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The Anti-Corruption Commission on Sunday sued Moshiur Rahman, a BNP-led alliance candidate for the Jhenaidah-2 constituency, on charges of accumulating assets from unknown sources and concealing information about the wealth.
   The case was filed by Mosharraf Hossain Mridha, assistant director of the Kushtia office of the ACC, said Kazi Wazed Ali, officer-in-charge of the Jhenaidah sadar police station.
   According to the First Information Report, on June 5 Moshiur and his cohorts submitted a wealth statement of nearly Tk 7.73 crore to the ACC.
   The ACC on investigation found that the total value of his wealth was at around Tk 8.17 crore.
   The FIR also stated that Moshiur, former BNP lawmaker, had concealed information of additional wealth of close to Tk 5.07 crore and illegally accumulated about another Tk 5.98 crore.

The government has formed a 23-member National Consumers’ Rights Protection Council to monitor the enforcement of the Consumers’ Rights Protection Ordinance 2008, said an official circular issued by the commerce ministry.
   The commerce minister will act as chairman of the council constituted in line with Article 5 of the ordinance, which is likely to be enacted as law by the next parliament.
   The director general of
   the proposed National Consumers’ Rights Protection Department will be its member secretary.
   The council has also been entrusted with responsibility to frame rules under the ordinance aiming to achieve its objectives and provide guidelines to the director general and relevant district committees to implement the rules.
   Apart from supervising the activities of the Consumers’ Rights Protection Department and the district committees concerned, the national council will be able to take necessary steps, it deemed fit, to uphold the rights of the consumers as per law, according to its terms of reference.
   Members of the council include commerce secretary, director general of National Security Intelligence, director general of Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution, chairman of Jatiya Mohila Sangstha, an additional inspector general of police, a director of Bangladesh Rifles, director of Directorate of Drug Administration, presidents of Bangladesh Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Bangladesh Oushadh Shilpa Samity, Consumers’ Association of Bangladesh and National Press Club, joint secretary-level officials from agriculture, industries, fisheries and livestock, food and disaster management, home affairs, energy and mineral resources and law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministries, and three representatives of civil society nominated by the government.

The Rapid Action Battalion rescued a woman and nabbed an abductor at village Hat-Pangashi under Rayganj in Sirajganj early Sunday.
   RAB sources said they rescued Baby Akter, 26, of village Khepupara under Patuakhali sadar at about 1:00am.
   Later, the team also nabbed Abdul Mannan, 35, of village Char-Haripur under Sirajganj sadar.
   RAB squad commander ASP Md Shahidullah said Mannan abducted the woman by promising her job a month ago.
   The abductor later demanded ransom from her husband, he added.

The raw hide traders in Barisal have sustained heavy losses this year as the price of hide and number of the sacrificial animals have decreased by between thirty and forty per cent during Eid-ul-Azha in the region, claimed leaders of the Barisal Hide and Skin Merchants Association.
   They said the hide market depended on the tannery owners of Dhaka and the banks provided soft loans to Dhaka’s traders to purchase hides at competitive prices.
   Traders of hides in Barisal do not get any bank loans to compete in the market and if the traders of Dhaka do not increase the prices the merchants of the cyclone-affected southern region, including Barisal, will sustain heavy losses, said the merchants of Barisal.
   ‘We have failed to collect about Tk one core arrear bill of the previous year from the tannery owners of Dhaka who are citing the reason of dull business for their failure’, the Barisal merchants said.
   They also claimed that a large number of rawhides were smuggled out from different hide-collection points.
   Mahmud Alam, the president and Shainur Rahman Shahin, the secretary of the association, told reporters on Sunday that at least 2,000 hides worth about Tk 40 lakh were smuggled to India during Eid-ul-Azha.
   They said the hide smugglers from different border districts of the southern and western region had come to Barisal and bought the rawhide at high prices from the persons who sacrificed animals.
   Sources in the association said this year its members had bought about 20,000 hides of cows and 7, 000 hides of goats worth about Tk 1.5 core instead of 26,000 cow-hides and 10,000 goat-hides worth about Tk 3 crore bought in the last year.
   The hide merchants were frustrated at the small profits they had made this year as prices were about 40 percent less than that in the last year.
   They said since the region was ravaged by cyclone Sidr, many rich people and political leaders apprehensive of economic depression avoided visiting their village homes to sacrifice animals during Eid and on the eve of the national elections.
   Association sources said this year they had collected 25-30 square feet cowskin at the rate of Tk.1200 per piece, 20-22 square feet at the rate of Tk.800 and 10-12 square feet cowskin at the rate of Tk.400, which were Tk.3000, Tk.2400 and Tk.800 per piece in the last year.
   Besides, the cost of preservation and primary processing of hides has also increased to Tk 950 from Tk 750 in the last year.
   The wages of leather workers have increased by 40 per cent and the cost of transportation to Dhaka has also increased from Tk 8,000 in the last year to Tk 9,000, the merchants of Barisal said.
   ‘If the tannery owners of Dhaka do not increase prices of skin and pay our dues, we will be compelled to close our business sustaining heavy losses’, said the hide and skin merchants of Barisal.

