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The High Court’s interdicts, including stay orders on proceedings and verdicts, issuance of rules and granting bails to corruption suspects, have slowed down the government’s campaign against corruption and serious crimes and also the progress of the graft cases, said home adviser MA Matin.
   ‘Stay orders, rules and bails granted to corruption suspects have made the anti-corruption drives slothful and slowed down the progress in prosecution of the graft cases against the listed corruption suspects’, said Matin while responding to reporters’ queries at the secretariat on Thursday.
   Matin, also the chairman of the National Coordination Committee against Corruption and Serious Crimes, said that the government would appeal against the High Court’s orders as part of the legal process in dealing with the graft cases.
   The High Court has granted bail to 158 persons so far and issued stay orders on 88 cases from July 14 to September 8, 2008; and 108 persons accused in 228 cases are under trial and 187 cases are still under investigation, according to the NCC.
   ‘It is not because of the weakness in charge-framing that the graft suspects are getting released…Their lawyers may have taken advantage of loopholes in the law. But we are trying hard to discharge our duty’, said the home adviser, who has also served as director-general of the now-defunct Anti-Corruption Bureau.
   After assuming office in January 2007, the government of Fakhruddin Ahmed has so far lodged 512 graft cases against 222 high-profile corruption suspects including two former prime ministers — Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia — of which 152 cases were disposed of, convicting a total of 97 persons, according to the official records.
   ‘It will not be possible for the present government to complete investigation of all the cases since we have very limited time in hand. Yet we will try our best to do as much as possible, and the next government will hopefully continue the efforts to complete the remaining part of the task’, said Matin, a retired army official, adding that the government has already completed inquiries in a record number of graft cases in a relatively short period of time.
   The High Court on Wednesday stayed for three months the operation of six judgments pronounced by the special courts sentencing seven persons, including former state ministers Amanullah Aman, Mir Nasiruddin Ahmed and Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, in different cases.
   The persons whose convictions were stayed also include former minister Mirza Abbas’s wife Afroza Abbas, former lawmaker Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan, former lawmaker Harun-or-Rashid’s wife Ashiya Ashrafi Papia and Nasir’s son Mir Helaluddin.
   The High Court vacation bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Mamnoon Rahman also granted bail for three months to three persons — Mir Nasir, Tuku and former minister Afroza Abbas. Mir Helal was released on bail on July 4.
   The vacation court on the same day also granted interim bail to former state ministers AKM Mosharraf Hossain and Jafrul Islam Chowdhury, former lawmakers Manjurul Ashan Munshi and Salahuddin Ahmed and Sylhet’s BNP leader Areful Huq Chowdhury in separate cases.
   The court also stayed for three months the proceedings of the cases filed against the five politicians and issued rules on the government and ACC to explain the legality of the cases now pending with different courts.
   In recent days BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, her son Tarique Rahman, Awami League leader Abdul Jalil, businessman-cum-AL leader Salman F Rahman and BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, along with others, got released on bail.
   The military-controlled interim government formed the National Coordination Committee against Corruption and Serious Crimes on March 8, 2007, involving senior military officials, to conduct drives against corruption and big crimes with retrospective effect from February 4 of that year.
   A total of 78 out of the 222 top graft suspects were arrested in a crackdown on corruption and crime by the government, according to the official records.

The High Court on Thursday stayed for three months the trial proceedings of the MiG-29 warplane purchase corruption case against former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
   With the MiG-29 case, trial has been stayed in all the five cases initiated by the military-controlled interim government against Hasina, also the Awami league president, her lawyer Shafique Ahmed told reporters after the High Court ruling.
   He also said petitions would be filed in the next week seeking bail for Hasina, now in the United States for treatment, in the Niko and barge-mounted power plant corruption cases and the extortion case filed by businessman Noor Ali.
   The counsels said Hasina could be freed through legal process if she would obtain bail in the three cases.
   The High Court vacation bench of Justice AFM Abdur Rahman and Justice SM Emdadul Hoque also asked the Dhaka divisional special judge to explain in three weeks why the framing of charges in the MiG-29 case against Hasina in her absence on August 20 would not be declared illegal.
   The court passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed by Hasina challenging the legality of the framing of charges in her absence.
   Moving the petition, Shafique Ahmed told the court Hasina went abroad for medical treatment on June 12, a day after she had been released by an executive order of the government.
   Before going abroad, Hasina was exempted from personal appearance in the Dhaka divisional special judge’s court during proceedings in the MiG-29 case, the counsel said.
   On August 20, the special judge framed charges against Hasina in the case in violation of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the counsels argued, adding no court could frame charges against persons accused in their absence unless the accused had been declared absconding in accordance with the code.
   ‘We sought adjournment of the proceedings for a month so that the charges could be framed in Hasina’s presence, but the court framed the charges rejecting our prayer,’ he said.
   Additional attorney general Mansur Habib argued, ‘According to Section 401A of the CrPC, a court can frame charges against a person accused remaining absent in court, but represented by a lawyer.’
   Mansur also challenged the maintainability of the writ petition, saying a writ petition could only be filed in case of violation of a constitutional provision.
   He, however, sought adjournment of the hearing in the writ petition until the disposal of another writ petition earlier filed by Hasina challenging the legality of MiG-29 corruption case that was pending with the High Court.
   Hasina on September 14 filed a petition with the High Court challenging the legality of the framing of charges against her in the case.
   The MiG-29 corruption case was filed with the Tejgaon police on December 11, 2001 by now-defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption deputy director Abdullah Al Zahid, accusing Hasina and six others of corruption in the purchase of MiG-29 fighter planes from Russia, which, he said, caused a loss of Tk 720 crore to the state.
   On August 20, Dhaka divisional special judge Golam Murtoza Majumder framed the charges against Hasina and five others in the case.
   Former air force chief Jamaluddin Ahmed, former defence secretary Syed Yousuf Hossain, former air force officer Mirza Akhtar Maruf, former joint secretary to the defence ministry Mohammad Hossain Serniabat and businessman Noor Ali were charged with abetting Hasina in committing the offences under Section 109 of the Penal Code.
   The court also discharged former army chief Mustafizur Rahman from trial as he died.

BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia on Thursday said the nationalist forces should work together keeping in view the upcoming general elections.
   She asked the leaders and activists of all levels of the party to bury the hatchet and strengthen the unity before the elections.
   Khaleda also asked activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal to guard against troublemakers so that the educational institutions did not close for internal feuds or row with other student organisations.
   ‘The nationalist forces should remain united and work together keeping in view the general elections’, BNP office secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed quoted Khaleda Zia as telling the leaders of her party and the Jatiya Party [Ershad] who visited her at her temporary office at Eskaton Garden Road in Dhaka.
   ‘This is not the time for quarrelling over silly matters. Remain united and resolve differences, if there is any, and work for strengthening the party’, she told her party leaders.
   ‘We will win the polls if we remain united and keep the party strong’, Khaleda, also former prime minister, said.
   She warned her party’s student activists that ‘certain quarters’ were trying to spread troubles to educational institutions. ‘Stay alert against such plots, resolve disputes and shun conflicts with other student organisations.’
   BNP standing committee member M Shamsul Islam and party leaders Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, Shah Moazzem Hossain and Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, former Jatiya Party lawmaker Syeda Razia Faiz and leaders of Chittagong units of BNP and Jatiyatabadi Chatra Dal visited her on the day.
   Asked if BNP had taken any decision on the Election Commission’s invitation to a dialogue scheduled for Saturday, Rizvi said the party chairperson had been informed about the invitation.
   ‘The chairperson and the secretary general are likely to take a decision tomorrow [Friday]’, he said.

The Awami League on Thursday termed unwise the government’s initiatives to hold a ‘policy summit’ in November, just a month prior to parliamentary elections, and cast doubt on its success.
   The Awami League also said it might not attend the proposed summit if Jamaat-e-Islami joins it.
   The party, however, made it clear that it would continue to support any sincere efforts for transition to democracy but would not accept absurd and undemocratic moves.
   ‘I do not think the [proposed] policy summit will achieve any success. It is also unwise to arrange such a conference just a month before parliamentary polls’, acting AL president Zillur Rahman told reporters after a meeting with former party lawmaker Ali Reza Raju and CBA leader Abul Kalam Azad, who have recently been released from jail, at his Gulshan residence.
   Besides, Zillur said, the caretaker government did not have experience of holding such conferences.
   He said the party president Sheikh Hasina would take a final decision whether to attend the summit after considering all aspects… ‘and the party may stay off the conference if the Jamaat-e-Islami attends it.’
   Commerce and education adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman said on Wednesday the interim government would arrange a ‘policy summit’ on ‘three major development issues’ in November, involving top leaders of the political parties, for setting ‘an agenda for the country’s future progress’.
   Responding to a query about eminent lawyer Rafique-ul-Huq’s claim that he had talked with Sheikh Hasina and BNP chief Khaleda Zia, the acting AL president said Rafique-ul-Huq could better clarify it.
   ‘Barrister Huq represents both Hasina and Khaleda in the Supreme Court and he is an honourable person’, he said and welcomed Huq’s initiatives to persuade the two top leaders to sit together.
   Zillur blasted the interim government for prolonging the state of emergency and demanded its withdrawal. He also renewed his call for permanent release of Hasina.
   He censured the government for not holding the general elections as yet though it was supposed to hand over power to an elected government within three months after assuming the office. ‘The government is doing so many things which have noting to do with the elections… It has not achieved success in any sector.’
   ‘Only scholarly knowledge does not make a good governor. A good administrator must know that one cannot win the people’s hearts by injudicious use of legal tools or application of force’, he said.

