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The government on Monday requested Germany to assist Bangladesh to extract coal by the open-pit mining method.
   The commerce minister, Faruk Khan, called upon the German ambassador, Holger Michael, to provide some expert advice as the government is still in doubt about the possible impact of open-pit mining on the environment.
   Holger met Faruk at his secretariat office and discussed investment in the renewable energy sector and dredging to deepen the rivers and increase their navigability.
   ‘We are examining the pros and cons of open-pit mining in the country which is densely populated and suffers from scarcity of land,’ Faruk Khan reportedly told Holger.
   Holger said that the German government would provide all technological and investment support to Bangladesh through the GTZ, the German technical agency.
   Many energy experts, various rights groups like the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas Mineral Resources, Power and Ports, and the Citizens Committee of the Bangladesh Economic Association have been demanding a complete ban on open-pit mining for the last three years, saying that it would destroy the environment and displace a huge number of people from the their lands.
   After the Awami League-led government took office in January, a move in the government is underway to use the open-pit mining system in the country, and the controversial UK-based company, Asia Energy, has begun lobbying to get permission to use the open-pit mining system at Phulbari coalfield in Dinajpur.
   State minister for environment Hasan Mahmud visited Germany on September 6-9, reportedly to acquire some knowledge of open-pit mining and coal-based power plants.
   An official of the environment ministry, who had accompanied the minister, told New Age on Monday that the minister’s visit was arranged by the GTZ and they had visited many coal-mines and power plants including that of German company RWE.
   The GTZ has sponsored a number of roundtables and seminars that recommended open-pit mining in Bangladesh.
   Asia Energy also took some persons, including selected academics, from Bangladesh in 2007 to Germany to visit the coal-mines and power plants operated by RWE.
   ‘The RWE is learnt to be interested to become a partner of Asia Energy in the Phulbari coal-field and to build a coal-based power plant, and that is why Germany is so eager to ensure that Bangladesh goes for open-pit mining,’ said an official of the energy ministry.
   The official said that after Hasan Mahmud’s visit, he submitted a report to the government saying that they had seen nothing wrong in open-pit mining in Germany and that it was successfully generating electricity from coal.
   ‘We have collected still pictures, videos and other materials in favour of open-pit mining. We have seen that Germany was doing a tremendous job in operating open-pit mines. The RWE is producing around 7,000MW of electricity from the coal from two mines. We have seen nothing wrong with open-pit mining, but some people in Bangladesh are against the system as they do not want the development of the country,’ said official of the environment ministry.
   The energy ministry last month recommended that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina allow open-pit mining at Barapukuria coal-field, and she told the ministry to carry out a detailed study and present the findings to her after which she will decide what to do.
   Professor Anu Muhammad, member-secretary of the National Committee to Protect, Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports, told New Age on Monday that the campaign to allow open-pit mining in the country was launched again after this government took office as Asia Energy had gained more powerful lobbyists in its favour.
   ‘The government’s ministers are saying what Asia Energy wants to hear. They are saying open-pit mining is good so that Asia Energy can do so at Phulbari,’ he said.
   Professor Anu said they had time and again pointed out that the environments and geographical traits of Germany and Bangladesh were very different.
   ‘The density of population, the water level and the rapidly diminishing arable land of Bangladesh make it totally dissimilar to Germany,’ he said.
   He said that if Sheikh Hasina decided to allow open-pit mining, she would break her ‘commitment’ as she had endorsed a six-point agreement that the people of Phulbari signed with the then BNP-led government in August 2006 to oust Asia Energy from Bangladesh and to ban open-pit mining in the country.
   Three persons were killed and many others injured at Phulbari in August 2006 when policemen suddenly opened fire on protestors demonstrating against Asia Energy’s plan to use the open-pit mining system at Phulbari coal-field.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has said her government would stop extortion and tender manipulation with an iron hand, and even leaders or activists of Awami League would not be excused if found involved in such misdeeds, a highly placed source in the cabinet said.
   She sounded the note of caution at the weekly cabinet meeting Monday amid media reports that leaders and activists of the ruling Awami League and its associate bodies are involved in extortion and tender manipulation across the country.
   A senior minister who attended the meeting said the prime minister took the reports seriously as she did at party’s central executive committee meeting on October 3 issuing her zero tolerance against party men found involved in extortion and tender violence.
   The cabinet meeting chaired by Sheikh Hasina approved amendments to the Public Procurement Law 2006 allowing inexperienced contractors to bid for work worth up to Tk 2 crore.
   While approving the Public Procurement (Amendment) Law, the prime minister said the amendments are intended to make public purchase transparent and encourage young entrepreneurs, the minister told New Age.
