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The Dhaka City Corporation demolished 20 makeshift and semi-concrete shops at Kaptan Bazar on Wednesday.
   Of the demolished structures, 12 are makeshift shops made of tin, wood and bamboo and the remaining are semi-concrete tin-roofed shops, a corporation official said.
   All the 20 shops adjacent to Kaptan Bazar abattoir were demolished without any resistance and untoward incident, the official said.
   The corporation authorities resumed its demolition drive on November 5. The drive was suspended before Ramandan.
   The drive will continue in different parts of the city throughout the month, a source in the corporation said.
   The ongoing demolition drive targets concrete, semi-concrete and dirt-made structures, including houses, shops and brick walls built by occupying the DCC lands in different areas of the corporation’s 90 wards, a DCC official said.
   The corporation conducted demolition drive against illegal occupation of DCC lands after the current interim government took office in January.

The 24 government schools in the Dhaka city will start selling admission forms for the 2008 academic year on December 12 and will continue it till December 26.
   The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, which regulates the admission process of the schools, fixed the timetable at a meeting on Wednesday. DSHE director general KM Aurangazeb chaired the meeting.
   The heads of the 24 schools told the meeting that the decision to hold the admission tests could not be taken this month as all the teachers were busy with and the classrooms occupied for voters’ registration, DSHE director (secondary) ANM Shareef told New Age.
   ‘The voters’ registration in Dhaka, so far I know, will continue till January 31, 2008 and we will talk to the Election Commission authorities before fixing the date for the admission tests,’ he said and hinted that the tests might be held by January 20.
   Like the previous year, the price of admission form has been fixed at Tk 100. The forms will be available in the respective schools between 9:00am and 4:00pm on every office day.
   The schools are divided into three groups — Group A, B and C — on the basis of geographical location and the quality of education in part.
   The students will be required to take a 100-mark written examination for the admission.
   The schools under Group A are Government Laboratory High School, Mirpur Government High School, Motijheel Government Girls’ High School, Khilgaon Government High School, Nawabpur Government High School, New Government Girls’ High School, Islamia Government High School and Mohammadpur Government High School.
   The Group B schools are Motijheel Government Boys’ High School, Narinda Government High School, Government Muslim High School, Banglabazar Government Girls’ High School, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Government Boys’ School, Tejgaon Government Bigyan College adjacent High School, Dhanmondi Government Girls’ High School and Dhanmondi Quamrunnessa Government Girls’ High School.
   The Group C schools are Armanitola Government High School, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Government Girls’ High School, Dhaka Collegiate School, Ganabhaban Government High School, Tikatuli Qamrunnisa Government Girls’ School, Tejgaon Government Girls’ High School, Tejgaon Government High School and Dhanmondi Government Boys’ High School.

Speakers at a seminar in Chittagong on Wednesday called upon the United Nations as well as the countries and organisations concerned to take effective measures for protecting fundamental rights of the refugees in compliance with the UN Convention.
   They said the refugee issue has gradually been turning into a serious problem globally due to increasing regional, social, and inter-state conflicts and wars. Concerted efforts are needed to address the issue, they added.
   The seminar, titled ‘refugee rights and refugee protection’, organised by the law department of Premier University, Chittagong and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Bangladesh, at the university.
   Anupam Sen, vice-chancellor of the university, inaugurated the daylong seminar with M Badaruddin, chairman of the Department of Law, in the chair. Dean of the Law Faculty of Chittagong University Mohammad Zakir Hossain, deputy representative (protection) of the UNHCR, Dhaka Francis Teoh and its national protection officer Uttam Kumar Das also addressed.
   The speakers said currently the number of refugees rose to 100 crore globally and Bangladesh was also facing serious economic, social and political consequences due to refugee exodus from Myanmar.

A Rajshahi court on Wednesday sentenced two persons to life-term imprisonment for human trafficking in 2001.
   The judge of the district and session judge’s court, Mirza Sirajul Islam, handed down the verdict against the two and acquitted one of the charges.
   The court also fined the convicts Tk one lakh each or in default, they have to suffer one year more in jail.
   The convicts are Amit Hossain alias Amir and Jafar Alam of Cox’s Bazar.
   According to the prosecution, Amit and Jafar were trying to traffic 81 persons of Cox’s Bazar, including woman and children, on August 1, 2001 promising them with jobs in Pakistan.
   A team of the Bangladesh Rifles raided a mango orchard at Faridpur under Godagari upazila in Rajshahi and nabbed Amit and Jafar and Shahnaj at around 3:00am. After interrogation, the BDR later handed over them to Godagari police station.
   A case was filed with Godagari police station in this connection the same day.
   The investigation officer of the case, sub-inspector Tamiz Uddin, submitted charge sheet on 26 March 2002.
   After examining witnesses and evidences, the court pronounced the verdict against the two and acquitted Shahnaj of the charge.

