Investment in national saving certificates has hit a new record with Tk 1131.32 crore deposited in the month of September alone, just double the figure for three months (July-September) of 2008-09 fiscal year (FY), reports bdnews24.com. Never before in the past was such huge number of savings certificates sold, said officials of the national saving scheme, a government concern for promoting savings. They said saving certificates worth Tk 3,633.32 crore were sold during the last fiscal year while the figure stood at Tk 2,810 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal. Explaining the reasons of soaring investment in saving certificates, senior research director of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Jayed Bakht told the news agency that in recent times, banks have slashed interest rates on deposits while interest rate on saving certificates remained as before. He said higher interest rate on saving certificates is Wholesale Ugg Boots attracting people to invest more on them. Besides, the commercial banks might be unwilling to enhance deposits in view of their surplus liquidity (liquid assets), he pointed out. As per the latest statistics of Bangladesh Bank, saving certificates amounting to Tk 2,809.96 crore were sold in the first quarter of FY 2009-10 while the figure was Tk 758.86 crore during the same period of the last FY. The investment in saving certificates during July-September of the current FY was about four times higher than the figure of the same period of the last FY. Investment in saving certificates stood at Tk 183.51 crore in September of last year compared to Tk 1,131.32 crore in September this year. Saving certificates worth Tk 914.58 crore were sold in July of the current FY while the figure was Tk 421.24 crore during the same month of last FY. August 2009 saw investment amounting to Tk 764.06 crore compared to Tk 150.11 crore during the same month of last FY. The investments in saving certificate stood at Tk 4,174.92 crore during FY 2006-07 while the figure dropped to Tk 2,228.29 crore in 2007-08 FY. At the end of September this year, the total UGG Tasmina Braid Sandals amount of investment in saving certificates stood at Tk 52,600.75 crore while the figure was Tk 49,790.79 crore at the end of last fiscal year. Jayed Bakht cited two factors that caused investment in saving certificates to drop last year (2007-08) — one was a lack of surplus money due to price hike of daily essentials and the other was panic caused by anti-corruption drive during the regime of the last military-backed care-taker government. “With a new political government having taken office panic withered and people are now investing more on saving certificates,” he said Sounding a note of caution, Bakht said that the government might have to spend more in paying interests as a result of soaring investments in saving certificates, which may affect the budget. There are three types of saving certificates issued by the government – the five-year Bangladesh Saving certificates, 3-year saving certificates and 5-year pension saving certificates. The interest rates for the saving UGG Tasmina Sandals certificates ranged from 12 to 13 per cent over the past few years. But no banks nowadays offer more than 10 per cent interest on saving deposits.

Eight Somali-American men from Minnesota are charged with federal terror-related counts involving al-Shabaab, a Somali group considered a terror organization by the United States, officials said Monday. The alleged offenses include providing financial support to those who traveled to Somalia to fight for al-Shabaab, attending terrorist training camps operated by the group and fighting on behalf of al-Shabaab, federal prosecutors said in a release. The U.S. State Department has said al-Shabaab is believed to have ties to al Qaeda. None of the eight is believed to be currently in the United States, and only one is in custody, the Justice Department said in a news release. Mahamud Said Omar is in Dutch custody Wholesale Ugg Boots after being arrested in the Netherlands. The charges were filed last week, said B. Todd Jones, U.S. attorney for Minnesota, and were unsealed Monday. "Thus far, 14 defendants have been charged in the District of Minnesota in indictments or criminal complaints ... in connection with an ongoing investigation into the recruitment of persons from U.S. communities to train with or fight on behalf of extremist groups in Somalia," authorities said. Four have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Two have been released pending trial. The court documents unsealed Monday "provide our Somali community, particularly those who have lost family members to terrorist fighting in Somalia ... with some answers," Jones said. According to the documents, about 20 young men -- all but one of Somali descent -- left Minneapolis and traveled to Somalia, "where they trained with al-Shabaab against Ethiopian UGG Short Metallic Boots forces, African Union troops, and the internationally supported transitional federal government," federal prosecutors said. Although the investigation is ongoing, "We have reached -- indeed, passed -- a tipping point of sorts in this matter," said Ralph Boelter, special agent in charge of the FBI's Minneapolis field office. He said he is confident the case will be fully resolved. However, both he and Jones were reluctant to divulge information beyond that contained in the charging documents, citing the continuing probe. "I think