The prime minister along with her cabinet colleagues and party leaders laid the wreath at the portrait at Bangabandhu Memorial Museum in Dhanmondi.

Later, other leaders from Awami League and its front organisations also placed floral wreaths paying homage to the Bangabandhu.

The factory owners take licences from the fire service authorities by showing only some fire fighting equipment. In most cases, they do not prepare their staff members for such eventuality, said Abdur Rashid, deputy director of Fire Service and Civil Defence (Dhaka division).

Rashid said the owners even do not take initiative to refill or refit the equipment on expiry. Fire extinguishers are often found ineffective.

Fire service had asked the owners to set up hydrant points, build underground reservoirs with a capacity of one lakh gallon water and set up a pump with the capacity of lifting 300 to 350 litre water. “We had also asked the owners to install smoke and heat detectors,” he said.

The Garib & Garib sweater factory in Gazipur, where a fire broke out Thursday night leaving at least 21 persons dead, also had extinguishers, but the staff and workers had no idea about their operation.

Since 1990, more than 240 people lost their lives in different garment factory fires.

Selim Newaz Bhuiyan, former deputy director of the Fire Service and Civil Defence, too, said lack of regular evacuation drill is the main cause behind increasing casualties in garment factory fires.

According to the rules, every garment factory must have at least two staircases — one for regular use and the other for emergency exit. Although most of the factories have emergency exit, the way is narrowed by piles of materials and goods. It is not easy for so many workers to come down the stairs when a fire sparks, he said.

Selim said many of the alternative staircases are not useable because of their poor condition.

The factories also lack public address system that requires a control room from where the workers on each floor can be directed how to leave the place in such situation. Usually, workers get panicked and run helter-skelter after hearing the fire alarm.

Fire service officials said a large number of garment factories do not have emergency lights, which can be turned on without electricity during the crisis. This is why the whole factory falls into total darkness during a fire, they added.

Some factories reportedly had kept their gates closed during fire incidents. On January 6, 2005, during a fire at Shaan Knitting and Processing Ltd in Narayanganj, all the gates of the building were kept locked. The incident claimed 23 lives.

President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Abdus Salam Murshedi said every garment factory has to maintain regular drills to ensure compliance with rules.

In Bangladesh, about 4,500 garment factories are now in operation. Over 70 percent of them are located in and around the capital.

An HC bench on Thursday directed the government to issue a new Warrant of Precedence for the republic’s officers, giving district judges and equivalent judicial officers precedence over the chiefs of armed forces, and government secretaries.

The Attorney General’s Office filed the petition with the court of the chamber judge of the Appellate Division on behalf of the government.

The chamber judge is likely to hear the petition in the afternoon.

According to the HC order, the secretaries to the government will remain after the chiefs of staff of the defence services in the table.

The HC directive came as a part of its verdict in a writ petition filed in 2006 claiming that the cabinet division had framed the existing Warrant of Precedence in 1986 in an arbitrary manner, without evaluating the dignity and status of judicial officials.

The petition was filed on behalf of Bangladesh Judicial Service Association by Md Ataur Rahman, a former secretary general of the association also a district judge of the Tribunal for Prevention of Repression on Women and Children, in Patuakhali.

Source:staronline

or  Photo badges by clicking on the following button.
Create Your Badge

According to official data, the US economy grew by an annualised rate of 5.7% in the last quarter of last year.

The figure is still an initial estimate, but was higher than the 2.2% annualised growth recorded in the third quarter of the year. Economic analysts polled by the Reuters news agency had predicted a 4.6% rise.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis, which releases the economy growth reports, noted that the figures were based on estimates and incomplete data, and might be revised later.

Christina Romer, an economist for the White House, described the growth as being “the most positive news to date on the economy”, saying: “It is important not to read too much into a single report, positive or negative. There will surely be bumps in the road ahead. Nonetheless, today’s report is a welcome piece of encouraging news.”

