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The country’s health sector, which was allocated Tk 4,240 crore in the current fiscal year, suffers from widespread corruption, depriving patients of medical services at public hospitals and health complexes across the country, according to reports recently released by the regional offices of the Transparency International Bangladesh.
   The reports, released in the last two days at different district headquarters, also reveal lack of life-saving medicines and unhealthy environment in most of the government hospitals.
   Besides, the reports said, the physicians and hospital staffers force patients to go to the private clinics.
   New Age also found that most of the physicians of the government hospitals practise privately or work for private clinics and hospitals, and devote little time to their duty at the health complexes and hospitals.
   Many of the costly diagnostic machines and motor vehicles, which the government gave to hospitals, have gone out of order because of lack of proper maintenance. The poor, unhygienic environment in the government hospitals proves that the hospital administrations are quite indifferent to their duties.
   Moreover, the TIB report on Kurigram Hospital, released last Sunday, reveals that the patients have to pay extra money to get service from the hospital.
   Out of the total number of patients at the hospital’s outpatient department, 72 per cent did not get all the medicines prescribed by the physicians from the hospital’s store, while 15 per cent did not get any.
   Seventy per cent of the patients admitted to the hospital received some of the medicines from its store while 26 per cent did not get any.
   The physicians of the hospital illegally extract Tk 41 on an average from one per cent of the patients. About 1.4 per cent of the patients admitted to the hospital paid Tk 1,000 on an average everyday to the doctors.
   Because 21 per cent of them have to pay Tk 40 on an average as extra money, only two per cent of the patients visiting the outpatient department had their X-rays done in the hospital and only 8 per cent had their blood and stool tests done in the hospital’s laboratory.
   About seventeen per cent of the patients, who had their surgical operations done at the Kurigram Hospital, had to give Tk 550 to the authorities concerned. It was completely illegal for the authorities to take that money.
   About three per cent of the patients had to pay Tk 30 as tips for the use of a trolley, 4 per cent had to pay Tk 86 for a saline transfusion, 7 per cent had to pay Tk 88 for being bandaged, 3 per cent had to pay Tk 55 to get a bed and 16 per cent had to pay at least Tk 54 to the hospital staffers for other facilities.
   Seven per cent of the patients were told to go to the private clinics and the private chambers of the hospital’s doctors.
   The TIB, Kurigram branch, conducted a survey of 500
   families — 200 families at Kurigram town and 300 at 15 villages of sadar upazila — from April 1 to June 15.
   The other two reports on the government hospitals of Rangpur sadar and Natore sadar, which the Transparency International recently
   released, presented a similar scenario.
   The New Age found that the X-ray machines at the Gaffargaon Health Complex have been out of order since December, 2003.
   Since then, the hospital authorities kept the X-ray room locked and did not take any initiative to repair the machines on the grounds that there was disruption in power supply.
   As a result the patients had to have their X-rays done at private labs, which have links with the complexes’ doctors, at exorbitant charges.
   The New Age’s Sylhet correspondent reports that two of the three ambulances at the 31-bed health complex at Bishwanath upazila have been out of order since January this year.
   Most of the nine physicians remain absent and many others who come to hospital at 9am leave it by noon.
   Almost all the physicians of health complexes at
   Kapasia in Gazipur and Monohardi in Narsingdi have private chambers in the towns, where they spend most of the time.

The 13th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, scheduled for November 12–13, would be dominated among others by discussion on SAARC development fund as the seven-nation forum has been facing setbacks in agenda implementation it had sorted out over two decades.
   The leaders will discuss the creation of an umbrella fund, initially with $300 million, for economic, social and infrastructure development, keeping in mind the state of regional poverty.
   ‘Bangladesh hopes that the SAARC leaders would reach a consensus to create the fund that would help regional development,’ a foreign ministry official on Monday told reporters, adding a small SAARC fund has remained idle for a decade.
   The fund could not be used for lack of a proper mechanism, he said.
   There has been a fund of over $6 million, contributed by the member states, which has remained idle since 1996 when SAARC members deposited it to South Asian Development Fund.
   The fund’s governing body sits once a year, but it failed to come up with any mechanisms to spend the amount as the body lacks experts, economists, analysts, programme officers and other staff to run an independent secretariat.
   In the circumstance, the finance experts in September agreed to create a fund with all the provisions and scopes so that the fund becomes useful for poverty reduction and regional development.
   Available statistics show about 22 per cent the region is in extreme poverty and the percentage of people living below poverty line is 60.
   The South Asian leaders recognise poverty alleviation as the greatest challenge facing
   the peoples of the region
   during the 12th SAARC
   Summit in Islamabad in January 2004.
   The initial fund would be created by the member states, and also, if needed, from grant and donations, said the foreign ministry official.
   He said the mode of payment for the fund may be as per the percentage of the membership fee the states contribute to the regional body.
   There are now a number of proposals for the creation of the fund for the South Asian association.
   The forthcoming summit would discuss to bring the proposals for SAARC fund for people with disabilities, SAARC Media Development Fund, the Poverty Alleviation Fund and SAARC Infrastructure Development Fund under a common umbrella.
   A foreign ministry official dealing with the SAARC desk said the expert opinion would first go to the secretary-level meeting during the two-day summit, and then the observations would be placed before the SAARC leaders for their consideration.
   ‘This summit will make a step forward for creating the SAARC fund,’ the official hoped.

