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The Anti-Corruption Commi-ssion on Wednesday pressed charges against the detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, one of her cabinet colleagues, three former secretaries and four others for corruption in signing a contract with Canadian oil company Niko Resources Ltd causing a loss of Tk 13,630.5 crore to the state.
   The investigation officer of the Niko corruption case, MM Shabbir Hasan, also a deputy director of the commission, filed the charge sheet with the court of additional chief metropolitan magistrate Golam Rabbani.
   The court is likely to transfer the case to the court of metropolitan sessions judge Azizul Haque, a court official said.
   This is the third charge sheet against Hasina, also the Awami League president, after the declaration of the state of emergency on January 11, 2007. Two more cases out of the total five filed so far against Hasina during the military-controlled government are still under investigation.
   Hasina, now in a special jail on the Jatiya Sangsad complex after her arrest on July 16, 2007, also faces seven more corruption cases filed in 2001 and 2002.
   The charge sheet filed with court on Wednesday also pressed charges against former state minister for energy Rafiqul Islam, former principal secretary SA Samad, former energy secretaries Toufiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury and M Akmal Hossain, former secretary of then external resources division AKM Moshiur Rahman, then Petrobangla chairman Mosharraf Hossain and former director Syed Anwarul Haque, and Niko’s South Asia vice-president Quasem Sharif.
   Moshiur Rahman and Anwarul Haque were not named in the first information report of the case, lodged by Shabbir Hasan with the Tejgaon police on December 9, 2007.
   The commission on Monday pressed charges against another detained former prime minister, Khaleda Zia, also the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, and 10 others in another case in connection with the Niko deal.
   The commission on April 30 approved the submission of the charge sheets in the two cases lodged with the Tejgaon police on December 9, 2007.
   The commission, however, backtracked from its earlier position of placing the two Niko corruption cases under the Emergency Powers Rules.
   Of the nine accused, the task force has so far arrested Hasina, Rafiqul Islam and Toufiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury.
   In the charge sheet in the Hasina case, 50 people, including 13 former and one serving bureaucrats, were named as prosecution witnesses. The witnesses include former Bapex general manager Mir Mainul Haque, against whom the commission pressed charges in the Khaleda case.
   The charge sheet against Hasina and others said the Niko Resources Bangladesh Limited was declared incompetent by the technical and financial evaluation committee after the company had participated in the second-round bidding in 1997 for oil and gas exploration.
   The company again submitted a proposal to the energy ministry on June 28, 1998 for digging development wells and extracting gas at Kamta, Chhatak, Bianibazar and Fenchuganj gas fields showing them marginal and non-producing fields.
   A framework of understanding was signed between the Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration Company and Niko for conducting a joint study on the fields.
   Hasina, who was then prime minister, on June 14, 2001 approved a system of developing marginal and abandoned gas fields ignoring the opinions of technical experts of Petrobangla, Bapex, and the Sylhet Gasfield Limited, said the charge sheet.
   Towards the end of the Awami League’s tenure in the government, three gas fields — Kamta, Feni and Chhatak — were accordingly declared marginal and abandoned and the authorities concerned were directed to finalise a joint venture agreement to allow Niko and Bapex to extract gas from the three fields.
   By declaring the gas fields marginal and abandoned and allowing Niko to extract gas without following due process, Hasina and six others caused Tk 13,630.5 crore loss to the state exchequer, the charge sheet said.
   It pressed charges against the nine under Sections 409, 109 and 511 of the Penal Code and Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1947.
   The charges are non-bailable and punishable with imprisonment for maximum 22 years.

The military-controlled interim government is working on ‘guidelines’ for its planned dialogue with political parties to expedite transition to democracy and to legitimise its measures for holding credible national elections.
   The outcome of the month-long consultations between political parties and groups and a panel of advisers, and the Election Commission’s talks with political parties on electoral law reforms, are expected to be taken into consideration for the government’s formal dialogues with the parties, the time for which is yet to be finalised.
   The government has taken a preliminary decision to hold the dialogues separately with the major political parties, while like-minded smaller parties and groups will be invited together, said an adviser.
   ‘The government will sit with the major parties separately for the formal talks. Since the final dialogues need some formalities, we are preparing some guidelines to organise them in a transparent manner,’ the commerce adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, told reporters after a meeting of the four-member panel of advisers which has been working to create an atmosphere conducive to effective dialogues.
   According to officials, the government plans to invite more or less 72 political parties and civic groups to the formal dialogues in which the authorities will try to iron out issues like legitimisation of the government’s actions taken for the sake of holding a free and fair election, how to prevent a return to the pre-emergency anarchy, mandatory registration of political parties, and abiding by the code of conduct devised by the government for the parties.
   Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed, who will lead the government in the dialogues, is scheduled to address the nation through radio and television sometime at the end of the week [within the second week of May] in the run-up to the national dialogues.
   ‘The script for the address to the nation is being prepared,’ said one official at the Chief Adviser’s Office, adding that Fakhruddin has been consulting his colleagues in the cabinet.
   He is still waiting for the Election Commission’s recommendations that are the outcome of the eight-month-long dialogues with political parties, said the official. In the talks the EC mainly concentrated on electoral law reforms [amendments to the Representation of People Order 1972], registration of political parties, introduction of the code of conduct and transparent ballot boxes for holding the stalled national elections by December 2008.
   ‘All these issues are expected to feature in the formal dialogues,’ Syed Fahim Munaim, the press secretary to the chief adviser, told New Age, adding that the chief adviser would formally issue letters of invitation to the parties concerned.
   The chief adviser will specify the dates, venue and modalities of the much-talked-about dialogues.
   Hossain Zillur Rahman said the government was thinking of holding dialogue with all like-minded smaller parties at the same time.
   ‘We will invite the like-minded smaller parties to the dialogue at a time on the basis of consensus,’ the adviser told reporters after a meeting on the preparations for the dialogues.
   Communications adviser Ghulam Quader, LGRD and cooperatives adviser Anwarul Iqbal, and law adviser AF Hassan Ariff attended the meeting.
   Meanwhile, the panel of advisers has submitted recommendations made in the informal talks between the panel and the stakeholders to the chief adviser in the run-up to the final dialogues.
   The government has also decided to sit with the representatives of the civic groups for making the dialogue truly effective, said an adviser.

