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Awami League on Tuesday sent separate letters to chief adviser’s office and Election Commission seeking schedules for another round of talks to get resolved a number of issues mainly relating to polls.
   Party leaders Abdul Mannan Khan, Asim Kumar Ukil and ABM Mozammel Hoq carried the letters, signed by Syed Ashraful Islam, to both offices Tuesday, seeking specific date and time for the talks.
   According to party insiders and sources in the government, Awami League, in the fresh round of dialogues, may consider joining a few upazila elections, out of some 300-350 planned in October. It will then continue its pressure on the government to go straight to national elections before any other local body elections.
   The government is still sticking to its guns over holding the upazila polls before the parliamentary elections pledged in December, despite major political parties’ strong opposition to the idea of holding any election before the national polls.
   The party insiders and sources in the administration said that the advisers, assigned for political negotiations, already had unofficial talks with the leaders of different political parties including the Awami League.
   According to them, Awami League leaders had mooted a ‘compromise deal’ for holding elections to a few upazilas, may be 30 or 40 or at best one in each of the 64 district across the country.
   Publicly, Awami League appears still unbending to its previous position — hold Jatiya Sangsad elections first.
   Acting general secretary of the party Syed Ashraful Islam said that the party wanted no other election before the parliamentary polls.
   ‘Although the government came up with the proposal of holding elections initially to some upazilas, we would try to stop them from doing so,’ he told New Age.
   Local government adviser Anwarul Iqbal, also a member of the advisers’ panel engaged in political dialogues, however, told New Age, ‘It is the Election Commission which will decide how many upazilas will go into elections. The government has nothing to do with the issue.’
   Another adviser, seeking anonymity, said that Awami League’s proposal for holding elections in few upazilas would be put into perspective for due consideration.
    According to party insiders, Awami League would want the interim administration to forge a national consensus on key issues concerning public life and economy.
   ‘We think it is necessary to have another round of dialogue with the chief adviser and his team as soon as possible on our proposals regarding the timing of parliamentary and upazila polls and as a follow-up to our earlier dialogue,’ the party said in its letter to the chief adviser.
   The letter to the chief election commissioner reads, ‘We had two meetings with the Election Commission over the registration of the political parties and election code of conduct, among others. But we know nothing about the EC’s initiatives in this regard.’
   In the talks, specific date for parliamentary elections, lifting the state of emergency, permanent release of party chief Sheikh Hasina, timeframe of holding upazila elections and proposals for formation of a constitution commission would be the major issues, Syed Ashraf said.
   Earlier, Awami League had three formal meetings with the interim government on April 13, June 11 and July 3 this year.
   It also held two meetings with the election commissioners.

The BNP and its allies are readying for Thursday’s programme of march towards the Chief Adviser’s Office for the submission of a memorandum demanding release of the party’s chief Khaleda Zia and overseas treatment for her son Tarique Rahman.
   The secretaries general of the parties in the morning sat at a meeting at the house of the BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar to work out the day’s programmes. The leaders had been at the meeting for an hour, but they disclosed nothing.
   Party sources said the secretaries general had finalised the content of the memorandum and planned to mobilise the highest number of people possible for the march.
   The march will begin at the graveside of Ziaur Rahman at 10:00am and the top alliance leaders will lead the procession.
   A senior party leader said they would not set any deadline for the government to release Khaleda.
   The lower units of the party and the fronts have also been instructed to hold the programme.
   The lower units will send the memorandum through the offices of upazila nirbahi officers and deputy commissioners.
   The secretaries general are likely to sit once more on the preparation of the programme today.
   Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid, Islami Oikya Jote secretary general Abdul Latif Nezami, and Bangladesh Jatiya Party secretary general Shamim al Mamun attended the meeting.

The finance ministry has decided to put in force an amended austerity policy next week as the previous cost-cutting measures, including cutback in fuel consumption by official vehicles, proved largely unresponsive.
   A proposal for continuation of the cost-cutting measures was placed on Monday for approval of finance adviser Mirza Azizul Islam.
   ‘The government’s existing austerity measures will see some changes and are likely to be enforced next week,’ said a high official of the finance ministry.
   There will be no restriction on official fuel consumption — a major drain on public money — in the amended austerity policy as a similar step taken in the past yielded nothing with global oil prices spiralling much beyond earlier estimates, the official said.
   A set of austerity measures, including a 10 per cent cutback in fuel oil use by ministries and divisions, were taken in the 2005-06 to keep official expenditures in check.
   But the government could not save even a penny on official fuel spending, while many other steps, including a ban on procurement of cars for government’s projects, also failed to get desired results, finance officials said.
   In view of the frustrating results from earlier austerity policy, the government now plans to drop 16 steps, including restriction on fuel use by ministries and different government agencies.
   The then government planned a 10 per cent cutback in oil use to offset the increase in fuel cost, which rose to $60 a barrel in August 2005 from $40 level of 2004.
   Global oil price surged to $113 now and given the volatile trend, any cost-cutting plan for fuel use would be unrealistic, finance officials argued.
   The cost-cutting measures, effective in September 2005, also included halving entertainment cost and limiting use of telephone, water, electricity and gas, which helped the government save Tk 300 crore on an annual average in the last three fiscal years. Though insignificant, the amount saved on official expenditures through half-hearted austerity measures was equivalent to 13 per cent of the losses incurred by the state-owned entities annually, one official compared.
   The public sector entities incurred a loss of Tk 5,277 crore during the 2007-08 fiscal year, up from Tk 2,276 crore of the year before.
   Former finance adviser Akbar Ali Khan told New Age, ‘The government will not benefit much from such austerity measures.’
   The government needs to cut back on its revenue expenditures if it really wants to save money, he suggested.
   Last September, the finance ministry took a similar move to withdraw the austerity measures, but changed its mind in the wake of twin floods that wreaked havoc on crops and overall economy in 2007.
   The government later planned to utilise the amount saved from the austerity measures in rehabilitating educational institutions damaged by the floods.

