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A Dhaka court on Tuesday overturned the trial court’s verdict that had sentenced three Dhaka University teachers to imprisonment for two years each on charges of breaching the Emergency Powers Rules 2007 on August 22, 2007 by instigating campus protests in August 2007.
   Dhaka metropolitan additional sessions judge Mohammad Abul Bashar dismissed the case allowing the appeals preferred by the teachers convicted — former Dhaka University Teachers’ Association president Sadrul Amin, now arts dean, and the general secretary Anwar Hossain, also a biochemistry professor, and former social sciences dean Harun-or-Rashid, now pro-vice-chancellor, against the verdict delivered by Dhaka speedy trial court judge Golam Rabbani on January 22, 2008.
   The three teachers were, however, released from jail on January 22, 2007, on the day when the verdict was pronounced, on a presidential clemency.
   Although no application was filed for the mercy, the then president Iajuddin Ahmed suo moto remitted the sentences hours after the pronouncement of the verdict.
   The teachers on February 25, 2008 appealed against their conviction and sentences as the presidential clemency only remitted the sentences, but their convictions were not annulled. The hearing in the appeals ended on July 2, 2009.
   Tuesday’s judgement came only two days day after the parliamentary standing committee on the education ministry on Sunday decided to reinvestigate the ‘military brutality and injustice’ done to university teachers and students in 2007 as the panel believed their trial under the emergency rule was prefixed.
   Registering their strong condemnation of the military atrocities on the teachers and students, the committee members also sought to see the full report of the judicial inquiry, conducted by Justice Habibur Rahman Khan, in connection with the incident.
   The August campus protests flared off the assault of some students by some army men in the university playground during a football match between two departments on August 20, 2007.
   Two university teachers who went to the place to tackle the situation were also assaulted by army men of the temporary camp housed at the gymnasium.
   The students then went out on demonstrations demanding withdrawal of the camp from the campus. The police then attacked the demonstrators in which a number of students and teachers, including then acting vice-chancellor, were injured.
   The protests flared up elsewhere, including major educational institutions in Dhaka and across the country.
   The police filed at least 53 cases against the students and four Dhaka University teachers. Many other cases were filed with the police across the country in connection with the protests in other educational institutions and surroundings.
   Although most of the cases have been withdrawn, seven of the students — second-year mass communications student Deen Islam Angel, Muhsin Hall resident Rafiqul Islam Sujan, master’s student of mathematics Asaduzzaman, also a resident of Ekushey Hall, Kazi Zahidul Islam Biplob, Deen Islam, Rashedul Habib and Abdul Hasan.
   Of them, Biplob, Angel, Deen Islam, Sujan, and Asaduzzaman are still facing a case filed with the Shahbagh police on charges of assaulting an army officer and setting fire to an army vehicle.
   A Rajshahi court on December 4, 2007 sentenced four Rajshahi University teachers — Professor Moloy Kumar Bhowmik of management, and Professor Selim Reza Newton, Professor Dulal Chandra Biswas and Professor Abdullah Al Mamun of mass communications — to two years’ rigorous imprisonment on charges of violating the Emergency Powers Rule.
   The speedy trial tribunal in Rajshahi on December 12, 2007 jailed 10 Rajshahi University students and an employee for three years each in the case of setting a military vehicle on fire during campus protests.
   The Rajshahi University teachers were released from jail on December 10 and the 10 students and an employee on January 21 on a presidential clemency although none of them sought mercy.
   They had also filed appeals against their sentences and convictions. The appeals are still pending.
   A Dhaka court on January 21 jailed four Dhaka University students for two years each and acquitted four teachers and 11 students of the charges in the case relating to August 21 campus protests. The president the same day remitted their sentences.
   The four convicted students— university unit Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal president Hasan Al Mamun, general secretary Saiful Islam Feroz and activist Kamrul Islam Kochi, and university unit Chhatra Union leader Azizul Hasan — on March 18, 2008 filed an appeal with the Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge’s court against the verdict on March 18, 2008. Their appeals are also still pending.

