been deployed to rig the election.

?It is high time the EC took stern measures to prove its neutrality,? she said reminding the EC about its earlier assurance that it will deploy the army.

In view of the situation, the CEC told the media that the commission has two options now ? it can either suspend the elections or take help from other law enforcing agencies to hold the voting.

He, however, said that the commission would have to hold the NCC elections within 180 days as per law and that is why there is no alternative to holding the elections in due time.

He said they requested the director general of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) to deploy at least 100 Rab personnel to keep order during the elections.

?But we still do not know if we will get additional Rab personnel,? Huda added.

When asked if the government violated the constitution by ignoring the EC demand, the CEC said as per the constitution ?it does mean so?.

The commission is supposed to receive from the government all necessary cooperation inclusive of deployment of members of different law enforcing agencies to ensure free, fair and impartial elections, he said.

He, however, still hopeful that people of Narayanganj could exercise their franchise as still a congenial atmosphere is prevailing in the city ahead of the elections.

Asked whether she would contest the poll in absence of the army, Ivy said: ?People will act as my ?army?. I will not leave the battlefield.?

Sammolita Nagorik Parishad, a platform of common people formed to back Ivy a few days ago, urged the government to deploy the army in the polls.

At a press briefing held at Ivy?s residence parishad member and president of the AL town unit Anwar Hossain said that they believe EC will take necessary steps to deploy army. If it fails to do so its role will be questioned.

In the evening, Taimur told daily sun, ?The government scrapped the decision of the army deployment as it wants to hold the election as per the government blueprint. But I won?t quit.?

In a press release Taimur asked the voters not to pay heed to rumour that he pulled himself out of the race.

?No one, except death, can pull me out of the poll race,? he said.

Earlier, Taimur called on Returning Officer Biswas Lutfar Rahman at 12.30pm and expressed his concern over non-deployment of army. ?Without the army a fair election is impossible,? Taimur told journalists emerging out of the returning officer?s room.

Talking to daily sun many voters said they feared poll violence and vote rigging without deployment of the army.

Meanwhile, Narayanganj unit of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) brought out a procession from Number- 2 Railgate area demanding immediate resignation of the chief election commissioner following its decision not to deploy the army but law enforcers dispersed the procession.

Source: daily-sun.com

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Bangladesh�s FY12 growth doubtful: WB

The World Bank has described insecure Bangladesh?s projection of 7 percent of GDP in the current financial year.

?Bangladesh its recent upward trend in growth grew by 6.7 percent in FY11, still, ?, the world says published Bank?s latest semi-annual economic update to Bangladesh Tuesday.

?The short-term economic outlook for Bangladesh depend on global economic situation as well as on national policies and administration. In view of growing external and domestic politics, which remains growth prospects in the FY12 are insecure, ?.

The WB statement contradicts with Finance Minister AMA Muhith?s observation, that the country in the current fiscal year reach its annual growth target of 7 percent, only 0.3 percentage points higher than the growth in FY2010-11.

?The projected growth is not ambitious, ? Muhith had told reporters on Sunday. ?Despite problems in balance of payment and high inflation, the target is achievable. ?

But decline of remittances, high inflation, exceeded the monetary goals said the World Bank, weaknesses in the financial sector, growing external imbalances, growing budget deficit and composition of the financing of the deficit remain problem areas.

Officials worry about finances, that the WB observation more the Government can irritate the quotas of the Padma multipurpose bridge still a solid relationship with the WB a persistent problem is facing.

The WB has its promised $1.2 billion-loan allegations of corruption against Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain suspended the bidding process.

In its observation has the WB pointed out that a continued slowdown in the global economy might affect Bangladesh across multiple channels.

?IT may affect Bangladesh?s of payments through their impact on exports and transfers, pressure on the exchange rate and economic uncertainty, the weaknesses could, increase investment and growth, ?, which says it.

?Bangladesh has limited scope for a second global slowdown cushion, if it happens, said Sanjay Kathuria ? WB lead country Economist for Bangladesh.

?Rapid growth and subsidies, continued strong growth of credit to the private sector and Monetary financing of budget deficits led to the decline of the manoeuvrability. ?

WB Senior Economist for Bangladesh said Zahid Hussain, ?Improved fiscal and monetary discipline, combined with their efforts to address energy and infrastructure deficits are crucial to the growth performance. ? to get

Lalita Moorty, Senior Economist for Bangladesh in Washington added: ?It are for Bangladesh to ensure, as macroeconomics might expansive policies sound macroeconomic management risks increase on the current account and inflation make ? management more difficult.

Bangladesh is already reeling under high inflation, who suffer to fixed and low income groups was 12 percent in September?highest in the last Decade?causing.

The World Bank has found that lower international commodity prices, particularly oil and food prices, would work in favour of the Bangladesh?s.

Source: daily-sun.com

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Govt plans 2. Padma bridge with Supplier�s credit

The Government has decided that create second bridge over the River Padma in foreign Supplier?s assets due to lack of local resources.

The construction of the second was Padma bridge at a recent meeting of the Ministry of communication with communication Minister Syed Abdul Hussain Presidency decided. The Finance Ministry, which previously shared with, that the Government not in a position, the viability gap funding under a public private partnership (PPP) initiative to provide.

Earlier, the Government, the second Padma decided bridge under a PPP initiative in a crunch in foreign financing.

The second 6.10-km long Padma bridge Paturia time is estimated cost of TK 131.21 billion communication a large part of the population of the Country?s-South and South-Western region facilitate constructed are. People in eleven Bezirke--Meherpur, Chuadanga, Kushtia, Jhenidah, Magura, Rajbari, Faridpur, Narail, Gopalganj, Jessore and Madaripur be Padma was called the benefit from the second bridge draw.

The proposal of the Division's bridge under the Ministry of communications for the construction of the second bridge over the Padma are placed before the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs of the Bangladesh Secretariat on Thursday. Finance Minister AMA Muhith will result in the Chair of the meeting. Communication Minister Syed Abul Hussain told Daily Sun on Tuesday that the Ministry of construction of the second Padma bridge would all measures after the signing of the agreement for the first despite claims of corruption.

?Construction second Padma bridge will be financed by a foreign country by Supplier?s credit under Deign built and operation method, ?, he added.

He however turned down an opinion on a question if it was possible, to implement such a large project as allegation of corruption, the implementation of the first was moved.

Former adviser last transitional Government Dr Akbar Ali said every day so that the construction of the first Padma bridge caused by the World Bank has been hampered by the graft allegation.

He also said that communication Minister Syed Abul Hussain not over the claim which is corruption first bridge has bothered about that, as a result there is a possibility of graft in the second.

?Supplier?s loan from a foreign country ? created a serious financial pressure on the Government in the future, he added. An official of the Ministry of finance said that the proposal for the second Padma bridge was a little surprising how came it credit on the allegation of corruption was still not sure about the mobilization of sufficient funds for the first due to the suspension of the WB?s $1.2 billion at a time when the Government.

According to the proposal of the second bridge of Padma takes place through an international tender among the design built and operate method. In the design-built method construction company of Supplier?s credit, technology and know-how for the construction of the bridge takes place. After the construction the law the Government pays to the construction company by toll bridge.

In the meantime, interests of the Supplier?s are credit between 3 and 9 percent, and the contractor delivers expertise and technology. But the interest on loans by the World Bank and IMF is between 1.5 and 3 percent.

Before the Cabinet on 19 February 2010 approved a proposal of the Ministry of communication for construction of the second Padma bridge on Paturia point at estimated cost of TK 131.21 billion with full private sector financing.

Two years ago the project proposal for the second bridge at Patura-Goalunda was with the planning Ministry for a green signal point estimated cost of TK 131.21 billion.

In 2009 the Economic Relations Division took responsibility for mobilising the Fund for the project Bank, Japanese and Chinese Governments, no initiative to do the work transferred by donors, including the World Bank, Asian development.

A communications Ministry official said that the Awami League Government has taken the project to build the second Padma bridge, as it is his top campaign promises.

The official said that Ministry is completing the details of the project on the second bridge by the end of this year and can begin the construction work during the current term of the Government.

Source: daily-sun.com

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Call for the criminal to catch, detect illegal

Poster flood parts of the Narayanganj on Tuesday, as the Candidates? campaign before the City Corporation election Dynamics collects. (Small photo) BNP blessed mayor hopeful that Taimur Alam Khan Dacian seeks votes in Chasara. Sun photo countdown Wahl Narayan Ganj City Corporation has started, but not remarkable drive against local thugs and illegal weapons still in sight.

