FERNANDO DE NORONHA, Brazil – Brazilian military pilots spotted an airplane seat, an orange buoy, and other debris and signs of fuel in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday as they hunted for a missing Air France jet that carried 228 people.

Brazil’s Navy said three commercial ships in the area were joining the search and France said it would send a ship capable of deep-water exploration.

The pilots spotted two areas of floating debris — but no signs of life — about 60 kilometers (35 miles) apart, about 410 miles (650 kilometers) beyond the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, near Flight 447’s path from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, said Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral.

“The locations where the objects were found are toward the right of the point where the last signal of the plane was emitted,” Amaral said. “That suggests that it might have tried to make a turn, maybe to return to Fernando de Noronha, but that is just a hypothesis.”

Amaral said some of the debris was white and small, but did not describe it in more detail.

Two commercial ships that joined the search late Tuesday morning reached sites where the debris was found, said a Navy spokeswoman. They were searching for the items spotted by the plane while the third was still en route, said the spokeswoman who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with department rules.

“Once they come across the objects, they will be analyzed to determine if they are parts of the plane or just junk,” she said.

A U.S. Navy P-3 surveillance plane arrived in Brazil Tuesday morning to help if needed, U.S. Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

The French minister overseeing transportation, Jean-Louis Borloo, has dispatched to the debris site a research ship that can deploy unmanned submarines to explore depths of up to 6,000 meters (19,600 feet). The U.S. also was considering contributing unmanned underwater vehicles in the search, according to a defense source who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

The discovery of debris came more than 24 hours after the jet went missing, with all feared dead.

Rescuers were still scanning a vast sweep of ocean extending from far off northeastern Brazil to waters off West Africa. The 4-year-old plane was last heard from at 0214 GMT Monday (10:14 p.m. EDT Sunday).

If no survivors are found, it would be the world’s worst civil aviation disaster since the November 2001 crash of an American Airlines jetliner in the New York City borough of Queens that killed 265 people.

Investigators on both sides of the ocean are trying to determine what brought the Airbus A330 down, with few clues to go on so far. Potential causes could include violently shifting winds and hail from towering thunderheads, lightning or some combination of other factors.

The crew gave no verbal messages of distress before the crash, but the plane’s system sent an automatic message just before it disappeared, reporting lost pressure and electrical failure. The plane’s cockpit and “black box” recorders could be thousands of feet (meters) below the surface.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said that if the debris is confirmed to be part of Flight 447, “This will allow us to better determine the search zone.”

“We are in a race against the clock in extremely difficult weather conditions and in a zone where depths reach up to 7,000 meters,” he told lawmakers in the lower house of French parliament Tuesday. Black box recorders can emit signals for up to 30 days.

The chance of finding survivors now “is very very small, even nonexistent,” said the French minister overseeing transportation, Jean-Louis Borloo.

Borloo called the A330 “one of the most reliable planes in the world” and said lightning alone, even from a fierce tropical storm, probably couldn’t have brought down the plane.

“There really had to be a succession of extraordinary events to be able to explain this situation,” Borloo said on RTL radio Tuesday.

French military spokesman Christophe Prazuck said France could shift its search operations closer to the site of the Brazilian discovery “to help them map all the debris on the sea.”

France has three military patrol aircraft flying over the central Atlantic from their base in Senegal and it is sending an AWACS radar plane that should join the operation on Wednesday, he said.

French police were studying passenger lists and maintenance records, and preparing to take DNA from passengers’ relatives to help identify any bodies.

France’s Defense Minister Herve Morin said “we have no signs so far” of terrorism, but all hypotheses must be studied.

Alain Bouillard, who led the probe into the crash of the Concorde in July 2000, was put in charge of France’s accident investigation team.

President Barack Obama told French television stations the United States is ready to do everything necessary to find out what happened.

On board the flight were 61 French citizens, 58 Brazilians, 26 Germans, nine Chinese and nine Italians. A lesser number of citizens from 27 other countries also were on the passenger list.

The two Americans on board were a 60-year-old geologist Michael Harris and his 54-year-old wife, Anne, residents of Rio de Janeiro who were headed to Europe for work and vacation. They lived previously in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Among the passengers were three young Irish doctors, returning from two-week vacation in Brazil. Aisling Butler’s father John paid tribute to his 26-year-old daughter, from Roscrea, County Tipperary.

