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The government on Thursday decided to deploy forces at each venue for the submission and opening of tender documents across the country after newspaper reports on tender manipulation and violence allegedly by ruling party activists.
   'The police and the Rapid Action Battalion will guard the venues at the time of submission and opening of tender documents. The authorities concerned have been asked to contact nearby police stations before initiating the tender process,' the home minister, Sahara Khatun, told reporters after presiding over the meeting of the cabinet committee on law and order at the ministry.
   She said the people involved in tender manipulation, extortion and land grab would be dealt with an iron hand.
   The government made the decision after newspapers had reported tender manipulation and violence centring on tender process throughout the country allegedly by ruling party leaders and activists.
   The LGRD and cooperatives minister, Syed Ashraful Islam, who attended the meeting, said the government would not spare anybody involved in tender manipulation or extortion, whatever their political identity may be.
   'The party will take action following criminal proceedings against any of its leaders or activists… You will see the results of the decision soon,' said Ashraful, also the Awami League's spokesman.
   The committee at its fourth meeting directed all the ministries to take steps so that the authorities concerned could contact the police before initiating tender processes to stave off any untoward incidents at the venue for the submission and opening of tender documents.
   The law minister, Shafique Ahmed, information minister Abul Kalam Azad telecommunications minister Razi Uddin Ahmed Razu, state minister for home affairs Shamsul Haque Tuku and senior officials concerned also attended the meeting.
   The meeting discussed overall law and order, trial of the February 25-25 mutiny at the Bangladesh Rifles, operation of extremist outfits and recent attack on Awami League lawmaker Fazle Noor Taposh.
   Sahara said the BDR mutiny trial would begin early November in six divisional headquarters under the BDR law while the CID investigation of the killing would also be completed soon as the trial of criminal offences such as killing and looting would be conducted in speedy trial tribunals.
   Three thousand and five hundred BDR soldiers will face the trial. Of them, around 1,000 are going to be charged with killing and looting and they will face trial in speedy trial tribunals, according to source who attended the meeting.
   The intelligence agencies informed the meeting of the operation strategy of new militant organisation Islam O Muslim. The meeting was told that operations of around 12 militant outfits were under surveillance.

Finance minister AMA Muhith gave a damning counterblast to the IMF's disapproval of fuel and fertiliser subsidies, and reaffirmed the government’s plan to continue to subsidise vital sectors even if it meant setting aside the global lender’s tips.
   ‘We have told them clearly that to keep our economy stable and provide it with a firm footing, we will continue to provide support to the sectors that need it,’ he said Thursday after a meeting with the International Monetary Fund mission that ended its routine Dhaka trip on the day.
   The IMF once again registered extreme disapproval of subsidies being given to various sectors and forecast that Bangladesh’s economic growth will slow down to 5 per cent because of global recession impacts.
   ‘IMF delegates raised questions about the government’s subsidies to various sectors. They said we are providing excessive subsidies to some,’ the minister said.
   Later at a press conference at the central bank, mission leader and IMF adviser for Asia-Pacific Masato Miyazaki said the subsidies to the country’s energy and fertiliser sectors may go for a long time but cannot continue forever.
   ‘Administered energy price can benefit general public but the country’s taxpayers bear the burden of that accumulated loss,’ he added, repeating the global lender’s sensitivity to subsidy of any sort.
   Even before sending the fact-finding mission to finalise its next lending scheme for Bangladesh, the Washington-based lender in a letter to the finance ministry had inquired about the government’s plan to increase the prices of energy and fertilisers to help the state-owned agencies concerned reach the break-even point in the current fiscal year.
   The government has earmarked Tk 6,500 crore as subsidies for various sectors in the current fiscal year. The amount includes Tk 3,500 crore as agriculture subsidy mostly for fertiliser to help farmers reduce farming costs. The rest of the amount will go mostly to state oil monopoly, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, and Power Development Board.
   'Bangladesh's economy has held up remarkably well despite the global recession compared to other low-income countries,' the IMF mission chief said at the press conference, rounding off the trip.
   But he feared that Bangladesh's gross domestic product growth might fall to 5 per cent from existing 6 in the current fiscal year because of impacts of global downturn.
   The finance minister, however, did not agree. 'The IMF said the GDP growth in this fiscal would not be more than 5.5 per cent. But we think it should not be less than 6, if not more.'
   The IMF mission also forecast that inflation might increase further in next summer because of excess liquidity in market though the government has promised to exert all efforts to keep inflation in check.
   To forestall such a situation, the central bank needs to start issuing a sufficiently large amount of BB bills to withdraw money from the market, Masato suggested.
   Recently, the central bank reduced interest rate for treasury bills to 2.5 per cent from 6.5.
   Point-to-point inflation increased to 4.69 per cent in August, largely fuelled by price spirals of both food and non-food items in recent months.
   Official data showed the overall inflation rate increased to 3.46 per cent in July, the first month of the current fiscal year from 2.25 per cent in June.
   Before leaving Dhaka, the seven-member IMF mission also expressed its reservations about the pace of development activities.
   'The annual development programme implementation rate has been slow. Besides, the progress in public-private partnership has been very slow,' the mission chief said.
   Only four per cent of the ADP money was implemented in the first two months of the current fiscal year.
   The Tk 30,500 crore ADP undertaken in the current year is about 56 per cent higher than last year's real expenditure.
   The finance minister responded to the IMF's observations and explained the measures initiated or planned to rein in inflation and expedite implementation of development programmes and ensure quality public expenditure.
   The mission also found fault with recent appointments of directors to the boards of three state-owned commercial banks, saying that the appointments were not done fully in line with established regulations.
   'Standards were not maintained in appointing directors to three SCB boards,' he said.

