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President Iajuddin Ahmed Monday evening ordered withdrawal of armed forces from emergency duties across the country a day after election schedules were announced.
   The president and supreme commander of the armed forces ‘approved government proposal for withdrawal of the members of armed forces deployed across the country in aid to civil administration,’ a report of news agency UNB said, quoting Sirajul Islam, secretary of the President’s Office at Bangabhaban.
   The presidential order followed home adviser MA Matin’s announcement earlier on the day that armed forces would be withdrawn with immediate effect to facilitate electioneering.
   The military-controlled interim government on Monday repealed two rules of the Emergency Powers Rules 2007 and conditionally relaxed another one.
   Two gazette notifications were issued accordingly with immediate effect.
   The government conditionally relaxed Rule 3 of the emergency rules that curbed meeting, gathering, procession, rally and demonstration since January 11, 2007.
   According to the relaxed provision, any rally, meeting or procession can be held for the election campaign in constituencies for the parliamentary elections and upazila polls, subject to the provisions stipulated in the Representation of the People Order 1972 and the Local Government (Upazila Parishad) Ordinance 2008.
   By another gazette notification, the government repealed Rules 5 and 6 of the emergency rules, respectively curbing the media and anti-government activities and criticism.
   Rule 5(1) had empowered the government to ban or control, imposing restrictions, broadcasting or publication of any news or information about meeting, rally, procession, seize, demonstration, speech, statement, and provocative activities, and any news, editorial, post-editorial, article, feature, cartoon, talk-show and discussion tent amounts to provocation against the government.
   Rule 5(2) had banned any graffiti across the country during the enforcement of the state of emergency.
   Rule 6 had banned making any provocative statement against any activities of the government, obstructing any government activities, drawing, printing, publication and exhibiting any cartoon on the government or any of its activities or men, and making or burning any effigy.
   The home adviser Monday morning told reporters that he did not see any reason to believe that the relaxation in the emergency rules would cause law and order downslide.
   ‘Lifting of the restrictions on political activities will not cause any deterioration in law and order.’
   Asked whether the government would completely withdraw the state of emergency as demanded by major political parties, Matin said the matter would be made clear in proper time through gazette notification.
   The steps followed the military-backed interim government’s series of efforts to persuade political parties into polls.
   The Election Commission Sunday announced schedules for national elections and upazila polls scheduled for December 18 and 28 respectively.
   Though Awami League and its left allies readily welcomed the schedules, complete lifting of emergency and deferment of upazila elections remained their key demands.
   BNP and its allies were still weighing the schedules amid grievances that most of their demands, including complete withdrawal of emergency, went unheeded.
   The emergency was imposed on January 11, 2007, postponing elections scheduled for January 22, 2007 amid political turmoil.
   Under the state of emergency, army-led joint forces conducted a massive anti-corruption drive that landed many political leaders, bureaucrats and businessmen in jail on graft charges.
   The two former prime ministers along with a number of their former cabinet colleagues were detained.
   BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia is now free on bail, while Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina is now abroad after being released by an executive order for medical treatment.

Special Security Force has taken the charge of security of two former prime ministers — Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina — over 20 months after its withdrawal by the military-controlled interim government.
   SSF was deployed at Khaleda’s Shaheed Mainul Road residence Monday noon and at the Sudhasadan residence of Hasina, who is likely to return home on November 6, Sunday night, sources in their parties said.
   ‘SSF members have taken the charge of her [Khaleda Zia] security,’ Khaleda’s personal security officer Sharifuzzaman, also a retired major general, told New Age.
   They entered her Shaheed Mainul Road residence at Dhaka Cantonment Monday noon, he said adding private security teams would also continue providing security with the BNP chairperson.
   SSF members have also taken the charge of security of Awami League president Sheikh Hasina’s residence, Sudhasadan, at Dhamnondi Sunday night, according to her press secretary Abul Kalam Azad.
   Hasina, now in the United States for treatment after being released by an executive order, told a television channel on Monday that she would return on November 6.
   The two top leaders will get the special security for the next three months.
   Earlier, after holding meetings with the leaders of BNP and Awami League, commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman announced to ensure the highest security for Hasina and Khaleda. The cabinet later approved it.
   Hasina and Khaleda enjoyed the highest security before the stalled ninth parliamentary polls, which were scheduled for January 22, 2007, but the interim government had withdrawn the special security on February 22, 2007.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies are considering carefully the pros and cons of contesting the upcoming general elections given the present ‘adverse’ situation.
   The alliance is weighing options and giving serious thoughts to whether it will be wise to contest the elections in case the military-controlled interim government and the Election Commission do not fulfil its demands.
   At the same time the parties are also deliberating about the long-term impacts of a possible boycott of the elections.
   BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia held an emergency meeting with the secretaries general of the components of the alliance immediately after the Election Commission announced the schedules of parliamentary and upazila polls Sunday evening.
   The meeting decided to continue intra-alliance consultations, including meetings of the top leaders of the components, before announcing the next course – expected by Wednesday.
   Khaleda Zia will convene meeting of the BNP national standing committee, the highest policymaking body of the party, this evening to discuss the issues in detail.
   ‘We are weighing the options…under the present political circumstances’, BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain told New Age Monday. ‘We will take a decision in consultation with the party leaders and the alliance partners.’
   When he was asked whether the BNP-led alliance was ready to contest the polls, he said, ‘We are prepared. But we have to consider whether the atmosphere is conducive to participatory elections.’
   ‘The government and the Election Commission have not met any of our demands which, we believe, are required to create a congenial atmosphere and level playing field for fair elections’, he added.
   Delwar, in this context, referred to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon who, during his visit here, said that a level playing ground should be prepared for the parties for the sake of a free and fair election.
   The seven-point demand of BNP and its allies includes total withdrawal of emergency, deferral of upazila elections by a rational length of time, repeal of the amendments to the Representation of People Order 1972, cancellation of the delimitation of electoral constituencies, withdrawal of ‘false’ cases filed against the party leaders, including chairperson Khaleda Zia, and release of the detained leaders from prison.
   Delwar said many candidates of the party would be disqualified if the emergency remained in force.
   Delimitation of constituencies was also a ‘politically biased’ venture, he added.
   He said the party will, however, continue taking preparations for the parliamentary election.
   BNP joint secretary general Gayeshwar Chandra Roy said there was scope in the provisions of the Representation of People Order 2008 to take ‘despotic’ decisions to disqualify candidates from contesting the polls.
   Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, a major ally of BNP, held an emergency meeting of its national executive committee, the highest policymaking
   body of the party, Monday evening. The Mojlish-e-Shura of the party will also hold
   an emergency meeting this morning.

