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Most of the members of the central executive committee of the Awami League on Thursday expressed deep concern over the deterioration of the law and order situation and violence caused by the manipulation of tenders throughout the country, said sources.
   The committee members demanded uncompromising measures to improve the situation and stop tender manipulation by Awami League leaders and activists.
   Speaking at an emergency meeting of the party’s central working committee, convened after the bomb attack on party lawmaker Fazle Noor Tapash, the Awami League’s central leader Mohammad Nasim said the attack had indicated the deterioration of the law and order situation and the government should take immediate action in this regard, said meeting sources.
   AL’s acting president Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury presided over the meeting held at party chief Sheikh Hasina’s Dhanmondi office.
   Assailants hurled a bomb at AL lawmaker Fazle Noor Taposh’s car in front of his law chamber at Motijheel on Wednesday night, leaving at least 12 people injured, but Tapash luckily survived the attack without a scartch.
   Most of the ALCWC members who attended at the meeting echoed Nasim and demanded enhancement of security measures to maintain the law and order.
   They also denounced tender manipulation across the country by the leaders and activists of the party and its associate bodies, and demanded exemplary punishment of those involved, an AL leader who attended the meeting told New Age. ‘At any cost, tender manipulation will have to be stopped,’ the leader quoted Nasim as saying.
   Most of the AL’s central executive committee members recommended intensification of security measures for ministers, judges and counsels of the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman killing case, party lawmakers, family members of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as well as important government offices, said sources.
   The issue was raised by Momtazuddin Mehedi, member of the AL’s central executive, at the meeting.
   Some members protested against the vandalising of vehicles in different parts of the capital after the attack on Tapash, saying that this would estrange the people. They emphasized the need for uniting the nation to implement the court’s verdict of the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman killing case.
   The AL’s law secretary, Abdul Matin Khasru, assured the meeting that the verdict of the Sheikh Mujib killing case would be executed within November, said meeting sources.
   The AL’s general secretary, Syed Ashraful Islam, told the newsmen that the government would tighten the security of the ministers, lawmakers and important personalities, if required.
   Home affairs minister Sahara Khatun, at the meeting, said she had directed the law-enforcing agencies to take every measure to identify and nab the attackers.
   On October 3, at the first meeting of the ALCWC after elections, deep concern was expressed over the law and order situation, tender manipulation, extortion, price-hike of daily essentials, power and gas shortage and the capital’s chaotic traffic, and the members requested party president Sheikh Hasina, also the country’s premier, to concentrate more on solving the problems
   Thursday’s meeting strongly condemned the attack on Tapash and demanded that the government find and arrest the attackers, identify their patrons and give them exemplary punishment.
   The members observed that the attack was meant to kill Tapash and was motivated by the intention of thwarting the trial of the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case.
   ‘The killers of Bangabandhu and those who do not want implementation of the verdict of the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman killing case and ultra-fanatic militants were behind the attack,’ claimed Ashraf, also the LGRD minister.
   He said those who launched the attack would be hunted down and brought to justice.
   Ashraf said the trial of the Sheikh Mujib murder case cannot be stopped by killing, attacks and threats, no matter how powerful the criminals are. ‘No one can stop the government from executing the verdict and establishing human rights and justice.’
   He said that after the murder of Sheikh Mujib, the killers were trying to kill his two daughters — Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister, and Sheikh Rehana. ‘A conspiracy is on to kill them at anytime,’ said he.

The government on Thursday banned operation of Islamist organisation Hizb-ut-Tahrir on security ground, a senior home ministry official said.
   The home affairs ministry issued an official order imposing restriction on Bangladesh’s operations of the international outfit, already banned in many other countries including Pakistan and the USA for suspected links with militancy.
   ‘The operation of Hizb-ut-Tahrir has been banned….An order has already been issued to the effect,’ home affairs secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder told New Age.
    The government has so far banned four Islamist outfits – Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, Harkatul Jihad al Islami, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh and Shahadat-e al Hikma.
   The previous BNP-led government identified the Islamist outfit Harkatul Jihad as a terrorist organisation and banned its activities on October 17, 2005. 
   The home ministry had announced the ban two months after another Islamist outfit, Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, allegedly carried out the near-simultaneous chain-bombing across the country on August 17. Earlier on February 23, the government banned two
   more Islamist outfits — Jamaatul Mujahideen and Jagrata Muslim Janata —for ‘creating anarchy and engaging in subversive activities.’
   Sheikh Hasina’s cabinet on March 16, 2009 sent back to the home ministry its report on the activities of militant outfits in the country asking it to give more information about such organisations and their networks.
   The report, placed in the regular cabinet meeting, named a dozen such outfits with information on their organograms, sources of funding, links to political parties and their operations.
   Prime minister Sheikh Hasina asked the home ministry to place the report at the cabinet with detailed information, including information on the patrons of militants, their funding and present activities, a minister told New Age. The ministry’s report had named 12 militant outfits – Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Harkatul Jihad al Islami (Huji), Hizbut Towhid, Ulama Anjuman al Bainat, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Islami Democratic Party, Islami Samaj, Touhid Trust, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, Shahadat-e al Hikma Party Bangladesh, Tamira Ar-Din Bangladesh (Hizb e Abu Omar) and Allahr Dal, sources said.

