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Charges were framed on Tuesday against four senior teachers and 15 students of Dhaka University in one of the two cases filed against them in connection with the August 20-22 campus protests.
   The judge of a Dhaka speedy trial tribunal, M Golam Rabbani, also additional chief metropolitan magistrate, has posted the beginning of the trial for December 17 while the government is working to find out ways to free the teachers and students.
   A Rajshahi court is scheduled today to give ruling on another case regarding the August campus protests filed against 14 Rajshahi University teachers, students and staff.
   The same court on December 4 sentenced four Rajshahi University teachers to two years’ rigorous imprisonment in another case related to the campus protests.
   Dhaka University teachers and students on Tuesday sharply reacted to the framing of charges against four teachers and 15 students.
   Several hundred students, including a significant number of activists of various student organisations, staged silent demonstrations, carrying placards, for half an hour at the base of Aparajeya Bangla demanding immediate release of their friends and teachers detained after the August 20-22 campus protest which flared off the assault of some students by some army men.
   Dhaka University teachers and students also rejected the government’s move. They feared the government will release the teachers and students on a presidential clemency after sentences as it happened in the case of four Rajshahi University teachers.
   ‘It will be no good in restoring academic atmosphere to the educational institutions. The government assured us release of the teachers soon and I expect the government to keep its words and release the teachers, if possible, in the next 24 hours,’ former Dhaka University Teachers’ Association president AAMS Arefin Siddique, told New Age on Tuesday evening.
   ‘The charge framing was unexpected. We have repeatedly said withdrawal of the cases would be the best solution to the problems,’ he said.
   The law adviser, Mainul Hosein, however, told reporters that the matter related to the release of the teachers and students would be resolved through legal procedures and the move was already in progress.
   ‘It should be done in keeping with the rules considering the interests of both the sides — the government and teachers. The government will need to take some steps to resolve the matter through legal procedures,’ Mainul said, replying queries on the demand for the unconditional release of the detained teachers and students and withdrawal of the cases.
   Asked whether the government might withdraw the cases, he said, the government could do all such things, but it must have justification to do them.
   Three former High Court judges and a number of Dhaka University teachers and students criticised Mainul’s statement.
   If the government has decided to release the teachers and students, it should withdraw the cases, instead of going for a presidential clemency after conviction and sentence, they said.
   They asked why the government was playing a trick by planning the release of them after conviction.
   The four convicted Rajshahi University teachers — management department chair Moloy Kumar Bhowmick, and mass communications department assistant professors Dulal Chandra Biswas, Selim Reza Newton and Abdullah Al Mamun — were released on Monday on a presidential clemency, although their families had not submitted any petition for mercy. They rather requested the government for unconditional release of all the detained teachers and students and withdrawal of the cases.
   ‘I think it is a graceful solution for both the sides. We are also thinking of a similar solution in the case of the detained Dhaka University teachers and students,’ Mainul said.
   The DU teachers could also appeal to the president for mercy after conviction, he said, questioning the basis of the teachers’ demand for unconditional release before conviction.
   The three former High Court judges also criticised this statement of Mainul.
   As a barrister, Mainul must know the provision of Section 494 of the Code of Criminal Procedure which empowers the government to withdraw any criminal case before the pronouncement of the judgement in the case, they said.
   The four convicted Rajshahi University teachers will go ahead with the appeal filed on Sunday against the December 4 verdict as the presidential clemency cannot revoke their conviction.
   Professor Moloy Kumar Bhowmick and their counsel, Golam Arif Tipu, told New Age they would go ahead with the appeal with the Rajshahi district and sessions judge’s court on December 27 when the court is scheduled to hear it.
   The convicted teachers also joined work at the university on Tuesday as the education ministry sent a notification to the authorities saying that their services were reinstated.
   The speedy trial tribunal in Dhaka framed the charges against the DU teachers and students, rejecting the pleas of their counsels for the discharge of the case.
   The Dhaka University Teachers’ Association president, Professor Sadrul Amin, general secretary Professor Anwar Hossain, social sciences dean Professor Harun-or-Rashid and applied physics and electronics department chair Professor Nimchandra Bhowmik and student Moniruzzaman Sarder, standing in the dock, pleaded innocent as the judge read out the charges against them. Fourteen other students accused in the case are in hiding.
   They were charged with breaching the Emergency Powers Rules by making instigating speeches against the government and burning effigies on the campus during the August campus protests.
   They will also face hearing in the framing of charges in the other case on the same protests in the court of metropolitan magistrate Habibur Rahman Siddiqui today.
   The police on September 9 pressed charges in the two cases against the 19 and the charge sheets were filed with the court on November 25.

The Rajshahi University campus on Tuesday swarmed with policemen as the mass communications students passed the day rejoicing after the release of the four convicted university teachers on Monday.
   Professor Dulal Chandra Biswas, Professor Selim Reza Newton and Professor Abdullah Al Mamun reached the department at 11:40am. Their colleagues and students warmly received them. After joining work, the three talked with other teachers and students in the department seminar room.
   The other teacher released, Professor Moloy Kumar Bhowmick of the management department, reached the department at noon and left at 2:00pm after joining work.
   The students and teachers of the department also warmly welcomed him. He dedicated the reception accorded to him to other teachers and students detained in connection with the August 20–22 campus protests.
   Moloy Kumar said, ‘I congratulate the government for the move. But I think I will be fully released after other teachers and students are freed. I thank other teachers, especially Zafar Iqbal, Muntassir Mamun, Abul Kalam Azad, Ramendu Majumder, Anisuzzaman, MM Akash, and Arefin Siddiqi, students, journalists, and others for their role in prompting the release.’
   Dulal Chandra said, ‘We promised at the jail gate that we will protest at all matters illegal, not only on the campus but also across the country.’ He thanked all the teachers, students, officials and the media for their role in their release.
   Selim Reza said, ‘I do not consider myself free until other detained teachers are released.’
   Abdullah Al Mamun said, ‘The teachers and students should not get involved in the politics of lobbying. They should rather be involved in politics for the welfare of the country. The teachers were not guilty.’

