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Law and order has deteriorated sharply in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country in past few weeks with crimes like killing, mugging, extortion and burglary on the rise despite stepped-up security measures and police vigilance.
   Experts and human rights activists said the situation was far from satisfactory while government and law enforcement officials claimed the situation was not so worrying.
   Admitting that law and order had not improved much, home secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder told New Age that a change did not come overnight. ‘We had to put in much effort in preparing the law enforcement and intelligence agencies and the countrymen have started getting the benefit.’
   He said, the democratic government took over power from an interim administration and the entire situation was unstable at that time for various reasons.
   ‘Besides, vested quarters are active to destabilise the situation but we are aware of the plots and prepared to thwart them,’ he said.
   Soon after the AL-led alliance assumed office, the ruling party men engaged in tender manipulation in different ministries and departments and occupying university halls and college hostels much to the disappointment of the countrymen.
   In first six months of its power, lax security measures paved the way for rampant killings, extortion over phone, mugging, robbery and drugs peddling while increasing activities of the outlawed groups in the southwestern region caused worries among the people.
   Muggers on motorbike shot and killed a rice trader Afil Uddin Miah, 37, owner of VIP Rice Mills in Babubazar of the capital on January 23 and sped away with about Taka 10 lakh robbed from him in broad daylight.
   Armed robbers looted cash and valuables worth about Tk. 4 lakh from the house of an expatriate at Mijimiji Painadi under
   Siddhirganj in Narayanganj on February 10.
   The robbers held the inmates of the house hostage at gunpoint and looted Tk one lakh, eight tolas of gold ornaments and four mobile phone sets.
   Armed muggers snatched away money and gold ornaments from different jewellery shops in Mirpur in broad daylight last week.
   Incidents of extortion over phone and by sending letters have also increased in past few weeks. In a few such incidents the gangsters, after being refused payment, shot at the security guards or employees of their targeted persons.
   City service transport owners had called an indefinite strike on Wednesday in protest at rampant extortion but called off the strike after being assured by the authorities concerned that steps would be taken to stop extortion.
   Former adviser to the caretaker government Sultana Kamal, who is also a human rights leader, told New Age that people given the Awami League-led alliance a massive mandate with the hope that it would stand by the people. The prime minister and other ministers also vowed ‘zero tolerance’ about criminals. ‘Perhaps the government is sincere about the matter, but we have not yet seen the desired changes in law and order.’
   ‘In the beginning, the situation was more worrying. But now it seems to be changing and we hope the government will be able to tackle things.’
   Inspector general of police Nur Mohammad told New Age that police remained vigilant and the situation was improving thanks to the assistance from the countrymen as well as the government’s determination.
   Director general of RAB Hassan Mahmud Khandker told New Age, ‘We have beefed up security measures, installed additional check-posts, increased patrol and vigilance and achieved successes in action against the militants.’

