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The on-going drive by Dhaka Metropolitan Police to discipline traffic and avoid tailback has failed to ease the situation due to lack of proper management.
   DMP, which launched the drive on December 8, has been trying to enforce its various rules by realising fines for breach of lane discipline, unauthorised parking and violation of traffic signal.
   But traffic rules are being violated quite frequently in different intersections of the city, including Shahbag, Sonargaon, Mohakhali and Kuril-Biwsha road due to indifference of the on-duty police. Drivers, commuters and pedestrians seem to care little about the traffic rules.
   In Sonargaon intersection pedestrians were found jumping over the fences raised by police to control vehicular and human traffic, because they wanted to take a short cut to cross the road and thus causing problems for vehicles to move.
   The scene is similar in Shahbagh intersection where traffic turns chaotic as the day rolls on. Vehicles, particularly passenger buses, hardly go by the traffic rules, including the lane and parking instructions.
   Urban planners and traffic management experts and research workers termed the drive ‘impractical’ expressing doubts if such measures would bring discipline in the city’s roads. They suggested a comprehensive policy to curb traffic congestions.
   Sahwar Jahan, chairman of urban and regional planning department of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, told New Age that the DMP’s drive had failed to change the situation.
   ‘The traffic situation in our cities is quite different from that in any other country,’ he said.
   BUET’s accident research institute’s director Shamsul Hoque told New Age that one of the main reasons for traffic congestion was lack of proper management of road intersections in Dhaka.
   He said about 60 per cent of the vehicles plying the city roads are smaller in size or three-wheeler auto-rickshaws but they don’t have enough lanes to move through.
   According to Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, the number of registered motor vehicles in Dhaka till July 2009 was 5,08,212, including 1,42,534 cars, 57,784, jeeps or station wagons and microbuses, 10,672 taxis, 7, 862 buses, 8,249 minibuses, 28, 495 trucks, 14, 269 auto-rickshaws, 2, 10,979 motorcycles and the rest 27,368 are other types of vehicles.
   Box-junction management of the roads also important to address the problems but the DMP is failing to manage junction clear way and streams of pedestrians due to lack of a clear idea of how to carry out such a gigantic task, Shamsul Hoque said.
   ‘Lack of manpower is another reason for traffic congestions which remains almost unchanged after the drive was launched more than two weeks ago,’ he said.
   A top official of Dhaka Transport Coordination Board told New Age, ‘The initiative is good but it could not yield results as yet.’
   DMP deputy commissioner [in charge] of traffic north Bidhan Tripura told New Age that without a comprehensive policy the city’s roads could not be rid of traffic congestions.
   He said the number of vehicles plying the roads had decreased considerably since the DMP started the special drive – particularly the vehicles which lacked fitness or did not have licence were avoiding the roads.
   Sources in the DMP said they had seized more than 600 fake driving licences in 15 days from December 8.
   ‘Whatever we are doing is a temporary measure and not a permanent solution to the traffic congestion,’ he said.
   When approached for comments, state minister for home Shamsul Hoque Tuku told New Age that lack of proper coordination between the DCC and DMP was mainly responsible for the problem.
   Dhaka City Corporation chief engineer, brigadier general Abdul Quadir told New Age that they were working hard to improve the traffic in the city.
   ‘Our workers are marking the roads whole night as per demand of DMP,’ Quadir said, adding, the reason for the tailback in city was lack of enough parking spaces.

