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The deputy commissioners on Saturday sought ration cards and an increase in the pay structure for government employees to help them to cope with the soaring essential goods prices.
   The local administrators placed the proposals at their annual conference, inaugurated by the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, in the Chief Adviser’s Office in Dhaka on the day.
   In the working sessions, they observed although law and order was better at the moment, it might deteriorate any time if the commodity prices could not be kept at a tolerable level, said sources attending the meeting.
   ‘We have stressed the need for arresting the soaring essential goods prices to maintain law and order, which is now at a satisfactory level,’ a deputy commissioner told New Age.
   They also suggested that government officials and employees should be provided with health cards so that they could get medical facilities free.
   ‘We have proposed that the government should introduce rations for government employees and officials to help them to cope with exorbitant prices of essential commodities,’ the Sherpur deputy commissioner, Samsunnahar Begum, told New Age at the secretariat, adding that the government would consider the matter.
   Talking with the reporters in his office, the cabinet secretary, Ali Imam Majumder, said, ‘The deputy commissioners have placed proposals concerning both national and local problems. They have recommended revising schedules of the development projects because of increase in construction material prices.’
   In the first working session, chaired by the finance adviser, AB Mirza Azizul Islam in the Chief Adviser’s Office, the district administrators spoke about the difficulties the government officials and employees were facing with goods prices spiralling out of control, said official sources.
   All other sessions were held at the Cabinet Division in the secretariat as was scheduled.
   The deputy commissioners
   informed the government it had become almost impossible for government officials and employees to continue with the education of their children and ensure health facilities for their families with the limited incomes in the present situation.
   ‘Spiralling prices of essential commodities, law and order and poor implementation of the annual development programme were the issues widely discussed in the first day’s working sessions, also addressed by the home affairs adviser, MA Matin, the cultural affairs adviser, Rasheda K Chowdhury, and the establishment secretary, Md Abdus Salam.
   Matin said the meeting discussed overall law and order of the country. ‘We have also discussed the police reform proposals with the deputy commissioners.’
   The deputy commissioners requested the finance ministry for quick release of the fund allocated for development projects to ensure their proper and timely implementation.
   They informed the meeting of the impediments they faced in discharging their responsibilities, including mobile court operation and the preparation of reports on various cases after the separation of the judiciary that had come into force in November 2007.
   The cabinet secretary in his address of welcome stressed the need for legal protection for deputy commissioners so that they could function better in protecting people’s interest.
   The four-day annual conference was curtailed to three days.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, on Saturday asked the deputy commissioners and heads of the field-level civil administrations to start preparatory work to create an atmosphere conducive to holding the stalled national elections in a free and fair manner.
   He gave the directive while inaugurating the four-day deputy commissioners’ conference 2008 at the International Conference Centre in Dhaka.
   The chief adviser also urged the DCs and field-level government officials to remain ready ‘in all situations’ to cooperate with the Election Commission in holding the elections.
   He reminded the district administrators that the prime objective of the present government was to hold a free, fair, neutral and acceptable election by December this year.
   This was the second conference of the deputy commissioners after the present caretaker government assumed office in January last year.
   Fakhruddin said the Election Commission has so far made considerable progress to this end and the commission had discussions with political parties and civil society members on electoral reforms.
   The voter listing work with photographs has progressed fairly well with the direct cooperation of the army, district and upazila administrations and various educational institutions.
   He said the district administrations would have to extend necessary assistance to quickly finish the electoral roll in areas where voter listing has not yet been completed.
   Terming the law and order very important for holding free and fair polls, he said the district administrations will have keep up their activities to maintain sound law and order situation in their respective districts.
   Referring to the constitutional responsibilities of every employee of the republic, the chief adviser said the government employees will have to be uncompromising when it comes to honesty, neutrality and patriotism, giving top priority to people’s welfare.
   ‘Your accountability to the state, people, law and constitution has to be beyond question. ‘Transparency, accountability, efficiency and professionalism will have to be maintained in your every activity,’ he told the government officials.
   He urged them to always remain alert and active in implementing government commitments and objectives. ‘Any negligence in this regard won’t be allowed,’ he warned.
   Mentioning various steps and efforts taken by the present government for establishing a sustainable foundation for democracy and good governance in the country and improving socio-economic condition of the people, he said despite the multifarious steps and efforts there has been an abnormal price hike of some essential food items.
   The government is taking all possible steps to face the food price situation, the chief adviser said adding that imports both by the private and public sectors have increased, while the import process, conditions and system have been simplified.
   He also mentioned that some other steps, including withdrawal of duty on some very essential commodities, countrywide expansion of the open market sale (OMS) of rice, sale of rice at a subsidised rate for the lower income and poor people under social safety network programme and opening of fair price shops by BDR, Ansar and VDP.
   The chief adviser urged the field-level civil officials to relentlessly work for ensuring smooth supply and distribution of agricultural products, including cooking oil, and holding regular meetings and consultation with the local business community to overcome the situation.
   He also laid emphasis on boosting agricultural production, as there is no alternative to it to keep the prices of essential commodities at a tolerable level. He called for reaching agri-inputs to the farmers apart from providing them with suitable technologies to give a boost to the production.
   ‘We are expecting bumper production of Boro paddy this time and the government is taking preparation to procure Boro rice and paddy, he said.
   The chief adviser called on the DCs to make sure that no arable land remains uncultivated, saying attention will have to be given to turning single-crop lands into two-crop ones, and two-crop ones into three-crop ones. Stressing the need for modernising land management and making its accountable and dynamic, he said local hats and bazars would have to be leased out in a transparent process.
   He said farmers’ markets being set up by the Local Government Division would cast a positive impact on rural economy as well as overall national economy.
   He said it is necessary to keep in mind local hats and bazars and growth center-oriented informal economy have an immense importance as the fate of the poor is closely involved with these things. ‘So you’ll have to remain sensitive when it comes to the livelihood of the local people apart from obeying government rules and regulations.’
   About the problems of the government officials, he said the government was taking effective steps to solve their transport and other logistic problems both at the district and upazila levels.
   He said the his government is considering allocation of mobile phones for upazila nirbahi officers as the function of mobile phones in facing disasters has already been proved.