The remains of Bir Shreshtha Sepoy Hamidur Rahman were on Tuesday buried with the highest state honours in Bangladesh for which he laid his life more than 36 years ago.
   Hamidur, one of the seven independence war heroes given the highest gallantry award, was buried near the grave of Bir Shreshtha Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman in the Martyred Intellectuals’ Graveyard at Mirpur in Dhaka.
   The remains of Hamidur Rahman were brought to Bangladesh from Ambassa of Tripura in India on Monday.
   Hamidur, youngest of the seven war heroes, was killed in a battleground at Ambassa, in Dhalai of Tripura, near the Moulvibazar border of Bangladesh on October 28, 1971. He had been buried there for more than 37 years.
   Bangladesh fought a war for nine months against Pakistan and earned independence on December 16, 1971.
   Before his burial in the graveyard, the nation paid its last respect to the war hero in the National Parade Square in the morning.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, also Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, on behalf of the nation received the coffin of the remains of the war hero in the Parade Square.
   He placed flowers on the coffin wrapped around with the national flag at about 10:40am. The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, then placed flowers at the coffin.
   A prayer was said seeking divine blessing for the departed soul of Hamidur Rahman, but the scheduled namaz-e-janaza was not held as he had been given a proper Muslim burial in Ambassa after his death.
   A brief life sketch of Hamidur was read out before saying the prayer, recalling his life and fight in the war of independence.
   Hamidur Rahman was born at Khorda Khalispur at Maheshpur in Jessore on February 2, 1953.
   A contingent drawn from the army, navy and the air force earlier gave him a guard of honour.
   Military bugle sounded the last post in salute to the warrior as the president, the chief adviser and other dignitaries and people of various professions stood in solemn silence.
   A 21-gun salute was fired as the bearers of Hamidur’s remains entered the Parade Square at 10:35am. Six army personnel carried the coffin on their shoulders from the vehicle and kept it on a podium.
   The Jatiya Sangsad speaker, advisers to the interim government, chiefs of the three services, family of Hamidur Rahman and other war heroes, political party leaders, freedom fighters, civil and military officials, diplomats, distinguished personalities of various professions and Armed Forces members also paid tribute to the war hero.
   After the ceremony, the remains of Hamidur were kept in the place for some time for viewing.
   The mother of Bir Shreshtha Abdur Rouf, on behalf of the families of the seven war heroes, placed flowers on the coffin. The Jatiya Sangsad speaker, deputy speaker and political party leaders also placed flowers.
   A military vehicle, carrying the remains started for Dhaka at 6:00am from the Comilla cantonment where the body reached through Bibirbazar border from India.
   The Indian authorities handed over the coffin containing Hamidur’s remains to the BDR commander of the Comilla sector on the Bibirbazar border in Comilla Monday afternoon.
   The remains were then taken to the Dhaka cantonment in a motorcade from Jatrabari and then to the National Parade Square.
   The last ride of the war hero started from the Parade Square to the graveyard at Mirpur.
   When the coffin was lowered into the grave, another gun salute was fired in the ceremonial burial in the presence of the chiefs of three services.

