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With less than year left for the tenure of the incumbent government, influential quarters within the government and outside it are desperately lobbying for licences of new insurance companies, sources in the government told New Age.
   ‘Most of the aspirants have strong connection with high ranking policy makers of the government,’ a high official in the insurance department told New Age.
   Over 100 companies and individuals seeking insurance licences have submitted their applications to insurance department under the commerce ministry, said sources.
   Of the total, about 20 companies are being considered for licenses, likely to be awarded within the next couple of months, hinted highly placed sources in the commerce ministry.
   ‘Most of these companies are interested in life insurance with a bias for Islamic management,’ they said.
   The commerce ministry has recently asked the insurance department to conduct a study on the present situation of insurance business and recommend possible gains and shocks of the industry in case new operators emerge, said sources.
   Business and corporate houses, lawmakers, black money holders, former bureaucrats and expatriate Bangladeshis constitute the majority of those lobbying to avail the last minute chance, said sources.
   A section of black money holders are apparently ‘waiting in queue’ to obtain an insurance license as the money whitening facility — offered under the current budget — will last only the remaining period of the current fiscal, said sources.
   ‘They are even keen to bribe handsome amounts and negotiations are very much on in this connection,’ a high-up in the government told New Age.
   The lobbying and pressure for insurance license have intensified after the finance and planning minister, M Saifur Rahman, recently told the Jatiya Sangsad that the government had no plans to issue licences for new banks
   A good number of aspirants had earlier been lobbying for bank licences and turned to the commerce ministry from the finance division after Saifur’s negative stance regarding bank licences became public, it is learned.
   Currently, 44 general insurance companies including the state-owned Shadharan Bima Corporation and 17 life insurance companies including the state-owned Jiban Bima Corporation operate in the sector.
   According to the current regulations, the amount of paid-up capital required for general insurance is Tk 15 crore and Tk 7.50 crore for life insurance.
   The sponsor directors of any insurance company must deposit a 40 per cent of the required capital, while the remaining 60 per cent must be collected from capital markets, stipulates the regulations.

The parliament on Sunday passed a bill making provision for a maximum seven years of imprisonment and financial penalty for flouting the codes of building construction in a bid to prevent faulty construction and reduce fatalities from building collapses.
   The passage of the bill amending the outdated building construction act came a day after the collapse of a factory building in the city’s Tejgaon industrial area that had killed at least 18 people and injured about a hundred.
   The long-awaited Building Construction (amendment) Bill 2006 was piloted by the housing and public works minister, Mirza Abbas, and passed by the voice vote rejecting the opposition lawmakers’ demand for eliciting public opinion before the passage of such an ‘important’ bill.
   The opposition lawmakers said the government wanted a political mileage out of the passage of the bill when its tenure was nearing its end. They also demanded tougher punishment for those who would violate the building codes.
   The law will come into effect once the President gives assent to it.
   The law stipulates that construction a building in contravention of any provision of the Bangladesh Building Code, which the government may make by notification in the official gazette, would result in maximum seven years of imprisonment or a fine of not less than Tk. 50,000 or both.
   ‘Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, the Bangladesh National Building Code may provide for all or any of the following matters, namely : general building requirement, control and
   regulation, fire protection, building materials, structural design, construction practices and
   safety, building services, alternation, addition to and change, of use of existing building, sign and outdoor display and matter relating to administration and enforcement of the above matters,’ according to an amendment of the Building Construction Act.
   According to the previous act the prison term was maximum two years with a fine of an unspecified amount of money.
   The amendment made it obligatory to follow the building code strictly in construction of a building.
   Speaking on the bill, the Awami League lawmakers Suranjit Sengupta, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Shamsur
   Rahman Sharif and Faruk Khan and the Jatiya Party lawmaker Golam Mohammad Qader demanded provisions for tougher punishment and to ensure proper implementation of the act.
   ‘The act will be meaningless if it is not implemented like in the past,’ Suranjit said adding that not only the building owners, the officials responsible should also be punished.
   Selim and Shamsur Rahman demanded harsher punishment and more fine and compensation for the victims.
   ‘The government has totally failed to implement the existing law, so it has no right to introduce a new act,’ Faruk Khan said demanding resignation of the public works minister for his failure to implement the law.
   He also criticised the government for not collecting equipment necessary for rescue operation during incidents of fire and building collapse.
   Terming the bill farcical GM Qader said the government was enacting the new law to deceive the people without ensuring the accountability of the government officials responsible for the whole thing.
   ‘The law must ensure compensation to the victims,’ he said.
   The works minister told the house that with the implementation of the law, an appropriate building code would be formulated soon.
   Earlier, lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties discussed on the recent incidents of fire in Chittagong and building collapse in Dhaka and stressed the need for an awareness campaign to avert such tragedies.
   Opposition lawmakers Mohammad Nasim on a point of order demanded a parliamentary inquiry committee headed by the speaker to probe the incidents and ensure punishment to the persons responsible.
   He also demanded adequate compensation for the victims.
   Selim accused the government of not disclosing the inquiry report on Spectrum garments factory collapse at Savar and demanded exemplary punishment for the persons responsible.
   Deputy leader of the opposition in parliament Abdul Hamid said there was no instance of action taken against the criminals in any recent incidents of launch capsize, fire and building collapse and accused the government of failure in this regard.
   The LGRD and cooperatives minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and ruling party chief whip Dilwar Hossain stressed the need for creating awareness among the people to follow the building code and urged the opposition to cooperate with the government ‘at least on this issue’.
   When the public works minister Mirza Abbas said that his ministry was barred by court orders from demolishing buildings owned by AL leaders at Dhanmondi and Nayatola, Hamid told the house the violators should be punished irrespective of their political identities.

