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The Election Commission is yet to convene a meeting in line with a January 4 High Court directive, as two election commissioners could not communicate with the chief election commissioner, MA Aziz, till Sunday.
   KM Mohammad Ali and MM Munsef Ali are keen on a meeting in line with the January 4 directive of the court but have failed to contact Aziz in the past four days, they told journalists on Sunday.
   ‘We do not know when the meeting will be held as the chief election commissioner, who can convene the meeting, has neither come to the office nor been accessible till today,’ said Mohammad Ali.
   ‘We are ready to attend the meeting anywhere, anytime. He [Aziz] can even convene the meeting at his residence.’ said Munsef Ali.
   The last time the commission had a meeting was on August 6, 2005.
   Aziz has remained absent from the commission since he received the certified copy of the High Court judgement on January 8. His personal staffs have cited illness as the reason for his continued absence.
   The court ruled that he ‘should immediately call a meeting of the commission and the commission should decide and take all appropriate steps to implement the decision of August 6, 2005 in its meeting for the preparation of electoral roll in the light of this judgement. The commission should prepare electoral roll taking the existing roll maintained under section 7 (6) of the ordinance as a major basis.’
   Mohammad Ali said he had called Aziz’s residence to enquire about his health and to request him to convene the meeting Sunday morning but failed to reach him. He was told that Aziz would not be able to talk as he was ill and in hospital.
   ‘I failed to talk with him as a peon, who received the call, told me that sir [Aziz] was now in hospital,’ Mohammad Ali told reporters.
   According to hospital sources, Aziz has been taking therapy for his back pain for the last 12 days.
   ‘The CEC came to our hospital at about 10:00am and I gave him physiotherapy. He is now improving from his low back pain. Though he is improving, he is yet to recover completely. Our senior consultant advised him to take complete bed rest,’ Iqbal Ahmed, a physiotherapist at SPRC and General Hospital told reporters.
   He told journalist that Aziz could now walk slowly.
   Later, as a group of journalists went to the official residence of the chief election commissioner, one of the security guards told them that Aziz was unable to meet the press.
   The preparation of a new voter list, which began on January 1 amid controversy, meanwhile, continued Sunday, without complying with the court ruling.
   The two election commissioners said the work was not being done in accordance with the court’s directives and the existing list was not being used as the basis for the preparation of the new list.
   ‘The High Court did not approve the ongoing task. So, it has automatically lost its validity. We hope those who are responsible for undertaking the task will stop,’ Mohammad Ali said.
   The two commissioners also said they did not know about the present status of the ongoing work.
   ‘We know nothing about the progress in preparing the fresh voter list,’ Munsef Ali told reporters.

The chief election commissioner, MA Aziz, who has so far not called a meeting of the Election Commission in line with a High Court verdict, may file an appeal against the verdict to buy some time.
   He is considering a petition with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court for the leave to appeal and a stay on the January 4 verdict of the High Court, as the government remains undecided about his proposal for the appointment of two more election commissioners, said a source close to him.
   His counsel Khandker Mahbubuddin Ahmad, who is a ruling BNP lawmaker, told New Age on Sunday that he had met Aziz earlier in the day and had a discussion on the issue.
   ‘I have just received the copy of the verdict sent by the High Court to my client and he has asked me to examine the scope for, and legal and other consequences of, filing an appeal against the verdict,’ he said.
   If there are good grounds and favourable legal and other consequences, he will advise his client to go for an appeal against the verdict, said Khandker Mahbubuddin.
   One of the election commissioners, MM Munsef Ali, however, told reporters that he did not find any good ground for filing an appeal against the High Court verdict that had directed the commission to hold immediately a meeting to take appropriate decision for preparing the electoral roll based on the existing roll and in line with the verdict.
   ‘Moreover, the decision to file an appeal against the verdict has to come at the meeting of the commission,’ he observed.
   On the other hand, petitioners of the writ petitions, which led to the verdict, is seriously considering filing a petition with the High Court against the chief election commissioner for contempt of court, as he is yet to call the meeting and as the preparation of a fresh voter list continues in violation of the verdict.
   ‘We still hope that the CEC will go by the verdict,’ M Amirul Islam, who is representing the petitioners, told New Age on Sunday. ‘If he fails to do that, we must go to the High Court again for drawing contempt of court charge against him.’

India has not yet responded to a request from Bangladesh to conduct a joint study of the sites along the bordering rivers that are vulnerable to erosion, which frequently threatens the territorial boundary between the two countries.
   The water resources minister, Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, invited his Indian counterpart on December 15, 2005 to visit the vulnerable sites in line with a decision of the India-Bangladesh Joint River Commission, a ministry official told New Age. ‘We are yet to get any response from India about the proposed study.’
   The two sides agreed to conduct joint study at the end of a crucial 36th ministerial-level JRC meeting that ended in Dhaka on September 21.
   Hafiz and Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, then water resources minister of India, expressed hopes after inking an agreed document about a positive impact of the two-day talks, which was held after a two-year gap, thanks to India’s ‘unwillingness’ to hold JRC meeting.
   ‘We [the ministers] will jointly address the issue “without much depending on bureaucrats”,’ Dasmunsi had told at a press conference at a city hotel.
   However, the crucial water talks failed to ensure any significant achievement on the sharing of seven common rivers, including Teesta, a longstanding irritant.
   The two sides also failed to reach a consensus on India’s plan to interlink common rivers to unilaterally withdraw water at upstream and to construct a multipurpose dam at Tepaimukh on the river Barak, at the upstream of Surma, Kushiara and Meghna, a major river system in the lower riparian Bangladesh. The Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, has since then replaced Dasmunsi with Sontosh Mohon Dev.

The Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board will extend its flat international call rate of Tk 7.5 per minute to 15 more countries. At present this flat rate is offered for ten countries only.
   Sources in the telephone board said that the state-owned operator has recently sent a proposal to the posts and telecommunications ministry to introduce the flat rate of Tk 7.5 per minute to make calls to China, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Brunei, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Ireland, Spain, Greece and Austria.
   Currently BTTB charges Tk 24 and Tk 18 per minute respectively in peak and off-peak hours for calls to China, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Brunei, and Tk 27 and Tk 21 per minute respectively in peak and off-peak hours for the rest of the proposed countries.
   However, except China, South Korea, Thailand and Brunei, the telephone board has proposed Tk 18 as charge per minute for making calls to the mobile phones of these countries.
   Earlier, on December 30, 2003, BTTB first introduced the flat rate of Tk 7.5 per minute for making calls to ten countries: the United States, Canada, England, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.
   Only the BTTB’s subscribers who have ISD (international subscriber’s dialling) and NWD (nation-wide dialling) telephones will enjoy the reduced charges.
   ‘The NWD telephone users will be able to make ISD calls at the reduced rate through direct dialling by using the new code “012” instead of “00”,’ said a BTTB official.
   The subscribers can also make calls to these countries by using the existing ‘00’ code, he said.
   The official said that the new tariff will be effective after getting approval from the telecom ministry.
   BTTB officials said the board planned to expand the economy rate ISD call facilities to more countries as it is losing crores of revenue from international calls due to illegal internet telephony, which is also referred to as Voice over Internet Protocol.
   Moreover, the telephone board got a very positive response after introducing the economy ISD calls to 10 countries as the revenue from calls to those countries rose sharply.
   According to BTTB’s statistics, the board on an average earned around Tk 8.27 crore per month from the 10 countries before the introduction of economy ISD rate, which rose to around Tk 9.4 crore after introduction of the facility.
   ‘The reduced rate will help the telephone board to regain some of its lost revenue as around 40 per cent of its revenue comes from overseas calls,’ said a top official.
   According to a study, the government loses around Tk 400 crore each year because of internet telephony.

Hide merchants said the finest quality of raw hides was produced from sacrificed animals across the country this year, due to the chilly weather, and they predicted that the quality of exportable leather goods and the consequent earnings would be boosted proportionately.
   ‘The country produced the best quality of raw hides from animals sacrificed in Eid this year,’ said Delwar Hossain, vice-president of the Bangladesh Hide and Skin Merchants Association.
   Citing years of experience in dealing with raw hides, Delwar and many merchants of Posta, the hub of the hide trade, opined that chilly weather and better care by cattle owners were responsible for the high quality.
   The temporary chilly weather improved the quality of the of cattle skins in Bangladesh, a tropical country; moreover the unusually cold winter ensured better storage and preliminary processing of hides, they said.
   The cattle’s balanced intake of water and fresh grass also helped to improve their skins, said merchants. They optimistically said that the volume of top grade hides would be very high due to these reasons.
   ‘We are delighted at having such fine-quality raw hides, and these will help us to process top grade finished leather that will attract more importers,’ said Harun-Or-Rashid, managing director of Lexco Limited, a leading leather processing and exporting company.
   Harun said that Bangladesh produces fine-grain leathers due to availability of some special indigenous varieties of livestock, especially Black Bengal Goats, and the non-artificially finished leather of Bangladesh enjoys huge demand among makers of expensive shoes, jackets and winter-wear in Japan and Italy.
   Meanwhile, the country’s raw hide markets breathed a sigh of relief on Sunday as the prices of the raw hides rose after tanners and merchants agreed to raise the prices.
   In the past four days depression had prevailed in hide market as syndicates of tanners had targeted reduction of raw hides’ prices and offered lower rates than usual.
   On Saturday a meeting of the tanners and hide merchants decided not to dictate prices, and the tanners advised their fellow businessmen to purchase hides at liberal prices and to their full capacity as far as volume is concerned.
   Market sources said that better quality of hides also motivated the tanners to keep the country’s hides in their stock rather than letting smugglers send them to Indian buyers, who usually pay higher prices.
   Market sources said that from Sunday the tanners started buying hides and they paid between Tk 65 and Tk 70 for a square foot of hide, much higher than the price of Tk 50 per square foot fixed by tanners’ association before Eid.
   Posta merchants estimated that 2.2 million pieces of cow hides and 12 million pieces of goat and sheep skin were produced in the country through Eid sacrifices this year, increasing the total volume by 10 per cent and causing a total transaction Tk 450 crore.
   Retail prices of hides registered up to 15 per cent increase in price; cow hides’ prices ranged between Tk 1,000 and Tk 2,000 per piece, and of goatskin between Tk 100 and 150.
   Tannery owners this year received Tk 250 crore in bank loans, much higher than the sum of Tk 194 crore they had received the previous year.
   Bangladesh produces 200 million square feet of leather every year and more than a third of the total volume comes from hides of animals sacrificed in Eid-ul-Azha.