“She was a truly wonderful, exciting girl. She never flunked an exam in her life — nailed every one of them — and took it all in her stride,” he said.

The Airbus A330-200 was cruising normally at 35,000 feet (10,670 meters) and 522 mph (840 kph) just before it disappeared nearly four hours into the flight. No trouble was reported as the plane left radar contact, beyond Brazil’s Fernando de Noronha archipelago.

But just north of the equator, a line of towering thunderstorms loomed. Bands of extremely turbulent weather stretched across the Atlantic toward Africa.

France’s junior minister for transport, Dominique Bussereau, said the plane sent “a kind of outburst” of automated messages just before it disappeared, “which means something serious happened, as eventually the circuits switched off.”

The pilot had 11,000 hours of flying experience, including 1,700 hours flying this aircraft.

The legislature held a moment of silence to honor the victims and the French soccer team will wear black arm bands and hold a moment of silence ahead of a match against Nigeria on Tuesday night.

Gran Torino (2008)
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Geraldine Hughes
Director: Clint Eastwood
Synopsis: An unhappy Korean War veteran sets out to reform his neighbor who steals his prized 1972 Gran Torino.
Runtime: 116 minutes
MPAA Rating: R - for language throughout and some violence.
Genre: Drama
Language: English

Review:

Gran Torino (2008)
Do you miss Archie Bunker? Are you curious to find out how Carroll O’Connor’s stone-cold bigot would have reacted to our current, culturally diverse society? And did you ever dream of seeing racist old Archie packing heat as he spewed bile all over the “spooks,” “gooks,” and other non-Caucasians who were unlucky enough to cross his path? Then Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino is the movie for you.

Walt Kowalski (Eastwood) served his time in the military, paid his dues at the auto plant, and wants to spend his days as a widower in peace. He is disgusted by his ignorant, oafish sons and their selfish children, the ugliest characters you’ll see on screen this year. But his disdain isn’t limited to kin. Walt also hates the “egg roll,” “fish-head” “Charlie Chans” who’ve moved into his blue-collar Detroit suburb.

Walt’s worst nightmare comes true one evening when Thao (Bee Vang), a painfully shy Hmong teenager, tries to steal the old man’s vintage Gran Torino as part of a gang initiation. Walt catches Thao in the act, bringing shame to the family. To pay off the debt, Thao begins shadowing Walt so he can learn to grow up and be a man (translation: hate people with a passion).

This odd-couple pairing has powered many a comedy, but the laughs in Gran Torino are unintentional. Eastwood plays his material very seriously and I believe he thinks we’ll be moved as Thao accepts more responsibility and Walt grows less intolerant. But the storytelling is plodding and ham-fisted, and Gran Torino ends up spinning its wheels.

Eastwood does do something unique in Gran Torino: he surrounds himself with rank amateurs, from “intimidating” gangbangers straight out of central casting to his neighbors who, in time, will learn to respect the curmudgeon living next door. Vang, in particular, is shockingly blasé and uncomfortable delivering lines. Character actor John Carroll Lynch, meanwhile, is miscast as Walt’s racist barber. And I felt sorry for apple-cheeked Christopher Carley, who plays an optimistic parish priest. Carley’s character serves two purposes: Eastwood seems to enjoy talking down to whippersnapper cast members and the idea of challenging religion has become a constant through the director’s recent pictures.

But Nick Schenk has penned a graceless and insensitive script littered with clunkers that are meant to pass as life lessons handed down from one generation to the next. “Sounds like you know more about death than you do living,” Carley’s priest utters to Walt over drinks at the local watering hole. (Where, coincidentally, the men gather during the day to share racist jokes.) And in return, Clint squints. It’s pretty much his lone response through much of Gran Torino, until the credits, when he sings the film’s theme song. That’s when you’ll wince.

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Researchers from the University of Granada and the University of Barcelona have shown that treatment with maslinic acid, a triterpenoid compound isolated from olive-skin pomace, results in a significant inhibition of cell proliferation and causes apoptotic death in colon-cancer cells. Maslinic acid is a novel natural compound and it is able to induce apoptosis or programmed death in human HT29 colon-cancer cells via the intrinsic mitochondrial pathway.