The Rapid Action Battalion on Thursday had tortured severely New Age staff correspondent FM Masum keeping him in detention at the RAB 10 headquarters at Dhalpur in Dhaka for about 10 hours and a half.
   The battalion men picked Masum up from his rented house at Jatrabari in Dhaka at noon and severely tortured him in public.
   Masum was, however, released about 10:30pm reportedly after repeated interventions of the home minister and the home secretary, and he needed to be rushed in to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital for treatment.
   According to Masum and spot accounts, a battalion team raided the house at 67, Dakshin Jatrabai, where Masum lives as a tenant, at noon for alleged involvement of the landlord in drug peddling. The battalion personnel also knocked on the door of Masum's flat.
   As soon as Masum opened the door, the battalion personnel slapped him, accusing him of being late in opening the door.
   They started torturing Masum severely as he told them of his identity, according to spot accounts.
   Torturing him in public on the spot, the battalion men rubbed salt in the wounds and took him to the RAB 10 headquarters at Dhalpur.
   'At the RAB office, they tortured me inhumanly saying, "We are taking our anger at Nurul Kabir [New Age editor] out on you",' Masum said in the hospital.
   Soon after Masum's detention, different battalion officers came up with different stories as reason for the detention. Some of them claimed Masum was found in possession of Pethedine, some said with Phensidyl (codeine) syrup while some others said they found him with prostitutes.
   The battalion, when Masum was released, finally said they had picked him up for not cooperating with the law enforcement agency. The battalion reportedly requested several media houses not to run or print any report on the incident.
   The battalion released Masum after the New Age people had to sign an undertaking in which it was written that he had been picked up and was being handed over to his colleagues 'in good health.'
   He had marks of injury all over the body and his feet were swollen when he was released. Physicians in Dhaka Medical College Hospital advised a CT scan, which was later done.
   The New Age people were earlier asked to sign an undertaking in which it was said that Masum had been involved in trading in drugs for long, but his colleagues refused to sign it.
   Masum also said the battalion personnel had videoed arranged sequences of seizure of drug substances from his room. He was also videoed along with the wife of the owner of the house, he said.
   The home minister, Sahara Khatun, the home secretary, Abdus Sobhan Sikder, and the battalion's director general Hasan Mahmud Khandakar about 6:00pm told New Age that Masum would be released.
   Masum, who received his master's degree in mass communication and journalism department in Dhaka University, earlier worked with the Bangladesh Today before joining New Age. He is an alumnus of the Barisal Cadet College.
   Masum has written reports on extrajudicial killing such as the death in 'crossfire' or 'encounter' committed by the battalion and on illicit trading in drug substances. He has also written several reports on torture on newsmen across the country.

Preliminary investigations found subversive the fire that broke out in the National Curriculum and Textbook Board warehouse at Tejgaon in Dhaka and continued till Wednesday, burning down a huge quantity of papers kept for textbook printing.
   Briefing reporters on the findings of the seven-member committee the government formed on Sunday for investigation, the education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, said the October 18 fire was not caused by an electric short-circuit as evidence of powder-like substance were found on the spot which suggests it was a subversive act.
   The minister disclosed the findings of the report of the committee, which was asked to do so in three working days.
   The minister said the fire had started in three corners of the depot and the night guards had detected it about 6:30am when they were switching off the lights after their duty hours.
   In reply to a question, the minister said they had not precisely identified the persons behind the arson. The ministry will receive the final report of the committee in 15 days.
   Asked whether the accident would hamper the distribution of books among primary ad secondary students, Nahid said, ‘Of course, it has become a big challenge and a big problem too. But we will make all-out efforts to accomplish our job.’
   The government has plans to distribute 19 crore copies of primary and secondary books free among the students at the beginning of the next academic year 2010.
   A national committee, headed by Nurul Islam, was, meanwhile, formed early Thursday to supervise the printing, preservation, supply and distribution of textbooks. The minister and the state minister of the primary and mass education ministry have been made joint conveners of the committee. The national committee will sit on November 1 to get down to work.
   Fire fighters on Wednesday could put out the flames in the board warehouse 80 hours after the fired broke out early Sunday. A huge quantity of papers and textbooks were burnt.