The authorities in Chittagong decided to launch a drive demarcate vulnerable spots with red lines and move the people from such spots by dismantling their houses on the hill slopes.
   The drive is aimed at averting further landslides, officials said.
   Fears for fresh landslides after Monday’s incident in which 11 slum dwellers were killed at Motijharna at Lalkhan Bazar prompted the authorities to make the decision at a meeting with the commerce and education adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, on Tuesday.
   ‘We will start evacuating people living in shacks near the hills after two days,’ said the acting Chittagong mayor, Monjurul Alam. But before the evacuation, vulnerable spots would be demarcated with red line in keeping with the directive of the adviser, he said.
   The Chittagong deputy commissioner, Asraf Shameem, said another meeting was scheduled for August 25 to discuss the measures for the protection and maintenance of the city hills.
   He said Tk 4,25,000 was allocated to be distributed among the relatives of the 11 victims killed in the landslide.
   The bodies of the deceased were taken to their village homes in Comilla and Chadpur for burial, he said.
   He said the legal process would continue against the people who grabbed government land on the hill slopes and erected shacks, rent out to the poor.
   The police are on a hunt to arrest one Abdullah Hasan Piku who built and rented the tin shacks which collapsed in Monday’s landslide.
   The police said they had raided Piku’s house Monday night after a case had been filed against him with the Khulsi police.
   Hossain Zillur asked the Chittagong Metropolitan Police commissioner to deal with the case of Piku seriously.
   A five-member committee, headed by the city corporation’s chief revenue officer Mohiuddin Ahmed Khan, was formed to identify land grabbers, sources said.

Leaders of Pakistan’s coalition government were deadlocked over the judiciary on Tuesday, a day after president Pervez Musharraf resigned and as a bomb killed 25 people, underscoring the challenges facing the country.
   Musharraf, the former army chief and key ally of the United States in its campaign against terrorism, resigned as president of nuclear-armed Pakistan on Monday to avoid impeachment.
   Coalition leaders, who campaigned against Musharraf, met for several hours to set about tackling pressing economic and security problems and to discuss a new president but got bogged down over the fate of judges Musharraf purged last year.
   Meanwhile, senate chairman Mohammedmian Soomro, a one-time ally of Musharraf, took over as acting president on Monday and will hold the office until the election of the nuclear-armed nation’s new head of state in 30 days, reports AFP.
   Officials say the coalition is considering a candidate from one of Pakistan’s smaller provinces, including Mehmud Khan Achakzai from southwestern Baluchistan province, and Aftab Shoban Mirani from southern Sindh province.
   It could also opt for a female candidate including the speaker of the national assembly, or lower house of parliament, Fehmida Mirza, or Zardari’s sister Faryal Talpur, the officials added.
   The two main coalition parties were bitter rivals through the 1990s when Benazir and Sharif severed alternating terms as prime minister. Analysts have said opposition to Musharraf bonded the old rivals and his departure could see them drift apart.
   Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who heads the second biggest party in the coalition, has been insisting the judges be restored to office.
   But the party leading the coalition, that of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, has wavered, partly because the deposed chief justice might take up challenges to an amnesty from graft charges granted party leaders last year, analysts say.
   Leaders of two small parties in the four-party alliance played down the failure to reach agreement but said they had been given three days to resolve the problem between the big parties.
   ‘We have been assigned to reach a consensus on the situation within the next 72 hours and play our role in finding a final solution,’ Fazal-ur-Rehman, leader of a small religious party, told reporters. He declined to elaborate on the disagreement.
   Prolonged wrangling over president Musharraf’s position before he quit had already hurt financial markets in the country of 165 million people, raising concern in Washington and elsewhere it distracted from Islamabad’s efforts to tackle violent militants.
   Musharraf’s resignation lifted Pakistan shares and the rupee on Monday and again on Tuesday when stocks jumped as much as 3.2 per cent as investors cheered an end of political uncertainty over Musharraf quit.
   With the coalition partners’ preoccupation with Musharraf out of the way, the United States and other allies will be keen to see the government concentrate on fighting militants.
   Even though Musharraf’s buy-in to the US-led war on terror was unpopular, the coalition government has assured Washington it too wants to control militants, who have provided refuge for Taliban and al-Qaeda elements near the border with Afghanistan.
   The president, George W Bush, said he appreciated Musharraf’s efforts to deal with the problem.
   Both US presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, stressed on Monday the need for Pakistan to focus on security now that the question of Musharraf’s presidency had been dealt with.
   However, divisive questions still hang over Musharraf’s future. There was no announcement on Monday on whether he would get immunity from prosecution and be allowed to live freely in Pakistan.
   Sharif, the prime minister Musharraf ousted in 1999, has insisted he face trial for treason. Benazir’s party says parliament should decide.
   The law minister, Farooq H Naek, told reporters there had been no resignation deal with Musharraf.
   ‘He resigned himself and as far as his accountability is concerned, coalition partners will decide,’ Naek said.

