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A mobile on Monday jailed four persons and realised Tk 1 lakh in fines for selling spurious cosmetics, and one for dumping waste in public place.
   The court, led by Magistrate Rokon Ud-Doula, also filed five cases during the drive in Old Town of Dhaka and in Dilkhusha area.
   The court raided Bhai Bhai Traders at 339 Chawkbazar and found the workers packing cosmetics with labels of different brands.
   The workers were also refilling fairness cream, powder, shampoo, body spray and other items in empty bottles of different brands collected from the city people after their use. The brands include Fair & Lovely, Ponds, Sunsilk, Tibbet, Head & Shoulders, and Pentene.
   The court jailed one of the owners, Mohan, and issued warrant of arrest against another owner, Yusuf. The two were also fined Tk 1 lakh each.
   Yusuf, who is also the owner of another organisation, Yusuf and Brothers, at 404 Chawkbazar, was served second warrant of arrest for selling counterfeit cosmetics.
   The court also jailed Yusuf’s son, Md Manju, for one month and fined him Tk 1 lakh.
   Three employees of Yusuf and Brothers – Milan, Illias and Mamun — were also arrested by the court and each of them was fined Tk 1 lakh.
   Shops and markets in the capital are flooded with spurious cosmetics like fairness cream, powder, shampoo and lotion and most of those are marketed using the names of different brands popular worldwide, the mobile court sources said.
   Consumers are usually duped into buying the products finding the labels after the names of the brands mainly in the roadside shops alongside big shops and shopping malls, they added.
   The court later conducted drive at New Khandaker Restaurant at 22 Dilkhusha and issued arrest warrant against its owner, Jahangir Ahmed Khandaker, for dumping waste on the road. Jahangir was also fined Tk 1 lakh.
   The court sent the owner’s brother, Saleh Ahmed Khandaker, to one month jail on the charges and fined him Tk 1.50 lakh.
   The court also filed two cases against the restaurant under DCC Ordinance and Pure Food Ordinance.
   The same court realised Tk 1 lakh from Delwar Hossain, manager of Café Dilkhusha for violating the Pure Food Act.
   Another mobile court, led by Magistrate Nani Gopal Biswas, filed seven cases and realised Tk 1.50 lakh in fines from different organisations.
   The court filed the cases under the Pure Food Ordinance and realised Tk 10,000 from Raihan Bakery and Tk 20,000 from Asia Bakery at East Jatrabari, Tk 10,000 from Mohan Bakery at Dholaipar and Tk 25,000 from Simla Thai and Chinese Restaurant at the Rajdhani Super Market in Tikatuli area.
   The court fined Tk 20,000 against Badar Hotel in front of Sutrapur police station for keeping the cutlet and meat in a same bag in its refrigerator.
   The court also realised Tk 50,000 from Capital General Hospital at RN Das Road at Sutrapur for selling and providing treatment with crossed expiry dated medicines. The court found the medicines in the refrigerator at the operation theatre of the hospital.
   The court also realised Tk 15,000 from Jahangirnagar Hospital at Sutrapur for not having skilled and trained technicians and nurses.
   Another mobile court, led by magistrate ABM Abdul Fattah, fined two bakeries, a candy factory and a bottled water factory at Hazari Bagh Tk 2.5 lakh and filed four cases.
   The court fined Sonia Chocolate Factory Tk 1 lakh and each of Jalil Bakery, New Sonargaon Bakery and Nice Pure Drinking Water Tk 50,000.

