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Three hundred and eighty children are still languishing in jails despite repeated High Court orders not to keep juveniles in prisons, while three government-run juvenile development centres remain practically deserted with only 282 inmates against the capacity of 700.
   Various laws, even the Special Powers Act 1974, are being used in putting children behind bars, though children in conflict with the law should be dealt with only under the Children Act 1974.
   Although an order was issued on August 7, 2006 from the Police Headquarters, following instruction of the national taskforce on juvenile justice, asking police officials not to arrest any juveniles under the Special Power Act 1974, at least 97 children were arrested under the law in 2007 flouting the order.
   According to a study done by Safe the Children UK, in 2007 a total of 1,532 children were sent to jails in Bangladesh. Of them 617 boys and 24 girls were detained under the Penal Code, 136 boys and 11 girls under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 95 boys and two girls under the Special Powers Act, 51 boys under the Arms Act, 98 boys and four girls under the Narcotics Control Act, 43 boys and one girl under the Speedy Trial Act, 135 boys and 110 girls under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 21 boys under the Foreigners Act, and 149 boys and 35 girls were sent to jails under other laws.
   A High Court bench of Justice Amirul Kabir Chowdhury and Justice Nijamul Haque Nasim delivered a verdict on April 9, 2003 detailing a seven-point directive for the government in this regard.
   No juvenile accused should be kept in jail and child inmates should be transferred to correction homes and other designated shelters from jails with utmost expedition, the court directed.
   The directives are yet to be implemented in their entirety, according to information available with the national taskforce on juvenile justice. The taskforce has representation of 27 government and non-government agencies.
   As prisons witnessed a gradual increase in the number of juvenile inmates, the High Court on March 4, 2007 issued a fresh suo moto rule on the government to explain why necessary action should not be taken against it for keeping children in jails in violation of the High Court’s verdict delivered on April 9, 2003.
   According to sources in the taskforce, the number of children in jails increased by 42 in a month after the High Court issued a fresh order on March 4, 2007.
   In 2007, at least 1,712 children, including 187 girls, were sent to jail.
   Against this backdrop, the High Court bench of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Farid Ahmed on July 24 ordered the government to transfer the children languishing in jails to juvenile development centres immediately.
   After hearing a writ petition filed by Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, the court also issued a rule on the government to explain why its action in keeping children in jails should not be declared illegal.
   Even 10 months after the issuance of the fresh order, law enforcers and the courts continue sending children to jail.
   Also, the prison authorities are yet to take any significant steps for transferring child inmates to the juvenile development centres.
   According to sources in the taskforce, 380 children, as of April 30, are still languishing in 57 prisons, while 418 seats remain vacant in the three juvenile development centres.
   As of April 30, the three juvenile centres at Tongi, Konabari and Jessore housed 153 boys, 36 girls and 72 boys respectively.
   When approached on Saturday for comments, law adviser AF Hassan Ariff, who was highly appreciated by the High Court in the 2003 verdict for his contribution as the attorney general towards the cause of the juveniles in jails, told New Age, ‘It is unfortunate that the children are still languishing in prisons and the law enforcers and courts are sending them to prisons instead of juvenile development centres flouting the law and High Court edicts.’
   Asked about the present government’s initiatives in this regard, the law adviser said that initiatives had already been taken for appointing some probation officers to look into the cases of juveniles.
   For the transfer of child inmates from jails to the juvenile development centres, coordinated efforts of the law enforcers, social welfare department, courts and prosecutions is necessary and the government has already initiated the process, he added.
   The High Court on July 9, 2006 ruled that any accused child must be tried in a juvenile court and not in any other court of law irrespective of the nature of the charge brought against the child in accordance with the Children Act.
   No juvenile court under the law, however, has so far been established.
   When asked about the matter, Hassan Ariff said six juvenile courts would be established soon.
   Deputy inspector general (prisons) Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui told New Age on Saturday that some of the child inmates had been transferred to juvenile development centres following last year’s High Court edict. He, however, could not confirm whether any child inmate was transferred this year.

The dialogues between the military-controlled government and the political parties resumes today after a two-day weekend break with the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal scheduled to attend the talks this afternoon at the Chief Adviser’s Office.
   The JSD president, Hasanul Haq Inu, is expected to lead a seven-member party delegation while the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, will lead the government side to the talks scheduled to start at 3:50pm.
   At the dialogue the JSD will press mainly the issue of lifting of the state of emergency at the earliest to create an atmosphere conducive to holding credible elections.
   ‘We will ask the government to remove every obstacle to holding a credible election’, Inu told New Age adding that his party would seek a firm pledge from the government that it would take steps to ensure holding of the stalled parliamentary polls by December as per the Election Commission’s roadmap.
   ‘We will also ask the government to ensure an atmosphere in which people will be able to exercise their right to vote without fear and favour’, Inu said adding that the burning issues like food security, price hike and trade union rights would also be raised at the meeting.
   The JSD will request the government to ensure participation of all the parties to ensure success of the dialogues.
   The major political parties, Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party, were still sceptical about the success of the dialogue hinting that they might not take part in the talks if their party chiefs – Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia – remained behind bars.
   The JSD delegation for today’s talks with the government includes Syed Zafar Sajjad, Mainuddin Khan Badal, Sharif Nurul Ambia, Shirin Akhter and Rabiul Alam.
   Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed opened the ‘national dialogue’ on May 22 with an aim to figure out a consensus on the post-election governance and politics.
   On the first day, the government held meetings with the Workers Party of Bangladesh of Rashed Khan Menon and Bikalpadhara Bangladesh of former president AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury.

The education adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, on Saturday said the government would continue its efforts to create atmosphere for confidence building by upholding legal process for bringing all political parties to the dialogue.
   The government wants to make the dialogue successful by giving concession as much as it can. But it will stand firm to the moral ground, he said.
   The adviser was speaking as chief guest at a reception accorded to stipend recipient students at Dr Khastagir Government Girls’ High School in the Chittagong city.
   Zillur said the dialogue would facilitate in reaching a consensus about electoral reforms and post-election stability. This will reflect views of the political parties and the citizens group.
   He reiterated call on political parties to join the dialogue for the sake of greater interest of the nation with an open mind to resolve the problem.
   The adviser advised the students to be good citizens and prepare for shouldering the future responsibility of the nation.
   Asmat Jahan, headmistress of the school, presided over the function.