Sakib al Hasan complemented a career best bowling performance of Abdur Razaak with a blistering century to propel Bangladesh to seven-wicket victory, levelling the five-match one-day series 1-1 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Thursday.
   Razzak had 5-29, his second five-wicket haul, to restrict Zimbabwe to 219 in 47.2 overs, but victory was still not assured until Sakib sparkled with his bat to score 105 off 69 balls, lifting the hosts to 221-3 in only 29.3 overs.
   Sakib shared 165 runs in the unbroken third wicket stand with Roqibul Hassan (39 not out), the third highest ODI partnership for Bangladesh.
   Habibul Bashar and Rajin Saleh share the record highest 175-run stand against Kenya, five runs more than the 170-run opening stand of Mehrab Hossain and Shahriar Hossain against Zimbabwe in 1999.
   All of them can now thank Zimbabwe for setting a modest target otherwise their names could have been easily erased from the record book given the way Sakib and Roqibul were batting.
   Junaed Siddique and Tamim Iqbal gave Bangladesh an explosive start scoring 44 runs in just 3.5 overs, but a lack of responsibility in them and one-down Mohammad Ashraful had reduced the hosts soon to 56 for three.
   From that point onwards, Sakib gave the Zimbabweans no chance to make any impact on the game and raced to his fifty in only 44 balls. His second half-century came off 24 balls which made him the 12th quickest centurion in ODI.
   He had also scored a century against Zimbabwe off 63 balls in the previous series, which still remains the quickest century for Bangladesh. When he faced the 62nd ball, the all-rounder was on 94, which means he could have equalled the record in this game also. On his way to the century, Sakib became the third Bangladeshi cricketer to amass 2000 runs in ODIs after Habibul Bashar and Mohammad Ashraful. He needed 83 runs to achieve the feat in the game.
   Sakib may have made the win very easy in the end, but it did not look that easy at all especially when Bangladesh were bowling. Naeem Islam broke a 59-run opening stand with a controversial lbw appeal against Masakadza and Mohammad Ashraful had Chibhabha removed in his first over to earn the second breakthrough for Bangladesh.
   The next over, bowled by Razzak, was the real turning point with Brendan Taylor and Charles Coventry being totally deceived by the sharp turn of his first and sixth balls to be bowled for 21 and 0 respectively which saw Zimbabwe slip from 96-1 to 96-4.
    Taibu was still there and had his share of luck having been dropped by Nazmul Hossain twice on 22 and 24, but Naeem ended his resistance dismissing him for 38. Still, Zimbabwe entered their last 10 overs with 184-5.
   Sakib was forced to take Dollar Mahmud off after the wayward pacer, who conceded 39 runs in his 4.5 overs, bowled the second beamer to Chigumbura, who later became the only victim of Sakib.
   Razzak mopped up the tail to complete his second five-wicket haul, a feat that no other Bangladeshi achieved more than once.

A Dhaka court on Thursday allowed the Criminal Investigation Department to take the former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar in its custody for five days for interrogation in the August 21, 2004 grenade attack cases.
   Dhaka additional chief metropolitan magistrate Ehsanul Huq passed the order in the evening as the Appellate Division earlier in the afternoon stayed for a week the High Court order that had asked the police to interrogate Babar at the jail gate in the cases.
   The chamber judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, Justice M Muzammel Hossain, also asked the government to file in seven days a regular petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court order.
   The court passed the order after hearing a provisional petition filed by the government.
   After the order of the Appellate Division, the attorney general, Mahbubey Alam, told New Age, 'The chamber judge stayed the High Court order as we argued the High Court should not interfere in any order remanding any accused.'
   Interrogating the accused taking them in custody is a legal process and the investigators are empowered to decide the place and mode of the interrogation, he said, adding no investigation in any criminal case would be possible if the High Court interferes in the process.
   The High Court bench of Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice Md Rais Uddin on Wednesday ordered the police to interrogate Babar, also a BNP leader, at the jail gate in the cases, if necessary.
   Following the High Court order, Dhaka additional chief metropolitan magistrate Ehsanul Huq Wednesday evening halted till November 1 the order he had issued earlier on the day remanding Babar in the police custody for five days for questioning.
   The court also ordered the police to send Babar to jail and to produce him again before it on November 1.
   The court passed the modified order after Babar's counsels informed it about the High Court order.
   Earlier on Monday, Babar was shown arrested in the cases filed in connection with the August 21, 2004 grenade attacks on an Awami League rally in Dhaka that had left 24 people killed and over 200 injured and maimed.

