The New Nation - Internet Edition

Obama accuses McCain of smear campaign

Agency, Washington

The US presidential candidates have exchanged barbs as they prepare for a crucial debate on Tuesday evening.

Barack Obama accused John McCain of "smear tactics" and said he was not paying enough attention to the economic crisis that has been gripping the US.

John McCain said Obama was "lying" about his ties to the home loan industry and asked what his rival had ever accomplished in government.

The campaign tone has turned nasty as polls show Obama widening his lead.

The latest Gallup daily tracking poll puts Senator Obama at 50% and Senator McCain at 42%, while a new CNN poll put Mr Obama ahead by 53% to 45%.

We don't throw the first punch, but we'll throw the last Barack Obama.

Obama, the Democratic candidate, is still gaining in some of the key swing states as well. A new Washington Post poll puts him 6% ahead of McCain in Ohio, a state the Republican candidate must take if he is to win the presidency.

The poll also showed that the Obama camp had a stronger organisation on the ground, with 43% of potential voters having been contacted by Democratic supporters, while only 33% had heard from McCain supporters.

With voter registration having closed in many key states on Monday, the evidence suggests that the majority of the four million new voters added to the electoral roles are registering as Democrats - for example, in Florida, it is by a two to one majority.The second presidential debate is generating intense interest among the public.

More than six million people have e-mailed questions to the moderator, NBC news presenter Tom Brokaw, who will preside over the town hall-style debate in Nashville, Tennessee.

He will select only six or seven e-mailed questions, as well around a dozen from the studio audience of 80 uncommitted voters.

McCain, who is widely viewed as having lost the first debate, has vowed to take the gloves off for this encounter. Obama, meanwhile, promised to fight back.

"We don't throw the first punch, but we'll throw the last," he told a syndicated radio show.

In recent days both camps have launched fresh accusations questioning the character of their opponent.

McCain's running mate Sarah Palin posed further questions about Obama's "truthfulness and judgement."

Governor Palin had accused Obama of "palling around" with a "domestic terrorist" - Bill Ayers.

He belonged to the US militant group Weather Underground, which opposed the Vietnam War in the 1960s.

Obama once served on a charity board with Mr Ayers but has denounced his radical past.

In an interview with the New York Times newspaper on Monday, Mrs Palin also suggested that voters should pay more attention to Obama's relationship with his former church pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

"I don't know why that association isn't discussed more, because those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our great country," she said.

FBCCI to place charter of demands before parties

BSS, Dhaka

Ahead of the parliamentary polls, the FBCCI is making a move for consultations with chambers and trade bodies down to the district level to prepare a charter of demands addressed to major political parties.

But since time to the election is too short, the consultations may be held quickly at divisional headquarters.

The move has been taken as a recent FBCCI initiative failed to get the leaders of Awami League and BNP in a table to sort out differences and change track to constructive politics supportive to trade, investment and stability in the post- election environment.

A source close to the FBCCI said there is no alternative for major parties to take a new look to their political agenda of actions focused to reforming party strategies and culture of hostility.

He said the country cannot perpetually remain captive to politics of hatred and confrontation and when the FBCCI leaders speak for the change, they are in fact reflecting the expectations of the entire nation.

"Their politics has not only derailed the country's democracy but is also repeatedly sabotaging business, investment and prosperity," the source said adding, the FBCCI's move should be viewed from this perspective of change at national politics.

He said the FBCCI leaders have decided to go to the district chambers and trade associations to take their suggestions that can be incorporated in the business charter of demands.

The charter will be then presented to major parties urging them to clear their position in election manifestos as to how they are going to bring change in parochial politics to support business and uphold aspirations of the people that the nation will not be back to politics of hostility and violence again.

The source said that in view of the shortage of time, the FBCCI leaders have decided to hold six meetings at divisional headquarters where leaders of district chambers and trade associations under the divisions will be invited to consultations.

It may start from next week to end in the first week of November, the source said adding, two separate committees have been set up - one comprising two leading journalists and another three economists to help prepare the draft charter in the light of the outcome of the consultations.

The FBCCI will finally adopt it and present it to leaders of Awami League, BNP and other parties taking part in the elections. He said the emphasis in the business charter of demands would be on promoting and protecting business environment and the need to curve out a new politics to support business and economic growth.

"Politics which remains insensitive to business and bringing prosperity to the nation cannot win the heart of the nation and go unchallenged," the source said adding, "It is time for parties to show they have learnt from the 1/11 experience."

"As the private sector is on the driving seat of the country's economic growth," the FBCCI is working with the right move, the source said hoping political leaders will also take it in the right perspective.

