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The BNP-led alliance on Sunday announced that it would stage rallies across the country on October 12 to press home its five-point charter of demands, which include deferment of the upazila polls to ensure participation of the political parties in the ninth parliamentary elections scheduled for December 18.
   The demands also include complete withdrawal of the state of emergency, cancellation of the Representation of the People (Amendment) Ordinance, deferring the upazila elections by a rational length of time, withdrawal of the GATCO, Niko and Barapukuria cases, and freeing all the detained politicians before Eid.
   The BNP secretary-general, Khandakar Delwar Hossain, announced the programme after a meeting of the secretaries-general of the alliance.
   ‘We have placed our demands and will observe what the government and Election Commission do in response, and then we will decide what our next course of action will be,’ he said.
   The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, in an address televised before he left for the UN General Assembly on the night of September 20, announced that the stalled elections to the ninth parliament would be held on December 18 under a relaxed state of emergency. He also announced the dates for upazila polls, which will be staggered from December 24 to 28.
   The major parties, including the Awami League and BNP, have welcomed the announcement of the date for elections to the ninth parliament, but have demanded immediate withdrawal of the state of emergency in order to ensure a congenial atmosphere for the polls, and also deferment of the upazila polls by a rational period of time.
   Khandakar Delwar said that people across the country had become enthusiastic at the announcement of the election schedule, but the government and the Election Commission were yet to create a congenial atmosphere to ensure participation of the political parties in the elections.
   ‘The BNP and its allies are election-oriented. We will consider an election to be genuine when it reflects the public opinion, and for ensuring this the government and the Election Commission have some tasks to complete,’ said Delwar after the meeting at his Sher-e-Bangla Nagar flat.
   He also slammed the Election Commission for its refusal to defer the upazila polls, saying it was totally unacceptable to hold two major elections in such a short time.
   The BNP and its allies on September 20 asked the Election Commission to hold the stalled parliamentary elections in keeping with the laws and constituencies that existed before the recent amendments and delimitation.
   The BNP-led alliance said the amended Representation of People Order, party registration rules and the state of emergency were all hindrances to a free and fair election.
   The Jamaat-e-Islami secretary-general Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid, Islami Oikya Jote secretary-general Abdul Latif Nezami, Bangladesh Jatiya Party’s chairman Andaleeve Rahman and secretary-general Shamim Al Mamun, Khelafat Majlis secretary-general Ahmad Abdul Quader were present at the meeting.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Sunday called on the nationalist forces to remain united to restore democracy.
   ‘Election is approaching. We have to go far ahead to restore democracy,’ BNP’s office secretary, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, quoted Khaleda Zia as telling politicians and leaders of business, religious and professional bodies who visited her at her temporary office on Eskaton Garden Road.
   ‘Conspiracies are on against the country. The nationalist forces must remain united to thwart the conspiracy and restore democracy as well as to protect independence and national sovereignty,’ she said.
   JAGPA’s president Shafiul Alam Pradhan, National Peoples Party’s president Sheikh Shawkat Hossain Nilu, business leaders including former BGMEA’s president Fazlul Haq and DCCI’s former president Sayeeful Islam, the Bangladesh Imam Samity’s secretary-general Kazi Abu Horaira and Doctors Association of Bangladesh’s president Dr Abdul Aziz visited Khaleda, along with others. The party’s secretary-general, Khandakar Delwar Hossain, was also present on the occasion.
   Shafiul Alam Pradhan, who led a JAGPA delegation, told reporters that they had requested the BNP’s chairperson to expand the alliance for the greater interest of the country.