A defence counsel on Thursday prayed for commuting the death sentences of four convicts in the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case to life imprisonment considering that the appeals against their convictions had been pending with the Supreme Court since 1998.
   'The trial court had delivered the verdict in the case in 1998. But the appeals filed by four death row convicts against their convictions have not been disposed of in 13 years just because the judges felt embarrassed to hear the appeals,' said Abdullah Al Mamun, the counsel for condemned prisoners Bazlul Huda and AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed.
   Mamun referred to some judgments of the supreme courts of the United Kingdom, Trinidad and Jamaica commuting death sentences to life in prison due to delay in appeal hearings.
   'According to the verdicts, death row convicts suffer death pain in condemned cell and hence the authorities' duty is to execute the prisoners soon,' Mamun said. 'But the condemned prisoners in the [Mujib murder] case have been suffering death pain for 11 years.'
   The counsel told the court that the prisoners were suffering due to prolonged hearing. 'If any law fails to ensure rights of a citizen, the constitution will be the lone resort.'
   He said that a prolonged trial was tantamount to violation of prisoners' rights enshrined in article 35 (5) of the constitution that 'no person shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment.'
   The Appellate Division that started hearing in the appeals on October 5, asked Mamun to complete his argument in an hour when the court resumes on Sunday. Mamun first took 12 days appearing for Huda.
   The court had earlier heard arguments from the counsels for Syed Faruque Rahman, Mohiuddin of the artillery and Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan.
   Faruque's counsel also prayed for commuting his client's death sentence to life in prison as he had been in jail since 1996.
   Four convicts, who have been in jail since 1996, filed petitions against their convictions. Mohiuddin, who was deported from the United States on June 18, 2007, filed appeal later.
   Mamun, who was allowed to make submission for AKM Mohiuddin on Wednesday, did not pray for commuting his client's sentence as he was tried in absentia.
   He, however, sought Mohiuddin's acquittal saying that the prosecution witness had delivered contradictory deposition about his presence at the scene of the carnage on August 15, 1975.
   Mamun also claimed that the verdicts delivered by the three High Court judges, also made contradictory observations against the 12 death row convicts in the case.
   The law is always in favour of any accused due to benefit of doubt, Mamun argued.

The US president, Barack Obama, Wednesday signed a 680-billion-dollar military budget bill, saying his campaign to stamp out Pentagon waste proved political change was possible in Washington.
   A significant civil rights move was also attached to the legislation by Congress - a hate crimes bill which outlaws offences motivated by a person's race, gender, identity or sexual orientation.
   ‘I have always rejected the notion that we have to waste billions of dollars of taxpayer money to keep this nation secure,’ Obama said, before signing the defence authorisation act at the White House.
   ‘In fact, I think that wasting these dollars makes us less secure - and that's why we have passed a defence bill that eliminates some of the waste and inefficiency in our defence process.’
   But warning that the bill was not perfect, the president vowed to carry on fighting to cut waste in the defence budget, which is often packed with pet projects of lawmakers for their home states.
   The defence secretary, Robert Gates, a holdover from the previous administration, pledged to renew Obama’s effort to cut waste in the massive Pentagon budget in subsequent spending bills.
   ‘I would emphasise that this bill and this budget are just the beginning. The Pentagon is not the kind of place that can turn on a dime. It will take more than a single budget to get where we need to be.'
   The authorisation bill satisfied most of the funding requests made in the Pentagon's budget submission for the 2010 fiscal year that began on October 1. It reflected a compromise hammered out between the two houses of Congress.
   But lawmakers defied Obama's earlier veto threat and approved 560 million dollars to continue work on an alternative engine for the F-35 fighter jet built by General Electric and Rolls-Royce.
   The defence department said it was disappointed with the move as well as funding for additional C-17 transport planes but said that the overall budget was a triumph for reform efforts.
   'Gates and the president have ended up with basically 95 plus per cent of what they laid out on April the 6th,' in their budget request, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters.
   'That is extraordinary, that is historic,' he said, adding that Gates had been ready to recommend a veto of the bill if funding provisions for the second engine had threatened to disrupt the whole F-35 programme.
   The administration won a fight over the future of F-22 fighter aircraft, capping production at 187 of the jets, meaning only four more of the costly Boeing-Lockheed Martin-built planes will be built.
   Gates had pushed for the limit over vehement objections from air force leaders and some lawmakers.
   The authorisation act also cut a hi-tech vehicle in the Army's Future Combat Systems programme, an airborne laser, and a costly fleet of presidential helicopters held up as a symbol of defence budget excess.
   The US Navy charged Lockheed Martin to build a new fleet of 28 presidential helicopters in 2005. The project originally was meant to cost around six billion dollars but sky-rocketed up to 11.2 billion dollars.
   The legislation also raises military pay by 3.4 per cent and assigns 6.7 billion dollars for mine-resistant armoured vehicles known as MRAPs, which is 1.2 billion dollars more than the administration had proposed.
   Another 7.5 billion dollars was inked for training and equipping the Afghan police and army.
   The hate crimes legislation was named after Matthew Shepard, a student murdered 11 years ago in an attack in Wyoming.
   Conservatives opposed to the bill however argue that it would discriminate against priests who speak out against homosexuality for religious reasons, and warn Obama is pursuing a radical agenda.

