Front Page «
National «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

Three children aged about 10 months died early Thursday, hours after they had been administered measles vaccines under the expanded programme of immunisation at Kalikapur Community Health Clinic at Hizla in Barisal.
   The deceased were Toma, daughter of Prafulla Dhali, Tisha, daughter of Pancham Kolu, and Pranto, son of Anil Kolu — all relatives and residents of Kalikapur.
   Barisal’s civil surgeon Anil Chandra Datta said an investigation committee had been instituted and the committee members had reached the spot to collect evidence and record the statements of the people involved in the process. Another investigation committee has been instituted at the upazila level.
   The director general of the directorate general of health services, Shah Monir Hossain, told New Age on Thursday evening he was yet to be informed of the matter and he would take steps to investigate the incident.
   Toma’s mother Shipu Rani said Faruk Howladar, husband of Taslima, the community clinic in-charge and health assistant, called her, Tisha’s mother Anita Rani and Pranto’s mother Prarthana Rani to get to the clinic for vaccination about 2:00pm Wednesday.
   When they reached there, Taslima asked her husband Faruk to collect an ampoule of vaccine from a pharmacy owned by Alamgir Sardar.
   Faruk collected a broken ampoule and when he reached the clinic, the three women requested the health assistant not to administer the vaccine from the broken ampoule.
   But the health assistant administered the vaccines and sent the children home. On reaching home, the women found that all the three children were drowsy and suffered convulsion, vomiting and diarrhoea.
   The women then rushed to Hizla upazila health complex and Toma died there about 2:30am.
   Pranto and Tisha were then shifted to Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital after their condition had worsened. They both died on their way to the hospital, Shipu Rani said.
   The upazila health and family planning officer in-charge Shubhangkar Baroi said the three had died after being administered vaccines.
   EPI vaccines for nine wards of Harinathpur, Memania and Guabaria unions were kept in an ice-box at the pharmacy owned by Alamgir Sardar for easy transport, he said.
   Nine community health assistants on Wednesday collected one ampoule each early in the morning each to be administered to 10 children, said Mizanur Rahman, the EPI technician at Hizla upazila health complex. He said Taslima had also collected an ampoule.
   ‘Taslima administered vaccines to 13 children. We do not know how she could administer vaccines to three more children as she had collected only one ampoule. We also do not know what kind of vaccine had been administered to the three children,’ he said.
   ‘A five-member committee has been instituted to investigate the incident,’ said Shubhangkar, the upazila health officer.
   The civil surgeon of Barisal Anil Chandra Datta, said, acknowledging the incident, said a six-member committee had been instituted to investigate the incident.
   The committee members have already reached the stop to collect evidence and record the statements of the people involved in the process, he said.
   Five others on the committee, headed by deputy civil surgeon ASM Abdus Sattar, are local World Health Organisation officials Arifur Rahman and Mizanur Rahman, district EPI supervisor Md Bazlur Rahman, SBMCH child specialist Mahmud Hasan Khan, and the upazila health officer.
   The upazila nirbahi officer, Md Ahsan Habib, said he had asked the police and health officials to investigate the matter after talking with the families.
   The police lodged three cases of unnatural death and sent the bodies to the Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital morgue for post-mortem examination, said the Hizla police officer-in-charge, Rafikul Hossain.
   Tisha’s father Pancham at the SBMCH morgue demanded fair investigation and punishment of the people responsible for the death.
   The Hizla upazila chairman, Sultan Mahmud Tipu, visited the spot.
   Earlier in June 2009, at least three children died and several thousand across the country fell ill after being adminsitered Vitamin A capsules and deworming tablet (Albendazole) under the expanded programme of immunisation.
   Thursday’s death of three children is the first incident of death of children in Bangladesh after being administered measles vaccines.
   Four children, however, died after they had been administered measles vaccines at primary health centres in Lucknow, India, on August 21.

Kamal Hossain, driver of ruling MP Nurunnabi Chowdhury Shaon, has again admitted in court that he had shot Juba League leader Ibrahim, a close associate of Shaon.
   Kamal gave the statement at the Dhaka CMM court on Thursday, detective branch deputy commissioner Ruhul Amin told bdnews24.com.
