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The nation on Thursday celebrated Victory Day with a lot of fanfare and paid glowing tributes to the sons of the soil who fought and laid down their lives during the nine-month war of independence in 1971.
   People from all walks of life and of all ages came out early in the morning and marched to the memorials and placed flowers to commemorate the sacrifice of the martyrs.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, was the first to place a wreath on the main altar with the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, waiting her turn in respectful silence in the first hour.
   Both silently stood there as a mark of respect to the martyrs. The bugler sounded the Last Post and a contingent of the three armed forces marched past and presented arms on the occasion.
   As Iajuddin and Khaleda walked back after paying tribute to the martyrs, the Jatiya Sangsad speaker, Jamiruddin Sircar, stepped forward and placed a wreath on the altar.
   Chief Justice Syed JR Mudassir Husain was the next, followed by the cabinet members, diplomats, chiefs of the three armed forces, freedom fighters and high civil and military officials.
   Khaleda placed another wreath on the altar of the memorial as chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Senior leaders of the party and its front organisations were with her.
   The leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, placed wreaths in the morning. She, also president of the Awami League, placed another wreath on behalf of the party.
   Awami League central leaders, party lawmakers and many of her party’s activists were present. She also placed wreath before the portrait of the late president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Bangabandhu Bhaban at Dhanmondi.
   Dhaka Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka also placed wreaths at the memorial.
   Many walked to the memorial with their families to place flowers on the altar.
   Different organisations of freedom fighters, including the Muktijoddha Sangsad and Muktijoddha Kalyan Trust, along with the wounded freedom fighters, placed wreaths at the altar.
   Different political parties and student fronts, including Jatiya Party (Ershad), left-leaning 11-Party Alliance, different factions of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Gano Forum, Krishak Sramik Janata League, Jatiya Party (Monju), Communist Party of Bangladesh and its front organisations, Chhatra Moitree, Jatiya Juba Command, Bangladesh Socialist Party, Samajbadi Chhatra Jote, Juba Union, National Awami Party and Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal also placed wreaths.
   The Bangladesh Army band performed at Crescent Lake, the Bangladesh Navy in the Farmgate Park area and the Bangladesh Air force at Mirpur Stadium. They played patriotic and popular tunes.
   Bangladesh Navy ships, decorated for the occasion, remained open to visitors between 2:00pm and 4:00pm at Sadarghat, Narayanganj, Chittagong, Khulna, Mongla and Barisal.
   The vice-chancellors, teachers’ associations, student unions, officers and employees of Dhaka University, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, National University, Sher-e-Bangla Agriculture University, Independent University, Gano University and the Eastern University also placed wreaths.
   Representatives of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, Dhaka Reporters’ Unity, Crime Reporters’ Association of Bangladesh and the Dhaka Union of Journalists also placed wreaths.
   Shilpakala Academy, Zia Parishad, Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority, Press Institute of Bangladesh, Officers’ Club, Bangla Academy, Bangladesh Medical Association, Deshnetri Sangskritik Parisad, Diploma Krishibid Institution, Zia Forum, National Museum, Bangladesh Inter-District Truck Drivers’ Union, Savar upazila administration, Bangladesh Law Students Parishad, Centre for Rehabilitation of the Paralysed, Gano Shasthya Kendra, National Lawyers’ Forum, Jatiyatabadi Muktijuddher Prajanma, Bangabandhu Parishad, and Usa Sangha also placed wreaths.
   People across the country organised numerous functions to commemorate the sacrifice of the freedom fighters. Besides colourful rallies, innumerable discussions, cultural functions, recitation programmes and exhibitions were held.
   There were hardly any lanes, by-lanes, roads and the highways in the city which were spared by the Victory Day programmes.
   The day was a national holiday. Newspapers brought out special supplements. The electronic media, including Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar, aired special programmes.
   The New Age correspondent in Chittagong reported that Victory Day was extensively celebrated in Chittagong and its outskirts and homage was paid to the martyrs by people of all walks of life.
   Political, social and professional bodies chalked out different programmes to celebrate the day.
   The district administration, Chittagong City Corporation, Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Awami League, 11-Party Alliance, opposition alliance, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Theatre Institute, and the district Shilpakala Academy organised rallies, discussions, cultural functions, and special prayers to mark the day.
   The minister for fisheries and livestock, Abdullah Al Noman, the Chittagong mayor, ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, and the state minister for civil aviation and tourism, Mir Mohammad Nasir Uddin, earlier placed floral wreaths at the local Shaheed Minar in the morning.
   The correspondent in Barisal reported that tributes were paid to the martyrs in the district.
   The district administration, political parties and socio-cultural organisations chalked out programmes including placing wreaths at the Shaheed Minar and at the mass killing ground, bringing out processions and holding discussions at the divisional headquarters.
   The Shishu Academy organised a drawing competition for children and held a cultural function on its premises.
   The Khulna correspondent reported that hundreds of people in the city paid tributes to the martyrs by placing wreaths at the monument at Gallamari.
   Political, social, cultural and educational institutions brought out processions and held discussions.
   The district administration accorded a reception to the freedom fighters at Shaheed Hadis Park.
   The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Awami League, Communist Party, Workers Party, Khulna Union of Journalists, Metropolitan Union of Journalists and educational institutions organised discussions.
   The Khulna Muktijoddha Sangsad, in collaboration with the Khulna City Corporation and the district administration, began a weeklong Bijoy Mela at Shaheed Hadis Park Thursday morning.
   The Rangamati correspondent reported that government and non-governmental organisations celebrated Victory Day at the district headquarters and elsewhere in the district.
   The Rangamati Hill District Council accorded a reception to the freedom fighters and family members of the martyrs of the war.