The Special Branch of police, to ensure foolproof security during the SAARC Summit, has asked foreigners residing in Bangladesh illegally to leave before the summit begins on November 12 in the capital.
   The SB has already identified some 1,000 foreigners overstaying their visas, including 24 individuals deemed to be ‘suspicious’, and asked them to leave by November 4. The suspected people include Pakistani, Libyan and Indian nationals.
   A top police official said four teams of the Special Control Organisation of the branch were working to identify foreigners staying illegally, who would become security hazards for the summit.
   ‘There are about one lakh foreigners staying in the country illegally,’ the official told New Age on Monday night. ‘The drive began targeting SAARC Summit but will continue to deport illegal foreigners in phases.
   He said the decision to deport the foreigners came two days after the deadly bomb attack in the Indian capital of New Delhi and the government has started revising security arrangements for the two-day summit, which will be attended by the heads of states of seven south Asia countries.
   Sources in the police department said the law enforcers would keep close watch on all foreigners during the twice-postponed summit.
   ‘Movement of the foreigners staying legally will also come under watch and some of their movement may be controlled during the summit,’ said an official of the Special Branch. ‘Some may be asked to remain inside their residences.’
   The nationality of the foreigners, who have been asked to leave the country, could not be confirmed. However, the drive has been launched to deport foreigners from the country to avert any subversive activity during the summit, said the sources.
   A number of foreigners, who failed to show necessary documents or who have had their visas expired, have already been asked to leave.
   Admitting the move, the inspector general of police, Abdul Quayyum, said it was a routine duty of the Special Branch but did not elaborate further.

Police in Dhaka said Monday they have launched a crackdown on thousands of beggars before the SAARC summit in November.
   ‘We’ve launched a special crackdown on beggars and vagrants to ensure foolproof security ahead of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit and also to keep the city clean,’ a senior police officer told AFP.
   ‘It does not look good if the beggars swarm the streets. They are a public nuisance and can easily be used for any criminal purposes,’ he added.
   He said beggars would be detained temporarily at rehabilitation centres.
   Police have already deployed thousands of troops in the city of 12 million and the rest of the country before the two-day summit which starts November 12.
   Security forces have been on high alert since a series of deadly bomb blasts targeting courts and government buildings on August 17 and October 3, which were linked to a banned hardline Islamic group.
   Dhaka has at least 27,000 beggars. Many migrated to the city after losing rural homes to
   riverbank erosion in the
   low-lying delta nation, according to a survey by the government’s social services department.
   The survey found that beggars in the capital can earn around one-and-a-half dollars a day—slightly more than almost half the country’s 140 million population.
   The summit was meant to take place from January 9-11 but was cancelled after last December’s tsunami disaster battered Asian nations.
   Rescheduled for February 6-7, it was postponed again at the last minute after India pulled out citing security concerns in the region.
   SAARC was founded in 1985 to forge economic solidarity and improve living standards among the region’s 1.4 billion people.

