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The first phase of upazila elections may not be held on October 23 due to time constrains, delay in finalising upazila electoral rules and in the face of strong opposition from major political parties.
   The election commissioners have refrained from making the commission’s position clear on upazila polls pending its talks with the BNP, but indicated that they have dropped the plan for holding elections to 200-250 upazila parishads in the last week of October.
   The commission does not have sufficient time for holding the polls on October 23 after it failed to announce the schedule till Sunday. The commission, earlier, on several occasions said they would announce the schedule by September 10.
   According to tradition, election schedule are announced 40 t0 45 days before the polling date. The commission has 38 days from today to finalise all arrangements if it were to hold upazila polls on October 23.
   The commission has now decided to wait until after it holds dialogue with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which earlier boycotted the talks, to take a decision on upazila polls.
   ‘We are waiting for talks with the BNP’, ATM Shamsul Huda told reporters on Sunday when he was asked whether the EC would change its mind and conduct upazila poll after parliamentary elections as demanded by major political parties.
   Shamsul Huda, accompanied by two of his deputies, on Sunday called on chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed and apprised him of the preparations for holding the ninth parliamentary polls and political parties’ strong opposition to the plan for holding upazila elections first.
   The top leaders of the BNP-led alliance will hold a meeting tomorrow to take crucial decisions on dialogues with the interim government and the Election Commission, on electoral reforms and contesting polls.
   BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia is scheduled to preside over the meeting to be held at the party’s central office at Nayapaltan in the city tomorrow afternoon.
   ‘BNP has decided to participate in the dialogue. But final decisions on joining dialogues and contesting polls will be taken at the meeting of the alliance’, BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain said after a meeting of the party’s standing committee Saturday.
   BNP and its allies were persistently demanding, among other things, lifting of the state of emergency to create an atmosphere conducive to elections and holding of parliamentary elections first. ‘We are not against upazila elections. But parliamentary polls should be held first to hand over power to elected representatives of the people’, Khaleda Zia said after her release on bail on September 11.
   Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed on Friday evening invited BNP and its chairperson Khaleda Zia to the electoral dialogue with the government while four advisers visited her at her Dhaka Cantonment residence as a part of their move to begin formal electoral talks with the party.
   Election commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain told a news agency on Saturday that it might not be possible for the commission to hold upazila elections from Oct 23 as planned.
   Explaining the reasons for the possible delay, he said that the EC was yet to hold talks with the BNP and the electoral code of conduct and rules had not yet been given the all-clear by the law ministry.
   The EC initially planned to hold polls to over 250 upazila parishads from October 23, before parliamentary elections, and to the rest of the upazilas after the national elections. But it changed the plan in the face of strong opposition from political parties and due to the floods, sources said. Finally, the EC’s revised decision to hold elections to a few upazila parishads was also rejected by the Awami League and its allies.

Six national players, dealing a major blow to Bangladesh cricket, retired from all forms of international and domestic cricket on Sunday, reportedly to participate in the breakaway Indian Cricket League.
   The decision of the six players — Habibul Bashar, Shahriar Nafees, Aftab Ahmed, Dhiman Ghosh, Farhad Reza and Mosharraf Hossain — was made following a report that at least 14 leading cricketers were going to join the ICL.
   All the Bangladeshi players will form a team, named the Dhaka Warriors, to play in the third edition of the Twenty20 competition slated to begin from October 10.
   The other cricketers linked with the competition are Alok Kapali, Nazim Uddin, Mohammad Rafique, Manjurul Islam, Tapash Baishya, Mohammad Sharif, Mahbubul Karim and Golam Mabud.
   Apart from Karim and Mabud, all of them have represented Bangladesh in Tests or One-Day Internationals. But only seven are still contracted players of the Bangladesh Cricket Board.
   Of the seven contracted players, excepting Nazim Uddin, six have now severed their ties with the BCB. Unconfirmed sources said Nazim too had reportedly sent a letter through fax from his hometown Chittagong, seeking retirement.
   The other players came to the BCB to submit their letters of retirement in the morning at a time when there was no one to receive them. The players later left the BCB office, leaving the letters at the reception.
   The officials of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, after coming to know of the sudden retirement, rushed to the office at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur and called an emergency meeting.
