Bangladesh-Offshore gas

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/05/07/ap4981977.html

Associated Press
Bangladesh to allow exploration of offshore gas fields
By Julhas Alam

05.07.08, 3:29 PM ET

DHAKA, Bangladesh -Bangladesh will sign deals with oil and gas companies for exploration of new offshore gas fields by October to meet its growing energy needs, an energy official said Wednesday.

Muqtadir Ali, a Director of the government-run Petrobangla, said one domestic and six international companies, from including the United States and China, have taken part in a bid to explore gas fields in the Bay of Bengal.

The country called an international bidding in February, and Petrobangla opened the bid documents on Wednesday to complete evaluation of the proposals in three weeks for a final decision, Ali said.

The government may select more than one companies for the exploration, he said, adding that the final deals would be sealed by October.

The selected companies will have to drill exploration wells and conduct seismic survey after the deals are signed, he said.

The Houston, U.S.-based Conoco-Phillips, Australia's Santos International Pty. Ltd., Longwoods Resources of the U.S.-China joint venture, Korea International Oil Corporation, China National Offshore Oil Corp. (nyse: CEO - news - people ), known as CNOOC, and Bangladesh's Tullow are among the players that have joined the bidding.

"We are satisfied with the response," Ali said, as he unveiled the bid details.

Currently Bangladesh, with about 15 trillion cubic feet (425 billion cubic meters) of proven and recoverable gas reserves, is facing at least 100 million cubic feet of gas shortages a day.

Officials and experts say the crisis will aggravate in the near future.

The nation has only one offshore gas field, which is managed by the Edinburgh, Scotland-based Cairn Energy PLC. It has been producing gas from the Sangu plant in the Bay of Bengal since 1998.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

River-linking project

Environmentalists decry India's river-linking project

Source: Copyright 2004, Associated Press
Date: August 24, 2004
Byline: Julhas Alam, Associated Press

DHAKA, Bangladesh — A proposed Indian plan to divert water from some South Asian rivers would turn parts of neighboring Bangladesh into desert and cause unseasonal flooding in Nepal, a regional meeting was told recently.

India wants to divert water from 37 rivers to its drought-prone areas by building reservoirs, dams, and canals. But Bangladesh officials object to the plan, saying it would reduce water levels in this South Asian delta nation and threaten the livelihoods of millions of people.

"We are very much concerned" about the project, Bangladesh foreign ministry official Reaz Rahman told a meeting of environmentalists and experts from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan.

Most of Bangladesh's 250 rivers originate from the Himalayas, traveling through Nepal and India before emptying into the Bay of Bengal.

Environmentalists warned the plan to divert water to India could turn parts of Bangladesh into desert, damaging the impoverished country's fishing and farming sectors.

"Such diversion will cause a disaster in Bangladesh," said Farhad Mazhar, an activist with the Bangladesh People's Initiative Against the River Linking Project, which organized the meeting.

Dipak Gyawali, a former water resources minister in Nepal, said the project would cause unseasonal flooding in the Himalayan kingdom where most of the rivers flowing through India and Bangladesh originate.

Rahman said India's new government, which took power in May, seemed willing to discuss the issue. Indian officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

http://www.waterconserve.info/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?Linkid=34485

Copyright 2004, Associated Press

Cyclone Sidr

http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/272849.aspx

$120M in Cyclone Aid, 10K Deaths Expected

By Julhas Alam, Associated Press Writer

November 20, 2007

CBNNews.com - PATHARGHATA, Bangladesh - Bangladesh sought more foreign aid Tuesday to help thousands of survivors after Cyclone Sidr killed more than 3,100 people, according to an official tally that still was expected to rise.

Food, fresh water and temporary shelter still had not reached many of the hungry and exhausted survivors of the storm that tore across the country's coast last Thursday.

"At this time we will welcome support from the international community," said a statement from Bangladesh foreign ministry. "We are doing as best as we can do ourselves."

The government said international aid worth about $120 million has so far been promised. But relief items such as tents, rice and water have been slow to reach most survivors of the worst cyclone to hit Bangladesh in a decade.

In Patharghata, a hard-hit trading town on the Bay of Bengal, more than 100 women - many of them clad in veils - gathered Tuesday hoping to get supplies.

