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The Election Commission had allowed retired army officer Jasim Uddin to contest the December 29 polls with the Awami League ticket from Bhola-3 constituency in response to the army’s legal opinion, said an election commissioner.
   ‘His nomination paper was validated by the commission after the judge advocate general, the top law officer of the army, opined in favour of his candidature,’ election commissioner Muhammad Sohul Hussain told newsmen on Monday, a day after the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court upheld the High Court’s verdict that had declared his membership of the parliament illegal.
   The parliamentary seat has become vacant due to the court’s judgement and the EC will have to hold by-elections there in 90 days once the parliament secretariat publishes a gazette notification to this effect, said Sohul.
   He said that an objection against the candidature of Jasim, a former army officer, was raised when he filed nomination papers for the polls.
   The petitioner, Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, another retired army officer who had contested the polls in the same constituency, accused him of flouting electoral rules as a government officer cannot contest the polls until five years have elapsed since he was sent into compulsory retirement. Jasim was reportedly sent into compulsory retirement less than five years before the December elections.
   But he took the advantage of the rule which allows a government servant to take part in the polls three years after regular retirement, alleged the petitioner.
   The EC referred the matter to the judge advocate-general to seek his opinion on whether Jasim was qualified to contest the polls.
   The judge advocate-general opined that Jasim should be allowed to be a candidate since he was enjoying all the retirement benefits of the service. He suggested that Jasim should be allowed to contest the polls in conformity with Article 12(1)(f) of the Representation of People Order 1972 that allows a government servant to be a contestant in parliamentary polls three years after his retirement.
   Jasim won the election with the ticket of the Awami League, which got an overwhelming majority in the 300-strong parliament.
   But the petitioner, a Bangladesh Nationalist The BNP’s nominee, Hafiz, who lost the election took the matter to the court and sought justice. The High Court declared that Jasim’s parliamentary membership was illegal in late February and the Appellate Division on Sunday upheld its verdict.
   The court observed that Jasim had violated the provisions of electoral laws by contesting the polls before expiration of a period of five years after his punitive retirement from the army.

Sunday’s fire at the warehouse of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) in Tejgaon has been termed a ‘planned act of sabotage’ against the development work undertaken by the present Awami League-led government.
   The fire continued to burn till the filing of this report at around 8:00pm on Monday, after it broke out at the warehouse at around 7:30am on Sunday, despite the frantic efforts by members of the Fire Service and Civil Defence and army personnel.
   The firemen are now pumping water into the three-storied warehouse by ‘fogger’ machines to completely extinguish the flames, for which 24 more hours more will be needed, said fire brigade sources.
   The cause of the fire and the extent of damage caused by it are yet to be ascertained, said sources.
   To find out the cause of the fire the education ministry has formed a seven-member probe committee headed by additional secretary (admin) of the education ministry, while the Fire Service and Civil Defence has formed a three-member investigation committee headed by its deputy director Abdus Salam.
   The seven-member committee of the ministry was asked to submit a preliminary report on the fire in three days and the final report in 15 days, while three-member fire brigade committee was given three days to submit the probe report.
   The fire-fighters worked the whole night in shifts to douse the flames. Today’s operation mainly started at around 8am. A total of 60 fire-fighters, along with 70 labourers appointed by the NCTB, were seen depriving the flames of fuel by removing the stockpiled papers from the NCTB storehouse. The fire-fighters were not able to work properly due to the black smoke.
   A 12-member team of the Bangladesh Army also joined them at about 12am. The soldiers were seen using fork lifts, spreaders and smoke ejectors to remove the stockpiled papers from the burning warehouse.
   Education minister Nurul Islam Nahid on Monday morning visited the warehouse as he had done the previous day and inquired about the progress of the operation to douse the flames.
   Terming the fire at the NCTB warehouse a planned act of sabotage, the minister said, ‘A certain quarter is trying to stop the development activities of the government by committing such a heinous crime.’
   But he did not specify the quarter responsible for the alleged arson.
   State minister for primary and mass education Md Motahar Hossain, who also visited the spot, echoed the minister’s accusation.
   Replying to a query, he said, ‘Something unusual has happened here. The government for the first time is going to distribute free books to the students of the primary and high schools across the country. The arson was committed by a section to stop distribution of free books.’ But he assured reporters that the government would distribute the books to the students by the stipulated time.
   Professor Mohammad Mostafa Kamaluddin, chairman of the NCTB, told newsmen that as per the official record, there were 17,000 tonnes of printing paper in the warehouse.
   The price of each tonne of paper, which contains 80 to 84 thousand reams, is between Tk 70 to Tk 92 lakh.
