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Always On Network, a US-based communications services provider, has planned to give internet connections free of cost to all the primary schools of the country in next 10 years under nationwide wireless broadband network.
   The offer is part of corporate social responsibility of the company that has ventured on a $60 million project to provide high bandwidth advance internet services covering 85 per cent land of the country in the first phase.
   To this effect, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with the ministry of science, information and communication technology on Sunday at the PID conference room.
   The science and ICT secretary, Khan M Ibrahim, and the Always On Network chief executive officer, Quentin H Breen, signed the agreement on the project as part of the government’s national policy on ICT.
   The science and ICT minister, Abdul Moyeen Khan, and the Always On Network Bangladesh chief executive officer, Reaz Shaheed, witnessed the signing.
   The minister said the government had been trying to build infrastructure to give internet connections to all the primary and secondary schools of the country which would cost only $30 million.
   ‘But it could not have been implemented due to the fund crisis in the ICT sector. Moreover, our policy planners often fail to understand the importance of information technology’, regretted the minister.
   Moyeen Khan stressed the need for public-private partnership in implementation of the national policy, and appreciated the AONB for its cooperation with the government in ICT area with service mentality.
   Under the project, the company plans to build Middle Mile, Last Mile and backbone networks using wireless transmission equipments to expand high bandwidth internet services in the rural areas.
   Quentin said, ‘In the first phase, we’ll be able to cover 85 per cent of the area through our network and rest 15 per cent would be covered in the second phase.’
   He said that 10 per cent of the company’s income would be spent for social works and the connections to primary schools would be free of cost.
   The American internet service provider AON received licence from Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission in March this year as a joint venture company —- Always On Network Bangladesh Limited.
   There are about 78,000 registered, non registered, community and government primary schools across the country, while the number of secondary schools stands at around 16,000.
   AONB will offer services from their 620mbps backbone network both to corporate clients at $600 and retail users through the shared network at $6 a month.
   According to the memorandum of understanding, the company would erect tower for facilitating expansion of internet usage and electronic banking system, and promoting employments through wider ICT training.
   Among others, Dan Stanton, COO of AON, and Md Sayed Rahman and A K M Nurul Amin Khan of AONB were present at the programme.

Two underground party leaders were killed in two separate encounters between their cohorts and Rapid Action Battalion members at Joarbadhan and Shiromoni areas of Rupsa upazila in Khulna early Sunday raising the crossfire death count to 691 since June 2004.
   The deceased were identified as Billal Hossain alias Belal, 35, a member of Purba Banglar Communist Party (ML-Janajudhdha) and Shamim alias Golakata Shamin, 32, accomplice of Gazi Kamrul, chief of Biplobi Communist party.
   Witnesses said RAB arrested Belal Hossain, a cadre of Purba Banglar Communist Party (Harun Group) from a hideout at Amtola area of the city Friday night and took him with them during a raid to Joarbadhan village in the early hours Sunday.
   As soon as the team reached the spot, his accomplices opened fire on the RAB members, forcing them to fire back, resulting in a fierce shootout that left Belal with bullet wounds and dead on the spot, RAB said in a rerun of the same story attached to several hundreds of cross-fire deaths.
   Later, the RAB team recovered one pipe gun and three rounds of bullet from the scene.
   The elite crime-basting force also discovered Belal’s name in dozens of criminal cases, including six murders.
   In another incident, Biblobi Communist Party leader Shamim alias Galakata Shamim, was killed at Shiromoni under Sadar upazila.
   Battalion sources said, acting on a tip-off, a RAB team arrested Shamim from a hideout at Rupadia area in Jessore Saturday. RAB members along with Shamim went to Shiromoni areas in the early hours Sunday for recovering hidden arm and arrest his cohorts, who fired gunshots, prompting RAB people to fire back.
   Shamim was caught in the fire while trying to flee scene and died on the spot.
   He was also wanted in a number of cases including murder.
   The bodies were sent to Khulna Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsy.

