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The much-trumpeted reforms initiated in a wide range of sectors, from politics to governance and electoral system, have hardly added anything to the credit of the military-controlled interim government in the 21 months that it has ruled the country under a state of emergency, said politicians and political scientists.
   Most of the attempts to reform ended up in smoke, while some others lost steam halfway through the process, leaving the very intention of the interim administration in doubt, they pointed out.
   Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed, in his first address to the nation on January 21, 2007, laid down an ambitious agenda of sweeping reforms of the state’s institutions, streamlining of the entire electoral process, crackdown on corrupt people and criminals, lifting of the state of emergency and holding parliamentary polls at the earliest possible time.
   It also pledged to uphold the fundamental and human rights of the people and the freedom of the press, ensure security of public life and property and take measures to contain price-hike of essentials.
   ‘They have backed away from their commitments, and their betrayal has caused enormous sufferings to the people’, Awami League presidium member Matia Chowdhury told New Age.
   The government is yet to lift the state of emergency and restore freedom of expression, she said.
   ‘Pulling down a sculpture in front of the airport in broad daylight and holding a meeting with a person who is evading arrest also proves how the government is handling law and order’, she pointed out.
   About eight per cent more people have joined the swelling population of poor who are living under the poverty line, she added.
   Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, joint secretary general of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, said, ‘They could not do what they wanted to do…One cannot enforce reforms from outside.’
   ‘Now it has become difficult to ascertain if the [general] elections, which are their most important commitment, will be held in time,’ he added.
   ‘it [interim government] has kept none of its promises,’ said the Workers Party president, Rashed Khan Menon. ‘The government is yet to restore the fundamental rights of the political parties, trade unions and individuals to gather freely in open spaces to launch their programmes. It allows holding of indoor discussions only on nine conditions.’
   Professor Talukdar Moniruzzaman, a teacher of Political Science at Dhaka University, said, ‘No reform has taken place in politics so far. If there was any reform, how can the notorious old faces return to office through the city corporation polls?’
   ‘We do not see any reform in governance as they [incumbent government] are not capable of implementing the agenda they had set,’ he further said.
   Preparing a voters’ roll with photographs was the only achievement in the long-drawn electoral reform programme, added the political scientist.
   The government and its military backers’ plan to rid the political arena of its two top leaders, Sheikh Hasina of Awami League and Khaleda Zia of BNP, seems to have fallen through. They were detained on charges of corruption and bribery last year. Khaleda was released on bail while Hasina was paroled for treatment overseas.
   The reconstituted and remodelled Anti-Corruption Commission has so far lodged 512 graft cases against 222 high-profile corruption suspects, including Hasina and Khaleda, of which 152 cases were disposed of and 97 persons were convicted, according to official records.
   The judiciary, which at last achieved its much-awaited independence from the executive last year through implementation of the Supreme Court’s directives, made history last month when a single bench granted about a hundred bails in one day.
   The administration has almost backtracked on its avowed war against corruption with high-profile corruption suspects coming out of jail one after another on bail.
   Negotiations, both overt and covert, with major political parties to persuade them to contest the elections might have a debilitating effect on the declared crusade against graft.
   Bangladesh remained in the same zone of perceived corruption measured by the Transparency International, which ranked the country as the seventh most corrupt nation this year.
   The Global Competitiveness Index 2008 of the World Economic Forum showed that corruption, an inefficient and obstructive bureaucracy, policy inconsistency, limited access to finance and governmental instability are still perceived to be the most detrimental factors in doing business in the country, which underlines the fact that the reforms did little in restoring business confidence.
   Home adviser MA Matin, who chairs the National Coordination Committee against Corruption and Serious Crimes, said on September 18 that the grey areas in the legal system might have enabled the graft suspects to get bail.
   Most government officials started venting their frustration about the initiatives to reform the public administration, which is persistently lacking dynamism and accountability.
   Formed in July 2007, the cabinet committee on administrative reforms and good governance affairs, headed by the chief adviser, visibly failed to infuse the much-needed ‘transparency, accountability and dynamism’ into the bureaucracy.
   ‘We are really disappointed by the government’s move to reform the administration as nothing has been done so far,’ said a secretary to the government.
   Soaring prices forced some 40 lakh people to go beneath the poverty line despite the interim government’s claims of having taken steps to contain the price spiral of food items, said a World Bank study that linked local food price-hikes to natural disasters and the volatility of the global market.
   Odhikar, a human rights coalition, recorded 296 extra-judicial deaths between January 12, 2007 and October 11 this year. ‘The extrajudicial killings were carried out “with absolute impunity”. The government continued to curtail the freedom of expression by means of pressure and intimidation of journalists,’ said Odhikar in a report on October 1.
   When he was asked about the achievements of the interim government, commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman, a key player in this government’s negotiations with political parties, said they were hopeful about the success of their efforts to bring about qualitative changes in politics and governance through negotiations with the political parties.

Protests against the removal of the baul sculptures from in front of the Zia International Airport continue to rage on.
   Academics, writers, students, painters, sculptors, performers, artistes and cultural activists again demanded re-installation of the Baul sculptures, created by artist Mrinal Huq, in front of the airport.
   They denounced the removal of the sculptures as the government’s craven capitulation to the threats issued by religious bigots who have no respect for the culture of their forefathers and their own country.
   That the government is easily intimidated by religious extremists has been revealed by the way it has given in to their threat and the celerity with which it removed the sculptures of Bauls who follow the ideals of Lalan the mystic and lead simple lives, they said.
   The Gana Sangeet Sanghati Parishad staged a rally in the premises of the Central Shaheed Minar on Friday to protest against the government’s submission to religious obscurantists. The rally was followed by performances.
   The Progressive Students’ Alliance, a combine of left-leaning student bodies, brought out a procession on the campus of Dhaka University in the afternoon and demanded restoration of the sculptures.
   Serajul Islam Choudhury, a Professor Emeritus of Dhaka University, said the fundamentalist axis got the chance to debase the culture of the soil because no government in Bangladesh had tried the war criminals in the 37 years of the country’s independence.
   ‘They want to destroy our local culture and as part of that conspiracy. The bigots, in the name of religion, are protesting against the sculpture that symbolises Lalan and his followers,’ he said.
   ‘The mystic works of Lalan enrich us with the teaching of humanity and are an inalienable part of our culture. The forces of darkness have begun their battle to destroy our traditions by removing the statues, and if they are not stopped now they will attack all the cultural sites throughout Bangladesh,’ he warned.
   Golam Kuddus, general secretary of Sammilita Sangskitik Jote, said the chief adviser, the chief justice and the chief of army staff, who virtually control the government, have said several times that they want the trial of war criminals. ‘Then where is the obstacle? It is not difficult to try them because of the Collaborators Act of 1973. About 11,000 people were identified as war criminals and 700 of them were punished,’ he said.
   Writer Jatin Sarkar, vocalist Fakir Alamgir and Gana Sangeet Parishad’s general secretary Mahbubul Haider Mohon also spoke at the rally.
   The artistes of the Udichi Shilpi Goshthi, Bibartan and Sargam Shilpi Goshthi also sung people’s songs.
   The activists of the Progressive Students’ Alliance began their procession from the TSC and paraded through the campus, chanting slogans, and stopped in front of the Raju Memorial Monument to stage a rally.
   Leaders of the cultural organisations said that they would wage a movement if the government did not re-install the sculptures immediately.
   Bangladesh Chhatra Union president Khan Asaduzzaman Masum, Samajtantrik Chhatra Front president Fakhruddin Atik, president of Biplabi Chhatra Maitree’s DU unit Hillol Roy, and president of the Dhaka University unit of the Bangladesh Chhatra Federation Luvana Tabassum addressed the rally.
   They said it was alarming that the fundamentalists were attempting to destroy the country’s culture and the government was supporting them covertly by fulfilling their irrational demands.
   The Bangladesh Chhatra Maitree also brought out a procession on the campus and raised the same demands.

