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Bangladesh has passed through a tumultuous but eventful time throughout 2006, the pre-election year, with a number of unprecedented events in the interim caretaker government, which is overseeing the country’s ninth parliamentary elections.
   Besides, fruitless dialogue between the ever feuding BNP and Awami League, political agitations like hartals and transport blockades imposed by AL and its allies for partisan interests, unprecedented price hike and almost absolute indifference of the BNP-led four-party alliance towards the problem, continued extra-judicial killings by the Rapid Action Battalion, vandalism committed reportedly by the pro-AL senior lawyers in the Supreme Court premises, anti-people judicial activism by the court etc. marked the year 2006.
   The positive developments that took place in the year included victory of people’s movement against a greedy foreign oil company in Phulbari, effective localised mass movement against the government’s failure to supply power to farmers in Kansat and, of course, arrest and trial of the kingpins of the Islamist fundamentalist group called JMB, etc.
   However, president Iajuddin Ahmed’s self-appointment as the chief adviser to the interim administration, resignation of four out of 10 advisers over differences of opinion with him, sending of the chief election commissioner and a commissioner on leave during the elections are some of the unprecedented occurrences that took place in 2006.
   These events, according to political analysts, has made the caretaker government’s role in holding a fair election, for which the system of interim government was incorporated in the constitution, open to question, and the cloud of uncertainty over credibly holding the January general election has not cleared up as yet.
   The president’s actions since he took over as chief of the caretaker government — including deployment of the armed forces, undue delay in taking the right decisions, hasty announcement of the polls schedule which had to be changed four times under pressure, and appointment of two controversial election commissioners, among others — were viewed very critically by different sections of the people in general and the media in particular.
   Despite the confusion and uncertainty, the feuding political camps have been preparing for the general elections, and are busy trying to grab votes at any cost, no matter with whom they have to forge alliances to do so, and are trying the make maximum mileage out of the issues and events of 2006.
   To this end the Awami League, apparently professing a secular political ideology, forged electoral negotiations with a couple of Islamist fundamentalist parties , particularly including Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish and Islamic Constitution movement – organisations with a militant background, and also with its once implacable foe, chairman of Jatiya Party HM Ershad, a former military dictator who declared Islam Bangladesh’s state religion. In the midst of such development, the BNP remained glued to its Islamist fundamentalist political partners like Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikya Jote.
   During the political transition in late October, the brutal lynching of political activists by their rivals on the streets that were captured by TV cameras, hurt the sentiment of millions of television viewers home and abroad.
   The brutal street violence began when the Awami League-led alliance announced indefinite blockade across the country. At least 35 people were killed in the street violence that began before October 29, the day president Iajuddin Ahmed appointed himself chief of the caretaker government, as apparently ‘no one was available to head the administration’ at that time.
   He appointed 10 advisers, based on the lists he was given by the political parties, to the interim administration, apparently making it a ‘government of all parties’, to oversee the general election.
   The honeymoon period of the government lasted for a very short time because the president and his colleagues in the cabinet failed to act as a team, mostly due to his high-handedness and refusal to consult them before taking important decisions. Four of the heavyweight advisers — Dr Akbar Ali Khan, CM Shafi Sami, Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury and Sultana Kamal — resigned from the government, accusing the president of not taking their suggestions, to end the political standoff at that time, into due consideration.
   The Election Commission was always in the public focus, not only because election was near but for its controversial steps, one after another, in preparing the voters’ roll, which remains incomplete and questionable though polls will be held in 22 days.
   The commission prepared a fresh voters’ roll in 2005, but a High Court bench ordered it on January 2006 to update the rolls, basing it on the previous one. The commission delayed in implementing the order on the plea of not getting the letter of the order from the court, and later it appealed to the Appellate Division, though unsuccessfully.
   CEC Aziz and SM Zakaria were forced to go on leave during the peak election season.
   The belated capture of two militant kingpins — Shaekh Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai — in early March and their subsequent trial was considered a significant step against the rise of the Islamist militants.
   The two kingpins and five other top leaders of the Jamaatul Mujaheedin Bangladesh, which was responsible for killing at least 28 people and perpetrating terrorist attacks across Bangladesh, were sentenced to death. But a significant number of JMB militants are still active in Bangladesh and their patrons have remained untouched.
   Parliament was as dysfunctional as it was earlier. No issues of public importance were discussed in the Sangsad despite the existence of a number of vitally important issues, including power shortage, extra-judicial killing and the artificially induced price spiral.
   Farmers laid down their lives while demonstrating against power shortage in Kansat, but the parliament failed to consider it as an issue. Lawmakers also failed ignored the widespread protest in Phulbari, where six innocent people were shot dead by the police, some of whom were lounging on the pavements, though there was a lull in the protest at that time. The people were angry at the prospect of being evicted from their homes by Asia Energy who intended to do open-pit mining which destroys the environment and makes the land totally infertile.
   The oversight function of the parliament was totally absent. One of the committees, which initiated investigation against corruption of a minister, failed to finish its work.
   The two arch-rival leaders in parliament —Khaleda Zia, the leader of the house, and Sheikh Hasina, the leader of the opposition — did not effectively stood by the people while the latter fought in Kansat or Phulbari. Like the previous years, they also blamed each other for whatever bad things had happened in the year, and took credit for whatever good had happened.
   The BNP-led alliance was busy preparing for the election and was stepping cautiously while the Awami League-led alliance was pursuing its demands for reforming the caretaker administration and restructuring the Election Commission throughout the year.
   The only news that provided some relief was that the AL lawmakers ended their nearly two years of boycott and returned to the Sangsad in February. But it was not enough to make the parliament functional.
   A number of big investment proposals, including a $3 billion one from the India’s Tata Group, remained suspended reportedly on political grounds.
   In last month of the year, on December 20, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court stayed the operation of the High Court’s verdict that made it mandatory for parliamentary candidates to furnish their educational status, criminal records, if any, statement of assets and sources of income while filing nomination papers. The decision paved the way for the candidates to contest elections without providing the constituents the personal information required for the voters to make informed opinion and exercise the right to franchise judiciously.