The Bangladesh delegation has backed out from speaking on behalf of least developed countries at the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, which is scheduled to end on December 14 with a declaration.
   CS Karim, the adviser for environment and forests, has also been replaced with Ismat Jahan, Bangladesh’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York.
   The environment adviser, who was expected to head the national delegation and speak on behalf of least developed countries during the high-level segment of the summit, also the 13th conference of parties of the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change, is reportedly unable to attend due to personal reasons.
   Furthermore, the negotiating capability of the delegation has been weakened, ahead of the critical high-level summit, by the departure of two experienced negotiators, one of whom ironically happens to be a deputy director for negotiations at the Department of Environment.
   According to an e-mail addressed to all the members of the delegation, CS Karim expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of the delegation in general. He demanded to know why Bangladesh was not speaking on behalf of the poorest group of countries in the world, the responsibility for which has now been assigned to the Maldives.
   ‘I fail to understand who decided to change this and what our government delegation was doing at that time. I wonder what was the real purpose of sending the BIG delegation. I request Dr Nishat, Dr Atiq, Mr Mazharul Alam Babu and Kamrul (the journalist) to inquire quietly into the matter and inform me how the incident transpired. I am disappointed as the Climate Cell is not properly doing its duty,’ reads part of the email.
   According to a previous email attached with that of the adviser’s is one by Hamid Rashid, director-general of multilateral economic affairs wing of the foreign affairs ministry, stating, ‘Kindly note that an ambassadorial-level meeting of the LDC Group, held in New York on December 5, 2007, unanimously entrusted Bangladesh to make the statement on behalf of the Group at the High-Level Segment. The common LDC position, endorsed by the Group, should form the basis of our statement.’
   The draft of the statement turns out to be critical of the G77 and China group, which is influenced by the advanced developing countries like India, China, Brazil and Malaysia. The email from Hamid Rashid rightly asks the delegation to observe the position of this group and remain vigilant.
   Another email from the same person notes that the association of small island countries will leave the G77 and China group if their interests are not met.
   It also observes, regarding the G77 position, ‘It seems that the elements are nothing but the sole reflection of the interests of a few members of the G77, which happen to be the larger emitters [of greenhouse gases] among the developing world.’
   However, Bangladesh provided unqualified endorsement to the statement of the G77 and China without any prior negotiations with the influential members of that group.
   According to sources close to the negotiation process, such unqualified support to a group that is influenced by the likes of India and China, the two largest emitters, is self-defeating. ‘We should have negotiated a settlement with the G77 and China first, ‘ said a source.
   ‘It may be the case that the United States emits a lot of greenhouse gases which is causing natural calamities like Sidr and floods, but so are India and China. If the United States and Europe killed us yesterday, the advanced developing countries are killing us today and we must speak out against that now,’ said another source who has been following the negotiations in Bali and is in close contact with the delegation.
   ‘It is becoming quite obvious that this is merely a game of quid pro quo. Some delegation members of Bangladesh will surely get invited to meetings and conferences in India or China or Brazil as they compromise on the interest of the general masses. These people are not really concerned about the plight of the masses,’ he said.
   Bangladesh also suffered a similar fate in its negotiations at the World Trade Organisation where unqualified support to groups led by India and Brazil only sidelined the concerns of the least developed countries.
   An email from Abdul Alim, first secretary to the Bangladesh’s permanent mission in to the UN, to Hamid Rashid observes, ‘If the G77 pursues the same position as outlined in the enclosed paper, we can predict that the agreement on future climate regime will hang in the balance…The process has been kept hostage by a handful of countries at the great peril of a large number of the poorest countries of the world.’
   The morale of the Bangladesh delegation in general was low on Tuesday after what delegation members termed as the ‘take-over’ by the foreign ministry at a summit on environmental issues.
   Mirza Shawkat Ali, who has attended three previous conference of parties and is also the deputy director of negotiations, along with Mohammad Ziaul Haque, a deputy director in charge at the environment department, left Bali as they were scheduled to attend the summit only till the high-level segment began.
   Ismat Jahan, the current head of the delegation, declined to brief the press until the negotiations were over and the Bali roadmap finalised. She said she would preferably brief the press on December 14 with a ‘round-up’ of the proceedings.
   As regards the email from CS Karim, which was received by all members of the delegation and a few outside it, Ismat claimed that she had no knowledge of the matter. ‘I have not seen it. I cannot comment on something that I do not know of.’

One of the main problems of Bangladesh’s performance in high-level negotiations, such as those going on in Bali at the UN climate change summit, is the lack of continuity.
   Saleemul Huq, a lead author of the reports by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, also the group head of Climate Change of the International Institute of Environment and Development, told New Age on Sunday, ‘There is this impression that the ministerial speech at the plenary session is the most important thing.’
   ‘But they do not realise that it is not where the real deals are brokered,’ he said. Saleem likened the negotiations to a ship, where there are people on the deck partying and pondering over which direction the ship should take, while there are some others in the ballroom making fine speeches about the worthiest direction and so forth. ‘But the real people deciding the direction of the ship are sitting in the bridge.’
   ‘You have to get into the bridge to be able to control the course of the vessel. In order to influence the direction of these negotiations in your favour, you must be one of those few,’ said Saleem.
   He said the perennial weakness of the delegations of Bangladesh was that there was no continuity. ‘I always say it takes three conferences before one becomes an effective player,’ said Saleem. ‘In the first you are a tourist, in the second you get attached to a like-minded group and work for them, in the third you begin to understand the issues.’
   But unfortunately, said Saleem, the national delegation is chosen not on the basis of experience but inexperience. He said it was often the case that those who have not attended the conference are sent to negotiate for the country without any knowledge of what went on before. ‘It is as if they take turns in making a trip to the conference of parties and think that those who have not come before should be given the chance to make this trip, which not very sensible.’
   ‘Different parts of the text are modified and edited and then agreed upon. Unless you have attended the conferences regularly you cannot know which part came in for which reason for which country’s intervention. Without this knowledge one will be lost at sea,’ he pointed out.
   He cited the case of the Indian delegation that is led by two retired bureaucrats.
   ‘Both of them have been consistently attending the conferences and so they were made part of the Indian delegation for the sake of continuity, even though they have retired from civil service.’
   There have been instances where bureaucrats were flown in from their current assignment to negotiate on behalf of the country because they know how to deal with the matter.
   ‘It also matters a lot if you are an old face here. You get to know people and you build up personal relationships that help in negotiations. If there is a new person negotiating for the country at every conference, that will never happen.’
   Saleemul Huq referred to Mirza Shawkat Ali who has been attending the conferences regularly, and said there was some potential in the delegation since a few of them have become old faces and may be able to contribute meaningfully.
   However, according sources in the delegation, two experienced negotiators, including Shawkat, who ironically happens to be the deputy director of negotiations at the environment department, are scheduled to leave the talks before the crucial meeting of the high-level segment in Bali.