Jack Ablin, chief investment officer for Harris Private Bank in Chicago, Illinois, remarked that “it’s [the number] very solid and gives us a running start into the second half of the year when we can’t rely on government stimulus. That’s part of the plan, to get us moving as fast as possible so when life support is removed we’ll have a pulse.”

The automobile manufacturer Toyota has said that it will recall up to 1.8 million cars across Europe, after a problem with the accelerator pedal was discovered.

According to the firm, eight models were affected by the problem — AYGO, iQ, Yaris, Auris, Corolla, Verso, Avensis, and RAV4 — after it was discovered that the accelerator may become stuck in a depressed position, resulting in uncontrollable speeding.

On Thursday, Toyota said it would recall 1.1 million cars in the US; a day previous, it had suspended eight models from sales. Last week, 2.3 million cars in the US were recalled due to the pedal issues.

The chief executive of Toyota Motor Europe commented on the recall. “We understand that the current situation is creating concerns and we deeply regret it,” said Tadashi Arashima. The firm, however, noted that it wasn’t aware of any accidents resulted by the malfunctioning accelerator pedals, and not many pedal problem incidents were reported in Europe. “The potential accelerator pedal issue only occurs in very rare circumstances,” Arashima added.

The National Automobile Dealers Association, meanwhile, commented that Toyota showrooms could lose as much as US$2.47 billion worth of revenue due to the incident.

“Toyota veterans will likely hear the news with disbelief and keep faith in the brand, but new customers could definitely be scared off,” remarked Robert Rademacher, who is the president of the trade group ZDK, as quoted by Business Week. “This recall has a dimension which we’ve never seen before.”

There are concerns that the problem may result in reduced consumer trust in Toyota. Hans-Peter Wodniok, an analyst for Fairesearch GmbH & Co. in Germany, noted: “If this is a one-time event, huge as it is, Toyota may be forgiven. But if something happens again in the next months and years, they will have gambled away customer trust in Europe as well.”

Analysts for Morgan Stanley, however, said they believed Toyota would not suffer much from the incident. “The company’s actions to correct the situation are timely enough to avoid major brand damage,” they remarked in a note to investors.

The US military has halted the evacuation of victims of the Haiti earthquake for medical care, reportedly due to uncertainty about who will pay for the costs.

A military official told the New York Times that flights to the US were stopped on Wednesday, as some hospitals didn’t want to receive the refugees.

“Apparently, some states were unwilling to accept the entry of Haitian patients for follow-on critical care. We manage air evacuation missions, but without a destination to fly to we can’t move anybody. If we don’t have permission to bring them, or they won’t take them in, we can’t fly the mission. It’s pretty simple,” US Transportation Command spokesman Capt Kevin Aandahl said yesterday. He did not say, however, which states specifically refused more evacuees.

The New York Times reports that five hundred victims of the quake have been treated in Florida so far. A spokesman for Floridian governor Charlie Crist, however, commented that he wasn’t aware of any hospitals in the state refusing to accept more evacuees. In a letter to US Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius earlier this week, however, the governor commented that “Florida’s healthcare system is quickly reaching saturation, especially in the area of high-level trauma care,” and asked for the National Disaster Medical System to be activated. That system is primarily used to help fund victims of domestic disasters.

A doctor in the earthquake-ravaged country, however, remarked that many of his patients could die if not airlifted soon. “We have 100 critically ill patients who will die in the next day or two if we don’t med-evac them,” said Doctor Green, chairman for the University of Miami’s Global Institute for Community Health and Development, to the Associated Press.

An earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.0, struck Haiti on January 12, killing as much as 200,000 people and largely destroying the capital Port-au-Prince; another million have been left without homes.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared the 12-day regional sports extravaganza open. Bangladesh had hosted the event in 1985 and 1993.

The colourful opening ceremony started with the march-past led by Afghanistan and completed by host Bangladesh with huge cheers and fanfare from the invited crowd.

Commonwealth Games gold medal winning Bangladeshi shooter Asif Hossain Khan hoisted the red and green flag to lead the 453-strong Bangladesh contingent.