The Awami League presidium on Monday hailed the announcement of the schedule for parliamentary elections but called for deferment of the upazila polls.
   The meeting also decided to distribute nomination forms for parliamentary polls in November 5-7 from 10:00am to 5:00pm at the party’s central office on Bangabandhu Avenue.
   Each aspirant candidate of the party will have to collect nomination form for Tk 7,500, acting AL general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam said after an emergency presidium meeting. The party’s acting president Zillur Rahman presided over the meeting at his Gulshan residence.
   He renewed the party’s call for lifting of the state of emergency before the polls saying no credible election was possible under emergency.
   The AL presidium, the highest policymaking body of the party, also demanded deferral of the upazila elections by a rational length of time.
   Ashraful said the AL would contest the polls for all 300 electoral constituencies. ‘Awami League has completed all primary works for contesting the national elections’, he said.
   He said the AL central working committee would meet on Tuesday at the party chief’s Dhanmondi office to discuss preparations to welcome Sheikh Hasina on her return on November 6. Election-related issues will also come up for discussion.
   The AL leader also said that an extended meeting of the party would be held at the same venue, to be attended by the Dhaka city unit leaders, all associate organisations and leaders from Dhaka and adjoining districts.
   When he was asked if he thought BNP would contest the December 18 polls, Ashraful said,.‘I don’t see any reason why BNP should not take part in the polls.’
   Presidium members Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed, Suranjit Sengupta, Matia Chowdhury, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir and Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim attended the meeting.

Barack Obama stood on the threshold of history Monday as polls gave the Democrat a solid lead over John McCain on the last day of campaigning for the most dramatic US presidential vote in a generation.
   But McCain, who has no room for error in the tense battle for a handful of toss-up states, vowed to confound the pollsters and wrench victory from the African-American Obama’s grasp today (Tuesday).
   The 47-year-old Democrat stressed the historic nature of his quest to be America’s first black president, striking an optimistic tone as fresh polls gave him a wide lead and heaped further pressure on McCain.
   ‘This is a defining moment in our history,’ Obama wrote in an article published Monday in The Wall Street Journal.
   ‘Tomorrow, I ask you to write our nation’s next great chapter... If you give me your vote, we won’t just win this election — together, we will change this country and change the world.’
   McCain, a 72-year-old former prisoner of war in Vietnam, was defiant. ‘My opponent is measuring the drapes at the White House,’ he said, as he wrapped up a frenzied day of campaigning with a midnight rally in Miami.
   ‘The Mac is back! And we’re going to win this election,’ he added, to deafening cheers.
   The Republican was to dash through at least seven states on the marathon campaign’s final day. Obama was to blitz through Florida, North Carolina and Virginia bidding to storm Republican bastions and turn them over to his side.
   Rallying supporters in Ohio on Sunday, Obama said his rival’s policies would extend president George W Bush’s legacy of financial crisis and ‘war without end’ in Iraq.
   McCain also attacked his rival on the economy, in his own Wall Street Journal article. ‘Senator Obama wants to raise taxes and restrict trade,’ he charged. ‘The last time America did that in a bad economy it led to the Great Depression.’
   The final pre-election poll of Gallup-USA Today published Monday gave Obama a yawning lead of 11 points — 55 per cent to 44 for McCain.
   ‘It would take an improbable last-minute shift in voter preferences, or a huge Republican advantage in election day turnout, for McCain to improve enough upon his predicted share of the vote... to overcome his deficit to Obama,’ the pollster said.
   A new Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll put Obama ahead on 51 per cent to 43. CNN’s latest poll on Sunday had Obama with a 53-46 per cent edge, a Washington Post-ABC News poll gave him 54 per cent to 43, and Rasmussen said he was at 51 per cent to McCain’s 46.
   Obama leads also in the battleground states where the election will be won and lost, including in states such as Virginia and North Carolina that have not backed a Democratic hopeful in decades.
   A separate poll by The Washington Post and ABC said that in six states considered to be up for grabs, support was roughly split with 51 per cent support for Obama and 47 for McCain.
   And a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday said that 59 per cent of voters feel Obama can bring ‘change,’ while about the same number say McCain cannot, the network reported on its web site.
   Half of respondents said Obama lacks the necessary experience but 64 per cent judged him a ‘strong leader,’ with 62 per cent saying the same for McCain.
   McCain’s whistle-stop tour Monday was expected to include campaign stops in Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Indiana, New Mexico and Nevada before he was to head home to Arizona.
   Another CNN/ORC poll meanwhile suggested that McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, may be dragging down the Republican’s chances. The news network said McCain had 48 per cent support, but backing for McCain and Palin as a unit was lower, at 46 per cent.
   ‘We’ve got one day left until we take America in a new direction,’ McCain told the roaring crowd in Florida. ‘First, last and always we are all Americans and we’re going to unite this country and get this country moving again.’
   The battle has narrowed to states that have been reliably Republican in recent elections, as Obama’s deep-pocketed campaign expands to places where the Democrats have not won in years.
   Victories in Colorado and Nevada out west, on top of his lock on Iowa in the US heartland, would let Obama clinch the White House without even winning the states that decided the past two elections: Ohio and Florida.
   To win, a candidate needs to gain 270 votes in the Electoral College that formally selects the next president. States are apportioned electoral votes according to the size of their population and in most cases the winner of a state’s popular vote gets all its electoral ones.