The judiciary has stepped backward in the outgoing 2006 as, among many other things, senior lawyers have been charged with vandalism at the Supreme Court building, the separation of the judiciary has been pending, and the High Court’s order requiring polls candidates to furnish personal information has been stayed.
   At the fag end of the year, the Supreme Court witnessed a number of unprecedented occurrences.
   The police on December 22 charged 12 Supreme Court lawyers, including Kamal Hossain, Supreme Court Bar Association president M Amirul Islam and bar council vice-chairman Rokanuddin Mahmud, with vandalism at the highest seat of justice on November 30, 2006.
   They were, however, relieved of a sedition charge brought against them by fellow lawyer Omar Sadat, son-in-law of BNP leader Shahjahan Siraj who is also a former minister.
   An unprecedented move by the chief justice abruptly staying the proceedings of three writ petitions led to the November 30 pandemonium at the Supreme Court, resulting in damage to courtrooms and the chief justice’s chamber. The car of a former state minister of law, parked on the court premises, was also set on fire.
   The stay order was pronounced when a High Court bench was about to issue rule on the writ petitions challenging Iajuddin Ahmed’s assumption of office of the chief adviser to the caretaker government.
   At the beginning of the year, the full court of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on February 1, 2006 rejected for the third time the government’s plea for further extension of time for separating the judiciary and fixed February 22, 2006 for the hearing in the contempt-of-court charges brought against the government turning down its effort to avoid the contempt proceedings by initiating process for amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedures.
   The court finally issued contempt rule on four top bureaucrats on April 3 and the bureaucrats submitted their replies to the rules on April 24, transferring the onus for the separation of the judiciary on the prime minister.
   On November 27, instead of delivering its verdict on the contempt proceedings for wilful procrastination in implementing its 12-point directive on the separation of the judiciary from the executive, the Supreme Court ordered the government to implement the directives within six weeks and inform the court of compliance with the order on January 10, 2007 by filing an affidavit.
   The Appellate Division on December 20 stayed the operation of the High Court’s verdict that made it mandatory for parliamentary candidates to furnish their educational status, criminal records, if any, statement of assets and sources of income while filing nomination papers.
   The chief justice was criticised by the Supreme Court Bar Association throughout the year for his alleged arbitrary constitution of benches of the High Court. He changed the jurisdiction of some High Court benches immediately after the benches had passed orders against the government.
   The Appellate Division did not deliver its detailed judgement on the death sentences of seven militant kingpins, including Shaikh Rahman and Bangla Bhai, even after a month of turning down their petitions for permission to appeal resulting in delay in the execution of the sentences.
   The court on November 28 turned down the petitions of six kingpins of the banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh for permission to appeal against their death sentences for killing two assistant judges in Jhalakathi in 2005.
   The lower judiciary had been criticised for alleged corruption of the judges and in a report of the Transparency International, the lower judiciary was mentioned as one of the most corrupt sectors.

Leading minority rights activists and political leaders have criticised the major political alliances for nominating a few religious and ethnic minority candidates in the forthcoming general elections.
   They observed that the political parties contest the polls to go to ‘power in exchange for anything’ and field a minority person only when they do not find a potential candidate from the majority community, which is ‘disgraceful’ and ‘unfortunate’ in terms of democratic equality of majority and minority communities.
   The two major political combines, led by the Awami League and the BNP, and an organisation representing three religious minority communities have nominated only 17 minority candidates for the same number of seats of the 300-strong parliament.
   Out of the 17, only five candidates have been nominated by the BNP. They are Nitai Roy Chowdhury for Magura-1, Dhirendra Nath Saha for Narail-1, Gautam Chakrabarty for Tangail-6, Dipen Dewan for Rangamati and Sachin Pru Jeri for Bandarban constituencies.
   The fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, a major ally of the BNP, was, however, still trying to influence BNP to nominate its [Jamaat] own candidate Maulana Abdus Salam Azad depriving Sachin Pru Jeri for Bandarban.
   On the other hand, BNP’s arch-rival Awami League has nominated 11 minority candidates. They are: Ramesh Chandra Sen for Thakurgaon-1, Manoranjan Sheel Gopal for Dinajpur-1, Satish Chandra Roy for Dinajpur-2, Sadhan Majumdar for Naogaon-1, Narayan Chandra Chanda for Khulna-5, Pramod Mankin for Mymensingh-1, Suranjit Sengupta for Sunamganj-2, Moni Swapan Dewan for Chittagong-15, Kujendra Lal Tripura for Khagrachari, Laxmi Prashad Chakma, a vice-president of the Parbattya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity [PCJSS], for Rangamati and Bir Bahadur for Bandarban constituencies.
   The Bangladesh Hindu Bouddha Christian Oikya Parishad, a major organisation of the religious minorities—Hindu, Buddhist and Christian—nominated Binod Bihari Chowdhury, a leader of anti-British Raj movement, for the Chittagong-9 constituency.
   Of them 10 candidates are from religious minorities and the rest 7 from ethnic minority groups.
   Of the total 17, ten are from Hindu community and six from Buddhist and one from Christian communities.
   The minority rights leaders strongly resented the attitude of the political parties and organisations in question terming it religious chauvinism.
   CR Dutta Bir Uttam, one of the three presidents of the Bangladesh Hindu Bouddha Christian Oikya Parishad, described the picture as ‘disgraceful’. ‘We are aggrieved,’ he told New Age. ‘We constitute 2.5 crore [minority] people and the parties could have easily accommodated minority candidates in some 25 per cent of the constituencies.’
   ‘Now we need to think in a different way as both the Awami League and the BNP seem to be indifferent to our causes,’ he said.
   He, however, evaded a question if the Oikya Parishad would emerge as a political party as it fielded a candidate, for the first time, to contest the national polls. ‘I don’t know.’
   Sanjeeb Drong, general secretary of Bangladesh Adivasi Forum, an organisation working for ethnic minority communities, found the situation as an obvious effect of the tendency of the political leadership for ‘power in exchange for anything’. ‘They dream of power only,’ he told New Age. ‘I am not at all surprised that the political parties, who have hardly any commitment to the rights and welfare of the ethnic and religious minorities, have nominated a few candidates from the minority communities.’
   Elbart P Costa, secretary general of the Bangladesh Christian Association, said, ‘Political parties should have nominated more eligible minority candidates.’
   Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, a joint secretary general of the BNP, said, ‘The political culture has changed in last few years. In most of the cases, the major parties select candidates who are wealthy and have potential to win.
   On the other hand, there are a small number of minority political leaders who have successfully groomed themselves to adapt to the changing political climate,’ Gayeshwar said. ‘The irony is that the political parties field a minority person only when they do not find an aspirant from the majority Muslim community having a fair chance to win a seat.’
   ‘The parties should groom potential young political leaders remaining above majority or minority bias,’ he said.
   The BNP did not nominate Gayeshwar in the 1991, 1996 and 2001 elections, as well as in the ensuing 2007 polls, for either Dhaka-3 or Dhaka-9, the constituencies he sought to contest for, only to accommodate other leaders who happened to be members of majority Muslim community.
   The constitution of the BNP says the party will take all-out and specific steps to create scope so that people of all walks of life…including members of the backward communities…can participate in nation-building activities.
   Asim Kumar Ukil, an Awami League central leader, described the situation as ‘unfortunate’ in terms of democratic equality of majority and minority community. ‘It is unfortunate. I hope the political leadership will uphold democratic values by nominating more eligible candidates from the minority communities.’
   The Awami League constitution says the party shall adopt appropriate measures ... ‘to ensure … the rights [of citizens] irrespective of religion, caste, sex, community, ethnic identity and so on….’

