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Rapid urbanisation is taking a huge toll on the country’s arable land as more and more farmland is being transformed into homesteads, threatening the country’s goals of attaining food security, better health, more education and economic progress.
   Divisional headquarters like Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet cities have doubled in both geographical area and population in the last 20 years at the cost of agricultural land and green and open spaces.
   The country has lost nearly 1 million hectares of arable land in 23 years. The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics’ data showed that the net arable land of 9.38 million hectares in 1980-1981 was reduced to 8.42 million hectares in 2002-03.
   A recent survey showed that every year the country is losing more than 80,000 hectares of fertile land.
   Dr Mahbub Hossain, BRAC’s executive director, said the country has to import at least 0.5 million tonnes of cereals annually to meet the growing demand for food against the backdrop of dwindling croplands.
   The last BNP government’s agriculture minister, MK Anwar, a few years ago expressed his fear that after fifty years not even one bigha of land would be left for planting rice.
   Food minister Dr Razzaque, at a recent seminar, admitted that the drastic reduction of farmland because of urbanisation and industrialisation, along with the adverse effects of climate change, were major barriers to achieving food security amidst.
   The country had to face food shortage in 2007 because of the loss of 2 million tonnes of food-grain to two rounds of flood and cyclone Sidr, in the July-November period of that year. It had to spend an additional amount of $830 million to import rice in the 2007-08 fiscal year to meet shortfall and was forced to borrow $218 million from International Monetary Fund.
   Experts and analysts observed that less employment opportunities in the rural areas are forcing more and more people to seek resettlement in the big cities.
   The influx of rural people to the cities leads to further urban sprawl and loss of more arable land, and is thus posing serious threats to the country’s food security. More employment opportunities for the rural people should be created so that migration to the cities can be reduced, they suggested.
   MK Mujeri, the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies’ executive director, told New Age that there is no scope for neglecting the agricultural sector which contributes 21 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product and provides employment to around 50 per cent of total labour force.
   The arable land in the greater Dhaka district comprising Dhaka, Keraniganj, Narayanganj, Gazipur, Narsingdi, Manikganj and Munshiganj is decreasing rapidly. The annual loss is no less than 7,000 hectares in the area as the BBS’s statistics showed that 4,09,130 hectares were sown in 2001-02 and only 4,02,250 hectares in 2002-03.
   Greenery in the capital and adjoining towns is fading fast, thanks to growing activities of the real estate companies. The REHAB, an association of 558 real estate developers, has built 56,000 flats, most of them in Dhaka city, in the last two decades.
   Conversion of arable land into plots for residences is still going on unabated on the outskirts of the capital as its population, which was only 21,72,000 in 1975, now stands at more than 13 million.
   A recent visit to Keraniganj, located across the Buriganga River on the southern side of the capital, showed that nearly five square kilometres of arable and wetlands was devoured by real estate companies in less than five years’ time.
   The farmland in Hasanabad, Subhadda, Ekuria, Teguria, Ainta, Peyarabagh, Kejurbagh and Parr Gandaria in Keraiganj were developed by the real estates companies, turning the once lush green villages into concrete deserts.
   The same picture can be seen in Savar, Ashuliya, Gazipur and Naranyanganj where both industrialisation and urbanisation are taking place at a very fast rate.
   Professor Dr Sarwar Jahan of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology observed that successive governments had focused only on the development of Dhaka and the major cities.
   ‘It is a totally wrong policy,’ said the head of BUET’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning, adding that migration, without balanced development, could not be curbed and as a result the drastic shrinking of cultivable land could not be stopped.
   Professor Dr AKM Nur-un-Nabi of Dhaka University’s Science and Population Department suggested that family planning activities should be given far more importance to check population growth and save the arable land from urbanisation.
   MM Akash, teacher of economics at Dhaka University, told New Age that people across the country were migrating to Dhaka in search of jobs and livelihood, which is putting huge pressure on its dwindling agricultural land.
   He suggested that employment opportunities should be created in the rural areas to check the migration and further encroachment on arable land.