Bring a claim, BNP-backed mayor hopeful, that demanded Taimur Alam Khandkar on Tuesday combed car against criminal and illegal.

In the election campaign in Killarpul area called district Taimur, also President of BNP unit, said, ?We that the Electoral Commission combing car against criminals. ? start

?Votes with the power of black money in the night, ? bought, the he said.

Taimur also demanded that the Justice makes to the armed forces be given, provided on 28 October for five days.

SM Akram, convener of the district unit of Awami League and also near another Ivy, daily Sun candidate Selina Hayat said no remarkable drive against criminal and illegal weapons despite EC?s assurance displayed.

He however distinguished himself with Taimur, say ?I Don?t think that the army Magistracy power should be given. But the army should be established to ensure a voter friendly atmosphere polling. ?

Akram said that BNP Leaders? choice to the Taimur pace, cover, may be a slide in Ivy?s popularity. But they will eventually win in the Amtsjahres.

The claim of 1,000 fake votes, that of Ivy, also the former Mayor of today not Narayanganj municipality, per a checkpoint report published on Tuesday, as was proven wrong, said Farhad Hossain, official election.

Valid in the Chanmari of the city, as they were able to show their national ID cards and birth registration certificates, he added the probe team of found ?alleged? voters.

The official went on to say, that it's not for slum voters operation number to mention.

On Sunday, Ivy, the claim of fake votes in a view Exchange meeting between Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda and the candidates raised.

Ivy pass a list of fake voters the CEC at the meeting in Shaheed Zia Hall place.

Meanwhile various areas of the city and voices for an other pioneer Shamim Osman looked visited a number of AL heavyweights.

Former footballer Hasan Arif Khan joy, Nazrul Islam Khan, Rezaul Karim Voges and Badal Ray and cricketer Shahriar Hossain Bidyut, among other things, sought votes for former lawmaker Shamim Osman.

Kazi Zafarullah, Abul Hasnat Abdullah, Bahauddin Nasim, Mrinal Kanti DAS, sujit Roy Nandi and Pankaj Devnath of visited Tanbazar, Mina Bazar, Dalpati, Nitaiganj, Nimtala and DIT areas vote for Shamim to search.

Legislators approve the election symbol of Shamim, Sanjita Khanam and Afroze only, as well as central as former and incumbent Chhatra League leaders in the campaign for ?wall Clock?.

The three mayoral pioneer days are occupied only four days before the vote passed.

Source: daily-sun.com

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Windies survive sunny exploits

Host Bangladesh were cursing the weather as the rain-soaked first test against the draw ended West Indies in the Chittagong?s Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium on Tuesday. The game that had a two-day hiatus due to wet outfield was marked by the Tigers until the end of the day but Mushfiq?s draw had to be content five, young with a.

Earlier in the morning not Windies batsmen of Marlon Samuels and Carlton Baugh who use decent score of day four they were sent early in the Pavilion.

The Calypso could lost all its wickets in the first session of the day and only 100 their day Four?s a total of 144.

Elias sunny was the first shot, when Samuels played a suicidal, give a simple catch at short cover to Raqibul to find Hasan before 24.

Windies skipper Darren Sammy then joined Baugh and built a 60-run partnership, but sunny uprooted then Baugh?s stumps, could manage a decent 30.

Sunny grabbed six wickets on the fourth Bangladesh to at least five wickets on his debut, which emulates like former national skipper Naimur Rahman Durjoy, Manjurul Islam and current national Vice Captain Mahmudullah. ALLROUNDER Shakib al Hasan then sent Ravi Rampaul, Sammy and Devendra Bishoo of the Pavilion in quick succession, d. h. that the Tiger had a lead of 106 runs before opening the second innings.

Opener of Imrul Kayes only 13 in the second innings, but Tamim?s 37 and a half a century by Shahriar Nafees Bangladesh, which set a target of 226 visitors, after the Declaration of the innings to 119.

It was declared the first time Bangladesh in both the innings in a test match.

Had that Bangladesh Bowl out the West Indies side in the remaining 37 overs of the day, but the game was perhaps meant a tie end.

Sunny and Shakib sparked some hope collection opener Brathwaite and Simmons early, but Krik Edwards (28 not runs out), and Darren Bravo (24 not runs out).

Simmons has made 44 just 49 balls, hit five boundaries and a big six.

Debutant Iliad was sunny the man of the match for his seven - wicket haul considers.

The second test begins at the SBNS in Dhaka on 29 October.

Source: daily-sun.com

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Dhaka seeks help for climate battle

Berlin: Bangladesh and Germany agreed on Tuesday to explore more bilateral trade and cooperation in the fields of sustainable development, climate change, health and social security program.

The two countries agreed to strengthen their today's excellent bilateral relations to a new level and work together on various regional and international issues of common interests for mutual benefits.

The agreement was in negotiations between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel in the official residence of the Chancellor here.

In a joint press conference after the talks said Hasina and Markel, that she have a very open, thorough and fruitful debate on various issues of mutual interests and regional and international issues of common interest.

Markel said Germany very good relations with Bangladesh. She acknowledged the first-class Minister?s role in the development of regional cooperation and connectivity in South Asia, in particular India, Pakistan and Myanmar.

The Prime Minister said, ?I?m, return happy promises my people and cooperation for bilateral, regional and international cooperation. with many a great leader and renewed commitment to the promotion of ?

?The visit is a milestone in our existing relationships, ?, she said.

Bangladesh Prime Minister was received by Chancellor Merkel, when she, firm arrived.

Hasina was a red carpet reception as an intelligent turned from contingent of the German Empire it provided an honor guard given. National anthems of both countries were played at this time.

The Prime Minister introduced their cabinet colleague Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni and Minister of Health Dr. AFM Ruhal Haque of the Chancellor.

Hasina, WSSD, came up with a five day official visit to Berlin on health of the opportunity, with the Chancellor, one of the largest trading partner and a major development partner of Bangladesh in order taken.

In their discussion, the State and their admiration for each other Government reciprocated and together their worry and visions of various regional and global matters, including the fight against terrorism and climate change.

Bangladesh Prime Minister calls for still existing German economic cooperation with Bangladesh and improve German support in sustainable development projects.

The Chancellor has the Prime Minister its quality assurance program and infrastructure development offer the best collaboration in Bangladesh?s economic development.

Their you Markel for the signing of two joint declarations to facilitate ? one for cooperation in the field of health and the other for climate change extended Hasina.

She asked also to more investment and technology support in the renewable energy and infrastructure-building sector in Bangladesh.

The Prime Minister conveyed the Chancellor deep admiration of the people in Bangladesh for their creative role in the management of the Affairs of Germany and European issues at this moment of the global economic crisis.

Chancellor Merkel invited Hasina, at a convenient time to visit Bangladesh, they gladly accepted that.

Germany entrusted to the meantime Tuesday EUR 10.9 million as a grant to adaptation and mitigation programmes in Bangladesh against the hostile effects of climate change to implement.

The promise of Federal Minister for economic cooperation and development Dirk niebel was while signing a memorandum of understanding on ?Cooperation in the area of adaptation and reduction of Climate Change? at the Hotel Adlon Kempinski.

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni and Federal Minister for economic cooperation and development Dirk niebel signed a statement on behalf of the respective countries.

Also, the two countries concluded an another memorandum of understanding on ?Cooperation in the field of Health?.

Health Minister AFM Ruhal Haque and Parliamentary Secretary for health, Annette Widmann-Mauz signed letter for their respective countries.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina witnessed the signing of the two documents.

Ambassador at large M Ziya, Principal Secretary Sheikh wahed uz Zaman, PM?s spokesman Abul Kalam Azad and Bangladesh Ambassador to Germany Mosud Mannan, German Ambassador to Bangladesh Holger Michael and other high officials of the German Government were present. ?BSS, TREO

Source: daily-sun.com

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Tk 6bn ADP cut likely to keep budget deficit within 5pc

Tk 6bn ADP cut likely to keep budget deficit within 5pcEnsure disbursement of WB fund, Muhith tells coordination council? Asif ShowkatThe fiscal coordination council on Monday asked the Economic Relation Division and other authorities to ensure disbursement of World Bank and other donors? funds with timely implementation of schemes, apart from the Padma Bridge project.

