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All the members of Awami League’s central working committee, who took part in the discussion on Thursday, opposed the idea of contesting the upazila polls, meeting sources said.
   The working committee members, however, observed that the party should participate in the city corporation and municipality elections, scheduled for August 4, the sources added. But they were for on testing city corporation and municipal elections, only if the state of emergency is lifted permanently and party chief Sheikh Hasina released unconditionally.
   If the party decides to contest the corporation and municipal polls, some of the working committee members suggested, the members could contest individually, or by using a platform like the Nagorik Committee.
   The meeting, presided over by AL’s acting president Zillur Rahman, was adjourned yesterday afternoon till 5pm today (Friday). The meeting was convened mainly to decide whether the party should contest the local body polls, and to finalise the party’s strategy in the government’s dialogue with them, slated for July 3.
   Of the 71 members of the central working committee, 42 were present, while 17 members took part in the deliberations.
   Meanwhile a couple of working committee members, Dewan Shafiul Arefin Tutul and Fazle Rabbi, opposed the party’s participation in any local body polls before parliamentary elections, meeting sources said. They also warned that contesting local polls might turn out to be stepping into the trap of the caretaker government.
   Opposing the idea of contesting upazila elections, all the 17 discussants observed that the party should boycott the upazila polls without hesitation, an insider told New Age. They argued that the Upzila polls might hinder parliamentary elections to take place, while it could well be an exercise of the interim government to eventually form a ‘kings’ party’.
   However, the party will take a decision on these issues after reviewing the experiences of the party’s central leaders, who have recently concluded countrywide tours to get a clear-cut idea on the mindset of the grassroots-level leaders.
   The AL’s organizing secretary, Mahmudur Rahman Manna, admitted to New Age that his stand at the meeting was in favour of joining the local body elections. ‘As we cannot resist the local government elections, we should contest them,’ he was quoted to have said in the meeting. He also argued that the party should not take a strong stand against the local body elections.
   Talukdar Abdul Khaleque, a probable candidate in the Khulna City Corporation elections, told New Age that he was for the party to participate in the corporation and municipal elections. He argued in the meeting that the decision of boycotting local government polls would not benefit the party.
   He, however, vigorously argued against participating in the Upazila elections.
   Habibur Rahman Khan told New Age that he had asked the party’s top leaders to go for city and municipal elections since the grassroots-level leaders had told him, during his countrywide tour, that they want to be candidates in the local body elections.
   Khairuzzaman Liton, an aspirant for the post of Rajshahi’s mayor, said he told the meeting that the party should join the city corporation elections as it is the desire of the local leaders. He also said the AL has suffered by boycotting local body elections earlier.
   Liton said they consider the city corporation elections to be a test for the Election Commission, and it would prove how honest and neutral the government and EC is in conducting elections.
   But, he said, the state of emergency in the polling areas must not only be eased but completely lifted.

Detained BNP chairperson has once again said no elections can be held under emergency and there is no such instance that caretaker government ever held elections under a state of emergency.
   She has also said and the incumbents are bent on holding local body polls defying opposition of all major parties to see a rerun of chaotic situation like the one that prevailed immediately before promulgation of emergency on January 11, 2007.
   ‘And by doing so, they want to hand-pick people for a new party, get them elected and prolong their stay in power,’ the former prime minister said while talking to her lawyers in a special court on the Jatiya Sangsad complex after the proceedings in the Niko graft case.
   Reiterating her demand for holding national elections by October and immediate lifting of emergency, she said, ‘No election was held by a caretaker government under emergency in the history of the country.’
   ‘October will be a suitable time for the national election, as there come Ramadan and other festivals after October and that will not be suitable for holding such an election,’ she said.
   She asserted that no credible elections, national or local, could be held under emergency and without participation of all political parties.
   If the incumbents really mean credible elections acceptable to all, they must ensure a congenial atmosphere for the participation of all political parties, she said adding that her party was ready to provide the government with all cooperation.
   ‘But, it is the duty of the government to create an enabling situation for participation of all parties in the polls…They must prove their neutrality,’ Khaleda asserted.
   Deploring the present situation, she said that the people were struggling for food and survival with economic activities coming almost to a standstill.
   Khaleda expressed her concerns about the health conditions of her two detained sons —Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman—, and said, ‘Awami League leader Mohammad Nasim as well as Tarique and Arafat must be sent abroad immediately for better treatment, as their health conditions are critical.’
   Besides, all the detained people, who are seriously ill and want overseas treatment, must be allowed to go abroad, she said.