The rising inflation, especially with food prices soaring locally and globally, may slow down, even stop, Bangladesh’s attainment of the first of the Millennium Development Goals: to halve extreme poverty and hunger by 2015, warn economists in view of the recent statistics and trends.
   The proportion of the population living below the national poverty line may have risen to around 50 per cent from the 2005 rate of 40 per cent, making it highly unlikely that the country will achieve its target of bringing down the proportion to 29 per cent within the expected timeframe.
   These days almost 50 per cent of the families have to borrow money to buy all the required food items, and 47 per cent of the families have to borrow food if guests come to their homes, according to a recent study on food security by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies.
   ‘I have a feeling that the percentage of extremely poor people has gone up to 50 per cent now because of the price-hike of food items which has not been balanced by increase in real wages or sustainable employment. Poverty has certainly increased by 5-7 per cent and, more alarmingly, the severity of poverty has been heightened,’ said M Asaduzzaman, a research director of the BIDS.
   Atiur Rahman, chairman of private research group Shamunnoy, said, ‘The number of poor people has definitely increased. The nutritional status of the poorer segment of the people has deteriorated alarmingly in recent times.’
   The economists similarly apprehended that Bangladesh would not be able to achieve the goal of halving poverty and hunger unless domestic food inflation could be offset by massive job creation for income generation for the poorer segment of the society.
   ‘The government’s safety net programmes have covered only 8-10 per cent of the population, whereas the percentage of the poor is much higher,’ said Atiur. He observed that the picture of poverty in the vulnerable areas such as the north, the coastal belt and the Chittagong Hill Tracts was ‘really worse than what is depicted’ in Dhaka.
   Asaduzzaman, too, said there was no latest study on rural poverty, especially on the effects of the food price-hike on the poor there. ‘In 5-10 years, the people suffering from malnutrition will be retarded. We are really concerned at the MDG attainment in terms of reducing hunger,’ he added.
   Even the 2005 data of the household income and expenditure survey in 2006 showed that there was a lot of difference in the extent of poverty in urban and rural areas as 43.8 per cent of the rural people lived below the poverty line compared to 28.4 per cent in the urban areas.
   Globally, the $1-a-day income level which is considered the poverty line — a criterion which had already been criticised by rights groups — has not been revised despite significant increase in the prices of most of the commodities and services.
   World leaders set eight major development goals, styled Millennium Development Goals, in the declaration adopted by 189 nations in the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000.
   Apparently expressing doubts about the attainment of the MDGs, the World Bank’s president, Robert B Zoellick, said in April that the crisis of surging food prices could mean ‘seven lost years’ in the fight against worldwide poverty. ‘While many are worrying about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs, and it is getting more and more difficult everyday,’ he pointed out.
   Food price index rose by nearly 40 per cent in 2007, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.
   However, the Bangladesh office of the Untied Nations Development Programme, in its latest update, put the rate of poverty reduction at 1.23 per cent although there are no official statistics on the poverty situation since 2005.
   Although the household survey said that Bangladesh had reduced poverty at a rate of 1.8 per cent a year in five years, a 1.48 per cent growth rate for a population of about 150 million has outpaced the rate of poverty reduction.
   Given the inflation hovering at around 10 per cent in recent times and even a much higher rate of food price-hike at 13 per cent, Akbar Ali Khan, a former adviser to the caretaker government, recently told the media that more poor people were entering the poverty circle because of the ground realities.
   The United Nations Development Programme, under a project titled ‘Support to Monitoring PRS [poverty reduction strategy] and MDGs in Bangladesh’, has made efforts to map poverty at the sub-national level, assist local government bodies in formulating and implementing MDG-based plans and strategies at the division/district levels and promote participatory planning and monitoring.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s detained chairperson, former premier Khaleda Zia, on Saturday denied outright any corruption in the Barapukuria coalmine deal and said she had instructed the authorities concerned to take action against the persons responsible for the delay in coal extraction.
   A team of the Anti-Corruption Commission’s taskforce in the afternoon interrogated her in the special jail in the Jatiya Sangsad complex on the Barapukuria coalmine graft case.
   A deputy director of the ACC, Monirul Islam, who is investigation officer of the case, led the interrogation. Khaleda’s attorneys, Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas and Mahbub Uddin Khokan, were also present at the time.
   After leaving the jail, Shimul told New Age that Khaleda had totally denied her involvement in the case.
   ‘Everything was done through due process and as per the rules of business. The charge was framed illegally,’ Khaleda was quoted by Shimul to have said.
   ‘No question can be raised over my involvement in the case; rather I had issued notes to take action against persons responsible for the delay in coal extraction from the mine,’ she said.
   ‘If cases are filed in such a manner, no government in future will be able to run the state,’ said an irritated Khaleda.
   Both the attorneys said they did not discuss any other issue on the day.
   Khaleda Zia and 15 others, including 10 of her former cabinet colleagues, were sued for allegedly embezzling Tk 158.71 crore by awarding contracts to the highest bidder for production, operation and maintenance of Barapukuria coal mine.
   Other accused in the case includes former ministers Saifur Rahman, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, Matiur Rahman Nizami, M Shamsul Islam, MK Anwar, Aminul Haque, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and AKM Mosharraf Hossain.
   The commission’s assistant director Samsul Alam lodged the case with Shahbagh police station on February 27 against 16 people, including Khaleda Zia, also the BNP chairperson.