Little or no access to formal routes often triggers movement of outbound migrants through risky irregular channels, speakers said at a discussion, urging for a change in tendency to look at migrants with suspicion.
   They emphasised the need for establishing formal and informal social protection mechanisms for migrants.
   The speakers gave the views at the concluding ceremony of a two-day international workshop on marginalised migrant workers and social protection organised by the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit of Dhaka University at the BRAC Centre Inn in Dhaka Sunday.
   They highlighted the need for devising appropriate policies to ensure the rights of migrants as they observed that migration is increasingly becoming a livelihood option for poor.
   QK Ahmad, president of Bangladesh Economic Association, said economic growth in many developing countries has not been accompanied by equitable distribution of resources. ‘The globalisation process has essentially been beneficial for the rich, and the poor are increasingly being marginalised,’ he said, demanding a role of the state in ensuring social protections for the poor.
   Chaired by professor Ann Whiltehead of the University of Sussex, the session was also addressed by C R Abrar of RMMRU and Janet Seeley of University of East Anglia, UK.
   Academics and activists from India, UK, Portugal, Egypt and host Bangladesh attended the international workshop, sponsored by DFID-supported Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalisation and Poverty.

Opposition leaders on Sunday warned that they would go for a tougher movement to make the interim government dysfunctional if justice KM Hasan is made its chief adviser.
   Leaders of the Awami League led opposition alliance sounded the note of warning from a rally in Dhaka.They pointed out that justice Hasan had been involved with BNP directly and said people would not allow him to head the next caretaker government.
   ‘There is constitutional bar to appoint a partisan man as the chief advisor of the caretaker administration,’ AL presidium member Abdur Razzak told the rally at Muktangan.
   The opposition combine organised the rally as a part of its countrywide demonstration against frequent power outages.
   ‘The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, is now saying that her government would solve power problem if they are voted to power again, while they failed to add even a single megawatt to the national grid during the five-year regime,’ Razzak said.
   City unit opposition alliance coordinator Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya chaired the rally followed by a procession.

The Bangladesh Open University vice-chancellor, Professor Ershadul Bari, and the minister for information, M Shamsul Islam, inaugurated the building of the coordination office of the university at Manikpur in Munshiganj on Saturday.
   After the ceremony, the university organised a discussion in the seminar room of the building.
   Acting Munshiganj deputy commissioner Ali Noor chaired the meeting. Shamsul Islam, Ershadul Bari, university registrar Manjur-e-Khoda Tarafdar, Dhaka area director of the university Hafij Ahmed, and Munshiganj municipal chairman Mujibur Rahman also spoke.
   The office building was constructed at a cost of Tk 70 lakh. There are about 1,500 students now enrolled with the Bangladesh Open University in Munshiganj.

Jordan will replace Bangladeshi workers with Jordanians in garment factories, The Jordan Times said Sunday.
   Jordan planned to deport guest workers in the wake of wide allegations against employers of violations of foreign workers’ rights in qualified industrial zones (QIZ), the daily said quoting Jordan’s labour minister Bassem Salem.
   The US National Labour Committee in its latest report criticised Jordan’s garment factories for violations of guest workers’ rights, including human trafficking, working hours, passport confiscation and overtime pay.
   The US report charged ‘Atateks’, a factory that produces garments for Target, JC Penney, Nautica and Russell in the US, with violations of the rights.
   ‘Ten workers were fired, imprisoned, beaten and forcibly deported back to Bangladesh in August,’ the NLC report said.
   The NLC claimed that Silver Planet, which produces clothes for Wal-Mart, fired, imprisoned, beat and forcibly deported another eight workers who demanded their most basic legal rights, on September 2.
   Workers at the Rainbow Textile Company in Al Dulayl Industrial Park in Zarqa, went on strike last week demanding an end to severe physical beatings, mandatory 15-hour shifts without overtime pay and continued confiscation of their passports.
   ‘The factory owner tried to deport 10 of the striking workers to Bangladesh, but they were taken off the aircraft before departure,’ Salem, the labour minister said, adding that the factory would be penalised.
   In addition, the NLC update accused Horizon Clothing Manufacturing, Jordan Silk Factory and Atlanta Textile Manufacturing of violating their workers’ rights.
   A study released this month by the labour ministry of Jordan reveals that 28 per cent of the 180,000 unemployed Jordanians are willing to work for QIZ factories for JD100-150 a month.
   The labour minister said the number of Jordanians willing to work in the QIZs would increase if the salary were higher.
   Jordan urged the garment sector people not to panic in response to the recent series of reports and updates released by the US government in the name of NLC, on violations of guest workers’ rights in the country.
   Although the overall progress continues, serious cases of human trafficking and wage and hour violations persist in garment factories, the NLC’s latest update said.

