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At least three persons were killed and more than 50 wounded in a fierce clash between members of Kansat Palli Bidyut Sangram Parishad (action council for rural electrification) and local activists of the ruling BNP at Shibganj in Chapainawabganj, 251 kilometres northwest of the capital Dhaka, on Thursday evening.
   The death count may increase as many of the wounded, whose condition was stated to be critical, were without treatment.
   The police confirmed the death of two persons and claimed that they were trying to recover the bodies to be sent for autopsy.
   The deceased were identified as Mahbubul Alam, 60, a local leader of the BNP’s peasant wing Krishak Dal, Akram Dad Khan, 43, of Salimabad, and Abdul Jilani, 14, of Lahalamari of Kansat.
   The action council had earlier announced a procession of its activists carrying brooms and sticks on Thursday and demanding uninterrupted supply of electricity.
   The local BNP also scheduled a rally on the same day on the Shibganj upazila parishad premises in protest at a hartal, which they claim had obstructed the BNP activists from going to Rajshahi to join the prime minister’s rally on March 29.
   As the action council procession entered Shibganj in the evening, the BNP activists at the rally came out of the venue and obstructed the procession at Bekirmore on the Shibganj-Sonamasjid highway.
   Within moments, both groups were chasing each other and using homemade weapons, bows and arrows. There were blasts as well in the clash that lasted for almost two hours.
   The whole of Shibganj turned into a battlefield, sending people running for shelters.
   All vehicular movement on the Shibganj-Sonamasjid highway came to a halt during the clash.
   All shops and business establishment at the Shibganj Bazar were closed.
   The police went to the spot and brought the situation under control.
   The additional police superintendent of Chapainawabganj, Mahbubul Alam, said the situation was under control.
   The police were deployed at the Palli Bidyut Samiti office.
   With the killing of three persons on Thursday, the death count in agitation for electricity supply since January 4 rose to 12.
   Police firing on agitators killed two persons at Kasat on January 4. The police again opened fire on January 23 on a demonstration for the release of three leaders of the action council, killing seven more.
   Normal life had remained paralysed for 10 days since January 23 before it retuned to normalcy following the release of the three leaders on the night of January 31.
   The government withdrew the officer-in-charge and the upazila nirbahi officer of Shibganj and the deputy commissioner and the police superintendent of Chapainawabganj after the twin tragedies.
   The action council committee later placed a 23-point charter of demands, including uninterrupted supply of electricity.
   The administration assured of meeting some of the demands but the council decided to continue their movement until all the demands were met.

The suicide squad of Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh was assigned to kill Sheikh Hasina, her son and his American wife during their Tungipara visit in 2004, the chief of the banned Islamist organisation, Shaikh Abdur Rahman, admitted on Thursday.
   Intelligence sources also quoted the militant leaders saying that the squad also had plans to kill Fazle Hossain Badshah, a politburo member of the Workers Party of Bangladesh.
   Leaders of the organisation even selected a spot where the assassination attempt would be made during the visit of the leader of the opposition in parliament, her son Sajib Wazed Joy and daughter-in-law Christine on December 28, 2004.
   The plan came unstuck as Hasina called off the visit after the police headquarters had expressed concern about their security.
   Majlish-e-shura of Jamaatul Mujahideen agreed with Abdur Rahman that Hasina, her son and his wife, and the Workers Party leader should be killed as they had criticised the Islamist organisation’s operation, which began at Bagmara in Rajshahi in 2004, confessed the militant leader during interrogation.
   Three members of the suicide squad were also selected to carry out the assassinations, he is learnt to have told the interrogators.
   ‘Badshah is a mushriq [pagan] and we could not continue Islamic rule in Rajshahi as a “free zone” was established because of his campaign,’ Abdur Rahman was quoted by an official of the intelligence wing of the Rapid Action Battalion as saying.
   Mufti Abdul Hannan, operations commander of
   another banned Islamist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad who was arrested in Dhaka on October 1, 2005, also committed that he would provide maximum support to the assassination attempt, he said.
   The militant leader said he could not tolerate the Awami League and the Communist Party of Bangladesh as his father blamed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman for the separation of Pakistan and these two parties were the main enemies of Islam.
   The opposition leader, her son and daughter-in-law eventually visited Tungipara on January 5, 2005; however, the Rapid Action Battalion recovered powerful explosives from Bashbaria village at Tungipara a few days after the visit, intelligence sources said.
   Abdur Rahman is also said to have confessed that he had several meetings with his majlish-e-shura members at Baitul Mukarram and Kakrail mosque, deeming those as safe places.