The severely affected people of the areas which bore the brunt of cyclone Aila’s fury in the south-western districts of the country have been suffering from acute shortage of safe drinking water and, as a result, from water-borne diseases in the ongoing dry season. Their water sources were ravaged by Aila, none of which have been restored as yet.
   In those districts water crisis generally deepens in the dry season because the ponds dry up, sand filters do not work properly for lack of pond water, rain water harvesters become empty and, above all, salinity increases in the rivers and canals, said local people of the affected areas where, at most places, installation of tube-wells has proved to be useless because the water-table is too deep under the ground.
   ‘Shortage of safe water — for drinking, bathing and household use — has taken a serious turn this year, and the poor people of the cyclone-stricken areas are forced to use muddy, dirty and saline water from ponds, rivers, canals and ditches,’ said Ratna Baishnab, 27, wife of Prashanta Baishnab of Sutarkhali village in Dacope upazila.
   Another woman of the locality, Mariam Begum, 55, wife of late Munsur Sardar, said water-borne diseases like diarrhoea, dysentery, stomach ailments and skin diseases are very common in those areas, and as the people of the affected areas are very poor they have to suffer because of shortage and unavailability of medicines or treatment by local quacks.
   Both Ratna and Mariam, like other women of the locality who have taken shelter on both sides of the Kamarkhola-Nalian highway, have to fetch muddy water from Kalibari pond, about two kilometres away from the locality, twice a day. Poor Mariam said that those who have enough money bring water from Dacope upazila headquarters, about 15 kilometres away from the village, by motorised boats.
   ‘People of some areas can get water from ponds and tube-wells but we can’t. There is a tube-well near our shelter but the water is too salty, so we have to drink and use the water of an adjacent ditch after filtering it through pieces of cloth,’ said 50-year-old Rahila Begum, wife of Janeb Gazi of village Chhoto Jaliakhali.
   ‘Water-borne diseases have continued till today and we have to go on suffering,’ said Rahila whose family has taken shelter on Kamarkhola-Jaliakhali highroad.
   According to the statistics of Khulna’s Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), released on 21 July, 2009, Aila damaged 1,161 Pond Sand Filters, 5,231 tube-wells, 1,223 ponds adjacent to PSFs, 1,846 drinking water ponds and 1,36,655 latrines of Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat districts.
   According to the latest report released on March 7, the DPHE could not restore 4,076 tube-wells and 46 rain water harvesters, and has failed to repair 806 pond sand filters.
   The DPHE installed 9 deep tube-wells, 307 shallow tube-wells and 42 plastic tanks, repaired 1,631 tube-wells, cleansed 3,259 tube-wells to free them of germs, distributed 8,961 jerry-cans, 12,03,000 water purifying tablets, 1,382 kilograms of bleaching powder, 980 water purifying filters, 8,68,250 litres of mineral water and 18,78,000 litres of safe water, and set up 7 mobile water treatment plants in the districts on an emergency basis, said the report.
   Besides, various NGOs have installed 46 deep tube-wells, 47 shallow tube-wells, 4 pond sand filters and 59 rain water harvesters in Koyra, Dacope and Paikgachha upazilas in Khulna district, said the report.
   Sources in Khulna’s DPHE said that rain water harvesters would be useful during the rainy season, and feared that the problems of Aila-stricken areas may not be solved fully until the affected people return to their homesteads.
   The Dacope Upazila Health Complex’s medical officer, Dr Santosh Kumar Majumdar, told New Age that the number of patients suffering from water-borne diseases is almost the same in comparison with the previous years.
   Khulna DPHE’s executive engineer, Sheikh Abdul Mannan, told New Age that the department has been trying heart and soul to resolve the water crisis of the affected people. He claimed that they have been distributing 4,000 litres of safe water to the affected people everyday.

The Awami League government has decided not to bargain with bilateral lenders for lowering loan interest rates, in a desperate bid to amass external resources for funding development projects, said officials concerned.
   The economic relations division and all ministries and divisions have been asked not to insist on reducing interest rats even if it is not below 2 per cent charged by lenders, so that the loan negotiations could be concluded quickly.
   The planning ministry sent the directive in a common letter to them in the past week.
   The decision to agree on interest rate at around two per cent for loans during bilateral negotiations on foreign-funded projects was taken at a meeting of the National Economic Council on January 21 with the prime minister, Shiekh Hasian, in the chair.
   ERD officials said the decision was aimed at receiving loans from newly emerging sources of bilateral lending such as India, China and South Korea — countries which have developed strong industrial base to supply various equipments to another country.
   ‘When the interest rate is two per cent or close to that, you should not bargain hard for reducing interest rate or relaxing other conditions in order to expedite the external loan negotiation process,’ said the directive from the government’s highest policymaking body.
   It, however, asked the ministries and divisions to try to ensure that the terms and conditions of the loan agreements were ultimately in favour of the government of Bangladesh.
   Dhaka has failed to realise $8.66 billion or around Tk 60,000 crore in foreign aid between 1972 and 2009 for various reasons including slow negotiations, according to the ERD.
   The present government hopes to mobilise $ 2.25 billion foreign aid in the next fiscal year to implement key development projects on conclusion of loan negotiations with development partners as soon as possible, sources in the ERD said.
   The country received foreign aid amounting to $1.23 billion or Tk 8,487 crore in the first eight months of the current fiscal.
   The NEC directed the ministries and divisions to immediately finalise the process of disbursement of soft term loans, now in the pipeline, in line with the negotiations.
   Credits from international lending agencies — the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank — are costly for Bangladesh as their effective interest rates range between 5 to 8 per cent, private research firm D-net’s executive director Ananya Raihan told New Age.
   ‘The government should focus more on bilateral credits on soft terms,’ he said.
   When asked, the secretary of economic relations division, M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, said the government had taken the decision of taking bilateral credits at two per cent interest rate to expedite the initial negotiations with development partners.
   ‘We are currently negotiating with China, India and South Korea bilaterally for funding several projects at low interest rate,’ he added.
   Foreign aid, including loans and grants, still constitutes more than 50 per cent of the government’s development budget but it is around 2.5 per cent of the gross domestic product.
   The foreign aid receipt the next fiscal year may surpass the government’s target in view of the global pledges to float special funds such as climate change mitigation and adaptation funds and package for overcoming the global economic downturn, an official of the ERD said.