   ‘We are astonished at the sudden decision of the players. It was totally unexpected. We called them over the phone, sent text messages, but no one responded,’ the dumbfounded chairman of the cricket operations committee, Gazi Ashraf Hossain, told reporters at a press briefing.
   ‘Officially we don’t know why they have taken such a decision; all of them have mentioned “personal grounds” in their letters, which were all written in the same language. We have called them to the BCB at 2:00pm on Tuesday. Hopefully they will revoke their decision,’ said Gazi Ashraf.
   Ashraf read out the letter from all-rounder Farhad Reza which said, ‘I have taken the decision to retire from all international, first-class and club cricket. This is totally my personal decision and I wish Bangladesh cricket team all success.’
   Among the retired cricketers Farhad and Dhiman were in the Bangladesh squad for the three-match series against Australia. They are now expected to sign a contract with the ICL authority shortly.
   Ashraf said they would follow the ICC guideline in dealing with the players joining the ICL, a league that failed to get approval from the the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
   The players who participated in the earlier editions of the league have been banned from playing international cricket by their respective national cricket boards.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Sunday refused the party standing committee’s proposal that she should lead the party for life.
   ‘I am grateful for the proposal placed at the standing committee asking me to be at the helm of the party for life. The proposal has reflected the emotion and demand of the time. But I, with due respect for their [party activists] sentiment, decline the proposal, which is inconsistent with the constitution of the party’, she said in a statement on Sunday afternoon.
   ‘There is no provision in the [party] constitution [allowing someone] to hold a post or to remain in the leadership for life.’
   Khaleda, also former prime minister, said that she was aware of history and, at the same time, respectful to democratic practices. ‘I do not think that leadership is a permanent settlement.’
   ‘BNP, as a democratic party, is run by a constitution and democratic practices. All leaders, including the chairperson, are elected democratically’, she said adding, ‘I hope the party will always maintain the democratic spirit.’
   Three members of the party’s standing committee, including secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain and party spokesman Nazrul Islam Khan on Sunday clarified the committee’s decision on Khaleda Zia’s lifelong leadership.
   The BNP standing committee at a meeting on Saturday with Khaleda Zia in the chair announced that she would lead the party for life.
   ‘The standing committee has not taken any decision that she will remain “chairperson for life”,’ Khandaker Delwar Hossain told New Age on Sunday.
   According to the party constitution, only the party’s national council reserves the authority to elect the chairperson, Delwar said.
   Khandakar Mahbubuddin Ahmed, a standing committee member, told reporters that the committee had not approved any proposal asking Khaleda Zia to continue as party chairperson for life. ‘The way Chowdhury Tanvir Ahmed Siddiqui read out the statement created the confusion’, he said.
   Nazrul Islam Khan said, ‘Lifelong leadership does not mean that she will remain the party chairperson for life.’
   He hoped that the explanations would remove the ‘misunderstandings’ caused by the statements made at the press conference after the meeting of the standing committee Saturday evening.
   Delwar told reporters on Saturday evening that the standing committee had ‘unanimously’ approved two proposals, among others, placed by its member Chowdhury Tanvir Ahmed Siddiqui.
   Chowdhury Tanvir read out, ‘She [Khaleda] will lead the party in good health for life as she has earned respect both for her and the party by ensuring her release from prison through a legal process. Nothing will happen [in the party] “minus” her, “minus” Khaleda.’
   He told reporters on Sunday, ‘Neither have I proposed to make Khaleda Zia ‘chairperson for life’ nor the meeting approved such proposal.’
   The BNP held its council session way back in 1993, although its constitution requires the session to be held once every two years to elect the chairperson, among other tasks. Khaleda Zia was elected the BNP chairperson in 1998. No election has been held ever since although the party constitution says it should be held at the party’s national council session.

The Awami League’s central leadership on Sunday set a number of conditions for the holding of the proposed meeting between AL president Sheikh Hasina and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia.
   They said that Khaleda, prior to the talks, would have to apologise to the people for the misrule during her tenure as prime minister and for involvement in the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an AL rally that nearly killed Hasina.
   They alleged that through Khaleda’s activities it has been proved that the BNP not only negotiated with, but also surrendered to, the interim administration.