   Kamal gave the statement under Section 164 in the case filed on Thursday by police against him and Shaon’s personal secretary Sohel Hossain.
   However, people accused of charges have previously reversed their confessions during trial claiming that their statement were forced out of them under duress in police custody.
   DB inspector Mashiur Rahman filed the case with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station.
   The case was filed following information given by Kamal and Sohel. They were remanded for three days to police custody on August 30.
   Ibrahim died inside Shaon’s Pajero jeep by a bullet from his pistol in the parliament area on August 13. Kamal filed an unnatural death case immediately after the incident with the same police station.
   On the other hand, Ibrahim’s brother Masum Ahmed filed a murder case with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court on August 18 against eight, including Shaon and Kamal.
   Ibrahim was supposed to contest the upcoming Dhaka City Corporation elections from ward 56.
   Shaon is also general secretary of Dhaka (south) Juba League, which LGRD state minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak heads.
   Meanwhile, the police have filed another case over the murder of Juba League leader Ibrahim, an associate of ruling party MP Nurunnabi Chowdhury Shaon.
   Inspector Mashiur Rahman of the Detective Branch filed the case with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station on Thursday, subinspector Azimuddin said.
   The police said the case was filed following information given by Shaon’s driver Kamal Hossain and personal secretary Sohel Hossain.

People are using names of high offices like Bangabhaban, the Prime Minister’s Office and different ministries while calling railway authorities to make unofficial requests for advance tickets to travel before the Eid-ul-Fitr festival, officials at the Kamalapur station alleged.
   Railway officials, mainly the station manager of Kamlapur, received numerous calls and unofficial letters requesting for advance tickets to travel to their homes before the Eid.
   The sales of advance tickets for different railway routes started Tuesday morning at different stations in Dhaka, Gazipur, Sylhet and Chittagong while a number of people queuing up at the Dhaka’s Kamalapur station alleged involvement of a racket in buying tickets for black marketing.
   On Thursday morning, a person called introducing himself as an official of Bangababan, but the Kamalapur station manager requested him to approach through official procedure, a railway official said.
   Another person, introducing himself to be a close associate of the communication minister, called and asked for tickets to travel on September 9 while tickets for the day was yet to be released for the advance sale. The station manager had to move for the tickets leaving his official works behind.
   The Kamalapur station manager Abdullah Al Masum admitted receiving such requests and said the railway normally preserves five per cent quota in air-conditioned coaches for the very important persons.
   ‘We request them, as per normal procedure, to send official letters in advance to collect ticket for the desired date and most of the officials had done so,’ he said, adding, ‘We do not want to break the rules and accept unauthorised calls or letters to upset our works.’
   Homebound passengers rushed to Kamalapur station in the early hours of the day to collect advance tickets for journeys on September 7 to go out of the capital to celebrate Eid, expected to fall on September 10 or 11.
   A section of commuters queuing up at Kamalapur alleged that touts in disguise of normal passengers were collecting tickets to sell those in black market at a high price.
   Rajshahi-bound passenger Mohammad Asaduzzaman, after waiting in the queue for nine hours, said that at about noon people at the counter announced all tickets for September 7 had been sold out.
   Besides, a group of touts was found selling places in the queues to late-comers and often tried to forcibly push their men on the lines to collect more tickets as one can collect only four tickets at a time.
   People standing for tickets at Kamalapur alleged that the touts in cohort with some dishonest railway employees at the counters and railway security personnel were involved in black-marketing the tickets .
   The station manager, however, denied the allegation and said, ‘We allow one person to collect only four tickets at a time to ensure transparency.’
   RAB-3 official, major MM Shafiqur Rahman, at the station complaint desk, said they did not receive any major allegation from anyone till 2:00pm on the day.
   Long queues were seen for the Rajshahi-bound Silk City, Dhumketu and Padma Express, Khulna-bound Sundarban and Chitra Express, Dinajpur-bound Ekata and Lalmonirhat-bound Lalmonirhat express at the rail station.
   Hundreds of buyers could manage their tickets after at least five hours’ waiting at the station.