In the face of growing discontents among the deprived aspirants, the high-ups in the Awami League- and the BNP-led alliances are making last-minute attempts to tackle the situation by changing nominations in a number of constituencies.
   After nominating candidates initially and instructing them to submit nomination papers accordingly, the high-ups of both the parties were busy till Saturday finalising the candidatures which must be completed by January 2, the day before the withdrawal of nomination papers, sources in both the AL and the BNP said.
   Hectic lobbying by the deprived candidates, demonstrations by their supporters and restive situation in different constituencies after the announcement of initial candidatures forced the major parties to change some of the nominations, sources said.
   The parliamentary board of the AL held a series of meetings on Saturday and Sunday to tackle the situation in different constituencies and decided to make some changes in the nominations.
   The party leaders did not disclose the names of the troubled constituencies but insiders said that nearly a dozen candidates were in the list to be replaced.
   ‘We are yet to make any formal announcement about the candidatures of the party as the process for finalising candidates will continue till January 2, the day before the date of withdrawal,’ the Awami League joint general secretary, Obaidul Kader, told New Age adding that the formal announcement would come by January 3.
   He said the parliamentary board, headed by the party president Sheikh Hasina, would announce final list of nominees after reviewing the situation and changes might be made in a very few constituencies.
   Meanwhile, supporters of the deprived candidates were seen agitating in front of Hasina’a Sudha Sadan residence on Saturday.
   Supporters of AL leader Mizanul Haque Mizan gathered in front of Sudha Sadan in the morning and staged demonstration demanding cancellation of the nomination of Jatiya Party candidate Majibul Haque Chunnu for Kishoreganj-4 constituency.
   One of the agitators even tried to set himself on fire before senior leaders intervened.
   Several hundred supporters of Sajjatul Jumma held a protest rally in front of Sudha Sadan at about 11:00 am demanding his nomination for Jhenaidah-3 cancelling that of Shafiqul Azam Chanchal.
   Supporters of Tipu Sultan also went to the AL president’s residence and demanded that Kazi Mahmudul Hasan should be replaced by the former as the candidate for Jessore-5 constituency.
   Though the Bangladesh Nationalist Party asked all aspirants, excepting the candidates certified by the party, to withdraw their candidature by January 3, a number of them are making last-minute attempts to grab nomination lobbying the party high-ups.
   The party took a strategy of initially naming multiple candidates for each constituency to hide its final candidates from rivals but a number of them are not willing to withdraw nomination papers.
   Till Saturday, a day before the party chief launches election campaign, a number of candidates continued lobbying the top leaders trying to convince them that the candidates certified by the party in their respective constituencies were not capable of winning the polls.
   A number of people from Faridganj in Chandpur district went to the Banani office of the party chairperson and demonstrated against the certified candidate, Alamgir Haider Khan.
   Same was the situation for Magura-1 constituency where Nitai Roy Chowdhury is opposed by the local leaders of the party.
   Grassroots-level BNP activists in constituencies where the alliance’s candidates are from other partners of the coalition are also angry with the nominations. Activists in a number of constituencies where candidates are from Jamaat-e-Islami openly demonstrated against the nominations.
   Activists of Jamaat are also opposing the BNP candidates in constituencies where they expected nomination. The party had expected nomination in at least one constituency in Chapainawabganj and Cox’s Bazar districts and local leaders continued to put pressure on the central leadership.
   Amid the restive situation, the BNP secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, was forced to issue an open statement asking ‘dummy candidates’ to withdraw candidature and threatened action if the instruction was violated.
   ‘The party wants all the aspirants, who have not obtained the party’s certification, to withdraw their candidature within the deadline set by the Election Commission and to work for the candidates nominated by the four-party alliance for the greater interest of the party’, he said.

A five per cent rise in electricity tariff will feature the New Year’s Day for the urban consumers.
   Electricity will be costlier for general consumers, small entrepreneurs, commercial users and some other categories including a portion of farmers, who take power from Power Development Board and three agencies when the tariff hikes come into force from January 1, 2007.
   The earnings of the distribution agencies—Dhaka Electric Supply Authority, Dhaka Electric Supply Company and West Zone Power Distribution Company – which buy power from PDB will, however, fall slightly as the board will increase price for them by 10 per cent against 5 per cent rise at consumer level.
   The tariff hike would boost earnings of Power Development Board by Tk 453 crore. PDB incurs an annual loss of Tk 490 crore by selling power to these agencies at reduced price while its total annual loss is around 1000crore, officials said.
   Power tariff was last hiked in September 2003.
   As per the new rate, residential consumers of PDB, DESA, DESCO and West Zone Power Distribution Company will have to pay an increased rate for each unit beyond the 100-unit ceiling.
   The rate will remain unchanged at Tk 2.5 for those who use below 100 units.
   Power tariff has been fixed at Tk 3.15 per unit for 101-400 level and Tk 5.25 for each of 401 units or above. The existing rates are Tk 3.00 and Tk 5.00 respectively.
   A few days before leaving office in October, the immediate past government issued a gazette notification regarding the increases in electricity price with effect from January 1, 2007.
   Former energy adviser to the caretaker government Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury had asked the Power Division to put the increase on hold during the period of the interim administration. But the new adviser, Ruhul Alam Chowdhury, recently gave the nod to make the increase effective from January 1, sources in the division said.
   As per the new rate, power price for irrigation pumps at areas under PDB, DESA, DESCO and West Zone will be Tk 1.93 per unit, up from Tk 1.84 now.
   Small industries will have to pay a flat rate of Tk 4.02 per unit. The existing rate is Tk 3.83.
   Other small industries will have to pay Tk 3.20 per unit in off-peak hours and Tk 5.62 per unit in peak hours, up from the existing rates of Tk 3.05 and Tk 5.36 respectively.
   For non-residential use, the rate has been raised to Tk 3.35 per unit from Tk 3.20.
   The new flat rate for commercial users will be Tk 5.30 while the off-peak rate is Tk 3.80 and peak rate is Tk 8.20.
   The existing flat rate is Tk 5.04, off-peak rate is Tk 3.62 and peak rate is Tk 7.82.
   The consumers, who use electricity directly from 11KV line, will have to pay a flat rate of Tk 3.80 or Tk 3.14 in off-peak hours and Tk 6.73 peak hours. The existing rates are Tk 3.62, Tk 2.99 and Tk 6.73.
   For the connections from 132 KV line, the rate will be Tk 1.49 per unit from 11:00pm to 6:00 am, Tk 2.48 from 6:00 am to 1:00pm, Tk 1.66 from 1:00pm to 5:00 pm and Tk 5.52 from 5:00pm to 11:00pm while the flat rate will be Tk 2.82.
   Flat rate will be Tk 3.58 while the off-peak rate will be Tk 3.03 and peak rate will be Tk 6.45 for the connections from 33KV line.
   The new rate of power for streetlights and water pumps is Tk 3.86 per unit.
   Power price for consumers of 70 Palli Bidyut Samities of Rural Electrification Board will remain unchanged although PDB will increase power price for nine viable PBSs by 10 per cent.

