Main Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

The extent of poverty in Bangladesh fell by a 9.2 per cent to 49.6 per cent between 1991 and 2000, said a joint report of the United Nations and the Bangladesh government, released on Wednesday.
   The report called for a pro-poor growth and safety net programmes in poor areas to halve poverty by 2015.
   The proportion of people with income less than $1 a day came down by 8 per cent over the period. The proportion of people, who suffer hunger, declined by 16 per cent, the report said.
   The report, Millennium Development Goals: Bangladesh Progress Report, was released in a city hotel. The UN resident coordinator in Bangladesh, Jorgen Lissner, and the principal secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office, Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, were also present.
   Two reports on the progress of Bangladesh towards the millennium developer goals were launched on the occasion. The other report, Attaining the MDGs in Bangladesh, was published by the World Bank’s South Asia regional office.
   The first report said enrolment rate at primary level increased to 82.7 per cent in 2003, which was 73.7 per cent in 1992.
   The child mortality reduced to 82 per 1000 live births, which was 151 in 1990 and the maternal mortality came down between 320 and 400 per one lakh births in 2000, in comparison with 570 in 1990.
   Environmental sustainability went up by a 1.2 per cent between 1990 and 2000 as the proportion of land area covered by forest in 1990 was 9 per cent, which increased to 10.2 per cent in 2000.
   The report recommended quality education, protection of women from discrimination and domestic violence and ensuring a hundred per cent coverage of safe water to meet the target of the development goals by 2015.
   Lissner said Bangladesh has come a long way since 1990 and it has to go another long way ahead. ‘The MDGs represent a challenge for all in Bangladesh and only a concerted effort can produce the desired result.’
   World leaders signed the Millennium Development Declaration, to translate globally agreed priorities for a better world for everyone, at the Millennium Summit in New York in 2000.
   There are 189 signatories, including Bangladesh, to the declaration. The declaration comprises eight development goals that are time-bound broad commitments of all UN member states to be achieved by 2015.
   The target set in major areas for Bangladesh to achieve by 2015 include lowering poverty rate to a 29.4 per cent, a 100 per cent universal primary education, reduction of child mortality to 50, improvement of maternal health to 143 and ensuring environmental sustainability by 20 per cent.
   Kamal said Bangladesh needs political will to achieve the development goals. He sought aid and trade facilities from both developed and developing countries to help achieve the goals.
   He said the targets set with the development goals have also been included in the poverty reduction strategy paper, to be finalised soon.
   Bangladesh exports have long suffered trade barriers of different kinds often imposed by developed and developing countries.
   He urged the rich nations to increase their development assistance and flow of investment so that Bangladesh can come out of the poverty trap.
   The World Bank report said Bangladesh achieved a considerable success in lowering population growth, fostering women’s empowerment, reducing aid dependence, achieving success in human development and attaining effective disaster management capacity.
   ‘Not many countries at Bangladesh level of income can list so many of these achievements. Especially in the light of Bangladesh’s dismal record at development during the 1970s and 1980s, this is a remarkable success,’ the report said.
   The report recommended elimination of regional disparities to address poverty.
   ‘There are large variations in poverty incidence across geographical areas. The rural areas of Faridpur, Tangail and Jamalpur, as well as the rural parts of Bogra, Rangpur and Dinajpur, are among the poorest region of the country,’ it said.
   ‘There are also wide regional variations in the pace of poverty reduction during the 1990s. While there was a large decline in poverty between 1991–92 and 2000 in Dhaka, Barisal and Patuakhali, poverty actually rose (although not very much) in Sylhet, Comilla, Noakhali and Chittagong.’