   The NCTB’s chairman also claimed that the fire would not affect the distribution of textbooks in the next session.
   One more week might be needed beyond the October 30 deadline to complete the printing of textbooks because of the fire, he added. But he evaded the question about the amount of loss caused by the fire.
   Brigadier Abu Nayim Mohammad Shahidullah, director-general of Fire Service and Civil Defence, told New Age, ‘The cause of the fire and the extent of damage caused by it cannot be ascertained without investigation. A three-member inquiry committee will probe the incident. The committee has been given three days to submit its report.’
   Deputy director Abdur Rashid of the Fire Brigade and Civil Defence said they would try to extinguish the fire completely but it may take 24 hours more to do so.

Authorities of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board do not maintain any stock registers and have no insurance for its two warehouses located at Tejgaon and Tongi in the city.
   The NCTB, an organisation under the education ministry, is mainly responsible for renewal, modification and development of curriculum, production and distribution of textbooks at primary, secondary and higher secondary levels.
   ‘As there are no stock registers none of the officials know the exact number of textbooks or printing paper stored in the two warehouses. There is a syndicate who does not want to maintain stock registers,’ said an official of the board who smelt a rat in Sunday’s mysterious fire at the Tejgaon warehouse.
   ‘In early September, we came to know that some printing paper stocked at the Tongi warehouse had been missing. We went to the spot and found some evidence but the high-ups took no action. Even no probe committee was formed,’ said the official.
   ‘In early 2006, initiatives were taken for insurance but for unknown reasons it remained shelved. Although insurance for such large warehouses is essential,’ another official said.
   In support of the official’s information, a former chairman of the textbook board told New Age Monday that he also knew about such things during his chairmanship.
   ‘Yes, there is no insurance for the warehouses. I know rules require we should have it,’ textbook board chairman Mostafa Kamaluddin told New Age on Sunday in the premises of Tejgaon warehouse. A devastating fire early Sunday damaged huge quantity of printing paper and textbooks.
   Kamaluddin, who was made chairman of the board in April this year, however, said that he had a rough estimation of the number of textbooks and quantity of paper stored in the warehouse when the fire broke out but declined to disclose it to the press.
   The textbook board officials said that the two NCTB-owned warehouses had a capacity to store nearly 30,000 tonnes of printing papers. But it is not exactly known how many copies of books can be stored in the warehouses at a time.
   The textbook board is supposed to print and distribute nearly 19 crore copies of textbooks for students for the academic session 2010.

Rid Pharmaceuticals Limited managing director Mizanur Rahman was sent to jail on Monday in a case filed by the drug authorities after the company’s toxic paracetamol syrup caused child deaths.
   Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge ANM Bashir Ullah rejected his bail petition filed on October 12, the day he surrendered in the court.
   The court observed that the charges brought against him were very ‘heinous’.
   Innocent children died after they had been administered toxic paracetamol syrup manufactured and marketed by the company. They were virtually killed and the toxic drug was used as sword, the judge observed, adding that the key accused, Mizanur Rahman, did not deserve any compassion.
   Mizanur Rahman’s counsel Syed Rezaur Rahman claimed that the whole affair was manufactured by the media.
   Pleading for bail, he told the court that it was a false case and it was filed due to business enmity as there was no mention of any child death caused by paracetamol syrup manufactured by the company.
   The counsel mentioned that Mizanur, along with his wife Sheuly Rahman, also a director of the company, on August 18 sought anticipatory bail in a High Court and the High Court granted anticipatory bail for six months to Sheuly and ordered Mizanur to surrender in the metropolitan sessions judge’s court.
   The metropolitan sessions judge was also given the authority to consider any bail plea by Mizanur on surrender, the counsel argued.
   Public prosecutor Abdullah Abu and assistant commissioner of the police prosecution department Mokbul Hossain opposed the bail petition.
   Abdullah Abu argued that at least 28 children died across the country in July–August of renal failures, caused by paracetamol syrup mixed with industrial chemical diethylene glycol.
   Medical tests found Temset, Rid Pharma’s brand of paracetamol syrup, the main culprit in most of the death cases.
   The Drug Administration on July 22 sealed off the factory of the company in the BSCIC industrial area in Brahmanbaria on charges of manufacturing the toxic syrup.
   The drug authorities collected samples of Temset and laboratory tests confirmed the presence of diethylene glycol in the syrup, the public prosecutor argued.
   The same court on October 12 posted for October 19 the hearing in the bail petition and ordered law enforcers not to arrest Mizanur during the time.
