The New Nation - Internet Edition

Mainul visits Alam’s house to console bereaved family

Staff Reporter

Barrister Mainul Hosein yesterday visited the residence of chief photographer of daily Ittefaq and freedom fighter Mohammad Alam, who died recently, at Matuail Delpara in the city.

Barrister Mainul Hosein assured Alam's widowed wife of all kinds of cooperation from the Ittefaq and gave some immediate financial assistance to her.

He praised the professionalism of Mohammad Alam and recalled his contribution in the Liberation War.

Chef of the Year-2007 final held

Staff Reporter

The Malaysian Palm Oil Chef of The Year-2007 grand final competition was held in the city yesterday at a local hotel.

Anjuman Ara presenting her dish "Illish Macherer Roast" was adjudged the winner from the Amateur Group, while Dil Rowshan Banu who presented Muglai Chicken Ball Curry, was awarded the winner from the Professional Group on the final cooking competition.

The two winners were the final selection among ten finally selected contestants from different parts of the country. Total 600 participants took part in the cooking competition, which was launched on November 08, 2007.

It was organised by the Bangladesh Monitor, while the Malaysian Palm Oil Council was the title sponsor. Emirates Airlines contributed as Premium Partner.

Shaikh Altaf Ali, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism attended the final session of the competition, as chief guest, while Dato Abdul Malek Bin Abdul Aziz, the Malaysian High Commissioner in Bangladesh was also present as special guest on the occasion. Tan Sri Datuk Dr Yusof Basiron, CEO Malaysian Palm Oil Council was present as the guest of honour.

Each winner was awarded Tk 10,000, a crest and prizes including a return trip to Dubai by Emirates Airlines.

Ex-MP Obaidul Huq passes away

UNB, Sylhet

Former MP and a leader of Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish Shaikhul Hadith Maulana Obaidul Huq died at his residence in the city's Burhanuddin Road Thursday night. He was 80.

He left behind four sons, three daughters and a host of relatives and well-wishers to mourn his death.

Maulana Obaidul Huq was elected MP from Sylhet 5 (Jakiganj-Kanaighat) constituency on Islami Oikya Jote ticket in 1991.

He was the Shaikhul Hadith of Ranaping Madrasah in Golapganj upazila till his death.

Special prayer offered for Hasina’s good health

BSS, Dhaka

Special prayers were offered yesterday at various mosques in the city, including the Baitul Mokarram National Mosques, seeking good health and release of detained Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina, now facing a number of health complications in prison.

Dhaka City Awami League earlier requested all to pray to Almighty Allah for the wellbeing of the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, said a party press release.

Imam of Baitul Mokarram Moulana Nooruddin led the prayers at the national mosque. City, ward and thana level leaders of the party and a large number of workers took part in the prayers, the press release said.

Petrobangla refuses to supply gas to six power plants

UNB, Dhaka

As the country is heading towards a severe gas crisis within the next few years, Petrobangla has refused to supply gas to the government's six high-priority new power plants. According to official sources, the state-owned hydrocarbon and mineral agency recently communicated its decision to the Power Division at a meeting in Planning Commission.

The proposed plants are 210 MW Shiddhirganj thermal power plant (unit-2), 225 MW Shikalbaha combined cycle (CC) plant, 150 MW Sylhet CC plant, 225 MW Ghorasal (CC) plant, 450 MW Ashuganj CC plant and 450 MW Meghnaghat phase-3 CC plant.

The government's move to set up the plants is part of the medium-term plan (2005-2012) of the Power System Master Plan 2005 to meet the growing electricity demand.

The medium-term plan also includes 450 MW Bibiyana CC plant and 450 MW Sirajganj plant. But when the Power Division moved to be sure about adequate gas supply for the proposed power plants, Petrobangla confirmed it only for the Bibiyana and Sirajganj plants, but refused to do so for the other six plants. Sources said the Petrobangla's refusal came due to the constraints it has been facing in the existing gas reserve, future production growth and other infrastructure facilities.

The recent negative result in the drilling by Cairn Energy at the Magnama structure in an offshore field has turned out to be a big upset in its future gas production delineation as it had earlier envisioned of having a 3.5 trillion cubic feet of gas reserve.

But after going down to a depth of 4000 metre, Cairn found the structure dry and abandoned its drilling operation.