The committee for re-evaluation and implementation of new land prices has found that developers are depriving the government of a huge amount of taxes by claiming that the pieces of land are marshy and will need a lot of money to be made habitable, official sources said.
   Besides, the government’s revenue from land registration and taxes has declined in two months as the new land registration fee and taxes were made effective on September 1.
   But according to the National Board of Revenue, the earnings from land taxes and registration fees have declined by 40 to 50 per cent in urban areas and by 60 to 70 per cent in rural areas.
   ‘We have found developers, after improving their land into very valuable property, show the pieces of land as government ditches and marshes in order to pay much less tax and fees,’ said a member of the evaluation and implementation committee.
   The official also said because of fourfold increase in land registration fee and taxes in Dhaka city, the price of the land had increased by 25 per cent.
   The committee will submit its report by next week, official sources said.
   The committee said the price of a katha of land at Rayer Bazaar and Shankar had increased from Tk 8 lakh to Tk 28 lakh because of increase in registration fees by 4 times, but the price should actually be Tk 20 lakh to Tk 21 lakh.
   Besides, the committee also observed there was inconsistency in the classification of land by corrupt government officials.
   The Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh president, Tanvirul Haque Probal, said he had heard of the committee’s complaint that the developers were depriving the NBR of due taxes.
   He, however, claimed it was the clients, not the developers, who enjoy the benefits of payment less taxes. He could not give any reasons to substantiate his statement.
   ‘REHAB will not allow any illegal matters,’ he told New Age.
   The committee has revised its earlier decision of increasing land prices by four times in Dhaka and Chittagong and by three times in Sylhet, Barisal, Khulna, Rajshahi.
   The price of land has increased abnormally in Sylhet after the increase in land registration fees, the committee observed.
   The price of land will be decreased in the district towns of Jhalakathi, Bhola and Borguna under Barisal district as the towns have not been developed enough.
   The prices of land in industrial areas in Khulna division have decreased because of the closure of most of the factories there, the committee observed.
   The committee also observed the people expressed dissatisfaction that the prices of land under the housing and public works ministry had not been increased as they had been elsewhere.
   The flat registration and transfer fees should be increased, the committee said. The registration and transfer fees of flats now are only Tk 650 a square foot in Dhaka and only Tk 300-350 a square foot in Chittagong.
   ‘We will bring into effect the revised land taxes and fees after the finance ministry finalises the proposal,’ the state minister for land, M Mostafizur Rahman, told New Age.
   He also said the law ministry’s committee had not yet submitted its report on the revision of land taxes and fees.
   The finance ministry issued a circular in September to form the committee to get a feedback on the government’s decision from the grassroots.
   The decision to form the committee was made at an inter-ministry meeting on September 17 with the finance minister, AMA Muhith, in the chair.

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha has taken initiatives to bring all of its documents and data under a computerised system by 2010 to contain forgery and fraudulence and to ensure transparency in its activities.
   The city development authorities have taken the initiative as part of its six-year plan, which includes construction of three residential projects and four satellite towns, widening and construction of roads in the capital and construction of about 50,000 buildings for the mid- and low-income group people.
   ‘We have taken a six-year plan to ensure planned development in the capital city,’ the Rajuk chairman, Nurul Huda, told New Age.
   ‘As part of the plan, we have decided to computerise all of our documents to ensure transparency of the organisation by curbing fraudulence. We have already asked all Rajuk zones to bring all the documents under the computerised system so that no file goes missing or are distorted,’ Nurul said.
   ‘Almost a half of the documents for Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara areas have already been computerised and we are hopeful of bringing all the documents under the system by 2010,’ the Rajuk chief said.
   He said, ‘Thirty-five files have been stolen from Rajuk and replaced with forged ones. We want to bring an end to this kind of malpractice.’
   Rajuk will also construct some 22,000 apartments in the Uttara Model Town residential projects, 20,000 in Purbachal and 10,000 in Jhilmil by 2015 for mid- and low-income group people.
   ‘The work on apartment construction at Uttara will begin soon while the construction work at Purbachal and Jhilmil will start later in phases,’ the Rajuk chairman said.
