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Inflation kept creeping up and reached 11.59 per cent in December 2007 on the back of soaring food prices as the government failed to contain the price spiral in the last one year.
   Point-to-point inflation was 5.94 per cent in January 2007.
   Food inflation in December rose to 14.46 per cent, highest in the decade, which was 6.65 per cent in January 2007, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
   Course rice price, which was Tk 18 in the first week of January last year, went up to Tk 26.33 per kg in December. Medium quality rice price jumped to Tk 36 from Tk 20 and fine quality rice price rose to over Tk 50 from Tk 24 one year back.
   Poverty is both widening and deepening as the price level is moving upward, said Quazi Kholiquzzaman, president of the
   Bangladesh Economic Association.
   Domestic production cost has increased due to price-hike of inputs and because the price level has also gone up sharply in the international market, he said.
   These two factors normally contribute to price-hike but the main problem in the country is that the market is not functioning properly, which leads to abnormal profit, explained Quazi.
   The monitoring system is also not effective here and there are no clear-cut laws regarding stocks, he added.
   'There is no definition of hoarding and the businessmen take advantage of that,' he said.
   The government should focus more on the agricultural sector to contain inflation, he suggested.
   'Our only hope is to have a bumper boro crop, otherwise we will have to totally depend on import, which is not at all good for the country,' he said.
   The government should ensure availability of whatever is needed to get a bumper boro crop, said Mostafizur Rahman, executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue.
   'If we need an additional 10 per cent amount of boro rice, paddy production must be increased by 15 per cent,' he said.
   Open market sales should be increased as it has an impact over the speculative price rise, he said.
   The government should expand the social safety net and create employment opportunities through programmes like Food for Work, he suggested.
   In December, packed coarse flour was sold at Tk 39.20 though the price was Tk 26 in January 2007, and the price of onion was Tk 33.7 compared with Tk 15 a year back.
   Soya bean prices jumped to Tk 94 from Tk 50 in January last year and the price of mustard oil to Tk 120 from Tk 65 per kilogram in the same span of time.

Commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman will sit with traders, business leaders and economists at the ministry today to review prices of a few essential items, officials said.
   This will be his first formal meeting on price hike issues with people other than bureaucrats.
   Taking charge as commerce adviser in the middle of last month, Zillur, a development economist, told the media that the state had a role to play to keep prices in check even in a free market economy.
   Today's meeting will review supply and prices of rice, pulses, flour and cooking oils, commerce officials said.
   Despite some efforts like open market sale and monitoring, prices of rice do not show any sign of declining soon while that of edible oils marked fresh gains in last couple of weeks.
   Importers and wholesalers from outside Dhaka have also been invited to the meeting at the ministry, officials concerned said.

The finance adviser, Mirza Azizul Islam, is least bothered at this moment about rice-price rises as he said the price was now stable, after an unusual hike.
   'I am not afraid of the rice price for the time being as the price of coarse rice is stabilised now,' he told reporters after his meeting with International Finance Corporation delegates at his Planning Commission office Sunday evening.
   Citing instance to substantiate his claim, he said people were not buying rice from the OMS outlets overwhelmingly. 'That indicates that rice price is not at a certain position,' he said.
   Responding to a query, Aziz said the import process of rice from India advanced a lot. 'Our delegation went there, and there is also a possibility of visit by a delegation from them to finalise the matter.'
   But he assured that there were no chances of missing the import of 5 lakh tonnes of rice from India. 'I think there will be no problem in this context,' he said.
   Replying to a question about price fluctuations, the finance adviser said the price would be determined through negotiation, as the price would vary if it comes through railroad rather than waterways.
   About his meeting with the IFC delegation, Aziz said the IFC expressed their interest in contributing in both public sector and public-private partnership sector.
   'They expressed their interest in assisting us in infrastructure and agriculture sector,' he told the journalists.
   The adviser told them that to assist in the construction of Padma Bridge where a huge amount of money would be needed.
   As per the initial estimation, a sum of $1.6 billion will be needed to construct the planned Padma Bridge while various donor agencies and countries pledged to contribute $9.6 million.
   The IFC executive vice-president, Lars Henrik Thunell, led the seven-member team of the IFC, World Bank's soft-lending window. The WB country chief, Xian Zhu, was also present.
   After the meeting, Lars Henrik told the reporters that they had keen interest in contributing in private sector, including SME, and giving more support to Bangladesh.

The Anti-Corruption Commi-ssion on Sunday started recording the statements of some ministry and govt agency officials in connection with the Niko corruption case filed against the detained former prime minister Khaleda Zia and four others.
   The commission on the day interrogated the statements of four officials - a joint secretary and three deputy secretaries - at the ACC headquarters at Segun Baghicha.
   They were officials of energy and finance ministries, and Petrobangla, said sources in the commission.
   The commission's assistant director, Shahidur Rahman, also the investigation officer of the case, summoned the officials a couple of days ago to give their statements in connection with the case.
   The sources said more officials of different levels, involved in the paperwork of the deal with the Niko Resources Limited, would be interrogated for the selection of witnesses in the case. Any of them found involved in the scam could be accused in the case.
   The commission filed the case with the Tejgaon police on December 9, 2007 against Khaleda, also the BNP chairperson, former law minister Moudud Ahmed, former state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain, former acting energy secretary Khandaker Shahidul Islam, and Niko (South Asia) vice-president Kashem Sharif.
   Bangladesh Cricket Board executive member Selim Bhuiyan was implicated in the case after his arrest on January 10.
   Khaleda was arrested on September 3, Moudud on April 23 and Mosharraf on February 8, 2007. They were shown arrested in the case on December 12.
   They were accused of signing the deal with Niko which caused a loss of Tk 10,000 crore to the state exchequer.
   Moudud and Mosharraf gave already been interrogated by the commission. Moudud was questioned on January 30 at the Dhaka central jail gate and Mosharraf the next day at the gate of the Kashimpur jail in Gazipur.
   A separate case was also filed with the Tejgaon police the same day against another detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and six others for alleged corruption in awarding the deal to Niko Resources.

The hearing in the framing of charges against detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and seven others in connection with the Khulna power plant installation corruption case was on Sunday deferred till February 7.
   The special judge's court of M Firoz Alam, set up on the Jatiya Sangsad complex, passed the order as Hasina's counsel sought time for the preparation for the discharge of the petition in the case.
   The trial of Sheikh Hasina, her sister Sheikh Rehana, and cousin Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, in the Tk 2.99 crore extortion case, meanwhile, resumes today in the makeshift courtroom of metropolitan magistrate M Azizul Haque on the complex.
   Hasina, also the Awami League president, and former energy secretary Towfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, had on Sunday been produced in court before the judge resumed hearing in the barge-mounted power plant case at 9:35am.
   Hasina, detained in a special jail on the Jatiya Sangsad complex, now faces six cases filed after the interim government had assumed office on January 11, 2007.
   In the case, Hasina, along with seven others, including former energy secretary Toufiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, is facing charges for allegedly taking Tk 3 crore in bribe from the officials of three power companies.
   Toufiq was sent to jail after his surrender in court on January 16. Six others accused in the case, now in hiding, are former Power Development Board chairman Noor Uddin Mahmud Kamal, Summit Corporation managing director Mohammad Aziz Khan and its director Mohammad Farid Khan, United Group chairman Hasan Mahmud Raja and its director Abul Kalam Azad and Bangabandhu Memorial Museum curator Syed Siddiqur Rahman.
   The commission on January 10 filed the charge sheet with the court in the case accusing Hasina and the seven. The case was lodged with the Tejgaon police on September 2 against seven of the accused. Siddiqur Rahman was not named on the first information report.
   The extortion case will be tried under the Emergency Power Rules that bars any detained accused from seeking bail pending the disposal of the case within a specific time.
   Senior Dhaka metropolitan special judge M Azizul Haque on January 28 transferred the case to the special judge's court of M Firoz Alam after fixing the date.

