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Thousands of poor farmers and fishermen in remote chars of Bhola are passing their days in misery, without any assistance to rebuild houses and vulnerable group feeding cards, three weeks after cyclone Sidr pounded the south coasts.
   There are allegations of irregularities and nepotism by union council chairmen and members in the distribution of the VGF cards and allocation of loans for rebuilding houses in various places of Bhola, especially char areas.
   The Charfesson upazila nirbahi officer, Mostafa Kamal, told New Age, ‘We have started distributing VGF cards and allocating house loans in many places with the help of the navy.’
   He said the finalisation of lists for a few remote areas had been delayed as the administration was verifying information to avoid any irregularities.
   He said many in Char Sikdar were residents of other areas and flocked there after cyclone to get relief and house building loans.
   The union council chairmen and members, assigned to prepare the lists, are allegedly to have been favouring their family members, friends and party activists as evident from a number of visits too the affected areas of Bhola.
   Some well-off families who had their houses partially damaged received house building loans, but others who had their houses fully damaged are yet to receive any such allocation, said the affected, blaming the local representatives for the situation.
   The house of Kanchan Chowkidar at Ward 4 of Madhya Joynagar at Daulatkhan was found damaged two days after the cyclone. He received Tk 5,000 in house building loan. His younger brother, Misir Mallik, also received a similar loan.
   But their neighbours said the cyclone partially damaged the houses on November 15. They had found the houses fully damaged in the morning of November 17.
   Masuda Begum, a resident of the area, said she, along with her three children, was living in the house of another person as her house was fully damaged in the cyclone, but she had not received any loan.
   The union council chairman, Mohammad Monir, said loans were given in keeping with the list. But he failed to explain the allocation made to Kanchan and his brother.
   Nasir and Farid, who are well-off and residents of Bheduria in the district headquarters, received Tk 1,500 and 10 kilograms of rice each and anther resident, Tasir, said the rice and money allocated for him were taken away by some other person. Maskuja Begum, 70, another resident of the union, made a similar allegation.
   At Gangapur of Madhya Joynagar, some 30 fishing families lost their houses to the cyclone, but only 10 families have so far received house building loans. Others are still living under the open sky in the cold.
   The administration has so far arrested four union council members of three upazilas — district headquarters, Tajumuddin and Charfesson — on charge of irregularities.
   The Bhola deputy commissioner, Belayet Hossain, captured two union council members when they were distributing blank VGF cards at Gangapur on Tuesday. Tk 5,000 was allocated to each of the 14 family members and relatives of the union council chairman, Fariduddin. Belayet seized the cards and withdrew the allocation; but no arrest was made.
   Rules have it that 2,500 affected people will get VGF cards in a union; but there are fewer people affected in some unions while there are more people affected in some other places, making the scope for union council chairmen and members to indulge in irregularities. The administration formed a committee, headed by relief officer Mujahidul Islam, to look into such allegations.
   Although people are receiving relief from both government and private agencies, many of them are still living under the open sky with few warm clothes in the winter chill.
   Visits to some chars, about 100 kilometres off the district headquarters, showed thousands of villagers were struggling after losing their livelihood and their homesteads.
   People of Anjuhat at Charfesson, Char Leolin, Char Sikdar, Char Motahar and Char Manohar — all in the south of the district or in the Bay of Bengal and difficult to reach — came in groups to tell their miseries after the cyclone.
   Abdul Mannan, an elderly resident of Char Sikdar, told New Age what he received in relief was not enough to feed his family. No job is available too, he said.
   ‘We are yet to get VGF cards. But the union council chairman and members listed us twice. We also desperately need money to rebuild our houses,’ he said.
   Most houses of the char have been damaged and the people kept living in the ruins or huts.
   Jasimuddin of Char Leolin at Kalmi said no villagers had so far received any house building loans. He said people were suffering for scarcity of drinking water. Fishermen have lost everything and were searching for jobs.
   One of them, Shahidul, said he had lost two fishing enclosures to flood and incurred a loss of Tk 1 lakh. There are 35 others who have incurred heavy losses because of the cyclone.
   ‘We are yet to get any loans for fish farming or cultivation,’ said Bahauddin, whose aman fields were badly damaged by the tidal surges.
   One common problem in the chars is the absence of cyclone shelters. There are only four shelters in the four chars. There are no centres in Char Leolin and Char Sikdar. The poor of the char demanded that the government should build more shelters.
   If any calamity takes place in the near future, we might not survive,’ said an aged man at Char Leolin, which has about 16,000 inhabitants. Local people said at least four more shelters were needed for the char.
   ‘Hardly are there any people who think about us,’ said a medicine seller at Bangla Bazar in the char.
   Most of the residents of the char took shelter on the protection embankment during the cyclone to avoid being washed away.
   In Char Manohar, there are only two cyclone shelters which are far less than requirement in comparison with the char population.
   The farmers have started harvesting aman crops, but they are unhappy as the cyclone damaged 20 to 30 per cent of the crops.