Religious bigots have threatened to demolish all statues and sculptures no matter if those are of illustrious persons or dedicated to the war of independence.
   The zealots at a press conference under the banner of Islami Ain Bastabayan Committee on Friday said sculptures and statues were ‘against Islamic values’ and asked the government to remove all such statues or, they threatened, they to take the matter in their own hands.
   The committee convener Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini, also chairman of Islami Oikya Jote – a component of the BNP-led four-party alliance, issued the threat apparently being encouraged by the government’s submission to their threat and removal of the five sculptures of bauls (mystic poets) by two government agencies.
   ‘It [sculptures] has seriously hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims’, Amini said at the news conference at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity. Accusing the caretaker government of trying to turn the Muslim-majority Bangladesh into a nation of idol worshippers, Amini declared that the people would not accept it as they did not accept ‘the Awami League government’s attempts to turn Dhaka, the city of mosques, into a city of statues’. He also branded the Shikha Anirban at Dhaka Cantonment ‘anti-Islamic’.
   He said that he was not aware if any such statues were set up during the rule of the BNP-led four party alliance of which his party was a partner.
   Amini threatened to build up a ‘tough movement’ if the government failed to meet his demands. ‘The state of emergency or even martial law cannot stop us’, he yelled.
   On September 15, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh and the Roads and Highways Department removed the sculptures of five bauls, dedicated to the humanist ideology of the great mystic poet Lalon Shah, from the roundabout in front of Zia International Airport.
   The action has drawn strong criticism from various cultural organisations and personalities.
   Meanwhile, another group of Islamic zealots under the banner of ‘Airport Roundabout Sculpture Removal Committee’ held a rally near the airport on Friday demanding building of a ‘hajj minaret’ instead of sculpture in front of the airport by October 23.
   They also demanded immediate resignation of Mahbub Jamil, special assistant to the chief adviser, for giving approval to the plan to set up the sculpture at the airport roundabout.
   There was report of any untoward incidents during the rally.

Expressing doubts over the holding of parliamentary elections on the date that has been announced, Awami League’s acting president Zillur Rahman said on Friday that the government should be compelled, with all the means available, to hold the elections on December 18.
   He alleged that the spirit of the political change-over on January 11, 2007 has been abandoned and a conspiracy is being hatched to rig the national polls.
   Zillur made the above allegations at his Gulshan residence when the recently released Awami Juba League’s general secretary, Mirza Azam, visited him along with some other leaders.
   He categorically said that his party would not take part in the elections in any way without the participation of party president Sheikh Hasina. ‘The Awami League will take part in the parliamentary elections only after freeing Sheikh Hasina and forging a grand alliance,’ Zillur asserted.
   The aged AL leader alleged that the actions of the government make it seem that it is actually the Jamaat-e-Islami which is in power now. ‘It should be ascertained whether or not there is any conspiracy to put the anti-liberation force, the Jamaat-e-Islami, in power,’ he said.
   Zillur asked why Jamaat’s secretary-general, Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid, was not arrested though there was a warrant of arrest against him if there was no secret understanding between the government and the Jamaat.
   He added that police would have arrested Mujahid if there had not been any orders to leave him in peace. ‘It can be understood, because of the government’s unwillingness to put him behind bars, what sort of a conspiracy is going on right now.’
   Zillur said there is no rule of law in the country now as the government itself is violating the law. In this context, he said that Mujahid did not appear before the court although there was a warrant of arrest issued against him. The advisers, headed by the chief adviser, even had a meeting with him though they knew that there is an arrest warrant against him.
   He alleged that the government has retained the state of emergency with the ulterior motive of ‘tying the hands and legs’ of the political parties.
   Zillur called upon the party’s leaders and activists to take preparations for launching a movement for the permanent release of Sheikh Hasina and for forcing the government to lift the state of emergency. ‘These demands should be realised by waging a movement.’
   Applauding the AL’s members for their ‘glorious’ role in various movements, Zillur called upon them to assemble thousands of people on the day when Sheikh Hasina comes home.
   Mirza Azam said any conspiracy to foil the national elections would be resisted at any cost.
   Juba League’s leaders Mizanur Rahman, Mujibur Rahman Chowdhury, Harun-ar-Rashid, Nazibullah Heeru, Faruque Hossain, Abdus Sattar Masud, Mahbubur Rahman Hiron and Mamunur, along with others, were present on the occasion.

The United Nations is confident parliamentary elections will be held in Bangladesh on December 18 according to schedule, and hopes that all political parties will contest the polls, said the UN resident coordinator in Bangladesh, Renata Lok Dessallien.
   ‘We have talked with the chief adviser [Fakhruddin Ahmed] and the chief election commissioner [ATM Shamsul Huda], and now we are confident about holding of parliamentary elections on December 18…All preparations have been taken in this regard’, she said adding that it was going to be an historic event for Bangladesh.
   Renata was talking with reporters after a meeting between a three-member UN delegation for Political Affairs on South Asia and Asia and Pacific region and Awami League leaders at the party’s advisory council member Faruq Chowdhury’s Dhanmondi residence.
   The head of the UN team of Political Affairs on South Asia and Asia and Pacific region, Hitoki Den, led the delegation.
   Awami League leaders Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, HT Imam, also the head of its election office, and Momtaz Hossain were present.
   Renata said the UN looked forward to a peaceful election in the country in which all political parties would participate.
   About the political parties’ demand for lifting of the state of emergency ahead of the polls, she said the interim government would take a decision on the issue after consulting with political parties and civil society members.
   Renata informed newsmen that the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon would visit Bangladesh in early November and for that they were having meetings with political parties to keep track of the political situation and election preparations.
   Briefing newsmen, AL advisory council member Muhith said the party had told the UN team that it had still doubt if national elections would be held on time. ‘We informed the UN representatives about our fear as the government is yet to make a decision on lifting the emergency’, he said.
   Muhith said the UN delegation had wanted to know about the AL’s preparations for the general elections.
   He said the AL would start formal election campaigns on November 28 and reiterated the party’s demand for deferring the upazila polls by a rational length of time. ‘Holding of upazila polls hard on the heels of parliamentary elections is not realistic…It will create unnecessary difficulties’, he added.
   He wondered how the Election Commission would supply twenty-four crore ballot papers for the twin elections.
   HT Imam said the party had told the UN team that it had strong reservations about local election observers, including Democracy Watch and FEMA, who were believed to be partisan.

