BANGLADESH

Gold edged higher on Tuesday to the highest level in more than five months as lacklustre manufacturing data from around the globe fanned speculation of imminent easing measures from central banks.

After U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke kept the door open for more stimulus measures last week, data on Monday showed a contraction in manufacturing activity globally and put more pressure on policymakers to take action.

Gold and silver rode the sentiment to multi-month highs as investors piled into the precious metals, aiming to hedge against potential inflation risks.

The most-active U.S. silver futures contract jumped nearly 3 percent earlier in the day to a 4-1/2 month high of $32.38 per ounce, before easing slightly to $32.27.

Silver, both a precious and an industrial metal, has risen nearly 10 percent over the past two weeks, outstripping a 4 percent gain in gold, despite recent data suggesting gloomy global growth outlook.

"Silver looks more at the stimulus implications of weak data," said Nick Trevethan, senior commodity strategist at ANZ in Singapore, adding that the strength in base metals had also helped underpin silver.

Silver is also notorious for price volatility, given the relatively small size of the market and limited liquidity.

Spot gold rose to $1,696.91 per ounce, the highest since mid-March, then eased slightly to $1,695.46.

U.S. gold gained 0.6 percent to $1,698.20.

Asia's physical market saw some scrap selling as prices approached the key $1,700 level.

"We have seen scrap flow into the market since last week, but the quantity is not great," said a Singapore-based dealer. "People think prices will possibly keep rising and are quite cautious on selling at this point."

Investors, eager for more decisive action on curbing the euro zone debt crisis, will be watching the European Central Bank's policy meeting on Thursday and a press conference with ECB President Mario Draghi.

U.S. non-farm payrolls data, due later in the week, will also be a focus for the market. A weak reading may reinforce expectations for another round of quantitative easing from the Fed, analysts said.

Moody's Investors Service has changed its outlook on the Aaa rating of the European Union to negative, warning it might downgrade the bloc if it decides to cut the ratings on the EU's four biggest budget backers: France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Holdings of gold-backed exchange-traded funds rose to a record high of 71.729 million ounces by the end of last week. August recorded an inflow of 1.8 million ounces, representing a near 3 percent rise - the biggest monthly gain since November.

Parliament reconvenes for the 14th session of the ninth on Tuesday with the largest party in opposition, the BNP opting to stay off the proceedings again.

The session is scheduled to start at 5pm with Speaker Abdul Hamid in the chair.

However, the Business Advisory Committee of Parliament will hold a meeting at 4pm to finalise the Monsoon session's duration and programme.

The 13th session, which was the budget session, ended on July 8. According to the Constitution, a new session must begin within 60 days after a session ends.

The BNP-led opposition alliance has been absent for the last 29 business days.

Opposition Chief Whip Zainul Abdin Farroque on Monday also made his party's position clear on not joining the session.

Farroque claimed at a discussion that the government had rendered Parliament ineffective. "No notice from the opposition is accepted (during the parliament session). So we will not join the session tomorrow (Tuesday)."

He also gave a condition to bring them back to Parliament. "We will return to Parliament only after it is confirmed that the bill for a non-party election-time government would be placed in the session."

After an absence of 83 days, the last time the opposition parties attended Parliament was on Mar 18. Before that, the BNP had joined Parliament on Mar 24 last year.

Of the 317 business days in the last 13 sessions, the opposition attended only 55 business days.

Recently elected BNP MP from Tangail-5 constituency Mahmudul Hasan is waiting to join his first session, having taken oath on Aug 8.

Even if the opposition stays away, Parliament might just heat up over the High Court verdict that Speaker Abdul Hamid's ruling that Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury violated the Constitution by making 'derogatory comment' about Parliament was non-existent in the eye of law and 'has no legal basis'.
The government on Monday appealed against the High Court verdict

Hamid had given the ruling rather reluctantly in Parliament on June 18 as MPs demanded steps after Justice Choudhury criticised the chief of the legislature. They threatened to invoke the constitutional provision to impeach sitting judges.

Ruling Awami League MPs Suranjit Sengupta and Tofail Ahmed have been deriding the court's ruling. Suranjit foresees heated response from MPs during the session.

Along with Suranjit and Tofail, ruling party allies Workers Party President Rashed Khan Menon and JaSaD President Hasanul Haque Inu also reacted harshly in Parliament over Justice Choudhury's remarks.

Parliament Secretariat officials have said that until now 17 notices are waiting to be placed in the 14th session, of which 16 are now being evaluated and the remainder is waiting to be placed.

The new session of the ninth Parliament is also going to see introduction of a separate gallery exclusively for the children for the first time so that they can watch the proceedings live and learn about its rules and regulations.

Police on Monday remanded in their custody six suspects for four days each in connection with the murder of Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) leader Dr Narayan Chandra Datta Nitai.

Judge Mahbubur Rahman of the Metropolitan Magistrate's Court gave police the permission for remand after Detective Branch Inspector Ataur Rahman produced the six before him with a 10-day remand appeal.
Additional Deputy Commissioner (Prosecution and Information Department) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Anisur Rahman informed bdnews24.com of the development.

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on Sunday arrested the six for their suspected link with planning the robbery and murder. Later the suspects were handed over the DB police.

They are Dr Nitai's car driver Kamrul Hasan Arun, his chamber manager Saifur Rahman, compounders Tariqul Islam and Bakul Mia, and two others Rafiqul Islam and Mohammad Syed.