The results of the SSC examinations 2008 were published Thursday, showing an average pass percentage of 70.81 in all the seven education boards.
   The success rate was 57.37 per cent in 2007.
   This year, 41,917 students have scored grade point average [GPA] 5, the highest since the introduction of the international grading system in 2002.
   The overall success rate in Secondary School Certificate and equivalent examinations, under seven general education, a madrassah and a technical education boards, is 72.18 per cent with 52,500 scoring GPA 5 against 58.36 per cent with 32,646 scoring GPA 5 in 2007.
   The results were published within 60 days of the completion of the public examination that began on March 27. The theoretical exams were completed on April 27.
   In 2007, the success rate of SSC exams of the seven general education boards was 57.37 with 25,732 scoring GPA 5.
   A total of 7,43,609 students appeared in the SSC exams under Dhaka, Chittagong, Jessore, Comilla, Rajshahi, Sylhet and Barisal education boards and 5,26,576 came out successful. Of them 2,77,472 were male examinees and 2,49,104 female.
   The success rate in this year’s dakhil exams under the Madrassah Education Board is 82.06 per cent with record 10,526 scoring GPA 5 up from 65.87 per cent with 6,889 GPA 5 last year.
   A total of 184,014 examinees appeared in this year’s exams and 148,186 were successful.
   In SSC (vocational) exams under the Bangladesh Technical Education Board, the percentage of pass is 62.88. A total of 82,375 students sat for the exams and 51,801 succeeded. Fifty-seven students scored GPA 5.
   In seven overseas centres, 218 students took the examinations under the Dhaka board and 212 became successful with 55 GPA 5.
   The overseas centres are located in Doha of Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Jeddah and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Tripoli in Libya and Manama in Bahrain.
   Not a single candidate scored GPA 1, the minimum score for passing, at 91 institutions under the nine education boards. ‘The monthly pay orders of the teachers at such institutions will be suspended,’ education adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman said at a news briefing at the education ministry.
   Dhaka board has topped the table of successful students with 77.81 per cent while the Sylhet board trailed with 53.88 per cent.
   The success rate of the Comilla board is 73.00, Chittagong board 72.62, Jessore board 71.43, Rajshahi board 64.89 and Barisal board 68.77.
   Ideal School and College in Dhaka has topped the GPA 5 tally with 767 students followed by Viqarunnisa Noon School in Dhaka with 678 students, and Manipur High School in Dhaka with 652.

Students with good scores in secondary school certificate and equivalent examinations will face a tough competition for places in renowned colleges.
   Only a dozen out of 135 colleges in the Dhaka city have traditionally attracted top scorers in SSC and equivalent exams.
   According to the results published on Thursday, 52,500 students have scored GPA 5, but there are less than 13,000 seats in about 12 renowned colleges.
   About 40,000 GPA 5 achievers will need to go for second-choice colleges. A total of 7,26,563 students under the nine education boards came out successful this year. Students with GPA 4 and above but below GPA 5 fear they will not have the chance for admission to renowned city colleges.
   As most students jostle for places in reputed institutions, more than 800 colleges cannot enrol even the minimum number of students, which is 33, according to government rules, sources in the education ministry told New on Thursday.
   ‘Students usually try to get admitted to only 10 to 12 renowned colleges in the capital,’ said M Monirul Islam, chairman of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Dhaka. ‘Some students discontinue with their studies after the SSC courses. Many girl students get married. Many others go abroad.’
   According to statistics available with the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics, about 3,150 government, non-government and private colleges have more than 4.8 lakh seats on offer for higher secondary courses.
   According to admission guidelines set by the education ministry, students as before will be enrolled in both government and non-government colleges on the basis of their results in the Secondary School Certificate exams. No viva voce exams will be held as part of the admission test.
   Classes of the higher secondary courses this year will begin on August 9. Admission to colleges will close on August 7; but the colleges on their own will fix when the admission process will begin.
   Notre Dame College, Dhaka College, Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, Ideal School and College, Holy Cross School and College, Residential Model School and College, Dhaka City College, Dhaka Commerce College, BAF Shahin College and Motijheel Model College are some of the renowned colleges in the city.
   There are about 1,100 seats for science, humanities and commerce groups in Dhaka College, 2,500 seats in Notre Dame College, 902 seats in Dhaka Commerce College, 606 in BAF Shahin College, 990 in Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, 1,083 seats in Dhaka City College, 819 seats in Government Badrunnesa College, 972 seats in Government Bangla College in Mirpur, and 1,050 seats in Ideal College.
   Besides, there are 444 seats in Rajuk Uttara Model College, 488 in Holy Cross College, 300 in Residential Model College and 750 in Lalmatia Women’s College.

Local market price of rice is almost half the global price of the staple and it will come down as international food market shows signs of cooling down, commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman said on Thursday.
   ‘We are in a better situation in terms of rice price in local market as international price averages Tk 70 per kilogram,’ he told reporters after a meeting of price situation monitoring committee.
   The current prices of rice in local market will be lower within a short time as prices are falling in international market, he hoped.
   ‘The International Monetary Fund has said that global food prices are declining. We hope the impact will fall on the local market soon,’ the adviser said at the secretariat.
   The monitoring system will be strengthened to keep commodity prices in check, he said.
   Asked whether the commerce adviser was concentrating more on political matters than on market monitoring, he said, ‘We are working on key national issues and controlling prices is one of them.’
   The adviser hoped that the country would see a good aman harvest, as it had in the boro season.
   ‘Some 17 million tonnes of boro rice have been produced this year. If aman crop also sees a bumper harvest, it will have a positive impact on the market price.’
   Zillur said the government was doing its best to boost the production of aman.
   The government has so far procured nine lakh tonnes of food grains, including imports of 1.5 lakh tonnes of rice from India.
   ‘We have stopped rice export. So there is no fear of a crisis,’ he added.