Alleged inconsistency, lack of coordination, poor campaign and irregularity in voter data collection through door-to-door visits in the capital have messed up the task of preparing the electoral roll with photographs and national identity cards.
   In some of the cases, the Election Commission does not know the exact schedules of the ongoing voter registration work leaving the total task to the army. Moreover, the commission is yet to hold a meeting to review the progress of voter registration work which kicked off in the city on November 20.
   According to the commission’s schedule published in two lowly circulated national dailies on November 29, the task of taking photographs and fingerprints at Segunbagicha High School Centre will continue till December 14, but the centre was closed on Friday.
   Enumerators have stopped data collection through door-to-door visits in areas where data entry with photographs and fingerprints has started, leaving it to many eligible people to register as voters on their own.
   A total of 760 people who were left out during the door-to-door visits, have filled in registration forms after visiting Hazi Ashraf Ali High School centre at Shewrapara in the first three days.
   The people, who have been left out, are allegedly facing hassles in registering their names at the voter registration centres and many of them are compelled to visit the centres twice.
   Abdullah Al Mamum, a resident of 381/4 Sewrapara, said that he had missed the chance to fill in the voter registration form when an enumerator visited his house and that he could not register as a voter even after visiting the registration centre.
   ‘The enumerator did not visit my house a second time and by this time snap taking has stated in my area. I came to the registration centre today to get registered in the list. But the enumerators refused to enrol me on the plea that I had no introducer. How can I bring an introducer at the moment when I am a new tenant in the areas,’ Mamum told New Age at the Hazi Ashraf Ali High School centre on Tuesday morning.
   Amena Begum, another eligible voter, who was out at work when the enumerator visited her house, went to Hazi Ashraf Ali High School centre to register. ‘I will have to come to the centre again as they did not complete the process today,’ she said.
   ‘The enumerator gave me a slip asking me to visit the centre again on December 15 to have my photograph taken. I work at a garment factory at Farmgate. I took a day’s leave today to register and wanted to complete the process. I am afraid, my factory management will not grant me leave for December 15,’ Amena, a resident of 464/1, Paschim Shewrapara told New Age.
   Like Amena, thousands of eligible voters in the Dhaka city corporation area who are facing similar difficulties due to lack of sincerity on the part of the enumerators.
   If necessary, the enumerators were asked to visit residences at least a second time to get the eligible voters not found during the first visit. But, residents of many neighbourhoods alleged that the enumerators did not visit them a second time.
   A good number of residents of different wards of the Dhaka city alleged that they were confused about the schedule of voter listing in their areas.
   According to the Election Commission schedule published in two daily newspapers, door-to-door visits by enumerators started in 41 of the 90 DCC wards on November 20. But enumerators were seen collecting voters’ information in neighbourhoods beyond the designated areas.
   Enumerators started voter data collection in the areas under ward 51 on November 20 under the supervision of the army, but nobody in the EC know anything about the start of the work in the ward. The task of taking fingerprints and photographs of eligible voters in the ward 51 will begin on December 16 and continue till January 15.
   ‘We were informed by the Election Commission that voters’ data collection in ward 51 would start later. So we did not go for publicity in the area. But suddenly we have been informed by the army that voter listing has started in the ward and so hurriedly we had to start publicity campaign in the ward,’ Ahsan Ullah, coordinator for Dhanmondi area of the election working group, told New Age.
   Election commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain on Sunday admitted that there was some lack of coordination in the voter listing work in the city.
   Sohana Begum, a resident of house no 163/2 at Middle Paikpara of Mirpur section 1, said that she was confused about the schedule of visit to the registration centre. She said that the enumerator, who had collected filled-in registration forms from her and her family members, did not give them any tokens for visiting the registration centre to have their fingerprints and photographs taken.
   Besides, some eligible voters, mostly poor and illiterate ones, have reportedly lost the tokens they had received from the enumerators much earlier. ‘It is difficult for the poor people to preserve the slips for weeks,’ said a person involved in the publicity.

Commercially profitable solutions to deal with the adverse effects of climate change and corresponding actions of governments are gradually emerging as the main focus of the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali.
   Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN climate change convention framework, in his daily briefing on Friday, laid much emphasis on the need for ‘market-based’ solutions to the adverse effects of climate change for the solutions to be truly sustainable.
   But he mentioned that there had not yet been any agreement or movement towards any kind of commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from any countries, although it is termed one of the main agendas where movement is required from both developed and developing countries.
   He reiterated his belief that most of the investments in environment-friendly technologies would have to come from the private sector, for which profitability and economic viability were imperative.
   Almost echoing the US position, de Boer said among a wide range of actions that the governments could take in this regard was increased liberalisation of environmental services and goods that could include power generation and distribution, water supply and human waste management across the world.
   Rashed Mahmud Titumir, an economist and chairman of the Unnayan Onneshan, a research organisation, said, ‘Given that the negotiations under the World Trade Organisation to further open up trade, the business quarters are trying to further open up markets through carbon trade and liberalisation of the so-called environmental goods and services.’
   In line with the contention that there is a strong business and commercial interest in the new climate regime as it could potentially increase the scope and profitability of certain ‘green’ technologies that have lower rates of emission compared to those currently in use, de Boer said the business community had a strong interest in the proceedings in Bali and expected a ‘long, loud, and legal’ outcome.
   The business quarters expect a long-term, predictable, and strong commitment, preferably a legally-binding one, from all the parties to the framework convention.
   Alternatively, de Boer said, the governments could provide incentives through their national policies that would encourage increased investment in low-emission technologies.
   He also stressed the fact that governments around the globe should put in place appropriate and predictable investment regime that would attract sufficient private business capital.
   He said the approach would have to be a ‘clever blend of public and private resources’ to attract the ‘investment supertanker’ and send it to places where it had never gone before.
   Yvo de Boer noted that although all countries understood the requirement for substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions, halving their 1990 levels by 2050, to prevent dramatic and apparently irreversible climatic change, the idea still had to be endorsed by parties such as the United States and Australia who are still outside the Kyoto Protocol.
   Investment is particularly important in such crucial sectors as energy and power which is expected to triple between 2000 and 2030 with the developing countries accounting for the bulk.
   ‘Therefore, the industrialised countries should take the lead in emission reduction to make space for the growth of developing economies,’ said de Boer.
   It is estimated that during this period energy supply will see a total investment to the tune of $432 billion, of which $148 billion needs to be shifted to renewable energy and other greener technologies.
   In line with the renewed stress on commerce and finance, the convention will host a meeting of trade ministers on Saturday and another of finance ministers on Sunday and Monday.