Five Dhaka City Corporation roads were named after freedom fighters as the country celebrated the Victory Day Thursday.
   The mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, announce the names of the roads at a reunion of freedom fighters, who fought under sector No 2 in 1971, at Nagar Bhaban.
   “Initially we are naming five roads after the names of five sector commanders and other roads would also be named after prominent freedom fighters in phases,” Khoka said.
   The roads are Mohakhali to Amtoli after Air Vice Marshal AK Khandker Bir Uttam, Science Laboratory to BDR 2nd gate after Major General Abdur Rab Bir Uttam, Panthapath to Sonargaon intersection after Colonel Kazi Nurruzzaman Bir Uttam, Kantaban to Hatirpool after Major General CR Datta Bir Uttam and Tejgaon Nabisco crossing to Gulshan Shooting Club after Lieutenant General Mir Shawkat Ali.

The government has started working on resumption of repatriation of the Rohingya refugees, after Myanmar’s recent agreement to accept more than six thousand of the refugees.
   “We have recently got the clearance for acceptance of 6,622 Rohingya refugees for repatriation to their home state of Rakhaine (Arakan) and we hope to resume the process soon,” Foreign Secretary Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury told New Age on Thursday. “There is yet no agreed time-frame for the resumption of the repatriation process.”
   The foreign ministry sources, however, expect that the process would start in a couple of months.
   Repatriation of the Rohingya refugees has remained stalled since the August 9 return of some seven members of two Rohingya families to their homeland.
   Sources in the ministry said that 8,398 refugees recently expressed their willingness to return to their homeland under a voluntary repatriation scheme, and Yangon has given its nod to 6,622 of its nationals, now languishing in the refugee camps of Bangladesh.
   Some 21,000 Rohingyas are living in two refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, waiting to return to Myanmar.
   “We can capitalise on the existing Bangladesh-Myanmar friendly ties, which are better than ever before,” added a foreign office source.
   Janet Lim, Asia-Pacific Director of the UNHCR, has expressed concern over the latest situation involving the criminality-prone Rohingya refugees of Kutupalong camp after a visit of the UNHCR team there on December 4.
   The UN official also visited the Nayapara refugee camp and urged the Bangladesh government to resume the repatriation process immediately.
   Esko Kentrschynskyj, Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Commission, on December 14 went to Cox’s Bazar to see for himself, on behalf of the EU, the latest circumstances and the rights-situation in the two refugee camps there, said diplomatic sources.
   In an inter-ministerial committee meeting last August, the government formed a committee headed by the foreign secretary to suggest ways and means to gear up the repatriation process.
   The meeting was told that the number of Rohingya refugees in the country has remained almost static because human traffickers try to use Bangladesh as a transit route to send Myanmar nationals to different destinations in Europe and the United States.
   Recently, a number of Myanmar citizens were arrested by the police in different places of the country, including Dhaka. This was embarrassing for the government as such arrests tarnish the country’s image and strain the improving relations with Myanmar, according to an observation made in the meeting.
   At present, some 21,000 Rohingyas are living in two refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, waiting to return to Myanmar.
   According to official estimates, 8,233 Rohingyas have been living at Kutupalong and 11,933 at Nayapara.
   About 15,000 Rohingya refugees set up a camp at Damdamia, along the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf highway.
   Local people said there were about two lakh refugees in Cox’s Bazar alone, according to an unofficial estimate. Many of them are allegedly involved in gunrunning and other illicit and criminal activities.

New Delhi has asked Dhaka not to take severe actions like expropriation against Indian investors in Bangladesh, and has sought guarantee of compensation in case of such adverse regulatory measures.
   Such a provision has been proposed to be added to the draft of the bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement between the two neighbouring countries that is now awaiting finalisation, sources in the foreign affairs ministry told New Age.
   New Delhi has recently come up with a suggestion for adding new clauses to the agreement, which has been negotiated for the last few years, following the $2 billion investment offer from the Tata Group.
   Currently, Indian investment in Bangladesh amounts to a meagre $1.39 million in the areas of shipping, information technology, copra processing, zarda and injection moulded plastic articles.
   However, Bangladesh is yet to legally encourage outflow of investment by Bangladeshi entrepreneurs abroad.
   “An action or series of actions by a party cannot constitute an act of expropriation unless it interferes with a tangible or intangible property right or property interest in an investment,” reveals one of the proposed articles of a side-letter forwarded by the Indian High Commission in Dhaka.
   “They [Indians] have made a point that if any investment is expropriated through direct or indirect measures of such nature, there should be a guarantee of compensation,” said a source in the industries ministry, one of the key agencies responsible for negotiating and finalising the agreement.
   However, officials at a number of concerned government agencies could not clearly say whether the Indian authorities have any “covert design” in making such a proposal, despite the existence of a relevant law in Bangladesh.
   A provision of the Foreign Private Investment (Promotion and Protection) Act, 1980 says, “Foreign private investment shall not be expropriated or nationalised or be subject to any measures having effect of expropriation or nationalisation except for a public purpose  against adequate compensation which shall be paid expeditiously and be freely transferable.”
   In such a situation, the draft of the agreement has been sent to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs for vetting.
   A critical point that has been referred to the law ministry reads: “Except in rare circumstances, non-discriminatory regulatory actions by a Party that are designed and applied to protect legitimate public welfare objectives, such as public health, safety and the environment, do not constitute indirect expropriation.”