"I've been waiting here for several hours hoping to get some food and drinking water," said Safura Begum, 45, who has three children. "But I'm not sure it will come."

"Some biscuits and a few bottles of water are what I've gotten in the past three days," she said.

The government is using helicopters to deliver aid to survivors - many of whom are still living without shelter. Some relief agencies are also using boats to ferry relief to remote pockets.

Mike Kiernan, spokesman for the charity Save the Children, stressed that even those that survived the storm might still be lost to its aftermath.

"Just the fact that people were able to survive this does not mean they will survive the second wave of death that comes from catastrophes like this: from lack of clean water, food, basic medicines and shelter," Kiernan said.

On Thursday night, Nasima Begum, 30, woke up to howling winds and high waves rolling from the sea into her thatched hut near Patharghata. Before her house collapsed she managed to gather her children and fight her way through the water to a nearby tree. She held on to the tree and asked the children to cling to her body.

"We were there for almost an hour before the storm subsided and the water began to recede. I don't know how I survived. But Allah has helped us," she said.

By Monday the official death toll stood at 3,113 after reports reached Dhaka, the capital, from storm-ravaged areas that earlier had been largely cut off because of washed-out roads and disrupted phone services, said Lt. Col. Main Ullah Chowdhury, a spokesman for the army.

The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, the Islamic cousin of the Red Cross, has suggested the final figure could be around 10,000 once rescuers reach outlying islands.

Every year, storms batter Bangladesh, a delta nation of 150 million people, often killing large numbers of people.

A similar cyclone in 1991 killed 139,000 people along the coast. The most recent deadly storm was a tornado that leveled 80 villages in northern Bangladesh in 1996, killing 621 people.

Associated Press writers Farid Hossain in Dhaka and Pavel Rahman in Barguna contributed to this report.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Workers' demand

Thousands of Bangladeshi women demand fair trade for poor nations By: Julhas Alam- Associated Press Nov 25, 2005, Friday DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Thousands of women rallied Friday to demand that developed nations open their doors to workers and products from poor nations. Some 5,000 women, mostly employees at garment factories, joined the rally organized by a labor rights group, Karmajibi Nari or Working Women. They marched through downtown Dhaka, shouting slogans such as "Fair Trade!" and carrying banners. One read, "No more cheating with poor nations." The protest was timed ahead of next month's meeting of the World Trade Organization, or WTO, in Hong Kong. "We are here to say that the developed world must hear our voice and act accordingly to benefit the world's poor nations," the labor group's spokeswoman Shirin Akhter told The Associated Press. "Poor nations feel that WTO is the club of the richest nations. It brings no benefits to the poor people.". Bangladesh is one of Asia's poorest nations. Almost half its 140 million people live on less than $1 a day. It derives about 80 percent of its annual $5 billion export earnings from garments, mostly to America and Europe. Most of the industry's employees are women. Akhter said that allowing workers from poor nations to find jobs in developed countries would benefit both sides, but said there were obstacles to free movement of labor. "We see developed nations are not giving us that scope, even sometimes they are closing their doors in the name of security or other concerns," she said. Amina Begum, 22, who earns about $33 a month at a garment factory, said she was worried about her future. "I don't know that much about WTO," she said at the rally. "I just want to do my job to feed my five-member family." http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/11/26/business/news/

Monsoon Death

Doctors: many monsoon deaths preventable

By Julhas Alam, Associated Press Writer
Aug. 11, 2007

DHAKA, Bangladesh - Josna Rani Das sat crying and clutching her husband's hand Saturday as she watched doctors struggled to find a vein on her unconscious eight-month old daughter.

Das' daughter, Mukti, was one of several thousand people brought to a special hospital in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka that treats diarrheal diseases.

"The baby was minutes away from death," said Tahmeed Ahmed, a doctor, as he finally found the vein and inserted an intravenous saline drip to rehydrate the child. She survived.

At least 2,120 people have died this year in a particularly calamitous monsoon season in South Asia, double the number killed last year. Some 600 have perished in the past two weeks alone and on Saturday, officials said at least 40 people died.

Many of the deaths in the region could have been easily prevented, doctors said, blaming lack of access to basic medication and ignorance of how to treat the waterborne diseases that followed the deluge.

