Power tariff for distribution agencies increases by 16pc
Agencies to propose price hike at
consumer level
The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday approved 16 per cent increase in power tariff for distribution agencies with effect from October 1 leading the agencies to contemplate price hike proposals at consumer level...
Hasina’s bail in
extortion case
rejected
The High court on Monday summarily rejected the petition filed by Awami League’s president and former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, seeking bail in the Tk 5 crore extortion case filed by businessman Noor Ali...
BARAPUKURIA COALMINE GRAFT CASE
ACC to press charges against Khaleda
Anti-Corruption Commission has decided in principle to press charges against BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia along with ten of her former cabinet colleagues and five others in the Barapukuria coalmine corruption case....
Eid tomorrow if moon sighted today
Eid-ul-Fitr, one of the two major religious festivals of the Muslims, will be celebrated all over Bangladesh on Wednesday if the Shawal moon is sighted today. If it is not, Eid will be celebrated on Thursday, ending 30 days of Ramadan fasting..
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Tuesday Bangladesh News 2
Power tariff for distribution
agencies increases by 16pc
Agencies to propose price hike at consumer level
Staff Correspondent
The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday approved 16 per cent increase in power tariff for distribution agencies with effect from October 1 leading the agencies to contemplate price hike proposals at consumer level.
The commission chairman, Ghulam Rahman, said the average tariff for the agencies, which purchase electricity from the Power Development Board to supply to the consumers, had been increased from Tk 2.04 per kilowatt-hour to Tk 2.37.
Officials at agencies like the Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited and the Dhaka Electricity Supply Company told New Age that they had already started calculating how much price should be increased at consumer level once the new tariff came into effect.
‘We are now calculating how much cost will be increased if we purchase electricity at 16 per cent higher rate. Once PDB formally informs us of the power price hike, we will apply to the commission for increasing price at consumer level after taking the Power Division’s approval,’ DPDC managing director Ataul Masud told New Age.
DESCO managing director Saleh Ahmed said they would submit an application to the commission for increasing power tariff within one week after they were formally asked to pay higher tariff for electricity.
Special assistant to the chief adviser for power and energy and mineral resources ministry M Tamim, who earlier said that the interim government would not increase power price, told New Age on Monday, ‘The government hasn’t decided yet whether the PDB would be allowed to increase tariff from October 1.’
‘The PDB has got the Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval to increase power tariff, but as a government entity, it [PDB] has to come to the ministry to enforce the decision,’ he added.
He continued: ‘We earlier decided in principle not to allow the PDB to increase power price. We have not backtracked from our position yet. The BERC has completed its job of approving new rate. The government will discuss the issue further.’
Sources in the power and energy ministry said the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, earlier directed the Power Division not to increase power price. ‘The division will discuss the BERC approval with the chief adviser to take a decision on the issue,’ he said.
BERC chairman told New Age that once the PDB had increased bulk power tariff, five agencies, including PDB might come up with separate proposals of tariff hike for consumers.
‘We have directed the agencies to absorb the shock of tariff hike by reducing system loss and making less profit. Even after that they want to come to us with price hike proposals at consumer level,’ he added saying ‘They [agencies] can submit applications, but we will not allow them to make windfall profit.’
Ghulam, however, said the decision on power tariff hike at consumer level could not be taken before January as they would go for public hearing if the agencies submitted applications for price hike.
Justifying the decision to increase power tariff by 16 per cent for agencies, he said the decision was taken considering the cost of generation of electricity. ‘If PDB is not given just and reasonable cost of power it produces, it will not be able to continue power supply to consumers. We have taken the decision considering the public interest.’
The Power Development Board earlier submitted application to the commission to increase power tariff at distribution agency-level by 33.20–48.70 per cent and at consumer level by 31.10–69.30 per cent.
The commission on July 3 rejected the proposal for tariff-hike at consumer level and decided the commission would first decided on tariff increase at agency level and posted for August 20 a public hearing, where different stakeholders gave opinions against and in favour of price hike.
The commission chairman and its commissioners expressed dissatisfaction over the PDB’s performance and nagging load shedding at different stages of the hearing.
The commission in its order asked PDB to start ‘service quality programme’ immediately to provide better service to consumers and submit a report by January 2009.
It also asked the PDB to submit monthly report on the reliability of the power generation units and number of outages — be they forced or scheduled.
The commission ordered the PDB to submit a five-year plan to improve power generation with demand forecast by February 1, 2009. The strategy plan will be different than the Power Sector Master Plan.
It also asked the PDB to formulate an action plan to realise regular as well as recover outstanding bills.
Commission members Imdadul Haque, Salahud Deen Ahmed, Mokhlesur Rahman Khondoker and Md Khulilur Rahman read out the order at the commission office in Dhaka.
Hasina’s bail in extortion
case rejected
Staff Correspondent
The High court on Monday summarily rejected the petition filed by Awami League’s president and former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, seeking bail in the Tk 5 crore extortion case filed by businessman Noor Ali.
The High Court vacation bench of Justice Sheikh Rezwan Ali and Justice M Rais Uddin pronounced the 90-minute verdict, putting in limbo the release of Hasina on bail.
Hasina’s counsel Rafique-ul Huq told reporters that he would appeal against the High Court’s verdict to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. The process of appeal, however, will not begin until the Supreme Court’s vacation ends on October 12, and the procedure of appeal disposal is usually a time-consuming matter.
Hasina, one of the top politicians was arrested last year amid a crackdown on the politicians after the proclamation of the state of emergency on January 11, 2007. Another former premier, Khaleda Zia, also the BNP chairperson and Hasina’s bitterest rival, has been set free on bail in all the graft cases filed against her during the purge.
In the ruling, the High Court observed that there was no urgency in granting bail to Hasina as the bail was sought on medical grounds and she was freed by an executive order for medical treatment abroad.
As she has already been allowed to go to the United States for treatment, there is no need of immediate bail for her, the court observed.
‘Sheikh Hasina’s appearance in the court is imperative for seeking bail on medical grounds,’ said the court, observing that she could not get bail in absentia.
Although bail was sought on medical grounds, Hasina’s counsel also argued that she should be granted bail in order to ensure participation of all political parties in the upcoming national elections, scheduled for December 18. The government should ensure a level playing field for all by giving her bail, he asserted.
Dismissing the argument, the court said that ‘a political view’ could not be considered for granting bail to any accused person.
Apparently disappointed, Fazle Noor Tapas told reporters that they would move to the chamber judge of the Supreme Court for provisional petition, seeking permission to appeal against the High Court’s ruling.
During the current annual vacation of the Supreme Court that will last until October 12, the chamber court will sit for only one day on October 6. As such, the appeal process and disposal may take a long time.
The Unique Group’s managing director, Noor Ali, lodged a case with the Tejgaon police station on June 13, 2007, accusing Hasina, her cousin Sheikh Helal and his wife Rupa Chowdhury of extorting Tk 5 crore from him.
The three were accused of taking Tk 5 crore for helping Ali’s firm to win a contract from the Power Development Board in 1997.
The army-led joint forces arrested Hasina at Sudha Sadan, her residence, on July 16, 2007, and sent her to jail the same day, showing her arrested in a Tk 2.99 crore ‘extortion’ case filed by businessman Azam J Chowdhury with the Gulshan police station on June 13, 2007.
She was later shown arrested in the extortion case filed by Noor Ali.
The High Court vacation bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Mamnoon Rahman on September 16 granted bail to Hasina in the Azam case, now under trial at a Special Judge’s Court set up in the Jatiya Sangsad complex. The court also stayed, till October 19, the proceedings of the case.
Hasina’s two other bail petitions for the Niko and barge-mounted power-plant graft cases were filed on Monday with a High Court bench of Justice M Anwarul Haque and Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury.
The petitions may come up on the list of the cases to be heard by the bench today.
On September 23 another High Court bench of Justice AKM Fazlur Rahman and Justice Sheikh Abdul Awal accepted the petitions for hearing, but returned them as the bench has no jurisdiction to hear them.
BARAPUKURIA COALMINE GRAFT CASE
ACC to press charges against Khaleda
Staff Correspondent
Anti-Corruption Commission has decided in principle to press charges against BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia along with ten of her former cabinet colleagues and five others in the Barapukuria coalmine corruption case.
The commission’s spokesman and director general (admin), Hanif Iqbal, disclosed this at a press briefing on Monday.
He also said that the investigation report in the Zia Orphanage Trust fund embezzlement case, filed against former prime minister Khaleda Zia and six others including her eldest son Tarique Rahman, was submitted to the commission on September 10.
ACC sources said the investigation report recommended pressing charges against Khaleda, Tarique and five others in the case.
Khaleda was released from jail on September 11 after the High Court granted her bail in all four cases including the Barapukuria coalmine corruption case.
A High Court bench on August 28 granted Khaleda interim bail for four months in the Barapukuria case, filed by ACC on February 26, accusing sixteen persons of embezzling Tk 158.71 crore from the bidding process.
ACC’s fresh investigation report recommended pressing charges against Khaleda, her former cabinet colleagues M Saifur Rahman, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, Matiur Rahman Nizami, M Shamsul Islam, MK Anwar, Aminul Haque, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and AKM Mosharraf Hossain, commission sources said.
It also recommended pressing charges against former energy secretary Nazrul Islam, Petrobangla’s former chairman SR Osmani and former director Moinul Ahsan, former managing director of the Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Sirajul Islam, and chairman of Hosaf Group Moazzem Hossain.
After finding the first investigation unsatisfactory, ACC ordered second investigation into the case in June, which found reasons for pressing charges against Khaleda and others for irregularities in the bidding process that also caused a loss of Tk 493.79 crore to the exchequer, officials said.
Hanif said that the commission decided to sue 24 persons, including seven engineers of Chittagong Development Authority and 17 contractors, for alleged corruption in constructing the road connecting Chittagong Oxygen junction with Kaptai Road.
The persons would face charges of misappropriating Tk 79.34 lakh of the contract value of about Tk 2 crore.
They include superintendent engineer Iqbal Hossain Majumder, executive engineer Kazi Hasan Shams, assistant engineers Nurul Amin Bhuiyan and Mohammad Ilyas and sub-assistant engineers Syed Golam Sarwar, Jahangir Alam and Hamidul Haque and contractors Abul Kalam M Shamsuzzaman, Khandaker Jasim Uddin, Ishaq Chowdhury, Saleh Zahur, Mohammad Ismail, Shamsul Alam, Jahirul Haque, Mohammad Aman, Yakub Chowdhury, Saifullah Chowdhury, Manjur Ahmed, Nurul Islam, Mohammad Ali Akbar, Iqbal Hossain, Noor Mohammad, Khandaker Jasim Uddin and Abul Kalam Azad.
Hainf said the ACC approved submission of charge sheets in two graft cases, including one against former lawmaker Mahmudul Haque Rubel.
Rubel will face charges of embezzling corrugated iron sheets meant for relief while Abul Kalam Azad, a security guard of Zia International Airport, will be charge-sheeted for amassing illegal wealth worth Tk 1.6 crore, the ACC director general said.
The commission on Monday forwarded the names of 11 government employees to the Truth and Accountability Commission for considering their clemency applications. With these 11, the ACC has so far sent 90 applications to the truth commission.
Responding to a question, the ACC executive said the application of a politician, the first to apply for truth commission clemency, was yet to be sent.
Eid tomorrow if moon sighted today
Staff Correspondent
Eid-ul-Fitr, one of the two major religious festivals of the Muslims, will be celebrated all over Bangladesh on Wednesday if the Shawal moon is sighted today.
If it is not, Eid will be celebrated on Thursday, ending 30 days of Ramadan fasting.
The National Moon-Sighting Committee will meet this evening to verify whether the moon has been sighted anywhere in Bangladesh.
President Iajuddin Ahmed and Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed will issue separate greetings to the people on this auspicious occasion, and offer felicitations to the heads of state and governments of the Muslim nations.
They will exchange Eid greetings with the people from all walks of life at Bangabhaban and the Chief Adviser’s Bhaban on Eid day.
BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and secretary-general Khandakar Delwar Hossain, in separate messages, have conveyed Eid greetings to the people.
Khaleda called on the affluent people to help their poor neighbours so that they can celebrate Eid properly. ‘It is very difficult for the poor people to celebrate Eid due to the soaring price-hikes.’
She will exchange Eid greetings with the people from all walks of life at the Dhaka Ladies Club on Eskaton Garden Road on Eid day.
The main Eid congregation in Dhaka will be held at the National Eidgah at 8:30am, or at Baitul Mukarram in case of inclement weather. There will be separate arrangements for women.
The first Eid congregation at the Baitul Mokarram mosque will be held at 7:30am, the second one at 8:30am, the third one at 9:30am, the fourth one at 10:30am and the fifth one at 11:15am.
The first Eid congregation at the central mosque of the Dhaka University will be held at 8:00am and the second one at 9:00am. Congregations will be held at Salimullah Hall and at Shahidullah Hall at 8:00am.
The first Eid congregation at the Bab-e-Rahmat in Arambagh will be held at 8:00am, the second one at 9:30am and the third one at 10:00am.
Other major Eid congregations in Dhaka will be in the Gendaria Dhupkhola East End Club’s field at 7:45am, Kalabagan Bashiruddin Road Jame Masjid at 8:30am and Azimpur Dayera Sharif at 10:00am.
In Rajshahi city, the main Eid congregation will be held at the Central Eidgah field at 9.00am. In case of inclement weather, the congregation will be shifted to the Shah Makhdum (R) Mosque at the same time. Congregations will also be held Shaheb Bazar at 9.00am and 10.00am, at Sagorpara at 9.30am and at Tikapara Eidgah field at 9.30am.
In Barisal, the main Eid jamaat will be held at Hemayet Uddin Central Eidgah Maidan at 9.00am, at Baitul Mokarram at 9.00am, at Jame Kashai mosque at 10.00am, at Eabaidullah mosque at 8.30am and 10.00 am. Eid congregations will also be held at Amanatganj Power House, Tablig Jamat Markaj, Kawnia Akon Mosque and BM College mosque at 8.30am, and at Gorasthan road, Anjumane Hemaete Islam, BM School, Sadhur Battala Ground, Mahmudia Madrassah, A Kader Chowdhury School Ground, Natun Bazar, Battala, Fakir Bari mosque and Jail Khana mosque at 9.00am.
In Bogra, the main Eid congregation will be held at Sutrapur Central Eidgah Maidan at 9:00am.
The BSS adds: Over 200 Eid congregations will be held at the traditional and temporary venues in Chittagong. The main congregations will be held at 8.30am and 9.15am at Jamiatul Falah Mosque, and one jamaat at MA Aziz Stadium at 9am.
The other main Eid jamaats, to be organized under the auspices of the CCEJC, are Andarkillah Shahi Jame Mosque, Laldighi Maidan, Parade Ground, Polo Ground Maidan, Shah Amanat Shah Dargah Maidan, Port Colony Jame Mosque, Metropolitan Police Lines Maidan, Agrabad Jamboree Field and Bayzeed Bostami Dargah Maidan between 8.30am and 9.30am.
The UNB adds: As announced by the government, the national flag will be hoisted atop public and private buildings on Eid day.
Besides, the main thoroughfares from Dhaka Gate in Banani to Bangabhaban, and the road islands, will be decorated with national flags and banners inscribed with ‘Eid Mubarak’ in Bengali and Arabic. Public buildings will be illuminated on the Eid night on a limited scale.
The Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar will air special programmes and the newspapers will publish special supplements on Eid-ul-Fitr.
Improved diet will be served in different hospitals, jails, government children homes, vagrant welfare centres and homes for the distressed.
Films will be screened and cultural programmes arranged in different parts of the city, and a children’s reunion will also be held at the Shishu Academy after Eid-ul-Fitr.
The Shishu Park will remain open to the poor children on the day. Cultural functions, friendly football matches and Eid gatherings of children will also be arranged across the country.
Divisional commissioners, deputy commissioners, thana nirbahi officers and officials of the local government bodies will organise programmes in their areas.
Half of RMG workers to have
Eid without bonus
Kazi Azizul Islam
At least a half of the country’s garment workers are set to spend Eid-ul-Fitr without festival allowance while some of their fellows have been lucky enough to get meagre amounts as law does not oblige employers to pay festival bonus, says a rights group.
Labour leaders and rights activists said it was very inhuman that workers, who ensured 76 per cent of the country’s export earnings, would not get allowances to celebrate the nation’s biggest festival.
‘Our rough survey shows that workers in at least 50 per cent of the garment factories have not received any bonus or festival allowances,’ Jago Bangladesh Garment Workers’ Federation president Bahrane Sultan Bahar told New Age on Monday.
Sultan said many garment factory owners cleverly paid half month’s salary of workers as a pre-eid payment to keep workers calm amid a wave of uproars and angry outbursts of workers in the apparel industry.
‘Such payments will rather put low-paid garment workers into trouble after eid as only a half of their wage will be left for the whole next month,’ he said.
Nayan Mia, an activist of Awaz Foundation, a garment workers’ forum that surveyed factories in Chairman Bari and Airport Road areas in the city told New Age that out of 26 factories, only two — Madona Fashion and Jessie Fusion— paid bonus equivalent to one month’s basic wage to workers. Some of the rest employers paid a lump sum amount to workers as festival allowances while others forgot about eid bonus, Nayan said.
The forum’s coordinator Nazma Akter said some employers paid a nominal amount between Tk 200 and Tk 500 as eid bonus per worker.
‘It is very sad that the poor workers are deprived of a festival bonus even after hard work round the year, helping their employers earn millions of dollar in export revenues,’ said Nazma who represented workers in the tripartite committee that revised garment industry wages in 2006.
President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association Anwarul Alam Chowdhury admitted that many garment factories might have not been able to pay festival bonus.
‘The garment owners who cannot make average profits throughout the year struggle to pay workers their regular wages, and extra payment becomes quite difficult for them,’ argued Parvez. ‘Moreover, laws don’t oblige employers to pay festival bonus.’
The BGMEA leader appreciated entrepreneurs who offered festival allowances to their workers. ‘It is a good practice.’
Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies executive director Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed said if the employers were honest and truly sympathetic to workers, they could offer allowances.
‘Employers are legally bound to share profits (with their workers), they must ensure festival holidays with allowances and offer annual incentives on performances of workers,’ Sultan cited.
The labour rights activist suggested that the government should force the employers to pay bonus during festivals and ask authorities to stop providing incentives to the garment factories which do not pay special allowance to their workers.
Govt to strengthen law against
sale of tainted baby food
Staff Correspondent
The interim administration has initiated a move to tighten the laws against the marketing and sale of any baby food products and substitutes of breast milk, raising the period of imprisonment from two to five years for any offence, following the marketing of Chinese companies’ melamine-contaminated powdered milk here.
‘The draft amendment to the Breast Milk Substitutes (Regulations of Marketing) Ordinance 1984 has proposed increase in the jail term from two years to five for repeating an offence, with a fine of Tk 1,00,000,’ the health and food adviser, AMM Shawkat Ali, told a press briefing at the secretariat on Monday.
The draft amendment to the law proposed by the Institute of Public Health and Nutrition will be sent to the law ministry within a day or two for vetting before it is submitted to the council of advisers for approval, the adviser mentioned. The government has taken the move after media reports early this month that some Chinese companies were producing melamine-mixed powered milk, consumption of which has caused the illness of more than 50,000 babies in China and the death of a few.
Shawkat admitted that some companies or agents had, without registration, imported baby milk products mixed with poisonous melamine and marketed them throughout the country.
He named five companies that have not yet received registration but are selling baby food products in the local market — Mow Enterprise, Chittagong (Sweet Baby-2); M/S Allway Trading Ltd, Dhaka (Yashili-1, Yashili-2); Renown Associates Ltd, Dhaka (Premiavita Formula-1, Premiavita Formula-2); Jes International, Dhaka (Baby Care-3, Baby Care MF); and Maisha Health Care, Dhaka (Fabi Milk-1, Fabi Milk-2).
When he was asked why action was not being taken against those unregistered companies and the government officials who allowed the marketing of the questionable food items, the health adviser, also a former secretary, said he has asked the commerce secretary to immediately form a taskforce or an inter-agency committee to identify the importers, sellers and others involved and bring them to justice. ‘The taskforce will also determine the next course of action against the marketing of the food items injurious to babies’ health.’
He said that three brands of injurious milk products have been so far identified and they were being seized after mobile courts began operating.
‘The deputy commissioners of all districts have already been instructed to take steps against marketing of baby milk products by unregistered companies to check any heath hazards,’ said the adviser.
Shawkat said he had talked to doctors at different hospitals but had not received any reports of children’s illness caused by melamine-mixed food items.
He said that the concerned authorities would continue to closely monitor the market and take measures for testing milk products in the shortest possible time.
Cadbury orders recall as fallout from China milk crisis continues
Agence Frnace-Presse . Beijing
British sweet maker Cadbury said Monday it ordered a recall of China-made chocolates over safety fears in the latest fallout from the ever-widening scandal over tainted Chinese dairy products.
The company issued the recalls in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia after internal tests ‘cast doubt’ on the safety of chocolates made in the company’s Beijing plant, it said in a statement.
‘As a result of these tests... we have received results that cast doubt on the integrity of a range of our products manufactured in China,’ said the statement from Cadbury Asia Pacific.
It was not clear if the tests had shown the products contained traces of melamine, the industrial chemical blamed for sickening 53,000 Chinese children and killing at least four.
AFP could not reached company officials in Beijing or at its Asian headquarters in Singapore.
The products are the latest in a list, expanding by the day, of China-made foods and drinks that have been removed from stores around the world since the scandal was first exposed earlier this month.
More than a dozen Asian and African countries, plus the 27-member European Union, have taken steps to ban or otherwise limit consumption of Chinese milk-product imports.
Laos and Mali on Monday became the latest to order such measures.
The crisis is among the most serious in a litany of product-safety scandals emerging from China’s chaotic and corrupt manufacturing industries in recent years.
Besides the toll in mainland China, five children in Hong Kong, one in Macau, and four people in Taiwan have reportedly developed kidney stones after drinking tainted Chinese products.
The Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, vowed over the weekend to work to restore his country’s reputation, saying it was facing the problem ‘candidly’.
However, a Chinese human rights group said Monday the government was suppressing media coverage vital to assigning blame and preventing a recurrence.
‘China has tightened its grip on media freedom to contain rising nationwide outrage at tainted milk products,’ China Human Rights Defenders, a network of domestic and foreign human rights activists, said in an emailed report.
It cited several instances of reporting by Chinese media censored or banned by authorities. AFP could not immediately verify the allegations.
Normally used in making plastics and fertiliser, melamine is believed to have been added to milk to give it the appearance of higher protein content.
