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At least 127 patients have been affected by dengue in the city in the past 11 days, giving a warning about the spread of the mosquito-borne disease.
   ‘The season of dengue starts in June and continues till October. August is the peak season of dengue,’ Dr Touhid Uddin Ahmed, an entomologist, told New Age.
   According to the health directorate control room, at least 127 patients have been admitted to city hospitals and clinics since August 17 and 25 of them got admitted in the last 24-hour ending at 6:00pm Sunday.
   Five of the 25 patients were admitted to Holy Family Red Crescent Hospital and others to private hospitals and clinics.
   A survey conducted by the health directorate between August 4 and 10 on 1,400 residences in 35 areas (40 houses in each area) finds 11 of the areas very risky as the density of Aedes mosquito is relatively more here.
   The areas are Mogbazar, Monipuripara, Mohakhali, Sayedabad, Dhanmondi, Gulshan-1, Natak Sarani (Baily Road), East Rampura, Kamalapur, Wari, Dholaikhal and Gabtoli bus terminal, the directorate sources said.
   The presence of Aedes was also found more or less in other areas. The areas are Mohammadpur, Fulbaria, Kalyanpur, Kuril, Kathalbagan, Malibagh, Begunbari, Uttara, Jigatala, Lalmatia, Monipur, Agargaon, Ibrahimpur, Mirpur-1, Khilgaon, Gulshan-2, Azimpur, Uttar Jatrabari, Nikunja and Shayamoli.
   The first case of dengue was detected in 2000 and at least 93 people died and 5,551 people were affected by dengue that year.
   The numbers of death and affected were respectively 44 and 2,430 in 2001, 58 and 6,132 people in 2002 and 10 and 486 in 2003.
   In 2004, at least 13 people died and 3,934 people were affected.
   Touhid said precautionary measures have to be taken from June, the starting month of dengue.
   ‘If preventive measures are taken in the begging of the dengue season, the disease will remain under control during the peak time,’ he said and stressed collective effort to fight against the Aedes mosquito.
   Like Thailand people should clean their own houses and yards and destroy all the containers within 100 metres radius of their houses, he said.
   The chief health officer of the Dhaka City Corporation, Azizul Haque, told New Age that they had conducted a fortnight-long special cleanliness drive from April 9 to control Aedes mosquito.
   ‘Apart from routine lurvicide spraying, we have already taken an initiative to make the people aware though advertisements in print and electronic media,’ he added.

Two mobile courts on Sunday conducted drives against substandard food at Arambagh, Dhanmondi and Rajarbag in the city and collected Tk 70,000 in fine.
   The teams also filed three cases against the owners of a food factory and a sweetmeat and sentenced the food factory manager one month imprisonment.
   The first court, led by metropolitan magistrate Rokon-Ud-Doula, filed two cases against the owner of Faruq Food Products, Md Faruq, at Rahmatganj in Arambagh for going into production without the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution license and for producing fake ‘maggi noodles’.
   The court also arrested its general manager, Jammal Uddin, and awarded him one month imprisonment.
   The team sources said they had visited the factory and found fake maggi noodles and two of its own products without BSTI approval.
   It also raided the Nilgiri marketing Limited, a mineral water factory, on the Outer Circular Road at Rajarbag and sent a container of water for laboratory test.
   The drive was conducted following allegation of bottling contaminated water.
   ‘We will take action against the owner of the factory if we, through the test, find evidence of bottling contaminated water,’ the source said.
   Another court, led by the Dhaka City Corporation magistrate Nurul Alam, fined the manager of a Muslim Sweetmeat and Bakery at Dhanmondi, Road No 24 Tk 70,000 for unhygienic environment, selling stale butter and produicing bakery items without BSTI approval.
   The team fined Tk 40,000 for the unhygienic atmosphere and for selling the stale butter and Tk 30,000 for products bakery items without BSTI approval.
   The team also warned Malancha restaurant at Mohakhali as the cooks were not using aprons and caps during making foods.

