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The military-controlled administration’s refusal to have pre-budget consultations with political parties has drawn criticism as many fear that the next political government might run into problems while implementing the fiscal measures.
   Talking to New Age, a number of politicians from major political parties resented the government’s attitude saying that it was pursuing a policy of ‘disrespect for political forces’. Such attitude will not do the nation any good, they warned.
   Finance adviser to the caretaker government is expected to announce the national budget for 2008-09 fiscal year on June 9.
   Many say an unelected government has no legitimate authority to formulate the national budget. ‘They are simply imposing it on the people.’
   This will be the second budget in a row by the interim government since it assumed office on January 12, 2007 amid a state of emergency promulgated on the heels of political turmoil.
   The budget for 2007-2008 fiscal year was also announced without any consultation with the political parties.
   The finance adviser, M Azizul Islam, who held a series of consultations with businessmen, economists, NGO representatives, civil society actors and editors among others, declined to have discussions on the matter with politicians and political parties, who will ultimately implement the budget if parliamentary elections take place in December as promised by the government and the Election Commission.
   Politicians say it would be difficult to implement the fiscal measures drawn up by the interim administration as matters relating to welfare of common people are taken into consideration through discussions in any form with politicians.
   Since the political parties represent the people, the government should have consulted them, said a leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
   ‘It is unfair on the part of the government to thinks that it does not require consultation with the politicians’, said Nazrul Islam Khan, the spokesman for the party.
   ‘At least they should have let us know which sectors they want to give priority to and sought opinions of the parties’, Khan added.
   Faruk Khan, industries secretary of the AL, observed that ‘they [interim government] have no constitutional authority to formulate the budget’. ‘They are doing many things forcibly, and they are formulating the budget in the same way’, Faruk Khan said, adding that the people wanted the present rulers to quit handing over power to an elected government.
   ‘We have already witnessed the terrible impact of the previous budget implemented by this government’, Faruk Khan told New Age.
   Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon said, ‘We do not understand what has made the government ignore the political parties in the budget making process. The budget would definitely fail to reflect the people’s aspirations.’
   It is mandatory to have talks with the political parties before finalising such crucial things as budgets and fiscal measures… after all, one should not forget that it is the politicians who represent the people, Menon said.
   The Communist Party of Bangladesh said implementation of economic policies of the state comes through political process. ‘It is impossible to safeguard the people’s interest if there is no consultation with the political parties’, said Mujahidul Islam Selim, general secretary of the CPB. He said that the government actually wanted to implement the economic blueprint of international lending agencies and multinational companies.
   The Jatiya Party also criticised the government’s negative attitude towards politicians.
   ‘The government’s attitude towards politicians seems to be hostile. It is not good for a nation,’ said Ghulam Muhammad Quader, a presidium member of the party.
   He said there was no denying that the politicians were the true representatives of the people. ‘They should have been consulted before anyone else.’
   ‘Moreover, the politicians have to shoulder the responsibility of implementing the programmes [fiscal measures] after an elected government assumes office’, the JP leader said.

The Tk 25,600 crore annual development programme, which the government is to propose for the next fiscal year, will see fewer projects as there is no political pressure to venture on ‘image-boosting’ schemes caring little about implementation, planning officials said.
   The draft of the ADP will be placed before the National Economic Council’s meeting tomorrow (Saturday) with chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed in the chair.
   The government will provide fund for special need, special fund for creating food security, and fund for development of the ICT sector and eradication of regional disparity in development work in the next ADP, said sources.
   According to the planning ministry’s proposal, Tk 13,600 crore of the next fiscal year’s ADP funding will come from foreign sources, while Tk 12,000 crore will come from internal sources.
   The ADP will put forward a total of 905 proposals for the next fiscal year, of which 512 are new projects, and 407 projects will be included without allocation and 105 projects with allocation. If foreign funds are available, around 160 projects will be included in the proposed ADP.
   Around 958 projects were included in the last fiscal year. In the ADP in 2006-05, the total number of projects was 1,200, and in 2001-02 the number was 1,384.
   Around 67 per cent of the proposed ADP will be included under the Medium Term Budget Framework of fourteen ministries.
   Foreign funding comprised 49 per cent of the original ADP of 26,500 crore for the current fiscal year.
   The revised ADP of FY 2007-08 later downsized the allocation to Tk 22,500 crore, with 64 per cent of foreign funding and 36 per cent from local resources.
   Foreign funding was raised in the revised ADP following budgetary support from foreign donors in the wake of cyclone Sidr and back-to-back floods, said planning ministry sources.
   According to the draft ADP for FY 2008-09, Tk 6,120 crore (23.91 per cent) has been proposed for agriculture, rural development and water resources management. A total of 149 projects will be included in the agriculture sector.
   In addition to a special allocation of Tk 122.96 crore, a major chunk of the outlay will be spent for ensuring food security, sources said.
   Besides, Tk 4,309 crore (16.84 per cent) will be allocated for development of the power and mineral resource sectors in the next fiscal year, while the the education and religion sector will get Tk 3,519 crore or 13.75 per cent of the ADP.
   In addition, the transport sector will receive Tk 3,470 crore (13.56 per cent) and the health sector Tk 2,584 crore (10.10 per cent). A total of 156 projects will be incorporated in the transport sector.
   Around Tk 704 crore will be provided to 11 ministries for development of ICT sector.
   Besides, the government plans to provide a special allocation of Tk 40 crore to remove regional disparity in development work in certain areas.
   Around Tk 2,841 crore (11 per cent of the ADP) is going to be provided for another special programme in Barisal and Khulna, as a survey has identified those areas as the most poverty-stricken.

Finance and planning adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam hoped that inflation would remain below 10 per cent in the next fiscal year as global prices of major essential commodities show falling trends.
   ‘Prices of wheat and edible oils in the international market show signs of declining, which will help us contain inflation at less than double-digit in the next fiscal year,’ he told reporters at the Zia International Airport Thursday on his return from Jeddah.
   ‘High inflation is caused mainly due to increase in global food prices as the country has to import huge quantity of food items annually to meet local demand.’
   Aziz left Dhaka on May 28 to attend the board of governors’ meeting of the Islamic Development Bank, headquartered in Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah.
   The adviser at the meeting urged the IDB to increase its annual lending to Bangladesh to $2 billion in soft loans from $1 billion at present.
   The IDB meeting decided to allocate $1.5 billion fund for ensuring food security for least developed Muslim countries, Aziz said.
   ‘Bangladesh could get a reasonable share from the new IDB fund and finance the import of agriculture machinery,’ he said.
   Responding to questions relating to the budget for the next fiscal year, the finance adviser said the revenue budget would be much bigger than the present one because of planned subsidies in agriculture and expansion of social safety net programmes in the next budget.
   ‘We have to feed people at any cost and prevent destitution through allocating adequate funds for them,’ Aziz said as the new budget looks set to widen the coverage of food-aided schemes for the vulnerable groups and announce job creation programmes for the rural people during lean period of the year.
   He said the budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year would have perks for government employees, which should be followed by the private sector to shield their staff from inflationary pressure.