Aspirants from the ruling and opposition parties have started frantic lobbying to get their names at the top of the list of possible nominees for women’s reserved seats in parliament, although the provision for election to those seats has been challenged in the High Court, say political insiders.
   The government decided to hold elections to 45 reserved seats, introduced through constitutional amendment this year, by late January next year, while the country’s women leaders are challenging the provisions for elections in the court.
   Women leaders of the parties had started the lobbying long before the provision came into effect, and now they are desperate to persuade their high-ups to give them seats in the parliament.
   The ruling BNP and other components of the ruling alliance, the main opposition Awami League, the Jatiya Party (Ershad) and a possible alliance of small parties and independent lawmakers have their proportionate shares of the 45 seats.
   Twenty-nine sets will go to the BNP and two of its allies — the Bangladesh Jatiya Party and Islami Oikya Jote, three to the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, the other partner of the ruling coalition, nine to the Awami League, two to the Jatiya Party, and two to the possible alliance of small and independent parties.
   The parties are yet to announce the timing of their parliamentary board meetings to nominate candidates for the seats.
   It is learnt that the parties will nominate more candidates for the seats than that of their proportionate shares as the number of aspirants is higher than that of the seats. Then the candidates have to compete in the election, in which the lawmakers will vote in the parliament.
   According to the BNP insiders, aspirants from the women’s wing of the party and former leaders of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal have been lobbying the Prime Minister’s Office and Hawa Bhaban or trying to get the support of influential leaders.
   The lobbyists also swarmed the offices of influential ministers and their residences, and are not missing any programme which the prime minister attends to ensure their berth in Jatiya Sangsad. There are some 100 aspirants in the BNP.
   BNP sources said the party and its allies would prepare a list of women for the reserved seats sometime in early January. The party will later prepare a shorter list.
   The parliamentary board of the party, led by the prime minister and BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, will nominate the candidates.
   “Two lists will be prepared for the BNP high command’s consideration,” a source close to BNP bigwigs told New Age.
   The names of some front-ranking leaders in the BNP and Mahila Dal and some former JCD leaders have been included in the short list, he said. “The prime minister will have her own list.”
   Some eminent women, who are not directly attached with BNP activities, but are believe to be well-wishers of the party and have contributed to it, will also be included in the short list.
   Some university teachers, lawyers, NGO representatives, top-level corporate executives and business women will also be included in the list.
   The Awami League, which opposed the constitutional amendment that introduced the reserved seats, saying it wanted direct election to the seats and the number of seats to be a third of total seats in the parliament, has agreed in principle to take it share.
   The AL president, Sheikh Hasina, at a news conference on December 7, said her party would accept the seats as the provision had already come into effect.
   An Awami League source said the party might nominate two or three women leaders from its allies with whom it had forged an anti-government group.
   The AL high-ups believe that such nominations will cement the alliance and strengthen allied participation in the next general election.
   Asked about the criteria for nomination, a mid-ranking AL leader told New Age that the party would sit immediately to settle the issue. “But the decision will come from the party president.”
   The Jatiya Party, the second largest opposition group in the parliament, has already undergone a lot of difficulties in selection of women lawmakers.
   The chairman of the JP parliamentary group, Rawshan Ershad, has reservations about certain aspirants, while almost all the decisions are made by the party chairman, HM Ershad, who is not an MP.
   The Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Janata League, the Anwar Hossain Manju-led faction of the Jatiya Party and the independent lawmakers are yet to form any group to claim their share of the reserved seats.