New research suggest this could be a useful new therapeutic strategy for the treatment of colon carcinoma. This study is the first to investigate the precise molecular mechanisms of the anti-tumoral and pro-apoptotic effects of maslinic acid against colon-cancer. Chemopreventive agents of a natural origin, often a part of our daily diet, may provide a cheap, effective way of controlling such diseases as cancer of the colon. A wide range of studies in recent years has shown that triterpenoids hinder carcinogenesis by intervening in pathways such as carcinogen activation, DNA repair, cell cycle arrest, cell differentiation and the induction of apoptosis in cancer cells.

Triterpenoids are compounds present in a wide range of plants used in traditional medicine and known to have antitumoral properties. Low concentrations of maslinic acid are to be found in plants with medicinal properties, but its concentration in the waxy skin of olives may be as high as 80%.

The results of the study could contribute to the development of maslinic acid for use as cancer chemotherapeutic or chemopreventive agents.

Shedding Light On Colon Cancer

Gastroenterologists Use Optics To Detect Early Stages Of Colon Cancer

Biomedical engineers have developed a new technique to detect colon cancer. A thin optical fiber shines light onto the interior of the colon. Computer analysis of the backscattered light indicates if the colon is a breeding ground for polyps. This technique can detect changes in the cells very early in the development of polyps. The technique is also used to detect when colon cancer symptoms appear, the cancer is often already at an advanced stage. To catch it early, regular screening is a must. Soon, screening for colon cancer may not only be a whole lot easier — but could also detect it earlier than ever before.

“Over 150,000 Americans will be diagnosed with colon cancer.” Hemant Roy, M.D., gastroenterologist at Evanston Northwestern Health Care in Evanston, Ill., told Ivanhoe.It’s a statistic that worries gastroenterologist Dr. Roy — only half the people who need a colonoscopy will get one.

While colonoscopies are effective, they’re also invasive. Now, Dr. Roy says this tiny light could be the next best defense. This technique is sensitive to things 10 to 20 times smaller than can be seen with a conventional microscope. The light scattering probe spots danger before polyps ever form.

“Since this will be minimally intrusive, maybe we can get more of the people screened,” Dr. Roy said.

The probe is tiny compared to a standard colonoscope and it lights up rectal tissue with no need to go through the whole colon. Computer analysis of the backscattered light shows if the colon is a breeding ground for polyps. In studies, the probe is 90 percent accurate at telling if cancerous polyps will form.Twenty-seven year old Reid Foster knows he has the colon cancer gene. “Starting at age 25, I started getting colonoscopies,” said Foster.He’s had the new light probe too and says the difference is night and day.

“You just look at the diameter, I mean, it’s an optical fiber versus something the diameter of a drumstick. I mean, you just tell that to somebody, most people would choose fiber!” said Foster.It’s an obvious benefit, but be patient. The probe is about five years away from FDA approval.

WHAT ARE COLONOSCOPIES?

Colonoscopies are viewed as the “gold standard” for catching colorectal cancer before it has a chance to take root and spread. Gastroenterologists recommend that men and women over the age of 50, without a risk of colon cancer, get a colonoscopy every ten years, while those at high risk should receive one earlier and more frequently. In colonoscopies, physicians visually examine the lining of the colon and rectum. Upper endoscopies are used to examine the esophagus, stomach and the upper part of the small intestine (the duodenum).

Urgent Message : Colonoscopy
The colonoscope is a thin flexible instrument measuring between 48 inches to 72 inches long. It has a small video camera attached to the end so it can record images of the large intestine. The “scope” is passed through the rectum and into the colon to directly examine the lining of the lower digestive tract — a full five feet of twists and turns.

Director: David S. Goyer
Stars: Odette Yustman, Gary Oldman, Cam Gigandet (Full Cast)
Studio: Rogue Pictures

The Plot: Haunted by strange dreams and recurring ghostly visions, Casey Beldon (Yustman) turns to a spiritual advisor (Oldman) for help. Together, they learn that Casey had a twin brother who never made it to term, and that her intended sibling is tied to a curse that requires Casey’s death in order to manifest itself in our world.