The provisions of the Emergency Powers Ordinance and the Emergency Powers Rules for barring anyone accused in the cases under the rules from seeking bail in any court have been challenged before the High Court.
   New Age’s editor Nurul Kabir, rights activist Sultana Kamal, also a former adviser of the caretaker government, and Dhaka University’s law faculty teacher Hafizur Rahman Karzon filed a writ petition against the provisions on Thursday.
   The Bar Council’s former vice-chairman M Amirul Islam, also a former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, told New Age that the petition would be moved before the High Court bench of Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana and Justice Ashfaqul Islam on Sunday.
   The petition challenged the legality of Sections 3(3)(kha) and 3(4) of the Emergency Powers Ordinance 2007, and Rules 11(3), 19(Gha) and 19(Uma) of the Emergency Powers Rules 2007.
   Section 3(3)(kha) empowers the government to prescribe punishments — for violation of the emergency rules or for helping to violate the rules — that may extend to the death penalty or imprisonment for life or up to 14 years. Section 3(4) empowers the government to give retrospective effect to any rule of the emergency rules.
   The rules, which were challenged, bar anyone accused in any case under the emergency rules from seeking bail in any court, and also bar any appellate court from staying any sentence given in any case lodged under the rules.
   According to the Constitution, no person can be convicted of any offence except for violation of a law in force at the time of commission of the act.
   The petitioners, referring to the constitutional provision, said that the empowerment of the government to give retrospective effect to the emergency rules was unconstitutional, as no person can be tried under any law which was not in force when the offence was committed.
   According to the Constitution and the doctrine of the rule of law, any person is innocent until proved guilty of any criminal offence by a law court, pointed out the petitioners, adding that seeking bail in any case is the inalienable, inherent and fundamental right of any person, and such a right cannot be denied.
   Hearing bail petitions is the inherent power of the Supreme Court, and such power cannot be curtailed by any authority, contended the petition.
   ‘According to the emergency ordinance, the government is under a positive obligation to safeguard public interest and security and maintain law and order. The emergency rules, by way of taking away the right to bail, revision, review and appeal, and providing empowerment to make provisions for prescribing punishment, have gone against the public interest and security,’ said the petition.
   The provisions which have been challenged in this petition are also against the doctrine of the separation powers enshrined in the Constitution, as the provisions have given the executive branch the power to prescribe punishment, which is the power of the legislature, and also curtailed the inherent power of the Supreme Court, the petition stated.
   The provisions of the rules, challenged in the writ petition, are even inconsistent with the contents of the emergency ordinance, as the provisions in question do not match the proclaimed purpose and objective of the ordinance, the petitioners asserted.

A special court on Thursday summarily rejected the bail prayers of the detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her cabinet colleague Rafiqul Islam in the Niko graft case.
   AK Roy, the judge of the special judge’s court 2 set up on the Jatiya Sangsad complex, passed the orders after hearing separate petitions filed by Hasina, also the Awami League president, and Rafiqul.
   There is no scope for entertaining the bail petitions as the Emergency Power Rules revokes the right to seek bail by the accused facing graft charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1947.
   Hasina’s counsels Quamrul Islam and Abdul Mannan Khan told reporters they might appeal with the High Court against the rejection of the bail petition.
   Hasina filed the bail petition on June 1 and former state minister for energy and power Rafiqul on Thursday.
   The Anti-Corruption Commission prosecutors, who were ready to open the case today, opposed the repeated defence plea for deferment as ‘unwarranted.’
   As the court resumed at 10:07am, Hasina, Rafiqul and former energy and power secretary Taufiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury were produced in court amid heightened security.
   The court also deferred once again the hearing in the framing of charges against the three and six others in the case till June 10 as the defence counsels sought time for the hearing, saying they were yet to get prepared.
   On June 1, the court deferred the hearing till Thursday on the defence counsels’ plea that they were yet to get and examine the case documents. The court also ordered the defence counsels to examine the documents in the case on June 3.
   On Thursday, the defence counsels told the court they had completed examining the documents, but were yet to get prepared for the hearing in the framing of charges.
   Charges were pressed on May 7 against Hasina and eight others in the case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission’s deputy director MM Shabbir Hassan with the Tejgaon police for causing a loss of Tk 13,630.50 crore to the state by way of signing the deal.
   Former state minister for energy in her cabinet Rafiqul Islam, former principal secretary SA Samad, former energy secretaries Taufiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury and M Akmal Hossain, then Petrobangla chairman Mosharraf Hossain and Niko’s South Asia vice-president Quasem Sharif, former secretary of then External Resources Division AKM Moshiur Rahman and former director of Petrobangla (mines, mineral and operation) Syed Anwarul Haque were also accused of the same charge. Except for Taufiq, all others accused in the case are still in hiding.
   According to the charge sheet, the accused in collaboration with each other approved the policy and the draft for singing a deal with Niko for gas extraction work in the Chhatak, Kamta and Feni gas fields through ‘cheating for personal financial benefit.’
   The charge sheet also mentioned the work was given to Niko in an illegal way without floating tenders, allowing it to extract 1,794 billion cubic feet of gas from a reserve of 2,834bcf, which caused the country to incur a loss of Tk 13,630.50 crore in view of the price of each million cubic feet of gas of Tk 75.9783 at the time.
   The commission also alleged the accused had ‘cheated and abused power’ by showing the eastern part of the Chhatak gas field, explored by Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company, but yet to be extracted, as marginal and abandoned.

