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The Awami League on Wednesday applied for registration with the Election Commission and submitted the amended, provisional party constitution with provisions contradicting the registration criteria.
   It also hoped the commission will further relax its provisions to allow the party to be registered.
   The Awami League’s office secretary Abdul Mannan Khan submitted, along with the application, the party’s amended, provisional constitution which kept provisions for associate organisations and foreign chapters of the party.
   The provisions of keeping such bodies contradict the registration laws laid out in the revised Representation of the People (Amendment) Ordinance 2008.
   Asked whether the party thinks the commission will relax the registration criteria to allow it to be registered, Abdul Mannan said, ‘We think the commission will register us in line with our amended constitution.’
   Asked how the commission will register the Awami League as at least two provisions in the party constitution contradict the registration criteria, election commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain said, ‘The committee assigned to verify the applications will scrutinise the application and then we will see what could be done.’
   He, however, declined comments when he was asked whether the commission would relax the registration criteria to allow the Awami League to be registered.
   Article 90(B)-(b)(iii) of the Representation of the People Order, as amended on October 6, says every political party should have specific provisions in its constitution ‘to prohibit formation of any organisation or body as its affiliated or associated body consisting of the teachers or students of any educational institution or the employees or labourers of any financial, commercial or industrial institution or establishment or the members of any other profession.’
   According to Article 90C(1)(d), a political party should not be qualified for registration if ‘there is any provision in its constitution for the establishment or operation of any office, branch or committee outside the territory of Bangladesh.’
   The Awami League’s amended, provisional constitution says the party maintains associate organisations to be guided by their own constitutions, instead of the existing provision allowing monitoring by the party secretaries concerned.
   The Bangladesh Mahila Awami League, Bangladesh Krishak League, Jatiya Sramik League, Bangladesh Awami Juba League, Awami Swechchhashebak League, Bangladesh Chhatra League, Awami Ainjibee Parishad, Bangladesh Tanti League, Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad and Bangladesh Juba Mahila League will operate as the party’s ‘associate’ organisations to be guided by their own constitutions, the provisional party constitution said.
   As for overseas unit of the party, the amended, provisional constitution says overseas wings formed by Bangladeshi expatriates will go by the existing rules and regulations of the countries of their residence.
   Abdul Mannan said the party during the dialogue with the commission made it clear they would keep associate organisations and overseas units.
   The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Wednesday said the party would not decide on the registration with the commission until they reach a consensus on contentious political issues with the caretaker government.
   The BNP’s secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain hoped the government would again hold dialogue with the BNP before the extended October 20 deadline for registration, a requisite for parties to contest the forthcoming polls scheduled for December 18.
   Only 23 political parties have applied for registration with the commission till Wednesday, when the registration deadline was earlier set to expire. The deadline was later extended by five days till October 20 at the request of some political parties. Some 167 parties and groups have collected forms, said sources in the commission.
   The 23 parties and groups which have applied for registration are the Awami League, Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Janata League, Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League, Workers Party of Bangladesh, Bangladesher Samyabadi Dal (M-L), Liberal Democratic Party, Freedom Party, National People’s Party, Jatiya Party faction led by Anwar Hossain Manju, Naya Samaj Dal, Bangladesh Mukti Oikya Dal, Bangladesh Jatiya League, Bangladesh Kalyan Party and Nirdaliya Jana Andolan, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Bangladesh Islami Oikya Front, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Bikalpadhara Bangladesh, National Awami Party, Jatiya Party led by Ershad, Forward Party, Gana Forum and Islami Gana Shakti.
   The commission on August 27 issued a notice inviting political parties to apply for registration in a prescribed form and also submit a number of documents.
   According to the Representation of the People Order, as amended on October 6, the political parties will be allowed to submit a provisional constitution to the commission to get registered and contest the December 18 parliamentary polls.
   But in six months after the first sitting of the next parliament, the parties must ratify their constitutions by duly holding council sessions in line with the latest electoral laws which call for ‘more democratisation’ of parties.

The Awami League will hold talks with the leaders of its allies today to set its election strategy and to revive its ‘grand alliance’ targeting the parliamentary elections scheduled for December 18.
   The Awami League at the meeting will try to convince its ideological partners of the formation of the grand alliance as some of its partners earlier resented its plan to forge the grand alliance with the Ershad-led Jatiya Party and Mesbahur Rahman’s Islami Oikya Jote, party sources said.
   Issues regarding parliamentary seat distribution will also come up for discussion at the talks in the house of the party’s acting president Zillur Rahman at Gulshan at 5:00pm.
   The Awami League has already announced it will contest the forthcoming parliamentary elections under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina after forging a ‘grand alliance’ to strengthen its position against the other coalition led by the arch-rival BNP.
   The party and its long-time allies formed a ‘grand’ alliance on December 18, 2006 before the ninth parliamentary elections, originally scheduled for January 22, 2007; but the alliance had since then been virtually inactive in a difficult time for political parties with most of their top leaders landing in jail on corruption charges.
   The Awami League will make the final decision and hold formal meetings with potential partners of the ‘grand alliance’ only after the return of the party chief, Sheikh Hasina, who has now been in the United States for treatment after her release from jail on June 11.
   Awami League presidium member Matia Chowdhury told New Age they did not have much time left to make preparations for the national polls and the party would sit with its allies to make some decisions regarding the elections.
   The party has already prepared its election manifesto and will change it after compiling the manifestoes of like-minded parties. The party will talk with its partners to make final the ‘grand alliance’ election manifesto.
   Sources said Zillur Rahman had talked with the Workers Party president, Rashed Khan Menon, and clarified the Awami League’s stand on forging the ‘grand alliance’ with the Jatiya Party.
   The Gana Forum president, Kamal Hossain, meanwhile on Saturday said he would now like to be part of an Awami League-led electoral alliance.
   The issue will also be discussed at the meeting to reach a solution although the Awami League has reservations about him for some of his remarks and activities in recent times.
   The Ganatantri Party chief, Nurul Islam, told New Age they would sit with the Awami League to set the election strategy and talk about their role in the prevailing situation.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party is unlikely to apply for registration with the Election Commission before the government fulfils the demands the party placed at the first round of formal dialogue.
   ‘We will not consider applying for registration at all before we [the BNP and the government] reach a consensus in the dialogue,’ the BNP’s secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain said Monday as he was asked about the party registration with the commission.
   The commission extended the deadline for registration till October 20 after the BNP and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami formally sought an extension. The deadline was earlier scheduled to expire on October 15.
   The BNP’s arch rival, Awami League, however, applied for registration on Wednesday.
   The BNP has, however, started preliminary tasks which include collection and update of information and documents required to apply for registration with the commission, party sources said.
   A political party needs to disclose its constitution, electoral manifesto, if there is any, list of central office bearers, details of bank accounts with the latest bank statement and the sources of fund.
   Delwar said they were waiting for a date for the second round of the formal dialogue with the government before October 20, when the registration deadline expires.
   ‘We have placed several proposals which we think will help to create an atmosphere conducive to holding free and fair elections,’ he said. ‘It is impossible to hold elections under the state of emergency.’
   The first round of the formal dialogue between the BNP and the government ended inconclusively on Tuesday, with both sides agreeing to hold more talks to settle their differences.
   The party demands also include withdrawal of ‘false’ cases against its top leaders and repeal of the amendments to the Representation of People Order 1972, holding polls under the old electoral constituencies, deferral of upazila polls by a rational length of time after the parliamentary elections, improvement in law and order to ensure security of life and property of the people, containment of essential goods price spiral, supply of adequate fertiliser, diesel, seeds and loans to farmers, and fair price for their produces, employment for the jobless, announcement of the anniversary of the death of former president Ziaur Rahman on May 30 and the ‘national revolution and solidarity day’ on November 7 as public holidays.
   Both the government and the party at a joint news briefing said they would hold more talks.
   According to the latest electoral laws, the political parties willing to take part in the parliamentary elections must be registered with the commission.