A suicide bomber killed 25 people at a hospital in northwest Pakistan Tuesday, highlighting the militant challenge facing the government after the resignation of Pervez Musharraf.
   In other violence in the wake of the US-backed president’s decision to bow out on Monday, five soldiers and 13 Taliban militants were killed in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
   The suicide attack happened as Shia Muslims gathered to protest over the death of a man in a suspected sectarian attack in the troubled town of Dera Ismail Khan, said North West Frontier Province police chief Malik Naveed Khan.
   ‘There are 25 confirmed dead and up to 20 wounded. We have found the legs of the suspected suicide bomber,’ Khan told private Geo television, adding that tensions were high in the area after the blast.
   The provincial police spokesman Riaz Ahmed said the dead included civilians and policemen who went to the hospital to provide security for the protest.
   ‘A Shia salesman was fatally wounded in an attack at a grocery store and was brought to the city’s district hospital, when there was a blast in the emergency ward,’ Ahmed said.
   Another police official said the incident could be linked to sectarian violence.
   Meanwhile fighting erupted Tuesday in Nawagai, 25 kilometres west of Khar, the main town in the Bajaur tribal district on the Afghan border, an official said.
   ‘Around 13 militants are confirmed dead in the clashes which continued for several hours,’ local administration official Mohammad Jameel said, adding that five soldiers lost their lives defending the checkpost.
   Army helicopter gunships later pounded the area, targeting militant hideouts, he said.
   The official said that helicopters had destroyed the house of the main spokesman for Pakistan’s Taliban movement, Maulvi Omar, but the compound was empty and no one was killed.
   Pakistani forces moved into Bajaur, a known hub of al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, nearly two weeks ago. The government says at least 460 militants have been killed since then.
   Islamabad has been under intense pressure from the United States to clamp down on militants based near the border.
   Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Kayani arrived in Kabul on Tuesday for talks with Afghan and international military officials, security officials said in Islamabad.
   ‘General Kayani has gone to Kabul to attend a tripartite commission meeting that was already planned,’ a Pakistani security official said.
   The two countries, supposed to be key allies in the US-led ‘war on terror’, have been at loggerheads for the last two years over Islamabad’s alleged failure to tackle Taliban militants based in its tribal border regions.
   Kabul recently accused Pakistan’s military-run intelligence service of masterminding the July bombing of the Indian embassy in the Afghan capital, in which around 60 people were killed.
   Pakistan denied the accusations, which were also made by India.
   Meanwhile in southwestern Baluchistan province, which also borders Afghanistan, suspected separatist insurgents shot dead five Pakistani government officials nearly two weeks after they were abducted.
   The four-year-old insurgency by tribesmen in gas-rich Baluchistan is not linked to the Taliban but it has left hundreds of people dead and is another challenge that Musharraf failed to solve during his time in power.
   A separatist rebel group, the Baluchistan Republican Army, claimed the killings hours after the bodies were recovered.

Saudi Arabia has denied it has a plane waiting to take former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf to the Muslim kingdom, a press report said on Tuesday, amid speculation Riyadh could offer him asylum.
   The Saudi ambassador to Pakistan, Ali Awad Esseiri, said media reports that was a Saudi plane was in Islamabad ready to transport Musharraf were ‘baseless claims’ and ‘media lies’, Okaz newspaper reported.
   ‘Saudi Arabia has been and continues to look out for the security, stability and sovereignty of Pakistan and will not interfere in its internal affairs,’ he was quoted as saying.
   Saudi’s intelligence chief was in Pakistan at the weekend for talks with the government over the political crisis over Musharraf, who resigned on Monday to avoid an impeachment battle.
   In Pakistan, officials from both the ruling coalition and the security services said that in the wake of his resignation Musharraf would travel to close ally Saudi Arabia in the coming days to perform Muslim rites.
   A senior coalition official said that Musharraf would then head for asylum in London or Turkey, but his aides insisted he would return after his religious duties in the ultra-conservative Gulf state.
   Saudi newspapers raised questions over the future of Pakistan, a country with which Riyadh has held close ties.
   ‘Will Musharraf’s departure lead to a cooling down in Pakistan and more stability in the country or will it just be another passing phase?’ Okaz wrote in a commentary.
   ‘What interests Pakistan’s allies, especially Saudi Arabia, after the resignation of Musharraf is the stability of the country,’ said Al-Watan.
   Saudi Arabia, whose law allows for political asylum in public interest cases, granted asylum to former Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted by Musharraf and sent into exile in 2000 before returning home last November.
   Uganda’s ex-president Idi Amin spent more than two decades in exile in the oil-rich kingdom until his death in 2003.