The Awami League will formally start campaigns for the upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled for December 18, after the Eid-ul-Fitr and Durga Puja.
   The party, as part of its preparations for the polls, is working on its election manifesto and communicating with leaders of its allies, acting party president Zillur Rahman and its acting general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam told reporters at a gathering marking the 62nd birthday of the party president Sheikh Hasina at her political office at Dhanmondi on Sunday.
   Zillur said his party would contest the elections and urged its leaders and activists to take preparations for the polls. ‘But we will take part in the elections only under Sheikh Hasina’s leadership’, he added.
   The party celebrated Hasina’s birthday in her absence with a special prayer seeking her speedy release and recovery from illness.
   Hasina, the eldest daughter of Bangladesh’s first president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was born in her parental home at Tungipara in Gopalganj this day in 1947.
   She was elected the Awami League president in a party council session in February 1981.
   Sheikh Hasina was arrested on July 16 last year on graft charges and left the country on June 12 this year for treatment in the United States after being released by an executive order on June 11.
   AL leaders Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Amir Hossain Amu, Suranjit Sengupta, Mukul Bose, Abdul Mannan, Mahmudur Rahman Manna, Sultan Mohammad Munsur Ahmed, Abdur Rahman, Abdur Shahid, Abu Sayeed, Asaduzzaman Noor, Hassan Mahmud, Faruq Khan, Shahara Khatun, Dipu Moni, Habibur Rahman Khan, Abdul Mannan Khan and Asim Kumar Ukil and leaders of the affiliated organisations of the party attended the special prayer.
   Talking with reporters, Zillur Rahman said false cases were filed against Hasina in a bid to keep her away from the people. He renewed his call for immediate withdrawal of all the cases filed against the party chief.
   ‘The country is now at a crossroads and there is no alternative to Sheikh Hasina’s leadership to overcome the crisis’, he said and demanded her permanent release.
   Ashraful Islam said the AL was preparing for contesting the upcoming parliamentary elections and that the party would start formal election campaigns after the Eid-ul-Fitr and Durga Puja.
   ‘At the moment, we are working on amending the party constitution for registration, drafting the election manifesto and communicating with the alliance partners’, he said.
   ‘Hasina has an appointment with a doctor on October 17 in the US and she will return to the country after a check-up. We are awaiting her return…,’ Ashraful said.
   According to the AL’s official website, Hasina celebrated her birthday at the residence of her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy in Washington. The US unit of the party also organised programmes to celebrate her birthday.
   AL parliamentary committee led by Abdul Hamid and Abdus Shahid hosted an iftar party in honour of the former lawmakers of the party and a prayer session marking the 62nd birthday of Hasina at Hamid’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar residence Sunday evening.
   At the gathering, party presidium member Suranjit Sengupta demanded resignation of the Jatiya Sangsad speaker Jamiruddin Sircar for breach of oath by making ‘partisan remarks’.
   ‘The speaker should offer his apologies to the countrymen and quit his post as he has not honoured his chair’, he said.
   Sirker on Thursday launched into a tirade against the Awami League-led alliance saying ‘those who do not have any principle and do not believe in democracy, will not win against the nationalist forces in the elections even if they have 100 parties in their alliance’.
   Former deputy speaker Abdul Hamid said that Sircar had dishonoured his chair by making such partisan remarks. ‘He should apologise to the people…’, he said.
   Hamid demanded permanent release of Sheikh Hasina saying that the Awami League would not contest the polls without her.
   Bangladesh Chhatra League, student wing of the AL, brought out a procession on the Dhaka University campus on the day marking Hasina’s birthday.

At least 20 people, including five lawmen, were injured and scores of vehicles damaged as workers of a garment factory, who are yet to get their salaries and festival allowances, clashed with the law enforcers blocking the Dhaka-Sylhet highway at Kanchpur point in Narayanganj on Sunday.
   The agitating workers of Joya Garments Limited also set ablaze a jeep of the Rupganj police suspending traffic on the busy road for about half an hour.
   According to witnesses, several hundred workers of the factory started work abstention demanding payment of their salaries and festival bonus at around 3:30pm.
   As some workers’ representatives informed their fellows that the factory authorities would pay their salaries and festival bonus after Eid, the workers put a barricade on the highway adjacent to the factory to press home their demand.
   Informed, a large contingent of law enforcers rushed to the spot and asked the workers to withdraw the blockade.
   Failing to convince the workers, the law enforcers resorted to baton charge to disperse the demonstrators. At least 15 workers were injured during the police action, witnesses said
   The workers, in retaliation, started pelting brick and
   stone chips on the lawmen and vandalising vehicles left stranded on both ends of the blockade.
   As the officer-in-charge of Rupganj police, Fazlul Karim, came to the spot on board a jeep after hearing the news of police-worker clash, the workers attacked the vehicle and set fire on it pouring kerosene. Five policemen were injured during the attack.
   Fazlu, who managed to escape, said, ‘The situation is now under control. We brought the situation under control in less than half an hour by deploying four platoons of law enforcers in and around the factory.’
   ‘The factory authorities us as well as the workers that they will pay the salaries and festival bonus on Monday,’ he added.
   The duty officer of Rupganj police station sub-inspector Salauddin Ahmed said no case was filed in this connection till 10:30pm.

The taskforce for recovery of lands from illegal occupation in Bhawal forest is expected to start operation next month to reclaim forest lands on which a number of industrial units have been established flouting conservation laws.
   ‘We will start the process immediately after the Eid holidays’, chief conservator of forest AKM Shamsuddin, who heads the eight-member taskforce appointed by the council of advisers, told New Age Saturday.
   The taskforce has been given three months to reclaim the illegally occupied government lands. Some 118 out of 201 industrial units were established in the National Park in Gazipur district violating the environmental laws, a growing industrial hub, between November 22, 1999 and June 29, 2006.
   The illegally constructed industrial units are supposed to be dismantled as per a recent decision of the interim cabinet under the Government and Local Authority Lands and Buildings (Recovery and Possession) Ordinance 1970, an official at the ministry of environment and forest said.
   The council of advisers headed by chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed at its meeting on September 4 allowed conditional operation of 83 industrial units established absolutely on private lands.
   These units must set up effluent treatment plants and construct approach roads on their own lands by the end on November to keep their factories operational.
   ‘We have been given three months to settle the long-standing matters related to recovery of government lands from illegal occupation and see if other units are in compliance with the environmental laws’, said the chief of the taskforce hoping that the process would be completed within the November 30 deadline.
   In November 1999, the government had banned construction of buildings or structures on public and private lands in eight mouzas of the Bhawal National Park for preservation of the natural environment and its biodiversity. But the government took seven years to make its decision public through an official gazette in June 2006.
   By this time, taking the advantage of the government’s lengthy process, a section of influential people grabbed the forest lands and set up industrial units there.
   A total of 118 units, most of which do not have effluent treatment plants, were established on the forest lands threatening its ecological balance and biodiversity.
   The illegal industries include 32 garment factories, a medicine plant, 47 poultry and fisheries, and 38 other units [food industry, electric, ceramic, automobiles, steel products and packaging plants].
   The owners of the industrial units have allegedly made forged documents of the lands with the help of a section of officials at the forest and land ministry.
   When the government intervened at the fag end of the previous Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance government, the owners of the units claimed that they employed a good number of people in the factories asking the government for environmental certificates to continue operation.
   The matter came up repeatedly for discussion at the cabinet, and finally on September 4, 2008 the government allowed conditional operation of only 83 of the units, asking the authorities concerned to take appropriate measures to reclaim the government lands from illegal occupation.
   Asked about the progress in the process, deputy commissioner of Gazipur Borhanuddin Bhuiyan, who is also a member of the taskforce, said that the copy of the cabinet decision was yet to reach his office. He added that the taskforce would meet after the Eid to discuss the ways and means for recovery of the government land from illegal occupation.

