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A fire burnt down some 150 shops of the Dhaka City Corporation Colony, to the north of the Bhaban Market at Gulshan Circle 2 in Dhaka, Saturday afternoon. Traders claimed property worth Tk 75 lakh was damaged.
   The traders alleged that an influential quarter had set fire to the shops to evict the traders. The High Court earlier stayed an eviction move at the place.
   The fire broke out in the southwestern corner of the market and destroyed the surrounding shops at about 3:45pm, when the Dhaka City Corporation began an eviction drive.
   At least 150 stationers’, restaurants, fruit shop, tea stalls and fast foods shops were burnt.
   Three fire engines Baridhara and Tejgaon put out the fire after more than an hour and a half.
   The fire service officials said they were trying to establish the cause of fire and extent of damage. No casualty was reported.
   Mohammad Kamal Hossain, president of the Ekata Bahumukhi Samabay Samiti president Mohammad Kamal Hossain alleged that someone had set fire to the market to grab the land.
   Babul Mia, owner of the Babul Hotel and Restaurant, alleged that someone had set fire to the shop as the city corporation magistrate refused to conduct the drive after seeing the stay order of the High Court.
   ‘We have been doing our business here for more than 15 years. We filed a case against the city corporation in 2002 when an influential quarter tried to evict us,’ said Panu Mia, another trader.
   Some shop owners and employees alleged that cash and valuables of the shops were looted during the incident.
   ‘My cash box and goods had been looted before I reached the place,’ said Manu Mia, owner of a stationer’s.
   ‘I was in the shop when the fire broke out. But I could not save a single piece of goods,’ said Nuru, an employee of another stationer’s. ‘As I took out a bundle of goods from the shop on the road, people looted them.’
   The fire service officials said the assets worth at least Tk 2 lakh were burnt; the traders claimed the figure to be Tk 75 lakh.

Almost a half of the schoolchildren, teachers and guardians in the capital city are unaware of human immunodeficiency virus, according to a survey of a non-governmental organisation.
   Non-governmental organisation Life conducted the survey in 15 schools, including some English-medium schools, and 4 cyber cafes over 10 months and found that 45 per cent of the students, 48 per cent of teachers and 54 per cent of guardians were unaware of HIV or AIDS.
   Out of 863 students, 66.6 per cent said good doctors can cure AIDS. About 77 per cent of the respondents said a young child cannot have AIDS. Of them, 52.5 per cent said AIDS virus can be transmitted through touch while 94.3 per cent said AIDS cannot spread from husband to wife.
   The survey found that the people who know abut HIV or AIDS do not share information with others around them.
   Life and the Children’s Voice on Saturday launched a month-long awareness campaign at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka. The organisations will also carry out the campaign in Gazipur, Narsingdi, Tangail, Manukganj and Chittagong simultaneously.
   Only awareness can save the overpopulated country from the virus, the speakers said at the launch of the campaign organised to mark World AIDS Day. One minute’s silence was observed for those who died of the disease.
   The United News of Bangladesh chairman, Amanullah Khan, inaugurated the programme.
   He said at least 6 crore people across the world were HIV-infected and 2 crore and a half died.
   Life chairman Kamrul Islam Sony emphasised unified efforts to create awareness of AIDS.
   The organisers targeted schoolchildren and others of their age. They said they would make aware at least 5,000 people of AIDS. They also lunched a signature campaign as part of the campaign. They took a vow to make at least 10 persons aware of the infection.
   The Children’s Voice president, Selim Sakur, and LIFE coordinator Amirul Islam also spoke.

The two-day sixth scientific conference of Nephrology, Urology and Transplantation Society of the South Asian countries will begin in Dhaka today.
   The minister for health and family welfare, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, will inaugurate the conference at the China-Bangladesh Friendship Centre in the morning.
   The state minister for health and family welfare, Mizanur Rahman Sinha, and the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University vice-chancellor, Professor MA Hadi, will attend the programme as special guests.
   A total of 26 urologists, nephrologists and transplant surgeons of the USA, the UK, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Pakistan and 126 surgeons and more than 500 physicians of Bangladesh are expected to join the two-day conference.
   Addressing a press conference at the National Press Club on Sunday, the member secretary of the organising committee of the conference, Professor AZM Zahid Hossain, said, ‘The aim of the conference is to make the young physicians of our country aware of the modern techniques to successfully deal with patients of urology, nephrology and kidney transplantation.’
   He said they would organise four symposiums, three scientific sessions and one workshop on laparoscopic urology, kidney, prostate and urinary bladder cancer, uro-oncology and kidney transplantation.