Bangladesh has strongly objected to the unprovoked firing on and killing of innocent Bangladeshis by India’s BSF at a home secretary-level meeting in New Delhi, and India has assured the secretary that its border guards would practise the highest degree of restraint.
   The home secretary, Safar Raj Hossain, while briefing newsmen at the Zia International Airport on his return from Delhi on Monday evening, said killing of Bangladeshis by the BSF was the major issue at the meeting.
   ‘We can’t tolerate the killing of our nationals and have asked them to take up the matter seriously,’ he said, adding that the two sides discussed various issues but focussed on border management.
   ‘For some days the BSF jawans have been killing innocent Bangladeshis indiscriminately. Our fellow citizens are very important to us and our main task is to save their lives,’ said the home secretary.
   He said that villagers and farmers living in the border areas can sometimes enter the No Man’s Land mistakenly, but the BSF should not kill them just like that. ‘They can arrest them and even put them in jail before trying them in the courts, but they should not kill them.’
   ‘We requested them not to murder the Bangladeshis anymore. The Indian side considered the issue seriously and assured us that they would ask their border forces to show restraint and be less trigger-happy.’
   The 10-member Bangladeshi delegation also brought up the issue of implementing the 1974 Land Border Agreement signed by the two neighbours to exchange enclaves, and discussed the Tin Bigha corridor.
   ‘They assured us they would look into the matter when we told them to keep the corridor open for 24 hours instead of the present 12 hours as it is causing different types of problems to our people,’ said the home secretary.
   On cross-border smuggling and trespassing of criminals, he said that the two nations agreed to form joint boundary working groups. ‘Bangladesh is ready for it and is expected to launch it after the SAARC summit.’
   Safar Raj said various goods are being smuggled through the border, but smuggling of Phensidyl and other hard drugs into Bangladesh was their main concern. ‘We tried to convince them that Phensidyl, produced in India, not only destroys our younger generation but theirs too, and they took it seriously.’
   The two sides will increase cooperation to help each other to check smuggling of arms and explosives. ‘The border guards of the two countries will carry out coordinated patrols on the border to check the deadly business.’
   The Bangladesh side reiterated their nation’s determination to not shelter or protect foreign criminals. ‘It is the declared policy of the government that criminals will not be sheltered or protected,’ Safar Raj told the meeting in regard to India’s claim that Bangladesh shelters Indian criminals and rebels.
   ‘Whatever the nationality, a criminal is a criminal and we will try to arrest and try him. The India side appreciated our position,’ he added.
   He said the Bangladesh side handed over a list of Bangladeshi criminals hiding in India, and the Indian side handed over a list of their criminals hiding in Bangladesh. ‘Both sides agreed to help each other so that the fugitives can be apprehended,’ he told journalists, but refused to disclose the names in the lists of either side.
   Safar Raj said the extradition agreement did not feature in the discussion.
   The two countries also agreed to increase cooperation to stop forgery of their currencies.
   A member of the Joint Rivers Commission, joint secretary (political) of the home ministry and deputy director-general of the Bangladesh Rifles accompanied the home secretary to the three-day meeting that began on October 26.

Jarina could have been a fabulous fashion model. Her aquiline nose, high cheek-bones, silky dark skin and the slightly curled hair would have electrified audiences in Milan and New York. Maybe in another life…
   In her late thirties, Jarina Begum remains slender — sickly slender. The total lack of excess flesh is due more to malnutrition than a strict diet. ‘I had a few mouthfuls of millet and some boiled arum with salt and chilli for sehri last night,’ she said on October 27.
   Compared to other days it was a good meal because she had borrowed some millet from a relative.
   Jarina’s husband, Nurul Haque, is too old to work and generally depends on her earnings. Like most of their neighbours, the couple does not own any land and have had to relocate themselves a number of times.
   They are all victims of river erosion. ‘Many of the families here come from faraway chars that vanished into the river,’ said Jarina. Now she lives in a small hut near the Dudhkumar river in Jatrapur union under sadar upazila in Kurigram district.
   Generally Jarina earns enough to support the two of them. But of late, especially since the planting season of aman paddy, she has found little work. ‘There is little work during this time of the year. And whatever work there is, people prefer to hire men.’
   She spent the last of her savings almost a month ago. ‘Since then I have had to borrow to manage one meal a day.’ Mostly Jarina buys millet from the market and the rest — arum, arum leaves and other edibles — she scavenges from the river-bank or the fields lying fallow.
   ‘That is what takes up most of my days. I wake up and go foraging for food. If I find none, I try to borrow. Sometimes I get lucky, sometimes it is just millet with salt.’ That is how it has been for the last few weeks.
   ‘Sometimes there are government projects for road maintenance or something similar. But there is nothing like that this year. There won’t be much work before the harvesting season.’ But that will be at least three weeks later, well into November when the aman paddy will ripen.
   Jarina has three sons. The oldest got married some years ago and moved out. ‘He does not provide for us. He has his own children to look after and I don’t expect much from him anyway.’
   Her eyes glisten and she wipes away a solitary tear.
   ‘The other two are in Dhaka.
   One went there four months ago. I sent off the youngest just two months ago.’ Jarina did not want to let go of the thirteen-year-old but thought better of it. ‘I could not provide for the three of us. Now at least he gets to eat.’
   A man in Kurigram, whom Jarina has known for some time, took both her sons to Dhaka
   and said their wages would be decided after they complete six months of ‘apprenticeship’.
   But Jarina has no idea where they are working or when they will return.
   ‘I had asked the man if he could give us some money in advance but he said it would not be possible.’
   Jarina rubs her nose-ring, almost unmindfully, with hands which have been roughened and gnarled by years of hard labour.
   ‘When I was a child I used to love walking on the paddy seeds spread on the lawn of our house to dry in the sun.
   ‘My family has been farmers for generations and there is not much else I know.’
   Jarina’s eyes brighten for the first time. ‘I was the darkest among my sisters and took after my father.
   ‘He had this nose-ring made for me before my wedding.
   ‘I don’t have anything else left.’
   It is shaped like a little flower with five petals. Jarina’s sigh belies her casual tone of conversation.
   ‘I will try and borrow some more money or food. Otherwise I will have to pawn the nose-ring. I never take it off.’
   She said once her two sons send her some money, she would first redeem the nose-ring from the pawn-broker. ‘It is a matter of three months.’
   Jarina stands up and hastens for the market with long strides. The fringe of her sari sways in the wind.
   It is the colour of the soil her forefathers had tilled.