   The AL leaders were addressing a protest rally organised by the Juba League’s Dhaka city (north) unit, demanding unconditional release of Hasina, withdrawal of cases against Juba League chairman Jahangir Kabir Nanak and release of its general secretary Mirza Azam.
   Abul Bashar, president of the Juba League, Dhaka city (north) unit, presided over the programme at the Engineers Institution.
   AL presidium member Amir Hossain Amu, while addressing the rally, alleged that Khaleda Zia’s actions have proved that the BNP not only negotiated with but surrendered to the interim government.
   He smelled a rat in the four advisers’ meeting with only Khaleda Zia at her residence, and said that it might be a conspiracy against the Awami League.
   ‘The advisers had a meeting with Sheikh Hasina in the presence of the party’s presidium members but Khaleda talked alone with the advisers. Why were the standing committee members of BNP not allowed to be present at the meeting? Maybe they were hatching a conspiracy,’ said Amu.
   Referring to the proposed meeting of Hasina and Khaleda, he said the party would take a decision on the meeting only after Hasina obtains regular bail.
   Amu said Khaleda, by forcing her son Tarique Rahman to resign from the party, has proved that he was steeped in corruption.
   He warned that the AL would launch tougher protest programmes if Hasina was not permanently freed immediately.
   Another presidium member, Tofail Ahmed, also alleged that a conspiracy is being hatched against the Awami League and urged all the party-men to remain alert.
   He demanded withdrawal all cases against Hasina, and said that only her permanent release can create a level playing field in the country. ‘Our leader is now abroad for treatment under parole, while a free Khaleda Zia is holding a standing committee meeting in BNP’s office.’ Tofail said.
   ‘With such double standards, how can the government create a level playing field in the country?’ asked Tofail.
   He urged the interim administration to release Sheikh Hasina permanently, and stated that the party would contest the elections only under her leadership
   Tofail demanded full withdrawal of the state of emergency and opined that any election under a state of emergency would neither be accepted by the countrymen nor the international community.
   Another presidium member, Suranjit Sengupta, set two conditions before the Hasina-Khaleda talks, saying that Khaleda would have to apologise for the misrule during her regime and her involvement in the August 21 grenade attack before the meeting.
   He also said the interim government would have to make it clear why Hasina should sit for a meeting with Khaleda.
   Suranjit raised questions about the process of Tarique Rahman’s release, saying that the government must say clearly why Tarique was allowed to leave the country though he was accused of smuggling thousands of crores of takas abroad.
   Referring to the decision of BNP’s standing committee that Khaleda Zia will lead the party for life, he asked, ‘Is this democracy?’
   ‘The BNP is an autocratic party and the standing committee’s meeting has proved this beyond doubt,’ said Suranjit, adding that democracy is not safe in their hands.
   Juba League leaders Mojibur Rahman Chowdhury, Harun-or-Rashid, Faruq Hossain, Enayet Karim Chanchal and Mainul Hossain Khan Nikil, along with others, spoke at the rally.

The much-discussed 100-day rural employment guarantee scheme begins today with floodwaters limiting job scopes in many areas including the chronically poverty-stricken northern districts, the initial target of the programme, officials said.
   Road work is the only job specified under the scheme for the targeted people in this period of year when farm activities remain slow. But construction or repair of road will be difficult in the northern region where many areas are under flood water, field level officials said.
   ‘Workers need to dig paddy fields for construction or rehabilitation of the roads. How they will do it in water?’ an administrative official of Rangpur told New Age on Monday.
   He suggested that some alternative job options could have been there in the scheme.
   The Tk 2,000 crore scheme will be implemented in two phases — mid-September to mid-November and March to April – representing two lean periods of the year.
   The scheme is targeted to create jobs for 20 lakh people with a daily pay of Tk 100 for five months [20 days per month] to shield the hard-pressed rural poor from soaring prices of essential commodities.
   It also kept a provision for those who would not get any job during the lean period, since the scheme is meant for guaranteeing jobs for the rural people.
   In that case any eligible man or woman would be given Tk 40 daily for the first 30 days of the specific season and Tk 50 for the rest of the period.
