Worker falls from rooftop, dies

A construction worker died after falling from the rooftop of an under construction two-storey building in Mongla Sea Port area on Sunday. The victim was identified as Abdul Kader, 18, son of Golam Mostafa of Madhob Colony of Mongla Port. Nikhil Chandra Mondol, officer-in-charge of Mongla Police Station said Kader fell from the rooftop of a two-storey building while setting pipes at around 10:00am. He succumbed to his injuries on way to hospital.

Source : The Daily Star 

Abducted fish trader rescued 5 held in Manikganj

Police rescued abducted fish trader Abdul Hannan, 32, of Rampura in Dhaka from Begun Narchi village under Ghior upazila yesterday and arrested five people in this connection.

Hannan was kidnapped from from Rampura wholesale fish market on July 13.

The arrestees are Habib, 26, Matin, 22, Liton,22, Arobindo, 22 and Badal, 24 of Bharra village under Nagarpur upazila in Tangail.

Officer-in-charge of Ghior police station Azizur Rahman said the kidnapers took Abdul Hannan to the home of Habib of Bharra village under Nagarpur upazila in Tangail.

Confining him to a house, they demanded ransom Tk15 lakh from the victim's wife Shima Begum over cell phone.

The criminals also had threatened over phone that they will kill her husband if their demand is not met.

Hannan's family sent Tk 3 lakh to an address given by the kidnappers through S A Paribahan. But they stuck to their full demand of Tk15lakh.

Abdul Hannan was later moved to the house of Mohor Ali of Begun Narchi village in Manikganj from Tangail on July 15. Getting a scope, Hannan called his wife over cell phone. He told her that the kidnapers confined him to a house beside a school on the bank of a river of Ghior.

Hannan's family informed it to Ghior police station and police raided the Begun Narchi areas. The kidnapers fled into a jute field with Hannan.

Police however held the four abductors and rescued the fish trader.

Source : The Daily Star  

Man beaten to death

One person was beaten to death by his rivals at Gupinathpur villager under Kasba upazila on Sunday. The victim is Md Iqbal Hosain, 26, son of Md Abdul Khaleque of Bishnauri village in the upazila. According to locals and police sources, a group of youths led by one Abul Kashem swooped on Iqbal in Gupinathpur area while he was going to Kasba upazala headquarters at around 11:00am. They beat him up severely and left the scene. Critically injured Iqbal was rushed to Kasba Upazila Health Complex where the doctors declared him death.

Source : The Daily Star 

Risky ride on abandoned bridge: A 'death trap' for people of at least 4 districts

A large number of people have continued risky ride on the awfully dilapidated bailey bridge over the Nautara River near Nautara Bazar in Dimla upazila on Dalia-Sardarer Hat road as authorities failed to make any alternative arrangement.

Local Government and Engineering Department (LGED) declared the 75-metre-long bridge abandoned three years ago but no step has been taken to reconstruct it to ease communication for people of Dimla and Jaldhaka upazilas of Nilphamari district and a part of Lalmonirhat district to go to Panchagarh and Thakurgaon districts via Domar upazila.

Visiting the bridge on Friday, this correspondent saw signboards on both ends of the bridge, asking pedestrians and drivers of vehicles not to move through the risky bridge.

Four steel plates at north-east end are missing while the other plates, rusty due to overuse, are loosely connected with the iron frame.

"The remaining plates of the bridge are practically detached from the frame as many nuts and bolts are missing and welding materials are broken. Serious accident may occur if any of the plates slightly tilts or moves when a pedestrian or vehicle crosses the bridge," said Nurul Islam, former chairman of Nautara union parishad (UP).

Present UP Chairman Mosharaf Hossain Mintu said mechanised vehicles no longer use the bridge but people have continued passing through the bridge on foot, rickshaws and bicycles amid risk.

"About two years ago a man with his wife and child was passing the bridge on a motorbike when one end of a loose steel plate tilted, causing the three riders fall into the river. The man and the child survived but the woman died on the spot," said Abdur Rahman, 35, a resident of Nautara Bazar area.

There are often accidents, especially at night, as people find it difficult to see the risky spots on the bridge, locals said.

People of some unions of neighbouring Lalmonirhat district and also residents of Jhunagachh Chapani, Khalisha Chapini, Sutibari, Nautara, Gayabari and other places of Dimla upazila use this road and bridge to go to Domar and Dimla upazilas and some areas of Panchagarh and Thakurgaon districts, said Abu Jar Rahman, former president of Palli Bidyut Samity, Nilphamari, also a resident of Nautara village.

"They are facing difficulties as they have to cover additional 30 kilometres to use the alternative way. Locals brought the matter to the notice of LGED offices in Dimla and Nilphamari but to no effect," he said.

When contacted, LGED engineer in Dimla upazila Shyamapado Ghosh said, "Roads and Highways Department handed over the 75-metre-long bridge to LGED in 2003. All the steel plates are now so badly damaged that the bridge has become unfit for repair. Earlier we declared the bridge abandoned and hung a signboard, asking people not to use the bridge."

"We have sent a project proposal to the higher authorities to construct a new bridge to replace the abandoned one at an approximate cost of Tk 2 crore," he said.

Source : The Daily Star 

Prediction After Analysing Satellite Images: Erosion to devour 3,000 hectares of land on 3 riverbanks this year

Around 2,428 hectares of cultivable land and 413 hectares of settlement on the banks of Jamuna, Ganges and Padma rivers will disappear due to erosion this year.

Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) and Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS) have made the prediction through analysing satellite images.

BWDB has started protective works in several vulnerable areas on both banks of Jamuna, Ganges and Padma but river erosion has turned serious in many places including Sariakandi and Dhunat upazilas of Bogra district, said AKM Momtaz Uddin, executive engineer of BWDB, Bogra.

"We are trying to protect three spurs in Sariakandi and Dhunat upazilas of Bogra which were constructed at accost of Tk 28 crore in 2000-2001 financial year," he said.

BWDB and CEGIES sources said that at least 1,53,566 hectares of cultivable land along with 50,339 hectares of settlement were eroded due to erosion by Jamuna, Ganges and Padma rivers during the period from 1973 to 2011.

In 2010, the rivers Jamuna, Ganges and Padma eroded more than 3,047 hectares of cultivable land and 332 hectares of settlements with 15 establishments including two health centres. At least 48 establishments including 35 educational institutions and two health centres are vulnerable to erosion along the Jamuna and Padma rivers. About 23,100 people on the riverbanks lost their shelter due to erosion in the last year, BWDB sources said.

BWDB and CEGIS predict that 24,270 people will become homeless and landless due to the erosion of the three rivers this year. The highest 18,000 people on the bank of the Jamuna will become landless and homeless this year.

'Prediction of River Bank Erosion along the Jamuna, the Ganges and the Padma Rivers in 2011' published by BWDB in June says that at least 2,620 metres of active embankment, 770 metres of district roads and 3,990 metres of rural roads are 50 percent vulnerable along the Jamuna, Ganges and Padma rivers in 16 districts this year.

According to the publication, the rate of erosion by the Jamuna river was 5,000 hectares per year in the 1980s and it is around 2000 hectares in recent years.

Erosion by the Padma River was 2,300 hectares per year in the 1990s and it came down to 1200 hectares per year in early 2000s. Satellite images show that the width of the Ganges is almost stable although the river has continued shifting.

"I shifted my house five times during last 20 years. I have lost my 30 bighas of land due to the erosion by Jamuna River during last 30 years," said Abdul Khaleque, 80, of Dhanbandi village in Sariakandi upazila of Bogra district.

Mokshed Ali, 50, of the same village shifted his house four times during last 20 years. He also lost his 16 bighas of cultivable land due to the river erosion.

BWDB and CEGIES data shows that 26 areas of Kurigram, Gaibandha, Jamalpur, Bogra, Sirajganj, Tangail and Manikganj districts are vulnerable to erosion on the banks of the Jamuna. Similarly, 10 areas of Chapainawabganj, Rajshahi, Kushtia, Pabna and Rajbari districts are identified as vulnerable on the both banks of the Ganges. The satellite images also identified Faridpur Sadar, Char Bhadrasan in Faridpur district, Zanjira in Shariatpur, Dohar in Dhaka and Tongibari in Munshiganj district as vulnerable on the bank of the Padma.

Database of the two organisations says that 120 hectares of cultivable land on the bank of the Jamuna in Sariakandi upazila in Bogra, 81 hectares of cultivable land in Chapainawabganj Sadar upazila on the Ganges and about 119 hectares of land on the Padma at Zanjira in Shariatpur district will disappear due to the river erosion this year.

Source : The Daily Star 

Mizanur Rahman

Today is the 8th death anniversary of Language Movement veteran and former commercial manager of Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) Mizanur Rahman.

Mizanur Rahman Smriti Parishad (MRSP) has chalked out an elaborate programmes including fateha at his grave, milad and doa mahfil at his village home in Tongi.

Milad and doa will also be held at the Jatiya Press Club after Asr prayers.