More than 1,00,000 people of various indigenous ethnic groups have been virtually starving as tens of millions of wild rats have eaten up jhum crops in the Chittagong Hill Tracts with the flowering of bamboo plants in the hill forests.
   'We will have to starve as the rats have devoured all of our crops over the last year,' said Chawng Ming Thanga, the headman of Konglak Mouja, the local administrative unit of Rangamati district located on the India-Bangladesh border.
   He added that nothing was left on the fields because of the devastation caused by the insatiable rats. The invasion of the rats began a year ago with the rats, big and small, breeding like flies as soon as the bamboo flowers started sprouting in the hill forests in late 2006.
   According to the aged people living in the hills, the blooming of bamboo flowers happens every 50 years, causing the rats to breed and multiply at an astonishing rate that eventually causes a famine-like situation.
   The mice and rats have started eating up almost all agricultural products, on which the hill people are absolutely dependent, since bamboo flowers started blooming in the forests.
   The attack on the crops by the hungry rats is still going on and nobody knows when it will stop. Usually, it lasts for a maximum period of three years.
   The administration said jhum crops like paddy, ginger, turmeric, sesame, chilli and other vegetables have been completely eaten up by now in the remote hilly terrain, stretching over 400 kilometres on the border, including Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban districts.
   The chairman of Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council, Joytirindra Bodhiprio Larma, termed the situation alarming. 'The situation is alarming. People live in utter poverty in the area. They need immediate support to survive,' the leader, who led a struggle for self-rule in the hills for over two decades, told New Age.
   The rats have also eaten up a huge amount of crops in the Indian state of Mizoram.
   In Konglak Mouja of Sajek union, the headman appointed by the government said that he has information that as many as 150 families - belonging to the Pankhowa, Lusai and Tripura ethnic groups - have either crossed the border or shifted to other places because of food scarcity.
   A number of indigenous people in the deep interior of hill districts, while talking to New Age, expressed their agony and said that their survival is utterly uncertain. The poor hill people have no source of sustenance or income other than jhum cultivation.
   'How can we live without food? There has been no work, no assistance, and we don't know where to go,' said Changkhira Lusai, a resident of Konglak, adding that the people are eating whatever they get in the jungle.
   Although he had not had his breakfast, Barendra Tripura, a 55-year-old internal refugee now living at Natubari High School Para in Sajek, did not forget to smile when asked about the economic condition of the people in the remote hilly areas.
   Like many others, he eats once in two days, or spends nights without food. Sometimes, he said, he is forced to eat the pith of banana trees or Khoyang alu, the root of a jungle weed, to survive.
   'I have no other option but to eat these weeds...The rats have wrought havoc in the area,' said the landless farmer who used to go for Jhum cultivation in the vicinity.
   But this time, according to Nabin Kumar Tripura, 48, another destitute who migrated to this place from Toichoi Mouza, he cannot afford to farm because he lacks the energy to clear the mountain slopes of weeds and dig the ground for planting Jhum crops.
   He needs to feed six more family members. He said he sometimes could manage to earn Tk 50 by preparing Jhum fields for a comparatively better off farmer, but he has to travel more than five kilometres to do so.
   When asked whether they receive any relief or government assistance, Chawng Ming Thanga said that he had heard that the government has allocated a small sum of money to assist the affected people. 'But I have not seen any of it till now,' the headman told New Age at his Konglak residence on Thursday night.
   Military officials, tasked to maintain security in the region battered by insurgency for over two decades until a peace deal was signed in late 1997, said they have sent food assistance to the remote areas.
   'But they were not enough to feed the affected people,' said a military officer, adding that more than 30,000 people in Sajek, the largest union parishad in the country, were in a dire situation.
   The United Nations Development Programme has estimated that 25,000 families in the three hill districts badly need food assistance as the wild rats have eaten up the Jhum crops, causing a severe food shortage in the wilderness, said a top official at the Rangamati Hill District Council.
   The government has allocated Tk 15 lakh for immediate assistance to the affected people, said Jagat Jyoti Chakma, chairman of the Rangamati Hill District Council, adding that he has suggested long- and short-term projects to help the poor hill people.
   He stated that Rangamati was allocated Tk 6,00,000 of which Tk 4,00,000 is meant for Sajek, and Khagrachhari and Bandarban were given Tk 4,00,000 and Tk 5,00,000 respectively to tide over the famine-like situation.
   'The amount is just not enough,' said the chairman, and called upon the government to immediately increase the allocation to save the lives of the indigenous people.

