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The much-talked-about formal dialogue between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the military-controlled interim government is expected to take place sometime next week, tentatively on October 15.
   According to the draft agenda set by the BNP, the party delegation will ask the government to ensure an atmosphere conducive to holding free and fair parliamentary elections with participation of all political parties, scrap the amendments to the Representation of People Order 1972, lift the state of emergency immediately, defer the dates of upazila elections by a rational length of time, refrain from announcing the schedule for upazila elections before parliamentary polls, withdraw all ‘false’ cases filed against the party leaders, including chairperson Khaleda Zia, and release of all political detainees from prison.
   ‘There is a possibility of a meeting with the government on October 15 and we, some thinktanks, sat for drafting the party’s demands to be placed at the meeting’, said party standing committee member Chowdhury Tanvir Ahmed Siddiqui after a meeting of the party’s committee, formed to set its agenda for the dialogue, at the party’s central office at Naya Paltan.
   ‘We are preparing the points for discussion and a set of recommendations to be submitted to the party chairperson and secretary general.’
   BNP joint secretary general Nazrul Islam Khan, who is a member of the committee, said the party had not yet received an invitation for the dialogue and no phone conversation had taken place. ‘We are preparing for the dialogue with a tentative date in mind.’
   Asked about the formal dialogue with BNP, commerce and education adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman, also a key player in the interim government’s dialogues with political parties, told New Age, ‘We [government] will send a formal invitation [to the party] for dialogue in a day or two.’
   Chowdhury Tanvir said the committee in its two-hour meeting had discussed the probable agenda for the dialogue and the demands the party would place before the government for participation in the polls.
   ‘The party still maintains that its five-point charter of demands should be met for creating an atmosphere conducive to free and fair elections with participation of all parties’, he said. ‘Placing demands is a continuous process and our demands – such as lifting of the state of emergency – are logical.’
   Nazrul Islam said, ‘If we sit for dialogue, we will raise the issues of a congenial atmosphere for fair elections, immediate withdrawal of the emergency, deferment of the upazila polls by a rational length of time, ensuring participation of all political parties in the elections, and withdrawal of all cases filed against political leaders.’
   Asked if the party would go for registration by the Election Commission’s deadline of October 15, he said, ‘There are many vague, irrelevant and unnecessary things [in the electoral laws] regarding registration of parties. We hope the dialogue with the government will remove them.’
   The committee also include party vice-chairman MK Anwar, former lawmaker Abdul Mannan and office secretary Rizvi Ahmed.
   Earlier the party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, responded positively to the government’s proposal for dialogue when a panel of four advisers met her at her Dhaka Cantonment residence on September 12.
   The party’s standing committee in its October 7 meeting endorsed her views.

The government is likely to decrease the price of diesel and kerosene by around 9 per cent and of octane and petrol by around 5-6 per cent this month, said sources in the Energy and Mineral Resources Division.
   ‘We are planning to reduce the price of diesel and kerosene by around 9 per cent. The existing price of diesel and kerosene is around Tk 55 per litre, so we may decrease price of these major fuels by around Tk 5 per litre,’ said a highly placed source in the division.
   He, however, said that the decrease in prices of octane and petrol, mostly used by the affluent section of society, would be lower than that of diesel and kerosene. ‘Octane and petrol prices might be reduced by around 5-8 per cent,’ he said. The existing price of octane is Tk 90 and petrol Tk 87 per litre.
   The government increased the price of diesel and kerosene to Tk 55 from Tk 40 per litre and octane to Tk 90 from Tk 67 and petrol to Tk 87 from Tk 65 on July 1.
   The source said that the chief adviser wanted to reduce the fuel prices anytime this month.
   However the special assistant to the chief adviser, M Tamim, told New Age on Friday that they were still trying to decide by how much the prices should be reduced.
   When he was asked whether they would reduce the prices by 5 to 10 per cent, Tamim said, ‘Maybe, but we are yet to decide by how much the prices can be reduced. The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation is working on the issue. We will know soon.’
   Tamim said that while reducing the fuel prices they would consider much subsidy could be given to diesel and kerosene, which are mostly used by the transport and agricultural sectors and the rural people.
   He said that although fuel prices had come down in the international market, the BPC continued to incur losses in selling diesel and kerosene. On the other hand, it is making profit in selling octane and petrol, but it sells only around 2 lakh tonnes of octane and petrol against around 24-26 lakh tonnes of diesel and kerosene.
   ‘The BPC is at present importing refined diesel at a rate of around $100 per barrel. If the refined diesel’s price had come down to $92 per barrel and if the price in local market had remained Tk 55, the BPC would have arrived at a break-even position,’ Tamim said.
   ‘We, however, will not wait for diesel price to come down to $92. We will continue to subsidise diesel and kerosene,’ he said.
   Tamim said that when the prices of fuels were increased in July in the local market, the price of crude oil was around $141 and of refined oil $180 per barrel in the international market.

The interim government is going to reduce the transport fares, already increased twice during its tenure, with fuel prices now falling significantly on both the local and the international market.
   The communications ministry will hold separate meetings with the energy division and the representatives of the transport owners within a week to work out new fare charts for public transports, especially buses and trucks, said official sources.
   The finance ministry has already approved in principle the energy division’s proposal for reducing fuel oil prices in a
   month as the international market prices have fallen by almost 40 per cent.
   ‘We will hold a meeting with the communications ministry this week to decide how to adjust transport fares in response to the decrease in fuel prices,’ the special assistant to the chief adviser for the power, energy and mineral resources ministry, M Tamim, told New Age on Thursday.
   He had earlier said the government would reduce the fuel oil prices within a month, most likely this month.
   The finance ministry had in principle approved the energy division’s proposal to review and adjust fuel oil prices
   every three months, said Tamim on Wednesday, and added that the government would decrease the prices of fuel oils like diesel, kerosene, octane and petrol by a certain percentage, which is yet to be decided.
   ‘Transport fares will obviously be reduced in keeping with the fall in fuel prices…We will soon hold separate meetings with the energy division and transport owners to fix the new fares,’ the communications secretary, Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman, told New Age.
   He said the government, while revising the fares, would consider the interests of the public and the transport owners as well.
   The energy division, however, has proposed a formula that prices would be adjusted every three months in accordance with those on the international market.
   Commenting on the government’s move to reduce the transport fares in keeping with the fuel prices, the Bangladesh Bus and Truck Owners’ Association’s president, GM Siraj, told New Age that reducing fares would be a historic event because the fares that go up in this country never come down.
   ‘We welcome the move…But the government must consider other factors in the transport sector where our expenses have gone up. We will sit with the government to discuss the matter after the fuel prices are fixed,’ he said.
   The prices of crude oil and refined oil were respectively around $141 and $180 per barrel when the government increased the price of diesel and kerosene to Tk 55 per
   litre from Tk 40, of octane to Tk 90 from Tk 67 and of petrol to Tk 87 from Tk 65 on July 1, 2008.
   The government also approved the consequent increase in transport fares after the increase in fuel oil prices. Now the price of crude oil has come down to $90 and of refined oil to around $100 per barrel on the international market.
   On July 1, the communications ministry re-fixed the fare at Tk 1.05 a kilometre for diesel-run buses with 42 to 52 seats, and at Tk 1.08 a kilometre for buses with 32 to 36 seats. The special fares for diesel-run buses plying the route between Mawa and Paturia ferry points was fixed at Tk 1.08 for large buses and Tk 1.11 for small ones. The previous per-kilometre countrywide flat fare for large diesel-run buses was Tk 0.87 and for small buses Tk 0.90.
   On April 3, 2007, the interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed upwardly revised the transport fares following a fuel price hike.