Bangladesh has kept its navy on high alert and planned to send a special envoy to Yangon amid tensions since Myanmar launched hydrocarbon exploration in disputed territorial waters in the Bay of Bengal.
   Myanmar ambassador U Phae Thann Oo was summoned twice to the foreign ministry in last 24 hours to lodge strong protests against the reported intrusion of marine vessels into Bangladesh waters and tell the authorities in Yangon to stop gas exploration works until territorial disputes are settled at the UN level.
   Foreign affairs adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury said Monday that the government had decided to send a high-level delegation headed by foreign secretary Touhid Hossain to Yangon to ‘defuse the situation’.
   Foreign ministry officials said Bangladesh rushed two warships and a naval patrol vessel to keep watch on exploration activities by Myanmar authorities.
   ‘We’re sending the special envoy to lodge our protest at the highest level of Myanmar so that the situation does not go beyond control. We’re sending him to protect our interest,’ Iftekhar told reporters after his talks with the Myanmar ambassador at the ministry.
   The adviser said several Myanmar vessels intruded into Bangladesh territorial water for hydrocarbon exploration near deep sea blocks 8-13 claimed by Bangladesh. Myanmar also claims those are within their territorial waters.
   The adviser said all steps would be taken to protect the country’s sovereignty and territory.
   ‘We want to resolve the matter diplomatically. We don’t want to go for any confrontation,’ he said.
   Myanmar’s reported intrusion took place in less than a month since the Dhaka visit of its vice-senior general Maung Aye and one-and-half-month ahead of another round of maritime boundary talks planned in Dhaka.
   During the October 7-9 visit of the key leader of Myanmar’s military government, the country’s energy minister Lun Thi assured Bangladesh’s authorities that Yangon would not initiate any exploration work in the disputed waters until the long-standing boundary problems were settled.
   The two next-door neighbours resumed maritime boundary delimitation talks in January this year with a view to settle disputes over their command areas in the Bay of Bengal, rich in mineral resources.
   They have planned to submit their claims to the United Nations as both are signatories to the UN Conventions on Law of the Sea.
   Myanmar is under UN obligation to draw its sea boundary by the middle of 2009, while Bangladesh will get time up to 2011.
   During their three meetings so far, the two countries in principle agreed that none of them would carry out any exploration work in the disputed waters until the issue was amicably settled at the global forum.
   Iftekhar said Bangladesh and Myanmar officials and experts would sit again in Dhaka on December 16-17 to discuss delimitation of marine boundaries.
   Our Chittagong correspondent reports, Bangladesh navy has been put on high alert since the intrusion was reported two days back.
   Navy officials said two warships BNS Modhumati and BNS Nirvoy, and a patrol frigate BNS Abu Bakar took position 50 km down Saint Martin’s island.
   Myanmar deployed two warships to support four civil ships with survey team and equipments of a Korean exploration company in the disputed waters, they added.
   ‘We are observing the situation and communicating with Myanmar navy asking it to pull out,’ said a navy official.
   ‘We are on high alert. Our efforts are on to resolve the issue amicably’.

Commercial banks have already begun to gather data from their respective branches to prevent loan defaulters contesting in the national elections.
   A day after declaration of the polls schedule, sources said banks sent directives to their branches in this regard.
   The banks are looking to collate data of about 6,000 individuals including former members of parliament and their closest contestants since 1973 to revitalise the mechanism to prevent loan defaulters from running.
   A bank official said the Election Commission sent them a list of those 6,000 people and asked for their financial information within a short time.
   The Election Commission on Sunday sent a letter to the central bank and commercial banks asking them to follow the Representation of People Order for finding candidates with default loans.
   State owned banks have already issued the circular to their branches directing officials to provide the information within November 5.
   A top bank official apprehended that a large number of aspiring contestants are likely to be disqualified for the national polls currently scheduled on December 18.
   According to the Representation of People Order, 2008, every contestant of the national polls must not have pending utility bills or any default on loans and taxes.
   The order stipulates that these financial affairs must be in order at least 15 days prior to the candidate’s submission of nomination, according to which the deadline was October 28.
   ‘A large number of probable parliament member candidates will not be able to take part in the polls as they have failed to repay or reschedule their default loans because last date for filing nomination is November 13’, said the bank official.
   The official said that before, candidates could reschedule their loans until the very last date for filing nominations.
   Bank sources said that a number of aspiring candidates had gathered at the banks on Monday to reschedule their default loans but as they were unaware of the new rule they would be disqualified as candidates.
   One former lawmaker of the BNP, told New Age on Monday that he wanted to reschedule his default loan but was informed that he would still be unable to run in the elections under the new rule.
   Another former lawmaker said he wanted to meet the bank’s managing director to negotiate a mutual settlement of a default loan case.

