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

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

The US assistant secretary of state for South Asia, Christina Rocca, on Thursday condemned the extra-judicial killings in Bangladesh and asked the government to improve governance and curb corruption to be a competitor for the Millennium Challenge Account.
   ‘The incidents of extra-judicial killings are not acceptable to the United States and the international community,’ she said. ‘We obviously condemn the killings and hope that the perpetrators behind will be prosecuted and brought to justice.’
   During her talks with the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, and the leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, she expressed concern over the political violence, and the killings of and the attempts on the life of political leaders.
   She hoped that all the political violence would be fully investigated and the perpetrators would bring to justice.
   Rocca addressed a press briefing at the American centre in the city late in the afternoon after she had called on Khaleda, Hasina, the foreign minister, M Morshed Khan, and the state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, on the first day of her two-day official visit beginning on Thursday. Rocca arrived Wednesday night.
   As Rocca made a courtesy call on the prime minister, Bangladesh sought duty-free access of its products, especially readymade garments, to the US market and the US official assured of extending support.
   The US official appreciated Bangladesh’s success in various sectors and said, ‘Bangladesh is traditionally a moderate and tolerant society.’
   She lauded the peaceful transfer of power in consecutive elections, which firmed up the base of democracy in Bangladesh, the country’s efforts to improve law and order situation and curb terrorism, and its role in UN peacekeeping missions.
   The US believes that SAARC can do a lot more to utilise the untapped resources and potentialities in this region for improving the fate of people in the region, she said.
   Many of the potentialities in the South Asian region still remained untapped, the US official said.
   Khaleda said her government always gave importance to the country’s relations with the US and valued its assistance and cooperation.
   She hoped that the US would extend cooperation in various programmes, particularly poverty alleviation, women education and empowerment, and training of law enforcing agencies.
   Responding to Khaleda’s request for further investment, Rocca said the US-based Vulcan Company had already decided to invest $1.6 billion in Bangladesh, which would generate a large number of employments.
   After the meeting with the US official, Morshed told journalists that the US would provide assistance to enhance Bangladesh’s capacity to combat terrorism and improve law and order situation as Dhaka and Washington discussed the bilateral relations.
   ‘Rocca’s visit is very important as it is the first by a US high official after George W Bush was re-elected for his second term in 2004,’ he said. ‘We have discussed the roadmap of our relations after the change of government.’
   He said Bangladesh had sought the US support to be a member of the Millennium Challenge Accounts for achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
   When asked whether they had discussed the presence of international terrorism in Bangladesh as indicated by a US report, Morshed said, ‘The US wants to see Bangladesh on course of democracy with religious tolerance and resolving political issues through dialogue between the major parties.’
   On the Ahmadiya issue, he said he had raised the issue during the meeting and informed Rocca that the government was ‘dealing with the issue strongly’. ‘I have also informed her that the High Court has already stayed the government ban on Ahmadiya publications.’
   Asked about the US government attitude towards the TRADE Bill 2005 now lying with the US Congress, Morshed said Rocca had told him that ‘it is absolutely up to the Congress’ as there is a strong lobby in the textile sector of the United States.
   About a report that while in India Rocca discussed about Bangladesh and Nepal, he quoted Rocca as saying that the ‘US foreign policy is not framed in another country other than Washington and it is not influenced by any country’.
   In her press briefing at the American centre, Rocca talked about the Millennium Challenge Account in which $5 billion will be allocated for the developing countries under a good governance programme. ‘Serious steps must be taken in respect to corruption and we hope to see the Anti-Corruption Commission become very effective.’
   She said serious steps would have to be taken to deal with corruption for Bangladesh to become more competitive for the programme.
   Rocca said she had discussed with the prime minister about the need for improvement in governance and hoped that Bangladesh would continue to prosper.
   With the opposition leaders, Rocca talked about the hopes for free and fair election in future in Bangladesh. ‘We talked about the elections of Chittagong and expressed hopes that political violence and the August 21 attack will be fully investigated.’
   The US official began her talk with a meeting with Babar in the morning where she said she had talked about the need to fully investigate of the act of political violence that taken place in Bangladesh. ‘We talked about the investigation of (Shah AMS) Kibria’s assassination and the need for transparent probe into the murder.’
   She said she had expressed her concern at the August 21 attack on the opposition leader. ‘We hoped that will also be fully investigated. Our concern is also about the safety of the opposition leader.’
   Rocca replied positively when asked about the US State Department’s reports on the presence of international terrorists in Bangladesh, ‘We hope that all terrorists would be prosecuted whether they are in Bangladesh or anywhere.’
   ‘We always encourage the government to go after the extremists who undermine the country’s long-standing tradition of tolerance and moderation,’ she said.
   On the ban of two extremists groups by the government, Rocca said, ‘Certainly we welcome the move and I think elements like that are not only a threat to the US but also to other countries.’
   Regarding attacks on Ahmadiya, she said Bangladesh has a long tradition of religious harmony, which would continue and the minority would be protected.
   She said during the talks she had discussed issues of mutual concern such as how to develop further relations and areas of cooperation that Bangladesh and the United States share.
   During the meeting with Babar, Rocca assured Bangladesh of extending all possible cooperation in modernising its police forces and other law enforcing agencies.
   The US Ambassador to Bangladesh, Harry K Thomas Jr, and other US embassy officials were present as the US official met the Bangladesh leaders.