Rescuers continued search for bodies or survivors in the rubble of Phoenix building in Tejgaon industrial area in the city as death toll from Saturday’s factory building collapse rose to 18 with the recovery of one more body from the debris and death of an injured worker at hospital on Sunday.
   The rescuers retrieved the body of one Nurunnabi of Mymensingh from the debris while an injured worker died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital early Sunday pushing the death toll to 18 in the building collapse which also left about a 100 people injured.
   Only seven of the dead were identified so far -- ansar guard Billal Hossain, Shahjahan, Kazi Harunur Rashid Pappu, Swapan, minor girl Shaila, Amena Begum and Nurunnabi. The rest of the bodies remained unclaimed at the morgue.
   The army-led rescuers were still removing the debris from the site on Sunday and they
   said it would take four or five more days to complete the
   operation.
   Brigadier General Nizam Ahmed, who is supervising the rescue operation, told newsmen the Phoenix building collapse was more disastrous in terms of the area affected though the casualties in the Spectrum Sweaters’ building collapse at Baipail in Savar last year were much higher.
   He said they did not have any information about the people who were believed to have been inside the building when it collapsed and were still unaccounted for.
   Some of the rescuers alleged they were facing difficulties in removing the rubble as some unscrupulous people were doing brisk business with the wreck of the collapsed building.
   Major Naser of 46 engineering battalion, who is leading his team in the rescue operation, said chances were slim that they would find any more bodies or survivors from the debris as they did not have information as yet about the people who allegedly went missing.
   Meanwhile, leaders of different political parties visited the site of the disaster on Sunday.
   The leaders of the 14-party opposition alliance, led by the Awami League general secretary Abdul Jalil, visited the Phoenix building site in the morning and witnessed the rescue operation for some time.
   Local BNP lawmaker, Mosaddek Ali also visited the site on Sunday and witnessed the rescue of a survivor who
   came out of the debris about 24 hours after the building
   collapse.
   Earlier, sub-inspector Khalilur Rahman of Tejgaon police station, filed a case implicating eight people for negligence with respect to repairs of the building which might have caused the disaster.
   The accused were: Deen Mohammad, Shoebur Rahman, MA Majid, Dr Jahangir Alam,
   MA Hasan, Delwar Hossain, Sirajul Islam and Rezaul Karim Faruk.
   Only Faruk, the finance manager of the Phoenix group, was detained by the police on Saturday while others remained absconding, the police said.
   The police launched a number of drives till Sunday afternoon at different parts of the city to nab Deen Mohammad, owner of the building, but he was yet to be tracked down.
   The state minister for home, Lutfozzaman Babar, told newsmen on Sunday the lawmen had been asked to arrest the owners of Phoenix group.
   ‘It is not true that owners of garment factories responsible
   for such accidents are not arrested,’ he said referring to the arrest of the owner of Spectrum Sweaters Limited which collapsed in Savar killing over 70 people in 2005.
   The minister also mentioned the arrest of two people in connection with the fire in KTS Textiles Industries Limited in Chittagong that killed 54 people on Thursday night.
   Talking to newsmen after an inter-ministerial meeting at his office on Sunday, Babar admitted that the Fire Brigade lacked in equipment in combating situations like the building collapse in Tejgaon and Savar.
   ‘A proposal of the disaster management ministry
   awaits approval in this regard,’ he said.
   The minister also referred to the passage of Building Construction (Amendment) Bill 2006 in the parliament to ensure compliance with standard building code to avert such accidents in future.

The proposed kidney clinic that collapsed in Dhaka on Saturday, was being built without government approval, and was not a joint venture project with a Singapore hospital as claimed by its owners, sources said.
   The Phoenix Medical Centre, proposed to be a 500-bed kidney hospital, did not obtain Rajuk approval for hospital construction on the same premises that had housed a garments factory until two months ago, city development officials alleged.
   The medical centre construction was officially launched on November 25, 2005 when the Phoenix management claimed in press reports that it was a joint-venture project with Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital.
   The Dhaka office of the hospital denied the claim when contacted by New Age on Sunday.
   A high-ranking official of the Singapore hospital told New Age that they had no joint venture projects in Bangladesh. ‘After consulting my colleagues, I can tell you that we don’t have any connection with this Phoenix hospital and we do not have any joint venture projects in Bangladesh,’ the official said.
   A primary investigation also revealed that Phoenix Medical Centre did not have permission from the Directorate of Health Services to construct the hospital, which was to open in June.
   The death toll of workers from the collapse rose to 18 on Sunday and scores more are feared trapped in the rubble as rescue work continued.
   No officials of the Phoenix Medical Centre were available for comments on the second day of the accident.
   Although the hospital is registered with the office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms, no contact addresses but the one for the collapsed building, are provided in its papers.
   The chairman of the Phoenix Medical Centre is Deen Mohammad, the serving chairman of the City Bank of Bangladesh.
   Its directors reportedly include M Yunus, MA Majid, Mohammad Shoeb, Rafiqul Islam Khan, Mazharul Haque, A Quadir Choudhury, Habibar Rahman Mia, Mobarak Ali, Abu Saleheen Syed, Dr Jahangir Alam, Ashique Iqbal and Reazul Islam Khan.

It was 2:28pm and a pale-looking Suman Mia almost ran out of the wreckage of the Phoenix Building to the surprise of hundreds of rescue workers and onlookers.
   The 32-year-old electrician from Pabna was too hungry and too exhausted to walk. Dirt and injuries all over his body were the signs of his miseries of long stay inside the rubble.
   Some people took him to the slum near by and gave him some food. Rescuers later took him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
   ‘We were 10 to 12 people on the first floor as the renovation to turn the five-storey building into a hospital was going on in full swing,’ he said.
   ‘The building collapsed with a bang when I was planning to go out for breakfast. Before I could understand anything, I found myself in the middle of concrete rubble,’ he tried to recall what happened.
   Within few minutes, Suman said, he became unconscious. ‘I cannot say how many hours I remained unconscious. There was dark all over,’ he said. ‘I crawled, but found no way out.’
   He said he had heard his co-workers screaming and crying out for help. ‘I thought I was dying as heat increased making breathing difficult for me,’ said Suman, who never thought he could come out. ‘I was just waiting and crying for my mother.’
   He was lucky enough. He found his way out when the rescuers lifted a slab in the west of the building.
   Suman was given saline and was treated in the hospital. He hoped his family members would soon come to take him home.
   Shakil, 25, was also fortunate to come out of the debris at about 10:30am. ‘I was on the first floor,’ he said. ‘I cried out for help until I found a way out.’
   Shamim, 22, rescued three hours after the collapse, was, however, desperately looking for his younger brother, Humayun, 17, still trapped inside. Both are sanitary helpers. Their parents kept waiting at the place.
   Several others went to look for their relatives who went missing. But the security guards did not allow them near the collapse site.
   ‘I do not know whether my son, Nikhil, has been rescued,’ said Suranjan Mistri, who was also working in the building. ‘I somehow came out,’ he said, breaking into tears.
   At least 18 people were killed and more than 100 injured when the Phoenix Building, owned by Deen Mohammad, also chairman of the City Bank, caved in Saturday morning.