Plagiarism in media: 'AHN has no reporters and simply a vehicle for copying news’

Bdnews24.com

The New York-based global news agency The Associated Press has sued another US-based company for copying and rewriting AP stories and distributing them on the internet.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in Manhattan federal court, has sought unspecified damages from AHN Media Corp. and All Headline News Corp. and an end to the appropriation of AP's copyright-protected stories.

The AP claims that AHN Media Corp., based in Wellington, Florida, copies its stories from Web sites that legitimately carry them and redistributes them on its Web site and as a service it sells to other news outlets, competing for the AP's customers.

"AHN calls itself a `news service,'" the lawsuit said.

"However, on information and belief, AHN has no reporters and is simply a vehicle for copying news reports and misappropriating news gathered and reported by real news services such as AP," the agency said in a news report, which is obtained by bdnews24.com. bdnews24.com, Bangladesh's first internet-based news agency apart from being the first online newspaper, picked the report considering the issue's importance in an age of fiercely competitive news market across the world and in Bangladesh, where plagiarism in the media industry is highly prevalent.

The AP said a person who answered the telephone at AHN's headquarters Monday said there would be no comment on pending litigation and hung up without identifying himself.

An e-mail to the company was not immediately returned, the AP said.

The lawsuit said that AHN employees delete information that identifies the material as AP stories, such as writers' bylines and the "(AP)" stamp, before distributing it online.

The AP claims that AHN tells its employees to search other Web sites for breaking news stories, then copy or rewrite them and distribute them as AHN stories. The lawsuit said AHN is marketing its service with misappropriated AP stories to the same customer base as AP.

Because AHN has no reporters and fewer employees, who are poorly paid, the lawsuit said, "defendants are able to offer their 'news service' to customers and potential customers at a price that is far lower than the AP can offer for its services."

AHN and the AP entered into a contract in 2003 that gave AHN the right to distribute the first two paragraphs of news stories offered as part of the AP Online service, the lawsuit said. AP ended the contract in 2005 because AHN repeatedly used more content than was permitted under the contract, the lawsuit said.

The AP is a 161-year-old cooperative owned by news organisations, with more than 4,000 employees across the world.

Poor progress in ADP despite robust revenue: GDP growth to decline

Pulack Ghatack

The economy is expanding poorly with low implementation of the Annual Development Plan (ADP), though the Government has earned substantial revenue in the current fiscal year.

The overall growth of revenue earnings has recorded 24.73 per cent growth in the first five months of the fiscal year and 36.73 per cent of the target of the budget for revenue collection has already been fulfilled.

But, the ADP implementation until November this fiscal was only 16 per cent, the lowest compared to the corresponding periods of the last three years. The ADP implementation rate of the first five months in 2005-06 and 2006-07 fiscal years were 19 and 20 per cent respectively. Of the Tk 26,500 crore ADP for FY 2007-08, only Tk 4,168 crore was spent during July-November.

The Government, however, is mulling to cut down the development budget to narrow down the deficit. But ultimately that will lead the economy to a lower growth in the current fiscal year, analysts observed. The target for GDP growth in current budget has been set at 7 percent. But the GDP forecasts have become totally confusing with the latest projection of BB.

The central bank in its latest monetary policy stance projected a GDP growth of 6.0-6.2 per cent in 2007-08, less than the Bangladesh Bank's independent Policy Analysis Unit (PAU) projection of 6.5 percent, but half a percentage point more than that World Bank's 5.5 percent.

The planning ministry data show Tk 2,542 crore or 15 per cent of the ADP's local component was spent, while the spending was Tk 1,626 crore or 17 percent of its foreign component that comes in the form of project aid.

In 2006-07, Tk 5,200 crore or 20 percent of the ADP was spent in first five months.

Noted economist Dr Atiur Rahman however said that the Government was following a prudent fiscal policy. While talking to this correspondent he said, budget deficit would come down due to it.

"But, the poor implementation of ADP will definitely hamper economic growth. Public investment will be affected with it. It is an inefficiency of the Government," he added.

In the current budget, total current expenditure is set at Tk 52900 crore while total development expenditure is set at Tk 28520 crore. The overall budget deficit is projected at Tk 22310 crore (4.2 per cent of GDP) to be funded by Tk 4260 crore in foreign grants, Tk 6310 crore in net foreign borrowing, and Tk 19280 crore in domestic borrowing including bank borrowing of Tk 7250 crore.

In 2007-08 fiscal year, the targets for overall revenue earnings and expenditure have been fixed at 10.8 per cent and 16.4 per cent of GDP respectively.

