Main Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed 4«
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

Postal mail traffic has marked a drastic decline in the past five years, as more people take to short messaging services over mobile phones and emails over internet, according to the budget section of the postal department.
   The number of personal and official letters, parcels, and money transfers and orders came down to approximately 2,60,000 in 2005 from around 7,00,000 in 2000.
   ‘As a service provider, the postal department is trying to regain its popularity through the introduction of automatic letter sorting machine, e-post, e-money order and other modern facilities,’ said the director general of the postal department, SM Abdus Salam, when talking to New Age on February 16.
   He acknowledges that SMS and email are faster alternatives to postal mail but says they can never be its substitute.
   ‘One sends just the gist of a message in an SMS but can write hundreds of words to express what they want to say at the cost of Tk 2,’ he said. ‘Ultimately, it depends on the need of the consumer or user.’
   Courier services, local and international, have also been a major headache for the postal department, said a high official of the budget section, which keeps track of the department’s mail traffic.
   The decline in postal mail traffic has been sharp as well as steady. The number of postal mails was 3,10,000 in 2004, 2,80,000 in 2003 and 5,00,000 in 2002.
   PC Saha, an additional director general of the postal department, told New Age that the department was planning to install modern technologies in all sectors to improve its services. ‘We also have plans to revise the charges.’
   He said the department was also looking into expediting the service, an area where the private courier services have a significant edge.
   Now, a normal post needs one day to reach its destination within Dhaka, two days to five other divisional headquarters, three days to district headquarters and four days to rural areas.

The lawmen and hired goons who on Thursday helped a cousin of the state minister for home affairs to take possession of 10 acres of land in a village have been intimidating the people still staying on the land.
   The women and children in the absence of male residents of Chhalia, Mitan Krishnapur at Savar had a sleepless night Thursday amid police patrol.
   The male residents of the families living on the occupied land left earlier ater repeated police raids before Thursday’s operation.
   Many alleged that the lawmen and the armed people went to their houses at dead of night, knocked on door and warned them of not proceeding further. The lawmen forcibly entered the houses.
   ‘They told as to keep silent,’ said Anwara Begum. She said all the residents of the place were living in a state of insecurity. ‘There is nobody to look after us. We do not feel secure at the place with our daughter amid patrol by the police and armed men.’
   Another woman, Khadija said their forefathers had stayed on this land. ‘We cannot leave this place and the house as we have spent our hard-earned money on this,’ she said. ‘Where will we go if we are driven out of the place?’
   The women and children burst into tears describing their helplessness. They said they had been starving as the lawmen and the armed people had barred them from cocking since the occupation.
   ‘They did not even allow anyone wanting to bring us food,’ said 55-year-old Jamila.
   A police camp has been set up in the village where lawmen and the armed people are keeping watch against any demonstration or retaking the possession of the land.
   Subinspector Nurunnabi at the camp said he and other policemen were there at the order of higher authorities.
   A group of people in a microbus patrolled the village. It was not clear whether they were lawmen under cover or hired goons.
   Former union parishad chairman Sukur Ali said no one could take lease of a disputed peace of land. ‘If the land is leased out, people staying there for centuries should get the priority.’
   The Savar police officer-in-charge, Golam Haider, said the police force had been posted to the village to protect government property, and not to carry out any arrest operation.
   More than 1,000 women and children of about 500 families had been staying in their houses encircled by a barbed-wire fence put during Thursday’s drive to take the land in possession of the lease-holder, Mirza Hafizur Rahman. The police and the armed people were also keeping watch on them.
   Earlier in October 2005, the police and the men of the lease-holder tried to take the possession of the piece of land, but failed in the face of resistance by the local residents.
   There was, however, no resistance or protest on Thursday as most male residents left homes because of frequent police raids.
   An uneasy calm has been prevailing in the area. Local residents are afraid untoward incident might take place any time.
   Several signs of the Bangladesh Thai Multiple Agro-Fisheries Private Limited, owned by Hafizur Rahman, were also placed after the occupation.
   A Press Information Department handout, meanwhile, brushed aside the media reports that involved state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, in the incident.
   Subregistrar of Savar in a release said there was no incident of land occupation as they had handed over the land to the actual owner.

Calling dialogue the best solution to a confrontational political scenario like in Bangladesh, the Commonwealth secretary general, Donald C McKinnon, on Friday said political parties should settle their differences as people do not like interference from outside in internal affairs.
   ‘Dialogue is the best solution. It is interesting to know that the opposition party has now joined parliament and they can have dialogue there,’ he said when asked if the political parties are now at a stage to settle their differences without any mediation or interference from outside.
   He was talking to journalists at the Zia International Airport before he left for Islamabad wrapping up his two-day visit to Dhaka.
   His comment came a day after the European Union said if requested and needed, it was ready to mediate between the government and the opposition parties to sit for a constructive dialogue and defuse the tension for creating an election-friendly climate in Bangladesh.
   During the visit that McKinnon described as a routine one to maintain close contact with the 53-nation Commonwealth member states, he called on the prime minister, the opposition leader in parliament, finance and planning minister and the foreign minister.
   Replying to a question on whether the Commonwealth would mediate any dialogue between the two major political parties, McKinnon said they always kept talking to political parties and did not want to ‘push’ anything in their way.
   ‘We engage, when we are invited,’ he replied.
   Asked about the opposition reform proposal for the caretaker government system, the Commonwealth secretary general said: ‘Every system can be improved. The system must have flexibility with consent of the people.’
   McKinnon highly appreciated the caretaker system terming it ‘productive and fascinating’.
   ‘The election is coming at the end of the year,’ he said when asked whether he was told about an early election.
   Replying to a question regarding confrontational nature of politics, McKinnon said politics could be very confrontational and it might intensify ahead of an election.
   But the main question is whether the political leadership can settle it down, he said.
   ‘It’s a tough job to settle a confrontation. After the election, I hope the next government would be able to pacify the confrontation, he said adding that Bangladesh had enormous challenges and if it could overcome the challenges, it would get more support from the international community.
   Referring to his meetings with the prime minister and the opposition leader, McKinnon said both of them welcomed election observers from the Commonwealth while the opposition leader favoured a ‘long-term exercise’.
   ‘But, we would take decision later depending on how much money we have and how much people would be coming,’ he said.
   He said the international community had a big challenge here to face ahead of the election.
   The additional foreign secretary, M Moniruzzaman, was present at the airport to see him off.