A blinding late-night fog disrupted all modes of communications on Sunday, causing suffering to hundreds of Dhaka-bound passengers.
   The movement of ferries and launches on the Paturia-Daulatdia and the Paturia-Kazirhat routes remained suspended for seven hours, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded aboard the ferries and at the Daulatdia point.
   The sudden disruption left the Dhaka-bound rush of vehicles in a queue that stretched about five kilometres from Daulatdaia.
   The Zia International Airport authorities said eight international flights had been delayed because of the fog. Some of the flights were delayed for 12 to 17 hours.
   Passengers of the state-owned Biman Bangladesh Airlines alleged that the authorities had not inform them of the delayed departure and kept them waiting on the lobby for hours though the standard practice was for the airlines to arrange hotels for them.
   Three international flights were diverted to Chittagong Shah Amanat International Airport from Dhaka, reports New Age Chittagong correspondent. The Biman flight (BG-044) from Kuwait touched down in Chittagong at 2:30am, BG-058 from Rome at 8:00am and BG-0258 from Saudi Arabia at 8:30 am.
   The New Age correspondent reports from Manikganj that the movement of ferries and launches on the Paturia-Daulatdia and Paturia-Kazirhat routes remained suspended for seven hours.
   Officials of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation said the visibility had remained poor since midnight and reached nearly zero at 3:00am and continued till 10:00am. Three ferries got stranded at Paturia and six at Daulatdia.
   A ferry carrying buses from Daulatdia was stuck in the middle of the river, said an official.
   Ferry services resumed after the fog eased at around 10:30am.
   The Met Office forecasted light to moderate rain across Rajshahi, Dhaka and Sylhet divisions along with moderate to heavy fog for the next 24 hours.
   The fog would continue from midnight to morning for the next few days although there would be a slight rise in temperature, said the office.
   The lowest temperature of 9.2 degrees Celsius was recorded in Srimangal on Sunday. In Dhaka, the lowest temperature was 13.
   Dense fog halted the normal life in Jessore on Sunday. The sun could not be seen till 10:00am.
   Three people died of cold-related diseases on Saturday night in the district. They are former teacher of Jhikargachha Shahid Mashiur Rahman College, Sheikh Rabiul Haq, 68, a peon of Jhikargachha Women’s College, Abdur Razzaque, 54, and Badshah Miah of Jhikargachha.
   The minimum temperature in the district was 7.4 degrees on Saturday.
   Reports from Tangail said two people had died of cold related diseases. They are Mim, three-month old daughter of Aman Miah of village Barachana and an elderly man in village Fatehpur.
   Thirty-six patients suffering from cold-related diseases were admitted to Kumudini Hospital.
   The New Age correspondent reports from Rajshahi that an under-treatment prisoner died of cold-related disease at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital Saturday night. Sohrab Ali, 56, was admitted to Ward 17 on Friday.
   The Rajpara police said Sohrab of Pabna Sadar was arrested and jailed in connection with a case and an unnatural death case had been lodged with the police station.
   Meanwhile, the biting cold in association with the dense fog persisted in Rajshahi and its adjoining areas. The sun was not visible in the city till noon and the lowest temperature was recorded at 11.6 degrees Celsius.
   The Rotary club and the Inner Wheal club in cooperation with BanglaLink distributed warm clothing among cold-hit people at Sarai, Haragachh municipality under Kawnia.
   Thousands of distressed winter hit people including male, female and children of the Teesta basin queued up despite the chilly weather to get some warm clothes. The organisations distributed about 2,000 pieces of blankets and 500 pieces of sweaters.

Cold related diseases began taking its toll as the wintry chill set in last week.
   Physicians at hospitals in Dhaka said cold-fever, runny nose, cough, diarrhoea, asthma, breathing problem and various skin diseases have broken out. Children were the worst victims of pneumonia and bronchitis, they said.
   At the paediatric ward of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, about 40 per cent of the patients have pneumonia and 20 per cent have cold related sickness, Ashikur Rahman, a medical officer of the hospital told New Age on Sunday.
   Almost fifty per cent patients in Dhaka Shishu Hospital are also suffering from cold related illness, said Mariam, a medical officer of the emergency department of the hospital.
   The 387-bed children’s hospital is full to its capacity and is not admitting any new patients, she said. Mariam said some 200 patients were being treated at the outdoor everyday.
   The actual number may be three to four times higher, as many of the patients visit private clinics or medical centres and are not recorded at the control room of the health directorate.
   The control room failed to provide the exact figures of pneumonia patients.
   According to the control room of the directorate, the number of diarrhoea patients was 19,870 in the week before Eid, of whom 19 died.
   Number of cold-related diarrhoea patients crowding the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh at Mohakhali also marked a sharp increase.
   Salek, a seven year old in Dhaka Medical College Hospital, cried continuous as he could not breathe normally due to a severe asthma attack. The attending doctor, Ashikur Rahman, explained that conditions of asthma patients worsen during the dry winter months when there are a lot dust particles in the air.
   The asthma patients have to be careful about some agents that worsen their problem like dust, cigarette smoke, artificial fibre, animal fur and cold air, said Mirza Mohammad Harun, a professor of National Chest Diseases Institute and Hospital.
   Rokhsana Yesmin Ruma, child specialist of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, told New Age, ‘There are some common problems during the winter. So, people should take precautions.’
   MA Momin, skin specialist of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, suggested regular use of different creams, lotion and oil to keep the skin from drying up. It is important to maintain cleanliness to avoid skin disease.

Web sites of different departments of the government provide backdated information and data despite its special efforts to strengthen e-governance and promote use of information technology.
   Numerous government web sites provide information between two and three years old while some other web sites, of important ministries including that of the home ministry, are still ‘under construction’.
   There is no monitoring system from the information and communication technology taskforce.
   Members of the taskforce observed that lack of information and technology professionals, and reluctance and lack of knowledge about IT among government officials are the major reasons for not properly and timely developing the web sites.
   Mahbub Sarwar, national project director of strengthening information technology capacity at the Prime Minster’s Office, said the taskforce had issued letters to all ministries to update their web sites.
   ‘The ministries should update their web portals timely as every ministry has an ICT co-ordinator to look after the e-government activities,’ said Mahbub. ‘We also have shortage of professional manpower on the taskforce for monitoring web sites of the entire government.’
   Mahbub told New Age that the taskforce would set up a complete web portal of the government linked with other ministries in the middle of this year, which would make it easier to monitor all other sites.
   According to the taskforce’s information, 26 ministries and departments have web portals.
   Most of the web portals were hosted from the taskforce and developed by private web developers and some others were developed with the support of a project under the planning ministry.
   Abdur Rouf, deputy project director of support to the ICT taskforce programme, said ministries and their organisations were responsible for the development of their own web site.
   Debapriya Bhattacharya, executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, a research organisation, said at a press conference on January 7 that browsing the government web sites could be an incredible and horrible experience for a person looking for updated information.
   He said the Bangladesh Bank web site was the best among the web sites of different government agencies, and even that was a month or two behind.
   The research unit of the Centre for Policy Dialogue observed that the web site of the National Board of Revenue, www.nbr-bd.org, was last updated in 2005 but had no revenue data.
   The statistics bureau under the planning ministry — www.bbsgov.org and www.bbs.gov.bd — was last updated in 2002. The Board of Investment’s web site, www.boibd.org, was last updated in September 2004.
   Major government departments and agencies like the Press and Information Department, the Bangladesh Press Council and the Bangladesh Film Development Corporation under the information ministry, www.moi-gob.org, are still ‘under construction’.
   The web site of the environment and forest ministry, www.moef.gov.bd, shows data from 1999 and 2000. The alerts page of the food and disaster management ministry’s web site, www.mofdm.gov.bd, is still under construction.
   The web site of hajj office, www.bdhajjinfo.org, is the only updated site with the latest news and information. But the web site of the Islamic Foundation, www.islamicfoundation-bd.org, is linked with an Islamic resource site.