After so many let downs, the batsmen finally complemented the bowlers as Bangladesh rediscovered their giant-killing act to thrash the visiting New Zealanders by seven wickets at the boisterous Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Thursday.
   A career best 85 runs by Junaed Siddique and an unbeaten 60 from skipper Mohammad Ashraful took the Tigers to a position what they were destined for after the bowlers had restricted the Kiwis to 201-9 in 50 overs.
   When Sakib al Hasan hit the winning run sending the ball to the fine leg off Mark Gillespie with 27 deliveries still to go Bangladesh crossed another major hurdle as they now have only England and West Indies among the Test-playing nations to beat in an one-day international.
   New Zealand have always been a formidable opposition for Bangladesh and they won the last game between the two sides in just six overs. Bangladesh’s record was so poor against them that they had just made more than 200 runs only once in 11 previous meetings.
   But they all are now part of history as Bangladesh got their first major win since they defeated South Africa in the last World Cup. The script had no similarity with the South Africa game, rather it bore more resemblance to the one that came again India.
   Like in Trinidad, Mashrafee bin Murtaza set up victory with a piercing first spell and the spinners continued the pressure later on to have New Zealand cave in. Mashrafee claimed 4-44, but he could have returned with more impressive figure had he not conceded 25 runs in the two overs of his second spell.
   Mahmudullah Riyad grounded an easy catch of Tim Southee in the penultimate delivery, otherwise it could have been Mashrafee’s second five-wicket haul in a limited-over international game.
   Abdur Razzak had his best game in many days to take 3-33 that included the wicket of Jacob Oram, who nearly snatched the game from Bangladesh’s grip despite the efforts of Mashrafee.
   Bangladesh nearly dismissed New Zealand under 100 runs when they reduced the visitors to 79-6, but Oram staged a great recovery with a 70-run partnership with skipper Daniel Vettori in the seventh wicket stand.
   Oram, who was finally caught at long-on by Syed Rasel after making 57 off 89 balls, however, has to be grateful to Bangladesh wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim, who missed a run-out chance from a hand-shaking distance when the batsman was only on four.
   Mushfique made amends by putting on 67 runs for the second wicket with Junaed that finally took the game to Bangladesh’s way and Ashraful made no mistake to capitalise on the build-up.
   He and Junaed assembled 109 runs in the second wicket partnership and were separated with only seven runs away from the victory target when the later got the leading edge to give a catch at backward point.
   Junaed, who had just managed 62 runs in his previous eight games, had a life on 46 when Scott Styris dropped a sharp return catch, but it was just a spot on the moon.
   Other than the slight deviation from his route, Junaed was as good as any other top-class batsman and the reward was there for him – the man-of-the-match award.

The humid autumn afternoon in the capital saw masses of youngsters parading the streets on Thursday, yelling at the top of their voices, ‘Bangladesh, Bangladesh!’
   The celebrations for the Bangladesh’s victory over New Zealand achieved genuine fervour around the Raju Memorial Monument on the Dhaka University campus.
   Groups of students and residents of the surrounding areas, with shirts tied around the hips and brandishing twigs torn from trees, circled the monument, with one in each group carrying the national flag.
   The jubilation coincided with the celebrations of the Bijaya Dashami, the last day of the largest religious festival of the Bengali Hindus, Durga Puja.
   The processions of devout Hindus carrying the idols for immersion in the Buriganga were also overjoyed by the victory of the Bangladesh cricket squad against New Zealand, the giant-killer.
   ‘I cannot believe we’ve beaten another former world champion! I still cannot believe it,’ yelled Shumon Arefin, a third-year student of Sociology from the top of a rickshaw flatbed van near the Teachers-Students Centre.
   ‘We had lost all hope that our cricketers would shine again because of their awful performance in the past few series, but they turned the tables by winning this match and we now have grounds to hope for better performances from them,’ said Showkat Islam, a fourth-year student of socialogy.
   Hoards of motorbike riders honked their horns and carried the national flag as they traversed the avenues and alleys of the capital. Splinter processions were brought out in almost every area of the city.
   While the upscale city blocks saw a few, sporadic groups of cars with cheering young men wielding cricket bats through the windows and sunroofs, the grandest of celebrations were held in the city’s fringes.
   ‘We were upset after the resignation of 10 regular players of the national team but our boys have proved that we have enough players to beat the former world champion,’ said Amsa Amin, a student of the North South University.
   ‘Defeating another world champion is a big achievement for the Bangladesh team. We thank the Tigers who have made us proud after a long period
   of frustration,’ said Moudud Islam, a third-year student of Mass Communications and Journalism.

The interim government has planned to set up a separate directorate to regulate about 24,000 government and non-government secondary schools and madrassahs across the country, education ministry officials told New Age on Wednesday.
   There are more than 30,000 secondary schools, colleges and madrassahs offering secondary to master’s education which are now regulated by the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education.
   The directorate oversees the recruitment, promotion, audit, salaries and retirement of more than five lakh teachers and employees of both government and non-government institutions.
   ‘Most DSHE officers are deputed from government colleges and they know little of the problems of the secondary and junior secondary institutions,’ an education ministry joint secretary said.
   ‘A significant number of teachers, employees and their well-wishers visit the directorate every day for purposes such as inclusion of names for the monthly payment order, time scale, audit report, teachers’ recruitment, seniority and pension. But in most cases, they face unusual delay as the directorate is burdened with huge workload.’
   ‘Besides, there are allegations of corrupt practices by some employees and their inefficiency. They have failed to chalk up a plan even to clear the files that land at the directorate every day,’ he said. ‘A number of teachers and employees visit the directorate every day with problems which should be solved by district education officers or the nine regional offices.’
   ‘Now we are planning to set up a separate directorate for the secondary education institutions,’ he said.
   There are 4,066 non-government junior secondary schools, 13,678 government and non-government secondary schools and 6,414 non-government secondary madrassahs.