this is the federal government's attempt at a brushback pitch," said Fran Townsend, who was a homeland security adviser in the Bush administration and is a CNN national security contributor. "That is, to put the Somali community in Minneapolis on notice that if you choose to be recruited to go over and fight, this is not some romantic foreign adventure; the United States government and the law enforcement community UGG Sundance II Boots are watching. They know you go, they will target you and they will indict you." There is no indication that any harm was intended to the United States, Boelter said. But with Americans holding U.S. passports attending a terrorist training camp in Somalia operated by al-Shabaab, he said, "it doesn't take great logic to assume there are some risks." "Obviously we [U.S. officials] do believe they represent a threat, or they wouldn't have indicted them," Townsend said. Authorities do not want to see people with experience gained from Somali training camps coming into the United States, she said. A sizable group of young men left Minneapolis -- home to the nation's largest Somali population -- last year and were feared recruited by al-Shabaab. Several of them have been reported killed, community leaders in Minnesota have said. The family of one, 20-year-old Jamal Bana, told CNN in July they learned of his death through the Internet. Another one, Shirwa Ahmed, 27, blew himself up and killed 29 others last fall in what is believed to be the first suicide bombing carried out by a naturalized U.S. citizen. The incident raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community. Al-Shabaab remains entrenched in northeast Somalia and in UGG Tall Metallic Boots sections south of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, after fighting that uprooted hundreds of thousands, according to the United Nations. It was designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government in March 2008. Asked if any of the eight most recently indicted would be returned to America to stand trial, authorities said the process is complicated. A "long and convoluted extradition process" would be involved in getting the one now in Dutch custody, Jones said. As for the others, if they are in Somalia, getting them in custody would be a formidable task, he said, given the instability of the nation and the fact that "it's very difficult for the rule of law to take hold" there. If they were apprehended for some reason, however, it's possible they could be returned to America, he said. But "there's no indication that we have Somali-American, trained UGG Tasmina Braid Sandals terrorists coming back to the United States today from this particular group," Boelter said. Authorities do not know how many Minneapolis youths remain in Somalia, he said.

Lucio Soria is a recorder of the dead in Ciudad Juarez's drug cartel war. "El Sorias," as he is affectionately called by his colleagues, is a photojournalist for the Mexican city's two main daily newspapers, El Diario and El PM. For the last 10 years, his job has been to photograph the bodies and crime scenes left behind after cartel hit men completed their work. "I see the photos of the dead as art, not as dead people. I feel sad for the families, they cry and sometimes I cry too," Soria told CNN in a recent telephone interview. "My record is 16 dead in one shift." A regular shift goes from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., or later if there are any last-minute bodies. The day is spent listening to police scanners and waiting for the code that will send Soria and a reporter rushing through the city's congested streets to a new crime scene. "Z-59 is the code for execution and Z-23 is the code for a dead person," he said. Soria knows that arriving at a crime scene too soon could mean a surprise Uggs Outlet encounter with the killers -- one that could cost him his life. He is part of a group of journalists operating in one of the world's most dangerous cities. Every day the passion for their profession competes with the fear of death. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 26 journalists have been killed since 2005 in Mexico -- most of them while covering the crime or corruption beats. By comparison, 10 journalists were killed in the same time period while covering the war in Afghanistan. "There are challenges to the fulfillment of our mission, challenges we have never faced before," said Rocio Gallegos, the editor of El Diario, the city's main news publication, with a circulation of 55,000. "Any journalist in Ciudad Juarez is at risk," she said. For the paper's staffers, death hit home last year with the murder of veteran crime reporter Armando "El Cholo" Rodriguez. On November 13, 2008, unidentified gunmen shot UGG Tall Metallic Boots and killed Rodriguez, 40, while he was parked in front of his house with his 8- year-old daughter in the car; she was not harmed. Rodriguez had been receiving threats since February, Gallegos said. One year later, no one has been charged in his death, and the two lead federal investigators in the case have also been killed. A spokesperson for the attorney general's office told CNN the case is still under investigation, but local journalists have interpreted this as a grant of impunity for crimes against their profession. "The death of Armando Rodriguez left a clear message for everyone: Mind your own business! 