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The government has decided to introduce higher secondary courses in some reputed public high schools and increase the number of seats in a few renowned colleges in some cities and towns such as Dhaka and Chittagong to ease pressure on higher secondary institutions.
   ‘The number of GPA 5 achievers in the secondary school certificate and equivalent exams this year is 52,500, but renowned colleges have seats fewer than the number of GPA 5 holders,’ the education adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, told newsmen at a briefing in the education ministry on Monday.
   ‘As part of the expansion plan, we have decided to open higher secondary sections in a few public high schools and to open shifts or sections, or both, in some colleges and increase the number of seats in some reputed colleges,’ he said. ‘The number of total seats in 7,487 colleges and madrassah offering higher secondary courses is about 16 lakh.’
   ‘I see no seat crises, but competitions will be tough in reputed colleges,’ he said. ‘The Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics is providing dated information on the number of seats and it may confuse the guardians.’
   Referring to recent newspaper reports on mistakes in secondary textbooks published by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board under the education ministry, he said the government had taken initiatives to correct the mistakes.

Four fishermen went missing in an incident of boat capsize in the Bay at Teknaf upazila on Saturday as weather in Cox’s Bazar continued to be rough because of a low over the sea, with flood situation in the district remaining unchanged.
   The police sources said a small fishing boat along with seven fishermen was tipped over by fierce waves in the rough sea at Dargarchar in Teknaf upazila at about 7:30 pm.
   Three of the fishermen managed to swim ashore while three others remained traceless.
   One of the missing fishermen was identified as Md Ismail, 40, son of the boat’s owner, Makbol Ali, of Dargarchar. Identities of the other two who were Myanmar citizens could not be known.
   The Teknaf police suspected that the missing fishermen might have died in the sea.
   Flood situation in Cox’s Bazar remained static with continuous downpour for the last ten days.
   Cox’s Bazar upazila nirbahi officer Altaf Hossen Chowdhury said 120 families of Puran Pallan Para in Teknaf municipality area were evacuated from their houses and shifted to a kindergarten premises in the afternoon. Others whose lives were at risks would also be shifted,’ he assured.
   Meanwhile, floodwater has marooned more two lakh people at Ramu, sadar, Chakoria, Moheskhali and Ukhiya upazilas. About one hundred houses were washed away as the embankments of the rivers Matamuhuri, Bagkhali, and Eadgong collapsed.
   More than two hundred educational institutes which went under flood water are remaining closed. Local Met office recorded 124 mm rainfall during the last 24 hours till 3:00pm on Monday.
   According to the UNO of Ramu, a total of 30 houses were washed away at Nayapara village in the upazila as a flood protection embankment on the river Bagkhali collapsed in the morning.
   The Cox’s Bazar municipality acting chairman, Sarwar Kamal, said Islamabad, Larpara, South Romalarchhara and Baiddarghona were inundated due to downpour. Some roads and culverts were washed away by the floodwater.

The government should enforce the existing anti-tobacco law strictly to refrain people from smoking in public places, speakers said at a seminar on Monday.
   Besides, awareness should be build up to get people freed from the habit of smoking, responsible for scores of deadly diseases, they said.
   According to health experts present at the seminar, around 50 lakh people die in the world every year due to the use of tobacco. Over 50 thousand people die in the country and nearly 4 lakh are becoming crippled every year because of the same reason, they informed.
   The health experts were addressing a seminar on ‘tobacco free youth and tobacco free workplace’ on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day-2008 in the conference room of IDB Bhaban in Dhaka.
   Eminence, a non-government development organisation, in association with the World Health Organisation organised the seminar.
   Vice-president of the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association M Harun-or-Rashid addressed the seminar as chief guest while chief executive of Eminence Dr Shamim Haider Talukder was in the chair.
   Public health specialist Dr AM Zakir Hussain, national programme officer of Non Communicable Diseases Dr Mostafa Zaman and Dr Mohammad Shamsul Alam addressed the seminar as special guests.
   Representatives of different garment factories, among others, also addressed the seminar.
   Technical officer of information, education and communication of the WHO Dr Iqbal Kabir presented a keynote paper.
   M Harun-or-Rashid stressed the need for creating social awareness about adverse impacts of tobacco through different programmes. He said the smoking-free garment factories should be rewarded to encourage the others to follow suit.
   Referring to 25 lakh garment workers, M Harun-or-Rashid said, ‘Families of the garment workers will be saved from many harmful impacts of smoking, if they give up this bad habit.’
   Dr Mostafa Zaman said nearly 12 lakh people were being affected by eight diseases due to the use of tobacco and Tk 5,000 crore spent for treatment of the patients.
   According to the keynote paper, 36.8 per cent people of the country aged over 15 use tobacco. Forty-one per cent males and 1.8 per cent females smoke in the country. On the other hand, 14.8 per cent males and 24.4 females use ‘jarda-gul’ and ‘tobacco leaf.’

