State Minister for Housing and Public Works Advocate Abdul Mannan Khan on Monday said, Taka 1,480 crore Hatirjheel-Begunbari canal project in the city would be completed in scheduled time on priority basis for the greater public interest.

NATION BUSINESS REPORT

Messrs Sigma Engineers Ltd is going to set up an water treatment plant in Comilla EPZ. In BEPZA Board of Governors meeting, the decision has been taken that the authority would allow to operate water treatment plant as a service-oriented industry in public-private partnership model.

AS appeared recently in the media, sharp fall in underground water level will make about three lakh shallow tubewells inoperative during the Boro season hampering cultivation on eight lakh hectares of land, which is 16 per cent of total arable land. BADC sources have reportedly said this problem would ultimately reduce Boro production by about 28 lakh tonnes.

Chittagong Correspondent

High salinity in the down stream water of the River Karnaphuli, its major boughs and canals has reportedly been posing serious threat to usual output of the winter crop (Boro) at vast areas here in southern Chittagong apart from hindering safe drinking water supply in the port city.

DU Correspondent

The following is Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri's foreword to State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World, which will be published by the Worldwatch Institute next week. Dr. Pachauri will be keynoting the 13th Annual State of the World Symposium in Washington, D.C. on January 15, 2009.

Daniel Nelson

Next stop on the road to the climate change summit in Copenhagen in December is Bonn in March (Mar. 29-Apr. 8).

Participants are expected from most national governments, international organizations, and a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), though there will be fewer NGOs than flocked to the recent jamboree in Poznan.

Around 13 megacities have so far been identified as ABC hotpots. Bangkok, Beijing, Cairo, Dhaka, Karachi, Kolkata, Lagos, Mumbai, New Delhi, Seoul, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Tehran where soot levels are 10 per cent of the total mass of all human-made particles. ABCs can reduce sunlight hitting the Earth's surface in two ways.

Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh has inaugurated a centre of nutrition for development of nutrition.

The high food prices that have sparked riots in many parts of the developing world - from Indonesia, India and Bangladesh to Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire and Haiti -should come as no surprise. These are only the latest in a series of events many developing countries have suffered as a result of opening their borders and neglecting domestic agriculture.