BANGLADESH

A security officer at New York's John F Kennedy International Airport has been arrested after being accused of stealing $ 5,000 from a Bangladeshi traveller's coat.

Alexandra Schmid, 32, arrested on Wednesday night (local time), is a baggage screener for the airport's Transportation Security Administration.

Helen Peterson, spokesperson for Queens County district attorney Richard A Brown, told on Thursday evening that the theft took place around 8pm Thursday (local time) at JFK's Terminal 4 security check point.

"The man who had retrieved his coat from an X-ray machine belt told authorities a short time later that $5,000, which was in an envelope, was missing from its pocket," she said.

JFK port authority police spokesman Al Della Fave said when investigators checked surveillance camera videos, they saw screener Alexandra remove the envelope, wrap it in a latex glove, and depart for the bathroom. However, when investigators found the woman, she did not have the money on her.

"We assume she may have passed it off to an accomplice, so the investigation is continuing," he said.

Schmid was a 4 1/2-year old employee of the airport. She was charged with theft and violation of discipline in Queens criminal court.

Baggage-theft arrests have been on the rise in airports.

In Texas last Tuesday (local time), a Dallas airport screener was arrested with eight stolen iPods.

On Feb 1, a Memphis airport screener was sentenced to eight months in jail for stealing a laptop last year.

The health minister on Saturday warned demonstrators who have stood against a government move to turn the Dhaka Medical College into a university.

AFM Ruhal Haque said the government's move was right and any effort to disrupt that effort would be handled 'very seriously'.

The government move has sparked protest in the country's oldest medical college and hospital campus and also on social networking site Facebook.

"They will not be able to do so (protest)," he said, as he believed 'a quarter is active to embarrass the government by propagating misconceptions.'

The minister, however, did not say what sort of action would be taken against the protestors.

He made the statement as he opened a scientific seminar in the city.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Jan 17 at a function said the government was going to upgrade Dhaka Medical College to a university amid protest.

Grade III and IV employees at DMCH have long been protesting against such any move while some doctors and students recently voiced their concern.

A Facebook post argues 'it would shrink the opportunities of poor people's treatment as it happened in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, which was upgraded from a post-graduate institute in 1998.'

In Facebook post they also say the government move would disrupt the emergency services of the hospital.

The health minister opening a gastroenterologists' scientific seminar in the capital on Saturday said, "They don't have any idea."

Terming Dhaka Medical College Hospital's emergency services 'best' in the country, he said "Who is that mad in the government to disrupt this system?"

Earlier, the prime minister had said: "Some are protesting (against the move) due to their ignorance."

"Similar protests were seen when we turned PG Hospital into Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University," she said. "But I did not hear anyone facing any difficulty later on."

"Instead, people are getting modern treatment (from the university)," she claimed.

Pro-government doctors have been demanding more medical universities for quite some time in different discussions pointing to the fact that other disciplines like agriculture have many universities.

The minister at different functions of Dhaka Medical College in 2011 had asked them to demand more medical universities.

Experts on medical education suggested quality assurance of medical colleges under a single autonomous authority could be a better option in Bangladesh where doctors had already earned a bad name for not staying at rural facilities.

Local government minister Syed Ashraful Islam has said stating anything about the country's share market situation will not be a 'right thing' to do until this government's tenure expires.

"It won't be right to say anything about the share market now. Right after the government's term expires, it will be clear how the share market was in the last five years," the ruling Awami League general secretary said at the party's central working committee meeting on Saturday evening.

"Neither the government nor anyone else is controlling the share market. It's a free market," Ashraf said during his introductory speech at the meeting at Awami League president and prime minister Sheikh Hasina's official residence Ganabhaban.

He said, "No government of any country is the share market regulatory body. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is the market regulatory body."

"The price of the shares will rise and fall eventually. Economists are yet to determine the actual cause behind the fall and rise in the share market," Ashraf added.

The meeting at Ganabhaban had begun at 6:45pm.

Ruling Awami League will sell nomination forms from Feb 7-10 to select the party's candidate for upcoming Shariatpur-3 by-election.

"The decision was taken at Awami League's parliamentary party meeting on Sunday evening," prime minister Sheikh Hasina's press secretary Abul Kalam Azad told journalists.

The Shariatpur-3 constituent became vacant with the death of Awami League veteran Abdur Razzak on Dec 23 last year. The next meeting is slated on Feb 12 to finalise the party's candidate for the parliamentary seat.

