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Prices of construction materials saw fresh rises in the last couple of weeks, retarding private and commercial construction works in the peak season.
   Government and semi-government construction works have also been stalled as spiralling price of iron rod has prompted private contractors to go for an indefinite strike on January 15 demanding readjustment of the quoted prices with market prices.
   Market sources said retail price of MS (mild steel) rod shot by Tk 2,000 per tonne during the period while price of a 50-kilogram bag of cement increased by Tk 15-17.
   Prices of the two building material inflated by 15-20 per cent in last two months.
   Early this week, price of per tonne MS rod of widely used 40-grade reached to Tk 38,000 to Tk 38,500 against Tk 36,000 to Tk 36,500 two weeks before.
   Under-grade MS rod rose to Tk 34,500 to Tk 35,500 against Tk 33,000 to Tk 33,500 two weeks before and Tk 32,000 two months back.
   Price of a bag of cement of different brands ranged between Tk 245 and Tk 252 this week, up from Tk 230-235 a fortnight back and Tk 200-210 a couple of months ago.
   ‘Re-rolling mill owners told us that increased price of scraps pushed the MS rod price up’ said Haji Mohammed Hossain Khokan, general secretary of Bangladesh Iron and Steel Merchants Association.
   He said a Chittagong-based syndicate of scrap vessel importers manipulates the price of scrap, the main raw material for re-rolling mills that produce MS rods for local consumption.
   On supply situation, the steel merchant said many mills have reduced their production due to increased price of scraps and high electricity tariffs, which make finished products less price competitive. Traders at English Road, the largest steel bar market in the country, said that their sales had fallen drastically as the price hike of building materials slowed down the construction business in the peak season.
   ‘All the private and commercial construction works have almost stalled with the increase in the prices of building materials,’ said Haji Nasir Ullah, a leader of English Road Iron and Steel Merchant Association.
   Shamsul Kaunain Kutub, a leader of Bangladesh Thikader Samity and a former director of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry said `if the trend continues construction business will come into a halt very soon.’
   Meanwhile, Sammilita Thikadar Samannay Parishad, a forum of construction contractors are on a strike from January 15 that put all construction projects of the government, autonomous and semi-autonomous organisations on hold.
   They have called indefinite strike demanding that the government should reschedule the MS rod price and adjust with the price hike for all construction projects awarded in or before 2003.
   ‘Price of MS rod of 40- grade was quoted Tk 17000 in March 2003. It is quite impossible to implement the projects awarded that time as the rod price now more than doubled the then rate,’ said Mir Zahir Hossain, coordinator of the Parishad.
   Construction works involving at least Tk 500 crore came to a halt due to the strike, leaving thousands of workers without job, the Parishad leader said.
   There has not been any effective initiative so far from the government to end the stalemate, he said.

Five persons, including a convicted and three operatives of an underground party, were killed Thursday in shootouts between criminals and the police in Dhaka, Satkhira, Bogra and Kushtia.
   With Thursday’s five, the crossfire death toll, according to press reports and human rights organisations, rose to 183 since the trend began with the introduction of Rapid Action Battalion in June 2004.
   The police said Hanif, an extortionist, was killed in the capital while Sayed Ali, 45, convicted in a theft case and accused in seven other cases, in Bogra, and the Purba Banglar Communist Party operatives Kartik Rishi, 36, in Satkhira and Raj Ali and Laltu in Kushtia.
   They said Hanif and Fazlu received bullet wounds during the shootout between a gang of muggers and a mobile team of the Motijheel police on the Peer Shahed Lane in Shantinagar area at about 6:30am.
   They were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where doctors declared Hanif dead. Fazlu was undergoing treatment till Thursday evening in police guard.
   The shootout took place when the muggers, chased by the police while fleeing with Tk 20,000 snatched away from two rickshaw passengers, opened shots on them.
   The police recovered a revolver loaded with three bullets and the bootie from Hanif and Fazlu.
   New Age correspondent from Bogra reports: Sayed, arrested by the Dupchanchia police from Bogra town Wednesday night, was killed in shootout on the Talaor-Altafnagar road in Baro Chapra area at around 2:30am.
   The gunfight took place when 20 to 25 associates of Sayed started firing shots on the police who went there in search of arms as per his statement.
   The attackers managed to escape leaving two arms — a gun and a shutter gun — four bullets, four cartridges, one Chinese axe and three samurai, the police said.
   New Age Khulna correspondent adds: the associates of Kartik, an accused of three murder and several other cases arrested Wednesday from his house in Tala upazila, fired shots on the police at Nalta village in the early hours to snatch him, prompting the law enforcers to retaliate.
   Kartik, taken there to recover arms as per his statement, was caught in the crossfire while trying to escape. He died on the spot, the police claimed.
   Two policemen — nayek Humayan Kabir and constable Nazrul Islam —were also injured during the gunfight. They were admitted to Tala Upazila Health Complex.
   The police recovered a gun, one pipe gun and three rounds of bullet from the spot.
   UNB adds from Kushtia: Raj and Laltu, the second-in-command of the local Mohan Bahini, were killed during the gunfight between that took place at Shibpur in Kushtia sadar at about 4:00am.
   The gunfight took place when the accomplices of Raj and Laltu, both accused in a number of criminal cases and arrested Tuesday, open fire on the police as they reached there to recover arms as per their statement.
   The police recovered a shutter gun and four rounds of bullet from the spot.