   Drug superintendent M Shafiqul Islam filed the case on August 10 accusing five high officials of the company — managing director Mizanur, directors Sheuly Rahman and Abdul Ghani, and pharmacists Mahbubul Islam and Enamul Haque — of using diethylene glycol in Temset.
   Four more cases were filed against the company in Brahmanbaria, Comilla, Narayanganj and Sylhet on similar charges.
   Most of the 28 children died of acute renal failure after taking paracetamol syrup for fever in districts surrounding Brahmanbaria, where the Rid Pharma factory is located, and they were reportedly administered the toxic analgesic syrup Temset produced by the company.
   On September 16, the judge of the drug court in Dhaka, M Golam Murtaza Mazumder, ordered attachment of moveable and immoveable property of the five Rid Pharma officials.
   The same court on August 11 issued warrants for arrest of the five Rid Pharma officials.
   The company used diethylene glycol, meant for tannery and rubber industries, instead of propylene glycol which is costlier by five times. Diethylene glycol costs Tk 200 a litre while propylene glycol costs Tk 1,100.
   Rid Pharmaceuticals had received drug manufacturing licence in 2006 and started marketing 12 drugs.
   The company also violated the Drugs (Control) Ordinance 1982 by manufacturing paracetamol syrup as it had obtained permission for manufacturing paracetamol suspension only, the complaint said.
   Health minister AFM Ruhal Haque on July 29 confirmed the presence of diethylene glycol in a batch of Temset syrup produced by Rid Pharma after receiving the report of the official committee investigating the latest spate of child deaths caused by toxic medicine.
   Analgesic syrup containing diethylene glycol caused kidney diseases in 339 children between 1990 and 1992, and most of them died. No person was punished for the offence at that time.

The cabinet on Monday approved a bill seeking to extend the retirement age of freedom fighter public servants by two years from 57 to 59.
   To this effect, the cabinet approved the Public Servants (Retirement) (Amendment) Bill 2009 seeking an amendment to the Public Servants (Retirement) Act 1974.
   The government has taken the decision considering the freedom fighters’ sacrifices during the 1971 Liberation War, the prime minister’s press secretary, Abul Kalam Azad said at a briefing after the regular meeting of the cabinet on Monday.
   If enacted into a law, it will also be applicable to officials and employees of the government who are now on leave preparatory to retirement.
   The meeting, chaired by the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, at the Prime Minister’s Office, also approved the Post Office (Amendment) Bill, 2009, Gas Bill, 2009, and Labour (Amendment) Bill, 2009. Besides, the cabinet also approved in principle the Private University (Amendment) Bill, 2009.
   The Gas Bill proposes enactment of a new law with a provision for a maximum penalty of five years in jail or a fine of up to Tk 10 lakh or both for gas pilferage from the supply network through illegal connections. The bill was approved in principle by the cabinet on 12 October.
   The bill also proposes a provision for punishment of errant staff members of the gas companies who harass consumers by making inflated bills. The draft of the Gas Act was first prepared in 2004, which recommended a maximum penalty of three years in jail for pilferage of gas.
   The interim government had drafted a gas ordinance keeping a provision for five years’ jail term and fine of up to Tk 5 lakh. The ministry has modified the draft prepared during the interim government, specifying the penalty provisions.
   It will allow gas distribution companies to set up their own legal wings with magistrates to launch drives against illegal connections and punish offenders. At present the companies have to request the government to provide a magistrate and sometimes they have to wait for days for one,’ said a source.
   The bill specifies the penalty provisions for domestic, commercial, industrial and other consumers for stealing gas, taking illegal connections from the supply network, metre tampering and theft of gas pipeline materials, regulators and other equipment.
   Referring to domestic consumers, the act says that if a gas connection holder – landlord or tenant – takes an illegal line bypassing metre or tampers with the metre, he or she will be fined Tk 10,000 or sentenced to three months of imprisonment or both.
   For the same offence, a commercial consumer will be fined Tk 20,000 or given six months of imprisonment or both, an industrial consumer will be fined Tk 1 lakh or imprisoned for one year or both, and a consumer of the ‘power and fertiliser category’ will be fined Tk 2 lakh or sentenced to two years of imprisonment or both.
   The meeting approved Post Office (Amendment) Bill, 2009, for reforming postal services. According to the act, licensed couriers would be able to deliver and distribute mail.
   The cabinet gave final approval to Bangladesh Labour (Amendment) Bill, 2009, with a provision of one organisation each for the owners and workers.
   While approving the Labour (Amendment) Bill, most of the cabinet members opposed trade unionism at the ports saying that if the port workers were allowed to organise trade union, various agencies operating there could be hostage to their whims, meeting sources said.