   Approximately 1.12 crore people live in Dhaka city of whom about 75 per cent are expected to leave the city during the Eid holidays by road, rail and river ways, sources in the transportation business said.
   The BR would provide transport facilities for one lakh home-bound passengers this year.
   The tickets can be bought five days ahead of the date of journey from the ticket counters of Kamalapur, Airport, Joydebpur, Sylhet and Chittagong rail stations from 9:00am to 5:00pm every day.
   Tickets for journey on September 8 would be sold on September 3, those for September 9 on September 4.
   The passengers can also book tickets through Short Message Service through their mobile phones as more than 10,000 tickets were kept for this e-ticketing service provided by GrameenPhone and Banglalink operators, officials said.
   Besides, standing tickets (for journeys without sitting arrangement) will be available at the station counters every day to cope with the rush of additional Eid passengers, the BR officials said.
   The BR would run 16 intercity trains for Eid and special trains would run on the Dhaka-Dewanganj and Parbatipur-Dhaka routes from September 7 to the day before Eid.

Parliamentary special committee headed by Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury is expected to recommend amendments to the constitution in a way that would strengthen further democracy in the country, said the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, Thursday. She was talking to a delegation of Newspaper Owners Association of Bangladesh led by its president Mahbubul Alam that called on her at her office.
   The prime minister said the country would run by constitutional government. People of the republic are the supreme authority to choose who will run the government.
   PM’s press secretary Abul Kalam Azad briefed the meeting as reporters were not allowed in.
   Hasina sought cooperation of the media so that no undemocratic force comes in to grab power in future.
   She hailed the verdict of the Supreme Court on the 5th and 7th amendments to the constitution that went against the illegal grabbers of state power.
   Recalling her experiences the prime minister informed the NOAB delegation that she was not allowed to return to the country during the regime of Ziaur Rahman. She said Zia knew her democratic stand. That is why he had created impediments on her return home.
   Hasina expressed her determination of holding trial of the war crimes in this soil as the trial of killers of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had been completed.
   She said her government was working relentlessly for ensuring a smooth and brighter future for the posterity.
   The prime minister said she came to power at a time when the world was groaning under economic meltdown and the country just experienced a fear like situation during the caretaker government.
   She said to bring the country back to order, in terms of economic and other means, her government had faced a lot of obstacles and challenges.
   Hasina said her government had worked a lot to upgrade the image of the country that was tarnished during the regime of BNP-Jammat government and army-backed caretaker government.
   She informed that overall investment in the country was satisfactory except in power and gas sector. Initiatives have been taken to encourage investment in the energy sector.
   About the power crisis, Hasina said 1,000MW had been added during the last one and a half years since she came to power. Another 2,500MW will be added to the national grid soon.
   But no step had been taken during the 5 plus 2 BNP-Jamaat government and the army-backed caretaker government to generate electricity and they failed to add a single megawatt power to the national grid during their tenures, she added.
   About the proposed deep seaport, the prime minister said all neighbouring countries including India, China and Myanmar would be allowed to use the deep seaport. Efforts are underway to resolve the maritime boundary problems with India and Myanmar.
   She said her government formulated the long-awaited education policy to modernise the education. The government has set up 37 training centres for the workers to turn them skill so that they get employment abroad.
   The NOAB delegation informed the prime minister about their problems. She assured them of taking necessary steps to resolve those in consultation with officials concerned.
   NOAB delegation included Anwar Hossain Manju, Reazuddin Ahmed, Matiur Rahman, Matiur Rahman Chowdhury, Mahfuz Anam, AK Azad, Altamas Kabir Mishu, and M Taslim.
   Mahfuz Anam lauded the prime minister for her efforts to root out militancy and extremism from the country. He said she would go in history for her role in establishing democracy in the country and assured unflinching support of NOAB to her government.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyau, and the Palestinian leader, Mahmud Abbas, agreed Thursday to resume their peace talks in the Middle East on September 14-15, US special envoy George Mitchell said.
   The two leaders ‘agreed to meet again September 14 and 15 in the region and every two weeks thereafter,’ Mitchell told reporters as Abbas and Netanyahu continued a private one-on-one meeting.