The Awami League president Sheikh Hasina was quoted to have told the visiting US assistant secretary of state for South Asia, Christina Rocca, that there was a need for immediate general elections in Bangladesh to save the people from ‘repressive regime of the alliance’.
   ‘We informed her about our demands on reforms in the caretaker and electoral systems as well as prevailing law and order situation, especially about extra-judicial killings,’ the AL general secretary, Abdul Jalil MP, said after the meeting with Rocca at Hasina’s Sudha Sadan residence.
   ‘The Awami League also informed the visiting US envoy about the projects the party plans to implement if voted back to power,’ he said.
   Rocca made the courtesy call on leader of the opposition in parliament on Thursday afternoon.
   The US ambassador in Dhaka, Harry K Thomas Jr, Jalil, Hasina’s political secretary Saber Hossain Chowdhury, and party’s foreign affair secretary Abul Hossain were present.
   Jalil said the US envoy had assured to help in flourishing democracy in the country. She also expressed concern about the extra-judicial killings.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on Thursday warned the BNP lawmakers that she would dissolve the parliament if they continued to remain absent from the sessions of Jatiya Sangsad.
   ‘I should dissolve Sangsad as many of you prefer to remain absent in the sessions,’ said Khaleda, also chairperson of the ruling BNP, who questioned and rebuked the lawmakers at a meeting of the BNP parliamentary party.
   She, however, did not allow the MPs to discuss the causes of the debacle of BNP candidates in the Chittagong City Corporation polls.
   ‘I will look into the issue as I know the reasons for the polls result,’ said Khaleda, who presided over the hour-long meeting at Sangsad Bhaban in the afternoon.
   ‘Many BNP leaders form political relationships (with non-BNP politicians) without calculating the consequences,’ she said, adding that the Awami League leaders do not do similar things.
   Earlier, she prevented Sultan Mahmud Babu, a Jamalpur MP, who tried to discuss the reasons for the debacle of the ruling coalition-backed candidate in the Chittagong mayoral elections. ‘It [parliamentary party meeting] is not the right forum to discuss the issue as it was a local government election.’
   Khaleda asked the lawmakers to regularly attend the parliamentary sessions so that Sangsad does not suffer from quorum crisis. ‘Quorum crisis shames the party.’
   She also asked them to supervise development activities in their constituencies and maintain regular links with people of their respective areas.
   ‘I will keep performance in the parliament and relations with the constituencies as the decisive factors before nominating anyone for the next general elections,’ she warned. ‘I know who maintain links with the constituencies and who does not.’
   In all of the 15 sessions, except the first session, the parliament suffered from severe quorum crisis as the BNP lawmakers were unwilling to participate in the proceedings. The party has 195 representatives in the Sangsad.
   Khaleda, along with almost all the lawmakers, rebuked Rashiduzzaman Millat, a Jamalpur MP, who said thirty to forty incumbent MPs would be defeated in the next elections.
   About the opposition parties’ demand for reforms in the Caretaker Government system, the prime minister said, ‘We will follow the constitution.’
   ‘If they [Awami League] want reform of the Election Commission, they will have to raise and discuss the issue in the Sangsad,’ said the leader of the House.
   BNP secretary-general and LGRD and cooperatives minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, echoed the PM’s opinions of reforms of the Caretaker Government system and the Election Commission.
   The prime minister also called upon her party leaders to work for further strengthening the organisation, said the chief whip, Khandakar Delwar Hossain, while briefing newsmen after the meeting.
   The right strategy to face the future movement of the major opposition party — in the light of the latest developments — also came up for discussion, he told reporters.
   The communications minister, Nazmul Huda, demanded immediate disbursement of funds in the last quarter of the annual development plan for smooth completion of the development projects. ‘There is only one and a half month of the financial year left.’
   The MPs supported the minister.
   ‘Determine the political strategy of the party first,’ said Syed Manzur Hossain. ‘Only development activities would not benefit the party much if it does not correct its politics.’
   M Akbar Ali advised the government to free upazila nirbahi officers from their responsibilities as presidents of the governing bodies of educational institutions to expedite development activities in the upazilas. ‘How can the UNO of my area work effectively if he is president of 52 educational institutions?’
   Shah Nurul Kabir Shaheen, a Mymensingh MP, suggested that the government strengthen the Gram Sarkar system.
   The other lawmakers, who spoke at the meeting, advised the government to increase agricultural subsidy, provide electricity to their constituencies and allow mosques across the country to use electricity free of charge.
   Seventeen lawmakers, including the education minister, Osman Farruk, state minister Ziaul Haque Zia, Syed Manzur Hossain, Md Abdul Karim Abbasi, Moshiur Rahman, Sarwar Jamal Nizam, SA Khaleque, Dr Mohammad Ali and Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu, out of 151 members present, spoke at the meeting.
   In a separate meeting of the Jamaat-e-Islami parliamentary party, party MPs, who spoke at the meeting, said that the Chittagong debacle resulted from discord among the BNP leaders.
   The Jamaat supporters voted for the alliance candidate, they said.
   If Jamaat had two lakh votes in the Chittagong city, the party would have considered nominating its own candidate for the mayoral polls, a Jamaat lawmaker said, which was presided over by the party amir, Motiur Rahman Nizami.