Deputy parliament leader Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, presidium member Amir Hossain Amu, advisory council member Tofail Ahmed, communications minister Obaidul Quader, presidium member Kazi Zafarullah and party's general secretary and local government minister Syed Ashraful Islam were present in the meeting.

Communications minister Obaidul Quader said on Sunday people are scared to see those involved in student politics.

"During our times, girls rushed to see us whenever we passed in front of the common room. And now, they run off in fear," the former Bangladesh Chhatra League president during in 1978-81 said at a workshop.

The workshop was organised on the occasion of the ruling Awami League's student wing's 64th anniversary and reunion where Quader was speaking.

He said now some so-called Chhatra League activists are spoiling the organisation's image.

"The images of Chhatra League and Awami League will shine if these [so called Chhatra League activists] are marked out and thrown out of the organisation."

"Wherever [Chhatra League supporters] commit misdeeds, committees there are being dismissed," Quader remarked.

But, he said, "This is not the solution. Disciplinary measures should be taken following investigation against those committing the misdeeds."

Replying to one of Quader's question, Chhatra League president H M Badiuzzaman Shohagh said there are 84 Chhatra League committees in 87 units in the districts and educational institutions.

Three committees have been dissolved.

Quader called for change in strategy and asked them to form a new committee before dissolving the old one. "Because, there is no scope to avoid responsibilities for the offence by saying that there is no [Chhatra League] committee here."

The minister said now-a-days, wherever he goes, he comes across a large number of Chhatra League supporters. "Where did so many Chhatra League [supporters] come from?" he wondered.

Former president of the student wing Enamul Haque Shamim, general secretary of the incumbent committee Siddique Nazmul Alam and leaders and supporters of various levels were present at the workshop.

The BNP spokesperson Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said on Sunday warned of a deepening 'political crisis' if the constitutional provision of caretaker government for overseeing general elections is not restored.

The acting secretary-general also came down hard on the government party's planned programmes on the same day as the opposition's and alleged that the ruling Awami League was deliberately pushing the nation towards conflict

"We have been saying time and again that the only solution to the existing political crisis in the country is to reinstate the caretaker government system. No solution can be reached by reconstituting the Election Commission," the acting secretary-general told journalists at Mahakhali.

He reiterated that the government has to decide on the interim government system first.

Replying to a journalist's query, he said, "No impartial polls are possible under a party-led government."

He disagreed with the immediate past chief election commissioner A T M Shamsul Huda's contention that fair balloting was possible under a political government if EC gets more power. Fakhrul said the CEC's statement is devoid of reality.

When his attention was drawn to Awami League's counter-programme announcement in the first week of March, he said, "Our March 12 programme is pre-announced. Khaleda Zia announced the programme on Jan 9 in Chittagong. In spite of knowing this, the ruling party announced programmes on the same day."

Criticising the ruling party, Fakhrul said, "It is a reflection of their undemocratic face. Listening to the statements of the ministers and leaders [of Awami League] it seems that they do not care about democratic practices."

He called on the ruling party to call off their programmes and alleged that the ruling party wants to make the country 'unstable' to establish 'a one-party rule'.

Fakhrul went to Metropolitan Hospital at Mahakhali to visit Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal Chandpur's leader Enamul Haque who was shot in the head on Jan 29 during the party's mass procession, allegedly during police fire.

Enamul was admitted to the private hospital the same day and has undergone a surgery.

During the mass procession programme, BNP and Chhatra Dal supporters Abul Hossain Gazi and Limon Shayal died on the spot in Chandpur.

Fakhrul said the doctors had told him that Enamul's condition is critical and prayed for quick recovery.

Doctors at government hospitals in Moulavibazar district withdrew their indefinite strike on Sunday night.

"We have withdrawn our strike based on the assurance of the administration and political leaders, and considering the humanitarian issue regarding the patients," Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) general secretary Mohammad Shahjahan Chowdhury told .

The decision to withdraw the strike that has been ongoing for three days was taken at a meeting of the Moulavibazar unit of BMA around 11pm.

The strike, demanding the release of a doctor sentenced by a mobile court and the withdrawal of the deputy commissioner and magistrate, started off Friday morning.

Around 200 doctors of the district headquarters, seven upazila health centres and union health and family planning centres enforced the strike. As a result, the halt in medical treatment, except in the emergency, caused huge suffering for the patients.