The SAARC foreign ministers have agreed to hold the 15 the summit of the eight-nation regional bloc in Sri Lanka in 2008 instead of the Maldives upon a request from the government of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
   The decision was taken at an informal meeting among the South Asian foreign ministers in New Delhi ahead of the formal session of the 29th SAARC council of ministers which began Friday morning.
   The informal meeting decided that Sri Lanka would host the next summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in 2008 to be followed by the Maldives in 2009, said a message from the Indian capital Friday.
   The council welcomed Colombo’s offer to host the summit, it said.
   Quoting Indian external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, Islamic Republic News Agency of Iran reported that the meeting decided that the SAARC Development Fund (SDF) would come into operation immediately.
   The meeting also decided to endorse a proposal for setting up a security network in the region.
   Officials in Dhaka said that uncertainty was created over holding of the next SAARC summit in Male in 2008 due to political tension in the Maldives ahead of its first multi-party national polls expected to be held by the end of next year.
   The 29th meeting of the SAARC council of ministers began in Delhi to review the decisions made in the 14 the summit of the grouping last April.
   The meeting touched upon various issues including rolling of the $ 300 million SAARC Development Fund in social sector, establishment of regional connectivity, setting up of institutions beneficial to the peoples of South Asia and steps for combating terrorism.
   Briefing newsmen after the meeting, Pranab said a temporary cell would be established at the SAARC Secretariat for making the Fund operational and implementing the identified projects from the available fund.
   With regard to the security network, it was agreed that a draft agreement on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters would be finalised as soon as possible.
   The legal advisers of the region will be meeting in Sri Lanka in April next year to finalise the text of the agreement.
   The social projects cleared for implementation include maternal, child health and immunisation, empowerment of women and other disadvantaged sections of the society and capacity-building aimed at enhancing the quality of education and teachers’ training for the purpose.
   The meeting identified eight transport projects for intra-region connectivity and one on the procurement of customs-related equipment for faster clearance of cargo. These include air connectivity between Male and New Delhi and Islamabad and New Delhi, rail corridor between Colombo and Chennai and ferry service between Colombo - Cochin and Colombo - Tuticorin.
   A project on tele-medicine is also being put into implementation mode. Mukherjee said that another important initiative was related to problem of climate change.
   The concern over its impact on the people and the need for a global response has been expressed in the declaration of the foreign ministers.
   The name of Sheel Kant Sharma from India was approved for appointment as the new SAARC Secretary General. After the end of the two-day meeting on Saturday, the South Asian foreign ministers would also consider applications by Mauritius and Australia for observer status in the grouping.
   In his speech at the meeting, Bangladesh foreign adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury urged the SAARC member states to issue a strongly worded document, to be transmitted to the on-going Bali Conference on Environment, emphasising a common position and pointing to the vulnerabilities of the ‘countries with long and low-lying coastlines’.
   He offered to host in Bangladesh a SAARC ministerial conference on climate change, in line with the informal consultations during the last UN General Assembly session in New York.
   Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the SAARC council of ministers’ meeting, Iftekhar Friday met Afghan foreign minister Rangin Spanta.
   Spanta informed his Bangladesh counterpart that the Afghan authorities were continuing their efforts to seek the release of Nurul Islam, a BRAC employee abducted by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
   The Afghan foreign minister stated that a task force committee composed of ministries concerned and security officials were meeting regularly in the foreign ministry in Kabul to review developments.
   He mentioned that currently Nurul Islam was being kept in an unidentified place in Kharwan district of Logon province, and ‘the security authorities have detained the brother and several other close relatives of the mastermind.’
   Spanta added that the Afghan authorities were abstaining from taking the risk of launching a military operation for the sake of Islam’s safety. He also expressed the hope that ‘concerted efforts through local influentials and other means will resolve the case peacefully very soon’.
   Iftekhar thanked Spanta for the information and requested the Afghan government to continue the efforts to seek Nurul Islam’s release. On Thursday evening, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury and Pakistani foreign minister Inam-ul-Haque held a meeting to discuss bilateral issues.
   The Pakistani foreign minister expressed the ‘deepest sympathy’ on behalf of his government and the people for the victims of cyclone Sidr. Iftekhar thanked him for ‘the demonstration of solidarity through words and deeds’, in particular for the despatch of substantial relief.

The advisory committee, formed to finalise the draft coal policy, on Friday avoided taking a decision on the royalty rate and decided to leave the contentious issue for the proposed coal sector development committee.
   After a heated debate among members, the committee resolved that it would not suggest any rate for coal extraction royalty and that the other body to be headed by the energy adviser or minister should decide on it.
   The advisory committee, headed by former BUET vice chancellor Abdul Matin Patwari, has almost finalised the draft, which may see some editorial changes in the next meeting, members said.
   The issues that would be considered are the production cost and global price of coal, generation cost of electricity by coal, prices of alternative fuels and total income of the government such as VAT, corporate taxes and royalty, the committee decided.
   The proposed development committee will include a major general of the army, secretaries of finance, energy, power, environment, home, communications and commerce ministries, FBCCI president, university teachers, civil society members and parliamentary members, among others.
   The debate started at the Friday’s meeting of the advisory committee when IIFC executive director Nazrul Islam proposed that the coal policy should have a provision for zero royalty rate for 15 years to help the sector develop.
   BUET Professor Nazrul Islam vehemently opposed the proposal saying that it would be disaster for the country. He also opposed the idea of leaving the royalty issue for a committee headed by the minister as it could create more opportunity for corruption.
   The existing mining rules has a provision for five per cent royalty rate for underground mining and six per cent for open pit mining.
   The government’s agreement with Asia Energy for Phulbari coalfield stipulates for six per cent royalty rate. The then BNP government faced severe criticism for such a low royalty rate.
   The draft policy submitted by the energy division to the advisory committee had a provision for a minimum of 20 per cent royalty but a number of committee members including Nazrul Islam and Petrobangla director Maqbul-E-Elahi proposed a decrease in the royalty rate.