The interim government has placed restrictions on the Chittagong mayor, ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, released on bail from jail, in connection with attending office as the mayor.
   Mohiuddin on Wednesday could not hold a scheduled meeting with the councillors in City Corporation Bhaban because of the government restrictions.
   The local government ministry sent an official notification to the Chittagong City Corporation chief executive officer Tuesday night with an instruction that the acting mayor, instead of Mohiuddin, would continue with the position.
   The letter, signed by senior assistant secretary M Delwar Hossain, reads: ‘As the CCC mayor is out of jail on bail, so panel mayor (acting mayor) M Manjur Alam should continue with his mayoral duties.’ Mohiuddin already sent a letter to the local government ministry on Wednesday inquiring about why he was yet to be handed over the charge of the mayoral office.
   The local government adviser, Anwarul Iqbal, on Wednesday said, ‘The mayor’s letter has been sent to the law ministry for comments. Necessary steps will be taken once the local government ministry receives the law ministry’s feedback on the matter.’
   ‘The High Court has granted bail to mayor Mohiuddin on health grounds in accordance with a medical board report… As he is ill, how could he discharge his responsibilities?’ Anwarul Iqbal told reporters on Wednesday.
   Mohiuddin said the government order ran counter to law and the constitution. ‘I am the elected mayor of 40 lakh people in the Chittagong metropolitan area and I obtain bail through the legal process. And my right to discharge duties as mayor is protected by law.’
   Mohiuddin, also an Awami League leader, was arrested at his house in Chittagong on March 7, 2007. He was released from jail on bail on October 8, 2008 after 19 months in detention.
   The Dhaka mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, who was granted anticipatory bail and the Sylhet mayor, Badaruddin Ahmed Kamran, who was released on bail from jail, have been allowed to discharge their responsibilities as mayor.
   Talking with reporters at his Chashma Hill house in Chittagong, Mohiuddin said he intended to go abroad to visit his ailing daughter if the government would allow him to do so.
   The government issued an official order on Wednesday allowing Mohiuddin to go abroad for treatment with restriction on attending office as mayor, according to official sources.

The Chittagong mayor, ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, on Thursday termed government restrictions on his attending office as mayor ‘undemocratic’ and a move to ‘harass’ him.
   The government Tuesday night issued an order asking Mohiuddin to refrain from attending office as mayor, sources in the Chittagong City Corporation said.
   The sources said the local government ministry issued the order to Mohiuddin, released on bail on October 8, 2008 after 19 months in detention after his arrest on March 7, 2007.
   The order, signed by a deputy secretary at the ministry, was faxed to the mayor at 11:00pm Tuesday, just six hours after his return from Dhaka, the sources said. The order asked the acting mayor, Monjurul Alam, to continue with his office.
   ‘I was really surprised when I got the faxed copy of the order at 11:00pm that barred me from joining the corporation office as mayor,’ said Mohiuddin as he talked with New Age.
   ‘I am an elected mayor and the government’s embargo on me is totally undemocratic. It was imposed only to harass me and to belittle my image and position,’ he said.
   ‘I got bail through the legal process and I was not released on parole. So the interim government should not slap any restriction on my functioning as mayor of Chittagong,’ he said. ‘I must register my protest against such an illegal and undemocratic move. I will soon go for legal battle and file a writ with the High Court to fight this embargo.’
   ‘Such an embargo has also triggered resentment among the four million people of Chittagong city whom I have served dedicatedly and who love me because of my service,’ he claimed.
   ‘There was already having pent up resentment in the people of Chittagong city because of the derailment of all development work of  the Chittagong City Corporation and deterioration of  civic services due to the inefficient running of this corporation that I had placed on a sound footing,’ he further claimed.
   ‘I declined the offer of a reception after arrival at Chittagong airport as the people are not happy with the present services provided by the corporation. They have lots of grievances,’ he told New Age.
   At one point, Mohiuddin started sobbing and said, ‘Now the government is not giving me permission to go to Bangkok where my ailing daughter is fighting with death. I can’t go to see her and my heart is breaking. I don’t even have enough money to afford costly treatment for my daughter there. Those who are blocking my trip to Bangkok also have daughters and children, so they should feel for me.’
   The councillors of the CCC have condemned the government’s embargo on Mohiuddin Chowdhury.
   Councillor Reka Alam, while talking with media at the city corporation, urged the government to lift the embargo and to allow Mohiuddin to work as mayor. She, on behalf of the councillors, also urged the government to let the mayor see his hospitalised daughter in Bangkok.