Rashid Ramzi handed Bahrain its first-ever Olympic medal when he won the men’s 1500 metres gold medal at the Beijing Games on Tuesday.
   The 28-year-old Moroccan-born runner won in 3min 32.94sec, outsprinting the field for the Gulf country’s first medal in six Olympic Games dating back to Los Angeles in 1984.
   Kenya’s Asbel Kipruto Kiprop, who finished fourth in last year’s world championships in Osaka, claimed silver in 3:33.11 with New Zealander Nicholas Willis winning bronze in 3:34.16.
   ‘I didn’t believe in my wildest dreams that I’d be Olympic champion,’ said Ramzi, who said he was left speechless by his success, which he rated as good as his 800/1500m double in the world championships in Helsinki.
   ‘But the dream didn’t come from nothing. I had to work hard to achieve it.
   ‘I’m over the moon, I can’t find the words to describe this victory.’
   Ramzi added that he would discuss with his coach the chances of him attempting a double by running the 5000m, the heats for which are on Wednesday.
   ‘I have a sore shin so I’ll talk with my coach (Khalid Boulami) and we’ll see,’ he said.
   Meanwhile, Christine Ohuruogu put the Great into Great Britain at the Beijing Olympics by capping a golden day for her country at the Games with victory in the final of the women’s 400 metres.
   China and the United States continued to slug it out for supremacy at the top of the medal table, with the hosts ending the day with 43 golds compared to their rivals’ 26, although the Americans had a slight edge overall with 79 medals to 76.
   But Britain, after winning four golds Tuesday, was left in third place.
   Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton continued Britain’s domination of events at the Laoshan Velodrome, winning the men’s and women’s sprints respectively, with Hoy leading Jason Kenny in a British one-two.
   Meanwhile there was further success for the nation that still likes to claim it ‘rules the waves’ when Paul Goodison won Britain’s third sailing gold of the regatta, in the laser class.
   Ohuruogu’s victory, which saw her overtake longtime leader Sanya Richards of the United States and hold-off fast finishing Jamaican silver medallist Shericka Williams, capped a remarkable and controversial year for the Londoner, who in 2007 won the world title after coming back from a ban for missing three drugs tests.
   Another American world number one who failed to live up to her billing was Lolo Jones. The 100m hurdler clipped the penultimate barrier although the United States did have the consolation of seeing Dawn Harper claim an unexpected gold.
   Ohuruogu wasn’t the only world champion adding an Olympic gold to her collection with Estonia’s Gerd Kanter triumphing in the men’s discus.
   Russia’s Andrey Silnov won the men’s high jump but here too there was success for Britain with Germaine Mason taking the silver on countback from Yaroslav Rybakov, also of Russia.
   Defending football champions Argentina inflicted more Games misery on Brazil, who for all their five World Cups have never won the Olympic tournament, with a 3-0 semi-final win over their South American rivals.
   Two quickfire goals from Sergio Aguero put Argentina on the way to victory against a Brazil side that finished with nine men after Lucas and substitute Thiago Neves were both sent off for ugly fouls on Argentina’s Javier Mascherano late in the second half.
   They will face Nigeria, 4-1 conquerors of Belgium in the other semi-final, in a repeat of the 1996 Olympic final won 3-2 by the Africans.
   A day after the shock retirement of national icon Liu Xiang in the 110m hurdles, Chinese gymnasts and divers did their best to cheer up the nation’s grieving sports fans.
   China completed the most dominant Olympic gymnastics performance from any nation for 20 years, despite yet another judging controversy.
   Zou Kai won the men’s high bar and Li Xiaopeng the men’s parallel bars to take China’s gymnastics gold tally to nine out of 14, the most since the Soviet Union won 10 in 1988.
   US gymnasts Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin did, however, complete a one-two finish in the women’s balance beam.
   At the pool, China remained on course for a clean sweep of all eight diving golds with He Chong clinching the sixth awarded so far, in the men’s three-metre springboard.
   But there were American gold medals to celebrate when Pan American champion Henry Cejudo beat Japan’s Tomohiro Matsunaga in the men’s freestyle wrestling 55kg final and British-born Anna Tunnicliffe won the Laser yachting class.
   Britain didn’t have things its own way completely at the velodrome as Bradley Wiggins missed out a third track cycling gold of the Games when he and team-mate Mark Cavendish failed to medal in the Madison.
   Argentina’s Juan Curuchet and Walter Perez outpointed Spain to win the 200-lap race, giving the South Americans their first track cycling gold and first of these Games.
   German outsider Jan Frodeno outsprinted Canada’s Simon Whitfield to win the men’s triathlon by a narrow five seconds.
   In Hong Kong, Anky van Grunsven of the Netherlands won her third successive Olympic dressage gold medal beating longtime German rival Isabell Werth into second place.

Two quickfire goals from Sergio Aguero spurred defending champions Argentina into the Olympic final as they put the sword to South American rivals Brazil in a 3-0 win at the Workers’ Stadium on Tuesday.
   Argentina will face a repeat of their 1996 Atlanta final against Nigeria in Saturday’s gold medal match at the National Stadium on Saturday.
   Nigeria, who defeated Argentina 3-2 in Atlanta, qualified for the Beijing decider after hammering Belgium 4-1 in the earlier semi-final played in Shanghai.
   It was a wretched night for Brazil, who fell apart and finished with nine men after Liverpool midfielder Lucas and substitute Thiago Neves were both sent off for ugly fouls on Argentina’s Javier Mascherano inside the final 10 minutes.
   ‘I was really happy with Aguero today. He scored two goals and he played fantastic,’ Argentina coach Sergio Batista said.
   ‘This team has committed themselves to each match at the Olympics to try and win the gold medal.
   ‘This is what they will continue to do against Nigeria in the final. Nigeria is a really strong team, we want to savour this win over Brazil first.’
   Atletico Madrid’s Aguero broke the deadlock seven minutes after the interval when Angel Di Maria’s pass appeared to strike his upper arm and flew into the net.
   Aguero scored his second goal five minutes later after irrepressible Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi released defender Pablo Zabaleta on the right and his pass was slotted home from close range with the Brazilian defence in a shambles.
   Skipper and over-age midfielder Juan Riquelme killed off the Brazilians with a 76th minute penalty after Aguero was brought down by Bayern Munich defender Breno.
   It went from bad to worse for Brazil with Lucas and Thiago Neves both losing their composure and given straight red cards for chopping down Mascherano inside the last nine minutes.
   ‘Of course, this will put more pressure and there will be some doubts about me as the coach and the team, but I have faith in my work and in my players,’ under-fire Brazilian coach Dunga said.
   ‘We will evaluate this defeat and look into the problem areas and we will study everything. This is what happens in football, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but the most important thing is we have to put our heart into it.’
   Brazil’s hopes evaporated when crowd favourite Ronaldinho’s free kick slammed into the upright and a follow-up goal was disallowed for offside just after Aguero’s second goal.
   Yet again Brazil, five-time World Cup champions, leave the Olympics without a gold medal and pressure is expected to build on Dunga, who has now lost five games out of 36 games at the helm of Selecao, considered unacceptable for Brazil’s high expectations.
   Argentina, brimming with young talent, ripped their great rivals apart in the second half to ensure they will have a chance to defend the Olympic title they won against South Americans Paraguay in Athens four years ago.
   It was cat and mouse early as both South American adversaries gave no quarter in fierce close-marking exchanges, especially on opposing game-breakers Messi and Ronaldinho with Argentine great Maradona watching on from the stands.
   Argentina had the better chances, mainly when Messi was involved, nipping into tackles and showcasing his electrifying sharp acceleration.
   Messi’s fellow striker partner Aguero fired a sizzler just wide into the side-netting in the 12th minute and Messi almost put Aguero in but his pass went behind him after 33 minutes.