Two feuding factions of the Eden College unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League fought on the campus for hours on Friday over share of the ‘admission business’. It is alleged that the leaders charge a handsome amount of money from some students to facilitate their admission, and in the process many unfit students are getting admission while capable students are being deprived.
   Chhatra League activists loyal to unit president Selina Shamima Nijhum and their antagonists got locked in an altercation that led to a brawl with sticks, iron rods and brickbats.
   The clash began at morning when Nijhum’s followers drove away an activist, who is loyal to anti-Nijhum leaders, from Razia Begum Hostel, said college sources.
   After this many of the Chhatra League leaders of the college took a stand against Nijhum, saying that she was involved in illegal businesses including the ‘admission trade’ and was responsible for oppression of students in the college’s hostels, sources added.
   The anti-Nijhum leaders also claimed that the college’s principal, Mahfuza Chowdhury, always abets Nijhum in her illegal activities.
   They demanded immediate expulsion of the principal and Nijhum. They said that they would launch a tough movement to realise their demands.
   They said that Nijhum and general secretary Farzana Yasmin Tania jointly enrolled almost seven hundred students illegally in this year’s Honours courses.
   General students said that there was no difference between Nijhum and the BCL leaders who were against her, and the latter were now protesting against her because they felt deprived of their share in the admission business.
   Nijhum, while talking to reporters, dismissed the allegations and said she would step down from the post of president if anyone could prove that she was involved in the admission business.
   She said that four vice-presidents of the BCL unit — Champa Khatun, Sharmin Sultana Sharmi, Taniya Sultana Happy and Kaniz Fatema — were responsible for Friday’s violence.
   The vice-principal of the college, Ayesha Begum, said there had been a dispute between Chhatra League activists but it was not a big deal.
   She also claimed that there were no irregularities in the admission process this year.
   The police went to the college at around noon and brought the situation under control. But activists loyal to both the groups were roaming around on the campus with sticks and iron rods till the evening, said the general students of the college.

A Bangladesh-born computer software developer for British Airways appeared in a London court on Thursday after he was accused of ‘planning suicide bombings and his own martyrdom’.
   Rajib Karim, 30, volunteered to work as a member of BA’s cabin crew during a strike, the City of Westminister Magistrates Court heard. It is alleged he was plotting with his terrorist bosses abroad ‘to commit an atrocity’.
   He faces three charges under counter-terrorism act: conspiring to prepare acts of terrorism in Britain, preparing for terrorism overseas and fund-raising for a terrorist organisation. One charge involves the UK and the other alleges that he plotted with contacts in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Yemen.
   Karim, of Newcastle upon Tyne, deliberately stayed in Britain, obtained a passport and getting a job at the airline to further the conspiracy, the court heard.
   He was arrested by officers from Scotland Yard’s Counter Terrorism Command, working with colleagues in the North-East, on February 25.
   They swooped on the office complex where he worked in Newcastle and searched his home in the city in north east England. Forensic experts are continuing to sift through hundreds of files held on computers seized from his workplace and home.
   Inquiries are also understood to be under way in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Yemen to trace others allegedly involved.
   Prosecutor Colin Gibbs told the court that the charge sheet alleges Karim shared information about his work, including security measures, and offered to take advantage of planned strikes by BA staff to join the airline’s cabin crew.
   All offences are alleged to have taken place between April 2006 and last month.
   At the city’s court Karim, a well-built men with a thin beard and closely-cropped hair, wearing a black fleece, spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth in the 15-minute hearing.
   His solicitor James Nicolls said he did not want his client’s address made public for fear of reprisals against his young family. He did not apply for bail. No formal order was put in place banning its publication.
   District Judge Timothy Workman remanded Karim in custody and the case was adjourned until 26 March at the Old Bailey court in London. Scotland Yard also arrested three men in Slough, Berkshire, during the inquiry. They were released without charge on Tuesday.