Checking early marriage is not the only solution to numerous problems of adolescents in the country, speakers at the concluding session of a two-day regional workshop in Khulna said on Tuesday.
   They stressed the need for ensuring social security, livelihood and remove vices like eve teasing in order to improve the situation particularly in the rural areas.
   The workshop on action plan development, based on adolescent reproductive health strategy’ was organised at the museum auditorium in the city as part of the programme to develop a national-level action plan for ARH interventions in Bangladesh.
   A series of divisional-level workshops have been planned to share the experiences of the programme, being implemented by the Department of Youth Development with the support from the UNFPA. The workshop of Khulna and Barisal divisions were held in Khulna.
   The programme has six-fold objectives towards improving the reproductive health status of young people in Bangladesh, which include providing information, education, adolescent friendly services, creating enabling environment, preventing early marriage and early pregnancy, and reducing STI, STD and HIV/AIDS incidences.
   Director of the Maternal and Child Health ATM Mustafa Kamal inaugurated the workshop attended by officials from departments, directorates and divisions of different ministries in the districts under Khulna and Barisal divisions, NGO representatives, parents, teachers, religious leaders, journalists and adolescents.
   Divisional director of family planning in Khulna Farida Begum, Barisal’s divisional director of family planning Roushan Ara Begum and Khulna’s divisional director for health Jebunnessa Khatun spoke on the function.
   The UNFPA national programme officer Noor Mohammad presented a paper detailing the present scenario of adolescent lifestyle and the vision and objective of the national programme.
   He also suggested a number of measures to improve the knowledge of the adolescents and to create a positive change in the attitude and behaviour of the gatekeepers of adolescents towards reproductive health.
   Representatives of the adolescent boys said the parents are needed to be oriented for the success of the national programme.
   Girl representatives called upon the parents not to differentiate between their male and female children and look upon them with equally.
   Portraying a picture of the rural society, a father of a girl said he was compelled to marry off her daughter at the age of 12 because of eve teasing by wards of influential persons.
   ‘One of the boys even went to the police station and stopped the marriage ceremony. I then went to the court and made an affidavit stating that my daughter was 18 to confirm the marriage,’ he said.

An eight-day Bangladesh Food and Cultural Festival will begin at the poolside of Radisson Water Garden Hotel in Dhaka tomorrow with an aim to showcase Bangladeshi delicacies.
   The festival will remain open to all till November 23. It will showcase Bangladeshi cuisines such as chatpati, different kinds of bharta, bhaji, korma, pilau, biriani, khichuri, rosh golla, rosh malai, patishapta, bhapapitha. The festival will only offer dinner starting from 6:30pm to 10:30pm every day.
   Cultural activists will perform to uphold Bangladeshi culture. Every evening the cultural team will perform songs such as Rabindra sangit, Nazrul sangit, bhatiali, harano diner gan and Lalan geeti.

Writers, academics and publishers paid tributes to world famous Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren by celebrating her birth centenary in Dhaka on Wednesday.
   They remembered Lindgren, globally acclaimed as writer for children, at a discussion held at Poet Sufia Kamal Auditorium of the National Museum to mark her birth centenary.
   The Swedish ambassador, Britt F Hagstrom attended as chief guest the discussion organised by the Ankur Prakashani with national professor Kabir Chowdhury in the chair.
   Kajal Bandyopadhaya, associate professor of Dhaka University and Akimun Rahman, associate professor of the Independent University, presented two papers on life and works of Lindgren.
   Writers for children Ahmed Majhar, Amirul Islam and chief executive officer of Ankur Prakashani Mesbahuddin Ahmed, among others, addressed the function. Speaking on the occasion, the Swedish envoy said her (Lindgren) books had been translated into at least 90 languages with more than 145 million copies of her Pippy Longstocking, Emil and other books.
   Kajal Bandyopadhaya said, ‘There is much food for thought and feeling in and around Lindgren who sat on the horse of her time in quite an astride manner and will not soon get down.’
   Astrid Lidgren was born in Sweden on November 14, 1907. She wrote 90 books of fiction for children and adults. He won the alternative Nobel Prize – Right Lovelihood Prize in 1994. She died in 2002.

A discussion meeting on awareness of breast cancer was held at Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital on Wednesday.
   Bangladesh Cancer Foundation Hospital with the support of Nokia, mobile phone manufacturer, organised the programme.
   Ahsan Shamim, associate professor and head of radiotherapy department of SBMCH, chaired the meeting attended by Aziz Rahim, principal of Sher-e-Bangla Medical College, as chief guest. SBMCH director Maniruzzaman Mia was present as special guest.
   Habibullah Talukdar, associate professor and head of cancer epidemiology department of National Cancer Research Institute and Hospital, Jahangir Alam, associate professor of microbiology department, and Tarun Kumar, assistant professor of cancer epidemiology department of SBMCH also addressed the meeting.
   The speakers said breast cancer was becoming a threat for women health in the country and it could be prevented by creating awareness and regular tests. Fifty were offered free screening at the programme.

Rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely at many places over Chittagong, Barisal and Khulna divisions and moderately heavy to heavy falls at places over the coastal regions of the country in the next 24 hours till 6:00pm today, the Met Office said.
   The night temperature may rise by 1-2 degrees Celsius over the country, it said.
   The country’s highest temperature on Wednesday, 31.4 degrees Celsius, was recorded at Bogra and the lowest, 17.4 degrees Celsius, at Ishurdi.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 5:13pm and rises tomorrow at 6:14am.

The Anti-Corruption Commission on Wednesday decided to notify three more corruption suspects, including former adviser to the caretaker government Justice Fazlul Haque, asking for their wealth statements.
   Two others are deputy secretary Shamsul Alam, also assistant private secretary to former prime minister Khaleda Zia, and Rajuk’s inspector and CBA president Kazi Amir Khasru.
   With the three, the commission had approved the proposal for notifying 10 people named on the latest list of 35 high-profile corruption suspects announced on October 4.
   The commission on Sunday and Tuesday decided to notify former ministers Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury and Quamrul Islam, former lawmaker AKM Rahmatullah, Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, Awami League presidium member Tofail Ahmed, former finance minister Saifur Rahman’s son Shafiur Rahman Babu and former BTRC chairman Taimur Alam Khandakar.
   The commission approved the proposal for notifying the 10 following preliminary investigation carried out by it, and the anti-graft taskforces found them owning wealth beyond their known sources of income, sources in the ACC said.
   Even though the inquiry reports on 11 of the 35 corruption suspects had already been submitted, the commission was yet to approve the proposal for notifying the other — former communications secretary Rezaul Hayat, said a senior official of the commission.
   As a part of the drive against corruption, the ACC on October 4 named the 35 people as corruption suspects and started investigation into alleged
   corruption of the 11 on October 23.
   The sources said the inquiry teams and taskforces were conducting investigation into alleged corruption of the 24 out of the 35 corruption suspects.

Bangladesh Adivasi Odhikar Andolan on Wednesday urged the government to ensure security and rehabilitation of the affected indigenous people at Kazipara village of Patnitala in Naogaon district.
   At least 15 people were injured when a gang of land grabbers attacked indigenous families and looted and torched 17 of their houses on October 5.
   The gang reportedly grabbed 1.33 acres of land in the village, saying they leased it from the government in 1991 for 99 years.
   Following the incident, the upazila land distribution committee after investigation canceled the lease of the accused persons who made the attack and recommended that the land should be leased out to the landless indigenous people.
   Bangladesh Adivasi Odhikar Andolan in a statement urged the authorities concerned to implement the recommendations of the land distribution committee.
   The rights group also urged the district administration to take immediate actions against attackers.

Two metropolitan magistrate’s courts of Dhaka on Wednesday set today for hearing petitions to remand Tarique Rahman, elder son of the detained former prime minister Khaleda Zia, in police custody for interrogation in two extortion cases.
   Tarique will be produced in the courts for the hearings, court officials said. He is now detained in the Dhaka Central Jail.
   Metropolitan magistrate Shawkat Chowdhury will hear one of the petitions to remand Tarique for seven days in police custody in the Tk 1.32 crore extortion case filed against his close friend Giasuddin Al-Mamun and five others with the Gulshan police on March 27.
   Tarique, senior joint secretary general of the BNP, was later shown arrested in the case based on a confessional statement made by Giasuddin, the investigation officer told the court.
   ‘We need to interrogate Tarique to gather more information about the alleged extortion and to arrest the other accused who are now on the run,’ the IO, Imtiaz Hossain, told New Age.
   Another metropolitan magistrate, Sultan Mahmud, will to hear the second petition to remand Tarique for seven more days in police custody for interrogation in another case filed against Giasuddin on April 1 with the Dhanmondi police.
   The plaintiff, Zahid Hossain, a contractor of the Roads and Highways Department, alleged that he paid Tk 53 lakh in three cheques in 2004 to Giasuddin at his Banani office. Tarique was also shown arrested in the case based on Giasuddin’s confessional statement.
   The army-led joint forces arrested Tarique on March 7 at Khaleda Zia’s Dhaka cantonment residence. He was charged with extorting Tk 1 crore from a construction firm the next day.
   The firm owner, Amin Ahmed Bhuiyan, filed the case with the Gulshan police on March 7. The High Court later stayed the proceedings in the case.