The ban on journalists, restricting their entrance to the Rajshahi Medical College Hospital premises, is yet to go till Monday.
   The hospital authorities earlier pasted a notice on the notice board and different walls of the hospital in this regard on Wednesday. The notice read, ‘For information of all concerned, entrance of journalists has been prohibited for unavoidable circumstances.’
   Following imposition of the restriction, the local journalists were unable to enter the RMCH as the policemen were refused entrance into the hospital compound even for their personal necessities.
   The journalists were stopped at the hospital gate when they went to visit their under-treatment relatives.
   Mahatab Chowdhury, a senior journalist of local daily Sonali Sangbad alleged, on Monday morning I went to check up my chest pain at RMCH but the police did not allow me for treatment in the hospital.
   Selim Jahangir, a photojournalist of Janakantha alleged, on Sunday night when he went to ward No 25, where his aunt was receiving treatment, the on-duty police disallowed him saying ‘you are journalist’.
   The Rajshahi journalist community also urged the interim government to make arrangement for withdrawal of such restriction.
   The RMCH director Bozle Kader is reluctant to meet and talk to newsmen while deputy director Dr. Sheikh Jahid Hossain told newsmen that without permission of the director he would not talk to the newsmen.

Two hundred and twenty people were killed and 170 injured in road accidents in 10 districts of the Khulna division during the one year period ending July 2006, a seminar on road safety was told on Monday.
   Every seven out of 10 accident victims are the only
   earning member of their respective families and their
   deaths push the families into hardship, the seminar on ‘awareness of road safety’ was also told.
   The statistics quoted from a publication of the Khulna LGED also says that about 3,000 people die and 2,500 become injure in road accidents in the country every year.
   The Local Government and Engineering Department, Khulna organised the seminar with the regional superintendent engineer of LGED,
   Khulna, Mashiur Rahman, in the chair.
   The deputy commissioner of Khulna, SM Firoz Alam, deputy Commissioner of Bagerhat, Md Shahidul Islam, and Palli Unnayan Prakalpa project director engineer Md Abdus Saheed, among others, addressed the seminar.
   Senior government officials, NGO representatives, teachers and civil society members also attended.
   The speakers at the function stressed the need for creating mass awareness of following
   the traffic rules to ensure safe road.
   They pointed out unskilled drivers, overloading, competition for overtaking, reckless driving, disobeying traffic rules and carelessness of the drivers and pedestrians as main reasons for road mishaps.

Twenty-three day National Theatre Festival began at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in Dhaka on Monday.
   The festival is organised by Bangladesh Group Theatre Federation in cooperation with the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
   Eminent educationist Professor Zillur Rahman Sidiquee inaugurated the festival as chief guest while actress Ferdousi Majumder attended the function as special guest.
   M Hamid, chairman of the Bangladesh Group Theatre Federation presided over the inaugural session.
   The director general of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Qamrul Hassan, director of dramatics and film department of the academy Shafi Kamal, noted theatre personalities Keramat Mawla, Ramendu Majumdar, Nasiruddin Yousuff, Ataur Rahman, Mamunur Rashid, Sarah Zaker and Jhuna Chowdhury also spoke on the occasion.
   Zillur said ‘Now, nobody can talk about Bangladesh’s culture without mentioning theatre and the theatre of Dhaka is proud of staging world famous plays.’
   He also said the country needed more stages and playwrights.
   Ferdousi Majumdar said that the festival would create opportunity for the theatre groups particularly those who have come from outside Dhaka.
   The inaugural session was followed by the staging of the play titled ‘Samayer Prayojane’ by Theatre Art Unit at the Jatiya Natyashala and ‘Raarang’ by Aranyak Natyadal at the Experimental Theatre Hall.
   A total of 46 theatre groups from across the country will stage plays at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy everyday at 7:00pm till March 27.

Assets worth about Tk 20 crore have been destroyed in 368 fire incidents in the Barisal division in 2006 when the divisional fire service and civil defence acknowledged loss of only about Tk 8.31crore in the accidents.
   Among the 17 different causes of the huge loss, the victims identified negligence and inadequate services of the fire service and civil defiance authorities as the most important one.
   Golam Mustafa, deputy director of the Barisal fire service and civil defence directorate, denying the allegation, blamed ignorance and unconsciousness of the people about how to prevent fire accidents and extinguish the flames.
   The fire service sources said the highest 112 fire accidents took place in the Barisal district, causing losses of Tk 1.42 crore.
   The sources added that the highest 177 fire accidents were caused by short circuits, causing loss worth Tk 6.22 cores, 134 from the flame of lamps, causing losses worth Tk 90.5 lakh, and 17 fire from burning cigarettes, causing loss worth Tk 58.62 lakh.
   Burning ashes turned into devastating flames, damaging assets worth Tk 28.60 lakh in four incidents. The other causes of fire accidents in 36 incidents included playing with flames, over heat, crushing, arson.
   Besides, 252 fire accidents were caused in residential units, burning assets worth Tk 4.85 crore while 12 industrial fire accidents damaged assets worth Tk 1.2 crore.
   The rest 104 fire accidents happened in different places such as markets, shops, stations, religious, health and educational institutions.