THE police stations and police outposts in the south western region in the country have been put on alert against the backdrop of formation of a suicide squad comprising the widows of some members of underground parties who were killed in crossfire by law enforcers and seizure of huge explosives and ammunition by the Indian Border Security Force.
   Intelligence sources said the BSF men seized 2 sacks full of explosives and ammunition from a bordering village, DNC, under Lalgola thana in Murshidabad district of West Bengal in India.
   The Bengali newspapers published from Kolkata in their January 17 issues said two people were trying to trespass into Rajshahi district of Bangladesh while the BSF men chased them and they fled away leaving the sacks, the sources added.
   The sources said the sacks contained 325 grams of RDX, 198 electronic detonators, 47 power cells, 2 automatic revolvers and bullets which were submitted to Lallbag thana in Murshidabad district. More explosives may enter into Bangladesh because 198 electronic detonators will need more than 325 grams of RDX, according to the intelligence.
   The police said they have taken the matter seriously as they have information that the underground parties are getting united and planning assault on the members of the law enforcing agencies to destabilise peace in the country. Besides, there are reports that some underground party-men are working on uniting the widows of the killed party-men to form a suicide squad that will attack on the police officials in the guise of visitors, the police said.
   Meanwhile, the police nabbed two members of the so-called suicide squad, Rina Begum and Rashida Begum, at Nehalpur village under Rupsha upazila in Khulna district. The arrested women confessed their involvement with the squad and disclosed names of some of their fellows.
   The police said they keep an eye on any dispatch of explosives as a gang in Jhinaidah district was reportedly importing bombs. Police recovered 4 sacks of explosives from Kushtia district, a few miles away from Jhinaidah district, in December.
   A top official of the Khulna police told New Age that kept watching over the entire situation.

Nineteen people, including 13 soldiers, were killed in a fresh surge of violence in east Nepal, the army said on Thursday, the first major clash since a deadline to begin peace talks expired.
   The prime minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, has vowed to hold long delayed elections later this year after the rebels, fighting to replace the monarchy with a communist republic, failed to respond to his offer for talks as last week’s deadline expired.
   The Maoists say they will ‘shatter’ the vote if it is held without resolving root causes of the eight-year conflict that has claimed more than 11,000 lives.
   ‘Any move to hold the elections instead of finding a peaceful solution of the civil war will be very expensive,’ Maoist chief Prachanda said in a statement.
   The latest fighting took place in the tea-growing area of Ilam; about 680 km east of the capital on Wednesday after the Maoists ambushed a security patrol that had gone to clear a road block set up by the rebels.
   ‘We have recovered 13 bodies of our men killed in the battle,’ an army officer said in Kathmandu. He said another 16 soldiers or policemen were still missing.
   The rebels said they had killed 20 soldiers and lost six of their guerrillas in the battle that lasted for more than two hours.
   The army says rebels may be planning a major attack to mark the ninth anniversary of their insurgency next month.
   The Maoists, who control more than two-thirds of the countryside, have in recent months stepped up bombings and blockades of the nation’s capital to demonstrate their reach.

The Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday withdrew a ban on import of caustic soda in the face of a strong demand from textile manufacturers, sources in the ministry told New Age.
   The home ministry in July 2004 made it mandatory to obtain licences at a cost of Tk 1 lakh for import of acid. The home ministry directive bracketed caustic soda with sulphuric acid and caustic potash.
   The commerce ministry in August 2004 informed the revenue department not to allow import of caustic soda without government license, said sources.
   The ministry on Wednesday apprised the National Board of Revenue of the decision to withdraw the ban so that customs officials release the items without the documentation required previously, said sources.
   A large quantity of caustic soda, which has long been held up at different customs points due to the ban, would also be released soon, said a high official in the ministry.
   He said there would be no restriction on the import of caustic soda until amendment in acid licensing regulations of the home ministry, likely to be made soon.
   Textile manufacturers had been hit hard as the order barred them from importing caustic soda, a major ingredient for scouring, bleaching and mercerising cloth, said industry sources.
   Earlier, the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association demanded immediate withdrawal of the restriction on account of the plight of textile manufacturers.
   In separate letters to the commerce secretary and the revenue board chairman, the Bangladesh Manufacturers Association claimed that a number of textile mills had been forced to close down due to unavailability of caustic soda.
   The association expressed its satisfaction over the government decision to withdraw the restriction.
   ‘The withdrawal decision has delighted the textile manufacturers because without caustic soda production of their mills was adversely affected,’ GKM Towfique Hassan, secretary general of the association, told New Age.

American companies with deep pockets and an even deeper interest in what goes on in Washington are footing most of the expected $40 million bill for Thursday’s inaugural bash of the US president, George W Bush.
   Security costs aside, the president has said no taxpayer money will be involved in financing the lavish festivities celebrating his second inauguration, including a parade, candlelight dinners and nine inaugural balls.
   Instead, the financial services industry, energy companies, automakers, drug giants, tobacco companies and wealthy individuals are picking up the tab, and getting a chance to rub shoulders with the politically powerful.
   Major donors have contributed $24.9 million already, according to the Presidential Inaugural Committee, which lists them on its Web site at www.inaugural05.com.
   Many giving to the inaugural celebrations have big issues on the boil in Washington, ranging from whether a portion of Social Security retirement contributions are privatised to renewed efforts to pass an energy bill that may open new areas to oil exploration.
   Many givers also saw their executives and employees contributing to the Bush re-election campaign, and say this spending is as normal as voting in a democracy. While laws govern what individuals can give to a campaign, there are no limits on inaugural gifts from individuals or corporations, other than those imposed by the Presidential Inaugural Committee itself.
   ‘Political participation by companies and associations in the US is a normal course of business,’ said Lauren Kerr, media adviser at Exxon Mobil Corp, when asked why the company had given $250,000 – the top amount the committee accepts.
   Some companies acknowledge that financing parties is a good way to join the festivities and gain access to a broad range of US policymakers who will be there. Corporations also gave heavily to the first inauguration of Democrat Bill Clinton, but controversy over sponsorship curbed 1997’s festivities.
   ‘It does give us an opportunity to interact with those that are in the government, those that are in the administration, those that are in the Congress, and those that are in the judiciary, and policymakers that are involved with the process in Washington,’ said Mike Moran, a spokesman for Ford Motor Co, another $250,000 donor.
   Those who gave the top amount are receiving tickets to most inaugural events, plus lunch with Bush and the vice president, Dick Cheney. So far, 52 companies and individuals have chipped in $250,000, organisers say.
   Donors of $100,000 get tickets to the swearing-in ceremony, parade and balls.
   Energy companies such as ExxonMobil are watching the energy bill that stalled in the previous Congress; Republicans say they will make it a priority again in the new session. Other energy companies who gave $250,000 to the inauguration include ChevronTexaco and Occidental Petroleum.
   The financial services industry, a likely beneficiary of private social security accounts, is also represented. Goldman Sachs Group, JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley all gave $100,000.
   Ford employees also gave the Bush 2004 campaign $72,440, says the Centre for Responsive Politics, which tracks donations. The automaker will throw its own party on Thursday at the Philips Collection art gallery. Members of Congress, cabinet level members and some members of the judiciary have been invited.
   Rival express deliverers, FedEx Corp. and UPS Inc, each donated $250,000 to the inaugural committee. UPS says it has given generously to inaugurals before and spokesman David Bolger said the company is showing a bipartisan spirit.
   But UPS and FedEx have strong interests in trade, security and regulatory policies, like new shipping routes, overseas competition and the overhaul of the US Postal Service.
   Even companies that have been sued by the federal government are donating to the Bush inaugural. Altria Group Inc, the parent company of tobacco giant Philip Morris, is a $250,000 donor. It also gave the Bush 2004 campaign nearly $39,000, the Centre for Responsive Politics said.
   The company is among several cigarette makers being tried in a lawsuit first brought in 1999 by the Clinton Justice Department that seeks $280 billion in past profits.