Nepal’s prime minister on Saturday asked former rebel Maoist leader Prachanda to form the country’s next government, an aide to the prime minister said.
   The ex-rebels emerged as surprise winners in landmark polls last month, grabbing more than twice as many seats in a new constitution-drafting assembly as their nearest rivals.
   ‘Prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala met with the Maoist chairman, Prachanda, and asked him to officially form the next government,’ Gokarna Poudel, the premier’s personal aide, said.
   The Maoists, known formally as the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists), waged a deadly decade-long revolt to topple the monarchy and install a communist republic, but have since embraced democracy and vowed to work with their former foes in building a coalition government.
   ‘The prime minister asked our chairman to get ready to form and lead the government,’ senior Maoist leader CP Gajurel said.
   ‘We will form the government within few days,’ said Gajurel, adding the prime minister promised to support the Maoists in forming the government.
   Debate has raged in Nepal’s mainstream parties about whether to join a coalition led by the ultra-leftists who in 2006 ended their insurgency that killed at least 13,000 people.
   ‘We’ve already started consultations with other parties over the formation of a coalition government. It’s essential to have a coalition as it is the people’s verdict,’ said Gajurel.
   He did not however rule out the possibility that the Maoists might form a single-party government if other parties refused to join them.
   ‘A coalition government is the need of the hour. But some leaders are saying they won’t join our government. If that happens, we might have to form the government by ourselves,’ Gajurel said.
   The first meeting of the assembly is to take place next Wednesday.
   The assembly’s first task will be to abolish 240-year old monarchy and then draft a new constitution for the impoverished Himalayan country sandwiched between India and China.
   ‘We have a good feeling. We’re entering a new process. War was different and we’re now leaving all that behind and embarking on a new challenge,’ said Gajurel, who was elected to the assembly.
   Nepal’s King Gyanendra is expected to quit his Kathmandu palace before the monarchy is due to be abolished at the assembly’s first meeting and he becomes a common citizen, according to media reports.
   Gyanendra was likely to move to Nagarjun, a palace on the outskirts of the city, and then later move to his own house, the reports have said, quoting unnamed palace sources.
   Gyanendra ascended to the throne in 2001 when his drink- and drug-fuelled nephew, Crown Prince Dipendra, massacred the former king and most of the royal family at the palace.

China warned Saturday that the death toll from its worst earthquake in a generation could climb past 80,000, as the visiting UN chief, Ban Ki-moon, pledged the world’s support.
   The UN secretary general came to Yingxiu, the epicentre of the 8.0-magnitude earthquake which turned this former town of 10,000 people in southwestern Sichuan prefecture into rubble.
   As workers in protective suits sprayed disinfectant to curb disease and the stench of corpses, premier Wen Jiabao told Ban that the death toll from the tragedy had crossed 60,000, a jump of more than 4,000 from a day earlier.
   Fatalities ‘may further climb to a level of 70,000, 80,000 or more,’ the premier said.
   Nearly 30,000 people were missing and up to 300,000 others injured in the May 12 tragedy, he added.
   Ban came as international efforts to support China picked up steam, with UN agencies rushing aid and experts and contributing eight million dollars from its emergency fund.
   ‘If we work hard we can overcome this. The whole world stands behind you and supports you,’ Ban said.
   Ban was on a brief stop in between trips to neighbouring Myanmar, where one day earlier he persuaded the ruling military leaders to accept an international relief effort for survivors of the cyclone which struck there three weeks ago.
   While Myanmar’s junta has come under fierce criticism for its response to the disaster, Ban praised the response of the Chinese.
   ‘The Chinese government at an early stage of the natural disaster made search and rescue efforts, demonstrated extraordinary leadership to overcome this natural disaster,’ Ban said.
   China has accepted international rescue teams and doctors, although it faced some criticism for waiting several days to make the decision.
   China has been eager since the quake to ease tensions with other countries. Protests targeting the upcoming Beijing Olympics flared earlier this year due to criticism of China’s handling of demonstrations in Tibet.
   The US Army has flown in three cargo planes laden with tonnes of life-saving supplies to southwestern Chengdu in the past week, according to US officials.
   In one of the latest contributions, a 13-member French team that can provide medical care was flying in Sunday to the quake zone.
   The German Red Cross has set up a mobile hospital to treat the overflowing number of injured in the town of Dujiangyan.
   ‘German aid is all the more precious because the hospital in Dujiangyan was partially destroyed in the quake and can’t operate as normal,’ said the hospital’s deputy director, Fu Tang.
   In a boost for the relief effort, China announced Saturday the main railway connecting Sichuan province’s capital Chengdu with the central city of Baoji had reopened after nearly 300 hours.
   The government has said it would take up to three years to reconstruct Sichuan, where one in five people in quake-hit areas has been made homeless.
   Aid was only just reaching worst-hit areas like the town Hanwang, where bodies were lying under the rubble.
   ‘We waited three days for help and still there are people in there,’ said a man surnamed Guo, gesturing to a pile of bricks, concrete and glass that was one of 12 apartment blocks here.
   ‘Why did we have to wait for so long in the first place? And still no one comes,’ he said.
   An immediate danger is the risk of disease. Authorities say they urgently need more tents and more medication, particularly antibiotics, to prevent the outbreak of illnesses in the coming summer months.
   For many Chinese, feelings of horror over the quake turned to anger after they saw that hundreds of schools had been destroyed, even though neighbouring structures remained standing.
   The state-run Beijing News said some 9,000 teachers or schoolchildren were among the dead and missing from the quake, making up about 12 per cent of the total.
   ‘We will investigate the construction quality of the schools and if we find that there are problems, we will severely deal with them,’ said Han Jin, a top education ministry official, as quoted by the Beijing News.
   An additional threat was dozens of ‘quake lakes,’ or reservoirs that have built up on rivers dammed by landslides that could burst and flood inhabited areas if no action is taken.