   The city development authorities have already undertaken projects to develop new townships in Gazipur and Savar with an estimated cost Tk 70 billion to reduce pressure on the Dhaka city by creating residential opportunities for people living in the city suburb.
   The projects are scheduled to be completed by 2015.
   Rajuk has also undertaken road widening and extension projects to reduce traffic congestion in the capital.
   Madani Avenue will be extended towards the east from Pragati Sarani crossing to the River Balu. Link roads will be constructed from Basabo Kadamtali to Manikdi and between Basabo Biswa Road and Trimohani Gudaraghat.
   Link roads from Indira Road to Panthapath and from the Malibagh crossing to Janapath will be widened.
   An alternative road will be constructed parallel to the railway from the Sonargaon Hotel level crossing to the Mohakhali level crossing to reduce pressure on the road in front of the Prime Minister’s Office.
   The work on road construction, widening and extension are scheduled to be completed by 2013.
   Rajuk also hopes to construct peripheral roads, cross-bridges and walkways along the banks of Hatirjheel-Begunbari Lake, which is being developed, to reduce city traffic congestion.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, also leader of the opposition in the parliament, on Friday called upon her party leaders and activists to be vigilant so that BNP’s electoral strongholds could not be snatched in future polls.
   Thanking the people of Bogra for repeatedly electing her and her party nominees in national polls, she said, ‘This time two of the four seats have been snatched. You have to ensure that none could snatch our long-established seats in future.’
   Khaleda was addressing the concluding session of a week-long programme organised by Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the student wing of the BNP, to celebrate the 45th birthday of the party’s joint secretary general, Tarique Rahman on Sultanganj High School premises on the outskirts of Bogra.
   Tarique, the BNP chief’s eldest son, has been staying abroad for treatment since being released on bail during the past caretaker government.
   The party’s secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar, standing committee members Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain and Moudud Ahmed and other leaders also addressed the function chaired by JCD leader Sultan Salahuddin Tuku. Several thousand activists and supporters from across the country attended the programme.
   On her arrival at the venue, Khaleda, wearing a yellow chiffon saree, released balloons and cut a 45-pound cake amid cheers to mark her son’s birthday.
   She also distributed cows, goats, winter clothes and sewing machines among the poor people of the area and gave away prizes among the winners of a children’s competition organised by the JCD in Dhaka and Bogra.
   ‘Tarique Rahman is not among us on this auspicious day and you know why on March 7, 2007, he was picked up in a car right in front of me. My son had to be sent abroad in a stretcher for treatment…Doctors have said his recovery will take more time,’ Khaleda told the function.
   Recalling that the people of Bogra wanted Tarique Rahman to contest the last elections from there, the BNP chief said she could not give him nomination because doctors had said he should not return while undergoing treatment.
   ‘He [Tarique] may not be among you at the moment, but he is always in touch with the party inquiring about your wellbeing. He will be among you as soon as he recovers,’ she said.
   Khaleda, who began her journey from Dhaka in the morning followed by a large motorcade of nearly a thousand vehicles, arrived at Bogra town in the afternoon and reached the venue at about 4:00pm.
   Hundreds of people cheered her at different points along the way. She briefly addressed a wayside gathering at Saidabad in Sirajganj district.
   Arches were erected almost every 250 metres along the stretch from the west side of the Jamuna bridge to Bogra to welcome her.
   Speaking on the occasion, Delwar said popularity of the present government had hit rock bottom and they now consider Tarique Rahman as a threat. ‘New cases are being filed so that he cannot return,’ he added.
   The programme on the Sultanganj High School premises was rounded up with a musical concert in which artistes, including Abdul Quddus Bayati and Monir Khan, performed.

Ruling Awami League presidium member Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury on Friday said the AL-led alliance government must try war criminals of 1971 and also the people who made it possible for war criminals to carry the national flag in their cars.
   She said the AL-led alliance government would begin the trial process soon as it pledged to hold war crimes trial.
   Sajeda, also deputy leader of the house, was talking with reporters after paying homage to the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman by placing flowers at Mujib’s portrait at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum.