Ousted Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein has been hanged inside one of his former torture centres in the final act of a brutal 30-year tragedy that left the stage strewn with tens of thousands of corpses, reports AFP.
   Officials who witnessed the execution said the 69-year-old former strongman remained defiant to the last, railing against his Iranian and American enemies and praising the rebels who have pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.
   ‘He said he was not afraid of anyone,’ said Judge Moneer Haddad, a member of the panel of appeal court judges who had confirmed Saddam’s conviction for crimes against humanity and who attended the pre-dawn execution.
   A video of the execution broadcast on Al-Iraqiya state television showed Hussein, dressed in a black overcoat, being led into a room by three masked guards, reports CNN.
   As a noose was tightened around Hussein’s neck, one of the executioners yelled ‘long live Muqtada al-Sadr,’ Haddad said, referring to the powerful anti-American Shia religious leader.
   Hussein, a Sunni, mockingly uttered one last phrase before he died: ‘Muqtada al-Sadr,’ according to Haddad’s account.
   The judge said Hussein appeared ‘totally oblivious to what was going on around him. I was very surprised. He was not afraid of death.’
   But Haddad’s description of Hussein’s demeanor before his execution contrasts markedly with another witness, Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie. ‘He was a broken man,’ al-Rubaie said. ‘He was afraid. You could see fear in his face.’
   ‘One thing I can’t explain, I have never seen any repentance, never seen any remorse there,’ Al-Rubaie told CNN.
   ‘When you reach the stage when that’s it, that’s the end, I think you tend to be right and honest with yourself and confess something,’ he added.
   ‘But he was praising the mujahideen, he was praising the jihadis ... he was cursing the Persians and he was cursing the West as well,’ he said.
   Rubaie said officials and even executioners had danced around the body afterwards. ‘This is a natural reaction. These people have lost loved ones.’
   ‘The time of death was very, very close to 6.00am (0300 GMT) ... It went like a blink of an eye–he died very, very quickly–it couldn’t have been quicker.’
   The former dictator refused to wear a hood as he was hanged, al-Rubaie said.
   Al-Rubaie said the Saddam’s American jailers had handed him over to Iraqis and that there had been no US personnel in the building as the trapdoor dropped and the dictator’s life was ended in a ‘100 per cent Iraqi operation’.
   Saddam’s and two co-accused–his half brother and intelligence chief Barzan Hassan al-Tikriti and revolutionary court judge Awad Ahmed al-Bandar–were sentenced to death by an Iraqi court on November 5.
   Officials said that the execution of Saddam’s aides had been postponed until after the Eid al-Adha religious holiday, which ends on Thursday.
   Over several months, the Iraqi High Tribunal heard how they oversaw a campaign of collective punishment against the Shia village of Dujail, north of Baghdad, where Saddam escaped an assassination bid in 1982.
   Dujail’s orchards were torn up and 148 men and boys were executed after being dragged through Bandar’s kangaroo court.
   Saddam will be buried in Iraq but the government is not yet ready to say exactly where, an official in the office of Nuri al-Maliki said Saturday.
   Saddam’s daughter has asked that his body be buried in Yemen, a source close to the family told Reuters on Saturday.
   Saddam’s daughter Raghd, who is exiled in Jordan, ‘is asking that his body be buried in Yemen temporarily until Iraq is liberated and it can be reburied in Iraq,’ a source close to the family said by telephone.

During more than two decades as leader of Iraq, Saddam Hussein’s violent methods and uncompromising stance thrust his country onto the world stage, reports BBConline.
   Saddam Hussein’s road to absolute power began in Tikrit, central Iraq, where he was born in 1937.
   His stepfather beat him as a child, introducing him to the brutality and bullying which would mark his own life.
   Joining up with the clandestine Baath party in 1956, he participated in a failed attempt to assassinate military ruler general Abdul Karim Qassem.
   In a country where politics was always a violent game, his talents took him swiftly to the top.
   Saddam was forced to flee Iraq in 1959 and spent four years in exile in Cairo.
   Back in Iraq, he rose through the party ranks. When it finally seized power from Abdul Rahman Mohammed Aref in 1968, Saddam Hussein emerged as the number two figure behind general Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr.
   Now the power behind the throne, he took over when Bakr was quietly shunted aside in July 1979 and began the reign of terror that was to keep him in power for so long.
   Saddam Hussein took the posts of prime minister, chairman of the Revolution Command Council and armed forces commander-in-chief.
   Within a year, he launched Iraq into a massive and risky adventure.
   Seeing himself as the new leader and champion of all Arabs, Saddam Hussein poured his army across the border into western Iran in September 1980, hoping to defuse a potential threat from the new Islamic revolution.
   The disastrous war lasted eight years and claimed a million lives.
   The US quietly backed him, ignoring Iraq’s human rights record and atrocities like the killing of 148 people in the mostly Shia town of Dujail after a failed assassination attempt against him in July 1982, and the gassing of 5,000 Kurdish villagers of Halabja in March 1988.
   In August 1990, he accused Kuwait of driving the price of oil down, invaded and annexed the emirate.
   Weeks of US-led bombing, during what Saddam Hussein had famously described as the ‘Mother of All Battles’, reduced Iraq’s infrastructure to ruins, and wrought havoc among front-line troops.
   Operation Desert Storm, the subsequent ground assault in January 1991 to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait left thousands of Iraqi soldiers dead, wounded or captured.
   But this time, the Iraqi president’s blunders did lead to consequences at home. Encouraged by the first US president George Bush to rise up, the Shia of southern Iraq revolted. But the Western powers did nothing, as Saddam Hussein ruthlessly restored his grip on the south.
   After his ejection from Kuwait, the Iraqi leader was forced to agree to the elimination of all his weapons of mass destruction by the UN.
   His two sons-in-law defected, but both were murdered after being persuaded to return to Iraq. President George W Bush’s election in 2000 increased the pressure. Washington now talked openly of ‘regime change’.
   Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix reported that Iraq had accelerated its co-operation and there was no evidence of a new weapons programme, but the US and UK declared the diplomatic process over.
   Coalition forces invaded Iraq in March 2003, despite not securing a new UN resolution authorising such action.
   Saddam Hussein’s reign was brought to a violent end and he disappeared after the fall of Baghdad on 9 April, becoming the US military’s most wanted fugitive in Iraq.
   His two sons, Uday and Qusay, were killed by US troops in a raid on a house near Mosul, northern Iraq, on 22 July. And in December 2003, US officials announced that the former president had been captured near Tikrit.