The Election Commission’s technical evaluation committee, assigned the task of scrutinising applications and documents submitted by political parties for registration, has hoped that the registration process will be completed by November 10.
   ‘We hope the registration process will be completed by November 10… About 20-25 political parties will get registration’, NI Khan, chief of the technical committee, told reporters at his office on Monday.
   He said the commission had already finalised the registration of 14 political parties, including Awami League, BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami. Registration of three more parties is also under process.
   The EC has completed appointment of returning and assistant returning officers for the December 18 parliamentary elections and December 28 upazila polls. It will start distributing and receiving nomination papers today.
   A good number of aspirant candidates for parliamentary and upazila elections went to the EC on Monday to know about the electoral laws.
   ‘I came here to know the details about the electoral laws so that there are no mistakes when I submit nomination papers’, Faruk Ahmed, an aspirant candidate from Bhola told New Age at the EC secretariat on Monday.
   The EC secretariat on Monday sent nomination forms to the returning officers. The nomination papers could be collected and submitted from Tuesday, said Mihir Sarwar Morshed, deputy secretary of the EC secretariat.
   About registration, NI Khan said that hearings in the disputes of three Islamic parties – Nejam-e-Islami Party, Khelafat Majlish and Jamiyat-e-Ulama-e-Islam – will take place today as two factions of each of the three parties have applied for registration – each faction claiming itself to be the main party.
   Distribution of registration certificates will continue till 48 hours before the last date for submission of nomination papers, Khan said.
   ‘We are careful so that no political party is excluded from registration for any lack of sincerity on our part’, he said.
   Earlier in the morning, a Jamaat delegation led by its law affairs secretary Jasimuddin Sarker had a meeting with chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda at his office. Election commissioners M Sohul Hussain and M Sakhawat Hussain, EC secretary M Humayun Kabir and technical committee head NI Khan were present.
   After the meeting, Jasimuddin told reporters that the commission had confirmed the party’s registration. He said the commission would send the registration certificate to the party office following the rules.
   The EC appointed 66 returning officers and 538 assistant returning officers for parliamentary polls. Sixty-four deputy commissioners and two divisional commissioners have been made ROs for parliamentary polls while additional deputy commissioners will work as ROs for upazila polls. The EC has appointed 64 ROs and 481 AROs for elections to 481 upazilas.
   The commission in a letter asked the cabinet division not to transfer any officials engaged in polls duties without its consent until the elections were over.
   According to the schedule for parliamentary polls, submission of nomination papers closes on November 13. The nomination papers will be scrutinised in November 16-17. The last date for the withdrawal of candidature is November 24.
   For the upazila polls, the submission of nomination papers closes on November 13. Scrutiny of nomination papers will be done in November 19-20. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is November 27.

The government will ban import and sales of three out of eight suspected brands of milk powder that have been confirmed melamine contaminated in tests conducted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. All the three brands are Chinese.
   Health adviser AMM Shawkat Ali at a press conference also said the test report would now be placed before the High Court, which had recently directed the government to stop sales and display of all the eight brands earlier tested melamine-positive.
   Tests of samples of the powder milks were carried out in FAO laboratories in Bangkok and presence of melamine, hazardous to human health, had been confirmed in three of them — Yashli-1, Yashli-2 and Sweet Baby-2, he said after a joint meeting with commerce adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, and other ministries and agencies concerned.
   The authorities concerned, including the experts’ committee formed to supervise the retests, on Sunday received the report, which is said to
   have found no melamine contamination in the rest five brands — Australia’s Diploma and Red Cow, Denmark’s Dano Full Cream and New Zealand’s Nido Fortified Instant and Anlene.
   The health adviser also mentioned that the governments of Australia, New Zealand and the European Union sent letters to the Bangladesh government assuring that there was no possibility of melamine presence in their brands.
   An earlier test by the Dhaka University’s chemistry department found melamine in all the eight brands although two other laboratory tests confirmed melamine presence only in one brand, Yashli-1.
   ‘Four out of six tests [carried out in Thailand] provided identical results —67.33 milligram melamine in per kilogram of Yashli-1, 0.02mg in per kg of Yashli-2 and 0.28gm in per kg of Sweet Baby-2 powder milk,’ Shawkat told the conference.
   He and Hossain Zillur said the government would take its next step in conformity with the directive coming from the court and preparations were underway to submit a report to the court through the attorney general in a day or two.
   ‘After the next directive of the court, import of these milks will be totally banned,’ Zillur said.
   A few days after the High Court directive, issued on October 23, the government had taken administrative measures to stops sales, marketing and display of all the eight brands of powdered milk.
   Asked about melamine contamination in liquid milk, the health adviser said the government had been keeping a sharp watch on the issue and putting more emphasis on local production of baby foods instead of import.