The rights group said the central government had ordered all Chinese media to toe the official line on the issue, thereby preventing exposure of ‘deep-seated problems in the system.’
Xinhua reported last week that officials at Sanlu Group, the dairy firm at the centre of the scandal, knew as far back as December that babies were falling ill but did not report the problem to local authorities until August.
The report, citing a Cabinet investigation, said those local officials then waited one month to pass the concerns onto higher authorities.
Police in northern China have detained 22 people in raids on a ring that made and sold the industrial chemical melamine and added it to milk, Xinhua said.
Nineteen of those detained in Hebei province were managers of ‘pastures, breeding farms and milk purchasing stations,’ the news agency reported.
The detentions came after more than 800 police raided 41 ‘pastures, breeding farms, and milk purchasing stations’ in and around the city of Shijiazhuang.
Shijiazhuang is the headquarters of Sanlu.
Politicians head home to
celebrate Eid, Puja
Staff Correspondent
With the elections to the ninth parliament barely 11 weeks away, most of the politicians have gone to their respective constituencies to seize upon the Eid- ul-Fitr and Durga Puja festivities as an opportunity for electioneering in the guise of socialising with the electorates.
Though the mid-level leaders, especially those who aspire to contest the polls on tickets of different political parties, have headed home to celebrate the festivals in their respective constituencies, many top leaders of the parties, including the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, will be staying in Dhaka during the celebrations. Khaleda will exchange Eid greetings with people from all walks of life at the Eskaton Ladies’ Club at 11:00am on the Eid day.
The party secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, is expected to visit his ancestral home in Manikganj after saying Eid prayers in Dhaka.
Party standing committee members M Saifur Rahman and RA Gani will celebrate Eid in Dhaka, Chowdhury Tanvir Ahmed Siddiqui in Gazipur, Khandakar Mahbubuddin Ahmed will stay in Dhaka and M Shamsul Islam will be in Munshiganj while Mahbubur Rahman has already gone to Dinajpur.
Among other senior leaders of the party, ASM Hannan Shah will celebrate the Eid in Gazipur, vice-chairman MK Anwar will be in Comilla, joint secretary general Nazrul Islam Khan in Sherpur, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and Abdullah al Noman will be in Chittagong. Office secretary Rizvi Ahmed will celebrate Eid in Rajshahi.
The Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina will celebrate the Eid with her son and daughter in Virginia, US. The acting party president, Zillur Rahman, will celebrate the festival in Dhaka while general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam will be in Kishoreganj and attend the grand Eid congregation at Sholakia.
Party presidium member Tofail Ahmed is already in Bhola while Amir Hossain Amu will celebrate the Eid in Dhaka. Suranjit Sengupta has already gone to Sunamganj to celebrate the Eid and the Puja.
Jatiya Party chairman Hussein Muhammad Ershad, Bikalpadhara Bangladesh president AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury and Communist Party of Bangladesh president Manjurul Ahsan Khan will celebrate the Eid in Dhaka. Liberal Democratic Party president Oli Ahmed and Jatiya Samajtanrik Dal president Hasanul Huq Inu will stay in Dhaka.
Jamaat-e-Islami amir Matiur Rahman Nizami will be in Dhaka while his secretary general Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid will be in Faridpur.
Among the former lawmakers of BNP, Mohammad Shahjahan has left for Noakhali, Moazzem Hossain Alal for Barisal, Ilias Ali for Sylhet, Abdul Momin Talukder for Bogra and Shah Nurul Kabir Shaheen for Kishoreganj; Awami League leader Asaduzzaman Noor has gone to Nilphamari, Faruq Khan to Gopalganj, Abdul Mannan to Bogra, Abdur Rahman to Faridpur and Sultan Muhammed Mansur to Sylhet to celebrate Eid.
People in rush to reach
destinations outside
capital
Govt offices remain open today
Staff Correspondent
Bus, train and ferry terminals continued to be full on Monday with homebound people leaving the capital for enjoying Eid-ul-fitr with near and dear ones.
Although the three-day public holiday for the Eid begins Wednesday, the people started leaving the city Thursday night as Sunday was also a government holiday on the occasion of Lailatul Qadr.
The government offices, however, will remain open on Tuesday, an official says.
The government appeared undecided as offices closed on Monday afternoon about whether Tuesday should be a working day prior to the Eid-ul-Fitr.
The city’s inter-district bus stands, Kamalapur rail station and Sadarghat launch terminal got packed as thousands of people were streaming to the stations for their home-bound journeys since morning.
Hundreds of passengers were waiting at the Gabtoli inter-city bus terminal amid uncertainty as they could not manage any tickets. Many of those who got tickets alleged that they were waiting for hours for the buses.
Bus owners were charging extra money for Eid tickets, a number of passengers complained while talking to reporters. But transport employees issuing tickets rejected the complaints saying that they used to charge below the government approved rate earlier. ‘As all buses will have to return empty, we cannot reduce the fare during Eid,’ said an employee.
Many passengers were seen in a tussle to occupy seats in launches at Sadarghat from where launches ply 41 river routes of the country.
Situation at the launch and train stations were comparatively better as homebound passengers have got much time ahead of Eid this year, officials concerned said.
But travelers complained that it was not possible to board the crowded launches even with a ticket by afternoon or evening as overloading was strictly prohibited this year.
The whole of Sadarghat terminal has been brought under a security cordon. Ten to twelve policemen were seen keeping guard at each of eight entry gates.
Kamalapur rail station was teeming with people waiting for the 22 inter-city trains, station master Jitendra Saha said.
Four special Eid trains will be in operation on Tuesday, while the 12 daily mail trains are operating as usual, he said.
RAB personnel were deployed to boost station security for the holiday crowd.
Station manager Rezaul Haq said rail passengers were served better this year than before.
HC puts constituency dispute
hearing on backburner
Staff Correspondent
A High Court bench on Monday ordered the final hearing on the writ petition challenging the delimitation of parliamentary constituencies out of the list of the cases to be heard by the bench.
The order, passed by the High Court vacation bench of Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana and Justice M Rezaul Haque, put the final hearing on the writ petition on the backburner apparently causing a setback to the Election Commission’s move for expeditious disposal of the case to have the way cleared for announcing the schedule for the national elections to be held on December 18.
The court passed the order after the petitioner’s counsel sought time for the hearing.
As the matter came up for hearing on Monday, the Election Commission’s counsel, Mahmudul Islam, told the court that the case ‘should be disposed of urgently’ as the commission could not announce the polls schedule amidst the legal tangles.
On September 20, chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed declared December 18 as the polling day for the much-awaited ninth parliamentary elections, stalled after the proclamation of the state of emergency on January 11, 2007.
On August 7, the High Court, after hearing a writ petition filed by former BNP lawmaker Abdul Mannan, also a former state minister, stayed for three months the gazette notification of the EC redrawing the parliamentary constituencies.
The stay lasts through the first week of November, while the writ hearing will have to be processed in another High Court bench after the Supreme Court reopens on October 12.
The High Court bench of Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Mashuque Hossain Ahmed, while ordering the stay, had also issued a rule on the government and the commission to explain why the July 10 gazette notification should not be declared unconstitutional and void.
Former attorney general Mahmudul Islam and Shahdeen Malik appeared for the commission while Zainul Abedin and Nasir Uddin Ashim for the writ petitioner.
Gen Moeen for next elected govt to decide on trial of war criminals
United News of Bangladesh . Dhaka
The army chief, General Moeen U Ahmed, Monday expressed the hope that the next elected government would make decision on trial of war criminals.
‘Thirty-seven years have gone by…but no government did take any initiative to try the war criminals,’ he told reporters when asked about freedom fighters’ demand for the trial.
‘I’m sure that an elected government, when comes to power through a free and fair election, will look into the matter,’ General Moeen said after exchanging Eid greetings with the freedom fighters at the War-Injured Freedom Fighters Rehabilitation Centre in the city’s Mohammadpur area.
The chief of army staff distributed essential commodities among the members of their families as Eid gift.
Farid Miah, on behalf of the war-injured freedom fighters, placed a 3-point demand with General Moeen. The demands are introduction of food rationing, permanent rehabilitation, and regular allowances for them.
General Moeen gave a patient hearing to them and assured them of all-out cooperation in resolving their problems.
Earlier, the army chief hosted a reception at the Army Headquarters Banquet
Hall in honour of 40 faculty members of various universities who will leave for Jeddah on invitation to visit King Khalid University, Nazran University and Jizan University in Saudi Arabia.
London physicians to scrutinise Tarique’s medical reports
late this week
Staff correspondent
The physicians of Tarique Rahman, ailing son of the BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, are likely to make the recommendations about his treatment in London on Wednesday, according to his lawyer Ahmed Azam Khan. ‘Doctors completed medical tests of Tarique Rahman. The reports of the tests are expected in a day or two. They would sit together on Wednesday to make the recommendations,’ said Ahmed Azam Khan.
He said Tarique Rahman was likely to be admitted to Wellington Hospital, a private hospital, specialised in medicine, cardiac services, neurosurgery, liver, orthopaedics and rehabilitation.
Dr Kazi Mazharul Islam Dolon, a Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital associate professor, accompanying Tarique in London, however, said no hospital was selected for Tarique’s treatment. ‘Medical tests are completed. But the main surgeon is out of the station. He will set the next course of treatment in consultation with the other physicians.’
Ahmed Azam Khan said Khaleda Zia would bear the medical expenses of Tarique. ‘She has sent about Tk 6.34 lakh to London from her personal account for the treatment.’
Tarique left Dhaka for London on September 11 as the government had released him on bail on health ground on September 3.
He is suffering from a number of health complications, including fracture in his spinal bones.
Spectrum of 17.5 MHz sold out to
three mobile phone operators
Staff Correspondent
The Bangladesh Telecommu-nications and Regulatory Commission on Monday sold out 17.5 MHz spectrum to the three mobile operators for Tk 1,400 crore.
The three companies — Grameenphone, Banglalink and Aktel — purchased 7.5, 5 and 5 MHz spectrum respectively, at the rate of Tk 80 crore per MHz, to expand their network in response to the demand for additional frequency with the increasing number of cellular phone users in the country.
With these additional frequencies, the amount of Grameenphone’s frequency will rise to 22 MHz, Banglalink’s to 17.4 MHz and Aktel’s to 17.8 MHz.
These three companies, which applied for the frequency last March, bought the frequency for the first time in Bangladesh after a meeting between them and the BTRC to settle the new spectrum allocation issue.
‘The mobile operators used to get spectrum free of cost earlier. But we though this practice should not be continued. So for the first in the country we have given the frequency in exchange for money,’ Manzurul Alam, chairman of the BTRC, told newsmen at a meet-the-press programme organised in the Setu Bhaban.
‘The quality of the service of these mobile operators will now be improved because of the increase of spectrum,’ said Alam hopefully.
Describing the activities of the BTRC in the last two years, its chairman said, ‘Our main motto was to expand the technology to its maximum extent to enable the people, including the rural masses, to avail themselves of the facilities of the state-of-the-art technology.’
In response to a question whether the BTRC will be able to work freely in the way it is doing now after an elected government takes charge, Alam said, ‘Whatever we did was for the betterment of the people and I hope the next government will not interfere in our affairs.’
‘The moment we feel that there is any undue interference by the government in the future, we will quit. We have done all our work very transparently, and we even issued licenses to the different kinds of telecom operators through open auctions so that nobody could raise any question,’ he added.
‘Within a short period of time, the commission is expecting the telecom act to be amended, which will facilitate our work by giving us the necessary liberty,’ said the BTRC’s chairman hopefully.
Referring to reduction of the internet charge to benefit the users, Alam said, ‘The commission is mulling over reduction of the bandwidth price so that the end users will have internet connectivity at a lower rate. We will also introduce discipline in all the internet service providers of the country by issuing licences so that they cannot charge extra price.’
He said a decision in this connection will be made in late October. He hoped that due to the effect of the measures the commission has taken so far, internet penetration will increase by 30 per cent by 2015.
‘We are working hard so that the mobile users can enjoy the number portability system and International Mobile Equipment Identity from next December,’ he told reporters.
The effect of these two new systems will be extremely beneficial because the mobile users will have the chance to switch over to another cell phone operator without changing his/her existing number, and will be able to make the mobile set dysfunctional if it is lost or stolen, which will discourage further stealing of mobile phones.
‘We are continuing our negotiations with around 30 countries to send our satellite into orbit. We have already got a foreign consultant who will work on the project,’ said Alam.
As regards the ‘roaming cost’ in the South Asian region, Manzurul Alam, who is also the chairman of the South Asian Telecommunications Regulators’ Council, said, ‘The Council is thinking of how an uniform roaming rate can be set for this region.’
He said the commission’s office would be shifted to Ramna, just behind the Engineers’ Institution of Bangladesh, on October 12.
The vice-chairman of the BTRC, Hasan Mahmood Delwar, and the two other commissioners, SM Munir Ahmed and Aliwardy Khandkar, were also present at the meet-the-press programme.
AL prepares manifesto with pledge
to continue anti-corruption drive
Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee
The Awami League has prepared its draft election manifesto, based on a 31-point charter adopted by its allies in 2005, for the ninth parliamentary elections with the pledge to continue the present anti-corruption drive if voted to office.
The proposed manifesto, aiming to include new faces in the list of nominees for the 2008 national polls, will also set specific targets in the political, economic and social sectors whether the party attains power or not, the party’s information and research secretary, Nuh-ul-Alam Lenin, told New Age.
A committee to look after the election issues of the party, headed by HT Imam, recently finalised the draft manifesto for the parliamentary elections to be held on December 18, 2008.
The election was originally scheduled for January 22, 2007, but was stalled because of the promulgation of the state of emergency, on the heels of political turmoil in late 2006, by
a military-backed interim administration pursuing a number
of political reforms agenda.
In the changed political scenario, the AL proposed strengthening of the constitutional bodies like the Public Service Commission, judiciary and Election Commission by amending the necessary provisions to ensure rule of law and stop the politicisation of these constitutional bodies.
The draft manifesto is now being scrutinised by the senior party leaders, including AL’s president Sheikh Hasina who is now in the United States of America.
It may also include several reform proposals put on the plate by the interim administration, said party sources.
The initial draft was prepared by the party’s information and research secretary Nuh-ul-Alam Lenin, after consulting a number of prominent economists, social and political scientists and civil society actors.
‘It was basically drafted for the stalled January 22 elections, but now many provisions have been incorporated in line with the changes that have taken place over the last one and a half year,’ he added.
Lenin said the manifesto would have two parts — the executive summary and elaborations.
The Awami League’s acting general secretary, Syed Ashraful Islam, told New Age said that the party may go for another version of the manifesto after a grand alliance of like-minded parties is forged before the next elections.
The draft manifesto will be placed before the members of the party’s presidium to elicit their opinions, and then the central working committee of the party will give it the final approval sometime after Eid-ul-Fitr.
BNP hatching conspiracies
to foil polls: AL
Terms Hasina bail refusal an ominous sign
Staff Correspondent
The Awami League on Monday said that the BNP-led alliance had raised a five-point charter of demands as it was hatching conspiracies to foil the parliamentary elections scheduled for December 18 and warned that it would be a disaster for the country if the polls were not held on time.
The party leaders also lamented the High Court’s refusal to grant bail to the party president Sheikh Hasina and termed it an ‘ominous sign’.
The acting party president Zillur Rahman has termed the bail denial a great injustice to Hasina.
Addressing a discussion marking the 62nd birthday of Hasina the leaders also demanded withdrawal of all ‘false’ cases against her.
Awami Juba League, youth front of the AL, organised the discussion at the party’s central office on Bangabandhu Avenue, presided over by Mizanur Rahman.
Party presidium member Amir Hossain Amu said some political parties, which had been responsible for the January 11 changeover, were now hatching conspiracies to foil the parliamentary polls.
He said the people of the country were anxiously waiting to see an elected government assume office and they would not accept any plots against the elections. ‘A disaster awaits the country if the elections are foiled’, Amu warned.
Expressing his indignation at the High Court’s refusal to grant bail to Sheikh Hasina, Amu said such attitude would surely call the role of the court into question. He demanded permanent release of Hasina.
Al presidium member Suranjit Sengupta said that the BNP had placed a five-point demand with an aim to push the elections into uncertainty…The BNP-Jamaat alliance is hatching conspiracies to foil the parliamentary elections.
He said the elections must be held on December 18 as scheduled, because there is no alternative to elections.
Referring to the High Court’s refusal to grant Hasina bail, he said the signs were growing ominous. ‘Allow Sheikh Hasina to return home or we will be compelled to take to the streets…Don’t force us to do that…’, Suranjit cautioned.
At a separate programme, the acting AL president, Zillur Rahman, said the High Court’s refusal to grant bail to Hasina was a great injustice when it was granting bail to others.
‘Everyone is getting bail…I am disappointed that she [Hasina] has been denied bail…It’s a great injustice…’, he said while talking with reporters at an iftar party hosted by Islami Oikya Jote faction leader Mesbahur Rahman at a city hotel.
Zillur said [the Mesbahur-led] Islami Oikya Jote was a partner of the AL-led ‘grand’ alliance as the party believed in secularism.
France, India vow to boost civil
nuclear cooperation
Agence France-Presse . Marseille, France
Indian and French leaders vowed Monday to boost nuclear energy cooperation at an annual summit on EU-India ties dominated by trade, global warming and the world financial crisis.
‘France, which has great trust in India and its prime minister, has worked hard so that India can have access to civilian nuclear energy,’ said the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.
He made the comment at a press conference with the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, who arrived in France from the US, where he took India a major step closer to rejoining global nuclear commerce after 30 years in the cold.
Singh was to meet Tuesday in Paris with French political leaders and nuclear energy executives and was expected to sign a major nuclear trade pact.
If the deal goes through, French nuclear giant Areva said Monday it hoped to negotiate the delivery to India of two third-generation European Pressurised Reactors, as well as nuclear fuel.
The US House of Representatives on Saturday passed a major atomic energy pact with New Delhi, which if it gets Senate approval will allow India access to Western technology and cheap atomic energy, provided it allows UN inspections of some of its nuclear facilities.
India was banned from nuclear trade three decades ago after it carried out its first nuclear test and refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty, but the Vienna-based Nuclear Suppliers Group lifted the ban earlier this month after hard lobbying by Washington.
Sarkozy said at Monday’s summit in the southern French port of Marseille that European Union and Indian leaders had decided to ‘accelerate talks’ aimed at reaching a free trade deal.
Singh, the leader of the world’s largest democracy and one of its fastest growing economies, said he wanted the agreement signed by the end of 2009.
The European Union is India’s largest commercial partner — ahead of China — with annual bilateral trade totalling around 60 billion euros (88 billion dollars).
But India ranks only ninth behind South Korea in the EU’s list of major trading partners.
Europe is keen to boost ties with the emerging Asian giant, which is seen as a relative haven of stability in an often volatile region which includes Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The global financial crisis also figured in the Marseille talks.
India has so far been relatively unscathed by the meltdown in the US banking system, but on Monday European banks were again caught up in the turmoil, with bail-outs, sales and attacks on the shares of financial institutions multiplying across the continent.
Sarkozy said that during their talks Singh had shared the French president’s call for a global summit to establish ‘a new international financial system.’
Climate change was also discussed during the talks that lasted about an hour.
Brussels has long accused New Delhi of failing to make stringent efforts to reduce carbon emissions, while India has underlined its status as a developing country that cannot be expected to slow its modernisation.
‘The world needs India in its fight against global warming,’ said Sarkozy, noting that he did not see how ‘India can fight global warming without nuclear energy, which is a clean energy.’
Arrangements for prisoners
to celebrate Eid
Bibhas Chandra Saha
The prison authorities have taken all the necessary arrangements so that the prisoners can observe the Eid in a befitting manner.
The deputy inspector-general of prisons, Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui, said that the prisoners can say their Eid prayers together inside the jail.
‘The authorities have arranged three congregations on the Eid day — the general prisoners will take part in the first congregation at 8:00am, the second one will be for the VIP prisoners and the last one, at 9:00am, will be for the condemned prisoners,’ he said.
There is less pressure as far as the VIP prisoners are concerned since there are only 51 of them, and they will say prayers in the second congregation.
Special food will be given to all the prisoners, including the jailed VIPs, on Eid day. The menu will include vermicelli, meat, pilau and hilsa fish.
There is no provision of sacrificing animals inside the jail but the prisoners can do so outside with the help of their relatives.
As per the provision, the relatives of the prisoners will be allowed to meet them and can give them delicacies after they are checked, he said.
The authorities will arrange cultural programmes for the prisoners, in which artistes from outside can also perform.
The programmes include the games of volleyball, carom and ludu, and cultural programmes like singing, recitation and comedy. However, the authority put special emphasis on comedy which dissipates the habitual gloom of the prisoners.
The prisoners have been participating in sports and cultural competitions for the last 10 days. Those who come out first, second and third in the competitions will be awarded attractive prizes. Complimentary prizes will also be distributed.
Separate arrangements are made for the women prisoners.
At present there are about 10,000 prisoners in the extremely overcrowded Dhaka Central Jail.
EID SALES
Boon to apparel, shoe
traders, dull for others
Staff Correspondent
Experience of traders in Eid sales is mixed this year with the apparel and shoe sellers calling it a boon while traders of furniture, electronics and ornaments reporting a dull sale.
Sales picked up in the last two weeks of Ramadan, market men said giving mixed reaction over their business in one of the largest religious festivals of the Muslims.
Sellers of durable items like furniture or electronic said increasing costs of essential commodities, transportation and treatment had eroded the consumers’ capacity forcing them (sellers of consumer durables) to experience a dull business.
‘Sales are quite good and better than previous years,’ said Tariqur Rahman Milan, chief executive officer of Artisti Collection and a leading local brand of menswear.
An executive of Aarong told New Age that most of the outlets recorded more than expected sales as most of their new arrivals for Eid — be they saris, salwar kamiz, kids wear and panjabees — were acclaimed by the consumers.
The turnover of Aarong, a concern of BRAC, in terms of Eid sales that include apparel, ornaments and leather crafts and other gif items, is expected to be around Tk 70 crore this year, sources at Aarong said.
‘We had a target of Tk 62 crore this year against Tk 55 crore of the previous year, but we are to make upward revision on our target,’ an Aarong executive said.
Fashion market observers said Eid apparel market has been dominated by local boutiques, which introduced thousands of apparel items of varying designs, including that of the ethnic minority communities.
Nasir Khan managing director of the Jennys Shoes, that launched more than 50 designs for Eid, said he was frustrated with the early Ramadan sales, but in the last two weeks of Ramadan, the sales peaked up.