The High Court judgement that held illegal the order of the president removing an additional judge of the High Court, and the application filed by the removed judge, Syed Shahidur Rahman, seeking bench in the court, have put the authority and jurisdiction of the Supreme Judicial Council, the supervisory authority of the Supreme Court judges, to a challenge.
   Speculations, along with a series of questions, are galore in the Supreme Court premises and among all quarters concerned over the issues, including the role of the government in the case, as the government has not filed any reply to the case that has eventually, according to a number of experts, helped the sacked judge to win the case.
   Shahid, who was appointed on April 24, 2003, was removed on April 20, 2004 in accordance with the report of the Supreme Judicial Council that had held an inquiry into allegation against him of taking bribe and fixing bail for an accused in a woman repression case.
   The council on January 26, 2004 submitted the report.
   A High Court bench of Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman and Justice Mainul Islam Chowdhury delivered the verdict on February 2 after hearing the writ petition, filed by the sacked judge.
   Besides filing no reply to the case, the highest state attorney, the attorney general, conceded to the view of the court that was formulated considering the argument of the counsel for the sacked judge.
   ‘The president’s order removing Syed Shahidur Rahman from his office is beyond the mandate of Article 96 of the Constitution and he [president] has failed to apply his mind to it in passing the order,’ he said.
   The government, moreover, is yet to reach any decision on whether it will prefer an appeal to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court against the High Court judgement or not.
   The High Court issued a rule nisi on the government in the case on May, 2004. A director of the Prime Minister’s Office on June 7, 2004 sent a letter along with necessary documents to the secretary of the law, justice and parliamentary affairs asking him to take appropriate measure to contest the case.
   The cabinet division also sent a letter on June 29, 2004 to the law ministry asking them to take appropriate measure in the case.
   The solicitor wing of the law ministry sent a letter to the law secretary on June 15, 2004 asking him to send the comments on each paragraphs of the writ petition along with other related documents and signed power of attorney.
   According to sources in the ministry, the ministry supplied none of the aforementioned documents to the solicitor wing to refer to the attorney general’s office and eventually the case was heard without government representation.
   The law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister, Moudud Ahmed, told New Age that the government had not filed any reply considering it would have no impact on the verdict.
   Regarding appeal against the judgement, he said that his ministry had already sought opinion from the Prime Minister’s Office and the Cabinet Division on the issue as they were also respondents to the case. ‘We will decide on the issue as soon as we get their opinion.’
   Meanwhile, Shahid filed an application to the chief justice on Saturday seeking his reinstatement and for allowing him the seat on a High Court bench. He, however, is yet to get any bench.
   Some people in the legal community say consequent upon the High Court judgement, the removal order falls through and that Shahid may be reinstated directly.
   A number of others, however, opined that a fresh appointment and oath of office would be necessary for his reinstatement, as he had already gone back to his law practice in the Supreme Court after being sacked.
   A number of elected leaders of the Supreme Court Bar Association told New Age on Wednesday that the bar would not accept the reinstatement of Shahid and it would go for movement against such reinstatement.
   In the judgement, the High Court observed, ‘it appears that the Supreme Judicial Council has gone beyond the authority given by Article 96 (6) of the Constitution.’
   Article 96(6) said, ‘If, after making the inquiry, the Council reports to the President that in its opinion the judge has ceased to be capable of properly performing the functions of his office or has been guilty of gross misconduct, the President shall, by order, remove the judge from the office.’
   The council has not said the additional judge committed ‘gross misconduct’ and that the allegations brought against him proved ‘beyond any doubt,’ the court observed.
   The report said, ‘Though the allegations against Mr Justice Syed Shahidur Rahman are not proved beyond doubt but on consideration of the facts and circumstances, and the materials on record in their entirety, it cannot be said that there is total absence of material in support of the allegations nor can it be said that the allegations are without any basis.’
   ‘… in our opinion, Mr Justice Syed Shahidur Rahman should not continue as an additional judge of the High Court division,’ the report said.
   According to a number of legal practitioners and jurists, including retired chief justices and retired Supreme Court judges, the observation of the High Court that has said that the council has gone beyond its jurisdiction by making opinion is not correct.
   In other countries, where there are Supreme Judicial Councils are in practice, the councils very often make such opinions and recommendations, they said.
   Though the former Attorney General, Mahmudul Islam, refused to make any formal comment on the issue, in his book titled ‘The Constitutional Law of Bangladesh’, the only reliable book on constitutional law in the country, he wrote that the report of the Supreme Judicial Council included its opinion.
   The experts are also divided in opinion on the jurisdiction of the High Court in adjucating the report of the Supreme Judicial Council, which comprises the Chief Justice and two other top judges of the Supreme Court.
   However, questions are there regarding taking the report of the council into consideration of the High Court, as the report is not an authenticated document. It has been received from a newspaper and the original report is considered to be a privilege communication between the Chief Justice and the President.
   Considering the overall circumstances, a number of experts, however, opined that the President now would have to make a reference to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court to report its opinion on the issue in accordance with Article 106 of the constitution.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, has expressed her hope that Bangladesh will receive investment worth over $8 billion in the current and next fiscal years from both local and foreign investors as ‘a business-friendly atmosphere prevails in the country’.
   ‘Foreign investors have responded very positively to the
   liberal industrial policy the country has adopted and the present atmosphere is conducive for investment,’ she told the parliament on Wednesday while responding to questions from lawmakers during the prime minister’s weekly question-hour.
   According to the primary estimate by the Board of Investment, the prime minister said, in the remaining months of the current fiscal (2004-05) and the next fiscal the investment would be $8 billion.
   Replying to a question by Rustam Ali Farazi (piloted by Habibur Rahman Habib) of the ruling party, she said till December 31 last year, investment worth about a total of Tk 764 billion was registered with the investment board.
   As a congenial atmosphere prevails in the country, the Indian business conglomerate Tata group has come up with $200 crore investment offer and they have already signed the expression of interest agreement with the Board of Investment.
   The Dhabi Group of the United Arab Emirates has also shown interest to invest $100 crore on telecommunication, infrastructure and tourism sectors. In telecommunication sector, Orascom of Egypt, Telenor of Norway, Telecom Malaysia International of Malaysia assured the government of more investment in Bangladesh, Khaleda said.
   In addition, the prime minister said, a number of investment proposals await registration with the Board of Investment. The offers include two billion US dollars from Saudi Arabian Hi-tech International Group for petroleum oil refinery, seven million US dollars from Sanghai Ceramic Limited of China for tiles and ceramic production.
   A proposal for signing memorandum of understanding between the Board and the China Metalogical Construction Corporation for setting up of a 200 million dollar methanol plant is under process, she said.
   To another question, the prime minister said the much-talked-about submarine fibre-optical cable will connect Bangladesh with international network in August this year. She said Bangladesh joined the 14-nation consortium during her current term in office.
   Replying to a supplementary on availability of textbooks by Mohsiur Rahman Ranga of the Jatiya Party, the prime minister said 66,381,813 textbooks have been sent to field level on time for their free distribution among students.
   ‘There is no complaint of irregularities in distribution of the books,’ she said.
   The prime minister also said the mobile phone service of the state-owned Bangladesh Telephone and Telegraph Board would be commercially available in March.
   She said the BNP government had increased remarkably tele-density in the country since it took over in 2001.