Ahmed said the case of Mukti Das, where the baby had been suffering from severe diarrhea and vomiting for five days before being brought to the hospital, was unfortunately typical among impoverished, illiterate villagers who mistrusted doctors.

"The illiterate parents initially do not take their babies to doctors, and it is often too late when they take them to the hospital," Ahmed said.

Also, ignorance about how to rehydrate people with diarrhea using an oral solution, or simply by drinking water with some sugar and salt mixed in, led to many preventable serious cases or even deaths, he said.

Most of the cases occur because people don't have clean drinking water and drink from stagnant pools left behind by the flood waters or from wells contaminated by filth washed in by the floods.

About 1,000 people have visited the hospital daily compared to about 150 before the floods, said Alejandro Cravioto, executive director of the International Center for Diarrheal Diseases and Research which runs the hospital.

To cope with the influx, tents were strung between palm trees on the hospital grounds. Inside, makeshift beds covered with plastic sheets were set up in rows as health workers went from patient to patient, giving them rehydrating solutions and putting cool water on their foreheads to bring down fever.

The devastating monsoon floods laid waste to much of northern India and Bangladesh over the last few weeks, killing thousands and displacing millions. More than 200 people have also died in Pakistan where the death toll from rains and a storm that struck southern Pakistan this week rose to at least 35 on Saturday, as buildings weakened by downpours continued to collapse.

Even as the waters drew back, doctors were still struggling to contain the diseases of the aftermath.

In the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, "paramedics visiting affected villages don't have adequate supplies of medicines," said Ramakant Rai, chief of state's Voluntary Health Association. He said clean drinking water was running low.

Families lined up for aid finally reaching their villages.

Doctors have treated at least 1,500 people in Uttar Pradesh for diarrhea in the past 10 days, said L.B. Prasad, director-general of the state's health services. Rai's group said the scope of the suffering was greater, with more than 22,000 people contracting waterborne diseases.

In neighboring Bihar state, the government canceled vacations for doctors in flood-ravaged districts.

The monsoon rains are vital to farmers whose crops feed hundreds of millions of people. The monsoon season runs from June to September as the rains work their way across the subcontinent.

This year, the rainfall has been unevenly distributed across South Asia due to unusual patterns, India's Meteorological Department said. While parts of central India received less rain, the north faced stronger storms for longer than usual.

UN Peacekeeping

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080406/world/bangladesh_un_peacekeeping_1&printer=1

12 countries join US military-led peacekeeping exercise in Bangladesh

Sun Apr 6, 11:47 PM

By Julhas Alam, The Associated Press

RAJENDRAPUR CANTONMENT, Bangladesh (AP) - Multinational peacekeeping exercises kicked off in Bangladesh with troops from 12 countries participating in the U.S.-led drills, officials said.

Some 400 soldiers from nations such as India, Indonesia, South Korea, and Sri Lanka were taking part in the three-week exercises dubbed "Ambassador of Peace."

American Lt. Col. Edward Tanguy, commander of the 249th Regional Training Institute in the United States, said Sunday the drills will involve checkpoint and convoy operations, patrols, and search-and-disarmament skills.

"This exercise provides us the opportunity to exchange tactics, techniques and procedures at the tactical level with all the multinational forces," Tanguy said at the training site at Rajendrapur Cantonment near the capital Dhaka.

"Our goal is to enhance the readiness and interoperability of the Bangladesh Armed Forces, the U.S. Army and other multination participant forces," he said.

Many of the nations' soldiers participating have worked in relief operations after natural disasters struck their countries, and these experiences were valuable for UN peacekeepers, Tanguy said.

Bangladeshi soldiers were called in after a devastating cyclone last year killed about 3,400 people. Indonesian, Indian, and Sri Lankan troops helped out after the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami left more than 200,000 people dead.

S.M. Ziaur Rahman, Bangladesh's Air Force chief, said such exercises would create more confidence among soldiers contributing to UN peacekeeping missions.

Bangladesh is the second largest contributor of troops for UN operations with 9,856 soldiers. Pakistan tops the list with 10,610 peacekeepers and India is third with 9,357.