The US State Department’s 2009 Human Rights Report on Bangladesh, released Thursday, raised concerns over ‘unlawful killings’ by security forces, which continued unabated, and reports of rising political violence.
   It also highlighted the government’s failure to investigate the deaths in custody of alleged BDR mutineers.
   The State Department’s latest annual human rights reports identified several general trends across the globe including government efforts to silence dissent.
   The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, described the annual reports - legally required by Congress - as ‘an important tool in the development of practical and effective human rights strategy by the United States government’.
   The reports hit out at current foes China and Iran, citing constraints on Internet communications; new and often ‘draconian’ restrictions on civil society groups; and the persecution of vulnerable groups, such as minorities, women, children and the disabled.
   The State Department also said over the past year many governments had applied ‘overly broad interpretations of terrorism and emergency powers’ as a way of limiting the rights of detainees and other basic human rights.
   The reports carried a new concern this year too about growing anti-Muslim discrimination in Europe. It highlighted last year’s ban on the construction of minarets in Switzerland as an example.
   The Bangladesh report recognised that ‘the government’s human rights record improved somewhat due to the return of a democratically elected government and the repeal of the state of emergency.’
   The elections in December 2008 and the peaceful transfer of power in January 2009 ended two years of rule by a military-backed caretaker government.
   ‘Civilian authorities generally maintained effective control of the security forces,’ the report said.
   But despite the return of a democratically elected government there remained cases of ‘serious abuse’, the report said, including custodial deaths, arbitrary arrest and detention, and harassment of journalists.
   The report notes that according to the Bangladesh government’s statistics, there was a 3 per cent increase in the number of killings by all security personnel. It states that despite public statements by high-ranking politicians that the government would show ‘zero tolerance’ and would fully investigate all extrajudicial killings by security forces, ‘the government did not take comprehensive measures to investigate these cases.’
   According to media reports, local and international human rights organisations, and the government, law enforcement officials were responsible for 154 deaths, 129 of which were attributed to ‘crossfire’, representing a three per cent increase from the previous year.
   The RAB accounted for 38 ‘crossfire’ killings; members of the police were responsible for 63; combined security units consisting of the RAB and police were responsible for 25; and the army committed three ‘crossfire’ killings.
   In relation to killings by RAB in particular, the report said although there was a 40 per cent drop in the number compared to the previous year – from 68 to 41 - it notes that the government has not prosecuted any RAB officer.
   Using figures provided by human rights organisations, the report states that the use of torture, which it says had decreased in the last year of the interim government, rose again last year. The report states that the RAB, military, and police ‘frequently employed severe physical and psychological abuse during arrests and interrogations.’
   ‘With the return of an elected government, reports of politically motivated violence increased 3.3 per cent,’ the report said.
   The report states that political violence resumed following the end of the state of emergency, with opposition party supporters claiming harassment by ruling party supporters.
   Referring to a report by one human rights organisation, it stated that 251 deaths were suspected of being politically motivated.
   Restrictions on holding rallies and processions ended with the withdrawal of the state of emergency in December 2008. The new government generally permitted rallies to take place but on occasion used Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code to prevent opposition political groups from holding meetings and demonstrations.
   Section 144 authorises the administration to ban assembly of more than four persons; according to human rights groups, the administration used this provision at least 82 times during the year.
   At times police or ruling party activists reportedly used force to break up demonstrations.
   On February 25-26, members of the BDR staged a mutiny, alleging poor pay and benefits, as well as corruption among senior officers drawn from the army, the report noted.
   During the two-day mutiny, BDR soldiers killed 57 officers and 15 of their family members, including the director general and his wife. Security forces subsequently arrested more than 2,000 individuals allegedly involved in the uprising.
   According to media reports, 59 BDR members arrested in the wake of the February 25-26 mutiny died in custody.
   ‘There were credible reports that many of the deceased had been tortured. To investigate these allegations, the government formed a committee, which concluded that only two members died as a result of torture. No other government action was taken,’ said the report.
   ‘Family members of the victims alleged they died after being tortured ... several BDR members taken into custody claimed the RAB and police physically assaulted and beat them, administered electric shocks, blindfolded them, and hung them upside down while in custody; NGOs alleged army personnel also were involved in custodial deaths.’
   The report noted that the government announced an investigation and promised to publish a report by July regarding the nature of the deaths but failed to publish any report. The government investigation ruled that only two members died due to torture and that the others died as a result of illness or suicide. At year’s end the government had not taken any action regarding the deaths or allegations of torture.
   Attacks on journalists continued to be a problem, the report said. There was an increase in individuals affiliated with the government or ruling party harassing, arresting, or assaulting journalists. According to human rights and media watchdog groups, at least three journalists were killed, 84 were injured, one was arrested, 45 were assaulted, 73 were threatened, and 23 had cases filed against them during the year.
   According to some journalists and human rights NGOs, journalists engaged in self-censorship for fear of retribution from the government.
   Referring to official corruption and government transparency, the report said the government ‘did not implement anti-corruption laws effectively’.
   It also observed that approximately 1,817 cases filed mostly against ruling party leaders were withdrawn over the year, including cases filed against prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