Health authorities are in doubts about safety of some lifesaving paediatric instruments worth Tk 5.5 crore after allegations that the Chinese supplier falsified quality certificates for the tool kits to treat newborns.
   The government’s Central Medical Stores Depot could learn about the forgery only after the World Bank, a key financier of a massive health project under which the procurement was made, pointed it out.
   A probe body was formed in July to look into the alleged irregularities in purchase, but it failed to complete the investigation even in three months, health ministry officials said.
   The Shanghai-based supplier, Larkcop International, meanwhile handed over 145 baby incubators, 194 photo therapy machines and five radiant infant warmers to the depot.
   The firm also flouted the international bidding norms in connivance with its local agents and a section of officials at the CMSD to supply the equipment, health ministry officials alleged.
   A New Age investigation of the allegations found that the product quality certificate produced by the supplier along with bidding documents was counterfeit and to many extents the company enjoyed ‘special privilege’ from the officials involved in the bidding process.
   It is alleged that the specification in the tender for the procurement was also set in the particular company’s favour.
   The equipment worth about $784,412 (about Tk 5.5 crore) was procured under the lenders-aided Health Nutrition and Population Sector Programme. These were to be sent out to a number of paediatric, maternity and general hospitals in the public and private sectors mainly to treat premature babies.
   ‘It is unfortunate that we could not finish our task because of preoccupation with too many matters,’ said Anwar Hossain Munshi, the head of the three-member investigation committee. He hoped to complete it within the ‘shortest possible time.’
   It was also alleged that the members of the technical committee, appointed by the CMSD for the purchase, were drawn from other disciplines instead of the normal practice of choosing experts from the user end.
    An official at the private Pantec Enterprise, local agent for Larkcop International, confirmed that the consignment of the paediatric equipment was handed over to the government almost a month ago.
   Asked for comment on alleged forgery into product quality certificate and manipulation of the documents, the official, who identified himself as Mustafizur Rahman and spoke in absence of the company’s chief executive Masud Hasan, said they had no role in preparing bidding documents.
   ‘We only comply with what Larkcop tells us to do,’ he said, confirming that they procured the equipment from a Chinese manufacturer named Beijing Julongsanyou.
   Larkcop is accused of submitting false CE certificate of the products of Beijing Julongsanyou at least for two out of three items supplied.
   The company has standardisation CE certificate for product safety, public health, electromagnetic compatibility and consumer protection, only for the baby incubator made by TUV Rheinland of Germany as mentioned in its catalogue.
   Responding to a query, one TUV executive confirmed that the Beijing Julongsanyou’s phototherapy machine and radiant infant warmer were not CE certified by it.
   But it has been found that the documents submitted by the Chinese bidder included product quality certificate from a Det Norske Veritas, a Norwegian authority that issues CE-marked standard and safety certificates.
    The irregularities surfaced only after an official of the World Bank, questioned the authenticity of the quality certificates and brought the perceived irregularities in the public procurement to the notice of CMSD director Brigadier General Bazle Quader.
   The director, however, found no problem in the process saying the matter was ‘examined thoroughly and all of them were alright in all aspect’.
   In a letter to the WB office Dhaka on June 5, 2008, he said that tow officials from the lending agency investigated all documents of the company and “found all those correct which they verbally conveyed to us.”
   Meanwhile, a further investigation has found that the DNV-issued certificate, which was submitted by the bidder, did not match the original one.
   The original certificate, (no 2006-OSL-MDD-009) which was issued for a range of products of Gemmy Industrial Corporation of Taiwan, was tampered by replacing the name of the Gemmy International with Beijing Julongsanyou Co Ltd.
   The forger put the models of products of the Beijing Julongsanyou (infant incubator B-300, Phototherapy Unit B – 100 and Radiant Warmer BNT- 2000) in first page of the certificate while the original certificate referred the product names in an appendix.
   These three models of the Julongsanyou were mentioned in the specification apparently to favour the Chinese bidder, alleged CMSD insiders.
   Also, the Notified Body Number 0197 replaced the original number 0434 on the certificate.
   Norwegian DNV authorities said that they never issued certificate for these equipment.
   ‘We are sorry to inform you that this is a forgery. This certificate is not issued by us,’ said Turid Saetha, a representative of the safety certificate issuing authority in an e-mail communication.
   ‘The customer is unknown and the Notified Body number 0197 is wrong. Falsifications are an increasing problem, and DNV takes this very seriously. Further action will be taken.’ writes the DNV administrative officer who also requested Bangladesh authorities to take action against the forgery.
   Approached for comment, CMSD director Bazle Quader refused to talk to the media and through his staff advised to see a deputy director at his office.
   The deputy director concerned, Dr. Ali Belal, told New Age that he joined the office months after the deal was finalised.
   ‘And we are not permitted to make any comment over it. The director is the right person to comment.’

Consumers, already worried about health safety of their babies living on milk powder, are now in a fresh dilemma as the government ordered a ban on consumption of eight imported toxic milk brands instead of banning their sales.
   Most of the milk brands, tested melamine positive, are on sale in the city stores along with many other brands, and parents are finding it difficult to select the safe and suitable ones for their babies.
   Media advertisements and shop-owners are claiming that other brands are safe, but the consumers cannot rest upon such claims since the brands are yet to be tested.
   Liquid milk supply is far less than demand and most of the consumers have no alternative but to buy one milk powder or other for their babies.
   ‘Really I am confused. I don’t know which one I should buy for my two years’ old daughter,’ said Shahana Akter, a housewife shopping at New Market on Friday.
   Abu Taher, the shop owner, also could not give any good advice to his customers searching for a melamine-free milk brand.
   ‘Milk sales in my shop declined to less than Tk 2000 a day now from an average daily turnover of Tk 20,000 before the melamine scandal surfaced,’ said Taher, also a leader of New Market Shop Owners Association.
   Engineer Reza Ahmed Choudhury, a shopper at Agora superstore in Dhanmondi, Friday said that the government’s advice not to consume certain brands was very much confusing since there was no bar on their sales and no advice about which brands were safe for consumption.
   ‘It is contradictory again when we see media advertisements in favour of some brands,’ he said.
   Emdad Hossian Malek, who heads the market monitoring cell at the Consumer Association of Bangladesh, said such contradictions were adding to the worries of the parents.
   ‘The government should complete tests of all milk brands and tell people clearly which ones are safe, ordering immediate withdrawal of toxic ones from the stores,’ he said.
   Tariqul Islam, a Power Development Board senior officer, said he was confused by contradictory claims.
   ‘Government advises us not to take eight baby milk brands, while some companies are claiming that their products are melamine-free. And we are puzzled,’ said Tarikul, worried about suitable alternatives for his two sons, aged three and four, who consume tinned milk.
   Ishrat Jahan, an officer at Transom Electronics Limited, said she felt just helpless as she could not decide what to feed her tow years and four months’ old son, who used to consume Nido.
   ‘I went through reports that Nido is melamine contaminated. But my husband shows me the claims of the marketing company that Nido brand is melamine-free,’ said Ishrat.
   Mohammad Selim, a drugstore owner at Mahakhali, said he himself was puzzled about the safety of all milk formulas he sells for the newborns.
   ‘Truly speaking, I cannot say which one is safe, which one not,’ he said.
   Kazi Reazi Karim, a retired private sector executive, said that for the past couple of days he had been in desperate search for his village milkman, who supplies fresh cow milk.
   ‘I am no more confident about any powdered milk for my granddaughter,’ he said.
   Sharmin Sumi, an employee at the Standard Chartered Bank, was worried about her one year old son, who consumes Dano brand milk, after reports that the brand contains melamine.
   ‘I cannot rely on any brand now and fresh cow milk is not available in my area. I don’t know what to do now,’ said the mother.
   The government on Thursday warned people against eight brands of imported milk which are tested in the chemistry lab at Dhaka University to have been contaminated by toxic melamine.
   A government handout named the milk powder brands — Sweet Baby, Yashli 1 and Yashli 2 sourced from China, Nido Fortified Instant and Anlene from New Zealand, Diploma and Red Cow from Australia and Dano from Denmark — to have been contaminated by melamine.
   Chinese brands Sweet Baby, Yashli 1 and Yashli 2 were found to have been contaminated by melamine in lab testing done earlier by the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution and private sector enterprise PlasmaPlus.
   ‘People are warned not to consume the milk power of eight brands which were tested by the Dhaka University lab to have presence of melamine,’ read the government handout, headlined ‘Ban on consumption of eight milk brands having melamine presence.’