The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, stressed the importance of peaceful holding of the upcoming general election in Bangladesh for political stability and consolidating democracy in the country.
   ‘Bangladesh has made a great progress as a secular, democratic and moderate Muslim-majority country,’ he said in a word of praise for the nation’s effort towards progress.
   The EC president made the observations when AHM Moniruzzaman presented his credentials to him as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary and permanent representative of Bangladesh to the European Union in Brussels on Thursday.
   The Bangladesh envoy briefed EC president about the peaceful holding of last three general elections under neutral and nonpartisan caretaker government, which was ‘widely appreciated by all concerned’.
   He also apprised him of the ongoing dialogue and negotiations between the ruling BNP and the opposition Awami League on the election-reform process.
   The EC president highly appreciated the initiatives taken by the government in this regard.
   Stating that the Commission gives great value to its relations with Bangladesh, the EC president said, ‘The EC is proud of being a major contributor to the development process of Bangladesh.’
   He also appreciated the hard-working people of Bangladesh and assured active engagement by the European Commission in Bangladesh’s economic development and poverty alleviation.
   The EC president expressed satisfaction at the current balance of trade, which is heavily in favour of Bangladesh.
   He also reciprocated the greetings of the president and the prime minister of Bangladesh conveyed to him by ambassador Moniruzzaman and assured him of providing all cooperation and assistance during his tenure.

Country’s 25-30 million people, including 31 per cent in rural areas, have been suffering from chronic poverty with low consumption, hunger, malnutrition, lack of access to basic health services, illiteracy and other deprivations for over a decade.
   A report, released by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies on Sunday said although accurate figures are not available for urban areas, it put the figure at 25-30 million people who are chronically poor.
   ‘Although Bangladesh came out from the shadow of famine, the problem of starvation still persists,’ it said.
   Prof Rehman Sobhan, chairman of Center for Policy Dialogue, a civil society think tank, released the report titled ‘The state of the poorest 2005/06-Chronic poverty in Bangladesh: Tales of ascent, descent, marginality and persistence’.
   BIDS also held a meeting in this connection with BIDS DG Quazi Salehuddin in the chair. Prof Wahiduddin Mahmud, PKSF MD Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed and member GED of Planning Commission Dr Quazi Mesbahuddin attend the ceremony as special guests.
   Binayak Sen presented a power-point on the report while PPRC executive chairman Hossain Zillur Rahman delivered his review on the report.
   It said some 24 per cent of the country’s total population currently live in extreme poverty and about 19 per cent of rural households cannot have ‘full three meals’ a day, about 10 per cent subsists on two meals or less for a several months every year.
   According to the report, “consumption poverty” continues to decline for both the poor and the extreme poor, but high levels of vulnerability persist. The annual rate of decline was faster in the 1990s than the 1980s (2.7 per cent against 0.6 per cent) and was especially better in rural areas (2.1 percent against 0.2 percent).
   Binayak Sen said: ‘We usually focus on the people who are living just below the poverty line, not those who are living at the bottom of the poverty and remained there for years after years.’
   The report identified four channels of insecurity — extreme food insecurity, maternal and child malnutrition, health shocks and violence – that underlie the social reproduction of chronic poverty.
   The report also made some recommendations that include a broad-based growth strategy, public action by the state and efforts to help the poorest achieve a minimum level of citizenship.
   Prof Rehman Sobhan said the poor people of the country should be brought in the macro-economic involvement, they have to be provided with better price, access to market and water resources.

Three Juba Dal activists were shot dead by unknown assailants in sadar and Harinakundu upazilas under Jhenaidah Saturday night.
   Police said a gang of seven criminals opened fire on Lutfar Rahman alias Shanto, Sadar upazila Juba Dal unit publicity secretary while he was sitting at a grocery shop at about 11.45pm. Shanto died on the way to hospital.
   In another incident, two Jubo Dal activists Sagar and Altaf were chopped and shot dead while they were sitting at a tea stall at Parbatipur in Harinakundu upazila at about 8.30pm.
   Local Jubo Dal staged demonstration in the town protesting at the killings and demanded immediate arrest of the killers.