In the first four months of the fiscal year NBR tax revenue registered a 22.5 per cent growth over the corresponding period of 2006-07.

The NBR collected income tax of Tk 739.11 crore during the first five months (upto November) of the current fiscal, which was 193 per cent more than the correspondent period of the previous year. It collected Taka 252.11 crore in 2006- 07.

The collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) and excise duty has already increased by 20 percent in the first five months of the current fiscal than the same period of the previous year, he added.

Bangladesh Bank in its latest monetary policy statement said the flow of foreign funds also notably increased over the same period in the previous fiscal year.

As such the government's net borrowing from the banking system has been much lower than the programme limit although the Government is currently facing the challenge of funding the massive rehabilitation and reconstruction programme after the floods and cyclone.

Policymakers urged to take decisions independently

Staff Reporter

Terming all the previous and present government policies 'wrong' , speakers yesterday urged the policymakers to take decisions independently for the sake of country's real development.

Accusing all the governments for not creating employment they said, to please their foreign masters only they are shutting down industries one after another.

They were speaking at a book titled ' Choturtha Cintha' ( Forth Though) written by Eng Shafiuddin Sarker at National Press Club yesterday.

Presided over by language hero MA Matin, eminent educationist Prof Dr Sirajul Islam Chowdhury, former Dhaka University Vice-chancellor Prof Dr Emajuddin Ahmad, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) Vice-chancellor Prof Dr AMM Shafiullah, Prof Anu Mohammad, Maj Gen (Retd) Amin Ahmad Chowdhury Bir Uttam and dramatist Mamunur Rashid, among others, addressed the function.

While taking part at the discussion Prof Sirajul Islam said, the oppression of the capitalism could be resisted by launching a massive social revolution.

Changing the existing political system was a must to bring an immediate end to the current worsening situation in the country, he observed .

Criticising the interference of the multi-national organisations including World Bank and International Monetary Fund , Prof Anu Mohammad alleged , they are trying to destroy the country in the name of development.

No government did dare to ignore their harmful interference, he added.

UP chairmen, members’ allowances to be doubled

BSS, Chittagong

The government has taken a decision to double the existing monthly allowance of the union parishad (UP) chairmen and members with effect from April, 2008.

According to the decision, a UP chairman will receive Taka 3,000 instead of existing Taka 1,500 while a UP member Taka 1500 instead of Taka 700 as monthly allowance.

"The decision to enhance the monthly allowance of the UP chairmen and members was taken as part of the present caretaker government's efforts to strengthen the local government bodies and in fulfillment of a demand raised by the public representatives at grand conference held in Dhaka on January 5 last" LGRD and Cooperatives Advisor M. Anwarul Iqbal disclosed this while speaking as the chief guest at a function on the occasion of inaugurating the " Laldighi Park" here yesterday afternoon.

Experts for eco-friendly policy: Afforestation policy endangers wildlife

UNB, Dhaka

The present afforestation policy has endangered Bangladesh's rare species of wildlife as it is found unsuitable for the country's ecological balance and bio-diversity.

Experts said Bangladesh should review its afforestation policy to make it helpful for the wildlife by making the environment suitable for their habitation.

"Bangladesh is implementing a British afforestation policy of 1873. In the name of afforestation, we're actually doing plantation. Our own natural forests are being destroyed while foreign trees are being planted across the country," Prof. Kazi Zaker Husain, head of The Wildlife Society of Bangladesh, told UNB correspondent Sheikh Adnan Fahad Friday.

Prof Husain said some 80 percent of the exotic trees planted under the afforestation programme have been imported from foreign countries. The existence of rare species of wildlife, including Hollock Gibbon (Known as Ullok in Bangladesh), wild elephant, deer, and various types of tigers, are at a stake due to plantation of these imported trees.

"By planting these you can increase the number of trees, but cannot protect the environment and bio-diversity," Prof Zaker said.

The animals are directly or indirectly dependent on trees for their survival. The trees and animals are living through co-evolution in a particular place for the thousands of hundreds of years. "If you cut down such trees now, then what will happen to the animals? The foreign trees are completely unknown to them," Prof Zaker said.

He said Bangladesh is creating mono-culture forests where only one type of tree is being planted in a vast tract of land which is destructive for the wild animals.

"In a natural forest, many kinds of trees are available on which various species of animals find food and environment to live on. But in a mono-culture forest, only one type of tree is available, that's why animals find it difficult to live on the same trees for scarcity of food and ecological support," Prof. Zaker said.