About 6,000 Bangladeshi workers in Kuwait again resorted to protests over non-payment of, and unlawful deductions from, their salaries although the Kuwaiti government recently set a minimum monthly wage of KD 40 for labourers to be paid without any deduction.
   The Arab Times, a Kuwaiti English-language daily, reported on Tuesday, quoting a Bangladeshi embassy official, that thousands of workers of two cleaning companies went on strike over non-payment of their salaries and unlawful deductions.
   Some workers of the two companies told the newspaper that about 6,000 workers are on strike since Sunday.
   But the daily said the embassy contradicted that figure.
   ‘We have asked the officials of the two companies to provide us the exact number of Bangladeshi workers employed by them,’ Arab Times quoted the unnamed Bangladeshi official as saying.
   The official added that the embassy is making all-out efforts to resolve the workers’ grievances and that he was hopeful that the ministry of social affairs and labour would take strict action against the two erring companies, the report said.
   A striking cleaner, who identified himself as Abdul Hameed, told the Arab Times that his company had not paid its workers salary for over two months and that the company was also using pressure tactics to make them pay the insurance and residency fees.
   ‘We tried all possible ways to resolve our problems with the company in an amicable manner but to no avail. Some supervisors are harassing workers who refuse to pay the medical and residency fees. They are being shuffled from one department to another and this has been going on for sometime now.’
   He also added that the company is showing no interest for paying heed to their complaints about the abominable living conditions at the camp, even as he said some air conditioning units had broken down with the company showing little concern in having them fixed.
   Another worker of the company, H Rehman said the embassy had been slow on acting on their complaints and added that the workers would not call off the strike unless all their demands are met.
   He said the embassy was still getting complaints from workers who alleged that their companies were unlawfully deducting their salaries.
   Talking to the news agency Abdul Matin Chowdhury, secretary to expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment, said some Kuwaiti companies were reportedly not following the Kuwaiti government-fixed salary structure.
   ‘So far I know the Kuwaiti government closed down five companies for violating the new labour law. The workers have been asked to inform the Bangladeshi embassy in Kuwait about all complaints following which the Kuwaiti government is taking action against the Kuwaiti companies,’ he said.
   Chowdhury expressed hope that the upcoming visit of the foreign adviser, Iftekher Ahmed Chowdhury, to Kuwait would be a successful one regarding solving the problems of the Bangladeshi workers there.
   He said Bangladesh government would continue its hectic efforts to ensure welfare of all Bangladeshi workers in Kuwait and elsewhere in the world.

The open market sale of rice begins today at the price of Tk 28 per kilogram across the country, according to a source in the food and disaster management ministry.
   The programme is set to start ahead of the fasting month of Ramadan aiming to control the price spiral of rice at the local markets as the price of the coarse variety has already shot up to between Tk 32 and 34 Tk per kilogram.
   The OMS will be centrally inaugurated by the acting food and disaster management secretary, Molla Waheduzzaman, in the capital at 9.00 in the morning.
   The programme will be launched by the deputy commissioners at the district level and upazila nirbahi officers at the upazila level.
   Under the programme, the government will sell about 2, 51,000 tonnes of rice through some 6,698 dealers across the country. Some 1105 dealers and twenty-five mobile outlets will sell rice at different points of the Dhaka city.
   The sales of rice through the mobile outlets will help the lower income people, including rickshaw pullers and the garment workers, avail themselves of the staple at a cheaper rate, said a ministry official on Tuesday.
   In the city, each dealer will sell around 765 kg of rice per day while a mobile outlet will sell a maximum of 3060 kg a day, an official of the food department told New Age.
   The programme will include some 2762 dealers in Dhaka division, 770 dealers in Khulna division, 383 in Barisal division, 385 in Sylhet division, 1035 in Rajshahi division and some 1363 dealers in Chittagong division.
   The price of rice for the consumers will be Tk 28 per kg but the dealers will purchase it for Tk 26.50. A dealer will get Tk 1.50 commission for selling one kg rice under the programme.
   On the other hand, the government is providing about Tk 5 as subsidy for selling one kg of rice under the OMS programme, said the official.
   The OMS will continue till the end of October. The programme will cover six divisional cities and will be extended up to the upazila level.
   The programme will remain operative for six days a week and a person will not be allowed to buy more than three kgs at a time.
   The sales will run from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm.
   About 1, 34, 57,115 people across the country will benefit from the programme, including some 62,21,150 in Dhaka division, 14,17,800 in Khulna division, 6,78,300 in Barisal division, 6,92,750 in Sylhet division, 18,01,065 in Rajshahi division and some 26,46,050 in Chittagong division.
   Besides, 297 outlets of the Bangladesh Rifles will sell about 10,000 tonnes of rice in the Dhaka city.
   The OMS usually runs before two lean seasons, ahead of aman and boro seasons, and accordingly, the next OMS is likely to start between March and April, said the official.