China’s milk scandal escalated dramatically on Thursday as it emerged the illegal chemical blamed for killing four babies had been detected in a wide range of dairy products, leading to mass recalls.
   Authorities in mainland China said melamine, the chemical normally used in plastics that was initially found in infant milk powder, was also in regular milk being sold by three of the country’s biggest dairy companies.
   In the southern territory of Hong Kong, the government there said melamine had been discovered in drinks, ice creams and yoghurt made by Yili, one of the big brands that was selling the contaminated milk on the mainland.
   ‘We urge the public to stop drinking products from the brand,’ Constance Chan, the head of Hong Kong’s Centre for Food Safety, told reporters, after saying melamine was found in eight out of 30 Yili products.
   The tainted products in Hong Kong and on the mainland were all being recalled on Thursday.
   The discoveries came as Chinese officials reported a fourth baby had died in China’s northwest Xinjiang region from drinking infant milk powder contaminated with melamine.
   The Xinjiang fatality added to three deaths confirmed on Wednesday by Health Minister Chen Zhu, who also said more than 6,000 babies nationwide had fallen ill.
   The scandal had already caused panicked parents around China to besiege hospitals seeking check-ups for their children, and the news that all other types of dairy products may be infected was sure to raise further alarm.
   Melamine, banned in foods, was apparently introduced by dairy suppliers in China to give watered-down milk the appearance of having high protein levels.
   It then made its way into the baby formula of 22 Chinese dairy firms, authorities said this week.
   The three brands identified on Thursday as having melamine in their regular milk were Yili, Mengniu and Guangming, according to a report on the government-run television news station.
   Meanwhile Chinese police made 12 more arrests as a probe widened into who added the melamine to the milk, Xinhua news agency reported, bringing the number arrested to 18.
   The new arrests came in the northern city of Shijiazhuang, where the dairy manufacturer originally at the centre of the scandal, Sanlu Group, is based.
   The mayor of Shijiazhuang was also sacked Thursday, according to Xinhua. Police had also detained the sacked chairwoman of Sanlu on Wednesday.
   China’s cabinet on Wednesday slammed the dairy industry as ‘chaotic’ and said ‘flaws’ were rife in supervision systems.
   China has endured a litany of scandals in recent years over dangerous products including food, drugs and toys, many of which were exported.
   Two of the 22 milk companies found to have contaminated products exported to Bangladesh, Myanmar and some African countries. However, there has been no evidence yet the tainted products were sold overseas.
   While praising China’s response since the scandal broke, WHO China representative Hans Troedsson said authorities must determine why it took months for the risks to be made public, even though babies began falling ill several months ago.
   ‘If this was deliberately not reported, that is a serious thing and must be addressed to make sure it is not repeated,’ Troedsson said.

The Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institute has formed a special four-member committee to test the various brands of milk and baby food in the market, both imported and produced locally.
   The committee, headed by one deputy director of the BSTI, has started collection of samples from the market and preparations for doing laboratory tests.
   ‘Within the next one or two weeks we will be able produce a report on the findings after testing the collected samples,’ the director of the BSTI, Lutfur Rahman, told New Age on Thursday.
   He informed New Age that tests would be done in the laboratories of the BSTI and other government organisations and the public universities which have the necessary facilities.
   The BSTI’s initiative came after government high-ups suddenly woke up when the Chinese authorities on Wednesday suspected that contaminated milk, which has killed three infants and sent several thousand to the hospitals in their country, might have been exported to Bangladesh.
   As the disaster in China has shaken the world, the commerce ministry on Wednesday also called an inter-ministry meeting on Sunday to ascertain whether imported brands of milk and baby formulas are being ‘tested strictly’.
   The Chinese law enforcers in the past few days have arrested several milk producers and marketers allegedly involved in contaminating milk with melamine, an inorganic killer chemical which makes the appearance of protein substances in milk visible.
   Consumer rights activists have always complained that the authorities concerned have never been serious in testing milk, checking the marketing of adulterated milk or punishing the importers or producers.