The Chittagong mayor, ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, on Sunday held the government responsible for instigating the militants and demanded a compensation of Tk 25 lakh for each person killed in the recent bomb blasts in Chittagong and Gazipur.
   ‘The government was patronising the militants to use them in the next general elections to capturing poll centres,’ he said, chairing a commemoration meeting of the bomb victims at Laldhighi Maidan in Chittagong. The Awami League-led opposition alliance organised the meeting.
   He said the brother of a former state minister had been found involved in training the militants at Hathazari.
   Former minister MA Mannan, Akhtaruzzaman Chowdhury Babu, MA Salam, M Moslem Uddin Ahmed, Abul Kashem Master and Nurul Islam also spoke.
   The speakers proposed a committee on behalf of the alliance in Chittagong to contain the Islamist militants.
   They said they would also name the patrons of the militants in a public gathering soon.

Speakers at a consultation meeting on Sunday urged the government to take initiative to stop endorsing the genetically modified food and seeds that pose threat to human health, environment and farmers.
   The Ubinig executive director, Farida Akhter, said 80 per cent of the country’s population depending on agriculture would face great problems if the genetically-modified food and seeds are endorsed.
   She, criticising the WTO cell of the commerce ministry, urged them a stand against GM technology which would open the door of destruction for biodiversity-based farming systems.
   She also said the government was arguing that the GM seeds would help to feed the country’s rapidly-growing population and tackle certain common ailments associated with malnutrition. But they are not concerned about health hazards, she said.
   The Voices for Interactive Choice and Empowerment organised the seminar on ‘peoples’ movement for life and livelihood’ at the National Press Club in the context of the 6th World Trade Organisation ministerial conference to be held during December 13-18.
   Human rights activist Farhad Mazhar said everyone should stand against the privatisation policy of water resources, health service and education sector.
   Corporate globalisation is the key bar to people’s right to basic services, said the Voices for Interactive Choice and Empowerment executive director, Ahmed Swapan Mahmud.

The award ceremony of BIZZLink 2005 was recently held at the Spectra Convention Centre at Gulshan in Dhaka.
   Mobile operator Banglalink and the American International University Bangladesh organised the event to explore new business ideas.
   The Banglalink chief commercial officer, Mehboob Chowdhury, Israrul Haque of Channel i and the university vice-chancellor, Carmen Z Lamagna, were present.
   The winners received crests and prize money of Tk 50,000 (1st prize), Tk 30,000 (2nd prize) and Tk 20, 000 (3rd prize).

Human and women’s rights activists Usha Chakroborty, also former president of the Barisal district Mahila Parishad, died in her Srinath Charterjee Lane residence in Barisal at 11:00pm on Saturday. She was 85.
   She was wife of Sudhir Kumar Chakroborty, a martyr of the war of independence, and mother of Tapan Kumar Chakroborty, Barisal correspondent of the daily New Nation.
   She is survived by two sons and a daughter.
   The Barisal mayor, Majibur Rahman Sarwar, and the leaders of social, political and cultural organisations condoled on the death.

Nawab Ali memorial stamp cancelled
A postal stamp and first day cover in honour of the late Nawab Ali were cancelled by his son, Comptroller and Auditor General Asif Ali, in Dhaka on Sunday. The posts and telecommunications secretary, Mahmud Hassan Mansur, was attended the programme, said an official release. An eminent physician of the undivided India, Nawab Ali (1902–1977) had a chequered career. He was founder of the diarrhoeal diseases hospital now under the ICDDR,B at Matlab, founder president of now-defunct Chandpur Sub-Division Association, surgeon general of the erstwhile East Pakistan, one of the founder principals of the Dhaka Medical College, first FRCP (United Kingdom) of the erstwhile East Pakistan and a member of erstwhile the East Pakistan legislative assembly. Nawab Ali is a pioneer in the advancement of medical profession in Bangladesh.
— BSS

Paper, mobile traders’ reunion
The Chittagong Paper and Cellphone Traders’ Group held a reunion in the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh auditorium Saturday night. The Chittagong University vice-chancellor, AZM Nuruddin, was present as chief guest; the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry president, Saifuzzan Chowdhury Zabed, attended the function as special guest. The organisation president, Yasin Chowdhury, chaired the function. Taewa Hong, JS Yoon, CY Cho, Akram Hossain, Edi Kim, Mahbubul Alam Tuku, Mohammed Belal and Serajul Islam also spoke. The speakers discussed the problems they had been facing in their business and urged the government to address them immediately. The programme was followed by a musical event.
— New Age

RU teachers condole on bomb victims
The Rajshahi University Teachers’ Association brought out a silent procession on the campus on Sunday for the people killed in the recent bombings. The procession paraded different campus streets. The association president, Nazrul Islam, led the rally. The members expressed their concern about the repeated bomb attacks on lawyers, judges and court premises. They also said prayers for the departed souls. The association general secretary, Abdul Hai Talukdar, university student adviser Zahid Hassan Milky, proctor Shamsul Alam Sarkar and Abdus Salam also spoke.
— New Age