The Election Commission plans not to allow the office bearers of political party to contest the elections to local government bodies, including the forthcoming city corporation polls.
   The commission is now working on the draft uniform code of conduct for candidates in all elections. The commission expects to put in force the electoral reforms before the city corporation polls likely to be held in March.
   The draft also plans not to allow people enjoying office of profit and receiving salary, fully or partially, from government funds, such as non-government educational institution teachers, to contest polls.
   ‘The office bearers of political parties cannot be city mayors,’ the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, said at a dialogue with the Liberal Democratic Party over electoral reforms on Tuesday.
   Shamsul disclosed the proposal of the draft when the LDP chairman, Oli Ahmed, questioned the commission’s plan for holding hold city corporation polls before the national elections. Oli said elected local government representatives could influence the national polls if the local body polls are held before national elections.
   The commission, earlier, retreated from its plan to hold elections to some 4,000 union councils before holding the suspended ninth parliamentary polls amid criticism.
   Oli, leading a 12-member delegation, put forward for discussion the party’s reforms proposal, including full autonomy of the Election Commission, setting bachelor’s degree as the minimum qualification for parliamentary candidates and Secondary School Certificate for union council candidates.
   He asked the commission to declare without delay the timeframe for national elections and bar political parties opposed to independence from contesting the polls. ‘There is confusion about the Election Commission roadmap. People are also not certain whether the elections will be held.’
   Replying to Oli’s statement, Shamsul said, ‘We have spelt out the timeframe for the elections. The deadline for the elections is December 2008. But the deadline might come forward.’
   ‘We earlier estimated the number of voters to be nine crore. Now we see the number of voters may not be more than seven crore. It will take less time for us to register voters with photographs. So we can declare an earlier timeframe,’ Shamsul said.

Eid-ul-Azha, the biggest festival of the Muslims, will be celebrated across the country on December 21 as the moon of Arabic Zilhajj month was sighted in the sky of Bangladesh on Tuesday.
   The decision was made Tuesday evening at a meeting of the National Moon Sighting Committee in the Islamic Foundation conference room with the religious affairs adviser, ASM Matiur Rahman, in the chair.
   The religious secretary, Muhammad Ataur Rahman, Islamic Foundation director general, M Fazlur Rahman, information ministry additional secretary, Syed Hasinur Rahman, principal information officer, Iftekhar Hossain, SPARSO cairman M Nazmul Huda Khan, deputy director of Weather Department Shah Alam, principal of Govt Madrasah-e-Alia Prof M Islam Gani, senior pesh imam of Baitul Mukarram National Mosque Mufti Muhammad Nooruddin, Chakbazar Shahi Jame Mosque Khatib Kari Obaidullah and members of the Moon Sighting Committee, among others, attended the meeting.

The Bali roadmap will not stipulate any specific reduction commitment as the negotiations are launched towards an agreement in 2009 that would govern the climate regime after 2012 when the Kyoto Protocol phases out.
   During his daily briefing on Tuesday, Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change, lowered the expectations on the summit’s outcome, saying he did not expect any specific binding reduction targets to be part of the Bali declaration.
   The United States made it clear on Monday at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali that it would not agree to specific reduction targets in the Bali roadmap that is expected to come out as a declaration at the end of the current summit on December 14.
   Environment ministers are expected to arrive in Bali on December 11 and to negotiate on a text finalised by bureaucrats.
   The environment and forests secretary, Rezaul Kabir, said on Monday that Bangladesh had three targets as regards to climate change, which is believed to be a result of global warming induced by emission of greenhouse gases.
   ‘Our first target must be the immediate problem, which relates to people’s livelihoods and losses of assets due to natural calamities that are considered a result of climate change. For that we need funds.’ Rezaul said, the next step is to ask for reduction of emissions in the larger countries and for longer terms.
   Bangladesh also must advance towards industrialisation, he said. ‘Without industrialisation, we cannot really expect to live like self-respecting human beings. It cannot be the case we will continue to live on alms for as long as possible in the future.’
   But during his briefing, the alternate head of the US delegation in Bali and a senior climate negotiator, Harlan Watson, stressed that the US would in no way accept any numeric targets in the Bali roadmap.
   It is the contention of the scientific community, those who believe that climate change is a reality and that it is induced by human activity, that the global temperature rise must be kept within 2 degree Celsius of pre-industrial temperature.
   Towards that end, it has been suggested large emitters reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 25 to 40 per cent of 1990 levels by 2020, which the Bali roadmap was also expected to set as the minimum ambition.
   Watson said those numbers have to be negotiated over the next two years. We do not want something that prejudges the outcome of the negotiations in advance. ‘We are looking for a text that is going to be short, to the point, that is going to be balanced, taking into consideration the needs of all Parties, and also a text that does not — again — prejudge outcomes that might occur at the end of a two-year negotiating process.’
   John Kerry, a Democrat senator who ran as a presidential candidate last time against George W Bush, almost reiterated a similar position. He said the US Senate, where the Democrats have got more hold, was still not prepared to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. ‘Climate change is a global problem and the response must also be global.’
   Referring to the binding commitments stipulated by this landmark protocol for a group of 38 countries as they were the highest polluters at the time of striking the deal, he said they would not be able to alter the course of climate change by themselves.
   Kerry clearly indicated that all the large emitters, including China, India, Brazil, and Indonesia, would have to accept binding reduction commitments for their greenhouse gas emissions for the US to accept a similar commitment. ‘I do not expect a less developed country to take on similar commitment as the United States, but they must also reduce their emissions.’
   Replying to questions regarding per capita emissions, Kerry said, ‘Per capita calculation of emission was nonsensical since it would not address the real problem. Countries must be allowed space for their development.’
   Although the United States is the highest emitter in per capita terms, as a country it is fourth after China, India, and Indonesia.
   During his press briefing, John Kerry referred to a recent climate bill passed by the US, and said there were drastic changes within the United States. He said that awareness and corresponding actions by quarters were rather encouraging. Apparently, the states, accounting for a half of the US economy, have taken on reduction commitments on their own and have passed legislation accordingly.
   When speaking about a recent effort in research to ascertain the impacts of climate change and so forth, Kerry admitted that there had been a numerous instances where numbers were manipulated, or sections edited or deleted in scholastic literature that did not favour the US position on climate change. He said the new initiatives would not be subject to such foul play.
   During his briefing, Watson said the United States wanted to see the ‘building blocks’ of an agreement, presumably by 2009, identified based on which the parties would continue their negotiations.
   Although the European Union and developing countries would like to see industrialised countries begin talks on accepting further reduction targets, a leaked document outlining the general principles of negotiations for Canada showed that it would not accept reduction commitment without the large emitters, such as Brazil, India and China, not taking any.
   While China has indicated that it would take on some form of reduction commitments if provided with the finances and technology, Brazil and Indonesia are both keen on ensuring that they get some credit for avoided deforestation.
   But India and some large emitters are bent against accepting any reduction commitment, while the European Commission’s position is the most ambitious as they have indicated they would take on with other large emitters joining them.