Memorial meeting and milad mahfil will also be held at Tongi and Gazipur press clubs today.

Source : The Daily Star 

58.37pc population suffers from fever

The highest 58.37 per cent of the country's population of both sexes suffered from fever, according to the Household Income and Expenditure Survey, 2010.

The survey showed that 9.94 percent of the population of both sexes at the national level suffered from pain, followed by 5.16 percent from diarrhoea, 2.12 percent from dysentery, 2.49 percent from weakness, 2.26 percent from palpitation, 1.97 percent from blood pressure and 6.62 percent from other diseases.

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics conducted the survey during a one-year period --February 2010 to January 2011 -- and completed the preliminary analysis of the data in a record four months.

Among the females who had some sort of diseases during the survey period, 56.79 percent suffered from fever, 11.82 percent from pain, 4.78 percent from diarrhea and some 6.63 percent from other diseases.

In 2005, the highest proportion of the population that suffered from some sort of fever was 55.32 percent, followed by pain 9.60 percent and diarrhoea 6.48 percent. The pattern was equally valid for both the male and female population.

In the first 30 days of the survey in 2010, the highest proportion of male that suffered from fever was 6.78 percent, followed by pain 8.22 percent and diarrhoea 6.84 percent. Similarly, the highest proportion of female that suffered from fever was 53.95 percent, followed by pain 10.90 percent and diarrhoea 6.14 percent.

Source : The Daily Star 

Qulkhwani

Qulkhwani of Jahan Ara Khan, daughter of politician AZ Syed Ahammed Chowdhury Feni, will be held at her village home Alipur in Noakhali tomorrow, says a press release.

Jahan Ara, wife of late civil surgeon Dr Shafiqul Alam Khan, passed away at the city's Central Hospital on Saturday night due to cancer at the age of 63.

She left behind her two sons and two daughters to mourn her death.

Source : The Daily Star

Md Ashraf Ali

Today is the third death anniversary of Md Ashraf Ali, senior health education officer of Tangail, says a press release.

On the occasion, Qurankhwani will be held and foods will be distributed among the orphans.

All are requested to pray for salvation of the departed soul.

Source : The Daily Star  

Office hours during Ramadan

Office hours during the month of Ramadan will be from 9:00am to 3:30pm for government, semi-government, and autonomous and semi-autonomous organisations.

A proposal in this regard will be placed in the cabinet at its regular weekly meeting today at Bangladesh Secretariat. Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina will chair the meeting.

Normally the government office hour is from 9:00am to 5:00pm.

Source : The Daily Star 

JMB August 17 Bomb Attacks: HC gives dissenting verdict

A High Court bench on Sunday delivered a dissenting verdict in the Jhenidah blast case in connection with the synchronised bomb attacks across the country by banned Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) on August 17, 2005.

Senior Judge of the HC bench Justice Syed Muhammad Ziaul Karim acquitted all 21 convicted by the trial court, saying charges brought against them were not found to be proved.

Junior Judge of the bench Justice Abdur Rab, however, acquitted seven accused and gave life imprisonment to the rest.

The trial court in Jhenidah on February 28, 2006 convicted all 21 accused JMB activists and sentenced them to death in the case filed with Jhenidah police on August 17, 2005.

Bomb attacks were carried out at six places in the district town including the District Judge's Court premises leaving Russell, an eight-year-old child, injured.

In the unprecedented scale of terror attacks, the militant group simultaneously blasted at least 459 time bombs in 63 districts killing two people.

The blasts were the first terror attack in the country by any Islamist militant group claiming its responsibility that drew attention across the world and sent a chill through the nation.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told The Daily Star this is the first case among the several hundreds of its kind in connection with the August 17 serial blasts that has been disposed of by the HC.

Justice Abdur Rab, who acquitted the seven accused, explained they were not implicated in the charge sheet pressed by the police. He also reduced the sentence of others capital punishment to life term imprisonment considering their minor age.

The HC bench delivered the split verdicts after holding hearing on the death reference of the case and jail appeals filed by the accused against their conviction.

Deputy Attorney General Abdul Mannan Mohon told The Daily Star the case and its verdicts will be sent to the chief justice, who would form a third bench of the HC for final disposal of the case.

Advocate Kazi Ahsanullah and some other lawyers appeared for the accused, while Deputy Attorney General Mohon and assistant attorneys general M Moniruzzaman Rubel, Osman Gani and Mahbubey Alam represented the government.

Source : The Daily Star 

Taxi Cab Torching: Annee, Nirob get bail

BNP lawmaker Shahid Uddin Chowdury Annee and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) General Secretary Saiful Islam Nirob got ad-interim bail in the taxi cab torching case.

Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Shahdat Hossain on Sunday granted them bail with two guarantors after Annee and Nirob along with their lawyers appeared before the court and sought bail in the case.

During the hearing, lawyers told the court that their clients surrendered before the High Court (HC) on June 20 seeking anticipatory bail in the case. The HC directed them to appear before the lower court within four weeks without granting bail. Showing respect to the higher court order, their clients surrendered before the court seeking bail, lawyers said.

According to the prosecution, a group of people led by Annee, JCD President Sultan Salauddin Tuku and Nirob damaged and torched a taxi cab in front of Orchard Point Market in the city's Dhanmondi area about 8:15pm on June 12, the day before hartal enforced by the opposition BNP.

They also looted valuables from the passengers of the taxi cab and attempted to kill them, the prosecution added.

Source : The Daily Star  

Writ to stop price hike of essentials

A rights organisation has filed a writ petition with the High Court seeking its directives on the government to stop increase of price of essential commodities during upcoming Ramadan.

Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) filed the petition as public interest litigation on Sunday also seeking HC directives on the authorities to set up mobile courts in Dhaka and Chittagong to control the price of essentials and punish the dishonest businessmen.

Petitioner's counsel Manzill Murshid told The Daily Star that petition was filed following the reports recently published on different newspapers stating that some corrupt and dishonest businessmen have already fixed the high prices of essential commodities ahead of Ramadan.

He said some of those businessmen also created crisis of foods and other commodities through syndicate and earn much money by increasing price without following any legal procedure.

Manzill also said the HC bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore will hear the petition today.

Secretaries to the ministries of commerce and food and deputy commissioners of Dhaka and Chittagong have been made respondents in the petition.

Source : The Daily Star 

Therapy for end-stage heart patients

Cardio Care, a diagnosis and consultation centre, yesterday announced that it would launch a latest therapy for the end-stage cardiac patients within six months.

The announcement came from a seminar "Clinical Aspects of Extracorporeal Myocardial Revulcularization (ESMR) Therapy" on Cardio Care premises in the city.

Dr Rownok Jahan Tamanna, assistant professor of National Institute of Cardio Vascular Diseases (NICVD), delivered the keynote speech while Ron Mayer, a visiting medical technology specialist from the US company Medispec, the manufacturer of CardioSpec ESMR Therapy System, made a detailed presentation on ESMR therapy.

The seminar was attended, among others, by Dr Khaled Mohsin, Dr Mir Jamal, Dr Amol Kumar Chowdhury, Dr Khalequzzaman, and Dr Towfiqur Rahman Faruq of NICVD; Dr Shamsher Ali of Dhaka Medical College; and Dr Monzur Morshed of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.

Cardio Care Managing Director Tahsan Rahman Khan said there are around 1.5 crore cardiac patients in the country. ESMR therapy will bring hope for the end-stage cardiac patients who are not able to undergo bypass surgery.

Source : The Daily Star 

It's tantamount to sedition: Says PM about Khaleda's constitution remark

Describing the recent "insolent" remarks of Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia on the constitution, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on July 17 urged the countrymen to raise their voice against such remarks on the sacred document.

"The audacious remarks of throwing away the present amended constitution is very much tantamount to sedition. How could she make the remarks taking all the facilities as a cabinet minister under the constitution?" she questioned.

Hasina, also the President of ruling Awami League, said this at a meeting with the leaders of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) at her office.

The PM said it cannot be desirable that a former prime minister of a country and a president of a party can utter such words against the constitution which "we have earned after sacrificing 30 lakh people and at the cost of modesty of over two lakh women in 1971".

Terming the 15th amendment as a "safeguard" of the constitution and democracy as well, she said the leader of the opposition could not like it as "we have ensured through the amendment that none could be allowed to grab state power through unconstitutional means".

Sheikh Hasina said her government after getting overwhelming victory in the last general election had got a chance to restore the spirit of the country's War of Liberation after 35 years of brutal assassination of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

She said exercising religious rituals by all religious communities independently has been ensured in the amended constitution. She said the amendment has been brought retaining "Bismillah-Hir-Rahmanir Rahim" and state religion in the preamble of the constitution.

She said the leader of the opposition could not accept it as her husband Ziaur Rahman had violated the constitution and grabbed the state power. "It is not unusual that as wife of Ziaur Rahman, Khaleda Zia will express her desire to throw away the constitution," she added.

Criticising Khaleda Zia for her remarks, Hasina said those who made the "indecorous and indecent" remarks on constitution were never with the winners of the country's great War of Liberation rather they were with the defeated forces.