The procurement of boro rice is yet far from reaching the target, so the government has extended the procurement time by another one month from the scheduled deadline of August 31, said sources in the food ministry.
   The government has so far procured about 8.50 lakh tonnes of rice and 44,900 tonnes of paddy, whereas the target is 12 lakh tonnes of rice and 3 lakh tonnes of paddy.
   From Dhaka division the government has so far procured some 1.25 lakh tonnes of rice, a bit more than half of the target of 2,02,500 tonnes.
   In Rajshahi division, the government has procured 6.30 lakh tonnes of rice against the target of 8,02,400 tonnes.
   Only 83,000 tonnes have been procured in Khulna division against the target of 1,41,500 tonnes.
   In Chittagong division, the food department has so far procured only 9,500 tonnes of rice against the target of 46,200 tonnes.
   Only 2,800 tonnes out of the targeted 6,000 tonnes has been procured in Sylhet, and some 100 tonnes out of 1,300 tonnes of rice have been procured in Barisal division.
   The government has procured 13,800 tonnes of paddy in Rajshahi division out of the targeted 1,03,715 tonnes. Some 5,500 tonnes out of the targeted 35,633 tonnes have been procured in Khulna division, and about 400 tonnes out of the targeted 8,983 tonnes have been procured in Barisal division.
   The food department has procured only 6,200 tonnes of paddy against the target of 89,581 tonnes from Dhaka division. In Chittagong division 4,000 tonnes out of the targeted 37,801 tonnes of paddy have been procured and 15,000 tonnes out of the targeted 24,287 tonnes have been procured in Sylhet division, said the food ministry sources.
   The government has announced procurement price which was about forty per cent more than the production cost, and has also pledged bonuses for the millers, but these initiatives could not increase the volume of procurement rapidly enough, said a high official of the food department on Thursday.
   The ongoing flood and exorbitant prices of fertilisers have also made the farmers reluctant to sell their paddy to the millers, said Mohammad Habibur Rahman, a miller of Kushtia Sadar. He told New Age that some 200 rice-mills out of 250 in the upazila have already been shut down.
   Besides this, the recent rains are also hampering the farmers from drying their paddy, which is another reason for the shrinking supply of paddy to the millers, said Habibur.
   Agriculturist Mahbub Hossain said that although the prices of rice have not increased in the country in the last four months, they also did not decline significantly because the government has not intervened successfully in the food market.
   The government should participate in the country’s food market on a bigger scale by selling rice for more subsidised prices to keep rice affordable for the lower-income people, said the BRAC’s executive director.
   The government set the boro procurement target on April 16, and the procurement price of rice was set at Tk 28 and paddy at Tk 18 per kilogram.

Pakistan’s new president, Ali Asif Zardari, must make fighting Islamist militancy in the border regions with Afghanistan his top priority, a leading thinktank said Thursday.
   But he faces a tough job to gain the trust of the army, which could ultimately threaten his government, said the International Institute for Strategic Studies in its annual review of global geopolitical security.
   ‘Zardari’s top priority is to fight terrorism and Islamist militancy in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan,’ said John Chipman, head of the prestigious London thinktank, launching the Strategic Survey 2008 report.
   ‘But the Pakistani army remains unable or unwilling to counter effectively the resurgent Taliban with over 110,000 troops deployed in the area.’
   US and Afghan officials say Pakistan’s tribal areas are a safe haven for al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels who took sanctuary there after the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in late 2001.
   But Islamabad has vowed to defend itself against violations of its air space and incursions by US forces from Afghanistan, straining the relationship between the ‘war on terror’ allies.
   ‘Zardari’s major challenge will be to gain the trust of the army and build a consensus against terrorism and Islamist extremism among the political establishment,’ Chipman told reporters.
   ‘To pursue the campaign on terror, he will need to balance the conflicting interests of growing US pressure for military strikes in the tribal areas with the Pakistani army’s decreasing tolerance for such attacks.’
   He added: ‘In order to reduce public opposition to such a policy, he needs to build bridges with the major opposition political parties.
   ‘Most importantly, president Zardari will need to ensure
   that the ensuing domestic political turbulence, heightened by the growing economic crisis, does not place his own government at risk from the army.’
   Zardari, the widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was sworn in as president last week.
   On Wednesday, at least five people were killed when four missiles fired by suspected US drones struck a compound in a northwestern Pakistani tribal area near the Afghan border, according to officials in nearby Peshawar.

The Election Commission on Thursday sent fresh invitations to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikya Jote for talks scheduled to be held Saturday.
   According to the schedule, the EC will sit in a dialogue with BNP at 11:30am, with Jamaat at 10:30am and with IOJ at 2pm on the day.
   ‘Letters have been sent to the secretaries general of the three parties inviting them to the dialogues’, secretary to the EC secretariat Md Humayun Kabir said at a regular briefing on Thursday.
   It will be BNP’s first meeting with the EC which has held three rounds of dialogues with political parties since September 12 last year.
   The EC had earlier set September 8 for dialogues with the BNP and its allies, but they skipped the talks demanding release of BNP chief Khaleda Zia. The EC took fresh initiatives for dialogues with the BNP after Khaleda was released on bail on September 11.
   The EC for the first time invited the mainstream of BNP to talks on August 29, addressing Khandaker Delwar Hossain as the party’s secretary general. Before August 29, the EC had recognised the government-backed splinter group of the party and held talks with M Hafizuddin Ahmed, the leader of that group, distancing itself from the party’s mainstream loyal to Khaleda Zia-nominated secretary general, Delwar.
   The EC changed its mind recently and a day after sending the invitation letter to Delwar, the chief election commissioner at a function in Dhaka regretted the commission’s past dealings with the BNP.
   The EC will wrap up its third round to dialogues tomorrow. The commission initiated the latest series of dialogues to discuss the contentious issues relating to parties’ registration as major political parties rejected the October 15 deadline for getting registered in order to qualify for contesting the general elections planned in December.

