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Chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda Saturday said that the commission would announce a fresh date for the ninth parliamentary polls revising the previous date for balloting on December 18.
   ‘The voting date of December 18 will be changed. An announcement regarding the fresh date will be made tomorrow [Sunday],’ the CEC told reporters after a meeting with leaders of the Awami League-led alliance at his office.
   ‘Nothing has been decided yet whether the voting will take place on December 28 or 27 or 29,’ he told a questioner.
   AL-led alliance leaders after the two-hour meeting said that they were not a party to the rescheduling of the polls.
   ‘It is now the matter of the government, Election Commission and the [BNP-led] four-party alliance. …We will make our position public after the Election Commission gives its decision,’ Syed Ashraful Islam, joint general secretary of Awami League said.
   He said that the AL-led alliance was prepared for the elections for December 18, announced by the Election Commission on November 2.
   ‘We do not want to be a party to talks over polls rescheduling…We want an election participated by all and held in a free atmosphere without the state of emergency,’ the Awami League spokesman said.
   Before going to the EC, the alliance delegation had a meeting with Awami League president Sheikh Hasina at her Sudhasadan residence. AL leaders Zillur Rahman, Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak and Matia Chowdhury, Jatiya Party leaders Kazi Zafar Ahmed and Anisul Islam Mahmud, Workers Party leader Rashed Khan Menon and combined 11-party coordinator Abdus Samad were present.
   The EC sat with the delegation to discuss the situation after the BNP-led alliance had expressed its readiness to join the Jatiya Sangsad polls if they were shifted by 10 days to December 28.
   It held a similar meeting with a BNP-led alliance delegation Friday and heard the alliance leaders repeating their demands for complete lifting of state of emergency and scrapping of the EC’s absolute authority to cancel candidature at any stage during the election.
   The EC’s fresh round of talks with major political groups followed abortive efforts of a panel of government advisers to persuade the opposing political camps into an agreed date for the general elections.
   Meeting sources said that the commission Saturday tried in vain to get a suggested date from the AL-led alliance delegation.
   Asked about the discussion with the delegation, the CEC said they discussed dates of two elections – parliamentary and upazila – and lifting of state of emergency, and more discussions would be required to settle the issues.
   ‘We will suggest that the government should end the emergency,’ Huda said
   On November 2, the EC announced the schedule for parliamentary and upazila polls to be held on December 18 and 28 respectively.
   The deadline for submitting nominations was extended twice since then keeping polling dates unchanged.
   Earlier on the day, BNP secretary general Khadaker Delwar Hossain asked the EC to give its decision quickly as they observed that the delay was hampering their electoral preparations.

Nomination seekers from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League have continued intense lobbying to win tickets of respective parties for contesting the ninth parliamentary elections.
   The aspirants for BNP’s tickets think that this time the party may go for a covert selection process before formal procedure and that has prompted them to lobby hard although the party is yet to invite application for nomination or make a final decision on contesting the polls.
   The aspirants are visiting the members of the party’s national standing committee, which acts as the parliamentary board during general elections, and some other leaders who they think are influential in the party’s policymaking process.
   The aspirants are crowding the party chairperson’s Gulshan office everyday looking for a chance to meet her. The members on her personal staff are struggling to manage the appointments and those who fail to meet her slap charge of nepotism on the staff.
   The Sher-e-Bangla Nagar flat of the party secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain also remain crowded till late into the night. The same are the sights at the houses of standing committee member Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, party chairperson’s adviser Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and other members of the standing committee. Women leaders are also visiting the houses of vice chairperson Sarwari Rahman and joint secretary general Selima Rahman.
   They are also lobbying persons outside the party but close to Khaleda Zia in desperate a bid to win her favour.
   Khandaker Delwar said several times that the party was prepared for contesting the polls and that they had finalised a list of candidates for the cancelled election of January 22, 2007. ‘Few minor changes [to the previous list] may be needed and it is a matter of minutes’, he said on an earlier occasion.
   Delwar on Saturday said the party’s complete preparation for election was being hindered by the Election Commission’s dilly-dallying over its latest three demands.
   He said the party was working on finalising candidatures and other issues to win majority of seats in the next parliament.
   When asked whether the leaders who followed expelled secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan would be nominated for contesting the polls, Delwar said, ‘Their activities have decided their place in history. Now it is not important whether they will be nominated or not. When we are contesting the polls, our goal will certainly be to achieve majority. We have to pace forward considering all the aspects’, he said.
   A former Chhatra Dal leader, who is seeking party ticket from a Gopalganj constituency, told New Age that he had met Khaleda and she inquired about the party’s organisational strength in his locality, dominated by Awami League, and asked about his expected result if he was nominated. ‘I told her that at least I would be able to save my security deposits from confiscation,’ he said adding that the party candidates in the constituency failed to do so in past elections.
   Another aspirant from Sunamganj said, ‘Madame asked me to continue to work in my locality.’
   An aspirant for a Noakhali constituency, who was waiting at Khaleda’s office, said he would tell the chairperson that the incumbent lawmaker had tarnished the party’s image and he was confident he could restore the image.
   Aspirants from the Awami League, who have been denied party tickets, are still lobbying the members of the party’s parliamentary board and persons close to Sheikh Hasina to make her reconsider their cases though the party’s parliamentary board has finalised the list of candidates triggering resentment at grassroots level. Many activists staged hunger strike in front of party chief’s Dhanmondi residence over the past few days. Police Saturday morning drove away the protesters from the place.
   In the situation, the party is expected to reconsider the nominations for eight to ten constituencies, presidium member Amir Hossain Amu told New Age.
   Three aspirants, who failed to get party nomination for contesting polls, met Sheikh Hasina on Saturday.
   They were Abul Kalam Azad who sought party ticket for Natore-1, Junaid Ahmed Palak of Natore-3 and Mahfuza Golandaz, wife of Altaf Hossain Golandaz, former lawmaker for Mymensingh-10.
   After the meeting all three told reporters that the party chief had assured them of reconsidering their cases.
   Palak said he had won the party ticket for the cancelled January 22 election, but all three said they would accept the AL president’s final decision.
   Hasina will also talk to the leaders who failed to get nomination through video-conferencing.
   Unlike the past elections, fewer people are visiting the houses of influential party leaders Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Abdur Razzak and Suranjit Sengupta this time.
   Being aware that Sheikh Hasina is not happy with the ‘reformist’ leaders, the aspirants are avoiding them. But this time significant numbers of aspirants are visiting the residences of the party’s joint general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam and presidium member Matia Chowdhury.