A three-day 8th conference on ‘Islam, politics and security in South Asia’ begins in Muscat of Oman today, an official source said in Dhaka on Sunday.
   The conference, jointly organised by the London-based the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Washington-based Near East South Asia Centre for Strategic Studies, will be attended by 40 senior officials and experts from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan.
   Some officials from the USA and the United Kingdom are expected to attend the conference.
   The participants will discuss the causes and consequences of Islamic radicalism and extremism in the region, and the ways and means to counter it on a national, regional and international basis.
   The main objective of the conference is to examine the challenges posed by Islamic radicalism and assess the impact of radical and militant Islamic groups on stability and security. It also will contribute to a policy-oriented national, regional and international dialogue to counter Islamist extremism in the region.
   The IISS is expected to prepare a policy-oriented brief from the discussion and outcomes of the conference for its distribution among the participants of the conference.

The 37th anniversary of the martyrdom of intellectual Dr Fazle Rabbee will be observed today.
   On this day, Pakistani occupation forces with the help of their local collaborators killed him during the country’s war of independence in 1971.
   The Pak forces killed Fazle Rabbee after picking up him from his Sidheswri residence in Dhaka.
   His body was recovered from Rayer Bazar killing field on December 18.
   Fazle Rabbee was the medicine department professor of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
   To mark the day, a discussion and prayer session will be held at the residence of his son, said a press release.

The 1st death anniversary of litterateur and critic Abdul Hai will be observed today, said a press release.
   Hai died on December 15, 2007 at United Hospital in Dhaka. To mark the death anniversary, a milad mahfil will be held after asr prayers at Siddheswari jam-e-Mosque in Malibagh.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, is expected to inaugurate the operation of wide-bodied planes here today as renovation of Sylhet Osmani International Airport has already been completed, airport sources said.
   The chief adviser is scheduled to arrive here at 9:40am from Dhaka by a flight, the sources added.
   Earlier in November 2007, a DC-10 aircraft made a test landing at the airport. In early 90s, the then government had taken initiatives to renovate the airport and had undertaken a project in this regard.
   The work of runway expansion under the development project also started at that time, although no significant progress in the project was made till the end of the then Awami League government’s rule.
   Later the BNP-led alliance government resumed the project work in 2004 involving around Tk 138 crore. But the government had failed to implement the project in time, the sources said.
   The project works included expansion of runway, renovation and expansion of two-storey terminal building, construction of two boarding bridges, installation of two escalators, fire protection system, luggage scanning machine, baggage conveyer belt, electrical substation, 18 check-in counters and closed-circuit television cameras.
   Hafiz Uddin, manager of Sylhet Osmani International Airport, said everything all is set to operate wide-bodied flights from the airport. ‘The airport is also set to provide passengers with services equivalent to international standard,’ he added.

AT LEAST twenty people including two sub-inspectors of police were injured in a clash between a group of organisers of gambling and policemen in Sirajganj early Sunday.
   Locals said a team of policemen numbering ten to twelve demanded toll from some villagers who were conducting a gambling and variety show at Godarbaghchar village, a remote char (shoal) area of the river Jamuna, under Kazipur upazila at 12.30 am.
   The police baton charged the organisers of gambling on refusal to pay the toll and swooped on the stalls in a bid to foil the function triggering a clash.
   The organisers joined by other local people attacked the policemen with lethal weapons.
   The police fired at least 15 shots to bring the situation under control.
   Twenty people including four police personnel received wounds in the clash.
   The injured policemen included sub-inspectors Samsul Haque and Hafiz of Natuarpara police outpost.
   The Kazipur police station officer-in-charge, Md. Kazi Jahedul Hafiz, confirmed the incident but denied demanding of toll from the organisers by the police.