The European Commission on Wednesday categorically said it would not send observers for the general elections if held under the state of emergency.
   ‘We never ever send our Election Observation Mission to any country of the world where the state of emergency is in place,’ Stefan Frowein, ambassador and head of delegation of the EC to Bangladesh, told a press-meet, organised by the Diplomatic Correspondents Association Bangladesh.
   ‘In principle, the EC does not send its mission to observe election to any country where state of emergency is in place as the emergency takes away certain rights that deny people the scope for voting freely and electing their representatives,’ he told the programme at the Lakeshore Hotel in Dhaka.
   Stressing restoration of civil and political freedoms in the run-up to the polls if full lifting of the emergency is not possible, the top official of the European Commission in Dhaka said, ‘This is a critical step to install confidence in the electoral process and create a climate conducive to peaceful and participatory elections.’
   The EC has not yet taken any decision on sending its poll observers to Bangladesh as it was waiting for getting a clear signal from the caretaker government as to whether they were lifting the state of emergency in full or, if not, how far it was being relaxed to meet the conditions for free and fair elections.
   However, he observed that the state of emergency here was not like that in Pakistan. ‘It is a different emergency. Here emergency is formally in place but with some relaxations that already exist.’
   Referring to the chief adviser’s latest address to the nation where he had stated that the government had intention to lift the state of emergency or relax it as soon as possible, the envoy said the EC wanted to know how far the emergency rules would be relaxed.
   Frowein also mentioned the September 22 meeting between foreign adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury and EC commissioner for External Relations Benita Fererro-Waldner when the commissioner had told the adviser that she would look for the chief observer, who would head the mission based on the government’s clear actions.
   He said, ‘We are keen to observe the elections, but we need conditions that will ensure free and fair elections. The relaxation would be like that there is no emergency situation so political parties can campaign, media get access, freedom of association and expression ensured and where people can vote freely.’
   Asked when the EC will take its decision on sending the EOM, Frowein said in next 2-3 weeks. He said the EC needed adequate time to organise the full EOM.
   The top EC diplomat in Dhaka did not say the cut-off date for sending the observers, but said it would be convenient for them to take the decision by the end of October or early November.
   Asked about US ambassador James Moriarty’s recent statement that the United States would send observers disregarding whether or not the state of emergency would be in force, Frowein said, ‘If the US ambassador said
   they would come to observe anyway, I say we are not coming anyway. We want to come and will come when conditions are right.’
   Asked what would be its reaction if the European Commission cannot send its observers for non-fulfilment of conditions, Frowein said, ‘It will be pity for us if we cannot come.’
   Because, he said, the EC has made its contribution to the preparation of one of the best digital voters’ lists and best level playing field for fair elections.
   Replying to a question on the credibility of the elections if not observed by the European Commission, the ambassador said the credibility of the elections would be less in a sense that people would question as to why the EC could not observe the polls. ‘It will send a bad message to the outside world.’
   Responding to a query what will be European Commission’s stance if the elections could not be held on December 18 and army takes over, the German-origin diplomat said, ‘We don’t support coup d’état or military rule. We’ll not be happy at all.’
    ‘We’ll have to rethink our relations with this country. We don’t deal with this type of government. This is clear,’ he added.
   He, however, made it clear that they were certainly not pushing or wishing this type of situation, saying that the caretaker government was doing everything to organise the elections on December 18 and they hope that it would take place.
   The association president, Masud Karim, presided over the briefing and its general secretary, Raheed Ejaz, made the welcome address.
   Earlier, Frowein made a statement on the European Security and Defence System and EC Political and Press Counsellor Charles Whiteley made a video presentation on it.

The Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution has forwarded to the commerce ministry the Dhaka University test report that detects melamine in some milk brands imported from countries other than China.
   The chief of the official certification agency, however, stressed that the findings of the test done at the chemistry department of Dhaka University should be rechecked in other local or foreign laboratories in view of the sensitivity of the issue.
   BSTI director general Azmal Hossain on Wednesday said the DU test report showed existence of melamine in the samples of eight milks brands, including Dano from Denmark, Diploma and Red Cow from Australia and Nido, a Swiss milk brand sourced from Australia.
   ‘The DU test claims that samples of all these brands contained melamine, in some cases more than 100 milligram per kilogram,’ said Azmal.
   The BSTI received the test report in the afternoon and forwarded it immediately to the commerce ministry for necessary action, the BSTI chief said.
   Tests done at three laboratories previously did not find melamine in non-Chinese milk brands, requiring further test either at home or abroad to reach a conclusion, he said.
   ‘It is a sensitive matter, so recheck is essential,’ said Azmal
   Earlier, private laboratory Plasma Plus, state-owned BCSIR and BSTI’s own laboratory found melamine only in Chinese brands Yeshli-1 Yesli-2, Sweet Baby Sun Care and Sunlu at a maximum of 86 milligram per kilogram.
   Mahmub Jamil, chief adviser’s special assistant for the industries ministry, said if existence of melamine was proved in all milk brands, he might recommend a ban on marketing of all foreign-made milk powder brands.
   The inter-material taskforce, coordinated by the commerce ministry and responsible to check marketing of unregistered milk brands, will sit today to boost up vigilance and discuss actions following the latest developments.
   Meanwhile, the Institute of Public Health and Nutrition, which is responsible for registration of baby milk brands, said it had made “melamine free” certification mandatory for all registered milk brands.
   Certificates could be taken from BSTI, BCSIR and the DU’s chemistry department, the IPHN notified, requesting the civil surgeon’s offices in all districts to help mobile courts in checking sales of unregistered baby milk brands.

The energy division has kept the door open for Cairn Energy for future negotiation to allow the UK-based company to sell gas directly to a third party.
   The division, which made the decision on Wednesday, earlier said it would not meet the Cairn demand as the country was facing gas crisis and the issue had political implications.
   It asked Petrobangla to inform Cairn that the issue of allowing the company to sell gas to a third party would be discussed in future after the company confirmed the presence of gas reserve at Magnama or Hatia structures.
   Special assistant to the chief adviser M Tamim at a meeting also asked Petrobangla officials to slam Cairn Energy for ‘breaching the production sharing contract, hiding information and creating mistrust’ in regards to the gas reserve.
   He also directed Petrobangla to ask Cairn to show ‘good intentions’ and come out of ‘mistrust’ by conducting exploration works like 3D seismic survey at Magnama and Hatia structures in the Bay.
   ‘The issue of selling gas to a third party will be discussed later once Cairn confirms availability of gas at the structures,’ Petrobangla was asked to inform the company by Tamim.
   Cairn in July-August warned Petrobangla that it would not go for further exploration in the Magnama and Hatia structures, which it found after a 2D survey during this dry season, if the gas price was not increased or the company was not allowed to sell its share of gas directly to a third party once gas was found.
   Many Petrobangla officials criticised Cairn saying that it was trying to press home its demand leaving the country in gas crisis.
   They also observed that the other international oil companies would come up with the same demand if Cairn’s demand was met. Petrobangla then sought energy division’s directives.
   Tamim and energy secretary Mohammad Mohsin earlier told reporters that the Cairn’s demand would not be met as the issues were thorny and had political implications. Energy officials at Wednesday’s meeting went through the PSC that Petrobangla had signed with Cairn for block 16 in early 90’s, said sources present at the meeting.
   They observed that as per the existing PSC, there was no provision for increasing gas price for Cairn, but there was an option that Cairn could sell gas directly to a third party in the country if Petrobangla refuses to purchase gas from Cairn, they said.
   The meeting observed that there would be criticism if Petrobangla refused to purchase gas at a time when the country was facing huge gas shortage.
   It also observed that if Cairn was informed that the Petrobangla dismissed the Cairn’s demand that it will not go for further exploration at the structure and will sit with the structure at least two years without doing anything.
   Petrobangla officials alleged that the company did not disclose information to Petrobangla and did not behave well.
   When asked why they had decided to hold future talks with Cairn, a high official of the division said there was no problem in holding talks. ‘If a big reserve is found in one of the structures, we can hold talks with them on their proposal to allow them to sell gas directly to third party.’

