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The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission will issue licences for 3G technology to mobile operators by March to allow them to provide better telecoms services.
   ‘We are now preparing the draft guideline on the issuance of 3G licences. The guideline will be made public to seek stakeholders’ opinion by January. We will issue 3G licences by the first quarter of the next year,’ said the commission chairman, Manzurul Alam, at a seminar on ‘Broadband for All,’ organised by the GSM Association at the Radisson Hotel.
   He said the commission would hold open auction for companies interested in the licence after the finalisation of the guideline.
   Introduction of 3G networks will enable mobile operators to offer subscribers mobile broadband services for fast and easy access to the internet and other online services.
   The commission earlier said it might issue three licences to private mobile operators and one licence to the state-run mobile operator Teletalk. The six mobile operators now have around 47 million subscribers.
   When asked which of the two — Wimax and 3G technology — would be appropriate for Bangladesh, Manzurul said the people and the market would decide. The commission recently issued three Wimax licences to three companies.
   Mobile operators, citing European 3G licensing process, suggested that the commission should hold the auction in such a way so that the cost of licence would not go so high that operators would fail to provide subscribers with broadband services at an affordable price.
   European operators bought 3G licences by paying hundreds of millions of euros resulting high cost of broadband services.
   Ricardo Tavares, senior vice-president for public policy of the GSMA said Bangladesh, which has very few fixed-line connections, could realise major social and economic benefits from the widespread availability of mobile broadband services.
   The GSMA, the global body for the mobile industry, has called on Bangladesh to issue 3G licences as soon as possible to make broadband services available.
   The Wireless Intelligence expects the number of mobile users in Bangladesh to grow to 70 million by 2011 from 47 million at end of September 2008.

The UK government on Tuesday published its list on shortage occupations in Britain — a list which includes skilled chefs.
   The shortage occupation list will be used in conjunction with the forthcoming Points Based System for skilled workers and will make it easier to recruit skilled migrants that Britain’s economy needs, according to a news release.
   The government accepted all the recommendations put forward by the Migration Advisory Committee — the independent panel of economists examining the UK’s economic needs — and added a further category of social workers.
   The Migration Advisory Committee conducted a thorough and in-depth analysis of the UK’s labour market and advised the government on specific sectors and occupations in the labour market where severe shortages exist which can be sensibly filled by migration.
   The final list includes consultant doctors, dentists and senior nurses in certain healthcare specialties, some engineering occupations, secondary school teachers in maths and science, skilled chefs and skilled senior care workers.
   Stuart Percival, head of immigration at the British High Commission in Dhaka, said, ‘The idea of this global policy is straightforward and logical. The points based system is about matching migration into the UK to the UK’s economic needs.
   ‘The UK needs skilled chefs. Therefore, the UK will continue to welcome them from Bangladesh and from other countries around the world.’

Academics and artistes on Wednesday called for equal rights of the ethnic minority people observing that they were deprived of their basic rights ensured in the constitution.
   They also urged all to take measures to ensure their rights to use their mother tongues freely, besides the Bengali language.
   The call came on the opening day of the four-day theatre festival of the ethnic minority people.
   Ethnic language movement hero U Sue and national professor Kabir Chowdhury inaugurated the festival, which also includes three seminars on the ethnic minority people at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in Dhaka.
   Adviser to the military-controlled interim government, Hossain Zillur Rahman, as chief guest, said, ‘Every citizen of the country has the right to enjoy his/her privileges ensured in the constitution’.
   ‘To establish democracy in the country, we have to address the problems of the people, who are deprived of their rights,’ he said.
   Looking upon the cultural diversity of the ethnic minority people as a positive feature, the adviser said, ‘We should pay more attention to them and work to improve their social and economic conditions’.
   The festival styled ‘conference on diverse culture and 2nd theatre festival of ethnic people’ will reflect the cultural diversity of the minority groups, said the organisers.
   About 30 lakh ethnic people belonging to the Chakma, Marma, Tripura, Santal, Garo, Khasia and Manipuri communities live in Bangladesh, they said.
   The Research and Development Collective in association with the Action Aid Bangladesh and Shilpakala Academy has organised the festival.
   Professor Mesbah Kamal, theatre activists Ramendu Majumdar, Nasir Uddin Yousuff and Aly Zaker, BSA director general, Bhuiyan Shafiqul Islam, and Action Aid country director, Farah Kabir, among others, attended the programme.
   After the inauguration, Karma Dharma, a drama, was staged by Puamodo Theatre.