A suicide bomber attacked police headquarters in Islamabad, warplanes killed 20 Islamist fighters in the northwest, and children died in a roadside blast on Thursday as Pakistan’s war with militants intensified.
   Officials reported at least eight wounded but no fatalities in the attack on the police complex housing an anti-terrorist squad on the outskirts of the capital.
   ‘I am at the site of the blast. I have seen several people wounded, eight or nine,’ police official Khalid Mehmood told Reuters.
   Police chief Asghar Raza Gardazi said the attacker entered the police building carrying two baskets of sweets and presented one of them to a policeman.
    ‘The moment he gave basket to the policeman, an explosion took place.’ He said three policemen were wounded.
   ‘There was no loss of life, with the Grace of God.’
   The blast ripped the corner walls off a three-storey building in the complex.
   The explosion occurred as Pakistan’s newly appointed intelligence chief briefed lawmakers on the internal security threat for a second day in a special, closed joint-session of parliament.
   The bomber struck a target in a high security zone, though the city has been on high alert in the wake of a suicide truck bomb that killed 55 people and destroyed the Marriott hotel on September 20.
   Few policemen were in the barracks in the headquarters at the time because they were on duty guarding the parliament.
   A military official said jet fighters carried out two airstrikes on a hideout and a training facility used by fighters loyal to militant commander Mullah Fazlullah, who emerged at the head of a revolt in the northwest valley of Swat late last year.
   ‘Twenty militants, including important commanders were killed but Fazlullah escaped. He was present there,’ the official said.
   In the neighbouring region of Dir, lodged in the remote mountains bordering Afghanistan, a roadside bomb struck a police van carrying suspected criminals.
   The remote-controlled bomb killed at least 11 people, including four children, four policemen and three prisoners, according to Sher Bahadur, a district administrator.
   He said 10 people were wounded. Television news channels said many of them were children aboard a school bus.

With the financial meltdown in the United States and Europe shaking up consumer confidence there, the strong position of Bangladeshi currency against euro and dollar have started affecting the country’s export front.
   Industry people said European and US importers were pressing their Bangladeshi suppliers, mainly manufacturers of readymade garment and footwear, for price cuts and also dillydallying in placing their next orders.
   ‘Many European importers are putting pressure on us to cut further the prices of products and many others are unusually delaying their next orders’, the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association president Fazlul Haque told New Age.
   At least 60 per cent of Bangladesh’s garment shipments, including three-fourths of its total knitwear exports, are made to European markets and, therefore, the financial turmoil there poses a serious threat to Bangladesh’s exports, he said.
   Out of $10.7 billion garment export proceeds which account for 76 per cent of the country’s total export earnings, $3.2 billion come from the US while about $6 billion from the European countries.
   Anwar Ul Alam Chowdhury Parvez, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said that although garment shipments had shown robust growth in the last few months he was worried about the prospects in the coming months.
   ‘Garment manufacturers are already struggling to cope with a strong position of the local currency against dollar and euro, increasing cost of production, erratic power and gas supply and shortage of skilled workers’, Chowdhury said, ‘Any further burden from the market front will simply be unbearable if supports are not there.’
   As a strong taka is doubly distressing the exporters by eroding their competitiveness, industry leaders want the government to remain with them and intervene when necessary. The exporters also stressed the need for keen monitoring of the global market.
   The leader of the apex organisation of garment exporters said the government and exporters should work together in monitoring the developments in the US and EU and remain prepared with contingency plans to tackle any possible crisis and sustain the business.
   Citing that India, Pakistan and some other competitor countries are performing well as they have devalued their currencies extensively against dollar and euro in recent months, Parvez urged the government to take immediate steps to help the sector. ‘The government should at least arrange convenient currency exchange rates especially for the exporters so that they can fight erosion of competitiveness.’
   Syed Nasim Manzur, managing director of Apexadelchi, the country’ biggest footwear exporter, echoed Parvez saying a preferential currency exchange mechanism could greatly help exporters.
   ‘Just within four months till October 7, euro had been devalued by 12.6 per cent against Bangladeshi taka which eroded the profit margins of many shoe exporters’, Nasim pointed out.
   Nasim, whose company sources some mid-ranking European shoe brands, feared that the financial crisis in Europe could soon halt the growth of Bangladesh footwear exports in the coming months.
   Industry observers also rejected commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman’s observation that the recession might prove a boon for Bangladeshi suppliers who shipped low-cost products.
   ‘As an economist he has to understand that any recession affects all segments of consumers and in such a situation lower income groups are also forced to reduce their volumes of shopping’, argued a business leader.
   While announcing a belated export earning target for the current 2008-2009 fiscal at $16.3 billion with an annual 15.5 per cent growth, Zillur predicted that export would grow as consumers in the developed countries go for cheaper commodities’.
   Industry people said recent shipments, on previous orders, were very good but warned that the impacts of the economic turmoil on Bangladesh’s export accounts would be felt in the coming months.
   Center for Policy Dialogue executive director Professor Mustafizur Rahman also sounded a note of caution on the possible impact of US and EU’s financial fiasco but said exporters should not become so frustrated as market interventions were taking place there.
   ‘As bailout measures are being taken in the US and EU, the market must respond’, he said, adding: ‘Everyone should observe keenly how the ongoing crisis takes turns and how the market reacts.’
   The international trade expert suggested that the government should also remain alert and ‘if the financial crisis deepens and economic slowdown leads to recession, local exporters will need support.’
   US market intelligence provider SpendingPulse on Wednesday reported that overall September apparel sales fell 5.5 per cent from a year ago, with women’s apparel down 9.1 per cent.

The Awami League on Thursday reiterated that the Election Commission as well as the government should take steps to ensure participation of all political parties in the parliamentary polls scheduled for December 18.
   ‘We want participation of all political parties in the next general elections’, the acting AL general secretary, Syed Ashraful Islam, told reporters at the party president’s political office at Dhanmondi in Dhaka.
   ‘If any party is unwilling to participate in polls, the government and the EC must sit with them to find out why they are reluctant and to remove the obstacles.’
   Ashraful also informed reporters that the Awami League had started the preparatory work on nomination of party candidates.
   He said the party was reviewing the previous list of nominees for the cancelled January 22, 2007 elections, as well as the two previous polls, and was collecting information from the field level.
   He also said that the selection of candidates from the grassroots level would be given emphasis.
   Ashraful said the Awami League would amend some sections of the party constitution for registration with the Election Commission.
   Asked whether the powers of the party president would be curtailed in the constitution in line with new electoral laws, he said: ‘Most of the conditions in the new RPO are already in the AL constitution.’
   The powers of the president need not to be curbed for registration with the EC, the AL leader said.
   ‘A party working committee meeting slated for Saturday will elaborately discuss the issues’, said Ashraful.
   He said, ‘Nomination from the grassroots level, ensuring a 33 per cent women’s quota in the party committees by 2020, not retaining any front organisations, only associate bodies, would feature prominently in the discussion.’
   When asked about his comments on Tuesday that the party would set free all front or associate organisations, Ashraful said during the talks with the EC on Wednesday they had specified the party’s position that it would retain associate organisations only and the EC accepted it.