   Briefing reporters, PM’s press secretary Abul Kalam Azad later said the amendments would prevent bidders from quoting 5 per cent below the scheduled rate. Earlier, as per the Public Procurement Act of 2006, the bidders were allowed to quote 10 per cent below the scheduled rate.
   Another amendment stipulates that bidders will have to mention in their tender documents the manufacturing country of equipment and accessories to be supplied.
   The cabinet endorsed amendments to Dhaka Transport Coordination Board (DTCB) Act-2001 and renamed it as Dhaka Mass Transport Authority (DMTA).
   In the DTCB Act, mayor of Dhaka City Corporation was its chairman but in the 22-member DMTA, communications minister would be chairman, while Dhaka mayor will be the vice-chairman.
   Approving the agenda, Hasina instructed the ministry concerned not to approve any housing project in the city or elsewhere across the country if there is no water reservoir and play ground.
   She directed the health ministry to send immediately a medical team with relief materials, medicines and medical equipment to help the earthquake survivors in Indonesia.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court will hear today a petition filed by a condemned convict seeking that the government not be allowed to place arguments in the Sheikh Mujib murder case for belated submission of the concise text of its arguments.
   Although the five-judge Appellate Division bench on Monday began hearing the appeals against the High Court verdict that had upheld the death sentences of 12 former army personnel for killing the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and all but two of his family, the petition was not placed on the list of the cases to be heard by the court.
   At the beginning of the first day’s hearing in the appeals, condemned convict Syed Faruque Rahman’s counsel Khan Saifur Rahman, who filed the petition on September 29, told the court that the petition should be disposed of first.
   The court replied that the petition would be heard Tuesday.
   The bench of Justice Tafazzul Islam, Justice Md Abdul Aziz, Justice BK Das, Justice Muzammel Hossain and Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha began hearing the appeals on Monday, resuming the case that had remained virtually shelved for two years for want of enough judges to hear the case.
   The Appellate Division bench of Justice Tafazzul Islam, Justice Joynul Abedin and Justice M Hassan Ameen on September 23, 2007 allowed on five grounds the five convicts to appeal against the High Court verdict, delivered in 2001 approving their death sentences.
   The order means the Appellate Division further hears the appeals of the five condemned convicts on five points – whether the August 15, 1975 killings were the result of a mutiny in the army, whether a civilian court could try army personnel, whether the delay of about 21 years in filing the first information report of the case was justified under law, whether the allegation of conspiracy was established by proper investigation and evidence and whether the case suffered disjointed deposition of witnesses.
   At the start of the hearing, condemned convict Bazlul Huda’s counsel Abdullah Al Mamun argued that they would need to make submissions and read out most parts of the three High Court judgements and deposition of the witnesses which were related to the five points of the appeals.
   In the first day’s hearing, Mamun read out the September 23, 2007 Appellate Division judgment that allowed the convicts to appeal against the High Court verdict.
   He also began reading out the verdict delivered by Justice M Ruhul Amin, who had headed the two-member High Court bench, on December 14, 2000 upholding the death sentences of 10 convicts.
   The other judge of the bench, Justice ABM Khairul Haque, however, pronounced a split verdict retaining the death sentences of all the 15, handed down by the trial court.
   On April 30, 2001, Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim, in the final High Court verdict in the case, upheld death sentences of 12 and acquitted three others of the charges.
   Mamun said, he was reading out the judgment delivered by Ruhul Amin, and would continue it on Tuesday, when the hearing resumes at 9:30.
   Former army officers Syed Faruque Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Muhiuddin Ahmed, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and Bazlul Huda, who are in prison, filed separate petitions to appeal against the High Court verdict that had upheld their death sentences awarded by the trial court.
   Only two members of the Mujib family, Sheikh Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana escaped death when a group of soldiers assassinated Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the then president, and all others present at his Dhanmondi residence on August 15, 1975. The two sisters were out of the country then.
   The first information report on the killings was filed more than 21 years later on October 2, 1996, after Awami League had returned to office.
   The then district and sessions judge of Dhaka, Quazi Golam Rasul, delivered the verdict in the case handing down death penalty to 15 former army personnel.
   The High Court on April 30, 2001 upheld death sentences of 12 convicts.
   Khan Saifur Rahman for convict Faruque, Abdur Razaque Khan for convicts Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan and Muhiuddin Ahmed and Abdullah Al Mamun for convicts AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and Bazlul Huda appeared in the court.
   Anisul Huq, Abdul Matin Khasru, Nurul Islam Sujan, Mosharraf Hossain Kajal, Sheikh Fazle-Noor Tapos, Towfika Karim, Mamtaz Uddin Mehdi, Enamul Karim Emon and Imtiaz Asif, who were appointed as special prosecutors in the case on Sunday, were present during the hearing.
   The attorney general Mahbubey Alam along with some state counsels was also present during the hearing.
   Additional security measures were taken on the court premises for the hearing.