She said it was Ziaur Rahman who mutilated the constitution by bayonet, and promulgating military ordinance after grabbing the state power have patronised the anti-liberation forces.

"He (Zia) has totally destroyed the spirit and values of the Liberation War and suspended the trail process of the killers of Bangabandhu by promulgating military ordinance and later it was legalised through the 5th amendment to the constitution," she added.

The premier said Ziaur Rahman later contested the presidential polls violating the army act which was a total violation of the constitution.

Hasina said Ziaur Ragman awarded the killers of Bangabandhu by appointing them in different Bangladesh missions abroad. "Similarly, Khaleda Zia brought killers Rashid and Huda in the Jatiya Sangsad through the election without voters on February 15, 1996," she added.

The PM said BNP has been trying to destabilise the country through creating anarchy in a bid to protect the war criminals, grenade attackers, corrupt and money smugglers. She called upon all to remain cautious against the conspiracy of the opposition BNP.

Giving a salient feature of the country's contemporary politics from the birth of BNP, Sheikh Hasina said it was BNP that always thought about grabbing state power through unconstitutional means instead of voting.

Information Minister Abul Kalam Azad, BFUJ President Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, Secretary General Abdul Jalil Bhuiyan and leaders of BFUJ affiliated unions also spoke on the occasion.

Principal secretary to the PM M A Karim and press secretary Abul Kalam Azad, former president of BFUJ Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul, former secretary general Altaf Mahmood and treasurer Ataur Rahman, among others, were present.

Source : The Daily Star 

Britain vetos EU military HQ plans

Britain rejected plans yesterday for a permanent European Union military headquarters, putting it at odds with its ally France amid stalled efforts to launch a common EU defence policy.

"The United Kingdom will not agree to such a permanent OHQ (operational headquarters)," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said after meeting with EU counterparts in Brussels.

"We will not agree to it now. We will not agree to it in the future. That is a red line for us," he said after London applied its veto power against the proposal under EU rules.

Voicing London's traditional attachment to the transatlantic alliance with the United States, Britain's chief diplomat said an EU military headquarters would be costly and create wasteful duplication with NATO.

The creation of a permanent HQ was part of a report presented to the ministers by EU foreign and security policy chief Catherine Ashton in a bid to breath new life into EU defence policy.

But Hague said he was "unable to welcome" the report because of the headquarters plan. The ministers failed to issue any statement on defence policy at the end of their talks.

London's intransigence puts it at odds with France even though the two nations signed a historic military cooperation pact last November and are leading the NATO air war against Moamer Kadhafi's regime in Libya.

Source : The Daily Star 

Pakistan drone victims seek CIA arrest

Relatives of victims of a covert US drone war against Al-Qaeda in Pakistan yesterday filed a complaint with police in the capital, seeking the arrest of a now retired CIA official, their lawyer said.

"We have lodged the complaint for (issuance) of international arrest warrants for John A Rizzo, a CIA official," over the killings of civilians, Mirza Shahzad Akbar told reporters at a press conference.

The drone war, targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda commanders in Pakistan's tribal badlands, is hugely unpopular among a public opposed to the government's alliance with Washington and sensitive to perceived violations of sovereignty.

The document called on Interpol and the United States to enforce an arrest warrant against Rizzo, whom it says was until recently general counsel to the CIA and claims "the accused can be tried in Islamabad".

It accused Rizzo of conspiracy to wage a war of aggression, to commit murder and various other crimes, including crimes against humanity.

Source : The Daily Star 

Arun not with Anandadhara anymore

Arun Chowdhury, acting editor of Anandadhara, is no more in the services of the magazine in any capacity, said a press release yesterday.

Moinul Ahsan Saber, editor of Shaptahik 2000, will also be the acting editor of Anandadhara with immediate effect in addition to his existing duties till further notice, said the release issued by Mahfuz Anam, publisher of Anandadhara and managing director of Mediaworld Ltd, the owning company of the magazine.

The release also said anyone dealing with Arun Chowdhury, from now on, will be doing so at his or her own risk and responsibility, and the management of Anandadhara will not be responsible in any way.

Source : The Daily Star 

Envoy in Nepal: Probe body to check allegations

The government has constituted an inquiry committee to look into the allegations against Bangladesh Ambassador in Nepal Dr Neem Chandra Bhowmik, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni disclosed this at her ministry yesterday.

She said in a press briefing at the ministry that her office has taken the allegations against Dr Bhowmik into cognisance.

A committee comprised of officials of the Prime Minister's Office, and ministries of foreign affairs and public administration will go to Kathmandu to investigate the allegations, she added.

Bhowmik, a teacher of Department of Applied Physics, Electronics and Communication Engineering of Dhaka University, was appointed Bangladesh Ambassador to Nepal in 2009.

Foreign ministry sources said that the ministry received a number of serious allegations against the ambassador including gross violation of diplomatic norms, practices, nuisances, disgraceful acts, poor handling of diplomatic affairs and women-related scandals.

At the press conference, a journalist presented before the FM an unsigned printed matter without any letterhead, which listed irregularities of Dr Bhowmik.

However, Dipu Moni declined to recognise it because there was no name of source, letterhead or anything in the matter.

She said necessary action will be taken immediately after the inquiry committee submits its report.

"We are proceeding in the proper way for a complete investigation," Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes, who was present at the press briefing, said.

Source : The Daily Star 

Moudud counts on Ershad: Sees him in opposition alliance; Ershad plays diplomatic

Senior BNP leader Moudud Ahmed yesterday said components of the Awami League-led ruling coalition including former president HM Ershad's Jatiya Party who "believe in democracy will join the opposition alliance".

In his reaction to Moudud's claim, Ershad said he doesn't believe in democracy of those who had kept him in the jail so that he could not participate in the election.

A former military dictator, Ershad was first sent to jail after his fall in 1990. During the BNP rule from 1991 to 1996, he did not get bail in any of the cases filed against him. He was granted bail after AL came to power in 1996.

Speaking at a discussion in the capital yesterday afternoon, Moudud said the parties who want to see democracy in the country are joining in the ongoing protests led by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.

Swadhinata Forum, a pro-opposition organisation, arranged the meeting at the National Press Club.

"Everyone should unite under the leadership of Khaleda Zia, as this government has snatched people's right to vote by scrapping the caretaker system from the constitution," said Moudud, who also served as prime minister and vice-president under Ershad.

Even parties like Ershad's Jatiya Party who are now in the AL-led alliance will join the opposition camp, he claimed.

Talking to The Daily Star last night, Ershad said he will consider the interests of the country and his party before taking any decision.

"But so far, none has talked to me in this regard," he added.

His close aide and JP presidium member Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu, however, said they believe in democracy and that is why they will continue to be with the grand alliance.

"We are against those who want to reinstate an undemocratic system like caretaker government by creating chaos and anarchy with the help of communal forces," he told The Daily Star.

Some BNP leaders have hinted that the main opposition party may soon approach JP for its support.

In efforts to form a greater platform to campaign for the caretaker government system, BNP is communicating with different political parties.

Its acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has already had a meeting with Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh President AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury and contacted Liberal Democratic Party President Oli Ahmed.

Both BDB and LDP have endorsed BNP's demand for reinstatement of the caretaker government system to oversee the next general election.

Mirza Fakhrul will today meet Krishak Sramik Janata League President Kader Siddiqui at the latter's house at around 7:30pm.

Siddiqui told The Daily Star that he and Fakhrul will meet to discuss the prevailing political situation.

Meanwhile, AL General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam yesterday said the grand alliance will stay as it is. "Unity among the parties in the alliance will remain intact," he said addressing a press briefing at the party's Dhanmondi office.

Source : The Daily Star 

Test puts banks’ eurozone debt in spotlight

Banks with substantial peripheral euro zone bond holdings, and those that only scraped through the European Union's stress test of 90 lenders, started feeling the heat on Monday from investors anxious they should beef up their capital buffers.

The European Banking Authority said late on Friday eight banks failed the test with a total capital shortfall of 2.5 billion euros ($3.5 billion).

This amount — puny in the broader context of European banking — sparked a repeat of last year's accusations that the stress tests were again unrealistic given the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis.

The major shortcoming of the test was the lack of real stress applied to euro zone bonds held in long-term banking books. Adding in a realistic stress on peripheral euro zone bonds would add at least 20 billion euros to capital needs and maybe more than double that, analysts said.

By 0820 GMT the European bank sector was down 1.5 per cent, hovering just above the two-year low hit last week. Intesa Sanpaolo , Unicredit , Deutsche Bank , Societe Generale and Barclays all fell more than 3 per cent.

Current market prices imply a much more severe loss than the EBA's assumption of a 15 per cent loss on Greek bonds and a 1 to 2 per cent 'haircut' on Irish and Portuguese debt.

The EBA data showed banks held 98.2 billion euros of Greek bonds (67 per cent held by domestic banks), 52.7 billion euros of Irish sovereign debt (61 per cent held domestically) and 43.2 billion to Portugal (63 per cent at home). Applying more realistic losses of 40 per cent on Greek bonds and 25 per cent on Portuguese and Irish debt would add over 45 billion euros to capital needs.