Cyclone disaster workers said Saturday they still had no word on when they would get the promised full access to Myanmar, which wants the world to donate 11 billion dollars for reconstruction.
   The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said he had persuaded military leader Than Shwe to relent on accepting all foreign aid workers, but it was unclear when they would get in – or how much they would be allowed to do once there.
   Some aid groups warned that the international community was unlikely to give Myanmar all the money it will request at Sunday’s donor conference in the main city Yangon. The secretive regime has kept all but a handful of foreigners out of the disaster zone in the devastated Irrawaddy Delta since Cyclone Nargis hit three weeks ago, and time is running out for 2.4 million desperate survivors.
   Ban said he had confidence in the pledges he received from Than Shwe and his inner circle to let foreigners in to help with the slow-moving relief effort from the May 2-3 tragedy in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.
   ‘That is what I have agreed with Senior General Than Shwe,’ he said in neighbouring Thailand, where he inaugurated a UN aid facility at an airport that will be a major transport point for relief flights into Myanmar.
   ‘I’m sure that they’ll keep their commitment,’ Ban said. He was to return to Yangon today (Sunday) for the donor meeting.
   World frustration has been boiling over at the Myanmar military, which has ruled the country with an iron hand for 46 years and long spurned the overtures of the outside world.
   For weeks it insisted it could handle the relief effort alone, even though reporters who have reached the delta say many are still without government assistance and that the situation is grim.
   Bodies of some of the estimated 133,000 people left dead or missing are rotting in canals. There is little food, rice paddies are in ruins, and there have been international warnings of a possible famine ahead.
   Aid workers said there was no sign yet of changes on the ground regarding access, despite the fact that hunger and disease are stalking survivors.
   ‘There are no clear guidelines so far,’ said one foreign relief worker in Yangon, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
   Ban said it was urgent to get aid staff into areas affected by the storm.
   But he acknowledged the regime’s reluctance to open up to the international community – which has regularly accused the generals of severe human rights abuses and kept the leadership under a decade of stiff economic sanctions.
   ‘For any country, when you want to enter, you should have a very genuine purpose,’ Ban said in Yangon on Friday. ‘This time people are coming for a genuinely humanitarian purpose.’
   The junta has rejected aid from French and US naval ships loaded with relief supplies which are in nearby waters. The handful of foreign aid staff in the country are largely banned from the delta.
   The regime has agreed to let the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member, oversee the relief effort.
   The details of that arrangement will be presented at Sunday’s donor conference – where Myanmar is expected to ask for 10.7 billion dollars in assistance.
   The ASEAN secretary general, Surin Pitsuwan, said the conference would also look at the agreement on getting in foreign aid workers.
   ‘We will have to see how we can translate that into reality,’ he said.
   Penny Lawrence, international director of Oxfam, said the world was unlikely to give as much money as Myanmar requested as long as the regime insisted that there were no people short of food, water and other essentials.
   ‘I don’t know how much the donors are willing to pledge, but I wouldn’t imagine it’s going to be in that kind of region,’ she said.

A thunderstorm swept across the capital Saturday evening triggering rain and stranding thousands of pedestrians on the roadsides.
   The city dwellers were expecting the storm since afternoon as patches of dark clouds gradually covered the sky. The strong wind whipped up dust and sent rubbish flying, forcing people caught up in the storm to scurry for cover.
   The met office described the storm as usual in summer. ‘It is usual that nor’westers occur in the season.
   Storms also lashed some other districts but we are yet to get details’, said the on-duty officer at the Met Office at 7:00pm.
   The maximum wind speed was recorded at 48 kilometres per hour in Dhaka.
   Gusty or squally winds accompanied by rain or thundershower are likely at places across all the six divisions in the country on Sunday, the Met Office said.

The Awami League presidium Saturday aired apprehension about holding election in due time as ‘the election commissioners blow hot and cold’ and asked them not to say anything that creates doubt in public mind over the polls.
   Election Commissioner Sakhawat Hossain Friday said the Election Commission would not take any responsibility if election not held in due time for any other reasons despite preparation of the commission.
   ‘People have doubt about the holding of the parliamentary elections in scheduled time and such remarks by the election commissioners will only stoke up people’s hesitation,’ acting AL general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam told reporters at the presidium meeting at acting president Zillur Rahman’s Gulshan residence.
   About the just-initiated political dialogue, Ashraf urged the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, to be present all through the sessions of dialogue between the government and the political parties that started May 22 to make way towards the general election.
   ‘The start of the dialogue was not good enough as the chief adviser left the dialogue after some time…He should be present for all the time and should sit beside the advisers,’ he said, adding that chief adviser’s sitting arrangement looked like that of a ‘referee’.
   The AL leader advised the chief adviser to change his sitting arrangement and sit beside the advisers at the talks.
   About party’s crucial extended meeting scheduled for May 26, Ashraf said the meeting would start at 10:00am and end at 10:00pm at the Engineers Institute.
   ‘None else but party central leaders, invited persons and reporters can enter the meeting for security reasons. Some 840-870 delegates would be present at the extended meeting
   that starts with acting president’s introductory speech,’ he said.
   Responding to a query about the party’s stand about the dialogue, Ashraf said the working committee, the policymaking body, would take the decision in this regard after weighing the party leaders’ opinions at the extended meeting.
   Zillur Rahman presided over the presidium meeting that was attended by presidium members Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzaq, Tofail Ahmed, Suranjit Sengupta and Motia Chowdhury.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, Saturday expressed the government’s firm determination to prevent with strong hand any ill attempt of destroying trees and denuding forests, saying that zero tolerance had been ensured in all spheres of forest administration to check corruption.
   ‘… enemies of trees are enemies of nature, enemies of mankind. We can’t allow anyone with the responsibility of a protector in administration and service providing institutions to play the role of an eater,’ he said.
   The chief adviser was inaugurating the three-month-long ‘National Tree Planting Campaign 2008’ at a function, organised by the Forest Department under the Ministry of Environment and Forest, at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre.
   The theme of this year’s tree planting campaign is: Tree Plantation will minimise storm, gust and tidal surge.
   Fakhruddin also distributed the Chief Adviser’s National Award 2007 in Tree Planting among some first prize winners for their extraordinary contribution.
   Forty-eight institutions and individual in 16 categories were awarded the chief adviser’s national award with first prize of Tk 20 thousand, second prize Tk 15 thousand and third prize Tk 10 thousand along with crests and certificates.
   The chief adviser handed over two special awards — one for conserving natural forest with biodiversity and another for best production of timber — at the function.
   He also distributed dividends for social forestry to two beneficiaries — Md Abbas Ali of Naogaon (Tk 5,49,411) and Phool Khatun of Gazipur (Tk 3,97,800).
   The chief adviser released a commemorative postcard of Tk 2 denomination, printed by the Bangladesh Postal Department marking the National Tree Planting Campaign and Tree Fair 2008.
   The special assistant to chief adviser for environment and forest, Raja Debashish Roy, chaired the function. The environment and forest secretary, AHM Rezaul Kabir, and chief conservator of forest, AKM Shamsuddin, also spoke at the programme.
   Advisers, special assistants to the chief adviser, people involved in social forestry, tree lovers, environmental activists and distinguished personalities were present at the function.
   The chief adviser said the government had taken ‘Greenery Bangladesh’ programme to check adverse impact of climate change and for socioeconomic development of the country.
   He informed that under the programme some 80-100 million saplings of fruit-bearing and medicinal trees would be planted across the country during the current year.
   He said nearly 180 million saplings were available at the nurseries run by the government, NGOs and private owners for sale this year.
   Fakhruddin hoped that the ‘Greenery Bangladesh’ programme would be successful through active and united participation of people.
   He urged all to join the tree planting campaign by planting at least three saplings each — of timber, fruit bearing and medicinal trees. ‘Everybody irrespective of party and opinion will have to work together to make the tree planting campaign a success.’
   The chief adviser termed this year’s theme of tree planting campaign as appropriate and timely considering the two successive floods and the devastating cyclone Sidr. He said the government was giving emphasis on facing ‘natural disaster in a natural way.’
   He hoped that all concerned would come forward to build up a wall of trees in the coastal belt as a strong deterrent to disaster. He suggested planting such trees in the coastal areas in consultation with the experts.
   Mentioning the usefulness of trees, Fakhruddin said the importance of trees had increased significantly amid worldwide challenge of rising temperature, climate change and environmental degradation.
   Referring to various researches, he said eight hectares of forest land was being destroyed every minute in the world. Trees and forests are gradually diminishing in Bangladesh due to unplanned industrialisation, urbanisation, construction of roads and so on, he told the function.
   He said it was essential to have forest on 25 per cent of total landmass in a country to maintain environmental balance and fulfilling the demands of forest resources. But the size of forest in Bangladesh is much less and as a result, natural balance is being hampered, he added.
   ‘Our main weapon is tree plantation as much as possible to face these disasters and challenges.’
   The chief adviser called upon all to turn the tree planting campaign into a meaningful social movement.
   Later, Fakhruddin planted a palash sapling on the premises of the conference centre.