Major political parties should hold dialogues to narrow their differences, if any, on issues related to holding of a peaceful election for transition to democracy as the unelected regime should come to an end without further delay, academics say.
   Political parties must concentrate on parliamentary elections, slated for December 18, rather than taking the risk of polls boycott to pave the way for restoration of democracy, ending the nearly two years of emergency rule, they said.
   None should take the risk of boycotting the polls as there is no alternative to an elected government to steer the country out of uncertainties, a number of academics and educationists told New Age. ‘The sooner the election is held, the better.’
   New Age approached the academics to have their assessment of the pre-election situation when differences seem to have cropped up between the major political parties over some election related issues.
   They urged all stakeholders, including the military-backed government and the Election Commission, to act responsibly at this critical juncture.
   ‘The parties should bury the culture of polls boycott. They should hold discussions if there are any differences’, said Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, a professor at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology.
   Zafar, also a writer and columnist, expects that the parties will join the polls for the sake of democracy, and the next elected government will ensure that parliament is the centre of every activity.
   He said the next elected government must concentrate on economic development, education reform and healthcare besides democratic exercise at every level.
   ‘I hope the ruling and opposition parties will play their due role in parliament’, he added.
   Former Dhaka University VC professor Maniruzzaman Miah told New Age that the interim administration should accommodate the demands of a major party like Bangladesh Nationalist Party as, he thought, the government and the EC had discriminated against the party.
   ‘The EC and the government held talks with Awami League several times but took a hostile attitude towards BNP from the beginning. So, I thing, BNP has many reasons to boycott the polls’, he said and asked the incumbents to accommodate the party’s demands in order to hold credible elections.
   He said that the unelected regime should come to an end as it could not do the country any good in the last two years.
   About the next parliament, he said he wanted a functional parliament where the ruling party would give importance to the opposition and the opposition would not boycott sessions without sufficient reason.
   The general secretary of Dhaka University Teachers Association, Professor Anwar Hossain, said the interim government and the EC should do everything necessary for holding an acceptable and participatory election.
   ‘People have been waiting for two years to see an elected government, which will take care of their rights and dignity’, he said.
   ‘The political parties should join the elections for the shake of democracy. People no longer want the emergency rule which has drastically curbed their rights’, he said.
   Anwar, who was detained by the military-led joint forces for violation of emergency rules in late 2007 and released later, said he expected that a democratic government would assume power through the elections and the treasury and opposition benches in parliament would resolve national issues together.
   A former DUTA leader, AAMS Arefin Siddique, urged the government to withdraw the state of emergency to win confidence of the people and the political parties as well.
   ‘They should be allowed to carry on electioneering in a free atmosphere.’
   Arefin, a professor of mass communication and journalism, said no democratic political party could boycott elections. ‘There is no alternative to joining the polls to return the country to democracy.’
   ‘If any party thinks the atmosphere is not conducive enough to holding a fair election, it should engage in dialogue with the government and the Election Commission to resolve the problem’, he added.
   Professor M Ataur Rahman, president of Bangladesh Political Science Association, stressed the need for holding an acceptable election to be participated by all parties.
   Ataur, a teacher of political science at Dhaka University, alleged that the parties were behaving the way they did in the pre-January 2007 situation.
   He said it remained to be seen if the next elected government would be able to fulfil the people’s aspirations. ‘Previous records of political parties in this respect are simply frustrating.’

The Awami League and its allies have decided to remain silent about the polling date.
   The alliance decided on the matter at a meeting in Sudha Sadan at Dhanmondi on Saturday. The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, presided over the meeting, joined in all partners but the Liberal Democratic Party.
   AL leaders
   Zillur Rahman, Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Matia Chowdhury and Syed Ashraful Islam of the Awami League, the Workers Party president, Rashed Khan Menon, and Jatiya Party leaders Kazi Zafar Ahmed, Anisul Islam Mahmud and Ziauddin Bablu, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal leaders Syed Zafar Sajjad and Shirin Akhter, the Samyabadi Dal president, Dilip Barua, and the 11-Party Alliance coordinator, Abdus Samad.
   The alliance will make public its position on the polling date after the Election Commission’s announcement of the fresh schedule for the parliamentary polls, the Awami League’s office secretary Abdul Mannan Khan told reporters after the meeting.
   The commission earlier announced the schedule for the national polls, setting December 18 as the polling date.
   The meeting did not discuss distribution of electoral constituencies, said the party’s presidium member Amir Hossain Amu.
   This is for the first time all the allies but the Liberal Democratic Party met. The meeting was convened on holding the meeting with the Election Commission.