A Dhaka court on Wednesday sentenced two persons to death and jailed nine for life and another for 12 years for killing seven at Lalbagh in Dhaka about 14 years ago.
   The judge of the special tribunal for prevention of offences against public safety, ATM Musa, pronounced the verdict in the crowded courtroom.
   According to the prosecution, the supporters of the defeated ward commissioner candidate Abdul Aziz attacked a victory procession of the winner candidate M Humayun Kabir with arms, killing seven people on January 31, 1994, a day after the elections to the Dhaka City Corporation.
   As the court on Wednesday pronounced the verdict sentencing Aziz, the principal accused in the case, to imprisonment for 12 years, the agitated people instantly brought out a procession on the court premises protesting at the verdict.
   They chanted slogans demanding death penalty for Aziz. The police dispersed the protesters, by charging at them with truncheons.
   The condemned convicts Abdus Salam alias Mati and Zahid Hossain alias Natka Babu were tried in their absence.
   Of the persons jailed for life, Abdul Alim alias Shahin, Munna, Kalu alias Kailya, Delwar Hossain alias Anda and Amir Hossain are in custody. Monir Patwari, Dil Mohammad alias Mati, Mahtab Hossain and Mozammel were tried in their absence. All of them were also sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years each on charge of attempt to murder.
   The commissioner candidate, Abdul Aziz, also the principal accused in the case, was sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years and two years on the two charges. The court ordered concurrent execution of his sentences, meaning Aziz will need to serve 10 years in jail.
   The court also fined the condemned convicts Tk 5,000 each and the convicts jailed for life Tk 10,000 each.
   After examining the records and cross-examination of 30 witnesses, the court delivered the verdict, acquitting Swapan, Faruq, Abul Hossain, Javed, Selim, Sattar, Joynal and Absar Hossain of the charges.
   Aziz’s father Abdul Mazid was also cleared of the charges as he died during the trial in the case.
   The court ordered concurrent execution of all the sentences and deduction of the period the convicts already served in jail from the total jail term for the respective convict.
   The convicts and their lawyers and relatives told reporters after the verdict that they would appeal against the verdict.
   Asked whether the prosecution would appeal against the acquittal, the last pubic prosecutor in the case, Abdul Aziz Miah, told reporters that they would consider the matter after receiving the copy of the verdict.
   Seven people were killed on the Nawabganj Road in Old Town of Dhaka on January 31, 1994 over post-poll clash as the supporters of the defeated ward commissioner candidate Abdul Aziz attacked the victory procession of the winner candidate M Humayun Kabir with arms.
   Humayun Kabir lodged the case with the Lalbagh police against about 100 followers of his rival, including Aziz, alleging that they had shot dead seven of his neighbours — Hafiz, Shah Alam, Anwar, Gazi, Nazrul, Delwar and Yousuf.
   Detective Branch assistant commissioner Humayun Kabir submitted the charge sheet in the case on May 14, 1994 against 21 people, including Aziz, his brothers, Abdul Alim and Abdus Salam, and their father Abdul Mazid. The charges against the 21 were framed on August 1, 1994.
   The Dhaka district and sessions judge’s court till July 8, 1998 took four years to record deposition of 20 witnesses.
   The case was transferred to the court of metropolitan sessions judge on January 26, 1999.
   At last, the case was transferred to the special tribunal for prevention of offences against public safety in 2007.
   The tribunal posted for May 7 the delivery of the verdict after concluding the hearing in the case on April 24.

Seven international oil companies have submitted bids for 15 offshore blocks in the third round of bidding for 28 offshore blocks to explore them for finding gas and oil.
   Petrobangla on Wednesday opened the tender documents of the seven companies that submitted bids for 12 deep sea blocks and three shallow sea blocks. No company has so far submitted any bids for the eight deep sea and five shallow sea blocks.
   A US-based company, Conoco Phillips, has submitted four bids for eight deep sea blocks — numbers 10 and 11, 12 and 17, 15 and 16 and 20 and 21. The company intends to sign four production sharing contracts, each for two blocks.
   An Australian company, Santos International, has submitted three bids for signing three PSCs for six deep sea blocks — numbers 10 and 11, 12 and 13 and 15 and 16. The company will have a joint venture partner — the UK-based Cairn Energy — if it is selected. A US-China joint venture, Longwoods Resources, has submitted a bid for one shallow sea block — number 3 — and another bid for two offshore blocks — numbers 13 and 18. It also has a joint venture partner, the Shanghai Zhongman Petroleum.
   The Korea National Oil Corporation has submitted a bid for deep sea block number 10; a company registered in Cyprus, Comtrack Services Ltd, has submitted a bid for blocks 9 and 14; Tullow Bangladesh Ltd has submitted a bid for shallow block number 5; and Chinese CNOOC has submitted a bid for shallow sea block number 1.
   Petrobangla director (PSC) Muqtadir Ali, who opened the bids, told reporters that they would evaluate the bids by May and are expecting to sign the production sharing contracts with the selected bidders by October after completing the relevant government procedures.
   This round of bidding is important for Bangladesh’s energy sector as the country desperately needs to find new gas reserves as it is facing gas shortage. The gas crisis will become acute after 2011.
   The government approved the production sharing contracts for the offshore bidding round on February 5 and Petrobangla invited bids on February 23.
   Many officials, after opening the bids, feel that Conoco and Santos are the major competitors.
   In its bid for blocks 10 and 11, Conoco offered to spend $2.496 million to conduct two-dimensional seismic survey of 1,200 ‘line kilometres’ in the initial mandatory work programme of five years for exploration, $58.1665 million for conducting three-dimensional seismic survey of 500 square kilometres and for drilling one exploration well in the first extension period of two years, and $50 million for drilling another exploration well in the second extension period of two years. The company made almost similar offers for the six other blocks.
   For blocks 10 and 11, Santos offered to spend $23.750 million for conducting 2D seismic survey of 2,000 line kilometres and 3D seismic survey of 1,000 square kilometres in the initial five years of exploration, $130 million for drilling two exploration wells in the first two years of extension and two more wells in the second two years of extension.
   It also made nearly similar offers for the four other blocks.
   The little known company, Comtrack, did not submit the pre-qualification certificate for blocks 9 and 14 while the Korea National Oil Corporation did not make any commitment to invest.
   Evaluation of the these two companies’ bids will be based on a marking system.
   Of the disputed blocks, into which Myanmar has intruded, Santos has submitted bids for deep sea block 13, Conoco for 17 and Longwoods for 18. Myanmar has claimed, partly or wholly, seven Bangladeshi deep sea blocks and awarded them to international oil companies. Petrobangla received no bid for blocks 22, 23, 27 and 28, into which Myanmar has intruded.
   Tullow has submitted a bid for shallow sea block 5, which is partially claimed by India, and Comtrack has submitted bids for deep sea blocks 9 and 14. No bid has been received for 19 and 24, which have also been claimed by India.
   Muqtadir said that they were satisfied with the response from the bidders as they had received bids for 15 blocks from seven companies out of the 24 companies that had purchased promotional and data packages.
   In his reply to a question on why there was such a poor response to this round of bidding from big international oil companies, Muqtadir said that many countries were holding bidding rounds at this moment. ‘Maybe many of the IOCs did not take part in our bidding because of their engagement in other countries. Nevertheless, we are happy with the outcome as we don’t have sufficient data on the offshore areas,’ he said.
   When asked why they did not take part in the bidding, an official of Total told New Age that the Bangladesh’s round of bidding was not in the priority list of the French company. Total had bought promotional and data packages worth $67,266 from Petrobangla.
   When asked whether Total had not found the PSC to be lucrative enough or whether the maritime boundary dispute with India and Myanmar had prompted the company not to participate in the bidding, the official said that this was not the case as they had other engagements in other countries and at the last moment they dropped the plan to participate in the bidding.
   Although US company Chevron purchased promotional packages for $2,43607, Statoilhydro of Norway for $2,34,45, Pearl Energy of Singapore for $1,45,385 and British Petroleum for $52,500 they did not submit any bid at all.
   Petrobangla held the first round of bidding in 1993 and the second round in 1997, and awarded 12 offshore and shallow sea blocks to the bidders in the two rounds.

The Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industries, desperately seeking measures to solve the problems faced by businesses and industries due to power shortage, on Wednesday proposed the formation of a committee to determine whether the present shortage of natural gas was real or artificial.
   The newly elected board of directors of the FBCCI, led by its president Annisul Huq, called on commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman and stressed the need for resolving the gas and power crisis that has been hampering the growth of industries in the country.
   ‘The problems have to be solved as we have to ensure the growth of businesses and industries in the country,’ said the adviser, assuring the apex trade body that both short- and long-term measures would be taken to solve all problems that are hampering business.
   When he was asked by the journalists, Zillur said that if necessary a committee would be constituted in this regard. The BNP-Jamaat government also formed two committees when the issue of gas export to India came to the limelight.
   The FBCCI’s president said that a situation in which business and industrial activities were being very adversely affected by power and gas crisis was not healthy. He added that it was not good news if the country wanted to attract foreign direct investment.
   ‘We have to see whether the gas crisis is a reality as we earlier heard that the country was floating on gas. What has happened suddenly that gas has been depleted? A thorough investigation is needed,’ said Annis.
   The FBCCI’s appeal to form an investigation committee to probe the gas crisis was its response to remarks by the special assistant to the chief adviser, M Tamim, who said that no further gas connections would be given in Chittagong in view of the gas shortage and that the authorities ‘are going slow and maintaining a cautious approach in giving new gas connections to industries in Dhaka and adjacent areas’.
   An official of the Board of Investment told New Age on Wednesday that many entrepreneurs from home and abroad would stop showing interest in investing in Bangladesh after such remarks.
   Zillur maintained that the government would not sit on the problems. ‘If needed, LNG [liquefied natural gas] will be imported from the Middle East. We have to promote business and industries which are the engines of growth,’ he added. He also underlined the need for a national consensus on the coal policy to allow extraction of this energy source which has been called ‘black diamond’.
   The commerce adviser also acknowledged the necessity of administrative reforms, especially to capacitate the National Board of Revenue through recruitment of efficient officers. Among the other measures that need to be taken is modernising the Ministry of Industries.
   The FBCCI’s president mentioned that the Ministry of Industries has not been working for promotion and growth of industries in the country for many years.
   Even Mahbub Jamil, the special assistant to the chief adviser in charge of the Ministry of Industries, said recently that his ministry ‘is practically presiding over the funeral procession [of the losing state-owned enterprises].’
   He, however, criticised the present structure of authority in which the Board of Investment is directly under the Prime Minister’s Office, and said the performance of the officials of the BoI would not be up to the mark in the absence of regular communications and accountability to the Ministry of Industry.
   The FBCCI’s committee urged the government to enhance the capacity of the trade bodies, especially the district-level chambers of commerce and industry, by allotting them land for offices.

Thousands of shell-shocked survivors of the Myanmar cyclone emerged Wednesday, desperate for food and water after trekking for days through flood waters littered with the bodies of the dead.
   An AFP reporter who reached the remote southern delta hardest hit by the storm, which left more than 60,000 dead or missing, said there was virtually no food or fresh water in this ruined town blanketed by the stench of death.
   As global pressure mounted on Myanmar to open up to foreign aid, democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s party said survivors were in urgent need of foreign aid.
   ‘The storm victims are in urgent need of emergency assistance from the international agencies including the UN,’ the National League for Democracy said in a statement.
   But the White House said Myanmar had still not answered its offers of aid, while France said the UN Security Council should force Myanmar’s military junta to allow supplies into the country.
   The grim accounts of survivors came as the United Nations said the country’s reclusive military rulers, under pressure to let in foreign aid workers, had approved an emergency flight five days after the tragedy.
   ‘They have lost their families, they have nowhere to stay and they have nothing to eat,’ one witness said in the town of Labutta after Cyclone Nargis washed away entire villages in one of the world’s poorest nations.
   Another said: ‘We can’t sleep at night, because we can hear people shouting at night. Maybe these are the ghosts of the villagers.’
   Those who had the strength to do so spent days picking through murky water strewn with the festering and bloated dead, desperate for shelter, food, water and medical care after one of the world’s worst natural disasters.
   Witnesses said Saturday’s storm, packing winds of 190 kilometres per hour, had left the region submerged under six-metre waters higher than the tree-tops – and countless corpses rotting in the tropical heat.
   Aid workers for Doctors without Borders reported that the cyclone had destroyed 80 per cent of buildings in the worst-hit parts of Myanmar.
   After days of criticism aimed at the secretive generals who have ruled the former Burma for nearly half a century – and who have hesitated to let in foreign relief workers – the United Nations said a flight would leave at the end of the week from southern Italy.
   The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs had earlier said it hoped the flight would leave Brindisi Wednesday with 25 tonnes of aid and several staff from the organisation on board.
   Pledges of cash, supplies and assistance have been pouring in from around the world, but the generals – wary of any foreign influence that could weaken their tenacious control – have kept foreigners away.
   The military, best known internationally for its long detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, had insisted that experts well versed in coping with catastrophes around the globe would not be automatically allowed in.
   But after criticism of a government that declined help from abroad after the 2004 Asian tsunami, and bitter complaints that time was running out for those still alive, it was unclear if aid would arrive quick enough.
   The UN’s OCHA warned in a briefing note that further delays in granting visas were putting thousands of lives at risk.
   White House spokesman Dana Perino told reporters: ‘We are increasingly concerned about the desperate situation that many people are facing there after the cyclone and we stand ready to help.’
   Meanwhile, the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, on a rare visit to Tokyo, said the cyclone in close ally Myanmar may set back the already slow-moving democratisation process, according to a Japanese official.
   Myanmar residents said that the regime – which tightly controls all media and stifles the merest whiff of dissent – had not yet set up emergency shelters here, and that even a government rescue ship ran out of fuel and was stranded.
   ‘We need emergency rescuers,’ said a local doctor, who warned many here were suffering from diarrhoea because of the miserable sanitary conditions.
   ‘Assistance hasn’t reached them yet and they are dying,’ said Andrew Kirkwood of Save the Children, one of the few aid agencies allowed to operate inside Myanmar.
   ‘And clearly there are millions of homeless,’ he said. ‘But how many millions, we don’t know.’
   The charity said an estimated 40 per cent of the dead or missing are believed to be children.
   Amid a public appeal for aid from Pope Benedict XVI, some relief supplies have been trickling in.
   OCHA said the World Food Programme has already been able to distribute some food aid in Yangon and aid has arrived from Thailand and China.

