Troubled Times

President Iajuddin Ahmed, 75, resumed his official duties on July 6, after returning on June 20 from Singapore, where he underwent by-pass surgery. A high-level medical board confirmed his fitness for work. Ahmed's temporary absence had raised political tensions, with opposition leader Sheikh Hasina accusing Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia of aspiring to make herself president, or seeking to appoint a more malleable figure to supervise the caretaker government, which must be appointed this October and serve until January 2007 elections.

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