America’s First Amendment turned 213 years old on Wednesday, but supporters of the bulwark of personal liberty and free press are hardly celebrating.
   The free press – a linchpin of America’s proud democracy – faces its toughest challenge in a generation thanks to legal assaults that have left one US journalist in home detention and others facing prison. A flurry of well-publicised scandals at some of the country’s top news organisations has sullied the media’s image and only made matters worse.
   With other nations expecting America to lead the world in press freedoms, the stakes could not be higher, said the Committee to Protect Journalists Executive director, Ann Cooper.
   ‘The very big concern for us is if journalists are imprisoned in these cases it sends a terrible message around the world,’ she said.
   Imprisoning journalists is typically associated with tyrannies and dictatorships, making it ironic that US judges in the past six months have threatened at least eight reporters with sanctions or jail time for not naming sources, said First Amendment Centre Ombudsman Paul McMasters.
   Free press rights in the First Amendment to the US constitution have come under attack many times since the 45-word clause took effect December 15, 1791. McMasters said the last big assault came when Richard Nixon was president.
   ‘Not since then can I recall a time where the nation’s free press has been tested so intensely,’ he said, noting that Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell was not mindful of balancing the need for press freedoms.
   At least 35 states have passed laws to protect journalists but the federal government has not, and McMasters said recent events show the compelling need for Congress to enact a federal shield law for reporters.
   He said US prosecutors and judges are turning the screws on journalists, not because reporters broke laws, but because others did in giving them information.
   Among those cases are:
   A federal judge last week sentenced Rhode Island television reporter, Jim Taricani, to six months of house arrest for refusing to name the source of an FBI surveillance tape.
   Taricani broke no law by airing the tape, and the source voluntarily identified himself before the sentencing.
   Reporters from The New York Times and Time magazine are appealing a contempt ruling and could each be jailed for up to 18 months for refusing to testify about their confidential sources in a probe into whether the Bush administration illegally leaked a covert CIA officer’s name to the media.
   US reporters have been held in contempt for refusing to disclose sources in stories about scientist, Wen Ho Lee, who was suspected of espionage at the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory and later pleaded guilty to a less severe charge.
   There are other instances where the federal government has tested press freedoms.
   In April, US marshals seized reporters’ tape recorders during public remarks by the US Supreme Court, Justice Antonin Scalia, and returned them only after Scalia’s comments were erased. And earlier this fall, the US undersecretary of state, John Bolton, declared his speech at Tufts University ‘off the record,’ even though the event was open to the public.
   McMasters said the justice department has eased its once-strict guidelines on interfering with the press and noted that in 11 of its last 12 free-speech rulings, the US Supreme Court has rejected First Amendment claims.
   The former executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Jane Kirtley, blamed the current climate on factors ranging from an evolving federal judiciary that sees press privileges more sceptically than judges did 30 years ago to outgoing Attorney General John Ashcroft’s apparent lack of respect for free speech.
   ‘There’s no question that the attorney general sets the tone for the whole justice department ... and I think Ashcroft, frankly, has never given any evidence that he values the First Amendment,’ said Kirtley, who now teaches media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota.
   She also said the public perception of the media has hit a low point, the press has become more marginal and more Americans are taking the country’s press freedoms for granted.
   While she hopes the current troubles are cyclical, she worries about trying to force journalists to reveal sources.
   If reporters can no longer guarantee confidentiality to sources or are intimidated by what could happen if they refuse to name names, it could choke off investigative journalism, she said.
   Most disturbing though is that journalists who broke no laws would face the threat of jail in a democracy, she said.
   ‘The prospect that journalists who were doing their job would go to jail for very long periods of time when the people who may have broken the law go free is ... appalling in any society that calls itself democratic,’ Kirtley said.

Nepal’s military said at least 22 Maoist rebels had died in clashes with soldiers in the kingdom’s far west, which is a guerrilla stronghold, amid a new surge of violence.
   Military helicopters and troop reinforcements had been dispatched to the mountainous region to track down the guerrillas who are battling to topple the monarchy, an army official said.
   The official said 17 rebels died in a clash with troops in Dailekh district while five others died in Lamjung district when the army responded to an attack by hundreds of insurgents against a communications tower.
   Both districts are in the west of the poverty-racked country where the Maoists, who model themselves on Peru’s ruthless Shining Path guerrillas, have a heavy presence.
   The army official said he had no word on the number of troop casualties.
   ‘The search for the Maoists is continuing by helicopter,’ the army official said. ‘The helicopters are needed because there are no modern roads in the region’ about 400 kilometres from the ancient capital Kathmandu.
   The latest violence came after rebels attacked a group of soldiers in western Nepal Wednesday.
   The army said 21 troops and an estimated 36 rebels died in that clash while the Maoists said more than two dozen soldiers and six rebels died.
   Wednesday’s army losses were among the heaviest in months.
   Thursday’s clashes were accompanied by two bomb explosions, one on the outskirts of the capital Kathmandu and the other in the Parsa district in south Nepal. The blasts, one of which targeted a soap factory, the other a municipal government building, caused damage but no casualties. There has been a surge in bloodshed ahead of a mid-January government deadline for the rebels to resume peace talks if they want to take part in long-awaited national elections.
   Analysts see the attacks as an attempt by the Maoists to push the government to meet their demand for polls to be held for a constituent assembly that would draft a new constitution aimed ultimately at establishing a communist republic.
   ‘The Maoists are putting pressure on the government to meet their demands for constituent assembly elections as well planning an all-out assault on the army to mark the ninth anniversary of the start of their revolt,’ said Kapil Shrestha, who teaches political science at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu.
   More than 10,000 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence since the uprising began in 1996.