At least 16 BNP activists and four journalists were injured in an attack allegedly by Awami League men in Savar municipality area Thursday during demonstrations against the latest case filed against Tarique Rahman.
   The injured BNP men include municipality mayor and president of the municipal unit of the BNP Alhaz M Rafatulllah, general secretary of Dhaka district Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal Rashedul Ahsan Rashed and general secretary of municipal JCD Asaduzzaman Titu.
   The injured journalists are NTV staff reporter Zahidur Rahman, RTV correspondent Ziaur Rahman, Baishakhi TV correspondent Abdul Halim and Daily Destiny correspondent Shahed Jewel.
   Witnesses said Dhaka district JCD organised a rally to protest against the latest case filed against BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia's elder son Tarique Rahman, in front of the BNP office at Khasrubagh in the afternoon.
   The rally was as part of countrywide demonstrations earlier announced by the student organisation of the opposition party in protest against the case.
   When a JCD procession led by Rashed was approaching the meeting venue at about 3:30pm, activists of the municipal Hawkers League, who brought out a procession to protest at the bomb attack on AL lawmaker Fazle Noor Taposh, launched an attack on the procession with sticks and lethal weapons in the bus-stand area.
   'Later, they attacked Rafatullah on the stage,' says a spot account of the incident.
   The ruling-party supporters also ransacked the stage and BNP office amid the rampage.
   Ten of the injured were admitted to Enam Medical College Hospital while the rest to local clinics.

China wants Bangladesh to resolve its disputes and disagreements with Myanmar on issues such as maritime boundary through peaceful negotiations, new Chinese ambassador Zhang Xianyi said in Dhaka Thursday.
   'It's quite natural having disputes and disagreements with neighbours. We hope you will solve your problems through bilateral negotiations at the negotiation table,' he said at meet-the-reporters programme at Dhaka Reporters Unity.
   He said his observation was that Bangladesh and Myanmar did have negotiations on the issues this year. 'I am confident that with good attitude from both the sides, all problems will be resolved.'
   The Chinese envoy replied to a volley of questions on current developments in regional and international arenas as well as bilateral political and economic cooperation between Dhaka and Beijing during an hour-long interaction.
   DRU president Shamim Ahmad was in the chair while general secretary Pathik Saha made introductory remarks. Political counsellor Wang Yu and political attaché Ge Mingdow of the Chinese embassy were also present at the programme.
   Asked if China will agree to mediate between Bangladesh and Myanmar on maritime boundary and border disputes, Xianyi said: 'We have not been approached by either side.'
   However, he hastened to add that Bangladesh foreign minister and the Myanmar ambassador to Bangladesh clearly stated that there was no tension and the situation was normal on the frontier.
   Asked whether China will stand beside Bangladesh if attacked politically or militarily, Xianyi smiled and said: 'I've deep impression that Bangladesh is a peace-loving nation and wants to make friendship with all countries for peace, cooperation and development. Bangladesh and its neighbours pursue the policy of peaceful co-existence.'
   The ambassador noted that war or attack was not a solution to any issue. China also believes the same. Solution to disputes and disagreements can only be found through peaceful means. This is a consensus of the international community.
   About reported China-India tension over border issue, Xianyi said some Indian media gave the wrong information which was not consistent with the facts. Development of friendly relations between Beijing and New Delhi is gaining momentum-and both the sides got common ground on different issues, including the boundary issue.
   Sooner or later, a fair solution will be found out to the acceptance of both sides.
   About the reported Chinese dam on the upstream of River Brahmaputra, the ambassador said this information again came from the Indian media and the spokesman for the Chinese government made it clear that the Indian media report was inconsistent with the fact.
   'We're very sincere. If it affects downstream country, we consult with the country concerned.'
   Asked about the widening imbalance of trade, which is in favour of China, Xianyi said the Chinese government did not like it to happen and 'we're trying to buy more products from Bangladesh to close the gap'.
   He said one of his major tasks here was to explore potential of trade. Every year purchasing team from China comes to Bangladesh to try to buy more products. 'We'll do our best to explore potential of trade to reduce the gap,' he told the reporters.
   The ambassador said China bought 10 per cent of total jute production. Besides, they buy jute products, leather goods and textiles from here. In 2008 the trade volume amounted to about $4.67 billion.
   China is now planning to implement several projects in Bangladesh, including the 7th Bangladesh-China Friendship Bridge, two rural primary schools and Bangladesh-China exhibition centre.
   About the low-quality Chinese products entering Bangladesh market, he said Chinese manufacturers produce different verities of same products according to the requirement of different markets, but there were no fake products.
   He said better-quality products usually went to Europe and American market. 'If you need high-quality products, you will get. It is your importers to choose right products.'
   Asked about the planned Chittagong-Myanmar-Kunming Highway, Xianyi said the project was still on the table and all the three countries-China, Bangladesh and Myanmar-were positive about the trans-border road link.
   About complaints against Chinese visa regime, the ambassador said if a person with genuine purpose applies for visa, he would get it. But a number of people overstay in China illegally.
   On the issue of climate change, he hoped that the upcoming Copenhagen Climate Conference would be able to yield results for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that causes global warming that changes climatic patterns.
   He said since developed countries were 80 per cent responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, they should come forward with actions for transferring development aid, technology and capacity-building supports to the developing countries to help them adapt to calamitous climate change.
   On the Dhaka-Beijing bilateral relations, the ambassador said, 'We're tested friends, tested by time…we are all-weather friends and we trust each other and we've cooperation in every field.'
   About prime minister Sheikh Hasina's bilateral visit to China, he said invitation from Beijing was standing for the prime minister and other ministers. The visit will take place at a mutually convenient time.