Subscribers will be obligated to provide certain information to mobile phone companies for new connections from today, as required by a recent government regulation.
   ‘New subscription forms will be used from tomorrow,’ said an official of Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission on Sunday.
   Prospective subscribers said the new form was complicated and difficult to fill up, particularly for those with poor educational background.
   ‘The new form will add to the harassment of the subscribers since it has to be attested it by a gazetted government officer or a locally elected representative if the customer does not have a passport or any other form of identification,’ said Majharul Islam, a small trader at Uttara.
   The new regulation stipulates that a subscriber would have to provide fingerprints of both left and right thumb, two passport sized photographs, present and permanent addresses, number of mobile and land phones currently in possession. They will also be required to show identity cards or similar documents such as driving licence, passport or gun licence to authenticate their identification.
   In case the subscriber does not have a passport or photo ID, the subscriber information form would have to be attested by the local elected representative or a first class gazetted officer.
   The new regulation has also banned selling mobile phones to any subscriber below 18 years.
   However, those below 18 can use mobiles but ownership of the connection would have to be of parents or guardian.
   The commission issued a directive on February 12 asking all five mobile operators to begin new subscription in the new forms on the 16th day from the issuance of the directive.
   The government has opted to go slow on re-registration of the existing mobile subscribers which was also supposed to begin Monday along with the introduction of new subscription forms.
   ‘The February 12 directive asked the operators to only register new customers,’ said the commission official adding that the commission would issue a separate directive for re-registration of exiting subscribers but was not sure when since the matter depended on home ministry and intelligence agencies.
   Re-registration would help the home ministry and intelligence agencies to tap into phone conversations. The government recently passed a bill allowing law enforcing agencies to tap phones. The law would also allow telephonic conversations to be used as legal evidence.
   Sources in the home ministry said the re-registration process was stopped at the last moment as the government apprehended that it may create a negative impression among the mobile subscribers — over 11 million — in an election year.
   The mobile operators are also lobbying hard to persuade the government high ups not to implement the re-registration of subscribers as it would be a huge task for them.
   Moreover, it would also create an inconvenience for subscribers as they would be required to come to the customer care centres of mobile operators for the formality.
   The government had earlier decided on re-registration of the existing subscribers within two months of beginning the process to maintain an electronic database of individuals.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on Sunday called on the opposition Awami League to contest the forthcoming general elections scheduled to be held in early 2007.
   ‘Contest in the next elections to seek people’s mandate and let us play the role accordingly,’ she said at a youth rally at Paltan Maidan in Dhaka. ‘Participating in elections is a national obligation.’
   Referring to the Awami League’s reforms proposals placed in the parliament,
   she said her party was holding an intra-party (informal) consultation (over the proposals as groundwork) to hold discussion with the Awami League.
   ‘You [Awami League] continue to participate in the parliamentary businesses… We are discussing… We will discuss,’ Khaleda, also the leader of Jatiya Sangsad, said.
   The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, on February 12 placed a 34-point proposal for reforms in the caretaker administration system and the Election Commission.
   Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal, the youth front of the ruling BNP, organised the rally, joined in by several thousand activists and supporters.
   Without naming the Awami League, Khaleda accused the party in countrywide series of bomb blasts. ‘Failing to build up movement against the government, the opposition began hatching conspiracy and its latest conspiracy was the countrywide bombing,.’
   Khaleda, also the BNP chairperson, asked the leaders and activists of the party and its front organisations to increase organisational strength to prepare for the elections.
   She instructed them to check the inclusion of false voters in the ongoing enumeration for a fresh voters’ roll. She hoped the people would vote her party in the election.
   The party’s secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan asked Juba Dal leaders and activists to keep watch so that no one can include false voters.
   Bhuiyan, also LGRD and cooperatives minister, said the BNP will hand over power to the caretaker administration in time.
   In the rally, some speakers including Khandakar Mahbub Uddin Ahmed MP and Juba Dal general secretary Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal MP demanded that ‘the inclusion of 65 lakh voters during the Awami League rule’ should be cancelled.
   Alal also demanded that the expatriate voters should be reassessed.
   Former Juba Dal general secretary Gayeshwar Chandra Roy said the caretaker administration system should be cancelled. ‘It is an undemocratic system.’
   BNP national standing committee members Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Moudud Ahmed, KM Obaidur Rahman, and top leaders of the front organisations of the party also addressed the rally, chaired by its president Barkat Ullah Bulu.