A new warning of looming human rights abuses in Malaysia’s major crackdown on illegal immigrants was issued Thursday as deportations by sea and air picked up pace.
   An Indonesian navy ship took on 4,000 migrants at Port Klang near the capital Kuala Lumpur Wednesday night, bringing the total number of illegal immigrants deported over the past six weeks to 134,665, government officials said.
   The ship is to make two more trips before the end of an amnesty period on December 31. The Indonesian air force has also deployed a Hercules C-130 to take workers fleeing threats of arrest, imprisonment and whipping if they do not leave.
   Indonesians make up most of the estimated 1.2 million illegal workers drawn to Malaysia by jobs in construction, plantation work and services. Others are from the Philippines, India and Bangladesh.
   Rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have strongly criticised the government’s plan to deploy half a million volunteer neighbourhood security group members to help round up migrants who do not take advantage of the amnesty.
   The volunteers will receive cash rewards for each migrant arrested, an economic incentive that Human Rights Watch worries could lead to ‘vigilantism’.
   On Thursday, a local organisation promoting women’s and migrant’s rights, Tenaganita, warned that foreign girls trafficked into Malaysia for forced prostitution, as well as genuine refugees, could be swept up in the crackdown.
   ‘The government, by not differentiating between the trafficked persons and those who consciously entered illegally, is promoting the crime of trafficking in human beings when it arrests the victims and not the traffickers,’ director Irene Fernandez said in a statement.
   Tenaganita urged the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Rights of Migrant Workers ‘to intervene on the forthcoming unjust crackdown on undocumented workers.’
   The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Malaysia has already deployed mobile teams in an urgent effort to register refugees hiding in the jungles on the fringes of Malaysian cities where many work illegally.
   It is feared that asylum seekers from military-ruled Myanmar and the strife-torn Indonesian province of Aceh will be swept up along with the illegal migrants, Volker Turk, head of the UNHCR in Malaysia, said.

The Bangladesh Rifles on Thursday arrested a soldier of the Indian Border Security Force as two of the Indian border guards misbehaved with residents of a frontier village intruding into the Bangladesh territory, officials said.
   The BDR officials and witnesses said the BSF constable, Nakul Kumar, was arrested from Nacholdoba village of Thakurgaon, some 320 kilometres north-west off Dhaka, while his colleague, Gobinda Saha, went into hiding into the Indian territory.
   They said the two border guards from 32 BSF battalion intruded 500 yards inside the Bangladesh territory chasing several Bangladeshi youths who were collecting fuel woods near the zero lines.
   They beat several residents prompting the fellow villagers to confine them when a BDR patrol team of 20 BDR Battalion appeared at the scene only to find Nakul Kumar and take him to their custody.
   The witnesses said the incident sparked tensions in the border as both the BDR and their BSF counterpart reinforced strengths in the frontline.

The former prime minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohammad, arrives in Dhaka Friday on a three-day visit as part of his effort to promote bilateral business ties and investment between the two countries.
   The foreign minister, M Morshed Khan, will receive the former Malaysian premier at the Zia International Airport in the afternoon.
   The visit is taking place at a time when the Bangladesh-Malaysia Joint Business Forum is going to meet on December 18 and 19, sources said.
   A 60-member business delegation from Malaysia is coming on this occasion to take part in the forum, the first of its kind since the formation of the joint chamber in 2003.
   The finance and planning minister, M Saifur Rahman, will inaugurate the meet at a city hotel on December 18 in presence of the cabinet ministers, lawmakers, diplomats and business leaders from both sides.
   The forum has taken the task of bringing the corporate leaders of Bangladesh and Malaysia to a common platform representing manufacturing, banks and financial institutions and some other services to promote business and investment, said a chamber leader.
   Mahathir has always lent his support to such initiatives when he was in office and now as a private person he is also working as an inspiration to help forging closer ties in business and economic activities between the two brotherly countries, he said.
   The former Malaysian premier is expected to meet the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, and some other political leaders in addition to interactions with the leading business leaders at the business forum meeting.
   Mahathir will be awarded honorary ‘Doctorate of Law’ by the University of Dhaka on December 18 for his outstanding achievements as an Asian leader, according to the university sources.
   He will officially receive the honorary degree at the 42nd convocation of the university on December 18 for his lifetime achievements as an architect of modern Malaysia and also for his intellectual struggles for the less privileged people of the developing countries including Bangladesh, the sources added.
   Mahathir is scheduled to leave Dhaka on December 19.