Revenue intelligence on Tuesday ordered freeze on bank accounts of two politicians and search of 82 others, including former ministers, retired bureaucrats and their families.
   The orders came just a day after National Board of Revenue chairman Abdul Mazid had said that the government would consider lifting of the freeze on bank accounts.
   Central intelligence cell of the NBR issued the orders asking all banks to furnish the bank account information of the individuals soon, banking sources said.
   Bank account search orders have been served against former secretaries Rezaul Hayat and Alauddin Sarder along with 14 members of their families.
   Banks have also been asked to search accounts of former minister Begum Sajeda Chowdhury and 21 of her relatives, former minister Khondker Mosharraf Hossain and seven members of his family, former state minister Major (retd) Kamrul Islam, former lawmakers Sarder Shakhawat Hossain Bakul and Harunur Rashid.
   The names of two individuals facing account freeze orders could not be known immediately.  
   With these, the number of frozen bank accounts has risen to 131, while accounts of 492 individuals have come under NBR scanner.
   The fresh orders came as a surprise for many after the NBR chief’s remark, published in the media, instilled some confidence into businesspeople. ‘We are reviewing the issue of lifting bank account freezing orders,’ NBR chief Abdul Mazid told reporters Monday.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the High Court verdict that made it mandatory for parliamentary polls candidates to submit their eight-point personal information along with the nomination papers dismissing the appeal filed against the verdict.
   The full court of all the seven judges of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court also came down heavily on the appellant’s advocate-on-record Nawab Ali as he failed to produce in court who filed the appeal seeking to overturn the verdict.
   The court on November 20 ordered Nawab Ali to produce Safa in court on Tuesday.
   Nawab Ali on Tuesday submitted an affidavit to the court saying Safa could not appear in court on security grounds. He also submitted photographs of Safa’s house.
   ‘We do not want to see the photographs, but the man who filed the appeal committing fraud on this court,’ the court said. ‘You are a senior person. We should have punished you, otherwise.’
   The High Court on May 24, 2005 delivered the verdict requiring the parliamentary candidates to submit personal information, including educational qualifications, statement of assets, liabilities, bank balances, sources of income, profession, and criminal records, if any, along with the nomination papers.
   The High Court delivered the verdict after hearing a public interest litigation writ petition, filed by three Supreme Court lawyers — Abdul Momen Chowdhury, KM Zabir and Zahurul Islam.
   The ruling was strictly adhered to by the Election Commission in the subsequent parliamentary by-elections and elections to the 50 seats reserved for women in the parliament.
   The Appellate Division on December 19, 2006, days before the last date of filing nomination for the suspended January 22 general elections, stayed the operation of the verdict after hearing an appeal preferred by Abu Safa who claimed to be a nomination aspirant.
   Safa has, however, never appeared in court and the writ petitioners filed two applications seeking court orders to ascertain the locus standi of Safa and draw ‘criminal proceedings’ against him and his lawyers for ‘acting fraud upon the highest judiciary’ by making ‘false’ statements.
   Their counsel, Kamal Hossain, after the Appellate Division’s judgement told reporters, ‘The documents submitted for the appeal were forged. This is not an appeal in the eye of law. The appeal wasted the time of the court. The Election Commission could not receive information from the candidates in the suspended parliament elections because of the appeal.’

The government has relaxed the process of international tender for emergency rice import to build a buffer stock to ensure its smooth supply.
   A meeting of the advisors’ committee on economic affairs, headed by finance adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam, decided on Tuesday to reduce the tender processing period for rice import to 15 days from existing from 42 days. Time for re-tendering has been reduced to 10 days from 28 days now.
   ‘The changes have been made under the procurement regulations to raise the rice stock,’ Aziz told reporters after the meeting.
   The relaxation in the procurement rules will help the government respond quickly to any urgent needs of food, he said.
   An earlier official estimate suggests that the country will need to import over 17 lakh tones of rice, whose production suffered heavily by twin floods in July-September period and latest by November 15 cyclone Sidr.
   India withdrew its temporary ban on rice export to Bangladesh and offered sales of five lakh tonnes.
   Officials said traders, who opened a good number of letters of credit for rice import, were not sure about shipments due to non-availability of rice and further rise in its global market prices.
   The government might ask the food ministry to import 10 lakh tonnes of rice on an urgent basis through state-to-state deals.