The decision was taken at the coordination council meeting at the Secretariat with Finance Minister AMA Muhith in the chair.

Besides, the officials of Planning Commission were informed that the government might slash the Annual Development Programme (ADP) to Tk 40 billion from existing Tk 46 billion to maintain five percent budget deficit as well as to reduce pressure on the budget.

Meeting sources informed that the finance minister had requested the Prime Minister?s Economic Affairs Adviser Dr Moshiur Rahman to coordinate the matter to ensure timely disbursement of funds for WB-aided projects.

The minister also said that due to suspension of fund for the Padma Bridge by WB, disbursement of funding for other development schemes aided by international lender will be hampered.

Meeting sources said Mashiur Rahman mentioned that the Ministry of Planning has already been informed that the ADP might be reduced by Tk 6 billion due to fall in disbursement of foreign assistance.

The finance minister also asked the authority of the Bangladesh Institution of Development Studies (BIDS) to conduct a study on the impact of recent inflation on common people?s life.

On a point-to-point basis, the overall inflation increased to 11.97 percent in September, 2011 from 11.29 percent a month ago, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.

Muhith also asked the Bangladesh Bank representative to prepare recommendations on an alternative to bank borrowing as the government has borrowed a large sum of money from the country?s internal sources. The central bank has warned of a ?crowding-out effect? on the private sector as the government borrowing from the banking system is on the rise.

The government borrowed Tk 9.5 billion fresh money from the central bank till 10 October and it will have an inflationary effect as soon as it lands in the market.

The meeting also urged the authorities concerned to concentrate on setting up coal-based power plants instead of furnace oil-based rental power plants as the second one is very expensive compared to the first one.

According to the central bank?s letter of credit (LC) settlement statistics, import of petroleum surged by 151 percent in the July-August period of the current fiscal year compared to that of the same period of last year.

The government will import 940,000 tonnes of petroleum products at a cost of Tk 66.07 billion mainly to meet the rising demand of diesel and furnace oil-based power plants.

The cost of per barrel furnace stands at US$650 on an average in the international market at present.

The finance minister further asked the Bangladesh Bank to conduct a thorough study on the shortfall of the country?s exports in September.

Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) will also prepare a paper on exporters? incentive and quest for new export markets, meeting sources said.

Exports grew 2.29 percent in September ? the lowest in nine months this year ? due to a financial crisis in Europe and its impact on the local business.

Forex earnings in the month were $1.44 billion, according to the latest data provided by the EPB last week.

Moshiur Rahman, Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman and Finance Secretary Mohammad Tareq attended the meeting.

Source: daily-sun.com

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Bosses on the run but crime empires intact

Bosses on the run but crime empires intactExchanging criminals? lists is a ritual which serves little purpose? Sontosh MondolTop mafia bosses who fled to India during the army-backed caretaker government are running crime syndicates in Dhaka and elsewhere with the help of trusted lieutenants, say officials monitoring Bangladesh?s most wanted men.

As many as 56 out of 78 fugitives are based either in Kolkata or along the Indo-Bangladesh border from where they direct accomplices engaged in extortion, kidnapping and protection rackets.

The biggest operational tool in their hands is the humble cellphone. Without it they wouldn?t know what to do.

The crime bosses escaped to India when law enforces came down hard on them with the help of army soldiers during the caretaker regime before the Awami League-led government captured power.

Bangladesh and India have exchanged several lists of criminals hiding across the border. The last exchange took place in September during a top level Border Guard Bangladesh-Border Security Force conference in Dhaka.

But it?s business as usual with the two sides accusing one another of not giving priority to nabbing and deporting fugitives essential for busting well-oiled crime operations whose turnover runs into billions of Takas.

Intelligence sources said top Bangladeshi criminals are staying in Bongaon, Bohorampur, Helacha, Bagdah, Chagdah, Murshidabad, Jalpaiguri and Siliguri and other bordering areas of Paschimbanga and continue to commit crimes, including extortions, with the help of their cronies. Bandit king Shahid of Old Dhaka and Shahadat, Nabi Hossain and Subrata Bain who held sway over various parts of the capital escaped to India soon after combing operations were launched.

An official of the police headquarters said close accomplices of the fugitives, using Indian mobile phones, are engaged in collecting tolls from the rich, particularly businessmen.

They demand huge sums of money from rich people as toll and force them to pay sometimes at gunpoint, he added.

According to a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) source, six suspected criminals, accused of killing two DB men, are residing across the borderlines of Paschimbanga and in Nepal.

Of them, five ? Tanvirul Islam Joy, Haris Ahmed alias Haris, Molla Masud, Khorshed and Jishan ? are staying in Paschimbanga while the other, Trimurti Subrata Bain, is in Nepal.

According to the list, top criminals Tanvir Islam, Prokash Kumar Biswas and Molla Masud are hiding in India, Aminur Rasul Sagar alias Tokai Sagar in the USA and Imam Hossain in Canada.

Sources said Indian police handed over a total of five listed criminals of Bangladesh, including a close aide of notorious criminal Kala Jahangir, to CID.

They are Habibur Rahman Taj, 29, Ibrahim, 31, and Selim alias Lambu Selim, 35.

Police said Taj, second-in-command of Kala Jahangir, had been hiding in India under the alias ?Naimul Hasan? with Ibrahim and Selim under the aliases ?Sohel Ibrahim? and ?Biplob?.

Taj and Selim were arrested in Kolkata in March 2007 while Ibrahim in August on charges of illegal intrusion into India and were sent to jail.

Kolkata police planned to deport them to Bangladesh after their jail terms, but there is no extradition treaty between the two countries.

Home ministry sources said the criminals were later handed over to Bangladesh following a request from the authorities concerned.

Police sources said the arrestees are also infamous, although their names were not included in the list of 23 top criminals declared by the then government on December 27, 2001 in the wake of a slide in law and order.

A home ministry official said the list handed over to BSF comprised some top criminals and members of United People?s Democratic Front of the CHT region.

?Our list contained the names of those who are wanted by the law enforcement and intelligence agencies. It was prepared in association with the law enforcers,? the top official of police HQ added.

Sources said the BGB list comprised the names of 12 top criminals and 13 UPDF members while the BSF list included the leaders and activists of different separatist groups active in some Indian states.

Source: daily-sun.com

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279 dead in Turkey and counting

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Relatives of victims mourn near their house as rescuers search for survivors in a collapsed building after an earthquake in the Ercis province of Van, in eastern Turkey, on Monday. afp photoErcis: Rescuers scrambled through the rubble in a desperate search on Monday for survivors of an earthquake that killed at least 265 people in Turkey as residents fled the scenes of carnage.

People living in eastern Van province issued cries for help on Twitter, giving out the addresses of collapsed buildings and the number of people trapped under the debris, as hundreds of rescuers worked round the clock.

Two children were plucked alive from the wreckage of a collapsed building in the town of Ercis but it was a rare slice of good news in an otherwise grim task for the rescue teams.

Many students were believed to be buried in Ercis, the town which felt the full brunt of the quake, after a dormitory collapsed and several student houses crumbled.

A total of 265 people were confirmed to have been killed by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake which struck around lunchtime on Sunday, according to Idris Naim Sener, the country?s interior minister.

The government said that a total of 970 buildings had collapsed as a result of the quake and aftershocks.

One resident of Ercis recounted the moment when disaster struck and how many had been forced to sleep outside overnight in freezing temperatures.

?We couldn?t understand what was going on ? all of a sudden there was dust everywhere, our eyes were full of dust, and we were thrown against the walls and furniture. It lasted 20 seconds,? said 23-year-old Yunus Ozmen. ?We spent the night outside in the street and made a fire to keep warm.?

His neighbour Abdul Hadi Isik said that his aunt and her children were buried under the rubble.

?There is no hope left,? he added.

AFP journalists in Ercis reported that the rescue effort was being hampered by a lack of electricity and water.

Many of the town?s residents were fleeing the town while police and soldiers kept watching around crumbled buildings to prevent looting.

While scores of multi-storey buildings had collapsed, most single-storey houses remained intact.

?As the number of storeys increase, the performance of buildings decrease, combined with lack of quality in materials and construction skills,? Professor Ahmet Yakut told NTV.

In the province?s main city of Van, authorities shut down Yuzunci Yil University and sent more than 4,000 students back to their home towns, the Anatolia news agency said.