Bomb blasts and military operations against insurgents killed 31 people in Afghanistan, including a French soldier who stepped on a mine on Saturday and eight wedding-goers, authorities said.
   Another 62 people, including the groom, were wounded when two or three grenades were thrown into the men’s section of the wedding in the northern province of Parwan late Friday, officials said.
   ‘It is not clear whether this was a criminal act, or due to family or internal problems, or if it was a terrorist attack,’ interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said in Kabul.
   Men and women are kept apart at most weddings in conservative Afghanistan.
   The French trooper was killed and another wounded when a mine engulfed them about 10 kilometres south of Kabul, the French military said.
   The two were demining specialists making their way towards a firing range, an official said.
   Separately a bomb exploded in a vegetable market in the eastern town of Khost on Saturday, killing a 15-year-old boy and a man passing-by, provincial intelligence chief Colonel Mohammed Yaqob said.
   Fifteen other people were wounded, Yaqob said.
   There was no claim of responsibility but Khost, which borders Pakistan, sees regular attacks linked to an insurgency led by the hardline Taliban who were driven from government in a US-led invasion in 2001.
   Another bomb blew up a police vehicle in the central province of Ghazni and killed three policemen and wounded two, provincial government spokesman Ismail Jahangir said.
   Jahangir also reported that authorities had found the body of a man shot dead by the Taliban after being accused of spying for the government and its allies in the international military.
   However, ‘this person had no cooperation with the government and foreign forces and was a civilian,’ he said.
   Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the man was killed Friday after being interrogated by the militia’s leadership.
   Taliban also said they had killed a district governor in the border province of Kunar whose bullet-riddled body was also found on Saturday.
   The governor of Marawara district, Ghais Haqmal, had been abducted by Taliban three months ago and the militants had demanded the release of 50 of their jailed comrades in exchange for his life, authorities said.
   The demand could not be met, ‘so they killed the district governor and today is his funeral,’ Kunar government spokesman Adris Gharwal said.
   The US-led military supporting the Afghan government announced meanwhile that troops had killed 14 insurgents in operations in the southern provinces of Helmand and Farah in the past two days.
   Troops had also shot and killed a civilian in Khost on Friday when the vehicle he was in came too close to a patrol and ignored warnings to stay away, the coalition said in a statement, expressing regret.
   Soldiers are wary of suicide attacks and there have been several incidents in which civilians have been killed for approaching troops.
   Afghanistan’s insurgency has grown steadily since the 1996-2001 Taliban regime was removed from government in a US-led invasion after it failed to hand over its allies in the al-Qaeda leadership.
   Insurgent attacks have increased while the number of international and Afghan troops has grown with the focus of the US-led ‘war on terror’ shifting to the Afghan-Pakistan border belt from Iraq.