The US president, George W Bush, vowed to press his global war on terror, declaring that ‘the survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands.’
   In his second inaugural address, Bush never mentioned Iraq or used the word terror. But he said that as long as ‘whole regions of the world simmer in resentment and tyranny,’ the United States would be threatened.
   ‘We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion,’ Bush said after being sworn in for a second, four-year term on the steps of the US Capitol.
   ‘The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in entire the world.’
   Without referring to them directly, Bush called the September 11, 2001, attacks terror ‘a day of fire’ and said, ‘We have seen our vulnerability – and we have seen its deepest source.’
   ‘My most solemn duty is to protect this nation and its people against further attacks and emerging threats,’ the president said. ‘Some have unwisely chosen to test Americas resolve, and have found it firm.’
   Bush, whose invasion of Iraq triggered widespread opposition that strained many of Washington’s alliances, promised to work with US allies in his second term.
   ‘We honour your friendship, we rely on your counsel, and we depend on your help,’ he said.
   ‘Division among free nations is a primary goal of freedoms enemies. The concerted effort of free nations to promote democracy is a prelude to our enemies defeat.’

Muslims across the country will celebrate Eid-ul-Azha tomorrow with due religious solemnity and fervour.
   Many Dhaka-dwellers have already left for their native villages or towns to celebrate the Eid with their near and dear ones as the four-day public holiday already began Thursday.
   The government has drawn up elaborate programmes for the festival.
   Key government and semi-government institutions in Dhaka and elsewhere will be illuminated while flags and festoons inscribed with Eid Mubarak will decorate major thoroughfares.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, and the leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, in separate messages extended greetings and felicitations to Muslims in Bangladesh and elsewhere in the world.
   The day begins with Eid congregations, generally held at open grounds and mosques, and well-off Muslims will then sacrifice animals in the name of Allah and share the sacrificial meat with the poor.
   The main Eid congregation will be held at the National Eidgah Maidan at 8:00am.
   In case of inclement weather, the main congregation would be held at the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque at the same time, said a Dhaka City Corporation press release on Thursday.
   There will be special arrangements for women as well as foreign ambassadors and diplomats and their wives in the main congregation, said the release.
   At least 361 Eid congregations will be held in 90 city corporation wards, it said.
   At Baitul Mukarram, a series of Eid congregation will be held — first at 7:00am and then at 8:00am, 9:00am, 10:00am and 11:00am.
   Eid congregations will also be held at the Dhaka University Central Mosque at 8:30am and 9:30am, Dhaka University Shahidullah hall lawn at 8:00am, open spaces adjoining the main gate of Salimullah Hall at 8:15am and Azimpur Dayera Sharif Mosque at 10:00am.
   A congregation will be held at Zoar Sahara Baitun Nur Mosque at 7:45am, one at Olipara Mosque at Zoar Sahara at 8:00am.
   The biggest Eid congregation in the country will be held at the historic Solakhia Eidgah Maidan in Kishoreganj where devotees from all over the country as well as from India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Muslim countries will say Eid prayers.
   The president, in his message, said the rituals of Eid-ul-Azha consolidate the unity, solidarity and fraternity of the Muslim nations.
   In her message, the prime minister said observance of the great symbolic festival would be successful if a peaceful and welfare society can be established being imbued with the core message of Eid-ul-Azha. She wished happiness for all on the holy occasion.
