Main Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia told a four-member panel of advisers to the military-controlled government Friday night that she would consider holding a dialogue with the government at the earliest and also agreed in principle to sit with her arch political rival, Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina, commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman said.
   ‘You can say it is the beginning of the formal phase of the dialogue’, Hossain Zillur told reporters at a press briefing after over a two-hour meeting with Khaleda Zia at her Dhaka Cantonment residence.
   Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed also talked to Khaleda Zia by telephone for over 10 minutes when the meeting was in progress.
   Lifting of the state of emergency before the polls, creating a level playing field, upazila elections, phasing out of bad elements from politics and post-election political and economic stability featured at the meeting among many other issues, the commerce adviser said.
   The issue of arranging a meeting between the two former prime ministers –Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina – also came up for discussion as the government started work to get the two leaders to sit across the table for discussion on brining about a qualitative change in the country’s political culture, he added.
   The commerce adviser told the press briefing that the BNP chief, who was released from prison on bail in all four graft cases on Thursday more than a year after her detention, had expressed positive attitude to sit with Hasina.
   Besides Hossain Zillur, communications adviser Ghulam Qadir, law, justice and parliamentary affairs adviser AF Hassan Ariff and LGRD adviser Anwarul Iqbal attended the meeting on behalf of the government while Khaleda Zia was alone on the other side.
   The advisers termed the meeting a courtesy call with the BNP chief after she was released from jail. They said that a new mood has emerged after the release of Khaleda Zia and everyone should now join the efforts to guide the nation forward.
   Referring to the government’s letter inviting the BNP to a formal dialogue, the advisers requested Khaleda Zia to joining the dialogue as shortly as possible. The government wants it should be, if possible, by Sunday, said Hossain Zillur adding that the former prime minister gave importance to that.
   ‘After consulting her party, she might let us know today about the time of the talks,’ hoped the commerce adviser adding that the two sides might need to sit for more than once to come to an understanding over many issues.
   Khaleda Zia suggested formation of a contact group of the BNP so that the government could communicate with its members for urgent needs.
   In the changed situation, Zillur said, the BNP chief and her party wanted to play their due role in taking the nation forward.
   She also expressed her positive attitude to rid the country’s politics of the persons with negative image. The government was also working in that direction.
   At the meeting that started at 9:50pm the panel of advisers apprise the BNP chief of the government’s efforts towards holding a free, fair and peaceful election and transition to democracy.
   ‘We informed her of the progress towards holding the election in December,’ the adviser said adding the government was also working for post-election stability.
   The discussion included how to ensure political and economic stability after elections. If needed a code of conduct for political parties could be formulated, said the adviser. ‘The BNP chief has herself proposed the idea of code of conduct for future politics.’
   ‘We presume an idea of change is prevailing in both political parties and the government for a successful transition,’ the adviser said reaffirming the government’s commitment to holding of the election in December.
   Asked whether the BNP chief had asked the government to lift the state of emergency immediately, Zillur said, ‘She raised her points and we tried to make her understand why the state of emergency was required now.’
   On the proposed upazila polls, the adviser told the same adding that everything would come up at the talks. ‘We hope the matters would be resolved through continuous discussion.’

The latest spate of vandalism in apparel factories, reportedly triggered by ‘ghost panic’, was nothing but the manifestation of the low-paid workers’ troubled psyches caused by malnutrition and subhuman life in squalid slums, said factory insiders and psychologists.
   Garment factory workers, mostly uneducated, were panicked by ‘ghosts’ and the rumoured death of colleagues, and rampaged through a number of factories in areas near Dhaka, vandalising factory properties and vehicles in recent weeks.
   Recurrence of such incidents angered the factory owners, who termed the ‘ghost panic’ as part of a campaign of ‘planned vandalism’ meant to destroy the country’s biggest export earning industry, and threatened to shut down their units from September 25 if any other factory was attacked.
   They suspected that ‘external forces’ might have taken the opportunity offered by the panic to foment unrest in the garment sector, and wanted the government to ensure full security of the factories to save the industry that employs about two million people and earns 76 per cent of the country’s export revenue.
   However industry insiders, development actors and clinical psychologists, after investigating the recent incidents, said excessive stress in both workplaces and homes, malnutrition and superstition are responsible for the ‘ghost phobia’ that gripped a number of apparel factories near Dhaka and led to a series of violent clashes.
   Clinical psychologists and physicians termed the tendency ‘collective obsessive behaviour’ or ‘mass sociogenic illness’, which is sometimes seen in school-children, mainly girl students.
   They suggested a stress-free work atmosphere, proper counselling, basic education, regular health check-ups and sufficient breaks during working hours to overcome a problem of this kind.
   ‘The symptoms suggest that the problems have originated from anxiety. Workplace counselling and stress management are essential to overcome the problem since many factories have faced similar problems,’ Mahmudur Rahman, chairman of the clinical physiology department at Dhaka University, told New Age.
   He said factory-owners should ensure a healthy atmosphere for workers in the national interest.
   The so-called ‘ghost panic’ in factories first surfaced after a section of workers vandalised Diganto Sweater’s factory in Gazipur, following rumours of the deaths of a few workers as a result of ‘ghost attack’ in a toilet of the factory.
   Production in the factory remained suspended for four days as workers went on a rampage, damaged factory property and blocked the roads for hours.
   In May this year, vandalism triggered by ghost phobia forced a factory in the Chittagong Export Processing Zone to suspend production for two days.
   At least 10 other garment factories have come under attack in the last two months in Gazipur alone after the spread of almost identical news or rumours that workers fainted in factory toilets and some of them even died.
   The latest incident occurred at Pandora Sweater Factory on the Joydevpur road intersection on September 5, three days after workers vandalised Diganta Sweater and clashed with law enforcers in the same area.
   Five workers of Diganta Sweater claimed that they saw ‘witches’ before they fainted inside factory’s toilet. They were taken to a nearby clinic where physicians found that none of them had sustained any injury.
   ‘They fainted because of weakness. I found that their blood pressure and heart beat was too low,’ said Abdur Rahman, chairman of Sheba Diagnostic Hospital.
   He said that all the patients were cured after initial medical treatment. The hospital and some 80 other clinics have become used to get patients with such symptoms in Gazipur which has a concentration of apparel factories.
   He said his hospital treated, on an average, 100 garment factory workers suffering from anxiety-related illness every month.
   ‘Poor garment workers suffer mainly from malnutrition and anxiety, which make them weak and vulnerable to nervous breakdown,’ said Rahman.
   He said the stories of ghosts were either fabricated or hallucinatory.
   The production manager of a nearby garment factory echoed the physician.
   ‘Most garment factory workers lead sad or stormy domestic lives, which affects their behaviour in workplaces,’ Mohammad Hanif, who supervises about 3,000 workers at Shapla Garments, told New Age on Friday.
   ‘They are too weak because they cannot manage to eat regular meals either because of time constraint or because they simply fail to make both ends meet with whatever wages they get after such strenuous labour in the factories,’ said Hanif.
   Most workers have to work for 10 to 14 hours a day and do not even get a chance to sit idle for a minute, he added.
   Mukti Begum, 22, victim of a ghost scare who refused to be seen and only agreed to talk by mobile phone, said she fainted after seeing a corpse in the toilet of Diganta Sweater’s fctory. She could not remember anything afterwards and later regained consciousness a on hospital bed.
   Mukta, born at Nasuria village of Atgharia upazila in Pabna district, used to work from dawn to dusk in the factory.
   Another victim, 22-year-old Wahidul Islam of Chougachha in Jessore, said that he saw a shadow coming in and knocking him down when he was zipping up his trousers. He also fainted and was rushed to a hospital immediately.
   Wahidul was later taken to a village ojha (witchdoctor) for exorcism, said Shahjahan Mia, his rickshaw-wallah father.
   All these incidents put Kamal Uddin, managing director of the sweater factory, at a loss and prompted him to take steps to remove ghost phobia from workers, though he does not believe in ghosts.
   In line with the workers’ demands, he arranged a full-day recitation of the Qur’an in the factory’s premises, started construction of a mosque there and buried amulets around the factory to keep ‘evil spirits’ at bay.
   ‘I had no other way but to give in to the workers’ demands to keep them calm,’ said the factory’s boss, who claimed that he had no problem with the workers over wages, leave and other privileges.
   When he was asked whether there are any arrangements for healthcare in the factory if anyone suddenly gets sick while working, Kamal replied in the positive, saying that two doctors and two nurses were appointed for instant medical care of the workers whenever needed.
   Factory workers said that two doctors and two nurses were not enough for the factory which has about 14,000 workers. Moreover, they are not available in the time of need, alleged the workers.
   Arifa Akthar, coordinator of Karmajibi Nari, a non-governmental organisation looking after the garment factory workers’ rights, said that the workers face tremendous mental and physical pressures both at home and workplaces. They live in dirty slums and work for 12-14 hours a day and remain half-fed as they have to save money to support their families, she added.

The BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, released on Thursday after more than one year of imprisonment, has called a meeting of the party standing committee this afternoon to discuss a number of crucial political issues, including reconciliation between the party mainstream and the splinter group.
   The meeting will also discuss the issues of electoral dialogues with the government and the Election Commission.
   The standing committee is scheduled to meet at 3:00pm at the central office of the party at Naya Paltan in the city, BNP office secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed told New Age Friday.
   The standing committee will discuss ways to strengthen the party, reactivate its committees and front units across the country and the issue of a reconciliation between the mainstream and the splinter group, said a competent party source.
   The policymaking standing committee will also take up the issue of electoral dialogues with both the government and the Election Commission, he said.
   On Friday afternoon, M Saifur Rahman and Mahbubur Rahman of the party’s splinter group met Khaleda Zia at her Dhaka Cantonment residence. ‘In the one hour meeting behind closed doors, the two standing committee members sought to explain under what circumstances the splinter group had announced their plan for reforms in the party [proposing drastic cuts in the authority of the party chairperson]’, said a source close to the BNP chairperson.
   Saifur and Mahbub supported the reform proposals floated by the party’s expelled secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan. A ‘meeting’ of the standing committee, held at Saifur’s house on the night of October 29, 2007 – two months after Khaleda was arrested on September 3 – nominated Saifur Rahman as acting chairman of the party and Hafiz Uddin Ahmed as acting secretary general, ignoring Khaleda-nominated secretary general Khandker Delwar Hossain.
   Hafiz announced Friday morning that he had accepted Khandaker Delwar Hossain as the party secretary general. ‘Delwar is the party secretary general as he took the charge upon approval by chairperson Khaleda Zia’, he said at his Banani residence.
   Party leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury also visited the chairperson Friday.
   Saifur, Mahbub and Salauddin, however, did not disclose the contents of their discussions with Khaleda Zia.
   Mahbub, a former army chief, told New Age that he would attend the standing committee meeting today. ‘The standing committee meeting is for the members of the committee’, he said.
   Naushad Zamir, Nasiruddin Asim, Fatema Anwar and Kaisar Kamal – four lawyers of Khaleda Zia and her sons Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman –also visited her on the day to discuss legal matters.
   Naushad Zamir told New Age, ‘She [Khaleda] has instructed us that the cases [filed against her, Tarique and Arafat] should be dealt with properly. No negligence will be appreciated in fighting the cases.’
   Khaleda Zia also talked to her daughter-in-law Zubaida Rahman, who is accompanying Tarique in London, over telephone to ascertain Tarique’s health.
   Jamaat-e-Islami amir Matiur Rahman Nizami visited Khaleda Zia at her residence Thursday evening.
   The meetings took place within hours after the BNP chairperson announced that her party would join the electoral dialogues and contest the polls.
   ‘BNP and the four-party alliance will contest the polls together and again form the government’, she told reporters Thursday afternoon at the party’s central office after her release from jail on bail.
   The BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami boycotted the latest round of dialogues with both the government and the Election Commission demanding her immediate and unconditional release from prison.
   The military-controlled interim government arrested Khaleda and Arafat on September 3 last year at her Dhaka Cantonment residence and implicated the former prime minister in four graft cases. It released her Thursday after the Supreme Court granted her bail in all four cases.
   The government arrested Tarique from the residence on March 7 last year and implicated him in 13 cases of corruption, kickbacks, extortion and ‘illegal’ wealth. It released him on September 3 [this year] after the High Court granted him bail on health ground. He reached London Friday.
   The government has also temporarily released Arafat for treatment abroad. He is undergoing treatment in Bangkok.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s senior joint secretary general Tarique Rahman did not formally resign from his post before leaving home for London for treatment on Thursday evening.
   ‘As far as I know, Tarique Rahman has not resigned from his post,’ said Rizvi Ahmed, office secretary of the party.
   Tarique will, however, remain away from politics for whatever time he requires for recovering from his ailments, according to the party’s chairperson and his mother, Khaleda Zia, who visited him at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University hospital on Thursday afternoon.
   ‘Even she [chairperson] has not said that he has resigned from the post,’ said Rizvi Ahmed.
   Tarique was made to sign a paper, which he was very unwilling to do, by members of the intelligence agencies at the Zia International Airport, according to sources in the airport.
   ‘They threatened Tarique Rahman that he would not be allowed to fly unless he signed the undertaking,’ said an airport source.
   ‘The word “undertaking” was, however, replaced with “statement” as he was unwilling to sign the paper,’ he added.
   According to the text of the paper written in incorrect Bangla and carrying Tarique’s ‘signature’, which was faxed from ‘SIG CEN DGFI’ through the number 8752921 at 12.34am on September 12 to New Age and some other newspapers too, he ‘relieved himself’ of the charge of senior joint secretary-general of BNP and retired from active politics.

