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The government, after increasing the salary of government employees, is now thinking about increasing perks and privileges for ministers and lawmakers, officials said.
   The parliament speaker, Abdul Hamid, on Wednesday said he might send the proposals to the prime minister asking for measures to increase allowances of lawmakers of the 345-strong parliament.
   ‘Perks and privileges of lawmakers need to be rationalised amid an increase in the cost of living over years,’ the speaker told New Age, adding every parliament increase perks of lawmakers.
   He said he would propose amendments to the existing laws dealing with remuneration and privileges of lawmakers to stop misuse of public funds.
   Certain allowances for lawmakers would have ceilings and they would be added to their monthly remuneration.
   The previous Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government increased the remuneration of lawmakers by 50 per cent in 2005.
   They now draw a salary of Tk 15,000 a month. With other allowances, a lawmaker draws Tk 34,200 every month, according to the latest amendment to the Members of Parliament (Remuneration and Allowances) Act.
   Ministers now draw Tk 29,000, state ministers Tk 26,100 and deputy ministers Tk 24,650 in salary a month. The prime minister draws Tk 32,000 as remuneration every month and the president receives Tk 33,400.
   Besides, they get travel passes and transport allowances for attending parliament sessions and committee meetings, insurance cover, discretionary grants, medical facilities for the members of the family, telephone and other utility bills and constituency allowance.
   The government usually increases remuneration of the prime minister, ministers, state ministers, deputy ministers and judges along with increase in the remuneration of lawmakers.
   The council of ministers at a meeting presided over by the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, approved the new pay scale for government employees. The salaries of government employees were last increased in 2005.
   The meeting discussed increase in the salary of ministers, but no decision was made in this regard.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has expressed her concern that the new pay scale for public servants might lead to an inflationary spiral, leading to the price-hike of essential commodities, said a highly-placed source in the government.
   She expressed her concern on Wednesday at a special Cabinet meeting that approved the Seventh Pay Scale for some 1.2 million employees and officers on the government’s payroll, with effect from July 1 this year.
   Before giving her seal of approval, she had a four-hour meeting with her advisers, Cabinet colleagues and senior bureaucrats on the details of the long-awaited new pay scale and its possible impact on market.
   Hasina alerted the ministry concerned to the possible influences of increased pay on the commodity market and ordered to take necessary measures to prevent the vested interest quarters from hiking the prices of essentials, a minister told New Age.
   Commerce minister Faruk Khan assured the prime minister of taking enough safeguards and strong surveillance to keep prices stable, meeting sources said.
   ‘The government stopped short of announcing the new pay scale before Eid-ul-Fitr in fear of price spiral. But now we are doing the same when another Eid is nearing,’ Hasina was quoted by the minister as saying.
   Finance minister AMA Muhith, however, downplayed the prime minister’s concern about any immediate impact of the new pay scale on prices of essentials, citing that rice price has been stable while prices of vegetables are on the decline with arrivals of early winter harvest.
   Detailing the features of the new pay scale later on the day, he pointed out that the government had chosen the present moment suitable for announcing the new pay scale to avoid inflationary pressure.
   The prime minister directed the finance ministry to make sure that each grade of public servants sees a pay hike of at least Tk 2,000. She asked the secretaries to take initiatives so that the lower grade employees also get due benefits from the new pay scale.
   The finance minister later told reporters that the salary structures for the lowest slab and five grades upwards will be readjusted as the government decided to increase pays at least by Tk 2,000 in each grade.
   Monthly salary increase will range between 56 and 74 per cent, with the highest pay set at Tk 40,000 from Tk 23,000 now and lowest at Tk 4,100 from Tk 2,400.
   The implementation of the National Pay Scale 2009 for all the 20 grades of public servants will cost the exchequer an additional amount of Tk 6,222 crore in revenue expenditure.
   It will be implemented in two phases. Some Tk 3,570 crore will be needed for payment of increased salary from July 2009 with retrospective effect and the rest for other allowances in the second phase to be implemented in July next year.