The Power Development Board will have to spend $1208.51 million or Tk 8,500 crore more in 22 years in terms of high cost of power, if the lone bidder for the 450MW Bibiyana independent power plant is selected, PDB officials said.
   The rate offered by the lone bidder is much higher than that of the two existing large independent power plants, they said.
   The tender evaluation committee has already recommended for the selection of the consortium of the Powertek Berhad of Malaysia, Siemens Project Ventures of Germany and the Korea Electric Power Company that offered to sell electricity to PDB at a ‘levelised tariff rate’ of 4.5394 cents per kilowatt-hour.
   The Power Division is likely to send a proposal to the advisory council’s committee on purchase, headed by finance adviser Mirza Azizul Islam, today to select the consortium for installation of the plant.
   The PDB had signed two agreements with a US company in 1998-1999 for purchasing electricity from the 450MW Meghnaghat IPP and the 360MW Haripur IPP at a levelisd rate of 2.79 and 2.72 cents respectively. The PDB started purchasing electricity from Haripur in 2001 and Meghnaghat in 2002 under 22-year deals.
   Sources in PDB said a 450MW combined cycle power plant generates around 8.6 million kilowatt-hour of electricity a day considering 80 per cent plant factor.
   ‘The price difference of Meghnaghat and Bibiyana is around 1.75 cents per kilowatt-hour, and the board, if selects the consortium with the existing offer, will have to pay around $1.5 lakh higher for Bibiyana power per day,’ an official in the board said.
   In 22 years, the board will have to pay $1208.51 million or approximately Tk 8,500 crore higher for Bibiyana power, he said.
   Sources in the tender evaluation committee, headed by Power Cell director general Abdul Jalil, and officials of the Power Division, however, said it would not be right to compare the proposed price of Bibiyana power and Meghnaghat power as the Meghnaghat tender was completed 10 years back.
   ‘In the last 10 year prices of all power plant equipments have gone up by around 130 per cent. As the project cost of Bibiyana will be more than double than that of Meghnaghat project, the power tariff of Bibiyana will be high. One should not compare the rice prices of 1999 and 2008,’ said a source in the committee.
   The tender evaluation committee observed that the price offered by the consortium was justified in comparison to the international market though it seems to be higher if compared to local projects.
   The committee sources said the consortium’s offer to sell electricity was based on the gas price of $2.4 per unit. ‘The levelised tariff that included gas prices and other factors for Bibiyana is 4.5394 cents or Tk 3.15 but in actual terms the power tariff would be much lower to around Tk 2.30-Tk 2.40 if the gas price is considered at present rate of Tk 73 per unit,’ claimed a source.
   Similarly, the actual power tariff for Meghnaghat power plant was lower than 2.79 cents as the gas price was later fixed at Tk 73 instead of $2.4.
   ‘In terms of levelised tariff, there is a big difference between Meghnaghat and Bibiyana,’ he admitted. ‘But one has to consider that the consortium had proposed that it would invest $640 million for the installation of Bibiyana IPP. The installation cost of Meghnaghat was $300 million. As the consortium will invest more its debt service liabilities will be higher.’
   ‘However, if the levelised tariff is taken into account, Powertek will get additional electricity bills of over $1 billion for the additional investment of $340 million,’ estimated a PDB source, adding that it was a rough estimate as PDB would officially know about the project after government formally informed it.
   The consortium’s offer was also higher than 10 small IPPs and four long-term rental power plants, for which different power agencies signed contracts in 2007 and will pay power tariff between Tk 2.015 and Tk 2.48 per kilowatt-hour. ‘It will be an unusual situation that the tariff of base-load combine cycle power plant is higher than the small plants that were awarded only a year back,’ the official said.
   One of the members of the tender evaluation committee, however, said that it was not easy to calculate in such a hasty manner that the PDB would have to pay $1billion extra.
   He said whatever the price offer the government got for Bibiyana should be approved as it would increase further if the consortium’s offer was not accepted. ‘If this tender process is scrapped and the government goes for fresh tender, it will take another year or two to complete the process. By that time the prices of power plant equipment will further rise in international market,’ he claimed.
   ‘Besides, as there is no big power project in the pipeline, the existing power crisis will prolong if the tender is scrapped. The loss caused by electricity shortage or no electricity will be much higher than the loss to be suffered for consuming high-cost electricity,’ he said.
   The South Korean ambassador in Dhaka, meanwhile, met the special assistant to the chief adviser for power, energy and mineral resources ministries, M Tamim, and the power secretary, M Fouzul Kabir Khan, last week to discuss the consortium’s offer and tried to justify that the price was reasonable, sources in the ministry said.
   Tamim, however, told New Age last week that it was a courtesy call and they discussed various issues, including Bibiyana power plant. ‘I told him that the consortium’s offer was at the higher side and that there was only one bidder. The final decision will be taken by the purchase committee.’

