The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Washington

The son of Punjabi immigrants won an election in Louisiana to become the first Indian-American US state governor, media reports said.

Piyush "Bobby" Jindal, 36, a Republican member of the House of Representatives, is also the first non-white to hold the post since the 1870s and the nation's youngest governor.

"My mom and dad came to this country in the pursuit of the American dream. And guess what happened? They found the American dream to be a alive and well right here in Louisiana," Jindal told a cheering crowd, in a televised speech after his victory.

He won 53 percent of the vote with more than 90 percent of votes counted, said The Advocate newspaper in the state capital Baton Rouge. His nearest challenger had just 18 percent. The score meant Jindal avoided a runoff election and would be sworn in as governor in January.

In 2004, Jindal became the second Indian-American to be elected to the US Congress. Some analysts blamed racism for his narrow 2003 loss in the Louisiana governorship race to Kathleen Blanco, a white moderate Democrat.

Blanco did not contend the race following a backlash at her administration's response to the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster and there had been no other strong opponents on the field.

The newspaper cited analysts as saying that Jindal benefited from a low turnout of black voters in the southern state, who traditionally back Democrats, and that he probably had strong support from whites.

Jindal, who adopted his nickname from The Brady Bunch television show as a boy and converted to Roman Catholicism from Hinduism as a teenager, has moved rapidly up the political ladder.

A holder of the prestigious Rhodes scholarship at Oxford University, he was appointed secretary of Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals at the age of 24.

After a brief stint in Washington, he returned home as the youngest president of the University of Louisiana System before being appointed a top policy advisor in the federal department of Health and Human Services.

He refused to admit that race was a factor in his failure to carry the state in 2003. But he worked on his image, donning cowboy boots and jeans and spending time in fundamentalist Christian churches.

Jindal was born and raised in Baton Rouge after his parents came to the United States so that his mother, pregnant with him at the time, could continue her graduate work in nuclear physics.

His father, an engineer, was one of nine children in a poor rural family in Punjab.

Sheikh Arif Bulbon

Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) has finalised 20 permanent spots including two existing spots for open-air markets for the city street hawkers and vendors.

The newly allocated places are - the open space and on roadside at Alam Market in Jurain Postagola, in front of Jatrabari Samad Super Market, both sides of Khanka Sharif on Shaheed Faruq Road and on footpath of north side of Jatrabari Road, open spaces north side of Bangladesh and west side of Sonali Bank Head Office in Motijheel, Bangabandhu Avenue Link Road in Gulistan, footpaths on Bangabandhu Avenue, Baitul Mukarram Link Road and Muktangan area, north-side footpaths under Shahbagh thana, eastern footpaths at Doyel Chattar, east-side footpaths on New Market, western open space of Gausia Market and right-side footpaths on Mirpur Road from Gausia, footpaths on Indira Road, Farmgate, Rokeya Sarani area near Weather Office, Mirpur Road No 10, in front of Purabi Cinema Hall at Mirpur 11. The rest of the new sites are the open space near Mirpur Stadium, footpaths near Mirpur Shah Ali Market, footpaths near Mirpur Muktijoddha Market, footpaths near Mirpur-1 Shah Ali Market, footpaths near Mirpur Islami Bank, footpaths near Gabtali Terminal, the open space of Roads and Highways Department in Mohakhali Amtali area, open space near DCC Market in Gulshan-1 and Uttara RAJUK ground.

The previous two spots are in front of Shilpakala Academy at Segunbagicha and in front of Ideal School in Motijheel will remain open on Fridays.

Recently, the government has taken the decision as part of rehabilitation of the city street hawkers. This decision was taken before Eid. But considering the inconvenience of the buyers and hawkers, the decision was deferred for the time being.

Meanwhile, before Eid hawkers got permission to set up their makeshift shops at many parts of the city streets for selling their wares. As a result, hawkers sold many items including essentials and buyers were happy to buy those at comparatively low cost.Responding to the recent remark of the LGRD Adviser to the effect that holiday markets in the city area would be withdrawn if there were no necessity of those, different hawkers' organisations gave statements condemning the decision.

In the meantime, identity cards will be provided to the street hawkers and it will be mandatory for them to carry the cards.