The fifth Rapid Action Battalion admitted Thursday that the middle-aged person arrested Wednesday night is not Khaled Saifullah, one of the two members of the banned Islamist organisation Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh’s majlish-e-shura (highest policymaking body) still at large.
   The arrested suspect was identified as Siddik Mollah, 40, of village Ramkrishnapur under Daulatput police of Kushtia. Relatives of the arrested man said he was a mentally deranged and was missing from his home for the past few weeks.
   The battalion sources said that they handed him over to the Shibganj police station.
   The paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles arrested Mollah at village Telkupi in Shibganj upazila of Chapainawabganj, some 250 kilometres northwest of the capital Dhaka.
   Quoting local people, Major Faruque, an official of the battalion, told journalists Thursday morning that Mollah had come to the village two weeks back.
   His movement had raised suspicion, prompting villagers to inform the Bangladesh Rifles. He was arrested Wednesday night and interrogated.
   As the interrogation led to no significant information, the local BDR authorities handed him over to the Rapid Action Battalion at about midnight Wednesday.
   The battalion verified available information about Mollah and reached the conclusion that ‘he is not the wanted JMB leader, whom we are after’, another RAB official said. ‘The man appeared deranged.’
   He said Mollah had come up with conflicting information and seemed illiterate.
   The detainee has a darker complexion and looks older than Khaled Saifullah although there are some resemblances between the two, said the official.
   Besides, he does not have injury marks on his forehead and other parts of the body, which Khaled supposedly has, he added.
   Mollah was found barefooted with mud on his feet and was a frayed shirt and lungi (long loin cloth), he said.
   The detainee was erratic in his response when talking to journalists.
   He said his name was Siddique and he came from village Ram Krishnapur under the Tala police in Satkhira only to claim later that he was from Chapainawabganj. There were marks of skin disease on his body.
   RAB officials eventually decided to hand him over the Chapainawabganj police, who detained him under section 54.
   Meanwhile, the battalion in a raid on Thursday morning arrested an Indian national, Rafiqul Mollah, 23, with a revolver at Govindapur, a bordering village of Charghat upazila in Rajshahi, 176 kilometres northwest of Dhaka.
   He claimed to be the son of Belayet Mollah of village Balikona under the Jalanghi police in Murshidabad of India and admitted to dealing in firearms.

The Awami League-led alliance of opposition political parties proposed on Thursday a 10-member bipartisan committee, comprising only BNP and AL members, for a dialogue on the alliance’s proposal for electoral reforms.
   ‘A committee comprising representatives form the Awami League, on behalf of the 14-party alliance, and the BNP, on behalf of four-party alliance, could be formed,’ said a letter, signed by the alliance coordinator and AL general secretary, Abdul Jalil, in response to the one by the BNP secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan.
   Sources in the alliance said the move was to keep Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh outside the proposed talks.
   ‘Our stand is clear that we are against a politics that threatens sovereignty, security and democracy,’ wrote Jalil. ‘We want to make politics and election free from the influence of anti-liberation war criminals and communalism.’
   He said communalism and militancy had sparked a deep crisis and asked Bhuiyan to bring the suggestion under consideration to avoid controversy during the dialogue.
   A delegation of AL carried the letter and handed it over to Mannan Bhuiyan, also the local government, rural development and cooperatives minister of the government, at his Bailey
   Road official residence in the evening.
   Mannan Bhuiyan on March 31 proposed a committee of policy-level members from the ruling and opposition parties for the dialogue.
   He also made it clear that the BNP-led ruling alliance would have no objection should the opposition nominate a person, who is not a member of the parliament, and hinted at the inclusion of a Jamaat representative in the proposed committee.
   Jalil said, ‘We must sit as soon as possible, instead of talks over letters.’
   The letter also mentioned the government’s intimidation of opposition’s procession rallies, police repression and false cases against opposition leaders and activists.
   ‘The dialogue is not an alternative, but a complement, to the movement. It is more important that the right to express opinion must be upheld for a congenial atmosphere towards a fruitful discussion,’ Jalil wrote.
   Earlier, the opposition parties held a series of meetings and decided not to take part in the talks in the presence of representatives from Jamaat, a key component of the four-party ruling alliance.
   Senior leaders of the AL allies also decided to keep themselves out of the dialogue and agreed to propose that the dialogue should be confined into two main political parties.
   On March 22, Jalil sought some clarifications on the composition of the committee and suggesting that the discussion should begin and a decision be made ‘at the earliest possible time’.
   The leader of the opposition, Sheikh Hasina, raised the reform proposal in the parliament on February 12, suggesting that the chief of the interim caretaker government should be a person acceptable to all.