At least 12 people were injured in a clash between the police and transport workers over alleged extortion by the police at Kadamtali bus terminal in the city on Sunday morning.
   The police fired in the air during the clash which disrupted traffic, including plying of inter-district buses, for more than three hours stranding homebound passengers before the Eid-ul-Fitr.
   Sources at the bus terminal said the clash erupted at about 11:30am when a police team beat up a bus driver at the BRTC crossing, about 200 yards off the terminal, after he refused to pay them toll.
   Hearing the news, transport workers organised and went to the spot. They locked in a clash with the police leaving at least 12 people , including five police personnel, injured, they said adding that the police had opened fire during the incident.
   The injured police personnel were identified as sub-inspector Mujib and constables Hazi Musa, Morshed, Mintu and Swapan. Two of the injured transport workers were identified as Abdus Sukkur and Babul Akter.
   The transport workers, who suspended plying of buses from the terminal in protest against the incident, resumed operation after three hours after the deputy commissioner of the port zone of the Chittagong Metropolitan Police intervened.
   The DC, Habibur Rahman, assured the transport workers of punitive measures against the policemen responsible, the sources said. A large contingent of police backed by the Rapid Action Battalion has been deployed at the terminal.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police has taken special measures to keep law and order on the Eid day and during the week after Eid when city residents remain away from their houses in villages for the celebrations.
   About 1,500 additional policemen in uniform will be deployed during the period in addition to the lawmen who have been deployed in the city since Ramadan 1.
   About 4,500 policemen in uniform have been deployed in shopping centres to keep law and order.
   Plainclothes policemen were also deployed around the shopping centres while 171 ‘orange teams’ of policemen, each having four members with motorcycles, have been on patrol in the city to prevent mugging incidents, said a senior police official.
   The city police commissioner, Naim Ahmed, said the authorities had put in place three-tier security measures for Ramadan, the Eid day and for days after Eid.
   On the Eid day, policemen will be deployed around the eidgahs to ward off any threat to congregations. The lawmen will also be vigilant around the cinemas and on the road, he said.
   Naim, however, denied receiving any threat from any Islamist or extremist groups so far.
   ‘We will put in place the security measures for seven days after Eid as the city dwellers and shopkeepers remain away from the city in the period,’ he said.
   The police officers are in contact with the shopkeepers’ association leaders and measures are being taken according to their requirements, the city police chief said, adding the market authorities have also been asked to switch on closed-circuit television cameras so that any incident could be recorded.
   ‘The shopkeepers are also helping us by giving us details of the security men who will be standing guard in the shopping centres in the period,’ he said.
   Plainclothes policemen and the orange teams will also be vigilant on the city roads.
   As for Durga Puja, the police commissioner said lawmen were deployed in places of puja mandaps.
   After discussion with the leaders of Mahanagar Puja Udjapan Parishad, policemen will be deployed in keeping with their requirement, he said.
   ‘We will set up a control room at the Dhakeswari Temple and also make the Dhakeswari Road off-limits to vehicles during the puja for the smooth movement of devotees and visitors,’ Naim said.
   The Rapid Action Battalion will also keep its personnel deployed to maintain law and order in the city after Eid.
   About 2,000 personnel of the battalion are deployed in the city and they will remain on duty after Eid, said the battalion’s media and legal wing director Abul Kalam Azad.

The government has rewarded the Bangladesh Telecommunic-ation Regulatory Commission with Tk 10 crore for the ‘success in realising fines from four mobile companies for illegal termination of international calls’, sources in the commission and telecommunications ministry said.
   The commission officials and employees got the money with their monthly salaries in July-August, they said.
   ‘We came to know that the finance ministry, as per the recommendation of the Chief Adviser’s Office, allocated the money for the commission, which has so far realised more than Tk 700 crore in fines from four mobile operators — Grameenphone, Banglalink, Aktel and CityCell — for illegal voice over internet protocol,’ said an official of the ministry.
   He, however, said the telecommunications ministry did not know anything formally as the BTRC deals with its financial matters with the finance ministry directly.
   ‘The amount of bonus varied for the lower rank employees to high officials. All the staffers got good amount, but the high ups got handsome amounts,’ said a commission source.
   One of the highly paid consultants of the commission, having around 135 staffers including around 15 consultants, however, claimed that only the regular staffs had got the bonuses.
   But a regular employee claimed that the consultants too had got the bonus.
   No commission official, however, disclosed the amount of bonus they had received.
   When his attention was drawn on BTRC bonus, the telecommunications secretary Iqbal Mahmud told New Age last Sunday, ‘Did they get any bonus? I do not know. I haven’t heard anything about this. ’
   The commission chairman, Manzurul Alam, acknowledged that they had got the bonus, but declined to say the total amount and how much each of them got. ‘It is private. We got the bonus with our salaries. Why should I disclose our private matters to media?’
   Asked what procedure that the government followed in giving them the bonus, he said, ‘The National Board of Revenue gets bonus, customs get bonus and the government has also given us bonus.’
   When he was asked why they were not willing to disclose the amount while NBR and customs made public the bonuses they had given to its officials, Manzurul said, ‘I don’t think NBR and customs make public the amount the staffs get with their salaries as bonus.’
   When his attention was drawn to the comments of telecommunication ministry officials that they did not know anything about the bonus, the BTRC chairman said, ‘As an independent body, BTRC deals with its financial matters like salaries and budget with the finance ministry.’
   The BTRC fined four mobile companies between 2007 and 2008 exempting the owners and directors of the companies, who, by illegally terminating international calls, are liable to imprisonment and financial penalties through public trial in the courts of law.
   BTRC fined the companies only Tk 834 crore although allegations are there that the companies had terminated calls worth hundreds of crores of takas.