   The finance minister said efforts are on to start the implementation right from the November salary.
   The cabinet also approved pay hike for members of armed forces and judicial officials. A district judge will receive monthly salary of Tk 29,000, which is equivalent to Grade III. Members of armed forces will receive family pension at an enhanced rate.
   The new pay scale for the first time entitles public officials to education allowance for their children between Tk 200 and Tk 300 a month. Medical allowance has been raised to Tk 700 from Tk 500.
   Teachers of government and non-government [listed under monthly payment order system] schools and colleges will also receive higher pays.
   Muhith recalled the Awami League’s election pledge to introduce an independent pay scale for teachers. ‘It will be implemented in future.’
   A committee is working on the labour wage board, he said.
   The seventh pay scale came four years after the sixth, while previous pay scales had a gap of more than five years.
   The sixth pay scale was implemented in January 2005, while the previous two pay scales came in 1997 and 1991.
   The interim government formed the Seventh Pay Commission in September 2008 and offered 20 per cent dearness allowance to help public servants offset the double-digit inflation that sent commodity prices skyward.
   The pay commission submitted its recommendations in April.

Leaders of government primary schoolteachers’ associations on Wednesday demanded that the government should increase their pay and perquisites.
   A number of aggrieved leaders, on the eve of the announcement of the new pay-scale, iterated their demand and shared their sorrows and grievances with New Age, saying that for nearly two decades they had demanded that the government should pay them at least more than a ‘driver employed by the government offices’, but successive governments were deaf to their plea.
   Actually we demand a separate pay scale for teachers, he said, and meritorious graduates will join this profession if teachers of government primary schools are paid adequate salaries, and we can ensure better education for schoolchildren and thus help the formation of a good nation.
   ‘Since August 2006, the gross salary and benefits of an untrained entry-level assistant teacher of a government primary school is Tk 6,100/-. The driver of a government office also gets same amount. Such strange equality is disgraceful for a teacher,’ said M Saidur Rahman, publicity secretary of the Bangladesh Government Primary Schoolteachers’ Association.
   ‘Before August 2006, the drivers of government offices used to be paid higher salaries than us. After a series of street movements the then BNP government announced the pay-hike in July 2006, but the pay remained poor,’ said Saidur who is supposed to retire in January 2010.
   ‘But the BNP government’s announcement of a pay-hike did not fetch any good results for the teachers who had been serving for more than 15 years. Though the salary of entry-level teachers was raised, my salary, like that of many others, was reduced by at least Tk 250 for fixation of increment,’ he said, heaving a deep sigh.
   ‘Through newspaper reports we came to know that the government is going increase our salaries but the teachers will get salaries on the same scale as the drivers get. I see no change in our fate though we got a new government in January 2009,’ he added.
   ‘Successive governments announced that a separate pay-scale would be declared for teachers. After taking charge of the education ministry, Nurul Islam Nahid said several times that there would be a separate scale for teachers,’ said M Awal Talukdar, president of the association.
   ‘Besides, there was a rumour floating since late 2004 that the government would form a separate cadre for primary schoolteachers in order to raise the quality of teaching and thus improve primary education, but I see nothing new till date,’ he said.
   M Siddiqur Rahman, general secretary of the Bangladesh Primary Teachers’ Association, on Wednesday said, ‘It is a shame for the nation that a teacher gets a salary equivalent to what is paid to a government driver or clerk.’
   ‘Primary schoolteachers are the father of all educated nations, so they should be given due respect and good pay and perks,’ he added.
   The state minister for primary and mass education, Motahar Hossain, acknowledged the justice of the teachers’ claims and said that in line with Awami League’s election pledge the government is working to frame a separate pay-scale for teachers. ‘If the separate scale is announced, meritorious students will enter this profession,’ he said hopefully.
   There are nearly 38,000 government primary schools employing more than 2,00,000 teachers.