With world attention trained on resolving a financial crisis in Western economies, the World Bank president, Robert Zoellick, said the poverty-fighting institution is warning developing countries to prepare for tougher times.
   In an interview with the news agency ahead of weekend meetings of world finance ministers, Zoellick said business failures, bank emergencies and balance of payments crises are all possible in developing countries as the crisis spreads.
   He said a growing financial squeeze, together with higher food and fuel prices, will only make it more difficult for governments in developing countries to protect the poor.
   A new World Bank report prepared for the meetings warns that high food and fuel prices will increase the number of malnourished people around the world in 2008 by 44 million to over 960 million.
   The World Bank chief said the bank had identified around 28 countries that could face fiscal difficulties. He said he would release the details later on Thursday ahead of weekend meetings of finance leaders in Washington.
   ‘What we’re now moving into is the phase where one has to look more broadly at the danger of developing country growth and there it depends on policies they take and the support we and others can give them,’ Zoellick said.
   ‘Over the medium and long term, I remain optimistic about the possibilities of sub-Saharan Africa being a pole of growth, but it won’t happen automatically, it will require their actions and the right investments,’ he added.
   Zoellick said the World Bank was working with developing countries to make them aware of the services the bank could provide to help prepare contingency plans and support countries whose banking systems may come under strain.
   The financial crisis threatens to undo much, or in some cases all, of the progress made in many developing countries over the past several years to lift growth and reduce poverty and disease.
   Between 1997 and 2007, 17 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa grew on average 6 per cent, most of them non-oil producers. Another 8 countries, all oil producers, grew on average 8 per cent over the same 10 years.
   Zoellick told a news conference earlier there was frustration, fear and anxiety at the difficulties economies may now encounter from a crisis that began in the United States.
   Better economic management, fewer conflicts, and prospects of high returns on investments have attracted more private sector interest into developing countries.
   Among those investors have been China, Brazil, India and Gulf countries, spurring so-called south-south investment where one emerging economy invests in another.
   Zoellick said despite ripple effects from the financial crisis into emerging economies, he was confident China would continue to invest in natural resources in Africa, while Gulf states look to investments in agriculture.
   ‘While we’re dealing with today’s problems, you have to keep your eye on tomorrow (and) take the problem and turn it into an opportunity,’ he said.
   Just as Western central banks and China took unprecedented coordinated action to cut interest rates on Wednesday to restore calm to markets, he hoped they would do the same when it comes to helping the developing world deal with effects from the financial crisis, but also the ‘human crisis’ of increasing malnourishment.
   The same countries could help by contributing to a World Bank fund to assist developing countries struggling with higher food and fuel prices and that would provide fertiliser to small farmers and energy to the poor.
   There would also be a need for developed countries to help the World Bank and International Monetary Fund support governments facing balance of payments needs and challenges to do with climate change and trade, he said.
    ‘We can play a role but we need the developed countries to also act in coordinated action to support that.’

French writer Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, whose early work in the 1960s was acclaimed for its wordplay and imagery and who later delved into childhood themes, won the 2008 Nobel prize for literature on Thursday.
   The Swedish Academy, which decides the winner of the prestigious 10 million Swedish crown ($1.4 million) prize, praised Le Clezio for his adventurous novels, essays and children’s literature.
   The award marked the first time a French writer has won the Nobel literature prize since 2000, when it was won by Chinese writer Gao Xingjian, a political refugee who had settled in France and become a French citizen. French-born writer Claude Simon also won it in 1985.
   The academy said in its statement that Le Clezio was an ‘author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilisation.’
   Born in April 1940, his first novel, Le proces-verbal, was published in 1963.
   ‘As a young writer in the aftermath of existentialism and the nouveau roman, he was a conjurer who tried to lift words above the degenerate state of everyday speech and to restore to them the power to invoke an essential reality,’ the academy said.
   ‘The emphasis in Le Clezio’s work has increasingly moved in the direction of an exploration of the world of childhood and of his own family history,’ the academy wrote.
   The run-up to this year’s prize has been embroiled in controversy after the permanent secretary of the award committee said last week the United States was too insular and did not participate in the ‘big dialogue’ of literature.
   Horace Engdahl of the Swedish Academy touched off a storm of angry responses from writers and critics in the United States with his comments, which were made to a news agency.
   The last time an American won the prize was in 1993 when it went to novelist Toni Morrison.
   Nice-born Le Clezio moved to Nigeria with his family at an early age. He wrote his first works — ‘Un long voyage’ and ‘Oradi Noir’ — during the month-long journey.
   Engdahl, speaking at the news conference to announce the laureate, said:
   ‘His works have a cosmopolitan character. Frenchman, yes, but more so a traveller, a citizen of the world, a nomad.’
   All but one of the prizes were established in the will of 19th century dynamite tycoon Alfred Nobel and have been handed out since 1901. The economics award was established by Sweden’s central bank in 1968.

The Assam government on Thursday ordered a judicial probe into the ethnic violence in Darrang and Udalguri districts that has claimed 52 lives.
   The chief minister, Tarun Gogoi, who visited the affected areas in the two districts, said there were allegations against some police officers that they had failed to contain the violence for which action would be taken against them if found guilty.
   Gogoi visited areas under Rowta in Udalguri and Besimari and Bhakatpara in Darrang and assured the victims in the relief
   camps of help from the government. With day curfew still on, Gogoi said there was no fresh incident since Wednesday and the situation was under control.
   The army and paramilitary forces continued to stage flag march in the affected areas to ensure that peace prevailed.

The global financial crisis is likely to cause increased mental health problems and even suicides as people struggle to cope with poverty and unemployment, the World Health Organisation warned on Thursday.
   Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are already affected by mental problems such as depression and bi-polar disorders and the current market meltdown could exacerbate feelings of despair among people vulnerable to such illnesses.
   The United Nations agency said the impact could be especially marked for those living in low and middle income countries where access to treatment is often limited.
   ‘We should not be surprised or underestimate the turbulence and likely consequences of the current financial crisis. As it is we are seeing a huge gap in taking care of people in great need,’ the WHO director general, Margaret Chan, told a meeting of mental health experts.
   Poverty and its associated stresses including violence, social exclusion and ‘constant insecurity’ are linked to the onset of mental disorders, she said.
   ‘It should not come as a surprise that we continue to see more stresses, suicides and mental disorders,’ Chan warned.
   Chan denounced the ‘abysmal lack of care’ for some mental health patients, especially in low and middle income countries, home to three out of four sufferers. Governments must make mental health a vital part of primary health care, she said.
   Benedetto Saraceno, director of WHO’s mental health and substance abuse department, said mental health disorders affect one in four people at some point in their lives.
   Mental and neurological disorders are often chronic and disabling, he said. Nearly 1 million people commit suicide worldwide every year, a large proportion of them young adults.
   Asked about the financial crisis, Saraceno told Reuters: ‘Poverty can be the consequence of such events — the debts, despair and sense of loss that may reach middle and lower classes. Even the poor can be affected by this crisis.’
   ‘There is a clear evidence that suicide is linked to financial disasters. I am not talking about the millionaire jumping out of the window but about poor people,’ he said.
   The global crisis could be expected to affect the ‘stability of communities and families,’ according to Saraceno.
   The WHO launched a programme on Thursday — the annual World Mental Health Day — aimed at increasing funding and services for the mentally ill over the next six years.
   More than 75 per cent of people suffering from mental disorders in the developing world receive no treatment or care, and many are stigmatised and subject to neglect and abuse, according to the agency.
   Globally, the WHO said most countries spend less than 2 per cent of their national health budget on mental health.
   ‘I am convinced that even in middle income countries reached by the economic crisis, it (the financial crisis) means less money and access to treatment,’ Saraceno said.