The Rangamati district administration on Sunday asked the officer-in-charge of the Rangamati police to submit a report on an incident of grabbing land of a government hatchery project in the name of BNP Sporting Club and Juba Dal Sporting Club.
   The deputy commissioner, Gazi Mohammad Julhas, told New Age Sunday night that he had asked the police to submit a report after investigating the allegations. He said nobody ad filed any complaints in this regard.
   About an acre of the abandoned government hatchery project at Kalindipur-Rangapani was occupied by a band of goons on Wednesday.
   They posted signs reading ‘BNP Sporting Club’ and ‘Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal Sporting Club’ and made bamboo fencing around the piece of land.
   Ethnic minority people also occupied a portion of the land afterwards.
   As the local people informed the state minister for the Chittagong Hill Tracts affairs, Moni Swapan Dewan, and the Rangamati District Council chairman, Maniklal Dewan, of the matter, they asked the police to ask the occupiers to stop construction of any buildings at the place.
   The Fisheries Department acquired about 33 acres of land at Rangapani in 1986–87 for a hatchery. The project was later cancelled.
   After the formation of the hill district councils, the land went under the jurisdiction of the council and the members on its staff have been residing in the project buildings.
   The residents said there were attempts to occupy the land during the Awami League regime, but the administration foiled the move.
   Ethnic minority people and the Bengali settlers blame each other for the occupation of the land where law enforcers visit occasionally. The law enforcers did not evict the occupiers.

The ruler of Kuwait, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, died on Sunday at the age of 78 after a long illness, and the country’s ailing crown prince is set to take over as emir of this major Gulf oil producer.
   He was buried in Kuwait as thousands of Kuwaitis massed for a ceremony attended by a number of Arab leaders.
   The emir, who died early Sunday at the age 79, was laid to rest at the Al-Sulaybikhat cemetery following brief funeral prayers.
   Security officials struggled against the dense crowds when the emir's body, wrapped in a Kuwaiti flag and placed in a simple open box, was carried to be buried.
   Under the constitution of the oil-rich Gulf state, 75-year-old crown prince Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Sabah, himself ill since undergoing colon surgery in 1997, automatically became the new emir, a cabinet statement said.
   Sheikh Jaber, who had ruled since 1977, presided over the rebuilding of this tiny Gulf Arab state after neighbouring Iraq invaded in 1990 and occupied the country for seven months.
   He suffered a brain haemorrhage in 2001, limiting his duties in the country which controls about 10 per cent of known global oil reserves.
   US-led forces drove Iraqi occupation troops from Kuwait in 1991 and used the country as its main staging ground for the 2003 invasion that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
   The ill health of Sheikh Jaber and Sheikh Saad has caused concern at home and abroad over the future leadership of OPEC’s fourth biggest producer.
   Calls by parliamentarians and members of the opposition for the Kuwaiti government to replace the crown prince and to share power have also clouded the succession process.
   Analysts expect the new emir to keep Kuwait’s oil policies and pro-Western outlook. There has been no official word on who will take over, but under the constitution it will be Sheikh Saad, who is largely incapacitated by illness.
   Kuwaiti oil officials said on Sunday the country would stick to its policy of keeping global markets well supplied.
   Kuwait pumps at around 2.68 million barrels per day (bpd).
   A royal court statement carried by the state news agency KUNA said: ‘With the utmost of sorrow and sadness, the (royal court) announces ... the death of His Highness Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah.’
   State television said the emir had ‘passed away at dawn on Sunday.’ Shortly after the announcement, hundreds of Kuwaitis, some sobbing and reading the Koran, gathered outside the emir’s Dasman palace in Kuwait City.
   Sheikh Jaber fled to Saudi Arabia in 1990 when Saddam’s troops invaded but returned after the occupation ended to lead the rebuilding of a land scarred by killing, torture and brutal Iraqi rule. He also oversaw the rehabilitation of oilfields set on fire by retreating Iraqi troops.
   Kuwait said there would be a 40-day period of mourning and government offices would be closed for three days. There were no immediate details about Sheikh Jaber’s funeral but Muslim tradition calls for the dead to be buried as soon as possible.
   The emir was the 13th ruler of a dynasty that has ruled Kuwait for more than two centuries. The Anaiza tribe, to which the al-Sabahs belong, migrated from the Arabian hinterland.

The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, and the opposition leader in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, in their separate messages have expressed deep shock at the death of Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.
   In a message on Sunday to Crown Prince of Kuwait Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, the president conveyed deepest condolences on behalf of the government and the people of Bangladesh as well as his own behalf.
   ‘The late emir was a great leader of the Kuwaiti people as well as of the Muslim nations,’ he said, adding: ‘In his death, Bangladesh lost a close and trusted friend.’
   President Iajuddin said the people of Bangladesh joined me in mourning the sad demise of the late emir. He also prayed to the Almighty to ‘grant the bereaved family and the people of Kuwait, courage and fortitude to bear this irreparable loss.’
   In a condolence message to the prime minister of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Khaleda Zia conveyed deepest condolences on behalf of the government and people of Bangladesh as well as her own behalf.
   Khaleda said the death of the emir ‘is an irreparable loss both to the state of Kuwait and to the Muslim states.’
   His service to the Muslim states will long be remembered, she said terming the late leader a true friend of Bangladesh.
   The prime minister said the government and the people of Bangladesh joined the Kuwaiti people in mourning the death. She also prayed for eternal peace of the emir’s departed soul.
   In a message of condolence, Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League president, recalled the contribution of the Kuwait emir for making friendly relations between Bangladesh and Kuwait.
   She conveyed her deep sympathy to the Kuwaiti people and the bereaved family members of the emir and prayed to the Almighty for eternal peace of the departed soul.
   Hasina also greeted Prince Sheikh Sad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah for assuming as the new emir of Kuwait. She expressed the hope that the friendly relations between the two countries would be strengthened during the newly appointed emir’s regimes’.
   Hasina wished good health and long life of the new emir and prayed for peace, happiness and progress of the Kuwaiti people.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, leaves here Monday for Kuwait to offer her deep condolences at the demise of Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.
   The foreign secretary, Hemayetuddin, told the news agency that the prime minister is going to offer her deep shock personally on behalf of the government, people of Bangladesh and herself at the death of the emir.
   The prime minister will convey Bangladesh’s sentiments to the Crown Prince of Kuwait, Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, and the prime minister, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.
   The prime minister’s visit is the reflection of Bangladesh’s solidarity with the government and the people of Kuwait at this hour of bereavement, Hemayetuddin said.
   ‘The visit will be seen in the light of close brotherly and friendly relations between the two countries,’ he added.
   The foreign minister, M Morshed Khan, will accompany the prime minister. The prime minister, who leaves here at 9:30am today, will formally offer the condolences in the afternoon and also congratulate the new emir.
   The prime minister is expected to return home Tuesday morning.