   In India, where money has real buying power, a schoolteacher of a government primary receives more than Rs 5,500 as basic salary at the entry level, a high school teacher more than Rs 8,500 and a college teacher more than Rs 13,000, according to the available statistics.

The government committee inquiring into the labour unrest at Tongi has sought more time to complete the task which it finds too sensitive to conclude in a short time.
   ‘We aren’t able to submit the probe report within 15 days since it is a sensitive issue. The committee is working day and night, and has taken statements of nearly 300 witnesses,’ said labour secretary Ataharul Islam, who is leading the five-member probe team.
   The committee is analysing the statements for preparing a concrete report, he added.
   The secretary, who is due to leave the country today for attending a conference in Geneva, hoped that the committee would be able to complete the task by December 10.
   The inquiry body earlier requested the state minister for labour to allow it more time for completing the investigation, said an official.
   The request would be forwarded to the home affairs ministry for a decision.
   The home ministry on November 1 ordered formation of the five-member committee to investigate the labour unrest over unwarranted closure of Nippon Garments Industry Limited at Tongi that left three persons killed and more than a hundred others injured in police firing on October 31.
   Home minister Sahara Khatun had announced that those found responsible for the incident— ‘be it workers, owners or godfather’—would not be spared.
   She mentioned on the day that the committee had been asked to submit report within two weeks.
   The inquiry committee comprises representatives from home affairs ministry, Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association and workers.
   It took three days for the authorities to complete official procedures for formation of the inquiry body, officials concerned said.
   The labour secretary earlier said the committee would utilise every second effectively to complete the investigation before November 12.

To a vehement opposition from the state side, the defence counsel in the Bangabandhu murder case Wednesday begged the appeal court for saving the necks of the condemned former army officers from the Manila rope.
   The chief state counsel, encountering the plea, entreated that the highest judiciary ditto the High Court death sentences on the five appellant ex-army officers in the Bangabandhu murder case.
   Sticking to his guns, Anisul Huq, while wrapping up arguments, told the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court that the conscience of the nation is so upset by such horrendous crime perpetrated on the predawn hours of August 15 in 1975 that the killers deserve no other sentence but the death penalty.
   Referring to the principles laid down in an Indian Supreme Court on death sentence, he pointed out that the murder of an innocent child, helpless women or a public figure generally loved and respected by the community is reason enough for imposing death sentence.
   ‘And on August 15, 1975 the assailants gunned down all the three principles,’ the chief state counsel argued.
   Terming the August 15, 1975 killing of president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most members of his family an act of betrayal to the motherland, he said it had also shaken the democracy and changed the state’s entire philosophy.
   Anis observed that the bloodletting as well as revolting incident had roused intense and extreme indignation in the country.
   He said people’s tears had already dried up but their hearts still bleed and it is the apex court to deliver a judgment that would stop the haemorrhage.
   ‘Let a message go forth from the highest court of law that a crime tolerated is a crime encouraged,’ he said.
   Anis told the court that it is the responsibility of the state to bring the perpetrators to justice instead of taking retaliation. ‘At all times we make an effort to bring the perpetrators of such heinous crime to justice in accordance with law.’
   He said, ‘The agony and waiting and the pain of denial has at times led us to frustration but never did it shake our uncompromising faith in the built-in potency of our judicial system.’
   On the other hand, Barrister Abdullah Al Mamun, the defence counsel for Maj (retd) Bazlul Huda and Maj (retd) AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed (Lancer), begged for commuting the capital punishment against his clients on the plea of the benefit of the doubt.
   During the course of appeal hearings, the five-judge Appellate Division bench had to interrupt the defence counsel for ‘immaterial and extraneous submissions’ while he was reverting to the state arguments.’
   At one stage, the court stopped him with a retort: ‘You are arguing for the media coverage that is what we understand.’
   The hearing session was adjourned till Thursday.