The century-old building of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police will be dismantled to make place for a multi-storey building to be used as the city police headquarters.
   ‘The construction will begin soon as the building contractor has received the work order,’ said an official of the public works maintenance division.
   He said the century-old two-storey building would be dismantled after the completion of the new building.
   The existing building at 27 Park Avenue and others of the kind were constructed after the partition of Bengal, effected in July 1905.
   A book, Kingbadantir Dhaka by Nazir Hossain, says the British government of the day constructed the buildings for the accommodation of Dhaka University teachers.
   After the emergence of Pakistan in 1947, the government allocated the buildings to ministers.
   As Bangladesh became an independent state in 1971, the commander-in-chief of the war of independence, General Ataul Gani Osmani, lived in the house, which is now used as the DMP headquarters. The cabinet member of the Bangabandhu government, Abdur Rab Serniabat, later lived in the building.
   Serniabat, along with his family, was killed along with the family members of Bangabandhu in 1975 and the house remained vacant for few months.
   The building housed the headquarters of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police after its formation in 1976.
   Noted town planner, Dhaka University professor Nazrul Islam said the government should conserve the Ramna green and the century-old buildings. ‘The buildings can be used after renovation. But they should not be dismantled.’
   ‘Multi-storey buildings at the place of such old buildings will disfigure the scenic beauty of Ramna,’ said Nazrul, referring to the construction of the officers’ club.
   ‘A movement has been on to protect the century-old buildings not only around the Ramna green but also elsewhere in Dhaka,’ he said.
   Acknowledge the construction of the new building, the DMP commissioner, SM Mizanur Rahman, said it was would be built to accommodate more officials and staff at the same compound.
   ‘The official work has been hampered and it has been taking too much time for lack of accommodation for the police officials and staff in the existing building,’ he said.

A 15-member Sri Lankan cricket team arrived in Dhaka on Friday to play their maiden ODI and Test series against Bangladesh. Back in June 2000, the Islanders visited Bangladesh to play the Asia Cup Cricket.
   Sri Lanka, however, had played a Test match earlier on Bangladesh soil, at the Bangabandhu National Stadium against Pakistan, in the inaugural Asian Test Championship final in 1998.
   The visitors left for Bogra immediately after their arrival.
   Our Bogra Correspondent Nasim Nazrul adds:
   The Sri Lankan team were accorded a warm reception on their arrival in Bogra in the evening. Dancing girls showered flower petals on the Lankan players and a physical display by schoolchildren was also arranged. A high security cordon was thrown around the visiting side.
   The series will begin with the first ODI on February 20 in Bogra, followed by the second one-dayer on February 22 at same venue, which will also host the second and final Test from March 8.
   The Sri Lanka team will play the third and final ODI on February 25 at Bir Shrestha Shaheed Ruhul Amin Stadium in Chittagong before facing Bangladesh in the first Test from Feb 28-March 4 at the same venue.

About 200 people were believed killed and 1,500 others were missing in the central Philippines on Friday when a landslide buried an entire village, the Red Cross said.
   Eyewitnesses said only a few houses were left standing after the landslide hit the village of Guinsaugon in the south of the Philippine island of Leyte.
   ‘There are about 1,500 missing, 200 dead,’ Richard Gordon, the head of the Philippine Red Cross, said in a radio interview.
   Leyte congressman Roger Mercado said in a radio interview that the village had a population of 3,000 to 4,000 and expressed fears that as many as 2,000 people had been buried.
   A government geological expert confirmed that a mild earthquake had hit just moments before the landslide but said it had not appeared strong enough to trigger the slide.
   Leyte governor Rosete Larias, speaking on television and radio, described the village as totally flattened.
   She said many people, who had been evacuated from the village after more than 20 people had been killed by landslide on Leyte earlier in the week, had only returned to Guinsaugon on Friday because the sun had come out.
   The mud that engulfed the village was still too soft to allow heavy equipment in to rescue any survivors, Larias said.
   In a televised address to the nation, president Gloria Arroyo said rescue teams were rushing to the area from ‘air, land and sea’ to cope with the catastrophe.
   ‘I have ordered the Coast Guard and our entire naval force in the Visayas (central Philippines) region to the area,’ she said.
   ‘Naval ships will be used as floating hospitals and command centres for relief and rescue.’
   Civil defence officials said only four bodies had been recovered so far, but the full extent of the incident was not immediately clear as it was difficult to reach the village.
   Gordon said the Red Cross said was trying to dispatch sniffer dogs to hunt for survivors.
   Government radio said 45 people had been rescued so far.
   Eyewitnesses from the scene said only a few houses were still standing among the 375 homes that were once there after the landslide from the neighbouring mountain.
   The head of the government vulcanology office, Rene Solidum, confirmed a mild 2.6-magnitude tremor had hit the southern part of Leyte moments before the landslide.
   But it was not believed the mild quake itself had been enough to trigger a landslide, he said, adding that heavy rainfall was the likely cause.
   ‘The area could have really been ready for a landslide because of the amount of rainfall and if there was a minor earthquake, it might have hastened it,’ Solidum said.
   Helicopters had tried to reach the area but heavy clouds had hampered their movement.
   Television reports said roads had also been washed out, hampering travel to the village.
   Relief groups called for drinking water, food, blankets and body bags to be brought to the scene.
   Provincial board member Eva Dumol said in a radio interview that heavy equipment that was already in the area to clear up earlier landslides was being sent to the Guinasaugon area.
   More than 5,000 people were killed in a combined flood and mudslide on Leyte in November 1991.