Some 100,000 hawkers and street-vendors of the city faced uncertainty after the government's drive to evict them from the streets and footpaths where they used to sell things as wide in variety as nail polish to heavy items like plastic buckets and bowls. But then the government had set up some holiday markets to rehabilitate them.

Md Waliullah Patwari, founder President of Bangladesh Combined Footpath Hawkers Council, said, "We thank the Caretaker government for taking the decision of finalising 20 spots for the street hawkers."

After the government's eviction drive around 70 to 80 million people had been hit by the drive countrywide. There are about eight million hawkers around the country who were rendered jobless in that drive. Several cottage industries in and around Dhaka were also facing closure, as they were dependent on hawkers to ferry their products. But the present decision by the government would reduce the sufferings of the hawkers and they could get opportunity to rehabilitate themselves, he added.

BSS, Rangpur

Experts and scientists at a roundtable conference have underscored the need for balanced development to attain sustainable national progress and prosperity.

The roundtable titled 'Development, Problems and Prospects of Northern Region and Role of Media' was jointly organised by Communication Initiative for Social Change (CISC) and Zila Press Club Rangpur (ZPCR) on Saturday night.

Noted journalist, columnist and Chief Editor and Managing Director of Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury attended the function as the chief guest.

Deputy Commissioner Khondker Atiar Rahman, Police Super Hasib Aziz, President of RCCI Mostafa Azad Chowdhury Babu, pourasava chairman Abdur Rouf Manik, renowned agri-scientist and Principal Scientific Officer of BRRI, Rangpur Station Dr Abdul Mazid, Director (Livelihood) of RDRS Dr Samsuzzaman were present as special guests.

President of ZPCR Rafique Sarker chaired the roundtable held in the Rangpur Chamber of Commerce and Industries (RCCI) auditorium.

Rafique Sarker presented the keynote paper on the subject that was prepared by Secretary of CISC Abdur Rouf Sarker.

Eminent personalities, experts, elite, professionals, socio- cultural and human rights activists, businessmen, community leaders, politicians, journalists, women leaders, government and NGO officials and experts participated in the conference.

Speaking on the occasion, Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury said that no nation could attain sustainable national development without ensuring balanced development in all areas and regions and the present government is working sincerely for bringing order to every sector.

He said most of the problems, including seasonal 'monga', backwardness and others, could be resolved substantially through ensuring supply of natural gas to the region that would accelerate the process of industrialisation and create huge job opportunities.

"For flourishing talents and making the future generations as worthy citizens, the setting up of a public university in Rangpur is very important, and the proposed RDRS University might be one of the most quality educational institutions for higher education of all eight districts in greater Rangpur and Dinajpur," he added.

Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury asked the media people to build a greater unity among themselves and their concerted efforts to focus huge prospects on various sectors of the region and provide guidelines for the present caretaker government.

AFP, Mexico City

At least 15 people drowned, two survived and nine went missing when a boat carrying Central American migrants capsized off Mexico's Pacific coast, the Mexican Navy said Saturday.

"We have a total of two survivors rescued and 15 bodies recovered," the Navy said in a statement.

Earlier reports said 24 people had drowned when their boat capsized amid heavy seas churned by tropical storm Kiko, off the coast of southern Mexico.

Rescue operations by Navy ships and helicopters "continue in an effort to locate the nine people who so far have been reported missing," the Navy added.

Since the rescued were Salvadorans and the ship was on a route used by immigrant traffickers to the United States, officials believe most of the dead-eight women and three men-and the missing were illegal immigrants from Central America, Oaxaca state authorities said in a separate statement.

None of the bodies have yet been identified, officials said.

A television report said a Guatemalan woman survived from the vessel. She said it set off from Guatemala on Tuesday with about 25 people on board from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras and was wrecked in a storm but she survived by clinging to a barrel.

Residents from a coastal village found the bodies on the beach and picked up others in the ocean with their fishing boats.

The wreck occurred early in the morning near the Tehuantepec Isthmus on Mexico's Pacific coast. Guatemala, its southeastern neighbour a few hundred miles (kilometres) away, is poverty-stricken and plagued by political violence.

Remittances, mostly from Guatemalans in the United States, are its largest source of foreign income.

Some 20 migrants from Guatemala and El Salvador died in the same region in a similar accident a few years ago.

Tropical storm Kiko on Saturday was churning in a northwestern direction, packing 200 kilometres (125 miles) per hour winds, the US-based National Hurricane Centre said.

The stormis expected to turn toward the Pacific Ocean in the next few days.

BSS, Dhaka

The visiting First Vice Foreign Minister of Laos, Phongsavath Boupha, yesterday called upon Bangladeshi businessmen to promote trade relations between the two countries.

He gave the call while exchanging views with leaders of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) at Sheraton Hotel.

Ambassador of Laos Ly Bounkham, who represents his country to Bangladesh from New Delhi, and Deputy Director General of the Asia-Pacific and African Department of the Laos government Khamvone Phanouvong were also present on the occasion.

Acting DCCI President Md Shahjahan Khan presided over the meeting. Former DCCI President, who is also current President of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Bangladesh Mahbubur Rahman, former President Rashed Maksud Khan, and directors of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) Benazir Ahmed, MH Rahman and MA Kashem attended the meeting.

The visiting Laotian minister emphasised the need for closer business ties between the two countries and urged the Bangladeshi business leaders to identify the mutual areas of trading and investment from both sides.

He introduced M Saidur Rahman, a local businessman as the consul general of his country to Dhaka, and said Bangladesh would also appoint a consul general soon to his country to help promote business and investment from both sides.

Boupha asked the DCCI leaders to take a business delegation to Laos while the Bangladesh side also suggested the Laotian minister to send a business delegation here so that both sides can know the business prospects available in their countries.

He said his country is exploring prospects for importing pharmaceutical products from Bangladesh. The Bangladesh sides said Laos can also import ceramic and leather products from a host of other commodities available here.

The Laotian minister said his country is having vast arable land lying unused. He said Japanese investors are developing farms in his country to produce fine rice while the Chinese investors are raising new tea plantations.

The Laotian government is encouraging tree plantation and mining including gas exploration, he said, adding the country is also having many tourism attractions.

Ambassador Ly Bounkham said his country is having the biggest hydro-electricity potentials and already exporting 300 MW power to Thailand. The Thai intake would increase to 3,000 MW in 2009 and 7,000 by 2012. Vietnam will buy another 3,000 MW he said adding the six million population country is open for business and investment.

Referring to various business sectors, the DCCI president said Laos can be a good business partner and its potentials need to be exploited to the mutual benefit of both the countries. He said once land routes will be opened through Myanmar to Thailand, access to this land locked would become easier.

He said this is the first visit of a Laotian minister to Bangladesh and hoped this visit would open new gates to growing business.

AFP, Washington

The IMF, under pressure to move with the times, backed reforms on Saturday to give low-income countries a stronger voice in its decision-making and defended its response to recent financial market upheaval.

Policymakers from the International Monetary Fund also bowed to insistence from member countries that the Fund shore up its shaky finances, pledging to cut costs and boost efficiency.

The commitment came in a final statement issued after a meeting here of the IMF's steering committee, held as the 63- year-old Fund was being pressed to accord greater representation to currently under-represented non-Western countries.

The committee said reforming the IMF "should enhance the representation of dynamic economies, many of which are emerging- market economies, whose weight and role in the global economy have increased."

Such countries should see their voting share increased, the committee said, adding that "the voice and representation" of poor countries would also be strengthened.

It said all elements for an internal reform package, including an increase in the quotas that determine a member's voting rights, should be in place by the time of its next meeting in April 2008.

The IMF in September took an initial step toward overhauling its management structure by raising the quotas for four rising economies, China, South Korea, Mexico and Turkey. The Fund is now in the midst of a second round of reforms, which was under discussion here.

While the action taken Saturday was hailed by some IMF officials as a clear advance, outgoing IMF Managing Director Rodrgio Rato cautioned that "we are in an interim moment."

"Today there has not been any final agreement," he said, adding that details of the reform still needed to be thrashed out.

Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega earlier in the day implied that the IMF had in fact, been slow to act on reform, attributing the hold- up to "resistance to change on the part of developed countries, which are over-represented in terms of voting power."

UNB, Dhaka

The Power Cell under the Ministry of Power will receive international tender by October 25 for setting up eight rental power plants on a first track basis to tackle power crisis in the next summer.

The projects are 50 MW Shahjibazar plant, 50 MW Kumaregaon plant and 50 MW Fenchuganj plant in Sylhet, 50 MW Ashuganj plant, 20 MW Bogra plant, 30 MW Bhola plant, 40 MW Khulna plant and 20 MW Bheramara plant.

Of the plants, the 40 MW Khulna and 20 MW Bheramara projects will be liquid fuel-based ones while the rest will be gas-based ones. The total capacity of the plants will be about 310 MW. As per terms and conditions of the projects, the bidders will have to install the plants within four months of signing of the contracts. The government will purchase electricity from the plants for the next three years.

The Power Cell, a reform implementation wing of the Power Ministry, will receive the tender as responsible body. Earlier, the Power Cell invited interested international bidders to submit Express of Interests (EoIs).

A total of 17 international firms submitted EoIs to vie for the eight projects.

Three firms from the USA, two from the UK, and one each from Singapore, Ukraine, the UAE, India and Malaysia have submitted EoIs directly. Five local firms submitted their EoIs on behalf of their principals in India, Russia and Ukraine.

Later, the Power Cell issued Request for Proposal (RfP) letter to the 17 firms asking them to submit their respective technical and financial offers.

The industry insiders are, however, critical of the rental power plant project as they raised questions about the move. They said these rental power plants might be suicidal for the power sector and hamper the caretaker government's efforts to buy electricity from the captive power plants set up by local entrepreneurs.

They said the tariff of the proposed plants would be relatively higher than that of the land-based power plants.

In 1997, the then government installed three barge-mounted power plants to tackle the power crisis and their tariff was very high, even above Tk 5.30 per unit in some cases.

The Power Development Board (PDB) has to incur about Tk 1,300 crore a year for purchasing electricity at higher rates from those power plants. This loss will increase if more barge-mounted power plants are installed, they observed.

When the caretaker government has been trying to purchase electricity from the captive power plants installed by local entrepreneurs to serve their industries, the move to install rental power plants may discourage the captive power producers to sell their electricity to the national grid.

The power sector experts said the government could easily get more than 500 MW from the captive plants before the next summer if they allow them to extend their existing capacity by installing some new generation machines.

Earlier, the government had invited tender to install seven rental power plants. But the state-owned Petrobangla refused to supply gas to three of them because of shortage in gas production, forcing three of the plants to roll back.

However, the issue of gas supply to new plants still remains a big question.

BSS, Dinajpur

Veteran politician, former MP and State Minister for Post and Telecommunications Abdur Rouf Chowdhury died of old age complications at his residence in village Dhontola under Bochaganj upazila in Dinajpur yesterday morning.

He was 75.

He left behind his son Khalid Hassan Chowdhury, personal secretary to former Prime Minister and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina, two daughters, wife and a host of relatives and admirers.

The late political leader was born in a respectable Muslim family in the village. He was the President of Dinajpur District unit of Awami League for long 17 years.

His first namaz-e-janaza was held at 5PM on Sunday on Dinajpur Club premises and the body was preserved at Dinajpur Diabetic Hospital.

He will be buried in his family graveyard in his village after the second namaz-e-janaza at Bochaganj Pourasabha High School ground today (Monday), family sources said.

Acting president of Dinajpur district unit of Awami League Azizul Islam Chowdhury, its secretary and former MP Mostafizar Rahman Fizar, district and upazila level Awami League leaders, Dinajpur district unit president of BNP Advocate Yusuf Ali, its secretary Advocate Mofazzal Hossain Dulal, leaders of Jatiya Party and other political parties condoled the death of the veteran politician.

President of Dinajpur Chamber of Commerce and Industries Rafikul Islam, Bochaganj pourasabha chairman Faruk Chowdhury, Hakimpur pourasabha chairman Kamal Hossain Raj and president of Dinajpur Zila Ainjibi Samity Advocate Nurul Islam also condoled the death of late Rouf.

AFP, Washington

World Bank policymakers met here on Saturday to anchor agriculture at the centre of their agenda in a major shift aimed at lifting billions of people out of poverty.

The new Bank president, Robert Zoellick, has pledged to boost the institution's lending to the farm sector after allowing it to decline in 1980s and 1990s.

Zoellick vows the Bank will use an inclusive approach to fight poverty, hunger and disease, and this week unveiled a controversial proposal to allow private-sector business to help finance aid to poor countries.

"There is much more we can do to connect the 'bottom billion' to the rest of the world," Zoellick said Saturday, after attending a meeting of the International Monetary Fund steering committee. The twin institutions are holding their annual meetings in Washington through Monday.

"Inclusive development means greater voice for those most affected by our decisions," said the former US trade chief and Goldman Sachs executive, who took office in July after his predecessor was forced to resign in a favoritism scandal.

Globalization has created opportunities but "has not embraced all," he said. "Too many countries, especially in Africa, are expected to fall short of meeting many of the Millennium Development Goals" of halving the percentage of people living on less than a dollar a day by 2015.

The institution's annual World Development Report, released this week, acknowledged that Bank lending to agriculture had declined from 1980 to 2000 but said its support for rural development had begun to pick up four years ago and would increase further. Commitments this year are expected to come to 3.1 billion dollars.

Nevertheless, while 75 percent of the world's poor live in rural areas "a mere 4.0 percent of official development assistance goes to agriculture in developing countries," the report found.

In sub-Saharan Africa furthermore, public spending on farming amounts to only 4.0 percent of total government expenditure.

An improvement in a country's gross domestic product that is agriculture-driven is four times more effective in reducing poverty than is GDP growth originating in other sectors, the report said.

"We need to give agriculture more prominence across the board," Zoellick said in presenting the report Thursday. "At the global level, countries must deliver on vital reforms such as cutting distorting subsidies and opening markets, while civil society groups, especially farmer organizations, need more say in setting the agricultural agenda."

ActionAid, which is spearheading a campaign to stamp out hunger, denounced the Bank report for perpetuating the "same market-led approach, which for the last 25 years has been a massive failure even by its (the Bank's) own standards."

The ambitious agenda under Zoellick comes as the 185-nation Bank campaigns for contributions among members to rebuild the coffers of the International Development Association (IDA), the Bank's main lender to countries whose populations live on less that two dollars per day, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Bank itself recently pledged to more than double its contribution to the 15th IDA campaign, to 3.5 billion dollars.

Zoellick noted Saturday that about 70 percent of the poor live in India, China and the middle-income countries (MICs) served by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Bank's public financing arm.

"In order to meet the great needs of emerging-market countries, I have asked our board to simplify and cut our prices so we can expand our lending to support development and growth," he said. Bank policymakers are also expected to discuss an innovative strategy to involve private-sector business in Bank financing.

Zoellick said he did not see any "particular problem" with getting board approval for the project, but for some the plan raises conflict of interest concerns.

"The private sector getting involved in the replenishment of IDA raises serious questions," said Sebastien Fourmy, a spokesman of Oxfam International, a nongovernmental organization.

The World Bank is "a public institution accountable to citizens," not to shareholders, said Fourmy.

AFP, Miranshah

Pro-Taliban militants blew up a girls' school in Pakistan's restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan, security officials said Sunday.

The school building was destroyed in the attack in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan region, after militants planted explosives there late Saturday, a security official said on condition of anonymity.

"There were no casualties as the building was empty," he added.

The attack came amid an upsurge in violence in Pakistan's deeply conservative tribal zone where militants consider female education un-Islamic.

The region has seen previous attacks on video and music shops blamed on militants emulating the ultra-orthodox Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until their ouster in a US-led invasion in 2001.

The attack on the school was the second in two days after a similar incident in another tribal town of Khar in Bajaur district.

Violence in the tribal region straddling Afghanistan has spiked since an army raid at a pro-Taliban mosque in the capital Islamabad in July.

Almost 400 people have been killed in the violence, mainly in suicide attacks, an AFP tally of the incidents shows.