Lawmakers from both the treasury and opposition benches on Sunday criticised the speaker, Jamiruddin Sircar, for allowing a lawmaker to use offensive words, which has ‘tarnished the image of the parliament’.
   The speaker allowed BNP lawmaker Helen Zerin Khan to use the abusive words against Awami League lawmaker Shahjahan Khan while the former was speaking under section 274 of the rules of procedure to counter the latter’s comment on Thursday about her, which was expunged earlier.
   Terming Shahjahan a convict sentenced to five years imprisonment in a criminal case, she called him ‘an extortionist and a murderer of many people’. Shahjahan earlier used objectionable words against Zerin, which were expunged by the house.
   At one stage, AL lawmakers started shouting urging the speaker to stop Helen’s microphone, but the speaker replied ‘let her speak and I’ll expunge the objectionable words later.’
   The lawmakers from the treasury and opposition benches then resented the speaker’s comment though he had later expunged the words extortionist, criminal and murderer from Helen’s speech.
    ‘Use of the abusive words has tarnished the image of the parliament and the lawmakers as well,’ the LGRD and cooperatives minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, said adding ‘Our next generation will not pardon us if they know that we use such words in parliament.’
   It will also tarnish the image of the nation in abroad, he said and suggested that the speaker should stop instantly the microphone in case of use of such word by any lawmaker.
   The law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister, Moudud Ahmed, criticised the speaker for allowing Helen to speak on the issue settled earlier.
   ‘As it is very tough to control the media to check the use of expunged words, the lawmakers should be careful in this regard,’ he said and urged all the lawmakers to refrain from making personal attacks.
   The deputy leader of the opposition in parliament, Abdul Hamid, requested the speaker to allow Shahjahan for defending himself.
   ‘I have been elected MP for four consecutive terms and my father was MP for three times. So I need not to take lesson from her (Helen) on how to speak in parliament,’ Shahjahan said.
   Earlier, BNP whip Rezaul Bari Dina, in a point of order, expressed anger over the publication of Thursday’s expunged words in newspapers and demanded a ruling from the speaker on this issue.
   BNP lawmaker MM Shaheen urged the speaker to allow cameras of private television channels in the house and the speaker said the issue would be considered.
   ‘As there was no private television channel in the past, the issue of their entrances was never raised,’ the speaker said adding that the issue had now been placed to the house and it would be considered.

The leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, on Sunday said that the government must reform the caretaker government system and the Election Commission otherwise people would force them to do it through mass movement.
   ‘The prime minister must spell out her decision about our reform proposals to establish people’s constitutional rights…Next elections will have to be held after reforms,’ she said at a press briefing at Bogra Parjatan Motel on way back from three-day party tour of Dinajpur and Rangpur.
   Hasina, also the Awami League president, said why the government was so hesitant to implement the opposition’s reform proposals aimed at ensuring free and fair elections.
   The reform proposals were placed in parliament taking into account the interests of the people, she added.
   Asked what if the government did not concede to the opposition demand, Hasina said people would force the government to realise it through mass movement. ‘People are already angry against the government. Don’t they understand the consequence of people’s fury?’
   She alleged that the government had politicised the administration to rig the elections. ‘People must remain united and alert so that their ‘votes are not snatched’ by the government’.
   On Islamic militancy, Hasina said before arresting the militants, the prime minister, Khaleda Zia and Jamaat chief Matiur Rahman Nizami should be brought to book, as she said, they have created militants who are operating at their behest.
   ‘After creating the militants the government is now arresting only one or two militants to earn so-called appreciation,’ she added.
   Citing the government’s decision to raise diesel prices by Tk one for northern region, Hasina said the government wanted to separate the northern Bangladesh from the rest of the country. But it (government) retreated in the face of strong protest by the opposition, she added.
   ‘People of the northern region must not forget this attitude of the government towards them.’
   Hasina said when people were in an extremely difficult situation, the government is busy making money ignoring the public sufferings.
   ‘The government and businesses do not understand anything but money,’ she said in a sharp criticism of freestyle price spirals, adding that the people in power pocketed crores of taka in the process of increasing prices of essentials.
   On her way to Dhaka, Hasina addressed several wayside rallies at Ambari of Tirir Bandar and Fulbari Bazar.
   Hasina returned to the capital ending the three-day party tour of Dinajpur and Rangpur. She addressed a grand rally of the AL-led 14-party alliance at Gora Shaheed Maidan in Dinajpur on Saturday.

Power outages increased on Sunday although production increased by about 100MW than the previous day during the evening peak hours. The power demand also increased by about 500MW as Sunday was a weekday.
   The power production was about 2600MW on Saturday evening but as it was a weekly holiday the demand was about 4000-4200MW.
   The demand shot up by about 500MW on Sunday while power production remained as low as 2696MW with a shortage of about 1800-2000MW.
   The power situation in the capital and adjacent areas worsened as power shortage reached over 1000MW with supply decreasing by around 100MW over the previous day.
   Dhaka Electric Supply Authority got only about 790 MW of power against a demand of 1800MW. On Saturday it got 880MW against a demand of 1600MW.
   Although the Power Development Board estimated that the total production would be about 3329MW, the 360MW Haripur power plant and two other units — 210MW and 55MW — of Ghorashal power plant could not start operations till Sunday evening.
   Ghorashal units tripped on Friday and Saturday while the Haripur plant has been out of operation for about two weeks due to overhauling.
   The officials of the board said power supply increased by around 100MW on Sunday as the 150MW unit of Ashuganj power plant that tripped on Saturday evening came into operation.
   They said power supply in the capital was curtailed further to provide power for irrigation across the country.
   The city’s Banani area had the worst power outage on Sunday with around eight to ten
   hours of load shedding while Malibagh-Mouchak, Rajarbagh, Maghbazar, Dhanmondi, Mohammadpur, Farmgate, Siddiqbazar, Paribagh, Nakhalpara, Kakrail, Mirpur, Badda, Basabo and Uttara also suffered several hours of load shedding.
   The board officials said the power situation might improve slightly with the 210MW Ghorashal unit and the Haripur plant coming into operation by Sunday night.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas has hinted he may resign should Hamas limit his policies as Israel’s acting premier and a US envoy were Sunday to discuss ways to extend aid that bypass the Islamists.
   In an interview with British television ITV1, to be broadcast Sunday, Abbas hinted he may resign if Hamas prevents him from advancing peace efforts.
   The broadcast came as Hamas prime minister designate, Ismail Haniya, gave a separate interview with Newsweek and the Washington Post, talking about the possibility of a staged peace in exchange for further Israeli withdrawals.
   ‘We could reach a point where I cannot perform my duty. Then I will not continue
   sitting in this place, against and in spite of my convictions,’
   Abbas said according to an advance transcript of the interview released on Saturday.
   ‘The presidential chair is not a goal and is not an end—rather it is a means to implement a mission and to achieve something for my people,’
   he said, when asked if he would resign if Hamas blocked his agenda on peace with Israel.
   Hamas does not recognise Israel’s right to exist, its charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.
   The faction won a massive victory in last month’s Palestinian election, securing 74 seats in the 132-member parliament compared to the paltry 45 won by Abbas’s outgoing ruling Fatah party.
   Yet in an interview with a Newsweek and Washington Post journalist, Haniya trod a cautionary line, speaking about a staged peace in exchange for Israeli withdrawals and insisting Hamas did not want to ‘harm anybody’.
   ‘If Israel withdraws to the ’67 borders, then we will establish a peace in stages,’ the Washington Post quoted him as saying of land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, namely the Gaza Strip, West Bank and east Jerusalem.
   ‘We do not have any feelings of animosity toward Jews. We do not wish to throw them into the sea.
   All we seek is to be given our land back, not to harm anybody,’ Haniya added.
   ‘If Israel declares that it will give the Palestinian people a state and give them back all their rights, then we are ready to recognise them’.
   Israeli officials dismissed the interview, as acting prime minister Ehud Olmert was to hold talks focused on aid and the Hamas threat with the assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs, David Welch.
   Sunday’s Olmert-Welch talks are to thrash out ‘proposals from the United States allowing humanitarian aid to be transferred to the Palestinians while ensuring that they do not reach Hamas,’ a senior Israeli source said.
   One Israeli minister signalled that the Jewish state would make no objection to continued humanitarian aid with guarantees in place that Hamas cannot access the cash.