The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, on Saturday said the government was hatching conspiracies to form a ‘dummy parliament’ through a farcical election to legitimise their ‘illegal activities’.
   He also castigated the Election Commission for suggesting a bicameral parliament, nullification of article 70 of the constitution and an increase in the number of parliamentary seats.
   ‘Their suggestions have stunned the nation. How dare they say that? Which force is behind them? They are simply implementing the agenda set by the quarters active behind the scenes’, Delwar said when a delegation of former student leaders of 1980s met him at his Sher-e-Bangla Nagar flat.
   ‘The Election Commission is acting against their constitutional obligations. The High Court too gave a verdict echoing our views. They [EC] are busy in activities which only an elected parliament can do’, he said.
   Criticising the chief adviser’s address to the nation, Delwar said, ‘It seems that he wants to set a guideline for politicians. It is the party leaders and activists who should decide what would be there in the party constitution and only an elected parliament can amend the country’s constitution.’
   ‘It seems that they want to force politicians into giving undertakings in the name of a charter on national issues’, he said.
   Delwar accused the government of trying to stay in power without holding fair polls and bringing false charges against politicians especially the leaders and activists of BNP and its fronts. ‘They want to hold an election without participation of Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, but it cannot happen.’
   ‘A certain quarter is hatching conspiracies against BNP to keep it out of the national elections. No election can be held in Bangladesh without BNP and Khaleda Zia’, he added.
   He demanded release of Khaleda Zia before the government’s dialogue with the BNP, saying dialogue between the government and political parties would not be successful without her.
   Party standing committee member Chowdhury Tanvir Ahmed Siddique, joint secretary general Nazrul Islam Khan, acting office secretary Rizvi Ahmed, former student leaders Ali Akbar Chunnu and Ali Ahmed were present.

The government has taken up a new project to construct a road linking Airport Road with Roquiah Sarani in an effort to ease traffic congestion in the city, the LGRD adviser, Anwarul Iqbal, said Saturday.
   The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, is expected to inaugurate the construction of the road through Tejgaon Airport on May 31, the adviser said at a press conference. The LGRD adviser said the 2.6-kilometre-long road would connect Ring Road in Shyamoli and Dhaka–Chittagong Highway, and cut pressure on Bijoy Sarani and Airport Road.
   The project will cost Tk 24.92 crore, with the Dhaka City Corporation in charge of implementing it by December.
   Special Works Organisation and 16 Engineer Construction Battalion of the Bangladesh Army will construct the road.
   Anwarul Iqbal said vehicles coming in the direction of Mohakhali would not be allowed to use Bijoy Sarani after the new road opened.
   The project would cover repairing the road past the Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Centre.
   The authorities have a plan to construct a tunnel next to the link road if it caused traffic snarl-up in front of the Chief Adviser’s Office.
   Authorities have also planned to widen Airport Road in front of the CAO too, he said.
   Headquarters of Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation had already been shifted as part of project implementation.
   Professor Md Shamsul Hoque of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, consultant of the project, said the road would be the longest link road in Dhaka to connect the south of the city with the north.
   At present, residents of east Dhaka including Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Kalyanpur and Shyamoli areas have to go to the Dhaka–Chittagong Highway through Motijheel or Rampura.
   But they will be able to be on the highway through Tejgaon Industrial Area–Hatirjheel– Rampura Road if a new road is constructed demolishing the Rangs Bhaban, the adviser said.
   Local Government Division secretary Sheikh Khurshid Alam was also present at the press conference.