The BNP secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, has said since both the BNP and the Awami League are representing separate alliances it is quite natural that component parties will participate in the reform dialogue.
   Bhuiyan, also the LGRD and cooperatives minister, was talking to journalists at his official residence at Bailey Road on Thursday after receiving reply to his second letter from the Awami League general secretary, Abdul Jalil, MP, on the day.
   Bhuiyan sent his second letter to the AL general secretary, Abdul Jalil, also the coordinator of the 14-party combine, on March 31.
   The office secretary of the Awami League, Abdul Mannan Khan, the deputy office secretary, BM Mozammel Haque, and the assistant secretary, SM Kamal Hossain, went to the house of the BNP secretary general at 6:00pm on behalf of Jalil and handed over the letter to Bhuiyan.
   In an impromptu reaction to the letter, the BNP secretary general said exchange of such letters between ruling alliance and the opposition combine was a positive sign. ‘We can reach a solution by exchanging letters’, he added.
   When asked if he would delay in replying to the letter like that of the previous one, he told the journalists, ‘We did not delay willingly.
   We have to reply after discussion and the time required depends upon it.'
   About reluctance on the part of the AL to sit in a dialogue with anti-liberation forces and war criminals, he said, ‘I have received the letter but have not opened it yet.
   Let me see the content of the letter and reply to it after discussion with the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, as early as possible’.
   Bhuiyan, however, said as the BNP was representing an alliance its components of the ruling alliance should be in the dialogue .

The cost of business in Bangladesh is one of the highest in the world and significant inadequacies remain in government regulatory bodies that severely hamper trade and investment, according to the Asian Development Outlook of the Asian Development Bank, which was released Thursday in Dhaka as elsewhere within and beyond the Asia-Pacific region.
   The report says the government should address such deterrents as corruption, weak governance and infrastructure inadequacies to take the country on a path to higher growth.
   The ADB resident representative, Hua Du, and its chief economist, Rezaul Karim Khan, spoke at the launching ceremony at the bank’s office in Dhaka.
   The bank has underlined successful negotiations for investment in several large projects, estimated to involved at $10 billion.
   Gross domestic product is projected to grow at 6.5 per cent in the current fiscal year and 6 per cent in the next. The projected decline by half a percentage point in the GDP in 2006-07 is attributed to political uncertainties over the next general elections, scheduled for January.
   The bank predicts a 10 per cent growth for India, 8.4 per cent for Pakistan and 5.7 per cent for Sri Lanka in the current fiscal year. The average growth for South Asian countries in 2005-06 is estimated to be 7.32 per cent.
   ‘The government has to address three major broader barriers to trade, all of which effect export competitiveness. The first barrier, weakness in governance, includes corruption and a weak state of law and order, which vitiate the business environment and long-run growth,’ reads the bank’s development outlook.
   ‘Moreover, although the regulatory procedures involved in starting a business in Bangladesh compare favourably with other benchmark countries, the cost of transacting business in terms of per capita income is one of the highest.
   ‘On other indicators too, Bangladesh lags behind comparator countries, particularly on the measures relating to regulatory quality.’
   The bank has identified infrastructure bottlenecks and high bank-borrowing charges as two major deterrents to growth and expansion of business.
   ‘Such high operating costs discourage investment and constraint the ability of local firms to integrate into global supply chain,’ says the report.
   As far as proposed investment proposals are concerned, the bank believes foreign direct investment in 2006 and 2007 is likely to increase, depending on negotiations.
   ‘Flagship companies like Microsoft, Orascom and Singapore telecom have recently begun to invest in the country. The government has received a host of large FDI proposals from various business groups, such as Tata of India, Asia Energy of the United Kingdom, Dhabi group of the United Arab Emirates, and Kingdom group of Saudi Arabia,’ says the report. ‘The Board of Investment estimates that total foreign investment proposals are worth about $10 billion, well in excess of historical levels.’
   The bank has found the country’s development outlook broadly positive despite negative impacts of higher oil prices and the phase-out of textile and clothing quotas.
   Hua told journalists that fuel prices needed to be adjusted with the international market. ‘I think the government is not in any indecision about increasing the fuel price, only the matter remaining unsettled is the timing for such a hike.’
   The bank projects a 7.5 per cent inflation at the end of the current fiscal year, up from 7 per cent in January on in yearly basis.
   Hua, however, said 7 per cent inflation was not alarming.
   The oil import bill is projected to rise by $2 billion in the year ending June 2006 but only part of the cost will be recovered and the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation will lose $380 million as a result, the report says.
   The Manila-based bank points out that Bangladesh raised oil prices of between 16 and 35 per cent in dollar terms early this fiscal year, compared to a 90 per cent rise on the world market.