Ban Ki-moon for investment to curb disaster risk

BSS, Dhaka

Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon urged upon the governments, civil society bodies, international financial institutions and the private sector for making investment in tangible risk reduction measures to reduce vulnerability and protect development.

In a message on the eve of International Day for Disaster reduction, which falls on October 8, the UN Secretary General said, the observance of the Day takes place in a year that has seen more than its fair share of natural calamities.

The casualties in the earthquake in South Asia three years ago and this year's Wenchuan Earthquake and Cyclone Nargis still fresh in our minds, it is all the more appropriate to recall the lessons we have learned, he added.

He said Nearly four years ago, governments adopted the Hyogo Framework for Action, which aims to reduce our collective vulnerability to natural hazards. But we must do more to turn commitments on paper into deeds that can keep the next major disaster from taking so many lives and destroying so many livelihoods.

Ban Ki-moon said "When we are trying to accelerate national and international efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, disaster risk reduction needs to be acknowledged and incorporated as a key plank of that work. The threats posed by climate change-including increasing droughts, floods and storms- increases the urgency further still, particularly in the world's poorest, most vulnerable communities."

The World Disaster Reduction Campaign for 2008-2009 focuses on making "Hospitals Safe from Disasters", when health facilities are damaged, so, too, is our ability to improve maternal and child health and to provide other essential health services, he said adding, in resilient communities, health systems are better able to withstand natural hazards.

He urged all partners- Governments, civil society, international financial institutions and the private sector-to step up implementation of the Hyogo Framework.

HC asks Saifur to surrender before trial court in 4 weeks

UNB, Dhaka

The High Court yesterday asked former finance minister Saifur Rahman, charge-sheeted along with ex-premier Khaleda Zia in the Barapukuria coalmine graft case, to surrender to and seek bail from the trial court within four weeks.

Passing the order, an HC division bench comprising Justice AKM Fazlur Rahman and Justice Sheikh Abdul Awal directed the law to "refrain from arresting or harassing" him in the meantime.

The HC orders came following a petition filed by the BNP stalwart apprehending arrest and sought bail on surrender, as the trial court Monday issued arrest warrants against him and eight other charge-sheeted accused in the graft case.

Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge M Azizul Huq on Monday, a day after accepting the charge-sheet in the case submitted by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), passed the orders.

The eight other accused carrying arrest warrants overhead did not turn up at the High Court yesterday.

The trial court has also directed the principal accused, BNP chairperson and ex-PM Khaleda Zia, Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer and ex-minister Motiur Rahman Nizami, former BNP ministers Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, M Shamsul Islam and MK Anwar, now on bail in the case, to appear before it on October 12.

On Sunday, ACC deputy director Abul Kashem Fakir, also the investigation officer, submitted the charge-sheet in the high-profile case to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court here against the 16 persons in the case. The charge-sheet shows 43 people as prosecution witnesses.

On February 26, the ACC filed the case with Shahbagh police station in the capital on charge of kickbacks amounting to about Tk 159 crore on the Barapukuria Coalmine deal awarded to the highest bidder instead of the lowest.

In the charge sheet the anti-graft watchdog body accused the top politicians and bureaucrats of misappropriating about Tk 159 crore through inflicting loss on country's exchequer by awarding the contract of production, management and maintenance of the Barapukuria Coalmine to the highest bidder.

Former Additional Attorney-General Abdur Rezzaque Khan appeared for Saifur.

Link between disarmament and development stressed

BSS, Dhaka

Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations Ismat Jahan underscored the need for refocusing on the link between disarmament and development, and urged the major military powers to divert the resources to poverty alleviation in the developing countries.

She said the global military expenditure exceeding 1.3 trillion US dollar in 2007 was increasingly having a negative impact on the development agenda of the developing countries, according to a message received here on Tuesday.

Addressing the General debate of the first Committee of the 63rd UN General Assembly yesterday, Ismat Jahan also stressed the impact of disarmament on ecology and global climate regime to grapple with the new and emerging challenges of climate change.

She said disarmament is a cornerstone of foreign policy of Bangladesh, which is bound by its constitution to general and complete disarmament. She also mentioned that Bangladesh which is a party to all major international instruments pertaining to disarmament, believes that the continued existence of weapons of mass destruction constitutes the greatest threat to humanity.

She observed that article IV of the Non Proliferation Treaty guarantees the inalienable rights of all states to develop, research, produce and use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. These guarantees must apply without discrimination, and the rights of non-nuclear- weapon states to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy ad technology must be upheld and promoted, she added.