The elite force said Bokul, Rafiqul and Sayeed directly participated in the robbery while the other three planned the whole affairs.

Detectives had arrested Masum Mintu, 'Masud', 'Saidul', Pichchi Kalam, and 'Faisal', on Aug 25.

Masum Mintu, a professional thief, was presented by the police detectives on Saturday and he claimed to have stabbed Nitai first in the chest, followed by Bakul after they broke into the first floor of the house by cutting the grill.

Dr Nitai, a BMA Executive Committee member and Swadhinota Chikitshok Parishad (SwaChiP) leader, was knifed to death on Aug 23 early morning at his home on Mahakhali's National Institute of Disease of the Chest and Hospital (NIDCH) residential area.

Students of Dhaka University laid a two-hour long siege to one of Dhaka's key intersection, Shahbagh, on Sunday pressing for a five-point charter of demands including construction of an underpass or an over-bridge at the intersection.

The protest halted traffic in the busy hours of the day and led to severe backlogs in the area.

The protest which started around 11:45am was sparked by the death of international relations student, Touhiduzzaman on Aug 28 after being run over by a bus at the intersection.

The students withdrew their siege around 1:45pm after Dhaka City Corporation South's Chief Executive Officer Sultan Islam Chowdhury told them that they would be building an over-bridge at the crossing as an underpass was not possible.

"We will start taking measurements from tomorrow," he promised.

The students had initially gathered in front of the Arts Faculty building around 10:30am before taking out a procession up to Shahbagh intersection before stopping all traffic through the vital crossroads.

The university's Proctor Professor Amzad Ali urged the students to lift the siege, but was turned down.

They said that they would not relent until a senior government official assures them that their demands will be met.

Their demands included building underpasses at Shahbagh and New Market intersections, foot over-bridges at all the other crossings including Doyel Chattar and Palashi roundabout, ensuring strictest punishment for the driver of the assailant bus, providing Tk 10 million compensation for the family of the deceased from the transport company, implementing a strict ban on vehicles without stickers entering the campus and taking the initiative to submit a memorandum to the Prime Minister urging her to ensure security of the students.

BUET teachers on Tuesday said they will return to classes 'soon' after Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid assured them of removing the Pro-Vice Chancellor and withdrawing cases filed against the teacher and students.

Nahid met the BUET Teachers' Association leaders on Monday midnight in an emergency meeting in an apparent bid to thrash out a solution to the crisis roiling the institution and persuaded them to change their mind on taking classes.

The meeting began around 11:15pm at the minister's official residence at the capital's Minto Road.

Around 1:15am, Association President Mojibur Rahman and Nahid told reporters about the decisions the meeting had reached.

The minister said the two cases against the teachers and students will be dropped while Pro-VC Habibur Rahman will also be removed within one or two days.

Nahid also assured them of steps against all irregularities plaguing the top engineering university and hoped that all teachers will now resume regular academic activities.

Mojibur Rahman told reporters, "The cases will be withdrawn. (The minister) said, 'Consider the charges dropped.' We are also assuming that is the case. The Pro-VC will be removed. Necessary steps on other matters will also be taken. We are assured of these."

Teachers and students of BUET have long been staging demonstrations demanding removal of the Vice-Chancellor Professor S M Nazrul Islam and Pro-VC Rahman. The minister also promised them of 'necessary' steps about that in future, Rahman said.

Mechanical Engineering Department teacher Maksud Helali, who attended the meeting with the minister, told bdnews24.com: "We have been told the Pro-VC will be removed within one or two days. The minister has also assured us of taking necessary measures to investigate all the allegations of irregularities."

Asked whether regular classes will resume from Tuesday, BUET Teachers' Association President Mojibur Rahman said, "We will get back to regular activities on BUET as soon as possible. We hope to resume classes soon."

Asked about a specific date about the resumption of classes, he said, "Our colleagues and students are waiting for us on the campus. We will hold a meeting in the morning and will inform everyone. We hope to restart regular activities very soon."

Earlier, an association member, preferring not to be named, had told bdnews24.com 12 members of the association including the President and General Secretary were having talks with the minister at his official residence.

Earlier at around 9:30pm, the BUET Teachers' Association had its own meeting.

Nahid had called the meeting on Monday evening and the association in that meeting decided to sit with him to end the standoff triggered by ingoing demonstrations of the teachers and students demanding resignation of the incumbent Vice-Chancellor and Pro-VC.

Earlier on Monday, he had told bdnews24.com: "We've been trying for the last few days for resolve the ongoing crisis at BUET. I hope the matter will be resolved very soon."

Meanwhile, students and teachers of BUET pressed on with their protests on the campus on Monday.

The agitation gathered pace after the BUET authorities filed the two cases with the Shahbagh police around Sunday midnight accusing around a hundred teachers and students of attacks on the offices of the VC and Pro-VC, vandalism, ransacking records and looting Tk 0.3 million.

The teachers and students, however, postponed their agitation around 3pm for the day upon assurance from the Education Secretary.

Around 12:15pm, the students gathered in front of the civil engineering building, the demonstrating students took blood out of their arms with syringe and sprinkled it on the stairs in front of the VC's office around an hour later. They took out a procession on the campus. They termed this programme as 'voluntary blood shedding'.

Several protesting teachers reportedly also took part in the programme by giving their blood.