Khoka Sikder, chairman of the Bangladesh Shoe Merchants Association, said he had reports that shoe sellers across the country were happy with the sales.
Selim Rahman, managing director of Hatil Complex and a leader of the Bangladesh Furniture Industries Association, said furniture sellers were frustrated with the dull Eid sales this year.
Nurul Abser, director of Electro Mart, said Eid sales of electronic appliances were by no way satisfactory in comparison with the sales of the previous years.
New Age Sylhet correspondent adds: Eid shopping got momentum in Sylhet after 20th of Ramadan. Businessmen were satisfied with their Eid sales and they found buyers preferring locally produced garments and local popular brands.
The ornament shops also experienced more buyers, but most of them were buying imitation ornaments instead of that of gold.
New Age Khulna correspondent adds: Although the retailers were happy with the sales, wholesalers said the turnover was less than that of the past few years.
The retailers said sales picked up at the end Ramadan with apparel, imitation ornaments, shoes and different electronic goods were on high demand.
New Age Rajshahi correspondent adds: The Eid sales got momentum in Rajshahi at the end of the month of Ramadan with the shoppers crowding at footpaths to posh shopping malls depending on their capacities.
Salesmen, however, said sales disrupted a little in the past two days due to inclement weather.
New Age Barisal correspondent adds: Sellers in most markets said they had experienced a dull business this year as the buying capacity of the commoners had decreased due to price hike of essential commodities and last year’s cyclone Sidr followed by this year’s flooding.
Police foil attempt to lay siege to ministry by Nat’l Committee
to Protect Oil, Gas
Staff Correspondent
The police on Monday foiled the attempt of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power
and Port to lay siege to the ministry of energy in the secretariat.
The committee tried to lay siege to the ministry in protest against the government move to award nine offshore blocks to the international oil companies.
The police attacked the leaders of the committee when they began their march to the ministry from the Muktangan.
The committee leaders, Syed Abul Moksud and Tipu Biswas were slightly injured in the police attack.
The leaders held a rally at the Muktangon first.
The convener of the committee, Sheikh Muhammad Shahidullah said the interim government had finalised its move to lease the blocks to the multinational companies, which went against the national interest.
The member secretary of
the organisation, Anu Muhammad said an artificial gas and power crisis was created in order to hand over the gas and oil blocks to the companies.
The people are ready to resist any such covert attempts by the government, Anu said.
They demanded removal
of the special assistant to the chief adviser, Tamim, claiming that he was ‘collaborating’
with the multinational companies.
The rally was addressed by Syed Abul Moksud, Noor Mohammad, Sushanta Kumar Das, Bimal Biswas, Tipu Biswas, Ahsan Habib Lablu, Saiful Huq, Bazlur Rashid Firoz and Zonayed Saki.
Before holding the rally, a memorandum was handed
over to the office of the chief adviser.
The caretaker government was not interested in the public opinion on the issue, the memorandum said, adding that only an elected government was entitled to take a decision in this regard.
This government has no right to hand over the blocks without informing the people of it, the memorandum said.
Obaidul Quader off to
Delhi for treatment
Staff Correspondent
Awami League joint general secretary Obaidul Quader left Dhaka for New Delhi for medical treatment on Monday, two days after he was barred from boarding a Jet Airways plane at Zia International Airport.
He left ZIA at 9:25am by a Jet Airways flight and was accompanied by an Awami League leader Tarique Shams Khan Himu.
Obaidul left Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital by an ambulance for ZIA at 7:30am. Awami League leaders and activists bade him farewell at the airport. He sought blessings of the countrymen for his recuperation.
Obaidul, also a former state minister for sports, youth and cultural affairs, was severely injured in the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka that left at least 24 people, including a party’s front ranking leader Ivy Rahman, dead and injured and maimed many others.
Since then, he has been suffering from a number of serious ailments, including a neurological disease causing muscle wastage and weakness.
He was released on bail at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital on September 5, where he remained for treatment. He was arrested on March 9, 2007 on graft charges.
Earlier, the BSMMU medical board, led by Prof AKM Anwar Ullah, examined him and suggested him to go to Apollo Hospital of Delhi in India for follow up treatment of the metallic pellets which still remain in his body.
The medical board also suggested a metallic-friendly MRI of cervical spine also in abroad and absolute bed rest for three weeks.
He may have to go to Germany for the metallic-friendly MRI after treatment at the Apollo Hospital in Delhi, his lawyer AKM Aminuddin Manik said.
EC unaware of BNP, allies’
5-point demand
Staff Correspondent
The Election Commission has said it is not aware if the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance has raised a five-point demand for ensuring participation of all political parties in the next general elections.
‘We know nothing about any such demands of any party’, election commissioner M Sakhawat Hossain told New Age at the commission secretariat on Monday when he was asked if the alliance’s five-point charter of demands would be met before the parliamentary polls.
The BNP-led alliance on Sunday announced that it would stage rallies across the country on October 12 to press home its five-point charter of demands, which includes deferment of the upazila polls to ensure participation of all political parties in the ninth parliamentary elections scheduled for December 18.
The demands also include complete withdrawal of the state of emergency, cancellation of the Representation of the People (Amendment) Ordinance, deferment of the upazila elections by a rational length of time, withdrawal of the GATCO, Niko and Barapukuria cases, and freeing all the detained politicians before Eid.
StanChart CEO surrenders, gets bail
Bdnews24.com . Dhaka
Standard Chartered Bank CEO Osman Tarik Murad was granted bail Monday after surrendering to court in a car seizure case for which an arrest warrant had been issued against the foreign national.
Murad appeared before the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court seeking bail after an arrest warrant was issued against him on September 22.
Afroza Jamil filed the case against Murad and the bank’s senior manager Zia Hasan Chowdhury on March 30.
The case claimed that the plaintiff’s husband bought a car with credit from Standard Chartered, but the bank forcibly seized the car before repayment of the loan.
Murad’s lawyers told the court that their client was a Pakistani national, involved in activities relating to Bangladesh’s economic development and policy-making in line with global markets. He is not involved with bank loan and loan recovery, the lawyers said.
The plaintiff’s husband failed to make repayments as per the loan conditions despite repeated requests by letter, they said.
The car was seized according to the loan conditions, Murad’s lawyers said.
agencies increases by 16pc
Agencies to propose price hike at consumer level
Staff Correspondent
The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday approved 16 per cent increase in power tariff for distribution agencies with effect from October 1 leading the agencies to contemplate price hike proposals at consumer level.
The commission chairman, Ghulam Rahman, said the average tariff for the agencies, which purchase electricity from the Power Development Board to supply to the consumers, had been increased from Tk 2.04 per kilowatt-hour to Tk 2.37.
Officials at agencies like the Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited and the Dhaka Electricity Supply Company told New Age that they had already started calculating how much price should be increased at consumer level once the new tariff came into effect.
‘We are now calculating how much cost will be increased if we purchase electricity at 16 per cent higher rate. Once PDB formally informs us of the power price hike, we will apply to the commission for increasing price at consumer level after taking the Power Division’s approval,’ DPDC managing director Ataul Masud told New Age.
DESCO managing director Saleh Ahmed said they would submit an application to the commission for increasing power tariff within one week after they were formally asked to pay higher tariff for electricity.
Special assistant to the chief adviser for power and energy and mineral resources ministry M Tamim, who earlier said that the interim government would not increase power price, told New Age on Monday, ‘The government hasn’t decided yet whether the PDB would be allowed to increase tariff from October 1.’
‘The PDB has got the Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval to increase power tariff, but as a government entity, it [PDB] has to come to the ministry to enforce the decision,’ he added.
He continued: ‘We earlier decided in principle not to allow the PDB to increase power price. We have not backtracked from our position yet. The BERC has completed its job of approving new rate. The government will discuss the issue further.’
Sources in the power and energy ministry said the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, earlier directed the Power Division not to increase power price. ‘The division will discuss the BERC approval with the chief adviser to take a decision on the issue,’ he said.
BERC chairman told New Age that once the PDB had increased bulk power tariff, five agencies, including PDB might come up with separate proposals of tariff hike for consumers.
‘We have directed the agencies to absorb the shock of tariff hike by reducing system loss and making less profit. Even after that they want to come to us with price hike proposals at consumer level,’ he added saying ‘They [agencies] can submit applications, but we will not allow them to make windfall profit.’
Ghulam, however, said the decision on power tariff hike at consumer level could not be taken before January as they would go for public hearing if the agencies submitted applications for price hike.
Justifying the decision to increase power tariff by 16 per cent for agencies, he said the decision was taken considering the cost of generation of electricity. ‘If PDB is not given just and reasonable cost of power it produces, it will not be able to continue power supply to consumers. We have taken the decision considering the public interest.’
The Power Development Board earlier submitted application to the commission to increase power tariff at distribution agency-level by 33.20–48.70 per cent and at consumer level by 31.10–69.30 per cent.
The commission on July 3 rejected the proposal for tariff-hike at consumer level and decided the commission would first decided on tariff increase at agency level and posted for August 20 a public hearing, where different stakeholders gave opinions against and in favour of price hike.
The commission chairman and its commissioners expressed dissatisfaction over the PDB’s performance and nagging load shedding at different stages of the hearing.
The commission in its order asked PDB to start ‘service quality programme’ immediately to provide better service to consumers and submit a report by January 2009.
It also asked the PDB to submit monthly report on the reliability of the power generation units and number of outages — be they forced or scheduled.
The commission ordered the PDB to submit a five-year plan to improve power generation with demand forecast by February 1, 2009. The strategy plan will be different than the Power Sector Master Plan.
It also asked the PDB to formulate an action plan to realise regular as well as recover outstanding bills.
Commission members Imdadul Haque, Salahud Deen Ahmed, Mokhlesur Rahman Khondoker and Md Khulilur Rahman read out the order at the commission office in Dhaka.
Hasina’s bail in extortion
case rejected
Staff Correspondent
The High court on Monday summarily rejected the petition filed by Awami League’s president and former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, seeking bail in the Tk 5 crore extortion case filed by businessman Noor Ali.
The High Court vacation bench of Justice Sheikh Rezwan Ali and Justice M Rais Uddin pronounced the 90-minute verdict, putting in limbo the release of Hasina on bail.
Hasina’s counsel Rafique-ul Huq told reporters that he would appeal against the High Court’s verdict to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. The process of appeal, however, will not begin until the Supreme Court’s vacation ends on October 12, and the procedure of appeal disposal is usually a time-consuming matter.
Hasina, one of the top politicians was arrested last year amid a crackdown on the politicians after the proclamation of the state of emergency on January 11, 2007. Another former premier, Khaleda Zia, also the BNP chairperson and Hasina’s bitterest rival, has been set free on bail in all the graft cases filed against her during the purge.
In the ruling, the High Court observed that there was no urgency in granting bail to Hasina as the bail was sought on medical grounds and she was freed by an executive order for medical treatment abroad.
As she has already been allowed to go to the United States for treatment, there is no need of immediate bail for her, the court observed.
‘Sheikh Hasina’s appearance in the court is imperative for seeking bail on medical grounds,’ said the court, observing that she could not get bail in absentia.
Although bail was sought on medical grounds, Hasina’s counsel also argued that she should be granted bail in order to ensure participation of all political parties in the upcoming national elections, scheduled for December 18. The government should ensure a level playing field for all by giving her bail, he asserted.
Dismissing the argument, the court said that ‘a political view’ could not be considered for granting bail to any accused person.
Apparently disappointed, Fazle Noor Tapas told reporters that they would move to the chamber judge of the Supreme Court for provisional petition, seeking permission to appeal against the High Court’s ruling.
During the current annual vacation of the Supreme Court that will last until October 12, the chamber court will sit for only one day on October 6. As such, the appeal process and disposal may take a long time.
The Unique Group’s managing director, Noor Ali, lodged a case with the Tejgaon police station on June 13, 2007, accusing Hasina, her cousin Sheikh Helal and his wife Rupa Chowdhury of extorting Tk 5 crore from him.
The three were accused of taking Tk 5 crore for helping Ali’s firm to win a contract from the Power Development Board in 1997.
The army-led joint forces arrested Hasina at Sudha Sadan, her residence, on July 16, 2007, and sent her to jail the same day, showing her arrested in a Tk 2.99 crore ‘extortion’ case filed by businessman Azam J Chowdhury with the Gulshan police station on June 13, 2007.
She was later shown arrested in the extortion case filed by Noor Ali.
The High Court vacation bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Mamnoon Rahman on September 16 granted bail to Hasina in the Azam case, now under trial at a Special Judge’s Court set up in the Jatiya Sangsad complex. The court also stayed, till October 19, the proceedings of the case.
Hasina’s two other bail petitions for the Niko and barge-mounted power-plant graft cases were filed on Monday with a High Court bench of Justice M Anwarul Haque and Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury.
The petitions may come up on the list of the cases to be heard by the bench today.
On September 23 another High Court bench of Justice AKM Fazlur Rahman and Justice Sheikh Abdul Awal accepted the petitions for hearing, but returned them as the bench has no jurisdiction to hear them.
BARAPUKURIA COALMINE GRAFT CASE
ACC to press charges against Khaleda
Staff Correspondent
Anti-Corruption Commission has decided in principle to press charges against BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia along with ten of her former cabinet colleagues and five others in the Barapukuria coalmine corruption case.
The commission’s spokesman and director general (admin), Hanif Iqbal, disclosed this at a press briefing on Monday.
He also said that the investigation report in the Zia Orphanage Trust fund embezzlement case, filed against former prime minister Khaleda Zia and six others including her eldest son Tarique Rahman, was submitted to the commission on September 10.
ACC sources said the investigation report recommended pressing charges against Khaleda, Tarique and five others in the case.
Khaleda was released from jail on September 11 after the High Court granted her bail in all four cases including the Barapukuria coalmine corruption case.
A High Court bench on August 28 granted Khaleda interim bail for four months in the Barapukuria case, filed by ACC on February 26, accusing sixteen persons of embezzling Tk 158.71 crore from the bidding process.
ACC’s fresh investigation report recommended pressing charges against Khaleda, her former cabinet colleagues M Saifur Rahman, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, Matiur Rahman Nizami, M Shamsul Islam, MK Anwar, Aminul Haque, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and AKM Mosharraf Hossain, commission sources said.
It also recommended pressing charges against former energy secretary Nazrul Islam, Petrobangla’s former chairman SR Osmani and former director Moinul Ahsan, former managing director of the Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Sirajul Islam, and chairman of Hosaf Group Moazzem Hossain.
After finding the first investigation unsatisfactory, ACC ordered second investigation into the case in June, which found reasons for pressing charges against Khaleda and others for irregularities in the bidding process that also caused a loss of Tk 493.79 crore to the exchequer, officials said.
Hanif said that the commission decided to sue 24 persons, including seven engineers of Chittagong Development Authority and 17 contractors, for alleged corruption in constructing the road connecting Chittagong Oxygen junction with Kaptai Road.
The persons would face charges of misappropriating Tk 79.34 lakh of the contract value of about Tk 2 crore.
They include superintendent engineer Iqbal Hossain Majumder, executive engineer Kazi Hasan Shams, assistant engineers Nurul Amin Bhuiyan and Mohammad Ilyas and sub-assistant engineers Syed Golam Sarwar, Jahangir Alam and Hamidul Haque and contractors Abul Kalam M Shamsuzzaman, Khandaker Jasim Uddin, Ishaq Chowdhury, Saleh Zahur, Mohammad Ismail, Shamsul Alam, Jahirul Haque, Mohammad Aman, Yakub Chowdhury, Saifullah Chowdhury, Manjur Ahmed, Nurul Islam, Mohammad Ali Akbar, Iqbal Hossain, Noor Mohammad, Khandaker Jasim Uddin and Abul Kalam Azad.
Hainf said the ACC approved submission of charge sheets in two graft cases, including one against former lawmaker Mahmudul Haque Rubel.
Rubel will face charges of embezzling corrugated iron sheets meant for relief while Abul Kalam Azad, a security guard of Zia International Airport, will be charge-sheeted for amassing illegal wealth worth Tk 1.6 crore, the ACC director general said.
The commission on Monday forwarded the names of 11 government employees to the Truth and Accountability Commission for considering their clemency applications. With these 11, the ACC has so far sent 90 applications to the truth commission.
Responding to a question, the ACC executive said the application of a politician, the first to apply for truth commission clemency, was yet to be sent.
Eid tomorrow if moon sighted today
Staff Correspondent
Eid-ul-Fitr, one of the two major religious festivals of the Muslims, will be celebrated all over Bangladesh on Wednesday if the Shawal moon is sighted today.
If it is not, Eid will be celebrated on Thursday, ending 30 days of Ramadan fasting.
The National Moon-Sighting Committee will meet this evening to verify whether the moon has been sighted anywhere in Bangladesh.
President Iajuddin Ahmed and Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed will issue separate greetings to the people on this auspicious occasion, and offer felicitations to the heads of state and governments of the Muslim nations.
They will exchange Eid greetings with the people from all walks of life at Bangabhaban and the Chief Adviser’s Bhaban on Eid day.
BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and secretary-general Khandakar Delwar Hossain, in separate messages, have conveyed Eid greetings to the people.
Khaleda called on the affluent people to help their poor neighbours so that they can celebrate Eid properly. ‘It is very difficult for the poor people to celebrate Eid due to the soaring price-hikes.’
She will exchange Eid greetings with the people from all walks of life at the Dhaka Ladies Club on Eskaton Garden Road on Eid day.
The main Eid congregation in Dhaka will be held at the National Eidgah at 8:30am, or at Baitul Mukarram in case of inclement weather. There will be separate arrangements for women.
The first Eid congregation at the Baitul Mokarram mosque will be held at 7:30am, the second one at 8:30am, the third one at 9:30am, the fourth one at 10:30am and the fifth one at 11:15am.
The first Eid congregation at the central mosque of the Dhaka University will be held at 8:00am and the second one at 9:00am. Congregations will be held at Salimullah Hall and at Shahidullah Hall at 8:00am.
The first Eid congregation at the Bab-e-Rahmat in Arambagh will be held at 8:00am, the second one at 9:30am and the third one at 10:00am.
Other major Eid congregations in Dhaka will be in the Gendaria Dhupkhola East End Club’s field at 7:45am, Kalabagan Bashiruddin Road Jame Masjid at 8:30am and Azimpur Dayera Sharif at 10:00am.
In Rajshahi city, the main Eid congregation will be held at the Central Eidgah field at 9.00am. In case of inclement weather, the congregation will be shifted to the Shah Makhdum (R) Mosque at the same time. Congregations will also be held Shaheb Bazar at 9.00am and 10.00am, at Sagorpara at 9.30am and at Tikapara Eidgah field at 9.30am.
In Barisal, the main Eid jamaat will be held at Hemayet Uddin Central Eidgah Maidan at 9.00am, at Baitul Mokarram at 9.00am, at Jame Kashai mosque at 10.00am, at Eabaidullah mosque at 8.30am and 10.00 am. Eid congregations will also be held at Amanatganj Power House, Tablig Jamat Markaj, Kawnia Akon Mosque and BM College mosque at 8.30am, and at Gorasthan road, Anjumane Hemaete Islam, BM School, Sadhur Battala Ground, Mahmudia Madrassah, A Kader Chowdhury School Ground, Natun Bazar, Battala, Fakir Bari mosque and Jail Khana mosque at 9.00am.
In Bogra, the main Eid congregation will be held at Sutrapur Central Eidgah Maidan at 9:00am.
The BSS adds: Over 200 Eid congregations will be held at the traditional and temporary venues in Chittagong. The main congregations will be held at 8.30am and 9.15am at Jamiatul Falah Mosque, and one jamaat at MA Aziz Stadium at 9am.
The other main Eid jamaats, to be organized under the auspices of the CCEJC, are Andarkillah Shahi Jame Mosque, Laldighi Maidan, Parade Ground, Polo Ground Maidan, Shah Amanat Shah Dargah Maidan, Port Colony Jame Mosque, Metropolitan Police Lines Maidan, Agrabad Jamboree Field and Bayzeed Bostami Dargah Maidan between 8.30am and 9.30am.
The UNB adds: As announced by the government, the national flag will be hoisted atop public and private buildings on Eid day.
Besides, the main thoroughfares from Dhaka Gate in Banani to Bangabhaban, and the road islands, will be decorated with national flags and banners inscribed with ‘Eid Mubarak’ in Bengali and Arabic. Public buildings will be illuminated on the Eid night on a limited scale.
The Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar will air special programmes and the newspapers will publish special supplements on Eid-ul-Fitr.
Improved diet will be served in different hospitals, jails, government children homes, vagrant welfare centres and homes for the distressed.
Films will be screened and cultural programmes arranged in different parts of the city, and a children’s reunion will also be held at the Shishu Academy after Eid-ul-Fitr.
The Shishu Park will remain open to the poor children on the day. Cultural functions, friendly football matches and Eid gatherings of children will also be arranged across the country.
Divisional commissioners, deputy commissioners, thana nirbahi officers and officials of the local government bodies will organise programmes in their areas.
Half of RMG workers to have
Eid without bonus
Kazi Azizul Islam
At least a half of the country’s garment workers are set to spend Eid-ul-Fitr without festival allowance while some of their fellows have been lucky enough to get meagre amounts as law does not oblige employers to pay festival bonus, says a rights group.
Labour leaders and rights activists said it was very inhuman that workers, who ensured 76 per cent of the country’s export earnings, would not get allowances to celebrate the nation’s biggest festival.
‘Our rough survey shows that workers in at least 50 per cent of the garment factories have not received any bonus or festival allowances,’ Jago Bangladesh Garment Workers’ Federation president Bahrane Sultan Bahar told New Age on Monday.
Sultan said many garment factory owners cleverly paid half month’s salary of workers as a pre-eid payment to keep workers calm amid a wave of uproars and angry outbursts of workers in the apparel industry.
‘Such payments will rather put low-paid garment workers into trouble after eid as only a half of their wage will be left for the whole next month,’ he said.
Nayan Mia, an activist of Awaz Foundation, a garment workers’ forum that surveyed factories in Chairman Bari and Airport Road areas in the city told New Age that out of 26 factories, only two — Madona Fashion and Jessie Fusion— paid bonus equivalent to one month’s basic wage to workers. Some of the rest employers paid a lump sum amount to workers as festival allowances while others forgot about eid bonus, Nayan said.
The forum’s coordinator Nazma Akter said some employers paid a nominal amount between Tk 200 and Tk 500 as eid bonus per worker.
‘It is very sad that the poor workers are deprived of a festival bonus even after hard work round the year, helping their employers earn millions of dollar in export revenues,’ said Nazma who represented workers in the tripartite committee that revised garment industry wages in 2006.