Spain one of the pre-tournament title favourites ensured they made the Euro 2008 final with a 3-0 demolition of Russia here on Thursday.
   Xavi, Daniel Guiza and David Silva scored the goals as Spain brought Russia quickly back down to earth following their surprise win over Holland in the quarter-finals and gave them their first place in a final for 24 years, where they lost to hosts France in the Euro 1984 final.
   Guus Hiddink’s team failed to spark here with the much-hyped Andrei Arshavin a huge let-down.
   Spain were always the more controlled and measured and when they let their passing game flow in the second half they proved too irresistible for their inexperienced opponents.
   The result matched the 4-1 Group D drubbing the Spaniards had dealt Russia in their opening game of the competition and they will now meet Germany - who beat Turkey 3-2 in Wednesday’s other semi-final - in Sunday’s trophy match.
   Russia began with a lot of energy, although their final ball more often than not was poor.
   Spain had the first chance as David Villa cleverly played in Fernando Torres in the sixth minute but goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev kicked away his snap-shot.
   Villa then tried his luck from distance with a vicious shot that Akinfeev palmed to safety.
   Arshavin was largely anonymous throughout although his strike partner Roman Pavlyuchenko proved an occasional menace and lashed a free-kick over the bar on 16min.
   Spain midfielder Andres Iniesta was holding his head in shame just before the half hour mark as he swiped at thin air after latching onto a ball over the top and on 31min Pavluychenko forced Iker Casillas to tip a curling shot around the post.
   The Iberians suffered a blow on 34 minutes as striker Villa limped out with a leg injury but coach Luis Aragones curiously chose to replace him with midfielder Cesc Fabregas rather than striker Guiza.
   Almost immediately Pavlyuchenko should have scored as he took down the ball on his chest only to have his heel clipped as he went to shoot, failing to make good contact and flicking the ball wide.
   Spain had the last chance of the half with a piece of great skill from Torres who took down Fabregas’s pass and turned onto his left foot only to scuff his shot straight at Akinfeev.
   And they had the first chance after the break, taking the lead on 50 minutes as Xavi, who up until then had had a quiet game, arrived late in the box to convert Iniesta’s driven cross, poking out a foot to prod the ball between Akinfeev’s legs.
   The game had needed a goal and that opened it up with Torres curling a shot over the bar moments later.
   Hiddink made a double change soon afterwards and his team started to play with more urgency, although at the expense of their accuracy.
   With Russia pushing forward Spain started to hit them on the counter-attack with Torres enjoying much more space until he found himself surprisingly replaced by Aragones in favour of Guiza.
   However the move bore fruit on 73min as Fabregas flicked the ball over the top and Guiza beat the offside trap of a stretched Russian defence to chip delicately over the onrushing Akinfeev and give Spain a comfortable cushion.
   They were flowing and Silva completed the rout on 82min, converting another measured ball from Fabregas on the counter.
   Russia almost got a late consolation but Casillas saved Dmitri Sychev’s point blank header.

The finance ministry on Thursday provided a total of Tk 500 crore to the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, officials sources said. The BPC is struggling to arrange funds for oil import bills due next month amid the record trade gap of Tk 1,800 crore in a single month, the sources added.
   The state-owned BPC is set to face the biggest ever trade gap in a single month in July next due to the increased amount of payment pending for oil import and other arrears against its static income in oil sales in the domestic market during the last 13 months.
   The fund at three per cent interest rate was released following the appeal of the corporation for allocation of more than Tk 1000 crore, said a senior energy division official.
   ‘The ministry has released almost half of the required amount,’ said a high official of finance ministry.
   According to the BPC appeal, the state-owned enterprise will have to clear payment for eight refined oil and one crude oil consignments worth Tk 2699 crore to maintain uninterrupted oil import.
   Besides, the BPC has to make payment arrangements for another Tk 1000 crore for Bangladesh Bank, Islamic Development Bank and other arrears.
   The amount for payment includes Tk 395 crore to be paid to the BB and Tk 444 crore to be paid to the IDB.
   The income and available funds for oil import during the same month will be Tk 2,617 crore, leaving the BPC to face the biggest trade gap.
   Its income includes Tk 1500 crore from the selling of oils in the local market and Tk 1041 crore loan from Islamic
   Trade and Finance Corporation, a newly created wing under the Islamic Development Bank .
   The energy division official said the finance ministry had to provide the money to enable the state-owned BPC to maintain uninterrupted oil import in the backdrop of its widening trade gap.
   The trade gap of the BPC is widening as it is selling
   petroleum products in the local market at cheaper rates than the imported rates
   and the government’s policy of not adjusting the price
   as per global market for a long period has aggravated the situation.
   The present interim government made the upward price adjustment of fuel oils in April 2007 when the price per barrel of crude oil was between $ 64 and $67 in the international market.
   The price per barrel of crude oil is hovering around $140 in the international market recently.