Gunmen attacked an army jeep in Pakistan’s capital Thursday, killing a brigadier on leave from a UN peacekeeping mission and his driver in the second deadly attack to strike Islamabad in 48 hours.
   The brazen shooting in a smart residential district capped a spike in attacks blamed on Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked extremists leaving more than 185 people dead this month in the frontline state in the US-led war on terror.
   The assassination of a senior officer came less than two weeks after militants staged an audacious ambush on the nearby
   army headquarters in Rawalpindi claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban in Pakistan movement.
   Pakistan has vowed to crush the network, unleashing a major ground and air offensive targeting TTP in their South Waziristan stronghold along the Afghan border where al-Qaeda are accused of plotting attacks on the West.
   The attackers fled on a motorbike after shooting brigadier Moinuddin Ahmed in the G11 sector, a hospital official said.
   ‘There were two people riding a motorbike. One opened fire on the jeep from the front side and one from the back,’ senior police official Syed Kalim Imam told reporters.
   ‘The brigadier succumbed to his injuries and his driver was also killed. He seems to have been targeted.’
   A hail of gunfire left the front and back windows of the green jeep riddled with bullet holes, spraying glass into the road.
   Doctor Minhajus Siraj, deputy executive director of Islamabad’s main PIMS Hospital, said Ahmed was shot in the face and chest and his driver killed.
   A soldier injured in the attack, who had been in the brigadier’s jeep, was stable after surgery, Siraj said.

Two mid-level officers were injured as a Bangladesh Air Force training plane crashed before landing at an airstrip in Bogra on Thursday.
   The injured were squadron leaders AAMM Shamsuzzaman and Jamil Uddin Ahmed.
   The two BAF officers flew with the training plane PT-6 from the Erulia airstrip in the district a few minutes before Thursday noon. Within a few minutes, the plane came down on the ground near the airstrip runway.
   It could not be immediately established whether the pilots had decided to land sensing a technical glitch in the aircraft or there had been any trouble during landing at the base.
   Asaduzzaman, a villager of Ambaria at Erulia, told New Age he had seen the plane falling down on the road outside the airstrip.
   ‘One of the wings first fell on the ground, followed by the body of the aircraft and then smoke started going up,’ he said.
   Bogra fire service station officer Shahadat Hossain said air base staff had pulled out the two pilots from inside the plane and took them to Combined Military Hospital in Bogra for treatment.
   The two pilots were sent to Combined Ministry Hospital for routine health observation, the Inter Service Public Relations said in a release. ‘They are now well,’ it said.
   The airmen cordoned off the airstrip, which handles small planes and helicopters, to carry out the rescue operation and investigation.
   The chief of the air staff Air Marshal Shah Mohammad Ziaur Rahman visited the spot and the pilots at the hospital.
   An investigation committee has been formed to establish the cause of the accident, the ISPR release said.
   On March 9 morning, general officer commanding of the 55 Infantry Division Major General Rafiqul Islam and Army Aviation Corps’ Lieutenant Colonel Shahidul Islam were killed on the spot when their helicopter crashed at Rouha of Kalihati in Tangail. Co-pilot Major Saif was seriously injured in the crash.

The police arrested 173 people, including Kamrul Haque Swapan, brother of Shariful Haque Dalim, in connection with Wednesday's bomb attack on Awami League lawmaker Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh.
   Gulshan police with the help of intelligence agencies arrested Swapan at his Gulshan residence Thursday night, police said.
   Dalim, who confessed to killing Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 15 August 1975, is now fighting to overturn his death sentence for his role in the assassination of the country's founding president.
   Taposh, whose parents Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni and Arzoo Moni were also murdered on 15 August, came under a bomb attack in the capital's Motijheel area. He escaped the attack unhurt but 13 others, mostly bystanders, were injured by the blast.
   Taposh, a nephew of prime minister Sheikh Hasina, is also involved with the legal team assisting the state counsels in the appeals proceedings in the Mujib murder case.
   Earlier, law enforcers arrested 173 people in different parts in the city in connection with the bomb attack.
   Police launched a massive hunt in different parts of the city and its outskirts for suspects.