President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association Anwarul Alam Chowdhury admitted that many garment factories might have not been able to pay festival bonus.
‘The garment owners who cannot make average profits throughout the year struggle to pay workers their regular wages, and extra payment becomes quite difficult for them,’ argued Parvez. ‘Moreover, laws don’t oblige employers to pay festival bonus.’
The BGMEA leader appreciated entrepreneurs who offered festival allowances to their workers. ‘It is a good practice.’
Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies executive director Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed said if the employers were honest and truly sympathetic to workers, they could offer allowances.
‘Employers are legally bound to share profits (with their workers), they must ensure festival holidays with allowances and offer annual incentives on performances of workers,’ Sultan cited.
The labour rights activist suggested that the government should force the employers to pay bonus during festivals and ask authorities to stop providing incentives to the garment factories which do not pay special allowance to their workers.
Govt to strengthen law against
sale of tainted baby food
Staff Correspondent
The interim administration has initiated a move to tighten the laws against the marketing and sale of any baby food products and substitutes of breast milk, raising the period of imprisonment from two to five years for any offence, following the marketing of Chinese companies’ melamine-contaminated powdered milk here.
‘The draft amendment to the Breast Milk Substitutes (Regulations of Marketing) Ordinance 1984 has proposed increase in the jail term from two years to five for repeating an offence, with a fine of Tk 1,00,000,’ the health and food adviser, AMM Shawkat Ali, told a press briefing at the secretariat on Monday.
The draft amendment to the law proposed by the Institute of Public Health and Nutrition will be sent to the law ministry within a day or two for vetting before it is submitted to the council of advisers for approval, the adviser mentioned. The government has taken the move after media reports early this month that some Chinese companies were producing melamine-mixed powered milk, consumption of which has caused the illness of more than 50,000 babies in China and the death of a few.
Shawkat admitted that some companies or agents had, without registration, imported baby milk products mixed with poisonous melamine and marketed them throughout the country.
He named five companies that have not yet received registration but are selling baby food products in the local market — Mow Enterprise, Chittagong (Sweet Baby-2); M/S Allway Trading Ltd, Dhaka (Yashili-1, Yashili-2); Renown Associates Ltd, Dhaka (Premiavita Formula-1, Premiavita Formula-2); Jes International, Dhaka (Baby Care-3, Baby Care MF); and Maisha Health Care, Dhaka (Fabi Milk-1, Fabi Milk-2).
When he was asked why action was not being taken against those unregistered companies and the government officials who allowed the marketing of the questionable food items, the health adviser, also a former secretary, said he has asked the commerce secretary to immediately form a taskforce or an inter-agency committee to identify the importers, sellers and others involved and bring them to justice. ‘The taskforce will also determine the next course of action against the marketing of the food items injurious to babies’ health.’
He said that three brands of injurious milk products have been so far identified and they were being seized after mobile courts began operating.
‘The deputy commissioners of all districts have already been instructed to take steps against marketing of baby milk products by unregistered companies to check any heath hazards,’ said the adviser.
Shawkat said he had talked to doctors at different hospitals but had not received any reports of children’s illness caused by melamine-mixed food items.
He said that the concerned authorities would continue to closely monitor the market and take measures for testing milk products in the shortest possible time.
Cadbury orders recall as fallout from China milk crisis continues
Agence Frnace-Presse . Beijing
British sweet maker Cadbury said Monday it ordered a recall of China-made chocolates over safety fears in the latest fallout from the ever-widening scandal over tainted Chinese dairy products.
The company issued the recalls in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia after internal tests ‘cast doubt’ on the safety of chocolates made in the company’s Beijing plant, it said in a statement.
‘As a result of these tests... we have received results that cast doubt on the integrity of a range of our products manufactured in China,’ said the statement from Cadbury Asia Pacific.
It was not clear if the tests had shown the products contained traces of melamine, the industrial chemical blamed for sickening 53,000 Chinese children and killing at least four.
AFP could not reached company officials in Beijing or at its Asian headquarters in Singapore.
The products are the latest in a list, expanding by the day, of China-made foods and drinks that have been removed from stores around the world since the scandal was first exposed earlier this month.
More than a dozen Asian and African countries, plus the 27-member European Union, have taken steps to ban or otherwise limit consumption of Chinese milk-product imports.
Laos and Mali on Monday became the latest to order such measures.
The crisis is among the most serious in a litany of product-safety scandals emerging from China’s chaotic and corrupt manufacturing industries in recent years.
Besides the toll in mainland China, five children in Hong Kong, one in Macau, and four people in Taiwan have reportedly developed kidney stones after drinking tainted Chinese products.
The Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, vowed over the weekend to work to restore his country’s reputation, saying it was facing the problem ‘candidly’.
However, a Chinese human rights group said Monday the government was suppressing media coverage vital to assigning blame and preventing a recurrence.
‘China has tightened its grip on media freedom to contain rising nationwide outrage at tainted milk products,’ China Human Rights Defenders, a network of domestic and foreign human rights activists, said in an emailed report.
It cited several instances of reporting by Chinese media censored or banned by authorities. AFP could not immediately verify the allegations.
Normally used in making plastics and fertiliser, melamine is believed to have been added to milk to give it the appearance of higher protein content.
The rights group said the central government had ordered all Chinese media to toe the official line on the issue, thereby preventing exposure of ‘deep-seated problems in the system.’
Xinhua reported last week that officials at Sanlu Group, the dairy firm at the centre of the scandal, knew as far back as December that babies were falling ill but did not report the problem to local authorities until August.
The report, citing a Cabinet investigation, said those local officials then waited one month to pass the concerns onto higher authorities.
Police in northern China have detained 22 people in raids on a ring that made and sold the industrial chemical melamine and added it to milk, Xinhua said.
Nineteen of those detained in Hebei province were managers of ‘pastures, breeding farms and milk purchasing stations,’ the news agency reported.
The detentions came after more than 800 police raided 41 ‘pastures, breeding farms, and milk purchasing stations’ in and around the city of Shijiazhuang.
Shijiazhuang is the headquarters of Sanlu.
Politicians head home to
celebrate Eid, Puja
Staff Correspondent
With the elections to the ninth parliament barely 11 weeks away, most of the politicians have gone to their respective constituencies to seize upon the Eid- ul-Fitr and Durga Puja festivities as an opportunity for electioneering in the guise of socialising with the electorates.
Though the mid-level leaders, especially those who aspire to contest the polls on tickets of different political parties, have headed home to celebrate the festivals in their respective constituencies, many top leaders of the parties, including the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, will be staying in Dhaka during the celebrations. Khaleda will exchange Eid greetings with people from all walks of life at the Eskaton Ladies’ Club at 11:00am on the Eid day.
The party secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, is expected to visit his ancestral home in Manikganj after saying Eid prayers in Dhaka.
Party standing committee members M Saifur Rahman and RA Gani will celebrate Eid in Dhaka, Chowdhury Tanvir Ahmed Siddiqui in Gazipur, Khandakar Mahbubuddin Ahmed will stay in Dhaka and M Shamsul Islam will be in Munshiganj while Mahbubur Rahman has already gone to Dinajpur.
Among other senior leaders of the party, ASM Hannan Shah will celebrate the Eid in Gazipur, vice-chairman MK Anwar will be in Comilla, joint secretary general Nazrul Islam Khan in Sherpur, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and Abdullah al Noman will be in Chittagong. Office secretary Rizvi Ahmed will celebrate Eid in Rajshahi.
The Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina will celebrate the Eid with her son and daughter in Virginia, US. The acting party president, Zillur Rahman, will celebrate the festival in Dhaka while general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam will be in Kishoreganj and attend the grand Eid congregation at Sholakia.
Party presidium member Tofail Ahmed is already in Bhola while Amir Hossain Amu will celebrate the Eid in Dhaka. Suranjit Sengupta has already gone to Sunamganj to celebrate the Eid and the Puja.
Jatiya Party chairman Hussein Muhammad Ershad, Bikalpadhara Bangladesh president AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury and Communist Party of Bangladesh president Manjurul Ahsan Khan will celebrate the Eid in Dhaka. Liberal Democratic Party president Oli Ahmed and Jatiya Samajtanrik Dal president Hasanul Huq Inu will stay in Dhaka.
Jamaat-e-Islami amir Matiur Rahman Nizami will be in Dhaka while his secretary general Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid will be in Faridpur.
Among the former lawmakers of BNP, Mohammad Shahjahan has left for Noakhali, Moazzem Hossain Alal for Barisal, Ilias Ali for Sylhet, Abdul Momin Talukder for Bogra and Shah Nurul Kabir Shaheen for Kishoreganj; Awami League leader Asaduzzaman Noor has gone to Nilphamari, Faruq Khan to Gopalganj, Abdul Mannan to Bogra, Abdur Rahman to Faridpur and Sultan Muhammed Mansur to Sylhet to celebrate Eid.
People in rush to reach
destinations outside
capital
Govt offices remain open today
Staff Correspondent
Bus, train and ferry terminals continued to be full on Monday with homebound people leaving the capital for enjoying Eid-ul-fitr with near and dear ones.
Although the three-day public holiday for the Eid begins Wednesday, the people started leaving the city Thursday night as Sunday was also a government holiday on the occasion of Lailatul Qadr.
The government offices, however, will remain open on Tuesday, an official says.
The government appeared undecided as offices closed on Monday afternoon about whether Tuesday should be a working day prior to the Eid-ul-Fitr.
The city’s inter-district bus stands, Kamalapur rail station and Sadarghat launch terminal got packed as thousands of people were streaming to the stations for their home-bound journeys since morning.
Hundreds of passengers were waiting at the Gabtoli inter-city bus terminal amid uncertainty as they could not manage any tickets. Many of those who got tickets alleged that they were waiting for hours for the buses.
Bus owners were charging extra money for Eid tickets, a number of passengers complained while talking to reporters. But transport employees issuing tickets rejected the complaints saying that they used to charge below the government approved rate earlier. ‘As all buses will have to return empty, we cannot reduce the fare during Eid,’ said an employee.
Many passengers were seen in a tussle to occupy seats in launches at Sadarghat from where launches ply 41 river routes of the country.
Situation at the launch and train stations were comparatively better as homebound passengers have got much time ahead of Eid this year, officials concerned said.
But travelers complained that it was not possible to board the crowded launches even with a ticket by afternoon or evening as overloading was strictly prohibited this year.
The whole of Sadarghat terminal has been brought under a security cordon. Ten to twelve policemen were seen keeping guard at each of eight entry gates.
Kamalapur rail station was teeming with people waiting for the 22 inter-city trains, station master Jitendra Saha said.
Four special Eid trains will be in operation on Tuesday, while the 12 daily mail trains are operating as usual, he said.
RAB personnel were deployed to boost station security for the holiday crowd.
Station manager Rezaul Haq said rail passengers were served better this year than before.
HC puts constituency dispute
hearing on backburner
Staff Correspondent
A High Court bench on Monday ordered the final hearing on the writ petition challenging the delimitation of parliamentary constituencies out of the list of the cases to be heard by the bench.
The order, passed by the High Court vacation bench of Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana and Justice M Rezaul Haque, put the final hearing on the writ petition on the backburner apparently causing a setback to the Election Commission’s move for expeditious disposal of the case to have the way cleared for announcing the schedule for the national elections to be held on December 18.
The court passed the order after the petitioner’s counsel sought time for the hearing.
As the matter came up for hearing on Monday, the Election Commission’s counsel, Mahmudul Islam, told the court that the case ‘should be disposed of urgently’ as the commission could not announce the polls schedule amidst the legal tangles.
On September 20, chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed declared December 18 as the polling day for the much-awaited ninth parliamentary elections, stalled after the proclamation of the state of emergency on January 11, 2007.
On August 7, the High Court, after hearing a writ petition filed by former BNP lawmaker Abdul Mannan, also a former state minister, stayed for three months the gazette notification of the EC redrawing the parliamentary constituencies.
The stay lasts through the first week of November, while the writ hearing will have to be processed in another High Court bench after the Supreme Court reopens on October 12.
The High Court bench of Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Mashuque Hossain Ahmed, while ordering the stay, had also issued a rule on the government and the commission to explain why the July 10 gazette notification should not be declared unconstitutional and void.
Former attorney general Mahmudul Islam and Shahdeen Malik appeared for the commission while Zainul Abedin and Nasir Uddin Ashim for the writ petitioner.
Gen Moeen for next elected govt to decide on trial of war criminals
United News of Bangladesh . Dhaka
The army chief, General Moeen U Ahmed, Monday expressed the hope that the next elected government would make decision on trial of war criminals.
‘Thirty-seven years have gone by…but no government did take any initiative to try the war criminals,’ he told reporters when asked about freedom fighters’ demand for the trial.
‘I’m sure that an elected government, when comes to power through a free and fair election, will look into the matter,’ General Moeen said after exchanging Eid greetings with the freedom fighters at the War-Injured Freedom Fighters Rehabilitation Centre in the city’s Mohammadpur area.
The chief of army staff distributed essential commodities among the members of their families as Eid gift.
Farid Miah, on behalf of the war-injured freedom fighters, placed a 3-point demand with General Moeen. The demands are introduction of food rationing, permanent rehabilitation, and regular allowances for them.
General Moeen gave a patient hearing to them and assured them of all-out cooperation in resolving their problems.
Earlier, the army chief hosted a reception at the Army Headquarters Banquet
Hall in honour of 40 faculty members of various universities who will leave for Jeddah on invitation to visit King Khalid University, Nazran University and Jizan University in Saudi Arabia.
London physicians to scrutinise Tarique’s medical reports
late this week
Staff correspondent
The physicians of Tarique Rahman, ailing son of the BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, are likely to make the recommendations about his treatment in London on Wednesday, according to his lawyer Ahmed Azam Khan. ‘Doctors completed medical tests of Tarique Rahman. The reports of the tests are expected in a day or two. They would sit together on Wednesday to make the recommendations,’ said Ahmed Azam Khan.
He said Tarique Rahman was likely to be admitted to Wellington Hospital, a private hospital, specialised in medicine, cardiac services, neurosurgery, liver, orthopaedics and rehabilitation.
Dr Kazi Mazharul Islam Dolon, a Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital associate professor, accompanying Tarique in London, however, said no hospital was selected for Tarique’s treatment. ‘Medical tests are completed. But the main surgeon is out of the station. He will set the next course of treatment in consultation with the other physicians.’
Ahmed Azam Khan said Khaleda Zia would bear the medical expenses of Tarique. ‘She has sent about Tk 6.34 lakh to London from her personal account for the treatment.’
Tarique left Dhaka for London on September 11 as the government had released him on bail on health ground on September 3.
He is suffering from a number of health complications, including fracture in his spinal bones.
Spectrum of 17.5 MHz sold out to
three mobile phone operators
Staff Correspondent
The Bangladesh Telecommu-nications and Regulatory Commission on Monday sold out 17.5 MHz spectrum to the three mobile operators for Tk 1,400 crore.
The three companies — Grameenphone, Banglalink and Aktel — purchased 7.5, 5 and 5 MHz spectrum respectively, at the rate of Tk 80 crore per MHz, to expand their network in response to the demand for additional frequency with the increasing number of cellular phone users in the country.
With these additional frequencies, the amount of Grameenphone’s frequency will rise to 22 MHz, Banglalink’s to 17.4 MHz and Aktel’s to 17.8 MHz.
These three companies, which applied for the frequency last March, bought the frequency for the first time in Bangladesh after a meeting between them and the BTRC to settle the new spectrum allocation issue.
‘The mobile operators used to get spectrum free of cost earlier. But we though this practice should not be continued. So for the first in the country we have given the frequency in exchange for money,’ Manzurul Alam, chairman of the BTRC, told newsmen at a meet-the-press programme organised in the Setu Bhaban.
‘The quality of the service of these mobile operators will now be improved because of the increase of spectrum,’ said Alam hopefully.
Describing the activities of the BTRC in the last two years, its chairman said, ‘Our main motto was to expand the technology to its maximum extent to enable the people, including the rural masses, to avail themselves of the facilities of the state-of-the-art technology.’
In response to a question whether the BTRC will be able to work freely in the way it is doing now after an elected government takes charge, Alam said, ‘Whatever we did was for the betterment of the people and I hope the next government will not interfere in our affairs.’
‘The moment we feel that there is any undue interference by the government in the future, we will quit. We have done all our work very transparently, and we even issued licenses to the different kinds of telecom operators through open auctions so that nobody could raise any question,’ he added.
‘Within a short period of time, the commission is expecting the telecom act to be amended, which will facilitate our work by giving us the necessary liberty,’ said the BTRC’s chairman hopefully.
Referring to reduction of the internet charge to benefit the users, Alam said, ‘The commission is mulling over reduction of the bandwidth price so that the end users will have internet connectivity at a lower rate. We will also introduce discipline in all the internet service providers of the country by issuing licences so that they cannot charge extra price.’
He said a decision in this connection will be made in late October. He hoped that due to the effect of the measures the commission has taken so far, internet penetration will increase by 30 per cent by 2015.
‘We are working hard so that the mobile users can enjoy the number portability system and International Mobile Equipment Identity from next December,’ he told reporters.
The effect of these two new systems will be extremely beneficial because the mobile users will have the chance to switch over to another cell phone operator without changing his/her existing number, and will be able to make the mobile set dysfunctional if it is lost or stolen, which will discourage further stealing of mobile phones.
‘We are continuing our negotiations with around 30 countries to send our satellite into orbit. We have already got a foreign consultant who will work on the project,’ said Alam.
As regards the ‘roaming cost’ in the South Asian region, Manzurul Alam, who is also the chairman of the South Asian Telecommunications Regulators’ Council, said, ‘The Council is thinking of how an uniform roaming rate can be set for this region.’
He said the commission’s office would be shifted to Ramna, just behind the Engineers’ Institution of Bangladesh, on October 12.
The vice-chairman of the BTRC, Hasan Mahmood Delwar, and the two other commissioners, SM Munir Ahmed and Aliwardy Khandkar, were also present at the meet-the-press programme.
AL prepares manifesto with pledge
to continue anti-corruption drive
Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee
The Awami League has prepared its draft election manifesto, based on a 31-point charter adopted by its allies in 2005, for the ninth parliamentary elections with the pledge to continue the present anti-corruption drive if voted to office.
The proposed manifesto, aiming to include new faces in the list of nominees for the 2008 national polls, will also set specific targets in the political, economic and social sectors whether the party attains power or not, the party’s information and research secretary, Nuh-ul-Alam Lenin, told New Age.
A committee to look after the election issues of the party, headed by HT Imam, recently finalised the draft manifesto for the parliamentary elections to be held on December 18, 2008.
The election was originally scheduled for January 22, 2007, but was stalled because of the promulgation of the state of emergency, on the heels of political turmoil in late 2006, by
a military-backed interim administration pursuing a number
of political reforms agenda.
In the changed political scenario, the AL proposed strengthening of the constitutional bodies like the Public Service Commission, judiciary and Election Commission by amending the necessary provisions to ensure rule of law and stop the politicisation of these constitutional bodies.
The draft manifesto is now being scrutinised by the senior party leaders, including AL’s president Sheikh Hasina who is now in the United States of America.
It may also include several reform proposals put on the plate by the interim administration, said party sources.
The initial draft was prepared by the party’s information and research secretary Nuh-ul-Alam Lenin, after consulting a number of prominent economists, social and political scientists and civil society actors.
‘It was basically drafted for the stalled January 22 elections, but now many provisions have been incorporated in line with the changes that have taken place over the last one and a half year,’ he added.
Lenin said the manifesto would have two parts — the executive summary and elaborations.
The Awami League’s acting general secretary, Syed Ashraful Islam, told New Age said that the party may go for another version of the manifesto after a grand alliance of like-minded parties is forged before the next elections.
The draft manifesto will be placed before the members of the party’s presidium to elicit their opinions, and then the central working committee of the party will give it the final approval sometime after Eid-ul-Fitr.
BNP hatching conspiracies
to foil polls: AL
Terms Hasina bail refusal an ominous sign
Staff Correspondent
The Awami League on Monday said that the BNP-led alliance had raised a five-point charter of demands as it was hatching conspiracies to foil the parliamentary elections scheduled for December 18 and warned that it would be a disaster for the country if the polls were not held on time.
The party leaders also lamented the High Court’s refusal to grant bail to the party president Sheikh Hasina and termed it an ‘ominous sign’.
The acting party president Zillur Rahman has termed the bail denial a great injustice to Hasina.
Addressing a discussion marking the 62nd birthday of Hasina the leaders also demanded withdrawal of all ‘false’ cases against her.
Awami Juba League, youth front of the AL, organised the discussion at the party’s central office on Bangabandhu Avenue, presided over by Mizanur Rahman.
Party presidium member Amir Hossain Amu said some political parties, which had been responsible for the January 11 changeover, were now hatching conspiracies to foil the parliamentary polls.
He said the people of the country were anxiously waiting to see an elected government assume office and they would not accept any plots against the elections. ‘A disaster awaits the country if the elections are foiled’, Amu warned.
Expressing his indignation at the High Court’s refusal to grant bail to Sheikh Hasina, Amu said such attitude would surely call the role of the court into question. He demanded permanent release of Hasina.
Al presidium member Suranjit Sengupta said that the BNP had placed a five-point demand with an aim to push the elections into uncertainty…The BNP-Jamaat alliance is hatching conspiracies to foil the parliamentary elections.
He said the elections must be held on December 18 as scheduled, because there is no alternative to elections.
Referring to the High Court’s refusal to grant Hasina bail, he said the signs were growing ominous. ‘Allow Sheikh Hasina to return home or we will be compelled to take to the streets…Don’t force us to do that…’, Suranjit cautioned.
At a separate programme, the acting AL president, Zillur Rahman, said the High Court’s refusal to grant bail to Hasina was a great injustice when it was granting bail to others.
‘Everyone is getting bail…I am disappointed that she [Hasina] has been denied bail…It’s a great injustice…’, he said while talking with reporters at an iftar party hosted by Islami Oikya Jote faction leader Mesbahur Rahman at a city hotel.
Zillur said [the Mesbahur-led] Islami Oikya Jote was a partner of the AL-led ‘grand’ alliance as the party believed in secularism.
France, India vow to boost civil
nuclear cooperation
Agence France-Presse . Marseille, France
Indian and French leaders vowed Monday to boost nuclear energy cooperation at an annual summit on EU-India ties dominated by trade, global warming and the world financial crisis.
‘France, which has great trust in India and its prime minister, has worked hard so that India can have access to civilian nuclear energy,’ said the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.