   The meeting, however, discussed ways to ensure workers’ rights at the ports.
   It approved in principle the Private University (Amendment) Bill, 2009, which aims to determine and develop the quality of higher education in the country.
   While approving the bill, an adviser to the prime minister suggested formation of a separate authority to oversee the operations of private universities, meeting sources said.
   The adviser also suggested that the jurisdiction of the University Grants Commission be curtailed.
   ‘Owners of 53 private universities out of 56 subscribe to different political ideology and a separate authority should be formed to monitor the activities of these universities,’ the adviser was quoted to have told the meeting.
   He also requested the prime minister to incorporate the provisions in the bill before its passage.
   At the meeting, the communications minister, Syed Abul Hossain, termed the private universities as ‘money-making workshop,’ sources said.

Dhaka and Washington are set to begin conclusive negotiations for signing the long-pending Trade and Investment Framework Agreement to, as its supporters claim, create a platform for exploring business opportunities for the mutual benefit of the two countries.
   Critics believe that agreements such as TIFA with the US or transit and bilateral free trade agreements with India are bound to favour the stronger partners and will hardly serve the national interests of Bangladesh unless special concessions are made to the weaker party.
   The proposed TIFA is a framework agreement like a Memorandum of Understanding which has no binding obligations except formation of a council for discussing the issues of trade and investment and holding at least one meeting a year, said US officials in Dhaka.
   Washington hopes that Dhaka will agree to a negotiated deal by this year for signing the agreement, talks on which began in 2003. Also Dhaka, after assumption of office by the Awami League government, expressed its clear interest in resuming TIFA talks with Washington and signing the agreement at the earliest possible time.
   Wide-ranging issues of TIFA are being discussed during the current visit of the assistant US trade representative, Michael J Delaney, to Bangladesh, particularly his meetings with officials and stakeholders, said officials of both the US embassy and commerce ministry.
   ‘I think such an agreement is relevant in view of the opportunities that can be exploited in the areas of trade and investment. If there is anything wrong in the draft, Bangladesh may not sign the agreement,’ said Zaidi Sattar, an economist and former official of the World Bank.
   Professor Akmal Hussain, a teacher of International Relations in Dhaka University, expressed suspicion about the usefulness of TIFA for promotion of Bangladesh’s national interest. ‘I doubt how far Bangladesh will be able to bargain with America and, for that matter, with India, especially given the track record of keeping Dhaka’s causes like duty-free market access to America or to India pending for years together,’ he said.
   The foreign policy analyst pointed out that Washington, by using the instrument of TIFA, would be able to enforce the fulfilment of the demands of US companies on the plea of creating a congenial atmosphere in Bangladesh. He pointed out that in both the cases of Washington and New Delhi, Dhaka will have a problem in asserting its sovereignty when an agreement is already in place.
   Many US companies are willing to do more business with, or make investments in, Bangladesh, said US officials in Dhaka.
   The balance of trade between the two countries is in favour of Bangladesh, due mainly to export of garments and also frozen foods — the USA imported goods and commodities worth $3.7 billion in 2008 while her exports to Bangladesh amounted to $468 million the same year.
   Dwelling on the reported request by Dhaka to exclude the ‘contentious and sensitive’ issue of labour from TIFA’s draft, a US official in Dhaka said that statements made in the preamble of the already concluded TIFA agreements with Sri Lanka and Pakistan had no binding obligations. ‘TIFA does not override Bangladesh’s other international commitments and obligations. It is a mechanism that guarantees that our two countries will get closer,’ the official added.

The world faces ‘catastrophe’ if action is not agreed at the UN climate summit in December, the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, warned Monday.
   Brown said at a meeting of 17 major developed and developing countries in London that the costs of failing to address global warming would be greater than the impact of two world wars.
   He told the Major Economies Forum that a deal at December’s conference in Copenhagen was possible, amid recent warnings from the US that the meeting could fail in its goal to draw up a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.
   But with fewer than 50 days to go before the UN talks, Brown warned that countries were failing to make progress quickly enough to reach agreement.
   ‘We can’t afford to fail. If we fail, we pay a heavy price,’ he warned.
   ‘For the planet, there is no plan B.’
   Brown called on world leaders to work together directly to achieve a deal which sets out binding targets for rich countries to cut their emissions, and finance to help the poorest countries cope with the impact of climate change.
   The prime minister said: ‘If we do not reach a deal at this time, let us be in no doubt: once the damage from unchecked emissions growth is done, no retrospective global agreement in some future period can undo that choice.
   ‘By then it will be irretrievably too late.
   ‘So we should never allow ourselves to lose sight of the catastrophe we face if present warming trends continue.’