The army chief, General Moeen U Ahmed, on Saturday dismissed the notion of any crisis of rice in the country, saying ‘a crisis has been created’.
   ‘Where is the crisis? There is no crisis. Crisis has been created. Price has increased, but no crisis,’ he told reporters after visiting city’s wholesale market at Karwan Bazaar.
   The army chief made the comment to the newsmen in the wake of alleged jacking up of the commodity prices.
   General Moeen, whose force is aiding the interim government, observed that people now went for panic buying of excess rice. ‘If a consumer buys four sacks of rice, a situation may crop up out of this pooling.
   ‘Inshallah, there’ll be no problem if we can tackle the situation for next 20 days,’ he said.
   Seeking positive role from the media, the army chief said it is the responsibility of all to stabilise the market prices. He advised the market association to monitor that same variety of rice is sold at the same price.
   General Moeen said there is enough stock of rice with the dealers. He viewed that there is no Indian rice—all of it is Bangladeshi rice. ‘Millers charge high, resulting in the price hike.’
   The army chief expressed the optimism that this year there is going to be a good harvest of Boro paddy.
   General Moeen said this year 80 lakh tonnes of potato were produced while the preservation capacity is only 20 lakh tonnes.
   He advised people to change their food habit and eat rice along with potato everyday so that potato growers get fair price and be encouraged to cultivate potato next year too.
   The director general of paramilitary BDR, Maj General Shakil Ahmed, whose force is engaged in rationing rice and some other essentials under OMS, also said there is sufficient rice in the country with a stock of three months’ provisions.
   He said this year Boro production is likely to exceed 1.70 crore tonnes and there is no reason to be worried.

The Awami League on Saturday issued a fresh warning that it would wage a greater movement if the party president Sheikh Hasina was not released immediately for treatment abroad.
   Censuring the interim government for its utter failure in every sector, senior leaders of the party also demanded effective measures to check the price spiral and a specific date for parliamentary elections.
   ‘We will go for a greater movement, if necessary’, the acting president of AL, Zillur Rahman, said while launching a fortnight-long signature campaign organised by the party’s city AL at the Institute of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh, in the morning.
   He warned that none should relish the idea of liquidating Hasina by sapping her strength. ‘Any such dream will never be materialised. No amount of repression can weaken her morale.’
   ‘Release of Hasina is the only way out of the crisis facing the nation’, Zillur said.
   ‘Our protests will not remain confined to signature campaigns and hunger strike…we will wage a vigorous movement to realise our demands’, AL presidium member Abdur Razzak said.
   He warned the government of ‘dire consequences’, if anything grievous happened to Hasina.
   Previous autocratic governments had to quit in the face of mass movements and the present government should take lesson from the past, Razzak said demanding effective steps to check the runaway food prices and immediate announcement of a specific date for the general elections.
   Presidium member Tofail Ahmed warned that the growing discontent among the people over the government’s failures and harassment of Hasina could explode into an all-out movement.
   He said the government should not make AL its rival as the consequences of oppressions on the party had never been good in the past.
   ‘It seems that the government wants her [Hasina] to die a slow death in prison’, presidium member Matia Chowdhury said, adding that the AL president was arrested as part of a blueprint to eject her from politics for good.
   Referring to the food adviser’s comments on the food situation, party presidium member Suranjit Sengupta said that the advisers to the interim government were frequently making such ‘irresponsible’ statements which were only deepening the crisis.
   He also questioned the legality of the proposed truth commission saying that the constitution did not allow any such provision.
   ‘We do not want confrontation….Start the process for sending Hasina abroad within a day or two and hold the national elections immediately’, he said.
   Presidium member Amir Hossain Amu hailed the party’s city unit leaders for mobilising the people to press for Hasina’s release and instructed them to go door to door to rally support for the party’s demands.
   Acting party general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam said that the central AL would spread the campaign across the country, if necessary.
   Ashraf said the party would observe a mass hunger strike before April 17, the Mujibnagar Day. In the city the programme will be held on Bangabandhu Avenue and at the party chief’s Dhanmondi office while the activists living outside the capital would observe it at their homes as indoor politics was banned there.
   MA Aziz, acting president of the party’s city unit, presided over the launch of the signature campaign.
   The city AL leaders vowed to collect 10 lakh signatures in the city during the campaign demanding Hasina’s release, containing prices, lifting of the state of emergency and announcement of date for parliamentary elections.
   The signature would be sent to the chief adviser to the interim government to press home the demands.

The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, on Saturday said the party would announce ‘effective and realistic programmes’ in the present political context soon after discussions with senior and mid-level party leaders.
   He also urged the leaders and activists of the party and its fronts to get ready for the call and gain in strength at the grassroots, especially at upazila and district levels.
   Delwar put out the call when the leaders of front organisations met him in his house at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the morning.
   ‘People are suffering most now. They have no food… If there had been an elected government I would not have dared to visit rural areas to face people’s questions. Now they have no one ask anything,’ Delwar said. ‘There are chances that politicians may be arrested; but people are not afraid of being arrested. The TIB report proves the existence of corruption.’
   People do not understand any other systems but elections to select their representatives and they will not accept anything else, Delwar said.
   The front leaders urged him to announce tougher programmes to free Khaleda Zia, Tarique Rahman, Arafat Rahman and other leaders, including Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal general secretary Moazzem Hossain Alal and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal president Azizul Bari Helal.
   The Dhaka city (north) Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal general secretary, Saiful Alam Nirab, acting Chhatra Dal president Sultan Salahuddin Tuku and general secretary Shafiul Bari Babu greeted him with flowers.
   The party’s joint secretary general Selima Rahman, acting office secretary Rizvi Ahmed, Krishak Dal general secretary Shamsuzzaman Dudu, former lawmaker Sohrab Uddin and former Chhatra Dal president Habibunnabi Khan Sohel were present.