Only one-third of the recommendations put forward to the government by the Regulatory Reforms Commission have so far been implemented with no sign of progress in reform activities since the Awami League government took over in January, show official records.
   The commission’s plea seeking directive on reforms activities was given the cold shoulder by the Sheikh Hasina’s administration, said sources close to the commission.
   The military-backed interim government constituted the 17-member commission headed by former government adviser and retired cabinet secretary Akbar Ali Khan on October 30 in 2007, to overhaul outdated administrative rules and regulations. The RRC has been assigned specifically to focus on removing bottlenecks in investment climate of Bangladesh.
   The commission, in its first report prepared in February 2009, outlined its future plans alongside highlighting its recommendations and earlier activities but the Prime Minister’s Office, which supervises the commission, has not yet made any communications in this regard, said the sources.
   The commission held 11 meetings between October 2007 and February 2009, and forwarded to the government 135 recommendations on 20 broad areas of which only 46 have so far been implemented.
   Major recommendations that have been implemented or in the process of implementation include pre-publication of new rules and regulations to ensure transparency in the rule-making process, publishing of all government gazettes in the BG Press website [www.bgpress.gov.bd] and e-registry for having all rules, regulations and license-related information online, according to an evaluation report by Bangladesh Investment Climate Fund that supported the reform initiative.
   Simplification of registration of investment proposals with the Board of Investment is also in progress.
   However, a key proposal from the commission to cease section 9(2) of ‘The Public Servants (Retirement) Act, 1974’ regarding the power of giving ‘forced’ retirement to public servants after completion of 25 years of service, without showing any reason, has now been pending with the establishment ministry.
   The commission’s chairman is learnt to have failed to secure a meeting with the prime minister for briefing her on the relevance of RRC and how her government could carry forward reforms activities in line the ruling party’s election manifesto, titled ‘A Charter for Change’.
   In the backdrop of slowdown of the commission’s activities and the government’s apparent reluctance to give reforms a new momentum, Akbar Ali Khan Sunday desired to resign from his post unless the government revives the commission in 15 days.
   ‘The prime minister is surrounded by sycophants so it is hard to pursue the commission’s goals and win the government’s positive nod,’ the commission chairman was quoted by a close aide as saying.
    ‘The commission chairman is utterly frustrated at the current pace of reforms activities and he is unwilling to head the commission,’ the aide told New Age Monday.
   Akbar Ali Khan, the commission’s honorary chief liked by the media for his straightforward comments on issues ranging from social and political to economic, did hardly attend the RRC office in recent times.
   The commission held no meeting since February and the present government transferred the chief executive officer of the commission without making any replacement till date.
   Set to cease to exist after October 2010, the commission is mandated to review all government rules and regulations, and identify those that should be annulled, modified, or left unchanged, and make suitable recommendations to the government to infuse dynamism into governance, administration and the economy.
   According to the evaluation report, some of the RRC recommendations that were being considered by the government earlier are: modernisation of land administration and registration through use of ICT, a law on uncollectible public utility to reduce hassle of payment of arrear public utility bills, amendment to the Foreign Exchange Regulations Act under Bangladesh Bank, waiving the small shop owners from the purview of the labour act and improving the express clearance shipment process in the National Board of Revenue.
   Besides, the RRC proposals with which the government agreed in principle but took no steps, include amendment to Postal Act 1898 to legalise the Courier Service, annulment of the Saris Act 1867 and reforming the proposed Tourism Act empowering the local government to monitor small hotels and restaurants and reducing the time for environmental clearance certificate under the environment act.