Police on Monday stepped up what they called one of the biggest ever manhunts in the Indian capital, which was cloaked in tight security after a weekend attack claimed by Islamic militants.
   As another victim succumbed to his injuries from Saturday’s coordinated explosions, bringing the death toll to 62, investigators said they hoped mobile phone records could lead to a breakthrough in the case.
   The city overnight brought in 2,600 security personnel to bolster New Delhi’s 71,000-member police force and invited out-of-town forensic experts to help speed up investigations, a senior police official said.
   ‘We are using all our resources, which includes spotters, informers and even known hoodlums, to crack this case as early as possible,’ she told AFP.
   Three nearly simultaneous blasts tore through a bus and two crowded markets on Saturday in an attack claimed by the Islamic Revolutionary Group, believed to have ties to a leading militant group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.
   The carnage cast a pall on the capital ahead of Tuesday’s holiday of Diwali, the festival of lights. Some markets were emptier than usual as nervous residents stayed away after the blasts, which also injured 210 people.
   A police commissioner who asked not to be named said detectives were sifting through millions of mobile telephone call records, trying to uncover who carried out the attacks.
   ‘We are going through calls originating from 18 cellular towers at the three blast sites because we believe the attacks were coordinated with the help of mobile phones,’ the commissioner said.
   ‘It’s hard work but at the end we will get what we want,’ he said.
   Police guarded Delhi’s 18 exit points and prowled airports, rail and inter-city bus stations for suspects in what a police spokesman said was one of the biggest ever manhunts in the capital.
   City police said they were also in touch with their counterparts in Indian Kashmir for details of the little-known Islami Inqilabi Mahaz, or Islamic Revolutionary Group.
   Police were questioning more than two dozen people in connection with the attacks, which have drawn worldwide condemnation.
   ‘We believe the attacks were carried out by a single group,’ Karnail Singh, the head of New Delhi’s anti-terrorism police unit, said on Sunday.
   Sarojini Nagar, one of the two markets that was attacked, was quiet with traders bemoaning the lack of customers stocking up for Diwali, a time when people normally purchase new outfits and gifts for friends and family.
   Diwali will be followed by the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr on Friday or Saturday, depending on the sighting of the moon, to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
   Krishan Paul, who has sold everything from milk to furniture to women’s clothing, was optimistic that people would ‘soon forget’ and flock back to the markets.
   Shopkeepers always open on the eve of major festivals like Diwali, as Hindus use the occasion to buy new outfits or gifts.
   Meanwhile an Indian court sentenced a Pakistani to death, one of seven people convicted for aiding a deadly Islamic militant attack on soldiers at Delhi’s historic Red Fort, a court lawyer said.
   Mohammad Arif, who used the alias Ashfaq, was handed the death sentence for his role in the December 2000 attack that killed three people including two soldiers at the Mughal-era fort.

The Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, wants to demilitarise Kashmir, his spokesman said Monday, a day after India and Pakistan agreed to open the border in the disputed state to aid earthquake survivors.
   ‘I am for demilitarisation (in Kashmir). If they (India) agree to that, we will too,’ Musharraf told the Saudi newspaper Arab News at the weekend, according to his spokesman major general Shaukat Sultan.
   ‘We are very flexible. We are absolutely open to moving forward to the ultimate solution. You cannot clap with one hand, you can only clap with two,’ the spokesman quoted Musharraf as saying.
   Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan—who have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir—signed a historic deal early Sunday to open five crossings on the Himalayan territory’s de facto border from November 7.
   Musharraf himself originally proposed the opening of the heavily militarised Line of Control around a week and a half after the October 8 disaster, which killed more than 56,000 people in Pakistan and India.
   His latest remarks come a year after he first suggested demilitarising Kashmir, currently split between Pakistan and India and claimed by both, and either placing it under United Nations mandate, joint control or giving it independence.
   When asked if he thought the quake could help resolve the bitter dispute over
   Kashmir, Musharraf was quoted as saying: ‘This is an opportunity.’
   India has pledged 25 million dollars to Pakistan to help provide relief to more than 3.3 million people made homeless by the earthquake, but the two countries have struggled to overcome differences on other aid proposals.
   Pakistan and India launched a slow-moving peace process in January 2004 but groups opposed to the peace
   moves came under suspicion after three blasts killed 62 people in New Delhi on Saturday.
   Pakistan denounced the bombings as an act of ‘criminal terrorism’ and called for a thorough investigation.