The Bangladesh parliamentary delegation returned home ‘convinced’ that India’s Tipaimukh project was still in a conceptual stage and New Delhi would not do anything harmful for Bangladesh at the site.
    Delegation leader Abdur Razzak also claimed that they now have in hand enough information, which was not gathered in last 20-25 years, to check with local experts and assess the environmental impacts from any such project on the common river Barak in Manipur state of India.
   ‘Both the Indian external affairs and power ministers reiterated the pledge of Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh that India would not implement any project which will do harm to Bangladesh,’ he said Tuesday at the Zia International Airport immediately after the team’s return from New Delhi.
   The former water resources minister headed the 10-member delegation that reached New Delhi on July 29 and discussed with Indian ministers and officials to convey Bangladesh’s concerns about the planned dam at Tipaimukh and stop India from proceeding with the dam project, which is feared to be disastrous for downstream Bangladesh.
   The team was to visit the controversial dam site in Manipur state, but inclement weather prevented the helicopter carrying them from landing there on Friday and Saturday. Half of the team returned home Sunday, but the six lawmakers stayed back in New Delhi for one more day for further talks with Indian authorities.
   The delegation leader earlier said that Indian authorities had told them that a hydroelectricity project has been planned at Tipaimukh and there would not any irrigation component.
   ‘I can say for sure that there is no structure yet on the site. The future of the project is also not certain,’ Razzak said on the basis of impressions he got from Indian authorities and also the team’s aerial view of the project site.
   Referring to the concerns of Indian officials, he said if anything goes wrong, environmental impacts would be felt by India first.
   ABM Ruhul Amin Hawlader, Jatiya Party’s secretary general and a member of the delegation, said India has not yet started any construction at the Tipaimukh site and it is still at a conceptual stage.
   Asked whether India would abandon the project, Abdur Razzak said it is up to the Indian government to decide the fate of the project.
   The North Eastern Electric Power Company, which was earlier assigned to implement the Tipaimukh project, has declined to go ahead with the job, he informed.
   ‘Now the Indian government is negotiating with NHPC Limited for implementation of the project. An agreement would be signed between them,’ he added
   Razzak, who also chairs the parliamentary standing committee on water resources ministry, claimed that the delegation has got enough data in hand.
   ‘We also requested them for more data to examine the probable environmental impacts on Bangladesh from any structure on Barak river,’ he added.
   Sheikh M Wahid-uz-Zaman, water resources secretary, also a member of the delegation, said the information they got during the trip was not available to Bangladesh in last 20 to 25 years.
   ‘We will analyse the data and share those with our experts to weigh the possible impacts of the project on Bangladesh.’
   The government decided to send the parliamentary team amid an uproar against the planned Tipaimukh project, which local environmentalists and politicians feared would restrict flows to the Meghna and spell disasters for ecology in the Sylhet region.
   Opposition BNP skipped sending its representative with the team.