The 109th birth anniversary of the national poet, Kazi Nazrul Islam, the voice of dissent and revolution whose poems and songs were a clarion call to the oppressed and the indignant, will be observed today.
   The government and several socio-cultural and political organisations have chalked out elaborate programmes to mark the day.
   The programmes will begin with the placing of flowers and wreaths at 6:00am on the poet’s grave beside the mosque in Dhaka University’s premises. There will be discussions, rallies, cultural functions and a fair of books written by the poet.
   Newspapers have published special supplements to mark the day. Television channels and radios are also featuring special programmes to commemorate the poet.
   Nazrul Islam was born on this day in 1899 at Churulia in Burdwan of West Bengal. A poet, lyricist, tunesmith, music composer, musician, dramatist, short story writer and revolutionary thinker, Nazrul is best known for his fiery poems that inspired the Bengali people to rise against British colonial rule as well as all types of injustice, discrimination and oppression.
   He is widely known as the ‘Bidrohi Kobi’ (Rebel Poet) as many of his poems and songs demonstrate an intense rebellious spirit against all oppression of human beings, whether traditional, cultural or communal. The poet also condemned religious bigotry and upheld the cause of the downtrodden.
   The nearly 3,000 songs he composed have become a new genre of Bengali music known after his name [Nazrul Giti] and widely popular in the eastern part of the subcontinent. Some of them are of such an extremely high standard that they are held up as examples to musicians and composers. Nazrul’s songs and poems were also a great source of inspiration for the freedom-fighters during the anti-colonial revolution and our War of Independence against the Pakistani junta.
   He is officially recognised as the national poet of Bangladesh and is also widely honoured in India. He died in Dhaka on August 29, 1976.
   President Iajuddin Ahmed and Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed paid glowing tributes to Nazrul on the eve of his birth anniversary, along with hundreds of other cultural and political personalities.
   In his message, the president said, ‘The vibrant life and creative works of Kazi Nazrul Islam, a poet of equality and humanity, is our endless source of inspiration.’
   The chief adviser in his message said, ‘His writing against injustice, oppression and deprivation was uncompromising. Poet Nazrul was strident against imperialism, communalism and superstition of society. He is the source of endless inspiration among people who are struggling for establishing justice in the world.’
   The main programme will be held in the Osmani Memorial Hall in Dhaka at 10am today with Fakhruddin as the chief guest. Mohammad Abdul Qayum, an eminent researcher on Nazrul and his works, will deliver the Nazrul Memorial Lecture.
   The cultural affairs ministry will also publish posters and souvenirs as part of the programme.
   Other important programmes on the day will be held at Trishal in Mymensingh and Doulatpur in Comilla, where the poet passed several years of his life.
   The Nazrul Institute, Nazrul Academy, Nazrul Singers’ Council, Bangladesh Cultural Council, Chhayanaut, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal, Samajtantrik Chhatra Front, Charan Sanskritik Kendra and Bangabandhu Sanskritik Jote, among others, will observe the day through various colourful programmes.
   The Department of World Religions of Dhaka University will celebrate the day as World Inter-Religious Harmony Day.
   Impress Telefilm will mark the day through a cultural programme it will stage at a building in Tejgaon at 11.00am. The Bangladesh Performing Media Centre will stage a cultural programme at the Poet Sufia Kamal Auditorium in the National Museum, Shahbagh, at 7.00pm.

The Election Commission is set to announce the schedule for elections to some local government bodies in early June, a senior election official said on Saturday.
   ‘Specific dates for the polls to the four city corporations and nine municipalities will be announced early June. Before that, we will formally ask the government to create an atmosphere congenial to campaigning and other election related activities, either by withdrawing the state of emergency or relaxing it,’ election commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain told the news agency.
   Polls to the four city corporations and nine municipalities are expected to be held in mid July, Sohul said.
   The four city corporations are Rajshahi, Sylhet, Barisal and Khulna, and the nine municipalities are Shariatpur, Sitakunda (Chittagong), Cox’s Bazar, Golapganj (Sylhet), Sripur (Gazipur), Phulbaria (Mymensingh), Manikganj, Nachole (Chapainawabganj) and Naohata (Rajshahi).
   Sohul said voter lists of the areas were ready and polling centres had been finalised. Preparatory work like preparing voting forms and manuals would be completed before announcing the election schedule.
   The Election Commission will have a meeting with deputy election commissioners on Monday to discuss overall preparation for the local polls. ‘The meeting is meant to listen to opinions from field-level officials and to give them guidance,’ Sohul said.
   He said that the schedule would be announced as soon as the preparation was complete.
   Fellow election commissioner Sakhawat Hussain said the EC was planning to hold the elections to the above mentioned city corporations and municipalities on the same day.
   Polls to the Dhaka City Corporation would be held later, Sakhawat said.
   The schedule will be announced up to 45 days before the election in consideration of the campaign for polls, Sakhawat said.
   Another senior official of the Election Commission secretariat said preparation to hold polls to the local government bodies was almost complete. Returning officers and assistant returning officers had been appointed. But the forms could not be printed as election codes of conduct had not been finalised yet.
   On the matter, Sohul said the local government ordinance related to city corporations and municipalities had been gazetted. The election rules and codes of conducts will be sent to the law ministry today. They may be published by gazette in the first week of June.

The army chief General Moeen U Ahmed has concluded his 10-day official tour of Greece and Kuwait, during which he explored training facilities for sportspersons and more Bangladesh military role in the Gulf states.
   During his visit to Greece, the army chief made a courtesy call on president of the International Olympic Academy Minos and discussed different proposals on development of Bangladesh’s sports arena.
   The IOA president assured him cooperation ‘in all possible sectors and sanction of quota for Bangladesh in all IOA training curricula from now on’, said an ISPR release on Saturday.
   Earlier on May 13, the army chief attended the inaugural programme of the 9th International Session for Presidents or Directors of National Olympic Academies and Officials of National Olympic Committees in the historical city of Olympia.
   On May 14, from among the representatives of all countries present, General Moeen was selected for placing wreath at the Kubertin, which was a rare honour shown to him, the release said.
   On the second leg of his tour, he went to Kuwait on May 17. The Chief of Army Staff met the Kuwaiti deputy prime minister and defence minister, the Chief of Armed Forces and chiefs of three services and other military and civil high officials.
   During the meeting with the Chief of Armed Forces of Kuwait, Moeen discussed matters of increase in financial, administrative and all benefits of the Bangladesh army personnel working in the Gulf state as well as recruitment of more manpower from Bangladesh.
   Upon the plea, the Kuwaiti Armed Forces chief directed the authorities to ‘rapidly resolve the matters.’
   General Moeen also sought his necessary cooperation in creating job opportunity for Bangladesh Army personnel in some other Gulf countries like Kuwait.
   Besides, General Moeen made a courtesy call on the Asian Shooting Federation president and attended a reception accorded to him by the Bangladeshi expatriates.
   ‘This visit is expected to help create more employment opportunities for Bangladeshis apart from strengthening cooperation between the two countries in military sector,’ said the ISPR release.