About 5,000 Americans a year are hit and killed by cars while crossing or walking along a street, according to a new report by US association Trans-portation for America.
   ‘Every year, nearly 5,000 Americans die preventable deaths on roads that fail to provide safe conditions for pedestrians,’ the group said in a report entitled ‘Dangerous by Design.’
   ‘This is the equivalent of a jumbo jet going down roughly every month, yet it receives nothing like the kind of attention that would surely follow such a disaster,’ the report said.
   Transportation for America, which bills itself as a coalition of housing, business, environmental and other organisations, is seeking legislation that would encourage local communities to improve their pedestrian infrastructure.
   Less than 1.5 per cent of all federal funds set aside for transportation are used to enhance pedestrian safety despite the deaths of some 76,000 pedestrians in traffic-related incidents over the last 15 years, according to the group.
   The report said pedestrians and cyclists represent 13 per cent of all traffic deaths, adding that 3,906 children under 16 have been killed while crossing or walking along a street in the last decade.
   According to a ranking compiled by the association, the four US cities with the highest ‘pedestrian danger index’ can all be found in Florida — Orlando, Tampa, Miami and Jacksonville.
   Despite a low rate of residents who walk to work, just 1.3 per cent, Orlando recorded a pedestrian fatality rate of 2.9 deaths per 100,000 residents, the report said.
   ‘In other words, the few people who do walk in Orlando face a relatively high risk of being killed by traffic,’ according to the organisation.
   In absolute numbers, the cities with the highest pedestrian death tolls were New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
   In 2007, New York recorded 316 pedestrian deaths, which represented 31 per cent of all traffic-related deaths in the city.
   San Francisco recorded 64 deaths — 27.7 per cent of traffic-related fatalities that year and Los Angeles recorded 247, representing 27 per cent of traffic-related deaths.
   The US capital, Washington DC, was ranked eighth, with 106 deaths.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Wednesday spoke tough against tender manipulation and extortion amid growing allegations of such misdeeds.
   She advised leaders and activists Juba League, an associate organisation of the ruling Awami League, to be self-reliant using their own merit and strength.
   ‘We do not want to hear any incident of tender manipulation and extortion,’ said Sheikh Hasina, also the president of the ruling Awami League, as she addressed a discussion marking the 37th founding anniversary of the Juba League in the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre Wednesday evening.
   Hasina told the Juba League leaders and activists the government would help the young people to become self-reliant. ‘Young people can do business by taking loans from the Employment Bank.’
   Hasina asked the Juba League men to uphold the dignity of the Awami League’s associate organisation as it has played historic role in the country’s transition to democracy and in strengthening the foundation of democracy.
   She asked the Juba League activists to devote themselves to the task of building a prosperous and developed Bangladesh. ‘Stand by the destitute. We want to change Bangladesh,’ she said about the vision of the ruling alliance.
   Criticising the previous BNP-Jamaat government for widespread corruption, Hasina said people cannot take the wealth and money with them when they die.
   ‘If anyone thinks now is the time for making wealth, it would be a big mistake. The people have voted us to power. Now it is our supreme duty to improve the people’s living standards by addressing their socioeconomic problems,’ Hasina said.
   She alleged the BNP-Jamaat alliance with its huge illegal money wanted to grab the state power once again.
   ‘The BNP-Jamaat government had thought power was a permanent settlement for them. But the people rejected them in the December 2008 polls,’ Hasina said.
   She said the success of Vision 2021 of the Awami League was largely dependent on the young people. ‘Only you can turn Bangladesh into a digital country.’
   Hasina said the present government had come to power only a few days ago, but already ‘the anti-democracy force has started hatching conspiracy against the country.’
   In this context, Hasina talked about the February 25–26 rebellion in the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters.
   She was also highly critical of the main opposition party for not joining the parliament sessions. ‘What are they plotting with such activities?’ Hasina said. ‘In fact, the opposition party does not want development of democracy.’