Some 200 inmates fled the province?s main prison when the building was damaged in the quake, media reports said, adding that 50 of them returned to prison later after seeing their families.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rushed on Sunday to Van, a mainly Kurdish-populated region.

Turkey mobilised some 2,400 search and rescue teams from 45 cities as well as 108 ambulances, including sefven air ambulances to speed to the aid of the victims, the emergency unit of the prime ministry said.

A search and rescue team of around 650 people was working in Ercis, while another 300 people were in Van city center, Anatolia said.

The military said six battalions were also involved in search and rescue efforts.

Six helicopters, including four helicopter ambulances, as well as C-130 military cargo planes were dispatched to the area carrying tents, food and medicine.

Officials distributed water, biscuits and milk to Ercis survivors, who spent the night outside collapsed houses where many of their relatives remained trapped.

The Turkish Red Crescent sent some 7,500 tents, more than 22,000 blankets, almost 4,000 heaters and 1,000 body bags to the region, Anatolia said.

A mobile bakery and 21 mobile kitchens were also sent to Van, it added. Officials started to erect a tent city in Ercis stadium, the organisation said on its website.

US President Barack Obama said he had been following reports of the disaster ?with great concern? and offered his condolences and help to the victims.

The quake was also felt across the border in northwestern Iran, causing some panic in major cities, Iranian media reported. They did not report any deaths or serious damage.

Iran has sent 20 rescuers, 20 ambulances, a field hospital, food supplies and 50 tents for emergency shelter to Van, which lies just over the border with Iran,

In 1999, two strong quakes in northwest Turkey?s heavily populated and industrialised regions left some 20,000 dead. A powerful earthquake in the town of Caldiran in Van province killed 3,840 people in 1976. ?AFP

Source: daily-sun.com

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Come tap our liberal FDI policy, Hasina urges wealthy Germans

Berlin: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday sought German investment from both public and private sectors in pharmaceuticals, tourism, manufacturing, ICT, ceramics and renewable energy projects.

?There is also a huge potential for joint ventures in Bangladesh. We invite you to take advantage of the opportunities we have offered. We are eager to work in partnership with you for mutual gains and benefits,? she said at a seminar on trade and investment on the sidelines of the World Health Summit 2011 here.

Hasina has invited German entrepreneurs to cash in on investment opportunities in Bangladesh, declaring that her country has the most liberal foreign direct investment (FDI) regime in South Asia.

?Bangladesh allows the foreign investors for repatriation of hundred percent of their profits and equity. We are eager to work in partnership with you for mutual gains and benefits as we journey to the future,? she told a seminar on Monday.

Representatives of leading German companies including Macuanji GIZ, Commerce Bank, DHL, Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, Solar World AG, Federal Foreign Office of Germany and local parliament members attended the seminar on ?Bangladesh-Emerging Market? organised by German Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce at Hotel Adlon.

Hasina said, ?Come to Bangladesh and help us build ?Sonar Bangla? (Golden Bangladesh), a land of prosperous and happy people.?

She highlighted the business opportunities offered in Bangladesh for foreign investors and said Bangladesh has always relied on Germany as a trusted development and trading partner.

The two countries enjoy the best of relations based on shared values, she said.

German Ambassador to Bangladesh Hogler Michael gave the welcome speech while president of Bangladesh-German Chamber of Commerce and Industries (BGCCI) Saiful Islam made opening remarks.

Partner of McKinsey & Company Dr Achim Berg presented a case study report on readymade garments (RMG) industries while Chief Executive of PICARD Germany Thomas Picard spoke on leather industry investments in Bangladesh.

Deputy chief executive officer and MD of International Economic Affairs of German Chamber Federation (DIHK) Dr Volker Treiers, and president of Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry AK Azad, and Bangladesh Ambassador in Germany Mosud Mannan, spoke, among others, on the occasion.

The presentation was followed by a panel discussion in presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and moderated by editor of the Daily Star of Bangladesh Mahfuz Anam.

Touching upon Bangladesh?s economic success over the years, she said, ?Despite global economic downturn, the country during the present government?s tenure could maintain an average 6 percent GDP growth. Last year, the GDP growth was 6.7 percent.?

Bangladesh?s next Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) has been designed with the goal of achieving an average growth of around 8 percent, she said.

The Prime Minister also mentioned about export growth, increase of the remittance flow and said that Bangladesh in recent years has made vast advancement in manufacturing, infrastructure, human resource development, banking and corporate sectors.

?Our macroeconomic fundamentals are solid and we are socio-economically a stable country with a domestic market of 150 million people,? she said.

Referring to Bangladesh?s geographical location, Sheikh Hasina said the country bordering with India and close to China, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, and South East Asia, might be a natural regional hub at the heart of an economic area of three billion people.

She said the government has taken steps for corporate tax holidays, cutting import duty on machinery import, bureaucratic tangle and reducing company setting up times from several months to a day.

Moreover, our Board of Investment (BOI) which deals with the needs of foreign investors is a modern, friendly institution with a ?one stop shop? service, she said.

The Prime Minister chose the occasion to point out that presence of free press, independent judiciary and statutory bodies such as Election Commission, Human Rights Commission and Anti-Corruption Commission, have ensured good governance and the rule of law in Bangladesh.

In this regard, she mentioned about Bangladesh?s ranking by a number of international organisations including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Standard & Poor?s, Moody, UNCTAD, and World Bank for its business and investment worthiness.

Hasina said Bangladesh government has also undertaken infrastructure projects on a massive scale and adopted the public- private-partnership (PPP) policy to facilitate building more robust infrastructures in a short timeframe.

Construction of some highways, Dhaka city monorail, improved rail network, and new power stations are underway, she said, adding that her government added 2200 megawatt power in two years, which shows Bangladesh?s rapid advancement in energy provisions.

She said contracts for 34 new power plants were awarded and by the end of 2013 there will be no more energy shortages in Bangladesh. ?UNB, BSS

Source: daily-sun.com

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New openings for Bangladeshis in post-Gaddafi Libya

New openings for Bangladeshis in post-Gaddafi LibyaReturnees too will get back jobs they abandoned? Rabiul IslamFresh job opportunities await Bangladeshis in Libya as the troubled country will require an army of workers for post-war reconstruction as soon as a democratic government starts functioning.

?We will be in a position to export a huge workforce to Libya after a new government is sworn in?, Expatriates? Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Engineer Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain told daily sun on Monday.

Officials at the ministry added that Bangladeshi workers who were forced to return home from war-torn Libya are likely to get back their jobs in companies which they deserted fearing for their lives.

Libya?s transitional government declared the country liberated on Sunday three days after ousted despot Muammar Gaddafi was captured and killed.

Libya?s acting Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said elections will be held by June next year.

?We have details of all Libya returnees who will be sent back to their respective companies when the employers contact with us,? an official preferring anonymity told daily sun.

The official also said many of the Libya returnees will not require to follow any procedure for going to Libya as they returned home before expiry of their work permit.

Sources at the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), around 37,000 Bangladeshis escaped from Libya as violence escalated.

Earlier, the government declared that the Libya returnees would get priority in getting overseas jobs in future.

The expatriates? welfare minister said the Libya returnees will get priority in getting jobs abroad as they had to return home empty handed.

He also said many companies in Libya want to take back their employees.

But Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) secretary general Ali Haidar Chowdhury warned that workers will have to wait before luck smiles at them again.

It will take at least five months to send Bangladeshi workers in the war-torn Libya after formation of new government there, he added.

Ali Haidar also hoped that Libya will need huge manpower for construction sector.

Following massive allegation of irregularities and mismanagement, Libya had stopped hiring workers from Bangladesh before the war started in the middle of February.

Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL) managing director Mohammad Abdullah said some multi-national companies have already approached BOESL to recruit Bangladeshi workers for Libya.

?I have held talks with Thitti Sianwala, an owner of multi-national company, who wants to recruit 200 workers for a construction firm in Libya,? BOESL MD said.

Source: daily-sun.com

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1,000 feared dead in Turkey quake

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Ankara: An earthquake of 7.3 magnitude rocked eastern Turkey on Sunday, with a seimological institute saying up to 1,000 people could lie dead under the rubble of dozens of collapsed buildings.

Turkey?s strongest earthquake in years struck Van, a large eastern city populated mainly by Kurds.

?Five hundred to 1,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the quake,? Mustafa Erdik, director of the Kandilli seismological institute in Istanbul, told a news conference.