North Korea handed over details of its nuclear programmes on Thursday, clearing the way to be removed from the US terrorism blacklist amid years of efforts to persuade the North to abandon the atom bomb.
   Six months behind schedule, officials delivered the dossier to China — the host country for the six-nation talks since 2003 that have tried to entice the North into exchanging nuclear weapons for aid and diplomatic concessions.
   The declaration of the secretive nation’s nuclear materials, facilities and programmes was not expected to include a list of its actual atomic weapons, which would come in a later phase of the complex negotiations.
   But the provision of the other information — which will face a rigorous verification programme — marks a key step in efforts to get the North to give up its nuclear weapons, which it has said it needs to deter a US attack.
   The US administration of George W Bush, who famously included North Korea in his self-styled ‘axis of evil,’ swiftly welcomed the handover but cautioned that Pyongyang had much more to do.
   ‘There is still more work to be done in order for North Korea to end its isolation,’ spokeswoman Dana Perino said, adding that the United States nevertheless would begin work in 45 days to remove its blacklisting of North Korea.
   ‘It must dismantle all of its nuclear facilities, give up its separated plutonium, and resolve outstanding questions on its highly enriched uranium and proliferation activities,’ she said.
   ‘It must end these activities in a fully verifiable way.’
   Quid-pro-quo deals have been at the heart of the often difficult negotiations with the North, which has several times gone back on commitments since the talks began and even tested a nuclear weapon in October 2006.
   The six countries in the talks — North and South Korea, Russia, Japan, the United States and China — will now establish a mechanism to verify that the North has fully come clean on its nuclear programmes.
   China’s foreign ministry announced the much-anticipated dossier was handed over by the North Korean ambassador, Choe Jin Su.
   North Korea, deeply suspicious of the outside world, wants security guarantees as part of the disarmament deal. It has repeatedly said it is under threat from the United States, which it harshly criticises in state propaganda.
   It is not known how many nuclear weapons the North may have produced. The US-based Institute for Science and International Security estimated last year that the country had separated enough plutonium for up to 12 nuclear weapons.
   At the end of the denuclearisation process, all nuclear weapons and fissile material are expected to be handed over in return for establishing diplomatic ties with the United States and Japan, as well as a formal peace agreement.
   But Daniel Pinkston, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, told AFP in Seoul that there would still be ‘a long way to go’ even if North Korea satisfactorily declared all its nuclear facilities and programmes.
   He said any eventual disarmament would take ‘years and not months.’
   North Korea plans to blow up the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear reactor in front of a worldwide TV audience today (Friday) as a symbol of its commitment to the process.
   But there have been repeated disputes about the extent of the nuclear programmes in the North and whether it will make a full and complete declaration.
   Pyongyang has repeatedly denied the US claim that it has a programme to develop highly enriched uranium.
   The North’s declaration was reportedly to announce a 37 kilogramme (81 pound) plutonium stockpile — less than the 40 to 50 kilos that US intelligence officials have estimated it has.
   The United States put North Korea on its state terror list in 1988 after its agents were found to have bombed a South Korean airliner the previous year, killing all 115 people on board.
   The US state department says the North is not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since that bombing.

Nepal’s veteran prime minister announced his resignation on Thursday in a move that paves the way for a new Maoist-led government following the abolition of the monarchy.
   The announcement by centrist politician Girija Prasad Koirala, who is 83 and in failing health, resolves a political stalemate over power-sharing that followed the declaration of a republic on May 28.
   The Maoists have positioned their leader, Prachanda, to replace him as leader of the landlocked Himalayan nation and one of the world’s poorest countries.
   The prime minister, whose Nepali Congress party was soundly defeated by the Maoists in the polls for the 601-member assembly, called on the ultra-leftists to form the next government.
   ‘I declare I have given up the prime minister’s post through this assembly today (Thursday),’ Koirala told the recently elected constitutional assembly.
   ‘With me or without me, we all need to maintain the culture of consensus,’ he said.
   ‘I appeal to them (the Maoists) to garner consensus for the formation of a new government under their leadership,’ Koirala also said in a statement read out by Ram Chandra Poudel, Nepal’s peace minister.
   The Maoists and Congress — Nepal’s two main parties — have been arguing for weeks over who will become the first president and prime minister of the world’s youngest republic.
   On Wednesday, they reached a deal that the president and prime minister will be elected through the assembly that will draft Nepal’s new constitution.
   ‘Now we all must focus on drafting a new constitution by giving up our petty political differences and ending confusion,’ Poudel said.
   Prachanda and second-in-command Baburam Bhattarai joined hundreds of other assembly members showing their approval of Koirala’s resignation by banging on the tables in the massive assembly hall.
   Nepal’s Maoists, who have 220 seats in the assembly, twice as many as Congress but just less than a majority, welcomed the veteran premier’s resignation.
   ‘We are glad he finally did it. We have been demanding his resignation as it had been a stumbling block for the leaders trying to reach consensus,’ Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara said.
   ‘The resignation is a step towards the formation of the government under our leadership,’ he said.
   Koirala’s party is likely to remain outside the new government that will be led by the former rebels, Congress officials have said, and the veteran will not stand for election as president.
   Koirala and Prachanda, whose name means ‘the fierce one,’ are credited with ending a decade-long civil war that killed at least 13,000 people until it was ended in a 2006 peace deal.
   The rebels launched their ‘people’s war’ with the aim of toppling the monarchy and establishing a communist republic, but since the 2006 peace deal, they have said they will follow democratic norms and not return to war.