The security has been beefed up at the law ministry and for law minister Shafique Ahmed after a ministry official had received a threat through telephone on Wednesday.
   'An official at the law ministry received a phone call threatening with attack on the law ministry and also on the law minister,' said a ministry official.
   Additional police persons were deployed to ensure the minister's security.
   Meanwhile, National Board of Revenue officials filed two separate general diaries with Ramna police station on Thursday after two callers threatened to blow up its main office at Segun Bagicha and a nearby tax zone office, police said.
   The bomb threats later turned out to be hoaxes.
   A Ramna police officer told New Age that NBR deputy secretary Sirajul Islam filed a GD stating that an unidentified caller claimed that five remote controlled bombs were planted at the NBR headquarters and those would be detonated at 5:00pm.
   The threat was attributed to the government's 'preparations to hang' banned Harkatul Jihad (Huji) chief Mufti Abdul Hannan.
   Deputy commissioner of tax zone 8- Khandakar Aftab Zahan filed the other GD alleging that a caller claiming himself as Lt Col Rashid threatened to blow off the tax office at Bijoynagar around 3:25pm Thursday.
   Two teams of Ramna police rushed to spots immediately and searched for the bombs, but they did not find anything. Police said they were investigating to identify the callers in association with Rapid Action Battalion and Detective Branch.
   The bomb hoax panicked the tax people who were extremely busy working beyond office hours as submission of annual tax returns ends tomorrow. Tax offices will remain open on Saturday, usually a weekend for government offices.

Former adviser to the past caretaker government MA Matin faces another graft case as a parliamentary panel Thursday asked the shipping ministry to sue him for extending the age limit of marine pilots of Chittagong Seaport 'unlawfully'.
   The parliamentary standing committee on shipping ministry in its meeting Thursday took the decision on case filing and also asked the ministry to send the matter to the Anti-Corruption Commission for further investigation.
   Noor-e-Alam Chowdhury Liton, chairman of the standing committee, disclosed the decisions while briefing reporters at the Parliament Media Centre.
   Liton said there was no scope for raising the retirement-age limit of a public servant without having approval of parliament or the cabinet division. 'This is against the service rules 1974,' he said.
   But the ex-shipping adviser raised the age limit of marine pilots from 57 years to 60 by an executive order of his ministry without having approval from the parliament or the cabinet division, the lawmakers noted in recommending the punitive measure.
   Matin, a powerful functionary of the interim regime that had conducted a massive anti-graft operation, was earlier sued in another graft case.
   The parliamentary standing committee also suggested upgrading Chittagong Marine Academy to university and setting up more marine academies in different parts of the country.
   'This will raise more mariners in the country and they will earn foreign exchange for the country through their recruitment for foreign ships,' Liton said to justify the committee recommendation.
   He said the committee was thinking about taking initiative for modernising Chittagong Port.
   He said the ranking of the premier maritime port of the country is 98. 'We are thinking about upgrading the ranking.'

Bangladesh should assume moral leadership in the Copenhagen climate conference in December, visiting French deputy prime minister Jean-Louis Borloo told reporters on Thursday.
   The voice of Bangladesh can sway decisions as it would come from a country that grapples with all kinds of difficulties and hardships, he said after a lunch hosted by foreign minister Dipu Moni at the state guest house Padma.
   Borloo, who is also the minister for ecology, energy, sustainable development and land planning, arrived in Dhaka Thursday morning on a day-long tour to mobilize opinion for an indispensable agreement at the Copenhagen climate conference.
   The minister said he had conveyed a message from the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy to Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina whom he met earlier in the morning.
   Congratulating the present government on its victory in a free and fair election, Barloo, who is leading a 12-member French delegation, said, 'Bangladesh's democracy is a lesson for us.'
   Earlier, foreign minister Dipu Moni said the two sides had discussions on bilateral relationship.
   Other important issues like the climate change and the role of vulnerable countries like Bangladesh at the Copenhagen conference also came up for discussion, she added.
   The two sides also resolved to further strengthen the existing friendly relations between the two countries, said Dipu Moni.