Ismat Jahan said Bangladesh strongly believes in regional approaches to nuclear disarmament. She maintained confidence- building measures through the establishment of nuclear-weapon- free-zones (NWFZ) can contribute significantly to this goal. Nuclearization of South Asia is a particular concern for Bangladesh, she added.

She urged upon India and Pakistan to relinquish their nuclear option and join the NTP regime. Israel must also do the same in the Middle East, she emphasized. She said that the bilateral agreements on civilian use of nuclear energy should not, in any way, hinder the cause of regional disarmament.

2 car-lifters held, stolen 'Corolla X’ recovered in city

Staff Reporter

Detective Branch (DB) of police, in separate drives, arrested two alleged car lifters and also seized a stolen car from the city's Tejgaon and Uttara areas on Monday and Tuesday.

Acting on secret information, the plainclothes policemen arrested Shah Alam, 35, from in front of Tejgaon College at Indira Road at about 9:15pm on Monday and also seized a Corolla-X brand car from his possession, said a DMP press release. In preliminary investigation, Shah Alam confessed that he and one of his associates stole the car from the garage of Japan Garden City at Adabar and came in front of the college to sell it.

In another drive, the DB police arrested Shafiul Azam Tipon, from Uttara in the city Tuesday afternoon allegedly for his involvement in buying stolen cars.

Aug 21 grenade attack Charge hearing on Oct 14

UNB, Dhaka

The divisional speedy trial tribunal of Dhaka Tuesday fixed October 14 for hearing charges in the two cases concerning the grenade attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004.

This is for the 4th time the date for hearing charges against the accused has been shifted.

The two cases-one is under the Explosive Substances Act and another for murder-will be tried analogously by the same court.

Advocate Kamrul Islam filed an application praying for time, saying that 18 lawyers would defend the persons wounded in the grenade attack. "For this, solicitors' permission is necessary and that will take time."

After hearing the plea, Judge M Masder Hossain fixed the fresh date.

Former State Minister Abdus Salam Pinto of BNP, Mufti Hannan, Munshi Mohibullah, Khaled Saifullah and Arif Hasan, among other accused, were present in the court.

Eight of the accused are absconding.

The case was filed against the grenade attack on the Awami League rally on August 21, 2004 which killed 23 people and injured about 200, including party chief and former PM Sheikh Hasina.

3 win Nobel for subatomic physics research

AP

Two Japanese citizens and a Japanese-born American won the 2008 Nobel Prize in physics for discoveries in the world of subatomic physics, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Tuesday.

American Yoichiro Nambu, 87, of the University of Chicago, won half of the prize for the discovery of a mechanism called spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics. Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa of Japan shared the other half of the prize for discovering the origin of the broken symmetry that predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature.

"Spontaneous broken symmetry conceals nature's order under an apparently jumbled surface," the academy said in its citation. "Nambu's theories permeate the standard model of elementary particle physics. The model unifies the smallest building blocks of all matter and three of nature's four forces in one single theory."

The Japanese-born Nambu moved to the United States in 1952 and is a professor at the University of Chicago, where he has worked for 40 years. He became a U.S. citizen in 1970.

"As early as 1960, Yoichiro Nambu formulated his mathematical description of spontaneous broken symmetry in elementary particle physics," the citation said.

"Spontaneous broken symmetry conceals nature's order under an apparently jumbled surface. It has proved to be extremely useful, and Nambu's theories permeate the Standard Model of elementary particle physics."

Kobayashi and Maskawa "explained broken symmetry within the framework of the standard model but required that the model be extended to three families of quarks."

Kobayashi, 64, works for the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, or KEK, in Tsukuba, Japan. Maskawa, 68, is with the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics at Kyoto University in Japan.

"The spontaneous broken symmetries that Nambu studied, differ from the broken symmetries described by Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa," the academy said. "These spontaneous occurrences seem to have existed in nature since the very beginning of the universe and came as a complete surprise when they first appeared in particle experiments in 1964."

The academy added that it was only in recent years that scientists have been able to confirm the explanations that Kobayashi and Maskawa proffered in 1972.

"These predicted, hypothetical new quarks have recently appeared in physics experiments. As late as 2001, the two particle detectors BaBar at Stanford t and Belle at Tsukuba, Japan, both detected broken symmetries independently of each other. The results were exactly as Kobayashi and Maskawa had predicted almost three decades earlier," the citation said.

The trio will share the 10 million kronor (US$1.4 million) purse, a diploma and an invitation to the prize ceremonies in Stockholm on Dec. 10.