THE BUZZ: After you watch The Unborn’s trailer, perhaps you can ask yourself the following question: Is David Goyer a better screenwriter (The Dark Knight, Dark City) than director (The Invisible, Blade: Trinity)? I don’t mean any aggressive disrespect, but I fail to see one shred of ingenuity in this preview, though I say the sight of a possessed Idris Elba makes him a good pick for a potential Nick Fury, should that role, uh, come to term. All that said, I must remember there’s a generation or two behind me that’s probably never seen The Exorcist, so here’s hoping Goyer pushes beyond the usual genre devices and helps Cloverfield’s Odette Yustman get her Linda Blair on. The power of Goyer compels me!

Plot synopsis

The Unborn is a supernatural thriller that draws upon the legend of a Dybbuk, a malevolent spirit that refuses to leave the human world and inhabits the body of a person. Protagonist Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman) is plagued by merciless dreams, visions of strange looking dogs, and an evil child with bright blue eyes. After being hit with a mirror by her neighbor’s son, Casey’s eyes begin to change color and she learns she had a twin brother who died in the womb. Casey begins to suspect that the spirit haunting her is the soul of her dead twin, being possesed by a Dybbuk, wanting to be born so it can transfer to the world of the living. Casey meets a woman named Sofi, who is revealed to be her grandmother. Sofi explains that she had a twin brother who was killed in Nazi experiments in Auschwitz when they were both just children. The boy was brought back to life by a dybbuk who intended to use his body as a portal into the world of the living. Sofi killed her twin to stop the dybbuk, and now it haunts her family for revenge. Sofi refers Casey to Rabbi Sendak (Gary Oldman), who can perform a Jewish exorcism to remove the dybbuk. The exorcism is performed, but things go awry as the dybbuk tries to stop Rabbi Sendak from completing the ritual. The dybbuk disappears after the exorcism and the death of Casey’s boyfriend. Soon afterwards, Casey learns she is pregnant with twins.

Cast

* Gary Oldman as Sendak
* Odette Yustman as Casey Beldon
* Ethan Cutkosky as Barto
* Cam Gigandet as Mark
* Meagan Good as Romy
* Jane Alexander as Sofi Kozma
* Idris Elba as Arthur Wyndham
* Rhys Coiro as Mr. Shields
* Carla Gugino as Janet Beldonoh
* Aiden David as Baby Nelson
* Conner David as Baby Nelson
* Eric Flores as Romys Boyfriend

Promotion and marketing

Much Internet buzz has been generated by the release of an international poster for Unborn that shows Yustman’s character in her underwear.The film is rated PG-13 in the United States for horror violence and disturbing images. It will be rated <M> in Australia upon its release on March 12.

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Director: Gary Winick
Stars: Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway, Candice Bergen (Full Cast)
Studio: Fox 2000 Pictures

The Plot: Two best friends (Hudson and Hathaway) become rivals when a clerical error results in their respective weddings being held at the same place … on the same day.

THE BUZZ: Though BW is set in Boston, most of the drama is centered around Hathaway and Hudson’s bridal blitz on NYC, a city that has treated Ms. Hathaway very well (Hudson, though, not so much). With this sure-fire hit and her singing-and-dancing performance in Rob Marshall’s Nine, it’s apparent that Hudson has her career back on track, while Hathaway can expect a busy winter promoting this movie, and perhaps enjoying an Oscar nomination for Rachel Getting Married; however, look for Candice Bergen’s wedding planner to make like Miranda Priestly and truly run the events.

Premise

Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Liv (Kate Hudson) are best friends, and since they were young, they have always wanted to be married in The Plaza Hotel. Planning to marry their respective husbands to-be, everything seems to be going perfectly–the dates are set, their dresses are beautiful, and the maids of honor, each other, are as joyful as can be. However, when the pair of friends receive the bad news that their weddings were planned for the same day, the pre-wedding bliss is ruined. With neither willing to give up her dream wedding, Liv and Emma declare themselves to be engaged in the most heated and dangerous kind of war known to man–Bride Wars.They fight over dresses, tans, and even blue hair! Get ready for the journey of war! Bride Wars!

Production

Raphael and Wilson completed the shooting script of Bride Wars, from an original script by Greg DePaul, before the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike began.Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith also contributed to the screenplay.

Some principal photography took place at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. The film has been mainly filmed in Boston, Massachusetts, New York City, New York, and in Salem, Massachusetts.