A jurist, academics, economists and business leaders have termed the exchange of pleasantries between two former prime ministers, Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, a thaw in politics and said they need to have working relations to ensure a smooth transition to sustainable democracy and meet development challenges.
   The government and the opposition in parliament should be equally responsible for democratic exercise and pursuance of the agenda for a march forward to present the coming generation with prosperity, they observed.
   Political arch-rivals Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia exchanged pleasantries and shook hands in more than a decade amid thunderous applause from hundreds of dignitaries and guests invited to the Armed Forces Day reception in the Dhaka cantonment Friday evening.
   The two leaders, who were put behind bars by the military-controlled government of Fakhruddin Ahmed and released after about a year in detention, shared a light moment and jail experiences at the reception at Senakunja.
   Both Hasina and Khaleda, chiefs of two major political parties — the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party — told the media they had exchanged greetings and talked about their time in jail.
   Senior Supreme Court lawyer Rafique-ul Huq, also the counsel for both the leaders, told New Age on Saturday the spontaneous applause at the sight of the two leaders exchanging pleasantries proves that the nation wants a good working relationship between them.
   ‘If there had been a good working relation between them and other leaders of their parties, the nation would not have needed to face the state of emergency,’ said Rafique-ul who in September initiated to sit the two leaders across the table.
   If a good working relationship exists between the two leaders and other leaders of their parties, democracy can be sustained and there may not be any further intervention, he observed.
   Former Dhaka University vice-chancellor Maniruzzaman Miah said ‘As both the BNP and the Awami League are two dominant parties since inception of the democratic process through national polls in 1991, there should have been a working relationship between them in the interest of democracy.’
   ‘I believe the meeting of the leaders on Friday will do no good. There should be a working relation not only between the two top leaders, but also between other leaders and activists of the parties,’ he said. ‘It would have been better if the interim government had taken the initiative much earlier.’
   Manuruzzaman said ‘It is important to sit them together and make them make commitments on certain issues.’
   Writer Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, also an educationist, said, ‘What happened on Friday is nothing significant as it was a chance happening.’
   ‘It would have been significant if the two leaders had met and talked on their own. There should be a minimum understanding, not only between the two top leaders, but also other leaders of the parties,’ said Zafar Iqbal, also the head of the computer science and engineering department in Shahjalal University of Science and Technology in Sylhet.
   The Bangladesh Non-Government College Principals’ Council president, Mazharul Hannan, said the exchange of pleasantries and shaking hands by Khaleda and Hasina would usher in good luck for the nation.
   ‘Such an incident should have happened much earlier. It will take the country forward and create hopes,’ he said. ‘The aides of the two leaders should be sincere in keeping up the relation.’
   The National Front of Teachers and Employees chief coordinator, Quazi Faruque Ahmed, said, ‘There should be a working relation between political parties.’
   The Bangladesh Non-Government Primary Schoolteachers’ Association president, Mohamamd Shamsul Alam, said ‘It is a sign of peace. Social and political unrest are there in the absence of a working relation between the two parties.’
   ‘A working relation between the leaders and activists of the two parties is badly needed for the welfare of the country and in the interest of democracy,’ he said.
   ‘It was a very good instance, although it happened after so many years,’ the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry president, Annisul Huq, said.
   Annisul hoped the leaders from now on would continue meeting in social gatherings or meetings. ‘Their exchange of views on political and development issues and interactions on a positive note will address many of the problems.’
   ‘It is important that a good working relation should exist between the leaders of the top political parties,’ said the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association president, Anwar Ul Alam Chowdhury.’ ‘I think if they [Khaleda and Hasina] act properly to make the parliament effective, 80 per cent of national issues could be resolved.’
   The Dhaka chamber president, Hossain Khaled, felt Khaleda and Hasina might have understood that days were over for egotism and bitterness.
   Citing Obama’s preparations for his opposition, Kahled said, ‘Leaders here should understand that working together towards the development of the country should be their mission no matter whoever is in government or in opposition.’
   The Chittagong chamber president, Saifuzzaman Choudhury, hoped the two top leaders would continue with their positive interaction in the next parliament and make the parliament a friendly forum.
   Abdur Razzak, the president of the Bangladesh Engineering Workshop Owners’ Association, said it was now the responsibility of two leaders to prove that they could sit together and work for the development of the country.
   Atiur Rahman of research organisation Shamunnoy felt their good gestures should be properly followed up by consistent positive campaign by civil society and party leaders and activists.
   ‘Politics of hostility sometimes pursued by them were a manifestation of their representation of such forces within the parties. That must also be addressed,’ he said, adding the two leaders should increase the frequency of their communications in the interest of democracy and economic development.
   ‘One of them will, presumably, be the prime minister and the other the leader of the opposition in parliament after the parliamentary elections. So their role and better understanding will be of much import for a stable and effective democratic governance and economic development,’ said Mustafizur Rahman of the Centre for Policy Dialogue.
   He said the next elected government would need to face a number of challenges such as food and energy security, increasing overall national productivity, good governance and mitigating fallouts of the global financial meltdown and the cooperation of the opposition would be crucial for success in addressing the challenges.

At least 10 were injured when the police Saturday morning charged with truncheons at Awami League activists protesting in front of Sudha Sadan at Dhanmondi against the party nominations.
   Local people and witnesses said several hundred supporters of the leaders who were denied nomination started to gather in front of Sudha Sadan, the house of Sheikh Hasina, at around 9:30am demanding changes in party nomination for the Shariatpur 1, Pirojpur 2, Jhalakati 1, Natore 1, Natore 3, Chandpur 4, Mymensingh 10 and Barisal 5 constituencies.
   Some activists of the Pirojpur 2 constituency went on hunger strike demanding nomination for Shah Alam instead of Habibur Rahman for the constituency.
   The situation worsened when several hundred activists started rallying demanding nomination for Mobarak Ali Sikdar instead of BM Mozammel for the Sharaitpur 1 constituency, for Hannan Firoz instead of BH Harun for Jhalakati 1, for Shamsul Huq Bhuiyan instead of Shafiqur Rahman for Chandpur 4, for Mahfuza Golondaz instead of Gias Uddin for Mymensingh 10, for Abul Kalam Azad instead of Shefali Momtaz for Natore 1, Zonaid Ali Palak instead of Hanif Ali Sheikh for Natore 3 and for Mahbub Uddin Bir Bikram instead of Zahid Faruk Shamim for Barisal 5.
   The activists at one point started marching towards Sudha Sadan shouting slogans in favour of their leaders. The armed police battalion and metropolitan police officials asked them to leave the place, but they continued with demonstrations.
   The law enforcers then started charting at them with truncheons, in which 10 activists were injured. Some activists jumped into Dhanmondi Lake to avoid being beaten.
   Some aggrieved candidates, including Zonaid Ahmed Palak of the Natore 3 constituency, met the party chief, Hasina. Zonaid after the meeting told newsmen that Hasina had assured him of reconsidering the candidature.