Torrential rain caused by the low that made a landfall on Saturday and stayed over the Rajshahi region on Sunday inundated a significant portion of the country.
   Two infants drowned in collected water in Jessore and six boats capsized in Bhola. Ten fishermen on board the six boats went missing.
   Two children drowned in rain waters in Jessore town on Sunday as a major part of the town went under water for due to incessant rains in past three days.
   The Met Office recorded 194mm of rainfall in 12 hours till 10:30am Sunday.
   The deceased were Mina, 6, of Hamidpur on the outskirts of the Jessore town and Nahid, 4, of Khaldhar Road.
   Rain water inundated the ground floors of buildings and thatched houses at Shashtithala Para, Bezpara, Mission Para, PTI Road, Bihari Para, Taltala, Barandi Para, Mollahpara, Dharmatala, MM College area, TB Clinic area, Kharki, Shankarpur, Nazirshankarpur, Rail Road and Chokdarpara, forcing the residents to move out of the houses.
   Department of Agricultural Extension officer Abdul Hakim said the rainfall would be good for seasonal crops.
   At least 10 fishermen went missing as five trawlers and a fishing boat Saturday night capsized in the River Tetulia and the Bay of Bengal amid depression.
   Local fishermen said five trawlers sank in the confluence of the Bay while another fishing boat capsized in the Tetulia at night. Ten fishermen, whose identity could not be immediately established, went missing
   Reports from Pabna said a significant portion of the district down and neighbouring low-lying areas were inundated by incessant rainfall that had continued for two days.
   Many roads went under knee-high water, forcing the residents to stop last-minute Eid shopping.
   Water collected on Beltala Road and in Shalgaria, Pathartala, Dilalpur, Radhanagar, Kalachandpara, Atua, Gopalpur, Chhatiyani and Library Bazar areas.
   Incessant rainfall damaged standing crops, vegetables and fish farming in four upazilas of Magura. The entire district had been in the dark for more than 12 hours as the Magura–Jhenidah transmission line was snapped for the gusty winds.
   The deputy director of district
   The Department of Agricultural Extension deputy director in Magura, Shahadat Hossain, said standing aman crops on more than 3000 hectares of land and ripened aus on 500 hectares were inundated. Vegetables on 200 hectares of land were totally damaged.
   A housewife was killed Saturday night as coconut tree, blown over by the wind, fell on her kitchen at Bedgram in Gopalganj. The deceased was Parveen Akhter, 32.
   The Met Office said the well-marked low had moved away from south-western region to Rajshahi-Ishwardi and adjoining area on Sunday and was likely to move further away in a north-northwestwardly direction.
   As it has not weakened fully, heavy rainfall is expected in the north before the low crosses the country towards northern West Bengal of India.
   The Met Office said under the influence of the well-marked low and the active monsoon very heavy to heavy rainfall was likely over places such as Chittagong, Barisal, Khulna, Dhaka and Rajshahi divisions in 24 hours beginning 10:00am Sunday.
   Maritime ports in Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar and Mongla are asked to keep hoisted local cautionary signal 3 as the north Bay still remained stormy under the influence of the steep pressure gradient resulted from the low pressure since Friday.
   The Met Office also asked all fishing boats and trawlers in the north Bay to keep close to the coast and negotiate the rough sea cautiously.

The United States recently supplied Israel with a radar system that improves its ability to intercept long-range missiles such as those used by Iran, security officials said on Sunday.
   Israel Radio reported the system would be operated by a staff of about 120 US military personnel in Israel’s southern Negev desert.
   One of the officials, who declined to be identified by name or nationality, said the X-band radar would upgrade Israel’s Arrow II ballistic missile shield. The Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, secured the Pentagon’s agreement to supply the powerful radar during a visit to Washington in July.
   The United States has been leading efforts to curb Iran’s atomic ambitions through sanctions, mindful of Israel’s threats to resort to military strikes if it deems diplomacy a dead end.
   Built by Raytheon Co, the X-band system has been described by US officials as capable of tracking an object the size of a baseball from about 2,900 miles away. It would let the Arrow engage an Iranian Shehab-3 ballistic missile about halfway through what would be its 11-minute flight to Israel.
   The Israeli military declined to confirm or deny the radar shipment. The United States and its allies are trying to step up UN sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear plans.
   Iran says it is enriching uranium only for use in electricity generation, but Western
   powers suspect it is secretly trying to build nuclear weapons.

