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The government has informally started contacting the politicians to set the stage for a dialogue offered by chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed, party sources said.
   Though any agendum has not been specified yet, political sources said the dialogue would aim at putting political parties on election track as per the government’s roadmap to hold the ninth parliamentary polls by December.
   Food and health adviser AMM Shawkat Ali contacted at least two senior politicians, including Awami League presidium member Matia Chowdhury, in last two days.
   He made a phone call to Matia at around 12 noon on Tuesday and sought to know about Awami League’s position on the proposed dialogue between the government and the political parties.
   ‘The adviser has phoned me and wanted to know about our position on the political dialogue,’ she told New Age.
   ‘I told him that it is not my cup of tea alone,’ she said adding, ‘I would let him know the stance of the party on the issue after consulting with our acting president Zillur Rahman.’
   Matia added that he informed Zillur Rahman about the adviser’s call. ‘He [Zillur] said that the stance of the party can be conveyed to the adviser after holding a discussion at the appropriate party forum,’ she said.
   Shawkat Ali also contacted the president of a left leaning political party Sunday, a leader of the party said requesting anonymity.
   Whether the adviser, or any other person from the government, contacted other political parties, including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, could not be known until Tuesday evening.
   BNP vice president MK Anwar, joint secretary general Nazrul Islam Khan and acting office secretary Rizvi Ahmed said they were not aware of any such move.
   ‘I was in touch with the secretary general [Khandaker Delwar Hossain] and he does not know anything about it,’ Nazrul Islam Khan told New Age at 7:45 pm on Tuesday.
   Rizvi also pleaded ignorance.
   The efforts of newly-inducted adviser Shawkat Ali indicate that the government might initiate the dialogue process as announced by the chief adviser in his anniversary speech.
   Fakhruddin Ahmed on Saturday disclosed his government’s plan to take necessary steps soon to hold dialogue with parties.
   The government is, however, yet to outline an agenda of the dialogue although the political parties have been demanding that the government sit with them to resolve political issues that cannot be ironed out in the court of law or at the Election Commission.
   Shipping and liberation war affairs adviser MA Matin on Tuesday, however, told reporters at his secretariat office, ‘A dialogue between government and political parties is a must…. It would be held after the Election Commission completes its dialogue process.’
   A top official at the chief adviser’s office told New Age that no adviser has officially given responsibility to initiate a dialogue with the parties. ‘Any adviser, however, can have personal contacts with politicians,’ he said.

NO NEW power plants were linked to the national grid and no improvement were marked in the dilapidated transmission and distribution system after the military-controlled interim government took office under a state of emergency declared a year back.
   Average power generation increased slightly because of some timely maintenance but breakdowns in the national grid prompted blackouts across the country three times in the space of about a month. Two of the breakdowns took place after cyclone Sidr wreaked havoc in the south-western districts.
   There were no such countrywide blackouts during the tenure of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance government although it did very little to improve the power sector and virtually added no new plants to the power generation matrix.
   The BNP-led government left office in October 2006, with the overall electricity shortfall hovering around 2,000 megawatts.
   The interim government managed to add an additional quantum of 400MW electricity to the national grid from the existing power plant; however, with the national demand increasing at an annual rate of around 8-10 per cent, it had little impact on the overall power management scenario.
   The government initially planned to set up a number of power plants, most of which were planned by earlier governments, with a combined capacity of around 1,200MW by 2008. It eventually dropped some plants, which would have come into operation by 2008, from its list of priorities for undisclosed reasons.
   The government scrapped the plan to set up a 90MW independent power plant at Baghabari as Westmont Power Company failed to fulfil the conditions of the agreement. The plan for three rental power plants with a combined capacity of 80MW was dropped because of gas shortage.
   The chief adviser to the interim government, in an address to the nation on September 9, said 1,130MW of electricity would be added to the national grid by 2008, of which 200MW would be added by December 2007, 370MW by June 2008 and 560MW by December 2008.
   However, only 70MW from a unit of the Mymensingh power plant and an additional 35MW from Summit Power’s Ashulia plant were added to the national grid last year. The installation of both units began during the previous government.
   Many power officials are sceptical whether 1,130MW will be added in 2008, as the Power Development Board failed to add 200MW to the grid by December 2007.
   The government expected to add 340MW from the under-construction 100MW Fenchuganj power plant and 240MW from the Siddhirganj power plant, 200MW from 10 small independent power plants, 260MW from seven long-term rental power plants and 300MW from eight short-term rental power plants to the national grid.
   Of the expected plants, a 30 MW unit of the Fenchuganj plant was supposed to be commissioned by Chinese contractor Harbin Power Engineering by mid-December, but the company failed to do so. No power official could confirm when the unit would come into operation.
   The Indian builder of the Siddhirganj power plant is installing a 210MW plant instead of the 240MW one as the power officials allegedly signed a contract with the Indian bidder for a 210MW plant.
   Three long-term plants were dropped from the plan because of gas shortage, while it is uncertain that the seven costly short-term rental power plants, supposed to be commissioned before the coming summer, will be in operation during peak summer.
   Power officials are also not sure whether the 10 small IPPs will come into operation by December 2008 as the contracts allow them time till January 2009.
   The interim government cancelled contracts for the 450MW Meghnaghat power plant, 150MW Chandpur power plant and 90MW Bhaghabari plant because of the failure of the contractors to fulfil the conditions of the agreements.
   It started the tender process for setting up of the 450 MW Bibiyana independent power plant and the 450MW Sirajganj IPP, which went through tender process three times during the previous government’s tenure.
   Tapan Chowdhury, who on Tuesday resigned as the power and energy adviser to the interim government, admitted in the last week of December that the power sector did not make much progress in terms of adding new power plants and improving the transmission system, but said that one year was not enough to complete installation of any power plant.
   ‘When we took office, there was no new power plant in the pipeline apart from the 70MW Mymensingh plant. Besides, we had to cancel a number of contracts as the selected companies failed to start work for installation of the plants. We had to start from the beginning to bring new power plants into operation,’ said Tapan.
   ‘Besides, we also wanted to ensure transparency in the tender process. It usually takes some time to set up new plants because of the existing tender process,’ he added.
   Tapan expected that the country would be benefited by increased generation of power if the construction of new power plants initiated by this government is continued by the next one.
   Tapan said they were not aware of the fragile condition of the transmission system, which caused breakdowns of the national grid, as the power agencies did not brief the government about the real picture.
   ‘There is a deplorable lack of coordination between the power agencies, so we are trying ensure that they work together to improve the power situation,’ he said.