Bangladesh will strongly pursue the issue of the killing of its citizens by India’s Border Security Force at the director general-level conference of the border forces of the two countries scheduled to begin in New Delhi on April 7.
   ‘Provocative firing by Indian citizens and border guards in bordering regions will be raised with importance as the killing of innocent Bangladeshis on the borders have become a regular phenomenon,’ said a high Bangladesh Rifles official.
   But he regretted that India had always assured Bangladesh of looking into the matter, but no reflection of such assurances had been noticed.
   Some two dozen Bangladeshis were killed and many others injured in firing by Indian citizens and border guards in three months, according to the report of a non-governmental organisation.
   The killing continues despite repeated request made by Bangladesh at each of such meetings.
   The six-day conference will discuss a host of other outstanding issues such as kidnapping and detention of Bangladeshis, smuggling of firearms and ammunition, explosives, drugs and Phensidyl (codeine) syrup, trespasses and push-in.
   Bangladesh will once again request India to hand over its criminals hiding inside the country.
   The Bangladesh Rifles earlier requested the Indian guards to hand over Bangladeshi criminals detained in India on completion of their punishment. But the Indian guards had not heeded such requests.
   The Bangladesh Rifles will also protest at the issue of the dumping of industrial wastes into Bangladesh through a canal at Agartala, according to the primary agenda the Bangladesh Rifles put forward for the home ministry.
   Obstruction by the India guards in development activities inside the Bangladesh territory, handover of 766 acres of land to Bangladesh and power supply to Angarpota-Dahagram will also be discussed in the conference.
   The Border Security Force will raise the issue of handover its citizens detained in jail and hiding in Bangladesh, sources said.
   The Bangladesh Rifles director general, Shakil Ahmed, will lead a 19-member side to the conference. The DG-level conference will end up with the signing of the joint records of the discussions on April 12.
   Such a conference was last held in Dhaka in October 2007.

Soaring rice prices are set to give a good business to rich farmers, who make up about 15 per cent of Bangladesh peasantry and have enough saleable surplus of staple food, show comparative statistics.
   One-third of the country’s farmers have more or less surplus rice to sell after the harvest, keeping aside their household consumptions until the next crop.
   But the vast majority of the country’s estimated three crore farmers, who are to buy food grains from the market almost throughout the year, will have the pinch as they produce much less rice than they require.
   Many of the medium and marginal farmers are compelled to sell most of their produces just after harvest to repay the debts, but soon they depend on the market for food consumption.
   Statistics show only those farmers who possess above 0.4 hectare land can produce marketable surplus of rice.
   At least one-fourth of the Bangladesh population have no arable land of their own other than homesteads.
   ‘About 15 per cent of the farmers who own over 1.0 hectare land can market substantial amount and gain from rising rice prices,’ said Mahbub Hossain, executive director of BRAC, in a paper on ‘Food Security in Bangladesh: Progress, Current Crisis and Future Challenges.’
   About three crore people in Bangladesh are farmers — big, medium and small or marginal, according to statistics of the Department of Agriculture Extension, which has undertaken an extensive study to determine farmland ownership patterns.
   Mahbub, in his paper, mentioned that nearly two-thirds of rural households have deficit in rice production and most of them could be adversely affected by rising rice prices. Apart from marginal farmers, industrial workers and low-paid government employees and other fixed income groups are also exposed to high risks due to the food price inflation in recent times.
   Though a majority of the farmers, who are among the country’s about five crore people living in extreme poverty, will suffer from high rice prices, economists and other stakeholders believe that growers should get due prices of their produces, especially rice.
   Farmers often complain that they are denied fair prices while farming costs continue to grow. Costs of paddy production — if seeds, labour, ploughing, irrigation, fertilisers and insecticides are put together— often outweigh the returns from sales, they claim.
   Fair prices would encourage farmers to grow more food as attaining self-sufficiency is the only way to stabilise supply and price of food grains, economists told New Age Friday, asking the government to immediately fix procurement target and rate for boro paddy, whose harvest is weeks away.
   Experts and economists find it difficult to ascertain clear correlations between domestic rice prices and their beneficiaries or victims among the farming community since about 40 per cent of the country’s about 2.80 crore tonnes annual food grain production come to the market.
   They also fail to detect the reasons why the country’s food market is ruled by import prices though Bangladesh imports only about 10 per cent of its food requirement.
   This year, the figure of rice imports both in public and private initiatives stood around 30 lakh tonnes so far as against the fiscal year’s target of 40 lakh tonnes.
   Mahbub, also an economist, insisted that the government must increase its capacity to operate a subsidised food distribution system to stabilise rice prices and shield the vulnerable and low-income groups from food market volatility.

Politicians, economist and rights defenders on Saturday slated the government for failing to ensure food security for people, and unanimously called for an immediate dialogue among government, political parties and experts to resolve the present food crisis.
   Citing the statements of Regularity Reform Commission chairman Akbar Ali Khan and food adviser AMM Shawkat Ali, the panellists at the BBC-sponsored Bangladesh Sanglap said whatever euphemism was used for food crisis, the reality was that the people were feeling the pinch and the lone duty now was to shield them from soaring food prices.
   BNP leader ASM Hannan Shah said there remained no scope to downplay the severity of the situation by branding it with attractive words. ‘People are getting no food… prices have gone out of their buying capacity and reports of death from starvation are also coming. If this is not famine, then what is it?’ he questioned.
   ‘Should we wait for large-scale deaths to confirm it as famine, or immediately ensure food for people?’ said Hannan
   Shah, adviser to the BNP chairperson.
   Awami League presidium member Abdur Razzak said reality showed that people were not getting food as prices spiralled beyond their capacity, though there seemed to have no problem in supply.
   Rights defender and former adviser to caretaker government Sultana Kamal saw ‘defensive attitude’ in the statements of the government leaders. ‘It should not be done. They could invite stakeholders to find out ways to resolve the crisis.’
   She also found serious lack in preparation, planning and initiatives on the government’s part to face the crisis.
   Hannan Shah and Abdur Razzak echoed her saying the political parties much earlier alerted the government to such a situation and suggested building a safe stock of food grains.
   KAS Murshid, research director of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, said phasing out of the food rations at the lending agencies’ suggestion also hampered proper distribution of food items and destroyed the government’s institutional mechanism to shield cross-section of people from price hikes.
   ‘We are talking much when the fire has already broken out. It is the time to douse the fire and the government should concentrate on that,’ he said.
   Most of the panellists agreed that foreign assistance could be sought in terms of food to tackle the situation.
   But Murshid opposed the idea saying, ‘If we want to face the present situation seeking foreign assistance, it will bring no good as food aid, even if granted now, will take four to six months to reach the country.’
   Foreign food aid could help at best future food security and it would not meet the immediate need of the people, he pointed out.
   On the proposed dialogue between government and political parties, the politicians at the programme said it would not be fruitful in absence of two top leaders, Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, both in jail now.
   Sultana Kamal agreed on this point, but reminded the politicians of their history of mudslinging.
   Each of the panellists categorically rejected the need for formation of a ‘truth commission’ to curb corruption. They said the proposed move was simply aimed at giving few business people a safe exit from trial that landed many senior politicians in jail with graft charges.
   Abdur Razzak and Sultana Kamal said a South African-style truth commission could be formed to deal with offences like human rights violation and war crimes.
   Kamal Ahmed of BBC Bangla Service moderated the dialogue at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre.