Some areas in the Dhaka city and adjacent districts faced shortage and low pressure in gas supply Sunday as authorities suspended supply through a major transmission line from Bakhrabad to Demra for repair works.
   Though life and business were affected to some extent in the city, the disruption was not as big as feared.
   Gas authorities had announced a 48-hour supply cut from Saturday midnight, creating worries among the people and boosting sales of kerosene stoves at much higher prices.
   Reduced gas supply, however, forced three power plants to suspend generation, resulting in a fall in electricity production by around 300MW.
   The Gas Transmission Company Limited suspended gas supply through the Bakhrabad-Demra pipeline from Saturday midnight to repair a damaged portion at Shahidnagar in Daudkandi. The company hoped that the normal supply would be restored by this (Monday) afternoon after completion of the repair works.
   The Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company earlier in a public notice announced that gas supply would be disrupted in most areas of south and south-western parts of the capital and adjacent areas until Monday midnight.
   Some areas including Jatrabari, Demra, Badda and old parts of the city faced gas shortage while some other places like Shantinagar, Siddeswari, Postogola, Mirpur, Monipuripara and Rajabazar suffered from low pressure problems.
   People living in the high rise buildings suffered most as supply was disrupted due to low pressure in piped gas.
    Despite the supply cut through the Bakhrabad-Demra line, consumers in southern parts in the city got the supply from the gas stored in the transmission and distribution lines
   within the city areas. Additional gas also piped to the city through three other transmission lines that feed eastern and northern parts.
   However, with gradual depletion of the stored gas in the lines, consumers in some more areas could be exposed to supply problems if the suspension lingers, officials said.
   Kerosene stove, a less wanted item in city life, saw good sales on the back of sudden rise in demand as panic-stricken people rushed for them at whatever prices. Shops exhausted their stocks of stoves, whose prices doubled to Tk 300 or even more. Price of kerosene more than doubled to Tk 90 per litre and was not available even then, residents of many areas said.
   Many families built a safe stock of cooked food for two days, while others bought thermos flasks to contain hot water for preparing baby foods and emergency usage.
   Supply to gas filling stations was also disrupted, giving drivers of CNG-run three wheelers a good excuse to charge high fares.
   The GTCL officials said that they would be able to resume gas supply through 20-inch diameter Bakhrabad-Demra line as per the schedule after completion of replacement of 385-metre stretch of the pipeline.
   'We have already fixed one end of the pipeline and work on the other end is going on. We are hoping to complete the replacement by tonight and restore full supply by Monday noon,' GTCL managing director Manjur Morshed Talukder told New Age Sunday evening.
   That portion of the pipeline was damaged in floods in last few years, officials said. The GTCL engineers cut the damaged portion to replace it with a newly installed underground line.
   Special assistant to the chief adviser M Tamim told reporters that the repair of the transmission line was going on as per schedule.
   'We are trying to minimise the supply problem in the city by diverting gas to the affected areas from the areas where gas is available,' he said.
   The power production declined to around 3086MW on Sunday from 3400MW on Saturday as 110MW Haripur IPP, 450MW Meghnaghat IPP and 60MW Haripur power plants remained closed because of gas shortage.
   Replying to a query, Tamim said that the current shortage of gas in the country was around 100 mmcfd as Petrobangla could supply 1738 mmcfd against the demand of 1833 mmcfd.
   He said that they were trying to minimise the shortage, especially in Chittagong region, by 2009. 'Gas crisis cannot be overcome overnight. We have two options to mitigate gas crisis - discovery of new gas fields or import of gas.'
   Tamim said that the government was weighing the option of importing gas from Myanmar through pipeline.
   Replying to another query, he said that the council of advisers on Tuesday might discuss the draft production sharing contract and tender documents for third round of offshore gas bidding.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, has announced an action plan for removing 'monga' from the country's northern region forever through well-coordinated programmes of the government, NGOs and private sector, as the lean-season dearth of food and work put people in misery.
   'The government is keeping strict and intense attention about monga. It is a temporary problem - temporary unemployment problem,' he told meeting Sunday morning on the second day of his stay in this backwater northern district.
   The head of the interim government was exchanging views with people of different professions and officials of Gangachara upazila at the meet organised by the local administration at the upazila parishad ground.
   Commander of Muktijoddha Sangsad of the upazila M Azizul Islam, president of the Gangachara imam association AKM Nurunnabi Ansari, Nure Alam Sarker of BRAC, president of Gangachara press club Sazu Ahmed Lal, principal of Gangachhara Degree College Anisur Rahman, union parishad chairman Anwarul Islam, president of Rangpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mostafa Azad Chowdhury and UNO of Gangachhara Mukesh Chandra Biswas, among others, spoke at the meeting presided over by Rangpur deputy commissioner Khandokar M Atiar Rahman.
   Gangachhara is a monga-prone area of the greater Rangpur district. The seasonal crisis of unemployment and food usually occurs during October-November period in the agrarian northern region, lacking in industries and other income-generating modern vocations.
   Focusing on ways of eradicating monga, he said a committee headed by the commerce adviser was formed at Saturday's advisory council meeting in Rangpur to coordinate all the ongoing projects regarding monga and poverty-alleviation programes of the government and NGOs and other organisations aiming to formulate a multidimensional plan of action to permanently end this endemic penury.
   The chief adviser suggested cultivation of diversified food and other crops, undertaking income-generation projects and massive export of manpower to foreign countries from the northern region through imparting training to them at various training centres and institutes in the country.
   He said he had instructed the authorities concerned for full-fledged run of Technical Training Centres and Institutes existing in many districts, which virtually remained inoperative, for their best utilisation in developing skilled manpower in demanding fields.
   As part of the new thinking about resolving the nagging problem, the head of the interim government suggested that the people of the northern region could migrate for employment to other parts of the country.
   Mentioning some of the synergised steps taken for resolving the problem last year, he expressed happiness over the outcome and told his audience that early preparation of steps and programmes in the current year would be much wider and coordinated in fighting monga.
   Mentioning cultivation of BR-33 rice in this region last year, he urged farmers to cultivate this variety of paddy which is harvested comparatively in short time with less cost. He also mentioned cultivation of cassava in the northern region.
   On VGF programme, another government intervention for alleviating the misery of the hardcore poor, the chief adviser said usually feeding through VGF cards does not continue during this time of the year but the government is continuing the programme considering damage to crops and property in the floods.
   'The objective of VGF is to bring people below poverty line under safety net so that pressures of price of rice don't affect them.'
   About fertiliser affairs, he said the government had preparation to procure 28 Lakh tonnes of fertiliser and assured that there would be no crisis. Usually, he said, 25 lakh tonnes of fertiliser had been used in the past in the country annually.
   Referring to increased numbers of representatives for distribution of fertiliser at union level, he said the government wants to reach the farming input to the doorsteps of farmers.
   On open-market sale of fertiliser, as suggested by some in the meeting, the chief adviser said he had no difference of opinion about it but the problem was that government had to give a big subsidy on urea imports. Government has to import one-kg urea at Tk 34 but sell at Tk 6, so Tk 28 has to be given subsidy on each kilogram of fertilizer.
   So, if fertiliser is sold on the open market, there remains confusion among many as to where the price would reach. It creates problem when there is a big difference between purchase and sale prices.
   He sought cooperation of all in this regard, particularly in smooth distribution of fertiliser.

Monthly honorarium of a union parishad chairman and a member has been increased from Tk 1,500 to Tk 3,000 and Tk 700 to Tk 1,500 respectively, officials said.
   The enhanced remuneration will come into effect from April, 2008.
   Finance adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam recently approved the hikes after the local government ministry forwarded a proposal in this regard.
   The enhancement would add about Tk 30 crore to the government's monthly contribution to the UP representatives' remunerations, officials said.
   According to the approval, a union parishad chairman will get Tk 1,350 from the government, while the remaining Tk 1650 will come from the parishad's own fund. The ratio will be Tk 700 and Tk 800 for a UP member.
   Currently, the government gives a UP chairman a monthly honorarium of Tk 500, while the local government body pays Tk 1,000 to its chief. The government and the parishad equally share the honorarium of a UP member.
   The government introduced the token honorariums for the public representatives of the lowest tier of the local government in 2001.
   The number of UP chairmen and members in the country are about 4,500 and 54,000 respectively, officials in the Local Government Division said.
   'The enhancement in token the token money was a long-felt need to honour the local government representatives at the grassroots level,' a high official in the finance ministry told New Age on Sunday.

