Awami League presidium on Saturday blasted the caretaker government for its indecision and failing to control the soaring prices, saying that the country cannot be run by PhD holders and World Bank clerks, reports UNB.

"Be it silent or loud, a famine-like situation is prevailing...Even middle income group is starving. The government''s indecision is responsible for this," AL general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam told reporters after the presidium meeting.

Agency

The government has invited the Awami League to pre-dialogue talks through a mobile-to-mobile text message, an adviser said.

Adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman told bdnews24.com Saturday that he had sent an SMS to acting AL president Zillur Rahman inviting the party's leaders for the next pre-dialogue session. The AL has picked eight senior party leaders for the next pre-dialogue session with the government, an AL leader said earlier

Staff Correspondent

Awami League presidium member Abdur Razzak has termed the lack of action against the hardliners responsible for Friday's violence at Baitul Mukarram Mosque "a double-faced policy of the government".

He told reporters Saturday that he held "anti-liberation elements" responsible for the incidents on Thursday and Friday.

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Adviser CS Karim, who launched the country's first-ever imaging show Saturday, put accent on the availability of logistics and training to enable the next generation to excel in digital imaging.

"Today we don't require papers and pens to express our thoughts with the emergence of digital imaging. The importance of image is inevitable.

Staff Correspondent

Awami League presidium member Motia Chowdhury stood in a queue Saturday morning at an Open Market Sale in south Basabo to buy rice.

"I live in Moghbazar," Motia told bdnews24.com.

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Bangladesh will have to turn to nuclear-generated power in future to get over energy shortfalls, the chief adviser's special assistant M Tamim said Saturday. "We cannot only depend on gas or coal for power production.

We must go for nuclear power in future," said Tamim, special aide for energy, power and mineral resources, during an exchange of views at the Press Institute of Bangladesh at Kakrail in the city.

Chief Justice M Ruhul Amin Friday said demand for equal rights of women in every aspect of life is logical, reports UNB. "Women are about half of the total population.

Hence, their demand for equal rights is logical. Then why various incidents are taking place now centering the issue?" he said.

As the power supply situation across the country is getting worse day by day, Dhaka WASA has found a clever way to get rid of the problem.

It has installed high-tech gas-driven generators in its Saidabad Water Treatment Plant, bringing down its monthly electricity bill to 25 lakh from Tk 50-55 lakh¸ reports UNB.

Westmont Power (Bangladesh) Ltd, accused of forgery in its power plant capacity and money laundering, has offered a third-party independent test to determine its plant capacity, reports UNB.

There is an allegation that the Malaysian-based company has fraudulently inflated its capacity to 90 MW from its actual capacity of 60 MW.

The European Commission (EC) has allocated a new Euro 12 million (BDT 1,284,160,820.73) humanitarian aid package to provide assistance to people affected by the SIDR cyclone, reports UNB.

Relief will focus on providing food aid and food security, and also supplying emergency aid such as shelter, water and sanitation and emergency livelihoods support, a EC release said here Friday.

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested five suspected criminals, including four drug peddlers, and seized phensidyl and scrap materials from different areas in three northern districts during the last 24 hours till Friday afternoon, RAB sources in Rajshahi said, reports agency.

On tips-off, they picked up the drug peddlers identified as Foyzul Islam, 28, Ziaur Rahman, 32, Mongla, 45, and Motiur Rahman, 47, with 103 bottles of phensidyl during three separate drives at different places in Joypurhat and Naogaon districts.

REUTERS, DHAKA - Hundreds of members of a Islamic group in Dhaka clashed with police on Friday over a plan to give women the same inheritance rights as men.

Police fired teargas and used batons to

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Awami League presidium member Suranjit Sengupta Friday asked the caretaker government to ensure AL president Sheikh Hasina's participation in dialogue.

"To make the dialogue meaningful, Sheikh Hasina's presence must be ensured, which will be possible if the High Court gets back its authority for bail," said Suranjit

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Acting BNP secretary general Hafizuddin Ahmed said Friday he hoped to join talks with the Election Commission and the government, together with the leaders of both factions.

Hafizuddin expressed his hope for unity in the troubled party, a day after the High Court had rejected BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia's writ appeal challenging an Election Commission letter that invited one of the factions to dialogue.

Agency

At least 20 students were injured in a surprise attack allegedly by Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal activists on the workers of Bangladesh Chhatra League at Fazle Rabbi Hall of Dhaka Medical College Friday over a derogatory comment.

Hall provost Prof Kazi Julfikar Mamun told bdnews24.com that the clash had started over what he said was a "trifling matter". All the injured are members of the BCL, the student wing of the Awami League.

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Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh Friday protested British home secretary Jacqui Smith's remark that terrorists in Bangladesh and those in the UK had links.

In a statement, Jamaat assistant secretary general Muhammad Qamaruzzaman said that he was surprised at the government "nonchalance" to what he called the objectionable remark.

Agency

UNDP country director Manoj Basnyat, embattled by a falling approval rating among colleagues, Friday alleged that some staffers had 'wrongly' blamed him for irregularities and retrenchment of officials.

Responding to a media report, Basnyat also said that some government officials levelled charges of irregularities against him as he had not continued "unnecessary" projects.

Four Advisers Thursday had informal pre-dialogue interactions with Jamaat-e-Islami leaders who demanded parliamentary elections prior to local body polls and release of Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina to participate in the formal dialogue with the government, reports UNB.

Communications Adviser Maj Gen (retd) Ghulam Quader, Foreign Adviser Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, Education and Commerce Adviser Dr Hossain Zillur and LGRD Adviser Anwarul Iqbal held the parley with a 4-member Jamaat delegation led by its Nayeb-e-Ameer Makbul Hossain at the Railway Bhaban.

The US$ 50 million livelihood restoration project taken for the sidr-hit people is going to be launched this month with four worst affected upazilas being covered in the first Phase, reports UNB.

The second phase would be the formal project launch, which would take place simultaneously in all the proposed unions by the end of June this year, said a World Bank information note Thursday.

Detained Awami League President Sheikh Hasina was taken to Square Hospital here Thursday afternoon and then taken back to makeshift jail after the checkup of her ears, reports UNB.

Hospital sources said Hasina was taken to the hospital at about 4:45 pm. Four specialist physicians-Dr Sahil Mahmud, Dr Shah Alam, Dr Mizan and Dr Sanwar-examined her ears and conducted other medical checkups.