The seventh meeting of the expert committee on the South Asian Free Trade Area, pencilled in for February 26-28 in the Maldives, has been postponed after Pakistan expressed inability to attend the talks.
   The Kathmandu-based secretariat of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation on Monday informed the member states of the regional forum that a fresh schedule for talks on the pending issues of SAFTA would be fixed at a later date, said sources in the commerce and finance ministry.
   Islamabad earlier expressed inability to attend the Maldives meeting on the ground that its negotiators would be busy elsewhere.
   No fresh date for the talks has been proposed yet. Dhaka had, meanwhile, been uncertain until this week whether it would be able to send a delegation to the Indian Ocean island state.
   The postponement of the expert committee meeting has, meanwhile, raised doubts about implementation of the SAFTA agreement, scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2006, within the stipulated timeframe, said commerce ministry sources.
   ‘The postponement of the expert committee meeting took place in the same way the summit had been postponed,’ a commerce ministry official told New Age. ‘It is indeed frustrating as we have to settle the issues today or tomorrow or the day after.’
   The SAARC Charter, which requires consensus for any decision, does not allow holding of any meeting if any member expresses inability to attend.
   Rules of origin, sensitive list of various items, trade-related technical assistance and compensation mechanism for revenue loss are four key issues that were to be discussed at the meeting.