The knock-on effect on funding markets could be even more damaging, leaving attention fixed on how talks progress later this week on finding a solution to the Greek crisis.

'The European banking sector is captive to politics at the moment,' said Hank Calenti, credit analyst at Societe Generale.

Euro zone leaders meet on Thursday in a bid to agree a second bailout for Greece and a package to address the broader fiscal woes of the euro zone that last week moved beyond Greece, Portugal and Ireland to Italy and Spain.

This broader package may include measures whereby banks agree to take a hit in some form on the sovereign debt they hold to give euro zone countries more breathing space to recover.

The EBA test, though flawed, did provide over 900 pages of data, including 250 on Spanish banks alone. 'The key positive is greater understanding and recognition of sovereign stress,' Huw van Steenis, analyst at Morgan Stanley, said in a note.

Banks could need between 40 billion euros and 64 billion of capital, based on a test overlaying the EBA's adverse scenario with a sovereign stress using implied losses from current market prices and a minimum core Tier 1 capital level of 7 per cent, Morgan Stanley estimated.

Banks warned that too much transparency, such as news of BNP Paribas' 24 billion euro exposure to Italy, may make markets even more jittery.

The banks that failed were small, nearly all untraded and mainly in Spain, where banking problems have long been known.

Sixteen banks scraped through the test and analysts expect them to come under market pressure to bring capital cushions up to scratch well before the EBA's April 2012 deadline.

They include Spain's Bankia — which is planning a stock market listing on Wednesday — Popular , Sabadell and four more Spanish banks, along with Italy's Banco Popolare , Greece's Piraeus and Cyprus's Marfin.

Portugal's biggest bank Millennium BCP also nearly failed the test and set the tone for swift action by saying late on Friday it would raise 400 million euros.

Europe's banks would need 41 billion euros to keep their core capital ratios above 7 per cent, the global minimum from 2013 under the Basel III accord and already required by markets in practice, according to Reuters' calculations.

This compares with the 5 per cent pass mark in the test.

JPMorgan analyst Kian Abouhossein said a tougher test of 27 of the bigger banks using EBA data would show 20 are a combined 80 billion euros short of capital.

Source : New Age

US Senate plan firms to avert debt default

A bipartisan group of US Senators tried Monday to cobble together a deficit reduction plan that would allow president Barack Obama to avert a potentially catastrophic debt default in return for $1.5 trillion in spending cuts.

With two weeks to go until what Obama has termed economic 'Armageddon,' the rival Senate leaders, Mitch McConnell of the Republicans and Harry Reid of the Democrats, were working on a complex path out of the crisis.

A $2.5 trillion increase in the debt ceiling would come in three tranches over the next year with no Republican backing and Obama facing condemnation each time for raising it in symbolic resolutions of disapproval.

The spending cuts, implemented over a decade, would be accompanied by the setting up of a powerful bipartisan congressional committee charged with producing a comprehensive debt reduction plan by the end of the year.

'The panel will require only a simple majority to report a plan to Congress, it would be protected from Senate filibuster and it would not be subject to amendment,' The Washington Post reported.

Obama had urged rival Democrats and Republicans to strike a 'grand bargain' to reduce the yawning deficit by some $4 trillion over 10 years, in tandem with allowing the crucial increase to the borrowing limit.

But with Congress divided between the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and the Democrat-held Senate, he has failed to straddle a sharp ideological divide over taxation and the size of government.

The president said he would only cut Medicare and Social Security — programmes that help the elderly and are beloved by his Democratic Party — if Republican foes agreed to sacrifices too, namely tax hikes for the wealthy.

After five straight days of testy White House talks with congressional leaders ended Thursday without a clear solution, Obama implored lawmakers to embrace 'shared sacrifice' to help break the stalemate.

With time running out and no deal in sight, it looks like the president could have to agree to a carefully choreographed series of moves on Capitol Hill to steer the country out of crisis and save face all round.

Republicans are expected to table a plan early in the week that would cut the deficit, cap federal spending and amend the constitution to require a balanced budget, while also containing a provision to raise the debt ceiling.

The so-called 'cut, cap and balance' plan, favoured by Republican lawmakers close to the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement, might pass the House but is unlikely to win enough support from Democrats to pass the Senate.

'The Republicans are insisting this debate take place before anything happens,' number two Senate Democrat Dick Durbin told CBS's 'Face the Nation' program, adding: 'We have to check the boxes.'

After its expected failure, McConnell and Reid hope to pass a debt limit measure through the Senate that would then be amended in the House with a proposal to reduce spending by $1.5 trillion over a decade.

White House budget director Jake Lew insisted Obama still wanted a big debt reduction deal right away but confirmed the basics of the back-up plan and didn't dismiss it.

'My understanding is what they are working on right now would simply provide a mechanism for extending the debt and provide for a committee, a joint committee of the Congress, to take action on the deficit,' Lew said.

'At a minimum, Congress has a way to action and avoid default on the US debt. It's critical,' he told the CNN.

Economists and business leaders have warned that failure to raise the US debt ceiling by August 2 could send shock waves through a world economy still reeling from the 2008 financial collapse.

The budget showdown is enmeshed in America's perpetual election cycle as Republicans seek to block Obama's agenda, painting him as a big-spending liberal who would drive the country to economic ruin if re-elected in 2012.

But Republicans have to walk a fine line as any obviously cynical politicking seen as detrimental to the fragile US economy or imperilling jobs would also be electoral suicide.

Source : New Age

Moody’s suggests US eliminate debt ceiling

Ratings agency Moody's on Monday suggested the United States should eliminate its statutory limit on government debt to reduce uncertainty among bond holders.

The United States is one of the few countries where Congress sets a ceiling on government debt, which creates 'periodic uncertainty' over the government's ability to meet its obligations, Moody's said in a report.

'We would reduce our assessment of event risk if the government changed its framework for managing government debt to lessen or eliminate that uncertainty,' Moody's analyst Steven Hess wrote in the report.

The agency last week warned it would cut the United States' AAA credit rating if the government misses debt payments, increasing pressure on Republicans and the White House to come up with a budget agreement.

Moody's said it had always considered the risk of a US debt default very low because Congress has regularly raised the debt ceiling during many decades, usually without controversy.

However, the current wide divisions between the House of Representatives and the Obama administration over the debt limit creates a high level of uncertainty and causes us to raise our assessment of event risk,' Hess said.

Stepping further into the heated political debate about US debt problems, Moody's suggested the government could look at other ways to limit debt.

It cited Chile, widely praised as Latin America's most fiscally-sound country, as an example.

Source : New Age

World stocks down on debt woes in Europe, US

Worries about Europe's banking woes and debt problems in the US dragged global stock markets lower on Monday.

The results of stress tests on European banks that were released after the close of trading Friday overshadowed the start of this week's trading.

The results did little to reassure investor confidence in the continent's shaky financial sector, revealing that eight of 90 European banks flunked tests aimed at revealing how they would fare in another recession. Another 16 barely passed.

Ahead of an emergency meeting of EU leaders later this week, investors are growing more worried that Europe's debt crisis will spread to Italy and Spain.

Investors are also unsettled by the inability of US politicians to work out a deal to avoid a debt default before a deadline that is just two weeks away.

'Looking ahead, sovereign debt worries in the US and Europe and a pickup in second-quarter US earnings data are going to compete for traders' attention,' said Ben Potter, a research analyst at IG Markets in Melbourne, Australia. 'The only real certainty in the coming days is that there is likely to be volatility as the market grapples with these major issues.'

Francis Lun, managing director of Lyncean Holdings in Hong Kong, said that market reaction is 'quite negative' to the stress test results. 'It really shows that it would be a long time before Europe can solve its problem,' he said.

In early European trading, the FTSE 100 index fell 0.8 per cent to 5,793.73 and France's CAC-40 dropped 1.3 per cent to 3,678.26. Germany's DAX slid 1.1 per cent to 7,137.13.

US stocks were poised to fall. Dow futures were down 0.6 per cent to 12,380.00 while S&P 500 futures were down 0.6 per cent to 1,306.30.

In Asia, South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.7 per cent to close at 2,130.48 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed less than 0.1 per cent to 4,539.90. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.3 per cent to finish at 21,804.75.

Mainland Chinese shares edged lower amid concerns over inflation will remain high in the coming few months, analysts said.

The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.1 per cent to close at 2,816.69 and the Shenzhen Composite Index dropped less than 0.1 per cent to end at 1,232.54.

'The market will keep on being unstable. There could be a rally this week, however, it cannot last long as there is not enough power to support it,' said Cai Dagui, an analyst in Ping'an Securities, based in Shenzhen.

Elsewhere, benchmarks in Taiwan, Singapore and New Zealand also fell. Markets in Japan were closed Monday for a national holiday.