A Pakistani cleric Friday offered a one-million-dollar reward and a new car for the death of any of the cartoonists behind drawings of the Prophet Mohammed.
   Maulana Yousaf Qureshi, prayer leader at the historic Mohabat Khan mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar, made the announcement during a fifth day of protests in Pakistan against the caricatures.
   ‘Anyone who manages to kill the man who made blasphemous cartoons of Prophet Mohammed will get the cash reward,’ he told AFP.
   The cleric said Peshawar’s Association of Goldsmiths would donate one million US dollars, while the mosque itself would give 1.5 million rupees (25,000 dollars).
   A local jeweller had also offered a brand new car to the killer, he told around 1,000 protesters in the city.
   The 12 cartoons, first published in a Danish newspaper in September and then in many European dailies, were in fact drawn by a number of artists.
   Qureshi added that Muslim scholars were unanimous that any blasphemer against the prophet ‘is liable to be killed’.
   The senior minister of Islamist-ruled North West Frontier Province, Sirajul Haq, said the Danish government should hand over the cartoonists in the same way that Pakistan has transferred some terror suspects to the United States.
   ‘Our protests will continue until the people involved in blasphemous cartoons of Prophet Muhammad are handed over to a Muslim country,’ he told the rally.
   Meanwhile, former US president Bill Clinton said Friday that printing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed was a mistake but that violent protests by Muslims have wasted a chance to build bridges with the West.
   Clinton was speaking in Pakistan—the scene of some of the worst rallies against the drawings—where he was visiting survivors of last year’s South Asian earthquake and launching an HIV/AIDS project.
   ‘I strongly disagree with the creation and publication of cartoons that are considered blasphemous by the Muslims around the world. I thought it was a mistake,’ he told reporters.
   ‘I had no objections to Muslims who were demonstrating in a peaceful way their convictions.
   ‘I thought it (the cartoons issue) was also a great opportunity which I fear has been squandered to build bridges,’ he said, referring to violence across the Muslim world which has claimed 18 lives, including five in Pakistan.
   Clinton, who arrived in Pakistan early Friday for a day-long trip, held talks with the Pakistan president, Pervez Musharraf, and prime minister, Shaukat Aziz.
   Pakistan’s ambassador to Denmark has been called back to Islamabad ‘for consultations’, the foreign office said Friday.
   The move comes shortly after officials said that Denmark had temporarily closed its embassy in Islamabad.
   ‘Pakistan’s ambassador in Copenhagen, Javed A Qureshi, has been called to Islamabad for consultations,’ said a foreign ministry statement received by AFP.
   Demark said on Friday its embassy staff would remain in Pakistan after the temporary closure of its mission in Islamabad amid violent protests.
   ‘We decided on Friday to shut our embassy for security reasons, because we believe it is not responsible to keep it open at the moment,’ Lars Thuesen, head of the Danish foreign ministry’s crisis centre, told AFP.
   ‘The ambassador and his staff will remain in the country, but not in the embassy. Diplomatic relations have not been severed,’ he said.
   A recorded message told callers to the embassy’s telephone number Friday that ‘the embassy is temporarily closed until further notice’.