Intensified efforts are needed to raise food production at local level to cope with current food shortage as food security worldwide remains far from being granted to each and every one, speakers said at a workshop on Monday.
   They called for making a sound policy based on clear analysis and research to reinforce an enabling environment for sustainable food security in the country.
   Ad Spijkers, FAO representative in Dhaka, said Bangladesh through commensurate and sustained actions in both the short-, medium- and long-term could guarantee the sustainability of food grain as all five factors of good agriculture remained positive for the country.
   The workshop was held to review the preliminary findings of the research works conducted on a broad range of issues relating to food security and food policy under National Food Policy Capacity Strengthening Programme.
   On the first day of the two-day workshop, as many as 10 research studies conducted by academic institutions and other research organisations were presented on various aspects of food security and policy issues ranging from land use pattern and agriculture extension policy to food security in coastal region were placed, while 12 more studies would be shared today.
   Additional secretary of the food and disaster management ministry AKM Abdul Awal Mazumder attended the workshop as chief guest.
   Head of the Delegation of European Commission Stefan Frowein, deputy mission director of USAID Carey N Gordon, chief technical adviser of NFPCSP Ciro Fiorillo, research director of the food and disaster management ministry Nikhil R Roy spoke among others on the occasion while director general of FPMU unit of the food and disaster management ministry Shafiqul Islam was in the chair.
   Clarifying his observation FAO representative Ad Spijkers said land, water, labour, seeds and fertiliser were the most important components for agriculture and except fertiliser and high yield seeds, all other elements are available in Bangladesh.
   Ad Spijkers said the Bangladesh government was currently deploying all efforts to secure an adequate availability of food grains in domestic markets and to protect low income and vulnerable people’s access to food through widening the scope of public food distribution operations and other social safety nets.
   ‘This means, concerted, coordinated and informed food security policy-decisions, more than ever, are needed to maintain a careful balance between addressing short-term and longer-term needs,’ he said.
   Stefan Fowein said the food security, translated into the foremost Millennium Development Goal, was among the most challenging issue since it was a human right but remained a far from being granted to all.
   ‘The current international food crisis reminds us that our continuous efforts are necessary, if we are to achieve the objective of halving hunger by 2015,’ he said.
   On the first day, the participants turned up from government organisations, civil society, international agencies, national experts, and discussed on 10 research studies.
   Professor Sirajul Islam of the Bangladesh Agriculture University in his research on ‘land use pattern and its impact on food security’ said, the overall living condition in the studied area had been improved recent years due to adoption of new cropping patterns.
   Dr Zahurul Alam, chairman of the Centre for Agri
   Research and Sustainable Environment and Entrepreneurship while presenting the study report on ‘implementing status and effectiveness of the new agriculture extension policy for technology adoption’ said he found major weakness lies at implementation level as the stakeholders had lack of orientation.

The government has appointed Selina Mohsin, an education specialist, Bangladesh’s next high commissioner to the Maldives.
   A foreign ministry release on Monday said she had joined the education service in 1970.
   She also received other degrees and post-graduate diplomas and senior officer’s training from various universities and international institutions in the United States, France and the United Kingdom.

Bangladesh on Monday strongly condemned two bomb attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan in which 56 people were reportedly killed.
   In separate messages to his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee and Pakistan counterpart Rangin Dadfar Spanta, the foreign affairs adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, said the incident was a mindless and shameful act which deserved condemnation in the strongest terms.
   ‘At this tragic hour, our hearts go out to the families of the victims and sympathies to the governments and the people of India and Afghanistan,’ he said.

A Khulna court has given the Anti-Corruption Commission permission to quiz detained the Khulna city mayor, Sheikh Tayebur Rahman, at the jail gate for a day in connection with his corruption charges.
   Chief Metropolitan Magistrate M Mahbubur Rahman gave the permission on Sunday afternoon upon the prayer of ACC assistant director Aminur Rahman.
   Sheikh Tayebur Rahman was arrested at a house at Gulshan in Dhaka on November 2, 2007 in an extortion case.