   Officials said the amount was just enough for buying a kilogram of rice and the rural people would rather be happy to work for a full day than to get a lump sum without doing any work.
   Moreover, officials in a few northern districts even failed to prepare the list of the poor people who are eligible for the scheme, first of its kind in the country.
   Anomalies were reported from some places in the preparation of the lists by local government representatives. ‘We are looking into some allegations of irregularities related to the registration of jobless people,’ additional deputy commissioner of Rangpur told New Age. Economist Zaid Bakht said the project was good. ‘But strong monitoring is needed to prevent any pilferage,’ he said adding that the government should select the employment for both sustainable development and poverty alleviation.
   He also suggested that the government should take measures to check inflation as the fresh cash flow would surge the demand and create further pressure on the market.
   Under the scheme’s coverage, the government will ensure employment for at least one member of each of the households mainly in the districts which are prone to monga [seasonal joblessness] and also those which have concentration of chars, haors and flood-affected areas.

The commerce adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, on Sunday said former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League president who is now abroad on parole, would need to initiate a move for her release through a legal process.
   He said the government was working out a mode to bring two top leaders —Hasina and the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia — across the table for a discussion where social forces would also have an important role to play.
   ‘We have talked with Rafique-ul Huq, counsel for both the before a special judge’s court on the Jatiya Sangsad complex.
   She also filed another petition seeking stay on the proceedings of the MIG-29 warplane purchase scam case.
   Her counsel Shafique Ahmed told journalists that in her petition Hasina had sought bail and stay on the proceedings in the extortion case, filed against her with the Gulshan police on June 13, 2007.
   ‘A High Court bench on August 28 issued a rule on the government asking it to explain the legality of the case. We have now appealed for Hasina’s bail in the case and stay on the proceedings along with the August 28 High Court order,’ he said.
   Shafique also said Hasina had filed another writ petition challenging the framing of charges against her and six others in the MiG-29 warplanes purchase scam case.
   ‘The two petitions could be heard tomorrow or day after tomorrow by the High Court vacation bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Mamnoon Rahman,’ Shafique said after filing the petitions on Sunday.
   ‘The trial court has violated the provision under the emergency powers rules through its failure to conclude the trial of the extortion case within the stipulated time of 90 days,’ Shafique said, adding, ‘The trial of the case cannot continue on that ground.’
   About the MiG-29 case, Shafique said divisional special judge of Dhaka Golam Murtoza Majumder had framed charges in the case on August 12 without considering the merit. Hasina had earlier granted bail in the case.
   Abdullah Al Zahid, deputy director of the now-defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption, filed the case with the Tejgaon police on December 11, 2001 accusing Hasina and the six others of corruption in the purchase of eight MiG-29 fighter planes from Russia in 1999, which caused a loss of Tk 720 crore to the state’s treasury.

Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, now in USA for treatment after being released by an executive order, on Sunday filed a writ petition with the High Court seeking bail in the Tk 2.99 crore extortion case filed by businessman Azam J Chowdhury.
   The former prime minister also sought stay on the proceedings of the case, now under trial before a special judge’s court on the Jatiya Sangsad complex.
   She also filed another petition seeking stay on the proceedings of the MIG-29 warplane purchase scam case.
   Her counsel Shafique Ahmed told journalists that in her petition Hasina had sought bail and stay on the proceedings in the extortion case, filed against her with the Gulshan police on June 13, 2007.
   ‘A High Court bench on August 28 issued a rule on the government asking it to explain the legality of the case. We have now appealed for Hasina’s bail in the case and stay on the proceedings along with the August 28 High Court order,’ he said.
   Shafique also said Hasina had filed another writ petition challenging the framing of charges against her and six others in the MiG-29 warplanes purchase scam case.
   ‘The two petitions could be heard tomorrow or day after tomorrow by the High Court vacation bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Mamnoon Rahman,’ Shafique said after filing the petitions on Sunday.
   ‘The trial court has violated the provision under the emergency powers rules through its failure to conclude the trial of the extortion case within the stipulated time of 90 days,’ Shafique said, adding, ‘The trial of the case cannot continue on that ground.’
   About the MiG-29 case, Shafique said divisional special judge of Dhaka Golam Murtoza Majumder had framed charges in the case on August 12 without considering the merit. Hasina had earlier granted bail in the case.