The British home secretary, David Blunkett, one of the closest allies of the prime minister,
   Tony Blair, resigned after admitting his office had fast-tracked a visa application for his ex-lover’s Filipina nanny.
   In an emotional statement, the interior minister, blind from birth, insisted he had not been told that officials were writing to the immigration department over the case of nanny Leoncia Casalme. ‘However, whether or not I asked for any action to be taken is irrelevant to the inference that can be drawn,’ Blunkett said, announcing he had left one of the top jobs in Blair’s government with immediate effect.
   Downing Street announced late Wednesday the education minister, Charles Clarke, had been appointed to replace Blunkett at the head of the home office.
   ‘You are a force for good in British politics,’ Blair told Blunkett in a statement accepting the resignation.
   ‘You leave government with your integrity intact and your achievements acknowledged by all.’
   The resignation robs Blair of one of his key lieutenants only months before a general election expected in May next year, and bookmakers immediately increased the predicted odds of him winning a third term in office.
   Blair immediately named Clarke, another close ally with a similar reputation for frank speech, to replace Blunkett.
   Blunkett, whose remit included immigration, policing and anti-terrorism, among other areas, was one of the government’s most respected ministers, a straight-talking populist appreciated by Britain’s powerful right-wing tabloid press.
   However, tough policies such as locking up foreign terrorism suspects without trial prompted fierce criticism from human rights groups.
   Blunkett announced last week he had set up an inquiry to probe newspaper claims that he had intervened improperly to help get a British visa for Casalme, who worked at the time for his then lover, married magazine publisher Kimberly Quinn.
   The allegations reportedly originated with Quinn, from whom Blunkett had separated in August amid acrimony.
   Blunkett always denied he had intervened to speed up the application for a British visa, but conceded in his statement that the inquiry had uncovered evidence that his officials did so instead.
   He said he had been told about ‘a fax and an exchange of e-mails’ between his office and Britain’s Immigration and Nationality Directorate about delays to Casalme’s case.
   ‘Given I have no recollection of issuing instructions to deal with the application, but only to continuing the elimination of the backlog in general, the easy thing would be to hide behind my officials,’ Blunkett said.
   ‘I will not do such a thing. In no way is my office or any individual within the department to blame for what happened.’
   Born into poverty in 1947 in Sheffield, an industrial city in northern England, Blunkett was blind from birth due to a genetic disorder and fought against terrible odds to go to university and then into politics.
   However his image has been severely dented in recent weeks, both by the nanny allegations and by further revelations about his three-year relationship with Quinn.
   Blunkett, who is divorced with three adult sons, is currently fighting an acrimonious legal battle to establish his paternity over Quinn’s two-year-old son.
   He is also reportedly seeking to claim paternity for the unborn child Quinn, who is seven months pregnant, is carrying.
   His support among government colleagues was also hit by the unfortunately timed publication of a biography in which he was quoted ladling out tough criticism to several fellow ministers.
   In an emotional post-resignation interview, Blunkett admitted he had to an extent brought events upon himself by battling for paternity rights.
   He said the recent weeks of the ordeal had been “the worst of my life”, but expressed no regrets for giving up his political role to protect his private life.
   ‘If I was ever going to see my youngest son again, if I was ever going to hold him as I did as a baby in my arms, there were going to be consequences,’ he told Sky New television.
   ‘But in time, people will understand what I have been through, what I am prepared to go through, what I was prepared to sacrifice along with my three elder sons for that little boy.’
   Clarke praised his predecessor for his ‘absolutely outstanding’ job in the Home Office, and stressed that he would take the same tough stance on crime, terrorism and illegal immigration.
   The cabinet office minister, Ruth Kelly, taking over for Clarke at the education ministry, becomes at 36 the youngest minister in Blair’s cabinet and a rapid riser in the Labour hierarchy.
   Related story on page 7

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on Thursday called for strengthening Bangladesh as a state by safeguarding its independence.
   She urged all to strengthen abilities of the state exploiting its resources, and make people’s rights and their sovereign power well-established.
   Khaleda made the call to the countrymen while addressing a Victory Day rally of children and adolescents at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in the morning.
   “The main task after achieving the independence is to make the freedom meaningful and safeguard it,” she said referring to the glorious victory of the nation in a bloody war 33 years back.
   Khaleda said today’s struggle is to protect independence and make it meaningful through a peaceful movement. To achieve this goal, the country needs a stable environment, she added.
   She said this struggle is aimed at consolidating democracy, alleviating poverty and hunger, removing illiteracy and malnutrition, and rooting out crime and corruption, and going ahead with the trend of development and production. “We have to win this struggle,” she added.
   Underlining the need for consolidating independence, the prime minister said Bangladesh must be turned into a happy, prosperous, peaceful and safe one showing respect to the martyrs of the war of independence.
   Termed those who are out to malign the image of the country at home and abroad as opponents of the independence, she urged the countrymen to forge unity to face the ill efforts of the anti-liberation forces.
   She recalled with respect the contribution of the martyrs of the war of independence and expressed her gratitude to the freedom fighters who had liberated the country.
   Describing the children as the future of the nation, Khaleda said the children would have to be developed as worthy citizens to build up the country beautifully.
   She conveyed sympathy to the families of the martyred freedom fighters and those who made sacrifices in the war of independence.
   She inspected the march-past in an open jeep and took salute from a decorated podium.
   She also witnessed the spectacular acrobatic display.
   Her speech as well as a colourful march-past and acrobatics presented by children and juveniles from various educational institutions and socio-cultural organisations from across the country was aired live by the state-owned television and radio channels from the jam-packed stadium.
   The programme began with the prime minister releasing colourful balloons and pigeons in the sky amidst thunderous applause from the jubilant thousands.
   The ministers, lawyers, high civil and military officials, organisers of the socio-cultural bodies and the city elites were present along with thousands of viewers at the stadium.

Leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, on Thursday called for a united movement against misrule, crime and corruption of the alliance government.
   She was also critical of the alliance rulers for destroying the country’s economy, image and history of independence in a pre-planned way.
   Exchanging views with the freedom fighters, artistes of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra and intelligentsia at her Dhanmondi office, Hasina accused the government of conspiring to erase the name of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from history.
   She said, ‘These conspirators and sinners should not utter the name of Bangabandhu.’
   The Awami League president ridiculed the government for its double standard politics — establishing the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs on one hand and appointing war criminals and “rajakars” as ministers on the other. ‘This is simply a betrayal with the people,’ she said.
   Hasina said Thursday’s Victory Day had brought defeat for some people in 1971. ‘The alliance government is trying to diminish the spirit of the hard-won victory the people achieved under the leadership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib.’
   ‘Those who were engaged in staging genocide, women repression and killing of the intellectuals in 1971 are in state power today,’ she said, adding that the government is trying to protect the defeated elements.
   Hasina said her government, while in power, had undertaken various welfare steps for the freedom fighters. The decisions for burial of freedom fighters in state honour and 30 per cent quota in the government jobs for children of the freedom fighters were taken during her rule.
   Besides, she said, her government issued 70,000 certificates among the freedom fighters with their signatures. But the alliance government cancelled those certificates and is terminating freedom fighters’ children from jobs.
   During the meeting, Ashfaqur Rahman and Dr Zahid Hossain of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra, freedom fighter Mozammel Huq and Altaf Hossain recalled the eventful days in 1971 while artistes Abdul Jabbar, Moloy Ganguli and Fakir Alamgir presented patriotic songs.

Bangladesh take to the MA Aziz stadium in Chittagong for the second and final Test against India today, fully aware that the oft-used ‘positive approach’ may not hold against increasing media scrutiny and flagging expectations among even the diehard fans.
   The captain, Habibul Bashar, believes that his team can pull off at least a draw after a humiliating innings and 140-run defeat in the first Test at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
   The odds for even a draw are stacked heavily against the hosts — six defeat in a row against Sourav Ganguly’s Indian side and a defeat to New Zealand by an innings and 101 runs in the last outing at the MA Aziz stadium.
   Bashar put on a brave face nonetheless.
   ‘Regardless of what happened before, we have always been positive and will be when we start the second Test against India,’ he said on Thursday. ‘We did not put up a fight in the first Test and are, therefore, determined to do well this time around.’
   Bashar also has a point or two to prove about his form after dismal dismissal in both innings in Dhaka. ‘I believe I will do well as Chittagong has always been a happy hunting ground for me.’
   Ganguly, on the other hand, is determined not to get carried away by the cakewalk in the first Test that lasted for three days and 29 minutes.
   He said the winning squad would take to the MA Aziz stadium today.
   Why not experiment with the side when opponents are proven minnows? ‘The batsmen get little chance to play Test cricket in a calendar year and are, therefore, eager to play the Test. Besides, I don’t want to rest the in-form batsmen.’
   Ganguly had some kind words for Bangladesh cricket and urged the fans to be patient. ‘Every Test team in the subcontinent has had as difficult a start and Bangladesh should be given sometime before they start producing good results.
   He was also full of praise for Bashar and some youngsters in the Bangladesh team. ‘They have got some very good players. Habibul Bashar has the records while Mohammad Ashraful and Nafees Iqbal played well against us.’
   Ganguly said that security arrangements for Chittagong were as goods as it was for Dhaka and that he had put behind the death threat.
   The Bangladesh coach, Dav Whatmore, confirmed that middle-order batsman Rajin Saleh and all-rounder Mushfiqur Rahman would not be consider for the second Test.

Saddam Hussein met with a lawyer on Thursday for the first time since he was arrested a year ago, his defence team said.
   ‘The interview lasted for more than four hours. The president seems in good health, much better compared to his first appearance before the court,’ Saddam's Amman-based legal team said in a statement.
   Iraq’s former leader has been in custody since US forces found him hiding in a hole near his hometown of Tikrit on December 13 last year and is due to be tried for war crimes along with 11 of his top deputies.
   Saddam’s defence lawyers said earlier this week they did not recognise the Iraqi interim government’s plans to try the 67-year-old or his aides since they had been denied access to their clients and had not been given legal documents on which to prepare their case.
   The Iraqi prime minister, Iyad Allawi, said on Tuesday war crimes trials of some of Saddam’s top aides would begin next week. The defence minister, Hazim Shaalan, said Saddam's feared cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as ‘Chemical Ali,’ would be the first to stand trial.
   However, Western diplomats and Iraqi officials have said the proceedings were not the start of a war crimes trial but preliminary investigative hearings.
   Saddam himself is expected to be among the last to be tried. The Special Tribunal organising the process said on Wednesday that those whose trials were most imminent had been granted access to lawyers.

The speaker of India’s parliament has threatened to resign, saying some members' accusations that he was behaving like a ‘dictator’ had caused him agony.
   ‘If members are not happy with the present incumbent, I shall have no regrets in leaving it. I was happier facing the chair than occupying it,’ Somnath Chatterjee told a stunned lower house.
   His threat to resign came after opposition Bharatiya Janata Party members accused him Wednesday of ‘behaving like a dictator.’
   The accusations came during a day of tumult when opposition lawmakers forced the house to adjourn to protest against the government’s handling of a train accident which killed 38 people.
   Chatterjee, a senior leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) that rules West Bengal state, took over as speaker at the behest of India's ruling Congress Party which came to power in May.
   He said ‘the chair does not have any prestige any longer and has become totally irrelevant and it has become a matter of agony for me to occupy this chair, which I never expected to do, far less solicited.’
   After making his resignation offer, he did not raise the subject again and with a poker face carried on with the day's proceedings.
   There was no immediate reaction to his offer to resign.
   He has often tried in vain to subdue unruly lawmakers.
   The speaker's job in India is widely seen as one of the toughest in any parliamentary democracy. Nearly a quarter of India's lawmakers face criminal charges and scenes of tumult are a daily occurrence.
   MPs are quick to jump to their feet, shout down rivals and often storm the speaker's chair to stage protests.