Troops from the U.S., Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nepal, Brunei, Cambodia, Mongolia, and Tonga will also participate in the "Ambassador of Peace" manoeuvres.

Editors want free press

http://in.us.biz.yahoo.com/ap/080514/bangladesh_press_freedom.html?.v=1

AP
Bangladesh editors, journalists call for free press
Wednesday May 14, 9:21 am ET
By Julhas Alam, Associated Press Writer Bangladesh journalists call for end to emergency rule, greater press freedom

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) -- Senior editors and journalists from more than a dozen leading Bangladesh newspapers and television stations have demanded an end to the country's state of emergency and called for greater press freedom.

The journalists met in Dhaka on Tuesday to discuss threats to the media, said Ataus Samad, a former BBC Bengali service reporter who chaired the meeting.

In a statement, they called for government agencies to stop interfering in the media's work.

A state of emergency was declared in Bangladesh on Jan. 11, 2007, after weeks of street violence over electoral reforms. An interim government backed by the influential military currently runs the country.

"The media have been working with limited rights and under pressure of the emergency rules that curtail many rights," the journalists said.

"Different agencies -- military and civilian -- have been interfering with media activities," they said. "Regular interference in day-to-day work of the media is not acceptable."

Shyamol Dutta, editor of the Bhorer Kagoj newspaper, who attended Tuesday's meeting, said emergency rule was disrupting normal media activities.

"We want emergency rule to go as it has curtailed media rights," Dutta said Wednesday.

Bangladesh has a history of intimidation of the media, but there has been growing discontent among journalists about alleged interference by security officials.

Many publications have resorted to self-censorship, according to the journalists.

The editors said they regularly receive telephone calls telling them to stop publishing or broadcasting certain news, while television stations have been asked not to invite some commentators to their talk shows.

"The journalists who are critical of the military-backed government's activities have been blacklisted for television talk shows," Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, editor of the Bangladesh Observer newspaper, said recently. "I am one of them."

The journalists decided Tuesday to create a formal committee to deal with the matter, Samad said.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Information could not be reached for comment Wednesday, while a military spokesman declined to comment.

Global rights groups including the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists and Human Rights Watch have criticized the interim government for failing to protect press freedom.

Journalists in Bangladesh are routinely threatened, assaulted or killed for writing about political violence, corruption or organized crime, according to media rights groups. At least 11 journalists have been killed and dozens maimed since 1997, they say.

The interim government has pledged to hold elections in the third week of December.

US wants open polls

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-bangladesh-us-democracy

Los Angeles Times

Bush administration wants open elections in Bangladesh

By JULHAS ALAM, Associated Press Writer
3:13 AM PDT, May 9, 2008

DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Bangladesh's military-backed government should lift emergency rule to facilitate open elections that it has promised to hold by the end of the year, a State Department official said Friday.

Richard A. Boucher, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, said Washington will not accept any "deviation" from the path of a credible vote and establishment of democracy.

"I would expect it (lifting of emergency rule) would happen ... certainly we think that you can't have an open election under strict emergency," he told a news conference.

Boucher, accompanied by a senior State Department counterterrorism official, arrived Thursday for a two-day official visit to discuss the elections and other issues with interim leader Fakhruddin Ahmed and military chief Moeen U. Ahmed.

He said the U.S. would continue to support Bangladesh so all major political parties can participate in the polls.

The makeshift government came to power in January 2007 by declaring a state of emergency after more than 30 people were killed in weeks of violent street protests over electoral reforms.

With many democratic rights curtailed and media coverage often dictated by security agencies, there are growing concerns of voter intimidation. Several newspaper editors met Thursday, expressing concerns that the interference is increasing.

Boucher said Washington is working with the government to help overcome many challenges for development and democracy in Bangladesh.

The partnership is important, he said, as Bangladesh is working on challenges to make the society stronger and healthier "to be able to resist the influences of extremism and terrorism, which is an important process for both you and us."

Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation of 150 million people that is ruled by secular laws, has been hit in recent years by terrorist attacks by Islamic militants who want to establish strict religious rule. The government says it has broken up the terrorist network and is working with global partners, including the U.S., to keep it from rebounding.

The government also has launched a massive crackdown on corruption, and two former prime ministers are in jail awaiting trial.