Mutiny in the army led to the killings of the country's founding president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and all but two of his family on 15 August, 1975, as the incident had originated at the Dhaka cantonment, a defence lawyer told the Appellate Division on Thursday.
   'The incident happened in course of a mutiny originating at the cantonment and culminated in the carnage at Mujib's residence,' condemned convict Syed Faruque Rahman's counsel, Khan Saifur Rahman told the court during the 14th day's hearing in the appeals against the High Court verdict that had upheld the death sentences of 12 former army men in the case.
   'The murders are absorbed in the commission of the offence of the mutiny,' he said.
   Saifur argued that Sheikh Mujib's case was similar to the case of former president Ziaur Rahman who was killed in a mutiny which had originated at the Chittagong cantonment and culminated in the killing of Ziaur Rahman at the Chittagong circuit house,' the counsel argued.
   Saifur also referred to the verdict delivered on 22 September, 1981 by the Supreme Court in Jamil Huq's case dismissing the appeals filed by 12 condemned convicts against the court martial in the mutiny on 30 May, which resulted in the death of president Ziaur Rahman.
   Justice Md Abdul Aziz, one of the five judges of the Appellate Division bench, said that the judgment was delivered just a day after a state of emergency was withdrawn on 21 September, 1981 under the government of acting president Abdus Sattar.
   Expressing similar views, state counsel Towfiq Newaj told the court, 'Fundamental rights remained curtailed at that time though the emergency order was withdrawn.'
   'But the government was constitutional,'Saifur replied.
   He said, 'If the persons involved in a mutiny are a combination of army personnel in service, retired ones and civilians, should be tried by court martial in accordance with the section 31 of the army act.'
   He pointed out that three army men in service, namely colonel Jamil, Sheikh Jamal and sepoy Samsu, were killed at the Mujib's house by persons from the army and hence the trial should have been under the army act.
   Saifur said that the trial of the case by a civil court, such as sessions judges, was not maintainable, and thus the convictions and sentences handed down to the accused were also liable to be set aside.
   He said mutiny was not a penal code offence. It is an offence under the army act and exclusively a matter to be tried by court martial as per provision of the section 31 of the army act.
   The hearing will resume on Sunday.

BNP joint secretary general Nazrul Islam Khan has condemned Wednesday’s bomb attack on Awami League lawmaker Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh.
   ‘The attack on Fazle Noor Taposh proves that the government has completely failed to ensure safety of the people and maintain law and order,’ he said in a statement Thursday.
   When criminals target a sitting member of parliament, the condition of general people can easily be realised, he said. ‘People across the country are passing days in extreme fear as violence and extortion increased,’ the BNP leader said, criticising the minister concerned for talking much but acting less to tame “criminals enjoying government’s atronisation.”

The Jatiya Party, a key ally of the ruling Awami League, has opposed the proposed education policy, saying it will cause discontent among teachers, students and the people.
   ‘Something like an education policy should not be imposed on the people. A more realistic and generally accepted policy should be implemented,’ chairman HM Ershad said at a meeting with ruling alliance leaders on Thursday.
   The Awami League-led government has moved to completely remodel the education system through implementation of a new education policy amid opposition by the BNP and conservative parties.
   Now the Jatiya Party chief has expressed his opposition to the policy.
   The government formed the National Education Policy Formulation Committee 2009 headed by national Professor Kabir Chowdhury.
   The committee handed over its report to the prime minister on September 4 through the education ministry.
   The policy document is furnished with separate chapters on primary, secondary and higher education, technical education as well as madrassah education.
   However, Ershad, the former military strongman who added Islam as the state religion, has been venting his frustrations due to not getting ‘vital’ posts in the coalition government.
   He said on October 14, ‘We are in the coalition. We did not lose our hopes for not getting what we expected after the sweeping win (in the general elections).’
   ‘The current government is facing complications due to past failures. We hope that in more stable situation, the Jatiya Party would be appropriately evaluated,’ said Ershad.