The US president, George W Bush, is struggling to recover following what many observers deem the worst week of his presidency, as opinion polls showed his popularity has hit a new low.
   The Bush presidency, already beleaguered from a barrage of scandals and setbacks, was dealt perhaps its most serious blow yet with the indictment Friday of senior White House aide I Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby.
   Libby was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice in the criminal investigation into the source of a government leak that revealed the identity of a CIA spy. Libby subsequently resigned.
   There were rumours of a possible White House shake-up following Friday’s indictment, and politicians and pundits offered a catalogue of suggestions to get the White House back on track.
   Speaking two days after the indictment of Libby, who was chief of staff to the vice president, Dick Cheney, Senate Democrat leader Harry Reid said the president should begin setting things right by apologising to the US public.
   ‘He (Bush) should apologise. The vice president should apologise. They should come clean with the American public,’ Reid told ABC television’s ‘This Week.’
   Reid also criticised the White House’s response to the indictment, saying the Bush administration has failed to recognise the gravity of the charges.
   Libby faces up to 30 years in jail and a 1.25 million-dollar fine if convicted on all five counts alleged by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.
   ‘This White House should do everything it can to clean up its image. We have, for the first time in almost 150 years, an indictment of someone working in the White House,’ Reid said in a CNN television interview.
   The charges raise the prospect of a gripping and potentially politically damaging trial for the White House.
   But Republican allies said the damage to the administration is not irreparable.
   ‘I think the president does have an opportunity now after admittedly a very bad week to turn things around and to show why the people of this country re-elected him just one short year ago,’ said Republican John Cornyn, one of Bush’s staunchest allies in the US Senate, speaking on ABC television.
   New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said the president would regain credibility in his administration only if he were to conduct an internal probe—including scrutinising the actions of Cheney, who many suspect of having played a significant role in the scandal.
   ‘The president ought to do his own internal investigation of the vice president’s office, to see what happened, set some standards and if need be take the vice president to the woodshed,’ said Schumer on CBS television.
   He continued: ‘The president again ought to have some non-political person look into this and see what should be done.’
   Meanwhile, Bush’s approval ratings continue to slide, with 58 per cent of those surveyed in a new poll out Sunday unhappy about his job performance and just 39 per cent giving him a positive rating.
   That rating is down from a 42 per cent-positive view on September 11 of this year, according to the Washington Post-ABC News poll.
   The survey was taken among 600 people October 28-29, as the White House was rocked by Libby’s indictment in a CIA leak investigation and the decision by his Supreme Court pick Harriet Miers to withdraw her candidacy.
   The president’s popularity has also been dented by high gasoline prices and fallout from Hurricane Katrina.
   Meanwhile, Washington’s newest parlour game Sunday was guessing what the future holds for Bush’s long-time aide Karl Rove, who evaded indictment in the CIA leak case, but still is deemed a key player in the scandal and remains under investigation.
   Bush’s long-time political guru, Rove has been in Fitzgerald’s sights throughout the two-year probe, and observers were handicapping the possibility that Rove would be criminally charged in the case.
   ‘I think the likelihood of Karl Rove being indicted in the future is virtually zero,’ said Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a Bush loyalist on most issues.
   ‘I believe if there was a reason to charge Karl Rove he would have been charged,’ Graham said.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, will preside over the three-day meeting of the poverty reduction strategy implementation forum, scheduled for November 15 to 17 in the capital, said official sources.
   The decision was taken recently following a discussion between the World Bank and the finance ministry. It had been decided earlier that the finance minister, M Saifur Rahman, would preside over meeting.
   Praful C Patel, the World Bank’s vice-president for South Asia, is expected to attend the meeting.
   The meeting will be held every year instead of the annual meeting of the Bangladesh Development Forum, sources in the Economic Relations Division told New Age.
   The meeting will have 147 participants including country heads of Dhaka-based lending agencies, bilateral aid groups and donor agencies, delegation heads of the European Union and the United States and members of the consultative group, said the sources.
   Ahead of the meeting, the division is busy preparing a number of keynote papers on the government’s policies and programmes with priorities in areas like midterm budgetary framework, development aspects during 2006-2008, the role of private sector and non-governmental organisations towards achieving the goals set out in the recently finalised poverty reduction strategy paper, said sources.
   The government will also outline its plans for monitoring and evaluation of the indicators in respective areas as detailed in the poverty reduction strategy, a high official of the Economic Relations Division told New Age.
   Sources in the division told New Age on Thursday that lenders and donors are likely to indicate their future lending strategy at the meeting.
   Aid flow for the next three years under the proposed joint country assistance strategy programmes of major lenders including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Department for International Development and Japan is likely to be finalised soon after the meeting, said the sources.
   Ministers and secretaries are also expected to attend, said sources in the finance ministry.
   The meeting will also focus on issues including corruption, governance, enhancement of business competitiveness to promote trade and investment and address law and order situation, said sources in the diplomatic circles.
   Members of the consultative groups are expected to outline their lending policy and direct policymakers towards implementing the targets set out in the poverty reduction strategy.