Myanmar has deported a BBC journalist who tried to enter the country to report on a cyclone that has killed 22,500 people, saying he had violated visa regulations, a state newspaper said Wednesday.
   Andrew Harding flew into Yangon from Bangkok on Monday, but was deported shortly after his arrival, the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
   ‘A journalist who is working for BBC was deported as he broke visa rules and regulations,’ the paper said, saying Harding had tried to enter the country on a tourist visa instead of an official journalist visa.
   ‘Journalists from news agencies in Western countries illegally entered the country very often and made fabricated news with the help of anti-government groups,’ it said.
   The newspaper said Harding had been blacklisted from the country after he had earlier entered on a tourist visa in 2006 and again last September as anti-government protests were getting underway.
   ‘He interviewed anti-government groups and aired false accusations and fabricated news in his ‘Undercover Burma’ programme,’ the paper said.
   ‘He met with those creating unrest in Yangon and put their demands for the unrest in his broadcast,’ it added.
   The paper said Myanmar’s military government had not taken legal action against Harding ‘for the sake of friendly relations’ with Britain. Buddhist monks led protests that snowballed in September into the biggest anti-government rallies seen in nearly 20 years.
   Security forces opened fire on the protesters and beat protesters in the street to break up the marches, leaving at least 31 dead, according to the United Nations.

Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday demanded that the government should immediately scrap the deal struck during Ershad regime to supply gas to Japanese company KAFCO at cheap rate.
   Chamber president Saifuzzaman Chowdhury at a press conference at his office also urged the government to immediately resolve the gas crisis in Chittagong on priority basis. ‘Gas crisis hampers the flow of investment.’
   He blamed the deposed military dictator HM Ershad for signing such a gas supply contract with KAFCO set up on the bank of the River Karnaphuli. This deal was contrary to the interest of the country that incurred a huge loss by selling gas to KAFCO at a very nominal price.
   ‘We get surprised how the deal was signed against the interest of the country. Now we urge the government to scrap it without further delay as Chittagong is hit hard by gas crisis,’ the chamber president added.
   The present government by scrapping the deal with KAFCO could provide the same quantity of gas to the hardest hit industrial sector for the sake of economic growth and job opportunity, he observed.
   Saifuzzaman informed that about 100 industries, set up recently in Chittagong, could not be brought under the operation due to lack of gas connection.
   ‘Gas crisis is now the burning issue in Chittagong as it has slowed down the industrialisation here. Many foreign and local entrepreneurs have failed to make investment in Chittagong only for gas crisis.’
   The crises of power, gas and water devastated the public life in Chittagong, he said, adding, ‘The country will suffer if Chittagong is not developed.’
   Now time had come to draw attention of the government to resolve issues faced by Chittagong, he said. About coal extraction, Saifuzzaman stressed the need for having an access to nuclear power with open field concept. ‘Our coal is of the finest quality.’
   CCCI senior vice-president MA Latif, directors Mahbub Ali, Amirul Huq and Mohammad Nasir also spoke at the press conference.

The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, on Wednesday said the party would not take part in the general elections without the two top political leaders, Khaleda Zia of BNP and Sheikh Hasina of Awami League.
   ‘We will not participate in the elections if they [Khaleda and Hasina] are not allowed to participate’, Delwar told newsmen after a meeting with party leaders at his Sher-e-Bangla Nagar house.
   He alleged that the government was conspiring for election-fixing keeping the chiefs of the two major political parties out of the race. ‘But the people will not accept any elections excluding the two leaders’, he said.
   Delwar reiterated the demands for immediate withdrawal of the state of emergency, announcement of a date for parliamentary elections and release of all political detainees, including Khaleda Zia and her sons Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman, and withdrawal of the cases which, according to him, were filed on false charges against them.
   He said the BNP would announce ‘programmes’ in a couple of days to press the demand for the release of the party chairperson Khaleda Zia.
   He said the meeting had discussed possible ‘programmes’ which would be announced ‘in a day or two’.
   The meeting also discussed programmes to observe the death anniversary of late president Ziaur Rahman, also founder of BNP, which falls on May 30.
   BNP chief’s adviser ASM Hannan Shah, joint secretaries general Selima Rahman and Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, and acting office secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed were present at the briefing.

The civil aviation and tourism ministry has ordered the managing director and chief executive officer of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited to show cause for presenting ‘talking points’ against the government decision bypassing the ministry at a meeting of the Bangladesh–Saudi Arabia Joint Economic Commission in April.
   ‘We have served the notice to show cause in the last week of April seeking immediate clarification of Biman’s move against the interest of the people, which is quite uncalled for, but we are yet to get any response from the Biman authorities,’ a senior civil aviation ministry official told New Age on Wednesday. Biman on its own forwarded the talking points suggesting that it was not necessary to incorporate multiple designation system in the air services agreement between Bangladesh and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the commission’s 9th meeting held in Dhaka in April 7–8.
   There was no necessity for enhancement of capacity and frequency entitlements at the moment or designating a second carrier by either country, according to Biman’s opinion, which is viewed against the interest of the people as the government, on the other hand, proposed through diplomatic channels for increasing the frequencies and introducing the multiple designation system to cope with the huge rush of passengers, mostly workers, to the Middle East, said the notice sent to Biman’s managing director MA Momen.
   ‘Presently, the Saudi Arabian Airlines is running 13 weekly scheduled flights to and from Dhaka including twice-weekly freighter flights and Biman, on the other hand, is running nine weekly flights to and from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,’ said an official concerned.

The acting chairperson of the government-backed faction of BNP, M Saifur Rahman, on Wednesday conceded that his leadership had become ineffective as most of the available standing committee members officially invalidated the meeting which made him the party chief.
   Saifur was scheduled to leave for Singapore Wednesday night for treatment.
   When asked if he would delegate his authority [of acting chairperson] to any leader, Saifur told newsmen Wednesday evening, ‘I do not have any authority as acting chairperson as the standing committee members who appointed me have withdrawn support through affidavit [at the court].’
   ‘The appointment has become useless’, he said at his Gulshan residence.
   Saifur and Hafiz Uddin Ahmed was made acting chairperson and acting secretary general of BNP at a controversial meeting of the party’s standing committee on October 29, 2007.
   Four, out of available eight, committee members – RA Gani, Chowdhury Tanvir Ahmed Siddiqui, M Shamsul Islam and Khandaker Mahbub Uddin – later filed an affidavit to the High Court saying that it was not a standing committee meeting and that they attended a tea party at the invitation of Saifur Rahman.
   Saifur said the dialogue between the government and the political parties might not be successful excluding Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina.
   He hoped that Khaleda Zia would gain freedom through legal procedure.