The nation will observe the Constitution Day today with most of the fundamental rights of the people remaining suspended and political rights restricted under the state of emergency since January 11, 2007.
   The day this year bears special significance as the nation looks set to go into the ninth Jatiya Sangsad polls on December 18 amid calls from political parties to lift the emergency and free political activities.
   The Constituent Assembly, a forum of people’s representatives, enacted the constitution on November 4, 1972, presenting the People’s Republic of Bangladesh with a written set of political principles in less than a year since its victory in the 1971 War of Independence.
   The constitution came into effect on the Victory Day on December 16, 1972.
   The country’s 35-year journey of constitutional rule was interrupted several times by martial law and marked by series of amendments to constitution either to ratify military roles or to tailor to major policy changes of successive governments.
   The constitution has so far seen 14 amendments with the first one done just seven months after its enforcement.
   The July 15, 1973 amendment enabled the government to make any law to try perpetrators of genocides and war crimes.
   The second amendment was made on September 22, 1973 making provisions for proclamation of a state of emergency.
   The constitution was then amended on November 28, 1974 endorsing Bangladesh-India boundary treaty.
   The fourth amendment, made on January 25, 1975, was regarded as one of the most controversial changes in the country’s constitutional history, as it marked the country’s switch over to one-party (BKSAL) rule and presidential form of government.
   The country’s first president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated before the fifth amendment was made on April 6, 1979, ratifying the martial law period of Ziaur Rahman, inserting ‘Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim’ before the preamble of the constitution and abolishing ‘secularism,’ one of the basic principles of the 1972 constitution.
   The sixth amendment, made on July 10, 1981 after the assassination of president and BNP founder Ziaur Rahman, to enable the then vice-president Justice Abdus Sattar to contest the presidential polls.
   The constitution went through its seventh revision on November 11, 1986 that ratified the martial law of president HM Ershad, founder of Jatiya Party.
   The eighth amendment on June 9, 1988 declared ‘Islam’ as the state religion of Bangladesh. It also made provisions for decentralisation of the High Court by setting up its benches in major cities.
   Provisions for elections to the offices of president and vice-president were made by the ninth amendment on July 11, 1989, while the tenth on June 23, 1990 gave 10-year extension to the provision for reserved seats for women in the Jatiya Sangsad.
   The eleventh amendment on August 10, 1991 made provisions for the return of Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed to the office of the Chief Justice after discharging the duty as the acting president of the first interim government, which was formed in December 1990 after the fall of Ershad.
   The country returned to parliamentary form of government through the twelfth amendment on September 18, 1991, which set a rare example of consensus between the treasury and opposition benches.
   The pre-election caretaker government was made a law through the thirteenth amendment on March 28, 1996.
   The fourteenth amendment in 2004 stipulated that political parties would have woman representatives in reserved seats in proportionate to their representation to parliament. It also extended the retirement age of Supreme Court judges.
   The High Court on August 29, 2005 declared illegal the fifth amendment to the constitution and the martial law regulations issued between August 15, 1975 and April, 1979. The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, however, stayed the operation of the verdict in the same evening.
   The Supreme Court also struck down a part of the eighth amendment, so far it relates to the decentralisation of the Supreme Court, in 1988.

The High Court on Monday asked the interim government to explain in four weeks why they would not be directed to observe November 7 as ‘National Revolution and Solidarity Day’.
   The High Court bench of Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana and Justice M Rezaul Huq also asked the government to explain why the notification issued on December 4, 2007 scrapping November 7 as a public holiday should not be declared illegal.
   The court passed the order after hearing a public interest petition filed by Abu Naser M Rahmatullah, president of Swadhinata Forum.
   Earlier on October 26, the same court asked the government to explain in four weeks, why the notification scrapping November 7 as public holiday would not be declared illegal and malafide.
   The court issued the rule after hearing another public interest petition filed by former energy adviser Mahmudur Rahman, challenging the validity of the government’s notification scrapping November 7 ‘National Revolution and Solidarity Day’ as public holiday
   Barring the Awami League’s 1996-2001 rule, November 7 was being observed as National Revolution and Solidarity from 1976.
   But the interim government after a meeting of the council of advisers, chaired by chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed, on December 4, 2007, announced that the November 7 public holiday would be cancelled with effect from 2008.
   Earlier in 1996, the Awami League government, coming to power, had cancelled the day as public holiday, but November 7 was resumed as public holiday after the BNP-led four-party alliance returned to power in 2001.