Islami Chhatra Shibir activists, teamed up as Sachetan Chhatra Samaj, on Wednesday forced a daylong student strike on the Rajshahi University campus amid heavy police presence demanding punishment of campus-based cultural activists for staging a drama on November 3.
   Dumketu Natya Sangsad staged the drama, Mandar, on the campus on November 3 in protest at the dismantling of the baul monument in the Dhaka airport crossing.
   The play, scripted by Rahul Ananda and earlier published in theatre journal Theatrewala, featured a character named Rasul Miah which Shibir thought was against the Prophet Muhammad (SM).
   In this connection, Shibir activists on November 6 manhandled a Bangla department student, Hosne Ara Farzana, also an Udichi activist, in connection with the alleged satiric attack on Islam in the drama performance, a charge the troupe dismissed as false and conspiracy.
   Shibir later announced to burn alive all cultural activists based on the university campus.
   The Progressive Teachers’ Society at Rajshahi University at a meeting on Wednesday, meanwhile, expressed their concerns about the activities of fundamentalist forces on the campus.
   The Progressive Students’ Alliance at Dhaka University also brought out a procession and held a rally demanding trial of the policemen who attacked students and cultural activists, out on demonstrations at Alupatti Tuesday afternoon against the motivated explanation the drama.
   Campus sources and law enforcers said several hundred Shibir activists on Wednesday locked up all the gates but for the Binodpur gate of the university at about 5:00am and pasted bills, reading ‘Student strike continues,’ on the walls of all the departments, administrative building and the central library.
   Shibir activist also stood guard at the gates and patrolled the campus, the sources said. The Shibir activists warned the drivers not to run university buses.
   A large number of outsiders entered the campus at about 7:30am and joined Shibir activists.
   University officials including the proctor, Enamul Haque, teachers and employees, failed to enter the administrative building. Shibir activists asked the officials, teachers and employees to denounce the cultural activists for staging the drama, an official said.
   Law enforcers said some Shibir activists tried to block the Dhaka–Rajshahi Highway, but they were not allowed to do so.
   In the afternoon, Shibir activists held a protest meeting in front of the administrative building and called on the authorities to punish the cultural activists.
   If the cultural activists are not punished, Sachetan Chhatra Samaj will initiate tougher agitation programme against the university authorities, they said.
   Assistant commissioner of the Motihar zone police MKH Zahangir Hossain said they had nothing to do as no help had been sought from them by the university authorities. ‘We are waiting for a direction.’
   The acting vice-chancellor Mamnunul Keramat, when he was contacted over telephone, said, ‘I am now in Dhaka and action will be taken against the students responsible for the strike after my return.’
   The university, meanwhile, issued a release and asked all student organisations to help in the holding of admission tests scheduled to begin on November 16.
   The release said the 11-member committee, headed by social sciences dean M Sadequl Islam to investigate the November 3 drama performance, had started work.
   The Progressive Teachers’ Society said fundamentalist forces were trying to destroy academic atmosphere on the campus.
   The teachers called on the university authorities to conduct an impartial investigation of the assault of female student by Shibir activists and Shibir’s threat to burn alive all cultural activists.
   The teachers also expressed their concerns about the daily newspaper Al-Ihsan in which a report termed Udichi and Dhumketu Natya Sangsad activists murtad (apostate) and Anjuman Al-Baiyanat announced reward for those who would be able to kill the murtad.
   They also urged the government and demanded immediate legal action against the newspaper.
   The Progressive Students’ Alliance at Dhaka University demanded trial of the police personnel who attacked the Rajshahi University students on Tuesday.
   They also were demanding the punishment of Shibir activists for attack on general students and theatre activists.

Cable TV operators have urged the government to resolve their problems arising out of a conflict between two distributors of foreign pay-channels.
   Addressing a news conference at the Dhaka Reporters Unity, a group of the cable operators Wedn-esday alleged that MGH Infocomm Ltd, a distributor, was now appointing illegal cable operators who were mainly hoodlums and musclemen and said that would create anarchy in their business.
   ‘Such illegal appointment of cable operators will lead to a grave situation ahead of the ensuing general elections,’ said SM Shamsur Rahman Shimul, who claimed him to be the convener of the coordinating committee of the Cable Operators Association of Bangladesh.
   COAB is the main organisation of the cable TV operators, but its elections remained suspended following litigation.
   Shimul further alleged that the government had fixed the line rate for the cable operators. But the government has not yet fixed the charge of the pay-channel for which the distributors are charging excessively, he said.
   He said that the cable operators have informed the information ministry about the situation and urged the government to take proper action within 48 hours. ‘Otherwise, we’ll have to go for action programme,’ said Shimul, who was flanked by some other cable operators.
   He also mentioned that earlier the cable operators suspended their cable operation from 7:00pm to 10:00pm on October 16.