The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, on Sunday ruled out any idea of forming a national government before holding the parliamentary elections.
   He doubted whether the detained party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, had at all given any instruction for in-party unification through lawyers.
   'There is no constitutional basis of forming a national government before elections. It will be unconstitutional if it is done,' Delwar said at a briefing in his house at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka. 'We now want an elected government and the elected government will decide its character.'
   An absolute-majority government can also take representation from other parties in the government, said Delwar, also the immediate-past chief whip of Jatiya Sangsad.
   National government can be formed after any revolution and such a government was supposed to be formed after the war of independence, but that was not done, he said.
   When asked about Khaleda's call for unity of the conformist and the dissident factions of the party, Delwar said the chairperson's call for unity was nothing new. 'She has asked all the leaders and activists to stand united but the way the lawyer said this has created doubts among the leaders and activists and people,' he said.
   Khaleda's lawyer Mahbubuddin Khokan, after visiting her in the special jail on the Jatiya Sangsad complex on Friday, told journalists, 'She has asked the leaders and activists to work together. She has urged the nationalist forces to stand united for the sake of the country and the party.'
   Delwar on Sunday said he had not received any such message.
   'The lawyers can discuss legal issues in the jail in the presence of government officials and I think there remains little space for them to discuss political matters. And if she had given any instruction, it should have been conveyed to me first, and not to the media,' Delwar, also a lawyer, referring to Khaleda's reported call for unity.
   He also questioned the motive of the lawyer. 'He [Mahbub] talked for more than an hour with Saifur Rahman the previous night which also raised questions among the party activists.'
   'We have always been saying that the party is united in keeping with its constitution. If you agree to accept Khaleda Zia as the chief, you need to go by her decisions. In line with this, the October 29 meeting and all its proceedings are void,' he said.
   'After that meeting, Saifur Rahman told the media that he had been forced by "invisible forces" to do that and Hafiz Uddin said he wanted to leave. But they are still sticking to the resolution of that meeting,' Delwar said.
   'I am the secretary general nominated by the chairperson and I would do whatever she instructs me to.'
   'The people who are misguided, I would like to use the word, and have deviated from the constitution can make space in the party by changing their stance. Many people in the past left the party and they returned in keeping with the party constitution,' he said.
   'It is up to the party chairperson whether she would accept such people. I will follow her. I have never been against unity, but I cannot make any decision bypassing the party chairperson,' he said.
   The BNP secretary general also demanded immediate release of Khaleda and her sons, Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman so that proper treatment could be arranged for them.
   Quoting the pathological test report of Tarique and Arafat at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital, Delwar said their conditions were serious.
   He alleged Khaleda and her sons had been detained in false and fabricated cases.
   He also denounced the alleged torture on them in custody. 'Tarique Rahman is devastated physically and mentally because of the torture.'
   He said torture in the name of interrogation was against law and the International Human Rights Commission charter.

Shop owners and keepers of the BRTC supermarket at Kalyanpur on Sunday staged a demonstration and blocked the busy Mirpur Road for over three hours after hearing that they may be evicted.
   The demonstrators were also locked in a clash with the police in which about 10 persons, including a female pedestrian, were injured. The police arrested two shopkeepers from the spot.
   The locals and police said that the shopkeepers gathered in front of their market at about 8:00am on receipt of information of the imminent eviction drive by authorities of the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation.
   Within half an hour, they took to the street and started demonstrating, blocking the busy Mirpur Road. The blockade created huge traffic congestion.
   On receipt of information, the police reached the spot but did not take any action. But at about 10:30am the police went into action, triggering a clash between them and the demonstrators.
   The police lathi-charged the demonstrators who retaliated by pelting them with brickbats. They also vandalised some vehicles that were parked by the road.
   Two of the injured were taken to a local clinic.
   The police lobbed teargas shells at demonstrators and dispersed them at about 11:30am. They arrested the shop-owners' association's president, Abdul Hai, and its adviser, Ahmed Fazle Hakim, from the spot.
   Abdul Hai told the newsmen that there were 87 shops in the land which they had leased, more than five years ago, from the BRTC for 20 years. Each of the shopkeepers had to deposit a sum of Tk 2.50 lakh and is paying Tk 860 per month as rent.

A suicide bomber attacked a train at Colombo's main rail station Sunday, killing at least 12 and injuring more than 100 others on the eve of Sri Lanka's independence day celebrations, officials said.
   The blast near a suburban train as it arrived at the Fort terminal came just hours after six people were hurt in a hand grenade attack at Sri Lanka's main zoo on the outskirts of Colombo, prompting authorities to boost security.
   A police spokesman said the train attack had been carried out by a suspected female operative of the Tamil Tigers, the rebel group fighting to carve out a separate homeland in the ethnic Sinhalese-majority island nation.
   'The bombing has all the hallmarks of the Tigers,' a police officer at the scene said. 'The head of the woman suicide bomber was found on a platform.'
   The officer said initial reports indicated that the woman had blown herself up aboard the train, but forensic experts later determined that she had carried out the attack on the platform as passengers were exiting the train.
   There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but defence officials also said they believed it to be the work of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
   The United States, one of Sri Lanka's main financial backers, condemned the spate of bombings and asked all sides in the decades-old conflict to ensure the safety of civilians.
   'Only a political solution to the country's conflict that responds to the aspirations of Sri Lanka's Tamil and other communities offers a way out of the current cycle of escalating violence,' the US embassy here said in a statement.
   A spokeswoman at Colombo National Hospital, Pushpa Soysa, said seven people were dead on arrival and four others later succumbed to their injuries. Among the dead were two young girls aged 12 and 13.
   A total of 102 others were still receiving treatment, Soysa said. There were no foreigners among the casualties, hospital sources said.
   Earlier, the grenade blast at the aviary of the Dehiwala zoo caused panic among visitors, but the police moved in reinforcements and urged calm. The zoo was shut indefinitely for visitors, officials said.
   There also was no claim of responsibility for the zoo attack.
   The two explosions came a day after a powerful bomb ripped through a bus in the north-central town of Dambulla, killing 20 passengers and wounding 68.
   The Sri Lankan police and security forces have been on high alert ahead of Monday's celebrations to mark the country's 60th anniversary of independence from Britain.
   The president, Mahinda Rajapakse, condemned the bus bombing and urged Sri Lankans not to be provoked by what he called a 'savage attack' by the Tamil Tigers.
   The string of three attacks in two days came amid fresh fighting between government forces and Tamil rebels across the embattled north at the weekend that left dozens dead, according to the defence ministry.
   Troops backed by heavy artillery fire killed at least 44 suspected rebels on Saturday, while only two soldiers were killed, the ministry said in a statement.
   Casualty claims from both sides cannot be independently verified.
   Since the beginning of this year, at least 908 rebels and 36 soldiers have been killed in heavy fighting, according to defence ministry figures. At least 137 civilians have also died during the same period, according to both sides.
   The government in January pulled out of a tattered truce with the rebels, who have been fighting for a separate Tamil homeland since 1972 in a conflict that has left tens of thousands dead.