Senator Hillary Clinton on Sunday decried the use of her voice in computer-disseminated ‘robo-calls’ by Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s campaign.
   The phone calls, which automatically dial up voters in hard-fought battleground states, play a recording of Hillary during the Democratic primary battle.
   In the recording Hillary derides what she said was a lack of experience by then-rival and fellow Democrat Barack Obama, who went on to win the party’s presidential nomination.
   ‘Senator Hillary Clinton does not approve this message, and as she criss-crosses the country, she has said time and again that the choice in this election could not be more clear,’ said the former first lady’s spokeswoman Kathleen Strand.
   ‘The McCain/Palin ticket offers only more of the same failed policies, while the Obama/Biden ticket offers the vision, leadership and positive solutions we need. I wonder why the Republicans aren’t using those words?’ Strand said.
   According to news reports, the robo-call starts out with a voice saying: ‘Listen to what Hillary Clinton had to say about John McCain and Barack Obama.’
   The recording of Hillary, dating back to the Democrats’ primary campaign, is heard to say: ‘In the White House, there is no time for speeches and on-the-job training.
   ‘Senator McCain will bring a lifetime of experience to the campaign, and senator Obama will bring a speech he gave in 2002,’ Hillary says in the recording.
   ‘I think that is a significant difference,’ said the senator’s voice on the robo-call, which reportedly is circulating in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Indian Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited misses the November 7 deadline to commence 2x120MW Siddhirganj power plant as it is yet to complete installation of gas turbines in the units, power officials said.
   Commencement of the units is being delayed due to rows over acceptance of a ‘repaired’ gas turbine and the development of physical infrastructure at the plant, they said, adding that the company ‘lobbying’ for acceptance of the repaired turbine.
   The Indian company in January 2001 bagged the $113 million turnkey contract from the Electricity Generation Company Bangladesh, a subsidiary of the Power Development Board, for the installation of the two-unit plant and it was supposed to go for commercial operation on November 7, they said.
   But BHEL informed the government that operation of one of the units will be delayed till January and the other till March as it could not complete turbine installation, a power division official said.
   Although state-run BHEL has brought one of the two gas turbines it cannot be installed because of complexities over the development of physical infrastructure. It is yet to bring other turbine from India over a row over ‘damage’ in the turbine, the official said.
   BHEL in April informed EGCB that a turbine fell from the trailer on its way to Chennai from Hyderabad for shipment to Bangladesh. The company then took back the turbine to Hyderabad for overhauling and few weeks later informed EGCB that the turbine had ‘no damage’.
   Officials of EGCB and its consultant KEMA International later inspected the turbine and concluded that the turbine was repaired. EGCB then appointed a British firm, Lloyds, to inspect the turbine and it is now reviewing the report, power officials said.
   The EGCB, however, asked BHEL to extend the guarantee period of the turbine to four years from existing two years, they said adding that BHEL was also asked to guarantee that it would compensate for economic loss caused by any unscheduled closure relating to the gas turbine. EGCB officials said BHEL was yet to respond to the conditions.
   Indian state minister for commerce and power Jairam Ramesh and special assistant to the chief adviser M Tamim on Saturday visited the Siddhirganj power plant and discussed the delay in starting operation and the ‘repaired’ gas turbine.
   Ramesh requested Tamim to settle the turbine issue as soon as possible and accept the turbine.
   Tamim in response informed the Indian minister that EGCB that had an independent board would make a decision on the matter as per the contract with BHEL.
   He requested the Indian minister to press BHEL to complete installation of the plant immediately as the country was facing acute power crisis.
   Power officials said that BHEL was supposed to install a brand new gas turbine not a repaired one. ‘It is risky to install a repaired turbine as the equipment is sophisticated. Even if the turbine is found okay now, there may be problems in four to five years. So the BHEL should extend the guarantee period for turbine and give guarantee for financial penalty,’ said an official.
   Tamim told New Age on Monday that the EGCB and BHEL were in negotiation over the conditions set by the EGCB. ‘We are hoping that both the parties will come to a solution as per the contract signed between them.’

Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general and former minister Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid did not appear in the trial court on Monday, a day after the expiry of High Court’s deadline for his surrender in the Barapukuria coalmine corruption case.
   Instead, his counsel Abdur Razzak filed an application with the special judge’s court-2 of AK Roy, set up on the Jatiya Sangsad complex, seeking
   time for hearing on charge framing in the case, stating that Mojahid had appealed for bail and High Court ruling on the matter was scheduled for the day.
   BNP leader and former finance minister M Saifur Rahman also refrained from appearing in the court and Razzak filed another application stating that Saifur had appealed for extension of his bail in the case and High Court ruling on the appeal was scheduled on the day.
   Anti-Corruption Commission’s prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol opposed the applications and appealed for issuing warrants for their arrest, saying that
   they had showed disregards to the court by not obeying its orders.
   The special court, however, adjourned the hearing till November 10 and ordered defence counsel Razzak to submit the copy of the High Court’s orders on the day.
   The judge passed the order amid protests from the prosecution and said that the matter was sub judice.
   The High Court bench of Justice Md Muzammel Hossain and Justice Afzal Hossain Ahmed on the day posted today for its order on the five petitions, filed by former ministers Saifur, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, Matiur Rahman Nizami, also the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh amir, and Mojahid, seeking bail in the case.
   The court also asked former BNP state minister AKM Mosharraf Hossain to surrender by November 10 to the trial court in connection with the same case.
   The trial court on October 6 issued warrants for arrest of Saifur, AKM Mosharraf and Mojahid, as they were showed fugitives in the charge sheet.
   Saifur was asked to surrender by four weeks while Mojahid by two weeks to the trial court after they had surrendered to the High Court on October 8 and 19.
   The High Court bench of Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Hussain and Justice Farid Ahmad on October 16 stayed for three months the proceedings of the Barapukuria case against former prime minister Khaleda Zia, also the BNP chairperson.
   After the High Court stay order, Saifur and Mojahid, along with the four other former ministers, filed separate petitions with the High Court seeking the case to be quashed. Saifur and Mojahid also sought bail.

The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry president Annisul Huq on Monday called on the political parties to make pledges in their election manifestos that they renounce hartal and blockade.
   ‘The political parties will have to pledge that they make parliament the centre of all political debates and refrain from enforcing hartal and blockade’, he said while addressing a business conference as the chief guest.
   The conference of the leaders of 18 chambers of commerce and industry in Chittagong and Sylhet divisions was held at the auditorium of the Engineers Institution in the port city.
   Former FBCCI presidents Mir Nasir Hossain and Abdul Awal Mintoo attended the conference as guests of honour. Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Saifuzzaman Chowdhury was in the chair.
   Sylhet Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Junnun Mahmud Khan, first vice-president of FBCCI Abul Kashem Ahmed and vice-president Abu Alam Chowdhury were special guests.
   Annis also urged the political parties to assure the voters before the elections that the operation of the country’s prime seaport would not be hindered even for a day and reminded them that it was an imperative to be prepared to face the creeping global economic recession.
   Abdul Awal Mintu told the conference that the business community expected such a democracy which would accelerate economic activities adding that the democracy exercised by the previous three governments had crippled the economy.
   Mir Nasir Hossain urged the political parties to change the mindset of rejecting election results if defeated. He hoped that parliament would be the centre of all politics after the upcoming general elections.