The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, on Wednesday asked her party leaders of the city units to prepare themselves for an all-out anti-government movement burying all intra-party conflicts.
   The party chief also expressed her disappointment over the slim attendance of the leaders during hartal hours and asked them to take to streets during the next course of action programmes.
   She was exchanging views with the presidents and secretaries of all the 22 thana units of the Dhaka city Awami League at Dhanmondi office. Mohammad Hanif, president of the city unit was present.
   Hasina, also the leader of the opposition in parliament, asked her party men to identify the people who attacked her party’s female activists during hartal on Tuesday. Terming the attack a heinous act she said such an incident cannot take place in a civilised society.
   She said the PM has lost her confidence in police and other forces. ‘That is why she is creating private forces and carrying out attacks on opposition.’
   Hasina directed the leaders to make the countrywide protest rally on February 19 a success.
   A leader who attended the meeting told New Age that Hasina asked them to present a comparative scenario of the Awami League government and incumbent BNP-Jamaat government to the people so that they could realise the better days of the AL regime.
   Hasina said identified extreme fundamentalists patronised by the government are carrying out bomb and grenade attacks one after another.
   She said the government after every incident initially arrests couple of persons but then goes for action against those who raise their voice against the incidents of bomb and grenade attacks.
   Meanwhile, women leaders of the AL in a protest rally urged women across the country to unite against the four-party alliance government to step down. They vowed to topple the alliance government through massive movement.
   Mahila AL leader Safia Khatun read out a condolence resolution in memory of Shah AMS Kibria and other four victims of the Habiganj grenade attack.

The government starts open market sale of rice from today, the second time in the past four months, to control its price.
   Two lakh tonnes of rice would be sold through 11,888 dealers across the country and each dealer will get 1,010 kilograms of coarse rice in every alternative day at Tk 13.50 per kilogram.
   According to the government decision, one person would be able to buy maximum 5-kg and not less than 3-kg rice at Tk 14.50 per kg.
   The minister for food and disaster management, Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusuf, and the deputy minister, Asadul Habib Dulu, will launch the OMS at two city markets this morning.
   Three hundred and nineteen dealers in the capital, 10 in every district town, three in each upazila sadar and three dealers in each union-level will sell rice at the OMS price.
   The prices of coarse rice in Wednesday’s markets were at Tk 20 per kg, while it was Tk 26-27 for miniket. Najirshail was sold at Tk 22-23 and Paijam at Tk 20.
   The government at present has a stock of 615,077 tonnes of food grain —14,965 tonnes of paddies, 410,687 tonnes of rice and 189,425 tonnes of wheat.
   An inter-ministerial meeting on February 13 decided to start OMS immediately to arrest the rice price.
   The government has asked the police and the food inspectors to keep a sharp vigil on the market to check any OMS related irregularities.

Government initiatives, including the open market sale of rice beginning today, to control the spiralling rice price will have ‘a very little or no impact’ on the rice price, fear importers and wholesalers.
   Two lakh tonnes of rice to be sold on the open markets is too inadequate to arrest the price as the country’s monthly consumption, according to the Ministry for Food and Disaster Management, is 20 lakh tonnes of rice and three lakh tonnes of wheat, they said.
   They also termed untimely the decision to import rice and exempt duty on rice as it will take at least 15 to 20 days for the imported rice to reach the market.
   Many importers expressed their unwillingness to import rice at this moment despite the decision to exempt import tax as the crisis period will be over with the harvest of boro in late-March or in early-April.
   ‘It will be a risk for us. If we initiate the import process today, the rice will reach by the first week of March or afterwards,’ said an importer and added that the decision on duty exemption was yet to be implemented.
   An importer told New Age that about five lakh tonnes of rice is in the pipeline and the importers were waiting for implementation of the duty exemption.
   The government, after failing to fulfil the 2003-2004 procurement drive, invited tenders in late 2004 to procure rice locally, which also had an adverse effect, they said. ‘The rice price jumped abruptly after the tender and the lowest offer for the coarse variety of rice, Tk 17 per kg, was too high.’
   Most of the importers in the northern region blamed the government’s ‘immature’ decision to buy rice through local suppliers for such a critical situation.
   The government did not take any measures to face the situation after the flood and torrential rains last year that had severely damaged boro and aman crops.
   The government also failed to fulfil its procurement target — two lakh tonnes of aman. It could only procure one per cent of the target, 2,000 tonnes.
   The government should import rice after the procurement drive fall short, said the importers.
   Traders at Babu Bazar and Moulavibazar wholesale markets in the capital attributed the increase of rice price to the increase of diesel price saying carrying cost had increased significantly with the diesel price hike.
   ‘The carrying cost for per tonne of rice has increased between Tk 100 and 150. We now need Tk 500 which was between Tk 350 and 400 earlier,’ said a trader.
   A wholesaler alleged that a section of hoarders in the northern region had increased the rice price by Tk 50 per maund on an average in the past 15 days.
   Mohammed Manjurul Haq, proprietor of Haq Rice Agency at Badamtali, told New Age that ‘continued hartal by the main opposition and a long vacation for the Eid-ul-Azha have hampered transport of rice into city markets. It has resulted in a temporary rice crisis.’
   About the open market sale, the importers and traders said it would have no effect on the market. The price of coarse variety rice may come down by only Tk 0.50 in per kilogram.
   ‘We [the government] did not think that such a critical situation might arise,’ the minister for food and disaster management, Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yousuf, told New Age last week.
   The government is importing 132,500 tonnes of rice on an emergency basis and decided to exempt import tax on rice to control the rice price.