Stranded passengers protesting against delay in arrival a domestic Biman flight went on a rampage damaging computers and other equipment at Sylhet Osmani Airport on Saturday morning.
   Law-enforcers quickly intervened and the situation calmed down when the airport authorities assured the passengers that they would take alternative steps to ferry them to Dhaka if the Biman failed to fly them, sources in the airport said.
   According to the sources, Biman’s flight-118 was scheduled to arrive at the Sylhet airport at 7:00am, but it did not. After one hour and a half, the airport authorities announced that the flight had been cancelled and the next flight would reach the airport at 7:00pm to fly the stranded passengers to Dhaka.
   Enraged by the announcement, the passengers sought an explanation from the airport officials for the long delay and at one point a scuffle broke out. The angry passengers smashed some computers and other electronic devices before law-enforcers and the civil aviation authority’s security staff brought the situation under control.
   The agitated passengers demanded compensation for the harassment. They also demanded that the government should take immediate steps to stop harassment of passengers by frequent delay of Biman flights.
   Shafiqul Islam Khan, district manager of the Biman office in Sylhet, told New Age that it had become difficult for them to maintain Biman’s flight schedules on Dhaka-Sylhet route since the beginning of this month as one F-28 aircraft and one Airbus plane remained grounded since April 1 due to technical problems.
   ‘Since April 1 a total of eight scheduled flights from the Sylhet Osmani Airport have been cancelled’, a Biman official said attributing the reason to shortage of aircraft.
   The district manager
   said they were aware of the inconveniences caused to the passengers and trying to ferry them to Dhaka by alternative means.
   More than 200 Dubai- and London-bound passengers had to reach Dhaka by buses on April 1 and nearly one hundred others by GMG Airlines on Thursday from the Sylhet airport, as no scheduled Biman flights had arrived there, sources in the Biman said.

Field-level corruption has not yet come down despite an intense anti-graft crackdown by the interim government, said the chief of Transparency International, Bangladesh on Friday.
   ‘Bribery is on the rise,’ the TIB chairman Professor Muzaffer Ahmad told the news agency in his observation he made on the basis on TIB’s corruption database for the year 2007, which is likely to come out by the end of April.
   The database was prepared on the basis of newspaper reports, which the TIB chief said had been verified on a random basis.
   ‘No mentionable change in corrupt practices has taken place at the field level,’ he said adding corruption is still widely visible the police, land office, education and health ministries and other public offices.
   The Anticorruption Commission has succeeded in reducing large-scale corruption, but ‘petty corruption’ has not yet come down, he said.
   Another database was prepared on the basis of surveys carried out on more than 3,000 households. Its findings, which are almost ready, will be made public by the end of April, the TIB chief said.
   The TIB has carried out the survey on people from different sections since the army-controlled government took office after the exit of the BNP-led four-party alliance government.

The government is planning to control all the activities in the tourism industry and ensure security and interest of the tourists by forming a national tourism authority.
   The tourism organisations all will need to register with the proposed national tourism authority and take licences for tourism-related business, sources in the secretariat said.
   A law titled ‘Bangladesh tourism industry act 2008,’ now being drafted, under which the national tourism authority will
   be formed will hold tour operators responsible for providing security for tourists during the travel period.
   Tourism organisations such as tour operators, hotels, resorts and other accommodation service providers, tourism training institutes, restaurants and catering centres, bars, amusement parks and conference centres, health centres, spa, rent-e-cars, airport taxi services, limousine services, cruise tourist vessels, tourist guides and life guards will be included in the registration and licensing system.
   Interested persons will need to set up organisations and obtain licences from the tourism authorities and at least 60 per cent of the human resources at organisations will need to be trained at approved tourism training institutes to run hotels, motels, resorts, amusement parks, and other tourism-related businesses.
   The Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation chairman, Shafiq Alam Mehedi, said the corporation was drafting the tourism law to modernise and boost up the tourism sector.
   He said the draft of the tourism law is in the final stages and the law will be made as soon as possible to streamline the industry.
   The Parjatan chairman said, ‘A national tourism authority will supervise and provide required facilities for all the tourism-related private organisations and individuals.’
   The authorities will carry out promotional activities such as branding tourism destinations. They will also provide legal and infrastructural coordination for the tourism business insiders. The authorities will also rank hotels in keeping with international standards, sources said.
   The national tourism authority will run on development budget and on revenue earned from licensing tourism organisations and tourists’ levy.
   The Parjatan chairman at a recent news briefing said the corporation was surveying its resources and would soon lease out all its hotels, motels, restaurants, rent-e-cars and other businesses to the private sector.
   Persons interested to work as guides will also need to register with the national tourism authority. They will need to hold certification in one or more foreign languages and need to be trained at an approved tourism training institute.
   Former Tour Operators’ Association of Bangladesh president Faridul Haque said they had long been demanding such an authority and they were happy about the government move.
   ‘We will be able to ensure the security of our clients and tell them that we are the tour operators approved by the government,’ he said.

Bulk rice suppliers from northern region have expected that the market would get substantial supplies of local rice in the run-up to Pahela Baishakh, which could stop prices from spiralling further.
   Small-scale hoarders usually clear their stocks and release those in the market ahead of halkhata, a ceremonial account closing that takes place on the last day of Bangla calendar year.
   As per the tradition, many traders exhaust their rice stocks before the Bangla New Year’s Day [April 14] and gear up for the next procurement, some suppliers said, analysing the trend of rice trades through the end of Bangla calendar year.
   ‘A section of small paddy and rice hoarders, who wait for maximum profits, release their stocks in the week before Pahela Baishakh,’ said Nurul Islam, a rice miller in Bogra.
   Hafej Belal, a miller and wholesaler, said as arrivals of early harvested boro variety, especially IRRI, in mid April would create psychological pressures on small hoarders and prompt them to release their aman rice stocks fearing price fall.
   ‘Thousands of rice traders across the country hope to build new rice stocks before they open new books on Pahela Baishakh,’ said Noor Mohammed, a wholesaler at Badamtali in Dhaka.
   However, there was no let-up seen Saturday in rice price rally either in wholesale or in retail market.
   Price of coarse guti rice increased to Tk 1240-1250 per mound (37.3 kilogram) up by Tk 20 in a day and Tk 120 in a week in Naogaon, a northern key point of rice processing.
   Retailers on Saturday were selling coarse rice of different varieties between Tk 35 and Tk 38 a kilogram, up by Tk 1 from Friday’s price and Tk 4 from the week-ago rate, in Dhaka.