A fully-fit pace bowler Mashrafee bin Murtaza has returned to the Test fold as the national selectors announced a 14-member squad on Thursday for the two-Test series against Australia.
   Mashrafee came back to the side at the expense of young wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim, who failed to hit form during the home series against Sri Lanka in February-March.
   When playing in the second Test on his home ground in Bogra, Mushfique scored only two runs in two innings, which drew sharp criticism as the player was given the nod ahead of Aftab Ahmed and Alok Kapali.
   Masharfee, on the other hand, played in the one-day series but was given rest from the Tests amid fears that it might aggravate his persistent injury problem. He returned to the side in the one-day series against Kenya and featured in a four-day match against the visiting Sri Lanka A team to prove his fitness for the longer version of the game.
   The 22-year-old, affectionately called the Narail Express, performed reasonably well in the match and managed to convince the selectors to pick him for the Test series. Mashrafee played the last of his 18 Tests against England in June last year at Chester-le-Street.
   ‘Mashrafee is our premier fast bowler. When he is fully fit, we cannot afford to keep him out of any squad,’ said chief selector Faruque Ahmed.
   Though Masharafee is back in the side, still it is difficult for the selectors to accommodate him in the playing eleven as the other two new-ball bowlers Syed Russell and Shahadat Hossain looked to be in good touch against Sri Lanka.
   ‘We don’t know how we will make it. But it is sure Mashrafee is going to play. Because he is our key bowler and he can surprise any team on a given day,’ Faruque told the journalists after the practice session of the Bangladesh team on Thursday.
   The first Test starts on April 9 at the Fatullah Stadium.
   Bangladesh Test squad: Habibul Bashar (captain), Khaled Mashud, Javed Omar, Nafees Iqbal, Mohammad Ashraful, Aftab Ahmed, Rajin Saleh, Alok Kapali, Shahriar Nafees, Mohammad Rafique, Mashrafee bin Murtaza, Syed Rasel, Enamul Haque Jr and Shahadat Hossain.
   Ponting and Co in city Ricky Ponting and Co arrived in the city amid tight security on Thursday morning to play two Tests and three one-day internationals against Bangladesh.
   Shah Nurul Kabir Shaheen, a vice-president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, received the
   team at the Zia International Airport.
   The Australians, who flew in from Johannesburg via Dubai after whitewashing South Africa in the three-Test series, have 11 players and seven officials in their squad.
   Three players, Mitchell Johnson, Jason Gillespie and Philip Jaques, who have been inducted into the team replacing the injured trio of Shaun Tait, Michael Kasprowicz and Justin Langer were also scheduled to reach Dhaka last night.
   The Australian team includes two former Bangladesh staff, Richard McInnes and Justin Cordy, who are now the computer analyst and the physio respectively of the world champion side.
   Cordy once worked as the physio of the Bangladesh cricket team while McInnes was the coach of the Under-19 team for more than two years.
   The visitors, who avoided the press at the ZIA and did not take part in any practice session, spent most of their time at the hotel in a bid to recover from the long jet-lag. Four players including captain Ponting and star leg-spinner Shane Warne, however, played golf for a while at the Kurmitola Golf Club in the afternoon.
   Two familiar faces McInnes and Cordy took some of the players to the Australian Club at Gulshan for recreation.
   Australia are expected to have a full practice session today at the Fatullah Cricket Stadium starting from 9:00am. The team officials are also scheduled to attend a press briefing at 2:00pm at the ballroom of Sonargaon Hotel.