One more person injured in Thursday’s fire in KTS Textile and Garment Industry died at Chittagong Medical College and Hospital early Sunday, raising the death toll to 53.
   Moni Begum, 18, of Rangunia upazila, who was as a cutting helper in KTS, died at about 5:30am, hospital sources said.
   Thirty-nine workers of the factory were undergoing treatment at CMCH till Sunday night and six others — Abdus Salam, Noor Jahan, Farzana, Lovely, Shima Chakma and Marzina — were sent to Dhaka late Saturday.

Workers of the fire ravaged KTS Textile and Garment Industry undergoing treatment at Chittagong Medical College and Hospital and their relatives on Sunday accused the doctors and nurses of negligence in their duties.
   They also accused the gatekeepers of realising money from the relatives of the injured for visiting them (the injured).
   Most of the 39 workers undergoing treatment at the hospital and their relatives said the doctors hardly visited the patients and the nurses gave them a little care while the gatekeepers realised money from them (relatives) for visiting the patients.
   Kamrun Nahar, 34, of Gahira in Anwara upazila, who was receiving treatment at ward No 27, said her sister called the doctors for three times till 1:00pm since morning as she had been feeling severe pain in her burns, but no doctor nor even a nurse visited her.
   ‘Two gatekeepers — Bashir Ahmed and Hari Das — demanded Tk 10 for visiting Kamrun,’ Fatema Khatun, Kamrun’s sister, said.
   Beauty Begum, mother of another victim, echoed Fatema, saying they had got no remedy even after lodging complaints with the doctors.
   Monir, 24, of Mirjaganj in Barishal, said the hospital authorities were not providing them with required medicines on the pretext that the government was not supplying these items.
   Dr Shrikanta, an assistant registrar at the hospital, however, denied the allegations, saying they were very much careful about the fire victims.
   About the medicines, he said, ‘We are being failed to provide the patients with some medicines, which have no supply from the government. The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, however, provides them with some medicines.’
   At least 54 workers were killed and more than 50 others injured in Thursday night’s fire at the KTS factory. Of the 46 patients undergoing treatment at CMCH till Saturday night, one died and six were shifted to Dhaka on Sunday.
   Professor Shamsuddin, head of the burn specialist team that came to Chittagong from Dhaka, told New Age that the condition of 13 patients was critical as more than half of their bodies had been burnt completely. The remaining patients are out of danger, he added.

The Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments on Sunday lodged four cases in connection with Thursday night’s fire at the KTS Textile and Garment Industry in Chittagong that left 54 workers killed and over 50 others injured.
   The department filed the case with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrates Court bringing charges of ‘unplanned’ construction of the factory building, violation of labour laws, keeping the exit doors locked during the fire and for not informing the authorities concerned of the incident.
   The police earlier lodged a case with the Chandgaon police accusing the KTS authorities of not taking adequate safety measures and of employing child labourers.
   The factory chairman, Wasidul Alam, managing director, Tawhidul Alam, directors Khaledul Islam, Ershadul Islam, Ashraful Islam, Monirul Islam and Shahdat Ullah, factory manager Ruhul Kuddus, assistant manager Toni and accountant Kamrul Islam were made accused in the case filed Saturday.
   The Rapid Action Battalion, meanwhile, sealed off KTS Textile’s three sister concerns in the city early.
   The sealed off factories are Vintex Fashion on the Sagarika Road, Cardinal Fashion at Chhotopul and Arena Fashion at Chaktai.
   RAB sources said they had sealed off the factories as ‘unplanned construction of the buildings and inadequate safety measures pose threats to the lives of more than 6,000 workers and staff’.

The state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, on Sunday asked the law-enforcing agencies to immediately arrest the owner of Phoenix building that collapsed on Saturday leaving at least 18 people dead and many injured.
   ‘The law-enforcers have already raided several places but the owner of the building was not physically found,’ Babar said emerging from an inter-ministerial meeting on law and order in observance of the Independence Day at his ministry.
   When contacted over telephone, the officer-in-charge of the Tejgaon police station, Kamrul, said both uniformed and plainclothes police and RAB have already conducted several drives at a number of hideouts to arrest Din Mohammad, the owner of the building.