The academic functioning of the Asian University for Women was inaugurated with 131 students from seven countries at the Theatre Institute, Chittagong on Saturday.
   Former adviser to the caretaker government Rokiya Afzal Rahman inaugurated the activities of the university, where 3,000 students from 12 South and Southeast Asian countries will receive higher education.
   The Asian University for Women Support Foundation, which is incorporated as a non-profit organisation based in the United States, serves as the principal planning and fundraising organisation for the university.
   The chair of the AUW Support Foundation, Jack R Meyer, vice-chancellor Nancy S Dye, executive directors Regina Papa and Dil Afroz Quader, chief executive Kamal Ahmad and former education minister Osman Farruk spoke.
   The speakers said the university would play a significant role in providing quality, higher education for the meritorious, financially insolvent students of South and Southeast Asian courtiers, including Bangladesh.
   ‘The university will turn into a hub of exercising multiple cultures, languages and values,’ Rokiya Afzal said, adding that the establishment of the university was an extraordinary opportunity for Bangladesh.
   Nancy Dye said they would conduct a 16-month access academy course for the 131 who had initially been admitted to the university to enable them to study in a university of international standards.
   ‘Twelve teachers trained at the International Development Centre of Harvard University will conduct the course,’ she said, adding that the students would choose their subjects on completion of the course.
   Students at the university will begin a three-year bachelor’s course in the liberal arts and sciences. Fields of study will include mathematics, natural and physical sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities, including philosophy, literature and languages.
   The three-year course will be followed by two years of specialised professional training from a selection of five course offerings: public policy, education, management, environmental engineering, and computer science.
   The university will also be offering the access academy pre-collegiate bridge course, designed to enable students, lacking adequate secondary school training, to acquire the requisite preparation to pursue a rigorous university education.
   The activities of the university will be conducted in a 10-storey rented house on MM Ali Road in the city until its own campus on 200 acres of land at Salimpur is completed.
   The master plan of the campus has been designed by internationally renowned architectural firm Moshe Safdie and Associates.
   The Anglo American Cooperation chairman, Mark Moody Stuart, also a member of the boards of Saudi ARAMCO, HSBC Bank and the consulting firm of Accenture, and his wife, Lady Moody-Stuart, vice-chair of the board of the Asian University for Women Support Foundation, arrived in Dhaka on Saturday and attended the welcome ceremony for the students of the university in Chittagong.
   They have also endowed a scholarship for a student from Palestine to attend the university.

Nepal deployed helicopters on Saturday to guard a tense campaign for next week’s constituent assembly elections that could lead to the abolishment of the centuries-old monarchy.
   About 135,000 police will keep watch on the April 10 vote for the assembly, a key demand of the Maoist former rebels who ended their decade-long civil war in 2006, meant to prepare a new constitution and most likely turn the Himalayan nation into a republic. Fear of violence has overshadowed the country’s first national election in nearly nine years – at least three people have so far died in election-related violence. Scores others have been injured in clashes between rival parties, many involving the Maoists.
   Many armed rebel groups fighting for greater autonomy in Nepal’s southern plains bordering India are opposing the vote and have vowed to disrupt the polls in the region where scores of people were killed in violence in the past year.
   ‘Helicopters carrying armed police personnel will conduct regular air patrols watching for any sign of trouble on the ground until the polling is over,’ Modraj Dotel, home ministry spokesman, said on Saturday.
   ‘The aerial patrolling which began on Saturday will continue until the election day after which the same helicopters will transport ballot boxes from remote polling stations to the district headquarters for counting.’
   Dotel said the 100,000-strong army would not be used for election duty under the deal with the Maoists who have confined thousands of their former fighters to UN-monitored camps and joined the fray. Nepal does not have an air force.
   Analysts say the violence in southern plains and clashes between rival parties in the run up to the vote could undermine the credibility of the elections.
   Authorities have banned the production and sale of alcohol to prevent violence by party workers during the vote, Dotel said.
   ‘The ban will go into effect from Monday until the election is over.’

All is set for the holding of the 44th convocation of the University of Dhaka scheduled for tomorrow.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, also the chancellor of the university will attend the programme as chief guest.
   The vice-chancellor, SMA Faiz, at an exchange of views with journalists on Saturday sough cooperation from all to make the convocation successful.
   ‘This is for the first time in the 87 years’ history of the university, the convocation will be held for the second consecutive year. We should work together to keep the tradition of holding the convocation every year,’ he said.
   Language Movement hero Abdul Matin will be the convocation speaker and the university will confer honorary doctor of law degree on him and another hero of the movement, Gaziul Haque.
   The vice-chancellor, SMA Faiz hoped Gaziul Haque, now in a hospital because of illness, would soon recover and participate in the convocation.
   He also said the university felt proud in having the honour to confer degrees on the language movement heroes.
   Degrees will be conferred on 3,885 graduates, including 33 gold medallists, 24 M Phil and 29 PhD students. The students who received degrees before February 28 this year will be able to participate in the programme.
   The participants and guests have been asked to take their seats by 9:15am on the convocation day at the university playground. The graduates will participate in a rehearsal today at 3:00pm at the playground.
   The budget of the convocation is Tk 62 lakh.
   In 2007, the convocation was held on February 28 where Muhammad Yunus was the convocation speaker and the university conferred a honorary doctor of law degree on him.

The Petrobangla has approved Cairn Energy’s proposal for further exploration activities in Magnama and Hatia structures in the Bay of Bengal.
   The Joint Review Committee comprising officials of Petrobangla and Cairn on April 2 approved the British oil and gas company’s plan for conducting three-dimensional seismic survey in the potential structures, where the company ‘encountered gas’ during its recent drilling of exploration wells.
   ‘We have approved the Cairn’s plan to conduct 3D seismic survey there. However, the company will require approval on the detailed programme and budget for the survey,’ an official of Petrobangla told New Age on Saturday.
   ‘The company will conduct the survey in next dry season beginning in October.’
   Depending on the seismic survey results, Cairn will subsequently go for drilling appraisal well to be sure whether the structures have commercially viable gas in store.
   The company drilled two exploration wells in the structures that fall under gas block 16 in last few months and claimed to have found traces of gas, but could not confirm whether the reserves were recoverable.
   The UK-based oil and gas company operates the only offshore gas field in the country, Sangu, in the Bay of Bengal.