The parliamentary elections scheduled for December 18 will gain more legitimacy if it is held in a normal situation, and the United Kingdom is eagerly awaiting the exit of the caretaker government and the restoration of democracy, said the visiting British minister, Lord Mark Malloch Brown, on Wednesday.
   The UK foreign office’s minister of state for Asia, Africa and the United Nations came up with the observation after he met the foreign affairs adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, and home affairs adviser, Abdul Matin.
   Malloch Brown arrived in the capital on Wednesday on a two-day tour to assess the political situation by holding meetings with the government officials, political parties as well as other stakeholders.
   Talking to reporters after his meeting with the foreign affairs adviser, he said, ‘When I say that the elections should be free, fair and legitimate, I think that if possible that should mean that they should take place not under emergency laws but under the regular constitutional arrangement.’
   Stressing the need for election to restore democracy, Malloch Brown said, ‘We are counting on the elections being held on December 18 and in conditions which allow a free and fair election and enable the people of Bangladesh to again choose their government.’
   ‘We think the caretaker government has played a very important role… It is time now for democracy in Bangladesh and for the people to choose their own government,’ he said.
   The visiting UK foreign office minister, however, said that Britain could not dictate what Bangladesh should do, and stressed that the government, the political parties and the Election Commission should negotiate to resolve differences.
   The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, meanwhile, told Brown that he hoped all the political parties would participate in the general elections and a new government would take over after the polls.
   ‘Political parties would certainly contest the polls as we are doing what we are doing in consultation with them. The government and the Election Commission are holding talks with political parties. A new government will take over through the elections,’ Fakhruddin said, according to the United News of Bangladesh.
   Briefing newsmen after the meeting, the chief adviser’s press secretary Syed Fahim Munaim said Fakhruddin informed the British minister of the recent holding of elections to four city corporations and nine municipalities in a fair and peaceful manner amid relaxed provisions of the state of emergency for electioneering.
   Fakhruddin said, ‘Whatever needs to be done to further relax the state of emergency will be done after discussion with political parties to hold the forthcoming national elections in a fair manner.’
   He told the British minister law and order should be kept so that voters could cast their vote without fear. Bdnews24.com, quoting the BNP’s joint secretary general Nazrul Islam Khan, said a four-member delegation of the party met Brown at the British high commission in the afternoon.
   The delegation, led by the party’s secretary general Khandaker Dewlar Hossain, discussed with the visiting minister issues related to polls.
   ‘We have discussed political issues, especially the holding of the next general elections,’ Nazrul told the news agency.
   Former foreign secretary Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury and the party’s office secretary Rizvi Ahmed were in the delegation.
   The British high commissioner, Stephen Evans, was also present at the meeting.

The Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, the first Western leader to face the electorate since the financial meltdown began, won reelection with a significantly stronger minority government on Tuesday.
   The Conservatives, who convinced voters they were the best choice to steer Canada through the economic turmoil, will still need opposition support to govern.
   It will be Canada’s third minority government in four years. Harper’s Conservatives defeated a Liberal minority government in the January 2006 election.
   Initial results showed that the Conservatives won 38 per cent of the vote, above the 36.3 per cent they got in 2006. But vote splitting on the left the party in a much stronger position.
   Initial television projections gave the Conservatives 144 of Parliament’s 308 seats, up from the 127 they held before the election but 11 short of the 155 needed for a majority.
   The opposition Liberals were at 77, down from 95, the separatist Bloc Quebecois were steady at 48 seats and the leftist New Democrats were up seven to 37 seats. Independents took two seats and the Greens won none.
    ‘We were expecting a minority government. It looks like it will be a strengthened one. We’re going to get right back to work — that’s what people expect us to do,’ the health minister, Tony Clement, told Global Television.
   The Liberals, who have historically governed Canada for longer than any other party, looked set for their worst performance since 1984 in terms of seats and their worst showing in popular vote since the 1860s. The rout could trigger a battle within the party to replace leader Stephane Dion.
   However, he gave no suggestion he would go willingly.
   ‘Canadians are asking me to be the leader of the opposition, and I accept that responsibility with honour,’ he told his supporters in Montreal in conceding defeat.
   The Conservative leader ran on a modest platform of keeping taxes and spending under control. The Liberals proposed introducing a carbon tax while cutting income taxes and boosting social spending, and Harper said the Liberal plan would throw Canada into recession.
   Liberal leader Dion, a bookish francophone who sometimes makes mistakes in English, found it a hard sell at a time of relatively high energy prices to pitch his carbon tax plan.
   ‘I think my party failed to deliver a real cogent response to the economic and financial crisis,’ said defeated Liberal legislator Garth Turner.
   Dion started to cut into Harper’s lead during the campaign as he charged the prime minister, a former economist who is also fairly wooden, was not doing enough to prevent financial contagion from spreading into Canada.
   But the Conservative lead over the Liberals widened again in parallel with specific action taken to improve Canadian bank liquidity. Harper had the added benefit that markets and the Canadian dollar rebounded on Election Day.
   One of Dion’s problems was that he was competing with two other parties on the left nationally — the New Democrats and the Greens — along with a fourth party, the separatist Bloc Quebecois in the province of Quebec.
   Each party made the pitch it was the best one to deny Harper a second term. Just as a split on the right guaranteed Liberal rule from 1993 to 2006, a split on the left now helped the Conservatives.
   A Conservative majority looked within reach at times during the campaign, but besides questions on the economy, Harper lost major support in Quebec over cuts to arts funding and plans to give adult sentences to violent youth criminals.
   The Conservatives, who began the campaign with hopes they might pick up a significant number of Quebec seats, appeared to have stayed at the same level or lost a seat in the province.