The Dhaka Metropolitan police commissioner, Shahidul Huq, on Friday rejected the US State Department country report-2009 alleging violation of human rights of the accused in police custody.
   ‘I reject it. I don’t have any such information,’ he told reporters after attending a community policing function at Shah Ali Thana in Mirpur.
   The police commissioner said if there was specific information about violation of human rights by any member of the DMP, departmental action would be taken or criminal case filed against the police concerned.
   He said petty offences had come down following the community policing for six-seven months.
   On eve teasing in Mirpur areas, Huq said the community police would be involved to stop the menace.
   A list of eve-teasers will be prepared in each thana by the community police, he said adding that based on such lists, parents and guardians of the eve-teasers will be persuaded to control their boys.

The opposition chief whip, Zainul Abdin Farroque, on Friday claimed he had evidence that the prime minister’s son Sajib Wazed Joy controlled illegal call termination business using voice-over internet protocol from the United States and Canada.
   ‘Joy controls the illegal business from the United States and Canada. Such illegal business started during the 1996-2001 rule of Awami League through Spectra Solution Company owned by a relative of the present prime minister,’ Farroque said at a briefing at his Gulshan house.
   ‘The country is deprived of Tk 1,500 crore in revenue a year for the illegal business and the money is being siphoned abroad,’ he said.
   Farroque demanded an inquiry into Joy’s ‘illegal’ business. ‘Media has already carried reports on Joy’s illegal business. If the government wants we will provide information and evidence,’ he said.
   Farroque said reports on ‘corruption’ by the ministers of the present government and ruling party lawmakers, including shipping minister Shahjahan Khan and commerce minister Faruque Khan, were being published everyday.
   Farroque said the government had indulged in ‘smear’ campaigns against BNP’s senior vice-chairman Tarique Rahman to hide the ‘corruption of their own leaders’. ‘Whenever we speak about corruption and failure of the government in the house, the microphone goes switched off. Their activities indicate that they are out to reinstate a single-party rule,’ he said.
   BNP lawmaker Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie said allegation of ‘illegal activities’ against Joy was ‘nothing new’. A newspaper reported that Joy and the prime minister’s adviser Towfiq-e-Elahi had taken ‘bribes’ from US oil giant Chevron for work-order without tender, he said.
   Party lawmakers Ashrafuddin Nizan, Ashifa Ashrafi Papia and Shammi Akhtar were also present at the briefing.

Twin suicide attacks seconds apart targeted the Pakistani military Friday, killing up to 45 people in the second attack to hit security forces in the country’s cultural capital this week.
   The bombers walked up to army vehicles in the crowded RA Bazaar area of Lahore, blowing themselves up as people sat down to eat before the main Muslim weekly prayers were to begin, a senior official said.
   Lahore, a city of eight million near Pakistan’s border with India, has been increasingly subject to Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked attacks in a nationwide bombing campaign that has killed more than 3,000 people in three years.
   The bombers targeted the cantonment, home to army officials and military installations, as well as hospitals and schools run by the military. There were civilian homes, shops and restaurants in the vicinity of the attack.
   Footage of the blasts broadcast by private Geo TV showed people running and shouting in panic. One man, who apparently shot the video on a mobile phone, is heard murmuring: ‘Oh my God, Oh my God, Be kind to us God.’
   Jumpy images of the second explosion showed a thick ball of smoke with a huge bang and people shouting.
   Mohammad Nadeem, a man in his 20s whose traditional white shalwar khamis was stained with blood down the front, said he was saying prayers in the mosque when he heard the first blast and rushed out only to hear another explosion.
   ‘The second blast took place very near a military vehicle. I sensed real danger and started running,’ he said.
   ‘There were scenes of destruction in nearby restaurants and shops. There were broken chairs and tables and other items lying everywhere on the ground.’
   The army sealed off the tree-lined street. Security officials said at least five soldiers were among those killed when the twin blasts shattered windows and sent debris flying from nearby buildings.
   ‘Forty-three people were killed and 134 wounded in the attacks,’ Lahore civil defence department chief Mazhar Ahmad said.
   But a senior security official put the death toll at 45 and said six army personnel were among the dead.
   There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Pakistan’s Taliban claimed a suicide attack Monday that destroyed offices in Lahore used to interrogate militant suspects, killing 15 people, and pledged further attacks.
   Violence in Pakistan is concentrated largely in the lawless northwest border area with Afghanistan, but analysts have warned that extremism is taking a hold in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous and politically important province.
   Eight attacks have killed more than 170 people in Lahore over the past year, a historical city, playground for the elite and home to many top brass in Pakistan’s powerful military and intelligence establishment.
   Nuclear-armed Pakistan is on the frontline of the US war on al-Qaeda, under pressure to act against Islamist militants in the border area with Afghanistan — which Washington calls the most dangerous place on Earth.
   Despite a series of reported arrests in Pakistan in recent weeks, scepticism remains on whether its powerful spy agency has made a decisive break with Islamist hardliners after well-established historical ties.
   Pakistan has confirmed only the arrest of Mullah Adbul Ghani Baradar, described by US officials as the Afghan Taliban number two, but also reported to have been in contact with Afghan government officials.