A fierce attack on a town by Maoist guerrillas left 15 people dead in Nepal, hours before a general strike over the king’s grip on power shut down the Himalayan nation on Thursday, authorities said.
   The leftist rebels, who have been fighting for the last decade to topple the monarchy, struck Malangwa, a town 350 km southeast of Kathmandu, late on Wednesday.
   They fired at soldiers guarding government offices and security posts and attacked a jail, freeing more than 100 inmates—among them some of their comrades—before fleeing.
   Five policemen and two guerrillas were killed in the fighting, local authorities said.
   ‘The body of a Maoist in combat dress is lying in front of my house,’ Yadav Subedi, a Malangwa resident, told Reuters by phone.
   Some policemen and senior bureaucrats were missing after the fighting, Subedi and local journalist Rajesh Mishra said.
   A Russian-built Mi-17 army helicopter sent to the area with troops crashed near Malangwa, killing eight of the 10 soldiers on board, an army officer said. The other two men were missing.
   The cause of the crash was not known but one security source said a bomb may have accidentally exploded on board.
   News of the raid came as a four-day nationwide strike called by opponents of King Gyanendra shut the Hindu kingdom down.
   Nepal’s seven main political parties, which called the strike, have vowed to defy a government ban on protests to launch what they expect to be a decisive campaign for democracy.
   Although the guerrillas, who are fighting to establish a communist state, are supporting the political groups as part of a pact against the king, they are not participating in the protests and the rallies are expected to be largely peaceful.
   Nepalese police arrested scores of protesters as opposition parties launched the four-day strike.
   Police were deployed in force along deserted streets in the capital and most businesses shut. Highways across the kingdom were also empty, witnesses said.
   In the capital, Kathmandu, the centre of the campaign, hundreds of riot police and soldiers, some of them in armoured vehicles, patrolled deserted streets, while activists burned tyres on roads to enforce the closure.
   Police said at least four cars were smashed by protesters for defying the strike. Young boys played cricket or cycled on what normally are packed thoroughfares.
   Pro-democracy protests have become routine since King Gyanendra sacked the government and took power in February 2005, saying politicians had failed to quell the insurgency and hold national elections.
   Although the political parties have said this week’s rallies are expected to be the biggest so far, tight security seemed to be keeping them indoors on Thursday.
   Besides, the royalist government detained activists and politicians on the eve of the strike and imposed a night curfew in the capital region, saying Maoists could infiltrate protests and spark violence.
   Some Nepalis did not expect much from the campaign.

Rebutting opposition insistence on electoral reforms, the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on Thursday questioned why the Awami League did not reform the system of caretaker government while in power if it was really faulty.
   Addressing a public meeting at Subarnachar in the afternoon, the prime minister claimed that present system of caretaker government was perfect for holding free, fair and neutral elections as it happened in the past. She also claimed that the present Election Commission was headed by a neutral man from the country’s highest judiciary and it as working neutrally.
   ‘If the system was faulty, why the Awami League, while in power for five years, did not raise the question of reform and did not do it?’ she posed the question before her audience and urged the people to ask the Awami League for an answer.
   The prime minister said once the Awami League demanded introduction of caretaker government and now it was demanding its reform after the holding of two free and fair elections.
   In a counter-accusation against the Awami League for appointing its own men to the Election Commission during its rule, Khaleda said her government appointed neutral people to the EC as she said the BNP
   believed in free and fair polls.
   The prime minister said the people wanted to see the BNP in power as democracy remained safe, people lived in peace and all religious communities performed their religious activities freely under the BNP rule.
   She said as per pre-election pledge her government has curbed terrorism by forming various special forces, like RAB, and taking drastic actions against the terrors.
   Criticising the Awami League for patronising godfathers
   during its rule, Khaleda urged people to remain alert so that the godfathers who left the country could not return
   during the next caretaker government.
   Presided over by local BNP MP Mohammad Shajahan, the meeting was also addressed, among others, by the health minister, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, the law minister, Moudud Ahmed PM’s political secretary Harris Chowdhury and MA Hashem, MP.

The chief of a faction of the Jatiya Party, Anwar Hossain Manju, met chairman of the main faction of the party, Hossain Mohammad Ershad, on Thursday, apparently to end their strained political as well as personal relations.
   ‘It was absolutely a personal visit. On my way home I dropped by his (Ershad) office,’ Manju told New Age adding, ‘As a matter of fact it was an effort to make better the relations with him that had somehow turned bitter.’
   Jatiya Party insiders say the two leaders had a one-on-one meeting for nearly an hour as part of a process for reunification of all factions of the party.
   Manju, who was dropped from the position of the secretary general of the unified Jatiya Party in 1998, however, denied he was returning to the Ershad-led Jatiya Party.
   The two leaders at the meeting from 11:30am to 1:00pm discussed the country’s political situation.
   JP presidium member and Ershad’s political secretary, Kazi Firoz Rashid told New Age that the reunification process was on and he initiated the move to bring back the dissidents to the main platform.
   Ershad, the former military dictator, had told the press in 2005 that his priority was to reorganise the party and bring back the dissidents home to ensure that the party was on a strong footing before the general election.
   Differences of opinion with other leaders resulted in division of the Jatiya Party into five factions as of now. Beside the factions led by Ershad and Manju, there are three other factions led by Naziur Rahman Manjur, Dr Abdul Matin, and Shafiul Alam Pradhan and Bidisha.
   ‘Ersahd has given me responsibility to coordinate the unification process,’ Firoz Rashid said.