The Anti-Corruption Commi-ssion’s special team has found widespread corruption and irregularities in five renowned educational institutions in the capital, said the ACC’s director-general, Hanif Iqbal, on Thursday.
   ‘The special team has visited the five institutions — Viquarunnisa Noon School and College, Motijheel Ideal School and College, Lalmatia Women’s College, Titumir College and Borhan Uddin College — for investigating financial irregularities, mismanagement, wrong appointment of principals, teachers and employees and irregularities in student admission,’ said Hanif at a briefing. ‘Everyday, new educational institutions are being included in the investigation list.’
   The audit reports of the educational institutions about which complaints have been lodged with the ACC for mismanagement and financial irregularities, or whose irregularities have been widely publicised, have been gathered from the audit department, said Hanif. ‘The work of collecting documents from the concerned institutions is still going on,’ he added.
   ‘The team has also unearthed massive corruption in the process of inclusion of institutions in MPO (Monthly Pay Order) list, and they have seized the records of BANBASE, an institution that deals with inclusion of schools in the MPO list,’ he told reporters.
   He also said that the ACC had sought the list of irregularities and corruption in private universities prepared by the University Grants Commission. ‘A special team will also be formed soon to detect graft in the private universities’, the DG added.
   Hanif also said that a special team has already seized the audit reports of the alleged institutions and they have asked the institutions to submit their records of recruitment and the admission.
   The ACC on May 12 formed a special four-member team, headed by deputy director Syed Iqbal Hossain and comprising assistant director Manjur Ahmed, deputy assistant director Jahangir Alam and assistant inspector Ataul Kabir, to probe the alleged corruption and irregularities in the educational institutions under the education ministry.

A special court on Thursday deferred till Sunday the hearing of a petition seeking exemption of ailing Awami League leader Mohammad Nasim from personal appearance in the court during trial of a graft case, while his condition was improving in hospital.
   Shahed Nooruddin, the judge of the special judge’s court-3 set up on the Jatiya Sangsad complex, posted the hearing for Sunday after the Anti-Corruption Commission prosecution opposed the petition.
   Nasim is facing graft charges in the installation of three lakh digital telephone lines when he was
   the post and telecommunications minister in Sheikh Hasina’s cabinet.
   The government was almost set to release Nasim, admitted to the city’s LabAid hospital on Tuesday with brain stroke, by an executive order to allow him to go abroad for treatment.
   He needs exemption from personal appearance in the court to go abroad.
   The judge said that the petition could be heard anytime before Sunday if necessary.
   Prosecutor Syed Shamim Ahsan Habib opposed the petition saying that the court should consider whether Nasim could be exempted from personal appearance during the proceeding, as the arguments, which were the last stage of the trial, were going on.
   Nasim’s condition is improving and he can talk now, doctors said.
   Briefing newsmen on the latest health condition of Nasim, LabAid specialised cardiac hospital coordinator AKM Mahbubul Huq said the health condition of the AL leader was ‘positive’.
   Nasim is now oriented and focused but his left side is still out of sensation, he mentioned.
   He, however, said they would wait for next 72 hours to get a clear picture.
   ‘Nasim is out of danger but condition of this kind of patents can deteriorate anytime’, Huq added.

A counsel for former prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday said the entire Armed Forces were put in the dock by suing Hasina in connection with the purchase of MiG-29 fighter planes.
   ‘This is for the first time the Armed Forces has been taken to court and that is a very dangerous move for the nation and democracy as well,’ Hasina’s counsel Shafique Ahmed told a Dhaka court moving a petition seeking her discharge from the MiG-29 graft case.
   The hearing in Hasina’s petition remains inconclusive in the court of Dhaka divisional special judge Golam Murtoza Majumder, in the makeshift courtroom on the Jatiya Sangsad complex, and it will resume on July 3.
   Encountering the prosecution proposal, made on June 2, for framing charges against Hasina, also the Awami League president, and six others, the counsel said, ‘The case was filed against a former prime minister after a change of government and that is a bad taste for democracy.’
   Narrating the urgency of buying the fighter planes for the Bangladesh Air Force, the counsel said the process was started in 1992 during the BNP rule following a cyclone in 1991 that damaged several aircraft of the air force in Chittagong.
   The air force sent a proposal to the Armed Force Division about the need for buying the warplanes and several committees were formed for scrutiny and finalising the proposal, the counsel argued, saying the process of the purchase was initiated by the BNP government in 1992 and ended by the Awami League government in 1999.
   On September 3, 1995, the Russian government approved the Bangladesh proposal for the purchase of the eight warplanes, he said.
   The bidding price for the eight MiG-29 warplanes was $289 million. It was Sheikh Hasina’s government that brought down the price to $123 million through state-to-state negotiations, saving $166 million, he said.
   Claiming that the purchase process was transparent, he said the deal had even been discussed in details at meetings of the parliamentary standing committee on the defence ministry.
   The counsel also said former BNP lawmaker Akhteruzzaman had filed a writ petition challenging the validity of the military technical cooperation agreement with Russia before the purchase of the MiG-29 aircraft and the High Court had rejected the petition, observing that the deal was made in accordance with the law.
   At this stage, the court asked the counsel to provide the copy of the High Court judgment.
   As the counsel sought time for that, the court adjourned the hearing till July 3.
   Former army chief Mustafizur Rahman, former air chief Jamaluddin Ahmed, former defence secretary Syed Yousuf Hossain, former air force officer Mirza Akhtar Maruf, former joint secretary of the defence ministry Mohammad Hossain Serniabat and businessman Noor Ali were in the dock during the proceedings. All of them are on bail.
   Hasina was represented by her counsel Sahara Khatun as she had been dispensed with personal attendance during proceedings in the case. Hasina, temporarily released on June 11 by an executive order for her treatment overseas, is now in the United States.
   The chief prosecutor, ABM Sharfuddin Ahmed Khan Mukul, on June 2 proposed framing charges against the eight in the case for causing a huge loss to the state exchequer by purchasing the fighter planes.
   Abdullah Al Zahid, deputy director of the now defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption, filed the case with the Tejgaon police on December 11, 2001, accusing Hasina and the six others of corruption in the purchase of the MiG-29 fighter planes, which caused a loss of Tk 720 crore to the state.