India has agreed to open talks with an influential separatist group in the north-eastern state of Assam on all demands including the controversial issue of independence, a mediator said.
   ‘India’s National Security Adviser MK Narayanan said the government was ready to hold talks with the United Liberation Front of Asom on all issues relating to the state’s peace and development, including a discussion on the outfit’s main demand of sovereignty,’ mediator Indira Goswami said.
   ‘The government’s stand is that it cannot simply hold talks exclusively on the ULFA’s demand of sovereignty but is open to negotiation on all other issues including that of independence,’ said Goswami, a noted Assamese writer asked by the ULFA to mediate on its behalf.
   Narayanan’s comments came in response to a letter from ULFA chief Arabinda Rajkhowa to the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, Goswami said.
   ‘After going through the letter, I was asked by Narayanan to get a fresh note from the ULFA listing all other demands of the outfit and also include the issue of sovereignty or independence that can come up for discussion when the talks begin,’ she said.
   ‘In the letter to the prime minister, the ULFA had simply stressed their demand for sovereignty. No other demands of the group figured in that letter,’ she said.
   The ULFA has been fighting for an independent Assamese homeland since 1979. New Delhi had earlier rejected its demand for independence.
   ‘I think this is a big step forward by New Delhi to have agreed to discuss the issue of sovereignty along with other demands of the ULFA,’ Goswami said.
   ‘I am soon going to convey to the ULFA leadership ... the government’s advice for a new letter listing all other demands so that the peace process can get under way soon.’
   This is the first time that the ULFA has made a formal offer of talks and the first time New Delhi has accepted it without preconditions, in an attempt to end 26 years of insurgency in the region.
   ‘The Indian prime minister has always said he is open for talks with any rebel group that gives up violence and without preconditions,’ said a spokesman for his office.
   According to intelligence officials ULFA has about 3,000 fighters.

The ruling BNP men were asked Wednesday to remain calm in face of provocation by the main opposition party Awami League.
   The instruction was given at a joint meeting of the Dhaka city unit of the party and its front organisations held at the residence of the party secretary general and LGRD and cooperative minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan.
   ‘The party men have been asked to remain calm as the party does not believe in negative politics, the Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal president, also adviser to the commerce ministry, Barkat Ullah Bulu, told journalists after the meeting.
   ‘They were also asked not step into the Awami League’s traps.’
   In the meeting, BNP chalked out a programme to mark the International Mother Language Day on February 21.