Earlier reports did not mention casualties, but many were feared trapped in collapsed buildings and officials warned they were struggling to assess the extent of the damage.

At least 50 people were taken to hospital in Van, Anatolia news agency said.

?There is serious human and material loss,? said a brief statement from the national disaster body, which is based in the prime minister?s office.

Around 50 buildings have collapsed including a dormitory, officials said.

The most serious damage occurred in Ercis, a district of around 100,000 people, they added.

Television footage showed panicked residents using shovels and other digging tools trying to rescue people trapped under a collapsed eight-storey building in the city centre as nightfall approached.

Most people are expected to spend the night outdoors, with the temperature expected to dip to three degrees Celsius (37 Fahrenheit).

?People are panicked. The telecommunication services have collapsed. We cannot reach anybody,? Van Mayor Bekir Kaya told the NTV television in an initial assessment.

The government is due to send satellite phones to the region, according to media reports. The army will also send search and rescue teams to the area.

Six helicopters, including four ambulance helicopters, as well as C-130 military cargo planes were sent to the area carrying tents, food and medicine.

The US Geological Survey measured the quake at 7.3 magnitude and said an aftershock of 5.6 magnitude had also been registered. The epicentre of the aftershock, which occurred at 1056 GMT, was 19 kilometres (12 miles) northeast of Van.

The depth of the initial quake was 7.2 kilometers (4.5 miles), according to the US seismologists. The depth of the aftershock was 20 kilometers, they added.

The epicentre of the quake, which struck around 1041 GMT, was at Tabanli in Van province, the Kandilli institute said.

The Turkish institute said there were two aftershocks which affected the villages of Ilikaynak and Gedikbulak in particular.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan cancelled his official programme and will visit the quake region on Sunday, NTV said.

The quake damaged Van?s airport, the Anatolia news agency reported, adding however that it did not disrupt the air traffic, quoting civilian aviation authorities.

Van, a city of 380,000 mainly Kurdish inhabitants, is more than 1,200 kilometres from the capital Ankara.

The quake was also felt across the border in northwestern Iran, causing some panic in major cities, Iranian media reported, but without any mention of casualties or damage.

The tremors were strong enough to cause ?scenes of panic among the population of the cities,? according to several Iranian media.

Earthquake-prone Turkey lies atop several fault lines.

In 1999, two strong quakes in the heavily populated and industrialised regions of northwest Turkey left some 20,000 dead.

And a powerful earthquake in the town of Caldiran in Van province killed 3,840 people in 1976. ?AFP

Source: daily-sun.com

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A year of true and impartial journalism

Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, chairman of Bashundhara Group, cuts a cake at the 1st anniversary celebration of daily sun on Sunday. syed zakir hosainThe first anniversary of daily sun, an arm of East West Media Group Limited, will be observed today with a solemn oath to practise free and fair journalism also in the future.

To mark the occasion, a function was organised at the office premises of the premier English daily on Sunday. Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, chairman of Bashundhara Group (BG), cut the anniversary cake at the celebration as the assembled staff clapped enthusiastically.

Prof. Dr Syed Anwar Husain, editor of the daily sun, Imdadul Haq Milon, acting editor of the Kaler Kantho, Alamgir Hossain, editor of banglanews24.com, and Naem Nizam, executive editor of Bangladesh Protidin, graced the occasion.

After cutting a big cake, the BG chief expressed the hope that daily sun will grow daily and raise the standards of journalism the country.

The BG chief Sadvised the management of the daily to create and nurture readers? forums in various educational institutions in Dhaka and elsewhere in Bangladesh to acquaint the younger generation with English journalism.

With smiles on their faces, the daily sun staff who attended the function and heard the Chairman with rapt attention hoped for better days ahead.

Source: daily-sun.com

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Gaddafi was shot dead

 Misrata/ Tripoli/ Cairo: Muammar Gaddafi died from a gunshot wound, a doctor involved in an overnight autopsy on the former Libyan leader?s body told Reuters.

?He died because of a gunshot wound. It is obvious,? the doctor said, giving no details about whether it was from an apparent gunshot wound on the left side of Gaddafi?s head.

?There are still several issues. We have to pass (the report) to the prosecutor general. But everything will be revealed publicly. Nothing will be hidden.?

The autopsy was carried out at a morgue in the city of Misrata, about 200 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli. Local officials said Gaddafi?s body would now be brought back to the cold store at an old market in Misrata where it has been on public display.

?We worked all through the night. We just got done,? said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He did not reveal any of the autopsy?s findings.

The autopsy was carried out at a morgue in the city of Misrata, about 200 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli. Local officials said Gaddafi?s body would now be brought back to the cold store at an old market in Misrata where it has been on public display. Body to be handed to his relatives

Libya?s interim government will hand the body of slain despot Muammar Gadhafi to his relatives after consulting with them on the location of his burial, a senior government advisor said on Sunday.

?The decision has been taken to hand him over to his extended family, because none of his immediate family are present at this moment,? Ahmed Jibril told AFP.

?The NTC (National Transitional Council) are in consultation with his family. It is for his family to decide where Gadhafi will be buried, in consultation with the NTC,? he added.

Jibril, who is an advisor to the new regime?s interim premier Mahmud Jibril, declined to say when the transfer would take place.

Since he was killed on Thursday, as he tried to flee his hometown of Sirte, Gadhafi?s body has been held in a refrigerated chamber outside Misrata, drawing large crowds wanting to view the remains of the despot who ruled Libya with an iron fist for decades.

The NTC has been reticent about plans for his burial, not wishing to see the grave become a rallying point for residual loyalists, and NTC leaders and military officials have indicated that he would be buried in a secret location.

Disquiet has grown internationally over how Gadhafi met his end on Thursday after NTC fighters hauled him out of a culvert where he was hiding following Nato air strikes on the convoy in which he had been trying to flee his falling hometown.

Ceremony begins to declare Libya ?liberated?

A ceremony to declare Libya fully liberated from Moamer Gadhafi?s hardline rule began in the eastern city of Benghazi on Sunday, three days after the ousted despot was captured and killed.

An AFP reporter said the ceremony before thousands of people in Kish Square opened with the singing of the national anthem and the waving of flags, both of which date back to the monarchy which Gadhafi overthrew in a 1969 coup.

Libya?s interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil was during the ceremony to proclaim the oil-rich North African nation ?liberated? of the last vestiges of Gadhafi?s almost 42-year autocratic rule.

Abdel Rahman al-Kabisi, minister of martyrs and the wounded, told the gathering that the event marked ?a great historic moment in beloved Libya?s history.?

?Oh pharaoh of the century, you are now in the bin of history... in a stroke of fate ... you have been thrown into the bin of history. Go to hell,? he thundered.

Clues to Gaddafi?s death concealed from public view

Libyan forces guarding Muammar Gaddafi?s body in a cold storage room let in members of the public to view the deposed leader for a second day on Saturday, but the wounds that may hold the clue to how he died were covered up.

Gaddafi?s body lay on a mattress on the floor of the cold room, as it did on Friday when hundreds of members of the public filed in to see for themselves that the man who ruled Libya for 42 years was dead.

But unlike the previous day, Gaddafi?s body was covered by a blanket that left only his head exposed, hiding the bruises on his torso and scratch marks on his chest that had earlier been visible.

And, crucially, a Reuters reporter who viewed the body said, Gaddafi?s head had been turned to the left. That meant a bullet hole that earlier could be seen on the left side of his face, just in front of his ear, could no longer be seen.

Guards overseeing Gaddafi?s body handed out green surgical masks to dozens of people filing in to take a look because of the stench of rotting flesh filling the room.

The bullet hole in Gaddafi?s head, and the other wounds, could help solve the riddle of whether, as Libya?s new rulers said, he was shot in crossfire in a battle or, as some accounts suggest, he was killed by the fighters who caught him.

A local military commander in the city of Misrata, where the forces which captured him took his body, said ?over-enthusiastic? fighters took matters into their own hands when they came face to face with the man they despise.

?We wanted to keep him alive but the young guys, things went out of control,? he said speaking on condition of anonymity.

Few people in Libya ? where thousands of people, including civilians, were killed by Gaddafi?s forces in the seven-month rebellion ? say they are troubled by the manner of his death.

But if he was indeed killed by his captors, it will cast doubt on the promises by Libya?s new rulers to respect human rights and prevent reprisals. It would also embarrass Western governments which gave their wholehearted backing to the NTC.