Bangladesh would face severe adverse impacts both economically and ecologically if China interrupts the flow of the Brahmaputra river, shipping minister Shajahan Khan said in parliament Monday.
   ‘Bangladesh economy, specially the agriculture sector, will have severe adversities if China takes up the embankment project,’ he said replying to a fellow lawmaker.
   M Israfil Alam, a ruling Awami League MP, wanted to know about the government’s position on China’s planned intervention on the international river Brahmaputra that flows down through India and Bangladesh before emptying into the Bay of Bengal.
   The shipping minister said fisheries, environment and waterway transportation will be severely affected as any intervention on Brahmaputra would reduce water flows to Jamuna and Old Brahmaputra rivers in Bangladesh.
   The two rivers are already suffering from navigability crisis, the minister pointed out.
   Meanwhile, India started implementing a plan to interlink the regional rivers, including the Brahmaputra, to transfer water to areas facing water crisis.

Three more persons were killed in ‘crossfire’ by law enforcers at Sutrapur, Jatrabari and Mirpur in the city early on Monday.
   Monday’s killings raised to 100 the total number of deaths caused by extrajudicial killing, commonly euphemised as ‘crossfire’ or ‘encounter’, by the Rapid Action Battalion and the police after January 6 when the Awami League-led government assumed office.
   The deceased were identified as Mohammed Saijuddin (Saju), 30, Jane Alam Janu alias Sohel, 26, and Pichchi Abul alias Babul, 32.
   Official sources claimed that a team of RAB-10 raided a field near Namapara slum, adjacent to Regal CNG Filling Station, in Jatrabari at around 3:00am to catch a ‘group of criminals’ who were gathering there.
   The criminals, sensing their presence, reportedly opened fire on them, forcing the RAB to shoot back, claimed the source, adding that Saju had been shot and died on the spot.
   The RAB also seized two forearms and 10 rounds of ammunition, said the RAB.
   Family members of Saju however, told newsmen at the morgue that the RAB had arrested Saju on October 1 and demanded Tk 10 lakh for his release.
   Banya, wife of the victim, told New Age, ‘After negotiation we paid Tk 7 lakh to RAB for his release on Sunday, and they promised that they would free him on early Monday, but instead they killed my husband.’
   The commanding officer of RAB-10, additional deputy inspector-general FM Kamal Hossain, denied the allegation and told New Age, ‘We did not arrest him, he was killed in an encounter with a RAB team.’
    A team of the police in Sutrapur arrested Jane Alam Janu alias Sohel from a hide-out in Old Dhaka on Sunday night and interrogated him at Sutrapur police station.
   The officer-in-charge of Sutrapur police station, Tofazzal Hossain, told New Age, ‘After hearing Sohel’s confession, we launched a drive at Dholaikhal Truck Terminal to nab his accomplices and seize firearms at around 5:15am.’
   As soon as the team reached the scene, the ‘gangsters’ opened fire on them, thus forcing them to retaliate, triggering a ‘shoot-out between criminals and lawmen’, claimed the officer.
   ‘At one stage, Sohel was caught in the line of fire and died on the spot, but his accomplices managed to flee,’ the police officer claimed.
   Sohel was an associate of ‘Dakat Shahid’, he added, claiming that the police had seized one firearm and two bullets from the scene.
   Two teams of RAB-4 and RAB Headquarters, after being tipped off, launched a drive at Paikpara in Mirpur to catch criminals of the notorious Shahadat gang at around 6:00am.
   The criminals, sensing their presence, opened fire on them, forcing them to shoot back and thus triggering a gunfight.
   At one stage Abul sustained bullets injuries and died on the spot.
   RAB seized one revolver and five rounds of ammunition from the spot, he said.
   RAB’s legal and media wing director, Commander Abul Kalam Azad, told New Age, ‘Pichchi Abul was a member of the notorious Shahadat gang and was wanted in several cases including that of murder.’
   The three dead bodies were sent to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s morgue for post-mortem.
   Three separate cases were filed with Jatrabari, Sutrapur and Mirpur police stations.

A suicide bomber dressed in military uniform struck inside a heavily fortified UN office in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Monday, killing four Pakistanis and an Iraqi working for the food agency.
   The police said they were investigating how the bomber managed to breach strict security measures and walk into the offices of the World Food Programme and detonate about eight kilograms of explosives.
   There was no claim of responsibility, but blame fell on the Taliban, whose new leader Hakimullah Mehsud appeared on local television on Monday vowing ‘severe’ new attacks to avenge the death of rebel chief Baitullah Mehsud.
   His comments were apparently made on Sunday before the WFP office bombing, but he issued a chilling warning that ‘thousands of human lives’ could be sacrificed in their insurgency to install harsh Islamic law in Pakistan.
   The WFP in Rome confirmed that five of their employees were killed in the Islamabad blast, which Pakistan’s interior minister Rehman Malik said was carried out by avenging Taliban extremists.
   ‘They (Taliban militants) have prepared a strategy and there is the possibility of more such incidents in the near future,’ he told reporters.
   There were scenes of confusion around the WFP compound in central Islamabad, with sirens blaring and smoke billowing from behind the blast walls. Injured survivors walked amid shattered glass and blood-slicked floors.
   ‘We were on the upper storey when the blast took place. It shook the building and shattered the windows,’ said one WFP employee at the scene. ‘We saw smoke coming out of the building, we rushed out.’
   UN offices across Pakistan have been closed until further notice over security concerns, United Nations spokeswoman Susan Manuel said.
   Bani Amin, deputy inspector general of police operations, said the explosion was caused by a suicide bomber who entered the building on foot.
   ‘We have recovered legs and the skull of the suicide bomber. We are investigating how he managed to enter the building. There are scanners, there are cameras and strict security arrangements,’ Amin said.
   The police and hospital officials said four Pakistanis were killed and one Iraqi, and the WFP headquarters in Rome confirmed the casualties.
   ‘All of the victims were humanitarian heroes working on the frontlines of hunger,’ said WFP executive director Josette Sheeran. ‘This is a tragedy not just for WFP but for the whole humanitarian community and for the hungry.’
   The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, called the attack a ‘heinous crime.’
   Interior minister Malik said that the bomber was dressed in the uniform of the paramilitary Frontier Corps — who guard the WFP offices — and asked to use the toilet before detonating his explosives.