Tarique Rahman, BNP’s senior joint secretary general and eldest son of the party’s chairperson Khaleda Zia, is getting paralysed partially and exposed to mental illness, said a senior surgeon at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.
   ‘He is also at risk of being fully paralysed and mentally disturbed if he does not get immediate overseas treatment,’ Dr Kazi Mazharul Islam Dolon, head of the Department of Arthroscopy and Joint Replacement of the university, said Tuesday.
   ‘Tarique Rahman is not getting appropriate treatment. We are worried about his health,’ he told New Age.
   After visiting the BNP’s senior joint secretary general at the BSMMU prison cell Tuesday, the physician said in addition to previous ailments, Tarique was suffering from chronic pain, which exposed him to mental disturbance.
   Patients suffering from chronic pain generally become mentally disturbed, he said.
   ‘Muscles of Tarique’s right leg are shrinking and the leg is losing feeling or movement. His kidney has also been partially damaged because of a huge intake of pain killers,’ said Dr Dolon. The patient is also suffering from high blood pressure and respiratory troubles, associated with other complications including pain in back, knees and waist, he added.
   ‘Now he can’t sit or sleep normally,’ he said.
    He referred to the earlier recommendations of the BSMMU medical board for ensuring overseas treatment of Tarique to cure his complications.
    Replying to a query, the doctor said Tarique should be sent either to Germany and the UK or Canada for medical treatment.
   According to the report of the board, Tarique was suffering from compression fracture in his two spinal bones, cervical disc prolapsed with radicalopathy, right hip arthropathy, chest pain with palpitation, severe muscle spasm in lumber region and right lower limb, serenegative spondyloarthopathy, narrow angle glaucoma and wasted muscles of lower limbs.
   Tarique’s broken spinal bones did not improve although he has been taking treatment at the BSMMU since January 31, said the board.
   His wife Dr Zubaida Rahman earlier appealed to the government to send her husband abroad immediately to save him from getting crippled.
   ‘He requires specialised orthopaedic surgical correction, which is not possible in Bangladesh,’ she said in a letter to the interim government.
   He was arrested on March 8, 2007 and implicated in a dozen of cases of extortion and corruption.
   Khaleda Zia, who has also been in jail since September 3 last year, repeatedly demanded that the government must release Tarique for overseas treatment.

Awami League leader Mohammad Nasim was scheduled to leave Dhaka for Singapore for treatment Tuesday night.
   Family sources said Nasim, a former home minister who was granted interim bail for four months from August 6, was scheduled to leave for Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore in a Singapore Airlines flight at 11:55pm Tuesday.
   The former minister, convicted in a corruption case, was first taken to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University hospital and then to LabAid Hospital after he had suffered a brain stroke in the Kashimpur jail in Gazipur on June 24.
   Briefing reporters on the latest health condition of Nasim, AKM Mahbubul Haque, chief of medical services at LabAid Hospital, said there was no ‘active bleeding’ in Nasim’s brain, ‘but a second haemorrhage can occur any time.’
   In reply to a query, Mahbubul said Nasim’s family was bearing the cost of the treatment.

The US ambassador to Bangladesh, James F Moriarty, on Tuesday observed that elections under the state of emergency could not be acceptable and said the emergency should be lifted before holding polls.
   ‘The US ambassador said the United States wants withdrawal of emergency before elections and he viewed no credible election is possible under the state of emergency,’ a senior Awami League leader, who attended at a dinner party at Moriarty’s residence, told New Age.
   The politicians joined the dinner party at Moriarty’s residence hosted in honour of a visiting congressional staff delegation.
   The communications adviser, Ghulam Quader, Awami League leaders Amir Hosain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed, Suranjit Sengupta, Abdur Shahid, Dr Abdur Razzak and Hasan Mahamud, BNP leaders Khandaker Delwar Hossain, ASM Hannan Shah, Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, Nazrul Islam Khan, Rizvi Ahmed and Giasuddin Quader Chowdhury, Jatiya Party leader Ruhul Amin Hawlader, Jamaat-e-Islami leaders Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid and Abdur Razzaque, Liberal Democratic Party leader Oli Ahmed, business leader Abdul Awwal Mintu and Mostafuzur Rahman of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, among others, attended the party.
   ‘The US ambassador wanted to know of our stance on upazila elections and the lifting of the state of emergency. We told him no free and fair elections are possible under emergency,’ a leader who attended the meeting told New Age. He said Moriarty had not made any comment in this regard.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court is scheduled today to hear 60 petitions filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission to seek permission to appeal against the orders that the High Court issued to stay the proceedings of high-profile corruption cases.
   The full court of all the five Appellate Division judges, headed by Chief Justice MM Ruhul Amin, will hear the petitions that also seek stay on the High Court’s orders.
   The high-profile politicians and businessmen against whom 60 petitions have filed include former premier Khaleda Zia, her sons Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman, Dhaka’s mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, Barisal’s mayor Majibur Rahman Sarwar, former lawmakers Mosaddek Hossain, Hafiq Ibrahim and Lotus Kamal, businessman Salman F Rahman and Proshika’s chairman Kazi Faruque.
   The High Court at different times stayed the proceedings of the graft cases, most of which were under trial. It also granted bail to some of the accused in the corruption cases.
   The government’s attorneys and the ACC’s counsels had earlier filed applications with the Appellate Division’s chamber judge, seeking stay on the High Courts orders, but the chamber judge referred the matter to the full court for hearing.
   The full court refused to pass any interim order on the applications but asked the parties in the cases to file regular petitions with the copies of the High Court’s orders.
   The government and the ACC had filed regular petitions at different times but they were not included in the Appellate Division’s cause-list for hearing.