   Referring to the Supreme Court’s verdict of Thursday that upheld the High Court verdict that confirmed death sentences of 12 retired and dismissed army men in the Sheikh Mijubur Rahman murder Case, she said rule of law had been established with this verdict.
   The Awami League’s general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam said the government had taken initiatives to bring back the fugitive convicts in the Mujib murder case. ‘Our main target is now to executive the court verdict and we are working on it.’
   Hundreds of leaders and activists of the Awami League and its associate bodies gathered at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum to pay homage to Sheikh Mujib, who along all but two of his family was killed at his residence at Dhanmondi in August 15, 1975.
   Senior Awami League leaders Matia Chowdhury, Ataur Rahman Khan Kaiser, Yusuf Hossain Humayun, Latif Siddiqui, Shatish Chandra Roy, Amir Hossain Amu, Abdur Razzak, Suranjit Sengupta were also were present.
   They later went to the Banani graveyard, placed flowers on the graves of the members of the family killed in 1975 and said prayers at the graveside.
   The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, also the prime minister, in the evening attended a prayer session at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum.
   Sessions of prayers were also held in all mosques across the country after the jumma prayers. The main such session of prayers was held at the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque after the jumma prayers on Friday to express gratitude to the almighty. Prayers were also said in all other places of worship such as temples, churches and pagodas.
   The acting pesh imam of the Baitul Mukarram Oliur Rahman Khan conducted the prayer while Islamic Foundation Bangladesh deputy director ATM Inamul Haque conducted the programme.
   The LGRD and cooperatives minister, Syed Ashraful Islam, information minister Abul Kalam Azad, shipping minister Shajahan Khan and leaders of the Awami League and its associate bodies and a large number of people took part in the prayer sessions.

Armed Forces Day will be observed today with due solemnity and enthusiasm.
   The day’s programme will begin with the offering of special prayers after the fajr prayers in all mosques at army garrisons, naval bases and establishments as well as air force bases throughout the country seeking divine blessings for the well-being and prosperity of the nation and development and progress of the armed forces.
   On this day in 1971, the Bangladesh Armed Forces comprising army, navy and air force, came into being and launched an all-out attack on the occupation forces. So this historical day is being observed as Armed Forces Day every year.
   The president and supreme commander of the Armed Forces, Zillur Rahman, and the prime minister and defence minister, Sheikh Hasina, gave separate messages on the occasion of the day.
   The president and the prime minister will place wreaths at Shikha Anirban (the Eternal Flame) at the Dhaka Cantonment this morning to pay homage to the members of the armed forces, who had embraced martyrdom in the War of Liberation in 1971.
   Chief of army staff General M Abdul Mubeen, chief of naval staff Vice Admiral ZU Ahmed and chief of air staff Air Marshal SM Ziaur Rahman will also lay wreaths at Shikha Anirban on behalf of their respective services. Chiefs of staff of the three services will pay courtesy call on the president at Bangabhaban and the prime minister at the Armed Forces Division at Dhaka Cantonment.
   The prime minister will also host a reception and meet the family members of the Bir Shrestha and other gallantry award winning freedom fighters at the Armed Forces Division at Dhaka Cantonment.
   Chiefs of staff of the three services will also accord receptions to the members of the Shaheed families, award winning and retired freedom fighters of their respective services.
   In the evening, the PM will host a reception at the Sena Kunja at Dhaka cantonment to commemorate the day.
   Among others, speaker of Jatiya Sangsad, chief justice, former presidents, opposition leader in the parliament, former chief advisers, ministers and state ministers, advisers to the prime minister, Dhaka mayor, former advisers of last caretaker government, deputy speaker, heads of foreign missions in Dhaka, chief election commissioner and commissioners, justices, cabinet secretary, former chiefs of staff of the three services, attorney general, comptroller and auditor general, chairman and members of PSC, chairman and members of UGC, vice-chancellors of universities, governor of Bangladesh Bank, IGP, awardees of independence award and Ekushey Medal 2009, members of planning commission, secretaries, foreign defence adviser and military attaches in Dhaka, political leaders, veteran freedom fighters, educationists, eminent journalists, elite of the city, high civil officials and serving and retired officers of the three services have been invited at the reception.