Senior Awami League lawmakers on Thursday accused the opposition leader Khaleda Zia of being a party to the conspiracy behind the October 21 bomb attack on AL lawmaker Fazle Noor Taposh.
   They termed the attack a deep-rooted conspiracy against the country's independence, parliament and democracy. They also pointed out it had occurred at a time when the trial of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's killers was at the final leg and when the government had initiated moves to try war crimes and perpetrators of the grenade attack on Sheikh Hasina in 2004.
   The treasury benchers also asked the government to form a high-powered investigation committee to find out the conspirators who are beneficiaries of Sheikh Mujib's murder. The conspirators have got united and the attack on Taposh was aimed at destabilising the democratic process, they added.
   AL lawmaker Suranjit Sengupta, rising on a point of order, initiated the unscheduled discussion as soon as the deputy speaker, Shawkat Ali, concluded the regular question-answer session.
   Suranjit regretted that the home affairs ministry, despite having two ministers, had failed to come up with a statement on the attack on Taposh in more than a week, keeping his colleagues in the parliament and the countrymen in grave concern.
   He requested the deputy speaker to allow more lawmakers to take part in the discussion, but the latter opposed the idea of having an unscheduled 'debate' on the matter. But he was compelled to allow four senior lawmakers to speak because of the AL lawmakers' uproar.
   Suranjit called on the government to issue a statement on the attack to keep the nation abreast of the latest information.
   'This attack is not merely on Taposh. It is an attack on democracy, constitution, independence and parliament,' he said, blaming the forces who acted against the country's independence and their collaborators for the attack.
   'The government must be more cautious,' he said.
   He criticised the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance for issuing repeated anti-democratic statements and abstaining from the parliamentary proceedings.
   Suranjit, who is the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the law ministry, said the lawmakers must be united against the conspiracy.
   The deputy speaker said the parliament is united on the issue and if anyone wants further debate he or she must serve notices. But a number of lawmakers shouted at him, saying they wanted more discussion.
   Then he allowed Sheikh Selim to take the floor, who castigated Khaleda Zia for not condemning the attack on Taposh and accused her of being part of the conspiracy.
   'Why did not she issue a statement? She must be part of the conspiracy,' he fulminated, adding that the opposition party has been making underhand efforts to grab state power illegally by misleading the countrymen with false statements.
   He asked the government form a high-powered committee to investigate and find out the perpetrators of the attack as he believes it was aimed at destabilising democracy.
   Hasanul Haq Inu, a lawmaker belonging to the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, said the parliament has to discuss the issue to prove the lawmakers are united against the attack. This attack is a threat to democracy, he said, adding that democracy would continue to be threatened if the assailants are not controlled with an iron hand.
   He proposed the adoption of a censure motion in the parliament against the bomb attack.
   Amir Hossain Amu, a senior AL lawmaker, said the attack had targeted a particular family. The attempt on Taposh's life was continuation of the politics of assassination that began on August 15, 1975 by killing Mujib, he said.
   It is mandatory to try the killers of Mujib to ensure clean politics in Bangladesh, he said.
   The deputy leader of the house, Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, suggested that the speaker fix a date for general discussion after consulting the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina. The deputy speaker, however, proposed it should be held on Monday.

Two sisters were burnt with acid at Kamalapur in the Kushtia district headquarters early Thursday.
   The victims are Shila, 22, and her sister Shimul, 28. They are daughters of Idris Ali Choudhury, a resident of Kamalapur. Shila was burnt in the face and some parts of the body and Shimul in the throat.
   According to the girls' grandfather, Alauddin Khan, a freedom fighter, the wedding of Shila, a first-year student of Pangsha University College, was scheduled for Friday. She was going to be married to an expatriate living in Saudi Arabia.
   Miscreants poured acid on them when they were asleep by opening the window abut 4:00am Thursday.
   They were taken to Khoksha health complex where they received primary treatment. They were then sent to Dhaka under BRAC supervision abut 9:30am. They were being treated in a specialised treatment centre in Dhaka.
   Alauddin said someone Wednesday night warned Shila against getting married to the expatriate and proposed Shila to marry him.
   The victims' father filed a case with the Khoksa police under the Acid Crime Control Act accusing Miraj, Ayub, Monwar and Rezaul of burning the two sisters with acid.
   None of the accused was arrested till 7:30pm. The Khoksa police officer-in-charge, Belal Hossain Tarafdar, said they were trying to arrest the accused.