The jail authority will close the special jail emptied on Thursday after the release of BNP chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia, a senior prison official said.
   The other special jail on the Jatiya Sangsad complex will retain its status as a makeshift prison since its inmate, Awami League chief and also a former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina was yet to get bail though she was released by an executive order and now staying abroad for medical treatment.
   ‘We will close one special jail on Sunday and the rest one will remain the same as Awami League president Sheikh Hasina is yet to get bail and still attached to the special jail,’ deputy inspector general (prisons) Major Shamsul Haider Siddique told New Age on Friday.
   The interim government by an official notification issued by the home ministry on July 15, 2007 declared the two two-storey buildings in the parliament premises as special jails to house the VVIP detainees. The houses were built as official residences of the speaker and the deputy speaker of Jatiya Sangsad.
   Just a day after, Sheikh Hasina was driven straight to one of the two sub-jails from court within hours of her arrest in an extortion case. The sub-jail remained vacant since she was released by an executive order on June 11 this year.
   The rest special jail was also emptied as its inmate Khaleda Zia walked free Thursday morning, after staying there for more than a year since her arrest on September 3, 2007 on graft charges. She was granted bail in all the four cases filed against her so far since the proclamation of emergency on January 11, 2007.
   The special jail area looked almost deserted on Friday with usual crowds of anxious party leaders and activists as well as curious onlookers disappearing from the entrances.
   ‘We have already withdrawn all the staff except four jail security personnel from the special jails after the release of Khaleda Zia on Thursday,’ Shamsul said.
   A total of 20 jail police members, including five females, were posted at the special jails under the supervision of a deputy jailer. Members of the Rapid Action Battalion and police personnel were guarding the special jails round-the-clock.
   Crowds of leaders and activists of the both political parties, Awami League and BNP, standing or sitting in the sun or rain were usual scenes within yards of the gates of the parliament building complex since the two top leaders were detained for the first time in their political life that spanned more than two decades and a half.
   Entry to the heavily-guarded area was totally restricted, but the crowds were seen passing hours there silently witnessing who were going in or coming out.

Odhikar, a prominent forum of human rights activists, has said that the military-controlled government has gradually been losing its grip over the situation as its legitimacy under the prolonged state of emergency is being questioned.
   ‘It [the government] seems to be gradually losing its grip over the situation,’ said the organisation in a statement issued on Friday along with its report on Bangladesh’s rights situation in the last 20 months of the state of emergency.
   It said that the military-backed, unelected government was suffering from crisis of legitimacy and acceptability. The current interim government was installed on January 12, 2007, a day after promulgation of the state of emergency. In its report, Odhikar said that the state of emergency has lost its edge and the government should concentrate on an early general election after lifting the emergency that has led to deterioration of the human rights situation.
   The organisation urged the government to stop tapping phones and other forms of communication and to stop restricting the people’s right to information by promulgating another Ordinance on ‘the right to information’ as drafted by a section of bureaucrats.
   Odhikar also expressed its disappointment at the government for making the much-awaited National Human Rights Commission a toothless organisation.
   Odhikar has always advocated the formation of such a commission, which should be freed both financially and functionally from the control of the government. The kind of commission that the government has constituted will not be an effective safeguard of human rights.
   It observed with disappointment that the government has initiated a move to infringe on the individual’s freedom of expression and privacy.
   The government has revealed its character — and its growing sense of insecurity — in its reported decision to monitor and coordinate the tapping of telephone calls and other forms of communication through a national monitoring centre under the home affairs ministry.
   According to reports, the monitoring centre will be made up of representatives of various law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
   This monitoring centre is being set up despite a still-pending rule issued by the High Court Division of the Supreme Court, asking the government to explain why the provisions made for tapping telephones would not be declared unconstitutional.
   Odhikar has also asked the government to disband the Truth and Accountability Commission that was established temporarily to allow people to confess their corruption and obtain clemency by depositing their ill-gotten wealth in the state exchequer.
   It is a body that deals with criminal offences, but is not a lawfully established court.
   Odhikar said the extra-judicial killing by law enforcers was still continuing. The law enforcers have killed as many as 279 persons since January 2007.

The United States leads the world in economic loss from deaths caused by armed crime, according to a global survey released on Friday.
   The US registered an estimated loss of up to $45.1 billion in terms of economic productivity because of violent crimes, said the report by the UN Development Programme and the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey.
   At least 490,000 people are killed in armed crimes each year worldwide, placing a huge economic cost and social burden on nations, the report said.
   The report did not give a country-by-country breakdown of the numbers of people killed in armed crimes.
   But the report said Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica and South Africa are among the countries with the highest numbers of recorded violent crimes in the world.
   More people are killed worldwide in violent crimes every year than in wars, it said, asserting that the phenomenon of armed killings and its economic impact on nations is largely underreported.
   In the 90 countries surveyed, the economic cost from people killed by arms each year is estimated to total between $95 billion and $163 billion, according to the report.
   ‘These estimates are based on calculations of the ‘lost product’ that is represented by premature deaths from armed violence,’ said Achim Wennmann of the Small Arms Survey.
   ‘These people — had they lived — would have contributed as any other individual as productive members of society. Their deaths represent a loss that can be quantified,’ he told The Associated Press.
   The cost arising from these deaths includes a wide range of expenses from medical care, legal proceedings, and lost earnings to lost investment, the 162-page report said.
   Wennmann said the report was based on figures compiled by international organisations and national authorities. The most recent available statistics from all the 90 countries surveyed were from 2004, said Wennmann, one of the editors of the report.
   He said they had more recent statistics from North America.
   In 2007, the region lost up to $46.76 billion from armed violence, he said. The vast majority of that loss — up to $44.8 billion — occurred in the United States, said Wennmann.
   Guatemala — which has a high rate of violent crime but a smaller population and a much lower GDP than the United States — the cost of armed violence was estimated to be nearly $2.4 billion in 2005, the latest year of data available, the report said. The figure includes health expenses, security costs, impact on investment and material losses.
   Cecile Molinier, who directs the UN Development Programme’s office in Geneva, said armed violence is an obstacle in the fight against poverty.
   ‘It tears apart the social fabric of communities, creates fear and insecurity, destroys human and social capital and undermines development,’ she said.
   Among the 90 countries are nations from every continent, including Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Ethiopia, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Russia and the United States.
   The report was written for the secretariat of the 2006 Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development — a document signed by 94 states that have pledged to work toward reducing the number of violent crimes.
   The United States is not a signatory of the declaration.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, has said there is no doubt that the stalled general elections in the country will be held on schedule.
   ‘I’m optimistic and confident. The elections will be held on schedule,’ he said in an interview with the Chinese news agency Xinhua Thursday ahead of his China visit.
   ‘We’re moving towards the elections. We’ve just completed the finalisation of voter list with photographs, which includes more than 80 million people,’ the chief adviser said.
   Fakhruddin said the government was providing all facilities to hold free, fair and credible elections. ‘We’ll overcome all the challenges and hold the elections on schedule,’ he said.
   When asked whether the elections would be held under the state of emergency, the chief adviser said, ‘We’ll relax it for the purpose of the elections as much as is necessary.’
   He said the government would continue to review the situation to see how they can make it possible for free, fair and credible elections in which voters would come freely to cast their votes according their best judgments.
   Fakhruddin who is paying an official visit to China on September 15 said China was a very important development partner of Bangladesh as bilateral cooperation had been expanded in many fields.
   The chief adviser expected his visit would further strengthen the already very strong and cordial friendship between the two countries and two peoples.
   ‘China has been assisting us in economic growth,’ said the chief adviser, who is going to attend the closing ceremony of Beijing Para Olympic and to meet the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, and prime minister, Wen Jiabao.
   China’s contribution to the infrastructure sector is evident, said the chief adviser, noting the six friendship bridges and the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre, a landmark building in capital Dhaka.
   The bilateral relations between Bangladesh and China are based on strong bond of friendship and common understanding on regional and international issues, he said. It can go further through mutual exchange of visit and exchange of people of various levels, he added.
   The chief adviser also expected closer economic cooperation with China and more Chinese investment.
   ‘I hope my visit will strengthen economic cooperation in different fields and trade between the two countries, and improve and increase Chinese foreign investment in Bangladesh,’ he said.
   Fakhruddin said Bangladesh was providing very attractive financial incentives for foreign investment in addition to other advantages like competitive cheap, young and trainable labour force.
   He welcomed China’s investment, especially in manufacturing and infrastructure sectors.
   Chinese contractors will be most welcome to construct the proposed Padma multipurpose bridge, which will be the largest bridge in the country involving about $1.45 billion, he said.
   ‘We’ve been good friends and we’ll continue to remain good friends in the future and let the bonds of the friendship flourish in the future,’ Fakhruddin said.