Al-Qaeda’s second-ranking leader has vowed in a new video message to kill more Westerners to avenge ‘crimes’ against Muslims, a US group that monitors Islamist web sites said on Monday.
   Ayman al-Zawahiri dedicated his new video message, released Sunday, to al-Qaeda operative Sheikh Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi,
   who died in a Libyan prison earlier this year, according to US-based IntelCenter.
   ‘The United States is deceiving us with the smiling Obama, who is searching for peace and defending human rights,’ Zawahiri said of the US president, Barack Obama, IntelCenter said.
   He said al-Qaeda will study the circumstances of Libi’s death and went on to threaten the West with new attacks.
   ‘Oh criminal killers, bloodsuckers,’ Zawahiri is quoted as saying. ‘We will shed your blood and consume your economy until you stop your crimes, oh arrogant insolents.
   ‘Oh blood shedders, killers of innocent people,’ he continued.
   ‘God willing, we will take revenge on you for every mujaheed, every widow, every orphan, and every Muslim, and we will defend everyone you oppressed in this world.
   ‘With the help of God, we will talk to you in the language that you understand until you refrain from and stop your crimes.’
   The video was released by al-Qaeda’s as-Sahab production company, according to IntelCenter.
   ‘Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi was killed in Libya’ and ‘your administration has been complicit with the Libyan regime for his
   murder,’ Zawahiri told Obama.
   Zawahiri added that Libi had been ‘the military leader of the Arab mujahideen (fighters) during the battle of Tora Bora’ in 2001, which was launched by the United States on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan in a bid to capture al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
   He said Libi had been arrested in Pakistan and ‘tortured’ during his detention in several countries, including Egypt.
   ‘Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi was tortured in Egypt, where he was forced into making a false confession that was a link between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime’, which one of the reasons invoked by Washington to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003, he said.
   His video message was carried by SITE Intelligence, another US centre monitoring Islamist websites.
   The death of Libi had been disclosed on May 10 by a Libyan newspaper, OAS, which said he committed suicide in a prison in Libya.

The government on Monday placed a bill in the parliament seeking enactment of a law, already made effective by an executive order, for lifelong security by Special Security Force and accommodations for prime minister Sheikh Hasina, her sister Sheikh Rehana and their children.
   The home minister, Sahara Khatun, piloted the bill styled ‘The Father of the Nation’s Family Members’ Security Bill 2009’ in the house proposing lifelong protection for the living member of the family of the country’s founding president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was assassinated in a military putsch 34 years ago.
   Lawmakers belonging to the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance have been staying off the house proceedings since the budget session.
   In her statement, the home minister said that a clique of conspirators had created a dark episode in history by killing the ‘founding father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who had struggled relentlessly for the cause of the people and basic human rights, and most of his family members on August 15, 1975.’
   She said the conspiracy had not ceased. ‘Several attempts have been made on the lives of the surviving members of his family as the defeated forces of the 1971 liberation war and their local and foreign collaborators are still hatching conspiracies to eliminate them.’
   ‘In this circumstance, it is necessary to provide state security to the living members of his family and a law to this effect is proposed,’ the minister said adding that the cabinet headed by the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, had earlier approved the draft bill.
   The proposed law stipulates that the living members of Sheikh Mujib’s family – Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana and their children – would get lifelong SSF protection and to be considered as Very Important Persons.
   In providing security for them, the family members’ opinion would get priority, it added.
   To comply with the proposed law, which has already come into effect through an executive order, the authorities will ensure security of their dwellings provide other related privileges.
   A similar law was enacted by the previous Awami League government in June 2001 but it was scrapped by its successor BNP-led alliance government after six months in December.
   The bill, sent to the parliamentary standing committee on home ministry for scrutiny to be returned to the house in two weeks, is likely to be passed in the current session.
   Fisheries and livestock minister, Abdul Latif Biswas placed a bill seeking that standards of animal feed and fodder be maintained.

US company ConocoPhillips wants to discuss with the foreign ministry the disputed areas in the two blocks for which the company was selected, its officials told Petrobangla on Monday.
   Four officials of ConocoPhillips South Asia held a meeting with the Petrobangla officials, who were led by chairman Muqtadir Ali, to discuss the signing of the Production Sharing Contracts for Deep Sea Blocks 10 and 11.
   The company’s officials informed Petrobangla of a letter sent by Myanmar that had cautioned the company not to take over offshore Block 11, claiming that it was located within Myanmar’s maritime boundary, said sources present at the meeting.
   Besides, India has recently claimed that some of the areas of block 10 had overlapped India’s maritime territory.
   ‘The ConocoPhillips’ officials want to discuss the issue with the foreign ministry. We have taken steps so that a meeting can be held this week,’ said an official, adding that the amount of disputed area was not significantly large.
   The government had earlier approved the awarding of two blocks out of eight to the company selected through bidding on condition that no exploration would be conducted in the Bangladesh areas which were being claimed by India and Myanmar.
   Officials of the Petrobangla and ConocoPhillips also discussed different clauses of the contract and will continue the discussion throughout the week.
   ‘Once both parties come to an agreement on the disputed area issue and other clauses of the contract, the date for the initialing of the contract will be fixed,’ said the official.
   Petrobangla is also likely to discuss the signing of a contract for Shallow Sea Block no 5 with Tullow on September 14.
   Petrobangla is going for talks with the companies at a time when some rights groups, academics and left-leaning political parties are protesting against the government’s decision to award the blocks to foreign companies with a clear provision for gas export in the contracts.