A total of 1,793 athletes including 478 women from eight participating nations will fight for 156 gold medals in a record 23 disciplines that would see three fresh ones–cricket, golf and handball–included for the first time in the 27-year history of the games.

Renowned singers Sabina Yasmin, Andrew Kishore and Shuvro Dev sang the welcome song riding on a caravan along the athletic track of the big bowl and Bangladesh football team’s captain Aminul Haque and Bangladesh’s fastest woman Nazmun Nahar Beauty conducted the oath taking ceremony.

Following the games declaration of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, thousands of balloons and pigeons were released to symbolise peace. Legendary footballer Kazi Salahuddin kindled the torch of the games.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith, also the chairman of the organising committee of the games, urged the athletes to uphold the spirit of modern Olympic movement “faster, higher, stronger” in his welcome speech.

“Participation itself is more important than triumph, this is what we believe and we have organised this games with that inspiration in mind,” said Muhith before the prime minister pronounced, “I declare the meet open”.

It was a night to remember for the nation as they watched some dazzling performances from some 7,500 performers from schools, colleges, Bangladesh Army and Ansar and VDP as well as aquatic and laser shows and intense fireworks.

Performers upheld Bangladesh’s rural life, festivity, culture while 600 Santals portrayed their struggle for freedom from the British colonial regime with a play titled “Nacholer Rani”.

The most exiting part of the opening ceremony was, however, the aquatic and laser show which impressed everyone including foreign journalists and guests. The historic speech of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on March 7, 1971, and George Harrison’s famous song “Bangladesh” was played and displayed through the aquatic and laser show.

In a quest for spreading out the games and generating enthusiasm among people, some of the events have been placed at divisional headquarters Khulna, Sylhet, Rajshahi and Chittagong. Khulna and Sylhet will host cycling and wushu while a few matches of football and cricket will be held in Chittagong and Rajshahi.

Bangladesh has not allowed corridor to India and will not do so in future, the minister said at a roundtable on “Bangladesh-India Summit” at the Jatiya Press Club.

Referring to BNP’s allegation that the government sold the country, the foreign minister said, “A country cannot be sold, but such stories have been being concocted since the regime of Ayub Khan.”

She said the BNP was trying to stoke up irrational debates on corridor, transit and transshipment. “This is not the way things are dealt politically since politics is not so mean,” Dipu Moni added.

She said former president Ziaur Rahman first signed deal to give transit facilities to India in 1980. In 1978 Joint Rivers Commission decided to study impact assessment on controlling flood and potential benefits of dam on Tipaimukh River.

There was no mention of adverse effects of the dam on Bangladesh, she said.

“Was the transit deal signed to cheat people” Dipu Moni posed a question, saying that in the age of connectivity, Bangladesh cannot be isolated.

Daily Bhorer Kagoj organised the roundtable.

India picked wickets at regular intervals on the final day and eventually sealed a 113-run victory over Bangladesh at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong.

Bangladesh were all out for 301 runs in the second innings.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim hit the fastest Test century (101 runs of 112 balls) among Bangladeshi cricketers in Test cricket.

Mushfiqur remained Tigers’ standout performer and warrants a promotion up the order, given his solidity and sound technique.

Earlier on the day, Tamim Iqbal (52) and Md Ashraful (27) briefly resisted but it wasn’t quite enough against the enormous target that India set of on the fifth and final day.

On Wednesday, India set a target of 415 runs for Bangladesh to win the first Test after declaring their second innings at 413/8. India were all out for 243 runs in the first innings.

Bangladesh scored 242 against India in the first innings.

Indian spinner A Mishra grabbed four wickets while Ishant Sharma bagged three, Zaheer Khan took two and Virender Sehwag took one in the second innings.

The second and final Test of the series starts on January 24 at Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka.

Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Shahriar Nafees, Imrul Kayes, Tamim Iqbal, Mohammad Ashraful, Raqibul Hasan, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shafiul Islam, Shahadat Hossain, Rubel Hossain.

India: V Sehwag (captain), G Gambhir, R Dravid, SR Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthik, I Sharma, Z Khan, A Mishra, S Sreesanth.