He made the comment at a press conference with the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, who arrived in France from the US, where he took India a major step closer to rejoining global nuclear commerce after 30 years in the cold.
Singh was to meet Tuesday in Paris with French political leaders and nuclear energy executives and was expected to sign a major nuclear trade pact.
If the deal goes through, French nuclear giant Areva said Monday it hoped to negotiate the delivery to India of two third-generation European Pressurised Reactors, as well as nuclear fuel.
The US House of Representatives on Saturday passed a major atomic energy pact with New Delhi, which if it gets Senate approval will allow India access to Western technology and cheap atomic energy, provided it allows UN inspections of some of its nuclear facilities.
India was banned from nuclear trade three decades ago after it carried out its first nuclear test and refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty, but the Vienna-based Nuclear Suppliers Group lifted the ban earlier this month after hard lobbying by Washington.
Sarkozy said at Monday’s summit in the southern French port of Marseille that European Union and Indian leaders had decided to ‘accelerate talks’ aimed at reaching a free trade deal.
Singh, the leader of the world’s largest democracy and one of its fastest growing economies, said he wanted the agreement signed by the end of 2009.
The European Union is India’s largest commercial partner — ahead of China — with annual bilateral trade totalling around 60 billion euros (88 billion dollars).
But India ranks only ninth behind South Korea in the EU’s list of major trading partners.
Europe is keen to boost ties with the emerging Asian giant, which is seen as a relative haven of stability in an often volatile region which includes Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The global financial crisis also figured in the Marseille talks.
India has so far been relatively unscathed by the meltdown in the US banking system, but on Monday European banks were again caught up in the turmoil, with bail-outs, sales and attacks on the shares of financial institutions multiplying across the continent.
Sarkozy said that during their talks Singh had shared the French president’s call for a global summit to establish ‘a new international financial system.’
Climate change was also discussed during the talks that lasted about an hour.
Brussels has long accused New Delhi of failing to make stringent efforts to reduce carbon emissions, while India has underlined its status as a developing country that cannot be expected to slow its modernisation.
‘The world needs India in its fight against global warming,’ said Sarkozy, noting that he did not see how ‘India can fight global warming without nuclear energy, which is a clean energy.’
Arrangements for prisoners
to celebrate Eid
Bibhas Chandra Saha
The prison authorities have taken all the necessary arrangements so that the prisoners can observe the Eid in a befitting manner.
The deputy inspector-general of prisons, Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui, said that the prisoners can say their Eid prayers together inside the jail.
‘The authorities have arranged three congregations on the Eid day — the general prisoners will take part in the first congregation at 8:00am, the second one will be for the VIP prisoners and the last one, at 9:00am, will be for the condemned prisoners,’ he said.
There is less pressure as far as the VIP prisoners are concerned since there are only 51 of them, and they will say prayers in the second congregation.
Special food will be given to all the prisoners, including the jailed VIPs, on Eid day. The menu will include vermicelli, meat, pilau and hilsa fish.
There is no provision of sacrificing animals inside the jail but the prisoners can do so outside with the help of their relatives.
As per the provision, the relatives of the prisoners will be allowed to meet them and can give them delicacies after they are checked, he said.
The authorities will arrange cultural programmes for the prisoners, in which artistes from outside can also perform.
The programmes include the games of volleyball, carom and ludu, and cultural programmes like singing, recitation and comedy. However, the authority put special emphasis on comedy which dissipates the habitual gloom of the prisoners.
The prisoners have been participating in sports and cultural competitions for the last 10 days. Those who come out first, second and third in the competitions will be awarded attractive prizes. Complimentary prizes will also be distributed.
Separate arrangements are made for the women prisoners.
At present there are about 10,000 prisoners in the extremely overcrowded Dhaka Central Jail.
EID SALES
Boon to apparel, shoe
traders, dull for others
Staff Correspondent
Experience of traders in Eid sales is mixed this year with the apparel and shoe sellers calling it a boon while traders of furniture, electronics and ornaments reporting a dull sale.
Sales picked up in the last two weeks of Ramadan, market men said giving mixed reaction over their business in one of the largest religious festivals of the Muslims.
Sellers of durable items like furniture or electronic said increasing costs of essential commodities, transportation and treatment had eroded the consumers’ capacity forcing them (sellers of consumer durables) to experience a dull business.
‘Sales are quite good and better than previous years,’ said Tariqur Rahman Milan, chief executive officer of Artisti Collection and a leading local brand of menswear.
An executive of Aarong told New Age that most of the outlets recorded more than expected sales as most of their new arrivals for Eid — be they saris, salwar kamiz, kids wear and panjabees — were acclaimed by the consumers.
The turnover of Aarong, a concern of BRAC, in terms of Eid sales that include apparel, ornaments and leather crafts and other gif items, is expected to be around Tk 70 crore this year, sources at Aarong said.
‘We had a target of Tk 62 crore this year against Tk 55 crore of the previous year, but we are to make upward revision on our target,’ an Aarong executive said.
Fashion market observers said Eid apparel market has been dominated by local boutiques, which introduced thousands of apparel items of varying designs, including that of the ethnic minority communities.
Nasir Khan managing director of the Jennys Shoes, that launched more than 50 designs for Eid, said he was frustrated with the early Ramadan sales, but in the last two weeks of Ramadan, the sales peaked up.
Khoka Sikder, chairman of the Bangladesh Shoe Merchants Association, said he had reports that shoe sellers across the country were happy with the sales.
Selim Rahman, managing director of Hatil Complex and a leader of the Bangladesh Furniture Industries Association, said furniture sellers were frustrated with the dull Eid sales this year.
Nurul Abser, director of Electro Mart, said Eid sales of electronic appliances were by no way satisfactory in comparison with the sales of the previous years.
New Age Sylhet correspondent adds: Eid shopping got momentum in Sylhet after 20th of Ramadan. Businessmen were satisfied with their Eid sales and they found buyers preferring locally produced garments and local popular brands.
The ornament shops also experienced more buyers, but most of them were buying imitation ornaments instead of that of gold.
New Age Khulna correspondent adds: Although the retailers were happy with the sales, wholesalers said the turnover was less than that of the past few years.
The retailers said sales picked up at the end Ramadan with apparel, imitation ornaments, shoes and different electronic goods were on high demand.
New Age Rajshahi correspondent adds: The Eid sales got momentum in Rajshahi at the end of the month of Ramadan with the shoppers crowding at footpaths to posh shopping malls depending on their capacities.
Salesmen, however, said sales disrupted a little in the past two days due to inclement weather.
New Age Barisal correspondent adds: Sellers in most markets said they had experienced a dull business this year as the buying capacity of the commoners had decreased due to price hike of essential commodities and last year’s cyclone Sidr followed by this year’s flooding.
Police foil attempt to lay siege to ministry by Nat’l Committee
to Protect Oil, Gas
Staff Correspondent
The police on Monday foiled the attempt of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power
and Port to lay siege to the ministry of energy in the secretariat.
The committee tried to lay siege to the ministry in protest against the government move to award nine offshore blocks to the international oil companies.
The police attacked the leaders of the committee when they began their march to the ministry from the Muktangan.
The committee leaders, Syed Abul Moksud and Tipu Biswas were slightly injured in the police attack.
The leaders held a rally at the Muktangon first.
The convener of the committee, Sheikh Muhammad Shahidullah said the interim government had finalised its move to lease the blocks to the multinational companies, which went against the national interest.
The member secretary of
the organisation, Anu Muhammad said an artificial gas and power crisis was created in order to hand over the gas and oil blocks to the companies.
The people are ready to resist any such covert attempts by the government, Anu said.
They demanded removal
of the special assistant to the chief adviser, Tamim, claiming that he was ‘collaborating’
with the multinational companies.
The rally was addressed by Syed Abul Moksud, Noor Mohammad, Sushanta Kumar Das, Bimal Biswas, Tipu Biswas, Ahsan Habib Lablu, Saiful Huq, Bazlur Rashid Firoz and Zonayed Saki.
Before holding the rally, a memorandum was handed
over to the office of the chief adviser.
The caretaker government was not interested in the public opinion on the issue, the memorandum said, adding that only an elected government was entitled to take a decision in this regard.
This government has no right to hand over the blocks without informing the people of it, the memorandum said.
Obaidul Quader off to
Delhi for treatment
Staff Correspondent
Awami League joint general secretary Obaidul Quader left Dhaka for New Delhi for medical treatment on Monday, two days after he was barred from boarding a Jet Airways plane at Zia International Airport.
He left ZIA at 9:25am by a Jet Airways flight and was accompanied by an Awami League leader Tarique Shams Khan Himu.
Obaidul left Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital by an ambulance for ZIA at 7:30am. Awami League leaders and activists bade him farewell at the airport. He sought blessings of the countrymen for his recuperation.
Obaidul, also a former state minister for sports, youth and cultural affairs, was severely injured in the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka that left at least 24 people, including a party’s front ranking leader Ivy Rahman, dead and injured and maimed many others.
Since then, he has been suffering from a number of serious ailments, including a neurological disease causing muscle wastage and weakness.
He was released on bail at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital on September 5, where he remained for treatment. He was arrested on March 9, 2007 on graft charges.
Earlier, the BSMMU medical board, led by Prof AKM Anwar Ullah, examined him and suggested him to go to Apollo Hospital of Delhi in India for follow up treatment of the metallic pellets which still remain in his body.
The medical board also suggested a metallic-friendly MRI of cervical spine also in abroad and absolute bed rest for three weeks.
He may have to go to Germany for the metallic-friendly MRI after treatment at the Apollo Hospital in Delhi, his lawyer AKM Aminuddin Manik said.
EC unaware of BNP, allies’
5-point demand
Staff Correspondent
The Election Commission has said it is not aware if the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance has raised a five-point demand for ensuring participation of all political parties in the next general elections.
‘We know nothing about any such demands of any party’, election commissioner M Sakhawat Hossain told New Age at the commission secretariat on Monday when he was asked if the alliance’s five-point charter of demands would be met before the parliamentary polls.
The BNP-led alliance on Sunday announced that it would stage rallies across the country on October 12 to press home its five-point charter of demands, which includes deferment of the upazila polls to ensure participation of all political parties in the ninth parliamentary elections scheduled for December 18.
The demands also include complete withdrawal of the state of emergency, cancellation of the Representation of the People (Amendment) Ordinance, deferment of the upazila elections by a rational length of time, withdrawal of the GATCO, Niko and Barapukuria cases, and freeing all the detained politicians before Eid.
StanChart CEO surrenders, gets bail
Bdnews24.com . Dhaka
Standard Chartered Bank CEO Osman Tarik Murad was granted bail Monday after surrendering to court in a car seizure case for which an arrest warrant had been issued against the foreign national.
Murad appeared before the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court seeking bail after an arrest warrant was issued against him on September 22.
Afroza Jamil filed the case against Murad and the bank’s senior manager Zia Hasan Chowdhury on March 30.
The case claimed that the plaintiff’s husband bought a car with credit from Standard Chartered, but the bank forcibly seized the car before repayment of the loan.
Murad’s lawyers told the court that their client was a Pakistani national, involved in activities relating to Bangladesh’s economic development and policy-making in line with global markets. He is not involved with bank loan and loan recovery, the lawyers said.
The plaintiff’s husband failed to make repayments as per the loan conditions despite repeated requests by letter, they said.
The car was seized according to the loan conditions, Murad’s lawyers said.
Tuesday World Business News
SoEs owe four state-owned
banks Tk 1,512 crore
Staff Correspondent
The classified loans amount of state-owned enterprises to four state-run commercial banks stood at around Tk 1512 crore till August 31st, 2008, up by about Tk 220 crore from its figure in three months back, sources in the banking sector said.
The SoEs owe the highest amount of Tk 819.68 crore to Sonali Bank, followed by Tk 428.10 crore to Rupali Bank, Tk 247.51 crore to Agrani Bank and Tk 15.88 crore to Janata Bank in August, 2008, according to the latest figures compiled by the Bangladesh Bank.
The public sector entities owed Tk 1292 crore to the four state-owned lenders up to May 31st, 2008. Of the amount, the SoEs owed the highest amount of Tk 602.24 crore to Sonali Bank, followed by Tk 429.28 crore to Rupali Bank, Tk 248.57 crore to Agrani Bank and Tk 10.94 crore to Janata Bank, according to the figures compiled by the Bangladesh Bank.
Providing guarantee from the finance ministry in issuing loans to the financially ailing state-owned enterprises is a main cause for stockpiling of huge bad loans in the state-owned banks, bankers observed.
‘Sometimes, we become compelled to issue loans to state-owned enterprises, which suffer from shortage in their working capital or cash to pay salaries to their employees,’ a chief executive officer of a state-owned bank told New Age.
‘While providing loans to the SoEs, on many occasions the matter of feasibility of return of the loans had to forgo due to the status of the enterprises,’ he added.
An executive of Sonali Bank said the finance ministry on many occasions gave guarantee for re-payment of the loan money in favour of the SoEs.
As per the latest figure, Bangladesh Jute Mills
Corporation alone accounted for about Tk 902.79 crore or 60 per cent of the total classified loans amount followed by Bangladesh Textile Mills Corporation for Tk 235.99 crore, Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation for Tk 89.87 crore, Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation for Tk 21.27 crore, Bangladesh Shipping Corporation for Tk 8.33 crore, BFFWT for Tk 12.09 crore and BTB for Tk 10.90 crore.
The boards of directors of three corporatised banks — Sonali, Janata and Agrani — are expected to take serious
steps in lending to SoEs, considering their unsatisfactory performance as clients, sources said.
‘We will raise the issue to the finance ministry to solve the problems immediately,’ the chairman of a corporatised state-bank told New Age.
‘We are ready to disburse agriculture loans among farmers on lower interest rates, but we can no longer afford to lend money to the SoEs to increase our bad debt burden more.’
Two lakh festival tourists expected
Our Correspondent . Cox’s Bazar
Beach resort town Cox’s Bazar is gearing up for hosting at least two lakh local tourists in the first two weeks of October which will see two biggest religious festivals Eid-ul-Fitr and Durga Puja.
Hospitality industry people said accommodations in almost all the 110 residential hotels and motels and 50 guesthouses were booked in advance, and festival tourists already started pouring in.
District administration and law enforcing agencies have taken up measures to ensure safety of travellers, mostly coming with families.
Abul Kasem Sikder, general secretary of Cox’s Bazar Hotel-Motel Owners’ Association, said they estimated that the beach town would see more than two lakh tourist arrivals. Almost all the hotels, motels and guesthouses have already been booked from October 1 to 12, he informed.
Deputy commissioner Manjur Alam Bhuiyan on Monday chaired a meeting that discussed the law and order situation of the town, sea beach and other tourist sites like Himchhari, Chokoria safari park, Moheskhali and St. Martin’s islands and Teknaf.
District commanding officer Lt. Col. Mostahidur Rahman, additional superintendent of police Imam Hossein, senior administration officials Arifur Rahman and Omar Farook, Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation official Sujit Barua and Hotel Seagull managing director Masum Iqbal were among those who attended the meeting.
State lenders owe NBR Tk 895cr
in tax arrears
Asif Showkat
National Board of Revenue has asked the finance ministry to pay Tk 895 crore in income tax arrears of eight state-owned commercial and specialised banks, ministry officials said.
These banks did not pay any income tax for the last 22 years since 1986-87 fiscal, the revenue authority said in a letter Monday, requesting the ministry to make the payment from its specified head of expenditures.
‘The payment of long overdue tax money will help the NBR meet its revenue income target,’ said a high official of the finance ministry.
He said the ministry would prepare a proposal to release Tk 895 crore after eid vacation and send it to finance adviser Mirza Azizul Islam for approval.
Bangladesh Shilpa Bank owes Tk 42 crore in income tax arrears accumulated for 22 years, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank Tk 4.72 crore and Bangladesh Krishi Bank Tk 89 crore.
Unpaid income tax of Janata Bank totaled Tk 316 crore, Sonali Bank Tk 279.63 crore and Rupali Bank Tk 48 crore, while Pubali Bank owes Tk 80 lakh.
The revenue board realised tax arrears of Tk 1,300 crore from Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation through budgetary provision in the last fiscal year.
Prices of traditional Eid food
items shoot up as usual
Staff Correspondent
The prices of some food items including beef, chicken, certain vegetables, sugar, edible oil, pilau rice, spices and shemai have increased further in the city’s market in the past couple of days.
Market sources said that in accordance with their traditional practice, traders want to reap windfall profits from Eid shoppers, so they started raising prices from the Shab-e-Kadr on Saturday.
Beef cost between Tk 200 and Tk 240 per kilogram on Monday against Tk 180 to Tk 200 just three days ago in the different markets of the city.
Bengal Meat, a supplier of chilled and packaged beef, has raised its retail price to Tk 235 per kilogram from Tk 210.
The prices of live broiler chicken, which were between Tk 120 and Tk 130, went up by Tk 10 in just a couple of days.
The retail price of cucumber, carrots and tomatoes also increased in the past two or three days as their demand increased due to the need for salad in every home on the Eid day.
‘There is reckless profiteering by traders during any festival because the consumers are helpless then,’ said Haji Mosharaf Hossain, a shopper at Mahakhali bazaar.
Pilau rice, which was selling for prices ranging between Tk 110 to Tk 120 per kilogram, became costlier by Tk 10 in a week and Tk 20 in month.
In the past one week the prices of spices, especially cardamom, cinnamon, clove and cumin, increased by Tk 50 to Tk 100 per kilogram.
The price of liquid milk also increased in different areas of the city as its demand increased sharply ahead of Eid.
In many areas of the city a one-litre pack of liquid milk, of different brands, cost between Tk 55 and Tk 60 on Sunday against its regular price of Tk 46 to Tk 50.
‘Many people prefer to prepare shemai and other Eid day sweetmeats by using liquid milk, so the demand rises sharply,’ said Abu Taher, a grocer at New Market.
The prices of vermicelli or shemai also increased sharply this year as traders said the price of flour and vanaspati increased sharply.
Non-packed and unflavoured long shemai cost between Tk 55 and Tk 65 per kilogram, up by Tk 10 over the year, while non-packed lachchha shemai cost between Tk 120 and Tk 160 against Tk 80 and Tk 120 last year.
The popular 200-gram pack of lachchha, of different brands, cost between Tk 26 and Tk 30 while lachchha of famous brands cost up to Tk 400 per kilogram.
The prices of edible oils, after declining in the previous few weeks, increased again as traders said there is a fresh uptrend in their prices in the international market, and the higher demand before Eid has pushed up the prices.
Non-packed super palm cost between Tk 85 and Tk 90 per kilogram in different outlets against Tk 80 a week ago.
US bailout agreed but financial
crisis hits Europe
Agence France-Presse . New York
US lawmakers agreed a 700 billion dollar bank bailout but the financial hurricane hit European banks full on Monday forcing nationalisations, rescues and a new stocks slump.
After US lawmakers stitched together a revised agreement on the biggest state intervention since the Great Depression of the 1930s, Britain had to nationalise Bradford & Bingley bank, governments intervened to prop up Belgian-Dutch group Fortis and other European banks got sucked into the storm.
European and Asian shares were badly hit.
The US House of Representa-tives was to vote Monday on the plan negotiated through the weekend by rival Democratic and Republican leaders with the White House. But the package was not certain to be passed.
President George W Bush said the rescue 'sends a strong signal to markets around the world that the United States is serious about restoring confidence and stability to our financial system.'
But some conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats steadfastly opposed the plan, which includes the immediate release of 250 billion dollars to enable the government to buy up troubled assets.
'We now have a deal that promises to bring near-term stability to our financial turmoil, but at what price?' Republican Congressman Michael Pence, a critic of the bailout, asked in a letter to colleagues.
And White House hopefuls Republican John McCain and his Democratic rival Barack Obama offered only cautious backing.
'The party is over,' said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. 'The era of golden parachutes for high-flying Wall Street operators is over. No longer will the US taxpayer bail out the recklessness of Wall Street.'
But any relief internationally came too late for Fortis, one of the biggest banks in northern Europe, which was rescued by Benelux governments for 11.2 billion euros ($16b) at the weekend. Fortis shares rallied by 14.5 per cent in initial trading after crashing last week.
European shares were badly hit by the uncertainty over the US plan and the bad news.
Stocks in London dived by 2.51 per cent, Frankfurt shares fell 3.16 and Paris was down 2.87 per cent after Tokyo fell 1.26 per cent and Hong Kong lost 4.3 per cent.
'Despite the US bail out plan now being committed to paper, there's hardly a jubilant mood expected as the new trading week gets underway,' said CMC Markets dealer Matt Buckland in London.
'The fact the funds won't be released in one lot but instead a series of tranches is certainly detracting from its appeal.
'This, combined with the very visible scars of the credit squeeze ... will again weigh in sentiment,' he added, in reference to the B&B and Fortis rescues.
Barclays Capital analyst David Woo said: 'In our view, while the 'bailout plan' reduces the risk of a systemic collapse, many downside risks remain -- not least those related to a protracted slowdown in the global economy.
'In addition ... the financial market turbulence is seriously affecting the European financial system as well.'
He added: 'The weakness in equities ... suggests the market is pessimistic about the likely effectiveness of the Treasury's plan.'
Motomi Hiratsuka, a trader at BNP Paribas, said: 'We know that we are most likely to avoid a meltdown in the US financial sector, but what matters now is negative news from new regions.'
S Korea signs deal to import
Russian gas via N Korea
Agence France-Presse . Seoul
South Korea has signed a deal to import Russian natural gas beginning in 2015 via a pipeline running through North Korea and across the heavily fortified border, the government said Monday.
The Ministry of Knowledge Economy said Korea Gas Corp and Gazprom reached the initial deal in Moscow on the sidelines of a South Korea-Russian summit.
Under the plan, Seoul will import 10 billion cubic metres (350b cft) of natural gas a year over 30 years, said Vice Energy Minister Lee Jae-Hoon.
Lee, quoted by Yonhap news agency, said gas imports over the three decades would be worth a total of about 90 billion dollars.
Another nine billion dollars would be used to build and operate joint petrochemical and liquefied natural gas plants in Russia’s Far East, with their products marketed abroad.
The remainder would fund pipes built in North Korea.
Lee said the plan proposed by Russia in February calls for gasfields in Siberia and the Far East to be linked by pipelines that will send fuel to Vladivostok.
The piped gas would then be sent through North Korea to South Korea.
‘Russia will be tasked with building the pipelines and negotiating with North Korea,’ Lee said, adding that Pyongyang will likely agree to the proposal since it stands to earn 100 million dollars per year from it.
Relations are currently frosty between the two Koreas. Pyongyang cut off most official contacts after a new conservative government in Seoul vowed to take a firmer line in cross-border relations.