   The opposition leader in her message said, ‘We will have to stand beside the humiliated humanity’ following the ideals if Prophet Ibrahim and Prophet Ismail as well as Prophet Muhammad.
   The Dhaka mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, the Bikalpa Dhara president, AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury, the Jatiya Party chairman, Anwar Hossain Monju, and the secretary general, Sheikh Shahidul Islam, in separate messages also extended greetings and felicitations to people.
   State-run Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar as well as private electronic media will air special programmes while national dailies will publish special supplements on Eid-ul-Azha.
   Improved diets will be served at hospitals, jails, government-run children’s homes and vagrant and destitute welfare centres across the country.
   Chittagong
   The New Age correspondent from Chittagong reports that Eid congregations will be held at nearly 222 places in the port city under the auspices of the Central Eid Jamaat committee and the Chittagong City Corporation.
   The committee has arranged 96 Eid congregations. The main congregation will be held at the Chittagong MA Aziz Stadium at 8:30am.
   Two more main congregations will be held at Jamiatul Falah Mosque at 8:00am and 9:00am under the management of the city corporation.
   The corporation will organise 126 out of 222 congregations to be held in different mosques and Eidgahs in the city.
   Rajshahi
   The New Age correspondent from Rajshahi adds that the main congregation in Rajshahi is scheduled to be held at Hajrat Shah Mokhdum (R) Dargah Central Eidgah at 9:00am.
   In case of bad weather, this congregation will be held at the Dargah Mosque.
   The local Islamic Foundation sources said the other Eid prayers at Haji Lal Mohammad Ahle Hadith Eidgah, Pachani Eidgah, Rajshahi court square, Upashahar Eidgah, Upashahr Housing Estate Girls School playground, Laxmipur Vatapara Eidgah, Islampur Eidgah, Talaimari Madrasha ground, Loknath School play ground, Second congregation of Cantonment Mosque, Hatem Khan Bara Mosque and Kadirganj greater road
   are scheduled to be held at 9:00am.
   The congregations at Tikapara city Eidgah, Rajshahi University Central Mosque, Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology, Terokhadia divisional stadium, Rajshahi Medical College campus eidgah, Upashahar Markaz Eidgah will be held at 8:30am while the prayer at Ambagan Fishery Office ground will be held at 8:45am and the first congregation at the Cantonment Mosque at 8:00am.
   Khulna
   The main congregation in the Khulna city will be held at the Circuit House ground at 8:30am and the second largest congregation will be held at the Khulna Town mosque at 9:15am, reports the New Age correspondent in Khulna.
   Besides, other major congregations in the city will be held at Islamabad Eidgah at Basupara, Khalishpur Eidgah, Daulatpur Eidgah, Khulna Alia Madrassah, Baitul Aman mosque and Baitun Nur mosque complex.
   A three-day Eid fair, organised by the Khulna City Corporation, will begin at the Khulna Zilla School ground on January 23, KCC sources said. Two other Eid fairs will be held at Mujgunni and Nayabati in the city.
   Barisal
   The New Age correspondent reports from Barisal that the main Eid congregation will be held at Hemayet Uddin Central Eidgah Maidan at 8:30am.
   There will be two congregations at Baitul Mukarram Mosque at 8:30am and 9:30am, at Jame Kashai Mosque at 8:00am and 9:00am, and at Eabaidullah Mosque at 8:30am and 10:00am. Other main Eid prayers in the city will be held at 8:00am at Paresh Sagar Maidan, Mahmudia Madrassah, Police Line and Jailkhana Maidan, Nathullabad Islamia Madrassah and Kazir Gorosthan.
   Eid congregations at Gorasthan road Anjumane Hemayete Islam, Amanatganj Power House, Zame Akon Mosque, Barisal Cadet College, BM College Mosque, Harinafulia, Sadhur Battala, Mahmudia Madrasha, A Kader Chowdhury School, Sagordi Madrasha and Medical mosques will be held at 8:30am.
   The Eid congregations at Charmonai Madrasha, Natun Bazar, BM School field, Tabligh Mosque and Fakir Bari Mosque will be held at 9:00am.