Politicians on Thursday came down heavily on the government’s move to form a commission to review the constitution, saying that this government did not have the legitimacy to ‘doctor’ the constitution on the plea of removing ‘inconsistencies and contradictions’.
   Leaders of the major political parties asserted that this government had no right to amend or review the constitution on any grounds. It is only the parliament which has the authority to discuss any issue relating to the constitution.
   The debate was sparked off by the remarks of education adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman who on Wednesday said, ‘What we are thinking about is a review exercise of the constitution — not of its prime spirit but of certain articles. The matter is being discussed on the basis of specific proposals.’
   The BNP secretary-general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, reacted sharply to the adviser’s comments and said forcefully, ‘He has no right say so. It is a total violation of the constitution.’
   ‘It is absolutely beyond the jurisdiction of this government to doctor the constitution. Only an elected parliament has the authority to discuss anything regarding the constitution, and to see whether or not there is any inconsistency or contradiction. And it needs a two-thirds majority to bring about any amendment to the constitution,’ he told New Age over telephone.
   ‘The advisers and their government are violating all democratic norms by making such comments. They are mandated only to hold a free and acceptable election in 90 days and hand over power to the people’s representatives. And that time was over much earlier. Now the sooner they do so [hold elections] the better it is for the nation,’ he added.
   Awami League presidium member Matia Chowdhury told New Age that the caretaker government was not the proper authority and had no right to review the inconsistencies and contradictions in the constitution.
   ‘What standing does this government have that it can change the constitution? This unelected government does not have authority to do so. Only the people’s representatives can do so,’ she asserted.
   Matia said the caretaker government was supposed to hold parliamentary elections within 90 days after it took office. But the government is trying to mislead the people and hide its failure instead of discharging its duty.
   The president of the Workers Party of Bangladesh, Rashed Khan Menon, said a caretaker government had no authority to amend the constitution, and he stood for restoration of the constitution’s original character, as it was after its formulation in 1972.
   ‘If anyone needs to amend the constitution, it has to be in consultation with the political parties,’ said Menon.
   The general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, Mujahidul Islam Selim, said the proposed move of the government would strengthen the anti-liberation forces. ‘We do not want any amendment of the constitution, which has been done many times in the past. We want restoration of the original constitution of 1972’, he said.
   Selim suggested that the government should refrain from taking any initiative of amending the constitution.

About 15,700 people, including leaders and activists of major political parties, local government representatives and journalists, were arrested till Thursday morning since the interim government launched a countrywide crackdown midnight past Friday.
   Law enforcers detained 1,679 people in 24 hours since Wednesday morning at places across the country, according to police headquarters.
   In Dhaka, 183 people were rounded up on various charges during the period.
   Joint forces arrested 1,055 people on the basis of warrants, 19 convicts, 10 on charge of possessing illegal firearms and three under explosives control act, while the rest 592 were detained on various other charges.
   They also recovered 17 firearms and 53 rounds of bullet during the clampdown which the police boss earlier claimed to have been targeted at nabbing people wanted in criminal cases or with specific charges.
   The seized firearms included two revolvers and three rifles.
   In Dhaka, lawmen captured 21 people served with arrest warrants, one person as listed criminal, 55 wanted in regular cases and six on charge of snatching, while the rest 100 people were arrested on different charges.
   Our Mymensingh correspondent reports, police arrested Ghagra union parishad chairman Joynal Abedin in a brothel in the town. Rajgati union parishd member Shamsuddin was also arrested.
   In Brahmanbaria, police arrested Hatkata Mamun, accused in 10 cases, at Bitghar area under Nabinagar upazila. One alleged land grabber was also arrested in the drive.
   Our Chuadanga correspondent reports, joint forces arrested Awami League-backed Juba League leader Baharul Hayat at police line area on Thursday. He was wanted in 10 cases, but freed on bail.
   In Sirajganj, a convict Ibrahim alias Ranjan was captured in the municipality area.
   Our Habiganj correspondent said joint forces arrested Abdur Rashid, acting chairman of Uttar-Paschim union parishad of Baniachang upazila.

The Election Commission on Thursday unveiled a tentative 9-day schedule for completing hearing of about 3,000 objections filed against the proposed delimitation of the electoral constituencies although the commission was yet to decide how many objections would be heard.
   Election commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain, who failed to give the exact number of objections filed with the commission, unveiled the tentative June 12-29 schedule. The hearings will he held at divisional headquarters in presence of the three commissioners.
   ‘I do not know how many objections have been filed. But, according to newspaper reports, the number is about 3,000 and the objections have been filed against [delimitation of] 90 constituencies. Of them over 50 per cent are beyond consideration’, Sakhawat told reporters at his office.
   An official at the EC, however, said the commission had so far counted about 2,800 complaints.
   He said that the EC would consider the objections which mentioned discrepancies in the demarcation in violation of the set principles – population (plus-minus 25 per cent of four lakh people in a constituency based on the latest census report), administrative convenience (constituencies should not cross the boundaries of a district) and compactness of the areas.
   No appeal was filed against delimitation of 43 constituencies. On completion of the hearings, the EC will have to make decisions on the basis of the merits of the appeals, the commissioner said.
   The commissioner said several hundred similar objections had been lodged with the EC without pointing out whether there were any such discrepancies.
   Sakhawat earlier said that seven or eight of the total objections could be considered important enough for hearing and others did not merit any attention.
   The Election Commission on April 29 published a gazette notification on the delimitation of 133 out of the 300 electoral constituencies. The major political parties – Awami League, Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami – have protested against the move.
   According to a draft schedule, hearing in the appeals filed against re-demarcation of the constituencies in Dhaka division will be held on June 12, 14 and 15 at the EC Secretariat conference room.
   Hearing in appeals in Sylhet division will be held on June 19 at Sylhet Circuit House, in Barisal division on June 25 at Barisal Circuit House, in Khulna division on June 26 at Khulna Circuit House and in Rajshahi division on June 29 at Rajshahi Circuit House.
   Hearing in appeals against delimitation of constituencies in Chittagong division will be held in two parts – on June 22 at Comilla Circuit House and on June 23 at Chittagong Circuit House.
   The EC Secretariat is likely to publish today the details of the schedules in which the complainants will be asked to come up with their arguments at the hearings in their respective areas.
   The time to complete the mammoth task of hearing and disposal of a large number of appeals is too short compared to the time the EC took and the number of cases it handled previously. In 1984, the EC took 13 days to hear only 307 appeals against its initiative to redraw boundaries of the constituencies.
   If the EC hears the appeals until June 29, it may not be possible for the commission to publish the final list of electoral constituencies to be redrawn by the end of June as per its electoral roadmap.