The prospect of holding the general elections in time is doubtful and the country’s economic growth scenario for 2008 remains bleak, forecasts a globally reputed London-based research organisation.
   It says the consumer prices in Bangladesh are expected to rise at an average rate of 8.2 per cent in 2008 before easing to 6.5 per cent in 2009 as international oil prices fall from record highs.
   ‘Preparations are under way for civic and parliamentary elections in 2008, but doubts remain about whether the Election Commission can meet a series of deadlines before the polls are held,’ reads the Economist Intelligence Unit’s report for December 2007.
   ‘There is speculation over whether the military, or the administration that it backs, will stick to the election timetable,’ observes the report, adding that the administration’s legitimacy largely depends on its anti-corruption drive.
   And the country’s gross domestic product growth for fiscal year 2007–08 has also been revised down to 5.8 per cent from 6.2 per cent in view of the latest trade data and the devastations caused by the November 15 cyclone Sidr. The interim government has taken a populist stance in its economic policy, the report says, as it continues to ignore multilateral lenders’ recommendations, excepting in closing down state-owned jute mills, and maintain subsidy on fuel. The central bank, too, left key interest rates unchanged in November in spite of persistent inflationary pressure.
   The intelligence unit, a concern of the Economist group, predicts that the political scene in Bangladesh, without an elected government for 12 months, will remain unsettled for much of 2008-09. Despite a wide range of electoral reforms, the report adds, the next election battle will be fought mainly between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Awami League.
   Although the Election Commission is confident of holding the polls as per the roadmap, the unit’s outlook for 2008–09 maintains that ‘What it [the commission] will not be able to do, however, is to move the country away from a two-party political system.’
   Apart from BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, AL president Sheikh Hasina, and former military ruler HM Ershad, there is no politician capable of mustering enough popular support to win a national election, says the report obtained by New Age in Dhaka.
   It also questions the Election Commission’s decision to invite a faction of the BNP to the dialogue on electoral reforms, saying, ‘If the past is a guide, a loss of credibility on the part of the commission could be disastrous.’
   Referring to the claim of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh secretary general, Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid, that there is no war criminal in Bangladesh, the report mentions that it has triggered a national outcry, which has already been witnessed in the political, legal, and cultural arenas.
   On the diplomatic front, the report foresees improved relations between Dhaka and New Delhi in the coming months, following a series of meetings between high-ranking Indian officials and members of the Bangladesh interim government.
   The report has depicted a gloomy picture of Bangladesh economy, forecasting that the country will continue to post a budget deficit as revenue expansion fails to keep pace with expenditure growth.
   Besides, the local currency, taka, is expected to depreciate further against US dollar in 2008–09 as inflation remains relatively high in Bangladesh and trade deficit swells to a record level against the backdrop of the persistently rising international oil prices.
   Diminishing export receipts and rising import bill already pushed the country’s current account balance into deficit in the July–August period. However, the rate of inflation, according to the report, came down to 9.6 per cent in September from an eight-year high of 10.1 per cent in August.

The Dhaka University Teachers’ Association at an emergency general meeting Friday evening demanded the release of all university teachers and students arrested in connection with campus protests by December 12.
   The meeting said theassociation would be compelled to take up a ‘tough action programme’ if the detained teachers and students of both Dhaka and Rajshahi universities were not released by the deadline. The meeting also chalked up a two-day programme including wearing black badges on Sunday and a silent procession from Aparajeya Bangla beginning at 11:00am Monday.
   The acting association president, Tajmeri SA Islam, told reporters, ‘If the detained are not released by December 12, we will go for a tough action programme.’
   She said, ‘This is solely a teachers’ programme. I will not make any comment beyond that.’
   Professor AAMS Arefin Siddique, Professor Aktaruzzaman, Professor Md Samad, Professor MM Akash and acting association general secretary Mamun Ahmed were among about 150 teachers who attended the meeting in the Dhaka University Club meeting room. The meeting began at 7.00pm and continued for two hours and a half.
   The teachers also sought cooperation of the university authorities in proceeding legal matters related to the arrests.
   Four Dhaka University teachers and 15 students were arrested after the August 20–22 campus protests. A Rajshahi court on December 4 sentenced four RU teachers to two years’ imprisonment on charge of violating the Emergency Powers Rules during student protests at the university.

An Indian navy ship, INS Cheetah, is scheduled to arrive at Chittagong port today with 300 tonnes of rice as relief for the Sidr victims.
   ‘Apart from the INS Cheetah, several Indian ships are also on their way to Bangladesh and likely to arrive here in a few days,’ an Indian high commission official told New Age Friday evening.
   India recently announced to provide around 20,000 tonne rice for the victims of the November 15 category-4 cyclone.
   During his one-day visit to Dhaka on December 1, the Indian external affairs minister, Pranab Mukherjee, said the rice would be sent to Bangladesh by sea.
   Quoting port officials, our Chittagong correspondent reported that four Indian navy ships laden with more than 1,500 tonnes of relief goods for the Sidr-hit people are scheduled to reach the port beginning from Saturday.
   Each of the ships will stay one day after taking berth at the port for unloading of the relief materials, port officials said.
   ‘We have reserved jetty 2 for the four Indian navy ships to facilitate unloading of their cargo,’ said harbour master Jafor Ullah.
   ‘Those Indian ships will take berth at jetty 2 one after another and complete unloading their cargo in four days. Before entering the jetty, the ships will be waiting at the outer anchorage,’ he said.
   According to Jafor, the Chittagong Port Authority has decided to arrange berthing of the vessels bringing in relief materials for the Sidr-affected people on a priority basis.