Source : New Age

News Corp’s Australian shares sink to two-year low

News Corp's Australian shares sank to a two-year low on Monday as the UK phone hacking scandal fallout worsened, raising concerns that a $2 billion bid for an Australian pay-tv firm involving News Corp could be derailed by political intervention.

Investors sent News Corp shares down as much as 7 per cent in heavy volume after Rebekah Brooks, the former head of the company's UK paper business, was arrested on Sunday and top policeman Paul Stephenson quit over the scandal.

'I think people would rather be cautious and mark it down rather than find a reason to defend it,' said Invesco senior investment manager Jackson Leung in Melbourne. Invesco is News Corp's second-largest institutional shareholder with a 1.68 per cent stake, according to Thomson Reuters data.

News Corp shares ended down 4.1 per cent at A$14.16 after touching a low of A$13.65.

Shares in a News Corp takeover target, pay-tv firm Austar, also fell on worries the deal may not proceed after the furore in Britain forced News to drop a $12 billion plan to buy all of highly profitable broadcaster BSkyB.

Austar has agreed to a $2 billion-plus takeover offer from its bigger rival Foxtel, which is owned by News Corp's News Ltd division, billionaire James Packer's Consolidated Media Holdings, and telecoms firm Telstra.

The Australian government last week said it may review media laws and ownership, following pressure from the influential Greens party.

Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd dominates the Australian newspaper industry, commanding nearly three-quarters of daily metropolitan newspaper circulation, and the UK scandal has riveted attention in his homeland.

Source : New Age

Oil prices turn lower in Asian trade

Oil prices turned lower in Asian trade Monday as concerns over the US government's debt problems dragged markets south, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, fell 13 cents to $97.11 per barrel in the afternoon.

Brent North Sea crude for September delivery slipped 36 cents to $116.90.

Persistent worries of a political impasse in the United States over its debt crisis continued to hang over crude prices, Shum said.

'The debt situation in the US is bearish for the oil market,' said Victor Shum, senior principal of Purvin and Gertz energy consultants in Singapore.

'The concern there has got to do with whether the Obama administration and Republican party will agree to move the US debt ceiling,' he stated.

On Sunday, a bipartisan Senate plan took shape to allow US president Barack Obama to avert a potentially catastrophic debt default in return for $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over a decade.

With two weeks to go until what Obama has termed economic 'Armageddon', the rival Senate leaders, Mitch McConnell of the Republicans and Harry Reid of the Democrats, were working on a complex path out of the crisis.

Source : New Age

Zoellick urges US drive for Doha deal

US leadership could be the vital spark needed to revive moribund world trade talks, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on Monday, decrying as defeatist the mindset of those prepared to see the deal fail.

Expanding on a speech in which he said World Trade Organisation members should 'double down on Doha,' Zoellick, who was US Trade Representative for four years, said the Obama Administration should take the initiative and champion a deal.

'The world needs a global growth strategy, and opening trade drives growth,' he told a news conference. 'We've seen it with proven effectiveness all throughout the past 60 or 70 years, so why not revive Doha?'

Zoellick dismissed the idea of chasing a mini-trade deal by the end of 2011, a second-best option now in the sights of WTO director general Pascal Lamy.

'In the conversations that I've had, people are finding that the mini deal will probably be about as hard as the big deal, and people predict they won't be able to close that, for a lot of detailed reasons. So I urge a turnaround.'

Zoellick said Doha offered the United States a deal that was 'beyond proportionality' in several areas — committing it to smaller tariff cuts in several key areas than other nations —and several US policies were pushing in the same direction as Doha.

'The United States is going to be cutting agricultural subsidies as part of its budget deal. There was just an agreement in the US Congress to cut not only ethanol tariffs but the ethanol subsidy,' Zoellick said.

'I think the facts speak for themselves on whether you have excuses or leadership,' he said.

'This can't be done by the negotiators in Geneva. So frankly this idea that people would test some of this with ambassadors or lower level people in Geneva — you're never going to get a breakthrough that way.'

By taking the lead, the US negotiators could start by consulting China, and then bring in India and African countries, each of which has an interest in a Doha deal, he said.

If such an attempt failed, it would be clear who stopped it.

Zoellick said Doha was on deathwatch, but it was time to act boldly to try to save it for the sake of the world economy.

'You get more and more people who say 'let's put Doha to bed'. I think that would be a huge mistake. So I think it's important to offer an alternative view.'

Source : New Age

DSE likely to start mock online trading tomorrow

Dhaka Stock Exchange is likely to start mock online share-trading from tomorrow to make the investors familiar with the process.

The new internet-based trading software MSA Plus will allow clients of different brokerage houses to place their buying and selling orders online.

The DSE management have decided to run a one-month mock trading to orient the investors with the system of the new online trading process. 

Already, some 120 of the 217 brokerages have installed the required hardware for the internet-based trading, said DSE senior vice-president Ahsanul Islam on Monday.

'We have prepared a floor with the internet-based trading facility for those brokerages which were yet to have the required logistics to help familiarise their clients with the system,' he said.

He said that transaction under the mock trading will be only for the purpose of training and not to be actually counted.   

DSE sources said that they would invite the members of the Securities and Exchange Commission to inaugurate the opening of the mock online trading.  

Once the online trading is launched, investors will be given separate passwords against each beneficiary owner's (BO) accounts to log in to the web server of their respective brokerage houses. By logging in, they would be able to trade online without physically going to the houses.

Officials of different brokerage houses informed that hardware installation cost for the new trading technology was around Tk 20 lakh.

Top officials of a number of brokerage houses, however, expressed their dissatisfaction over the delay in introducing the new software.

'We have installed hardwires three weeks back, paying the maintenance cost; but some houses are yet to buy them,' said a senior official of a brokerage house.

He also said that under the new online system there would not be much difference as the orders would be placed by the clients via internet would have to go to the main server under the scanner of their respective brokers.

Meanwhile, the general index of Dhaka bourse or DGEN on Sunday fell breaking an eight-day gaining streak, shedding 91.69 points, or 1.39 per cent.

Market operators said that Sunday's fall of share prices was an upshot of the remark made by the finance minister AMA Muhith on Thursday.

Muhith on Thursday had expressed his dissatisfaction over the recent bullish trend of the stock market without any break.  

Some investors also went into profit taking sell-offs after the eight-day surge, market operators said.

Turnover on the day also dropped to Tk 1,157.06 crore which is down by Tk 526 crore from the previous session.

Trading on the bourse started on a negative mood on Sunday as its general index or DEGN slide in the opening hour. The downtrend continued throughout the session, but he DGEN recovered some losses before the closing bell and finished the day at 6,486.58 points.

Of the 262 issues traded on Sunday, 42 advanced, 213 declined, and seven remained unchanged.

The trading on DSE remained closed on Monday on the occasion of Shab-e-Barat.   

Source : New Age

CIB reports of BB go online today

Bangladesh Bank today inaugurates its online service for providing Credit Information Bureau reports to banks and non-bank financial institutions.

BB governor Atiur Rahman will launch the service in a programme at the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the capital.

Central bank officials said he online sharing of CIB reports would help the banks and NBFIs get important credit information in a few minutes and make their lending services faster.

According to the BB, all the 49 banks and 29 NBFIs of the country will be able to collect the online CIB reports from today.

The banks and financial institutions will also be able to collect the CIB reports from the central bank physically, if they want to, said the officials.

According to the existing provisions, if any client of a bank or financial institution wants to take a loan of $725 or Tk 50,000 or more, that bank or NBFI needs to collect the CIB report from the central bank to check whether the client is a loan defaulter or has any outstanding loan with any other bank or financial institution, said a BB official.

Atiur Rahman told New Age on Saturday that the online service of the CIB would reduce the cost of doing business and bring transparency in the financial sector.

'Sometimes, banks and financial institutions create complications in providing loans in the name of CIB report and Bangladesh Bank. It will be stopped,' he said.

He said approximately 5,000 queries about applicants for bank loans are made to the CIB a day and it takes around one week to respond to them.

'But, now it will be possible to get the information about the client with just a click of the mouse,' Atiur said.

He said the service would make it much faster for the Election Commission and other agencies to get loan-related information about any specific person.

The CIB was set up on 18 August 1992 by the central bank to reduce credit risk and the number of loan defaulters.

Source : New Age

BB’s 10-tonne gold value up by $111.88m

The value of 10 tonnes of gold purchased by Bangladesh in September 2010 has increased further by $111.88 million following the latest round of price hike on the global market.

The central bank purchased 10 tonnes of gold from the International Monetary Fund on September 9, 2010 at a rate of $1,252 per ounce.

As the gold prices have soared on the international market, smashing $1,600 an ounce mark on Monday, Bangladesh Bank's profit from that investment now amounts to $348 per ounce, meaning a total profit of around $111.88 million. [1 tonne = 32,150 ounce]

BB's governor Atiur Rahman earlier said they had no plan to sell the gold deposited in the Bank of England as gold was considered a part of the central banks' total foreign exchange reserve.

BB officials said the total gold reserve of the central bank was about 13 tonnes or approximately six per cent of its total foreign exchange reserve.