Hillary Clinton will end her presidential bid and declare her support for Barack Obama, she told supporters on Thursday, ending a gruelling 16-month nominating fight that split the Democratic Party.
   Hillary said in a letter to supporters released Thursday morning that she will publicly back Obama on Saturday and also pledge to work for party unity in the general-election race against Republican John McCain.
   ‘On Saturday, I will extend my congratulations to senator Obama and my support for his candidacy,’ the New York senator and former first lady wrote.
   ‘I have said throughout the campaign that I would strongly support senator Obama if he were the Democratic Party’s nominee, and I intend to deliver on that promise.’
   Obama clinched the nomination on Tuesday and a number of Hillary supporters urged her on Wednesday to halt her campaign and begin bringing the party together.
   Hillary will thank her supporters at the event that was originally planned for Friday but switched to Saturday to allow time for more supporters to attend.
   ‘This has been a long and hard-fought campaign, but as I have always said, my differences with senator Obama are small compared to the differences we have with senator McCain and the Republicans,’ Hillary said in the letter.
   ‘I will be speaking on Saturday about how together we can rally the party behind senator Obama. The stakes are too high and the task before us too important to do otherwise.’
   Hillary has not decided whether to close the campaign or suspend it, allowing her to keep control of her delegates to the nominating convention, aides said.
   Obama attended two fund-raising events in New York City on Wednesday night and acknowledged her decision.
   ‘Your junior senator from New York engaged in an extraordinary campaign,’ he told attendees at one fund-raiser. ‘Now that the interfamily squabble is done, all of us can focus on what needs to be done in November.’
   McCain proposed that Obama join him for a series of joint summer town-hall meetings across the country. Obama’s campaign manager called the idea appealing but made no immediate commitment.
   In an interview with NBC News, Obama said he would not be rushed into making a decision about his running mate. He also said he would welcome former president Bill Clinton’s help in the campaign.
   ‘My strong feeling is that moving forward, I’m going to need Bill Clinton involved in this process,’ Obama said. ‘He still is a transcendent political figure in this country. And I want him involved.’
   Obama, the first black candidate to lead a major US party into a White House race, announced a three-member team to head his search for a vice president.
   Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late president John Kennedy, will vet prospective Obama running mates along with former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder and Jim Johnson, former chief executive of the mortgage lender Fannie Mae, who performed the same task for Democrats John Kerry in 2004 and Walter Mondale in 1984.

The BNP’s secretary-general, Khandakar Delwar Hossain, on Thursday urged the Awami League to respond positively to Khaleda Zia’s call for political unity for the sake of democracy and the nation.
   He said a positive response from the Awami League would strengthen the move to overcome ‘the current crisis in the country’.
   ‘Please, for God’s sake, say “yes” to Khaleda Zia’s call instead of “no” for the people’s interest,’ said Delwar at a briefing at his Sher-e-Bangla Nagar flat.
   ‘It is totally impossible for a single party to overcome the continuing crisis. All the parties need to come together to resolve the crisis as was done during the movement against the military junta in the 1980s, which led to Ershad’s fall in 1990,’ he said, and also referred to the successful movements of 1952, 1969 and 1971. ‘Those political movements were successful because of the unity of the parties.’
   ‘All that we need is to get united and launch a movement together. If you win in the next election we will be in the opposition. Don’t turn down our call for political unity,’ he said.
   The Awami League’s acting general secretary, Syed Ashraful Islam, had rejected Khaleda’s call for unity on ideological grounds. ‘We do not want a repeat of the past. We will not launch a movement and shed blood just to see Khaleda Zia go to power. This cannot happen again.’
   Delwar expressed his doubt whether other members of the Awami League agree with Syed Ashraf’s remarks and back his attitude. ‘I have doubts whether Awami League stands on such grounds. I suppose he has been made to say so by certain quarters. We will be happy if the Awami League alone can free Sheikh Hasina. So will be the people, but the history does not say so,’ he said.
   The BNP’s secretary-general came down heavily on the continuing blanket arrests of political activists. More than 14,000 people have been taken into custody and most of them were leaders and activists of Awami League and BNP, he said.
   Delwar evaded a question on the differences of opinion in the party, saying, ‘People will judge what they [those who disagree with Delwar] are saying. I will not make any comment.’
   He also said that Dhaka city unit of the party was dissolved at Khaleda Zia’s instruction. ‘Whatever changes or decisions have taken place in the party were done at the instruction of the party’s chairperson. I am only acting like a post-box.’
   The BNP’s standing committee member RA Gani, vice-chairman Sarwari Rahman, joint secretaries-general Selima Rahman and Abdul Mannan and acting office secretary Rizvi Ahmed were also present at the briefing.
   A group of leaders from the Sylhet unit of the party met Delwar and lauded him for reshuffling the lower units of the party. They also described the organisational scenario in Sylhet, which was Saifur Rahman’s stronghold.

The Awami League on Thursday officially rejected the BNP’s call for launching a united movement against the interim government and made it clear that there was no possibility even of a simultaneous movement with them.
   Briefing newsmen after a meeting of the AL presidium with the acting party president Zillur Rahman in the chair, its acting general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam said unity or even simultaneous movement with the BNP-Jamaat was never possible as they were responsible for the events leading to January 11, 2007 and the present crisis.
   ‘We, the 14-party are united as before…We will move forward with our allies and make decisions after consulting them… we do not need unity with others’, he said.
   About BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain’s call on the Awami League to start a united movement for overcoming the present crisis and restoration of democracy, Ashraful said it was a personal appeal from the BNP leader and ‘his words are not enough for forging unity’.
   He said the Awami League could not forge unity with the BNP and the Jamaat-e-Islami as the two camps adhered to different ideologies and principles.
   The AL presidium condemned the joint forces’ wholesale arrest of political activists and asked the government to stop the drive immediately.
   The meeting warned that the caretaker government was pushing the country towards confrontation by such repressive actions. The blanket arrest is aimed at foiling the AL’s signature campaign and district tour programme, Ashraful alleged.
   The presidium also asked the government to lift the state of emergency immediately for restoring rule of law.
   It also condemned filing of ‘false’ cases against party presidium member Tofail Ahmed pointing out that the case was filed against him as the party had decided not to attend the dialogue with the government without Sheikh Hasina’s presence. It urged the government to withdraw the cases against Tofail and his family.
   The meeting censured the government’s plan to form a commission to review the constitution saying that the caretaker administration did not have any legitimate authority to amend or review the constitution. It is only an elected parliament which can discuss any issues relating to the constitution, it said.
   ‘This government is doing many things that are beyond its jurisdiction and the crisis is deepening for that,’ Ashraful said and urged the government to refrain from such moves.
   Presidium members Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed, Suranjit Sengupta and Matia Chowdhury were present at the meeting held at Zillur Rahman’s Gulshan house.