The government is yet to file cases against the Rid Pharmaceutical Limited and the people concerned on charges of using diethylene glycol in paracetamol syrup and causing death to children even after investigation had been completed a week ago.
   The company is lobbying with the health ministry and the Drug Administration to influence the decision on filing cases against them, according to government officials.
   The Drug Administration is, however, yet to being an investigation to establish whether its employees, responsible for the supervision of the production at Rid Pharma, had any role in the use of the toxic chemical by the company, they said.
   The health minister, AFM Ruhal Haque, on July 29 confirmed the presence of diethylene glycol in a batch of paracetamol syrup produced by Rid Pharma.
   Legal action will be taken against the company and its owners on charges of using the toxic chemical in syrup and violating drug rules, he told reporters after receiving the report of the official committee investigating the latest spate of children’s deaths caused by toxic medicines.
   The government formed the committee on July 21 after paediatricians alerted the policymakers to the danger of adulterated paracetamol and vitamin syrups of a brand causing acute renal failure and death to 24 children in Dhaka Shishu Hospital and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital.
   When asked whether the government has filed any cases against Rid Pharma and the people concerned, the Drug Administration director, Brigadier General M Ismail Hossain, said, ‘A process to file a case against the company is under way.’
   ‘There is no doubt about filing cases against them. But we need to prepare papers in consultation with the legal experts so that none can escape punishment,’ he told New Age on Tuesday.
   He said the Drug Administration did not have the fund to pay fees to legal experts.
   Rights activists, however, stressed the need for suing the people concerned on charges of causing death to the children by producing toxic paracetamol syrup and violating drug production regulations.
   The company and the people concerned need to be given exemplary punishment to stop the recurrence of drug adulteration, the Consumer Association of Bangladesh general secretary, Kazi Faruque, rights activist Shahdeen Malik, also a Supreme Court lawyer, and rights organisation Odhikar general secretary Adilur Rahman Khan, also a Supreme Court lawyer, said July 30.
   The drug administration director on Tuesday said they were considering whether it would be suitable to file cases under the Special Powers Act 1974 or the Drugs (Control) Ordinance 1982, or both.
   He iterated the department would initiate a departmental investigation to establish whether its employees had collaborated with Rid Pharma in the use of the toxic chemical in the syrups.
   The official investigation committee have confirmed the death of at least three children was caused by the administration of toxic paracetamol syrup produced by Rid Pharmaceuticals, a committee member said on July 30.
   According to Section 16 of the Drugs (Control) Ordinance 1982, adulteration of medicines entails a maximum punishment of 10 years’ imprisonment or penalty of Tk 2 lakh or both.
   The experts and rights activists also observed at least the company should be sued under Section 25C of the Special Powers Act 1974 which stipulates that the offence of drug adulteration is ‘punishable with death, or with imprisonment for life, or with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to fourteen years.’
   The government sealed off a Rid Pharma factory in Brahmanbaria on July 22 for violating approved formulas in the preparation of its own brands of analgesic and vitamin syrups.
   The analgesic syrup, containing diethylene glycol, caused kidney diseases to 339 children in 1990 to 1992 and most of them died. No person was punished for the offence at that time.

The Election Commission is going to file cases by August against about 2,500 candidates who failed to submit their returns on polls expenses in connection with the January 22 upazila elections.
   The commission at a meeting on Tuesday decided to direct additional deputy commissioners, assigned the job of returning officers for upazila polls, to file cases by August 31. The chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, presided over the meeting.
   The commission in July completed the task of filling cases against the December 2008 general election candidates who defaulted on submitting polls expense returns.
   About 60 cases were filed against the defaulters, including former finance minister Saifur Rahman, also a Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader, and the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Janata League president, Abdul Kader Siddiq.
   The Election Commission for the first time has taken a move to implement the legal provision of taking action against the defaulters.
   In previous elections, many candidates did not submit their expense returns although the parties are legally obliged to do so 60 days inside the polls.
   The commission, however, did not take any action against the candidates for their failure to submit their expenditure returns or to submit false returns, said commission secretariat officials.
   Amended laws have made it mandatory all contestants, winners or losers, to submit their returns in 30 days after the publication of the polls results.
   Contestants could be punished with imprisonment for two to seven years and also fined if they fail to submit their expense returns in time.
   The upazila polls had 8,171 candidates. Of them, 3,339 were in the race for the posts of chairman, 2,898 for vice-chairman and 1,934 for vice-chairman reserved for women.
   According to information available with the EC secretariat, about 2,500 candidates did not submit their returns. The returning officers received returns even after the expiry of the deadline to give the candidates scope for submission.
   In parliamentary elections, about 60 candidates out of 1,555 did not submit their returns. A number of candidates, however, reportedly submitted the returns about two month inside the expiry of the deadline.
   All the 38 political parties which participated in the December 29 general elections have submitted the returns in election expenses.