Tens of thousands of people staged demonstrations in the capital city and elsewhere in the country on Friday against the publication of a series of cartoons on the prophet Muhammad (SM) in some European newspapers.
   The demonstrators shouted anti-West slogans and burnt flags of Denmark, where the cartoons were first published, Germany, France, New Zealand and Italy, and effigies of the US president George W Bush and the British prime minister Tony Blair.
   In Rajbari, some 110 kilometres west of Dhaka, agitators stormed a Baptist church during a procession.
   Several thousand people joined a protest rally at the north gate of the Baitul Mukarram, organised by Sammilita Islami Dal, a combine of Islamist parties in Bangladesh, under the watchful eyes of several hundred police personnel.
   Leaders and activists of Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam Bangladesh, Bangladesh Jamiatul Mudarresin, Islami Oikya Andolan, Bangladesh Nezam-e-Islam Party, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish, Bangladesh Khelafat Andolan, Islami Shashontantra Andolan, Bangladesh Qoumi Madrassah Shikkha Board, Islamic Party, Anjumane Al Islah Bangladesh, Bangladesh Muslim League and Faraizi Jamaat took part in the rally.
   The riot police put up barbwire barricades on different roads, including the ones leading to the Paltan and Dainik Bangla crossings, between noon and 4:00pm to restrict people coming out of different mosques after the Friday prayers from joining the protest.
   The barricades caused severe disruptions to traffic movement, leaving hundreds of vehicles stranded for hours on end.
   Meanwhile, the demonstrators marched from Baitul Mukarram with banners and placards, shouting slogans against European, especially Danish, leaders, as members of the riot police and other law-enforcement agencies kept a strong watch. Hundreds of pedestrians, hawkers and day labourers joined in, as the protests swelled.
   Leaders of the Islamist organisations also announced that they would organise a march towards the Danish embassy in the capital city on Friday if the government failed to move a condemnation bill against the publication of the cartoons meanwhile.
   Hemayetuddin of the Islamic Constitution Movement presided over the rally, which was addressed by Azizul Huq Murad, Abdur Raqib, Mohammad Abul Bashar, Habibur Rahman, Mohiuddin Khan and Shah Ahmad Shafi among others. A procession followed the rally.
   In Rajbari a similar procession led to some processionists storming a Baptist church at College Para. The Imam Committee organised the procession and also staged a rally at the district government high school.
   The overzealous protesters broke open the door of the church and damaged a wall clock and a metal cross.
   The procession marched to the office of the deputy commissioner and submitted six-point memorandum to the Danish ambassador to Bangladesh through the district administrator.
   Delwar Hossain, an additional superintendent of the Rajbari police, confirmed the attack on the church. ‘The police have been deployed in the area and we are investigating the incident.’
   In Manikganj the Sammilta Olemaye Mashayek Front of Shibalaya upazila brought out a procession after Friday prayers in protest against the cartoons, reports the New Age correspondent.
   In Chittagong, several processions were brought out in protest, reports the New Age bureau. The processions were brought out from Jamiatul Falah Mosque, Andarkillah Mosque, Laldhighi Mosque, Halishahar Mosque, Alkaran Mosque, Sholoshahar Mosque, Chowmohoni Mosque, Garibullah Shah Mosque, Shah Amanat Mosque, Baizid Bostami Mosque and Chittagong College Mosque.
   Hundreds of people joined the processions, which paraded major city roads, including Station Road, Sirazuddoula Road, Sheikh Mojib Road, Port Connecting Road and CDA Avenue.
   The demonstrators shouted slogans against the western media, terming it an enemy of Islam and urged the Muslim fraternity to unite against conspiracy against Islam.

Village elders declared a fatwa (edict) awarding a divorced woman 101 canes as punishment after she was found ‘guilty’ of adultery and illegal abortion at a village under Tanore thana in Rajshahi on Tuesday . The same ‘court of sharia’ also realised Tk 10,000 as fine from one Nur Bux, paramour of the young divorcee responsible for her pregnancy. The village arbitrators took away the money for distribution among themselves. The village heads, however, could not execute the penalty of 101 flogs immediately as the woman was ill.
   The ‘court’ declared before a crowd of villagers that it would execute the decision
   within 40 days of the ‘verdict’. The terrified woman is passing her days in insecurity following the religious decree.
   Locals said, a divorced woman of village Masinda under Tanore
   municipality, had an extra-marital affair and became pregnant a few month back. The news of the ‘adultery’ sparked off a furore in the village community. On February 11, Nur Bux, paramour of the woman, took her to a quack doctor for abortion where she became sick and returned to her house. The villagers came to know later that she had given birth to a still-born baby at her own residence. The village elders
   decided to punish her and staged a village arbitration on the night ofFebruary 14 comprising ward commissioner Anwarul
   Haque, the imam of local mosque, Sujauddin, village heads Nurul Islam, Moyez Uddin, Munjur Rahman,Moslem Uddin.
   The accused woman was
   present at the ‘trial’, but Nur Bux was absconding. The ‘court’ declared that according to Sharia (Islamic law), the woman was guilty of adultery and would receive 101 ‘dorra’ (canes) as punishment. The village elders also tried fined Nur Bux in absentia and fined him Tk 10, 000and the money was collected through his relatives, locals said.
   Of the money realised as fine, Tk 1,500 was offered to the woman and Tk 1,000 donated to local Masinda Darul Ulum Qawmi Madrassah.

A delegation of the National Board of Revenue goes to Chittagong on Monday to conduct a two-day audit to mark out dubious tax files after doing the same work in its Dhaka zone.
   NBR member (Income Tax Policy) AS Jahir Muhammad will lead the three-member delegation. ‘We’ll conduct the two-day audit from February 22,’ Jahir told the news agency on Friday over telephone.
   Sixteen committees have been formed to audit suspected files across the country and each committee comprises three tax officials, including a tax commissioner, he said.
   After completing their drive in Chittagong, Zahir will visit all the 16 commissionerates.
   Earlier, the NBR gave directives to all its circle offices under its 16 tax zones to mark out dubious tax files under a self-assessment scheme for comprehensive audits.
   The NBR has started its work to dig out the tax evasion cases by those who are supposed to pay taxes through self-assessment system and the drive will continue till the first week of the next month. ‘The results of these audits would be available in May,’ Jahir said.

