Death toll may hit 100,000

Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed has said that the works of Rabindranath Tagore are a source of inspiration to build a society full of enlightenment and free of prejudices, reports bdnews24.com.

"Rabindranath is significant in the determination and expectations of our national life," the CA said Thursday in his speech to a programme marking the 147th birth anniversary of world poet Rabindranath Tagore at Osmani Memorial Auditorium.

Bdnews24.com

Bdnews24.com

Bdnews24.com

A Dhaka court Thursday sentenced former state minister Amanullah Aman to seven years in jail on charges of extorting money from a Keraniganj businessman, reports bdnews24.com

The sixth additional district and sessions judge for Dhaka, Altaf Hossain, also fined Amanullah Tk 1 lakh.

REUTERS, ISLAMABAD  - Pakistan successfully tested a nuclear-capable, air-launched cruise missile with a range of 350 km on Thursday, the military said, a day after India tested a long-range missile.

The Hatf-VIII (Ra'ad) missile had been developed exclusively for launch from aircraft, a military statement said.

Relatives Thursday met detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in special jail on the Jatiya Sangsad complex, a senior prisons official said, reports bdnews24.com.

Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui, deputy inspector general of prisons, told bdnews24.com that six relatives including two children had met Hasina.

REUTERS, JAMMU, India - A bus veered off a mountain road in Indian Kashmir on Thursday and fell into a river, killing at least 28 people, police said.

The bus skidded off the road while negotiating a sharp bend and rolled down 300 feet into the Chenab River, police and witnesses said.

Bdnews24.com

Former India batsman cites professional commitments

Cricinfo.com

REUTERS, ISLAMABAD - Leaders of Pakistan's ruling coalition are due to meet in London this week to resolve differences over how to reinstate judges dismissed in November by President Pervez Musharraf, officials said on Thursday.

A European team will arrive in Dhaka in June to recommend whether the EU should send observers to Bangladesh for the upcoming ninth parliamentary elections, reports bdnews4.com.

The first United Nations relief flights started to arrive on Thursday for cyclone victims in military-ruled Myanmar as a U.S. diplomat said that more than 100,000 people may have been killed, reports Reuters.

The cyclone slammed into coastal towns and villages in the rice-growing Irrawaddy delta southwest of Yangon on Saturday, the most devastating storm to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people were killed in neighboring Bangladesh.

REUTERS, YANGON  - The United States is still waiting for approval from Myanmar to start military aid flights for survivors of Cyclone Nargis, its ambassador to Bangkok said on Thursday.

"This morning, we and our Thai allies thought we had a decision from the Burmese leadership to let the C-130 in. As of now, we don't have that decision," U.S. ambassador Eric John told a news conference in the Thai capital.

The team had set out six hours earlier for a final summit push in an event that had been delayed for about two weeks due to adverse weather.

The event was the most ambitious part of what has become the longest and most controversial Olympic torch relay in history.

Vladimir Putin will retain a "key role" in Russia for years as prime minister, new President Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday, as the two men opened an unprecedented era of dual rule, report agencies.

Putin was confirmed as prime minister by 392 of the 448 deputies at an extraordinary session of the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, one day after Medvedev was inaugurated at a lavish Kremlin ceremony.

REUTERS, WASHINGTON - Russia has ordered the expulsion of two U.S. military attaches from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, said the State Department on Thursday.

"They have been asked to leave.

REUTERS, KHOST, Afghanistan - The announcement over the military address system echoed ominously across the U.S. base in southeastern Afghanistan, freezing soldiers in their tracks.

REUTERS, LONDON  - British police charged four men on Thursday with conspiring to support the Sri Lankan rebel group the Tamil Tigers.

Arunachalam Chrishanthakumar, 51, Jegatheswaran Muraleetharan, 46, Jeyatheswaran Vythyatharan, 39, and Murugesu Jegatheeswaran, 33, will all appear at Westminster Magistrates Court later on Thursday.