The detained former chief conservator of forests Osman Gani was on Thursday sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for 12 years and his wife, Mahsin Ara Gani, for three years for amassing illegal wealth and concealing information on assets in the wealth statement submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission.
   AKM Arifur Rahman, the judge of the special judge’s court 10 set up on the Jatiya Sangsad complex, ordered confiscation of their assets of Tk 3.6 crore and 270 tolas of gold, which was found disproportionate to their legitimate income.
   The court also fined the former chief conservator of forests, widely known as the king of forests, Tk 10 lakh and his wife Tk 1 lakh. If they fail to pay the fines, Gani will need to serve rigorous imprisonment for one more year and Mahsin Ara six more months.
   Gani was jailed for 10 years for amassing illegal wealth beyond his known sources of income and for two years for concealing information on his assets in the wealth statement.
   Gani, however, will need to serve the highest sentence of 10 years in jail, as the court ordered concurrent execution of the sentences.
   The court jailed Mahsin Ara for abetting her husband in committing the offences. Her sentence will be executed after her arrest or surrender as she has been in hiding.
   The army-led joint forces on May 29, 2007 arrested Osman Gani at his house at Uttara in Dhaka. During the raid, they seized Tk 1 crore in cash hidden in the unusual places inside the house, including pillows.
   After his arrest, the commission had notified him to submit his wealth statement. In the statement, submitted on June 26, 2007, the couple showed their assets to be worth Tk 3,70,15,000. The commission, however, later found them to be owning more assets worth about Tk 4.3 crore.
   The commission’s deputy director Golam Shahriar Chowdhury filed the case with the Uttara police accusing Gani of concealing around Tk 4.3 crore and amassing the wealth illegally and the wife of helping her husband in committing the offences.

A special court on Thursday sentenced former communications secretary Ismail Zabiullah to rigorous imprisonment for 13 years and his wife Ayesha Siddique for three years for amassing illegal wealth and hiding assets in the wealth statement submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission.
   M Sirajul Islam, the judge of the special judge’s court 7 set up on the Jatiya Sangsad complex, also ordered confiscation of the couple’s assets worth about Tk 1.3 crore.
   The court also fined Ismail Tk 10 lakh and Ayesha Tk 1 lakh. If they fail to pay the fines, Ismail will need to serve one more year and his wife six more months in jail.
   The court jailed Islmail for 10 years for amassing illegal wealth and for three years for hiding assets in the wealth statement submitted to the commission.
   Ismail will need to serve both the sentences of 13 years, as the court ordered consecutive execution of the sentences.
   Ayesha was jailed for helping her husband in committing the offences.
   Their sentences, however, will be executed after their arrest or surrender as they are in hiding.
   The commission’s assistant director Helal Uddin filed the case against the couple on November 5, 2007 with the Ramna police.

A BANGLADESHI murderer was executed by firing squad early Wednesday morning, the public prosecution announced in a statement, the Gulf Daily News reports on Thursday.
   Mizan Noor Al Rahman Ayoub Mia had been convicted of the slaying of Bahraini fashion designer Sana Al Jalahma in August 2006.
   He was shot at 5:00am in the presence of the judge who sentenced him to death, chief public prosecutor Ahmed Bucheeri and a prison doctor in the Safra area.
   Mia paid the ultimate price after being found guilty of murdering Ms Al Jalahma in a frenzied attack at her home, in Saar.
   He worked for the family, but repeatedly slashed her with a glass shard after they got into an argument earlier the same day.
   The police arrested him in Ma’ameer within 24 hours.
   News agency AHN adds: The case was pending in the court for two years, but was put on the fast track after King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa endorsed the death verdict.

The Anti-Corruption Commi-ssion has decided to file a case against Proshika chairman Kazi Faruque Ahmed and four others on charges of illegal transformation and transfer of foreign currency, ACC sources said.
   The anti-graft body has also decided to file a case against Awami League presidium member Kazi Zafar Ullah and his wife for amassing wealth beyond their known sources of income.
   ACC director general (admin) Colonel Hanif Iqbal told journalists at the commission’s regular briefing that the ACC Thursday approved the filing of the cases.
   He also informed that the commission approved the submission of charge sheets in two cases against former minister Aminul Haque and a UP chairman, and former foreign minister Morshed Khan’s son Faisal Morshed Khan and daughter-in-law Shama Sejan Khan.
   The case will be filed against Kazi Faruque and four others accusing them of illegally transferring $53,336 from the foreign money destined for poor people through Proshika.
   They will also be accused of transferring and transforming of $24,690 in the name of scholarship. They will also be accused of violating NGO guidelines, the ACC officials said.
   Those who are going to be implicated in the case are Proshika senior vice-presidents Mahbubul Karim and David William Biswas, Proshika CFO Yusuf Ali Miah and Standard Chartered Bank director Mirza Aminur Rahman.
   The case will be filed under section 13 of the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2002, the officials said.
   AL leader Zafar Ullah and his wife Nilufa Zafar Ullah are being sued for allegedly amassing wealth worth Tk 19 crore beyond known sources of income.
   The charge sheet will be submitted against former post and telecommunications minister Aminul and Mofiz Uddin for causing loss of over Tk 16 crore to the state by constructing a footbridge at a place of their convenience.
   Former minister Morshed Khan’s son and daughter-in-law will be charge-sheeted for amassing wealth worth Tk 7.08 crore beyond known sources of income and concealment of information of wealth worth Tk 6.93 crore.
   About the rumour of resignation of the ACC chairman, Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury, now on vacation in Australia, Hanif said, ‘Rumour is rumour and there cannot be any comment on rumour.’
   He, however, said the commission did not know or believe such a thing took place.
   About allegations of corruption of NGOs, Hanif said the commission would act on specific allegations.
   On progress of the case against the Dhaka city mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, and his family, he said the investigation of the case was on.

Complexities have arisen over the signing of an agreement between the Power Development Board and a joint venture company for installation of a costly 50 MW short-term rental power plant at Ashuganj as the company wants changes in the agreement
   which has already been initialled by the parties.
   The PDB and the joint venture of Green Power, Concord-Pragati of Bangladesh and Neva AB of Sweden were scheduled to sign the contract on Sunday, but the PDB has deferred the date after the joint venture wanted to install one 60 MW generator instead of two 30 MW units.
   Sources in PDB said that as per the draft initialled by the PDB and the joint venture, the company was supposed install two 30 MW generators, but it recently told the board that it had not found two readymade 30 MW generators in the international market but did find one 60 MW generator.
   The company wants to set up the 60 MW plant as it has not found any 50 MW generator in the market, and PDB has no problem in allowing the company to set up a 60 MW plant although it will purchase only 50 MW according to the contract.
   The government’s purchase committee on March 2 approved the selection of the joint venture for installation of the readymade plant on build-own-operate basis for three years. The joint venture is supposed to charge 4.78 cents for per unit of electricity after the plant is installed in 120 days after the signing of the agreement.
   PDB sources, however, said that they were reluctant to change the draft agreement in regard to two units as they felt that a one-unit plant would be ‘unreliable’ and ‘fuel inefficient’. ‘Besides, it is a clear violation of the agreement which has been initialled,’ said a source. The PDB’s board will take a decision on the matter next week.
   Sources in the Power Cell said that a committee on the rental power plant issue, headed by Power Cell’s director-general and comprised of power officials including representatives of the PDB, will discuss further the demand of the company.
   The Power Cell, the research and planning wing of the Power Division, completed the tender procedure and is handling the agreement issue.
   A Power Cell official, however, claimed that there should be no problem in having the one-unit plant installed as the PDB was purchasing not the power plant but only electricity for three years. ‘If the company cannot supply electricity, it will pay the penalty. Besides, in the contract the fuel efficiency issue is clearly stated. If it cannot maintain a certain level of fuel efficiency, it will also have to pay for that,’ he said.
   ‘We don’t have to sign the contract, but that will not help us to increase electricity generation on an emergency basis’ he said.
   He said that the rental plant committee would send recommendations to the Power Division to enable it to take a good decision.
   PDB officials, however, said that the main reason for installation of a power plant should be to get electricity, not to realise penalties.

Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri urged Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip to escalate attacks on Israel over its crippling siege of the territory, in an internet audio message.
   Osama bin Laden’s Egyptian-born righthand man also urged his countrymen to rise up to break the blockade and lambasted Arab governments, according to the message attributed to Zawahiri and posted on an Islamist web site on Wednesday.
   ‘Do not give up... increase your martyrdom attacks, the number of rockets you launch and your ambushes. There is no other solution,’ Zawahiri said in the message marking the anniversary of the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
   Gaza has been under a punishing Israeli blockade since the Islamist movement Hamas seized power in the impoverished Palestinian territory last June, in a move Israel says is aimed at halting rocket attacks.
   ‘To those who try to make you despair, tell them... America is being defeated by our brothers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why should we despair,’ said Zawahiri, who has a 25 million dollar US bounty on his head.
   ‘This naqsa (setback) has shown that the salvation of this Muslim nation would come through the jihad (holy war) of its people... The governments have already betrayed’ their people, he said.
   The term ‘naqsa’ is used by Arabs to refer to the defeat of the armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria in 1967, which led to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, Syria’s Golan Heights and Egypt’s Sinai, which was returned to Egypt after signing the Camp David peace accords in 1978.
   Zawahiri slammed the Egyptian authorities for blocking the Rafah crossing point, the only gateway to Gaza that bypasses Israel, accusing the government of aiding Israel by besieging the Palestinians.
   ‘I say to my brothers in Gaza, those who are putting you under siege are traitors, starting from the soldier in the central security forces who is guarding the treason fence to the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak,’ he said.
   ‘It is your right to enter Egypt whenever you wish, and to destroy treason fences whenever you want,’ he said.
   In January, Gaza militants blew open large sections of the border barricades, sending hundreds of thousands of Palestinians pouring into Sinai to stock up on basic goods before it was resealed a few days later.
   ‘I say to my Muslim brothers in Sinai, help your brothers in Gaza and take part in their fight. If they start bringing down the fence of treason, give them a hand,’ Zawahiri said.
   ‘This shameful fence deprives our people in Gaza from food and medicine, while it opens welcoming 50,000 Israeli tourist over Passover to practice immoralities in Sinai.’
   In his last message posted on April 22, Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant blasted Hamas over its reported readiness to consider a peace deal with Israel.
   Zawahiri also accused Muslim leaders in his latest message of depriving their people of food because of corruption, mainly Egypt, pointing to people lining up at bakeries to buy bread.
   ‘Why does the Muslim nation face hunger while it is the wealthiest nation on the face of earth?’ he said referring to the huge oil reserves controlled by Arab countries.
   ‘Where does the oil money go and where does all this wealth disappear to?’

The US president, George W Bush, and his top policymakers exaggerated Saddam Hussein’s links to terrorism and ignored doubts among intelligence agencies about Iraq’s arms programmes as they made their case for war, a Senate committee reported on Thursday.
   The Senate intelligence committee said in a study that major Bush administration statements that Iraq had a partnership with al-Qaeda and provided it with weapons training were unsupported by intelligence, and sometimes contradicted it.
   It also said statements on Iraq’s weapons before the March 2003 US-led invasion were substantiated in most cases by available US intelligence, but that they failed to reflect internal debate over those findings.
   The long-delayed Senate study supported previous reports and findings that the administration’s main case for war – that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction – was inaccurate and deeply flawed.
   ‘The president and his advisors undertook a relentless public campaign in the aftermath of the (September 11, 2001) attacks to use the war against al-Qaeda as a justification for overthrowing Saddam Hussein,’ intelligence committee Chairman John Rockefeller said in written commentary on the report.
   ‘Representing to the American people that the two had an operational partnership and posed a single, indistinguishable threat was fundamentally misleading and led the nation to war on false pretenses.’
   The report also cited at least one statement – by then-defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, that the Iraqi government operated underground weapons of mass destruction facilities – that was not backed up by intelligence information.
   The committee voted 10-5 to approve the report, with two Republican lawmakers supporting it. Senator Christopher Bond and three other Republican panel members denounced the study in an attached dissent as a ‘partisan exercise.’
   White House spokeswoman Dana Perino cited Republican objections to the report, but said the issue of inaccurate intelligence had been previously aired.
   ‘We had the intelligence that we had, fully vetted, but it was wrong. We certainly regret that and we’ve taken measures to fix it,’ Perino said.
   US public opinion, supportive of the war at the start, has soured on the war in the last few years, contributing to a dive in Bush’s popularity.
   The conflict is likely to be a key issue in the November presidential election between Republican John McCain, who supports the war, and Democrat Barack Obama, who opposed the war from the start and says he would aim to pull US troops out within 16 months of taking office in January 2009.
   Rockefeller has previously announced his support for Obama.
   A second report by the committee faulted the administration’s handling of December 2001 Rome meetings between defence officials and Iranian informants, which dealt with the Iranian issue and not Iraq.
   It said Department of Defence officials collected potentially useful intelligence information at the meeting that they failed to share with other intelligence agencies.
   Rockefeller said the committee’s report on the defence department ‘paints a disturbing picture of Pentagon policy officials’ who gathered intelligence on their own and kept others in the dark.
   He said the department ‘demonstrated a fundamental disdain for the intelligence community’s role in vetting sensitive sources.’