Another giraffe died at the Dhaka Zoo on Monday in the short span of a month calling to question the efficiency of the zoo officials who look after the animals brought from abroad.
   ‘Our officials relentlessly worked with the giraffe for the last 11 days but the animal expired for unknown reason,’ zoo curator Mosaddeque Hossain told New Age.
   When asked whether the animal was suffering any ailment, the curator said no noticeable symptom was found.
   ‘We sent the autopsy report to foreign experts to ascertain the reason of its death,’ he said.
   This was the third death of giraffe in a row at Dhaka Zoo after two other giraffes died from dehydration on September 8 and 30.
   Zoo officials said the giraffe had been suffering from illness since September 23.
   This was one of the five giraffes brought to Dhaka zoo from South Africa in June 2008 and with the deaths of three of them, their number dwindled to two now.
   A zoo official said, ‘On an average, a giraffe lives from 12 to 15 years.’
   When asked how many animals are ill at the zoo, he said the number was very few but 42 aged animals including lions and tigers were living in the cages.
   The curator and a deputy curator of the zoo were suspended last month after the first died.
   A rare Bengal tiger and a lion also died at the zoo and with the latest death of giraffe the death toll on the wildlife at the zoo rose to 23 in the first 10 months of the year, officials said.
   They said that a sambar deer, baboon, wildebeest, Malayan tapir, a tiger, two fresh water crocodiles and one zebra were among the animals that died at the zoo since January 2009.
   When asked about the deaths of a number of animals last month, the curator termed it as coincidental.
   The Dhaka Zoo, located at Mirpur on 213 acres of land, is the home of around 4,000 animals of 161 species.
   Of them, 59 species are mammals including elephant, Royal Bengal Tiger, lion, cheetah, rhinoceros, zebra, monkey, chimpanzee, and hippo.
   There are 61 species of birds, 12 species of reptiles including snakes and crocodiles and 29 species of fish.

BNP standing committee member, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain on Monday asked the government to release its organising secretary Amanullah Aman and withdraw the cases filed against the party chief Khaleda Zia and her sons or face movement.
   Addressing a rally in front of the party’s central office, Mosharraf said the government had forgotten the pledges it made to the people as it was busy implementing the agendas of those who had put them in power.
   The rally was organised by Dhaka district unit of the party demanding immediate release of Aman.
   ‘The government has unleashed a reign of terror to suppress the opposition,’ he said adding that cases were being filed against the BNP leaders to harass them as the ruling party wanted to stay in power for long.
   ‘Arrest of Aman was part of such plans,’ he said.
   Mosharraf said the government was withdrawing the cases filed against the ruling party leaders during the emergency but continuing with the cases filed against opposition leaders which he termed double standards.
   The district BNP president and former minister Nazmul Huda presided over the rally also addressed by former and present leaders of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal.
   A good number of people from Aman’s constituency, Keraniganj, attended the rally.

