Messi fires Barca to dramatic Super Cup win(Messi coming sun mangladesh)

Messi fires Barca to dramatic Super Cup win

Majestic Lionel Messi volleyed a late winner as Barcelona beat arch-rivals Real Madrid 3-2 in a fiery Spanish Super Cup second leg Wednesday to secure a 5-4 aggregate victory after the match ended with a mass brawl that saw three players sent off.

The Argentine World Player of the Year capped another marvellous performance with an unstoppable volley to claim the first silverware of the season before the trouble erupted.

Tempers boiled over on the touchline after debutant Cesc Fabregas was hacked down by Marcelo and the Brazilian defender, Mesut Ozil of Real and Barca's David Villa were all dismissed.

Messi had set up Andres Iniesta for the first goal in the 15th minute and, after Cristiano Ronaldo had quickly equalised, he scampered through to grab the second just before the break.

Karim Benzema put Real level again with nine minutes remaining but the irrepressible Messi guided Barca to victory with another piece of magic that had the crowd in raptures.

Pep Guardiola fielded the side that won the Champions League final last May, which meant new signing Fabregas from Arsenal started on the bench, but Real bossed the opening minutes.

The visitors pushed up on Barca from the start and Ronaldo stung Victor Valdes's hands inside the first minute as they harried and hustled their hosts all over the pitch.

FRIGHTENING PACE

The game was being played at a frightening pace when Messi picked up the ball in midfield and played the darting Iniesta straight through the middle with a perfectly weighted pass.

The Spanish international dinked the ball past the advancing Iker Casillas in a one-on-one to open the scoring, but Real quickly levelled when Barca struggled to clear a corner and Karim Benzema's shot was diverted in by Ronaldo.

Casillas and Valdes each pulled off impressive saves on two occasions but it was Messi again who proved the difference.

When a corner was not properly cleared on the edge of the Real area, the Argentine chested the ball down to Gerard Pique.

The Barca defender back-heeled a delightful return pass to his flying team mate, who picked his way past two defenders and deftly lifted the ball over Casillas.

The second half failed to live up to the first as petty niggles interrupted the flow of the game, until Benzema pounced on a loose ball in the Barca area and struck the equaliser.

Guardiola then threw on Fabregas but it was Messi who provided the final breakthrough, feeding Adriano Correia out wide and then connecting with his low cross to smash home the winner inside the near post.

Nation mourning Sheikh Mujib

Nation mourning Sheikh Mujib
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The nation is observing the National Mourning Day, the 36th death anniversary of the country's founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday laid a wreath on the grave of the architect of Bangladesh's independence at Tungipara in Gopalganj.

Chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force, armed forces, Hasina's younger sister Sheikh Rehana and the cabinet members were also present there.

It is a government holiday with the national flag flying at half-mast at government buildings and the Bangladesh missions abroad.

Programmes to mark the day started by laying wreathes to Sheikh Mujib's mural in front of Bangabandhu Museum at road 32, Dhanmondi early in the morning.

President Zillur Rahman and the prime minister laid wreaths on the mural. After that, Hasina also laid floral wreaths on the graves of other victims of the day at Banani graveyard.

They issued separate messages to mark the day.

The Awami League is observing the day by flying the national flag at half-mast and hoisting black flag in every party office across the country early in the morning. It is holding day-long programmes to observe the day.

Prayers in the mosques, temples, pagoda and churches will also be held to mark the day.

State-run Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar are broadcasting special programmes while national dailies have published special supplements.

This year the day is being observed in a different context as five murderers of Sheikh Mujib were hanged on Jan 28 last year following their convictions and decisions of the Supreme Court.

Six other former army officials convicted in their absence are still on the run while another died abroad.

The day was observed for the second time at state level after the Awami League formed government in 1996. The caretaker government in 2001 also observed the day.

But BNP-led four-party alliance government cancelled the decision to celebrate the day at state level.

It was restored as National Mourning Day in 2008 following a High Court order after a gap of six years under the BNP-led government.

SHEIKH MUJIB'S LIFE

Mujib was born on Mar 17, 1920 at Tungipara in Gopalganj.

He came to limelight with the formation of Purba Pakistan Chhatra League following the end of British rule in the Indian sub-continent.

Mujib continued to rise in national politics because of his active involvement in the language movement in 1952, 1954 general elections, and six-point declaration in 1966.

His arrest in the Agartala conspiracy case catapulted him into the national limelight, making him the undisputed leader of the Bengali's freedom struggle against Pakistani exploitation.

He was given the title of 'Bangabandhu' - friend of the Bengal- after he was freed from jail in 1969.

On Mar 7, 1971 Mujib delivered the historical speech at Racecourse Maidan (now Suhrawardy Udyan), which inspired the countrymen to join the war of independence.

A handful of renegade army officials on Aug 15, 1975 killed Mujib along with his wife Begum Fazilatunnesa, sons Sheikh Kamal, Sheikh Jamal and Sheikh Russel, daughters-in-law Sultana Kamal Khuki and Parveen Jamal Rosy, Mujib's younger brother Sheikh Abu Naser, nephew Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni, Moni's pregnant wife Begum Arju Moni, Mujib's brother-in-law Abdur Rab Serniabat, Serniabat's daughter, son, nephew and grandson, Mujib's security chief Col Jamiluddin Ahmed, three guests and four domestic workers.