The urban sanitation system is about to collapse as about 60 per cent of the inhabitants of the capital defecate in open spaces, said sanitation specialist Professor M Mujibur Rahman on Friday.
   ‘There is hardly any hygienic sewerage system in the country’s cities and towns, including Dhaka. Many people pass their faeces in open spaces, including parks, footpaths and banks of the lakes and canals. On the other hand, the dwellers in many luxurious buildings discharge raw human excreta in those canals and lakes through pipes. Thus there is hardly any difference between them and those who excrete in the open spaces. Taking this scenario into consideration, we can say that about 60 per cent of the capital’s inhabitants release their excreta in open spaces in one way or other,’ said Professor Mujibur Rahman, also a teacher in the BUET. ‘Only 40 per cent of the people here use safe sanitary systems.’
   The present sanitation management system, which covers 25 to 30 per cent of the capital, is about to collapse, he said. ‘The sanitation of other cities and major towns is also likely to collapse in the next five to ten years.’
   ‘We are polluting the rivers and canals by dumping human excreta and industrial waste into them. ‘We cannot afford to allow the waters of the Buriganga, Turag and Balu to become polluted. We have already killed the Buriganga by dumping sewage in it for the last 30 years. This is a grave offence. We must pay for it,’ he warned.
   Professor Mujib made the above observations at a discussion with the media people. The discussion was a part of the national programme to observe the ‘National Sanitation Month’ [October] and the ‘International Sanitation Year 2008’. The National Sanitation Taskforce Media Committee [NSTMC] and the Forum of Environmental Journalists of Bangladesh jointly organised the discussion in collaboration with the Water and Sanitation Programme of the World Bank.
   Mujib, also convenor of the NSTMC, claimed that they have apprised the government of the worsening sanitation situation. ‘We conveyed our concern to the highest authorities of the government, which includes ministers [of the past governments], advisers [of the incumbent government], secretaries and Dhaka WASA and DCC officials. But I do not see any move to save Dhaka’s sanitation system. Everyone has become apathetic although everything is happening in front of our eyes.’
   Professor Mujib, however, claimed that open defecation in the country has decreased from 42 per cent in 2003 to 10 per cent in 2008, especially in the rural areas.
   Fewer and fewer villagers defecate in open spaces in comparison with inhabitants of urban areas, he said.
   He said there is also a discrepancy in the statistics on the area covered by the sanitation system as the definition of ‘sanitation’ varies. ‘The government is claiming that about 88 per cent of the people use sanitary latrines, but, according to the UNICEF, BRAC and NGO Forum, sanitation facilities are available only to 33 to 39 per cent of the people,’ he said.
   He told the media that half of the septic tanks, both in rural and urban areas, are unhygienic.
   About 12 million people live in Dhaka city, of whom only 30 per cent enjoy the benefit of the sewerage systems installed and maintained by the WASA in Dhaka.
   The National Press Club’s president, Shaukat Mahmud, criticised the interim government for lack of commitment to improve the sewerage system.
   He said politicians must include the goal of 100 per cent sanitation as an agendum in their manifestoes for the general elections due on December 18.
   The deputy secretary to the Local Government Division, Shamsuddin Ahmed, admitted that a large number of day commuters and floating population in the major cities, especially in Dhaka, has posed a big challenge to sanitation across the country.
   The NSTMC’s member-secretary and FEJB’s chairman Quamrul Islam Chowdhury moderated the discussion, and Abdul Motaleb and Shantanu Lahiri of the World Bank, Shirin Hossain and Quamrunnahar of the UNICEF, Milan Kanti Dev of BRAC, and about 10 journalists participated in the discussion, along with others.
   They stressed the need to take urgent measures to provide hygienic and environment-friendly sanitary facilities for the floating, landless and homeless people, and also passengers of the land and riverine transport systems.
   They also said that strengthening the local government system is also necessary for smooth implementation of sanitation programmes.

The present caretaker government will call it a day on December 31 when ‘it will end its tenure’, the law adviser, AF Hassan Ariff, said on Friday.
   ‘The tenure of this government will come to an end on December 31. We will then handover power to an elected government and go back to our respective professions,’ the adviser told a relief-distribution ceremony for Sidr survivors at Sarankhola upazila in Bagerhat.
   He said Jatiya Sangsad and upazila elections would be held on the dates announced by the Election Commission.
   Sidr-affected people in eight districts will have their homes built under the project, funded by the Islamic Development Bank.
   The adviser handed over the possession of homes for 120 families at the ceremony.
   Besides, cheques for buying seeds, fertiliser, pesticides, agricultural inputs, cattle, fishing boat and fish feed were also distributed among farmers from 12 districts.
   Cheques were also handed to 10 women from Khontakata and Rayenda unions of Sarankhola under a non-profit investment programme for small traders. They received Tk 10 thousand each in loans.
   ‘The development of the country depends on the development of agriculture. The country has to be made self reliant in food by cultivating every inch of land,’ the law adviser said.
   The ceremony was presided over by Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd Audit Committee chairman Qazi Harunur Rashid.
   Bagerhat deputy commissioner Arup Chowdhury, police super Awlad Ali Faquir, IDB official in charge of special assistance Dr Mohammad Hasan Salem, IDB Bangladesh representative Md Saifuddin and Bangladesh Islami Solidarity Educational Waqf director general Niaz Khan were present.