The government plans to introduce isolation units at 33 district level public hospitals to treat patients infected with avian influenza by June, as the viral infection has already been detected in a child in Dhaka.
   Besides establishing the 33 units with at least four beds each, the government will also start surveillance at 18 more district hospitals with the existing 12 where surveillance started amid the first outbreak of bird flu in March 2007, said Mahmudur Rahman, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research.
   The initiatives were taken before detection of the first case of bird flue infection in human body on Wednesday, said director of disease control of the directorate general of health services, Moazzem Hossain. ‘Now all the steps will be swift.’
   As part of the preparedness of tackling human infection of H5N1, the government has also stocked up a large number of anti-viral drug and protective equipments, said Mahmudur Rahman.
   The government has already established an 8-bed avian influenza ward at the chest diseases instate and hospital in Mohakhali with artificial ventilation system, and all drugs and facilities to treat such patients.
   To diagnose the infection, the government has established a laboratory with real-time polymerase chain reaction, a rapid method for diagnosis of all kinds of influenza viruses, on the second floor of the IEDCR building at Mohakhali and invited international tenders for procurement of machinery for the laboratory, said an official of the IEDCR.
   Mahmud told New Age on Saturday, ‘The PCR is a method for amplifying a small amount of deoxyribonucleic acid or ribonucleic acid into large quantities in a few hours. Real-time PCR lets a scientist view the increase in DNA as it is amplified, and allows rapid screening of samples for diagnosis and disease tracking.’
   The government also ordered installing a Bio Safety Level 3 Laboratory on the IEDCR premises to tackle incidence of influenza and other dangerous pathogens within four to five months. The BSL 3 Lab will be brought in from the Hong Kong.
   With the assistance of international financial institutions and lending agencies, the government has already trained a large number of health professionals and people.
   There are 12-member teams in districts and four-member teams at the upazila level for rapid response that have been working around the country. Besides there are about 2,26,100 volunteers at the union that working to raise the awareness of the people. They are visiting the door to door with messages and leaflets, said health officials.
   The first bird flu in human body was detected on May 21. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, USA, diagnosed a 16-month-old Bangladeshi child as being infected with H5N1, the virus that causes avian influenza.
   The country’s first bird flu case was detected in March 2007 in poultry. About 287 farms with confirmed H5N1 virus cases were reported in 47 districts till May 21 in 2008, according to the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock.
   The government has so far exterminated more than 16,37,266 fowl and destroyed about 22 lakh eggs in 505 commercial and 42 backyard farms in the country.
   The symptoms are similar to other types of flu — fever, malaise, sore throat and coughing. Humans can also develop conjunctivitis because of the virus.
   The World Health Organization confirmed 382 cases of H5N1 in humans in Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Djibouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Laos, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam, leading to 241 deaths, between 2003 and April 30, 2008.

Senior advocate Rafique-ul Haq on Saturday suggested that both the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party should take part in the ongoing dialogue between the interim government and the political parties so that the ‘unseen influential quarters who are ruling the country from behind the scenes’ could not implement their agenda. 
   ‘Both the major parties are about to be trapped by the quarters who are manipulating them into not joining the dialogues without their chiefs — Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia,’ he said, while addressing the BBC Bangladesh Sanglap at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre.
   Secretary-General of Bikalpadhara Bangladesh Abdul Mannan, former BNP lawmaker Shamsuzzaman and former AL lawmaker Shagufta Yasmin Emeli also took part in the discussion as panellists. The quarters behind the scenes will be happy if the two parties do not take part in the government-initiated dialogues, categorically said Huq, also the counsel for detained Hasina and Khaleda both.
   He, however, said that it would not be possible for them to get the two leaders released through legal ways. ‘The parties should try to achieve their release politically,’ opined the former attorney-general.
   Political leaders said that the ultimate future of the dialogue depends on the participation of the two major political parties — the Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
   They, however, rejected outright the necessity of any written agreement with the interim government on the code of conduct for governments in the future.
   Shagufta Yasmin said that AL wanted to join the dialogue on the condition that her party chief Sheikh Hasina must be released to lead them in the talks, adding that power should be handed over to elected politicians who only have the right to rule the country.
   The dialogue will not be fruitful if the government’s main target shifts from holding the general elections, said Shamsuzzaman.
   Mannan hoped that everything would be resolved through discussions and all the political parties would reach a consensus.
   Rafique-ul Haq said that the plan to hold the local body elections and delimit the constituencies was the Election Commission’s excuse of delaying the holding of the general elections, which was the main constitutional responsibility of the present government.

The shotgun and five rounds of bullet looted from a police patrol team by a gang of miscreants at Gazipur sadar upazila early Friday are yet to be recovered.
   The lawmen are still conducting drives in search of the looted arms and ammunitions and the culprits at different places of the district.
   However, the superintendent of Gazipur police, Abdul Baten said that they could identify the main culprit but failed to arrest anybody.
   He said most of the culprits were from outside the district and were hiding in the Konabari, Kahsimpur, Bimail and Mauchak industrial areas.
   He hoped that the police would arrest the culprits and recover the arms and ammunitions very soon.
   The condition of the two injured constables Nayeb Ali and Mosharraf Hossain, who were admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, is improving, the police sources said.
   The lawmen picked up 25 suspects, including a former UP member, so far in connection with the incident, the highway police said.
   Local people suspect that the incident took place in view of the recent increase in police patrol in the area.
   The culprits injured two constables of a highway police patrol team and looted the arms and bullets from them at Natunbazar in Konabari under Gazipur sadar upazila early Friday.

Voters in regions devastated by the cyclone, many hungry and destitute, cast ballots Saturday in a referendum that many said was meaningless because Myanmar’s junta has already declared victory.
   Five million people were eligible to vote on a constitution that the military says will lead to democratic elections in two years, but that critics say will only extend the generals’ grip over the country they’ve ruled for nearly half a century.
   The regime says the charter was overwhelmingly approved by 92.4 per cent in the first round of voting on May 10, held in parts of the country spared by the cyclone.
   Even though their votes will not change the outcome, people left their patched-up homes and makeshift shelters to cast ballots at schools, temples and community centres that served as polling stations.
   ‘My vote is nothing for them,’ said a 30-year-old taxi driver. ‘They won already. What’s important for me is trying to earn some money today.’
   His feeling is shared by many in Myanmar’s main city of Yangon, where many people still have no reliable water or electricity, while food prices have tripled in the three weeks since the storm.
   The situation is even worse in the nearby Irrawaddy Delta, which bore the brunt of the storm that left 133,000 dead or missing, with 2.4 million in desperate need of food, shelter and medicine.
   Only 25 per cent of the people in need have actually received any help, according to the United Nations, creating the prospect that some storm victims could receive ballot papers before getting any aid.
   People whose homes were destroyed have said they were forced out of schools where they had sought shelter so that the classrooms could be used as polling stations.
   And the few evacuees lucky enough to live in emergency shelters say authorities have combed through the camps to register everyone over 18 to vote.
   ‘What can I do? I voted Yes like everyone else did,’ said Ko Naing, a 45-year-old resident of Hlaing Tharyar township, where thousands still live in temporary shelters on the western outskirts of Yangon.
   Many people were afraid to talk about the referendum, fearing retribution from the military and its omnipresent informants.
   ‘I will tick Yes,’ said 30-year-old shop assistant Khin Min. ‘I am afraid I will be put in jail if I vote No.’
   Kyaw Kyaw, 20, was only a toddler the last time Myanmar held a national election, in 1990, when democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi led her National League for Democracy to a landslide victory.
   The party was never allowed to govern, and she has been under house arrest for most of the years since.
   But Kyaw Kyaw said she was more concerned with continuing her university studies than with voting.
   ‘I also cast a Yes vote, like others did. But I’m not very interested in it. I have to take care of my education,’ Kyaw Kyaw said.
   Aung San Suu Kyi has not been allowed to speak about the referendum, but her party has opposed it and urged the military to focus its resources on cyclone relief instead.
   But Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed to vote. A Myanmar official said that authorities brought her an advance ballot on Friday morning.