Mujib's daughter prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana, were in Europe and thus escaped the massacre on that fateful night.

MANIKGANJ CRASH
Primary probe blames drivers


A committee investigating the road accident in Manikganj has initially blamed the 'unskilled' drivers for Saturday's head-on collision that killed five people including filmmaker Tareque Masud and ATN News chief editor Ashfaque (Mishuk) Munier.

"There is a turn near the (accident site). The bus running over the speed limit had been on the right side of the road when it hit the microbus [carrying the victims]," committee chief Arifur Rahman told reporters on Sunday.

"The microbus was also overly speedy. It was running through the middle of the road to overtake another bus," he said.

The Deluxe Paribahan bus was on its way from Dhaka to Chuadanga while the microbus was coming from Manikganj.

Rahman, supervising engineer (Dhaka circle) of the Roads and Highways Department (RHD), is heading the three-member committee.

The team spoke to journalists, witnesses and local residents during its one-hour visit to the scene at Jokha near Ghior in Manikganj.

Ghior police sub-inspector Mohammad Lutfar Rahman filed a case over the accident on Saturday night.

The other deceased in the accident are microbus driver 'Mustafiz', Masud's production manager 'Wasim' and staff 'Kajal'.

Masud's wife Catherine, artist Dhali Al Mamun and his wife Dilara Begum Joly, Masud's production unit assistant Sayeedul Islam were also injured in the accident.

Doctors at Square Hospital said Catherine was out of danger but Mamun, who was critically injured, would take at least weeks to become stable.

Missions could be more alert: Faruk

Missions could be more alert: Faruk

The parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs feels the country's missions in the Middle East and North Africa region should have been more alert ahead of the people's upsurge in the 'Arab Spring'.

"That would have helped our government evacuate the large Bangladeshi population residing in the Middle East-North Africa region in good time, but that did not happen," said Mostafa Faruk Mohammad, Awami League lawmaker and senior member of the parliamentary standing committee, on Monday.

"Our people got caught up in the uprisings and the conflict that followed," Mostafa Faruk added.

He is a former High Commissioner to many countries including India.

"Had our missions in that region been more vigilant, we could have planned evacuation strategies well in advance. But the foreign ministry did not have any advance reports from its missions about the public anger building up or the uprisings that followed," Faruk said.

The committee wants the diplomats to be "more vigilant and closely observant" in countries where large Bangladeshi communities have emerged following sustained migration, he told a group of visiting journalists at parliament building in the morning.

He said Bangladesh was considering labour exports to African nations where they can work as sharecroppers for big landowners on a 50-50 crop-sharing.

"That will help these nations tide over food shortages and our people will have a gainful livelihood," Mostafa Faruk said.

In the 1980s, the northeast Indian state of Assam was rocked by a violent nativist movement that led to large-scale killings of mostly settlers of East Bengali origin.

The leaders of that campaign later assumed power by winning an election on the anti-migration plank.

When his attention was drawn to illegal migration of Bangladeshis to other countries in Middle East and Southeast Asia, in which innocent poor people were duped by agents and then heavily harassed by host countries, Mostafa Faruk said these problems will remain "until the world became a global village and people the world over became more
tolerant."

The MP said when host countries apprehend illegal Bangladesh migrants, they should be treated in a humanitarian manner.

"They can be held at decently run camps and allowed consular access but if they are employable and there is a demand for labour, they should be given valid papers and employment.

"They should not be penalised because they have already been fleeced by dubious agents," Mostafa Faruk said.

He argued that Bangladeshis were trying to go to countries where there is a demand for labour and they know that from kins and fellow villagers who have gone before them.

Thailand has been particularly harsh on Bangladeshi, rather Rohingya migrants who have been seized and put on their boats on high seas, after the engines are taken off.

Hillary arrives in Pakistan amid tense ties

Hillary arrives in Pakistan amid tense ties

 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Islamabad on Friday in a surprise visit amid frayed relations with the US nuclear-armed ally after the death of Osama bin Laden.

The discovery of the al Qaeda leader in a garrison town just 50 km (30 miles) away from the capital Islamabad raised fresh doubts about Pakistan being a reliable partner in the US-led war on Islamist militancy.

The Pakistan government welcomed the death of the al Qaeda leader but has criticised the US secret mission in Abbottabad, where bin Laden lived for years, as a breach of its sovereignty.

Many US lawmakers, skeptical that Pakistani officials did not know of bin Laden's presence, want to cut US aid to Pakistan, which the White House views as vital to counter-terrorism and to hopes of stabilising neighboring Afghanistan.

In a sign of deepening distrust, Pakistan has told the United States to halve the number of military trainers stationed in the country.

But just a day before coming to Pakistan, Clinton said working with Pakistan was a strategic necessity for the United States, even as she pressed Islamabad to act more decisively to counter-terrorism.

She praised Pakistan as a "good partner" in global efforts to fight terrorism, though she acknowledged that the two countries have disagreed on how hard to fight al Qaeda, Afghan Taliban fighters and other militants.

"We do have a set of expectations that we are looking for the Pakistani government to meet but I want to underscore, in conclusion, that it is not as though they have been on the sidelines," she told a news conference in Paris on Thursday.

"They have been actively engaged in their own bitter fight with these terrorist extremists."