The Dhaka divisional special judge, Rezaul Karim Khan Chunnu, was barred from joining his judicial duty for four more weeks.
   A High Court bench on Sunday extended the bar, following an allegation about his involvement in political activities, including his desire to contest the next parliamentary elections on the ruling party ticket.
   Earlier on February 13, the same bench of Justice M Awlad Ali and Justice Zinat Ara imposed the bar for two weeks, issuing a rule on a public interest litigation writ that challenged inaction of the government in taking action against his alleged political activities despite being a sitting judge.
   After hearing an application moved by the counsel of the petitioner M Enayetur Rahim, the court passed the order for the extension of the injunction as the deadline expired on Sunday.
   Chunnu filed a petition before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on February 16, seeking stay on the injunction.
   He failed to secure a stay and the Appellate Division upheld the High Court order.

The Energy and Mineral Resources Division on Sunday sent again to the Prime Minister’s Office a proposal for allowing the Canadian Niko Resources to drill production wells at the Chhatak (Tengratila) Gas Field.
   The division also tagged the comment of Petrobangla for which the PMO had recently sent back the proposal, sources in the division said.
   The state-run Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation has given nod to the proposal for allowing Niko to drill two production wells at Tengratila field that suffered two blow-outs in January and June 2005. The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, also the minister for power, energy and mineral resources, would decide whether Niko would be allowed to drill the production wells.
   The company is yet to agree to pay compensation for the loss of 8.89 billion cubic feet gas and Tk 84 crore environmental damages in the two blow-outs at the field.

Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority will start a motivation campaign among the crews of passenger launches shortly to make them aware of the causes of ferry accidents and the ways to avert them.
   ‘As the season of nor’westers, which witnesses frequent ferry accidents, is nearing, the BIWTA has taken the initiative to conduct the motivation programme among masters, crews and passengers of launches, said Monwar Hossain, secretary of the BIWTA.
   According to statistics of the department of shipping 3,597 people died and 252 went missing in 385 launch disasters in the last three decades since 1976. Of them 248 people were killed and four went missing in 28 ferry accidents in 2005.
   The BIWTA is set to conduct the training in collaboration with the department of shipping and Bangladesh inland water passengers’ carriers association.
   The training will be conducted at Sadarghat launch terminal in the city in the first phase and then in Barisal and at Aricha ferry terminal, said Motahar Hossain, director (ports and traffic department) of the BIWTA.
   The masters, crews and ansars will be asked to check every vessel before leaving the terminals to make sure that the launches have sufficient safety equipment, he said.
   They will be trained in understanding and analysing weather forecasts and what to do in rough weather, he added.
   A passenger launch, ML Raipura, sank on 17 May, 2005. Some 50 passengers were killed and 100 went missing in the accident and rescue operation was called off after five days of abortive search for the ill-fated vessel.
   One of the main reasons for frequent launch accidents was incompetence of the masters of the vessels. If the master takes the right decision when his vessel is caught in a storm, the lives of passengers could be saved, he said.
   Every passenger vessel will come under a mobile network to inform the master about the latest weather forecasts, Motahar said.

Several hundred farmers on Sunday staged demonstrations at the Dumuria upazila headquarters in Khulna demanding adequate supply of fertiliser and diesel in the local market during the peak season of Boro cultivation.
   They also brought out a procession in the upazila headquarters and laid siege to the office of the Dumuria upazila nirbahi officer. The Bangladesh Krishak League Dumuria thana unit organised the agitation programme.
   Speakers at the gathering said the supply of urea in the upazila was not more than 750 tonnes as against the demand of 3,500 tonnes, and blamed the government for fertiliser crisis.
   A sack of 50 kilograms of urea was selling between Tk 400 and Tk 500 on the black market instead of Tk 300 fixed by the government, they alleged.
   Chaired by the Krishak League upazila unit president, Tapas Chakrabarty, the rally was addressed by the Khulna district Awami League president Harunur Rashid, and Narayan Chandra Chand, Gazi Abdul Hadi, Shyamal Sinha Roy, and Abdus Salam.
   Meanwhile, the Awami League Satkhira district unit had blocked up the Satkhira-Kaliganj road for two hours from 10:00am demanding supply of fertiliser and fuel. The party leaders and activists also brought out a procession that paraded the main roads in the town.
   The New Age Rajshahi correspondent reported that farmers laid siege to the office of the Rajshahi deputy commissioner for an hour Sunday morning and submitted a memorandum to him demanding adequate supply of fertiliser and diesel as well as uninterrupted supply of power.
   At around 10.00am, several thousand farmers gathered on the Shaheed Minar premises and held a rally there.
   The rally was addressed by Krishak League central president Mirza MA Jalil, district Awami League president Tajul Islam, general secretary Omar Faruque Chowdhury, and AL city unit general secretary AHM Khairuzzaman Liton.
   Meanwhile, the dealers at Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj had not received fertiliser from the Rajshahi buffer godown on Sunday. The two districts had been facing crisis for fertiliser as 140 dealers were not taking fertiliser from the godown since February 21 on the plea of mixing dirt in fertiliser, and substandard packing system.

Pakistani police Sunday arrested a top Islamic leader and detained several other people including cricket hero turned politician Imran Khan for defying a ban on a rally over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, officials and witnesses said.
   Qazi Hussain Ahmed, chief of the six-party Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal alliance, was taken into custody after he emerged from his party’s headquarters at Mansoora in the eastern city of Lahore.
   Police also detained former cricket great Imran Khan, a lawmaker who now leads the Movement for Justice party,
   and 10 of his supporters near the venue of the planned rally.
   Ahmed and some 1,000 party workers staged a sit-in on the road before he drove towards the venue of the planned rally. But security forces intercepted his car and took him to a police station, officials said.
   Police using batons dispersed the crowd.
   The authorities also barred the entry to Lahore of Makhdoom Amin Fahim, chairman of former premier Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, who had said his party would join the protest.
   Police had earlier unrolled coils of barbed wire on roads leading to Mansoora where some hundred people at the party compound chanted slogans against Denmark, where the cartoons were first published.
   Ahmed, who was detained twice to foil similar rallies last week, had vowed that the rally against the ‘blasphemous cartoons’ would go ahead despite a government ban on protests.
   Police detained some 30 people who came to Nasir Bagh, witnesses said. Ahmed claimed 150 people were detained in Lahore on the eve of the rally.
   Three people were killed in massive anti-cartoon protests in Lahore on February 14 and riots in Peshawar the same day left two people dead and Western businesses in flames.
   Analysts say Pakistan’s Islamic and opposition parties are using the cartoon issue as a stick to beat pro-US military leader President Pervez Musharraf, who has led a crackdown on extremism.
   The protests have cooled off in recent days but the MMA has called for a nationwide strike on March 3, just before an expected visit to Islamabad by the US president, George W Bush.