Dale Steyn claimed his ninth five-wicket haul in a Test innings to guide South Africa to a comfortable victory by an innings and 129 runs in the first Test against Bangladesh at Bloemfontein on Saturday.
   Bangladesh resumed the play at 67-3 still needing 221 runs to save an innings defeat, and they survived the first half-an-hour comfortably before South Africa’s four-pronged pace attack started tormenting them.
   Thanks to some rearguard action, they eventually managed to get past the first innings total and were all out for 159 runs with the lunch time still to come. Mehrab Hossain Jr was unbeaten on 43 to become the top-scorer.
   Mehrab added 44 runs for the ninth wicket with Shahadat Hossain, which gave the innings some respectability. In the first innings, Bangladesh also managed to score 153 runs courtesy of a 60-run stand for the ninth wicket. The difference was that in the first innings Shahadat’s partner was Mushfiqur Rahim.
   Mushfique, the top-scorer in the first innings with 48, failed to open his account this time, but still he is the only batsman free from any blame for the debacle. Responding to a poor call from Mehrab Hossain for an unworthy single, he was run out.
   It was the sixth wicket of the innings and third in the day that Bangladesh had lost. Two unbeaten batsmen Mohammad Ashraful took them to 80 giving some hopes for a fight. But the moment Makhaya Ntini ended the resistance of Bangladesh skipper, who only could fend off the rising delivery giving a catch at gully to Neil McKenzie, the collapse began.
   When they lost three wickets to add just one more run that included the wickets of Sakib al Hasan, caught Mark Boucher b Steyn 0, and Mushfiqur Rahim, any hope for a respectable total in the second innings had gone.
   Kallis took the final wicket with Ashwell Prince taking a simple catch given by Mahbubul Alam at short mid-wicket, but the day’s hero was undoubtedly Dale Steyn, who took four wickets on the day to return with 5-63.
   It was his ninth five-wicket haul, but the first against Bangladesh. The feat made him the leading wicket-taker in 2008 with 59 victims. He overtook India’s Harbhajan Singh, who claimed 55 wickets so far this year.
   Harbhajan has two more Tests to play against England this year, but Steyn has
   three including the second Test of the ongoing series and two Tests against Australia in December. It means Steyn has every chance to finish the year on top.

Hillary Clinton is ‘on track’ to be Barack Obama’s secretary of state, both sides said Friday, while reports said New York central banker Timothy Geithner was set to be named treasury chief.
   The president-elect’s heavy-hitting cabinet took shape on a day of frenzied reports and speculation, 60 days before Obama takes the oath of office and at the end of another punishing week for the US economy.
   One report said that Hillary had already decided to accept an offer to become the face of US diplomacy abroad.
   ‘She’s ready,’ the New York Times quoted an unnamed Hillary confidant as saying, adding that the former first lady had made her decision after follow-up consultations with Obama on his vision for foreign policy.
   Senior Hillary advisor Philippe Reines downplayed the report, while suggesting that the process of vetting the Clintons, and moving towards an agreement with Obama, was going well.
   ‘We’re still in discussions, which are very much on track. Any reports beyond that are premature,’ Reines said.
   An Obama aide also said things were ‘on track’ but said there were no plans for a formal announcement on Hillary’s appointment until after the Thanksgiving holiday next Thursday.
   NBC News meanwhile reported that Obama would roll out Timothy Geithner at a news conference on Monday, and also unveil the rest of his economic team, including New Mexico governor and ex-UN ambassador Bill Richardson as commerce secretary.
   The report bucked up investors left shell-shocked by another week of carnage on the stock markets, with New York’s Dow Jones share index jumping nearly 500 points on the news.
   The Obama team refused to comment on the report, which was echoed by ABC News, CNN and Fox News.
   Geithner, 47, is well known to Wall Street from his role as New York Federal Reserve chief and was a career official at the treasury department from 1988 to 2001, serving under three administrations and rising to undersecretary for international affairs.
   As the successor to Republican Henry Paulson, Geithner would become the overseer of a 700-billion-dollar bailout package for distressed banks at a time when the world’s largest economy is staring at recession.
   More speculation about the president-elect’s emerging cabinet on Friday surrounded former four-star general and NATO chief James Jones, after ABC News said he was a top candidate to become national security advisor.
   Jones is respected on Capitol Hill and across the political aisle, and may be particularly sought by Obama for his expertise on the Afghan war, which the president-elect has vowed to make a priority during his administration.
   The Hillary nomination, the subject of fierce speculation since the former first lady flew to Chicago to meet Obama last week, moved forward after financial disclosure issues were worked out with ex-president Bill Clinton.
   Some analysts had expressed fears that the former US leader’s myriad business interests abroad and donor lists to his charitable foundation could pose a conflict of interest if his wife became secretary of state.
   The idea of making Hillary secretary of state has been welcomed across the political spectrum, and sparked talk of a ‘team of rivals’ cabinet modelled on that of Obama’s hero Abraham Lincoln.
   But some commentators have wondered whether uniting two such bold political egos as those of Obama and Hillary could be destructive and foster political infighting.
   Obama, who has spent most of his time cloistered in his Chicago transition headquarters since his historic victory on November 4, has been methodically filling out his White House staff without formally naming cabinet appointees.
   But a Democratic official said that former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle will serve as health and human services secretary and be charged with the formidable task of pushing through healthcare reform.
   Reports also indicated that Arizona governor Janet Napolitano would serve as secretary for homeland security, and former justice department official Eric Holder is in line to be attorney general.
   There is also speculation that Obama will ask president George W Bush’s defence secretary, Robert Gates, to stay on at the Pentagon to oversee the early unwinding of the Iraq war.

The commerce and education adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, has said ‘good omens of change’ are in sight in the country.
   ‘The people of remote areas and the minorities must also be integrated into the process otherwise efforts for change will not be fruitful,’ he said.
   Hossain Zillur made the remarks to journalists after visiting a school in Mymensingh on Saturday.
   Asked about the recent brief meeting and exchange of pleasantries between the two former prime ministers, and about the ensuing national elections, the adviser chose a roundabout answer saying: ‘Bangladesh has made commendable progress and we want to march further towards a bright future. All concerned should be involved in the process.’
   Hossain Zillur earlier spoke as chief guest at Haluaghat Model High School, flanked by his wife Mahbuba Haque.
   The education adviser said, ‘The government eyes resolving regional discrepancies and bridging the gap between the advantaged and the disadvantaged.’
   ‘We want every child to reach the zenith of attainment,’ he stressed.
   The adviser went on to the Bangladesh Agriculture University where he addressed a meeting at the VC’s office.
   Zillur said, ‘We have overcome a number of crises by dint of the incredible power hidden in agriculture and our farmers.’
   ‘Even post-cyclone Orissa in India and post-Katrina America had things to learn from the examples our people set in the face of adversity,’ said Zillur.
   The government has announced agriculture as the country’s top-priority sector, the adviser said.