In the year 1215, a group of English barons handed King John a document written on parchment. Put your royal seal on this, they said. John did, and forever changed the relationship between the monarchy and those it governed.
   The document was the Magna Carta, a declaration of human rights that would set some of the guiding principles for democracy as it is known today.
   While that original edict was initially ignored and John died the next year, its key ideas were included in other variations over the next few decades, most notably the right of Habeas Corpus, which protects citizens against unlawful imprisonment. More than 800 years later, about 17 copies survive, and one of those, signed by King Edward I in 1297, will go up for sale December 18 at Sotheby’s.
   The document, which Sotheby’s vice-chairman David Redden calls ‘the most important document in the world,’ is expected to fetch a record $20-30 million.
   While earlier versions of the royal edict were written and then ignored, Redden said, ‘the 1297 Magna Carta became the operative version, the one that was entered into English common law and became the law of the land,’ ultimately effecting democracies around the world.
   Today, its impact is felt by perhaps a third of the world’s people, he said. This includes all of North America, India, Pakistan, much of Africa, Australia and other areas that made up the British Commonwealth.
   ‘When it’s something as enormously important as this, you try to get a handle on it,’ he said. ‘It is absolutely correct to say the Magna Carta is the birth certificate of freedom. It states the bedrock principle that no person is above the law — that is the essence of it.’
   Only two copies of the Magna Carta exist outside Britain, one in Australia and the one Sotheby’s is auctioning off.
   An earlier Magna Carta version was loaned by Britain to the United States for its
   bicentennial celebration in 1976, but suggestions that it be made a permanent gift were rejected.
   The 1279 Magna Carta was forced on Edward I by barons unhappy over taxes imposed to pay for his military campaigns in France, Wales and
   against Scottish rebel William Wallace. The levies were approved in the king’s absence by his 13-year-old son, Prince Edward.
   Written in medieval Latin on sheepskin that after 710 years remains intact and legible, the 1297 Magna Carta was owned for five centuries by a British family that put it up for sale in the early 1980s.
   From 1988 until a few months ago, it was exhibited in a custom-designed, gold-plated container at the National Archives in Washington, a few feet from its direct descendants, the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution.
   ‘As the only non-American document in there, many would love to see it go back’ on display, said Redden, who will wield the hammer. He said the auction will be open to the public, but being a single lot sale, might not take longer than five minutes.

A Bangladesh delegation left for the Indian state of Tripura to bring back the remains of Bir Shreshtha Sipahi Hamidur Rahman, one of the seven heroes given the highest gallantry award for their contribution to war of independence in 1971.
   A seven-member delegation, led by joint secretary of the liberation war affairs ministry Humayun Kabir Khan, on Friday went to Agartala for receiving the remains of the war hero from the authorities of Tripura on Monday when the delegation is expected to return home.
   The liberation war affairs secretary, AK Mahbubul Alam, told New Age that the remains of the war hero would be given a guard of honour on its arrival in Bangladesh territory on December 10.
   The remains would be brought to Comilla by road and to Dhaka the following day.
   ‘The remains of the hero will be buried with state honours in the Martyred Intellectuals’ Graveyard at Mirpur on December 11 after an official ceremony in the National Parade Square,’ the secretary told New Age.
   Hamidur Rahman was killed in a fight with the Pakistani occupation forces in the bordering Ambasa area in Tripura on October 28, 1971 and he was buried there.

On the back foot over Nandigram, the West Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, has stoked another controversy by questioning the existence of Lord Ram.
   ‘Ram was born in the imagination of poets and Ram Sethu is a natural formation under the sea,’ Buddhadeb told a meeting to mark the 15th anniversary of the demolition of Babri Masjid on Thursday.
   He said the Sethusamudram project was being opposed by the Sangh Parivar on religious ground, but it was vital for economic development of the region.
   Reacting to Buddhadeb’s remarks, the state BJP general secretary, Rahul Sinha, on Friday said the remarks were an attempt to appease the Muslim vote bank after the fiasco in Nandigram.
   ‘Ram is a matter of faith and communists had always hated godmen. Even they spread calumnies against Tagore and Swami Vivekananda,’ he said.
   Buddhadeb’s remarks came months after Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi’s similar plainspeak on the existence of Lord Ram which had generated a countrywide controversy.

Translating official documents and signs has undermined efforts to integrate people who don’t speak English, the government said on Friday.
   The communities secretary, Hazel Blears, said the current practice of widespread translation of everything from street signs to council leaflets means some immigrants do not learn English.
   Unveiling new guidance for public bodies, she called for a fundamental change, with fewer translations and more emphasis on integration.
   ‘Translation can never be a substitute for learning English and we need a fundamental rebalancing of our approach, putting a greater focus on learning English,’ she said in a statement.
   ‘Automatic translation of all public materials can just reinforce the language barrier, act as a brake on opportunity and make it harder to integrate non-English speaking residents into the country.’
   Public bodies will not break race relations laws if they cut back on translations, she added.
   Councils spend about 25 million pounds each year on translators, according to media reports. The NHS spends at least 55 million pounds.
   Blears said it was unacceptable for councils to translate documents into languages that aren’t spoken in their particular region. A common sense approach is needed, she added.
   The government has come under intense pressure from opposition parties to take a tougher line on immigration.
   The shadow home secretary, David Davis, has accused Labour of adopting an ‘open door’ policy, underestimating the number of immigrants and failing to give councils enough money to cope.
   The government says migrant workers have helped the economy, but critics claim they have put pressure on public services.