The Dhaka City Corporation goes for a special campaign in September to aware the people of dengue fever caused by Aedes mosquito bites and ways to thwart its spread.
   The decision was taken at a meeting of the National Committee on Aedes Mosquito Control and Cleanliness Affairs held at the Nagar Bhaban on Sunday.
   The Dhaka Mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, also the chief guest at the meeting, said the massive campaign would be launched at the Aedes-prone areas in the city.
   More initiatives, if needed, will also be taken to control the Aedes mosquito in the city, he said.
   Ward commissioners, the women commissioners in particular, and the civil society members will take part in the campaign to aware the people, especially women, about dengue fever through distributing leaflets and other activities.
   Talk shows will also be arranged in electronic media as part of the campaign.
   The meeting also decided to award the cleaners and pest control workers based on their performance to encourage them in their works.
   ‘The situation is still under control, but we have to be vigilant in the next month as September is also the season for dengue,’ Khoka said.
   Chaired by Khondokar Mahbub Uddin Ahmad MP, the meeting was attended by the state minister for labour and employment, Amanullah Aman, writer Imdadul Haque Milon, Professor Nazrul Islam, and Rafiqul Islam Sarkar.

Assailants shot dead a hotel manager and injured two persons, including a manpower agent, at Mohakhali in the capital city on Sunday.
   Witnesses said a gang of five assailants in their teens entered the hotel, Suryamukhi, behind the Mohakhali kitchen market at about 8:15am, and asked the manager, Suman Ahmed, 25, for the whereabouts of the manpower agent, Nasiruddin, 30.
   Abul, a waiter of the hotel, said the assailants later entered the room of Nasir on the second floor of the hotel and searched his luggage. They took away two mobile phone sets from his possession, and shot at him as he tried to resist them.
   Hearing the sound of gunshots, Suman and another waiter Raju Ahmed went to the room when the assailants also shot at them to make their escape.
   The three injured were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where the doctors declared Suman dead.
   The other injured were undergoing treatment at the hospital, and their condition was stated to be critical.
   The police suspected the assailants might have targeted Nasir following a conflict over transaction.
   But locals hinted that the attack might have been launched centring ownership of the hotel.
   Amirul Islam Babu, owner of the hotel, leased it to one Kamal for 10 years, but he took the possession of the hotel after five years cancelling the lease.
   Few months after running the hotel, Babu again handed over it to Kamal following a negotiation the locals said adding that anti-social activities were common feature at the hotel.

Zakaria Ibne Hossain, a student of Bangladesh University of Science and Technology, and Sarkar Rahat Rousseau, a
   student of the Rifles Public School and College will represent Bangladesh at the World Cyber Games 2005 to be held in November in Singapore.
   The two contestants won the championships in the categories of FIFA 2005 and NFSU2 computer games respectively at the three-day competition of Cyber Games 2005 Bangladesh on its closing day Sunday at the Bashundhara City.
   The competition that had begun on Friday was the first ever selection round in Bangladesh for the World Cyber Games championship.
   The minister of science and information and communications technology, Abdul Moyeen Khan, handed over the prizes among the champions and runnersup.
   The minister wished that the winners in the Bangladesh championship would bring laurels for the country by winning at the world championship contest.
   Kafil HS Muyeed, director marketing of the GrameenPhone Limited also spoke.
   The World Cyber Games is the largest cyber games competition in the world, and Bangladesh is sending its representatives to take part in the contest for the first time.
   A huge number of young people had registered to compete in the three-day selection round but 512 of them had been allowed to compete.
   The selection round championship was sponsored by the ‘djuice’, a brand of the GrameenPhone Limited, and the F1 Management was the event’s strategic partner.