Tens of thousands of supporters of deposed Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra in trademark red shirts began to gather on Friday ahead of weekend protests in Bangkok aimed at toppling the government.
   Around 6,500 protesters staged early demonstrations in the capital, chanting incantations for good luck, while thousands more gathered in the rural north before starting their journey to Bangkok for the main rally on Sunday.
   Organisers insist the protests will be non-violent, but the government is rolling out a 50,000-strong security force and has enacted a tough security law that allows authorities to impose curfews and limit movements.
   ‘I am joining the demonstration to call for democracy and to end the double standards. We come of our own free will,’ said Saket Khosri, 46, a Bangkok housewife attending one of the downtown rallies.
   Coming two weeks after Thailand’s top court confiscated 1.4 billion dollars of Thaksin’s assets, the protests are the latest chapter in a political crisis that has beset Thailand since Thaksin was toppled in a 2006 coup.
   Thaksin, who lives abroad, mostly in Dubai, to avoid a jail term for corruption at home, issued on Friday the latest in a series of rallying cries via Twitter.
   ‘I offer my moral support to the Red Shirts who are making a sacrifice and are coming out to write history today,’ Thaksin said on a Twitter posting.
   In a later posting he added: ‘If there is violence this time it will not be triggered by the people... Real Red Shirts are disciplined. They have already agreed to fight non violently.’
   The police said 14,000 protesters had left Thaksin’s home city Chiang Mai for Bangkok, although the Reds estimated the figure at 20,000. About 10,000 had departed Udon Thani in the northeast, said another leader, Kwanchai Praipana.
   Thousands of others had gathered in other provinces but exact numbers were not yet available, organisers and officials said.
   The protest is set to be the biggest since the Red Shirts rioted in Bangkok in April, leaving two dead and scores injured. Organisers have dubbed it a ‘million-man march’ though the government predicts around 100,000 will turn up.
   The Red Shirts mainly represent Thailand’s rural poor who benefited from Thaksin’s populist policies and say the government of the prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, is elitist, military-backed and has ignored their democratic rights.
   The Red Shirts want Abhisit to stand down and call new elections, but he rejected their call Friday.
   ‘I will only dissolve parliament for the common good, not just for temporary peace, so my government will continue to work,’ said Abhisit, who cancelled a weekend trip to Australia because of the looming rally.
   Thaksin, meanwhile, is still loathed by the rival royalist ‘Yellow Shirts’ backed by Bangkok’s establishment, who accuse him of corruption and of insufficient loyalty to the revered royal family.
   Thirty-five countries have warnings to visitors to the kingdom because of the protests, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
   Three small explosions were heard in the southern city of Surat Thani on Friday but nobody was hurt. The deputy prime minister, Suthep Thaugsuban, blamed the incidents on political agitators.
   Bangkok’s main airport, which was besieged by protesters in 2008, has made contingency plans for the rallies and the Stock Exchange of Thailand also has measures prepared to ensure trading is not affected.
   Analysts say the number of Reds who actually turn up will be key to deciding whether they have any chance of pushing out the government before Thailand’s next elections, due in December 2011.
   The Reds have held a number of protests since Abhisit came to power in December 2008 after a court decision removed Thaksin’s allies from government following the Yellow Shirt airport blockade.