Three Jamdani artisans were on Monday honoured with the Shilu Abed Crafts Award 2007 for their contribution to the weaving of traditional jamdani saris.
   The Shilu Abed Memorial Trust in association with the Bangladesh Crafts Council gave the award to Jalal Miah, Ismail and Jahangir Alam at a function at the BRAC Centre Inn in the Dhaka city.
   Each of the awardees, who hail from Narayanganj, received a certificate and Tk 50,000.
   The crafts council chairman, Munira Emdad, presided over the function attended by the BRAC chairman, Fazle Hasan Abed, also the husband of late Shilu Abed, as chief guest.
   Craft researcher Chandrashekhar Saha, the Memorial Trust member Rafiqul Islam, Crafts Council member Touren Robin, and Chhobi Huda, a friend of the late Shilu, discussed on the life of Shilu.
   The Memorial Trust and the Crafts Council introduced the award in 1998 in memory of Shilu Abed, who was a patron of the craft artisans in the country.
   Shilu had taken the leadership of Aarong, a sister concern of BRAC, in early 1980’s and worked for flourishing the traditional crafts at home and abroad.
   She had also worked for rehabilitating the artisans and their advancement. Also a social worker, Shilu died on April 23 in 1997.
   The Memorial Trust along with the Crafts Council honours craft artisans every year marking Shilu’s birth anniversary on March 5.
   Some 30 craft artisans have so far been awarded with the Shilu Abed Crafts Award in different categories, including weaving, jewelleries, ceramics, terracotta, nakshi-kantha, research and publication and jute products.

The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority on Monday evicted the occupants from 12 shops illegally constructed on its land near Bakushah Market at Nilkhet in Dhaka.
   The WASA eviction team, led by magistrate Akhlakur Rahman, raided the illegal shops on WASA land and evicted the illegal occupants from the shops, says a press release.
   The WASA officials said for a long time a section of people had been running business, making shops on the pump land which belonged to the WASA’s pump station in Bakushah Market area. The police supported the eviction drive.

A Barisal court on Sunday sentenced a man to life in prison for killing one of his co-villagers at Bamnakati village in Bakerganj upazila in March 2003.
   The first additional district and sessions judge, AKM Nasiruddin Mahmud, also fined Zabed Ali Howladar Tk 10,000, in default, to suffer six months more in jail. Three other accused of the case were acquitted.
   According to the prosecution story, in brief, Zabed beat Abdul Latif critically on March 31, 2003 over a land dispute.
   Latif was admitted to Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital, Barisal and later shifted to Sikdar Medical College Hospital in Dhaka. He died at his house on May 1.
   Latif’s wife, Fazilat Begum, filed an attempt to murder case with the Bakerganj police on April 1, 2003 accusing four persons. With the death of Latif, the case turned into a murder case.
   Sub-inspector Abdus Samad Howladar, also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet on November 10, 2003. The court after examining 10 witnesses and other records handed down the verdict.