An armed group, allegedly loyal to the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti, shot dead a local United Peoples’ Democratic Front leader at Kutukchhari in Rangamati Sadar on Wednesday night.
   The dead was identified as Jhuddomem Chakma, 34, a member of the Rangamati district convening committee of the front.
   On hearing the gunshot, security forces went to the place and sent the body to Rangamati General Hospital.
   The security force members also recovered two empty cartridges of M-16 rifle at the place.
   The front held the Samiti responsible for the killing, but the Samiti denied its involvement in the incident.
   Another front leader, Parakram Chakma, who accompanied Jhuddomem, narrowly escaped.
   Security was beefed up in the area. No case has been filed yet.

The Bangladesh Rifles has gone on high alert at 20 border outposts in Lalmonirhat, anticipating a fresh attempt by the Border Security Force to push eight Bengali-speaking Indian Muslims into the Bangladesh territory.
   The BDR pushed back the eight after they had been forced into the Bangladesh territory through the Daikhawa border at Hatibandha upazila early Wednesday.
   Local people alleged that the Indian border security personnel had also tried to push in Indian nationals in the last Eid-ul-Azha.
   The Panbari area was tense, as the BSF had assembled a number of Bangla-speaking Indian nationals on the other side of the border outpost.
   Meanwhile on Wednesday evening, the BSF abducted a Bangladeshi young man from village Hosnabad of Bawar union in Patgram upzilla.
   The young man was identified as Mithu, 22, and son of Abdul Mannan.
   Officials of the Bangladesh Rifles said they had sent a letter to the BSF to hand over Mithu.
   The BSF has not responded till filing of the report Thursday night.

The government on January 8 decided to stop giving the higher scale and time scale to the teachers of non-government colleges and madrassahs across the country, said sources in the education ministry.
   The number of non-government colleges, schools and madrassahs in the country is about 30,000, with around five lakh teachers and employees.
   According to rules the teachers in the non-government colleges and madrassahs have been getting a higher scale after two years of appointment and a time scale after eight years’ service.
   ‘Despite the official decision of postponement of issuance of such benefits to the teachers, some of them have been given the benefits,’ said the ministry’s order, adding that ‘such a violation should be stopped immediately’.
   The ministry’s order, issued to the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, also asked the directorate to take departmental action against the officials involved in the illegality.
   Meanwhile, the leaders of teachers’ organisations have criticised the government’s decision to postpone such benefits to the non-government teachers.
   Talking to New Age on Thursday, Professor M Shariful Islam, president of Teachers Employees’ United Alliance, a combine of seven organisations of teachers and employees of non-government colleges and madrassahs, said that they would launch agitation programmes if the government dilly-dallies with the teachers on the issue.

Zimbabwe drew the first blood in the five-match one-day international cricket series Thursday when they beat Bangladesh by 22 runs at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
   Set a target of 252 to win in the day-night match, the tourists bowled the hosts out for 229 in 48.1 overs.
   The lower order rallied hard but an asking rate of nine in the last 10 overs proved beyond their reach.
   The last pair had an even more daunting task of scoring 23 off 12 deliveries. The pressure told on Nazmul Hossain and he went for a suicidal single to give Tapash Baishya, unbeaten on 33 off 26 deliveries, to be run out to the first delivery of the penultimate over.
   The hosts had begun their chase in style and raced to 119 for two wickets in 26.2 overs before the skipper, Habibul Bashar, put his signature recklessness on display, triggering a sadly familiar middle-order slump.
   He tried a half-hearted drive off Prosper Utseya while batting on 39, only to give Stuart Matsikenyeri a simple catch at point.
   The dismissal led to three quick wickets for Douglas Hondo who sent back Aftab Ahmed for one, Alok Kapali for four and Khaled Mashud for three.
   Mohammad Ashraful kept his cool as wickets fell at the other end at regular intervals. He score 42 off 75 deliveries, the highest individual score of the innings, before giving Utseya his second wicket of the match.
   The lower order put up an inspired show, led by Khaled Mahmud.
   Mahmud scored 34 off 30 balls and put together the highest 42-run partnership with for the eighth wicket.
   Earlier, the Zimbabwean captain, Tatenda Taibu, won the toss and elected to bat.
   Zimbabwe got off to a nervous start losing the first wicket within three runs when Barney Rogers offered a return catch to Nazmul Hossain to his first delivery of the day.
   In the very next over, experienced Dion Ebrahim was trapped leg before wicket by to make Zimbabwe 14 for two.
   However, Zimbabwe managed to put up a formidable total, banking on two fifties by Brendan Taylor (58) and Hamilton Masakadza (54).
   Masakadza and Matsikenyeri built a steady 70-run partnership off 80 balls and then Taibu added 65 runs off 87 balls with Taylor to guide Zimbabwe past the 200-mark.
   In addition, a quick-fire 41 off 32 balls from Elton Chigumbura enabled Zimbabwe to post 251.
   Bashar missed the service of his two match-winning bowlers, Mohammad Rafique and Mashrafee bin Mortaza, for injury.
   Rafique was not even in the squad. But the best performer of the Test series, Enamul Haque Jr, did not get a place for
   Abdur Razzak who conce-ded the highest runs in the match.
   The next one-day will be held at the Chittagong MA Aziz Stadium on January 24.