'No te metas en donde no debes,'" said Edgar Roman, director of news programming for Channel 44, which broadcasts more than six hours of news each day. "Our self-censorship began when the war started -- self-censorship to avoid UGG Tasmina Braid Sandals getting our reporters in trouble," said Roman. For Roman, and for several others in his position, investigative reporting has become a casualty of war. "We can't investigate because we become targets. Only that which happens in plain view is OK to report," said Roman. "Everyone knows the rules of the game," said Ricardo Ainslie, professor of educational psychology at the University of Texas in Austin and a member of the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies. For the last year, Ainslie has been using Ciudad Juarez as the center for his research on the Mexican war against the drug cartels. "You can report what happens on the street, which is public domain, and sometimes they will get threats if they don't report something," Ainslie said. "They can't report UGG Tasmina Sandals backstories, or make inferences about motives. They are treading lightly because they can not afford to investigate -- this means execution." Tim Crockett, head of the security firm Pioneer Consulting and security adviser for CNN, described Ciudad Juarez as "probably more dangerous for journalists than the Middle East." "There are more armed groups that have no respect for law and order," he said. "What would they do if they captured a journalist? There is no leverage. They will just kill you and carry on with their business." Figuring out how to keep staffers safe from an attack has been an ongoing challenge for newsrooms in Juarez. Armored vehicles and bulletproof vests provide little protection against the .50-caliber bullets fired by the cartels. El Diario has managed to keep some investigative reporting by omitting reporter bylines. For Gallegos, self-censorship is not the answer. "We have kept our investigation, which has cost us because UGG Amelie Suede Sandals we have less access to government sources," Gallegos said. "With the argument of security, authorities have given us less access to information and documents," she said. "The biggest challenge is to carry out our mission to inform the public without renouncing to our independence from the authorities, and without becoming messengers to the cartels," said Gallegos. Cartels have begun to time their executions to coincide with live newscasts, journalists say. Channel 44 evaluates its programming by holding bimonthly focus groups. Roman said his audience has gone from being spectators to being the victims. "People are asking us to show a city with hope, and not a city of desolation and destruction. People are tired of living like this. Despite all the violence, there are people who want to keep living a normal life," he said. El PM is the paradox. The newspaper has a daily circulation of 70,000 to 75,000, and normally sells out within two hours of hitting the stands. The main cover picture is UGG Bailey Button Boots usually a bloody crime scene. Some describe it as a "listing" for the day's dead. "You cannot cover the sun with one finger; we say it like it is. We give it a human side and the raw side," said editor Alejandro Tellez. "We live in a city where you go to the streets and you walk into yellow tape and then you come to us to find out what has happened," said Tellez. Ainslie said his research has shown that violence is part of the fabric of daily life in Ciudad Juarez. "Everybody is living it," he said. "Everybody is seeing it. It is in every part of the city. ... Do you not report it because people are worn down and there seems to be no end?" Ainslie added that he was also struck by the difference in the reporting across the border in Ciudad Juarez's U.S. sister city, El Paso, Texas. On one day, he recalled, El Diario carried 15 cartel-related stories, including "three or four on the front page. The El Paso Times carried three cartel stories. Angela Kocherga is one of the few American journalists reporting from UGG Classic Cardy Boots Ciudad Juarez on a weekly basis. She said the coverage of the cartel war by American news organizations has been sporadic at best. "Afghanistan, Iraq are important stories, but Mexico gets lost in the mix day in and day out. The impact on the border is ignored. There is an entire generation being wiped out. ... It's just festering and festering and it's out of control. Ignoring it is not going to make it go away," she said. For some journalists in Ciudad Juarez, it has become a life's mission to tell the world about this war and to write their country's history. Soria feels he left his mark when, on October 20, he photographed the 2,000th victim of the cartel war. His shift was nearly over that day, and the body count stood at 1,996. "I told my reporter, 'Well, I guess I'm not going to get the 2,000.' Then I heard on the scanner that there were three dead and the address was really close to where we were. That day we reached 2001 dead," he said. "When I arrived, the military and the police where putting up UGG Classic Mini Boots the crime tape. The parents were hugging and holding each other. I wanted to record history, so that everyone would remember that moment. We are the ones keeping a log of the dead. I want to be remembered as the one who took that photo," said Soria. Soria's photo tells the story of hundreds of families in Juarez. It shows two family members hugging and a third one crying over the body of one of the men killed, with the police as onlookers.