The UN chief, Kofi Annan, said Thursday that ‘sooner or later’ the US Guantanamo Bay ‘war on terror’ detention centre will have to be closed though he did not agree with all parts of a new report on the camp.
   ‘I think sooner or later there will be a need to close Guantanamo,’ Annan told reporters at the UN headquarters. ‘It will be up to the (US) government to decide hopefully to do it as soon as possible.’
   His comments came after a report by UN Human Rights Commission monitors said the detention camp in Cuba should be closed and that prisoners there had been abused.
   ‘There’s a lot in the report and I cannot say I necessarily agree with everything (in it),’ The UN secretary general said.
   ‘But the basic point that one cannot detain individuals in perpetuity and that charges have to be brought against them and (they must) be given a chance to explain themselves and (be) prosecuted, charged or released.
   ‘I think is something that is common under any legal system,’ he said.
   The United States has angrily rejected the recommendations by the five independent experts acting as monitors for the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Commission.
   Their report called for the immediate closure of Guantanamo and for the 500 inmates to be tried or freed.
   White House spokesman Scott McClellan said ‘These are dangerous terrorists that we’re talking about that are there...The military treats the detainees humanely.’
   ‘The United Nations should be making serious investigations across the world, and there are many instances in which they do when it comes to human rights. This was not one of them,’ he added.
   The report comes at an embarrassing time for the United States just as delicate negotiations were continuing here on setting up a new UN Human Rights Council to replace the current discredited Human Rights Commission.
   The report said Washington’s justification for holding the inmates was a distortion of international human rights treaties.
   US officials said the report’s authors had never visited the prison, which mainly houses detainees captured in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
   The experts based their report on US government answers to a questionnaire, plus interviews with former inmates in Britain, France and Spain, and lawyers for some current detainees.

Four DC-10 aircraft of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines plying on international routes have remained grounded triggering the worst flight schedule crisis in the history of the national flag carrier.
   Biman sources said a messy situation had been created in maintaining the Biman’s flight schedules on international, regional and domestic routes.
   A large number of passengers have got stranded due to the schedule crisis of Biman, they said.
   Meanwhile, the schedule of 17 flights on international routes of Bangladesh Biman has been rearranged.
   A DC-10 plane on Dhaka-New York route was grounded on Thursday night in Brussels due to technical faults. Two other DC-10 aircraft of the Biman have remained grounded for the same reason at a hanger of the Zia International Airport for last few days.
   Another DC-10 plane of the Biman had been kept at a hanger for C-check.
   Confirming the grounding of the aircraft, Mahmudur Rahman, managing director of the Biman, told the news agency that they had to rearrange Biman’s flight schedules on all the routes for the next three days due to the prevailing situation.
   The passengers are facing more troubles than any other time, he admitted.
   He said they tried to ferry the passengers of Middle East to their desired destinations on an emergency basis with the help of other airlines. But it was not possible as the airlines were unable to provide seats for the passengers of the Biman.
   As a result, most of the flights were delayed.
   The managing director also said the national flag carrier might face such crisis again, if more aircrafts were not purchased.
   He said the Biman was going to hire two airbuses very soon to handle such crisis.
   As per the changed flight schedules, the departure time of Thursday’s BG 037 flight on Jeddah-Rome-Frankfurt route has been set at 4:00pm
   Saturday while departure time of Friday’s BG 037 flight on Chittagong-Jeddah route at 12:01am Monday, Friday’s Kuwait-bound BG 043 flight at 3:00pm Saturday, Friday’s Hong Kong-bound BG 078 flight at 3:00pm Sunday, Friday’s
   BG 011 flight on Dubai-Brussels-New York route at 11:59pm Sunday, Sunday’s BG 055
   flight on Dubai-Paris-Rome route on the same day at 10:00pm.
   Besides, Thursday’s Riyadh-bound BG 039 flight has been shifted at 11:45am Saturday, Friday’s BG 049 flight on Dammam-Riyadh route at 5:30pm Sunday, Saturday’s Riyadh-bound BG 039 flight at 12:45am
   Tuesday, Wednesday’s BG 021 flight on Chittagong-Mascot route at 4:00pm Saturday, Sunday’s BG 021 flight on Chittagong-Mascot route at 7:00am Monday, Friday’s
   BG 084 flight on Bangkok-Singapore route at 8:00am Sunday, Saturday’s Kuala Lumpur-bound BG 082
   flight at 8:30pm Sunday, Thursday’s Abu Dhabi-bound BG 027 flight at 2:30am
   Sunday, Saturday’s BG 029 flight on Mumbai-Dubai route at 7:30pm Sunday and Saturday’s BG 019 flight on Kuwait-Abu Dhabi route at 10:45pm Monday.
   It was learnt that Biman has now two DC-10s, four airbuses and four F-28s. Biman operates flights on seven domestic and 26 international routes in three continents.

The eastern zone of Bangladesh Railway on Friday resumed services of 16 trains on eight routes, which were suspended on Thursday after the railway had failed to procure required quantity of fuel due to fund shortage and price hike of fuel.
   According to sources the railway resumed services on the routes Friday morning after it was assured by the ministry of communications of supply of the required money for purchase of fuel.
   Sources said the eastern zone of BR had suspended services of trains -- numbers 183 and 184 on Laksham-Noakhali route, numbers 171 and 172 on Chandpur-Laksham route, numbers 251 and 252 on Mymensingh- Bahadurabad route, numbers 103 and 104 on Chittagong- Akhaura route, numbers 243 and 244 on Sylhet-Chhatak route, numbers 43 and 44 on Mymensingh-Mohonganj route, numbers 39 and 40 on Bhairab-Mymensingh route and numbers 275 and 276 on Mymensingh-Tangail route on Thursday as it ran short of fuel supplies.
   Sources in BR eastern zone said they needed two crore and 40 lakh litres of diesel per year to run 153 trains on different routes and the railway got an allocation of Tk 50 crore from the ministry of communications in the current fiscal year to purchase fuel.
   It added that the railway had sought an additional allocation of Tk 20 crore from the ministry in November after a surge in fuel prices. But the fund is yet to be approved while the BR has a reserve of fuel for 13 days only.
   Chief mechanical engineer of BR eastern zone, Tawhidul Anwar, said due to fuel crisis they were forced to suspend services of 16 trains on some less important routes with a view to keeping the more important routesfunctional.
   'We’ve resumed services on those routes after being assured by the ministry of communications that the required money will be available shortly,' he said.