The French and Swiss embassies in Dhaka have complained to the foreign ministry against two lawmakers for allegedly providing fake documents to obtain visa for two persons claiming them as their sons.
   The embassies made the allegations in separate letters to the consular section of the foreign ministry, diplomatic sources said, adding the two persons and the MPs were denied visa by the embassies.
   The lawmakers who reportedly provided fake documents are Md Matiur Rahman, MP, (Passport: D0009386) of the Jatiya Party and Advocate Promode Mankin, MP, of the Awami League.
   The embassies also informed other western consular offices in Dhaka of the matter and brought it in the list of negative attention.
   The embassy of Switzerland informed the consular section of the foreign ministry that Md Matiur Rahman, MP, applied for visa along with his wife Halima Khatun, his personal assistant Mohammad Shahab Uddin and his son/nephew Maruf Hassan for Swiss tourist visa.
   Later, Md Matiur Rahman during interview with the embassy’s visa official admitted that Maruf Hassan is not his son, but nephew.’... on purpose he mentioned him on the visa application as his son,’ an official letter from the Swiss embassy to the consular section said.
   ‘He (Rahman) submitted some counterfeit documents, in which he is documented himself as father of Maruf Hassan,’ the Embassy wrote in the letter issued in January.
   When asked, Md Matiur Rahman MP said Maruf Hassan is his nephew and since Maruf lost his mother in his childhood, his (Matiur) wife looks after him. ‘Maruf addresses me as father and call my wife Dudh Ma,’ Matiur said, adding he did not hide anything in the embassy.
   Almost the same thing happened in case of Promode Mankin, MP. Advocate Mankin submitted a request for visa with the French embassy as per the letter of introduction by the protocol wing of the foreign ministry.
   But, the French embassy, after inquiries and interview, found that James Areng was not Mankin’s son, as declared by the lawmaker.
   When contacted, Promode Mankin told the news agency that James Areng is his adopted son. ‘I am a politician. For the welfare of the people, I adopt orphans and bear their expenses. I tried to clarify the matter to the embassy, but they did not accept it,’ Mankin said.
   However, a senior official of the ministry of foreign affairs, requesting anonymity, said such case is not rare.

Islami Chhatra Shibir on Sunday asked the Rajshahi University authorities to take steps so that the name of RU unit president, Mahbub Alam Salehi, was not included in the charge sheet of the Professor Sayeed Taher Ahmed killing case.
   The student front of Jamaat-e-Islami at a rally on the RU campus also threatened the RU authorities with dire consequences if they failed to ensure non-inclusion of Salehi’s name in the charge sheet of Taher killing case. Taher, a geology and mining department teacher, was found dead in a septic tank on the campus on February 3.
   ‘You can do your duties freely as Shibir is ruling the campus. If Salehi is charge sheeted, you have to loss the chair,’ a former president of the central committee, Nurul Islam Babul, said pointing to the vice-chancellor.
   The rally, followed by a sit-in demonstration, was apparently a showdown of Shibir attended mostly by the outsiders and addressed by incumbent and former central committee, Rajshahi city unit and the university unit presidents.
   The speakers also criticised the BNP, which leads the four-party alliance government in which Jamaat is a partner, for what they said not taking the issue of Salehi seriously.

The author of the blockbuster novel The Da Vinci Code faces an English High Court challenge Monday from two men who claim he stole their ideas.
   Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh are suing their own publishers, Random House, claiming Dan Brown’s book draws heavily on their 1982 bestseller ‘Holy Blood, Holy Grail’.
   Brown’s 2003 book has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and earned the American 45 million pounds (66 million euros, 78.5 million dollars) in one year, instantly making the writer one of the world’s richest.
   Baigent’s and Leigh’s book tackles theories that Jesus and Mary Magdalene married, had a child, and the blood line continues to the present day—with the Catholic Church aware of the discovery and trying to suppress it.
   A third author, Henry Lincoln, is not part of the lawsuit.
   Brown’s book, which combines thriller, detective and conspiracy theory genres, explores similar themes about the Vatican covering up the true story of Jesus.
   The novel has been translated into 44 languages and drawn criticism from the Roman Catholic Church and historians.
   If Baigent and Leigh are successful and obtain injunctions preventing the use of their material it could threaten the British release of the film adaptation of ‘The Da Vinci Code’.
   The big screen version, costing 100 million dollars and starring American two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks, British veteran actor Sir Ian McKellen and French favourites Audrey Tatou and Jean Reno, is scheduled to open in Britain on May 19.
   The case is expected to last up to two weeks, barring a settlement. It is also likely to clarify the extent to which an author can use other people’s research under existing copyright laws.
   Brown acknowledges the theories of ‘Holy Blood, Holy Grail’ in his novel.
   The villain is called Sir Leigh Teabing, which bears a remarkable resemblance to Baigent and Leigh’s surnames.

A local leader of the Sreepur Awami League was killed and at least five persons were injured in a road accident at Hotapara in front of the gate of Air Force on the Dhaka-Mymenshingh Highway at Gazipur sadar on Sunday.
   The dead was identified as Ibrahim Khan, 45, vice-president of the Shreepur Upazila Awami League.
   Sources said a Shreepur-bound human hauler of ‘Champion’ service turned turtle at about 2.30pm and fell into a roadside ditch.
   Ibrahim died on spot and another five persons were injured. Local people sent the injured to local hospital.
   The body was sent to Gazipur Sadar Hospital morgue for post-mortem examinations.
   Advocate Rahamat Ali MP visited the sadar hospital to see the body and expressed his deep shock. A case was filed.