Barack Obama slated John McCain Saturday for slighting the middle classes in the first presidential debate, as his Republican rival burnt up phone lines in search of a Wall Street rescue deal.
   Democrat Obama went right after Republican nominee McCain at a rally in North Carolina, saying he had come across in Friday’s feisty clash as out of touch on the economic and national security perils facing America.
   McCain meanwhile holed up in his campaign office and apartment outside Washington and made a flurry of calls designed to help seal a 700 billion dollar finance industry bailout before markets open on Monday.
   ‘Last night we had a debate. And on issue after issue — from taxes to health care to the war in Iraq — you heard John McCain make the case for more of the same policies that got us into this mess,’ Obama said.
   ‘But just as important as what we heard from John McCain was what we didn’t hear,’ Obama said at a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina.
   ‘The truth is, through 90 minutes of debating, John McCain had a lot to say about me, but he had nothing to say about you. He didn’t even say the words ‘middle class’ — not once.’
   The Arizona senator’s spokesman Tucker Bounds responded that Obama had a ‘selective memory.’
   ‘If he was honest, Barack Obama knows he was unable to debate the merits of supporting higher taxes on the middle class, and bloated government spending during a looming economic crisis — it simply proved indefensible last night,’ Bounds said.
   McCain flew directly back to Washington after the debate at the University of Mississippi to throw himself back into the search for a deal in Congress on a 700 billion Wall Street bailout before the financial markets open on Monday.
   He spoke to president George W Bush, treasury secretary Henry Paulson, and Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke, as well as top Republican members of Congress, his campaign chief said.
   McCain had faced intense fire from Democrats who blamed the collapse of an apparent deal on the bailout last week on McCain’s decision to rush back to Washington in what they branded a publicity stunt.
    ‘He can effectively do what he needs to do by phone,’ said McCain’s senior advisor Mark Salter.
   ‘He is calling members of both sides, people in the administration ... helping out as he can,’ Salter said.
   But the Obama campaign immediately sent out a statement questioning McCain’s strategy.
   ‘If this is the case, why did Senator McCain suspend his campaign,’ said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor.
   The Obama campaign also pointed out that McCain stayed cloistered in Washington, with his campaign on hold, while the Illinois senator spoke to 20,000 people in North Carolina.
   Reporters covering McCain got brief glimpses of him as he walked from office to his motorcade, carrying papers and with a mobile phone to his ear.
   Commentators meanwhile coalesced behind the view that neither McCain 72, nor Obama, 47, landed a decisive blow in the debate at the University of Mississippi or committed a major gaffe, a verdict that benefits Obama given his slim lead in the polls.
   Obama released a new political advertisement hammering McCain as out of touch with the economic woes of everyday Americans.
   ‘Number of minutes in debate? 90. Number of times John McCain mentioned the middle class? Zero. John McCain doesn’t get it. Barack Obama does,’ the ad’s narrator said.
   McCain debuted his own ad, which accused Obama of deserting US troops in battle, saying he had voted against war funding bills.
   The Illinois senator justified the votes, which were never in practice likely to result in money being stripped from the troops, by saying the bills did not include troop withdrawal deadlines.
   An instant telephone poll by CNN and Opinion Research Corp. after the debate scored a decisive win for Obama among 524 debate watchers. Asked who did the better job, 51 per cent said Obama and 38 per cent said McCain.
   The Democrat had a yawning lead of 58-37 per cent on handling the economy, and a narrower edge of 52-47 per cent on the Iraq war, the pollsters said.

Dhaka and Yangon are likely to sign three deals to further expand trade and economic ties between the next-door neighbours as top leaders of Bangladesh and Myanmar hold official talks in Dhaka on October 7.
   Diplomatic sources told New Age the countries may sign deals related to avoidance of double taxation, establishment of joint commission and exchange of cultural cooperation.
   Vice-senior general Maung Aye, the second highest-ranking member of Myanmar’s military regime, is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka on October 7 on a three-day official visit.
   Maung Aye is the deputy chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, a body of 12 senior generals of Myanmar which runs the country and makes key decisions.
   He will hold official talks with the head of the army-controlled interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, the day he arrives in Dhaka.
   ‘The talks will cover all issues of bilateral relations and focus mainly on trade and economic ties. Apart from other issues, Dhaka will emphasise connectivity, easing visa regime, contract farming
   and other issues,’ said a source.
   An inter-ministerial meeting, presided over by the foreign secretary, Touhid Hossain, on September 24 discussed the issues to come up at the meeting between Fakhruddin and Maung Aye.
   The source said a Bangladesh delegation of officials and businessmen would visit Myanmar immediately after the general’s visit to asses the situation related to contract farming.
   Maung Aye is also scheduled to call on the president, Iajuddin Ahmed.
   The chief of army staff, General Moeen U Ahmed, and the foreign affairs adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, will call on Maung Aye.
   During his first-ever Bangladesh visit, Maung Aye is expected to lead a delegation of more than 50 members including the Myanmar foreign minister, Nyan Win.
   Maung Aye will visit the National Martyrs’ Memorial at Savar to pay tribute to the martyrs of the war of independence and the National Defence College at Mirpur.
   Maung Aye was scheduled to visit Bangladesh in 2007, but it was cancelled because of unrest in Myanmar after the monks had gone out on nationwide demonstrations against the government.