Sixty-seven people were killed when two car bombs exploded in upscale districts of Algiers on Tuesday, a health ministry source said, in the bloodiest attack since an undeclared civil war in the 1990s.
   There was no immediate claim of responsibility but commentators said it appeared the work of al-Qaeda’s north Africa wing, which claimed a similar bombing in downtown Algiers in April and other blasts east of the capital over the summer that have worried foreign investors in the OPEC member state.
   A UN spokesman said one employee of the UN refugee agency was killed and another was missing. There was no information on whether the agency was a target.
   One of Tuesday’s blasts struck near the Constitutional Court building in Ben Aknoun district and the other close to the UN offices and a police station in Hydra, both areas where several Western companies have their offices, a source said.
   The interior minister, Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni, said a suicide attacker appeared to have detonated the Hydra bomb.
   In Ben Aknoun people ran through the streets crying in panic and the wail of police sirens filled the air.
   A body lay on the road covered with a white blanket, two buses were burning, debris from damaged cars was strewn across pavements while police struggled to hold back onlookers.
   ‘There was a massive blast,’ a UN worker wrote in an anonymous item for a BBC website.
   Several of the casualties in Ben Aknoun were students riding a school bus, the official APS news agency said. The security source said the final death toll could go as high as 60.
   Algeria, a major gas supplier to Europe, is recovering from more than a decade of violence that began in 1992 when the then army-backed government scrapped elections a radical Islamic party was poised to win. Up to 200,000 people have been killed in the subsequent violence.
   Tuesday’s attacks dented security forces’ hopes that they had crushed the insurgency following the killing by the army of the ringleaders of the April 11 attacks.
   To date the authorities have said the only way to put an end to 16 years of bloodshed is to pursue ‘national reconciliation’, a policy which grants amnesty to the al-Qaeda-linked guerrillas in return for disarmament.
   But commentators say the strategy takes no account of a bleak social background of unemployment and poverty that fuels discontent and aids recruitment of suicide bombers.
   A deteriorating social climate marked by joblessness and abiding poverty posed a menace to stability, diplomats say, noting that unemployment among adults under 30 is 70 per cent.
   World leaders expressed horror and outrage over twin car bombings in Algiers on Tuesday, with the White House labelling the attacks an act of ‘senseless violence’, reports Agence France-Presse.
   The UN chief, Ban Ki-moon, who was in Bali, Indonesia for a major climate change conference, condemned ‘in the strongest possible terms the terrorist attacks in Algiers,’ his office said in a statement.
   UN officials said rescuers were still searching for staffers trapped in the rubble hours after the explosion.
   ‘President and Mrs Bush extend their condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this horrible bombing,’ the White House said in a statement.
   The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who visited Algiers only last week, called the blasts ‘barbaric and profoundly cowardly acts’.

Angry college students damaged a number of vehicles after a female student was run over by a speeding bus in front of Science Laboratory Crossing.
   Several hundred students took to the streets and went on the rampage on the Mirpur-New Market Road, stopping traffic movement for about one hour till 12:30pm.
   Witnesses said a speeding bus, bearing registration number Dhaka-Metro-Ba-11-1826, ran over Sadiya Arefin Suchi, 17, a 1st year student of the commerce group in Dhaka City College and daughter of Anisur Rahman of 111/4 Uttar Jatrabari, in front of Science Laboratory Crossing while she, along with some friends, was crossing the road at around 11:00am.
   Local people immediately rushed her to the nearby Lab Aid Hospital where she succumbed to her injuries at around 11:30am.
   Hundreds of students, protesting against Suchi’s death, took to the streets and damaged a number of vehicles stranded on the road, including the killer bus.
   Large contingents of police and RAB members rushed to the scene and brought the situation under control at around 12:30pm.
   Dhanmondi police arrested bus driver Jewel, 30, along with the bus, but the helper managed to flee the scene.
   The body of the victim was handed over to her family members after the completion of post-mortem at Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s morgue at around 3:30pm.
   A case was filed with Dhanmondi thana in this connection.

Microfinance institutions on Tuesday agreed to suspend loan recovery instalments for three to six months in the cyclone Sidr affected areas.
   They also decided to offer new credit to cyclone victims after field-level scrutiny and need assessments.
   The agreements were reached Tuesday at a meeting of Microcredit Regulatory Authority with its chairman and Bangladesh Bank governor Salehuddin Ahmed. Representatives of leading microfinance institutions joined the meeting that discussed rehabilitation of Sidr victims.
   The non-government organisations also agreed to repay savings and settle insurance claims of the affected people, said Khondkar Mazharul Hoque, executive director of Bangladesh Bank and executive vice-president of Microcredit Regulatory Authority.
   NGO representatives told the meeting that their field staffs were facing problems in reaching their clients in the affected areas because of media reports that NGOs were pressing the victims for loan repayment ignoring their hardships.
   ‘Going to a borrower’s house does not necessarily mean that an NGO employee is asking for repaying loan instalment. Even if he or she goes to assess the state of the victims, there is a fear of wrong impression,’ said an NGO official.
   ‘Even if we want to offer fresh loans, our staff will need to visit victims’ houses. But such visits risk misinterpretation now,’ he said.
   The MRA will inform the local administrations to help the emplo-yees of micro-credit NGOs reach their clients in the affected areas, Khondkar Mazharul Hoque said.
   ‘A holistic approach is needed instead of piecemeal approach to boost economic activities in the affected areas,’ the MRA executive vice-president said.
   Regarding the common allegations that NGOs charge high rates of interest on small credits, he argued that MRA was not in a position to offer low-cost funds to NGOs, which had to collect funds from the government’s micro-credit wing Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation or commercial banks.
   Taking loans from private banks at 14 per cent interest rate is not viable for micro-credit operations, said an NGO official.
   The MRA advised big microfinance institutions to create a central disaster management fund, keeping aside a portion of their access money for emergency responses.
   Representatives from NGO Affairs Bureau, Grameen Bank, PKSF, BRAC, ASA, Proshika and NGO Foundation took part in the meeting.