   Brown said he shared the concerns of low-lying island states such as the Maldives, whose government held an underwater cabinet meeting Saturday to focus global attention on rising sea levels that threaten to submerge them.
   And he warned that the people least responsible for climate change — the inhabitants of the world’s poorest countries — were being hit hardest and first.
   The MEF comprises Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Britain, and United States.
   Its members represent about 90 per cent of global emissions.
   The London talks are focusing on emissions cuts, the protection of forests and climate finance — Brown has said 100 billion dollars (70 billion euros) a year is needed to help developing countries tackle climate change.
   India said last month it was ready to set itself non-binding targets for cutting carbon emissions, while China said it would curb the growth of its emissions by a ‘notable margin’ by 2020, although it did not specify further.
   The US special envoy for climate change, Todd Stern, told British television on Saturday that developing economies must boost their efforts, warning it was ‘certainly possible’ that no deal would be agreed in Copenhagen.
   ‘What we need to have happen is for China and India and Brazil and South Africa and others to be willing to take what they’re doing, boost it up some, and then be willing to put it into an international agreement,’ he said.
   But climate campaigners Friends of the Earth said it was up to the rich countries in the MEF to ‘face up to their legal and moral responsibility by agreeing to cut their emissions first and fastest’.

At least five people were injured as a group of Juba League activists clashed with some Awami League activists at the Dhaka City Corporation over submitting tender documents Monday afternoon.
   Witnesses said the clash ensued at around 1:30pm after Ward 56 unit Awami League president Fazar Ali came under attack of some Juba League activists, led by its city unit leader Nurunnabi Chowdhury Shawon.
   Shawon, Akhter, Babu and others attacked Fazar Ali when he was leaving the DCC office after submitting his tender documents as regard the lease of a piece of open land at Shishu Park under Shahbagh.
   Witnesses said the Juba League activists chased the associates of Fazar Ali and were greeted with a counter chase in front of the DCC office.
   The police stepped in and dispersed the agitators, said officer-in-charge of the Shahbagh police station Rezaul Karim.
   Hedayet Ali, younger brother of the victim, alleged that the Juba League activists were trying to grab the tender violating the rules.
   The DCC sources said Monday 12:00pm was the deadline for submitting the tender for a parking space at Shishu Park. The tender involves about Tk 8 crore, they said.
   DCC sources said a total of 23 schedules were sold against the tender but only four schedules were submitted till 12:00pm.
   Magistrate Khalilur Rahman of the DCC estate department told newsmen, ‘Additional forces were deployed around the tender boxes to avoid any untoward incident and every one had submitted their tender peacefully.’
   The Dhaka city mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, told newsmen, ‘We had deployed law enforcers to avert any untoward incident. If any incident took palace in presence of the law enforcers, we will investigate the incident.’
   The injured were admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

A defence counsel on Monday claimed that condemned convict Bazlul Huda was deprived of the ‘benefit of doubt’ in the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case.
   Huda’s counsel Abdullah Al Mamun told the Appellate Division that an accused named Joarder was acquitted by the trial court of the murder charge on the ground of contradictory depositions of the three people, who had witnessed the 15 August, 1975 carnage in which the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed along with all but two members of his family.
   In their depositions, the three witnesses also made ‘contradictory’ statements in the trial court about Huda’s presence in Sheikh Mujib’s house during the incident, but Huda was convicted and thereby deprived of the ‘benefit of doubt,’ Mamun said.
   Third High Court judge, Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim, who resolved the split verdict in the case upholding the death sentences of 12 convicts, had acquitted Kismat Hashem, one of the condemned convicts, on the ground of contradictory depositions of witnesses Bashir Ahmed and Shafiuddin Sarder about Kismat’s presence at Mujib’s house during the carnage.
   ‘If Kismat could be acquitted of the charge on the ground of witnesses’ contradictory statements, Hudu should also be acquitted on the same ground,’ he said adding there were 30 contradictory claims over Huda’s presence at the scene, Mamun argued referring to the depositions of the witnesses.
   Referring to the deposition of Bashir, the in-charge of First Field Artillery in charge of security at Mujib’s house, Mamun also claimed that the 105-strong security might have been involved in the carnage. He said Huda was not at the scene.
   Mamun claimed that two important security people – Subedar Kabir, who was on duty at the Bangabhaban, and Subedar Motableb, on guard at Mujib’s residence during the incident – were not made witnesses in the case ‘to hide the real killers’.
   With similar motive, Aminul Haque Badsha, the then deputy press secretary of Sheikh Mujib, was also not made a witness in the case,’ Mamun said.