Dmitry Medvedev was sworn in Wednesday as Russia’s third president since the fall of the Soviet Union at a glittering Kremlin ceremony overshadowed by his powerful mentor Vladimir Putin.
   Meanwhile, Medvedev nominated Putin as prime minister, a Kremlin spokesman said.
   ‘Medvedev has put forward Putin’s candidacy for prime minister to parliament,’ a Kremlin spokesman said.
   After taking the oath in the Kremlin’s gold-leafed Great Palace, Medvedev, 42, said his most important task would be to ensure ‘civil and economic freedom’ and to strengthen Russia’s role on the international stage.
   Goose-stepping guards in Tsarist-style uniforms brought the Russian flag, the presidential flag with the double-headed eagle symbol, a red-bound copy of the Russian constitution, and the golden chain of the presidential office.
   Putin underlined his enduring influence by giving his own speech at the pomp-filled ceremony.
   ‘It’s extremely important for everyone together to continue the course that has already been taken and has justified itself,’ said Putin, who has ruled for the last eight years.
   The inauguration marked the peak of Medvedev’s abrupt rise from obscurity as a Putin-era bureaucrat to commander-in-chief of a vast nuclear arsenal and leader of the world’s largest energy producer.
   Medvedev inherits a booming economy fuelled by massive oil and gas exports, and a country at its most confident since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
   However the mild-mannered bureaucrat, who has never before held elected office, will have to grapple with politically explosive price rises, unbridled corruption, and turbulent relations with the West.
   Just Tuesday, the government approved big hikes in utility prices, with gas going up by 29 per cent and electricity by 17 per cent.
   Medvedev, whose March 2 election landslide was criticised by independent monitors as partly staged, will also have to deal with Putin looking over his shoulder.
   Some see Medvedev’s lack of a KGB past – a rare thing in the current political elite – as a sign that Russia could be in for a post-Putin thaw.
   In pre-election speeches, Medvedev called for the defence of human rights and spoke strongly against corruption and ‘legal nihilism.’
   However, critics question his liberal credentials, pointing to his chairmanship of Gazprom, Russia’s gigantic and highly opaque natural gas monopoly, as well as a close relationship with Putin stretching back to the early 1990s.
   On the eve of his inauguration, dozens of opposition activists were detained in Moscow for trying to stage a rare anti-Kremlin rally.
   Medvedev has said little about his foreign policy stand and it is unclear how much influence the hawkish Putin will continue to exercise from his government office.
   The change of power comes at a difficult time in East-West relations, with the United States condemning Moscow’s support for separatist rebels inside neighbouring Georgia, and Moscow furious over NATO’s promise to give membership to Georgia and Ukraine.
   Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, said in an interview published Wednesday that Medvedev would not ‘start a war with the United States or any other country,’ but that Washington was increasingly aggressive.
   Medvedev has said his first foreign trips will be to oil-rich Kazakhstan and to China, a growing partner and energy customer of Russia. He will also be attending the Group of Eight summit in Japan in July.

The 147th anniversary of birth of poet Rabindranath Tagore will be celebrated today.
   Tagore was a poet, visual artist, playwright, novelist, and composer whose works reshaped the Bangla literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
   He was born on May 7, 1861 in Kolkata, India. But the occasion came to be celebrated on Baishakh 25 of the Bangla calendar. He died in Kolkata on August 7, 1941.
   He was Asia’s first Nobel laureate by winning Nobel prize in literature in 1913 for his collection of verses called Gitanjali.
   The government, academic institutions and socio-cultural organisations have chalked up programmes to mark the occasion.
   Newspapers will bring out special supplements featuring Tagore’s contribution to the Bangla literature and the electronic media will air special programmes, including Tagore’s plays, songs, discussions and recitation from his poems.
   The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, will inaugurate Tagore’s birth anniversary programmes in the Osmani Memorial Hall auditorium at 10.00am. The inaugural will be followed by a cultural function.
   The programmes will feature a discussion and musical soiree. Fakhruddin will attend the programme as chief guest. Professor Mustafa Nur-Ul Islam will deliver the Tagore memorial lecture.
   The president, Iajudddin Ahmed, and the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, in separate messages highlighted Tagore’s contribution to the language and literature.
   Iajuddin said Rabindranath’s work would keep inspiring the Bangla-speaking people in creativity for ages.
   ‘The philosophy of the extraordinary poet is devotion to the welfare of humankind, as the worshiping of truth and beauty and flourishing of human values were the basic tune of his literary devotion,’ he said.
   Fakhruddin said, ‘The relation of Rabindranath with Bangladesh is close and his songs and poems inspired our people during the independence war.’
   Various programmes have been chalked up to mark the day at Selaidah in Kushtia, Patisar in Naogaon and Dakkhin Dighi in Khulna, the three places associated with Rabindranath.
   Local administrations across the country will also arrange programmes. Bangladesh missions abroad will celebrate the day.
   The Bangla Academy will pay tribute to the poet in a programme in its seminar room on May 11. Professor Anisur Rahman will read out the keynote paper. The academy president, Harun-ur-Rashid, will be in the chair.
   The academy will also publish a commemoration volume marking the 147th anniversary of Tagore’s birth.
   The Shilpakala Academy will hold a cultural programme based on the works of the poet in the National Theatre Hall in the evening. Prominent artistes will recite poems, stage dance and sing Tagore’s songs.
   Prachya Shilpacharcha Parishad will mark the day with music session at 7.00pm. Singers such as Banshori Dutta, Ainun Nahar, Reta Majumder, Nilanjana Chowdhury and Farzana Rahman will took part in the function in the organisation office on the Science Laboratory Road in Dhaka.

US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs Richard A Boucher arrives in the capital this morning to discuss with the interim administration bilateral issues, especially to weigh the progress towards the elections.
   During his two-day visit, Boucher is scheduled to hold talks with the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, law adviser Hasan Arif, home affairs adviser M A Matin, chief of army staff General Moeen U Ahmed, foreign secretary Touhid Hossain and chief election commissioner A T M Shamsul Huda.
   He will also meet politicians and civil society representatives during his stay in Bangladesh.
   Diplomatic sources said that Boucher would discuss the government’s preparations for implementing the electoral roadmap, procedures of cases against politicians, especially the two former prime ministers, human rights of political detainees, graft cases and counter-terrorism efforts.
   ‘His [Boucher] discussions will focus on US interests in Bangladesh revolving around three intertwined Ds – democracy, development, and denial of space to terrorism’, said an official.
   An announcement of the US embassy in Dhaka on Wednesday said that the US official would hold talks with senior government officials and members of civil society on a wide range of issues, including progress towards implementing the electoral roadmap, development and other bilateral issues.
   Officials said that the state department official along with his colleague Dell L Dailey would meet senior government officials here.
   Daily, US state department’s coordinator for counter-terrorism, arrived in the capital on Wednesday to hold talks with senior government officials on issues relating to counter-terrorism and US-Bangladesh cooperation on the global war on terror.
   Boucher last visited Bangladesh in late 2006.