Fawzia Sultana Tumpa, daughter of Chittagong city mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, died in Bangkok on Friday afternoon while her parents were on a flight to Thailand to see her, said Mohiuddin’s family members.
   ‘Her life-support machine was taken off at about 3:30pm [Bangladesh time],’ the mayor’s nephew, Mesbahuddin Chowdhury Nobel, told reporters.
   The mayor had just left for Bangkok Friday afternoon to see his ailing daughter, already declared clinically dead by doctors.
   Tumpa, an English student at Premier University, Chittagong, was undergoing treatment at a Bangkok hospital for cancer.
   Nobel told reporters that a few minutes before Mohiuddin’s flight left, news had arrived that Tumpa had been put on a life-support machine.
   ‘Just before the Bangkok flight left, uncle Mohiuddin received news that Tumpa had been clinically dead and put on a life-support system,’ said Nobel.
   ‘A totally shattered soul, he still asked Bangkok to keep Tumpa on the life-support system and left.’
   The Thai Airways flight carrying the mayor left Shah Amanat International Airport at about 2:30pm, mayor’s lawyer Ibrahim Hossain Babul told the news agency.
   Mohiuddin was accompanied by his wife Hasina Mohiuddin and son Noufel.
   Awami League leader Mohiuddin was released on October 8 after being bailed in all the 15 cases against him. He had been detained for a year and seven months.
   Following a formal petition, the government gave him permission on October 15 to go abroad.
   ‘I’m going to Bangkok. I don’t know if I’ll be able to see my daughter alive,’ Mohiuddin told reporters before departure.
   Calling upon the government to release all political leaders, Mohiuddin said, ‘Nothing can be gained by persecuting the politicians.’
   ‘I’ve instructed the Chittagong City Corporation councillors to discharge their responsibilities duly, though I heard that a lot of irregularities had occurred at the CCC while I was away.’
   Though freed on bail, Mohiuddin was not allowed to return to his mayoral office. He wrote to the government, asking for a reason.
   The government, meanwhile, is weighing the legal options.
   ‘The mayor’s letter has been forwarded to the law ministry for comment,’ local government adviser Anwarul Iqbal told reporters.
   ‘The local government ministry will take steps based on the comment from the law ministry,’ the adviser said.
   CCC councillor Manzur Alam has been the acting mayor in absence of Mohiuddin.
   The mayor faced 22 cases, of which three were quashed by the court and final reports have been submitted for four.

Mehrab Hossain Jr and Mushfiqur Rahim shared a record fifth-wicket stand to guide Bangladesh to a modest 183-4 at stumps on the opening day of the first Test against New Zealand at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium on Friday.
   Mehrab (79) and Mushfique (59) put on 139 runs in an unbroken stand, surpassing the previous best fifth-wicket partnership of 126 made by Aminul Islam and Mohammad Ashraful against Sri Lanka in 2001.
   Ashraful had set several world records in that game in Colombo on his Test debut and a similar effort, if not any record, was needed to bring Bangladesh back in the game after they lost four wickets for 44 runs.
   Bangladesh’s top-order had always been fragile, but things turned from bad to worst in this innings as runs were also coming very slowly, which was very poor even by the standard of Test cricket.
   The hosts lost opener Junaed Siddique for a duck in the first ball of the second over when he was trapped lbw by O’Brien with Bangladesh yet to open the account. O’Brien missed out on a second wicket off the next delivery when Rajin Saleh, playing his first ball, was dropped by Brendon McCullum.
   In the next over, bowled by Kyle Mills, Tamim Iqbal had survived a strong lbw appeal and was also dropped by Aaron Redmond at second slip with Bangladesh yet to get a run. O’Brien also dropped Tamim at forward short-leg off Jeetan Patel when he was on 8.
   Bangladesh went for lunch with 34-1 off 32 overs and lost Tamim in the second ball when the play resumed. It ended an arduous partnership of 34 runs between him and Rajin which needed 187 balls.
   Runs were coming slowly for Bangladesh as the New Zealand bowlers kept a steady line and in the process managed to get rid of Rajin (20 off 129 balls) and Mohammad Ashraful (two off 35 balls).
   Skipper Daniel Vettori and paceman Iain O’Brien took two wickets apiece but the tourists failed to pick up a wicket after tea as Mehrab and Mushfique dug in. Mehrab was relatively fluent and took only 84 balls to score his only Test half-century.
   He struck off-spinner Jeetan Patel for three fours in the 61st over as the hosts made 101-4 at tea. The New Zealand bowlers were not given a single chance in the final session as Mushfique also stepped up too boost run rate.
   Mushfique hammered the only six of the day off Jeetan Patel over long-on along with nine fours. The wicketkeeper-batsman reached his second Test half-century off 138 balls and added nine more runs to his score in the next seven balls he faced.
   Mehrab played 164 balls and smashed 10 boundaries.

The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry will arrange a grand discussion on contemporary economic issues, which will be attended by top politicians, economists and business leaders.
   The discussion — ‘Today’s World and We’ — to be held at Hotel Sonargaon from 8pm to 10:30pm on Monday, will feature debates in which MK Anwar, the vice-chairman the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, the advisory council member of Awami League, are expected to participate.
   Professor Rehman Sobhan and Professor Wahiduddin Mahmud will among the eminent economists who will attend the grand debate, said FBCCI sources.
   The FBCCI has invited Anwar and Muhith as one of them is expected to be the finance minister of the government, depending on which party is voted to power in the national elections on December 18.
   ‘The people need to hear the major political parties’ economic plans before the elections,’ the FBCCI’s president Annisul Huq told New Age on Friday.
   Business sources said the ntv, a major television channel, which is a co-organiser, has provided various sorts of support in organizing the programme. The ntv will cover the debate as a live programme, relayed from hotel Sonargaon.
   Annis told New Age that his organization, in cooperation with businessmen throughout the country, is also compiling a set of economic agenda as priority goals to be implemented by the next government to boost the nation’s economy.

A British soldier was jailed for life Friday for the racist murder of a Bangladeshi waiter in Scotland, in a case which triggered high emotions and which has dragged on for 14 years.
   Michael Ross, who went on to serve in Iraq with the elite Scottish Black Watch regiment, was 15 when he killed Shamsuddin Mahmood in a restaurant on the Scottish island of Orkney in 1994.
   ‘This was a vicious, evil, unprovoked murder of a defenceless man. The attack was a premeditated assassination,’ Judge Andrew Hardie told Ross, who is now 30 years old.
   During a six-week trial the court heard how a masked Ross burst into the Mumutaz restaurant on the evening of June 2, 1994 and shot dead the 26-year-old waiter at point blank range in front of shocked diners.
   Defence lawyer Donald Findlay said Ross continued
   to maintain his innocence, saying he was not a racist and adding that his conviction was a ‘great loss’ to his family and country.
   But prosecutors, reporting that a Nazi swastika had been found in a notebook belonging to the then-cadet, alleged that he had singled out Shamsuddin as one of the few Asians on Orkney, off Scotland’s northern coast.
   Referring to evidence heard during the trial, the judge told Ross: ‘It is never acceptable to say a gun should be put to the head of blacks and they should be shot ... Even in 1994 such a remark was a racist comment.’
   Ross — who became a Black Watch sniper — was convicted by majority verdict in June after a six-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow. Sentencing him Friday, the judge said he must spend at least 25 years behind bars.
   Shamsuddin’s brother Abul Shafuddin welcomed the sentencing.
   ‘At last the killer has been brought to justice — it’s a big consolation for us,’ he told the BBC. ‘At one stage we lost all hope that his killer would be found.’
   Calling Ross an ‘evil person,’ he added: ‘We cannot forgive him. He owes an apology to the family which he has not tendered. He is not a reformed person.
   ‘There cannot be any other motive than racism. If somebody else was in my brother’s place at that time — a black person — he might have killed him,’ he said.