A Dhaka court on Thursday sentenced Dhaka City Corporation ward commissioner Chowdhury Alam to 13 years imprisonment for acquiring assets beyond his known income and concealing wealth-related information.
   Judge Shahed Noor Uddin of Special Judge’s Court-3 also fined Alam Tk 1 crore or another year in prison on non-payment of the amount.
   The court also sentenced Chowdhury Alam’s son Abu Sayeed Chowdhury, and brothers Rahmat Ali Labu and Khorshed Alam Mintu, to three years’ imprisonment each and Tk 5 lakh fines or another six months behind bars, for abetting the ward commissioner crimes.
   Alam’s wife Hasina Chowdhury, daughters Mahmuda Aktar Monika and Mahfuza Aktar Mukta, and son-in-law Md Selim Mia, were acquitted as charges against them could not be substantiated.
   The court also ordered confiscation of Alam’s illegally acquired assets totalling Tk 4.98 crore.
   All the accused excepting Chowdhury Alam are fugitive.
   The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case on June 13, 2007, with Khilgaon police station.

Millions of discarded mobile phones and computers are posing a ‘major challenge’ to human health, the chief of the United Nations Environment Programme said on Thursday.
   Achim Steiner told a UN conference on waste management on the Indonesian resort island of Bali that 20 million mobile phones were thrown away each year in China.
   Meanwhile, the global number of personal computers was expected to double to two billion by 2015.
   ‘The rapid growth and rapid redundancy of all this equipment ... represents a major challenge to the international community in terms of human health and the environment,’ he said.
   He said 20 to 50 million tonnes of electronics waste was produced every year — enough to load a train that would stretch around the world.
   ‘The growth in electronics is unlikely to abate any time soon, especially as disposable incomes rise in the rapidly developing and developing economies.’
   Much of this waste was ending up in landfills usually in developing countries in Africa and Asia, where it leaks chemicals and heavy metals into the environment, Steiner said.
   ‘This is effectively long-distance dumping,’ he said.
   The disposal of massive numbers of unwanted electronics goods has been a key focus of the five-day meeting of parties to the 1992 Basel Convention on waste management that began Monday.
   More than 1,000 delegates from 170 countries are taking part in the talks to review the impact of hazardous waste on human health and livelihoods.
   The Basel Convention is an international treaty that regulates the global trade in hazardous waste and aims to minimise its generation and movement across borders.
   Participants were expected to adopt a ‘Bali Declaration’ aimed at highlighting the importance of health and waste management to global development strategies, such as reducing poverty.

India has re-emerged as number one import source for Bangladesh, beating China in the nine months of import in the outgoing fiscal year, official figures revealed.
   China continued to be the number one import source for Bangladesh during the last two fiscal years, 2005-06 and 2006-07.
   ‘India is set to dominate Bangladesh market as importers here are shifting from China,’ said a top commerce ministry official.
   Bangladeshi importers find imports of essentials from the next-door neighbour convenient in many ways, he said.
   Bangladesh Bank’s figures showed the country imported Chinese goods worth $2,292.12 million during July-March of the current fiscal year. The amount was 15 per cent of the country’s total imports during the period.
   But imports from India figured $ 2,454.83 million or 16 per cent of the total imports during the same period.
   Bangladesh imported $14.64 billion in merchandises in the nine months to March of the fiscal year ending June 30.
   Food items share a major portion in import bills for India as most of imports of rice and onion were made from the neighbouring country.
   The country’s rice import bills soared to Tk 5,037 crore in the July-March of the outgoing fiscal year, up from only Tk 1193.53 crore during the whole last fiscal year.
   Imports of onion from India amounted to Tk 686.78 crore in the period, while whole last year’s imports were Tk 421.16 crore.
   Besides, fresh fruits imported from India amounted to Tk 339.52 crore in the period, compared with Tk 264.40 crore in the 2006-07 fiscal year.
   Business sources said due to record rise in Indian and Chinese inflation rates, the costs of import from the two Asian giants are surging for Bangladeshi traders since more than 30 per cent of Bangladesh’s imports are sourced from there.
   Indian annual wholesale price inflation rose to 13-year peak of 11.05 per cent, while Chinese annual price inflation climbed to 12-year high of 8.7 per cent.
   Bangladeshi imports from Indian amounted to $2,226 million in 2006-07 fiscal year against $2,537 million imports from China during the same period. Imports from those two countries made up 29.83 per cent of the country’s total imports last year.
   In 2005-06 fiscal, Bangladesh imported Indian goods worth $1,846.91 million while imports from China stood at $2050.99 million. The two countries shared about 30 per cent of Bangladesh’s total annual imports.
   Until the 2004-05 fiscal, India had been traditionally the biggest source of Bangladesh’s imports, mainly foods and raw materials for many industries including apparels.
   Trade associations have long been demanding steps for increasing Bangladesh’s sales to India to reduce the yawning trade gap, for which they often point finger at India’s non-tariff barriers to restrict goods from Bangladesh.