The Border Security Force of India exchanged gunfire with the Bangladesh Rifles on Hatkhola border under Panchbibi upazila of Jaipurhat early Friday, which left an Indian cattle trader injured.
   Babu Mondal, cattle trader of south Dinajpur district in West Bengal, was injured when the border guards of two countries traded gunfire at Ghona Para at about 2:15am.
   BDR personnel rescued the injured trader and admitted him to Jaipurhat Modern Hospital in critical condition after he entered into the Bangladesh territory in the dark.
   A local BDR official said the BSF troops fired three gunshots forcing the BDR men to reply with three gunshots. The Indian cattle trader was wounded by the shots fired by BSF troops.
   Meanwhile, the BSF at a flag meeting with the BDR on Hatkhola border Friday noon claimed they had to fire in self-defence. However, they expressed ignorance about the injured Indian cattle trader.
   No decision was taken in the meeting about returning the injured Indian national Babu Mondal.
   Meanwhile, a Bangladeshi cattle trader was shot dead by the BSF on Radhanagar border under Patnitala upazila in Naogaon early Friday.
   The dead was Sultan, 22, son of Azizul Haque of village Shitaldanga under the upazila.
   Local people said Sultan died on the spot as BSF troops fired on a group of cattle traders who along with cattle were returning to Bangladesh. Other traders, however, escaped unhurt.
   The BSF later took away the body to their land as BDR personnel along with local people failed to identify the body.
   Havildar Osman Gani of 46 BDR Battalion Radhanagar camp said they contacted the BSF authorities to bring back the body after his father claimed the victim as his son.

Fourteen people were killed in the north-western Pakistani region of North Waziristan on Friday in a missile attack by a pilotless US aircraft on suspected militants near the Afghan border, security officials said.
   The strike, near the town of Miranshah, was the first since a recent surge in tension between Pakistan and the United States over how to tackle the Taliban and al-Qaeda on the Pakistani side of the border.
   ‘We confirm a missile attack at around 5.30 in the morning (2330 GMT on Thursday) ... We have informed the government,’ said military spokesman Major Murad Khan.
   The military, apparently reluctant to highlight infringements of sovereignty, has rarely confirmed such attacks.
   Khan gave no more details but security officials in the region said 14 people had been killed and about 12 wounded.
   Residents said two missiles were fired at a former government school where militants and their families were living.
   An intensifying insurgency in Afghanistan has raised fears about its prospects seven years after US-led forces ousted the Taliban. That worry has compounded pressure on Pakistan to go after militants operating from enclaves on its side of the border, including in North Waziristan.
   Security forces stepped up offensives in two areas in August, the Bajaur region on the Afghan border and the Swat Valley in North West Frontier Province.
   Hundreds of people have been killed in the fighting including 100 militants in Bajaur on Thursday, the military said.
   Hours after Friday’s missile strike, a roadside bomb hit a security convoy in a nearby village, seriously wounding two soldiers. Soldiers in the convoy opened fire after the blast, wounding four civilians, residents said.
   Fears about Afghanistan’s future and frustration with Pakistani efforts to tackle the militants have led to more US missile attacks by drone aircraft in Pakistan.
   About a dozen strikes this year have killed scores of militants and some civilians.
   But in addition to missile strikes, helicopter-borne US commandos carried out a ground assault in South Waziristan last week, the first known incursion by US troops into Pakistan since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.
   Pakistan condemned the raid in which officials said 20 people, including women and children, were killed.
   The US military raised fears of more incursions on Wednesday, saying it was not winning in Afghanistan and would revise its strategy to combat militant havens in Pakistan.
   Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Kayani said in a strongly worded statement that Pakistan would not allow foreign troops onto its soil and Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would be defended at all cost. Kayani also dismissed speculation of a secret deal allowing US forces to attack.
   The New York Times reported on Thursday that president George W Bush had secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allowed US special forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the approval of the Islamabad government.
   US officials declined to comment on the report and Pakistan’s US ambassador Husain Haqqani told Reuters Bush had issued no new orders.
   Kayani ended a meeting with his top commanders on Friday saying the military, under government leadership, would protect Pakistan’s territory and there was ‘complete unanimity of views between the government and the army’ on the issue.
   Tension with the United States has added to the worries of investors who have seen Pakistan’s financial markets battered by political turmoil and economic problems.
   At the same time, Pakistan is highly vulnerable to any reduction in US financial support, given the depletion of its foreign reserves, which has sparked talk it could default on a sovereign bond next year unless it gets foreign financing.
   Pakistan’s army vowed Friday to safeguard the country’s territorial integrity under the leadership of its new democratic government, an official statement said, reports AFP.
   The statement came at the end of a two-day meeting of army commanders, amid nationwide anger over a raid by US ground troops last week and repeated missile attacks in the troubled tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
   It coincided with a pre-dawn missile strike by a suspected US drone Friday in which 14 people were killed.
   The meeting of the top brass was chaired by army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, a day after he criticised cross-border raids by US-led coalition forces, officials said.
   Addressing the commanders Kayani said that ‘all elements of the National Power under the new democratic leadership will safeguard the territorial integrity of Pakistan with full support and backing of the people of Pakistan,’ the statement issued by the military said.
   Kayani on Wednesday said the country would defend its sovereignty ‘at all cost’ and no external force would be allowed to conduct operations inside Pakistan.