The trial of Saddam Hussein on charges of crimes against humanity resumed on Thursday without the deposed Iraqi leader, but the ex-head of his revolutionary court took the stand to defend the execution of Shia villagers in the 1980s.
   Awad Ahmad al-Bander, the former chief judge of the revolutionary court and deputy head of Saddam’s office, was the only defendant in court for the latest hearing in the trial over the massacre of 148 Shias.
   It was not known why Saddam, who was cross-examined for the first time Wednesday since the trial began in October, was not in court.
   Chief judge Rauf Abdel Rahman later adjourned the trial after two hours for a one-day hearing on April 12.
   Bander is one of Saddam’s seven co-defendants accused over the massacre of villagers from Dujail after an attempt on the Iraqi leader’s life in 1982.
   He was being cross-examined over testimony given in previous hearings indicated that 35 minors were among those executed over the Dujail assassination bid.
   But Bandar said the suspects were fairly tried, adding: ‘The accused had all the rights and were defended by their lawyers,’ he said. ‘I am a judge and my deep conscience does not allow to sentence someone under 20 to death.’
   Bander’s lawyers presented documents saying that some of the Dujail suspects had even plotted to overthrow Saddam’s regime and stressed they all were adults.
   ‘All the 148 accused were present when the judgement was delivered against them,’ Bander said, amid accusations that 46 had died in jails and were not executed.
   On Wednesday, a defiant Saddam—who is now facing genocide charges over the brutal oppression of Kurds—dismissed evidence linking him to the mass killings and launched a new tirade of abuse against his trial.
   If found guilty over the Dujail killings, he and the seven other defendants face the death penalty.
   During Wednesday’s session which ended after nearly six hours of verbal exchanges, Saddam dismissed the testimony of witnesses and
   evidence presented by the prosecution against him in the Dujail case.
   Saddam defended the decision to try the Dujail suspects.
   During Wednesday’s proceedings the judge expelled defence lawyer Bushra Khalil after she started showing pictures of Iraqi prisoners tortured by US forces at the notorious Abu Ghraib jail.
   After initially threatening her with legal action, the judge said she would be allowed to rejoin her team ‘on condition that she respects the court.’
   The trial has been plagued by boycotts from defendants and their lawyers, the assassi- nation of lawyers, the resignation of the previous chief judge and repeated grand- standing by Saddam and other former regime officials in the dock.

In an unusual move to check avian influenza virus, the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock has taken steps to disinfect all vehicles coming from the badly affected neighbouring India.
   Though the virus cannot be transmitted through transports, the ministry said the ‘extra precautionary measure’ was part of the government’s desperate bid to protect the country from the deadly bird flu virus.
   As per the initiative, all types of vehicles, including the goods-carrying trucks from India will have ‘deep bathing’ first on crossing the border and then be sprayed with anti-virus chemical to make it germ-free.
   ‘With the outbreak of bird flu in India, there is risk the virus could come to Bangladesh through various transports,’ said a letter of the ministry issued to different agencies concerned.
   ‘To prevent the risk, all goods-carrying and other transports will properly be made virus-free at different land ports,’ the letter, sent to all deputy commissioners of the bordering districts, said.
   The director general of the Directorate of Livestock asked all district administrations and district and upazila livestock officials concerned to execute the initiative in consultation with the land port authorities, local administration and the customs authorities.
   The letter, also sent to the Ministry of Homes Affairs, the Ministry of Shipping, the Ministry of Finance and the National Board of Revenue, said necessary arrangements would be made at all land ports so that vehicles coming from India have proper bathing.
   The letter said that no goods-carrying transports would be allowed to carry any poultry related items into Bangladesh or in any poultry farms.
   ‘We have taken the initiative as an extra precautionary measure to prevent arrival of the deadly avian virus in the country,’ said Munsi Iqbal Hossain, senior assistant secretary of the fisheries and livestock ministry.
   He said the virus was not supposed to be transmitted through vehicles unless there were affected chickens in it. ‘It’s all about our seriousness to prevent bird flu.’
   About reports of import of poultry birds from India despite a government ban, Munsi said people must be aware of the risk. ‘They should know that it may bring disaster for them and the country as well.’
   He said committees headed by livestock officials in the bordering districts and upazilas were already working to check illegal import of chicks from India. ‘They were also asked to make the people aware of the deadliness of the virus,’ he added.