   In their private opening discussions in Washington, which he called ‘long and productive,’ Mitchell said both expressed their intent to pursue the negotiations in ‘good faith and seriousness of purpose.’
   Both Netanyahu and Abbas, condemned ‘all forms of violence that target innocent civilians’ and pledged to work together to maintain security.
   He said they also renewed their commitment for a two-state solution, which involves the creation of a Palestinian state living alongside a secure Israel.
   Israeli and Palestinian leaders launched their first direct talks in 20 months Wednesday, starting the clock on a daunting one-year deadline to flesh out a Palestinian state to live in peace with Israel.
   After a day of weighty symbolism and lofty rhetoric at the White House, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, sat down Wednesday with Netanyahu and Abbas.
   ‘I want to thank all of you for joining us today to relaunch negotiations,’ Hillary, who is hosting the talks, told the two leaders, praising them for their ‘courage and commitment.’
   ‘The decision to sit at this table was not easy. We understand the suspicion and scepticism that so many feel born out of years of conflict and frustrated hopes,’ Hillary said.
   ‘A tragic act of it terror on Tuesday and the terrorist shooting Wednesday are yet additional reminders of the human costs of this conflict.’
   In an ornate room at the state department, the leaders were to tackle core issues that have bedevilled decades of peace attempts — Israel’s security, the borders of a Palestinian state, the right of return for Palestinian refugees and the fate of Jerusalem, claimed by both as their capital,
   Host Hillary, Middle East envoy George Mitchell and other US officials were to work with Netanyahu, Abbas and their teams during an intense three hours of brass-tacks negotiations.
   Hillary spokesman Philip Crowley did not rule out the possibility that the Israeli and Palestinian leaders might huddle on their own.
   Analysts expect the two sides to first tackle the less difficult issues of security and borders and skirt the thorny problems of refugees and Jerusalem, which cut to the heart of their identities as peoples living next to each other.
   Mitchell, a former trouble-shooter in Northern Ireland who has a reputation as a dogged mediator, has said he is prepared to intervene with ‘bridging proposals’ if needed and appropriate.
   The Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, who was at the White House to help mediate the talks, urged the US president, Barack Obama, to throw the full weight of the United States behind the talks, Mubarak’s spokesman Soliman Awaad said.
   ‘What is really needed is for the United States to step in, remain committed, remain engaged and lend a helping hand to the two parties in order to help bridge the gaps in the positions, sort the differences,’ he said.
   Abbas and Netanyahu, with Mitchell acting as a go-between, have already broached some of the core issues during indirect ‘proximity’ talks that began in May without any sign of progress.
   Abbas had previously refused to enter direct negotiations without a full halt to Israeli settlement activity, but yielded under pressure from Obama.

Biman authorities on Thursday gave in to the demands of its officials and employees amidst in the face of agitation for pay hike and reinstatement of pension at the airlines’ headquarter Balaka in the capital.
   The board of directors of the state-run airlines at an emergency meeting at Balaka decided to adjust the salaries of the employees in accordance with the national pay scale for government employees, a day after the aggrieved employees had laid siege to the Biman’s headquarter and confined the managing director in his office to realize their demands.
   The demonstrators withdrew their siege after the decision was announced in the late afternoon. Official activities at Balaka remained almost suspended during the agitation as most employees came out from their offices.
   ‘Biman board has decided to adjust the salaries of Biman’s employees in keeping with the latest national pay scale. Moreover, their demand for restoration of pension scheme has also been accepted,’ Biman’s director Abul Kashem Ahmed told reporters after the meeting.
   Police and Rapid Action Battalion members were deployed at Balaka Bhaban to maintain order. Around 300 aggrieved officials and employees demonstrated outside as the Biman authorities were holding the meeting from 2:00pm to 5:30 with the chairman of the board of directors Jamal Uddin Ahmed in the chair.
   The Biman chairman along with other senior officials was escorted out of the office by RAB personnel after the meeting.
   ‘We have called off the agitation at around 5:30 as the authorities have reviewed their previous decision… The board has now decided to reinstate our pension and increase salaries as per the national pay scale,’ general secretary of the collective bargaining agent, Saifullah Tarafder, told New Age.