Durga puja, the biggest religious festival of the Hindu community, concluded on Thursday through ceremonial immersion of images of goddess Durga after five days of worship and festivities.
   The Hindu devotees celebrated Bijoya Dashami in the morning in over 22,000 puja mandaps across the country. Of the total, 165 mandops were set up in the capital alone.
   In the evening, the devotees bade solemn farewell to the mother Durga and her children Laxmi, Saraswati, Kartic and Ganesh through the immersion of their images in river waters while inviting her to return to them next autumn.
   The Hindus observed the concluding day as Bijoya and exchanged Bijoya greetings before joining the final pageantry, which came in close succession to the Eid festival of the Muslims.
   The day was a public holiday.
   It is believed by the devotees that goddess Durga descended on earth by riding palanquin (palki) and departed on elephant back. According to Hindu mythology it symbolises that the country will harvest abundant crops this year.
   In the capital, thousands of men, women and children joined the traditional idol-immersion procession brought out from near Dhakeswari National Temple with 100 trucks carrying images of Durga at 5:10pm. The procession drew to a close at Waizghat after parading through main streets of the city.
   Later, the images were laid under the Buriganga waters in tears.
   Special security measures were taken as members of different law-enforcement agencies escorted the procession until the immersion of the images.
   Advocate Tapash Paul, general secretary of Mahanagar Sarbajaneen Puja Committee, said images of goddess Durga from around 30 mandaps were gathered at Dhakeswari Temple for the Bijoya march.
   Hindu revelers, many painting their forehead in red, sang and danced in circles to the rhythm of bands while marching along the route.
   Durga Puja is the worship of ‘Shakti’ or divine power embodied in Devi Durga. It symbolises the battle between good and evil.
   On the occasion, the president Iajuddin Ahmed and his wife Anwara Begum hosted a reception to the Hindus at Bangabhaban. The state-run and private television channels and radios aired special programmes while newspapers published supplements on the great religious festival.

The ninth meeting of the Bangladesh-Pakistan Joint Economic Cooperation is going to be held in Islamabad towards the end of October more than three years after the eighth meeting in Dhaka in September 2005, commerce ministry sources told New Age.
   An 11-member delegation, headed by the commerce adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, has recently been formed to attend the talks on economic, trade and development between the two countries, which are also members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.
   Forging a bilateral free trade agreement between the two countries is likely to come up prominently for discussion at the meeting, which is going to be held two years after the schedule, sources said.
   Cooperation in agriculture, railway, telecommunications, water and power sectors and direct shipping between Chittagong and Karachi to increase mutual trade are likely to be included in the agenda for discussion, they said
   ‘Trade potential between the two countries is absolutely unlimited, but the trade volume [at present] is limited. We think the two-way trade could be increased to one billion dollars a year,’ a high ministry official told New Age.
   He said the meeting would discuss the issue of bilateral free trade area aimed at boosting two-way trade and reducing trade imbalance Bangladesh suffers with Pakistan.
   Bangladesh has a trade deficit of about $20 million as of 2005–06, according to a commerce ministry source.
   The commerce ministry sources said Pakistan would be interested in discussing trade and commerce-related issues, industrial cooperation, and cooperation in agriculture, railway, telecommunications, water and power sectors.
   Sources in the commerce ministry told New Age Pakistan had long been showing its interest in forging a bilateral free trade agreement with Bangladesh.
   No talks on free trade agreement between the two countries have been held after the first-round talks in 2003 mainly for lack of policy decision, the sources said.
   The commerce ministry has recently initiated to resume bilateral free trade agreements with India, Pakistan and Nepal as a core committee of representatives from public and private sectors has recently been formed to recommend modes for the proposed free trade agreements, the sources said.
   Communications ministry sources said Pakistan was interested in taking part in the development of Bangladesh Railway, especially conducting a feasibility study for the introduction of high-speed electric trains and improvement in passenger services by providing modern railway carriages.

The 2008 Nobel Peace Prize could go to a Chinese or Russian dissident in an attempt to highlight the human rights situation in those countries, where the award would unleash strong reactions, experts said ahead of Friday’s announcement.
   Chinese dissidents Hu Jia and Gao Zhisheng and Chechen human rights lawyer Lidiya Yusupova are seen as strong contenders this year, as 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
   Some observers also predict the prestigious prize could this year be used to bring attention to one of Africa’s ‘forgotten’ wars, but with the names of this year’s 197 nominees a well-kept secret, pundits can only speculate.
   Nineteen years after awarding the prize to the Dalai Lama, the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee could choose to send a stinging reminder to the Chinese regime to stick to its vow to improve human rights after the Beijing Olympics.
   Hu, an imprisoned campaigner for civil rights, environmental protection and AIDS victims in China, and rights lawyer Zhisheng, also currently behind bars, are the most likely to win the prize, according to the head of the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo Stein Toennesson.
   ‘The Nobel committee has probably been interested in China for years, but perhaps it has not until now found an obvious candidate or maybe it didn’t want to cause a disturbance ahead of the Olympics,’ he told AFP.
   ‘The Olympics wrapped up as a success in a lot of respects, but not when it comes to human rights,’ he added.
   Beijing has already voiced its opposition to such an honour for Hu, as is the case each time a Chinese dissident is mentioned as a possible contender for the prestigious prize, calling on the Nobel committee to make ‘the right choice’.
   Among other Chinese regime opponents seen as potential winners are Wei Jingsheng and Rebiya Kadeer, who represents the Uighur Muslim minority.
   Geir Lundestad, the influential secretary of the Nobel committee, has in the past said ‘sooner or later the Chinese question must be tackled’.
   Some observers meanwhile say the five independent committee members could instead choose to shine the spotlight on Russia by selecting Lidiya Yusupova for the award.
   Yusupova, the former head of the Russian rights group Memorial in Grozny, collated information and statistics about human rights abuses such as torture, kidnapping and executions across Chechnya.
   The information helped lead the European Court of Human Rights to find Moscow guilty of numerous human rights abuses.
   Niels Butenschoen, a researcher at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights at Oslo University, predicted however that the committee would not choose to stigmatise either Russia or China. Such a move ‘could have the opposite effect of the one desired in these two countries which are already at odds with the United States,’ he said.
   According to Jan Egeland, the former United Nations emergency relief coordinator and current head of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, the time could instead be ripe for shining the spotlight on ‘forgotten’ African wars like the one tearing apart the Democratic Republic of Congo.
   One potential candidate in that case would be physician Denis Mukwege, who founded a hospital in Panzi that cares for female victims of sexual violence, of whom there are hundreds of thousands in the DRC.
   ‘It’s good to expand the concept of peace,’ Egeland told AFP, referring to the tendency in recent years to stretch the boundaries of the Peace Prize to include non-traditional areas like environmentalism.
    ‘But you shouldn’t leave behind those who fit into the initial definition, meaning those who work for victims of war and against armed conflicts,’ he insisted.
   The Cluster Munitions Coalition has also been mentioned as a potential laureate this year, after more than 100 countries reached agreement to ban cluster bombs, which are particularly harmful to civilians.
   Other possible winners include French-Colombian former hostage Ingrid Betancourt, head of the Zimbabwean opposition Morgan Tsvangirai and Pakistani judge Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
   Vietnamese dissident Buddhist monk Thich Quang Do, Finnish mediator Martti Ahtisaari and activist rockers Bono and Bob Geldof also figure on the list, as do the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Food Programme at a time when food prices are soaring.
   Last year, the prize went to former US vice-president Al Gore and the UN panel on climate change IPCC.