Three ultra-left party operatives were killed in Rajshahi and Kushtia on Friday and Thursday.
   A Purba Banglar Coommunist Party operative was killed in Rajshahi on Friday and two Gana Mukti Fauz operatives were killed in Kushtia on Friday and Thursday.
   The New Age correspondent in Rajshahi said the Rapid Action Battalion arrested Masud alias Murgi Masud, an activist of Purba Bangla Communist Party (Red Flag), at his house at Ramrama in Taherpur and handed him over to the Baghmara police on Thursday.
   Based on the statement of Masud, accused in a number of murder and extortion cases, the police took him to an orchard at his village home at about 3:00am on Friday.
   As they reached there, his accomplices fired shots at the law enforcers prompting them to retaliate, said the police adding that Masud received bullets as he tried to flee during the encounter. At least 26 rounds of bullet were exchanged during the melee.
   The police took Masud to Baghmara health complex where doctors pronounced him dead.
   The Gana Mukti Fauz guerrilla commander who was killed in encounter in Khushtia on Friday was Nabin and regional commander of the same outfit killed on Thursday was Saddam Hossain, the correspondent in Kushtia reported.
   Nabin was killed in an encounter with the police at Pukurpara of Alampur in the district headquarters early Friday.
   The police said the associates of Saddam, who was killed in crossfire early Thursday, were holding a meeting at Pukurpara.
   When the police reached the place, Saddam’s associates started firing and the police fired back. Nabin was killed in the gunfight.
   A shutter gun and three bullets were seized from the place, the police said, adding Nabin had cases filed against him.
   In the earlier incident, Saddam was killed at Kuripara field at Alampur early Thursday.
   The police said they had raided a place where ultra-left operatives were holding a meeting at 2:00am.
   As the lawmen approached, the operatives started firing,
   forcing the law enforcers to fire back. Saddam died in the gunfight.
   The police seized a shutter gun and several bullets from the spot. The police said he had several cases against him.
   The bodies were sent for post-mortem examinations.

China summoned five of its major dairy companies to a meeting Friday over the fate of Sanlu Group Co., the company at the centre of a tainted milk scandal that has sickened thousands and led to the deaths of four children, state media reported.
   The five companies were brought to Beijing to discuss the purchase of the company, the 21st Century Business Herald, a major business daily, reported Friday.
   The government is trying to revive its dairy industry and contain the fallout after baby formula contaminated with melamine was blamed for the deaths of four infants and the sickening of about 54,000 other children in China. The health ministry said Wednesday that 5,800 children were still hospitalised — six of them in serious condition. In Hong Kong, the department of health said Friday two more children have developed kidney stones after drinking melamine-laced milk, bringing to 10 the total number of children with milk-related kidney stones.
   Sanlu, a majority state-owned company whose products were the most heavily tainted, is now largely defunct, with companies looking to scoop up its assets. It is 43 per cent-owned by New Zealand’s Fonterra Group dairy.
   The companies invited to the meeting were Chinese beverage-maker Wahaha Group, Wondersun, Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co., Sanyuan Foods Ltd. and Heilongjiang-based Feihe Dairy, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of New York-listed American Dairy Inc.
   Both Sanyuan and Wahaha have been discussed in state media as likely buyers of Sanlu’s assets, but the paper also quoted Wondersun’s board chairman as saying they were considering it. But any buyer would have to take on Sanlu’s debt and the possibility of compensation to consumers, the paper said.
   Jin Biao, vice president at Yili, confirmed that a meeting was called by the government but said the main focus was on how to improve the management of Sanlu’s milk collection stations and how to deal with the company’s capital. He said Yili had sent a representative. ‘It is too early now to talk about the acquisition,’ he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. Lianfang Chen, an analyst at Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant Co., said the meeting would discuss resuming milk production at Sanlu’s factories, keeping its workers employed, and also resume buying raw milk to keep farmers employed.
   ‘Though Sanlu does not have any value as a brand, its processing facility, raw milk bases, production capacity and experienced workers and managerial expertise still have great value. That’s what makes a selling point,’ Chen said.
   Fonterra chief executive Andrew Ferrier said Friday that discussions continuing around Sanlu ‘include the possibility of Sanlu being acquired by a third party,’ and Fonterra is involved in a number of the discussions. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka on Friday banned the sale of 60 local and imported food items, fearing they may be tainted with melamine, reports AFP.
   The health ministry ordered a range of imported biscuits, chocolates, cakes, savoury snacks, frozen deserts, milk and yoghurt off the shelves, according to notices published in newspapers here.
   Products made by Cadbury, Dutch Lady, M&M and Mars originating mainly in manufacturing plants in Asia were among those identified by the health ministry as suspect. On Thursday, Sri Lanka’s largest biscuit maker, Ceylon Biscuits Ltd, pulled its Munchee Lemon Puff biscuits out of stores after the Swiss canton of Geneva reported traces of melamine.
   Ceylon Biscuits said it did not use milk products from China, but sourced milk ingredients from Australia, Holland and Canada.

The government will not accept Summit Power’s proposal to double the production capacity of its four under-construction small independent power plants as such an increase without tender violates rules, power division officials said on Tuesday.
   The company in September submitted an application to the division and the power cell to increase by double the production capacity of its three 30MW power plants at Rupganj in Narayanganj, Manuna in Gazipur and Jangalia in Comilla and a 10MW plant at Ullapara in Sirajganj.
   The Power Cell on Tuesday forwarded its opinion to the Division, saying as per the Private Power General Policy, it would not be legal if Summit was allowed to increase the production capacity of the plants without tenders.
   Summit should be informed that the production capacity of the plants can only be increased by inviting tenders, according to the power cell.
   A high power division official said at the cell’s recommendations, the government would inform Summit that its proposal could not be accepted.
   The Power Development Board and the Rural Electrification Board on October 11, 2007 signed contracts with two of Summit’s subsidiaries — Summit Uttaranchal Power Company Ltd and Summit Purbanchal Power Company Ltd — for the installation of the plants in 15 months.
   Summit, which was selected for installation of the plants as it was the lowest bidder, is expected to put the power plants into operation by January 2008.
   On September 23, Summit told the Dhaka Stock Exchange that it had requested the cell and the division to approve the doubling of the electricity generation capacities of the four under-construction power plants of its two subsidiaries after the company’s share price had increased unexpectedly.
   After the company’s request, its share price increased further as a rumour spread that the government would allow it to double the capacity of its plants. In total, share price of each of the Summit subsidiaries increased by around Tk 200 in a month.
   ‘As per the tender specification, Summit can increase or decrease production capacity by 10 per cent. The company initially offered to increase production by 10 per cent. But by no means the government can allow an increase in the capacity of a tendered power plant based on an unsolicited offer,’ said an official.
   The previous BNP-led government, however, allowed Summit to increase the generation capacity of its three power plants at Savar, Chandina in Comilla and Madhabdi in Narsingdhi in 2005 in violation of rules.
   The power division, on the other hand, will not allow the Energypac-Confidence Power Venture to double the capacity of its 10MW Habibganj plant and the Desh Energy to double its 10MW Kumargaon long-term rental power plant.
   Both the companies submitted informal proposals to double the capacities of the plants.