They, however, said even after the recent purchase of 10 tonnes of gold, the central bank's forex reserve was dominated by US dollar.

Source : New Age

Gold smashes $1,600-mark

The price of gold surged on Monday above $1,600 per ounce for the first time in history, as investors bought the safe-haven metal amid deepening debt worries in the

eurozone and the United States.

Gold jumped as high as $1,600.10 an ounce in early morning trading on the London Bullion Market, as the precious metal extended its recent record-breaking surge which began on Friday.

'Gold hit another milestone ... at $1,600 as investors lose confidence in the ability of politicians to get to grip with the debt problems weighing down on sentiment,' said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.

'More advances look likely while this lack of confidence prevails as investors plough capital into the asset.'

The precious metal is regarded by most investors as a safe-haven in times of global economic turmoil.

This week, eurozone countries will seek to settle their debt crisis at an emergency summit to try and stop Greece toppling into default and dragging bigger euro economies into deeper trouble.

EU president Herman Van Rompuy has said the summit in Brussels on July 21 would focus on both the financial stability of the eurozone and future financing of the Greek programme.

Meanwhile, US politicians are wrangling over a deficit reduction plan which would allow President Barack Obama to avert a potentially catastrophic debt default in return for $1.5 trillion in spending cuts.

'Gold took out $1,600 early this morning,' added Spread Co analyst Ian O'Sullivan.

'Investors are now adding real fears of a US default to go along with their European sovereign worries.'

Source : New Age

TCB’s sugar, oil procurement likely to fall short of target

Trading Corporation of Bangladesh might fail to procure targeted quantity of sugar and edible oil for distribution among the dealers to keep the prices of essential commodities stable in the month of Ramadan.

Sources in the state trading agency indicated that lengthy process for importing the essentials might lead to delay in shipment which could fail to reach the country ahead of the holy month of Ramadan.

Last year, TCB had to receive the imported commodities after Ramadan due to delay in the tender process, defeating the purpose of controlling the prices of the essentials during the holy month when their demands are high.

The officials, who wanted not to be quoted, claimed that although TCB was prompt enough to finish the selection of importers after calling the tenders, red-tape at the ministry caused the delay in shipment.

TCB is expected to import 30,000 tonnes of sugar, 30,000 tonnes of soya bean oil, 1,000 tonnes of chick pea and 1,000 tonnes of dates (khejur) to supply in the market during the Ramadan. It had a stock of 25,000 tonnes of red lentil that was procured last year.

Sources said that among the items, 1,000 tonnes of chick pea and 1,000 tonnes of dates (khejur) had already been imported.

He warned that most of the 11 importers who had been selected through tender might not be able to import sugar because of delay in the import process.

Some TCB officials claimed that the big businesses in sugar and oil were desperate to create obstructions so that the state trading agency could not import the commodities.

The traders have meanwhile increased the price of sugar by Tk 15 per kilogram and that of soya bean oil by around Tk 10 per litre over the month. Sugar was retailed at Tk 72 and soya bean oil for Tk 118 per litre in retail markets in the capital.

Amid the fear of failure to supply adequate commodities to keep the market stable during Ramadan, TCB is going to start distribution of its old stock of sugar, soya bean oil, chick pea, khejur and red lentil among its 2,450 distributors across the country from today.

The distribution will be made in two phases, 19 July and 7 August. In each phase, a dealer will get a maximum two tonnes of sugar, one tonne of red lentil, 1,200 litres of soya bean oil, 500 kilogram of khejur and 500 kilogram of chick pea.

TCB chief officer of sales and distribution Rafiqul Islam claimed that TCB has the enough stock of the commodities to

distribute among their dealers at the fixed quantity in the first phase, but there could be shortage of the commodities for distribution in the second phase.

However, he assured that there would be no problem because there have been supplies of commodities in the pipeline.

Source : New Age

Coastal belt highly vulnerable to climate change: Ainun Nishat

The country's coastal belt is highly vulnerable to the climate change effects in view of the recurrent trend of increasing salinity and storm surges, according to an expert.

The volume of water in sea is increasing due to melting glacier because of rising global temperature, which contributes to increasing salinity and inundation in the coastal region, said eminent water expert Ainun Nishat.

He made the remarks during his power point presentation on 'Climate Change and Water Management in Bangladesh' at the Climate Change and Water session of a three-day workshop at BRAC Centre Inn in the capital on Monday.

American overseas research centres — American Institute of Bangladesh Studies, American Institute of Indian Studies, American Institute of Pakistan Studies and American Institute of Sri Lankan Studies — organised the workshop titled 'Water, Waves, and Weather: Climate Change and the Future of South Asia'.

Chaired by American Institute of Bangladesh Studies chief Shelly Feldman, the session was addressed, among others, by senior lecturer of the University of Colombo Deepthi Wickramasinghe.

Ainun Nishat, vice-chancellor of BRAC University, said nearly 7,000-kilometre coastal embankment of Bangladesh was the largest manmade polder in the world.

Highlighting the present state of the country's coastal belt, he said Aus and Aman paddy would be affected in the coming days due to salinity and inundation. Although scientists have already innovated salinity- tolerant rice, they could not yet determine the level of salinity in the different areas of the coastal belt.

About flood, the water expert said that 92 per cent of catchment of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna was located outside the country while only eight per cent in Bangladesh. 'Flood water comes from Assam.'

The storm surge is another threat for the coastal belt, he said, adding that people had already started migrating from vulnerable area of the coastal region, seeking safe places to live.

Ainun Nishat, former IUCN chief, said more cyclone centres were needed in the coastal region to save lives and assets of people from natural disasters including cyclone and storm surge.

He suggested sending warnings through mobile phone among the costal people at free of cost to alert them prior to any probable disasters.

About flood management, Ainun Nishat recommended strengthening flood forecasting system, setting up more flood evacuation shelters and introducing flood insurance.

He also said that local community can play a vital role to face natural disasters including flood.

He stressed the need for strengthening institutional capacity and monitoring internal and external migration to cope with the climate change impacts and natural disasters.

Source : New Age

Fish trader rescued, 5 kidnapers held

A fisherman, who was kidnapped on July 13 from Rampura in the capital, was rescued from village Begum Narchi of Ghior in Manikganj on Sunday afternoon. Five kidnappers were also held from the village Begum Narchi.

The police said that the fish trader Abdul Hanna, 32, was kidnapped from Rampura wholesale fish market of the capital. Being informed, they rescued Abdul Hannan from a jute field at the village on Sunday afternoon, the police said.

The arrested abductors were identified as Habib, 26, Motin, 22, Liton, 22, Arobindo, 22 and Badal, 24 of village Bharra under Nagarpur upazila in Tangail.

The Ghior police station officer-in-charge, Azizur Rahman, said that the kidnapers had taken Abdul Hannan to the home of Habib of the village Bharra in Tangail. Confining him into a house, they had demanded ransom Tk 15 lakh from his wife Shima Begum over mobile phone and threatened to kill her husband if their demand was not met, the OC said.

The victim's family had sent Tk 3 lakh to the address of kidnapers by SA Paribahan. But they had demanded rest of the money.

Abdul Hannan was confined to the home of Mohor Ali of the village Begun Narchi of Ghior in Manikganj from the village Bharra in Tangail on July 15.  At one stage, Hannan had informed the address to his wife over cell phone.

Being informed by Hannan's family, the Ghior police raided the Begun Narchi areas and started searching. Sensing presence of the police, the kidnapers had fled into a jute field with Abdul Hannan while the police held the four abductors and rescued the fish trader.  The police, however, could not arrest Mohor Ali who sheltered the kidnapers.

The police also recovered Tk 2 lakh and 40 thousand, which was given to the kidnapers as ransom.

Source : New Age

PM for measures for 8th Wage Board

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, directed the Information Ministry to hold discussions with the newspaper owners to form the 8th Wage Board for journalists and newspaper employees.

The directive came when a delegation of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists, led by its president Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury and secretary general Abdul Jalil Bhuiyan, met her at the Prime Minister's Office on Sunday morning.

The prime minister also asked the information ministry to look into the matter whether the Newspapers Employees Services Conditions Act 1974 should be restored to enhance the dignity of the journalists.

The BFUJ leaders informed the prime minister that in 2006, during the last BNP-Jamaat government, the Act of 1974 has been changed and the journalists have been brought under the Labor Act.

During the meeting, Hasina further directed the Information ministry to create a fund for the welfare of the journalists.

Among other demands, the BFUJ leaders requested the prime minister to appoint the director general of Press Institute of Bangladesh from the journalist community.

Following the BFUJ leaders' request, the prime minister declared to donate Tk 30 lakh to the trust fund of the BFUJ for the welfare of the journalists.

Information minister Abul Kalam Azad, prime minister's principal secretary MA Karim and prime minister's press secretary Abul Kalam Azad were, among others, present.

Source : New Age

Child raped in Jessore

A female student of Class I at Abhaynagar upazila in Jessore was raped allegedly by her neighbour on Saturday.