The Supreme Court judges will observe Eid-ul-Fitr this year without festival allowance as both the finance ministry and the judges remain rigid on their stands on the issue.
   Government sources said the finance ministry once again on Monday said it would not disburse the judges’ festival allowance on the basis of their increased remuneration until the Supreme Court Judges’ Pensions and Privileges Act was amended.
   The ministry verbally informed the official of the Supreme Court concerned of its stand, the sources said.
   The judges have, on the other hand, decided not to take their festival allowance unless it is given on the basis of their increased remuneration, Supreme Court sources said.
   The Supreme Court registrar recently submitted the bills of the judges’ festival allowance to the accountant general in compliance with the new structure of the remuneration of the judges, which was increased in the last session of Jatiya Sangsad with effect from January 1, 2005.
   The finance ministry held back the bills and asked the registrar to submit fresh bills on the basis of the previous remunerations of the judges.
   The registrar submitted the revised bills in accordance with the remuneration the judges drew for October without adding the amount for allowances.
   The finance ministry further disagreed to the revised bills, saying that the judges would have to get the festival allowance on the basis of their previous remuneration.
   The non-disbursement of the festival allowance has enraged the judges and lawyers of the Supreme Court.
   The Supreme Court judges have been getting festival allowance from 1992 under an administrative order, which says that they will get festival allowance like other government officials.
   The remunerations of the judges were increased by the Supreme Court Judges (Remunerations and Privileges) (Amendment) Act 2005 in September.
   The finance ministry wants to give the judges their festival allowance on the basis of the increased remuneration after July 1, 2006, as the government employees will also get the festival allowance on the basis of the new pay scale from the date, argued officials of the finance ministry.
   The registrar’s office, however, argued that the time for the new pay scale for the government officials would not be applicable to the Supreme Court judges as their remunerations were not disbursed under the pay scale for government employees.
   The Supreme Court judges are paid under the Supreme Court Judges’ (Remuneration and Privilege) Ordinance, 1978, which the government amended in September.
   The judges have been drawing increased salaries since the amendment in parliament
   They should get the festival allowance under the amended law as well, the registrar’s office argued.