The parliament on Monday passed the Local Government (City Corporation) Bill, rejecting a recommendation of the parliamentary standing committee to make parliamentarians the advisers to the city corporations in their respective constituencies.
   The House also rejected another recommendation of the committee for making two councillors of the city corporations deputy mayors of their particular city corporations.
   The LGRD and cooperatives minister, Syed Ashraful Islam, piloted the Local Government (City Corporation) Bill 2009 in the House.
   The parliamentary standing committee on the LGRD and cooperatives ministry, in its scrutiny report, made the above recommendations.
   Treasury bench lawmakers AKM Mozammel Huq and Salma Islam placed separate proposals in Parliament to reject the committee’s recommendations. Some Awami League lawmakers protested and shouted against the proposal of these two lawmakers.
   The LGRD and cooperatives minister, however, agreed to honour the proposals.
   The military-controlled interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed repealed the then city corporation ordinance and promulgated a new one with some new provisions, including the creation of two deputy mayoral posts.
   The ordinance, however, ceased to have effect on January 25 as it was not ratified in parliament within the specified time.
   On expiry of the ordinance’s effectiveness, the government placed a bill in parliament in March seeking to enact a new law on city corporations, and the House sent the bill to the committee for scrutiny.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday ordered immediate steps for ensuring proper Hajj management so that pilgrims from Bangladesh do not face any hassles and difficulties as the private Hajj agencies were yet to confirm accommodations for intending hajjis.
   The prime minister at a weekly meeting of the cabinet instructed the religious affairs ministry to ensure an efficient Hajj management and make sure that the Hajjis from the country would not face difficulties and harassment during Hajj in late November, according an official concerned.
   ‘The government has taken initiative to increase the number of officers on the Hajj administrative team to 35 from 20 for proper management as the number of pilgrims from Bangladesh has risen by nearly 10,000 this year,’ prime minister’s press secretary Abul Kalam Azad told reporters after the cabinet meeting at the secretariat.
   The number of Hajj pilgrims from the country has risen to 58,459 this year from 48,800 in 2008, he added.
   Meanwhile, Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited, responsible for ferrying pilgrims to and from Saudi Arabia, has finally announced a partial Hajj flight schedule, beginning from October 21.
   But the Hajj agencies, on the other hand, have failed to make arrangements for renting houses in Mekkah and Madina on time, leaving the Hajj pilgrims under private management into uncertainty.
   ‘We have finalized the timetable for pre-Hajj flights to Saudi Arabia and the return-flight schedule will be worked out soon,’ managing director and chief executive officer of Biman Muhammad Zakiul Islam told New Age on Monday.
   Leaders of the Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh are scheduled to hold a meeting with civil aviation minister GM Quader at his office in the secretariat today to press for a complete Hajj flight schedule without further delay.
   ‘This year we are already late in finalizing the Hajj flight schedule and renting houses in Mekkah and Madina, which may lead to a crisis,’ HAAB secretary general MA Rashid Shah Samrat told New Age.
   As per the contract with the religious affairs ministry, the private operators were supposed to complete by September 20 all procedures relating to arranging accommodation in Mekkah and Madinah for the Hajjis as the biggest religious congregation of the Muslims will to take place on November 27, said officials.
   ‘We have cautioned the Hajj agencies that the authorities will not tolerate any excuse if there is any mismanagement over arranging accommodation for the Hajjis in Saudi Arabia …The agencies have been asked to complete all procedures relating to renting houses immediately,’ Hajj officer Md Bazlul Haque Biswas said on Monday.
   The government on Wednesday announced that the Hajj flight 2009 would be inaugurated on October 21 at the Zia International Airport in Dhaka.
   Initially, the private operators were reportedly buying time in arranging accommodation due to possible age restrictions on the pilgrims in the face of swine flu outbreak across the world. But finally, the Saudi authorities have not imposed any such embargo.
   According to official records, around 51,000 people from Bangladesh are supposed to perform Hajj under private management while the number under the government management is around 8,000.
   So far, accommodations for only the balloted Hajjis (those under the government management) have been arranged, said officials.

Australian-American researcher Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider and Jack Szostak of the United States won the Nobel Medicine Prize on Monday for identifying a key molecular switch in cellular ageing.
   The trio were honoured for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the role of an enzyme called telomerase in maintaining or stripping away this vital shield.
   ‘The award of the Nobel Prize recognises the discovery of a fundamental mechanism in the cell, a discovery that has stimulated the development of new therapeutic strategies,’ the Nobel jury said.
   The three told Swedish Radio they were overjoyed by the news.
   Greider said she was ‘just thrilled, I just think that the recognition for curiosity-driven basic science is very, very nice,’ adding that she was up doing laundry in the US when the early morning call came from Sweden.
   Blackburn said she knew when they made their discovery that they were on to something big.
   ‘I felt very excited ... and I thought this is very interesting, this is a very important result, and you don’t often feel that about a result,’ she said.
   Szostak said meanwhile he expected ‘to have a big party at some point’ to celebrate the prestigious award.
   Telomeres are a minute yet vital factor in ageing. They are like a nubby, protective cap, fitting on the ends of the strands of DNA — the chemical recipe for life — that are packed into chromosomes.
   Blackburn and Szostak discovered in 1982 that a unique DNA sequence in the telomeres protects the chromosomes from degradation when the cells divide. With Greider, Blackburn also identified telomerase, the enzyme that makes the telomere DNA.
   If telomeres become worn, cells age.
   But if telomerase levels are high, the telomere length is maintained, and cellular ageing is braked. A small number of rare but very destructive diseases, including a form of severe anaemia, are linked to defective telomerase, resulting in damaged cells.
   Yet there is also a darker and more complex side to this picture.
   Many experts initially speculated that ageing could be pinned to telomere shortening, but the process has emerged as something that encompasses different factors, as well as telomeres.
   In addition, high telomerase also helps cancer, enabling its cells to replicate endlessly and achieve what scientists call ‘cellular immortality.’
   Finding ways of blocking this machinery through ‘telomerase inhibitors’ is one of the most eagerly explored areas of cancer research.
   The trio’s work has ‘added a new dimension to our understanding of the cell, shed light on disease mechanisms, and stimulated the development of potential new therapies,’ the Nobel citation said.
   The three won the 2006 Lasker Prize, one of the most prestigious US science awards, for the same work.
   Blackburn has been a professor of biology and physiology at the University of California in San Francisco since 1990, while Greider is a professor in the department of molecular biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.
   Szostak is professor of genetics and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and affiliated with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
   Last year, the Nobel Medicine Prize went to France’s Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier, who shared one half of the award, for discovering the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS.