At least 50 garment factory workers were injured as the police charged at them with truncheons and fired teargas shells when they took to the streets at Mirpur in Dhaka for the second consecutive day on Tuesday.
   Several hundred workers of the MBM Garments gathered in front of the factory at about 8:00am, witnesses said, and asked the factory management to release Shakhawat Hossain, picked by the Rapid Action Battalion from his house at Ibrahimpur early Tuesday.
   The garment factory workers in small groups brought out processions and blocked the stretch from Rokeya Sarani to the Kachukhet Road via Mirpur Section 10 and other roads in the areas, suspending traffic for about six hours.
   The areas turned into a battlefield as the police fired about 30 teargas shells and charged at the demonstrators with truncheons in which 50 were injured. About 50 vehicles were vandalised.
   ‘The factory management had our fellow, Shakhawat, picked up by the Rapid Action Battalion on charge of rallying for pay increase on Monday,’ Rupali, an operator at the MBM Garments, told New Age.
   ‘We repeatedly requested the authorities to have him released from the battalion custody, but they did not heed our request and forced us into demonstrations,’ she said.
   The workers went out on demonstrations in front of the Mirpur Police Staff College, blocking the road with an electric pole at around 9:30am.
   Fearing the labour unrest, the authorities of 50 other garment factories at Shewrapara, Kazipara, Mirpur Section 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 and Kachukhet closed the factories.
   In a few minutes, several thousand garment workers from the Opex Style Wears Ltd, Sayej Apparels, Juki Garments, Ideal Fashion, Natural Garments, Loadstar Garments, Venus Fashion, Youth Group and SQ Group took to the streets and joined the demonstrators.
   A huge number of policemen and the personnel of the Rapid Action Battalion and the Bangladesh Rifles reached the place and tried to control the situation at about 10:30am.
   As some workers tried to march towards Mirpur Section 10, lawmen stopped them and charged at them with truncheons, leading to clashes.
   The workers started throwing stones at the lawmen and vandalising vehicles stranded on the road.
   The lawmen attacked the demonstrators with truncheons and fired teargas shells, witnesses said.
   The clash spread to the road stretch from Mirpur Section 10 to Kanchukhet and all lanes in the areas.
   The Mirpur police officer-in-charge, Mohammad Mohiuddin, said, ‘We requested the workers to withdraw the barricade, but they vandalised several vehicles and the police were forced to charge at them with truncheons and fire teargas shells.’
   ‘We are trying to resolve the matter with a fruitful discussion between the workers and the owners,’ he said.
   When the factories were closed, all the workers came out on Rokeya Sarani and started rallying to push for their eight-point demands, including salary increase.
   Some workers in small groups tried to block the road by vandalising some vehicles, but the police attacked them with truncheons and teargas shells.
   Some local businessmen, with iron rods and sticks at one point attacked the workers in the presence of the police.
   The Rokeya Sarani Businessmen’s Association secretary, Shahid Sarker, told New Age, ‘We could not do our business for the garment workers. They forced us to keep our concerns closed.’
   This was for the fifth day garment factory workers went out on demonstrations in the areas in January. The workers of the SQ Sweater Ltd went out on demonstrations on January 2 and 3. The workers of three other factories of the same group of companies blocked Rokeya Sarani on Saturday to push for similar demands.
   The New Age correspondent in Gazipur said several hundred workers of the Jong Blumberg in the upazilas headquarters also took to the streets and blocked the Dhaka–Mymensingh Highway at about 5:00pm for about an hour demanding payment of their dues for two months.
   The workers later withdrew the blockade as the police officials gave an assurance that they would look into the issues.
   Several organisations such as Samajtrantik Sramik Front, Ganatrantik Bam Morcha, Bangladesh Textile and Garment Workers’ Federation, Ain O Salish Kendra, Bangladesh Sramajibi Nari Moitree, Revolutionary Garment Workers’ Solidarity and 19 Registered Garment Workers’ Federation in separate statements condemned the police attack on the workers.

Teachers and guardians of some students joined the Dhaka Univeristy students who continued rallying on Tuesday for unconditional release of the teachers and their fellows detained in connection with the August campus protests and withdrawal of all cases by February 18.
   No visible government move has been noticed to free the students and teachers three days inside the education adviser announced on Sunday to set them free. The vice-chancellor, SMA Faiz, on Tuesday said they were very close to having the teachers and students freed.
   Student at Rajshahi University on Tuesday initiated a movement of non-violence and non-cooperation to push for the unconditional release of all the students and an employee detained in connection with the campus protests.
   Students at the Government Rajendra College in Faridpur boycotted classes and blocked the Faridpur-Charbhadrasan Road between 11:00am and 1:00pm on the day, demanding immediate release of the teachers and students and in protest against the leak of the English exam question papers of the National University. The leak of the question paper came to light on January 10.
   They will form a human chain on the college campus this morning and will continue going out on demonstrations until the demands are met, reported the New Age correspondent in Faridpur.
   The Bangladesh Chhatra Union denounced the government and university stance on the release of the students. The vice-chancellor has clearly said decisions were made on two cases in which the teachers are accused and the government will make decisions on other cases in time, said a statement of the organisation.
   ‘When the entire university is united on the release of the students and teachers, such remarks are tantamount to fuelling the fire,’ the statement said. ‘Talking about only two cases, where the teachers were accused, and avoiding three cases filed against 40 students is nothing but an attempt to prolong the crisis.’
   A number of senior teachers, including KAM Saaduddin, Helaluddin Khan Shamsul Arefin, AKM Monwar Uddina, MM Akash, Mesbah Kamal, Akhtaruzzman, Kaberi Gayen and Robayet Ferdaus, along with the families of the detained students, expressed solidarity with the students’ demands.
   Serajul Islam Choudhury, Ahmed Kamal, Anu Muhammad, and Salimullah Khan also expressed solidarity with the students by issuing messages.
   A teacher of California State University in the United States, Alexis Krasilovsky, also spoke at the rally and demanded immediate release of the teachers and students without any conditions.
   He said a demonstration was also held at California State University when the news of the arrest of the teachers reached there.
   Dolly Deb, mother of the detained student Manabendra Deb, said more students were being included in fresh charge sheets and tortured in custody although the chief adviser gave an assurance that no students or teachers would be harassed.
   ‘I demand immediate and unconditional release of all the detained students and teachers of all universities,’ she said.
   Nazrul Islam, elder brother of the detained student Deen Islam Angel, said all of the family were tortured to reveal the whereabouts of Deen Islam when he was in hiding. ‘But when they began torturing our relatives, my father had nothing but to hand over Deen to the military.’
   Economics teacher MM Akash demanded that the students and teachers should be freed by withdrawing the cases and not in the so-called ‘legal processes.’ He said, ‘The teachers should be freed before the ultimatum ends.’
   Journalism teacher Kaberi Gayen expressed her concern about the present situation of the campus. She said, ‘The overall situation might go out of control if all the detained students were not released unconditionally.’
   The students skipped their classes for two hours for the fifth consecutive day on Tuesday, rallied at Aparajeya Bangla, and walked in a silent procession at the Curzon Hall.
   The students of the theatre department staged an adapted version of Rabindranath Tagore’s Raktakarabi as part of their protests.
   The university teachers’ association will, meanwhile, hold a requisitioned general meeting today to make decisions regarding the release of the teachers and students and its stalled elections to the next executive committee for 2008.
   Teachers belonging to the Blue Panel, loyal to the Awami League, and the Pink Panel, loyal to left parties, convened the requisitioned meeting as the acting association president and the general secretary ‘failed to make decisions in this regards.’
   The White Panel, loyal to the BNP and Jamaat, has called the meeting ‘unconstitutional’ and decided not to attend it.
   The Students against Authoritarianism at Rajshahi University began a non-violent, non-cooperation movement and continued rally for the unconditional release of all the detained students and an employee, reported the New Age correspondent at the university.
   The university unit of the Awami League’s student front Chhatra League demanded resignation of the vice-chancellor, M Altaf Hossain, for showing irresponsible attitude during the August 20-22 campus protests. He should have saved the students, but he had cases filed by the registrar against the students, said the university unit Chhatra League president, Ebrahim Hossain Moon.
   The Students against Repression and the Students against Authoritarianism brought out silent possessions wearing black badges and black masks and paraded the campus singing people’s songs.
   They will continue with the demonstrations today by singing people’s song, forming human chains and initiating a signature campaign.