A suspected underground party leader was killed in a gunfight between the Rapid Action Battalion and his accomplices at a Naragati village in Narail early Friday, raising the ‘crossfire’ death toll since June 2004 to 488.
   The victim, Akhtar Hossain, 34, of village Juarbadhal in Rupsha upazila of Khulna, was a regional leader of Purba Banglar Communist Party (Janajuddha) and an accused in four cases, including one for murder.
   According to a RAB press release, arrested from Chapain in Savar of Dhaka on Thursday, Akhtar was taken to Baoisona to recover arms where his accomplices opened fire at the RAB members, prompting them to retaliate.
   Akhtar received bullets as he tried to escape during the gunfight. He was taken to a nearby hospital where the doctors declared him dead.
   RAB recovered a country-made gun and three bullets from the spot.

Testing of fertiliser quality in six Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation laboratories has been remaining suspended for the past seven months for fund crisis.
   The corporation established six modern laboratories in Dhaka, Chittagong, Jessore, Rangpur, Barisal and Sylhet under a project — Establishment of fertiliser laboratories and training centre for enforcement of quality control, sources in the corporation and the agriculture ministry said.
   But the government stopped did not release any fund since the expiry of the five-year project in June 2005, a project official said adding ‘The labs have been remaining virtually inoperative since July 2005 for want of chemicals required to conduct tests.’
   The officials and employees of the project have also been remaining unpaid for the past seven months, he added saying that non-payment of the project staff has also made them frustrated.
   The agriculture ministry at a May 30, 2005 meeting with the agriculture secretary, Quazi Abul Kashem, in the chair decided to continue the project activities by taking it to the revenue budget.
   Accordingly, the corporation submitted the detailed programmes to the ministry.
   But the ministry has been trying to hand over the labs to the Soil Resource Development Institute instead of taking action to take it under the revenue budget, creating complexities over the fate of the staff and the labs.
   The agriculture secretary chairing a December 14, 2005 meeting formed a 6-member committee and asked it to submit a review report by January 19 on how the project to be shifted to the institute by July.
   Once the labs are shifted to SRDI, the equipment procured under the project at a cost of several crores of taka will also have to be shifted, the project sources said adding that it would make inoperative many of the equipment.
   ‘If shifted, four atomic absorption spectrometers, set up at a cost of over Tk 2 crore, will be dysfunctional and the government has to procure those again,’ a BADC official said adding ‘The SRDI even has no expertise and infrastructure to run the project.’
   SRDI director Monirul Haq told New Age that the decision to hand over the labs to SRDI was solely taken by the agriculture minister, MK Anwar, and for taking the labs to its control, the SRDI would require additional manpower, space and infrastructure.
   ‘It would be very difficult for us to work with the existing manpower to run the labs. Besides, it will hamper our soil related activities.’ he said.

Car mechanics in Britain can be more expensive to hire than lawyers or doctors, a magazine reported Friday.
   Customers frequently pay more than 100 pounds (146 euros, 174 dollars) per hour for labour by mechanics at franchised dealers, according to ‘What Car?’ magazine.
   Variable across Britain, hourly labour rates are predictably cheaper in Scotland, where Vauxhall charge 49 pounds, and more expensive in London, where BMW charge 140 pounds, according to research carried out by the magazine.
   The report said a ‘locum’ doctor—one who stands in for a regular doctor and charges between 350 and 500 pounds per day—is cheaper, while even a junior criminal lawyer will charge a comparatively low rate of 30 pounds an hour.
   The publication said ‘consumers could save hundreds of pounds if they shop around and do their research. Quite simply, dealership labour rates for repair bills are just too high.’
   What Car? researchers discovered that technological advances have made previously simple jobs more time-consuming, and it is car owners who
   are bearing the financial burden.
   For example, to replace a main-beam bulb on an Audi A2 can cost as much as 66 pounds, though the bulb itself costs only 3.96 pounds.
   The magazine said consumers should be aware that they can use non-franchised dealers and still keep their warranty.
   In order to protect their warranty, customers should make sure the car company used is VAT-registered, uses manufacturer’s parts and follows their guidelines for the work.