Cast

* Kate Hudson - Liv
* Anne Hathaway - Emma
* Candice Bergen - Marion St. Claire
* Chris Pratt - Fletcher
* Bryan Greenberg - Nate
* Steve Howey - Daniel
* Kristen Johnston - Deb
* Casey Wilson - Stacy Kindred
* John Pankow - Emma’s Dad
* Paul Scheer - Nicky Coo
* June Raphael - Amanda

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Overview

Told in first-person narrative, the book portrays Grogan and his family’s life during the thirteen years that they lived with their dog Marley, and the relationships and lessons from this period. Marley, a yellow Labrador Retriever, is described as a highly strung, boisterous, and somewhat uncontrolled dog. He is strong, powerful, endlessly hungry, eager to be active, and often destructive of their property (but completely without malice). Marley routinely fails to “get the idea” of what humans expect of him and at one point the comment is made that mental illness might be a plausible explanation for his behavior. His acts and behaviors are forgiven, however, since it is clear that he has a heart of gold and is merely living within his nature.

The strong contrast between the problems and tensions caused by his neuroses and behavior, and the undying devotion, love and trust shown towards the human family as they themselves have children and grow up to accept him for what he is, and their grief when he finally dies in old age, form the backdrop for the biographical material of the story.

Reception

The eulogy written by the author in his newspaper following the death of their dog is described as receiving more responses than any other column he had written in his professional life up until that point.

Adaptations

Marley & Me has been rewritten into three different books. One being for younger readers who would enjoy reading about Marley’s story, minus the sexual content in the original book. The book is called Marley: A Dog Like No Other. The second book is a picture book for readers learning to read in lower grade levels called Bad Dog, Marley!. The third book is called A Very Marley Christmas.

In 2008, the novel was adapted into a family-dramedy, also titled Marley & Me. Released on December 25, 2008, the film stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston and is directed by David Frankel.

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Israelis at a kibbutz shelter during a rocket attack.

JERUSALEM (CNN) — Four rockets struck northern Israel from Lebanon on Thursday, wounding two people, Israeli police and emergency medical services said.

The Lebanese Army issued a statement, saying the rockets were launched by “an unknown group” and that the Israeli retaliatory fire inflicted no casualties.

The rockets hit near the city of Nahariya, located about six miles from the Lebanese border, police said. The Israeli military said it returned fire toward the source of the rockets after the attack.

Schools and kindergartens were closed in Nahariya and the nearby town of Shlomi, the Israel Defense Forces reported.

The Israeli military warned civilians in the western Galilee region to stay close to shelters in the aftermath of Thursday’s attack.

The report comes as Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, aimed at halting rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory to the south, entered a 13th day.

Israel fought a similar campaign against the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah in 2006, during which Hezbollah rained rockets on cities in Israeli’s north for a month before a cease-fire was reached.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday’s attack.

Hezbollah has kept a tight rein on its forces in southern Lebanon since the cease-fire, however, and a number of Palestinian factions operate in southern Lebanon as well

Flames rise into the sky after an Israeli airstrike Wednesday night in Rafa, on the Gaza-Egypt border.

JERUSALEM (netbater) — The Israeli air force intensified its operations across Gaza overnight, launching strikes against approximately 60 targets in the Palestinian territory, a military spokesman said Thursday.

The stepped-up attacks in Gaza came on the 13th day of Israel’s assault on Hamas.

In a separate development, four rockets fired from southern Lebanon landed near the city of Nahariya, leaving two people with minor injuries.

The Israeli military returned fire across the border and suggested that residents of northern Israel stay near their shelters. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The stepped-up attacks in Gaza came on the 13th day of Israel’s assault on Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two years.

The latest Israeli strikes targeted a mosque the military claims was being used by Hamas to store weapons and house militant operatives. An Israeli military spokesman said rocket launch sites, weapons storage facilities, the homes of Hamas militants and tunnels in the Rafah area were also targeted.

Israel has accused Hamas of smuggling weapons from Egypt into Rafah on the Gaza side through underground tunnels. Shutting down that supply route has been one goal of Israel’s nearly two-week military operation against Hamas.

The Israeli military said its ongoing operation is aimed at halting Hamas’ rocket attacks into southern Israel.