Jatiya Sangsad went into its sixteenth session on Thursday afternoon.
   The opposition Awami League legislators stayed off the session.
   Sangsad adopted a resolution condoling the death of 22 persons including two ex-lawmakers — Abdus Samad Azad of the Awami League and Shamsuddin Ahmed Ishaq of the BNP — who passed away during the recess after the last session of the parliament.
   The current session will continue for four working days only, according to the decision of the Business Advisory Committee of the Sangsad, which was taken before beginning of the session.
   The parliament also condoled on the death of Pope John Paul II, former ministers AM Zahiruddin Khan and Al-hajj Abdul Mannan, former members of the parliament, former MPAs, former MNAs, former advisor of the caretaker government and nine members of UN peacekeepers who were killed in Congo on February 25 this year.
   The leader of the house, Khaleda Zia, the LGRD and cooperatives minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, the law minister Moudud Ahmed, BNP MPs Sardar Sakhawat Hossain Bakul, Dildar Hossain Selim, Nazir Hossain, MA Jinnah, Shafi Ahmed Chowdhury, Ebadur Rahman Chowdhury and Kalim Uddin Ahmed of BNP, Kader Siddique of the BKSJL, and GM Kader and Fazle Rabbi of Jatiya Party, among others, paid tributes to Samad Azad and Ishaq.
   Sangsad observed one minute’s silence to show respect to the deceased and offered munajat, seeking divine blessings for the eternal peace of the departed souls.
   According to the advisory committee’s decision, the session will continue till May 17 after it resumes on May 15 following a two-day adjournment. The session will sit everyday at 5:15pm.
   The speaker, Muhammad Jamir Uddin Sircar, chaired both the session and the Business Advisory Committee’s meeting at Sangsad Bhaban.
   Khaleda Zia, Bhuiyan, Oli Ahmed, chief whip Khandaker Delwar Hossain, Moudud, agriculture minister MK Anwar, PM’s parliamentary affairs advisor Salauddin Qader Chowdhury, industries minister Matiur Rahman Nizami and Rawshan Ershad of Jatiya Party were present at the advisory committee’s meeting.

The Awami League on Thursday decided that its lawmakers would not join the current session of the parliament. They also did not participate in the obituary reference on former foreign minister Abdus Samad Azad.
   ‘The party decided not to join the current session of the parliament as our demands to discuss, in the Sangsad, the killing of Shah AMS Kibria, Ahsanullah Master, the 21 August grenade attack on an Awami League rally and the huge arms haul in Chittagong is yet to be met,’ the AL general secretary, Abdul Jalil MP, told journalists.
   The party took the decision at a joint meeting of the central working committee and the parliamentary party, held at the party’s Dhanmondi office, with Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
   When asked whether they would join the obituary reference on Samad Azad, Jalil said the party had already adopted the obituary reference at its meeting.
   Samad Azad MP died on April 27 at BIRDEM Hospital in Dhaka.
   The meeting adopted obituary reference on Samad Azad, former Awami League lawmaker and member of the advisory council, Abdul Mannan, and some other leaders who died recently.
   The Awami League boycotted the last session and did not join the obituary reference after the death of Kibria, as the speaker refused to adjourn the parliament after adopting the obituary reference.

The UNICEF and the United Arab Emirates have signed a $ 2.7 million agreement to help return and re-integrate the underage camel jockeys in their home communities, including Bangladesh and Pakistan.
   According to a report received from Abu Dhabi in Dhaka on Thursday, the accord would boost government efforts to exclude children from camel racing and prevent the exploitation of youngsters brought in as jockeys from other countries, especially from Asia.
   Most of the youngsters used in camel-racing in the UAE - a very popular sport in the Gulf region - are under the age of ten.
   The accord followed a meeting last week with the
   government and NGO delegates from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sudan and Mauritania to review steps needed to remove children from camel racing and assist their home countries in their bid to bring back and rehabilitate the youngsters.
   UNICEF estimated that thousands of children were still smuggled illegally into the country and employed as jockeys by camel breeders.
   Until now, the UAE had just simply asked the camel breeders who employed under-age children as jockeys to return them to their home countries immediately, the report said.
   However, camel racing is officially banned in the UAE for children under the age of 16.

The director general of the Bangladesh Rifles, Major General Mohammad Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, categorically said Bangladesh did not harbour any group of terrorists on its land.
   ‘There were no camps of terrorists in our territory. Nor did the Bangladesh government give refuge to any such group,’ said Jahangir while talking to a group of Indian journalists during his visit to Tin Bigha Corridor on Thursday.
   He had also a meeting with the Indian Border Security Force at the corridor, according to a news release issued Thursday.
   In reply to a question, Harish Kumar, deputy inspector general of Shiliguri region, told the Bangladeshi reporters that the Indian government was reviewing whether the gates of the corridor are open for 24 hours.
   The dwellers of Dahgram union parishad submitted a memorandum to the BDR director general demanding opening of the corridor for 24 hours, electrifying the enclave, and reopening of a hospital there.