The signing of a full-fledged agreement on the sharing of Teesta River’s water between Bangladesh and India is still unlikely unless India decides at the highest political level to sign the deal during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s upcoming visit to Delhi next month.
   But the signing of a brief Memorandum of Understanding on sharing Teesta’s water is a possibility as the Indian water resources secretary, UN Panjiar, will come to Dhaka on January 3 and stay for four days to discuss the nitty-gritty details of sharing the waters of common rivers including Teesta.
   ‘The water resources secretaries of the two countries will discuss various issues including the sharing of Teesta River’s water in the first week of January. But we’re yet to set a date for the minister-level meeting of the JRC (Joint Rivers Commission),’ said foreign affairs minister Dipu Moni on Thursday.
   Water resources minister Ramesh Chandra Sen told New Age on Thursday that he was ready to join a ministerial-level meeting of the JRC at any time. ‘We have completed the paper work, but everything depends on India.’
   Foreign affairs secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes said on Thursday that the government is trying to hammer out an agreement on sharing Teesta River’s water as soon as possible.
   ‘Technical experts of the two countries held a meeting in Dhaka recently. Now a (water) secretary-level meeting will be held which will lead to the minister-level meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission,’ he said.
   ‘We will try to arrange a minister-level meeting of the JRC before the prime minister’s upcoming visit,’ said the foreign affairs secretary. ‘It will be held immediately after her visit if it isn’t possible before the visit.’
   The secretary of the water resources ministry, Sheikh M Wahiduzzaman, confirmed that he would raise the issue of the sharing of Teesta River’s water during the meeting with his Indian counterpart here. ‘I’ll certainly raise the Teesta issue,’ he said firmly.
   Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will fly to New Delhi on January 10 for a four-day state visit. Sources close to her told New Age that she had requested her Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, during meetings with him at the intervals of different international conferences to agree to an accord on the sharing of Teesta River’s water.
   A senior official of the foreign affairs ministry told New Age on Thursday that a minister-level meeting of the JRC before the prime minister’s visit seemed unlikely as the secretary-level meeting would end on January 6, only four days before the PM’s visit.
   Dhaka has, however, ‘unofficially’ let it be known that it expects an agreement on the sharing of the Teesta’s water, said the official.
   Mohamed Mijarul Quayes said earlier that the highest political levels of the two countries could decide any time whether a full-fledged ‘agreement’ or a brief written commitment would be made on the issue.
   The outgoing Indian high commissioner, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, told reporters on December 3 that the signing of an agreement on the Teesta would require intervention by the highest political levels of the two countries.
   Dhaka is asking New Delhi to hold a minister-level meeting of the JRC. India has persistently expressed its inability to hold the meeting in last six years although at least two meetings are supposed to be held each year as per the rules of the JRC.
   The two governments have so far readied the drafts of three agreements for being signed during Hasina’s visit: mutual legal assistance in criminal matters; combating international terrorism, organised crime and illicit drug trafficking; and transfer of sentenced persons. The Indian Cabinet recently approved the deal for returning sentenced persons.
   The outstanding issues that Bangladesh has been trying to settle with India for several years include finalising the agreements for sharing the water of the Teesta and six other rivers, lands in adverse possession, un-demarcated borders, Dahagram and Angarpota enclaves and the Teen Bigha corridor.
    New Delhi is also eager to designate Ashuganj in Brahmanbaria as a new port of call for Indian vessels and to be allowed to use Chittagong Port. Dhaka has agreed to let India carry over-sized equipment via Bangladesh to one of its north-eastern states to set up a power plant there.
   Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India, which was earlier slated to begin on December 19, was deferred to January 10. She is going there on an invitation from Manmohan Singh.

Clocks will be adjusted backward by an hour at 11:59pm on December 31, the cabinet decided on Thursday.
   The prime minister’s press secretary Abul Kalam Azad told reporters after the cabinet meeting that the government had also decided to introduce daylight saving time on an annual basis.
   The cabinet decided that clocks would be adjusted backward at 11:59pm on December 31 by an hour to 10:59pm. Clocks will advanced by an hour in daylight saving time again on March 31.
   Clocks will be advanced by an hour on March 31 in daylight saving time and be adjusted backward to the standard time on October 31 every year, according to the cabinet decision.
   The government introduced daylight saving time on June 19, by advancing clocks at 11:00pm by an hour to 12 midnight to save on electricity during evening hours.

Three of a family were burnt alive and 20 others injured in a fire that broke out in the slum of workers of Rally Brothers at Tanbazar in Narayanganj about 2:30am Thursday. Seventy shanties were burnt and about 500 people became homeless.
   The deceased were Monirani, 25, wife of Krishna Chandra Ghosh who is garment factory worker, her son Kishore Chandra Ghosh, 4, and her mother Monorani, 65.
   Fire engines from Mandalpara and Hajiganj reached the place and they could put out the flames in more than two hours’ efforts.
   The extent of loss caused by the fire could not be immediately established but the police estimated the loss to be around Tk 50 lakh.
   Fire fighters and the police said the fire might have been originated from a burning mosquito coil in the shanty of Krishna Chandra about 2:30am. Krishna was not in the house at the time.
   Narayanganj municipal chairman Selina Hayat Ivy, local lawmaker Nasim Osman and district administration officials visited the place.
   The administration said it would give Tk 5,000 to the family of the deceased and Tk 500 each among the families affected. The administration will also distribute 20 kilograms of rice and warm clothes among each of the families.
   The municipality announced distribution of warm clothes among the affected families and Nasim Osman announced a donation of Tk 50,000 for the fire victims.

The ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs has been divided into two divisions—the law and justice division and the legislative and parliamentary affairs division.
   The Cabinet Division on Wednesday published a gazette bringing about the changes in the Rules of Business, 1996 necessary for dividing the ministry into two divisions.
   The order came at a time when officers from the judiciary and the executive working at the ministry are locked in a conflicting situation.
   The law and justice division shall now be consulted on, among other issues, all legal questions arising out of any case, the interpretation of any law arising out of any proceedings and before involving the government in a criminal or civil proceeding instituted in a court of law, according to the gazette notification.
   No ministry shall consult the Attorney-General except through the law division.
   On the other hand, the legislative and parliamentary affairs division shall be consulted on all proposals for legislation, all legal questions arising from any legislative proposal, preparation of important contracts, international agreements,
   international conventions pronouncing and modifying international laws, interpretation of any legislation and before the issue of or authorization of a rule, according to the gazette.
   No ministry shall consult the Attorney-General except through the legislative and parliamentary affairs division and in accordance with the procedure laid down by the division.
   If there is any disagreement between the Attorney-General and the parliamentary affairs division, the case shall be referred to the minister of law, justice and parliamentary affairs for a decision.
   Earlier on July 15, a secretary-level committee approved the proposal for dividing the law ministry into two divisions.