   Besides, evening receptions will also be held at Bogra, Chittagong, Ghatail, Comilla, Jessore, Rangpur, Rajendrapur Cantonments and BNS Titumir.
   Meanwhile, programmes have also been chalked-out to celebrate the august day in a befitting manner in all army garrisons, naval ships and establishment and air force bases throughout the country.
   Bangladesh Navy ships dressed overall will remain open to visitors from 2:00pm to 4:30pm in Dhaka (Sadarghat), Narayanganj, Chittagong, Khulna, Barisal and Mongla.
   Besides, a special ‘Anirban’ programme illustrating the significance of the day has been arranged in the Bangladesh Television.
   The programme would be telecast by the Bangladesh Television after the Bangla news bulletin of 8:00pm Thursday. Private TV channels will telecast special discussion and talk show programmes on Armed Forces Day today.
   Bangladesh Betar will also broadcast a special ‘Durbar’ programme at 7:30pm today.
   Moreover, private TV channels will telecast same ‘Anirban’ programme. Besides, the national dailies are bringing out special supplements and journal in observance of the day.
   A documentary film on the armed forces’ role in Liberation War will be telecast in different TV channels and armed forces garrisons and bases.
   With a view to keeping the roads inside the Dhaka Cantonment (from Shaheed Jahangir Gate to Staff Road of the main road) free from traffic, drivers of all vehicles except those carrying cantonment residents and the invited guests have been requested to avoid the roads inside the cantonment area from 8:00am to 11:30am and 6:00pm to 11:00pm on the day, said an ISPR press release.

Eight years after a US-led invasion ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan, the war-ravaged state is the most dangerous place in the world for a child to be born, the United Nations said on Thursday.
   It is especially dangerous for girls, the United Nations Children’s Fund said in launching its annual flagship report, The State of the World’s Children.
   Afghanistan has the highest infant mortality rate in the world — 257 deaths per 1,000 live births, and 70 per cent of the population lacks access to clean water, the agency said.
   As Taliban insurgents increase their presence across the country, growing insecurity is also making it hard to carry out vital vaccination campaigns against polio, a crippling disease still endemic in the country, and measles that can kill children.
   ‘Afghanistan today is without a doubt the most dangerous place to be born,’ Daniel Toole, UNICEF regional director for South Asia, told a news briefing in Geneva.
   A Taliban-led insurgency and militant attack on an international guest-house in Kabul that killed five UN foreign staff last month prompted the world body to evacuate hundreds of international staff from Afghanistan for several weeks.
   Some 43 per cent of the country is now virtually off-limits to aid agencies due to insecurity, according to Toole.
   The Taliban have been building their forces in their traditional southern and eastern Afghanistan stronghold and are increasing attacks in the north and west. Teaching girls is one of the practices they forbid.
   Some 317 schools in Afghanistan were attacked in the past year, killing 124 and wounding another 290, Toole said.
   ‘We have seen a drop in the number of children who are attending schools and particularly young girls,’ he added.
   School enrolment in Afghanistan had risen to 5 million, including 2 million girls, against 1 million with virtually no girls in 2001 when the Taliban were ousted from power, he said.
   ‘In both countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, we’ve made some progress but we’re starting to worry about back-tracking on that progress given the high rates of insecurity and the ongoing conflict,’ Toole said.
   ‘The most dramatic indication of back-tracking is the deliberate attacks against girls’ schools,’ he added.
   Separately, UNICEF director Ann Veneman spoke to reporters in New York on Thursday about the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a pact aimed at protecting children worldwide that was adopted by the UN General Assembly 20 years ago.
   Veneman said it was ‘frustrating’ that Washington had not ratified the pact, noting that the United States and Somalia were the only two states in the world that remain outside it.
   The spokesman for the US mission to the United Nations, Mark Kornblau, said that the administration of President Barack Obama was ‘committed to undertaking a thorough and thoughtful review of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.’

The arrest of two men in Chicago on terrorism charges linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba has revived fears about the Pakistani militant group’s global reach and its ability to plot attacks in India and around the world.