Senior politician and Gana Forum's general secretary, Saif Uddin Ahmed Manik, died
   on Sunday at a city hospital. He was 69.
   The leftist politician was diagnosed with cancer last year and taken to Singapore for treatment. He was brought back to Dhaka two weeks ago and admitted to the Comfort Hospital on January 24.
   Manik was the general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh for many years until the party split in the early 1990s. He broke away from the party due to ideological differences and later chose to join a party launched by Dr Kamal, who had earlier left the Awami League.
   Manik left behind his wife, Professor Dr Fouzia Moslem, two daughters, Saima Ahmed Jaya and Sangita Ahmed Geeti, and a host of political colleagues and followers, relatives and well-wishers to mourn his death.
   Gana Forum president Dr Kamal Hossain, Awami League presidium members Tofail Ahmed and Suranjit Sengupta and leaders of various political parties rushed to the hospital to see the deceased for the last time.
   Communist Party of Bangladesh president Monzurul Ahsan Khan and general secretary Mujahidul Islam Selim, Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka and other politicians went to his Gopibagh home and conveyed their deep sympathy to the members of the bereaved family.
    The body of Manik, who was a freedom-fighter, was taken to his residence at Gopibagh where several hundred people flocked to pay their last respects to the late leader.
   Manik was one of the founders of Brothers Union Club, where his body was kept until 5:00pm. A namaz-e-janaja was held at the Gopibagh mosque after maghrib prayers.
   The body was kept at the BIRDEM mortuary after the prayers.
   Manik's body will be taken to the Moni Singh Farhad Smriti Trust Bhaban at Purana Paltan this (Monday) morning and to the Central Shaheed Minar at 11:00am. A namaz-e-janaja will be held at the National Eidgah.
   He will be buried at the Mirpur Martyred Intellectuals' Graveyard on Monday after his younger daughter, Sangeeta Ahmed Geeti, arrives from London.
   Manik was born on June 24, 1939 in Jalpaiguri in the then undivided India. The family later settled in Feni after the partition in 1947.
   Manik was a front-ranking leader in the student and political movements of 1962, 1966, 1969, the War of Independence in 1971 and the anti-autocrat movement in 1990.
   He had led a number of organisations throughout his career and was involved in establishing Chhayanaut, the leading cultural organisation.
   He was a trade union leader and worked hard to organise the workers of the now closed Adamjee Jute Mills.
   He left the CPB as the party was divided in opinion in 1993 after breakage of the Soviet Union.
   He became the general secretary of Gana Forum after the party was formed in 1993.
   President Iajuddin Ahmed and chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed expressed their deep shocks at the death of senior politician Saifuddin Ahmed Manik and conveyed their sympathy to the bereaved family.
   In separate messages, they recalled Manik's long political career and said he would be remembered for his great contribution to 60s' student movements, Liberation War and all democratic and progressive political movements.
   Many political parties, social, cultural and sports organisations and individuals in separate statements condoled the death of the veteran leader.
   Awami League's acting president Zillur Rahman, BNP's secretary-general Khandaker Delwar Hossain and former secretary-general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal faction's president Hasanul Haq Inu, Workers Party's president Rashed Khan Menon, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Samyabadi Dal leaders of Left Democratic Front, Ganatantrik Bam Morcha, Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies, Sammilita Sangskritik Jote, Jatiya Sramik Jote Bangladesh, Bangladesh Nari Mukti Sangsad, Chhatra Sangram Parishad, Bangladesh Chhatra Union, Bangladesh Chhatra Moitri, Bangladesh Gana Shilpi Sangstha and the National Sports Council, Bangladesh Handball Federation, Bangladesh Table Tennis Federation, Bangladesh Khokho Federation and Sports Journalists Association condoled Manik's death.
   They prayed for the departed soul of the leader.
   Our correspondent from Narayanganj adds: Gono Forum local unit's president Delwar Hossain Chunnu and general secretary Talat Hossain, CPB's president Dulal Saha and general secretary Ziaul Hoq Dipti, former leader Rathin Chakrabarti, Advocate Montu Ghosh, Rokonuddin Ahmed, Moloy Das Chandan, Rafiur Rabbi, Narayanganj Sangskritik Jote's president Bhabani Sankar Roy and its former president Zahidul Hoq Dipu expressed deep sorrow at the death of Saifuddin Ahmed Manik.

Washington would like to see withdrawal of more restrictions on political parties and return of power to a 'civilian, elected government' in Bangladesh, said a visiting US state department official on Sunday.
   The US principal deputy assistant secretary, Donald Camp, who arrived in Dhaka on Sunday on a two-day routine visit, spelt out the position of his government and said the Bush administration was supportive of the caretaker government and its action plan for holding elections by 2008.
   'Some restrictions on political parties have already been lifted. I am sure there will be more, which will be welcome,' Camp told newsmen at a briefing after his talks with the foreign secretary, Touhid Hossain, at state guesthouse Padma.
   The senior US state department official, however, avoided making any comments on the withdrawal of the state of emergency, in place for more than a year, to create a level playing field for political parties.
   'This [2008] will be an important year for the country as there is a commitment from the caretaker government to hold elections to return Bangladesh to a civilian elected government,' Camp said.
   Touching on the issue of US concerns regarding Bangladesh's recent development, he said he would discuss the issues at his meetings with the Bangladesh officials concerned.
   Camp expressed his satisfaction at Washington's humanitarian efforts in Bangladesh after cyclone Sidr had struck the south on November 15, 2007.
   At the joint briefing, the foreign secretary told newsmen they had a useful discussion on bilateral issues including US assistance for the reconstruction after Sidr and trade matters.
   Touhid said, 'We had a very useful and comprehensive discussion on certain other bilateral matters.'
   The US chargé d'affaires, Geeta Pasi, and senior officials at the foreign ministry attended the briefing.
   A US embassy release said Camp at the meeting iterated the US support for the caretaker government and laid emphasis on the importance of electoral roadmap implementation.
   Camp also put emphasis on the importance of dialogues between the government, civil society, political parties, private sector and international partners.