WICHITA, Kan. – Defiant and unapologetic, a man accused of shooting a Kansas abortion provider confessed to the slaying Monday, telling The Associated Press that he killed the doctor to protect unborn children. Scott Roeder, 51, of Kansas City, Mo., spoke to the AP in a telephone call from jail, saying he plans to argue at his trial that he was justified in shooting Dr. George Tiller. "Because of the fact preborn children's lives were in imminent danger this was the action I chose. ... I want to make sure that the focus is, of course, obviously on the preborn children and the necessity to defend them," Roeder said. "Defending innocent life — that is what prompted me. I mean, it is pretty simple," he said. Roeder is charged with one count of first-degree murder in Tiller's death and two counts of aggravated assault for allegedly threatening two ushers who tried to stop him during the May 31 melee in the foyer of the doctor's Wichita church. Roeder has pleaded not guilty and buy ugg boots is scheduled to go to trial in January. Tiller family attorney Lee Thompson and groups that support abortion rights decried Roeder as a terrorist who used violence to achieve his political agenda. "It is precisely this unrepentant domestic terrorism — and those who fund it — that must be stopped or else we will see more clinic violence and people will be killed," the president of the National Organization for Women, Terry O'Neill, said in a statement. Thompson has said allowing Roeder replica watches to use a so-called necessity defense would "invite chaos and be tantamount to anarchy." Courts have prevented others accused of killing abortion providers from using the same argument. "It is my view legally that it is an absurdity and simply reflects he is doing nothing more than trying to get publicity," Thompson said Monday. Troy Newman, president of anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, said Roeder's statements do not reflect the sentiments of most people who oppose abortion. "The pro-life Piaget-Watches standard has always been to protect the dignity of human life, all human life, from the moment of conception until natural death," Newman said. In his more than 30-minute interview with the AP, Roeder did not apologize for the slaying. "No, I don't have any regrets because I have been told so far at least four women have changed their minds, that I know of, and have chosen to have the baby," Roeder said. "So even if one changed her mind it would be worth it. No, I don't have any regrets." Asked if he would do it over again, Roeder replied: "We all have a sense of duty and obligation to protect innocent life. If anybody is in a situation where they can, I think it is their obligation." Tiller, 67, had been the target of relentless protests for most of the 36 years that he performed abortions at his Wichita clinic, where he practiced as one of the nation's few providers of late-term abortions. He was shot in both arms in 1993 and his clinic was Zenith Watches bombed in 1986. Roeder's confession came on the same day several strident abortion opponents released their "Defensive Action Statement 3rd Edition" that proclaims any force that can be used to defend the life of a "born child is legitimate to defend the life of an unborn child." The statement's 21 signers demand Roeder's jurors be allowed to consider the "question of when life begins" in deciding whether lethal force was justified. Among the signers are Eric Rudolph, James Kopp and Shelley Shannon — all serving prison time for targeting abortion providers. One signer, New Jersey anti-abortion activist Joe Provone, said Kopp, Rudolph and Roeder are "worthy of admiration, gratitude and respect." "Not everyone possesses their courage or ability as we are all endowed by our God with different gifts and talents," Provone wrote in an e-mail to AP. "Please rest assured I will continue to protest the killing of the unborn in the way I deem appropriate given my own self-appraisal."