The Awami League-led alliance on Saturday censured the military-backed government of Fakhruddin Ahmed for trying to mislead the nation by making a ‘false’ claim that the two rival political alliances had failed to reach a consensus over polls.
   ‘The adviser [Hossain Zillur] either deliberately or mistakenly lied to the nation by accusing the two political alliances of not reaching a consensus’, AL joint secretary general Syed Ashraful Islam told reporters after a meeting with the Election Commission.
   Referring to the government’s dialogues with the two alliances, particularly with Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, Ashraf said during the dialogue with the AL-led alliance the adviser had told them that they had no specific agenda or any specific proposal for deferring the election date. ‘The adviser also informed us that the government’s discussion with the four-party alliance had failed’, Ashraf said.
   ‘But the adviser blamed the two alliances, we condemn the statement,’ said the AL leader.
   The commerce and education adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, on November 19 said, ‘Parliamentary and upazila elections will go ahead as scheduled as there has been no consensus between the political alliances on the proposals put forward by the government and the Election Commission despite multifarious communications, sincerity and all-out efforts.’

BCS candidates, who qualified for the 27th BCS as per the results announced on January 21, 2007 but later found their names dropped from the further test results in September, 2008, said Saturday that they could be well absorbed in the government services if only 766 posts were allocated.
   Government cadre services have 904 approved vacancies, they told reporters at the Central Shaheed Minar, where the aggrieved government jobseekers have been staging a sit-in since Thursday after breaking their fast on assurance from an adviser.
   Tanima Mostafa, who was selected for BCS taxation in the original test but later dropped, said, ‘We have worked out a chart so that the government can appoint us by creating new posts.’
   A total of 64 posts are lying vacant in general cadre, 40 in educational, 28 in other professions and as many as 772 posts in health cadre. The government needs to create 244 posts in general cadre, 310 in education cadre and 212 in professional cadres to accommodate the BCS candidates, who were dropped from second results of the same 27th Bangladesh Civil Service examinations.
   The reconstituted Public Service Commission revised the results more than one year and a half after the original test held in January 2007 amid allegations of irregularities.
   Several hundred candidates, who were earlier declared qualified, later found their names missing in the revised results, and many of them started hunger strike at the Central Shaheed Minar from November 1 demanding their reinstatement.
   The cabinet committee on administrative reforms and good governance Thursday asked the authorities concerned to consider whether the 27th BCS test candidates, who were dropped later, could be appointed creating new posts.
   ‘The government is considering the matter on humanitarian as well as rational grounds, we hope to resolve it as soon as possible,’ Education adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman told reporters before he came to the Central Shaheed Minar Thursday night and conveyed the government’s assurance to the striking candidates.
   Although they broke their hunger strike, as many as 50 of them were still continuing the sit-in.

Eighteen former leaders of the Jatiya Party and the Progressive Democratic Party, including nine former lawmakers, on Saturday joined the Bangladesh Nationalist Party by handing over a bunch of flowers to the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, in her office at Gulshan.
   The nine former lawmakers are Tajul Islam Chowdhury (Kurigram 2), Matiur Rahman (Kurigram 3), Mohammad Ali Sarker (Rangpur 2), Nur Mohammad Mondol (Rangpur 6), HM Gaffar, Fakhrul Imam, Kamrunnahar Jafar, Sultana Jaman Chowdhury and Farid Ahmed.
   Tajul, Gaffar and Kamrunnahar were ministers in the HM Ershad-led 1986 and 1988 governments.
   The other leaders who joined the BNP are Chowdhury Shafiqul Islam, president of the Kurigram Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Zahid Hossain Pradhan and retired colonel Zillur Rahman.
   Tajul Islam told reporters they would work under the leadership of Khaleda Zia and strengthen the nationalist force in the country.
   Khaleda asked them to work hard with other leaders to strengthen the party, he said.

Astronauts up on the international space station faced the longest and hardest spacewalk of their mission on Saturday, a seven-hour-plus excursion to wrap up repair work on a gummed-up joint.
   As the crews of the orbiting shuttle-station complex focused on the greasy outdoor extravaganza, engineers back on Earth struggled to understand a potentially serious problem with a newly delivered recycling system that is supposed to turn astronauts’ urine into drinking water.
   The $154 million system shut down again Friday and had managers wondering whether space shuttle Endeavour would bring back any samples of processed urine. The equipment has to work properly and the water has to pass safety tests in order for the space agency to double the size of the station crew next year.
   At a news conference Friday, astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper said her upcoming spacewalk — the third of the mission — would be busier than usual. She and Steven Bowen have to finish cleaning and lubricating a jammed solar wing-rotating joint, and put in new bearings.
   ‘It looks like it’s going to be challenging,’ she said. ‘We have a lot of work to do.’
   Late Friday, Stefanyshyn-Piper and Bowen got permission to take out an extra tool. Mission managers decided a caulking gun set aside for potential repair work on Endeavour’s heat shield could double as a grease gun in a pinch.
   The astronauts ended up with a grease gun shortage after a $100,000 tool kit floated away during Tuesday’s spacewalk. Stefanyshyn-Piper was trying to clean up grease that had leaked all over when the bag and the tools inside got away.
   The joint is supposed to keep the solar wings on the right side of the space station pointed toward the sun. It stopped working normally more than a year ago, after grinding parts left it full of metal grit.
   Unlike the two previous spacewalks, only joint repair work is on Saturday’s outdoor agenda. A fourth and final spacewalk, on Monday, will have astronauts adding grease to a twin joint on the opposite side of the space station that is working fine.
   As for the trouble with the water recycling system, no one was surprised.
   Space station commander Mike Fincke said it’s common for things to go wrong in a flight test and stressed that he wasn’t worried — so far. Nor was he concerned about eventually drinking the final product.
   ‘It’s just the water that’s taken out,’ Fincke said Friday. ‘It’s really clean and purified water. In fact, it’s probably more pure than most people’s tap water. So I’m not afraid to drink it.’