The Election Commission will not announce the date for the national elections until the ongoing voter registration is finished, the top polls official said on Sunday.
   From March, people will have to wait until September to get the election schedule, the first tangible step for holding general elections, he added.
   'We all have to wait about seven more months for the national elections,' the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, told the news agency in an exclusive interview on Sunday.
   'It would not be fair to announce an election date until the final voter roll is completed,' said Huda who heads the three-member EC.
   He, however, confirmed that the polls to city corporations and municipalities, two local government bodies, would start from April.
   Mohmmad Sahul Hussain, a retired bureaucrat, and M Sakhawat Hussain, a retired brigadier general, were appointed two commissioners in February last year.
   Huda said the registration for the photo-attached electoral roll would be complete by June and the printing would finish by September. The EC has registered more than 30 million out of 80 million voters.
   But, he added, they would not take measures to hold polls to the union parishad, the lowest tier of the local government.
   'Polls to the Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet city corporations and seven municipalities will be held in April,' the CEC said.
   He said the Dhaka City Corporation elections would take place in May.
   'The polls to upazila parishad must be held this year. But I cannot say whether it will take place simultaneously with the general elections or before parliamentary elections,' said Huda, who joined as the CEC on February 5, 2007.
   The roadmap that the EC announced last year sets the general elections by December.
   On having talks with the BNP, two factions of which are fighting a legal battle for representing the party to the EC, the CEC said, 'I hope the court will decide the mainstream BNP and we will sit with them as per the directive from the court.'
   The EC has invited the reformist faction of the BNP, led by its secretary general HafizUddin Ahmed, to talks on national polls.
   But the conformist group, led by Khandakar Delwar Hossain, challenged the EC's decision in the High Court.
   'We are yet to have talks with the BNP. If talks with the BNP are delayed, we will sit with other political parties for a second time,' he said.
   He said they would recommend the amendment to the People's Representation Order, 2007 after finishing the talks with political parties.
   The EC had already had talks with 15 political parties including the Awami League, Jatiya Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami.
   On registration of the political parties by June, Huda said the political parties needed to bring some changes to the manifesto if they wanted to get registered by the EC-fixed June deadline.
   'We will allow them (political parties) to get registered with the EC until the declaration of the election schedules if necessary,' the CEC said.
   The army-controlled government of Fakhruddin Ahmed early last year restructured the controversy-dogged main polls office headed by MA Aziz and five other commissioners who had faced charges of political partisanship.

All the three election commissioners will call on the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, today to discuss whether their proposals have been reflected in the Election Commission Secretariat Ordinance 2008.
   The council of advisers on January 29 approved the ordinance which will separate the secretariat from the Prime Minister's Office (now Chief Adviser's Office).
   'We will discuss the Election Commission Secretariat Ordinance at the meeting with the chief adviser,' election commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain said on Sunday.
   The election commissioners are still in the dark about the content of the ordinance, they said.
   'We have asked the authorities concerned to provide us with the approved ordinance. We are not yet aware of the amendments made to the ordinance,' the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, said on Sunday.
   According to the latest amendments to the proposal, the secretariat will be accountable to the Election Commission, not to the chief election commissioner, and the commissioners will be accountable to the president.'

Nepal's fragile peace process could be at risk if serious human rights abuses committed during a decade-long civil war are not addressed, a senior United Nations human rights official said Sunday.
   'Impunity remains unchecked in Nepal and not one perpetrator of past or ongoing human rights violations has been convicted as a result of a criminal investigation,' said UN deputy high commissioner for human rights Kyung-wha Kang.
   A peace deal between Maoist rebels and mainstream political parties in late 2006 ended a decade-long war that killed at least 13,000 people and brought the Maoists into government.
   During the war, both the Maoists and security forces committed grave human rights abuses.
   Since the peace pact was signed, at least 200 people have been killed in the Terai in ethnic and communal unrest that has cast a shadow over the deal and is threatening crucial polls delayed and now planned for April.

A clarification was sent to New Age by the Inter Services Public Relations directorate of the defence ministry on Sunday. Full text of the clarification follows:
   'The attention of the army headquarters has been drawn to the fabricated and distorted editorial comment published in New Age on February 2. The statement of the chief of army staff, "We won't stay longer," at the inauguration of the army-financed small dairy farm-cum-biogas plant in Sherpur on January 31 has been misinterpreted intentionally. Considering the then prevailing crisis, the president of Bangladesh proclaimed a state of emergency on January 11, 2007. The Bangladesh Armed Forces were deployed in aid to civil power to maintain law and order in the country.
   'On a number of occasions, the chief of army staff has clarified the role of the army in this state of emergency and the method of the army's pullback to the cantonment. "We won't stay longer" in no way means that the army is in power unless twisted. In fact, the chief of army staff clearly indicated that the army will be pulled back as soon as the government decides to do so. This statement was made by the chief of army staff when pressed by the reporters inquiring about the future of this kind of army-initiated projects. The chief of army staff, in his response, requested the civil administration and local community "to take initiative to continue these kinds of projects for long term benefit of society."
   'The editorial comment also suggested transparency in defence procurement and promotion in the army. In this regard, it may be mentioned that all procurement in the armed forces is governed by the Defence Procurement Policy circulated by the government and audited by the office of the auditor general. The promotion policy in the army is based on modern, scientific and systematic approach which is designed to eliminate political influence, identify genuine professionals and promote deserving candidates at all levels. It is one of the best systems followed in the country.
   'The army headquarters believes that such editorial comments are misleading and published to malign the reputation of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. The army headquarters would appreciate wisdom from such reputed media and request it to contribute positively avoiding self-initiated misinterpretation.'

The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission has sought the stakeholders’ and public’s opinion on a draft policy for setting up local and international call centres in the county to take advantage of the booming business that is dominated by India in the South Asian region.
   The draft policy was posted on the BTRC’s website on Sunday, and the stakeholders as well as the general people were requested to send their opinions to it by February 16.
   A call centre, which is a centralised office used for receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone, is a booming business and some Asian countries are enjoying its full benefit with the help of a vast and cost-effective workforce of educated, English-speaking personnel, low-cost technology and state support.
   The call centre is already an $11 billion industry in neighbouring India, banking on back office jobs that mostly come from big European and US companies. The industry’s revenue is set to grow to $30 billion by 2012, according to India’s National Association of Software and Services Companies.
   The call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or answer inquiries from customers wanting information, and includes a diverse range of activities such as sales support, airline/hotel reservations, technical queries, bank accounts, client services, receivables, telemarketing and market research.
   ‘We have sought the public’s opinion on the policy before finalising it in order to invite applications for licences,’ said an official of the BTRC.
   Rafiqul Islam Rowly, president of the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, said the government should draft the policy carefully to facilitate the local information technology firms to tap the vast market as more work is coming to the developing countries from the developed ones.
   ‘India is earning billions of dollars by banking on the booming growth in the call centre business,’ said Rowly.
   He said Bangladesh had bright prospects to grab a significant portion of the market, particularly in the non-voice segment.
   The draft policy said that call centre licences would be provided to companies or joint venture companies that are registered or formed under Bangladesh’s laws on a non-exclusive basis.
   The draft policy proposed a sum between Tk 15,000 and Tk 50,000 as licence fee per year, depending on the size of the workforce. It also allows multiple call centres under the same licence.
   According to the draft policy, the BTRC seek Tk 15,000, Tk 30,000 and Tk 50,000 as licence fee for a year for a call centre or hosted call centre which would have up to 20, between 21 and 50, and above 50 agents respectively.
   The yearly licence fee of a hosted call centre service provider will be Tk 50,000.
   In both the cases, the licensee will have to share about three per cent of its gross revenue earning on a yearly basis with the BTRC and the licence should be valid for 10 years and renewable on a yearly basis.
   The policy said the call centre, hosted call centre operator or hosted call centre service provider should not misuse the telecom resources for any other activity and shall be responsible for any irregularity.
   According to the policy, the licensee should commence operation within six months after issue of the licence.
   ‘Extension of another three months may be considered upon receipt of application from operator stating the reasons thereof, otherwise it [licence] may be cancelled,’ said the policy.
   The primary connectivity for international call centre will be through the SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable or any other cable when available, and the operator may have alternate routes through satellite or VSat.
   The connectivity between the international call centre and overseas clients will be through the IPLC (International Private Leased Circuit) or the internet. IPLC and internet connection have to be obtained from the submarine cable operator and international internet gateway operator respectively.
   The IPLC is a dedicated secure digital point-to-point private connection between two locations in two different countries that allows transmission of data, large internet packets, real-time video applications like video conferencing and other such information communication service.
   The policy said no termination or connectivity would be allowed to or from domestic PSTN, cellular, data or any other type of network other than a point-to-point leased line.