Charge-sheet into the fierce grenade attack on an Awami League rally in Dhaka could not be submitted even in three years and a half since the blasts had killed 24 people on Bangabandhu Avenue.
   About six months have also elapsed since inspector general of police Nur Mohammad said the charge-sheet would be submitted ‘soon’.
   Assistant police super Fazlul Kabir, who is currently investigating the grisly attack on August 21, 2004, told New Age last week that he would submit charge-sheet in later part of April.
   ‘Previously, there were some hurdles regarding investigation. But we have finalised everything and would submit the charge-sheet soon,’ Nur Mohammad had told reporters on October 16, 2007. Presently attached with the criminal investigation department, Fazlul Kabir, who happened to be the fifth officer to investigate the case, said that investigation was near completion and he was working on to prepare the 2500-page charge-sheet.
   ‘The work is in the final stage and I hope to submit the charge sheet within a couple of weeks,’ said Fazlul, saying that the police were on the hunt for nine suspects hiding in different countries. ‘But we can’t further delay in submitting charge-sheet,’ he said.
   Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina and other senior leaders narrowly escaped the grenade attack that left the party’s woman affairs secretary Ivy Rahman among the dead.
   Awami League complained the investigation into the case was influenced during the previous BNP-Jamaat alliance government to hide the real culprits.
   The police department also came under heavy criticism for failing to get any clue to the blasts. Rather, its arrest of three pretty criminals and failing to prove their involvement in the incident raised a lot of controversy and confusion.
   The investigation revolved round the confessional statement of George Mia, arrested in June 2005 from a Noakhali village.
   It took a new twist after detained Harkat-ul-Jihad leader Mufti Abdul Hannan claimed in a court in November 2006 that he plotted the Awami League rally attack.
   After that police were trying to trace a link between the gruesome incident and Islamist extremists.
   The BNP-led government had also appointed a judicial commission to investigation into the rally attack. The commission prepared a report, but it never saw the light. Chairman of the commission Justice Joynal Abedin had hinted at the involvement of an unnamed external force in the incident.

Democrat Hillary Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, have made $109 million since leaving the White House, including $51 million in speech income for Bill Clinton, according to eight years of tax records released on Friday.
   The couple paid taxes of more than $33 million and gave more than $10 million to charity between 2000 – their last year in the White House – and 2007, tax information released by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign showed.
   Hillray, a New York senator, had been challenged by White House rival Barack Obama to release her tax returns as the two Democrats duel for the right to face Republican John McCain in November’s election.
   Obama made public his returns from 2000 to 2006 last week, renewing their battle over transparency. Campaign aides to Obama, an Illinois senator, have accused Hillary of being secretive and shielding documents from the public.
   Presidential candidates often release their tax returns, although they are not required to do so. As senators, Obama and Hillary are required only to file disclosure statements that give a wide range of income and provide few details on finances and holdings.
   The Clintons’ tax returns, released late on Friday afternoon, showed their income jumped dramatically from $350,000 in 2000, their final year in the White House, to $16 million in 2001.
   Their biggest money-making years were 2004 and 2007, when they made $20 million in each year. The 2004 income included more than $15 million in business income primarily from Bill Clinton’s speeches.
   ‘I never thought I’d say this, but ever since my husband got out of full-time public service, he’s actually made money, much to both of our amazement,’ Hillray told a labour group in Philadelphia on Tuesday, before the release of the returns.
   The Hillray campaign has pushed Obama to release records from his days in the Illinois legislature and his earlier tax returns. Hillary Clinton’s public schedules from her time as first lady were released last month.
   ‘The Clintons have now made public 30 years of tax returns, a record matched by few people in public service. None of Hillary Clinton’s presidential opponents have revealed anything close to this amount of personal financial information,’ Hillray spokesman Jay Carson said.
   In addition to Bill Clinton’s lucrative speeches, the couple made about $40 million in book income between 2000 and 2007. Hillary Clinton made $10 million from her book ‘Living History’ and $190,000 from ‘It Takes a Village,’ released in 1996.
   Bill Clinton made more than $23 million for his autobiography ‘My Life,’ including a $15 million advance. He earned $6.3 million for ‘Giving,’ released last year.
   The couple paid $33.7 million in federal taxes since 2000, which was 31 per cent of their adjusted gross income. The $10 million in charitable donations was 9.5 per cent of their adjusted gross income.
   The campaign said the most recent Internal Revenue Service information showed taxpayers who earned more than $10 million a year gave an average of 3.1 per cent of their income to charity.
   In addition to seven years of tax returns, the Clintons released a summary of their 2007 finances based on estimates by their tax attorney.
   The campaign said they will seek an extension beyond the April 15 tax deadline so they can receive information related to partnership income, including from a blind trust.
   McCain, an Arizona senator who has clinched the Republican nomination, will release his tax information after the April 15 deadline for filing, a campaign spokesman said.

Apparel industry leaders have blasted the authorities for peak hour gas rationing, which, they said, is badly hampering their production and may impact dress exports.
   Gas supply to industrial units has been reduced by at least 40 per cent in evening peak hours as authorities planned to keep gas supplies to power plants uninterrupted to face the nagging outages.
   Leaders of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association termed the measure as an ‘industrial sabotage’ designed to hold back the robust growth seen recent times in apparel exports.
   ‘It may be an act of sabotage designed by certain quarters within the government to make the government unpopular,’ BKMEA president Fazlul Hoque said at a press conference at the association office in the city Saturday.
   Titas Gas authorities on Thursday notified more than 200 industrial units in and around the city to reduce their gas consumptions by 40 per cent during 5:00 pm to 11:00 pm from April 4.
   Fazlul Hoque said gas rationing would hit hard the fabric dyeing and washing units, which are vital backward linkages for apparel industry, especially knitwear makers.
   The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association also resented the forced reduction in gas use in export-oriented industries.
   ‘Such measure will severely hamper production activities and affect the total supply chain in garment industry,’ BGMEA president Anwar Ul Alam Chowdhury Parvez told New Age.
   Many units were already facing disruption in production activities due to routine outages enforced earlier by the electricity authorities and gas rationing came as a fresh blow for them, the industry leader said.
   The BKMEA president argued that as most units relied heavily on gas-fuelled electricity generators and boilers, 40 per cent cut in gas supply for six hours would hamper their productions massively. Processing of a batch of fabrics or garments requires at least 11 hours at a stretch and major cut in gas supply risks a 50 per cent loss in production and erosion in quality, he pointed out.
   This period of the year is the crucial time for sweater manufacturers who require dyed yarns and other garment makers who need to have their fabrics washed for making apparels for export markets, Hoque explained. Any sort of disruption may put exports worth several hundred millions of dollars at stake just in a couple of months, he cautioned.
   The knitwear industry leader urged the government to immediately withdraw the restriction on gas use before foreign buyers become wary about supplies from Bangladesh and start shifting their orders to other countries.
   He alleged that gas supply cut was enforced abruptly without any consultations with the industry people and assessment of possible impacts of such a step on the industries.
   The BKMEA president said they learned about the gas rationing from the media and immediately appealed to the chief adviser, advisers concerned and the army chief to review the decision and save the industry from a feared setback.
   Masud Ahmed Mona, senior vice-president of the Bangladesh Export-oriented Garment Washing Industries Association, spoke at the press conference, which was attended, among others, by BKMEA leaders Abdur Rashed, Sheikh Monowar Hossain and MA Baset.