   About Huda’s involvement in the conspiracy, Mamun said there Bashir and another witness Serajul Huq’s statements about Huda’s presence at the parade at Balurghat in Dhaka Cantonment and the new airport on the night of 15 August, 1975, were also ‘contradictory’.
   The five-member Appellate Division bench, which was hearing Mamun since the beginning of hearing in the case on October 5, asked him to complete his argument today.
   The court cautioned Mamun that he was disturbing the judges by repeating his arguments on a single point for the last eleven days. ‘There is no provision in law to submit such arguments in the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in any appeal hearing,’ it observed.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, leaves Dhaka tonight for Sweden and Qatar on an official visit to these countries.
   On the first leg of the tour, Hasina will go to the Swedish capital Stockholm for joining the European Development Days-2009, a flagship event that showcases the EU continuing and enduring commitment to development.
   Hasina, who will fly for Stockholm by a Qatar Airlines flight, will lead a high level Bangladesh delegation to the European Development Days, a yearly event being hosted jointly by the European Commission and the EU Presidency on October 22- 24.
   The prime minister’s entourage in Sweden and Qatar includes foreign minister Dipu Moni, state minister for environment and forest Hasan Mahmud, chairman of parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of environment and forest Abdul Momin Talukder, foreign secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes, ambassador M Ziauddin and press secretary to the prime minister Abul Kalam Azad.
   Besides, about 4,000 people comprising heads of states or government, leading world figures including Nobel laureates from 125 countries are expected to attend the European Day programmes this year. The event aims to make development aid more effective, to build a global coalition against poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals by respective countries.
   Hasina will address the Plenary on Climate Change: The road to Copenhagen and beyond on October 24 at Stockholmsmassan, Victoria Hall.
   During her busy schedule in Stockholm, the premier will hold bilateral meetings with her Swedish counterpart Fredrik Reinfeldt, president of the European parliament Jerzy Buzek and president of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso. Apart from this, she will hold separate meetings with director general of Swedish International Development Cooperation Anders Nordstrom, Swedish minister for international development Gunilla Carlsson, CEO and president of Erricsson Carl-Henric Svanberg.
   She will attend separate dinners to be hosted by Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and European commissioner Karel De Gucht.
   The prime minister will attend a community reception on October 23 at Hallunda Folkethus, Stockholm.
   She will leave Stockholm on October 25 for Doha, Qatar where the premier will hold meeting with Amir of Qatar at Diwan Amiri on October 26. She will also visit Bangladeshi school on the same day.
   The prime minister is expected to return home on October 27 after ending her visit to Qatar.

The finance ministry has asked 36 ministries and divisions to submit by this month progress reports on 90 top priority development projects undertaken in the 2009-10 fiscal.
   The ministries and divisions have also been asked to tally the progress so far achieved with the ruling party's election commitments, official sources said.
   The finance ministry's Macroeconomic Wing last week issued a circular, seeking progress reports on high priority projects to evaluate its budget implementation work plan.
   'The wing will map out necessary policies after receiving the progress reports,' said a senior official of the finance ministry.
   According to the circular, the wing also wanted to know from the home ministry about the present status of the trail of the killings of Bangabandhu and four national leaders, and trial of war criminals - which were among the key pledges of the Awami League's manifesto.
   The education ministry has been asked to report on the progress on formulation of education policy and setting up of universities in Barisal, Rangamati and Gopalganj.
   The Macroeconomic Wing also showed interest in schemes targeting rural and urban poor like 'one house and farm' and 'Ghare Fera Karmasuchi.'
   The Finance Division will need to inform the wing of the implementation status of the district-wise budget, national pay scale, establishment of economic zones, latest position of Bangladesh Better Business Forum and state of the Tk 2100 crore fund creation plan for public-private partnership initiative.
   The National Board of Revenue, Planning Division and the commerce ministry will have to report on the progress of the income tax automation project, six-year national plan and reduction in the cost of doing business.
   Bangladesh Bank has been asked to submit reports on the process of the initial public offering of the GrameenPhone in the share market.
   The post and telecommunications ministry will have to report on the project on the second undersea cable.
   The wing's queries include projects on climate change responses, checking Buriganga river pollution, Padma bridge, underground rail in Dhaka city, purchase of Boeing aircraft and food ration policy for freedom fighters.
   Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies research director Zaid Bahkt said the political projects should be monitored by the authorities concerned as huge funds were involved with those schemes.
   'The Macroeconomic Wing of the finance ministry will do the right things if it monitors the political projects, though it is not possible for them to monitor all development projects,' he told New Age.

The Power Division has decided to formulate a master policy for power generation incorporating in it all the existing policies and giving more authority to the Power Development Board.