US excited about JS election

UNB, Dhaka

Mark Ward, a senior official of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), said Tuesday the US government is excited about the upcoming national polls of Bangladesh.

The high official of USAID bureau for Asia made the comment while talking to UNB at a programme at Westin Hotel in the city.

Replying to a question, Ward said: "There will have some rumors before the election, but we hope for a free, fair election. We hope some good result would come on 18 December."

Mentioning the experience of Bangladesh's natural disaster management, he said it had helped him to convince the US Congress to provide more assistance to Bangladesh.

CA for better water, air connectivity with Myanmar

BSS, Dhaka

Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed yesterday said Bangladesh is looking forward to seeing better water and air connectivity with Myanmar to further enhance trade and people to people contact.

"Bangladesh enjoys very friendly relations with Myanmar that derive from our historic ties," he said addressing a banquet he hosted in honour of visiting Vice Senior General of Myanmar Maung Aye at Sonargaon Hotel here.

He said Yangon has featured in our music, poetry and literature for a long time. These close bonds have now been reflected in our political and economic relations, he added.

The chief adviser said both the countries have been affected by the furies of nature 'Nargis' in the case of Myanmar and 'Sidr' in the case of Bangladesh and confronted the calamities with fortitude.

Obama Nation author held

Agency

Kenyan authorities have detained the American author of a highly critical book about US presidential candidate Barack Obama, officials have said.

They said Jerome Corsi was being held in the capital, Nairobi, because of a problem with his papers.

The author of The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality has been accused of a smear campaign against Obama.

Obama's father was from Kenya, where the US candidate is highly popular.

Corsi had travelled to Kenya to launch his best-selling book there.

In a recent press release, the author said he would "expose deep secret ties between US Democratic presidential candidate Sen Barack Obama and a section of the Kenyan government leaders."

MSC crush Muktijoddha

UNB, Dhaka

Dhaka Mohammedan SC crushed Muktijoddha Sangsad KC by 7-0 goals in the day's lone affair of the Citycell 2nd B League at the Bangabandhu National Stadium (BNS) here Tuesday.

The traditional 'black and white' outfit led the first half by 2-0 goals.

After the day's results, Dhaka Mohammedan SC secured seven points from three matches, while Muktijoddha Sangsad KC is yet to open their account despite playing four matches.

Brothers Union Club and Sheikh Russell KC are jointly dominating the league table with 10 points from four matches.

Nigerian recruit Alamu Bukola Olalekan scored two goals while Egyptian Hazem Khaled Mahmood, Nasir Hossain, Mohammad Robin, Faisal Mahmood and substitute Enamul haque Sharif netted one goal apiece in the one-sided affair. Nasir opened the account for the Citycell Federation Cup champions in the 32nd minute with a placing shot from inside the D-box utilizing a Hazem cross (1-0).

Bukola then netted the 2nd for the Motijheel outfit in the 35th minute with an excellent header from top of the small box capitalizing on a right-side Hazem cross (2-0).

Just after the breather, substitute Sharif further increased the miseries of the 'freedom fighters' team scoring the 3rd in the 46th minute with a shot almost from 0 degree angle after getting a throw from Bukola (3-0).

Muktijoddha SKC, which was off coloured throughout the match, became more disorganized in the 2nd half as their defense seemed more vulnerable in the face of some disciplined attacks from Mohammedan SC.

Medio hazem who was the creator for most of the attacks scored the 4th for Mohammedan SC in the 66th minute with a header getting a right-side Sharif cross (4-0).

After conceding four goals, Muktijoddha SKC seemed helpless for the rest of the match and conceded three more goals in a couple of minutes with Faisal Mahmood scoring in the 72nd minute, Bukola in the 75th and Robin in the 82nd minute.

Four killed, 20 injured in road accident

Staff Reporter

At least three people were killed and 20 others injured in a collision between a bus and a truck at Pakulla under Mirzapur upazila in Tangail yesterday morning.

The dead were identified as Asma Begum, 30 and Ananda Mia, 20, while the identity of another person could not be known immediately.

Police said the accident occurred at about 6:30am when a Dhaka bound passenger bus from Gaibandha collided with a truck coming from opposite direction, killing three people on the spot injuring 20 others.

The injured were admitted to Mirzapur Kumudini health complex. In another accident a young man was crushed under the wheels of a truck at Mostapur in Sadar South upazila in Comilla on Monday.

The identity of the youth could not be known immediately. Police said the young man died on the spot as the truck ran over him when he was crossing road at about 7:am.