Iraqi officials were trying to persuade the chief judge in the trial of Saddam Hussein not to resign on Sunday after he announced he would quit in protest at government interference with the court.
    ‘The government has sent a delegation to see him because they are afraid of the damage this will do to the credibility of the tribunal,’ one of the prosecutors in the trial, Mumkidh Taklif al-Fatlawi, told Reuters.
   The killings of two defence lawyers have already prompted questions over the US-backed decision to hold the trial in the midst of bitter sectarian and ethnic conflict.
   A source close to Kurdish judge Rizgar Amin himself told Reuters that tribunal officials were trying to talk him out of his decision but he was reluctant to stay on because Shi’ite leaders had criticised him for being ‘soft’ on Saddam in court.
   ‘He tendered his resignation to the court a few days ago but the court rejected it. Now talks are under way to convince him to go back on his decision,’ he said on Saturday. ‘He’s under a lot of pressure, the whole court is under political pressure.
   ‘I am not sure if he will go back on his decision,’ said the source, who is familiar with Amin’s thinking. ‘He had complaints from the government that he was being too soft in dealing with Saddam. They want things to go faster.’
   The last straw, the source said, was a letter criticising his handling of the trial from radical Shi’ite leader Moqtada al-Sadr, whose movement is part of the ruling Islamist bloc.
   The judge planned to explain his reasons for resigning after chairing the next hearing on January 24, the source said.
   Government and tribunal spokesmen were not available.
   Technically the departure of the presiding magistrate on the five-judge panel can be overcome by appointing a substitute. But even if he stays, the complaints about government interference from Amin, the much-televised face of the court, may do lasting damage to the credibility of the US-sponsored High Tribunal.
   Only one other judge has allowed his face to be shown on television—and only Amin has let his name be published.
   The killing of two defence lawyers had already highlighted problems with the process amid a virtual civil war between Saddam’s fellow minority Sunni Arabs and the US-sponsored government, run by Shi’ite Muslims and ethnic Kurds intent on quickly hanging a man they say massacred their peoples.
   International human rights lawyers have urged US officials and the new Iraqi government to send Saddam and his aides to an international court abroad while the defence has branded the proceedings ‘victor’s justice’ imposed under US occupation.
   ‘The defence team has long warned about the dangers of political pressure that has undermined the court’s independence and integrity,’ Saddam’s chief attorney, Khalil Dulaimi, said, praising the ‘high moral authority’ of the presiding judge. ‘We expect the political pressures to mount,’ he told Reuters.
   Miranda Sissons, who has observed the trial for the New York-based International Centre for Transitional Justice, said that if Amin quit it would signal that political pressure on the tribunal has had an effect.’
   In the first trial, which has sat for seven days since October 19 and is due to resume on January 24, Saddam and seven others are charged with crimes against humanity in the deaths of over 140 Shi’ite men after an assassination attempt on Saddam in 1982.

A special tribunal of Kishoreganj on Sunday sentenced Obaidullah Sumon, commander of banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, to 15 years of rigorous imprisonment for the bomb blasts in the district town on August 17.
   The tribunal also fined him Tk 2,000 and, in default, he has to suffer another two months in prison.
   This is the first ever judgement in the August 17 bomb attack cases across the country, claimed the lawyers and related sources.
   The verdict was pronounced by the tribunal-1 judge, Bhabani Prasad Sinha, who is also the district and sessions judge of Kishoreganj, as Sumon, 24, confessed his guilt in court during the hearing on the August 17 bombing case at noon on Sunday.
   On September 14, 2005, the people of Gurui Madhyapara under Nikli upazila in the district caught Suman, son of late Nurul Amin of Kathal Rajbari village under Trishal upazila in Mymensingh, and later handed him over to the police.
   The police then seized 50 detonators, 12 wads of power-gel and four kilograms of gunpowder from his den.
   A total of 208 cases has so far been filed in connection with the country-wide bomb blasts since August 17, and the police have submitted charge sheets in 108 cases. The rest of the cases are under investigation, said sources in the home ministry, adding that 11 cases were in the trial stage.
   Some 389 people were accused in the charge sheets of the cases while 441 are still absconding. One hundred and ninety-six of them have made their confessional statements, said the sources.
   Meanwhile Mohammad Mostafa, who was detained by the Rapid Action Battalion from Kotbari of Uttara in the city on Friday night and later handed over to Uttara police, has been placed on a three-day police remand on Sunday.
   The police said that Mostafa had admitted his involvement with the JMB and was absconding since the August 17 blasts.

The finance and planning minister, M Saifur Rahman, on Sunday criticised the World Bank for proposing almost identical policy prescriptions for South Asian and African countries, ignoring their varied social and economic conditions.
   ‘The WB offers Bangladesh the same policy prescription which they had proposed to Nigeria or Sierra Leon… without considering that it may not be suitable for Bangladesh’s ground realities,’ he said after a meeting with the newly-appointed Resident Representative of the UNDP, Renata Lok Dessallien, at his secretariat office.
   Talking to newsmen after the meeting, the finance minister suggested that the policy prescription should be given based on condition of financial institutions, regulatory bodies and other economical components of a particular country or region.
   Saifur, however, appreciated the UNDP projects which he said are ‘development friendly’ for Bangladesh.
   During the meeting, the UNDP envoy assured the government of continuing its development support to Bangladesh in various sectors, including the human development.
   Lauding various development achievements of Bangladesh, the new UNDP envoy also told reporters that there were still some other challenges the government has to face.
   ‘Bangladesh has very good track record in terms of human development and economy but as a developing country its next challenge should be more development,’ Dessallien said.
   She, however, identified some sectors, like sanitation, education, family planning, health and nutrition, where Bangladesh need to achieve faster development.