Television actress Nazma Anwar died on December 14. She was 63.
   Her janaza was held at the Dhaka University central mosque Wednesday afternoon.
   Her body was kept at the Central Shaheed Minar for her fellows, friends and fans for viewing. She was buried in the Martyred Intellectuals’ Graveyard.
   She is survived by four daughters and a son.
   She began her career as an artiste in the 1970s. She performed in a number of plays, films and stage plays. She worked with the theatre group, Aranyak.
   Bangladesh Television aired her last performance Alapi on November 25. Among her best performances are Kariman Bewa, Sangsar Sakhi, Kothao Keu Nei, Package Sangbad and others.
   She also performed in some quality films such as the recently released Joyjatra and Shankhanad.

The daylong hartal scheduled for Saturday in Chittagong and called by the Awami League led 14-party alliance has been deferred to December 30.
   The decision was made at a meeting of the opposition leaders Wednesday night, considering the upcoming cricket match between Bangladesh and India to begin at the MA Aziz stadium from Friday
   Earlier, the AL and its allies called the hartal in Chittagong, protesting against the police attack on a reception programme of an AL leader at the Chittagong railway station.

Several thousand visitors, mainly young people, flocked to the Bhasani Novo Theatre on the penultimate day of the BCS Computer Show on Thursday.
   A highlight of the day was a product show by Intel Corporation. An animation contest, participated by 27 contestants, was also organised. Besides, there was the regular laser show at 6:30pm.
   A leading internet service provider in Bangladesh, ISN, hosted two seminars on ‘Is Internet Available for the Poor?’ and ‘Overcoming the Barrier of Data Connectivity: Internet for All — Web Card’.
   The organisers, Bangladesh Computer Samity, claimed that the day marked the highest turnout since the show was inaugurated on December 12.
   ‘Some twenty thousand IT enthusiasts came to the fair today,’ the BCS president, SM Iqbal, told New Age Thursday night.
   The BCS show ends today. There will be two more seminars on telecom solutions and fibre optic backbone on the last day. The gaming contest final and semifinals will also be held.

The Reader’s Digest has selected Bangladeshi sculptor, Ferdousi Priyabhashini, as its hero in its issue for December, the month of victory of Bangladesh.
   Ferdousi, a natural artist, who mainly works with driftwood to express her feelings, has been chosen not for her sculpture, but for lively presentation of a story about her captivity in the hands of the Pakistani army in 1971.
   ‘I asked myself if I was at fault, and I had realised that after being captured I had two choices: either give in to the soldiers’ lust or be killed. I opted to live and that isn’t a crime,’ she was quoted as saying in the article, ‘Fighting for Respect.’
   The magazine’s Bangladesh correspondent Nadeem Qadir wrote the story on Ferdousi’s narratives, which was made public in 1999.
   Abul Khair, a Bangladeshi boy, was the first Bangladeshi the magazine named as its hero. Khair came to limelight after his story had been published in the magazine in 1996.
   ATN Bangla, a private television channel, presented his heroic work of saving lives of a thousands by risking his own life, through a documentary, ‘Amrao Pari’ (so can we) and has won an special Emmy Award in November.

By-election to the Jatiya Sangsad constituency, Comilla-7, will be held on December 18.
   The election commission has appointed 58 presiding officers, 408 assistant presiding officers and 816 polling officers. Besides, 408 booths have been set up.
   The election commission officials were given training to conduct the voting in a free, fair and peaceful manner.
   Members of the law-enforcing agencies, led by a magistrate, will be deployed in every centre to maintain law and order.
   Seven candidates, including the four-party alliance candidate, Zakaria Taher Suman, and the Jatiya Party (Ershad) candidate, Nurul Islam Milon, are contesting in the by-election.

Thousands of opposition activists paraded city streets on Thursday, chanting slogan for an end to the ‘autocratic regime’, to mark the 34th Victory Day.
   The main opposition, Awami League, which led the war of independence in 1971, organised the procession from Muktangan to Bangabandhu Bhaban at Dhanmondi.
   Calling upon the people to intensify the ongoing anti-government movement, the AL general secretary, Abdul Jalil, started the procession, which was scheduled to be opened by the party chief, Sheikh Hasina, late in the afternoon.
   ‘Due to sudden illness, the president [Hasina] could not attend the function but she wishes success of the procession,’ Jalil told the gathering.
   The participants carried number of life-size national flags, portraits of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Sheikh Hasina. The procession ended at the Russell Square in the evening.
   Banners and festoons inscribed with slogans against the collaborators of the Pakistani occupation forces and the BNP-led alliance government.
   Caricatures of the ‘war criminals’ were also put on display at the meeting venue, while some of them were carried by the party workers in the parade. The participants demanded ‘execution’ of the war criminals.
   Senior leaders of the party led the procession from a lorry guarded by the police. The party activists attended a discussion and cultural programme at Dhanmondi in the evening.