Bangladesh, alarmed by the growing use of corrosive...

Bangladesh, alarmed by the growing use of corrosive acid to disfigure and sometimes kill young women, proposed tough new laws that set death as the maximum penalty.
Police and women's rights groups said existing tough laws that provide for life imprisonment for crimes against women were not used widely or effectively, however.
Officials said two laws - one to curb the sale of harmful acids and another banning their use against women - were approved on February 4 at a meeting of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia's cabinet.
"Acid-throwing, a heinous crime, should be stopped for ever by implementing strict punishment for the offenders," Khaleda told her cabinet.
Parliament must approve the laws before they take effect.
Officials of the Bangladesh Acid Survivors Foundation said they doubted the new laws would significantly change the plight of women.
"We are not confident enough that the new laws would work...in the existing (political and social) systems that allow real culprits to remain or slip out of the net," said Salma Ali, a Foundation official.
"The police administration and the legal systems should be reformed immediately," she said.