Two rockets have been fired since midnight into Israel, according to the Israeli military. One rocket fell in Ashdod, about 17 miles (27 kilometers) north of Gaza. There were no casualties. Details about the second rocket are not yet known.

The Israeli military operation in Gaza has killed at least 680 people and wounded over 3,000 others since it was launched, Palestinian medical sources said Wednesday. Nearly a third of the deaths — 30 percent — are women and children, according to the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), citing statistics released Tuesday by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Seven Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed since operation began, the Israeli military reported.

For a second straight day, Israel said it will implement a three-hour truce to allow for “humanitarian activities” in Gaza. However, minutes after the window opened on Wednesday, Israeli troops fired at militants after an Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman said they targeted Israeli forces.

About 80 trucks carrying humanitarian goods are expected to cross the border Thursday, along with 500,000 liters of diesel fuel, the Israeli military said.

Prior to the military operation, more than 80 percent of Gazans relied on humanitarian aid, said Cassandra Nelson of Mercy Corps, which amounted to about 500 supply trucks a day.

In addition to the aid coming into the territory, 300 citizens with dual citizenship will be allowed to leave.

Israeli and Palestinian diplomats are busy preparing for meetings in Egypt to discuss a Gaza truce plan that’s still being hammered out.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry official said Israel will send two envoys to Cairo in the coming days to discuss Gaza in the works. Palestinian diplomatic officials said Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who was in Spain on Wednesday, was planning to attend the meetings in Cairo.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has invited Israeli and “Palestinian factions” to an “urgent meeting.” Egypt is pushing a plan that would lead to a permanent cease-fire and address concerns, including the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and Israel’s concerns about weapons and rockets being smuggled into Gaza by Hamas.

Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Egypt’s foreign minister, said representatives of Hamas have been invited to talks, but that if they come, they will not be in the same room as other negotiators.

Israel, the United States and the European Union consider Hamas a terrorist organization. Israel refuses to negotiate directly with Hamas, but in the past has used Egypt as a go-between.

An Israeli government spokesman said the Jewish state welcomes the initiative and will continue its discussions with both countries about how to achieve a cease-fire.

“We are continuing our dialogue with the Egyptians and the French to achieve a sustainable quiet on the basis of a complete cessation of hostile fire from Gaza into Israel and an internationally supported arms embargo on Hamas,” the spokesman said. “The contacts and dialogue continue. It is clear we need a working mechanism in place to prevent Hamas from re-arming.”

Smoke rises from Israeli missile strikes in the northern Gaza Strip

As violence in the Gaza Strip moved into the sixth day, international appeals for a UN-backed ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants failed to produce a result.

It secured 40.13 percent of popular votes in 2001, which got jacked up to 49.02 percent this time around.

On the other hand, the number of popular votes cast for BNP in the just concluded 9th parliamentary election got reduced by 20 percent compared to its gain in 2001 election.

In 2001 it had got 40.97 percent of the votes cast which got reduced to 32.74 percent on December 29, 2008.

These numbers clearly indicate a swing from BNP to AL among voters, at least by 20 percent.

A pre-poll survey conducted by The Daily Star and Nielsen showed that 37 percent of voters were likely to swing.

AL got over 1.21 crore more votes this time than it had in 2001, which is 1.14 crore votes more than what its archrival BNP got on Monday. The gap this time is bigger too.

This election also set a new record in voter turnout, as 87 percent of registered voters voted compared to 2001 election’s 75.59 percent.

In contrast to AL’s gain in the latest election, the number of votes cast for BNP on Monday remained almost static compared to the number in 2001, although this poll saw over 60 lakh new voters.

BNP had bagged 2,28,33,978 votes in 2001 fielding 252 candidates, while in the just concluded poll it got 2,30,86,460 votes nominating 259 contenders and winning 29 seats.

BNP got 32.74 percent of votes cast in the latest poll, a decrease from 40.97 percent it had got in 2001.

In 2001 the gap between the numbers of votes gained by BNP and AL was only

46.84 lakh, but the difference between the numbers of seats won by the two parties was 131.

In the latest poll, AL obtained 3,45,64,068 votes which is 49.02 percent of the total number of votes cast, nominating 263 candidates and winning 230 seats.