Drug-makers across Asia are jostling to make generic versions of Tamiflu once patent holder Roche relaxes its grip on the anti-viral pill that could save many lives in case of bird flu pandemic.
   From India to Southeast Asia, talks are underway with the Swiss pharmaceutical giant for sub-licences and other arrangements to manufacture the highly sought-after drug as governments beef up their stockpiles.
   Roche, which had kept a tight rein on the manufacturing process to ensure quality control, succumbed to global pressure and agreed this month to share the technology amid escalating warnings of a pandemic that could kill millions.
   Tamiflu is not a vaccine against avian flu, but eases its impact and thus boosts patients’ chances to survive infection.
   Evidence that bird flu has spread to Europe from Asia, where the lethal H5N1 strain has killed more than 60 people since 2003, has increased demand for the drug amid fears the virus will become easily transferable among humans.
   ‘Considering the recent spread of H5N1 virus, the Roche decision was the responsible thing to do and should be applauded,’ said Duane Gubler, director of the Hawaii-based Asia-Pacific Institute for Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases.
   ‘If there is a pandemic, that decision could result in helping to save many lives,’ he told AFP.
   Koh Choon Hui, managing director of Roche Singapore Pte Ltd, said the Basel-based group has been approached by ‘around 100 companies including some governments’ in Asia for the production of Tamiflu.
   ‘These requests are currently being assessed. It is too early to comment who these governments and companies are,’ Koh told AFP.
   Roche is ‘willing to collaborate with companies which have expertise in certain specialist manufacturing steps such as fermentation and azide chemistry,’ he said.
   It is also ‘willing to grant sub-licences ... to companies who can realistically produce substantial amounts of Tamiflu for emergency pandemic use in accordance with appropriate quality specifications, safety and regulatory requirements.’
   Roche has said that the production of Tamiflu involves a complex, 10-step process which takes about 12 months and must be carried out in specialised factories.
   Among the Asian firms interested in manufacturing the medication are India’s biggest generic drug-makers Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd and Cipla, the first company to make cheap AIDS drugs.
   ‘We have initiated the process of dialogue with Roche for a non-exclusive global voluntary licence for the manufacture and sale of the generic version of Tamiflu,’ Ranbaxy spokesman Ramesh L Adige told AFP.
   He said Ranbaxy could manufacture the active pharmaceutical ingredients for Tamiflu ‘in a couple of months’ after meeting issues relating to intellectual property and other regulatory clearances.
   Cipla said earlier this month said it would follow its strategy with the anti-AIDS drug by developing a low-cost version of Tamiflu.
   ‘We have no deal with Roche on the product, but could explore a tie-up,’ Cipla joint managing director Amar Lula told AFP in New Delhi.
   In Taiwan, a health department official, Li Jih-heng. said authorities are planning a trial production of Tamiflu in December.
   ‘We will continue efforts seeking a patent authorisation from the Swiss company Roche to mass manufacture Tamiflu but the trial production will go ahead to meet emergency needs,’ Li told AFP in Taipei.
   ‘The drug will be used to contain bird flu in the event of an outbreak, not for commercial purposes.’
   Roche’s Shanghai office has said it was in touch with the mainland Chinese government and had provided it with full and updated information about the drug.
   Roche is willing to allow other companies in China or the government to produce the drug, it said.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Monday said the stay on the High Court verdict that declared the 5th amendment to the constitution illegal would continue for three more months.
   The chamber judge of the Appellate Division, Justice MM Ruhul Amin, passed the order hearing an application filed by the government seeking further extension of the stay.
   A High Court bench of Justice ABM Khairul Huq and Justice ATM Fazley Kabir on August 29 declared illegal and void the fifth amendment to the constitution and the martial law regulations issued between August 15, 1975 and April 1979.
   On the same day, the then chamber judge of the Appellate Division, Justice Amirul Kabir Chowdhury, stayed the High Court verdict.
   The full court of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on August 31 extended the stay for two months and ordered the government to file a regular petition seeking leave to appeal against the HC verdict.
   As the time of the stay order expired on Monday, the government filed a fresh application seeking another extension of the stay saying that it was yet to get the certified copy of the HC verdict which the government needed to file the leave petition.
   The attorney general, AJ Mohammad Ali, told reporters after the court order, ‘We will file a regular leave petition as soon as we get the certified copy and today we have sought the extension of the stay further, as we are yet to get the copy.’
   The High Court delivered the verdict on August 29 in the writ petition filed by Maksud Alam, owner of now defunct Moon Cinema at Wizeghat in Dhaka and now managing director of Bangladesh Italian Marble Works Limited, challenging the validity of the Martial Law Regulation that had validated the government’s action in taking away the Moon Cinema from the petitioner.
   The petitioner also had challenged the constitutionality of the fifth amendment to the constitution.

Three more suspected criminals, including an underground party operative, were killed in law enforcer-criminal shootouts in Kushtia, Faridpur and Sherpur early Monday, raising the crossfire death toll 427 since June 2004.
   They were identified as Majed, an activist of Purba Banglar Communist Party
   (ML-Janajuddha), Badar
   Uddin alias Badar Dakat of Nalitabari in Sherpur, and Biswajit Biswas, a wanted criminal in Faridpur.
   Majed, arrested from his Kachubaria in Mirpur Sunday, and Badar, arrested by Bangladesh Rifles in possession of a revolver from a frontier village in Nalitabari on Saturday, were killed in encounters with the police while Biswajit, arrested from Mouchak Market in the capital on Saturday, was killed in shootout with the Rapid Action Battalion.
   The police said Majed,
   wanted in a number of criminal cases, including the murder
   of Mirpur upazila BNP president, Al Mamunur Rasul Babu Khan, was killed near the
   Saifun Bridge on the Kushtia-Meherpur highway while Badar, accused in a dozen of criminal cases, including murder, at Gayekpara.
   RAB said Bisawjit, wanted in seven criminal cases, including murder, was killed at Munshibazar in Faridpur sadar.
   The shootouts took place when Majed, Badar and Bisawjit, as per their statements, were taken respectively to Saifun Bridge, Gayekpur and Munshibazar to recovered arms and their accomplices opened shots at the law enforcers prompting them to retaliate, the police and RAB said.
   Caught in crossfire while trying to flee during the encounters, Bisawajit died on the spot while Majed and Badar were declared dead by doctors respectively at Faridpur sadar hospital and Nalitabari Upazila Health Complex.
   The police recovered a shutter gun and some bullets from the gunfight spot near Saifun Bridge and a revolver with three bullets and three knives from Gayekpur and RAB recovered two guns, a revolver and 10 bullets from Munshibazar.