The Jatiya Party chairman Hussein Muhammad Ershad on Monday said the next elections would not be hampered ‘even if the BNP-led four-party alliance does not take part in it’.
   Next elections will be free, fair and credible as the present government has prepared a flawless voters’ roll with photographs, Ershad told a press conference at Khulna circuit house.
   He said that credibility of the next election would not come into question if the BNP-led four-party alliance did not go to the polls.
   ‘We have not yet decided whether we will go to the national elections by forging an alliance or not…we will decide it before the polls’, Ershad said adding ‘We became part of a grand alliance and we have not left that alliance.’
   ‘The government has nothing to do with the price hike of commodities… prices of commodities are increasing all over the world and the government has not enough money to provide all the subsidies’, he said, demanding ‘village rationing system’ for the rural poor.
   He said that barring a few failures, the government was doing well… ‘It has taken a number of steps for the wellbeing of the countrymen…’
   Responding to a question, Ershad said that the JP did not do any corruption [when it was in power] and denied it was in a negotiation with the government.
   JP presidium member Kazi Zafar Ahmed, secretary general ABM Ruhul Amin Hawlader, organising secretaries Shafiqul Islam Modhu and Abdul Gaffar Biswas were present at the press conference.

Nagarik Sanghati, a citizen rights group, staged a sit-in at the Dhaka University campus demanding that the Group of Eight nations should compensate South Asian countries for the damages caused to environment.
   It termed G-8 nations, which kicked off a summit in Japan Monday, as the world biggest polluters with the US alone accounting for 44 per cent of carbon emissions, Japan 13 per cent responsible and Germany 7 per cent. And under-developed and developing countries, including those of the SAARC, are falling victims of the disastrous impacts of climate change despite their little or no contribution to global environment pollution, it pointed out.
   The group’s president ASM Atiqur Rahman reminded the rich nations of their unmet pledges as per the Kyoto Protocol to create a fund to help poor countries mitigate climate change shocks.
   Dhaka University teachers Sarder Amin and Robaet Ferdous, and Shorifuzzaman Sharif, organising secretary of Nagarik Sanghati were among those who joined the sit-in.
   The right campaigners also demanded that the rich countries should support rehabilitation of cyclone Sidr victims of Bangladesh.

The Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad, a combine of many of the country’s labour organisations, on Monday called on the interim government to withdraw the ban on trade union activities completely.
   Referring to labour adviser Anwarul Ikbal’s recently expressed hope of lifting the ban partially, the leaders of SKOP, at a meeting in its central office, said that the partial lifting of the ban would not ensure the basic rights of the workers.
   The government should lift the ban to create an industry-friendly atmosphere that will help to increase production and ensure a peaceful atmosphere in the industrial sector.
   Chaired by labour leader Abdul Matin Master, the meeting was attended, along with others, by Shah Mohammad Abu Zafar, Mohammad Nurul Islam, Abdul Kader Hawlader, Roy Ramesh Chandra, Shafiuddin Ahmed, Mesbahauddin Ahmed, Razekuzzaman Ratan and Wazedul Islam Khan, the combine’s coordinator.

The power and energy ministry will from Thursday hold a series of campaigns to create awareness of energy savings, conservation, and efficiency and alternative and renewable energy in view of power and gas shortage.
   The ministry will initially hold a two-day programme, also featuring a seminar and an exhibition, and go for media campaign on the issues, the officials said.
   The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, is scheduled to inaugurate the two-day programme by attending the seminar on energy savings, conservation and efficiency and alternative renewable energy at the Sheraton Hotel on July 10, they said.
   They said an exhibition on how to save energy and renewable energy such as solar power and bio-fuel would follow the seminar.
   The United Nations Development Programme and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) will provide funds for the programmes, the officials said.
   They said the ministry was also preparing advertisements on power and gas conservation that would be published in newspapers and aired on electronic media.
   The chief adviser’s special assistant M Tamim told New Age on Sunday it was important to create awareness among people of reducing wastage of electricity and gas.
   ‘We have shortage of gas and electricity. If we can stop wasting electricity and gas in dwelling houses and industries, it will help us a lot,’ he said.

A Dhaka court Monday sentenced Basundhara Group chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan known as Shah Alam to two years in jail for illegally possessing foreign currency.
   Shah Alam’s wife Afroza Begum and sons Sadat Sobhan Tanvir, Sayem Sobhan and Saporan Sobhan also received similar sentences in the same case.
   Dhaka metropolitan first additional sessions judge Md Abul Bashar also fined the convicts Tk 10,000 each. They have to serve out three more months in jail on failure to pay the fine.
   All five convicts are on the run.
   Sub-inspector Md Faruque Hossain of the Gulshan police filed the case against them on February 19 after joint forces had retrieved Tk 14.32 lakh in foreign currency at their home on February 4.

A low pressure area was formed in the northern Bay of Bengal Monday afternoon, Met Office officials said.
   The low is likely to spur the monsoon by intensifying into a depression which may increase the rains again from tomorrow, they said.