A six-nation nuclear disarmament deal is also deadlocked, with the North preparing to restart its plutonium reprocessing plant. Lee said the Korean and Russian firms are also considering ways to liquefy the natural gas and send it by ship to South Korea as a contingency plan, should complications arise in North Korea.
Citi named in 100 best cos list
Staff Correspondent
Citi, a global financial services company, has been named in the 100 best companies list by Working Mother magazine for the 18th year.
About 25 per cent of the top earners at Citi represent women. The company has established best practices at Citi with embarking on new initiatives like Global Women’s Initiative launched in 2008. The initiative was aimed at helping women network and mentoring each other. Citi also provides child-care centre facilities in different locations, said a press release.
At Citibank Bangladesh around 20 per cent of the employees are women, including working mothers. Women also represent many senior positions at Citibank Bangladesh, including the management committee.
Stock markets slump despite
US bailout deal
Agence France-Presse . London
Global stock markets tumbled on Monday, despite a Wall Street bailout deal, as the ongoing financial crisis forced the state rescue of two key European banks.
Asian and European equities suffered fresh losses as the tentative US agreement to rid the financial sector of toxic mortgage-related assets gave only a short-lived boost to sentiment.
In Europe, Belgian-Dutch banking and insurance group Fortis sealed a government bailout, while Britain announced it would nationalise troubled mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley.
Investors were unsettled by signs of widening problems in the banking sector. London’s stock market dived 2.51 per cent at 4,960.61 points in early deals, accelerating initial losses.
Paris shares plunged 2.87 per cent to 4,043.74 points and Frankfurt tumbled 3.16 per cent to 5,871.64 points.
Global central banks meanwhile pumped extra cash into the financial system as part of continued efforts to keep credit flowing.
‘Despite the US bail out plan now being committed to paper, there’s hardly a jubilant mood expected as the new trading week gets underway,’ said CMC Markets dealer Matt Buckland in London.
‘The fact the funds won’t be released in one lot but instead a series of tranches is certainly detracting from its appeal.
‘This, combined with the very visible scars of the credit squeeze ... will again weigh in sentiment,’ he added, in reference to the state rescues of B&B and Fortis.
The European Central Bank announced a special 38-day euro loan to provide eurozone banks with more cash in a bid to balance conditions on extremely tense interbank money markets.
German bank Hypo Real Estate was meanwhile granted a last-minute ‘multi-billion euro’ credit line from a consortium of German banks that allowed it to avoid declaring bankruptcy.
Hong Kong share prices closed down 4.3 per cent on Monday, as banking giant HSBC bumped up its mortgage rate, sending property stocks tumbling, dealers said.
Tokyo fell 1.26 per cent by the close, Sydney lost 2.0 per cent and Seoul dropped 1.35 per cent.
There were still doubts about the proposed US financial rescue package, which needs to be approved by Congress and offers no guarantee of an end to the credit crunch that has ravaged global markets, dealers said.
‘In our view, while the ‘bailout plan’ reduces the risk of a systemic collapse, many downside risks remain — not least those related to a protracted slowdown in the global economy,’ said Barclays Capital analyst David Woo.
‘In addition ... the financial market turbulence is seriously affecting the European financial system as well.’
He added: ‘The weakness in equities ... suggests the market is pessimistic about the likely effectiveness of the Treasury’s plan.’
The US deal, announced just hours before Asian markets opened, is designed to mop up toxic debts from struggling banks and prevent further financial chaos that could tip the world’s largest economy into recession.
The bailout, worth up to 700 billion dollars, would be the largest government economic intervention since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and aims to shore up an economy in the face of a severe housing slump.
‘We know that we are most likely to avoid a meltdown in the US financial sector, but what matters now is negative news from new regions,’ added Motomi Hiratsuka, a trader at BNP Paribas.
With markets still skittish, the Australian and Japanese central banks pumped more emergency funds into the short-term money markets.
US Treasury secretary Henry Paulson said the package ‘gives us the flexibility to unclog our financial markets and increase the ability of our financial institutions to deliver the credit that will help create jobs.’
Democratic lawmakers warned US financial firms that they would be under stricter supervision from now on.
‘The party is over,’ said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. ‘The era of golden parachutes for high-flying Wall Street operators is over. No longer will the US taxpayer bail out the recklessness of Wall Street.’
The measures laid out in the bill include the immediate release of 250 billion dollars to enable the government to buy up troubled assets.
The US president is authorised to approve a further 100 billion dollars, but the plan gives Congress a veto power over purchases above that limit and sets a ceiling for all purchases of 700 billion dollars.
The deal on the rescue plan provided a modest boost to the dollar, while worries about problems at European banks weighed on the euro.
ECB loans €120b in 38-day tender
Agence France-Presse . Frankfurt
The European Central Bank said Monday it had loaned eurozone banks 120 billion euros ($172b) in a special 38-day operation aimed at soothing extremely tense interbank money markets.
The ECB had said earlier in a statement that ‘the special term refinancing operation will be renewed at least until beyond the end of the year,’ amid increased pressure at the end of the third quarter.
‘The ECB will continue to steer liquidity towards balanced conditions’ in an attempt to bring interbank interest rates in line with the bank’s own minimum rate, it added.
Commercial banks usually lend and borrow cash on interbank money markets but these have almost completely dried up since the US market for high-risk, or subprime, mortgages collapsed more than a year ago.
The ECB and other major central banks have thus been pumping hundreds of billions of dollars, euros, pounds and other currencies in the form of loans into such markets.
On Monday, the ECB also rolled over one-day dollar loans to eurozone banks, renewing that operation for a total amount of 30 billion dollars (€20.8b).
The dollars were obtained from the US Federal Reserve through a reciprocal currency agreement known as a swap, and allow eurozone banks to obtain the US currency directly from the ECB.
Initially, the one-day loans were for 40 billion dollars, but the ECB reduced that amount last week, while extending other dollar loans to a period of one week.
‘Injections of dollar liquidity by the ECB, Bank of England and Swiss National Bank have highlighted the sizeable dollar exposures among European banks,’ Citibank analysts wrote on Monday.
Fortis admits errors after
bailout by governments
Agence France-Presse . Brussels
Troubled financial group Fortis admitted on Monday that past errors had triggered the crisis that required the Benelux nations to hastily hammer out a 11.2 billion euro bailout over the weekend.
Despite assurances last week it had ample funding, Fortis was forced to turn to the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments for help late Sunday after a foreign suitor could not be found to save the banking and insurance group.
While blaming market ‘speculation’ and ‘rumours’ for a sharp slide in Fortis shares last week, newly appointed chief executive Filip Dierckx acknowledged that strategic mistakes also played a part in the group’s woes.
‘I am ... not going to deny that if you look at some of the decisions that were taken in the past then you can say that probably they were done at the wrong moment,’ he told journalists and analysts in a conference call.
‘If you want me to say that there were some decisions that were not the best I will indeed confirm,’ added Dierckx, who took up his post after predecessor Herman Verwilst was unexpectedly moved aside on Friday.
Dierckx, who took over after the company’s shares plummeted by 20 per cent on Friday, highlighted last year’s involvement in the buyout of Dutch group ABN Amro as a key mistake.
‘Clearly indeed there was bad timing in the ABN Amro deal,’ he said.
Fortis paid 24 billion euros for its part in a consortium buy-out for ABN Amro at the height of the market, but by Sunday the figure of 10 billion euros was being mentioned as a possible selling price.
The new Fortis chief, who admitted he hadn’t got much sleep over the weekend as the state bailout talks unfurled, said he ‘felt a very strong commitment from a lot of parties involved to solve and to come to a good solution.
‘I think it personally is a very good agreement.’
Earlier Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders insisted that the partial nationalisation of Fortis was only a temporary measure to support the bank.
‘Our ambition is clearly not to remain present as shareholders,’ Reynders told public radio RTBF.
After seeing nearly a quarter of its stock market value wiped out over the past week, shares in Fortis opened up nearly 15 per cent in Brussels on Monday but by early afternoon were down 3.85 per cent at 5.00 euros.
UK govt nationalises Bradford
and Bingley
Agence France-Presse . London
The British government announced Monday the nationalisation of troubled lender Bradford & Bingley, the latest European victim of the fast-moving global financial crisis.
B&B’s savings business — its best asset with 20 billion pounds of savings and 2.7 million customers — will be sold to Spanish bank Santander, while its mortgage book will be nationalised, the Treasury said.
Abbey National, the British bank owned by Santander, will pay 612 million pounds ($1.1m) in the deal.
‘What you’re seeing is the government taking quick, decisive action, we’re standing behind the system to stabilise it because to let Bradford & Bingley go down would have destabilised the entire system,’ finance minister Alistair Darling told BBC radio. ‘The government has got to provide stability.’
Bradford & Bingley is the second British bank to be nationalised this year, after Northern Rock in February.
The FTSE 100 stock market in London plunged 2.63 per cent in early morning trade, falling to 4,954.11 points as investors digested the deal as well as a massive bailout of Wall Street in the United States.
Hours before the deal was confirmed, US lawmakers agreed on the details of an unprecedented 700 billion dollar bailout for struggling Wall Street banks in a bid to avert the worst financial crisis since the 1930s Great Depression.
The Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments also mobilised to help troubled financial group Fortis on Sunday, agreeing to inject 11.2 billion euros ($16b), Belgian prime minister Yves Leterme said.
The Belgian government said Monday it was prepared to support Dexia, another high-street bank, after its shares nose-dived in early trading.
In another sign of the trouble facing European lenders, Denmark’s Roskilde Bank said Monday it had been sold to Nordic bank Nordea and two regional Danish lenders, Arbejdernes Landsbank and Spar Nord Bank.
In Britain over the weekend, officials from the Treasury, the Financial Services Authority watchdog and the Bank of England met to try to secure the future of B&B, which has also suffered from a property market downturn.
Anto Horta-Oso, Abbey National’s chief executive, said the deal was ‘good news’ for B&B’s savings customers, adding: ‘They can be certain that their hard-earned savings are with a bank they can trust.’
Foreign investors eject $540m
from Pak stock market
Asia News Network . Karachi
Foreign investors have ejected $540 million from the Pakistani stock market in only three months from July to September amid prolonged political uncertainty, burgeoning insecurity in the tribal belt of the country coupled with global and local economic slowdown.
So far this month, foreign investors have withdrawn $96 million, reflecting an increase of $68 million versus $28 million outflow witnessed in a month earlier. While inflow during September was recorded at $82 million. A major outflow of portfolio investment was recorded from the investors of the US, the UK, Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.
Pakistani market has been facing turmoil for the last four months that led the market to shed around 40 per cent. In this period, many small investors have been washed out from the stock market while others are facing back to back decline despite the freeze on shares prices.
Those closely watching the ebb and flow of Pakistani market linked the huge capital flight to deteriorating law and order situation, economic weaknesses, like dwindling forex reserves, devaluation of rupee against US dollar coupled with the unprecedented financial turmoil in the US, which sent shock waves to all other leading capital markets of the globe.
Analysts also held the view that the imposition of floor on the market had sent a negative signal to foreign investors and those still trapped in the market were waiting for lifting of floor from the market to make an exit.
Analysts said that as long as the tension remained in the tribal belt, which was being linked with the suicide bombings in the mega cities of the country, the foreign investments would continue to wobble and may witness further downgrading.
Analysts said that Moody’s verdict had also dealt a severe blow to the confidence of foreign investors and local investors as well.
The steep decline in the stock market and economic meltdown has severely hit the confidence of foreign investors, analysts added.
Storm may hit Indian aviation,
if steps not taken: IATA
Press Trust of India . New Delhi
Warning that some Indian airlines could fold up if structural changes were not carried out immediately, the IATA has asked the government to take speedy steps to enable the industry weather the ‘perfect storm’ of high costs and falling demand.
‘India is among the most expensive places on the planet to buy aviation turbine fuel from. In August, it was 58 per cent more expensive to buy fuel in Mumbai for domestic flights than in Singapore,’ International Air Transport Association director general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani told PTI in an interview in New Delhi.
Observing that the Indian aviation industry was passing through a ‘fragile and delicate moment,’ he said some airlines could go bust in the coming few months if “structural changes are not carried out expeditiously.’
As many as 25 carriers worldwide have folded up operations in the past several months due to huge losses, the latest being Italian national carrier Alitalia, leading to over 100,000 jobs in the aviation sector being lost.
He projected a cumulative loss of $1.5 billion for Indian carriers this year, second largest after that in the US.
Japan faces uncertainty from
financial crisis
Agence France-Presse . Tokyo
Japan will likely avoid a deep slump from the global credit crisis but faces ‘considerable uncertainty’ and downside risks to growth, a top central bank official said Monday.
The possibility of a dive on the back of the Wall Street crisis ‘is rather small,’ Bank of Japan deputy governor Kiyohiko Nishi-mura told a news conference.
But ‘the outlook for economic activity is accompanied by considerable uncertainty and various risk factors could influence the outlook,’ he said.
The central bank ‘is attentive to downside risks to economic growth,’ he added.
Despite being relatively insulated from the US-born subprime crisis, Japan’s export-driven economy is teetering on recession due to a cooling global economy and tepid domestic spending. Nishimura lauded recent investments by Japanese banks that have embarked on a buying spree of US banks, which have crumbled due to massive mortgage-related losses and failure to secure funds.
‘Each financial institution in Japan is trying to improve its earnings and in doing that they are looking for the most appropriate way to utilise their resources,’ Nishimura said. ‘So in that sense it is desirable.’
Japan reaches free trade deals
with Vietnam, Switzerland
Agence France-Presse . Tokyo
Japan said Monday said it had struck free trade deals with Vietnam and Switzerland, seeking to strengthen economic ties with individual countries amid a deadlock in World Trade Organisation talks.
About 92 per cent of trade in goods between Japan and Vietnam will be duty-free within the next 10 years, Tokyo officials said.
Under the agreement with Switzerland, Japan’s first with a European country, 99 per cent of trade will be tariff-free within a decade. Neither agreement has been formally signed yet.
‘Vietnam gave us a high level of liberalisation that it had never given to other countries such as China and South Korea’ under their deals with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a foreign ministry official said.
Japan, Asia’s largest economy, has also already signed a separate deal with the whole of ASEAN, which includes Vietnam.
Vietnam will get free access to the Japanese market for shrimps, durian, and okra, among other farm and marine products, while Japan will secure duty-free trade for its auto parts, steel and electronic goods, officials said.
Citigroup to take over Wachovia
banking assets, gives US stake
Agence France-Presse . Washington
US authorities said Monday they had facilitated a takeover of Wachovia’s banking operations by Citigroup Inc in a deal that gives the government a stake in one of the nation’s biggest banks.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp made the announcement that further reshapes the troubled US banking sector saddled with heavy losses from the bursting of the real estate bubble.
‘Wachovia did not fail; rather, it is to be acquired by Citigroup Inc on an open bank basis with assistance from the FDIC,’ the government agency said.
The government will get a stake in Citigroup in exchange for guaranteeing a large portion of the distressed Wachovia assets linked to housing.
Citi will assume up to 42 billion dollars of losses from a pool of 312 billion dollars of loans held by Wachovia; the FDIC will absorb losses beyond that and take a stake in Citigroup for the guarantee.
banks Tk 1,512 crore
Staff Correspondent
The classified loans amount of state-owned enterprises to four state-run commercial banks stood at around Tk 1512 crore till August 31st, 2008, up by about Tk 220 crore from its figure in three months back, sources in the banking sector said.
The SoEs owe the highest amount of Tk 819.68 crore to Sonali Bank, followed by Tk 428.10 crore to Rupali Bank, Tk 247.51 crore to Agrani Bank and Tk 15.88 crore to Janata Bank in August, 2008, according to the latest figures compiled by the Bangladesh Bank.
The public sector entities owed Tk 1292 crore to the four state-owned lenders up to May 31st, 2008. Of the amount, the SoEs owed the highest amount of Tk 602.24 crore to Sonali Bank, followed by Tk 429.28 crore to Rupali Bank, Tk 248.57 crore to Agrani Bank and Tk 10.94 crore to Janata Bank, according to the figures compiled by the Bangladesh Bank.
Providing guarantee from the finance ministry in issuing loans to the financially ailing state-owned enterprises is a main cause for stockpiling of huge bad loans in the state-owned banks, bankers observed.
‘Sometimes, we become compelled to issue loans to state-owned enterprises, which suffer from shortage in their working capital or cash to pay salaries to their employees,’ a chief executive officer of a state-owned bank told New Age.
‘While providing loans to the SoEs, on many occasions the matter of feasibility of return of the loans had to forgo due to the status of the enterprises,’ he added.
An executive of Sonali Bank said the finance ministry on many occasions gave guarantee for re-payment of the loan money in favour of the SoEs.
As per the latest figure, Bangladesh Jute Mills
Corporation alone accounted for about Tk 902.79 crore or 60 per cent of the total classified loans amount followed by Bangladesh Textile Mills Corporation for Tk 235.99 crore, Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation for Tk 89.87 crore, Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation for Tk 21.27 crore, Bangladesh Shipping Corporation for Tk 8.33 crore, BFFWT for Tk 12.09 crore and BTB for Tk 10.90 crore.
The boards of directors of three corporatised banks — Sonali, Janata and Agrani — are expected to take serious
steps in lending to SoEs, considering their unsatisfactory performance as clients, sources said.
‘We will raise the issue to the finance ministry to solve the problems immediately,’ the chairman of a corporatised state-bank told New Age.
‘We are ready to disburse agriculture loans among farmers on lower interest rates, but we can no longer afford to lend money to the SoEs to increase our bad debt burden more.’
Two lakh festival tourists expected
Our Correspondent . Cox’s Bazar
Beach resort town Cox’s Bazar is gearing up for hosting at least two lakh local tourists in the first two weeks of October which will see two biggest religious festivals Eid-ul-Fitr and Durga Puja.
Hospitality industry people said accommodations in almost all the 110 residential hotels and motels and 50 guesthouses were booked in advance, and festival tourists already started pouring in.
District administration and law enforcing agencies have taken up measures to ensure safety of travellers, mostly coming with families.
Abul Kasem Sikder, general secretary of Cox’s Bazar Hotel-Motel Owners’ Association, said they estimated that the beach town would see more than two lakh tourist arrivals. Almost all the hotels, motels and guesthouses have already been booked from October 1 to 12, he informed.
Deputy commissioner Manjur Alam Bhuiyan on Monday chaired a meeting that discussed the law and order situation of the town, sea beach and other tourist sites like Himchhari, Chokoria safari park, Moheskhali and St. Martin’s islands and Teknaf.
District commanding officer Lt. Col. Mostahidur Rahman, additional superintendent of police Imam Hossein, senior administration officials Arifur Rahman and Omar Farook, Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation official Sujit Barua and Hotel Seagull managing director Masum Iqbal were among those who attended the meeting.
State lenders owe NBR Tk 895cr
in tax arrears
Asif Showkat
National Board of Revenue has asked the finance ministry to pay Tk 895 crore in income tax arrears of eight state-owned commercial and specialised banks, ministry officials said.
These banks did not pay any income tax for the last 22 years since 1986-87 fiscal, the revenue authority said in a letter Monday, requesting the ministry to make the payment from its specified head of expenditures.
‘The payment of long overdue tax money will help the NBR meet its revenue income target,’ said a high official of the finance ministry.
He said the ministry would prepare a proposal to release Tk 895 crore after eid vacation and send it to finance adviser Mirza Azizul Islam for approval.
Bangladesh Shilpa Bank owes Tk 42 crore in income tax arrears accumulated for 22 years, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank Tk 4.72 crore and Bangladesh Krishi Bank Tk 89 crore.
Unpaid income tax of Janata Bank totaled Tk 316 crore, Sonali Bank Tk 279.63 crore and Rupali Bank Tk 48 crore, while Pubali Bank owes Tk 80 lakh.
The revenue board realised tax arrears of Tk 1,300 crore from Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation through budgetary provision in the last fiscal year.
Prices of traditional Eid food
items shoot up as usual
Staff Correspondent
The prices of some food items including beef, chicken, certain vegetables, sugar, edible oil, pilau rice, spices and shemai have increased further in the city’s market in the past couple of days.
Market sources said that in accordance with their traditional practice, traders want to reap windfall profits from Eid shoppers, so they started raising prices from the Shab-e-Kadr on Saturday.
Beef cost between Tk 200 and Tk 240 per kilogram on Monday against Tk 180 to Tk 200 just three days ago in the different markets of the city.
Bengal Meat, a supplier of chilled and packaged beef, has raised its retail price to Tk 235 per kilogram from Tk 210.
The prices of live broiler chicken, which were between Tk 120 and Tk 130, went up by Tk 10 in just a couple of days.
The retail price of cucumber, carrots and tomatoes also increased in the past two or three days as their demand increased due to the need for salad in every home on the Eid day.
‘There is reckless profiteering by traders during any festival because the consumers are helpless then,’ said Haji Mosharaf Hossain, a shopper at Mahakhali bazaar.
Pilau rice, which was selling for prices ranging between Tk 110 to Tk 120 per kilogram, became costlier by Tk 10 in a week and Tk 20 in month.
In the past one week the prices of spices, especially cardamom, cinnamon, clove and cumin, increased by Tk 50 to Tk 100 per kilogram.
The price of liquid milk also increased in different areas of the city as its demand increased sharply ahead of Eid.
In many areas of the city a one-litre pack of liquid milk, of different brands, cost between Tk 55 and Tk 60 on Sunday against its regular price of Tk 46 to Tk 50.
‘Many people prefer to prepare shemai and other Eid day sweetmeats by using liquid milk, so the demand rises sharply,’ said Abu Taher, a grocer at New Market.
The prices of vermicelli or shemai also increased sharply this year as traders said the price of flour and vanaspati increased sharply.
Non-packed and unflavoured long shemai cost between Tk 55 and Tk 65 per kilogram, up by Tk 10 over the year, while non-packed lachchha shemai cost between Tk 120 and Tk 160 against Tk 80 and Tk 120 last year.
The popular 200-gram pack of lachchha, of different brands, cost between Tk 26 and Tk 30 while lachchha of famous brands cost up to Tk 400 per kilogram.
The prices of edible oils, after declining in the previous few weeks, increased again as traders said there is a fresh uptrend in their prices in the international market, and the higher demand before Eid has pushed up the prices.
Non-packed super palm cost between Tk 85 and Tk 90 per kilogram in different outlets against Tk 80 a week ago.
US bailout agreed but financial
crisis hits Europe
Agence France-Presse . New York
US lawmakers agreed a 700 billion dollar bank bailout but the financial hurricane hit European banks full on Monday forcing nationalisations, rescues and a new stocks slump.