A four-day border conference between Bangladesh and India is scheduled to begin at the BDR headquarters on August 21 to discuss outstanding border issues.
   A BDR release issued on Tuesday said the border conference at the level of director general, usually taking place every six months or twice a year, would be held on August 21, instead of the earlier scheduled August 20.
   The BDR director general, Major General Shakil Ahmed, will lead the 22-member Bangladesh team. India’s Border Security Force director general Ashish Kumar Mitra will head a 19-member Indian side.
   The conference will conclude with the signing of joint records of discussions on August 24.
   The border guards of India and Bangladesh will discuss outstanding issues such as killing, kidnapping and detention of Bangladeshis, smuggling of illegal firearms and ammunition, drugs and Phensidyl (codeine) syrup, trespasses and push-in of Bangla-speaking Indian citizens.
   A BDR statement on Monday said the conference would focus on unprovoked firing by the Indian border guards and Indian citizens along the frontier, illegal trespass by the BSF and Indians, prevention of smuggling of explosives and narcotic substances from India, earth digging, construction of defensive infrastructure and roads by India within 150 yards of no man’s land and BSF efforts to obstruct Bangladesh’s development activities in frontier.

The High Court on Tuesday posted for August 21 the hearing of the rule issued earlier on the Anti-Corruption Commission to explain the legality of the Niko and the barge-mounted power plant graft cases filed against former premier Sheikh Hasina.
   The High Court bench of Justice Sheikh Rezwan Ali and Justice M Rais Uddin passed the order after the counsels for the government and the ACC prayed for an expeditious hearing and disposal of the rules issued by another High Court bench on July 7.
   The High Court bench of Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Mashuque Hosein Ahmed on July 7 stayed for two months the proceedings in the two graft cases.
   The court had also asked the government and the ACC to explain in four weeks why the cases would not be quashed. Hasina, the Awami League’s president who was released on parole for treatment abroad, has challenged the legality of the graft cases.
   The government on July 8 filed two petitions with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, seeking permission to appeal against the High Court’s orders. In the petitions, the government also sought a stay on the orders.
   The Appellate Division asked both the parties to get the rules, issued by the High Court on July 7, heard and disposed of by the High Court expeditiously.
   The ACC filed two cases with the Tejgaon thana on December 9, 2007 — one against Hasina and eight others and the other against Khaleda and seven others — accusing them of causing massive losses to the state by awarding Niko three gas-fields after illegally declaring them abandoned.
   On September 2, 2007, the ACC filed the barge-mounted power plant case with the Tejgaon thana against Hasina and several others as part of the crackdown on former ruling politicians in the tenure of the interim government.
   The proceedings in the Niko and barge-mounted power plant cases, now pending with special courts in the Jatiya Sangsad Complex, have remained stayed on the High Court’s order issued on July 7.

Senior business leaders on Tuesday said they were not against increasing the wages of garment factory workers but want the government to ensure protection of industries from vandalism immediately and provide fiscal support to readymade garment exporters.
   After a meeting at the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, they urged the government to immediately call them to discuss the outstanding issues and ensure the security of the entrepreneurs and their industries.
   ‘Owners of industries are feeling insecure because of the growing vandalism in the factories,’ said the FBCCI’s president, Annisul Huq, who presided over the meeting attended by senior business leaders and chiefs of different trade bodies including those in the textile and garment sectors.
   Sidestepping a question on whether the business community, which had welcomed the advent of the military-controlled caretaker government in January 2006, now realizes that this government is too weak to ensure security, Annis said, ‘The government can ensure the security of industries if it sincerely wants to do so.’
   Annis told journalists that FBCCI had convened the meeting to do some brainstorming on some crucial issues including security in industries and more benefits for the workers.
   Chamber sources said that Tuesday’s meeting was arranged mainly to decide what kind of a unified stance to take towards the offer of a special inflation allowance to garment workers proposed by the BKMEA two weeks ago.
   ‘No one is against increasing the wages of workers but all the industry leaders want the government to call us all and discuss how we will increase wages and how the government will support us,’ said Annis.
   Annis told journalists that they would try to meet the chief adviser to discuss security, wages and government support to industries.
   ‘The government can provide fiscal or structural support to the RMG industry,’ said Annis, who added that weak infrastructure like erratic power supply to industries is raising their cost of production.
   Annis, who quoted BGMEA’s president’s claim that some 147 RMG factories have come under attack since January, wants the government to send a strong message to the workers that they cannot damage factories and attack the factories’ owners with impunity.
   Annis, being himself a RMG entrepreneur and a former president of the BGMEA, pointed out that the exorbitant inflation might enrage workers and push them to desperation. ‘The wages may be a reason but the entrepreneurs are not responsible for the price-hike of essentials.’
   The entrepreneurs do not think that low wages is the main reason behind the attack on factories, he told reporters.
   The BKMEA’s leaders, on August 9, announced that they had decided to increase the wages of their workers by giving them an ‘inflation allowance’.
   But in the emergency general meeting on August 14, many members of the BGMEA, that represents the majority of garment units in different sub-sectors, expressed angry reactions to the BKMEA’s announcement. They argued that the industry was struggling with the worst power crisis and the sliding prices of exports.
   Later a section of BGMEA leaders, including its president Anwar Ul Alam Chowdhury, decided to increase the wages of workers but sought the government’s help to ensure the security of industries that are increasingly being threatened with vandalism.
   The BGMEA asked the government to at least help the exporters by introducing a special and protected rate of exchange of the US dollar whose value has been deprecating significantly in the last few months and eroding their profit margins.
   Syed Manzur Elahi, former president of MCCI and administrator of the FBCCI, Mahbubur Rahman, president of the ICC,B, Mustafa Golum Quddus and Tipu Munshi, former presidents of the BGMEA, attended the meeting, along with others.
   Anwar Ul Alam Chowdhury Parvez, president of the BGMEA, Fazlul Hoque, the BKMEA’s president, Abdul Hai Sarker, BTMA’s president, Hossain Khaled, DCCI’s president, and Mahbub Ali, CCCI’s vice-president, also participated in the meeting.