Major political parties, including Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party, on Tuesday raised questions about the ‘sudden’ move of the Election Commission to demark parliamentary constituencies afresh.
   ‘I do not understand why the issue of delimiting constituencies has been raised all on a sudden,’ acting Awami League president Zillur Rahman told reporters at his Gulshan residence on Tuesday.
   ‘Demarcation is a difficult and time consuming task…. I doubt if it could be completed soon as the Election Commission is yet to complete the huge task of preparing the voters roll.’
    Zillur reiterated his party’s demand to hold the elections as per the roadmap announced by the commission earlier.
   BNP expressed its displeasure at the ‘abrupt’ move for fresh demarcation of constituencies without consulting the political parties. ‘I cannot understand what prompted the commission to initiate fresh demarcation of a huge number of constituencies, while it could not complete its dialogue process and preparation of voters list,’ BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain said.
   Workers Party of Bangladesh president Rashed Khan Menon said that fresh demarcation of so many constituencies would delay the whole process of national polls.
   ‘Demarcation can be done…but it would not be possible for the Election Commission to complete the task within the period left before the national polls planned by the yearend,’ he said.
   He criticised the commission for not consulting with the political parties before initiating demarcation process. The move also surprised Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, acting secretary general of the BNP faction led by Saifur Rahman. ‘It is matter of surprise that the Election Commission has started demarking constituencies though no political party has demanded or no individual suggested.’
   Communist Party of Bangladesh general secretary Mujahidul Islam Selim said his party would not accept fresh demarcation as an excuse for delaying the polls.
   ‘It is necessary to bring about reforms to make the polls free from the influences of money and muscle. Holding the polls at the earliest is equally important,’ he said.
   Chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda said on Monday that the parliamentary constituencies in Dhaka, Faridpur, Gazipur, Kishoreganj, Manikganj, Munshiganj, Mymensingh, Netrakona, Rajshahi, Sirajganj, Chittagong, Chandpur, Comilla, Satkhira, Barisal, Barguna, Pirojpur and Meherpur would be redrawn.
   He asserted the commission had the absolute authority to demark constituencies anytime if it felt necessary and said, ‘There is no need for consultation with anybody for this.’

The government has apparently failed to draw up a comprehensive plan for reconstruction of homes for the Sidr-stricken people with funds from the donors, who have already offered to rebuild shelters for the homeless people in the cyclone-devastated coastal districts.
   ‘We are still working on the plan. We are looking into many aspects of rehabilitation in the affected areas,’ a director at the disaster management bureau, Md Abu Sadek, who is presently heading a committee to look after the donors’ offers to rebuild homes for the people who have lost the roofs over their heads, told New Age on Tuesday.
   He said the government has to take into consideration the economic aspects of the people, finalise the selection criteria for those whose homes will be rebuilt, and determine the design of the homes to be built in the disaster-prone areas.
   But even two months after the cyclone ravaged the southern coast, he could not say how many homes will have to be built and what sort of infrastructure needs to be developed, although many international donors have offered to rebuild homes for the cyclone-affected people under their humanitarian aid programmes.
   India was the first among all the donors to announce reconstruction of homes in 10 Sidr-ravaged villages, followed by Britain, Saudi Arabia, Japan and a few non-governmental organisations which also expressed interest in building dwellings for those made homeless by Sidr.
   According to a primary assessment, as many as 5,64,967 homes were completely destroyed while 9,57,110 others were partially damaged by Sidr and the cyclone-triggered water surge.
   Most of the 89,23,259 people, affected by the cyclone in 30 districts, have erected temporary shelters from materials extracted from the debris in the absence of a comprehensive rehabilitation programme for which the government initially announced that more than $2.2 billion would be required.
   The district administration has so far conducted a baseline survey on damage assessment.
   The report on the damage caused by the cyclone will be finalised after conducting four workshops to validate the survey in the affected areas and another at headquarters, said a senior official of the food and disaster management ministry.
   ‘We hope we will be able to finish the process by end of the month,’ said Mohsina Ferdousi, a joint secretary at the ministry. She said that three committees have been working to prepare a comprehensive disaster management plan.
   When asked about the progress made in availing the donors’ offer for building homes, the official said the Bureau of Disaster Management has been working hard to prepare a plan for them.
   She said that many donors have expressed interest in rebuilding homes for the affected people and the bureau was coordinating everything to this effect.
   The bureau’s officials, when contacted, said they were still working.
   They failed to answer many questions including how many families are being provided with house-building assistance under the foreign offer, the design of the homes, what infrastructures need to be improved, and who will be the beneficiaries of the programme.
   Officials said the Indian authorities, according to their plan to rebuild homes in ten villages, would provide Rs 10 crore, one crore for each of the villages. Bangladesh has already sent a list of the villages to the Indian authorities. They are Sonatala, Bogaltala, Barenda, Uttar Southkhali, Dakhhin Southkhali, Gabtala, Chalitabunia, Bogi, Sharankhola and Terabeka in Sharankhola of Bagerhat district.
   The Indian external affairs minister, Pranab Mukherjee, during his visit to Bangladesh on December 1 announced that his government would help rebuild ten villages, including infrastructure development if needed, in the devastated areas.
   The British government offered to rebuild a village called Majher Char, located in Mathbaria of Pirojpur district, which was washed away by the water surge.
   The Saudi Arabian government, which offered Bangladesh over $100 million for relief and rehabilitation, now wants to rebuild homes for the cyclone-affected people.
   Ministry officials said that Saudi Arabia would be able to reconstruct more than 20,000 homes with its funds, already channelled to Bangladesh for the Sidr victims.
   Many other non-governmental organisations have offered to reconstruct homes for the devastated people, said Mohsina Ferdousi.
   She said the government had formed a technical committee, headed by a director of the disaster management bureau, to prepare a comprehensive plan on this matter.
   The director of the bureau, Md Abu Sadek, said he needs to consider a wide range of matters to effectively utilise the donations for rebuilding the homes.
   ‘We got the baseline survey report from the district administration, but our teams again are going to the field to verify the information,’ said the director, adding that the finalisation of the plan depends on how quickly the bureau gets the report.
   He hoped that the survey would be completed by the end of this month, but the implementation may continue for a long time.
   ‘We’ll try to finish the initial work before the rainy season begins,’ he said, hinting that actual work may begin sometime next month after the Indian High Commission’s officials visit the disaster sites.
   The director said Japan has announced aid worth Tk 100 crore, half of which would be used for food while the rest would be used for building homes.
   Sadek said that he was still confused as to what extent the government would be able to help the affected people with the available donors’ fund, and what the design of the homes should be.
   ‘The homes must be cyclone-resistant to some extent, whether they are made of concrete or wood,’ the director told New Age.

The government on Tuesday claimed that the labour unrest in garment factories was the result of the plan of vested interests and that it had identified the troublemakers who would face legal action.
   The government on the day formed a committee to investigate the reasons behind the latest round of labour unrest in a number of factories at Mirpur in Dhaka and to make suggestions to address the issue.
   ‘This is a planned move and the people instigating the unrest have been identified,’ the LGRD adviser, Anwarul Iqbal, said after a meeting in his office.
   The meeting behind closed doors was attended by the commerce adviser, Hossian Zillur Rahman, the inspector general of police, director general of the Bangladesh Rifles, leaders of the associations of garment and knitwear manufacturers and exporters, law enforcers and intelligence agencies.
   Anwarul, a former inspector general of police, declined to disclose the names of ‘identified’ troublemakers. He said the law enforcers had been asked to lodge cases against them and take measures to stave off further troubles.
   ‘The people behind the unrest are not unfamiliar. The same people instigated unrest in garment factories in mid-2006,’ he said.
   The adviser said a committee, headed by the commerce adviser, had been formed to investigate the matter and submit report within a week. The meeting had representation of garment factory owners and law enforcers.
   Hossain Zillur said the government was thinking about putting in place industrial police to effectively keep law and order in industries.
   The meeting was convened at the instruction of the chief adviser, sources said, after repeated incidents of unrest in garment factories in a past few days.