The motorcade of the leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, met with an accident on its way to Dhaka from Dinajpur on Sunday, leaving at least six members of her entourage injured.
   Five cars of the motorcade were damaged in the accident. Of the injured, the condition of one was stated to be critical.
   Hasina, also the Awami League president, however was unhurt.
   Following the grand rally of the 14-party alliance in Dinajpur and ending a three-day visit, Hasina was returning to the capital along with her entourage.
   The accident occurred at Jamilpur of Ghoraghat in Dinajpur, when one of the wheels of a microbus got entangled with a bamboo-made basket on the road.
   As the chauffeur of the microbus put on the brake hard, other vehicles of the fleet bumped onto each other from the rear leading to the accident.
   The Tanti League convener, Inajur Rahman Chowdhury, sustained injuries on his head.
   A personal staff of the opposition leader who accompanied her during the visit told journalists that somebody had put the basket on her way with an ill motive.

Bachchu Majhi, a suspected pirate gang leader, was killed in ‘crossfire’ between his associates and the police at Boyar Char under Tajumuddin upazila in Bhola early Sunday, raising the death count in such incidents to 493 since June 2004.
   The police said they arrested Bachchu from the house of one Lokman at the Chittagong port labour colony on Saturday after long chasing.
   Informed, the Tajumuddin police with the help of the Noakhali police chased Bachchu from Begumganj to Daganbhuiyan of Feni on Friday and arrested Shafiullah, brother of Bachhu, from Main Road in Feni Friday evening.
   Based on his statement, the police then arrested Bachchu from his shelter at the Chittagong port labour colony around Friday midnight and brought him to Bhola on Saturday.
   After interrogation, Bachchu was brought to Boyar Char shoal on Meghna to recover arms and ammunitions of the pirate gang led by him early Sunday.
   As the team reached the spot beside a canal, the alleged associates of Bachchu opened fire on the policemen who countered it.
   Both the groups exchanged more than 250 gunshots in the two-hour fight, the police claimed.
   Bachchu tried to escape during the fight but was killed on the spot after falling in line of fire.
   The police seized three guns with five cartridges from the spot.
   The police claimed that Bachchu was accused in more than two dozen cases of piracies, murders, looting, abduction and toll collections filed with different police stations in Bhola, Patuakhali and Noakhali and listed as a top criminal since long.

The Bangladesh Bus–Truck Malik Samity threatened to go for an indefinite transport strike on the greater Khulna routes from February 28 if the extortionists including Abu Sayeed not arrested by February 27.
   Leaders of the association said Mr Abu Sayeed, president of the Magura Malik Samity on Friday demanded Tk 12 lakh from the Eagle Paribahan.
   He locked the Eagle Paribahan’s office of Magura for not meeting the demand, alleged the association leaders.
   The association alleged that extortionists had ransacked 10 to 12 vehicles of the Eagle Paribahan and tortured its employees.

At least 30 people were injured, one of them by bullet, as activists of the Awami League and the ruling BNP were locked in a clash over fertiliser at Melandah in Jamalpur on Sunday.
   Witnesses said the trouble began at about 9:00am following an attack by BNP activists on farmers stopped an Islampur-bound fertilizer truck at Simultala crossing.
   The ruling party activists beat up at least 10 farmers and took away the truck resulting in the clash between the AL and BNP activists, they said.
   Protesting at the incident, angry farmers blocked the Jamalpur-Dewanganj road with logs at Shimultala.
   They also beat local BNP leader identified as Millat and damaged a bus leaving 20 people injured.
   Shahdat Hossain Bhutto, AL leader of Char Banipakuria union, who sustained wounds on the leg was taken to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital. He was later shifted to Dhaka in a critical condition.
   Melandah upazila AL president Habibur Rahman Chan said that he and Bhutto came under gun attack by BNP terrors at Govindaganj bazaar when they were returning home.

The Bangladesh Book Publishers and Sellers’ Associa-tion will keep all the bookshops at Banglabazar in Dhaka closed on March 7 demanding reduction in prices of local papers and withdrawal of import duty on all kinds of papers.
   The association president, Mohammad Abu Taher, announ-ced the programme at a press conference at its office on Liakat Avenue in the capital on Sunday.
   ‘There are about one thousand bookshops at Banglabazar (country’s book publishing hub), which will close on March 7,’ Taher said adding that a tougher programme would be announced, if their demands were not met immediately.
   The unusual price hike has been affecting students, publishers, and printing houses.
   The leaders demanded that the government should withdraw all kinds of import duty on newsprint and whiteprint papers, and take necessary steps to provide the book publishers with local-produced papers at fair price.
   Price of local newsprint has increased by Tk 20,000 per tonne in the retail mar- ket from Tk 42,000 in July 2005.
   Presently, local newsprint is selling at Tk 62,000 a tonne while the imported one between Tk 67,000 and 68,000.
   The country consumes more than 200,000 tonnes of paper including about 100,000 tonnes of newsprint and 30,000 tonnes of offset paper per year.
   Local production by a dozen mills caters to half of the total demand of whiteprint and newsprint while the produc-tion of offset paper is below 10,000 tonnes, industry sources said.
   For art paper and art card, the country largely depends on import, they said.

A policeman was critically injured when unidentified criminals hurled two bombs at a police patrol team at Komarpur Bazar in Mujibnagar upazila here on Sunday night.
   The injured, identified as constable Hasan Imam, 40, of Pirojpur district, was admitted to General Hospital in critical condition.
   Sources said two miscreants threw the bombs at the police team when Hassn, who was not on duty at the time, was talking to his colleagues at about 8:00pm.
   The police super of Mujibnagar visited the spot following the incident.