Comilla Medical College was closed sine die Thursday following a clash between students and local people amid campus unrest.
   The college academic council at an emergency meeting took the decision and also asked all the resident students to leave their dormitories by Friday noon after the clash that left 10 students injured.
   Witnesses said the students brought out a procession at 11:00am against resumption of the activities of Medical Assistant Training School on the college campus.
   ‘At one stage, the agitated students locked up the office of MATS and forced the newly appointed principal, Dr Shahiduddin, and other members of the staff out of his chamber,’ says a spot account of the incident.
   During the attack, they damaged a microbus of MATS and glasses of the doors and set fire to computer, microbus seat and tyre.
   A clash ensued between the students and local people when students, wielding sticks, chased a microbus driver of MATS, who is a local man.
   The college academic council’s meeting, presided over by college principal Dr Sahara Khatun, decided to close the college for indefinite period.
   A three-member committee was formed to probe the incident.

The police arrested 11 members of Hizbut Tahreer, including three university teachers, in the Rajshahi city Thursday on suspicion of militancy and allegation of attempts to breach emergency rules.
   They also seized leaflets, banners and posters of the Islamist outfit along with a microbus and mobile handsets from them.
   Professor Dr Sayeed Golam Mowla of the management department of Dhaka University, Ahmed Zamal, a chemistry teacher of South East University in Dhaka and Mamun Ansari, a teacher of the Northern University were among the arrested.
   ‘We arrested the members of Hizbut Tahreer suspecting militancy’, Akramul Hossain, assistant commissioner of city Special Branch of police told reporters.
   Other arrested persons are Masud Kawsar, Omar Faruk, Moniruzzaman Masud, Saddam Hossain, Akhter Hossain, Jahidul Islam and Mojammel Haque — all students — and microbus driver Jahangir Alam.
   Plain-clothes policemen arrested them as they were about to hold a press conference at City Press Club at Sonadighi Mor in the city Thursday morning.
   They first captured Jahidul Islam and Mojammel Haque, two students of the Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology, in front of the City Press Club at about 12:30 pm.
   The rest nine arrests were made within few minutes at the same venue and all of them were brought to the Boalia Model Police Station for interrogation.
   ‘We produced all of them before the court’, Humayun Kabir, assistant commissioner of Boalia told New Age.
   They were charged with distribution of political and anti-government leaflets under the emergency, the police said.
   The leaflets urged the people to take oath in the month of Ramadan to overthrow the present government and establish Khilafat— the authority of Allah on earth, the police said.
   Hizbut Tahreer members were found distributing such leaflets propagating the same opinion among the people in front of Saheb Bazar Bara Masjid after Tarabih prayers at night, sources said.
   Our DU correspondent reports, student activists loyal to Hizbut Tahreer brought out a procession in the Dhaka University campus Thursday denouncing the arrest of their central leader Dr Sayeed Golam Mowla, a professor of management at the university.
   They, under the banner of Bangladesh Chhatra Mukti, demonstrated in front of the vice chancellor’s office demanding immediate release of Professor Mowla.
   Later, activists of some left-leaning student organisations and Awami League-backed Bangladesh Chhatra League also brought out a procession urging the students in general to resist the fundamentalist forces including Chhatra Mukti.
   They vowed not to allow any kind of fundamentalist students’ platform in Dhaka University campus.