The two-lane three entry points to the capital will be made eight-lane to avoid traffic congestion at the points of the city. The three entry points are Gabtoli, Syaedabad and Tongi.
   The communicationsminister, Nazmul Huda, said this at an inter-ministerial meeting on the state of various development projects under the communications ministry on Sunday.
   The meeting presided over by Huda also decided not to allow any construction of any illegal structures at the sites of the Padma Bridge as the government will complete the land acquisition, resettlement and compensation by December this year.
   The Roads and Highways Department has already surveyed the sites and took video footage of the area where the land acquisition will be done.
   The primary work of the bridge will be done by the Bangladesh government at its own cost, and the government has already allocated Tk 1.16 crore for the job, the meeting told.
   The foundation stone of the bridge, which is going to be the country’s longest river bridge, will be laid in March next year at the Maowa-Jajira point.
   At the meeting, Huda asked the RHD to accelerate works of various projects on roads and bridges utilising the huge capacity and workforce of the department.
   ‘Despite RHD has the huge capacity and workforce, there is a lapse in their activities,’ the minister told the meeting.

The Chittagong Development Authority has taken up a project for a butterfly park and sea life aquarium, first of its kind in the country, beside the city’s newly built Patenga area.
   The project is aimed to create an open recreational space as well as to keep up natural environment in harmony with the sea, river, marine life, surrounding installations, landscape and topography.
   The development authorities have already invited tender on August 23 from reputed firms or individuals for setting up the park and aquarium to be developed with basic objective of conservation of nature and biodiversity, a CDA engineer, associated with the project, said.
   In line with the model of Malaysia and Singapore, it will cost about Tk 1 crore for the butterfly park and Tk 5 crore for the sea life aquarium, exclusive of developing other infrastructures, the sources said.
   The authorities will retain ownership of the land and extend other logistic supports but responsibility for maintenance, operation and promotion of the proposed park and aquarium will be entrusted with the developer.
   The park and aquarium will be leased out to the developers from which CDA will earn a smart amount of revenue each fiscal year.
   But the authorities are yet to fix up the location of the project.

Mahin Bakht himself is a soft-spoken man, but one who ever tasted his ‘morog makhani,’ cannot help praising him loudly for the unique chicken dish with butter that many had already tasted after visiting his restaurant, ‘The Mogul’ in Oxfordshire.
   The same is about ‘joy yorkshire’. Does it seem like chanting slogans in favour of county cricket team ‘Yorkshire’? You are a bit wrong — this is the fusion of an English beef preparation with continental spices that brought the creativity to the cuisine of Mortuza Ali Nazrul, an expatriate in Yorkshire for 31 years. He got a huge media focus, including repeated telecasts in the BBC.
   All these, including Zohur Ali’s special ‘nababi chicken’ or Oly Khan’s unrivalled ‘shrimp albela’ and many other mouth watering dishes, you can taste right now in the city.
   The ongoing British Bangladesh Fusion Food Festival at the Bithika restaurant in the Sheraton Hotel invites you to explore the imagination of the British Bangladeshi master chefs.
   Syed Belal Ahmed, the festival director and editor of ‘Curry Life’ magazine, the mouthpiece of the immense industry of continental cuisines in the UK, termed the festival ‘an initiative to bring their success story of changing British appetite back to home’.
   The industry now consists of 12 thousand outlets commonly known in the UK, as ‘Indian Restaurants’ despite most of those are Bangladeshi. He said the industry’s turnover is more than $ 3 billion per annum, creating a huge job opportunity for expatriate Bangladeshis. More than one lakh people have already been employed there and the figure is in a rapid increase as the industry is also growing up day by day.
   Fusion Food, the kitchen method that mingled western choice with oriental recipe, which is common now a day in music (who can forget ‘Jugalbondi’ of Ravi Shankar’s Sitar with Yahudi Menuhin’s Piano?), meanwhile has changed the taste of Britons. The Sheraton opened the scope for Dhakaites to experience the taste of fusion food for the second time three years after the first festival in 2002.
   ‘Every day new items and no repetition yet,’ Linus Rozario, the famous Sheraton kitchen boss, said adding that almost 12 hot food items and 15 sorts of salad are being served along with 15 flavoured deserts and 10-12 kinds of bread at a price of Tk 1,275 per person. The festival hours begin at 7:00pm and end at 10:00pm, and will continue till August 30.