The US president, Barack Obama, said on Wednesday that disappointment over the outcome of the Copenhagen climate change summit was justified, hardening a widespread verdict that the conference had been a failure.
   ‘I think that people are justified in being disappointed about the outcome in Copenhagen,’ he said in an interview with PBS Newshour.
   ‘What I said was essentially that rather than see a complete collapse in Copenhagen, in which nothing at all got done and would have been a huge backward step, at least we kind of held ground and there wasn’t too much backsliding from where we were.’
   Sweden has labelled the accord Obama helped broker a disaster for the environment, the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, said the summit was ‘at best flawed and at worst chaotic,’ and climate change advocates have been even more scathing in their criticism.
   The talks secured bare-minimum agreements that fell well short of original goals to reduce carbon emissions and stem global warming, after lengthy negotiations failed to paper over differences between rich nations and developing economies. Some singled out China for special blame.
   The British environment minister, Ed Miliband, wrote in the Guardian newspaper on Monday China had ‘hijacked’ efforts to agree to significant reductions in global emissions. Beijing denied the claim and said London was scheming to divide developing countries on the climate change issue.
   Obama did not point any fingers, but did say the Chinese delegation was ‘skipping negotiations’ before his personal intervention.
   ‘At a point where there was about to be complete breakdown, and the prime minister of India was heading to the airport and the Chinese representatives were essentially skipping negotiations, and everybody’s screaming, what did happen was, cooler heads prevailed,’ Obama said.
   Obama forged an accord with China, India, Brazil and South Africa in the conference’s final hours after personally securing a bilateral meeting with the four nations’ leaders.
   ‘We were able to at least agree on non-legally binding targets for all countries — not just the United States, not just Europe, but also for China and India, which, projecting forward, are going to be the world’s largest emitters,’ he said.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has urged the Armed Forces to work shoulder to shoulder with the people to safeguard country’s independence and sovereignty and for overall national development.
   She made the call while addressing the President Parade at Bangladesh Military Academy at Vatiary in the port city Thursday and set forth the plans and programmes of her government in the new milieu.
   Hasina told the new officers that with the commission they achieved today they had been given a significant responsibility. ‘You have been reposed upon the sacred responsibility of protecting the country’s great independence and sovereignty.’
   ‘You always have to remain ready for discharging the duty towards the nation. The female officers also have to face the challenges equally. Protecting the country’s independence and sovereignty will be the first and foremost duty of yours, even shedding the last drop of blood,’ the Prime Minister said.
   Cadets, Midshipmen and flight cadets of 61st BMA long course, 32nd BMA special course, 2008 Alpha batch (midshipman) and 60th flight-cadet course from Bangladesh, Palestine and the Maldives attended their course-concluding parade to take up their career as military officers of respective countries.
   A total of 125 cadets, 32 midshipmen and 23 flight cadets were commissioned to the three services of the Bangladesh Armed forces. Besides, 5 cadets and 5 midshipmen of Palestine and one midshipman of the Maldives also commissioned at the function.
   Among them, 24 are female cadets taking up the challenging career that involves war and peace.
   Audio version of the speech given by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the concluding ceremony of the 1st BMA batch on January 11, 1975 was played before the new officers.
   On her arrival at the parade ground, the prime minister, who also holds the defence portfolio, was received by the chiefs of the three services.
   Standing on an open jeep, the prime minister visited the parade of the smartly turned-out contingent of the new officers of three services and also took salute of the newly commissioned officers.
   Later, the prime minister signed in the visitors’ book of the military academy.
   Ministers, MPs, high civil and military officials were among others present at the passing-out parade functions.
   Battalion senior under officer Shafiur Rahman was adjudged best all-round cadet in the 61st BMA long course and awarded sword of honour.
   Midshipmen Md Abdullah Al Momin of Midshipmen Batch 2008 was awarded with the sword of honour for his best performance among the naval cadets while flight cadet sergeant Md Saiful Monir got the sword of honour for his feat among the flight cadets.
   The prime minister, who lost two of her brothers while in service in 1975, in her speech called the armed forces’ members her brothers and sisters.
   ‘Today, at this good moment, my mind recalls my younger brother Shaheed Lieutenant Sheikh Jamal who once got commission from this army. Another brother of mine, Sheikh Kamal, also fought the liberation war with valour as an officer of the Bangladesh Army. You are my brothers, sisters and members of my family,’ she said.
   The prime minister noted that Bangladeshi in the global arena, at present, was known as a promising, development-oriented and peaceful country as it had already been successful in attaining a respectable place in various regional and international forums.
   Mentioning glorious performance of Bangladeshi security personnel working on the UN peacekeeping mission, Hasina urged the new officers to hold high the present goodwill and go ahead.
   She told them to keep it in mind always that armed forces’ members were an inseparable part of the country’s patriotic people.
   ‘Our armed forces have always been sympathetic towards people during all natural disasters and national crises. The assistance provided by the armed forces to the civil administration is also bright,’ she said in her word of praise for the humanitarian service of the military.
   The prime minister further appreciated the armed force’s contribution to implementation of Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Treaty signed in 1997 during the previous Awami League government.
   The prime minister wished every cadet a happy, prosperous and glorious future.
   Congratulating the foreign cadets, she said she was confident that all of them would derive optimum benefit out of their basic military training from this academy.
   The prime minister told the Palestinian cadets that their joining in this academy reflects that Bangladesh and the State of Palestine enjoy and maintain very warm and harmonious bilateral relations. ‘I am quite optimistic that the relations between our two friendly countries will be further strengthened in the days to come.’

A massive winter storm Thursday snarled holiday travel across the central United States as freezing rain and heavy snow grounded flights and caused traffic chaos.
   ‘There’s just a humongous storm moving across the centre of the country, basically from the Canadian border to Texas and spreading from west Colorado to Illinois,’ said Pat Slattery, a spokesman for the National Weather Service.
   ‘Christmas travel is going to be very difficult.’
   The northern parts of the storm were expected to drop up to two feet of snow while flood warnings were issued further south.
   A powerful tornado late Wednesday on the storm’s southern flank slammed the town of Longview in eastern Texas, ripping the roof off a house and toppling trees, the local KLTV station reported.
   ‘We would recommend that people if at all possible postpone their travel plans just to be on the safe side,’ Slattery said in a telephone interview.
   ‘This is not a storm to be messed with.’
   Freezing rain will make driving extremely dangerous — especially after dark when the rain turns to ice — and high winds will dramatically reduce visibility, Slattery warned.
   ‘If they can wait a couple days, the snow will be there but it won’t be blowing sideways anymore.’
   More than 260 flights were cancelled at Chicago airports Wednesday due to icy conditions and heavy, wet snow and sleet.
   Train service was also interrupted for three hours at New York’s Penn Station due to a power outage that disrupted travel from Washington to Niagara Falls on the Canadian border.
   Teacher Elana Hiller managed to get home to Chicago from Minneapolis, but only after heading into the airport eight hours early to switch to a morning flight.
   ‘The airports were crazy,’ she said.
   ‘The lineups at security were going all the way down from one end of the terminal to another.’
   United Airlines said it is doing its best to make sure people manage to get home for the holidays.
   ‘We’re trying to stay ahead of the storm rather than behind it,’ spokeswoman Sarah Massier said.
   ‘We knew it’s a holiday and it’s very important for these customers to be home for the holidays.’
   The airline — like most of its competitors — automatically rebooks passengers on the next available flight following a cancellation and tries to get in touch by phone or e-mail to help people plan ahead.
   But with flights already heavily booked for one of the busiest travel days of the year, painful delays and disappointment appear inevitable.
   The governor of South Dakota issued a state of emergency and urged residents to stay off the roads after the weather service warned of a ‘life-threatening storm’ that would not clear up until Friday.
   ‘If you can leave ahead of the storm and get where you are going, great,’ governor Mike Rounds said Tuesday before the storm hit.
   ‘If you can’t, it’s better to be safe than stranded somewhere. The best gift to give your loved ones is to be safe.’
   It is the second major weather system to sweep the United States in recent days, after a massive snowstorm slammed the eastern seaboard at the weekend, creating travel chaos and crimping sales on what were traditionally major shopping days ahead of Christmas.
   The record-breaking blizzard closed train and bus service, paralysed air traffic and left hundreds of thousands of residents without power.

