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The High Court on Sunday ordered no scrapping in Bangladesh’s territorial waters of the hazardous vessels listed by the Greenpeace such as MT Enterprise, which contains extremely dangerous substances such as asbestos.
   The High Court bench of Justice M Imman Ali and Justice M Ashfaqul Islam passed the order after hearing three experts on the potential hazards of unregulated breaking of the ship.
   The court restrained the importer of the ship from continuing with any work regarding the ship till December 15.
   On September 17, the High Court vacation bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Mamnoon Rahman ordered no scrapping of the hazard vessels as listed by the Greenpeace such as MT Enterprise in the territorial waters of Bangladesh.
   In the earlier order, the court also asked the government to explain why the issuance of the ‘no objection certificate,’ given by the shipping department for the entry of the vessel MT Enterprise and SS Norway, enlisted by the international environmental rights watchdog Greenpeace as one of the 50 dangerous ships, into the territorial waters of Bangladesh for breaking, would not be declared unlawful and against public and national interest.
   The High Court came up with the earlier order after hearing a public interest litigation writ petition filed by the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers’ Association challenging the legality of the ‘no objection certificate.’
   During the hearing in the writ petition, the court felt the necessity for hearing experts on hazards in shipbreaking.
   Being asked by the court, three experts — Md Aftab Uddin of the biochemistry and molecular biology department in Dhaka University, Md Musharraf Ashraf of the shipping department and Iftekhar Enayetullah of the Waste Concern told the court in its chamber on various issues related to shipbreaking.
   The experts gave their opinions on the effects of dealing with metals contained in the ship that is brought for breaking. There was a consensus of opinion among the three experts that the spillage of hazardous materials into the soil and in the air can have immediate and long term effects. It was also admitted there was no supervision from any ministry on the breaking operation and no clearance was obtained from the environment department.
   After hearing the experts, the court issued a rule asking the environment department to explain why they would not be directed to take action against those who were operating shipbreaking yards without clearance of the environment department.
   The environment department was also directed to submit a report by December 14 on whether the shipbreaking yards had any precautionary measures in regard to the safety of the person working on the ship and with regard to any facility bearing in mind the responsibility of the department to protect the environment.

The Progressive Democratic Party led by Ferdaus Ahmad Quarishi, on Sunday, joined the newly formed political alliance, Jatiya Jukta Front, aiming to bring qualitative changes in the politics of the country.
   At a press briefing of the alliance partners at PDP’s Segun Bagicha office, the chairman of the party, Quarishi said that his party had joined the Jukta Front to bring qualitative changes in politics.
   The alliance will be the third political front after the two big political alliances, one led by the Awami League and another by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Quarishi said.
   Bikalpadhara Bangladesh president, AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury said, ‘We want to bring corruption-free politics in the country with the alliance by stopping the use of black money and muscle powers in politics.’
   The alliance will take part in the forthcoming parliamentary elections forming an electoral alliance about seat sharing with the partners, the secretary general of the Bikalpadhara Bangladesh Abdul Mannan said at the briefing.
   The Bangladesh Kalyan Party president, Syed Muhammad Ibrahim and Forward Party president, ABM Mostafa Amin also spoke at the briefing.
   The Jukta Front was formed on November 18 with four political parties, Gana Forum, Bikapadhara Bangladesh, Bangladesh Kalyan Party and Forward Party.
   No representative of the Gana Forum was present at the briefing.
   A presidium member of Gana Forum, Pankaj Bhattachrya told New Age Sunday evening they were not interested in taking the PDP in the Jukta Front.

A suspected cattle lifter was beaten to death and seven others were seriously injured by a mob at Namasulia of Kaliakoir upazila in Gazipur early Sunday.
   The deceased was Solaiman, 45, a resident of Earshad Nagar at Tongi of the district.
   The police said local people chased a gang of cattle lifters while they tried to flee in a truck after stealing a cow from the house of one Iasin Ali at Dholsmudrow of Kaliakor at about 2.30am.
   They managed to catch eight members of the gang at Namasulia on Kaliakoir- Phulbaria road and severely beat up them.
   On information, the police came to the spot and arrested the eight along the truck and sent them to Gazipur General Hospital where the attending doctors declared Solaiman dead.
   The seven others were identified as Ali Akber, 52, of village Shampur in Barisal, Bellal, 38, of village Sarbak in in Chandpur, Babul Sarker, 27, of village Sarmahar in Jhalkathi, Sajib Mia, 20, of Kulaura in Moulovibazar, Jamal Uddin, 32, of village Sidal in Bogra, Ismail, 37, of village Dulalpur in Comilla and Rafique, 30, of village Shampur in Barisal.
   A case was filed with Kaliakoir police in this connection.

More research on biotechnology would spur economic growth in Bangladesh, experts said at a news conference on Sunday.
   The media conference, co-organised by private BRAC University and the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, was held on the eve of an international symposium on ‘Regulatory and safety issues in commercialisation of biotechnology research in developing countries’ to be held in December 2-4.
   BRAC University professor Naiyyum Choudhury told the conference that the initiative came as a part of their efforts to promote biotechnology research in Bangladesh.
   ‘In June 2006 we had a daylong international conference on commercialisation and research of biotechnology in Bangladesh.’
   The following year, the university organised another three-day conference on promotion of biotechnology in Bangladesh, he added.
   Naiyyum said this year’s convention would look into the safety and ethical issues of biotechnology researches.
   ICGEB advisory board’s member Professor Ahmed Abdulllah Azad said biotechnology researches in agriculture, medicine and livestock in Bangladesh would pace the countries economic growth.
   Stressing on the need of policies and strategies for commercialisation, he said, ‘Policies are formulated in this country but it is very hard to implement them.’
   Both the experts blamed bureaucratic red-tape as the major obstacle to development in biotechnological research in Bangladesh.
   Experts, joining from at least eight countries, would present papers on different relevant topics.

The Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commission on Sunday finalised the nationwide telecommunication transmission network guideline and invited interested individuals or organisations to apply for the licence.
   A commission release said individuals or organisations concerned can now apply for the licence following the guideline, posted on the commission’s web site btrc@btrc.gov.bd .
   The guideline has been finalised after considering the views and opinions of the people concerned, the release said.
   The guideline has been formulated with an aim to set an instruction for the telecoms companies licensed with the commission on how they could expand their transmission network through fibre-optic cable up to end users, the release said.
   ‘Telecoms network will expand throughout the country further with the initiatives the commission has taken to give licences under the specific guidelines,’ the commission’s chairman Manzurul Alam said.

A police team came under attack by villagers when trying to stop an opera punched with obscene dance and gambling at Char Jurkhali primary school ground under Madarganj upazila in Jamalpur on Saturday night.
   On information of anti-social activities in the opera, Madarganj police went to the spot and fired four warning shots to disperse the villagers. But the villagers resisted them leading to the clash.
   Badly wounded constable Golam Mustafa was admitted to Madarganj Health Complex.

A young hardware businessman was shot dead by unidentified assailants at his shop at Kashinathpur Bazaar under Santhia upazila in Pabna Sunday morning.
   The victim was Arif
   Hossain, 38, son of Mohammad Yusuf of Haridebpur village.
   The police quoting local people said a gang of armed miscreants, who came by a car, swooped on Arif at about 9:30am.
   They first hacked him indiscriminately and later shot in the head, leaving him critically injured.
   He died on way to the local hospital.
   The reason for the killing could not be known immediately.

Garment workers are highly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS among the working-class people due to their behaviour, speakers at a programme in Dhaka said on Sunday.
   They (garment workers) should be protected against major threats to their health status to safeguard the foundation of the economic development of the country, they told the launching ceremony of ‘Life skills education, workplace policy on HIV/AIDS for garments workers’.
   If the current trend in the behaviour of the young workers is not changed, the impact of HIV/AIDS on the RMG sector would be higher than any other business sectors in Bangladesh, they told the programme, organised by Marie Stopes, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, National AIDS/STD Programme and Save the Children, USA.
   Health and family welfare secretary AMM Nasir Uddin was present as chief guest at the programme held at the Sonargaon Hotel with BGMEA president Anwar-Ul-Alam Chowdhury in the chair.
   The secretary said the workplace policy would be helpful to create awareness among the garment workers to prevent HIV/AIDS.
   He also called on the garment owners to properly implement the policy to save workers from the threat of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.
   Directorate General of Health Services director general MA Faiz said, ‘The policy should facilitate a sustainable platform for multi-faceted cooperation between various stakeholders — government, BGMEA, RMG workers, civil society, NGOs and international agencies — in their efforts to prevent the proliferation of HIV/AIDS in RMG sector.’
   Ishaque Khan of the health ministry said considering the current epidemic in Africa and in some countries in Asia among the general population, the number of HIV positive people in Bangladesh seemed to be very low, but it had all the characteristics of high-risk behaviour, which could initiate an epidemic in the future.
   Anwar-Ul-Alam said BGMEA had taken a number of initiatives, including awareness programme, to improve the health status of the workers.
   Masrurul Islam, acting managing director of Marie Stopes, said life skills education approach had been adopted to empower the RMG population with knowledge about HIV/AIDS and to prevent risky behaviour among RMG workers that could lead to proliferation of HIV/AIDS.

World AIDS Day will be observed today across the continents with a renewed call for eradicating HIV/AIDS and fighting social stigma related to it.
   The theme for the day this year is ‘empower-leadership and delivery’ and the slogan is ‘stop AIDS and keep the promise’.
   The government and different socio-cultural organisations have chalked up various programmes to raise awareness about HIV prevention in Bangladesh, where the rate of HIV infection is still low but risks are upward.
   Health and social activists will march from Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban premises at Manik Mia Avenue at 9:00am to the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre, venue for the inaugural session of the day’s programme.
   Secretary to the health and family welfare ministry, AMM Nasir Uddin will inaugurate the programme. A day-long exhibition will also be organised at the conference centre.
   Population science department of Dhaka University will hold a rally at the Aparajeyo Bangla at 11:00am.
   Media Initiative for Public Policy will hold a roundtable on HIV/AIDS at the National Press Club at 10:30am.
   Every year on December 1, campaigners around the world push for a global movement to stop spread of AIDS.
   United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon in a message on the occasion urged all to make a pledge to act as ‘hope-givers’ and encourage the campaigns for a future without AIDS.
   He said, ‘We are at the dawn of a new era, fewer people are being infected with HIV and fewer people are dying of AIDS.’
   Ban Ki-moon said the success owed itself to people all over the world who were taking the lead to stop AIDS. ‘Governments are delivering on their promises to scale up universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support’, he said.
   But he warned that AIDS would not go away any time soon. ‘People are still being infected with HIV faster than we can get them on treatment. AIDS is still one of the top ten causes of death worldwide and it is the number one killer in Africa’. the UN secretary general said.
   ‘We have to end the stigma and discrimination that still stop so many people from learning how to prevent HIV and get treatment and we need resources enough to provide services that will have a real impact on communities and on entire nations’, he said.
   ‘Recently I read about a Congolese woman living with HIV who received medicine through the UN. She is now part of a group called the “hope- givers team”, which helps other families dealing with HIV,’ Ban Ki-moon said.