Judges of lower courts wore black badges on Sunday, the first day of the three-day programmes, in protest against the non-implementation of their 11-point charter of demands.
   ‘We placed the demands, including security of judges, after the November 14 killing of our two colleagues in Jhalakati. But the authorities concerned paid a little heed to it,’ the Bangladesh Judicial Service Association president, Rafiqul Islam, told New Age.
   We entered our workplaces holding black badges on Sunday and we will observe more programmes in the next two days, Rafiqul, also the district and sessions judge of Dhaka, said.
   Other demands include provision for holding licensed arms by the judges, tax-free import of arms and cars, permission to use the official transports round the clock, provision of gunmen and house guards, installation of closed-circuit television cameras on court premises, arrangement of judges’ accommodation at secured complexes, separate cars for police escort, regular sweeping of courtrooms to ensure security and permanent deployment of police on court premises.

The Bangladesh Navy and the Bangladesh Coastguard have launched simultaneous drives to check the smuggling of fertiliser, oil and other products out of the country through river routes.
   The navy has styled its operation as ‘Operation Bay Strip’ and the coastguards ‘Operation Sabuj Bangla (Green Bengal)’. The operations began in November 2005.
   A significant quantity of imported oil and locally manufactured urea fertiliser is smuggled out to India and Myanmar, as the prices of these items are higher across the border.
   Sources in the navy and the coastguard say a number of groups, involving local influential people and foreigners, run the smuggling operations. ‘They have been using the river routes to carry out their operations,’ said a senior home ministry official.
   The production cost of urea fertiliser is Tk 6,000 per tonne. Whereas the government subsidises the price to Tk 4,800 as part of farm subsidy, it is around Tk 18,000 across the border. The price of diesel, octane and petrol is also much higher in India and Myanmar than in Bangladesh.
   ‘The simultaneous raids have seen remarkable success,’ said an official who regularly attends inter-ministerial meetings on fertiliser smuggling.
   The navy and the coastguard have seized 549 tonnes of fertiliser worth Tk 26,35,200 by raiding 33,554 vessels since they began the drives. The navy also picked up 128 persons for their suspected involvement in smuggling.
   The coastguard seized 1,084 tonnes of salt and 2,000 litres of diesel. The navy also seized 600 litres of diesel, 182 tonnes of sugar, 36,000 meters of current net and 290 cubic feet of wood.
   Earlier, the navy and the coastguard identified 13 channels through which the smuggling takes place.
   Seven of channels are the estuaries of the rivers Naf in Cox’s Bazar, Sangu in Chittagong, Swandeep, east and west channels at Hatia in Noakhali, Meghna near Manpura in Bhola and Ramgati channel of Laxsmipu.
   The estuary of the river Pashur in Khulna, at Patharghata of Barguna and at Kuakata in Patuakhali, the estuary of the Karnaphuli in Chittagong, the entry points of Kudubdia and Maheshkhali channels in Cox’s Bazar are the other routes where the navy has set up check points.
   A shortage of boats is, however, hampering the drive of the coastguard.
   ‘The deputy commissioners of the coastal districts have been requested to provide the coastguard with boats on temporary basis so that they can carry out the drive,’ said a home ministry official.
   The second inter-ministerial meeting on fertiliser smuggling was held at the home ministry in December 2005 where the home secretary, Safar Raj Hossain, said combating smugglers would become tough if the coastguard was not provided with required speedboats.

The Awami League’s president, Sheikh Hasina, on Sunday accused the Election Commission (EC) of violating the High Court’s verdict by allowing the enumerators to continue the ongoing process without taking into account any of the high Court’s directives.
   ‘The chief election commissioner is going by the government’s orders and helping the BNP-led alliance government to doctor the voters’ roll,’ Hasina, also the leader of the opposition in parliament, told reporters at the Zia International Airport on her return from Saudi Arabia.
   Hasina went on an 11-day trip to Saudi Arabia to perform hajj.
   She also expressed concern over mismanagement by the government officials in the hajj camps in Dhaka and in Makkah as well.
   ‘The election commission, ignoring the court’s directives, is continuing the voter enrolment process, which is tantamount to contempt of the High Court,’ she said, referring to the CEC’s non-compliance with the High Court verdict to hold a meeting for preparation of the voters’ roll.
   She said that the BNP-led four-party alliance government, which assumed power through a ‘rigged’ election in 2001, was now manipulating the voters’ roll to ensure its victory in the next elections.
   ‘But the people will not allow such irregularities and they will resist them at any cost,’ warned the former prime minister.
   The AL president, however, denied saying anything about whether her party would join the upcoming session of the parliament or not.
   ‘I have just come. The decision to join the parliament or not will be taken later after holding talks with the party leaders,’ she said in reply to a query by journalists.
   Hasina strongly criticised the government for its mismanagement while sending hajj pilgrims to Makkah and negligence in supplying adequate food and housing facilities to them during the hajj.
   ‘I’ve seen the miserable condition of the pilgrims there, which can’t be acceptable,’ she said. ‘I’ve pointed out their sufferings, which should be prevented in the future.’
   The AL president also accused the government of failure to bring down the price of the essential commodities within the reach of the common people before and during Eid-ul-Azha.
   ‘The country’s people were not able to celebrate the Eid due to the abnormal price hikes of the essentials,’ she said. ‘I prayed to the Almighty for getting rid of the privations and misery that the people are suffering from at present.’
   Hasina also said that she had prayed for the victims of all the bomb blasts including those of the August 21 grenade attack.
   The AL president arrived at the airport by a flight of the Saudi Airlines and was welcomed by the leaders and activists of the party.