The head of the party leading Pakistan’s ruling coalition unveiled proposed constitutional changes on Saturday that would take away president Pervez Musharraf’s powers.
   ‘We intend to walk him away, rather than impeach him away,’ said Asif Ali Zardari, who succeeded his late wife Benazir Bhutto as leader of the Pakistan People’s Party after her assassination last December.
   Zardari said the amendments would remove the president’s right to dismiss the government and pass responsibility
   for appointing heads of the armed services and provincial governors to the prime minister.
   The proposed amendments included a bar on a president running for office for more than two terms.
   The PPP has to consult its three coalition allies over the 62 proposed amendments, that could be put before parliament by the end of June.
   The coalition allies defeated pro-Musharraf parties in a general election in February, and a government was sworn in
   at the end of March under the prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, a PPP loyalist picked by Zardari.
   Constitutional changes are passed through the National Assembly and Senate, and the coalition partners lack the required two-thirds majority in the combined houses.
   Senate elections are due at the end of the year, and many analysts expect the struggle between Pakistan’s main political parties and Musharraf, who came to power in a 1999 coup, to come to a head then.
   The United States has been closely involved in Pakistan’s political transition.
   Some political analysts believe Washington has tried to prop up Musharraf out of fear that his sudden departure could lead to instability in the nuclear armed state and hinder the campaign to wipe out al-Qaeda.
   How to tackle US ally Musharraf has already led to strains within the coalition.
   Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister overthrown by Musharraf, pulled nine ministers from his party out of the cabinet two weeks ago to protest against the PPP’s failure to reinstate judges Musharraf dismissed during a brief phase of emergency rule last November.
   Sharif’s party has maintained support for the PPP-led government without being part of it.
   The legality of Musharraf’s re-election last October while still army chief by the outgoing parliament was being challenged in the Supreme Court when Musharraf purged the judiciary.
   Zardari said the PPP had ‘never accepted General Musharraf as a constitutional president’ but had kept a working relationship and would consult him over the constitutional package.
   Musharraf’s foes have talked of impeaching him for invoking emergency rule on November 3, but Zardari has been wary of provoking Musharraf while he still possesses sweeping powers.
   Political uncertainty has taken its toll on investor confidence in Pakistan.
   The Karachi Stock Exchange’s 100-share index ended Friday more than 17 per cent below the record high struck on April 21, largely because of doubts about the PPP’s ability to work in harness with Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).
   There had been speculation that Zardari would risk
   splitting his own party by turning to the pro-Musharraf parties for support if Sharif’s PML-N withdrew backing for the government.
   On Saturday Zardari sought to dispel any doubts over who the PPP intended to work with, saying: ‘Once this package is tabled in the parliament, then the lines will be clearly drawn that (show) who is with who.’

Bangladesh ranks first as the most peaceful nation in South Asia in 2008, according to the Global Peace Index survey conducted by an independent think tank, the Institute for Economic and Peace.
   Bangladesh ranked 86th among 140 countries in 2008, but is ahead of India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, said a foreign ministry release Saturday.
   Iceland tops the survey with the United States at 97th while Russia took the ninth spot in reverse at 131st place.
   The Global Peace Index, which is drawn up by the Institute for Economics and Peace, an independent study group, together with the UK-based Economist Intelligence Unit, conducted the survey.
   It tests each nation against 24 ‘peacefulness’ criteria, including a nation’s relations with its neighbours, arms sales and foreign troop developments. It also takes into account crime rate, proportion of prison population and the potential for terrorism within its borders.
   Foreign adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury expressed satisfaction over the study.
   In a statement he said, ‘This only proves what we have been saying for sometime. Today, Bangladesh is a oasis of calm in an otherwise turbulent region. We are at peace with all our neighbours.’
   ‘Internationally, we are playing a constructive role as a top UN peacekeeper. At home, political and social violence has declined. We have had a bumper harvest. Growth, though not phenomenal, is steady. All these have the signs of a new emerging Asian Tiger, this time a Royal Bengal,’ he said.
   Iftekhar said, ‘I’m glad the world is beginning to notice this. This is about time. Bangladesh is no longer a basket case.’
   The adviser said, ‘If we can also achieve political reconciliation that we are seeking now, our future prospects are bright. But we cannot afford complacency. The national efforts to achieve our goals must be coordinated.’

A 3-member delegation of state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation left for Kuwait on Saturday to hold talks with the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation’s officials for signing a fresh deal on import of petroleum products.
   Sources in the BPC said the team, led by its chairman Anwarul Karim, is expected to meet the officials of the KPC and strike a new deal for importing 2.4 million metric tonnes of petroleum products, including diesel, during the period of next six months from June this year.
   During the talks, the delegation looks set to request the KPC officials to reduce the premium.
   BPC imported most of the fuels from KPC at a premium of $5.35, the officials said. The members of the team are expected to return home on Wednesday.

The detective branch of police Saturday morning arrested the prime suspect of Ashiqur Rahman Khan killing, Iftekhar Beg Jhalak, 38, at Wari in the capital.
   Jhalak was arrested earlier with eight fire arms in another case filed with the Sutrapur police and was released on bail, said the DB police.
   A group of assailants shot Ashiq dead and injured his two brothers at Wari Friday night.
   Witnesses said a gang of six assailants had fired on Atiqur Rahman Khan, 32, and his brothers Arifur Rahman Khan, 25, and Ashiqur Rahman Khan, 22, in front of their residence at around 7:30pm.
   The three brothers were taken to the hospital where the on-duty doctors declared Ashiq dead.