A strike to protest against bombings that killed 82 people in Assam last week shut down the region on Monday, the police said, with angry Indians blaming illegal Bangladeshi migrants.
   Protesters marched through the otherwise deserted streets of Guwahati, where 43 people died on Thursday when three bombs went off within minutes.
   A little-known Islamist group has claimed responsibility for Thursday’s serial blasts in the tea- and oil-producing state, the worst strike in the troubled region that also wounded 300 people.
   The police suspect that Islamist militants working with separatists in Assam were behind the bombings.
   Several students’ groups called the day-long strike across the state, demanding a crackdown on illegal settlers.
   ‘We are going to intensify our campaign to drive out Bangladeshis from the region,’ said Samujjal Bhattacharjee of the Northeast Students Organisation.
   ‘We also appeal to people to free our society from these elements who are the real cause of terror.’
   The police said they arrested 50 protesters.
   The Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, India’s main opposition, has also criticised the government for not doing enough to stop Bangladeshi nationals from crossing over to India.
   The home ministry says up to 20 million Bangladeshis live in India illegally.
   At least 10 Muslims, mostly Bangladeshis, have been detained for suspected links with the Assam bombers, the police said.
   The Islamic Security Force-Indian Mujahideen sent a mobile telephone text message to a local television station claiming responsibility for the 11 apparently coordinated blasts that hit Assam within five minutes of each other last Thursday.

Scientists believe they have found a way of protecting astronauts from a dangerous source of space radiation, thus lifting a major doubt clouding the dream to send humans to Mars.
   Their breakthrough takes forward ideas born in the golden age of science fiction, including a proton shield used in the TV show ‘Star Trek,’ says one of the researchers.
   Space weather is one of the greatest challenges facing Mission Red Planet sketched by the United States and Europe for some three decades from now.
   Even the shortest round trip — the distance between the two planets varies between 55 million and more than 400 million kms — would take at least 18 months.
   During this time, the crew would be exposed to sub-atomic particles that whizz through space, capable of slicing through DNA like a hot knife through butter and boosting the risk of cancer and other disorders.
   The peril has been known for nearly half a century but has seemed insoluble because costs and technological difficulty.
   Some experts have toyed with the idea of shielding the crew with lead or massive tanks of water, but the price of lifting this load into orbit from Earth is mind-spinning.
   Another idea, born in the 1960s, would be to swathe the spaceship with a replica of Earth’s own magnetic field. Our weak two-pole field deflects incoming cosmic rays, protecting life on Earth as well as astronauts in low Earth orbit.
   According to these calculations, the spacecraft would have to generate a magnetic field hundreds of kilometres across.
   But such equipment would be huge and drain the ship’s energy supply and its powerful field could well harm the crew.
   British and Portuguese scientists have taken a fresh look at this old concept and say the magnetic field does not, in fact, have to be huge — just a ‘bubble’ a few hundred metres across would suffice.
   ‘The idea is really like in ‘Star Trek’, when Scottie turns on a shield to protect the starship Enterprise from proton beams — it’s almost identical really,’ Bob Bingham of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford said.
   Their study, published on Tuesday in a specialist journal by Britain’s Institute of Physics, draws on numerical simulation that is also used by experts in nuclear fusion, in which a hot plasma is kept in place by a powerful magnetic field.
   This number-crunching technology gives a far more accurate picture of how individual particles behave when they collide with a two-pole magnetic field.
   As a result, the researchers have been able to devise a smarter, miniaturised model of magnetic protection rather than the blunderbuss-style field generator that was envisaged in the past.
   Using a plasma lab at the Superior Technical Institute in Lisbon, the team tested a scaled down version of the device — its full details are secret, as patents are being sought — in a simulation of a solar storm of atomic particles.
   Scaled up for a trip to Mars, the device would weigh around ‘several hundred kilos’ (500-700 pounds) and use only about a kilowatt of energy, or around one half to one third of the typical power consumption of today’s communications satellites, said Bingham.
   The force of the magnetic field would replicate that of Earth’s but, to minimise any risk to crew close to its source, could be carried in unmanned spacecraft flying either side of the crew ship.
   Bingham said the ‘mini magnetosphere’ was being pitched both to the European Space Agency and NASA.
   It would scatter almost all particles dispatched in ‘solar storms’ — protons belched out by the Sun, he said.

Two BRAC officials, who were released unhurt by their abductors in the central-east Afghan province of Ghazni on Saturday, is expected to come back home from the war-torn country today, BRAC officials said in Dhaka.
   Akhter Ali and Mohammad Shahjahan Ali, who were released nine days after their abduction by unidentified gunmen, will land at Zia International Airport in the evening.
   Relatives of the two BRAC officials have already arrived in Dhaka to receive them at the airport. Senior BRAC officials will also be present at the airport, officials of the Dhaka-based non-governmental organisation said.
   Akhter and Shahjahan have been working for BRAC operation in Ghazni for three years. They were kidnapped on October 23 from in front of their office at Moi Mubarak in Ghazni.
   Dhaka on Saturday had made a formal request to the United Nations for assistance in rescuing the two aid workers. Bangladesh‘s foreign affairs adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury made the request to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, who was on a two-day tour of Bangladesh.
   In September 2007, unnamed gunmen killed BRAC official Abdul Alim. Three days later, another executive from the aid group, Nurul Islam, was kidnapped, but he was released after 83 days.