The al-Qaeda linked Army of Ansar al-Sunna claimed Thursday it had murdered a Briton and a Swede in Iraq, in a statement post on an Islamist website.
   Five Iraqi soldiers were also killed on Thursday in a string of attacks north of Baghdad, the police said.
   Four soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb attack in the city of Samarra.
   ‘The attack targeted a military convoy in central Samarra. Four soldiers were killed and four wounded,’ a lieutenant colonel, Mahmud Mohammed, said.
   An Iraqi soldier was killed and another wounded Thursday in a mortar attack on a military position in Siniya, west of the troubled city of Baiji, said Captain Ali Yusef.
   And a civilian was killed and three others were wounded, including a four-year-old girl, when Iraqi soldiers mistakenly opened fire on them near Tikrit, police said.
   The Army of Ansar al-Sunna ‘kidnapped two agents ... working for an intelligence service of the infidel forces in the region
   of Beiji’ and executed them, said the statement, whose authenticity could not be verified.
   A British employee of a private security firm was killed Wednesday in an ambush in central Iraq, according to his company.
   The man, who was not identified, was killed along with an Iraqi colleague as they travelled in a convoy near a power station complex, while another foreign national was missing, it said.
   A deadline set by Islamist kidnappers threatening to kill eight Chinese expired Thursday with no word on the hostages’ fate.
   The 48-hour deadline handed Beijing to ‘clarify’ its position in Iraq expired with no news on the eight.

Palaeontologists say they have found a fossil haul from at least nine hominids who lived in eastern Africa more than four million years ago in the early chapters of human history.
   The discovery was made at As Duma in Ethiopia’s Afar region, near the border with Djibouti, they report in Thursday’s issue of Nature, the weekly British scientific journal.
   The find — mainly teeth, pieces of jaw, hand and feet — are dated as between 4.32-4.51 million years old and belonging to Ardipithecus ramidus, an enigmatic hominid whose remains were first found in the area in the early Nineties.
   A ramidus has a strong claim to being the oldest forerunner of modern Man ever to be identified. In 2001, one specimen found in the Afar was carbon-dated at around 5.2 million years old.
   Explorers elsewhere have separately found fragmentary hominid remains that, they say, predate A ramidus, although these claims have been hotly disputed.
   One is ‘Toumai,’ found by a French team in Chad, which is put at between six and seven million years old, and the other is ‘Orrorin,’ found in Kenya in 2000, estimated at some six million years old.
   The authenticity of A ramidus has not been questioned, although very little is known as to his size and how he lived.
   In the latest discovery, the scientists found the remains of monkeys, cow-like grazing animals and a creature called a mole rat, a rodent which lives in burrows in the savannah.
   More intriguingly, they analysed the carbon isotopes of the soils of the Afar, which points to the kind of vegetation that grew there millions of years ago.
   The evidence points to a landscape that is very different from the dry, baked rift valley of today.
   It was ‘a mosaic of environments’ covered by woods and grassy woodlands, with lakes, swamps, springs and streams and local volcanic hotspots, the carbon findings suggest.
   Some anthropologists say the habitat question is vital for understanding the rise of Man.
   One theory is that the earliest hominids, as part of their genetic break with chimpanzees, were prompted to walk upright because they lived in the savannah, the wide African plain.
   By standing up, they gained height in this flat, open landscape, which was an advantage for spotting prey and predators.
   But the riddle remains unresolved.
   ‘Only further evidence that more tightly associates the hominids (and other fauna) with the varied local environments will reveal the habitat preferences of these early hominids,’ the authors, led by Sileshi Semaw, of the CRAFT Stone Age Institute at Indian University, admit.