   Biman officials and employees on Tuesday laid siege to the airlines headquarters in protest at the new pay scale which had excluded their pension.
   The officials and employees had confined the Biman managing director, Muhammad Zakiul Islam, also the chief executive officer, to his office for five hours. They also vandalised several rooms during the demonstration.
   Biman employees demanded pay hike, including pension, in keeping with the national pay scale that came into effect in 2009 as the board of directors set new pay structures for its employees on August 28, 2010 excluding pension the old officials were entitled to.
    The employees called off the siege about 4:00pm on Tuesday after the managing director promised that their demand for pension and pay increase would be placed at the meeting of Biman’s board of directors on Thursday.
   Leaders of the CBA and different associations of Biman employees and officials led the agitation on Tuesday and Thursday.
   Biman, which had always been a losing concern because of corruption and mismanagement, started its journey as a public limited company on July 31, 2007 with its full shares in the hands of the government.
   The civil aviation and tourism minister recently sent a letter to the prime minister seeking full control over the national flag carrier and its board of directors to make the organisation accountable to the government, further widening the gap between the Biman management and the ministry.
   The much-discussed crisis over aircraft lease for Biman, which is struggling to maintain its scheduled flights on both domestic and international routes due shortage of aircraft in its fleet, prompted the ministry to establish its hold on the state-run airlines.

The National Human Rights Commission on Thursday sent a letter to Shariatpur’s deputy commissioner, asking him to explain the reason behind the death of Mokhlesur Rahman who died in police custody on Tuesday.
   The 40-year-old cycle van driver died in police custody in Goshairhat upazila in Shariatpur on Tuesday evening.
   Mokhlesur’s family members said he was arrested from Kuchaipatri Bazaar on August 29 on charge of killing two children of Char Mahishkandi, another village in the same upazila.
   Goshairhat thana police grilled him for three days following the permission of Shariatpur’s chief judicial magistrate’s court on August 30.
   Later, constable Jalal Ahmed reportedly found Mokhlesur hanging from the grille of a window in the evening.
   His family members said that he died due to torture by the police. The police, however, said that he committed suicide.
   ‘As there are separate statements about the death, we asked the district administration to clear up the matter,’ the commission’s chairman Mizanur Rahman told New Age on Thursday evening. ‘Due to Eid vacation it may take two weeks to get the feedback.’
   The chairman said the commission would further investigate the issue after getting the answer.
   The Shariatpur police on Wednesday appointed a committee, headed by assistant superintendent of police Abul Hasnat, to investigate and submit a report on Mokhlesur’s death in seven days.
   The incident took place just two days after law minister Shafique Ahmed told the media, ‘Any killing by the law enforcers will be treated as a major crime. No extrajudicial killing is acceptable.’
   According to the rights organisation Odhikar, five persons died in jail custody due to ‘illness’ in August 2010.
   Deaths in police custody, allegedly caused by torture during interrogation, are far from uncommon in Bangladesh.
   Time and again the media has reported custodial deaths and, in most cases, the friends and families of the victims have alleged torture by the law enforcers as the cause.
   Rights activists say that the police and other law enforcement agencies usually attribute the deaths in custody to illness, especially cardiac arrest.
   In a separate incident, 40-year-old vendor Aminul Islam Khaleque died at Mymensingh Medical College Hospital to which he was admitted after he fell sick in police custody, said the police.
   When the incident was brought to the notice of the commission on Sunday, Mizanur Rahman said they would look into the matter and take the necessary steps.
   According to Odhikar, a total of 50 persons died in prison due to ‘illness’ in 2009.
   Besides, the commission will also investigate the reported torture of a pre-teen boy in police custody in Mymensingh.
   A team of investigators are scheduled to go to Mymensingh on September 4. Commission members Fouzia Karim and Aroma Dutt are on the panel along with the NHRC’s deputy director, Abu Abdullah.
   Allegations have been raised that the police tortured the minor boy in custody and pushed needles into all his fingers, and sent him to the central jail.

The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, on Thursday asked the Awami League-led alliance government to hold an opinion poll to test its popularity.