Most secondary schools keep realising excessive fees from junior scholarship exams candidates, putting financial strain on some guardians of low-income groups.
   Some guardians and candidates said the schools were taking extra money ‘to meet additional expenses’ for holding the exams of about 3 lakh students of Class VIII across the country.
   The schools are saying the prices of exams materials have increased significantly in two decades, but the amount of junior scholarship exams fees has not been revised since 1988 when the government last set the amount at Tk 100. The acting director general of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, Khan Habibur Rahman, admitted to receiving such allegations.
   ‘We have received allegations that except for some government secondary schools in Dhaka, most other schools across the country are charging up to Tk 300 from each student. Today was the last day for taking exams fees from students,’ he said on Tuesday. ‘A five-member committee has been formed to investigate the matter and we will re-fix the fees soon in keeping with the committee recommendation.’
   Rafika Afroz, the principal of the Ispahani Girls’ High School and College in Dhaka, said, ‘The actual spending on each candidate is far more than Tk 100. We need to take an excessive amount to meet the additional spending. A candidate needs to take 500-mark scholarship exams.’
   The government has, on the other hand, been paying teachers only Tk 3 for the evaluation of an answer script of a 100-mark exam and only Tk 1.50 for an answer script of 50-mark exam since 1988. The teachers have for long been demanding an increase in the amount, but nothing has so far been done.
   Syed Hafizul Islam, the headmaster of the Motijheel Government Boys’ High School, said both the evaluation and exams fees should be increased.
   ‘No excessive fees have been extracted from the scholarship exams candidates in my school. I will need to meet the additional spending on the exams from other sector as the actual spending on holding the exams are far more than Tk 100,’ he said. ‘The teachers should be paid at least Tk 10 for the evaluation of an answer script.’
   The government has been paying Tk 275 a month to the students winning the talent pool scholarship and Tk 175 a month to the students winning general scholarship since 2005.
   The government pays the scholarship winners the amount from Class IX to Class X and the tuition fee of the scholarship winners is also waved during the period.
   Besides, the government pays the talent pool scholarship winners Tk 300 and general Tk 150 in one-time disbursement a year. The number of total junior scholarship is 15,000.
   An education ministry official said the amount of scholarship money could be increased from this year. Junior scholarship exams this year will be held in December 21–22.

An audacious suicide attack Tuesday on a police school in Algeria killed 43 people and wounded 45, authorities said as the country reeled from its worst militant assault this year.
   An al-Qaeda group has claimed previous suicide attacks in Algeria but officials gave no indication who was behind the attack on candidates waiting to take an examination at Issers, 60 kilometres east of Algiers.
   The interior ministry stressed that the casualty toll was still provisional. It said the dead included 42 civilians and one police official, and added that 32 of the wounded were civilians.
   It is already the deadliest attack this year in Algeria and worse than the December 2007 attacks in Algiers against government and United Nations buildings, which killed 41 people and injured many others.
   Witnesses said the attacker drove a car packed with explosives at the main entrance to the school as university graduates waited outside to start an entry exam in the hope of joining the paramilitary gendarmerie.
   ‘It’s utter carnage,’ said the elderly father of one of those killed in the attack. ‘It’s a catastrophe,’ he said, weeping. ‘May God punish them for the crime they have committed against these youngsters and their country.’
   Another candidate survived because he went to buy cigarettes but his father, mother and brother were killed in the blast, witnesses said.
   As well as devastating the entrance to the school, the blast destroyed several nearby houses, blew out windows in nearby shops and uprooted trees.
   The explosion left a crater several metres wide. Civilians and the police were among the victims, witnesses said.
   Emergency workers gathered up the remains of the dead, wrapping them in blankets and placing them in waiting ambulances.
   The interior minister, Yazid Zerhouni, surrounded by heavy security, told reporters at the scene: ‘This is an act against Algerians.’

Japan Tuesday signalled it would approve a nuclear energy deal between India and the United States, raising the chances that the controversial pact will come into force.
   The 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, which controls the global flow of civilian atomic exports, is expected to meet Thursday in Vienna on the nuclear deal.
   Japan, the only nation to have suffered atomic attack, had been a major holdout as it pressed for India to sign the nuclear NPT.
   But the chief cabinet secretary, Nobutaka Machimura, said: ‘It may be biased to view the deal as going against nuclear non-proliferation efforts.’
   ‘For example, the issue of global warming has been getting serious in recent years and CO2 emissions from emerging nations such as China and India are becoming a problem.’
   The deal would give India access to international nuclear technology after being shut out for decades for refusing to sign the NPT.

Tropical Storm Fay hit Florida with severe winds and drenching rains early Tuesday, but it did not strengthen into the potentially devastating hurricane residents had been dreading.
   The Miami-based National Hurricane Centre said Fay, which claimed dozens of lives around the Caribbean over the weekend, should begin to weaken now that it was over land.
   But it could roar back to life once it heads out over open water, as some computer models predict it could.
   The biggest concern now, officials said, was that the weather system could spawn tornadoes and severe flooding across the Sunshine State.

The physical condition of Sylhet city mayor-elect, Badaruddin Ahmed Kamran, who was hospitalised on Monday night, did not become normal till Tuesday evening.
   Kamran, who was released on parole for six hours to attend the funeral prayers of his mother, fell ill Monday night and was admitted to Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital, said sources in Sylhet central jail.
   A seven-member medical board, led by medicine department chief of the hospital, has been formed for Kamran’s treatment.
   According to the medical board, Kamran was given preliminary treatment after check-ups at Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital till Tuesday evening.
   The hospital sources said necessary medical tests of Kamran were done on Tuesday but the reports were not prepared till the evening.
   Kamran has been suffering from diabetes, asthma, high-blood pressure, urinary tract infection and kidney complications, the sources added.
   Medicine specialist Goutam Kumar Roy, a member of the medical board, told New Age that the board would decide about the treatment of Kamran Tuesday night or Wednesday after getting the test reports.