In 2001, the party nominated candidates in 300 constituencies and grabbed 2,23,65,516 votes, but managed to win only 62 seats.

The percentage of votes cast for AL climbed about 9 percentage point compared to the percentage of votes it got in 2001.

This rise led to AL’s landslide victory, creating a new record of winning a two third majority by a single party since restoration of parliamentary democracy in 1991.

In 1996 election AL got 1,58,82,792 votes which was 37.44 percent of the total number of votes cast while BNP got 1,42,55,986 votes or 33.06 percent. In that poll, the total number of voters was 5,67,16,935.

According to political analysts, AL’s electoral pledge for building a digital Bangladesh, bringing prices of essentials down within the people’s purchasing capacity, generating employment for at least one member in a family, and its commitment to be tough against militancy attracted voters to the party in Monday’s election.

In addition to those, BNP-led alliance’s five years of miss rule, unbridled corruption, and unmitigated sufferings of the people under the regime mainly due to unbridled price hike of essentials and an acute crisis of power supply made the people to opt for promises of change.

There were enough scope for casting fake votes in previous elections and many fake votes were cast too. But that scope was not there in this election due to a voter list with photographs meaning in this election a voter entered a polling station to cast vote only after proving his or her identity beyond a doubt.

DIVISION WISE BREAKDOWN
AL got 49.39 lakh votes more in Monday’s poll in Dhaka division than it had obtained in 2001. This rise awarded the party unprecedented victory in the division, wiping out archrival BNP from its own stronghold altogether.

In Monday’s poll, AL obtained 1,27,63,077 votes and won 86 seats out of the 94 in the division while in 2001 it had got 78,23,420 votes and 30 seats out of 90 in the division back then.

In a defeating contrast, BNP obtained 72,18,438 votes and won 56 seats in the division in 2001while obtaining 72,92,355 votes in Monday’s election without managing to win any of the 94 seats.

In Rajshahi division AL got 73,27,431 votes and won 48 seats of the division in Monday’s election compared to 53,85,405 votes and 9 seats in 2001.

BNP obtained 56,29,395 votes and won only 8 seats in the division in Monday’s poll compared to 54,57,037 votes and 42 seats in 2001.

In Chittagong division, AL obtained 52,78,301 votes and won 34 seats in Monday’s battle, compared to 34,71,606 votes and 4 seats in 2001.

In Monday’s battle BNP got 49,90,188 votes winning only 17 seats in the division compared to its gain of 49,70,253 votes and 50 seats in 2001.

In Khulna division, AL obtained 49,95,584 votes winning 30 seats in the latest battle of ballots compared to its 2001 record of getting 31, 62,612 votes and winning 6 seats.

BNP there obtained 26, 51,007 votes and 2 seats in the latest battle compared to its record of getting 25,42,027 votes and 20 seats in 2001.

In Barisal division, AL in latest poll obtained 19,08,451 votes and 16 seats compared to 11,46,013 votes and 2 seats in 2001.

BNP on the other hand obtained 12,02,297 votes and 2 seats there this time compared to its 2001 record of 14,49,137 votes and 18 seats.

In the latest election BNP lost the entire Sylhet division obtaining 13,21,218 votes, compared to its 2001gain of 11,97,086 votes and 9 seats.

AL there obtained 22,91,224 votes in Monday’s battle and won 17 seats compared to 13,76,460 votes and 7 seats in 2001.

In Monday’s poll, Jatiya Party, a component of AL-led grand electoral alliance, obtained 46,90,166 votes which is 6.65 percent of the total number of votes cast, while Jamaat-e-Islami, a key component of BNP-led four-party alliance, obtained 32,09,226 votes or 4.55 percent of the votes cast.

VOTER TURN OUT
It is calculated, about  7,05,14,919 out of a total of 8,10,58,698 registered voters cast their votes in 299 constituencies in the December 29, 2008 parliamentary election, a staggering 87 percent of voters, the highest record of votes cast in any parliamentary election in the history of Bangladesh.

The Election Commission is likely to brief the media today on the detailed official data of vote casting in the 9th parliamentary poll and is also likely to publish an official gazette today declaring the official poll result.

According to the unofficial results announced by the commission, in about a half of the constituencies around 90 percent of voters cast their votes on Monday.