   A division meeting last week decided to review five major policies, including Private Sector Power Generation Policy, 1996, and Policy Guideline for Small Power Plant in Private Sector, 1998, to prepare the master policy to eliminate 'contradictions' and giving PDB authority to process and invite tender for independent power plants, said officials.
   At present the Power Cell, the planning organ of the Power Division, processes and invites tenders for the IPPs but PDB wants that it will handle the bidding process for the IPPs from which the board purchases electricity.
   The division's meeting, headed by state minister for power and energy, Enamul Haque, on Thursday discussed the PDB's recommendations for amending the Private Sector Power Generation Policy, under which the IPPs are being installed, to strip the Power Cell of the authority and give it to PDB.
   'The division high-ups, however, observed that without going for amending a single policy, a unified master policy should be framed. Currently there are five major power generation policies in the country. One policy in some way contradicts another,' said an official present at the
   meeting.
   Three of the policies, namely, Policy Guidelines for Power Purchase from Captive Power Plant, Policy Guidelines for Enhancement of Private Participation in the Power Sector, 2008, and Renewable Energy Policy of Bangladesh, were approved by the interim government.
   'The IPP policy says that PDB will purchase electricity from the IPPs but according to the Policy Guidelines for Enhancement of Private Participation in the Power Sector, 2008, any entrepreneur could install a power plant on his own and PDB could purchase 20 per cent of the electricity such plants would generate. Such contradictions would be addressed in the master policy,' said the official.
   Although PDB wants to handle the IPPs' bidding process, Power Cell officials are not happy with the move as the cell, formed under the guidance of the World Bank, would virtually have no major work to do.
   A high official of the PDB, however, said that the board should handle the bidding process of IPPs as the power purchase agreements with the selected companies were signed by PDB which purchased the electricity. 'If these plants are installed for PDB, why should another body handle the bidding process? PDB should know better what price of electricity will be suitable for it,' he said.
   A former director general of the Power Cell, however, said that the cell should continue processing the bidding for IPPs as it would ensure transparency in the process.

Bangladesh has intensified patrol along northeast frontiers with reinforcements of border guards amid growing tension since Myanmar started mobilising troops and barbed-wire fencing earlier this month.
   Myanmar navy attacked a group of Bangladeshi fishermen Sunday night and took away their fishing boat and nets, security people and locals said.
   At least 44 Myanmar trespassers were held on Monday in different areas of Bandarban district as Myanmar authorities initiated voter enrolment in its frontier province which has concentration of Rohingya Muslims, police said.
   'We have beefed up our patrol along Myanmar border and reinforced our outposts there,' Maj Gen Mohammad Mainul Islam, director general of BDR, told New Age on Monday.
   Tension mounted along the Nikkongchari border in Bandarban after Myanmar started fencing on October 2 and deployed army on its side of the border.
   The Myanmar government officially rejected the reports on troops mobilisation saying it was a 'routine work.'
   United News of Bangladesh reports, law enforcing agencies have launched a drive to round up Rohingyas who fled home and took shelter in the border districts.
   Police said 44 Rohingyas were held in Roangchhari, Bandarban sadar, Lama, Alikadam and Naikhangchhari.
   Quoting local commanding officer of BDR, our Cox's Bazar correspondent reports that border guards strengthened their patrol at 15 points of Nikkongchari on Monday.
   Lt Col Mozammal Hossein, commanding officer of 42 rifles battalion at Teknaf said, 'Nasaka has not yet replied to BDR's proposal for a flag meeting to defuse border tension.'
   BDR will lodge protest with Myanmar authorities against snatching of a Bangladeshi fishing boat and nets by Myanmar naval force Sunday evening. Rescued fishermen alleged that at least 10 armed navy men of Myanmar took away their boat and nets and left them in the sea as they were fishing in Bangladesh waters Sunday evening.

Iran said Monday it will demand Pakistan hand over the believed mastermind behind a bomb attack on the elite Revolutionary Guards and accused Britain and the United States of aiding the rebels.
   The head of the Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said a delegation would head to Pakistan to deliver 'proof' that Islamabad is supporting Sunni militant rebel leader Abdolmalek Rigi, whose Jundallah (Soldiers of God) group has for years being waging war against the Shia rule of Iran.
   'The delegation will ask for him (Rigi) to be handed over,' Jafari was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency.
   Iranian officials say Rigi has claimed responsibility for Sunday's suicide attack at a gymnasium in the town of Pisheen, near the border with Pakistan, in southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, which killed 42 people including seven Guards commanders.