The Election Commission on Wednesday apprised the president, Iajuddin Ahmed, of its progress towards holding the suspended ninth parliamentary polls by December. ‘We have apprised the president of two things — progress in voter’s registration and delimitation of the constituencies — and assured him of holding the national elections by December,’ the chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, told reporters after the meeting with the president.
   A delegation led by the chief election commissioner called on the president at Bangabhaban on Wednesday, a day after the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, had met Iajuddin. Two election commissioners — Muhammed Sohul Hussain and M Sakhawat Hussain — and the secretary to the EC secretariat, Humayun Kabir, accompanied the Shamsul.
   Shamsul said they had informed the president that registration of seven crore voters would be completed on May 17 and the entire field-level task would be completed by June.
   The final electoral roll will be available in October as some tasks such as publishing the draft and printing will need to be completed after June, he said.
   ‘We apprised the president that the commission is hopeful of making final the electoral roll with photographs by October as 83 per cent of estimated voters have already been enrolled,’ he said.
   Shamsul said the delegation also informed the president of the delimitation of electoral constituencies and gave a power-point presentation on the delimitation for him.
   ‘There is no scope for losing neutrality in this connection,’ he told reporters, alluding to the criticism from political circles against the redrawing of 133, out of the total 300, electoral constituencies.
   The commission said the president had expressed his satisfaction about the commission activities towards holding the general elections by December.
   The president’s military secretary, Major General Mohd Aminul Karim, secretary to the President’s Office Md Sirajul Islam and the president’s press secretary Abdul Awal Howlader were present.

The Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge M Azizul Haque on Wednesday ordered appearance of the detained former prime minister Khaleda Zia and 10 others in court on May 13 to face the charges pressed against them in the Niko graft case on Monday.
   The court also ordered appearance of Khaleda’s eldest son Tarique Rahman and former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar, both detained in jail, and six others in court on the day to face the charges pressed against them in the Bashundhara murder bribery case on Tuesday.
   The court ordered the jail authorities to produce the detained accused and issued warrants for the arrest of the accused now in hiding.
   The judge passed the order after the two cases had been transferred to him by chief metropolitan magistrate Enamul Haque for necessary step for trial.
   The Anti-Corruption Commission on Monday pressed charges against Khaleda Zia, also the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, two of her cabinet colleagues and eight others for corruption in signing a contract with Canadian oil company Niko Resources Ltd and causing a loss of Tk 13,777 crore to the state.
   Others accused in the Niko case are former law minister Moudud Ahmed, former state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain, former principal secretary Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, Petrobangla’s joint secretary and director (finance) CM Yousuf Hussain, former Bapex secretary Shafiur Rahman, former Bapex general manager Mir Mainul Haque, then acting energy secretary Khandakar Shahidul Islam, One Group managing director Giasuddin Al Mamun, International Travel Corporation chairman and managing director Selim Bhuiyan and former Niko (Bangladesh) vice-president Quasem Sharif.
   Of the accused, the task force has so far arrested Khaleda, Moudud, Mosharraf, Shahidul, Mamun and Selim. The rests are in hiding.
   The commission on Tuesday pressed charges against Tarique Rahman, former Lutfozzaman Babar, Bashundhara Group chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, also known as Shah Alam, and five others regarding bribery of Tk 21 crore to cover up the murder of a director of the company.
   Other accused in the Bashundhara case are former BNP lawmaker Kazi Salimul Huq Kamal, Shah Alam’s two sons, Safiyat Sobhan Sanbir and Shahadat Sobhan, Bashundhara director Abu Sufian and Tarique’s private secretary Miah Nuruddin Apu.
   Of the eight, Tarique, Babar and Sufian are in custody. Others are in hiding.

The Democratic Left Alliance on Wednesday issued a legal notice to the Election Commission asking it to revoke the provisions for mandatory registration of parties.
   The alliance in the notice warned the commission of filing a writ petition challenging the legality of the provisions if they were not revoked in seven days. The alliance leaders disclosed issuing the legal notice at a briefing in the office of Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal.
   The alliance coordinator, Zonayed Saki, spoke at the briefing, which was also addressed by Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal convener Khalequzzaman, Workers Party of Bangladesh general secretary Saiful Huq, Biplabi Oikya Front convener Moshrefa Mishu and Jatiya Gana Front coordinator Tipu Biswas.
   Zonayed Saki said, ‘Registration with the Election Commission is not mandatory for political parties in any country to contest national polls.’
   He said, ‘The provisions for the registration of parties have been enforced in some countries such as India and in none of these countries, registration is mandatory for parties to contest elections. The registered parties rather get some facilities for election campaign and publicity.’
   Saiful Huq said, ‘If the provisions made by the commission are enforced, no parties except for a few mafia parties having black money will have the scope for contesting elections.’
   He also criticised the Election Commission for holding dialogues with a few political parties.
   Tipu Biswas accused the commission of acting at the directive of powerful quarters, saying that the alliance received no response from the commission regarding the letter the alliance sent to the commission for holding the dialogue on electoral reforms.