A powerful bomb blast ripped through a mosque during prayers in a restive northwestern Pakistani district Saturday, killing at least three worshippers and injuring six others, officials said.
   The explosion destroyed the roof of the mosque in the town of Tal in Hangu district and several worshippers were buried under the debris, local official Afzal Khan said.
   ‘It was a timed device planted in the mosque premises. One portion of the mosque caved in, resulting in the deaths of three worshippers and injuring six others,’ Khan said.
   Khan said the blast occurred when people were offering afternoon prayers in the town, which borders North Waziristan — a tribal district known as hub for al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
   Meanwhile, the alleged mastermind of a 2006 transatlantic airplane bombing plot was killed in a US missile attack in northwest Pakistan early Saturday, officials said.
   ‘The transatlantic bombing plot alleged mastermind Rashid Rauf was killed along with an Egyptian al-Qaeda operative in the US missile strike in North Waziristan early Saturday,’ a senior security official said.
   The al-Qaeda operative killed in the strike was identified as Abu Zubair al-Misri, the official added.
   Rashid Rauf escaped in December 2007 from the Pakistani police custody. He had been on the way to an extradition hearing.
   The British government had requested Pakistan extradite Rauf to London, where he was wanted by the police in connection with the murder of his uncle in 2002.
   The British-Pakistani citizen’s arrest in 2006 sparked a worldwide security alert and 24 people were detained in Britain in a major swoop.
   A day after the arrest a massive security alert was clamped on London’s Heathrow Airport, with mass cancellations of flights for several days over fears of a terrorist attack.
   He and the Egyptian al-Qaeda operative were killed along with at least two other militants in a US drone attack on the house of a local tribesman in the village of Alikhel, part of a district known as a stronghold for al-Qaeda and the Taliban, officials said.
   The missile strike came days after another US drone attack which killed six rebels, including an Arab al-Qaeda operative.
   That attack prompted Taliban militants based in the rugged tribal territory bordering Afghanistan to warn of reprisal attacks across Pakistan if there were more strikes by the US. Terror network chief Osama bin Laden is widely believed to be hiding in the tribal territory, although there is no clear information about his whereabouts.
   Washington has apparently stepped up its missile strikes against suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in tribal areas, all using unmanned CIA drones.
   The strikes have come despite warnings from Pakistan that such attacks violate international law and could deepen resentment of the United States in the world’s second-largest Islamic nation.
   Pakistan has officially protested to the United States that strikes violate its sovereign territory, although some officials say there was a tacit understanding between the two militaries to allow such action.
   The president, Asif Ali Zardari, recently promised zero tolerance against violations of his country’s sovereignty.

A journalist working for a UN-backed radio station in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo was shot dead Friday night, the radio station and a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force said.
   He was the second Radio Okapi reporter to be killed in the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu in the past 18 months.
   ‘Once again a Radio Okapi journalist has been killed in Bukavu. Didace Namujimbo was killed by a shot to the head by unknown assailants Friday night near his home,’ Radio Okapi said on its web site Saturday.
   Kevin Kennedy, a UN spokesman in the capital Kinshasa, said he had no indication who may have killed Namujimbo.
   ‘We don’t know what the circumstances were. He was returning to his house last night and we understand he was shot dead,’ Kennedy said.
   Radio Okapi, named after a rare zebra-like animal found in Congo’s vast forests, was set up with UN help to promote access to information as part of efforts to end a regional war that engulfed the huge country from 1998-2003.
   A peace deal to end the fighting led to elections and the withdrawal of six foreign armies dragged into the war.
   But fighting between the chaotic national army and rival militias, including fighters from neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda, has continued in eastern parts of Congo, including at times in South Kivu which lies on the Rwandan border.