The Christian community in Bangladesh, as elsewhere in the world, celebrates Christmas today commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ.
   According to Christian belief, God entered the world of men through his son, Jesus Christ, on Christmas Day.
   The day is the most important holiday for all the Christians in the world.
   It is also a celebrations of rebirth, a new beginning, forgiveness and peace as the New Year approaches. It is an occasion for the Christians to renew their relationship with God and their fellow humans.
   The celebrations start on the Christmas eve with singing carols in public places like lobbies, restaurants and lounges.
   The day is a public holiday.
   The president, Zillur Rahman, and the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, and the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, greeted the people of the Christian community and wished them all the best.
   The president, in his message, said Jesus Christ emerged in the earth with the message of the Creator and mankind.
   The president said he (Jesus Christ) encouraged all to follow the path of truth and beauty.
   ‘The ideals of the great Jesus Christ are imbued with welfare of humanity and sympathy and the glory of sacrifice. His ideals inspire mankind till now to tread the path of truth, welfare and peace,’ the president said.
   In her message, the prime minister said establishing peace and justice in the was one of the goals of Jesus Christ.
   ‘Jesus Christ throughout his life had tried to bring happiness for the hapless and hungry people and establish an exploitation-free social system,’ she said.
   Hasina called upon the Christian community and all irrespective of cast and creed to come forward for development of the country.
   Khaleda, in her message, said the essence of all religions was peace and welfare of mankind. The greatest Jesus Christ had inspired his followers to establish truth and justice.
   ‘As human being it is our duty to work for the welfare of the country, society and mankind from our respective positions,’ she said wishing all happiness on the occasion Christmas.
   Bangladesh Christian Association and Bangladesh Hindu-Buddhists-Christian Oikya Parishad also greeted the countrymen on the occasion.
   Special prayers will be held in churches today on the occasion of the biggest religious festival of the Christian community.
   The day’s celebrations also include decoration of Christmas trees with colourful lights, distribution of gifts by Santa Claus to children, family gatherings, feasts and special church prayers.
   Security measures have been beefed up in the capital and elsewhere in the country to ensure peaceful celebrations of Christmas.
   Adequate police and Rapid Action Battalion personnel have been deployed to ensure safety.
   Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar as well as private TV channels will put up special programmes, while national dailies will publish supplements highlighting the significance of the day.
   A number of organisations and individuals will throw parties, featuring Christmas carols, games, dance shows and Christmas cakes.
   Sonargaon and Dhaka Sheraton hotels and other posh hotels in the capital will offer special lunch and dinner and Christmas party.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Thursday blasted the government for failing to protect the country’s interests at the Copenhagen climate summit.
   ‘Bangladesh could have played the leading role at the summit in drawing up a legal framework for fixing a reasonable target to reduce carbon emission, which is the prime reason for global warming, but the country’s delegation led by the prime minister focused more on seeking adaptation funds,’ said BNP’s standing committee member, Abdul Moin Khan, at a briefing at the party chief’s office in Gulshan.
   ‘The expectation of billions of people across the globe from the summit was that it would ensure climate justice, but that hope has been shattered. The summit could not reach a consensus on ensuring appropriate technology for poorer nations by breaking the barriers of intellectual property rights. The summit failed to hit its targets. Even the UN’s secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, admitted this, but our country’s delegation claimed that it was a successful one,’ he said.
   Moin said the prime minister also failed to raise the issue of India’s refusal to share the waters of common rivers equitably and enable Bangladesh to protect its fragile ecology. ‘The Farakka barrage is a threat to Bangladesh’s existence. Another death-trap, Tipaimukh Dam, is in the offing. But our prime minister remained completely silent on such issues,’ he said.
   He also called on all for preparing for the next climate summit at Mexico to fix the carbon emission rate at a level that will ensure the stopping of the climate change process.
   BNP’s standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan, and Khaleda’s advisers Sabihuddin Ahmed and Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury were also present at the briefing.