Possibility to hand over the operational charge of the New-Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) at the Chittagong port to private operators in the near future is very thin as the government is following a go-slow policy in this regard.
   Sources in the ministry concerned and the Chittagong Port Authority said there was no chance to implement the decision of privatisation of the terminal during the tenure of the BNP-led ruling alliance as it decided not to deepen the existing crisis on the issue ahead of the upcoming general elections.
   ‘Though the authority has floated a tender in this regard, a go-slow policy will be followed due to strong resistance by the various quarters,’ a top ministry official told New Age.
   The terminal is scheduled to go into operation from August next, he said hinting that at the initial stage, the CPA would handle the containers at the terminal with its own initiative.
   The official, however, said the government would neither cancel the tender nor postpone it and follow a go-slow policy in the implementation procedure to avoid an ‘adverse’ impact on the next elections.
   The handover process was hindered as the Chittagong mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, Action Committee to Protect Chittagong, Bandar Rakkha Committee, and leaders of the 22 labour organisations were opposing the privatisation move.
   Although the leaders of the trade bodies and port users’ forum supported the initiative, the privatisation of the terminal has become uncertain as the city mayor is firm to resist it at any cost.
   Mohiuddin at a press conference in Dhaka last month termed the move contradictory to the CPA Act. ‘Handing over the operational activities of the terminal to private management will make the port a safe haven for the smugglers which may hamper the country’s sovereignty.’
   ‘Like ill-move of setting up a container terminal by Stevedore Services of America (SSA) at the estuary of the river Karnaphuli, the move of handing over the container terminal will be resisted along with the people of Chittagong,’ the mayor said demanding that the government should root out corruption from the port instead of privatising the terminal.
   The shipping minister, Akbar Hossain, at another press conference said the government would not hand over the NCT to private operator rather it would appoint an organisation for a certain period only to bring pace in port activities.
   ‘We are not handing over the NCT to private sector totally, its ownership and management will remain under our control,’ Akbar said adding that the government just wanted to appoint a skilled and qualified organisation for handling containers for a certain period on Supply-Operate-Transfer (SOT) system only on the basis of the government policy.

Gold price increased again in the local markets, 10th in four months, by Tk 500 per unit to reach the prices of per tola finer gold at Tk 15,694 and guinea gold at Tk 14,983.
   The Bangladesh Jewellers’ Samity on Wednesday raised the price of per gram finer 22 carat gold of ornament grade to Tk 1,346 from Tk 1,284 and 21 carat, known as guinea gold, to Tk 1,285 from Tk 1,226. A tola accounts for 11.66 grams.
   ‘Gold market in Bangladesh just follows the price in international market,’ samity member ATKM Azmal said. Global investors, especially bankers, are increasing their investment in the precious yellow metal fearing inflation and geopolitical tensions that fuelled the price hike of gold, traditionally believed to be the safest investment, Azmal, also the owner of a renowned ornament maker, Goldsmith, said.
   The price of pure gold (24 carat), which was $460 an ounce (31 grams) four months ago, crossed $595 on Thursday hitting the 25-year record.
   In November 2005, price of 22 carat gold was Tk 12,884 and the price of guinea gold at Tk 12,290 per tola. Guinea gold was Tk 9,700 a tola in October 2004 and Tk 8,800 in September 2003.
   Gold prices in Bangladesh do not respond daily alike other countries to the international price fluctuation and the local jewellers adjust the prices periodically with the global market.
   According to the association, Bangladesh has more than 10,000 jewellery shops with 1,200 of them in Dhaka, which share the major portion of sales.
   Gold shop owners at Baitul Mukarram Market, known as the hub for gold ornaments, said their sales, especially small gift items, fell drastically in the recent months following the ‘abnormal’ price hike.

Tomorrow’s television on multiple screens, wherever and whenever viewers want to watch, is just around the corner. The problem is that not even the brightest brains in the audiovisual and digital worlds know what it will look like, yet.
   Only one thing seems certain. It will be the audiences, users and viewers that will shape the audiovisual content and the devices of the future.
   That was the one of the few predictions shared by the thousands of the world’s top movers and shakers of the TV and digital entertainment who crowded into this Riviera resort for the busiest ever influential ‘MIPTV featuring MILIA’ trade show that closes its doors on Friday.
   ‘It’s all about putting the audience in the driving seat,’ the BBC’s senior new media executive Ashley Highfield told a packed seminar here Wednesday.
   Another leading media visionary, Gary Carter of influential content producer and distributor FreemantleMedia, shares the same view.
   ‘The reason we’re all struggling to identify new business models is because the audience hasn’t told us what they are yet,’ Carter emphasised.
   ‘TV will continue to grow, but we need to rid ourselves of past expectations of what that means,’ he added, noting that no medium has ever ended up being used in the way its inventors intended it to be, including the radio and the telephone.
   The television set in the sitting room looks as if it will stay there, at least for the moment, most industry experts agreed.
   But it will be increasingly sharing TV time with other new screens popping up all over the place, from mobile phones, to portable TV devices, the video-enabled iconic iPod and, of course, the PC.
   In today’s digital universe, the audience is more directly active than ever before, industry experts said.
   Viewers understand and feel at ease with all the new digital devices that are coming onto the market and want to get more involved in the content.
   Creating communities where viewers and users can connect to share their audiovisual experiences is vital to the future of television.
   Nowhere is that becoming more evident than on the Internet.
   AOL chief Jonathan Miller also came to town to beat the drum for the fast-growing importance of the Internet in audiovisual entertainment, saying TV, gaming and Internet users are going to be in for lots of treats.
   AOL will shortly launch its first online reality game, ‘Gold Rush’ where online users have to find clues that could lead them to the stashes of gold buried around the United States.
   Other online entertainment innovations are also in the pipeline, including the BBC’s new interactive drama ‘Jamie Kane’ that is aimed at young audiences and is already pulling in big numbers of users.
   The revolution that is sweeping the television landscape resulted in one of the biggest and most active MIPTV/MILIA trade shows ever, the organisers said Thursday.