The prices of egg and non-branded tea increased significantly while that of sugar and non-packed soya bean oil declined and other commodities remained almost unchanged at their high levels in the past week.
   Sales of milk powder of all varieties declined sharply as, according to retailers, reports of melamine in milk have panicked consumers. Liquid milk sellers also said they were experiencing an insignificant fall in their sales as consumers were ‘confused’.
   As winter is set to start by pushing up consumption of eggs and tea, their prices started increasing while the rush for releasing palm oil stocks before winter has pushed down its prices, market sources said.
   Four pieces of eggs sold between Tk 26 and Tk 28, up by at least Tk 2 in a week and Tk 4 in two weeks at Jatrabari, Thataribazar and Mohakhali on Friday.
   ‘As winter is set to begin, consumption of eggs has gone up and wholesalers have increased its prices,’ Shah Alam Mia, a retailer at Mohakhali, said.
   Abu Turab, a wholesaler at Tejgaon market, siad prices of a hundred of eggs increased between Tk 20 and Tk 30 with the sharp increase of its demand and steady supply situation.
   Up by Tk 20, over the week, inferior quality ‘dust tea’ of different grades was retailing between Tk 180 and Tk 200 at Thataribazar while fine grade ‘premium tea’ was retailing between Tk 300 and Tk 350 per kilogram.
   Retailed between Tk 34 and Tk 35 a kilogram on the day, sugar price marked a fall by Tk 2 in two weeks as the price on the international market has impacted the local market.
   Although the bottled soya bean oil price remain unchanged, the price of refined palm oil declined by Tk 5 in the week, selling between 70 and Tk 75 a kilogram.
   Apart from the declining trend of oil prices in international markets, coming of winter is forcing importers to release stocks of palm oil, sale of which drops in winter.
   Vegetables’ prices remained almost unchanged in the week although prices of some early harvested winter vegetables were very high.
   Greengrocers at Jatrabari were selling per kilogram of potato between Tk 15 and Tk 17, aubergine between Tk 24 and Tk 36, onion between Tk 25 and Tk 35 and radish between Tk 20 and Tk 24.
   At Hatirpool kitchen market, among the early harvested winter vegetables, per piece of small-sized cauliflower was selling between Tk 30 and Tk 40 and per kilogram of bean between Tk 50 and Tk 60.
   Fish prices remained comparatively cheaper in the week as, according to traders, recession of water from the croplands and low lying areas, pushed up the catches of sweet water fishes.
   Remaining unchanged over the week, beef per kilogram was retailing between Tk 180 and Tk 200, mutton between Tk 280 and Tk 300 while live broiler between Tk 110 and Tk 120.
   After experiencing fresh increases in the previous two weeks, rice prices remained steady in the week with coarse verities retailing between Tk 32 and Tk 35. Medium and fine grade rice verities were retailing between Tk 37 and Tk 44 per kilogram.
   Among other commodities red lentils of different verities were retailing between Tk 88 and Tk 108 and packed coarse flour between Tk 37 and Tk 38 per kilogram.

The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha is set to demolish the house of late politician and journalist Abdus Shahid ignoring the requests made by people from all walks of life to spare his ancestral house.
   Different socio-political groups and eminent citizens, including a former president, politicians, journalists, writers and students, have requested the interim government to spare the house of Abdus Shahid, who had survived the infamous Khapra Ward massacre in 1950.
   ‘The Integrated Hatirjheel-Begunbari Canal Development Project authorities marked the ancestral house of Abdus Shaid at 58/1, Ulon Road in Rampura in the capital for acquisition, but the project can be implemented keeping the house unaffected,’ Rajia Shahid, widow of Abdus Shahid, told New Age Friday.
   ‘We are to implement the order of the high-ups. We have nothing to do right now to change the decision,’ a project official said on Thursday.
   ‘The move is unfortunate and unexpected as a vast land is left unused at the northern end of Ulan where the project could be implemented. The alignment of the project has been changed for saving more than 200 houses located at the eastern and western end of their house’, she said.
   Abdus Shahid, who died on September 8, 1996, was one of the organisers of the historic Khapra uprising in which seven political prisoners were shot dead in the Khapra Ward of Rajshahi central jail on April 24, 1950 for protesting against the torture and inadequate food supply in jail by the then Muslim League government.
   ‘Some influential persons in the interim government earlier assured us that the house of Abdus Shahid would not be demolished. But the authorities have already served us with a notice of acquisition of our house and hoisted a red flag upon it’, Rajia Shahid said.
   ‘We are passing days in fear because the authorities have stepped up the acquisition process turning a deaf ear to the requests, appeals and protests’, Rajia said.
   Shahid’s widow and daughters Shamim Ara Tania and Jaya Shahid held several press conferences over the past few weeks seeking intervention of the government’s high-ups, including the chief adviser, to spare the house as the poor family would have no shelter in the capital if their house was acquired for the project.
   Politicians, journalists and intellectuals, including former president AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury, Dr Kamal Hossain, Professor Anisuzzaman, journalists Nirmal Sen, Kamal Lohani and Toab Khan, Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon, National Awami Party president Muzaffar Ahmad, Ruhin Hossain Prince of the CPB and former adviser to the caretaker government Sultana Kamal, have appealed to the government not to acquire the house of Abdus Shahid.
   Besides, students of Dhaka University and several other organisations have formed human chains in the past weeks in protest at the move to demolish the house.

Fall air temperatures have climbed to record levels in the Arctic due to major losses of sea ice as the region suffers more effects from a warming trend dating back decades, a report released on Thursday showed.
   The annual report issued by researchers at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other experts is the latest to paint a dire picture of the impact of climate change in the Arctic.
   It found that fall air temperatures are at a record 9 degrees Fahrenheit above normal in the Arctic because of the major loss of sea ice in recent years that allows more solar heating of the ocean.
   That warming of the air and ocean impacts land and marine life and cuts the amount of winter sea ice that lasts into the following summer, according to the report.
   In addition, wild reindeer and caribou herds appear to be declining in numbers, according to the report. The report also noted melting of surface ice in Greenland.
   ‘Changes in the Arctic show a domino effect from multiple causes more clearly than in other regions,’ James Overland, an oceanographer at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle one of the authors of the report, said in a statement.
   ‘It’s a sensitive system and often reflects changes in relatively fast and dramatic ways.’
   Researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre, part of the University of Colorado, reported last month that Arctic sea ice melted to its second-lowest level this summer.
   The 2008 season, those researchers said, strongly reinforces a 30-year downward trend in Arctic ice extent — 34 per cent below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000, but 9 per cent above the record low set in 2007.
   Last year was the warmest on record in the Arctic, continuing a region wide warming trend dating to the mid-1960s. Most experts blame climate change on human activities spewing so-called greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

At least 17 civilians, including women and children, were killed in a military operation in Afghanistan, according to a provincial government official giving the first official death toll on Friday.
   NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, which locals accuse of killing the villagers on Thursday in misguided air strikes, said it was trying to establish what had happened.
   A spokesman for the government of the southern province of Helmand, Daud Ahmadi, said villagers had brought 17 bodies to the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, to show the governor.
   ‘Most of the bodies we saw had shrapnel wounds but at this stage we don’t know if the shrapnel was from a rocket or a bomb which collapsed a house,’ Ahmadi said.
   He would not say how many of the bodies he saw were women and children. The government was investigating how they were killed, he said.
   Residents of Nad Ali district just east of Lashkar Gah said Thursday a military air strike had killed 25 civilians and they had taken the bodies of 16 to the town as ‘proof’.
   The provincial police chief Assadullah Shirzad confirmed civilians had been killed but would not give a number.
   Nad Ali has seen weeks of heavy fighting between militants and Afghan and international troops. Afghan and British forces said on Sunday around 40 militants were killed in a three-day operation there.
   Civilian casualties by foreign troops is a sensitive issue in Afghanistan, where the government and its allies need local support in their campaign against the Taliban.
   A group that monitors the security of non-government organisations in Afghanistan said this week it estimated that 970 civilians had been killed in insurgent attacks this year, 373 in military action.
   The ousting of the extreme Islamic Taliban government in 2001 led the war-torn country into a growing insurgency which Afghan officials say is attracting Islamic fighters from various countries.

