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Soccer-World-Bangladesh students say no to exams during Cup

DHAKA, May 28 - Hundreds of students at a
Bangladesh university besieged the office of their
vice-chancellor demanding exams be postponed during the World
Cup.

The Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
(BUET) had announced exams would run from June 3 to 29, ignoring
a call from the students to defer the tests for a month.

"We will not withdraw the siege unless the authorities scrap
the exam schedules," said a protester at the university for
7,000 students in the capital.

The authorities called in police but they did not try to
break up the protest.

"We are giving the students time to go back to their
dormitories," a police officer on the campus said.

Alee Murtaza, the vice-chancellor of the university said:
"We understand the students' sentiments but we cannot put
everything on hold for a month just for the World Cup."

Bangladesh are not in the finals but soccer is
enthusiastically followed throughout Asia.