The CIA in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes of the interrogation of two al-Qaeda operatives, amid increasing questions about the agency’s detention programme, The New York Times reported Friday.
   Citing current and former government officials, the report said the tapes ‘showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting terrorism suspects — including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in CIA custody — to severe interrogation techniques.’
   The CIA chief, General Michael Hayden, on Thursday told colleagues ‘the decision to destroy the tapes was made ‘within the CIA’ and that they were destroyed to protect the safety of undercover officers and because they no longer had intelligence value,’ the report said.
   Yet the ‘destruction of the tapes raises questions about whether agency officials withheld information from Congress, the courts and the September 11 commission about aspects of the programme,’ it added.
   Hayden, in a letter to employees obtained by CNN television, said of the tapes that ‘beyond their lack of intelligence value — as the interrogation sessions had already been exhaustively detailed in written channels — and the absence of any legal or internal reason to keep them, the tapes posed a serious security risk.’
   ‘Were they ever to leak, they would permit identification of your CIA colleagues who had served in the programme, exposing them and their families to retaliation from al-Qaeda and its sympathizers,’ it added.
   The United States, following the September 11 terror strikes, launched a program allowing intelligence services to detain and question terror suspects, including questioning techniques that are secret, while in the military these are clearly spelled out.
   The report came on the heels of a decision by lawmakers that all US officials including intelligence officials should follow the same rules as the military and renounce all forms of torture.
   The final version of the intelligence budget for 2008, taken up Thursday by the House and Senate, says US military rules on interrogations also should apply to US civilian officials. The text still must be approved by both houses.
   It was not certain that the measure, welcomed by the ACLU civil rights organisation, would ever take effect. The president, George W Bush, could veto it.
   The ACLU meanwhile voiced concern at the CIA’s action on the videotapes.
   ‘The destruction of these tapes appears to be part of an extensive, long-term pattern of misusing executive authority to insulate individuals from criminal prosecution for torture and abuse,’ the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement.

The draft organogram of the Dhaka Power Distribution Company, which will replace the Dhaka Electric Supply Authority, proposes around 2,700 staffers in the company compared to around 3,100 people now employed at the DESA, Power Division sources said.
   As the government has an agreement with the DESA staffers that no one of them will lose job when the DPDC comes into operation, the Power Division is now weighing various options for those DESA staff members who will not be absorbed in the new company, the sources said.
   They said the DPDC might recruit the majority of its proposed 2,700 staffers from the DESA staff after proper screening and interviews.
   The company has already appointed three high officials, including its managing director, Ataul Masud, who was a member of the DESA, and is in the process of recruiting 24 more officials this month.
   The DPDC will come into full operation early next year, taking charge of power distribution in the existing DESA areas, the sources said.
   ‘As per the draft organogram, around 400 DESA staffers will not be absorbed by the DPDC. But, the number will eventually be more as we assume that 80 to 90 per cent of the DPDC staffers will come from the DESA,’ said a source.
   The DPDC has been asked, he said, to give preference to DESA staffers in recruitment.
   According to sources, the government will offer voluntary retirement package to the DESA officials and employees who will not be recruited by the DPDC with all retirement benefits and pension.
   ‘As per our primary assessments, a number of the DESA staff members who will not be recruited by the DPDC are scheduled to go into retirement in a few months. Besides, many others will also want to go into voluntary retirement by taking the benefits offered,’ observed a source.
   The finance ministry has already decided in principle to allocate Tk 180 crore in the next budget for paying the voluntary retirement benefits to the staff members of DESA and another power agency, the Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh.
   ‘But, a problem will arise if any DESA staffer, who will not be recruited by the DPDC, refuses to go on voluntary retirement as the government in 2005 signed an agreement with the collective bargain agent of the DESA that no DESA staffer will lose job when the DPDC comes into operation,’ said a source.
   To honour the agreement, the Power Division is now even planning not to abolish the DESA to keep employed its staffers who will refuse to go into voluntary retirement, he said. ‘We are planning to continue with running the DESA, although it will have no function, only to accommodate the staffers who will not be willing to retire. They will get their salaries as usual but will have no work to do.’
   Asked to explain rationale of the plan, the source said, ‘As we understand it, those DESA staffers who are corrupt and incompetent will not be recruited by the DPDC. The prime interest of such staffers is to earn money by corrupt means. When they will find that have no work to do, they will not continue in their jobs for long.’
   If these corrupt staffers, for whom the DESA has turned into one of the largest loss-incurring power agencies, are recruited by the DPDC, the company will also face the same fate, he pointed out, adding that they might set a deadline for liquidating the DESA.
   DESA sources said if the government felt that around 80 to 90 per cent of the DPDC staffers would be taken from the DESA, it should ask the DPDC to directly invite the DESA staffers for interviews after a primary screening.
   ‘Now, DESA officials are competing with officials of other agencies and people from outside for the DPDC posts. Our proposal is that the DPDC should screen the DESA staffers and invite them to interview. It can keep 20 to 30 per cent posts for the people from other power agencies and outsiders,’ observed a source.
   The power secretary M Fouzul Kabir Khan told New Age on Thursday that they would take decision on recruitment process of the DPDC after they got the final report of the British consultant appointed by the Asian Development Bank. The consultant recently submitted the draft organogram.
   Regarding the continued existence of the DESA, the secretary said they were still considering what could be done with the DESA and its staff members who would not go into voluntary retirement. ‘But, one thing is for sure, we will not force any one to leave his or her job and we will honour the agreement signed earlier with the DESA CBA.’