The Bangladesh Bank governor, Salehuddin Ahmed, on Friday said multilateral lending agencies like the World Bank and the IMF would not cut their assistance to Bangladesh in the wake of the global financial crisis.
   ‘They won’t cut aid from their commitment, rather they would try to increase it, if possible,’ he told reporters on arrival at Zia International Airport Friday morning, after attending the World Bank IMF Annual Meetings in Washington DC during Oct 11-13.
   Local economists and business leaders were apprehending that the flow of foreign assistance would slow down as the fallout of the global financial meltdown.
   On the sidelines of the annual meetings, the governor rang the alarm bell at an international roundtable on ‘the Impact of Financial Crisis in South Asia’ that a slowdown in the ODA and bilateral fund flow would mount pressure on the government budget in Bangladesh.
   It would result in affecting the ongoing poverty alleviation, social safety net, health and education programmes, he added.
   Replying to a question, Salehuddin said the central bank would give a careful consideration to the foreign exchange rate as taka remained stable for quite a long time.
   Local manufacturers and exporters have already expressed concern over the possibility of losing competitiveness to other countries, as their respective currencies depreciated against the dollar due to the crisis.
   ‘We’ll have to look at the import costs as well,’ said the governor, adding that the impact of foreign exchange rate on inflation deserved a deep consideration. ‘We don’t want to ‘disturb’ the exchange rate at this moment.’
   He, however, recognised that the country’s exports would be affected in the long term as the fallout of it, but said, ‘There is a silver lining that we export lower end products.’
   About the global financial turmoil, he said the impact would not hit ‘our financial sector due to different context’ what he did not elaborate. However, the country’s financial sector has no significant link with the international financial sector, he said.
   The governor said the global financial crisis generated for leaving regulations completely on the market while investment banks and insurance companies had been given freedom overly. ‘They’ll now understand the impact of leaving regulation on market.’
   Asked whether the Bangladesh Bank would go for tightening further the country’s financial sector taking lessons from the global financial crisis and protected financial sector at home, the governor gave an oblique reference just to avoid a straight answer.
   ‘They (the affected countries) followed the core risk and Basel-II requirements theoretically, not practically. But, we tried to follow the principles in practice,’ he said, adding that one could not do anything with numbers.

Obese people may have a diminished ability to experience the pleasure of eating, prompting them to overindulge to boost their satisfaction, according to a study released Thursday.
   The study, published this week in the journal Science, found that obese individuals may have fewer pleasure receptors in their brains, requiring them ‘to take in more of a rewarding substance such as food or drugs to experience the same level of pleasure as other people,’ said Eric Stice, a psychology researcher at the University of Texas at Austin and lead author of the study.
   In a throwback to humankind’s evolutionary past, the human brain releases the ‘pleasure chemical’ dopamine, a reward to the body for consuming life-sustaining nutrition.
   But the researchers theorise that weak ‘reward centres’ in the brain prompt obese people to eat more.
   ‘The research reveals obese people may have fewer dopamine receptors, so they overeat to compensate for this reward deficit,’ said Stice, who has studied eating disorders and obesity for almost two decades.
   Although past research has shown that biological factors play a major part in obesity, the study is one of the first to positively identify factors that increase people’s weight gain risk in the future.
   The researchers from UT, worked alongside scientists from the Oregon Research Institute, and brain scientists from the Yale University School of Medicine, Connecticut.
   Using a technique called functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, researchers examined the extent to which pleasure receptors in individuals were activated in response to a taste of chocolate milkshake versus a tasteless solution.
   The participants were next tested for the presence of a genetic variation linked to a lower number of the dopamine receptors.
   Researchers then tracked changes in the test participants’ body mass index over a one-year period.
   The results, said Stice, are key for understanding weight gain, and to helping at-risk individuals.

Election manifestos of all political parties should have a pledge to make the country poverty-free by 2021, the 50th year of the country’s independence, speakers at a roundtable discussion in Dhaka demanded on Friday.
   ‘Poverty will certainly be eliminated from the country by 2021, if the politicians work for the state, not for their personal advancement,’ Gana Forum president Kamal Hossain told the discussion, organised by Protyasha 2021 Forum at the Dhaka Reporters Unity.
   He said, ‘We all will have to come forward to save our motherland and work unitedly irrespective of political affiliations. The country’s interests should be given priority,’ he told the meeting chaired by the forum chairman Muhidul Khan.
   Muhith said, ‘Awami League has drafted the election manifesto with a pledge for building a poverty-free Bangladesh by the year 2021.’
   Former minister and BNP leader Abdul Manna criticised the World Bank and International Monetary Fund for its prescription to withdraw subsidy to the country’s agricultural sector. ‘They [World Bank and IMF] ask Bangladesh to withdraw subsidy on agriculture when huge amount of subsidy is given in India.’
   Awami League advisory council member Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, former lawmaker Tasneem Rana, Communist Party of Bangladesh leader Ruhin Hossain Prince, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal leader Habibur Rahman Shawkat and Jatiya Party (Manju) leader Sadek Siddiqui, among others, addressed the programme.

The BNP’s organising committee for the Khulna division will go on a field-level tour of Bagerhat, Satkhira and Jessore districts to re-organise the party so that it is ready for the general elections.
   A 21-member committee will visit Bagerhat on October 24, Satkhira on October 25 and Jessore on October 26.
   The committee was formed at a meeting of the divisional organising committee in the party’s central office at Naya Paltan on Friday afternoon.
   The party’s vice-chairperson, Sarwari Rahman, will lead the team which will complete its tour of other districts in Khulna division by the end of this month.
   The team will prepare its report a week after completion of the field trips and hand it over to the party’s secretary-general, Khandakar Delwar Hossain.
   The report will also be sent to Khaleda Zia, the party’s chief.
   Shamsuzzaman Dudu, Nurul Islam Dadu, Kabir Murad and Sohrabuddin were also present at the meeting.

A two-year-old girl, seriously wounded in a gas-cylinder explosion on Thursday, died in Rajshahi Medical College Hospital on Friday.
   The police said Saida, 2, Raquib, 8, and Saima, 4, children of vendor Sekander Ali, were injured when a gas-cylinder exploded in their house at Boalia in the city Thursday morning.
   They were immediately taken to the RMCH, where the attending doctors declared Saida dead Friday afternoon.

BNP’s standing committee member Chowdhury Tanvir Ahmed Siddiqui on Friday said the party would register with the Election Commission after the second round of talks with the government.
   He also vowed not to compromise with the government and the Election Commission on their five-point charter of demands.
   ‘There were informal contacts between the party and the government and we hope that the unresolved issues of the first round of dialogue will be settled in the next round talks likely to be held by October 20,’ he said inviting a number of television channels at Gulshan Park in the afternoon.
   ‘We had explained our points during the first round talks with the government and could make them understand the grounds of our demands, but they are still hesitant on some issues,’ he said.
   He, however, hoped that the government would give a decision on the disputed issues in the next round of dialogue.
   The party stands by its demand of complete withdrawal of state of emergency as no polls would be credible if held under the state of emergency, he said. ‘We are eager to contest the polls, but an environment conducive to the holding of the polls is yet to be created.’