Nepal’s powerful Maoists will support the country’s main political parties in their campaign to restore democracy after king Gyanendra seized power three months ago, a rebel statement said.
   The monarch stunned the world on February 1 when he fired the government, suspended civil liberties and jailed politicians saying the move was necessary to crush the Maoists who are fighting to topple the world’s only Hindu ruler and install a single party communist republic.
   On Sunday, seven centrist and leftist political parties who have often bickered in the past said they will launch a joint programme seeking restoration of democracy including the revival of parliament dissolved in 2002.
   ‘It is a progressive step. Our party has decided to help the joint protest movement by the political groups,’ Maoist chief Prachanda, who uses only one name, said in a statement late on Wednesday.
   The Maoist overture to the politicians came as the US assistant secretary of state for South Asia, Christina Rocca, ended a visit to Nepal on Wednesday.
   She urged the king and the political parties to fight the Maoists jointly and said the revolt was a threat to regional stability.
   Prachanda made a fresh appeal to the political parties to form an ‘extensive front’ with his group to establish democracy in the impoverished nation perched in the central Himalayas between China and India.
   There was no immediate comment from the political groups but they have turned down such appeals in the past, asking the rebels to stop violence instead.
   ‘Their hesitation to join us against the autocratic regime is due to their political weakness and limitations,’ said the rebel leader, who has not been seen in public since the revolt started in 1996.
   The rebels, who control large swathes of the rugged countryside, have carried out attacks on government troops and installations and have been periodically successful at paralysing much of the country by calling strikes.

The first South American-Arab summit ended Wednesday with a controversial call for Israel to withdraw from occupied territories while giving support for a Palestinian state.
   The 22 Arab League members and 12 South America nations called on Israel ‘to pull out of all occupied Arab territories (and return) to 1967 lines.’ They also urged the dismantling of Israeli settlements, including East Jerusalem.
   The final communique also stressed ‘the right of peoples to resist foreign occupation,’ in a veiled reference to the Palestinian cause that had concerned Israel and the United States.
   The declaration also criticised US sanctions against Syria while condemning ‘terrorist’ attacks
   in Iraq.
   The president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, of host nation Brazil expressed interest in helping the Middle East peace process, saying much work remained to be done.
   Though the leaders supported Iraq’s new government and condemned ‘terrorist operations targeting civilians, infrastructure and the democratic process,’ they also underscored the ‘importance of respecting the unity, sovereignty and independence of Iraq and not interfering in its domestic affairs.’
   The meeting also gave support for Uruguay’s Carlos Perez del Castillo to become the next head of the World Trade Organisation.
   Lula said the leaders had unanimously decided to support a candidate for the WTO leadership from ‘a developing country’.
   He did not name a candidate, but Perez del Castillo is the only rival in the running against Pascal Lamy, the former European Union trade commissioner from France.
   Israeli diplomatic sources in Brasilia said they were not surprised by the Arab leaders’ use of the gathering to speak out on the Middle East.
   ‘There is no international gathering in which Arabs participate where they do not take advantage to promote their demands,’ an Israeli source said.
   In return, South American nations, which have greater economic motivations, secured references in the statement encouraging the development of trade and investment.
   Much of the final day was devoted to bilateral meetings. The Venezuelan left-wing president, Hugo Chavez, held talks with the Algerian president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, current head of the Arab League. Brazil’s president met with leaders from Bahrain, Djibouti, Peru and other nations.
   The final statement also urged Britain and Argentina to renew negotiations so that a fair and peaceful settlement can be reached on the disputed Falkland islands. The two countries fought a short war over the islands, which Argentina calls the Malvinas, in 1982.
   Though only five heads of state from the 22 Arab League nations turned up at the summit, Argentine sources said a meeting of foreign ministers from the two regions would be held in Argentina in 2007, with a full summit in Morocco in 2008.

The alliance against World Bank immunity accused the multilateral lending agency of creating environmental catastrophe as well as putting the lives of the millions of people in dangers by its policies and projects undertaken in Bangladesh.
   The alliance, a platform of over 50 local and international volunteer organisations, Thursday staged a human chain protesting a government move to enact a bill providing the World Bank legal immunity during the current parliament session.
   The leaders of the alliance later submitted a memorandum to the parliament speaker to stop the passage of the bill. The bill expected to be passed in the 16th session of the parliament that began Thursday.
   ‘Over six thousands entrances of canals in the coastal belt have been blocked due to construction of barrages and other blockades,’ said Shariff A Kafi, a leader of the alliance.
   He said the World Bank is going to fund the India’s river linking project that will adversely affect Bangladesh.
   ‘Enactment of the law providing immunity will breach the fundamental human and constitutional rights of people of Bangladesh,’ said Aminur Rasul Babul.
   The parliamentary standing committee on finance ministry approved the draft of the International Financial Organisations (Amendment) Bill, 2004.
   The speakers said according to the international financial organisations act, 1972, the bank and its officials have given a number of opportunities and privileges.
   However, the World Bank is putting pressure to pass the bill for its full immunity since 2001 after a former bank executive filed a case against it.

New Age editor Enayetullah Khan, also editor in chief of the weekly Holiday, after his surgery on April 26 in Toronto, developed an infection resulting from the whipple procedure, which included removal of the head of the pancreas, duodenum, part of the common bile duct and gall bladder.
   The doctors have detected it as being E coli, released in his bloodstream from his stomach during the surgery.
   He has been incredibly alert and engaged a day after the surgery. After the diagnosis of the infection, he has been given antibiotics, and is feeling better at present.

Seven United Nations peacekeepers from Bangladesh were wounded in an ambush on Thursday in the Ituri region of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a UN source said.
   ‘Seven Bangladeshis were injured today. There was an ambush at Gheti, which is on the road to Aveba, 60 kilometres southeast of Bunia,’ the UN source said. A UN military source also confirmed the ambush.
   Ituri is one of Congo’s worst troublespots, where ethnic militias have killed more than 50,000 civilians since 1999 – the year the current UN force in the country, known by its French acronym MONUC, was established.
   ‘The Bangladeshis have been evacuated to Bunia ... We still need to confirm the state of the wounded,’ the source said.
   Nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers were killed in the lawless Ituri district in February when two patrols were ambushed in one of the worst attacks against UN troops in Africa.
   ‘During (Thursday’s) ambush, a vehicle rolled over so we don’t know yet if people were injured by the accident or bullets,’ the source said.