Four car bombs targeting Shias in Baghdad and a town south of the capital killed more than 70 people on Saturday, hours after Saddam Hussein was hanged amid fears of revenge by his Sunni Arab supporters.
   In Baghdad, three car bombs exploded in quick succession in the mainly Shia neighbourhood of Hurriya, killing 36 people and wounding 77, an interior ministry source said.
   The police in Kufa, near the Shia holy city of Najaf, said 36 people were killed and 58 wounded by the car bomb at a market packed with shoppers ahead of the week-long Eid-ul-Azha holiday.
   They said a mob killed a man they accused of planting the bomb in the town about 160km south of Baghdad. The attacks came the same day as Saddam was hanged for crimes against humanity, prompting fears of a violent backlash by his supporters among his fellow Sunni Arabs.
   While the attacks may have been a swift response to the execution, such bombings are common in a country where at least 100 people die on average every day in bombings, mortar attacks and death squad killings. Though Saturday’s bombings may have been planned independently of the execution.
   They were typical of the cycle of sectarian violence that is driving both Shias, Sunni Arabs and others from their homes, increasingly dividing Baghdad and surrounding areas on sectarian grounds.
   Bombs frequently provoke reprisals from militias, whose practice is to kidnap, torture and shoot their victims,
   leaving the bodies dumped in places where they will
   intimidate.
   A formerly mixed neighbourhood, Hurriya, where the three car bombs struck on Saturday, has become increasingly dominated by Shi’ites as Sunni Arabs have been driven out by threats and attacks.
   Saddam’s execution was welcome by Shias and Kurds, who were oppressed under his rule, but many in the once dominant Sunni Arab minority were angry and all sides feared it could spark even more violence.

The United States joined its arch-foe Iran on Saturday in hailing the justice of Saddam Hussein’s execution, but European powers opposed the use of capital punishment even though they condemned the former dictator’s crimes in Iraq, reports AFP.
   The US president, George W Bush, said Saddam had received the kind of justice he denied his victims.
   Some key US allies expressed discomfort at the execution. And Russia, which opposed the March 20, 2003 invasion to oust the dictator, and the Vatican expressed regret at the hanging which some Muslim leaders said would exacerbate the violence in Iraq.
   He called the execution ‘an important milestone’ on the road to building an Iraqi democracy though he warned in a statement it would not end the deadly violence there.
   Iran, the influential neighbour of Iraq and arch-foe of the US administration, also welcomed the execution.
   Britain, the main US ally in Iraq, said Saddam Hussein had been ‘held to account’ but reiterated its opposition to the use of the death penalty, as did Australia, another key supporter of the US invasion.
   Russia’s foreign ministry expressed regret, saying that international calls for clemency had been ignored.
   Russian lawmakers warned the execution could worsen the violence.
   India, which had warm ties with the Saddam regime, also condemned the execution. ‘We had already expressed the hope the execution would not be carried out. We are disappointed that it has been,’ said the foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee, in a statement.
   Pakistan, a key US ally, on Saturday described the execution of Saddam as a ‘sad event’ and expressed hope that it would not exacerbate the security situation in Iraq.
   Nepalese Communist Party supporters chant anti-US slogans as they burn an effigy of Bush while staging a protest rally in Kathmandu against the execution of Saddam.
   The ruling Hamas movement in the Palestinian territories called the execution of Saddam a ‘political assassination’.
   Libya declared three days of national mourning after the execution, with official media also calling Saddam a ‘prisoner of war’.
   Malaysia, a leading Muslim nation, warned the execution of Saddam could trigger more bloodshed.
   ‘A lot of people, the international community generally, are not in favour of the hanging and question the due process that took place,’ the foreign minister, Syed Hamid Albar, whose country is current chair of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, said.
   Outside of Britain, European reaction, led by the European Union, focused on opposing the death penalty.
   ‘The EU condemns the crimes committed by Saddam and also the death penalty,’ Cristina Gallach, a spokeswoman for Javier Solana, the EU high representative for foreign affairs, said.
   France, a high profile opponent of the Iraq invasion at the United Nations, called on Iraqis to end their divisions.
   German junior foreign minister Gernot Erler said that his country ‘understood’ the feelings of the victims of Saddam’s brutal regime but remained opposed to capital punishment.
   Among other major powers, Japan said it respected Iraq’s decision to carry out the execution.
   The Vatican saw the hanging as ‘tragic news’, Vatican spokesman Frederico Lombardi said.
   In Makkah, the focal point of the Muslim hajj pilgrimage, Nawaf al-Harbi, a Saudi national, said: ‘I don’t want to believe it. Saddam cannot die. Is this the good news we get on our Eid?’
   International human rights groups deplored the execution of Saddam Hussein, saying it marked ‘a significant step away’ from the rule of law and would do nothing to halt bloodshed in Iraq.
   While organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch agreed that Saddam should have been held to account, they voiced deep concern that he faced the death penalty.

Different left-leaning political parties and organisations, from separate protest rallies and in press statements on Saturday, condemned the execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
   Terming the Iraqi government a puppet of imperialist America, the left leaders said the trial and execution of Saddam Hussein was nothing but farcical.
   America should be denounced for occupying Iraq and its president George Bush should be tried for his crimes and open violations of human rights, said the left leaders.
   Ganamukti Andolan, a combine of the left-leaning political parties, Workers Party of Bangladesh and Jatiya Mukti Council, held separate rallies in Muktangan and took out protest processions. Anglo-American imperialists have occupied Iraq to exploit the oil wealth of the country, said Ganamukti leader Khalequzzaman at the rally.
   The brave Iraqi people will never bow down to the US army which has invaded their country, said combine leader Saiful Huq.
    Workers Party leader Mahmudul Hasan Manik said, ‘We condemn the role of US president George Bush and UK prime minister Tony Blair in invading Iraq.’ Chaired by party’s city secretary Quamrul Ahsan, the rally was addressed, among others, by its leaders Hazera Sultana and Mostafa Alamgir Ratan.
   Jatiya Mukti Council’s secretary Foizul Hakim called upon the people to be organised against the imperialist America.
   The rallies were followed by processions that paraded different city roads. The central steering committee of the 11-Party Alliance, at a meeting, called upon the world community to be vocal against imperialist America.
   The Communist Party of Bangladesh’s leaders, in a press statement, said that US president George Bush should be tried for his crimes in Iraq. The Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal, Workers Party’s faction led by Khandaker Ali Abbas, Jatiya Sramik Federation, Bangladesh Juba Moitri, Chhatra Moitri and Bangladesh Chhatra Union leaders, in separate press statements, condemned the execution of Saddam.