Global financial turmoil should not hamper a new world climate deal because high energy prices remain an incentive to improve energy efficiency, the UN’s top climate official said on Friday.
   Some analysts have said the current crisis sweeping financial markets may leave no money for investments in limiting greenhouse gas emissions amid UN-led talks aimed at clinching a new international deal to tackle global warming.
   ‘I have personally not seen an economic analysis that shows the current credit crisis is having a bigger impact on the global economy than current oil prices,’ Yvo de Boer, head of the Bonn-based UN Climate Change Secretariat, told Reuters.
   But he said the uncertainty generated by the credit crunch and the lack of trust in financial markets were obstacles to developing green energy projects despite the spur of oil prices around $100 a barrel.
   ‘In spite of what’s happening at the moment, I don’t have the impression that lack of capital is the issue. It’s investment uncertainty that has created the nervousness out there. And I think, if governments are clear in terms of climate change, that could help reduce some level of this uncertainty.’
   ‘Because if you are about to build a 500 million euro power plant and you don’t know if your government will go for greenhouse gas emissions cuts of 5 per cent or 50 per cent, then that’s a very risky decision to make,’ he said in an interview.
   Contrary to many analysts, De Boer expressed optimism on the chances of the United States joining a new global warming accord, which is due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December 2009 to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which runs to the end of 2012.
   ‘I think it is perfectly possible the United States will sign up to the Copenhagen agreement,’ said de Boer, who visited Poland to review preparations for December climate talks here.
   But de Boer added that the reasons Washington did not buy into Kyoto — mainly its fears the protocol would damage the US economy and the lack of targets for developing countries — were ‘as relevant as they were in 1997 (when Kyoto was signed).’
   Kyoto binds 37 industrialised countries to limit greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5 per cent below their 1990 levels by 2008-12. It sets no target for developing countries.
   To entice the United States, which is being overtaken by China as the world’s top greenhouse gas emitter, the United Nations has to engage developing countries.
   De Boer said that was only possible by safeguarding their economic growth and cutting ambitious climate policy costs.
   One way to attract developing countries is the Clean Development Mechanism, which allows an industrialised country to boost its own emission quota if it invests in clean energy technology in a developing economy.
   UN talks have been split on whether the CDM should include coal power plants with the ability to store carbon dioxide.
   ‘That debate is still going on, but my personal view is that for coal-based economies, like China and India, carbon capture and storage would be critical,’ de Boer said. ‘And I believe that there are safe ways of storing CO2 underground, like for example storing it in empty gas fields.’
   De Boer said the talks scheduled for December in the western Polish city of Poznan involving environment ministers of the 192 UN member states could pave the way for a deal in Copenhagen to replace Kyoto, despite widespread skepticism.

The authorities of three state-owned jute mills of Khalishpur industrial belt in Khulna on Sunday started giving part payment of the weekly wage arrears of the labourers.
   The authorities, as per Saturday’s negotiation with the union leaders, are also giving the outstanding monthly salaries of the employees, mill sources said, adding that the wages in arrears are being distributed among the labourers and employees directly (through bills) against their identity cards.
   According to official sources, Crescent Jute Mills authorities have been paying the labourers wages of five weeks against their dues of 11 weeks and the employees one month’s salary against dues of four months.
   Both Platinum Jubilee Jute Mills and Star Jute Mills are paying the workers six weeks’ wages and the employees salary of one and a half months.
   The workers and employees at Platinum Jubilee owe the authorities wages and salaries of 14 weeks and six months while it is 18 weeks and six months respectively at Star Jute Mills, sources in the mills said.
   They said the regular workers and employees were paid the portion of their dues on Sunday and the muster-roll labourers will be paid today.
   Authorities of the Crescent, Platinum Jubilee and Star Jute Mills got Tk 2.34 crore, Tk 3.45 crore and Tk 2.19 crore respectively from the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation for paying the due wages and salaries of the labourers and employees.
   The labourers earlier denied receiving the money, demanding that they should be given the money directly instead of against payslips.
   Non-payment of the labourers for 11 to 18 weeks forced them to sell their payslips beforehand with 30 to 50 per cent discounts to maintain their families and the money would go to the buyers of the payslips if the wage arrears would be paid against the payslips, the labourers said.
   As the news of paying the wage arrears directly to the labourers spread, the payslip buyers began haunting them labourers to realise their money, they added.