Women in Politics, a political platform for women, on Wednesday, urged all the political parties to nominate one-third women candidates from each party for the forthcoming parliamentary elections.
   Without empowering women it would be impossible to develop the country as women constitute half of the total population, the organisation leaders said at a press conference at Dhaka Reporter’s Unity.
   The convener of Women in Politics, Nahid Nazrul Sitara, also called on the women involved in politics to be united to launch a platform to raise their voice.
   The organisation will extend its support and cooperation to the women candidates who will get nominations, Nahid Nazrul said at the conference.
   The platform had prepared to nominate about 70 candidates for the upcoming elections initially, but it failed to get registered by the Election Commission for the elections, Nahid Nazrul said.
   Women in Politics is the first and only political platform of women, which was floated six months ago, the member secretary of the organisation, Syeda Fatema Banu said.
   The central leader of the organisation, Mehjabin Rahman also spoke at the conference.

Online news agency bdnews24.com will celebrate its second anniversary with a gala event at the Radisson Water Garden Hotel today.
   The event will bring together newsmakers - politicians, businessmen, government officials, diplomats and development partners.
   It will also feature audio-visual presentations, demonstration and live webcast on online journalism.
   The agency will launch some new-look blogs: banglablog.bdnews24.com, sports update web sites blog.bdnews24.com and sport.bdnews24.com in Bangla and English, children's web site in Bangla kidz.bdnews24.com, tech.bdnews24.com, cricket.bdnews24.com, glitz.bdnews24.com and arts.bdnews24.com.
   Re-lunched with new management on October 22, 2006, the agency introduced bilingual news service through integrated multimedia, mobile and internet platforms.
   The agency reaches 100,000 unique readers, with about 90 million hits and 12 million pageviews a month, said a release.

The Workers Party of Bangladesh has finalised nomination of 35 candidates for parliamentary elections scheduled for December 18.
   The party president Rashed Khan Menon will contest for Barisal-2 and Barisal-3 constituencies, general secretary Bimal Biswas will file nomination for Narail-1, politburo member Fazle Hossain Badsha for Rajshahi-2, Iqbal Kabir Zahid for Jessore-4, Mostafa Lutfullah for Satkhira-1, Matiur Rahman Tapan for Rajshahi-5 and Rajshahi-6, Noor Ahmed Bakul for Kushtia-3, Rabin Soren for Dinajpur-6 and Hazera Sultana will contest for Dhaka-10 constituency.
   The WP nomination board finalised the nominations on November 6.
   Party presidium member Anisur Rahman Mollick is the convener of the board, Quamrul Ahsan member-secretary and Bimal Biswas, Haider Akbar Khan Rano, Shafiuddin Ahmed and Mozammel Haque Tara are members.

The Anti-Corruption Commission on Wednesday arrested assistant director of Bakhrabad Gas Systems Ltd Salahuddin Ahmed in the Chittagong city on charge of taking bribe.
   A team of the anti-graft watchdog, led by its director Major Zulfiqar Ali Majumder, raided the sales and distribution division of Bakhrabad Gas Systems Ltd in the afternoon and caught Salahuddin red-handed while he was taking Tk 6 thousand from a contractor.
   Major Zulfiqar said they had received allegation from two contractors that Salahuddin realised Tk 21 thousand from them in four instalments holding up their bill payments.
   Salahuddin was handed over to the Halishahar police and a case was filed.

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation will provide $ 6 million for the skills development project of the government of Bangladesh.
   The agency will provide support in two phases between 2008 and 2013, to strengthen the Technical Vocational Education and Training System in Bangladesh.
   The objective of the project is to build up the skilled and semi skilled human resources for the economic and social development of the country, said a Swiss embassy press release.
   An agreement for the first phase (2008-2011) for a contribution of US$ 3.6 million was signed between the Economic Relations Division secretary, Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan and the ambassador of Switzerland, Dora Rapold, at the ERD conference room on Wednesday.
   The project will be implemented in urban and rural areas of four divisions - Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi and Khulna - in partnership with the industries and non-governmental agencies including specialized skills training providers.
   The project will be financed by the Government of Bangladesh, SDC and the Asian Development Bank and it will be implemented by the Directorate of Technical Education under the Ministry of Education of Bangladesh.
   SDC, the international development agency of the Swiss government, is currently focusing on two priority areas in Bangladesh – employment and income generation and local governance, with an annual budget of around US$ 20 million.

Former Barisal mayor Majibur Rahman Sarwar was released on bail from the Mymensingh Central Jail Tuesday night.
   Wife of Sarwar and his nearest relatives were present at the jail gate. The joint forces arrested Sarwar, a leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, at his Gulshan residence in Dhaka in 2007 on various charges including extortion, corruption and possession of illegal arms.
   He was shifted to the Mymensingh jail from the Dhaka Central Jail on November 3, 2007.
   Private news agency bdnews24.com adds: Sarwar placed flowers at the grave of the late president Ziaur Rahman, also the founder of the BNP, on Wednesday.
   Deputy inspector general of prisons Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui told the news agency that the prison authorities released Sarwar from the Mymensingh jail at about 11:00pm after scrutiny of the bail papers.
   The police had seized huge quantities of relief materials, cash and gold ornaments from his house after arrest on May 29, 2007.