A civic forum against fatwa (religious decree) and militant fundamentalism on Saturday submitted a memorandum to the Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, protesting at the deal signed between the party and the Islamist group Khelafat Majlish.
   The forum leaders met Hasina at Sudha Sadan in the morning and expressed their concern about the Awami League’s signing such a deal and urged Hasina to revoke it.
   ‘We told Sheikh Hasina that the deal signed with the religion-based group is opposed to secularism and it cannot be acceptable. We hope the party will immediately scrap it,’ Professor Kabir Chowdhury of the forum told newsmen after the meeting.
   He said Hasina explained her position saying the deal was signed for technical reasons, but the forum leaders differed on the opinion.
   ‘Sheikh Hasina said her party believes in secularism and democracy and the agreement was signed to control the fatwabaz (those who issue religious decrees), if the AL-led alliance was voted to power,’ Shahriyar Kabir told reporters after the meeting.
   Shahriyar quoted Hasina as saying that she had seen the deal as a victory as Shaikhul Hadith and other Khelafat Majlish leaders had now been saying that secularism does not mean the absence of religion.
   The memorandum said the agreement created concerns and resentment among the pro-independence and liberal forces and requested Hasina to immediately revoke the deal.
   ‘We want the Awami League to go to people with the election manifesto of curbing militancy and fundamentalism, ensuring trial of war criminals, curbing terrorism and keeping to spirit of the independence war,’ the memorandum said.
   It also said the forum would work, as it has always done, as an assisting force for any pro-independence political party.
   The general secretaries of the Awami League and Khelafat Majlish on December 23 signed the deal where the leaders agreed that the alliance, if voted to power, would not get any law enacted not in keeping with the dictates of the Qur’an, Sunnah and Shariah.
   The accord also stipulated that the alliance, if in power, would ‘reserve the right’ for certain category of Islamic clerics ‘to issue fatwa’ and that criticism of the prophets and their companions will be considered a criminal offence and that an official recognition would be provided to the degrees conferred by qoumi madrassahs.
   Forum leaders KM Sobhan, Khan Sarwar Murshid, Hena Das, Ajay Roy, Asma Kibria, Syed Shamshul Haque, Ferdousi Priyabhashini, Shyamali Nasrin Chowdhury, Muntassir Mamun, Sara Zaker, Nimchandra Bhowmik, Tasmima Hossain and Shirin Akhtar were, among others, present during the meeting where senior leaders of the Awami League were also present.

Adviser to the interim caretaker government, Mahbubul Alam on Saturday expressed hope that a solution to the crisis over the cancellation of nomination papers of HM Ershad and some other candidates would be found.
   ‘We have come a long way and hope that the latest crisis will also be over and all political parties will participate in the January 22 parliamentary elections,’ Alam said after a meeting of the advisory council.
   The unscheduled meeting, held at Bangabhaban with the president and chief adviser, Iajuddin Ahmed, in the chair, reviewed the country’s latest political situation and the blockade announced by the Awami League-led grand alliance for January 7-8.
   ‘Although we did not have formal discussion on the blockade we have enough time still left,’ the information adviser told reporters after the meeting. He, however, said that there were no talks with the political parties in this regard.
   He said that all political parties were getting prepared for contesting the poll.
   Judgement on appeals filed against the cancellation of nomination papers may influence the situation, he said but refrained from making comments on whether the verdicts would be positive.

A total 124 parliamentary aspirants, including HM Ershad, have filed appeals with the Election Commission in the last three days, said officials at the EC secretariat.
   The returning officers on Wednesday rejected 264 out of the 4,146 nomination papers for misinformation, loan default and conviction for crimes.
   The hearing of the appeals will begin today at 10:00am and continue till January 2, 2007, a day before the last date of withdrawal of nomination papers, said officials.
   The Election Commission will also sit on Eid, January 1, if anyone goes for hearing on his appeal on that day.
   A full bench comprising all the election commissioners will hear the appeals, sources added.
   Among the mentionable cases is that of Jatiya Party’s chairman Hussein Muhammad Ershad, whose case’s serial number is 17.
   Earlier, Yusuf Abdullah Harun of Comilla-3, Golam Faruk Ovi of Barisal-2, Lovely Yasmin of Dinajpur-6, Lakshmi Prashad Chakma of Rangamati, Shafiqul Islam Kiron of Shariatpur-3, Nasrin
   Zahan Ratna of Barisal-6, Ruhul Amin Madani of Mymensingh-7 and Mesbahul Islam of Gaibandha-2 also filed their appeals.
   Meanwhile, the Awami League-nominated candidate for Chandpur-1 constituency filed an appeal with the EC against declaring the nomination of BNP-nominated candidate ANM Ehsanul Haq valid.
   Twenty-two such appeals against declaring nomination papers valid were filed with the EC before the last general election. But the EC, after hearing the appeals, rejected all of them, saying that the decision of returning officers to accept any nomination paper is final.