Virendar Sehwag punished Pakistan’s bowling with an aggressive hundred to lead India to a comfortable six-wicket win in the final Group B Asia Cup match here on Thursday.
   Sehwag smashed a 95-ball 119 and Suresh Raina hit a 68-ball 84 during their 198-run second wicket stand to help India overhaul Pakistan’s 299-4 with 7.5 overs to spare.
   Earlier, Shoaib Malik hit his first century as captain to help Pakistan post a challenging target.
   However it proved a cake walk for India who were indebted to some lusty batting by Sehwag and Raina as the duo tore apart the home bowling which lost its bite after frontline paceman Umar Gul broke down with a side strain.
   Without Gul, who limped off in the third over, the Pakistani bowling looked a shadow of the side which beat India by 25 runs in the final of the tri-series held in Bangladesh earlier this month.
   Sehwag hit five boundaries and five towering sixes in his ninth one-day century before he holed out at long-off with just 68 runs left. Yuvraj Singh with a 47-ball 48 and Mahendra Singh Dhoni with unbeaten 26 saw the home team through in the 43rd over.
   Raina was as ruthless as Sehwag, hitting 10 boundaries and three sixes during his 69-ball innings before he miscued a drive off paceman Rao Iftikhar and was caught at covers. The duo took just 149 balls for their partnership.
   Raina made his maiden hundred in India’s 256-run win over Hong Kong on Wednesday.
   Both India and Pakistan reached the Super League stages of the tournament but India carry two points into the next stage by virtue of this win.
   Sri Lanka and Bangladesh also qualified from Group A. The Super Leage starts from Saturday with India taking on Bangladesh.
   Earlier, Malik added 90 for the opening wicket with Salman Butt (35) and another 129 for the second wicket with Younus Khan (59) to propel Pakistan who won the toss and decided to bat.
   Butt and Pakistan were slow off the mark, managing just 58 runs off the first 15 overs. Once Butt went, caught off leg-spinner Piyush Chawla in the 22nd over, Younus and Malik upped the tempo.
   Malik reached his sixth century, third against India, in one-day internationals off 104 balls. His last one-day century came against India at Lahore two years ago.
   The Indians were scrappy in the field as they let off Malik twice in one over from Yusuf Pathan, first when Chawla grassed one with the batsman on 116 and then Gautam Gambhir five runs later.
   Malik finally retired hurt after suffering cramp in his leg. He hit 16 boundaries and a six during his 119-ball knock. Younus followed him in the next over when he holed out off Yusuf in the deep. He hit five boundaries during his 60-ball knock.

Unorthodox spinner Ajantha Mendis took a career-best 5-22 to help Sri Lanka overcome a fighting United Arab Emirates by 142 runs in the final Group A match played at the Gaddafi Stadium here on Thursday.
   Mendis triggered a collapse in the UAE batting ranks as the qualifiers lost eight wickets for 41 runs to slump from a threatening 107-2 to be bowled out for 148 in 36.3 overs chasing Sri Lanka’s 290-9.
   For the UAE left-handed opener Amjad Ali top scored with a brilliant 79-ball 77 but once the Lahore-born batsman fell, wickets tumbled like nine pins with Mendis running through the middle and lower order with his beguiling action.
   Amjad hit 13 boundaries and added 70 for the second wicket with Indika Batuwitarachchi who made just 14.
   Mendis, playing in only his fifth one-day, had a previous best of 3-39 against the West Indies at Port of Spain earlier this year.
   Sri Lanka, who also beat Bangladesh by 131 runs on Wednesday, topped Group A and qualified for the next stage of Super Four. Bangladesh, who beat the UAE by 96 runs on Tuesday also qualified for the next phase.
   Earlier Sri Lanka rode on half-centuries from Mahela Udawatte and Mahela Jayawardene against a disciplined UAE bowling.
   Udawatte hit 67 while skipper Jayawardene made 61 during their 114-run second wicket stand after Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bat in the day-night match.
   Sri Lanka got off to a disastrous start when they lost opener Kumar Sangakkara, trapped leg-before by paceman Zahid Shah off the last ball of the first over.
   Sangakkara scored 101 in Sri Lanka’s emphatic 131-run win over Bangladesh on Wednesday.
   Jayawardene and Udawatte steadied the innings as the UAE bowlers uleashed tight line and length. Udawatte hit six boundaries during his 74-ball knock, while Jayawardene hit nine in his 43-ball innings.

Pakistani Taliban militants torched the country’s only ski resort and separately killed three people in a north-western tourist valley, despite a recent truce with security forces, officials said.
   The attack on the government-run hotel happened at Malam Jabba, part of the troubled Swat Valley where followers of an Islamist cleric signed a peace deal with Pakistani authorities in May after months of clashes.
   ‘Miscreants set the resort on fire Wednesday night. The extent of damage is still not known and information is coming in,’ said Usman Shafi, general manager of the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation, which runs the hotel.
   Residents said a large portion of the resort had been reduced to ashes and the militants also damaged chairlifts and a tower belonging to the meteorological department.
   The hotel, located some 150 kilometres north of Islamabad at an altitude of 2,636 metres (9,200 feet), had been closed for several months since unrest in the area had kept all tourists away.
   Swat police chief Waqif Khan told the news agency that the ski facility had been torched at Malam Jabba and the police had registered a case against ‘unknown miscreants,’ a term officials use to describe local Taliban militants.
   ‘The PTDC hotel has been set on fire by unknown miscreants. We don’t know the details since there is no government control in that area,’ Khan said, adding that nearby buildings were also damaged.
   Militants also torched three houses and shot dead two relatives of a local politician in the Matta district of Swat Valley, Khan said. A woman was killed in the fire at one of the houses, he said.
   Witnesses said the houses belonged to local politician Muhammad Sher, a member of a party loyal to US-backed President Pervez Musharraf.
   The government signed a peace deal with the militants of Swat in May and agreed to gradually pull out troops and introduce an Islamic justice system, while the rebels had said they would halt attacks and surrender their arms.