The air of Sarankhola reeks of the stench of decomposed human flesh. Even three weeks after the cyclone, more bodies are found almost everyday in the Sidr-ravaged upazila of Bagerhat.
   With the paddy fields, ponds and jungles starting to dry up of polluted water, bodies are being surfaced that are beyond recognition.
   Fishermen, who have resumed fishing after recovering from the trauma, are also finding bodies in Sundarban. At least 17 bodies have been recovered from different places in the past seven days.
   The villagers and relief workers also find it difficult to bury the dead as very few want to come close to the gruesome bodies.
   ‘We are still searching the area as we think there may be more bodies lying around,’ Sarankhola upazila nirbahi officer Shahnewaz Talukder told New Age on Monday evening.
   Three more bodies were found on Monday — one of a child floating in a canal at Chalitabunia village, one of a youth at Tafalbari and the third was of a woman found at Bogi village.
   On Sunday, five bodies of Sidr victims were recovered — one from a paddy field and the other in Sundarban. None of them could be identified.
   Over a thousand people have died in the cyclone while several hundreds are still missing, who are believed to be killed, locals say.

Two more decomposed bodies of Sidr victims were found in two places at Southkhali of Sarankhola in Bagerhat on Tuesday.
   The Southkhali union council chairman, Anwar Hossain Panchayet, told New Age Tuesday evening that a body was found at Bogi and the other at Chalitabunia.
   He said 591 bodies of Sidr victims had been found in the union till Tuesday. The death toll at Sarankhola reaches 680.
   The residents identified that the bodies were of Abdur Rahim Panchayet, 11, son of Sarwar Panchayet and Sonia, 7, daughter of Sohrab Hossain.

Five international companies and joint ventures have applied for pre-qualification to take part in the tender for the installation of the 330MW-450MW Sirajganj independent power plant.
   The applicants are the Korea Electric Power Corporation of South Korea, the AES Corporation of the United States, a consortium of the Summit Industrial Mercantile Corporation Limited of Bangladesh and the GE Energy of the United States, a consortium of the Powertek Berhad of Malaysia and the Siemens Project Ventures GmbH of Germany and the YTL Power International Berhad of Malaysia.
   The Power Cell received the applications till Tuesday when submission closed. It invited pre-qualification application on October 11.
   A committee, headed by the Power Cell director general, Abdul Jalil, will evaluate the applications. Pre-qualified bidders will be named in two weeks.
   Companies meeting the pre-qualification criteria will be allowed to take part in the tender, expected to take place in the first half of 2008, to select a developer for the power plant to be set up on a build, own and operate scheme.
   The Power Development Board will sign a power purchase agreement with the developer for 22 years.
   The government expects to complete the tender procedure and sign the agreements for the Sirajganj plant along with two other large IPP projects of 450MW Bibiyana and 450MW Meghnaghat-III by 2008.
   The five companies and consortiums, which applied for the Sirajganj plant, along with the US company Chevron Corporation, recently applied for pre-qualification for the 450MW Bibiyana independent power plant installation.
   Apart from YTL, other companies and consortiums were pre-qualified for Bibiyana tender which will be held in the first quarter of the next year.
   The government is likely to ask the Power Cell to invite application for pre-qualification for the Sirajganj plant soon.

The government on Tuesday appealed to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court to stay the execution of the bail the High Court granted the detained Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman, sons of the detained prime minister Khaleda Zia, in separate extortion cases.
   The chamber judge of the Appellate Division, Justice M Hasan Amin, did not pass an instant order on the government petitions and posted a full hearing by the full bench for December 13.
   The High Court bench of Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman and Justice Zubayer Rahman on December 2 accepted Tarique’s bail petitions in two cases — one filed with the Dhanmondi police on April 1 for extorting Tk 53 lakh and the other filed with the Shahbagh police on April 9 for extortion of Tk 10.31 crore.
   The court granted bail to Tarique the next day in another case filed with the Kafrul police on March 27 for extortion of Tk 16 lakh from Khan Mohammand Aftabuddin, the managing director of the Reza Construction Ltd.
   The court also granted bail to Arafat on the day in an extortion case filed with the Gulshan police on May 16 for extortion of Tk 50,000 each month from Abu Ahmed Zaidan Rabbi, owner of advertisement firm Media Private Ltd
   Tarique was shown arrested in all the extortion cases after his arrest on March 8 in the Tk 1 crore extortion case filed by a BNP leader, Amin Ahmed, and Arafat was shown arrested in the extortion case after he was arrested on September 3 in the GATCO scam case.

The delivery of the verdict in a case, filed against 14 Rajshahi University teachers, students and staffers for setting fire to a vehicle of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence on the campus, is scheduled for today.
   A speedy trial tribunal judge, Ruhul Amin, also the additional chief judicial magistrate, is scheduled to pronounce the verdict.
   Four of the accused — Professor Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan Sajal, Professor Golam Sabbir Sattar Tapu, deputy chief information officer Sadequl Islam, and former vice-chancellor Faisul Islam’s chauffeur Ataur Rahman — are now in custody.
   The remaining 10 accused — Bangladesh Chhatra League RU unit general secretary Ayen Uddin, BCL activists Dipayan Sarkar, Mizanur Rahman, Sardar Ayaz, SM Fakrul Islam, Abu Sayem, Shamim Ahmed, Kazi Abdul Latif, Sakhawat Hossain and Aziz Bin Kamal — are on the run.
   The vehicle of the law enforcers was set on fire on August 22. A case was filed with the Motihar police station on August 23 and the police pressed charges against the 14 on September 1. The court has so far examined 24 prosecution witnesses in the case.