An orientation seminar for Monbukagakusho Scholarship recipients was held at the BIAM auditorium Sunday.
   The seminar was jointly organised by the Japanese Universities Alumni Association in Bangladesh and the embassy of Japan.
   A total of 149 Bangladeshi students received the scholarship to undertake studies at different universities in Japan in 2005.
   JUAAB, as the authorised forum of the Bangladeshi Alumni of Japanese universities, hosted this programme to brief the newly selected Monbukagakusho scholars.
   JUAAB General secretary Professor Dr Mahfuzur Rahman Khan Chowdhury moderated the seminar while its president Professor Dr M Mozammel Hoq presided over the meeting.
   Takanobu Ameya, deputy head of the information and cultural affairs division of the embassy of Japan, Dr SI Khan, Professor Aminul Islam, Dr Manirul Alam, among others, took part in the discussion.

The Greater Khulna Development Action Coordination committee, in a press conference at the Khulna Press Club on Sunday, announced a month-long mass sign collection campaign from September 1, demanding development in the greater Khulna region.
   The committee senior vice-president, advocate Quazi Abdus Salam, read out the written speech, while secretary general Sheikh Ashrafuzzaman, advocate Fieoz Ahmed, Salahuddin Haydar Runu, Shaheen Zaman Pon, Nizamur Rahman Lalu and Ruma Khatun were present.
   The campaign will formally begin from Shaheed Hadis Park on Thursday 11:00am and will be held gradually in all upazilas of Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat and in all the wards of the Khulna City Corporation and the Mongla Municipality in Bagerhat.

Fake food factory unearthed in
Sylhet city
A mobile court led by magistrate Mujibur Rahman in Sylhet on Saturday unearthed a fake food factory, PT Food Products, at Lichu Bagan in the city. The court seized huge quantity of adulterated and stale jelly, juice, drinks and sauce worth Tk 8 lakh. The team only found the manager of the factory, Mostafizur Rahman, in the factory. The owner of the factory, Golam Sarwar Reza, fled the scene.
— UNB

Jute traders’
memo to PM
The Khulna zonal unit of the General Jute Traders’ Association submitted a memorandum to the prime minister through the Khulna deputy commissioner on Sunday, demanding payment of dues for the price of jute that they provided to the Daulatpur Jute Mills Limited. The government closed the mill on December 7, 2002, keeping a due of Tk 3,21,20,019 to 69 jute traders at the mill jetty in the Khulna city and the mill’s three agencies — Langalbond, Ruhia and Setabganj. The association president, Md Akkas Ali, and general secretary Shamim handed the memorandum over to the deputy commissioner.
— New Age

Workshop for telecom professionals begins
A three-day training Workshop on ‘Emerging Technologies’ began at the BRAC Centre Inn in the capital Saturday. The minister for post and telecommunications, Aminul Hoque, inaugurated the workshop as chief guest. The UNDP and BTRC organised the workshop as part of the project ‘strengthening the institutional capacity of BTRC. A total of 40 stakeholders and representatives from BTRC, UNDP, BTTB and Telecom operators are taking part. National project coordinator NH Chowdhury, UNDP resident representative Jorgen Lissner, consultant SM Gupta and BRTC vice-chairman AMM Reza-e-Rabbi were also present.
— New Age

Philosophy confce begins at JU
The Eighth International Conference of the Bangladesh Philosophical Congress began Sunday at Jahangirnagar University. The minister for posts and telecommunications, Aminul Huq, inaugurated the conference. Vice chancellor Khandaker Mustahidur Rahman, Bangladesh Philosophy Congress president AFM Obaidur Rahman and Rajat Bhattacharjee of Burdwan University also spoke on the occasion.
— New Age