The United States could raise the price of immigration-related fees as it battles a budget shortfall spurred by the global financial meltdown, a senior official said Wednesday.
   The cash-strapped US Citizenship and Immigration Services is considering hiking fees, reducing expenditures or seeking help from Congress to address its financial woes, said agency director Alejandro Mayorkas.
   ‘We will, as an agency, potentially have to make cuts, and we will, potentially, have to raise certain fees to meet the financial challenge brought about by a decline in revenue,’ Mayorkas said.
   Immigration-related applications have dropped ‘markedly’ over the past year amid the economic downturn, and are behind the agency’s revenue decline, he said.
   USCIS was flooded with applications in 2007 ahead of last year’s US presidential elections and an increase in citizenship fees from 400 to 675 dollars.
   A record 7.7 million immigration applications were registered in 2007.
   ‘People wanted to become naturalised so they could vote,’ explained USCIS spokesman Bill Wright.
   The number of filings dropped after the price hike.
   The agency had initially forecast it would collect 2.33 billion dollars in fees for the fiscal year that ended on September 30, but it fell short by 345 million dollars.
   Mayorkas insisted the agency’s financial travails would not hamper its work, pointing to ‘improved performance’ over the past two years. ‘We well understand and are incredibly sensitive to the impact of raising fees for individuals, many of whom cannot afford the cost of pursuing a benefit to which they may be entitled,’ he added.
   The agency chief declined to quantify the fee increase currently being considered as part of a review, although he noted that not all services would necessarily be affected.
   Immigration officials have requested 206 million dollars for fee structure reform.
   A bill hashed out between both houses of Congress and now awaiting president Barack Obama’s signature only funded 55 million dollars of that request.

Ensuring women's rights to resources and reducing gender discriminations through a collective action plan are a must to free about 50 million people from extreme poverty, hunger and malnutrition, local and foreign experts suggested.
   Taking effective and concerted action and adapting agricultural technologies are key tools for women to protect their economic and social rights within households and communities and fight extreme poverty, they said.
   About 50 million people in Bangladesh still live in extreme poverty and 36 million of them are chronically hungry or malnourished, according to researchers of the International Food Policy Research Institute, the Washington-based think-tank.
   'Reducing the gender gap in all spheres of life, including the acquisition of assets, is essential to reduce poverty, hunger and malnutrition,' senior economist Mahbub Hossein, who is executive director of BRAC, said Wednesday.
   'The nation can get generational dividends through empowering women by ensuring their access to resources, sending girls to schools and reducing fertility and population,' he said.
   'But we must take collective action, involving both men and women, to achieve the objectives,' Mahbub, former director-general of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, added.
   Ruth Meinzen-Dick, senior research fellow of the IFPRI, told New Age, 'Effective and collective action can empower women, promote gender equity within households and communities, and reduce gender disparities in terms of rights, responsibilities and resources.'
   'Understanding the role of gender in collective action can promote the well-being of women and their families and contribute to poverty reduction,' said Ruth, also a coordinator of the Collective Action and Property Rights programme of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.
   Agnes Quisumbing, leader of a research project on the long-term effects of anti-poverty interventions in Bangladesh, said, 'It is not only important to understand the different effect of targeting women's groups versus individuals or men, but it is also critical to look beyond the household as a whole to see who - men, women and children - are benefiting from new technology and subsequent gains in income.'
   The IFPRI operates the project in Mymensingh, Jessore and Manikganj in cooperation with local partners.
   Agnes, who is a senior research fellow of the IFPRI, told New Age that the women who have adopted collective action and agricultural technology together were able to build up their assets and reduce inequality in asset ownership with regard to their male partners.
   'As for early adopters of the new technology, the individually-owned fishpond sites appeared to be successful with significant gains in income, food consumption, assets and calorie availability.
   However, the effects on assets tell a different story: men's assets increased, while women's ownership of assets declined,' she said.
   In contrast, women were paid off in the cases of the group vegetable sites and group fishponds, said Agnes, also co-author of the Global Hunger Index 2009, which was published on October 14. 'Women's assets including land increased relative to men's, and the increase in women's control of resources improved the health and nutrition of family members,' she said.
   Bangladesh ranked 67th in 84 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2009, published by the IFPRI.
   All but one (Sri Lanka) of the South Asian countries ranked in the top quartile for hunger, showing that high levels of hunger and gender inequality go hand in hand, according to the report.
   Ruth and Agnes were visiting Dhaka last week for workshops on 'gender and collective action'.
   They said poverty alleviation programmes that target women in Bangladesh can be very successful at ensuring the children's nutrition and gender equality even if income gains are relatively small, according to IFPRI researchers.
   Likewise, agricultural technologies that lead to significant income gains do not necessarily reduce poverty or improve women's and children's nutrition if income is controlled only by men, they added.