Some Muslim bigots on Wednesday forced government authorities to pull down a monument of bauls on the roundabout at Zia International Airport in Dhaka after they had tried to raze and rallied against the sculpture.
   The Dhaka City Corporation six months ago decided to erect a monument at the place as part of the city beautification programme.
   Sculptor Mrinal Haque about three months and a half ago started building the monument, sculptures of five bauls holding ektaras, single-stringed instruments, symbolising the exuberance of the Bengali culture. The initiative was sponsored by the United Commercial Bank.
   ‘I have completed 80 per cent of the work amid protests by some Muslim bigots in the name of religious sentiments being hurt,’ Mrinal told New Age. ‘Sensing trouble, the airport and the civil aviation authorities decided to pull down the monument and I agreed to the proposal.’
   Several hundred bigots, teamed up as the committee against statue in the airport crossing, tried to stop the initiative just after Mirnal had started work.
   The bigots on Wednesday gathered near the neighbouring Babu Salam Mosque and brought out a procession demanding that the monument should be immediately dismantled.
   A large number of lawmen, including Rapid Action Battalion personnel, reached the place, but failed to tackle the situation.
   The situation deteriorated when several hundred people from different mosques reached the place and joined the protesters at about 3:00pm.
   High police officials and the civil aviation authorities at a brief meeting decided to move the sculpture to ward off further trouble.
   The civil aviation authorities assigned the Fair Enterprise and the Probhati Enterprise to move the sculptures and the protesters joined the demolition job at about 5:00pm.
   The Airport police told New Age they were pulling down the monument at the directive of higher authorities.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, will today appear in the court of Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge Azizul Haque for the hearing in the Barapukuria coalmine corruption case filed against her.
   ‘I have talked with the BNP chief today [Wednesday] and she wants to appear in the court in connection with the Barapukuria case at about 10:00am tomorrow,’ Sanaullah Mia, one of her counsels, told New Age Wednesday night.
   Earlier in the day, the chief justice, MM Ruhul Amin, assigned a High Court bench to hear the prayer of Khaleda for quashing the proceedings against her as another bench had felt embarrassed to hear the petition.
   With the chief justice’s permission, Khaleda’s lawyer went to the High Court bench of Justice Syed M Dastagir Hossain and Justice Farid Ahmad and submitted the prayer.
   The petition is likely to be heard by the new High Court bench today, her counsel told journalists.
   The High Court bench of Justice Syed AB Mahmudul Huq and Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury on Tuesday felt embarrassed to hear Khaleda’s petition and referred the matter to the chief justice, requesting him to assign another bench to hear it.
   Khaleda Zia, also a former prime minister, on October 12 filed the petition as a trial court ordered all the accused to appear before it to face the charges pressed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.
   As the petition came up for hearing on Tuesday, Justice Moyeenul opined that he was embarrassed to hear the case as he had earlier delivered a verdict saying that the High Court could not hear any petition against any proceedings in a case filed under the Emergency Powers Rules.
   On October 12 the Dhaka metropolitan senior special judge, Azizul Haque, deferred till October 16 the hearing of the case as the counsels of Khaleda and her two former cabinet colleagues, Jamaat-e-Islami’s amir Matiur Rahman Nizami and former BNP secretary-general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, sought time for the hearing on health grounds.
   The court on October 6 accepted the charge-sheet submitted a day before by the Anti-Corruption Commission, which pressed charges against 16 persons, including Khaleda, for embezzlement of Tk 158.71 crore by abusing power in awarding the Chinese CMC Consortium the contract for the Barapukuria coalmine in 2005.
   The ACC’s assistant director, Shamsul Alam, filed the case with the Shahbagh police on February 26, accusing 16 persons.
   The ACC’s deputy director, Abul Kashem Fakir, on October 5 submitted the charge-sheet against all the 16 accused, accepting the report submitted by the second investigation officer who had recommended pressing charges against them.

Debut Indian novelist Aravind Adiga has won this year’s Man Booker Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards, with ‘The White Tiger.’
   It was only the third time in the Booker’s 40-year history that a first-time writer had claimed the award, and, at 33, Adiga was also one of its youngest winners.
   He received a cheque for 50,000 pounds ($88,000) at a gala dinner in London on Tuesday and can expect not only overnight literary fame but also a sharp rise in book sales in the runup to Christmas.
   Booker organisers say last year’s winner, Anne Enright, has sold around 500,000 copies of ‘The Gathering,’ largely due to the prize. The White Tiger is published by Atlantic Books.
   The White Tiger follows Balram Halwai, the son of a rickshaw puller whose dream of escaping the poverty of his village takes him on a journey to the bright lights of Delhi and Bangalore, where he will do almost anything to get to the top.
   ‘It was important for me to present someone from this colossal underclass, which is perhaps as big as 400 million, and to do so without sentimentality,’ Adiga told reporters after the awards ceremony.
   ‘The book has done very well in India. It was a bestseller before this was announced. There’s been a need for a book like this,’ he added.
   Michael Portillo, chairman of the five-member judging panel, praised The White Tiger for tackling important social and political issues in modern-day India.
   ‘What set this one apart was its originality,’ Portillo said. ‘For many of us this was entirely new territory — the dark side of India.
   ‘It’s a book that gains from dealing with very important social issues — the divisions between rich and poor and the impossibility of the poor escaping from their lot in India.’
   Portillo said the central character was sympathetic while also being ‘absolutely vile and absolutely unrepentant,’ and likened him to Shakespeare’s tragic hero Macbeth. He added: ‘The overarching evil is poverty, the chicken coop from which the poor not only can’t escape but have no wish or ambition to escape.’
   Adiga said his aim in writing The White Tiger was to represent the poor.
   ‘Balram Halwai is a member of the invisible Indian underclass — one of the millions of poor Indians who have been bypassed by the economic boom,’ he told Reuters before the Booker Prize winner was announced.
   He beat bookmakers’ favourite Sebastian Barry of Ireland (The Secret Scripture).
   Also nominated were India’s Amitav Ghosh (Sea of Poppies), Britons Linda Grant (The Clothes on Their Backs) and Philip Hensher (The Northern Clemency) and Australian-born Steve Toltz (A Fraction of the Whole).
   Adiga is the third debut novelist to claim the prize, after Arundhati Roy in 1997 and DBC Pierre in 2003. He is the second youngest winner after Ben Okri, who won in 1991 aged 32.

The price of oil fell below 71 dollars on Wednesday, its lowest level for more than 13 months, as recession fears raised concerns about a prolonged drop in energy demand, analysts said.
   The global financial crisis is hitting world demand for oil, although the effect on emerging economies is unclear, OPEC said on Wednesday.
   The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries slashed its estimate of growth in demand this year and shaved its estimate for 2009, largely because of an ‘excessive’ easing of demand in the United States, the single biggest energy market.
   Prices also fell Wednesday on news that a Nigerian court had ordered Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell to hand over land to locals, a key demand of armed rebels camped in Nigeria’s oil-producing region.
   Brent North Sea crude for November delivery fell to 70.70 dollars a barrel — the lowest level since late August 2007 — before recovering to 70.93 dollars, down 3.60 dollars compared to Tuesday’s close.
   New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for November, shed 3.40 dollars to 75.23 dollars a barrel after hitting an intra-day low point of 74.92.
   Brent crude has fallen by more than half from a record high 147.50 dollars in July, when prices rocketed on fears of supply disruptions.
   Oil prices are sliding on ‘concerns that the coordinated action by central banks over the last week will not be enough to rescue economies from falling into a global recession and hence weighing on oil demand,’ Sucden analyst Nimit Khamar said.
   A top US central banker, Janet Yellen, said Tuesday that the United States ‘appears to be in a recession.’ There are also growing fears Japan and Europe are heading for a spell of economic stagnation or recession.
   The German economy is heading for a slowdown but the downturn will not be a long-lasting one, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday.
   Meanwhile a Nigerian court ordered Shell to hand over land around its giant Bonny oil terminal to the local population, the multinational said Wednesday.
   ‘The ruling was given some months ago but we have appealed,’ Shell’s spokesman in Nigeria, Precious Okolobo, told AFP.
   He did not say whether oil lifting and export activities at the terminal, considered to be the largest in Africa, would be affected by the ruling.
   Markets were meanwhile awaiting the latest weekly snapshot of US energy inventories due Thursday for a lead on the state of demand for oil in the world’s biggest consumer of crude.
   The Department of Energy’s latest data on inventories has been delayed a day owing to a public holiday in the United States on Monday.
   Oil traders were also looking ahead to an extraordinary meeting of OPEC on November 18 as member countries fret over falling prices, with some calling for cuts in output as a result.