   Abdullah Al Zahid, deputy director of the now-defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption, filed the case with the Tejgaon police on December 11, 2001 accusing Hasina and the six others of corruption in the purchase of eight MiG-29 fighter planes from Russia in 1999, which caused a loss of Tk 720 crore to the state’s treasury.

Traditionally focused on the threat from rival Pakistan, India must now deal with an apparently home-grown Islamist group, experts said on Sunday after deadly bombs hit New Delhi.
   The Indian Mujahideen, which claimed responsibility for bomb blasts on Saturday in which at least 20 people died, has also said it was behind bombings in Ahmedabad and Jaipur cities earlier this year.
   Security experts say the formation of the outfit may be an effort to create a fresh identity for groups banned by the Indian government over the past few years such as the Students’ Islamic Movement of India.
   SIMI, founded over 30 years ago, was outlawed in 2001 over its alleged terror links and is currently challenging the ban in the Supreme Court.
   ‘Since SIMI is making efforts before the courts to have the ban lifted, it is trying to create a separate armed wing,’ Ajai Sahni of the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management said.
   The Indian Mujahideen, which also calls itself ‘the militia of Islam,’ first came to public attention last November following serial blasts in Varanasi, Faizabad and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh in which at least 13 people died.
   ‘We were presuming before the Uttar Pradesh blasts that all terrorist strikes must be the work of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba or the Bangladesh —based Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami,’ security expert B Raman said.
   ‘Since November last, we have been focusing on SIMI. It is possible that elements from all these organisations are involved,’ Raman wrote in the Hindustan Times on Sunday.
   Meanwhile, the police hunted Sunday for Muslim militants behind coordinated bomb attacks against busy shopping areas in New Delhi.
   The blasts on Saturday evening struck five crowded areas of New Delhi within 45 minutes, and were claimed by a group calling itself the Indian Mujahideen.
   A further three bombs, also placed in crowded areas of the capital, were found and defused, the Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said.
   One had been placed at India Gate, one of the country’s most iconic monuments and a major tourist attraction in the heart of Delhi.
   ‘We have very vital clues, positive clues, we are very hopeful we will solve this case,’ he said, confirming the latest toll at 20 dead and 98 injured.
   ‘Several people’ are being questioned, he said, declining to confirm media reports that 10 people had been detained in overnight raids.
   Premier Manmohan Singh Sunday visited the injured in hospital, and the federal government held a top-level meeting on security. The home secretary, Madhukar Gupta, told reporters that ‘urgent measures’ were discussed.
   India went on high alert after the blasts, boosting security at airports, rail stations and city centres. The Delhi metro was also shut.
   In an email sent to several media outlets minutes before the first blast, the Indian Mujahideen challenged authorities to ‘stop us if you can.’
   The Indian Mujahideen also sent an email to media outlets after the Jaipur blasts in May when 63 people died, announcing it had launched an ‘open war’ against India for supporting the United States.
   The outfit warned of more attacks against tourist sites.
   Just minutes before blasts in Gujarat’s main city of Ahmedabad killed 45 in July, the group sent emails to TV news stations warning that people would ‘feel the terror of death.’
   It said the Ahmedabad blasts were revenge for riots which swept Gujarat in 2002 in which at least 2,000 people, mainly Muslims, were hacked, shot and burnt to death.
   SIMI activists were suspected to be involved in the Ahmedabad attacks and have been linked with almost every bomb attack in Hindu-majority India in recent years.
   Officials say they have strong evidence against the group’s involvement in terrorism, but no suspects have yet been charged.
   ‘It is certain that since the blasts in Uttar Pradesh, Indian radical Islamic groups are now directly involved in terror attacks targeting India,’ said a Western intelligence official in New Delhi.
   Experts called for stringent security measures and said India was poorly equipped to deal with such well-coordinated large-scale attacks.
   ‘We have a quasi-colonial, primitive police force and an intelligence system that is used more for political intelligence,’ Sahni said.

The government has asked the ministries, divisions and agencies concerned, who often receive the reports of intelligence agencies, not to disclose them, especially to the media.