The financial crisis has people flocking to the Internet for the latest money news along with tips on how to salvage investments and save on the routine costs of living.
   Visits to websites such as the business-centric Wall Street Journal and economy-focused Yahoo Finance set new records as the US Congress grappled with its 700 billion dollar plan to stop credit markets from imploding.
   Internet tracker comScore says visits to www.gasbuddy.com, which steers drivers to stations featuring low fuel prices, are up nearly 30 per cent and it expects to report spikes in traffic to finance and bargain-hunter websites when September statistics are calculated later this week.
   ‘Investment pages are just red hot right now with people wanting to know what is going on with stocks,’ Yahoo Finance general manager Mark Interrante told AFP.
   ‘We have been impressed by the traffic. People are not just diving down into stocks but asking what is going on, how it affects them and where it is all going.’
   Activity is up 40 per cent at Yahoo Finance message boards where people chat online about cash, finance and other personal money matters and the website’s Tech Ticker video news programme is getting millions of daily visitors.
   ‘The editorial team at Tech Ticker is working around the clock to find the right stories for people to understand the crisis,’ Interrante said. ‘This is going to be a record month for us.’
   Yahoo Finance stock quotes and other features popular in the United States began being rolled out Tuesday at the California firm’s websites in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Britain.
   ‘We pre-launched a couple of pages in France and got very positive customer feedback and moved forward with the rest of Europe,’ Interrante said. ‘You will see a lot more stuff rolling out in Europe in the next six weeks.’
   Google queries regarding ‘stocks’ nearly tripled in September, according to data posted this week at the Internet search king’s website that tracks trends in what people seek online.
   US-based Akamai Technologies, which handles online traffic for major news outlets such as NBC and the BBC, reports visits to those websites surged to record levels as the dramatic events played out in money markets.
   The Wall Street Journal recently reported an unprecedented two million visitors in a single day.
   Meanwhile, penny-pinchers website SavingAdvice.com says it has seen ‘a significant amount of traffic’ for information about shopping coupons, deals on gasoline and troubled banks.
   ‘That increase in search engine traffic may indeed have something to do with the economic issues,’ said Jeffrey Strain of SavingAdvice.
   ‘The forums have had some change in focus with the changes in the economy as well. Questions about the stock market and changes taking place there have increased as the financial meltdown has taken place.’
   Self-help startup PeopleJam.com has seen interest in personal finance tips multiply nearly eightfold in the past month as people seek ways to save money or find reliable investing advice.
   ‘Our audience is clearly worried about their retirement savings or waking up in the morning wondering if they can put gas in the car, pay their mortgage or cover a child’s tuition bill,’ PeopleJam chief executive Matt Edelman said.
   ‘They want ways to eat healthy on a budget; ways to exercise for free as opposed to joining a gym... day-to-day activities that people want to keep in their lives but don’t have the money to afford.’
   FindHow.com, a website created as a resource for people that want to fix or build things themselves instead of paying for professionals, sees a tsunami of interest heading its way due to the financial markets meltdown.
   ‘If I were a betting person, right now I would bet that do-it-yourself is going to get very big in the coming months,’ FindHow president Dave Smith said.

The Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company will increase gas production from the Fenchuganj field by around 16mmcfd from today as it successfully completed the work-over of a production well.
   The state-run company two days ago completed the work-over programme of Well 2 which had remained out of production for more than a month and a half.
   ‘We hope to start production from the well at Fenchuganj on Friday. We expect to get around 15–16mmcfd of gas from the well. The total production in the field will again increase to around 35mmcfd,’ the Bapex managing director, Muhammad Imaduddin, told New Age on Thursday.
   Production in the Fenchuganj field, which used to produce around 35mmcfd of gas, declined to around 19mmcfd after one of the two wells stopped production.
   Bapex started the work-over programme to start production in the well in late April. The field has a recoverable reserve of around 230 billion cubic feet.
   The increase in gas production from the field is important as a number of power plants in Greater Sylhet are expected to start operation by December. Besides, the country is facing huge gas shortage.
   Imaduddin said they had plans to drill further production well at Fenchuganj in future.
   ‘Right at the moment, we are busy with different projects and our drilling rigs will not be free till 2010,’ he said.
   After Fenchuganj, Bapex will move a rig to the Bakhrabad gas field, owned by the Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Limited, to conduct work-over programmes at Well 2 and 5 to increase production in the field.
   Bapex will also conduct a work-over programme at Well 14 in the Titas gas field and at Bakhrabad 9 before it drills two new wells, 17 and 18 in the Titas field.
   The company will, on the other hand, also drill wells in Kapasia, Semutang, Sundalpur and Srikail structures.
   Bapex, meanwhile, is yet to get increased tariff for gas it sells to Petrobangla from Fenchuganj and Salda gas fields because of vagueness in a finance ministry directive, Petrobangla officials said.
   The finance ministry recently approved a Petrobangla proposal for increased gas prices for Bapex to Tk 25 a 1,000 cubic feet from Tk 7, but directed Petrobangla to maintain the Petroleum Development Fund.
   Petrobangla officials said they had no other way but to increase price of Bapex gas if it maintains the fund.
   The energy division recently sought clarification from the finance ministry on the issue, they said.
   ‘Once the ministry clarifies the issue, Bapex will get increased gas price with effect from July 1,’ an official said.