The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, has called upon the International Lions Club to extend their assistance to mitigate arsenic problems in the country.
   He also sought the club’s cooperation in facing the adverse impacts of the global warming in Bangladesh, says a Bangabhaban press release.
   The president made the request when an 11-member delegation of International Association of Lions Clubs, led by its president Mahendra Amarasuriya made a courtesy call on him at Bangabhaban.
   The military secretary to the president, Major General Mohd Aminul Karim, the secretary, Md Sirajul Islam, and the press secretary, Abdul Awal Howlader, were present during the meeting.
   Welcoming the delegation, Iajuddin praised the Lions Clubs International for contributing significantly to the well being of the mankind, especially the treatment of eye diseases globally.
   Mahendra Amarasuriya apprised the president of the activities of Lions Clubs International in Bangladesh and others 201 countries in the world.
   Describing the Lions Club as the biggest philanthropic international organisation, he said they had been working for providing support to the have-nots section of the society in Bangladesh and extending treatment facilities to the people through establishing hospitals in major cities in the country including Dhaka and
   Chittagong.

The Anti-Corruption Commission on Wednesday approved the proposal to press charges against eight corruption suspects, including former Awami League lawmaker HBM Iqbal, his wife Momtaz Begum Dolly, his two sons and a daughter on charge of amassing wealth beyond their known sources of income.
   The commission’s director general for administration Hanif Iqbal told reporters Iqbal and his wife had been accused of owning property of Tk 11.34 crore beyond their known sources of income. The case was lodged the Dhanmondi police on June 26, 2007.
   Three others who would be charged in the case are former Awami League lawmaker and City Juba League general secretary Mirza Azam, and Shawkat Ali and Mohammad Ali Swapan, the official said.
   He said the commission had also decided to lodge cases against Rafiqul Islam, a former state minister for power, and Rafiqul Anwar, also known as Sona Rafiq, a former Awami League lawmaker for a Chittagong constituency, for their involvement in corruption.

The Workers Party politburo on Wednesday expressed its concern about the comment of the law adviser, Mainul Hosein, on the war criminal issue.
   Mainul at a briefing on Sunday said the demand of the trials of the war criminals could hamper the holding of the general elections and it could create anarchy. The party termed the comment echo of the voices of Jamaat-e-Islami leaders.
   Jamaat leaders are claiming there are no war criminals and they have termed the war of independence a ‘civil war’ and a war between Pakistan and India, which is against the constitution, the politburo said.
   The politburo demanded concerted efforts for holding the trials of the 1971 war criminals.
   Chaired by the party president, Rashed Khan Menon, the meeting was attended by general secretary Bimal Biswas, and politburo members Haider Akbar Khan Rano, Nurul Hasan, Anisur Rahman Mallik, Fazle Hossain Badsha, Iqbal Kabir Zahid and Noor Ahmed Bakul.

The 36th anniversary of death of physicians Azharul Haque and Humayun Kabir will be observed today.
   The collaborators of the Pakistani occupation forces killed the two doctors of Dhaka Medical College Hospital during the war of independence in 1971 on this day. To mark the day, a prayer session will be held at Azimpur graveyard (old) after asr prayers. Friends, relatives and well-wishers have been requested to attend the programme.

The Dhaka University Teachers’ Association on Wednesday urged the government to cancel the decision of delegating the land at Suhrawardy Udyan to the Dhaka Club for golf course.
   The association in a release also urged the government to keep the place open for greater interest of city dwellers. The government has recently delegated 25 acres of land at Suhrawardy Udyan to the Dhaka Club for using it as a golf course, said the release signed by DUTA acting president Tazmeri SA Islam and acting general secretary Mamun Ahmed.
   They said, ‘The decision to allocate the land of the park to a section of people for special use is unwanted and unacceptable.’ ‘The university teachers and students along with city dwellers feel hurt at the decision.’

Mugger held with revolver in city
The police arrested an alleged mugger and seized revolver in his possession at Pallabi in Dhaka on Wednesday. The arrested was identified as Golam Mostofa, 18. The police said they chased a gang of three muggers at about noon when they were running away after snatching three mobile sets and Tk 15,000 in cash from Binimoy Telecom Service at Pallabi. At one stage, the police caught Mostafa and seized a foreign revolver in his possession. Two others managed to flee with the booty.
— UNB

Training for young newsmen begins in Khulna
A month-long training programme for young journalists of Khulna began at the training centre of a local non-governmental organisation Ashroy in Khulna Wednesday morning. The News Network with the help of International Programme for the Development of Communication and UNESCO is organising the programme, titled ‘capacity building of the young journalists’. Twenty-five Khulna-based young journalists of different national and local newspapers are taking part in the programme. Chaired by the News Network editor Shahiduzzaman, the inaugural session was addressed by daily tribune editor Begum Ferdousi Ali, Khulna Press Club president Makbul Hossain Mintu, general secretary Saheb Ali, Ashroy executive director Momtaz Begum and senior journalist Sheikh Didarul Alam.
— New Age