The government on Wednesday withdrew the petition it earlier filed with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court seeking a halt on the High Court orders which extended the stay on the proceedings of the Niko and barge-mounted power plant corruption cases against the Awami League chief, Sheikh Hasina.
   The four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by the chief justice, MM Ruhul Amin, returned the petition to the attorney general, Salahuddin Ahmad, as he told the court the government would not move the petition further.
   Salahuddin withdrew the petition as the High Court bench of Justice Sheikh Rezowan Ali and Justice Md Rais Uddin, earlier on Tuesday declined to hear the rules issued on the government and the Anti-Corruption Commission to explain why the cases would not be quashed till the disposal of the petition by the Appellate Division.
   The same High Court bench also on Tuesday deferred till October 19 the final hearing in its rules issued earlier asking the Anti-Corruption Commission to explain the legality of the cases filed against Hasina, also a former prime minister.
   As the rules came up for hearing in the High Court bench on Tuesday, Hasina’s counsel told the court it should not hear the cases until the petitions were disposed of by the Appellate Division. He said the petitions were still pending with the Appellate Division.
   The High Court on August 27 extended the period of its stay order on the proceedings of the cases and deferred till October 14 the hearing in the rule issued by another High Court bench.
   The commission, meanwhile, filed two petitions with the Appellate Division seeking permission to appeal against the August 27 High Court orders and their stay.
   After a brief hearing in the petitions, Justice Joynul Abedin, the Appellate Division chamber judge, refused to pass any order on the matter and referred the petitions to a full-court hearing.
   The High Court bench of Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Mashhuque Hosain Ahmed on July 7 stayed for two months the trial proceedings of the Niko and barge-mounted cases, now pending with the special judge’s courts.
   The court had also issued rules on the commission asking it to explain why the cases against Hasina would not be quashed.

The government has sought the list of graft convicts from the Anti-Corruption Commission to update its record, and this has nothing to do with the December elections, according to the home affairs adviser.
   ‘The list of those convicted of corruption has been sought following a decision by the National Coordination Committee to update its record…This has got nothing to do with the polls,’ MA Matin told reporters on Wednesday at the secretariat.
   He said the NCC needs the latest information on people accused and convicted in graft cases as it is dealing with cases filed by the ACC, the National Board of Revenue and also the police.
   When he was asked whether the government was updating the list to prevent the graft convicts from contesting the December elections, the adviser said it is the Election Commission which take a decision on the matter. ‘The Election Commission will take a decision on the matter if necessary…It is not our responsibility.’
   When his attention was drawn to the ‘fugitive’ Jamaat-e-Islami secretary-general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid’s presence in the dialogue with the government while the police were claiming that he was hiding, Matin refused to make any comment.
   ‘I will not make any comment now…Let me look into the matter,’ he said.
   Jamaat leader Mojahid, who was shown in a police report as fugitive after an arrest warrant was issued for him in the Barapukuria corruption case, was present in the dialogue on Tuesday between the government and the party at the Chief Adviser’s Office.
   More than 100 people, mostly politicians, have so far been convicted in graft cases since the government of Fakhruddin Ahmed launched the anti-graft drive soon after assuming office in January 2007.

The administration of the US president, George W Bush, authorised the CIA to waterboard al-Qaeda suspects according to two secret memos issued in 2003 and 2004, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
   The memos were issued at the request of intelligence officials who were ‘troubled that White House policymakers had never endorsed the program in writing,’ the newspaper said, citing four administration and intelligence officials familiar with the documents.
   ‘The classified memos, which have not been previously disclosed, were requested by then-CIA director George J Tenet more than a year after the start of the secret interrogations,’ the Post said.
   ‘Although justice department lawyers, beginning in 2002, had signed off on the agency’s interrogation methods, senior CIA officials were troubled that White House policymakers had never endorsed the programme in writing.’
   Tenet’s first request for written approval by the White House came in 2003, during a meeting with National Security Council members including the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, the paper quoted the unnamed officials as saying.
   The first secret memo was issued shortly thereafter, ‘a brief memo conveying the administration’s approval for the CIA’s interrogation methods, the officials said.’
   Tenet made a second request in 2004 as revelations of abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison came to light.
   ‘Officials who held senior posts at the time also spoke of deteriorating relations between the CIA and the White House over the war in Iraq — a rift that prompted some to believe that the agency needed even more explicit proof of the administration’s support,’ the report said.
   The newspaper said administration officials ‘confirmed the existence of the memos, but neither they nor former intelligence officers would describe their contents in detail because they remain classified.’
   A White House spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
   Waterboarding, a staple of brutal interrogations from the Spanish Inquisition to Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime, usually consists of strapping down a captive, covering his face with a cloth and pouring water onto the cloth to simulate drowning.
   The Central Intelligence Agency has admitted using the technique on al-Qaeda suspects including alleged September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed following the 2001 attacks, at a time when further strikes on the United States were believed to be imminent.
   Rights groups have decried the technique as torture.
   The White House, which has not previously acknowledged it was aware of the specific techniques being used by interrogators, has said the United States does not currently use waterboarding, but that it would not rule out the use of such techniques in the future.