Son vows to avenge father?s death

Seif al-Islam, one of the sons of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has vowed to take revenge for his father?s death.

Al-Islam appeared on the Syria-based Alrai TV channel Saturday night with an appeal to his supporters, saying he was alive and staying in Libya and intended to fight to the bitter end against the rebels.

?We are continuing resistance. I am in Libya, I am alive and free and willing to fight to the end and take revenge,? the TV channel loyal to the Gaddafi regime quoted him as saying.

A website of Gaddafi?s supporters earlier posted a statement that Seif al-Islam had been named an heir to the Libyan dictator and charged with the command of forces fighting the rebels. ?AFP, Reuters, IANS

Source: daily-sun.com

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Make medicare affordable by forging global partnership

Berlin: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged the world community to develop global and regional partnership in health technology to ensure greater access to medicine at affordable prices.

?Making health services accessible and affordable is a global challenge? our needs and challenges require matching mobilisation of resources beyond public sources,? she said in a keynote address at the opening session of the 4-day World Health Summit WHS), 2011 that began here on Sunday at the Charit? - Universit?tsmedizin Berlin, Campus Mitte.

The WHS is the annual conference of the M8 Alliance of Academic Health Centres and Medical Universities together with the National Academies.

Dirk Niebel, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany; Detlev Ganten, Co-President World Health Summit; and President-designate WHS 2011 Prof Dr Steve Wesselingh of Monash University, Melbourne also spoke at the opening session..

Mentioning that the Summit?s theme, `Today?s Science - Tomorrow?s Agenda?, as timely, Hasina said there is immense scope to develop collaboration among pharmaceutical companies to enhance quality and scale up production and distribution of drugs.

She stressed the need for extending the flexibilities accorded to the LDCs within the existing Intellectual Property Regime on pharmaceuticals beyond 2015.

The prime minister called for enhancing regulatory capacity to combat medical products of inferior quality, safety and efficacy.

About the importance of preventive medicines, she said that as the world concentrate on cutting-age technology and high-end health products, simple and cost-effective interventions like immunisation must not be forgotten as they can help reduce morbidity and disease burden.

?We can prevent millions of death by making vaccines affordable. Technological breakthrough thus needs to be employed to produce new generation of vaccines.?

About the Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD), Hasina said NCDs cause more mortality and morbidity these days and require greater attention.

She said that unsustainable exploitation of natural endowments, unchecked industrial growth and concomitant pollution, and unplanned urbanisation all played their roles in the growth of heart and lung diseases, hypertension, diabetes, and cancers.

Accident is another major cause of disability and death which together inflict great cost on society and economy, she added.

The Prime Minister deplored that NCD prevention and control have remained a low priority for national and international engagements.

She suggested a greater balance in the global focus between communicable and non-communicable diseases.

?We can no longer ignore increasing genetic disorders like thalassemia. Services and facilities on NCDs both in the public and the private sectors in the developing world are inadequate,? Hasina told the summit.

She called for forging global and regional partnership in health technology and research, capacity building of health personnel, health policy and health infrastructure. ?UNB

Source: daily-sun.com

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Graft, politics killing NU slowly

If a prize is announced for the worst administered university in Bangladesh, National University is sure to bag it.

Gross irregularities, mismanagement, ?session jam? and outdated curricula are threatening the very existence of a university funded by taxpayers? money. At stake is the future of thousands of students.

Countless young men and women who make the mistake of getting admitted to colleges affiliated to NU spend many more years on the campus than they should because examinations are never held on time and results make it to the notice board after ages!

The long delay in holding of examinations and publication of results is hurting students where it hurts most: jobs.

The first-year honours admission procedures will face a major setback this month for acute manpower shortages. The projected annual student intake of the university is 0.35 million. As many as 807 staff and officials, recruited during the tenure of the then BNP-led four-party alliance government, were sacked as per a High Court directive on September 11.

The NU authorities had to witness the same situation during the BNP rule as the officials and staff loyal to the then opposition party ? Awami League ? were sacked or made officers on special duty.

Allegations are there that a section of officials, loyal to the ruling party, are engaged in the leakage of question papers.

The students, who fail

to gain their admissions to the universities of their choices, enrol themselves at NU, the country?s largest higher education providing institution.

But they have to wait year after year to pursue higher education, wasting valuable time. Even, a huge amount of money is spent unnecessarily for a long delay in getting their cherished degrees per year.

?I am sitting for the first-year examinations at the time when I was supposed to enter 3rd year of the honours course. Like me, all the students are facing the same fate,? said Fuad, a Dhaka college student.

When contacted, Prof Serajul Islam Chowdhury said universities should introduce job-oriented subjects to beat the rising rates of unemployment among educated youths.

National University produces a huge number of educated unemployed who lack quality as well, he told daily sun. ?NU needs to be reorganised. It should incorporate market-oriented subjects.?

According to a recent UGC report, both NU and Open University provided a staggering 300,072 degrees among students last year while the other 30 universities provided 48,502 degrees.

Not the session jam only, but outdated curricula, negligence of the authorities and corruption in the administration are leaving thousands of students in an uncertain future.

NU started a three-year pass (degree) course instead of two years in a bid to enhance its competitiveness in the job market, but the extension rather worsened students? sufferings instead of adding any value to the degree for huge time consumption.

Sources said most of the sacked staff were from computer unit and ICT department of the university for their alleged involvement in corruption.

Several hundred students regularly fall prey to the corrupt officials of the university in Gazipur. Without greasing the officials? palms, no work is completed properly, said a student who preferred not to be named.

When contacted, a highly-placed source told insincerity on the part of the university staff is responsible for their failure to hold examinations and publish results in time.

There are also some complexities in the exam and result processes, he said, adding that lack of skilled manpower shortage is also a reason behind session jam.

Lax management, lengthy examination schedules, tremendous pressure on the government press and negligence of a section of teachers and employees also lead to session jam.

NU Pro-VC Prof. Tofail Ahmad Chowdhury said, ?We are trying to address an acute manpower shortage. If necessary, we will take technical support as we are planning to set up a powerful server with latest software.?

Academic as well as administrative activities of six regional centres of the university at six divisional headquarters are in progress, he added.

Source: daily-sun.com

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Boost ties NTC-led Govt: analysts

The Government should immediately provide for measures to strengthen diplomatic relations with the National Transitional Council of Libya that labor export and take it to protect of the interests of the Country?s workers, said political analysts and leader.

?IT the diplomatic is necessary in order to strengthen relations between Bangladesh and Libya?s interim NTC immediately so many countries, such as India and Pakistan immediately takes steps to build good connections with Libya, ? Imtiaz Ahmed, Professor of international relations Department of the University of Dhaka, said daily Sun on Friday.

The area send more workers at Libya soon for the reconstruction of the country destroyed by war will be created, said Imtiaz Ahmed. He also said ?We must vie, with many countries if we Libya. ? workers want to export

Imtiaz Ahmed said ?The Government should take initiatives, can generate qualified workers on different routes, to ? export the necessary labour force in the North African country.

Political analysts also said that the regime of the autocratic Government in Libya had come to an abrupt end, after the death of Muammar al-Gaddafi ruled the country for over 40 years.

Bangladesh, is a democratic country, a step to the consolidation of friendly relations with Libya as an opportunity for the entrenchment of democracy in Libya emerged after the case of the autocratic regime.

?Bangladesh?s-good relations with Libya should further reinforced with the democratic Government now in Libya as Bangladesh already has supported the provisional NTC, said ? CM Safi Sami, former adviser of the interim Government and also a former Foreign Minister.

Syed Abul Hossain, Minister of communication and also the International Affairs Secretary of the Bangladesh Awami League, said every day so that Bangladesh?s, the relations with the Transitional Government in Libya would be strengthened.

?We companies now use steps to friendly relations with the oil-rich country our future labour market, to build what he said ?.

MK Anwar, permanent member of the Bangladesh nationalist party (BNP), said that the killing of the Gaddafi is an example, which indicates that no ruler against public can go.

He also proposed that the ruling Government should take immediate to export good relations with Libyan NTC Government in a bid for labour.

Mohammad Nazrul Islam Miah, Professor of political science, Rajshahi of University of, said: ?There is no way to internal conflicts in Libya now and Bangladesh migrant workers, to remain there to safe. ?

Although the killing of Gaddafi human rights went, he was responsible for its end, which he added.