The cabinet on Monday endorsed a temporary job policy for youths—both male and female—having HSC and equivalent qualifications through engaging them in ‘nation-building activities’.
   The weekly meeting of the cabinet, held at the Cabinet division with prime minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, approved the policy for temporary employment scheme in keeping with the Awami League’s election manifesto, said press secretary to the PM, Abul Kalam Azad, while briefing newsmen.
   The Awami League in its election manifesto pledged that an employment guarantee scheme would be gradually made effective to provide 100 days employment to one youth per family and all citizens able to work will be registered.
   In its election pledge, the party vowed that a project would be undertaken for young men and women with HSC degrees for appointment in the “national service” for two years.
   Under the scheme, a pilot project has been initiated in Barguna and Kurigram districts in the first phase for youths between 18 and 35 age group, said Azad.
   The youths will be imparted with training in 13 trades for a three-month period with an allowance of Taka 100 each per day for their employment generation.

The Election Commission has given enumerators five more days to make door-to-door visits to update the voters’ roll in six city corporation areas as deadline expired Monday with most of the households in the cities remaining uncovered.
   A meeting of the commission with chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda in the chair Monday extended the time until October 10 to find new or left-out voters.
   The decision came in the wake of complaints that enumerators, mostly schoolteachers, did not make door-to-door visits during the given time.
   The commission also decided to form four vigilance teams, headed by deputy secretary of the Election Commission secretariat, to monitor the jobs of enumerators and see whether there was any negligence in door-to-door visits.
   The updating of the voters’ roll with photographs in six city corporations areas—Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet— started on September 29.
   ‘We have received a number of complaints that enumerators did not visit households in different areas. So, we have decided to extend the time and form monitoring team,’ election commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain told New Age Monday.
   A number of people complained that they waited till Monday noon for the enumerators to come, but none visited their houses to enroll them as voters. Some of them said enumerators did not even pay heed to their requests to visit them and collect information, Sohul said.
   A resident of house 50, avenue 5 at Mirpur-6 said after keeping the family in wait for four days, the concerned assistant registration officer asked him to visit his office. The enumeration official later assured him of sending someone to his residence to collect data of the family. ‘But till Monday evening none visited my residence,’ the resident said.
   A good number of enumerators, particularly in the capital told New Age on Monday that they lost enthusiasm because of poor remuneration compared to the hazards of visiting door-to-door.
   ‘We are paid on the basis of the number of persons we reach and collect data. After visiting a good number of households the whole day, we find a few new voters to enroll,’ said an enumerator of Badda area.
   According to rules, the enumerators will collect necessary information for registering new or left-out voters, making door-to-door visits.
   The enumerators will provide a slip to each new voter, mentioning the date and time when their photographs will be taken. The eligible voters will go to nearby registration centres to have their photographs and fingerprints taken on the given dates.
   People born on January 1, 1992 or earlier, will be eligible to register their names for inclusion in the voters’ roll. Those who will become voters this year will get national ID cards, said an announcement of the Election Commission.
   Enrolled voters who have died meanwhile will be excluded from the updated voters’ roll.

The health minister, AFM Ruhal Huq, on Monday admitted in the parliament that the health sector of the country was not in a good condition.
   ‘I cannot say that the health system is doing well. There are irregularities,’ said AFM Ruhal Huq in reply to a question in the House. ‘I am aware of the problems of the sector as I belong to it.’
   The minister said this when the treasury bench members raised questions about the quality of health-care services in their constituencies.
   According to the lawmakers, shortage of physicians, laboratory facilities, medicine and ambulances, along with insufficient allocation for fuel for ambulances, most of which are in a very bad condition, are the common problems that plague the public hospitals at the district and upazila levels.
   Assuring the House that the problems in the health sector would be solved,
   the minister said the procedure to appoint about four thousand physicians on an ad hoc basis would be completed within two months.
   He claimed that the government had already re-activated about 9,000 community clinics in the rural areas.

At least 30 activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League on Monday were injured in a factional clash at Gabindaganj Degree College at Chhatak upazila in Sunamganj.
   The police fired several rounds of blank shots to bring the situation under control while vehicular movement on the Sylhet-Sunamganj road remained suspended for about an hour during the clash, eyewitnesses said.
   Sources said the two groups of BCL activists were locked in an altercation over establishing supremacy on the college campus at about 1:00pm, triggering a clash.
   They chased and attacked each other, leaving 30 injured from both sides during the one and a half hour-long clash.

Muggers fired at two people and snatched away Tk 30 lakh from them in the city’s Lalmatia area on Monday morning.
   The injured were identified as Mizanur Rahman, an accountant of Jayson Pharmaceutical Ltd, and Mohammad Rubel, driver of the company.
   Quoting employees of the company, police said accountant Rahman, his colleagues Kabir Hossain, Mostafa Masud Pappu and Ali Hossain and driver Rubel were returning to their office in a car after drawing Tk 30 lakh from the Dhanmondi branch of HSBC Bank. The money was meant for payment of salaries to the company’s staff.
   When the car parked in front of the company office located at 5/9 Block-A, Lalmatia, a gang of seven snatchers ringed them and shot Rahman in the chest and in his right hand and Rubel in his left leg and took away the money kept in two bags inside the car, police said.