Fighter jets roared over the US capital to intercept a small plane which flew into restricted airspace and triggered the emergency evacuation of the White House, Congress and Supreme Court for 15 minutes until the ‘errant pilots’ were forced to land.
   With the September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New York still fresh in everyone’s mind, security services told White House staff on Wednesday to ‘run, run, run.’ But the alert lasted just 15 minutes as the Cessna 150, carrying two men, was hustled away from Washington by F-16s.
   Terrance Gainer, head of the Capitol police, which guards Congress, blamed ‘errant pilots’. The two men in the plane were questioned by investigators but released after a few hours.
   The president, George W Bush, was riding his bike on a trail in the Washington suburbs when the plane came within three miles (4.8 kilometres) of the White House, according to presidential spokesman Scott McClellan.
   ‘Given such circumstances and the fact that the plane turned away from the White House, the decision was made to inform the president upon conclusion of his bike ride,’ McClellan told reporters.
   The vice president, Dick Cheney, was evacuated from the building, said McClellan, while First Lady Laura Bush, who was at the White House with Nancy Reagan, widow of ex-president Ronald Reagan, were taken to a ‘secure location’.
   The defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was also informed of the incursion, according to the Pentagon.
   Two F-16 fighters scrambled from Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington and fired four warning flares to divert the Cessna, the North American Aerospace Defence Command said.
   Flares are used to warn the pilot of an intruding aircraft to contact air traffic control, to follow an intercepting aircraft or that force may be used if he does not comply, the military said.
   The plane did not respond to radio messages, however. One of the jets and a customs department Black Hawk helicopter escorted the Cessna to an aerodrome in Frederick, Maryland, about 35 miles (55 kilometres) north of Washington.
   Police immediately detained the occupants. The Cessna had come from a flying club at Smoketown, in Pennsylvania.
   US media named the two as student pilot Troy Martin and Jim Sheaffer, both of Pennsylvania, who were flying to an air show in North Carolina.
   FBI spokesman Barry Maddox said no criminal charges would be made but that the Federal Aviation Administration could take sanctions.
   Officials highlighted the quick response to events. The Capitol police chief said between 10,000 and 15,000 people left the capitol complex in five or six minutes.
   There was a similar alert in June of last year, just before the funeral of ex-president Ronald Reagan, when a plane carrying the governor of Kentucky to the funeral entered restricted capital airspace.
   On April 27, Bush was taken to an underground bunker at the White House in a false alarm scare over a plane.

The Awami League Central Working Committee on Thursday agreed a proposal that the chief adviser of the caretaker government who would be acceptable to all parties could be appointed from the judges, teachers, administrative officials, and lawyers.
   Without limiting the office of the chief adviser to a choice from the immediate-past chief justice, the committee members suggested that it should be kept open so that people of similar integrity could be chosen as the head of the caretaker government.
   After reviewing the proposals, they added some more suggestions to it, and amended some of the points presented by the chairmen of the party’s subcommittees.
   The chairman of the party’s subcommittee on law affairs, Barrister Amirul Islam, presented the five-page proposal for the reforms of the election commission, and the chief of the subcommittee on political cell, Professor Shamsul Huda Harun, the four-page proposal for the caretaker government system.
   The members also empowered the committee to finalise the draft of reform proposals incorporating all the suggestions for which most of the members agreed during Thursday’s meeting.
   With the party chief, Sheikh Hasina, in the chair, the central committee members and members of the parliamentary committee met to finalise the proposals. The meeting began at 11:00am at the party’s Dhanmondi office, and continued till 2:30pm. The meeting was adjourned till 6:00pm, later resumed at 6:30pm and ended at 9:00pm.
   The meeting unanimously agreed to one of the proposals which suggested the executive power of the state should lie on the chief adviser of the caretaker government during the interim period.
   Another proposal to which everyone agreed was that committees should be formed each district to work as the returning officer instead of appointment of the deputy commissioner for it.
   The Awami League general secretary, Abdul Jalil, said discussion on the two proposals was held, and it will be finalised after incorporating the proposals of other opposition parties.
   ‘After finalising the reform proposal incorporating today’s suggestion, we will discuss it with other opposition parties to make it an integrated proposal and make it public by this month. The Awami League and other opposition parties will realise the reforms through movement on the street, if the government takes recourse to intransigence,’ Jalil said.
   ‘If the government itself offered a dialogue on the reforms to the caretaker and electoral system, then we will sit,’ Jalil said at a press briefing after the adjournment of the party’s working committee meeting.
   Jalil said his party will cooperate with the government by joining the parliament if the opposition’s joining is necessary for amending the constitution.
   The working committee adopted a resolution urging the countrymen to be united to free themselves from the clutches of the ‘corrupt government’.