Nazrul Islam said Bangladesh should keep eyes open to observe the diplomacy and the pattern of the Libyan NTC Government and steps that are based on.

Source: daily-sun.com

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Ivy fears of vote rigging

Narayanganj City Corporation pioneer Selina Hayat Ivy, who is the choice with ?inkpot and Pen? symbol challenge in talking to potential voters election campaign appearance in a zone of the city on Friday. Sun PhotoMayoral candidate Selina Hayat Ivy on Friday said that they of electoral fraud in the first Narayanganj City Corporation, which feared on 30 October.

Ivy claims that MP, Nasim Osman, brother of her opponents Shamim Osman, publicly declared that the election results would announced by 19: 30 on the election day, would lose the local in the Ivy by 5,000 votes.

She claimed that their competitors to refrain from their followers were threatened centres in Siddhirganj to vote. She made the allegations in the course of the election campaigns in various parts of the city.

?When of a local MP has such a speech, it was normal that people would vote rigging fear, ?, they added.

To stop vote rigging, the Election Commission will introduce only electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the nine, 27, wards of the city.

The NCC surveys to monitor more than 500 observers, journalists on Thursday in his Office in the city to Asaduzzaman, Director (public relations) of the Electoral Commission said.

The Commission sources said that no observer is allowed to stay permanently in accordance with in one of the local Government Act.

Two leaders of the ruling Awami League ? Selina Hayat Ivy, also Mayor of Narayanganj municipality was in the City Corporation in 2011 and Shamim Osman ? are former legislators in the mayoral race, local party men split into two groups.

The two candidates with their followers spend hours by the campaigns to search get votes in the busy.

However, Ivy way disproved their intensification apart from the race, and hope that she would win the elections, unless, of course, vote rigging was committed.

In the meantime some AL Central leaders, including Kazi Zafar Ullah, Abul Hasnat Abdullah, and Bahauddin Nasim, is involved in the election campaign their party of supported candidates Shamim Osman and was looking for him to vote.

Both AL heads of State and Government ? Ivy and Shamim ? accompanied go men of their party in the areas of get door to door and sought votes for them.

Only BNP-backed mayoral candidate leads, Taimur Alam Khandkar, together with the party men and his followers also campaigns and hopefully the surveys to eat, how AL supporters now divided into two groups.

Source: daily-sun.com

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NHRC plans Convention on land

The national human rights Commission (NHRC) provides a set of conventions across the country, which soon to end extrajudicial killings law enforcement agencies to keep. The Commission is in the Division to hold conventions and district headquarters in phases with stakeholders and representatives from all walks of life with the motto ?state can not Kill?.

The nationwide program to increase public opinion against the killing of people by State authorities without following normal trial, said Commission Insider. The Commission believes that extrajudicial killings should not be continued through the mechanisms of the State, and this social Red is terminated, must thus to establish in the country.

When the State itself breaks Act, he loses the moral ground to other it and the Commission pressure on the Government to these killings will cease such with insider said.

The Commission also thinks that the extrajudicial killings by the State right in their own hands and the reason for the recent trend Lynch endows people.

NHRC Chairman Professor Mizanur Rahman said Thursday of extrajudicial killings of law and order situation rather it worsens the situation can improve.

?State can not kill. Extra-judicial killing must be stopped in order to establish the rule of law. Judicial system must be more effective and application of existing legislation must be ensured and if necessary laws be changed. This is the only way to ? to create the law of the country, he said.

?Nobody is born as a criminal. A person becomes criminal discrepancy and injustice of the company. Injustice and discrimination must be removed ? root crimes, by the company, he added.

NHRC Chairman further said kill the offender is like killing a patient without any effort to cure his illness, company, and that no educated person can support killings without trial.

One of the most pressing human rights problems of the country is rights by State authorities on behalf of crossfire, Shootout, or encounter, kill the according to the Commission.

A person ? culprit or innocent ? has the right to protection of the right to self-defense. A person punishment in violation of the existing justice system is illegal and a violation of human rights.

Many innocent people are the victims of killings without trial and in many cases State agencies in these killings harass people for personal gains and governing party used these agencies for political gain.

Extra-judicial killing means observed violations of the right, as well as the violation of human rights, the Commissioners Insider.

Source: daily-sun.com

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Training business with Pvt-varsities

Training business at Pvt VarsitiesCampuses missing congenial Atmosphere? Noman Chowdhury and SM-Masum-KhanThe-?campuses?, the most private universities in Dhaka are simple in contrast to an education-friendly environment, as they mean very often some rented floors on a building, which houses many other entities and even markets.

The private University Act provides that a University will have to connect to its own campus on at least 0.4 hectare (1 acre) period of five years of the Foundation. 38 Of the 51 private universities of the country are in vain.

While speaking in daily Sun, urged educators, regulators, to ensure an atmosphere that is appropriate for higher education, where teachers and students to exercise and maintain their intelligence alone.

Most of these universities are scattered to the busiest commercial and areas in the capital, but the

Authorities have made little the situation until recently.

University Grants Commission of Chairman Dr. AK Azad Chowdhury conceded that it happened due to lack of monitoring in the past.

He promised interview with daily Sun, to bring the situation to order within a year.

?The University Grants Commission urged many of these universities to shift its campus in ideal placed immediately, ?, he said.

Vice-Chancellor a University, not named, regrets the current situation of the private universities.

However, he is the ?caged? campus for a reasonable time frame for the transfer.

The universities ensure enough space and playgrounds should authorities on their campus, he added.

Teacher Prof. Serajul Islam Chowdhury said daily Sun, a solid campus in addition to good teachers for the quality of higher education essential.

Psychologist Prof. Mehtab Khanam said that educational environment for study in peace must, as it needs devotion as a religious prayer.

A University enough free space, standard library facility, playgrounds and recreational facilities for students and teachers must have, she said.

Inappropriate campus

The Mohakhali campus is University Darul Ihsan only one floor in a building that once a garment factory accommodated. Restaurants, book readings, and other companies occupy the other floors of the building.

There are only six teachers and 57 students.

Prime University is supposed to open the new branch campus on three floors of a building in Mohakhali. There is also a hairdressers, showrooms and banks.

The Karwan Bazar-campus of the Northern University is an unfinished parking garage building next to the busy VIP Street with heavy sound of vehicles and their horns. In the examination Office Controller?s and section are approved on the first floor, which has two developer companies.

Northern University has four campuses in Dhaka. Two campuses in Rajshahi and Khulna after UGC objection closed.

The VC Prof. Shamsul Haque said that she had laid the foundations for a campus of its own on the Sarabo of the Ashulia August to 13.

Dhaka International University runs academic activities on three rented floors of a building on green road. On the ground floor of the building a company advertising and other business is crowded with a dental clinic, medicine corner, a driving-learn-Schule, a cyber-Caf?. The owner of the building lives with his family on the first floor.

They said section officer of the University Jaynal Abedin soon become its own campus at the Badda.

University of science and technology is located Atish Dipankar also rented floors of a building in a lively district next to green road, with showrooms of furnishings and products in the first floor and even an electric element stores on the third floor.

Victoria University on Panthapath, City University Kemal Ataturk Avenue in Banani, Royal University in Iqbal Tower is nearby, University of South Asia?also in Banani, and with a much smaller than an adjacent high school campus, and South East University?all missing just as hard a suitable environment for education.

Source: daily-sun.com

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Gaddafi was murdered in cold blood.

A grab from a video taken from the mobile phone of a NTC fighter shows the capture of Libya?s strongman Muammar Gaddafi in Sirte on October 20. Gaddafi was brutally murdered in custody after his capture in his hometown by NTC fighters. afpSirte: Dragged from hiding in a drainage pipe, a wounded Muammar Gaddafi raised his hands and begged revolutionary fighters: ?Don?t kill me, my sons.?

?What do you want? Don?t kill me, my sons,? according to Bashagha and Hassan Doua, a fighter who was among those who captured him.

Within an hour, he was dead, but not before jubilant Libyans had vented decades of hatred by pulling the eccentric dictator?s hair and parading his bloodied body on the hood of a truck.

Bashagha said Gaddafi died in the ambulance from wounds suffered during the clashes.

Abdel-Jalil Abdel-Aziz, a doctor who accompanied the body in the ambulance during the 120-mile drive to Misrata, said Gaddafi died from two bullet wounds ? to the head and chest.