   A major attack in India — still angry over an assault on Mumbai one year ago — could trigger Indian retaliation in Pakistan and draw the nuclear-armed neighbours into a conflict that would also torpedo US hopes of stabilising Afghanistan.
   David Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana were arrested last month and accused of plotting an attack on Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which ran cartoons of the prophet Mohammad in 2005, US authorities said in court documents.
   According to the court documents, they discussed their plans with members of Lashkar-e-Taiba and al-Qaeda-linked Pakistan-based militant Ilyas Kashmiri. Lashkar also talked to them about possible attacks in India and suggested these should be given priority over the alleged plot in Denmark.
   Neither Headley, a US citizen who had spent time in Pakistan, nor Rana, a Canadian citizen born in Pakistan, have yet entered pleas. Rana’s lawyer said he would deny the charges.
   Officials have long worried that Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the attacks on Mumbai, could use its big network of support in the Pakistani diaspora to hit Western targets.
   The Chicago case showed quite how powerful that network could be. And it suggested the group was still actively planning attacks in India and raised fears it could use Western nationals who might escape police attention to strike there.
   The Indian home minister, P Chidambaram, told the Washington Post police in India also were investigating whether the two men had links to the Mumbai attack, which killed at least 166 people.
   ‘Chicago really exemplifies the group’s capabilities and the leadership’s priorities,’ said Washington-based analyst Stephen Tankel, who is writing a book on the group.
   Lashkar ‘remains committed to an India-first approach, but also poses a real threat to the west.’
   Once nurtured by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency to fight India in Kashmir, Lashkar-e-Taiba shares al-Qaeda’s concept of global jihad, as underscored by its alleged willingness to support the planned attack in Denmark.
   ‘Lashkar-e-Taiba is no longer a Pakistani movement with only a Kashmir political or military agenda. Lashkar-e-Taiba is a member of al-Qaeda,’ former French investigating magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere told Reuters in an interview last week.
   The group’s Jamaat ud-Dawa charitable wing wins support and funding worldwide for its humanitarian work in Pakistan, giving it a powerful network which police say has been used to plot attacks in countries from Britain to Australia to Bangladesh.
   But it is Lashkar’s ability to wreak havoc in India and to raise tensions with Pakistan that makes it most dangerous.
   India broke off formal peace talks with Pakistan after the assault on Mumbai and is still pressing Pakistan to dismantle Lashkar’s infrastructure and training camps.
   Lashkar is officially banned in Pakistan but unofficially tolerated as the only militant group not believed to have been involved in attacks inside the country, analysts say.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has urged specialised health facilities to offer free treatment to at least 10 poor but complicated patients a month as part of their corporate social responsibility.
   'I would like to urge the owners of private hospitals and clinics to come forward with the mentality of serving the distressed humanity with more dedication,' she told the inaugural function of the 3rd International Conference on Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery at Hotel Sonargaon in Dhaka on Friday.
   'I would also urge every specialised hospital to provide Medicare facilities to at least 10 poor but complicated patients at free of cost per month as part of corporate social responsibility.'
   The prime minister said she believed such united endeavour 'would not cost much for a hospital but help ease miseries of many people' while the cost of treatment should also be lowered as well 'as it is too costly for our common people'.
   The foreign minister, Dipu Moni, also spoke at the function organised under the auspices of Lab Aid Cardiac Hospital while Lab Aid's managing director Shamim Ahmed gave the welcome address.
   Cardiologist Professor Jalal Uddin chaired the function joined by a number of local and foreign cardiologists.
   Hasina said the government was aware of the deadly consequences of soaring incidences of cardiovascular diseases amongst a vast majority of the population.
   'Staggering number of people in rural areas who succumb to this deadly disease mostly undiagnosed is a serious concern for the policymakers of the ministry of health and family welfare,' she said.
   But, she noted that the traditional focus in South Asian countries were on communicable diseases and reproductive health issues that 'pushes non-communicable diseases in the back'.
   'We should, therefore, recognise and include prevention of cardiovascular diseases as part of the primary healthcare strategy in South Asian counties, particularity in Bangladesh,' the premier said.