The state minister for home affairs, Shamsul Haque Tuku, on Tuesday said nobody in the country was safe from the reach of criminals and religious extremists.
   ‘We all are under the surveillance of the networks of criminals and religious extremists and this is the reality. No people, big or small, are beyond such networks,’ he said as he inaugurated Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station at Agargaon.
   With the launch of the police station at Agargaon, the number of police stations in the city rose to 37.
   The newly appointed state minister called on the people to stand united to root out criminalism, saying all needed to fight against criminals.
   Shamsul, who was the state minister of energy, power and mineral resources ministry and was made state minister for home affairs on July 31, urged the lawmen to fight against religious extremists and criminals.
   He urged the law enforcement agencies to take a tough stand against the criminals. ‘Why will we not take a tough stand against criminals? Who are greater in number — we or the criminals?’
   ‘A small number of people who acted against the country’s independence in 1971 and criminals are responsible for the situation the country now faces… Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh and others are trying to weaken our position. If we get united, it will not be difficult for us to curb them,’ Shamsul said, giving an assurance that the government would take every possible measure to strengthen the law enforcement agencies to improve law and order.
   ‘We need to think right now how we will leave our country to the next generation, saving it from religious extremists and criminals,’ he said.
   He said the government had plans to appoint 30,000 law enforcers in three years. He also said the government was providing adequate transport facilities and modern firearms for the law enforcement agencies.
   The state minister asked the lawmen to work sincerely. ‘Work without being influenced. I assure you our party will not pressure the lawmen in future… We want a Bangladesh free of criminals.’
   He asked the lawmen to improve law and order and be in control of the areas of their jurisdiction. ‘We will not tolerate any negligence in duties.’

A group 10 to 12 unnamed people on Tuesday tried to enter the secretariat without permission to take part in an auction of old furniture inside the administrative headquarters.
   They had a brawl with security personnel at the secretariat gate after being denied entry at around 11:30am, according to official sources.
   ‘A group of 10 to 12 people tried to enter the secretariat without permission. After an altercation for about 10 to 15 minutes, we made them understand they needed permission to take part in the auction,’ said a police official responsible for security at the secretariat.
   Some of them also scuffled with the lawmen while trying to get into the secretariat, he said.

The power and energy ministry has assigned a committee to recommend ways and means to arrange fuels for generating 7000MW electricity by 2014.
   The decision came at a meeting Tuesday as uncertainty over availability of fuels like gas and furnace oil for future generation plants ran deep after Petrobangla expressed its inability to ensure gas supply to all planned gas-based power plants. Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation also said it lacks infrastructure to import additional oil at present.
   The meeting was attended by adviser to the prime minister Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury and state minister for power and energy Enamul Haque.
   Energy division additional secretary Syed Manjurul Islam will head the committee, which will look for alternative arrangements for fuels.
   Replying to a question, Tawfiq said, ‘Our plan is ambitious. We might not be able to achieve one hundred per cent success, but we will continue trying.’
   Officials discussed the plans earlier explained to prime minister Sheikh Hasina for installing power plants to be fuelled by furnace oil, diesel and coal, along with the gas-based power plants which are in the pipeline, to materialise the vision to free Bangladesh from load-shedding by 2014.
   The PDB projected that around 752MW of power would be added by 2009 from the power plants initiated by the previous government.
   However, officials of Petrobangla said earlier that gas supply to the under-construction 2x120MW Siddhirganj and 150MW Shikalbaha power plants is uncertain.
   Petrobangla currently faces gas shortage of more than 400 million cubic feet per day and the existing power plants suffer from shortage of around 150mmcfd.
   PDB also projected that around 1,350MW of power would come in the 2011-2013 period from some power plants including the 450MW Bibiyana independent power plant, the 300MW Siddhirganj plant, and five 150MW plants in Bhola, Sylhet, Chandpur, Sirajganj and Khulna.
   Apart from Bhola and Sylhet, gas supply to other plants is uncertain.
   Besides, gas shortage can also affect the plan to install power plants capable of producing 1,445MW in 2012-2014.
   A high official of Petrobangla, however, told New Age that the fuel stock review committee would go through the annual projection of gas production and recommend how much gas the power sector would get. ‘The committee will recommend the percentages of gas the power, fertiliser or industrial sectors will get. Suppose the PDB gets 50 per cent of gas, then PDB will decide which power plants it wants to run with the gas,’ he said.
   The PDB also apprised the meeting of its plan to install furnace oil-based short-term rental power plants to produce around 500MW by June 2010 and get 800MW from furnace oil-based peaking power plants and 1,000MW from coal-based power plants by next two to three years.
   The meeting was told that the country would need to import around 2.5 lakh tonnes of furnace oil annually to run the rental power plants and around 21 lakh tonnes of coal would be needed for coal-based plant every year. PDB projected around 12 lakh tonnes of furnace oil will be needed annually by 2014 to run the oil based plants.
   BPC officials told the meeting that the corporation currently imports around 36 lakh tonnes of fuel oil a year and it has a storage capacity for only 58,000 tonnes.
   They said more infrastructure and storage and transportation capacity would be needed to import and use additional furnace oil for power plants.
   Besides, there is no infrastructure and storage capacity for importing coal, the meeting was told.
   ‘The fuel stock review committee, which will be represented by PDB, Petrobangla, BPC and other relevant organisations and departments, will consider all these aspects while finalising its recommendations in next few weeks,’ said a source present at the meeting.