Also killed in the city was one of his feared sons, Muatassim, while another son ? one-time heir apparent Seif al-Islam ? was wounded and captured. An AP reporter saw cigarette burns on Muatassim?s body.

Bloody images of Gaddafi?s last moments raised questions over how exactly he died after he was captured wounded, but alive. Video on Arab television stations showed a crowd of fighters shoving and pulling the goateed, balding Gaddafi, with blood splattered on his face and soaking his shirt.

Gaddafi struggled against them, stumbling and shouting as the fighters pushed him onto the hood of a pickup truck. One fighter held him down, pressing on his thigh with a pair of shoes in a show of contempt.

Fighters propped him on the hood as they drove for several moments, apparently to parade him around in victory.

?Keep him alive, keep him alive!? someone shouts. ?We want him alive. We want him alive,? another man shouted before Gaddafi was dragged off the hood, some fighters pulling his hair, toward an ambulance.

Gaddafi then goes out of view and gunshots ring out.

?They captured him alive and while he was being taken away, they beat him and then they killed him,? one senior source in the NTC told Reuters. ?He might have been resisting.?

In what appeared to contradict the events depicted in the video, Libya?s ruling National Transitional Council said Gaddafi was killed when a gunfight broke out after his capture between his supporters and government fighters. He died from a bullet wound to the head, the prime minister said.

The NTC said no order had been given to kill him.

Later footage showed fighters rolling Gaddafi?s lifeless body over on the pavement, stripped to the waist and a pool of blood under his head. His body was then paraded on a car through Misrata, a nearby city that suffered a brutal siege by regime forces during the eight-month civil war that eventually ousted Gaddafi. Crowds in the streets cheered, ?The blood of martyrs will not go in vain.?

Thunderous celebratory gunfire and cries of ?God is great? rang out across Tripoli well past midnight, leaving the smell of sulfur in the air. People wrapped revolutionary flags around toddlers and flashed V for victory signs as they leaned out car windows. Martyrs? Square, the former Green Square from which Gaddafi made many defiant speeches, was packed with revellers.

The day began with revolutionary forces bearing down on the last of Gaddafi?s heavily armed loyalists who in recent days had been squeezed into a block of buildings of about 700 square yards.

A large convoy of vehicles moved out of the buildings, and revolutionary forces moved to intercept it, said Fathi Bashagha, spokesman for the Misrata Military Council, which commanded the fighters who captured him. At 8:30 a.m., Nato warplanes struck the convoy, a hit that stopped it from escaping, according to French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet.

Fighters then clashed with loyalists in the convoy for three hours, with rocket-propelled grenades, anti-aircraft weapons and machine guns. Members of the convoy got out of the vehicles, Bashagha said.

Gaddafi and other supporters fled on foot, with fighters in pursuit, he said. A Gaddafi bodyguard captured as they ran away gave a similar account to Arab TV stations.

Gaddafi and several bodyguards took refuge in a drainage pipe under a highway nearby. After clashes ensued, Gaddafi emerged, telling the fighters outside, ?What do you want? Don?t kill me, my sons,? according to Bashagha and Hassan Doua, a fighter who was among those who captured him.

Bashagha said Gaddafi died in the ambulance from wounds suffered during the clashes. Abdel-Jalil Abdel-Aziz, a doctor who accompanied the body in the ambulance during the 120-mile drive to Misrata, said Gaddafi died from two bullet wounds ? to the head and chest.

A government account of Gaddafi?s death said he was captured unharmed and later was mortally wounded in the crossfire from both sides.

The TV images of Gaddafi?s bloodied body sent ripples across the Arab world and on social networks such as Twitter.

?He called us rats, but look where we found him,? said Ahmed Al Sahati, a 27-year-old government fighter, standing next to two stinking drainage pipes under a six-lane highway near Sirte.

On the ground, government fighters described scenes of carnage as they told stories of Gaddafi?s final hours.

Other government fighters who said they took part in Gaddafi?s capture, separately confirmed Bakeer?s version of events, though one said the man who ruled Libya for 42 years was shot and wounded at the last minute by one of his own men.

?One of Muammar Gaddafi?s guards shot him in the chest,? said Omran Jouma Shawan.

There were also other versions of events. NTC official Abdel Majid Mlegta told Reuters Gaddafi had been finally cornered in a compound in Sirte after hours of fighting, and wounded in a gun battle with NTC forces.

He said Gaddafi kept repeating ?What is the matter? What?s going on? What do you want?? and resisted as NTC fighters seized him. He added that Gaddafi died of his wounds as he was being transported in an ambulance.

?He was bleeding from his stomach. It took a long time to transport him. He bled to death (in the ambulance),? he said.

Another NTC official, speaking to Reuters anonymously, gave a violent account of Gaddafi?s death: ?They (NTC fighters) beat him very harshly and then they killed him. This is a war.?

Some video footage showed what appeared to be Gaddafi?s lifeless body being loaded into an ambulance in Sirte.

One of the fighters who said he took part in the capture brandished a heavily engraved golden pistol he said he had taken from Gaddafi.

Fallen electricity cables partially covered the entrance to the pipes and the bodies of three men, apparently Gaddafi bodyguards lay at the entrance to one end, one in shorts probably due to a bandaged wound on his leg.

Four more bodies lay at the other end of the pipes. All black men, one had his brains blown out, another man had been decapitated, his dreadlocked head lying beside his torso.

Army chief Jabr was also captured alive, Bakeer said. NTC officials later announced he was dead.

Joyous government fighters fired their weapons in the air, shouted ?Allahu Akbar? and posed for pictures. Others wrote graffiti on the concrete parapets of the highway. One said simply: ?Gaddafi was captured here.?

UN demands probe into death

In Geneva, the United Nations human rights office called on Friday for a full investigation into the death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

?It is unclear how he died. There is a need for an investigation,? UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing in Geneva.

Referring to separate cell phone images showing a wounded Gaddafi first alive and then later dead amidst a jumble of anti-Gaddafi fighters after his capture in his hometown of Sirte on Thursday, he added: ?Taken together, they were very disturbing.?

An international commission of inquiry, launched by the UN Human Rights Council, is already investigating killings, torture and other crimes in Libya.

Colville said he expected that the team would look into the circumstances of Gaddafi?s death.

?It is a fundamental principle of international law that people accused of serious crimes should if possible be tried. Summary executions are strictly illegal. It is different if someone is killed in combat,? he told Reuters Television.

Amnesty International urged the revolutionary fighters to give a complete report, saying it was essential to conduct ?a full, independent and impartial inquiry to establish the circumstances of Col. Gaddafi?s death.?

Gaddafi to be buried in Islamic tradition

Libya?s new leaders have promised Muammar Gaddafi will be buried Friday according to Islamic norms, a day after his dramatic final hours when the fugitive dictator was dragged from hiding in a drainage pipe, begging for his life as his hometown and last bastion fell to the revolutionaries.

The death, two months after Gaddafi?s ouster, finished off the nearly 42-year regime that had turned the oil-rich country into an international pariah and his own personal fiefdom. It also thrusts Libya into a new age in which its transitional leaders must overcome deep divisions and rebuild nearly all its institutions from scratch to achieve dreams of democracy.

The governing National Transitional Council said interim leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil will formally declare liberation on Saturday in the eastern city of Benghazi, where the revolution against Gaddafi?s rule began in mid-February. The NTC has always said it will form a new interim government within a month of liberation and will hold elections within eight months.

Acting Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, who confirmed Gaddafi?s death on Thursday, said he will step down to make way for others to guide the oil-rich North African nation toward democracy.

?The forming of the new government is subject to the NTC and I myself will not be part of that new government,? Jibril said at a news conference in Tripoli. ?I would like to call on Libyans to put aside the grudges and only say one word, which is Libya, Libya, Libya.?

?He will be buried Friday according to Islamic custom,? Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam said. NTC member Mohamed Sayeh said Gaddafi would be buried Friday in a Sirte cemetery, denying reports that he would be buried in a secret grave.

Deep hatred for the dictator

The outpouring of joy reflected the deep hatred of a leader who had brutally warped Libya with his idiosyncratic rule. After seizing power in a 1969 coup that toppled the monarchy, Gaddafi created a ?revolutionary? system of ?rule by the masses,? which supposedly meant every citizen participated in government but really meant all power was in his hands. He wielded it erratically, imposing random rules while crushing opponents, often hanging anyone who plotted against him in public squares.

?AP, Reuters, AFP

Source: daily-sun.com

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