Former lawmaker Mirza Azam, also the Awami Juba League’s general secretary, was arrested again minutes after he had been released on bail from the Dhaka Central Jail on Thursday.
   He was sent to jail again by the order of the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court.
   Deputy inspector general (prisons) Shamsul Haider Siddiqui said Mirza Azam had been freed from the central jail at about 3:00pm as the High Court granted him bail.
   The Paltan police said they had arrested Azam after he had come out of the jail on charge of breaching the Emergency Power Rules.
   The police produced Azam in the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court from the jail gate and the court ordered him to be sent to jail again.
   Azam earlier surrendered in court on July 16 as he was implicated in a corruption case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Editors of different national dailies at a meeting on Thursday demanded immediate release of daily Janakantha editor Atiqullah Khan Masud who was undergoing treatment in the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University hospital.
   The meeting noted with concern that Masud’s health had been deteriorating since his arrest on March 7, 2007. He has been suffering from multiple diseases, including kidneys, heart and eye ailments. The doctors here are giving him follow-up treatment since his return from Singapore where he received treatment in the Mount Elizabeth Hospital.
   The meeting also said that the daily Janakantha was facing a grave crisis in the absence of its editor whose prolonged imprisonment was unacceptable to the media people.
   It urged the authorities to release Masud immediately considering his frail health. The editors were of the view that the trial process could continue even after his release for better treatment, said a press release.
   The meeting, held at the Janakantha Bhaban in Dhaka, was attended by The Independent editor Mahbubul Alam, Ittefaq editor Rahat Khan, Amar Desh acting editor Ataus Samad, News Today editor Reazuddin Ahmed, Janakantha advisory editor Toab Khan, Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman, Bangladesh Observer editor Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, New Age editor Nurul Kabir, Jugantor deputy editor Saiful Alam, Amader Shamay editor Naimul Islam Khan, Economic Times editor Shawkat Mahmud, Bhorer Kagoj editor Shyamol Datta, Manavjamin joint editor Sajjad Kadir and Shamakal managing editor Abu Sayeed Khan.

The first consignment of 35,640 semi-transparent ballot boxes for the next general elections has reached Dhaka.
   M Humayun Kabir, secretary to the Election Commission secretariat, said on Thursday the EC would collect them from the Kamlapur Internal Container Depot after completing some formalities relating to the customs department.
   He said the EC would send these ballot boxes directly to the offices of the deputy election commissioners and the district election commission offices.
   The EC officials said a total of 2,40,000 ballot boxes made in Italy and France with the assistance of Canada would reach here very soon. All the boxes were made with their main parts assembled in Italy and covers and security seals attached in France, the officials said.
   According to the state-owned news agency BSS, the Executive Committee on National Economic Council at a meeting on August 28 last approved a project titled ‘Translucent Ballot Box’ worth Taka 45.81 crore, official sources said. Of the total project cost, the Bangladesh government would fund only Tk 46,00,000 and the remaining portion of Tk 45.35 crore would come as a grant from the Canadian International Development Agency through the UNDP, the agency reported.
   The second consignment of the transparent ballot boxes numbering 11,808 with 16,920 covers will reach Kamlapur ICD on September 22, they said.
   The third consignment of 53,407 boxes with 34,560 covers will reach on September 30 while the fourth consignment of 35,640 boxes with 60,480 covers and 15.04 lakh security seals will reach Kamlapur on October 10.
   A total of 48,00,000 security seals would be imported ahead of the announcement of the election schedule for the next national polls, the officials said.
   The introduction of transparent ballot boxes was one of the four agendas of the dialogue between the EC and the political parties. Of the major political parties which joined the dialogue, the Awami League and the splinter group of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party supported the introduction of transparent ballot boxes. But the Jatiya Party (Ershad) and the Jamaat-e-Islami opposed the move.

White House hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain are in a virtual tie in five battleground states, but nationally McCain’s convention bounce has dissolved, giving Obama a 48 to 43 per cent lead, according to polls released Wednesday.
   Nationally, Obama has retaken the lead, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll that last week, in the wake of the Republican National Convention, saw McCain leading by two percentage points.
   In the survey’s latest edition, Obama is ahead by five percentage points, with support from independents and women explaining the shift, CBS said.
   Independents who favoured Obama in late August moved to McCain in days following the Republican convention, then returned to Obama in the last week, the survey showed. Independents currently favour Obama over McCain by 46 per cent to 41 per cent.
   The CBS News poll also found that women have returned to Obama after favouring McCain by five points just two weeks ago. Obama now leads McCain by 54 per cent to 38 per cent among all women.
   Obama holds a two point edge over McCain among white women, but the figure represents a mammoth 21 point percentage swing toward Obama in seven days for that demographic, CBS said.
   The CBS/New York Times poll, conducted among 1,133 adults September 12-16, has a three percent margin of error.
   Meanwhile, a CNN/Time Magazine/Opinion Research Corp. poll shows that senators Obama and McCain are in a dead heat in Florida, with 48 per cent of registered voters in the must-win state siding with each candidate. In Ohio, Democrat Obama is edging out his Republican opponent with a slim two point lead, a difference well within the poll’s margin of error.
   The key battleground states of Florida and Ohio are crucial for victory for both candidates in the November 4 presidential election.
   Florida decided the election in 2000 by a slim margin for the president, George W Bush. In 2004 Bush’s narrow victory in Ohio clinched his reelection.
   Florida has 27 electoral votes and Ohio has 20. In total 538 electoral votes are up for grabs, with at least 270 needed to win the White House. The CNN/Time poll shows McCain ahead in Indiana (11 electoral votes) by six points, with 51 per cent of registered voters backing the senator from Arizona, a lead again within the poll’s sampling error.
   McCain is ahead by one point in North Carolina (15 electoral votes). In 2000 and 2004 Bush won North Carolina handily; the current statistical tie is credited to the Obama campaign’s focus on the state since winning its Democratic primary in May.
   Obama holds a three point lead in Wisconsin (10 electoral votes), with 50 per cent support among registered voters. Al Gore and John Kerry won the state narrowly in 2000 and 2004.
   Taking into account the most recent polls, including this one, CNN estimates that if the presidential election were held today, Obama would win 233 electoral votes and John McCain 189.
   The poll was conducted from September 14 to 16, with 907 registered voters in Florida, 913 registered voters in Ohio, 890 registered voters in Indiana, 910 registered voters in North Carolina and 950 registered votes in Wisconsin.
   The sampling error is 3.5 percentage points in Florida, Indiana and North Carolina, and 3 percentage points in Ohio and Wisconsin.