The government is set to amend the building construction rules 2007 shortly with the provision for constructing buildings covering highest 67.5 per cent on 2-katha plot and 65 per cent on 3-katha plot.
   The amendment would be made in line with the suggestions of the subcommittee of Urban Development Committee formed on September 26, 2007 to review the new rules, sources in the committee said.
   The subcommittee submitted its report on March 12. Earlier on December 2, 2007, the subcommittee submitted its first report on residential plots and it was again tasked with making suggestion especially on small plots such as 2-katha and 3-katha of land.
   The committee in its report on March 12 suggested fixing ground coverage at highest 67.5 per cent for 2-katha of land and 65 per cent for 3-katha of land.
   According to the proposals, an owner of 2-katha plot will now have to leave 0.8 metre on both sides instead of 1 metre earlier.
   The subcommittee, headed by Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology Professor Zainal Abedin, also suggested harmonisation of the ground coverage of the plots from 2 kathas to 20 kathas.
   As per the proposals of the subcommittee, owners will get highest 67.5 per cent ground coverage for 2 kathas of plot, followed by 65 per cent for 3 kathas, 62.5 per cent for 4-5 kathas, 60 per cent for 5-9 kathas, 57.50 per cent for 10-12 kathas, 55 per cent for 13-14 kathas, 52.50 per cent for 15-18 kathas and 50 per cent for 19 kathas or above.
   According to the existing rules, highest 65 per cent ground coverage is allowed for 2.50 kathas, 60 per cent for more than 2.50 kathas to 9.50 kathas and 50 per cent for above 9.50 kathas, said a member of the committee.
   Urban Development Committee has approved in principle the suggestion and will send it to the law ministry within few days for vetting, said an official of Rajuk. ‘After getting the approval, the amendment will be gazetted.’
   The Building Construction Act 1996 was not ideal
   and no one should compare the building construction rules 2007 with it, said the member of the committee, adding that owners of small plots will be benefited for amendment to the act.
   ‘As people constructed buildings on small land using 100 per cent land violating the act earlier, they think now that they will lose something for the enactment of new rules,’ he said.
   Many small land owners in different areas had been expressing their dissatisfaction since the formulation of the new rules, saying that the new rules would benefit the people having five kathas of land and above.
   Mahmood, a resident of Gopibagh, said the new rules would help the developers but not the owners of small plots of land.
   The revised rules will
   have a provision for keeping open space that will help reduce congestion in newly-developed areas, said an official of Rajuk.
   The new building construction rules came into effect on April 16, 2006 but the Building Construction Act 1996 also remained in effect till December 31, 2006.
   The last date for disposal of all applications under old act was over on January 31, 2007. The first amendment to the rules was made on August 9, 2007.

A court in Zimbabwe postponed Saturday a legal bid by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change to force the electoral commission to immediately release presidential poll results.
   ‘The matter has been postponed until tomorrow (Sunday). I am concerned with the postponement but we will wait for tomorrow,’ MDC lawyer Alec Muchadehama told reporters.
   The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced on Thursday that the MDC had won control of parliament, but one week after the polls it is still to give the outcome of the simultaneous presidential ballot.
   President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party is gearing up for a second round vote, but the MDC says their leader secured enough votes to avoid a run-off and Tsvangirai has declared an outright victory.
   Muchadehama said the hearing on the MDC legal bid was delayed by Judge Tendai Uchena to give the electoral commission more time to prepare.
   ‘The matter was postponed to tomorrow at noon because ZEC lawyers had not filed their opposing papers due to time constraints,’ he said.
   Earlier MDC lawyers were turned away from the high court building, which is opposite president Robert Mugabe’s office, by a man in a ZANU-PF T-shirt accompanied by two policemen.
   ‘We were about to be let in when we were informed that we could not go in,’ lawyer Andrew Makoni said. ‘We are now being barred from going to argue the matter.’
   ‘It’s not a working day and we were told to go away,’ Makoni said. ‘We will try to find a way of getting in to the court but if we are barred there is nothing much we can do about it.’
   They did later gain access to the building and met with ZEC lawyers before it was decided to postpone the hearing.
   According to the MDC application, a copy of which has been seen by AFP, the party says the week-long silence over the results cannot be justified.
   ‘The delays in announcing the presidential election result is unjustified and has generated so much anxiety within the applicants’ members, the nation at large and even in the international community,’ reads the application.
   ‘The applicant has the right to access such information upon demand and request.
   ‘The delays in announcing the election results are creating an undesirable opportunity for tampering with the results of the poll and thereby casting into doubt the authenticity and reliability of the eventual results to be declared.’
   The MDC says there can be no justification for the hold-up as the results of both the parliamentary and presidential elections have already been posted outside each of the 9,000-odd polling stations.
   Counting at polling stations was over and done with within hours and results were generally known within the day, but ZEC says it needs time to collate the results before officially proclaiming victors.
   ‘It’s an exercise to delay an announcement of what they are supposed to know already,’ said Muchadehama.
   The MDC has published its own results, saying its leader Morgan Tsvangirai just scraped past the 50 per cent threshold needed to avoid a second round run-off.
   ZANU-PF has acknowledged Mugabe did not deliver a knock-out blow to Tsvangirai in the first round and gave the president the green light on Friday to contest a run-off.
   The electoral commission announced on Saturday that the opposition and ZANU-PF had shared the 60 seats up for grabs in elections to the largely ceremonial senate upper house of parliament.

