USE of solar power-driven water pumps is a major alternate energy source for better crop yields in power-starved Bangladesh, according to experts. To ease the country's acute power crisis, solar power can be used as an alternative source of electricity for irrigation and it would at least help reduce 700 to 800 MW in every day's load.

According to the Bureau of Bangladesh Statistics and Directorate of Agriculture Extension, the number of farmer-families in the country is 1,50,89,000 of which the marginal farmers constitute 86.66 percents but they hold just 41.20 percents of the total farming land. Though the number of the marginal fanners outclasses other groups, their financial condition is poor.

Arctic temperatures are now higher than at any time in the last 2,000 years, research reveals.

Changes to the Earth's orbit drove centuries of cooling, but temperatures rose fast in the last 100 years as human greenhouse gas emissions rose.

Scientists took evidence from ice cores, tree rings and lake sediments.

A total of 10.5 lakh Oseltamivir capsules are being supplied across the country for the treatment of the swine flow affected patients.

The government has decided to make mandatory installation of solar panels in case of highrise buildings having more than 10 floors in Dhaka and other major cities in a bid to ease the nagging power crisis.

At the same time, in view of the dwindling groundwater levels, construction of safe and suitable water reservoirs on rooftops of the highrises would be ensured to harvest rainwater.

The government has allowed a number of private companies for importing High Yielding Variety (HYV) of potato seeds aimed at increasing production of potato in the next season.

Four South Asian countries including Bangladesh, Afghanistan, India and Nepal are particularly vulnerable to falling crop yields caused by Melting Himalayan glacier, floods, droughts, erratic rainfall and other climate change impacts, says a preliminary finding of a new study financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The Government of Bangladesh yesterday signed a credit agreement worth US$ 130 million with the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank's concessionary arm to help to increase access to electricity through installation of affordable Solar Home Systems in rural areas.

With the detection of 14 new cases on Wednesday, the total number of Swine Flu inflicted persons in the country rose to 261, of them one has died.

"Fourteen more cases have been detected today as we have tested few samples of suspected swine flu cases collecting from different hospitals in the city", IEDCR Senior Scientific Officer Dr Mushtaque Hussein told a seminar on Swine flu.

The first climate change conference of Himalayan nations was opened yesterday at Kathmandu by Nepal's prime minister Madhav Kumar with a warning about the dangers of melting glaciers, floods and violent storms for the region, according to a message received in Dhaka.