Sammilita Sangskritik Jote continued its victory festival at two venues — one at the Central Shahid Minar and the other Rabindra Sarobar at Dhanmondi — on Sunday with a large number of people attending the programmes for the second consecutive day.
   At the Central Shaheed Minar, Udichi, Rishij, Padatik Sangsad and Ostad Momtaj Ali Khan Sangeet Academy rendered group songs and Samar Barua, Arif Rahman, Fakir Shahbuddin, Faridul Haque, Rupu Khan and Sanjida Manjurul Happy rendered solo songs.
   Besides, solo and group recitation of poem and street play were also held at the venue.
   Similar programmes were also held at Rabindra Sarobar.
   The Sammilita Sangskritik Jote organised the festival to mark Victory Day on December 16.

Bangladesh Navy ships will remain open to the visitors at Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Barisal from 2:00pm to half-an-hour before sunset on Tuesday on the occasion of Victory Day.
   The locations are: Dhaka Sadarghat, BIWTA Jetty Malta Ghat in Narayanganj, Naval Jetty, Newmooring in Chittagong, BIWTA Rocket Ghat in Khulna and BIWTA Jetty in Barisal.

The Pani Odhikar Committee, a body to realise the demand for water, has demanded an immediate solution to the crisis of drinking water in the county’s south-western region.
   The committee put forth the demand at a press conference at the Khulna Press Club on Sunday, ahead of the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia’s visit to the region.
   The committee president, Binoy Krishna Roy, read out a statement at the press conference in presence of the civic leaders, Advocate Firoz Ahmed, Hayder Gazi Salahuddin Runu, Sheikh Jubaraj and Shamim Arefeen.
   The statement said that the people of the region were urging all the political leaders vying in the forthcoming national polls, including Khaleda Zia, to ensure supply of pure drinking water in the region, which is their basic right.
   The people are also demanding to workout a comprehensive plan to solve the water crisis keeping protection of local environment and bio-diversity in mind, the statement added.
   The committee also stressed the need for leasing out all the water-bodies, excavating ponds for preserving sweet water, proper water management by using knowledge of local and indigenous people and ensuring ownership of water to the state.

The Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry president, Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, on Sunday demanded immediate introduction of Biman flights on the Chittagong-Bangkok route.
   The chamber president made the demand in a fax message sent to the special assistant to the chief adviser, Mahabub Jamil.
   He said business people were suffering a lot as the Thai Airways had recently suspended its flights on the route for four months.
   ‘The sufferings of the business people will be eased if the Biman authorities introduce at least two flights a week,’ he said.
   Introduction of Biman flights on the route will be useful for a large number of people going to Bangkok for treatment and help boost country’s tourism sector, the chamber chief added.

Admission test for the first year (honours) course at the Institute of Education and Research of Dhaka University has been shifted to January 16 from January 2.
   The date of application and submission of forms has
   also been extended, according to official sources of the university.
   The last date of form distribution is now on January 8 and form submission on January 10.
   The application forms are available at Janata Bank branch at Teachers-Students centre of the university. The admission test will be held at 3:00pm.

The Workers Party of Bangladesh president, Rashed Khan Menon, on Sunday called on the voters to boycott the candidates nominated by BNP-led alliance in the forthcoming parliamentary elections on December 29.
   Menon, who is a candidate nominated by Awami League-led alliance for the Dhaka-8 constituency, said the BNP-led alliance is responsible for the uncertainties in the country and patronised the ultra-Islamist forces.
   Terming the immediate past rule of the alliance as misrule, Menon said the BNP formed coalition with partners who were responsible for killings and lootings in 1971.
   He was holding daylong mass contacts at Gopibagh, Bank Colony, Bangladesh Bank premises, south Kamlapur and north Kamlapur and addressed street rallies.
   Local Awami League leaders Awlad Hossain, Ismat Jamil Akhand, Kamal Chowdhury, Workers Party leaders Mostafa Alamgir Ratan, Zakir Hossain Raju, Chhatra Moitri leaders Rafiqul Islam Sujan and others accompanied Menon during the mass contact.

The Srimangal police in Moulvibazar recovered 40 winter birds and released them in Hail Haor on Saturday.
   Srimangal police officer-in-charge Md Shahid Ullah told New Age that a gang of hunters was set to sell out 40 winter birds at Uttarsur under Srimangal on Saturday.
   Tipped off, police rushed to the spot and recovered the birds along with 57 hunting nets but the hunters escaped.
   Later, the OC and environmentalist Sitesh Ranjan Deb released the birds in the Hail Haor.
   Sitesh Ranjan Deb said with the winter setting in, birds start coming to the haor area.
   But a section of hunters often hunts these birds, he said, stressing the need for more consciousness among the administration as well as people about the contribution of birds to the equilibrium in nature.