A special court on Thursday once again deferred till July 7 the hearing of charges against former prime minister Khaleda Zia and seven others in the Niko graft case.
   Khandaker Kamal Uzzaman, the judge, announced the fresh date after a debate on whether the defence counsels could go to the High Court challenging legality of the trial until the disposal of the Niko graft case against another former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and eight others.
   On June 18, the same special judge’s court 9 set up on the Jatiya Sangsad complex rejected the petitions filed by the defence counsels seeking adjournment of the proceedings in the Niko graft case against Khaleda, also the BNP chairperson.
   Although both the cases were filed accusing the two former prime ministers and others of causing huge loss to the state exchequer through allowing Canadian oil company Niko Resources Limited for exploration of gas in three fields, there is no legal bar on holding trial of the two cases in separate courts simultaneously, the court had observed in the order.
   As the court resumed on Thursday, Khaleda’s counsel Abdur Rezaque Khan sought time for the hearing in framing charges saying that they would go to the High Court challenging the rejection of the petitions.
   ‘We have just received the certified copy of the order on Wednesday and we cannot go to the High Court until Sunday, as the Supreme Court is now in vacation,’ he argued.
   As the court and the prosecution insisted on starting the hearing, former law minister Moudud Ahmed, a co-accused standing in the dock, said, ‘We cannot enter into a proceedings which we are going to challenge.’
   At one stage of the debate, the court told the defence counsel, ‘If you do not start the hearing, I will have no alternative but to frame charges.’
   Moudud replied, ‘In that case we have to boycott the proceedings.’
   ‘It means you do not want to allow us to go to the High Court,’ said Rezaque Khan
   The court had to witness a series of arguments and counter-arguments before finally fixing July 7 for the hearing.

An associate of Pichchi Hannan, who is one of the 23 most wanted by the Dhaka police, was killed in an encounter between the Rapid Action Battalion and a band of his associates at Agargaon early Thursday.
   The deceased was Masud alias Dant-Bhanga Masud, 30, son of Maznu Bepari of Agargaon in the city.
   The battalion said one of its teams had had come to know of five crime suspects, led by Masud, gathering in a place at Agargaon at about 1:00am.
   As the battalion cordoned off the area and the gangsters tried to leave the place. The law enforcers then asked the gangsters about their suspicious movement and the gang started firing on the lawmen, prompting them to fire back, leading to a shootout that lasted for 10 minutes.
   The gangsters at one point left the place and the battalion with the help of the Mohammadpur police conducted a search and found Masud lying dead.

Awami League president Sheikh Hasina’s both ears were damaged, right ear severely, and her hearing aids became dysfunctional for not doing the checkup for a long time, her doctor in Orlando said.
   Her personal aide, Dr Hassan Mahmud, quoting Dr Michael Billiowick, told the news agency from Toronto that she was examined for two hours at Orlando ENT Associates on Wednesday.
   The doctor found both the ears of the ex-prime minister further damaged due to the delay in checkup.
   Dr Hassan said the hearing aid to her left ear was adjusted but that of the right ear remained ‘dysfunctional’.
   ‘It may take one month for reinstallation of the hearing
   aid in the right ear,’ Dr Billiowick was quoted as saying. He advised her regular checkup.
   Hasina suffered serious ear injuries following grenade blasts at her rally on Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004.
   The Awami League chief, who was recently set free from prison for overseas treatment, had also treatment for her teeth at an Orlando dental clinic.
   She may stay with her daughter Saima Wazed for a week or so and move to London. Then she may return to Orlando in the United States for further checkup of her damaged ears.
   Earlier, Hasina arrived at Toronto Airport Thursday at 9:45 am (BST) where she was received by her daughter and sister Sheikh Rehana.
   Son-in-law Mashrur Hossain, Toronto Awami League leader Sarwar Hossain, Bangladesh deputy high commissioner Masud Mahmud and Canadian government official Liz Hethering were present.

Rival political activists clashed in Pakistan on Thursday as by-elections were held for five National Assembly seats and 25 provincial assembly seats and several people were wounded, the police said.
   Voting in one National Assembly seat, where former prime minister Nawaz Sharif planned to stand, was postponed pending a Supreme Court decision on his eligibility.
   Violence erupted in at least three constituencies, media reported, with the worst of it in Punjab province where gunmen exchanged fire. ‘Some armed men virtually tried to stop polling. We arrested four of them and seized some weapons,’ police officer Mohammad Kamran Khan told reporters outside a polling station in southern Punjab.
   The by-elections will not effect the outcome of a February 18 general election in which slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s party won 123 seats in the 342-seat National Assembly and Sharif’s party came second with 91.
   The main party that backs president Pervez Musharraf came a poor third with 54 seats, undermining the standing of the unpopular former army chief and important US ally.
   Benazir’s widower and political successor, Asif Ali Zardari, has formed a coalition with Sharif but their alliance has been strained by differences over the fate of judges Musharraf dismissed last year and over how to handle the president.