The government has cancelled monthly pay orders for 1,361 teachers and employees of 76 non-government colleges because of having zero pass rates in the last degree (pass) examinations.
   Sources in the education ministry said the authorities had issued notices to the teachers and employees in the past week.
   ‘If the institutions do well in the next year, they will again get the government portion of salaries,’ the state minister for education, ANM Ehsanul Haque Milon, told New Age. The teachers of the institutions were given chance for the last two years.
   ‘The MPOs of 836 teachers and 525 employees have been cancelled for zero pass rates in the examinations in 2003,’ Milon added saying the teachers and employees were getting MPOs without any approval of the education ministry.
   ‘The institutions were upgraded to degree level between 1997 and 2001 without any approval of the ministry,’ he said adding that the teachers and employees would draw around Tk 5.84 crore a year from the government exchequer.
   One thousand and sixty-six government and non-government colleges under the National University are now offering degree (pass) and certificate courses.
   The leaders of the teachers’ organisations, however, criticised the government for taking such decision and demanded its withdrawal.
   Terming the decision inhumane, the convenor of the National Front of Teachers and Employees, Quazi Faruque Ahmed, said the government should stop such decision.
   ‘If a student fails in English why MPOs of the teachers of other subjects will be stopped?’ he questioned.

Pirates in the early hours of Wednesday looted 10 fishing trawlers in the Bay of Bengal, 8-10 kilometers away from Dublar Char in Sundarban, and injured about 30 fishermen.
   The fishermen said a gang of 25 to 30 pirates looted 10 trawlers, one after another at gunpoint and robbed nets, fishes and other valuables worth of Tk 10 lakh from the trawlers.
   The affected trawlers are FD Tanjila, FD Mayer Doa, FD Shaheen, FD Rasel, FD Rajib, FD Akram, FD Asad and 2 other trawlers from Khulna.

The state-run oil, gas and mineral corporation, Petrobangla, has said that the commercial reserve in the fire-ravaged Tengratila gas field has not been suffered despite Saturday’s fire, which was likely to take several more weeks to be extinguished.
   ‘The commercially extractable gas reserves were far below the depth of 807 metres. So it can be expected that the accident at 807-metre depth has not affected the commercial reserve,’ a Petrobangla statement said on Thursday.
   The gas that was still burning was of a ‘pocket reserve’ with little bearing on the original reserve of the well at the north-eastern part of Sunamganj, the statement said.
   The Petrobangla and Niko officials said the fire was now under control while two Canadian blow-out experts were fixing strategies to put off the fire sealing the mouth of the fire-erupting well digging some relief wells.
   The Bangladesh Rifles, police and the ansar members were still cordoning off the scene of the fire while the neighbourhood people were yet to return their homes.
   The forest and environment ministry on Thursday formed a four-member inquiry committee with the director general of the department of environment as its convenor to assess the loss or damage on environment and the forests around the scene.
   The committee has been asked to submit its report within seven days.

A young man stabbed his teenaged cousin to death at Uttara area in Dhaka apparently over a refusal to love proposal on Thursday.
   The deceased was identified as Beauty, 19, an employee of Dada Garments, also daughter of Ganen Mia of Dulipara at Sector 14 under Uttara police station.
   Quoting Beauty’s family members the police said Liton, 24, a cousin of the victim, indiscriminately stabbed the girl after an altercation at Dhankinpara in Uttara at around 12:00am while she was returning home after performing her duty at the Dada Garments.
   Liton fled the scene leaving her in a pool of blood.

More than 200 families of nine villages of four upazilas in Barisal observed Eid-ul-Azha on January 20.
   The villages are Agorpur, Purba Keadrpur, Dehergoti, Olankati, Madhavpasha and Khanpura under Babuganj upazila, Memania under Hizla, Sundarkati under Bakerganj and Chankati under Sadar upazila.
   The participants are followers of the Kaderia Tarika and Pir Shaheb Elahabadi Sufiani of Chittagong.
   They arranged special Eid prayers and sacrificed animals in accordance with the Eid festival in Saudi Arabia.