India on Thursday lifted a decades-old ban on local editions of foreign news magazines, but put a cap of 26 per cent on overseas equity in such joint ventures.
   The government said the step would make foreign news publications more affordable to Indian readers.
   Prime minister Manmohan Singh’s cabinet, announcing changes to India’s media policy, said domestic firms could now tie up with overseas publishing houses to print the foreign news magazines locally.
   The US-based Time Inc. is eager to launch a local edition of its Fortune magazine in India, which boasts of having the world’s largest number of English-speaking professionals.
   A copy of Fortune sells for nearly 100 rupees (2.17 dollars) in India, four times the price of a local business magazine.
   The cabinet said a third of the directors as well as all senior executives and editorial staff of the joint ventures should be Indian.
   ‘The content would be allowed to be up to 100 per cent identical to the foreign magazine concerned and the Indian publisher would be free to add local content,’ a government spokesman said.
   The decision came three years after New Delhi opened the doors for India’s domestic print sector to draw on overseas capital.

The government will amend the policy guideline for small power plant in private sector allowing the state-run power companies to buy electricity from such plants, said power division officials.
   The Power Cell, the research and planning wing of the division, in the past week sent a proposal for the amendment to the policy guideline, made in 1997, after a meeting at the division, they said.
   'Once the policy guideline is amended, private entrepreneurs will be able to sell electricity to power agencies from small plants such as captive power plants,' said a division official.
   He said the agencies would buy electricity from the small power plants for the price the government set for buying captive power - Tk 2.23 a unit.
   There are similarities in small power plants and captive power plants in private sector.
   Initially, the government made the small power plant policy guideline for the installation of plants up to 10MW by private sector investors for their own use and sell the surplus. The government, on the other hand, allowed private investors to install captive power plants for their own use only.
   The government in 2007 formulated a policy guideline for power agencies to buy electricity from the captive plants.
   The Rural Electrification Board has so far signed at least five agreements with private investors to buy up to 30MW of power from captive plants.
   'The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission has recommended amending the policy guideline for small power plants to allow power agencies to buy electricity from small plants such as captive power plants,' said the official.
   BERC officials said the commission had so far issued licences for the installation of captive and small power plants with a combine capacity of more than 1,500MW.
   'The capacity of small power plants in the country is around 150-200MW. Some of the small power plants have shown interest in selling electricity to power agencies,' said a BERC official.
   The government wants to buy any amount of electricity from private industries as the country is facing around 1000MW of power shortage after it failed to install sufficient power plants.

The US Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a $612.5 billion defence spending bill for fiscal 2009, including $70 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
   As passed on an 88-8 vote, the measure would authorise $103.9 billion for Pentagon procurement, $1.2 billion more than president George W Bush's request. Overall, Bush had asked for $611.1 billion for national defence.
   The bill shifts more of the costs of Iraq's reconstruction onto Baghdad. It also puts further restrictions on contractors working in Iraq, including prohibitions on interrogations and the performance of 'inherently governmental functions' in combat.
   The measure must now be reconciled with the $612.5 billion version passed by the House of Representatives on May 22.
   The Senate bill would let the Pentagon spend $70 billion in Iraq and Afghanistan in the fiscal year that starts October 1 and authorise a 3.9 per cent pay raise for military personnel, half a percentage point more than sought by Bush.
   House and Senate negotiators are due to meet next week on a compromise version that can be sent to Bush for signing into law.
   Among sticking points is the Boeing Co-led Future Combat Systems, the centerpiece of Army modernisation. The House cut $200 million from the $3.6 billion requested to continue development of a $160 billion system of digitally linked vehicles for air and ground combat.
   The Senate approved without major change the Bush administration request for Future Combat Systems. SAIC Inc is Boeing's co-lead manager on the FCS programme.
   The Senate bill would authorise $8.9 billion for Missile Defense Agency programmes, $411.8 million less than Bush's request.