The chief adviser to the interim administration, Fakhruddin Ahmed, on Tuesday reshuffled the responsibilities of the council of advisers, allocating new portfolios to two advisers and three special assistants to the chief adviser.
   This was the second reshuffle in the interim cabinet in five days since the chief adviser reallocated portfolios after the appointment of five new advisers on January 9, 2008.
   Four advisers of Fakhruddin’s cabinet resigned on January 8 while another voluntarily quit his job on December 26.
   According to a cabinet division circular, Maj Gen (retd) MA Matin was given the responsibility of the home affairs ministry, which was in the chief adviser’s charge since the government assumed office on January 12, 2007. He will, however, remain in charge of the shipping, land and liberation war ministries.
   Adviser Anwarul Iqbal was given charge of the labour and manpower ministry in addition to local government, rural development and cooperatives, textiles and jute ministries.
   Special assistant to the chief adviser MA Malek has been assigned to the social welfare ministry, Debashish Roy to the environment and forests ministry and M Tamim to the Power Division.
   The special assistants will continue to be in charge of the ministries to which they were assigned earlier.
   Malek has been in charge of the post and telecommunications ministry and Raja Roy has been taking care of the Chittagong Hill Tracts affairs ministry. Tamim was assigned to oversee the energy division.
   After reallocation of the ministries on January 10, Mirza Azizul Islam is now in charge of the finance and planning ministry; Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury of foreign affairs and expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment; Chowdhury Sajjadul Karim of agriculture and water resources ministries; AMM Shawkat Ali of health and family welfare and food and disaster management ministries; AF Hassan Ariff of law, justice, parliamentary affairs and religious affairs ministries; Ghulam Quader of communications, housing and public works ministries; Rasheda K Chowdhury of primary and mass education, and women and children affairs ministries; and Hossain Zillur Rahman of education and commerce ministries.

Around one in 12 US military personnel exposed to combat in Iraq or Afghanistan have suffered from psychological trauma, a rate four times that of counterparts who were not sent to war, a study says.
   ‘The unpredictability and intensity of urban combat, constant risk of roadside bombs, multiple and prolonged tours, and complex problems of differentiating enemies from allies can leave many troops with high stress levels and lasting health consequences,’ the authors warn.
   Post-traumatic stress disorder is the term for a range of symptoms that include nightmares, memory flashbacks and chronic anxiety, with the individual often turning to alcohol or drugs for solace.
   The paper, published online on today (Wednesday) by the British Medical Journal, is exceptional, in that it
   quizzed tens of thousands of military personnel about their psychological health before their deployment, and then asked them again, on their return.
   Research into PTSD is typically done retroactively, which means it can be impossible to know whether an individual had some of the symptoms of PTSD, or was prone to them, before being deployed.
   The authors, led Tyler Smith, director of the Pentagon’s Centre for Deployment Health Research, questioned 77,047 active members of the US military between July 2001 and June 2003 to launch a 21-year health study.
   The volunteers came from all four military branches – the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines. They were asked to fill in a questionnaire about their psychological and emotional states and substance use.
   Forty per cent of the cohort were sent to Iraq or Afghanistan by 2006.
   Between June 2004 and February 2006, the researchers carried out their first follow-up investigation. A total of 50,184 of the initial recruits responded.
   The study found that PTSD developed among 4.3 per cent of personnel who were sent to Iraq or Afghanistan.
   But the rate was more than double – 8.7 per cent by one yardstick – among those who had been exposed to combat.
   Among those who had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan but not seen combat, the incidence of PTSD was 2.1 per cent. It was 3.0 per cent among those who had not deployed to either theatre.
   In addition, PTSD was likelier among members of the army and among those who were female, younger, high-school educated or less, never married, divorced or black.
   Higher rates were also found among those who reported at the start of the study that they were a current smoker or a problem drinker.
   The authors say that the overall tally of US military with PTSD is not particularly high, but is concentrated in specific categories of personnel, which means that identifying those people at risk is essential for prevention and treatment.
   Previous research has found symptoms of PTSD in as many as 30 per cent of US Vietnam War veterans and in more than 10 per cent of US military personnel returning from the 1991 Gulf War.
   Often, these problems do not manifest themselves until several years after the end of the conflict.
   ‘Concern is growing among the public and veterans that post-deployment health consequences among US military personnel may be considerable and lasting,’ says the new study.
   ‘Combat duty in Iraq has been associated with high
   use of mental health services and attrition from military service and possible alterations in neural functioning after deployment.’

The Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, has said troops will be ordered to shoot anyone trying to disrupt general elections due on February 18.
   The elections are meant to complete a transition to civilian rule and allies of nuclear-armed Pakistan hope they will promote stability after months of political turmoil and rising militant violence.
   The elections for the lower house National Assembly and assemblies in Pakistan’s four provinces were postponed from January 8 after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto on December 27.
   Nearly 50 people were killed in rioting after the opposition leader’s murder, most in her home province of Sindh in the south, and many millions of dollars in damage was caused.
   Speaking to businessmen in Karachi, the country’s commercial capital, Musharraf said the government would not allow riots to occur again.
   ‘Let me assure you we are going to instruct the rangers and army to shoot miscreants during elections,’ the official Associated Press of Pakistan quoted him as saying late on Monday.
   ‘We will not allow this activity to happen again,’ he said.
   Troops would be on patrol during and after the polls, he said.
   Pakistan, a strong ally in the US-led campaign against terrorism, has been struck by a wave of militant violence in recent months in which hundreds of people have been killed.
   Nine were killed in a bomb attack in Karachi on Monday while 19, including 16 policemen, died in a suicide bomb attack in the eastern city of Lahore last week.
   Troops have also been battling al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militants in remote parts of the northwest along the Afghan border and trying to stop their spread into more populated areas.
   The violence has compounded fears of insecurity in the run-up to elections and many Pakistanis believe the vote might again be postponed because of the violence.
   A prime minister and government will emerge from the new National Assembly and they will run the country with Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup.
   Analysts say the former army chief’s grip on power could weaken after the election because his allies are expected to fare poorly, largely because of his own growing unpopularity.

The Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, faced new calls for his resignation on Tuesday after a bomb killed 10 people in this teeming port city ahead of key February elections, sparking violent protests.
   No one has claimed responsibility for the blast, which tore through a street market on Monday evening as Musharraf was visiting Karachi.
   Officials said it was intended to sow fear ahead of the February 18 polls, already delayed once by the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
   Benazir’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, was also in the city of 12 million people but there was no suggestion either man was targeted.
   Angry residents took to the streets Tuesday, burning tyres and forcing shops to close their doors, in protest at the government’s failure to provide adequate security.
   Opposition officials called for the ex-general to resign in the wake of the latest of dozens of bombings that have rocked the nuclear-armed US ally over the past 12 months, claiming more than 800 lives.
   ‘The rulers must admit their failure and quit,’ said Raja Zafar-ul Haq, chairman of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s opposition party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N.
   He said the government’s weakness was encouraging militant violence.
   ‘The bombings have destabilised the economy and tarnished the country’s image. There are people who are trying to destabilise the country but the government is doing nothing to deal with them,’ he said.
   Sharif, the man ousted by Musharraf in a military coup in 1999, has repeatedly called for the president’s resignation since returning to the country from exile in November.
   The police were on high alert in Karachi and thousands of paramilitary forces were fanning out across the city, Pakistan’s largest, officials said.
   ‘We have deployed 10,000 personnel at all sensitive points and installations,’ Paramilitary Rangers spokesman Captain Mohammad Fazal said, adding that another 4,000 were on standby.
   The blast Monday evening ripped through a busy intersection outside a factory as workers were buying food on their way home.
   ‘There was no specific target, it was just meant to kill ordinary civilians. The terrorists chose a soft target to spread panic and terrorise society,’ interior ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said.
   Officials said the bloodshed was meant to force the government to push back the elections again, a move that could further undermine stability in the Islamic republic of 160 million people.
   On Tuesday a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a paramilitary post in the tribal region near the Afghan border, the military said.
   Meanwhile, Zardari said on Tuesday he had given evidence to a team of British detectives who are investigating her assassination.
   Zardari also said he would now directly approach the United Nations for a probe into her killing after the government rejected his request to get the world body involved.
   ‘I along with other party leaders met the Scotland Yard team in Karachi and I gave them some evidence,’ Zardari told reporters at the Benazir family home in the southern port city.
   He did not say what kind of evidence he provided to the British squad.
   ‘They had some questions... We will now consult other party leaders and give them further evidence,’ added Zardari, who took over as co-chairman of Benazir’s Pakistan People’s Party after her murder.
   He and the couple’s 19-year-old son Bilawal, who is being groomed to assume full leadership of the party when he is older, have both called for a formal UN inquiry into her death.
   Benazir, a former premier, was assassinated in a gun and suicide bomb attack at an election rally in Rawalpindi on December 27 but conflicting government accounts of her killing have caused a storm of controversy.

The government has formed a permanent core group headed by communications secretary to determine the country’s common standpoint on all regional and bilateral transport connectivity issues and advise the government in this regard.
   Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed last month approved the formation of the 15-member core group after the foreign ministry sent a proposal to the Chief Adviser’s Office to constitute a high-powered body in line with a decision taken at an inter-ministry meeting in November.
   The other members of the high-powered committee include representatives from the commerce, foreign affairs, home affairs, shipping, civil aviation and tourism ministries, the Economic Relations Division, Chief Adviser’s Office, National Board of Revenue and Planning Commission, and executive directors of the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge Authority, Dhaka Transport Coordination Board, chairman of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, director-general of the Bangladesh Railways and chief engineer of the Roads and Highways Department.
   A foreign ministry letter, which was sent to the relevant ministries last week, said that once the core group started working, it would be mandatory to obtain its opinions on all matters of national and regional connectivity, and also prior to participation in meetings or events relevant to regional connectivity issues.
   Officials of the communications and foreign affairs ministries said the high-powered body was likely to hold its first meeting by the end of this month to discuss ways to implement the prioritised SAARC Multimodal Transport Study’s recommendations, BIMSTEC Transport Logistics Study, SASEC gateways and determination of the BCIM car rally route.
   The committee will meet at least once a month and, if necessary, hold more meetings.
   The foreign office, however, stressed the need for maintaining utmost secrecy about the decisions to be taken by the core group because of the importance and sensitivity of the matter.
   ‘Given the importance and sensitivity of the matters, all deliberations and documents of the core group’s meeting may be deemed confidential,’ said the foreign affairs ministry’s letter.
   The letter categorically asked the communications ministry to do certain things, such as to request the relevant ministries, divisions and agencies to confirm the names of their representatives who should not be below the rank of a joint secretary, considering the importance and sensitivity of the issues concerned.
   It also requested the communications ministry to deal with the matter on an urgent basis.
   Earlier the inter-ministry meeting, presided over by the foreign secretary Touhid Hossain, resolved that the responsibility of determining the position of the government on transport connectivity issues should be retained by the communications ministry as the government in September assigned the foreign ministry to frame the standpoint of the country on regional connectivity issues instead of the communications ministry, and formed a committee headed by the foreign affairs secretary to frame the strategy for handling connectivity issues.
   Since then, the foreign affairs ministry showed reluctance to handle the issues and, against this backdrop, the inter-ministry meeting decided to form the permanent core group headed by the communications secretary to frame the strategy and advise the government on connectivity issues.

Law adviser AF Hassan Ariff said on Tuesday that the state of emergency in some cases suppresses the people’s right to justice, especially in the cases relating to fundamental rights.
   The newly appointed adviser, responding to reporters’ questions at his office, said the people’s right to justice has not been hampered everywhere due to the state of emergency which was proclaimed on January 2008 on the heels of political turbulence.
   ‘The state of emergency is no bar to people’s right to justice as they are allowed to go to court in all cases excepting some that deal with fundamental rights issues…The state of emergency was proclaimed due to circumstantial reasons, but the totality of the emergency has begun shrinking gradually,’ Ariff, also a rights activist, told newsmen.
   He hinted that emergency would be lifted gradually as indoor politics in Dhaka has been opened up by relaxing the Emergency Powers Rules.
   About the release of Dhaka University teachers and students detained in connection with cases on the August 2007 campus protests, the former attorney-general said he should not comment on the issue since it was sub judice, pending with the court.
   When asked whether the statement of the education adviser that the Dhaka University teachers and students would be released whatever the court’s verdict was, was contemptuous, he replied in the negative and said the government, as per the constitution, could release them.
   Refuting a common allegation against the government that it was influencing the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court despite separation of the judiciary, he said the people’s confidence in the court varies from person to person and often depends on whether or not the judgement is to their liking. ‘One will have confidence in the court if the injunction goes in his/her favour.’
   When pressed for comment on the allegation made by the detained former premier, Sheikh Hasina, that the judges in the special courts work in response to the government’s signals, the adviser said he could have understood the matter if any such signal had been made to him.
   ‘But there are some criteria for transparency in the trial system. It is not essential to allow a large number of people into the courtroom. For ensuring transparency, it is important whether the defence lawyers can function properly.’
   About the Election Commission’s plan for delimitation of constituencies without consulting the political parties, he said it was very much in the EC’s jurisdiction to do so after every ten years after the population census. ‘If the political parties have any opinions they can convey them to the EC.’
   He said that the appointments of special assistants to the chief adviser were ‘apparently in line with the constitution’.
   ‘The rules of business have been amended to appoint the special assistants…They are neither ministers nor state ministers. They will just do some administrative work to reduce the chief adviser’s workload,’ he stated.
   Commenting on the detention of a large number of politicians and businessmen before trial, he said detention was in the legal framework. ‘Every democratic country has the detention laws…But they should not be misused.’

Finance adviser Mirza Azizul Islam has said state-owned enterprises are financial burdens on the government and their role needs second thoughts.
   ‘The government cannot go on subsidising the enterprises for ever,’ he said Tuesday, reiterating the present administration’s policy of washing its hands of industries and businesses.
   The government can respond in two ways – outright sale of SoEs or offloading of shares and corporatising SoEs, he said.
   A number of public sector entities, including commercial banks, Biman and Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board, have already been corporatised, he listed.
   ‘Now they have to compete with the private sector,’ the adviser said at a seminar on corporate governance practices for SoEs.
   As part of its plan for gradual withdrawal from SoE affairs, the government has decided not to appoint any official to the management boards, he said.
   Putting government officials on SoE boards as ex officio is not a healthy sign as it may create conflict of interests, he observed.
   ‘Ministries are supposed to oversee the SoE operations. But how will they do it fairly keeping their people in the boards?’ he pointed out.
   Instead, he suggested, experts from various areas like management, finance and technology can be included in the SoE boards to promote good corporate governance practices in the public sector entities and enhance their efficiency to sustain stiff competition from the private sector.
   The private sector has gained the capacity of running big enterprises and has been operating in natural monopoly areas including power and telecoms, he said. ‘In this background, the role of SoEs should be revisited.’
   Bangladesh Enterprise Institute organised the seminar as part of a series to promote good corporate practices in Bangladesh.
   Initiating the talks, BEI president Farooq Sobhan stressed that the government should nominate officials on SoE boards on the basis of merit under specific policy guidelines for selecting directors.
   ‘Government-nominated board members are often found lacking knowledge and skills to understand the issues,’ he noted.
   Two resource persons YRK Reddy and K Padma Kumar made presentations in the programme.