Three-hundred and twenty-five examinees were expelled for adopting unfair means and five teachers for abetting the act on the first day of the Higher Secondary Certificate, Business Management, Alim, Fazil and Kamil examinations under the nine education boards on Thursday.
   According to the education ministry control room and the New Age correspondents, 105 examinees were expelled on the English first paper (compulsory) examination under the seven general education boards, 134 under the technical education board and 86 under the madrassah education board. A fake examinee was also arrested from Barisal board.
   Four of the teachers were expelled under the technical education board and one under the general education board, they said.
   Under the general education boards, 21 examinees were expelled in Dhaka, five in Comilla, 14 in Jessore, 50 in Rajshahi, eight in Chittagong, one in Sylhet and 6 in Barisal.
   The state minister for education, ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milan, visited some centres in Kushtia and Meherpur.
   He expelled the secretary of the Gangni Mahila Degree College centre for abetting the examinees in unfair means and two examinees from the Meherpur Government College centre for adopting unfair means.
   The education minister, M Osman Farruk, did not visit any centre.
   According to the examination control room, about 5,000 examinees did not sit for the examination on the day.
   New Age Barisal correspondent reported expulsion of six examinees — two from Kanthalia centre in Jhalakati, two from Barisal Islamia College and Barisal Women’s College, and one each from Borhanuddin centre in Bhola and Pirojpur Women’s college centre in Pirojpur.
   The fake examinee, Sujon Howladar, was arrested from Gouranadi Girls College centre in Barisal.
   He was caught red handed while giving proxy to Kaium Islam (roll No 807695) of Govt Gouranadi College, by changing the photos in the registration and the admit card.
   New Age Jessore correspondent reports: Fourteen examinees were expelled under the Jessore board. Three each were expelled from Jessore and Khulna, two each from Magura and Kushtia and one each from Narail, Jhenidah, Satkhira and Meherpur.
   New Age Rangamati correspondent adds that three examinees — two from Bangalhallia College centre of Rajastali upazila and one from Karnaphuli College centre of Kaptai upazila — were expelled for adopting unfair means.

Guerrillas assassinated a general and a colonel who were en route to work Thursday, and a car bomb exploded near a busy market and movie theatre in eastern Baghdad, part of a wave of attacks that killed at least 21 Iraqis and wounded more than 70, authorities said.
   Two US Marines were killed and 14 wounded when an explosive device hit their troop transport vehicle during the offensive Wednesday. At least five Marines and as many as 100 guerrillas have been killed in all in Operation Matador, which entered its fifth day Thursday.
   Guerrillas detonated four car bombs in Baghdad, including at least two suicide attacks, on Thursday, said a US military spokesman, Master Sergeant Greg Kaufman.
   In the bloodiest, a parked car blew up in eastern Baghdad and set fire to shops and cars and damaged a nearby apartment, said police 1st lieutenant Mazin Saeed. The bomb killed at least 17 people and wounded 65, with women and children among the injured, said police lieutenant colonel, Ahmed Aboud.
   An enraged crowd turned its anger on police and journalists, beating at least two Iraqi photographers. The police and US troops fired in the air to disperse the crowd.
   A suicide car bomber targeted an American convoy on a highway in western Baghdad, injuring two civilians, said police 1st lieutenant Majid Zaki. There was no immediate word of any American casualties.
   Elsewhere in the capital, suspected guerrillas shot and killed brigadier general, Iyad Imad Mahdi, as he drove to work at the ministry of defence, and colonel Fadhil Mohammed Mobarak was shot and killed as he travelled to the interior ministry, where he led its police control room, police said.
   Two more car bombs exploded in the northern city of Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, the police said.
   One blast went off near a police station in a central residential area, killing two people and wounding two, said police captain, Sarhad Talabani.
   On Wednesday night, a US Assault Amphibian Vehicle struck an explosive device outside the town of Husaybah, killing two Marines and wounding 14, American military spokesman captain Jeffrey Pool said Thursday.
   Earlier in the offensive, which began late Saturday night, at least three Marines were reported killed and 20 wounded. It is one of the biggest US military operations in Iraq since Fallujah was taken from militants six months ago.
   The violence comes despite a major US offensive aimed at followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a remote desert region near the Syrian border said to be a staging ground for some of the deadliest attacks.