   Presided over by the acting Juba League chairman Omar Faruk Chowdhury, the discussion was also addressed by former Juba League chairman Jahangir Kabir Nanak, also the state minister for the LGRD and Juba League general secretary Mirza Azam, also a lawmaker.
   Hasina earlier went around a youth fair on the conference centre premises organised by the Juba League.
   The discussion began with the theme song of the 37th founding anniversary presented by Haimanti Shukla and Subir Nandi.
   Hasina also launched a book, Sheikh Hasina: Life and Struggle: Poems of Uprising. A documentary on the Juba League’s fight for democracy was also screened.
   Ministers, advisers to the prime minister, state ministers and several foreign diplomats attended the discussion, followed by a cultural programme.

The cabinet has decided to task the prime minister’s security adviser retired major general Tareq Ahmed Siddique with coordinating the intelligence agencies.
   The political section of the home ministry on Wednesday issued a circular on the cabinet decision.
   A high official of the ministry said ‘The fourth meeting on law and order of October 29 decided to form a committee, headed by retired Maj Gen Siddique, to coordinate the agencies’ operations.
   ‘The circular has been issued to inform the respective ministries about the decision,’ said the official, who preferred to remain unnamed.
   A copy of the circular was also sent to the secretary of the prime minister’s office.
   The circular, containing only the name of the head, did not detail the committee’s scope of work and authority.
   The prime minister on her winding up speech in parliament on November 5 said the government has formed a committee to coordinate the spy agencies to improve the law and order.
   ‘We are reactivating the intelligence agencies. Previously, different intelligence agencies used to perform their duties in different ways,’ the prime minister said.
   ‘I have been receiving information from them (spy agencies) after every 15 days. I will tell nothing more now.’
   Opposition MP Oli Ahmed on the same day asked the government for confining the activities of military’s spy outfit DGFI inside the cantonment only.
   ‘Then incidents such as the BDR mutiny (Feb 25-26) would not take place in future.’
   ‘You have to take pre-emptive measures. Strengthen the intelligence agencies, if necessary,’ he added.
   The home minister, Shara Khatun, recently commented that the incidents of August 15 and November 3, 1975, grenade attack of August 21, 2004 and February’s BDR carnage stemmed from intelligence failure.

The High Court has directed the government to give appointments within three months to 169 civil service candidates, who passed the 27th BCS exams in 2005 but were later disqualified.
   The bench of justices Miftahuddin Chowdhury and Abu Bakar Siddiqui gave the order on Wednesday on three separate petitions by the 169 candidates.
   The High Court also ruled that the appointments of the successful candidates of a second round of the 27th Bangladesh Civil Service exams would be upheld.
   The results of the first 27th BCS exams were published in January 2007. The Public Service Commission cancelled the results, however, on allegations of irregularities and held a fresh round of viva voce exams.
   Over 1,000 candidates, including the 169 petitioners, were disqualified the second time round. They have been demanding redress since.
   Senior advocate Abdur Rob Chowdhury represented the petitioners, while additional attorney general Murad Reza, deputy attorney general Md Akram Hossain Chowdhury and assistant attorney general Samarendra Nath Biswas represented the state.
   Akram Hossain Chowdhury said after the ruling: ‘The High Court has declared illegal the cancellation of first viva of the 27th BCS exams.’
   ‘It has ordered the government to appoint the 169 candidates who challenged the legality of the cancellation,’ he said.
   Asked whether the state would appeal against the ruling, he said: ‘It depends on the government’s instructions.’
   The High Court in an earlier ruling, on June 4 this year, had said that the results of the first viva voce exams ‘had no legal validity’.
   The PSC cancelled the results of the 2005 BCS exams on January 21 2007 after the final results came out, on allegations of favouritism and anomalies.
   The viva voce for those who had passed the written test was re-taken, based on which 1,154 candidates who had passed the first time round were failed the second time.
   The failed candidates, calling themselves ‘deprived’ and protesting the ‘unfair treatment’, have since been lobbying the authorities to appoint them.