   Her comments came as the world health statistics suggested that every year the number of deaths due to cardiovascular diseases was on the rise while such diseases were becoming a major health burden in developing countries.
   In 2008 alone, about 18.7 million people died of cardiovascular diseases, amounting to 35 per cent of all deaths worldwide and more than half of these deaths occurred in developing countries.
   'South Asia comprising of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka represents more than a quarter of the developing world, and is likely to be seriously affected by the increase in cardiovascular diseases,' Hasina said.
   She feared that the rise in number of heart patients in Bangladesh may be attributed to changes in people's life style that is less healthy while 'work stress, smoking, unhealthy food habit and lack of regular exercise are some of the causes responsible for cardiovascular diseases'.
   The premier said the modern medical sciences discovered many new tools both for diagnosis and treatment of heart disease while increasing number of new pharmaceutical agents discovered for treatment of heart disease was now available.
   She said while such drugs and technologies were essential, information about these dreadful diseases in terms of their causes and how to prevent them were equally vital in the battle against them.
   'It is, therefore, obvious that the best possible approach to contain heart disease is prevention. The prevention of cardiovascular disease necessitates changes at several levels, and would need behavioural, social, political, and economic will to forge such changes among individuals, communities, health systems, and health policymakers,' she said.

Nearly 20 lakh students of Class V throughout the country will take the first-ever public examination at that level from today, said officials of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education.
   A total number of 19,80,180 examinees in some 5,348 centres across the country will take the tests which will eventually overtake the Secondary School Certificate tests as the country's biggest public examinations. Of the total exam centres, five are overseas.
   Of the total number of students, 9,09,984 are male and 10,70,196 are female.
   The exams will be held on November 21, 22 and 24.
   Two control rooms have been set up in the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education and the Directorate of Primary and Mass Education.
   The public examination, styled 'Terminal Exam for Class V Students', will mark the end to five years of formal schooling of nearly 20 lakh children.
   Students getting high scores in the public exams will be given scholarship as is the case with SSC and HSC examinees.
   There are more than 1.62 crore students in 80,401 elementary schools offering education from Class I to V, according to government statistics.

Beaten or sexually abused children are more likely to show accelerated ageing of cells later in life, a condition linked to higher rates of cancer and heart disease, according to a study released Friday.
   Investigators found that the natural process by which protective 'caps' on the end of chromosomes, called telomeres, are worn away as humans age was accelerated among adults who had suffered such trauma in childhood.
   Earlier studies had shown that psychological stress elevates risk for a wide range of diseases and mental conditions.
   And separate research had shown that telomeres shorten at a higher rate when exposed to toxins such as radiation or cigarette smoke.
   But whether childhood emotional trauma could affect the enzymes in adulthood remained unknown.
   To find out, researchers Audrey Tyrka of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island measured DNA extracted from blood samples of 31 18-to-64-year-old adults, including 22 women and nine men.
   They found more rapid shortening of telomeres only in those who said they had suffered severe mistreatment as children.
   The findings were not affected by the effects of age, smoking, body fat or other demographic factors, the paper said. 'Both physical neglect and emotional neglected were significantly liked to telomere length,' it concluded.
   'This gives us a hint that early developmental experiences may have profound effects on biology that can influence cellular mechanisms at a very basic level,' Tyrka said.
   More research is needed to confirm the link, and to understand the causal pathways, she said in a press release.
   Telomeres and telomerase, the enzyme that control them, are a key ingredient in ageing and longevity.
   Every time a cell divides, the telomeres get worn down. The enzyme's job is to partially rebuild them. Eventually, when the telomeres are worn beyond a certain point, cell death is triggered.

Lovely Mallick, the mother of joint-headed twins Krishna and Trishna who were separated at Melbourne Royal Children Hospital in Australia recently by sixteen surgeons and specialists after a marathon 29-hour operation, is now praying for her children.
   She says she wishes to see them once, just once.
   The twins were born on 22 December, 2006, at the Patients' Nursing Home at Phulbari Gate in Khulna city.