Elephants, for example, need banana trees and bamboo saplings as their foods. "But in Bangladesh, to recover the lost or destroyed natural forests, we usually plant one type of tree and we don't allow any small trees like bamboo or banana trees over the area. Thus we get some trees in a particular area. But at the same time we destroy the food stock of the animals," he said.

Prof. Zaker said Bangladesh should stop the mono-culture afforestation programme immediately as it needs afforestration on the lands where natural forests have been destroyed. "Those lands only require protection for the natural growth of local trees."

Prof. Anwarul Islam, the Chief Executive of Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh (WTB), said 10 percent of the country's total land can be declared as protected areas where local trees will grow naturally.

Considering the economic interest of the people and the country, Prof. Anwarul said another section of land can be allocated as buffer zone where some fast-growing exotic species of trees would be planted. But the exotic trees will have to be eco-friendly.

"For timber and firewood, we can make some buffer zones. Exotic trees can be planted in the buffer zones. But the trees will have to be selected through deep research," he said.

Inflation shows upward trend in most countries

BSS, Dhaka

The inflation rate in most of the developed and developing countries across the globe has shown upward trend during the recent months.

The inflation was 2.8 percent in the United States and 2.1 percent in the Euro area in September 2007 compared 2.7 percent and 1.9 percent respectively in June 2007.

This was reflected in the just released Monetary Policy Stance (MPS) of the Bangladesh Bank.

Among the Asian countries, consumer price inflation in China, Thailand, and Indonesia increased by 6.2 percent, 2.1 percent, and 7.0 percent respectively in September 2007 from 4.5 percent, 2.0 percent, and 6.3 percent in June 2007. The consumer price inflation in India stood at 6.6 percent in October 2007 compared 5.7 percent in June 2007. The inflation rate (on point-to-point basis) in Pakistan and Sri Lanka also went up by 9.3 percent and 19.6 percent respectively in October 2007 from 7.0 percent and 13.0 percent in June 2007.

The central bank of Bangladesh in its recent MPS projected an annual average CPI inflation within the range of 8.0 percent and 8.2 percent for FY 08. Previously, it its MPS in June 2007, the central Bank projected an average CPI inflation ranging from 6.5 percent to 7.0 percent for FY 08, while the average CPI inflation was 7.2 percent during FY 07.

After achieving a robust growth of 5.4 percent in 2006, the global economy is likely to show a lower growth and is projected to grow by 5.2 percent in 2007 and 4.8 percent in 2008. On the other hand, the developing world is likely to grow by 8.1 percent in 2007 and 7.4 percent in 2008.

The higher oil prices, volatile exchange rates in the major economies, higher global food inflation, dullness in the housing market in major economies especially in the US, significant pressure on global inflation, and a slower growth outlook for Japan and the Euro areas are major reasons.

Prior to the recent turbulences, central banks around the world were generally moving towards tight monetary policy to face the challenge of maintaining non- inflationary growth.

However, in view of the potential adverse impact of tightened credit condition in restraining economic growth, the Federal Reserve Bank of the US reduced the federal fund rate while the Bank of Japan and European Central Bank kept their policy rates unchanged at early 2007 levels.

On the other hand, the Bank of England continued to follow the tightening policy. The reaction among the emerging market economies was mixed; while some central banks eased the monetary policy, others tightened it further.

BNP to celebrate 72nd birth anniversary of Zia today

UNB, Dhaka

BNP will celebrate the 72nd birth anniversary of its founder late President Ziaur Rahman today (Saturday).

On this day in 1936 he was born at Bagbari in Bogra.

Two factions of BNP have drawn up programmes to observe the day.

BNP general secretary Khandaker Delwar Hossain will place wreaths at Ziaur Rahman's mazar and offer fateha at about 10am.

Chess legend Fischer dead

BBC Online

Controversial former world chess champion Bobby Fischer has died aged 64, Iceland's media says.

The US-born player, who became famous around the world for beating the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky in 1972, had been seriously ill for some time.

Mr Fischer was granted Icelandic citizenship in 2005 as a way to avoid being deported the US. Mr Fischer was wanted for breaking international sanctions by playing a match in the former Yugoslavia in 1992.

He also had alienated many in his homeland by broadcasting anti-Semitic diatribes and expressing support for the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York.

The reclusive player had lived undetected in Japan for a number of years before moving to Iceland.