At least 42 incidents of robbery took place across the country in the past five weeks till May 5, according to reports published in a few national dailies.
   Eight persons and two suspected robbers were killed and 87, including four cops, injured in the incidents. The police arrested 35 persons in connection with the robberies, and recovered five firearms and 17 rounds of bullet from their possession.
   The robberies were committed at 33 houses, three buses, three markets, a garments factory, a jewellery shop and a cellular phone shop.
   Some victims complain that the police show a tendency to record the cases of robberies as petty thefts to avoid pressure from the higher authorities.
   On May 1 robbers killed Abdul Mannan, a security guard, and Nazrul Islam, a sweeper, of the Savar Cantonment Branch of the Sonali Bank after they had failed to break into and loot the bank.
   The Savar police arrested three persons for suspected involvement in the attempted robbery and the double murder.
   Away in Narayanganj, 334 tolas (approximately 4 kilograms) of gold, valued at about Tk 35 lakh, from Al-Amin Jewellers at Kalim Bazar of Siddhirganj in Narayanganj the same night. The police arrested two night guards.
   The same day robbers looted Tk 2.5 lakh from a house at Rathura of Kaliganj upazila in Gazipur, and killed the owner, Monir Uddin Akhund, as he tried to resist. The police arrested Liton, 30, of the locality in this connection.
   A robbery also took place at Pasmhim Roushonia under Sirajdikhan upazila in Munshiganj. The robbers looted Tk 2 lakh from the house of Khokon Chandra Dey and shot dead his mother, Parul Rani Dey, 60, as she tried to resist them.
   On April 17 a band of armed men broke into the residence of the headmistress of the Ashulia Government Primary School, Talukder Shahnaz Kabir Lily, 35, in Uttara, stabbed her to death and took away Tk 4.5 lakh and 25 tolas of gold. The police arrested the son of the landlord and four others.
   On April 11 armed robbers stormed into the Rajpat branch of the Bangladesh Krishi Bank at Kashiani in Gopalganj and killed Ayub Hossain, a second officer of the bank, when he refused to hand over the keys to the vault. They took away Tk 2 lakh and critically injured Arun Sarkar, a supervisor of the bank.
   On April 29 a band of armed men stormed into the house of Sohrab Hossain at Katakhali of Assasuni upazila in Satkhira and took away Tk 2 lakh. They also raped two girls who had come to visit the house.
   On April 27 a gang of robbers looted Tk 2 lakh injuring 30 passengers of a Narayanganj-bound bus of Borak Paribahan at Shyampur.
   Bandits looted Tk 1.5 lakh from a house and bombed to death its owner, Nasir Uddin, at Baliaghata under Panchbibi upazila in Jaipurhat on April 11.
   On April 28 a gang of robbers stormed the GrameenPhone showroom at Hasnabad in Keraniganj, and looted Tk 8 lakh.
   Faruk Ahmed, additional commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told New Age that most of the crimes had taken place due mainly to unemployment.
   ‘Dhaka is one of the populous cities in the world. A good number of people migrate to the city who have no identity card. So it is really difficult to identify the criminals although we always try to prevent crimes.’

Two regional leaders of two underground parties were killed in ‘crossfires’ between law enforcers and cohorts of the killed leaders in Rajshahi and Chuadanga Wednesday night and early Thursday.
   With these, the ‘crossfire’ death toll raised to 299 since June 2004.
   The deceased were identified as Baki Billah, 35, a regional leader of the Purba Banglar Communist Party of Charghat in Rajshahi, and Atiar Rahman, 45, also a regional leader of the Biplobi Communist Party in Chuadanga.
   RAB sources said the Pabna RAB held Baki from village Moud under Faridpur upazila in Pabna on May 11 and took him to Rajshahi RAB Headquarters to interrogate him.
   Following his confessional statement, the battalion launched a drive to recover illegal weapons and arrest his accomplices, RAB said.
   On their way to Charghat early Thursday, Baki’s accomplices opened fire on RAB men. The law enforcers also fired back. Baki was caught in ‘crossfire’ when he tried to escape, RAB said.
   RAB said Baki was accused in at least 30 criminal cases, including five murder charges.
   The battalion also seized a shutter gun and a live cartridge from the spot.
   In another incident, Atiar Rahman, 45, was killed in ‘crossfire’ with the police at Shahebnagar in Chuadanga Wednesday night.
   The police said Cobra, a special team of the Detective Branch, aided by the police of Sinduria outpost, arrested Atiar from his second wife’s paternal house in Jhenaidah Wednesday evening.
   Soon after his arrest, the police recovered one shutter gun and six bullets from Sinduria Primary School.
   Following his confessional statement, the police team took him to nearby village Shahebnagar to recover more firearms and nab his accomplices.
   As they reached the spot, his accomplices opened fire on the law enforcers.
   The law enforcers also fired shots.
   Atiar was caught in ‘crossfire’ when attempted to flee and died on the spot, receiving bullets in the chest and back.
   The police said Atiar was wanted in 10 cases, including eight murders.
   Earlier, three of his brothers were killed by his opponents.

At least six people died of heat stroke in Pabna in the last two days.
   The excessive heat has badly affected the normal life of the people in the district.
   The Ishwardi Meteorological Office said the temperature of Pabna remained between 39 and 40 degree for the last few days.
   The six deceased were identified as Ozifa Bewa, 73 of village Khaschar under Sadar upazila, Samu Mandal, 68 of village Raninagar, Kandu Bepari, 65, of Poitapara, Rahmat Ali, 72, of village Alokakandi under Sujanagar upazila, Tafizuddin, 87, of village Lakshmikunda under Ishwardi upazila and Tafura Khatun, 58 of village Char in Dadapur.
   More than 500 hundred people, including elderly persons and children fell sick due to the excessive heat and were admitted into different hospitals in the district.

Scientists in the United States say they have created a robot that reproduces itself, marking a small breakthrough in the search for machines that one day could be sent on a scouting mission into deep space and repair themselves if they get damaged or break down.
   The machine, created by a team at New York’s Cornell University, bears more resemblance to a nursery toy than a Star Wars robot. It is built out of four smart building blocks, cannot walk or talk and still depends on a touch of human help.
   But, its inventors say, it provides concrete proof that machines can be programmed to reproduce themselves, thus meeting a key conceptual requirement for building robots able to survive in an environment that is too harsh or remote for humans.
   The four blocks are 10-centimetre (four-inch) cubes that have curved slits carved into
   the sides, enabling them to
   twist through an arc of 120 degrees.
   The sides also have electromagnets that enable them to selectively attach and detach from each other.
   The modular robot can thus reconfigure itself into a tower, a right angle, a square, and so on.
   And in each block is a small computer chip which is programmed with step-by-step instructions about what to do.
   The material for the replication are blocks that are placed (by human hand) at a ‘feeding’ point close by.
   To start things off, the robot bends over and sets its top cube on a table. Then it bends to one side to pick up a cube from the feeding point and deposits that cube on top of the first.
   By repeating the process, but swivelling and transferring cubes accordingly, one robot made up of a stack of blocks can create another just like itself.
   And because one robot cannot reach across another of the same height, the robot being built helps to complete its own construction.
   Self-replicating robots are standard fare in science fiction but extraordinarily difficult to achieve in practice, both in the challenges of technology and software.
   So far only two machines that can reproduce have been unveiled, both of them primitive and nowhere near as successful as biological organisms.
   The definition of self-replication is generally considered to be a machine that can build itself, and that this copy can then build another copy and so on.
   Reproduction is a prerequisite in the biological world, but it also comes with the ability to adapt thanks to genetic changes in succeeding generations.
   Self-replication and repair could also be used by robots that are sent into hostile environments, such as a war zone or a damaged nuclear reactor, where a human could not survive.
   The robot is described in Thursday’s issue of Nature, the British science weekly.