After US lawmakers stitched together a revised agreement on the biggest state intervention since the Great Depression of the 1930s, Britain had to nationalise Bradford & Bingley bank, governments intervened to prop up Belgian-Dutch group Fortis and other European banks got sucked into the storm.
European and Asian shares were badly hit.
The US House of Representa-tives was to vote Monday on the plan negotiated through the weekend by rival Democratic and Republican leaders with the White House. But the package was not certain to be passed.
President George W Bush said the rescue 'sends a strong signal to markets around the world that the United States is serious about restoring confidence and stability to our financial system.'
But some conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats steadfastly opposed the plan, which includes the immediate release of 250 billion dollars to enable the government to buy up troubled assets.
'We now have a deal that promises to bring near-term stability to our financial turmoil, but at what price?' Republican Congressman Michael Pence, a critic of the bailout, asked in a letter to colleagues.
And White House hopefuls Republican John McCain and his Democratic rival Barack Obama offered only cautious backing.
'The party is over,' said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. 'The era of golden parachutes for high-flying Wall Street operators is over. No longer will the US taxpayer bail out the recklessness of Wall Street.'
But any relief internationally came too late for Fortis, one of the biggest banks in northern Europe, which was rescued by Benelux governments for 11.2 billion euros ($16b) at the weekend. Fortis shares rallied by 14.5 per cent in initial trading after crashing last week.
European shares were badly hit by the uncertainty over the US plan and the bad news.
Stocks in London dived by 2.51 per cent, Frankfurt shares fell 3.16 and Paris was down 2.87 per cent after Tokyo fell 1.26 per cent and Hong Kong lost 4.3 per cent.
'Despite the US bail out plan now being committed to paper, there's hardly a jubilant mood expected as the new trading week gets underway,' said CMC Markets dealer Matt Buckland in London.
'The fact the funds won't be released in one lot but instead a series of tranches is certainly detracting from its appeal.
'This, combined with the very visible scars of the credit squeeze ... will again weigh in sentiment,' he added, in reference to the B&B and Fortis rescues.
Barclays Capital analyst David Woo said: 'In our view, while the 'bailout plan' reduces the risk of a systemic collapse, many downside risks remain -- not least those related to a protracted slowdown in the global economy.
'In addition ... the financial market turbulence is seriously affecting the European financial system as well.'
He added: 'The weakness in equities ... suggests the market is pessimistic about the likely effectiveness of the Treasury's plan.'
Motomi Hiratsuka, a trader at BNP Paribas, said: 'We know that we are most likely to avoid a meltdown in the US financial sector, but what matters now is negative news from new regions.'
S Korea signs deal to import
Russian gas via N Korea
Agence France-Presse . Seoul
South Korea has signed a deal to import Russian natural gas beginning in 2015 via a pipeline running through North Korea and across the heavily fortified border, the government said Monday.
The Ministry of Knowledge Economy said Korea Gas Corp and Gazprom reached the initial deal in Moscow on the sidelines of a South Korea-Russian summit.
Under the plan, Seoul will import 10 billion cubic metres (350b cft) of natural gas a year over 30 years, said Vice Energy Minister Lee Jae-Hoon.
Lee, quoted by Yonhap news agency, said gas imports over the three decades would be worth a total of about 90 billion dollars.
Another nine billion dollars would be used to build and operate joint petrochemical and liquefied natural gas plants in Russia’s Far East, with their products marketed abroad.
The remainder would fund pipes built in North Korea.
Lee said the plan proposed by Russia in February calls for gasfields in Siberia and the Far East to be linked by pipelines that will send fuel to Vladivostok.
The piped gas would then be sent through North Korea to South Korea.
‘Russia will be tasked with building the pipelines and negotiating with North Korea,’ Lee said, adding that Pyongyang will likely agree to the proposal since it stands to earn 100 million dollars per year from it.
Relations are currently frosty between the two Koreas. Pyongyang cut off most official contacts after a new conservative government in Seoul vowed to take a firmer line in cross-border relations.
A six-nation nuclear disarmament deal is also deadlocked, with the North preparing to restart its plutonium reprocessing plant. Lee said the Korean and Russian firms are also considering ways to liquefy the natural gas and send it by ship to South Korea as a contingency plan, should complications arise in North Korea.
Citi named in 100 best cos list
Staff Correspondent
Citi, a global financial services company, has been named in the 100 best companies list by Working Mother magazine for the 18th year.
About 25 per cent of the top earners at Citi represent women. The company has established best practices at Citi with embarking on new initiatives like Global Women’s Initiative launched in 2008. The initiative was aimed at helping women network and mentoring each other. Citi also provides child-care centre facilities in different locations, said a press release.
At Citibank Bangladesh around 20 per cent of the employees are women, including working mothers. Women also represent many senior positions at Citibank Bangladesh, including the management committee.
Stock markets slump despite
US bailout deal
Agence France-Presse . London
Global stock markets tumbled on Monday, despite a Wall Street bailout deal, as the ongoing financial crisis forced the state rescue of two key European banks.
Asian and European equities suffered fresh losses as the tentative US agreement to rid the financial sector of toxic mortgage-related assets gave only a short-lived boost to sentiment.
In Europe, Belgian-Dutch banking and insurance group Fortis sealed a government bailout, while Britain announced it would nationalise troubled mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley.
Investors were unsettled by signs of widening problems in the banking sector. London’s stock market dived 2.51 per cent at 4,960.61 points in early deals, accelerating initial losses.
Paris shares plunged 2.87 per cent to 4,043.74 points and Frankfurt tumbled 3.16 per cent to 5,871.64 points.
Global central banks meanwhile pumped extra cash into the financial system as part of continued efforts to keep credit flowing.
‘Despite the US bail out plan now being committed to paper, there’s hardly a jubilant mood expected as the new trading week gets underway,’ said CMC Markets dealer Matt Buckland in London.
‘The fact the funds won’t be released in one lot but instead a series of tranches is certainly detracting from its appeal.
‘This, combined with the very visible scars of the credit squeeze ... will again weigh in sentiment,’ he added, in reference to the state rescues of B&B and Fortis.
The European Central Bank announced a special 38-day euro loan to provide eurozone banks with more cash in a bid to balance conditions on extremely tense interbank money markets.
German bank Hypo Real Estate was meanwhile granted a last-minute ‘multi-billion euro’ credit line from a consortium of German banks that allowed it to avoid declaring bankruptcy.
Hong Kong share prices closed down 4.3 per cent on Monday, as banking giant HSBC bumped up its mortgage rate, sending property stocks tumbling, dealers said.
Tokyo fell 1.26 per cent by the close, Sydney lost 2.0 per cent and Seoul dropped 1.35 per cent.
There were still doubts about the proposed US financial rescue package, which needs to be approved by Congress and offers no guarantee of an end to the credit crunch that has ravaged global markets, dealers said.
‘In our view, while the ‘bailout plan’ reduces the risk of a systemic collapse, many downside risks remain — not least those related to a protracted slowdown in the global economy,’ said Barclays Capital analyst David Woo.
‘In addition ... the financial market turbulence is seriously affecting the European financial system as well.’
He added: ‘The weakness in equities ... suggests the market is pessimistic about the likely effectiveness of the Treasury’s plan.’
The US deal, announced just hours before Asian markets opened, is designed to mop up toxic debts from struggling banks and prevent further financial chaos that could tip the world’s largest economy into recession.
The bailout, worth up to 700 billion dollars, would be the largest government economic intervention since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and aims to shore up an economy in the face of a severe housing slump.
‘We know that we are most likely to avoid a meltdown in the US financial sector, but what matters now is negative news from new regions,’ added Motomi Hiratsuka, a trader at BNP Paribas.
With markets still skittish, the Australian and Japanese central banks pumped more emergency funds into the short-term money markets.
US Treasury secretary Henry Paulson said the package ‘gives us the flexibility to unclog our financial markets and increase the ability of our financial institutions to deliver the credit that will help create jobs.’
Democratic lawmakers warned US financial firms that they would be under stricter supervision from now on.
‘The party is over,’ said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. ‘The era of golden parachutes for high-flying Wall Street operators is over. No longer will the US taxpayer bail out the recklessness of Wall Street.’
The measures laid out in the bill include the immediate release of 250 billion dollars to enable the government to buy up troubled assets.
The US president is authorised to approve a further 100 billion dollars, but the plan gives Congress a veto power over purchases above that limit and sets a ceiling for all purchases of 700 billion dollars.
The deal on the rescue plan provided a modest boost to the dollar, while worries about problems at European banks weighed on the euro.
ECB loans €120b in 38-day tender
Agence France-Presse . Frankfurt
The European Central Bank said Monday it had loaned eurozone banks 120 billion euros ($172b) in a special 38-day operation aimed at soothing extremely tense interbank money markets.
The ECB had said earlier in a statement that ‘the special term refinancing operation will be renewed at least until beyond the end of the year,’ amid increased pressure at the end of the third quarter.
‘The ECB will continue to steer liquidity towards balanced conditions’ in an attempt to bring interbank interest rates in line with the bank’s own minimum rate, it added.
Commercial banks usually lend and borrow cash on interbank money markets but these have almost completely dried up since the US market for high-risk, or subprime, mortgages collapsed more than a year ago.
The ECB and other major central banks have thus been pumping hundreds of billions of dollars, euros, pounds and other currencies in the form of loans into such markets.
On Monday, the ECB also rolled over one-day dollar loans to eurozone banks, renewing that operation for a total amount of 30 billion dollars (€20.8b).
The dollars were obtained from the US Federal Reserve through a reciprocal currency agreement known as a swap, and allow eurozone banks to obtain the US currency directly from the ECB.
Initially, the one-day loans were for 40 billion dollars, but the ECB reduced that amount last week, while extending other dollar loans to a period of one week.
‘Injections of dollar liquidity by the ECB, Bank of England and Swiss National Bank have highlighted the sizeable dollar exposures among European banks,’ Citibank analysts wrote on Monday.
Fortis admits errors after
bailout by governments
Agence France-Presse . Brussels
Troubled financial group Fortis admitted on Monday that past errors had triggered the crisis that required the Benelux nations to hastily hammer out a 11.2 billion euro bailout over the weekend.
Despite assurances last week it had ample funding, Fortis was forced to turn to the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments for help late Sunday after a foreign suitor could not be found to save the banking and insurance group.
While blaming market ‘speculation’ and ‘rumours’ for a sharp slide in Fortis shares last week, newly appointed chief executive Filip Dierckx acknowledged that strategic mistakes also played a part in the group’s woes.
‘I am ... not going to deny that if you look at some of the decisions that were taken in the past then you can say that probably they were done at the wrong moment,’ he told journalists and analysts in a conference call.
‘If you want me to say that there were some decisions that were not the best I will indeed confirm,’ added Dierckx, who took up his post after predecessor Herman Verwilst was unexpectedly moved aside on Friday.
Dierckx, who took over after the company’s shares plummeted by 20 per cent on Friday, highlighted last year’s involvement in the buyout of Dutch group ABN Amro as a key mistake.
‘Clearly indeed there was bad timing in the ABN Amro deal,’ he said.
Fortis paid 24 billion euros for its part in a consortium buy-out for ABN Amro at the height of the market, but by Sunday the figure of 10 billion euros was being mentioned as a possible selling price.
The new Fortis chief, who admitted he hadn’t got much sleep over the weekend as the state bailout talks unfurled, said he ‘felt a very strong commitment from a lot of parties involved to solve and to come to a good solution.
‘I think it personally is a very good agreement.’
Earlier Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders insisted that the partial nationalisation of Fortis was only a temporary measure to support the bank.
‘Our ambition is clearly not to remain present as shareholders,’ Reynders told public radio RTBF.
After seeing nearly a quarter of its stock market value wiped out over the past week, shares in Fortis opened up nearly 15 per cent in Brussels on Monday but by early afternoon were down 3.85 per cent at 5.00 euros.
UK govt nationalises Bradford
and Bingley
Agence France-Presse . London
The British government announced Monday the nationalisation of troubled lender Bradford & Bingley, the latest European victim of the fast-moving global financial crisis.
B&B’s savings business — its best asset with 20 billion pounds of savings and 2.7 million customers — will be sold to Spanish bank Santander, while its mortgage book will be nationalised, the Treasury said.
Abbey National, the British bank owned by Santander, will pay 612 million pounds ($1.1m) in the deal.
‘What you’re seeing is the government taking quick, decisive action, we’re standing behind the system to stabilise it because to let Bradford & Bingley go down would have destabilised the entire system,’ finance minister Alistair Darling told BBC radio. ‘The government has got to provide stability.’
Bradford & Bingley is the second British bank to be nationalised this year, after Northern Rock in February.
The FTSE 100 stock market in London plunged 2.63 per cent in early morning trade, falling to 4,954.11 points as investors digested the deal as well as a massive bailout of Wall Street in the United States.
Hours before the deal was confirmed, US lawmakers agreed on the details of an unprecedented 700 billion dollar bailout for struggling Wall Street banks in a bid to avert the worst financial crisis since the 1930s Great Depression.
The Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments also mobilised to help troubled financial group Fortis on Sunday, agreeing to inject 11.2 billion euros ($16b), Belgian prime minister Yves Leterme said.
The Belgian government said Monday it was prepared to support Dexia, another high-street bank, after its shares nose-dived in early trading.
In another sign of the trouble facing European lenders, Denmark’s Roskilde Bank said Monday it had been sold to Nordic bank Nordea and two regional Danish lenders, Arbejdernes Landsbank and Spar Nord Bank.
In Britain over the weekend, officials from the Treasury, the Financial Services Authority watchdog and the Bank of England met to try to secure the future of B&B, which has also suffered from a property market downturn.
Anto Horta-Oso, Abbey National’s chief executive, said the deal was ‘good news’ for B&B’s savings customers, adding: ‘They can be certain that their hard-earned savings are with a bank they can trust.’
Foreign investors eject $540m
from Pak stock market
Asia News Network . Karachi
Foreign investors have ejected $540 million from the Pakistani stock market in only three months from July to September amid prolonged political uncertainty, burgeoning insecurity in the tribal belt of the country coupled with global and local economic slowdown.
So far this month, foreign investors have withdrawn $96 million, reflecting an increase of $68 million versus $28 million outflow witnessed in a month earlier. While inflow during September was recorded at $82 million. A major outflow of portfolio investment was recorded from the investors of the US, the UK, Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.
Pakistani market has been facing turmoil for the last four months that led the market to shed around 40 per cent. In this period, many small investors have been washed out from the stock market while others are facing back to back decline despite the freeze on shares prices.
Those closely watching the ebb and flow of Pakistani market linked the huge capital flight to deteriorating law and order situation, economic weaknesses, like dwindling forex reserves, devaluation of rupee against US dollar coupled with the unprecedented financial turmoil in the US, which sent shock waves to all other leading capital markets of the globe.
Analysts also held the view that the imposition of floor on the market had sent a negative signal to foreign investors and those still trapped in the market were waiting for lifting of floor from the market to make an exit.
Analysts said that as long as the tension remained in the tribal belt, which was being linked with the suicide bombings in the mega cities of the country, the foreign investments would continue to wobble and may witness further downgrading.
Analysts said that Moody’s verdict had also dealt a severe blow to the confidence of foreign investors and local investors as well.
The steep decline in the stock market and economic meltdown has severely hit the confidence of foreign investors, analysts added.
Storm may hit Indian aviation,
if steps not taken: IATA
Press Trust of India . New Delhi
Warning that some Indian airlines could fold up if structural changes were not carried out immediately, the IATA has asked the government to take speedy steps to enable the industry weather the ‘perfect storm’ of high costs and falling demand.
‘India is among the most expensive places on the planet to buy aviation turbine fuel from. In August, it was 58 per cent more expensive to buy fuel in Mumbai for domestic flights than in Singapore,’ International Air Transport Association director general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani told PTI in an interview in New Delhi.
Observing that the Indian aviation industry was passing through a ‘fragile and delicate moment,’ he said some airlines could go bust in the coming few months if “structural changes are not carried out expeditiously.’
As many as 25 carriers worldwide have folded up operations in the past several months due to huge losses, the latest being Italian national carrier Alitalia, leading to over 100,000 jobs in the aviation sector being lost.
He projected a cumulative loss of $1.5 billion for Indian carriers this year, second largest after that in the US.
Japan faces uncertainty from
financial crisis
Agence France-Presse . Tokyo
Japan will likely avoid a deep slump from the global credit crisis but faces ‘considerable uncertainty’ and downside risks to growth, a top central bank official said Monday.
The possibility of a dive on the back of the Wall Street crisis ‘is rather small,’ Bank of Japan deputy governor Kiyohiko Nishi-mura told a news conference.
But ‘the outlook for economic activity is accompanied by considerable uncertainty and various risk factors could influence the outlook,’ he said.
The central bank ‘is attentive to downside risks to economic growth,’ he added.
Despite being relatively insulated from the US-born subprime crisis, Japan’s export-driven economy is teetering on recession due to a cooling global economy and tepid domestic spending. Nishimura lauded recent investments by Japanese banks that have embarked on a buying spree of US banks, which have crumbled due to massive mortgage-related losses and failure to secure funds.
‘Each financial institution in Japan is trying to improve its earnings and in doing that they are looking for the most appropriate way to utilise their resources,’ Nishimura said. ‘So in that sense it is desirable.’
Japan reaches free trade deals
with Vietnam, Switzerland
Agence France-Presse . Tokyo
Japan said Monday said it had struck free trade deals with Vietnam and Switzerland, seeking to strengthen economic ties with individual countries amid a deadlock in World Trade Organisation talks.
About 92 per cent of trade in goods between Japan and Vietnam will be duty-free within the next 10 years, Tokyo officials said.
Under the agreement with Switzerland, Japan’s first with a European country, 99 per cent of trade will be tariff-free within a decade. Neither agreement has been formally signed yet.
‘Vietnam gave us a high level of liberalisation that it had never given to other countries such as China and South Korea’ under their deals with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a foreign ministry official said.
Japan, Asia’s largest economy, has also already signed a separate deal with the whole of ASEAN, which includes Vietnam.
Vietnam will get free access to the Japanese market for shrimps, durian, and okra, among other farm and marine products, while Japan will secure duty-free trade for its auto parts, steel and electronic goods, officials said.
Citigroup to take over Wachovia
banking assets, gives US stake
Agence France-Presse . Washington
US authorities said Monday they had facilitated a takeover of Wachovia’s banking operations by Citigroup Inc in a deal that gives the government a stake in one of the nation’s biggest banks.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp made the announcement that further reshapes the troubled US banking sector saddled with heavy losses from the bursting of the real estate bubble.
‘Wachovia did not fail; rather, it is to be acquired by Citigroup Inc on an open bank basis with assistance from the FDIC,’ the government agency said.
The government will get a stake in Citigroup in exchange for guaranteeing a large portion of the distressed Wachovia assets linked to housing.
Citi will assume up to 42 billion dollars of losses from a pool of 312 billion dollars of loans held by Wachovia; the FDIC will absorb losses beyond that and take a stake in Citigroup for the guarantee.
Tuesday International News
Security on Afghan border a job
for Pakistan not US: Zardari
20,000 flee from Pakistan into
Afghanistan: UN
Agence France-Presse . Washington
Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari said in an interview broadcast Sunday that Islamabad’s military is capable of quelling militant elements on its border with Afghanistan, and again urged the US military against launching incursions into its territory.
‘Let us do the job, we can do a better job than anybody else can. It’s partly and mainly our war. We fight it. Let us do it,’ Zardari said in an interview on CNN.
His comments came after Pakistani and US troops last week exchanged fire along the Pakistani-Afghan border last week, after Washington said two US military helicopters came under fire.
Zardari said only flares were fired last week toward the US helicopters to ‘warn that they have crossed over’ into Pakistani territory.
The Pakistani leader, downplaying the confrontation, said it resulted from a misunderstanding.
‘It’s a murky border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Half the hill is here, half the hill is in Afghanistan,’ he told CNN.
The Pentagon last week also called Thursday’s events involving the US helicopters ‘an unfortunate misunderstanding’
‘They are confident that they were in Afghan air space the whole time,’ said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.
Meanwhile, the United Nations says 20,000 Pakistani refugees have fled to Afghanistan to avoid fighting between militants and Pakistan’s military, reports AP.
The UN’s refugee agency says nearly 4,000 Pakistani families have fled Pakistan’s Bajur tribal agency into Afghanistan’s Kunar province.
Pakistan’s military launched an offensive in Bajur, the most northerly of Pakistan’s wild tribal regions, several of which have fallen largely under the control of militants opposed to the Afghan and Pakistani governments.
Tens of thousands of civilians have fled into other parts of Pakistan as a result of the 2-month-old offensive.
The agency says it believes the majority of those who have crossed into Afghanistan will return home once the fighting stops.
China hails spacewalk ‘heroes’,
sets eyes on moon
Agence France-Presse . Beijing
The first Chinese man to walk in space was hailed as a national hero Monday, as the emerging space power gave one of its clearest indications yet that it is now reaching for the Moon.
Mission commander Zhai Zhigang, 41, and his two fellow astronauts arrived here to mass-circulation papers filled with praise for their historic 68-hour voyage on board the Shenzhou VII spacecraft.
‘Shenzhou VII has touched down. The heroes have returned successfully,’ a typical headline read in the popular tabloid Beijing Times stretching across the front page.
Mainstream papers devoted two or three full pages to coverage of the space walk, celebrating China’s status as only the third country in the world after the United States and the Soviet Union to accomplish the feat independently.
The astronauts landed Sunday on the empty steppes of Inner Mongolia after concluding a mission viewed both here and abroad as emblematic of China’s rise in nearly all fields of human endeavour.
Millions were watching the live broadcast Saturday as Zhai embarked on his 15-minute space walk, witnessing the symbolic moment when he waved a Chinese flag in the weightlessness of low orbit some 340 kilometres above the Earth.
‘It was a glorious mission, full of challenges with a perfect ending,’ Zhai said after being pulled out of the return capsule. ‘I feel proud of the motherland.’
The crew were flown to space programme headquarters in the north of Beijing where they are to undergo two weeks of preventive quarantine, Xinhua said, as they are still vulnerable to terrestrial viruses.
Coming ahead of China’s October 1 National Day, the Shenzhou VII mission triggered a wave of patriotic sentiment on the Internet.
Bihar deploys police as
flood victims protest
Reuters/Bdnews24.com . Patna, India
Hundreds of police were deployed in flood-hit Bihar on Monday, a day after soldiers opened fire on angry villagers demanding food and relief, wounding at least a dozen people.
The police said a huge crowd threw stones at an army convoy in Bihar on Sunday, demanding food and shelter.