The Truth and Accountability Commission has summoned 17 high officials, both serving and retired, to physically appear before it and explain their alleged involvement in corruption.
   ‘We have served notices to them as their names were mentioned by other officials who confessed their corruption before the commission in order to get clemency,’ the chairman of the TAC, Habibur Rahman Khan, told reporters at a weekly press briefing on Wednesday.
   The officials are from the Bangladesh Telecom Company Ltd and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, said the chairman without disclosing their identity.
   He dismissed the possibility of creating a climate of fear among government officials by issuing notices to them, as reported by a section of the press who pointed out that the law under which the TAC was formed empowers him to summon individuals whose names are mentioned by other individuals while confessing their corruption.
   ‘Summoning the officers is very much within our jurisdiction, and it will help to curb corruption,’ he said
   When he was asked about what action would be taken after interrogating the summoned officials, Habibur Rahman said that if they confess their graft they will be welcome to seek clemency from the TAC. ‘If they deny the allegations, they might be referred to some other agencies [for further investigation],’ said Habibur Rahman, adding that his commission might serve further notices if more names are mentioned by the seekers of clemency.
   The temporary commission, which came into being in August and will function for five months only, has received so far 313 petitions from individuals seeking clemency to ensure that no criminal proceedings will be drawn against them after they voluntarily disclose their graft and deposit their ill-gotten assets in the state exchequer.
   Only 17 individuals have voluntarily submitted petitions to the TAC, and the Anti-corruption Commission and National Coordinating Committee referred 126 and 167 cases respectively to the TAC. Three others were referred by the courts.
   The TAC has completed the hearing of 150 cases. The individuals confessed that they had amassed property worth about Tk 19.60 crore through corruption. Of the amount more than Tk 10 crore has been deposited in the national exchequer, according to the TAC.
   The TAC has also issued clemency certificates to 18 individuals, which will help them to avoid criminal proceedings in the future.
   Asif Ali, one of the two members of the TAC, said that about 98 per cent of the mercy seekers are officials or employees of government or semi-government bodies.

The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry has started forwarding to the government the appeals of entrepreneurs whose ventures have been idle for lack of gas connections.
   Federation officials told New Age in the past week they had forwarded applications of nine industrial ventures seeking immediate gas connection.
   The industries which have completed plant installations but have not been able to start operation appealed for gas include Noor Jutex, Rani Food Processing, JIT Knit Composite Industries and Talukdar CNG Technology.
   ‘Unavailability of gas connections has put hundreds of investors across the country into difficulties,’ the federation president, Annisul Huq, said.
   He said a cell in his organization would be functioning to help the entrepreneur to get gas connections.
   The federation, a couple of months ago, notified all industries, especially which are idle for lack of gas connections, to notify the federation as it could pursue the matter.
   The federation officials said many newly established industries across the country, especially in Chittagong, had for months been waiting for gas connections.
   Industry sources said some industries having no gas connections were planning to start operation using power from alternative sources such as generators, boilers, and chillers fuelled by furnace oil, which are not commercially viable.
   Petrobangla supplied 1,700mmcfd to 1770mmcfd of gas in recent weeks and the industries and the power sector need additional 300mmcfd of gas.
   The government said the power plants could generate at least an additional 500MW of power if the plants could be provided with adequate gas.
   A conservative estimate says the demand for power — domestic, commercial and industrial — is at least 5,600MW and the generation stands at about 4,000MW.

The energy division on Wednesday retreated from its plan to amend the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission Act to allow the government to fix prices of fuel oils following opposition by different ministries.
   Officials of different ministries, including establishment, finance and law, at an inter-ministerial meeting, chaired by energy secretary Mohammad Mohsin at the division observed that it would not be fair to suspend the authority of the BERC to fix prices of fuel oils.
   The division had been planning to amend a provision in the law to suspend the authority of BERC to fix fuel oil prices and to empower the government to fix the prices as the division observed that the government should take the decision on the politically sensitive issue as it provides subsidy on the sector.
   BERC and the energy division had been in loggerheads over the issue and the matter was also raised to the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, by BERC.
   The BERC chairman, Ghulam Rahman, told the meeting that his organisation was aware of the sensitivity of fixing oil prices and it should fix the prices after taking opinions from people of all strata.
   Officials of different ministries also observed that if the move was implemented it would weaken BERC.
   Later the BERC chairman and the energy secretary held separate meetings with the special assistant to the chief adviser, M Tamim, where they had decided that the government, for the time being, would fix the prices of fuel oils in consultation with BERC as the government wanted to decrease the fuel price at the earliest.
   The inter-ministerial meeting, however, decided to amend a provision in the BERC Act relating to the criteria for appointing the chairman and members of BERC.
   Mohsin told New Age that they had decided to give up the plan to amend the act with regards to the fuel oil price fixing as they had not enough time in hand in this regard.
   ‘The government wants to decrease the fuel oil prices immediately. We don’t have enough time to amend the act before decreasing the act. In future, if the government feels necessary, we will take steps to amend the act.’

About 70 Taliban fighters were killed in an overnight air strike by foreign forces in the southern Afghan province of Helmand near the Pakistan border, the provincial governor said on Wednesday.
   The attack took place late Tuesday in Helmand’s Baram Cha district. Violence in Afghanistan is running at its highest rate since the US-led invasion to wrest control from the militant Islamist Taliban movement in 2001.
   ‘Most of these Taliban (killed) are foreign fighters who entered Afghanistan to destabilise the country,’ governor Dawood Ahmadi told Reuters in Kandahar.
   NATO and the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan said they had no immediate information about the air strike.
   Provincial authorities said earlier Wednesday that another 22 Taliban insurgents and six Afghan policemen were killed in overnight clashes in the south.
   Dozens of Taliban fighters attacked Lashkar Gah in Helmand, about 550 km southwest of the capital Kabul. Eighteen insurgents were killed during a four-hour gun battle, said provincial police chief Asadullah Sherzad.
   In another incident, gunmen killed six Afghan policemen at their checkpost in the same district, a spokesman for Ahmadi said.