The victim was first taken to the Abhaynagar Upazila Health Complex and from there to Jessore Sadar Hospital.

Her family said that Durga Pada Das, 45, lured the girl with sweets while she was returning home in the evening and taking her to his house raped her.

Hearing her screams, the local people rescued her.

A case was filed by the victim's uncle with the Abhaynagar police. None was arrested till filing of this report.

Source : New Age

Bangladesh replaces four contingents in Ivory Coast

Bangladesh Army will replace four contingents namely Multi National Sector Headquarters (West), BAN Headquarter Support Company 8, BanEngineer 8 and BanSig 8 under the United Nations' operations in Cote-de-Ivory (UNOCI).

In this rotation schedule, a team of 143 members from Bangladesh Army, including officers led by Lieutenant Colonel Muhammad Afzal Hossain, psc, artillery, left Dhaka for Ivory Coast Monday, said an ISPR press release.

A total of 424 peacekeepers of four contingents will be replaced in Ivory Coast in three flights starting from July 18 to July 25.

Seven Bangladesh Army contingents are operating in Ivory Coast since April 2004.

Source : New Age

Forged Indian currency recovered

Detective Branch of Police arrested two alleged fake currency dealers and recovered forged Indian currency notes of about Rupees 20 lakh from city's Fakirerpool area Saturday evening.

A DB team conducted a raid near Fakirerpool water pump at about 5:00pm and arrested Joinal Abedin, 40, and Lucky alias Hasina, 28.

After searching their bodies, the detectives recovered 36 bundles of fake currencies equivalent to 18 lakh Indian rupees from Joinal's possession while four bundles equivalent to Rs 2 lakh from Lucky.

Source : New Age

UPDF to enforce 48-hour blockade on roads, waterways in CHT from tomorrow

The United People's Democratic Front will enforce a two-day blockade on roads and waterways in three hill districts from tomorrow in protest against the imposition of Bengali nationality on the national minorities.

The blockade is part of a series of programmes launched by the party to press for its demand for cancellation of the 15th amendment to the Constitution which, they said, denied identity and rights of the ethnic minorities and made them second class citizens by retaining Islam as the state religion.

They are also protesting invocation of Bismillah-Ar-Rahman-Ar-Rahim and insertion of new undemocratic clauses in the Constitution that violate the rights to assemble and express free opinions.

The party in a press release on Monday reduced the blockade programme for Bandarban to only one day on July 20.

A central committee member of the party, Ujjwal Smriti Chakma, in a statement called on the owners of motorised vehicles and vessels to keep them off the roads and waterways.

He sought cooperation of the transport owners' and workers' associations to make the blockade programme successful.

The press release said vehicles and vessels of emergency services such as fire service, ambulance, press, power department and vehicles carrying religious leaders like monks would remain out of the purview of the blockade. 

Earlier, the party had formed human chains in three hill districts on July 12 amid spontaneous participation from hill people.

Source : New Age

'Extradition of Noor in sight'

The process of bringing back SHBM Noor Chowdhury, one of the absconding people awarded death sentence for killing founder of the country Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is in final stage, said the law minister.

'The matter to bring him back is in the final stage in a Canada court. He'll be brought back once the issue is resolved,' Shafique Ahmed said on Sunday.

The law minister, however, did not give any timeline for the extradition of Noor Chowdhury.

Shafique said this after a meeting of the inter-ministerial task force formed to bring back people from abroad who are sentenced or facing cases.

He said four other people accused in the Sheikh Mujib murder case had been located.

'I can't say anything about the locations. Law firms have been appointed to bring them back. They'll be brought back soon,' he said.

A group of army officers killed Mujib and most of his family on Aug 15, 1975.

Five of the 12 convicted killers -- Syed Faruq Rahman, Mohiuddin Ahmed, Bazlul Huda, Shahriar Rashid Khan and AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed -- were hanged in January last year.

The fugitives are Khandaker Abdur Rashid, SHBM Noor Chowdhury, Shariful Haque Dalim, Rashed Chowdhury, Abdul Majed and Moslehuddin. One convict, Mhammed Abdul Aziz Pasha, died in Zimbabwe.

The law minister, however, declined to comment when asked whether any step had been taken to bring back BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia's two sons Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman Coco.

The home minister, Shahara Khatun, was also present.

Source : New Age

Compensation to Libya returnees on July 23

The government has finalised the list of repatriated workers from Libya as it prepares to distribute compensation to them on July 23, the expatriates' welfare minister has said.

'A total of 36,500 returnees will be given compensation,' Khandker Mosharraf Hossain told reporters on Sunday at the Secretariat.

'Of them, expatriate workers of Noakhali district top the list with 2,186, followed by Tangail with 239 workers,' he said.

The ministry and the International Organisation for Migration signed a deal on June 14 in this regard, according to which the IOM will give money for the rehabilitation of the returnees, whom it helped return home earlier.

Earlier in the day, the minister inaugurated 'Rehabilitation Loan' programme of the Expatriate Welfare Bank on the 70th day of its founding. The bank has already started disbursing immigration loans.

The specialised bank is lending money at 12 per cent interest, holding property as mortgage against the loans.

Mosharraf also warned those who were trying to go to Malaysia illegally to avail of the advantage of getting regularised there on either student or tourist visas.

Asked why the government was not taking action against the recruiting agencies involved in such activities, he cited lack of specific allegations against them as the reason.

The process of legalising 300,000 Bangladeshis in Malaysia through renewal of their expired visas will begin on August 1, instead of July 11 as declared by the minister earlier.

To an allegation that the Malaysian government was charging higher fees than what was determined, Mosharraf said a deal was signed to do the job free of cost. 'We'll look into it,' he assured.

Source : New Age

Shab-e-Barat observed

Shab-e-Barat, the holy night of fortune and forgiveness, was observed across the country last night with due religious fervour and solemnity.

The Muslims spent sleepless night at mosques and homes, offering prayers, reciting from the holy Quran and seeking divine blessings from Allah for peace, progress and happiness in life and hereafter for themselves, their families, relatives and friends as well as the nation and the Muslim Ummah.

Devotees in the city thronged Baitul Mukarram National Mosque, Azimpur Graveyard, High Court Mazar and other sacred places that turned into human seas. Shab-e-Barat is considered as one of the three most sacred nights and in this night Almighty Allah writes the fate of all human beings for the coming year.

The president, Zillur Rahman, and the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, in separate messages extended their heartiest greetings to people of the country and the world Muslims on the eve of the holy night.

The Muslims in this night visited the graveyards to offer fateha for peace of the departed souls of their near and dear ones.

They also visited the shrines of saints in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country and distributed food and sweets among the neighbours and the poor.

Many Muslims observed fasting yesterday on the occasion.

Islamic Foundation Bangladesh and other socio-religious organisations, including Babe Rahmat, Ajimpur Daira Sharif and Maizbhandar Sharif, arranged various programmes, including Quran Khwani, waz mahfils, milad and zikr, in observance of the day.

Bangladesh Television, Bangladesh Betar, and private television channels and radio stations aired special programmes, while newspapers published special articles highlighting the significance of Shab-e-Barat.

Source : New Age

Viqarunnisa students to continue protest

Former and current students of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College on Sunday said that they would continue their movement till the authorities ensure exemplary punishment of accused teacher Parimal Jayadhor and permanent removal of principal Husne Ara Begum.

'Our protest will continue until Parimal Jayadhor is punished and Husne Ara Begum is permanently removed from the post of principal,' said a student of the college. 

Students said they would form human chain today at 2pm in front

of the school's main

branch at Bailey Road to push for meeting their demands. 

Parimal, a teacher of Bangla at the school's Bashundhara campus, allegedly sexually abused a girl student and videoed the scene with his mobile phone. He confessed to have committed the crime in his statement to a magistrate on July 11.

The students have been protesting for more than a week demanding punishment of Parimal for the crime and removal of Husne Ara as principal for defending the accused.

The government on July 14 appointed assistant professor Manju Ara Begum of the college as acting principal after a week-long protest of students.

Meanwhile, the head of the ad hoc managing committee of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College and Dhaka Deputy Commissioner Mohibul Haque visited the school on Sunday.

He said that none who was involved in irregularities would be spared. 'Government will take stern action against anyone irrespective of his or her identity who was involved in such crime and irregularities,' he said.  

The ad hoc committee met for their first meeting on Sunday. The committee members also exchanged their views with the teachers.

The investigating committees formed by the education ministry also visited the school on Sunday. The head of the Committee and inspector of colleges Shrikanta Kumar Chandra said that they would investigate the reasons of the abnormal situation of the school and the managing committee's role during this time.

Classes of higher secondary education were held on Sunday. The students of school section from class II to class X will take their second semester examination today. 

However, several teachers of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College told New Age on Sunday that most recruitments during the tenure of college's current principal Husne Ara Begum were questionable and proper procedure was not followed for recruitments. 

They said that 50 to 60 teachers were recruited during Husne Ara's time and political identity and exchange of money were the main required qualifications.