A full-fledged financial intelligence unit is likely to be set up in Bangladesh Bank by this year to check financial fraudulence.
   ‘We’re now procuring software and hardware to strengthen the FIU,’ Bangladesh Bank governor on Sunday said expressing the hope that the central bank would be able to set up the unit by this year.
   Meanwhile, he said, the country’s commercial banks have made progress in reconciling clients’ information and things were gradually improving.
   He asked the bankers at a meeting at the central bank to create awareness among their clients in this regard. ‘We’ll not step back from the KYC (Know Your Customer),’ he said.
   Setting up of a FIU has become imperative with apparent failure of the Anti-Money Laundering Act to curb financial fraudulence. Checking financial fraudulence emerges as a worldwide phenomenon on the ground as it is the source of terrorist financing.
   At a meeting with British chief secretary to treasury Stephen Timms on October 2, the finance minister recognised the need for an institution like financial intelligence unit.
   He also sought cooperation from the British Minister in replicating a successful British model of ‘serious fraud office’. The British minister also assured Bangladesh of providing their support in this regard.

The government has prepared a draft policy to reach power supply to the remote areas in line with a World Bank proposal, officials said on Sunday.
   Subject to cabinet approval, the policy will allow private-sector investors to set up small power generation plants in remote areas including in Hatibandha, Moheshkhali, Kutubdia and Hatia islands, the power ministry secretary ANH Akhter Hossain told the news agency.
   He said the ministry would soon send the policy, ‘Remote Area Power Supply System’, to the cabinet meeting for approval.
   Hossainsaid the bank had shown interest in funding such power plants in those distant areas that do not get power from the country’s national grid.
   The division has included stakeholders’ opinions in the draft for further adjustment just before sending it to the cabinet, Hossain said.
   Initially, the government would allow the private sector to install such plants in five to seven locations, he added.
   Meanwhile, power division sources said the lending agency earlier this year proposed Adaptable Programme Loan for the power sector but finally backtracked on it and sought total privatisation of the sector.
   Later, the bank showed interest in small power generation plants with private financing in remote areas, but it wanted a guarantee that the government would not initiate any public sector power supply scheme for a certain period in those project sites.
   ‘Considering these factors, the draft policy has been prepared,’ a power division official said.
   ‘If we get the cabinet’s approval, we will mobilise fund with the support from the bank’s IDA,’ the official said. International Development Association deals with the bank’s funds.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, took iftar with journalists at the Jatiya Press Club on Sunday.
   The Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists and the Dhaka Union of Journalists hosted the iftar party attended by ministers, MPs, editors, seniors journalists of different dailies, news agencies, weeklies and TV channels.
   The Dhaka Press Club president, Reazuddin Ahmed and the general secretary, Shawkat Mahmud, the BFUJ president, Mozammel Huq and the secretary general Ruhul Amin, Gazi, and the DUJ president, Elahi Newaz Khan and the general secretary, Sardar Farid Ahmed, welcomed the prime minister on her arrival at the press club.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, will leave for Saudi Arabia on October 14 to perform Umrah and meet the Saudi king, Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.
   She will also meet heads of some international organisations in Jeddah before returning home on October 21.
   This might be the last foreign tour by the prime minister before handing over power to the caretaker government by the end this month or early November.

The National Minimum Wage Board on Sunday sent its final draft recommendation for garment workers’ minimum wage to the labour ministry for taking necessary steps.
   Sources at the Wage Board said, ‘The labour ministry will now assess the feasibility of the draft proposal and take the next step regarding the minimum wage.’
   The Wage Board on Thursday formulated a proposal unanimously fixing the minimum wage for the garments workers at Tk 1662.50 per month.
   However, some unionists have stuck to their demand for the minimum wage at Tk 3,000..

The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, on Sunday assented to three bills passed in the just-concluded 23rd session of the 8th parliament.
   The bills are the Information Communication Technology Bill 2006, the Asian University for Women Bill 2006 and the Administrative Tribunals (Second Amendment) Bill 2006.