   The attacker detonated his explosives belt as the commanders were holding a meeting with local tribal chiefs, who were also among those killed.
   Jafari also charged that Rigi takes orders from the intelligence services of Britain, Pakistan and the United States.
   'The group of Rigi has direct contact with the American and British intelligence services and unfortunately the Pakistani intelligence service,' Jafari said.
   'He is supported by them and without doubt he is acting under their orders and plans.'
   Iran's first deputy speaker Mohammad Hassan Abutorabi rammed home the point, telling parliament on Monday that 'the horrible crime in Sistan-Baluchestan was carried out with the direct support of criminal America and its mercenaries.'
   General Mohammad Pakpour, the head of Guards' ground forces and whose deputy was killed in the powerful blast, said Washington and London had trained and equipped those who carried out the attack against Iran's prestigious military force.
   'The terrorists were trained in the neighbouring country (Pakistan) by the Americans and British.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Monday demanded reinstatement of public holiday on November 7 to honour the revolution of mass-people and soldiers 'which led to the reestablishment of multi-party democracy in Bangladesh'.
   The party at the first meeting of its committee to observe National Revolution and Solidarity Day also called for stopping propagation against the events of the day which had changed the track of the country's history.
   The committee convener, Mirza Abbas, chaired the meeting at the party's central office at Naya Paltan. Detailed programmes were chalked out at the meeting to observe the day.
   The programmes include a discussion on significance of the revolution on November 6 at the Institution of Engineers at 3:00pm, hoisting party flag atop all the party installations across the country on November 7 and placing wreaths at grave of the hero of the revolution and BNP's founder late president Ziaur Rahman at 10:00am on November 7. BNP chief Khaleda Zia will also place wreath and say prayers at the graveside.
   BNP joint secretary general Selima Rahman, office secretary Rizvi Ahmed, Juba Dal president Barkatullah Bulu, Swechchhasebak Dal president Habibunnabi Khan Sohel, Chhatra Dal president Sultan Salahuddin Tuku and Jatiyatabadi Samajik Sangskritik Sanghstha president Babul Ahmed were present at the meeting.
   The military-governed interim administration on December 4, 2007 cancelled November 7 as public holiday. The day had been public holiday since 1976 to 1996.
   The Awami League government on August 8, 1996 had cancelled the public holiday on November 7. After assuming office on October 1, 2001, the BNP-Jamaat alliance government on August 3, 2002 reinstated the public holiday on the day, repealing the decision of the Awami League government.

Prothom Alo's editor Matiur Rahman, associate editor Mizanur Rahman Khan, and chairman of the Transcom Group Latifur Rahman, on Sunday night lodged separate general diaries with three police stations against the Bashundhara Group.
   The complainants, who filed the diaries with the Tejgaon, Gulshan and Shahbagh police stations, feared that the recent provocative moves by the Bashundhara Group might curtail the independence of newspapers, said Prothom Alo's press release.
   It said that the Basundhara Group, incensed by two news items in Prothom Alo, posted advertisements in various newspapers, between October 13 and October 18, which were full of false and defamatory statements. It also published posters and leaflets against the newspaper and distributed them.
   Prothom Alo ran a news story headlined 'State machinery desperate to save Bashundhara' and a news analysis item titled 'Allegations of yellow journalism, the chief justice has no comment' on 12 and 13 October, 2009.
   Prothom Alo's editor mentioned in the GD that the concerned reports were meant to uphold the rule of law since they were about the undue bail granted to Bashundhara's chairman, wife and three children.
   In an affidavit submitted to the High Court on 5 July, 2009, the government mentioned that Bashundhara's owners were convicted of tax evasion and were fugitives as per the law.
   In his GD, Latifur Rahman expressed the fear that an attempt on the lives of him and his family members would be made by the Basudhara Group's men. He referred to the filing of general diaries against Matiur Rahman and himself, accusing them of arson, and said that those allegations were false, fabricated and concocted and must be part of a conspiracy.

At least 30 people were injured in a clash between the supporters of the Awami League and the BNP over taking control of a bus stand in Monohardi upazila of Narsingdi Monday morning.
   The police said local AL leader Abu Siddique and BNP leader Arman had been at loggerhead over taking control of Chalak Char Bus Stand.
   The clash ensued at about 8:00am when Siddique along with his supporters came to the bus stand and chased a supporter of Arman.
   Later, both the groups equipped with iron rods and sticks attacked each other, leaving 30 people from both sides injured.
   The feuding groups also damaged 10 houses adjacent to the bus stand and looted five shops in the bazar during the clash.
   On information the police went to the spot and brought the situation under control.
   The injured were admitted to local health complex and different clinics.