Unnamed people defaced two portraits, in mural, of the late president Ziaur Rahman installed at the Bangabandhu National Stadium early Tuesday.
   Witnesses said a group of day-labourers were deployed to dismantle the murals — one at Gate 1 of the stadium and the other by the torch on the Paltan end of the stadium.
   The labourers said they were hired by some people who instructed them to dismantle the murals using drill machines. They failed to name their employers or even give there whereabouts.
   The murals were installed beside two other portraits, in murals, of the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Mujib’s portraits remained untouched.
   None of the senior officials of the National Sports Council, which owns the stadium, was available for comments on Tuesday.
   The stadium administrator, Jahangir Alam, told reporters the murals were removed at the instruction of National Sports Council officials.
   Asked whether the six guards had put up any resistance, Jahangir said, ‘Only the council can explain the matter.’
   Assistant commissioner of the Motijheel zone police Khandakar Mahid Uddin also failed to identify the people who ordered the labourers to deface the portraits.
   The incident took place only a few days after the state minister for youth and sports, Ahad Ali Sarkar, had said portraits of none but the person the stadium is named after would be in the stadium.
   The defacement of the portraits sparked off protests in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its associate organisations.
   The BNP on Tuesday accused the government of damaging the mural of the late president Ziaur Rahman at the Bangabandhu National Stadium at night and said it was the manifestation of autocratic attitude of the government.
   The party’s secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain said Zia’s murals were damaged at the instigation of the government and demanded reinstatement of the murals.
   ‘They are damaging the murals of Ziaur Rahman and Khaleda Zia one after another to wipe out their names from history. Despite such attempts, they could not be wiped out from the hearts of the people,’ Delwar said at the party’s central office.
   ‘The Awami League does not want to allow the names of anyone but Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s to remain. The position of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman has already been fixed in the history. He is rather being demeaned by such mean activities,’ Delwar said.
   Delwar also feared the portrait of the Ziaur Rahman at Bangabhaban might be damaged.
   The party’s associate body of youths Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal held a rally in front of the BNP’s central office condemning the act.
   The Juba Dal president, Barkatullah Bulu, the general secretary, Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, and central leaders Mia Muhammad Selim, Khairul Kabir Khokan and Abdus Salam Azad also addressed the rally.
   They said they would go out on demonstrations in district headquarters on August 8 denouncing the damage done to Zia’s murals and demand withdrawal of the case filed against its former general secretary Gayeshwar Chandra Roy.
   Activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the BNP’s associate body of students, went out on demonstrations at Dhaka University denouncing the damage of the murals.
   They brought out a procession and held a rally at Aparajeya Bangla and leaders at the rally said the government was directly involved in the incident.
   They said that Chhatra Dal activists would not tolerate the humiliation done to the BNP founder who had ‘proclaimed the country’s independence.’
   They threatened movements against the government if the murals were not reinstated and the people involved in the incident were not called to justice.
   Chhatra Dal will also go out on demonstrations in all the cities today.