A mobile court on Thursday sentenced Moulavibazar Sadar Hospital's emergency ward's medical officer (EMO) Mahmudul Alam Rownak, 36, to a month in prison for neglecting his government duty and giving out certificates to patients of a private medical facility.

At the same time, the court sent Lab Aid Diagnostics and Consultation Centre manager Assaduzzaman Tanim, 35, to a month-long imprisonment and slapped Tk 5,000-fine and another 15 days in prison if the fine is not paid.

Good news...............................
Bangladesh will share a new strain of bird flu virus, identified as a possible pandemic threat, with US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) to develop 'seed virus,' key ingredient to make a vaccine in emergency.

"We will share the vaccine for scientific use," health secretary Muhammad Humayun Kabir told on Sunday as he confirmed about the sharing of the H9N2 strain of bird flu—A/Bangladesh/0994/2011 (H9N2).

The strain was found in humans in March and recently confirmed by US CDC after its sequencing.

The Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) has detected the virus, mild in nature, through its countrywide surveillance.

"But it has the potential to be a pandemic threat," IEDCR director Prof Mahmudur Rahman said, sounding the alarm, as the virus can reassort with H5N1—also 'widespread' in the country—with its changing strains.

"If clades 2.2; 3.2 of H5N1 and new H9N2 mutate, it can be devastating," he said, "but nothing can be predicted about virus."

The United Nations warned Bangladesh on Aug 29 of a possible major resurgence of bird flu as it observed a mutant strain of the H5N1 virus is spreading in Asia and elsewhere.

The IEDCR director suggested maintaining bio-security in poultry farms that livestock officials said cannot be ensured due to 'a large number of backyard poultry in Bangladesh.'

"But we are taking new strategies for backyard poultry," Dr Md Mehedi Hossain, senior scientific officer, Department of Livestock Services (DLS), said on Sunday at a seminar jointly organised by IEDCR and Unicef at IEDCR office.

According to IEDCR, the government would share the virus under standard procedure of virus sharing coordinated by the World Health Organization.

"We will get access to affordable vaccines derived from them and other technical support in exchange (for the new strain of virus)," Prof Rahman said.

"They (US CDC) approached us in the first week of September for government permission to use the virus. They already have the virus with them as we have sent it for confirmation."

He said the virus is also circulating in some countries, but in Bangladesh it is different.

The DLS scientist said they would prepare a guideline for backyard poultry.

"We will sensitise backyard farmers about how to dispose of debris and faeces," Dr Hossain said and added that people litter chickens' giblets and dead chickens just anywhere that can spread the virus.

"Crows eat those carcasses and can get the virus and die. Those dead crows can again pass the virus to poultry birds in the same way," Dr Hossain explained.

The livestock department has culled over 2.4 million chickens across the country after the first outbreak in Mar 22, 2007.

Some 524 outbreaks have been recorded so far.

"We observe that we cannot control the virus until we make people aware, we motivate them," said Dr Musaddique Hossain, a director of the DLS.

The IEDCR advised people consume well-cooked poultry products and maintain personal hygiene - cough into the crook of elbow and wash hands with soap often - to keep bird flu infection away.

Bangladesh is the eighth country where Singapore-based security company Certis has expanded its operations.

While Certis has a vast array of services from security consulting to a training academy, it has started with the most basic guard service for one client in Dhaka through Millennium Certis, its local front.

Wilson Chow, Certis managing director in charge of consulting and education, said pricing was the trickiest part.

During his brief visit to Bangladesh over the weekend, Chow told , "You could do a lot of fancy things and rack up the prices. But no one would buy the product at the end of the day."

A former major of the Singapore's military reserves, Chow has also been a business consultant for Accenture and PriceWaterhouse Coopers before joining Singapore's largest security company.

Originally an offshoot of the Singapore police, Cisco branched out as the Commercial and Industrial Security Corporation and later became fully privatised.

But it is still owned by the government, under Singapore's investment arm Temasek Holdings, and as such Certis operate as a full-fledged private company. "Meaning that we have to make a minimum level of profit from the Temasek financing," Chow says unwilling to disclose the company's financials.

But Temasek requires a minimum of 20 percent return on investment of its subsidiaries.

Asked if the Bangladeshi security was large enough and mature enough for company like Certis to expand, Chow said he was certain it was, but could not put a specific figure on how big the market is. He guessed it would be 'at least a million dollars'.

But given Certis standards, quality assurance and technology, the company would have to charge a premium on the prevailing market rates. The company commands similar margin over its competitors in Singapore.