After a lacklustre debate, John McCain now has less than four weeks to turn the race for the White House around, as observers on Wednesday began to wonder aloud whether the Republican who once dubbed himself the comeback kid can win.
   One day after McCain faced off in the second of three debates against Barack Obama, political observers said the exchange failed to up-end the front-runner status of his Democratic rival, as the contest ticks down to the November 4 vote.
   ‘Despite John McCain’s best efforts, the Arizona senator didn’t knock Obama from his cool evasion or even do much to rebut the Democrat’s talking points,’ the conservative Wall Street Journal wrote the morning after the debate.
   ‘This isn’t enough to change the dynamics of the race.’
   Snap polls by US television networks awarded the debate — the second of a trio of presidential clashes — to Obama.
   Democrats now are optimistic that — with two of three rhetorical contests over and both won by Obama according to opinion polls — the Illinois senator is an increasingly good bet to clinch the November 4 election.
   ‘The race is over,’ crowed Howard Wolfson, a former spokesman for senator Hillary Clinton, one of several Democratic rivals vanquished by Obama en route to the sealing the nomination.
   Longtime Washington pundit Roger Simon pronounced neither McCain nor Obama the winner, saying that, from his vantage point, both failed in ‘delivering a knockout punch.’
   ‘The trouble for John McCain, however, is that he needed one,’ wrote Simon, a writer for The Politico daily newspaper.
   The day after Tuesday’s outing, Obama continued to sound an upbeat note on the stump in the midwestern state of Indiana, promising Americans ‘better days ahead’ despite plummeting global stock markets, rising job losses and dark clouds of economic gloom.
   McCain appeared at a campaign rally planned along with running mate Sarah Palin in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
   And Obama’s running mate Joe Biden accused his Republican rivals of ‘injecting fear and loathing’ into the campaign, including stoking rumours that Obama has terrorist ties.
   Speaking on CBS television, senator Biden dismissed as ‘malarkey’ Republican allegations of unsavory ties between Obama and William Ayers, former leader of ‘The Weathermen,’ a domestic terror group. He was reacting to Palin’s comments last week that Obama had been ‘pallin’ around with terrorists.’
   Trailing in most national polls, the Republican White House hopeful went to Tuesday’s debate armed with an ambitious, 300-billion dollar surprise plan to buy up the bad American mortgages that helped tip the global economy into crisis.
   The gambit however failed to convince voters and the US political class that Obama is not be trusted at the helm of the state, and that McCain is in fact, the best choice to lead the country.
   Political observers noted that support for the Democratic contender had been growing leading into Tuesday’s face-off, and said they saw nothing in the debate that was likely to change that, including in a handful of all-important in battleground states.

Icelanders are keeping cool heads despite their country slipping into a financial quagmire, but anger is mounting against politicians who liberalised the financial sector in the 1990s.
   ‘Faced with the crisis, people are sticking together since it’s not in Icelanders’ nature to protest. We’re optimistic by nature,’ Gunnar Haraldsson, the head of Iceland’s National Economic Institute, told AFP.
   ‘But people are worried and upset because the economy is in recession, purchasing power is going to decline further, the almost inexistent unemployment will rise, and most importantly, nobody knows what is going to happen,’ he said.
   In the streets of Reykjavik, Icelanders seem stoical even as the dire news piles up daily: their currency is worth half what it was against the euro in January, the government has taken control of the three biggest banks and the government’s empty coffers have left it begging Russia for a loan.
   But Carlos Melgar, a 45-year-old South American manager of a Reykjavik hotel who settled in Iceland 26 years ago, said he believes the Icelandic composure is just a facade.
   ‘Every day there are stories about people who have lost their savings, who have seen the value of their homes plunge and who are starting to pinch pennies,’ he said.
   ‘I’ve noticed the difference in the past week. Locals are much less inclined to eat lunch at a restaurant, for example,’ he said.
   He said Iceland’s wealthy crowd was most worried about developments, since they have invested in the stock market.
   Torfi Tulinius, who works as a literature professor at Reykjavik University said ‘when the government announced it had nationalised Glitnir (the third-biggest bank, September 29), people realised that the government had accelerated the crisis.’
   Up until then, the government had insisted the foundations of the Icelandic economy were sound.
   The financial crisis could ultimately lead to the downfall of the government coalition.

Concern over Afghanistan’s downward spiral rose another notch Thursday, amid reports of a draft US intelligence assessment detailing its slide into corruption, drugs and insurgent violence.
   The New York Times said the draft National Intelligence Estimate casts doubts on the ability of Afghan president Hamid Karzai to stem the resurgence of the Taliban.
   A spokesman for the Director of National Intelligence would not acknowledge the existence of an NIE on Afghanistan, but other officials said the assessment had been expected to be completed soon.
   US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said she expected to be briefed soon on the classified assessment, which represents the consensus view of 16 US intelligence agencies.
   ‘We have asked for the intelligence community to take a look, it’s important that it do so,’ Rice told reporters during a meeting in Washington with Maris Riekstins, Latvia’s foreign minister.
   ‘I would just cite that Afghanistan is a difficult place. It has made progress since 2001. We have all talked about new circumstances that have arisen there, and we are doing a review to see what more we can do,’ she added.
   A US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the downbeat ‘tone and direction’ of the intelligence assessment was not unexpected.
   ‘We heard about this for several weeks, and (were) not surprised by the tone it conveyed — that the situation in Afghanistan was getting worse, certainly not better, and that a lot more attention was needed to try to remedy what is going on,’ said the official.
   The White House has already launched an urgent strategy review led by Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, a deputy national security adviser and coordinator of the US war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan.
   The defence department, state department, treasury and other key government agencies are taking part in the review, US officials have said.