Poor working conditions and a culture of impunity encourage the Indian police to commit human rights abuses to cope with an excessive workload, a report said Tuesday.
   Human Rights Watch said it had interviewed officers who admitted to illegally detaining and torturing suspects, fabricating charges and refusing to register new complaints because of pressure to clear a backlog of cases.
   Insufficient resources such as mobile phones, vehicles and forensic equipment also forced many officers to resort to ‘shortcuts,’ said the report titled ‘Broken System: Dysfunction, Abuse and Impunity in the Indian Police.’
   Several anonymous officers spoke about committing ‘encounter killings’ — killing a suspect and then claiming the victim died after initiating a shootout — in an attempt to boost their performance rates.
   ‘Police who commit or order torture and other abuses need to be treated as the criminals they are,’ said Brad Adams, HRW’s Asia director.
   Low-ranking officers — who comprise 85 per cent of the Indian police — often work long hours and live in cramped quarters far from their families.
   Most of them are not trained to handle complex criminal investigations.
   The report said marginalised groups such as religious and sexual minorities, women, lower-caste and poor Indians were vulnerable to police abuse as they lack the money or political connections to defend themselves.
   The report recommended properly investigating and penalising authorities who violate rights and improving working and living conditions which ‘contribute to the abusive patterns of behaviour’.
   ‘They should be given the resources, training, equipment and encouragement to act professionally and ethically,’ said Adams.
   He also urged the government to repeal laws that shield the police from prosecution for actions conducted while on ‘official duty’.
   ‘Indians avoid contact with the police out of fear,’ he said. ‘So crimes go unreported and unpunished, and the police can’t get the cooperation they need from the public to prevent and solve crimes.’

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, Tuesday underscored the need for enhancing bilateral trade between Bangladesh and Pakistan to reduce the existing trade imbalance.
   ‘There are huge potentials for enhancing bilateral trade and due importance should be given to rectify the widening trade gap between the two countries,’ she said when Pakistan high commissioner to Bangladesh Alamgir Bashar Khan Babar called on the prime minister at her office Tuesday morning.
   Referring to the enhancement of bilateral trade and business, Sheikh Hasina said Pakistani entrepreneurs can invest more in Bangladesh’s pharmaceuticals, textiles, information technology, telecommunications and agro based industries.
   Two way trade in the recent years has been in the range of 300-350 million dollars and Bangladesh’s export has remained around 70 million only.
   Reiterating Bangladesh’s commitment to extend allout support to root out terrorism from South Asian region, she said terrorist has no religion and boundary and concerted effort is needed to eliminate the threat from the region.
   During the meeting, they also discussed matters of mutual interests as well as expansion of trade and business between the two neighbouring countries.
   The prime minister expressed the hope that the existing fraternal relation between the two countries will be strengthened further in the days to come.
   Mentioning Bangladesh’s faith and commitment to institutionalise regional cooperation, the prime minister put emphasise on collective strength of South Asian countries to face the challenges of the region.
   She recalled her recent meeting with Pakistani prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani at Sharm-el Sheikh, Egypt on the sidelines of the 15th NAM summit stating that they had agreed to work together to improve the quality of life of the peoples through eradicating poverty.
   The prime minister underscored the need for enhancing people-to-people contact through greater exchange among the professionals, students and businessmen of the two countries.
   The Pakistan envoy emphasised exchanging information between the two countries for mutual benefits.
   Among others, secretary to the prime minister’s office Mollah Waheeduzzaman, prime minister’s press secretary Abul Kalam Azad and ambassador M Ziauddin were present on the occasion.