Eid-ul-Azha, the second biggest religious festival for the Muslims, commemorating the sacrifice of prophet Ibrahim, will be celebrated in Bangladesh tomorrow.
   The celebrations will begin with the Eid congregations followed by sacrifice of animals in the name of Allah.
   Considering the volatile political situation and celebration of 31st night and New Year that coincides with the Eid, the government has stepped up security across the country.
   Step has also been taken to provide security at the main venues of Eid congregations in the capital city and in all the district headquarters.
   Lawmen across the country have been asked to remain alert and the police department asked to deploy sufficient number of forces at all the major sites of congregation to maintain order and peace, sources in the home ministry said.
   The main focus of the security arrangements will be in Dhaka as eminent personalities, including the president, will offer Eid prayers at the National Eidgah Maidan, Baitul Mukarram National Mosque, Gulshan Azad Mosque, Dhaka University central mosque, Azimpur and Lalbagh mosques.
   The law enforcers will sweep of the venues with sniffer dogs. Metal detectors will also be installed at some venues in the capital.
   Additional security personnel will be deployed in and around the venues to keep watch on the crowd before and after the congregations. Steps were also taken to maintain order during the three-day Eid vacation across the country.
   New Age correspondents from Khulna and Rajshahi reported that the police had taken extra security measures to maintain law and order ahead of Eid.
   President and chief adviser to the caretaker government Iajuddin Ahmed, BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, in separate massages, greeted the countrymen and wished them a happy and pleasant Eid.
   The national flag will be hoisted atop government and non-government buildings, and main roads and intersections will be decorated with the national flag and banner and festoons inscribed with ‘Eid Mubarak’. The major architectural sites will be illuminated.
   The main Eid congregation will be held at the National Eidgah at 8:00am. In case of inclement weather, the main congregation will be shifted to the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque and be held at the same time. There will be special arrangements for women.
   The first of three congregations at the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque will be held at 7:00am. The first jamaat at the Dhaka University Jam-e-Masjid will be held at 8:00am while the second at 9:00am.
   The Eid jamaats at the Gulshan Central Masjid and Eidgah will be held at 8:15am, Mohammadpur Jam-e-Mosque Complex Eidgah at 8:30am. Two congregations will be held at No-11 Baitul Falah Complex at Mirpur 1 at 7:45am and 8:30am.
   An Eid congregation will also be held at the SOS Children’s Village Jame mosque at Shyamoli at 8:15am.
   Another Jamaat will be held at the Sir Salimullah Muslim Orphanage field at Azimpur Road at 8:30am. Three other Jamaats will be held at Bab-e-Rahmat of Dewanbagh Sharif at 8:00am, 9:30 am and at 10:00am.
   New Age Barisal correspondent adds: The main congregation of Eid-ul-Azha in the city will be held at the Hemayet Uddin Eidgah Maidan at 8:30am.
   Two Eid congregations at the Baitul Mokarram Mosque, Barisal will be held at 8:30am and 9:30am, at Jam-e-Kashai Mosque at 8:00am and 9:00am, at Eabaidullah Mosque at 8:30am and 10:00am and at the Police Lines mosque at 9:00am and 9:30am.
   Other main Eid prayers in the Barisal city will be held at Gorasthan Road Anjumane Hemaete Islam, Tablig Jamat Markaj, Kawnia Akon Mosque and BM College mosques at 8:00am, Paresh Sagor ground, Amtala, Amanatganj Power House, Mahmudia Madrassah, Nathullabad Hosainia Madrassah, Kazi Para, Bakla, Kashipur School mosques at 8:30am, BM School, Sadhur Battala Ground, Natun Bazar, Fakir Bari mosques at 9.00am.
   TTC mosque, A Kader Chowdhury School Ground, Jail Khana Mosque, Sagordi Madrasha, Hatkhola, Bazar road mosques arranged Eid prayers between 8:00am and 9:00am.
   New Age Rajshahi correspondent adds: The main Eid congregation in the city will be held at Shak Makhdum Central Eidgha Maidan at 9.00am.
   Eid congregations at the Rajshahi Cantonment will be held at 8:00am and at 9:30am. The Eid congregation at Rajshahi University mosque will be held at 9:00am.
   Besides, congregations will also be held at Shaheb Bazar Bara Rasta, Sagarpara Battala, Tikapara city eidgah, divisional stadium, medical college mosque, Upashahar mosque, Tarakhadia mosque, Kadirganj Hajee Lal Muhammad ground, Pachanimath, Judge Court mosque and Laxmipur Eidgah Maidan between 8:00am and 9:30am.

The four nationalised commercial banks—Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali — have advanced a notch in June from their three months’ back positions in a central bank composite rating.
   Known as CAMELS rating in the banking sector, the rating measures a bank’s capital adequacy, asset quality, management, earnings, liquidity and sensitivity to market risks.
   The department of off-site supervision of the Bangladesh Bank has recently finalised the latest ratings of the NCBs, for the first time taking into account the banks’ liquidity gap analysis and foreign exchange exposure situations, central bank sources said.
   Besides, subjective judgment was also conducted of the banks along with their objective judgments or ratio analysis, they added.
   According to the latest CAMELS rating, Sonali Bank has graduated from unsatisfactory level to marginal, Janata Bank from marginal to fair, Agrani Bank and Rupali Bank from unsatisfactory level to marginal, sources said.
   However, none of the state-owned lenders could achieve either the level of satisfactory or strong, which are considered globally as the most prestigious ratings for a bank.
   Healthy foreign exchange reserves have put the state-owned lenders in the better positions this time after the central bank ratings incorporated the foreign exchange exposure.
   Besides, levels of management and sensitivity to market risk have also been developed during the period, central bank sources said.
   According to the CAMELS rating, as of June 2006, the amount of classified loan of Sonali Bank was Tk 9,701.69 crore or 44.11 per cent of total loan portfolio, while that of Janata Bank stood at Tk 1,675.25 crore or 14.01 per cent, Agrani Bank Tk 2,982.40 crore or 29.15 per cent and Rupali Bank Tk 867.42 crore or 19.93 per cent.
   ‘Things have been gradually better than their earlier positions as the BB and the finance ministry have been pressing the state-owned banks for improving their respective positions,’ a high official of the central bank told New Age.
   ‘Transferring the partial management control of the NCBs to foreign consultants has also contributed a lot to overall improvement.’
   Officials, however, said, NCBs must be freed from directed loans and political influence, and they must go for computerization, offer better pays to staff and diversify products if they are to see further improvement in overall performances.

Fuel oil dealers reacted sharply to the government’s decision of keeping oil depots closed for five days for Eid, which, they feared, would cause oil supply shortage affecting eid transportation and irrigation.
   About 100 oil pump-owners and dealers of the northern region on Saturday laid siege to offices of the three state-owned oil marketing companies at Baghabari depot demanding supply of diesel, New Age’s Sirajganj correspondent reported.
   All the oil depots were closed as usual on weekend, Friday, and will be opened on Wednesday after the end of three-day Eid-ul-Azha holidays.
   Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation officials claimed closure would not be a problem since the dealers had already lifted almost double the normal amount in last four days.
   They, however, assured that fuel oils would be supplied during the holidays if ‘genuine’ need arises, considering peoples’ interest. ‘But there should not be any crisis as dealers had lifted around 12,000 tonnes of diesel per day in last few days against the demand of only 6,000 tonnes,’ a senior BPC official said on Saturday.
   Dealers said that closure of oil depots for five straight days would create fuel crisis, hampering transportation of passengers before and after the Eid as well as irrigation.
   ‘We are facing shortage of oils at our pumps...the condition may take a turn for the worse,’ Bangladesh Petrol Pump Owners Association president Nazmul Haque said at a press conference in the city.
   ‘The government’s decision to stop supply of fuels to filling stations for five days is unprecedented,’ Haque said.
   ‘The dealers knew in advance that the depots will remain closed on government holidays and we allowed them to lift additional fuel. Where has the diesel gone?’ asked a BPC official.
   Energy secretary AMM Nasir Uddin told New Age that a section of fuel dealers were trying to create artificial crisis of fuel oils to make windfall. ‘Besides, a section of dealers are looking for opportunity to increase fuel smuggling taking advantage of Eid holidays,’ he said.