London is the most expensive major European city, with the French capital Paris coming in second, according to the results of a new study published here Monday.
   A standard basket of 250 goods and services bought in London cost 5.3 per cent more than the average throughout the 12 countries which use the common euro currency, according to the Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein report.
   Paris came second, 1.3 per cent above the eurozone average, followed by Frankfurt (+0.8 per cent) and Brussels (-0.4 per cent), according to the results which were published in Monday’s Financial Times daily.
   Madrid, which came in at 2.5 per cent cheaper than the eurozone average, was pronounced the cheapest major European city.
   Outside of the eurozone, but these days part of the enlarged EU, Warsaw was named the least expensive European capital, judged to be 21.7 per cent cheaper than the eurozone average.
   The study pronounced that the price gap between the major European cities was gradually narrowing.
   Another study, published in June, listed London as the most expensive city in Europe and third in the world rankings, due mainly to high housing and transport costs.
   In that study the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Osaka were ranked first and second, with Paris coming in 12th.

Former officer-in-charge of the Motijheel police station, AKM Rafiqul Islam, was sent to Dhaka Central Jail on Monday in connection with the killing of college student Kamrul Islam Momin on September 13.
   The metropolitan magistrate, Noni Gopal Biswas, ordered Rafiq to be sent to jail when the Criminal Investigation Department produced him before the court after the end of his two-day remand on Saturday and requested that he be imprisoned.
   Assailants shot dead Momin, 20, vice-president of Dhaka City unit Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-backed Bangladesh Chhatra League, and a third year student of Dhaka Commerce College, in Mirpur over a land dispute.

The power division on Monday formed seven joint committees for seven SAARC venues for ensuring smooth power supply during the two-day summit on November 12-13.
   The committees comprising high officials of the Power Development Board, Dhaka Electric Supply Authority, Dhaka Electric Supply Company, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, and the Public Works Department have been asked to submit their reports by November 10.
   An inter-ministerial meeting chaired by the state minister for power, Iqbal Hasan Mahmood, decided to form the committees.
   The joint committees will ensure smooth power supply at the Zia International Airport, the Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Centre, the Sheraton Hotel, the Sonargaon Hotel, the President’s office, the Prime Minister’s Office and three state guest houses, Padma, Meghna and Jamuna.
   The decision of separate joint committees was taken as it would be very difficult for the respective authorities to ensure smooth supply of power, the meeting was told.
   ‘We do not want any sort of embarrassing situation during the SAARC summit,’ said Mahmood.
   He asked the officials of Power Grid Company of Bangladesh to ensure that there should be no failure in the national grid during the summit.

Mufti Abdul Hannan, a top leader of the banned Islamist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islam, on Monday was placed on another three-day remand in connection with the bomb blasts at Dhaka University on August 17.
   The Rapid Action Battalion produced him before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s court at noon after the expiry of his last term five-day remand, and sought an eight-day remand.
   After hearing, the magistrate, Mohammad Shafiqul Islam, granted a three-day remand, and asked the police to take necessary steps for his treatment.
   The police said Hannan was involved in the blasts near the Teachers-Students Centre. He needs to be interrogated again to arrest his accomplices, they added.
   RAB arrested Hannan from Badda on October 1, and the police took him on remand for five times in connection three bomb explosions at Tejgaon, Ramna, and Dhaka University.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, returned home on Monday concluding her week-long pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia for performing umrah.
   A special Bangladesh Biman flight, carrying the prime minister, landed at the Zia International Airport at 12:20 pm.
   Ministers, Dhaka city corporation mayor, chiefs of three services, senior civil and military officials and diplomats received the prime minister on her arrival at the airport.
   Khaleda left Dhaka for Saudi Arabia on October 24.

Three minor girls were killed and another was injured in landslide at Nasirabad in the Chittagong city on Monday.
   The deceased were identified as Halima, 3, Nargis, 5, and Beauty, 3. The police said a big chunk of earth from the hilltop fell on the girls at about 11:00am near the Shantinagar slum, killing three of them on the spot.
   The injured, Anwara, 4, was admitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital.
   Mohammad Yusuf, a police official, told New Age on Monday that the landslide occurred when the girls were playing at the hill slope.
   The police and fire fighters went to the spot and recovered the bodies after removing the debris, he added.

The Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board and Turkish telecom firm Hesfibel on Sunday signed an agreement to install the 156-kilometre underground fibre optic cable from Chittagong to Jhilongjha Landing Station in Cox’s Bazar.
   Under the agreement, Hesfibel will install the fibre optic cable, which will connect the submarine cable, in four months.
   The BTTB chairman, Abdul Maleque Akhand, and the sales and marketing manager of Hesfibel, Sebahttin UGUR, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides.
   Earlier, the cabinet committee on purchase on September 5 approved Hesfibel, which won the technical and the financial offers in the international re-tender for the installation of the fibre optic cable.
   Earlier, Bangladesh signed an agreement on March 27, 2004 in Dubai to join a 16-party consortium for installation of 20,000-km SE-ME-WE-4 submarine cable.