The Rajshahi Medical College was on Friday closed till October 10 after clashes between the Chhatra League and Chhatra Dal Thursday night in which at least 20 students were injured.
   The boarders left the hostels after the authorities asked them to do so by 6:00pm Friday.
   The academic committee of the college at an emergency meeting in the morning decided to close the college.
   At least 20 leaders and activists of the college unit Chhatra League, student front the Awami League, and the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, student front of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, were injured in the clash at the Shaheed Shah Mainul Ahsan Pinku hostel on the campus Thursday night.
   Fifteen of the injured were admitted to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital. Others were given first aid.
   Chhatra Dal activists vandalised eight rooms of the boarders who are Chhatra League activists and Chhatra League activists ransacked four rooms of Chhatra Dal activists.
   The 15 injured are college unit Chhatra League president Dewan Mehedi Hassan Tomal and sports secretary Bablu, and college unit Chhatra Dal president Mahmudul Hassan Raju, secretary SM Shahriar Rezvi, and activists Kawsar Bhuyia, Sarwar Hossain Sony, Nizar Maruf Brinto, Rashedul Islam, Sourav Das, Harun-ur-Rashid, Jakaria Habib, Kamruzzman, Zahedul Islam, Sohail and Manjurul Karim.
   Campus sources said the clash had begun over capturing a seat in Room 205 in the hostel. Later a group of 20 Chhatra Dal activists attacked Chhatra League activists and vandalised their rooms.
   Chhatra League activists then reorganised and beat Chhatra Dal activists and ransacked their rooms. The main gate of the hostel was also damaged, the sources said.
   The Chhatra League activists said they informed the authorities and the police of the mater, but they had not responded. Lawmen reached the place two hours after the clashes.
   The college principal, Fazlur Rahman, said the authorities had decided to close the institution to stave off further trouble.
   ‘We have decided to close the college till on October 10 to avoid further clashes,’ Fazlur said. ‘Clashes will take place if the college remains open. Classes will resume on October 11.’
   The college unit Chhatra Dal’s general secretary SM Shahriar Rezvi filed a case with the Rajpara police on Friday against 26 Chhatra League leaders and activists in this connection.
   The students left the campus, vacating the hostels, before evening.
   The college unit Chhatra League condemned the attack and demanded arrest of and punishment for the Chhatra Dal activists responsible for this.
   Police deployment was reinforced on the campus.

The Awami League’s acting president, Zillur Rahman, on Friday said that whether or not Abdul Jalil would be replaced as the general secretary of the party would be decided ‘after party chief Sheikh Hasina returns’.
   He, however, said that the party at the moment did not want Jalil to take charge as the general secretary because of some technical problems.
   ‘We have all talked with our leader, Sheikh Hasina, about Abdul Jalil,’ he said, adding that the AL would make a decision
   about Jalil’s fate after Hasina’s return.
   Sheikh Hasina, now in the United States, is likely to return by the end of this month, the party leaders had said earlier.
   Zillur said told reporters at his Gulshan residence that Jalil had earlier resigned from the post of the party’s general secretary and the matter has not yet been finalised. ‘The Awami League will not reinstate him until it comes to a decision about his resignation.’
   He said the joint general secretary of the party, Syed Ashraful Islam, had been asked to continue the functions of the general secretary until a decision was made.
   Jalil, in a confidential letter on July 2, 2007, a month after his arrest on May 28 that year, had launched a virulent attack on Sheikh Hasina, accusing her of making decisions unilaterally and landing party colleagues in trouble, and declared that he would quit politics if necessary.
   The letter was sent to both President Iajuddin Ahmed and Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed. His wife, Rehana Jalil, read out the letter at a press conference in her Gulshan residence on July 5, 2007, the contents of which were carried by all dailies on July 6.
   When his attention was drawn to Jalil’s claims that he was still the general secretary as per the party’s Constitution, Zillur said it would have been good for Jalil if he had not made such a ‘rash decision.’
   Immediately after being granted bail by the High Court in a corruption case on Wednesday, Jalil announced he was reassuming the office of the party’s general secretary. On Thursday he formally resumed his organisational activities after placing flowers before Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s mural portrait at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum.
   When Zillur was asked whether Hasina had endorsed the party’s tough stance against Jalil, he said they had taken the stand after getting the green light from her.
   But he was quick to add that Jalil would always be with the Awami League as the party does not want to lose him.

Ailing Tarique Rahman, the eldest son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, along with his family members reached in London by an Emirates flight Friday morning for treatment.
   Scores of activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its front organisations received him at Gatwick Airport at about 7:15am (local time).
   Tarique is accompanied by his wife Dr Jubaida Rahman, daughter Jaima Jarnaz Rahman, wife’s elder sister Shahina Khan and her husband retired Air Commodore Shafiuzzaman as well as his personal physician Kazi Mazharul Islam Dolan.
   From the airport, he straight went to the Southgate in central London where he will be staying at a house arranged earlier for him.
   Before getting admitted to a London hospital, two physicians will examine him at that house on the advice of the physicians. His treatment will start at King’s Oak Hospital here Tuesday
   Tarique flew for London on Thursday night along with his family members shortly after his just-released mother gave him a tearful send-off.
   His scheduled trip was postponed on Wednesday night following last-minute complications, as his mother, who was detained in a sub-jail, wished to see him before he left the country.
   BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia visited Tarique at Bangbandhu sheikh Mujib Medical University on Thursday afternoon in an emotional reunion between the mother and the son after their release from prison.
   The former prime minister was released on bail from the makeshift jail on the parliament complex earlier in the day.
   Tarique was released on bail on September 3 from the prison cell of the BSMMU after nearly 18 months in detention.
   Tarique, 43, considered a political heir of the Zia family, was arrested on March 7, 2007 at their cantonment residence by army-led joint forces amid a purge against crime and corruption after the 11/1 changeover following a political crisis over election issues.
   His mother Khaleda Zia and younger brother Arafat Rahman were also arrested on graft charges. Arafat was released on July 17 on health grounds and is now undergoing treatment for respiratory complications at Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok.
   Of the 13 pending cases against Tarique, nine were filed by the police and individuals on various charges, including extortion, three by the Anti-Corruption Commission on charges of graft, and another by the National Board of Revenue for tax evasion.

The Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, expelled the US envoy to Caracas late Thursday and threatened to halt crude exports to the United States on a day he highlighted the recent arrival of two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers.
   Chavez on Thursday ordered US ambassador Patrick Duddy to leave the country within 72 hours, in a move he described as an act of solidarity with Venezuela’s ally Bolivia, which also expelled its US envoy.
   ‘Starting at this moment the Yankee ambassador in Caracas has 72 hours to leave Venezuela,’ Chavez said at a public event in the port city of Puerto Cabello, 120 kilometres west of Caracas.
   He said it was ‘in solidarity’ with the leftist government of president Evo Morales in Bolivia, which on Wednesday ordered the US ambassador to La Paz to leave. Washington late Thursday expelled Bolivia’s ambassador to the United States.
   Chavez then threatened to halt the supply of oil to the United States, its main client, if Washington attacks his government.
   ‘If there is any aggression towards Venezuela’ from Washington, ‘there would be no oil for the people of the United States,’ said Chavez, who used coarse expletives to disparage the US government.
   Also Thursday Chavez announced that his government had uncovered a coup plot hatched by active and retired military officers, which he said had tacit US approval.
   A military prosecutor said two officers — retired general Wilfredo Barroso and retired major Elimides Labarca Soto — will be tried for incitement to rebellion, a charge punishable by five to 10 years in prison.
   At least eight other officers were detained in connection with the plot and were being interrogated, the prosecutor said.
   Venezuelan public television aired a recorded conversation allegedly between three high-ranking retired military officers discussing plans to storm the presidential palace in Caracas, target Chavez, and blow up the presidential airplane.
   ‘We have already detained several people,’ Chavez said.
   ‘Look, pitiyanquis, don’t even think of launching a coup or some madness such as this. I warn you, I am not the Hugo Chavez of 2002,’ he said, referring to a failed coup attempt against him in April of that year, when he was briefly ousted for two days before mass protests saw him freed and return to power.
   Chavez, a former paratroop officer, headed a failed coup attempt himself in 1992. He was elected president in 1999.
   ‘I have no doubt at all that the United States is behind plans to bomb this palace,’ Chavez said, warning that ‘difficult times’ lied ahead for Venezuela.
   The anti-US leader frequently alleges assassination and coup plots against him, usually pointing the finger at the United States.
   Chavez said those behind the latest plot were part of the country’s ‘desperate political opposition’ and ‘the American empire’ led by the US president, George W Bush.
   Earlier in the day Chavez said the presence of two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers in Venezuela is a ‘warning’ to the US ‘empire,’ as he announced another coup plot against him had been foiled and suspects arrested.
   ‘It’s a warning. Russia is with us ... we are strategic allies,’ said Chavez. ‘It is a message to the empire. Venezuela is no longer poor and alone.’
   Chavez had announced Wednesday that two Russian bombers were in Venezuela for ‘training flights’ and that he would be piloting one of the aircraft himself.

BRAC founder and chairperson Fazle Hasan Abed has been selected for the David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award for his innovative work to empower poor people.
   The award, which will also be presented this year to Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, will be given at a programme in New York on September 23, a BRAC University release said.
   The Synergos Institute selected Abed for the award for his outstanding contribution in eliminating poverty and ensuring basic human rights of the poor and enhance their opportunities to secure a better future, the release said.
   The David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award is presented each year by Synergos to extraordinary leaders, who show vision and courage in bringing people together to address the most critical issues of the time.
   The first such honouree was David Rockefeller, after whom the award is named. The award was presented to former South African president Nelson Mandela as well as the co-chairs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and William H Gates Sr in 2007.
   The Synergos Institute is an independent non-profitable organisation dedicated to the development of effective, sustainable and locally-based solutions to poverty.
   Working with partners, Synergos mission is to mobilise resources and bridge social and economic divides to reduce poverty and increase equity around the world, said the release.

Party activists have started gathering at the central office of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party at Naya Paltan after the party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, opened it on Thursday.
   Soon after being released on bail, Khaleda Zia drove to the party central office at Naya Paltan bringing an end to the hiatus of one year and six months after the caretaker government slapped a ban on political activities across the country on March 4, 2007.
   Though offices of others political parties came back to life after the withdrawal of the ban on indoor politics on September 10, 2007, the law enforcement agencies kept the BNP central office closed as the splinter group of the party filed a general diary with Motijheel police station.
   The authorities on November 14 allowed the Saifur-led splinter group to enter the party central office and M Saifur Rahman and Maj (retd) Hafiz Uddin Ahmed went there under police protection.
   However, no leaders or activists of any of the factions visited the party office since November 14, 2007.
   During a visit on Friday afternoon, the party central office was found open though some 30-40 policemen were still on guard at the entrance.
   Some leaders and activists of the party's front organisations visited the office on Friday, a weekly holiday. They exchanged pleasantries and conducted official activities.
   'The presence of party activists is thin as today is Friday and it is the month of Ramadan and only yesterday there
   was a huge gathering to greet Khaleda Zia after her
   release,', Anwar Hossain, acting general secretary of the Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal, told New Age.
   However, a large number of leaders and activists are expected to turn up at the party's Naya Paltan office today (Saturday) for the standing committee meeting convened by the chairperson.

Saudi Arabia has stopped recruiting domestic helpers and farm labourers from Bangladesh while those living in the oil-rich country find uncertainty about how long they will be able to stay there, according to a report published in a front-ranking Saudi newspaper on Friday.
   'Although workers in other categories [excepting for domestic helpers and farm labourers] are continuing to arrive in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, those already here, including doctors and nurses, are uncertain about staying here much longer,' Saudi Gazette quoted Waheedur Rahman, minister and deputy chief of mission at the Bangladeshi Embassy in Riyadh, as saying.
   'Starting April 2008, no domestic helpers, including housemaids and drivers, and agriculture labourers, were being recruited to work in Saudi Arabia, although no official notification was issued by the labour ministry to the embassy in this regard,' Rahman said.
   Around 8,000 Bangladeshi housemaids had arrived before April 2008 at an average rate of 300 arrivals a month, he said.
   'Saudi Arabia wants to be self-reliant in farm sector and it can be the reason for the decision to stop recruiting Bangladeshi farm workers,' he said. The minister said that Bangladeshi expatriates in Saudi Arabia were facing problems such as refusal to transfer sponsorship and to extend iqama (residence permit) of the Bangladeshi children, after their turn 18, despite living here with their parents.
   'When the parents apply for (iqama) renewal, the authorities give an exit-only visa,' he said, adding that several families have had to send their children, particularly daughters, back to Bangladesh.
   'The Embassy receives several calls every day from our workers about the refusal of sponsorship transfer even in professional job categories such as doctors and nurses,' he added.
   Hundreds of Bangladeshi workers have been refused sponsorship transfer, he said, adding that the Embassy has taken up the matter with Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was waiting for a response.
   A recruiting agent told the newspaper that Bangladeshis were being singled out since 'sponsorship transfer of other nationalities is continuing as usual.'
   A huge number of Bangladeshi schoolchildren, who are about to turn 18 risk deportation, the agent said. 'This is a big problem facing Bangladeshi families living in the Kingdom, especially those working as doctors, engineers and accountants.'
   The Saudi immigration rule states that an expatriate child who turns 18 may stay in the Kingdom on a separate iqama, but under the sponsorship of his/her parent. Negative media coverage about Bangladeshis involved in criminal activities could be reason why all Bangladeshi nationals living in Saudi Arabia are in this fix, the agent said.

