Dhaka, Jan. 10: General elections in Bangladesh would be held before the end of 2008, a private news agency quoted Fakhruddin Ahmed, the Chief Advisor of the interim government as telling visiting Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan on Wednesday.

Ahmed said the main objective of the government is to hold a free, fair and credible election within the targeted timeframe and the Election Commission is working to this end following its announced roadmap.

His comments came a day after four advisors of his 11-member interim cabinet quit.

Both Ahmed and army chief General Moeen U Ahmed have pledged to stage the polls in time.

The current government took over on January 12 last year with crucial military backing amid heightened political tension ahead of the now-postponed polls on January 22.
(ANI)Shimla, Jan 9: Afghan President Hamid Karzai's friends here have said that Afghanistan is progressing on the path of reconstruction and development.

After visiting Afghanistan recently, Karzai's friends said the country has made "tremendous progress as the standard of living is rising, education system, road and transportation is coming up".

Those who studied with Karzai, and those who remember him as student, become nostalgic about the time spent with him.

"My friendship with Karzai goes back to I think the year 1980. We became friends sitting in a restaurant as far as I can remember. And, I must say that the kind of person he was at that time, his humility, good nature, vitality is still the same. As a person, he has not changed till date, even after he became the President of a nation," said Shyam Khanna.

They rejoiced and felt proud about the fact that they had an opportunity to study in a university along with Karzai.

"As I have come to know about the US bombings on the Talaiban where Afghans are killed, he is pained, no doubt. He is not a fundamentalist as the Tailban are. He is a Muslim and a conformist but a liberal Muslim. But at the same time, those who are fighting these things are against the Afghan. He has made a number of statements in the TV that he is willing to enter into a dialogue with the Taliaban who are not Al-Qeada people," said A. R. Khan.

Karzai was a student of political science at Himachal Pradesh University from 1979 to 1983.

Many Afghan students are studying in Shimla, and they feel they can learn a lot about India and put it to good use in Afghanistan. (ANI)