Promotion to the posts of assistant professors of dentistry has been caught in legal wrangle in the High Court.
   The High Court has stayed the results of a dentistry promotion tests for three months and issued a rule on the health ministry and the Bangladesh Public Service Commission to explain why the test should not be cancelled.
   The ruling was given on a writ petition filed by 10 aggrieved dentistry teachers out of the 50 who took a qualifying test for promotion to assistant professorship on August 13, challenging the test results.
   The promotion was advertised in 2006 for five assistant professors, the petition said, adding the petitioners applied for the tests and were on February 13, 2007 issued with cards for the interview scheduled for March 6, 2007.
   The interview did not take place and the commission did not bother to communicate with them on the cancellation of the interview.
   The interview was, however, finally held on July 13 and the government on August 13 sent a letter to the commission seeking recommendation of six more dentistry teachers for the appointment to the posts of assistant professor.
   In the letter, the government asked the commission to make recommendations through fresh advertisement or to select candidates from among the teachers who were already under consideration.
   The commission has so far made no fresh advertisement, but recommended a total of nine teachers for the appointment, the petition said, blaming the commission for mala fide intention.
   As no fresh announcement was made for the promotion, many aspiring candidates were deprived of the chance of applying for promotion, the writ petition said.
   The petitioners also claimed some members on the interview boards were actively involved in politics of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the teachers recommended for the promotion belonged to the same party.
   Even one of the boards was headed by a professor, who was elected a BNP lawmaker in the controversial February 15, 1996 elections, the petitioners alleged, adding they were deprived of being promoted only on political considerations.
   The candidates, who have been in teaching for 10 years or more and aspire to be promoted as assistant professors, felt they had been deprived and left out, alleging that less qualified fellows passed the tests only because of their association with the political party.
   The commission chairman, Saadat Husain, declined to talk with New Age on the issue and advised, through his private secretary, to talk with the member concerned.
   Repeated calls to Professor Mahmudur Rahman, the commission member, were not returned in the past week.

The Jatiya Party chairman, HM Ershad, on Saturday argued for elections under the state of emergency in the interests of a ‘terrorism-free’ vote.
   ‘Criminals will appear again if emergency is lifted,’ Ershad said while exchanging views with journalists at Bogra Parjatan Hotel on the way to Rangpur.
   The former president has been consistently backing elections ‘keeping the state of emergency in place’, though his electoral partner Awami League has been voicing opposition to polls under emergency.
   On the possibility of becoming president if the AL-led alliance, including the JP, came to power, Ershad said: ‘I want to be president. I discussed the possibility with the ‘grand alliance’ formed before the forestalled election of January 22, 2007.’
   ‘Discussion regarding the matter is still going on,’ he said.
   On seat-sharing among alliance members, the JP chairman said: ‘We will decide about these after concluding ongoing discussions.’
   Ershad also said he would file nomination forms for three constituencies in Rangpur, Kurigram and Lalmonirhat.

The United Nations has instituted a high-level panel to assess Bangladesh’s preparations for parliamentary polls slated for December, according to a UN statement issued on Saturday.
   In the statement, the UN office in Dhaka said the secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, appointed the three-member panel, headed by Francesc Vendrell, a former special representative in Afghanistan of the European Union.
   The other members are Nepal’s chief election commissioner Bhojraj Pokharel and former deputy director of the UN’s Electoral Assistance Division Aracelly Santana. The panel is likely to visit Bangladesh for a week beginning Sunday.
   ‘The panel is tasked with assessing the preparations and conduct of the elections through visits to Bangladesh before and during the elections,’ said the statement issued by the UN headquarters in New York.
   The panel will report back to the UN secretary general with its key findings and recommendations at the end of the initial trip.
   The panel will return to Dhaka for about a week at the time of balloting, date for which is likely to be deferred from December 18 to the last week of December.
   Bangladesh’s election authorities have launched a dialogue for political consensus for a delay in holding the parliamentary polls to return country to a democratic system, ending two years’ military-led emergency rule.
   While visiting Bangladesh earlier this month, Ban Ki-moon described the forthcoming polls as a ‘historic opportunity’ for the country.
   ‘It is in the world’s — and your — best interest to see Bangladesh achieve its full potential for democratic development through free and credible elections,’ he told reporters in Dhaka.
   ‘Now is the moment to stand against polarisation and violence that have characterised past elections,’ he said.

A joint secretary and 11 deputy secretaries have been given transfer orders as part of the interim government’s plan to bring changes to the mid-level administration.
   The establishment ministry Saturday issued three gazette notifications to this effect.
   Land port authority member (joint secretary) ATM Mostafa Kamal has been made secretary to the Local Government Commission.
   Deputy secretary of the health and family welfare ministry Rafiqul Alam has been sent to the Food Planning and Monitoring Unit as director, while director of the National Savings Directorate Saifuddin Ahmed Majumder has been ordered to join the Youth Development Directorate, replacing Shahadat Hossain Majumder who will join the Department of Narcotics Control.
   Personal secretary to the chief adviser’s special assistant on telecoms Abul Basar M Arsad Hossain has been transferred to the Directorate of Social Welfare as a director, while deputy secretary of the youth and sports ministry M Raisul Alam Mandal has been sent to the health ministry.
   Social welfare ministry deputy secretary Mahmuda Akhter and health ministry deputy secretary Kamal Kanti Baidya have been interchanged.
   Environment and forests ministry deputy secretary MM Sultan Mahmud has been transferred to the social welfare ministry. He will replace Arsad Hossian who has been asked to report to the Finance Division.
   Food Planning and Monitoring Unit director M Abdur Khaleque has been transferred to the information ministry as deputy secretary while officer on special duty Azizur Rahman has been posted to the establishment ministry as deputy secretary.

Unidentified assailants shot dead a businessman in a Kushtia village on Friday night.
   The deceased was Bakul Soadagor, son of late UP chairman Idbar of village Ratulpara under sadar upazila. Bakul had export-import business in Chittagong.
   Local people said a gang of five armed criminals entered the house of Bakul when he was talking with some villagers and shot him to death at about 9:00pm.
   They fired blank shots to create panic among the villagers and managed to flee.
   Bakul went to his village home on Wednesday on the occasion of his father’s death anniversary.