Three Chinese astronauts landed safely back on earth on Sunday after a 68-hour voyage and space walk that showcased the country’s technological mastery and were hailed as a major victory by its leaders.
   Their Shenzhou (‘sacred vessel’) spacecraft parachuted down to the steppes of northern Inner Mongolia region at dusk. Doctors rushed to open the capsule and check the men as they readjusted to gravity and recovered from the punishing re-entry.
   Spacewalker Zhai Zhigang was the first to emerge and was helped to a nearby folding chair, where he was greeted with flowers and applause and said he was ‘proud of his motherland.’
   Premier Wen Jiabao told the nation minutes later that the three were heroes for their efforts, which put China in an elite club of three nations that have managed a space walk.
   ‘The complete success of the manned Shenzhou VII is a great stride forward for China’s space technology,’ he said, adding that the country’s efforts were focused only on science.
    ‘Chinese people have ceaselessly sought the peaceful development and use of space technology,’ he said. China’s rapidly advancing program has raised disquiet among Western governments and in Japan that it may have military ambitions in space, especially after conducting an anti-satellite missile test last year.
   Zhai’s brief but historic outing in a Chinese-designed space suit that cost $4.4 million capped a year in which the country has both coped with the tragedy of the devastating Sichuan earthquake and reveled in the Beijing Olympics.
   The ability to conduct a space walk is key to a longer-term goal of assembling a space lab and then a larger space station, and maybe one day making a landing on the moon.
   The feat has also provided the government with a welcome diversion from a scandal about toxic milk that has poisoned thousands of infants and killed four, inciting anger at home and tainting the ‘made in China’ brand abroad.
   From cosmopolitan Beijing and Shanghai to tiny rural hamlets, the astronauts’ exploits have been followed on television by a mesmerized population, with millions glued to live broadcasts of the takeoff, space walk and landing.
   The trio can expect an adoring welcome from the whole country when they are allowed out of quarantine, which the official Xinhua agency said would last around half a month.
   Previous space pioneers, now national icons, have been showered with tributes and gifts ranging from luxury housing to traditional operas performed in their honor.
   The fast-growing Asian power wants to be sure of a say in the future use of space and its resources, and has come a long way since late leader Mao Zedong lamented that China could not even launch a potato into space.
   China’s first manned spaceflight was in 2003, followed by a two-man flight in 2005. The only other countries that have sent people into space are Russia and the United States.
   The mission is also a great success for the Chinese Communist Party, which next year celebrates the 60th anniversary of its ascent to power, and premier Wen’s speech was peppered with jargon that emphasised its role in the space programme.

Senior joint secretary general of the Awami League, Obaidul Quader who has been released on bail from jail, is scheduled to go to New Delhi today for medical treatment.
   The ailing AL leader is scheduled to leave Dhaka at 9:20am by Jet Airways from Zia International Airport. All the due formalities for his trip have been completed, said a press release by his advocate, AKM Amin Uddin, on Sunday.
   On Saturday Quader was barred from flying to Delhi for treatment. The immigration police at ZIA stopped him from boarding a Jet Airways flight scheduled to take off at 9:25am, saying there was an embargo on his leaving the country, said an AL leader, Tareque Shams Khan Himu, who will accompany Quader to Delhi.
   He was later taken back to the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital where he was being treated.
   Quader’s lawyer, Amin Uddin, applied to the home affairs ministry on September 17, seeking its permission for Quader to go abroad for treatment, and the ministry verbally informed him that he could go.
   Obaidul Quader, also a former state minister for sports, youth and cultural affairs, was severely injured in the grenade attack on an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka on August 21, 2004, in which at least 24 people, including the party’s top-ranking leader Ivy Rahman, were killed and many others injured and maimed.
   Since then he has been suffering from a number of ailments, including a neurological problem that causes muscle wastage and weakness.

Shops were closed and vehicles stayed off the roads across Nepal on Sunday during a strike called against a plan to turn the Himalayan nation into a federal state, officials and witnesses said.
   Major political parties and the Maoist-led coalition government have agreed to split Nepal into several autonomous provinces under a federal structure after preparing a new constitution likely in two years time.
   ‘A small and poor country like Nepal should not be turned into a federal state,’ said Chitra Bahadur KC, chief of a leftist group, National People’s Front, that called the day-long strike to oppose the plan. ‘The federal system will weaken national unity.’
   Activists pelted stones and set fire to half a dozen vehicles in Kathmandu. Others trying to enforce the strike also clashed with police but officials said there were no injuries.
   Nepal abolished the 239-old monarchy in June, part of a 2006 peace deal with Maoist former rebels ending their decade-long civil war.

The education ministry has decided to appoint private lawyers to conduct more than 6,000 cases the ministry now faces, officials told New Age Thursday.
   ‘The ministry is facing more than 6,000 cases right now and as the number is too high, we in the past week decided to employ private lawyers to conduct the cases,’ a joint secretary at the ministry said.
   ‘We have a law officer in the ministry. Besides, there are lawyers appointed in different departments and organisations under the ministry to face the cases,’ he said. ‘Most of the cases are against the ministry’s decision on postponement of salaries of non-government teachers and employees and promotion and punishment of teachers of government secondary schools and colleges.’
   The education ministry is the administrative authority of all the institutions from the secondary to the tertiary level.
   There are more than five lakh teachers and employees in more than 30,000 government and non-government secondary schools, colleges and madrassahs under the ministry.
   The ministry is also the oversight authority of 30 public and 51 private universities across the country.

The police seized a truck loaded with 13 tonnes of urea fertiliser from eastern side of the Jamuna Bridge early Sunday while smuggling.
   The truck driver, Shawkat Hossain, was arrested. The urea was being sent to Durgapur of Netrakona from Ashuganj, though it was supposed to be sent to Jhenaidah, the police said.