Only ten blood banks in the country have so far got registration from the Directorate-General of Health Services which is under the health ministry, though about 700 private blood banks are being operated in the country in violation of the Safe Blood Transfusion Act 2002, said sources in the ministry.
   The DGHS has sent letters to all civil surgeons’ offices and city corporations to monitor the blood banks that have not been registered and were being run in violation of the Act, said the assistant director of the medical board and private clinics of the DGHS, Dr Momtaz Uddin Bhuiyan.
   He told New Age on Tuesday that the government has given these blood banks one month’s time to get registered with the DGHS, otherwise it will take action against them.
   Sources in the DGHS confirmed that all the private blood banks have been running in the country without the health ministry’s approval except 10, and only 10 other blood banks have applied for registration so far.
   The Safe Blood Transfusion Act was formulated to collect and transfuse safe blood to the patients who required blood from others on an emergency basis, said health secretary AZM Zafar Ullah Khan.
   ‘For the sake of public health, transfusion of contaminated blood should be stopped right now. One can be infected with serious diseases like syphilis, AIDS and hepatitis after being given contaminated blood. Unsafe blood can even cause a patient’s death,’ he said.
   Akhtar Hossain Bhuiyan, director of the hospital and clinic at DGHS, told New Age that private blood banks were mushrooming across the country. ‘The government should keep a tight rein on these blood banks for the sake of public health.’
   Apart from the private blood banks, there are 118 state-run blood banks in the country.
   Only 10 blood banks — of which nine are situated in Dhaka — have had themselves registered till April 30, said the DGHS officials.
   The nine organisations in the capital are Square Hospital on Panthapath, United Hospital in Gulshan, Kidney Foundation of Bangladesh in Dhanmondi, Quantum Laboratory in Shantinagar, Ad Din Hospital in Moghbazar, Apollo Hospitals in Bashundhara, City Hospital in Lalmatia, Green View Hospital and Lab Aid Hospital. And a private blood bank of the Khwaja Yunus Ali Medical College in Sirajganj also got the registration, sources added.
   The ten other blood banks that have applied for licences are in Mymensingh, Chittagong, Sylhet, Khulna, Rangpur, Bogra and Jessore.
   Dr Momtaz Uddin Bhuiyan told New Age that voluntary blood donation and collection centres also need to be licensed, and most of them have already contacted the DGHS.
   The DGHS will approve a blood bank and register it only after proper inspection and ensuring that it is following the safety laws, he said.
   Dr Shahana Zafar, who is in charge of the Red Crescent Blood Centre, told New Age on Tuesday, ‘We have already applied for registration, but are yet to get it.’
   The government at the end of 2007 formed a committee in each division to monitor the blood banks that were mushrooming in the capital, metropolitan cities as well as in the districts, said a health ministry official.
   A DGHS official said, ‘Private blood banks are being set up around the hospitals and clinics, so the government should have some control over them and the sale of blood.’
   ‘Blood bank authorities have to pay Tk 1 lakh as registration fee and the renewal fee is Tk 50,000 after every three years,’ an official said.
   According to the Safe Blood Transfusion Act 2002, separate licences are required to run the blood banks, even if they belong to private hospitals. All the necessary equipment, facilities for blood grouping and screening for HIV, HBV, HCV, VDRL and MP and cell separation machines are required to run a proper blood bank. The blood should be collected in air-conditioned rooms.
   It is mandatory to check if there is any virus of HIV, syphilis, malaria, Hepatitis B and C in the blood stored in blood banks.
   If any blood centre collects 3,000-5,000 units of blood annually, it needs at least 16 staffers, including a transfusion expert, two trained medical officers and three medical technologists. If any blood centre collects 6,000-8,000 units of blood annually, it needs at least 20 staffers with modern equipment, according to the Act.
   As per the Act, a private blood bank cannot go into operation without licence from the DGHS. If anyone violates this rule, he/she will have to suffer minimum two years’ imprisonment or pay a fine of Tk 1 lakh or both.
   If any patient dies or becomes disabled or afflicted by blood-related diseases because of blood banks’ mismanagement, the owner will have to suffer minimum five years’ imprisonment or pay a fine of Tk 5 lakh.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court will deliver its judgment today in the government appeal against the High Court verdict that had quashed the Tk 2.99 crore extortion case against the detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
   The delivery of the verdict on the appeal tops the list of the cases to be dealt with by the Appellate Division today. The list was published late Wednesday afternoon.
   Ending an eight-day hearing in the appeal on April 29, the full court of all the seven Appellate Division judges, headed by the chief justice, M Ruhul Amin, said it would soon deliver the verdict.
   In his concluding arguments on April 29, additional attorney general Salahuddin Ahmed
   said the High Court on February 6 had handed down the verdict on purpose as it quashed the extortion case which Hasina did not seek in the petition.
   Hasina, also the Awami League president, in her writ petition only sought that the placement of the case under the Emergency Powers Rules should be declared illegal, but the High Court in addition quashed the case, he said.
   The High Court might have cancelled the placement of the trial of the case under the emergency rules clearing the way for holding the trial under the Code of Criminal Procedure, but it quashed the whole case sealing the trial in the case under any law, the sate attorney contended.
   Earlier in six-day arguments, Hasina’s counsel Rafique-ul Huq said the High Court had rightly quashed the case and observed that no offence committed before the declaration of the state of emergency could be tried under the emergency rules.
   The Appellate Division on February 26 allowed the government to appeal against the High Court verdict and posted the hearing for March 16. The court accordingly started hearing the appeal on March 16 and concluded it on Tuesday after hearing the case for eight working days.
   Staying the operation of the High Court verdict, the Appellate Division on February 26 also stayed the trial in the extortion case filed by power company East Coast Trading Pvt Ltd managing director Azam Jahangir Chowdhury till the disposal of the appeal.
   Azam filed the case with the Gulshan police on June 13, 2007 alleging that the former prime minister, aided by her expatriate sister Sheikh Rehana and cousin Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, also a former minister, had extorted Tk 2.99 crore from him for the award of the installation of a power plant in 2001. Hasina was arrested on July 16, 2007.
   Hasina, her sister Rehana and their cousin Selim were charged by the Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge on January 13 with extorting Tk 2.99 crore from Azam.
   The sessions court in the makeshift courtroom on the Jatiya Sangsad complex began trial in the case on January 30 with the deposition by the complainant, Azam. The trial remains stalled because of the High Court verdict.

A three-day ‘Bangladesh Potato Campaign 2008’ was launched on Wednesday to encourage farmers in growing the vegetable that promoters believe can reduce pressure on rice.
   ‘We are not asking the people to change their food habits, but if consumption of potato is increased, it will reduce pressure on rice’, said agriculture adviser CS Karim while kicking off the national campaign at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Center.
   The government launched the campaign in the wake of a bumper production of potato this season.
   According to the statistics of the Department of Agriculture Extension, the production of potato this year was nearly 92.37 lakh metric tonnes from 5.2 lakh hectares compared to 44 lakh metric tonnes from 3.9 lakh hectares last season. The increase in production this year was about 40 per cent. Potato production in 2001-02 was only 35 lakh MT from 3.25 lakh hectares.
   ‘People look for alternatives during food crisis in every country and as we have a bumper potato harvest, a little change in food habit will help increase its consumption’, said the chief of army staff, General Moeen U Ahmed.
   An increase in potato intake will provide a double benefit – it will help the farmers who have reaped a bumper harvest and there will be a decline in the demand for the high-priced rice, Moeen said.
   FAO representative AD Spijkers and a representative from potato farmers addressed the inaugural function of the campaign organised jointly by FAO and the army’s CSD Bangladesh. Agriculture secretary M Abdul Aziz chaired it.
   The bumper potato harvest has created storage problems as the 16 cold storages of the Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation have a maximum capacity of nearly 20 lakh MT while the nearly 300 cold storages in the private sector can store another 22 lakh MT.
   The additional production of nearly 30 lakh MT cannot be exhausted quickly even if consumption increases considerably, the agriculture secretary noted in his speech and stressed the need for the farmers’ awareness about techniques to store potato in household conditions for at least three months.
   There has been a surplus production of potato this year throughout the world and the United Nations has declared 2008 as the ‘World Potato Year’ urging the people to eat more of the starchy vegetable.
   The per capita consumption of potato in the developed countries is about 100 kilogram compared to only 24 kg in Bangladesh.
   The 3-day national campaign includes display and free sampling of potato products by top food processing companies, restaurants and hotels at the stalls set up at the BCFCC.
   Rally, talk shows, cooking competitions, and a number of cultural programmes, including concerts, are also part of the campaign to promote consumption of potato.
   Free distribution of ice-cream and also spicy items made of potato by the army-run five-star Radisson hotel attracted a large number of visitors at their stall on the opening day of the campaign.