Shipping minister Shahjahan Khan Thursday announced that about 1,200 workers of the Chittagong Port, who were terminated during the past interim government, would be reinstated in their jobs in phases.
   'We should reinstate the 1200 workers in their jobs,' he told reporters after a meeting with the leaders of port labourers' organisations at Bandar Bhaban.
   He urged the labourers' organisations to end the practice of paralysing the prime seaport of the country for realising demands.
   The minister said there would be only two trade unions, one for workers and employees of the port authorities and another for workers and employees of different private organisations using the port.
   'Other than those, there will be an association of port users in line with the labour laws,' he added.
   He said the Chittagong Port Authority will operate the Chittagong Container Terminal on their own if any trouble arises regarding the fresh tender for the job.
   Member of the standing committee on shipping ministry Shamshul Huq Chowdhury MP, shipping secretary Abdul Mannan Hawlader and CPA chairman RU Ahmed were present during the visit of the minister.

A high-level commission on the World Bank Thursday called for sweeping changes to reflect the world's new economic order and said European countries are overrepresented in the decision-making executive board.
   In a long-awaited report, the 11-member commission, led by former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo, said the bank's effectiveness was undermined by a hierarchy dominated by the United States and Europe 'offering many member countries too little voice and too few opportunities for participation.'
   'We see the World Bank Group maintaining its central role in the global financial architecture, but, like you, believe it must continuously adjust to changing global realities,' Zedillo said in a letter to World Bank president Robert Zoellick.
   'The world needs a World Bank which reflects the economic realities of the 21st century and which is financially sound, capable of supporting its clients through the recovery and into the post-crisis era. Action on voice reform and on capital should not be delayed,' he added.
   The panel said European countries were 'considerably over-represented', occupying 8 or 9 chairs in the World Bank's 25-member decision-making board - a 'historical legacy that no longer seems appropriate for a global institution and a transformed global economy.'
   The commission recommended the board be reduced to 20 chairs.

Thousands of postal workers at Britain's state-owned Royal Mail walked out on Thursday, starting a 48-hour nationwide strike and blaming bosses and the government for failing to prevent the action.
   Members of the Communication Workers Union are taking the action in a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and modernisation plans which the company and ministers say are essential if Royal Mail is to survive.
   About 42,000 mail centre staff and drivers walked out early in the morning and 78,000 delivery and collection staff will strike on Friday — action which is expected to completely disrupt mail deliveries.
   'They are not modernising the service, they are planning huge cuts,' CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward told BBC television. 'What we want is an opportunity to resolve this. We don't want to damage customers — we have no alternative.’
   Prime minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday the strikes were counterproductive and vowed the government would do everything it could to resolve the dispute.
   The action is likely to embarrass Brown's Labour government, with the opposition Conservatives, well ahead in opinion polls with an election due by mid-2010, already attempting to make political mileage out of the dispute.
   The government wants to sell up to 30 per cent of the company to make it more competitive, but shelved those plans earlier this year due to adverse market conditions and strong opposition from workers and Labour politicians.
   Royal Mail's business has declined by some 10 per cent annually in recent years as customers switch to the Internet or more specialised services.
   The CWU blamed Royal Mail bosses and Business Secretary Lord Peter Mandelson for the breakdown in talks, saying they sought revenge for the staff's opposition to privatisation.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has finalised 12 sub-committees for holding the party's national council session on December 8.
   The party chief, Khaleda Zia, has been made the chairperson of the council preparatory committee.
   The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, has been named the convener of reception sub-committee, standing committee member M Shamsul Islam convener of finance sub-committee, vice-chairman Tariqul Islam convener of constitution and manifesto amendment sub-committee, party chairperson's adviser ASM Hannan Shah convener of discipline and service sub-committee, journalist Shafik Rehman convener of international affairs sub-committee, joint secretary general Abdullah Al Noman convener of publications sub-committee, joint secretary general Mirza Abbas convener of management sub-committee, joint secretary general Nazrul Islam Khan convener of drafts sub-committee, joint secretary general Gayeshwar Chandra Roy convener of publicity sub-committee, office secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi convener of office and communications sub-committee, Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka convener of entertainment sub-committee and composer Gazi Mazharul Anwar has been named convener of cultural affairs sub-committee, said a release.