The Energy and Mineral Resources Division has agreed to raise the rates of premium on fuels to be imported from Kuwait by 30-70 cents per barrel for the January-June period as the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation has refused to retract its demand for the increased rates.
   The division approved last week the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation’s proposal to increase KPC’s premium rate (carrying charge and profit) for the import of 12 lakh tonnes of refined oil.
   The division has already sent the proposal to the cabinet committee on public purchase, headed by finance minister M Saifur Rahman, for approval, said a division source.
   ‘The purchase committee is likely to take a decision in this regard in its next meeting,’ he said.
   If the proposal is approved, the BPC will pay KPC around Tk 29 crore more (for the January-June period) than what it paid in the previous six months.
   The BPC board agreed to the KPC’s proposal of increasing premium rate of diesel to $4.70 per barrel (1 barrel = .1364 tonne) from $4.2, kerosene and jet fuel to $5.5 from $5.2 and octane to $7.2 from $6.8.
   Premium is added to the price of each barrel of fuel in the world market.
   The BPC, under a two-year deal signed in 2004, imports around 28 lakh tonnes of refined oil including 16 lakh tonnes of diesel a year from KPC.
   As per the agreement, both the parties review the premium rate after every six months.
   Although in the period of July-December, 2005, the premium rate of only diesel was increased from $4 to $4.2, the KPC demanded an increase in the premium rates of all the petroleum products by 30-90 cents for the January-June period this year.
   Officials of the energy division said that before agreeing to KPC’s proposal, Bangladesh had approached other Muslim countries but found that the premium rates they wanted were much higher than KPC’s proposed rates.
   Bangladesh imports around 17 lakh tonnes of diesel, 6.93 lakh tonnes of kerosene, 1.4 lakh tonnes of octane, 1.5 lakh tonnes of petrol and 2.5 lakh tonnes of jet fuel every year from Kuwait, and rest are imported from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and India.

Thousands of hopeful teenage girls queued in the cold London air for hours at the weekend, some overnight, for a chance to star in the next Harry Potter movie.
   The excited teenagers, aged between 13 and 16, stood patiently, some with their parents, outside Westminster Central Hall in London on Saturday in a queue stretching over several streets.
   They were responding to a search by Warner Brothers for a young actress to play the role of Luna Lovegood in ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’, the fifth book in the massively popular series by author JK Rowling that is due to start filming next month.
   ‘I check the Harry Potter website every day and saw the auditions advertised on there,’ said Kim Allen, who was first in the queue after arriving late Friday and sleeping outside.
   ‘If I got this, it would be a step for me towards being in more films and I desperately want the part.’
   Another hopeful, 14-year-old Sarah Terris, travelled with her father from Hertfordshire, outside London.
   ‘I’m so excited, I can’t wait to get in there and see what happens,’ said Terris, who joined the queue early in the morning. ‘I go to drama school and this is what I’ve always wanted to do.’
   Harry Potter Productions, which organised the casting, asked girls for details of their
   hair colour, size and nationality in their applications.
   They said they were not seeking a particular type of girl.
   ‘Luna views the world very differently,’ said a spokeswoman present at the auditions. ‘She has an unusual quality but it is impossible to say what it is.’
   Some girls in the queue complained that they were told not to wear any cosmetics.
   ‘As far as we know they are just going to be looking at us and seeing if any of us have got the weird characteristics they want,’ said 15-year-old Annie Beatson.
   Rowling says that Luna is a sort of ‘anti-Hermione’, an opposite to her pragmatic female heroine, Hermione.
   Luna is described as having straggly, waist-length, dirty-blond hair and a dazed look on her face.
   Many of the young women looked dazed and disappointed after their rapid dismissals from Saturday’s casting.
   Shauna Hatch, from Brixton in south London, left in tears.
   ‘I’m really disappointed,’ said the 13-year-old. ‘They didn’t give us a chance. They just nodded at us or shook their heads after we said our names.’
   Allen was also unlucky. She was sent away after introducing herself to the casting director.
   ‘She kept a few people behind to take photos and told the rest of us to go,’ she said. ‘The ones she kept had long, curly hair.’
   The production company has already auditioned thousands of girls across Britain for the role in the next Harry Potter film, due to be released in the summer of 2007.
   ‘I’m disappointed,’ said 14-year-old Sarah Geraghty, who was also rejected. ‘But I’m sure they have made the right choice.’

US senator and leading Democrat John Kerry said on Saturday that Pakistan ought eventually to have the same access as rival India to civilian nuclear technology, but
   indicated changes were needed first.
   A landmark US-India accord, agreed in principle last July but still to be negotiated in detail, would grant New Delhi access to nuclear technology it has been denied for three decades, provided it separates civilian and military facilities.
   But critics in the US Congress and elsewhere say the plan undermines non-proliferation goals and should be tightened up.
   Kerry, a member of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, told reporters in Pakistan he had backed ‘in principle’ the plan for India during a visit to New Delhi this week, but stressed it still needed to be fleshed out, especially with respect to separation of civilian and military facilities.
   After talks with the Pakistani prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, in Islamabad, he said he had discussed steps Pakistan needed to think about as it moved toward equal treatment with India.
   Kerry said change was needed in Pakistan and ‘...I think Pakistan is moving in a direction, hopefully.’
   Kerry said he expected the issue to be discussed in months ahead and added that he was confident president George W Bush would discuss it when he visited the region in the future.
   ‘In the meantime, I think we all ought to try and find a ways that we can find that common ground so that we can make it possible,’ he said.
   For more than three decades, the United States led the global fight to deny India access to nuclear technology because it rejected the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and developed nuclear weapons, testing them in 1974 and again in May 1998.
   But Bush, aiming to improve ties with the world’s largest democracy and Pakistan’s main rival, turned this approach on
   its head with last July’s agreement.
   Pakistan built its first nuclear power station in 1972 with Canadian help.