Certis happens to be one of the three companies in Singapore that provides auxiliary police force services in Singapore. "Our personnel have the authority to arrest, but only when they are on duty." About three-fourths of the city state's auxiliary police are provided by Certis.

The company provides a similar service in Abu Dhabi as well.

Chow agrees that the company has to maintain high standards to be awarded a licence for armed guard service. And that is the kind of standard that the Certis hopes to bring to Bangladesh.

"It is the assurance and guarantee that our guard post will not remain empty. We make sure that there is back-up and we also make sure that the reserves are equally competent."

Regarding the general tendency to hire former military personnel, or those who have served in some form of law enforcement, Chow says that might not be the case for Certis.

Military officers are by nature aggressive, he says. "But a security guard is not supposed to be aggressive."

"That security guard is also part of your public relations." The former major says Certis stresses on training their guards to take control of a certain situation with their body language and the voice.

"Even for the armed guards, pulling out the gun is the last resort."

Although Certis operates in eight countries, its home operations are still the largest in terms of manpower with 8000 personnel. A fourth of that is deployed in managing the security operations for the entire Changi Airport, which is said to be one of best managed in the world.

Previously there were several service providers. "So one company would be responsible for securing airport's perimeter and another one would be looking after baggage security and so on."

But that was not economical and there were natural problems with coordination with all the different companies. Certis won the 5-year contract and it expires next year. But Chow is hardly worried about the renewal as if it is as good as locked in. "There is no alternative!"

The security company will also be looking into training its personnel at its training academy in Savar, which is still under construction. But whether Certis will be training other security companies has not been decided yet. "Our competitors could then say 'Trained by Certis, half price!' Imagine the tagline."

But it is a possibility that the company would train people locally so they can work for Certis overseas. "Otherwise we have to train the people on site and if we find that certain individuals are not up to the mark we have to ship them back."

That adds to the company's costs naturally but training in Bangladesh would take care of those problems. Besides its operations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, China and Singapore the company already has operations in Dubai besides Abu Dhabi.

A popular destination for Bangladeshi workers, Certis is also looking to expand its operations in Qatar. "We are discussing several countries but Bangladesh and Qatar are the most likely."

Currently Certis is developing its products and deciding on their prices. Given its wide range, the company often bundles services for its clients. "For instance we could bundle some products like CCTV cameras and guarding together." The company will be targeting high end residences, banks and commercial establishments initially, with its services. "We are still working on pricing."

Given Bangladesh's market situation, pricing would be key, Chow says. But only a premium over the prevailing rates would ensure profits. "We are confident of being able to do that and turn a profit from here."

About formally launching the services, Chow says, "It is something that you cannot launch per se. But you start doing it gradually and build up your manpower strength as you go along."

The business, he says, depends largely on reputation, word of mouth and of course the manpower. That is only one of the places where Certis hopes to raise the bar.

Communications minister Obaidul Quader said on Sunday the government will sign a memorandum of understanding with the Malaysian government by the third week of this month for building the much coveted Padma Bridge project.

"A memorandum of understanding will be signed with the Malaysian government on Feb 21 if the complexities with The World Bank are not resolved ," he told on Sunday, a day after Malaysia's official Bernama news agency published a news on the issue.

Quoting S Samy Vellu, Malaysia's special envoy to India and South Asia, Bernama said on Saturday that Malaysian government will strike a deal with Bangladesh on Feb 21 for constructing the longest bridge in Bangladesh.

The communications minister said around "80 percent" preparations have been taken to complete the $ 2.9-billion mega-project.

Stating that the government will not put away the project, he said, "It is one of the most important electoral promises of the government. And so, we want to start the work as soon as possible."

Earlier on Jan 31 during a visit to Dhaka, Samy Vellu told the prime minister of his country's interest in assisting Bangladesh to complete the bridge. He also sat with the communications minister.

Bangladesh's biggest infrastructure project ran into trouble after one of the key lenders, The World Bank, raised questions about the bidding process for consultant supervisors.

The government rejected the Bank allegations, dared the Washington-based lender to prove the charges and threatened to find other sources to fund the ambitious project. On Feb 2, the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) said that they found the graft allegations baseless.

According to Bernama around 6.6 billion Malaysian ringgit will be needed in the project. Samy Vellu said the deal would put together a consortium of Malaysian construction companies to complete the task.

Regarding financing this project, he had said the contractor has brought in a financier from Dubai and negotiations are currently going on between them.