To the surprise of litigants, two judges engaged in fistfight in the chamber over a trifle matter Thursday disrupting the court function for sometime.
   Informed sources said joint district and sessions judge Rustam Ali entered the chamber of assistant judge Gopal Chandra Roy at about 9:00am and wanted to know why he misbehaved with the librarian on the previous day. They engaged in verbal fight that soon rolled to fistfight.
   At one stage, Roy rushed out of the chamber and took shelter in the office of bar association.
   Confirming the incident the association general secretary, Alimuddin, said they escorted judge Roy to his chamber. The matter was later settled at the chamber of the district and sessions judge in presence of the judges, he added.

Five women were stripped and paraded naked in India after being labelled as witches, reports Asian News.
   The incident took place in the Deoghar district of Jharkhand, the police said.
   The women, who were Muslim widows, were paraded naked, beaten and forced to eat human excrement by villagers.
   'Sushila Kumahrin, Sagiran Beebi, Hafijan Beebi, Sujan Beebi and Gulnar Beebi were tortured to accept that they were witches and practise black magic. The incident took place at the instruction of a witch doctor.
   The witch doctor said these women were practising black magic and were causing problems in the village,' a police officer told the Hindustan Times.
   The women were rescued when local government officials and the police reached the spot. However, the perpetrators, mainly Muslim managed to escape.
   In Jharkhand, women are subjected to different forms of torture; some are even killed after being branded witches.
   Footage of the incident has been aired on television channels in India prompting outrage.
   According to official data, more than 700 people, majority of them women, were killed after being branded witches. The witch doctors manage to escape as people fear black magic if they are named.
   Experts say superstitious beliefs are behind some of these attacks, but there are occasions when people- especially widows - are targeted for their land and property.

The communications minister, Syed Abul Hossain, Thursday said all highways across the country would be made four-lane ones to minimise road crashes.
   'We're repairing and widening the highways to reduce the risk of accidents,' he said while addressing a rally organised by 'Nirapad Sarak Chai'.
   The minister said the government wanted to make all highways, including Dhaka-Chittagong Highway, secure for the travellers. He said the work order for making the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway four-lane one would be issued within the next two months.
   Abul Hossain said road fatalities would come down in many cases, if the existing the 2-lane highways, were made 4-lane ones with dividers.
   Nirapad Sarak Chai chairman Ilias Kanchan also spoke on the occasion.

India's ruling Congress party-led alliance won two state polls on Thursday and were set to form the government in a third, local television said, a result that gives more room for the alliance to push economic reforms.
   Elections were held last week in Maharashtra, northern Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh in polls seen as a major test for the Congress coalition after a strong victory in central polls in May.
   The party retained power in Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh, and were expected to hold on to power in Haryana, party officials said.
   'It is a mixed result for the Congress party, as they won largely because of a fractured opposition, but they now have the opportunity to consolidate and rework their strategies,' said Amulya Ganguli, an independent political analyst.
   Experts said the Congress will now be able to dictate the pace and scope of reform measures such as politically tough stake sales in state-run firms.
   'This paves the way for economic reforms because there will be less number of dissenting voices and the Congress can now focus on economic reforms as their first priority,' said DH Pai Panandikar of the RPG Foundation, an economic think tank.
   'The vote shows the Congress is coming on its own and is reinstating itself as the single largest party in India,' Panandikar added.
   A weak and divided Bharatiya Janata Party, the main opposition Hindu nationalist party, was hoping that a severe drought and security issues could help them, but party officials were quick to concede defeat after early count showed they were trailing.
   'The BJP is in complete disarray, they don't have a leader to show the way,' Ganguli added.

The ambassador of the Netherlands, Alfans JAJMG Henekens, called on the speaker of Jatiya Sangsad, Abdul Hamid, at his office Thursday.
   During the meeting, the ambassador said his country was eager to increase assistance for Bangladesh for its overall development, including water management.
   'Bangladesh is one of the major Dutch aid recipient countries,' he said. He informed the speaker about his country's eagerness to increase trade and invest in Bangladesh.