   In a circular issued by the Cabinet Division, the ministries and divisions, the Bangladesh Bank, state-owned commercial banks and other institutions have been advised to strictly follow the rules and regulations in this regard.
   Sources in the government said the circular was a response to media reports based on intelligence reports sent to different ministries and divisions that made observations and suggestions on various issues, especially the price and supply situation.
   ‘Divulgence of intelligence reports to the media has caused deterioration in relations between civil and intelligence officials and also hampered smooth operation of intelligence agencies in some areas,’ said a high official of the Cabinet Division.
   The official added that the intelligence agencies’ reports should not be published in newspapers and broadcast by the electronic media, and their secrecy must be maintained by the ministries and government departments.
   However, in the aftermath of the political change on January 11, 2007, many intelligence reports on sensitive and contentious issues and incidents were deliberately supplied to the media for publication.
   The Cabinet Division’s circular mentioned that ministries and divisions and also the Bangladesh Bank revealed some reports on various issues, even quoting the sources as intelligence reports. ‘Intelligence agencies’ reports are sensitive and issues of national security are involved in them, so they should not be disclosed to the media,’ read the circular.
   Some of the ministries, divisions and banks are not following the directive of intelligence agencies not to release their reports to the media. ‘Since the right to information is absent in the country right now, it is reasonable to prohibit the divulgence of intelligence agencies’ reports,’ said an intelligence expert.

Bangladesh sits with India in Dhaka today at a three-day meeting after a break of 28 years to resolve maritime boundary disputes with neighbours and to lay its claim to the United Nations by the stipulated time of 2011.
   Once the issue of delimitation of maritime boundary is resolved with its next-door neighbours India and Myanmar, Bangladesh can go for offshore oil and gas exploration.
   Bangladesh resumed its maritime boundary talks with Myanmar in January.
   Additional foreign secretary MAK Mahmood will lead the 15-member Bangladesh delegation while rear admiral BR Rao lead the seven-member Indian delegation in the talks, scheduled to be held at the UNCLOS building of the foreign ministry.
   ‘The holding of such a technical discussion after a break of 28 years is a positive sign and we are hopeful of laying our claims through a fruitful discussion,’ Mahmood told New Age Sunday evening.
   Bangladesh officials said they were in the final stages of their preparation to lay claims to the United Nations and hope to conclude it soon. The officials are optimistic of getting the issues with India and Myanmar resolved in the technical discussions.
   Foreign ministry officials said they had held two rounds of talks with Myanmar and the discussions have yielded good results.
   Bangladesh is preparing its case for gas exploration, but has not been able to invite tenders for block bidding as the maritime boundary has not been demarcated. India, Myanmar and Bangladesh have not demarcated their waters in the Bay of Bengal.
   India and Myanmar, however, have agreed on an ‘equidistant’ boundary allowing both to explore gas in the Bay of Bengal.
   According to the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea, Bangladesh must demarcate its sea boundaries by 2011, and India and Myanmar by 2009.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, is scheduled to leave for Beijing early today on a four-day official visit to China to further cement the bilateral ties.
   During his visit, Fakhruddin is scheduled to hold talks with the Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, at the Great Hall of the People on Tuesday. Agreements are expected to be signed capping the official talks.
   The chief adviser will call on the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, at the hall the same day and have a tête-à-tête with the vice-president, Xi Jinping, at the state guesthouse.
   He will also attend the closing ceremony of the Paralympics Beijing 2008 at the Bird’s Nest on Wednesday.
   The chief adviser’s trip is expected to further bolster the existing cordial relationship between Bangladesh and China and boost trade and investment between the two countries.
   The chief adviser’s entourage includes the foreign affairs adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, foreign secretary Touhid Hossain, secretary of the Chief Adviser’s Office Kazi M Aminul Islam and the chief adviser’s press secretary Syed Fahim Munaim. The chief adviser is expected to return home Thursday night.

An Aeroflot Boeing-737 jet crashed Sunday on the outskirts of Perm in Russia’s Ural mountains killing all 88 passengers and crew on board.
   At least 20 foreigners and seven children were on the plane which burst into flames as it prepared to land at the end of a two-hour flight east from Moscow. The wreckage cut off a stretch of the Trans-Siberian railway.