A number of teachers appointed on a contractual basis to different non-government institutions have not received their salaries for months due to ‘callousness’ of a section of officials at the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education in Dhaka.
   The teachers have been working at different non-government secondary schools, colleges and madrassahs without salary from the government fund as per their contract since they were appointed in December 2003.
   The education ministry in September 2003 decided that it would extend the service age limit of teachers of four subjects from 60 to 65 years to ease an acute shortage of teachers in those subjects.
   The subsequent ministry circular stipulated that the service age limit for teachers of English, mathematics, physics and chemistry at secondary schools, colleges and madrassahs would be extended. These teachers would be paid from the government’s fund, the circular added.
   According to the circular, teacher of those subjects, upon reaching 60 years, would have their service extended by five years on contract. There cannot be more than three extensions — twice for two years and once for a year.
   Sources in the directorate said about 8,000 teachers, over 60 years, have already got contractual appointment and are continuing their services. They said most of these teachers are however still unpaid.
   Speaking to New Age on Wednesday, M Bazle Kadir, a mathematics teacher of Uzanchar KN High School in Brahmanbaria said he had received a contractual appointment for a two-year term in February 3, 2004 but not been paid from the government yet.
   ‘I have submitted the required documents three times in the last two years but the desk officer has asked me to submit the papers once again,’ said Kadir.
   Santosh Mukharjee, a chemistry teacher of BM School in Barisal said, ‘We had to suffer a lot to get extension and now we are facing difficulties for our salaries.’
   The director general of the directorate, Dilara Hafiz, told New Age that necessary actions would be taken soon so that the teachers got their due salaries.
   Dilara admitted that these teachers were frustrated, as they had not been paid for months.
   There are about five lakh teachers and employees working in about 30,000 non-government schools, colleges and madrassahs across the country. The government pays 90 per cent of their salaries.

A newborn baby boy and his 10-year old brother were stolen by an organised syndicate from Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Friday.
   Meanwhile, the 10-year old boy, Jony, had managed to flee from the spot, and returned to the hospital at about 7:15pm.
   Mahfuza Begum, wife of day-labourer Akhter Hossain, of Chandgaon in Narsingdi, was taken to the hospital early Monday with acute labour pain where she gave birth to a baby boy after surgery, and was shifted to ward 15.
   Later her husband returned to home to bring money for the payment of bill leaving their elder son in the hospital to look after the baby and mother.
   Then an unidentified woman wearing ‘borkha’ (veil) introduced herself with Mahfuza and nursed her a lot.
   She with the help of an organised syndicate fed Mahfuza a betel-leaf mixing with sedative in the morning.
   At one stage, the woman asked Jony to take the baby out of the room as he was disturbing his mother.
   As soon as Jony came out of the room with the newborn brother, the woman managed to take away them from the hospital.
   The 25-year old mother after regaining her sense saw that the newborn baby was missing from her lap, and searching throughout the hospital for the two sons, but found nowhere.
   Jony who returned to his mother with the help of some locals at Chashara in Narayanganj told newsmen that the unidentified woman forcibly took him with his newborn brother in a microbus parked in front of the emergency department while he was walking on the balcony.
   He said two young men and a driver were sitting in the microbus and they left the car after they reached Chashara.
   ‘We reached in front of a shanty in the area from where a woman came out and took my brother,’ Jony said adding that as the unidentified woman and the young men locked in an altercation over money, he took the chance and ran away from the house.
   ‘After crossing a river, I have found some kind-hearted men who have helped me to return to the hospital.’
   Meanwhile, a case was filed with the Ramna police station and a team led by sub-inspector Shah Alam launched a drive to rescue the newborn baby.
   An attendant at the hospital told New Age that a section of Class IV employees were involved in the incident, but none dared to take any action against them.
   The incident created panic at the labour ward in the hospital.

Hawa, a single mother of a 2-year-old boy fathered by a Filipino, runs a bar overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Buchanan city of Liberia. She is attracted to Bangladeshi soldiers, but her waiting for a mate has so far been fruitless.
   ‘The Bangladeshi troops are the symbol of peace, and I had a desire to marry a peacekeeper. But no one proposed to me. Possibly we are not good-looking in their eyes or something,’ Hawa, 27, a resident of Grand Bassa county, told New Age on February 14. Pre-marital childbearing is quite common in the rural areas of Liberia.
   The young Liberian lady’s wish to have a child sired by a Bangladeshi trooper proves the Liberians’ appreciation of the higher social values and moral character of our soldiers in comparison to peacekeepers of other countries.
   Soldiers of other countries have been accused of abusing their power during peacekeeping missions in African countries, including Liberia.
   According to reports published in different news services, the relief workers routinely demand sex in return for food. The peacekeepers of other nations are reportedly very contemptuous and racist in their attitude to Liberians.
   While visiting some camps in Liberia this correspondent found that the Bangladeshi troops distribute excess food supplied by the UN and their own country to the local people and orphanages, and they have earned the reputation of being gentlemen because they never ask for sexual favours in return for food or other relief materials.
   It became obvious, while talking to a number solders and officers of Bangladesh deployed in the United Nations Mission in Liberia, that the discipline of our armed forces, high social values, religious devoutness and the wish to earn the respect of the locals for Bangladesh stopped our troopers from abusing women.
   For example, Dr Aba Kanga, the most senior citizen of Grand Bassa county, said, ‘The Bangladeshi soldiers never even touched the hands of our women. But some soldiers of other countries forcibly undressed our women on the plea of body-search. We are very grateful to the Bangladeshi soldiers.’
   A Bangladeshi told New Age that they did not allow any soldiers to go out of the camp after evening for security reasons.
   Captain Feroz, who was working in Buchanan city, told New Age that human qualities, discipline and respect for local people have made the Bangladeshi troops different from those of other countries.
   ‘Due to dire poverty some girls were seen standing for hours in front of the camps and trying to sexually tempt our soldiers with the hope of getting some money. But one didn’t see any Bangladeshi soldier respond to them,’ said an officer, declining to make comments on the soldiers of other countries.
   When this correspondent went to a transit camp on February 9, a girl was seen waiting for about four hours at the main entrance of the camp for the money that she was supposed to get from the soldier of another county in return for sex.
   When some Bangladeshi soldiers were asked whether they had seen any girls waiting in their respective camps for such a purpose, they replied in the negative. The officers said that they maintain ‘zero tolerance’ for any wayward soldier.