Sri Lanka's military said Thursday it is moving closer to the northern headquarters of the Tamil Tigers, as fierce clashes in different locations left more than 83 dead.
   The main battle lines were around 11 kilometres west of Kilinochchi, with the latest fighting on Wednesday leaving at least 40 rebels and 10 soldiers dead, the defence ministry said.
   The military said they captured areas around a major irrigation tank.
   'Confident troops bravely resisted and directed hard blows on the enemy and chased them away,' the ministry said.
   Elsewhere, the military said they killed 32 rebels for the loss of one soldier on Wednesday.
   The latest fighting raised the number of rebels killed by troops since January to 6,637, while 646 soldiers have died in combat, according to the ministry tally.
   The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam did not comment on the claims.
   But the LTTE accused army commandos of setting off a roadside mine on Thursday targeting a passenger bus inside rebel territory, killing three civilians and wounding five, the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com web site said.
   Security forces are now advancing to wrestle control of the rebels' political capital of Kilinochchi for the first time in 10 years.
   The rebels have warned that the large Wanni region, which comprises Kilinochchi and Mullaittivu towns, could turn into a mass graveyard for government troops.
   The Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapakse, said this week that security forces hope to capture Kilinochchi by December. The army ejected the rebels from the east in July 2007.
   The Tigers have been
   fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the island's north and east since 1972.

The Anti-Corruption Commission has detected embezzlement of about Tk 42 crore in the Chittagong zone of the state-run telecoms operator Bangladesh Telecommunica-tions Company Limited, said the commission's director general (administration) Hanif Iqbal on Thursday.
   The commission's team in its investigation found the amount under the heads of repairs and maintenance had been embezzled in financial years between 2000-2001 and 2007-2008 in 13 divisional offices of the zone, Hanif said at a briefing on Thursday.
   He said Tk 104.15 crore was spent under the repairs and maintenance heads in the Chittagong telecommunications zone in eight years.
   'Of the amount, the officials and employees misappropriated Tk 41.90 crore,' Hanif said.

A shopkeeper was injured in a misfire from a policeman's gun at Chawkbazar in Faridpur at 9:00pm Wednesday when he was on duty.
   The injured was Tota Mia, 45, who was admitted to Faridpur General Hospital for treatment. The policeman was Mostafa Kamal, 50.
   Local residents said the policeman rested the gun against the makeshift shop and it misfired when he carelessly picked it up.
   The kotwali police office-in-charge, Md Wares Ali Mia, said departmental action would be taken against Kamal after an investigation.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has recovered his spot at the top of the US money heap, displacing investor Warren Buffett as America's richest person, Forbes magazine's latest list reveals.
   With 57 billion dollars net worth Gates again leads the list of 400 richest individuals in the world's wealthiest country.
   He displaced Buffett who briefly held the position this year but who has seen his Berkshire Hathaway investment group's shares slip 15 per cent since February and is now worth 50 billion.
   According to Forbes, whose list was published late Wednesday, the golden 400 have 1.3 billion dollars net worth or more. However, their combined net worth rose only 30 billion dollars, or two per cent, to 1.57 trillion dollars.
   Forbes said that rising oil and dizzy art prices fuelled the entry of 31 new members into the ultra-rich club and the return of eight previous members.
   A notable arrival was Mark Zuckerberg, 24, founder of the social networking site Facebook. Forbes estimates his worth at 1.5 billion dollars.
   Newcomers ranged from fertilizer tycoon Alexander Rovt to Patron tequila founder John Paul DeJoria and Norman Braman, the car dealer and art collector.
   Meanwhile, turmoil on the stock and housing markets saw 33 others drop off the list, including the former head of the troubled insurance giant AIG, Maurice Greenberg, and a former head of the online auction site eBay, Margaret Whitman.
   Biggest gainers were led by the New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg.

An official of the Barisal office of the controller of food was on Thursday captured by a team of the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Rapid Action Battalion as he was taking bribe from a contractor.
   The commission will soon file a case in this connection and the arrested would be immediately suspended from job.
   The battalion said Fanibhushan Debnath, engineer at the office of the controller of food, demanded Tk 60,000 in bribe from a contractor, Salahuddin Mintu.
   Mintu informed the commission and the battalion of the matter before paying the remaining Tk 15,000. The team of the commission and the battalion personnel then trapped and captured Fanibhushan in the office of the controller of food at about 3:00pm Thursday.