Hurricane Ike moved on Friday within 24 hours of striking the densely populated Texas coast near Houston with a possible 20-foot (6-meter) wall of water in what may be the worst storm to hit Texas in nearly 50 years.
   Ike was a Category 2 storm with 105 mph (168 kph) winds and likely will come ashore late on Friday or early on Saturday as a dangerous Category 3 storm on the five-step intensity scale with winds of more than 111 mph (178 kph), the National Hurricane Centre said.
   The National Weather Service warned that persons not heeding evacuation orders 'may face certain death' and many homes of average construction on the coast will be destroyed.
   Hundreds of thousands fled the island city of Galveston and low-lying counties under mandatory evacuation orders and authorities urged holdouts to move before Ike's winds started to make car travel dangerous.
   'If you think you want to ride out the storm, and you're looking at a 20-foot wall of water coming at you, you better think again,' said Houston Mayor Bill White, whose sprawling city of 2 million encompasses low areas in extreme danger.
   In Galveston - site of a 1900 hurricane that was the deadliest weather disaster in US history - residents nervously eyed the surf pounding the sea wall and splashing over the coast road early Friday.
   'I've never seen it like that before. I'm scared, I'm leaving,' said motel manager Roy Patel. He had boarded up the office of the Economy Motel on the sea front and was headed out to the mainland by car.
   In central Houston, the administrative hub of the nation's oil industry around 50 miles inland from Galveston, businesses closed and boarded up windows Thursday night in preparation for possible hurricane-force winds and flooding. But officials said most residents should "shelter in place" since the city is some 50 feet above sea level. A slew of oil refineries located in Galveston Bay that account for around 12 percent of US capacity were also in the storm's likely path. US crude futures rose $0.50 to $101.38 a barrel.
   Weather forecasters at Planalytics saw 'major and long-term damage likely at the major refining cities.'
   Ike comes just 10 days after Hurricane Gustav pounded the Louisiana coast and sent 2 million people fleeing, but largely spared a New Orleans still struggling with the destruction of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
   But in this active hurricane season that has had the Atlantic and Gulf coasts on high alert, Ike posed its own challenges because of its large scope, bigger than Katrina's. Hurricane-force winds could extend out up to 120 miles (195 km). At 8:00am EDT on Friday, the hurricane centre said in its latest advisory Ike was about 230 miles southeast of Galveston. It was moving west-northwest at 13 mph (20 kph).
   Much to authorities' frustration, holdouts harked back to the bad experience of the last large-scale evacuation in Texas in 2005, when 2 million people fled Hurricane Rita, getting stranded on highways for hours and running out of gasoline. Rita largely skirted the Houston area.
   'We have pets, we can't travel,' said Monette Baugh, clutching her poodle as she walked the Galveston sea wall. 'We stayed for Rita, and we are staying this time. You listen to the TV and you are petrified. They have a tendency to exaggerate. But yes, this is scary.'
   Local television said Ike looked to pose the biggest threat to the Texas coast since Hurricane Carla in 1961, which struck as a Category 4 storm and caused over $2 billion in damage and 43 deaths.

Asia is making progress in reducing extreme poverty but faces an uphill battle to improve child nutrition and lower child mortality rates, the United Nations said on Thursday.
   The UN's annual Millennium Development Goals report, released on Thursday in New Delhi, showed East Asia and Southeast Asia making the most progress in reducing poverty levels, although South Asia lagged behind.
   In South Asia, progress was slow in India, with the number of people living in extreme poverty rising by 20 million between 1990 and 2005, the report said. But it did manage to lower its poverty levels to 41 per cent from 52 per cent in the same period, officials said.
   The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living with less than $1.25 a day and poverty as living on less than $2 a day.
   The MDGs are eight social and economic development benchmarks set by the world body for nations to accomplish by 2015. They include reducing poverty levels, increasing universal education and fighting the spread of AIDS.
   India is not on track to meet half its MDGs by 2015, experts presenting the report said. More political will is required to reduce extreme poverty and hunger, improve maternal health and combat diseases.
   'Policies are not the issues, there are very many good policies, it's all about the implementation,' Maxine Olson, the UN resident coordinator, said in New Delhi during the launch.
   Olson said India also needed to bring down child mortality rates.
   In 2006, 2.1 million children under five years of age died in India, the biggest number after China.
   India is the world's second most populous nation and UNICEF said global efforts to improve child survival would fail unless it did better.
   In East Asia and Southeast Asia, the number of people living under the extreme poverty line dropped to 18 per cent in 2005 from 56 per cent in 1990.
   Overall, child malnutrition remained high in Asia, especially in South Asia, home to half of the world's underweight children. East Asia, by contrast, faired better, with only seven percent of all children malnourished in 2005.
   Child malnutrition accounts for more than one third of all deaths of children under five, the report said.

Prices of some essential goods, especially vegetables, spices and fruit, started declining in the middle of the past week, about a week inside Ramadan.
   Cooking oil prices marked a sharp decline, but salt became dearer because of price increase on the wholesale market, traders said.
   Indian onions sold for prices between Tk 18 and Tk 20 a kilogram at Jatrabari on Friday. The prices ranged between Tk 26 and Tk 28 a week ago.
   The local variety sold for prices between Tk 30 and Tk 34 against the Tk 34-36 ranges the week before.
   Ginger was retailed between Tk 56 and Tk 80 a kilogram. The prices ranged between Tk 76 and Tk 100 a week ago.
   Imported multi-clove garlic sold for prices between Tk 32 and Tk 38, against the Tk 36-Tk 42 ranges the week before.
   Dry chilli sold for prices between Tk 100 and Tk 130; the prices ranged between Tk 110 and Tk 150 the week before.
   Green grocers of Thathari Bazar on Friday said sales declined in comparison with what they had sole in the first week of Ramadan They said prices had declined although vegetable supplies remained poor because of flooding in many districts.
   Potato sold for prices between Tk 16 and Tk 118 a kilogram at Thathari Bazar on Friday. Aubergine was retailed between Tk 36 and Tk 50, cucumber between Tk 24 and Tk 36, pointed gourd between Tk 20 and 22, and okra between Tk 28 and Tk 32.
   Green banana was retailed between Tk 12 and Tk 16 four pieces while a piece of summer bottle gourd sold between Tk 20 and Tk 30.
   Rice and flour prices remained unchanged in the week. Coarse variety rice verities were retailed between Tk 31 and Tk 34 and fine rice between Tk 37 and Tk 44.
   Fine grade 'super palm' oil per kilogram sold at Tk 80 at Thatari bazaar on Friday down from Tk 92 a week ago and Tk 100 a couple of weeks back. The popular five-litre can of bottled soya bean of different brands retailed between Tk 526 and Tk 536 down by Tk 50 over the week.
   Wholesale prices of super palm, which meets about two-thirds of demand for cooking oil, declined to Tk 68.4 a kilogram or Tk 2,550 a maund (37.3kg) against Tk 2,700 a week ago and Tk 3,900 in July.
   Prices of salt, which was retailed between Tk 14 and Tk 18 a kilogram, increased by Tk 2 in two weeks as the prices increased on the wholesale market.
   Prices of sugar, which was retailed between Tk 36 and Tk 38 a kilogram, remained unchanged in the week. But the prices declined on the wholesale market to Tk 1,240 a maund from Tk 1,290 a week ago.
   Beef sold between Tk 190 and Tk 210 a kilogram, broiler between Tk 115 and Tk 120 and eggs between Tk 66 and Tk 72 a dozen.
   Red lentils were retailed between Tk 88 and Tk 110 a kilogram and chick pea between Tk 50 and Tk 58.
   Fresh fruit prices also declined as, traders said, supplies increased.