Barack Obama appeared Wednesday to be closing in on the Democratic presidential nomination after trouncing Hillary Clinton in the North Carolina primary and battling to a close finish in Indiana.
   The Illinois senator rebounded from weeks of mis-steps and controversy that had threatened to derail his bid to become the first black US president by thrashing Hillary 56-42 per cent in North Carolina on Tuesday.
   The former first lady took Indiana by 51-49 per cent but only after an agonisingly slow vote count that saw her commanding early lead whittled down to a mere 22,000 votes in a nail-biting finish.
   The results left Obama 183 delegates shy of the 2,025 needed for the nomination and Hillary virtually out of options to overtake him in the six contests remaining before the end of the primary season on June 3.
   Analysts agreed pressure would grow on the party’s super-delegates, the Democratic leaders who hold the key to the tight nomination race, to back Obama. Hillary was likely to face mounting calls to quit, they said.
   Obama, 46, used his victory speech in North Carolina to cast himself as the Democrats’ heir-apparent for the November 4 election against Republican John McCain.
   ‘Tonight we stand less than 200 delegates away from securing the Democratic nomination for president of the United States,’ he told thousands of deliriously cheering supporters in Raleigh.
   ‘This fall, we intend to march forward as one Democratic Party, united by a common vision for this country,’ he said.
   ‘Because we all agree that at this defining moment in history – a moment when we’re facing two wars, an economy in turmoil, a planet in peril – we can’t afford to give John McCain the chance to serve out president George Bush’s third term.’
   Although Tuesday’s results fell far short of the ‘game-changer’ Hillary predicted would transform the race, the New York senator hailed her victory in Indiana and said it was ‘full speed on to the White House.’
   To underline her determination to fight on, she and her weary entourage scheduled an early Wednesday trip to West Virginia, the scene of the next primary battle on May 13.
   But the 60-year-old Hillary also showed signs of resignation, stressing in her Indiana victory speech that ‘no matter what happens, I will work for the nominee of the Democratic Party, because we must win in November.’
   The primaries in North Carolina and Indiana, with a total of 187 delegates at stake, represented Hillary’s last chance to roll up a big score and change the dynamics of the race. But Obama was the clear winner.
   He bested Hillary by more than 200,000 votes between the two states and picked up a net gain of 13 nominating delegates to the party’s convention this August in Denver, Colorado.
   Obama also boosted his case among the nearly 800 ‘superdelegates’ whom Hillary had been wooing with the argument that her inexperienced rival would go down in flames against McCain.
   Only six primaries, with a total of 217 delegates at stake, remain: West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, Montana and South Dakota, and the US territory of Puerto Rico.

The acting Awami League president, Zillur Rahman, on Wednesday said that unconditional release of Sheikh Hasina would be the party’s main demand at the formal dialogue with government and reiterated that they would not participate the in the elections without her release.
   ‘Unconditional release of Hasina would be our main demand at the formal dialogue and without her presence we will not participate in the next parliamentary polls’, Zillur said in a publication ceremony in the city.
   The Mohammad Hanif Memorial Foundation launched the book titled ‘Mohammad Hanif, the First Elected Mayor of Dhaka City Corporation and His Struggle’ written by journalist Mostaq Hossain.
   AL presidium member Suranjit Sengupta asked the caretaker government to conclude the dialogue process by this month and hand over power to elected representatives by holding free and fair elections.
   ‘People’s miseries will increase if this unelected government prolongs its rule. The sooner this government quits, the better it is for the nation’, he said.
   Syed Khokan, only son of Mohammad Hanif, presided over the programme, organised by the Mohammad Hanif Memorial Foundation. Among others, AL acting general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, organising secretary Sultan Mohammad Munsur Ahmed and Dhaka city AL acting president MA Aziz addressed in the function.
   AL presidium member Amir Hossain Amu said, ‘We miss the leadership of Mohammad Hanif at this crucial juncture when we are facing a tough time ahead in the movement for release of Sheikh Hasina and restoration of democracy.’

Bangladesh Water Partnership has contradicted the recent remark by the Indian high commissioner, Pinak Ranjan Chakra-varty, on the availability of water.
   The BWP in a statement signed by its president Quamrul Islam Siddique said during the dry season between January and April, the per capita water availability in Bangladesh was only 563 cubic meters as against demand for 1001 cubic meters during that period.
   The per capita water availability during the wet monsoon season (June-September) is 6613 cubic meters often over flooding the country.
   ‘It is therefore quite clear that during the monsoon season the per capita availability is more than six times of the demand whereas the per capita water availability in dry season is less than half of the demand,’ it said.
   The statement added that this critical water availability situation is being further exacerbated by cross boundary withdrawal of precious dry season flow of a significant number of other trans-boundary rivers.
   ‘It is known to all that besides the Farakka Barrage on the Ganges, India has also built barrages on the common rivers Teesta, Mahananda, Monu, Khowai, Gumti, Muhuri and Kodla,’ it said.
   Such unilateral dry season water abstraction is telling heavily on the agro-socio-economic condition of large areas in Bangladesh and badly hurting the environment of the country, the statement added.
   In a discussion the Indian high commissioner said it was not water availability rather water management was a problem for Bangladesh.
   The BWP statement said the flat topography of Bangladesh did not permit storage of monsoon water for use during dry season. As 54 rivers come into Bangladesh from India, Bangladesh has no control over the flows entering through these rivers.

The Seventh Wage Board for journalists, press workers and employees of the newspaper industry has submitted its report to the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, recommending new scales of salary, allowances and other welfare measures.
   The chairman of the wage board, Justice Habibur Rahman Khan, handed over the recommendation report to Fakhruddin at the Chief Adviser’s Office on Wednesday.
   The government in a notification formed the Seventh Wage Board on February 26, 2008, giving it two months time to prepare recommendations. The board accomplished its task of recommending the wage board award within the fixed timeframe.
   ‘The seventh wage board’s recommendations removed the existing anomalies in salary and allowances, and conditions of employment of journalists and news workers,’ said an official source.
   All members of the 10-member wage board, including representatives of newspaper owners, journalists and press employees, had attended all its meetings.
   Information secretary Zamil Osman, chief adviser’s press secretary Syed Fahim Munaim and secretary to the Seventh Wage Board Khurshid Alam were present during the submission of the report.

The Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commission will not extend the May 31 deadline for re-registration of mobile phone subscribers, said its chairman, Manjurul Alam, on Wednesday.
   Manjurul told reporters that the mobile SIM cards without re-registration would be blocked gradually after the 31 May deadline expires.
   He also warned that if any of the SIM cards was blocked, it would not be allowed to open again.
   The BTRC chairman said that as per the information provided by the mobile operators, 70 per cent of the subscribers had already been re-registered. He said that the re-registration of the rest of the subscribers could be completed by May 31.
   The BTRC has so far extended the re-registration deadline for four times in response to the requests of the mobile operators.
   The regulatory body in August, 2007 decided that the operators would complete re-registration by October 16, 2007. Then it extended by deadline till December 16 before setting the new deadline on February 16, 2008. Now it has fixed May 31 as the deadline.

A five-member delegation of the Bangladesh Armed Forces left Dhaka on Wednesday to participate in the relief and salvage operations in cyclone-hit Myanmar.
   Under the government decision, the Armed Forces team, led by Brig Gen Taslim Uddin Khan, flew to the cyclone-ravaged country by a BAF-130 transport aircraft, an ISPR release said.
   The chief of air staff, Air Marshal SM Ziaur Rahman, saw the team off at Kurmitola Air Base. The Myanmar ambassador to Bangladesh, U Nyan Lynn, the Quarter Master General of the Bangladesh Army, Lt Gen Jahangir Alam Choudhury, and senior military officials were present on the occasion.
   The delegation will hand over relief goods to the Myanmar authorities on behalf of the Bangladesh government as a gesture of friendship and deepest sympathy for the neighbouring country.
   The relief items include potato, medicine, oral saline, water-purification tablets, Burmese thami, lungis, pant, napkins and other clothes and shelter items.