At least 34 people died Sunday in western Rwanda after a strong earthquake shook several countries in Africa’s Great Lakes region, a Rwandan government minister told AFP.
   ‘According to the figures I have at the moment, 34 people are dead,’ said Rwandan local government minister Protais Musoni.
   Several central African countries were shaken by Sunday’s earthquake, which measured 6.0 on the open-ended Richter scale, with five people reported dead in Democratic Republic of Congo.
   Radio Rwanda said 10 people were killed ‘straight away when a church collapsed’ in the Rusizi district of Western Province and 13 others died in Rusizi and Nyamesheke districts.
   At least 11 died in Bukavu, the mayor said, after the quake struck at 0735 GMT some 20 kilometres north of the DRCongo town.
   ‘According to the latest information I have, there are five dead in Bukavu,’ Guillaume Bonga, mayor of the capital of Sud-Kivu province, said.
   Provincial health officer Manou Burole said 55 people had been wounded there.
   Several dozen injured were admitted to the general hospital and at least another 12 casualties to Panzi hospital, Bukavu’s two biggest hospitals, medical sources said.
   Across the border to the east, Radio Rwanda said 250 wounded were transported to various regional hospitals, and a witness in Rusizi district said public buses were used to transport the causalities.
   In DRCongo’s Kabare, north of Bukavu, the walls of a church collapsed on the congregation during the mass, injuring 37, including five seriously, priest Leon Shamavu said by telephone.
   A first shock, which lasted around 15 seconds, was followed by two lesser aftershocks, residents of DRCongo and Rusizi said.
   ‘People are panicking so much they’re afraid to return home. They’re afraid of being surprised by aftershocks and prefer to stay outside,’ a Rusizi resident said.
   The quake was also strongly felt in neighbouring Burundi, south of Rwanda, Francois Lukaya, a scientist at the
   Goma observatory in North Kivu said.
   All Burundian hydroelectric dams stopped, causing a half-hour power cut, a water authority official said.

Some 23,000 chickens were culled in Bagerhat and Kushtia on Sunday following the detection of bird flu at two farms.
   No bird flu virus, however, was found at any poultry farm in Chittagong till Sunday although some dead crows were tested positive three days back.
   Our staff correspondent from Khulna reports: The livestock department culled 1,000 fowls of a farm at Uttar Sorolia village under Morelganj upazila in Bagerhat on Sunday after about 900 fowls of the farm died in last two days.
   Livestock officer Rustam Ali Khan said they sent samples of dead fowls to Barisal to confirm the death of the fowls. ‘We have also disinfected the farm and its adjacent areas by spraying anti-viral liquid,’ he added.
   Our Kushtia correspondent reported that 22,000 fowls of a poultry farm at Barokhada under sadar upazila were culled on Sunday following the detection of bird flu.
   The district livestock office on Friday sent to Dhaka samples of dead birds which were tested positive, officials said.
   Some 6,000 poultry birds of the farm were also culled earlier as 5,000 fowls died at the poultry farm within a span of five days.
   Our staff correspondent from Chittagong reports: Deputy commissioner Ashraf Shamim said bird flu virus was not yet found at any poultry bird in the district.
   ‘We will immediately take necessary measures for culling the birds, if the virus has been detected at any poultry farm,’ he said, adding that they intensified surveillance after the detection of bird flu virus in dead crows.
   The authorities concerned took initiatives to combat the bird flu and keep the situation under control. They were monitoring the bird flu situation and continuing spraying anti-viral liquid on dustbins and kitchen markets.
   The authorities also called on private poultry farm owners to spray anti-viral liquid to combat the bird flu.
   For fear of bird flu, sale of poultry birds marked a sharp decline in the local markets.
   Some crows were found dead in the city’s Agrabad area on Friday and Sunday.
   Our Correspondent from Gopalganj adds: As bird flu virus was detected at a poultry farm at Thanapara in Gopalganj town recently, the authorities concerned had taken measures to check the spread of the disease.
   They also set up four check posts in the district in a bid to restrict the entry and exit of poultry birds or products.
   Sources in the livestock department, some chickens, found dead at the poultry farm of one Abu Hossain at Thanapara, were tested positive. They were continuing to spray anti-viral liquid to check the spread of bird flu.
   The United News of Bangladesh reports the government has decided to raise the amount of compensation for the country’s affected poultry-farm owners.
   ‘A circular on government approval will be published soon,’ chief adviser’s special assistant Manik Lal Samaddar said while exchanging views with the district-level officials at the local Circuit House in Nilphamari Sunday.
   Samaddar, also in charge of fisheries and livestock ministry, asked the farm owners not to remove the poultry birds from the affected farms without informing the local administration, as the government is providing compensation to the affected owners within a very short time.

The Turkish prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, has accused opponents of the Islamic-style headscarf for women of seeking to sow division in secular but predominantly Muslim on Turkey.
   Turkey’s Islamist-rooted government has come under pressure from secular opponents for its plans to lift a decades-old ban on women students wearing the headscarf at university.
   ‘I have a few words for those who claim that secularism will be destroyed, Turkey will become a state of religion, the basic values of the Republic will be demolished, and people who do not wear headscarves will be under pressure,’ Erdogan was quoted as saying in a speech in Istanbul late on Saturday.
   ‘Aren’t you the ones dividing the society by blaming everybody, who does not think or dress like you, for being the enemy of secularism or the regime,’ Erdogan said, according to state news agency Anatolian.
   More than 100,000 secular Turks rallied on Saturday against the headscarf reform, a move they say would usher in a stricter form of Islam in Turkey.
   Turkey’s powerful secular establishment, which includes army generals, judges and university rectors, sees the headscarf as a symbol of radical Islam and believe it threatens the country’s secular order. Turkey is 99 per cent Muslim.