A considerable decline in Bangladesh’s garments exports to the US, amidst the increase of other countries’ garment shipments to the world’s largest market due to the receding of recession, has set off alarm bells in the RMG sector, said industry sources.
   Officials at the Bangladesh Garments Buying Houses Association informed New Age that the country’s apparel shipments to US declined by about 23 per cent in the first month of the current year.
   In January 2009 Bangladesh shipped 100.5 million square metres or equivalent units of apparels to the US, 22.6 per cent down from the same month last year.
   In the same month US apparel imports increased by more than 2 per cent, and shipments from China increased by 23 per cent, from Vietnam by 7 per cent and from Honduras by 4 per cent.
   In terms of volume, Bangladesh’s shipment in January 2009 was the lowest in the past two and a half year, said officials, quoting a report of the US’s Department of Commerce.
   Garment shipments to the US from India, Indonesia, Mexico and Cambodia also declined by 5 to 10 per cent.
   India’s apparel shipment to the US is recovering in the recent months from the large declines in the many previous months.
   ‘Such a great decline in shipments to the top market for Bangladeshi apparels is an ominous signal, and especially so when shipments from other countries are increasing again,’ said the association’s vice-president, Kazi Iftekhar Hossain.
   The US is the single largest market destination for Bangladeshi garment exports, and Bangladesh, after China and Vietnam, is the third largest supplier there. Nearly one-third of Bangladesh’s apparel export earning, which amounted to $3.4 billion in 2009, comes from the US.
   The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association’s president, Abdus Salam Murshedy, said, ‘The trend of such steep decline in shipments to the US is really worrisome.’
   He said that US importers had come with fresh orders in the previous few months to Bangladeshi suppliers, but they could not feed the importers accordingly due to the increasing power and gas crisis.
   The price of garments has also become a great factor, said Murshedy. ‘While local exporters, who get no incentives from the government, remain unable to feed the importers due to further cuts of garment prices, suppliers in China, Vietnam and India are being able to do so.’
   Khondaker Golam Moazzem, a senior researcher of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, also feels that the decline in Bangladesh’s apparel shipments to the US indicates that some changes might have been taking place in the US importers’ sourcing dynamics.
   He apprehended that Chinese and Vietnamese suppliers might have been offering lucrative prices and convenient supply offers as, after experiencing the recent recession, the US importers want to take less risk and prefer deliveries in shorter periods.
   He said that Bangladesh’s garment sector should study the post-recession US market keenly in order to find the reasons for the erosion of Bangladesh’s competitiveness and work out the ways and means to retain its market share.

England captain Alastair Cook made Bangladesh to regret their decision to bowl first by hitting an unbeaten century to lift his team to a commanding 374-3 on the opening day of the first Test in Chittagong on Friday.
   On his first day in the job as England Test skipper, nothing could have been a nicer gift for Cook than what his counterpart Sakib al Hasan presented to him, asking his side to bat on what looked like a batting-friendly surface.
   Cook made the most of it reaching 158 not out at the close, his 11th Test century that put England firmly in control of the game. Paul Collingwood (32 not out) will resume batting with Cook today hoping to take the side to a position from where they might not need to bat again.
   On a day of getting some merciless hammering, Bangladesh’s significant success was the dismissal of Kevin Pietersen, who fell one run short of his 17th Test century.
   Pietersen, who was bowled by left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak for 99, however, added 170 runs with Cook for the third wicket.
   Cook, quiet initially, thanked Sakib for his presentation with a massive six over the midwicket to open up his bat and grew in confidence gradually to hit 14 boundaries and another six in his unbeaten innings.
   His second six off off-spinner Mahmudullah over long-on brought up his century to be only the fifth England captain to do so in their first innings in charge. In his previous 52 Tests Cook had struck only two sixes and now doubled the tally with the innings.
   His opening partner Michael Carberry, one of the two debutants for England alongside Middlesex pacer Steven Finn, was the first to depart for 30 having been unable to read the spin of Mahmudullah.
   The left-hander had clubbed six fours, including three in one over of seamer Rubel Hossain, but was dropped by wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim on 30 off Mahmudullah before being trapped lbw in the spinner’s next over.
   Jonathan Trott was the next to go, when he was caught behind for 39, although TV replays suggested the short-pitched ball from Rubel had struck him on the helmet before flying to Mushfique.
   Bangladesh brought their fielders close and surrounded the struggling Pietersen, but he showed no signs of cowering and drove left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak for a cover boundary to get off the mark.
   He struck Sakib for a six and two fours in his four balls to move into the 90s before his weakness against left-arm spin resurfaced and Razzak bowled him with a fuller delivery that spun past the bat and crashed onto the stumps.