A two-day music festival, organised by the Dhaka office of the United Nations Education Science Culture Organisation (UNESCO) and the Centre for Education, Culture and Performing Arts, began at the Shaheed Zia auditorium of Bangladesh National Museum in the Dhaka city on Monday.
   The UNESCO representative in Bangladesh, Malama Meleisea, and chairman of the centre, Azad Rahman, were present at the inaugural session of the festival. Malama Meleisea said the UNESCO has been working for the promotion of the local culture and heritage across the world.
   ‘As a part of the UNESCO activities, we are also working to promote Bangladeshi culture. We will also arrange this sort of promotional activities in Bangladesh in future,’ Meleisea said.
   Azad Rahman said that the main aim of the festival is to popularise and promote both classical and folk music among the people of younger generation.
   ‘As a part of our regular programmes, we organise the festival every year to highlight the songs which are not widely sung. Unfortunately, the practice of classical music in Bangladesh is limited. In this regard we want to promote it, which is the base of modern Bangla songs,’ he said.
   On the first day of the festival, the organisers arranged a soiree of classical vocal music. Eminent classical singer Ustad Yasin Khan presented Kheyal while Asit Roy presented both Kheyal and Dhrupada, Shamima Parveen performed Thumri on the day.
   Veteran folk lyricist and singer Baul Abdul Karim Shah will perform at the festival. Monowar Shah, Mustafa Zaman Abbasi, Chandana Majumdar, and Bipul Bhattacharjee will also sing at the function today.

A two-day international conference on community-based fisheries management begins in the Dhaka city today.
   The Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, the World Fish Center, Bangladesh and its South Asia office will organise the conference at Radisson Water Garden Hotel.
   The adviser in-charge of the agriculture, livestock and fisheries ministry, CS Karim, will inaugurate the conference as chief guest with Department of Fisheries director general M Nazrul Islam in the chair.
   Syed Ataur Rahman, secretary of the fisheries and livestock ministry, will be special guest where the World Fish Center, Penang, Malaysia office director general Dr Stephen J Hall will present the keynote paper

Weather may remain mainly dry with partly cloudy sky all over Bangladesh till 6:00pm today, said the Met Office in a forecast on Monday.
   Day temperature may rise slightly. The highest temperature on Monday, 31.5 degrees Celsius, was recorded at Teknaf and the lowest, 13.8 degrees Celsius, in Rangamati.
   The sun sets in the capital city today at 6:03pm and rises on Wednesday at 6:16am.
   The Met Office predicts light change in the outlook for subsequent two days and rainfall in the extended outlook for another five days.

The US ambassador, Patricia A Butenis, has said the United States is committed to innovating efforts to improve the political, social and economic standing of women in Bangladesh and around the world.
   ‘The active involvement of women in all levels of political life is vital for genuine democracy and effective governance. Thus, in Bangladesh we support a project to improve the capacity of women to campaign and serve as public office,’ she said in a statement on Monday marking International Women’s Day.
   Butenis said Washington also supported labour right of urban garment workers, many of whom are women from rural areas, and sponsored public awareness campaign on women’s legal rights and access to alternative dispute resolutions as well as legal aid for domestic violence and other forms of human rights abuse.
   She said urban and rural poverty often indicated a missed opportunity for women’s participation and a failure to use human capital to promote economic development.
   On health issue, she said the US was committed to improving the health of women in Bangladesh and focus on improving family health and reducing fertility. Since 1977, the US has funded 35 local NGOs and other organisations to deliver essential health services.

DU Gha unit
viva-voce Mar 17
The viva-voce of the successful applicants of Gha (combined) unit of Dhaka University will begin on March 17 according to the merit lists. The viva-voce of science, arts and commerce background applicants will be taken respectively on March 17-18, 19 and 20. The eligible candidates are asked to bring the admit card, original transcript of HSC and SSC examination and two copies of attested passport size photograph. A press release of DU said.

Women’s Day observed in
Rajshahi
A Rajshahi-based NGO, Association for Community Development, held a meeting at the Rajshahi Press Club on Monday, marking International Women’s Day. Speakers at the meeting demanded trial and exemplary punishment for the killers of school girls Mili, Joly and domestic help Nurbanu. They also demanded effectiveness of existing acts for punishing killers and rapists. ACD field co-ordinator Mesmaul Sarker, officials Kamruzzaman Hizol, Ahsanul Amin and Rabeya Khatun spoke on the occasion. A rally was also brought out in the city in the afternoon where hundreds of school children, their parents, teachers and NGO activists took part.
— New Age