Teachers also said that principal Husne Ara Begum created an extra section for class II for conducting 'admission trade'.

'An extra section was created illegally. In the extra section, the admission was done in exchange of money,' said another teacher.

Teachers demanded an investigation into the recruitment and admission process during the tenure of principal Husne Ara Begum.

When contacted, principal Husne Ara Begum said, 'It is not an issue now. The main issue now is the punishment of Parimal Jayadhor. We can discuss this later.'

Source : New Age

Russia refuses to recognise Libya rebels

Russia on Monday lashed the West for recognising the National Transitional Council as Libya's official authority but said it would still view the rebels as a formal negotiating partner.

The foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said last week's recognition by Western and regional powers of the opposition government at the expense of Muammar Gaddafi's regime was tantamount to picking sides in a civil war.

'We do not share this position for one simple

reason — this again means that those who declare this recognition stand wholly on the side of one political power in a civil war,' Lavrov said.

'This again means that those who support this decision support a policy of isolation — in this case, isolation of the forces represented in Tripoli,' Russia's top diplomat said.

'We traditionally reject isolation as a method for resolving political problems in any conflict.'

Lavrov also dismissed Western media speculation that Russia is now ready to offer political asylum to Gaddafi and his closest

family.

But rebels were angered by Russia's refusal to recognise them. 'It just doesn't make sense,' said NTC spokesman Abdulmolah, responding to the statement. 'It is black and white. They should recognise the council as other major powers.'

Meanwhile, Libya's rebels claimed control of Brega on Monday, as most pro-Gaddafi troops retreated westward leaving around 150-200 loyalist fighters pinned down inside the oil town, a spokesman said.

'The bulk of Muammar Gaddafi's forces have retreated to Ras Lanuf,' rebel spokesman Shamsiddin Abdulmolah said, referring to another oil hub about 50 kilometres to the west.

Abdulmolah added that the remnants of Gaddafi's troops were holed up among industrial facilities in Brega with supplies dwindling.

'Their food and water supplies are cut and they now will not be able to sleep,' said Abdulmolah as the latest battle for Brega entered its fifth day.

'It's a matter of time before they come to their senses, we hope to prevent some bloodshed.'

Taking the town would be a major victory for the rebels, boosting morale and recapturing infrastructure that is vital to Libya's economic future.

Brega is a major centre for channelling the pipelines of the oil-rich Sirte Basin to the rest of the world.

Fighters on the ground reported no signs so far that those oil installations have been set on fire or sabotaged, but Abdulmolah said the area has been heavily mined.

Libya's warring armies have been fighting over Brega since Thursday when rebel forces launched a three-pronged attack on the town, which has switched hands multiple times, but which had been under Gaddafi control since April.

Rebel troops approached from the northeast, east and southeast, surrounding Gaddafi's forces and reaching the outskirts of the city's eastern-most tip on Friday before pulling back to allow for NATO bombardments.

Since then it has been a steady advance.

Nestled on the Gulf of Sirte, Brega is made up of three areas, a residential area in the east, a major oil facility in the west and an old town in between.

But after a series of military gains were washed away by hasty and badly coordinated advances, rebel commanders were anxious to make sure they have a unified offensive line before their final push.

But the complete occupation of Brega may still have to wait.

Source : New Age

Harassment drives college girl into committing suicide

A student of Dhaka City College on Sunday night succumbed to injuries she had sustained while attempting to commit suicide after being kidnapped by a stalker and taken to Sirajganj.

The victim, Aireen Akter Asha, 19, daughter of Anwar Hossain, died in Square Hospital in Dhaka on Sunday night.

Asha was a management department student of Dhaka City College.

Her father lodged a case against Zihan, 20, and his cohort Shaurav, 20, of Sirajganj, on charge of kidnap and sexual harassment of Asha that led to her death.

Zihan's father Sagar Ahmed is a local influential leader of Juba League.

In the case, Anwar Hossain said Zihan pursued and harassed Asha wherever she had gone. A year ago, Zihan, with the help of some of his cohorts kidnapped her at Sirajganj and freed her after a few days. To escape constant harassment, Asha's family left Sirajganj and rented an apartment at Panthapath in Dhaka. After moving to Dhaka, Asha, who passed the Higher Secondary Examinations from Sirajganj College, enrolled at Dhaka City College but had no respite as soon Zihan appeared in Dhaka and continued to pursue her.

On July 15, Zihan kidnapped Asha again on her way to college, took her to Sirajganj and kept her in confinement at his house. She was freed and handed over to her family on July 16 after local influential people intervened. On the same night, Asha tried to commit suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling.

Asha's parents with the help of local people took her to Sirajganj General Hospital from where she was shifted to Square Hospital in Dhaka on the next morning where she died on Sunday night.

The body was brought to her village home at Malshapara in Sirajganj sadar on Monday.

Asha was buried in Malshapara graveyard without post-mortem examination.

Mostafa Harun, the sadar police officer-in-charge, said a case had been recorded in this connection but no one was arrested yet. Zihan's cohorts did not allow local journalists to visit Asha's family on Monday.

Source : New Age

50 injured as locals clash in Gopalganj

At least 50 people, including a journalist and a policeman, were injured on Monday in a series of clash of two groups over establishing supremacy in the locality in Gopalganj town.

Several houses were vandalised while three people received bullet injuries during the clashes that halted vehicular movement on the Dhaka-Khulna highway for an hour.

The police arrested four persons in connection with the clashes.

Spot accounts said Sajal, a resident of Miapara, was assaulted by the locals at Gatepara at around 9:00pm on Sunday, when he was passing through the area.

In retaliation, residents of Miapara attacked Gatepara people at about 9:00am on Monday, locals said.

Later, residents of Gatepara, Betgram and Golabaria attacked Miapara and vandalised several houses, triggering further clashes that continued till 4:00pm, when the police could took the situation under control.

Both the clashing groups used lethal weapons during the clashes that also experienced bullet shots, eye witnesses said.

New Age correspondent Nitish Chandra Bishwas was injured while covering the

clashes. A policeman, Ebaidul, was also injured. They were injured by brickbats, the witnesses said.

Three persons — Khairul Islam, Afzal and Rubel — received bullet injuries during the clashes.

Critically injured Sammin and Rubel were admitted to Gopalganj General Hospital and Sammin was referred to Khulna Medcial College Hospital.

Others of the injured were undergoing medical treatment at different private clinics to avoid arrests, locals said.

Local journalists held a rally at daily Jugkatha office in the town in the evening in protest against attack on Nitish.

They demanded immediate arrest and punishment of the perpetrators.

Source : New Age

Govt launches probe against Bhowmik

The government has started investigation into the allegations on violation of diplomatic norms by the Bangladesh ambassador to Nepal, Neem Chandra Bhowmik.

'The government has decided to form a committee to investigate into the allegations against the ambassador,' foreign minister Dipu Moni said at a press conference on Monday.

Nepal, in an unofficial communication, requested Bangladesh to withdraw Bhowmik for 'gross departure from diplomatic norms and inefficient handling of

diplomatic affairs,' according to diplomatic sources in Dhaka and Kathmandu.

The committee will visit Kathmandu before submitting its report, the minister said.

The government appointed Prof Neem Chandra Bhowmik, a teacher of the Department of Applied Physics, Electronics and Communication Engineering of Dhaka University, ambassador to Nepal on political considerations in 2009.

The ambassador, among several allegations, openly criticised Nepali Maoists in a number of public forums and in private meetings. 

He asked Nepalese army band to play national anthems of Bangladesh, Nepal and India at the Mujibnagar Dibash programme at hotel Yak & Yeti on Mar 17, 2010.

He escorted former Indian army official General JFR Jacob to a few meetings in Katmandu in his car carrying Indian flag.

He allegedly 'disturbed' Apoorva Srivastava, counsellor and spokesperson of Indian embassy in Kathmandu.

He, on several occasions, allegedly waited outside the residence of film actress Monisha Koirala, but none opened the gate despite his frantic efforts to meet her.

The committee will also investigate into allegations on irregularities and corruption like taking bribe from a number of Nepalese students selected for Bangladesh government scholarships.

Foreign minister Dipu Moni personally talked to Bangladesh embassy official Nasreen Jahan Lipi about the incidents involving Bhoumik, according to diplomatic sources.

However, Neem Chandra Bhowmik, claimed that some people in Kathmandu were trying to malign his image.

Replying to a question from New Age on a recent meeting between AK Abdul Momen, Bangladesh permanent representative to the United Nations, with Tibetan religious leader Dalai Lama in New York, Dipu Moni said the permanent representative did not take 'prior permission' as it was an unscheduled meeting.

Asked about the Chinese government's sensitivity regarding Dalai Lama's meetings with representatives of other countries, Dipu Moni said the government was aware about it [sensitivity].

'Bangladesh strongly believes in One China Policy,' she said.

The foreign minister was reportedly annoyed by the meeting between Dalai Lama and Momen, brother of finance minister AMA Muhith, a senior foreign ministry official said.

Source : New Age