A scan of brain activity can effectively read a person’s mind, researchers said Thursday.
   British scientists from University College London found they could differentiate brain activity linked to different memories and thereby identify thought patterns by using functional magnetic resonance imaging.
   The evidence suggests researchers can tell which memory of a past event a person is recalling from the pattern of their brain activity alone.
   ‘We’ve been able to look at brain activity for a specific episodic memory — to look at actual memory traces,’ said senior author of the study, Eleanor Maguire.
   ‘We found that our memories are definitely represented in the hippocampus. Now that we’ve seen where they are, we have an opportunity to understand how memories are stored and how they may change through time.’
   The results, reported in the March 11 online edition of Current Biology, follow an earlier discovery by the same team that they could tell where a person was standing within a virtual reality room in the same way.
   The researchers say the new results move this line of research along because episodic memories — recollections of everyday events — are expected to be more complex, and thus more difficult to crack than spatial memory.
   In the study, Maguire and her colleagues Martin Chadwick, Demis Hassabis, and Nikolaus Weiskopf showed 10 people each three very short films before brain scanning. Each movie featured a different actress and a fairly similar everyday scenario.
   The researchers scanned the participants’ brains while the participants were asked to recall each of the films. The researchers then ran the imaging data through a computer algorithm designed to identify patterns in the brain activity associated with memories for each of the films.
   Finally, they showed that those patterns could be identified to accurately predict which film a given person was thinking about when he or she was scanned.
   The results imply that the traces of episodic memories are found in the brain, and are identifiable, even over many re-activations, the researchers said.
   The results reinforce the findings of a 2008 US study that showed similar scans can determine what images people are seeing based on brain activity.

Scientists have found the ‘mother,’ or origin, of all skin cells and say their discovery could dramatically improve skin treatments for victims of serious wounds and burns.
   Hans Clevers and a team of Dutch and Swedish researchers conducted a study in mice and found that the stem cell that gives produces all the different cells of the skin actually lives in hair follicles.
   The findings, which they say will translate for human use, mean it may be possible to harness these stem cells to help with wound repair or skin transplants for burns victims, they said in a study in the Science journal on Thursday.
   ‘This is the mother of all the stem cells in the skin — it makes all the other stem cells,’ Clevers, of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in Utrecht, said in a telephone interview.
   ‘The same stem cells exist in humans, we can see them, and the promise is that these cells are probably going to be much better than anything we have had to date at making new skin.’
   The skin has three different populations of cells — hair follicles, moisturising sebaceous glands, and the tissue in between, known as the interfollicular epidermis. Stem cells are original cells, or drivers, from which all human cells develop.
   Scientists had previously thought that stem cells in each of these three skin populations were capable of producing their own cell type, but until now, a ‘mother’ stem cell which produces all three types had not been found.
   Clevers’ team found that a group of stem cells that live in hair follicles and which have high levels of a gene called Lgr6 are the original epidermal stem cells.
   In tests on mice with wounds, they found that Lrg6 cells around the wound drove new skin growth and repaired the skin.
   Scientists are already able to grow new skin in laboratories using tissue from existing skin cells from patients who have been badly burned, but the new skin is often brittle, dry and does not have hair — making it look unusual.
   Clevers said the advantage offered by the ‘mother’ stem cell finding would be that they could grow skin from its original basis — allowing it to be ‘real new skin’ with moisture from sebaceous glands and the ability to grow hair.
   He said researchers now need to learn how to isolate the Lrg6 cells from human skin. That could take 2 to 3 years.
   ‘We are learning how to grow the mouse cells in culture. Once we know how to do this and can isolate the human variant, we should be able to grow human cells as well,’ he said.
   ‘Since there is a lot of experience already with growing and transplanting skin for burn wound patients, it should be relatively easy to incorporate the new stem cells ... and conduct trials in patients.’

A 45-year-old man was burnt to death and seven others were injured in a fire at Kazi Bari slum in Uttar Bishil at Mirpur in Dhaka on Friday morning.
   At least 200 shanties were gutted in the fire that originated from a short-circuit at around 5:30am, local people and police informed.
   The deceased was identified as Mohammad Halim.
   The injured were admitted to different local clinics for treatment.

The president, Barack Obama, on Thursday named 10 charities to share his $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize, with causes ranging from wounded veterans to Haiti’s earthquake survivors and education for minorities.
   ‘These organisations do extraordinary work in the United States and abroad helping students and veterans and countless others in need,’ Obama said in a statement.
   He had vowed to donate the prize money to charity after unexpectedly winning the prestigious prize last year.
   The White House said $250,000, the largest single amount, will go to Fisher House, which houses families of wounded veterans while they receive treatment.