The Bush administration announced plans to sell advanced anti-missile systems to the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait with a potential combined value of nearly $10.4 billion.
   The deals would be the biggest yet in a US drive to bolster Gulf Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, as a counterweight to Iran, Syria, al-Qaeda and Hezbollah.
   The Pentagon told Congress the United Arab Emirates had asked about buying 288 Patriot Advanced Capability PAC-3 missiles and related gear worth up to $9 billion.
   The prime contractors would be Raytheon Co and Lockheed Martin Corp, the Pentagon’s Defence Security Cooperation Agency said in a notice to lawmakers dated Tuesday.
   Kuwait has asked about buying 80 PAC-3 missiles, PAC-2 upgrades and Patriot ground support equipment worth as much as $1.36 billion, a separate notice to Congress said.
   The Pentagon said the proposed Patriot PAC-3 sale — worth up to $9 billion if all options are exercised — would ‘strengthen the effectiveness and interoperability of a potential coalition partner, reduce the dependence on US forces in the region, and enhance any coalition operations the US may undertake with the United Arab Emirates.’
   These sales are part of a Bush administration strategy announced in late July to enhance Gulf security, said Jay Greer, a state department spokesman.
   The secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, said then the idea was to ‘bolster forces of moderation and support a broader strategy to counter the negative influences of al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran.’
   The notices to Congress of potential arms sales are required by law. They do not mean a deal has been concluded. Congress has the power to block a proposed sale.
   The Bush administration has agreed to delay until next month congressional notification of related plans to sell Saudi Arabia a package expected to include Boeing-made kits designed to make bombs pinpoint accurate.

India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, on Friday accused the Hindu nationalist leaders of riot-scarred Gujarat state of fuelling tension with Muslims ahead of elections there.
   At least 2,000 Muslims were killed in widespread riots in the western state in 2002 after Hindu pilgrims were killed in a train fire. The state government and police allegedly supported the riots.
   Ahead of polls on December 11 and 16, the state’s hard-line chief minister, Narendra Modi, has been accused of trying to score Hindu votes by justifying the alleged murder of a Muslim man by police in 2005.
   The state government ‘has sought to divide the people,’ premier Manmohan told a news conference in Gujarat’s Surat city.
   ‘I think that is a big handicap for Gujarat to move forward,’ the prime minister said, adding it was ‘not good for any political party to divide our country on communal lines.’
   On Friday, India’s top court said it would take up two complaints against Modi — a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party — for making ‘inflammatory’ remarks on the controversial killing, the Press Trust of India reported.
   Modi had reportedly said at an election rally this week that Muslim man Sohrabuddin Sheikh ‘got what he deserved.’
   The chief minister, who is widely expected to be re-elected, asked the crowd what should have been done to the man, and many in the religiously polarised state replied: ‘Kill him, kill him.’
   The state’s anti-terrorist squad shot dead Sheikh in 2005, claiming he planned to assassinate Modi, but officials have said there was no proof linking the man to any murder plot.
   A court has heard that Sheikh’s wife was also killed to destroy evidence of the apparently staged shoot-out.
   Several Gujarat policemen were arrested on accusations of abduction and murder over the Muslim couple’s killing, although it is unclear if the case is being pursued seriously.
   After being held ‘prima facie’ guilty of violating the Model Code of Conduct Modi on Friday said he will give a ‘proper response’ to the Election Commission notice to him for justifying killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in a fake encounter, according to Press Trust of India.
   Defending as just a ‘political issue’ his controversial utterances on the Sohrabuddin issue during a poll campaign speech in Mangrol on Tuesday, Modi told CNN-IBN ‘I will give a proper response to the Election Commission notice.’
   Modi was served the show-cause notice on Thursday and was given time till today (Saturday) to reply.

The government has decided to divert unused fund of $65 million from 10 slow-progressing projects aided by World Bank to finance post-flood rehabilitation programme.
   Finance and planning adviser Mirza Azizul Islam in October approved the diversion of the fund and the planning ministry in November asked the ministries concerned to revise the project costs downward, officials said.
   According to the government’s preliminary assessment, the reconstruction cost of the infrastructures damaged by the two spells of flood in July and September will be around $1 billion.
   The World Bank had earlier offered to provide $130 million as flood recovery assistance apart from a credit of $75 million pledged in September to help the government bridge the resource gap caused by the floods.
   The lending agency said the assistance of $130 million would come from the WB-financed ongoing projects, whose funds had remained unutilised or implementation was very slow.
   In response to the World Bank’s proposal, the government identified the 10 projects in the areas of local government, education, health and transport.
   The finance adviser later approved the diversion of $65 million from those projects to the post-flood recovery-related projects.
   The projects are Municipal Services Improvement Project, Rural Transport Improvement Project, Bangladesh Water Supply Programme, Local Government Support Project, Enterprise Growth and Bank Modernisation, Post-Literacy and Continuing Education, HNP Sector Programme, Second Primary Education Development Programme and Social Investment Project Programme.
   Of the amount to be slashed, $25 million will be used in income-generating projects of Social Development Foundation and Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation.

The Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, visiting Europe after decades of ostracism by the West, on Friday condemned the ‘dictatorship’ of the UN Security Council which he blamed for terrorism and world tensions.
   Speaking at Lisbon University on his first ever official visit to Portugal, Gaddafi also criticised the fact that only a few select countries in the world were allowed to have nuclear weapons while the rest, including his own, were not.
   It was a tough speech by the flamboyant leader, who was once branded ‘mad dog of the Middle East’ in the 1980s by then US president Ronald Reagan because of his backing of terror groups.
   His ties with the West have warmed rapidly in recent years after he abandoned support for terrorism and plans to build weapons of mass destruction and agreed compensation for families of victims of mid-air bombings of US and French airliners.
   Gaddafi, whose country is opening up to western investment in oil and infrastructure, is in Portugal to attend a European Union/African Union summit at the weekend. After Portugal he will be visit France and Spain after several decades of not being welcome.
   Gaddafi criticised the current United Nations structure in which five countries — the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia — have veto powers.
   He said the UN General Assembly, at which virtually all of the world’s states are represented, should be the executive body of the global organisation.