The police administration will deploy a 10,000-strong security force in Dhaka on Sunday to check against any public nuisance during the New Year’s Day celebrations.
   The Rapid Action Battalion members and intelligence agencies will also keep vigil at important city points and on the streets this afternoon to ensure safety of the city dwellers.
   The Dhaka police, meanwhile, tightened security in and around the diplomatic enclave in the capital fearing protest against the hanging of the deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein on Saturday.
   A number of mobile teams of law enforcers and doctors will be deployed at city points from today to check against any nuisance of unruly New Year revellers.
   The police in a release on Thursday said transport movement on some city areas will be restricted at night on December 31.
   All the roads and crossings, except for Kakali and Phoenix Road (Gulshan Shooting Club) leading to Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara will remain closed for 10 hours from 8:00pm Sunday.
   The ban on traffic will be in force on the streets around Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Nilkhet, Plassey crossing, Bakshibazar, Chankharpool, Nimtali, Government Employees’ Hospital, and the Supreme Court building.
   No one but students of Dhaka University and the residents of the campus will be allowed to enter the area after 8:00pm today. But the residents can go outside the campus using any roads.
   Ambulances, fire engines and vehicles of other emergency services will be kept out of the purview of the restrictions.
   The police administration has, meanwhile, tightened security in and around the diplomatic enclave fearing protest against Saddam’s hanging. Saddam was hanged in Baghdad Saturday morning.
   ‘We fear protests from different quarters, especially from the religion-based organisations for the Iraqi leader’s execution and we have strengthened security measures around the diplomatic zone,’ said a senior official of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Saturday.
   The official said the deployment of law enforcers has
   been doubled in the zone, especially for the embassies of the United States, United Kingdom and the Middle-East countries.

Traffic at Madrid airport was heavily disrupted Saturday following a bomb attack in which 19 people received minor injuries.
   By midday several hundred passengers were stranded on the tarmac waiting to board aircraft whose flights were delayed.
   A car bomb detonated in a parking lot in terminal four, which still remained completely blocked off at midday, an emergency services spokesman said.
   Terminal four is used mainly by Spain’s main carrier Iberia as well as by foreign airlines such as British Airways American Airlines.
   It was inaugurated only last January and is located some two kilometres from the other terminals.
   Traffic resumed gradually at terminals one, two and
   three, but confusion was considerable with arrivals by bus at terminal four not knowing where to go.
   Nineteen people were slightly injured in the explosion, claimed by the Basque separatist group ETA, emergency services reported.
   Four, including two policemen, were taken to hospital and the others were treated at the scene.
   The Spanish airports authority had earlier warned the public not to check into terminal four earlier than 2:00pm when normal traffic was expected to resume.
   With the festive season in full swing, about 1,000 departures and arrivals had been scheduled at Madrid airport Saturday.
   The Spanish interior minister, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, said a car bomb attack at Madrid airport, claimed by ETA, ‘breaks the ceasefire’ the Basque separatist group called on March 22.
   ‘I roundly condemn this blast which interrupts, which breaks nine months since ETA committed an act of violence,’ said Rubalcaba, who also said that ‘one person is listed as missing’ at the airport.

Shawkat Mahmud and Kamal Uddin Sabuj were elected president and general secretary respectively in the biennial election of the Jatiya Press Club held on Friday.
   Other elected office-bearers are: Farid Hossain- senior vice-president, Abdur Rahman Khan- vice-president, Kazi Rawnak Hossain and Bakhtiar Rana- joint secretaries, Syed Abdal Ahmed- treasurer, and members - Parvin Sultana Musa Jhuma, Nurul Hasan Khan, Badiul Alam, Nurul Huda, Mostafa Kamal Majumder, Khaled Haider, Rozy Ferdous, Shehab Uddin Ahmed Nafa and Mamtaz Bilkis Banu and Farida Yasmin.

The US president, George W Bush, was evacuated from his ranch in Crawford after a tornado warning was issued in central Texas, officials said, reports BBConline.
   Bush, his wife Laura and their two dogs Barney and Miss Beazley were taken by armoured car to a tornado shelter on the property, the White House said. However, the couple did not need to enter the shelter as the bad weather only lasted a short while. The couple and members of staff were in the vehicle for about 10 minutes.

The BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, also the immediate-past prime minister, will come to Sylhet today after five years to begin the party’s election campaign formally from here after visiting the shrines of Hazrat Shahjalal and Hazrat Shah Paran in the city.
   Khaleda will start for Sylhet from Dhaka by road at 7:00am. She will be accompanied by the central leaders of the party. She is expected to reach the city at 11:00am.
   Many leaders aspiring to nomination to contest in the forthcoming general lections will join her in a motorcade to Sylhet, party sources said.
   The Sylhet BNP and its fronts have, meanwhile, taken preparations for the visit of the party chairperson, said the party source.
   Nomination seekers of the Sylhet division from the BNP-led alliance will hold roadside rallies and build arches at places on the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway.
   Khaleda Zia is scheduled to take rest in the Sylhet Circuit House after visiting the shrines and to talk with the local party leaders after launch, the sources said.
   The visit to Sylhet will be her first in five years and after serving out the five-year tenure in the government. She visited Sylhet for the last time on September 24, 2001 before the past general elections and began election campaign at a rally of the alliance at Aliya Madrassah in the city after visiting the shrines.

Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro sent New Year’s greetings to China’s president Hu
   Jintao through the Chinese ambassador in Cuba, with whom he spoke late Thursday, official Cuban media reported Saturday.
   ‘On the night of December 28, commander in chief Fidel Castro Ruz spoke by phone with the (Chinese) ambassador,’ Zhao Rongxian.
   Castro underwent intestinal surgery five months ago and temporarily handed over power to his brother and defence chief Raul Castro. Since then, Fidel Castro has not appeared in public amid growing speculation about his health, which Cuba considers a state secret.