Senators gave Barack Obama a huge political boost on Thursday by passing a sweeping remake of the US health care system that aims to extend coverage to 31 million uninsured Americans.
   The vice president, Joe Biden, presided over the early morning Christmas Eve ballot in which 58 Democratic senators and two independents gave Obama the 60 votes he needs to pass the bill.
   The legislation must now be reconciled with a separate House of Representatives version before going to Obama’s desk to be signed early next year.
   Obama pledged in a television interview Wednesday that he would ‘absolutely’ take a hands-on role in the reconciliation process in coming weeks.
   ‘We hope to have a whole bunch of folks over here in the West Wing, and I’ll be rolling up my sleeves and spending some time before the full Congress even gets into session,’ he said on PBS.
   The final Senate vote had been planned for late Thursday, but leaders in the upper chamber
   agreed to let weary staff and lawmakers go home earlier for the holidays as ice storms headed for the Midwest.
   After the vote, attention narrowed on negotiations to forge a compromise between the final Senate bill and the House version, approved on November 7.
   They differ on several points, and Obama allies have openly stated preferences for key chunks of the House version, setting up potentially damaging Democratic in-fighting ahead of crucial 2010 mid-term elections.
   The headline battle looms over the provision of a government-backed ‘public option’ to compete with private insurers. This measure was stripped from the Senate bill but remains in the House version.
   Another bone of contention is the House bill’s tougher restrictions on federal funds subsidising abortions: while pro-choice lawmakers denounce the limits, centrist Democrats say they will withhold support without them.
   Centrist senators have also warned that they will doom the measure if the compromise talks lead to drastic changes to the Senate’s hard-won compromise.
   Obama, conscious of how much political capital he has invested in this issue, at which generations of his predecessors have tried and failed, insists the Senate bill contains most of what he wants.
   ‘I’d say we did really well,’ he told National Public Radio on Wednesday.
   ‘I actually think that, considering how difficult the process has been, this is an end product that I am very proud of and is greatly worthy of support.’
   Obama acknowledged that the Senate’s decision to do away with the public option has bitterly disappointed some liberals, but insisted the reform would be meaningful.
   ‘This notion, I know, among some on the left that somehow this bill is not everything that it should be... just ignores the real human reality that this will help millions of people and end up being the most significant piece of domestic legislation at least since Medicare and maybe since Social Security,’ he said.
   On Monday, Obama sought to rebut critics who say the United States cannot afford the 10-year, nearly one-trillion-dollar programme to extend coverage to 31 million of the 36 million Americans who lack it now.
   He pointed to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, which found the bill would reduce the federal deficit by 132 billion dollars over the first 10 years and as much as 1.3 trillion in the next decade.
   The United States is the world’s richest nation but the only industrialised democracy that does not provide health care coverage to all of its citizens.
   As a nation, the United States spends more than double what Britain, France and Germany do per person on health care.
   But it lags behind other countries in life expectancy and infant mortality, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The government hopes to produce 1,360 megawatts of additional electricity by March next year aiming to reduce power outages and boost industrial production.
   The state minister for power, Enamul Haque, told a meting of the parliamentary standing committee on power ministry that the government would be able to add at least 4,000MW during its five-year term ending in 2014.
   ‘The minister has informed us that additional 960MW of electricity will be supplied to the national grid by January 2010,’ Subid Ali Bhuiyan, the standing committee chairman, told journalists at parliament’s media centre.
   ‘Besides, 400MW more will be produced by March next year.
   ‘It means a further 1,360MW of electricity will go to the national grid by March 2010,’ he said.
   The committee chairman said energy ministry was trying to give work order of a tender to produce 600MW of electricity.
   ‘If the present government can implement its electricity generation plan, we will be able to add at least 4,000MW of electricity in five years,’ Bhuiyan quoted the energy minister as saying.
   ‘Then power outages in the country will go,’ he said.
   Production of electricity in the public sector in 2009 was about 4,300MW per day against the daily demand for about 7,000MW, according to the ministry figures.