You knew too much TV could be bad for kids in general. Now, hints a study released Monday, too much time in front of the tube, even playing video games, may increase a child’s risk of developing high blood pressure.
   The findings held regardless of whether the children were overweight or thin.
   ‘We’ve known from previous studies that sedentary behaviours are linked to obesity, and that obesity is linked to high blood pressure, but this is the first time that we’ve linked those behaviours directly to elevated blood pressure,’ Dr. Joey C Eisenmann of Michigan State University in East Lansing, who was involved in the study, noted in an email to Reuters Health.
   In the study, Eisenmann and colleagues tracked the physical activity levels of 111 3 to 8-year-olds for one week. The children wore an accelerometer to determine how active they were and parents reported how much time their youngster spent watching TV, playing video games, painting, sitting or taking part in other low-exertional activities.
   The results showed that the children were sedentary for an average of 5 hours each day and logged an average of 1.5 hours of screen time each day.
   And while sedentary behaviour was not significantly related to blood pressure, TV viewing and screen time — but not computer use — did seem to impact blood pressure.
   Regardless of body weight, blood pressure was significantly higher in children who had the most TV and screen time compared to children with the lowest TV and screen time (less than 30 minutes per day, on average), the team found.
   The researchers report their findings in the latest issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
   To combat the problem, Eisenmann stresses that parents and children need to adhere to limits set by the American Academy of Pediatrics of no more than 2 hours of TV watching per day and that needs to be combined with at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day.
   ‘It appears other factors, which occur during excessive screen time, should also be considered in the context of sedentary behaviour and elevated blood pressure development in children,’ Eisenmann said.
   ‘TV viewing often comes with unhealthy snacking behaviour, and also can lead to stress responses that disrupt sleep,’ he explained. Less sleep has been tied to higher blood pressure.

Pakistan moved towards outlawing domestic violence when lawmakers approved a bill Tuesday that will punish those found guilty of beating women or children with jail terms and fines.
   The law was passed unanimously in the lower house of parliament or national assembly, Yasmi Rehman from the main ruling Pakistan People’s Party said, hailing what she called a ‘big day’ for Pakistani women.
   It will come into effect after the senate, or upper house of parliament, approves the law and the president, Asif Ali Zardari, signs it into legislation.
   Those found guilty of beating women or children would face a minimum six months behind bars and a fine of at least 1,205 dollars.
   ‘Domestic violence against women is not considered a major offence in our society. I hope this bill will provide protection to our women against all types of violence in their homes and living places,’ Rehman said.
   Besides children and women, the bill also provides protection to the adopted, employed and domestic associates in a household, she said.

Today is the 34th anniversary of the death of eminent poet, novelist, playwright, critic and journalist Sikander Abu Zafar.
   A man of progressive views, Sikander always spoke against social injustice for which he incurred the wrath of the reactionaries.
   He played an important role in the historic Language Movement through monthly ‘Samakal’ of which he was the editor.
   Born at Tentulia in Satkhira (greater Khulna) on March 19, 1919, he was a prolific writer and has to his credit five novels, four plays, collections of essays, poems and songs.
   He started his career in the military accounts section (1939) in Kolkata and then applied for a job in the civil supply office. He also worked with the Globe News Agency of Satyendranath Majumdar for some time. Coming to Dhaka from Kolkata in 1950, he worked for the Daily Nabajug, the Ittefaq, the Sangbad and the Millat.
   Abu Zafar was one of the champions of the cultural movement that propagated Bengali nationalism in East Bengal in the 1960’s. During the liberation war in 1971, he composed a number of lyrics of patriotic and revolutionary nature to encourage the people of his country. His song ‘Amader sangram chalbei’ (Our struggle will continue) inspired people throughout the country during the liberation war.
   Although he is chiefly remembered as a poet, he was also prolific in prose.

Today is the 114th anniversary of the death of Frederick Engels.
   Friedrich Engels (November 28, 1820 – August 5, 1895) was a German social scientist, political theorist and philosopher and one of the fathers of communist theory, alongside Karl Marx.
   Together they produced The Communist Manifesto (1848). Engels also edited the second and third volumes of Das Kapital after Marx’s death.
   After Marx had died in 1883, Engels devoted much of his remaining years to editing Marx’s unfinished volumes of Capital. He, however, also contributed significantly to other areas.
   Engels used anthropological evidence to show that family structure changed over the time and that the concept of monogamy came from the necessity within class society for men to control women to ensure that their own children inherit their property. He argued a future communist society would allow people to make decisions about their relationships free from economic constraints.
   In substantiation of his theory, he wrote The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.
   Engels died of throat cancer in London in 1895. Following cremation at Brookwood Cemetery near Woking, his ashes were scattered off Beachy Head, near Eastbourne as he had requested.
   Marking the day, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal will hold a discussion meeting at its central office on the Topkhana road in the Dhaka city.