A court in western India on Friday sentenced Bollywood superstar Salman Khan to a year in jail for shooting two rare black buck deer.
   ‘The court has sentenced Salman Khan to one year’s imprisonment. He also has to pay a fine of 5,000 rupees (113 dollars),’ his lawyer Vimal Sarswat told AFP.
   The actor would appeal and apply for immediate bail, the lawyer said.
   Khan, 40, who enjoys a massive following in India, was accused of poaching the protected species in the Jodhpur district of Rajasthan in September, 1998.
   The lawyer said the eight other accused, including actor Satish Shah, were acquitted.
   Shah said he was relieved the case was over.
   ‘I have been making rounds of this court for the past eight years, I am very happy that I have been acquitted,’ he said.
   For Khan, however, three other related cases of poaching deer in Jodphur and possession of unlicensed firearms are pending.
   One of those cases, in which a host of other Bollywood stars are also accused, is due to be heard on Monday.
   Actresses Tabu and Neelam, who both use only one name, Sonali Bendre and leading actor Saif Ali Khan also face charges arising from incidents while they were filming ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’ (We are all together) in Jodhpur in 1998.
   Khan is no stranger to controversy. He also faces charges of manslaughter after a road accident in 2002 left one person dead and four injured.
   The actor has denied allegations that he was at the wheel, drunk and had no license when his car ran over people sleeping on a sidewalk in western Mumbai, home to the country’s film industry.
   Last year he was cleared of charges of underworld retribution against his former girlfriend, the actress Aishwarya Rai. He said that a secretly taped telephone conversation between the two, in which he reportedly made a threat, did not contain his voice.
   Khan has often denied media reports that he assaulted Rai, a former Miss World.
   Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi has also accused Khan of making threatening calls to him and Rai. Rai was reported to be dating Oberoi after she split with Khan.

A flag meeting was held between the Bangladesh Rifles and the Border Security Force of India on Ichhakhali-Jhajhar frontier in Meherpur Friday morning to defuse tensions created over the damaging of a temporary BSF post.
   Sources said the border forces of both the countries got positioned with heavy arms since Thursday night after the damage of the duty-post, set up by Lakhbazar camp’s BSF men to guard crops.
   ‘The BDR took position on the border where BSF and Indian people took position on the night after the damage of the duty-post,’ says a firsthand account of the situation.
   The situation returned to normal after the meeting between BDR and BSF officials.

Activists of a rival group of Savar Juba Dal put up a barricade on Dhaka-Aricha Highway on Friday suspending traffic movement on the route for about an hour.
   Two groups of Savar Juba Dal, BNP’s youth wing, went berserk during a public meeting in presence of the BNP secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, also the LGRD minister.
   The trouble started as the Savar unit Juba Dal secretary, Khorshed Alam, also a commissioner of the Savar municipality, walked out of the meeting with his group demanding ouster of the unit president, Alhaj Refayetullah, who is also municipality chairman.
   Supporters of Khorshed group demanded removal of Refayetullah as they said he was involved in extortion and corruption.
   The supporters of Refayetullah group brought out a procession and barricaded the highway creating severe traffic jam on the route.
   Under the circumstances, Bhuiyan hurriedly left the meeting venue where, among others, local lawmakers Dewan Salauddin and Sultana Ahmed, were present.

The Netherlands will double its annual contribution to 4 million euro to the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh.
   The Dutch visiting minister for development cooperation, Agnes van Ardennne’s, made the promise at a Wednesday press conference at the Matlab Health Research Centre of ICDDR,B in Chandpur.
   The increased contribution came after the ICDDR,B board of trustees had decided to withdraw ICDDR,B from the certification of the Mexico City Policy, announced by former US president Ronald Reagan, said a press release.
   The MCP requires foreign non-governmental organisations to agree as a condition of their receipt of US federal funds that the organisations would neither perform nor actively promote menstrual regulation as a method of family planning outside US.
   ‘The ICDDR,B decision would put it into risk of losing the USAID funding,’ said the release.
   The Dutch minister said the new agreement would compensate the withdrawal of USAID funds.

Indian opposition MPs erupted in anger Friday over a government survey aimed at finding out how many Muslims are in the army, charging it could compromise the forces’ secular status.
   The opposition Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party led the attack after a newspaper reported that prime minister Manmohan Singh’s office ordered the survey last year—the first such one in Indian history.
   Deputy BJP leader VK Malhotra accused the government of trying to divide the armed forces, one of the world’s largest, along religious lines.
   ‘The Indian army is secular. We should not try to divide it,’ he said.
   Defending the survey, the defence minister, Pranab Mukherjee, said: ‘I can assure you that there is no question of comprising the character of the Indian army.’
   Most Islamic bodies have favoured the survey, saying it would benefit Muslims and help ensure they were not under-represented in the service.
   Muslims make up 13.4 per cent of India’s billion-plus population but are reported to constitute less than one per cent of the forces.
   The defence minister’s reassurances failed to pacify
   opposition members who shouted ‘our army is united’ and twice forced the adjournment of the lower house over the issue.