Republican John McCain, needing a dramatic turnaround to his waning White House hopes, vowed to unmask his rival Barack Obama as a radical sympathiser at their third and final debate in New York later Wednesday.
   On its front page, the New York Daily News tabloid featured a caricature of a gun-toting McCain emerging from a Wild West bar under the headline ‘Last Chance Saloon.’
   McCain, who was down a whopping 14 points in one new poll as the United States weathers its worst financial crisis in decades, talked tough heading into the last presidential debate before the November 4 vote.
   At the weekend, McCain promised supporters he would ‘whip’ his Democratic opponent’s ‘you know what’ during the evening debate starting at 0100 GMT at Hofstra University on Long Island.
   On Tuesday, as he issued the latest version of his plan to end the financial tumult, the Arizona senator vowed to bring up Obama’s links to 1960s radical turned Chicago education professor William Ayers.
   ‘It’s not that I give a damn about some old washed-up terrorist and his terrorist wife,’ McCain, 72, told KMOX radio in Saint Louis, Missouri.
   ‘What I care about and what the American people care about is whether he (Obama) is being truthful with the American people.’
   Senior McCain adviser Nicolle Wallace told NBC television early Wednesday: ‘We’ve never been interested in negative attacks for the purpose of negative attacks. But the truth has to stand on its own tonight.’
   However, as millions of voters fret about possibly losing their jobs and health care, the perils of a negative strategy from McCain are clear as Obama, 47, builds up a commanding lead in several polls.
   A New York Times-CBS News poll late Tuesday had the Illinois senator ahead of McCain by the huge margin of 14 points, 53 to 39 per cent, compared to a lead of just three points before last week’s second presidential debate.
   At that debate, McCain jabbed his finger and spat out ‘that one’ instead of naming Obama. But the Democrat kept his cool, and snap polls gave him a second victory after his assured performance in the first debate in late September.
   CBS said 21 per cent of respondents now had a less favourable view of McCain in light of his Ayers-related character attacks on Obama and his choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as running mate.
   Nearly seven in 10 cited the economy as their top concern in a survey by the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg that showed Obama was ahead by nine points, 50 to 41 per cent.
   ‘Senator Obama is going to use the debate to discuss his plan for the economy. That’s what he’s been doing for weeks,’ Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
   ‘And while McCain has promised to bring up Bill Ayers to distract voters, every minute that he spends continuing to ignore the economy and the middle class is a minute wasted,’ she said.
   Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn were part of a group of anti-Vietnam War militants called the Weather Underground that bombed government buildings in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
   McCain says the professor was instrumental to Obama’s political rise from the mid-1990s, a claim dismissed by the Democrat’s camp as wildly exaggerated. It says the pair were only loosely connected in Chicago charitable work.
   Quinnipiac University polls Tuesday suggested Obama has broken through the 50-per cent threshold in four of the most important battleground states: Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
   ‘Those margins may be insurmountable, barring a reversal that has never been seen before in the modern era,’ said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
   McCain’s adviser Wallace acknowledged the polls looked bleak.
   ‘And John McCain has been here before. The landscape was pretty similar, actually, far more bleak during the Republican primaries,’ the former White House communications chief said.
   ‘So I think he’s talked about how Americans need to take these final three weeks and really ask themselves do they want someone who has a record of fighting for them?’ she said.
   ‘Or do they want someone who says one thing and does another?’

Pakistani troops pounded militant hideouts in a tribal region near the Afghan border on Wednesday, killing at least 10 rebels with links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, officials said.
   The attacks took place in the Bajaur tribal district, where Pakistani security forces launched a major offensive against Islamic fighters in August.
   ‘Troops fired artillery and mortars onto hideouts of rebels in Loisam, Rashakai, Chinar and Babra areas, killing 10 militants and wounding eight others,’ a security official told AFP.
   There was no way to independently verify the toll. The official also said a curfew was imposed Wednesday in Khar, the main town in Bajaur, as part of the ongoing military operation.
   All shops and offices were closed, the roads were empty, and all residents were ordered to remain indoors. The military said in late September that the fighting in Bajaur was some of the heaviest since Pakistan joined the US-led ‘war on terror.’
   It said more than 1,000 rebel fighters have been killed since it launched the offensive, including al-Qaeda’s operational commander in the region, Egyptian Abu Saeed Al-Masri.
   Pakistan’s tribal regions have been wracked by violence since thousands of Taliban and al-Qaeda rebels fled to the country after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.
   Violence linked to Pakistan’s role in the ‘war on terror’ has claimed the lives of more than 1,300 people in suicide and bomb attacks in the past year.

Around 25 senior assistant secretaries from various ministries Wednesday crowded round the cabinet secretary to protest against what they termed promotion deprivation, and demand proper evaluation of their services.
   Three of them—Ishak Mia and Nazrul Islam of the 1985 batch of Bangladesh Civil Service and Shahidul Islam of the ’84 batch—were allowed to meet with cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumder, who gave them assurance that he would do his best for their promotion, according to official sources.
   The top bureaucrat told the aggrieved officials that he would look into the matter and talk to the establishment secretary to resolve the issue, one of the officials told reporters at the secretariat, adding that ‘the number of senior assistant secretaries, who were superseded and deprived of promotion for several years, would be around 35’.
   He said that they were haunted by a sense of humiliation and deprivation for being forced to serve in the same position for years while their colleagues from the same batch were promoted to the rank of deputy secretary.

At least 15 people were injured as rival groups clashed at Boravagh village in Alfadanga upazla on Wednesday.
   Witnesses said the clash had taken place at about 7:00am between the supporters of Kuddus and Ukil Sheik as sequel to a quarrel between the two over playing cards in the area Tuesday night.
   Both the groups used lethal weapons and sticks during the clash that left 15 of the both groups injured.
   Three of the critically persons were admitted to Faridpur Medical College Hospital.

The Power Division on Wednesday decided to enforce strongly the ban on daily businesses in shops and markets after 8:00pm to save electricity.
   The government in the first week of September suspended four sections of the Bangladesh Labour Act, which prohibit daily businesses of shops and markets after 8:00pm, till Eid-ul-Fitr to facilitate shopping for Eid and Ramadan.
   ‘Now that Eid shopping is over, we have directed the power agencies to enforce the ban. We also request shop owners to suspend their businesses by 8:00pm,’ the power secretary, M Fouzul Kabir Khan, told New Age on Wednesday.
   He also requested the shop owners not to illuminate their establishments and the consumers to finish shopping by 8:00pm.

A gang of snatchers stabbed a police constable and took away his cash amounting to Tk 950 near Sadar Model police station in Narsingdi early Wednesday.
   The victim was Abdul Hamid, 45, jeep driver of the police station.
   The police said the muggers attacked Hamid and stabbed him with sharp weapons indiscriminately at about 2:30am and took away the money when he went out of the police station after completion of his duty.
   He was first taken to Narsingdi General Hospital and later shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital following the deterioration of condition.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the High Court judgment that had quashed a corruption case against a former BNP lawmaker for causing loss to state exchequer by selling out tax-free vehicle.
   The four-member bench, headed by chief justice MM Ruhul Amin, also allowed the Anti-Corruption Commission to appeal against the High Court judgment.
   The court passed the order after hearing a petition filed by the commission seeking permission to appeal against the High Court judgment delivered on May 18.
   In the verdict, the High Court bench of Justice Mohammad Abdur Rashid and Justice Ashfaqul Islam had quashed the case against former lawmaker Harun-ur-Rashid, who imported a luxury car tax-free under the special privileges of lawmakers and sold it out before the permissible period.
   The Pallabi police on March 17, 2007 sued Harun, NTV managing director Enayetullah Rahman and Sky Auto owner Istiaq Sadek for the offence. Rafique-ul Huq defended the petitioner while Khurshid Alam Khan appeared for the commission.

Ghorashal Urea Fertiliser Factory will resume commercial production within one month, said special assistant to the chief adviser for industries ministry Mahbub Jamil.
   Mahbub Jamil disclosed this while visiting the repair and rehabilitation works of the factory on Wednesday.
   The production was suspended after a fire had broken out at the factory on August 12, 2007.
   Repair works of turbine and compressor, which is going on in full swing, is likely to be completed by middle of next month.