Mauritius will recruit more professionals and skilled workers from Bangladesh through official channels to prevent fraudulence by private agents.
   ‘We have decided to send skilled manpower to Mauritius through official channels,’ said foreign affairs minister Dipu Moni, who visited the country on December 21, at a press briefing at the foreign ministry Thursday.
   Mauritius expressed keen interest in recruiting physicians, engineers, architects and skilled workers from Bangladesh.
   She said that all the 12,000 Bangladeshi male and female workers, apart from a few involved in criminal activities, would be allowed to continue with their jobs until their contracts end.
   She went on an urgent diplomatic mission to the Indian Ocean island state as the Mauritian government had decided in July that it would deport as many as 6,000 Bangladeshi male workers from the country after December 31.
   The minister said that the Mauritian government would take legal measures against a small number of Bangladeshis allegedly involved in unlawful activities there.
   In reply to a question, she said that Bangladesh’s honorary consul has been removed from his post because of several complaints and a new one would be appointed soon.
   Dipu Moni, who also attended the Copenhagen climate conference along with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, claimed that what Bangladesh had sought as one of the most vulnerable countries to tackle the effects of climate change has been incorporated in the Copenhagen Accord.
   The foreign minister, who also attended the BIMSTEC minister-level meeting in Myanmar earlier this month, said she had proposed that the BIMSTEC secretariat be relocated in Bangladesh.
   Foreign affairs secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes told the reporters that the Bangladesh ambassador to Iraq would fly to Baghdad on December 29 as the Bangladesh mission would be re-opened in the green zone of the Iraqi capital.

High-level advisers appointed by the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, are recommending autonomy for Kashmir, where militants have fought for 20 years against rule from New Delhi.
   Under its accession to India in 1947 upon the country’s independence from Britain, Muslim-majority Kashmir was granted autonomous powers over all sectors
   excluding communica-tions, defence and foreign affairs.
   These powers have been eroded over the years. But the advisory group, headed by former supreme court judge Saghir Ahmad, recommended that the prime minister look at various formulations ‘to restore the autonomy to the extent possible’.
   The group’s report was delivered to the Kashmir chief minister late Wednesday and made public Thursday.
   The Kashmir legislative assembly in 2000 passed a resolution favouring full restoration of the state’s autonomy. But India’s then Hindu-nationalist government rejected the resolution passed unanimously by the assembly.
   Autonomy is the main demand of the ruling National Conference, the state’s biggest pro-India political party, which had moved the resolution in 2000.
   The government has not reacted to the report so far.
   ‘We will react only after going through the report. It is a long report,’ said Ali Mohammed Sagar, Kashmir’s law and parliamentary minister.
   Manmohan had appointed the working group in May 2006 to try to find a permanent solution to the unrest in the scenic Himalayan region, which is split between India and Pakistan.
   Most of the rebel groups fighting New Delhi’s rule want the region to become part of Pakistan. A few support its independence.
   India has been dangling the promise of greater autonomy to Kashmiris for many years but the idea has been rejected by the separatists.

One of Australia’s top Catholic clerics on Thursday said people all over the world should take inspiration from the separation of conjoined Bangladeshi twins Trishna and Krishna.
   Adelaide city Archbishop Philip Wilson said the twins’ astonishing recovery from marathon surgery five weeks ago to separate their fused heads had touched people across the world, bringing joy and hope to many corners of the globe.
   They were released from hospital Monday in time to celebrate their third birthday and first Christmas apart, after being rescued from almost certain death in a Dhaka orphanage by Australian aid workers.
   ‘The twins’ journey from the orphanage in Bangladesh to the triumphant moment of separation... is a wonderful symbol of the regeneration of life that is given to us through the birth of Jesus Christ,’ said Wilson in his annual Christmas message.
   ‘Let the faces of Krishna and Trishna be a constant reminder to us of God’s love for us and inspire us to spread peace and goodwill to all.’
   The girls have amazed medics with their recovery from surgery, with Trishna crawling on her own for the first time on Monday.
   Although the girls were given only a 25 per cent chance of both surviving the difficult separation surgery without brain damage, both have a shown remarkable resilience.
   Doctors believe they have come through the operation without serious neurological damage.