An Indian government minister escaped unhurt when a roadside bomb exploded seconds after his car had driven past, officials said Monday, adding six policemen were injured in the blast.
   The federal steel minister, Ram Vilas Paswan, was returning from laying the foundation stone at a steel plant in West Bengal state when the explosion occurred on Sunday.
   ‘The blast took place seconds after Paswan’s vehicle passed the spot,’ West Bengal home secretary Asoke Mohon Chakraborty told reporters in Kolkata.
   Six people have been arrested and nearly a dozen detained for questioning, the police said.
   The attack happened in West Midnapore district bordering Jharkhand state, where Maoist rebels have a significant presence.
   The landmine was packed in a plastic can so it could not be found by metal detectors, the police officer Kuldip Singh said.
   The Maoist insurgency grew out of a peasant uprising in 1967 and the rebels are active in several Indian states.

Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari swore in 40 new cabinet members on Monday, many of them to replace members of the country’s second biggest party that pulled out of the coalition government in August.
   The new ministers were not immediately assigned portfolios but there was not expected to be any major changes at main ministries such as finance, foreign affairs and the interior.
   Of the new cabinet members, 22 will be ministers while 18 will be deputy ministers, or ministers of state. Most are members of Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party.
   The finance ministry is likely to remain under the control of former banker Shaukat Tarin, who last month was appointed the prime minister’s top economic adviser.
   Because he is not a member of parliament, Tarin can not be appointed a minister.
   Tarin is in the midst of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund to avert a balance-of-payments crisis.
   Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif pulled his party members out of the cabinet in May over a dispute with Zardari over how to handle a long-running judicial dispute.

The home ministry has cleared detained former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar to go abroad for treatment.
   The ministry asked the prison authorities to take necessary steps, a letter signed by the senior assistant secretary to prisons department-2, Rukhsana Hasin, on Sunday said.
   The decision to send Babar abroad was made as per the application by the BNP leader’s wife Tahmina Zaman on October 21, the letter said.
   Babar is currently staying at the prison cell of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital.
   The High Court on October 16 granted him six months’ bail in an arms case, in which he was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
   However, the home ministry on October 26 issued a one-month detention against Babar.
   The former junior but influential minister in the BNP-led alliance government, Babar was arrested on May 28 last year.

The acting chairman of a Jatiya Party faction, Anisul Islam Mahmood, left Dhaka for London Monday evening, party sources said.
   The faction’s presidium member Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu accompanied him, the party’s joint secretary general Zahirul Islam Zahir told New Age.
   The acting chairman has left Dhaka for business purposes.

An American school in Damascus has closed and told students to leave after the Syrian government ordered it shut down in response to a deadly US cross-border raid.
   Students and teachers were seen leaving the Damascus Community School Monday afternoon.
   A voice message on the school’s answering machine says the school was closed to comply with the government’s decision. A person who answered the phone at the US Embassy in Damascus confirmed that the school was closing.
   The Syrian government ordered the school to close by the end of the week in response to a US military raid on October 26.
   Washington hasn’t formally acknowledged the raid. But US officials say the target was a top Iraqi al-Qaeda figure.

Gunmen in Pakistan have kidnapped an Afghan government adviser visiting relatives in a northwestern border region, the police said Monday, the third prominent Afghan kidnapped in Pakistan in recent weeks.
   Akhtar Kohistani, an adviser at the Afghan ministry of rural rehabilitation and development, was abducted in Seerdoor Kadak, a village in Pakistan’s northwestern Chitral district, while visiting his in-laws.
   ‘Unidentified armed men broke into his in-laws’ house last night and took him away,’ said Chitral police chief Sher Akbar Khan.
   Chitral is opposite the insurgency-plagued Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nuristan.
   Khan said the motive for the abduction was not known and his men were investigating.
   Late last week, gunmen kidnapped Zia-ul-Haq, a brother of the Afghan finance minister, Anwar Ul-Haq Ahady, in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, security officials said.

At least 25 persons were injured when students at two halls of residence of Dhaka University were locked in a clash Monday afternoon over control of a playground.
   Campus sources said the clash ensued at around 4:00pm after some students residing in Jahurul Haq Hall beat up five residents of AF Rahman Hall over establishing control over the playground of Mohsin Hall.
   The two groups equipped with iron rods, wood sticks and cricket stamps attacked each other during the clash that left at least 25 of both the halls injured.
   Traffic on the road in front of the two dormitories was disrupted during the two-hour-long clash.
   The police and the hall authorities later brought the situation under control at around 6:00pm.
   The injured Jahurul Haq Hal students are Towfiq, a master’s student of anthropology department, Liton of English department, Anis of linguistics department, Asad of Islamic history and culture department, Samrat and Masud while the injured students of AF Rahman Hall are Anwar, Amir, Amzad, Mamun, Bahar, Wahid, Murad, Sumon, Rinku, Kawser, Alamgir, Jewel, Belal, Roni, Emon and Humayan
   All the injured were taken to Dhaka University Medical Centre and Dhaka Medical College Hospital.