Power Development Board has received 63 bids for installation of eight rental power plants, which will supply 530MW of electricity next year.
   PDB chairman Alamgir Kabir told reporters Thursday that they were hoping to complete tender evaluation in a week while the board set a target to sign contracts with selected bidders by November 31.
   The selected bidders will install diesel-based plants on build-own-operate basis by March on a three-year contract for guaranteed sale to PDB. The furnace oil-based plants will be installed by August for five years.
   Both local companies and joint ventures are among the bidders for four diesel-run and four furnace-oil-based plants, whose electricity would be costlier than that from other traditional sources of PDB.
   Some of them are newcomers in power generation, officials said.
   The tenders were opened on Thursday, final day of submission, in presence of the bidders. PDB sold 117 sets of bid documents and 63 of them were submitted.
   For diesel-based plants, six companies and joint ventures submitted bids for Bheramara 100MW plant, eight for Katakhali 50MW, six for Thakurgaon 50MW and seven for Saidpur 50MW.
   PDB received 36 bids for furnace oil-based plants — 11 for Noapara 100MW, four for Madanganj 100MW, seven for Jamalpur 30MW and 14 for Barisal 50MW.
   The bidders include local companies like Asian Entech, Shasha Denim, Energy Prima, Summit Power, Confidence Cement, Barkatullah Electrodyna-mics Limited, Rahimafroz, Regent Textile, Shahjibazar Power Company, Navana, Powerteck and Sinha Fashion.
   Foreign companies such as Agreeko, NEPC, CAT rental power and Karkey Karakeniz Elektrik Uretin formed joint ventures and are bidding for more than one plant.
   As the PDB relaxed tender specification, a host of inexperienced companies, mainly involved in garment sector, made their way into the process.
   The board has formed two seven-member committees for tender evaluation. PDB member generation Mostafa Kamal will lead the committee that will evaluate tenders for diesel-run plants and member distribution Jamal Ullah will head the other committee for furnace oil-based plants.
   The government took the move to install rental power plants and purchase electricity from them at higher-than-average rates in a bid to bring emergency electricity although PDB’s record showed that no rental power company could install plant within agreed time.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has suggested that an international committee should be formed under the United Nations to tackle climate change.
   Hasina made the suggestion at a meeting on Thursday with the visiting French environment minister, Jean-Louis Borloo.
   The meeting focused on the UN climate conference in Copenhagen in December, as well as bilateral issues including trade relations between the two countries, said the prime minister’s press secretary Abul Kalam Azad.
   Hasina expressed the need for more international action and combined global efforts to combat climate change, said Azad.
   She also informed the French minister about Bangladesh’s 15-point action plan to face the impacts of global warming and rising sea levels.
   Borloo, the most senior member of the French cabinet after prime minister François Fillon, conveyed the greetings of president Nicholas Sarkozy.
   He also extended an invitation for Hasina to visit France before the Copenhagen conference.
   Foreign ministry officials say this is the first visit of a French minister in 10 years.
   They also say France wants Bangladesh, one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, to play an active role in the Copenhagen talks in December.
   The European Union and developing economies—China and India—are in dissent on reduction of greenhouse gases to combat global warming and climate change.
   EU countries such as Britain, France and Germany want Bangladesh’s strong support in the Copenhagen summit, aimed at negotiating binding carbon cut targets for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol that will expire in 2012.
   On the other hand, China, now the largest polluter, and India, another growing high carbon economy, have been refusing to pledge drastic cuts in emissions for growth of their industries.
   If industrialised and developing countries do not reach a consensus in December, the Copenhagen talks may fail to ensure global cuts in carbon emissions, resulting in a grave impact on the earth due to global warming, according to experts.
   Scientists say small island nations and low-lying countries such as Bangladesh may loose significant chunks of their landmass owing to sea level rises caused by melting polar caps.

The Taliban vowed Thursday to intensify their attacks in the build-up to Afghanistan’s presidential election next week as authorities tried to play down fears that the Islamists could wreck the poll.
   As the international community said a deadly Taliban attack on a UN hostel in Kabul would not disrupt the November 7 run-off, the Islamist militia said they had drawn up a battle plan designed to torpedo the process.
   Organisers of the election meanwhile said they had agreed to a demand from president Hamid Karzai’s challenger, ex-foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, for 20,000 of his observers to be accredited to help prevent vote-rigging.
   Wednesday’s attack on the Bekhtar guesthouse, carried out by three Taliban fighters who blew themselves up after a two-hour gunbattle, has raised the stakes for the international community ahead of the crucial poll.
   A Taliban spokesman dismissed claims in Kabul that the militants’ capability had diminished since a fraud-tainted first round in August, saying Afghan security services ‘are not effective against our operations and tactics.’
   ‘We’ll intensify our attacks in the coming days. We’ll disrupt the elections,’ Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
   ‘We have new plans and tactics for attacks to disrupt the elections.’
   Assaults and intimidation by the Taliban, who were toppled by US-led forces in 2001, were a major deterrent to voters in the first round of the election on August 20.
   Almost 200 violent incidents around the first vote were attributed to the Taliban, including rocket and grenade attacks on polling stations.