   ‘It was burning while still in the sky and it looked like a falling comet,’ one female witness told Russia’s Vesti-24 television.
   Aeroflot said controllers lost radio contact with the plane around 5:20am (2320 GMT Saturday). Moments later it plunged to Earth, narrowly missing a densely-populated residential area on the outskirts of Perm.
   The airline confirmed there were no survivors and said the dead included nine people from Azerbaijan, five from Ukraine and one each from France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Switzerland, and Turkey.
   One passenger was said to be American but US officials were checking that information. Six of the dead were crew.
   Among the victims was General Gennady Troshev, a former top commander of Russia’s war in Chechnya and advisor to ex-president Vladimir Putin, Interfax news agency reported, citing Russia’s transport ministry.
   Aeroflot chief executive Valery Okulov held a press conference at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport after meeting relatives of some of the victims.
   He refused to be drawn into whether the crash could have been the work of terrorists, saying that was a matter for the investigating commission.
   An official statement from the carrier held few clues as to the cause of the crash.
   ‘As the plane was coming in for landing, it lost communication at the height of 1,100 metres and air controllers lost its blip,’ it said. ‘The airplane was found within Perm’s city limits completely destroyed and on fire.’

Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, the two top political leaders of the country, should hold talks for the sake of politics and good of the nation, said the US ambassador James F Moriarty on Sunday.
   Moriarty said he thought many crucial issues facing Bangladesh could be resolved if [Awami League president] Sheikh Hasina and [Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson] Khaleda Zia sat across the table for talks.
   Talking to journalists after visiting the Kumudini Welfare Trust complex at Mirzapur in Tangail, the US ambassador also expressed his optimism that parliamentary elections in Bangladesh would go ahead as planned in December. ‘Elections will be held as per the December schedule.’ Moriarty said the United States was giving Bangladesh all assistance for holding a free, fair and credible election, and establishing more transparent and accountable governance.
   He said the US government had pledged $176 million in development assistance in 2008, mentioning that since 1971 the US had given Bangladesh over $5 billion in development assistance. Moriarty arrived in Mirzapur Sunday morning to visit the Kumudini Welfare Trust complex.
   He visited the Kumudini Library and Museum and made a round of Kumudini Hospital and Kumudini Nursing School.
   The US ambassador praised the activities of the Kumudini Welfare Trust, the quality of service provided by the hospital, and the NGO’s leadership in providing opportunities to girls in education, training and employment through its projects.
   USAID mission head Denise Rollins, and managing director of Kumudini Welfare Trust Rajib Prasad Saha were also present, along with additional deputy commissioner Kamala Ranjan Das and upazila nirbahi officer Nizamuddin.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, Sunday put the ball to the business community's court in taking the lead to overcome the problems of high demands on limited resources.
   He advised the business community to solve the recent labour unrest in the RMG sector on their own initiative while taking a move to lower costs and easier access to finance from the private banks, which have a major stake in the country’s banking system.
   ‘The government is not the answer to all problems in the market, but it can facilitate solutions to the problems,’ he told a dialogue of business community at Hotel Radisson.
   ‘It is ultimately the responsibility of the business community to take the lead and solve the problem. That is the best and only way forward for us,’ said the chief adviser, assuring government’s role of facilitation with as little intrusiveness as possible.
   The Bangladesh Better Business Forum and the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry jointly organised the dialogue titled ‘Public-private partnership for economic development: Bangladesh perspective’ marking the first anniversary of the BBBF.
   The finance adviser, AB Mirza Azizul Islam, chief of army staff, General Moeen U Ahmed, BBBF members ICC,B president Mahbubur Rahman, DCCI president Hossain Khaled and industrialist Laila Kabir took part in the discussion, while FBCCI president Annisul Huq gave the address of welcome.
   Replying to a volley of questions from the audience mainly from the businesses, the chief adviser said the government would continue to give emphasis on maintaining law and order.
   He, however, called upon the RMG entrepreneurs to consider labour as a production input like their capital and solve the problem of the investment on their own.
   ‘The government will maintain the law and order, but we also want that the industry must have to take some responsibility,’ he said.