Dhaka’s international community, especially diplomats of the United States and the United Kingdom, on Tuesday expressed their confidence that the next general elections would be held by December as declared by the interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed.
   They expressed their confidence that the general elections would be held by the declared deadline as foreign affairs adviser Iftekhar Ahmed briefed the heads of missions and donor agencies at the foreign ministry.
   ‘I am hopeful, I am confident and I am certain that elections will be held by the end of 2008,’ US charge d’affaires Geeta Pasi told newsmen after emerging from the meeting.
   ‘The foreign affairs adviser has assured us that there will be elections by December 2008. The progress towards election is still on the right track,’ said British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury.
   The top UK diplomat, quoting the foreign affairs adviser, told newsmen that there would be election by December or earlier.
   Iftekhar told newsmen that the government’s plan to hold dialogues with political parties would open a new chapter, and echoed the chief adviser’s assurance of lifting restrictions on indoor politics.
   He said elections would be held by December, or earlier if possible. The interim government needs the cooperation of the international community, national community, political parties and the press to accomplishing the prime task of conducting fair and acceptable elections, he added.
   ‘It is not an easy task to build a political consensus, but we need such a consensus to guide us to free and peaceful elections,’ said the adviser. ‘Failure is not an option; we have to succeed.’
   He told reporters that the process to hold the election has begun in real earnest and it has international endorsement.
   In reply to a question, he said the state of emergency needs to be withdrawn, but the council of advisers would decide when it should go.

The detained Bangladesh Cricket Board executive member Mohammad Selim Bhuiyan on Tuesday admitted being involved in Niko corruption and said Tarique Rahman and his business partner Giasuddin Al Mamun were also involved in the deals.
   ‘I took Tk 3 crore from Niko’s South Asia vice-president Quashem Sharif. The oil company was supposed to give us Tk 6 crore. I gave Tk 1.8 crore to Giasuddin Al Mamun,’ Salim said in his statement recorded by metropolitan magistrate Mohammad Walilul Islam.
   According to the statement, Mamun told Selim that Mamun would need to pay Tarique a portion of the amount.
   Selim, however, said he did not know whatever Tarique had received any money, court source said.
   Selim also said he had given Tk 60 lakh to AKM Mosharraf Hossain, former state minister for emergency in Khaleda Zia’s cabinet.
   ‘A deal involving Tk 6 core was reached with the company for the award of the contract to the Niko Resources Limited,’ Selim said when the Anti-Corruption Commission produced him in court for the statement regarding the case against Khaleda and four others.
   Others accused in the case are former law minister Moudud Ahmed, AKM Mosharraf Hossain, then acting energy secretary Khandaker Shahidul Islam and Quashem Sharif. They were accused of a loss of Tk 10,000 crore to the state exchequer.
   The commission’s assistant director Mahbubul Alam lodged the case with the Tejgaon police on December 9.

The National Board of Revenue has revised the whole fiscal year earnings projection upward by Tk 291 crore on the back of an impressive 23 per cent growth in the first half.
   The board expects Tk 44,141 crore of revenue in the 2007-08 fiscal, up from original target of Tk 43,850 crore.
   ‘We have revised the revenue collection target upward following the satisfactory trend in the six-month earnings,’
   NBR chairman Mohammad Abdul Mazid said Tuesday.
   The upward revision this year reversed the exercise of lowering earnings projection towards the end of previous fiscal years due to poor revenue collection by NBR.
   Between July and December of the current fiscal year, the NBR earned about Tk 19,633 crore, posting a 23.48 per cent growth over the year-ago period.
   Intensified drives against corruption and tax evasion boosted the board’s revenue earnings, mostly from individual and corporate taxes, in the first half, officials said.
   The earnings growth would continue in the second half also as the NBR would not relax its campaign for increased tax and customs revenues, they hoped.
   Drive against tax evaders, massive campaigns for submission of individual tax returns and offer for legalising untaxed incomes all contributed to the revenue growth up to December, the NBR chief said, unveiling citizen’s charters at a gathering of field officers and taxmen.
   Of the three wings of NBR, performance of the VAT department remained below the average in the first six months of the fiscal.
    ‘We will give specific guidelines to all departments for increasing revenue collections in the second half,’ Mazid said.
   The revenue board has already started initial works on the budget for the 2008-09 fiscal to avoid chances of mistakes and inaccuracies if such critical documents are prepared in haste, he added.
   ‘The NBR will consider minimising the cost of doing business to curb price hike and earn more revenue by expanding tax net and chasing tax evaders instead of imposing fresh taxes in the next budget.’
    Responding to a question on the tax from seized property, director general of Central Intelligence Cell, Aminur Rahman said, ‘We have been trying to realise taxes from the seized property of tax evaders and a high-level committee has been assigned for it.’

The government is likely to sign agreements with four companies by Thursday on the installation of seven costly rental power plants aimed at adding about 260MW of electricity to the national grid by mid-May.
   The Power Development Board and the companies selected will sign ‘rental power agreements’ for the installation of the second-hand trailer-mounted and land-based plants from where the board will be buying electricity for three years.
   The interim government took the initiative to buy costly power from the rental plants that could be installed in 120 days to mitigate power crisis during peak summer as there are no big power plants in the pipeline. The plants will, however, start generation a month into the peak summer.
   The law ministry on Tuesday vetted the rental power agreements. The commerce ministry and the National Board of Revenue gave clearance to the agreements in the past two days after the cabinet committee on purchase on January 6 had approved the selection of four companies for the installation of the plants.
   The power board will sign agreements with the Energy Prima Consortium for the installation of Shahjibazar 50MW, Kumargaon 50MW, Fenchuganj 50MW and Bogra 20MW power plants on a build, own and operate scheme.
   The board will pay the consortium 4.517 US cents for each unit of power it will buy from Shahjibazar, 4.148 cents for power from Kumargaon, 4.65 cents for power from Fenchuganj and 3.6 cents for power from Bogra.
   It will sign an agreement with the Kaltimax Energy and the GBB Consortium for the instillation of the 30MW Bhola plant. The board will pay 5.198 cents for a unit.
   The board will sign agreements with the Aggreko Power for a 40MW diesel-run plant in Khulna and the Alstom Rental Power Company for a 20MW diesel-run plant at Bheramara. Aggreko offered 19.71 cents a unit and Alstom 21.77 cents.
   The Power Division dropped the plan for the installation of another 50MW rental plant at Ashuganj after the purchase committee had not approved the price offered by the responsive bidder, Alstom.
   The price of per-unit electricity from the plants, which would be between Tk 2.52 and Tk 3.63 for gas-based plants and around Tk 14.00 for diesel-run plants, is higher than that of the board’s generation cost from its own plants.
   The Power Division earlier fixed January 15 for signing the agreements with the companies, but it will take another day or two to sign the agreements as the law ministry has asked the division to make some minor changes in the draft agreements, officials said.
   ‘We hope the agreements will be signed by Thursday after we make some minor changes in the agreements. The changes will not mean any policy shift. We will try to sign the agreements on Wednesday,’ the power secretary, M Fouzul Kabir Khan, told New Age on Tuesday.
   Fouzul, after a meeting with the companies selected, said some of the bidders had informed him that they would be able to put the power plants into operation within 90 days after the signing of the agreements.
   He said they would give incentives to the companies that would put the power plants in operation before 120 days. ‘We are planning to increase the duration of the rental power agreement by a month if any company could start generation by 90 days,’ he said.
   The shortage of electricity this summer is likely to be around 1,500MW to 2,000MW as the power board generation will be around 3,500MW and 4,000MW, if the rental plants come into operation, against the demand for 5,000MW and 5,500MW.

The United States expects to deport more than 200,000 immigrants this year who are serving time in prisons and jails across the country, the top US immigration enforcement official said.
   The move to speed the deportation of foreign-born criminals aims to help federal and state prisons reduce the costs of housing immigrants, Julie Myers, head of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, told The New York Times.
   Illegal immigration has emerged as one of the most passionate in the campaign for the 2008 US presidential election.
   In 2007, ICE brought formal immigration charges against 164,000 immigrants who are behind bars nationwide, the Times reported on Tuesday.
   Many of those immigrants are slated for deportation this year, she told the newspaper.
   The Times said in 2006, the agency identified 64,000 immigrants behind bars, most of whom were deported.
   Myers said in the past year, federal agents have stepped up efforts to find immigrants behind bars and complete immigration proceedings so they could be deported directly from prison without being released into the streets, Myers said.
   Foreigners behind bars include large numbers of immigrants who were legal residents, but lost their legal status as a result of being convicted of crimes, Myers told the Times.
   In 2007, ICE sent 276,912 immigrants to their home countries, including many who had never been arrested for crimes, but were deported for civil immigration violations, The New York Times reported.

Small and medium businesses in Bangladesh spent nearly $380 million on IT and telecom solutions in 2007, said a study conducted by the New York-based Access Markets International Partners.
   ‘SMBs in Bangladesh may have started off a bit slower than their counterparts in the Indian subcontinent in terms of overall IT adoption,’ says Dev Chakravarty, senior analyst at AMI Partners, a consulting firm that specializes in IT, internet, telecommunications and business services strategy, venture capital and actionable market intelligence, with a strong focus on global small and medium business enterprises.
   ‘However, their IT adoption is set to take off more rapidly in the near future.
   That is because SMBs in Bangladesh are becoming more aware of the advantages of IT in increasing business process efficiencies and enabling them to move up the growth ladder,’ he said.
   SMBs are also being supported by promotional measures taken by the government for enhancing technology deployment.
   They are also being wooed by the increased sales and marketing efforts by leading IT vendors in Bangladesh.
   SMBs typically go through three distinctive phases of IT deployment — from building infrastructure solutions to deploying connectivity solutions and ultimately enter-
   prise solutions for extending business reach to remote locations, customers and business partners.
   Most of Bangladesh’s SMBs are still in the first wave of technology adoption (building the basic infrastructure) and are yet to progress to the second wave (connecting the enterprise), as is evident from their technology penetrations.
   They have already reached substantially high usage levels in technologies like desktops, printers and basic productivity software applications, anti-virus and, to some extent, even internet.
   ‘Only around one in ten SMBs in Bangladesh have adopted computers at present,’ says Chakravarty.
   ‘Nevertheless, this is more an opportunity rather than a shortcoming. Personal computer vendors can focus on this huge,
   relatively untapped, SMB market in this country to gain
   significant returns. PC adop-
   tion plans are quite positive,’ said the study, released on Monday.
   ‘About 30 per cent of PC-owning SMBs indicated that they intend to purchase new PCs in the next 12 months. A sizeable proportion of first-time PC buyers are also likely to join in, thus boosting the overall SMB market for PCs,’ concludes the report.

Britain hit back in a mounting row with Russia on Tuesday, accusing Moscow of holding the British Council ‘hostage’ over a diplomatic spat and vowing to respond ‘shortly’ to Russian sanctions.
   A day after Russia announced visa and other restrictions over the British Council’s defiance of a Russian order to close two of its offices, the foreign secretary, David Miliband, insisted the cultural body is entirely within the law.
   ‘It is not in the interests of either the UK or Russia for flourishing cultural, educational and scientific links to be held hostage to unrelated issues in this way,’ he said.
   ‘Such threats can only make matters worse,’ he added in a written statement to lawmakers on the standoff between London and Moscow.
   The Russian foreign ministry on Monday accused Britain of ‘premeditated provocation’ and said it would stop issuing visas for new expatriate employees at British Council branches in Saint Petersburg and Yekaterinburg.
   The ministry also said it would block accreditation renewals for current employees and launch an inquiry for alleged tax debts against the council’s Saint Petersburg office.
   But London insists the cultural and education body is entirely within its rights to remain open.
   ‘As the government has repeatedly made clear to the Russian authorities, the British Council’s activities in Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and across Russia are fully compliant both with Russian and international law,’ Miliband said.
   The British Council’s presence is also specifically sanctioned by a 1994 agreement between the two countries, he added.
   ‘The government will consider these latest actions by Russia carefully and will continue to engage with our international partners on them.
   ‘We will respond to the Russian government shortly,’ he said.
   The Russian order to close the British Council branches ratcheted up tensions triggered by the 2006 murder by radiation poisoning of ex-Russian agent and fierce Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London.
   Diplomats were expelled on both sides last year after Moscow refused to hand over former secret service bodyguard Andrei Lugovoi, the man wanted in Britain for allegedly killing Litvinenko.

Orphaned Bangladeshi conjoined twins have survived an initial operation, but it will be another six months before they can be separated, the Australian charity looking after them said Tuesday.
   One-year-old girls Trishna and Krishna are joined at the head but have separate brains. If the twins are not separated, they are expected to die.
   Surgeons, who carried out the first surgical procedure last week, have assessed that they can be separated but it will be a difficult task.
   ‘They have had one stage of an operation. They have got to have six months of preparation before they can be separated,’ Margaret Smith, chief executive of the Children First Foundation, said.
   ‘They are very beautiful little girls. They are quite normal. They just happen to be joined at the head.’
   The children were brought to Australia late last year from Bangladesh, where they were living in an orphanage at an undisclosed location. According to the charity, they were orphaned at birth in December 2006.
   They are staying at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital, one of Australia’s leading medical institutions for children, and will live at a rehabilitation centre in the countryside if successfully separated, while recovering from the surgery.