The Rajshahi University syndicate on Thursday decided to reopen the institution on October 12. The halls will be reopened on October 11.
   'The syndicate decided to resume classes on October 12 and the residence halls will be opened on October 11,' the registrar, Muhammad Shafi, told reporters on Friday.
   The university was on August 20 closed for an indefinite period over clashes between students and local traders in which 60, including teachers, students and policemen, were injured.
   The residence halls will be reopened October 11, sources attending the syndicate meeting said.
   Eight out of the 17 syndicate members held the meeting, chaired by the acting vice-chancellor Mamnunul Kerammat Thursday night, the sources said.
   The meeting also decided not to form any liaison committee in connection with the August 20 campus incidents, saying the committee formed earlier will look into the matter.

The Equity and Justice Working Group on Friday said that the image of Bangladesh was tarnished by the Bangladeshi delegation in the UK-Bangladesh Climate Change Conference held in London on September 10.
   The group leaders at a press conference at the Dhaka Reporter's Unity said the Bangladeshi delegation led by the finance adviser, Mirza Azizul Islam, was forgetful about the image of the country and the adviser's proposal in the conference had created controversy.
   Mirza Azizul said in his speech on Wednesday that the World Bank should oversee the activities of the Multi-Donor Trust Fund formed to support the government initiatives to adapt to climate changes.
   This statement of the adviser has stripped the country of its dignity and distanced Bangladesh from the G-77 and other developing countries, the convener of the group Rezaul Karim Chowdhury said at the press conference.
   The countries in the G-8 and other international donor agencies like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank might use the stand of Bangladesh as an example for establishing their interests, the group leaders said.
   The group leaders proposed formation of a Public Commission on Ecological Debt Assessment to find the losses of Bangladesh for climate changes.
   They also proposed formation of a Public Commission on the Foreign Aid Utilisation.
   If the World Bank is allowed to supervise the use of climate change fund it will increase its control on the country, the group said.
   The group also proposed reconsideration of the finance adviser's proposal of giving the WB the responsibility to oversee handling of the climate fund.
   The group leaders Sahadat Islam Chowdhury, Bazlur Rahman and Mostafa Kamal Akhand were also present at the press conference.

More than a thousand people contracted waterborne diseases in the flood-affected regions in the past 24 hours as floodwaters continued to recede with steady fall in the major river systems.
   The control room at the health directorate said 1,195 people were attacked by diarrhoea in 24 hours till 6:00pm Friday pushing the number of the affected people to 17,565 in the past week.
   People in the flood-affected districts continued to suffer for poor relief activities and there were reports of clashes in several places over relief supplies.
   Reports from Faridpur said affected people clashed with the members of the union council at Sadipur over faulty distribution of relief.
   The locals alleged that members of the union council had distributed relief cards among the people of their choice ignoring the people in distress.
   People in the affected districts received five kilograms of rice for a family under the government's general relief programme.
   Waterborne diseases are spreading in the flood-hit areas, where medical teams are distributing only oral rehydration salt and water purification tablets to peoples who took shelter on roads and embankments. The teams were reluctant to visit the remote areas.
   Flooding in Charbhadrasan, Sadarpur, Bhanga, Nagarkanda and Faridpur sadar improved in the past three days though the Padma was still flowing above the danger mark.
   The Brahmaputra-Jamuna, the Ganges and the Meghna kept falling on Friday and the trend was expected to continue for next two to three days.
   The confluence of Padma and Jamuna at Goalundo and Bhagyakul also continued receding and the situation in the east part of Dhaka and on its fringes is expected to improve in the next 48 hours, said flood forecasters.
   Rivers continued to fall at 52 points of 73 monitoring points across the country on Friday and at 13 points they were flowing above the danger mark.

Trial proceedings of the cases filed with the divisional speedy trial tribunal in Sylhet have remained suspended for eight months due to the absence of judges, adding to the sufferings of the litigants.
   The sensational cases, including the one filed in connection with the grenade attack on the immediate-past British High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Anwar Chowdhury, remain pending with the divisional STT, sources in the tribunal said.
   Trial activities are being disrupted as no judge has been appointed to the tribunal so far after the transfer of Judge Dipraman Sarker on January 26, the sources added.
   Fakharuddin, special public prosecutor of the tribunal, said the authorities concerned had been requested repeatedly to appoint a judge for the disposal of the cases pending with the STT.
   'But the issue is yet to be addressed. Delay in appointing the judge has created concern among the litigants, about getting timely judgment in the cases pending,' he added.
   Talking to New Age, the district bar association president, Dewan Golam Rabbani Chowdhury, said the crisis resulting from the absence of judges in some important courts in Sylhet deepened after the separation of the judiciary in November last year.
   'However, the problem has been resolved partially through appointing judges to some courts. We hope the authorities will take the initiative to appoint a judge soon to the divisional speedy trail tribunal in the interest of quick disposal of the sensational cases,' he added.

At least 23 people were killed when Taliban insurgents ambushed a US security firm convoy in south-western Afghanistan on Friday, provincial officials said, the second attack on the firm in as many days.
   Farah provincial police chief Khalilullah Rahmani said 15 of the dead were Taliban militants killed in the fighting that broke out following the ambush.
   Rahmani said US Protection and Investigations, a firm involved in escorting supplies for coalition forces, also suffered casualties but he had no details. 'The Taliban militants attacked the convoy with heavy machineguns; four vehicles were set on fire,' said a provincial official who asked not to be named.
   He said four Afghan guards and four civilians had been killed in the ambush that took place when the convoy was passing through Bakwa district in Farah province.
   Another convoy of the security firm was attacked on Thursday in Kandahar city and two people were killed.
   Separately, the US military said coalition forces had killed more than 10 militants and detained two during operations in eastern Afghanistan that also targeted the network of veteran Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani.