The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The Pakistani occupation army had surrendered to the Bangladesh-India Joint Command in Dhaka on this day (December 16) in 1971, ending the nine-month long bloody Liberation War and giving birth to independent Bangladesh.

In the afternoon on December 16 in 1971, Chief of Pakistan Eastern Command Lt General AAK Niazi surrendered to the Commander of Joint Command Lt General Jagjit Singh Arora at Suhrawardy Udyan in Dhaka city.

About 30 lakh people sacrificed their lives during the nine-month long war for the national freedom.

The nation will celebrate the anniversary of its glorious victory over Pakistani occupation forces in a befitting manner today. The Victory Day will be celebrated across the country and at Bangladesh missions abroad, while expatriate Bangladeshis would observe the day in their respective places of residence.

With the day dawning, the grateful nation will pay homage to the 30-lakh martyrs who sacrificed their lives to have a homeland in 1971.

Tributes will be paid to the Liberation War heroes by placing wreaths at the National Mausoleum at Savar in the morning.

President Dr Iajuddin Ahmed will lead the nation by laying floral wreath at the memorial.

The day will be heralded by 31-gun salute at dawn. The day is a public holiday. National flag will be hoisted atop all government, semi-government and other important establishments.

The Government, major political parties, including the Awami League (AL) and BNP, and different socio-cultural organisations have chalked out programmes to mark the occasion.

President Prof Dr Iajuddin Ahmed and Chief Adviser of the Caretaker Government Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed issued separate messages on this occasion, felicitating the nation and calling for united effort to attain the prime goal of the liberation war through building a happy, rich and self-reliant country.

In his message Dr Iajuddin Ahmed said, "The main goal of our liberation war was to build up a happy, prosperous and self-reliant country. Targeting the goal we have achieved a democratic system. Now it is time to make this democratic system more effective and stronger."

He called for all to perform their responsibility unitedly to ensure transparency and accountability in building a healthy and good society. "This should be the promise of Victory Day," he said.

Chief Advisor Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed said, "As a nation we are passing through a transitional period. We are at a tough war against poverty-hunger, repression-deprivation, corruption and misrule."

He added: "We are facing tough challenges of holding a free, fair and credible election, establishing democracy on a strong footing, improving people's lifestyle and their fate."

The head of Caretaker Government, which was installed in office amid a grave political crisis, observed that the double-pronged floods this past fall and the devastation by the catastrophic cyclone Sidr made these challenges yet "tougher".

"I believe that a nation which has the glory of victory in the great liberation war would never concede defeat. We have to face all of these challenges with determination, being imbued with the spirit of independence," he said.

He called upon all to work unitedly to build up a happy and prosperous nation.

The department of Mass Communication under the Ministry of Information has chalked out an elaborate programme in celebration of the Victory Day throughout the country tomorrow.

Under the programmes folk singers of the department will perform patriotic songs at different spots on the bank of river Buriganga on the department's launches and at different points of the capital on mobile trucks.

Sixty-four district information offices and four hil upazila offices of the department will arrange the screening of documentary films on the theme of the day across the country.

Besides, the department will provide public-address system at the grand parade and rally to be held at Bangabandhu National Stadium and other government programmes to be organised to mark the day.

Members of the Bangladesh Armed Forces will join the nation in observing the great Victory Day in a befitting manner.

Special munajat will be offered at all mosques of Army, Navy and Air Force all over the country seeking divine blessings for the peace and progress of the country and development of the armed forces.

The national flag will be hoisted stop services' headquarters and Armed Forces installations.

Bangladesh Army, Navy and Air Force bands will perform at Crescent Lake (Sangsad Bhaban Area), Farmgate Park Area and Mirpur Stadium respectively from 2pm to 4pm. They will play different patriotic and popular tunes.

Special prayers will be offered at mosques, temples, churches and other places of worship, seeking divine blessings for peace and progress of the country. Improved diets will be served at hospitals, jails, orphanages and vagrant centres.

The state-run Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar and private television and radio channels will air special programmes while the national dailies will bring out special supplements highlighting the significance of the day.

Bangla Academy, Shilpakala Academy and Bangladesh Shishu Academy will organise separate cultural functions, film shows and painting competitions.

Bangladesh missions abroad will organise discussions and cultural functions on the occasion.

Security has been beefed up here at the National Mausoleum at Savar on this occasion.

About 3,000 security forces were deployed in and around the National Mausoleum yesterday.

Besides, Inspector General of Police Noor Mohammad yesterday said the law enforcing agencies, including police and RAB would keep a strict vigil on violation of law and order during different programmes marking the Victory Day.

"Police, RAB and other law enforcers will keep close watch during the Victory Day programmes across the country," he told journalists after attending a meeting at Razarbagh in the capital.

Staff Reporter

The country experienced a major power collapse yesterday following a technical fault in the national power grid at Ashuganj Power Plant, disrupting normal life across Bangladesh.

The whole country plunged into darkness at 11:45am as all power generation units closed down due to the national grid failure. The crisis forced patients in hospitals in the capital and elsewhere to suffer miserably, generated crisis of water in the cities and long queue of motor vehicles at different refueling stations for hours, halted industrial production and disrupted traffic signal systems in all cities, official sources said.

Key-point installations like Bangabhaban (presidential palace), Cantonment, Chief Adviser's Office also came under the nagging outage following the national grid failure.

The trouble ensued at 11:40am in the 132 KV supply line of the Ashuganj Power Plant and closed down the installation. The problem immediately hit all the running power plants of the

At about 6:00 pm, the Power Development Board (PDB) and the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) supplied 220MW electricity to different important establishments in the capital city when the generation reached 1,000MWs.

Technicians of the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and concerned agencies immediately started restoration work. Energy and Power Adviser Tapan Chowdhury had a series of meetings with concerned high officials and asked for immediate restoration of power generation and supply. He visited DESA office and had meeting with DESA Chairman Brig Gen Nazrul Hasan and PDB Chairman Shawkat Ali.

Power generation could be restored to 600 MW by 3:00pm, when electricity was supplied to the Bangabhaban and some parts of the capital. Then power was supplied to Tongi, Haripur and Meghnaghat Power Plants in phases for regeneration of electricity, Power Secretary Dr M Faozul Kabir Khan said.

He, however, could not identify the reason for the failure of national power grid.

After the power disaster, all the top officials of the Power Development Board (PDB) and the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) gathered at the load-dispatch centre at DESA Headquarters to put their heads together to figure out the magnitude of the problem and what was to be done.

They relentlessly worked to restore the power supply and got the breakthrough at about 2.30 PM through resuming operation at Mymensingh Power Station.

Taking auxiliary electricity from that power unit, they restored generation at some other small power stations in Kaptai, Bheramara and Sirajganj.

Talking to journalists, Power Secretary Dr Fouzul Kabir Khan expressed the hope that they could be able to restore electricity supply in and around the city by 10:00pm.

However, most parts of the capital were still in darkness due to lack of electricity till filing of this report at 10:15pm yesterday.

City dwellers returned to their respective houses early yesterday apprehending mugging on the roads in darkness. Market places, despite the eid shopping season, also closed early.

This is for a second time that the country suffered national grid failure within a month, as a similar disaster occurred following the super-cyclone Sidr that pounded the country's southern region on November 15.

BSS, Dhaka

Chief of Army Staff General Moeen U Ahmed yesterday urged the government to rebury all the seven Bir Shreshthas in a single compound so that people could pay their homage to all the valiant freedom fighters at a time.

"I have made a request to the Chief Adviser (CA) in this regard and he accordingly agreed," the Army Chief said while receiving donations from various organisations and individuals for the cyclone survivors at Dhaka Cantonment here.

General Moeen suggested the National Memorial at Savar as a probable site for reburial of the Bir Shresthas, who made supreme sacrifice for the independence of the country.

He said the Army have succeeded in ensuring food and water for every cyclone-victim in the affected areas immediately after the disaster hit the country's southern part and now time has come to rehabilitate the victims.

The Army Chief said different organisations and individuals have so far donated Taka 18.36 crore to the army's relief fund including the today's contribution. Of the total amount, Taka 5,14,3600 have been distributed among the affected people, he added.

"We have bought boats and fishing nets with the donation on an emergency basis for distribution among the affected fishermen so that they could again go back to the sea for fishing, he said, adding "besides, we have spent a portion of the donation for agriculture rehabilitation."

The Army have already sent 18,000 blankets to the affected areas of which 15,000 were distributed.

"Warm stuffs are very much needed in the affected areas as winter has begun early there," he said and added that if "we could give at least one blanket to each affected family the cyclone survivors will be greatly benefited."

Describing food deficiency as a major challenge, the Army Chief said the country is facing a shortfall of 20 lakh metric tons of food grains because of the two recent devastating floods and the cyclone 'Sidr'.

'To make up for the shortfall, farmers need to work hard in coming days and all concerned including the army have to keep vigil so that seeds and fertilizers could reach the farmers in time.

General Moeen U Ahmed said in the last 36 years no government faced three consecutive natural disasters in one year, but the present government has to come across such calamities.

If we all both at home and abroad work together, we could recover the losses, he said.

The army personnel deployed in the cyclone-hit areas would not return to their normal duties until the affected people were rehabilitated properly, he added.

Reading materials are being bought on an emergency basis for the next SSC candidates in the affected areas as the cyclone destroyed those completely.

"I personally requested the Chief Adviser to defer the date for the SSC examination under Jessore and Barisal education boards for a minimum period of one month to help the candidates take preparation in the affected areas," said the Army Chief.

Forty-three organisations and individuals today donated Taka 24,912,000 in cheques and various relief materials to the army's relief fund.

The donors included Akiz Group Taka 50 lakh, BKMEA and Standard Bank Westin Taka 10.94 lakh each, Sea Mark BD, Sandhani Life Insurance Company and Bangladesh CNG Felling Station and Owner Association Taka 10 lakh each, Brigadier General Qazi Anwarul Islam on behalf of BNCC Taka 9.47 lakh and relief materials, Joint Secretary Brigadier General Shah Sultan Uddin Iqbal personally Taka 1 lakh, Bangladesh Football Federation Taka 9.02 lakh, Bangladesh Jewelers' Association Taka 7.75 lakh, Concord Group Taka 7.5 lakh, Electro Mart Taka 7 lakh, Radisson Water Garden and SHDL and Islamic Foundation Toronto Canada Taka 5 lakh each, Toronto University Students Union 9000 Canadian dollar and Moulvibazar Merchant Association Dhaka Taka 3 lakh and various relief materials.

Besides, Gulshan Central Mosque, Muhammad Trading, Gulshan Spinning Mills, Probashi Palli, Pandora Fashion, Naryanganj Rifles Club, Bijoynagar Purana Paltan Line Welfare Society, Rajuk Uttra Model College, Royal Int., Mannan Brose, merchants of Rajanigandha Supermarket, Segunbagicha Society, Essential Drugs Company, Crystal Wears, Jonta Club, Young One Group, Uttara Morning Walkers Association, Purabi Jewelers, Allauddin Ahmed, Shahina Akhter Ruma, Eng. Munshi Imamul Hossain, M Siddiqur Rahman, Dr M Sirajuddin and Professor M Hellal Uddin also donated cash and relief materials.

BBC Online

"Diana was deeply and blissfully in love with Dodi". This could have been a headline in a gossip magazine. In fact it was uttered in a court of law.

The speaker was Raine, Countess Spencer, who was dressed in black from head to toe. She lifted her veil before entering the witness box.

She had been transformed, during Diana's life, from wicked stepmother to close confidante.

The daughter of Barbara Cartland and employee of Mohammed Al Fayed said she felt it was highly likely Diana and Dodi would have become engaged and then got married.

When asked whether the princess would have allowed herself to become pregnant outside wedlock, her reply could have been inspired by one of her mother's novels.

"Diana was brought up in a quite old-fashioned way," said the countess. "I don't personally believe she would have considered it. It would have been out of the question for her." The true nature of the relationship has been the subject of many column inches over the years.

It's now a key issue for the jury to consider. Was it just a summer fling - a princess on the rebound from her break-up with the love of her life, the heart surgeon, Hasnat Khan - or was it something deeper, its enduring potential the reason, as Dodi's father alleges, that the couple were murdered by the British intelligence services?

Al Fayed released two of her letters to prove his point. In one she writes of her holiday with Dodi on a yacht - "six magical days on the ocean waves" - and of how he'd brought joy "into this particular chick's life".

A week later Diana sent Dodi a treasured personal possession accompanied by these words, "These cufflinks were the very last gift I received from the man I loved the most in the world - my father."

Another man in Diana's life loomed large this week - her father-in-law, Prince Philip.

Again, parts of once private letters were made public. Did she take any secrets to the grave, you may well wonder?

This correspondence was written in 1992 as her marriage was disintegrating. In one of his typed letters, the duke offered to help Charles and Diana but said he had no talents as a marriage counsellor.

In her handwritten replies, Diana referred to him as "Dearest Pa" and praised his "great understanding and tact" - characteristics which challenge his caricature.

These extracts weren't released to satisfy the tittle-tattle mongers, rather to answer the allegation Prince Philip had sent Diana unpleasant and insulting letters.

The coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, who has read all of the released documents, told the jury this wasn't the case.

The Queen's husband is at the heart of Mohammed Al Fayed's central allegation of a British establishment conspiracy to murder.

Al Fayed is unlikely to abandon his attempt to persuade a so far unconvinced coroner of the need to summon Prince Philip to the witness box.

Such a royal appearance would electrify Court 73 and even overshadow the testimony of a veil-wearing daughter of a prolific romantic novelist.

As well as exhorting the court, in her words, "to solve this mystery to allow poor Diana and poor Dodi to at last truly rest in peace", Countess Spencer also had time to offer advice for those in royal circles who are troubled at dinner parties with impertinent questions about the Windsors.

She told the court she and her late husband, Diana's father, used to give this stock reply: "It is very kind of you to ask. I am afraid we cannot possibly answer that because we know too much."

Staff Reporter

The World Bank (WB) sees the prevailing state of emergency "as part and parcel" of the current Caretaker Government and does not find any problem in giving logistic support for relief and rehabilitation due to it.

The International lending agency announced an additional US$25 million support along with the US$250 million commitment it made in the immediate wake of cyclone. The WB will also release immediate budgetary support of US$100 million.

Visiting WB Vice President Praful C Patel made the new pledge at a press conference at Westin Hotel at Gulshan in the city yesterday. Agriculture and Environment Adviser Dr CS Karim also addressed the joint press conference when ERD Secretary Aminul Islam Bhuiyan and World Bank Country Director Xian Zhu were present.

"Seeing firsthand the devastation caused by Cyclone Sidr was shocking," said Patel of his visit to Kolapara Upazila of Patuakhali district. "More is needed, more is deserved by Bangladesh in the way of international community support, as the magnitude of the devastation is huge and the challenge of rebuilding the lives of the victims is formidable," he added.

The Caretaker Government is doing well in many respects and the WB has good relations with it," he said adding, "We do not wait for political development in Bangladesh, for the Cyclone response is needed today."

The WB official also urged the development partners of Bangladesh to support the disaster-prone country as it shifted into high gear to meet the challenges of future disasters and the likely increase in impact caused by climate change.

"The Government alone cannot deal with a problem of such enormous magnitude," he said appealling to both Bangladesh citizens and the international community to help the country out of its economic difficulties.

In the immediate aftermath of the cyclone, the WB offered up to US$250 million in assistance to cover immediate, medium-term and long-term needs. Fast-moving budget support of US$75 million was to have been available after the WB Board's approval by January but Patel said the scale of what he had seen during his visit had prompted him to recommend to the Board to increase that to US $ 100 million as a gesture of further support to reduce pressure on the current years (FY 8) budget.

An amount of US $ 50 million will be provided as grant from Global Disaster Reduction Fund. Of the total, US$ 50 million would be available by April next year to help people rebuild their livelihoods and remaining US4 125 million for supporting the long-term vision of disaster prevention and management as articulated by the Chief Adviser.

The WB official observed Bangladesh economy has been burdened by three adverse shocks of increase in international prices of oil, food and other commodities, twice floods in July-September and the destruction by Cyclone Sidr.

He said international price shocks alone are likely to inflict losses to the economy this year to the tune of US$ 1.6 billion, equal to 2.3 per cent of the GDP.

"Moreover, in the absence of any domestic price adjustments, rising oil and fertiliser prices are putting an inordinate fiscal burden on the FY08 budget," Patel noted.

He said the preliminary numbers on damages suggest that the magnitude of loss suffered by the economy due to two natural disasters is very large-floods causing over US$ 1 billion and cyclone probably over US$ 2 billion.

The World Bank, Patel said, may further increase its assistance once the needs-assessment mission submits its report by January.

Asked whether a democratically elected government could be effective to deal with the enormous rehabilitation work, Praful C Patel said, "We do not wait for political development in Bangladesh, for the Cyclone response is needed today."

He said, this Caretaker Government is not the same kind of the previous one. Tenure of this Caretaker Government is not limited to three months. It will stay in power for two years - nearly a half of the tenure of a regular political government. Development works cannot be suspended for so long

To another question, the World Bank official said he did not see any constraint on logistic support to relief and rehabilitation due to the state of emergency, which he said is part and parcel of formulating the current caretaker government.

Patel however said the issue of increasing the capacity of the administration needs to be addressed. He noted that the running of 46 ministries and the amount of job stretches the capacity of the caretaker government.

Adviser Dr CS Karim, however, said the capacity means the entire process starting from the decision-making to implementation. He said there is no problem with the decision-making process, but the implementation depends on bureaucracy.

"It is a constitutional question whether to increase the number of Advisers of the caretaker government," he told the press meet.

On climate change, a red-hot global issue of the day, Patel said the problem of greenhouse gas emissions put Bangladesh in a more difficult situation as the challenge now is natural disaster augmented by this phenomenon (climate change).

He said dialogue with India to deal with the climate change would be important as Bangladesh and India have 54 shared rivers calling for a shared vision of development.

"We need to integrate adaptation strategy into all policy- making and new infrastructure decisions," he told the journalists. The World Bank senior official said Bangladesh would be the first country to get benefit from global fund on climate change.

Asked if the WB has any plan to waive the loan interest or lower the interest rate, Patel replied in the negative. Bangladesh is not a debt-stressed country for getting debt relief and the government here did not ask for it, he said.

Patel, who met the NBR chairman during his 3-day visit, praised the National Board of Revenue drive to increase the revenue collection by 23 per cent this year. The NBR chairman informed him that it would go over 70 per cent next year if the current drive continued.

UNB, Dhaka

The newly formed Bangladesh Better Business Forum (BBBF) Saturday held its first formal meeting discussing ways to achieve its goal of accelerating economic growth maintaining friendly relations between public and private sectors.

The 38-member high-profile public-private forum was announced on November 25.

Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed, also the BBF chairperson, presided over the meeting that lasted for about two hours from 3:45pm at the CA's office. The meeting discussed a number of business and investment-related issues.

After opening remarks of the Chief Adviser, the forum members discussed various issues like rising inflation, its impact and compensating its adverse impacts, employment generation, raising purchasing capacity, restoration of business people's confidence, compensating low-income group people to enable them to face the rising inflation.

Development of human resources, food price, government subsidy, reducing bank rate of interest, fiscal and trade policies, business regulations, promoting global, regional and sub-regional trade and commerce and curbing corruption also came up at the meeting for discussion.

In his opening remarks, the Chief Adviser said Better Business Forum is an ideal body for taking decisions and providing guidance for a consensus on any issue of business and investment.

He said the objective of the forum is to attain sustainable economic growth maintaining business and investment friendly atmosphere and suitable relations between government and private sectors.

The meeting decided to form five working groups on business-related issues like finance, fiscal and trade policies, better infrastructure and development of skilled manpower.

The meeting asked the Forum members to come up with suggestive names of the draft committee of the working groups by December 31.

The Chief Adviser said the Regulatory Reforms Commission (RRC) and Better Business Forum could work in a parallel manner to attain the expected goal.

Members of the forum, including Finance and Commerce Adviser, who is also executive chairperson of the Forum, Advisers, Chief of Army Staff, Bangladesh Bank Governor, PSO of the Armed Forces Division, concerned Secretaries, noted businessmen and business leaders of different trade bodies and member-secretary of the forum attended the meeting.