   ‘The government’s popularity is on the wane… People are rejecting the policies of Awami League. They should go for an opinion poll to judge their popularity, if they are still confident,’ Delwar said at a discussion organised by Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal at the Institution of Engineers marking the second anniversary of BNP senior vice-chairman Tarique Rahman’s release from jail on bail.
   ‘People have no support for this government which has completely failed to mitigate public sufferings and contain violence, extortion and tender manipulation. The government should create a level-playing field, withdraw the false cases filed against the opposition leaders and take public opinion… Then you will find that there is no ground beneath your feet,’ Delwar said.
   ‘No government can stay in office ignoring public opinion. The people could take to the streets anytime to register their protest at the oppression and misdeeds of the government. Fearing an outpouring of public anger, the government is plotting to ruin the family of Ziaur Rahman,’ he said.
   Delwar said the illegal emergency government had arrested Tarique Rahman on ‘false’ charges and tortured him in custody. ‘The present government is following in the footsteps of the interim government. No amount of oppression could silence the people; they will throw you on the scrapheap of history. The Awami League would not be able to exile Zia’s ideals,’ he said.
   Standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan said many of the BNP leaders had been sued after the government invented in their statements an intention to kill the prime minister. ‘But the deputy leader of the house said Hasina had been poisoned in jail. People want to know why the perpetrators have not been brought to book,’ he said.
   Presided over by Chhatra Dal president Sultan Salauddin Tuku, the programme was also addressed by opposition chief whip Zainul Abdin Farroque, BNP organising secretaries Fazlul Huq Milan and Ilias Ali, international affairs secretary Asaduzzaman Ripon, student affairs secretary Shahiduddin Chowdhury Annie and Swechchhasebak Dal president Habibunnabi Khan Sohel.

The threat of anthrax infection has started to adversely affect the city’s beef and mutton markets as the number of cattle and goats slaughtered for commercial sales declined by 40 per cent in the last one week.
   Dhaka City Corporation’s veterinarians told New Age that some 1,200 cattle and buffaloes were slaughtered daily in five slaughtering houses under the DCC and other makeshift places before anthrax was detected in Sirajganj and Pabna.
   The outbreak of the disease in the country’s two western districts forced the meat sellers in the city to lower the number of animals being slaughtered to around 500 daily, which is worrisome for them just one week before the Eid-ul-Fitr when sales soar, they said.
   The number of reported anthrax infections in Pabna and Sirajganj districts continued to rise, pushing up the tally to 171 there until last week. No human deaths have, however, been reported to date as a result of anthrax infection.
   DCC veterinary officer Azmat Ali said that about 400 cattle and buffaloes were slain everyday in five houses located in Hazaribagh, Kaptanbazaar, Mohammad-pur Krishi Market, Mirpur-11 and Mirpur-1 before the first case of anthrax infection was detected in Sirajganj on August 19.
   The rest of the animals, around 70 per cent of the total number, are butchered in various parts of the city under the supervision of DCC officials.
   Azmat Ali said that the number of cattle being slaughtered fell drastically in DCC houses and others parts of the city although no anthrax infection was found in Dhaka.
   People are panicked and do not want to take risks by consuming red meat, he added.
   Red meat sellers in different markets of the city said they have been forced to slaughter far fewer cattle and goats for fear of loss. They said that sale of red meat soars in Eid-ul-Fitr, and they will not only be deprived of their expected profits but will incur losses if the trend continues.
   Despite the falling demand the price of beef is still Tk 250 per kg, said a butcher in Kaptanbazaar. He said they could not purchase the cattle at lower prices from traders.
   DCC experts said that anthrax is a potentially lethal bacterium that exists naturally in the soil and commonly infects livestock which ingest it while grazing. It can be transmitted to humans who handle or eat infected animal.
   They said that butchers and tanners are the most vulnerable as anthrax bacteria are found mostly in the hides of the cows. They suggested that they and users of red meat should wash their hands with soap thoroughly.

At least 256 people were detected with anthrax in four districts of the country, said the officials of the Institute of Epidemiology, Diseases Control and Research on Thursday.
   Our correspondent in Kushtia reports four more people have been found infected with anthrax in Daulatpur Upazila in Kushtia district.