The toll of Chinese children ill from toxic milk formula may have nearly doubled since the health ministry’s last public count, local media reports show, but an official said on Wednesday the number of new cases was falling.
   Beijing is struggling with fallout from adulteration of milk with the industrial chemical melamine. At home four babies have died, and thousands of infants fell sick, while around the world products made with Chinese milk have been recalled.
   The government has not updated figures issued on September 21, when it said 12,892 infants were in hospital, 104 with serious illness, and close to 40,000 others were affected but did not need major treatment.
   But reports from local media across the country compiled by Reuters suggest the number of affected children has risen to nearly 94,000, although most are not in a serious condition.
   In some areas diagnoses rocketed up in the space of just a few days. In the most extreme case, north-western Gansu province, the number of sick children climbed to 13,459 by September 26 from 1,695 a week earlier, the official Xinhua agency said.
   Worst hit so far is central Henan province, with over 30,000 cases by the end of September. Neighbouring Hebei also has nearly 16,000 cases. The province is home to Sanlu Dairy group, which made the contaminated formula that sparked the broader scandal.
   Despite the rash of cases across the country — few areas appear to have been entirely immune — the government says it has the problem under control and recent checks have found no trace of melamine, the toxic additive, in liquid milk.
   The number of sick children appearing at hospitals is also falling after news of the problem has blanketed domestic media and spread across the internet, prompting parents to take extra care about what they feed their children.
   ‘The daily reports of infants who were diagnosed and hospitalised are decreasing noticeably, ‘ said Chen Junshi, a researcher from Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety of Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
   But he declined to say how many had been ill overall.
   ‘I’m not authorised to publish the number of sick infants,’ he added at a news conference held by the ministry of health.
   Even if the pace of new diagnoses is slowing, there is still room for a major leap in the total number of affected children because some of the country’s most densely populated cities and provinces, like Shanghai, have not yet disclosed any figures.
   Public worries about tainted milk have been diluted in the past two weeks, as China was transfixed by the country’s first space walk and then enjoying the week-long National Day holiday.
   But as part of an ongoing effort to restore confidence in the ‘made in China’ brand, the government on Wednesday also released new dairy safety standards, that set limits on melamine, a cheap industrial chemical that can be used to cheat quality checks.
   The limits set by the ministry of health’s new standards are one milligram of melamine per kilogram for infant formula, 2.5 milligrams per kilogram for liquid milk, milk powder and food products containing at least 15 per cent milk.
   The US Food and Drug Administration said earlier this month that no amount of melamine was safe in baby formula, but China said it had set levels low enough to protect its people’s health.
   ‘There is probably a little amount of melamine in the environment, ‘ Wang Xuening, deputy director of the health ministry’s Health Supervision Bureau, told the conference.
    ‘So we couldn’t set zero levels,‘ he said, adding that melamine content below the new limit is definitely not a threat to human health. Wang said the limits mainly aim to curb deliberate use of the chemical as an additive.
   Hebei province has already arrested 27 people suspected of involvement in contaminating milk with melamine. Sanlu group’s chairwoman Tian Wenhua was also detained last month.

Cuban-Argentinean guerrilla fighter Ernesto Che Guevara did not shed his blood in vain, since many nations of the world are currently following the path he drew towards equality and social justice, according to redaccion@ahora.cu.
   The statement was issued by the Bolivian president Evo Morales during a visit Tuesday, to the community of Vallegrande, where Che Guevara was assassinated on October 9, 1967.
   The small locality of ‘La Higuera’, in Valle Grande, is the scenario for central commemorations Wednesday for the 41st anniversary of the assassination of the Cuba-Argentinean guerrilla fighter.
   Representatives of Bolivian organisations and of the Cuban and Venezuelan collaboration missions in that country will gather at the historic place, where a ceremony will include presentations of masters’ degrees by Cuban doctors, while several members of the collaboration brigades, working in the fields of health, education and energy, will also be awarded distinctions.
   On declaring Santa Cruz free of illiteracy after the Oruro Department, with the support of the Cuban methodology ‘Yes, I Can,’ Evo Morales said: ‘I want to tell the Cuban people and their Comandante, that they are not alone anymore. The blood shed by many revolutionaries in Latin America, like Che, has not been in vain either.’
   Morales stressed that new revolutionary and anti-imperialists leaders are emerging now, and ‘we, the peoples, follow the path drawn by our freedom fighters.’
   President Morales and Cuban ambassador to La Paz, Rafael Dausá, laid a wreath in honour of Che Guevara, a world symbol of the struggle for all fair causes.

A suspected extortionist was beaten to death by a mob on Rankin Street at Wari in Old Town of Dhaka early Thursday. The police arrested four of his associates.
   The deceased was Mohammad Russell, 25, a resident of Sutrapur and close associate of wanted criminal Dakat Shahid.
   Local residents said a gang of extortionists claiming to be associates of Dakat Shahid, who is now in hiding, on October 5 made a phone call to Manu, security guard of Babli Villa on Rankin Street and demanded Tk 1 crore.
   The gangsters on Wednesday night carried out a bomb attack at around 9:30pm in the house to panic the family and tried to get away, but the local residents managed to capture Russell.
   The residents then beat him until he became unconscious. A team of Sutrapur police rescued him from the mob and took him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where he died from his injures at around 3:30am.

Vice-senior general Maung Aye, the vice-chairman of the State Peace and Development Council of Myanmar, left for Yangon on Thursday after ending his three-day official visit to Bangladesh.
   The chief of army staff, General Moeen U Ahmed, saw him off at Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong in the afternoon.
   Earlier in the day, the second key figure of the Myanmar military regime visited the Rangamati hill district.
   Meanwhile, Myanmar’s apex trade body signed a memorandum of understanding with Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Chittagong on Thursday with an aim to expand communications and trade and commerce between private sectors of the two countries.
   CCCI president Saifuzzaman Chowdhury and president of the Federation of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Myanmar U Win Myint signed the MoU on behalf of their respective sides.
   Speaking at the function, Myanmar’s national planning and economic development minister U Soe Tha said, ‘The government and businessmen of Myanmar are keen to further improve the economic and trade relations with Bangladesh.’
   He observed that Bangladesh had become a target for foreign businessmen and investors due to various factors, including geographical location and cheap labour. The Myanmar Minister called upon both private and public sectors of the two neighbouring countries to play more active role in exploiting economic and other prospects for the mutual benefits of the two peoples.
   Addressing his business audience, Myanmar commerce minister brigadier general Tin Naing Thein said his government had already decided to upgrade the amount of annual bilateral trade to $500 million and would take ‘all necessary steps’ for achieving the target.

A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber blew himself up near a convoy carrying a senior Sri Lankan cabinet minister on Thursday, wounding his deputy and at least six others, the military said.
   Maithripala Sirisena, the agricultural development minister, was unhurt in the blast in Boralwegamuwa, about six miles from the capital, Colombo, military spokesman Brig Udaya Nanayakkara said.
   The injured included his junior minister, Siripala Gamlath, Nanayakkara said, blaming separatist Tamil rebels for the blast. The bomber was killed. There was no immediate comment from the rebels.
   The Tamil Tigers, who are banned in the United States and European Union as a terrorist organisation, routinely deny involvement in suicide attacks. They are accused of having carried out more than 240 suicide bombings against political, military and economic targets since the early 1980s.
   A similar suicide attack blamed on the rebels killed a popular former army general, Janaka Perera, and 26 others outside Colombo on Monday.
   The rebels have been fighting since 1983 to create an independent homeland for the country’s ethnic minority Tamils, who have faced marginalisation by successive governments controlled by ethnic Sinhalese.

A man was killed and three were injured as pirates fired on a trawler in the River Meghna at Hatiya in Noakhali Thursday morning.
   The deceased is Shamsuddin, 45, a resident of Hatiya. The police said a gang of pirates fired on a trawler headed for Chittagong near Char Nur Islam at about 11:00am. Shamsuddin was killed on the spot.
   The injured were taken to Hatiya Upazila Health Complex in a critical condition.