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, has put emphasis on introducing a mass-transportation system in the capital city for reducing huge traffic congestion side by side constructing new road networks.
   Referring to government’s Strategic Transport Plan, he suggested construction of underpass and introducing human haulers for everyday commuting with a view to addressing the sufferings of the city dwellers.
   Fakhruddin said this while inaugurating the implementation work of Airport Road–Roquiah Sarani Link Road construction project at the western part of the old airport at Tejgaon in the capital Thursday.
   A total of about Tk 25-crore link road project is expected to be completed by December. The four-lane road will be 2.6km long.
   The road will be constructed in parallel with the boundary wall of Tejgaon old airport through its eastern, southern and western part without obstructing the activities of the old airport.
   Core of Engineers of the Bangladesh Army will supervise the project taken under the initiative of the LGRD ministry.
   The aim of the project is to link east and west ends of the Tejgaon airport, reduce traffic congestion at the adjacent roads, improve communications system, control traffic movement from the end of the Mahakhali flyover without any interruption and link Airport Road with Roquiah Sarani.
   The LGRD and cooperatives adviser, M Anwarul Iqbal, in his address of welcome said the ongoing development projects would ease communications system as well as improve the environment of the city.
   The communications adviser, Ghulam Quader, foreign affairs adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, law adviser, AF Hassan Ariff, women and children affairs adviser, Rasheda K Chowdhury, and special assistant to chief adviser for energy, M Tamim, attended the function.
   Chiefs of three services and high civil and military officials were also present.
   A brief presentation on 10 ongoing projects including the link road was made in the function by three specialist engineers of the Bangladesh University of Engineers and Technology.
   Terming construction of road network as a part of supply side management, Fakhruddin laid emphasis on demand side management by improving traffic management, traffic signalling and traffic education.
   He said the government, besides discharging its routine duties, had undertaken steps to reduce traffic congestion in the capital and bring a qualitative change in communications and traffic system.
   Referring to Hatirjheel–Begun-bari canal project, the chief adviser said these lakes and roads would give long-term benefits to the city dwellers by improving environment.
   He also pointed out the under implementation development projects that included Bijoy Sarani–Tejgaon Link Road, Zia Colony–Mirpur Link Road, Banani–Gulshan lake link bridge and a road from Agargaon to Grameen Bank, Mirpur.
   Implementation of these projects will connect the city neighbourhoods, link the capital with outside districts and help ease traffic congestion, he added.
   Thanking the Local Government Division, Dhaka City Corporation, BUET, Bangladesh Army and the Bangladesh Air Force for providing assistance to implement a number of public welfare projects in the capital, the chief adviser said a planned and coordinated road network and traffic system will contribute improving the standard of crowded city life in Dhaka.

Second seed Ana Ivanovic won the battle of the Serbs in a thrilling French Open semi-final on Thursday and will play Russia’s Dinara Safina for the title on Saturday.
   The 20-year-old Ivanovic defeated 23-year-old Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to reach the final at Roland Garros for the second straight year having lost to Justine Henin in last year’s final.
   She also reached the Australian Open final in January but lost to Maria Sharapova.
   For third-seeded Jankovic it was the fourth time she had played in a Grand Slam semi-final and the fourth time she had failed to make it through.
   The 13th seeded Safina had earlier defeated compatriot and fourth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 6-2 in the first of the semi-finals.
   ‘It was a tough match and I managed to stay strong at the end to win it,’ said Ivanovic.
   ‘She started to play really good tennis and I was too passive and if you give her a chance of course she is going to use it.’
   Jankovic, again wearing an arm brace to ward off the pain she has been feeling from tendonitis, opened the stronger and broke serve to 15 in the second game to take a 3-0 lead.
   She threatened to make it 4-0, but Ivanovic held on visibly growing in confidence after winning the game at the end of a long, punishing rally.
   She broke back in the following game only to drop her own serve in the next as Jankovic got to 4-2.
   But the younger woman’s heavier groundstrokes started to make the difference as she won the next four games to take the set 6-4 in 41 minutes.
   Jankovic dropped her serve for the fourth straight time to open the second set allowing Ivanovic to jump out into a 2-0 lead.
   In stark contrast to the first few games, Ivanovic was looking comfortable on her serve while it was a struggle each time for her opponent on hers.
   But all that changed in the sixth game of the set when Ivanovic inexplicably let slip a 40-0 lead to allow Jankovic to draw level at 3-3.
   She was broken again two games later and Jankovic served out to level the scores although she needed four set points to do so.
   Ivanovic had nervily lost her way and against one of the grittiest players on the women’s circuit that was a fatal mistake.
   Jankovic won the first two games of the deciding set to make it seven games in a row, but Ivanovic stopped the rot and got back on level terms at 3-3 by breaking to love in the sixth game.
   Another exchange of service breaks took it to 4-4 and two games later Ivanovic played her best game of the semi-final opening up with her groundstrokes to clinch the win.
   There was the added bonus for Ivanovic in that her win coupled with the defeat of Kuznetsova means that she will take over from Maria Sharapova as world No.1 at the end of this tournament win or lose in the final.
   She has played Safina three times and won twice, but the Russian won the only time they have played on clay in Berlin three years ago.

The United Nations urged the world on Thursday to kick an all-consuming addiction to carbon dioxide and said everyone must take steps to fight climate change.
   The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon, said global warming was becoming the defining issue of the era and will hurt rich and poor alike.
   ‘Our world is in the grip of a dangerous carbon habit,’ Ban said in a statement to mark World Environment Day, which is being marked by events around the globe and hosted by the New Zealand city of Wellington.
   ‘Addiction is a terrible thing. It consumes and controls us, makes us deny important truths and blinds us to the consequences of our actions,’ he said in the speech to reinforce this year’s World Environment Day theme of ‘CO2 Kick the Habit.’
   ‘Whether you are an individual, an organisation, a business or a government, there are many steps you can take to reduce your carbon footprint. It is a message we all must take to heart,’ he said.
   World Environment Day, conceived in 1972, is the United Nations’ principal day to mark global green issues and aims to give a human face to environmental problems and solutions.
   New Zealand, which boasts snow-capped mountains, pristine fjords and isolated beaches used as the backdrop for the ‘Lord of the Rings’ film trilogy, has pledged to become carbon-neutral.
   ‘We take pride in our clean, green identity as a nation and we are determined to take action to protect it. We appreciate that protecting the climate means behaviour change by each and every one of us,’ said the New Zealand prime minister, Helen Clark.
   New Zealand, like many countries, staged art and street festivals to spread the message on how people can reduce carbon usage.
   In Australia, Adelaide Zoo staged a wild breakfast for corporate leaders to focus on how carbon emissions threaten animal habitats.
   In Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, people plan to clean up Gulshan Baridhara Lake that has become badly polluted, and in Kathmandu the Bagmati River Festival will focus on cleaning up the river there.
   Many Asian cities, such as Bangalore and Mumbai, plan tree-planting campaigns, while the Indian town of Pune will open a ‘Temple of Environment’ to help spread green awareness.
   Global carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels are rising quickly and scientists say the world faces rising seas, melting glaciers and more intense storms, droughts and floods as the planet warms.
   A summit of G8 nations in Hokkaido, Japan, next month, is due to formalise a goal agreed a year ago that global carbon emissions should be reduced by 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.
   But some nations think the cuts should be deeper, leading to a reduction of 80 per cent of carbon emissions by 2050 to try to stabilise CO2 concentrations in the air to limit global warming.
   The Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, said climate change was already a reality.
   The UN Environment Programme said the cost of greening of the world’s economy would cost as little as a few tenths of global GDP annually over 30 years and would be a driving force for innovation, new businesses and employment.