   The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, despite the June 4 High Court order, directed the PSC to take measures to ease the long-standing dispute.
   A parliamentary subcommittee, on June 14, recommended the PSC provide jobs for the deprived candidates after considering ‘the legal and ethical aspects of the situation’.

Bangladesh is still considered as a country with severe localised food insecurity due to historic uncertainty in crop production, deep poverty, concentration of internally displaced people and also influx of refugees, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation.
   Carrying the label of a food importing country, it belongs to the category of 31 nations that have long been living under the shadow of some kind of crisis requiring external assistance to make food available to people.
   The UN technical agency, however, forecast that Bangladesh, alongside a few other countries, is expected to produce total cereal output this year more or less similar to that of the year before.
   The projection of total cereals for 2009 is 48.7 million tonnes, compared to an estimated output of 48.4 million tonnes the previous year. Annual shortfall of rice in recent decade varied from one million tonnes to three million tonnes, showed official statistics.
   Food prices in many poor countries that are importers of food still remain stubbornly high despite a good 2009 world cereal production, the global body observed in its latest ‘Crop Prospects and Food Situation’ report released on Tuesday.
   ‘In Bangladesh, localised food supply and market access difficulties persist. The food security situation of vulnerable groups has been further adversely affected by soaring food prices,’ said the FAO report.
   It mentioned that cyclone Aila hit parts of coastal Bangladesh on 25 May 2009, triggering tidal surges and floods affecting about four million people.
   In view of sensitivity in food price, the government of Bangladesh continues to keep a healthy food stock in line with the national food policy. The food ministry has fixed a target of procuring 1.5 million tonnes of Aman rice after purchasing about 1.2 million tonnes of rice during the Boro season.
   Meanwhile, despite higher global food output forecast, the UN agency forecast a nine per cent decline in the world cereal trade in 2009-2010, indicating a state of food insecurity in various countries.
   ‘For the world's poorest people who spend up to 80 percent of their household budgets on food, the food price crisis is not over yet,’ said FAO assistant director general Hafez Ghanem. ‘It is now a global priority to increase investment in developing country agriculture in order to fight poverty and hunger.’
   In Asia, the outlook for rice production in 2009 appeared bleak since July following irregular monsoon rains in major rice-producing countries like India and natural disasters in some other countries, including Japan, the Republic of Korea, Lao People's Democratic Republic and Sri Lanka, said the report.

A Dhaka court on Wednesday ordered Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami leader Maulana Abdul Majid to be remanded in custody for five days in connection the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue.
   Magistrate Habibur Rahman Siddiqui of the additional chief metropolitan magistrate's court passed the order on a
   petition filed by the Criminal Investigation Department.
   Senior assistant police superintendent Abdul Kahhar Akand, also the investigation officer of the case, on Tuesday sought him to be remanded in custody for 10 days. The police also sought him to be shown arrested in the case.
   The magistrate allowed Majid to be shown arrested in the case on Tuesday and posted for Wednesday the hearing in the prayer for remand.
   Majid had been behind bars since January when he was arrested in an arms case filed with the Uttara police.
   The Supreme Court, meanwhile on Wednesday, halted a High Court order that asked the police to interrogate Dhaka City Corporation Ward 53 commissioner Ariful Islam Arif at the jail gate in connection with August 21, 2004 grenade attack case.
   The stay order has cleared the way for the CID to seek Arif to be remanded in custody for interrogation.
   The Appellate Division chamber judge, Justice Mohammed Muzammel Hossain, put a two-week freeze on the High Court order.
   The additional chief metropolitan magistrate's court on Monday allowed him to be remanded in custody for five days, but the High Court on Tuesday ordered the CID to bring him to the Dhaka central jail and to interrogate him at the jail gate in the grenade attack case.
   The High Court bench of Justice AFM Abdur Rahman and Justice Mohammad Emdadul Haque Azad passed the order on a petition filed by Arif.