The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation on Thursday announced the ferry service on the Mawa–Mangalkandi route suspended until further notice. The agency also asked ferries to ply alternative routes.
   The BIWTC marine officer, Abdus Shobhan, said they were compelled to suspend the ferry service as the route lost its navigability because of a decline in water level.
   Road communications between Dhaka and the country’s south came to a halt because of poor navigability. Six ferries now ply the routed.

The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, said Thursday he would ban drinking and driving in his vodka-loving country amid concern over road safety ahead of the holiday celebrations.
   ‘One who drinks, loses his head. And we know people drink here! First one shot — that’s allowed. Then two, three and, ‘okay, let’s go.’ I think we should ban drinking behind the wheel,’ Medvedev said in a live end-of-year interview with state television.
   Russia in July 2008 ended its zero-tolerance drink-driving law to allow motorists blood-alcohol levels of up to 0.3 grams, in line with international standards.
   But Medvedev said Russians could not be trusted to stop at a one drink limit.
   ‘I don’t know if everyone will be happy about this, but I think we have to do it,’ he laughed. ‘I will introduce an amendment to the law.’
   ‘We are not ready yet to allow drinking and driving, even a limited amount. Unfortunately that encourages serious drunkenness at the wheel,’ he said.
   Russia has one of the world’s worst road safety records, with 33,000 people dying in traffic accidents, some 15,000 of which were caused by drunk driving in 2007, according to government figures.
   The number of accidents can be expected to spike during the holiday seasons, which lasts from January 1-7 for Russians, and officials are especially worried as vodka sales have rocketed in the wake of the global financial crisis.
   Alcohol abuse kills some 500,000 Russians annually and greatly impacts male life expectancy, which is lower than in impoverished countries such as Bangladesh or Honduras, according to official figures.

The Editors Guild of India has strongly condemned the ‘pernicious practice’ of publishing ‘paid news’ by some newspapers and television channels, particularly during the recent elections, which it has observed ‘whittles down the foundations of Indian journalism.’
   Taking cognizance of the ‘paid news’ at its annual general meeting in Delhi on Tuesday, the Guild leaders said, ‘both the media organisations and the editors who indulge in it, and the customers who offer payment for such ‘paid news’ are guilty of undermining the free and fair press, for which every citizen if India is entitled to.’
   The issue was raised by editor-in-chief of business standard TN Ninan, while Guild president Rajdeep Sardesai made out strong case dedicating 2010 to a campaign against ‘paid news’.

The government will take immediate steps for the passage of the draft law on disabled people’s rights to protect the rights of the physically challenged, said the state minister for law, justice and parliamentary affairs, Quamrul Islam said on Thursday.
   Addressing a programme dedicated to disabled children, Quamrul hoped that prime minister Sheikh Hasina would give details of the draft act on the disabled people’s rights on Saturday.
   The programme styled ‘Road to rights: protection of rights and dignity of the disabled children’ was organised by Disabled Rehabilitation and Research Association and ActionAid Bangladesh at Central Shaheed Minar.
   The six-day long campaign will end on Saturday.
   The ‘Road to Rights’ programme was launched on December 21 from Kaliganj Shaheed Minar of Satkhira to create awareness among the people about the rights of the disabled children. The organisers collected around 4,000 signatures as part of their campaign.
   Wahida Banu, president of Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum said, ‘We have to ensure participation of the disable children in all sectors in the society,’
   Disabled children lead an isolated life in the society and in many families as well, she said adding, these children needed psychological counselling. She also said the government should ensure all disabled children were covered by its inclusive education system.
   The organisers said they would submit a memorandum and copy of signatures collected from across the country to the prime minister on Saturday in the closing ceremony of their road march.
   Among others, Rabeya Sultana, chief of rights and social justice of ActionAid Bangladesh, Shahin Anam, executive director of Manusher Janya Foundation, and Khandakar Zahurul Alam, president of National Pratibandhi Forum were present on the occasion.