The roadmap being devised at the negotiations going on at the UN climate change summit in Bali, Indonesia will not accommodate the general aspirations of the general masses to migrate to safer places.
   Although there have been repeated suggestions for the elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to freer flow of environmental goods and services, the treaty to govern climate change regime after the Kyoto Protocol phases out would not strive to break down the barriers to human migration.
   A meeting of the trade ministers from over 30 countries around the world concluded on Sunday, where the main points of discussion were how to gear talks at the World
   Trade Organisation to ensure preferential market access of environmental goods and services.
   The United States has already identified 43 specific technologies that it is willing to push for preferential market access.
   Akter Banu, a 28-year-old housewife and primary school house tutor from Char Boktarpur on river Jamuna in Pabna, said, ‘I want a secure place to live, where I do not have to be in a perpetual apprehension of flood or river erosion.’
   Noting that the country is prone to disasters, Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary to the climate change convention framework, said regarding this popular aspiration, ‘There are a number of things to learn from Bangladesh. Our response to climate change through the Bali roadmap will be so robust that there will not be any cause to migrate on account of climate change.’
   He said people might still have to migrate but that would be due to economic reasons and not changes in the weather pattern, since the action in Bali would be sufficient to prevent such a catastrophe.
   Millions of people across the world are feared to become climate refugees for a host of reasons, including scarcity of water, rise of sea level and river flooding to which a coastal plane like Bangladesh is especially vulnerable.
   In this regard, Farah Kabir, country head of Action Aid, said, ‘I would like to ask Mr de Boer, how he would determine the reason of migration. Livelihoods are lost due to natural calamities and it is to secure that livelihood that many people might have to migrate. Although it is apparently an economic migration, at the very heart still remains the fact that it was induced by climate change.’
   Experts and economists say a mechanism to allow climate refugees to migrate to other parts would add to the overall human welfare across the world.

Today is the 127th anniversary of the birth of national leader Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani.
   He was born to Hazi Sharafat Ali Khan and Mogiran Bibi at Dhangara village of Sirajganj in 1880 but was brought up in Mymensingh and Asam.
   He represented the oppressed in the politics and fought to establish their rights, and took part in numerous anti-British and anti-Pakistan movements.
   Many educational institutions, including the Islamic University at Santosh in Tangail, were also founded by him. The Maulana Bhasani Research Centre of the university will hold a one-day workshop to mark the day on the Sontosh campus.

Unlike the previous years there will be no celebration of New Year’s Eve, that is 31st night, outside on the streets or on the Dhaka University campus as the government on Tuesday imposed a ban on such activities under the state of emergency.
   There will, however, be no restriction on indoor celebrations. The decision was taken at an inter-ministry meeting held at the home affairs ministry with its secretary, Abdul Karim, in the chair.
   ‘Outdoor celebrations have been strictly prohibited to prevent untoward incidents,’ a senior home ministry official, who was present at the meeting, told New Age. He said no outdoor gatherings would be allowed after evening.
   The meeting, also attended by top bosses of different law enforcement agencies, decided not to illuminate the government offices and establishments on the occasion of Eid and Christmas to show respect to the victims of Sidr, the decade’s deadliest cyclone.
   The meeting was convened to discuss the observance of Eid-ul Azha, Xmas and 31st December and work out the strategies to maintain law and order so that people could celebrate the occasions peacefully.
   The meeting also decided to monitor and guard the vehicles carrying animals for sacrifice to the capital from various parts of the country.

The Anti-Corruption Commission in a major reshuffle has transferred 38 officials of deputy director and assistant director levels.
   Two circulars signed by the ACC director general for administration and establishment, Hanif Iqbal, were issued on Tuesday to the effect.
   One of the circulars asserts: ‘The move has been taken to fill up the openings under the new organogram of the ACC.’
   Of the transferred, 12 of are deputy directors and the rest assistant directors.
   The officers have been ordered to join their new places by January 15, 2008. Those who are engaged in inquiries and investigations will have to inform Hanif Iqbal by December 31, 2007, if it is not possible to get their tasks done within January 15.

Sangbadik-Sramik-Karmachari Oikya Parishad has called for four-hour work abstention today protesting against the 6th Wage Board Award that curtailed existing facilities.
   It has asked the newsmen, workers and employees of all newspapers and news agencies to assemble in front of the Press Club during the work abstention from 11:00am to 2:00pm, said a release.
   The decision was made at the meeting of the extended SSKOP committee on Tuesday, presided by the convener, Mozammel Haque.
   It urged the government to review the wage board award and revise it immediately.

The Mercedes Benz vehicle of detained Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, taken by Criminal Investigation Depart-ment for investigation purpose, was returned Tuesday evening.
   The vehicle was badly damaged in the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue in 2004 that killed 24 people.
   CID had collected the Mercedes Benz Jeep from Sudha Sadan as evidence of the August 21 grenade attack case on November 19 last.
   The authorities handed over the car to Hasina’s grandson Shamsur Rahman Tutul at the CID headquarters at Malibagh.