At least six employees of two leading non-government organisations, BRAC and Grameen Bank, were injured in bomb attacks at their respective offices in Naogaon on Tuesday night and in Sirajganj on Wednesday night.
   In Naogaon, unidentified assailants hurled bombs at an office of BRAC in Porsha upazila of the district on Tuesday night leaving four of its employees, including the manager, injured.
   The injured, manager Abdur Rashid, 32, programme organiser Kobaduzzaman, 36, Rezaul Islam, 34, and Enamul Haq, 30, are now undergoing treatment at the Naogaon Sadar Hospital.
   The police picked up two people, Nurunnabi and Apel Mahmud, suspecting them to be involved in the attack.
   The Naogaon police and witnesses said that more than five assailants, wearing black clothes, stormed into the BRAC office while the injured, along with three to four others, were working there at about 9:30pm.
   Immediately, they hurled a bomb at the manager’s room and two others at the adjacent room and left the scene. The injured were taken to the hospital.
   The deputy commissioner of Naogaon, Golam Mortuza, and the superintendent of police, Jamil Ahmed, visited the spot.
   The police collected evidence of the explosion from the spot.
   Talking to New Age, manager Abdur Rashid said that some identified fundamentalists have threatened them since the office was set up in Porsha.
   Some local people told New Age that the attack on BRAC office was committed by the same group who hurled bombs at cultural functions in Gaibandha, Joypurhat and Bogra in the recent past.
   ‘Shafiqullah, an activist of extremist Jamaatul Mujahideen, in a statement to the court recently said that they had been instructed to launch bomb attack on NGOs and other non-Islamic organisations’, they hinted.
   BRAC manager Abdur Rashid filed a case with Porsha thana and the officer-in-charge, Khondokar Miraj Billah, was given the charge of investigating the incident.
   In Sirajganj, a band of criminals hurled three bombs storming into the Grameen Bank office at Nabagram village under Ullapara upazila of the district at about 8:00pm Wednesday and left two of its employees, Nurul Islam and Kona Khatun, injured.
   Following the incident, local people became panicked and the passers-by started running for shelters. The assailants, in the meantime, managed to escape.
   Local people later rescued the victims and took them to local hospital.
   Meanwhile, news agency BDnews reports from Rangpur: three powerful hand grenades were recovered from a BRAC office in the town Wednesday and army explosive experts later detonated those.
   Abul Hossain, area manager of BRAC, first saw a grenade in the office at Darshana soon after he stepped there Wednesday morning.
   Immediately he informed the matter to his colleagues, who after a search found two others – one near the kitchen and the other beside a toilet.
   Being informed by the BRAC officials, police immediately brought the matter to the notice of the army authorities.
   ‘A team of explosive experts, led by Captain Anwar and Captain Nasir, rushed to the spot and recovered the live grenades’, said a police official.
   Later, the army team detonated the grenades at an open place beside a graveyard near the BRAC office.
   Army experts said the grenades inscribed with (JMG-3) were non-service handmade, but enough to blow up a building or an establishment.
   Panic gripped the town dwellers as soon as the news of recovery of grenades spread.
   The Detective Branch of police is investigating the matter.

Bangladesh Bank is likely to put forward a recommendation to the finance ministry to include representatives from the Rapid Action Battalion and the Bangladesh Rifles in the central bank’s taskforce for checking money laundering, sources said.
   The central bank has already asked its anti-money laundering taskforce to strengthen vigilance over all the scheduled commercial banks.
   A taskforce committee meeting, chaired by deputy governor Mohammad A (Rumee) Ali on Wednesday laid emphasis on strictly enforcing the KYC — ‘know your customers’ — guidelines while opening bank accounts.
   The meeting stressed that the taskforce should regularly monitor whether the commercial banks are following the KYC guidelines that ask for detailed information about new customers while opening bank accounts, sources said.
   The meeting expressed grave concern over the recent irregularities in the Premier Bank, whose alleged irregularities in opening thousands of bank accounts are now under scrutiny of the central bank.
   It also stressed the need for a training programme to enhance the efficiency of the officers in the taskforce.

Drilling of a relief well at the Tengratila gas field is likely to be started on March 18 to seal the original one damaged in an explosion on January 7.
   Rig movement is already going on at the relief well site and it will take around 40 to 50 days to complete the drilling when it starts, said officials of the Canadian company Niko Resources, operator of the gas field, on Tuesday.
   The company made a presentation on the course of action for drilling the relief well at a meeting with the officials of the Petrobangla and the Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company.
   A US firm, Parker Group, has been awarded the contract to carry out the drilling of the well.
   The relief well will divert the gas flow now coming out from the damaged well.
   The president of the Niko Bangladesh, Kashem Sharif, told New Age on Tuesday that another well would be drilled after completion of the drilling work on the relief well to go for production from the gas field.
   He said, ‘If everything goes alright we will be able to finish the drilling of this relief well in a span of 40 to 50 days time.’
   The January 7 blow-out at the original well burnt around one billion cubic feet of gas of the field which has 90b cft recoverable gas.