   IEDCR director Mahmudur Rahman said that a total of 14 people were identified with the disease in Ghatail Upazila under Tangail and 21 in Daulatpur village in Kushtia district.
   Among others, 53 in Shahjadpur Upazila, 52 in Belkuchi Upazila and 69 in Khamarkhand Upazila in Sirajganj district, and one in Bera Upazila, 27 in Shathia Upazila and 17 in Faridpur Upazila under Pabna district, he added.
   Mahmudur said they already stopped the test of the samples. ‘All the samples need not to be tested. The anthrax case can easily be identified by examining the history and symptoms of the sick person,’ he added.
   The director said the infected patients are under treatment and physicians had follow them up. ‘The patients who were detected early are almost cured,’ he said adding, ‘The patients who grow infection need more time to be cured.’
   Anthrax was first detected on Aug 19 among 26 residents of the Chithhulia village under Shahjadpur Upazila in Sirajganj. Later it spread to Pabna and Tangail districts.
   Our correspondent in Tangail reports : District live stock officer Abdur Rashid said they were providing vaccine in 15 villages including Kurmushi and its surrounding areas. Their teams were trying to create awareness among the local people about anthrax, he said.
   Our correspondent from Khulna reported that though no case was detected in Khulna, the Khulna livestock department has cancelled Eid-Ul-Fitor holidays of all the officials to resist and combat the attack of anthrax, said officials of the department. They have already provided 7,100 vaccines to different Upazilas in the district, the officials said.

Researchers have discovered a promising new malaria drug with the potential to treat resistant strains of the deadly disease in a single dose, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science.
   The drug could be ready for clinical trials as soon as later this year and appears to be more potent than currently used drugs, researchers said.
   ‘We’re very excited by the new compound,’ said study author Elizabeth Winzeler, a professor at the Scripps Research Institute and member of the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation.
   ‘It has a lot of encouraging features as a drug candidate, including an attractive safety profile and potential treatment in a single oral dose.’
   Current treatment methods require patients to take drugs between one and four times daily for three to seven days. Reducing the treatment to a single dose leaves less opportunity for the parasites to develop a resistance to the drug, researchers said.
   There were approximately 247 million cases of malaria in 2008 which caused nearly one million deaths, mostly among young children in Africa, according to the World Health Organisation.
   Malaria is contracted when people are bitten by mosquitoes infected with a parasite called Plasmodium.
   It causes fever and vomiting and can quickly become life-threatening by disrupting the blood supply to vital organs.
   The parasites have developed resistance to a number of malaria medications in many parts of the world and it has been more than a decade since a new class of malaria drugs began to be widely used.
   ‘Malaria remains a scourge,’ said Mark Fishman, president, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research.
   ‘The parasite has demonstrated a frustrating ability to outwit new medicines, from quinine to today’s unsettling increased tolerance to artemisinin derivatives,’ he said in a statement.
   ‘We are delighted that our scientists could provide this potential new malaria therapy, based on an unprecedented chemical structure and directed to a novel target.’
   The drug was tested on mice infected with a strain of malaria that typically kills them within a week.
   A single large dose of the drug cured all of the five infected mice which received it. Half of the six mice which received a smaller dose were cured and the cure rate rose to 90 percent when mice were given three doses of the smaller amount.

UN climate chief Christiana Figueres on Thursday warned that a string of weather calamities showed the deepening urgency to forge a breakthrough deal on global warming this year.
   Speaking before some 40 countries were to address finance, an issue that has helped hamstring UN climate talks, Figueres said floods in Pakistan, fires in Russia and other weather disasters had been a shocking wakeup call.
   ‘The news has been screaming that a future of intense, global climate disasters is not the future that we want,’ Figueres, newly-appointed executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, told reporters.
   ‘Science will show whether and how those events are related to climate change caused by humanity’s greenhouse-gas emissions, but the point is clear: We cannot afford to face escalating disasters of that kind.’
   Figueres called on governments to agree on ‘four or five’ major planks at year-end UNFCCC talks in Cancun, Mexico, which would then serve as a platform for a 2012 global pact on climate.