Police on Thursday decided to produce in court the persons arrested in connection with the bomb attack on Awami League lawmaker, Fazle Noor Taposh, to seek fresh remand for further interrogation of the suspects.
   According to police officials, they have questioned extensively the suspects, Kamrul Haque Swapan, Abdur Rahim, Mehnaz Rashid Khandaker, Sheikh Shafiullah Sofu, and two sons of condemned convict Mohiuddin – Nazmul Hassan Sohel and Mahbubul Hassan Imran – on remand in the custody of detective police over the past few days.
   The investigators continued questioning them separately since they were remanded in police custody on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday respectively.
   Deputy commissioner Monirul Islam of detective branch police, told New Age, ‘We have decided to seek fresh remand for the arrested and take them to the Joint Interrogation Cell to extract information about the attack.’
   An official in the interrogation team told New Age, ‘None of the arrested admitted till Thursday that they had links to the bomb attack so we have decided to remand them in our custody again.’
   ‘We will produce Mehnaz in court for fresh remand on Friday on completion of her first phase five-day remand,’ he added.
   Meanwhile, at a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity auditorium on Thursday, Salma Haque Rosy, wife of Kamrul Haque Swapan claimed that her husband was being tortured in custody to extract confession about his alleged link to the bomb attack on Taposh.
   Rosy said, ‘An independent and fair investigation into the incident will definitely find Swapan innocent.’
   She also said that Swapan and Taposh had been neighbours in the same apartment for the last seven years and had good relations.
   She alleged that police had arrested Swapan just because he was the brother of [retired major] Dalim, a condemned convict in the Mujib murder case.
   ’An innocent person cannot be punished for another’s guilt,’ she added.
   Rosy urged prime minister Sheikh Hasina to intervene in Swapan’s case ‘as he is a freedom fighter.’
   Swapan’s son, Zamiul Haq Zarif, and daughter Farah Haque Brishty were present.
   Taposh, a nephew of prime minister Sheikh Hasina, came under a bomb attack as he was leaving his Motijheel office by a car on the night of October 21. He escaped the attack unhurt but 12 others were injured by the blast.
   Taposh is involved with the legal team assisting the state counsels in the appeals proceedings in the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case. His parents Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni and Arzoo Moni were also murdered on August 15, 1975.
   Taposh said on Thursday that the attack was premeditated and aimed at disrupting the appeals proceedings in the Mujib murder case.
   He filed a case with Motijheel police station naming no one as suspect but alleging that the relatives and associates of the convicts of the August 15 killings were involved in the attack.
   The DB police received the case docket and documents Saturday and assistant commissioner Akbar Ali was made investigation officer of the case.
   A total of six people were arrested in connection with the bomb attack till Wednesday evening.
   The lawmen early Tuesday arrested Nazmul Hassan Sohel and Mahbubul Hassan Imran – two sons of death row convict, retired lieutenant colonel Mohiuddin Ahmed – in this connection.
   Earlier, police arrested Khandaker Mehnaz Rashid, the eldest daughter of retired lieutenant Khondker Abdur Rashid, a fugitive condemned convict in the case, for her suspected links to the bomb attack on Taposh.
   On Thursday, police held Kamrul Haque Swapan, younger brother of retired major Shariful Haq Dalim, and Freedom Party leader Abdur Rahim in this connection.

The High Court Thursday granted a regular bail to accused ex-officer-in-charge of Motijheel police station Rafiqul Islam in Momin murder case.
   A division bench comprising Justice Syed M Dastagir Husain and Justice M Rais Uddin delivered the judgement upon a petition filed by the accused.
   On September 13, 2005, Kamrul Islam Momin, a student of Mirpur Commerce College, was shot dead by unknown assailants in front of his house at Uttar Ibrahimpur in Kafrul reportedly over a land dispute with Rafiq, the then OC of Motijheel police station.
   A case was filed with Kafrul police station the following day against 26 people, including Rafiq, for the murder. OC Rafiq was named as the principal accused in the case.
   Meanwhile, the trial in the murder case began with the framing of charges against the ex-OC and eight others in the murder case.

Deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein planned to escape from his US-run prison in 2006 with the help of loyalists, including former bodyguards, according to a book written by one of his lawyers.
   ‘Saddam’s plan to escape prison was supposed to take place in the summer of 2006, with the backing of the Iraqi resistance and a special force of bodyguards,’ Khalil al-Dulaimi wrote in ‘Saddam Hussein Out of US Prison: What Happened.’
   ‘Under the plan, the Iraqi fighters were given orders to attack Baghdad’s Green Zone and the headquarters of the US Marines at the capital’s airport, before raiding his jail’ near the airport, according to a copy of the 480-page book obtained by AFP this week.
   ‘He planned to flee to Anbar province in western Iraq to make a quick plan to unify Iraqi resistance groups and carry out an offensive on Baghdad,’ Amman-based Dulaimi, himself an Iraqi, said in the book.
   Dulaimi said the plan was dropped ‘after a shooting incident outside (Saddam’s) detention centre, which led to fortifying the facility and boosting security measures.’
   Six months later, Saddam was dead. He was hanged in December after being convicted of crimes against humanity for the killing of 148 Shia civilians following an assassination attempt against him in 1982.
   Saddam had been captured by US troops in December 2003, eight months after the fall of Baghdad, in a hole on a farm near his hometown of Tikrit.
   The book, currently available only in Arabic, was published this year in Khartoum.
   The blurb says it reveals ‘secrets’ told to Dulaimi by Saddam about the fall of Baghdad, his arrest and imprisonment, and that it includes ‘500 letters, poems and other texts handwritten by the former president.’

Kazakhstan is willing to open its consulate office in Dhaka and expand trade and business with Bangladesh.
   Kazakhstan’s ambassador to Bangladesh Bakhitbek Shabarbayev expressed his government’s wishes when he paid a courtesy call on the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, at her office Thursday.
   Hasina assured the envoy of looking into the matter of opening consulate office of the Central Asian country in Dhaka.

The police arrested 3,002 more people on various charges in separate drives across the country in 24 hours till 6:00am Thursday.
   Twenty-eight firearms, eight grenades and 24 bullets were also recovered during the countrywide drive, said a release of police headquarters.