The election commissioner Brigadier General (retd), M Sakhawat Hussain, Saturday said Upazila Parishad elections would not be held after national polls anyway.
   He says they want to remain as hero, not zero, in the history of Bangladesh completing their electoral task through holding the elections timely.
   'The upazila elections won't be held after national elections. When time will come, you'll see whether the elections will be held before the national elections or simultaneously,' Sakhawat told a view-exchange meeting at the Titas Upazial Parishad of Comilla district.
   Chaired by the upazila nirbahi officer, AHM Abdul Karim, the meeting was arranged to mark the activities of voter list plus photograph and national identity card distribution.
   The election commission's main objective is to hold the national elections and it is advancing to that end, he said, adding that the stalled national elections would definitely be held by December next.
   'It's not only a promise to the nation but also to the international community… We want to be hero, not zero, in the history of Bangladesh,' the election commissioner emphatically said.
   He said some 18 to 19 per cent less voters would be counted this time across the country since there is no scope for enrolling name more than once on the photo voter list.
   So, Sakhawat said, around one crore voters would be reduced on the voter list compared to the past voter list and the field-level task of preparing voter list would be completed by June next.
   'All the local-body elections will be held in phases. We're waiting for the electoral law. There will be a lot of reforms in selecting candidates and electoral code of conduct when the law, which is now in the making, will be approved,' he told his audience.
   The election commissioner pointed out that there is pressure on the EC for holding elections without symbol and said that it is not possible to implement such a proposal due to the political and electoral culture of the country. 'Cast your vote not considering the symbol, but considering the qualified candidate,' he requested people.

A large number of Teletalk subscribers faced difficulties in making calls and texting for more than five hours from 9:00am on Saturday because of a technical glitch in the operator’s network.
   Officials of the state-owned mobile operator Teletalk Bangladesh Limited said some subscribers went of the network because of a software trouble.
   The main function of the software that made the trouble is to manage the mobility of subscribers by updating their position.
   A three-member inquiry committee was formed to investigate the incident, said a Teletalk official. Teletalk has around 10 lakh subscribers.

Progressive Students’ Alliance, a combine of five left leaning student organisations, on Saturday demanded introduction of rationing system to avert possible famine in the country.
   At a rally held in front of the Central Library at Dhaka University, leaders of the alliance also demanded reduction in prices of essentials, including rice, pulses and edible oil.
   They said many people had been suffering from various diseases stemming from malnutrition caused by silent famine in the country.
   ‘The government has failed to fulfil the pledges it made in its current budget to feed the poor people,’ said Shaikat Mallick, general secretary of DU Bangladesh Chhatra Federation.
   The leaders also said it was a matter of great sorrow that the advisers were now suggesting going on diet to tackle the worsening food shortage.
   ‘The government says that the price of rice has shot up due to price hike in the international market. But the reality of the situation is that the government imports only 8 per cent of total amount of rice consumed by the people,’ said Asaduzzaman Khan Masum, general secretary of Bangladesh Chhatra Union.
   Hossein Ahmed, president of DU Bangladesh Chhatra Front unit, presided over the rally.

A police subinspector in Bogra was on Friday closed to police lines on charge of harassing a person accused in a fraud case in the name of investigation at Chandmuha Haripur in the district headquarters.
   Enraged at this, the residents of the area confined the subinspector, a constable and an informer and assaulted them.
   The residents said the subinspector, Masum Talukdar, along with a constable, Ashraful Bari, and an informer, Rezaul Karim, on Thursday went to the house of the accused, Swapan at around 11:00am.
   Rezaul demanded Tk 50,000 from Swapan and threatened him with implicating in another case if he would not pay the money. Swapan informed the neighbours of the matter and the residents captured the three and assaulted them.
   The police, informed of the news, reached the place when the residents confined the policemen for more than two hours.
   The police office-in-charge later offered apology and tackled the situation.
   A Detective Branch team reached the place and arrested Rezaul. Assistant superintendent of police Basir Uddin told New Age, ‘Subinspector Kasum was closed to the police lines by the order of higher authorities.

Four people were shot dead and some 20 injured Friday on the second day of demonstrations in Haiti against rising prices and poverty, a politician said.
   ‘Four people were shot dead and some 20 injured’ in the protest in Cayes, the country’s third most populous city 190 kilometers south of Port-Au-Prince, senator Gabriel Fortune said.
   ‘I cannot go out, the situation has degenerated and it appears to be taking a turn for the worse,’ Fortune said.
   ‘There are armed people who came from Port-au-Prince, the capital, to bolster the demonstrators,’ he added.
   Witnesses contacted by telephone said that scores of demonstrators marched on the streets of Cayes, and that they heard shots and saw streets blocked by burning barricades and the shells of torched vehicles.
   Some 30 people were wounded in similar protests on Thursday in Port-au-Prince, Cayes and Gonaives, the country’s three most populous cities.
   Local television network Tele Caramel showed footage of a dead person close to the base for foreign soldiers with the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti in Cayes.
   ‘Haitian National Police and Blue Helmets (from the UN peacekeeping mission) were deployed in the city to control the situation,’ said the police spokesman Frantz Lerebours in Port-au-Prince.
   Haiti, population 8.5 million, is the poorest country in the Americas. Eighty per cent of its population earns less than two dollars a day, below the UN-established poverty rate.
   Government spokesman Abel Descollines said Thursday that new measures to aid the country’s poor would be announced soon.

A Maheshpur police subinspector in Jhenaidah was on Friday suspended as allegation of demanding bribe was levelled against him.
   Jahangir Alam, a resident of Kanchanpur at Maheshpur alleged that subinspector Azizul Bari had demanded Tk 10,000 in bribe from him a few weeks ago in connection with police verification for his passport. As Jahangir delayed making the payment, the subinspector delayed the verification report.
   Jahangir then informed the superintendent of police of the matter and the police superintendent suspended the subinspector after an investigation.
   The Maheshpur police officer-in-charge, Shahidul Alam, said departmental action would be taken against the subinspector.

A housewife was burned to death as a fire broke out in her house at Enayetpur village in Ullahpara upazila here early Saturday.
   The dead was identified as Kulsum,22, wife of one Omar Faruq.
   Local sources said the fire broke out in the house from a coil at about 1:00am when Kulsum and her eight month old daughter, Marjina, 8, were asleep.
   Kulsum was burnt alive but the neighbours rescued her daughter after breaking the door of the burning house. Kulsum's husband was not at home when the accident occurred.
   Marjina was sent to upazila health complex with burn injuries.