A most wanted criminal of Old Town in Dhaka was killed in shootout between his associates and the police at Sutrapur in the capital city early Thursday, raising the death toll from ‘crossfire’ to 524 since June 2004.
   The police said Shamim Alam Guddu, a resident of Lalmohan Saha Street, was also a criminal listed with the Sutrapur police, and accused in a dozen cases, including seven for murder.
   He was accused of killing of a Dhaka city ward commissioner, Binoy Sarker Bina.
   The police picked up Guddu from the house of his father-in-law at Jatrabari on Tuesday and took him on a two-day remand on Wednesday. During the interrogation, Guddu reportedly told the police that his associates had in possession of some firearms and stolen cars.

Three people were killed and seven injured in clashes between Hindus and Muslims in the northern Indian town of Aligarh, a senior official said Thursday.
   Trouble began when a group of Hindus found part of a wall surrounding a temple damaged late Wednesday, RM Shrivastava, home secretary of Uttar Pradesh state—of which predominantly Muslim Aligarh is a part—told reporters in state capital Lucknow.
   Hindus and Muslims first shouted at each other but that escalated to stone throwing and gunfire, Shrivastava said.
   ‘Two people were killed on the spot while another died later in hospital,’ he said. Five of the injured were being treated for gunshot wounds and were critical, he said.
   A curfew has been imposed in parts of the town that were still tense following Wednesday’s incidents, he added.

The Palestinian minister for Jerusalem affairs in the Hamas-led government was briefly arrested by Israeli security on Thursday on the outskirts of the holy city, Hamas and police sources said.
   The sources said Khaled Abu Arafeh was released from a police station in the Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim more than five hours after he was detained at a checkpoint at the entrance to al-Azaria, a suburb of east Jerusalem which is technically part of the occupied West Bank.
   An official in the prime minister’s office, which has responsibility for the domestic intelligence service Shin Beth, said Abu Arafeh had been detained as he was barred from entering the West Bank

Opponents of Thaksin Shinawatra vowed Thursday to keep up protests against the former Thai prime minister until he removed himself completely from politics.
   Thaksin on Tuesday bowed to months of demonstrations demanding he step down for abuse of power and said he would give up the premier’s post, even though his ruling party won a majority of the vote in weekend elections.
   But the billionaire-businessman turned politician also said he would stay on in parliament and remain leader of the Thai Rak Thai party he founded and led during his five years in power.
   Thaksin, 56, who has appointed his deputy and justice minister Chidchai Vanasatidya to replace him as caretaker prime minister, said he wanted to take a break.
   He said he would stay in Bangkok for three or four days to finish up remaining business and get a medical checkup, denying reports he would visit his northern home city of Chiang Mai or his daughter in Britain.
   ‘I’m not talking about politics today, it’s enough,’ he told reporters in Bangkok, where the streets were quiet on Thursday, a public holiday, in stark contrast to the tumultuous scenes of recent months.
   Protests demanding Thaksin’s resignation began in early February after his family sold 1.9 billion dollars of shares, in Shin Corp, the telecoms firm he founded before entering politics, without paying taxes.
   Thaksin called elections three years early to head off the protests and give himself a fresh mandate, but the gamble backfired when the opposition boycotted the polls and millions of Thais cast protest abstention votes against him. The People’s Alliance for Democracy, a broad coalition of civic groups, was planning another demonstration Friday against Thaksin.
   ‘Thaksin is still the most powerful politician in Thailand and will totally control the next prime minister. We want Thaksin to be completely out of politics,’ said Suriyasai Katasila, an alliance spokesman.