Fifteen Bangladeshi youths have been languishing in Amritsar jail in Punjab state of India for the last one year.
   Sources said the youths of Panchagarh went missing
   after going to Dhaka in search of job.
   Later it was learnt that the police of Amritsar arrested the youths while they were being taken to Pakistan illegally and sent them to jail hajat.
   When the attention of the first secretary of Indian high commission, Niraj Sinha, during his recent visit to Panchagarh was drawn he said his government would take necessary steps to release them on production of necessary documents.
   Relatives of the youths requested the speaker of Jatiya Sangsad to take initiative for bringing them back home.

US space probe ‘Stardust’ returned to Earth Sunday carrying precious samples of dust from stars and comets, which scientists believe could offer vital clues about the origins of our solar system, NASA television showed.
   After a seven-year journey, a capsule weighing 46 kilograms (101 pounds) and carrying a teaspoonful of space dust
   landed in a Utah desert at 0957 GMT after flying 4.63 billion kilometres in space, or 10,000 times more than the distance separating Earth from the Moon.
   ‘All stations, we have touchdown,’ a jubilant mission control announcer said as the capsule made its touchdown in Utah.
   NASA described the capsule’s entry speed—at 46,444 kilometres per hour — as the fastest ever of any human-made object, topping the record set in May 1969 by the returning Apollo 10 command module.
   The samples were collected during the first attempt to gather, beyond the Moon, space particles that date back to before our solar system was born, or about 4.5 billion years ago.
   With the capsule on the ground, a helicopter crew was to ‘respond’—find the capsule—and then fly it to the US Army Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, for initial processing.
   The analysis could take scientists as long as 10 years. The work, according to one scientist, could be compared to finding 45 ants on a football field, or studying five square centimetres of earth at a time.
   The Stardust probe, weighing 385-kilogram, was launched in 1999, circled the Sun twice and then flew by comet Wild
   2 in January 2004, which at
   the time was located next to Jupiter.
   During its hazardous traverse, the spacecraft first deployed a shield to protect itself from gases and space dust contained in the halo of the comet.
   It then flew within 240 kilometres of Wild 2, catching samples of comet particles and taking detailed pictures of Wild 2’s pockmarked surface.
   The 72 pictures of Wild 2 taken by the probe show its rugged surface, including craters as well as about 20 ‘geysers’ spewing gas and dust.

The government has donated Tk 530,000 equivalent to 12,573.78 Australian dollars for building an International Mother Language Monument in the Australian city of Sydney.
   The Bangladesh high commissioner to Australia, Ashraf-ud-Doula, handed over the prime minister’s donation to the Ekushey Academy Australia Inc at a simple ceremony on Sunday.
   According to a message received here, Bangladesh community in Sydney and Canberra, academics, journalists, eminent personalities and Bangladeshi students attended the function.
   Speaking on the occasion, the high commissioner stressed the importance of Ekushey February and the international dimension that had been added to it through the recognition of the United Nations.
   The Ekushey Academy president, Nirmal Paul, also spoke on the occasion and expressed gratitude to the prime minister for her generous donation.
   The Ekushey Academy authorities have announced the ceremonial opening of the monument on February 21 this year.
   An Australian political leader is likely to inaugurate the monument at a function, likely to be attended by senior government leaders of Australia and Bangladesh community members.

Although the US under secretary for political affairs, Nicholas Burns, changed his travel plan excluding Bangladesh during his South Asia tour starting January 17, Dhaka expects a high state department official shortly to discuss the issues between Bangladesh and USA.
   Diplomatic sources said the state department might finalise the official’s name in a couple of days for the visit to Dhaka.
   However, Burns’ change of mind triggered a quiet debate in both political and diplomatic arena.
   ‘We’ve heard that a US state department official will come to Dhaka with a letter of appreciation over the government’s anti-JMB crackdown,’ a competent source in the foreign ministry told the news agency on Sunday.
   The source, however, said the forthcoming general election, corruption and US cooperation in enhancing Bangladesh’s capability to fight against terrorism remain as major points of discussion between Dhaka and Washington.
   On Saturday, the director of the American Centre, Jonathan Cebra, told the news agency that ‘there are a number of details that need to be worked out for any proposed visit.

Novelist Arundhati Roy has turned down a national award from India’s academy of letters because she opposes the government’s policies, the Press Trust of India reported.
   The novelist sent the institution a one-page fax saying she did not want to accept a prize from a body linked to the government, an academy official told PTI.
   ‘We are trying to persuade her to reconsider her decision. We are telling her that the (Sahitya) Akademi is intellectually and culturally purely autonomous although it is funded by the government,’ said K Sachidanandan.
   ‘There have been many occasions when we opposed government policies ourselves,’ said the academy official.
   Roy, who won the 1997 Booker prize for her first novel ‘The God of Small Things’, is known in India as a strong critic of the government.
   The Sahitya Akademi, which awards prizes every year to works in 22 Indian languages, chose a collection of Roy’s political essays, ‘The Algebra of Infinite Justice’, in the English category this year.
   The award comes with a cash prize of 40,000 rupees (1,000 dollars) and a plaque.
   Published in paperback in 2002, the book includes essays on the Iraq invasion, India’s nuclear tests and on religious riots that broke out in the Indian state of Gujarat in 2002.

An award-winning Indian documentary-maker sued New York City because police ordered him to stop filming in public in 2005 and held him for four hours, apparently suspecting he was plotting an attack.
   The New York Civil Liberties Union, acting as lawyers for filmmaker Rakesh Sharma, believes it is the first suit to challenge police restrictions on taking pictures in public in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
   It alleges Sharma’s constitutional rights to free speech and against unreasonable search and seizure were violated.
   Sharma has won numerous international film awards for the documentaries ‘Final Solution,’ on the killing of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 and 2003, and for ‘Aftershocks,’ on the 2001 earthquake in Kutch, Gujarat.
   He was taking video with a hand-held camera in midtown Manhattan for a project about New York taxi drivers last May when he was stopped by a plainclothes officer, questioned on the sidewalk, taken in for more questioning and had his camera damaged, the federal lawsuit alleges.
   The civil liberties union said it was concerned about a growing but undetermined number of incidents where the police stop people from taking pictures in public.
   The lawsuit notes that Rakesh is South Asian, dark-skinned and bearded, and that he had seen white people filming in the same spot without incident.