The 22nd anniversary of the signing of the charter that established the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation will be celebrated today.
   The heads of state or government signed the charter at the first-ever summit meeting on December 8, 1985 in Dhaka.
   The heads of state or government of the forum members issued commemorative messages on the charter day, according to a message received in Dhaka from the SAARC Secretariat in Kathmandu.
   The SAARC member countries are celebrating the day with various programmes.
   The SAARC regional centres, apex bodies and recognised bodies are also observing the day.

Pakistan’s president Pervez Musharraf will lift the state of emergency on December 15, a day earlier than previously planned, the attorney general said on Friday.
   ‘The emergency will be lifted on December 15,’ the attorney general, Malik Muhammad Qayyum, said. Musharraf had earlier pledged to lift the state of emergency on December 16.
   The announcement by the attorney general, who is also the government’s chief lawyer, could not be immediately confirmed to the news agency by a very close aide of president Musharraf.
   Musharraf declared the state of emergency on November 3 to tackle what he said was growing Islamic militancy and an interfering judiciary.

The Asian Development Bank will provide Cambodia and Bangladesh with $49 million in loans and grants to help in development aid, the Manila-based multilateral bank said Friday.
   In a statement the bank said it would give $31.7 million in aid to Cambodia and $17.6 million to Bangladesh.
   A loan of $10.1 million and a grant of $9.9 million would go to a rural development project covering three provinces around the Tonle Sap lake in Cambodia, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia.
   Despite the richness of the lake, the Tonle Sap region has the highest poverty rate in Cambodia with many people in the lowland rural communities vulnerable to accidents, weather and irregular food supplies, the ADB said.
   The project seeks to develop rural infrastructure to move products to market and improve farm yields through improved irrigation systems.
   The ADB said it was also extending a $10 million loan and a $1.7 million grant to help develop a ‘sound, efficient and market-oriented financial system in Cambodia.’
   The ADB added it would provide a $17.6 million dollar loan to help prepare for the construction of a bridge linking the economically depressed southwest zone of Bangladesh to the more advanced eastern zone.

Two suspected gunmen were beaten to death by a mob when they tried to get away after shooting a grocery shop owner dead at Par Gendaria under South Keraniganj police station in Dhaka on Friday.
   The police said three gunmen had attacked a shop owner Mamun, 30, son of Jalaluddin, at Haji Bazlur Rahman Road when he was on his way to his shop at around 2:30pm. The attackers, at one stage, shot Mamun dead.
   Hearing the gunshots, locals chased the assailants, and caught two of them, aged between 25 and 30, while another one managed to flee, the police said, adding that the angry mob started beating them.
   The identity of the suspects could not be known. The police sent the bodies for autopsy.

Amphibious assault ship USS Tarawa which carried out emergency relief programme Operation Sea Angel-II will leave the Bangladesh waters between December 9 and 10, said a senior US military official at a farewell reception by the Armed Forces Division on Friday.
   Brigadier General Ronald Bailey said, ‘The US Navy ship USS Tarawa will remain on the coast until December 9–10 before sailing for its headquarters in Japan.’
   The US chargé d’affaires in Dhaka, Geeta Pasi, said military operation had been transformed into a long-term reconstruction and rehabilitation programme.
   She said, ‘The United States plans to help in the rehabilitation of the affected and in taking measures to mitigate the losses in future crisis.’
   ‘We were here before the cyclone, we were here during the initial emergency and we will be here to assist with recovery and rehabilitation,’ she said.
   Pasi said the US military assisting Bangladesh will now hand over their immediate relief mission to the US mission in Dhaka.
   Referring to long-rehabilitation, Pasi said, ‘We know that the job is not done and we are now focussed on how we can contribute to rehabilitation and reconstruction needs.’
   The United States, he said, has given an assurance of long-term cooperation in rebuilding in the cyclone-hit areas.
   Masud Uddin later presented the US Marines officers with crests of the Armed Forces.

Mobile phone operator Grameenphone has said it would take stern actions against anyone in the company found involved in aiding illegal Voice over Internet Protocol operators.
   ‘We are trying to get to the bottom of this whole affair and I can assure that stern measures will be taken against anyone involved within Grameenphone,’ GP’s new chief executive officer Anders Jensen said in a statement on Thursday.
   Rapid Action Battalion members along with the representatives from Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission Thursday raided the head office of Grameenphone after they detected that the operator had supplied illegal VoIP equipment to an internet service provider.
   RAB personnel claimed they seized VoIP equipment worth Tk 50 lakh from the house of AccessTel owner at Gulshan in the city Thursday.
   Earlier in October, BTRC realised Tk 168.40 crore from Grameenphone for its involvement in illegal VoIP business.

Workers of a garment factory in Gazipur went out on demonstrations on Friday demanding payment of their dues before Eid-ul-Azha.
   Several hundred workers of the factory at Sreepur demonstrated and abstained from work demanding an increase in production wage, payment of dues and festival allowance.
   The workers said the factory management forced 18 of the workers out on demonstrations to sign resignation letters.
   Several hundred workers of the Tamanna Sweater factory at Nayanpur of Sreepur started work abstention early Friday.
   They alleged they received half the production wage workers of other factories got.
   They said they had repeatedly requested the authorities to increase the production wage and alleged the authorities had decided to decrease the wage.