   Replying to another question on energy crisis, prime concern of the business community, Fakhruddin said the national coal policy was being discussed in the council of advisers while the first meeting sent back the draft policy for further review.
   In response to another question, Fakhruddin expected that the progress of BBBF activities would be faster next year than the first year when the body put forward 249 recommendations to better business climate.
   The government so far implemented 52 recommendations while 61 remained under implementation and 128 others under review, the meeting was told.
   Amid demand from a woman business leader, Nasrin Awal Mintoo, the BBBF chairman instructed the BBBF secretariat to ensure more women representation in the body.
   The finance adviser called upon the private sector to use the BBBF in reducing the lending rates on bank loans so that they could help their counterpart in the production, as a significant part of the banking system is owned by the private sector.
   General Moeen U Ahmed pointed out that endemic corruption in certain sectors was damaging the image of the country, hindering the foreign direct investment in the country.
   ‘If we can remove corruption, we can have economic growth at a rate of double digit,’ he said.
   Advisers, special assistants to the chief adviser, senior bureaucrats, BBBF members, diplomats, civil society members and business leaders were present at the meeting.

Six children were killed in a bomb explosion in Afghanistan Sunday while a suicide car bomb blew up a marked United Nations vehicle and killed two Afghan doctors and a driver, officials said.
   Authorities meanwhile reported that seven policemen were dead after Taliban militants attacked a remote district centre on Saturday, the same day a British soldier was killed in a bomb blast in the troubled south.
   The bloodshed comes amid growing concern over deteriorating security, seven years after a US-led invasion ended the Taliban regime, with top-level talks on rising extremist attacks due in London and Washington due in the coming days.
   The children were killed when a bomb they were playing with exploded in a village in the central province of Ghazni, Andar district governor Abdul Rahim Daisiwal said.
   Around a dozen more children were wounded in the blast and some are in a critical condition, he said, adding it appeared the bomb had been planted and was not one left over from countries decades of war.
   The Taliban, behind a wave of unrest, denied involvement in the bomb blast.
   But the insurgents did claim responsibility for a suicide car bombing that ripped through the southeastern town of Spin Boldak, hitting a vehicle of Afghan doctors Mamoon Tahiri and Shamsulhaque Kakar were killed outright in the explosion, the Afghan health ministry said in a statement.

The Anti-Corruption Commi-ssion on Sunday filed two graft cases against former law adviser Justice Fazlul Haque’s son and one apiece against his son-in-law and an employee of a foundation under the name of the former Appellate Division judge.
   Justice Haque, ex-adviser to the president Iajuddin-led caretaker government, is a charge-sheeted accused in a graft case filed by the anti-graft watchdog. The former adviser is now on bail.
   ACC assistant director Mohammad Ibrahim filed all the four cases with three different police stations in the capital, including one under the
   Money Laundering Prevention Ordinance.
   The first case against Justice Fazlul's son, Dr Afzal Hossain Raj, was lodged with the Ramna police station for amassing illegal wealth worth Tk 1.4 crore and concealment of information.
   In the second one, filed
   with the Dhanmondi police, Dr Afzal was accused of realising Tk 10.61 crore from different persons in return for their transfers and postings with the help of his father, Justice Haque.
   Of that money, Tk 1 crore was kept as fixed deposit. But, the remaining Tk 9.61 crore was stashed into secret coffers. Therefore, he committed offence under the Money Laundering Prevention Ordinance.
   The ACC filed a case with the Cantonment police against Tariqul Rahman Prince, Justice Fazlul's son-in-law (daughter's husband), accusing him of acquiring unearned wealth worth Tk 38.5 lakh.
   The anti-graft watchdog filed a first-information report with the Ramna police against Abdul Malek, an employee of the Justice Fazlul Haque Foundation, for amassing illegal wealth worth Tk 47 lakh.

Barack Obama smashed his own fundraising record with a haul of 66 million dollars in August, handing him a big advantage over Republican John McCain in the closing stretch of the White House race.
   Last month’s total smashed the Democrat’s February record of 55 million dollars, and could quell fears among his supporters that he was struggling to keep up the stunning pace of fundraising that has bankrolled his campaign.
   ‘We had a record-breaking month in August - raising more than 66 million dollars and adding 500,000 new donors,’ campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.