US presidential rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama sought to put an end Monday to a bitter row over the race issue which has clouded the Democratic race.
   The campaign had been mired in a dispute over comments the former first lady made about civil rights icon Martin Luther King which her critics interpreted as devaluing his contribution to the 1960s movement.
   ‘Over this past week, there has been a lot of discussion and back and forth – much of which I know does not reflect what is in our hearts,’ Hillary said in a statement. ‘And at this moment, I believe we must seek common ground.’
   ‘We differ on a lot of things,’ she said. ‘But when it comes to civil rights and our commitment to diversity, when it comes to our heroes – president John F Kennedy and Dr. King – senator Obama and I are on the same side.’
   Campaigning in Nevada ahead of the state’s caucuses on Saturday, Obama, who is seeking to become the first African-American president, also sought to stop the dispute from spiralling out of control.
   ‘I don’t want the campaign at this stage to degenerate into so much tit-for-tat, back-and-forth, that we lose sight of why all of us are doing this,’ Obama told reporters, according to the New York Times.
   ‘We’ve got too much at stake at this time in our history to be engaging in this kind of silliness. I expect that other campaigns feel the same way,’ he said.
   Earlier, Hillary took her campaign to black voters on Monday as she visited a group of African-American security sector workers in Manhattan, and paid tribute to Martin Luther King.
   ‘Every day that you speak up for justice, you are the living embodiment of Dr. King’s spirit,’ Hillary said, a week after saying that King’s dream only became a reality under legislation enacted by president Lyndon Johnson.
   Her comments sparked a furious row as African-American leaders, including some South Carolina powerbrokers, accused the New York senator of devaluing King’s contribution to the civil rights campaigns of the 1960s.
   On Sunday she accused Obama’s campaign of distorting what she had said, while Obama shot back that Hillary had made ‘an ill-advised remark’ about King.
   The row came before the nominating contests head to South Carolina on January 26, which has a large African-American minority and is in the deep south, where Hillary is expected to face a strong challenge from Obama.
   Hillary is popular with black voters – her husband Bill was sometimes described as the nation’s first black president – but African-American voters are also attracted by Obama, the freshman senator from Illinois.
   ‘We are undecided, we still are trying to make up our minds because Hillary has been a great leader as a senator and Obama is new, refreshing,’ said Mildred McGill, 68, one of those at Monday’s rally in New York.
   ‘We like Hillary, but we still like Obama because he is one of us.’
   Clinton Miller, 40, a pastor who supports Obama, said many African-Americans were still in the process of making up their minds.
   ‘The good thing about it is whether a woman or an African-American is chosen as a nominee of the Democratic party, history will be made one way or the other,’ he said.
   ‘It seems that African-Americans under 45 are supporting Obama and it seems that those who have directly benefited from the civil rights movement seem to have more chances to support Hillary Clinton,’ he added.

Members of joint forces raided the Green Road apartment of the Juba League president, Jahangir Kabir Nanak, in the city Tuesday evening.
   During the raid, the joint forces talked to Nanak’s wife Syeda Arjuman Nargis, a senior official of United Commercial Bank Ltd, and enquired about her husband.
   They also enquired about their daughter studying in London.
   The joint forces took a copy of the deposit receipt of Nanak’s licensed revolver.
   Sources said the joint forces members stayed at the apartment for about 40 minutes from 7:15pm.

The High Court, staying the operation of the chief metropolitan court’s order to remand Tarique Rahman in police custody for interrogation in an extortion case, on Tuesday ordered the investigation officer of the case to interrogate Tarique at the jail, if necessary.
   A High Court bench of Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury and Justice M Abdul Hye passed the order after hearing a petition filed by Tarique, eldest son of detained former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, seeking the court’s order to save him from ‘inhuman torture in the name of interrogation’ during remand in police custody.
   On January 9 when he was produced in a Dhaka court, Tarique, also the senior joint secretary-general of the BNP, appealed to the court to ensure his security, claiming that he has been ‘inhumanly tortured’ during remand in connection with a corruption case.
   Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Ehsanul Haque, however, rejected the plea and placed him on a one-day police remand for interrogation in connection with the extortion case filed with the Gulshan police station.
   Earlier, he was placed on a 10-day remand in four extortion cases filed with different police stations on different dates.
   On March 7 last year, the army-led joint forces arrested Tarique from his mother’s cantonment residence after an extortion case was filed against him.
   Habibul Islam Bhuiyan with Rafiqul Islam Mian, Nasir Uddin Ashim and Nawshad Jamir moved the petition.

Seventeen officials have been promoted to the rank of additional secretary and placed in the establishment ministry, said an official handout.
   They are director of BFIDC Mohammad Golam Maula Majumder, Dhaka divisional commissioner Ikram Ahmed, DG of BRDB Abdus Sobhan Shikder, director of Jamuna Multi-Purpose Bridge Authority Mohammd Masud Elahi, DG of Food Department Molla Wahiduzzaman, managing director of Bangladesh Shipping Corporation Mohammad Quamrul Alam Rabbani, joint secretary of home ministry Begum Quamrunnesa Khanam and private secretary to the president Mohammad Mozammel Haque Khan, joint secretary of establishment ministry Mohammmad Abul Kalam Azad, DG of chief adviser’s office Manzur Hossain, chairman of National Housing Authority Mohammad Abdul Qayyum, DG of BSTI Mohammad Ajmal Hossain, joint secretary of Local Government Division Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, managing director of BFDC ANM Badrul Amin, member of DESA Mohammad Shafiqul Azam, joint secretary of information ministry Mohammad Zahurul Alam and joint secretary of finance division Mohammad Shafiqur Rahman.

Princess Diana’s former butler told the inquest into her death on Monday that her mother had called her a whore for dating Muslim men.
   Paul Burrell said Diana broke off relations with her mother, Frances Shand Kydd, after she had ‘expressed herself in extremely forceful terms about Diana’s consorts, especially if they were Muslim.’
   Burrell, revealing the contents of a call Diana asked him to listen into, said Shand Kydd, who died in 2004, ‘called the Princess a whore and she said that she was messing around with f-ing Muslim men and she was disgraceful and said some very nasty things.’
   Diana was killed in a high-speed Paris car crash in August 1997 with her lover Dodi al-Fayed. She had previously had a relationship with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan.
   Burrell has written two books about his time as the princess’s butler and his memoirs have been serialised extensively in the tabloid press.
   Speaking to a packed court, Burrell said he was convinced Britain’s Royal family did not plot to kill her, an accusation levelled at the House of Windsor by Dodi’s father, Harrods department store owner Mohamed al-Fayed.

France will send back all the museum pieces Bangladesh sent to Paris as soon as possible as the Guimet Museum has cancelled the exhibition, said Charley Causeret, new French ambassador in Dhaka, on Tuesday.
   He said this when he called on the foreign affairs adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, at his office.
   Terming the Bangladesh-France relations ‘excellent’, Causeret said the artefact issue would not affect the ties. ‘Not at all…. It will not affect our excellent relations.’
   He did not say who would bear the cost sending back the museum pieces to Bangladesh. He said the issues were being resolved.
   Causeret said during his tenure as ambassador to Bangladesh, he would focus on how to strengthen cooperation in economic, political and cultural fields.
   He said Bangladesh’s relations with France were getting stronger.

The Anti-Corruption Commi-ssion on Tuesday filed the charge sheet against the detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s cousin Sheikh Helal, also a former lawmaker, and his wife, Rupa Chowdhury, for amassing wealth beyond their known sources of income.
   The investigation officer, Syed Ahmed, also the commission’s assistant director, filed the charge sheet with the court of additional chief metropolitan magistrate Golam Rabbani.
   The investigation officer pressed charges the couple for owning wealth of Tk 16.32 crore beyond their known sources of income and hiding information on the wealth of Tk 7.60 lakh.

The customs surveillance team at Zia International Airport Monday night arrested three Bangladeshis on charge of reportedly smuggling out a huge amount of foreign currencies.
   The three arrested, Mohammad Selim, 22, Yunus Ali, 35, and Mohammad Rajan, 23, were collecting their boarding passes at about 9:00pm to leave the country by a Singapore Airlines’ flight when the customs people captured them.
   The customs people found 14.81 lakh Saudi riyals, 23,500 UAE dirham and 5,000 Qatar riyals in their possession which are equivalent to Tk 2.7 crore, the police said.
   The currencies were found hidden in bottles of pickles, tooth power and talcum power, they said.
   The three were handed over to the Airport police. A case
   was filed with the police on Tuesday under the money laundering act.