   Twenty-two-year old Lovely Mallick, a fourth year Diploma student of the agriculture course of Shaheed Flight Lieutenant Masud Memorial
   College at Keshobpur upazila headquarters in Jessore district, got married with her poor illiterate neighbour, Kartik Chandra Mallick, 30, of village Rongpur under Dumuria upazila in Khulna district in 2004.
   Poverty and the inability to foot the doctors' bills forced the couple to give the girls to an institution founded by Mother Teresa, Nirmola Shishu Bhaban, located at Sonadanga in Khulna city.
   'The clinic's authority helped us to keep the babies healthy. After hearing about Mother Teresa's institution, I offered my children to its authorities in January 2007, just 16 days after their birth, assuring them that I would never want them back if they arranged proper treatment for them' said Lovely.
   'I saw the news of their separation in a local newspaper on Wednesday, and I felt overjoyed that my children are still alive after the operation,' Lovely told New Age on Friday afternoon.
   Bursting into tears of both joy and sorrow, Lovely said that it was, of course, good news for her and her family, but she is sad that she could not see her babies since February 2007 after they were sent to Australia. But she cannot demand to see them as she had offered them unconditionally.
   'I won't want them back. I just want to see them once. They are my children and I am a mother. I cannot forget them,' said Lovely, adding that her husband Kartik, a jute mill worker, has not the ability to take her to Australia. 'I want nothing more but to see them once.'
   Dr Girindra Nath Kundu of the Patients Nursing Home at Phulbari Gate in Khulna city told New Age that Krishna and Trishna, afflicted with fusion of the posterior occipito parietal bones, were born after a 45-minute caesarean operation by him on 22 December, 2006 at around 3:30pm. The babies were healthy after birth and when they were discharged from the hospital, he said.
   'I am very happy to learn that the babies were separated and are still alive and healthy,' said Girindra, mentioning that he had been sweating during the caesarian operation.

A second Bangladeshi twin began returning to consciousness on Friday, three days after being separated from her conjoined sister in a landmark operation in Australia, the hospital said.
   Krishna was opening her eyes and slowly becoming more alert as she came out of an induced coma, a statement said. Her sister, Trishna, was already awake and talking after the surgery that doctors have hailed as a success.
   'Krishna is waking up slowly. She is more alert, starting to breathe more and opening her eyes,' the statement from the Royal Children's Hospital said.
   'Trishna continues to do well. Both girls are in a serious but stable condition.'
   A team of specialists worked for 32 hours on Monday and Tuesday to divide the two-year-old' connected skulls, brains and blood vessels in a procedure that took two years of planning and preparatory operations.
   Krishna is expected to make a slower recovery than Trishna, who was '100 per cent perfect' after waking up on Thursday, one of their guardians said.
   'I just said hello and she was doing the same thing with her arm (that she always does) ... I just knew she was 100 percent perfect,' Atom Rahman told Sky News.
   Trishna and Krishna were rescued from certain death in an orphanage in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, where doctors said they were powerless to improve the girls' fading health.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, visited Bangabandhu Museum at Dhanmondi Road No 32 in Dhaka Friday evening.
   She offered Maghrib prayer there.
   After the prayers, she stood for some time near the stairs of Bangabandhu Bhaban where the killers left Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's body after killing him. Sheikh Hasina prayed for the eternal peace of the souls of her slain father and other family members.
   Prime minister Sheikh Hasina expressed gratitude to the Almighty Allah for completion of the trial of the Mujib murder case, PM's deputy press secretary Nakib Ahmed said.

Lawyers for the five murder convicts say they have written to the government and jail authorities that they will seek a review of Thursday's final verdict by the Supreme Court.
   Advocate Nurul Islam and Nawab Ali sent letters by post.
   Barrister Abdullah Al Mamun said that the counsels had sent letters to the home secretary, deputy commissioner of Dhaka, attorney general and Dhaka central jail chief.
   'The review petition will be filed after getting the copy of the verdict,' said Mamun, lawyer for retired major general Bazlul Huda and retired major AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed (lancer).
   The court on Thursday upheld a High Court verdict that handed down the death sentence to 12 former army officers for killing the nation's founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.