   ‘We read it that countries are assuming their responsibility, that they’re being realistic, that they’re being productive, that they’re being constructive and that they’re counting on very clear outcomes from Cancun,’ she said.
   One of the issues in Cancun will be funding.
   Hundreds of billions of dollars are needed to prevent future emissions of greenhouse gases by emerging economies and help poor countries facing worsening drought, flood, storms and rising seas.
   The Geneva talks, running until Friday, gather more than 40 countries at ministerial level, including big advanced economies, emerging giants and countries representative of poor nations.
   The tentative goal is to establish a ‘dialogue’ on the broad lines of how to gear up as much as 100 billion dollars a years by 2020.
   The many questions include the resources of this fund, the role of the private and public sector and how the money would be administered.
   Also on the table will be how to implement ‘fast-track’ finance of 30 billion dollars over the next three years.
   Both are the key pledges made by rich countries at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen last December, an event that bickering, textual wrangling and finger-pointing brought to within an inch of catastrophe.
   Mistrust festers today, especially among developing countries eyeing the few solid promises made at that ill-fated meeting.
   ‘We will be very happy after the meeting if it starts to send trust, send a common understanding of the challenges... of the important questions, that would be huge step forward,’ said Swiss negotiator Franz Perrez.
   Developing countries in particular want assurances that the 30 billion dollars in short-term finance will come from new sources and is not siphoned off from development aid or existing budgets, said Oxfam policy advisor Romain Benicchio.
   Switzerland and Mexico, co-hosting the meeting, insist the Geneva talks do not constitute the gathering of a cosy elite.
   Instead, they say, the outcome will feed into the UN process, deemed the sole valid vehicle, despite its many problems, for dealing with the climate peril.
   The 194-nation UNFCCC forum next meets in Tianjin, China, in October followed in Cancun from November 29-December 10.
   After the traumatic outcome of Copenhagen, expectations have been dialled down.
   At best, say experts, Cancun will deliver good progress on the main issues, but the world will have to wait for another year before a draft treaty sees daylight.
   If all goes well, the accord would take effect beyond 2012, after present commitments under the UNFCCC’s Kyoto Protocol expire, setting down a charter for drastically curbing man-made greenhouse gas emissions and building financial support.

The president, Zillur Rahman, has convened the sixth session of the ninth parliament on September 20, according to the parliament secretariat.
   Five sessions of the ninth parliament, formed through the December 29, 2008 general elections, have taken place till date and the opposition members attended the house only 46 out of 158 working days.
   The opposition members joined the last session, which was the second budget session of the present parliament, for a single day and skipped the rest 32 days.
   The leader of the opposition, Khaleda Zia, had attended the sessions for only five days.
   In the fourth session, the opposition attended the house for 22 out of its 39 working days.
   After a long 63-day interval, the opposition had returned to the house on the 17th day of the fourth session.
   They skipped the entire third session of the parliament which continued for 22 working days from September 7 to November 5, 2009.
   The opposition also boycotted the first budget session of the parliament from June 4 to July 9, 2009.
   The first session of the parliament began on January 25, 2009. The opposition had joined the first and second day of the session and skipped 17 days at a stretch from the third day demanding readjustment of seating arrangements.
   They had returned to the house on February 23, the 19th day of the session, without readjustment of seating arrangements.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has greeted the opposition leader, Khaleda Zia, on the occasion of holy Eid-ul-Fitr.
   The APS to the prime minister, Saifuzzaman Shekhar, and PM’s protocol officer Proloy Kumar Joarder handed over the Eid card to the opposition leader’s APS Suratuzza-man at the Jatiya Sangsad Office on Thursday noon.

A female teacher was killed and two of her colleagues were wounded when masked militants shot them in an ambush in Pakistan’s northwest tribal belt on Thursday, officials said.
   The victims — all women — were targeted as they returned home on foot from their school in Khar, the main town of Bajaur tribal district situated along the Afghan border, officials said.
   ‘Five to six militants who were hiding their faces ambushed them. One female teacher died on the spot,’ Adalat Khan, an administrative official said, adding that her two wounded colleagues had been taken to hospital.