Iran summoned the French ambassador on Sunday in a tit-for-tat protest at a similar move by Paris over a new anti-Israeli tirade by the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a further sign of strained relations.
   Tensions have been mounting over France’s tougher line on the controversial Iranian nuclear drive, and Tehran has also lashed out at plans by Paris for a military base in the Gulf.
   On Friday, the French government called in the Iranian ambassador to Paris, Ali Ahani, to ‘firmly condemn’ a new outburst against the Jewish state by Ahmadinejad, who said the days of the ‘filthy Zionist entity’ were numbered.
   Iran’s state-run television confirmed that French ambassador Bernard Poletti had been summoned by the foreign ministry in response.
   ‘We object to this summons,’ foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters. ‘We will show our protest by summoning the French ambassador.’
   Hosseini also hit out at the government of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, for its tougher line in the long-running nuclear standoff between Iran and the West.
   ‘We have so far acted with self-restraint but if the French stance continues along these lines, we will revise our approach to them,’ Hosseini said, describing the French position as ‘unfriendly, irrational and unrealistic.’
   The French defence minister, Herve Morin, on Thursday cast doubt on a US report that Tehran had halted a suspected nuclear weapons drive. OPEC member Iran insists its atomic programme is aimed solely at generating energy.
   Since Sarkozy’s election in May, France has considerably hardened its position and has called for the UN Security Council to impose a third set of sanctions to punish Iran for its failure to heed ultimatums to suspend uranium enrichment.
   The Security Council on Monday held informal talks on a draft sanctions resolution agreed by the five veto-wielding permanent members – Britain, China, France, Russia and United States – plus Germany.
   France said on Friday that some council members were asking for more time to consider the resolution.
   Iran, which is already under two sets of UN sanctions, insists it has a right to uranium enrichment under the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty to make nuclear fuel to meet increasing energy needs of its population.
   The French envoy to Washington Pierre Vimont said that a ‘few’ council members wanted to wait for Iran to clear up questions over its nuclear programme with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
   In addition, he said, it would take ‘some time’ to get an agreement from some of the council’s non-permanent members on the proposed third set of sanctions.
   Iran was supposed to clear up all outstanding issues related to its past and present nuclear activities with IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei by mid-February but reports say it has sought an extension to the end of February or beginning of March.
   The foreign ministry spokesman also lashed out at French plans to set up a military base in the United Arab Emirates, saying it would only cause instability in the Gulf region.
   ‘We are against military expansion in the region and we think the presence of foreign forces will not contribute to stability but on the contrary, will be a factor of insecurity and instability,’ Hosseini said.
   France announced during Sarkozy’s January visit to the UAE that it would set up a military base in the capital Abu Dhabi to become operational in 2009.
   Iran has been a vocal critic of the presence of foreign forces in the Gulf region, notably the US military, which has bases in several countries including Iraq.

Shaun Pollock bowed out of all international cricket by hitting the winning runs in the final one-day international against West Indies.
   Pollock took 1-33 and his team beat West Indies by eight wickets in Johannesburg to win the series 5-0.
   South Africa were 34-1 chasing 296 after eight overs before a long rain delay left a revised target of 211.
   They only had 31 overs in all to get those runs, but cruised home thanks to a brilliant Herschelle Gibbs century.
   Pollock was promoted up the order to help Jacques Kallis hit the winning runs.
   And he finished on 10 not out, with a cover-drive for four off Ravi Rampaul and an edged drive down to third man for two his last two shots in international cricket.
   Thirteen balls remained in the match when Pollock sealed the victory, and he soon set off on a tour of the ground with his team-mates.
   His wicket had came from a delivery that could epitomise his career.
   Just outside the right-hander’s off-stump, just back of a length and holding its line, it was skewed straight to backward point by Brenton Parchment.
   But the tourists recovered from that early blow, Dwayne Smith’s 91 off 76 balls the outstanding feature of their innings.
   Shivnarine Chanderpaul (51) kept him company in a stand for the second wicket worth 137 but the West Indies innings tailed away in the latter stages.
   After the lengthy downpour in the early stages of their reply, South Africa faced an awkward chase, needing more than seven runs an over to win.
   But a furious assault from Gibbs against medium-pacers Dwayne Bravo and Darren Sammy suddenly made their job a lot easier.
   Gibbs went on to hit 102 off 84 balls, his 20th century in ODIs, he and Kallis (74 not out) putting on 175 in just 23 overs.
   Pollock then came out to bat at four with chants of ‘Polly, Polly, Polly’ reverberating around a packed Wanderers.
   And it seemed inevitable that the winning runs would come from his bat, as had happened in the fourth match in his hometown of Durban.

RAB members, in separate drives, seized 18,000 litres stolen fuel oils in Fatullah upazila on Sunday and arrested 10 people.
   Acting on a tip-off, a RAB team led by captain Kawser raided Aliganj and Shyampur area of the upazila and seized the stolen oil.
   The fuel oils included diesel, petrol, kerosene and octane.

The students of Dhaka University, Rajshahi University and Islamic University on Sunday demanded cancellation of quota system in the Bangladesh Civil Service examinations.
   Several hundred students of Dhaka University on Sunday demonstrated on the campus demanding withdrawal of quota system from BCS jobs, reports UNB.
   The agitating students chanted various slogans and held a rally.
   As the demonstrators tried to come out of the campus, the police intercepted them in front of the public library at noon. Cordoned by the police, they held a rally on the street.
   The students later submitted copies of a memorandum of their demands to the offices of the Chief Adviser and Public Service Commission.
   New Age Rajshahi Correspon-dent reports: A group of students of Rajshahi University brought out a silent procession on Saturday, demanding that the government should repeal the provision for quotas in BCS and other services.
   About 300 students brought out the procession from in front of Sayed Ismail Hussein Siraji Bhaban of RU at 11:30am, university sources said.
   They marched around the campus with placards and banners inscribed with slogans ‘Ar noi Quota, Jachai Hobe Medha’. After the procession some students spoke in front of the central Library of RU with a vow to continue with their demonstrations until their demand was met.
   Our Kushtia Correspondent says, over one thousand students of Islamic University in Kushtia formed a human chain on the campus on Sunday demanding cancellation of quota system in the Bangladesh Civil Service examinations.
   The students formed the human chain at Mukta Bangla of the University at about 11:00am.

The High Court on Sunday granted ad interim bail to former energy secretary Towfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury in connection with the Khulna power plant installation corruption case.
   The High Court bench of justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman and justice Shahidul Islam also issued a rule the government to explain why the trial of the case under the Emergency Power Rules should not be declared illegal.
   Towfiq was sent to jail on January 16 after he had surrendered in a Dhaka court in the case filed over corruption involving Tk 3 crore of the installation of a barge-mount power plant in Khulna in which the detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina is also an accused.
   Rafique-ul Huq appeared for Towfiq.

Five women were shot and killed inside a clothing store at a suburban Chicago shopping centre on Saturday in what police said appeared to be a botched robbery.
   The police were searching for a lone gunman spotted outside the store by a witness, but said they had not identified him.
   The victims were all found in the back of the Lane Bryant women’s clothing store in an area not frequented by customers, Tinley Park Police Sergeant TJ Grady told reporters.
   It appeared to be a robbery that ‘went rather poorly,’ he added.
   The police confirmed that at least one of the victims was an employee of the Lane Bryant store, located at the Brookside Marketplace shopping centre in a southwestern suburb of Chicago.