   A high CID official, meanwhile, told New Age, 'A team raided the house of a senior Khelafat Andolan leader at Joarsahara in Dhaka on Wednesday and seized some documents related to the case.'
   'We conducted the drive as the leader is known as a mentor of Harkatul founder Sheikh Abdus Salam,' he said.
   Twenty 24 people, including the Awami League's women affairs secretary Ivy Rahman, were killed in the attack on the Awami League rally on August 21, 2004.
   The Criminal Investigation Department earlier pressed charges against 22 people, including Harkatul chief Mufti Abdul Hannan, former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu, also a BNP leader, and his brother Maulana Tajuddin.

A landmine attack and ambush killed 10 Pakistani troops near the Afghan border Wednesday, in a sign that violence is spreading away from the frontlines of a major anti-Taliban offensive.
   Pakistan has pressed around 30,000 forces, backed by war planes and attack helicopters, into battle in a US-endorsed mission to wipe out the chief strongholds of Tehreek-e-Taliban in the tribal district of South Waziristan.
   The district, one of seven in Pakistan's tribal belt, is in the border area with Afghanistan where US officials say al-Qaeda is plotting attacks on the West and Islamist militants are embedded in large swathes of the mountains.
   Wednesday's deaths were reported in Mohmand, where the paramilitary Frontier Corps has been operating for well over a year against the Taliban, and after security officials warned that the militants are stepping up attacks elsewhere.
   'Eight soldiers were martyred and two were wounded when their vehicle hit a landmine buried on the roadside,' Major Fazal ur-Rehman, spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps, said.
   The attack happened on the outskirts of Safi town near the Afghan border in Mohmand tribal district, the paramilitary said.
   'The soldiers were on a routine patrol. The landmine was buried by militants. The explosion damaged the pick-up,' said Rehman.
   He said the incident was separate to a Taliban ambush that left two paramilitary personnel dead and eight others missing after militants attacked a another convoy nearby at Ghanam Shah on Wednesday.

The power and energy ministry will today seek the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs to relax some of the provisions of the Public Procurement Regulations for the Fast-track Gas Development Programme of the Petrobangla.
   The Power Division will place a proposal before the committee, headed by finance minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhith, for relaxing the timeframe for processing tenders and slackening the restrictions on the source of equipment, financial ceiling and the number of maximum and minimum bids.
   Petrobangla has taken up a programme to drill five new gas wells at Titas and Rashidpur gas-fields and conduct a work-over programme in three existing production wells on a 'fast-track' basis to increase gas production by around 130 million cubic feet per day by February 2012.
   It has also taken up a programme to conduct a two-dimensional seismic survey of 3,100 kilometres under the Tk 1,100 crore programme.
   The state-run corporation has already invited applications for short-listing the companies who are interested in participating in the tenders for the works, and 44 international companies have submitted applications so far.
   'If we follow the Public Procurement Regulations 2008, it will take an unduly long time just to complete the tender procedure, and we will not be able to hit our target of completing the project by 2012. So we will seek relaxation of some of the PPR's provisions as we are undergoing acute gas shortage,' said a high official of the energy ministry.
   He claimed that they would save six to nine months in completing the tender procedure and starting the project if the PPR was relaxed for this particular programme
   'For example, we may want that submission time for tenders should be 30 days instead of the existing period of 45 days. Besides, we will also request the committee to allow us to invite tenders from some specific sources for supplying drilling equipment,' he said.
   He claimed that such relaxation of the PPR's provisions would not affect the transparency and competitiveness of the bidding process.

Nepal's Maoists pledged Wednesday to bring hundreds of thousands of activists onto the streets of the capital in the latest stage of a two-week protest against the government.
   Party leaders said the protesters would blockade all ministry buildings on Thursday and Friday in an attempt to bring
   the government to a standstill.