Four US soldiers have died in Iraq since Tuesday, one of them killed in action and the other three in fatal accidents, the US military said Wednesday.
   One soldier died and another was injured in a road accident in Diyala province, north of Baghdad, early Wednesday, it said in a statement. An Iraqi civilian was also killed and another two hurt in the same incident.
   Another US soldier died of a ‘non-combat injury’ on a military base, said another statement. A third soldier was killed and another wounded in a crash near the northern town of Balad.
   Earlier, the military announced that a US soldier was killed in action on Tuesday in the volatile western province of Al-Anbar.

The Nepali police arrested two senior politicians on Wednesday, two days ahead of planned protests by their party against king Gyanendra’s assumption of complete power in the Himalayan kingdom this month.
   Policemen arrested Arjun Narsingh KC, a senior leader of the centrist Nepali Congress party that has planned peaceful protests on Friday to force the king to restore democracy.
   Police arrested Arjun when he came to the party office in a Kathmandu suburb for the first time since the king clamped a state of emergency and banned protests, detained key party leaders and suspended fundamental rights.
   Minutes later, the chief of the party’s women’s wing, Meena Pandey, was hauled out by police and put into a pick-up van.
   Political activists have attempted to organise small protests against the king’s power grab but heavy security in and around the temple-studded capital has foiled most protests.
   Authorities have allowed rallies in support of the king.
   Party officials said hundreds of people, including political activists, student leaders, trade union representatives and human rights workers, have been detained or put under house arrest across the country since the king’s move.
   Though some politicians have been freed, the chiefs of main political parties who are seen as capable of organising popular protests remain under house arrest or detention.
   Arjun said his party would fight for the restoration of democracy but would not join hands with the Maoists.

No classes were held at the Dhaka University on Wednesday as the Bangladesh Chhatra League and its five allies observed a student strike in protest against the Monday’s attack on a campus function.
   The administrative activities, however, went on as usual.
   The Chhatra League also called a nationwide student strike for today on the same issue.
   Although the strike enforcers did not go for any programme, the general students staged demonstrations against the bomb attack at the Valentine’s Day function.
   The cultural and literary groups formed human chains, brought out processions and held rallies carrying black banners.
   The Raju Bitarka Angan formed a human chain at the base of Raju Memorial Monument in the morning.
   The Dhaka University Debating Society and some other organisations formed another human chain in the Teachers-students Centre area.
   Meanwhile, the inquiry committee, formed by the syndicate, started its work on Wednesday.
   ‘None should expect that the committee will find out the mysteries behind the blasts and find out the perpetrators. It is the job of the law enforcers, not the university authorities,’ the university vice-chancellor, SMA Faiz, said.
   About rehabilitation of the BCL activists ousted reportedly by the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal activists, he said all the provosts had been asked to ensure coexistence of all in the halls of residence at any cost.
   Meanwhile, 320 pro-Awami League teachers, in a joint statement, condemned Monday’s attack. ‘It was the outcome of lapses of both the government and the university authorities.’
   Former vice-chancellor, AK Azad Chowdhury, Professor RIM Aminur Rashid, the teachers’ association president, AAMS Arefin Siddique, Harun-or-Rashid, Aktaruzzaman, Sheikh Abdus Salam and Golam Rahman were among the signatories.

The High Court Wednesday granted six weeks time to the Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina and others for hearing of the petitions to quash the graft cases against them pending in the lower court.
   The now defunct, Bureau of Anti-Corruption, had prosecuted Hasina and others for illegally obtaining financial benefits in the purchase of MiG-29 and frigate, and appointment of foreign consultants for the Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority, when she was the prime minister.

Political and trade relations as well as requested assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the USA figured prominently in the meeting between the foreign ministry adviser, Reaz Rahman and assistant secretary of state for south Asian affairs, Christina Rocca, in Washington Monday.
   The talks, described by the foreign ministry officials as routine consultation between Dhaka and Washington, lasted for an hour.

The High Court on Wednesday stayed for three months the proceedings of the lower court that indicted Shaibal Saha Partha for making threats on the life of Sheikh Hasina through an e-mail to Prothom Alo in August 2004.
   A High Court bench of Justice SK Sinha and Justice Shamim Hasnain also issued a rule nisi on the government to show cause within four weeks why the case should not be quashed.