‘The villagers clashed with army personnel, threw stones at them and attacked their vehicles, forcing the army to retaliate,’ Kuer Singh, a senior police officer said on Monday.
Monsoon rains and burst dams unleashed bouts of flooding in South Asia this year, killing about 1,500 people, mostly in India but also in Nepal.
About 270 flood-related deaths have been reported from Bihar, reeling from the worst floods in recent years, officials said.
At least 100,000 ha (250,000 acres) of farmland were damaged in the state after the Kosi river burst a dam in neighbouring Nepal and flooded areas downstream.
Japan’s PM seeks friendly
ties with Asia
Agence France-Presse . Tokyo
Japan’s new prime minister Taro Aso said Monday he would seek friendly relations with China and South Korea, while pressing North Korea on its nuclear drive and past abductions.
In a first policy speech to parliament, Aso said he wants to ‘jointly build peace and prosperity in the region by working together with China, South Korea, Russia and other Asia-Pacific nations.’
Chinese and South Korean leaders congratulated the outspoken conservative on his election last week by the ruling party, largely ignoring his past remarks over the country’s wartime colonialism.
In the speech, Aso said his government will seek ‘action by the North Korean side in an effort to comprehensively resolve the issues of nuclear weapons, missiles and abductions.’
Tokyo has taken the hardest line against Pyongyang in stalled six-way talks aimed at ridding the communist state of nuclear weapons.
Japan has pressed North Korea for a fuller accounting on the fate of Japanese civilians the regime kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies in Japanese language and culture.
Former prime minister Yasuo Fukuda, regarded as a moderate on North Korea, controversially agreed in June to relax some Japanese sanctions after Pyongyang said it would start a new probe into the fate of the abductees.
New Thai PM facing fresh legal woes
Agence France-Presse . Bangkok
A Thai senator filed a complaint on Monday accusing new prime minister Somchai Wongsawat of violating the constitution, just three weeks after similar charges forced his predecessor from office.
Ruangkrai Leekijwattana has accused Somchai of breaching the charter by holding shares in Internet provider CS Loxinfo. The Election Commission received the complaint Monday, a spokesman said.
‘At present, there is no decision on whether the complaint will be further investigated or not. That decision must come from the five election commissioners,’ the EC’s Ruangroat Jomsueb said.
‘As a government office, we are mandated to accept every complaint submitted for further consideration,’ he added.
The current constitution bans members of parliament from holding shares in companies with links to the state, and CS Loxinfo has a concession with government-owned CAT telecom.
Somchai, however, said he was unfazed by the possible charges. ‘There is nothing to worry about, let everything follow the legal process,’ he told reporters when asked about the complaint.
Sharp-tongued former premier Samak Sundaravej was stripped of office on September 9 after a court found that he had breached the constitution when he accepted payments for hosting two TV cooking shows.
Iran won’t halt N work
despite UN demand
Reuters/Bdnews24.com . Tehran
Iran said on Monday it would not halt sensitive nuclear work as demanded by the UN Security Council in its latest resolution on Tehran’s atomic programme that the West believes is aimed at making warheads.
The UN Security Council passed a resolution on Saturday ordering the Islamic Republic to halt uranium enrichment, the part of the nuclear programme that most worries the West because it has both civilian and military uses.
Iran, which insists its plans are peaceful, has already dismissed the resolution that did not add further sanctions to the three sets of penalties already imposed since 2006.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi, in a news conference, made clear Iran would not accept the main demand.
‘Enrichment is our obvious right. Demanding that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment activities is beyond their legal right and we are continuing our natural path,’ he said.
Iran, the world’s fourth biggest oil producer which sits on huge gas reserves, says it wants nuclear technology to make electricity so it can export more of its hydrocarbons.
It has brushed off previous rounds of sanctions, saying it has a big cash cushion from windfall oil revenues to cope. But analysts say the economy is being hurt by higher trade costs and increasing wariness of investors, particularly Western firms.
Russia, one of the five permanent members of the security council with veto powers, opposed further sanctions at this stage despite a US-led effort to impose new penalties.
The United States and Israel have refused to rule out military action if diplomacy fails to end the nuclear row.
Iran says neither country are in a position to attack the Islamic Republic but has warned that US interests, Israel and Gulf oil shipping lanes would be targets if Tehran is pushed.
‘War on terror’ has not
weakened al-Qaeda: poll
Reuters/Bdnews24.com . London
People across the world think the US-led ‘war on terror’ has not weakened al-Qaeda and many believe it has actually strengthened Osama bin Laden’s network, a poll for the BBC World Service said on Monday.
The poll of almost 24,000 citizens found people in 22 out of 23 countries surveyed thought attempts to counter al-Qaeda since its September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States had not weakened it.
The predominant view was that neither side was winning, the BBC said.
‘Despite its overwhelming military power, America’s war against al-Qaeda is widely seen as having achieved nothing better than a stalemate and many believe that it has even strengthened al-Qaeda,’ said Steven Kull, director of the Programme on International Policy Attitudes, which helped carry out the research.
Kenya — which experienced deadly al-Qaeda attacks on the US embassy in 1998 and on an Israeli-owned hotel in 2002 — was the only country where a majority thought al-Qaeda has been weakened.
In the United States, only 34 per cent believed al-Qaeda had been made weaker with 26 per cent reckoning the ‘war on terror’ had had no effect and 33 per cent thinking it had made the militants stronger.
The majority US perception was that neither the United States nor al-Qaeda were winning.
More than 40 per cent of citizens in France, Mexico, Italy, Australia and Britain believed the ‘war on terror’ had strengthened al-Qaeda.
While the majority of people questioned had negative views of al-Qaeda, more citizens in Egypt and Pakistan had mixed or positive views of the group than negative feelings.
Obama heads West after
accusing McCain
Agence France-Presse . Detroit, Michigan
White House hopeful Barack Obama took his campaign to the American West Monday after accusing his Republican rival John McCain of ‘Katrina-like’ bungling over the US financial crisis.
The Democratic nominee was to meet with voters in Colorado and Nevada aiming to make inroads into the onetime Republican power base.
As the US Congress prepares to vote on a new Wall Street bailout deal, both contenders for the November 4 election said a drastically reshaped bailout plan was a bitter but necessary pill.
Obama said it was an ‘outrage’ that taxpayers had to rescue financiers from their own folly but, like McCain, argued the world’s biggest economy was at risk of disaster without government action.
The Democrat, addressing a crowd of 35,000 in Detroit, said McCain ‘doesn’t understand that the storm hitting Wall Street hit Main Street long ago.’
‘That’s why his first response to the greatest financial meltdown in generations was a (Hurricane) Katrina-like response. Sort of stood there, said the fundamentals of the economy are ‘strong’, Obama said.
‘That’s why he’s been shifting positions these last two weeks, looking for photo-ops, trying to figure out what to say and what to do,’ he told the rally, joined by his running mate Joseph Biden and their wives.
Obama was evoking the widely slammed response of president George W Bush’s administration to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and making a pointed reminder of McCain’s ties to a deeply unpopular Republican leader.
The Democrat also mocked his rival’s role in the congressional negotiations over the rescue package.
McCain suspended his campaign and insisted he played a key role by reaching out to House of Representatives Republicans who remain angry over the government’s biggest financial intervention since the Great Depression.
Five Lebanese soldiers killed
in car bomb blast
Agence France-Presse . Tripoli, Lebanon
Five Lebanese soldiers were killed on Monday in a car bomb blast targeting an army bus on the outskirts of the restive northern city of Tripoli, security and military officials said.
A security official said that another 24 people, 18 of them soldiers, were wounded in the explosion, the second deadly bombing targeting the Lebanese army in two months.
‘Once again a treacherous hand has reached out to strike at the military establishment in a terrorist attack clearly aimed at undermining efforts at peace and stability,’ a statement by the army command said.
The bomb, placed under a parked car at the southern entrance to the city, was packed with nuts and bolts and police suspect the device was detonated by remote control.
It blew up as the bus headed towards the capital Beirut during morning rush-hour. There were about 24 soldiers on board, most of them from the village of Akroum, located about 50 kilometres north of Tripoli near the Syrian border.
The owner of the booby-trapped vehicle was detained for questioning, a security official said.
The police and the army cordoned off the area as forensic experts began gathering evidence while residents rushed to the scene or to nearby hospitals to look for their loved ones.
Venezuela will develop
nuclear power: Chavez
Reuters/Bdnews24.com . Caracas
The president, Hugo Chavez, said on Sunday Venezuela will develop a nuclear reactor for peaceful purposes, in another challenge to Washington just days after Russia offered nuclear assistance to the socialist Latin American leader.
‘In Venezuela we are interested in development of nuclear energy, of course for peaceful purposes, for medical purposes, for purposes of electricity generation,’ Chavez said at a political rally.
‘Brazil has various nuclear reactors, so does Argentina. We will have ours.’
Chavez noted that Venezuela, which is a member of the oil-producing cartel OPEC, developed a nuclear reactor decades ago but abandoned it under pressure from the United States.
He said the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, had offered help with a reactor, adding that ‘we already have a commission working on this issue.’
Chavez did not offer details or say when a reactor could be ready, but the news could further strain relations with Washington, which views Chavez as autocratic and erratic.
He has repeatedly challenged Washington, notably by defending Iran’s nuclear activities despite strong condemnation by the United States and Europe.
This month Chavez expelled the US ambassador to Venezuela and repeated his frequent threats to halt oil sales that make up around 10 per cent of US oil imports.
Venezuela has boosted cooperation with Moscow since Russia came under strong US condemnation for fighting a war against Georgia last month, strengthening ties between two of the United States’ strongest critics.
for Pakistan not US: Zardari
20,000 flee from Pakistan into
Afghanistan: UN
Agence France-Presse . Washington
Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari said in an interview broadcast Sunday that Islamabad’s military is capable of quelling militant elements on its border with Afghanistan, and again urged the US military against launching incursions into its territory.
‘Let us do the job, we can do a better job than anybody else can. It’s partly and mainly our war. We fight it. Let us do it,’ Zardari said in an interview on CNN.
His comments came after Pakistani and US troops last week exchanged fire along the Pakistani-Afghan border last week, after Washington said two US military helicopters came under fire.
Zardari said only flares were fired last week toward the US helicopters to ‘warn that they have crossed over’ into Pakistani territory.
The Pakistani leader, downplaying the confrontation, said it resulted from a misunderstanding.
‘It’s a murky border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Half the hill is here, half the hill is in Afghanistan,’ he told CNN.
The Pentagon last week also called Thursday’s events involving the US helicopters ‘an unfortunate misunderstanding’
‘They are confident that they were in Afghan air space the whole time,’ said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.
Meanwhile, the United Nations says 20,000 Pakistani refugees have fled to Afghanistan to avoid fighting between militants and Pakistan’s military, reports AP.
The UN’s refugee agency says nearly 4,000 Pakistani families have fled Pakistan’s Bajur tribal agency into Afghanistan’s Kunar province.
Pakistan’s military launched an offensive in Bajur, the most northerly of Pakistan’s wild tribal regions, several of which have fallen largely under the control of militants opposed to the Afghan and Pakistani governments.
Tens of thousands of civilians have fled into other parts of Pakistan as a result of the 2-month-old offensive.
The agency says it believes the majority of those who have crossed into Afghanistan will return home once the fighting stops.
China hails spacewalk ‘heroes’,
sets eyes on moon
Agence France-Presse . Beijing
The first Chinese man to walk in space was hailed as a national hero Monday, as the emerging space power gave one of its clearest indications yet that it is now reaching for the Moon.
Mission commander Zhai Zhigang, 41, and his two fellow astronauts arrived here to mass-circulation papers filled with praise for their historic 68-hour voyage on board the Shenzhou VII spacecraft.
‘Shenzhou VII has touched down. The heroes have returned successfully,’ a typical headline read in the popular tabloid Beijing Times stretching across the front page.
Mainstream papers devoted two or three full pages to coverage of the space walk, celebrating China’s status as only the third country in the world after the United States and the Soviet Union to accomplish the feat independently.
The astronauts landed Sunday on the empty steppes of Inner Mongolia after concluding a mission viewed both here and abroad as emblematic of China’s rise in nearly all fields of human endeavour.
Millions were watching the live broadcast Saturday as Zhai embarked on his 15-minute space walk, witnessing the symbolic moment when he waved a Chinese flag in the weightlessness of low orbit some 340 kilometres above the Earth.
‘It was a glorious mission, full of challenges with a perfect ending,’ Zhai said after being pulled out of the return capsule. ‘I feel proud of the motherland.’
The crew were flown to space programme headquarters in the north of Beijing where they are to undergo two weeks of preventive quarantine, Xinhua said, as they are still vulnerable to terrestrial viruses.
Coming ahead of China’s October 1 National Day, the Shenzhou VII mission triggered a wave of patriotic sentiment on the Internet.
Bihar deploys police as
flood victims protest
Reuters/Bdnews24.com . Patna, India
Hundreds of police were deployed in flood-hit Bihar on Monday, a day after soldiers opened fire on angry villagers demanding food and relief, wounding at least a dozen people.
The police said a huge crowd threw stones at an army convoy in Bihar on Sunday, demanding food and shelter.
‘The villagers clashed with army personnel, threw stones at them and attacked their vehicles, forcing the army to retaliate,’ Kuer Singh, a senior police officer said on Monday.
Monsoon rains and burst dams unleashed bouts of flooding in South Asia this year, killing about 1,500 people, mostly in India but also in Nepal.
About 270 flood-related deaths have been reported from Bihar, reeling from the worst floods in recent years, officials said.
At least 100,000 ha (250,000 acres) of farmland were damaged in the state after the Kosi river burst a dam in neighbouring Nepal and flooded areas downstream.
Japan’s PM seeks friendly
ties with Asia
Agence France-Presse . Tokyo
Japan’s new prime minister Taro Aso said Monday he would seek friendly relations with China and South Korea, while pressing North Korea on its nuclear drive and past abductions.
In a first policy speech to parliament, Aso said he wants to ‘jointly build peace and prosperity in the region by working together with China, South Korea, Russia and other Asia-Pacific nations.’
Chinese and South Korean leaders congratulated the outspoken conservative on his election last week by the ruling party, largely ignoring his past remarks over the country’s wartime colonialism.
In the speech, Aso said his government will seek ‘action by the North Korean side in an effort to comprehensively resolve the issues of nuclear weapons, missiles and abductions.’
Tokyo has taken the hardest line against Pyongyang in stalled six-way talks aimed at ridding the communist state of nuclear weapons.
Japan has pressed North Korea for a fuller accounting on the fate of Japanese civilians the regime kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies in Japanese language and culture.
Former prime minister Yasuo Fukuda, regarded as a moderate on North Korea, controversially agreed in June to relax some Japanese sanctions after Pyongyang said it would start a new probe into the fate of the abductees.
New Thai PM facing fresh legal woes
Agence France-Presse . Bangkok
A Thai senator filed a complaint on Monday accusing new prime minister Somchai Wongsawat of violating the constitution, just three weeks after similar charges forced his predecessor from office.
Ruangkrai Leekijwattana has accused Somchai of breaching the charter by holding shares in Internet provider CS Loxinfo. The Election Commission received the complaint Monday, a spokesman said.
‘At present, there is no decision on whether the complaint will be further investigated or not. That decision must come from the five election commissioners,’ the EC’s Ruangroat Jomsueb said.
‘As a government office, we are mandated to accept every complaint submitted for further consideration,’ he added.
The current constitution bans members of parliament from holding shares in companies with links to the state, and CS Loxinfo has a concession with government-owned CAT telecom.
Somchai, however, said he was unfazed by the possible charges. ‘There is nothing to worry about, let everything follow the legal process,’ he told reporters when asked about the complaint.
Sharp-tongued former premier Samak Sundaravej was stripped of office on September 9 after a court found that he had breached the constitution when he accepted payments for hosting two TV cooking shows.
Iran won’t halt N work
despite UN demand
Reuters/Bdnews24.com . Tehran
Iran said on Monday it would not halt sensitive nuclear work as demanded by the UN Security Council in its latest resolution on Tehran’s atomic programme that the West believes is aimed at making warheads.
The UN Security Council passed a resolution on Saturday ordering the Islamic Republic to halt uranium enrichment, the part of the nuclear programme that most worries the West because it has both civilian and military uses.
Iran, which insists its plans are peaceful, has already dismissed the resolution that did not add further sanctions to the three sets of penalties already imposed since 2006.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi, in a news conference, made clear Iran would not accept the main demand.
‘Enrichment is our obvious right. Demanding that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment activities is beyond their legal right and we are continuing our natural path,’ he said.
Iran, the world’s fourth biggest oil producer which sits on huge gas reserves, says it wants nuclear technology to make electricity so it can export more of its hydrocarbons.
It has brushed off previous rounds of sanctions, saying it has a big cash cushion from windfall oil revenues to cope. But analysts say the economy is being hurt by higher trade costs and increasing wariness of investors, particularly Western firms.
Russia, one of the five permanent members of the security council with veto powers, opposed further sanctions at this stage despite a US-led effort to impose new penalties.
The United States and Israel have refused to rule out military action if diplomacy fails to end the nuclear row.
Iran says neither country are in a position to attack the Islamic Republic but has warned that US interests, Israel and Gulf oil shipping lanes would be targets if Tehran is pushed.
‘War on terror’ has not
weakened al-Qaeda: poll
Reuters/Bdnews24.com . London
People across the world think the US-led ‘war on terror’ has not weakened al-Qaeda and many believe it has actually strengthened Osama bin Laden’s network, a poll for the BBC World Service said on Monday.
The poll of almost 24,000 citizens found people in 22 out of 23 countries surveyed thought attempts to counter al-Qaeda since its September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States had not weakened it.
The predominant view was that neither side was winning, the BBC said.
‘Despite its overwhelming military power, America’s war against al-Qaeda is widely seen as having achieved nothing better than a stalemate and many believe that it has even strengthened al-Qaeda,’ said Steven Kull, director of the Programme on International Policy Attitudes, which helped carry out the research.
Kenya — which experienced deadly al-Qaeda attacks on the US embassy in 1998 and on an Israeli-owned hotel in 2002 — was the only country where a majority thought al-Qaeda has been weakened.
In the United States, only 34 per cent believed al-Qaeda had been made weaker with 26 per cent reckoning the ‘war on terror’ had had no effect and 33 per cent thinking it had made the militants stronger.
The majority US perception was that neither the United States nor al-Qaeda were winning.
More than 40 per cent of citizens in France, Mexico, Italy, Australia and Britain believed the ‘war on terror’ had strengthened al-Qaeda.
While the majority of people questioned had negative views of al-Qaeda, more citizens in Egypt and Pakistan had mixed or positive views of the group than negative feelings.
Obama heads West after
accusing McCain
Agence France-Presse . Detroit, Michigan
White House hopeful Barack Obama took his campaign to the American West Monday after accusing his Republican rival John McCain of ‘Katrina-like’ bungling over the US financial crisis.
The Democratic nominee was to meet with voters in Colorado and Nevada aiming to make inroads into the onetime Republican power base.
As the US Congress prepares to vote on a new Wall Street bailout deal, both contenders for the November 4 election said a drastically reshaped bailout plan was a bitter but necessary pill.
Obama said it was an ‘outrage’ that taxpayers had to rescue financiers from their own folly but, like McCain, argued the world’s biggest economy was at risk of disaster without government action.
The Democrat, addressing a crowd of 35,000 in Detroit, said McCain ‘doesn’t understand that the storm hitting Wall Street hit Main Street long ago.’
‘That’s why his first response to the greatest financial meltdown in generations was a (Hurricane) Katrina-like response. Sort of stood there, said the fundamentals of the economy are ‘strong’, Obama said.
‘That’s why he’s been shifting positions these last two weeks, looking for photo-ops, trying to figure out what to say and what to do,’ he told the rally, joined by his running mate Joseph Biden and their wives.
Obama was evoking the widely slammed response of president George W Bush’s administration to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and making a pointed reminder of McCain’s ties to a deeply unpopular Republican leader.
The Democrat also mocked his rival’s role in the congressional negotiations over the rescue package.
McCain suspended his campaign and insisted he played a key role by reaching out to House of Representatives Republicans who remain angry over the government’s biggest financial intervention since the Great Depression.
Five Lebanese soldiers killed
in car bomb blast
Agence France-Presse . Tripoli, Lebanon
Five Lebanese soldiers were killed on Monday in a car bomb blast targeting an army bus on the outskirts of the restive northern city of Tripoli, security and military officials said.
A security official said that another 24 people, 18 of them soldiers, were wounded in the explosion, the second deadly bombing targeting the Lebanese army in two months.
‘Once again a treacherous hand has reached out to strike at the military establishment in a terrorist attack clearly aimed at undermining efforts at peace and stability,’ a statement by the army command said.
The bomb, placed under a parked car at the southern entrance to the city, was packed with nuts and bolts and police suspect the device was detonated by remote control.
It blew up as the bus headed towards the capital Beirut during morning rush-hour. There were about 24 soldiers on board, most of them from the village of Akroum, located about 50 kilometres north of Tripoli near the Syrian border.
The owner of the booby-trapped vehicle was detained for questioning, a security official said.
The police and the army cordoned off the area as forensic experts began gathering evidence while residents rushed to the scene or to nearby hospitals to look for their loved ones.
Venezuela will develop
nuclear power: Chavez
Reuters/Bdnews24.com . Caracas
The president, Hugo Chavez, said on Sunday Venezuela will develop a nuclear reactor for peaceful purposes, in another challenge to Washington just days after Russia offered nuclear assistance to the socialist Latin American leader.
‘In Venezuela we are interested in development of nuclear energy, of course for peaceful purposes, for medical purposes, for purposes of electricity generation,’ Chavez said at a political rally.
‘Brazil has various nuclear reactors, so does Argentina. We will have ours.’
Chavez noted that Venezuela, which is a member of the oil-producing cartel OPEC, developed a nuclear reactor decades ago but abandoned it under pressure from the United States.
He said the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, had offered help with a reactor, adding that ‘we already have a commission working on this issue.’
Chavez did not offer details or say when a reactor could be ready, but the news could further strain relations with Washington, which views Chavez as autocratic and erratic.
He has repeatedly challenged Washington, notably by defending Iran’s nuclear activities despite strong condemnation by the United States and Europe.
This month Chavez expelled the US ambassador to Venezuela and repeated his frequent threats to halt oil sales that make up around 10 per cent of US oil imports.
Venezuela has boosted cooperation with Moscow since Russia came under strong US condemnation for fighting a war against Georgia last month, strengthening ties between two of the United States’ strongest critics.
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