   'We are planning to bring at least 300,000 people onto the streets to surround Singha Durbar during office hours for the next two days,' senior Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai told reporters.
   The Singha Durbar complex in the heart of Kathmandu is the main administration building where all the ministries are situated.
   Nepal's Maoist-led government fell in May after the president halted their attempt to sack the head of the army, and the party is holding a fortnight of nationwide protests against the new administration.
   The Maoists, who fought a 10-year civil war against the state before winning landmark elections in 2008, want the president to apologise for preventing the army chief's removal - a move they say was unconstitutional.
   On Tuesday, they blocked all roads in and out of Kathmandu, while smaller protests have taken place in other parts of the country.
   'We won't let any government ministers and officials enter the building on Thursday and Friday. It will be a peaceful protest and we will celebrate it as a festival,' said Bhattarai.
   Authorities in Kathmandu had earlier announced plans to expand the area around Singha Durbar, in which protests are banned.
   But they backed down after the Maoists said they would defy the new rules.
   'We have revoked our decision in order to stop possible violence,' said local official Bhola Shivakoti.

The UN General Assembly on Tuesday declared July 18 ‘Nelson Mandela International Day’ to mark the South African anti-apartheid leader’s contribution to peace.
   A resolution adopted by consensus by the 192-member world body calls for commemorations every year starting in 2010 on July 18 - Mandela’s birthday - to recognise the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s contribution to resolving conflicts and promoting race relations, human rights and reconciliation.
   By adopting the resolution, the General Assembly president, Ali Treki, said the international community was expressing its appreciation for ‘a great man’ who suffered for the sake of people everywhere.
   Mandela, 91, led the fight against apartheid in South Africa as head of the African National Congress’ armed wing. He was convicted of sabotage and other crimes and served 27 years in prison. When he was freed in 1990, he supported reconciliation and helped lead South Africa’s transition toward multi-racial democracy.
   Mandela became the country’s first president to win in a fully democratic election and led South Africa from 1994-99. He is celebrated today as an international statesman and continues to speak out on human rights and other global issues.
   The resolution recognises Mandela’s ‘leading role in and support for Africa’s struggle for liberation and Africa’s unity, and his outstanding contribution to the creation of a non-racial, non-sexist democratic South Africa.’
   It also acknowledges his ‘contribution to the struggle for democracy internationally and in the promotion of a culture of peace throughout the world.’
   US diplomat Laura Ross said the United States was founded on the belief that all people were created equal and saw in Mandela ‘a hero and kindred spirit.’
   Tanzania’s UN ambassador Augustine Mahiga called Mandela ‘a visionary leader’ and an ‘icon of social freedom’ whose life has been the ultimate definition of peace, both in South Africa and throughout the world.

Kazi Jesin, the anchor of Banglavision's talk show Point of Order, on Wednesday filed a general diary with the Mohammadpur police seeking security after she had received death threats over telephone.
   In her complaint lodged with the police, Kazi Jesin alleged she had received a number of anonymous calls threatening to harass her socially and of dire consequences if she would not stop her programme on the private television channel.
   She earlier received similar death threats from the same quarters and filed a general diary with the same police station in June.

A meeting of the central working committee of the ruling Awami League would be held on Saturday to finalise the dates for the party's extended meeting and launching membership recruitment drive, sources said.
   Although the party on October 17 had decided to launch its drive to recruit members and renew membership in the second week of November and hold an extended meeting of the party in the third week of next month, the party could not arrange the two programmes due to its failure to complete necessary preparations.
   The meeting would further set the new schedule for the programmes.
   AL organising secretaries, who have already begun tour of their respective divisions, are expected to submit their reports at the meeting of the party working committee, the highest policy-making body of the ruling AL.
   In a statement, AL general secretary and also the LGRD and cooperatives minister, Syed Ashraful Islam, urged all members of the working committee to attend the meeting to be held at party chief Sheikh Hasina's Dhanmondi office at 10:00am on Saturday.