Nepal’s Maoists said Thursday they were prepared to give up their claim to the first presidency of the newly republican country in order to resolve a post-monarchy political deadlock.
   The former rebels, however, said they did not want their main political rivals to have the job.
   ‘We have decided to give up the claim for the presidential post to end the ongoing deadlock but we won’t accept presidential candidacies from any other political parties,’ senior Maoist official Barsha Man Pun said.
   ‘The ceremonial president should be chosen from civil society,’ Pun said.
   Nepal took a historic step last week when a Maoist-dominated constitutional assembly officially ended the world’s last Hindu monarchy, but the parties are still wrangling over how they should fill the political void.
   The ultra-leftists – who signed a landmark peace deal in 2006 – had said their election victory in April polls meant they deserved the prime ministerial and presidential positions in a new government.
   But rival parties had said the Maoists should not be allowed to hold both positions as it would give the ex-guerrillas too much power.
   Nepal’s peace minister rejected the latest Maoist proposal and accused the ex-rebels of trying to establish a dictatorship.
   ‘It is not for the Maoists to decide on the criteria for a president,’ the peace minister, Ram Chandra Poudel, a senior member of the Nepali Congress party, said.
   ‘We have acknowledged the Maoists as the biggest party but the way they are behaving shows they want to form a totalitarian government,’ said Poudel, referring to the fact that the presidency would be a ceremonial role.
   The 2006 peace deal between the mainstream parties and Maoists ended a decade-long civil war that killed at least 13,000 people and devastated an already fragile economy.

The High Court on Thursday granted interim bail to Sigma Huda, wife of former communications minister Nazmul Huda, and Mir Helal Uddin, son of former state minister Mir Nasir Uddin, in two separate graft cases.
   Sigma was convicted along with her husband while Helal convicted along with his father in the graft cases.
   Both of them were tried under the Emergency Powers Rules.
   Following separate applications, a division bench of Justice M Abdul Quddus and Syed M Ziaul Karim granted them bail for three months.
   Rafique-ul Huq appeared for the petitioners.

Under the influence of a low over the northern Bay of Bengal, squally weather is likely to affect the maritime ports. Maritime ports of Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar and Mongla have been advised to hoist local cautionary signal number three, said a Met Office news release Thursday morning.
   All fishing boats and trawlers over the area have been advised to come close to the coast and proceed with caution till further notice.

Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon said on Thursday that an unelected interim government had no right to review the constitution of the country.
   ‘Its only duty is to hold the national polls and hand over power to an elected government’, he told a press conference at a local hotel before the party’s working committee meeting in the city.
   ‘The crisis will deepen if the government goes for a review of the constitution’, he warned.
   Menon asked the military-controlled government to lift the state of emergency by June in order to create an atmosphere conducive to holding parliamentary elections. He also asked it to leave the issue of local government polls to an elected government.
   He warned that the Awami League-led alliance would build up resistance against any conspiracy to foil the elections.
   The WP leader brushed aside the idea of an alliance with BNP-Jamaat for a joint movement against the government.
   ‘The question of an alliance with BNP-Jamaat does not arise as they are responsible for the present crisis’, he said.
   Menon said that some people hand-picked by the government had floated four political parties – PDP, Kalyan Party, Jago Bangladesh and another party – who were holding meetings in different places without hindrances in preparation for local government
   polls ‘as the government seems hell-bent on achieving its goal’.
   He asked how the government would create an environment conducive to elections when it had resorted to mass arrest of political activists.
   Menon doubted if the on-going dialogues would produce anything tangible without participation of the major political parties.
   He said that the dialogue would not be successful without involvement of the detained Awami League president Sheikh Hasina.
   He also said that the government was trying to form a national security council with an aim to control politics. ‘The government is also trying to control the media.’
   WP politburo member
   Fazle Hossain Badsha, and Liakat Ali Liku, secretary of
   its city unit, were present, among others, at the press conference.

Oman declared on Wednesday that their primary court had acquitted Mohammed Momin Miah and five other Bangladeshis held in that country on charges of murder.
   Momin Miah was repatriated to Oman as an accused wanted by Omani authorities in December 2007. Immediately, thereafter, Oman lifted the 12-year-long ban on import of Bangladeshi workers into that country.
   As a gesture of goodwill, the foreign adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, who is also in-charge of the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, visited Oman in May.
   In course of his visit, the foreign adviser raised with the Omani government the case of release of Mohammed Momin Mia and some others, and was assured that this would be considered favourably.
   After news of the acquittal Wednesday, the foreign adviser expressed his satisfaction: ‘We welcome this announcement. We hope the higher court will endorse the decision.’
   Oman has already become a major source of employment for Bangladeshi workers. Currently there are 1,62,133 Bangladeshi workers in Oman. This year alone some 22,377 Bangladeshis have gone to Oman since lifting of the ban.

Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers said Thursday they had killed 10 soldiers while security forces said they killed 35 rebels during the latest heavy clashes across the island’s north.
   The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said their fighters had beaten back an army attempt to break through their forward defence lines near Vavuniya during a six-hour battle on Wednesday.
   ‘The Sri Lanka army has suffered casualties, at least 10 killed,’ the LTTE was quoted as saying by the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com web site. The rebels did not disclose details about their own casualties.
   The country’s defence ministry countered by saying a total of 35 rebels had been killed on Wednesday – 20 in the Vavuniya area, and 15 others in Weli Oya, Mannar and Jaffna. One soldier was killed, the ministry added.
   ‘It is clear confrontations throughout areas in Vavuniya have been successful for security forces. LTTE have suffered major setbacks throughout the area,’ the ministry said.

The United States strongly recommended Bangladesh to criminally prosecute the unscrupulous manpower agents responsible for the hardship of expatriate Bangladeshi workers.
   This was stated in the ‘Trafficking in Persons Report 2008’ released in Washington by the US Department of State on Wednesday, said a Bangladesh Embassy press release.
   The report suggested Bangladesh to significantly increase criminal prosecutions and punishments for all forms of labour trafficking, including those that involve fraudulent recruiting and forced child labour; improve criminal law enforcement efforts against and punishment of government complicity in trafficking; and provide protection services for adult male trafficking victims and victims of forced labour.
   The report acknowledged the positive initiatives of the Bangladesh government to tackle the trafficking in persons.
   It places Bangladesh in tier-2 along with Asian developed countries like Japan and Singapore.