The bail petition of the managing director and a director of the collapsed Spectrum Sweater and Knitting Limited in Savar was again cancelled by a Dhaka court on Thursday.
   The district and sessions judge, Rafiqul Islam, rejected the bail petition of Shahriar Sayed Hasan, the managing director, and Abul Kashem Fakir, a director of Spectrum, which collapsed on April 11 killing at least 76 people and injuring 84 others critically.
   Shahriar and Kashem earlier surrendered before the court Sunday, 26 days after the catastrophe, and the court sent them to jail rejecting their bail petition.
   Terming the garment factory collapse ‘simply an accident’, lawyers of the petitioners said they had already provided compensation to the victims and more compensation would be given.
   As all papers of the building, including the design and permission, were kept in the office and all those were destroyed, they could not submit the design and plan of the building instantly, pleaded the counsels.
   Opposing the bail, the public prosecutor, Mohsin Mia, said they had constructed a nine-story building instead of four for which they had been given permission. Also, submitting the building design to the court, he demanded their seven-day remand.
   Hearing both the sides, the judge rejected the bail petition and fixed Sunday for hearing on the remand plea.
   Several hundred of garments workers, meanwhile, chanted slogans outside the court premises demanding exemplary punishment for Shahriar and Kashem.

Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar made amends of his first innings failure hitting an 84-ball 75 against the British Universities as the three-day match ended in a draw at Fenner’s in Cambridge on Thursday.
   Bangladesh restricted the opponent to 238, taking a lead of 143 and scored 246 for four in the second innings when the declaration came.
   Opener Javed Omar contributed 39, Nafees Iqbal 46, Shahriar Nafees 50. Bashar, who scored eight, in the first innings decorated his innings with 10 boundaries.
   Rajin Saleh and Mohammad Ashraful were not out on 30 and five respectively.

The army on Wednesday arrested an Indian national in the Jahanabad Cantonment area in the Khulna city, and seized a knife and a Bangladesh map from him.
   The Khan Jahan Ali police said Pratibha Chayan, 47, who comes from the Indian province of Orissa, was found wandering about the cantonment area.
   Pratibha was later handed over the Khan Jahan Ali police station with the knife and the map Wednesday night. He was sent to jail on Thursday.

Mayor elect ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury defeated Mir Mohammad Nasir Uddin by 89,391 votes instead of 91,481 announced earlier, according to the revised result sheets of the May 9 election to the Chittagong City Corporation.
   The vote count mistake was detected after the Returning Officer’s office had prepared the final result sheets Tuesday night, a day after the election, and the revised results were sent to the Election Commission headquarters, sources in the office of the returning officer said.
   According to the revised results, the Awami League-backed Nagarik Committee candidate, Mohiuddin, polled 352,117 votes, which was earlier counted 350,891, and the BNP-led alliance candidate, Nasir, got 262,796 instead of 259,410.
   The revised result also show that the vote margin between the two candidates reduced by 2,090 votes.
   Meanwhile, the Nagarik Committee will hold the victory rally at and bring out victory procession from the Laldighi Maidan in the city on Sunday.
   The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, also the leader of the opposition in parliament will be present as chief guest.
   The elected ward commissioners and woman commissioners belonging to the committee will also join the rally with separate processions to celebrate the third consecutive term victory of Mohiuddin.
   The committee has urged all irrespective party and opinion affiliations to attend the rally.

At least 50 people, including 10 members of the Bangladesh Rifles, were injured in a clash between the traders, villagers and the BDR members at Kalia Bazaar under Debhata upazila in Satkhira on Thursday.
   BDR sources said some traders with the villagers attacked the BDR members at about 8:30am when they launched an operation in the bazaar to seize the shrimp fry smuggled from India.
   As the traders and local people threw brickbats and stones at the BDR members during the drive, they swooped on them, sources added,
   According to 41 battalion of BDR, they fired 20 shots at blanks to save their life, and 10 members got injured as the villagers and traders attacked them. The BDR did not swoop on the villagers, BDR added.
   But local people alleged the BDR members fired blank shots and beat up the villagers of Baliadanga. They claimed at least 40 villagers and traders, including two women, were injured during the hour-long clash.

Six fishermen of Bhola died reportedly after eating patka fish on Thursday, the police said.
   They said eight fishermen, who went for fishing in the Meghna estuary in the morning, feel sick after having the poisonous fish in their lunch.
   Six of them died on the boat and the remaining two were rescued and hospitalised by the fishermen in other boats, said the officer in charge of the Char Fassion police, Mohammad Ali.